Kelly Crigger's Blog
February 16, 2016
Streamline Your Writing
Nothing turns away a reader faster than overwriting. Using four sentences to say what you could in one slows the writing down and in the end, makes your story cumbersome and unmemorable. A golden rule of fiction is to keep the story moving forward, so resorting to flowery prose, unnecessary metaphors, and long descriptions weakens the story and ultimately makes it harder for the reader to stay interested.
Besides using too many words to make a point, going off on tangents will also lose the reader and no matter how good the rest of the story is, you won’t get him back. "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel is notoriously long winded and although I loved "The Deceiver" by Frederick Forsyth, his later novel, "The Afghan," had so many lengthy flashbacks and side stories that I could never remember what the main storyline was or why I was reading it.
If you’re writing fiction then it’s a given that you need to bring the reader into the scene. Smells, sounds, sights, feelings in the air…all these things are necessary to create a sensory image for the story to take place within. But there’s a fine line between creating the backdrop for a scene and making it so agonizingly long that civilizations rise and fall before the reader can get through a chapter. Here’s an example from my own novel that ended up getting cut because it just wasn’t necessary.
“As much as Ki-Hwa adored staring at the great ocean, gazing out toward the horizon every day left her despairing; memories of the life she’d known seemed as evanescent as foam in the wake of the Kinai Maru and trying to decipher what lay ahead was as like trying to predict hold long the embers of a fire would smolder. Some nights, looking up at the rabbit in the moon, she wondered whether her mother or perhaps Jung-Hwan was looking at it too, wondering where she was. Still, she seldom felt anxious and when anxiety did manage to grip her heart, reason shooed it away. She was homesick but crying was pointless, especially since she wasn’t sure what to cry about anymore.”
Run on sentences can kill a story’s tempo and pace. If a reader has to go back and read a very long sentence more than once, then you’ve failed as a writer. There’s nothing wrong with using periods and breaking up a thought into 2-3 sentences. Here’s one very long sentence from a book I couldn’t finish:
“Understand that I was very excited by the spectacle and not until my ride home, as I began to settle into my bones, and feel the limiting contours of perception close back in like the nursery curtains that stifled the views of my youth, did it occur to me that I had, for the first time in my life, found a way out of this, my own skin.”
Overwriting can also take the form of trying too hard to sound smart. Here’s an example from a book where a woman is trying way too hard to describe the experience of going to her first professional MMA fight:
“My experience echoed precisely descriptions handed down to us in the writings of Schopenhaur, Nietzsche, and Artuad in which ia disturbing ritual – often violent – rendered each of their senses many times more acute, as if the dull blunt body were momentarily transformed into a tuning fork, alive, as Schopenhauer put it, “to sensations fine and fleeting.” Some have called the feeling ecstasy. I believed in this spectacle-provoked plentitude of sensation as one believes in Pangea and plundering Huns.”
In the end, fiction is a fickle beast that is very hard to tame, but overwriting is not the way to do it. Keep the story moving forward, take it easy on the prose, limit tangential story lines, watch the run-on sentences, and don’t try too hard to sound smart. These are only a few tips. There are many more, but I don’t want to overwrite. ;)
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
Besides using too many words to make a point, going off on tangents will also lose the reader and no matter how good the rest of the story is, you won’t get him back. "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel is notoriously long winded and although I loved "The Deceiver" by Frederick Forsyth, his later novel, "The Afghan," had so many lengthy flashbacks and side stories that I could never remember what the main storyline was or why I was reading it.
If you’re writing fiction then it’s a given that you need to bring the reader into the scene. Smells, sounds, sights, feelings in the air…all these things are necessary to create a sensory image for the story to take place within. But there’s a fine line between creating the backdrop for a scene and making it so agonizingly long that civilizations rise and fall before the reader can get through a chapter. Here’s an example from my own novel that ended up getting cut because it just wasn’t necessary.
“As much as Ki-Hwa adored staring at the great ocean, gazing out toward the horizon every day left her despairing; memories of the life she’d known seemed as evanescent as foam in the wake of the Kinai Maru and trying to decipher what lay ahead was as like trying to predict hold long the embers of a fire would smolder. Some nights, looking up at the rabbit in the moon, she wondered whether her mother or perhaps Jung-Hwan was looking at it too, wondering where she was. Still, she seldom felt anxious and when anxiety did manage to grip her heart, reason shooed it away. She was homesick but crying was pointless, especially since she wasn’t sure what to cry about anymore.”
Run on sentences can kill a story’s tempo and pace. If a reader has to go back and read a very long sentence more than once, then you’ve failed as a writer. There’s nothing wrong with using periods and breaking up a thought into 2-3 sentences. Here’s one very long sentence from a book I couldn’t finish:
“Understand that I was very excited by the spectacle and not until my ride home, as I began to settle into my bones, and feel the limiting contours of perception close back in like the nursery curtains that stifled the views of my youth, did it occur to me that I had, for the first time in my life, found a way out of this, my own skin.”
Overwriting can also take the form of trying too hard to sound smart. Here’s an example from a book where a woman is trying way too hard to describe the experience of going to her first professional MMA fight:
“My experience echoed precisely descriptions handed down to us in the writings of Schopenhaur, Nietzsche, and Artuad in which ia disturbing ritual – often violent – rendered each of their senses many times more acute, as if the dull blunt body were momentarily transformed into a tuning fork, alive, as Schopenhauer put it, “to sensations fine and fleeting.” Some have called the feeling ecstasy. I believed in this spectacle-provoked plentitude of sensation as one believes in Pangea and plundering Huns.”
In the end, fiction is a fickle beast that is very hard to tame, but overwriting is not the way to do it. Keep the story moving forward, take it easy on the prose, limit tangential story lines, watch the run-on sentences, and don’t try too hard to sound smart. These are only a few tips. There are many more, but I don’t want to overwrite. ;)
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
January 30, 2016
Passion is the Most Important Quality for a Writer
Every author has tips and advice on how to be better. But just because their routine sounds nothing like yours, doesn’t mean you are not as good as they are or are not a writer at all. I once read Ernest Hemingway’s ten rules for writing and only two of them applied to me. Instead of getting frustrated, I took it as a compliment that I’m a pretty little flower growing in the cracks of Brooklyn. As long as you have the passion to write, forget about all those things people say you have to do.
I've published over 150 articles and 7 books and have 5 more in the works. I’ve never worked for a newspaper nor do I have a journalism degree. Instead of an MFA gracing my walls I have an oversized Company guidon from my command days in the Third Infantry Division. I've written six feature-length screenplays but have never taken a screenwriting class. I haven’t read many books considered to be great (The Catcher in the Rye is still in my “to read” pile) and when authors name their inspirations, it’s a good bet I haven’t heard of them. I don’t go to writing seminars because there are few that interest me and even less that I can afford. I don’t belong to a writing group because the only time I went to one all they did was complain and I can’t stand to be in the company of whiners. I have no desire to be the subject of a book signing and abhor the thought of speaking publicly along with most human contact outside the inner circle of family and friends. I don’t hang rejection letters on my wall as trophies and re-start my twelve point, “I’m a good person even if they don’t appreciate me” program every time I get one.
If there are any golden rules of writing I don’t know them, nor do I know the difference between nominative pronouns and indifferent clauses. I’m not even certain either of those exist because English just confuses me, despite being a native speaker of it. I don’t know whether to heed the advice I hear or ignore it because it always seems contradictory. One month I’ll read an article entitled “the rules to get published” but the next month I’ll see one on “the rules I broke to get published.” I wear pro-America t-shirts with Chuck Taylor’s and say things writers wouldn’t dream of like “dude” and “what’s up bro?” I even taught my son the appropriate use of “hottie” when he was two. I scoff authors, calling them “kids who never stopped playing with dolls,” while secretly longing to walk among their elite crowd.
So if not a writer, then who am I (besides someone dealing with an identity crisis)? I’m the guy huddled maniacally over a computer wishing the day were twenty-eight hours long and my kids slept for twenty-four of them so I could write more. I wrote my first novel in four months and a screenplay in nineteen days working each one feverishly. I know my characters down to the most infinite detail, but also know nothing I write is ever good enough. I spend several hours a day dreaming of the stories I want to grace readers with and wondering when I’ll ever get the chance to since fiction is so hard to get published. I take note of the world around me and question how anything and everything will fit into a particular story, literally (I stopped traffic once to make note of the term “fish ladder”).
I get off on the satisfaction of moving a project from the “working” folder to the “completed” one. I don’t write to earn money because I’d rather see my name on a book jacket that I’m proud of than get paid (though I admit the Jaguar XKR convertible would look stunning on me, especially in midnight blue). I revel in the quiet spaces where I can create and pluck away until my keyboard melts. My loftiest goal is not to be called “Pulitzer Prize Winner,” but instead to give an acceptance speech for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim book prize, which few have ever even heard of. I enter writing contests in the hopes that someone will say, “this is really good stuff…dude.” I figure I’m one of two things: a naturally gifted, creative person with rough edges that publishers dream of discovering or a delusional moron whose foray into the guarded martial art of PUB-YU will end in someone talking me off a large structure that I don’t intend to BASE jump from.
So don’t get frustrated or alienated when a writer (especially one you look up to) describes their routine and you realize it’s nothing like yours. They are them. You are you. And your voice will never be like theirs. It will be yours. As it always should be.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
I've published over 150 articles and 7 books and have 5 more in the works. I’ve never worked for a newspaper nor do I have a journalism degree. Instead of an MFA gracing my walls I have an oversized Company guidon from my command days in the Third Infantry Division. I've written six feature-length screenplays but have never taken a screenwriting class. I haven’t read many books considered to be great (The Catcher in the Rye is still in my “to read” pile) and when authors name their inspirations, it’s a good bet I haven’t heard of them. I don’t go to writing seminars because there are few that interest me and even less that I can afford. I don’t belong to a writing group because the only time I went to one all they did was complain and I can’t stand to be in the company of whiners. I have no desire to be the subject of a book signing and abhor the thought of speaking publicly along with most human contact outside the inner circle of family and friends. I don’t hang rejection letters on my wall as trophies and re-start my twelve point, “I’m a good person even if they don’t appreciate me” program every time I get one.
If there are any golden rules of writing I don’t know them, nor do I know the difference between nominative pronouns and indifferent clauses. I’m not even certain either of those exist because English just confuses me, despite being a native speaker of it. I don’t know whether to heed the advice I hear or ignore it because it always seems contradictory. One month I’ll read an article entitled “the rules to get published” but the next month I’ll see one on “the rules I broke to get published.” I wear pro-America t-shirts with Chuck Taylor’s and say things writers wouldn’t dream of like “dude” and “what’s up bro?” I even taught my son the appropriate use of “hottie” when he was two. I scoff authors, calling them “kids who never stopped playing with dolls,” while secretly longing to walk among their elite crowd.
So if not a writer, then who am I (besides someone dealing with an identity crisis)? I’m the guy huddled maniacally over a computer wishing the day were twenty-eight hours long and my kids slept for twenty-four of them so I could write more. I wrote my first novel in four months and a screenplay in nineteen days working each one feverishly. I know my characters down to the most infinite detail, but also know nothing I write is ever good enough. I spend several hours a day dreaming of the stories I want to grace readers with and wondering when I’ll ever get the chance to since fiction is so hard to get published. I take note of the world around me and question how anything and everything will fit into a particular story, literally (I stopped traffic once to make note of the term “fish ladder”).
I get off on the satisfaction of moving a project from the “working” folder to the “completed” one. I don’t write to earn money because I’d rather see my name on a book jacket that I’m proud of than get paid (though I admit the Jaguar XKR convertible would look stunning on me, especially in midnight blue). I revel in the quiet spaces where I can create and pluck away until my keyboard melts. My loftiest goal is not to be called “Pulitzer Prize Winner,” but instead to give an acceptance speech for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim book prize, which few have ever even heard of. I enter writing contests in the hopes that someone will say, “this is really good stuff…dude.” I figure I’m one of two things: a naturally gifted, creative person with rough edges that publishers dream of discovering or a delusional moron whose foray into the guarded martial art of PUB-YU will end in someone talking me off a large structure that I don’t intend to BASE jump from.
So don’t get frustrated or alienated when a writer (especially one you look up to) describes their routine and you realize it’s nothing like yours. They are them. You are you. And your voice will never be like theirs. It will be yours. As it always should be.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
January 23, 2016
Writing for the Dream
There are things you want to write and things you have to write. Many authors write books not because they want to, but because they were hired to or they had a good idea that they knew would make some quick money. Many of these authors write to pay the bills, hoping that someday they’ll get the opportunity to write what they really want to whether it makes money or not. They leave that great passionate novel or trip through the Andes on the back burner until the time is right to dust it off and set it free. That’s not a bad thing, but at some point you have to take care of yourself and write what you want to. We all have to pay the rent after all, but when does writing transition from doing it for money to doing it for passion? I guess that all comes down to everyone’s situation, but my advice is to never give up on trading in one for the other.
I’ve written 7 non-fiction books, not all of which have made money, but I’ve come out ahead overall. However, I didn’t always come out ahead in my heart. I wrote several of those books to generate some cash flow instead of to satisfy a passion to write. Sure I liked the subjects, but I always wanted to trade in the non-fiction to tell a great story that moved people and finally I’m getting there. I’ll release one novel this year and another one next year. Besides giving me a little financial cushion to pursue what I really want to write, spending some time knocking out projects for money can build up a great resume and sharpen the writing skills. Eventually you’ll get to a place where you can write what you’re passionate about and that’s priceless.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
I’ve written 7 non-fiction books, not all of which have made money, but I’ve come out ahead overall. However, I didn’t always come out ahead in my heart. I wrote several of those books to generate some cash flow instead of to satisfy a passion to write. Sure I liked the subjects, but I always wanted to trade in the non-fiction to tell a great story that moved people and finally I’m getting there. I’ll release one novel this year and another one next year. Besides giving me a little financial cushion to pursue what I really want to write, spending some time knocking out projects for money can build up a great resume and sharpen the writing skills. Eventually you’ll get to a place where you can write what you’re passionate about and that’s priceless.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
January 22, 2016
Rejection Sucks. Get Over It
I’ve been rejected and had my fair share of failure (though what really is a fair share of failure anyway?) It sucks, but crying about it only makes it worse. One of the only things that’s certain about publishing is rejection, especially if you want to write fiction. Fiction is a fickle bitch and everyone thinks they have the next Harry Potter series on their laptop and if you could just get it into the right person’s hands the world would see your genius and you would be bigger than Beiber. But that’s not really the way it works except for one lucky lottery winner. There are literally millions and millions of creative people in the world and today’s technology makes it all too easy to write down that creativity and pitch it to publishers. Sifting through all that data almost ensures yours will get overlooked at least ten times.
The publishing market is flooded with people like you and I who want to get our stuff seen and published by big time publishers. Which means the barriers for entry into the big time publishing market are really really high. I know all those cliches about getting back on the horse and riding it because I tell those things to aspiring authors when they ask me what to do. While following that advice is hard, it’s true. Alone with the millions of creative people trying to get their manuscripts published are hundreds of new publishing houses looking for good writers. It’s not a question of IF you can get published, but rather by whom and when.
I can speak about this topic from experience. I was recently dumped by my agent and it’s been harder than breaking up with a Kardashian and staying out of the press. It’s a huge letdown, but the only thing I can do is drink, sulk a little, get the fuck over it and double down on my mission of establishing a successful writing career. I advise you to do the same.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
The publishing market is flooded with people like you and I who want to get our stuff seen and published by big time publishers. Which means the barriers for entry into the big time publishing market are really really high. I know all those cliches about getting back on the horse and riding it because I tell those things to aspiring authors when they ask me what to do. While following that advice is hard, it’s true. Alone with the millions of creative people trying to get their manuscripts published are hundreds of new publishing houses looking for good writers. It’s not a question of IF you can get published, but rather by whom and when.
I can speak about this topic from experience. I was recently dumped by my agent and it’s been harder than breaking up with a Kardashian and staying out of the press. It’s a huge letdown, but the only thing I can do is drink, sulk a little, get the fuck over it and double down on my mission of establishing a successful writing career. I advise you to do the same.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
January 6, 2016
Don't Break America, Kids
It hurts to see something you’ve paid for get broken. When my kid steps on his iPod and breaks the glass, I don’t see the accidental droppage. I don’t see the mistake or lack of attention he wasn’t paying. All I see is the money I worked hard to earn being wasted. It still works and yes, it was an accident, but fixing it will cost me almost as much as the price of a new one and will prevent me from purchasing something else I really wanted, like a bottle of bourbon to drink away the disappointment. But I really get pissed when he shrugs his shoulders and says “meh” like he doesn’t care. It’s not easy to stomach when your hard work is squandered. The same can be said for watching the youth of America break the country I gave 24 years of my life to.
This is nothing new. Several of us salty curmudgeons have waxed poetic about how unhappy we are with the youth of today since the Occupy Wall Street whinefest launched Generation WAAA! But here’s the thing – it’s not getting any better and now their cause has morphed from student loan relief and securing paying jobs to safe zones and offensive words.
What. The. Fuck?
Everyone has their theory on why our youth is so befuckled. Some blame the societal removal of spanking and belts. Some blame Starbucks. Clint Eastwood says people became pussies when they started asking what the meaning of life is. For me it comes down to respect and the twenty-something’s of today don’t seem to have much. They don’t respect what it means to work hard to buy the things you want. They want everything now and don’t respect the process of paying your dues to achieve goals. They didn’t chop the wood in the fireplace, so they complain about how it doesn’t warm them enough.
And now they hold something even more dear to all of us in their precious arms – our country – and are breaking it with these demands for things they haven’t earned. Free college? The average, honest taxpayer would end up paying for that. Free healthcare and a higher minimum wage? Same bucket of money…mine. All they really end up asking for is a redistribution of wealth, which penalizes me for being successful. That’s downright un-American.
Somehow these pernicious views that America owes them happiness, a degree, and a Volvo without earning it are endearing, so they take up the flag and make demands and wonder why the adults are laughing at them in public and crying in private. Simply put - we have no confidence in the future of America because the people we’re entrusting it to will break it because the youth of today seem to have no respect for hard work.
This wave of our youth screaming “poor me” comes at a very inopportune time when a great evil prowls outside the gates. While ISIS beheads and executes indiscriminately, the future of our country cowers from offensive words. The greatest generation weeps while my generation scratches our heads and blames this idiocy on ourselves. Surely we could have done more to educate young people on the basics of capitalism, standards, and respect. Because that’s who we are. We’re selfless and when shit goes south, we wonder what we could have done to keep it from happening. We take responsibility not just for ourselves, but the people around us who we affect. The youth of today don’t share these values. “ME ME ME” is their battle cry.
So what’s the solution? What are we going to do to make these kids man the fuck up? We can’t draft them. We can’t make them serve in the Peace Corps, law enforcement, Red Cross or any number of agencies that would give them a little perspective on how good they have it. We can’t make them suffer in any way because then we’re the douchebags who violated their personal space and we’ll be crucified on the social media outlets owned by the younger generation.
We can try to be mentors, coaches, and good examples of what’s right. We can try to show them that hard work is what made this country great and laziness and low standards will kill it. We can show them raw data and history to prove that even the greatest societies rise and fall with the tides, especially when those societies ride on ships of egotism and pride. We can take them by the hand and show them the seediest parts of life and try to make them appreciate what they have. Otherwise when the wolves are knocking at the door they’ll expect someone else to fight their battles. If the youth of today grow up having everything handed to them, then they will expect peace and freedom to be the same.
But all those lessons take words. Words that they won’t like. Words they’ll want to deny, run from, or retreat to their safe zones and act like they don’t exist. Words they’ll cower from like victims. The same way they’ll cower when ISIS is knocking at their door. Breaking an iPod doesn’t seem like such a big deal when our youth is just a decade or two away from breaking America.
Our younger generation needs to stop being afraid of things that don’t matter, like words. The old ‘sticks and stones’ adage has value and needs to be hammered into their skulls as a proven truth. Words don’t matter. You’re offended? Get over it. People disagree with you? Fuck ‘em. You have enemies? That means you stood up for something in your life. Words are not the enemy. Complacency is.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
This is nothing new. Several of us salty curmudgeons have waxed poetic about how unhappy we are with the youth of today since the Occupy Wall Street whinefest launched Generation WAAA! But here’s the thing – it’s not getting any better and now their cause has morphed from student loan relief and securing paying jobs to safe zones and offensive words.
What. The. Fuck?
Everyone has their theory on why our youth is so befuckled. Some blame the societal removal of spanking and belts. Some blame Starbucks. Clint Eastwood says people became pussies when they started asking what the meaning of life is. For me it comes down to respect and the twenty-something’s of today don’t seem to have much. They don’t respect what it means to work hard to buy the things you want. They want everything now and don’t respect the process of paying your dues to achieve goals. They didn’t chop the wood in the fireplace, so they complain about how it doesn’t warm them enough.
And now they hold something even more dear to all of us in their precious arms – our country – and are breaking it with these demands for things they haven’t earned. Free college? The average, honest taxpayer would end up paying for that. Free healthcare and a higher minimum wage? Same bucket of money…mine. All they really end up asking for is a redistribution of wealth, which penalizes me for being successful. That’s downright un-American.
Somehow these pernicious views that America owes them happiness, a degree, and a Volvo without earning it are endearing, so they take up the flag and make demands and wonder why the adults are laughing at them in public and crying in private. Simply put - we have no confidence in the future of America because the people we’re entrusting it to will break it because the youth of today seem to have no respect for hard work.
This wave of our youth screaming “poor me” comes at a very inopportune time when a great evil prowls outside the gates. While ISIS beheads and executes indiscriminately, the future of our country cowers from offensive words. The greatest generation weeps while my generation scratches our heads and blames this idiocy on ourselves. Surely we could have done more to educate young people on the basics of capitalism, standards, and respect. Because that’s who we are. We’re selfless and when shit goes south, we wonder what we could have done to keep it from happening. We take responsibility not just for ourselves, but the people around us who we affect. The youth of today don’t share these values. “ME ME ME” is their battle cry.
So what’s the solution? What are we going to do to make these kids man the fuck up? We can’t draft them. We can’t make them serve in the Peace Corps, law enforcement, Red Cross or any number of agencies that would give them a little perspective on how good they have it. We can’t make them suffer in any way because then we’re the douchebags who violated their personal space and we’ll be crucified on the social media outlets owned by the younger generation.
We can try to be mentors, coaches, and good examples of what’s right. We can try to show them that hard work is what made this country great and laziness and low standards will kill it. We can show them raw data and history to prove that even the greatest societies rise and fall with the tides, especially when those societies ride on ships of egotism and pride. We can take them by the hand and show them the seediest parts of life and try to make them appreciate what they have. Otherwise when the wolves are knocking at the door they’ll expect someone else to fight their battles. If the youth of today grow up having everything handed to them, then they will expect peace and freedom to be the same.
But all those lessons take words. Words that they won’t like. Words they’ll want to deny, run from, or retreat to their safe zones and act like they don’t exist. Words they’ll cower from like victims. The same way they’ll cower when ISIS is knocking at their door. Breaking an iPod doesn’t seem like such a big deal when our youth is just a decade or two away from breaking America.
Our younger generation needs to stop being afraid of things that don’t matter, like words. The old ‘sticks and stones’ adage has value and needs to be hammered into their skulls as a proven truth. Words don’t matter. You’re offended? Get over it. People disagree with you? Fuck ‘em. You have enemies? That means you stood up for something in your life. Words are not the enemy. Complacency is.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
December 16, 2015
Protect Your Product
This article first ran in Vetrepreneur Magazine in November, 2015 and is reprinted here with permission.
Everyone has a routine. I wake up every morning and check about ten websites that I like including my own facebook author page. One day a fan asked a question; “Hey Crigger, didn’t you say this once?” and posted a link to an obscure website that had copied one of my articles nearly word for word and claimed it as their own. Pissed doesn’t begin to describe my attitude as I strangled my Mickey Mouse coffee mug. I sent a letter describing my pissed-offedness that may or may not have ended with the words, “I’ll stab you in the face!” The article was removed immediately.
This incident taught me a valuable lesson: the more creative you are the more you have to protect your creativity. Businesses copying the truly creative people of the world and profiting from that work as if it were their own is a disgusting trend in the business world. Anything and everything that can be copied will be, right down to a comedian’s jokes. If you google Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia, you can find a harsh video of Rogan confronting Mencia about word for word comedy plagiarism.
“The digital age brings content to your doorstep in the blink of an eye and when combined with unscrupulous people it creates a situation where copying someone else’s work and passing it off as your own is too easy,” says Ranger Up CEO Nick Palmisciano. Ranger Up is a mid-sized business that makes military and patriotic apparel, but its success has had a downside: its profitable designs put it in the crosshairs of rival companies who don’t have a moral objection to copyright infringement. The blatant illegal activity keeps Palmisciano on his toes to find and expose copycats. “On average, we send four Cease and Desist letters a week. We have to protect our intellectual property or we have nothing left. Are we copied less than some other similar sized brands? Yes because people know we will move on them when they steal from us.”
Ranger Up’s experiences usually end well once the violator has been identified, but not every case does. Many times the offended party never finds out they’ve been copied or once they do, they don’t have the knowledge, time, or resources to take action. In this digital age the likelihood of getting caught is much higher, but the risk of someone taking action is actually lower. There’s no incentive to not copy someone else’s stuff when the worst you can do is tell them to stop or call them out publicly, which has little to no effect.
“We don’t really have the resources to go after all the copycats,” says Tiffany Oden, owner of the small boutique business, Quinn’s Closet, which operates solely on web-based platforms like Etsy and Facebook. “I catch people copying our dresses long after I’ve made and sold them, but what can I do? I’m a two-person operation.”
You can do a lot actually. If you run a web-based business then the first thing you can do is contact the sales platform about the infringement. “Website providers have mechanisms in place to protect intellectual property that most companies don’t know about,” says Trevor Schmidt of Hutchison PLLC in Raleigh , NC. This low cost mechanism should be the first step in protecting your product. Every platform from Etsy to Facebook has a copyright infringement clause in their terms of service so if you can demonstrate that another business is stealing your property they have the obligation of taking it down.
Step two in the escalation process is to reach out to the offending company personally. “A lot of people have success reaching out to the business owner,” Schmidt says. “Initial contact is frequently effective before getting an attorney involved. If two owners can come to an arrangement and come to a business solution that benefits both sides then that’s the best way to deal with the problem.”
If that doesn’t work then it’s time to call in the people with law degrees, like Schmidt, which usually involves a couple of official letters. The first letter informs the offending party that you, the victim, are under counsel and intend to take legal action, which can also be categorized as a cease and desist letter. The second letter will either address any counterpoints the other side made or ratchet up the pressure to ensure the infringer knows you are serious, and the third is a court summons, but it rarely comes to that, according to Schmidt. “There’s little to be gained for either party in going to court unless there is a lot of money at stake.”
In the case of trademark infringement, a company can file a UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) complaint to object to the registration of a domain name. But be warned…none of these actions prevent the offender from offending again. Businesses who rely on intellectual property must be ever vigilant to ward off the thieves and frequently it’s a game of whack-a-mole, as Palmisciano has learned over the years.
“As bad as these pieces of lowlife scum are, the more damaging thievery comes from rival brands that take successful design concepts and modify them just enough to avoid litigation,” he says. “The most frustrating thing in this business is watching creative people put out great products that they worked hard on, and then seeing uncreative remoras tweak those ideas and call them their own. It’s unearned success, but such is life.”
Everyone has a routine. For some people that routine is to get up and see what they can steal from the creative people of the world and get away with it. Those creative people need to make action part of their routine and not let it happen.
Everyone has a routine. I wake up every morning and check about ten websites that I like including my own facebook author page. One day a fan asked a question; “Hey Crigger, didn’t you say this once?” and posted a link to an obscure website that had copied one of my articles nearly word for word and claimed it as their own. Pissed doesn’t begin to describe my attitude as I strangled my Mickey Mouse coffee mug. I sent a letter describing my pissed-offedness that may or may not have ended with the words, “I’ll stab you in the face!” The article was removed immediately.
This incident taught me a valuable lesson: the more creative you are the more you have to protect your creativity. Businesses copying the truly creative people of the world and profiting from that work as if it were their own is a disgusting trend in the business world. Anything and everything that can be copied will be, right down to a comedian’s jokes. If you google Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia, you can find a harsh video of Rogan confronting Mencia about word for word comedy plagiarism.
“The digital age brings content to your doorstep in the blink of an eye and when combined with unscrupulous people it creates a situation where copying someone else’s work and passing it off as your own is too easy,” says Ranger Up CEO Nick Palmisciano. Ranger Up is a mid-sized business that makes military and patriotic apparel, but its success has had a downside: its profitable designs put it in the crosshairs of rival companies who don’t have a moral objection to copyright infringement. The blatant illegal activity keeps Palmisciano on his toes to find and expose copycats. “On average, we send four Cease and Desist letters a week. We have to protect our intellectual property or we have nothing left. Are we copied less than some other similar sized brands? Yes because people know we will move on them when they steal from us.”
Ranger Up’s experiences usually end well once the violator has been identified, but not every case does. Many times the offended party never finds out they’ve been copied or once they do, they don’t have the knowledge, time, or resources to take action. In this digital age the likelihood of getting caught is much higher, but the risk of someone taking action is actually lower. There’s no incentive to not copy someone else’s stuff when the worst you can do is tell them to stop or call them out publicly, which has little to no effect.
“We don’t really have the resources to go after all the copycats,” says Tiffany Oden, owner of the small boutique business, Quinn’s Closet, which operates solely on web-based platforms like Etsy and Facebook. “I catch people copying our dresses long after I’ve made and sold them, but what can I do? I’m a two-person operation.”
You can do a lot actually. If you run a web-based business then the first thing you can do is contact the sales platform about the infringement. “Website providers have mechanisms in place to protect intellectual property that most companies don’t know about,” says Trevor Schmidt of Hutchison PLLC in Raleigh , NC. This low cost mechanism should be the first step in protecting your product. Every platform from Etsy to Facebook has a copyright infringement clause in their terms of service so if you can demonstrate that another business is stealing your property they have the obligation of taking it down.
Step two in the escalation process is to reach out to the offending company personally. “A lot of people have success reaching out to the business owner,” Schmidt says. “Initial contact is frequently effective before getting an attorney involved. If two owners can come to an arrangement and come to a business solution that benefits both sides then that’s the best way to deal with the problem.”
If that doesn’t work then it’s time to call in the people with law degrees, like Schmidt, which usually involves a couple of official letters. The first letter informs the offending party that you, the victim, are under counsel and intend to take legal action, which can also be categorized as a cease and desist letter. The second letter will either address any counterpoints the other side made or ratchet up the pressure to ensure the infringer knows you are serious, and the third is a court summons, but it rarely comes to that, according to Schmidt. “There’s little to be gained for either party in going to court unless there is a lot of money at stake.”
In the case of trademark infringement, a company can file a UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) complaint to object to the registration of a domain name. But be warned…none of these actions prevent the offender from offending again. Businesses who rely on intellectual property must be ever vigilant to ward off the thieves and frequently it’s a game of whack-a-mole, as Palmisciano has learned over the years.
“As bad as these pieces of lowlife scum are, the more damaging thievery comes from rival brands that take successful design concepts and modify them just enough to avoid litigation,” he says. “The most frustrating thing in this business is watching creative people put out great products that they worked hard on, and then seeing uncreative remoras tweak those ideas and call them their own. It’s unearned success, but such is life.”
Everyone has a routine. For some people that routine is to get up and see what they can steal from the creative people of the world and get away with it. Those creative people need to make action part of their routine and not let it happen.
December 10, 2015
Don't Worry About Being a Bestseller
Everyone wants to be a “Bestselling Author” but I’m here to drop a little knowledge and burst a few bubbles like Inigo Montoya…that term does not mean what you think it means.
The day I found out I made the New York Times bestseller list I was the cow that orbited the moon because jumping over it was too easy for a freaking bestseller. I’d finally made it and the literary world was the spicy oyster rolling down my throat at the fancy restaurant I took my family to that night. I thought the offers would start rolling in and I could finally quit the rat race to write full time.
Oh, you silly silly man.
I co-wrote Dark World, Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew with Zak Bagans; a young, hunky ghost hunter with a Travel Channel show. As books written with celebrity co-authors go, I was lucky. Bagans was very cooperative and we wrote a good book that I was proud of, especially the last chapter where we tackled the leading paranormal theories from a scientific standpoint.
We made the New York Times bestseller list and were ecstatic. But in the weeks following the phone never rang, my email remained eerily quiet, and my mailbox continued to deliver Value Paks and penile enlargement ads. Not only did becoming a bestseller NOT get me a steady writing gig, but my next book was rejected by my longtime publisher because the market changed. Say whaaaaaat?
I learned a valuable lesson – being a bestselling author shouldn’t be your goal. If you’re writing books to make money or gain stature by being labeled a bestselling author then your priorities are befuckled. Those people who say you should be writing for enjoyment, satisfaction, or any other non-material reason know what they’re talking about.
The title “author” used to open doors because publishing a book was the true mark of authority or expertise on a subject, but times are different now. Getting anyone’s attention, even as a bestselling author, is hard. I’ve now published 7 books and written 175 articles for various outlets and magazines, but the big outlets (Men’s Journal or an interview with Anthony Bourdain) remain elusive.
One of the problems is that there are no barriers to becoming an author. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the incredible glut of books today (both in print and digital) makes it almost impossible for a single project or writer to stand out without massive marketing, timing, or luck. More and more creative people are having their voices heard, which is good, but the stature of the title has been sacrificed for instant availability to authorship. You can literally write the word CRAP a thousand times on a piece of paper, load it onto Kindle, and call yourself an author.
My message is simple…don’t get focused on being a bestseller. It doesn’t do much for you. Instead, just write what you’re passionate about. Write what you want to write, not what someone wants you to write because it may make a buck or get you a fancy title.
Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew
The day I found out I made the New York Times bestseller list I was the cow that orbited the moon because jumping over it was too easy for a freaking bestseller. I’d finally made it and the literary world was the spicy oyster rolling down my throat at the fancy restaurant I took my family to that night. I thought the offers would start rolling in and I could finally quit the rat race to write full time.
Oh, you silly silly man.
I co-wrote Dark World, Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew with Zak Bagans; a young, hunky ghost hunter with a Travel Channel show. As books written with celebrity co-authors go, I was lucky. Bagans was very cooperative and we wrote a good book that I was proud of, especially the last chapter where we tackled the leading paranormal theories from a scientific standpoint.
We made the New York Times bestseller list and were ecstatic. But in the weeks following the phone never rang, my email remained eerily quiet, and my mailbox continued to deliver Value Paks and penile enlargement ads. Not only did becoming a bestseller NOT get me a steady writing gig, but my next book was rejected by my longtime publisher because the market changed. Say whaaaaaat?
I learned a valuable lesson – being a bestselling author shouldn’t be your goal. If you’re writing books to make money or gain stature by being labeled a bestselling author then your priorities are befuckled. Those people who say you should be writing for enjoyment, satisfaction, or any other non-material reason know what they’re talking about.
The title “author” used to open doors because publishing a book was the true mark of authority or expertise on a subject, but times are different now. Getting anyone’s attention, even as a bestselling author, is hard. I’ve now published 7 books and written 175 articles for various outlets and magazines, but the big outlets (Men’s Journal or an interview with Anthony Bourdain) remain elusive.
One of the problems is that there are no barriers to becoming an author. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the incredible glut of books today (both in print and digital) makes it almost impossible for a single project or writer to stand out without massive marketing, timing, or luck. More and more creative people are having their voices heard, which is good, but the stature of the title has been sacrificed for instant availability to authorship. You can literally write the word CRAP a thousand times on a piece of paper, load it onto Kindle, and call yourself an author.
My message is simple…don’t get focused on being a bestseller. It doesn’t do much for you. Instead, just write what you’re passionate about. Write what you want to write, not what someone wants you to write because it may make a buck or get you a fancy title.
Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew
December 7, 2015
Maximize Your Amazon Page
You've written your first book, loaded it on Amazon, launched an effective marketing plan, and now sit back and dutifully wait for the sales to roll in. Only they're not. Or at least they're not coming in as much as you had hoped. It could be the consumer isn't having a positive experience with your Amazon page because of that old cliche, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him buy a book. Or something like that. Convincing a customer to check out your book on Amazon is hard. Convincing them to buy a copy once they get there is just as hard, so authors need to maximize their book's page to complete the sale. Here are six things every author should do to strengthen their Amazon page and complete the sale.
1. Write a killer summary. Take your time on this and treat it as a piece of creative writing in itself. Your summary is the first thing readers usually look at so it has to be snappy, intriguing, and hook a reader. It shouldn't be too long or too short or give away too much while convincing someone to spend money on you. That's not an easy thing to do, so take your time to craft a killer summary that makes it impossible for readers to walk away.
2. Your author biography should mirror what you're selling. When I wrote Title Shot, Into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts, I wrote a biography that highlighted my writing accomplishments in MMA so I sounded like a guy who had been there and done that and was qualified to write a book about getting punched in the face. But when I wrote a completely different book called Curmudgeonism, A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife, I rewrote my biography to one simple line: "Kelly Crigger is an angry troll who lives under a bridge, eats goats that wander past, and throws their bones into the canyon of despair." This simple bio made it perfectly clear who I was and why I was the right guy to write a book about surly curmudgeons.
3. Have reviewers lined up and ready on release day. No one will buy a book with no reviews. No one. Before release day, send the manuscript out to as many friends as possible and have them post a review as soon as they can. Is this loading the deck? Yes, but the alternative is to wait for customers to post reviews months after the book is released while your sales ranking tanks. Having reviewers lined up and ready on release day (and not all of them 5-star) is just good marketing.
4. Add editorial reviews as soon as they come out. Amazon is very good about posting editorial reviews on your book if you forward it to them. No matter how big or small the outlet is from the new York Times to the Prairie Gazette, if someone writes "this is the greatest book ever" send that to Amazon and have them add it to the page. Peer reviews are a big selling point.
5. Respond to negative reviews. Someone once loaded a 1-star review of a book I wrote but their comments weren't directed at the book itself, but my co-author. It was a personal attack on Zak Bagans, so I took umbrage with the person and fired back. After a few back-and-forth comments I actually turned to person to my side and they became an apologetic follower. Now I'll be the first to admit there is a fine line when it comes to this. There's a razor thin difference between engaging negative people and feeding insolent trolls. Pick your battles wisely.
6. Don't let Amazon pigeonhole your book into uber-competitive categories. It's better to be #1 in a small, obscure category like Dead Languages Written by Assholes than #200 in Popular Fiction. Being at the top of any list is good, so make sure Amazon is putting your book into categories it can do well in.
Besides your book's page, make sure your author page is up to speed as well. Make sure Amazon is crediting you with the right books, you have a good photo loaded, a good bio written, and updated social media like twitter scrolling across your page.
Loading your book on Amazon is a must if you ever want to make a sale, but too many authors don't spend the time to maximize their Amazon experience. Remember, the Amazon page is the last step toward making a sale. It's your shop window. Don't bring the customer to your doorstep only to have them leave underwhelmed without buying anything.
1. Write a killer summary. Take your time on this and treat it as a piece of creative writing in itself. Your summary is the first thing readers usually look at so it has to be snappy, intriguing, and hook a reader. It shouldn't be too long or too short or give away too much while convincing someone to spend money on you. That's not an easy thing to do, so take your time to craft a killer summary that makes it impossible for readers to walk away.
2. Your author biography should mirror what you're selling. When I wrote Title Shot, Into the Shark Tank of Mixed Martial Arts, I wrote a biography that highlighted my writing accomplishments in MMA so I sounded like a guy who had been there and done that and was qualified to write a book about getting punched in the face. But when I wrote a completely different book called Curmudgeonism, A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife, I rewrote my biography to one simple line: "Kelly Crigger is an angry troll who lives under a bridge, eats goats that wander past, and throws their bones into the canyon of despair." This simple bio made it perfectly clear who I was and why I was the right guy to write a book about surly curmudgeons.
3. Have reviewers lined up and ready on release day. No one will buy a book with no reviews. No one. Before release day, send the manuscript out to as many friends as possible and have them post a review as soon as they can. Is this loading the deck? Yes, but the alternative is to wait for customers to post reviews months after the book is released while your sales ranking tanks. Having reviewers lined up and ready on release day (and not all of them 5-star) is just good marketing.
4. Add editorial reviews as soon as they come out. Amazon is very good about posting editorial reviews on your book if you forward it to them. No matter how big or small the outlet is from the new York Times to the Prairie Gazette, if someone writes "this is the greatest book ever" send that to Amazon and have them add it to the page. Peer reviews are a big selling point.
5. Respond to negative reviews. Someone once loaded a 1-star review of a book I wrote but their comments weren't directed at the book itself, but my co-author. It was a personal attack on Zak Bagans, so I took umbrage with the person and fired back. After a few back-and-forth comments I actually turned to person to my side and they became an apologetic follower. Now I'll be the first to admit there is a fine line when it comes to this. There's a razor thin difference between engaging negative people and feeding insolent trolls. Pick your battles wisely.
6. Don't let Amazon pigeonhole your book into uber-competitive categories. It's better to be #1 in a small, obscure category like Dead Languages Written by Assholes than #200 in Popular Fiction. Being at the top of any list is good, so make sure Amazon is putting your book into categories it can do well in.
Besides your book's page, make sure your author page is up to speed as well. Make sure Amazon is crediting you with the right books, you have a good photo loaded, a good bio written, and updated social media like twitter scrolling across your page.
Loading your book on Amazon is a must if you ever want to make a sale, but too many authors don't spend the time to maximize their Amazon experience. Remember, the Amazon page is the last step toward making a sale. It's your shop window. Don't bring the customer to your doorstep only to have them leave underwhelmed without buying anything.
December 4, 2015
Writing is Only Half the Battle
Writing is only half the battle in publishing. Marketing is the other. In book publishing, a crappy book can sell tons of copies if it’s marketed well, while a masterpiece that isn’t marketed can go completely unread. In today’s digital world, information is brought to you at blinding speeds by literally billions of sources. Getting your right book in front of the right person at the right time in the right way with the right message is the only thing that separates bestsellers from bottom dwellers.
As an example of what I’m talking about, I wrote a book called Curmudgeonism, which was aimed at middle aged men and veterans. I did a bunch of marketing that had very little impact on sales, but then I did an interview with a small Florida paper called the Palm Beach Post and sales skyrocketed. Same when Blackfive.net posted a review of the book. I realized right away that these were the right types of outlets for my readership and continued targeting them. Here are a few marketing tips for new authors:
Getting your book in front of celebrities or people with a big social media following is always good, but don’t rely too much on social media like Facebook and Twitter. The shelf life of a tweet is 3 minutes and facebook has made it very difficult to get your posts seen in the average person’s timeline unless you pay for it by boosting posts. Instagram is more effective at generating sales than Twitter and Facebook. YouTube is even better, especially if you can create a character that people want to watch on a regular basis. Just look at how Nick Palmisciano from Ranger Up uses video to sell products.
Look into blog tours like Worldwindtours.com, but don’t get your hopes up too high. A virtual book tour is great to get 20-30 reviews of your book onto the web and generate SEO, but they rarely result in big sales spikes because the audiences they reach are not large. Focused marketing is what you need. It takes time, but do some research on the best sites for your book’s audience and reach out to them.
Become the expert in your field by getting excerpts of your book into similar media outlets. After Reed Kuhn wrote Fightnomics, he aggressively reached out to MMA websites and magazines and within a year was firmly entrenched as The Fight Scientist and widely regarded as the subject matter expert in that field. Reed provided statistics and excerpts from his book to hook potential readers wrote articles as a guest columnist that touted him as “the author of Fightnomics.”
More than anything, don’t get frustrated and recognize that generating sales takes time. Marketing is hard, but remember…Fifty Shades of Grey was originally self-published and self-marketed and look where that is now.
As an example of what I’m talking about, I wrote a book called Curmudgeonism, which was aimed at middle aged men and veterans. I did a bunch of marketing that had very little impact on sales, but then I did an interview with a small Florida paper called the Palm Beach Post and sales skyrocketed. Same when Blackfive.net posted a review of the book. I realized right away that these were the right types of outlets for my readership and continued targeting them. Here are a few marketing tips for new authors:
Getting your book in front of celebrities or people with a big social media following is always good, but don’t rely too much on social media like Facebook and Twitter. The shelf life of a tweet is 3 minutes and facebook has made it very difficult to get your posts seen in the average person’s timeline unless you pay for it by boosting posts. Instagram is more effective at generating sales than Twitter and Facebook. YouTube is even better, especially if you can create a character that people want to watch on a regular basis. Just look at how Nick Palmisciano from Ranger Up uses video to sell products.
Look into blog tours like Worldwindtours.com, but don’t get your hopes up too high. A virtual book tour is great to get 20-30 reviews of your book onto the web and generate SEO, but they rarely result in big sales spikes because the audiences they reach are not large. Focused marketing is what you need. It takes time, but do some research on the best sites for your book’s audience and reach out to them.
Become the expert in your field by getting excerpts of your book into similar media outlets. After Reed Kuhn wrote Fightnomics, he aggressively reached out to MMA websites and magazines and within a year was firmly entrenched as The Fight Scientist and widely regarded as the subject matter expert in that field. Reed provided statistics and excerpts from his book to hook potential readers wrote articles as a guest columnist that touted him as “the author of Fightnomics.”
More than anything, don’t get frustrated and recognize that generating sales takes time. Marketing is hard, but remember…Fifty Shades of Grey was originally self-published and self-marketed and look where that is now.
December 1, 2015
Don't Hire a Writer to Edit
You’ve finished your manuscript and are ready to have someone edit it, but don’t know who. Here’s a very simple piece of advice – DO NOT hire a writer to be your editor (and that includes me). There are a few simple reasons for this.
1. Writers, especially seasoned ones, have spent a lot of time honing their craft. They’ve discovered their voice and write in that voice and hate it when anyone else writes in a voice other than the one they’ve developed over the years. They struggle with material that’s even a little bit different than theirs, which means…
2. Writers will try to bend the story to their liking because they feel their way of telling a story is better than anyone else’s. They will advise you to change your voice so it sounds like theirs and when you disagree they’ll say something like, “well, who’s the accomplished writer here?” Unlike a true editor, a writer will take a story and try to make it sound like a junior version of themselves. I am totally guilt of this.
3. Writers like to look at a story from a holistic perspective so they frequently have a hard time with simple line edits. Writers usually think in terms of tempo, plot, structure, voice, and even marketability. These are elements that affect the book on the big scale, so they tend to miss things that happen on a small scale like tension, consistency, and even spelling and grammar.
4. Editors know how to look at a story from a purely editorial standpoint and make it stronger. They catch the things another writer would not and stay true to the author’s voice.
5. Editors are usually more up to speed on the technical aspects of writing and therefore catch violations of the most basic principles that many writers skip over.
The bottom line is this…If you have a friend of a friend who volunteers to edit your book because they’ve published successfully, pump the brakes. That would be like hiring Picasso to critique your kid’s latest watercolor disaster. Writers are not the best editors. Hire a writer to write and an editor to edit. The two professions are completely different.
1. Writers, especially seasoned ones, have spent a lot of time honing their craft. They’ve discovered their voice and write in that voice and hate it when anyone else writes in a voice other than the one they’ve developed over the years. They struggle with material that’s even a little bit different than theirs, which means…
2. Writers will try to bend the story to their liking because they feel their way of telling a story is better than anyone else’s. They will advise you to change your voice so it sounds like theirs and when you disagree they’ll say something like, “well, who’s the accomplished writer here?” Unlike a true editor, a writer will take a story and try to make it sound like a junior version of themselves. I am totally guilt of this.
3. Writers like to look at a story from a holistic perspective so they frequently have a hard time with simple line edits. Writers usually think in terms of tempo, plot, structure, voice, and even marketability. These are elements that affect the book on the big scale, so they tend to miss things that happen on a small scale like tension, consistency, and even spelling and grammar.
4. Editors know how to look at a story from a purely editorial standpoint and make it stronger. They catch the things another writer would not and stay true to the author’s voice.
5. Editors are usually more up to speed on the technical aspects of writing and therefore catch violations of the most basic principles that many writers skip over.
The bottom line is this…If you have a friend of a friend who volunteers to edit your book because they’ve published successfully, pump the brakes. That would be like hiring Picasso to critique your kid’s latest watercolor disaster. Writers are not the best editors. Hire a writer to write and an editor to edit. The two professions are completely different.
