Self-Publishing: What it is, Who it's For, And How it Works

I've talked about a lot of different things on here, but ironically, one thing I haven't actually really talked about is publishing and publishing options and quite a few of my readers don't actually know much about how the publishing process works. I will admit, I am not an expert, so if you are a published author and have your own opinions and advice, please leave it in the comments for others.

For the next few weeks, I'll be blogging about the publishing process. I also have a few guests who will tell us about their experiences publishing. Today, I'm going to talk about some bare basics. So, if you already know all this stuff, feel free to browse around my older posts. Here are some you may not have seen: Playing with Foils, The Value of Shock, Your Writing Eye.

Publishing Options

If you've written a novel and want to pursue publication, you really have two main options. You can self-publish or you can publish traditionally. Self-publishing is where you publish the book instead of a publishing house. Traditional publishing is where a publishing house does it. I can't fit the basics of each in this post (heck, I can hardly fit one into one post), so I'm going to focus on self-publication first.

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The "Twins as Clones" Writing Epidemic

Let's be honest, people are naturally interested in twins and multiples. When my sister had twins, she could never make it through the grocery store without people stopping and talking to her about twins in general and twins they know. Conversations became something like this (newsletter subscribers, sorry, but you have to see the video off my blog):



But while we may find twins and multiples fascinating, it's important to remember they are each distinct human beings. Why this is so hard to grasp, I don't know, but for some reason this reality rarely ever makes it into the storytelling world. Instead, most writers I know opt-in for the "Twins as Clones" approach, where they are essentially the same person in each body. You could pretty much merge the two characters into one and nothing would change. Nothing would really change in the character, and more often than not, nothing would change in the story. The twins are like one person in two bodies. Heck, even Lyra and her daemon Pantlaimon are more different from each other, and they are one person in two bodies.

I think one reason writers make twins into clones is because they've seen it done this way, and it's been done so many times that it's cliche, and of course, cliches are the first things that come into our minds when we brainstorm. I also think it happens because writers sit down and say, "I'm going to have twins in my story," and they create the characters "together" instead of as individual people. (More on that later.)

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The Setting Thesaurus Books Are Here: Help Becca And Angela Celebrate!

Some of you may know from following my blog that I'm a big fan of the Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. I use it in my own writing on an almost weekly basis. In my opinion, it's a must-have for the writer's library. So when I heard that Becca and Angela had two new thesauri coming out this week, I volunteered to help publicize it on my blog. Their books really are amazing, so helpful, and thought-through.

* * *

There's nothing better than becoming lost within the story world within minutes of starting a book. And as writers, this is what we're striving to do: pull the reader in, pull them down deep into the words, make them feel like they are experiencing the story right alongside the hero or heroine.

A big part of achieving this is showing the character's surroundings in a way that is textured and rich, delivering this description through a filter of emotion and mood. It means we have to be careful with each word we choose, and describe the setting in such a way that each sight, sound, taste, texture, and smell comes alive for readers. This is no easy task, especially since it is so easy to overdo it—killing the pace, slowing the action, and worst of all, boring the reader. So how can we create a true unique experience for readers and make them feel part of the action while avoiding descriptive missteps that will hurt the story?

Well, there's some good news on this front. Two new books have released this week that may change the description game for writers. The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to City Spaces and The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Personal and Natural Spaces look at the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that a character might experience within 225 different contemporary settings. And this is only the start of what these books offer writers. In fact, swing by and check out this hidden entry from the Urban Setting Thesaurus: Antiques Shop.

And there's one more thing you might want to know more about....

Becca and Angela, authors of The Emotion Thesaurus, are celebrating their double release with a fun event going on from June 13-20th called ROCK THE VAULT. At the heart of Writers Helping Writers is a tremendous vault, and these two ladies have been hoarding prizes of epic writerly proportions.

A safe full of prizes, ripe for the taking...if the writing community can work together to unlock it, of course.

Ready to do your part? Stop by Writers Helping Writers to find out more!

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Please Don't Write this Sentence in Your Opening

I regularly read unpublished work. A lot of writers have a cool idea for their protagonist's backstory, one that is meant to create a sense of mystery for the reader. I love stories like that. I love backstories. I even love a good flashback. But I cannot tell you how many times I've read sentences similar to this one in an opening of a story:

Jasper pushed the memories away from his mind.

To the average person, there is nothing wrong with this sentence. But when you read a lot, and you read that sentence a lot, you start realizing the problems in it.

There are many variations to this sentence, or at least lead-ins to this sentence. Here are a few others:

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Sanderson's 3 Laws of Magic Systems

I've never done a post on magic systems. The closest I've gotten to it is my post on writing magical items. One of the reasons I haven't approached magic systems is because others have done a much better job talking about them than I can, and to be honest, I haven't studied them that much. But my work-in-progress does have some magic systems in it, even though I don't always think of them as magic systems, and so today I'm bringing you the source that I use when I need help with magic in my story--and really, it's such a good resource that it deserves its own post on my blog.

Brandon Sanderson is one of the top-selling fantasy writers today, and what's even cooler is that he understands and is conscious of what does in his writing and can teach it well to others.

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10 Cheats to "Tell" Well

Back in January, I did a whole post on when it is appropriate to "tell" something instead of "show" it. I talked about the difference between showing and telling, about how telling actually has in important role, and gave eight reasons you should use telling instead of showing. I touched on the fact that some telling is done better than others and also promised that in a future post I would give some pointers on how to tell well. Today is that future.

If you need a refresher of my post on telling, don't hesitate to give it a glance over.

In it, I gave this example of how boring, monotonous, and ineffective telling can be:

They went to their friend's house to see some cats. They liked them a lot. When they got tired, they called their mom to pick them up, but their mom couldn't come for two hours. It was cold out, so they went inside and got something warm to eat. Then they drew some pictures before watching t.v.

Ack! Who wants to read a whole story like that? Not me! One of the problems with telling is that it can be too vague and it fails to immerse the reader in the story. But that is an example of truly awful telling. Here are some techniques to make your moments of telling shine by lessening or overcoming some of those cons.

One approach is to use showing techniques when you tell.

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Writing Advice for Middle-School Writers

Owl9710 asked: Do you have any advice for young writers like middle schoolers? I love your posts, you post such cool things for writers both young and old!

Thanks Owl! Here are my thoughts:

1. Write for fun.
I put this as the first point because I think it's the most important. If you love to write, write and have fun. Write as much as you want and whatever you want. If you want to write a nonfiction guide on keeping an aquarium, great. If you want to write fanfiction based off your favorite show or book, go right ahead. Science-fiction? Mystery? A love story? Sure. Anything you want. Explore your stories and characters. When you get closer to the professional world, writing can get more complicated and it sometimes feels like work. It's important to have lots of fun now, so that you can pull from those experiences when things get tough. You need to enjoy writing itself first. You don't have to finish all of your stories, but try to at least finish some.

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Coming up with the Perfect Pen Name

Anonymous said: What is the story behind your name? (Love your posts btw)

Thanks, I’m glad you like my posts! Well, if anyone has come here looking for an interesting or cute little story about why my parents chose the name "September" or the roots of my last name, I hope you won't be disappointed. September C. Fawkes is a pseudonym. But hopefully in some ways that makes the story behind it more interesting.

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To the Unpublished Writer: You're Doing Okay.

I see a lot of unpublished work. A lot. In some stories, I can tell that the writer needs to work on mastering a few elements: voice, or arcs, or style, or viewpoint. Others I can tell still have a very long road ahead of them. Once in a while, when I come across a story that shows that the writer still has a lot of growing to do, I think about the kind of harsh, even cruel, criticism they could potentially get from others. Once in a while, I might imagine the kind of damage that might do to that writer. They may feel emotionally wounded, even betrayed. They have poured their heart into their work, only to have it get shredded. They may quit writing altogether, thinking they don't have what it takes. Maybe it will paralyze them so that they feel mentally blocked every time they sit down and try to write. Maybe it will make them bitter.

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Exactly How to Create and Control Tone

I'm going to be honest, tone is something I struggle with in my writing. In some scenes, it can be a huge stumbling block for me. I get how it works, but sometimes I just can't find it. Those days are over (hopefully) because now I have a post (this one) written out that explains it to myself, which will be better and more accurate than trying to pull it from my head when I'm already confused. So if you've had trouble with tone, no worries, this article nails it all down.

I'm going to cover what tone is, how to create it, how to keep control of it, what to do if your tone goes sour, and how to actually change or juggle tones in a scene. I'll also talk about how the right tone will let you get away with just about anything.

Maybe you are like how I use to be: thinking that tone isn't really something you need to worry yourself over. It'll just happen, you think. You'll just write your story and whatever the tone is, is whatever the tone is. It's what came naturally.

It's not that this attitude is wrong--I've seen plenty of published writing where the author couldn't have paid tone any mind--it's that you are cutting yourself and your writing short by ignoring tone. Maybe you already have great writing skills. Cool. But you can make them better by paying attention and mastering the element of tone.

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The Real Reason You NEED to Give Positive Feedback!

A few weeks ago, I got in contact with a writer who's novel is getting published. I had the pleasure of editing the manuscript last year. It didn't need much help--it was already really good and really polished by the time it got to me. But recently she thanked me for my feedback, and ensured it had been extremely helpful to her. One of the things she said was that she appreciated that I gave positive feedback.

Some people are under the misconception that positive feedback is only there to stroke the writer's self-esteem and ego. That's completely wrong. I admit that in some situations it's appropriate to only focus on what needs to be fixed--in my opinion, this is only when the story is literally being edited so it can be published or when the writer has already gotten positive feedback as to what is working. But for other parts of the process, positive feedback should not be skipped!

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The Oft Forgotten Conflict and How to Make it Work: Man Vs. God

As I've mentioned in other posts, in storytelling, there are five kinds of conflicts:

Man vs. Man
Man vs. Self
Man vs. Society
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. God

(Okay, some sources say there are six, and include Man vs. Machine, but I usually don't see that on in the list)

Often when I hear these types of conflict brought up, I hear people say that Man vs. God isn't really used in storytelling anymore, and they kind of shrug their shoulder about it.

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For Those Looking for a Historical Love Story ;) (By the Stars Blog Tour)

 Hello again lovely followers! March is a special month, because not only is my birthday in March, but I'm helping out with two special blog tours (both debut novels)! Today we're celebrating the release of By the Stars by Lindsay B. Ferguson. When you get done reading this post, you might just want to check it out.

About By the Stars

He was lost. Lost in those deep brown, beautiful eyes. Then, as clear as day, Cal heard a voice inside his head: "That is the girl you are going to marry."

When Cal finally gets a chance with Kate, the girl he's loved since grade school, their easy friendship quickly blossoms into a meaningful romance. But World War II soon cuts their time far too short, and Cal prepares to part from her - possibly for good. With Kate's memory willing him on, Cal must put his trust in God to survive if he hopes to ever return to her. Inspired by a true story, By the Stars is a romance that stands the test of time and the most intense obstacles.


"By the Stars is an enchanting tale…of faith, destiny, and the life-changing power of enduring love." -Lindsay Maxfield, editor, Deseret Media Companies

"Present and past meld together in this richly crafted story…As I finished the last page, I closed the cover, hugged the book close to my chest, and sighed with contentment as my new friend Cal finished telling me his story, and oh, what a story." -Kelly Dearth, founder of DeliciousReads.com

Get the book here.

Read reviews or add it to your GoodReads list.

 About the Author

Lindsay Ferguson worked as a PR and marketing writer for a computer software company for several years before resigning to focus on raising her family. When she felt the itch to attempt novel writing, a fascination with history created a natural inclination toward historical fiction, with a romantic flare, of course. She lives in a suburb of Salt Lake City with her husband and four children. By the Stars is her first novel. Visit her online at www.lindsaybferguson.com.

If you like love stories, historical fiction, with an LDS flavor, check out By the Stars.

You can also see the other blogs participating in the tour here.

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