I can be contacted here.

My favorite types of messages:

• Review requests. Send me your novel manuscript, comic book script, short story and/or query and I’ll offer some suggestions about how you might be able to improve it. I’ve also reviewed writing websites, marketing materials and comic book art.
• Any other questions related to writing and/or strengthening a novel manuscript, short story or comic book script.
• Business questions, like how to market your works more effectively or find a comic book artist.
• Job proposals–I’m available as a freelance editor, proofreader and/or author.
• Feedback and/or witty insults (please hold the forgettable ones–otherwise you’re wasting both of our time).
• Interesting links.  If a link is somehow related to fiction writing and/or the publishing industry, I’m 99% likely to check it out.

Please do not send me any of the following:

• Anything related to movie and/or TV scripts. I’ve never worked in Hollywood and can’t help you there.
• Fan-fiction.
• Any stories with 3+ typos in the first paragraph.  Sorry, but I only have time to read/review about half of the stories that come my way. I don’t have time for everyone, so I have to limit myself to the authors that are most serious about their craft.  (If you’re not there yet, no worries–please submit again as soon as your manuscript is ready).
• Anything inspired in any way by Dragonball Z.  (If you’re confident you’re a serious writer, you can send it anyway, but I will stop reading if there are more than 10+ typos per page.  So far those stories are 0 for 5).
• Publishing requests. I can offer advice but not publishing deals.
• Any personal information that probably should not be shared with online strangers, such as your age/sex/location/medical issues/fondness for Dragonball Z, unless it’s really relevant to a question you have.

“Why are there no good superhero novels?” I disagree with this premise–I’d recommend checking out Wild Cards, Dark Cloud Rising and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.  However, let’s say for the sake of argument that there aren’t many good ones.  I think that’s because superhero novels are very rare.  Probably fewer than 50 unlicensed adult superhero novels have been published over the past ten years.  With so few books on the market, there couldn’t be tons of  good ones.  PS: Besides presidential memoirs, I doubt that any subgenres have a higher proportion of Pulitzer winners than superhero novels.

Action novels–not enough story. Even an action story needs a central plot and character development.  And not “development” in the Dragonball Z sense, charting how much more powerful a character becomes from one chapter to the next. How does the protagonist’s quest change him? What sort of difficult choices does he face?

How to copyright a comic book. Your comic book is automatically copyrighted as soon as you write it. You’re fine.
How to copyright a superhero. Likewise.

Is “superhero” a genre? Not any more than “vampire,” I think.  To be considered a genre, I think that a concept has to say a lot about the main goal of the author and/or main character.  For example, detective stories are always about solving mysteries and romances are always about finding and/or protecting love.  I’ve seen too many superhero stories that have nothing to do with beating up criminals to think that “superhero” meets that description.  I would consider “superhero” to be a subgenre, usually of the action genre.  Another indicator that “superhero” is not a genre is that bookstores rarely, if ever, designate a shelf (or online search category) for superhero stories.  Genres usually get their own shelves.

How to tell if your superhero story sucks. Well, we’re too polite to put it like that, but having your story critiqued on  a review forum on Superhero Nation or Critters can identify potential problems and solutions.

Unused superhero names. Heh, good luck with that.  If you want original names, you probably need to come up with your own or brainstorm privately with a friend. If you use a name posted on the Web, you’re running the risk that someone else might have used it.

How to write a superhero story like [a particular series]. You are capable of better writing than glorified fan-fiction. If not, I would recommend looking into other career paths.

Responsibilities and duties of a comic book editor. First, I’d like to preface this by saying that jobs as editors are usually not entry-level positions.   If you’re interested in breaking into comic book editing,  I’d recommend looking into assistant editor positions.  That said, some responsibilities of CB editors include…

• Ensuring that many series come out with high quality and on schedule. According to Mark Waid, DC editors usually handle 4-8 series a month and Marvel editors do maybe twice as many.
• Coordinating the writer(s) and art team and any freelancers.
• Supervising and developing junior members, like preparing assistant editors to eventually run their own series.
• Moving Heaven and the Earth to meet deadlines.  There will probably be some nights without sleep.
• Promoting the series.  For example, you might do some conference appearances and write content for (and moderate) websites and online forums to keep fans pumped up for the series you are oh-so-reliably putting out on time.
• Some copyediting and proofreading (although I think these are usually handled by assistant editors).
• Effectively communicating orally and in writing.
• Working effectively with a variety of people (writers, artists, letterers, freelancers, readers, etc).
• Meeting deadlines.  (Have I mentioned how crucial this is?)

How much do comic book writers make? More than novelists, less than vagabonds.  It really depends on how many series you are able to write per month, and how well they sell.

A good start off sentence to present a superhero. Lead with an interesting detail, preferably something that distinguishes him from other superheroes.  For example, maybe something about his personality or an interesting life experience.  One thing that bothers me a bit is when a story zooms in on how buff/hot the character is, because 1) most superheroes are just as buff and 2) if the character’s attractiveness is really his most interesting/notable trait, I would HIGHLY recommend going back to the drawing board.

What should I say if the publisher asks for five reasons you chose us? Interesting question.  I’ll do this in a full-length post later today. Here’s my short version.  1) Your story fits their preferred genres and/or subgenres.  2) The publisher works a lot with your target audience (such as gender, age, literary background, etc).  3) One of the employees there has personally impressed you, perhaps with a blog or a writing guide.  (Please note: you won’t necessarily work with that employee, but the publisher will appreciate that you have a demonstrated interest in their work).  4) You’ve enjoyed this publisher’s books in the past.  5) The publisher is clear about its expectations (on its submissions page, for example).  That’s a big plus.  6) The publisher has something unique going on that appeals to you.  Perhaps they’re looking for an unusual story format or have a unique cultural slant or publish in your country or whatever.

I’m looking for representation for a fiction manuscript 70,000 words long. Check out AgentQuery. Also, when you’re looking for agents, I would recommend picking out prospects based on your genre and/or style of writing more than your word-count.

Superhero with potassium properties. WTF? The only property of potassium I can think of is that it explodes when exposed to water.  I’m, umm, not familiar with any such characters.

• How long should my novel manuscript be?
• What should I look for when I review a chapter?
• What should I look for when I review my comic book art?
• How can I make supermodels want to date me?
• What are some common day-jobs for superheroes?
• Are there any jobs for chemical engineers besides degreasing McDonald’s fry machines? (Of course!  Burger King).
• How long should I wait to introduce my main character?
• How can I do accents well?
• How can I write a good opening?
• How can I do fight scenes?
  

Also, there’s a prize! One lucky person on the list will receive a free signed copy.

Thanks for your help. Signing up will help me get published because it indicates that I have enough waiting customers to turn a profit.

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!

1.  Readers are usually less patient than writers. As a result, they tend to get aggravated when the author doesn’t give them enough information.  (Rule of thumb: the readers are entitled to anything relevant that the POV knows).  Many writers like being cryptic because they think that hiding the POV’s information from the reader will create intrigue.  Most readers do not like reading cryptic works.

2.  Readers start at page 1 and typically will put down the book as soon as they are dissatisfied. Ahem–they aren’t patient.  This means that the quality of the opening few pages is absolutely critical to readers. In contrast, writers often phone in the beginning because they want to get to the “meat” of the story or whatever.  THAT IS A MISTAKE.  Most readers will not plod along in the hopes that the story will get interesting or clear.  They will put down the book unless it is interesting and clear from page one.

3.  A novel-reader’s goal is usually entertainment. If your readers want to be entertained but you are focused on some other goal (such as enlightening them or changing their political/moral/religious beliefs), you have a huge problem.  If you want to get a mass-market novel published and have a goal besides entertainment in mind, I highly recommend making that goal secondary to entertainment unless you have a great reason to do otherwise.  For example, if you’re writing a really literary work aimed at older, philosophically-minded readers, it’s plausible that they’d be receptive to a novel that isn’t focused on entertainment– just keep in mind that such audiences are generally pretty rare.

4.  Readers are generally less likely to appreciate a new approach for its own sake. We authors want so badly to be original that we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot.  For example, at least two novels have been written without the letter E.  That’s a gimmick that would probably distract readers rather than impress them.  In contrast, some unusual approaches are compelling because they open up many fresh story opportunities.  For example, writing a story about a supervillain protagonist would probably entice readers because we haven’t read 100 books in that vein.  When you try something new, like writing a team of 20 main superheroes or whatever, try evaluating whether it adds enough to the readers’ experience to justify the costs.

5.  Authors tend to like overstylized speech more than readers do. One sign that a character’s accent, dialect, speech impediment or voice may be too over-the-top is that the author feels the need to reference, explain or excuse it in-story.  (For example, a character might ridicule a particularly obnoxious accent.  If you really need to justify your stylistic choices to your readers, rather than let your style justify itself, readers will probably find it difficult or even painful to read through.  Be careful.

Hmm, what do you think? Have you ever felt like an author was writing something more for himself than for you?

Here are some that occurred to me…

• Screen time.  How much time the book or comic book spends on something.  Understandably, main characters tend to get the most screen time.
• Active character.  An active character has a major impact on the plot.  An inactive character is more likely to burn time and wait for something important to happen.  Usually it’s a problem when an inactive character gets a lot of screen time, like Fatale in Soon I Will Be Invincible.
• Overpowered:  an overpowered character is one that cannot be easily challenged.  This is problematic because characters are most impressive when they face daunting odds.  (Note that this concept is not necessarily about power: a ridiculously beautiful person might be overpowered for a romance).
• Competence.  A competent character has enough skills, powers and intelligence to try to achieve his objectives.  A competent character won’t necessarily succeed every time, but it should look like he uses what he has in a logical fashion.
• A weakness: when a character has a marked vulnerability to something that is usually not very dangerous.  Kryptonite is the best-known example.  Weaknesses are generally an awkward way to fix an overpowered character.
• A flaw: a trait that causes a character to make decisions the audience is not meant to approve of.
• Laugh-tracking.  When a character does something to cue an emotional response from the reader.  Laughing at their own jokes, sobbing, etc.
• Mary Sue:  a character that lacks flaws.
• Offscreen.  When something happens without being depicted.
• Story.  Superhero Nation does a lot of work with comic books and novels, so we generally use “story” when we’re talking about both.
• Authorial distance.  How much emotional detachment the author has from his story.  AD is very helpful because it reduces the likelihood that an author will react heatedly when he gets tough advice.
• Deus ex machina.  When a hero gets a lucky break.  This is cheesy.  (It’s more acceptable for villains).
• Inciting event.  The event that sets the story in motion.  Usually, it’s the biggest event that happens in the first 20 pages of a novel or the first issue of a comic book.
• Impressive.  An impressive character is one that punches above his weight-class.   Readers love that.  Characters often impress readers by solving problems in crafty and unexpected ways.  Overpowered characters are rarely impressive.
• As you know, Bob.  When two characters talk about something that both of them already know.  This is a pretty cheesy way to give information to the reader.
• Narm.  According to TV Tropes, “a Narm is a moment that is supposed to be serious, but loses the drama because of some combination of over-sappiness, poor execution, excessive melodrama, or the sheer absurdity of the situation.”
• Infodumping.  When a story gives readers too much information too quickly.  This is particularly painful when narratorial exposition is the source of the information.
• Static vs. dynamic (or flat vs. round) characters.  A static character doesn’t change very much over the course of a book.  A dynamic character grows and evolves– sometimes in a way that the audience is meant to approve of  and sometimes not.  Generally, it is worrisome when the main characters are static.  If the heroes don’t change, what does the story amount to?

1. Keep it simple. Not to be mean or anything, but kids are generally not quite as good at keeping track of complicated plots and obscure words. (Although all of that has worked very well for kids in the past ) If you make things complicated, then you should probably compensate. Which leads me to…

2. Slapstick is the best form of comedy… For kids anyway. People falling over and getting hit can always be played for laughs; use that to your advantage. Also, anything to do with gross stuff is comedy gold for kids. It’s worth noting, however, that if you want any form of adult audience then you’ll want to keep it to a minimum.

3. Exaggerate all of your characters. Kids love exaggerated character traits and understand exaggerated characters more easily. Many successful characters aimed at kids have a single exaggerated trait. For example, the Kids Next Door have a leader, the smart guy, the kook (her name is actually Kuki), the tough guy and the cool one. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have a leader, a smart guy, a fun guy and a tough guy. Exaggerating a trait can also make the character more stylish and memorable. A character that’s vaguely unlucky is probably pretty bland. But if he’s the the butt of some kind of universal joke and gets stuck in holes, gets hit by things and fails at everything then he might be really funny.

4. Write for adults too. If you don’t put in anything for the adults, then you’ve effectively alienated about half of your audience. Parents read books with kids all of the time.   Arguably the most successful series of books of the past decade is Harry Potter. Why? Because anyone could read them: kids, adults, boys, girls, etc. It was simple and imaginative enough to excite kids and sophisticated enough to interest adults. Make sure that adults can enjoy the books too, and don’t be afraid to put in jokes that might fly by a kid.  For example, in the first Shrek movie, Shrek looks at Farquad’s massive castle and quips “think he’s compensating for something?”  Kids would probably assume he was talking about Farquad’s height, but adults and teens knew he was talking about length.

5. Don’t scare the kids. Children are much easier to scare than adults. Anything you put in there that may give the kids nightmares will not be appreciated by the parents. For example, a story about an alien that wants 10% of the child population of the Earth to use for drugs, and can make all of them speak in unison to declare ‘we are coming’  is probably not suitable for kids. On that note, it’s worth mentioning the obvious, no profanity. If you absolutely must swear, use a lighter swear word or a replacement swear word.

1. Provide value and delight your audience.
2. All of your posts and interactions with readers should be professional.
3. Be genuine, approachable and friendly.
4. Let your readers know that you appreciate and value them.

Except for #1 (which is too vague to be useful), these focus more on how to treat your fans than how to create content for them.  So how do we create content that will attract and build enthusiastic fans?  Here are some ideas.

1.  Be indispensable. It’s much, much harder to inspire intense loyalty if there are already ten or twenty great sites that do what you do.

2.  Fill a specific niche that meets a goal of your readers. Strangers don’t want to read your aimless, personal musings.  This is why diary-style websites tend to suck.  Please focus on meeting a reader goal, because that will give readers a reason to find you and come back.  For example, you probably found this website because you went to a search engine and tried some variation on “how to write a superhero story” or “how to market a book with a blog.”  In contrast, no one will go to Google and search for “B. Mac’s random observations about life.”

3.  Make your readers feel like part of your team. For example, most of my writing articles are inspired by a question from my readers.  That works out well for everyone; I get ideas to launch new articles, and my readers get content that is well-tailored to their interests.  It also strengthens the author-reader relationship.

4.  Be consistent. Try to post at least once every other day, ideally once a day.  Your super-dedicated readers will want to come back every day, so it’s best to have something new in store.  Depending on your niche, that could be a new piece of advice, a new observation about writing, a new chapter (or even just a page) of your work, etc.

5.  Keep your grammar and spelling clean. Nothing says “I’m worth reading” like careful writing.

6.  It might be helpful to provide some personal details about yourself… but please stay away from anything that readers will find weird or irrelevant.  This depends on your target audience.  If you’re doing a diet blog, then your readers will probably care about your struggles with your weight and body-image.  That’s something they can really relate to!  In contrast, if you’re doing a writing blog, your weight probably isn’t relevant to your audience.  “What is this, Oprah?”

Before publishing me, a prospective publisher will want to know more about you.  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!