BOOK COLLABORATIONS - GUEST INTERVIEW WITH EILEEN BELL, RYAN McFADDEN, and BILLIE MILHOLLAND of THE PUZZLE BOX

I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE INTERESTING TO INTERVIEW THE APOCALYPTIC FOUR, which includes Eileen Bell, Ryan McFadden, Billie Milholland, and Randy McCharles on how they have collaborated on the books they have. Randy is extremely busy at the moment, organizing When Words Collide, one of my favorite conventions which occurs this August in Calgary, but Eileen, Ryan, and Billie give us a good glimpse into the challenges of writing as a group. Their book, The Puzzle Box, has been nominated for an Aurora award under Best English Related Work as have On Spec and Suzenyms. These are the questions I put to them about working collaboratively:

1). How did/do you come up with a central premise? Is this also collaborative, or does someone come up with an idea and invite others to contribute?

Eileen: With The Puzzle Box, we all pitched different ideas for the central premise to each other, and then duked it out until we’d decided on one. Which was harder than you'd think.

Ryan: The problem with collaborative writing is obviously needing to develop a consensus. With two people, it's fairly straightforward. But throw in a third person, then a fourth, it can be tough. One of the strengths of collaborative writing is obviously the differing viewpoints...which can make developing a central premise extremely challenging. For Women of the Apocalypse, I was late to the game so I was simply told the premise. Easy. You want to write with us, these are the rules. There wasn't much arguing on my behalf. For The Puzzle Box we were trying to develop a concept that would allow us to explore the genres and themes without too many restrictions. But each of us had our different view of what would be exciting (ideas tossed around were Carl Yung's Red Book or the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band album cover). In the end, we went with something very simple. We decided that the concept should be easy to explain - in other words: make the stories the sexy part.

Billie: Coming up with a central premise that satisfies the perspective of each person is impossible. Just because we've done it more than once doesn't make it possible. LOL!! It's messy and undemocratic. We bash ideas around, each of us rejecting what we can't imagine doing until one of us digs our feet in and works to convince the others. Somehow, we settle. I'm not convinced it's really consensus, but I guess that's the closest word for what happens.

2). How do you manage to keep the vision of what you're trying to do clear?

Eileen: We try to keep the lines of communication open.

Ryan: For the Edge SF&F releases, there was no boss. So we really needed a simple concept to prevent some crazy results. While there can be some bickering, crying, and wailing, in the end we don't really work in a democratic process (otherwise, one person could always be outvoted), we really tried to come to consensus on the major issues.  

Billie: What Ryan said.

3). What are the difficulties in working in tandem?

Eileen: Once the central premise was chosen, there were few real problems. The worst was probably the fact that all of us were very busy people, so finding the time to talk face to face about what we were doing was hard to do. Thank goodness for email!

Ryan: Again, with no project manager, if we had four writers that didn't work well together, the project would've collapsed on itself. Already, we had four wildly divergent writing styles and the results from each novella are quite different.

Billie: Finding time to give good feedback to three other writers was hard, but necessary. You can't fluff off when working collaboratively. So many times I wished the others lived next door, so we could do a coffee thing, often... dig deep, mess around, and then get back to it.

4). How do you edit your work? Do you keep it amongst yourselves, or get outside feedback over and above the writers involved?

Eileen: We keep it to ourselves. There were three rounds of editing, and each of us edited a different story for each round. First edit was the big stuff - story, character, etc. With each edit we focussed more, until the last edit was basically a line edit for typos and other minor errors.

Ryan: We kept it to ourselves. Not because we didn't trust anyone else (I don't believe), but only because we have our own built-in writer's group. Luckily, we're proficient at self editing. After that, the stories were passed downstream (I read Eileen's first, Billie read mine first, Randy read Billie's first, and Eileen read Randy's first) so we each were the first reader on one person's story. Broad strokes on the first edit (characterizations, plot). The stories were handed back - corrections made - then they were handed to the next person in line. The edits became more line oriented now. Each pass honed in more on the writing and less on the story. Finally, the whole project was assembled - then we each went through and began the copy editing process.

Billie: What they said...plus, I use outside feedback near the end (my husband). He's the cliché police, the inconsistency finder.

5). When you pitched the idea to Edge, did you pitch the idea first, or did you submit a finished manuscript? In other collaborative works that you've done (Women of the Apocalypse, Seven Deadly Sins) was it the same approach?

Eileen: We pitched the idea before writing a word. However, we did have history with Brian Hades, through Women of the Apocalypse (WofA) and Seven Deadly Sins (7DS), so we felt a little more comfortable with pitching a concept rather than a completed manuscript. This wasn't a guaranteed sale, of course. Pitching this way kept us out of the slush pile.

Ryan: I wasn't involved with WotA or the 7DS pitch sessions so I can't comment on those. But for The Puzzle Box, we spoke with Edge SF&F before submitting the finished manuscript. It was written on spec - there was no guarantee it would be purchased. However, Edge SF&F indicated it was a project, if executed properly, they would be interested in pursuing.

Billie: 7DS was a serendipitous accident. WoA was our attempt at adding a twist to another significantly familiar theme.

6). What do you feel each of you brought to the completed work? Do you have differing styles, and if so, how do you tie the whole thing together so there is consistency to the story?

Ryan: Tying it together was a challenge. Our writing styles vary drastically as did the plot lines. It was a fun exercise for Eileen and I to sit down and try to somehow tie four stories together. 

Eileen: What Ryan said.

Billie: Our styles are very different. We don't even read the same things. We had a brief intro scenario for WoA, but then we heard from people that they wanted to know what happened to the character they got to know in that first scene. That's what we tried to do with The Puzzle Box. Eileen and Ryan had the vision and the stamina to sew the four divergent stories together. They deserve a medal.

7). What advice would you give to anyone else who might be thinking of collaborating on a book?

Eileen: I never in a million years thought I’d ever collaborate on a book - and here I am with number three! I guess the first thing would be: can you talk honestly to everyone in the group about their writing? If you can’t, don’t do it. Secondly, make certain everyone’s in it for the same reason - to build the best book you can. If there is anyone in the mix who is only in it for themselves, forget it. And third: remember, producing a collaboration takes as long - or longer - than work you write yourself. If you can’t imagine dealing with your collaborators for the next two or three years, take a pass. (Ooh, look at me, listing all the ways to say, “No!”) In other words, look long and hard at what you’re about to do before you write word one. If you still think it’s a good idea, then go for it. But remember: consensus is the name of the game.

Ryan: That's a tough one. I doubt it's for everyone. I didn't think it would be for me. But Eileen and I have actually co-written together on several projects now. The framing story for The Puzzle Box we wrote together. We hash out story lines, then one of us goes and writes parts of a first draft, then the other comes in and mangles it into a second draft, and so on. At its core, collaboration requires respect - and the ideal of reaching a common goal. 

Billie: My advice...don't do it. Unless, of course, you are an undying optimist, have the patience of Job, and truly understand the old saw - don't sweat the small stuff. Except for the true guts of your story, it's all small stuff. Ryan is right, collaboration requires respect and trust. There's no room for petty bickering.

8). Would you, personally, collaborate again?

Eileen: Right now, no. But that’s because my first novel is coming out at the end of the year, so I’m pretty caught up in my own stuff. However, if the project sounds interesting...I could be convinced!

Ryan: I would. Depending on the project. It can be challenging, but it can also really make something wonderful. For instance, Eileen often helps me work through some of the broad strokes with ideas. We seem to be in sync with a lot of concepts so it's great working through plots and characters. Billie and I, however, usually come at a story from different directions. When a story is broken, or I have doubts, Billie will usually have the solution for me. Randy writes for more of a dark (twisted?) sense of humour so he brings yet another perspective.

Billie: I would, if the project was intriguing enough. The styles of the other writers don't have to be similar to mine, but one thing I've learned is important to me is that we share a similar world view.

Eileen's Bio: Eileen Bell (also known as E.C. Bell) has had her short fiction published in magazines and several anthologies, including the double Aurora Award winning Women of the Apocalypse (Absolute XPress) and the Aurora winning Bourbon and Eggnog. The Puzzle Box (EDGE Books Publishing) a collaborative novel she wrote with Billie Milholland, Randy McCharles, and Ryan McFadden, came out in August, 2013. Her first ‘I wrote this myself’ novel, Seeing the Light, will be available in November, 2014, through Tyche Books. When she’s not writing, she’s living a fine life in her round house (that's in a perpetual state of renovation) with her husband, her two dogs, and her ever hungry goldfish. Find Eileen online at: http://www.eileenbell.com/,  
Billie's Bio: Promoting community events and artistic projects on a shoe string is where Billie first learned to use innovation and surprise in order to be noticed above the sensory overload of this tech-dense era. She has had success with marketing both fiction and non-fiction over the last 20 years. Most recently, she is promoting The Puzzle Box (Aug 2013), a collaborative novel that contains her novella Autumn Unbound – an unravelling of what happens to Pandora after she was blamed for opening Zeus’s forbidden box, and The Urban Green Man (Aug 2013), a short story anthology containing her story, Green Man, She Restless – a near-future revelation of what happens to a scientist after she's imprisoned by a megalithic GMO conglomerate.
Ryan's Bio: Ryan McFadden is an award-winning author in London, Ontario. A full e-reader convert, he now uses his powers to help code books for publishers and authors. When he's not writing or coding, he's busy breaking and fixing homes with his renovation company, Revival Renovations. His novella, Ghost in the Machine, has been nominated for an Aurora award in the Short Fiction category. In 2010, he was part of the Aurora-winning Women of the Apocalypse. His recent publications include stories in Evolve 2, When the Villain Comes Home, Blood and Water, the 10th Circle Project, and Expiration Date. He is busy working on his next project in the always popular Neo-Noir Supernatural Crime Thriller category. Follow him at http://ryanmcfadden.com

QUICK TRICKS FOR THAT FINAL EDIT: GUEST POST by EILEEN BELL

AT THE PURE SPECULATION FESTIVAL,  I had the pleasure of sharing a Pure Spec Idol* panel with Eileen Bell (Barb Galler-Smith, Sandra Wong, and Billie Milholland were also part of our crew). During the panel, Eileen had some great things to say about the editing tricks she uses, so I asked her right then (nothing like putting her on the spot) if she'd do a guest post for Suzenyms. Eileen's a good friend; she said 'yes'. I'm happy to share her editing tips here, with you. 

BY THE TIME YOU GET TO THE FINAL EDITING STAGE of your manuscript, you've probably looked at it a hundred times and are heartily sick of it. You’ve used spell check, and you’re pretty sure there aren’t any other mistakes. Really though, you just want the thing to go away. 

In a perfect world, this is when you put the manuscript in a drawer for a while. When you look at it again, days or weeks or even months later, you’ll see the mistakes. The typos, double words, formatting problems, and the nasty way your main character’s name changed from Sally to Sylvia, and then back to Sally. In other words, you’ll see your work with fresh eyes. But what do you do if you don’t have the luxury of time? You fool your eyes into seeing your work in a fresh, new way, so you can catch those errors you just don’t see anymore. This can be done in four (sort of) easy steps: 

1. Find all the words you use far too often. They may be weasel words** (words that either serve no purpose, or show there might be a problem in your writing) or they might just be your new favorite words. (I got hooked on the word “cool” while I was writing a manuscript, and when I searched, I found out I’d used it 55 times. Really.) Everybody has them, and now is the time to root them out. 

Use the search function to find out how many of these favorite words you have, and how many times you’ve used them. You might have to give yourself a minute to get over the shock and horror of some of the numbers that pop up, but after that, go through your manuscript and either remove or replace these words, one at a time. DON’T just search and remove all of them at one go, because some might be fine where they are. This is the time to decide.

2. Once all the extra words are gone, it’s time to look for the tiny mistakes still strewn through your manuscript. If you have a proofreading function in your writing program, use it. It will catch some of the errors. Then, go over the manuscript again, and this time, change up the look so any mistakes that are left will pop out at you. 

If you edit on your computer, try using a different font, or a different color. Change the size of the page. I use the Zoom function on my writing program and make the page twice as large as usual. I can really see the typos and other mistakes this way.

Try reading your manuscript from the last page to the first. This trick breaks up the story so it can’t pull you in. This way, you can concentrate on the words—and the mistakes. 

Print out a hard copy, and edit it the old fashioned way. This is remarkably effective, because it  changes the medium (paper, not computer screen) and how you look at it (down at the pages, not up at your screen). You’ll be surprised at what you catch. 

I highly recommend reading your manuscript out loud. Every time you stutter, or slow down, recognize that there’s a problem. If you see what the problem is, fix it immediately. If you only know that there is a problem, mark it in some way (I use highlighting) so you can go back to it and fix it later. And if you ever catch yourself saying, “What I really meant was...” it’s time to rewrite that section. 

This should eliminate most of the mistakes you can see. This leaves the ones you can’t. 

3. Check for correct spacing between words, and between sentences. I use the “View Invisibles” function on my writing program, which shows me, with a nice little blue dot, every time I’ve pressed the space bar. It might seem silly, but I always find double and even triple spaces where there should only be one. And sometimes, I find other formatting issues, and I can fix them, too. 

4. Finally, check the publisher’s guidelines one last time, to make absolutely certain you have set up the manuscript properly. Fix whatever needs fixing and then, your manuscript should be ready to go. I know. Sounds like a lot of work for tiny errors you can’t even see anymore. But here’s the deal. They HAVE to be corrected, because even though you can’t see them, your potential publisher will.

**For an in-depth look at weasel words, go to Melissa Jagears’ blog. (link to http://melissajagears.com/writer-resources/writing-helps-links/weasel-word-list/)

Eileen's Bio: Eileen Bell (also known as E.C. Bell) has had her short fiction published in magazines and several anthologies, including the double Aurora Award winning Women of the Apocalypse (Absolute XPress) and the Aurora winning Bourbon and Eggnog. The Puzzle Box (EDGE Books Publishing) a collaborative novel she wrote with Billie Milholland, Randy McCharles, and Ryan McFadden, came out in August, 2013. Her first ‘I wrote this myself’ novel, Seeing the Light, will be available in November, 2014, through Tyche Books. When she’s not writing, she’s living a fine life in her round house (that's in a perpetual state of renovation) with her husband, her two dogs, and her ever hungry goldfish. Find Eileen online at: Webpage:  http://www.eileenbell.com/, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eileen.bell.90. Twitter: https://twitter.com/ApocalypseWoman 

Eileen’s Upcoming Release: Seeing the Light is a paranormal mystery novel to be released November, 2014, by Tyche Books (http://tychebooks.com/announcing-seeing-the-light/). The book is based in Edmonton—and the Palais office building is based on the Arlington Apartments, built in Edmonton in 1909 (and home, briefly, to a serial killer!): Marie Jenner has never had much luck. Her job sucks. Her apartment – the one with the unbreakable lease – has a ghost. And worst of all, her mother won’t let up about her joining the “family business.” Since that business is moving the spirits of the dead on to the next plane of existence and doesn’t pay at all, Marie’s not interested. She wants a normal job, a normal life. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Apparently, it is. Even when she applies for the job of her dreams, Marie doesn’t get what she wants. Well, not entirely. She does get the job – but she also gets another ghost. Farley Hewitt, the newly dead caretaker of the building, wants her to prove his death isn’t an accident, and she’s pretty sure he’s going to haunt her until she does. All she wants is normal. She isn’t going to get it!

(Thanks, Eileen! Really looking forward to reading Seeing the Light when it's available!)   

* If you're not sure what Pure Spec Idol is, it runs pretty much the same way the TV show does, except contestants submit the first few pages of their manuscripts anonymously. The editors put up their hands to stop the reader from reading further, when they hit a point where they would stop reading because of a writing problem. Once three editors put their hands up, they're expected to explain why. I've been on quite a few of these, the panel is usually great fun, and contestants usually find the feedback helpful. It's also a hoot for the audience if the reader throws in a few ringers for the editors. At this last convention, Billie Milholland tossed us the opening from J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. None of us recognized it, and we all criticized it. :-) 

GUERRILLA MARKETING: PROMOTING YOUR BOOK WITHIN GLOBAL TECHNO-BABBLE - GUEST POST by BILLIE MILHOLLAND

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUEST POST BY BILLIE MILHOLLAND. I asked Billie to address how she promotes and markets her books, because, as well as being an entertaining and excellent writer, she is one of the most successful promoters I know. What I find especially helpful is that she manages to promote her work in an effective, non-invasive way. She tells me she's just scratched the surface as far as this topic goes. With luck, I can coax her to come back for a future post. 

IN AUGUST, AT WHEN WORDS COLLIDE IN CALGARY, a conversation about book promotion with a couple of new writers hit the inevitable stone wall of disbelief. “I have to promote my own work? I thought my publicist and my publisher did it.”

I’ve heard so many versions of that reaction; you’d think I’d have a canned response ready. I don’t seem to, because the level of shock, resentment, and foot-stomping resistance to this notion is unpredictable. Short answer (elevator response): yes, you do have to promote your own work. First of all, unless you're a celebrity or a well-known professional in a high-interest field, you won’t have a publicist early in your career. Secondly, small publishers have even smaller budgets for promotion. Even if you snag a big name publisher for your first work, you are still an unknown. Your slice of the publicity pie is ribbon thin. Long answer (evening-in-the-pub response): the promotion of your work begins at birth – your birth, not the birth of your book. Okay. Slight exaggeration designed to emphasize the long-term complexity of effective promotion of your literary work. Seth Godin recommends starting your promotion three years before your book comes out. Even if your magnum opus has all the ingredients of an international best seller, enough human beings have to read it for the word to get out.

According to UNESCO data from 2010, about 350,000 new titles are published yearly in North America. As of July, 2013, www.goodreads.com had 30 million members/readers. Faced with stats like these, many authors panic and go into scatter-shot mode. “Aaah! Gotta get to as many readers as possible in the shortest amount of time before I lose the edge.” This often translates into a litany of “Buy my book! Buy my book!” all over Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, and, yes, even e-mail. 

Harnessing social media to call attention to your new publication is essential, but using it as a bullhorn will only annoy people. We are all subject to sensory over-load from social media, and consequently have developed tune-out responses to 'buy-this-look-at-me' noise.The key directive to remember when using social media to get people to read your book? Be Authentic. Notice I said, ‘read’ your book, not ‘buy’ your book. When you’re first published, friends, family, and colleagues will buy your new book, but not all of them will read it. From this early built-in fan base, you need to spread out and find your real readers, strangers – folks who want to read what you write. No matter what combination of social media you choose to use, it still comes down to the old adage – one reader at a time. Social media is built through relationships. Building real relationships is the only sustainable way to increase readership.

Your job is to get your work in the hands of as many people as you can. Traditional marketing of anything is costly. It requires advertising, press releases, and an endless variety of selling techniques. It is essentially an arm’s length process. Guerrilla marketing, on the other hand, is up close and personal. It’s where you include people you’ve met at conferences, sports events, music festivals, online. Not people you've just exchanged business cards with, people you've had a conversation with, shared something that was not your-book related. Guerrilla marketing is where you do the unexpected, create surprises, encourage people to have fun. 

One of the best and most recent examples of guerrilla marketing that I’ve witnessed was a campaign by an Edmonton writer who wanted to go into outer space. Hal Friesen wasn’t marketing a book, but everything he did could be done by an enterprising writer trying to draw attention to an upcoming book. It’s worth your time becoming his friend and scrolling back past September 10, 2013 on his Facebook page to study his 167 days in a space suit. Or, visit his website to get the shortened version of his incredible marketing journey. Of course, now that he has a book to market, he is well on his way toward establishing relationships with a broad spectrum of potential readers.

Guerrilla marketing includes finding ways to cross-promote with other writers. Find out who else in your community has had something published about the same time as your publication. Invite them to share a panel discussion with you at a library event, share a table at a seasonal community event, exchange blog posts. 

Book launch promotion is often under-exploited. At a traditional book launch, a writer stands like a preacher before an audience trapped in chairs. The mood is church-solemn; the writer drones on, reading long passages from the work in question. There are many ways to defeat this tradition. Turn your launch from a class lecture to a casual visit with your readers at your kitchen table or in your favourite watering hole. Create an atmosphere that encourages enjoyment for the passage(s) you plan to read. 

o   If the story is set in real geography, show photos and tell a few focused anecdotes about the place(s).

o   If the story is set in an actual time period, share some interesting trivia from that era that relates directly to what happens in your story.

o   Share some of the interesting adventures you had while researching your book (people you met, unusual facts you discovered). 

·     Read briefly. If you are attached to reading a long passage, break it up and intersperse your reading with interesting trivia about your writing journey. Read slowly. Don’t race. Make sure you know how to pronounce smoothly all the words you’ve used. Keep your chin up; when you lower your head, sound pools at your feet instead of flowing out into your audience. Practice enunciating. Most of us mumble and truncate words in casual conversation. You want your words to be clear. If your audience has to strain to hear what you say, listening fatigue will make them tune you out. They will take to checking their watches instead of anticipating your next phrases. Smile. These are your friends and supporters. You don’t want them to think you’re not pleased that they’ve come out. Thank those who came out and those who helped do anything at all toward your event. Of course, this is only useful if you’ve written a compelling book, but that’s a topic for other discussions, many of which have already been explored on this blog.

ABOUT BILLIE MILHOLLAND: Promoting community events and artistic projects on a shoe string is where Billie first learned to use innovation and surprise in order to be noticed above the sensory overload of this tech-dense era. She has had success with marketing both fiction and non-fiction over the last 20 years. Most recently, she is promoting The Puzzle Box (Aug 2013), a collaborative novel that contains her novella Autumn Unbound – an unravelling of what happens to Pandora after she was blamed for opening Zeus’s forbidden box, and The Urban Green Man (Aug 2013), a short story anthology containing her story, Green Man, She Restless – a near-future revelation of what happens to a scientist after she's imprisoned by a megalithic GMO conglomerate.