Are you angry about the economy? I don’t know about you, but I get angry in this down economy. Why? Because it has a trickle-down effect on all small businesses.

In my case, particularly as a literary service provider, some clients don’t pay when they should because someone hasn’t paid them.

We, as literary entrepreneurs, must adjust our marketing strategies.
But, instead of getting angry, how about if we get busy?

How about if our anger could move us to another level? A level of action.

Let’s look back in history. During the depression, women found ways to make it for their families by cooking, sewing, quilting, washing and ironing clothes for other families, etc.

I grew up during a recession in the fifties, and I look back. How did my parents survive with six children? To supplement my construction worker father’s income, my mother did what we called “day work”-cleaning for white women. We often had filling meals of beans, soup, chili. We were seldom sick-later I found out we didn’t even have health care, which is happening a lot today because of layoffs. So I know, with God’s help, we can make it through this economy. It is something our ancestors always did. Make a way out of no way.

In times like this, we need to examine ourselves.

1) Find your strengths.

2) Get around others who are strong where you are weak.

3) Build your teams.

4) Get people to fill in your gaps.

5) Find multiple streams of income from your book, such as speeches, workshops, seminars, teleseminars, webcasts, podcasts, blogs.

6) Use your social networking to build teams, find resources, and exchange information, as well as socialize.

Ask yourself, what can I do to give people hope? Believe it or not, it starts with giving away what you have that has value.

How can we be of value and how can we provide service to others?

What do you have of value which you can give away? Can you build business relationships which are mutually beneficial to yourself as well as others? Can you teach what you learn as a literary entrepreneur?

Can you provide sales, marketing on line, coaching, or seminars first locally, then around the world? How can we get financial freedom?

We must take consistent action every day in our business.

On one day a week, work on your business rather than in it. Have meetings to brainstorm with your team as to what your next steps will be.

The words we communicate to ourselves and to others will pay dividends to you. It will help you and others solve a problem.

Right now, people are hungry for freedom. People want to get into sales and people want to write at least one book.

What are sales ingredients? First of all, you have to believe that the book you are offering has value.

Ask your readers what do they like to read? Sell them on the benefits of your book. Find out what pains them.
Often you’ll find readers who want to write a book themselves. This is how I started my literary services, then later my literary agency. I also have done Internet radio since March 5, 2002 to provide writers with an international platform to market their book.

What was the painful motivation? People were tired of not seeing their words in print, then tired of not being able to get their books out to the market.

So find what pains people enough to move them to action and you will be able to make the sale.

Revisions (or Rewriting)

After you have escaped from your draft and have distanced yourself as the writer, you will explore ways to troubleshoot your own and others’ writings for unfocused, incoherent drafts. You will also revise sentences for incorrect structure, faulty punctuation, and inappropriate voice. (For instance, in one manuscript the writing class critiqued, someone noticed what is called “language dissonance.”) A lawyer should not speak in the voice of a con-man or a street person.
When rewriting, finish the first draft. Put aside for one week up to a month. Then do or ask yourself the following.

1. Read your entire book out loud.
2. Look for basic grammar and punctuation skills and paragraph development.
3. Vary the length of your sentences and your paragraphs. Cut unnecessary adjectives and adverbs.
4. Listen for the rhythm, variance and music of the language.
5. Have I started my scenes near the action? Are you interested in what happens next?
6. Does the information surprise you?
7. Does each scene move the story forward? Is it essential to what the story is
about?
8. Have I made use of sensory detail, including sensory memory?
9. Does my dialogue sound stilted?
10. Have I made use of oblique dialogue, which is how many people speak?
11. Does my opening line draw the reader in?
12. Do I end my chapters on a cliffhanger so that the reader will want to know what happens next?
13. Do I use show vs. tell? Have I properly dramatized my scenes?
14. Have I created reversals in each scene or major group of scenes?
15. Do I predict the action before it happens and give away the story?
16. Have I cut my manuscript to a marketable length of 100,000 words?
17. Have I made use of rhythm and poetry in my prose or have I used clichés?
18. Have I made use of body language and gestures, which further characterize
the people in the scene?
19. In sex scenes, do I prolong the actual consummation of the act, thereby
intensifying the sexual tension?
20. Look for language dissonance, which doesn’t match the characters.
21. Look for chronological dissonance, which doesn’t fit the time sequence of the story.
22. Look for the secret ingredient—candor. Be authentic and keep it real.
23. Look for your passion, your truths in your writing. Do not use purple prose.
Final steps. Make use of peer review through a writing class or writer’s group.
Have your work story edited, then copy edited to tighten up the language and the grammar.

Although there are no set rules for writing a novel, there are certain principles that will improve the execution of your story. If you were to bake a cake, wouldn’t you like to know the recipe? Just as there are certain ingredients needed to bake a cake, there are certain action steps, which are necessary for writing compelling fiction.
Likewise, an architect would not try to build a house without a blueprint, or without the proper tools, so why try to write a novel without the building blocks? From my experiences of working with beginning writers, your chances of writing a good book are better when you improve your writing skills. These are some of the nuts and bolts for writing a good work of fiction.
Seven Keys to Improving Your Writing
Regardless of your talent, I found there are seven keys, which will improve your writing. These action steps are reading, writing practice, (including journaling), research, right-brain thinking, reactions, reversals, which keeps a scene turning on its ear, and revisions (or rewriting.)
I. Reading
For a writer, reading is like inhaling oxygen. You need it to exhale the carbon dioxide of your writing. The two are inextricably intertwined.
Reading is key to stimulating the mind and the imagination. In addition, it builds your vocabulary and flexes your creativity muscles. Most of all, it shows you the craft of writing fiction, as well as non-fiction, and the tricks a writer uses to evoke emotions, and to captivate an audience. Reading is a prerequisite to writing.
Make a goal to read as many of the classics as pssible. Read the genre in which you would like to write, particularly if it’s romance, mystery, suspense, horror, fantasy, comedy, or magical realism. Set a goal to read at least one new book a week. All great writers are great readers. You need to be a voracious reader to be a good writer!
II. (W)riting
Writing, (including journaling) is equivalent to a musician’s form of piano practice. Writing takes more than talent; it involves craft. The craft of fiction includes all the skills that fiction writers must develop: characterization, dialogue, plotting, setting, plus many more techniques.
Journaling each morning is another way to become a better writer. In fact, it is crucial to courting the muse. By journaling, you will also learn to check in and check out with your feelings. Remember, Author Henry James said, “A writer is one on whom nothing is lost.” Writing is a spiritual undertaking. Pray before you write.
III. Research
The importance of research for writers can’t be stressed enough. Why is
research important? It adds depth, credibility, and texture to a work of fiction. Personally, I like to read books, which shed light on some unknown subject. Tell
me something new.
IV. Right-Brain Thinking
Tap into the right-brain, and you’ve hit the source of your creativity. This involves use of free association, free writing, mind mapping, and clustering, which are all functions of the right brain use. Dreams are the most important of all of these. You can use dreams to spark ideas.
V. Reactions
Newton’s Law says that for every action, there’s a reaction. In movies, the reactions are called “reaction shots.”
This is just as important to character development in writing fiction. Reactions make for good writing. Reactions will also help with your characterization. Through the five character actions (thinking, speaking, acting, reacting, and interacting), reactions can be shown through thoughts, dialogue, and actions. Each one tells us something about the characters. One character will react to the same situation in a totally different manner than another character. You can look at the outcome of children in a large family and get an idea how people are so different who come up in the same environment.
VI. Reversals
A reversal is the scene’s climax, a turning point, a change. Not only does it add magic to a scene, a reversal enhances, invigorates, and amplifies a scene. Make sure there is at least one reversal in each major group of scenes. Reversals make your plot unpredictable and heighten the tension.
At the end of your novel, your main character should be changed from the person he was at the beginning. Make sure you take your scenes from positive to negative values, and vice-versa. A scene can start off peaceful and wind up in mayhem. Or the scene can start off chaotic and wind down to a tranquil one.
The biggest reversal in a scene can be from life to death. When you outline, label your scenes for the emotional value. Example: From pride to loss of respect.
VII.  Revisions (or Rewriting)
After you have escaped from your draft and have distanced yourself as the writer, you will explore ways to troubleshoot your own and others’ writings for unfocused, incoherent drafts.
When rewriting, finish the first draft. Put aside for one week up to a month. Then do your own self-edit.

In conclusion, it takes courage to write. Remember. “No guts, no story.”

My Top Ten Books, for 2009 voted for on Myshelf.com

1. Push by Sapphire,

2. This Wicked World by Richard L. Lange

3. Last Breath by Michelle McGriff

4. His Invisible Wife by Shelia Goss

5. Betrayal by Dwayne S. Joseph

6. Up to No Good by Carl Weber

7. Finding Joy in Pain by Roslyn Wych-Hamilton

8. Sassy by Gloria Mallette

9. Deep Deception by Tina McKinney

10. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke

Wanted: More Good Black Literature

By Dr. Maxine Thompson
http://www.maxinethompson.com
http://www.maxinethompsonbooks.com
Hostage of Lies, Voted Best Book 2009
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?HTML=352823

It is no secret that the economy has affected the sales of African American books. (See Publisher’s Weekly. (http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6711430.html)

However, from reports from different book clubs, there is another problem affecting Black Book sales. Readers are getting tired of the same old, cookie-cutter book.

Recently a group of Black Book Clubs had a teleconference wherein there was a consensus that too many Black books reek of too much sex, too much violence, and too much scandalous drama. Some readers even say they are turning back to white books because they are looking for more life-affirming, character-driven, and fresh substance or content in their fiction.

This is disturbing, to me as an agent, as a writer, and as an editor. As an editor, I push writers to tell their best story—to reach down into their guts and bleed on to the page. In fact, some of the books I’ve content edited (or in one case, been the agent for),  have won awards or been voted as best Book of 2009, or 2010. To name a few, Carl Weber’s upcoming novel, Big Girls Do Cry, (Contemporary
Fiction), and Vickie Stringer’s The Reason Why (Street Fiction), Tina McKinney, Deep Deception, http://www.facebook.com/notes/radiah-hubbert/urban-reviewscom-presents-the-best-reviewed-books-of-2009/413079745645 , La Jill Hunt’s Say It Ain’t So, http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?HTML=352823,
Shelia Goss, (I’m her agent), author of the Bestselling Young Adult Lip Gloss Chronicles. http://edcmagazine.blogspot.com/2010/01/25-ya-power-reads-of-decade-2000-2009.html.

Other writers mentioned that are with my publisher , Urban Books, are Dwayne Joseph, Home Wrecker, and Pat Simmons, Not Guilty of Love. Congrats to everyone on the list.

Nonetheless, in spite of the good news, we still need more books that hit the reader in the solar plexus. There are those of us who hunger for good Black literature. We want stories that both entertain, and educate. We don’t just want to see the worst of Black Life without redemption. We’d like to see character arcs and narrative flow. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself as a writer.

For example, I’ve never been a fan of science fiction, but I attended a Science Fiction Conference the weekend after Thanksgiving, 2009. Tananarive Due and her husband Steve Barnes were the guests of honor in a predominantly white field of literature. Why? Because they are not writing cookie-cutter books. Just sitting in on the workshops, I learned that a lot of research and forward thinking go into building a futuristic or fantasy world. Just look at the success of the movie, “Avatar.”
If you’re a writer, why not try different genres? Why not try mysteries, thrillers, or crime fiction? Stretch yourself.

My next novel, LA Blues, is my first step into an urban crime thriller. Hostage of Lies is more of a historical/contemporary/paranormal piece.

I recently interviewed an author, who will remain nameless, who left a major New York publishing house to return to self-publishing because she refused to fill her books with sex and drama. I read numerous books, including literature from all cultures, and I do not see other ethnic books filled with sensationalism. Why should our craft be lessened?

We are accountable to our readers, and the image we portray of our people is important.

But, it’s not too late to pick up the pen. To rephrase the late Renaissance writer, composer/photographer/film director, Gordon Parks, let’s use our pen as our weapon of choice, and turn this image around.

Morning Maxine.

I’m just reading more of your book. It works so well on so many levels!! I love your descriptions and the way you have used all your wisdom. you are a true story teller. I think Hostage of Lies SHOULD cross over to white folks as well as black. it makes us all one. unifies us into all being human and what we all want, ….love acceptance and to grow from mistakes.

You are a wonderful wonderful author, and I am so proud and happy to be among your new acquaintances and hopeful friend for life. may what we have, grow. Faye Kufahl, author of Nutterville…

www.nuttervillestories.com

I chose this title for my blog last May 2009. I was sitting up late at night, trying to wrap my mind around my husband’s palliative care diagnosis. Just looking back at the original journal entry, I felt on the edge of a precipice.

Well, taking it one day at a time, almost eight months have passed.

I’ve written a new novel, LA Blues, edited and re-issued another one, Hostage of Lies, all while caregiving, and always feeling on edge.

Here lately, because of the economy, and the uncertain publishing industry, so many of the writers I talk to, as an agent, and, as an editor, are on the edge.

But, you know what? In writing, this can be a good thing.

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie that was described as “edgy?” Aren’t those books or movies generally life-changing experiences?

When I work as a writing coach, I urge writers to push the envelope. Take risks. Shock your readers. Shake it up. Upset our reader’s world and make changes in the world with your writing. Edgy is defined in the dictionary as  ”daringly innovative; on the cutting edge.”

With that said, I am placing a call for good, edgy  book reviews that can be posted on this blog. I will be posting some over the next week.

For an example of edgy, a reader sent me this email.
“If you want happy endings, Hostage of Lies is not the book for you. If you are looking for typical formulaic fiction, this is not a book for you. It is an edgy, dramatic  look at family secrets and lies, and how they become generational curses. I love it!”