March 22, 2013

Mad At Netflix One Writer Connection

 

MAD AT NETFLIX

 

          I watch a lot of movies, my favorites the forties, fifties, sixties. I don’t care much for modern films, too thirteen year-old and younger oriented. I subscribe to Netflix, have for years. Many of the movies I watch come from them. I’ve watched them grow from a few hundred thousand DVDs to – as they advertise, 4 billion deals, rentals, or whatever. What I like about them, they send an email of date movie shipped, date of arrival, and it always shows up in my drop box the date they stated. A terrific deal. You can even download and watch movies right on your computer, instantly, if you can stomach that much time staring at a computer screen. Some cable providers now let you watch on your wall size television, but that’s beyond my pay grade. My Wi-Fi won’t handle the load and anything moving does so in jerks and sputters. That’s why I’m not a big fan of YouTube.

          But I’m mad at Netflix. As a writer I get many plot ideas from elderly movies. Not to steal direct but to alter and use. So I like classics, like “Band of Angels” with Yvonne de Carlo and Clark Cable and Sydney Poitier. So, I order the movie and what do I get? “Very Long Wait.” What’s up with that jazz? So, I go down my order list and this is what I find.

“Get Rich Quick” Short Wait

“Death Rides a Horse” Short Wait

“The Woman in White” Short Wait

“The Fighting Kentuckian” Long Wait

“The Squeeze” Very Long Wait

“Band of Angels” Very Long Wait

“So Ends the Night” Very Long Wait

“A Time to Kill” Long Wait

“Deadfall” Very Long Wait

          At one time, of the eight movies on my list waiting to be sent, seven had some kind of wait. And nobody lists next to those announcements, what is considered a Short, Long or Very Long wait. I’ve been waiting months for “Band of Angels” to get its “wait” shortened to maybe “Long Wait” or “Short Wait.” But, no, it hangs there in “Very Long Wait” for what? Six months? A year? A decade? I forget why I wanted to see it, other than a chance to watch a young Yvonne de Carlo move around once again, before she appeared on that monster crap.

          So, I’m mad at Netflix. I’m happy for their success with orders flying in from all over the country. But I now realize, as they must…Netflix has become too big for its britches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         
                                                        

Crime Novels Today

One Writer Connection (everything that touches writing)…

 

March 14, 2013

 

Crime Novels Today

 

            The blog was started as preliminary essays for my upcoming memoir, ‘Writer, Author, Bull!,’ which covers my more than fifty years in the writing racket; the changes that moved from a wide open market with hundreds of small, low-pay magazines and ninety-five cent paperbacks on drug store carousels through a dried up market with conglomerates buying up most publishers, to the emergence of self-publishing and eBooks. My slant will always be toward Mystery/Crime/Thriller with emphasis on the hard tough crime novel because that is what I write. I don’t record the experience of all writers, or even any other writers, the experience is entirely my own because I’ve lived and worked through every phase; thus, One Writer Connection.

Part of the blog title is, everything that touches writing. What interests the writer touches the writing: agents, publishers, editors, ghost writing, bookstores, conferences, critique groups, self-marketing, self-publishing, eBooks, royalty percentages, movies, computers, travel, work habits, success, failure – almost every facet of life might touch the writing. The purpose of the blog and the memoir will be to aid those who have made the decision to get serious about their own writing, and maybe keep them from a few pitfalls. The key words are ‘get serious’ because every critique group is loaded with those who play at writing and never do take it seriously. ‘Get serious’ means to write steady and continuous, to write for publication with the intention to see your work published, somewhere by somebody. And maybe pick up a few bucks doing it. One page a day means one novel a year. If the plan is to suddenly sit down and write a rocking million copy selling blockbuster best seller, or to pitch an idea and walk away with a one million dollar advance, the path will be lumpy, rocky and cluttered with high walls. Unless they are one of the handful of popular millionaires selling today (one-percent), most published authors still go to work every day or have an independent source of income so they can write full time. 

            I am not a big name author; the majority of crime novel readers never heard of me. My novels have been published by smaller publishers. But I have more than thirty books out there and I receive small royalty checks every quarter. I even won a literary award in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller category at a writer’s conference. I’ve had agents and not had agents. Currently there is no agent. I have a small retirement income; I can and do write every day. I am not married so my needs are simple and few. Two of my novels were published print and eBook in 2011, two more in 2012; two are pending for 2013. It hasn’t been my intention to write two books a year, it has just worked out that way.

            The future looks bright for those who self-publish and self market through POD (print on demand) and eBooks, and who are personable on social networks. Introverts who just want to write have a rough road ahead; unfortunately, I fall in that category. Equally rough is the actual sales of books in terms of dollars spent. Publishers have been gobbled up by conglomerates and will only look at material submitted by an agent, and are only interested in the type of material now selling well. The two or three who will look at un-agented material show no interest in my stuff. eBooks are easy to publish, might sell from two to two thousand copies but the author’s cut is small because the retail price is small. Predicted success of eBooks ranges wildly depending on whether it is the publisher talking or the retailer.

            Not so bright are the increasing number of publishers who will not look at new material; who state they are temporarily closed to submissions. Even my small publisher (last three books), who nobody ever heard of yet who rejects 95% of submissions they receive, has announced they have closed their doors to all new author submissions. This is so they can concentrate more fully on promoting the authors they have now. I’m happy to be included because they offer the best contract in publishing. 

            Non-fiction that leans toward self-improvement is what readers want. Since eighty percent of book buyers are women, readers want books written by women about women. Romance novels are the biggest fiction sellers, but the man can never be hard or tough, he must be in close touch with his feminine side. The majority of agents and most publishing editors are female. That makes all their selections subjective toward what women like.

            Webster defines Hardboiled as: unsympathetic, tough, harsh, unsentimental. Try getting that type of protagonist past an agent or editor today. A few famous authors of hardboiled novels swung over to feature a female lead, and it works for them. The rest of us write our tough guys and know from the first shot we’re aiming at twenty percent of the market, and unless our guy is named Parker or Jack Reacher or Milo, we’ll never get rich. Some writers sway with trends to write what’s popular. We just plug along with our own guys because that’s how we are.

            My books are available at all online outlets. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

 George Snyder: freelancer66@earthlink.net

 

 

Crime Novels Today

Crime Novels Today

One Writer Connection (everything that touches writing)…

 

March 14, 2013

 

Crime Novels Today

 

            The blog was started as preliminary essays for my upcoming memoir, ‘Writer, Author, Bull!,’ which covers my more than fifty years in the writing racket; the changes that moved from a wide open market with hundreds of small, low-pay magazines and ninety-five cent paperbacks on drug store carousels through a dried up market with conglomerates buying up most publishers, to the emergence of self-publishing and eBooks. My slant will always be toward Mystery/Crime/Thriller with emphasis on the hard tough crime novel because that is what I write. I don’t record the experience of all writers, or even any other writers, the experience is entirely my own because I’ve lived and worked through every phase; thus, One Writer Connection.

Part of the blog title is, everything that touches writing. What interests the writer touches the writing: agents, publishers, editors, ghost writing, bookstores, conferences, critique groups, self-marketing, self-publishing, eBooks, royalty percentages, movies, computers, travel, work habits, success, failure – almost every facet of life might touch the writing. The purpose of the blog and the memoir will be to aid those who have made the decision to get serious about their own writing, and maybe keep them from a few pitfalls. The key words are ‘get serious’ because every critique group is loaded with those who play at writing and never do take it seriously. ‘Get serious’ means to write steady and continuous, to write for publication with the intention to see your work published, somewhere by somebody. And maybe pick up a few bucks doing it. One page a day means one novel a year. If the plan is to suddenly sit down and write a rocking million copy selling blockbuster best seller, or to pitch an idea and walk away with a one million dollar advance, the path will be lumpy, rocky and cluttered with high walls. Unless they are one of the handful of popular millionaires selling today (one-percent), most published authors still go to work every day or have an independent source of income so they can write full time. 

            I am not a big name author; the majority of crime novel readers never heard of me. My novels have been published by smaller publishers. But I have more than thirty books out there and I receive small royalty checks every quarter. I even won a literary award in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller category at a writer’s conference. I’ve had agents and not had agents. Currently there is no agent. I have a small retirement income; I can and do write every day. I am not married so my needs are simple and few. Two of my novels were published print and eBook in 2011, two more in 2012; two are pending for 2013. It hasn’t been my intention to write two books a year, it has just worked out that way.

            The future looks bright for those who self-publish and self market through POD (print on demand) and eBooks, and who are personable on social networks. Introverts who just want to write have a rough road ahead; unfortunately, I fall in that category. Equally rough is the actual sales of books in terms of dollars spent. Publishers have been gobbled up by conglomerates and will only look at material submitted by an agent, and are only interested in the type of material now selling well. The two or three who will look at un-agented material show no interest in my stuff. eBooks are easy to publish, might sell from two to two thousand copies but the author’s cut is small because the retail price is small. Predicted success of eBooks ranges wildly depending on whether it is the publisher talking or the retailer.

            Not so bright are the increasing number of publishers who will not look at new material; who state they are temporarily closed to submissions. Even my small publisher (last three books), who nobody ever heard of yet who rejects 95% of submissions they receive, has announced they have closed their doors to all new author submissions. This is so they can concentrate more fully on promoting the authors they have now. I’m happy to be included because they offer the best contract in publishing. 

            Non-fiction that leans toward self-improvement is what readers want. Since eighty percent of book buyers are women, readers want books written by women about women. Romance novels are the biggest fiction sellers, but the man can never be hard or tough, he must be in close touch with his feminine side. The majority of agents and most publishing editors are female. That makes all their selections subjective toward what women like.

            Webster defines Hardboiled as: unsympathetic, tough, harsh, unsentimental. Try getting that type of protagonist past an agent or editor today. A few famous authors of hardboiled novels swung over to feature a female lead, and it works for them. The rest of us write our tough guys and know from the first shot we’re aiming at twenty percent of the market, and unless our guy is named Parker or Jack Reacher or Milo, we’ll never get rich. Some writers sway with trends to write what’s popular. We just plug along with our own guys because that’s how we are.

            My books are available at all online outlets. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

 George Snyder: freelancer66@earthlink.net

 

 

Writing Schedule

One Writer Connection

 

March 13, 2013

 

WRITING SCHEDULE

 

            You pick a time and place that works for you. Some can write in a warehouse, aboard a small sailboat, a table at the library, a phone booth, swinging from a chandelier. Some write at night, others early in the morning, everything between. I need routine, the same place and time every day. I learned that in the Navy. As a young man, when I lived with roommates, they called me ‘routine man’ because of my schedule. In the Navy, routine became tradition and established how things got done.

            Soon after my discharge, I found myself with a wife and two small children. I had learned that I am a morning person; my alertness begins to fade with the sun. And I had a job to go to. My decision out of the Navy was that I would write. Not that I’d be famous or rich, just that I would write, and I’d be serious about it. My job started at seven in the morning. I got up at four so I could get in two hours of writing before the job. After the job, I tried to get in two more hours. That was not always successful with a wife and two small children. In the morning, I wrote in the kitchen of our small duplex. After work, I wrote in the bedroom. When that time and place became too inconvenient for others, I converted an outside broom/storage closet to a writing room, and I wrote there, before and after work. These were the days before computers and writing was done on a Sears Tower manual typewriter.

            I wrote short stories for the men’s magazines. I wrote a story a week. I sent them out, they immediately came back. I did this, week after week for a year before I sold my first story to The Men’s Digest. After that, I sold to Adam, Male, Nugget, Best for Men, and a few others. I worked on percentages, starting at twenty percent sold of stories written, then fifty percent. The zenith of my short story writing was a sale to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. I never sold them another. But, I wangled and worked and changed that one story and with different titles, sold it three more times for a total of $900.

            I sold more stories to The Men’s Digest than any other. After a time, the editor contacted me and said he had a deal going with a publisher in Las Vegas who put out mystery novels under the imprint, Neva Paperbacks, and how would I like to write a novel for them? A novel seemed like a lot of words, more than I had ever written before. But then I figured it would be just a string of short stories pushed out end to end, only all of it one story. I was never interested in daily word count. My writing was in time. I had a block of writing time. I might put out a paragraph or ten pages depending on how it went. My general goal was about five pages and most of the time I could hit that. When ‘The Surfer Killers’ was finished and sent, they published it as ‘Surfside Sex.’ I was proud of my first novel, mainly because I got it done and they published it.

            These days I don’t have a job to go to. The wife and children are off living different lives. I do my writing on a small sloop. I don’t have to get up at four anymore, I sleep in until five because my inner clock tells me to get up then. I haven’t used an alarm clock in years. I write from five until about ten. There is still enough energy to do other things, but along about late afternoon I feel myself fading.

            I don’t write short stories anymore. There’s not much market for them. But neither is there much market for the kind of novels I write, hardboiled noir crime. It doesn’t matter. I keep writing them and somebody somewhere keeps publishing them. The goal remains the same, not necessarily to be famous and rich, but to write.

 

Contact:

            George Snyder

             freelancer66@earthlink.net

Web:    www.georgesnydersbooks.com

Blog:   onewriterconnection.blogspot.com

 

 

Writing Schedule

One Writer Connection

 

March 13, 2013

 

WRITING SCHEDULE

 

            You pick a time and place that works for you. Some can write in a warehouse, aboard a small sailboat, a table at the library, a phone booth, swinging from a chandelier. Some write at night, others early in the morning, everything between. I need routine, the same place and time every day. I learned that in the Navy. As a young man, when I lived with roommates, they called me ‘routine man’ because of my schedule. In the Navy, routine became tradition and established how things got done.

            Soon after my discharge, I found myself with a wife and two small children. I had learned that I am a morning person; my alertness begins to fade with the sun. And I had a job to go to. My decision out of the Navy was that I would write. Not that I’d be famous or rich, just that I would write, and I’d be serious about it. My job started at seven in the morning. I got up at four so I could get in two hours of writing before the job. After the job, I tried to get in two more hours. That was not always successful with a wife and two small children. In the morning, I wrote in the kitchen of our small duplex. After work, I wrote in the bedroom. When that time and place became too inconvenient for others, I converted an outside broom/storage closet to a writing room, and I wrote there, before and after work. These were the days before computers and writing was done on a Sears Tower manual typewriter.

            I wrote short stories for the men’s magazines. I wrote a story a week. I sent them out, they immediately came back. I did this, week after week for a year before I sold my first story to The Men’s Digest. After that, I sold to Adam, Male, Nugget, Best for Men, and a few others. I worked on percentages, starting at twenty percent sold of stories written, then fifty percent. The zenith of my short story writing was a sale to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. I never sold them another. But, I wangled and worked and changed that one story and with different titles, sold it three more times for a total of $900.

            I sold more stories to The Men’s Digest than any other. After a time, the editor contacted me and said he had a deal going with a publisher in Las Vegas who put out mystery novels under the imprint, Neva Paperbacks, and how would I like to write a novel for them? A novel seemed like a lot of words, more than I had ever written before. But then I figured it would be just a string of short stories pushed out end to end, only all of it one story. I was never interested in daily word count. My writing was in time. I had a block of writing time. I might put out a paragraph or ten pages depending on how it went. My general goal was about five pages and most of the time I could hit that. When ‘The Surfer Killers’ was finished and sent, they published it as ‘Surfside Sex.’ I was proud of my first novel, mainly because I got it done and they published it.

            These days I don’t have a job to go to. The wife and children are off living different lives. I do my writing on a small sloop. I don’t have to get up at four anymore, I sleep in until five because my inner clock tells me to get up then. I haven’t used an alarm clock in years. I write from five until about ten. There is still enough energy to do other things, but along about late afternoon I feel myself fading.

            I don’t write short stories anymore. There’s not much market for them. But neither is there much market for the kind of novels I write, hardboiled noir crime. It doesn’t matter. I keep writing them and somebody somewhere keeps publishing them. The goal remains the same, not necessarily to be famous and rich, but to write.

 

Contact:

            George Snyder

             freelancer66@earthlink.net

Web:    www.georgesnydersbooks.com

Blog:   onewriterconnection.blogspot.com

 

 

ONE WRITER CONNECTION (everything connected with writing)...

 

March, 12, 2013

 

THE TROUBLE WITH MOVIES

 

            Years ago, I wanted to write a continuing column for newspapers and magazines. The title of the series was, ‘According to Red’ and I wrote about a dozen pieces that went nowhere. Now I’ve got this blog but most of the red has gone out of my hair and only my aunts call me that. I’m an author – ahem, an award winning author – of more than thirty books, most hard crime novels, thus the title of this blog.

            I love movies, see three or four a week in theaters and by rent. I have even written screenplays that went nowhere or were lost when my computer crashed. If I had to pick favorites, maybe the latest two would be ‘Parker’ and ‘Jack Reacher’ because I like those books. I also like movies in beautiful black and white from the forties. In so many ways they were better than films of today.

            Movies have a rating system, set down by who knows who. Investigative media once did a television program on just who these people were that did the rating. The investigation was an abysmal failure. The rating people are secret. They are supposed to represent clergy, business, housewife, the work place and general all around folks, but nobody knows who they are or what guide they use to rate movies. What they came up with was -G- -PG- -PG-13- -R- -NC-17-. Movie makers can change the rating given their film by making cuts. The most popular rating is PG-13 so movie people aim for that. Remember ‘Midnight Cowboy?’It was an excellent film that cut the original version to change its rating from NC-17 to R. Not many regular folks are interested in NC-17 movies. Even slasher, horror movies can get a PG-13 rating. Their moneymaking popularity tells us the real intellectual level of those watching them: age 13.

            Here is my take on what the rating system really means. Certainly there are exceptions to prove the rule.

            G: For family entertainment. Actually aimed at a five year-old level.

            PG: Family entertainment with mild caution. Actually aimed at a ten year-old level.

            PG-13: Must be thirteen to see. Actually aimed directly at the thirteen year-old mind.      

            R: Restricted to those over eighteen. Actually aimed at the high school to young adult level.

            NC-17: Nobody under seventeen admitted (joke). Aimed at erotic adults.   

            There you have it. I generally avoid G, PG, and PG-13 and go straight for the R hoping it might have some adult content. One of the exceptions: ‘The Life of Pi.’

But ratings are only part of the trouble with movies. Bigger troubles loom. One is the screen full of talking head. Two people are talking but you only see one, and the head of that one is all you see. True, the male and female actors of today are quite beautiful and maybe they deserve to have their beauty plastered all over the screen, from corner to corner, edge to edge. And it is understood, actors have schedules so the two in the conversation might not even be together during the filming. But work it out. Get those people together...somehow. Movies of the forties got actors and actresses (there was a difference then, before the push to unisex) together, on the screen, at the same time. Are you not that efficient? Movies of the thirties, co-stars and extras went from film to film changing costumes as they moved. A bit player might be in three or four films in one day.

            Ah, now we come to one of the most irritating of movies: the action film. Most are rated PG-13 to garner the biggest audience. Here we have dead-eye military types covered in fatigues full of Velcro, or mean gangsters supposed to be crack shots – and they blast their endless shot weapons at everything except the target; glass walls and mirrors shattered, cars blown, bottles broken, ceilings collapsed – but nobody hit. We have impossible, illogical car chases yet nobody can actually shoot a person in the other car. None even think of aiming for the tires. After the car careens off a cliff, rolls umpteen times – and just before it explodes, the hero manages to walk away with a slight limp and a sliver of blood on his forehead, weapon in hand. Action films are popular because thirteen year-old thinkers apparently have an endless supply of cash for movies. Where do they get all that money?

            Let us not even delve into the horror, slasher stuff with its person being dragged by her heels away from the camera – again – to the tune of loud, ear splitting, screeching violins. And even agents now shout, ‘Great Scott, not another vampire script.’ 

            But perhaps the most irritating trouble with movies is what I call, shaky camera. Maybe the goal is to get artsy, or pretend we’re doing a documentary. The camera work in today’s movies looks like a junior high kid with an 8mm camera. You get a headache with the jumps and jerks and wiggles, with angle cuts so quick all you see is some blur – and your mind starts to wonder what’s for supper or you wish you had more butter fat on your popcorn, and will this mess on the screen ever be over. I will and have walked out. When a movie turns jumpy with dumb camera shots, nobody is under obligation to see the end of it.

            One of the first lessons a screenwriter learns is that the purpose of film is to tell a story through action and dialog. Movies of today give us unbelievable, illogical action, and more sophomoric dialog than we can handle, but not much story. It is rare that we get all three just right. It does happen sometimes. And those are the best movies. 

            My books are available at all online book stores. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

George Snyder: freelancer@66Eearthlink.net

 

 

 

         

ONE WRITER CONNECTION (everything connected with writing)...

 

March, 12, 2013

 

THE TROUBLE WITH MOVIES

 

            Years ago, I wanted to write a continuing column for newspapers and magazines. The title of the series was, ‘According to Red’ and I wrote about a dozen pieces that went nowhere. Now I’ve got this blog but most of the red has gone out of my hair and only my aunts call me that. I’m an author – ahem, an award winning author – of more than thirty books, most hard crime novels, thus the title of this blog.

            I love movies, see three or four a week in theaters and by rent. I have even written screenplays that went nowhere or were lost when my computer crashed. If I had to pick favorites, maybe the latest two would be ‘Parker’ and ‘Jack Reacher’ because I like those books. I also like movies in beautiful black and white from the forties. In so many ways they were better than films of today.

            Movies have a rating system, set down by who knows who. Investigative media once did a television program on just who these people were that did the rating. The investigation was an abysmal failure. The rating people are secret. They are supposed to represent clergy, business, housewife, the work place and general all around folks, but nobody knows who they are or what guide they use to rate movies. What they came up with was -G- -PG- -PG-13- -R- -NC-17-. Movie makers can change the rating given their film by making cuts. The most popular rating is PG-13 so movie people aim for that. Remember ‘Midnight Cowboy?’It was an excellent film that cut the original version to change its rating from NC-17 to R. Not many regular folks are interested in NC-17 movies. Even slasher, horror movies can get a PG-13 rating. Their moneymaking popularity tells us the real intellectual level of those watching them: age 13.

            Here is my take on what the rating system really means. Certainly there are exceptions to prove the rule.

            G: For family entertainment. Actually aimed at a five year-old level.

            PG: Family entertainment with mild caution. Actually aimed at a ten year-old level.

            PG-13: Must be thirteen to see. Actually aimed directly at the thirteen year-old mind.      

            R: Restricted to those over eighteen. Actually aimed at the high school to young adult level.

            NC-17: Nobody under seventeen admitted (joke). Aimed at erotic adults.   

            There you have it. I generally avoid G, PG, and PG-13 and go straight for the R hoping it might have some adult content. One of the exceptions: ‘The Life of Pi.’

But ratings are only part of the trouble with movies. Bigger troubles loom. One is the screen full of talking head. Two people are talking but you only see one, and the head of that one is all you see. True, the male and female actors of today are quite beautiful and maybe they deserve to have their beauty plastered all over the screen, from corner to corner, edge to edge. And it is understood, actors have schedules so the two in the conversation might not even be together during the filming. But work it out. Get those people together...somehow. Movies of the forties got actors and actresses (there was a difference then, before the push to unisex) together, on the screen, at the same time. Are you not that efficient? Movies of the thirties, co-stars and extras went from film to film changing costumes as they moved. A bit player might be in three or four films in one day.

            Ah, now we come to one of the most irritating of movies: the action film. Most are rated PG-13 to garner the biggest audience. Here we have dead-eye military types covered in fatigues full of Velcro, or mean gangsters supposed to be crack shots – and they blast their endless shot weapons at everything except the target; glass walls and mirrors shattered, cars blown, bottles broken, ceilings collapsed – but nobody hit. We have impossible, illogical car chases yet nobody can actually shoot a person in the other car. None even think of aiming for the tires. After the car careens off a cliff, rolls umpteen times – and just before it explodes, the hero manages to walk away with a slight limp and a sliver of blood on his forehead, weapon in hand. Action films are popular because thirteen year-old thinkers apparently have an endless supply of cash for movies. Where do they get all that money?

            Let us not even delve into the horror, slasher stuff with its person being dragged by her heels away from the camera – again – to the tune of loud, ear splitting, screeching violins. And even agents now shout, ‘Great Scott, not another vampire script.’ 

            But perhaps the most irritating trouble with movies is what I call, shaky camera. Maybe the goal is to get artsy, or pretend we’re doing a documentary. The camera work in today’s movies looks like a junior high kid with an 8mm camera. You get a headache with the jumps and jerks and wiggles, with angle cuts so quick all you see is some blur – and your mind starts to wonder what’s for supper or you wish you had more butter fat on your popcorn, and will this mess on the screen ever be over. I will and have walked out. When a movie turns jumpy with dumb camera shots, nobody is under obligation to see the end of it.

            One of the first lessons a screenwriter learns is that the purpose of film is to tell a story through action and dialog. Movies of today give us unbelievable, illogical action, and more sophomoric dialog than we can handle, but not much story. It is rare that we get all three just right. It does happen sometimes. And those are the best movies. 

            My books are available at all online book stores. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

George Snyder: freelancer@66Eearthlink.net

 

 

 

         

One Writer Connection (everything that touches writing)…

 

March 11, 2013

SIMPLE AND SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH

            I’ve been working the writing racket since I was fifteen. During those nocturnal, lusty days and nights, I wrote teenage pornography for my own amusement, which dealt mostly with high school campus queens and my unpainted, rusty 1937 Ford coupe parked along the banks of the Kern River.

            But we do evolve. Leap frog forward to after retirement and I was picking up obscene money working contract as a technical writer scribing repair manuals for commercial and military aircraft. It was the same kind of work I did just before retirement only without benefits, just money. I had already learned the difference between Simple English and Simplified English.

 

Simple English: No Parking Ever

Simplified English: No Parking At Any Time, or, No Parking Any Time.

 

Simplified English appears wordy and often is. We are dealing with a 5,000 word total dictionary. As a language, English is complicated with multiple meanings to many of its words. Words for the manual had to be simple to the extreme with, if possible, one meaning, so more had to be used. The reason why is, a computer translates manuals into foreign languages, from Arabic to Italian to Japanese, so those aircraft mechanics might read our gospel of repair and understand and go forth to fix the plane.

There is a formula to tell grade level of writing. It has to do with how many words in a sentence, how many sentences in a paragraph, and how long the paragraphs are. The longer, more complicated the writing, the higher the grade. On your computer at the end of Spell Check, you’ll find what grade level your piece falls into. My tough, hard crime novels run from fourth to sixth grade, which shows how simple I am. Repair manuals for aircraft had to be written to the eighth grade level for the structure mechanic and twelfth grade level for the cockpit and pilot. After all, pilots were college graduates and deserved the elevated wordage.

Before retirement, I had elevated myself from a technical writer of aircraft structure repair manuals to Senior Editor, Technical Publications. The title was heady stuff for a guy without a college degree who started in the shop as a machinist. Duties were less lofty. Structure repair is boiler plate, that is, whether the crack in aluminum skin is on a B-52 bomber, a C-17, or a 747 commercial aircraft, or a DC-3, the repair is about the same. A crack is a crack, aluminum is aluminum; writing the repair, you fill in the blanks. The new aircraft carbon fiber honeycomb skins create a whole new brand of repair manual, and manual technical writers. I was involved in the preliminary sample stress testing of carbon skins and found the process and product scary.

When the genius tech writer has finished writing the repair, the sequence of steps must be tested by mechanics in a process known as Validation, which often took place hundreds of miles away where the planes were built, not where they were engineered and repairs written. This was where wheels fell off and when too many skin panels were removed, wings collapsed, fuselages bent – all great fun. Most repairs went okay, since most had been validated on other planes. For the tech writer, it was a chance for a few after work beers with the mechanics, and to check out the modern Rosy the Riveter, who were just as good looking as the originals.

My books are available at all online book stores. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

George Snyder: freelancer66@earthlink.net

    

             

One Writer Connection (everything that touches writing)…

 

March 10, 2013

 

Crime Novels Today

 

            The blog was started as preliminary essays for my upcoming memoir, ‘Writer, Author, Bull!,’ which covers my more than fifty years in the writing racket; the changes that moved from a wide open market with hundreds of small, low-pay magazines and ninety-five cent paperbacks on drug store carousels through a dried up market with conglomerates buying up most publishers, to the emergence of self-publishing and eBooks. My slant will always be toward Mystery/Crime/Thriller with emphasis on the hard tough crime novel because that is what I write. I don’t record the experience of all writers, or even any other writers, the experience is entirely my own because I’ve lived and worked through every phase; thus, One Writer Connection.

Part of the blog title is, everything that touches writing. What interests the writer touches the writing: agents, publishers, editors, ghost writing, bookstores, conferences, critique groups, self-marketing, self-publishing, eBooks, royalty percentages, movies, computers, travel, work habits, success, failure – almost every facet of life might touch the writing. The purpose of the blog and the memoir will be to aid those who have made the decision to get serious about their own writing, and maybe keep them from a few pitfalls. The key words are ‘get serious’ because every critique group is loaded with those who play at writing and never do take it seriously. ‘Get serious’ means to write steady and continuous, to write for publication with the intention to see your work published, somewhere by somebody. And maybe pick up a few bucks doing it. One page a day means one novel a year. If the plan is to suddenly sit down and write a rocking million copy selling blockbuster best seller, or to pitch an idea and walk away with a one million dollar advance, the path will be lumpy, rocky and cluttered with high walls. Unless they are one of the handful of popular millionaires selling today (one-percent), most published authors still go to work every day or have an independent source of income so they can write full time. 

            I am not a big name author; the majority of crime novel readers never heard of me. My novels have been published by smaller publishers. But I have more than thirty books out there and I receive small royalty checks every quarter. I even won a literary award in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller category at a writer’s conference. I’ve had agents and not had agents. Currently there is no agent. I have a small retirement income; I can and do write every day. I am not married so my needs are simple and few. Two of my novels were published print and eBook in 2011, two more in 2012; two are pending for 2013. It hasn’t been my intention to write two books a year, it has just worked out that way.

            The future looks bright for those who self-publish and self market through POD (print on demand) and eBooks, and who are personable on social networks. Introverts who just want to write have a rough road ahead; unfortunately, I fall in that category. Equally rough is the actual sales of books in terms of dollars spent. Publishers have been gobbled up by conglomerates and will only look at material submitted by an agent, and are only interested in the type of material now selling well. The two or three who will look at un-agented material show no interest in my stuff. eBooks are easy to publish, might sell from two to two thousand copies but the author’s cut is small because the retail price is small. Predicted success of eBooks ranges wildly depending on whether it is the publisher talking or the retailer.

            Not so bright are the increasing number of publishers who will not look at new material; who state they are temporarily closed to submissions. Even my small publisher (last three books), who nobody ever heard of yet who rejects 95% of submissions they receive, has announced they have closed their doors to all new author submissions. This is so they can concentrate more fully on promoting the authors they have now. I’m happy to be included because they offer the best contract in publishing. 

            Non-fiction that leans toward self-improvement is what readers want. Since eighty percent of book buyers are women, readers want books written by women about women. Romance novels are the biggest fiction sellers, but the man can never be hard or tough, he must be in close touch with his feminine side. The majority of agents and most publishing editors are female. That makes all their selections subjective toward what women like.

            Webster defines Hardboiled as: unsympathetic, tough, harsh, unsentimental. Try getting that type of protagonist past an agent or editor today. A few famous authors of hardboiled novels swung over to feature a female lead, and it works for them. The rest of us write our tough guys and know from the first shot we’re aiming at twenty percent of the market, and unless our guy is named Parker or Jack Reacher or Milo, we’ll never get rich. Some writers sway with trends to write what’s popular. We just plug along with our own guys because that’s how we are.

            My books are available at all online outlets. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com

 George Snyder: freelancer66@earthlink.net