Summer Issue is up

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haiku, poems, poetry, short poems, war poems, world haiku review, Writing

The Summer issue of World Haiku Review is up. This one is special, full of the most beautiful drawings in Portraits of Japanese Haijin.

A new look with a new cover. Do take a look HERE.

The theme of this issue was War or Summer. Haiku is not usually thought of as emotional, but do check out the poignant war haiku – they may surprise you. Three pages of Haiku for your reading pleasure and lots more.

Enjoy.

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Self publishing in India

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Fiction, publishing, self publishing, self publishing India, Writing, writing journey

Now that self-publishing has arrived on Indian shores and now that a few Indian authors are taking that route, I see some coverage in the media. But most of the time the media calls it ‘vanity publishing.’

Self-publishing is not vanity publishing.

The two things are poles apart, one is a derogatory term and the other is a legitimate avenue open to writers today.

Several years ago when I was looking for a publisher, I met all kinds. It took me frustrating years of writing query letters and waiting months for answers. I had very little idea of what I was doing so some of the publishers whom I approached unawares would have fit the ‘vanity publisher’ label. What I mean by that is they asked me to fund the publishing.

It’s done in many ways. They tell you that they will do you a massive favor and make you a partner so you can reap more benefits. Run in the other direction. It’s just vanity publishing. They will charge you enough to make a profit and publish the book and forget about it. You will end up with a dusty pile in one corner of your room and not much else.

Others ask for a ‘buy back’. You buy back a certain percentage of the books at a discount. Usually a large percentage of the first print run, like 40%. Once again the money is coming from you, the author and once again, you are left with a dusty unsaleable pile of books.

Vanity publishers don’t need to sell any books and many won’t even try. After all they have already made their profit from the author. Not only is it your work and effort but it’s your money too. You get the satisfaction of calling yourself an author, the ‘vanity’ of it. That is all you get.

Self-publishing is not a scam designed to take gullible authors for a ride; it is a real publishing opportunity. The author does all the work. You get the manuscript written and thoroughly edited. You make a cover, but you do not pay to publish it. You upload your precious book for free and when someone buys a copy you get the major share of the profit.

The site which hosts your book, like Amazon Kindle direct or Smashwords function like a marketplace. It does not ask what you bring to market. If its good quality it will sell, if its bad quality it will sink, but there is room for all kinds.

It’s a new and exciting opportunity, giving authors, for the first time, control of the whole process and a very decent share of the profits.

Nothing vanity about it at all.

What I like about Flash Fiction

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Fiction, flash fiction, short story, story, words, Writing, writing journey

For a while now I have been writing flash fiction. FF is very short fiction, though the length may vary. It ranges from six word stories, to the 100 word drabble, to shorts of 250 or 500 words, all the way up to 1000 words. Loosely it’s all flash fiction.

Short stories start at 1000 or 1500 and go up to 10,000 or so. Beyond that it’s a novella and after 40,000 it’s a novel.

It’s the short length of a flash which makes it both easy and difficult.

The easy part is the first draft, a quick scribble which takes very little time. Rewriting it, polishing it, making it a good story – that is the difficult part.

Anything does not go. A short description or an anecdote is not flash fiction. There has to be a story, progression, conflict and some kind of resolution. Usually two characters which can be stretched to three. More than that would overload the tiny form.

It’s not easy to write, a mistake those who have not tried the form often make. Poetry is short too and no one thinks it easy. Neither is flash. Writing a good flash has a steep learning curve and takes a long time – years of work, like everything else in writing.

The length I like is 1000 words maximum. It’s roomy enough for a little character development, a little – very little- backstory – and a surprise or a twist to bring it to a satisfying ending.

Ironically the shortness of the form gives it the largest scope to experiment and innovate. Because it is so short you can try all genres and various styles. It is refreshing to try things you can never do in the novel or short story you are working on.

The real delight is the experimentation. You never quite know what will show up on the page and often you are very pleasantly surprised. Because it’s so short you can write hundreds of stories. Most will be rubbish but there will some gems in the debris which you can rescue and polish later.

Every story helps. I suggest to those who are starting out – write, write and write. After your first five hundred, or your first thousand – something will change. You will discover you have grown and so have your stories. Just like riding a bicycle. One day it’s effortless, but that day comes only after many hours spent despairing, thinking you will never get it, picking yourself up, once again, from the dust.