Getting There: Lesson 1

The best way to get to where you’re going is to know where you are; we've all heard this before, right? It's  true.

Here’s an exercise you can do as a first step to getting there. You are welcome to share the results here (I encourage you to). Sharing your goals with others might be a good way to motivate yourself to work toward those goals. Plus, you will get encouragement here:

Step 1: Assess where you are as a writer

Who are you? What genre do you write? What/who is your muse? What are your strengths and weaknesses?  How much time do you currently dedicate to your writing?

Step 2: Decide what you want to achieve with your writing 

You can break this down into time periods. E.g. What do you want to achieve in the coming year? Where do you want to be in the next two/four/five years?

Once you know this, you can decide how much time you need to dedicate to your writing.

Step 3: Set targets

The purpose of Steps 1 and 2 is to highlight the gap between where you are and where you want to be. They enable you to really see if your targets are realistic. You may discover that you need to adjust your target. Don't worry. Realistic targets are easier to achieve, and the more you achieve the more motivated you will be to push yourself further.

Step 4: Get your basic resources
Here's a list of resources I consider basic for every fiction writer.

An imagination

If you’re going to write fiction, you need an active imagination. First of all, imagination doesn’t mean a dirty mind, neither does it mean your mind should always be in the clouds. An exercise I try to do is to find a story in things happening around me. Usually, all I need is some incident or word to spark my imagination. If I have to attend an event, for example, I keep my eyes and ears open for cues. I ask myself ‘what if’ questions.

Others try to pick random words and try to string together a story that incorporates those words. Check out writing prompts. There are many websites with writing exercises. One such place is Writer's Digest. Here's an example of the kind of interesting prompts you'll get from there:

You wake up one day with an unusual super power that seems pretty worthless—until you are caught in a situation that requires that specific "talent." 

For this and more prompts click here

You’d be surprised to discover there are many stories to be told.

A Dictionary 
A good dictionary is a must. You may want to get both a physical and an online dictionary. Make sure your dictionary is up-to-date, since English as a language is evolving. Also, what version of English are you writing in? If UK-based English, you might want to get an Oxford dictionary (or a Webster if you write in American English). It’s important to also set your Word documents to the appropriate version, to take advantage of the auto-correct feature.

A Thesaurus 
A thesaurus is another must. You don’t want all your stories to sound the same ... or worse—for your work to sound too similar to someone else’s. We all function within certain comfort zones in our everyday speech. This will reflect in your work, so you need to make a conscious effort to shake things up. A thesaurus will enable you discover new words for old expressions and help you achieve variety. Sometimes you have a word you could use, but simply don’t like it in that sentence. Pop out your thesaurus and have fun with it.

A grammar book 
It’s always a good idea to read up on grammar and punctuation. You might be thinking you’ve done several years of English and you don't need lessons in grammar. Yes, we all went to school, and we all studied English, but you’d be surprised the kinds of mistakes you’ll find in your writing if you’re not careful. For example, did you know that combining a question mark and exclamation mark is grammatically wrong? Many of us do it, thinking it’s the way to depict emphasis. What about the use of ellipses? Do you put spaces before and after? Is it okay to use four dots instead of three? You might want to go and dust off your Student’s Companion. Better still, get the latest edition.

Learn the rules and follow them. I’m all for breaking rules, but if you’re going to, the least you should do is make sure you know what rules you’re breaking—and why.

Internet
The internet is a vast resource for information and is one of my favourite hangouts. Seriously. While I still like to refer to my big Oxford dictionary (or the Webster dictionary at home), the internet allows you to have all these things are your fingertips without the clutter of books. I recently had to relocate to a new country for work and couldn’t take my dictionaries with me. I rely on my online dictionary and thesaurus. If the internet is too expensive to have 24/7, dedicate time for browsing—purposeful browsing—each week (every day if you can).

I hope this lesson was helpful.

Before Lesson 2, I'll post some helpful online and electronic resources I use.

Empi

A Little Overview about publishing

As promised, I am starting a short series I’m calling “Getting There”. The assumption is that we all want to improve our craft, we want people to be affected by our work, and we want to see our work/name in print.

The bad news is that, to make money as an author, there are no short cuts in this business even if you decide to self-publish.

For avoidance of doubt, let’s do some background.

Self-publishing is whole different ball game and I will deal with that in a separate session. Right now, though, I’ll give an overview. Self-publishing means getting your work published, and undertaking all marketing and promotions at your own cost. There’s no competition between authors here, as long as you are willing to pay for the work, the publisher will get your book printed.There are various ways to go about it, but this will be dealt with later.

Self-publishing is one way to go, but there’s another. We will simply call it Publishing.

If you’re thinking, “Wait a minute. Is she saying I shouldn't pay to get my book published?” The answer is yes. Do you think Dan Brown pays for his books to get published? No, he doesn’t. Neither should you. You may not get the millions he’s receiving now, but I bet neither did he when he started out.

Here’s how it works. Most of the big names in publishing—Hachette, Harlequin, HarperCollins, Kensington, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, Simon & Schuster etc—do not demand a penny from the author. Rather they pay the author. Sounds good, doesn't it. 

Once you have a finished manuscript, you would query the editor of a publishing house, either directly or through an agent, to sell your story. Usually the query will be in the form of a letter that summarises your plot and includes a brief author bio. In some cases the publisher’s guidelines will also ask for a synopsis and/or a samples of the story in question—usually the first three chapters of your book. This enables them assess whether yours is a story they would be interested in. If they are, they will request for the full manuscript, upon which you might receive what, in the publishing world, we refer to as ‘the call’.

The Call is basically when an editor calls to inform you that the publishing house would like to buy your book. In cases involving the big publishers (like those mentioned above) the author will receive an Advance, which varies by publisher and author. The Advance is based on the projected sales the book is expected to generate. This means the more money the publisher believes the book will make, the higher the Advance. This is why a publisher would pay Dan Brown or Danielle Steele or Stephen King oodles of money for their books. The implications of the Advance is something I’d like to treat in a latter post, because it gets complicated. However, as I've learnt, every author should know a little something about everything to do with publishing.

Okay, to keep things simple, I’ll end here to let you chew on it; comment, ask questions etc., before I move on to what you need to do as an author before you even get to the querying and submission stage of your career.

Cheers,

Empi

A little more on Pacesetters

If you’ve read my posts both here and on FWoWA’s Yahoo! Group, you may think I have a bit of a fixation with the Pacesetters series. I do. It's my easiest reference for the kind of talent we have, which I think we're letting go to waste instead of nurturing.

In my previous post I mentioned that the publishers may have had a problem with the quantity of submissions they received from authors across the continent. I also believe that one of the things impeding our progress is the lack of information. While published authors may have had access to the relevant editors, it would be my guess that aspirants were in the dark about how to get the proverbial foot in the door.

In those days, we didn’t have the Internet, which complicated things. Now we have a vast source of information. Even the publishers are getting closer to authors through their website and blogs.

Speaking of websites and information ... guess what! I found a website dedicated to the Pacesetters series. I was a little surprised to discover that only 130 titles were published in the time the series was active (over 16 years, which means an average of just about 8 books a year = less than a book per month)

Find this and more on Pacesetters here. If you wish, you can just go straight to the site's novel catalog, which is complete with cover pics of the books. It seems you can buy available copies, but I can't advocate for the legitimacy of that aspect (if anyone has purchased books from the site, kindly let us know). 

Wikipedia, has a list of established African writers, grouped by country. Where were they? What are they working on? How much money are they making for their publishers and more importantly for themselves. Most do not even have websites...

Before I sign off, check  out my blog for an interesting post on how much a New York Times best-selling author actually makes.

Empi

Writing for Leisure Readers

I called Heinemann a few years back to inquire about submission guidelines for their Pacesetters series. What I learnt was that the series had been discontinued, and they now only publish educational books from African writers. I was devastated, because I remember the first time I read one (The President's Son by Kwasi Koranteng). What a rush, to read a suspense story based in contemporary Ghana. Before then all books that I knew of by African writers were used for Literature in school. Looks like we are back to that ...

Now, don't get me wrong; having a book being used for Literature is one of my dreams, but the books that make money aren't those being treated in school. Seriously, how many people read Shakespeare for fun? They either had to read it in school or they watched a movie or got inspired in some other way to read it. They don't go to a bookstore and think, "Oh, Hamlet. Sounds, interesting. One copy, please."

On the other hand, people pre-book Dan Brown's novels and read it just for pure pleasure and in the case of novels like The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown is able to challenge the very core of people's beliefs. It will be interesting to do this for Literature, don't you think?

Let's get back on tract. I'm talking about leisure books--the type you'll read on the plane, or on the bus or in the park. I'm talking about those books you want to read, not because you need to write an exam or take notes. Where are West African stories in this genre of fiction?

I have a feeling one of the reasons Heinemann discontinued the Pacesetters line was due to not receiving enough submissions from African writers and also not getting enough profit from their sales. In this second point, African writers erred in the fact that they didn't self-promote their works. As a marketing person, I'll bet my last cent on this: if there is money to be made, Heinemann or someone else will create an imprint for African fiction other than those designed for classroom use.

How can we get our children reading when they don't have material other than those they are forced to read in school? Our counterparts in the US and Europe start their 'reading careers' with books like Nancy Drew and The Famous Five. Once that love for reading is acquired then you can interest them in the more serious material.

I'd like to see the day Avon or Harlequin publishes an African story, aspiring writers from West Africa giving serious competition to author's across the world for the attention of these large and established publishers. Why should any publisher set up in India and not Ghana or Nigeria? Why should they think only of South Africa when they consider Africa? Let's bring the publishing business home to West Africa.

It can be done!

Next week, I'll start a series about the many little steps we need to take to get ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the world.

Empi

Akwaaba!

Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Chinua Achebe ... isn’t it odd--and a little sad--that the list of top writers from West Africa hasn’t changed in the past decade? Are there no talented writers in West Africa? No one wanting to join this crop of distinguished and respected writers?

Where are the breakout novelists? Where are the books that will earn our authors millions? Why are East and Southern Africans receiving international acclaim over West African authors? Why are our books only used in secondary schools for Literature?

We are blessed to exist in a period where the world is hungry for new voices and new stories, and our own citizens are becoming increasingly patriotic. While regions like Asia and South America, and even some other parts of Africa, are coming up strongly, it looks like West Africa is going into obscurity. Our aspiring authors choose alternate goals in life, because they are not sure how to fulfil their writing dreams.

Enter Fiction Writers of West Africa.

FWoWA is a group set up to bring aspiring and published writers of West Africa together to share and encourage one another in our pursuance of the writing profession. This blog is about helping West African writers to become the best writers they can be so our stories can be told all over the world.

Please join the site and share your stories. Tell us where your interests lie, where you've reached in your writing career, what your goals are for the coming year (or five years time, you decide). Where in West Africa are you located? If you aren’t located in West Africa, tell us where you are joining us from. And if neither option applies to you, but you simply love West Africa and would like to help get our voices out there, you are definitely welcome to join the group.

You can also join our Yahoo! Group here

Empi