Summer Writing Intensive

There’s nothing quite like it. That feeling of walking into the bookstore and seeing your name on the cover of a new release sitting there on the shelf. It’s pretty damn magical, if I do say so myself.

But there’s also nothing quite like the feeling you get when, after waiting for weeks, sometimes months, you finally get a response from the editor or agent to whom you submitted your latest work and…it’s another rejection. Even worse, there isn’t any helpful feedback – no sense of where you went wrong or what you can do to make it better. How are you supposed to improve if no one is telling you what you’re doing wrong? How are you supposed to make yourself stand out from the thousands of other submissions they are receiving?

I know, you say to yourself, I’ll sign up for one of those live workshops. One taught by a team of successful authors. Surely they can help me, you think. But every workshop you look at costs hundreds of dollars per session, never mind what it will cost to travel and stay in the hotel for the week. By the time you’re done you’ve spent well over a thousand dollars. Who can afford that?

There has to be a better way. You know what? There is.

It’s called the Summer Writing Intensive and it’s taught by two successful authors, Jon F Merz and Joe Nassise, who have sold more than thirty books between them in the last eight years to publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Harlequin/Gold Eagle, Kensington, St. Martin’s Press, HarperCollins and Tor.

You want to be confident the next time you submit your work. You want that submission to generate interest; for that editor or agent to sit up and take notice. Ideally, that interest will turn into an offer of publication and eventually, later on down the road, you’ll be the one walking into that bookstore looking for that first sight of your new book on the shelves, waiting for a legion of crazed readers to buy it.

The Summer Writing Intensive can help get you there. Best of all, you can do it from your own home at a fraction of the cost of other writing retreats.

The workshop consists of eight live webinars; each focusing on a key element of the writing craft that you need to know in order for your manuscript stand out from the rest and to make your career what you want it to be.

Each webinar session will be an hour long and will include handouts and real-world examples to illustrate the point of each lesson. As a participant you’ll be able to ask questions and interact during all of the sessions, allowing you the opportunity to learn from your fellow participants as well as from the instructors. Transcripts of each session will be available after the workshop for you to refer back to at a later date, so you’ll always have the material on hand when you need it.

Here’s a quick look at the sessions and what you’ll be focusing on in each one:

Story Structure: Crafting a Plot that Begs the Reader to Keep Reading

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • How proper structure is necessary for a story to work
  • Why conflict is the key to any story, regardless of genre
  • The three pillars of plot that support your story
  • The best ways to build complications that make sense and increase the conflict

Living, Breathing Characters: Make Your Heroes and Villains Come Alive

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • Techniques to design and execute character arcs in your stories
  • How to give your heroes larger-than-life qualities
  • The proper use of backstory and how to provide context to your characters’ actions
  • How to create villains that your readers love to hate

Pacing: Getting to the Climax is Just as Important as Having a Good One

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • How to craft an effective hook to open your story
  • The importance of adding tension to every page
  • Why so many books sag in the middle – and what you can do to prevent it from happening to yours
  • Five ways to craft a knock-out ending

Action Scenes: It’s a Gun Fight not a Ballet

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • The basics of a fight: emotion, adrenaline, and tactics
  • Armed and unarmed fighting for writers
  • Structuring your fight scene so it leaves the reader breathless
  • Does it make sense? Understanding anatomy and how the body responds to being punched, pulled and crushed

Revision: Sharpen that Knife, Baby!

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • How proper structure can keep your revision work to a minimum
  • Specific techniques to organize your revision work so that you don’t waste unnecessary time
  • How to know what to revise and what to leave alone
  • Ways to polish the good stuff to make it great

Proposals: In Order to Sell, it has to Sing

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • The three key elements of a great proposal
  • How to write a synopsis that grabs them by the throat and won’t let go
  • How to write a query letter an agent or editor will actually read – then act upon!
  • Ways to craft a proposal package that will have your editor or agent wanting more

Social Media Marketing: Using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to Build Your Career and Promote Your Work

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • What’s behind the Facebook craze and why it’s important to you
  • The difference between a solid Twitter presence and a poor one
  • How using LinkedIn can enhance your career and provide opportunities you might have otherwise missed
  • How to measure and monitor your social media impact

Digital Editions: Stop Leaving Money on the Table

In this lesson you’ll learn:

  • What you need to know before putting digital editions of your work up for sale
  • Tips and tricks to properly format your book for sale on the Kindle
  • How to get format and upload your book for sale on the iPad
  • Ways to promote and publicize your digital editions to make the most of your offerings

The techniques Joe and Jon will be teaching in the workshop have helped them write and sell successful novels in a variety of genres – here’s just a sample of what they’ve published recently:

Better yet, the workshop has been designed with the would-be author’s pocketbook in mind. You get:

  • Eight sessions focused on improving your craft
  • Handouts and real-world examples to help you put the techniques into action
  • A written transcript of each session
  • Feedback and advice from two bestselling writers

All for just $125.00

The workshop begins July 21st and runs through Sept 8th, meeting each Wednesday night. Sessions start at 9:00 pm EST and run for an hour. (If you have to miss a session, the workshop transcript and materials can be sent to you following the session.)

If you’re thinking about submitting your work in the next few months, you don’t want to miss the Summer Writing Intensive. We’re limited to 100 slots, so get your registration in early!


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Buy 1 Get 1 FREE

New promo for ebook readers! Here’s the skinny:

Buy a copy of one of my novels (listed below) from Amazon.com, send me the receipt (proof-of-purchase) and I will send you another one of my novels (your choice) absolutely free!

PARALLAX

What happens when two professional assassins – one a Mafia hitman and the other a former German terrorist – kill at exactly the same moment in time? For Ernst Stahl and Frank Jolino the result is a psychic bond that slowly blossoms in each man’s mind, enabling them to see into the other’s world. Frank Jolino doesn’t like what he sees, especially when he realizes that Stahl is headed to his home turf of Boston to kill a scientist who may hold the key to solving the world’s deadliest diseases. But for Stahl, there’s no other option. Virtually bankrupt and with his son in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, he’s got little choice but to take the assignment. Jolino has other ideas. On the run from his crime syndicate for refusing to kill his ex-girlfriend-turned-government-informant, Jolino sets a plan in motion that will bring the two men face-to-face and gun-to-gun…with no guarantees either will survive.

VICARIOUS

When disgraced ex-FBI agent-turned-Boston-cop Steve Curran finds a corpse with no practical explanation for its death, the nightmares start again. Convinced the serial killer that caused his expulsion from the Bureau is once again haunting him, Curran soon learns his theories are all wrong. When the sister of the latest victim, Lauren Fields, uncovers an old journal detailing the hunt for a creature known only as the Soul Eater, she and Curran must confront the very real prospect that the killer is not of this world at all – and that his motives have little to do with killing, but all to do with something far, far worse.

SHADOW CHASER

PURGE: A top secret satellite platform that delivers pinpoint assassinations via biological warfare… Gwynneviere – the beautiful and deadly assassin who wants to sell PURGE on the blackmarket and will stop at nothing to get it…Jonathan Archangel – former Delta Force turned elite Shadow Chaser…it’s his mission to hunt Gwynneviere down before she can complete her deadly assignment. A novel of international intrigue, espionage, and biological warfare played out against the backdrop of Boston and beyond, Shadow Chaser will leave you breathless.

SPECIAL BONUS! If, after reading the novels, you review them on Amazon and elsewhere and send me notification that you’ve done so, I’ll send you his brand new novella FOOL FOR GREEN: A Frank Steel Job set in 1940 Boston and filled with World War II intrigue and the supernatural.

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EBooks & How JA Konrath Makes Me Green With His Green

So, I’m selling ebooks on Amazon’s Kindle. I’m hardly the only author doing this right now – whether it’s traditionally published or “indie” – but I am experiencing far fewer sales than a lot of other folks, and frankly, I have no idea why. The short of it is my stuff simply isn’t selling as well as other authors and I’d like to figure out why. This isn’t a plea for a sympathetic sale (although if you want to grab any of them, that’s cool, too!) but more an open workshop to help me diagnose the problems I’m having moving ebooks. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure it out on my own and with a few close friends giving input as well, but nothing seems to move the books.

Over on author JA Konrath’s Blog he writes frequently about his success selling ebooks on Amazon. The guy’s on-track to make $100,000 this year from ebooks sales ALONE! Now, I don’t know about you, but I could certainly find some uses for that extra hundred grand, hence my sincere desire to see my ebooks sell into those levels that Joe does. I mean, a hundred grand from ebooks alone? Color me green with freakin’ ENVY! That’s amazing, inspiring and depressing all at the same time.

So, I’m opening the floor up here: tell me what I’m doing wrong. Tell me what you think the problem is and maybe we can workshop some stuff to see if things pick up. I’m utterly fascinated by this problem, so any and all advice/input is sincerely appreciated.

Here’s a list of links of what I’ve got for sale right now on Amazon. Please use the comments section to chime in and tell me where I’m screwing this stuff up. Honesty is very much appreciated!

NOVELS – $1.99

Parallax
Shadow Chaser
Vicarious

COLLECTION – $1.99

This Time of Night

NOVELLAS – $1.99

Fool for Green
Ninja

SHORT STORIES – $0.99

Prisoner 392
The Brank of Khosadam
Down the Street Dead
Driller
A Different Kind of Cupid
Hindsight
I, The Courier
Night of Reckoning
Hancock’s Tunnel
Repo
Rip
The Trunk of Aristhius

NON-FICTION – $1.99

Social Media for Authors: Facebook Fan Pages

All right, there it is. Fire away and tell me what I’m doing wrong. Is it my breath? Do my feet stink? What?

Thanks in advance everyone!

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THE MADAGASCAR MATTER – Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

“You may call me Esmeralda. I am the shaman of the tribe and have been so for more years than I care to remember.”

We sat under a towering baobab tree, atop two small stools carved from tree trunks. In front of us, a small table made of dark wood polished to a high sheen held two cups filled with juice. I don’t usually like drinking blood unless it’s been chilled first, but I wasn’t complaining now. I downed it quickly, feeling the life force energy hit me a few moments later.

Esmeralda watched me closely through hooded eyes bordered by crow’s feet and wrinkles that looked more like deep valleys on her pockmarked face. “You haven’t fed in a while.”

She wasn’t asking a question, so I merely shrugged. “Work gets in the way of things sometimes.”

“You should take care not to let that happen too often. You need your sustenance, after all. A failure to give yourself energy might come back and be the death of you some day.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

She hummed to herself and then drank from her cup. “You are young. Almost as rash as Ibano. But I see great things ahead for you. Provided you get over your naïveté.”

“Uh…”

She smiled and I saw the aged teeth in her mouth; I restrained myself from wincing at the sight of them. “I’m perhaps too honest for you, Lawson?”

“I appreciate honesty,” I said. “But I don’t happen to think I’m naive.”

“Most never do.” She put the cup back down and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “But we have other things to discuss.”

“Zero.”

“Indeed.”

“You can help him?”

Esmeralda sighed. “I am not sure I can. The magic holding sway over him is far more potent than any I have encountered yet in my life.”

Judging from how old she looked, that wasn’t good news.

© 2010 by Jon F. Merz All rights re­served


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TV GUYS – Chapter 1

Note: This is a reprint of a column I started writing last year that fizzled out as my schedule got more complex. I’ll be reprinting the columns here over the next few months and then continuing where I left off last year. Enjoy!

If I were pitching my current project as a movie in Hollywood, here’s what the logline would sound like: “Two guys with no real experience in the television business decide to ask private investors to front them millions so they can produce 13 episodes of a new supernatural TV series that they will then sell broadcast rights to domestically and internationally, thereby hopefully making hundreds of millions of dollars and turning the entire Hollywood business model on its head.”

Sounds absolutely ludicrous, right?

But that is, in fact, what my business partner Jaime and I are doing. Let me back up for a moment and give you a few more details.

I’m a writer. It’s what I do. I’ve had over a 16 novels published, co-authored two non-fiction books, had scores of short stories appear in print alongside some heavy hitters like Stephen King, and have written ad copy for everyone from Polaroid to Red Lobster Restaurants. I’ve scripted comics, screenplays, and turned four 3-minute webisodes into a novel. I don’t just write in one medium, preferring instead to try my hand at anything that helps me bump my game up to the next level.

Over the years, I’ve flirted a lot with Hollywood. There’s been some serious sexual tension, culminating a few times with deals that looked reasonably good on paper. But I’ve never jumped into the sack and here’s why: Hollywood doesn’t pay writers enough.

If you’re interested in how Hollywood makes its money, there is no finer book to read than THE BIG PICTURE: Money & Power in Hollywood by Edward James Epstein. I read that book several years ago and it opened my eyes.

Novelists especially tend to have a very fairytale image of Hollywood. They imagine that if they write a book, that Hollywood will come calling with an option (this is a small price – almost a rental fee, really – giving the producer or exec the ability to shop the project around and possibly secure financing, cast, crew, etc. within a certain time frame (usually 6-18 months)) or an outright rights purchase. If the movie then gets made, the studio will cut the writer a handsome check and the novelist gets the thrill of seeing their book turned into a movie.

When I started cutting my teeth in publishing, I imagined it would be an incredible experience. What I didn’t count on was the interminable wait, the endless teases, and the fact that Hollywood doesn’t want novelists writing anything or sticking their noses anywhere into the process.

Some writers can live with that. They take the money and run, knowing that the end result may well be such an extreme departure from their original novel that it bears resemblance in name only – if they’re lucky.

But when studios wanted my work, I knew what they could reasonably expect to make off of my creations. And I wanted more than they were offering. Of course they balked and all the whispered promises evaporated.

Last year, exhausted at the number of television shows that were coming out that were, to be overly kind, crap, my friend Jaime and I sat down and discussed the idea of trying to do something ourselves.

When we hashed out the concept of using my un-vampire vampire series of novels as our first project, the first person I bounced the idea off of was a good friend of mine who works in the film/TV industry. He’s well-known, so I won’t mention his name here, but he pretty much knows everyone worth knowing in Los Angeles and New York City. I called him and told him what we were planning. Then I asked him if we were crazy.

What he told me was this: “If you can make this work, then the sky is the limit. You will open doors that have never been open to you before and you will change the way Hollywood works in TV.” Then he offered to come on and be part of our executive board.

That was good enough for us. We started New Ronin Entertainment and chose THE FIXER as our first project. Ronin, in feudal Japan, were masterless samurai – called “wave men” because they owed allegiance to no lord. The name felt appropriate and our mission seemed sound, albeit tough as hell.

We would find private investors willing to back us in the production of thirteen episodes for the first season. (Networks usually greenlight, or approve, a pilot and then order up to twelve additional episodes for a first season run). We would put a team together to shoot, edit, and package the series, as well as sell it domestically and internationally. I would write all the episodes, thereby guaranteeing that the sanctity of my novels stayed intact and that I had complete control over the story lines and characters. The novels take place in New England; the cast and crew would be from New England; and we hoped that our investors would also be from the region. THE FIXER would be born and raised in our backyard. We thought that was pretty cool.

We enlisted two experienced directors who had worked in both television and independent films for years (therefore they knew how to work on a tight budget). Our sales force was composed of industry vets who had shepherded major films to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales. Experienced vets and up-and-comers made up our crew. And our art & marketing department worked hard to develop a consistent look for our flagship project. You can see the results thus far at our official website http://www.thefixer.tv

But we needed money to pull this off. There was no business precedent whose plan we could use to attract investors, so we put it together after weeks of research into Hollywood budgets, sales forecasts, and more. Trying to divulge what Hollywood spends and what it makes is harder than cracking into the National Security Agency, but at long last, we felt we had a workable business prospectus.

Our offer was generous; we knew it had to be. We offered a 50% return on investment within 24 months to those who chose to back us. The task now was to try to convince wealthy Bostonians and New Englanders that a TV series entirely produced in their backyard was a viable and worthwhile investment.

But first, we had to find them. And then we had to get in the front door…