SHORT, SWEET, AND TO THE POINT (with a bonus cover reveal)

Writing short fiction is something I enjoy and am good at. In my Deacon Chalk series there are the two novels out (BLOOD AND BULLETS and BLOOD AND SILVER)
and also two novellas. (THAT THING AT THE ZOO and SPIDER'S LULLABY)
*all titles are links if you wanted to go check them out at the big online retailer :)

Plus several short stories that are up for free on a few blogs that run from 500 words to just a smidge over 2000. (most of those are linked to on my website www.jamesrtuck.com )

There is one thing that I have found is KEY to writing short fiction.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR BACKSTORY.

Seriously. Cut it. You write a 20,000 word novella then you are allowed ONE PARAGRAPH of backstory that can only occur after the first 10 pages. This is the LAW. Break it at your peril. Subject to fines and imprisonment up to 300 years. Possible beheadament ( is that a word?)

Obviously I am joking, but I am serious that in a piece of short fiction you do not have time for backstory. Keep it off the page. Hint at it, work it in with a sentence here and a sentence there, but you cannot have an info dump or an exposition in the form of a chunk of dialog. No one wants that in your short fiction. Editors don't want to buy it and readers don't want to read it.

When you write genre short fiction you are basically taking your characters and dumping them in an extreme situation that they have to react to. The whole of the story is their situation and their reaction, nothing more.

Here is a conversation between a writer and a reader about short fiction.

Writer: Do you want to know how they got in the situation?
Reader: Don't care.

Writer: What made them who they are?
Reader: DON"T care.

Writer: Where the monster/big bad/nemesis/chain of unfortunate events came from?
Reader: DON'T CARE.

Writer: How amazing the world/magic system/political intrigue is that I made?
Reader: OMG I DON'T FREAKING CARE!

Writer: But I did so much reasearch and made some really cool things.
Reader: Don't care.

The point is that in short genre fiction it is all about the entertainment.  The fight, the turn, the moment things go south and how the main character deals. Save the rest of it for your novel. That's where the reader is sitting down to explore your creativity with you.

(And a short story/novella is NOT just something you yank out of your novel and plop it down for the reader. It still has to be complete in itself, not left dangling on both ends.)

So now for some picturey goodness to close us out and send you home, here is the cover for the third Deacon Chalk novel out March of 2013!
Ladies and gentlemen I give you BLOOD AND MAGICK!

PAYING FOR IT (putting the go in your algorithm)

The blogosphere has been all afire over the recent revelation of some authors paying for reviews.

It happens.

I know some of you are like: "So what's the big deal?"

Well, here's the big deal. The main bookselling website is Amazon. This is where the majority of books are bought in the world. That's not an exaggeration, it's just the fact. Amazon is also where the majority of reviews are placed.

Well, the thing you should know about Amazon is that they have this nifty little thing called an algorithm. We all know what it is conceptually, but no one who doesn't work at Amazon understands it fully. It's the Matrix. It's the ghost in the machine. It is the Wizard in the Oz. It is the selling peanut butter to your buying jelly.

You've been on Amazon. You've seen the items they recommend for you to buy. You get their emails suggesting books. This is all the work of the faceless, all-knowing, mysterious and strange algorithm.

There is one thing we know about the algorithm. It is driven in part by reviews.

Because the algorithm assumes honesty it actually weights reviews pretty heavily in its ranking and recommendation system. So when some asshat comes along and buys a ton of reviews they are gaming the system. They are pulling a shell game on you. They are feeding you a lie masked by your trust of the Amazon system.

If you buy their book based on the recommendation or the paid for reviews, then they are STEALING YOUR MONEY.

Now you might try their book and like it. If so, then win win. But I find that if you have to pay for it, then it's because you know you can't get it on your own.

So rest assured loyal readers. I have not and will not pay for a review. The reviews you see on my books are honestly given by folks who either liked (Yay!) or disliked (Boo!) my writing.

Now that being said. IF YOU LIKE AN AUTHOR THEN PLEASE GO REVIEW THEIR BOOK.

It really does mean the world to them and it could be the tipping point for them to get a boost in the algorithm's arcane machinations. It is the single best way you can support the writers you like besides buying their books.

WHY ARE YOU WRITING FANFIC?

I apologize for this blog being a bit late on the day. I have been at Dragoncon all weekend and am lucky to be awake, much less coherent enough to type.

Speaking of:

That was my first panel I was on. That's me, Faith Hunter, Kalayna Price, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Jeanne C. Stein. The panel rocked face and the house was packed. Hell yeah.

Now, to the topic at hand.

Look, if you want to be a professional writer, if you want to be published, if you want your book on the shelves of a store then knock it off with the fanfic.

I'm not hating on fanfic, but if you have the drive to write and the creativity to develop alternative plots and storylines then quit mucking about in someone else's world and start writing your own.

You can't sell your fanfic. You can't publish your fanfic. You can't truly call your fanfic your own.

What you can do with your fanfic is get sued for copyright infringement. (and before you get pissy at the "greedy" authors you need to understand that if an author does NOT defend (ie: sue you) their copyright then that copyright, by law, can be considered abandoned and fair game to published by anyone WITHOUT THE AUTHOR BEING PAID A DIME.)*

So, seriously, just write your own stuff. Don't be afraid. You can do it. And you will be happier for it.

And who knows, it might just become your first published book.

*this is a vastly oversimplified explanation of the complexities of copyright law. I am not an attorney, nor do I play on on television.

PIMP MY WRITE

I LOVE this week's topic.
The reason I love this topic is that it gives me the chance to pass on the word of some books and resources that I use and find indispensable.

I'm not going to yank your chain here. This first book is the ABSOLUTE TOTAL FREAKING BEST BOOK ON WRITING EVER WRITTEN EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.

Seriously. I wrote my first book, BLOOD AND BULLETS and thought it rocked. I was gonna set the world on FIRE. I was querying it, getting requests for pages.....and a ton of rejections. My wife picked this book up at the local library. She flipped through it and said it was pretty good. I picked it up and read the first couple of pages.
The book then ate my brain for 3 days.
I read it cover to cover and when I put it down I realized one very important thing. The most important thing I had ever realized in my life.
My book sucked ass.
It's true. My book was awful. But I wasn't depressed or sad about it because Jessica Page Morrell had told me that I could fix it.
I took her advice, written in easy to read format, applied it, overhauled the book and then turned around and sold it in a 3-book deal from Kensington.

So go right now and order THANKS BUT THIS ISN'T FOR US by Jessica Page Morrell.

Next up is THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

I know, I hear you saying "but James, that isn't a writing book."
No it's not, but it IS a book chock full with some of the most breath-taking language I have ever read. This book touches my soul with its use of the english language. I read it right before making my revision pass on a novel. Just filling my mind with this heavenly wordsmithing makes me write better.

I also highly recommend Lilith Saintcrow's blog. Her posts on how to write made me realize that I could write a novel. Me. A guy who hadn't ever written more than some crap in high school and a TERRIBLE sword and sorcery thing during a late night gig being security at a downtown Atlanta jack shack. After reading her stuff I could and did write a novel that sold.

CLICK HERE FOR WORDS OF WISDOM FROM LILITH SAINTCROW.

So those are my fave writing tools.

WHEW! A LOADED PLATE OF PROMO

Okay, this topic really rings for me because I just got done with back to back promo gigs. In the last weeks of June to the first weeks of July I was promoting the 2nd e-novella in the Deacon Chalk series SPIDER'S LULLABY. I had about three days off and then it was right back into promoting the 2nd novel BLOOD AND SILVER (which came out last Tuesday and is kicking ass at a bookstore near you so go get it! *end shameless plug*)

Speaking of which here is my pic for this post.

THAT is James DiNonno and he is the cover model for the Deacon Chalk series. You are welcome ladies.

Back to the subject at hand.

When it comes to promo I just about killed myself for book one. I wrote something on the lines of 30+ guest blogs and interviews with an average word count of 1500 words. I sent hundreds of emails to get review copies in the hands of bloggers. I facebooked, tweeted, and blogged. I also did my fair amount of conventioning and author events. Moving around the Southeast wherever I could.

It was a LOT of miles, a lot of hours, and a LOT of words.

It was also a LOT OF FUN. I had a blast. But I was tired by the end.
I'm an old man. 42 this year and still running a business, having a family, AND writing books. Plus, some of you know my family had a personal tragedy that happened just around this time last year that rocked the state of our household. We are better now, but it was a lot for us to go through.

So the point of this ramble is that I cannot think of anything I need to do that I am not. I work my ass off to promote the books and get the word out.
But here is some advice for those of you with books to promote.
MAKE FRIENDS WITH BOOK BLOGGERS.
Seriously. They are gold when it comes to letting the reading public know about your book. Bloggers are like the CNN of the publishing world. The publishers, for the most part, are doing big stroke promotion for your book (if any at all) while they are selling someone else's also. Bloggers are targeted. They work close to the readers and they can make your book a bestseller.
They love authors, they love books, and they love to share. Bloggers do what they do out of love and they get no respect from publishing by and large. And you read blogs, we all do. They rock.

That's all for now folks, I have to get back tot he wordmines. I am working on not one but TWO all new manuscripts that I would like to get done before Dragoncon in 2 1/2 weeks!

HEAD DOWN. MAKE WORDS.

GETTING THE WORD TO BE HEARD

I am a fairly new author. My first novel hit the shelves back in February and book two will come out in 2 short weeks. I also have a few short stories and two novellas that have already hit. Even with that I don't have a huge body of work to draw readers in.

So when I have a new book about to be dropped into the world I still have that need to get the word out. I need people to know that the newest James R. Tuck story is available and they need to buy it.

I have found that the best thing for this is a two-pronged attack.

One- Book Bloggers.
Now I LOVE book bloggers. I read book blogs. I am a bibliophile. (James, how many books have you bought in the last 48 hours? Ummmmm, 8) So when you give me a blog written by someone who loves books too then I am hooked like a mackerel and will spend a ton of time enjoying their opinions. That's as a reader.
As a writer I also see how important book bloggers are for my career. They are the CNN and FOX News of the publishing world. They get the word to the people. I mean really, if you are a reader and not an author do you read Kirkus or Publishers Weekly or any of the other publications that the industry cares about? Normally, no you don't. But I bet you have a favorite book blog you check out. Even if it's a weird, conglomerate blog like Goodreads it's still a book blog. That's because, like Jeffe said yesterday, we are all interconnected and we are all hand selling books now. We like to hear about new books from someone who loves books, not from a cold dispassionate news source. We want that person who is telling us about a new author, a new series, a new book to be trustworthy because of their love for stories.
This is why I will work my ass off for a book blog. If a book blog asks me for an interview, a guest review, a guest post I will kill myself on an overdose of caffeine to make it happen. I appreciate what they do, almost always without pay and never enough thanks from the publishing "industry".

Two- Conventions
Being a guest at conventions is one of the major highlights to being a published author. It's a lot of work, but it is a lot of FUN work. I love it. I am a social person, not shy, and really, really enjoy being around other authors and most of all, fans of books. Conventions are where I get to meet and mingle with the folks I write for. And the people I write for, they love books just like I do, so it's not a blah-blah lovefest for my writing, it's a group of like minded, interesting people in a group dynamic that is energizing as hell.
People love to meet authors, especially if they are real. I have sold a ton of books just by being on panels and doing my damnedest to entertain the folks there. I also know that at a convention I am there for the readers. I am always willing to talk about anything they want, not just my books.

So those are the ways I get the word out about my books. They are the two most effective ways I have found and, coincidentally, the two avenues I enjoy working the most.

Keep checking back all week though, I can't wait to see what killer advice comes out on this topic from my awesome co-bloggers here!

ABOVE ALL ELSE, BE COOL

There is one huge thing you need to realize right now about the publishing industry.
Pull in close so I can whisper it in your ear.
Closer.
Ready?
EVERYBODY KNOWS EVERYBODY ELSE IN THIS INDUSTRY!
Truly they do. And they all talk. Now if you have a good reputation, someone likes you, they will tell others about you. That's a good thing.
However.
If you screw up it also means you will be talked about. Word will spread.
Now does this mean you have to sit on your hands, remaining meek and mild, super self-concious and on edge so that you don't ever offend anyone?
No of course not.
Have you met me? I'm loud. I'm big. I have strong opinions about a lot of stuff and gladly share them.
What you do have to do is maintain a level of professionalism.
According to Dictionary.com a Professional is: "a person who is expert at his or her work".
Simple.
A professional handles their work. They maintain their commitments. You take a deadline, meet that deadline. Yes, sometimes you need an extension and there is a professional way to ask for that extension, but a professional holds that card tightly.  You don't get to play it very often. 
What a professional does NOT do is blow off their deadline because they are too "busy" playing Skyrim (or whatever frivolous distraction you are wasting your time with.) or just being lazy.
A professional doesn't blow off a panel at a convention simply because they aren't interested or it's the last day.
A professional doesn't treat readers like some kind of second class citizen, somehow lesser than the esteemed writer class.
A professional doesn't smack talk their fellow authors, or publishers, or agents, or bloggers. If you have a legitimate beef with someone, be an adult and take it to them. Don't tweet it or blast it on your blog.
A professional walks away from a bad review, no matter how unjustified it may be.
In short:
BE COOL AND NEVER MAKE GEORGE TAKEI DO THIS

If you can maintain your cool and be professional then you could have Dean Winchester doing this instead:

 And isn't that preferable?

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A CHARACTER DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU HAVE CHARACTER

Okay, I am pretty damn proud of Deacon Chalk. I like the character, I love the secondary cast, I love the villains. I am writing the books that I would want to read.

But.

There is always a but. lol. Every writer, no matter how much they love their world of fiction, we all have books that we read and go "Damn you (insert jealousy inspiring badass author) I wish I had written that!)

Now there are a ton of great characters out there that I love. Anita Blake, Harry Dresden, John Taylor, Burke, hell even Buffy Summers.

I wish I had come up with Hellboy.

And Jill Kismet.

And Sonja Blue.

But the character I really deep down wish I had invented isn't even a character at all.

He was a real person so totally amazing that he should be fictional.

Nikola Tesla.
 (BTW he is holding a bulb powered by a WIRELESS power grid he invented....you read that right...electricity in the air. Take THAT cloud technology, boo-yah.)

Mad genius, eccentric as hell, good looking and yet always without female companionship. He was so insanely brilliant he was conceiving of things that wouldn't come out for almost 100 years.  He was thinking of things that the basic rudimentary technology for didn't even exist. Cell phones? Tesla saw that coming.
Wi-fi? Same thing.  Deathray that could split the earth into four parts? Yep, developed it and destroyed the papers before he died.

He hung out with Mark Twain.

He dug ditches rather than give Edison one ounce of his work.

If you don't know anything about this revolutionary supergenius from the turn of the century then at least go wikipedia him. Better yet, read a book about him and his life. His feud with Edison, his love for a pigeon, and his death in a New York hotel room surrounded by empty Nabisco cans. All his pall bearers were Nobel Prize winners.

I mean really, you can't make this up. I wish I had.

"YOU'RE MISSING OUT. IT'S LIKE SEX, ONLY THERE'S A WINNER."

Fave non US show. Well, Jeffe stole my number one pick. I love Torchwood and I have blogged about my man-crush on John Barrowman previously. I do love Doctor Who, but as much as I do there is one show done on british TV that is, in my opinion, damn near perfect.

Jekyll.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Starring James Nesbitt in the title role this BBC miniseries is a POWERHOUSE OF AWESOME.

It is a modern-day spin on the Jekyll and Hyde myth. It is written by Stephen Moffat and if you don't know WHO that is then off with your head!

The series is well acted, superbly written, and will take your breath away.

Just watch this clip. This is the opening scene. Tell me at the end that you don't want more.