Author's Bill of Rights

By Andrew E. Kaufman

How Much Time Should I Give Other Authors?

It’s a question I often ask. The truth is, I’d help everyone if I could, because I know how overwhelming being (or becoming) an author can be. I also know how frustrating it is to feel excited about my work, and then struggle to get others to feel the same enthusiasm. By nature, I like to give just as much as receive and find equal joy in both. Besides, I truly love meeting other writers. We are a community, and I enjoy being a part of it.

But with that comes another set of issues: part of it is time; the other is that these days, it feels like there are almost as many people writing books as reading them. 

And it seems the busier I get with my career, the less time I have, with even less of it to enjoy activities in my personal life. Since I signed with a publisher, I’m no longer my own boss. Now there are deadlines set by others that I’m obligated to meet. There are conference calls with my editor, with promotions people, and with my agent. My time doesn’t seem to belong to me as much as it once did.

Despite this, I still want to offer other authors help when they ask for it. I’ve just learned to recognize my limitations. Since my writing and my readers have to come first, I can’t provide everyone with everything they need. I can only do my best, but I have to accept that my best will not always be what I’d like.

So in setting these priorities, I’ve made some decisions, devising a Personal Author’s Bill of Rights. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Amendment 1: Reading Requests/Endorsements/Beta Reads

I have the right to refuse reading or endorsing another author's book when asked.

This was the toughest one for me. I feel bad saying no. It’s not that I don’t want to read another author’s book—it’s that next to writing a novel, reading one is a huge time investment. I usually read at bedtime, but sometimes that only lasts a few minutes before I pass out.

I will occasionally break this rule if I know an author well enough (and their work), and even then, it depends on whether my schedule will permit. But I’ve run into trouble there as well. I’ve made promises, only to find I’m not able to follow through when my workload becomes too overwhelming. So, as much as I hate to say no to a friend (and suffer the ill effects of that decision) I’ve decided it’s far worse to say yes, and then not be able to deliver. The guilt is colossal.

Amendment 2: Offering Advice.

I will always answer emails from authors who ask for advice and try my best to do so in a timely manner.

With limits, that is. If I feel I can answer a question, I will—unfortunately, how much information I’m able to provide depends on the question, and anything requiring an in-depth outline or pages of explanation simply isn’t manageable. But I do try to do my best and be as helpful as possible, and I also apologize when I can’t.  I don’t always have to give advice, but I do feel an obligation to be kind to everyone.

Amendment 3: Promoting Other Authors’ Books on Social Media and Beyond.

I will gladly promote other authors’ books that:

1) I know and trust deliver quality content

2) I know (period).

But even with that, I’ve started to feel I need to clearly state when I haven't read a book I’m promoting, because it feels unfair to readers otherwise. Then the question arises: how do I enthusiastically recommend a book I’ve never read? Haven’t figured that one out yet.

Amendment 4: Appearing as a Guest on Blogs/ Doing Interviews

 I will always make time to be a guest on blogs (time permitting) and will gladly do interviews.

This applies to all of them, no matter how big or small, because I’m honored to be asked, and because they’re doing me a favor by showing interest (Not the other way around).

Amendment 5: Appearing at Writers' Gatherings

I will always say yes (Time and geography permitting) in order to encourage other authors.

 

See above—same reason, and because when I first started out, I never had the benefit of getting advice from experienced authors, and I know what a big difference it would have made if I did. Besides, as I've mentioned, I love meeting other writers, and I benefit from that just as much as they might.

Have I left anything out? And what about you? Both writers and readers: how do you manage time constraints when the requirements of everyday life seem to get in the way?

The Ends Justify the Means

A guest post by Hank Philippi Ryan.


Guilty, guilty, guilty. Yes, I’m guilty, and here, since it’s just us, I will confess to it.

Sometimes I read the end of a mystery first.

Okay, not completely first. I’ll read the first chapter, and then, read the end. (Don’t groan! Don’t hiss at me and click to another article. Listen. It’s for a reason. And I do go back and read the whole book.)

Before I started writing mysteries, I didn’t read the end first. In the time before
Prime Time, I read mysteries and thrillers and suspense just the way authors hoped I would. Starting at the beginning in a really good book, turning the pages as fast as I could, and then getting to the end at, well, the end. And that method of reading, time honored, was completely successful.

Then (at age 55, so all of you who want to write but thinking: it’s too late for me—well, it’s not) I started writing Prime Time. I had no idea what I was doing, so I powered along, happily typing and churning out pages. Outline? NO way, la dee dah, I was a pantser before I even know what a pantser was. Writing by the seat of my pants. But I figured I knew the story, and who got killed, and how, and who the bad guy was, and certainly, as a result, the ending. I absolutely knew where this book was going.

So one night, late, lying in bed, I was, of course, thinking about the book. I was about half-way through Prime Time, maybe 40,000 words. And I had been dipping into a how-to book by G. Miki Hayden. In it, she suggests an exercise where you try out each character as the villain. The point, she said, was to get a deeper view of your characters’ relationships with each other. That made sense to me, and seemed like a fun idea to try.

On the other hand, it also seemed like a waste of time, because I knew who my bad guy was.

But, sleepless in Boston, I gave it a shot. “Person A as the bad guy,” I mused. No, that wouldn’t work. Person B as the bad guy. Hmm. Nope, that wouldn’t work. Person C as the bad guy—nope, that wouldn’t—wait.

Wait. A. Minute.

My brain started racing, careening through my manuscript, checking chapters and mentally turning the pages as fast as I could. Had I—chosen the wrong bad guy? Had I—written half the book thinking I knew whodunit—and was I wrong?

I couldn’t believe it. I tried to talk myself out of it (luckily my husband was asleep) but the reality was staring me in the face.

I had chosen the wrong bad guy. It was all I could do not to run down to the study and bang open the computer and pull up the half-done manuscript and check.

The next morning, I realized I was right. To change the ending to the new (and real) villain, all I had to do was change—ah, maybe four of the thousands of words I had already written. The bad guy was already there, lurking in the pages, guilty. I just hadn’t noticed it. And I wrote the thing!

Talk about a surprise ending. I had surprised myself!

By the time I got to writing The Other Woman, I learned to let go. I had no idea about the twists and turns along the way. It’s a thriller, right? And there were plenty of thrills for me along the way as I discovered—as you will!—what the story turned out to be. If I had known at the beginning what would happen, the book would be completely different. Because that ending I thought I knew would have pulled me along—and not let the magic of the story create its own true ending.

It’s gotten me thinking about endings. How, in a well-written mystery or thriller, something about the ending is right there in the beginning. It has to be. That the book is a cohesive whole, every little individual word of it creating the big picture. And when the author brings you to a terrific, original, unique ending, it makes the whole book work. The puzzle pieces rearrange, right? And you say: oh, now I see what the author was doing!

Shutter Island. Murder on the Orient Express. The Sixth Sense. Whether you like them or not, knowing the ending would make you read the book or see the movie in a different way, right? You would see the clues, you would see the foreshadowing, you would understand what techniques the authors used to fool the reader and how they lure the reader into believing one way—when reality is another. How they play fair—or how they don’t.

Knowing the ending, and reading “for” it, is a wonderful learning experience for me. It lets me reverse- engineer the story and the writing, and understand all the techniques that come into play.

And frankly, it allows me to take more time to enjoy it. When I was reading the new Think of A Number, I realized I was turning pages so quickly to find the secret, I wasn’t really “reading” the words. So—another confession—I asked my husband to just tell me what happened.


I’m not telling you what happened, he said, astonished. That would spoil the whole thing!

No, I said. Not knowing is spoiling it.

So he told me. And it was good. And then I read it, more slowly and even more appreciatively, because I knew what was coming.

And that is why, fellow readers and authors forgive me, I sometimes flip to the end. And then start at the beginning. Yes, I am guilty. Are you, too?

PS. Okay, fine. Do NOT read the last page of The Other Woman first. Still, even if you do—you won’t know exactly what happens. So go ahead. I dare you. And we’re giving away a first edition (they’re all gone!) of The Other Woman to one lucky commenter!




Hank Phillippi Ryan is the on-the-air investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate. Her work has resulted in new laws, people sent to prison, homes removed from foreclosure, and millions of dollars in restitution. Along with her 28 EMMYs, Hank’s won dozens of other journalism honors. She’s been a radio reporter, a political campaign staffer, a legislative aide in the United States Senate and an editorial assistant at Rolling Stone magazine working with Hunter S. Thompson.

Her first mystery, the best-selling Prime Time, won the Agatha for Best First Novel. Face Time was a BookSense Notable Book, and Air Time and Drive Time were nominated for the Agatha and Anthony Awards. Hank’s short story “On the House” won the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity.

Her newest thriller, The Other Woman, is already a bestseller and in a second printing. A starred review from Library Journal says “a dizzying labyrinth of twists, turns, and surprises. Readers who crave mystery and political intrigue will be mesmerized by this first installment of her new series.” The Booklist starred review calls it “A perfect thriller…” It is an Indie Next Great Read, an RT Top Pick, and is being translated into three foreign editions.

Hank is on the board of MWA and is president of National Sisters in Crime. 


Please visit  Stuff and Nonsense today for a review of Ms. Ryan's latest novel, The Other Woman.

Writing What You Know

A guest post by author Natalie R. Collins.

When I was six years old, a man pointed a gun at me and told me take off my clothes or he would kill me.

I think that at some point everybody takes a moment to look back at their life, wondering, “Now how did I get here?” How did I become a writer of dark suspense and crime thrillers? I know that one of the pivotal points for me was this event: being held at gunpoint at six years old. Some friends, my sister and I were playing on some wooded property when a man started yelling at us, threatening to kill us. He was hidden behind some bushes, and my sister pushed me down inside the crevice of a rock so I would be safe. I will always remember that. 

She was eight years old, and she stood up to this man with a gun. He told us to take our clothes off, or he would kill us. And she bravely said “No, we won’t. You’re going to have to kill us.” 

This went on for a while, and she refused while the rest of us cowered in fear. He shot the gun in the air to prove how serious he was, but she wasn’t budging. 

Finally, he gave up and told us to run, and not look back. I remember I lost my shoes, but I wasn’t stopping. He said don’t look back and I didn’t. 

We ran to our house and told my dad what had happened, and for some reason, he didn’t seem to believe us. So, rather than call the police, he put all four of us in the car and drove us up to the same place where we had just been terrorized. And as we pulled in a man in camo with a gun came walking out of wooded area. That changed everything. My dad questioned him, and he denied it all, but there he was. With a gun. In the woods where we had just been threatened. 

So the police were finally called. I remember they came to our house, and all four of us waited in the basement for our turn to be interviewed. I don’t really remember the interview. I don’t really remember much past the day I was told the local church leaders had asked for charges to be dropped because he had just married and had a baby. And charges WERE dropped. He did not go to jail. At least not at that time. My mother told me years later that he did end up in prison, which is no surprise. 

But it was that moment, that dichotomy of events—Church power vs. Municipal power—that made me question both my childhood religion and how things were handled by authorities, most of whom were also Mormon. And even deeper, why Mormon families allowed it to happen. 

My friend, a retired detective, worked for a while in Farmington, Utah, where this happened, and she assured me it was done all the time. It made her sick, and eventually she left that local force and went to Salt Lake City which was a bit more diverse and less ruled by religion.

Now, I’ve long gotten past this event, and I wrote about it in my book WIVES AND SISTERS, but what I haven’t gotten past is my interest in religion and crime—murder--and the way they interact. Religion seems to be a catalyst for a lot of bloody crimes. Is it easier to commit a crime if you are convinced you are doing it in the name of God? I’ve wondered this as we watch events like the murder of Lori Hacking, by her husband Mark. Or the BTK Killer, Dennis Rader, who as an active member of the Christ Lutheran Church. We watched planes fly into the World Trade Center as terrorists gave their lives for glory and virgins and “Allah.” 

Brian David Mitchell kidnapped Elizabeth Smart so he could have another bride. He was following the original teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. 

In some hands, religion is more dangerous than a loaded gun. 

And I began exploring it when I wrote. Every time I think there won’t be another story to tell, along comes another one.

And it doesn’t mean I hate Mormons, or want to hurt them. I like Mormons. Some of my best friends are Mormon. But there is something about the violent and bloody teachings of early Mormonism that triggers a switch in some degenerate brains. Brains like those of Mark Hoffman, who was committing fraud, and killed innocent people to try to cover it up. 

I am currently writing my fourth book for St. Martin’s (tentatively titled Death Angel), and I don’t know if there will be more or not. I can’t say, because I don’t know. What I do know is there are stories that need to be told, and I am glad I got the opportunity to tell them. 

And now I will also have an opportunity to go back and spend some time writing more Jenny T. Partridge Dance Mysteries. So much fun to write. So many pyscho dance moms. The drama never ends….

Natalie R. Collins has ten published books, several others in various stages of publishing, and is currently working on her next one… or two… or three. She has dabbled in both dark suspense and cozy mysteries, and is happy to be able to work in both genres.
In addition to writing for Binary Press Publications, and Sisterhood Publications, she has written for Penguin Putnam, Thompson Gale, and still currently has a contract with St. Martin’s Press. Her third book, TIES THAT BIND, was just released.
Her critically acclaimed WIVES AND SISTERS received excellent reviews, including one from Kirkus, calling Collins “…a talent to watch.”
Natalie lives in Southern Utah with her husband Jeff, and two spoiled  dogs.

Crimes in Time

A guest post by J.J. Murphy. 

In Woody Allen’s recent Oscar-nominated movie, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, a fancy old car swoops down a narrow, cobblestone side street. The car picks up Owen Wilson’s character in current-day Paris and whisks him magically, without explanation, back to the City of Light in the Roaring 20s.

Wilson’s character, Gil, a hack Hollywood screenwriter, is stunned when he meets the literary giants of the Lost Generation—Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, as well as Cole Porter, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. Now, Gil is torn—does he pursue the romance of the Lost Generation, or does he forgo it as a dream and make the most of his current modern life?

Fortunately for us, we don’t have to make that kind of a choice. With fantastical, fictional confections such as MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, we can have the best of both worlds. In these kinds of books and movies, we can revel in the romantic history and joie de vivre of the past, while only temporarily escaping the complexities and comforts of the present.

Another entertaining romp between the past and present is the film TIME AFTER TIME. Remember this old gem? In this time-traveling movie, Victorian-era science fiction writer H.G. Wells is showing off his time machine, when one of Wells’ party guests suddenly steals it.

This man turns out to be Jack the Ripper, who travels to 1970s San Francisco. (He makes the funny but pithy comment that, although he was a monster in old England, he’s just one of the crowd in urban America.) When the time machine returns by itself to the Victorian age, Wells follows him because he knows he’s the only one who can bring Jack the Ripper to justice. It manages to be both a fish-out-of-water tale (for Wells) as well as an enjoyable cat-and-mouse thriller.

If you like these films, you might like a fictional series that features famous literary figures of the 1920s, like MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, along with a rollicking, playful murder mystery, like TIME AFTER TIME.

Set in Prohibition-era New York, the Algonquin Round Table Mysteries has famed witty writer Dorothy Parker as something of a wisecracking, cocktail-swilling sleuth and humorist Robert Benchley as her easygoing sidekick (and possible love interest). It’s not science fiction—the only time traveling that happens is the journey that the reader takes back to the Jazz Age, where “anything goes.”

So,whether you enjoy my Algonquin Round Table Mysteries or another book or film set in days gone by, I encourage you to put down your smartphone or your laptop, and pick up a story that takes you back in time. (Hmm, if you use your smartphone or laptop to read or watch one of these tales, I guess you shouldn’t put them down after all... Again, we’re lucky we don’t have to make the choice between present and past. We can enjoy them both—and I encourage you to do so!) 

J.J. Murphy is the author of The Algonquin Round Table Mysteries. In the first book, MURDER YOUR DARLINGS, Dorothy Parker finds a rival critic, stabbed with a fountain pen, beneath the Algonquin Round Table. In the second book, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE, Dorothy enlists the help of Harry Houdini to determine why a second-rate artist apparently jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge.