{"id":1712,"date":"2011-07-10T08:15:23","date_gmt":"2011-07-10T12:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2011-07-10T18:04:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-10T22:04:59","slug":"keep-it-real-dont-censor-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/10\/keep-it-real-dont-censor-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep It Real & Don’t Censor Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read an interesting post at Dear Author<\/a> the other day. It was\u00a0an interview<\/a> with Carrie Feron, the Editorial Director at Avon<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0That house publishes 8 original print romances and 4 digital first romances each month via Avon Impulse.\u00a0 Yes, Virginia, it's one of the biggest publishing houses on planet Earth.<\/p>\n

When Avon set up a digital first arm, the team thought the books for Impulse would be by unknown authors.\u00a0 But in today's world, the business execs were surprised when their existing authors\u00a0wanted in on the digital line.\u00a0\u00a0It turns out that 1\/3 to 1\/2 of Impulse's ebooks are by\u00a0existing Avon authors.\u00a0 (I'm not surprised.\u00a0 I'm not sure why Avon was either.) Avon's also learned pricing lessons from indies and will sell the digital books for less than $5.00.<\/p>\n

Although all of Jane's interviews at DA are interesting, parts of this one were particularly intriguing. Ms. Feron said that what she is particularly looking for is a strong voice.\u00a0 That means she will know who the author is from reading the first page of a book.\u00a0 \"If you have a strong enough voice, you can make your own niche<\/a>.\" \u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms. Feron also said that she's seen a lot of Regency stuff and is looking for something that hasn't been done before. She thinks readers are jaded so she's looking for\u00a0old themes spun a new way.\u00a0 But the most startling thing she said is this:\u00a0 \"She feels that a lot of authors self censor too much<\/a>.\"<\/p>\n

I'm an indie author but I'm smart enough to know that the big publishers have made fortunes predicting what readers want. (I don't think the big houses always got it right and I think they seriously screwed up when they got too big to take direct submissions from authors.\u00a0 If you make your money from selling widgets but think you're too important to deal with the companies that make them, then sooner or later you're going to lose access to your product.) But despite all of that, we should always remember that publishers built empires from predictions just like these.\u00a0 So I think that smart writers would do well to listen when free advice like this is passed along.<\/p>\n

Thanks a million to Dear Author<\/a>\u00a0for the post.\u00a0 If you're not\u00a0already reading the site - shame on you.\u00a0 You should check it every day and you should pay attention!<\/p>\n

Now, what the Avon digital guru said of import was that she wants a strong voice and writers should tell take all the risks necessary to tell their stories full throttle.\u00a0 I believe that means that writers should keep it real and be sure the voice that comes across on the pages is their own.\u00a0 Trying to pretend to write in a way that doesn't come naturally or to \"copy\" the style of another successful author won't work for me and it won't work for you either.\u00a0\u00a0A fake style comes across as fake to the readers. If they don't believe your voice they won't like\u00a0your story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Ms. Feron had more to say - she felt that too many authors\u00a0censor themselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And it's flat out wrong for a writer to fail to tell their story exactly the way it should fall naturally.\u00a0\u00a0 Anytime an author fails to listen to her muse, the author is going off track.\u00a0\u00a0Inspiration likes risk and risk takers.\u00a0 Why take the risk of putting a story out there but refusing to tell the whole story?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The way the book comes to you from your muse may be risky in theme.\u00a0 It may barge right into a supposedly forbidden area. Or it may be tee-totally shocking.\u00a0 So you draw back as you write or edit.\u00a0 You change the book and make it \"safer.\"\u00a0\u00a0Oatmeal is safer than a steak but\u00a0which would you rather have for dinner?\u00a0 Playing it safe puts a book right in the middle of the pack - and it's a big ole' pack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you write a book that takes risks, you will offend some people and you will turn some off.\u00a0 Not everyone will like it.\u00a0 But some people will love it. All of my books take risks and not everyone agrees with some of the things the characters go through.\u00a0 But in every case the story went the way it should have gone.\u00a0 My voice is over-the-top and the characters who populate my stories\u00a0are going to go through some traumatic events on their way to their happily ever after.\u00a0 But they'll get there - every time. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Frankly, I think that Ms. Feron's advice isn't just good for writers when they're writing. It's also excellent advice for the best way to approach life.\u00a0The person\u00a0I am may not be everyone's cup of tea. But I am who I am and what I am and I don't change that for anyone.\u00a0 And I always say what I think.\u00a0 Life is too short for me to worry about saying this to person A or offending person B.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So in writing and in life, I think we'll all get farther if we take the risks that need to be taken, do it in the way that feels natural, and\u00a0take it all the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read an interesting post at Dear Author the other day. It was\u00a0an interview with Carrie Feron, the Editorial Director at Avon.\u00a0\u00a0That house publishes 8 original print romances and 4 digital first romances each month via Avon Impulse.\u00a0 Yes, Virginia, it's one of the biggest publishing houses on planet Earth. When Avon set up a ...continue reading \"Keep It Real & Don’t Censor Yourself\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}