Creative Tithing: The old 80/20

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I was nearing the end of a seven-week writing class held at the Smithsonian. The teacher was wrapping up both the evening and the course and was trying to leave us with some food for thought.

The advice ran a familiar gamut: write every day, read what you want to write, work through rejection. Then, the instructor veered into foreign territory.

“Tithe,” she said, paused, and said again, “You have to tithe.”

She went on to explain what should’ve been a simple–but for me what was at the time, a radical–concept: in order to get a little (or a lot) you have to give a little (and sometimes a lot, too).

All artists enter their craft hoping and believing, at some level, they will be a success. That belief sometimes promotes a self-centered, solipsistic view of the world. Sometimes it takes someone else to point out that the rest of the creative world is trying to do the same exact thing…and we could all help each other if we glanced up from our own road map once in a while.

You want that magazine to accept your short story? Buy a copy. Desperate for a 5-star rating and gushing review for your latest epub novel or short story? Write a couple reviews yourself. Sad that your local indie book store is going out of business? Buy something there, even if you could get it for $4.99 $1.99 on Amazon.

Recently, the concept has been put more crudely as the “80/20” rule: put 80 percent effort in to get 20 percent out. It’s a stark way of quantifying what should come naturally: that we should be supporting fellow artists, outlets, and industries by giving something back. I prefer the more archaic term tithe, as I think it implies more about the relationship of giving and receiving, of obligation and reward, than the industrial digital inputs of the 80/20 rule, but the gist is the same: if you want success, hold out your hand, not for a gift, but to help.

If you’re a writer or artist, consider doing the following:

  • Buy a copy of the journals, magazines, or the books of the publishers (especially small publishers) that YOU would like to see yourself in. If you can afford it, subscribe.
  • Tithing can be time, as well. If you belong to a writers organization, suck it up and run for office or participate on a board or panel. You’re busy? Guess what, we’re all busy. Don’t know what it takes? No one does. The important part is to breathe life into the organizations that keep your craft going.
  • Attend book signings, readings, and panels of fellow authors in your organization or just your local area. Introduce yourself, thank them for their work and time, offer your congratulations, buy their book and get them to sign it.
  • Share insights and tricks you’ve gleaned on your blog, in chat rooms, listservs, and in meetings.
  • Introduce others at events, work at making connections and bringing creative people together.

Librarything.com giveaway: A great promotional tool

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My first Librarything.com giveaway is just a few days over and I’m happy with the results. For those not in the know, Librarything is a great resource for both readers and writers by bringing a librarian’s sensibility to a book fan site. LT allows for reviews, ratings, personal libraries, also reads, and much more.

For the indie author, however, it offers one of the most amazing promotional tools: the Member Giveaway. After becoming an official Librarything author (not a difficult process if you have published or epublished), you can go directly to the Giveaway page at http://www.librarything.com/er/giveaway/list and, in a few minutes, offer free copies of your latest book to all the readers who happen by, and request those same readers review the book on all the major review sites (Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything, Smashwords, etc.). If you do ebooks, this is an especially great deal, with very little cost or overhead to get substantial exposure.

Out of 550 offered copies, I had 67 takers in about 3 weeks. The reason I offered so many and had so (relatively) few takers is outlined below. Generally speaking, however, I’ve been thrilled with the result. Just three days after the giveaway ended, 40 of the 67 had requested their copies. I received 3 Amazon reviews, 3 Smashwords reviews, and 3 Goodreads reviews, 2 “library links” on Smashwords, 1 link on Goodreads, and a blog post…all within the first 24 hours. One of the reviewers became a Facebook fan and a Goodreads review follower, and another reader became a follower on Twitter. Fully half agreed to a followup email in case I had another giveaway or new release.

For those interested in using the LT Giveaway for their own promotional purposes, I learned a few things along the way:

  1. My copies were all ebooks, so it’s certainly much easier than sending physical hard- or paper-backs. It seems to me that publishers and authors giving away physical copies are limiting their Giveaways to no more than 25 or 30 copies, tops, for the obvious reasons of cost, shipping, and effort.
  2. If you are offering ebooks, make sure you have every major format: Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, .pdf, .mobi, and .epub. I’ve been asked for all of these formats. You could specify only Kindle if you want (as it’s the easiest) but why limit your exposure? Understand that you foot the cost for a Kindle Gift version (though you’ll obviously get your royalty back).
  3. Several colleagues have skipped publishing to Smashwords because it takes quite a while to get approved, but it’s absolutely worth the wait, because it’s the only retailer/distributor that will allow you to generate your own “coupons” which can be for any amount, up to and including FREE. When you can offer your Librarything readers a Smashwords coupon, they can use it to get any ebook format they need at their discretion (including all the other formats you might offer, which is redundant, but you’re trying to reach the most people, so why not give them all possible options?).
  4. Another reason to make sure you have a Smashwords copy: what some authors don’t know is that readers can’t review your book on Smashwords unless they received it via Smashwords (unlike, say Amazon, where you could review a book if you got it out of the library, then went online to review it). Since Smash reaches iTunes/iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and a bunch of other retailers, this is worth it.

    Edit: Smashwords reviews do not convey to their retailers, but are certainly visible on the Smashwords site. Sorry for the confusion!

  5. If you want to do a giveaway, make sure you allow some time to become approved as a Librarything author before you plan the giveaway. It takes a few days at least to get approval. Check http://www.librarything.com/about/authors to find out how.
  6. When you set up your giveaway, pay attention to your cover image; mine was not uploaded at first and I had to do so manually. A good picture makes all the difference, so double check your Giveaway entry to make sure it’s there.
  7. Sneaky trick: the Giveaway page is ordered strangely: by default, it’s by “copies remaining”. In practical terms, what this means is that someone who offers 550 copies (like I did), will always be listed near the top of the page (and certainly be seen before those giving away 30). This has apparently gone to ridiculous extremes with people “out bidding” each other (you can change your copies offered at any time) up to 6-digit figures. There’s nothing you can do about whackos who do this, but if you pick a fairly high number, like over 500, you will probably be at the top of the page and, in reality, only 100 or so people will actually ask for your ebook. Even if the unthinkable happens and 500 people ask for it, it’s a good problem to have, right?
  8. Don’t be shy about asking for reviews in return for the giveaway. Most people seem happy to do so, although remember they aren’t obligated to do so.
  9. Unlikely to happen, but…for some reason, my giveaway entry was listed for 2 weeks as “not available in the US”. I didn’t see this until very late when a kind reader emailed me and pointed it out. I could not edit the entry to change this and had to wait a nerve-wracking day while I heard back from Librarything support. When they fixed it (and pretty fast, too), I went from a paltry 6 requests to 68 in a week. Double check your entry and make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

If you decide to try the LT Giveaway for your own promotions, best of luck and share your findings! This is obviously a powerful tool and becomes more so as your reach as an author increases.

Published

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Friends –

I’m excited to announce that I’ve just published four collections of my short stories on Amazon for the Kindle–with other eReader formats to follow by 1 December. I hope you’ll be kind enough to give my fledgling writing career a boost. Here’s how:

  • Buy my books (just $.99 each…or buy all of them for less than a grande mocha at Starbucks). Full descriptions and links to Amazon at matthew-iden.com/collections/ or read more, below (to those who already have…thank you!)
  • Tell everyone you know about these books face-to-face or through social media (even just a Facebook “Like” on the book’s page helps)
  • Review your favorites on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com, Librarything.com, and Smashwords.com

I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate your support. My books are just a handful in a sea of nearly 800,000 ebook titles, so everything you can do helps! Want to know more? Read on!

More Details…
The twelve shorts are broken into four collections–Three Shorts, Three the Hard Way, Three on a Match, and Three of a Kind—of three stories each. Most would be filed under Thriller or Crime Fiction or Psychological Twist, but each collection also has a humorous (okay, darkly humorous) story at the end to leave you chuckling.

Three Shorts [sample | buy]
Enjoy three crooked stories in Three Shorts: a group of Mafia wiseguys sweat it out as they wait to hear who’s snitched on them in Up a Rung; a disturbed woman loses more than her mind in Possession; and a postman’s larcenous streak gets him in a terrible mess just a few days before Christmas in Special Delivery.
Three the Hard Way [sample | buy]
Three ruthless gems come at you here: a couple finds a novel way to stop the foreclosure on their home; a suspenseful chain of letters tells a story of betrayal and violence; and a loving wife decides that killing her husband is the only way to stay alive. Features the stories The Wrong Job, Dead Letter, and An Appalachian Love Story.
Three on a Match [sample | buy] Stay on the edge of your seat as you read tales of revenge and bad-luck: a man tries to recapture his youth and assure his future by murdering his present (The Long Drop); a killer finds victims aren’t always what they seem (Flowers Street); and just how does a professional thief get even when he’s been swindled by a couple of amateurs (A Day at the Beach)?
Three of a Kind [sample | buy]
You’ve been dealt three great stories here: in The Killer, an elderly widow finds the inner strength to protect the last thing she loves from the killer who would take it away; in Sliver a small wound becomes a murderous injury; and Repo Man gives you a glimpse into what happens when a man is pushed to the edge after his identity is stolen.

Don’t have a Kindle? Check out Amazon’s free Kindle Reader apps, available for almost any device, smart phone, and computer imaginable.

Own a Nook, Sony Reader or want to buy through iTunes? All four books will be available for these devices by December 1. If you like, I’ll be happy to let you know via email when they’re available.

Thank you so much! If you have any questions about how I got to this point, or want to chat about the books, reply to this email, give me a shout at matt.iden@matthew-iden.com, leave a comment on the site, or Tweet me at CrimeRighter.

Thanks again!
Matt

p.s. The omnibus collection of all these stories comes out soon…possibly before Thanksgiving! All twelve stories plus the bonus short story Sixteen Steps for $2.99.

I ain’t no Superman

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For my own pleasure and education, I write personal critiques of popular books, books I admire, and books I think would be better used to level a wobbly table. I record my thoughts on voice, style, and especially great passages. I also write down weaknesses and issues I find grating. Recently, while reading through a critique I’d written on a well-known crime writer’s novel, I came across this note I wrote to myself:

The lead character is a former Army Recon sniper, now a forensic expert despite a career spent only as a beat cop. He’s sexy, willing to sacrifice anything for a friend, a former friend, or a loved one without complaint. Children and animals like him. In short, he’s phony as a $3 bill.

Please…I want my heroes to be tough, sophisticated, and softies at heart. But when the protagonist can’t be beat at anything, is morally superior than everyone around him, has the answers and the experience to respond to any situation, the air goes out of the balloon.

Inner turmoil, self-doubts, shady pasts (that actually affect him or her…not token problems) are not contradictory to having a compelling lead character and, in fact—as story-tellers have known for several thousand years—actually the key to creating a powerful, memorable protagonist and a moving story.

The Flawed Protagonist is nothing new or groundbreaking. Where is Samson without his vanity? King Arthur without his bad judgment and wounded pride? Would we care as much about Philip Marlowe if he didn’t have a shaky set of ethics? Robert Parker’s Spenser stopped being interesting once he became bullet-proof and unquestioning. When his self-doubts vanished, so did our deeper interest…the later Spenser for Hire books are worth reading only to see what new crooks get their asses kicked by the Boston PI and Hawk.

Broken lives need a less-than-perfect protagonist. Anything else becomes a cartoon and at that point we’re just killing time until the hero is admitted into the Justice League. Subsequent novels become conflicts not with antagonists (because they aren’t true challenges to our hero), but with abstract elements, like time (defuse the bomb) or a natural crisis (a volcano!). And these are fine forces to array yourself against. But they aren’t interesting characters and they don’t allow the protagonist to mature or grow.

Keep your Superman. I’ll take a flawed Philip Marlowe any day.

Great Quotes: The power of language

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Concise, elegant descriptions are sometimes all we need to convey what’s necessary in a scene. Take this example from Walter Mosley’s, Devil in a Blue Dress:

Joppy was cleaning one area on his counter until it was spotless, except for the dirt that caked in the cracks. The dark cracks twisting through the light marble looked like a web of blood vessels in a newborn baby’s head.

It’s just two sentences. But do you have any doubt what that bar looks like? Will you forget it anytime soon? Does the spotless counter–but the  “dirt…caked in the cracks”–maybe imply something about Joppy or his character?

How about this description of a hulking mansion from someone known more for their action scenes:

It was a long drive up to the house. Gray ocean on three sides. The house was a big old pile. Maybe some sea captain’s place from way back when killing whales made people respectable fortunes. It was all stone, with intricate beadings and cornices and folds. All the north-facing surfaces were covered in gray lichen. The rest was spotted with green. It was three stories high. It had a dozen chimneys. The roofline was complex. There were gables all over the place with short gutters and dozens of fat iron pipes to drain the rainwater away. The front door was oak and was banded and studded with iron. The driveway widened into a carriage circle. I followed it around counterclockwise and stopped right in front of the door.

– Lee Child, Persuader

Notice how saying “The house was a big old pile” is like a summary statement, giving us the macro-view before following with particular, specific details like the lichen spotted with green and the “fat iron pipes”.

Child isn’t afraid to use repetition when it works for him: “It was three stories high. It had a dozen chimneys.” The two sentences together should be too short, too choppy, but they work precisely because they’re not made into one compound sentence. It’s also how you would see the house as you drove: short bursts of recognizable detail. This selective sentence length isn’t accidental: it helps break the rhythm of longer sentences to follow, like the longer “There were gables…” sentence. Other truncated sentences also work well: “Gray ocean on three sides”, and not the more obvious and plodding, “There was gray ocean…” Child even manages to sneak in Reacher’s sniff of disapproval with the line, “..when killing whales…”.

For an example of character description, how about the piercing observation of Pyle as seen by Fowler in The Quiet American:

I had seen him last September coming across the square towards the bar of the Continental: an unmistakably young and unused face flung at us like a dart. With his gangly legs and his crew-cut and his wide campus gaze he seemed incapable of harm.

Pyle, as a character and a person, is almost entirely summed up in a handful of words. And, of course, there’s the prophetic mistake Fowler makes in underestimating Pyle (foreshadowing and intimating that the presence of innocence and the ability to do harm have nothing to do with each other).

Language is beautiful, malleable, and—with enough practice—able to create entire worlds out of nothing but letters.