royalties and cut!
Aug. 17th, 2009 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastesRoyalties 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?
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:09 am (UTC)I find MeMo riveting so far and really want to read it in one go when you're done. (*prods*)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:12 am (UTC)I thought i'd need about three chapters perhaps i don't, I think it's running downhill from now on - so end of month, definitely without fail. will send it over when done, but it won't be fully coherent, much needs to be changed/added.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:48 am (UTC)*ahem*
Peter likes Paul
Paul likes Simon.
Simon likes Paul.
Simon and Paul argue.
Simon and Paul break up.
Paul meets Peter.
Paul likes Peter.
Peter still likes Paul
Peter and Paul live
happilyever after.The end.
Okay, who'll buy it?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 10:54 am (UTC)Cut me in then. I'll be nice and settle for 30%
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 11:13 am (UTC)Fly away Paul.
Simon imagines a threeway...
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 11:39 am (UTC)The End.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 11:48 am (UTC)Also, do you have problems with people re-selling your books for twice what you get for them??? It's nuts.
Hope you're well!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 12:09 pm (UTC)Their luggage is lost.
They make do.
Hijinks.
the end.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 01:28 pm (UTC)I've been betaed according to the similar rules laid down by Elmore Leonard and the result was neither pretty nor readable. Of course, what I'd written might not have been pretty or readable to start with. As a test I'd love to see some great classic lit - Dickens, Hemingway, etc - edited according to them. I wonder how the stories would turn out?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 01:36 pm (UTC)Adverbs...Consider the Harry Potter books. Rowling commits endless adverb abuse in 4,5 and 6. She could have saved fifty pages if she'd halved her usage.
Adjectives. Too many and you sound like HP Lovecraft. I loves me some Lovecraft, but only he can manage great blank cyclopean stones in every story. You don't have to whack all of them, just ask yourself is that heroine really needs "rippling ebony cascades of curls" or if "punching the bloated cap against his tight starfish" is really THAT sexy. (yes, both examples are real)
Sometimes you have to use passive voice. Most times you don't. Especially not in action scenes.
She doesn't say "don't describe," she says "overly descriptive." I don't need pages and pages of John Norman-esque description of saddles and towers and collars and such.
It's one thing to have your characters mount a giant bird's high-backed saddle close the side-rails and strap in, and another entirely to describe the leather, the shape, the function, the history and legend of that shape and how they like to sling captives across the front of the saddle.
I can see where taking the suggestions as iron clad rules would reduce one to basal reader levels. But going the opposite way is not good either.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 02:37 pm (UTC)I agree 100%. But I'm very cold about my writing and have no problems cutting/ripping it up.
Can you get a document explaining how royalties are calculated?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:16 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:34 pm (UTC)I'm not going to bother - this is Samhain who have been less than stellar ever since they took over from Linden Bay - when I get the same jumble of figures from Cheyenne, I'll quiz them!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:41 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:43 pm (UTC)Understood! I thought some of the advice needed to be taken with a grain of salt for writing Romance because isn't lush description a big part of the genre?
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:43 pm (UTC)Well, I don't begrudge them that, I've done the same with the occasional book (when I can part with books which is very rare)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:46 pm (UTC)Interestingly, I think I regularly looked for these when trying to cut down words without realizing. Being a poet kind of gives you a "search and destroy" setting for gerunds. Normally they sound really, really ugly :3
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 03:58 pm (UTC)But if you've considered your word choices, it shouldn't be much smaller.
(or maybe it would. The original of that sentence was:
But if you've carefully considered your word choices, it shouldn't be all that much smaller.)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 06:26 pm (UTC)Those two are my biggest bug bear beyond SPAG issues. I can't stand information dumps that totally jar you out of a fic or constant repetition of the obvious. Um... what is a gerund?
no clue
Date: 2009-08-17 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 07:23 pm (UTC)Does anyone actually end up with a longer story after they've done their editing? It's pretty rarely that happens to me!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-17 09:23 pm (UTC)Was that whole new scenes and/or sub-plots? Or general extra words all over? And if it was extra words was it more description? More narrative?
I know I personally can end up very light on the description in the first draft as it's not my strongest aspect. If a story does get longer when I edit that's usually what I've added. It's rare I need to say when editing "This scene needs more dialogue added. They need to waffle on for at least another couple of pages!" :D
no subject
Date: 2009-08-18 12:42 am (UTC)I hope things work better with Cheyenne. And I'm glad Mark has a different printer. After Amazon bought Booksurge the quality went down.