What did you blog about today?

[The Big Peat]

Oh, you old cynic.
I don't agree with you, actually - my books are all too different to feel like any of them is The One. But we might all have a finite number of really good books.

Most leaves room for you to be an exception

Its possible that I'm looking at this from the wrong side, and the issue is most fans want one thing and one thing from their creative, so creatives who are happy doing that one thing find fame and fortune. But I'm stretching my mind to think of authors who really pull off multiple very different ideas well and I'm really struggling. It feels rare.

 

[AlexH]

On confidence - Jo Zebedee

"There is a point where many writers find reading difficult."
That's one thing I'm worried about, that by learning to write better, I'm 'ruining' half the stories I read. 99% of my fiction reading is short stories, and since I've started to learn a lot more about writing, I don't know if I'm more nit-picky. Maybe I don't like something just because it seems wrong, whereas 18 months ago it may not have mattered. I have no idea. At some point I'll go back and re-read some of favourites from before I started taking writing seriously.

I haven't had the confidence problem yet. I just read certain things and think "wow, maybe I'll be able to write something that good in 10 years, or maybe I won't!"

Likewise.
Even if I had a new breakthrough book, I'd keep the day job - at least, for a couple of days a week.
Commercial pressure is particularly bad in music, as that's now very image-orientated, and has been for a while. One of the good things about writing is it's not so image-obsessed. Not yet, anyway.

I don't think music is as much as it was 10-20 years ago. I can't speak for the massively successful acts because I don't know who they are, but in certain music circles at least, I think the Internet has helped artists be judged on their music rather than their image.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

"There is a point where many writers find reading difficult."
That's one thing I'm worried about, that by learning to write better, I'm 'ruining' half the stories I read. 99% of my fiction reading is short stories, and since I've started to learn a lot more about writing, I don't know if I'm more nit-picky. Maybe I don't like something just because it seems wrong, whereas 18 months ago it may not have mattered. I have no idea. At some point I'll go back and re-read some of favourites from before I started taking writing seriously.

I haven't had the confidence problem yet. I just read certain things and think "wow, maybe I'll be able to write something that good in 10 years, or maybe I won't!"


I don't think music is as much as it was 10-20 years ago. I can't speak for the massively successful acts because I don't know who they are, but in certain music circles at least, I think the Internet has helped artists be judged on their music rather than their image.

Fear not - it does pass!

 

[thaddeus6th]

I still like reading other people's stuff a lot. If it's inferior to mine, it's an ego boost. If it's superior, there's stuff to learn from it.

Not always clear cut, though. Something can be technically perfect but soulless, or riddled with errors but thoroughly entertaining (Spellmonger springs to mind).

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm pushing around ideas for why this is and one of the ideas that keeps echoing loudest is the idea that even most writers only really have one book in them, and that the most commercially successful are those who are naturally happiest to stretch that book over seven/write the same book seven times.

Not sure this is entirely true. But it feels partially true.

I don't agree with this either.
However, I think it is true for those authors who use themselves and their own life story as a template for their first novel. Most authors do this, in fact, it's a natural thing to do for a newbie. But if you keep doing it, that's the beginning of the end.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

On another note. A couple of weeks ago, an agent was bemoaning the lack of books that deal with parents with mental health disorders. Since I've written several of them, and a whole book about mental health themes, I thought I'd have a chat about that:

Writing parents with mental health conditions - Jo Zebedee

 

[The Big Peat]

Thoughts on Feet of Clay by Sir Pterry

I don't agree with this either.
However, I think it is true for those authors who use themselves and their own life story as a template for their first novel. Most authors do this, in fact, it's a natural thing to do for a newbie. But if you keep doing it, that's the beginning of the end.

Or a multi-million selling career like Gemmell, Cornwell etc.etc.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thoughts on Feet of Clay by Sir Pterry



Or a multi-million selling career like Gemmell, Cornwell etc.etc.

What I will say about this - my fantasy really struggles in the market. Waters and the Wild has never gained traction (partly due to the key oppotunities in NI not coming to fruition due to publisher issues) and my current one, whilst getting a reasonable response is struggling to find anywhere solid to place it. My sf outsells my fantasy about 20 copies to one, and that's generous.

Inish is the biggest individual seller but with the trilogy, there is a catch rate of read ons that buy all three. (In fact, pretty much any sales of book 2 are matched by a sale of book 3 about 3 days later, so I know that Sunset takes around 3 days to read and has close to a 100% pull in for Legacy).

Which means, frankly, I have to wonder why bother writing fantasy. I can't see me doing anymore in the near future (which is partly down to what I have a market for/what I'm working on/what I might get funding for) and, after being told by an agent recently that my offering was too diverse, I can't see what benefit it is for me to do so.

I suppose, if I loved writing fantasy more than sf, I'd want to do so anyway. But I prefer writing sci-fi - and it is a pretty cool thing to have on a resume when people ask what I do - so I probably will. And I'll probably revisit Abendau (thinking of an Ealyn-Empress-Darwin prequel at the mo). And, if it would sodding work, the Inish world.

TLDR: it might be true that, as writers, we find a niche in the market that likes us and it pays us to learn to work in that niche rather than all over the place....

 

[The Big Peat]

What I will say about this - my fantasy really struggles in the market. Waters and the Wild has never gained traction (partly due to the key oppotunities in NI not coming to fruition due to publisher issues) and my current one, whilst getting a reasonable response is struggling to find anywhere solid to place it. My sf outsells my fantasy about 20 copies to one, and that's generous.

Inish is the biggest individual seller but with the trilogy, there is a catch rate of read ons that buy all three. (In fact, pretty much any sales of book 2 are matched by a sale of book 3 about 3 days later, so I know that Sunset takes around 3 days to read and has close to a 100% pull in for Legacy).

Which means, frankly, I have to wonder why bother writing fantasy. I can't see me doing anymore in the near future (which is partly down to what I have a market for/what I'm working on/what I might get funding for) and, after being told by an agent recently that my offering was too diverse, I can't see what benefit it is for me to do so.

I suppose, if I loved writing fantasy more than sf, I'd want to do so anyway. But I prefer writing sci-fi - and it is a pretty cool thing to have on a resume when people ask what I do - so I probably will. And I'll probably revisit Abendau (thinking of an Ealyn-Empress-Darwin prequel at the mo). And, if it would sodding work, the Inish world.

TLDR: it might be true that, as writers, we find a niche in the market that likes us and it pays us to learn to work in that niche rather than all over the place....

I feel like there's two separate issues here - What We Sell Well and What We Write Well.

You, insofar as I can tell, sell nothing as well as you should other than Abendau. And that's because Abendau is your only easily categorised book in terms of genre. I'm fairly sure you've said words to this effect before.

But what you write well? You write Action-Adventure(ish) books in which characters undergoing great trauma travel to find a solution and in doing so, maybe grow up a little. With a lot of focus on family dynamics and some on romance. I'd say all of your books so far (that I've seen) fit into that.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I feel like there's two separate issues here - What We Sell Well and What We Write Well.

You, insofar as I can tell, sell nothing as well as you should other than Abendau. And that's because Abendau is your only easily categorised book in terms of genre. I'm fairly sure you've said words to this effect before.

But what you write well? You write Action-Adventure(ish) books in which characters undergoing great trauma travel to find a solution and in doing so, maybe grow up a little. With a lot of focus on family dynamics and some on romance. I'd say all of your books so far (that I've seen) fit into that.

That's terrifically easy to categorise, all right.

Goes off to weep in the corner.

 

[CTRandall]

When is a rose not a rose?

@Stable Thanks! Gotta say, I love your line, "What did I do wrong? I started juggling."

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I feel like there's two separate issues here - What We Sell Well and What We Write Well.

You, insofar as I can tell, sell nothing as well as you should other than Abendau. And that's because Abendau is your only easily categorised book in terms of genre. I'm fairly sure you've said words to this effect before.

But what you write well? You write Action-Adventure(ish) books in which characters undergoing great trauma travel to find a solution and in doing so, maybe grow up a little. With a lot of focus on family dynamics and some on romance. I'd say all of your books so far (that I've seen) fit into that.

The thing is, some authors - like Kim Stanley Robinson - can do diverse things and be popular, but to do that you have to be your own brand, and to do that you have to have a large back catalogue and a certain minimum level of commercial success. It's phenomenally difficult to do, and when it happens it's basically down to good luck.

As I've said elsewhere a few times now, I was disappointed at first that I lost my Big Publisher backing, but the more fun and artistic success & satisfaction that I have, the more I like indie publishing. "Stephen Palmer likes to ring the changes..." - Eric Brown in the Guardian, on Saturday. Yes, I do, and I'm so lucky to have an editor who supports that.

Jo - you may find that over time your work settles into a pattern of "types". For instance, I've stopped writing SF apart from AI novels. You might find a sub-genre later on for which you get better known.

 

[Biskit]

A bit of an odd one - a piece for the One Million Project and my Grandfather's illness.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I reviewed A Brief History of Roman Britain, by Joan Alcock: Thaddeus the Sixth: Review: A Brief History of Roman Britain, by Joan P Alcock

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The book's written... now what - Jo Zebedee

Confusion reigns. So that's new, then.

 

[Juliana]

The title says it all: Neighbours from Hell. And Heaven.

Very funny. That would drive me nuts!

Some photos from Tommy.

I love this post!

I suppose, if I loved writing fantasy more than sf, I'd want to do so anyway. But I prefer writing sci-fi - and it is a pretty cool thing to have on a resume when people ask what I do - so I probably will. And I'll probably revisit Abendau (thinking of an Ealyn-Empress-Darwin prequel at the mo). And, if it would sodding work, the Inish world.

TLDR: it might be true that, as writers, we find a niche in the market that likes us and it pays us to learn to work in that niche rather than all over the place....

But what you write well? You write Action-Adventure(ish) books in which characters undergoing great trauma travel to find a solution and in doing so, maybe grow up a little.

Re this, I think perhaps it's not a question of different genres but of different writing styles. Abendau and Inish are both, to quote Peat, 'action-adventure(ish) books', while Waters is a little different - it still has action but in a different way, and it's a more literary style of writing.

The thing I'm querying right now is light sci fi, and I was worried at first it was going to be too different from my urban fantasy, but it's actually pretty similar in writing style (lots of action, a bit of kissing, etc) even though it's technically a different genre. So it's still a 'Juliana' novel. So I think, Jo, you have two different things to consider. One is that you may want to choose to write SF over Fantasy simply because that's what you enjoy the most. If so, then go for it. The other is that you may be torn between writing styles and not genres; in that case, your idea of maybe having different pen names might be a winner. One for your 'action-adventure', one for work that's a little outside the box, like Waters.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Very funny. That would drive me nuts!



I love this post!





Re this, I think perhaps it's not a question of different genres but of different writing styles. Abendau and Inish are both, to quote Peat, 'action-adventure(ish) books', while Waters is a little different - it still has action but in a different way, and it's a more literary style of writing.

The thing I'm querying right now is light sci fi, and I was worried at first it was going to be too different from my urban fantasy, but it's actually pretty similar in writing style (lots of action, a bit of kissing, etc) even though it's technically a different genre. So it's still a 'Juliana' novel. So I think, Jo, you have two different things to consider. One is that you may want to choose to write SF over Fantasy simply because that's what you enjoy the most. If so, then go for it. The other is that you may be torn between writing styles and not genres; in that case, your idea of maybe having different pen names might be a winner. One for your 'action-adventure', one for work that's a little outside the box, like Waters.

Oh, yeah - I think they're all very me. The themes are not dissimilar, the sentence structure etc is all very me. The dystfunctional families are definitely me. And your novels are definitely Ju's!

Anyhow, I had something else to get off my chest:

Stop Apologising - Jo Zebedee

 

[thaddeus6th]

Something which isn't a book review: I have a look at the Curta mechanical calculator.
Thaddeus the Sixth: The Curta Mechanical Calculator

 

[Juliana]

Jo, the apologizing thing is very real — I do it too, and not just re books and writing. It's something I've been called up on over and over, and I'm trying to teach myself not to do it. But it's so hard!!!

 

[AlexH]

I won an art prize recently, and just before I submitted the picture, I almost didn't, because I started noticing all the faults. Or maybe that should be "faults". I was in shock when my name was announced. I felt apologetic about winning amongst all the excellent artwork, and even thought another of my pictures was better! It's as if we're doubting the praise of the people who enjoy our art. The human race can be strange.