Beyond the Elements of Style

Need Funding? Try Kickstarter!

Are you a writer, an artist, or a playwright looking for help funding a special project? Instead of going to your local bank, you might want to try another way of endowing your work. Kickstarter is a new way of funding artistic endeavors and other worthy causes. From the website:

We believe that…
• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

REWARDS! Project creators inspire people to open their wallets by offering smart, fun, and tangible rewards (products, benefits, and experiences).

ALL-OR-NOTHING FUNDING! Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands. (It’s less risk for everyone. If you need $5,000, it’s tough having $2,000 and a bunch of people expecting you to complete a $5,000 project. It allows people to test concepts (or conditionally sell stuff) without risk. If you don’t receive the support you want, you’re not compelled to follow through. This is huge! It motivates. If people want to see a project come to life, they’re going to spread the word.

STORIES! Kickstarter projects are efforts by real people to do something they love, something fun, or at least something of note. These stories unfold through blog posts, pics, and videos as people bring their ideas to life. Take a peek around the site and see what we’re talking about. Stories abound.

You need to be absolutely clear about what your needs are and where the money will go, but if you have a business plan for your project (um, you do have a business plan for your project, right?) and feel that it’s possible to get it completed within the time allotted by Kickstarter, this may be the way to go. It’s certainly an interesting concept.

And if you’re actually looking for a project to fund, looking through the available opportunities is a lot of fun. It just goes to show how many creative people there are working out there.

Consider different and unusual ways of getting your project to see the light of day. And then you’ll be .. beyond the elements of style!

The Internet Archive

I keep thinking I know my way around the Net, but this one was new to me:

The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

I’ve just begun to explore it, but it seems to be a grand resource for writers … Here’s more about it:

Libraries exist to preserve society’s cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it’s essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.

Many early movies were recycled to recover the silver in the film. The Library of Alexandria – an ancient center of learning containing a copy of every book in the world – was eventually burned to the ground. Even now, at the turn of the 21st century, no comprehensive archives of television or radio programs exist.

But without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically, with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has referred to as our “digital dark age.”

The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet – a new medium with major historical significance – and other “born-digital” materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.

Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.

The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization.

At present, the size of our Web collection is such that using it requires programming skills. However, we are hopeful about the development of tools and methods that will give the general public easy and meaningful access to our collective history. In addition to developing our own collections, we are working to promote the formation of other Internet libraries in the United States and elsewhere.

As both a writer and historian, I’m very much in favor of the Internet Archive’s mission, particularly this statement: “without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures.” We can all benefit from these cultural artifacts, whether to learn from them, write about them, or be enlightened by them. Visit the archives soon, and often, at archive.org. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Revisiting Jodi Picoult

I’m a playwright as well as an author, and earlier this year I had the honor of “translating” one of Jodi Picoult’s novels, The Pact, into a stage play. The play has been an immense success, including a nomination for best script for the NH Theatre Awards, and it’s led me to revisit many of her other novels, most of which I haven’t read in some years.

There’s something about revisiting an author you haven’t read for some time; it’s like spending time with an old friend. Comfortable and pleasant and sometimes (when you’re lucky) a little surprising. Yesterday a blizzard hit the Cape, where I live, and I allowed myself a pleasant snow day: I stayed in my pajamas and did very little but re-read old friends. Phil Rickman. Dennis Lehane. Michael Malone. And, of course, Jodi herself.

There is a lot of joy in reading (as I discuss in some length in Open Your Heart with Reading), and it doesn’t always have to be something new and challenging.

Spend some time this holiday week with one of your old friends and see what a great experience it can be for you! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: the Video

James Patterson does it on prime-time network television. Others do it on websites and in social communities. Where are you doing it?

I hope that you’re doing it somewhere, because integration of different media is the cutting edge of any kind of marketing these days. And it’s become easier and easier to do your own book trailer (think of what you see on movie trailers and translate it into a book) than ever before. You don’t even need a video camera.

There are a lot of different ways to create your book trailer (both Macs and Windows machines have software that does it more than adequately), so I’ll leave that explanation to the experts: just Google “create book trailer” or something of the sort and read about it. And—this may be the most important step—watch as may book trailers as you can stand. It’s essential to see what’s out there, what people are responding to, etc.

YouTube is making the distribution process easier and easier. Check out these two YouTube features:

• YOUTUBE CHANNELS: Have a whole section of YouTube that’s your very own! And Butterscotch has a quick and easy beginner’s guide to creating a channel. If you haven’t done it yet, now’s a good time to start, according to this Mashable post.
• YOUTUBE STREAMS: Once you start getting people interested in your work, you can create a YouTube stream … in essence, a space where you can watch the video in real-time with other people and discuss it. This is a terrific way to do virtual book presentations, since publishers now have limited budgets for travel and you may not be able totake that sort of time off from your day job.

So take time to learn about the process and play around with creating your own book trailer—again, even before the book is published. Creating buzz takes a strategy and video should play a prominent part in your online marketing plan. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Creative Marketing Ideas

It’s almost 2010, and still I find myself telling bewildered would-be authors that it’s not enough for them to say that they’ll participate in a potential publisher’s promotion plan for their books. That may have worked in the ’50s, I don’t know—I wasn’t writing and publishing then. But it hasn’t worked for some time, and the sooner you get your head wrapped around that concept, the closer you’ll be to selling your book.

Any book proposal, fiction or nonfiction, must include a marketing plan, and the more specific it is, the better. Publishers don’t want to hear that you’ll go along with their ideas, they want to know that you’ll be constantly coming up with ideas of your own, and following through on them. A website. An email list to which you belong. Flyers. Lectures. Giveaways. SEO. Social media. Direct mail. Local cable broadcasts. The list is limited only by your imagination.

And to help that imagination, enter a new blog by PR expert Rebecca Kellogg, Creative Marketing Campaigns. It’s still in its infancy, so don’t expect a plethora of ideas; but I’ve listened to Rebecca’s ideas for some time and I’m excited about the potential for this blog. Try it and see what you think!

An older post (but still relevant) that I think is particularly useful about creative book marketing is called, oddly enough, Creative Book Marketing, and is well worth the read.

If you want a little humor with your research on book marketing, check out the idea of book trailers here.

In any case, remember that it’s no longer up to you to simply write the best book you can. You have to market, market, market. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Read a New Book Today!

Along with most of the world, I spent a fair amount of time yesterday mesmerized by the inaugural ceremony in Washington, rejoicing in the fact that the United States has a new president and that a new day is dawning here.

And just as many people helped President Obama on his way to Washington, so too did many ideas, ideas he encountered through … books. His speeches are brilliant and, in many way, erudite. This is a man who has read much and often, and has pondered what he has read.

In a day when publishers are cutting back and even closing their doors, when bestsellers are often vacuous repetitions of the same message or story in different packaging, it’s worth our while to pause and ponder what we do read. Everyone is talking about format (ebooks! print on demand! whither are we drifting?) without considering content.

What’s on your to-be-read pile? Are there new ideas there? Books that will challenge your thinking and help you grow? Where are you going this year, and what books will take you there?

Why not add one to that pile now, just one, that will make you think, and even perhaps think differently about something? And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Whither Publishing?

As the new year begins and people in publishing begin to take stock of the fallout from last month’s Black Wednesday, a few scenarios are beginning to emerge. There are, of course, the doomsayers who argue that publishing as we know it is over—and that, in fact, it may be over altogether, in any shape or form. Others press on.

A Salon article from the end of December posits one of the (unexpected) benefits of the crash: the reemergence of the small publisher.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, Open Letter Books, a small press based at the University of Rochester, illustrated how a more nimble firm can benefit from the freeze. The publisher bid on the English translation of Mathias Enard’s novel, “Zone” — a single sentence that stretches for 500 pages. An influential translator had called the work the “book of the decade,” and Open Letter director Chad Post expected tight competition for the rights. But no one topped his offer, and he hopes to publish the translation in 2010.

“There’s not much to cut at smaller presses, so they are going to stay the same — they will have an identity coming into the recession, and they will be the same when they come out,” Post says. “It will open up opportunities for the smaller, more stable presses. The bigger houses like Knopf and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are going through an identity shift. It will become very murky what kinds of books they produce.”

(for the full story, click here)

Years ago in this column I wrote that, in essence, the mills are closing. When the economy forced the closure of New England’s textile mills, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a lot of people—a whole lot of people—found themselves without work, without help, without hope. An entire industry had changed. Those who survived were those able to take their skill sets and refashion them for other opportunities.

Sound familiar?

The mills are closing—most of the big ones are having fire sales as we speak—and the production of literature is changing, too. We too need to refashion our skill sets as well as our expectations of how we will continue to read. Reading isn’t going away any more than the wearing of textiles has. You’ll still be buying (and, some of you, writing) books ten years from now. Will they be different? Probably. But isn’t the essence of literature—communicating ideas, enabling readers to fly away on a magic carpet of fantasy—more important than how it’s delivered?

Just trying to keep things in perspective, which keeps me … beyond the elements of style!

And Even More Resources

So I’m doing my annual clean out the cobwebs and go-through-internet-bookmarks-and-see-which-sites-are-still-there routine, and it seems an apt time to share some of the ones that are still, in fact, available. Here are a few, in no particular order:

Need a literary agent? Don’t ask your favorite author for a referral to his or hers — it puts that person in an awkward position (I know whereof I speak; I’ve been there). Instead, visit Agent Query and click the resources link. You may also wish to check out the Association of Authors’ Representatives both for listings and for a sense of how the industry views particular agents.

If the literary agent sites don’t tire you out and you still want to move toward publication, then sample some of the fare at Sensible Solutions, where you can click the — wait for it — “especially valuable links”!

Do you do children’s writing? Then it’s essential for you to know about Harold Underdown’s Purple Crayon site; it’s a fabulous website itself but also gives you helpful links to still more. Also be sure to check out the Children’s Literature Web Guide.

Are you a poet? Then take a look at the Poetry Society and click the resources link.

Here’s a site that’s filled with links to publishers, journals, conferences, magazines, and lots more: it’s the Literature Line.

Bookwire has a number of resources for writers under its “featured links” section.

Google as always needs to weigh in: check out its writers’ resources … but only if you have a lot of time to spend following links!

Good luck with all of it, and as always, feel free to share your own “especially valuable links” with me; I’ll be sure to credit you and your website for a little free SEO in the bargain. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Need Help with Book Club Launch

I’ve decided (with some help) to launch a local book club, with monthly meetings, and I need your help! Yes, you, gentle reader. Who out there has started a book club? Who participates in one? I’m a relative neophyte (have actually belonged to more virtual groups than realtime ones), having once upon a time been in charge of a reading group through my place of employment, which happened to be a bookshop … with emphasis on the “once upon a time.”

So I turn to you. What are your experiences? What works, and what doesn’t? In particular …

• Can I mix fiction and nonfiction?
• How are authors and books selected?
• Is a dessert café a good venue? (I have one in mind: the Purple FeatherHow many people is considered a good size for a book discussion group?
• How long should the discussion last? One hour? Two? Open-ended?
• What questions have I forgotten to ask?

Do please email me at jcezanne@jeannettecezanne.com and tell me your experiences and advice! It will all be greatly appreciated, and will put me well … beyond the elements of style!

Writing Conferences

A client recently asked me about writing conferences. As a concept, my response is a great big “yes” — there’s absolutely nothing to perk up one’s writing like spending a long weekend, a week, or even a month completely immersed in one’s art. The client, of course, wanted me to offer suggestions, and I was a little at a loss, as there are so many out there. How, indeed, to figure out which one is the right one?

One option is to simply take a look at Shaw’s Guides and choose a few that look promising, then write for more information.

I can speak firsthand about a few, and I’ve gleaned recommendations for some other from colleagues, students, and clients. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Bouchercon is “the” mystery conference of the year, attracting authors, editors, agents, and readers from all over the world.
• Writers in Paradise I’ve been trying to get here for years, with something coming up every January, so it’s clearly not Meant To Be for me, but my colleague (and fabulous writer) Bill Lambert recommends it highly. Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippmann, Tom Perrotta, and Stewart O’Nan are on the faculty.
• This one is from a colleague on a writing list: Writers Retreat Workshop “Excellent value for the money. Great connections with best selling authors and agents and editors because you live, write, suffer, eat, and party together. Lots of personal hands-on extras. And, to me anyway, the best thing is that you use your story when you work on scenes, examples, practices, and so on. No more boring and useless examples of what you did last summer or at your Aunt Martha’s for your tenth birthday or what you wanted for Christmas but didn’t get when you were five. All your hard work at the workshop is applied directly to your material.”
• Another colleague writes: “Here’s something to consider: Wild Acres. I have a friend who just returned and highly recommends it. North Carolina. Check out the information about the Residency Program. They offer 25 one-week residencies to writers, artists and crafters from May to October — the only expense is your transportation. There is an application process which begins in the fall. My friend completed the information in December (with very brief information about the project she wanted to work on) and learned of her award in March. The retreat’s owner told her they had received between 130 and 140 applications.”
• The Muse Online This is, as the name implies, an online experience, which right away (to me) is a minus — part of the reason I think attending conferences is so great is the opportunity to immerse oneself in the environment. A little like summer camp when you were a child. But this came recommended (by one of the presenters, so take it with the grain of salt that implies) so I thought I’d include it here.

The important thing is to decide ahead of time what your goals are for the conference. Many of them can feel like a meat market, with writers waiting in line for their pitches to be heard by an agent or acquisitions editor; but if your manuscript is ready and you want to meet some people in the industry, then that may be for you. Others may be looking for workshop opportunities, the availability of known writers to talk about the art and craft of writing, or even just a few hours a day of solitary writing time. No matter what you’re looking for, there’s probably something out there for you.

Send me your suggestions and experiences, and I’ll add them here! And then we’ll be … beyond the elements of style!