Write What You Know. I Mean, What You Want

People often say that the key to success in writing is writing what you know. Which seems like a strange idea considering all the science fiction and fantasy work that is floating our there. So I've come up with something else. Write what you want. Write what you want to be. What you want to do. Where you want to go.

This does something to the writer. Something more than writing what you know. It stimulates your imagination. Think back to when you were a kid and you would think about all the things that you wanted to do and all the places you wanted to go. It's was endless. It had a horizon that you never thought you would get to but that didn't matter as you'd keep running towards it anyway. Why? Because it was exciting and new and uncharted and filled with all these ideas and desires. Filled with what you wanted.

And this should be your mindset when you go out to write. Writing what you know limits you so much. It's like creating what you know. Or researching what you know. Facebook, Youtube, and Apple would not be around if their creators stuck with what they knew. They created what they wanted. And vaccines, tech, and every discovery would be lost if their founders stuck with what they knew. They were looking for something they wanted. Some cure or device that they had in their head. Creativity is all about the uncharted!

Now, these ideas in our heads hardly ever turn out the way we would want them to. But that's okay because combining what we want with our current abilities and that strange magic of creation makes for some interesting and beautiful products. I mean, I've been wanting some cats, but I live in a pet free apartment. So I decided to start writing about cats. My interest in adventure series combined with inability to write very long pieces came together with The Serialized Adventures of Marlo & Norway. Something I didn't expect. But still something quite exciting.

So don't worry about writing what you know. Sit there and think hard about what you want. What story do you want to tell? What story would you want to read? Sit and figure that out then start writing it. You might actual find you've stumbled on to something grand. Something truly you and truly unique. And in the end, you may come out with the book that you not only always wanted but, also, always needed.

KDP Select? Amazon Lending? I don't know...

I just received an email from Amazon detailing the KDP Select which is the lending program that has been in the works. Here are some highlights of what the email said:

When you make any of your titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those with US rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library and can earn a share of a monthly fund.  The monthly fund for December 2011 is $500,000 and will total at least $6 million in 2012.  If you haven't checked it out already, the Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a collection of books that eligible US Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month with no due dates.

Your share of the monthly fund is based on your enrolled titles' share of the total number of borrows across all participating KDP titles in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.  For example, if total borrows of all participating KDP titles are 100,000 in December and your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn $7,500 in additional royalties from KDP Select in December.  Enrolled titles will remain available for sale to any customer in the Kindle Store and you will continue to earn your regular royalties on those sales.

Now, I am all for lending and borrowing of books. It's part of my librarian background. I mean, I make all my stuff DRM free for a reason. But I have a problem with this. First, the exclusivity of the deal. Second, the share seems very little. At least for indie authors. 100,000 titles being shared in one month seems low considering how many of us authors are eager to share work and make money. Then we have to compete with how many times our books is borrowed vs those of the bigger guys or more well known! Seems ridiculous.

It's just that don't feel this will offer me anything. It removes my titles from other stores for at least 90 days. That's just to be in it! And the shares is just weird. Splitting 500,000$/m with several hundred thousand authors seems rough to me. I may be completely wrong on this. No one has ever said my business sense was keen. But I don't think this is for me. Though, I will be watching this with a keen eye.

What your thoughts? Any writers out there going to give this a try? Dip a toe or dive on in?

Another Artist's Struggle with His Work

You've heard it before. The one thing that holds back a writer is his/her own lazy butt. It's no different here. I have a few things I can use as good excuses, mostly my grad school stuff. But there has been something else that has been holding me back from going forward (something other than grad school) with any of my current projects. And that's something I call 'The Importance'.

The Importance is the why I should be writing and publishing, the reason I think my work should be out there. In the past I didn't think too much about it too much, but in the last few years it has weighed heavy on me. Now, I look at what I am writing and wonder if it will have an impact on anybody. The current piece I am working on is a fantasy novel about some orcs, elves, gnomes, and goblins in a world run by money, drugs, and politics. I thought it was a cool idea. Something genre bending and different. Up my alley.

But in the last few weeks, I have just stared at the pages. Adding here and there. Forcing myself to work on it. With no passion which usually means the words lay flat on the paper. I struggle so much with it because I don't know if it will contribute anything to society. If it will matter. If it will make people think. If it will have The Importance. I look at people going to OWS or spreading info on sustainability and I am here writing silly stories about orcs.

My favorite writers come out of the Sixties and New Journalism. A time of activism which showed in their work to varying degrees. And a method that told true stories that got to the heart of things. And I've always wanted to be doing that. But I've never been much of an activist or a reporter. I make up stories well. I live in a fantasy place in my head. But I've never been completely happy there. So I've been sitting around the last weekend trying to break down everything I've been doing and why I've been doing it to find where my work truly belongs. And what truly belongs in it. And what is important to have in my work.

I wonder how many other writers or artists care about the impact, The Importance, that their work will have on society...Probably not as many I would hope. Well, not outside people reading it and loving it and buying it. Which is also what I want. But I want something else as well. So this December I will spend it working a little bit on the orc story (probably less and less) but, also, look over my options. See where my head belongs. And try to find that line of thought that will carry great importance in my work for my readers and also for me.

How I dealt with my first bad review

Strange short story/novella. Written from reporters perspective, who is from a world other than earth (alien),it is in a newspaper article format. Personally it seemed like more of a journal entry. The main focus being on cloning. It describes the rise and fall of Jax, who sets off certain events in history by cloning himself over and over again. The second entry is a woman, who is initially against cloning, but personal circumstances make her uncertain. I have got to ask: Where is the writer going with this, what was the point? In what way was the reporter and his orign important? The writer needs to go back and look at the objective of the product he produced.I received a free copy of this book for my review.

The above 2 out of 5 stars review from Amazon is for Clones : Gangs & Such. A little scifi novella that is being reviewed through BookRooster. A company that gives out copies of your books for a fee to honest reviewers. Which is something I wanted. Honest reviews. And that's what I got.

Now the obvious thing to say was that I was angry at this review. Angry, at first, because he didn't get it. He didn't understand. And I paced the floor thinking about what I could say that would sway him. Dreamed about a way to make him feel foolish for his blunder. But it's obvious in the language that my story has been dismissed. The best I can hope for is that it burrowed deep into the back of his mind, and he is thinking about it. And it is slowly growing on him. But as a consumer I know better. That rarely happens.

Then I was angry at myself for putting something crappy out there. That I had failed as a writer. So I laid down in bed and thought about my work. If I really did all I could to see it finished properly. And I thought I had. I re-read the work and I got it. But then again, I am the writer. I should get it. It's all in my head. I've seen it all unfold over and over again. So I went through what I was writing currently. And I'm too close. And I can't affor an editor so I have to be ruthless myself. And I think I have the eye. But in the end I don't really know. I just get out what I have to get out and hope it connects with someone. But I say that now. Before it was miserable feelings.

And those feelings stayed with me through the night. The anger which mixed with sadness and self-doubt. It wasn't much fun. I barely slept. But in the morning I got up and started writing again. For a few reasons. 1) I've made art before. Whether it has been music or a drawing. And I've received reviews before. So my skin has thickened a bit. 2) Writing has been my go-to for making myself feel better. It always has been. I have stacks of journals all over the place filled with ideas and half stories. Usually written when I need to get my thoughts out. And 3) I want to do this. This writing for a living thing. I don't even want Rowling-level cash. I'd be happy with making as much as the first year teacher at the moment. But writing and putting it out there and people reading it is something I want in my life. And being able to do it more often would be great. That's what I want.

And I'm sure more bad reviews will be headed my way. Which would be great because that means people will be buying my work. But I have to remember that I can't let these words stop my own words. That I will have anger and dispare and self-doubt. Always. But that I must work through it. And past it. And onward. Or it will all build up like a dam and stop any progress. And who know? Somewhere down the line I might write something worth writing home about. And I will say "Hurray!" and then get started on my next book.

I read everywhere that you just need to keep pushing. You just need to keep doing what you are doing and at some point it will happed. I don't know how much I believe that. I can't be honest and say that this is the reason I will tell another story. It's not. But I don't think that matters. It's whatever keeps you writing. Whatever gets you motivated. I'm new at this game. Just started putting my prose out there a few months ago. So I would feel weird trying to make a post that would inspire you like that ones I have read on more experienced self-publishers. But maybe putting this post out there will help others who are just starting to publish. Or starting to write. Or starting to do whatever it is they do. And know that we are all beginners at some point. We don't come up roses right out. And I re-read that review and I remember that. Perhaps in a year I'll look at that review and feel lucky it was so tame. Or that I had a review at all! But in the mean time, I'll get back to writing my weird little stories and hope they stick to someone's heart a little better than this. And you should too.

Using Creative Commons to Explore the Power of Stories.

The Public Factory has decided to start living up to its name. We are now licensing all of our works under Creative Commons. And making things public. This is nothing new to e-books. There have been people out there who have been licensing under Creative Commons for a while. Ex: Cory Doctorow. But that was as long as no one made money off of the books or created derivative works. Which is still an awesome license. And why we love Creative Commons' flexibility.

But we want to really push some of the ideas behind Creative Commons. Especially in writing. So we are now allowing you to create derivative works. In fact, we encourage it. Also, sell those works. Try to make a living writing. That's what we're trying to do, too! Now, we don't want you copying our books and reselling them. That is not what this is about. This is about expanding our universe. And giving readers and writers a place to grow and play in.

As we mentioned before, we grew up reading comics. One of the best things about comics was seeing the shared universe. Watching characters coming in and out. And that's what we're trying to do here. We want our characters and ideas to be building blocks and backdrops to launch your own characters and your own stories. 

The Internet has allowed for all kinds of ideas and business models to be tried. This may be a failure. We don’t know. Trust us. We've been sitting on this for a while. A little scared. As in very, very scared. But in the end, it just felt right. And if 'free' can sell books then why not 'shared'? Reading, writing, and cross-referencing ideas, when you think about it, just sounds fun. Well, for us, story nerds, anways.

So check out our books. And see what you like and what you think you can add. Then write your own story. And share it. Let us know too!

All our rules are right here if you want to check them out. The link can also be found at the top of the website under Creative Commons.

And if you're just interested in learning more about Creative Commons, check out their site.

Why I keep my ebook prices low.

There has been many an article written about the good or the bad that comes with the low prices of ebooks. And we can see valid points from each side. But in the end we only care about what we are doing here at The Public Factory. We price most of our books at 99 cents. And if we have collections in the future or longer works they'll probably be at the 2.99$ mark unless something dramatic happens. Yes, we'd like to make a living from our writing. Pay off some student loans. But we just don't feel comfortable selling at higher prices.

Anyway, as I said just a few sentences ago here at The Public Factory we are trying to keep everything super low and super affordable. Why? Because we want these pieces read by anyone with the ability to access ebooks. In a perfect world we would be able to send out cheap physical copies as well. But we can't so we strive for cheap digital works. And why besides feeding the minds of readers everywhere?

For us it comes down to pulp magazines, aka the pulps before that dime novels and before that penny dreadfuls. Most of us here love literature. And more than that. We love pop culture. And we love adventure and weird stories. And amazing characters. No one here grew up with pulps. They came later. We knew their next of kin, comic books though. 

Before comics became 4$ each they were good inexpensive forms of entertainment. Monthly and short. These were our pulps. Looking at the history of comics and their heroes we found that before them pulp heroes such as The Shadow, The Avenger and Doc Savage were making their rounds in super cheap serialized books. These books came out frequently and were all over the place. Magazine racks were saturated with pulps in their heyday. Competition was fierce and it was about how much great entertainment you could put out at how low a price.

People now are worried about what cheap ebooks are doing to sales. And the satuartion of the market. That good authors and books will just be lost in the ocean of cheap crap. But why be worried about that? Why not embrace it! We have it easy compared to the pulp publishers of old. Low overhead. Small staff. And easy distribution. Imagine supporting a publishing company with tons of editors and writers and a warehouse and monthly printing by selling 15 cent magazines. Even in the 1930's that's a lot of magazines to sell.

So what am I getting at on this post? That maybe we shouldn't worry too much about cheap ebooks. Let the old literary industry price their books at 6.99$ up. It's fine with me. I still pay those prices for writers I really admire. But let those of us who are into writing fun and weird stories do that. And don't worry about us selling low and cheapening the craft. We are the starting point to the love of reading. We got our love of stories from comics. Before that our parents had the pulps. Before that our grandparents had dime novels. We're just continuing the tradition.

In your eyes equating ourselves to pulps may seem backwards. And perhaps to you we may not seem like much. But we are. We are genre and we are strange and we are something to entertain. And hopefully along the way something that makes you think. Something that sticks with you and makes you want to pick up the next book out there. Cause in the end we'll take our cues not from the huge publishers like Random House. But from places like Street and Smith Publication. And if the history of cheap entertainment can teach us anything it's that there's room for both the cheap and the expensive, all things inbetween and unthought of. Cause the good books will rise to the top despite the price. And hopefully take their readers along for an amazing ride all the while.

Laughing at that Science Fiction Future!

I was in my journalism research class a few weeks ago waiting for it to start when someone mentioned the article writing robot. This classmate found it weird and slightly worrisome that a robot could write something well enough to be enjoyed by humans. This got the rest of the class asking questions about what makes good writing and what else will robots be doing? Then the teacher walked in.

He immediately came in tot he conversation. He'd seen the same article. But was he worried? That would be a big, fat NO. He was not worried. He waved his hands and he laughed it off. This wasn't some old as the hills professor either. This was a younger guy who had just earned his doctorate. He thought it was interesting. But nothing to worry about. The robot was only writing formulaic sports articles about the basic stats and outcome of the game. This wasn't really writing! He said only hacks should worry about it. And the real journalists like him would be fine. As a bonus, he won't have to worry about someone dropping that kind of work on his lap. He'll be writing real pieces. The rest of the class nodded along with him and began laughing as well. The idea that a robot could take a humans place in such creative matters! That's complete science fiction! Ha!

Instead of laughing away their worries people need to be ready to ask some serious questions. Science and technology is not getting any slower. And humanity must be ready to understand the role that these once science fiction scenarios will have on our lives.

So robots writing serious journalistic pieces is science fiction now. But so what? 

When we look at science fiction we tend to brush it off as unrealistic to expect X to happen. Specific scenarios seem implausible especially looking at writers' and futurists' track records for predictions. Specific scenarios may never happen but variations of them have, are, and will happen.

Let's look at smartphones. No one would have predicted such a technology would saturate society. But it has. And the abilities it possesses are changing the way we think and the way we interact. But how could we have anticipated this without knowing the exact scenario? We look at science fiction. We look at depictions of brain augmentation where you can pull out any answer to just about any question. Kinda like googling. Or telepathy where contact is almost instantaneous between individuals. Kind of like instant messaging. And that leads to the filter for privacy seems to be breaking away. Linda like Facebook oversharing.

Fitting the brain with hardware and a phone may not be the exact same thing but the brain augmentation scenario let's us as humans practice asking questions and thinking of our own reactions. What would we do if we had all the answers at our fingertips? How would we act differently if people could contact us almost anywhere in an instant? Questions we are asking now but could have been asking then.

Making us think is something that good science fiction does. What a good futurist does. Publishing the latest Kalibak Tor book Clones: Gangs & Such reminds me of that. It makes me realize how important science fiction is to humanity. But it gets laughed at for being over the top and almost always wrong in predicting the future. We shouldn't be thinking of these predictions as a true/false test but more as reading comprehension for us. Because it is not the future scenarios that will be tested in the end. It will be us. And instead of laughing at the future we need to seriously consider it and its variations. Who knows? It may be just a smartphone now, but how much longer until it does give us answers automatically and sends automatic telepathic updates to friends and family? Huh...?

Yeah right! Hahaha! That's never happ....Oh wait, I just remembered autocorrect and Foursquare.