bacon and books
  • Bacon and Books
  • About
  • Contact
Picture

Right now you have room and time to play around with your writing - enjoy it!

7/31/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
 
In the imagined idyllic former days, writers would write – feverishly, secretly, devotedly – thinking of nothing but their work. Only when they finished after months or even years would they consider sending it out to an agent or publisher. Until that time they threw crumpled pages at the wall, drank too much, neglected their health, their friends and their families. But it was worth it because in this idyllic world they would send out manuscripts and receive letters back that they’re manuscripts had been accepted! Days later a box of their books would appear.

It only happened in the movies.

​Right now – meaning this very moment in the middle of a pandemic when no one knows how any industry will come out at the end of it – there’s no need for that fevered pitch. You still need to give your work your full attention. You may still neglect health, family and friends – but honestly, there’s no rush.

Which is a good thing. You have the freedom to take your time.

You can wallow in your character’s misery a little longer; realize that good guy has some sinister layer you were in too much of hurry before to see. You have time to add descriptions that engage the reader’s senses. You have time to make the dialogue sparkle and eliminate all the small talk stuff people say to each other which becomes even more tedious when it’s down on the page.

You have time to see if your book makes sense. And most important, if it’s interesting.
​
With these long days that run into each other and endless weeks that never quite add up to what we used to call a month – you have time to sit down with your characters, with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and really get to know what makes them tick. Not just the side of themselves they showed you on that first draft, but what’s really driving them.

You have time to try different plot twists and change out the ending as many times as you need until it feels right.

In other words, in the middle of everything that’s going sideways, you have the time to enjoy writing.

I’m not saying it’s easy when there are so many worries and distractions and so many kids at home for what seems like forever. And spouses who want company. And somehow twice as much laundry to be done which makes no sense since no one is going anywhere. And trips to the market that feel a little risky.

But if you keep that drive to write, lose the sense of urgency, you might give yourself permission to enjoy the process. Room to roam a bit in your book. Stop thinking the book must be finished in time for – well does it really matter at the moment if it’s out in time for what may or not be the holiday rush?
​
People want to read even if they can’t seem to concentrate. There’s something about the promise of a new book that can brighten an otherwise dreary weekend.
​
So what I’m saying is – don’t stop. Don’t give up. Just don’t be in such a hurry that you take all the pleasure out of writing. It’s one of the few luxuries we have right now.
 
 Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash


0 Comments

Yes. Writing is hard but maybe we ought to keep that between us?

7/17/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture


Note: I wrote this before the pandemic and the whole world turned upside down. I was going to leave it but today on Facebook someone had one of those quotes about writing being hard work, so maybe it is still relevant.
 
True story:  I had a friend, a wonderful person and an excellent writer who published a book and was lucky enough to get several interviews. On the radio. He was so thrilled to be published, so happy to be interviewed that all he could talk about was how much harder it was to write a book than he’d thought it would be.  

I understood the impulse. It was harder than he’d thought and he imagined his readers were just like him - they, too, probably had no idea it was so hard.

But he learned too late - talking about how hard it was to write did not sell one single book. Listeners were probably on their way to work. Many most likely had difficult jobs. I could picture them muttering as they faced another endless commute - You want to know hard work, buddy? Just take my job for one day.

And to be honest, I’ve never heard a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist comment that their work was hard but it wasn’t like writing a novel, for godssakes.

Prospective readers want to know: what the story is about; will it keep them entertained, turning pages, staying up half the night? Are the characters quirky or sexy or evil? They want to be fascinated and there is nothing fascinating about the fact that you had to work hard.

This came to mind recently when I was reading an introduction to a book. A good, powerful work-in-progress written with the kind of honesty that takes courage. It was a very difficult book to write. It’s not easy to reveal yourself to strangers. And in his effort to be honest all around, he wrote that he’d had no idea writing the book would be such hard work.

I’m sure it was. I know he struggled for weeks and months trying to get it all down on paper. But his intended audience – emergency room doctors – knew about hard work.

Still, I hesitated to tell him the lesson from my friend - skip over the part about how hard you worked and tell the readers why they’ll like the book. Would advising him to make a few cuts feel like I was  minimizing his experience?

In the end, I did tell him and he took it well. But I’m still not sure if it was the right thing to do.
​
What would you have done?
 
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

0 Comments

Changing a Book Cover? Here's What I Almost Forgot

7/10/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture


​I could look at book covers for hours – yes, this was even before we were stuck inside. I’m interested in how styles have changed. Not so much from one year to the next, but maybe over a decade. Tastes are different; readers are more sophisticated. Sometimes the distinctions between genres starts to blur - what used to be a typical romance cover now looks very much like historical fiction. Or is it the other way around?

One of the most satisfying parts of running a very small press comes when the cover designer creates a cover the author is pleased with. And the cover designer I usually work with, Al Pranke, has a knack for getting what an author is looking for even when they don’t know and I had something else in mind.

So how did I end up with a cover on one of our books that just wasn’t right?

I have no idea.

Al produced his take on what I said I wanted for The Call House. A book about a high-class brothel that doesn’t have any sex. (I know. If you read the book you’d understand.) So I didn’t want to oversell the sexy part. Set in Washington, but it’s not political, and yet I wanted that Capitol dome somewhere in the background. You can probably tell I just wasn’t sure what I wanted and on top of that – the book is funny. So the cover needed a bit of whimsy and it had to indicate the setting was the 1940s.

Asking too much? Probably, but Al came up with a design that made sense - he’s got a great imagination and fine illustration skills. He produced a cover we both liked. I wasn’t in love, but maybe I wasn’t ready to be in love.

Here’s what happened.

Readers enjoyed the book. Lots of great reviews and a whole stack of stars. But. It wasn’t selling.

There are a few possibilities when that happens – but first among them is the cover just doesn’t appeal to people.

So I dithered and debated for months. Should I change the cover? Could I afford it? Was it worth the trouble and just how much trouble was involved?

What held me in back?

I operate Bacon Press Books on a shoestring. Less than a shoe string. No margin, no reserves. In other words, money is tight. Was there any chance the money spent on a new cover would actually produce new sales? (Forget the hype from authors who say they changed the cover or the keywords or the book description and sales skyrocketed. I don’t believe it.)

So I waited. Always in the back of my mind was the plan to re-do the cover when I had the extra money.

I held off until I couldn’t.

Al, had just created a cover for the latest book, Waiting for Next Week, that I love. And there is something different about loving the cover that makes you (or maybe it’s just me) feel really good about having your book out there. I wanted to feel that way about The Call House.

And as long as we’re being honest – what’s one more charge on a credit card I’m paying off slowly anyway?

Keep in mind this was all before the virus hit. When life was ‘normal.’

On top of that, I’d recently read somewhere that flying appendages don’t do well on book covers. As someone who’s always teaching writers not to use detached body parts–his eyes slid past me; I saw the top of his head bobbing down the stairs – you get the idea; I immediately understood why a flying appendage wasn’t a good idea.

So I saved up as much as I could and decided to take the leap.

I asked Al for a new cover for The Call House. We still had the same constraint – I didn’t want it to be too seductive despite the subject matter. But I wanted classy, clean, modern yet evoking 1940s. And we could lose the Capitol.

He did it. He created a cover I could fall in love with. It makes all the difference in the world. It’s like the book has been wearing all the wrong clothes and now it’s dressed the way it should be.

The best part about independent publishing is that you can change things immediately. And I did. Although Amazon is a little slow to catch on in matching the paperback and eBook.

I was all set until I opened the book.

This is the part I almost forgot

I couldn’t change the cover without changing all the title pages and chapter headings and section headings – the fonts that had worked before, no longer were right. Fortunately, the body text was compatible.

Even more fortunately, the terrific people at eBook launch who had done the original interior were able to make the changes at a reasonable price, even when it meant they’d have to purchase a new font to match the new cover. They were very responsive and did everything quickly.

That hard to explain thrill when something goes right and looks good

How many times have we seen the scene in the movies when the author works like crazy, sends off the manuscript, gets the book accepted by a publisher, and holds the book in their hands?

Now, thanks to social media, we can see the thrill of an independent author opening their first box of books. It doesn’t matter who publishes the book – it’s still a kick.

So I’m happy to send The Call House out in the world wearing its classy new cover. I’ll write again and let you know if it makes a difference in terms of sales.

But in the meantime, if you keep looking at your book and you keep thinking something just might be a little off, you might try a new cover.

Just remember to redo the interior as well. 

And okay, pick up a copy of The Call House - it's a good summer read. 

0 Comments

    Bacon Press Courses &
    Bacon Press Books

    News about our courses, our books, our authors, indie publishing, and maybe bacon.

      Subscribe for updates

    Join our mailing list

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Bacon and Books
  • About
  • Contact