We’ve started doing live webinars as part of our Scribe’s Forge series and have been conducting tests of the system using free webinars for anyone who would like to sign up. In fact, we have two more coming up during the month of April which you can register for here at no charge.

If you would like to get a taste of what our first attempt went like, here is a short video that gives you something of the flavor of one of our first online live  workshop webinars. I get to meet with you in real time and discuss the issues dealing with your writing and publishing — and I’m really enjoying helping up and coming authors approach the business professionally.

  My daughter, Tasha, visited a friend of ours last week in our old home town of St. George, Utah. This friend has started a number of businesses over the years, many of them quite successful.

“I feel sorry for you kids today,” he said. “You’ve really got it tough.”

My daughter

“Well, in my day,” our friend said, “when I started a business, my only real competition was local. My business could take root, grow a little and get some strength before it had to deal with stronger competition in larger markets. But today it’s completely different.”

“Really?” Tasha said. “Why is that?”

“Because today — from the very start — you’re in competition with the world,” he said.

For writer‘s in today’s market, that feels especially true.

In the ‘good old days’ of traditional publishing, a writer was in competition for the attention of a finite pool of editors, the guardians of publishing, whom you had to convince through query letters, slush pile blind submissions, pitches and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of form rejection letters that you were, indeed, a writer and that your manuscript was worthy of publication.

Writers vs. Every OTHER Writer

Today, however, in the age of New Media, we writers feel like drops  who have fallen in the ocean of ebook publishing. We work hard at forging our manuscripts into crafted stories. If we’re smart, we even hire someone talented to edit our work into a fine polish. Then we take our beautiful work and toss it into the sea of the millions of other books currently available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble websites. In that moment, perhaps, we realize that we are suddenly in competition with writers like Stephen King, R. K. Rowlings, Dan Brown and every other mega-best-seller out there. Those mighty titans of publishing loom huge on the Sea of Instant Media and our little sail boat that we labored on so hard can look insignificant in comparison.

But I believe this is where we, as writers, make our biggest mistake.

An Unknown Writer in China

People have occasionally asked me what it is like to be a famous writer. Now fame, I’ve decided is largely a localized and situational phenomenon. On the one hand, there are people who consider me famous when I attend Fantasy and Gaming Conventions around the world. On the other hand, the checkout clerk at the local grocery store has no idea that I’m a writer and, if I told her, she could not care less.

Whenever I get to feeling to proud of my career as a writer, I always tell myself the following:

There are entire provinces in China who have never heard your name.

The do not know that I’m a writer. They’ve never heard my name let alone read anything I’ve written. So, the point is that one does not have to sell a book to the ENTIRE world in order to be a writer– or even make a living at being a writer. You don’t need EVERYONE to be in your audience — all you needs is enough of an audience to make a living and that is a very different thing altogether.

Jurassic Writer

One of the most successful English language novels of the last half century was ‘Jurassic Park.’ Michael Crichton’s huge best seller was the biggest thing in publishing in its time and co9nsidered a monstrous (slight pun) success.

Consider this: that book sold to 2% of the total number of readers in the United States.

The point here is that you do not have to feel as though you are in competition with the entire world. You don’t NEED the entire world to be a successful writer. What you need is an audience — just enough of an audience, mind you — who reads your words, is changed by them and wants to come back for more.

It’s a big world out there — but you don’t need the whole world to succeed as a writer.

You just need to find a very small piece of it that is wholly your own.

Go get it!

Try our next FREE Writing Workshop!*

(*Workshops are limited in size. Check this link for current availability ,dates and times.)

• What would you ask if you had the chance to sit down face to face with an International and NYT Best-selling author?
• What if that author with over a quarter of a century of experience in traditional publishing and an innovator in New Media and ebook publishing was willing to answer your questions about your manuscript and career?
• What if he could tell you directly what you need to know to move your career forward?
• What if he could ‘come to where you write’ and give you his advice without the expense of travel, lodging or meals … and at a time convenient to your lifestyle?

The opportunity you need is about to arrive…

Tracy Hickman is about to open up an EXLUSIVE and LIMITED series of web-based video workshops. They are commonly called webinars (web-based seminars).

Annual Pass Webinar Subscription
WK 1 EARLY: First Friday of each month at 6:00 pm Mountain Time (8:00 pm Eastern Time US)**	Not required for purchase
WK 1 LATE: First Friday of each month at 8:00 pm Mountain Time (10:00 pm Eastern Time US)**	Not required for purchase
WK 3 EARLY: Third Friday of each month at 6:00 pm Mountain Time (8:00 pm Eastern Time US)**	Not required for purchase
WK 3 LATE: Third Friday of each month at 8:00 pm Mountain Time (10:00 pm Eastern Time US)**	Not required for purchase
A full year of Webinars at 25% DISCOUNT PLUS your place in the seminar is guaranteed. See our Comparison Chart for your best values!

** Due to rare scheduling conflicts (especially in August), an alternate date for your webinar may occasionally need to be arranged. We will work with you to find a suitable alternate date when such conflicts take place.

Each of these classes will:

• Be limited to 24 PARTICIPANTS ONLY per workshop. This will be on a first come, first served basis. Enroll early for the workshop you want since it will close once all available slots are taken.
• Come into the Webinar Series ANYTIME: We will be going through an annual cycle of these workshops so if you missed a workshop that you wanted to take it will be coming around again soon. Annual Passes begin with your first Webinar month and continue for a full year afterward so any webinars you missed you will be attending later on. You do NOT have to start with the first webinar … just jump in anytime you like.
• Be conducted personally by Tracy Hickman via LIVE webcam direct from his writing office. The workshops will include workbook materials, examples, graphics and sometimes video during the webinar. You will interact directly with Tracy Hickman through the web-browser interface.
• Duration will be 90 minutes per workshop.

Scribe’s Forge LIVE Webinars EARLY: Webinar begins at 6:00 Mountain Time Zone (8:00 Eastern) LATE: Webinar begins at 8:00 Mountain Time Zone (10:00 Eastern) Mountain Time Zone is -7 GMT (zulu) Time
May 2012 The Four Throughlines of a Complete Plot: Tracy Hickman will personally lead this exploration of the four perspectives that need to be addressed in order to satisfy your audience and provide proper structure for your story. You will be discussing with Tracy and other participants the concepts of the four throughlines as they relate to your own stories and how this single concept can help strengthen your plot in ways you have not yet imagined.
	First Friday:May 4th	Early
		Late
	Third Friday:May 18th	Early
		Late
June 2012 “The New Business of Publishing Now” Remember the ‘good old days’ when all you had to do was write a book and someone would pay you for it? Today, a radical evolution in publishing is taking place, leveling the playing field for new authors like you with unprecedented opportunities to establish a career in writing. Are you prepared to take advantage of these changes — especially when the choice is between evolution and extinction?
	First Friday:June	Early
		Late
	Third Friday:June	Early
		Late
July 2012 Store Core: Title, Log-line and Pitch Paragraph: “So, you’re writing a book … what’s it about?” The answer to that question may make the difference between selling your book to someone or having them walk away. It doesn’t matter if your dealing in traditional publishing, the New Media ebook market or talking to a prospective reader across the table from you … knowing how to answer this question is critical both for you as a writer/creative and for your audience.
	Third Friday: Due to Scheduling this webinar will be held on July 20th.	Early
		Late
	Fourth Friday: Due to Scheduling this webinar will beheld on July 27th.	Early
		Late
Each Webinar is $42 per person. EARLY: Webinar begins at 6:00 Mountain Time Zone (8:00 Eastern) LATE: Webinar begins at 8:00 Mountain Time Zone (10:00 Eastern) Mountain Time Zone is -7 GMT (zulu) Time

AND our coming workshops for the next year…

Workshop ‘face to face’ with Tracy Hickman to give you the advantage you need in today’s ebook reality of publishing!

A book does live until it is read … and we live forever because of our books.

2012 Oscar Winner – Animated Short Subject
Worth every moment of your time spent on it.

While I was growing up (and it remains a matter of debate whether I ever did) much was made about the dangers of ‘stifling a child’s creativity’. Everyone in popular culture seemed preoccupied with the idea that telling a brat that he was being a brat and that should choose to stop being a brat before someone made sure that he stopped being a brat would somehow permanently damage them. How could they be writing the great American Novel write music for the ages or craft plays, painting, films or other works of art later in their life if they were creatively stifled? Of course, one might argue that such bruising may have been the origin of writing a number of tell-all biographies later in life, but that was beside the point. So in order to avoid this stifling, an entire range of permissive parenting was wheeled out that would, it was argued, allow the child to ‘explore without fear’ and ‘get in touch with their inner creative self without have artificial constraints (a.k.a. parenting) to slow them down.

Now, it seems, we must slow down these unrestrained creative children with Ritalin. We have in our desire to ‘free’ our children raise a generation whose understanding of discipline has been completely stifled. We have a generation who were taught that they were ‘special’ and ‘unique’ but who lack any of the discipline required to translate those elements into anything meaningful and lasting.

Writing by the ‘Special’

I often have new writers in our writing workshops who, after examining our structural segments on story plot and character relationships tell me something like, “well, that’s fine for those OTHER writers. But I’m different! My imagination is too creative, to unique, and too special to fit inside the constraints of such mundane rules!” Whenever I encounter such people I realize that they are almost certainly enormously creative and most likely talented as well (those elements having not been stifled previously) but who have been completely stifled in discipline. I imagine them having managed to ‘slide by’ their parents or their grade-school teachers based on the brightness of their smile and the ‘cleverness’ of them. They now believe that they can continue that trend by writing from their talent alone. They are, in their view, above the rules and discipline.

These are also those who’s stifled discipline insures that they will never develop the craft to execute consistent art over time. They might have a ‘one hit wonder’ in the same sense that a meteorite might hit the manhole cover outside my house — but they will spend most of their lives dreaming of the incredible books they never wrote or the wonderful plays they never performed or the fabulous music they never wrote or played. Such people make wonderful readers of the writing others produce but mistake their love of reading for the ability to write. It’s creatively easy to enjoy a world-class violinist. It’s much hard to play world-class violin.

Writing is Talent, Craft and Discipline

My father once approached an artist in a museum in Paris. This man was cleaning his brushes after having painted a copy of one of the Great Masters paintings. The reproduction was amazingly exact. My father asked the artist why he had not made any changes to the copy he had just painted or tried something new of his own. The Artist replied that he needed to learn the craft and technique of those who had preceded him so that he would know the rules they had discovered before he tried to make new rules of his own.

Perhaps there are new writers out there who will break the rules in new and wondrous ways but you have to understand the rules before you can break them. It does not ‘stifle’ an architect’s creativity to understand the laws of physics, load and stress — but it does make for buildings that do not fall down before they are built.

In our writing workshops we teach the ‘foundations of story’ and the ‘physics of character relativity’. We deal with the fundamental structure of plot and how it relates to character function in the story. The craft of writing is not just about being creative; it is about translating that creativity in to writing that can be shared consistently with an audience and have meaning again and again.

Writing requires discipline … so don’t stifle it!

GUEST AUTHOR POST BY W. DANIEL WILLIS

I have a confession to make, it’s been three weeks since I did any serious writing.  I’m supposed to be finished with my next book right now.  Fact is I’m a little less than halfway through.  I’d like to blame it on the holidays or the fact that I’m juggling writing, being Mr. Mom, and taking a class in programing.  Heck I’d settle for blaming it on my rampant ADD, I’m easy that way.

Truth is, however, that I’m not writing because I’m just not seeing any future in it.  The writing industry is changing rapidly right now and even if I got a contract on my last book, who knows if the market will be there when it comes out?  Then there’s the whole e-self-publishing route where no one really knows what’s going on but we know that some people are selling millions of books.  Quite frankly it sounds like there are better odds playing the lottery.  (For the mathematically challenged, playing the lottery is only slightly less risky than throwing your money down the garbage disposer.)

So, for the last three weeks or so, I’ve been kicking an idea around in the back of my head.

What if I just quit?

I mean lets face it, while I have been published four times, I haven’t cracked the level of success where I can actually make a living.  I used to be a hotshot computer programmer and, while my skills are very rusty, I can whip them back into shape.  Programmers make good money (provided you move out of Utah, which I could do).  Heck, I’ve worked in the game industry and have contacts there, maybe it’s time to resurrect that dream.

So what if I quit?

I don’t have a fan base to speak of, so there’s no one to disappoint.  Writing is an incredibly time consuming activity.  Who knows what I could do if I got that time back?

So that’s what I’ve been thinking.  Maybe it’s time to commit professional seppuku and move on.  It wouldn’t be my first career that went that way.

I wrote the previous thoughts this morning while my youngest played with her barbie and the sink full of dishes glared at me, meaningfully.  I got busy (though I studiously ignored the dishes) and didn’t post it.  Then a few minutes ago, while checking my email, I got a newsletter from a professional friend of mine, a writer of great talent, renown, and success.  It was his periodic newsletter to friends and aspiring writers and it’s message was simply; “Don’t Quit.”  The letter detailed the struggles of top shelf writers like J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, and James Joyce.  I have to admit I’d heard most of it before and didn’t really pay much attention.  What I needed was the subject.

Don’t quit.

I’m a religious man and I believe God has a plan for everybody.  I believe you have to go and find it, and that he’ll lead you to it if you’re listening.  I’ve been praying for guidance as I moved through the black labyrinth of the last few weeks.  If this isn’t the answer I’ve been looking for, I don’t know what is.

So that’s it then.  The wakizashi goes back in the scabbard and I move on.

I’ve got twenty chapters left to write in Traven’s Gambit (my latest book).  I’m going to take tomorrow off to get my head right and hit the ground running on Monday.  I plan to be done five weeks from now on the 27th of February.  From there, it will be off to the editor for a few weeks then back to me for revisions.  That should put the whole shootin’ match over by Easter.

Wish me luck.  I’ll keep you posted.

Tracy’s Note: Dan Willis is a friend of mine and author of four books set in the Dragonlance world. I thought you might find some thoughtful ideas in his post.

As we ring in the new year, a quick shout of congratulations to fellow Scribe’s Forge author Tom Bielawski and his Kindle ebook “A Tide of Shadows“. This first book by Tom has risen meteorically into the top hundred of best sellers in Fantasy Books on Amazon.com. You may recall Tom recently was featured as a guest post on several of our websites. We hope you’ll all join us in congratulating this promising author.

When Christmas time comes around each year, one of the first movies that we get out and play is ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ Not the horrible remake that was done a few years ago but the real deal: the 1947 version with Maureen O’Hara, John Daily, the Oscar-winning Edmund Gwynn and the delightful child-star Natalie Wood. The story came from Valentine Davies who was purchasing a present for his wife in a New York department story on Christmas Eve of 1945. Pressed by the crowds he wondered what Santa Claus would think of all the commercialism of the season. This became the spark for his story which George Seaton adapted into the screenplay.

It being one of our favorite holiday films and with both Laura and I in the car driving down to visit my parents some five hours away from our home, we found ourselves talking about the story and passing the time doing what any good student of story enjoys doing from time to time: deconstructing the elements of the story.

If you happen to be one of our apprentices of story in our Scribe’s Forge writing seminars, then our musings on this classic tale will make more sense as you already have the context and the vocabulary of story structure under your belt. If you are new to story structure we hope you’ll hang on for the ride.

Every story is basically told through the progression of four throughlines: Objective Throughline, Main Character Throughline, Impact Character Throughline and Subjective Throughline. Our deconstruction of ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ falls nicely within this structure.

OBJECTIVE THROUGHLINE: Macy’s Santa Claus battle with a mean-spirited psychologist results in Santa being on trial in a competency hearing that threatens to lock him up before Christmas Eve.

MAIN CHARACTER THROUGHLINE: Doris Walker, a divorced and disillusioned manager in the toy department at Macy’s Department Store struggles with her loss of trust and faith as she tries to build a relationship with her neighbor, Fred Gailey.

IMPACT CHARACTER THROUGHLINE: Kris Kringle battles the commercialization of the holiday in hopes of bringing back the spirit of joy and selfless giving to Christmas.

SUBJECTIVE STORY: Kris Kringle and Doris Walker struggle with each other between the concept of faith and rational pragmatism that disguises Doris’ fears and disillusionment.

The characters are numerous and diverse but ultimately reveal some very interesting story telling structure underpinning the tale that makes it fascinating all these decades later. First, let’s take a look at the Driver Characters … those characters that move the Objective Thoroughline forward in the story.
DRIVER CHARACTERS

• KRIS KRINGLE / PROTAGONIST: Our Santa Claus character provides both the action and thought characteristics of a protagonist. However, as he is NOT the main character of the story, he would not be considered a hero per se.
• RATIONAL WORLD / ANTAGONIST: Kris Kringle is in direct opposition to the ‘rational world’ which we experience around us. This makes the antagonist in this story ‘situational.’ Kris is battling a condition or situation that exists at large. This part of the story structure is actually represented by a number of characters who come and go in the story with various affect. The most prominent representative of the world is the District Attorney Thomas Mara who represents the world view throughout the trial. However others also represent this view through other parts of the story: R. H. Macy, Mr. Gimble, Julian Shellhammer, Mrs. Mara and her son as well as the post office mail sorter. All these characters are a part of the situation that drives the Objective Plot forward.
• FRED GAILEY & DR. PIERCE / GUARDIANS: This is where things got rather interesting for us as we discussed this structure. Fred Gaily represents the ‘Action’ characteristic of Guardian as he literally defends Kris in court. On the other hand, Dr. Pierce represents the ‘thought’ characteristic of the Guardian in his brief appearance in Doris Walker’s office as he counter’s Mr. Sawyer’s diagnosis of Kris as having ‘latent maniacal tendencies.’ As Dr. Pierce only represents one half of a full character’s aspects, he is a thin, two dimensional character and we feel that way about him in the film. On the other hand, this makes Fred Gailey into a ‘complex character’ and, as such, more interesting. Speaking of Mr. Sawyer…
• GRANVILLE SAWYER / CONTAGONIST: Mr. Sawyer is in direct opposition to the guardians at every turn and, most importantly, definitely has his own ulterior motives in his behavior. He both thinks and acts as a manipulator in the story … an ideal representative of a contagonist position in the story.

Now that we have the Drivers of the Objective Throughline, let’s take a look at the passengers of the Objective story who are being pulled along by that plot.

PASSENGER CHARACTERS

• DORIS WALKER & JUDGE XAVIER HARPER / REASON: Doris is actually a complex character her actions are those of a skeptic but her thought processes are all about reason.
• FRED GAILEY & ALFRED / EMOTION: While Fred Gailey’s actions are those of a Guardian, his thinking and rationality are those of the Emotional Argument.
• SUSAN WALKER / SIDEKICK: Susan Walker is Doris’ little girl and, as the central theme of the subjective story revolves around the conflict between Santa Claus and her mother – the personifications of faith vs. rational pragmatism – she is at the center of their conflict. In a sense they are struggling over what she represents, child-like wonder and hope being crushed by the commercial world.
• DORIS WALKER & CHARLIE HALLORAN / SKEPTIC: Charlie Halloran is the District Attorney who is prosecuting – which he takes pains to explain to his wife is different than ‘persecuting’ – Santa Claus. He is the action half of the Skeptic in this case while Doris Walker represents the thought processes of the Skeptical Archetype.

Finally, as we look at the Main and Impact Characters of the piece, we must determine which of them remains the same and which changes as a result of the journey. Despite the forces against him, it is Santa Claus in the form of Kris Kringle who remains constant and, ultimately, it is Doris Walker who accepts that ‘Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.’ She changes to realize that it is hope and faith that offers her an opportunity for happiness that she will never find in the commercial world.

Which, after all, IS what Christmas should be all about.

by Tom Bielawski

Note from Tracy Hickman: Tom Bielawski is one of our authors taking part in our ‘Scribe’s Forge Online Writing Workshops and Seminars.’ We thought you might like to hear about his experience both in our workshops and his journey as a new author in modern publishing.

I really feel honored to be a guest blogger on Tracy Hickman’s website. I read Dragonlance Chronicles and the Darksword Trilogy during my youth and those works are what laid the foundation for my love of speculative fiction and my desire to write fantasy. Thank you, Tracy, for giving me this opportunity.

I am a student at Scribesforge, a career law enforcement officer, a Marine who served “in every clime and place,” a husband, a father of two, and a “CF Dad.” As I type these words I am in the process of concluding my second and final year in Afghanistan as a police mentor. I will hang my hat on what I’ve done here and go home to pursue my writing career.

Writing my first book was a lengthy process, I won’t tell you how lengthy. Having found the world of Facebook, I eventually found Tracy Hickman, one of my all-time favorite authors. I was amazed at how approachable to, and interactive with, he was with his fans. Through that medium, Tracy introduced me to the Scribesforge online workshop where my goal of completing my book and sharing it with the world went from “someday” to “now.”

One of the important concepts that I learned from Tracy at the “Forge” was thinking of writing is a true craft, and that a writer is a skilled craftsman. Thinking of myself as a craftsman writer really helped me put that label on who I am: I am a writer. And it helped move away from that “someday” trap we all know and hate.

Another important concept from the “Forge” is: “being read” vs “being published.” It may seem like splitting hairs, but it is not. You cannot be successful if no one reads your work, whether you publish in traditional print or otherwise. Scribesforge, helped me make my book something which people enjoy reading!

I found that my biggest obstacle to becoming that “craftsman writer” was conquering the world of distraction, in whatever form that takes. The following is my take on a discussion on this very subject in the forums at Scribesforge:

“Working over here and finding time to work on my novel amidst the distractions of here and the distractions from 7000 miles away (at home) is a challenge. The distractions had been my worst enemy when it came to overcoming writers block.
One day I was feeling pretty homesick. And I realized that only thing that is keeping me from my dream of writing for a living is writing. Even though I was pretty blue and out of sorts, and in no mood to write, I found that the emotion I was feeling at that moment moved onto the pages with surprising ease. With the raw emotions of my problems, both foreign and domestic, sitting on my shoulder I just forced myself to write. I found that the dialogue seemed more believable and, well, more emotional. Which was appropriate for the emotional strain my character was under. My descriptions became simpler yet more poignant, which was the point I was trying to make in that scene anyway.
Necessity forced me to find a way to overcome my blocks and I used my mental enemy to my advantage. It still works for me because, like everyone else in this world, I still have the things in life with which I must face and reckon. But, I have found when I make myself sit down in front of the computer, those very issues make my writing just a little bit better.”

Learning how to defeat the distractions of my life was integral to actually finishing my novel, and sharing these experiences with other writers really helped. But, most important was the support of my family and my relationship with God. Without those, I couldn’t have overcome the distractions which have haunted me these many years.

The success of my first book, “A Tide of Shadows,” has been very encouraging. The feeling of seeing my name and my work for sale on Amazon for the very first time was indescribable. Better was the feeling when people actually bought my work; better still was the feeling when people continued buying my work!

“A Tide of Shadows,” is the first installment in my series of epic fantasy called “The Chronicles of Llars.” In this book Carym of Hyrum is a well respected village hero. But a turn of events forces him into a confrontation that leaves an agent of the church dead, and Carym wanted for murder. But Carym receives unlikely assistance from a group of outlaw criminals, a group to which his best friend now belongs. While he has been saved from the executioner’s axe, he must repay the outlaws for their help by undertaking a dangerous quest to find a vial of water from the mythical Everpool. Meanwhile, a dark wizard in league with an evil god leads an army bent on the conquest of the entire Northern Continent. He, too, seeks the Everpool, but for far more sinister purposes and his powerful minions hunt Carym at every turn. In order to reach the Everpool Carym must learn to deal with his new powers, dodge monstrous hunters, guard against betrayal, and resist the evil temptations that threaten to overwhelm him like a Tide of Shadows.

My second work is a science fiction novella called “The Centaurus Legacy.” This is a fast paced, action driven, novella filled with intrigue and suspense, set in the universe of lauded 22nd Century lawman, Marshal Hendrick (Heck) Thomas. Marshal Thomas suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the law when a criminal mafia mastermind with connections to the government links him to a series of heinous crimes. With the Bureau of Investigation and the Commonwealth Fleet in pursuit, Marshal Thomas must find a way to avoid capture by corrupt officials, clear his name, and prevent the dangerous Centaurus technology from tipping the balance of power forever.

For more information about my books, stop by my webstite: www.tombielawski.com or look me up on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you, Tracy, for providing me with the tools to turn my dream into reality.

by Tracy & Laura Hickman

The craftsmen writers are taking over the Publishing Guilds.

I have always admired the idea of craftsmen. A craftsman, in my mind, is an artist who has successfully merged his musings, inspirations and visions with practiced skill and the tools with which to realize those visions. I have little use for those who claim to be an artist only because they lay on the fainting couch, the back of their hand to their forehead and are perpetually moaning as they wait for some muse to slap them with brilliance that will make them immortal. Give me a craftsman who stands up, rolls up their sleeves, grabs every tool they command and forges their art into something meaningful and real. Craftsmen are not content to wait for immortality to find them … they go out looking for it, seize it and own it.

The idea of craftsmen goes back to the foundations of civilization. There were craftsmen known as early as 600 B.C. in India (even earlier in China) and 300 B.C. in Ptolemaic Egypt. These craftsmen held ‘secrets’ of their trade, imparting their artistry as ‘mysteries’ only to those who apprenticed after them. This was a matter largely of remaining employed: if you needed a particular thing done that required the skill of a craftsmen, then you were limited to employing those craftsmen who knew the skill.

The protection of these skills and the tools to bring their arts into reality eventually led to the rise of the guilds which allowed the communal protection of their ‘mysteries’, being a combination of cartels, trade-unions and secret societies. Beyond their mythic origins, Freemasons have their medieval roots in simple rituals associated with the craft guilds of mason stone craftsmen. The value and contribution of such guilds had been hotly debated in terms of Europe: some claimed that the rigid protection of craft secrets stifled innovation while others claimed that the system paired craft masters and produced a higher level of craft development than could be accomplished by individual craftsmen at large.
Until recently, Publishing Houses operated very much like guilds of literature. Publishing houses – like guild houses – protected their own ‘mysteries’ of selection, editorial, production, marketing and distribution. Their ‘pitch’ process became the initiation which had to be passed before one could get published. Above all, Publishing Houses were the guardians of what constituted ‘literature worthy of print.’ Until you became a ‘published author’ – in other words, one of the editorial craftsmen inside the Publishing Guild thought your words worthy of being accepted into the Publishing Guild – then you were outside and your options were largely limited to, at best, smaller, niche press houses or, worse, vanity press. The major publishing houses largely determined what you could purchase and it had to come from their guild. They had the economy of size (large print runs and they owned their own presses) and were part of an established and self-sustaining chain of distribution which ran all the way from the editor you got all those rejection slips from to your local book store whose selection of books sitting at the front of the store largely determined what they thought you should purchase.

Then came Amazon and the ebook … and the Publishing Guilds were under siege.

The benefits of the traditional Publishers to authors have been eroding ever since. Their economy of scale in publishing huge print runs has been compromised by the fall of the Brick-and-mortar Local Bookstore in favor of the quick convenience of online shopping. The result is that the marketing power of the publisher has become severely handicapped because they no longer have as much control over what you see when you first walk into the shop – because you now shop online. Increasingly, publishers expect their authors to provide the audience for their books, because traditional marketing methods in print and through the old methods are increasingly dysfunctional.

Add to this the completely unanticipated rise of the ebook. The Kindle and the Nook – as well as on smart phones tied to the same system – were initially dismissed by the Publishing Guilds as a ‘fad’. No one would want to read a book on a computer screen, they reasoned.

They reasoned wrong. Not too long ago, Kindle download sales exceeded those of paperback books on Amazon.com. Ebooks take up zero shelf space, cost zero to ship, have zero printing costs and are delivered practically instantly.

So, the protected secrets and power of the Publishing Guilds are dwindling and with them the benefits they offer to the upcoming author. They no longer control the distribution and marketing of your book as they have down through history. Their ability to print large numbers of books is challenged by the fact that an ebook essentially has a copy available instantly for every person who wants one. Yes, they can pay advances to authors but those advances are shrinking in the face of decreasing revenues and largely fixed overhead costs. And, of course, anyone with a computer can become ‘published’ (if one were so crass as to make such a ridiculous claim) simply by barfing up their words in a Kindle file through Amazon’s Self Publishing program.

One of the remaining benefits to the Publishing Guilds (i.e. traditional publishing houses) is that they are still the bastions of literary quality. They still provide editorial on their author’s manuscripts, direction and polish … and every craftsman desperately needs that polish. There is not a writer in the world whose prose is as perfect as they believe. I’ve been a professional in this industry for over a quarter of a century and, craftsman that I am, I still love an editor that purchases red ink by the gallon

As we say here at Scribe’s Forge, being an author today is no longer about being published … it’s about being READ. Self publishing in electronic format has become the new gateway into becoming an author but without the ‘quality assurance’ system provided by traditional Publishing – editorial, layout, art direction – many of these books are doomed to failure. William Goldman says that ‘story is structure’ and it takes a craftsman storyteller and writer to provide an ebook that will acquire an audience and establish a career. We teach story craftsmanship in our Scribe’s Forge online writing seminars but that is only part of what you need to hone your craft today … you also need the help of craftsmen who know the part of publishing that publishers do best. You need an editor who will work with you to ‘see the fire through the smoke’ of your words. You need proper art direction and a layout that looks professional to the reader.

You may no longer need the guild … but you certainly need the help of other craftsmen.