I'm a former assistant editor with advice about how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide articles specifically about superhero stories.

After a sting to the head and a precautionary shot of Epinephrine, we can conclusively say that I am alive and the bee is not.  In your face, Mother Nature!

• Should I mention fan-fiction in my query letter? No.  Nor would I recommend mentioning self-published works unless you’ve sold at least a few thousand copies or blogs unless you have hundreds of thousands of readers.
• cool superhero names. the superhero has all powers. I think your story has more pressing issues than character names.
• how long should a novel be. Adult novel manuscripts are usually 80-100,000 words but there is some variation by genre.  YA novel manuscripts are usually around 40-60,000 words.
• how do i represent foreign text in comic books? If the character is speaking another language but you want to translate it into English for readers, I would recommend something like this.
  

  If the text is in the art rather than the lettering (such as a store sign in Shanghai or a Babylonian tablet), then I would recommend sending the artist a copy of the text in a  large font, as well as a screenshot of the text in a large font (in case the artist’s word-processor can’t read the language).

I’m changing a lot of content around tonight and many links may be broken until, say, Sunday.  I’m doing my best to update the links, but if you find any that don’t work, please post a comment somewhere.  Thanks!

When you do a barrel roll, try to flip your vehicle an even number of times rather than an odd.

RIGHT

WRONG

I passed the Foreign Service Exam.  Getting closer!  The Personal Narrative Questions are next. 

P. Mac (my unevil twin?) got 100,000 readers last Saturday after the New York Times linked one of his posts.  So he performed some dark sorcery on the server and now the server’s sites (including this one) can cheerfully handle tens of thousands of people.  Good times!  I remember when 12,000 people caused SN to crash.

Hello. If you haven’t taken my survey yet, I would really appreciate if you gave me 10 minutes of your time. That will help me get published. You can take it by clicking here or by reading under the fold. Completing the survey enters you into a raffle to win a free, signed copy of The Taxman Must Die when it comes out.
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• literary agents for comic book writers. I’ve gone back and forth on this a few times.  I’ve heard good things about Bob Mecoy and he’s worked with a variety of comics publishers (including DC).  Besides that, I’d lean towards submitting a comic book without an agent.
• top superhero novels. See this.
• how to get a superhero stiry published. Step one: proofread.
• comic on potassium. Uhh, good luck with that one.
• alligator vs. werecanadian. Here.
• slash fiction comic book. Not here.
• “fire dragon” + “exploding” + “dictator.” I have no idea what you’re looking for, but suddenly I want to find it too.

• schlieffen plan comic. Add an exploding dictator, and I’m game.

• how to narrate an important choice or decision. First, you can show the character taking it seriously, maybe sweating or behaving nervously or otherwise worrying about getting it right.  Alternately, you can have him think through the consequences.
• how can I become a superhero? Step 1: get a job at a nuclear power plant.  The more leaks, the better.
• writing a paper about whether players should be held for accidentally hitting the umpire with a baseball. When I tell my publisher how many readers this site has, I’m going to subtract this guy.
• average advance for first time fantasy novel. $6500.   However, the typical first-time advance is $5000.  (The average is skewed by a few superstars that make a bajillion dollars on their first go).   Also, don’t forget to secure an agent.
• panels on the average american comic book page. I think it really depends on the situation.  In a page heavy on dialogue, I usually do 6-8 and Watchmen often did 9.  If the page has a lot of action or heavily involved settings, I would recommend doing fewer panels because you’ll usually need more space for a visually involved panel than you would for text.
• surprising facts about alligators. When holding an alligator, make sure you hold its neck in place.   Otherwise, it can turn its head and possibly rip something off.   (Depending on the size of the alligator, common losses include fingers and arms).

Hello. If you haven’t seen my comic book’s five sample pages already, please check them out here and sign up for a chance to win a free signed copy when it comes out. Thanks! Having more interested readers will help me get published and I really appreciate your time.

Hello. If you haven’t seen my comic book’s five sample pages already, please check them out here and sign up for a chance to win a free signed copy when it comes out. Thanks! Having more interested readers will probably improve my odds of getting published and I really appreciate the help.

The Taxman Must Die is a wacky mix of an office comedy and a national security thriller. Two unlikely secret agents– an accountant and a mutant alligator– have to save the world. From themselves, mostly. If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so easy for supervillains to break out of prison or why black heroes die so quickly, you will probably enjoy it.  Here’s the scene where the two main characters first meet!

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Version 1.3 of my script is ready! As before, the password is my first name (no capitals).  My first name is the most common name for American guys that starts with a ‘b.‘ If you’re still not sure what it is, please feel free to e-mail me at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com.  I’m sorry to inflict a password on you, particularly one so pathetic, but it’ll reduce the chances that bots will pirate the script before you have a chance to buy it. As the French say, that would be le suck.

Please let me know what you think about the script. Right now, it’s at 35 pages. For printing reasons, it’s much easier for a publisher to deal with 32 pages than 35, so I need to cut three pages out.  If you can think about any scenes that can be shortened or removed, I’d really appreciate that.

I have joined the editorial staff of a comic book publisher. My coworkers are very friendly, our series are excellent and it feels like a very good fit.

Hopefully, your SN reading experience will not change very much.

• As before, I’d like to help you write the best superhero stories you can.
• Please regard my suggestions merely as opinions from an extremely new assistant editor rather than rules for “the industry” or a particular company.
• I won’t blog about anything I observe on the job without asking first, so don’t expect many industry insights here.   If the editors wanted to talk about how the company runs, they’d probably use their own websites.
• If you’re looking for a job, I can’t help you much. My only advice is that professional-grade proofreading skills are required for editors and highly helpful for writers.  They show that you’re serious about writing and help you contribute to the team.  If that advice is actually news to you, I would recommend looking into fields besides publishing.

Hello. I’d appreciate if you’d take 3-5 minutes to sign up for my mailing list, if you haven’t already done so. Everyone on the list gets a chance to win a free, signed copy of SN #1 when it comes out. Also, having many interested readers will hopefully help me get published. Thanks for your support!

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The fact that I found this amusing is probably my body’s way of telling me I shouldn’t stay up this late.

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My freelance work is picking up, so I don’t think I’ll be around very much today or tomorrow.  If you’d like me to look at something as soon as I get back, please leave me a comment somewhere reminding me what you’d like to look at.

My resolutions for 2009 were:

1. Expand SN to 500,000 hits and 1.5 million page-views. That didn’t happen, but I did end up increasing my hits by 100% and my page-views by 150%.   I’m especially happy about getting my bounce-rate from 59% down to 52%.
2. Get a comic book published. It hasn’t happened yet but I think I’m at the finish line.  I submit in late February and anticipate the first round of responses by May.
3. Finish writing the nonfiction book. I have finished the manuscript, but I think it’ll take me a year or two to get it published.  (I need to get some fiction published first).
4. Work on my novel. I gave up on this, actually.
5. Find a fulltime job. Got it!

My resolutions for 2010 are…
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• Basic proofreading. I’ll fix your grammar, spelling and punctuation.  The rate for this ranges from one cent per word for a polished writer to five cents for someone who needs more proofreading help.  If you have fewer than three typos per page, I’d offer you a rate of one cent per word.
• Query letters and submission letters. When you submit a novel manuscript or comic book script to a publisher, you also need to include a letter explaining your proposal in a persuasive fashion.  Usually this is one page long for a novel and one to two pages long for comic book proposals.  $100 for the first page and $50 for every subsequent page.
• Header design. I’d have to work out a rate based on what you’d like in your header, but this would probably be around $100-125 for Photoshopped photography and text and $200-300 if you’d like something more cartoony, like our header.
• Stylistic rewrite. I’ll rewrite a chapter (or chapters) to be more effective.  This is considerably more expensive than simple proofreading.  I’ll quote you a rate after seeing the chapter(s), but probably around 10-15 cents per word.
• Comic book formatting and proofreading. This ranges from $10 per page for a well-polished script to $20 per page for a script that needs a lot of editing.  If there are fewer than 3 typos per page, I will offer a rate of $10 per page.

A few notes to keep in mind.

• If the order is more than $100, I’d like half of the total payment upfront and half upon completion to your satisfaction.  If it’s less than $100, I’d like all of it upfront.
• Most of my past clients have paid with Paypal.  If you have something else in mind, please let me know and we can work that out.
• I am (ludicrously) American, but I’ve worked with British spelling before.  If you’re trying to get published in Britain, Australia or Canada, I’d be honoured to work with you.

If you’d be interested in working with me, please let me know at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com .  Thanks!

I’m applying for a job a day for two weeks.  So far, I’ve gotten an offer I’m considering.  And a bait-and-switch scam.  I forgot the cardinal rule of writing: any writing job that pays more than $10 an hour is a lie.  (I’m exaggerating, but not much).

1.  Please take my comic book survey! Thanks.  It’ll take about five minutes and will help me get my comic book published. 

2.  Registered SN users can use HTML coding in comments and access our comment search-engine by going down to the link that says Site Admin at the bottom.  (Nonregistered users can only see the 15 most recent comments).  If you haven’t registered, why not? It’s free!

Since it would be really annoying for me to keep e-mailing people whenever I have a new version ready, I’ll post the versions online.  HOWEVER, for security reasons I have to use a password– to open the document, the password is my first name (no capitals).  If you don’t know what my first name is, please e-mail me and I’ll tell you.  Alternately, you could just try guessing male names that begin with b– it would probably be faster.  

This is a hassle for everyone, and I apologize, but this helps me avoid the nightmare scenario of a complete script going viral before people have a chance to buy it.  

Script version 1.1, pages 1-37. 

A summary of changes from 1.0 to 1.1: 

• I removed about two pages worth of material, including most of the side-scene with the cabbie and the page where he signs a legal contract.  
• The “Jebediah Whateley” tangent is completely gone.  It was convoluted and didn’t add anything. 
• I’ve started sharpening a few of the scenes, mainly Gary-Orange and Gary-Felix. 

The first draft of my first issue is done at 36 pages. If you’d like me to send you a copy, please let me know.

So far I’m up to 34 pages on my first comic book issue. I think the first draft will be ~40 pages and then I’ll edit that down to a final draft of 32 pages. I terribly underestimated the amount of space I would need for each scene. For example, in my original outline, I estimated the two main characters would meet on page 8. As actually written, they meet on page 28.

Anyway, if you’d like to review the first draft, I will have that ready by Friday. If you’re interested, please let me know so that I can e-mail it to you.

“I hate reality television. If I wanted to see conmen humiliate themselves, I’d watch C-SPAN.”

Overheard at a college tutoring center…   

No, the Underground Railroad was not the world’s first subway system…   I don’t care what Wikipedia told you. 

If you’re here because you’d like to color the comic book I’m working on, please keep reading. If not, you’ll probably find this pretty boring.

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If you have registered, you can now access our comment search-engine by going down to the link that says Site Admin at the bottom.  This will also let you scroll through comments beyond just the 15 most recent ones.  (As before, registered users also get to use HTML coding in comments).  If you haven’t registered, why not?  It’s free! 

I’ve been updating the index of writing articles like a fiend.  Give it a look!  Yesterday it had 80 articles, and 120 today.  Unfortunately, I have about 150 more to go.

The query is a letter written to an agent or publisher explaining what you’re writing and why they should want to represent/publish you. #Queryfail collects amusing anecdotes about authors that need to work a bit more on their pitch.

• “The only thing worse than ignoring guidelines because you think you’re special is actually telling me that in the query.” — AgentGame
• “Querying for a book you admit isn’t great, but saying you thought you’d take a shot at getting an agent anyway? Obnoxious.” — AgentGame
• “REMEMBER 50k words is not enough to get your novel published – most pubs want 75 – 120k novels!” –EelKat [B. Mac adds-- most of the advice I've seen in this field suggests that first-timers should stay south of 100,000 words, but some genres are more forgiving than others.]
• Before you query, read your first few pages aloud and tape-record yourself. I bet you’ll identify problems.
• All agents who received “Book Query 51″ today, raise your hand.

The author behind My Writer’s Block got off lucky with this one– it definitely wasn’t that easy for me to get rid of Vista. 

This reminds me of my freshman year, when Dell computers suddenly started melting (and at least once bursting into flames) across campus.  I signed on as a marketer for a team of computer guys who were selling homemade computers that were suddenly desirable.  Our motto was “one melted computer is a tragedy; a hundred melted computers are an opportunity.” 

Just register here (it’s free) and you’re good to go.  I have a crash course to HTML below.  

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I set up a new page for Feedback. If you’d like to give me suggestions, insults or compliments, that would be the best place to do so.  Alternately, please feel free to e-mail me at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com as always, but I can’t respond as quickly to e-mail.

Legal disclaimer time! The FTC is requiring US bloggers, as of December 1, to disclose the receipt of free products. 

1.  Please assume that every novel and comic book I review has been given to me as a promotional copy. 

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Hello. If you haven’t taken my survey yet, I would really appreciate if you gave me 10 minutes of your time. That will help me get published. You can take it by clicking here or by reading under the fold.
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Here’s an amusing excerpt from a Washington Post article…

“We are at a point where no one could have even imagined 15 years ago,” said Albert J. Lurigio, a professor of psychology and criminal justice at Loyola University who has written about electronic monitoring and privacy since a New Mexico judge, inspired by Spider-Man comics, became the first to sentence a defendant to home confinement with an electronic monitor. 

Does this mean we’re on the verge of surgically implanting explosive nanites in dangerous parolees? In your face, recidivism!

I’ll be back in a few days and won’t be on much until then.

I just bought a webcam, but I’m ambivalent about using it here.  Would it be helpful if I supplemented our usual lineup of written advice and reviews with some webcast material? Or would it feel like a gimmick?

Here are some of the factors I’m considering. What do you think?

1. The visual element can provide a solid opportunity for style and personality. For example, Angry Nintendo Nerd’s rants and Ask Prudie’s etiquette advice both use the author’s presence to create flair.  However, quite a few webcasters waste that opportunity by dully reading a script.  What’s the point?  I wouldn’t subject my readers to something that’s slower and more complicated unless I was confident that I had the style to make it work.

2. Webcasting generally strikes me as more entertaining but less informative than pure text. For one thing, it’s harder for readers to follow a video at their own pace and it’s easier to misconstrue something that is spoken rather than written.  However, university classes about fiction writing often involve a lot of oral instruction.  So I think something like a video-lecture is plausible.

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Repeat after me:  I believe in Antasari Azhar.  He’s the chairman of Indonesia’s main anti-corruption unit.  Err, former chairman.

The police…  threatened to arrest several commission officials on corruption charges of their own and in a bizarre case involving their former chairman, Antasari Azhar. In May, Mr. Antasari was arrested and accused of ordering the murder of a prominent businessman who was blackmailing him over an affair with their mutual love interest, a golf caddy, according to the news media.

I’m just getting back from San Diego.  If my brother had had the foresight to schedule his wedding a week later than he had, perhaps we could have done Comic-Con.  (Because comic books are obviously awesomer than real life… haha).  Here are some San Diego tips that might help you if you’re going to Comic-Con.

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Here is some grilling advice for beginners.  Now go out and have a barbecue.

Hello.  If you haven’t taken our survey yet, I would really appreciate if you gave us 10 minutes of your time.  That will help us get published.  You can take it by clicking here or by reading under the fold.
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The Washington Post reveals that Iranian’s crack spies are getting dangerously close to uncovering the conspiracy surrounding Iran’s democratic movement.

The governor of greater Tehran, Morteza Tamadon, a staunch Ahmadinejad ally, claimed Wednesday that 800 artists and academics who had visited the United States in recent years were trained to protest the election outcome.

I met one of them in Washington!  I don’t remember discussing how to protest election outcomes, or even how to statistically identify electoral fraud.  But then again, I would say that, wouldn’t I?

CNN reports that Iran has outed another party involved in this vast democratic conspiracy:  CNN!  A spokesperson for the Iranian government has more:

This is the CNN’s schedule. They officially trained the people to come and hack Iran’s government Web sites. This is the English text, I can give it to you. This is a cyber war.”

I cannot remember what I was doing last Saturday.  Perhaps I was getting drunk as a Mormon in a barrel of rum*.  Or perhaps I was actually training hackers to destablize the Iranian government and the CIA kindly implanted fake memories of $6 margaritas so that I couldn’t give up any information under torture.

*Not likely, given that I don’t drink.  If you think I can afford $6 margaritas on a writer’s salary, you must be factoring in the CIA/Mossad stipends I get every month.

Dark comedy aside, I wish the best to the people of Iran, but unfortunately protests against undemocratic regimes are rarely successful in the short term.  In the heat of the moment, the government has several major advantages, including all-but-unmatchable firepower.

I have a business trip to the East Coast this week.  I’m very excited!  I will probably be less active than usual this week.

If you’re a blogger interested in accumulating a large audience, it’s really important to do posts as regularly as you can.  But life sometimes gets in the way.  Anyway, I’m back!

We just got up to 10,000 comments. Congratulations to Holliequ.

This time, we changed SUPERHERO NATION.  We tested out two new fonts:  VTC Supermarket Display and Rifleman.  We also added a few minor effects that are probably pretty hard to notice.  (We strengthened the drop-shadow and altered the blue-purple-red gradient).  What do you think?

I’ve included some before-and-after shots beneath the jump…

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Last Friday, we switched headers.  This is what it used to look like.

And here’s the new version. The only noticeable difference is that the bubbles have been redrawn.

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Earlier this month, Praxis Comics’ site had gone down for a few days and I assumed that the publisher had folded. After all, it’s a cutthroat business and their website had previously mentioned some trouble with investors.  However, I am pleased to report that the website has returned with a new design.  (I’m generally fond of Praxis’ art, but I think the design probably uses sex-appeal a bit too blatantly.  Ah well.  That’s pretty standard for this industry).

I also came across Radical Comics.  They don’t accept unsolicited submissions, so I won’t add them to our index of comic book publishers.  But I think they’re worth looking into because they have book trailers for all of their series.

So, if you’re interested in doing a trailer for your comic book (or perhaps even a novel), I think you can learn something from their approach.  Their trailers are striking because they have no narration and hardly any words; they only use wordless images and an instrumental sound-track.  That’s a surprisingly interesting way to present a simpler story like Calibre, an Arthurian legend retold in the Wild West.  It did not work for series with a more complicated setup.  For example, the premise of City of Dust is that fictional stories have been outlawed 100 years in the future.  I don’t feel like the images gave me a good idea of what was going on or why I should care.

Penn State recently released a workplace orientation video about potentially angry students, such as veterans. But which angry students did they miss?

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