Although all writers should strive for excellence in all their writing this is of particular consideration for those who self-publish. Over the past few days I've been reading discussions on Amazon Discussion Boards and other Message Boards and one of the subjects that gets discussed a lot is quality. Because the term “self-published” has long carried a stigma of not-good-enough, indie publishers are struggling to convince potential readers that their books are just as good, and in some cases better, than those published by traditional publishers. It is very important that self-publishing authors police themselves to maintain high standards.
FACT CHECKING
Fact-checking is a touchy subject. There has been a lot of criticism in recent years of the many fake memoirs that have made best seller lists only to be exposed as frauds. Probably the most famous one was James Frey's A Million Little Pieces which was selected by Oprah for her book club only to be exposed as a fraud. There are other examples and there has been a great deal of outcry about fact-checking as a result, but the truth is many non-fiction books simply cannot be fact checked. For example, if someone decides to write a book about UFOs, or ghosts, or exorcism, or any paranormal subject, the whole idea of fact-checking is absurd. Suffice it to say that if you publish a book that you have written you will be solely to blame if readers start finding fault with your facts.
Authors frequently underestimate the readiness of their readers to call them on facts. There was a case some years back in Houston of a very popular columnist for one of the major newspapers who often wrote columns in which he referenced various characters as being his source for information. Eventually readers started questioning the reality of these people and the writer admitted he just made them up. He got fired by the newspaper and his credibility as a writer was damaged. If you are going to make stuff up WRITE FICTION!
LIABILITY
Publishing has become a highly litigious business. Self-publishers need to be careful on two accounts – both in writing their books and in producing their books. I have heard of way too many people who started out as best friends collaborating on a book and the whole thing ending up in court. If you plan to collaborate, make sure you have a legal contract with your collaborators. In producing your book designers, editors, photographers, etc. are best dealt with in work-for-hire arrangements. You pay someone to do the work and have no further obligation to them. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking someone is such a good friend that they would never sue you over the work you do together. It happens all the time.
The second area of liability is in writing about real people. Unless a person is a recognized public figure be careful what you write about them. Just changing a name is often not enough – if a person objects to what you have written and can prove that they were easily recognizable, they may have a case against you. This happens all the time in families, too. One person decides to write a memoir about their struggle with addiction/abuse/whatever and everyone associated with their life can be impacted. Be very cautious. When in doubt, don't.
GOOD EDITING
There are many books and online sites available to help you with your editing process. If you can't afford to hire an editor consider an exchange with other writers. Many writers groups form with the agreement that the members of the group will read one another's manuscripts for content, proofing, and editing. You can join a group in your area or you can find groups online. Yahoo Groups has many groups for writers where you can find people interested in mutually beneficial exchanges of this nature.
There are different kinds of editing. Copy editing is mostly concerned with correcting your grammar and punctuation, keeping your tenses consistent, making sure that conventions are the same throughout the book, etc. I recently read a subsidy-published book that used the same wrong grammatical form for dialog though out the entire book. It was very distracting and a good copy editor would have caught it in an instant. Content editing is another matter. That is more involved and is often harder for authors to accept but it is important. When I was first writing I had a hard time when someone told me that something wasn't working in a story. I'd argue with them about it and explain why they were wrong and I was right. Eventually I received some good advice – someone told me that if one person reads your work and questions something, don't worry about it but if 3 or 4 people mention the same thing, pay attention. That's why it is so important to have a trusted circle of readers who will read your book before you publish.
A few years ago I was working with an author who had written a very humorous book. He had a habit of using flashbacks which is a good device but he frequently forgot which characters were in which time period. When I tried to point out to him that the person he was talking to in the beginning of the scene was unlikely to be there in the flashback (unless that was part of the story) he would get angry with me. I finally got him to see what was happening and he was pretty embarrassed but I think it is better to be embarrassed in front of one editor than an entire audience of readers.
GOOD WRITING
I am not going to tell you how to write. There are plenty of good books on the subject, classes and workshops you can attend, and online forums for coaching. But I am going to say it is important to know your audience. Non-fiction writing is different from fiction writing and, in fiction, genre writing is different than general fiction writing. Literary fiction requires a great deal of dedication to writing as an art form and is the hardest to do. Genre fiction seems to be the most forgiving. What do I mean by these?
Genre fiction falls into categories: romance, sci-fi, western, mystery, and the ubiquitous vampire, among others. Genre fiction is driven by story and, as long as the writing isn't outright bad, people who love their particular genre are willing to overlook flaws in writing style for the sake of a good story. Recently I became fascinated by a discussion on Amazon in the Romance Community on phrases the readers hated in describing characters and “romance”. It was, frankly, hilarious. In an effort to make their writing more interesting the authors had concocted some of the most bizarre descriptions of couples coupling. It made me very much aware of the fact that sometimes just calling something what it is may be good enough.
Literary fiction is more demanding. It is more focused on the characters and their experiences of what is happening than on what is happening itself. The plot may be less stringent than the plot of a genre story but the characters need to be well-developed and their experiences and how they deal with them are critical. Two things every general fiction writer needs to stay mindful of are clichés and descriptions/metaphors. Nothing can kill a reader's interest in a story like cliché characters can. It is not the circumstances of a character that makes them a cliché, it is how the author presents them.
I am acutely sensitive to bad metaphors – it is better to skip them than to do them badly. I'll never forget the book (unfortunately a self-published one) in which the author was describing a motorcycle accident and said it looked like someone had spread Cheez Whiz across the pavement – I tossed the book and never bought Cheez Whiz again. A good metaphor is a beautiful thing, a bad one is annoying.
Last Part: Marketing and self-promotion
2 comments:
Kathleen Valentine
Great post, Kathleen!
The issues you raise are critical to self publishing authors. I am an editor and book designer who specializes in working with authors who want to create memoirs or family histories. We often discuss the questions you raise with our clients.
Fact checking is a simple matter if you are a believer in the old Dragnet approach, “Just the facts, sir.” However, more and more writers today are employing literary tools like imagined scenes, dialogue, and thoughts of characters in approaches described as creative non-fiction or narrative non-fiction.
I recently discovered a book, Tell Me True published by the Minnesota Historical Society, that explores these issues. Authors Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May describe the problem faced by writers:
Memoir and history regard each other across a wide divide. In effect, they’re goalposts marking the extremes of nonfiction. The turf that separates them—and of course connects them—is the vast playing field of memory. Though both forms are narrative and require the storytelling arts, they reverse each other—memoir being personal history, while history offers a kind of public memoir. A tantalizing gray area exists where memory intersects with history, where the necessities of narrative collide with mundane facts. The record always retains blank spaces—whether the record emerges from archival sources or from personal memory. Onto that blank space writers in both genres bring the remnants of the past they select in telling their stories.
It is easy to say to a writer,if a fact can be checked, it should be checked. It is when the writer enters the “tantalizing gray area” that things grow more complex. When I advise authors, I usually suggest labeling speculation with a disclaimer like, “We can’t know for sure, but we can guess what Mr. Jones’ reaction to the situation might have been.” Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Stacy Schiff’s recent book Cleopatra: A Life employs this kind of speculative approach very effectively. Schiff uses it to help the legendary Egyptian queen to life.
The issue a writer must confront is whether she is looking at the facts that can be checked and speculating about what can be inferred from them or simply making things up. I would argue that the first is acceptable, but the latter is not.
What a wonderfully informative post. Thank you, Biff. I agree with what you are saying. Family histories and memoirs can be very touchy. Sometimes there is an element of "score-settling" that can do nothing but invite trouble. Why run the risk?
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