The Westside Writer's Schmooze Interrupts Your Traditional Ideas on Publishing With a Look at Non-Traditional Publishing Paths

We like to think of ourselves as a family here at the Westside Writers Schmooze. So when it came time to chinwag about the new ways of getting your book out there in the Alternative Publishing chapter of our Ground-Breaking Year-Long Concept-Schmooze Experiment: The Journey Of Your Book:, we looked within.

We started with ol’ Grandpa.  Ten years ago, Writer-Actor-Westside Schmoozer Eric Drachman began publishing his own picture books with audio (apparently they came with something called “CDs”). And when we say publishing we mean really publishing: He wrote, edited, designed, hired and directed artists, found cheap high quality printers for the book, and took care of all the promotion and distribution himself, as well as producing, directing, casting and acting in the audio versions of each book. 

These truly beautiful picture books sold really well (700,000 and still going—you can still get them here: kidwick.com). When asked what possessed him to take on such a gargantuan and seemingly impossible task (keep in mind, this was before “Print-On-Demand” was even a twinkle in Jeff Bezo’s eye), Eric said he did it because he felt the audio part of his books was integral to his vision and the publishing world wouldn’t have been interested. Now Grandpa Eric was a tough ol’ bird; not everybody has the stamina or the talent to just up and turn themselves into a full fledged publisher. But back in the late 80’s, that was just the way his generation was raised.

 

Lazy Cousin Greg is another matter. Also a longtime Schmoozer, Greg Pincus was more interested in getting his poems out there than in becoming another Simon or Shuster. In 200,6 he started one of the early literary blogs for his whimsical funny poems (gottabook), releasing one a week. He soon developed a following big enough to draw the attention of the New York Times. They did a feature article on him that got the interest of Arthur A. Levine, who then signed Greg to write a novel (the recently released The 14 Fibs of Gregory K). 

During the long process of birthing that book, Greg felt a need to also release a book of his poems. Greg wanted to see how e-books and self publishing worked, so he chose the poems he wanted to release, and then went to the website “fiver.” There, he hired someone to help him format his book. Not long after, he released The Late Bird. Greg said it was a great experience and hopes to do a few more poetry books in the next few years. He loves that its price is just $2.99 and that it will never go out of print!

Every family has some crotchety old kook building who-knows-what in his barn, and the Westside Writers Schmooze is no different. Cranky Uncle Jeff Cox decided he wanted to make an e-book from his picture book story Myna and Tumbu. He had already found an artist he loved to illustrate his book, and he knew it would be hard to find a publisher with an artist in tow. But instead of using the half-baked pre-made software tools available at the time (a few years ago), Jeff decided to learn Kindle’s programming language and do it himself. 

That journey was full of challenges (including Kindle’s changing their whole language a week before his book’s original release date) but he now not only has a great book out on Amazon (buy it HERE), he knows how to program any book for it. Just like Grandpa Eric used his acting chops to set his books apart, Uncle Jeff used his nerdtastic computer skills to take on the publishing world.

Half-Brother Joshua Hauke used to be a constant presence at the Westside Writers Schmooze but we don’t see him as often anymore because he’s so busy servicing his Tales of the Brothers Three online comic empire. His story started when Charlie’s agent at the time (more years ago than Charlie cares to remember) rather rudely dissed Josh’s first attempts at a comic book.  Rather than get depressed and take to his bed (Charlie’s preferred response to adversity) Josh just decided, “Screw her!” and began putting his comics online. 

Josh dove headfirst into promotion including social media, comic conventions, school visits and even stalking events with similar audiences to the one he was seeking. His ultimate goal was to “create an audience” for his comic, and it must have worked because now he has three print-on-demand books (order them at  ) as well as a huge following online. For his part, Charlie has no book and his former agent and he have parted ways. But he’s not bitter. Because that would be wrong.

The one negative(ish) story of self publishing from the night was from recent addition Schmoozer, Long Lost Sister Jodi R. Moore (http://jrrothman.wix.com/jodirmoore. Jodi decided to self-publishing her book Let’s Face It when her agent didn’t feel it was ready to go out yet. At the time, Jodi disagreed and decided to release it herself. Looking back, she wishes she’d been a little more patient.

That said, she did open up a venue for her work (she’s self-published a second book, Dallas Lalone: In Our Words as well) and has learned about the publishing game from the inside out. In addition to learning to wait until the book is truly as good as it can be, Jodi questions whether it’s harder to sell YA books independently than it is picture books.

Our longtime Hippie Cousin, Paula McMath (paulamcmath.comcouldn’t make it to the Schmooze (she was off hiking the Appalachian trail with some primo bud—her husband), but she sent a wonderful explanation of how she took her birthday song, Very Happy Day, and turned it into an app! It started as an idea for a book with audio, like Grandpa Eric used to do.

And, like he did, she found traditional publishers were put off by the audio component. But instead of tying her wagon to the old world of paper, Paula moved on to the world of apps where she found a slew of exciting of possibilities. Now she could allow the user (what app people call readers) to choose the gender of the main character, play the song with or without vocals, record their own vocals over the music, and even play interactive games. Her takeaway: “In a nutshell — a seeming ‘limitation’ has sent me into a more interactive and multi-layered approach to realizing the project.”  You can’t get her app yet, but it will soon be available at the apple App store for iphone and ipad.

Lastly, little sister Cassandra Federman who couldn’t stay up late enough for this month’s Schmooze, sent us a passel of great links for more info on alternative publishing:

A comparison of Amazon’s Create Space with Ingram Spark Print On Demand and Author: http://www.selfpublishingadvice.org/watchdog-ingram-spark-vs-createspace-for-self-publishing-print-books/ -

http://www.authorly.com/ 

Some great Joanna Penn Podcasts interviewing self published kid-book authors: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/01/14/books-for-children-karen-inglis/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/01/19/kindle-kids-book-creator/

NOTE: the first podcast is a bit of a downer. The second one gives us all hope!

And so much more. But Crazy Cousin Karol, the Cat lady who lives up the block, and spent the whole night fuming about these kids with their newfangled ideas, ended the evening sticking up for the power of traditional publishing with a surprisingly powerful and emotional note. She said she’s holding out for a traditional publisher for her YA novel Cursed, about a thirteen year old girl newly diagnosed with a painful, embarrassing chronic illness, because she wants the book’s audience to know that “their story” is important enough to merit a “real” book. 

That made a lot of sense, even to Charlie. His takeaway was that the value of publishing, whether self or traditional, really depended on what you were hoping to get out of it. Book writing is rarely lucrative, so authors should follow their own unique paths to their audiences.

Whew! That’s it. As well it should be, don’t you think?

Except - we just HAVE to share this awesome notes + sketch by Schmoozer Carol Green, who co-coordinator Karol thinks captured her likeness marvelously!

Be sure to join us Wednesday, May 13^th as The journey continues with From Book Launches to School Visits, Promoting and Supporting Your Book.

Until the, keep passing the open windows!

Charlie & Karol

Sparks Flew as the Westside Writers Schmooze Began The Journey (The Journey of Your Book, Part I)

How lovely to be back!  And in our regular home, too, as construction on the Fairview Branch of the Santa Monica Public Library had been postponed yet again.

Who knows whether folks reeeeeally missed the Westside Writers Schmooze or Charlie and Karol’s beefed up promotional efforts, coupled with Jeff Cox’s awesome year-long concept Schmooze experiment idea, paid off big time.  Either way, there was a packed house – 36 Schmoozers, a handful of which were attending their very first Schmooze – at the September 10^th Schmooze kicking off the Journey with – The Spark…And What To Do With It.

Naturally Charlie’s prep for the night was focused primarily on the big picture concept of where ideas come from and how they’re generated, whereas Karol was all about the nuts and bolts of basic plotting and brainstorming the particulars of a potential story idea.  (This, boys and girls, is why Mama Karol and Papa Charlie make such a good team.)

Charlie gave free reign to his addictive personality and binge watched a whole bunch of Ted Talks on the subject of “Where Do Ideas Come From” and found that most of our ideas about ideas are wrong!  We usually think of an idea as a single thing – a flash of inspiration, or a stroke of genius, but according to Steven Johnson (author of Where Good Ideas Come From) an idea is simply a new network of old neurons, firing in a synch that has never happened before.  He says the way to bring this about is to excite your sleepy neurons with new experiences and interactions.  Ideas are cobbled together from whatever is nearby so try to seek out spaces where ideas “can have sex,” that is, where intellectual collisions are part of the social intercourse.  Ahem.

Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) said that in modern times we misuse the words creativity and genius to our own detriment.  Apparently, since the days of ancient Greece and Rome, and until fairly recently, creativity was thought to come to humans, not from them.  “Genius” referred to a spirit that helped the author create, not the author him or herself.  The key is not to be a genius, but to open yourself up to it; to let the creativity flow through you, not to manufacture it.

…which is all well and good unless you happen to be Tom Waits who was speeding down a freeway at rush hour when he heard a glimpse of a melody.  As a younger man he would have risked his life to pull over and jot it down but this day he said to the sky: “Excuse

me, can you not see that I’m driving? Come back later or go bother Leonard Cohen.”  The point being, you don’t need to grab every bit of genius that wanders by.  If you miss something, relax, and count on the fact that more will be coming.

After Charlie's sparkling intro, it was a great night for full participation, with many Schmoozers chiming in their thoughts throughout the evening.  A few people said they get ideas from dreams.  It was noted that story sparks can come from an interesting character, a theme or premise you want to explore or even an intriguing location.  “Story ideas” don’t always start with a story.

New Schmoozer Scott said he breaks up writing sessions by playing piano for 15 minutes to cleanse his creative palate, as it were.  Another person remembered that Maggie Stiefvater, a keynote speaker at the SCBWI Summer Conference, admitted, “I steal people” – meaning that she “steals” characters and ideas from the world around her.  

Read a nice recap of Maggie Stiefvater's keynote on the SCBWI Team Blog HERE: http://scbwiconference.blogspot.com/2014/08/maggie-stiefvater-keynote-thief-artist.html).

Ray Bradbury’s musings on “the impulse to write” and how “ideas are like apples, ripe for the picking” was also mentioned.

Westside Writers Schmooze stalwart Greg Pincus offered that ideas often come from “looking at the familiar in a different way” and also admitted that being under pressure with a deadline on one project has a dastardly way of making one’s brain come up with a bunch of cool idea for other projects.

Once the esoteric business of discussing idea creation was exhausted, Karol was finally able to breathe again when she steered the conversation into a more concrete discussion of how to determine if there’s really a book in your bright and shiny new idea.  The general consensus was that any idea could potentially be a book, but not every idea should.

One key factor, as Greg suggested, is to ask yourself, “Do I like this idea enough to stick with it?”  Whether or not others might like it shouldn’t really matter.  Another Schmoozer offered this gem:  Sometimes I like an idea so much it starts working me.

Clearly, one surefire way to figure out whether an idea has potential is to begin fleshing out the story and see where it goes.  To that end, Karol created a story worksheet handout (which terrified and appalled Charlie in its specificity) and Schmoozers spent about 15 minutes filling them out – or trying to.  (Print out a copy of the worksheet HERE.)  

The results varied, but the vast majority of Schmoozers broke Charlie’s heart by loving the worksheet, many finding themselves with great new stories or amazing breakthroughs in the stories they’ve been musing about.  It took a lot of work but Charlie did manage to find a few Schmoozers to chime in with frustrations about the worksheet, but they were pretty half-hearted. The truth is, even Charlie had to admit that it wasn’t as much of a nightmare as he’d expected. Then he left the room, weeping.

The Journey Of Your Book continues next month on Wednesday, October 8^th: Plotting, Structure And Other Stuff Your Book Kinda-Sorta Needs.  Whether you absolutely dread this part of the process (like Charlie) or revel in it (like Karol), please come share your ideas, questions, techniques and even resentments.

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

 Charlie & Karol

Blogging About Blogging, Westside Writers Schmooze-Style

Waaaaay back on March 12^th, the SCBWI Westside Writers Schmooze transformed the SMPL Fairview Branch community room into a Blogster’s Paradise.

The topic was blogging and social media – specifically how we, as writers, can use the internet to improve our craft, share ideas, promote ourselves and generally feel less alone in the world.

We assembled a crack panel of experts featuring Lee Wind, Nutschell Windsor and representatives from The Pen & Ink Blog.

Lee treats blogging like a job (which, technically, it is, as he heads up the official SCBWI Team Blog).  “Blogging made me feel more like a writer,” Lee said.  He tries to post 5 times a week on his personal blog (leewind.org) and twice a week for the SCBWI.

Sue Berger from The Pen & Ink Blog, who’s a published e-book author said, “If you’re published by an e-publisher, you’d better have an online presence.”  The Pen & Ink Blog began with a critique group.  They each toyed with the idea of doing a blog, and decided it’d be easier and more fun to do it together.

We learned that Nutschell’s blog, The Writing Nut, is a veritable treasure trove of interviews, writing tools and info on events for writers.

Charlie attempts to "fill in" as Greg,
naturally using a chicken as a stand-in.

In addition to the wisdom of the panel, co-coordinator Charlie Cohen had interviewed social media consultants, Greg Pincus and Laura Wallis, and chipped in their thoughts in absentia.

Read and or print the full interview HERE.

We also handed out a brief Social Media Survey.  10 Schmoozers responded and here are some of the details that came to light:

Three people blog; the others don’t – or haven’t yet.

Schmooze regular Joshua Hauke is the creator of online comic, Tales of the Brothers 3 (www.brothers3comics.com), and he posts weekly. 

Another anonymous Schmoozer blogs about “writing, on the way to being published” but admits she doesn’t post regularly.

Sarah Harroff was just starting a blog (www.sardyhar.wordpress.com) about the process of being a writer and said she hoped to post weekly.

Your very own Schmooze co-coordinator, Karol Ruth Silverstein, blogs about your very own Schmooze with her very own co-coordinator partner Charlie.  But lord knows they aren’t very regular about it.

The main reasons given for not blogging were not enough time, not enough technical know how and not having much to say or a unique enough focus. 

Nearly all respondents used Facebook daily.  Other social media sites, like Twitter and Google+, were used less.

Karol and writing partner, Boo

Overall, the evening was fun and informative, and as it turned out – very advantageous for Karol.  In her preparation leading up to this Schmooze, she decided to start trying to put her woefully neglected Twitter account to good use.  She stumbled onto a Twitter pitch event and wound up getting an agent out of it, proving just how valuable using social media can be for your writing career!

Keep an eye out for another blog post very soon (really!) and detailed info on our next Schmooze and the exciting Schmooze year ahead.

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

The Westside Writers Schmooze goes MAD for Middle Grade

Charlie & Karol came prepared with visual aids.

It was Pure Madness when the Westside Writers Schmoozers got together to talk about All Things Middle Grade on November 13^th. 

We started with the passel of passionate attendees naming favorite middle grade novels of their own, whether a book fondly remembered from childhood or something they read recently.  Not surprisingly, the titles mentioned varied widely in genre, tone and subject matter, proving just how vast and wonderful the world of middle grade is.

(Images of the book covers from the amazing list of books mentioned are featured throughout this post...and here's one now!)

With that bit of wonderfulness out of the way, we dove into trying to answer what, on the surface, may seem like a simple question:  What is middle grade?  Sure - there are the generalities that most of us learn at our first SCBWI conference or by perusing the SCBWI website.

What’s that you say?  YOU aren’t familiar with these supposed “generalities?” 

OK – so here’s what you would have found out if you’d done the slightest bit of research (which, coincidentally is precisely the amount Charlie and Karol do before these Schmoozes) – those brand new to the world of writing for children are forgiven:

• Both the main characters and the readers of middle grade novels tend to be between 8 and 12, give or take a year or two.
• Middle grade protagonists are often internally focused and concerned with matters close to home – family, schoolmates, neighborhood friends.
• Edgier subjects (sex, drugs, violence) used to be avoided but are now often included in age-appropriate ways.

Our discussion soon led us beyond this simple definition and got to the real heart of the genre – why middle grade matters so much.

Naturally, Karol and Charlie made a point of throwing in their two cents. 

Years ago, when Karol was encouraged to adapt a screenplay into a novel for children, her research into the world of kid lit brought back the memory of what a voracious reader she’d been all throughout grade school.  She proposed that reading middle grade novels is what really creates a child’s love of reading (as opposed to a love of stories that may be created with picture books).

Charlie’s take was that middle grade is important because it’s about the time of life when you BECOME yourself: “Gail Sheehy in Passages talks of the ‘Merger Self’ and the ‘Seeker Self.’  The first seeks to merge with others, the second to achieve individuality. Middle grade books are about the awakening of the Seeker Self.  That’s why they often take place in fantastical universes.  It’s too frightening for a young child to actually take off on his own, but it is, metaphorically, exactly what children are doing at that age –  taking off from mom and dad and finding themselves.  That’s why MIDDLE GRADE IS WHERE IT’S AT!  IT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!!”…at least according to Charlie.

Editor Molly O’Neill from Harper Collins espoused a theory about middle grade readers on the Everything you ever wanted to know about middlegrade…and were willing to ask Blog.  She said, in part, that middle grade readers are “often reading for one of two reasons: to understand, or to escape.”  (Note:  She gave the caveat that she was speaking very broadly.)

Local authors Frances Sackett and
Greg Pincus proudly display their books!

Two local authors whose debut middle grade books came out recently, Frances Sackett and Greg Pincus, shared some thoughts on writing middle grade.  Greg suggested people write the stories they want to tell and not worry about the age-specific details. As long as dialog, actions and emotions are authentic to your character, they’re okay.  Frances offered that anytime you make a decision because you’re concerned about your book selling, it’s probably the wrong decision.  In short – if it feels wrong, it probably is.  Both agreed that it’s best to keep your focus on the emotion of the story. 

Of course, NO conversation about the magic of middle grade would be complete with some insight from this year’s Golden Kite-winning MG author extraordinaire (and one of the original Westside Writers Schmoozers), Joanne Rocklin. 

When Karol asked her how she taps into such an authentic middle grade voice, she replied, “My middle grade voice is a very natural part of me...it's the voice that emerges when my fingers begin to type. I don't force it...that's just what I write. Possible Theories: I'm basically 10 years old?”

Joanne also told the SCBWI Team Blog:  “Middle grade readers are unique…I think that story and characters need to reflect the needs of their readers. Children’s authors must be very clear about the age they are writing for and about. So - read scads of middle grade novels, get to know kids of that age, and most importantly, tap into your memories of your own middle grade self. (sic).”

Be sure to read the whole post!  (http://scbwi.blogspot.com/2013/05/joanne-rocklin-on-five-lives-of-our-cat.html)

Having gotten into the aspect of “authentic middle grade voices,” there was only one thing to do next:  A writing exercise!

The prompts (and feel FREE to play along at home) were:

• Think of a “big moment” in your life when you were between 8 and 12.  Could be happy, scary, confusing, funny, etc.  Tell us about it using first person.
• Then rewrite the "story" using 3^rd person but try to retain the voice of your young self.

After 10 minutes of mad scribbling, we only had time to hear from a couple Schmoozers on what they uncovered or discovered through the exercise, so if YOU have something to share, please DO…in the comment section.

Will "neo-classic" children's authors and their books stand the
test of time like "classic-classics?"  Only time will tell! 

We wrapped up, as we always do, with an announcement about the next Schmooze, which will be on Wednesday, December 11^th. 

It’s our annual holiday treat – a guest speaker!  Of course, we didn’t know then what we know now…our speaker will be the amazing Ann Whitford Paul!!!  Author of many wonderful books (including a book about writing for children), stories and poems, Ann intends to talk to us about, among other things we’re sure, “the music of picture books.”  

Rather than passing around an envelope to collect a voluntary honorarium as we usually do with guest speakers, Ann has requested that we instead collect books and/or monetary donations (again - completely voluntary) for a wonderful organization, Project BookBag.

Pretty awesome, huh?  And YOU thought we wouldn't be having a holiday book drive in 2013...

Be sure to join us!

Until then - keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

Cool point brought up by a Schmoozer - some classics are edited slightly so that new readers
aren't alienated by things like outdated language.  Book covers change with the times, too.
Here's an example - various covers of Judy Blume's seminole book.

P.S.  Here are a few links to blogs mentioned at the Schmooze and here in this post:

http://maggie-lyons.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-dos-and-donts-of-writingmiddle.html

http://www.middlegradeninja.com/

Interviews with MG agents, editors and authors

http://www.yahighway.com/2011/05/5-fast-differences-between-ya-and-mg.html

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/05/207315023/the-ultimate-backseat-bookshelf-100-must-reads-for-kids-9-14

http://deareditor.com/2013/09/12/re-are-series-giving-way-to-stand-alones-in-mg-fiction/

The Magical Mystery Blog Post — A Time-Traveling Linkfest!!

Strange as it may seem, The SCBWI Westside Writer’s Schmooze Blog is back in business, ready to pick up where we left off. Unfortunately, we left off posting so long ago (the 40’s, it turns out) that neither Karol nor Charlie can recall the details of all the Schmoozes we missed. Fortunately, Karol is an extremely anal woman (and, in addition to that, she keeps good records) and was able to unearth these long hidden, never-posted (most likely due to the scarcity of reliable internet ISPs in those days), blogs from back in the day.

The first post she found does indeed come from the 40’s, when we held a Schmooze devoted to niche writing, asking the (as it turns out literally) age-old question, Is Niche Your Niche?  The topic was appropriate to the times as detective novels were all the rage back then, even in kids’ books. The information we exchanged, however, remains as useful as if the Schmooze were actually held on June 12^th 2013:

Pony up to the typewriter, sister, and we’ll lay it all out.  Last Schmooze we talked niche markets and magazines.  You wanna get a little scratch for your troubles, don’t you?  Then you gotta learn about niche marketing. 

What’s the skinny on niche?  Well, according to the business dictionary, it’s “concentrating all marketing efforts on a small but specific and well defined segment of the population.  Niches do not ‘exist’ but are CREATED by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other (s)…” 

"Killin' Karol"

So what’s that look like in kid’s books? Our resident femme fatale "Killin' Karol"  took us literally under the covers of THE book on Kid Lit Markets (niche presses are only part of the tome, she claims), which coincidentally is known as “The Book” and is available for free from the SCBWI. 

Though Karol, of course, had murderous ulterior motives, (just ask her four former high school school principals — if you can find them), The Book was an icy G & T.  Take a sip and you’ll find, among other things, that it lays out all the niche presses churning out books right now. Any ink jockey worth his blotter would be a sap not to snatch up The Book toot sweet.

About this time “Weasel Charlie” coughed his way into the room and started singing like a canary, ratting out http://rockyourwriting.com which tells you how to find the niche of what you’ve already written. He went on to squeal on Cynthia Leitich Smith, who has a blog on “how to niche market yourself!”  We thought he was done, but he musta gotten some bad hooch, ‘cause he started ranting about “Author’s Access,” which (he said) was some kinda thing called a “podcast,” featuring writer Ellen Feld gabbling on about her horse niche market. We never figured out if he was talkin’ about heroin or a heroine.

"Weasel Charlie"

Thankfully, it was just about then when Big Joe Taylor thundered into the room.  Charlie squealed out of there like a rat on the Titanic, but not before yelling from the doorway something about blog posts murderers Dr. Peggy Sissel-Phelan (Fiction Notes) and Jane R Wood (Children's Book Writers-Florida)  who apparently made some sort of killing (in niche marketing, that is) and lived to tell about it. Then the Weasel squealed off into the night.

All eyes were on Big Joe now as he slowly thumped across the room and planted himself in the chair at the front. “I’m here to wise up you saps to the rag trade,” he growled. Seeing everyone’s perplexed looks he clarified, “Magazines, you hacks!”

Everyone knew Big Joe was a monster in the mag world:  Winner of 2009 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for a piece called Flying Balloons, The Story of the Montgolfier Brothers in Cricket Magazine, and more a bunch of stellar Cricket pieces since then.  We also knew that nobody was going anywhere until Big Joe had said his peace.

Right away Big Joe put us wise to the amount of work, determination, talent and luck it took to become “Mr. Cricket” (his uptown moniker). Seems his award winner started its life as a picture book. He liked it but thought it had too many words. He then tried turning it into a historical novel but felt he was “losing the essence.” Last time Big Joe felt like he was “losing the essence” of something, 23 characters ended up at the bottom of a shredder. Balloons mighta ended likewise but Joe then thought of Cricket Magazine. He submitted it there, found the editors copacetic, ended up winning the SCBWI Merit Award, and carving out a nice territory for himself. Call it a niche within a niche at the magazine – lightly fictionalized stories about scientists and artists who made amazing breakthroughs in their fields. (Word to the wise:  You wanna keep scribbling? Steer clear of Big Joe’s niche.)

He then handed out a flyer with the Carus Group's various magazines (of which Cricket is one). Here's a link with the 411:

http://www.cricketmag.com/ProductList.aspx?type=M

Suddenly, Big Joe stood up.  Everyone ducked, ready to meet their makers, but it turned out Big Joe was just letting us know that the Schmooze was over and it was time to go.  Sobered, we filed out of the library, into the night.

The next un-posted blog Karol found was from a Schmooze we held on e-books, way back in the 60’s, the days of heady, communal DIY radicals. Appropriately, this gathering was a “Schmooze Collective” with a “panel of crackerjack hotshots, rapping on e-books and self-publishing.” Karol claimed to be under the weather and unable to attend, but Charlie had it on good authority that she was actually in Oregon, running naked with the Tree People. She did check in, though, virtually (through some hippie-futuristic thingamabob called Skype). Not surprisingly, her camera was off. This blog post is striking, both for its quant use of language and for the fact that the subject, e-books, did not even exist at the time the Schmooze occurred. You’d think it had actually happened on September 17, 2013, rather than back in the Decade of Love.

      

If you missed the e-book rapfest last night, man you missed a true happening. Greg (“the Fibber”) Pincus blew all our minds, making the scene in a man-miniskirt, Jeff (“the Webmaster”) Cox showed up in a bright orange Nehru Jacket, and Josh (“Brother#3”) Hauke wore his trusty torn jeans and “Keep on Truckin’” T-shirt.  The Tribe gathered to hear “The Three” pontificate on e-books and self-publishing — “the future, Mr. Gittes.”

Charlie (“Mr. Jones”) Cohen, looking clueless as ever in his Brooks Brother’s suit, questioned the gurus about the state of self-publishing.

Greg set the tone, laying down some TRUTH about expectations and goals – you gotta be honest about both. What do you want to get out of it? Why are you doing it? Greg rapped on how he released his amazing compilation of poems, The Late Bird, to learn how to release an e-book as well as to build on the audience he had grown online. Though he did not get rich off the e-book (yet!), he achieved both goals. “Know why you’re doing it, man,” he said, “and you’ll know what you need to do.”

Whoa.

Simple, but deep. 

Not unlike Greg himself.

"The Webmaster" on a bad day

Jeff must have gotten some of the brown acid, cause he bummed us all out, telling us how hard it still is to format a true e-picture book.  It’s got to cover all kinds of platforms and none of them are the same and each changes their protocols willy-nilly. He said you really gotta know how to program to do it. If not, you should steer clear of graphic-centric e-books, at least for now.

Propitiously, Josh emerged from his cloud of smoke just then to lead us all back into the groove. “It’s just transition, man,” he said, “like when we went from CD’s to MP3s. There’s always curves in the path; you just gotta learn to enjoy the view.” He went on to rap about the different path he took with his Tales Of The Brothers Three. He wanted to compile the first year of his amazing Web comic strip into a book. Rather than mess with e-books and all the formatting troubles that had so bummed out Jeff, Josh decided to release it digitally as a pdf (no formatting issues at all!) as well as in a (beautifully) printed book on Amazon. He said the two formats complemented each other: he sold more hard copies but made more scratch off the ebook.

‘Round this time Charlie started tripping: He ripped off his suit, stood on the table in just his “Friend of the Devil” BVDs and exulted: “FELLOW TRAVELERS! I GET IT NOW!! The Man says the worst reason to self-publish or e-publish is cause you can’t get your stuff published through the regular channels. I say, bullshit! That’s a great reason! The companies are narrow and getting narrower, and the percentage you make is small. So if your book appeals to a smaller, niche audience, it makes good economical sense for them to pass and for you to publish it! Both things are logical. SCREW THE MAN!!!

Everyone nodded. Except Jeff, who just growled, “First get your book into shape. Make sure you’ve vetted it, rewritten it and made it the best work you can do. And find better underwear.”

Then Greg, pupils dilated, started talking about the “world wide webs,” saying we should check out this book-designer Joel Friedlander’s blog about self-publishing and design, which had every possible thing you could want to know about how to design and release your book. 

“He’s awesome dude,” agreed Josh, “but if you really want your minds blown, check out this hombre, Matthew Herzberg.  He created this whole website about a fictional town and he writes all these stories about all the people in it.  The WEBSITE ITSELF is his e-book.  YOU GOTTA SEE THAT THING!!!”  

We had to restrain Josh at this point – in his excitement he was throttling Greg. 

Jeff shook his head and pointed accusatorily at the gathered tribe.  “These squares don’t care about that, man,” he sneered.  “They’re just looking to make money.  

All right Squares!  You want to make money off self-publishing?  Go to http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/how-can-the-average-writer-make-money-self-publishing-e-books and satisfy your mercenary little hearts.  

And while you’re online you might visit http://www.thecreativepenn.com where this chick, Joanna Penn, will give you a 51 page free download about marketing.

Josh chuckled the weird vibes away.  “That’s it, man.  I think we did it.”

And we had.  Everybody split to do their own things.

The final Schmooze we blogged about happened just last month on October 15, 2013. Of course in these modern days of social networks, e-readers and iPhones, “The Man “ has been renamed “The Cloud” and is back in control of the means of production. So as not to cross him/it we focused on more prosaic issues. Which is to say, this Schmooze was about plot - and promised (#notreally) to help Schmoozers learn How To Plot Like a Pro (trademark Charlie and Karol). (To appease the man further, please “like” our choice of topic on Twitface and Icarly.) #plotschmoozepander

Our plot Schmooze began like so many others, with Charlie trying to bring us all into his personal hell (#noncomposmentisleaders), laying bare his personal struggles with the very subject he helped choose (#whinyjew)

“I’ve always been suspicious of plot," whined Charlie.  "Always thought of it as lies rather than story.  A hard metallic infrastructure that wants to bend my characters into some predetermined and ultimately dishonest shape.  At the same time, I know that the only parts of anything that an audience can pay attention to are those that feel like they are integral to the story being told.  So where does that leave me?” 

“In need of my wise counsel,” snapped Karol (#obnoxiousknowitall), as she, wisely, opened the floor up to the Schmoozers for comments.  It turned out Charlie wasn’t entirely alone as most Schmoozers there confessed they were more vexed by plot than not, many wishing they could find a way to make do with less of it (#writershatewriting). We were lucky enough to have a teacher in attendance, though, who quickly set us straight.  She told us that kids in her classes were often “plot junkies” who read only for the plot.  She had to work to get them to slow down and actually pay attention to details. 

We came to the conclusion that plot was but one of many doors you can open to get into your story.  Still, once you were inside your story, you needed a plot to make it work. This led to a spirited debate between “Pantsers” (writers who write by the seats of their pants) and “Plotsers” (those who map out a course).  This, of course, brought to mind the great, overlooked fable by Aesop, “The Pantser and The Plotser” which centered on the struggles of a blathering butterfly and a boring ass to tell their mother her yarn was broken. The fable, of course, went on to inspire the famous vaudeville team of “Pantser and Plotser” whose career exploits were legendary, as well as their fall when Pantser pantsed Plotser and revealed Plotsers plotz (#whatthehellwasthat??, #imnotreallysurethisbitworkscharlie, #atleastiwrotethepost, #yeahforonce, #wherewerewe?). 

The Schmooze then settled down to some information that one can actually use to help you get through plotting (#finally):

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park and The Book of Mormon had some great tips on discerning plot from “stuff” in an impromptu writing class they taught at NYU which you can watch HERE.

Screenwriter Blake Snyder created a 15 beat story structure that he immortalized in his “Save The Cat” writing guides.  Rita Crayon Huang #hernewbabysbabymama said that she found it too daunting to start her story with but used it as a diagnostic tool after she finished her drafts.  You can check out ol’ Blake’s ideas at his posthumous website: http://www.blakesnyder.com

Still very much alive is Bruce Coville who gave one of his amazing plot talks at the 2011 SCBWI conference (read a recap HERE). Bruce has so much great stuff to say, there’s no way to do it justice here,  But one of the big takeaways was to complicate, complicate, complicate.  Use the senses.  Complicate not only your character’s overall goal, but the individual scenes too.

Linda Sue Park says to look at your character’s internal and external quests, and focus on the tension between the two.  She has a great explanation of it on her site: http://www.lindasuepark.com/writing/writing.html

Charlie found a surprisingly useful entry on how to plot a story—in wikihow!  (Hint: It’s character and conflict!)

More traditionally, there was Freytag’s Story Pyramid (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement).

Martha Alderson, the Plot Whisperer can take you through her plotting steps on her youtube channel.  She’s all about finding your characters’ flaws and she speaks sweetly from a garden with lots of dappled sunlight and chirping birds! (#makeyouwannabarfandlovelifeatthesametime) 

And of course, Charlie’s favorite plotting device, Joseph Campbell’s amazing Monomyth – an assessment arrived at by studying myths and stories of every hero’s journey throughout time and from all around the globe.  Charlie loves it because it’s so inspiring and yet so vague and open to interpretation.  

Here are two versions of it to peruse:

Campbell's Monomyth

And one that's at least slightly easier on the eyes #sheeshsmallprintwhydonha:

Finally, (SOME SCHMOOZER) brought up Randy Ingermanson’s (#evilvilliannamesMarvelneverused) notorious “Snowflake method” of plotting, a method so detailed and anal and terrifying that it made Charlie want to kill himself and even gave Karol some pause.  

For those of you who dare, though, here is a link to his page:

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

And that was it (#againfinallynoreallythistime).  Fully flayed by the long evening we all plotsed out of there just in time before the library closed, escaping by the seat of our pants. (#seewhatwedidthere?)


Now that we're all super-caught-up-to-date, we hope you'll join us for any or all of our awesome upcoming Westside Writer's Schmoozes:
      

Mad About Middle Grade, Wednesday November 13th

Fabulous Guest Speaker (We Promise), Wednesday December 11th

Happy New Year!  The Failure Schmooze, Wednesday January 8th

I Know What Boys Like, Wednesday February 12th

Livin' In A Blogster's Paradise, Wednesday March 12th

Picture Book Critique Night, Wednesday April 9th

Novel Critique Night, Wednesday May 14th
Perfecting the Art of the Elevator pitch (Just in Time for the Summer Conference!), Wednesday June 11th

Until we see you again (like next week), keep passing the open windows!
Charlie & Karol