Traditional vs. Self Publishing Part I

There are lines in the sand, and authors everywhere are examining the decision of how to publish differently than ever before. The change in the modern landscape of the industry is a significant one, and with the rise of e-books and outlets like Amazon and Smashwords authors have unprecedented access to tools only publishers possessed less than a decade ago.

With the option of self-publishing, you’ll hear a great deal of argument over which method is superior to the other, but that’s the wrong way to view the decision. One isn’t empirically better than the other for all authors in all situations. Each author must weigh their individual needs and wants and select the path that best suits them.

Let me say that again: Each author must consider his or her different needs and wants and make an educated decision.

What I mean by “educated decision” isn’t just reading a bunch of opinion blogs and rolling from there. Study the industry and know what is required to get a book to print. Understanding the process, and the inherent costs, will do a great deal to help you make the correct choice for you.

This post is going to be a two-parter because of the amount of information inherent in making this decision. I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much at once, so let’s start by looking at the process of publishing a book and the steps required to get it from manuscript to print.

1. Editing
   After the manuscript is, ostensibly, in its final form, it should pass by at least one if not two sets of eyes. This may mean hiring an editor freelance or working with an in-house editor if you have found a publishing company. The editing process may happen in several rounds including the final proofread where everyone combs the manuscript for any typos or errors found.
2. Typesetting
   After editing, the book goes to a typesetter. This process is different depending on whether the book is being put into print or e-book or both. The different formats have different requirements that must be met by the person doing the formatting. This process may also include interior design. If you are producing a non-fiction this may be the time when you add photos, asides, graphs, and other images to your work if this applies.
3. Cover Art
   This is pretty straightforward, though I will say in the strongest manner possible do NOT make your own cover unless you are a designer. So many authors fall flat on this part of book design because they either do not want to pay the money to hire a professional or they are convinced that they are able to put together something that is “good enough”. In the cutthroat world of publishing “good enough” isn’t. Readers are jaded, and your cover art must stand out in the crowd in a good way.
4. Printing
   After the book has been assembled, a print book must be sent to a printer. The most common printers for indie presses and authors these days are LSI/Ingram and CreateSpace. Both are good options, and have guidelines for uploads. Ingram is a more professional printer designed to accommodate offset print runs for large orders (1,000 books or more), but it costs money to upload revisions to your document.  Ingram also has a superior bookstore distribution system to CreateSpace, so that is something you will want to consider.
5. Marketing
   The least fun part of the whole process, marketing is a necessary evil to make sure your readers discover you. I could write volumes about marketing and its importance, but I’m not going to dig into it here. Suffice to say it is an important part of writing a book.

All of these steps, as you may realize, cost money. Paying editors, cover designers, interior designers (if needed), typesetters, and then doing marketing are not a cheap collection of professionals. According to the venerable Dan Poynter, and my own experience, the cost of producing a book rests around $10,000. While you may be able to skirt by on some of these steps by doing it yourself, it is not advisable to try and cut corners too much or else you end up with poor quality books that will not please readers, display your skill and talent to your best advantage, or sell copies.

Looking at the process–regardless of whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing– should give you a better perspective to approach the effort of publishing your book. Most authors, when they begin the process of writing, don’t have the end product in their head beyond a nebulous idea of a title on a shelf at a bookstore. That’s not a bad thing, but when you come to the end of the writing/editing process and have your finished copy in your hand the “well now what?” question is the most often one I encounter.

Now that you know more about the steps you have to take to go from manuscript to print, we can begin the conversation (tomorrow) about where the real differences between self-publishing and traditional publishing lie.

 

The Importance of Social Media

Social media has revolutionized how we relate to each other as a culture and a society. I can share my thoughts, impressions, feelings, and silly photos with the entire world if I want to. Not that the entire world cares, but I can, which is unprecedented. I’m thirty, so I’m old enough to remember the dawn of internet usage as a home application (and I have the stacks of old AOL disks to prove it), and I remember joining Facebook sometime during college. Now I think I talk more to my friends on Facebook than I do face-to-face. Now, I’m not here to complain about social media’s presence in our lives, but I want to talk about how writers and professionals need to view social media.

Most of us have heard people say, “I’ll post what I want. It’s my wall.” They are correct on that score. Far be it from me to censor folks, but there are certain things we need to be aware of before we pound away at our keyboards.

Your writing is being judged.
As writers, we know the importance of language. If you don’t, then perhaps you should think about that a little longer. Our first customers when we release a new book are often our friends and family who wish to encourage us and see us succeed. It’s not a dirty thing to think or say, either. However, if your usual posts on social media more closely resemble a teenager’s texting habits then you are going to put them off. They might buy the book because they love you, but they won’t be expecting good writing.

This also goes for posts in groups. I don’t care if you are writing from your phone, if you are posting with impossibly lazy grammar or, worse, using netspeak, it closes the door. I lose interest in what you have to say because that shows that you are not willing to put effort into communication which makes me think your writing will reflect that attitude.

Most people won’t care about a few misplaced commas or typos when communicating on social media. I know I sure don’t. My blogs have them, too, because I don’t hire a copyeditor to go over all of them before posting, and I usually am writing out my thoughts rather than trying to polish articles. However, I make an effort to write using good grammar and punctuation because it suggests that I put my money where my mouth is.

Your content is being judged.
As much as your social media pages are your place to express yourself, you need to consider how you are using them. If you are using a fan page to communicate with potential readers and clients, then what you post on your personal page (assuming you use proper privacy settings) isn’t as much of a concern. However, if you use your personal page to communicate with clients, other authors, and readers, you will want to take into account how much of your personal life you want to reveal, what type of content you want to share with your network.

For example, I don’t post a great deal about politics or religion on my page because I don’t want to invite argument, and I don’t want to upset my friends and network. Now, that is a personal choice and not a business requirement. I don’t hide my personal views, but at the same time I try to not bring up topics on Facebook that I wouldn’t at a cocktail party for the most part. I also try to avoid cursing on my page because, again, it’s poor manners in a business setting.

Different rules apply to different types of writers, too. If you write erotica and people are shocked that you write about sex on your Facebook page then they aren’t your target audience anyway. Unless it’s your Aunt Thelma and her little dog. In which case you should apologize before going to Christmas dinner. However, the general rule of thumb is that you should really consider what you post rather than just “like” and “share” whatever amuses you.

Your attitude and personality are being judged.
Even if your posts are mild in content and well written, if all you post about is how miserable or angry you are, or how jealous, or how biased you are, that will affect other people’s perceptions of you. Again, this is your decision, and if you are using your personal Facebook account for personal communication then it’s less of a concern. However, the more a public figure you become, the more of an issue this is.

If you look at recent scandals involving celebrities how many of them involve social media posts? Of course, it’s most often referring to Twitter, but the rest of social media matters as well. The days of authors being islands unto themselves and locking themselves in cabins to only deliver manuscripts to their editors and otherwise being hermits is pretty much over. In today’s world we have to connect with our readers. That means being viewed as likable or at the very least interesting and eclectic. While this puts a strain on us and our communication, it’s an aspect we need to consider when we post to our network.

So where does that leave us?
Well, with any luck, we know how to be polite to people. While being “interesting” is a difficult shoe to fill, we can find ways to do that, too. We need to post what our readers and network would find useful and entertaining. We need to think before we hit “share”. If this sounds daunting it’s only because it is. Most writers, in my experience, are introverts who prefer the company of their pets, Netflix, and perhaps significant others. Interacting with people is tough, and we often see it as cutting into our writing or daydreaming time.

While I’m not going to give a full lesson here on social media marketing, I will say that a good percentage of it is being authentic without being rude, being funny without being crass, and being relatable without being whiny. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.

How To Handle Difficult People

I almost titled this as “how to handle difficult clients”, but I thought for a minute and realized the techniques aren’t so different. Also, the differences between “difficult clients” and “difficult editors” (you can replace it with publisher, beta reader, coworker…) are minimal.

In your career you will run into difficult people. I would even say that you will run into more of them as a creative professional because creative folk run on a different wavelength than most people. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for all of us because we creatives are passionate, excitable, often hardworking, and in touch with our emotions. It’s great. Until it isn’t.

The dark side of creativity means we are moody, protective, irritable, and often live in a world where practicality falls a bit by the wayside. We also typically want to go our own way which results in stress and headaches for everyone involved because “go our own way” sometimes means charging headlong over a cliff everyone else saw coming.

So how do we handle it when a fellow creative is being less-than-helpful with what we are doing? There are a lot of ways, but I’ve found this approach often results in fruit.

I always start with listening. Sometimes these folks have something valid to say and are having trouble spitting it out. They may not even understand the core of the problem, themselves. However, listening to someone – and genuinely listening – sometimes is enough to help them feel as if they are heard and their feelings matter.

Many creatives are living under a constant barrage of “why don’t you get a real job?” or “your writing sucks, don’t quit your day job (if you have one, burger flipper)” and so on. It’s a bad world out there for us because the arts are so under-appreciated these days. It’s a pretty terrible place to be. Not only that, but as I have said many times… there are sharks in our waters. People who prey on creatives’ hopes and dreams to turn a profit.

This all builds up into an explosive mixture for some folks. Letting them rant and rave (at least for a short time) is sometimes all it takes for them to calm down and realize that they are being a dummy. Or, at least, they will appreciate that someone took the time to hear what they are upset about.

This is tough. I’ve had clients with whom I had to be extremely patient because they just couldn’t grasp something. Or they were being bullheaded. It happens to all of us, and I have been that bullheaded client before, so I’m not pointing fingers.

We creatives all communicate a little differently. Some people are Hemmingway blunt. They say what they mean and to hell with the consequences. Others are far more flowery and require some digging to get into what they mean. They also tend to talk around a subject rather than address it. Both of these methods of communication have issues.

When interacting with other people in this world, we have to recognize the differences in style because what may come across as “mean” might just be the Hemmingway type. They don’t intend hurt or pain, but they would rather be honest with you than blow smoke. Or someone who seems “wishy washy” might well be rock solid and just be trying to be diplomatic. It can be hard to sort out the differences if you let your emotions get the better of you. Particularly if you’re talking to them online.

After listening to the person, I give serious consideration to what I’ve just heard. Is what they are saying accurate? Are they trying to be hurtful? Are they just not good at talking to people? This kind of discernment is important because it will allow you to see what is happening from a more complete perspective.

At this point, I try not to let my emotions get the better of me. If I’m upset by what they said or how they said it, I try and step away for awhile and calm down. That allows me to be more logical when I approach the conversation the second time and gives me the opportunity to focus myself and formulate my reply.

Once I understand what they are really saying and what their intent is, I can respond appropriately.

Finally, I treat as many situations as possible with professionalism. This is tough. Particularly when we are overcome with emotion. It’s easy to start creating these folks as friends and even family at times, but if this person is a client, or someone we are doing work with in any way, we need to make sure we approach these difficult situations with professionalism. That means we aren’t going to cuss them out or become sarcastic or rude.

In some ways, I find it important to rely on my professionalism when everything else is falling apart. For example, I had a client make a huge number of demands on my time. The client was rude, hurtful, selfish, and just generally a pain to deal with. They sucked up huge amounts of my time with requirements and attempted to overstep the amount they were paying me. Regularly.

I could have cussed them out when I left – after all, they had just sent me a particularly nasty message. I can tell you I was furious. Particularly since they made threats that I’d “never work in the business again” and that I was an idiot who couldn’t “see literary genius” and so on. The usual slew of insults when you tell a particularly crunchy creative “no”. Instead of cussing him out, I sent that client a very polite message and then sent every future message to my spam email folder.

When you behave that way it gives you the upper hand because anyone in the future examining the situation will see one person who is angry and unleashing a flow of invective and one who is behaving in an (at least) cordial manner and acting as a professional. Typically, judgment will lean toward the side of the professional.

To wrap this up, the three principals I have outlined here, listening, careful consideration, and  professionalism have saved my bacon more than once. This is just as true for an author as it is for an editor, publisher, cover artist, etc. The reason being is that we are all in this surprisingly small pool together, rubbing elbows. If you develop a reputation for lacking in the above traits it will spread. Regardless of what side of the industry you’re on, if you develop a reputation for being a dunderheaded, kneejerking, unprofessional individual it will haunt you. Trying to shake off that reputation is extremely difficult, too, because once people are wary of you it tends to stay that way for years.

Integrity

Owing to a recent event I witnessed where a writer claimed to be an editor and author with Random House (and very much wasn’t), I thought it prudent to share my thoughts on the subject. The sad thing is that this incident isn’t isolated. I can’t count the number of people I’ve come across who tried to inflate their status with false claims or exaggerated ones. Many “award-winning authors” won their awards at a tiny venue with a single book club of ten people, many so-called editors are just scam artists who prey on writers, many “publishers” are second-rate hacks who know nothing about the industry or the process.

Being anything but honest will come back and eventually bite you in the butt. This means marketing yourself as yourself, being honest if you’re a novice, and not claiming to be more than you are. I’ve been in the industry five years and have no trouble admitting to people that I’m still new at all of this. I don’t know everything, and I want to learn more. As my friend and mentor, Randall “Jay” Andrews quoted to me today: “Education is not the filling a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” (William Butler Yeats)

So many people use false credentials – both in writing and in business in general – because we have fostered this notion that just being ourselves isn’t good enough. I’d like to say that it is, in fact, good enough. It may not be good enough for every project all the time, but being yourself and being honest is what will make the difference between success and failure. When people pitch their books to Insomnia I am honest with them that it is a new company. Folks can take that risk or not, and they aren’t judged on it. The contracts are transparent, and we are open and clear about everything. There’s no reason not to be.

Through the years I have developed a name for myself editing and writing, and through no point of that process was I dishonest with my clients. I have even turned down clients who I didn’t feel I could help. I could have taken their money and tap danced on their manuscript for awhile, but what was the point? The money? Sure, I could’ve done it for the money, but if I become that money-centric that I sacrifice my integrity then I am doing something very wrong.

The take away lesson from this is that your integrity is valuable. Don’t pretend to be something or someone you aren’t because you want to be more than you are. Accept who you are, and if you don’t like how things stand then learn. Grow. Change it.

You Mean It’s Work?

My least-favorite type of writer is this one, and I’m sorry to be the mean one to say it, but it’s true. There are many of them in the world, and I never stop being frustrated by them. It’s the people who, when they put their work up and you critique it say:

“This isn’t supposed to be work.”

Hold on there, Hemmingway. Take a step back and say that again. This isn’t supposed to be work? So, what? You just think something up, slap it down on the page, and it’s an instant masterpiece? Right. Because Michelangelo just decided to be a painter one day and the Sistine Chapel happened. He didn’t spend his entire life dedicated to his craft or anything, right?

Personally, I think this type of person is worse than that aunt or cousin who thinks you should quit writing and get a real job. At least they have the excuse of not being a writer. They don’t know how much we work our butts off to hone our craft and accomplish our goals.

For some reason writing has this stigma attached to it, like it’s different from the rest of the arts. No one thinks you can learn violin over night and become Lindsay Stirling in a week. And if they do they learn otherwise in the first few notes. The same thing with painting. You can figure out you’re not Rembrandt by sticking a paintbrush in some paint and slapping it onto canvas with the precision of a four-year-old eating spaghetti and know you aren’t a painter pretty quickly. Maybe it’s because words on a page look like words on a page, and if you don’t know what you’re looking at it isn’t as obvious (sometimes) as the fact that your painting looks more like the floor after a frat party than it does your Aunt Gladys.

We’ve all had those friends in our lives who write Godawful poetry and ask us to read it. We are expected to smile and nod because it’s an expression of their twisted, suffering SOUL. It breeds this feeling that you can’t tell someone their writing would be improved by judicious application of gasoline and matches. Believe me, sometimes you need to be told that. You also sometimes need to say it.

Writing is work. It’s long hours of grueling, frustrating, BORING work. If you are trying to make writing your profession you need to pull up your boots and wade in because it will require the same dedication that any job or collegiate-level education will demand. Your long hours in front of your computer pounding away keys are your freshman 101 classes. Then you hit your senior year when you realize you have to make something coherent out of that mess.

I have spent hundreds of hours on the manuscript I’m working on. I wrote it in a furious rush during NaNoWriMo 2013 and have been polishing and ironing out the kinks since then. It takes that long? Yeah. Yeah, it can. You know why? Because it’s work.

I don’t say this to the detriment of folks who write as a hobby. Hobbyists are doing it for fun. They may be exceptionally talented, and may even be good writers, but they are doing it for fun. Professionals are different. Professionals are expected to be… well… professional. We can’t just slap down awfulness and be satisfied with it because that isn’t who we are.

Those who don’t want to put in the time, blood, sweat, and tears to become strong writers aren’t going to cut it as professionals. They’ll be mediocre hacks for the rest of their lives whose time is better served doing something else.

Why Traditional Publishing Isn’t Dying

This is likely to be a controversial post because I am going to say a lot of things about the industry that I think are hard truths. Truths that suck to hear, but they are things I think need to be said.

Despite pundits saying it, traditional publishing isn’t about to die. It isn’t “dying”. It isn’t even in pain. While the “Big Six” in New York are suffering there are plenty of presses who are still doing marvelously and aren’t on the verge of collapse. In fact, I would even say that the indie publishing world is booming. While there are sharks in the water and idiots floating around in inner-tubes with tin foil hats there are also plenty of good companies emerging from depths. The thought that traditional publishing is dying is a misnomer and is, for some people, wishful thinking. It isn’t going away, and thank God for that.

I do not take issue with self-publishing and have many friends who are quite successful doing it. They are skilled writers who take time with their works to polish, market, and prepare them for the shelves they’re on. I salute anyone who takes the time to do that and do it well. It isn’t easy. However folks like that are rare.

The reason I prefer traditional publishing in 90% of circumstances boils down to a single word: gatekeepers. There is a buffer zone of several people between the hopeful would-be author and their potential audience. Agents, acquisitions editors, editors within a publishing company, lawyers… all of these people make a difference in the quality of the work produced. And they all protect readers from the dreaded Slush Pile.

If you don’t know what the Slush Pile is, it is a derogatory term for the query inbox. It’s a neck-deep pool of horrible that no one wants to be part of, and it’s what acquisitions editors protect readers from. They protect you from such titles as “A Billionaire Dinosaur Forced Me Gay” or “Taken By The Lightning Bolt“.  Those books, however, almost define the slush pile in my mind. I’ve got nothing against gays or erotica, but those two were the worst things I could dig up on Amazon. If anyone else wants to share links to HORRIBLE books in the comments I’d be happy to add more!

Before you ask, yes. It is that bad. No, I’m not making it up.

Now, before you all shout “BUT I DON’T SUCK!” I believe you. Being that awful takes many years of hard work, and I personally know many successful and skilled self-published writers. However, you are running up against the fact that you are emerging – still dripping – from a pool over three million kids have peed in. No matter how many showers you take and how many times you clean that bathing suit it will follow you around as long as you own that suit.

I know that it isn’t fair. And I know that it isn’t right. But that is the stigma that self-published authors face, and it isn’t going to go away. I know many people believe that self-publishing will gather steam and stomp those mean ol’ publishers right out of existence, but it just won’t happen because: gatekeepers. The lack of gatekeepers is what is causing the self-publishing industry to hemorrhage. There are so many authors and so many of them are so awful that it becomes almost impossible for readers to sort the wheat from the chaff. That job that once belonged to people who defined the writing industry before readers even saw the content is now being passed on to the readers, and most of them just don’t want to do that job.

There are a few dedicated folks who will read only indie books. They will read only self-pubbed works, and they stick up for authors they believe in. I respect them, and I respect the authors who actually “make it” through self-published means. Being able to do that means they have found ways to market themselves effectively to the point where they are likely as educated in marketing as many people who have gone to college for it. It is no easy road. However, they are the minority.

Regardless of the few, the proud, and the intelligent who look at self-publishing for what it is – a business venture – there are far too many folks out there who view it as a shortcut. I recently had a conversation with my friend Jerry Hatchett about this topic. Jerry is an accomplished self-pubbed author who is one of the few authors I know who nearly makes a living off his writing as an indie author. He expressed hope that maybe self-publishing would start to filter itself after awhile, and I hope for the same. However the realistic part of me doesn’t see that happening anytime soon because any moron with a word processor and internet access can put a book up for sale. And they will. The lack of gatekeepers in the industry is what will cripple indie authors from being able to really become the powerhouses they could otherwise.

Does A Degree In Writing Help?

I recently saw this question and thought it might be appropriate to weigh in.

To begin with – I did graduate college. I obtained my degree in history with a European concentration. As such I spent a lot of time reading and writing for my degree which I have no doubt helped my ability to write. I also took quite  few creative writing courses and literature courses. Unfortunately, that led me to my conclusion. Mileage may vary; your teachers will make all the difference in the world, so I can’t speak for if you have amazing professors.

My literature professors were amazing, and I learned a great deal from them. On the other hand I learned very little from the writing courses I took. In fact they were more damaging than helpful to my writing. The professor told me that genre fiction was a lesser form of writing, and literary fiction was king. And we spent a fair amount of time that semester reading a book she had published. I will admit that I didn’t read it. I never even opened it. I thought it was more than a little egotistical for her to be making us buy her book and then read it while she talked about her own genius. Not all of the creative writing professors were like that, but most of them continued to “poo-poo” genre fiction and tout the genius of literary fiction.

Fast forward a few years to when I began working in the industry. I started in the slush pile weeding out the good writing from the bad. While the writings of those with degrees in the field was mediocre most of it looked the same. While I will be the first to admit I wasn’t excited by literary fiction then or now, a lot of what was sent to me tried too hard to be “deep” and “meaningful”. It was all the same drivel, and most of them included their degree in literary fiction in the query letter. While I understand that college can’t make a sow’s ear into a silk purse it didn’t look like it helped as much as might could have.

On the other hand I know several people with multiple degrees in writing, and their work is exemplary. Like I said, it may depend on the school and the teachers.

What I think one of the biggest culprits is in the situation with folks with creative writing degrees is that many of them believe it will be a quick route into publishing. Having the degree doesn’t guarantee that you will be picked up. The assumption that it is the fast-route to being picked up by a publishing company leads to ego problems. It can become a crutch in that way – leaning on the fact that you have a degree to prevent you from pushing yourself to become better once you leave school.

If I were to sum up my opinions on the matter I would say to be very, very careful to choose the right college when you are considering going. And remember to analyze everything you hear – just because someone is a professor doesn’t mean they know their backside from a teapot. Take what you can out of it, but you should also know it isn’t the only way to learn to be an exemplary writer. If you have the extra money to devote to furthering your education I won’t tell you know, but realize it isn’t the shortcut to publishing. The only way to get there is a lot of hard work and practice.

Why NaNoWriMo Is Important

While I am a relative newcomer to NaNoWriMo, this being my second year, I don’t have a long-running history to be able to share about this project. However, I did win it last year (cue the confetti), and I learned a lot while doing it.

If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it stands for “National Novel Writing Month” where authors globally attempt to write 50k on a manuscript in a month. There are write-ins all over the world where authors meet up and sit around writing together. It’s a month-long celebration of the creative process that is not to be missed!

1) Time Management

In order to “win” you need to write a minimum of 1,666 every day for a month. If you miss a day you need to write more the next day to make it up. As such, you are competing with yourself, and you have a specific goal to hit on the piece. While you can miss a day if you need to, it gives you the pressure of knowing you should be writing. As such you tend to structure your day around your precious, precious writing time. It’s a good exercise for people like me who have problems carving out time in our busy schedules for personal writing.

2) Commitment

Many of us start novels and then just wander off into the brush and never finish them. NaNo gives us accountability to ourselves and to the community (if we choose to participate in it). It also helps that it’s something that’s everywhere in the writing world during that month because we can’t just forget about it so easily. Particularly if our friends and family are participating!

3) Don’t Look Back

When you’re writing a first draft it’s always tempting to go back and tweak it before you’re done writing it. The path to insanity is to try and edit before you’re done writing, and when you’re doing NaNo you just don’t have time to do that! You have to plow on full-speed-ahead and wait until you’ve reached the end in order to go back and fix anything. It teaches the lesson of letting the first draft be a first draft.

4) You Are Not Alone

Writing is often a solitary act, and we tend to isolate ourselves for hours with our computers when we’re trying to get something done. It’s easy to forget that we aren’t alone in the world with the struggles and triumphs that come from writing, even if our family and close friends don’t quite understand what we are doing. NaNoWriMo connects you to a global community who will be encountering all the same things you are in the same context and the same time frame.

While I’m sure there are many other lessons NaNo can teach, those are the ones that came to my head today as I was working on the outline for the novel I’m preparing. It’s going to be a great journey, and I’m really looking forward to participating this year. Wish me luck!

Sex In Writing

Kiss (Photo credit: Ko:(char *)hook)

I recently discovered a hotbed of discussion regarding sex in writing. While the specifics were regarding sex in Young Adult writing and the controversies surrounding whether or not it’s appropriate to have sexual content in that genre. I’m not opening that can of worms here, but it does bring up an important discussion.

A great deal of fiction involves elements of romance. Whether it’s a romance novel or a spy thriller, many books contain a romance. It’s not necessarily a sexual romance, but almost everyone likes to see a little romance. Some sexual tension. Take the show “Castle” for example. I haven’t seen the whole series, of course (I’m up to season four; I know, I’m behind). However, the sexual tension and budding romance between Castle and Beckett is one of the main focal points of the series. Much similar to Fox and Sculley from X-Files.

Sex is a touchy subject. We’ll start there. There are people who love it, people who hate it, people who hate who others have it with, people who… You get the idea. However, there are a few things I want to mention. And I’m not talking to those that write graphic, explicit smut (hey, I don’t judge – as long as you write it well have at it!).

First of all it shouldn’t be forced. If you aren’t comfortable writing about the details of sex… don’t. It will come off stilted, nervous, and awkward. You’re better off fading to black at a key point and letting the reader imagine it. Just because you have sex in your writing doesn’t mean you need to tell the readers everything.

Second, unless you’re an author of smut for smut’s sake (again, no judgment here), it should be a side dish to the main story. I am guilty of having read some smut here and there, but I will tell you this: I stopped reading Laurel K. Hamilton’s writing when the smut took over the plot. It’s something that can happen in writing and when you have characters that become sexually active it shouldn’t take over the story.

Laurel K. Hamilton’s book, “Micah” had (no joke) a single sex scene last for a full two chapters. Two chapters. Let that sink in for a minute… You still with me? I stopped reading there because I couldn’t follow the plot. I actually ended up skipping the steamy stuff and trying to find the plot again and by the time I’d finished the book I was very unsatisfied. I had been in love with the series up until about Narcissus in Chains which was when it went downhill (for me). Don’t do this to yourself. Even if your characters are sexually active, and it’s something you’re comfortable writing don’t drown your plot in it. Otherwise your writing becomes less storytelling and more “Dear Penthouse…”

Third, you should make sure the level of sexual activity is appropriate for your readers. If you are writing a YA novel and want to include sex (I am not going to say which side of the argument I’m on) then don’t do so in a graphic manner. Your audience needs to be thought of. Consider the YA genre to be like a Rated PG-13 – R crowd. If your book would rate NC-17 or “X” then you shouldn’t put it in the YA label. It just isn’t morally right.

As in all things, you need to consider your readers. If your readers are looking to your book as a thrill then by all means, include whatever you like. But try to take care when writing sex to not take it further than you’re comfortable with and is appropriate for the genre.

I want to close this by saying I’m not a prude. I understand a fair amount about sex and sexuality in many forms. I’ve researched it in the course of my study of human nature and psychology. It is something that is too quickly given little meaning by many people when it should be an important act. I know this sounds a little preachy, but I feel that sexual intimacy is a sacred thing. It should be treated with respect, and it should be treated with caution. Books can quickly get bogged down when you end up in sex scenes because authors are not sure how to write about it, are afraid of offending people, or are just uncomfortable with the topic.

Ultimately you need to make the decision for yourself about what to include, how much to include, and whether or not to include it at all. But hopefully this has at least made you think a little about the decision. It should not be made blindly and ought to receive due consideration.

Related articles

• Writing Hot vs. Not (silkensheetsandseduction.wordpress.com)
• How Sexy Do You Like it? (rakesroguesandromance.com)

Guest Blog: Should a Debut Novel “Play it Safe” By Gus Sanchez

Gus Sanchez is the author of the blog anthology “Out Where the Buses Don’t Run.” He is currently at work on his first novel. A native New Yorker, he now lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife and daughter. You can find him online at www.outwherethebusesdontrun.com

Some time ago, I was at a local writer’s critique group I attend every second Saturday of each month. For a writer’s group, it’s a pretty large one; on any given Saturday, when the group meets, we can expect up to thirty people to meet at one of the local branches of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library.

I felt one of the pieces being critiqued that Saturday needed a lot of work. I had the chance to read the submitted piece a few days before the writer’s group met. I found reading this one writer’s story somewhat frustrating. Too many run-on sentences, odd and sudden shifts in POV, and his story seemed to threaten to get away from him. Like a lot of young adult writers, his story is part of a multi-part story; his submitted short selection was the prologue and opening chapter to the first novel. A lively discussion was taking place after he’d read a few paragraphs of his story. The group agreed his story needed work, and we were here to help him.

My suggestion to him, one which I voiced loudly, was to make the story more ambitious. I felt he was restraining himself a bit too much. His story was a cross-genre attempt at both historical fiction and conspiracy thriller, in which the illegitimate daughter of the last Tsar of Russia…something…something…something. Regardless, I urged him to pursue this. Be ambitious, I told him, get it all out on paper. Allow your imagination to roam as free as possible, and don’t get in its way.

One participant argued otherwise. There’s an adage in the publishing world, she said, that both agents and publishers will repeat with writers: your first and second novels should play it safe. Save the really ambitious stuff for the third novel. Agents find it easier to sell novels that play it safe. A few participants in the group nodded their heads, although it was hard to say if they agreed, or were just nodding for the sheer hell of it all.

I let her commentary pass, without a comment of my own. After all, I’m not a published writer, so I have no frame of reference to retort with. There are rules every writer must abide by. The classic “show, don’t tell,” is probably the one cardinal rule no writer dare violate. The greatest lesson any writer should know is what the rules to writing actually are. Know the rules, and you’ll play the game correctly. Rules apply to just about anything, really. Understanding how the rules apply makes you more disciplined in what you do. It’s what makes a soccer player a better goal scorer by understanding the offside rule, if you’ll pardon the sports analogy. If that striker thinks he can simply ignore the most important offensive rule of the goal, then he’ll make for a terrible striker. Excellent strikers understand how and when the offside rule works. Excellent writers know the rules of writing. They know how and when the rules work.

With that being said, there’s something to be said about breaking the rules. The greatest art has often been created when the artist thumbs their nose at the rules, and creates a new set of rules. Actually, let’s take that one step down a bit. Good art, even if it’s not great, should make every attempt to break the rules. And this rule that your debut novel should be something you should play safe, as a writer, is one rule I think needs to be broken more frequently.

I’d be hard-pressed to tell you exactly how many debut novels I’ve read, but I find that while so many are well-written and possessing of a literary voice that’s clearly going places, often times that debut just seems unmemorable. Not to say it’s a bad book. Far from it. But I get a feeling sometimes that after I’ve read a debut novel, I’ll likely not think much about it ever again. Which leads me recently to wonder if someone, an agent, an editor, another writer, suggested to this writer that they play it safe with their debut novel? The better the chances to get their novel published, right? So be it, I suppose.

Then I finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline recently, and was reminded again of what a debut novel should read like: an opening, forceful statement of intent from a new novelist, one that brims with so much promise, and whose debut novel is filled with the idea that “playing it safe” is a fool’s errand. Clearly, Ernest Cline skipped class the day that lesson was taught, and thank the gods for that, because had Ernest Cline played it safe, Ready Player One would simply be another run-of-the-mill sci-fi tale. By not playing it safe, Ernest Cline has weaved a hilarious, heart-racing, smile-inducing pop-culture thrill ride, a love letter to nerd culture and 80s-era nostalgia, and a game inside a story that’s hard to put down. If you’ve read this novel, then you know what I’m talking about. In other words, this is one hell of a debut novel because it goes for something far greater than the sum of its parts. It dares to be far more ambitious than it should be, and it works. Ready Player One isn’t perfect by any means. It relies way too much on backstory, which for the sake of this novel is a necessary evil, and relying on backstory can threaten to grind a novel down to a halt. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen in Ready Player One.

I thought of some of my favorite debut novels: Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, and Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. What if Chuck Palahniuk’s agent told him to play it safe, and lose the whole plot twist about Tyler Durden and the narrator being the same person? Certainly Palahniuk’s ruminations on commercialism, masculinity, and materialism wouldn’t have had the same heft and anarchic glee to them. What if Joseph Heller’s publisher told him, “Forget it, you need to make Yossarian less crazy and more likeable?” It’s possible these conversations took place. Clearly, if they did, these authors dug their heels.

I admit the comment the group member made about playing it safe later irked me to no end. I found it to be extremely discouraging advice, even if it was given under the best of intentions. I’m careful not to give advice that’s too lofty or unattainable; I got the sense that the writer of this Tsarist Russia YA conspiracy novel definitely had lofty ambitions in mind, but needed help shaping his vision. So why tell him to tone his ambition down? I don’t want to see him needlessly give up on something he’s been passionate about, something he’s clearly done a ton of research on, just because it’s not “marketable.” Let him decide that for himself.

Mind you, I’m not dumping on agents or editors or other writers for dispensing this advice. Sometimes an author not playing it safe is an author being self-indulgent, and a good agent needs to call bullshit sometimes. But sometimes this advice can be misguided. I’m not saying the rule of “playing it safe” is wrong, but it’s a rule worth breaking when writing your first novel.