The Value of First Readers *Guest Post by Lucy Snyder*

Hey! Look! Lucy Snyder is guest-posting for me this week. She is an amazing, award-winning (five Bram Stoker awards...FIVE!!!) author - you may know her Urban Fantasy novels (the Shotgun Sorceress series) or for Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, or maybe her collection of short stories, While the Black Stars Burn. She's a Clarion grad, a writing coach/instructor, and she's also a damn fine human being I am glad to call friend. Please give her work a look, you will not be disappointed. *More links at the bottom.* -Linda

The Value of First Readers

By Lucy A. Snyder

Very few writers are at a place in their craft and career where they can write in complete isolation, finish a story, send it off to an editor, and have that work see print. Most of us need feedback on our work before it's ready for an editor's eyes.

When you're just starting out as a writer, a good critique group is enormously helpful. But if the group is really good, your workshop partners will also be busy writing and submitting their stories ... and once you start seriously working as a writer, keeping up with everyone else's creative output can become a challenge. I've known a lot of pros who've had to drop out of productive critique groups simply due to time pressures.

Consequently, some pros who are in the middle of working on sold-on-proposal books under contracts with big publishers come to rely mainly on their editors for feedback. Which by some lights is entirely sensible: your editor is the most important person you need to please before the book or story goes to press.

But in the grand scheme, your editor may not be enough. Any good editor can give you excellent advice about fiction basics: plot tension, characterization, dialog. All hugely important. But at large houses you may find yourself assigned to an editor who may not have read widely in the particular genre you're writing in, and that otherwise excellent editor just won't realize when elements of your story veer too closely to works by other authors in the genre. That excellent editor won't be able to say "Hey, Author X did something like this in That Book I Just Read ... why don't you try this other thing instead?"

So, it's always a good idea to have other people read your works in progress. But what do you do when you're just too busy making a living as a writer to participate in a critique group?

You cultivate a group of first readers (or beta readers, if you prefer terminology borrowed from the bustling world of fan fiction).

Critique partners are always peers: fellow writers. They'll have opinions about the mechanics of your story or novel, and they may not be fans of the genre you're writing in. Critique partners are expected to be tough and honest, and they'll be coming at you from the perspective that your work ... well, it needs more work.

Your first readers, on the other hand, need not be fellow writers. They don't need to have strong opinions about the mechanics of a story or chapter -- you're a working professional writer, remember? You know how to fix this stuff on your own -- but you do need to be able to rely on them to tell you honestly when something isn't working. Their job doesn't have to be to tell you how to fix things, but you need to know that they will unfailingly draw your attention to problems. Therefore, your first readers need to be well-read in the genres you're writing in, and they need to have excellent instincts about what makes for a good story or novel.

Furthermore, they need to be fans of your work. Not in terms of thinking you're infallible as a writer, but in terms of them fundamentally getting what it is you're trying to accomplish creatively and being excited at the prospect of helping you get there. This is crucial. You're done with critique partners who can hardly hide their boredom at reading horror when they'd rather be reading literature, but with a heavy sigh they'll read your stuff because you read theirs. You have a deadline, and you need people who are enthusiastic about what you're doing, and who are willing to read your pages and give you feedback when you need it, not when the next meeting is scheduled.

Where do you find good first readers? Sometimes you'll find enthusiastic peers in the critique groups you've been involved with; it's simple courtesy to return the favor and critique their work, but typically they'll understand the whole deadline thing and they'll ask for your help when you're better able to give it. Other times, you can run into good potential first readers at conventions, or recruit well-read acquaintances.

But whatever you do, once you've recruited good first readers, treat them right. They're the best friends your fiction will have. Acknowledge them in your books, and make sure they get first dibs on your authors' copies. Gift certificates and other more substantial thank-yous don't hurt, either.

Lucy A. Snyder is the five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of a dozen books and 100 published short stories. Her writing has been translated into French, Russian, Italian, Czech, Spanish, and Japanese editions and has appeared in a wide range of publications. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and is faculty in Seton Hill University’s MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction. You can learn more about her at www.lucysnyder.com.

LINKS:

WEBSITE: www.lucysnyder.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucy.snyder1

Twitter: @LucyASnyder

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LucyASnyder

Dear Readers: A Short Thank You

A few weeks ago, we talked about newsletters and expanding subscriber lists. I mentioned including flash/short stories in those newsletters. Since readers sign up to read my works, I figure one-off shorts are a great way to thank the readers for supporting me. The short is most likely from a POV of a character who didn't have that honor in the main book--say a side-kick or an unnamed character the main book's protag noted in passing. It captures just a moment, a scene, a different perspective that hopefully entices readers who haven't yet purchased the latest book and rewards those who have.

Until retailers allow self-pubbers to create coupon/promo-code campaigns, short stories are the best way I can think of to thank my readers.

And to those of you reading this blog, THANK YOU.

Reader rewards

I've got to say I've never really given much thought to the idea of reader rewards. I'd hope the story was reward enough. The only real answer I can give here is that I am guilty of many promotional stories. I write them regularly. There have been at least six stories told in the Seven Forges world, a short story that precluded BLOOD RED, and a few stories both posted and given away as promotional limited editions over the years. And by short story I normally mean 6-10,000 words or so.

I like giving away stories. They let me cover things that can't be covered in the novels and for me they're like extra seasoning packs to go with the story. They may not add to the main narrative flow, but they certainly add flavor.


here are four examples you can look over at your leisure, if you are so inclined, all related to my SEVEN FORGES series.

FROM THE MOUNDS
THE WOUNDED
SCARS
WHEN KORWA FELL

Keep smiling,

James A. Moore

Reader Rewards - What's the Good Stuff?

THE SHIFT OF THE TIDE is done except for the dotting of i's and crossing of t's - and the endless adding and deleting of commas. I don't know about you all, but I never did get the comma rules into my brain. I just accept whatever my copy editor does on those. If only Track Changes had an "accept all comma changes" setting!

Anyway, THE SHIFT OF THE TIDE is the third in The Uncharted Realms and - as some who've already read the ARC (man, some of you are *fast*!) have noted - it's not the last. Too much story yet to tell! I'm tentatively titling book #4 THE ARROWS OF THE HEART and have it planned for next May or thereabouts.

If you wanted an ARC and didn't get one, use the comment form on the website and Assistant Carien will be in touch.

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven regards Reader Rewards: What Do You Do To Reward Your Fans (newsletter free-short stories, discounts, special appearances, etc.)?

I have a newsletter and I'd be remiss if I didn't say that you can Sign Up For It Here. I don't do a ton of free stuff for the most part. My loyal readers and reviewers get early ARCs, of course, as evidenced above. And I do the occasional contest or giveaway - usually to get ideas for naming something!

There's also a private Facebook group for the readers who want to be able to chat with me about the books and I sometimes do fun things there.

The funny thing is, all of my readers are so amazing that they tell me they buy the books, too, even if they've read the ARCs. And they send ME stuff, like chocolate and toys and other fun things. Or take me out for high tea and lunch!

I think I probably have the best readers in the world, because they reward me all the time with their support and letting me know what they love about the books.

But hey - what would you all want for rewards???

Third Rail?

I write science fiction action and adventure with romance.

I touch no third rails.

I have utterly no desire to import third rail topics into my books.

I don't read third rail stuff...unless I'm reading something nonfiction for a reason.

I guess the whole third rail topic is my third rail.

Kudos to my fellow SFF7 authors for their thoughtful posts this past week.

Luckily there's room for all of us in the author world!

And I'm done for this topic.

Third Rail or Manipulation?

If you're old enough to remember seeing Jaws for the first time (while the CGI and special effects still held up) do you recall whether or not you were traumatized by watching blood spread in the water as people were ripped to shreds by a pissed off shark? I know it's hard to take seriously after nearly a half dozen Sharknado movies, but Jaws was pretty damned trigger-y for its day. Lots of people DID NOT go back in the water after watching that film. Because the movie touched what was a hot button at the time: killing innocent little kids in brutal fashion and showing it on screen. Well. And maybe because our animal brains have a thing about being snuck up on and messily devoured. The thing is that you can look at the film today and see how manipulative the scene with the boy is. It didn't really further plot. It was included solely to illicit horror from an audience and maybe to erase any sneaking sympathy you might have had for the shark. You can dissect the visuals from the John Williams score and neither works quite as well. Combined they are a masterstroke of manipulation.

You see where I'm going with this. Third rails topics generally feel manipulative to me - as if they're being brought into a piece of fiction, not because it's the only way to move the plot, but because it's shock value trying to dress in the grown up clothes of 'but this issue is important!'  That's not always the case, but I do find well done hot button topics are rare. Ursula K. Le Guin is a master at third rail topics. So is Margaret Atwood. Both, I think, are masters because the hot button issues are understated. Almost hidden. They underpin the world and the story, they're sort of the skeleton the stories hang on, but the stories being told aren't necessarily about religion specifically or what constitutes sexual deviancy. They're more about what become of humanity under the influence of those things.

On my more egotistical days, I say I want to be like the aforementioned ladies when I grow up as an author. The rest of the time, I acknowledge that might not be in this lifetime. :D IF there's a topic that gets a lot of knee jerk reaction and I want to pin a story on those bones, I do it. But not so I can trot out some bleeding edge attempt to be literarily relevant. It's because some tiny aspect of that hot button topic fires my imagination and infuses a set of characters with wild, weird life.

Certainly, it's my job to as respectful and careful as possible when I create a character who'd been adopted into the Navajo Nation but who was not, herself, Navajo. It wasn't done with an intent to be culturally insensitive - but I am not Navajo either, and an argument could be made that - because I'd written about certain traditions and beliefs unique to the Navajo as a means of heightening my heroine's identity crisis - I am touching the fiery hot third rail of cultural appropriation. Does that sentence even scan? It makes sense in my head. That may not be a good thing. In any case. I did my utmost to not be appropriative and to respect the beliefs and taboos that informed the culture my heroine grew up in but couldn't be a part of. I still had a massive case of nerves when the book came out, wondering if I'd get myself electrocuted or not.  (This is Isa from Nightmare Ink.)

And you know, what scares the crap out of me to write, may be totally mundane to some other author. I do suspect that third rail topics are subjective. Unless an editor stands up at a panel and says, "Incest. Brothers in bed in bed together? You guys have GOT to stop sending me that shit." Then yeah. That's for real third rail and that rail is electrified.

Touching the Third Rail

Some moments at ArmadilloCon, at the panels and in the writers' workshop, reminded me how there are a handful of... let's say challenging topics to handle when writing SFF Fiction.

Now, I wouldn't necessarily say these topics are Third Rails, in that you DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT TOUCH THEM.  Rather, it's more like an Beach Full Of Jellyfish.  With a big sign that says SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Here's the thing.  Sometimes you've got a story that, in your gut, you know the right choice is something that will get people riled up.  This is, in and of itself, OK.  Go ahead, write that story.  I mean, think it through, do the research, and batten down your hatches.  But write it.

And then be ready that someone will smack you across the nose with the newspaper and say, "No, bad.  You did this bad."

(Yes, my metaphors are all over the place.  Cope.)

And you have to take it.  I'm sorry, but that's part of the deal: you take the risk, you accept that stings are part of the business.  Embrace it with grace.  Say, "Yeah, I could have done that better" and listen to the criticisms.  Take them, and integrate them into the next thing.  Use it to grow.  Use it to improve.

Because you're going to get right back into that ocean.

Writing a Scene of that 'R' word

Hello. I'm going to say the R word. And then I'm going to discuss a certain scene in my latest book where that R word was attempted. You know the word I mean. 

Rape.

Why? Our topic this week is: 

Third Rails in Genre Fiction
What topics are too dangerous for you to touch? 
Or do you touch them anyway?

Let me start with this...I googled Rape Statistics and these were the top two links:

1.) Rape Statistics - Wikipedia
Statistics on rape and other sexual assaults are commonly available in industrialized countries, and are becoming more common throughout the world. ... Rape is a severely under-reported crime with surveys showing dark figures of up to 91.6%.

2.) Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics / RAINN
On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States. ... As of 1998, an estimated 17.7 million American women had been victims of attempted or completed rape. ... Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population...

In just those short snippets, the numbers cited are ...terrifying. It is no wonder that that particularly heinous, disgusting, and violent crime is an emotionally charged topic for so many--all of us either have been a victim or know someone(s) who have been. 

So why write about it? 

I mean, GoT got so much flack for all those episodes...right? 

The way I feel about GoT is complicated... and I realize I'm a minority in my take on 'that' season, but I didn't get /upset/.  I believed that in that world and time period considering the cultures as they had been presented, those kinds of crimes were believable to have happened to those characters in the way they were portrayed. Screen time of the act could have been shortened or alluded to without the visual, but the dramatic impact was, I think, as they intended it to be.

My sons watched the show as well, and they are on social media, and they were well aware of the hubbub about those scenes/that season as a whole. Because of that show and the outcry, I had conversations with my sons that I might not have otherwise had, and I think that was a VERY good thing.

But in saying that, I'm not trying to gloss over the truth that so many were triggered by these plotlines -- whether or not they personally victims. Even after the immediate physical injuries of a rape have healed, the psychological effects linger.

So answer already! Why write about it? Why add the layer of 'incest' to it?

It wasn't shock value. My writing has never been meant to come across as some wordy version of a shock-horror concert like Marilyn Manson or Rob Zombie. 

When I wrote Jovienne it was not a story I had plotted out. There was no 'I'm going to have bad things A, B, and C happen cumulatively, and then she's going to escape and/or deal this way.' 

I put her into a situation of having her skills tested. She had been trained to kill demons for God. A graduation ceremony wouldn't have made any sense. But a death match with a demon...yeah. That was the highest level of testing with the highest level of risk. 

It had already established these four things in the text: 

1.) all demons needed to feed on energy soon after they arrived in this world

2.) they fed two ways:

       a.) by killing something/someone and partaking of the death energy, or 

       b.) by a sexual exchange 

3.) if a demon physically touched a human for an extended time, they could pull images and thoughts from that person's mind

4.) some demons could shape shift

When I wrote Jovienne's test, I didn't have a plan for getting her out of it alive. It wasn't a planned novel, but more of a short story exercise. I wasn't invested in making her live through it, just seeing what would happen if I tried to kill her. 

How hard would this character fight to finish her story?

I'd also established that her family was dead and that her father was a hostile, brooding, bullying, belittling, tantrum of a man. She hated him. He gave her no kindness and allowed her no happiness. 

As an author, having her face him --or rather a demon wearing his face-- was the worst I could do to her. But that demon gained a position of power over her. Having the demon attempt what evil was established as it's prerogative as her father... it certainly seemed a demonic act to me.

Her reaction and subsequent actions establish her character so strongly, so unrepentantly, that I could not do her the disservice of removing that scene. Hers is not a journey everyone will want to read. But it has been an inspiration for me to write.

I welcome your thoughts and a civil discussion in the comments, if you like.