D. J. Herda

I never cease to be amazed at the literary skills (or lack of them) that some people possess while nonetheless thinking they're equipped to write a book and make a killing. It's not that I object to people seeking reasonable answers to intelligible questions. That's how we learn. But, I received this question the other day: "How many sales before a 275-page book shows a profit at $100 a copy?"

Naturally, it was too enticing a question to pass up; so, I didn't.

You didn't exactly give a whole lot of thought to this question, did you? I mean, first of all, what's your definition of "profit"? If you mean something so obtuse as to how many copies you'd have to sell to cover the time, sweat, and tears you spent in writing your book, I haven't a clue. The variables are too great. Nor do I have an inkling of the rate you ascribe to your hourly toils or how many weeks, months, or years you spent busting your butt.

Ahh, but I see now in reading between the lines that, since neither the book's total number of pages nor its oversized format would affect your bottom line, that must not be what you mean. Read More 

First, I'm assuming you're an adult. If you're not, you may have stumbled across why your book reads like a YA. It's tough for a kid to create a story from an adult's point-of-view. If that's the case and you're attempting to write the way an older person would, I think superimposing an adult to whom you feel close in place of yourself as the narrator might help. In other words, instead of asking how you, a 16-year-old high-school student, might describe a scene involving a 24-year-old man, ask how your 39-year-old favorite Uncle Jack might do so. Imagine yourself as he might tell the story. Just one possible solution.

Second, no matter your age, I'm guessing you haven't thought the story through in detail. I'm also betting you haven't written out a comprehensive, chapter-by-chapter outline from which to work. If you're "winging it," hoping for inspiration to strike around every corner every time you sit down to tackle your story, you're likely to be disappointed. That's been my experience, at any rate. Particularly with Sci-Fi/Fantasy, if you can't picture the story and don't have it outlined from start to finish, it can be really tough sledding—and a huge disappointment in the end. So, here's what I suggest. Read More 

I answered this question on an Internet forum the other day, as did some other writers. Some of their responses were pretty silly. Let's see if I can make mine fit right in.

If someone has the skills and creativity to be a writer, he also has the intellect to know that easy writing is vile hard reading. Period. If writing ever seems easy to a writer, he knows he's doing it wrong.

That's not to say that writing doesn't get easier with age, assuming the writer is open to self-critique, learning, self-editing, and growing his craft. I find writing easier today than I did when I got started more than half a century ago. I never suffer from a loss for words (sometimes known as the dreaded writer's block affliction). I always know the rules of proper grammar and syntax. I know how to edit both other people's works and my own. I can sense in an instant when a character is interesting (make that magnetic) and when he's a crashing bore. And I live to create lively, moving dialogue.

Now, none of that means I find writing today easy. If that day ever comes, I'll hang up my typewriter ribbon for good because it will mean I finally failed. And I'll have to admit it. Read More