tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +0000http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/timothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)Blogger440125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-4489473853758575587Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-17T00:01:00.242-06:00marketingLet’s talk about demographics and psychographics. Demographics deal with such things as sex, race, age, income, education level and location, among other things. Psychographics deal with personality, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. There’s a fuzzy line between the two, since things like sex, race, age and education level can indicate some things about a person’s attitude, but it is http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/attitudes-sell-fiction.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-8260443502853841582Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-16T00:01:00.308-06:00writingBrandilyn Collins recently wrote about lying to the reader and put her finger on what I don’t like about close third person or deep third person, as she calls it. If you look at the article, you will see that she makes a distinction between the author’s narrative and the narrative of close third, but the example paragraph is exactly the same. As writers, we may say that it is okay to lie to the http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/lying-in-fiction.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-2829981923770377937Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-15T00:01:01.201-06:00writingSome statistics that I have seen indicate that the most popular book category is mystery and suspense, with a 19% hold on the fiction market. I don’t know how old those statistics are, so it may be different now, but all we have to do is look around to see that mystery and suspense are popular. We can draw a distinction between these two, but we don’t need to, for our purposes. The story that is http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/most-popular-story.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-6819410350682529161Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:07:00 +00002009-12-14T20:07:56.325-06:00Great news! My latest book is out and available on Amazon.com. They even have the Search Inside feature turned on already. I didn’t expect it so soon, but I’m thrilled. And Thy House What’s the book about? It’s about an ordinary guy who has little use for church and has raised his daughters outside of church. He has kept them away from their mother, who is the church secretary. But http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/big-announcement.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-6479586685490272023Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-14T00:01:00.376-06:00publishing trendsI knew there was disparity between men reading fiction and women reading fiction, but I didn’t really see the situation for what it is until I saw a statistic the other day. Publisher’s Weekly was quoted as saying that of all fiction sold, 55% was bought by woman and 45% was bought by men. I really expected the gap to be much wider. Walk into any Christian bookstore and you’ll see a sea of pink. http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/somethings-not-right.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-3353145086250123429Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-11T00:01:01.190-06:00fiction friday Editor’s Note: Today for Fiction Friday, I thought I would give you a video. I know we say we prefer reading to seeing a scene in a video, but sometimes we want to see it, even if it is a little corny.http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/video-fill-in.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-4930536149202726823Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-10T00:01:10.361-06:00writingOkay, so I was over at Mike Dellosso’s blog the other day and he had this short post about possibly writing about using Fiction to Evangelize. It got me to thinking about how that can be done. If you’ve read, How to Become a Bible Character, you know that it tells the way of salvation several different times. I can’t say that I was trying to do that, but it’s just that kind of a story. And Thy http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/getting-people-lost.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-8092203634778886584Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-09T00:01:01.141-06:00writingTerry Burns recently wrote about the calling to write. Some people talk about the calling to write. When you think about it, that sort of leaves the rest of us out in the cold. Who are we to say we even have the right to call ourselves writers if others are called by God to write, but we are not?What I like about what Terry said is that he called what the rest of us do an offering. There’s an http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-called-to-write.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-3422101423305784135Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-08T00:01:00.341-06:00publishing trendsI wasn’t going to write about this, but it keeps coming up. Actually, I wrote about it once, changed my mind and deleted what I wrote, but if you haven’t heard, Harlequin continues to get blacklisted by writers’ associations. The board of the Romance Writers Association (RWA) blacklisted them several days ago and in response Harlequin change the name of their vanity press to DellArte. I’m not http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/blacklisted-publisher.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-7962161142774472076Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-07T00:01:00.281-06:00publishingPeople in the publishing industry are a bunch of liars. I was reading a literary agent’s blog the other day and she made a comment about a perfectly good book that she didn’t feel she could represent because perfectly good books don’t sell, only great books sell. Anyone who has ever picked up a book, read some number of pages and finally decided to put it down because it was just too boring, http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/great-term-shift.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-7199192584070630545Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-04T00:01:01.089-06:00fiction friday Editor’s Note: With it being time for another Fiction Friday and since my latest book will be coming out soon, I am posting the first chapter for your reading pleasure. To give you and idea of where this is headed, this is a story about a man who divorced his wife and raised his children out of church, but comes to discover that he was wrong after the girls have reached an age when he http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/first-chapter-and-thy-house.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-2180257093547109089Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-03T00:01:01.399-06:00backstorywritingNo backstory, is the mantra. It kills the story. But it keeps showing up, time and time again. Is it because we’re just all a bunch of bad writers? Maybe we just don’t see backstory as being the problem that people keep telling us it is. Maybe we just don’t understand. Whatever the case, backstory creeps in and when we consider how closely backstory is related to flashbacks, there’s an obvious http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/rationalizing-not-backstory.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-9081119022839351802Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-02T00:01:00.275-06:00publishingAnyone who has read this blog very long knows that page numbering is a pet peeve of mine. Admittedly, I almost numbered a book wrong the other day, so I understand that mistakes can be made. My real issue is with people who number a book incorrectly with no intention of trying to do it correctly. There are several publishers out there who make no distinction between the front matter and the text http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/page-numbering-revisited.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-3457411557946738301Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-12-01T00:01:02.589-06:00businessWhen we consider book sales, the thing that separates the successful good book and the unsuccessful good book is the number of people who know about it. There are a number of books out there that are well written but don’t sell well because people haven’t picked them out of the noise. I say that at the risk of sounding like I’m trying to tell you that I think my own books fall within that http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-sales-isnt-always-about-best-book.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-1840828465551084812Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-30T00:01:01.552-06:00themewritingI’ve talked about theme before on this blog, but as I look back, it was a year ago when I talked about it. To summarize what I said then, every story has a theme. The theme is what the story is about. The theme is like the statement you wish to prove through your story. For example, our theme could be that marriages would be happier if couples would forgive each other. I said that we should http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-of-theme_30.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-4464382840201424836Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-27T00:01:01.654-06:00fiction friday Editor’s Note: This being the day after Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I decided that today would be a good day to sit down with the three protagonists again. We’re sitting in Ellen’s café. It is all decked out in Christmas colors, there are strings of light and greenery that they don’t normally have and next to the staircase there is a tall Christmas tree. Shoppers are coming in carrying http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/black-friday-interview.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-7997528467944614101Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-26T00:01:00.963-06:00ThanksgivingToday is Thanksgiving, so in celebration of that event I thought I’d talk about a common misconception. Many people believe that turkeys can’t fly, but if you’ve ever seen one out in the wild then you know that is clearly not true. As the video below shows, turkeys are quite adept at flight. Okay, so they have the grace of a duck, but they can certainly fly. But you may have noticed that these http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/happy-turkey-day.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-4540568542312047894Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-25T00:01:00.206-06:00publishing trendsFear often accompanies change, so it should be no surprise that many people fear some of the changes in the publishing industry. Self-publishing appears to be the wave of the future. In fact, more books were self-published last year than were published through traditional publication. Big publishers are moving to provide self-publishing avenues. Many people fear that the market will now be http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/change.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-2599535378002685979Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:50:00 +00002009-11-24T22:09:45.646-06:00self-publishingOkay guys and gals, I’m looking for self-published novels, specifically from WestBow Press, CrossBooks Publishing and (I’m sure I’ll regret this) from Harlequin Horizons (or DellArte Press or whatever they call themselves). Authors with a book published through one of these imprints or if you are in the process of publishing a book with one of these imprints, please attempt to persuade me to readhttp://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/self-published-fiction-wanted.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-6243211358343844956Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-24T00:01:00.213-06:00writingPick one of the arts, it doesn’t matter which one, and you’ll find that it’s hard to make money at it. O, you’ll find a few people who do well, but the vast majority struggle at it. Writing is a form of art and most novelists struggle to make money at it. Painting is an art and most painters struggle to make money at it. But ironically, a skilled house painter can make a steady living without toohttp://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-its-hard-to-make-money-at-arts.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-5223560853664689290Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-23T00:01:00.173-06:00writingWe assume that our work will be scrutinized. Why would we write if we didn’t think people would read it and why would we do revisions if we thought people could discern the story from our ramblings in the first draft?  No, as we write, we assume that someone will come back later and question why we wrote something.    Of the four writer’s drafts, the third draft falls under the most scrutiny http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/worst-draft.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-2587693670686734828Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-21T00:01:01.468-06:00publishing trendsThomas Nelsonpublishing First, let me say that I’ve got nothing against Thomas Nelson. I have several of their books in my library and if they were to offer me a publishing contract, I would certainly consider it, but recently there has been some discussion about big name publishers like Thomas Nelson and Harlequin venturing off into the self-publishing business because that appears to be the wave of the future. The http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/world-without-thomas-nelson.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-6361118381078972455Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-20T00:01:00.364-06:00fiction friday How often have we heard someone say, "I'm a writer and I hope to one day be an author?" The implication is that we are all writers, but we don’t become authors until we are good enough or we get that publishing contract or whatever. My claim is that anyone who has ever written something that comes from his own creative thought is an author. The author is the originator of the literary work. So http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/from-author-to-writer.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-4576700215722207497Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-19T00:01:01.042-06:00editingOn Facebook the other day, I saw a conversation the made me think. You may have seen it too, but an author who is in the process of revising a book based on an editor's suggestions asked the question of whether it would be better to say "came barreling out of nowhere" or "barreled out of nowhere." The author had originally written "came barreling out of nowhere," but the editor had flagged it andhttp://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/strange-words.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8275104442398599121.post-8662065141477210121Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:01:00 +00002009-11-18T00:01:00.181-06:00publishing trendsFirst Thomas Nelson and now Harlequin. A short time ago, Thomas Nelson announced that they are venturing into the self-publishing market. Now, Harlequin has announced that they will do the same. What’s the difference? Thomas Nelson will be putting out Christian books and Harlequin will be putting out Romance books. To tell you the truth, this whole thing is confusing me. In both cases the http://timothyfish.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-bandwagon-jumping.htmltimothy@timothyfish.net (Timothy Fish)0