erastes | royalties and cut!

Royalties fluctuate so bloody much – I’m assuming this is because of all the different booksellers that publishers sell to, and the different rates each one offers or something, but I can’t but help being very confused. For example – for one bookseller I earn $1.11 royalty per book sold, which is nice, then I see that I’ve sold 95 copies to another seller – get excited because that should be $100 – and then find I get a TOTAL of $25. This seems bloody bizarre. And WRONG.

One of my favourite blogs, Rachelle Gardener, has a blog post this morning about effective ways to cut word count – some of the advice is:

Here’s a checklist of things to consider cutting:
→ Adverbs, especially those with “ly” endings. Ask yourself if they’re necessary.
→ Adjectives. Often people use two or three when one or none is better.
→ Gerunds. Words that end in “ing.”
→ Passive voice: Over-use of words like “was,” "were" and "that" indicate your writing may be too passive. Reconstruct in active voice.
→ Passages that are overly descriptive.
→ Passages that describe characters' thoughts and feelings in too much detail (i.e. long sections of narrative or interior monologue).
→ Passages that tell the reader what they already know.
→ Unnecessary backstory.

Oops. That makes Mere Mortals about 200 words long. Flash fiction anyone?

- -

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Elmore Leonard's work isn't pretty or readable, at least in my opinion. Hemmingway wrote sparely but beautifully.

There's a lot to be said for cutting the fat, but it needs to be done judiciously. Characters' thoughts, descriptions of setting, etc. are an important part of the story, at least to me. And a lot of the books (particularly e-books) I've read recently don't give setting nearly enough attention.

Gah. Editing suxx.

royalties and cut!

no subject