Writers’ Mill Minutes May 20th 2018
Twenty members attended May’s Writers’ Mill meeting and enjoyed an amusing, intriguing and very informative talk from John Hoover, the best-selling author of How to Work for an Idiot and other fascinating titles. John described a little of his past, working for Disney, managing audiobooks for McGraw Hill, helping clients at Boeing, Delta, Hilton and many more… then went on to describe how he entered the world of writing and coaching instead of publishing. Great conversation, questions and answers ensued, as you’ll find in the notes at the end of these minutes.
Robin brought snacks (thank you) and we returned to the regular tables for contest awards, critiques and journal discussions afterward.
Judy handed out contests awards for her Plunged into Darkness theme:
- First place, Jessie (Sheila’s mum) for War Time
- Second place, Karin for Don’t let me go there
- Third place, Mary Jane for Plunging into Darkness
Upcoming contests: all 1200 word limit, open to fiction, non-fiction, poetry etc, entries to contest at portlandwritersmill.org:
- Deadline June 3rd, hosted by Karin, If I’d only known… (http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/current-contest-june-2018/)
- Deadline July 1st, hosted by Richard, Summer Solstice (http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/)
- Deadline Aug 5th, hosted by Joanne, Victim vs Survivor (discreet language please) (http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/)
- Deadline September 2nd, hosted by Jessie, Growing Old (http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/)
Upcoming decisions: We have used contest topics to inspire and create anthology submissions in the past, and have released 6 Writers Mill Journals, of which 4 are on Amazon. We discussed the possibility of creating another anthology this year—a task which involves many hours of work for a dedicated few, besides the writing and submitting. Voting with a show of hands, we decided to wait until Christmas next year, 2019, to release the next anthology. In the meantime, Sheila will demonstrate some techniques with Word and the upload process to Createspace during our November meeting this year, in hopes of teaching more members what’s required so you too can self-publish and… you too can volunteer to create the journal!
Critique: Matthew led a critique of Richard’s first chapter, followed by Jim leading a critique of Robin’s middle chapter. Topics discussed included:
- How do we avoid our readers missing vital details as they read? If a detail’s important, perhaps we need to be more intentional about including it. Maybe use dialog to highlight important issues.
- What draws readers in or pushes them out of a story? Do we have to attract/appeal to everyone? How important is it to know our audience?
- How do we deal with unlikeable protagonists? Maybe leave room for redemption. Maybe make the reader curious.
- How do we keep dialog real? Should the language we use be determined by realism or by intended audience? What about narrative voice? What about voices the narrator hears which no one else can hear?
- How do we make the point of view compelling? Again, voice is important. Universal themes applied to protagonist draw readers in—human neediness, not liking herself…
- How do readers form their opinion of a character?
- What if part of the novel is a character’s journal? How authentic do we have to make the character’s writing if, for example, he wouldn’t use correct grammar but we want to avoid distracting readers?
- What makes characters and situations believable? Both detail and choice of detail are important. Don’t need to describe everything, but can’t leave out things the reader needs to know.
- How do we deal with transitions (time or location)? Maybe “Three hours later, in the courtroom…”
- What makes readers want to read on? Curiosity about character or situation? Relating to the character? Spotting a glimmer of hope?
- How do we choose titles for novel or for chapters? How do we make the title relate to the character or situation without giving too much away? What about loaded words? Quest suggests a hero/search is more neutral…
- How important is historical detail? Is the author knowing it’s true sufficient, or do we have to convince the reader it’s true? If so, how?
- In a novel that spans many years, how do we realistically propel a character from child to villain? Should the change be gradual? Continuous downhill slope, or downhill slope with some recoveries on the way?
- How do we make a change in character believable? What kind of hints might propel the story forward? If something’s going to be important later, do we need to include it or hint at it earlier? Can we include it in the title or back copy instead? Or can we just surprise the reader?
- How important are the character’s goals? Can they change in the course of the novel?
- How do we choose which scenes to show and which to tell? Pick the most interesting, most important scenes, ones that drive the story forward or force a change in character… then show these. Using dialog helps but might be difficult in the protagonist’s journal.
- Repeated themes can keep a story flowing—fire, motherhood etc.
Our next meeting is on Father’s Day, June 17th, a very special meeting with Beth Jusino returning to teach about pitching your book ( the perfect follow-on from this month’s talk!). Beth is a very experienced teacher, much in demand, brought down for us from Seattle by the library at no charge to us! So, invite all your friends and remember to keep two hours free on that Sunday.
Lavonna offered to lead June’s meeting and take minutes. Thank you Lavonna! Mary Jane will bring snacks. And in the meantime, happy writing!
Notes from John Hoover’s talk on finding a publisher.
Back in the 80s, audiobooks were going to be huge (it didn’t happen). John Hoover was a publisher of audiobooks, looking for audiobook rights with the prices skyrocketing. Having sold his company to McGraw Hill (which means selling the catalog, first asking authors to re-up so there’d be something to sell) he became the guy who read book proposals and query letters. In the 80s, this amounted to around 15 proposals per week; even so, he needed to make snap decisions:
- Does it fit our list? If not, tell the author no straight away with a personal note, maybe a suggestion where to try instead, and file a photocopy in the rejection pile.
- Is it interesting enough? Maybes go in the maybe pile. Every Monday, check the maybes, keep, reject etc.
- Can he sell it to a bookbuyer? Otherwise, reject. John counts Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus among the wonderful works he rejected, but, of course, Disney rejected Star Wars!
So… don’t let rejection stop you writing and submitting. And don’t forget, you’re not writing your query/proposal to sell to the general public; you’re trying to sell your book to one editor, who will sell it on to one bookbuyer, who will get it into stores.
What does this look like? Suppose you’re writing a YA vampire novel:
- Don’t say it’s different from all other vampire novels out there. Say it’s just like this one, and if you loved this you will really love my book.
- Don’t send it to every publisher of YA novels. Look for the editor who published the one your novel most resembles—that editor likes books just like yours; that editor’s your best chance:
- Type “young adult vampire novels” in the amazon search bar. See what appears and scroll down the list.
- Look for something relatively recent so the editor and/or agent is likely to still be around.
- Looks for something as similar to your book as you can find, so the editor and/or agent will like your book.
- Read the acknowledgments pages and look for the agent or editor’s name. Make sure it’s not the author’s mother or best friend.
- Find the appropriate address.
- Write to the agent or editor by name (editor is best). “I see that you love… My book is just like…” NOT my book is different/unique because…
- Difference makes it interesting, but sameness is what makes the buyer look.
When McGraw Hill sold John’s division, he decided it was time to write. He started with ghostwriting:
- asked a speaker to write a book—speaking pays more than writing, so not an easy sell; so, “What if I write it for you?”
- interviewed an Auschwitz survivor, recorded interviews, transcribed, edited, typed again…
A good endorsement on the cover is worth more than lots of reviews. Reviewers are generally absolutely positive or diametrically opposed to your book, depending on what their expectations were. (Will How to work for an Idiot teach me how to kill my boss and get away with it? No… but…)
So about those idiots… A compensation chart is not an organization chart, which is not a power chart. Idiots rise to the top, but power can stay down below. E.g. You go to work because you love it; you do well so you get promoted to do something else; then you’re promoted again; then… and eventually your company has to hire a consultant.
The cowpat approach to road-plans says follow the cowpats (the way people go) and build your road or footpath there. The cowpats lead to the influencers. They’re the people you need to impress with your novel/need to sell your book to/need to write your proposal for.
How to write a book proposal that sells: Write for the editor, NOT the reader. The editor has very narrow likes. Don’t tell him/her what your book is different from, why it’s unique, how nobody has ever written anything like it. That just tells him it doesn’t fit what he likes, so he won’t look.
How to sell the book (because the publisher won’t help):
- Make sure it has a great cover (if you’re self-publishing). Should be recognizable from 10 feet away.
- Make sure the back cover blurb is a good sales pitch.
- Then find your readers/follow the cowpats to the places they congregate.
Thank you so much John!