Thursday, August 25, 2011

Reader Interview - Nathalie Hamidi

Today's interview is with Nathalie Hamidi, my very first reader interview on this blog!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Nathalie Hamidi, and I live in South-West France, in the country side, where the landscape is wonderful, the calm is soothing, but the spiders are huge. I am a stay-at-home mom, and by day I care for two young handicaped boys that don't go to school full time. By night, I put on my entrepreneur glittery superhero costume and work on my bazillion very important überprojects.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?
When I learned how to read, my mom used to bring me Disney comic books every other day - I was an avid comics reader and Donald Duck fan. Then I discovered the Choose Your Adventure books, that I loved too. At the end of one of those, if I remember correctly, was a contest to win something if you drew a superhero. I didn't win but received my first two horror fiction books that way. I can't even remember their titles, because I was so young then.

I asked my mom every saturday to buy me books. And she always said yes, no matter the books I wanted. I read mostly horror/paranormal stuff. I read at school during intermission, on the bus, at night instead of doing homework. I read all summer, day and night. When I grew older and got my first real job, there wasn't much to do there, so my boss let me read there too. I read or re-read almost a book a day.

Nowadays, it's harder for me to read. I have to take care of my children, I'm often on the road to take them to their therapies (I try to read in the waiting room too, but it's getting almost impossible, because people begin to know me there and want to chat), and when I'm home with them, it's hard find the time or concentrate. So I read at night, after working on my projects - a few pages before I shamelessly fall asleep (and drool) on my beloved Kindle.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?
I think you guessed I'm all about paranormal and horror. I love books that can scare me, make me wonder about the sounds I hear at night, make me avoid having my feet dangling on the side of the bed just in case some monster is drooling under it. I loved the younger Stephen King, but with time I can relate less with his stories. I also love Dean Koontz and Graham Masterton. My long-term goal is to find all their books on Kindle and re-read them in English.

Lately, I've also found a new interest in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires series, and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I know most people despise their work, but they make me smile, dream, wonder, think and sometimes their words make my heart flutter. I never knew I could read paranormal romance, but now I'm a fan.

There are also lots of authors that I haven't got to, and most of them are indie. I'm a big supporter of indie publishing, and want to help and promote indie authors by buying their books. Next on my reading list are: anything new by Amanda Hocking, all books by J.A. Konrath (semi-indie), Christopher Smith (Bullied series) and, of course, Mike Wells!

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?
I love fast-paced stories, but I also love introspection. I need to care about the main character, I want to feel the need to make things right for him. I'm all about giving advice, strong advice on how to make all perfect again, but the characters in the books I read never listen to me! ;)

I love that it takes me away for a while from a tiring day-to-day life that has a lot of disappointments and requires me to lower any expectations I would have, in order to rejoice for any little improvement. Fiction takes me away from the mood rollercoaster I live in, to bring me to the fictional mood rollercoaster that I enjoy.

I remember crying at the last book of Hickman and Weis' Death Gate cycle, because I didn't want it to end. I want that from reading. Caring about the characters, fearing for their lives, being scared about what happens to them, and wondering what I would do if I were in their place. I want escape.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that really annoys you?
Not really. I tend to avoid genres that don't interest me, or stories that may bore me - if the blurb doesn't take me in, I probably won't even sample the first chapter. I also avoid cryptic books that require to be read thirty times and have a degree in philosophy.

But lately I've been really mad at an author. She wrote a great story. First book was amazing. Second book made me care further about the characters. Third book finishes on a cliffhanger. Not really a problem, because I like cliffhangers in a series. But that was the last book of the trilogy. That pisses me off! I don't get to know what happens next to the characters, and maybe 10% plot is resolved. I will probably never read anything else by this author, ever again.

Do you write fiction yourself?
I do, I wrote a story about fate, nightmares, demons and magic.

I can't publish it yet. I wrote that novel for NaNoWriMo 2010, and I intend to go full indie on it, but first I need to edit the hell out of it, and also, translate it in English, which is not my mothertongue. I'll probably also publish naughtier things under a secret pen name.

I'm a more successful reader than I am an author.

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?
At the time of writing, I've only read Wild Child, but Wild Child 2 - Lilith is next on my to-read list. I also have my eye on Baby Talk.
I love Wild Child because it is fast-paced. Also, it deals with the supernatural, so that's my kind of book. I wanted to slap Kyle and Briana for their decisions, as I almost always do for characters I care about. Also, I'm totally and irrevocably in love with Brains (and want to slap Brawn). I also love that Mike made it a series, I want to know what happens next.

Thanks so much for your interview, Nathalie!
Readers all over the world can only rejoice at having the opportunity, like I did, to get their hands on so many compelling stories, all thanks to indie publishing. Indie publishing gives the power back into the hands of the authors and the readers. Let us, reader, choose who is worth our time and our dollars.

Nathalie Hamidi is known to lurk on Twitter (@nathaliehamidi) and blabbers about everything but mostly about unimportant stuff on her weblog (High Maintenance and Deranged). There, you can read her thoughts about writing, laugh at all the stupid memes she posts, and have a peek at her most intimate and shameful life events (in French in the past, in English nowadays). She also promises not to keep on talking about herself in the third person.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Writers Beware: The Fast Yes and the Slow No


In Hollywood, screenwriters soon learn that there are two types of responses that movie producers give to a screenplay:  The Fast Yes and The Slow No.

With the Fast Yes, the producer instantly “falls in love” with the script, clearly sees its commercial appeal, and can't wait make the writer an offer.

With the Slow No, the producer kind of, sort of likes the screenplay, and believes that if the writer would just make a few “minor” changes, he/she would (maybe, probably) like it a lot better and even (maybe, probably) buy it. 

Some writers run off and spend months, even years, dutifully making all these changes, only to find that when the screenplay is polished to the producer’s perfection and resubmitted, the producer still says no! 

The result is that the writer wastes a huge amount time and experiences untold anger and frustration.  Worse, the writer ends up with a screenplay that has been highly customized to the subjective tastes of one particular person, and is of very little interest to anybody else.

Guess what, folks?  Exactly the same thing happens in the publishing industry.  A literary agent or publishing house editor likes your book, kind of, sort of, and strokes your ego by telling you what a good writer you are, and that if you would just make these “minor” changes for them, they will “take another look” (and maybe, probably—you think—make you an offer to represent or buy the book)

Utter hogwash.

98% of the time, this is The Slow No.

If you find yourself tempted to fall for this (and if you really want to be published, you will be), tell yourself the following:

1.  You are not a slave.  You deserve to be paid for your work.

2.  Even if the agent or editor does not understand the highly subjective nature of the feedback he or she has given you, you do!  You know better than to spend weeks, months or years customizing (free of charge!) your book to please the taste of one person, no matter how “powerful” that person would like you to believe he or she is in the industry.

3.  You have developed confidence in yourself and your writing ability.  You believe in your work.  You do not let so-called industry experts dictate what is “good” or “bad” to you.  You let readers decide, because at the end of the day, that’s who you are writing for—readers—not literary agents, book editors or even book reviewers or critics.

It may come as no surprise that when you learn to "say no" to The Slow No, you start making real progress in your writing career.  

That's when people stop viewing you as an amateur and start treating you like a professional.

If you found this article useful, feel free to buy me a cup of coffee 😃  click here  - ☕️☕️☕️

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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Should You Go the Traditional Route or Self-Publish?

By far, the most common question other writers ask me is whether they should go the traditional publishing route (i.e., get an agent and then work with that agent to sell their book to a big publisher) or to self-publish their books like I’m doing now. 

When you start thinking about this question in depth, it can get pretty confusing.  I personally spent many years mulling it over and experimenting with both approaches.  But when you get it all untangled, the answer is pretty simple.

You should seriously consider self-publishing if you have an entrepreneurial personality.

What do I mean by that?  By having an entrepreneurial personality, I mean you’re the type of person that has very strong feelings about anything you create, not only about how it is made, but how it is packaged, marketed and sold to the customer.  You like to make all those decisions yourself.  You like 100% control over everything you do.  You are naturally good at presenting yourself, and anything you create, to other people.  You are probably not a very good “team player.”  You believe you are right most of the time, even when you’re not.  And you probably (if you’re like me) loathe bureaucracy.  There’s nothing that gets on your nerves more than long, boring meetings, and you especially hate decision-making by committee.

What does all this mean?  It means that if you have an entrepreneurial personality, you’re not likely to get along with big publishing houses whether they want to publish your book or not.  Big companies are bureaucracies, and they are going to do things their way.

If you are able to land a good literary agent (no small feat), and that literary agent is able to get a big publisher interested in your book (also no small feat), Big Publisher is going to want control over virtually every aspect of your baby.  They will demand control over the basic product itself (editing and fine-tuning the manuscript), they will demand control over the packaging (the title, cover illustration, and jacket promotional copy), and they will demand control over the promotion and distribution of the product  (advertisements, press releases, etc.)

And why shouldn’t they?  It’s their money that’s being invested!  Would it be any different if your were an inventor and took your brilliant new gadget to a big company and wanted them to license it, manufacture it, package it, and market and sell it through their existing distribution channels and pay you a royalty for each unit sold?  No.  It’s exactly the same situation.  Big Company thinks they know best, and they are risking their money, so naturally Big Company not only expects but demands to have control over every aspect of the product that affects their return on investment.

Now, this doesn’t bother some people at all.  Many writers say “Fine, I understand that, it makes sense—I would do the same if I were in their shoes.”  And these writers are able to comfortably work with the big publishers and often achieve fantastic results.

If you are one of those people (I’m not), I envy you.  I would strongly recommend that you go the traditional publishing route and persist, persist, persist until you break through and land that good agent, and get that sweet offer (with all the strings attached) from Big Publisher. (I have lots of helpful articles about that process  here).

However, if you are not one of those people, you should consider self-publishing.  I’m quite sure if I were ever present in a committee meeting at Random House where they were discussing the packaging of my book, I would end up stabbing some button-down executive to death with a letter opener.

There is one exception I would add, though, and it’s an important one.  If you are the type of person who can get along well with Big Publisher (and you intuitively know this even at this moment, even if you’ve never had any contact with one), there is a case when you may still want to self-publish.  That would be when you’ve made a truly valiant effort to go the traditional route, but you continue to be rejected, not due to the quality of your writing, but because the publishers don’t believe there is a large enough market for your work (large enough for them to make their money back plus a profit).

In this situation, you can self-publish your book for the sole purpose of proving the market for it.  If you can sell an impressive number of copies of your book on your own, agents and publishers will start getting interested.  I’m not talking Amanda Hocking’s or John Locke’s numbers—10,000 copies are enough.  Then, as Amanda Hocking has done, you can switch over the traditional route and let other people handle most of the editing, packaging and promotional details of your book.

Is 10,000 copies a lot of books?  Yes, it is.  And that’s where the downside comes in—if you don’t have an entrepreneurial personality, you may find that selling even 1,000 copies is beyond your capacity. So, in that case, it’s best to stick to the traditional route and persist, persist, persist.

I hope this helps.  As always, comments are welcome.