The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have an interesting article on some of the problems with POD self-publishing.  In summary…

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Novelists write a query to convince a literary agent or publisher that…

• The book’s concept is exciting and well-designed.  If they don’t like the concept, they won’t read the sample chapters.
• The book is marketable and could find an audience.
• The book has some sort of advantage or angle that will allow it to compete with similar books.  Why will readers pick up this novel instead of a competing title?

The formatting depends on which literary agency or publisher you’re submitting to, but usually it will feature the following sections:

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If you have any questions about formatting a comic book script or novel manuscript, or any questions about grammar/punctuation/capitalization, please post them here.

When a first-time novelist says that he’s writing the first book in a series, that’s usually code for “I’m not going to resolve anything.”

For example, the story builds up to a “climactic” battle that doesn’t actually vanquish the villain. The main sidegoal is to get the girl, but the hero doesn’t manage to accomplish that, either. After reading hundreds of pages, your audience will want some resolution.  If your novel can best be summarized as “to be continued,” then what’s the point?

Here are some better ways to set up sequels.

1. The hero achieves his initial goal, but the problem is more complicated than he had believed.   For example, we are set up to believe that John is the main villain.  Over the course of 300 pages, the hero struggles against him and narrowly defeats him.  At the very end, though, we learn that he was only a lieutenant to the true mastermind.  This gives us some resolution because the hero has accomplished what he set out to do.
2. The hero achieves his goal in a standalone novel, but unanticipated complications arise in a later work.  In the first novel, the hero defeats the villain and woos the heroine.  The end of the first novel will feel satisfying because it appears to have resolved the underlying problems.   The characters live happily ever after… well, not quite.  Your next novel skips forward a few months and reveals that the hero is quite unhappily married and that the villain from last time left a nasty surprise. This sort of sequel is easiest to write if you give yourself some minor loose ends to pick up later.

Grant proposals for the Xeric Foundation have to be postmarked by March 31. Xeric helps underwrite some of the cost of self-publishing.  Self-publishing is highly dangerous, especially for new authors, but grants like these can help minimize your financial liabilities if the project flops.  If you’re interested in applying for a grant, please let me know if I can provide any advice with the proposal.

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Last week, I discussed why self-publishing is an awful idea for young writers.  Here are some of the reasons that self-publishing might make sense for you.

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Slate’s Jacob Weisberg argues that the Kindle will totally reshape the publishing industry.  Not likely.

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My query letter to literary agents is coming along really well!  This is the first major writing success I’ve had in the last month.

I’m planning for the contingency that someone beats me in our proofreading contest next month.   So I need to design the t-shirt that I might give out.  My original plan was to just give out a generic Superhero Nation t-shirt, but I’d like to design a separate “I Beat B. Mac” t-shirt.

On the front, I think it will have something like a Che Guevara-esque drawing of me with the caption “I Beat a Professional Proofreader And and All I Got was This Lousy T-Shirt.”  That’s kind of cliche, so hopefully one of you can suggest something more stylish.

There will be text on the back.  For example, something like “What are you waiting for?  Beat B. Mac and win this shirt on  SUPERHERONATION.COM”

Hello.  I have an exciting new game for the grammatically inclined.  Compete with B. Mac in a proofreading contest.  Those that can score 80% as many points as BM will be eligible for a volunteer moderator position.  Those that score more points than B. Mac will also receive a free Superhero Nation t-shirt.  (I’m judging the contest, but I’ll be fair).  If you’d like to compete, please download the following document and email your completed version to superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com.  The contest ends on March 27!

Unfortunately, many literary agents are dishonest and/or incompetent.  Here are some tips to help you select an agent that knows what he’s doing.

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Site titles play an important role in search engine optimization.  A site named “Superhero Nation: a writing advice site” has a much better chance to place for a search like superhero writing advice than a site named just “Superhero Nation.”  Site titles also helps draw people into your website by explaining what viewers will get out of your website.

For example, check out how a typical search for Superhero Nation appears on Google.  The site name plays more prominently than the name of the article does.

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Good literary agents only accept manuscripts with some potential, so having a good literary agent suggests to publisher that the work is worth looking at more closely.

According to Kris Waldherr…

“Of the hundreds (maybe thousand plus) of manuscripts I read during a six month period, only about 2% went onto consideration by an acquiring editor. None of them were acquired. This suggests why so many publishers have stopped reading manuscripts not submitted to them by agents or colleagues. Bottom line: reading unsolicited submissions is simply not cost effective.”

If you’re thinking about self-publishing, particularly print-on-demand, please check out this estimate of some of your startup costs.

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These are some of the biggest comic book companies.  Knowing which publishers are geared towards your style of writing or art will help you decide which publishers to apply to. (Please note that I tried to stay away from publishers that do not accept unsolicited queries, like Marvel and DC Comics).

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This should be pretty obvious, but unfortunately it isn’t.  When you submit a novel manuscript or a comic book script, pick your prospective publishers carefully.  Make sure you submit it to publishers that actually work with stories that have a lot in common with your story.

1. Audience (age and gender)
2. Genre and content
3. Style/mood
4. Setting (real-world Earth vs. historical vs. the future vs. a Tolkien-like fantasy world)
5. Length, for books (length usually goes hand-in-hand with the age of the audience)
6. Art style, for comic books (dark and gritty vs. Western cartoons vs. anime/manga, for example)

Prospective publishers love it when authors put some thought into this.  If your query clearly shows that you have looked into which publishers will be the best fit for your book, you will look professional and competent.  A good place to start is looking up 5 or 10 comparable works on Amazon.  Where did they get published?  For comic books, which editors signed on?  That should give you a few publishers to look into.

I’ll use a very particular example to show how easy this is.  For example, right now I’m looking for publishers that would be interested in a guide for how to write superhero novels and comic books.  It’s aimed at teens.  Many publishers have printed books for kids that want to write, so finding apt publishers shouldn’t be a problem.  I’d also like to look at publishers that have printed guides about writing comic books.  

After 30 minutes on Amazon, I found ~10 works that seemed comparable at first glance.  Let’s look at why these works might or might not suggest that their publisher would be interested in mine…

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This is pretty much the most obvious writing advice I can think of. If this is your first novel or comic book, don’t self-publish unless you can afford for the project to completely flop.

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I have a very unusual request.  If you’ve followed the webcomic very closely, you might remember that Agent Orange is a really bad author.  However, he’s even worse at poetry and plays.  During a scene I’m working on, Agent Orange uses his poetry (or playwrighting) to torture a confession out of a criminal.  However, I’ve never really gotten into poetry, so it’s hard for me to simulate truly, spectacularly awful poetry (or plays).  Would you like to take a go?  I’ll probably only need 5-7 lines.

Celtx is a free scripting program that is designed for comic books (among other types of scripts).  I find it very useful.

THE EXCELLENT

• It produces scripts that are generally easier to read and navigate than Microsoft Word.
• Easy to learn.  It took me 10 minutes to figure it out by trial and error.
• It’s extremely good at converting scripts into typeset.  (You can see an example here).  A typeset separates the in-panel text (like dialogue, captions and sound effects) from the text that won’t actually appear in the panel, like your directions to the artist.  That’s useful because it helps you gauge how large the panels will have to be to accommodate the text.
• It’s free!

THE GOOD

• Handles comments notably better than Word.
• It’ll help you keep your comic book documents separate from your other files.
• If you like to fill out index cards with important details about characters or places, it can help keep those details accessible and organized.
• Built-in spellchecker.  Not that important for a professional proofreader, but you might find it helpful.

THE BAD

• It’s not as easy to add dialogue as new pages or panels.
• They should add buttons for New Panel and New Page.
• It can’t save scripts as Word files.  Everybody (like friends and editors) is comfortable with Word.  Right now, if I have a Celtx script that I want to show you, I have to also tell you how to download Celtx and pray that you figure out the software quickly.

One last note. I haven’t had a chance to test its printing capabilities yet.  Given that Celtx can’t produce Word files (as far as I know), its ability to print usable scripts is essential.

The typical comic book page is a grid of panels. That’s fine, but it can get boring. This article will help you play around with your panel layout. Your pages don’t all have to look like this.

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Hello! An acquaintance recently attempted suicide and, umm, I really feel that I should wish him well and offer whatever help I can, probably class help because that’s what I know how to do. We’re in the middle of midterms, so I would imagine that academic pressure is probably involved. I have a few concerns, though.

1. I don’t want him to feel like people only care about him because he attempted suicide. (I mean, I run a website designed to help young adults write, so hopefully it’s easy to approach me for academic help).
2. I don’t want to make him feel guilty or be the hundredth person to remind him about something he probably regrets.

Any thoughts about how to encourage him tactfully?

The synopsis is the most important part of a novel proposal. If the synopsis looks bad, the editor will toss the proposal without even looking at the chapters.

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There are two kinds of successful worker:  entrepreneurs that start their own projects, and professionals that the entrepreneurs trust enough to bring onto those projects.

1. Did you start any big projects this past year, like trying to write a novel or comic book?  Did you succeed?  Why or why not?  What project could you start this year?

2. Have you cultivated any relationships with the sort of people that are likely to help you be successful? For example, if you want to become a writer, developing a relationship with professional writers, editors and/or literary agents is wise.  (“Hey, B. Mac.  This chapter doesn’t feel like it’s working.  Could you give me some suggestions?”) If you want to write comic books, you’ll probably also benefit from friends that are talented artists.  Even if your networking is as rudimentary as making a few contacts through an art-site like DeviantArt, that’s a good start. Even if you don’t end up hiring them to be your artist, they can still provide valuable feedback. (“This page doesn’t look right. Any suggestions?”)

3. Have you cultivated any relationships with the people that are likely to start projects you’d like to work on?

The words “villain” and “supervillain” are commonly misspelled. Don’t mess them up!

Hi, I’m looking to get published. My prospective publishers want me to provide information about my audience. Specifically, are you interested in my book about how to write superhero stories? Would you prefer information tailored to novelists, comic book writers or both?

I would really appreciate 5 minutes of your help. Thanks!

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1.  Read broadly and watch a lot of movies.  If you’re only acquainted with a few well-known works, your stories will probably feel like they were heavily influenced by those stories.

2.  Learn grammar, punctuation and spelling.  It’s basic writing craft.  THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL. It will be extremely difficult (if not totally impossible) to get professionally published if you don’t have a grasp on these basic writing skills.  It’s sort of like showing up for basketball tryouts even though you don’t know how to dribble.  You will be the first one cut.  If your submission has glaring spelling and punctuation mistakes, you will be the first one cut.

3.  Professional publishing is extremely competitive.  Most novel publishers, for example, reject more than 99% of their manuscripts.  If you’re daunted by rejection, this is not a good field for you.  Unless you’re freakishly talented, expect to spend months rewriting before you get published.

4.  Try to major in something other than English or creative writing.  Having knowledge in a field outside of writing will give you more material to draw on, which will give you an edge over other authors.  Even something like history or political science will give you amusing anecdotes you can draw on later.

5.  If you’re really serious about becoming a professional author, I’d recommend attending a private university.  First, their class sizes tend to be smaller across the board, so writing workshops will probably be more instructive.  They also tend to offer more money for undergraduates interested in taking on creative endeavors.

6.  Blogging is good experience. It can help you figure out what attracts an audience and what doesn’t.  It can also help you create and sharpen ideas.  For example, this writing blog has generated at least one book worth of material about how to write well.

7.  Writing fan-fiction is generally not good experience.  It’s better to try creating your own worlds, characters, plot-lines, etc.  The material you generate will be fresher and easier to use later.

8.  In writing, there are no points for effort or personal circumstances.  You’re judged only on the quality of your product.  Please don’t be one of the writers that pleads for the mercy of publishers because they suffer from (usually self-diagnosed) dyslexia or whatever. If something like dyslexia affects your writing, you have three options: overcome the obstacles yourself, have someone else deal with the problem (by proofreading your work, for example), or find a new line of work. Even if you are dyslexic, you will be held to the same standards of readability as everybody else.

9. Writing teachers mean well and can be great sources of advice, but remember to take all advice with a grain of salt.  For example, maybe the teacher doesn’t have a style similar to yours.  If so, his advice might just mean that he’s not a fan of your preferred kind of writing.  For example, we tend to prefer  mass-market comedies and action stories rather than denser, literary works.  If we told you that your work was overwrought and didn’t move quickly enough, one possibility you should consider is that it’s moving fast enough for the kind of book you’re writing.  I’d also recommend looking for literary agents that have experience selling books like yours.

If you’d like to suggest any, I’d appreciate that. Here are some of the questions we’ve previously answered.

• How can I beat writer’s block?  (Part 2 here). 
• What are some common mistakes on the first page? 
• How can I write an effective opening?
• What do I need to include in my comic book submission? 
• How can I improve my fight scenes?
• I’m thinking about self-publishing. What are some of the obstacles I should be aware of?

1. When it comes to developing your characters, be bold. In most cases, it’s safer and more effective to develop character traits clearly rather than take the traits halway.  For example, if the hero is definitely smart or cowardly or whatever, readers will definitely be on your page and it will be easier to use the character to drive the plot.  In contrast, if the hero is just kind of smart or whatever, it often feels like the author is making it up as he goes along.  For example, Dr. Impossible from Soon I Will Be Invincible is kind of the smartest man on Earth, except when he talks like he’s Napoleon Dynamite and inexplicably goes to a funeral attended by hundreds of superheroes.  Mohinder is kind of a scientific genius, except when he inexplicably decides to test his mutant serum on himself without doing any sort of testing first.
2. Remove everything from your story you aren’t willing to stand by. For example, if you plan to reveal that the last 10 or 20 pages were just a dream or a hallucination, why bother wasting our time with them?  I recommend cutting those pages out, because otherwise readers will probably feel like you’re jerking them around.  I also recommend against having lines of dialogue that the character takes back shortly afterward (“when I said something nasty a line ago, I was just kidding!  Haha!”)  Again, if you aren’t willing to stand by the lines you’ve written, they will probably just confuse and/or annoy the audience.  If the character’s not actually nasty, for example, a line that could suggest he’s nasty is probably a red herring that should be removed.
3. Actions should have consequences. One common problem, particularly with Mary Sue characters, is that the character’s actions rarely have negative consequences.

Thanks, I’d really appreciate it.  Right now, the main thing I’m working on is character-design, specifically a mutant alligator that’s pretty much the Hobbes in a Calvin & Hobbes comic duo.

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Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.

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