John Woodington The official site for the author.

Why Self-publishing is BadPosted by John Woodington on July 7th, 2010

One other interesting tidbit I forgot to mention from the Seton Hill writers conference: on the way down to the conference, a fellow writer said to me, “John, I know your thoughts on self-publishing, but you should keep them to yourself while you’re here, because some people here do self-publish, and they might be offended if you said it was bad.”

I do think self-publishing is bad (or, more accurately, I do not think it provides any benefit to the author) and I’m glad that I’m not alone in my thinking.  During a seminar led by Annette Rogers, the acquisitions editor at Poisoned Pen Press, Annette was asked by a writer in the audience what she thought about self-publishing, and if a writer should mention self-published books in their query to her.  She said (not verbatim here), “If you have self-published a book or books in the past, don’t tell me about them, don’t tell anyone about them.  Ever.  Hide them in your garage or burn them in your backyard and pretend they never existed, because legitimate publishers are very wary of working with authors who have self-published content already on the market.  They are not considered publishing credits by anyone.”

She (and the two other agents present) went on to say that the only reason a person would self-publish a book was because it was not good enough for a publishing house to accept.  This made some in the crowd a touch edgy, but I was glad to hear it straight from these guest speakers.  No need to raise hopes when there’s no hope to be had when it comes to self-publishing.

My guess is that some extra drinkin’ went on that night for a few people.

Synopses SuckPosted by John Woodington on July 1st, 2010

Still buzzing from the Seton Hill writers conference.  Still reveling in the glory that is the Query Shark blog, and all the invaluable aid it gives to writers struggling with their query letters.  It also highlights the lack of any similar resource for novel synopses, which is something that was requested from me by one of the agents, and the minute I heard the request, my happiness at being asked for content at all abated.

A synopsis is a 2-10 page description of what happens from the beginning to the end of your novel, and writing this beast sucks.  How to distill 114,000 words down to 700 words is beyond me, but I’ve got to do it, and I’ve got to do it fast so I can get the thing sent out while it is still fresh in the mind of the agent who requested it.  My approach is to write one or two sentences about each chapter as I polish through them, and then edit that bulk of content down into something readable, believable, lovable.  You get the idea.

I found a couple of helpful references for writing synopses (nothing like the Query Shark, though), and though I could list them here, I won’t, since you can just go Google “novel synopsis help” all by yo’self.

Speaking of aquatic animals (Query Shark is close enough)  check out this new whale named after Herman Melville.  Moby-Dick is one of my favorite books of all time, so this make me pretty happy-ish.

The Return from Seton HillPosted by John Woodington on June 28th, 2010

I’ve returned from the Seton Hill writer’s conference, and must say that I’ve had a wonderful time.  Seton Hill is beautiful, the people were wonderful, and the experiences were invaluable.  Basically what happens is you go to this place that looks like Hogwarts castle, write for hours, nerd out with other writers from all across North America, pitch to some really great agents, and then party the night away with everyone and their brother.

Highlights:

1. Receiving humorous daily death threats from Donna Munro, who is one crazy writer and a super nice person.

2. Me telling Jim McCarthy that I toyed with the idea of scaring him by trying to pitch a short story collection to him.

3. Writer Melanie Card telling Jim McCarthy that his pitch schedule included a 30-minute “potty break”, and then never letting her hear the end of it.

4. Me reading my query letter to Janet Reid (aka the Query Shark) and her responding with, “For the Win!”

5. All of the guest speakers telling all of the writers never to self-publish anything ever ever ever, and if you did, never tell anyone, not even your conscious self.

6. Filling this guy (who I call “Therapist”) with too much Scotch and then watching him try judo moves on people:

Which was pretty much awesome.  As you might’ve guessed.

Now all I’ve got to do is send off query letters and some pages to a few people, and then start saving money to go back next year.

Close Encounters in PennsylvaniaPosted by John Woodington on June 21st, 2010

I’m gearing up for my first writing retreat.  Exciting.  The one I’m going to is at Seton Hill University, and it is a retreat for writers of popular fiction.  I would say that I sometimes write popular fiction, though I tend to have more of a literary slant in my work.  The reason this sort of retreat appeals to me is that I would like some of the financial success of a popular fiction writer, without having to write the shallow, plot-heavy stories.  I’m hoping this retreat will help me out a little in that regard.  It’s way out in Pennsylvania, and I’m flying there Thursday.  And I have to get up at 3:30 am to make the flight.  Yuckity yuck yuck.

Also, my former agent works out of Pennsylvania, so maybe I will have a close encounter of the formerly-my-agent kind.  That would be cool.  I never met her in person, and she seemed very nice, though I don’t think were a good match as far as what I was writing and what she was selling.  There will be agents at the retreat, and I’m hoping to work on my pitch to them while I’m there.  My novel Alien Nation would be the most likely candidate with which to practice, so I’ll bring the first chunk of that along with me.