James Boyle's Blog

Pre-order the book.
Early sales make a difference, sometimes encouraging stores to order more and publishers to increase print runs. After all, it is a business to them. They want sales.

Request the book from your local library.
Patron requests highly influence library purchases).

Request the book from your local bookstore.
(Again, if people start special ordering the book, the owner will give serious consideration to stocking a few copies. She wants the sales.)

Buy the book.
All authors understand that many people live in financial situations that make buying books impossible. It’s reality. We get it. However, if you can afford it, buy the book rather than borrowing it. It really isn’t that expensive and, like it or not, publishing is a business and success is measured in sales numbers. Nothing helps an author more than people buying her books.

Add the book to your “to-read” shelf on Goodreads.
When someone looks at the book’s page, they are shown how many ratings (stars), reviews (text), and how many members have added it to their shelves. As in so much of our consumer economy, the more popular the item, the more readily it sells.

Rate the book on Goodreads, Amazon, etc.(See above). Ratings are quick and easy, a scale from one (worst) to five (best) stars. You don’t need to spend hours writing the perfect review, just click the number of stars. Not as powerful as a full review, but important in its own right.

Write a review on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, etc.
More detailed than a simple rating, they are also more powerful. However, they don’t need to be eloquent or profound. Even just a couple of sentences are incredibly helpful. All you are doing is recommending the book to a friend you haven’t met yet.

Mention it on social media.
Post on Facebook how much you like it and recommend it to your FB friends. Do the same on twitter. Post a selfie holding the book. Everything helps. It’s called publicity.

Talk it up.
Nothing is more effective (advertising-wise) than word-of-mouth. People buy books that are recommended by people they trust. If you like the book, spread the word. Tell everyone you know who may like it. Tell people who might not, but tell them anyway. The hardest job of every author is letting people know that the book is out there.

As the saying goes: “If you don’t like my book, tell me. If you like it, tell everyone.”

Finally, don’t worry. We authors love all readers, whether they help us, or not. (We just might love you a smidge more if you help us.)

Last week I read a novel I’d checked out of the local public library. (It was very good, thank you, a thriller by Greg Iles. I’ve just discovered him.) As I read I noticed with more than a little disquiet that a previous library patron had taken it upon themselves to scratch out all the profanity with blue ink.

This upset me on several levels. First, I don’t write in any or my books, unless I’ve bought it specifically as a “study” book. In those cases, I have another, pristine copy. Books are valuable, to be treasured, not defaced. Second, this particular book did not belong to the person with the pen. They were defacing someone else’s property. Third, is the issue of censorship. I mean who are they to decide that I (or anyone else) should not be exposed to profanity?

It is the censorship issue that I’m most concerned with today. Obviously (because of this censorship incident) that profanity bothers a certain slice of the reading public. What does that mean for us as writers of fiction? Do we use profanity in our work? Do we make an effort to “clean” up our work to avoid the controversy?

There are a few lines of reasoning at play here. Perhaps the most important (I know it is in my case anyway) is Mother’s voice in the back of our head saying “it’s a sign of low class,” or “a limited vocabulary.” Though I have been known to use a bit of profanity in my speech, it is infrequent and mostly when I lose my temper. Let’s face it, when you’re really mad, nothing is more satisfying than a torrent of profanity.

And, to a certain extent, Mom was right. The standard image of the upper class in English-speaking society does not include the public use of profanity. One does not expect to hear a lot of cussing at, say, a Metropolitan Opera gala. “Polite” society does not talk that way. Not in our imagination, anyway. Now, switch to a poverty-stricken urban crack house and we’d be surprised if f-bombs weren’t dropping all over the place.

And that’s where it applies to our writing. Characterization. Writing a realistic scene involving an upper class gathering where profanity is constantly used would not ring true, but using such language in a scene at a crack house would add a touch of realism to the scene. Even if all the addicts involved are fallen Harvard literature professors, readers would expect a certain amount of gutter talk. As the saying goes, it goes with the territory.

Any reader who objects to the use of profanity in such circumstances has no business reading that kind of material. They really don’t want to know about it.

One of my personal pet peeves is when a fiction work (it most often happens in American network television, but novels and motion pictures are not immune) that tries to be realistic, yet has some under-educated gangster type speaking like a nun. It just doesn’t ring true. I am a pretty solid middle class guy and I have few friends that speak like a nun. Come on.

Another use for profanity is probably one of the most popular (especially for children in front of their parents and the counter-cultural types) is for shock value. In my newest novel, Deception Island, I use the f-word once. That is when the bad guys kill her dog and she’s hurt and very, very angry. It’s the only time in the entire book she uses such language. As such, I thought it a good way to express the depths of her fury. Precisely because it wasn’t her usual diction.

Just as in writing about sex, often with profanity less is more.

Above all, we writers need to write the story. Profanity should be like any other aspect of the story: it needs to add to the package. The story needs to be better with the profanity in it, than it is without it. If that isn’t true it should be edited out. That decision rest with the writer and the writer alone. She needs to take the advice of beta readers and editors, but ultimately the story is hers. It needs to be her decision.

That being said, the decision should never be made solely because the author is afraid of offending someone. You are always going to offend someone. If it isn’t your use of profanity, it will be your choice of subject matter, or your underlying political view. Nothing kills creativity like trying to please everyone. That is a surefire way to take the soul out of whatever you are writing.

And to all the readers out there. On behalf of writers and authors everywhere, I am sorry if something you are reading offends you. I can honestly say that was not our sole purpose. So we do apologize.

But please, if you are offended, do us all a favor. Close the offending book and walk away. Return it to the library, or give it to someone who might appreciate it. Please do not cross out the offending passages. Do not rip pages out of the volume. This is a book. It is the result of many hours of hard work and many sleepless nights.

Just move on to something you do like.

Just have some respect.

Art? Critiques? Sure, why not?

Anyone can point out another person's mistakes, particularly when you are more accomplished and/or knowledgeable about the craft in question. If the work is written by someone who is just beginning their writing career and still trying to learn the craft, finding mistakes will probably be easy. That isn't the issue. As any good teacher will tell you, what is hard is pointing out a student's mistakes without discouraging them or making them feel stupid.

This is where the art comes in.

The art is in drawing attention to the flaws in someone''s work while still encouraging them enough that they will continue to try. After all, we want to encourage and nurture writers, not get them to quit. So how do we do that?

By balancing the positive and negative.

When you critique someone's work, no matter how bad it might be, it is always important to find at least one thing they did well. (There is always something they did well in at least one section of the work). Begin with the things they did well and tell them they did them well. Everybody needs to hear that they did well from time to time. Someone who has poured their soul into a written work and then handed it to your for judgment may need a word or two of praise more than most. After all, they have left themselves very vulnerable. Some people never let others read their work simply because they fear it will be ridiculed.

To paraphrase Hippocrates: first, do no harm.

Now we turn to the mistakes the author made in the critiqued work, the issues she has, the things that could have done better. This is where the art comes in. As the person giving guidance to the writer, it is part of our job (or should be) to determine what the writer needs the most. Are they just beginning and need encouragement more than anything else? You might just concentrate on helping them with one facet of the craft, say characterization. Are they on the cusp of being good but just need a few tweaks to get there? You might go into more detail, on multiple facets. Are they basically sound, but so grammatically challenged they need a line-by-line copy edit?

Only the person reading the work in question can answer that question. It helps if the two people have at least a passing acquaintance with each other, but the work itself can usually tell the reader where the author is in her progress in the craft. Personally, when I give a work over for critique, I usually attach a note saying I want no quarter. If the reader thinks something needs work or could be done better, I want to know. But not all writers have reached this stage.

Use your judgment, but first, do no harm.

Lastly, everyone involved must be aware of one of the primary rules of critiquing: that the criticisms and suggestions made in the critique are the opinions of the person writing the critique. And that's all they are: opinions. It is solely the original author's decision whether to accept them and make the changes, or to disregard them. In this regard, it is often of great value to have several people critique your work. If they all dislike your favorite scene, there just might be a problem with it.

Critiques are a great way to improve our own work and an even better way to give back by helping and encouraging new writers. But to be most effective, they need to balance encouragement with criticism in a way that doesn't force beginning writers away from the craft.

First, do no harm.

I am a writer. There, I said it. I can't call myself a professional because I don't truly make a living at it, but, to borrow a sports metaphor, I'm solidly in the minor leagues.

I may spend my entire career there.

Every month or so, I find myself asking the same old questions: why am I doing this? Why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? I'm talking about being a writer, of course, particularly a writer of fiction, my particular avocation. Or curse, depending on your point of view.

Think about it. Writing is not an easy gig.

First of all, it is a lonely occupation. Writing, by its very nature, is solitary. Despite the icon of the famous author holding court at a crowded Parisian cafe, when it's time to actually write, every writer is alone in a room with a pen and paper. It's the way it works. When you're writing (and if you're really a writer, you're writing all the time) you're alone with your thoughts and that blank piece of paper or computer screen.

A decent musician can pull out her guitar on a city street and receive immediate feedback from the crowd (and sometimes money). An artist can often do the same with some colored chalk and a sidewalk. A writer can't really open his laptop and scratch out a story or poem to rounds of applause.

Apparently, re-writing the opening sentence twenty times before it's right doesn't quality as mass entertainment.

And then there's the whole fame and fortune thing. When we're young we all have dreams of writing that fantastic novel, selling millions of copies, appearing on all the TV talk shows, hobnobbing with movie stars and living in luxury the rest of our life. It happens all the time. Look at Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and Stephanie Meyer.

Then we grow up.

In the real world, those who grow rich and famous through their writing are very, very rare. For every Stephen King and Stephanie Meyer, there are a thousand Dennis Lehane's and David Baldacci's, authors who make a good living, but are hardly household names. And for every Dennis Lehane, there are thousands of published authors you've never heard of and probably never will. Most writers have to have a day job to pay their bills.

The problem is the math.

In 2012, about 20 million adult fiction and non-fiction titles were sold in the U.S. Wow, you say, that's a lot of books. Yes it is. The problem is that same year about 400,000 titles were published in the U.S. That works out to 50 sales per published title. Throw a Stephen King or James Patterson novel into the mix and the rest of us are lucky to sell those fifty copies. Many of us won't.

Writing is a tough gig.

There is also the discouraging fact that we are rapidly becoming a society that doesn't, as a whole, read anymore. A recent study found that half of all American adults had not read a book since high school unless it was required for work or school. The market is shrinking.

Yep, writing is a tough gig. Writing novels is very tough.

So why do I do it? Why do any of us do it?

The answer is simple and can be summed up in one word.

Love.

I love to read. I loved to read as a child; I love to read now. I read anything I can: fiction, history, essays, poetry. In their hearts, all writers—especially the great ones—are also devoted readers. The two go hand in hand.

I love the way the language works; I love the magic. I love it when a master strings together words and phrases into sentences and paragraphs that are able to transport me into different worlds. I love the way words, when they're put together well, can make me laugh, cry, or shiver with fear. I love it when a good novel can make me believe I'm a pirate, a homicide detective, or falling in love. I love the fact that a good writer can talk to me across hundreds of years and thousands of miles and beyond death itself. I simply love it. Good writing is magical, powerful.

I love the panorama of literature, from Beowulf to The Twilight Saga, from Homer to Stephen King. It is my humble wish to someday, through study and practice, make a place for myself in the grand sweep of literature.

That is why I write. That is why I call myself a novelist.

Fame and fortune would be great, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn either down, but it isn't why I write.

I write because I love it. I think we all do.