Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 4 Comments

Update on Through Stranger Eyes with a request for help at the end

At the end of this post, there’s a request on a friend’s behalf. If you don’t want to read my following ramble, skip to the end of the post and read the last paragraph.

The project I’m working on at the moment (provisional title, Through Stranger Eyes) is coming along fine, though slow, which means I once again failed to stick to my deadline. By deadline, I don’t mean a date where I would have finished everything about it and have it ready for betas. That’d be awesome, but no. What I mean is a date when the current round of edits had to be over, so the next round could start. I have yet to tinker with individual words (filter words and more active verbs) and sentence lengths and this usually takes time.

The reason for the delay is that I started querying and pitching The Darkening once more (most agents are back from holidays, plus I waited and hoped far too long on feedback from competitions I participated that never came), and at the same time I started researching ways of crowdfunding. Why? Because I may be submitting and querying agents, but I still have to keep my options open, in case every agent I approach turns my book down. A rather shocking possibility, but possibility nonetheless. I don’t know if you were aware of the following fact, but apparently, horror is a hard sell nowadays. I sure didn’t know it. There’s an abundance of horror books out there, so it never crossed my mind. Bad research on my part? Maybe, but then again I’d rather not
write solely following a market trend, since these things change with a snap of the fingers. I’m also unwilling to just shelf my work and forget I ever wrote that book. I may be emotionally attached to it, but I started writing not only because I had stories I wanted to tell, but also because I wanted others to read those stories. I don’t write for myself, which is why I struggle (perhaps too much) to perfect my craft and, through it, the quality of my work. I don’t have anything against those who write for themselves, it’s just not what I want.

So, I’ve spent a great deal of energy on researching marketing plans, strategies, promoters, editors, expenses, in addition to honing my craft, editing my own work, and of course reading to improve my writing skills. I’ve also decided to self publish a couple of my short stories in the following months. Not only will this put my name out there and, who knows, perhaps grant me a couple of readers, but I will also learn things related to self publishing first hand. It’s all nice and helpful when I read articles and posts about it, but unless I do it, everything I read will be something theoretical. All this, however, takes time, and it seems a day doesn’t have enough hours in it anymore, and I sometimes feel too drained.

Finally, the request I mentioned earlier. It’s not for me, but for a writer friend. Mind you, I will be in his shoes at soon, and you may have been in his at some point in the past. He is in need of beta readers for his current project, an epic medieval fantasy novel titled “Flakes of Fire” (about 135,000 words), for an adult audience. I’ve already offered to read for him, but one beta is never enough. In fact, it may be disastrous, especially since I’m not as experienced as a lot of you are. His open calls for betas on Goodreads and other sites have gone largely unanswered (we all know how hard it is to get beta readers when we embark in this journey) and there are no writing groups near where he lives. That’s pretty much how things are with me as well. I too don’t have a writing group (not many Greeks writing in another language, hehe. There are some but not too many), so I offered to help him by turning to you. If you would like to read something new, something fresh, if you have the time to spare and help a new writer, please let him know. His name is Yoann and his email address is: yo.re02[at]gmail[dot]com. Replace [at] with @, and [dot] with a period/full stop “.”

Thank you all.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Self-doubt Armageddon

Don’t you just hate those days when self-doubt creeps in (or even worse, takes control) and ruins the fun of what you’ve written so far? I don’t mean during the revision and rewriting stages, where we take apart everything (plot, characters, POV etc) but long after that, when you’re supposed to be doing minor edits to the prose, or working with sentence lengths, or punctuation. It’s so annoying when you start questioning yourself on matters you’ve already covered and made sure you perfected, like, “Did it really take them that long to do this thing in that scene?” (Dah, yes! You were revising that scene for over two months, hello? You rewrote it three times already).

From Back to the Future
From Back to the Future

Then something else you corrected and improved two months earlier suddenly feels off, then a third thing, and a fourth after that. Things you knew for a fact up to a second prior to Self-Doubt Armageddon came knocking, that these things must not change and that’s how they have to be. Next thing you know you question your skill, your bright idea that you should write, which leads to “who’s going to read that pile of $*1t you’ve put on the screen,” and “my, God, this sucks,” and oh this and oh that… Annoying, isn’t it? I almost deleted everything I was working on yesterday. Almost.

Bruce Campbell from Evil Dead 2
Bruce Campbell from Evil Dead 2
Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Inspirational Prompt 36

Destroying the world seemed like the best option at the time. It should’ve worked. But she survived. Again.

I thought I should make today’s prompt a little different, but I’m not sure I succeeded. The idea is that if you remove one or more sentences from the given prompt (except the first one), you should get a completely different idea for a story. For example, if you choose to go with “Destroying the world seemed like the best option at the time. It should’ve worked,” you get something different than if you used all four sentences. Likewise, if you go for “Destroying the world seemed like the best option at the time. But she survived. Again,” should allow you to come up with something different. Each sentence adds a little bit of backstory or underlying conflict between characters.

I hope I did a good job. I’m burning in fever, so I may have messed it up royally. How many stories can you come up with?

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Publishing contracts – Editing clauses

I hope you all had a great time with your loved ones, and that you found the time to recharge your batteries. Hopefully, 2017 will bring you more finished manuscripts, more published material, perhaps an agent (if you’re after getting published traditionally), and even more readers.

Speaking of getting published, I think it’s time to end this somewhat long-ish string of reblogged posts I started, that dealt with the process of getting published, the different paths one can take to see his/her work in readers’ hands, and of course a tiny portion regarding legal aspects. I may get back to some of these at a later time, but for the time being I think that’s it.

Today’s post deals with what to look out for when dealing with clauses in a publishing contract that deal with how a publisher edits your manuscript. On her blog, Victoria Strauss, writer and co-founder of Writer Beware, lists a few clauses she has encountered in real contracts, that should alert every writer that something’s not right. You can also find the same article on Writer Beware‘s blog.

Please keep in mind, that publishers are not trying to set a trap for the writer. They are not malevolent beings, lurking in the shadows, cackling and rubbing their hands every time they receive a manuscript. That’s not why I think such articles are necessary. The reason I’m posting this is because once we choose to publish our work, we put our artistic and creative hats away, and put our business hats on. It’s always safe, for both sides, to have a contract upon which they’ll build a healthy business relationship. Just as the publisher doesn’t know you or how determined you are to see this business partnership flourish and wants to be safe, you don’t know the publisher and, as a result, should be safe. Good contracts mean good business deals.

Hope this helps.

The moment has come, fellow unagented writer, where a publishing contracts is actually in your hands! Years and years of struggling, querying agents, submitting to publishers, revising, disheartening comments (though helpful in the long run), editing, stress, and God knows what else have finally paid off. An actual and no-longer-imaginary contract is in your hands. You probably consider never washing those hands again so you may always have that feel of the contract on them (though I strongly advise you against it). A publisher has finally recognised your worth. How awesome is that! Chances are you’re jumping up and down with glee and excitement, the edges of your mouth almost touching your ears. You’re singing, and with the pen in your hand you’re about to –

STOP!

aha2

Read that contract again. You owe it to yourself, to your career.

There are things all writers, who don’t have an agent or a publishing attorney or an in-depth knowledge of publishing law, should look out for.

Susan Spann, who specialises in intellectual property, business and publishing contracts, has a few things to say about what to look out for. In her post How to Spot–and Avoid–Predatory “Pay to Play” Publishing Contracts, she explains in brief some of the things you should consider as red flags in the contract you hold in your hands. Yes, publishing contracts are precious to us, but how certain are you that you’re as precious to the publisher who offered you that contract?

smeagol-my-precious-funny-shoes

Susan Spann (@SusanSpann) often tweets publishing-related advice under the hashtag #publaw. Ever since I joined Twitter, her posts on publishing law are the ones I read several times over. I think you’ll also find her advice helpful.