Optimism and writing

Every once in a while, my husband and I decide to reclaim part of the storage area of our basement. It’s like exploring a fossil bed; remarkable and unexpected artifacts rise to the surface. When they do, they always make me think about where I’ve come from…and where I’m going.


Last time, I found precious treasure: small items belonging to my father. One of them was a framed copy of The Optimist Creed from the Optimist Club of Omaha. It describes the way he lived his life. Like us, he did creative work, but in electrical engineering. Like us, he was responsible for creating his own designs and his own business. And like us, he was successful (I’m practicing optimism!). I think his success was partly because of the words below...and it brought him the love and admiration of all who knew him.

As writers, our creative work can take a decade or more to reach a milestone, or completion, or success. It takes tremendous persistence and dedication. A supportive, cooperative community and constant encouragement are vitally important to us. Perhaps we could use The Optimist Creed, for the sake of ourselves and one another. So here it is, from Bob Wallin to you, with positive thoughts for your writing.



Promise yourself:

To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

--  Stormy

Charging For Your Services

Recently, quite a few writers have asked me how I charge clients for my various services.  This isn't meant to be an advertisement for what I do.  Instead it is a gathering of hints for your own use if you are asked to edit, ghostwrite, collaborate, etc.

I’ve done all three. And how I charge depends on many factors. When editing, some writers estimate by rough pages and their predicted time, thus one figure guaranteed (be sure you set clear limits on rewrites or extra edits if you do this). Also, as I do with most my clients, you can charge for any type of consulting and reworking and editing by the hour. Rewriting ditto (and this should be well defined in your contract).

I’ve coauthored in many forms and this is the rundown on several ways I’ve charged: when ghostwriting I’ve been paid a set charge for the book/script; I’ve charged hourly; I’ve charged a percentage of a book's revenues (I recommend against this unless your subject is HOT or your “author” is a household name); and I’m about to start a project which will be a combination of a lower hourly rate and a small percentage of the book’s proceeds – it will be a marketable book/subject/author, yet not a household name, so the hourly portion simply guarantees that I make enough to cover my time. I’ve co-written screenplays where the work was split roughly 50-50. With two authors, Janet Fogg and Christian Lyons, I put the time in with the understanding and contract that we split all costs and proceeds and that marketing decisions must be agreed upon by both (be sure to spell out who will do what). I’ve also co-written a short educational film script where I got paid a set amount, half up front, the rest when done.

Writers have asked me what is a “fair” charge.  That depends on your experience and how busy you stay. I raised my rates consistently over time as my experience and reputation grew. And when I had several writers wanting to hire me, meaning too much work to accept it all, I raised rates again. I’ve always offered a friend/family discount. I never undervalue myself; I'd rather hold out for a client that appreciates my work enough to pay me well. To reassure editing clients who've never used my services, I suggest they contract initially for 4 hours of my work so they can have a good sense of what I can do in that time. I’ve never had anyone stop at that point, but I feel it is fair to give them that option.

If you write the book with your name on it alongside your client's, that is a collaboration not ghostwriting; you are the “writer” and he is the “author.” If you truly ghostwrite the book, only her name is on it.  There will be many issues to deal with in your contract, like who owns copyright, who pays expenses, how the names will be listed, etc. You can read about those fine points and considerations in my blog post of Oct 10, 2012 at Chiseled in Rock:

http://chiseledinrock.blogspot.com/2012/10/ghostwriting-by-real-ghost-so-haunting.html

- That's all for now from the Inkpot

A Terrific Book Signing!

Shannon Baker's book signing on March 16th at the Broadway Book Mall was such fun, and Tainted Mountain sold out! Fortunately, Shannon had additional copies of the book stashed in her car. Whew! 

Thank you, Shannon, for the amazing chocolate chip cookies. And for writing such a great book!

And thank you, Ron and Nina, for again hosting such a happy event!

“A thoroughly satisfying mystery! Shannon Baker captures the grandeur and fragility of the western landscape while keeping the pages turning. And Nora Abbot is a fiery and tenacious sleuth whose future career in crime solving will be fun to watch.” — MARGARET COEL, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BUFFALO BILL’S DEAD NOW

Cooking (and writing) Under Pressure

There was a time when pressure cooking was a daunting task. My grandmother once answered the doorbell, leaving her cooker unattended a minute too long. The blown lid and asparagus spears impaled in the kitchen ceiling left a lasting impression on me. But today’s pressure cookers have safety features that even Ralph Nadir can appreciate. Two extra ways for surplus steam to escape, preventing an explosion, are reassuring.


My laptop has its own way of preventing disasters. It saves what I’m working on even if the battery peters out abruptly. Usually it graciously asks me, the next time I open up Word, if I want to save what it has kept safe for me under those emergency situations. Hell yeah, I want it saved!


For me, technology is at once wondrous and intimidating. I’m grateful for it and yet I have an almost irrational fear of it sometimes. I want changes to be easy, intuitive and user friendly. That allows my focus to stay on being creative, not spending time navigating a learning curve. If I want to communicate, entertain or be entertained, please don’t hand me a new remote control, a smart phone, or a new generation of Windows operating system. Keep it safe, predictable and simple.


I’m nostalgic about manual typewriters as evidenced by my continued habit of hitting the keys so hard I knocked my question mark off one day. Admittedly, I don’t have a bittersweet longing for the mess of an ancient blown pressure cooker, just as I don’t look back fondly on the smears and smudges of carbon paper. But I still wax sentimental about my old IBM Selectric with the handy-dandy white corrective tape. Those whacking keys created a rhythmic tap dance that proved to the whole household I was diligently working on my next short story. The instant product that slowly rolled out was reassuring. In contrast, what could be less safe and more horrifying than the possibility of a chapter eaten when you accidently hit Delete instead of Control X and don’t catch it in time to use the Undo?


Early in my marriage I put off buying a pressure cooker for a while because it was something new and quite different than the no-brain slow cooker or the Dutch oven. But I gave in then studied the manual. With my writing tools, I’ve succumb to advancements that are obviously inevitable; I’ve grudgingly lagged only a few generations behind computer advances. If my husband wasn’t an engineer, I might still be using Word Star with green type. OK I might have advanced to amber. Maybe.


The evolution from manual typewriter to portable laptop to the iPad’s touch keyboard seems very much like that of the advancement in pressure cookers. The comparison works on other levels. Once mastered, pressure cooking is easy, and it saves energy and time, not to mention tenderizing the cheapest cuts of meat. Who doesn’t love spell check? Obvious to anybody who learned on an old-fashioned typewriter, the computer, too, is easier and saves energy and time. I can’t imagine typing my novel over and over for each new draft, even typing an entire page again after spotting a few needed edits. Or inking up my hands with carbon paper. Or having to thumb through the dictionary every 2,000 words. Did I say I love spell check?


Cooking and writing both take good doses of devotion, dreams, inventiveness, inspiration and patience. That’s a lot to juggle. I want changing technology to be the least of my worries. Please make it as user friendly and as full-proof as my pressure cooker. And don’t mess with my spell check. --- so warns Inkpot

Touched by a Reader’s Reaction

 
Occasionally a piece of fiction has an effect on a reader beyond entertainment. Most of the time we writers don’t even know it. Out of thousands of readers, a few of them might contact a novelist with kind words, corrections, or commiseration. But rarely does a short story spark interest in a reader enough to contact the author.

I never expected that to happen to me. Especially since my shorts are usually flash length; essentially as soon as a reader dips into my world he/she pulls back out of it. This week I was honored to receive an email from Linda Weber, who is a counselor, author, and a member of Boulder Media Women. With permission I pasted it below.


Hello Karen,

I'm writing to let you know that I just published a blog post that includes a link to your beautifully crafted story, "The Snow Day." Thank you for writing it and for putting it out there to us in BMW. Here's the link to my post. http://lifechoicesteachingsofabortion.com/keep-women-center-of-pregnancy-and-life

be well,

Linda


I was surprised and flattered that someone I’d never met took her precious time to read the story, then even more so that she told me her reaction to it. Even more remarkable and touching was that she felt the story was fitting for the readers of her blog, Life Choices, and that she chose to post the link.

Sometimes it is this kind of compliment that can keep a writer going. I wrote up a storm after reading her note. And will likely keep it handy in a file I’ll create called “much needed praise.”

I learned something very important from this. When you read something that stirs you with its topic, characters, theme, or the writing itself, consider letting the writer know. Most authors can be chased down, even the bestsellers can be contacted through their publishers. This feedback was an immeasurable kindness. I plan to pay it forward.

Have you ever let an author know how their work affected you?

Book Launch! Book Launch! Tainted Mountain (A Nora Abbott Mystery)

Tainted Mountain by Shannon Baker is now available!

Nora Abbott needs to make enough snow to save her ski resort from the drought that is ravishing Northern Arizona, and her recent court victory should mean good times are ahead. But when the death of Nora’s husband brings her overbearing mother into town, energy tycoon Barrett McCreary uses the opportunity to launch what might just be a hostile takeover of her cash-strapped resort.

To make matters worse, the local Hopi tribe still claims that making snow on the mountain will upset the balance of the earth, and someone is taking matters into their own hands in an explosive way. The ruggedly handsome Cole Huntsman keeps turning up to help Nora, but he seems to be dealing from both sides of the deck. And with a business empire’s profits—not to mention lives—at stake, double-dealing is a deadly strategy.

Praise:

“Tainted Mountain is a story as mysterious and beautiful as the Arizona landscape in which it’s set. Shannon Baker offers readers a taut, cautionary tale that is a deft mix of both important contemporary issues and the timeless spiritual traditions of the Hopi. For those of us who hunger for the kind of novel Tony Hillerman used to write so well, this promising new series may just fill the bill. Pick up Tainted Mountain and prepare to be entranced.” ~ WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CORK O’CONNOR SERIES

“Pitting greed against the future of a people, Baker’s thoughtful thriller, Tainted Mountain, not only presents a compelling clash of myth and violence that will keep you guessing, it also reads like such a love letter to the natural world, you won’t want it to end.” ~ KRIS NERI, AUTHOR OF REVENGE ON ROUTE 66

“A thoroughly satisfying mystery! Shannon Baker captures the grandeur and fragility of the Western landscape while keeping the pages turning.” ~ MARGARET COEL, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BUFFALO BILL'S DEAD NOW

How the Sisters of the Quill Writing Retreat Saved My Book

Some retreats are an excuse to play; some are a chance to think, experiment with a new idea, or start a new project. But our Sisters of the Quill retreat last weekend went to my very identity as a writer. It was a case of, “Can I get this book done, and if I can’t, am I really still a professional, career writer?”

For me, still lumbering along in the eleventh year of my jello elephant oeuvre, this was a serious question. So in my case our retreat was neither a casual nor an experimental outing. I came loaded for bear, and I left with something much better: molded jello. Perhaps even miraculously molded jello.

After being away from this ms for months (again), I arrived at the retreat, sat down at the little wooden table in our lodgings, and plugged in. It seemed very necessary to get through all 350 pages, once through, the first day. I didn’t quite make it, but got close. The next day I set to it again, and by the end of Day Two had finally got to the epilogue.

I went to bed with the nagging feeling that there was something still NQR (not quite right) about this book. It seemed a little too fantastical, a little too God-out-of-the-box. After reading a certain review of one of my Plumtree series books once—which you must never, ever do—that it was “difficult to credit,” which is British for hard to believe, I had to admit this issue had made me uncomfortable before. I do believe in God and like to include the supernatural in my books. To me, that’s realistic. But I must not allow things to get too fantastical.

So on Day Three, freshly invigorated with morning coffee, I confided to a fellow Sister of the Quill that I had a feeling I needed to strip the book down yet again (it’s three-fourths its original length in this, its tenth incarnation). The wise SOTQ looked a little worried, and took on the air of someone calming a skittish horse. “Whoa,” she said. “Now wait just a minute.” She started walking me through the plot and we agreed that there was in fact much to be salvaged.

But it wasn’t until halfway through the morning, our bottoms so firmly molded to the hard little rush seats of the chairs that they were already numb, that I exclaimed, “This is it!” It was a simple insight, but it changed everything. It had instantly become clear that the far-out element of my plot could easily and concisely morph (with almost no work!!) into an “easy-to-credit” political plot. I told my SOTQ I’d been praying for an insight like this, longing for resolution on this project, and after hugging her I went to the kilim on my knees in gratitude.

And so, when work began to reassert itself into my writing life the next morning, a Monday that was the final half-day of our retreat, I had my book very nearly ready.

This retreat gave me my book back in two other ways, but I’ve already been too long-winded. But to me they’re just as amazing. Once again, I’m blown away by how exciting and marvelous it is to be a writer.

Let us dare to continue moving forward and taking risks, fellow writers!!

--  Stormy