Mardi's Link

MFA: Master of Frigging Anything

I have always thought that online nit-picking was silly.

I mean, Twitter wars? Facebook fights? Grow up, people.

I enjoy social networking, mostly for keeping up with friends and family, funny one-liners from my favorite writers (Moms Who Drink and Swear!) and photos of picturesque places around the Midwest. But if I want bickering, I can just tell my sons to mow the lawn or clean the bathroom in the real world. I don't need the internet for that.

But then I stumbled on a seemingly innocuous question (it's always the innocent looking conversations that get me into trouble . . . ) in the Book Publishing Professionals group on Linkedin.

"I was accepted into an M.F.A. in Creative Writing program, at a senior stage of my life, but a junior stage of my writing," asked a group member named Phillip F. "I feel I am starting at the right time; others say I'm too late. Ideas?"

Bring on the warm fuzzies, I thought to myself, and the responses were almost all encouraging. "Sometimes it takes a lifetime of experience before you have something worthwhile to say," was a standard reply. 

Then, this reply showed up in the discussion: "DO NOT PAY FOR AN MFA," someone named "Amy Charles" lectured. (Amy, lowercase letters are your friend.) "Unless you really want to make a gift of money to the university and the professors in the writing program, who make more money than you likely ever will from writing."

About this same time, I clicked over to some blabbering in the London Review of Books that advised writers considering an MFA to get a real degree.

And I am here to tell you, I nit-picked. And I bickered. Since when does someone named "Amy" know what's right for every single writer? Since when does the London Review of Books get to compare Master of Fine Art in Creative Writing programs to "Stuff White People Like" and get away with it?

Not here and not now. I'm paying for an MFA, I'm white, and you know what? I don't like that stuff. Not at all.

Blanket statements get me riled up because no matter how well intentioned, they are the voice of the oppressor. Do as I say, or else.

Well, my life to date is practically a living, breathing monument to doing the exact opposite of what people in authority have demanded. And you know what? Things have turned out even better than I could have hoped for. And, unintentioned side benefit? My struggles have made a half-way decent story.

Looks like I've made it this far; there's no reason for me to start listening to bad advice now. Guess what, Amy? I'm currently a tuition-paying MFA student in Queens University of Charlotte's low residency program. When I graduate in another couple of years with my MFA degree, I plan to be a Maelstrom of Future Action. If I really apply myself, Marshal of Funky Authority is not out of the question. And maybe, just maybe, if I keep up with all the required reading, this intense and devoted study of writing will truly make me a Master of Frigging Anything. 

You don't earn a title like that by paying attention to blanket statements that begin with "don't," "can't," or "won't."

Hey, stranger things have happened. And you know what? Most of them have even been good ones.

 

Kickstarter for Writers

 

For years internet cheerleaders have been promising writers who go digital everything from ebook millions to an instant audience for the the quirky, the how-to, even for monster romance novels.

I can't vouch for the authenticity of any of those opportunities, but I can offer some information on Kickstarter, a newish funding platform for creative endeavors. Including literary ones.

Kickstarter works like this: Creators describe their project, set a funding goal, and submit their project to the site. If it follows the basic guidelines, the project goes live on a specified date and remains open for backers to pledge funds for between 1 and 60 days.

Some recently successful publishing projects from Kickstarter you just can't help but love:

Hannah Stevenson of Lily & Thistle Creative Studio launched a project to publish her paper doll coloring book. Her goal was $2,000 and she received $4,434 from 181 backers.

Novelist Keri Topouzian received $6,556 from 107 backers to get her novel, A Perfect Armenian, edited by a professional editor. It took her seven years to write and is based on historic events and cultural conflicts. The author says, "If it weren't for fiction, I believe we would know very little about our world. A list of historic facts might come and go, but when our imaginations become involved, we learn."

Documentary filmmaker Ron Faiola will turn his film, Wisconsin Supper Clubs: And Old Fashioned Experience, into a book thanks to $3,011 in pledges from 32 backers.

And, yours truly has a Kickstarter project that's live until April 20th, titled, Secret Cuts: A Cherry Orchard Mystery. At the time of this writing, my $2,500 project is 92% funded by 53 backers with 7 of my 30 days remaining. 

So, here's what I've learned about getting a writing project funded in this way:

One, take some time to define the project for yourself before you launch it. I wanted to write an investigative article about a local crime and publish it as a Kindle Single. The more specific you are, the more likely you can communicate your idea to others.

Two, don't skip the video. If you haven't ever made a video before, consider this an opportunity to learn how to work in this increasingly important medium. It doesn't have to win an Academy Award, but it does have to describe you and your project well. According to Kickstarter, 50% of projects with video in the description get funded; only 30% without one do.

Three, you can launch it, but that doesn't mean they will come. Don't just launch your project and expect Kickstarter to do all the work of getting it funded. The site gives you some very easy to use tools to get the word out about your project and to communicate with your backers. Link your project to your facebook page, blog about it, and send an email to friends, readers, supporters, your dog groomer and librarian.

Use tact and retraint when doing this -- don't spam and don't overdo it. There's a difference between letting people know about what you're up to and repeatedly clogging their inbox, their facebook timeline, and their voicemail.

Don't forget to drop a line to the media - Kickstarter is still relatively new, so it's news. As in, here.

A couple caveats: Kickstarter works with Amazon to deliver pledges to creators and funding is all or nothing. If you meet your goal, your backers' credit cards are charged and the money is transfered into your bank account. If you don't meet your goal, all pledges are cancelled. And, even if you do meet your goal, Amazon holds onto the money for about two weeks.

The site only allows projects that have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that makes something. You can't fund your trip to Europe unless you plan to create something about the trip too, like write a book, make a film, or paint a series of landscapes.

After identifying a project, making the video, launching it on the site and working to get backers, I can say that for me, this has been a rewarding process. I made a promise to myself that I would use this as a test case and wouldn't do the project if it wasn't funded. The process itself has made me anxious to get going on the real project though, and I'll consider using Kickstarter again.

So, if you've been thinking about launching a Kickstarter project but haven't gotten around to it yet, what are you waiting for?

 Update: My Kickstarter project funded April 20, 2012.

 

 

Author Platform

 

I am suspicious of buzz words. Of jargon, sales talk, spokesmodels, infomercials, and even ventriloquists. Maybe especially ventriloquists.

Remember that crazy Howdy Doody-looking dummy from The Twilight Zone? To recap, in case this is not the stuff of your childhood nightmares: Cliff Robertson plays an alcoholic ventriloquist who tries to convince his agent that his dummy, Willie, is diabolically alive. He fails, his agent thinks he's crazy, and Willie begins to take over their stage act. In the final scene, Willie has become the straight man and the wooden dummy on his lap has the face of Cliff Robertson. Very disturbing.

What, you may be wondering, does any of this have to do with author platform?

Well, when something is being concealed, I always wonder what it is. And I always assume it's bad. Because if it's not bad, why conceal it?

(Yes, I do live out in the country and sometimes things are indeed this simple for me.)

So when a friend and fellow writer's book went out on submission recently and was rejected by several editors because she didn't have an "author platform," I felt my innate distrust of buzz words grow.

I did some looking around to understand what exactly an author platform is. I learned that there are celebrity author platforms and online author platforms, fiction author platforms and non-fiction author platforms. 

An author platform is simply your soapbox. A combination of your speaking engagements, blog subscribers, book sales, publicity, reputation, contacts, marketing skill, and ability to deliver. Author platform then is your (caution, another suspicious word ahead) "brand." Ok, so now I understand the concept, but I still don't feel much better about it.

Because my friend with the rejected book is a very good writer and a super hard worker. And she was writing with authority and had something new and useful to say about a topic that not only had a huge audience, but one she knows a whole lot about. Parenting preschoolers. This book could change the way we parent our children. In amazing, true, confident and loving ways. But, it was her first book, and to the publishing world, she didn't have enough "platform" to sell it.

And that's my problem with the concept. She had the skill to write it, just not the public presence to sell it. She was a sober, reasoned, and skilled Cliff Robertson with no Willie maniacally grinning on her lap. She researched self-publishing but decided that it wasn't for her. She wanted to be conventionally published, preferably by one of the Big 6.

There are certainly books that tanked despite the author having a very big author platform. And so I started to wonder if the reverse was also true. If a writer can get published and sell well without much of an author platform at all.

In fiction you certainly can. Look at novels like, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, Tinkers by Paul Harding, and Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon. But there are non-fiction surprises out there, too. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, Heaven is Real by Colton Burpo, and a new one, Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach.

I understand the push by agents and publishers for their authors to have an author platform. I just think its overated. Maybe that's because my friend's story has a happy ending (And you know how I feel about those!)

An editor at one of the Bix 6 bought my friend's book. This editor has preschool children of her own and tried out some of my friend's ideas when her four-year-old had a meltdown. And they worked. Instantly.

When the screaming hit the eardrum, I'd be willing to bet all thoughts of branding and sales figures evaporated. Skill will always trump platform at such moments. As it should.

What other books suceeded without benefit of a big author platform?