Author profile: Scott Sigler
Scott wrote his first monster story in the third grade and hasn't stopped since. A creator of novels, short stories and screenplays, Scott's work revolves around modern science's dichotomy of simultaneously producing good and evil.
Scott reinvented book publishing when he released EarthCore as the world's first "podcast-only" novel. Released in twenty weekly episodes, EarthCore harkened back to the days of serialized radio fiction and picked up 10,000 subscribers along the way.
His next podcast novel, Ancestor , drew 30,000 listeners and saw 700,000 episodes downloaded by fans. The Ancestor buzz caused Sirius Satellite to pick up the novel, making it the first audiobook serialized on the satellite network. Combined with Scott's other two podcast novels, Infection and The Rookie, Scott's fans have downloaded over 3 million files of his fiction.
Scott's innovative use of technology puts him at the forefront of modern-day publishing, and has garnered brand-name exposure among hundreds of thousands of fiction fans and technology buffs. He's been covered in the Washington Post, Business Week, CNet, The Book Standard, MacWorld and the nationally syndicated radio show The Dragon Page.
Michigan native, Scott lives in San Francisco with his wife Jody and their two dogs, Mookie and Emma.
Scott's podcast novel Infection was picked up by Crown under the title of Infected and will be available in bookstores on April 1st, 2008.
Scott reinvented book publishing when he released EarthCore as the world's first "podcast-only" novel. Released in twenty weekly episodes, EarthCore harkened back to the days of serialized radio fiction and picked up 10,000 subscribers along the way.
His next podcast novel, Ancestor , drew 30,000 listeners and saw 700,000 episodes downloaded by fans. The Ancestor buzz caused Sirius Satellite to pick up the novel, making it the first audiobook serialized on the satellite network. Combined with Scott's other two podcast novels, Infection and The Rookie, Scott's fans have downloaded over 3 million files of his fiction.
Scott's innovative use of technology puts him at the forefront of modern-day publishing, and has garnered brand-name exposure among hundreds of thousands of fiction fans and technology buffs. He's been covered in the Washington Post, Business Week, CNet, The Book Standard, MacWorld and the nationally syndicated radio show The Dragon Page.
Michigan native, Scott lives in San Francisco with his wife Jody and their two dogs, Mookie and Emma.
Scott's podcast novel Infection was picked up by Crown under the title of Infected and will be available in bookstores on April 1st, 2008.
You've finished that draft of your novel. You're feeling great, and you should feel great. What an accomplishment! So now that it's done, you can move on to finding an agent, a publisher, getting in print, making tons of cash and living the author life, right? Stop lying, I know the words coming out of your mouth are "I just want to get published," but let's be honest here -- deep down inside, you think you've got talent. You think you've got that special something that will put your name up with the greats (or at least the mid-listers, right?).
Being an author is a bit like entering a beauty pageant - you don't enter the latter if you don't think you're more beautiful than the majority of other women, and you don't do the former unless you think your story is good enough to be on the shelves next to the authors you know and love. Deny it all you want, I peeked into the deepest darkest corners of your soul and you think you've got what it takes. You think you're good. You think your story is good.
Your story sucks.
Not my story, you're thinking, everyone else's story. No, your story. It sucks balls. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that other part of your brain, the one that tells you you're horrible and you can never do it and it's all a stupid pipe dream and why didn't you actually go to med school like your mom wanted, that part is right.
Okay, put down the knife. You finished the first draft, thought it was good, now I tell you your story sucks. You want to kill yourself, your self confidence is shattered ... but there is a solution.
That solution is called "Editing and ReWriting."
Again I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but finishing the first draft is nothing but a ticket to enter the real game. The sweat and torture of the first draft is just the price of admission into this game. So now you're in, so let's get to work.
Here's my advice. You finished the first draft. Now put it away and do not touch it for six months. Do not let anyone read it. It's not ready, not even for a cursory read. Remember when I said it sucks? Yeah, it sucks so bad it's not even ready for your Aunt Enda's review.
Put the damn thing away and start the next book. What? You're not going to hit it big with the first book and you have to go through that process again? Um, yeah, that's how it works. Write another one. First thing you'll find is your skill level has gone way up. It will be like night and day compared ot writing the first one. Things are easier now, things flow better, your brain is trained to comprehend most of the pieces in the bigger gestalt of the story. Less wasted writing (although you'll never get rid of all wasted writing).
But wait, you say, this is work. Work. You're writing, maybe, so you don't have to "work?" Sucker. You can thank Hollywood for painting that picture. Maybe your day job is 8 hours a day, the writing life is usually more like 10-12 for most pros. You're either writing, editing, planning or promoting. Being a writer is owning your own small business, and you make so much damn money you can afford a staff of one - you. If you thought you this wasn't going to feel like a real job, you're wrong, go play the Lotto. Better chances of winning.
So you're writing the next book, and six months has passed. Why did I make you do that? Because now you pull out that first book and you sit down and read. Six months is enough time for you to forget what you think you're saying, and see what's actually on the page. Just like your readers. I warn you, this will be the single most brutal experience of your writing career. At this point, you'll think, "Scott was right, I do suck, now where is that knife?" All the cool stuff you thought you created, you'll see you have confusing sentences, plot holes, threads that don't go anywhere, characters that act out of character -- this happens because you had the story in your head and subconsciously filled in the blanks for what was missing on the page. After six months, you've forgotten much of those blanks and you see what the reader would see.
Pain breeds skill. As you read your first draft, you will learn more about writing than any book or class will ever teach you. You'll see all your major weaknesses, and start working on how to fix them. You'll discover your own voice, and how to cut out unnecessary information (an as an aside, anytime you find yourself breezing over your own writing, that's a chunk you need to cut because the reader will do the same). More often than not, you'll find that plain language often carries the story far more than you're thesaurus-laden exposition.
So you suck, welcome to the club. Write that second draft, then re-write it again. Only after the third re-write should you start getting other opinions.
Good luck. At best, you can hope each book sucks a little less than the one before it. If you can accomplish that, you're on your way.
Being an author is a bit like entering a beauty pageant - you don't enter the latter if you don't think you're more beautiful than the majority of other women, and you don't do the former unless you think your story is good enough to be on the shelves next to the authors you know and love. Deny it all you want, I peeked into the deepest darkest corners of your soul and you think you've got what it takes. You think you're good. You think your story is good.
Your story sucks.
Not my story, you're thinking, everyone else's story. No, your story. It sucks balls. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that other part of your brain, the one that tells you you're horrible and you can never do it and it's all a stupid pipe dream and why didn't you actually go to med school like your mom wanted, that part is right.
Okay, put down the knife. You finished the first draft, thought it was good, now I tell you your story sucks. You want to kill yourself, your self confidence is shattered ... but there is a solution.
That solution is called "Editing and ReWriting."
Again I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but finishing the first draft is nothing but a ticket to enter the real game. The sweat and torture of the first draft is just the price of admission into this game. So now you're in, so let's get to work.
Here's my advice. You finished the first draft. Now put it away and do not touch it for six months. Do not let anyone read it. It's not ready, not even for a cursory read. Remember when I said it sucks? Yeah, it sucks so bad it's not even ready for your Aunt Enda's review.
Put the damn thing away and start the next book. What? You're not going to hit it big with the first book and you have to go through that process again? Um, yeah, that's how it works. Write another one. First thing you'll find is your skill level has gone way up. It will be like night and day compared ot writing the first one. Things are easier now, things flow better, your brain is trained to comprehend most of the pieces in the bigger gestalt of the story. Less wasted writing (although you'll never get rid of all wasted writing).
But wait, you say, this is work. Work. You're writing, maybe, so you don't have to "work?" Sucker. You can thank Hollywood for painting that picture. Maybe your day job is 8 hours a day, the writing life is usually more like 10-12 for most pros. You're either writing, editing, planning or promoting. Being a writer is owning your own small business, and you make so much damn money you can afford a staff of one - you. If you thought you this wasn't going to feel like a real job, you're wrong, go play the Lotto. Better chances of winning.
So you're writing the next book, and six months has passed. Why did I make you do that? Because now you pull out that first book and you sit down and read. Six months is enough time for you to forget what you think you're saying, and see what's actually on the page. Just like your readers. I warn you, this will be the single most brutal experience of your writing career. At this point, you'll think, "Scott was right, I do suck, now where is that knife?" All the cool stuff you thought you created, you'll see you have confusing sentences, plot holes, threads that don't go anywhere, characters that act out of character -- this happens because you had the story in your head and subconsciously filled in the blanks for what was missing on the page. After six months, you've forgotten much of those blanks and you see what the reader would see.
Pain breeds skill. As you read your first draft, you will learn more about writing than any book or class will ever teach you. You'll see all your major weaknesses, and start working on how to fix them. You'll discover your own voice, and how to cut out unnecessary information (an as an aside, anytime you find yourself breezing over your own writing, that's a chunk you need to cut because the reader will do the same). More often than not, you'll find that plain language often carries the story far more than you're thesaurus-laden exposition.
So you suck, welcome to the club. Write that second draft, then re-write it again. Only after the third re-write should you start getting other opinions.
Good luck. At best, you can hope each book sucks a little less than the one before it. If you can accomplish that, you're on your way.
