Newsletter – 22 August 2011

News #1: My new author site is now up.  Check it out at www.frankfiore.com

While you’re there, see a sneak preview of my new book series The Chronicles of Jeremy Nash. You can read the first few chapters of each book in the series. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

 News #2: Trapdoor Books tells me that we are OH SO CLOSE to releasing the coolest application ever created–CyberKill 3.0 on the Android platform (cell phones and tablet computers) this month and on the Apple platform (iPhone and iPad) in September.

What’s that? You’d like to check out this application before it’s released to the masses? You’d like to provide feedback and crash reports? Your wish is my command. In fact, we need beta testers for CyberKill 3.0! As a beta tester, you’ll get to check out a new application in exchange for gratitude, street cred, and the delightful smug feeling of having something first. 

Please click here to sign up 

Now — Books By the Numbers

According to the Google Book Project, throughout modern recorded history, nearly 130 million book titles have been published.

Wow!!

That includes all kinds of books.  Google counts books ranging from obscure doctoral theses in university libraries to the most popular fiction books of all time.

According to Bowker, the leading authority on book statistics, slightly more than 25,000 fiction books were published in the U.S. in 2002.  By 2008, this figure more than doubled to over 53,000 fiction books published.  In 2009, the recession’s impact reduced the number of fiction books published, but an impressive 45,181 titles were still published.  On average, fiction books represent about 16 percent of the total books published in the U.S. each year.

Half of all fiction books published in the U.S. in 2006 fit in the major fictional genres of romance, mystery, science fiction and fantasy.  In 2006, paperbacks were the major publishing format for fiction books, with 65 percent of romance books, 61 percent of science fiction and fantasy books, and 58 percent of mystery books published in mass-market (small) or trade (larger) paperback sizes.

Bowker’s 2006 study also analyzed the length of fiction titles and the suggested retail prices for new releases. In 2006, the average science fiction novel was 329 pages long, followed by romance at 324, and mystery at 292 pages. 

Pretty interesting stuff.

Hey, I’m no Hemingway!

No I’m not. But recently I figured out that I write a lot like his style.

Let me explain.

If you’ve spent any time on the different writing discussion boards on the different social networks, you’ll see that the majority of comments about writing style seem to fall into two groups. Those that believe the flowery prose of the literati is real writing and those that feel authors should write to be marketable and choose to eschew obfuscation and write simply and clearly.

One of my favorite authors, Michael Crichton claimed that medical writing is a “highly skilled, calculated attempt to confuse the reader”. Many of his novels did eschew obfuscation and wrote for purely entertainment. The story had to move.

Another way to say this is the old writing adage ‘show-don’t tell’.

Now there are those who believe that paragraphs and even pages of narrative are necessary for successful story telling.

I don’t.

I believe that the necessary information about a concept or a character should be brought out mostly through dialogue.  A rule of thumb here is think movie scenes and not chapters.  Write the story in such a way as how it would look as a screenplay.

Think about it. Except for a few short paragraphs before certain scenes to paint the environment and the mood of the characters, the vast majority of a screenplay is dialogue.  The dialogue tells the story.

I believe that’s how novels should be written. Even Crichton honed this in his later novels. His books were written is such a way that they could easily be turned into screenplays.

‘Show-Don’t Tell’ types of stories are looked down upon by the literati but I believe that today’s reader – the USA Today and Twitter generation – is not looking for tombs of literature but a quick and entertaining read.

Am I saying that the Nobel Prize winning novels that very few people read outside of the New York Times Book reviews will go away? Of course not.  Neither will the printed book disappear in this world of mobile publishing.

I just believe that writers should strive to make their writing economical and not have the prose get in the way of the story.

But that’s my opinion.

What I am saying is that we can lean something from Hemingway.

He had some tips for writing well learned from an editor when he was a reporter for the Kansas City Star.

• Use short sentences.
• Use short first paragraphs, I would add all your paragraphs should be short, sweet and to the point.
• Use vigorous language.
• Be positive and not negative. Basically, you should say what something is rather than what it isn’t.

After he finished “The Old Man and the Sea,” he wrote his brother, Leichester, telling him that he did not think there was single wasted word in the book. He may be right. It is a lean, powerful tale. So lean that it may well be the only book ever written to have very nearly every scene transposed into the film version.

“Nearly every scene transposed into the film version.” Hmm…Didn’t’ I say that?

More News- News – News

Play the Trapdoor 2011 E-Reader Giveaway for your chance at free books and an Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook or Sony Reader Touch of your choice (loaded with Trapdoor Books, of course)!

Here’s how it works. Solve a Trapdoor Puzzle Challenge from The Griddle (see below for links to the puzzles so far), then email your solution to Chris at cmatney@trapdoorbooks.com. If your solution is correct, you’ll receive a reply with a one-use “secret code” back to you.

Check out the details here.

And Remember: You can still purchase the e-book version of CyberKill for your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iPhone and iPad!

And by the way, if you like to read out of the ordinary fiction, sign up for Trapdoor Books newsletter and stay on top of the best of ‘geek’ fiction. If this interests you, join the Trapdoor community.

That’s it. Cheers until next month – Frank