Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail for 05/09/13

You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it. –Neil Gaiman

Last Tuesday at B&N . . .

We have a couple visitors. Ruth and Betsy join us for the evening.
Lisa reads from the beginning of her novel (tentatively titled) Tebow’s Family Secret. Andy has a question about the date of the main character’s accident and whether it is significant to September 11, 2001. Pat remembers Lisa’s first version and thinks this is tighter but there’s still some editing that needs to be done. Andy wonders if Lisa can write a vision for us. Alicia thought the date of the accident seemed contrived. Jerry too thought the reader will want to know why the day of the accident is so important. What follows is a discussion of 9/11 and weather the day can be changed. Lisa tells us it cannot. Alicia, Amber, and Aaron (all the A’s) think she can keep 9/11 she just needs to not treat it so casually. Jerry wonders if someone with memory problems would be entrusted with a family recipe.
Alicia shares chapters five and six of Lincoln’s Other War. Pat likes her Lincoln parts a lot, but struggles with the other parts. She wonders if there are other ways to display those parts. Lisa agreed that it sounded disjointed to her also. Could those portions be made more conversational? Millie got the impression that the people out East didn’t know what was going on. Betsy easily picked out the other voice as well.
Pat reads her poem, 58! for the group. Half the group doesn’t get the very first joke of the poem. The title is a reference to her age, which the other half of the group didn’t believe. Millie liked it but she thought it should have been seventy-eight; Betsy, sixty-eight. Andy didn’t like the prose in the middle of it. Alicia didn’t agree with the first line. Bob wonders why we can’t just accept the paradox.
Amber shares Chapter Twelve of Noble. Lisa takes notes. Jerry corrected a part of the scene read aloud to the group. Pat liked that the main character had learned how to use her magic as well as the ending and the mention of fire. (Shout out to former TWS member Greg Spry). Lisa thought the main character learned magic too fast. Andy wanted to see a bigger reaction from the protagonist. Jerry thought her reaction fit with what we know of the character. Millie thought another character was jealous. Pat wanted to know who would play a certain character in the movie.
Jerry reads from the beginning of Chapter Ten of The Last Good Man. Alicia thinks Jerry should definitely do the audio book. Betsy liked the humor. Pat wondered if they got the dent out of the roof or not. Lisa asks if the main character leaves the truck with the others or what. She’ll have to read chapter eleven to find out.

Who’s up next . . .
May 14: Mike R. (poems), Rebecca Rettemund (chapter, The Cheese Logue), Jack Freiburger (poems), Andy Pfeiffer (chapter, People), and Bill Eisinger (short story).

May 21: Pat Edwards (???), Amber Boudreau (chapter 13, Noble), Millie Mader (chapter 44, Life on Hold), Andy Pfeiffer (???), Aaron Boehm (film script/part 6, “Whole Again”), and Judith McNeil (???)

May 28: Carol Hornung (scene, Ghost of Heffron College), Katelin Cummins (chapter, Battle of Sista), Terry Hoffman (???), Ray Woodruff (short story), and Jen Wilcher (???).

June 4: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Betsy Draine (chapter), Bob Kralapp (???), Michelle Nightoak (chapter, memoir), Alicia Connolly Lohr (novella, chapters 7-8, Lincoln’s Other War), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 11-12, The Last Good Man).

Next Fifth Tuesday . . .
Put it on your calendar now. Our next Fifth Tuesday is July 30. First-and-third group hosts. The place is not yet set, but the writing challenge is . . . Fortune cookie fortunes. You select a fortune from a list we will provide you on or about July 1, then write a story, poem, or essay in which you use the fortune in some way. Length? Our ever popular 250 words or less.

Great word . . .
Courtesy of Word Spy Paul McFedries:
catfishing
n. The elaborate fabrication of an online identity to trick a person into a romantic relationship.
– catfish v., n.

Example Citations:
“And while what happened to Manti Te’o is bringing the term to light, we shouldn’t talk about catfishing like it’s a new thing. Ever since there’s been an Internet, there’s been a fat guy in an undershirt pretending to be a hot model. Social media only makes the lie more believable and more noticeable.
– Scott Kleinburg, Don’t be the next Te’o, Chicago Tribune, January 24, 2013

“Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson was unsympathetic to their claims, finding that their conduct was objectionable enough to warrant censure by the university. She specifically calls them out for ‘catfishing’ their victim. – Kashmir Hill, ‘Catfishing’ Gets Its First Legal Mention, Forbes, April 26, 2013

Earliest Citation:
“Did you hear how Dave got totally catfished last month?! The fox he thought he was talking to turned out to be a pervy guy from San Diego!
– sbacker, ‘catfish,’ Urban Dictionary, July 22, 2010

Notes: This term comes from a 2010 documentary called Catfish, about a man who falls for a woman whose online persona turns out to be a fake. The origin of the term is given an oddly positive spin in the film:
“They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They’d keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank god for the catfish because we would be droll, boring and dull if we didn’t have somebody nipping at our fin.”
– Vince Pierce, ‘Catfish,’ Relativity Media, January 22, 2010

Self Publishing
Self-publishing authors are in good company with David Mamet choosing to self-publish his next book.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/business/media/david-mamet-and-other-big-authors-choose-to-self-publish.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

How to Price Your Book
Pricing Variables

There are five major variables that affect the price of your book. Here is a discussion of each to help you decide on a strategy.
Costs. There are two kinds of costs: preparation and production. Preparation costs include such processes as design, editing, and layout. You might pay them only once, but nonetheless, you need to recoup them.

Production costs refer to how much it costs to make copies. If you’re publishing only an eBook, the cost per unit is almost zero. If you’re printing your book, you’ll incur hard costs such as paper, printing, binding, and shipping.
Economic conditions. How is the job market for your target customers? While your book’s price is probably one or two Starbucks cappuccinos, economic conditions matter to people and influence their buying decisions.
Brand. How strong is your brand? How many people know about you? Simplifying the issue, here are the most common conditions:

* First-time author without an established base of readers. Implication: charge less.
* First-time author with an established base of fans and high visibility. Implication: charge more.
* Repeat author with a proven record and established base of readers. Implication: charge even more.
Competition. How much does the competition charge for books in your genre? You cannot charge the same price as well-established authors such as J. K. Rowling. You should look at authors who are at the same stage as you.
Goals. What are your goals for your book? Here are the most common:

* Maximize short-term (six months to a year) revenue. Implication: charge more.
* Maximize long-term (a year or more) revenue. Implication: charge less.
* Establish yourself as a sector expert. Implication: charge less.
* Build a base of readers for future works. Implication: charge less.
* Spread your ideas. Implication: charge less.
Pricing philosophy. What’s your pricing philosophy? First, let’s dismiss “I worked hard on this book, so it’s worth lots of money.” It doesn’t matter how hard you work. What matters is what people are willing to pay. These are the common pricing philosophies:

* High price connotes high quality. Low price connotes low quality. Implication: charge more.
* High price connotes cluelessness. Low price connotes awareness. Implication: charge less.
* High price connotes greed. Low price connotes empathy. Implication: charge less.
* The relationship between price and quality is random. Implication: take your best shot and change the price if it’s not working.

Guy Kawasaki has written 12 books, 10 of which were traditionally published. His newest book is APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book, which helps people understand how and why to self-publish.