D. J. Herda

Someone recently asked me how he could find a reliable editor for his first novel. It seems the last people he'd hired stole his "uncopyrighted work," which left him with a bad taste in his mouth for this whole writing/publishing business. Understandbly. Adding to his trauma, he wants to publish his novel by the end of 2021. Is that even possible?

Well, first, I corrected some fallacies that others were throwing his way, so he didn't waste time running down a blind alley. Here's what I told him in a nutshell

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1. You don't have to register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office to protect it, and, in fact, you can't do so unless you're a U.S. citizen. Registering your work, while having some advantages, also takes time, and that's something of which you don't seem to have a lot. The good news is that, regardless of where you live, virtually all countries recognize the copyright of a work from the time of its completion. If you could afford an attorney or a legal counseling group's recommendation—or even learn more about copyright law yourself—you could go to the thieves of your work and demand in writing that they cease publication and reimburse you for any monetary losses you may have suffered. In lieu of hiring an attorney, you could join a writing association such as the Author's Guild, which provides complimentary legal advice and services to their author members.
2. As for getting an agent, you can't just look in a guide and select one to represent you. Agents are overwhelmed by requests for agency representation and, thus, can afford to be incredibly selective. I've long said that the only thing more difficult than getting a book published conventionally is locating a receptive literary agent. And I say this, having had six to date. But I'm the exception and not the rule.
3. Similarly, while you search the Web to find conventional (that is, advance-paying) publishers who accept unagented manuscripts, the chances of anyone even reading your material, let alone contracting with you to publish it, are minimal. The reason, as in finding an agent, is that the ocean is filled with swimmers, and there are only so many lifeboats to pluck them out of the sea. Besides, conventional publishers take an average of anywhere from one to two years to bring a book to market. Read More 

Someone asked me the other day who my favorite authors are. I had to think about it for a while, because I appreciate good writing and quality craftsmanship, and that combination isn't easy to find these days. In the end, I came up with several favorites whose works I've enjoyed over the years, some of the longest lasting being Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dürrenmatt, Kafka, Dostoevsky, and even Donald Barthelme for his mastery of the short story. But only one writer changed my life forever more than fifty years ago. It was a guy who went by the name of J. D. Salinger.

I was a freshman in high school when our teacher assigned the book, The Catcher in the Rye, for a report. Thinking it was a story about baseball (freshman, remember), I decided to read it rather than merely peruse Cliff's Notes and skate through the assignment, as usual. Well, it wasn't long before I fell in love with Holden Caulfield's brashness and the power of his creator's literary voice. They got me thinking about how cool it would be to be an author and how fortunate Salinger was to have a name as distinctive as J. D. You know, only those two initials out front.

Just for fun, I began contemplating what sort of by-line I would have used had I ever decided to write a book. You know. J. D. Salinger. D. J. Herda. J. D. Salinger. D. J. Herda. Read More 

When I was a kid of 17 or so, I wrote a satirical stage play and tried to find a publisher/producer for it. When that failed, I decided I could produce it myself. (How hard could it be?) I happened to know a man at Follett Publishing in New York. Which is to say, I knew of him from some book rejection slips he'd sent me over the years. So, on a lark and desperate for notoriety, I gave him a call to tell him what I had in mind. I explained the plot, told him about the characters, and said I was looking to produce the script and had heard he might be interested in backing an upcoming young playwright.

To my surprise, he said, "Sure. I'd like to hear more. When can we get together to talk?"

Naturally, since I lived in Chicago and he lived in New York, I had to do some fancy shuffling before the opportunity arose for me to go knocking on his door. I had by then scraped together a few bucks, and I prevailed upon a couple of friends to kick in a few more for a third-class train ticket, and I called Louis Zara and told him of my plans.

He sounded delighted and suggested he pick me up at the airport and take me to his home for dinner. I sounded delighted and replied, "Sure. Great. Except I don't like to fly, so I'll be taking the train."

"Even better," he said. "I'll see you at Penn Station when you get in." Read More 

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 

Someone recently asked if he could share the first ten pages of his new script with me. My answer was a resounding absolutely not!

Nor, by the way, should a screenwriter ever ask to do so.

There's a good reason that all film and television producers refuse to accept unsolicited scripts. If one arrives in the morning mail, the production company returns it unopened. If a producer accepts an unsolicited manuscript for review and turns it down, he's exposed himself to legal action should he happen to make a film whose "idea" the author claims the producer stole from him.

Claims of property theft are more of a problem in filmmaking than in publishing because books are finished products while scripts are little more than malleable, evolving ideas or concepts. In any given year, probably twenty or more similar ideas are accepted for production. It wouldn't take much for a writer whose script was read by one of those producers to file a legal claim of property theft against him. That would halt all work on the film, pending the outcome of the litigation, which would most likely be a settlement of a considerable amount of money on the "agrieved author."

Because of that, any writer even attempting Read More 

If you've been thinking about collaborating with someone on writing a novel, think again. Here's why.

First, collaborating means coordinating, and that's a step you wouldn't need to take if writing solo. It's not easy to get two different people to work together on any project, let alone a conventionally solitary one such as writing a novel.

Second, collaborating can be a prolonged and tedious job. The chapter that you might have pounded out yourself in a day or two could take a week or more when working with someone else.

Third, what you may view as some of your best work won't end up in the book—not, at least, if your collaborator strongly disagrees with your judgment. That could lead to hurt feelings and disappointment. Read More 

Globe Pequot Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, is looking for a few good men (and women!) to send complimentary review copies of the soon-to-be-released biography of mysterious and elusive Etta Place. She was one of two women gang members in the wild West's notorious The Wild Bunch. Riding with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Etta burst onto the scene in her early twenties and disappeared again just as suddenly several years later. But, in between, oh, what a ride she had!

If you'd like a review copy, either as an eBook or a rough, comb-bound print book, just let me know and I'll have the editors send you a copy. They're especially anxious to receive blurbs to include on the book's dust jacket cover. You'll be doing me a favor while securing a little free publicity for yourself. Not to mention learning more about one of the most obscure and fascinating women in western lore.

To request your complimentary review copy, click HERE.

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to see your name on the big screen as a writer, here's your chance. Many writers would like to know what it takes to produce a successful screenplay—one that will sell! At its simplest, a script needs to tell a great story while making it easy for the director, actors, and production crew to bring it to life.

Simple? Well, not exactly. It takes a lot of skill and a working knowledge of how a story will translate to film. But if you take some time to practice, learn proper formatting, and develop the ability to look at your work with a constructive eye, you, too, could become a successful screenwriter.

Screenplays have changed a lot since the days of silent movies. Modern scripts need to include the spoken dialogue, descriptions of the scene and action, and shooting directions. They're more than just a script; they need to convey enough information to produce the movie in the way the writer intended while still leaving some creative freedom for the director and actors.

Getting this balance right is one of the most difficult aspects of screenwriting. From your first draft through refining the story, characters, and settings, it's a real balancing act that leaves many writers shaking their heads.

Now, an article on screenwriting from Maryville University can help you learn about common screenplay structures and effective dialogue, character development, and formatting. You'll get an overview of all the elements involved in bringing a screenplay from the blank page onto the big screen. You'll also get some examples of the greatest screenplays of all time and tips on breaking into the movie industry.

Sound too good to be true? Check it out before you start to work on that next Academy Award-winning production. And let us know what you think.

First of all, let's get our semantics straight. A novel is a book. But a book isn't necessarily a novel. It may be either a novel or a nonfiction work. The word, "book," simply refers to some form of literature that is "long form" rather than a short story or an article, for example. As for a play, that could be either a screenplay or a stage play—the former written for film and the latter for live theatrical performances. We won't even get into other types of scripts.

Regarding the differences between a novel and a script (or play), the most obvious is length. If you take an average-length book of 300 pages and adapt it into a screenplay or stage play (there is very little difference between the two except in the directions and a sense of the audience which is either watching live or watching on film), you cut, shorten, and tighten the novel down to roughly 90 pages. If you take a script and adopt it into a book, you have a MUCH tougher job. That's because you have to add not only words and pages to reach typical novel length but also effective descriptive passages, expanded dialogue, additional action, numerous subplots, and (most importantly of all) IMAGERY!

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Anyone can put a few words between two quotations marks; but not everyone knows how to make those words sing. If that's your problem, here's a tip you can take to the bank. Describing your character's dialogue to your reader means you're writing ineffective dialogue.

Sad but true, and it's all too common a shortcoming in writers of all calibers.

Now, admittedly, different writers handle dialogue differently. That's one of the things that helps to establish a writer's literary voice. It's one of the things that defines his style. But there are effective ways of handling dialogue, and there are ineffective ways. Take a look at this example:

"I hate you," she screamed shrilly.

What's wrong with that, you ask? The writer tells us that she screamed and that her voice was shrill. Isn't that merely an example of good descriptive dialogue, of being specific?

We’ve all heard the stories: first-time author inks multi-million-dollar contract with major publisher. Well, it does happen...except that it happens so rarely, it actually is news. Even when that does occur, the multi-million-dollar contract is usually for a multi-book deal (one joint advance for several books yet to be written). Of course, most news stories miss that tiny detail.

The sad reality of it is that, while better known and proven authors often pull in enough money from which to make a comfortable living, first-time authors more often than not are relegated to what publishers call Midlist, which is the rough equivalent of taking a vacation in hell in the middle of August.

Here’s the breakdown of various publisher’s categories and how newly acquired books are prioritized, from lowest to highest.

Reports of dialogue’s death, to misquote Mark Twain, have been greatly exaggerated. We’ve seen a swing away from effective dialogue and toward more ineffective narrative recently. Why? Because narrative is easier to write, even good narrative, than dialogue. So why dwell on the spoken word?

Because it's desirable and even necessary to most stories. Yet, setting dialogue up in the wrong way can take a devastating toll on the reader. Take this example:

"I wanted to tell him that I needed him," Mary told John's mother. "I wanted him to know that I still cared.” She had to break the news to her. “He's the father of my child." She stifled the urge to cry. "And even if I can't be with him for the rest of my life, I wanted to tell him that, for my sake and for the sake of little Max, he would always be welcomed in our home.” She paused before continuing. “But when he began running around with that other woman, when he began using drugs and staying away for days and sometimes weeks on end ..." Mary felt the anger welling within her. "I felt I had to draw the line. So I did."

When I was a kid going to college to learn to become a rich and famous novelist, I was stunned to learn that one of the pre-enrollment requirements for "Novel Writing 101" was "Journalism 101, 102, and 103." Not just one semester of learning to write what I had no intentions of using ever, but three!

I tried everything I could to bypass that requirement, including begging the head of the fiction department to give me a pass. Thank God he turned me down. Learning to write like a journalist (and think and talk and interview like one) was exactly the kind of iron-fisted self-discipline I needed to learn to apply to my fiction writing. And the single most essential thing I learned from those courses was how to write under deadline.

I was reading an article the other day about the importance of authors self-editing their work before sending it out for publication, and I ran into this gem: “An author [singular noun] should always aim to make their [plural pronoun] book the best it can be. Unless we [third person] are literary geniuses, you [second person] can’t get away from some element of human feedback.”

Is he kidding? Fortunately, he got one thing right. He nailed the importance of self-editing on the head! Unfortunately, he failed to heed his own advice.

This is a good example of how easy it is to miss little things in our work. Sometimes, authors believe that a publisher’s editors will clean up the book, so why spend any more time than necessary on that boring, unglamorous chore?

The answer: Because you’re a professional who wants a professional-looking product before it ever leaves your desk. Professional-looking products take time and energy to produce. Here are a few tips to help you self-edit your book.

Unilever has threatened to pull its advertising from digital platforms that have become a "swamp" of fake news, racism, sexism and extremism. The terse warning to digital platforms such as Google and Facebook was issued at an advertising conference in California Monday, Feb. 2, 2018.

"We cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain ... which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of its transparency," Unilever marketing boss Keith Weed said.

If you think back to all the stories you've read over the years, you'd be hard pressed to come up with more than a handful of memorable characters. That's because most writers don't take the time or the energy to create living, breathing, multi-dimensional people to populate their books--not even the most successful of writers. And that's a bad thing.

But if you think back to all the real-life people you've met in your lifetime, you'd remember a few doozies! The reason is simple: memorable people are memorable because they are real characters. They stand out in a crowd. They break from the mold. They literally knock your socks off. And that's a good thing.

Been sued lately for $50 million for libel? One writer was, pointing out the obvious: without insurance, today's journalist is putting himself in jeopardy. Here's the full story from CJR.

[Columbia Journalism Review] - REPORTER YASHAR ALI in August found himself in a difficult situation for any journalist, let alone a freelancer. He was hit by a lawsuit from Fox News host Eric Bolling seeking a whopping $50 million in damages. The suit followed a story by Ali in the HuffPost that alleged the television personality had texted unsolicited photos of male genitalia to at least three colleagues.

Ali stood by his story, and so did HuffPost. Shortly after it ran, Fox suspended Bolling, and in September, the network announced he would be leaving the network “amicably.”
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Think about one of your favorite classic stories in fiction. Something you enjoyed reading more than anything else as a child, over and over again. Was it Alice in Wonderland? Treasure Island? Black Beauty?

Now, ask yourself why you enjoyed reading that story so much. The answer is nearly always the same. The main characters.

Characters are what the reader identifies and empathizes with; they are what the reader loves to love ... or hate. Many great stories with weak plots, shoddy descriptive passages, and marginal dialogue have relied for their greatness solely on characterization. If you don't believe me, go back and read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises or The Old Man and the Sea. Papa's works are notoriously weak on story line and only marginal on description and dialogue. Where Hemingway works his magic is through his characters. When he writes about Ezra Pound or Gertrude Stein, about F. Scott Fitzgerald, we develop a love/hate relationship with those characters that is strong enough to keep us coming back, looking for more pages to turn.