C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

08/26/2010 • 4:16 AM 0

It’s a New World. Join the Publishing Revolution

I just added a five-star system so you can rate posts, a Digg button so you can “like” posts and several ways to share posts (Twitter, Facebook, Print, Reddit, Email, etc.,…) Don’t be cruel to a heart that’s true.

Your rare shameless (and fun!) plug begins here:

If you like the blog, please let me and your friends and followers know! Hit the Digg button above the comment box to “like” it. Share on Facebook. Tweet on twitter. I’m above grovelling, but I am willing to ask nicely for your support.

This is the fun part: I have added these buttons in a craven attempt to spread the word about Chazz Writes. I have big plans for the blog. As we get bigger I want to include book reviews, contests for prizes and, ultimately, annex a small tropical island nation whose national drink will be hollowed out pineapples with five kinds of rum. I shall be king, of course, but benevolent in my clothing-optional palace. We’ll be nuclear-weapons free, nuclear-capable, solar and wind-friendly, and establish a very reasonable flat tax. There will be free healthcare for all. We’ll be weed-legalized, jerk-averse and twelve kinds of awesome sexy. And everybody will get a Mac. (Acers for jerks. That’ll teach ’em!) Also, clothes lines are allowed and I’ll keep the needless spending down by force of Nerf bats and exile to lesser, non-Chazz-infused nations. (All that therapy is really nipping my narcissistic megalomania in the bud, huh?) But I digress…

If you like my stuff, please let other people know. This is a relatively new publishing blog, but I’m not new to publishing. I do have a lot of information to share with writers from a writer’s and editor’s perspective. (Don’t know Chazz and wonder where he gets off talking publishing? Click here.) I just love to talk to people about their writing projects, publishing issues, and that book you’re going to publish some day. Every day I curate the best information on publishing I can find as I search the web for news about writers, interesting stories and stuff that helps writers figure out the best routes to getting published.

I also look for laughs along the way. We need it. The writer’s life can be a grim nobility. Unlike some writing blogs I detest (i.e. a few agent blogs and angry blogs that mock writers) you are not a minion here. You are a travelling companion and friend. I love books and I love the people who love them.

Return often for updates and keep an eye on that Twitter feed to your right

OR

simply follow me on Twitter @RChazzChute

AND/OR

go to the bottom right and subscribe so you won’t miss a thing!

Like the blurb says:

The publishing revolution has begun.

Join me.

Rare shameless plug ends.

Filed under: blogs & blogging, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Social Media, Twitter, What about Chazz?, Writers, book publishing blogs, publishing, writers

08/25/2010 • 8:02 AM 0

On the Other Hand…Why Not be a Writer?

Filed under: publishing, Rant, Writers, funny but true, On the Other Hand..., Why Not be a Writer?

08/24/2010 • 8:00 AM 0

(Top 10 Things +1) Writers Love:

1. libraries and bookstores. Look at all those dead trees! Look at all those rotten books! Your book will be so much better. Look at all those shelves for your great books. Your books will one day share shelf space with your literary heroes and you will all enter the pantheon. Libraries and bookstores are harbingers of potential, omens of destiny, and, not incidentally, where you get #2.

2. books. Your shelves creak as you add even more books. Your iPod is full. Your heaven is a place filled with books and time to enjoy them, to savor them, to devour them. You prefer books to people, though people do have their place (i.e. they can give you a good book.) A good book is sex that lasts longer.

3. life. It’s where you get your ideas. Life is the thing you absorb so you can process it, chew and hold your ideas up against it to make your fantasy seem all the more real. Life and the limited world it comes from—that’s what you’re going to change with your writing. (Yes, life is number 3 down the list. That isn’t an error. Why? Because when you write you are god. When you don’t write, you’re…well…you.)

4. good first readers. A good reader will proofread your manuscript and find the errors you didn’t and not make you feel like an idiot about it. Good readers are very hard to find. Not unicorn hard. Good readers are platypus hard.

5. an excellent agent who’s a bitch or a bastard when they’re bargaining for you but never that way in their dealings with you. Search for agents with multiple-personality disorder. Try mental hospitals. (Or decide that in any venture you will encounter individuals who are human. You may even come to like some of them. The rest will make great gossipy stories at your book launch.)

6. an editor who’s careful and considerate. There are many. No, really! They want to help you make your work the best it can be to earn a larger readership.

7. a motivated sales force. The crop is of uneven quality. If you can, give them more motivation by offering a trip to your Florida condo for the highest seller. Failing that, make a great impression at the sales conference, smile and shake every hand. I loved Amy Tan as a person, so I sold more of her books. It wasn’t a conspiracy. It was just natural when I was selling to bookstore owners. “Yeah, I met her at the conference and wow was she great etc.,…)

8. a great book cover. Publishers may “consult” you, but if you hate it and they love it, they’ll go with the cover as is. If someone else is publishing your work, that’s a factor that is out of your hands. It will gnaw at you. You will curse them. Eventually you will accept it so you might as well start accepting it now. (Also, when your book tanks you’ll have something to blame that wasn’t your story and someone to blame who isn’t you.)

9. fans. Duh. (Yes, some superstars grow to hate their fans. In the social media/TMZ-environment, they are soon called “Uh…that guy. The obnoxious prick…what was his name again? Oh yeah. Has Been.”)

10. time to write. There’s never enough time. If you don’t have an official publisher-set deadline now (read: you’re still a wannabe writing on spec) it’s a blessing not to have that hanging over your head. Just write. Sip the coffee. Recline and give that revision sober and careful thought. You have more time now than you’ll ever have. After you sign some contracts and people are clambering for your next book, you’ll feel like you never have enough time. Ev-er.

BONUS:

11. ourselves. Inside every writer is an insecure, wounded child who started worrying about death and how they don’t matter way too early. Over top of that is a thick layer of pomposity and that is the egotist we love. How else to explain our deep need to share our thoughts with strangers? We love ourselves as we see ourselves. We want to share so others will see, hear and understand our genius, agree with us and love the broken child one layer down. We write to reach out. We write to connect. We write so others will share our visions and forgive us our sins. We write to hear our voices talk and prove we matter. We write to make worlds because they who make worlds must be gods (not spineless schmoes worrying about paying the rent.) We love ourselves so much we betray family secrets and confided stories. We love ourselves beyond reason because the world is beyond reason and we think so highly of ourselves, we have such hubris, we think that through words we can impose order. We love ourselves so much we glorify our self-hatred. We write for love because the love we have for ourselves is large, but it will never be enough to fill our hearts. We write for your love. And most of you won’t give a damn.

Filed under: publishing, Rant, Writers, Love, On Writing, Top Ten Things Writers Love, writers

08/23/2010 • 6:38 PM 0

Seth Godin Quits Traditional Publishing; Readers Respond

Seth Godin Quits Traditional Publishing; Readers Respond.

Filed under: blogs & blogging, Books, ebooks, publishing, Writers

08/23/2010 • 5:05 PM 0

Publishing Links

Just added Jane Friedman and The Millions to the blog roll. Read them and you’ll see why.

Filed under: blogs & blogging, book reviews, Books, publishing, web reviews, book publishing blogs, jane friedman, the millions

08/18/2010 • 4:00 PM 2

Top 100 Books for Freelance Writers

Wow. I just stumbled upon Inkthinker, a website dedicated to helping freelance writers. What a great resource. Freelancers! Please peruse. The Top 100 Books for freelancers is just the beginning. We have a lot more reading to do now, don’t we?

Filed under: book reviews, Books, publishing, web reviews, help for freelance writers, Inkthinker, top 100 books for freelance writers

08/18/2010 • 3:49 PM 0

Publishers Should Blog

For a great post on how publishers often lose marketing opportunities, read Booksquare on why publishers should blog. It seems fairly obvious, and yet, so many do not. That’s something they don’t make time for and leave to the authors. Perhaps, that’s another reason why there’s so much loading of marketing responsibilities to authors.

Every publisher wants you to pimp your books through your uberplatform. Imagine how much more effective it would be if authors blogged about their work (a given these days) and publishers got their brag on (combined with more marketing savvy?)

Filed under: Publicity & Promotion, publishing, Booksquare, marketing opportunties, publishers

08/18/2010 • 3:23 PM 0

Bad Form Macmillan!

Agent Kristin from Pub Rants* warns authors about some bad behavior over at Macmillan. It;s not just that they sent out amendments to authors saying, “Those electronic rights we didn’t get in your contract? Yeah. We get those, too. Sign here.” (I’m paraphrasing. I’m sure it’s all in deep lawyer-speak.)

The bad form, as Agent Kristin warns, is that it looks like they were sending the amendments straight to the authors instead of to their agents (who presumably would say, “Whoa, there and hold your horses. You want that, you gotta pay. You gotta negotiate!”)

*Don’t miss the comments on that post, either. There’s more juicy goodness there, too.

Filed under: agents, ebooks, publishing, Rant

08/13/2010 • 2:12 AM 1

Ten Steps to be a Writer

1. Write. Most people want to write. Most don’t. Don’t be that guy.
2. Head down. Hands on keyboard.
3. Do not worry about rejection. (If you figure out how to do this, help me understand.)
4. Set a deadline. Don’t make it too far off and take it seriously.
5. Keep your work circulating. Repeat until you succeed.
6. Seek support. Eschew those who don’t support your dreams.
7. Be original. Don’t try to be the next anybody but you.
8. Read. It’s how you connect with experience beyond your own and it helps you improve your writing.
9. Don’t be a schmuck. Learn about the publishing industry so you can navigate it.
10. Don’t be a fraidy cat. Normal is for the mediocre. Dare a stab at immortality. (Did I mention you should write? I mean now!)

Filed under: publishing, Writers, writing tips, 10 tips for writers, Be a writer, writers, writing tips

08/12/2010 • 8:59 AM 0

Book Covers that Sell: 10 Crucial Elements

Your book’s cover needs:

1. A designer (99% likely.)

2. Color (usually. The Road was all black with white lettering). Not green. Green covers never sell unless the book is about golf or lawn care. (Royal blue sells better than other colors.)

3. A known author’s name. (If you’re not at all known, it would really help if you got that way. Go rob a bank or save the president or something. Get a life, and, as Zola said, “Live out loud.”

4. Failing #3, a great quote recommending the book by a known name.

5. A compelling picture. What “compelling” is, is subjective (though we do know sex sells.)

6. If not sex, violence.

7. If not violence, awe me or lure me with a (relevent) image that makes me curious.

8. A great title. A short title. (Something I can remember from the local radio interview to the bewildered bookstore clerk: Fight Club, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Dome, Calculating God, God is Not Great, The 4-Hour Work Week, White Teeth, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.)*

9. Repeat #8 again. Kick me in the teeth with that title. (Rather than a long title to explain more, let the subtitle do that work if you must.)

10. The back cover is a cover, too. Sometimes I pick up a (usually self-published) book whose back cover is blank (and put it right back on the bookstore shelf.) That’s not clever, eye-catching or minimalist. It’s wasted advertising space. Your story blurb must be killer. Happy quotes by big reviewers/authors help if you have them.

*This is tends to be more so with fiction titles. Non-fiction titles have more latitude and tend to explicate more. Still, give me pith (as in The 4-hour Work Week example above, there’s little doubt what’s it’s about. It also happens to be a great and useful book which I just read and certainly recommend for those looking for freedom.)