Virtually everybody
has, at one time or another, thought, "I really
should write a book." Well, maybe you should. Or
perhaps you already have. In any case, whether your
book is still in the idea stage or is nearly ready to
go to print, you must at some point become very clear
about what you expect from your work.
For example, what
are your personal reasons for writing this book? Are
you in it for the money (note: there's nothing wrong
with that!) or because you feel you have something
important to say — or both? Are you striving to
create a literary masterpiece, or the next
blockbuster action thriller? Are you writing purely
for your own pleasure, or do you want to reach a
larger market? Do you even know
your target market?
Every author or
potential author should go through this process of
self-evaluation. That's why Schmidt Kaye &
Company developed a questionnaire for authors in the
first place. Below you will find a copy of this
questionnaire, which we often give our clients at the
very beginning — whether their book is merely a
glimmer on their computer screen, or is, in their
estimate, "99.9% finished and just needs a bit
of tweaking." Maybe you can use this
"obstacle course" to give you a head start
before you call us -- but whether you call us or not,
we hope you find it helpful. (And remember, it's not
a pop quiz; you don't have to return it to us.)
Before you begin
(the purpose of this questionnaire)
General
questions
Nonfiction
Fiction
What
to do when you're finished answering the questions
BEFORE
YOU BEGIN...
This questionnaire has been
developed to help you honestly evaluate your work
from an objective viewpoint — or at least as
objective as possible. While we at Schmidt Kaye &
Co. are quite conscious of the emotional investment
an author has in any manuscript, it is our commitment
to you to assist you in the development of a
readable, engaging work. Were either of us to fail to
honestly assess the product of your efforts, a
potentially great work could be rendered obscure by
minor flaws. Our dedication to fine literature
prevents us from allowing such waste to occur.
The first section of the
questionnaire is devoted to general questions that
apply to virtually all genres of fiction and
non-fiction books, though some may be more
appropriate to nonfiction. The second section covers
non-fiction, and the third is devoted to works of
fiction.
Please take time to
re-evaluate your manuscript, using the appropriate
sections of the questionnaire as a guide. By the way,
even if you're writing nonfiction, you may not
necessarily want to skip over the entire fiction
section; there are genres of nonfiction (e.g.,
history and biography) that can benefit from applying
some of the principles of good fiction writing.
When you are satisfied with
your responses, and with the final product, we can
proceed to subsequent phases of development and,
ultimately, publication of your work. Good luck!
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GENERAL
QUESTIONS
1. What are
your personal reasons for writing this book?
2. What are
you trying to accomplish by writing and publishing
your book? (Be specific.)
3. In what
format do you see your story (novel, short story,
motion picture, etc.)?
4. What is
the medium for your story (book, magazine, etc.) ?
5. Who is
the primary audience for whom your story is written?
6. What is
your premise? (What are you setting out to prove?)
7. How
strongly do you believe in the truth of your premise?
(If you do not hold a strong conviction about your
premise, how do you expect to write with conviction?
Remember, the reading public demands integrity!)
8. How sure
are you that your premise has enough substance, or is
compelling enough, to sustain audience interest?
9. What
effect will the nature of your audience have on your
choice of premise or the way you'll develop the
premise? The premise of any good work of literature
must be independent of anticipated reactions from its
readers. (See questions 1 and 2 above.)
10. How
quickly have you established the first part of the
premise? Is the reader engaged quickly, or do they
have to work patiently to "get into" it?
11. Is your
premise still perfectly clear to you, even after
close analysis?
12. Can you
state the premise of your work in fewer than 10
words?
13. Does
your book say something important?
14. If you
doubt that you've said something important, why
continue?
15. What
different premise would accomplish your aim?
16. Have you
reached your destination? Has your premise been
carried to its logical conclusion?
17. If the
premise has not been proved, did you get confused or
lose sight during the progression of the text? If so,
how can you get back to your original premise? Or, do
you need to revise the premise from the beginning?
18. Do you
provide documentation and / or appropriate
attribution for facts and / or events set forth in
support of your premise?
19. Have you
obtained written permission to utilize all quotes and
/ or data obtained from other sources?
20. How is
your book different from other books in the same
category? Amazon.com or Bowker's SUBJECT GUIDE TO
BOOKS IN PRINT are good places to research this
question.
21. How big
(in your estimation) is the market for this book?
22. What do
you believe are the best ways to reach that market?
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NONFICTION
Producing a credible
nonfiction project requires a high degree of factual
integrity on the part of the author. If a book is
presented as being nonfiction, it is the author's
responsibility to minimize, or at least clearly
acknowledge, personal bias in the interpretation of
ideas and events, and to ensure the accuracy of facts
as presented. The author who fails to meet this rigid
standard soon finds his or her credibility badly
damaged, and the arguments set forth typically lose
their impact. This is an express lane to failure.
Therefore, the author must ask the following
questions (in addition to the general questions,
above), and answer them honestly. Although a few of
these questions seem to be variations on some of the
questions above, we feel the issues they address are
important enough to reconsider.
1. Why are
you the appropriate one to write this book? Are you
an expert on your subject?
2. Does your
book reveal something new or different about your
subject?
3. A related
question to the above: Does your book really have
something substantial to offer, or is it fluff? (This
can be a tough one, because authors often have
conflicting opinions about their own work in this
regard.)
4. Does your
book deliver more than what
readers might expect?
5. Have you
double-checked your material for factual accuracy?
6. Have you
clearly attributed other people's work, whether
previously published or not?
7. Where you
have quoted or paraphrased the work of others, has
your narrative maintained consistency with the
original intent of the material quoted? If not, do
you clearly state that your narrative's context or
implied concept is a deviation from the original
work?
8. Do you
presently retain unrestricted rights to all material
in your manuscript?
9. If not,
do you have in your possession written approval to
publish any material for which you do not retain
unrestricted rights?
10. Do you
consider any part of your work to be inflammatory or
offensive to specific groups of the reading public,
or to the public in general?
11. Have you
described specific individuals, groups, or
organizations in such a manner as could be considered
libelous or defamatory in nature?
12. Have you
made an honest effort to protect the privacy of
individuals described in your manuscript (where
appropriate)?
13. How
could you more effectively communicate the point of
view upon which your premise is based?
14. Do you
use stories to convey information? (Even in
nonfiction, stories and real-life examples are often
quickest and most powerful way to get your point
across.)
15. Do you
sustain the reader's interest while making your point
of view evident, or does your writing sound
self-serving, even "preachy"?
16. Are
readers challenged in some way to think something, or
to do something to improve themselves (and/or their
world) in some way as a result of reading it?
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FICTION
Skip
the preliminaries; take me straight to the QUESTIONS.
Writing and marketing fiction
is completely different from nonfiction. While
nonfiction demands a higher degree of accuracy and
integrity, fiction must engage the reader on a level
beyond their agreement with and understanding of
facts and events. The "target" of fiction
writing is much more subjective, as the author must
engage not only the reader's intellectual processes,
but that elusive place inside where fantasy lives. As
a result, a work of fiction must challenge the
reader's hopes, fears, and dreams, as well as their
mind. In that respect, even more skill, and possibly
more integrity (though of a different sort), are
required than with nonfiction works.
There is also a special kind
of personal risk, for lack of a better word, in
writing a work of fiction. In a very real sense, the
author of fiction reveals more about himself or
herself to the public than does the nonfiction
author. Sometimes these revelations are deliberate,
but more often they are quite unwitting. (Some years
ago, we rejected a murder-mystery editing project,
even though we needed the money, because we had a
very strong feeling that the writer was quite
"disturbed." It turned out we were right,
and rejecting the project was a wise choice on our
part.) And, of course, despite the famous "this
is a work of fiction" disclaimer on the
copyright page, readers will always wonder, "How
much of this is 'real'?" When writing fiction,
there really is a peculiar type of accountability, to
oneself and to those in one's life, that doesn't
exist in nonfiction. From a legal standpoint, there
is probably more of a gray area than with nonfiction,
but common sense dictates that you could bring
trouble on yourself if the thieving villain in your
story bears too strong a resemblance to your boss, or
the couple in the torrid sex scene in Chapter 18 are
too similar to you and your best friend's wife.
"Write what you know"...but use a little
discretion!
Accountability and liability
are issues that each author must work out for himself
or herself (possibly with the aid of an attorney
specializing in these matters). Our main task here is
to aid with the mechanics
of fiction writing. That's why we feel it is so
important for aspiring fiction writers to carefully
consider all of the questions in this section.
Of course, we all know of
cases where even bestselling authors repeatedly
violate one or more of the "rules" implied
below. For example, there is a certain
horror/suspense writer whose every work makes the
bestseller list, but whose heavyhanded use of
metaphors has often been so distracting we've been
tempted to toss the book aside and go reread a Harry
Potter. It should be noted that said writer has
improved a little over the years, but still has a way
to go. This author also has a little trouble striking
a subtle note with female characters — most are
either young, gorgeous, multi-talented, near-saintly
supergals...or malevolent sociopaths. And one of this
author's fairly recent novels was so sappy and
moralistic, while at the same time being
characteristically violent and bloody, that we almost
gave up halfway through. Another couple of novels
were, in our opinion and many other readers', a
little too heavy on the lingo of a particular
subculture. And so on.
A novel by another perennial
bestselling writer had at least one ludicrous
anachronism that put a real damper on the book's
credibility, in our view. A story that took place in
1999 had a 57-year-old woman (a hopelessly
stereotyped Jewish grandmother, no less) who related
that she and her husband had been terrified when they
heard Orson Welles' original radio broadcast of
"War Of The Worlds" in 1938 — which
would have been four years before the woman was born.
Okay, maybe she was talking about a past life, but
the book didn't say. (Where were the editors? This
was a big New York publishing house!) Further,
although the story was told from several characters'
point of view, there was a bothersome inconsistency;
the main character's chapters were presented in the
first person, and the other characters' stories were
conveyed in a more dispassionate third-person voice
(which wasn't the voice of the main character
"observing") — and it really didn't
work for us. And the ending of the book was a true
disappointment; it just fizzled out. Yet this novel
made the bestseller list, and so have several of the
authors' other works.
If the big guys and gals can
get away with it, you may be wondering, why can't
you? Well, maybe you can. But in the interests of
preserving good writing, why not take the literary
high road? It is our hope that these questions will
help you do so. (In a few places, we have elaborated
on issues that we find particularly vexing in some of
the fiction we have read.)
1. What thought have
you given to the time the story takes place? Is it in
the past, present, future or all three? Have you
credibly established a familiarity with the time
period?
2. What
thought have you given to the location in which your
story takes place? Does your narrative convey an
intimate familiarity with the location?
3. Does the
premise provide enough direction to keep all your
events and character developments on track?
4. Is the
premise strong enough and clear enough to carry the
story to its logical conclusion?
5. Have you
developed the personalities of all your characters to
the extent that their participation in the story is
absolutely believable, and in keeping with the main
premise of the story?
6. Have you
developed a sense of conflict, to carry the premise
and bring the characters and events a resolution?
7. If you
have changed the outcome, or resolution, of your
premise: have you also changed the first part of the
premise? (Have you created a different relationship
"from pole to pole"?)
8. What, if
any, sub premises (smaller contrasts, sub conflicts,
movements, transitions) need to be changed along with
the major premise?
9. With the
thoughts you have generated about your premise, do
you more fully understand your characters?
10. Have you
communicated that understanding to the reader?
11. Have you
treated any character too lightly?
12. Does
your premise fit your characters?
13. Have
your characters carried their situations through to a
believable conclusion?
14. Are all
characters' actions and decisions necessary and
logical, based upon clearly developed character
traits?
15. Have the
main characters been allowed to grow and develop
naturally?
16. Is the
pivotal character's defining characteristic apparent
either immediately or very soon after the story
opens?
17. Are ALL
the characters three-dimensional (with physical,
social, and psychological dimensions)?
18. Are ALL
the characters likable? (That is, does every
character have a quality the audience can empathize
or sympathize with?)
19. Are all
the characters believable?
20. Does
each character speak, dress, and behave in a manner
consistent with that type of person?
21. Is every
situation believable because it springs from the
nature of the characters?
22. Is every
contrast, or conflict, true (inherent in the
characters), rather than false (contrived)?
23. Do the
changes in each additional character follow from what
the audience knows of the person's physical, social,
and psychological makeup?
24. Are the
protagonist and the antagonist both extremely strong
(uncompromising) characters?
25. How
sharply drawn are the characters? (How definite,
definitive, and different from each other?)
26. Is your
pivotal character really a protagonist, and is your
opposing character really an antagonist? (Are you
sure you've not confused the two?)
27. How
satisfied are you with your cast of characters?
28. If
you're not satisfied: what should you do?
29. Does
your opening grab attention?
30. Does it
present a character with something vital at stake?
31. If your
audience may be bored from the beginning: what can
you do about the lack of conflict and tension? You
may need to change your point of attack; start by
showing there is something vital at stake, and
increase the emotional involvement of the characters.
32. Have you
allowed the characters to form the plot and work out
their own destinies, or have you forced them to fit a
contrived plot?
33. In
creating contrasts and situations, have you asked
your characters what THEY would do?
34. Does the
audience perceive a LOGICAL, STEP-BY-STEP DEVELOPMENT
OF THE STORY through a series of sub conflicts and
resolutions, each one stemming from the one before
it?
35. Does
every movement (sub conflict/transition) lead the
relevant characters FROM ONE STATE OF MIND TO
ANOTHER, on the way to proving the premise?
36. Is one
belief forced to give in to another?
37. Even if
you have a specific message to convey through your
story — a message in which you passionately
believe — have you avoided
"preachiness?"
(Note: Even if
you have a character or characters do the
"preaching" via monologue or dialogue,
it's still preachiness!) While the polemic novel
is an established tradition and will always have
its fans, the truth is that many if not most of
these works are all but indigestible to the
contemporary reading public. Apologies to fans of
Ayn Rand et al., but that is our strong opinion.
38. Somewhat
related to the above question: Do you try in every
way possible to show rather
than tell in order to get
your point across and move the story along?
Sometimes a
straight description or explanation is the most
effective or powerful way to convey your message
to a reader. But all too often,
"telling" is the path of least
resistance, and is the mark of the rank amateur.
For example, in a few sentences, you could simply
tell the reader that a character is a ruthless
business tycoon who cares for nothing more than
cutting deals, and whose greatest joy in life is
taking advantage of his weaker fellows. Or you
could take your time, using a couple of pages to
present a dialogue between the businessman and
one of his "victims." In most cases,
the latter will be far more believable and far
more effective (that is, if you have a true grasp
of both characters, and a working knowledge of
the business environment you're writing about).
Always assume that most readers today are
sophisticated and that they will be quick to
detect a lack of authenticity. You
may argue that the bestseller lists do not always
reflect this assumption, but remember, we are
taking the high road here.
39. Have you
avoided letting "the writing" get in the
way of the story?
Good writing,
whether it is eloquent or poetic or downright
graphic, can set your work apart from the average
throwaway novel. But don't be so in love with
your own voice that you let it smother the
characters or the plot or any of the other
crucial elements of your story. Odd as it may
sound, sometimes even very good prose can be
too good for the particular
context. Or sometimes it is merely distracting.
(We are reminded again of the above-mentioned
bestselling writer, whose gripping suspense
novels have, at times, nearly collapsed under the
weight of their own metaphors. And then there is
a certain Southern writer, also a long-time
bestselling author, who without a doubt knows how
to tell an engaging story but whose novels are,
in some places, so grievously over-written that
we have found ourselves rolling our eyes.) There
really are times when it is not necessary to
unleash the full force of one's literacy and
eloquence on an unsuspecting public. In other
words, if you will pardon the
cliché...sometimes, less is more!
40. What
POSITIVE things might a discerning audience or critic
say about your story, your characters and proof of
the premise?
41. What
NEGATIVE things might a discerning audience or critic
say?
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CONCLUSION
At this
point, you have methodically studied and evaluated
your manuscript from both a general and specific
perspective. We hope this study has assisted you in
more fully appreciating the strengths of your work,
as well as helping you improve those areas where it
may have been weak. It is our desire to establish a
mutually beneficial relationship with you, the
author. It is our belief that, only by maintaining a
clear understanding of each other's capabilities and
expectations is that relationship possible. Thus, the
necessity of the "obstacle course" you have
just completed.
Let's make a
book!!!
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WHAT
TO EXPECT FROM YOUR LITERARY COLLABORATOR
"BLOCKBUSTER
OR BUST?" IT'S NOT ALWAYS OBVIOUS!
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Want more information? Give
us a call at (713) 463-9263 (serious inquiries only,
please).
We recommend that before
calling,
you read this page and the other pages listed
directly above,
as well as our Fees page.
Or e-mail us at moonshad@swbell.net
