Wednesday, December 7, 2011

About 'The Patriots of Mars'

A few visitors have been stumbling onto this new (and very much unfinished) site. The search engines have started showing us as the top result (!) for the phrase 'patriots of mars' (with or without quotes, which is kind of a Big Deal).

Therefore, it's time to explain a thing or two.

This site is being constructed in advance of release of the book The Patriots of Mars. That way, the search engines can get a feel for it and I can refine the site a bit before the book is released (in a month or so) and the marketing begins in earnest. (What can I tell ya? It's finished when it's finished.)

Most of the material now online is from the book: Postscript essays that accompany it, and the first two intro prologues which launch the story.

I'll tweak the design and text, and then once the book is out I'll be posting regularly on the book and on subjects related (one way or another) to the book.

Thanks for stopping by.

10 comments:

  1. I'm curious as to how The Patriots of Mars is going - it does not sound like something I'd ordinarily read... perhaps it's the author I'm intrigued by?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Rosanne.

      Well, as you said in your own blog, the question is "if you build it, WILL they come?". This haunts me, because I have built something rather unusual, probably for unusual reasons.

      When one builds something unusual, there are two strong possibilities. One is that it is something the world has 'been waiting for' (not that the world waits for anything, but you know what I mean). The other is that such a thing has never been built precisely because no one would want it.

      I have a very solid first half of the book, and a second half that needs a good bit of work still. But I have not written myself into a corner or anything, I pretty much know where I am going, and have a very strong ending that leads into the next book in the series. So aside from the considerable doubt re whether this was a good idea in the first place (which cannot be answered except by releasing the book, of course), I would say the process is going reasonably well. (And how kind of you to ask!)

      I have never written a book, nor have I ever written anything like this book. However, I have written successfully for years. I was working at ad agencies as a designer and got frustrated with the lousy copy I was handed. I started cutting deals with copywriters where I would rewrite their copy and they could take credit. Suddenly I was making terribly effective ads.

      But I did not want to make terribly effective ads. I wanted to do something worthwhile. So I started creating political campaigns for 'reform' candidates in corrupt New Jersey. And my underfunded candidates started winning. Problem was, when they got into office, they became as corrupt as the people they replaced. So I started working in education, and felt I was making a difference until the president of the college I was working for absconded with all their money.

      Experiences like that depressed the hell out of me. Then I started to develop the ideas for Patriots. I never wanted to write fiction before, but I began to feel that the only way I could express what I felt about a corrupt world was via allegory. I came to feel that, if you hated this world, the best thing to do might be to create a new one. And I wonder how many people out there might respond to visiting my fantasy world. It's just as corrupt as the real one, but you do get to see where hope might come from.

      As far as whether it's something you would read - I don't know. I guess if you don't read sci-fi, it's not something you would read. Is that what you mean, or does something else make you feel that way? Maybe the portion you read on my site turned you off, I don't know. Maybe you'll tell me.

      In any event, as sci-fi gioes, this is pretty damn unusual fare, and I may tick off the usual sci-fi fans. No green men, no warp drive, no teleporters, no phasers - but most of all, no faith at all that our REAL problems get solved via technology.

      As I say, it's an allegory. Like Moby Dick (not that it's LIKE Moby DIck, if you see what I mean). Things mean other things.

      Sci-fi as a category is lousy literature. Even some top sci-fi writers, in candid moments, have admitted this. Sci-fi, like romance, is a genre with legions of fans hungry for something very much like everything they've read before. It's like McDonalds. Nobody goes to McDonalds for something different - what they want is a similar experience to what they've had before. Patriots will SEEM to offer that to a sci-fi reader who picks it up, but then he will pretty much get the rug pulled out from under him.

      Which goes back to the original question - if I build this, will they come? But it's too late to ask that, really. Damn thing's almost finished...

      Hope this in some way answers your question.

      Jeff

      Delete
    2. The title is great, and you will get curious readers, and they'll come not because of the book's content (because they can't see that until they come) but because your persuasive writing is engaging, and I'm sure you will devise stuff that will attract a curious crowd. Aim for five, and you never know...

      Some will be disappointed it's not MacDonalds sci-fi, but others might find it refreshing and innovative. Or someone might really hate it, start a crusade about its lack of worth, and make it REALLY successful.

      One of my free short stories, which usually gets lauded to the high heavens, recently got a mediocre review from a woman who lambasts almost everything. Everyone flocked to look, and for a minute there, it was back in the top 100 at Amazon! It's amazing what curiosity will do.

      No - I don't read sci-fi (I hardly read anything I'm so busy and such a slow reader) and my TBR pile is knee deep. Do you have a cover yet?

      So get this one out and off your chest and follow it with two things - another six books, and lots of persuasive copy all over the place, to pull people in. You don't have to do anything... just spruik.

      Delete
  2. Do you have a cover yet?

    The front cover is at the top of this page, shown as a smallish icon off to the right. Click it to enlarge (that also takes you to the first chapter, which is online here). Below that is something a bit innovative, which is an inside front cover. Clicking on that enlarges that art as well, and leads to a FAQ page I'm developing (it also appears in the book).

    Let me dwell on that inside cover for a moment. One of the things I've done in my life is design covers for books and other publications, as well as promo materials for books. Most of this was, of course, before the advent of e-books, when books were by necessity physical objects.

    What that meant was that a book cover had to do several jobs. It had to identify the book, but more importantly it had to help sell the book. The back cover had hard sell copy, its inside flaps - front and back - contained reviews and a book synopsis, and even its spine had to sell the book when it was sitting on a shelf. The front cover blazed the author's name is the author WAS a name-brand, or it had a review from a name-brand reviewer, or it said 'NY Times Best-Seller'. Front covers also often contained a hook of some sort, something like "He strode between two worlds to save the woman he loved".

    Now, flash forward to the way e-books are sold today, and bear in mind that Amazon now sells more e-books than hardcovers (or maybe more e-books than ANY physical book, period). All that work the cover once did no longer has to be borne by the cover, because the cover now is surrounded by a page where all sorts of reviews, plot summaries, and other information is available. Also, the cover is no longer seen at one static size. Most people will first see your cover at the size of a postage stamp.

    What all this means is that a book cover in e-book form has to be rethought. It can't be designed like a physical cover. So, if you put a catch-phrase or hook on your cover, there's that much less room for the title, art, etc. And what that means is that, when your book is the size of a postage stamp, it will be unidentifiable.

    On the other hand, thinking about how a book is encountered leads us to another way to use a hook. I'm fond of the hook, I don't want to lose it. The hook sums up in a single line some aspect of the appeal the book offers. That's very useful information to the reader. But I understand that the first time (s)he sees it, the cover will be quite a small size, and the catch-phrase (hook) will be illegible. I also understand that Amazon does not enable me to use one image sans-hook at the postage-stamp size and a similar image WITH a hook at a larger size. Your cover is your cover is your cover.

    Therefore I created the inside-front cover which features the catch-phrase more prominently than any physical book would dare to do. The reader's journey to the catch-phrase goes like this: (S)he comes across the postage-stamp cover, clicks through to the book's page. There (s)he encounters the larger cover surrounded by info. (S)he also sees Amazon's 'Look Inside the Book' feature, which (s)he is familiar with. If (s)he clicks on that, it means (s)he is considering a purchase. That is when the catch-phrase and inside art is revealed, and it is a surprise (because it is rarely done). Hopefully, it is a GOOD surprise that causes him/her to take a chance on the book. (Of course, after the inside art the potential buyer can see the first 10% or so of the book, as is true of most Amazon books.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No - I don't read sci-fi (I hardly read anything I'm so busy and such a slow reader) and my TBR pile is knee deep.

      So I will take that as the reason why Patriots is a book 'you would not ordinarily choose to read' - because you're pressed for time and have therefore (understandably) narrowed your scope to subjects you know are of interest. You might pause for a book on the Impressionists, for instance, but not for a sci-fi offering. It's off your radar.

      Some will be disappointed it's not MacDonalds sci-fi, but others might find it refreshing and innovative. Or someone might really hate it, start a crusade about its lack of worth, and make it REALLY successful.

      And the fact is, most people read 'their' genre. Sci-fi readers are nuts for sci-fi, romance readers stick to romance, etc. There's some crossover here and there, but by and large people do tend to stay within their niche. That's a bit of a problem for me, since I am stretching the sci-fi niiche a bit. Still, people do make exceptions for the exceptional. Lots of adults like Dr. Seuss. So there you go.

      There is an 'X' factor to both the process and the product of writing that is intriguing. The process is go into here, but the X factor in the product I have yet to encounter. In my past life, I was paid to write/design per project (or as part of a steady job). I got paid decently once my skill level was established, but I was never in a position where, if I created a really great promo I would get a million dollars, but if it flopped I would get nothing. (True, I could get fired as an employee or not re-hired as a freelancer, but I would get paid for that particular job at least.)

      I have also never been in a position where so many variables came into play in terms of whether I would make any money off a project or not. Melville thought he had written a great work in Moby Dick, but the book was panned until after his death. Harry Potter SHOULD have died - its publisher sent out only a few hundred copies to librarians and hoped they'd somehow make the book successful. Most books treated that way are destined for obscurity, but - well, you know what happened.

      Delete
  3. The title is great...

    Thank you. As I point out here, there have been many books called "The ____________ of Mars". But Mars is a subject of seemingly endless fascination. The old chestnut John Carter of Mars is being readied for a release this summer. (It's worth noting that Disney retitled it as 'John Carter' in hope that this would appeal to an audience beyond the sci-fi crowd.)

    At the same time, few books have been titled (or subtitled) 'The God That Failed'. As you can see, the cover uses art almost incidentally, and relies largely on typography to carry its message.

    ...you will get curious readers, and they'll come not because of the book's content (because they can't see that until they come) but because your persuasive writing is engaging, and I'm sure you will devise stuff that will attract a curious crowd.

    This is very much a worldbuilding book. There are inventions and characters and places and a history to this Mars that never existed before. It's a unique place and a unique situation. I myself, at least, have never encountered anything quite like it. It's similar to the way The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Harry Potter created unique places. (Of course, I can only hope that Patriots' world is as well-made and compelling as the now-legendary ones I've cited. I have given this my best effort, believe me.)

    But there are no green men, no monsters, and no warp drives in this world. And in this first book of the series - no Darth Vader or Sauron or Voldemort equivalent. Conventional wisdom says you must build this great, evil villain and present him ASAP. I say no.

    ReplyDelete
  4. your persuasive writing is engaging

    I'm very flattered, naturally. But also gratified, because over the years my writing (and design to a lesser extent) has been measured pretty objectively by sales results. In other words, I would typically be handed a product to promote that had been handled by others before me. Some of the products had been around a long time before I got them (AAA, Readers' Digest) and therefore MANY people had handled their marketing before my arrival on the scene.

    My job was always to create a campaign that outperformed the high-water mark set by the best campaign that had come before. Do that and live another day, if you see what I mean. So by necessity, and also because (God help me) I love a challenge, I gave a great deal of thought to what goes in to compelling copy. As I went along, I formalized and internalized what I learned. And my campaigns generally did outperform the 'control' campaigns, by about 10%. (Which is a lot in the ad game.)

    As I moved into longer and different forms of writing (political speeches, annual reports) I considered different structural forms. Frank Lloyd Wright kept coming to mind. He talked about the way a building needed to integrate into its surroundings (or play against them, as the Guggenheim does). And he spoke of how a building needed to reveal itself as you entered it, presenting a small, 'welcoming' vista, then a larger vista that extended the original theme, then revealing the grand vista that expands the earlier stories into something new. I don't believe his fellow architects quite understood this.

    Wright was so caught up in these ideas that he designed things that were impractical to build or maintain with the materials and tools of his era. The magnificent Johnson Wax Building had a roof that leaked like a sieve. No matter - the owner kept a bucket near his desk. It was the price one paid, he felt, to inhabit such a space.

    ReplyDelete
  5. One writer who used Wright's methods to present a story was JK Rowling. At her best, and especially in the initial Potter story, she presented vista after vista, each leading to a larger one. She never expected her audience to sit still while she set up something that would only pay off two chapters down the road. And yet, a novel MUST set up events that pay off two chapters down the road - or at the book's end or at the end of the series! But she did that work within vistas, and as such not only was each chapter meant to have a proper closure within itself, but even some events (often 'mini-mysteries') within chapters had their own little closures. Some day I may sit down and do a proper analysis of this design, but if you look at her first book in particular, and you know what you are looking for, you can see this. Everything serves a purpose, large or small.

    I don't suppose Rowling understood that she was interpreting Wright's methods, or anyone else's. From what I have read of her (and I have studied her extensively - one must study such an extraordinary achievement), she did not even think she was writing for children. She thought she was writing an 'adult' novel. In any event, she instinctively and passionately sought to hold her reader's attention at every turn, and the result was that she took what I perceive to be the 'correct' form of constructing a novel of the kind she was after. That is, a 'worldbuilding' novel concerning good and evil, along the lines of Lord of the Rings and others you know.

    One of my free short stories, which usually gets lauded to the high heavens, recently got a mediocre review from a woman who lambasts almost everything. Everyone flocked to look, and for a minute there, it was back in the top 100 at Amazon! It's amazing what curiosity will do.

    I'd like to see that negative review...

    So get this one out and off your chest and follow it with two things - another six books, and lots of persuasive copy all over the place, to pull people in. You don't have to do anything... just spruik.

    Yes, this must by necessity be followed by more books. The story does not end with this book. Nor does the work for this book end with this book! I must, indeed, promote it as best I can. I am essentially a very private person, but clearly I have no choice. So off to Facebook I march.

    But alas, I don't know what a 'spruik' is, and now I have something new to worry about...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jeff - your members link is not working. No one can join you, as far as I can figure. Fix it soon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gee, two or three people just did join (minutes ago, even). But I'll report the problem to the faceless Facebook folks, and see if they respond. Thanks for telling me, I certainly want to have you on my list. I've known you five minutes, and you've shown me real friendship.

    ReplyDelete