Marketing Fiction In A Changing World
Part 9
Guest Post
by
Charles Gannon
(Nebula Award Nominee)
Part 9
Guest Post
by
Charles Gannon
(Nebula Award Nominee)
Is the Charles Gannon title we'll discuss today and then hear directly from Gannon himself.
This is not a review of the contents of this book, but about its origins.
This is about Marketing Fiction in a Changing World, Part 9 in this long series, about why these Tuesday blogs are relevant now, today, and will very likely give you writing tools that will be relevant twenty or thirty years from now, to teach to the 12-year-old who hasn't been born yet -- despite technological advances in the fiction delivery system.
The previous parts of this series about Marketing Fiction In A Changing World can be found at:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2014/05/index-to-marketing-fiction-in-changing.html
Here below, Charles Gannon gives you a glimpse of the reasons why you should read the Tuesday posts on this blog.
Gannon's book FIRE WITH FIRE is making a huge impression on readers in 2014 and there's another book out in Spring, TRIAL BY FIRE. He first turned up in my sphere via STAR TREK decades ago.
He was just a kid then, but I treated his early attempt at writing a story as if he were an adult and a seasoned professional -- two barrels right between the eyes.
He took the douse of cold reality like a pro and came back with a serious game-plan.
It was a beautiful thing to behold -- and definitely demonstrated the difference between a to-be-professional-writer and a never-to-be-professional-writer.
The difference is not in the quality of the writing.
As Marion Zimmer Bradley taught in her writing workshops, any literate person can learn to write well enough to sell prose.
As any reader knows, lots of that kind of prose gets published -- and isn't worth your time to read.
Therein lies the difference -- anyone can learn the craft; not everyone has a) the vivid imagination and b) the personal stuffings, the character, to take the punishment of the world of performing arts, c) something to say that you want to hear.
When you find imagination and strong character among the kids you encounter, treat them like adults and dish it out plain and simple.
I have tasked Chuck Gannon to pay it forward, Robert A. Heinlein style, and treat the kids who come to him as equals -- some of them will take fire from that, and some of those will carry his own work forward to future generations.
However much things change, they stay the same.
Art is all about sorting the unchanging from the morass of churning change.
Science Fiction is the vehicle that best showcases the edge that being able to do that sorting gives us.
Charles Gannon titles aren't Science Fiction Romance, per se, but if you want to write SFR that roars into the marketplace, study what Gannon has accomplished with crafting a marketable, award-worthy novel.
------QUOTE FROM CHUCK GANNON http://www.charlesegannon.com/ ----------
I met Jacqueline Lichtenberg when I was 12 years old.
She was talking about Star Trek at a local library and I was dazzled by her energy, her passion, her eloquence, her humor. And, more wonderful still, when I approached her afterward, she was utterly and wonderfully receptive. So much so that she said the magic words: "Send me something! I'll tell you what I think. But be warned: I'll tell you the truth!"
I already knew I wanted to be a writer, but at 12, that vision is a very inchoate one. How does one make a living? How does one get to be good enough to be worthy of publication? Who will show me HOW?
Jacqueline Lichtenberg had all those answers and more. After the closest critique of any fiction I have received TO THIS DAY, she continued to be available as mentor, information source, adviser (adviser, as I and the English prefer) and, best of all, a wonderful friend.
If you have the opportunity to work with her, do so. To ignore that opportunity is like leaving a winning lottery ticket laying in the middle of the road.
If you are reading this, you are halfway to finding out if you CAN be a writer, and what it will take. Which is different than MAKING you a writer: no human can do that. But what Jacqueline does is BETTER: she gives you the unvarnished truth and maximum hope based on your extant skill set. And that kind of integrity, excellence, insight and honesty is rare indeed.
And perhaps rarest of all values is this one: what Jacqueline teaches NEVER gets old. Fashions, in writing as in everything else, come and go, but the core and classical principles remain constant. And those are the bedrock of Jacqueline's own writing and her mentor-ship. Go ahead: see for yourself. You'll be glad you did.
------------END QUOTE---------------
So click on over to http://www.charlesegannon.com/ and survey where he has gotten to in his career.
Then read his work, examine the covers, the blurbs, and any marketing materials you can find involving him.
Watch, listen, think hard, and see how the techniques and methods, the angle of view, and the application of the oldest story-telling-craft to this modern world can be applied in the here and now to captivate a target audience.
Strip out the particulars, and you will find this methodology easily pertains to the creation and marketing of Science Fiction Romance.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
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