writing

But Really, What Format?

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

As a writer, I find my use of format almost automatic.  This book is only an ebook, this book ebook then print, my print always 6”x9”, and so on.  I’ve recently been experimenting with zines and magazines, which is refreshing for getting me slightly outside my comfort zone.

When I speak about writing, I can easily rattle off the usual formatting advice.  This as an ebook, this as a picture book, audiobooks can be great but are risks, etc.  There’s so much that is “the usual,” and I didn’t see it until I read Joe Biel’s People’s Guide to Publishing.

In time I’ve come to realize that a lot of us writers choose formats for any reason but actually meeting the goals we have.  There’s so much expected, so much taught rote, and so much that supposedly works I don’t think many of we writers put thought into what format works best.

For instance, for years I focused on my worldbuilding eBooks.  They were fast, easy, and I figured the books were a quick read.  It was much later when I looked at physical book sales and considered how my audience may want to reread that I considered physical copies.  I could imagine half a shelf taken up in an indie bookstore with just my stuff.  I imagined how people might gift five or six of my small books to a friend.

But I just did ebooks because, uh . . . well simple stuff is supposed to be ebooks, right?  I didn’t ask the questions we should all be asking:

What are my goals?

What does my audience want?

The formats we choose should reflect those goals – and honestly, your goals should be first.  I mean if you don’t want to physically format a 200 page color photobook I sort of get it.  But at least consider it.

When it comes to formats, we writers should ask what really meets our goals.  Yes, you could format a book on Amazon, but if you’re only going to sell local maybe just print off 100 copies at a local shop.  You could do an elaborate print book, but maybe your audience wouldn’t pay $75.00 for it – but would love a $10 ebook.  Maybe, as Biel noted (and inspired me) you just want to do a zine, or a magazine, or something else.

You also don’t have to do every format.  I’m thrilled we’re in an age where people have stopped saying everyone needs to do an audiobook.  Sure you probably want an ebook and a physical book, but maybe not – and maybe not hardcover and softcover or whatever.

This was a refreshing realization.  As I plan the next stages of my writing career now that I’m like 40 books and more in, it helps me see many more options ahead of me.  Free of “format assumption” I can see the many choices I have.

I just have to make sure I am really aware of my goals.

Steven Savage

Remembering Good Enough

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

My latest book Think Agile, Write Better is in its final read-through, and I’ll be formatting it for e-book next week.  This book has been through many edits to get it right, but my biggest challenge lately was to realize that “it’s good enough.”

I’d gotten into an “editing binge” when one pre-reader found some flaws with first third of the book.  I went through the suggestions carefully, rewrote them again, kept going, and kept looking for what else to fix.  I knew there had to be more to do.

That’s when the same friend read it and said basically “ok, seems solid” which surprised me because I’d expected yet more to fix.  I’d gotten into a habit of editing and looking for flaws, not realizing if the book was “good enough.”

It’s easy to get into the zone where you edit, edit, and edit some more.  Looking for flaws leads you to find more flaws, and sometimes even imagine them or second guess yourself.  You can get to the mental place where your book will never be “good enough” because you can’t recognize it and aren’t even looking for it.

There I was, with what was basically a finished book and I didn’t even know it.

I think there’s a skill to recognizing a book is done, a skill with two facets.

The first facet of the skill is to recognize that a book is good enough on a technical and content level.  This mix of organization, intuition, empathy, and technical knowledge is one that a good author just develops over time.  I don’t think it’s one you can train in, more one you get to by just doing it.

The second facet of the skill is psychological –to be in the mental space to recognize that a work is complete.  Based on the experience of myself and fellow authors, this “skill facet” of being in the right mental space to say “done” is less common than the ability to see the work is done.  Many of us have met authors with it what is clearly a finished work that authors clearly can’t stop editing.

I can relate.  I still rethink past writing, but there is a time just to realize it’s good enough and move on.  If one doesn’t move on, one will never publish what they’re working on, let alone publish anything else.

I’m glad I caught that moment of being in the mental space of not seeing “good enough,” as it not only kept me moving but it was also a good reminder to move on.

I might not know what’s next, but at least I know there will be a next.  All because I could say “good enough.”

Steven Savage

40 Versions Of Me

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

(Thanks to Serdar for the idea.)

  1. There’s a me who became a comedian.
  2. There’s a me who became a minister and then lost his faith.
  3. There’s a me who became a minister and then lost his heart.
  4. There’s a me who became a tutor.
  5. There’s a me who churns out hack SF at a rapid pace.
  6. There’s a me who collects obscure sci-fi and fantasy movies.
  7. There’s a me who designed psychotronic devices.
  8. There’s a me who designs artificial limbs.
  9. There’s a me who did documentation for video games.
  10. There’s a me who didn’t live to see eighteen.
  11. There’s a me who does neurological research and hates it.
  12. There’s a me who joined a cult.
  13. There’s a me who founded a cult.
  14. There’s a me who got a Computer Science Degree and vanished into a government job.
  15. There’s a me who got deep into indie bands and ran their newsletters.
  16. There’s a me who has a nursing degree.
  17. There’s a me who has only worked in a University setting but isn’t an educator.
  18. There’s a me who helped a company dominate their industry, and I never realized what I did.
  19. There’s a me who is a crotchety old programmer.
  20. There’s a me who is a damn good Executive Admin.
  21. There’s a me who is a humor columnist since my college days.
  22. There’s a me who is a life coach.
  23. There’s a me who is a professional writer – of anything.
  24. There’s a me who is a social worker.
  25. There’s a me who is a therapist
  26. There’s a me who launched an anime fan magazine.
  27. There’s a me who manages video game programmers.
  28. There’s a me who programmed video games.
  29. There’s a me who still works in banking and likes it, for some reason
  30. There’s a me who supports expensive laboratory devices.
  31. There’s a me who was never married.
  32. There’s a me who works in the RPG industry.
  33. There’s a me who writes weird, surrealist fiction.
  34. There’s a me who wrote – and maybe still writes – indie comics.
  35. There’s a me who’s a dual citizen in Canada.
  36. There’s a me who’s a professor of some kind.
  37. There’s a me who just realized what he’s done with his life.
  38. There’s a me who likes himself more.
  39. There’s a me who likes myself less.
  40. There’s a me who never writes things like this list.

What are 40 versions of you I should know?

Steven Savage