Category: Writing

The Flesh and Bones of Fiction

I’m currently reading Black Feathers edited by Ellen Datlow, a collection of bird themed horror stories. Some of them come under the heading of the New Weird, very literary fiction in which mood is more important than plot. Done well this can be wonderful, as in the works of Thomas Ligotti and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Generally, it consists of short stories as I don’t think a mood could be sustained for a whole novel. Done badly it makes me throw the book across the room in frustration (don’t do this with an e-reader) as after twenty pages of clever, clever writing full of apt similes and stirring metaphors and sinister mood you get to the end and realize there is no end and it was meaningless. Your time has been wasted.

Fortunately, most of the work in Black Feathers is done well. Ellen Datlow is an award-winning editor and tends to pick the good stuff for her anthologies.

However, all this literary fiction – there’s even a tale by Joyce Carol Oates – made me think about plot versus other stuff in a story. I started out as, and remain, plot centred. My early stories were so plotty that most people said they were too short and felt rushed. This is still a flaw of mine but I am learning to put more flesh on those bones and do some description and even character sketches to make the plot stronger. I’m selling more stories so it might be working.

But I retain my love for plot. You need bones. Some modern stories are all flesh. Very attractive flesh of fine language, similes, metaphors, even poetry but no bones. As I say, if you’re extremely talented you can get away with this and some people will love it. You won’t ever be a bestseller because the masses like plot. Look at the success of James Patterson. If like most of us, you’re just an ordinary writer, I’d advise you to stick with plot. When you write a story, be like a taxidermist and hang those attractive literary decorations on a solid wire skeleton of events. And for God’s sake give it a proper ending.

Eamonn Murphy

 

Marketing is getting harder for self-publishers

I had an email from Bookfunnel a few days ago to warn me that Outlook is blocking stuff from MailerLite and other platforms as spam. This matters for authors who send out newsletters and other promotional material via these platforms. It also matters to the likes of Bookfunnel and Instafreebie because their selling point for authors is that you can gather reader emails with their Giveaways then send those readers information about your other works. If Outlook is blocking you as spam, you can’t. They give a work around for the problem but it’s still a pain.

As far as I can tell, nearly all the tried and tested methods of marketing your self-published book no longer work. On Instafreebie and Bookfunnel the Group Giveaways are very successful at getting books out because you have loads of authors all boosting the same weblink to pull in readers, and who can resist a freebie? Unfortunately, you can Giveaway until your heart’s content but it doesn’t do any good, at least, not for me. I’ve given away hundreds of free books. Do they ever get read? Who knows? Do they lead to new sales? Absolutely not. I only give away a preview now. That doesn’t lead to sales either but I’m only on the free plan, not gathering emails, so it costs nothing and doesn’t hurt. I keep some links on the website to Instafreebie previews for my millions of followers.

Any market is finite. More authors do not mean more book sales, it just means fewer sales for each author. In general, writers love writing and, as Stephen King said, would probably do it in secret even if it was against the law. Small sales are no reason to stop creating. However, if I had one piece of advice for anyone launching a self-publishing career now it would be this: ignore all the hype about how many millions you can make and keep the day job.

Of course, if you get a big publisher they do the marketing. Every time I open my email now (Outlook – it keeps me safe from self-publisher spam) I get an advert for the latest James Patterson book. I guess he needs the money.

Phantaxis no more?

Woe! I received an email today from Phataxis saying that they are on hiatus and will be ceasing publication for a while. In the hard world of struggling SF magazines that might be quite a while. I hope not. It’s a great little magazine with real quality stories. (They didn’t buy any of mine, a sure sign of good taste). See my review of the August 2017 issue. Or the May 2017 issue. Phantaxis managed to be on a par with the esteemed Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction even with a smaller budget. I do hope they come back.

This 2015 article by Gregory Benford on the decline in sales for the SF magazines is even more relevant today. Even the big names are finding things difficult. Where will burgeoning new talent find a place to grow?

The good news is that Perihelion SF is back.