Indie or Traditional

Over the last couple of months I've had many people come up to me to pick my brains about self-publishing. I guess word's gotten out that I'm doing well. Even my local RWA chapter (Romance Writers of America) is taking notice. I've never had so many free lunches in my life!

The question that always comes up is, what would I do if a traditional publisher approached me and made me an offer to publish my books. I know some other indies have already been approached and are wondering what to do. While many of my RWA friends would probably immediately jump at the chance and oohh and aahh about the fact that a New York publisher is interested, I'm actually not that quick to jump at it. Why?

We are still at the beginning of the e-revolution, the new Gold Rush as I call it in a recent blog post on the Writer's Guide to E-Publishing. Nobody can really tell yet how much your e-rights are really worth in dollars and cents. The publishers want in on it, knowing that they are making less and less on print publishing. When asking several agents who spoke at our local chapter recently, they confirmed that publishers will not enter into a deal with the author that would leave the author with their e-rights. I'm not ready to give those up. Now, foreign rights, I would love to sell. Anybody?

But it's not just about potentially losing money when signing your e-rights over to a publisher, it's also about losing creative control. I'm a very independent person. I've always been an entrepreneur, and I don't work well for somebody else. Call me headstrong, pushy, bossy. Just pick one. That's not to say that I don't listen to advice. I take many, if not the majority of my critique partners' suggestions when revising a manuscript, and I also listen to my editor's suggestions. But in the end, I have the last word.

And in the end, I decide which cover to pick, which word to delete, which price to sell at. As a traditionally published author - unless your name is J.K. Rowling - you don't have that kind of power.

Will this decision work for everybody? Probably not. I'm a self-starter, and I work extremely hard. My work week regularly consists of 60+ hours of work. So don't be fooled when you see me posting on Facebook that I'm about to go to the gym in the middle of the day. Just because I can arrange my day the way I want, doesn't mean I sit around eating bonbons (besides, that's fattening!).

But, if you are ambitious, hard-working, and have a head not just for writing, but also for figures, marketing, and promotion, Indie might be the way for you to go. It's very rewarding to know you've achieved something without the backing of a big company behind you.

Tina Folsom
http://www.tinawritesromance.com
http://authortinafolsom.blogspot.com

Have you seen my new covers?

Don't have an e-reader yet? Win one here!

E-readers are becoming more and more popular. Since their prices have come down tremendously over the last year, they've turned into popular gifts. I heard from many readers this year who received either a Kindle or a Nook for Christmas.

Considering that many independent authors only e-publish due to the high cost of print publishing, this is good news for all of us indie authors.

And here are two authors who want to add to the readership who own an e-reader: Bella Andre and Tina Folsom are raffling off a Color Nook each. You can find the links to their giveaways below. Each giveaway involves a few questions about their books, but answers to these questions can be found in the free samples you can read on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to their websites and enter the contests!

Good Luck!

Bella's Contest

Tina's Contest

Location, Location, Location!

In real estate the three most important things are: location, location, location. So what's real estate got to do with books?

Well, even for books location is important. Anne Rice set her vampires in New Orleans, True Blood takes place in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Gothic locations are in: Victorian London is a favorite for Gothic literature. They provide a perfect backdrop for vampires and other nocturnal creatures. The right setting creates the right mood for your book.

Paris lends itself for romance. The deep South can inspire lust and passion. New York is a favorite backdrop for gritty urban fantasy. How do other cities affect you? Would you rather read a vampire romance that takes place in a small town in the Midwest, or would a locale like Venice excite you more as a reader? Those are all questions, an author will ask herself when choosing where to set her next book.

Do you think Anne Rice's vampires would have had the same effect on the reader if the location had been a little beach town in Florida or a cold place like Alaska? Scouting out a location is paramount for movies, and it should be so for books as well. The right location can inspire a story and add nuances that would otherwise not have been possible.

My Scanguards Vampires series takes place in San Francisco: there's plenty of fog to set the right mood. But for my Out of Olympus (Greek God) series which is much more humorous, I decided on a town that for me has a much lighter feel, even though there's still something paranormal going on: Charleston, SC. We all have our favorites. Next time you read a book, look at the setting and ask yourself whether it could have been better or worse had the author chosen a different location.

The Plot Thickens

First, let me introduce myself: I’m Tina Folsom and I am romance author with a background in screenwriting. And that’s exactly where my strengths lie. While other authors can turn beautiful phrases – and I get intensely envious about it – I instead ask myself things like:

·       Where are my turning points?

·       What’s my sequence climax?

·       What’s my inciting incident?

·       Where’s the dark moment?

·       Do I have sex at 60?

Hold it, sex at 60, you’re asking? Trust me, it’s not what you think. Really, it’s not.

Let me explain: it all has to do with the movies. When movies used to be about 2 hours long and there was a break in the middle of it for the projectionist to change the reels (or so I think the story goes – not that I actually remember that – I’m not THAT old!), there had to be a strong significant scene in the middle for people to come back after the break. It’s called the midpoint – and in romance it’s been adapted to “sex at 60”, which means there’s got to be a sex scene at 60 minutes into the movie, or in case of a book at about 200 pages into the book (for a 400 page book).

Try it out for yourself: go to a book store and pick up a romance novel. Open it roughly in the middle, give or take a few pages, and in many cases you’ll find a sex scene there, or at least a very hot emotional or physical scene. But I digress.

Let me tell you more about plotting and why all these things are important even in a book, not just a movie.

Like plays and movies, books inherently have three acts, with Act II being about double as long as Act I, and Act III slightly shorter than Act I. The American public has become so accustomed to the way movies are structured that this expectation has transferred to books. We expect certain things to happen at certain times. We want climaxes, multiple ones at certain intervals.

And that’s how I write my novels: I start with a grid showing me my three acts or eight sequences (2 of Act I, 4 for Act II, and 2 for Act III), and then I pop scene cards into each sequence and plot out my book.

Over the next few months I’ll be giving you more insight into my process of writing a novel, but in the meantime, visit Alexandra Sokoloff’s blog  - she is a great teacher and author, and many of the things I’m talking about today and will talk about in the future, I’ve learned from her. Others she’s refreshed for me, since my studies of screenwriting in LA date back to 2001. Any writer who finds they have difficulties with plotting and structure should definitely read some of Alex’s articles. They are worth their weight in gold.

That’s all, folks! See you in a month!

Tina Folsom

Author of the Scanguards Vampires series