FALL OFF IN ADVERTISING LINEAGE

SEVERELY IMPACTING THE EDITORIAL WELL 

The press is full of news about the drastic slippage in advertising. Preliminary losses for the first quarter of 2009 range between 25 and 30%. But there’s not a word said about the impact on available editorial space. Of course, the ad lineage determines the size of the paper and the news hole shrinks proportionately as ad lineage falls. Even Gannett, one of the most profitable chains has admitted to a drop of roughly 30%. 

On the magazine side, consumer magazine ad pages have fallen 25.9%. Pages in business-to- business publications are down by 27%.  

Just imagine what this has done to the freelance world. First, competition stiffened brutally as more and more layoffs occurred, and reporters and writers turned to freelancing to survive. Fees dropped because of the desperation of these out-of-work authors. And now with lineage falling still faster in early 2009, the demand for freelance material is dropping at a frightening rate. 

It’s not a great time to be a journalist. Survival depends on your willingness to reach out creatively and discover new ways to open doors in the newsroom or the editorial suite. Or find work beyond those closed doors. We will be talking about all the alternatives in the Charlie’s Choice column on the blog. The series started in today’s edition.

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NEW EFFORT MOUNTED TO ELIMINATE INVESTIGATION OF

BOOKSTORE & LIBRARY RECORDS FROM PATRIOT ACT 

Four of the nation’s most prestigious and powerful literary organizations have banded together to  pressure Congress to exempt library and bookstore records from scrutiny under the provisions of the Patriot Act, if the Act is renewed. It expires this year. 

The group’s petition to Congress expresses the fear that the Act can be used “to engage in fishing expeditions that violate the First Amendment rights of Americans to seek information freely without fear of government scrutiny.”  The government has embargoed release of any information on the past use of this provision of the Act. 

Encroachment on reader privacy represents a serious threat to intellectual freedom, one of the basic tenets of our democratic system. The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees citizens the right of free thought and expression. The ability to read and study without fear that “Big Daddy” is watching and cataloguing our preferences. is an integral function of that right 

The four groups spearheading the reinvigorated campaign are the Association of American Publishers, American Booksellers Association, PEN American Center and the American Library Association. 

More information on the campaign can be found on the Internet at http://readerprivacy.org/news.jsp?id=33. 

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THE EXCITING NEWS 

The membership of Facebook, the highly popular social networking site, has passed the 200 million mark. That achievement is highly significant to publishers and authors for it gives us  the opportunity to reach a huge audience of people specifically interested in our products. 

In an interesting comment, Silicon Alley Insider noted that if Facebook were a country, it would actually be the fifth largest nation in the world. The United States has the highest number of participants of any country. eMarketer reports that 26-to-44-year-olds are the fastest growing age group of Americans participants.  

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THE SAD NEWS 

The rate of magazine closures outstripped the number of new arrivals in the first quarter of the year. Mediafinder.com reports that 101 titles closed shop while only 95 newcomers reached the market. This is reported to be the first time this has happened since statistics were maintained. 

All is not doom and gloom, however. Mediafinder states that 335 new titles were created last year, bringing the total to 16,942, and that’s hardly a shabby number. 

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish & Promote Your Work 

CREATING PEOPLE A READER CAN TOUCH

AND PLACES HE/SHE CAN VISUALIZE 

      One of your goals as an author is to entice the reader into your story. If he/she remains too detached from the characters and the tale, you risk losing your reader. The tool to do this effectively is description. Done well, it will help the reader develop an intimate relationship with a character and feel comfortable in the place where the action of the book occurs.

      While attempting to create an image, you, the author, must ensure that the description flows naturally without disrupting the forward movement of the book. That can be done convincingly in a variety of ways.

 All of us have basic senses: we hear, we touch, we smell, we feel. So must the characters you develop. Their reactions when they employ any of these senses tells the reader a great deal about them and helps to identify them. Similarly, a character’s speech is a tool of description. Whether it’s his/her accent or tonal level, or whether the person you create speaks slowly and definitively or impetuously, your reader forms an opinion of the person from the way he/she talks.

      When describing a place, try to add some action that’s pertinent to one of the characters. Perhaps he/she is strolling along a path and stops to pick a handful of blueberries from a nearby bush. Or maybe your character’s neck stiffens from bending backwards to look skyward because he/she is overwhelmed by the immensity of the skyscrapers that border the road.

When Is Enough Enough?

 Be aware of the need to balance description at any one point in the book. Too little will leave you with empty characters with whom the reader has difficulty empathizing or even identifying. A lack of adequate description will keep your reader from feeling comfortable in the setting in which you place your action. Conversely, if the description rambles on and on, the action of the book will stop and your reader will be bored and very likely place your book back on the shelf unread.

      Monica Wood for whose book Description I have great respect, explains, “There is no greater (or more annoying) motion-stopper than immobile chunks of physical description. A head-to-toe tour of a character’s appearance, clothing, etc before we know more about him is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. It stops the natural flow of the story.”

      No one can give a standard set of rules or measurements to determine when enough is enough or perhaps too much or too little. As the author, you must depend on your own instinct and experience when you seek the perfect balance.

Show, Don’t Tell

      That phrase should always be your guiding light when creating description. Nothing is more boring than to describe the physical attributes of a character in what essentially becomes no more than a list, yet so many authors do just that. Your make believe person is tall, has wavy brown hair, has a scar on his check and dresses immaculately. That a boring list.

      Let’s look at the way any one of those characteristics can be captured. (Tall) He bends his head reflexively each time he passes through a doorway. (Hair color) When talking with him, he frequently pushes his wavy brown hair away from his forehead. (Scar) He has a tendency to rub his fingers along the vertical scar on his left check. (Meticulous dresser) He constantly smoothes the lapels of his carefully tailored blazer. These are just top-of-the-head examples. With a little thought, I am sure you can do far better.

Be Specific

      Adjectives are marvelous tools when used properly. That certainly flies in the face of Mark Twain who told his student, “If you ever see an adjective, kill it.”  It is essential that you recognize adjectives can be general or specific. You are not talking about just anyone or any place; you are describing a very specific character or location. When the gardener struggled to cut down a tree, did he use an ax (generic term for a tool with a handle of varying lengths)) or a hatchet (a short handled tool)?

      Flowers aren’t growing in the bed along the garden path. A profusion of bright red geranium blossoms sway in the gentle easterly breeze. The doctor doesn’t use a knife when operating; he uses a scalpel. Each of those more exacting descriptive phrases gives the reader far more insight than does the use of the universal words that can be applied to a variety of items, sizes or shapes.

Descriptive Dialogue

      Just as people vary in their appearance, so they speak in different ways. Their speech is reflective of their lifestyles and their personas. It adds to the reader’s understanding of the character. At the simplest level, a character’s accent indicates that he/she comes from a specific geography. The mode of speech indicates level of education. A character’s articulation and the pace of his/her speech offer insight into his/her makeup or mindset. Used well, speech can reveal a person’s integrity either by the use of an obviously artificial accent or inclusion of words that don’t truly match his/her character.

      Because it is so revealing, many talented authors use dialogue instead of narrative to describe a person. In addition, speech can be used to describe another person or a place in a way that is far more interesting than simple narrative or exposition.

The Risks

      There is an inherent risk of overusing speech mannerisms that you must always be aware of. For example, if your character comes from the Deep South, he/she will talk with a southern drawl. Introduce it strongly at first, but taper off as the reader comes to know the character, and no longer needs the drawl to identify him /her. Overworked accents can bore the reader or seem unreal. Once again, the decision as to when enough is enough is a subjective decision the writer must make. There are no rules.

      Similarly, the use of profanity can portray much about a character, but when overused, it loses it impact and can be a turnoff. Although in real life people exist whose speech is riddled with constant profanity, when writing fiction this characteristic can be portrayed far more effectively if the cuss words are not overdone.

      Despite all of this, you must bear in mind the fact that a person’s speech can change with his/her mood. This requires a more sophisticated use of words, mannerisms and pacing so that you don’t lose the essential identifying aspects of the character’s normal speech. If someone is discussing a complex issue, he/she may speak more slowly than usual and take time to think through each statement before making it. There are times even a serious character may crack an appropriate joke.  

      Of course, there are situations when you will want your character to respond with just body language, not spoken words. You may have your character do something when speaking to reveal more about him/her. If your character is a gardener, he/she can be talking while admiring a rose or possibly even while working in the garden. Perhaps your character is taking a walk with a friend and suddenly stops to watch a beautifully colored butterfly or feel compassion for an injured squirrel. The possibilities are endless for a creative writer.

      Next week we’ll take a break from the task of crafting an entire book, and begin a series of visits to the wonderful world of freelance article writing. See you then.

Keep Writing!

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RESOURCE KIT FOR LATINO BOOKS

DEVELOPED BY AAP 

The Association of American Publishers has announced it is compiling an extensive resource kit for educators and librarians who work with the Latino market. The kit will be released in May as part of the celebration of Latino Books Month. 

Topics covered will deal with ways to serve the Spanish-speaking community and will include reading lists for adults and children and a list of contacts for booking author events.  

Those of you who have titles that you would like included in the recommended reading list can contact Katie Ly at kly@publishers.orr for information. 

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WRITERS BEWARE – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

IS CRACKING DOWN ON HIJACKED CONTENT 

Earlier this month William Dean Singleton. Chairman of the Associated Press, announced that the world-wide news and features organization “will seek legal and legislative remedies” against writers and publishers who illegally use content published by members of the group. 

One of the concerns is the referral by search engines to sites  that are not “the original source or the most authoritative source,” but have copied or paraphrased content from the originators. 

In an article on the announcement,  The New York Times stated, “A.P. executives said they were concerned about a variety of news forums on the Web, including major search engines like Google and Yahoo and aggregators like the Drudge Report that link to news articles, smaller sites that sometimes reproduce articles whole and companies that sell packaged news feeds.” 

The A.P. is owned and supervised by its member news organizations, most of which are fighting for survival. It has apparently taken this action to reinforce its importance to the sponsors, some of whom have protested the wire service’s high costs. 

Plagiarism has long been a major concern of print media. The thin line between it and legitimate references to or quotes from a print source is somewhat subjective. It is a difficult problem. I know, having served as an editor and publisher of newspapers and magazines and now finding myself on the other side of the desk as a freelance writer and blogger. 

There is no question that abuses frequently occur, but when attribution is given, as I always try to do when writing on my blog, and the quotes are kept in context and accurate, both entities should be able to benefit.

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BISG EXPANDING ITS STATS TO

INCLUDE MID-SIZE AND SMALLER INDIE PUBLISHERS 

The Book Industry Study Group, one of the industry’s leading producer of statistics on publishing is seeking input from indie publishers to develop a truer picture of the substantial contribution these companies are making to the industry.  

The association is conducting a survey that closes at the end of this week, and requests participation from this often overlooked segment of the publishing industry.  All info submitted will be maintained in strict confidence and mixed with the data supplied by other publishers. The survey can be found on the Internet at www.digisurvey.com/survey/bg2/  

Participants will receive a summary of the survey and a free copy or Information Industry Outlook 2009, BISG’s heralded annual forecast. All will be entered in a drawing for a Sony Reader. 

You owe it to yourself and to the industry to complete the survey.

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TRY THIS ONE ON FOR LAUGHS

“TRICKLE UP” BUDGET CUTS 

Conde Nast has apparently come up with a brilliant new way to keep a business healthy in the current economic downturn. 

According to Gawker, the publisher is planning to lay off full-time receptionists in an economy drive. So the big boys and gals who sit in fancy offices and collect salaries four and five times higher than the front office greeters will continue to fill their pockets. The receptionists, who are among the lowest paid personnel on the staff, will be eliminated.  That really makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? 

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish and Promote Your Work 

MAKING YOUR CHARACTERS REAL 

      Stop and think of what you remember most about the novels you have read. Sure, some of the plots were exciting. Some of the settings were intriguing. But both of those, along with other elements in your story, made a lasting impression because of the way they affected the main characters of the book.

      When you discuss fictional books you’ve read with friends and acquaintances, I would bet that it’s the actions of the characters—what they do and what they say and how they interact with one another—that stand out in everyone’s mind. The plot takes on meaning from the way it affects the characters and how they react to each situation.

      Fiction is most successful when it arouses our emotions and invites us to identify with the “individuals” who people the pages of a book. The highly respected editor William Sloane said, “The reader reads fiction more for its people than for any other element.”

      You must understand your characters even better than you know yourself. Cast aside all bias and analyze your fictional personalities with complete objectivity. In my opinion, it is the most vital task a novelist performs before sitting down to write.

Interviewing Your Characters

      I always suggest to my students and my coaching clients that they conduct a formal interview with each of the major characters. That may seem silly at first, but the result will be of immense value to you as you begin to get tangled up in plot problems, description and the many other elements that make your novel an interesting read.

       It is important to create a chart that covers all aspects of your key book people. You want to include their physical elements as well as what churns inside their minds. Detail their background, their education, their religious interests, their hobbies, their relations with siblings and parents, habits, quirks, indeed everything you can possibly determine that will make the character real and interesting to your readers.

      The best way to accomplish this is to conduct a formal interview with the character. Imagine yourself as a psychologist analyzing his/her patient or an FBI staffer interrogating a suspect. Ask, ask, ask, and jot down every one of the answers until you have developed an intimate portrait of the person. I suggest you create a chart with background questions that can be used for every character in every book you write. Make copies of the blank chart and fill in the answers as you analyze each person who plays a major role in your novel.

Create Distinguishing Features 

      Think of the distinguishing features that made the folks you have read about memorable.

Does the strikingly pretty model have a limp that is never visible when she is photographed?  Perhaps you remember the handsome protagonist in a book you read because of a disfiguring scar on his left cheek. Maybe one of the members of your book family has a persistent twitch and another constantly drums his/her fingers on the table or chair whenever he/she sits.

      Try always to give your people something distinctive that will make them stand out in the reader’s memory. In essence, you are drawing pictures of your characters and highlighting their distinguishing element. Monica Wood, an expert on description whose book entitled Description is a very worthy read, says, “Sometimes it takes only one or two details to light up a character for your readers.”

      Those details that Wood talks of can reveal a great deal about your character and eliminate the need for extensive narrative description. For example, you know that someone who squirms in his/her seat, fingers tapping, is tight and nervous without adding a word of description.

The action serves as the description. Similarly, when your leading lady stops to admire herself in every mirror she passes, you get a real sense of her vanity.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

      I would imagine that when you were growing up your Mother cautioned you time and again that “actions speak louder than words.” That, in part, is why body language is so important. You have undoubtedly been in a situation where the other person mouths words that don’t resonate with what your eyes tell you when you watch his/her body language.

      Action plays two defined roles when you are presenting a character. Including a speaker’s body language will help your reader picture the speaker more exactingly. In addition to that, your description of a character becomes far more interesting when you use action to portray him./her. For example, instead of saying “Dave cut a rose for the dining room table,” describe his action more fully to give us a peek at his persona “Dave bent over and held the rose blossom gently in his hand to savor its fragrance before he cut it to display on the dining room table.”  That action tells us a great deal about Dave, a sensitive, mild mannered person.

The Importance of Observation

      Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, always pay attention to the people surrounding you. Look for special traits or quirks. Study their faces to see whether they look directly at the person they are talking to or whether they avert their eyes. Study their lips, along with their eyes, for they both provide some of the most obvious signs of the unexpressed thoughts going on in their minds.

      Listen to their speech if you can. I always try to eavesdrop, not to pay attention to the content, but to gain ideas about how different folks express themselves. Keep a small spiral pad and pen with you at all times to jot down what you see or hear if it interests you. Weeks or months later as you design a character for your latest book, you can refer back to the notes you filed away to help you design your character. Never forget that the eyes and ears of a writer are his/her greatest tools. Use them well and often.

      Next week, we will move on to Description and the way a good writer uses it. The challenge is to create a balance so that you draw a complete picture for your readers, but never bore them with too much description. We’ll look at various methods to describe without it becoming obvious and without slowing down the book. See you next week.

Keep Writing!

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