On Writing: A Tate Publishing Blog

New Monikers in the Tate Editing Department

2012-01-13T14:58:00.003-06:00

I recently sent out this company memo:

Subject: The Conceptual Editors Have Vanished!

Here’s the short version: We are changing the name of the process “Conceptual Editing” to “Developmental Editing.” And it follows that Conceptual Editors will be called Developmental Editors.

If you’re interested in knowing why, keep reading! If not, just skip the middle and move down to the * at the bottom. No hard feelings.

Manuscripts at Tate Publishing go through two rounds of in-house editing:

1. Copy Editing – with their perfect blend of smarts and good looks, Copy Editors (11 strong) are the detail people. They scour through our manuscripts hunting for the grammatical and formatting fouls our authors have committed. The average manuscript enters our production process with 3,000 mistakes per 100 pages, so, and these professionals gurus of grammar are an essential screen against typos.

2. Developmental Editing (formerly known as Conceptual Editing) – the creative minds in this department (three teams of 5-8 editors) review our manuscripts and give feedback and suggestions to authors on ways to better express their story or message. A Developmental Editor’s job is to be the author’s toughest (and often their first) critic before the book gets out to the public. They focus on problems with organization, structure, and logical argument in nonfiction; plot and character development, conflict, and dialogue in fiction. In other words, with their keen insights and comprehensive suggestions for improvement, they help our authors DEVELOP their manuscripts into something engaging for their readers.

And so after considering these duties and surveying titles and descriptions among other publishers around the industry, we’ve decided to make this switch. No procedures will change, but the process and job titles will.

*PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT to review and update any files you may have that reference Conceptual Editing. We have begun incorporating this change on the website, production guidelines, and all relevant author communication.

The Best Five Books I Read in 2011

2011-12-29T09:56:00.005-06:00

The list someone, somewhere has been waiting for:

The End of Education by Neil Postman

According to Plan by Graeme Goldsworthy

Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman
Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister

I'm considering taking on the 52-Book Challenge again in 2012. What should be on my list?

Dispatches from the Publishing Frontier

2011-10-31T15:32:00.003-05:00

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to a capstone English class at the University of Central Oklahoma. My presentation, titled “Dispatches from the Publishing Frontier,” addressed the new landscape of the publishing industry and opportunities for recent graduates to get their foot in the door.

As I prepared it was eye opening to look back over the last fifteen years and put the students’ generation in a historical context. There is no way to overstate the impact the Internet has had on all business, and especially media. The last ten years have been nothing short of revolutionary for our culture. As we know, revolutions can have good and bad results, and often a mix. In the next three posts, I’d like to delve into three dramatic shifts in the publishing industry in the last decade. Today, we look at distribution.

Part One: The End of The Distribution Monopoly

The monopoly on book distribution has been all but wiped out. Forty years ago, the one route to getting your book in front of an audience was this: AgentàNY PublisheràDistribution ManageràRetail Book BuyeràCustomer. Today, it is possible to hurdle some of these steps and still reach an audience. Let’s take a look at these one by one:

Agents. The agency route is certainly still an option, but some publishers, like Tate Publishing, have Acquisition Editors who accept and review unsolicited manuscripts not tied to an agent, and this role has lost more than a modicum of its gate keeping authority.

Publisher. Some have attempted to argue that the role of publisher is losing importance as well. I would argue that this is actually the most dynamic and vital cog in the chart above. Nothing can take the place of experienced Editorial eye, elegant Cover Design, subtle and eye-pleasing Layout Design, and Marketing and Publicity, all of which Tate Publishing provides. And now communication technology has freed us up to do business in areas of the nation outside of Manhattan.

Distribution Managers warehouse books for retailers. With modern digital printing technology, we can print books in shorter runs and have them ready for retailers in weeks. Distribution is also dependent on traditional book retailers, which we will address next.

Retail Book Buyer. I could sum this up in one word: Borders. National book chains are struggling. It’s a painful thing to realize, but admit it we must: customers are much more likely to buy from an online site that in a bookstore. We still value our relationships with book buyers and bookstores. Yet there is another avenue we can approach customers, one at which the Tate Publishing Marketing team is both particularly experienced and adept: Events outside the bookstore; also known as Niche Marketing. Tapping into your niche market is the new way of the industry, and Tate Publishing has been pioneering the path for years.

Part Two will look at Chris Anderson’s important work defining The Long Tail.

Book Review: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

2011-07-31T23:46:00.023-05:00

"Calm, focused, undistracted, the linear mind is being pushed aside by a new kind of mind that wants and needs to take in and dole out information in short, disjointed, often overlapping bursts—the faster, the better.”

You feel it. You sense it, tugging at you right now. “Am I being entertained? How much longer do I feel like reading this? This is boring. Is there a picture or video here somewhere? What’s going on on Facebook?” When you’re on the Net, there is a constant tug at your attention. In the back of your mind you’re sure there’s something that could bring you more pleasure. The possibilities are endless, and here you sit on a lowly blog about books. All you have to do is click two buttons and you could be watching a laughing baby or seeing what 600 of your friends are doing in real time. The average reader on this site stays 94 seconds.

The Internet grabs our attention the way no other entertainment technology has before, then scatters it in a wind of hyperlinks and search boxes. The gratification of the technology is immediate and seemingly limitless. The dopamine we get when we get a message, a like, a tweet, etc. is a powerful drug, and it’s a high we aren't keen to lose.

In the western world over the last century we have adopted technology so wholly, accepted its necessity and inevitability so completely, and created its monopoly so rapidly that we’ve had little time to contemplate the blowback—the unintended consequences of maximum connectivity.

Technology and culture writer Nicholas Carr examines these consequences in The Shallows, an utterly compelling look at an ominous phenomenon that is well underway. Yes, most scientists agree that the Web is morphing your mind. Some argue this is for the better while others, contrarians like Carr, argue for worse.

If you’ve recently noticed you look at your smartphone rather than look friends in the face, that your memory seems to be getting frazzled, that you have more trouble reading an entire book than you used to, this may be a consequence of using the Web. Carr explains with neuroscience that without repeated use our minds begin to lose the ability to concentrate on one subject for an extended period. It's the old axiom: Use it or lose it. Pertinent, fascinating studies are used to illustrate that our abilities to digest information and process complex arguments are dwindling.

I could say a ton about The Shallows, but I'll end with this: I listed this as the most affecting book I read in 2010. It remains that, and I’ve just had the opportunity to chew on and discuss its content with with some of my coworkers, where it sparked much introspection and debate. This book will challenge (and possibly change) the way you live.

P.S. If you want a primer check out Carr's article in The Atlantic: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

2011-05-26T14:21:00.009-05:00

I’ve come down in the middle on this book. It was unique and full of solid, sagely advice, but felt uneven. As I mentioned, this is the only King book I’ve read, and I was very impressed with his ability. He’s no doubt the type of writer who’s not fully appreciated in the canon because of the material with which he’s decided to work.

The first section of the book, titled "C.V.," deals with Mr. King's youth, education, family, and the beginnings of his writing career. This was well written--excellent similes, pacing, and a wry, conversational tone--but was also clearly written for fans of his many other works. These vignettes describe how he grew up and where some of his inspiration and story ideas came from. I suspect these fans appreciated this section more than I could.

The second and third sections, "Toolbox" and "On Writing," outline and illustrate his writing advice, which lacked structure but was all swell. He begins with the exhortation to take writing seriously, advice I’ve given quite often to new writers, in particular those reluctant to hone and refine their book after the first or second draft. "Do not come lightly to the blank page," writes King. "It's writing, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else. Wash the car, maybe."

The last section of the book, "On Living," describes an accident King was involved in and harkens back to the first section of the book in its first-person narrative. I’m not sure if it was the tone of the book (light-hearted and conversational), the angle at which we see the accident and subsequent recovery, or the fact that I’m cold-hearted, but I was little affected by the story. It seemed a throw-in, something more important to writer than reader.

As a writer, the most inspiration I received was from King's metaphor of paddling across the Atlantic Ocean in a bathtub. Having spent seven years as a professional editor, I have developed an occupational hazard that can severely stymie my writing efforts. When it comes to freewriting a first draft, putting on the page the first cliché or adverb that comes to my head and moving on, I'm caught in two minds. This idea of furiously paddling before the waves of self-doubt sink my tub is valuable, and something I will carry with me.

Since mentioning I was reading this book I’ve received emails and messages from many friends and authors who are big fans of it, and I’m glad to hear that these writers are taking the time to learn from one of the masters. As the father once told his son, “Find a man you want to be like, and sit at his feet.” Soaking up advice from a man as prolific and skilled as Stephen King can only make you a better writer.

A few quotes for good measure:

On Description:

"Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's...Good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else. In most cases, these details will be the first that come to mind. Remember that it's as easy to overdescribe as it is to underdescribe."

On Characters:

"It's also important to remember that no one is 'the bad guy,' or 'the best friend,' or 'the whore with the heart of gold' in real life; in real life each of us regard ourselves as the main character, the protagonist, big cheese; the character is on us, baby. If you can bring this attitude to your fiction...it will be harder for you to create the sort of one-dimensional dopes that populate so much pop fiction."

"Skills in description, dialogue, and character development all boil down to seeing and hearing clearly and then transcribing what you see and hear with equal clarity (and without using a lot of tiresome, unnecessary adverbs)."

On Reading:

"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write...Reading is the creative center of a writer's life."

"One learns most clearly by reading bad prose--one bad novel is worth a semester at a good writing school."

"Good writing, on the other hand, teaches the learning writer about style, graceful narration, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling...Being swept away by a compbination of great story and great writing--of being flattened, in fact--is a part of every wrier's necessary formation. You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

On "Inspiration":

"There is a muse, but he's not going to come fluttering down into your writing room and sprinkle creative fairy dust all over your computer. He lives in the ground. He's a basement guy. You have to descend to his level, and once you get down there you have to furnish an apartment for him to live in. You have to do all the grunt labor, in other words, while the muse sits and smokes cigars and admires his bowling trophies and pretends to ignore you. He may not be much to look at, and he may not be much of a coversationalist, but he's got the inspiration. It's right that you should do all the work and burn all the midnight oil, because the guy with the cigar and the little wings has got a bag of magic. There's stuff in there that can change your life."

Stephen King On Editors

2011-04-05T16:40:00.003-05:00

I’ll confess that I’ve never read a Stephen King novel in its entirety. However, a group of us are currently reading and discussing his "Memoir of the Craft," On Writing, and we came across this gem in the Foreword:

One rule of the road not directly stated elsewhere in this book: "The editor is always right." The corollary is that no writer will take all of this or her editor’s advice; for all have sinned and fallen short of editorial perfection. Put another way, to write is human, to edit is divine…

I'm thinking this King fellow may be all right.

90-Minute Spurts

2011-02-28T14:38:00.006-06:00

In his new book, How We're Working Isn't Working, Tony Schwartz claims that we work best in 90-minute spurts of productivity. His argument is based on research that claims we have awake cycles similar to the 90-minute sleeping cycles we experience (barely asleep, deep sleep and back, repeat), and that after this period, if we continue to hack away on one project, our productivity dwindles. It's an interesting study, though in my experience most people suffer from too many distractions rather than a lack of switching tasks.

I'm a big believer in writing sessions, but often mine come in the wee hours and I'm not always able to give it a full 90. I'm curious how other people work. How long are your typical writing sessions? What time of day do you write best?

52 Weeks; 52 Books

2010-12-30T11:51:00.032-06:00

Last year I set out to accomplish something I'd never done before: read 52 books in one calendar year. It took me until the very last week of the month, but I made it. I've had an incredible time and feel like I've spent 10-20 hours a week with people much smarter than I am (most weeks, anyway). Here are a few notes about the experience along with a list of the best books I read all year.

I wore out the library card. Looking at the prospect of spending roughly a grand on books in the year (and being a notorious cheapskate), I decided early on to search my local library for titles I might be interested in. I was surprised at the diverse collection, and this was where I got the majority of the books I read this year. The downside of this path was it did not allow me to dog ear, underline, or write in the margins.

I went through several mental trends. I'm a curious person, and this led me in all sorts of directions. It seems there's a scholar who's written a book on every subject, from bread making to soccer's relationship with foreign policy. Several times I found myself particularly interested in certain theme and reading 2-5 books in a row on history, food, or theology. And then I would grow weary of the subject and not want to touch it again. (American History, a subject I didn't think I could ever get enough of, became an anathema to toward the end of the year.)

I listened to ten audiobooks. I joined audible.com in September. Some would call it cheating (i.e. not "reading"), but I call it efficient. I have an hour total daily commute, and audiobooks were a great way to make up for some of the weeks that I slacked.

It's your turn. My hope is that this inspires you to set a similar goal. If you think you're too busy, try scaling back a little and setting a goal of reading two a month. In our screen-centric culture where opportunities for instant gratification scream at us at every turn, reading a good story is one of the last deep and thoroughly satisfying pleasures that remains. And in the end your brain will feel heavier, your vocabulary will have grown, and you'll have gained insight into many subjects you didn't have 365 days ago.

You can see the full list after the jump, but here are the best I read by category:

Best Culture: The Shallows: How the Internet Is Affecting Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
-If the title sounds ominous, it should. A fair and fascinating examination of unintended and undesirable consequences multitasking in front of a screen all day has on society. Well researched and hands down the most affecting book I read this year.

Best Novel: All Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka
-Colorful story about a former history professor who gets so involved in his subject (the Middle Ages) that he begins refusing to eat, dress, or use tools that were made after the twelfth century. We get to watch the equally dramatic and humorous ways this plays out in his family life.

Best Religious: Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
-Thoughtful biblical response to the "just me and Jesus," and "where two or three are gathered" mentality prevalent in modern Christian circles.

Best History: Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
-Ellis paints elegant scenes and expertly breaks down six fascinating hinge moments in the founding of America.

Best Audio/Nonfiction: The Big Short by Michael Lewis
-Lewis uses five colorful characters to tell the story of the housing bubble and Wall Street meltdown of 2008. Incredible storytelling that weaves an explanation of the financial crisis through the story and helped a novice like me understand what the heck happened. (Warning: contains quite a bit of colorful language.)

Best Political: Republocrat by Carl R. Trueman
-Challenging analysis of the Christian faith's relationship to politics and how believers should think about policies both domestic and foreign that there are no biblical mandates for.

Best on Writing: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
-Not a technical book, but full of what I'll call "aggressively inspirational" essays to keep your butt in the chair and your fingers tapping the keys.

Best on Management: Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell
-Excellent book with great ideas for building positive company culture. Recommended for anyone in business.

Here's the full list in the order I read them. Those I recommend (if you're interested in the subject) are in bold:

Bad Trip by Joel Miller
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Moving to Higher Ground by Wynton Marsalis
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis
How to Really Love Your Child by Ross Campbell
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck
Not Everyone Gets a Trophy by Bruce Tulgan
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
The Revolution by Ron Paul
Rules of the Red Rubber Ball by Kevin Carroll
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
The Art of Influence by Chris Widener
Creating Magic by Lee Cockerell
Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips
Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris
The Carrot Principle by Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick
All Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka
The Five Most Important Questions by Peter Drucker
How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer
The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
Ghostwriting by Andrew Crofts
Home Game by Michael Lewis
Mars and Venus in the Workplace by John Gray
The Ascent of Money by Niall Fergusson
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The Grand Delusion by Heath Sommer
The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
Money for Nothing by Edward Ugel
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
The Plague by Albert Camus
Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton
The Limits of Power by Andrew Bacevich
In the Neighborhood by Peter Lovenheim
Iron Sharpens Iron by Sayers
How to Grow a Novel by Sol Stein
The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Dinner at Mr. Jefferson's by Charles Cerami
Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung
Why an Economy Grows and Crashes by Peter and Andrew Schiff
Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo
Republocrat by Carl Trueman
52 Loaves by William Alexander
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
Father Fiction by Donald Miller
Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey
The Beckham Experiment by Grant Wahl

How Long is Too Long?

2010-10-31T22:17:00.015-05:00

At Tate Publishing we have a standard maximum word count of 115,000 words, and usually encourage authors to fly well under that figure. I'm often asked why a particular author's book can't exceed this unfair, arbitrary, impossible ceiling, and here's what I say:

1. It's too long for your reader. An average reader knocks back 25 pages/hour of a typical storytelling book (fiction, memoir, biography, creative non). For your 120k-word book, you're looking 500 pages in the eye. So you're asking Mrs. Reader, who has job, family, and community responsibilities, to spend 20 hours with your story. When's the last time you spent 20 hours doing anything that didn't pay at least $7.25 per?

2. It's too expensive. There are myriad factors that go into determining a book's retail price, but we'll use some round numbers for our purposes. Let's say for a 50,000-word (200-page) book a reader is shelling out $15, a few bucks more than a music album, and way more than DVD or video game rental, game night with the family, facebook binge, four hours of youtube, etc., etc. When we jump to 500 pages, you're asking that a reader spend $30 on your product--more than everything mentioned above, a tank of gas, three buckets of KFC extra crispy, and an hotel stay in Las Vegas. This is simply too expensive to compete with modern entertainment options. We would be pricing your book out of the market.

3. You can tell your story more efficiently, and more effectively. A Tate Publishing author is given professional advice from our skilled Conceptual Editors on ways to tell his or her story more concisely. It's not unheard of for an editor to recommend--and work with her author--to trim 30,000 words off of a book. (Cringe, right?) When you're close to your book, as most authors are, every word is precious. Your Editor represent a reader, a market, and offers objective advice and encouragement on which elements of your story readers will enjoy (we also recommend elaboration!), and which sections would be best to minimize or omit. The best part of this process is that it negates reader obstacles 1 and 2 above. The story is told more efficiently, with fewer places for the reader to get distracted ("The TV remote is right there on the end table!"), bored ("I could be on the Internet in two clicks watching a cat play the piano!"), or discouraged by the amount of pages yet to read.

This said, when I finally shut my yapper after this spiel and an author asks how he can grease the skids and squeeze his corpulent, 150k-word Victorian novel through my editing department and out into the market, I tell him I'm a sucker for brownies. But nothing elaborate. I don't want to get distracted by cheesecake swirls or gummy-bear centers. I want simple, chewy, chocolate goodness.

Also see: If you have the opposite problem, check out this post on how to increase your novel's word count.

So, What Do You Do for a Living?

2010-08-31T15:23:00.000-05:00

I typically coach my storytelling authors toward less description, because in my experience most writers lean toward too much rather than too little. However, there is one area I believe more detail is frequently warranted: characters' vocations and/or specialties. The majority of my favorite characters, fictional and nonfictional, have had a particular skill (be they professionals or dilettantes), and the precision and detail with which their work was described was critical to their depth in my mind's eye.

This will likely require extra research on the writer's part, but the story will reap benefits. The writer will be giving the character (and thereby her creator) credibility, as well as injecting her with one of my favorite words: verisimilitude. Think about a friend you have who's a mechanic, engineer, banker, or airplane pilot. When he gets to explaining his job, you get a sense that he owns a great well of knowledge about his subject, hard won from performing his duties day in and day out. And this makes him interesting. (Unless he's an accountant.)

A couple of examples come to mind other than the book I'm editing right now: The reclusive writer Bill Gray in Delillo's Mao II and the everyman neurosurgeon Henry Perowne in Mckewan's Saturday. Who's got another example?

Dear Graduate

2010-06-30T23:39:00.006-05:00

I frequently receive emails from college students asking about the best route to a career in editing. Here's my advice:

1. University: My alma mater the University of Oklahoma has an award-winning Journalism school and the University of Iowa has excellent writing programs, but most state universities are adequately equipped to teach you the goods.

2. Major: Select a major that has to do with writing and story--Journalism, Professional Writing, or English (Creative Writing) are your best bets. (Note: If you're interested in doubling, Business and Communications are also highly valuable degrees and would come in very handy post graduation.)

3. Extra Credit: Wherever you go, be active when you get there--hunt down (or create!) writing groups, writing centers, book clubs, newspaper and magazine writing opportunities, etc. Do anything and everything you can to garner experience and learn about different types of writing.

4. Internships: By your junior year, you should begin hunting these down on the 'Net and through your professors and career resources department.

5. “Read! Read! Read! When you find something that thrills you, take it apart paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word, to see what made it so wonderful. Then use those tricks the next time you write.” W.P. Kinsella

Record Your Fleeting Thoughts

2010-05-11T15:48:00.001-05:00

The second tip I gleaned from the curious Ms. Sher's book is this:

Record your fleeting thoughts. There are thoughts that cross our minds every day--whether through the normal course of events or during brief moments of reflection, that writers latch on to and think briefly, "That would be a great scene/argument/adage/description for my book." Sher's simple advice: write these down. This is by no means a new concept (you can even get shirts with this theme), but her emphasis on the writer's need to experience the world/society/humanity and take from it rather than sit behind a keyboard all day is astute.

I currently have over 300 of these little 1-3 sentence gems tapped into my phone. These are themes, character/setting descriptions, opinions, emotions, philosophies, arguments, etc. that I will later elaborate on and incorporate into one of my narratives.

One thing to remember: You want as little time as possible to elapse from the moment of inspiration to the moment of elaboration. Revisiting the theme three months later will frequently leave you confused about the when and why of your note. If you were a landscape painter, you would set up your easel at this very spot and articulate the scene on your canvas. As writers, while we can't always drop what we're doing, we do need to make sure to fan the spark of inspiration as quickly as possible.

Respect Your Writing Space

2010-03-05T12:30:00.022-06:00

I've long held that there is a minimum one thing you can learn from any book, even something as basic as a new word or turn of phrase, and at the very least you can experience how that writer views the world, which will add depth to your world (and writing).

Some time ago, at the behest of a colleague, I read Gail Sher's One Continuous Mistake. It's an unorthodox writing book to be sure, and the spiritual zen references are a little more abstract than I'm willing or able to follow. However, there are a couple of things she strongly advocates that I've incorporated and found important in my writing. This is a big one:

Respect your writing space. This is not necessarily new advice, but Sher goes to great lengths to emphasize the profound importance of your primary writing space and the effect it can have on your prose (or lack thereof). Ambiance and environment are critical elements in all artistic endeavors. This will look different for every writer, but it should be a place in which you can be both comfortable and focused. I would encourage you to take note of your desk/chair/room and what you surround yourself with.

I'm rather particular in my desk arrangement. Everything but the essential reference materials must be cleared off and out of my peripheral vision. Those things that remain must be symmetrical, lined up invariably at ninety-degree angels. I find that this set up helps my mind zero in on the screen and more readily get involved in the world created there. I rarely write outside of this writing space, and I try to keep it free from other work so as to train my mind to be in the zone when I'm there, free from distraction.

Do you have a favorite writing space? How important is environment to your writing success?
(Click here to check out some famous writers' desks.)

What a Terrible Name

2010-01-28T09:46:00.020-06:00

It's here in all its glory.

After watching the presentation, I'm still not 100% sold on every average Joe owning one in ten years, but the convenience is hard to argue with. It may take over the world as I predicted, but--call me what you will--as a reader I still prefer the aesthetics and reading experience of the ole paperback.

Ultimately, of course, the market will decide how much need there is for this device, and Tate Publishing is currently in contact with Apple to make sure our authors and readers can connect through it. Our titles will be appearing on the iPad (via their iBookstore) shortly after it's available.

Links for further reading:

My Boss Dave Dolphin on Why People Will Buy This

Washington Post video of the demo

Unclutterer with A Case Against the iPad

Engadget's coverage with tons of pics

Tate Book Trailers

2010-01-26T15:01:00.008-06:00

Our multimedia team has been cooking up some stunning trailers lately gearing up for our national television commercial launch. Check out two of their recent projects:

Newest eReader: Skiff

2010-01-12T12:47:00.020-06:00

As I predicted, companies we haven't even heard of are working feverishly to produce these devices. The results continue to fascinate. Question is, would you read a book on one of these?

52 Books or Bust

2010-01-11T14:46:00.025-06:00

Last week I read this article by Julien Smith and got inspired. This year I’ve accepted the challenge to read one book every week in 2010 (outside of work). I encourage you to join me. Why? Reading has been proven to, among other things:

Increase your vocabulary
Improve your writing skills
Increase your understanding of the world
Improve your concentration and focus
Improve your memory
Improve your analytical thinking
Expose you to new ideas
Reduce stress

A tip: If you get into a book aren't enjoying the experience, don't be afraid to put it down and start a new one. Take the challenge with me. Or if you're hesitant, set a goal of one book a month. It will enliven your world in countless ways. Check out our list of 2009 Tate Publishing favorites and get started and make sure to share what your reading!

Update

Book 1: Bad Trip: How the war against drugs is destroying America by Joel Miller.

Completed, 4 stars.

Book 2: Gates of Fire: An epic novel of the battle of Thermapoylae by Steven Pressfield.

Completed, 5 stars.

Book 3: Moving to Higher Ground: How jazz can change your life by Wynton Marsalis. Reading.

On Deck: Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis.

GM and the 20th Century Publishing Industry

2009-12-27T22:09:00.034-06:00

On June 1, 2009, General Motors declared bankruptcy. GM is bankrupt because it got too used to having cultural authority. It was the top automaker in America during the twentieth century. Quite naturally, because of that success, GM grew top heavy (i.e. their systems, overhead, and debt were built during a time when they had a massive market share). Now that a number of new players have entered the game, gotten over prejudices and barriers and achieved success, GM’s share has necessarily declined. People (car buyers, diners, moviegoers, readers) have nuanced tastes. If you give them three car brands to pick from, the three auto companies will have a healthy existence. If you give them thirty brands, the profits will most certainly be more scattered. Now slide with me over to the publishing landscape.

Here's a list of the bestselling English books of the twentieth century:

The Lord of the Rings (1954)

And Then There Were None (1939)

The Hobbit (1937)

The Da Vinci Code (2003)

The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1956)

Anne of Green Gables (1908)

The Hite Report (1976)

Charlotte's Web (1952)

The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1951)

Note that all but one of these (the enigmatic Da Vinci Code) were published pre-1980, before the modern marketplace of choice. They were released before there were more than three television channels to choose from, before our entertainment options propagated into the millions. Most of these titles will never be eclipsed, because readers now have access to millions of different reading options, and their eyeballs (and dollars) are going millions of different directions.

Now there are new nimbler, progressive, independent-minded and technology-savvy houses (like Tate Publishing, ahem) who supply readers and authors with an array of choices. We understand that the market is now more fragmented and it’s naïve at best to expect millions of readers to flock to a given book without recommendation. And so with each and every title we publish we concentrate our efforts, resources, and expertise on locating a particular book/author’s niche market, hitting that market, and then going vertical—pushing and stretching to grow that niche as high and wide as possible. And we’re succeeding.

And now the larger, conglomerate-owned houses who benefited from the relative cultural homogeny of the last century are struggling to maintain their market share in the new economy. It is shrinking, and they are experiencing the same pains the large automakers experienced when their market shrunk due to new companies and foreign competition arriving at the table.

Everyone realizes a new era has begun in publishing, and Tate Publishing is blazing the trail into the new century. (Now if only our industry can avoid a government takeover...)

Merry Christmas + 09 Books

2009-12-21T12:54:00.022-06:00

We've published some outstanding titles this calendar year, and here's a sneak peek at a few of our favorites.

Fiction

The Manufactured Identity by Heath Sommer

A Dragon’s Tale by Long Lee

Tribe of Shadows by David Fergusson

Embryo House by Phil Rigsby

Day of War by Cliff Graham

Nonfiction

Dancing on My Ashes

by Heather Gilion and Holly Snell

Dead Man Living

by Ira Andrus

Who Really Wrote the Bible?

by Clayton Howard Ford

Books to watch for in 2010 (some pre-release copies available now):

Fiction

Family Portraits by Ken Carroll

Wake Up, O Sleeper by Jed Wright

The Fallowfield Carol by Andrew Smith

Covenant of War by Cliff Graham
The Grand Delusion by Heath Sommer
Dismissed with Prejudice by Christopher Meyerhoeffer

Nonfiction

The Other Side of the Jackie Robinson Story

by "Big" Ed Stevens

Dinner with a Terrorist

by James Rosone

I'll expand this list as we get closer to the new year. From all the staff at Tate Publishing, Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the God of our redemption bless and keep you over the holiday.

3 Traits of a Good Author

2009-12-11T15:39:00.022-06:00

We had productive and enjoyable meetings with author Cliff Graham today about the future of his Lion of War series. He’s got several traits of good author, and I want to briefly touch on a few:

He works hard at the craft of writing. Cliff understands that good writing is the soul of everything, and that because word of mouth plays such a massive role in modern marketing, a book won't get far without the goods inside. He’s not afraid to put in countless hours rewriting—a process even more important than the first draft.

He’s humble. Some authors come to their publisher believing they can skip the conceptual editing process because their story is flawless. Good authors are not afraid of criticism, they understand the publisher-author relationship--i.e. that we like the book or else we wouldn’t be working on it to make it even better--and they want us (rather than their readers) to poke holes in their manuscript until we can’t find any more soft spots.

He works tirelessly to promote the book and the brand. There is never downtime when you are an author. It’s like owning your own business—you must constantly think of ways to get better, to sell more, to get your product into more hands, to create more products, and to produce a better experience for your customers (readers).

At Tate Publishing we have a staff of skilled editors who are dedicated to one thing--working with our authors to create, shape, and mold books of all genres that readers will both enjoy and be inspired by. You can read more about Cliff's work here and here.

Poll Results - How many books have you read this year?

2009-12-02T16:18:00.005-06:00

Below are the official results of my poll on the amount of books read in 2009. Of all the English-speakers in the world who visited my blog between November 16 and November 23 and decided to click the poll, the stats are mind-boggling:

40% read 1-9 books in 2009

30% read 10-24 books

10% read 25-49 books

10% read 50+ books

Interpretations of the data are welcome.

New poll up about Christmas movies.

While we're at it, what's your favorite winter-time read? For the last two years I've enjoyed revisiting the historical novel Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. Not a Christmas story by any stretch, but snow and cold set the scene for most of the book.

You Will Own an eReader

2009-11-16T15:37:00.019-06:00

All talk in the book industry right now is about ebooks and learning from the music industry’s revolution. Since the ebook technology has been developing, I have been one of the Luddites arguing that the paperback would remain the medium of choice and the ebook would prove to be the bicycle to the book’s car. Though they still represent 1% of all book sales, I’m starting to change my mind on the ebook for two reasons:

Barnes & Noble came out with an ereader last month. There are now three competitors in the market (Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle), with more to come in 2010. With so many bright minds working on making this technology a reality (including tech wizzes at companies we haven't even heard of), they’re going to come up with something readers want. And my money is on one company in particular:

Apple. The guys in Cupertino have already destroyed one medium and thereby revolutionized an industry. The “cool factor” and fluid functionality of their products is undeniable, and when I started hearing the rumors about the iTablet (name still a rumor as well), I finally conceded. In ten years, we will all have one of these, just like we all adopted the technologies of the last two decades—desktop PCs, laptops, palm pilots, cell phones, smartphones. These things we believed we could live without indefinitely when they were $250 and rarely seen.

Stories will survive. The written word will survive. And ultimately, though it pains me and many other book lovers to say it, the medium is trivial; content is king.

One of the things we’re doing at Tate is testing the waters and being aggressive about these new technologies. With ebooks available on the Kindle and iPhone and the book trailers, audiobooks, and author websites we’ve been producing for years, we’re strategically crouched so that when these ereaders hit $99, and when Apple’s new device is all the rage, we’ll be poised to continue getting great books into the hands of readers.

Check out this take on what your Saturday reading may look like in 10 years.

A few nice notes from recent authors:

2009-10-18T21:28:00.004-05:00

"Briana gave me the direction and encouragement needed to improve upon my skills as a writer. I learned many things about writing and how a manuscript should be presented. She was kind, competent, supportive, quick to respond to questions, always cheerful, and a delight to work with on this project. I really gained more knowledge in writing and the publishing procedures with her help."

"I feel that both my book and my writing have improved as the result of some of Amanda's suggestions. Sometimes simply relocating a single word can alter or enrich the entire meaning of a sentence. Also, someone skilled reading your work for the first time, not already knowing the plot, characters, etc., can more easily spot areas that may need clarification, revision. During this process I discovered there were traits within some of my characters that I'd failed to develop fully, some things had been left unsaid in the dialogue, dialect needed work, some parts needed clarification. Even subtle changes can make a huge difference and this is the time to catch them."

"We were thrilled with the suggestions Katie made, and both feel the book is far stronger because of her. She had great insight into how I could develop a certain twist in the plot. She also had sentence structure suggestions that improved the message I was trying to get across. I will be a better writer because of her input. The editing dept also came up with the title, and we love it! Once again Tate Publishing exceeds expectations."

FB < TW

2009-09-08T22:39:00.002-05:00

I’ve recently decided to shift my work-related networking away from Facebook. I still hold that FB is a great place for authors to network and connect with readers, but it’s not providing the best format for my position at the moment. So if you’ve asked to be my FB friend and we haven't met face to face, chances are we won’t be connecting at this time on this site. But you can catch me at...

Moving forward all publishing-related material I share will be on Twitter. While I still loathe the name of this site, the format is easier to navigate quickly and pass along interesting links and information. And there are some great book people to follow, including publicist @yodiwan, agent @DanielLiterary, @WritersDigest, and our very own @TerryCordingley. So, if you want connect with me on a more consistent basis, follow me at twitter.com/curtiswinkle.

We Are the Future

2009-08-10T16:57:00.014-05:00

Last week we had the opportunity to visit the Big Apple for our annual Strategic Planning Summit. While there we also met with some key industry individuals and took in a few sights.

Times Square Ground Zero

New York Stock Exchange

We returned to Oklahoma City with an even stronger sense that our model is the future of the publishing industry. The agents and booksellers we met with echoed what we have been saying for years: the era of the big advance and critical mass is coming to an end, and niche marketing is paramount to the future of book sales. While this fact is hurting the staunchly inflexible traditional model, with its archaic distribution systems and refusal to adapt (e.g. HarperCollins' profits dropped 89% last year; a Publishers Weekly industry survey found that 61% of publishers experienced layoffs in the last year--and not surprisingly only 13% of those surveyed felt secure in their publishing jobs), Tate Publishing is expanding. We are growing in this economy. Reread that last sentence. We are gaining ground where other publishers are fighting to tread water. We are writing the future.

Virtual Children's Books

2009-07-29T16:49:00.008-05:00

This morning we took a look at some new and exciting things our Illustration Department has been working on to enhance our eLIVE package for children’s books. Here’s a sneak peek:

Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions

2009-06-18T14:42:00.016-05:00

Every month I send surveys to Tate Publishing authors who have completed the editing process and are moving on to our design department. 95% of the responses I receive are encouraging and complimentary of our staff. The other 5% are what I consider when we look to develop our staff or make tweaks to our procedures. Below are a few of this month's responses:

“Jaime's suggestions and guidance brought things out in the story that I hadn't thought to expand on. Since it's a memoir most of my thoughts/feelings were 'assumed' to be understood by the reader... like they should just know why I did this or that, but I needed to explain, expand, and enlighten the reader in some areas…She was thorough, diligent, sensible, and compassionate with her suggestions, and I felt like she 'heard me' when I had anything I wanted to add, delete, change or leave alone. She is a true professional, and I hope you at Tate recognize what an amazing editor you have in her…I shudder to think what the book would have been like had I put it on the shelf without her expertise and attention.”

“Amanda helped me develop action tags and was encouraging in helping me polish the manuscript. She was prompt, professional, and kind in her comments…I also learned a lot reading your blog on Stein's book. Tate's model of working with the author is refreshing and stimulating of creativity. After meeting with other authors at a conference I understand better that the publishing industry is killing itself by not listening to authors.”

“Katie knew how to suggest improvements that would make my book more marketable. I'd like to do another book, and I have already asked her if she could be my editor. We really were on the same page throughout the process…She helped me restate, add information, and cut statements in order to tie the reader better into the topic of the book. She was both an editor and a coach.”

“Both my book and my writing have improved. Making sure I don't give away any of the plot until the end and using more action tags were both helpful ideas. Also, Jaime suggested that I enhance one of the characters so the reader would know more about him…I never thought that I would want anyone to change my story, but I realize that a few great suggestions made my book even better. I appreciate all of her attention to my story.”

“Emily did a wonderful job pointing out the inconsistencies in the characterization and plot. Her insightful comments made me focus on the areas of the book that needed the most help. Walk With The Master is a much better book than before Emily's involvement.”

(Photo by Jason Lee)

Tate Publishing = Best Place to Work in Oklahoma (part 2)

2009-05-18T12:36:00.020-05:00

Last Thursday Tate Publishing was honored as one of the Best Places to Work in Oklahoma for the second year in a row. Here are some real reasons why:

The work we do is important. We believe in the power of literature to change lives. We believe our authors have important things to say, and we take each writer's message and invest our talent and resources to polish, stylize, package, and distribute it to readers worldwide with the belief that it will engage, inspire, and edify them.

Cliché but true—our employees are our best resource. We have assembled a highly talented staff here at Tate Publishing. Our performance standards are difficult to meet, and month after month they deliver—and smile while doing it. Monthly I get rave reviews from authors about their experiences in my department. We treat our employees with respect, we recognize them when they go above and beyond, their benefits are second to none, and did I mention we provide free lunches every Monday and free snacks in the breakroom? What more could a graphic designer ask for?

We have first-rate authors. We share this award with our authors because the book-publishing process is a partnership. Every day we have authors in our halls, on our phones, and in our inboxes (not to mention representing us at bookstores and events across the country). We love them all. Their voices and ideas are part of the fabric of this place, and no book would get to print without them.

Good leadership. Our Executive Staff is comprised of the most impressive and creative thinkers, leaders, and decision makers I’ve ever worked with. With luminous and diligent guidance from our President, Ryan Tate, we have achieved great heights in the last decade, and still he keeps our focus on higher ground.

Fun. Yes, it's an office, and there is work on the front burner at all times. But it's not unheard of for a football to be tossed on the front lawn during lunch time, or for one department to challenge another to a paintball war. We even have an indoor soccer team (Tatezilla!) that has helped build a sense of camaraderie among the staff. We mix it up as often as possible (Dr. Tate could make a brick wall laugh), and we've found that the laughter and positivity are infectious--they carry over into our work.

If you are one of our authors or staff members, I want to thank you for the role you play in creating such a wonderful atmosphere to work in. And if you are an outsider, I encourage you to do whatever it takes to join us.

Tate Publishing = Best Place to Work in Oklahoma

2009-05-15T11:11:00.008-05:00

Tate Publishing was honored last night for the second year in a row as one of the Best Places to Work in Oklahoma. This recognition is 100% due to our employees, so I asked a few of them what they think makes Tate such a great place to spend their days.

Stein Wrap, New Projects

2009-05-14T13:04:00.004-05:00

What is Resonance?

2009-05-06T16:29:00.021-05:00

Chapter 31, Increasing the Effect on the Reader through Resonance, argues that certain words and phrases echo with the reader more than others--hard to disagree with. The trick is pinpointing the right ones. Stein cites specifically religious imagery, historical characters, and invoking death as elements that have the ability to echo around in the reader's head. This combination brought to mind a scene in a book I worked on a few years ago, Gerard Brooker’s A Gathering of Doves:

“It was sometimes necessary for a man to measure himself, make a difficult decision, and move on. Most notable in his mind was Harry Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, though he was certain thousands of innocent people would die in flashes of bottled lightning. Truman would mention later that he never lost a minute of sleep over his decision. Nimer wanted to be like that.”

This example sums up the resonance idea for me. I think this is also the reason historical novels do so well—the reader already has a sense of the setting and characters before she jumps into a new book, so it’s not a completely foreign land you’re asking her to retreat to.

I find aphorisms (uncommon/invented sayings) very enjoyable and resonant as well. I've actually pulled one of Stein's examples (from the excellent The Best Revenge) out of its literary context and I share it with my leadership team often: “The best way to move is like a duck--calm on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath.” These take time and reflection to create, but they are very worthy tools.

What are your favorite examples of resonance?

In Chapter 32, Triage: A Better Way of Revising Fiction, Stein again highlights the importance of rewriting, emphasizing it as the real job of a writer. He suggests three primary areas to address in your revisions: Characters, Weak Scenes, and Motivations. As editors, we found little to disagree with in this chapter. What did you think?

In Chapter 35, A Final Word, Stein lists his Ten Commandments for Writers. These two resonated the most with us:

6: "Thou shalt infect thy reader with anxiety, stress, and tension, for those conditions that he deplores in life he relishes in fiction."
10: "Thou shalt not vent thy emotions onto the reader, for thy duty is to evoke the reader's emotions, and in that most of all lies the art of the writer."

Which one did you take to heart?

I’ve been through Stein on Writing five times now, and the scene that sticks in my mind more than any other is in Chapter 12, "How to Show Instead of Tell," where see the mother's love and concern for her children rather than listening to the narrator tell us about it.

What is the one illustration/chapter/technique that has stuck with you?

Hustling

2009-05-01T16:16:00.004-05:00

Happy May Day. I'm hustling right now, wrapping up my Jackie Robinson book. Should have our final Stein blog up Monday. What are your thoughts on chapters 31-35 regarding resonance and revision?

"If You Catch an Adjective, Kill It" + What Makes a Good Book Title?

2009-04-22T10:11:00.068-05:00

During week eight of our Tate Publishing W inter '09 Book Club, we discussed chapters 21 and 23 of Stein on Writing.

Chapter 21, "Liposuctioning Flab," takes issue with adjectives and adverbs, asserting that the most writers use them in excess. We can all agree that very, quite, and truly are superfluous, but which ones should we use? Which are most effective? Stein outlines some criteria for determining which adjectives to keep:

An adjective that is a necessity. Example: “His right eye kept blinking.” If you didn’t keep “right,” it might sound as if you were talking about a one-eyed man.
An adjective that stimulates the reader’s curiosity and thereby helps move a story along. Example: “He had a pursued look” wouldn’t work without the adjective. Moreover, the adjective raises curiosity about why he had that pursued look.
An adjective that helps the reader visualize the precise image you want to project. “The spoon left a line of froth on his sad mustache.” Without “sad,” the line is merely descriptive. With “sad” it characterizes both the person described and, by inference, the speaker.

Other examples of better adjective choices:

“He was a strong warrior” versus “He was a resourceful warrior.”

“What a lovely, colorful garden!” versus “What a curious garden!”

In both of these examples the former is implied and bland, while the latter piques our curiosity.

We didn’t agree with this entire chapter, however. Some of the illustrations in the second half seemed to take away from author/character voice unnecessarily (e.g. the “Buster” example). What did you think?

---

Admit it--you're intrigued. You'd probably pick this book up for closer inspection if you saw it in a bookstore. My editing group found Chapter 23, "The Door to Your Book," especially resonant. We frequently work with skilled authors who have crafted captivating manuscripts but have titles that put us—and the bookstore browser—to sleep. We’ve seen jewels like Lessons Learned, True Story, My Story, Becky’s Story, and Blessed. Those titles may work if the cover also includes words like Tom Clancy, Don DeLillo, or Stephen King, but the lesser-known author needs every advantage to compete, and the title is a conspicuous place to achieve one.

If you are not good at coming up with creative titles, read this chapter. If you are still not good at it, don’t worry; Stein points out that some of the best writers in modern history were bad titlers. If you are Tate author, you have Title Storm to save the day.

What makes a good book title? Arguably the same thing that makes a good sentence, a good paragraph, a good character, or plot—intrigue and resonance. Consider the following infamous first efforts and their ultimate titles:

The Battle of Schmidt became Follow Me and Die: The Destruction of an American Devision in WWII.

As Others Are became A Farewell to Arms.

Twilight became The Sound and the Fury. (Now we know he may have picked incorrectly…though I still prefer the latter.)

Hurrah for the Red White and Blue became The Great Gatsby.

Here are some things to ask about your title:

1. Does it sound fresh and orginal?
2. Does it, like a metaphor, bring together two things that haven't been together before?
3. Can you use the name of the principle character in an interesting context?

The point to remember is that the primary function of a title is not to convey meaning as much as to sound enticing and exude resonance.

Question of the week: What's the title of the book you're reading, writing, or editing right now?

Join us next week for our final Stein discussion. We'll be chewing on chapters 31-33, and 35.

Color Splash and Marketing Articles

2009-04-16T11:12:00.014-05:00

Working on some site upgrades. Let me know what you think of the new color palette. Should be up and running with more Stein tips by next Tuesday. In the meantime browse my archives or check out these articles on ways to bolster your writing career:

How Do I Build a Platform for My Non-fiction Book?

Fiction Writers Need Platforms, Too!

How Can I Find My Online Niche?

How Should a Writer Approach Blogging?

Can I Get On Oprah?

Tate Publishing Book Club: How Much Description is Enough?

2009-04-07T15:36:00.031-05:00

During week seven of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club we discussed chapters 15, 19, and 20 of Stein on Writing. Highlights:

15: The Keys to Credibility

“The writer has a natural tendency to act as we all do in life—that is, we question the motivations of others more often than we do our own. When creating fiction, those characters are ourselves, and we cover for them.” A protagonists is always a reflection of his author; the good ones just mask it better. Question, question, question all of your characters’ motivations—and especially your protagonist’s.

“Coincidence is enchanting when it happens in life, but when it happens in a story the reader would say the author is responsible and it isn’t believable.” Beware of resolving your characters’ predicaments too easily. The climax must be worth the time the reader has invested up to that point.

19: Creating the Envelope

“The writer is urged to be specific, particular, concrete…but when the inexperienced writer gives the reader detail on character, clothing, settings, and actions, he tends to give a surfeit, robbing the reader of one of the great pleasures of reading: exercising the imagination.”

Indeed, it takes great skill and practice to give just enough detail to stimulate the reader’s mind. Stein cites a brilliant example in the first paragraph of The Road to Wigan Pier. Read this scene, and note the images and colors that come to your mind though they are not actually spoken:

The first sound in the mornings was the clumping of the mill-girls’ clogs down the cobbled street. Earlier than that, I suppose, there were factory whistles which I was never awake to hear.

What color is the sky? Gray? Do you see smokestacks, emitting black smoke? Tall, narrow buildings? Is it foggy out? That’s the magic words have to stimulate our imaginations. “A picture is worth a thousand words” says the Chinese proverb. I say a good writer can do it in forty.

20: Amphetamines for Speeding up Pace

Short sentences and frequent paragraphing are two of the simplest techniques to stepping up pace, and ones I’ve encouraged many authors to utilize. If your manuscript consists primarily of 3-7 sentence paragraphs, what better way to pick up speed at the right moment and increase tension than laying down several short, one-sentence paragraphs?

“He washed his body, shaved his jaws, drank his coffee, and missed the seven-thirty-one.” There were more than four steps to this character’s morning routine, but Cheever trimmed it down to the most visual and carried them out in one sentence. He picked the right ones.

“In life, you might leave your apartment, go down the stairs and out into the street, get into your car, drive to your destination, and enter a restaurant.” Your characters may perform the same action, but reading this in a book would be dreadfully boring. Look for unimportant scenes that you can skip; your reader will follow and won’t care how the character got from the apartment to the restaurant, just that he’s there to have the encounter.

Join us next week Join us next week for chapters 21, "Liposuctioning Flab," and 23, "The Door to Your Book: Titles that Attract."

Dialogue Tips + What's the Difference Between Showing and Telling?

2009-03-30T11:57:00.052-05:00

During week six of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed chapters 11-12 of Stein on Writing. Highlights:

Chapter 11: The Secrets of Good Dialogue

“Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes.” Stein claims that dialogue is an invented language and wholly different from actual speech. Do you agree? If so, how would you describe this new language to someone unfamiliar with writing? How would you differentiate it from everyday speech?

“We expect direct questions to be answered." In writing, Stein says, direct questions require oblique answers. This is another form of creating suspense, which we discussed in chapter 9. If a character asks a direct question, the reader’s initial response is to want it answered. But as writers we should strive to avoid answering immediately—and thereby prolong the suspense, leaving the question hanging in the air. Notice the difference:

SHE: "How are you?"

HE: "I'm fine. How are you?"

SHE: "Good. And the family?"

HE: "The family is great. Everybody's well."

versus

SHE: "How are you?"

HE: "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."
SHE: "Is anything wrong?"

HE: "No, no, absolutely not. I just didn't see you."

(Note: The second question is answered, but we don't believe the speaker.)

Four things to ask about your dialogue:

1. What is the purpose of this exchange? Does it begin or heighten an existing conflict?
2. Does it stimulate the reader’s curiosity?
3. Does it exchange create tension?
4. Does the dialogue build to a climax or a turn of events in the story, or a change in relationship of the speakers?

Chapter 12: Show Instead of Tell

The example that illustrates this principle the clearest to me is the doting mother. Your protagonist is frequently a virtuous character, and it is tempting to tell the audience this directly. But it is much more interesting and convincing when you show:

Telling: Hellen was a wonderful woman, always worried about her children, Charlie and Ginny.

Showing: When Helen drove her kids to school, instead of dropping them off at the curb, she parked her car and, one hand for each of them, accompanied Charlie and Ginny to the door of the school.

He took a walk tells.
He walked four blocks begins to show.
He walked four block slowly shows more clearly.
He walked the four blocks as if it were the last mile shows more by giving the reader a sense of the character’s feelings.
He walked as if against an unseen wind, hoping someone would stop him shows most of all because it gives the reader a sense of what the character desperately wants.

There are three areas in which the writer is especially vulnerable to telling rather than showing:

1. When he tells what happened before the story began
2. When he tells what a character looks like
3. When he tells what a character senses

Be on guard!

Writers, what's your favorite dialogue exchange in your current project?

Tate Publishing Book Club: Suspense and Tension

2009-03-16T12:03:00.028-05:00

During week five of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed chapters 9-10 of Stein on Writing. Highlights:

Ch 9 Suspense: Keeping the Reader Reading

“The writer’s duty is to set up something that cries for resolution and then to act irresponsibly, to dance away from the reader’s problem…prolonging and exacerbating the reader’s desperate need for resolution.” This is one of my favorite sentences in the book. Your job as a writer is incredibly unique. It is different from that of a lawyer, a mechanic, a businessman. You are the opposite of a doctor. Your job is to create tension, stress, and pain,* and wait as long as possible to resolve it. (For your characters, not your editor.) The best kind of gratification? Delayed—always look to put off what the hero and/or the reader want to happen (or don’t want to happen).

“One of the most common complaints heard from editors is a novel ‘sags in the middle.’” Tate Publishing editors are instructed to keep a close eye on when their interest begins to wane in a book. Acting as the representative for the reader, they are to alert the author to this problem and suggest possible antidotes. Stein’s remedy for this is to hop locations/story lines and/or consider opening up new strands of conflict with secondary characters. That is not a bad way to deal with it.

“If you eliminate your weakest scene, you will strengthen your book…You are not a scene preserver.” No, you are a writer, whose goal is to sell books. Oh for writers to come into the editing process understanding this principle. We meet a lot of resistance, and understandably so, when we suggest trimming fat, but we are working to create lean, strong stories that give more weight to every scene and every word, stories that meet the modern reader where he or she is.

Ch 10 The Adrenaline Pump: Creating Tension

“The most important moment of tension in a novel is its first use, which should be as close to the beginning as possible. It puts the writer in charge of the reader’s emotions.” And that is the place you want to get and stay. Stein continues to emphasize that in modern literature you must hook the reader quickly. Recall our discussion in chapter 2 about “starting the engine” of your book on the first page, in the first sentence if possible.

Question of the week: In chapter 9 Stein says that most readers can’t articulate what keeps them reading a particular work. What was the last book you couldn’t put down—and why couldn’t you do so?

Join us next week for chapters 11, "The Secrets of Good Dialogue," and 12, "How to Show Instead of Tell."

Tate Publishing Book Club: Character Motivation and Plotting

2009-03-09T11:40:00.026-05:00

During week four of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed chapters six and seven of Stein on Writing. Highlights:

Chapter 6: “Thwarting Desire: The Basics of Plotting”

• "If your character doesn’t want anything badly enough, readers will have a hard time rooting for him to attain his goal, which is what compels readers to continue reading." Launching from his premise that characters, and not necessarily plot, drive novels, Stein begins to elaborate on some of the dynamics of character. His first piece of advice: they must want something. Hard to disagree--I've seen more than my share of passive protagonists. (I'm talking to you, McCarthy and Salinger.)

• "What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to you right now?" This is an interesting technique for sure, but one that can help your writing if your characters' lives are running a little too smoothly. A word of caution--the event must fit the genre of the book (e.g. getting abducted by aliens would most likely not work in a political thriller). Someone suggested that the author make a list of dramatic events and find the one that would fit the genre and still surprise the reader and create an obstacle.

• "Look at each important incident in your plot and see what you would normally expect to happen next. Then have the exact opposite happen." There are some great tips in the bullet points on page 87, and our favorite was the observation about surprises. No matter your subject, unpredictability is crucial to keeping your audience engaged. They love to guess what's coming next, but oddly enough, they also love to be wrong--in other words, to be surprised. This is where Lost came up in our discussion (not for the first time), and specifically the intense and stupefying hotel scene two weeks ago between John Locke and Ben Linus. Check out the show for an example of great characters.

Chapter 7: "The Actors Studio Method for Developing Drama"

After name dropping for a page and half, he got to the meat of the chapter: "In life, each of us enters in to conversation with another person with a script that is different from the other person’s. The frequent result is disagreement and conflict--disagreeable in life and invaluable in writing."

Have you ever used this "different scripts" technique? Have you ever seen it at play in other books/media?

Join us next week for chapters 8, "The Crucible," 9, "Suspense," and 10, "The Adrenaline Pump." Three short ones that pack a lot of punch.

Stories Thrive on Surprises

2009-03-07T07:36:00.016-06:00

Great Stein discussion at the Tate Publishing office yesterday about chapters 6-7. Hot topics included Lost (great writing, despite the down week last week), Mary Higgins Clark, and the pros and cons of the Actors Studio Method. Notes to follow. What did you think?

Tate Publishing Book Club: Competing with God: Making Fascinating People

2009-02-24T15:09:00.025-06:00

During week three of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed chapter four of Stein on Writing: “Competing with God: Making Fascinating People." Here the highlights:

“We need to know the people in the car before we see the crash.” In this chapter Stein makes the case that characters are the most important element of story. Some in our group disagreed, making the salient point that without a plot characters are fruitless and have no stage upon which to reveal themselves and their depth. The point was also made that most readers pick up books based on genres they enjoy, and in most cases genre is related to plot. What are your thoughts?

“A writer’s characterization must elicit emotion from a wide variety of readers without fail.” What’s the difference between describing and characterizing? Stein says characterizing tells us something about a character’s appearance and personality, while description tells us their appearance but reveals little else. There are several good examples in this chapter of characterizing through action, with exaggeration, with physical attributes, and through dialogue.

“If there is a common error among inexperienced writers, it’s that they say too much, they try to characterize with an excess of detail instead of trying to find the word or phrase that characterizes best.” We all agreed that word choice is critical, especially in the modern age, when readers aren’t patient enough to wade through a lot of scene and character description. C.S. Lewis said, “Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.”

“In life we see people passing in a stream and can only make quick generalizations. That man is tall, that woman is skinny. How does a writer deal with similar facts?” Telling me a character is 5’9” or even 6’7” does little to give me a good image. Statistics are best reserved your excel sheets. Be a writer. Editors and reader crave unique, fresh description—characterization—of characters. I would encourage you to see how many different ways you can describe a character’s height, or way of walking, or eye color. Play with metaphors and similes until you find one that matches the character just right.

“Does he treat all people the same? If he had a reason to shout, what would he say? Is there discrepancy between what he thinks and how he speaks?” These are just a few of the fantastic questions Stein suggests we ask about our characters (page 60).

“Readers want to meet interesting people, extraordinary people, preferably people different from anyone they’ve met before in or out of fiction.” Stein finds eccentricities in characters of major importance, and this gets back to what I mentioned before—readers crave new things, different things, things we haven’t seen before, especially when they involve the complexity of human nature.

How have you seen these principles at play in your writing? What did you think of Stein’s advice on heroes and villains?

Stein Chapter 4

2009-02-16T16:17:00.009-06:00

I had an unexpected disruption last week, and we were unable to hold our staff book club. We will get back on the horse this Friday with chapter 4, "Competing with God." I hope you can join us.

It's great to see so many of you joining the discussion online. We love reading your thoughts and diverse experiences with these principles. Here are some insights I received from our newest member, B.J.:

...it it is obviously important to consider the reader's motivation and expectations in selecting a book to read. To invest one's time in reading is a commitment that should be rewarded with something important, educational, motivational, entertaining or at least humorous. Using Stein's definition of fiction, and non-fiction, I think any or all of those elements can be included in either category. I really like the concept of evoking emotion in fiction. Providing a superior experience to what the reader normally encounters (escapism), is a beautiful thing and I hope that Stein on Writing will help me to build on my limited skills.

I also found the comments on insight interesting. Stein talks about providing insight but I find it more interesting to think of it as enabling insight. By inserting subtle premise along the way a reader can be allowed to reach a conclusion of his own. The writer then has the option of confirming the reader's correct perception and insight or revealing that he has been misled with false premise.

Another staement I enjoyed was, "Ten seconds of boredom breaks an hour long spell." I enjoy reading Patricia Cornwell occasionally but I find the flow of the book disrupted when she stops to describe the nap of the carpet, the pattern of the wallpaper, and the texture of the drapes. A small criticism but it illustrated Stein's point for me.

How Important Is Your First Sentence? + Capturing the Modern Reader

2009-02-09T14:25:00.019-06:00

During week two of our Tate Publishing Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed chapters two and three of Stein on Writing. Here the highlights:

Chapter 2: “Come Right In: First Sentences, First Paragraphs”

• How early do you need to hook your reader? Our editing staff performed a people-watching exercise recently at Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City, and we noted predictable results—it doesn’t take a book browser more than a few pages to decide whether or not to buy. The hooking power of your first chapter, first paragraph, first sentence is paramount to getting your book read.

• What are the ideal goals of the opening paragraph? According to Stein, they are to 1. excite the reader’s curiosity, preferably about a character or relationship, 2. introduce a setting, and 3. lend resonance to the story. Though not easy to execute, these are simple principles, and they are fundamental to hooking a potential reader.

• Reread the first sentence of your favorite book. Stein gives several excellent examples in a variety of genres that illustrate his point about the early hook. (I received some great responses as well in last week's comments.) Many times the scenes painted were typical, but the authors incorporated eccentricities or omens to stimulate the reader's mind. These were often included at the end of paragraphs as a way to add mystery and thrust the reader into next paragraph.

• Ask 2 questions about your first sentence: Does it convey an interesting personality or an action that we want to know more about? Can you make it more intriguing by introducing something unusual, something shocking perhaps, or something that will surprise the reader?

• Calling out lay writers: "The craft of creative writing is at least as complex as the craft of science. You wouldn’t want a layman walking into a hospital operating theater to deliver a child. Nor would you want a layman to design the next airplane your travel in. But writing? Can’t everybody do it?” The rhetorical answer is no. No, because not everyone has the will to study the craft, to work at it, to revise and rewrite and revise again. But these define writing much more than putting words on a page.

Chapter 3: “Welcome to the Twentieth Century”

• We must be creatures of our time. Often writers think that to become a classic their work must emulate the 19th-century classics they read in school. However, for a book to survive and keep modern readers’ attention, it needs to move at the pace of the modern world. There are countless distractions vying for our readers’ time, and so we must be constantly conscious of pace. We must describe our settings succinctly, with as few adjectives as possible, and surround these descriptions with action.

• What are the three forms of fiction? Description, narrative summary, and immediate scenes. And which should comprise the majority of your book? Immediate scenes—a vast majority.

How can you apply these principles to your writing? What is the first sentence of your book?

This Friday, February 13, we will be discussing Chapter 4, "Competing with God: Making Fascinating People." Grab a book and join us! At the end of the session I'll be giving away FREE BOOKS for all online participants!

Writing a Book: The First Sentence

2009-02-06T14:39:00.024-06:00

Great Stein discussion today. I’ll post my notes Monday, but I want to leave you with a question:

What is the first sentence of the book you’re reading/writing/editing right now?

Type it into the comments section below! Here are a few enticing ones from books I just grabbed from my shelf:

“It was a death that began it all and another death that led us on.” (Morality Play by Barry Unsworth)

"You know it’s a new world when even the spit wad undergoes a technological revolution.” (Call of Duty by Cliff Graham)

"Tomorrow never came." (Tomorrow by Jeral Davis)

P.S. Did you catch the grammatical error in this week’s reading? (hint: page 25)

Tate Publishing Book Club: The Writer's Job

2009-01-27T14:29:00.016-06:00

During week one of our Winter '09 Staff Book Club, we discussed Chapter One of Stein on Writing, “The Writer’s Job May Be Different Than You Think,” in which Stein lays out several foundational principles. Here are the highlights:

• The Writer’s Job. According to Stein, the storytelling writer (fiction or nonfiction) has one job: “to provide the reader with an experience that is superior to the experiences the reader encounters in everyday life.” Far too often writers’ intentions are self-serving. I frequently hear phrases like “I am expressing myself,” “I have something to say,” “I want to be loved by readers,” or “I need money.” While these are the occasional outcomes of having the correct intention, they do a disservice to the writing and the reader if they are the intention.

• Words at Work. A suggestion for the writer: Have a friend read passages of your book aloud to you in a monotone voice. This exercise is to make certain the words are enough to give vitality to the story—not merely the inflections you superimpose as you read your work. This will especially help root out clichéd phrases.

• Eye of the Writer. The writer must view things in a different light than most folks. He must inhale everything he sees in life and process it later, pen in hand, as he looks to give pertinent, visual, poignant details to his prose. These observations on seemingly small events bring richness to your text and expose the subtleties of life that are glazed over by most. One of the most beautiful things about prose is its ability to reveal what is there but not always seen by the naked eye.

• Consider Your Reader. Reading should be pleasurable for both partners—the writer and reader—but often the reader is neglected. We discussed Stein’s example of love letters, where we writers “are trying to communicate how we feel and not necessarily trying to evoke an emotion in the recipient, though that might be better suited to our purpose.”

How can you apply these principles to your writing?

On February 6 we will be discussing Chapter 2, "Come Right in: First Sentences, First Paragraphs," and Chapter 3, "Welcome to the Twentieth Century." Grab a book and join us! At the end of the session I'll be giving away FREE BOOKS for all online participants!

Tate Publishing Winter Book Club: Stein on Writing

2009-01-22T16:27:00.019-06:00

Have you noticed there are a lot of good “Steins” out there? There’s the jazz guitarist John Stein, actor/economist/author Ben Stein, engaging multi-national columnist Mark Steyn, even the Germans make a nice stein.

Of all these, the most influential in my career has been Sol Stein. Sol is a teacher, editor, and author of numerous books, culminating in his fantastic thesis on the craft: Stein on Writing. This is one of the best, most concise guides to modern writing I’ve come across, and needless to say I highly recommend you aspiring writers pick this book up.

At Tate Publishing we have ongoing staff book clubs as a part of our training and development program. This winter I’m leading a group through Stein on Writing, and I invite you to join in with us!

This week we’ll be discussing chapter one: “The Writer’s Job May Be Different Than You Think.” I’ll post the notes from these sessions and some video of our discussions. You're welcome to read along and post comments here or shoot me an email with your questions or insights. At the end of the session, I'll be giving away FREE BOOKS for all online participants!

Finding Your Niche; Exciting Your Base

2009-01-18T19:17:00.007-06:00

I've been doing a lot of reading about social media and marketing and wanted to share some of the good stuff with you authors:

Kevin Kelly's The 1,000 True Fans Theory

Gary Vaynerchuck on niche marketing and life as a successful ZZZ-list celebrity

Tribes by Seth Godin. Just finished this excellent book. I'll post my notes and thoughts momentarily.

Writing Tips from 24

2009-01-12T00:24:00.009-06:00

"Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas."

I’m not typically a fan of shoot-em-up fare, but 24 has been one of my favorite shows this decade. The characters are conflicted and well played and there is nonstop suspense. It’s never boring and rarely if ever predictable. I hope you watched the season 7 premiere last night. If you’re new to the show, I’d recommend starting at the beginning with season 1, but with a fair warning: you won’t be able to stop there.

As I was watching Jack B do his thing last night, a few techniques stuck out to me that aspiring writers can glean from the show’s writers:

1. Pulsating Suspense. The viewer is always wondering about something. There is always at least one issue in need of resolution (and usually four or five). Any time one national security crisis is averted in hour ten, another—one even more heinous—is discovered and must be stopped.

As a writer, you want to present a question or an obstacle in your protagonist’s path as early in your book as possible, and from then on always have one present in the story. Your reader loves to play the guessing game of who did what and how. You can reward them infrequently with resolution to minor issues, but at bare minimum the umbrella question of your book needs to remain unresolved until the climax.

2. Scene Shifts. How many times have you cringed because the the 24 clock is ticking and taking you away from a cliffhanger? This technique could help pick up the pace and increase the tension in a lot of fiction I read. Rather than following your protagonist from work to the gym, home, and then to dinner, try leaving him in a compromised position; maybe he was rear-ended on the freeway or he lost an important document at work, any conflict that the audience will want resolved. Then abruptly shift to another scene to develop a subplot with secondary characters or your antagonist. (This of course assumes you’re writing in third person.) If you’ve done a good job with your protagonist and the audience sympathizes with him, they will keep reading because they'll want to get back and find out how he resolves his conundrum. Toy with your scenes and see how you can create some tension by switching them around.

3. Sharp Dialogue: For the most part, there are no wasted words in 24. Notice that the characters exchange minimal greetings. You can count on one hand the number of times you hear “hello,” “goodbye,” “nice to meet you,” or “how are you?” per episode. And if one of these greetings is given, it certainly isn’t echoed. Why? These are words readers hear and say every day, cliché’s of sorts, and they don’t want to waste time reading them. In stories (fiction and nonfiction), readers want something different, something more intriguing than their everyday experiences. Compare:

“Hi, Jamey. How are you?” asked Nina.
“Hi. I’m fine. How’s the new job?”
"It’s going well so far. I want you to meet my friend Tony.”
“Nice to meet you, Tony.”
“The pleasure’s all mine, Jamey.”
"So, what's this all about?"

Boooring. Six lines and we’ve learned that Nina has a new job and a friend named Tony—but we don’t care, because they seem like nice, uninteresting people and the story is creeping along, not really holding our interest. Now let's trim some fat:

“Hi, Jamey,” said Nina.
“What's this all about?”
“Why don't you tell us? This is Tony.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Who did you just call in the bathroom?”

Six lines and we’ve got conflict, we’re interested, we want to know who Jamey called, why Tony and Nina are upset, and which one of them is a bad guy. Notice that Jamey doesn’t repeat the “Hi” and ignores the introduction of Tony, and the story moves along at a better pace.

Look for these surplus words, this small talk, in your writing, and aim to weed it out. You'll find that most pleasantries can and should be ignored so that the narrative (and the conflict!) can unfold.

If you’re watching the second half of the premiere tonight, look for these elements and let me know what you see!

Timesaver: Google Reader

2009-01-06T16:26:00.005-06:00

A few months ago I found a brilliant timesaver: Google Reader. I just checked and I currently follow 34 different blogs. Could you imagine the time I’d spend clicking around to those different sites, even if they were bookmarked? With Google Reader they’re all filtered right to my igoogle homepage any time they update. And if they don’t update, I don’t have to go to the site and be disappointed.

Here's the the 50-second introduction video. Check this tool out and save yourself some time.

Writing a book: The Power of a Paragraph Break

2009-01-04T22:01:00.017-06:00

“The paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing—the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words." Stephen King

Paragraph breaks are ideal spots to insert mini-rollercoasters of suspense into your story. I delight in my reading experience when I have to take a breath to savor a sentence, or pause to consider what I've just read, or even compose myself before reading the next paragraph. (This is one of the reasons I prefer books to movies as a medium—in movies there is no time to relish a scene because another is thrust upon you before you can blink.) You want examples? I've got examples.

Yann Martel is excellent at this tecnhnique:

...It landed with a loud crash and started thwacking about with such thunder that I was afraid it would demolish the boat. Richard Parker was startled. He attacked immediately.
--
...He needed only the shortest of lunges to be on top of me. But I held my stare.
--
...I felt the only choice left to me was death by water or death by animal. I chose death by animal.

In the context of the book, you read sentences like these and then wait with bated breath as your eyes scan the space to the right, two opposite emotions gripping you: reluctance to begin the next paragraph and yet eager anticipation to find out what happens next.

Quiz time. Here is a paragraph from an aspiring writer:

He recognizes all of the officers present: Deputy Mike Simmons, Sergeant Jim Lammers, Deputies Mike Even and Lenny Walker, and his boss, Sheriff Daryl Wolff. Lying on the side of the road is the lifeless body of a young white male. The body is dressed all in black, black shoes, black trousers and a shiny black jacket zipped to the neck, his clothes relatively neat and un-rumpled, his shoes still on.

Would you suggest a paragraph break here? If so, where?

Here's what I suggested:

He recognizes all of the officers present: Deputy Mike Simmons, Sergeant Jim Lammers, Deputies Mike Even and Lenny Walker, and his boss, Sheriff Daryl Wolff. Lying on the side of the road is the lifeless body of a young white male. *

The body is dressed all in black, black shoes, black trousers and a shiny black jacket zipped to the neck, his clothes relatively neat and un-rumpled, his shoes still on.

(*Note: Very good jarring sentence. I suggest a paragraph break here. This will allow the gravity of the scene to resonate with the reader for a second or two longer, and then in the next paragraph we can reveal more about the body.)

New Year, New Books!

2009-01-02T11:59:00.014-06:00

The January editing schedules are out and we've got some intriguing titles on our desks this month, including Walking on Mountains, the true story of a man who backpacked the Appalachain Trail from Georgia to Maine; Chinatized, a humorous travelogue about culture shock and its effect on an expatriate; and Ace Rivals, a historical tale about WWII fighter pilots.

We've also got dozens of new company projects we're itching to get into.

Also, for you authors, check out this interview of Penguin author Gary Moore about self-promotion. Loaded with good tips. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T09:24:00.006-06:00

(courtesy: thelee's photostream)

Here's to loads of reading time!

Publishing a Book: Social Networking

2008-12-17T22:05:00.020-06:00

It’s a busy time of the year at Tate Publishing. Everyone is working feverishly to wrap up end-of-the-year projects and get books ready for Christmas.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the value of social networking and specifically how it relates to books and retail. The Internet is where an incredible amount of business is getting done nowadays, and we believe it is our job as a company to engage and take advantage of the incredible opportunities it presents us.

And so should authors. When you publish a book, you open your own business. If you are a Tate Publishing author, you know that our marketing department does incredible work garnering media interest and getting you events at bookstores and niche locations—platforms where you and your book can shine. As the author of the product, you also have it in your power to create an online platform and engage customers even more directly. We're going to start some initiatives in the near future at Tate Publishing to help our authors create a brand and take advantage of the online community more than ever before. I’ll share more about this in future posts.

If you are an author, one of the first things I would encourage you to do is start a blog and write. Your book can only hold so much in its frame, and there are many things you can write about that will create interest in you and your story. You can write about your inspiration for the book, your relationship to your characters, your favorite books, post short stories, anything that might engage people. It’s not as difficult as you might think. The service I use, Blogger, offers a very simple system and you can set one up in literally five minutes. (If you do, be sure to send me your link!)

Another thing you can do is join Facebook or another other social networking site. This is something I’ve done recently, and it's amazing how many people (read: potential readers!) you can connect with in a short amount of time.

Further reading:

Guardian Books Blog

Tate Authors: Book Trailers

Tate Authors: Down Time

50 Useful Google Apps for Writers

Life of Pi Reviewed

2008-12-14T23:54:00.013-06:00

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

My review on GoodReads

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very enjoyable read. It’s one of those fiction-posing-as-nonfiction (or vise versa) types, sort of left up to the reader to decide the story's veracity. Told in first-person, the tale unfolds in three parts, and the symmetry is appropriate.

There is some unique author intrusion into the first section of the story that I could have done without, but the period spent on the lifeboat—part two—is captivating and told in such rich detail and logic that I found it all remarkably plausible. Martel does an excellent job balancing action with thorough-yet-succinct detail and weaves the philosophy of religion into the narrative in a refreshing way. While the ending is unconventional, I found it satisfying. 4 out of 5 stars.

On a side note, I read an interview with the author, and he hit on something I constantly harp on with my nonfiction writers—using the elements of fiction in nonfiction:

"I meet a number of people who say 'Oh, I don't read much fiction,' as if the history of the United States, just as an example, isn't an exercise in storytelling. U.S. history is not just a series of flat facts: 'George Washington was the first president. John Adams was the second.' That's not it. The history of the United States fleshes those out in ways that are necessarily ways of storytelling."

View all my reviews.

Best Books We Read in 2008

2008-12-09T13:48:00.010-06:00

I read primarily on recommendation, so I recently polled our editing staff to find out the best books they read in 2008. Here’s the short list of what we liked:

Fiction
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (KK)
All in God’s Time by Deborah Lynne (LD)
Austenland by Shannon Hale (LD)
The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum (JS)
The Power of a Penny by Sherrie Christenson. (HT)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini (BP)
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (KM)
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (CW)
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edward (AR)
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh (AR)

Nonfiction
Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (JM)
Marley and Me by John Grogan (EW)
No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu (AM)
The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes (CW)
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp (MB)
African Adventures by Brenda Lange (MB)

What's the best book you read this year?

Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions (Dec)

2008-12-05T15:08:00.006-06:00

Every month I send surveys to the Tate Publishing authors who have completed the editing process and are moving on to our design department. 95% of the responses I receive are encouraging and complimentary of our staff. The other 5% are what I consider when we look to develop our staff or make tweaks to our procedures. Below are a few of this month's responses:

“Not only was my book improved, but Jaime’s comments helped me to improve as a writer and storyteller as well. Overall, her work was excellent, professional, and indicated her personal involvement and commitment to the project. I have enjoyed the experience as a first-time author and have learned much.”

“The final product is much easier to read and more coherent. I hope to get Katie on my following books. She not only was professional but had a great concern with the content and flow of the book.”

“Audra was great. She helped fix all the tenses in the book, made it more consistent, and let me know where things could be clearer. This was great for me since the only people who had read it before all knew me, and therefore knew my stories and had a frame of reference. I had been worried that an ‘outsider’ reading it wouldn’t necessarily understand, so Audra was excellent in helping shape it up.”

“Jaimie made the process simple and an absolute pleasure. Her suggestions made the book so much more alive (I took ALL of her excellent suggestions). I am far from ‘computer literate.’ She explained the process of editing and making 20 corrections/deletions in a way a child would have understood. She treated me with dignity and respect for the book's content. Thank you for having such a wonderful staff! Tell Jaime I said "hello!" She became, in a way, a friend I could trust with what is so close to my heart -- my book!”

“Since I have never done this before, I was clueless as to what to do in order to make my book a more professional project that would enhance its chances for success. Meghan offered valuable guidance. It has been a blessing to me the way she and the entire Tate staff have taken a hands-on approach and given me cause to believe that this book will be a success.”

Hook and Jab

2008-12-03T00:28:00.020-06:00

It’s cold in Oklahoma. I promise myself every year I’m going to put up the Christmas lights before Thanksgiving—before the bitter north winds sweep down and I spend a painful hour shivering up on the ladder. Alas, I’ve procrastinated again, and last night was my night of penance. I’ve made a new year’s resolution to get them up in August next year.

Recently I’ve been working on an incredible story of a man’s battle to recover from a traumatic brain injury, or “TBI.” TBI victims never recover fully, and that this man has written a book about his experience is a miracle. I’ll share more about the book in future posts, but I want to point out a couple of writing tools he employs with great success:

1. Hook your reader ASAP. He begins the book with a scene that both grabs the reader and gets the plot rolling. By page two I wanted to know how the main character could have committed such an act, what the outcome of the conflict was, and to what extent the author's brain was damaged. In other words, I was hooked.

Less experienced writers have a tendency to begin a book like they would an academic paper—giving the reader background information, perhaps even stating a thesis. Leave these habits in English Comp. Action, a precarious predicament, a problem or mystery to be solved—these are things that grab readers and keep them reading. The hook has been widely written on, and rightly so; it is a fundamental tool for all forms of writing.

In a book, you have plenty of room to give background information and set the context for your story once you’ve hooked your readers. But if you don’t hook them, they never get there. I often suggest that my writers look for active (sometimes even climactic) scenes in the second half of their books that they can transplant, at least partially, to chapter one, page one. These scenes can always be revisited at the appropriate time after the full context has been laid.

2. Jab your reader with a surprise. This author includes the most interesting surprises. At one point he tells his family he's going to work, and they believe him, as did I the reader. However, he abruptly checks out of work early and goes to visit the antagonist—the very individual who caused his brain injury and subsequent years of suffering. What began as a typical day just became very interesting because he introduced a conflict.

Readers love to predict what’s going to happen next in your book; but unlike in real life, they also love to be wrong. Surprises reward your reader for continuing on the journey.

Note that these elements can be applied to both fiction and nonfiction.

Keep writing!

387 Years later

2008-11-26T10:27:00.002-06:00

It’s been a fast and furious November here at Tate Publishing, with the fewest working days we’ve had in several months. With the holiday quickly approaching, everyone is working feverishly to wrap up projects and of course get books ready for the Christmas sales push (economy, schmeconomy).

To all of you from all of us at Tate Editing, have a Happy Thanksgiving. I'll leave you with some quick facts to impress your brother-in-law with:

The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The guests: the first Pilgrims and the local Wampanoag Indian tribe.

The first Thanksgiving lasted 3 days.

Acceptable table manners at the first Thanksgiving included eating with your hands, spitting on the floor, and throwing your bones in the hearth.

Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving—on the second Monday in October.

Tate Publishing: Meet the Staff

2008-11-13T21:53:00.013-06:00

One of the things I want to do with On Writing is bring you a little closer to the talented individuals who make the magic happen every day here in our Tate Publishing offices.

Over the next few months I’ll be interviewing members of our editing staff to give you a feel for their personalities and get their thoughts on good writing. My first interview is Associate Executive Editor Kylie Lyons:

1. How long have you been with Tate Publishing?
Just shy of three years

2. What is the best part of working at Tate Publishing (other than your boss)?
It’s fascinating to watch a dedicated author take direction and suggestion on creative development and breathe life into their protagonist or paint a vivid scene with words. When a flat character comes alive with detail and characteristic, or an insignificant chance encounter transforms into an intriguing plot twist, I’m thrilled.

3. What is the most enjoyable book you’ve worked on at Tate?
I’ve had so many fantastic books come across my desk, but The Year of Jubilee, by David Rice, is at the top of my list. Although fiction, I could see many of David’s own characteristics woven into his Professor Hamilton, and his is some of the best character development I’ve read. David is a passionate author who was open to suggestion, and he took a good manuscript to an exceptional manuscript.

4. What is your favorite genre?
I enjoy a well-written memoir, a solid suspense novel with unforeseeable twists and turns, and a detail-rich travelogue.

5. Outside of work, what are you reading right now?
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

6. What is your favorite sports team?
Boston Red Sox

7. What is one tip you would share with an aspiring writer?
Write daily, even when you don’t want to. Writing a bit, if only for ten minutes, or jotting down a few notes or an idea on a napkin or the back of a receipt keeps creativity flowing, and soon, a few pages here or a couple of good ideas there could become something worth reading.

More about Kylie:

At Abilene Christian University, I studied a variety of subjects—from biology to psychology, from poetry to Native American fiction to creative nonfiction—and I realized that, regardless of subject, reading is my passion. My studies in literature led me to Oxford, England, to study British literature and history, and I soon realized that I wanted to work with the written word. I walked the same paths as some of the greatest writers of all time—Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen—and I was enchanted. I’d always been an avid reader, but I began to explore the possibilities of the professional literary world, which led me to pursuing a career in editing.

A victim of the travel bug, studying languages and experiencing different cultures can only be described as a personal passion. Besides my jaunt across the pond and traveling throughout Europe during that time, I had the opportunity to spend time at language school in Costa Rica in the rainforest of Monteverde and the city life of San Jose.

I love music and camping almost as much as I love books. I’m a closet writer, a mediocre cook, and an antique junky. I’m married to an artist and have two dogs, Kingston and Immy. Between the three of them, I'm never short on entertainment.

Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions

2008-11-13T09:41:00.019-06:00

"Angela's suggestions helped my book to be more understandable and consistent as a whole, and I was able to create more dimensions to my characters in order to make them more realistic/relatable to the reader. Angela was a pleasure to work with and she listened to my thoughts and gave me suggestions accordingly. I had a lot of fun and I hope to work with her again in the future."
"Jaime demonstrated great professionalism in every aspect of her dealing with both me and my book. She very quickly inspired my confidence and was able to follow through 100% with what we agreed to set out to do in our edit. She pointed out to me some very good ways to rewrite or reorganize parts of the book. She also gave me a direction to go to improve the parts of the book that I was unhappy with. Now I am very happy with the manuscript and I believe that I can be proud of this book. Next time around I hope that I either have Jaime again or somebody who is just as good."

Writing a Book: Dialogue Tags: Said-Bookisms

2008-11-07T13:43:00.037-06:00

See if you can spot the error(s):
__________

“All this talk of folic acid and prenatal vitamins,” he began. “Give me a break. Do they think Attila the Hun got his daily dose of folic acid when he was in the womb? Napoleon?” She was going back and forth across the kitchen while he kept his drink close. “I could go on.”

“George Washington,” she replied, “a Founding Father.”

“See? I could go on. Moses,” he smiled.

“I don’t think she’s going to be willing to do a shot,” she replied.

“We trick her somehow. Tell her it’s full of prenatal vitamins, and she shoots it down.”

“Because she just graduated from the third grade,” she laughed, “and she’s blind and retarded.”

“I’ll think of something,” he declared.

__________

If you said “said-bookisms,” you can call yourself a winner. A said-bookism is any substitute for the word “said” in a dialogue tag. A few examples: demanded, declared, exclaimed, inquired, murmured, and shouted. Some of the most egregious said-bookisms are smiled, frowned, laughed, sneered, and smirked. These are impossible. One simply cannot smile a sentence.

Though said-bookisms are widely used by aspiring writers, they are a no-no. I’ll get into why below, but first notice how much crisper the original is:
__________

“All this talk of folic acid and prenatal vitamins. Give me a break. Do they think Attila the Hun got his daily dose of folic acid when he was in the womb? Napoleon?” She was going back and forth across the kitchen while he kept his drink close. “I could go on.”

“George Washington,” she said, “a Founding Father.”

“See? I could go on. Moses.”

“I don’t think she’s going to be willing to do a shot,” she said.

“We trick her somehow. Tell her it’s full of prenatal vitamins, and she shoots it down.”

“Because she just graduated from the third grade,” she said, “and she’s blind and retarded.”

“I’ll think of something,” he said.

__________

So what’s wrong with “said”? Why is it so tempting to want to add flavor at the end of a piece of dialogue? Put simply, to make sure the reader is getting it. When we don’t trust our writing, our characters, our story enough, we feel the urge to explain to the reader what our characters are feeling. But the reader is much more rewarded when he is involved and engaged in the dialogue--when he feels the emotion in the character’s words, not the tag. And so the principle is right in front of us:

A dialogue tag is not the place to add color and vitality to your characters. Dialogue is.

“Said” is a wallflower, and this is another reason writers use bookisms. They want variety and originality in their work. They want their tags to stand out. But, if you’ll forgive the sports analogy, dialogue tags are role players. Dialogue should be the star. “Said” doesn’t distract the reader. Accompanied by a proper noun or pronoun, it allows him to discern who is speaking quickly—and then jump right back into the story. When that happens, the dialogue tag's job is done.

Fortunately, this is not a fatal error. Tate Publishing editors generally won’t strip a book entirely of said-bookisms. Indeed, after much practice some authors are able to use them (sparingly) well. But strong writing does not need said-bookisms. Let your reader hear the dialogue and interpret. If the writing is alive, he will infer the correct tone, be it sarcasm or literalness, joy or sorrow. If it is not, leave the said alone and work on the dialogue.

Happy writing!

Tate Publishing Halloween 2008

2008-11-03T20:34:00.036-06:00

'Twas another unbelievably frightening Halloween at the Tate Publishing offices. As you can imagine, with all the creative talent around the costumes were out of this world. Above is my favorite, a spot-on Teen Wolf (aka Marketing Designer Chris Webb). More creatures below:

Resident pirate and juvenile fiction expert Jenn Scott as Jack Sparrow

Resident homicide and musical expert Katie Knapp as Sweeney Todd

The World's Tallest Man (and costume contest winner) - Illustrator Jeff Elliot

Four-legged Lady - Illustration Associate Kristen Polson

Saturday Morning Reading...

2008-11-01T11:03:00.010-05:00

The Atlantic explains how Google is making us dumber:
"Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

The 26th Story examines the possibilities of using technology to link authors with readers.

Over at Tate Design, Ass. Design Director Leah LeFlore gives a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the cover-design process at Tate Publishing.

A brief look at the difference between editing and ghostwriting.

Tough times for RH divison Doubleday.

Tate Publishing October 2008 Editors' Picks

2008-10-31T13:23:00.014-05:00

Editors’ Picks is a monthly newsletter spotlighting some of our favorite works that have made the long journey to print. October’s feature is African Adventures: Reality in the Bush, author Brenda Lange’s riveting account of the physical and spiritual adventures of missionary work in Mozambique.

“The Lord ordered her to rescue orphans in areas ‘where no one else wants to go.’ A true pioneer missionary, Brenda Lange’s calling took her deep into the African bush of northern Mozambique, where she has faced death multiple times. From strikes by the deadly mamba to lions and leopards and machete-flinging natives, she has faced it all in order to rescue and evangelize orphans.”

Acquired by Stacy Baker; Editing and Backmatter by Meghan Barnes; Cover & Layout Design by Lynly Grider. Great work, guys!

Other favorites that went to print in October:

Twin Motives by M. Robinson and P. Kemp (Mystery/Suspense)
“The story of a man struggling with dreams of his past, a young woman bent on revenge for the death of her son, and a mother of six fighting for her life. Join these characters as their lives intersect in ways they never could have imagined.”

Once Upon a Chariot by Iris Paris (Biography/Americana)
“Told with charm and wit, Once Upon a Chariot is the enthralling personal journal of the woman who established the USA record for Women’s Cross-Country Cycling in 1948.”

The Year of Jubilee by David Rice (Christian/Political Fiction)
“In his political science class, Professor Michael Hamilton challenges his students to think outside the election box and solve society's financial woes with a fictitious political platform. What happens when the students, who believe their 'Mr. Smith' really can go to Washington, set the plan in motion and hit the campaign trail?”

The Calling by Jacob Israel (Spiritual Fiction)
“In the small town of Bethel, in a time not unlike our own, a child with a great purpose is born. Alienated by those around him and picked on by his peers, the awkward twelve-year-old struggles to exist after the loss of his family. A terrifying vision of a dark world to come haunts him. He has been called.”

Publishing a Book: The Importance of a Good Title

2008-10-27T15:14:00.013-05:00

Sometimes an author nails the title for his book and there is no need for adjustment. Often times, however, an author has penned a fantastic story but an intriguing title eludes him. So his manuscript begins production at Tate Publishing with whatever he could come up with, sometimes even TBD.

Toward the end of each month, we editors get together and bring the descriptions and current titles of our books, and as a group we brainstorm to create better ones. We call these meetings “Title Storms.”

This creative act has a long historical precedent. Here are some famous titles that went through a Title Storm of sorts: Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage was originally titled Private Fleming, His Various Battles. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby was originally titled Hurrah for the Red White and Blue. Hemmingway’s A Farewell to Arms was originally titled As Others Are.

I’m always impressed at the wordplay my staff produces during these creative meetings. Here are a few of this month’s transformations, for example:

Original title: I'm Only Wanda, but Jesus is God
New title: From Germany to Guam: A Missionary's Life

Original title: Dear Diary
New title: Blurred Vision: One Woman’s Memoir Looking Beyond Abuse and Alcoholism

Original title: Blessed
New title: The Interim: Finding God’s Blessing in Pain’s Midst

Note that these books were also in dire need of subtitles that explained their themes more clearly for the potential reader. Now these titles will go out for author approval. Some of them will be tweaked more depending on the author’s feedback. But make no mistake about it—they are now much more prepared to sell.

Avoiding clichés (or turning one on its head) is one important tip for making a good title. Here are some more questions to ask yourself when thinking about your title:

“Does it sound fresh and new? Does it, like a metaphor, bring together two things that haven’t been together before? …the primary function of a title is not to convey meaning as much as to sound enticing and if possible exude resonance. …A good title is like coming to a house you’ve never been in before and having the owner open the door and say ‘Welcome.’”
-Sol Stein

Eating Vegetables With Your Phone

2008-10-27T10:39:00.003-05:00

I’m currently reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis on my iphone with an application called Stanza. The experience has been pleasant so far. I’ve found myself reading in two places: standing guard at my son’s bedroom (to make sure he’s sleeping and not sneaking up) and sitting in the doctor’s office lobby.

The features of Stanza are great—I can change the background color and the font style, color, and size. There are a number of options, and after a few trials I’m using a dark red background with “white smoke” Georgia font.

Now, I’m not sure I would pay for this experience, but since public domain classics are free you can catch up on those—eat your literary vegetables, so to speak. The small surface area is ideal for novellas, articles, and blogs, but I can easily see it getting onerous to read longer works, and the stop-and-go nature of these situations doesn’t help either.

Would I recommend reading a book on your phone? Yes. Will it replace my normal book reading? No. Rather, it will supplement it, as I wouldn’t normally read a book in these two locations. Thanks to technology, I’m reading more. Fancy that.

New Addition to the Tate Publishing Editing Department

2008-10-20T13:57:00.014-05:00

I’m excited to announce that Jim Miller will be joining the Tate Publishing editing team as a conceptual editor. Jim has been the managing editor of Vision Magazine for the past five years and brings a wealth of writing and editing experience.

On that note, I am continuously amazed at the talented staff around me and their ability to take an author’s vision and make it their own.

Our Copy Editors—with their eye for detail and uncanny awareness of grammatical laws—provide sharp and thorough edits to our authors’ works, helping each author express his ideas clearly and in polished English.

Our Conceptual Editors, meanwhile, know what it takes to make good literature, and they use their depth of experience and skill on every manuscript, guiding and challenging authors to develop their craft. They make bold suggestions and work tirelessly to get the story just right—to tap that emotion, to buttress that argument, to paint that character in vivid color.

In upcoming posts I will introduce some of our editors, reveal some interesting (read: incriminating) background on each, and see if we can get some insight into how they go about their outstanding work.

Interesting articles I read this week:

2008-10-17T13:16:00.012-05:00

Some "candid" definitions of literary terms

First-time novelist wins Booker Award (UK)

The long, slow crawl to the bookshelf
-a look at the lenghty book-production process

Stanza ereader app for the iphone
-just downloaded this bad boy so I'll let you know about my first ebook experience

Writing a Book: "How to Build Suspense" by Meghan Barnes

2008-10-15T16:00:00.022-05:00

Note: We've assembled an incredibly talented staff here in the Tate Publishing editing department, and they will be posting at On Writing from time to time to share their expertise. Meghan Barnes has been with Tate Publishing since the fall of 2007 and has a background in professional writing and journalism. She was previously the managing editor at a culture magazine and an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma.

Building Suspense
It must be the newly arrived fall weather—the gray sky, last night’s rain settling in, the pavement with just a few soaked spots left, cooler air, pumpkins, Halloween approaching—but this morning I couldn’t stop thinking about suspense writing. If you’ve never read suspense, I highly recommend it. Well-written suspense is something that will keep a reader coming back for more. It’s the kind of writing that you read in bed or on the couch at night, and you have to read through your fingers or close the book for a second because it’s just too much…but you can’t stop reading! No. You always go back. And then you read another suspense thriller.

Likewise, if you’ve never tried writing suspense, I recommend it as a good writing exercise. I’m not talking terribly gory, horror suspense writing. The contemporary writer can employ suspense techniques in even the most cheery novel. Every novel has some level of suspense in it. (Thanks to Professor Deborah Chester for the original ideas behind these tips.)

1. Create a sympathetic protagonist. That way the reader will care more when he or she is in any sort of danger.

2. Imagery and tone are everything. Use descriptive words and phrases to set the proper mood for any encounter but especially suspenseful encounters. As a general rule: choose your words deliberately.

3. Set up a threat early in the story. As soon as you’ve got trouble, the reader can start worrying about it!

4. Keep the outcome uncertain. The reader has nothing better to do than to try and outguess you.

5. The threats and/or dangers to your characters cannot be false.

6. Don’t overload the story with too many consecutive scenes with shock. In other words, don’t overload the reader’s fear circuit. Give him breathing room, lest your suspense dissipate. We all have to release tension at some point. Think of the story in terms of a roller coaster, keeping the book unsettling to the reader (in a good way!).

7. In action-packed stories, have your hero tackle a series of obstacles toward the late-middle part of the story (examples: Misery, Dr. No, Rear Window).

8. If your protagonist is probing into secrets or secret territory, don’t forget the “Don’t open that door!” principle: the thing behind the door should get the character!

9. Danger is more threatening when your character is isolated. Use your imagination; there are lots of forms of isolation.

10. Darkness offers the ideal stage setting for danger. It triggers primal fears, which can cause more fun problems.

11. Utilize chase scenes when applicable. If the bad guy is in pursuit of the hero, remember that each step of the chase should make the hero’s chances slimmer. Narrow that gap! If the hero is in pursuit of the bad guy (this is often used when the hero is a public official), the hero and villain should be evenly matched. Often the villain will turn right back on the hero. Another technique often used here is to move the hero into unfamiliar territory.

12. Establish a ticking clock! But make sure it’s a genuine restriction on the plot. Don’t throw multiple coincidences in your hero’s way. For example, you should probably not include more than one instance of “bad luck.”

Bonus: Use of Anticipation
1. Build anticipation through the use of primal fears (darkness, the basement, etc.)
2. Include a character teetering between sanity and madness!
3. Suicidal characters work in some stories.
4. Put shocks into the story. Surprise your reader!
5. Be sure to fulfill certain reader expectations (e.g., those confrontations that are obligatory, that you know your reader is waiting for).

Ultimately, your reader is trying to get ahead of you (especially you mystery writers), but they don’t really want to win. They want to be surprised! Happy writing…

On a side note, is there a particular book you find yourself going back to every October?

-Meghan Barnes, Associate Conceptual Editor, Tate Publishing

The End of the Book?

2008-10-15T00:31:00.016-05:00

I recently had a conversation at Chili’s—"the new golf course"—about the future of the book and whether it will eventually go the way of the album, the tape, the CD, pink flamingos, MC Hammer, etc.

I’ve been researching this subject for some time now and frankly I’m not sure where I come down yet. I’m a book lover to the core, and thus it pains me somewhere deep inside to imagine a paperbackless world. However, economic law shouts to follow the dollar—and distributing bytes is infinitely cheaper than manufacturing and distributing a paperback. There are already at least two portable ebook readers on the market, and though they haven’t been widely received thus far, R&D is steadily improving the user experience with new versions.

I’ll keep you updated with my findings and you can watch as my opinion on this waffles live on the internet.

What say you? Is it the story alone that provides you with a satisfying reading experience, or is there something intrinsic to ink on a page (and that smell—oh, that wonderful smell) that stimulates your senses and thereby enriches your experience? Have you ever read an ebook?

Publishing a Book: Tate Publishing Marketing

2008-10-14T23:21:00.013-05:00

I’m often asked what type of marketing Tate Publishing provides, as that's the Achilles heel of most small and mid-sized publishers. The answer is we provide an initial marketing push and nationwide availability upon an author’s release date just like all traditional publishers, and by doing so pursue sales in the conventional and most obvious avenues—bookstores and retailers. But that’s only the beginning. Mark Mingle, Director of Marketing at Tate Publishing, has a great post about the power of finding your niche—and how Tate is creating opportunities for sales far beyond the bookstore.

Writing for the Modern Reader: Memoirs/Autobios

2008-10-13T15:07:00.021-05:00

"It's a thousand pages, give or take a few,
I'll be writing more in a week or two.
I can make it longer if you like the style,
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer.
Paperback writer….Paperback writer."

The memoir writer’s weakness is obvious: he is not objective enough to make the proper cuts. Everyone’s life is entertaining to himself, and few details and incidents are too insignificant to leave out. After all, each one contributed to the person you are now.

The biggest mistake I see memoir writers make is with their scope. The dog beating you witnessed as an eight-year-old may have been a seminal moment in your young life, but not the fact that you didn’t like math in the second grade, nor the fact that your cousin won a swimming contest, nor the names, nicknames, and current occupations of your ten closest childhood pals.

4 Tips:

1. Narrow your scope. Focus on the most tumultuous time in your life. What is the reason you wrote this book? What is the one story you wanted to tell? Was it living normally despite your disability? Overcoming your difficult childhood to find success? Making it into the career of your dreams? Begin by focusing on the conflicts and events involved in your battle and ultimate success. This is what's referred to as a crucible. Then carefully broaden your scope to include pertinent details and events from the past.

2. Focus on the battle. The good times may have been good, but they do not make for good reading. "Things were jolly and I loved my family and friends" creates no problem for your book to solve. While you can certainly illustrate great relationships and virtuous individuals, there must be an antagonistic force of some kind that looms ominously over you or your family's happiness. Suspense is what keeps readers reading.

3. Skip a few years. Do not chronicle every year from your cradle to the present day; even Michael Jackson’s life is not that interesting.

4. Keep writing! The best way to get better is to do—write, revise, step away, then come back revise some more. Repeat.
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At Tate Publishing we publish books of many different genres. Memoirs/Autiobios is part 1 of my “Writing for the Modern Reader” series.

Writing a Book: Writing for the Modern Reader

2008-09-04T23:35:00.039-05:00

You should know this individual well—you and I are him. In our daily lives, at work and at home, we are never lacking in entertainment options. No matter where we are we can listen to music, make a phone call, watch a video, and on some portable devices even read this blog.

As book writers, here lies our challenge: We must somehow convince this modern consumer to turn from his instantly gratifying technological wonders and spend hours with our book, foraying into our world, contemplating our subject, relating to our characters.

In upcoming posts I'll share my ideas on how we accomplish this.
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Tate Publishing provides both copyediting and conceptual editing. The Tate Publishing editing staff is constantly asking questions of our authors and pushing to keep books at the forefront of media. We are committed to helping our authors meet this challenge of engaging modern man with the written word. Editing - Copyediting, Technical Editing and Conceptual Editing.