The Writers Network News, About the Zone, July 2021
The Writers Network News, About the Zone, July 2021
In This Issue
One: From the Editor's Desk: About the Zone
Two: Ask the Book Doctor—About Royalties
Three: Subjects of Interest to Writers
Four: Contests, Agents, and Markets
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The Writers Network News
No Rules; Just Write!
Editor: Bobbie Christmas
Contents copyright 2021, Bobbie Christmas
No portion of this newsletter can be used without permission; however, you may forward the newsletter in its entirety to fellow writers.
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Zebra Communications
Excellent editing for maximum marketability since 1992
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https://www.zebraeditor.com/
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Some links in this newsletter may be shortened with help from www.tinyurl.com, a free service that converts long links to short ones.
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Writer's Quote of the Month
William Styron, author of SOPHIE’S CHOICE and other award-winning novels, said, "Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death has no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever."
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ONE: From the Editor’s Desk—About the Zone
Dear Fellow Writers:
I am a writer. Words are my passion, my interest, and the foundation of my lifelong career. Is it any wonder, then, that when I’m writing or editing I lose all track of time?
The worst thing I can do is sit down at my computer to edit for five or ten minutes while I wait for the right time to leave for an appointment or meeting. I’ll invariably be late leaving, because I get lost in the magic of words. I love their essence, their meanings, their nuances, their order, and their performance in each sentence.
It’s bad enough that I lose all track of time when I’m editing, but Lord help me when I’m writing, because things get even worse. I’ve often started writing in the morning and gotten so lost in the world of words that I worked long past lunchtime and closer to dinnertime. If my dog didn’t whine to go outside, I don’t know when I might glance at the clock again.
The zone is a beautiful place to be, and artists of all types, from writers to painters to performers, know what I’m talking about. When we’re in the zone we are our most creative and most productive.
Getting in the zone, though, can be challenging to some. I’ve read reports that before starting for the day, some artists and writers light candles; others say a prayer; still others have other rituals. For me, though, simply putting my lazy rear end on the seat of an office chair and staring at the computer screen is all it takes for me to get started. I might throw out the first few sentences or paragraphs or even subjects that come to me, but soon I’ll be in the zone, and I’m off and running—that is, writing or editing.
Tell me about your experiences with the zone. I’d love to hear them.
Yours in writing,
Bobbie Christmas
Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or bzebra@aol.com
Author of two editions of WRITE IN STYLE, owner of Zebra Communications, director of The Writers Network, coordinator of the Florida Writers Association Editors Helping Writers service, and senior editor of Enjoy Cherokee Magazine
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TWO: Ask the Book Doctor—About Royalties
By Bobbie Christmas
Q: I received a letter from the publisher I’d submitted my novel to. She says if I’m selected, her prices or advance is competitive. I don’t have a clue as to what a fledgling writer gets for a novel. Any answers?
A: An average offer is around five to six percent of sales—and be sure your contract stipulates that royalties are based on the retail price, not the wholesale price, of the book.
The amount of royalties you make depends on the amount of sales of the book, so you would do well to get out there and promote the book personally as much as possible. Most publishers don’t do much promotion, especially for a new author.
You probably were hoping I’d say the publisher would send you a million dollars as an advance against royalties, but in reality, publishers don’t have to offer you an advance at all. Some publishers do, when they feel fairly certain the book will sell enough copies to cover the advance. I’ve heard of publishers that offered anywhere from a token advance, such as $50, on up to a million or more. The million-dollar advances usually go to people who already have well-known names—politicians or entertainers. Madonna, for example, got a sizeable advance on her first children’s book, supposedly around $1.2 million. Bill Clinton received a $15 million advance for his 2004 memoir, and although the details were not released, Obama is said to have received a $65 million advance. If you are as famous as those people, you too can negotiate a huge advance.
If you aren’t famous, though, you can almost always expect to be disappointed with the advance you may be offered, if any, but the royalty amounts, although slightly negotiable, tend to stay in the 5 percent to 6 percent range. If you get offered more, be happy. Sometimes a publisher will offer a higher royalty rate in exchange for giving no advance. Note that while advances against royalties may be highly negotiable, the actual royalty rate doesn’t have much room for negotiation. I was able to negotiate an advance that was twice as high as the first offer the publisher made, but the percentage of royalties was six percent and nonnegotiable.
I need to add that some publishers—not traditional publishers—may offer higher royalties when you pay all or part of the publishing costs.
Q: When ghostwriting a book, what percentage of the royalties should I ask for?
A: The answer depends on several factors and may not be a percentage at all. Let me explain.
First, if your client is a traditional publisher, the publisher will likely set the percentage you will receive for ghosting a book it assigns to you. You may be able to negotiate that percentage, so it’s worth a try. If the publisher wants you to make the first offer, you can start at a 70/30 arrangement, with you getting 70 percent of the royalties for doing most of the work. Chances are the figure will be negotiated down to a more traditional 60/40 arrangement, but as in all negotiations, if you start at a number higher than you expect, the other person can negotiate the number down and feel he has accomplished something and that you have been willing to compromise.
If your client is not a traditional publisher but a person who will be listed as the author, though, that scenario changes everything, and you have many things to consider. Remember that many manuscripts get written, but few ever get sold to traditional publishers. If you arrange with a client to write a book on the chance that he or she might sell it to a publisher, you will likely never see a penny of royalties, because the chances of publication are low. Even if the author sells the book to a publisher, as the ghostwriter you may not have access to the sales records and therefore may not know what, if anything, is due you. If your client plans to self-publish, the sales records for self-published books are not great, and again, you won’t have access to the sales information. For these reasons I strongly advise ghostwriters not to work on a percentage of sales when they work with individuals.
The more professional and lucrative way to ghostwrite for a person—not a publisher—is to determine how much work will be involved, quote a price, and require the client to pay part or all of the money before you begin working. If the book later sells, the client gets all the royalties, but you don’t have to track the sales. You might even make more money on the book than your client will, unless your client is as famous as Barack Obama.
Bobbie Christmas is a book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications. She will answer your questions too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or BZebra@aol.com. Read Bobbie’s Zebra Communications blog at https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/.
For much more information on these subjects and hundreds of others of vital importance to writers, order PURGE YOUR PROSE OF PROBLEMS, a Book Doctor’s Desk Reference Book at http://tinyurl.com/4ptjnr.
Bobbie Christmas’s award-winning second edition of WRITE IN STYLE: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing is available from Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/y7ppcdkd or buy it directly from me at https://tinyurl.com/y7p9xkbb.
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THREE: Of Interest to Writers
Members Write . . .
In response to last month’s letter from the editor’s desk about reality TV:
MJ Sides wrote, “Yes, I hear things on TV that make me cringe. The worst of the worst is the use of 'America' and 'American' when speaking of the United States by itself.” She adds, “These days our TV is in a state of 'off.'”
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Marlene Clark responded that she’s glad she never watched a "Real Housewives" show. She said she loves Penn & Teller's "Fool Us" and added, “but I was a magician, so you know where that comes from.” She is waiting for “The Amazing Mrs. Maisel” to come back.
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Mary Ellen Gavin of Gavin Literary Agency said, “I share your pain. My eyes hurt from watching what I call The Invasion of the Underclass. Yes, the underclass has taken over television teleplays. Due to the low class of education most of the players received, the script writers put words in their mouths they are able to speak and comprehend.” Because dialogue should reflect the education level of a character, however, she adds, “I tell my writers that your characters can say anything you want them to say, as long as your narrative is perfect.”
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On another subject, a fellow editor wrote to say that her client had forwarded my newsletter to her. The editor, who is not a subscriber, took offense at my having said it isn’t the job of an editor to rewrite. She was correct in clarifying that sometimes we editors are paid to rewrite. In fact I just completed two projects for which I was paid to rewrite, tighten, and clarify much of what was written, so I thanked the person for reminding me that my original statement was misleading. I should have said that we editors will rewrite manuscripts, but only when paid to do so.
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My sister, who is also a subscriber, sent me an email questioning a sentence she read in an otherwise good book of historical fiction. The sentence went like this: Beatrice had never seen such a show of swords, jousting lances, crossbows as tall as a man, daggers and guns dragged by horses on wheels.
My sister said she thought something was wrong with the sentence and asked, “Am I imagining things?”
I responded, “I love it! Horses on wheels were dragging all those things. I wonder what was pulling the horses on wheels.”
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Bobbie’s Blog
Newest blog post: “At What Point Can You Call Yourself a Writer?”
See https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/at-what-point-can-you-call-yourself-a-writer/.
For other writing tips and some personal experiences, access the Write In Style blog here: https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/
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Blond or Blonde? New Advice from CMOS
The word “blonde” used to be used to refer to a female with blond hair. In a recent post, the folks at The Chicago Manual of Style began advising against using either blond or blonde as a noun except in a direct quotation, advice that applies equally to brunette or redhead. It discourages writing that reduces people to physical characteristics or gender stereotypes (as in a phrase like “the blonde in the front row”).
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CMOS Online Q & A
This month someone posed the following question to The Chicago Manual of Style Online:
Q. George Wilkens is a character in my novel. (Yes, I know I should have named him something without an “s” as the last letter!) My question is, Which is correct: “George Wilkens’s house” or “George Wilkens’ house”? After a study of several different sections of CMOS, I think that the former is correct. Can you verify that for me?
For the detailed and interesting answer to this question and many more based on Chicago style, go to http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/latest.html.
THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE sets the standard in book publishing for issues such as punctuation, capitalization, and much more. If you write fiction or nonfiction books, you will want to know about Chicago style or be sure to use a professional book editor intimately familiar with Chicago style.
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Being Around Water Can Help Eliminate Writers Block
By Wallace J. Nichols
Benjamin Franklin, Edmond Rostand, and Vladimir Nabokov did much of their writing while in bathtubs. Hilary Mantel reports that she takes showers when she gets stuck in her writing. Oliver Sacks reportedly got over his writer’s block with long swims every day in Long Island Sound.
“There is something about being in water and swimming which alters my mood, gets my thoughts going, as nothing else can,” Sacks writes. “Sentences and paragraphs would write themselves in my mind, and at such times I would have to come to shore every so often to discharge them.”
Being on, in, around, or near water can calm our overactive minds while it imbues our senses. It might help overcome creative blocks because of our long-term association between water and the unconscious mind. It may also help us by tapping into ancient neural maps that we developed when the sight of water provided us with the pleasing message that we could survive.
Either way, it’s clear that water can help us access the state called “flow,” where we connect to the default mode network, or daydreaming parts of our brain. This can restore our ability to focus and perform cognitive and creative tasks with greater ease.
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WRITE IN STYLE: How to Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing
WRITE IN STYLE teaches writers how to strengthen their writing style and create a fresh voice, one that publishers and readers want to read.
Order your copy today at https://www.zebraeditor.com/book/write-in-style-how-to-use-your-computer-to-improve-your-writing/
or
https://shop.booklogix.com/Write-In-Style-Second-Edition-6295.htm?categoryId=-1
or
https://www.amazon.com/Write-Style-Computer-Improve-Writing-ebook/dp/B0167MCY6C
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FOUR: Contests, Agents, and Markets
Young Mag
YoungMag.io/
Submit your work to submissions@youngmag.io
We pay $75 if your work is accepted.
We accept flash fiction, short story, nonfiction, poetry, diary entries, and excerpts.
Multiple submissions are not allowed.
Please wait to hear back from us before submitting again.
Please include your twitter handle only. No author bio or previous publications.
Send in .doc/x or pdf.
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PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Honoring the best work of fiction published by an American author in a single calendar year, this award has been given to the likes of John Updike, Philip Roth and Ann Patchett. Novels, novellas and collections of short stories are all eligible.
The winner receives a hefty cash prize—up to $15,000 in the past—and an invitation to read at the award ceremony in Washington, D.C. No submission fees or application forms to deal with; just send a PDF of each book (as many as you’d like) to awards@penfaulkner.org.
The 2021 submissions are closed. In 2022 submissions will be accepted from July 1 to October 31, so plan ahead.
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The Permanent Press
Our interest is in discovering novelists who have the talent to write exceptional fiction. We do not accept electronic submissions. If you would like to be considered, you must mail a hard copy to:
Judith Shepard
The Permanent Press
4170 Noyac Road
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Please submit only a sample of approximately the first twenty-five pages. If we are interested, we will request the entire manuscript.
If you have any questions please contact Judith at judith@thepermanentpress.com.
DO NOT EMAIL YOUR SUBMISSION.
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40 Free Writing Contests: Legitimate Competitions With Cash Prizes
https://thewritelife.com/writing-contests/
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The Writers Network News: a newsletter for writers everywhere. No Rules; Just Write!
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