A Slice of Orange

Yesterday I went down to San Diego to take the most unique writer’s class I have ever attended: Warrior-Writer with NY Times bestselling author Bob Mayer. The workshop addressed a mindset all too neglected by today’s writer: how to manage the business of being an author.

There are differences between being a writer (someone who writes, perhaps just for the fun of it) and being an author (someone who makes a career of selling their writing on a regular basis). Most writers I’ve met want to get published, and the reasons vary. A lot of them dream of being a full-time author (me included), who sells books on a regular basis and makes money for doing what they love. A lot of them just want the validation of being published—that proof that yes, my writing is good enough. The thing is, once you get published, what comes next?

The book business is an entertainment business, just like the film industry and the music industry. And the chances of success are just as daunting. When you do get your book published, you need to remember that small fact. You’ve just realized a dream. Your work is going to be in print, whether on the shelves at Borders or in electronic format. Someone is going to pay you for your writing. You are good enough.

But like marriage, once the honeymoon is over, reality sets in and you have to get used to living in the new situation in which you find yourself. The euphoria of the first sale fades as your editor sends you a revision letter, then copyedits, then page proofs. At some point you will receive a cover flat for your book, which could be a moment of joy very close to the day you got that call, or a moment of disappointment (disbelief even) as you wonder what the art department was thinking when they designed this cover! When things like this happen, you learn a very important thing: the author is only responsible for the words on the pages. The publisher controls everything else.

Once you’ve signed that contract, you have given the publisher the rights to your work. The marketing and sale of the book falls on them, and you can only cross your fingers and hope that they do a good enough job that the book sells well. However, the thing you have to remember is that the people who work for the publishing house are not writers; they are business people. Once you sign that contract, you have given them a product. They, as business people, break out their ledgers and spreadsheets and figure out the best way to sell that product. Everyone at that house has a boss to report to, including your editor, and the reasons for handling your work a particular way are business reasons. What approach is going to make them the most money from the product you’ve sold them? The upside to this dismaying revelation: people who work in publishing love books. All the people, from the editor to the copyeditor to the art department and even the sales and marketing departments. This is why they choose to work for a publishing house.

But because they are thinking of the book as a product, you need to take the same mindset. Once you have made that journey with your characters and written The End, once you have signed on the dotted line to sell the work to a publisher, the book stops becoming Your Baby and becomes The Product. And as Bob says, you have to let go of that baby and move on to a new journey with new characters.

It’s hard for many of us to think of writing from a business perspective. We aren’t really wired that way. Most writers are introverts and hate promotion, a part of the writing career that is becoming more and more the author’s responsibility. New authors might not understand at first that the contract the publishers sends is going to be weighted heavily in the publisher’s favor (remember, business). This is why you might want to get an agent. Agents know the publishing business, and because they deal with these editors and contracts on a regular basis, they know what to look for. They also know what can be challenged and what is written in stone for that particular deal. For most writers, it makes things more palatable to have an agent managing the business end so the writer can concentrate on writing.

In yesterday’s workshop, Bob addressed the business of being an author using the techniques he learned in the Green Berets. These methods focus on identifying your strengths and weaknesses as both a person and a writer with the idea that by learning these things about yourself, you can utilize your strengths and be aware of your weaknesses to avoid pitfalls. You can also change things about yourself that might be inhibiting your rise to the top. He talked about how to achieve goals and how to change your thinking to achieve those goals consistently and become a more effective business person. It was a great workshop that got those of us sitting in that room thinking a different way.

A way that, with luck and consistency, might very well lead to the NY Times list.

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Hi everyone! Check out the exciting online classes offered by the
Orange County Chapter of RWA!

“Muse Therapy” with D.D. Scott

October 12 to November 7, 2009

Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassOct09.html

COST: $20 for OCC members, $30 for non-members

If you have specific questions, email occrwaonlineclass@yahoo.com

ABOUT THE CLASS:

Could you use a romance writer’s go-to-gal for muse disorders? If so, stop looking ’cause you found her. I’m D. D. Scott, an agented, romantic comedy writer and a muse therapist in the making.

Muse Therapy – D. D. Scott style – is all about injecting life into tired and/or stressed out muses. I’ll give writers fun and fabulous tools to analyze their muses’ funks, reign in their creative divas and up their page counts.

Discover what makes your muses tick. What ticks them off. And what makes them dance like nobody’s watching.

We’ll name your muses and host a very special meet-and-greet just for them, then dig deep into their psyches by examining “muse disorders” such as:

** Unleashing Your Inner Sybil
** Writing Bi-Polar: I Suck vs. I’m a Genius
** What Do You Mean I’m Neurotic? No, I’m Not. Well, Not Exactly. But Okay…There Are Times When. Like You Need To Know That. Anyway, I Was Thinking, My Jeep Is Red
** Rorschach For Writers: I See Dead Lines
** Stimulants: When Coffee, Chocolate, and Martinis Aren’t Enough

Once we recognize, acknowledge and accept your muses’ afflictions, we’ll find terrific tricks and “trips” to treat our word witches.

So if your muse is in need of a tune-up, grab a comfy couch or chair and put up your feet. You’re in the right session. We’ll be “in therapy” together for four weeks. I’ll provide fabulous hand-outs and super-cool tchotchkes for all participants. You’ll have a terrific time conquering your creative divas and taking back the crown of your personal Muse-ville kingdom.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

D. D. Scott’s romantic comedies are all about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who complete them. They’re a bit chick lit with a gone-country twist. She’s agented, and her series BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS – think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy – is under consideration by several NY publishers.

She writes stories with big hearts and a bunch of sass. Once a small town newspaper crime reporter and now a HarperCollins Publishing Returns Center Executive Assistant, she’s learned great fiction comes from the street as well as which jacket covers meet early deaths.

She’s a member of Indiana RWA as well as RWA’s Chick Lit Writers of the World Chapter and ScriptScene RWA. She’s been featured in both Indiana RWA’s and ScriptScene’s chapter newsletters and been a guest blogger on Romance Writers on the Journey. She is linked to on Romancing the Blog and also has an active blog of her own on her website at www.DDScott.com.

Currently, she’s driving her darling hubby nuts waiting to hear whether or not she’ll be providing Muse Therapy for the 2010 RT BookLovers’ Convention in Columbus OH and for RWR in an article-based Muse Therapy series.

For updates on her books, her sexy, sassy, smart neurotic writer’s life blog, and for a schedule of future muse therapy sessions, visit her website www.DDScott.com. While there, sign-up for her mailing list for chances to win fabulous tchotchkes.

Enrollment Information at http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassOct09.html
COST: $20 for OCC members, $30 for non-members

Coming in November–

“Heightening Conflict Through the Fatal Flaw and Shadow” with Connie Flynn

This class will help you: – Identify your character’s surface traits, find the corresponding shadows, match those plausible fatal flaws, add natural traits that build tension, increase internal and external conflict, and use plot points to ignite character change.

http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html. Check out our full 2009 list of workshops.

Want to be notified personally two weeks before each class? Be sure
you’re signed up for our Online Class Notices Yahoo Group! Sign up at
the bottom of http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclasses.html or send a blank
email to
OCCRWAOnlineClassNotices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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