October 2010 - Annie Bellet

Archive for October, 2010

That Time of Year Again, or NaNoWriMo

I’ve technically done Nanowrimo (or National Novel Writing Month) three times now. I’ve “won” it twice. Last year I intended to be a nano rebel and do a short story a day for the month until my brain got hijacked by insomnia. This year I’m going for a hybrid of sorts. I’m going to write a 45-55k novel and also aim to complete 11 short stories. I predict this will be 90-100k words this month.

There are many conflicting opinions about NaNoWriMo. Some seem to feel that it encourages bad writing, and for people to try to publish bad writing in the after months (I’ve even seen some agent blogs complaining that they get nano novels in December and how annoying that is). My personal opinion is that NaNo is what you make of it. If you want to write a crazy book that is full of in-jokes, word and plot prompts, and probably something only your mother will love, go ahead. I don’t care. Doesn’t bug me a bit. Writing is fun, or I wouldn’t be doing it.

If you want to write a novel with the goal for publication? Do that. Is it possible to write 50,000+ good words in a month? Hell yes. In fact, many professional writers do it all the time. It’s simple to do if you carve out the writing time. Here, I’ll do the math for my own plans:

11 short stories: word count on this will vary. I’m aiming for between 2500 and 7500 words per story. A 7500 word story takes me generally 6-9 hours to write (depending on multiple factors like plotting, research, etc). Most of my stories tend to fall in the 4-5k word range, so we’ll say 55,000 words from shorts. That’s about 55-60 hours of writing at my usual pace.

Then the novel. I’m going for 45-55k words, which is a short novel. But this novel isn’t going to be shopped to traditional publishing. It’s going to be e-pubbed (after first readers and a professional editor see it, of course. I wouldn’t put a rough draft up for sale, clearly). My natural length for novels is fairly short, so I think this is a good length and a pace I can keep up for four books a year. The novel will likely take about 70 hours of work (I’ve done a lot of world-building and pre-planning over the last year, so now what’s left is to write the damn thing).

70+60=130 hours of work in a month. 130/30= 4.3333333 hours a day. That’s right. A bit over four hours a day. When was the last time you worked a four hour day? Writing is my sole source of employment, so there’s really no reason I can’t put four hours a day into it. My actual plan is to put six or seven hours a day in on weekdays and whatever I can fit in on weekends. November is full of weddings, baptisms, parties, Thanksgiving, etc for me, so I know I won’t be able to find hours every single day. Hence the over-writing on some days so I can have slack time for when things come up (because when in life don’t things come up, right?).

So that’s my NaNoWriMo plan. I’m on the nanowrimo.org website under “izanobu” if anyone is doing it and wants to be buddies there (progress bars are fun!).

Good luck to everyone going along on the fun of NaNo!

Link SMASH!

I have website!

My official Annie Bellet website is now live. There are still some tweaks happening, and content will be added, but the basics are in place (including an awesome header image by my friend Greg). Go HERE to visit.

The official Pyrrh Project website (my soon to be here e-pub series put out through Doomed Muse press) is also live. There isn’t much content yet, but it’s being tweaked and produced and there will be more stuff added to that site as well over the coming months. But the publication schedule is up, at least. Go HERE and bookmark it so you don’t miss any announcements/freebies etc.

That’s that for now.

Writing Goals: Things I Like

As I gear up for my next big project (ie, novel), I’ve been thinking a lot about what kinds of stories I like to read and how that impacts the sort of stories I want to tell. I figured it might be interesting to have the list (so far) posted on my blog. Maybe some of you reading will post your own lists (hint, hint).

Things I like to read about/want to write about in fiction:

Fighting. Crimes. Sex. Serial Killers. Details about day to day activities I’m not familiar with. Training montages. Bad-ass people doing clever, bad-ass things (note, these characters don’t have to be the protagonists, I like bad-ass antagonists as well). Love stories. Space stations. Starships or outposts in space in isolation type setting. Post-apocalyptic. Kick-ass, detailed magic. Anything that reminds me of a table-top RPG (ie I could envision giving the characters stats and seeing how the world would be laid out etc). Happily ever after enough endings. Series. Epic world-building. Secondary characters strong enough to merit their own books/stories.

That’s my list so far. I’m sure it’ll expand as I think of things or find things and go “hey! THAT! I love THAT!”

The next project I’m working on is the first book in my e-pub novel series. The website for the series will be up shortly and then I’ll make it its own post. What excites me about this project the most is that I think I can cover a lot of the above list in just one series. (Not the space-station stuff, alas). I’m going to be writing something that I fully love, with nothing in it I don’t. Sounds like fun to me.

I’ve got a lot lined up, actually. We’ll see how much I get to by the end of the year. And I’ve got a pile of short stories waiting on final consideration at various markets with “we’ll tell you by X date-ish” dates coming up in the next few months. Lots to be excited about and lots of work to do.

So, fellow writers (and readers…): what are your favorite things in fiction? What are your reader cookies?

Okay, Let’s Do Math

This’ll likely be part 1 of this post, with more math and data to come later as I collect more.

Since multiple people have asked, both here in the comments and privately, I’ll show my numbers, so to speak.

I have two, yes just two, short stories up on Kindle/Smashwords etc. They are literary fiction and available for .99 cents. I put them up mostly to practice the formatting. A friend did my covers, which I think are beautiful. If you want to see the covers or check out the stories, follow this link.

First question people often wonder with self-publishing things is how do you know it’s any good. Well, I don’t. Good is fairly subjective because some people might like that kind of story, some might not. I do have some faith the writing in these stories is up to par because these are the two stories I used to get myself into an MFA program, so they can’t be bad on a writing level. But in the end, you never know. I would use the rough rule that if you have sold some fiction at pro or decent semi-pro rates and zines, if your submissions get more personal rejections than form letters, etc… as the measure for writing publishable/saleable fiction. And hey, not everyone will like what you write. Oh well. If you have readable writing, a decent grasp of story, a good cover, and a decent description/blurb, I don’t think you’ll suffer much in the e-pub market, from my experience.

So… to the math.

I’ve made about 8-9 dollars total over about 3 months with my stories (counting the one I had to take down because I accidentally sold it). This works out to each story averaging 1.16 per month for the two up now. One sells better (slightly) than the other, but it’s longer and the content less violent, so that doesn’t surprise me too much. I’ve also sold a few copies on Amazon UK netting me another 1.05.

Seems like nothing, doesn’t it? My two semi-pro sales this year got me 30 or so, my pro sale will be a heck of a lot more whenever it comes out (paid on publication for that one). But let’s look at the longer game here.

1.16 a month average per story (this will be my minimum, because this is the real number I’m getting now). I have two stories out. My goal is to write 40 short stories a year. (I’m at 21 this year, but I’ll catch up to near 40 by Jan, no worries). Give each story a year to two years to get through the pro/semi-pro markets on my list, so we’ll say that I get 20 stories up a year on average as the stories either sell (3 months average wait to get rights back) or sunset due to rejections/time.

So next year (we’ll call it year one) I might have 22 short stories e-pubbed by the end of the year (we’ll ignore putting together collections for the moment). At 1.16 a month each, that’s 25.52 dollars a month. Which would pay for my comic book habit, no problem.

Year two, another 20. But the first 20 have been earning as well, so now it’s 42 stories. That’s 48.72 a month. Or, another way to look at it, 584.64 a year. Sweet! I’m now (hypothetically, based on real numbers so far, of course) earning almost 600 a year extra for work I did years ago that I’ve also hopefully earned something on by selling to magazines.

Year three, another 20. So now we’re at 62 stories up online, each earning 1.16 a month. 71.92 a month. 863.04 a year. Anyway… you can see the progression. That trickle? It adds up. Not fast, but it builds and it sure as hell earns more than a story you’ve sold/didn’t sell/whatever would sitting on your hard drive.

Now, imagine if I wrote a story a week instead of just 40 a year (Bradbury does this, as do other pros). 52 stories a year. If I said screw it to trying to sell to magazines, I could put up 52 stories a year. That’s 60.32 a month, or 723.84 a year, the first year. Second year- 1,447.68. It just keeps going. But the really fun numbers are when you start to look at the total ten year earnings. So let’s do that.

On the 20 stories posted a year plan, after ten years I’d be earning about 2,800 a year in that tenth year from short stories. But over the course of those ten years, I’d have earned almost 14,500 from those stories total. Not that bad, especially when you think about it as work you did years and years ago, earning you thousands of dollars in a nice little trickle for you doing NOTHING. (And it is potentially all bonus money on top of any you made selling the story in the first place, because again, balance is key).

On the 52 short stories posted a year plan, the numbers, of course, look even sweeter in the long term. In that tenth year you’d earn about 7,240 from your short story inventory. Over the course of the whole ten years? You’d have earned about 37,000 from those short stories total. Again, not horrible.

This only works, of course, if you keep writing and learning and producing work. And I fully believe that if it takes you months to write a short story, this plan and method won’t work as well (though the trickle can still happen, and still build even at a pace like that).

Of course, if you want the math to get very insane, start making collections with those stories. At the end of plan 1 (20 posted a year), that’s enough for thirteen solid collections that you could sell at 2.99 or even 4.99 (12-15 stories each is pretty good, depending on story length). Thirteen 4.99 collections, selling just three copies a month each at 70% royalty rates (I don’t have real data for collections yet, of course, so this is now hypothetical time) would earn an extra 1,635 a year. For practically no extra work (after all, you have the stories already written and formatted, you just put them together. I’m guessing this would take at most an hour or two, plus time for a cover if you are doing your own).

I’m editing this to add the numbers for if you do collections off ten years of accruing 52 stories a year. This works out to about thirty five collections (12-15 stories per). Thirty five collections at 4.99 earning 70% royalties selling three copies a month each works out to about 4,400 a year. Again, for work you’ve already written, are already earning from (as separate short stories), and have to expend minimal effort on one more time to get into a collection.

Add it up. After ten years at the 20 story pace, you’re earning 4,435 a year off collections and shorts (370 a month) (and you will go on earning that on top of the 14,000+ you’ve already earned over the last decade). After ten years at the 52 story pace, you’re earning 11,600 a year off collections and shorts together (970 a month) and again, on top of the 37,000+ you’ve earned already over the last decade (see how it builds?).

So there you go. Some math, based on what I’m seeing over the last three months from my own very very limited experience. And I’m a no-name author. I’ve sold 3 short stories this year traditionally, but under a different name (Annie Bellet, my spec fic name) and in a different genre than the two posted online. I doubt I have any sort of platform or following at this point.

These are just my numbers and my take on things. I have no idea how well my e-pub novels will sell. That’s why I’m writing them (well, and the idea is kick-ass and will be a bucket of fun to write). I’m curious how this process and the numbers will stack up for a writer who is at this point pretty unknown. I’m going to do everything I can, of course, to make sure I fulfill the four principals hypothesized by Konrath and others about what makes an ebook sell (write a good book, low price point, good/professional cover, good blurb).

I intend to be open about my numbers when the time comes. I am very grateful to authors who have trod this path before me and put up their experiences and numbers, and I intend to pay that forward with my own data.

So, hopefully, this post answers some questions. Now, I’m going to write another short story, because without the work, these numbers mean nothing 🙂

*I did very rough math here. If I’ve made a mistake (I’m dyslexic, especially with numbers), I apologize. I triple checked, so hopefully I haven’t totally gone astray with my maths.

Appropriating and Updating the Race

In this crazy new world of e-publishing, the rules of getting published and making a living at writing are shifting. As anyone reading this blog at all will know, I’m a huge follower of Heinlein’s Rules for Writers. But where does putting my own stuff up without going to an editor who can pay me fall in the mix of those five rules? I’m not sure.

But e-stuff sells. I’m selling handfuls of copies of two literary short stories a month, stories I’ve done basically no marketing for at all. How much better will novels sell? Novels I intend to push in front of people and do as much marketing for as I can handle? Does that count as “keeping it in the mail until it sells”? Maybe.

Dean Wesley Smith came up with a points system called the Race back in the years when I was a wee little girl. The gist is that you get one point for each story in the mail, three points for each novel proposal (only for each novel, not for each editor you send it to), and eight points for each full novel out (again, only counts once per book). Dean explains in his blog here and here much better than I can.

But if I put a story up on Kindle… I lose the point in the Race. I’m sure that Dean will come up with a new Race point system to account for that, but in the meantime, fellow writer Amanda McCarter and I decided on a rough new plan, which we’re calling the E-pub Race (different from the Trad-pub Race). It works like this: (and this is probably way more complicated than it needs to be, but hey… games are fun!)

1 point for each short story. If you bundle shorts, this counts as 1 point up to 4 shorts bundled.

3 points for each short story collection (5+ shorts minimum, repeats allowed with shorts on their own).

5 points for each novel. (Novels bundled in Omnibus form count separately unless they are repeated, in which case you only get the points once).

No points count until you’ve sold at least five copies (the original race has you losing points after getting paid, so we figured the E-pub race should have something opposite of that). Copies you buy yourself don’t count of course. Editions don’t count as separate (so if you do a POD version, you still only get points for that novel once).

Ok. Hopefully that isn’t too complicated. Suggestions and comments are welcome, of course.

Library Study Project

As I move beyond the writing level where advice like “use proper manuscript format” and “don’t insult editors” no longer suffices, I’ve been looking for more ways to expand my writing skills and new things to learn. In the pursuit of more advanced learning, I’ve come across a lot of advice from other writers, some of which I think is awesome, and some of which just makes me scratch my head (because either I’m clueless or I just don’t learn that way).

One of the bits of advice that I found valuable was to read the bestsellers and study people further ahead down the road I want to walk. I decided to take that advice. I’m not even close to rich, so alas, I can’t just go buy a million books like I’d want to. But on the other hand, that forced me to do something I haven’t done in a while. I went to my local library, and by local, I mean within a five minute walk from my home. Can’t really beat that. I do love owning books, but, from an economic standpoint, the mission I was about to embark on wasn’t feasible.

So in May I decided to suck it up and go to the library. After paying 13.47 in library fines from 1998, I got my information updated (the library never forgets!) and was on my way. I was just about to start writing a mystery/thriller/suspense novel (I thought it was a thriller, I’m told it’s actually a mystery, so what do I know? From here on out, I’m abbreviating those genres M/T/S and lumping them together, damnit). So I decided to start with that section, which I quickly learned is shelved together with general fiction anyway. Sci/fi and Fantasy has its own section, as does YA, and chapter books.

The plan? Read at least five books by any author on the shelf with at least ten books who has been published in the last five years. That’s a heck of a lot of authors, across a lot of genres. I started with names I recognized, like Roberts and Patterson. So far I’ve read over 100 books since May. I make myself give each book 100 pages to lose or keep my interest and I think only two or three have failed past that point. I’ve started reading authors I haven’t heard of as well, as long as they fit the 10+ books rule and are still publishing (or have been in the last few years). The librarians have even commented on how much I read. Crazy.

But I’m not just reading for reading sake (or to impress librarians). Every book I read I make mental (and sometimes physical) notes on what that author does that I think works, and why I like it, and how I might be able to emulate it. Some books I’ve read twice. I’ve even, as much as I detest outlining other’s works, have reversed outlined a few books to see how the plots work and where the emotional and storyline beats are. I don’t love every part of every book I read, but I’m starting to see patterns and similarities of what these authors are doing with their writing that keeps them selling books. And this process is starting to show me what I really like in what I read, and thus also what I might want to work on incorporating into my stories.

I’m only a few months into the library project. I don’t know if I’ll keep it up quite as hard core, since I’m missing reading stuff that doesn’t fit into my qualifications, so I’ve started taking side forays into books that are coming out now or have come out that I want to read. But I’m going to stay on top of the bestsellers, for sure, and keep seeing what’s working for the long-time professionals out there. Because they are stomping down a path I want to be on, and while I might make my own sideways journey to the same destinations, I figure I can only learn something from those who’ve carved the paths ahead.

So that’s the library project. Look at the shelves and see which authors (or pen names, however you slice it) have more than ten books on the shelves. Check to make sure the author has published at least one book in the last five years (or ten or whatever you want to go with). Then read at least five books by that author and pay attention to what you like, what you don’t like, what works, what doesn’t, and similarities between that work and others that have sold a lot.

Step three: profit.

Ok, still working on that one *grin*

Now that that’s over…

Home from the Dean Wesley Smith novel workshop. Two query packages are in the mail, three more will follow those as soon as I unpack and transfer the right files to the right computer and update all my folders.

Once again, learned so much at the workshop that I can’t even begin to sum it up. Re-affirmed that ebooks are a good idea (balancing with NY publishing), and learned great things about POD stuff that I hadn’t even started to investigate on my own yet. Having a professional, proofed query package is a great benefit of the novel workshops, but the real meat of learning at these things is in all the side information, the stories, the questions that others ask and answer, and so many other little details (not to mention the cool people I meet and the books I get to read…).

But now, it means I’m done with that novel until I get a full request. So what’s next? Well, here’s the rough plan for the rest of this year:

Plan for rest of October: write a handful of short stories and mail them. Get the world-bible nailed down for my ebook project. Keep things in the mail.

Plan for November: Write the ebook project book 1 as a nanowrimo (hey, why not, right?) and start back in on TVMoSS as soon as that’s done. Also write another handful of short stories and mail them.

Plan for December: Get ebook novel ready for launch in Jan. Finish TVMoSS (or as near as I can given I’m going to lose a lot of time due to holiday stuff). Write another handful of short stories and mail them.

It looks like a lot, but Oct/Nov are usually fairly productive times for me, so I’m not too worried. I just need TVMoSS done by Feb 1st, and the ebook book 1 done by December-ish (to get time to edit, clean it up, and format before Jan.).

So yeah, that’s about it. I’m planning a post on my library project, so hopefully now I’m done with that mind-eating novel I’ll get something up on this blog that’s at least nominally interesting on a more regular basis. Thanks to everyone who encouraged and supported me while I struggled through finishing this last month or so, you guys are awesome!

(More) Things I Learned about Novels

The novel is finished. It’s the third one I’ve written (well, that I count, because the early attempts were just that…attempts).

This novel kicked my ass. I don’t think I’ve ever found a writing project to be so difficult before. But I learned some valuable lessons.

1) In the future when choosing to write a novel in a genre I’ve never so much as tried writing a short story in, allow more time than I think I’ll need. A lot more. Like twice as much or better. This will be very important to keep in mind if I’m ever under contract, because I’ll need to allow for a further out deadline than I might otherwise.

2) Just because a book has a lot going on and multiple points of view doesn’t mean it will be long. I figured that once I added a third semi-major view-point character that I’d be good on the length problem. No the case (though closer than the book would have come otherwise).

3) Fast pacing doesn’t mean skipping description. I think I also finally started to grasp the idea that “setting is character opinion” better in this book, so even if the rest of it is a giant fail, I got to practice pacing and setting.

4) It doesn’t have to be good, because frankly, in the middle of a book, I don’t even know what good is anyway. All I can see is the thousands of words standing in the way of finishing and the giant mess that might be on the page behind me. Done is good. Done is my new definition of good.

So. That’s over. Now, if my brain will stop trying to write sequels, I’m going back to short fiction and working on the e-book project until the end of the year. I miss short fiction. Being able to begin and end something in a single session sounds like heaven right now. And I’ve got five (yes…five! I’m so behind on admin work) stories that need to go out to markets.

As for the finished book, I have no idea. It’s being workshopped this next weekend and the query will go out to editors. I’ve given it to a couple first readers as well. Whenever they get back to me is when I’ll drag it out into daylight again and see about adding enough words (5-7k should do it) to make it commercially viable. Unless it gets a full request before then, in which case I’ll go into panic mode and do whatever needs doing at that point.