When I first put down this topic, I rubbed my hands together and laughed a maniacal laugh. I figured this would be a lot of fun.

Now I see that the word itself is packed with a lot of meanings, and I’m going to need to disambiguate a little bit if I want to say something actually true.

So, let’s start with the dictionary definition, according to Dr. Google:

noun: drama; plural noun: dramas

1.

• a play for theater, radio, or television.
  “a gritty urban drama about growing up in Harlem”
  Similar: play, show, piece, theatrical work, spectacle, dramatization, screenplay
• drama as a genre or style of literature.
  “Renaissance drama”

2.

• an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances.
  “a hostage drama”

I don’t think that helps much. The second definition is definitely in the ballpark, but I’m not sure it does enough to get at drama. When you think about the fallout that surrounds a particularly active Drama King or Queen, you aren’t usually considering the Renaissance.

Let me give an example of some drama that has captivated me recently. There is a very popular YouTuber that goes by the handle of SssniperWolf. Controversy has swirled around her for a very long time. I won’t go into her long and fraught history, but she currently produces content by creating reaction videos. She freeboots the product of smaller content creators, replays them for her 30+ million subscribers, and provides no real substance. It’s lazy, non-transformative, exploitive, and disgusting. If this were a play, show, theatrical work, etc., SssniperWolf would be our clearly defined villain.

Now enter on original YouTuber, Jacksfilms. He doesn’t have the same following as SssniperWolf, but he’s well known enough, and his content actually is original or transformative. For the last several months, he’s been shining a light on SssniperWolf’s content thievery by creating his own reaction videos to hers. He’s actually done a commendable job not resorting to personal attacks. He doesn’t talk about her looks. He calls out his viewers that bring up SssniperWolf’s controversial past. His message is, stop stealing, giving proper credit to the creators, and put in more effort so that your reaction videos are truly transformative and actually fair use. Again, if this were a work of fiction, we have our clearly defined hero.

Not all drama has to have heroes versus villains. If you watch shows like Survivor, sometimes all of the people involved are villains. The excitement and tension stems from watching events unfold, and seeing whether or not justice is served or not. Will the person that is lying and manipulating the people around them get called out, or will they slither their way into the the finale, lauded for their ability to “play the game.” Sometimes they get called out. Sometimes they walk home with a million dollars. While the drama is unfolding, we’re safe at home, saying things like, “I can’t believe they just did that.”

Going back to the SssniperWolf/Jacksfilms drama, I have watched for weeks as Jacksfilms, the underdog, has refined his criticism into a Bingo game, where the spaces are all the predictable things that occur in SssniperWolf’s videos. In the last few weeks, some of the people SssniperWolf has stolen from have come forward and put claims against the videos. SssniperWolf has reacted by editing some of the called-out videos, sloppily removing some of the stolen content.

Friday night, the drama went from a 6 or a 7 to an 11 when SssniperWolf posted to her 5 million Instagram followers a poll, asking whether she should go to Jacksfilms’ home. She showed up in the evening, filmed Jacksfilms’ house, posting his address to all of her followers.

This is called doxxing and is against the law. She crossed the line, weaponizing her large following to intimidate and threaten one of the people criticizing her content.

This is drama. And it’s almost impossible to look away.

I had no intention of writing about this when I put Drama in my topic list. I figured I would talk about the shows Melissa watches. She gets invested in unscripted programs like Married at First Site. It’s harmless fun, it keeps her entertained, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of drawing entertainment value from these shows. I may not like them, but she shouldn’t feel bad for indulging in the entertainment equivalent of fast food.

I was going to gently poke fun at these shows while dissecting them to determine what it is that makes audiences love them. All the while, I’m indulging in my own variety of unscripted drama, invested in it, wondering how it’s all going to end.

It’s the thrill of watching a train wreck, or a collapsing building, or some other disaster. We crane our necks as we drive by, safe in our little bubbles, curious how things are going to turn out.

I think we get invested because of our empathy, which is a good thing. We imagine ourselves in the situation. How would we react? Would we be able to climb out of the wreckage? Would we be able to make the marriage work if we just met at the altar? How would I react if someone with a huge following showed up outside my house and tried to endanger me and my family by weaponizing their followers?

That is the attractiveness of drama. It’s not enough that there is strife. We have to be able to relate to it. We have to be able to imagine ourselves in it. If it can generate an emotion inside our hearts, we will be hooked, and we will continue to show up for more.

There is probably a lesson there for how to make our stories more attractive to readers.

For most of a decade, I attended multiple writing conventions a year. I still attempt to attend as many events as I can, but what I get out of these conferences has changed over time. When I first started going, the panels were important to me, and I took diligent notes. Some of those notes are still floating around on this blog. Eventually, my note taking slowed down, and now I’m usually bored when I sit in on panels.

Did I stop learning? What’s the complicated answer?

The short answer, which is technically correct, is that we never stop learning to write. The language we are working in evolves over time. The way we express ourselves also changes.

But as my old friend used to say, that’s the Sunday school answer. That’s the obvious, boring answer that lacks nuance.

I believe there comes a point where the only way to continue to improve as a writer is to just sit down and do it. This is the point in our development where sitting and listening to people talk about writing isn’t going to move the needle much any more. It may inspire us or motivate us, and we might pick up some ideas to try, but none of that matters until we go and put pen to paper. Or hands on keyboards. You know what I mean.

Am I saying there that the value of workshops and other formats where writing is taught diminishes over time? I think so, yes. Everyone is different, so the point of diminishing returns will be different for various writers. Also, as we develop our skills as a writer, we will invariably hit multiple plateaus. Sometimes our egos will tell us we’ve plateaued, or mastered the subject when we haven’t.

My ego may have driven me to touch this subject in the first place, but I digress.

Let me see if I can find another way to describe what I’m talking about, and unwind my idea in a way that makes more sense. Let’s take me and a handful of astronauts that have never spent much time writing, put us all on a spaceship, and send us to Mars. During this trip, we are going to keep our spirits up by teaching each other different skills. I’m going to teach my shipmates how to write.

Initially, we will see fast progress. I’ll talk about using strong verbs. I will demonstrate how adjectives are delicious, but at the cost of pacing. We will talk about character voice, metaphors, plot structure, and several other topics that I have studied and practiced as a writer. For a little while, the astronauts will become better writers from my teaching along.

After a few million miles, one or more of them will have some breakthrough. The things they have been learning will lock into place. They will basically learn everything I have to teach them, and then the only way they’ll be able to improve is through practice. Sitting in a tiny vessel, hurtling through space with limited distractions, they’ll have plenty of time and opportunity to work on their craft. And they will improve, honing their voice and becoming better writers. They won’t progress as quickly as when they were first actively being taught. There won’t be anything left for me to say or do that will help them become better writers. They’ll just have to do the work on their own.

What happens when we get back to Earth and they find a better teach? From a place of both humility and reality, it will be a trivial matter for them to find a better writing teacher. Will they once again start to see rapid progress?

Probably. But the things they learned from me, they’ll have down. Perhaps Jennifer Brozek will teach them the lesson she taught me, which is that they can do more with less words just by trusting their readers a little bit more. They’ll see a huge improvement in their writing, and then hit another plateau.

Maybe Dan Wells will next teach them how to use Excel to manage their outlines, or give them a deeper understanding of story structures and how story structures can be used as a diagnostic tool when their stories aren’t quite working. Again, they’ll get another bump in improvement, and then plateau again.

With enough time and exposure to other experts, the frequency with which these astronaut-turned-writers improve their craft will flatten, because there is only so many ideas that can be taught. Attend enough classes and panels and conventions, and you start to hear the same things, over and over.

That is the long-winded, winding answer to the initial question. Yes, on a long enough timeline, we basically stop learning to write from other people, and can only improve through practice and direct application. And experimentation.

In Summary…

We don’t need to worry about the question of whether or not we stop learning to write from other people. We should keep an open mind, listen to what others have to say on the subject, and celebrate the times we do learn something new. We should also not worry too much when we hit certain plateaus. If you think you’ve hit a plateau, that means you’re at a point where you need to practice what you’ve learned more.

This has been Brian’s Excuses. I’m out of excuses. Now I need to go write.

Dragon Gems is the line of short fiction published by Water Dragon Publishing. These stories are not necessarily fantasy, and they do not have to have anything to do with gems or dragons. They are tonight’s victim topic, and if you’re in a hurry, I recommend skipping to the Deals on New and Old Releases section where I have some links to some special deals taking place right now.

Why Short Fiction Matters

Not every story needs to be a backbreaker. The scope does not always need to be epic. Unlike some things we can talk about, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to stories.

Short fiction is some of the best fiction out there. Go pick up This is How You Lose the Time War and see for yourself. Or Binti. Or The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Or Metamorphosis by Kafka. Or a whole bunch of Philip K. Dick’s fiction.

An argument can be made that short fiction is ideal for modern audiences because in a world of TikTok, microblogging, and YouTube shorts, people have shorter attention spans. Maybe there’s something to that, but short fiction has been around a lot longer than the internet.

Short fiction can deliver a satisfying, emotional experience in a very efficient way.

With regards to my writing, I have started six novels, completed three of them, and published The Repossessed Ghost this year. On the other hand, I have written and completed around a dozen or more short stories, novellas, and novelettes. It might be actually be closer to 20.

By the way, since it’s that time of year, you can read Halloween Harvest right on this site. I’m still really pleased with it. And I’ll also remind you that The Repossessed Ghost begins on a fateful Halloween night, and true to the title, involves ghosts. It might satisfy your Halloween craving without being particularly scary.

And, I may have some other nice news with regards to Dragon Gems and my own writing coming up, though it’s too soon to talk about now.

Dragon Gems Matter

For all the reasons I just applied to short fiction, Dragon Gems are a good thing. They are a lower commitment both in terms of time and money, allowing the reader to essentially try out some of the writers published by Water Dragon.

You can get the anthologies. You can also get individual releases. Short fiction in book form. Most of the time when looking for short fiction, you’re either going to find it in online magazines or anthologies. Water Dragon is actually producing short fiction as individual, bite-sized volumes. They’re incredible, and quite popular in any dealer’s room that happens to be hosting a Water Dragon table.

Deals on New and Old Releases

As of today, the Fall 2023 edition of the Dragon Gems anthology is available. Here is a page with links to all the different editions. And, in case you were wondering, it’s a complete coincidence that the day I chose for talking about Dragon Gems is the same day this anthology became available. It’s fate!

Also, for a limited time, digital editions of Winter 2023, Sprint 2023, and Summer 2023 are available for just $0.99. The non-digital editions also appear to be on sale on this page.

So, rush out and try some of this fiction. And if you have an opportunity to leave a comment, tell them I sent you. It won’t get you a discount or anything. I just think it’d be funny.

It would be really easy to bash on Elon Musk and the atrocious state of Twitter, which I will never refer to as “X.” If I went on such a rant, it would come from a place of deep emotion, because for a really long time, I loved Twitter. It felt like a constant afterparty I could wander through, sharing jokes and getting into light conversations with acquaintances. I met a lot of great writers through that medium, and I mourn its loss.

I’m not interested in hating on Elon, though. That’s not how I want to spend my time. And, to be fair, while I enjoyed the people I interacted with on Twitter, I have always kind of hated Twitter and social media in general. I called it The Great Mistake a couple of years ago, and I stand by that assessment.

And yet, here I am, logging into bunches of social media platforms every day. It’s junk food for the soul. It provides an illusion of connection and socialization. There is no real nutritional benefit to it, though, and in addition to the empty calories which fail to sustain me and keep me from loneliness, it is also bad for my heart as too often, it’s a source of fatty rage and diarrhetic existential dread.

I continue to connect to social media for two reasons. First, there are still people I want to stay connected with through those platforms. Second, I feel like it’s a requirement that I remain active in social media, as it’s one of the few avenues available to me to keep my stories visible to the public.

So, let’s go through the different social media platforms that I’m connected to, talk about the good, bad, and ugly, and maybe mention some of the ones I’m not connected to and why.

Twitter

I didn’t delete my account there, but I did delete all of my posts. I only log on to that platform now to check for direct messages. I will not be posting there again.

Twitter has gone through a lot of changes. The promotion of the subscription program makes people invisible when they eschew the 8 dollar badge. The badge program itself watered down identity, which opened avenues for impersonation. It is not an attractive platform for News Media at this point, and recent changes hide the text for links that go outside the site.

As far as I’m concerned, Twitter is dead. The only reason I haven’t deleted my account is because it’s my name, and if some miracle should occur and my books should take off, I don’t want someone impersonating me there. Impersonation on that platform is easier than its ever been.

It’s not a safe place. It actively allows the worst people to promote hate and bigotry, even in their advertisements. Oh, and the recent change in the terms and services describe how all the Twitter content will go into some new A.I., which is reason enough for me not to give Twitter any more of my words.

If you’re still on Twitter, do yourself a kindness and get off the platform as soon as you can.

Bluesky

The shattering of Twitter created an opportunity for bunches of other platforms to try and fill the gap. Bluesky is one of those younger platforms, and I’ve mostly been enjoying it. It satisfies the itch more than the other Twitter-clones, for some reason.

To get into Bluesky, you need an invite code. If you’re a friend of mine and you want an invite code, let me know. I have a few.

Bluesky is not perfect. It lacks some features Twitter had, and some of the bad habits developed during Twitter are still present on Bluesky. But, the culture there seems to be less about fixing on the hate and fanning the flames, and more about blocking and moving on. I appreciate that. You don’t snuff out a fire by giving it more oxygen. You can’t delegitimize hate speech by giving it more attention.

I’m not sure Bluesky will serve my author needs, but that might change over time.

Mastodon

I created an account on Mastodon many years ago, when it first popped up and Twitter already seemed like a terrible place. Mastodon is geekier and more challenging to engage with, mostly because it kind of looks like Twitter, and it smells like Twitter, but it’s underlying structure is quite a bit different.

Mastodon is not a monolithic service like Twitter or Facebook. It’s instead a whole bunch of little cities that have some interconnectivity. These cities have their own focuses, and their own culture. When you find one that suits you, you can join and you’re more likely to see other people that are within that city. At the same time, you can follow people that are in other cities.

There are fancy words like “federated” thrown around when dealing with Mastodon. It’s not quite as easy to use because of the underlying complexity, but since the different communities vary as much as they do, it’s easier to find one that you’re more likely to engage with than the platform as a whole.

People that love Mastodon really love Mastodon. I appreciate it, but I’m also not completely engaged with it. I have an account on The Wandering Shop, but very few followers.

Spoutible

If you have not heard of Spoutible, I don’t blame you. It’s one of the Twitter clones that popped up last year, I think, and it has the same look and feel as classic Twitter. Spoutible spends a lot of its time focused on what’s going on with Twitter, and how much Spoutible is better than Twitter. It is a jilted lover that is having a really hard time getting over its ex.

My presence there is even smaller than Mastodon. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue to log in. I don’t see it going the distance until it develops a unique voice of its own.

Facebook

I still hate Facebook. I’ve hated it for a long time, but I still go there because it’s the only way I stay in the lives of some family and some people I went to school with a long time ago.

I don’t post many original thoughts there, though I’ve been more engaged on that platform this last year. I don’t trust Zuckerberg and there is a lot about Facebook and Meta that make me upset, but at this point, I’m still logging on there and posting links to my blog.

Facebook Messenger is spyware, and I recommend that you take it off your phone if you have it installed. If you’re able to uninstall it.

We all should know by now that Facebook is generally evil, so I won’t spend any more time talking about that platform.

Reddit

I’m including Reddit here, even though it doesn’t quite fit the same mold as traditional social media. It’s mostly a place to go and follow specific topics of interest, and I enjoy it for what it is. I like the Cyberpunk and Valheim reddits. They’re fun. I should probably engage with more of the fiction reddits, but I don’t usually find that experience to be enjoyable, for some reason.

Not that long ago, Reddit changed some policies with regards to APIs, which impacted moderating, and basically made the place not good. It was a really big deal, and now I don’t see anyone talking about it. I don’t know if the changes were rolled back, or if the platform shrunk, or if people just accepted it.

I don’t spend as much time on Reddit as I used to, and I’ll probably continue to diminish my time spent there.

Instagram

I wound up with an Instagram account by accident many yeas ago, and I did absolutely nothing with it. Then I had a book coming out and it seemed like I should probably post some stuff there.

My distrust for it is the same distrust I have for Facebook. They’re the same company. But, begrudgingly, I have to admit that I’ve been having fun on Instagram lately.

Because I refuse to install any of the social media apps on my phone, I find it harder to use Instagram than most people. I have to move my pictures to my computer, then use the web app to upload my stuff. I will continue to do so, but because of the self-inflicted lack of convenience, I’ll never be super prolific on that platform.

Plus, don’t their terms of service have some draconian language about what they can do with the content posted there?

LinkedIn

This is another oddball, and I think the only reason I remain active on it is because I keep getting scouted on it, and sent emails. Everyday is another LinkedIn email or two, and I click in and check notifications.

I’m told that it’s possible to promote myself as an author there, but I’m not sure there would be much benefit to it. I don’t know.

LinkedIn is generally there to help people network and get a new job, right? I’m hoping to stay with Trimark until I can’t be a programmer anymore, so I’m not sure LinkedIn has much value to me. I haven’t posted any articles there, and I’ve only read a few, ones created and promoted by Trimark.

TikTok

I do not have an account on TikTok and I don’t use it. It’s another one that sort of demands the app on the phone, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever create a TikTok account and engage there. It’s possible that I’m making a mistake, because I hear that “BookTok” is a real thing.

I don’t know. It seems like a platform for a younger audience. I don’t think that the people enjoying TikTok are going to be particularly interested in short videos by an old like me.

Threads

Threads was Facebooks attempt at a Twitter clone, and it is tied heavily to one’s Instagram account. I would have checked it out, except there was no web client. Since I’m never going to install the app on my phone, I will never engage with Threads.

As I understand it, Threads had a tremendous intake of people, then immediately lost the vast majority of them. I don’t know anyone that is currently using Threads.

One of the interesting things about Threads was that they said they were going to be accessible through the Mastodon federation, which means I would eventually be able to follow some Threads users through my Mastodon account. I thought that was pretty cool.

Now, since it doesn’t seem like anyone is using the platform, I’m not sure federation even matters. I’m not sure if they’re still planning on developing that feature. So, Threads is effectively dead to me.

In Conclusion…

There’s not much else for me to say about social media that I haven’t said before. Across the board, it’s not healthy for any of us. It’s still The Great Mistake. I’m still engaged with a lot more of it than I like.

But what else am I going to do? Work on my stories?

Yesterday, we talked about villains. Tonight, let’s talk about heroes. Like last night, I’ll list a few samples, then break them into categories of my own making. Within each of these categories, I’ll offer some humble tips on how to write heroes of that type.

The list of heroes that come to mind:

• Luke Skywalker
• Frodo Baggins
• Rand Al’Thor
• Superman
• Indiana Jones
• Harry Dresden

Hmm. Now that I look at this list, I see that it’s quite a sausage fest. For our purposes, I’m not sure that matters, since I’m really only focusing on types of characters, and gender doesn’t matter at that level. We can easily swap in Wonder Woman for Superman, and Laura Croft for Indiana Jones.

Iconic Heroes

Speaking of Superman, Wonder Woman, Indiana Jones, and Laura Croft, all four of them are examples of iconic heroes. Iconic heroes are characters that don’t change very much over time. They end the story just as heroic as they started it. These characters are ideal for serialized storytelling. Because they go through a minimal amount of development, the reader or viewer can follow the current story without having to go through a deep backlog.

Iconic heroes can have an arc within the story, but the ideal story for an iconic character is plot driven, rather than character driven. Like the Embodiment of Evil characters described last night, Iconic characters can be on the thin side. But that’s okay. We still love them and will follow them on their adventures, because the adventure is the point.

Reluctant Heroes / Campbell’s Heroes

The reluctant hero is your farmhand-turned-sword master that initially resist the call to action. This is the character that stars in your Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Luke Skywalker and Rand al’Thor and basically every character to participate on the aforementioned Hero’s Journey can be classified as a Reluctant Hero. Do remember James Kirk from J. J. Abram’s reboot of Star Trek? That was a Reluctant Hero.

Writing a Reluctant Hero is not that difficult, since there are so many examples in fiction to follow. The key is to map out the journey the hero will take, and write someone that will believably follow the path. Luke desperately wanted to be a hero, but was loyal to his family and his duties on the farm. Rand dreamed of adventure, but was loyal to his father and his duties on the farm. The Reluctant Hero generally has the qualities of a hero within them, and its those qualities — loyal, dutiful — are the things that hold them back when adventure first comes to call.

Everyman Heroes

Frodo is the perfect example of the Everyman Hero. He’s generally willing to do what must be done, but he isn’t particularly endowed with the qualities of a hero. He is relatable, and a perfect stand-in for the reader or viewer.

This is where I would slot Harry Dresden as well, even though he starts off gifted with magic. In personality, he is relatively normal. I almost slotted him in with the Iconic Heroes, but I believe Dresden changes over the course of the books, which is not usually something that happens to Iconic Heroes.

Mel Walker from The Repossessed Ghost is also an Everyman Hero, in my opinion. He quickly develops psychic abilities, but in personality, he’s just a young man in a world that’s way bigger than him, and he’s doing his best. Even more than Dresden, Mel Walker changes over time.

To write an Everyman character, focus on the character’s voice. Develop someone that is not too cowardly nor too brave or exceedingly competent. This should be someone that the reader can measure themselves against.

In Summary…

All characters are the heroes of their own story. Some of those stories aren’t particularly interesting, which is why they aren’t the star of the book. But every character should have the illusion of depth, if not true dimensionality. That security guard over there? He keeps touching his vest pocket, as that’s where he put the folded up picture of a dinosaur that his daughter gave him this morning before he came in to work. It sure would be a shame if something happened to him. See that bank teller? She keeps adjusting her glasses because they’re her old prescription. She’s too embarrassed to admit what happened to her current glasses, but she’s also chewing a lot of gum to hide the alcohol on her breath, so maybe it isn’t that big a mystery, after all.

Protagonists come in all shapes and sizes, and the three types I listed above are really just scratching the surface. Character driven stories demand interesting and engaging characters, and they may defy being categorized. That’s a good thing.

The key to writing a good protagonist is to give them wants and needs, and enough drive to pursue those wants and needs. A good protagonist will move the story forward through their decisions.

A few nights ago, I wrote about writing women characters. If you don’t have time to read it, the sentence summary is just write a male character and give them a female name. Or another way of saying it, focus more on writing the character than writing a woman. Similar thoughts apply to writing villains, too.

Before I get too far into the villain conversation, I have a brief follow-up to the writing women post. I didn’t really talk about descriptions, even though I started the post with a reference to “breasting boobily.” The follow-up is: over-applying descriptions to your women over your men is a way of drawing attention to the gender of the character, which you know, might not be cool. Treat your characters equally, regardless of their imagined gender.

Women characters deserve to be defined by their actions. As I said in the other post, women should be able to have noble deaths. Furthermore, they should be allowed to be menacing villains on par with their male counterparts.

So now let’s talk about villains.

Villains come in different shapes and sizes. Here’s a list of some villains, in no particular order:

• Darth Vader
• Macbeth
• Zuko from the start of Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Emperor Palpatine
• Lore from Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Ursula from The Little Mermaid
• Dr. Doom
• Magneto
• Annie Wilkes from Stephen King’s Misery
• Killmonger from the movie Black Panther
• The Joker from Batman: The Dark Knight

There are many others I could mention, but this seems like a good, eclectic list. Some of them have quite a bit in common with each other, and some stand out on their own. A couple of them are my favorites, for different reasons.

I’m not going to belabor this by talking about what a villain is. Instead, I want to break this list into different categories, and talk about what makes these characters work within those categories, and what it takes to write them.

Embodiment of Evil

The Embodiment of Evil villain type includes irredeemable characters that strain believability. Star Wars has a lot of these villains in Palpatine, Darth Maul, Snoke, and even Darth Vader throughout Episode 4. Depending on who is writing him, Dr. Doom might sneak into this category, though I think the best Dr. Doom stories are the ones where he is more nuanced.

That’s the thing about Embodiment of Evil characters. They serve the simple purpose of being bad guys, without a lot of depth or nuance at all. They don’t need it. There usually isn’t a lot of difference between any of these types of character. Palpatine and Scar from The Lion King may have more lines than Darth Maul, but we don’t get a lot about what makes them tick or why they are motivated to be evil.

How do you write one of these characters? Don’t think too hard about it. To pull off a proper Embodiment of Evil, the character should have a strong presence. Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men may not have an impressive costume, skull horns, or glowing red eyes, but there is no doubt that he has an overpowering presence on par with that of Darth Maul.

Embodiment of Evil characters do terrible things on screen or on the page, and we usually see them through other characters. If we sympathize with the characters that are witnessing these monsters, we can empathize with their fear, which is the key to making these Embodiments of Evil characters terrifying.

These characters are generally pretty easy to come up with. The challenge to writing these characters well is conveying the effect they have on the other people around them.

Bad Guys with a Message

The Bad Guy with a Message can often look like an Embodiment of Evil. The difference is that they have just a little bit more depth and motivation.

Heath Ledger’s Joker is a perfect example. In that movie, Alfred sums him up: some people just want to watch the world burn. We are given multiple explanations for The Joker being the way he is, which is chilling because these explanations are contradictory. There is implied depth but no definitive backstory, making him even more an agent of chaos. For all his chaos, he executes elaborate plans, all in an effort to say something about human nature: we’re all just one bad day from being monsters like him. He ultimately fails in that movie not because Batman beats him up, but because the people on the boats refuse to act in the way he predicts, thus refuting his entire message.

Anne Wilkes doesn’t have much of a message, but we see her motivation. She’s a reader that would never let a single profanity slip from her sweet lips, and a fan so driven and attached to a set of characters that she’s willing to torture the writer in order to get him to write the next book. She is the darkest muse. If not for the explicit motivation spelled out, giving her a little bit of depth, she would be an Embodiment of Evil.

That is the first clue on how to write one of these characters. The Joker and Anne Wilkes both have the presence and terror of an Embodiment of Evil, but they’re distinct in that they are highly motivated. Motivated characters are beloved, even when they’re villains. Sometimes, especially when their villains.

Broken Moral Compass

The Broken Moral Compass character is probably my favorite. Like the Bad Guy with a Message, they are highly motivated. They’re living in a world that from their perspective, is wrong in a specific and infuriating way, and they are driven to act out and solve it.

Magneto is a Broken Moral Compass character. He’s intelligent and compassionate. He cares deeply for mutant kind, even those that stand out as his enemies. The evil he does is in the name of preserving mutants and elevating them.

Good Dr. Doom stories paint him with a similar brush. And another Marvel character on my list, Killmonger, has a moral compass so close to being correct that if he hadn’t burned the heart-shaped herb, he might have been the hero of that story.

It seems like Marvel really likes the Broken Moral Compass character type. An argument could be made that Thanos and Loki fall into this category, too.

To write a Broken Moral Compass character, you must look at the world you’re creating through a unique perspective. Take something that your heroes hold to be true and important and turn it upside down.

The Broken Moral Compass character is ultimately the hero in their own story. The hero in their own mind, though they might not admit it. Like the Bad Guy with a Message, the Broken Moral Compass character is highly motivated, to the point that their motivation defines them.

Dark Reflection

The Dark Reflection character is one that mirrors or highlights qualities of one or more of your heroes. Lore from Star Trek is a Dark Reflection of Data. What if Data traded in his decency and conscience for emotions? Ursula is a Dark Reflection of Ariel’s father, King Triton.

The Dark Reflection character is more derivative than the Broken Moral Compass. In some stories, Magneto is essentially written as a Dark Reflection of Professor Xavier.

To write a Dark Reflection character, pick one of your favorite, most flavorful heroes, and invert them in some way. You still need to do all the work to make them work as a character. The Dark Reflection character is usually deeper than the Embodiment of Evil characters, but not always.

Doomed with Knowledge

The Doomed with Knowledge character used to be my favorite type, and I’m still very fond of them. These are characters that would have been the hero, if not for some piece of information given to them when they weren’t ready for it.

If Macbeth had not been given the prophecy that he would be king, would he have still killed his best friend and taken the crown? Would Lady Macbeth egged him on to do it if he hadn’t shared knowledge of the prophecy with her? Macbeth was a hero right up to the point where he became the villain.

Would Anakin Skywalker still turn into Darth Vader if he wasn’t told that he was the one prophesied to bring balance to The Force? That probably played a part in his downfall. Would he have turned to the Dark Side if he had not been plagued with visions of Padme dying? He closed the loop on that vision because in turning to the Dark Side and assaulting her in his anger, she probably wouldn’t have died in child birth.

I like Anakin for another reason, because looking at Phantom Menace, he was doomed by the Jedi Council’s lack of knowledge. When asked how he felt, he answered, “cold, sir.” Yet Yoda took that as a sign of Dark Side influence, when really, the kid was used to the heat from his desert world.

I think Boromir also qualifies as a Doomed with Knowledge character. He knew where The One Ring was, and he knew that it was powerful, perhaps something that could be used to save his people. Had he not bore such knowledge, I don’t think The Ring would have been able to find purchase within his mind to tempt him.

To write a Doomed with Knowledge character, write a hero, and then give them some temptation they cannot resist. Doomed with Knowledge characters are best when they are deep and pitiable. You have done well when the reader can imagine how they might have turned out if only they had the strength to resist temptation. Preferably, a temptation that the reader can appreciate and sympathize with.

The Redeemable

The Redeemable character is essentially the complete opposite to The Embodiment of Evil. Where an Embodiment of Evil is thin, The Redeemable is deep, complex, motivated, and nuanced. The Redeemable can do terrible, evil things, but they usually aren’t kicking puppies for fun or acting without a conscience.

Let’s look briefly at Zuko from The Last Airbender.

Zuko is tasked with hunting down and killing Aang in order to reclaim his honor. That’s all he’s ever wanted, really. He sets off on a dangerous journey, serving the man that claimed his honor and deeply scarred him when Zuko didn’t deserve it.

Zuko is a survivor of abuse. He acts on his emotions. He’s impulsive, driven, and young.

Over the course of his adventures, he learns and he grows. He finds that he and Aang aren’t so different, and that they could be friends if they weren’t on opposite sides of an ongoing conflict. And through the love and patience of his Uncle, he learns his own worth, and that the honor he always wanted was his all along.

Zuko is one of the best written characters, pretty much ever, and he started as a villain. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

In spite what we see in Return of the Jedi, I don’t believe that Darth Vader falls into this category. He gets some redemption, but I do not believe he is actually redeemed. He killed too many younglings.

If you want to learn how to write a Redeemable character, go watch the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Even if you don’t want to learn to write this type of character, go watch that series anyway. It’s excellent storytelling and a good time all around.

In Summary…

I prefer nuanced, interesting characters. However, not every story needs the villain to be that deep. Palpatine was a perfectly serviceable villain in the original trilogy. Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace served his purpose, too, and he basically didn’t have any lines.

Look at your story and determine how important the relationship is between your protagonist and your antagonist. If it’s important, your story may be better served with a villain that is deeper and more interesting than someone that just laughs and twirls their mustache.

One of the reasons I’m doing the blog challenge this year is so that I will be ready for Nano in November. Every time I have been successful in Nanowrimo, it’s been after a successful Blogtober.

The book I want to write (at least get a good start on) is the sequel novel to The Repossessed Ghost. It’s a story I’ve been thinking about for almost 10 years.

With that much forethought, you’d think I’d be more prepared than I am.

At this point, I just have a collection of ideas. There is a couple of characters I want to introduce that I think are going to be a blast to write. There will be more travel in Mel’s future. Compared to The Repossessed Ghost, the sequel is going to be a bit more involved, and a little bit bigger in scope.

I still want to keep it light and fun to read. But I want to reward readers that pay close attention. There are some details I’m prepared to sow into this story that should make it extremely satisfying to people that read stories the way I do.

I’ve learned so much since I wrote the first book. I’m not too worried about it, but I do wonder if I’ll be able to capture the same tone and humor of The Repossessed Ghost.

Without going into spoilers, most of the characters from the first book will be returning in the second. I touch on most of the characters in the short story I mentioned yesterday, but we don’t really see much of them. I want to expand their stories in the second novel.

When I first started writing The Repossessed Ghost, I didn’t have a title. I just called it The Mel Walker Story and eventually, while I was reading one of the drafts to Melissa, the jokey title came to me and stuck. I imagine something like that will happen with the sequel novel.

With the first book, I didn’t exactly work from an outline. I used the flashlight approach, which I’ll talk about later this month. For the sequel, I want to have a good, solid outline. I’m more comfortable with outlines than I was 10 years ago. Also, this story is going to be more complicated. The only way I’m going to be able to keep track of all of it while putting it together is to establish timelines and the order of events before hand, which means working from an outline.

I was talking to Mike Baltar about what it is to write a Mel Walker story. With a mystery, the characters are gathering clues in order to figure out who did the crime, and why. A Mel Walker story is sort of like a mystery turned inside out. Because Mel can do what he does, he can quickly learn the end of the mystery. Hand him the murder weapon and he’ll pull a vision off of it that will not only show him who committed the crime, but what was going on their head. That’s powerful.

A Mel Walker story is more about discovering the journey along the way. It’s about figuring out what to do with information that no one else has. In Mel Walker’s world, the police aren’t just going to take a psychic’s word for anything. And, like what happened in The Repossessed Ghost, if Mel isn’t careful, he’ll draw unwanted attention to himself. From the perspective of the authorities, how else can Mel know so much about the crime if he wasn’t the one that committed it?

I like these stories. I like telling them, and I think they’re unique and fresh.

A common compliment I’ve received about The Repossessed Ghost is that it is very easy to read, that it hooks the audience, and keeps them turning pages all the way to the end. I need to recapture that essence in the sequel. Spin City is a slower story that builds gradually over time. Synthetic Dreams is a more cerebral story, that keeps the reader interested, but it isn’t an adventure the way The Repossessed Ghost is. That’s what I need to accomplish in the sequel. Get in with both feet running, and keep things light and engaging from beginning to end.

I think I can do that.

The more I think about it, the more excited I am for November, when I get to actually start. Until then, I have a lot of prep work to do.

Yesterday, I attended the Shut Up & Write mini marathon, which takes place the first Saturday of every month, and I accomplished two things. First, I wrote my 7th blog post for the month. Second, I added another thousand words to my short story, which is a follow-up to The Repossessed Ghost.

If you read The Repossessed Ghost, you might have noticed that there is a lot of potential for stories in that world. I’m looking forward to exploring some of those possibilities in the sequel. For this short story, I’m focusing on something relatively small. A bit more than a day-in-the-life, but not much larger. What would it be like if a psychic like Mel Walker was called to serve on a jury?

As a psychic, Mel is able to talk to ghosts, look into the past, and get visions off of objects he touches, experiencing significant events that took place involving the object. With these abilities, he can truly know what happened at a crime scene. He doesn’t have to worry about “reasonable doubt.”

So what happens if the case presented in the court doesn’t match the reality of the event, and Mel is the only one that knows the truth?

I’m really enjoying this story. It’s a little bit longer than I expected so far. I might be able to edit it and trim it some, but I think it’s going to wrap up at just under 15,000 words. That’s novelette territory. It might be too long for the market we were planning for it.

Or, it might be a perfect length, and I shouldn’t worry about it just yet. I’ll worry about the length after I submit it.

It’s a fun story, with some interesting twists and turns that I don’t think anyone is going to see coming.

I don’t explicitly give the year that The Repossessed Ghost takes place, but if you check the foreword, I make it relatively clear that it’s set in 2013. A remarkable number of things have changed in just 10 years, and I’m not sure people have noticed. Ten yeas ago, cell phones weren’t quite as ubiquitous. Ten years ago, marijuana laws were still strict across the country. These are minor points, but they were lightly touched on by the story, which ages it somewhat.

The Psychic on the Jury is set just a few years after The Repossessed Ghost. The short story doesn’t spoil the novel, but it does lightly touch on some things we learn in the first couple of chapters.

I’m really looking forward to this short story being available in the world. I’m not sure when that’ll be, but I’m having a blast writing a sequel story.

It’s not the sequel. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow. This is more of an appetizer. And I’m really glad I’ve been able to make some progress on it recently. I feel like I’ve been dragging this one out forever.

If all goes as planned, the first draft of The Psychic on the Jury will be finished before the end of the month.

And on the 7th day, he wrote entirely about himself, because his ego has grown out of control. What an asshole.

I have no idea why I thought this would be an interesting topic. My life is interesting, but not at the day-to-day level. This might be a good cap on the theme of the last few days, where I’ve gone deep into what it’s like to be an author. Or it might be an egotistical exercise that none of us will enjoy. Who can say?

Today is Saturday, and not the greatest example or what my days are typically like. I’m attending a Shut Up & Write marathon. When it’s done, I may go tinker with my mail server to make sure emails are actually going out. I’m not convinced they are.

Instead of describing today, I will describe a more typical day.

It’s Monday morning. The alarm is going off on my phone at 7AM. I either stayed up way too late the night before, or I slept poorly. I always sleep poorly. I can’t blame it on the bed anymore. There’s something wrong with me, and though I have authorization from my insurance company to have a sleep study performed, I still haven’t made the call to see it through. I fumble with my phone to hit the snooze. I don’t have to start my work day until 8AM, and I’m not going into the office today. I can sleep a few more minutes.

I’m up. It’s dangerously close to the time I should be in front of my computer, working. My eyes aren’t working right. There’s gunk in them, and there’s crud in my lungs. When I talk, I sound like a smoker. I believe this is because we slept with the fan running all night again, but without the fan, Melissa roasts. The morning crud will pass, and my eyes will focus better in a few minutes. Just need to hack and cough a bit, and then I’ll be fine.

I’m in my office. It used to be my daughter’s room, and I fixed it up after she moved out. It’s now the room in the house that is most inviting to me. I try to make it inviting to others, too, but it’s small. I hit the KVM switch to turn back to the work laptop. I feel like I’m running late, now.

The work is there waiting for me, and it is impatient. I have to start using my brain immediately. There are problems only I can solve, which is strange, because I’ve spent the last 3 or 4 years teaching other people how to do what I do, but it doesn’t stick. It’s not because I’m a bad teacher, or they’re bad students. I think it’s a combination of factors. First, I have a long and detailed memory. Second, I have a higher-than-usual attention to detail, Third, my loyalty to Trimark is unmatched, and I see the problems from a different perspective than other people. I will do whatever it takes to make Trimark successful. Finally, it’s much, much easier to leave some of the problems for me to fix, and the shortest route to a resolution is the one most taken.

Not all of my work is reactive. It seems like everything is on fire, all the time, but that’s not true. I have some opportunities to work on new things, but we’re not currently focused on the things I need to design. We’re focused on something else, and we’re constantly going a route that I disagree with. But I keep it to myself, because… well, I might be wrong. I’m rarely wrong about these sorts of things, but if I’m right, we can still recover. If I’m wrong, it’s better that I remain silent and not make myself a disruption to the team.

I have a team, by the way. I’ve been a manager for a little while now, and there are aspects about the job that I really like. I like looking out for my people, giving them what they need in order to succeed. This sounds strange, but I used to run raids when I was playing World of Warcraft, and my favorite part of running those raids was seeing a bunch of different people come together and coordinate. I felt like a conductor, and the people in my raid were an orchestra, making something greater than the some of its parts. I get the same sort of feeling when managing. I suspect I might be a very good manager, but it’s hard for me to tell.

Melissa has most likely brought me something to eat, because I forgot to feed myself. I am very thankful. I hope she knows how thankful I am. She’s trying to take care of me.

There is something about the grind of the day that makes me careless of my own health. I have to force myself to get up and walk around the house, from time to time. Some days, good days, I go for a long walk around the neighborhood. If I’m going to keep my blood pressure in check, I need to exercise more and not just reduce my salt. Did I remember to check my blood pressure this morning? Shit.

We’re getting towards the end of the work day. Time has flown by in a blink. I have helped a bunch of different people at work with various problems, and I need to record all of that. We have changed the way we do things, and there is a micromanagement element to time tracking that grates on me. And I’m absolutely terrible at it. I would much rather remain focused on the moment, giving people the answers they need. Was it a replication issue I helped with earlier? Who was it that called me when I was in the middle of that Flexible Logic Controller issue? I have to record everything I’ve done today, and I’m going to do a terrible job of it and get yelled at again. This is the one aspect of my job I hate. It’s the thing that has me referring to my work as “Day Job” instead of Trimark. If I leave or get fired, the time tracking will be the catalyst.

It is 5PM and I can’t keep my eyes open. There is a tiny couch in my room. I’ll just lay my head down for a few minutes. A thirty minute power nap, and I’ll be ready to work on something that nourishes my soul, rather than fill a time bucket to be turned in for money.

It’s 6:30PM. So much for a thirty minute power nap. My neck is sore and I feel groggy and out of sorts. I feel more tired than I did when I laid down for a nap, but if I go to sleep now, my schedule is going to be even more messed up than it usually is. Besides, wasn’t there something else I was supposed to be doing tonight?

Melissa and I make dinner happen. If it’s a really good night, we work on it together in the kitchen. If it’s a bad night, we order in. Melissa enjoys cooking way more than I do, and she thinks I’m pickier than I am. Tonight, she makes something that involves ground turkey and noodles and tomatoes. She’s really helping me watch my salt.

Somehow, it’s 8:30PM. I’m in my office again. I want to write, but I can’t find the threads to my story. There’s something about the work day that’s still bothering me. I watch some YouTube videos. I check Discord and see if any of my friends are around. Maybe we’ll play some games.

It’s Monday night, so the garbage has to go out to the curb.

If it’s a good night, I succeed in writing a blog post, and maybe work a little bit on a short story that I’ve been dragging out for months. If it’s a fair night, I have enough energy to play a video game. If it’s a bad night, there is a long-running video playing in the background while I play solitaire. I have reached the point with solitaire that I don’t have to think anymore. I don’t want to think. I’m listening to something, maybe it’s a D&D game on Dropout.tv. I want to play in a roleplaying game, but there aren’t really any invites coming my way for that, and I don’t have the time or energy to make a game happen myself. I don’t have the time or energy to do anything. I’m just mindlessly moving digital cards, sitting, doing nothing. Feeling like I can’t do anything. There’s no fuel left to feed the fire.

The sound of the TV in my bedroom has finally diminished. Melissa likes these horrible drama shows, like Married at First Site. I can’t stand them. It’s the worst people, doing terrible things, and being terrible to each other. It depresses me.

It’s almost midnight. Or it might be a little after midnight. I intended to come to bed over an hour ago, but I lost track of time. Maybe I should set an alarm to tell me to go to bed? There were a lot of things I wanted to do tonight, and I don’t think I did even half of them. I might not have done any of them. I go to bed, and I try to sleep, but I have this dread about the next day to come.

If I don’t find a way out of this cycle…

Anyway.

That’s a relatively typical week day. Looking back over it, it reads like a horror story. I don’t think that’s what I intended when I added this topic to my list.

Tomorrow will be more fun, because I get to talk fiction.

There’s a podcast for writers that is pretty neat. Actually, there are lots of them, and if you’ve been following me for any period of time, you might think I’m about to mention Writing Excuses. I love Writing Excuses, but tonight’s podcast (and marketplace) is Small Publishing in a Big Universe. Steven Radecki wrote a presentation in association with SPBU which talks about the various ways to publish. I can’t find a public link to his presentation, so I’ll just talk about the subject myself, and hope I do it justice.

Edit: Steven has given me this link, which has this other link to the presentation I was thinking of. Similar subject, but presented from a different perspective.

When talking about publishing a story, there are three main routes:

1. Self Publishing
2. Small Publisher/Independent Publisher
3. Traditional Publisher/Big Five

There are probably a couple of other routes I could mention, such as academic publishing, but the other routes aren’t common or accessible for authors writing fiction. Sure, publishing a puff piece in a newspaper can be full of fictitious content, but we’re concerning ourselves tonight with books and short stories.

Self Publishing

You finished a book, and now you want people to read it. Just post it to Amazon and watch the money roll in, right? After all, you’ve spent six whole weeks working on this first draft, and after all that time, we wanna get paid.

Slow up, Flash. Take a deep breath, and maybe a step back from a bad decision.

Self publishing is absolutely a viable route, but there are things you should know and do before throwing the manuscript over the fence. You’re starting a business, and you’re generating a product. You are responsible for everything, and it’s important to know exactly what you’re responsible for.

Editing

You need an editor. It’s possible you don’t think you need an editor, but trust me, you do. Everyone does. You have been staring at your pile of words longer than anyone, and in the process, you have become blind to your own mistakes. Have you ever stopped in one of those rural areas that’s close to cattle, and when you get out of the car, your nose is assaulted with an odor strong enough to turn your stomach? The locals appear unaffected. They’ve become acclimated and don’t notice the stink. When it comes to your manuscript, you’re a local, and the smell is wafting off of your unedited story.

There are different types of editing, and you may need all of it. There is developmental editing, which goes deep into the content of your story and helps shape it into something that actually makes sense. Structural editing may be part of this, which reshapes the story so that it flows well and follows a coherent style. There is line and copy editing, which may deal with spelling and punctuation, but usually deals with grammar, word choice, and overall enhancements to the writing quality. Then there is mechanical editing, which is all about spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting. Depending on the editor, some of these types of editing passes are included together, or they may require additional work by other editors.

Have you written about someone with a disability when you yourself are not disabled in that way? Have you written about someone that is gay while you are straight, black while you are white, a victim of domestic violence that you have never experienced, or some other marginalized identity that does not apply to you? Chances are, you could use a sensitivity reader. Sensitivity readers aren’t necessarily editors. They don’t even have to be writers. They’re subject matter experts on their lives, and if they tell you that what you have written is harmful, you need to listen to them and make appropriate corrections in your story. Also, pay your sensitivity readers. It’s hazard pay. By reading your story, they’re taking a chance and exposing themselves to trauma.

Cover Art

Your cover is the first thing prospective readers will see, and they will use it to judge your book. Unless you’re a visual artist, you’re going to need someone that can dress up your book and make it look good. Maybe you’re like me, and you’ve never been swayed or put off by a cover. You and I may be rare, because there are lots of people that will look at the cover and if it doesn’t appeal to them, they won’t buy it.

Maybe your daughter is an artist, and you figure you can save some money by having her make the cover for your book. My daughter is also an artist, and as sweet as it would be to work together on a project, she’s never created a book cover before, so she has no idea what to do about dimensions, formatting for the spine, or any of the other things that experienced cover artists know. She could learn, but is her art style even a good match for the story?

A professional cover artist is worth paying for. They will work with you, and will probably ask questions you’ve never thought to ask. Niki Lenhart, the artist that created the cover for The Repossessed Ghost, created multiple versions before we landed on the one that I loved. Niki had to endure my inexperience and indecisiveness in order to come up with what I think is the perfect cover for my story. Your cover artist is going to have to deal with your idiosyncrasies, too, so pay them what they deserve. They will literally make or break your book.

Marketing

You’re responsible for getting the word out. Do you have a social media presence? You’re probably going to want one, but keep your expectations in check; social media does not translate into very many sales.

Professional conferences, blog guest spots, features in other people’s newsletters… there’s a lot of frustrating work in front of you, just to spread the word that your story exists. And there are no guarantees.

Remember: Amazon will not promote your story unless it is already selling. How do you get the sales? Friend, if there was an easy answer to this question, we would all be doing it.

Why Self-Publish?

The main reason an author will self publish is control. They have complete authority over every aspect of their book and their career. They can hire whatever editor or artist they want to, that they can afford. They may try their hand at doing it all themselves, though most people lack the skills necessary, and will only generate mediocrity.

Also, when you self-publish, you don’t have to share the profits with anyone. Well… the printing and distribution will still take their cut. And of course you had to hire people in order to make your story shine. And there might have been some other costs incurred while trying to market your book. But other than that, you get all of the profits!

Small Publisher/Independent Publisher

This is the route I have gone with The Repossessed Ghost, and it has been ideal for me. I looked into self-publishing for years before I found Water Dragon Publishing. I looked at all the skills required to start a successful business and determined that, while I could learn everything necessary, I’d rather most of my time be spent actually writing.

Editing

Your publisher should have at least one editor to work with you on your story. Just bear in mind that the resources of a small publisher are dependent on how small they are. Your story might have been scrutinized by a development editor during the submission process, so if it looks like it will be painful or expensive to work on your story, you might not get accepted at all.

The theme throughout this whole section is that a small publisher is small, so their resources are limited. If you have a problem working with the first editor you’re assigned to, there may not be a second editor to turn to.

You’re not on your own like you are when self-publishing. However, you will be well served to pay extra attention during this process. Your attention to detail may be the deciding factor as to whether or not your book is successful.

Cover Art

Your publisher should put you in touch with a cover artist. Again, resources may be limited. If you know a cover artist that you’d like to work with, you might approach your publisher and see if something can be worked out.

Small publishers are always looking for talented people they can work with, that do reliable work at an affordable rate.

Marketing

From what I can tell, marketing is the biggest difference between the small and big publishers. Again, with a small publisher, resources are limited. They are not going to have the same kind of reach as The Big Five. With a small publisher, it is unlikely that your books will show up in Barnes & Noble.

Your publisher should have some markets that they will submit your book to, but just like with self publishing, a lot of the promotion is going to be on your shoulders.

There are still no guarantees, and everyone is looking for that magic spell that will summon all the readers to buy their book. There is no magic, though. Only luck.

Why Work with a Small Publisher?

As Steven writes in his presentation, independent publishing is self publishing. Much of the pros and cons of self publishing are still present, but you’re no longer having to weather the storm alone.

Consider a group of self publishing writers that have been managing their businesses for a while. They know what they’re doing, but each of them possess different strengths and weaknesses. After a fortuitous meeting, they determine that the best thing they can do is pool their resources and work together. That’s small publishing.

What I have found with Water Dragon is a community of like-minded and talented writers. That appeals to me.

I haven’t had to pay for editing services or a cover artist. I also share profits on the individual sales with the publisher. The percentage of the pie I get is larger than if I was working with a big publisher.

One of the deciding factors for me was that small publishers will touch genres that big publishers aren’t buying. The Repossessed Ghost is a good story that deserved to be in the world, but since my name isn’t Jim Butcher or Ilona Andrews, The Big Five was never going to give my story a shot.

Traditional Publisher/Big Five

If you want the largest audience possible, you’re going to have to publish with The Big Five. The Big Five are:

• Penguin Random House
• Hachette
• HarperCollins
• Macmillan
• Simon & Schuster

You may have heard recently about the buying and selling of Simon & Schuster. Penguin Random House almost bought them, but instead, a private equity firm, KKR, bought it. I believe this is the same firm that bought Toys R Us. So, who knows if there will be a “Big Five” for much longer.

Let’s break this down the way I broke down the other options.

Editing

Everyone wants to see your book succeed, and there is a budget to make sure that happens. Of course, if you’re a new writer, that budget might be extremely small. The Big Five have battalions of editors at their disposal, but if you are paired with one early on that doesn’t share your vision, you could be in for a wild and bumpy ride.

The publisher should do their best to accommodate you and make you comfortable. But, there have been nightmare stories.

You need to remember that it is your name on the cover, and you need to make sure that the book passes through the editing process and comes out on the other side as something that you can be proud of. You need to have the confidence and wherewithal to call out problems, and you need to do it in such a way that you’re not “rocking the boat.” Be professional and assertive.

Cover Art and Marketing

With the Big Five, Cover Art and Marketing go together. In fact, the title of your book is a marketing decision, too.

If my Mel Walker story had been picked up by one of the random penguins, would it still have been called The Repossessed Ghost? It’s hard to say. I remember an executive editor for one of the publishers telling me the name sounded clunky. I think the name fits, but someone in marketing might have come up with something that would make it sell.

I also know that marketing is my weakest subject, so having a marketing budget and experts helping me make decisions like that would have been a huge boon.

Marketing is the advantage Big Publishers have over Small Publishers. From my perspective, it might be the only real advantage that matters.

The Issues with Big Publishers

I’m not going to go into the reasons why working with a Big Publisher is good, because they’re too obvious. Yes, you’ll get a smaller percentage off of every sale, but the numbers dwarf what you’ll get when going out on your own or working with an independent publisher.

Before you can work with the Big Five, you need an agent. You might be able to get an offer through an acquiring editor, but those are rare, and even when it happens, the publisher will still want to work through an agent.

The agent relationship will be one of the most important in your life, and is worth its own post. Your agent is going to be pivotal to your entire career. Having a bad agent is worse than having no agent at all.

The main problem with Big Publishers is that they bank on what they predict will be guaranteed wins. They put their budget towards already established authors. New authors are not as well supported or funded, which makes it harder for them to succeed.

Big Publishers will abandon stories or authors if the sales are not what they expect. They do not always consider factors outside the author’s control, such as Donald Trump getting elected in 2016, or a global pandemic driving everyone indoors in 2020.

It is extremely difficult to get in with the big publishers, and it seems like a precarious place to be if you don’t become a household name. Most people do not become household names.

No one really knows what they’re doing, but The Big Five think they do. They have some of the answers, for sure, but the process is flawed.

Consider how Harry Potter came to be. It was turned down 12 times before getting picked up by Bloomsbury in the UK. As I understand it, an editor’s daughter loved the book and was the first advocate for it. Whatever your feelings about J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter was an extraordinarily successful series. The Big Publishing filter would never have let it see the light of day.

Final Thoughts

Only you can determine what your career should look like. I know successful and happy authors that are completely self published. I also am well acquainted with many successful writers that work with The Big Five. Every author is different, and every author walks a slightly different path than the rest.

Regardless of how you publish, you will need patience. If you get a book deal with The Big Five, it could be a couple of years before you actually see it in print. Small publishers can move faster, but it’s not guaranteed. And as I alluded to at the beginning, when you self publish, you can go as fast as you want, but you may not be well served rushing.