Another Writer's Life

Can’t Seem to Find the Time? 5 Tips for Developing a Writing Schedule

2011-10-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She has a good grasp on time!

If you are like most writers out there, you probably don’t have a multi-million dollar book contract, with deadlines to meet and people to please. Writing your novel is more than likely a labor of love, a project that you set out to accomplish because you feel that you have something important to share with other readers. Juggling this labor of love with many other obligations—raising children, working a full-time job, keeping house—can seem all but impossible. You just can’t seem to find the time. The key, however, is to plan rigorously while still leaving yourself some breathing room. Here are a few ways to do just that:

1. Don’t set unrealistic deadlines. Be flexible.

Writers are an imaginative bunch. It comes as no surprise, then, that we can be unrealistic about things that we should be approaching more objectively. Instead of setting an impossible deadline, like finishing your novel in a few months, give yourself some extra time based on your internal writer’s clock. Sometimes even a short story can take months from an initial draft to finished product.

2. Set aside time to write whenever you are most mentally alert.

Socrates once suggested that the key to living the good life is being aware when he said, “Know thyself.” More than just a self-help pronouncement, this is especially good advice for writers, who use intuition and creativity more than any other faculty in order to write well. Knowing when you are most mentally alert and creative—for many, it’s first thing in the morning after a cup of coffee or late at night when the kids have fallen asleep—will help you produce your most penetrating prose efficiently.

3. Enlist the help of a writing partner who will motivate you.

When we keep our writing projects to ourselves, it can be difficult to stay motivated because we are writing, at the moment, only for ourselves. You don’t necessarily need to join a writer’s group; all you need to keep you working according to your plan is to seek help from a friend or two who loves to read or write. Have them read chapters of your novel as you complete them, sit with them over dinner, and talk about how you can improve your work. Even if your friend isn’t a professional editor, you’ll still get an opinion from a typical reader, and talking about your work with someone else will inspire you to keep at it.

4. Get into the habit of writing daily, even if you aren’t working on your project.

The only way to produce a steady stream of work is to make writing a hard-wired habit, something that you do as automatically as personal hygiene. Of course, it will take some time, but start by setting aside a short block of time, like thirty minutes to an hour, in which you do nothing but write. Don’t pressure yourself to work on your big project. Even if you are just scribbling journal-style notes, it’s the best way to get your juices flowing in a disciplined manner.

5. Use milestones as goals instead of page numbers or chapter numbers.

Many novelists try to enforce their writing goals numerically. They tell themselves that they will get three chapters written by the end of the month, and they then race to meet their goal. The problem with this approach, however, is that it doesn’t take into account that novels are, in some ways, like living things. It would be the same if you were to tell yourself that you will find a partner and get married by your thirtieth birthday—life and novels don’t quite adhere to a set calculus. Instead, try setting goals based on plot milestones. For example, you can endeavor to resolve Character X’s mini-conflict within the story by the end of December. This type of goal-setting will help avoid stilted novels that result from thinking in numbers.

Completing a project as long and demanding as a novel is something that very few people, even self-proclaimed writers, are capable of. And it often takes a few tries to get it right. Regardless, if you set goals, both and long- and short-term, without being too hard on yourself if things don’t get done according to plan, you’ll eventually make it to the finish line. Good luck!

Lauren Bailey welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99@gmail.com.

Hardboiled Help from the Sons of Spade

2011-10-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

A new friend has set out to help preserve the hardboiled detective genre. But I should let him introduce himself.

I’m Jochem Vandersteen, blogger behind www.sonsofspade.tk and author of the Mike Dalmas and Noah Milano stories. I’m also the founder of the Hardboiled Collective and Austin asked me to tell you all a bit about how that came about.

When I published my first Noah Milano short story on www.thrillingdetective.com the web was starting to get filled slowly with cool zines showing off the work of up and coming writers. It was a great way for writers like myself, who were writing about PI’s, crooks and other hardboiled character that might not appeal to a huge audience but surely to a niche of connoisseurs. It offered me the chance to introduce Noah Milano, son of a mobster, security specialist and always looking for redemption.

It encouraged me to put out my first novel, White Knight Syndrome at iUniverse. Then I started to promote it by showing people what my work and main protagonist had to offer through the e-zines.

Then the ebook revolution started. What a great way to get my work out there. It changed the writing world even more than those e-zines did. The audience that I could offer my work was huge, the possibilities to promote my work bigger than before. Social media, blogs and boards can help an author to get noticed without the big campaign a legacy publisher can fork over the cash for.

Blogging about PI-fiction at www.sonsofspade.tk I’d managed to befriend a large amount of writers. I decided their work could use an extra push. I decided they could help my work get an extra push.

I started to invite people and most were happy to join. The Hardboiled Collective was born. The goal is to get people to notice and buy the wonderful works of hardboiled fiction out there. We all help each other out by informing our own fans about the other great stuff out there. It’s been great working with these people and we’ve all benefited sales wise.

I think these kind of groups are the way of the future. Writers are not competitors anymore, they need to be partners. With groups like mine you don’t need a publisher anymore.

Check out the great work by the Hardboiled Collective here:

http://www.amazon.com/lm/R11XQIPKS6YD96/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb

Getting Reviewed – II

2011-09-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

Last time I talked about the sources of book reviews I consider the most valuable. I started with the most prestigious publications that do prepublication reviews. However they aren’t the only good places to get reviewed.

A few years ago the holy grail for getting your book reviewed was the separate newspaper book sections. But those sections have been disappearing rapidly. In fact the only stand alone book section I know is still being printed (please correct me if you know of another) is the section in the New York Times.

The New York Times Book Review gets in front of nearly a million readers, and until recently it had another million readers on line. Now that you have to pay to read the paper on line that’s no longer true. Still, the New York Times Book Review is a hundred year old tradition and still offers informed criticism of a diverse selection of books. The staff is generally reviewing a couple hundred books at a time, with a half dozen “preview editors” looking at 15 or 20 books a week. They’ve added a podcast, online video interviews, a blog and even slideshows.

I’d also love to have my books reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle. That paper still includes a weekly eight-page pull-out section with 6 to 8 reviews plus a list of first sentences from new books. I’d love to get one of my opening lines in there! They also have local celebrities write about their most cherished book.

Also valuable is the Los Angeles Times book section. It’s tucked into the Arts section now but it still has more than 100,000 Twitter followers. The Washington Post has a very cool book review video series on it’s website. And the Wall Street Journal has a print section simply called Books. It’s kinda hidden in the Weekend’s Review section, but it still reaches two million readers.

A few other sources are highly trusted by readers. The American Book Review, the American Scholar , the Believer; Bookforum, Entertainment Weekly, the New York Review of Books; O, The Oprah Magazine, and Rain Taxi all have faithful readers who decide what to read based on their recommendations.

Also, more than a million readers visit the online book section posted by National Public Radio (NPR) every month. They mostly focus on new-related nonfiction and literary fiction, but at least they cover the small presses. They run 3 online-only book reviews per week and do reviews on All Things Considered and Fresh Air.

I know this is pretty subjective, but next time I’ll list more of what I consider the best places to get reviewed – the next tier to aim for if your book gets overlooked by those I’ve already mentioned.

The challenge of getting reviewed

2011-09-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

When we authors build our promotion plan for a new book, reviews are always a part of that strategy. With a new novel (The Piranha Assignment) coming out October 1 I have been chasing reviews for months. Getting a book reviewed not only helps to raise awareness of your work, it also legitimizes you as a published author. In some ways it doesn’t seem like a real book until some objective outsider comments on it.

At one time you could gather some reviews by simply mailing copies of your book to several newspapers around the country. However, in the last five or six years book reviews have been fading from the news stands. Financially weak newspapers have been eliminating their book review sections. In some cases book review space shrank and got tucked into the culture or entertainment section. Book editors and critics have also been cut from the payroll. And hundreds of newspapers folded completely.

“The key word for the changes afoot is proliferation. The number of books being published has ballooned from some fifty thousand books published annually in the 1970s to more than three million in 2010 and climbing."

The good news is that reading hasn’t gone away. I see a lot of book discussion on the internet and I have visited several reading groups. People in both camps complain that they have few guides leading them to the best reading. A lot of bloggers are reviewing books, and many of them have large followings. So reviews haven’t disappeared, we just have to look in different places.

On the other hand, thanks to print-on-demand and the rise of self-publishing, there are about 60 times as many books going into print every year than there were 40 years ago. Books do still get reviewed in newspapers, magazines, radio and television shows, but now you are just as likely to find reviews on social media sites like Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and Library-Thing, on Amazon.com and a variety of podcasts. However, most of these reviews are written by fellow readers, not literary professionals. Writers wanting to promote their work want it reviewed by people readers trust. I thought I’d list those I think have the most clout.

At the top of the list, in my opinion, are those well established publications that do prepublication reviews. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews are examples of magazines that preview books in advance. Their target audience includes librarians, editors and broadcast producers – the people you most want to know that your book is coming out. Booklist covers about 8,000 books a year. Kirkus Reviews is broader in scope and reviews some self-published books. Library Journal publishes more than 6,000 reviews a year. They sift through thousands of galleys every week and write about books 6 months in advance of publication. And before you decide that librarians are old fashioned, note that Library Journal 18,000 subscribers but about a 150,000 Twitter followers.

Publisher’s Weekly sends a daily newsletter to about 37,000 people, and about 100,000 follow them on Twitter. So while their target group is publishers, editors, publicists, booksellers, and authors, lots of readers read them too. Every week PW’s reviewers editors consider between 300 and 600 books. They publish 150 reviews in the magazine, and another 20 or so on line. They are focusing more and more on small presses.

I’ve got more to say about places to get reviewed, but I’ll save it for next time.

What if they Google you?

2011-09-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

It should not surprise you that for many people, research starts with Google. That means that if someone hears your name or one of your book titles and they’re curious, they will likely check Google for details. If your web site is on the first page of results, odds are pretty good they’ll click to your site. If it’s not quickly visible, well, maybe they’ll get bored and move to the next writer of interest.

So how do you make your site turn up fast in a search for your work? I don’t think there’s a quick or easy way, because we can’t know for sure what the Google system looks for. According to some references, Google changes their algorithms more than once every day! But there are some things you can do that should reliably you’re your web site closer to the front of the line.

First, keep your web site focused on your reader. It seems that Google’s focus is on web sites that stay focused on the users. It can be hard to take yourself out of the equation but you have to try to make your web site all about the people you want to visit it.

It helps to have links from other good web sites, and sites that get a lot of traffic. I've found two techniques that are almost sure-fire. Many sites, blogs and even Facebook pages review books. When I’ve gotten people to review my books they almost always post a link to my website. Also, when I comment on posts at other people’s blogs I add my URL at the bottom. Each time you do that you’ve created a link to your site from a site you chose.

You should also Google yourself and see what comes up. When you see your web site, check out what it shows. Usually there will be two or three lines from your home page. That little bit should not be about you. It should be about your readers. This really will affect you ranking, so go back and make some changes to that first paragraph on your web site.

There are also some purely mechanical things you can do. Make sure the right key words are on your home page so people know what your site is all about. You should also remember your title tags, what your page name says at the very top of your search bar. Getting your key words there helps your search engine ranking.

Don’t let your page stay static. Search engines love fresh content, so every time you update your website it helps raise your ranking. Perhaps the most important thing is to keep your web site current and your content relevant. If you do that, and follow the other tips above, you are almost sure to move your web site to the first page of any relevant search.

Writing from a Different Gender’s Perspective

2011-09-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. However, today she has some excellent tips for fiction authors.

For many fiction writers, especially those just starting out, the first piece of advice we hear is “write what you know.” Of course, as our writing develops, we understand this adage to mean that we should write honestly. A writer can become, through her fiction, many things that she is not, as long as she portrays emotions and situations accurately. That being said, one common writing dilemma that all writers run into at one point or another is writing from a different gender perspective. After all, you can avoid writing from the perspective of, say, a physicist, but you cannot avoid writing fiction that has both males and females, unless every narrative you write is set in an all-boys or –girls Catholic school. Here are some tips if you find gender-bending in your fiction is particularly difficult.

1. Don’t overshoot it by incorporating gender stereotypes.

When you are writing from the opposite gender’s perspective, your first impulse may be to obsess over what you think a “boy” or a “girl” would think. This is an easy way to fall into gender stereotypes, which in turn will make your narrative surprisingly unrealistic.

2. Make someone of the opposite sex read your work to check for believability.

The best way to improve your ability to write from the opposite gender’s viewpoint is to ask someone of that gender to read your work, then have a discussion on whether or not it sounds believable. Of course, you’ll have different opinions about what a male or female should sound like, but ideally getting several people of different age groups, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds who share the same gender, then taking all their opinions into consideration makes for a good plan.

3. Read other books in which a male author focalizes a female character, and vice versa.

Although it is true that most male authors focalize male protagonists, and most female authors focalize female protagonists, there are some authors who have very successfully portrayed the opposite sex. One prime example is Flaubert in his classic Madame Bovary. Another wonderful example of a male author very accurately channeling a female character’s thoughts and emotions is James Joyce, whose last episode of his novel Ulysses is told completely from Molly Bloom’s perspective.

4. Practice a lot and don’t doubt yourself too much.

Perhaps the most difficult thing about writing (as well as about life, generally speaking) is being able to walk a mile (or a write a novel) in another’s shoes. When this “other” is extremely different from you, then the task becomes doubly difficult. At the same time, however, we are all humans, and if, as you write, you remember that we all share the same range of emotions, you’ll find that tapping into these universal emotions is the most important thing. Once you practice creating different characters and you stop over-thinking considerations like gender, you’ll be sure to write something poignant and believable.

Mariana loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com

ebook reading clubs

2011-08-31T06:00:00.001-04:00

Despite all the obvious signs, the popularity of ebooks has caught a lot of people by surprise. USA Today recently had three ebooks listed among their best sellers. Last week, fellow thriller author Michael Prescott had a 99-cent self-published e-book in the paper’s top 150. Sadly you can’t sit in a bookstore and sign your ebooks, but then again there are fewer and fewer bookstores to sit in anyway. So how does the enterprising writer reach out to his audience in a personal way?

News in Publisher’s Weekly seems to indicate that book clubs may be the answer. According to a survey done by Reading Group Choices, more and more reading groups are picking e-books over the dead tree publications. Twenty-five 25% of the book club members surveyed said they are using e-books. In fact 21% of those surveyed said they are reading most or all of their books on e-readers. Nearly 60 percent of those books were read on a Kindle, but the Barnes & Noble Nook held a strong second place at 26%. There was also a certain amount of overlap in platform choice. For example, tablet computers as e-readers were used by nearly 20% of reading group members who read e-books.

I can imagine several advantages of visiting a book club if they are ebook readers. There would be no reason to carry books with you. If you impress a room full of Kindle users they can download your other titles on the spot. And because ebook prices are lower, many people who order one of your titles will get them all.

Also, readers who are comfortable with ebooks may be more open to virtual visits. You could join the reading group via Skype or some other remote computer interface. That would certainly widen your reach, allowing you to meet with readers across the country.

So if you enjoy personal contact with your readers, book clubs may become your targets of choice, especially if you are a romance writer. Most reading groups are largely female, and 60% of all titles purchased in e-book format are romance fiction.

Are e-book Royalties Fair?

2011-08-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

I hold my own e-book rights and a couple weeks ago dropped the Kindle price on my novels to 99 cents. I expected a bump in sales but not the explosion that ensued. I then noticed that the major publishers often charge as much for e-books as they do for paperbacks, and wondered if writers were being fairly compensated for those sales. It didn’t take me long to find an authoritative opinion.
In a recent interview, Brian DeFiore, President of DeFiore and Company, a New York literary agency was asked if it was fair that large publishers pay the standard 25% of the net to authors on e-book sales. DeFiore was once a Senior Vice President and Publisher of the Villard Books division of Random House and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Hyperion, so you might expect his opinion to favor the publisher point of view. Instead, he said that authors are getting shorted by the big publishers.

Of course there are a lot of advantages to getting a book placed with a major publisher. Just the publisher’s name adds a lot and there is value in the marketing and distribution they can offer. They also handle expenses that man authors might overlook or undervalue, such as the legal efforts to stop piracy.

But despite all the hidden costs publishers may have to cover, DeFiore said that that are saving huge sums on e-books just because printing and shipping books is enormously expensive. So all along the process, from the production department to the warehouse, publishers are reaping big savings and authors are just not being credited for those savings. The price of e-books is almost always below the price of a hardcover, but the publisher’s contribution on every sale of an e-book is about the same as a hardcover. However, the author’s share has dropped by about 1/3. It’s hard to see that as fair.

Here’s how it shakes out. Suppose my e-books were put out by Random House. They’d retain at near what the paperbacks cost, around $13. After Amazon’s cut, the publisher gets $9.10. If I self published at that price the $9.10 would be mine but if the book was with Random House at that price I’d get a 25% royalty, so about $2.27. The rest is gravy for the publisher.

I’m not saying any author should or shouldn’t take an e-book deal with a big publisher. I’m just saying they should look closely at the math.

From Noir to Horror

2011-08-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

I took a hiatus from blogging over the summer but now I'm back and you can count on hearing from me a couple of times a week. For today: Washington DC crime writer Quintin Peterson has taken a step out of his usual comfort zone to write something even darker than noir. I asked him to explain the how and why. Here’s what he said:

I am a contributor to a recently released anthology of tales of horror and the paranormal; FromShadows & Nightmares, edited by Amber L. Campbell, which is available at amazon.com, BN.com, et al. My contribution is the genre-blending ‘Round Midnight, a cop/ghost story. Hard-boiled chills and thrills.

In my youth, I read a lot of horror and speculative fiction and watched quite a few such movies and my writing back then reflected that. While I was a high school student, I received the University of Wisconsin’s Science Fiction Writing Award, the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Award, and the Wisconsin Junior Academy’s Writing Achievement Award.

During my career as a DC police officer, I turned to noir fiction and became “the cop who writes crime fiction” and now I am known as “the retired cop who writes crime fiction.” I considered it an interesting challenge to generate a ghost story rooted in the crime fiction genre. So, I combined a cop story with a ghost story and came up with ‘Round Midnight, the story of a DC cop’s on and off-duty ghostly encounters with a childhood friend who died in his youth. It begins:

“Police work had taken everything from me and over time had left me virtually hollow. Seeing humanity at its worst on a daily basis had taken its toll and left me jaded and faithless. And yet the biggest case of my career, a murder involving a childhood friend who died decades earlier, changed my outlook and renewed my faith.”

I’m sure fans of both genres will enjoy it.

From Shadows & Nightmares: Travel through the darkest shadows and twisted thoughts of a group of talented authors. From the traditional werewolf to an ancient curse to brain eating zombies, the authors' imagination will make you squirm in your seat. Your stomach will clench as you read one, and then you will question just how depraved our fellow human beings can be as you read another. The talent gathered in this latest addition to the Nightfall Publication anthologies present to you spine-tingling, blanket clutching stories, all brought to life from their own Shadows and Nightmares. James Dorr, Jeffrey Wooten, and Michele Wyan are among the 22 authors featured in this anthology, which has something for everyone who enjoys creepy stories.

This fledgling independent book publisher is still going through growing pains. This is only its third anthology. Currently, the publisher has released only one novel and three thematically different anthologies, but more books are in the works. I support what Nightfall Publications and other indie book publishers are trying to achieve. Check the book out here: http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Nightmares-James-Dorr/dp/098372041X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313059419&sr=1-1

Day to Day Marketing

2011-05-31T06:00:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I think the best thing I can do in my blog is point writers to other blogs they should be reading. I’ve been focused on marketing more than craft here recently and was thinking about how overwhelming that job can seem. There are so many things a writer CAN do to promote their work that it could easily become a full time job. I thought I’d write something about that but my research proved that someone else has already done a good job there.

Every published author should be following the blog “Marketing Tips for Authors.” It recently featured an entry entitled “7 Weekly Book Marketing Goals You Can Adopt Today” that lays out a way that a writer can market his or her book on a consistent basis. The issue, I think, is not so much knowing what to do as knowing how to do it. The trick is to have a plan for breaking the various jobs into smaller pieces. The book marketing plan might start as monthly or weekly objectives, but the easiest path to success is to follow weekly and daily goals, and make them part of your routine.

The seven objectives laid out in the article are simple, and if done consistently they will help you increase your book’s visibility, grow your platform, and extend your network. Their first suggestion is to either be a guest blogger or get another writer to be a guest on your blog. Posting on someone else’s blog is a great way to get your name and your writing in front of a new audience. If you have guest bloggers, they will usually bring some of their readers to your blog. If they like it, your blog may become a regular stop for them. So they suggest that every week you look for a way to expand your readership through guest blogging. And by the way, I am ALWAYS looking for guest bloggers here. Anything related to living the life of a writer is welcome, four hundred words is a good length, and I always post book covers and web site links.

Their second great recommendation is that you comment on ten blog posts every week. Not hard if you commit to posting two comments every day. If those blogs are related to your writing, or the blogs of similar authors, this will get your name in front of new readers too. It will also help you build relationships with those other bloggers.

The blog on Marketing Tips for Authors includes five more great ideas. These seven weekly book marketing goals laid out in the blog really are pretty simple and really will help new readers find your work. Plus, the daily activity will help you to get better at book marketing. Of course, their list is by no means everything you should be doing, but they can be a heck of a good start. Find out at http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2011/05/7-weekly-book-marketing-goals-you-can.html

Get the Most Out of a Conference

2011-05-28T06:00:00.002-04:00

I wish I was at Book Expo America right now, but I had to make a financial choice and I’ll get more out of Thrillerfest. Whichever writer’s conferences you decide to attend, you should not just go for the fun if you’re an author. So have clear goals when you plan to attend one of these events. I focus on networking a lot, but you may want to accomplish other things and that’s fine, just know what they are in advance.

If networking IS your focus at a writer’s conference, get started before the event. Dig thru the conference website and pick out the people you want to meet. If you can find an email address (usually easy if it’s an agent, publisher or writer who is networking too) send them a note letting them know you’re looking forward to meeting them, or taking their class or hearing their presentation. Also friend them on Facebook, like them on their fan page, and follow them on Twitter. See, you’re already connected. And if you want more than five minutes with an individual, go ahead and set up an appointment during the conference.

Also, please don’t make the disastrous mistake I made at my first conference. Take plenty of business cards.

One cool idea for staying organized is to take a few small envelopes with you. If you’re collecting other people’s cards you can stick all you get at one award presentation or dinner in one envelope so you remember where you met those folks. When you get each card jot a note on the back about the meeting (“said he’d give me a blurb” or “was willing to look at my manuscript” are my favorites.) Then you won’t forget to follow up, and when you do you can mention that award presentation you both sat thru.

There are always meals at these events so make sure you never eat alone. In fact, try to eat with different people each time to maximize your networking.

Finally, make sure you follow up with everyone you told you’d contact. Otherwise, it was a wasted contact. And try to stay in touch with those folks AFTER the event – you DID friend them on Facebook, right? Maybe you’ll see them at a future conference and they’ll introduce you to even more people worth knowing.

You think YOUR life is weird?

2011-05-19T06:00:00.002-04:00

I don’t usually borrow from other blogs, but considering my theme you’ll understand why I was fascinated by an article entitled “15 Writers With Lives More Interesting Than Fiction” My guest writers and I focus on the writing life here. The author of that article, Erin Lenderts, points out that throughout history, writers have led interesting lives, with lifestyles well worth exploring. Truly creative minds have long been driven to drugs, alcohol abuse, tumultuous relationships, and often mental instability.

Among the 15 lives explored in the article is Ernest Hemingway, a members of the "Lost Generation," who was an ambulance driver during World War I. Hemingway was also a bull runner, a lifelong heavy drinker and an American expatriate in Paris. He married four times, and was almost killed in two different plane crashes while on safari in Africa. He is believed to have had a genetic disease that causes mental and physical deterioration over time. When alcohol, accidents and continuous risk taking failed to kill him, he took his own life by shooting himself with his favorite shotgun,

Even more interesting was the life of Sylvia Plath. It seemed she was obsessed with death and deterioration, which may not be so surprising, considering that her father died when she was eight years old. His death inspired her first suicide attempt – rather a young age to try to overdose on sleeping pills. She finally did manage to kill herself when she was 30 years old. A gas oven proved more effective than pills.

The lives, and deaths, of Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, and eleven more authors of note get a close and fun examination in the article, which I recommend you check out on your own. Then, maybe you will feel better about your own life. I do.

Read “15 Writers With Lives More Interesting Than Fiction” at

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2011/15-writers-with-lives-more-interesting-than-fiction /

The Kindle Book Un-Signing

2011-05-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

With ebooks beginning to outsell dead tree books, one of the forecasts I’ve heard is that we’ll see the end of the book signing. No more readings, no more face-to-face time with authors and no more of the interaction that helps an author understand his or her audience. Well luckily, those forecasters were wrong. The fact that you can’t put a pen on the fly leaf of an ebook hasn’t stopped anything.

The Soundry, in Vienna, VA, has been holding a series of Kindle parties for those readers who are always looking for a good download for their ereader. Each Kindle Party features several novelists reading from their digitally published books. The audience sits poised with their Kindles in hand. When someone likes what they hear and wants more, they just download that book on the spot.

At the Soundry, they really do make each event a party. At 7pm there is a half hour of social time so authors and readers can mingle and talk. The writers discuss their books and answer questions from both the live audience and internet listeners via a live chat. Then each author gets ten minutes for a reading, and a chance to answer more questions. The evening ends with a panel discussion where the authors share their experiences with epublishing and social networking.

I see great potential for this approach to book events to be expanded and enhanced. Authors could set up friendly competitions to see who can move the most books in a specific period of time. Venues could arrange prizes for the reader who downloads the most books in an evening. Or authors could offer discount coupons – codes that would allow readers to download another of their books for free or at reduced cost.

All in all, this Kindle Party idea strikes me as a marvelous way for readers to discover new writers, and for authors to build their fan base. It’s a nice mix of grassroots selling and potentially viral marketing.

Can I Write a Bestseller? (Part 4)

2011-05-10T06:00:00.001-04:00

A while ago I started talking about what it takes to write a guaranteed blockbuster. The longer I thought about it, the more I began to realize how many different factors publishers must look at before asking a writer to produce a particular book that they think will sell big. If the editors at publishing houses do have a formula for bestsellers, I suspect there are things to consider even after the book is written.

One of those factors must be timing. For films we often think of summer blockbusters, but fall is always a big time for book releases. Publishers seem to push their biggest titles out in the fall. Of course that means that if you’re NOT one of their biggest titles it can be a tough time to launch. To make it work you’d need to start marketing efforts real early… but that’s true no matter when you launch your book. For best results, you really should have your title and branding finalized six to eight months ahead of the book launch, and as soon as you have those things you should be marketing.

And it’s easy to see that big publishers line their book releases up with dates that fit their subject matter. For example, books that are about relationships debut on or near Valentine’s Day. If your book is focused on moms, Mother's Day is the obvious release date. It’s just easier to sell something to somebody already interested in it, so save that World War II thriller for Memorial Day or maybe Pearl Harbor Day.

It will help your book climb the charts if it has a unique message. This is one way to differentiate your book from all the similar stuff out there. When you have zoomed in on your unique marketing message you can develop that brief, interesting statement often called your elevator pitch – so called because it’s what you’d tell an agent about your book if you happened to get into an elevator with her and only have until she reaches her floor to make your sale.

Looking back over all the ideas I came up with that seem to guide publishers to developing, buying and promoting bestsellers, the one consistent fact seems to be that it is not about us authors at all. We do the work, put in the hours, to craft something special, but the bottom line of this business is: It’s all about the reader. What can your book do to help that person or make them happy? The answer to that question is the linchpin to a successful writing career.

New Business Model?

2011-05-06T16:43:00.038-04:00

I know I’ve talked a lot about ebooks of late. Self-publishing through Kindle and it’s cousins has definitely resulted in a new business model for authors, but it’s not the only one. I'll talk about the new Kindle Parties another day. But today's news is that I just found out about the Kickstarter project in Pittsburgh and I think it’s created a great new approach to book selling in Fleeting Pages - http://www.fleetingpages.com/ - a pop-up bookstore.

Basically, Fleeting Pages consists of taking over one of the spaces left empty by a failed bookstore. Starting tomorrow they’ll be up and running in a former Borders. For one month they will fill that 6,000 square feet with independent and self-published books and art, They will host workshops and other events, but essentially it will be a big bookstore offering great writing not found on the end cap in the big bookstores.

In order to make the temporary bookstore (or world’s longest book fair if you like) financially viable, Fleeting Pages is only taking books on consignment. The idea must be attractive to authors because without pre-paying for stock they have had new books, magazines, comics, journals and art pouring in from all over, along with great workshop and event ideas.

To keep people coming in, Fleeting Pages folks plan to have raffles, mixed bag books for sale, and lots of authors to talk to. Also in the works is an online store which could help reduce the number of books they might have to return as the store closes up next month. That piece of the project will remain online even after the store closes, but they will then redirect the purchase links to the publisher or author website.

If this idea works, if they move enough books to pay for the rental of the space, utilities and supplies, this pop-up bookstore idea could have a future. They could open more pop-ups of various kinds in the Pittsburgh area. Or they might try it in different regions, or help others open their own stores in various places.

I think this idea has tremendous potential, and you can be sure I’ve submitted my books for their use. I hope it’s not too late, but if it is… well, there might be another chance next month in another location.

Can I Write a Bestseller? (Part 3)

2011-05-03T06:00:00.001-04:00

A while ago I started talking about what it takes to write a guaranteed blockbuster. We’ve talked about writing to a ready market, picking the right title, be too in love with your own ideas, branding, and knowing how to compete with major publishers. If the editors at publishing houses have a formula for bestsellers, I suspect all those things are figured in, along with knowing what other similar titles are out there.

I think knowing the competition is vital. As I said before you need to identify your market to know someone wants to read your book. You need to read the top books in your genre and get to know those writers. I find writers conferences are a great way to network with the top mystery and thriller authors, but you can also make connections by visiting their blogs or even through email. If you want to write a bestseller, then you’ve got to write a book that fits in with the winners in your genre. At the same time you need to avoid writing a book that’s TOO much like another recent hit. Even if it were written better, The Michelangelo Code would not hit the bestseller list now. And while you’re making connections you get to share helpful information. Besides, it’s easier to ask for that killer back cover blurb from somebody you’ve had a drink with.

If you plan to write a bestseller you’d better know who you’re writing for, and how to reach them. This way you can add elements to your book that are of particular interest to this readership. You can even get in with that group BEFORE you write the book. A novel or series set on a cruise ship could be a big hit if you know how to market to people who go on cruises. Likewise, a book that is of great interest to people who belong to a particular club or association is born with built in promotion, marketing and networking advantages. In this way, if you are the stereotypical solitary, isolated author you hurt your book’s chances of becoming a blockbuster.

How people will buy your book affects its sales success too. These days it’s hard for a book to get shelf space in the big bookstores unless the author has already written bestsellers. It helps to offer your book on your own web site. I don’t, but I DO link to Amazon to make it easy for people to order copies of my work. To reach bestseller status you need to look at other outlets as well. Gift shops and specialty stores, catalogs and associations are all possible outlets for the right book. Major publishers map out sales strategy early, and so should you. If you intend to target specialty shops, gift shops, or catalogs you'll need to approach them early because they often have a time-consuming buying process. You should begin by showing the same Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) that you send to reviewers. You can make sales using these “unedited galleys” if you’re approaching the right market.

All this and we haven’t talked about timing or messaging yet. Well, we’ll save them for next time.

Keeping Romance Contemporary

2011-04-28T06:00:00.003-04:00

Nancy Naigle is a romance writer who spent most of her life on the Virginia coast, but has moved to greener pastures a little further inland in Southampton County. She and her husband now live on a 76 acre goat farm where Nancy spends every spare moment working on her next book. We met at the Maryland Writers Association conference in 2010 where her manuscript, OUT OF FOCUS, won the mainstream/literary category. That book will come out this November. A few weeks back I asked her to write a guest blog on how she keeps her romances contemporary in our every-changing society. She didn’t let me down.

With you busy on the Hannibal Jones play, I thought it might be good timing for me to pay a visit.

I write love stories from the crossroad of small town and suspense. Small towns don’t quite change at the pace of our big city counterparts so I’ll admit it’s not as big a problem for me. However, for me, fresh viewpoints and attitudes is what keeps stories current.

As I read one of your posts earlier this week, the point became very clear to me. It’s just a matter of perspective. The same time, same place, same people—can see things so differently.

Here’s the case in point:

You wrote,

It was hot, sticky, muggy country even at night. Bugs and birds competed to see which could create the most irritating sounds. The river they sloshed through carried the stink of sewage. Mud sucked at their boots. Leeches clung to anything that moved. A field of brilliant stars and a sliver of a moon did little to illuminate the potential animal and reptile dangers lurking in the darkness.

Here’s what I’d see, Jill and Garrett caught the occasional glimpse of the stars through the thick summer foliage of the trees. The humidity was so high that it was like walking into a wet sweater, but the heavy air didn’t quiet the bugs and birds any. They sang out in an unplanned tune that no orchestra could match. The mud sucked at Jill’s boots as they got closer to the river. Just over the last incline, they could hear the river sloshing below. The tiny sliver of a moon cast silver swords of light across the moving water. It was worth every mosquito bite to see the show that nature put on. At least they’d thought so until a noise in the darkness made them aware they weren’t alone.

Like that old Sears tag line, I’m on the softer side. But that’s what makes our voice such an important factor in what we write. It’s our perspective, and how we tell our stories. It’s what the readers come to expect from us.

So, how do I keep things fresh? I guess my natural curiosity about what’s in the news and technology keeps me current. That translates into my stories without me even me making a conscious effort.

I hope your friends will check out my debut novel, SWEET TEA AND SECRETS. It’ll be available in e-formats and print in May. (Yes! It’s getting close, but I have a copy of your SUCCESSFULLY MARKETING YOUR NOVEL IN THE 21st CENTURY handy so I’m ready!)

you can learn more about Nancy Naigle's work at

http://www.facebook.com/l/4f043voZPC7iETLUavLbYVWof1A/www.NancyNaigle.com/nreleases.htm

Can I Write a Bestseller? (Part 2)

2011-04-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

Last time I started talking about what it takes to write a guaranteed blockbuster. Today I continue to explore what I think a publisher’s editor might think is the formula for a bestseller.

Beyond writing a book that there’s already a big market for, I think the title might be an important factor. A book’s title, and its cover, might be its most significant elements. Let’s face it, people really DO judge a book by its cover, and its title. Readers want to know what the book is about before they even pick it up. If the title is confusing, or just not appealing, it could cost you sales. Would you buy “The Catholic Conspiracy” or “The DaVinci Code”?

I also think that if you want to write a bestseller you can’t be too in love with your own ideas. I guess it’s okay to be passionate about your work, but you have to be open to feedback. Outside input from your publisher, agent and publicist is necessary for a successful book launch. If you’re not open to it, you could miss valuable advice. Or, maybe you need to know if anyone else thinks people will pay to read your memoir before you invest thousands promoting it.

If you’re self published or even with a small press, you need to know how to compete with the big boys. Maybe those big New York publishers ARE ruining the industry and doing everything wrong, but they still drive the business. So if you know when they put out their new releases, their promotional efforts, their weaknesses and their strengths, you can understand what you’re competing with. If your work is similar you can ride their coattails. If not, you can hit the niche they’re ignoring.

A bestseller needs the right branding. The look of your work or your series is vital. That’s why book covers need to be designed by professionals. So do the research – go to a major bookstore and look closely at the covers where your book would be shelved. Right now, thrillers and mysteries (my genre) get covers that are both powerful in design and relatively simple, and showing people on the cover seems to be out of fashion. However, romances ALWAYS have people on the cover, and the humorous ones have a totally different art style from the racy ones, and that style is different from the historical ones. If you already have a brand – your name, your company, a logo – make sure it’s unavoidable by anyone who sees the book, and that it fits well with the cover. The look of your book should get people interest but not confuse them. If you have to explain the title, or the cover, no one will pick it up.

The more I think about this, the more stuff I think of, so I’ll continue this in a few days. Meanwhile, maybe you’ll think of some things you need to do to produce a best seller that I didn’t think of.

Can I Write a Bestseller? (Part 1)

2011-04-22T06:00:00.001-04:00

Recently I was looking through the stacks in Borders and found myself both admiring and criticizing some of the most popular books. The thought process went something like this: “Wow, this thing is really selling! I could never write a piece of crap like that. It’s like it was done to a formula. Probably some editor called his friend and said “The marketplace needs a book about [fill in the blank] and if you write it like this, I know we can sell it.”

In some cases it seemed obvious that a book written on that concept at that time would sell big. That got me wondering if I could think like a publisher’s editor and figure out the formula for a bestseller. So, with tongue firmly in cheek, here’s what I think you’ve got to do to write a book that will end up on the bestseller lists.

First, you need to write a book that there’s a big market for. I tend to write what will make ME happy, but that’s not a commercial approach. If you write a book and boast proudly that “there was no other book like it on the market” you’re in trouble already. If no one has a similar book out, there’s probably a good reason… like, no one wants to read that. Or, say you write a great self-help book for men. Cool, except that almost all self help books are bought by women.

In fact, most books of any kind are bought by women. Best selling thriller writer Jon Land launched his Caitlin Strong series based on a perceived hole in the marketplace. Thrillers are the best selling genre. Women buy most books. There were few female protagonists in thrillers. He’s on the NY Times list because he’s not only a great writer, but also a smart writer.

But how can we know what the market wants? We can go to bookstores and talk to booksellers. Ask if they have books on your topic or in your sub-genre. Check out the competition. If there isn't a book on your topic, try to find out why. Chat with that bookseller, other authors, or a friend who works in marketing.

Writing the right book may be the first step to the bestseller list. I’ve got lots more ideas, so this could be a long series. I’d be happy to hear your ideas too.

The Play's The Thing

2011-04-20T06:00:00.002-04:00

I know it's been too long since my last blog, but that's partly because I've been wrestling with a new challenge - writing a play.
The director at a local theater thought it would be a great idea to have a Hannibal Jones mystery on her stage. I had to agree. So I went online to find a few examples of how a play is formatted, found out the preferred length, and set about writing a nice 90 minute live action mystery.

I didn't want to start from scratch of course. Creating a new story would only add to the difficulty level. But knowing that a novel would be way too much story to tell in the time allowed, I decided to adapt one of my short stories. That way the characters, the action, and more importantly the clues and resolution were already in place. This would be a snap, right?

Well, not exactly. I didn’t realize until I was in the middle of it just how limiting writing for the stage can be. For one thing, I’m accustomed to using the setting, the action and my protagonist’s internal monologue to tell a story. But with a play, all you have is the dialog. I can’t use a fight scene, driving sequence or even moving from room to room to help carry the plot. Scenes are pretty static. My characters are stuck in that room or on that street for a while.

And that’s another thing. In a short story a scene can be one page or the site of the entire story. I can have one scene or a dozen. I can move back and forth between two scenes in whatever helps the pace of the story. But live audiences don’t want to spend half the night in intermissions because the scenes keep changing. So I settled on three acts with three scenes in each, and each scene had to be about the same length. That simple decision totally restructured my story.

Dialog also takes a shift. EVERYTHING the audience knows about these characters has to be said out loud or demonstrated by their actions. So the characters have to express their emotions more blatantly, and in interaction with each other. That turns out to be a bit harder than I imagined.

All in all, this is a very different kind of storytelling I’ve jumped into. Exciting, and challenging, but it is stretching me as a writer and I can’t wait to work my way into a full size play that I’ll be proud of.

Grappling with Modern Technology in Fiction Writing

2011-03-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. Today she talks about the challenges technology offers us fiction authors.

When I took an advanced fiction writing course in college, I remember that my professor, who had published several bestselling novels, noted that he could never write well about modern technology in his fiction. Having cut his novel-reading teeth on Hemingway and other greats of that era, he was not accustomed to writing about certain everyday aspects of our contemporary life. "I don't put cell phones in my novels," he said. "I just don't know what to do with them." It was interesting to get some insight into the writing struggles of a seasoned professional.

When I tried my hand at fiction writing, I too, had no mention of texting, Facebook, or Googling in any of my stories. Just like depicting sex in fiction, depicting our modern contrivances always came off as stilted, unsuited, or otherwise awkward. Try though I might, the Internet simply had no place in any of my character's machinations, and it wasn't until I was reviewing a final draft that I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, why is everyone acting as if they were living in the 1950s?"

Although I still dabble in fiction writing, I was never able to get over this conundrum. So it was refreshing to read a recent op-ed written in the Guardian by Salon editor Laura Miller, entitled "How Novels Came to Terms with the Internet." In the article, Miller mentions one of David Foster Wallace's iconic essays, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and US Fiction."

I read this piece a few years ago, and I remember now the dilemma that Wallace also experienced in a writing workshop. However, in his case, the technology to be grappled with or otherwise ignored was television, and his professor had no desire to touch it. His argument was that TV was not timeless, that good fiction aspired to ignore the fleeting now in favor of that which would transcend all generations. Wallace, however, argued back that literary novelists wrote about telephones and cars, and at some point those things were "now", so why not include TV?

Miller's article suggests that although contemporary writers have mostly ignored the Internet, the tide seems to be changing, citing authors who have begun incorporating the Internet in their work like Jonathan Franzen, Jonathan Lethem, and Jennifer Egan. Of course, most authors, as Miller notes, completely circumvent the Internet by placing their fiction in a different time period, having the setting of the story be curiously off the grid, or keep to certain genres like science fiction and dystopian novels.

What about you? How do you deal with modern technology in your fiction writing?

Ms Lopez welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

Why Should You Like Me?

2011-03-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

Today I am launching my Facebook fan page. And I want every one of you to like me.

This fan page, http://www.facebook.com/austin.camacho.author is brand new, but that doesn’t mean I’m new to Facebook. The profile page I created before I ever heard of fan pages has attracted 2170 friends. There’s a fair amount of conversation there, and lively exchanges take place. Clearly, people like the page. So, why the change?

The truth is, my Facebook profile page has grown into an odd hybrid. I do talk a lot about my writing and my life as an author. But we also share family information, jokes and random stories. This Jekyll/Hyde Facebook page is both personal and business, and therefore it is really neither. So I decided to split my two personas officially. But if you’re comfortable being my friend on the old page, why should you move over and like me on the new one?

Well, I’m determined to keep the fan page fun and interesting. You’ll find videos, photos and cover art there. I’ll be adding short fiction and deeper insights into my characters and the world they live in. I’ll reveal behind-the-scenes details about my novels and keep you up-to-date on my appearances and writing activities. And if my profile page is any indication, you’ll also find many of your other favorite authors hanging out and making comments.

I’ll also work to keep you involved on my discussion page. In fact, the opening discussion is already going on: “What would you like to see on this page?” I invite your input there, and anytime. I hope to make my new fan page the center of a community of mystery and thriller fans and writers. You can be an essential part of the fun.

But only if you like me.

Time for Blogging?

2011-03-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

You’re working on the great American novel, you’re trying to schedule book signings and your writer’s club needs volunteers for a new project. And yet, everyone tells you that you need to post to your blog at least once a week. Without new content, your blog won’t attract new readers or hold the old. But do you really have time to blog?

Of course you do. The trick is, don’t start thinking about your blog when it’s time to make an entry. You need to treat it like any other writing assignment.

What works for writing my novels works for writing a blog: set aside a specific time to write. The problem with writing a blog when you get a few spare minutes is that those minutes seldom materialize. So stop putting it off and schedule your blog writing time. I’ve learned with my fiction writing that my subconscious does a lot of the work before I sit down because my brain knows the time is coming. It works that way for blogging too.

Always be open to ideas. Whenever an idea comes to you, jot it down. I get my best ideas for blogs when I’m thinking about something else, or watching TV, or just before I fall asleep. If you have a notepad near you, you can capture those ideas. If you use Blogger (where we are right now) or WordPress (the other popular blog site) it’s easy to post a draft message for later use. Even if it’s just a title and a couple bullet points, it will give you a place to launch from when you sit down to create a new blog post.

And don’t be shy about recycling your content. Whatever you’ve written in your newsletter, on Facebook or presented at a writer’s meeting can be reworked into a blog post. If you write nonfiction, any article you’ve written is a potential blog post, as are excerpts from any book you’ve written.

Find the time to keep your blog alive: it’s an essential cornerstone of your platform and without a fan base, you’re just writing for your own amusement.

Why Am I here?

2011-03-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

Blogging has become part of the traditional wisdom for authors. Not long ago, blogs were the outlet of choice for anyone who wanted to express themselves online. But I suspect that the popularity of Facebook and Twitter have made blogs less attractive, especially to younger folks. A study done by the Pew Research Center - http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010.aspx - confirms that.

Many said that it took too long to write long blog posts. Also, a lack of readers can leave a blogger feeling useless. And if the purpose of your blog is to stay in touch with family or current friends, social networking does that job better.

But people keep blogging, partially because it’s a chance to develop and display a personal writing style. And it IS a chance to gather an audience. For example, The Huffington Post started out as a blog. Originally it was just a commentary site but today it looks like a lot of traditional news sources.

I spend a fair amount of energy on Facebook and Twitter, and they do a lot of the stuff blogs were originally used for. But my blog is the place for more substantive conversation. Is that what most of us want? That’s hard to say. The study says that Blogger (this blog engine) had fewer unique visitors in the U.S. in December than it had a year earlier. However, WordPress seem to have avoided any decline, and I think it’s less user-friendly.

The funny thing is, whenever I blog I promote my post on Facebook and Twitter (and Myspace, Crimespace, Bebo and Gather) so for me, social media doesn’t compete with blogging but assists it.

And BTW, while youngsters are turning away from blogging, people 34 and up are doing it more. It may be that more mature people are just more verbose and can’t express themselves in 140 characters. Or it might be that we only write when we have something to say. The reason I’m here, on a blog, is that I want to share something that might be both interesting and useful. I don’t tweet to tell people that I’m going to the store, or what I had for breakfast, like some of the people I follow on Twitter.

Another Ebook Success Story

2011-03-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

When I grow up I want to be Amanda Hocking. Of course that’s impossible, since she’s half my age. She’s also the author of nine self-published books and sells more than 100,000 copies of them every month!

Hocking writes three popular series. My Blood Approves (vampires in Minneapolis), The Trylle series (urban fantasy) and Hollowland (zombies.) One could say that Hocking has her finger on the young reader’s pulse.

We all know that it can be done. I’ve sent you to J.A.Konrath’s blog before so you know the basics: lower prices, good covers and enticing write-ups can sell lots of ebooks. Readers will gamble $3 on an unknown author. But how do they find you in the forest of ebooks?

The negative folks out there always point to Konrath and say, “well, he was traditionally published first, so he had an audience and a name.” Possibly true, but then how do you explain Amanda Hocking, who has never had a publisher? In fact, while I bow to Konrath for moving 10,000 or so ebooks a month, there are at least 4 other authors doing just as well, and 4 more doing BETTER, and I’ve never heard of any of them. And at least 25 Kindle authors are regularly beating 2500 books/month (with a 70% cut, that’s about $5200/month to the author at the usual $2.99 cover price.)

The interesting thing about this phenomenon to me is that no one (including Amanda Hocking) knows how it works. No one knows why some ebooks skyrocket and others of apparently equal quality languish. Hocking did no real advertising, yet she has not sold less than 1,000 books a month since the second month her work was on Kindle.

Hocking IS active on social networks and blogs. Her preferences are Goodreads, Kindleboards, Facebook, and Twitter. And she sends free copies to book bloggers. And she is prolific. I think that may be a key factor. Perhaps the pace of posting the sequel or the next book in a series drives sales so hard. If each of her fans buys all of Hocking’s 17 novels, she doesn’t need as many fans as a writer with just a couple out.

That’s just a guess, of course. The important point here is that amazing success is possible with ebooks, and that if I could back myself up by a couple decades I’d want to come back as 26-year-old Amanda Hocking. Besides, she is SO much cuter than Joe Konrath.

Your Platform Part 2: Making it Grow

2011-03-04T14:20:00.002-05:00

I tried to define an author’s platform in a past blog. Today I’ll try to share how you can expand your platform.

In the process of defining your own platform you should have identified other writers with the same readership. To strengthen your own platform, study theirs. See where those writers appear on line – which websites, Facebook pages, blogs and Twitter accounts do they appear on. How do you know? Well, hopefully you’ve set up a Google Alert so you get an email whenever your name appears on line. You can do the same thing for the writers you want to follow.

Next, you want to make connections with the other writers who share your market. The business world knows this as networking. Knowing your fellow writers can pay big dividends. For example: Because I attend the Love is Murder mystery conference I got to moderate a panel that included best selling thriller author Jon Land, which led to Jon asking about my work, which led to Jon offering to give me a blurb on my next thriller. Jon IS a great guy, but he’s not an anomaly. In my experience, my fellow authors are a generous and giving bunch, who never see each other as the competition.

In addition to your fellow writers, you’ll want to seek out the reviewers, bloggers, and big name fans (yes, there are a few in every genre) who are connected to your kind of writing. Follow their blogs and comment on their posts. Re-tweet their best tweets, and if you have a newsletter make sure they’re on your distribution list.

Remember that each group of readers is different. Depending on what you write your platform may depend on a fan base, or it might be speaking engagements, or a series of books. When you have decided what you think is most important, it’s time to start the real work.

Make a list of things you want to do. In my case that list includes this blog, being active on the Kindle Korner Yahoo group, and attending certain conferences – usually as a speaker or panel member. You might decide that an active Twitter account is necessary, or reading and commenting on several related blogs. Make a list of things you think you ought to do, then narrow it to the list of things that you WILL do. After all, you can’t make this a full time job. You have to save time to write, right? And if you build your platform right, you’ll be building an eager market for your next book.

Jaguar Sees - Simon Writes!

2011-02-24T07:30:00.001-05:00

My pal Ann Simon has published her paranormal international thriller Jaguar Sees and after reading (and loving) it, I asked her to talk about how having her book out there feels. Like the novel, I found her story interesting.

We’d been living in Moscow for a year and a half for my husband’s work, and we had long established the custom of sipping on an after-dinner vodka. One evening we were so engaged, chatting about this and that, when my husband pronounced, “I had an idea for a thriller.”

“What is it?” I asked, amazed. Steve is a scientist and his interest in creative writing was last demonstrated, well, never in the 35 years I’d known him.

“This guy goes to the craft market and buys a lacquer box. Part of the painting on the box is the key to a nuclear weapons smuggling operation.”

Hold the horses! “That’s a great idea! What happens next? How does the box lead to the smugglers?”

“Oh, I don’t know; that idea’s the only part I thought up. You should write it.”

So I did.

It wasn’t that easy, of course, but Russian winter afternoons are as long and dark and cold as they are described in Russian novels. That makes plenty of time for writing. By the time we returned to the States six months later, I had the better portion of a completed manuscript.

The “guy” morphed into a young woman (Claire) living in Moscow with her scientist husband (Jack). If this sounds familiar, I can only describe Jack and Claire as Steve and I but younger, prettier, and faster. Claire innocently buys the lacquer box and subsequently gets herself and Jack into more trouble than any two people can handle. I gave them help in the form of Claire’s Shamanic power animal, a spirit jaguar. The fun for me became marrying the two worlds: the most up-to-date technology of tactical nuclear weapons with the most ancient of spiritual belief, Shamanism. (Shamanism is fitting in a Russian story as some of the earliest evidence of Shamanism has been found in the Altai Mountains of Siberia). The enigmatic title of the book reflects its intertwining concepts: a fast paced thriller about tactical nuclear weapons smuggling with a paranormal overlay in an exotic setting that jumps from Moscow to a pine forest in Siberia: a little something for everyone. Unsurprisingly, my book is a lot like me: unique, fun, and maybe little weird. I prefer to think of it as cutting edge.

The book is categorized as a cross-genre novel because it is neither a straight thriller nor conventional paranormal fantasy. Additionally, while the spirit animals in the book are not of this world, paranormal fiction is generally about vampires, werewolves or other dark creatures. Jaguar just isn’t that mundane, which meant that even the agents and publishers who praised my writing wouldn’t, in this economy, risk something that didn’t market as traditional genre.

Jaguar wouldn’t leave me alone, however. She sat reproaching me from my computer desktop. She wanted out! She wanted to prowl the light of day, and Claire and Jack were equally eager to roam. Fortunately, we live in the magical world of the Internet. E-publishing beckoned me.

I hired a talented young woman to convert Jaguar to HTML format. She created the cover from a photo I took from the window of our Moscow apartment. I followed Kindle’s instructions and uploaded the novel. There have been a few glitches (most notably with readers receiving the cover image), but the people at Kindle are very responsive and helpful. So there it is, my OWN novel, actually selling with actual people buying it.

Austin’s asked me, “How does it feel to have your book available for all to read?” It feels great, not least of all because jaguar, in all her spirit animal glory isn’t growling anymore. The only problem now is there’s a red hummingbird tapping at the screen, buzzing, “Sequel! Sequel!”

Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box by Ann Simon is available at the Amazon Kindle store - http://www.amazon.com/Jaguar-Sees-Lacquer-Box-ebook/dp/B004LB4Z0U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298497979&sr=8-1 - for electronic readers, Windows 7 phone, i-pads and other i-products. The Kindle app is currently free.

Stand on a Solid Platform

2011-02-19T06:00:00.001-05:00

Aside from “social media” I think the most popular buzz word in book marketing is “platform.” Your platform does relate to social media because, beyond just selling books, it is the primary tool for expanding your business. Growing your platform is essential.

A platform is how you make contact with others, but it’s not so much who you know as who knows you. It's your area of influence. Your platform may be your business. You have a business and your business is your platform. Your reach and your influence are through your customers. Also, any speaking you do, whether paid or unpaid, is considered a platform. It may also include:

Newsletter subscribers: these are people who want to know what you're doing; they are your tribe.

Existing fan bases: any connections, whether through speaking, your newsletter, or any other fan base you have.

Associations/groups: If you are a member, these people and this affiliation can also be part of your platform. You’ll want to solidify these contacts and bring them into your funnel.

Past work: anything related to what you've written about is part of your platform. Teaching, classes you've taken, speaking, or just life experiences as it relates to your topic can be woven into your platform.

Identifying a platform is pretty easy for non-fiction authors. For fiction authors it can be a bit more challenging. For us, a platform is generally tied closely to the genre we write.

Every author, fiction or non-fiction, needs a reach. Once you figure out where these people are and how to get to them, you'll begin to connect with today’s readers and those who can be your readers in the future. These are the people who can help you to expand your tribe, so you need to define those readers.

So how does a fiction author expand his or her readership? One idea is to find other, similar authors in your market and research them online. Observing their platform can help you build yours.

For example, if you are a mystery writer, you could research the top 15 authors in your market. Now, the top sellers like Grisham and Patterson have built themselves into mega-platforms through years of publishing. You can learn more practical stuff by looking at the midlist authors who are probably on their own like you, without a personal assistant or staff of a thousand. Check out where these authors turn up online. Are they on Twitter? Do they have Fan Pages on Facebook? What groups do they participate in? Seeing what kind of presence they have, you'll start to get a sense of how a platform is built and what you need to do to grow yours.

I’ll spend some time on the steps necessary to grow a platform in a later blog… and hopefully some ambitious guest blogger will tell us about their platform and how they are growing it.

Borders Wars

2011-02-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

I watch the upheavals in the book selling industry with more than casual interest. The success or failure of book sellers affects how many people will buy my books. So news that Borders is about to declare bankruptcy - maybe this week – is chilling.

The Borders chain has been very good to me. I’ve done book signings at all the Borders and Borders Express within an hour’s drive of me, which is maybe 25 stores. Many of the managers of those stores are my friends now. I hate the thought of them, and the 19,000 other Borders employees, suddenly being out of work. More importantly, the Borders Express stores are THE local bookstore in some of these areas. The people in those Mall stores recommend, promote and hand sell their favorite books.

Today’s headlines say that Borders Group Inc. is in the final stages of preparing to file bankruptcy. Best guess is they they’ll go Chapter 11, which would be the first step toward closing hundreds of stores. Some reports say one third of Borders stores will go. They’ve given up on refinancing their debt which is bad news for a lot of small publishers too.

Of course, Borders isn’t in this fix by themselves. It seems the public is losing interest in bookstores in general, at least of the bricks-and-mortar variety. Borders may be suffering more because they never got their internet act together and their e-reader is just not as popular as the Kindle and Nook.

Rival Barnes & Noble, whose local managers have not been nearly as open to my book signings, has had to swim in the same shark-infested waters as Borders, but has weathered the storms better. Back when everyone thought B&N was going under they cut costs by firing many senior employees (including their national mystery buyer.) They managed to eliminate their mountain of debt, and have done a much better job moving into the ebook business.

The other giant in the book selling business, Amazon.com is thriving, claiming to have sold more books for the Kindle last year than paperbacks. Their stranglehold on the ebook market and their lack of brick-and-mortar store costs makes them the leading contender for king of the book hill.

But Borders isn’t dead yet. They can function in Chapter 11 status, cut back the number of stores continue to do business. Can a leaner, trimmer Borders hope to compete with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble? Let’s hope they get a chance to find out.

The Word on Smashwords

2011-02-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

The number of publishing options available to authors has exploded in the last decade. About three years ago, a company called Smashwords helped establish the ebook phenomenon we see today.

Smashwords publishes and distributes ebooks. Authors and publishers control how their works are published, sampled, priced and sold. Since 2008, Smashwords has grown to become a leading ebook publishing platforms for independent authors with more than 30,000 ebooks published. More than 13,000 writers and hundreds of independent publishers have placed work with Smashwords.

Readers can sample most Smashwords works for free, read several different formats, create digital libraries of purchased and sampled works, post reviews and mark their favorite authors or books as “favorites.”

Smashwords doesn’t charge writers to publish with them. Authors get 85% or more of the net proceeds from the sale of their works at Smashwords.com and 70.5% for sales at affiliate sites. Smashwords distributes books through a number of outlets - the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store and probably a couple I missed. They also offer free author pages with bios, headshots and lists of works, embedded YouTube videos for video book trailers and virtual author events, reader reviews, and some other promotional tools. Of course, no matter what format you publish in, marketing is always going to be the author’s responsibility.

What drew my attention to Smashwords was the success of one of their authors. Brian S. Pratt earned more than $100,000 in 2011 from Smashwords sales. This is in no way typical, but it proves that it is possible.

Pratt first published with Smashwords in early 2009. Last quarter, he earned over $18,000 from Smashwords on sales of his fast-paced fantasy novels. In the ebook world it is popular to publish short serialized pieces. Pratt chooses to publish full-length novels. In the fantasy genre, that means hitting around 150,000 words, nearly twice the size of the average mystery novel. And he is prolific, with 17 books in the Smashwords system.

Pratt has self-published in dead tree form as well, but his ebooks outsell his hard copy novels by a factor of more than 100:1. His most popular work is his Morcyth Saga, a seven-book fantasy adventure series.

Personally, I choose not to offer an opinion on Pratt’s work. My point here is that if a single father with no writing training who happened to be a hard core fantasy fan can find this kind of success with Smashwords, it may be a publishing path worth looking into.

Learn more about Smashwords publishing at http://www.smashwords.com.

Read about Brian S. Pratt’s success at the Official Blog for Smashwords - http://blog.smashwords.com/2010/12/smashwords-author-brian-s-pratt-to-earn.html

When Do You Write?

2011-01-30T06:00:00.001-05:00

Gwen Mayo is passionate about blending the colorful history of her native Kentucky with her love for mystery fiction. But instead of talking about the post civil war time period today, she’s talking about the time of day she composes her fiction, and maybe when you should too.

Me, I’m a weekend writer. At least, most of my writing gets done on the weekend. During the week I can do research, send out promotional material, organize my notes, or edit chapters, but the writing is almost impossible for me without an uninterrupted block of time. That usually boils down to the weekend.

It isn’t that I never try to work through the week, but after spending nine hours at the office, another commuting, and then coming home to cook dinner and do whatever else has to be done… You get the picture. My brain just doesn’t have much creative energy left at the end of the day to be productive with my novel.

Confining my writing to the weekend wasn’t a problem when I first started writing short mystery. I have fond memories of quiet Saturday mornings sitting at the computer in my bathrobe writing murder and mayhem. Nothing is quite as relaxing as sipping a hot cup of tea and listing to the birds sing outside my window while I composed dastardly plots.

Then Circle of Dishonor got published. It didn’t take long to discover that authors have lots of events that they need to attend on the weekend. Instead of looking forward to a quiet Saturday at my computer I’m off to a book fair, convention, or signing. Now I have to balance writing weekends with promoting weekends. Oh yes, I do still have a family. Sometimes they expect a sliver of time.

I am always torn between working on my current manuscript and promoting my novel. What’s a weekend writer to do? I’m trying to learn to write while on the road. I’m getting better at writing in the evening. Mostly, I’m missing those quiet Saturday mornings when my spouse was sleeping in and I could have four or five hours of uninterrupted writing time.

Learn more about Gwen Mayo and her work at http://www.gwenmayo.com/

Simple Sales Tracking

2011-01-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

Canny writers track their book sales to see where and when their marketing efforts have been successful. A few I know pay for Bookscan data. But now Amazon.com seems to have made that unnecessary with their free Author Central https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help?ie=UTF8&topicID=200580390 option.

By signing up for this service you can see weekly updates of your print books' sales as reported by Nielsen BookScan. Also, the “Sales by Geography” chart displays these sales across a U.S. map, shaded according to geographic distribution. It’s kinda cool to see where you’re being read.

While BookScan is the industry standard for tracking print book sales, it doesn't report every single book sold (they estimate they catch about 75%.) However, it’s the best source available and plenty good for spotting trends. Besides, through Author Central you have access to this data for free. Amazon updates the sales data every week by midnight Thursday night. You can always see the most recent 4 weeks of sales.

I find it interesting that BookScan relies on retailers to voluntarily report sales. More than 10,000 retailers do participate in BookScan’s point of sale tracking including Borders and Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, Deseret Book Company, Hastings, Target, Follett College stores, Buy.Com and, of course Amazon.com. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club are not included, nor are libraries sales.

When you go to Author Central you’ll see all your books listed (if they’re available on Amazon that is.) The “All Books” view shows total copies sold of your entire list. To see copies sold for an individual book, you just click on the orange triangle to the right of the “All Books” header to select an individual book. Then if you want you can scroll down to the Sales by Week from BookScan bar chart to see copies sold of individual formats, such as your hardcover or paperback formats.

You’ll also see “BookScan Highlights" and “Amazon Bestsellers Rank Highlights” displayed. BookScan Highlights give you a summary of your print book sales, and how they’ve changed from the previous week to the most recent week. The Amazon Bestsellers Rank Highlights show the best ranked edition of all your books, and that book’s change in rank since the day before.

One cool thing about the bar chart in Sales by Week is that if you hover your mouse over the different sections will display the copies sold for that format. Similarly, hovering over the map will show how many sold in that area.

Actually, I think this whole deal is pretty darn cool and have had a lot of fun fiddling with it. But ego aside, this data DOES have serious uses for writers who do their own marketing.

20 Acclaimed Authors and their Unique Writing Rituals

2011-01-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Masters Degree.com is an excellent resource for those who want to reach that level of higher learning. To my surprise, they turn out to be a great resource for author inspiration too.

I don’t usually recycle other people’s blogs but a recent post on Mastersdegree.com seems to fit our theme here. I often say that every writer’s process is different. Their article explored some of the habits well-known authors fell into for inspiration. As they said, whether you want to pen a Pulitzer winner or just finish your homework, a comfortable writing routine can help to boost creativity and encourage productivity. These strategies may not work for everybody, but they do offer some interesting options.

For example, Victor Hugo – author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, forced himself to write by stripping down. He told his valet to find the sneakiest hiding place possible and place his clothing inside. Hugo hoped this ritual would prevent him from leaving home and encourage tighter focus on the task at hand.

Former Poet Laureate and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou wakes up at 5 AM, heads to a nearby hotel with legal pads, a bottle of sherry, a deck of playing cards, a Bible and Roget's Thesaurus. Per her instructions, hotel staff members remove all the art and photos from the room's walls. Before leaving in the afternoon, Angelou usually completes between 10 and 12 pages during her stay, which she edits later that evening.

C.S. Lewis kept an incredibly obsessive schedule. He allowed himself short, periodic breaks, but otherwise planned every minute of every day in order to maximize productivity. A rigid series of rules dictated everything from appropriate times to take a beer to when visitors were allowed to stop over.

Many believe that Benjamin Franklin was the first to import a bathtub to the United States. When it came time to read and write, much of the Renaissance man's time was spent soaking in a leisurely bath.

William Wordsworth wrote several odes to his faithful canine companion. Though anecdotal, some think the Poet Laureate would write while walking his dog. It is said that he would recite ideas out loud, and when a poem was met with barking or agitation he took it as a sign that revision was necessary.

These are just four of the 20 fascinating writing rituals recounted in the article I read. You can see them all at http://www.mastersdegree.net/blog/2011/20-acclaimed-authors-and-their-unique-writing-rituals/. May as well learn from the best, right?

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part (with apologies to Tom Petty)

2011-01-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

Sarah Glenn wanted to grow up to be Kolchak, but would settle for Scully. She did, however, grow up to be a talented novelist and in today's blog she shares one of the most moving moments in any writer's life.

Recently, I received the most exciting news an author can get: my first novel had been accepted by a publisher. The contract came, was signed, and the manuscript was sent for final edits. I was told not to expect it back until January. Several other books had been accepted and needed edits as well.

Wonderful! I had time to plan. I began setting up my marketing strategy. I checked my email in case I had early news. I researched reviewers and places to guest blog. I checked my email again. I created a Facebook fan page for myself, which made me feel rather presumptuous but it's what marketing gurus say you should do. Oh, and I checked my email.

Waiting is something every professional writer has to do, and it doesn't matter which field you're in. Reporter? You may have a set deadline, but you're dependent on sources to call you back, for council meeting to start, etc. My journalism class went downtown to see a high-profile trial that involved a local socialite. The day was long and little was truly said.

Short story writer? After you submit your story, you wait on a reply, whether by snail mail or email. The technology has gotten faster, but the decision-making process hasn't. Some editors go, "Boom! I like your story, it's in." Other editors, especially ones for anthologies, wait till the submission period ends and choose stories from a pool of manuscripts. I had two last year that were accepted on the day I sent them. I have others I won't hear about until March.

Books require the greatest patience of all. You query prospective agents, and you wait. Then, you wait a little longer. A quick response is undesirable, since it is almost guaranteed to be a rejection. If you get an agent, you wait while she shops your manuscript around. She gets to wait too, if that makes you feel any better. Sending it around yourself? See above for why waiting is good. Oh, and be sure the publisher takes unsolicited manuscripts, because many don't reply: they simply discard them unopened.

Accepted? Time to wait for the edits, to see the cover art, and for approval to go to print. After this comes the most exciting (and terrifying) wait of all - to receive the first hard copies of your book.

What do you do with yourself during this time? A conscientious author (and workaholic) would work on other writing projects. I deal with a lot of angst and my Muse hates angst. I rely heavily on crossword puzzles, mystery novels, and Mafia Wars to relieve my need for resolution.

Oh, and I check my email.

Sarah Glenn's first novel, All This and Family, Too, comes to you soon courtesy of Pill Hill Press. She can hardly wait! Follow her advancing career at http://saraheglenn.blogspot.com/

How Mystery Readers Choose Books

2011-01-14T15:29:00.001-05:00

In my opinion, no writer's organization supports its members quite as well as Sisters In Crime. I belong (sort of a "Mister" in crime) in part because they work hard to give me the intel I need to understand the mystery novel market. Recently Sisters in Crime-commissioned a comprehensive report called “The Mystery Book Consumer in the Digital Age" - http://www.sinc.affiniscape.com/associations/10614/files/ConsumerBuyingBookReport.pdf - and made it available to everyone on line.
This wonderfully detailed report gives a solid overview of the mystery/crime fiction book-buying landscape. It not only tells you who buys mystery books, but where they buy them, which ones they buy and why they buy those particular books. Most of the in-depth analysis is done by PubTrack , the book sales analysis division of Bowker. If you write books in this genre, you need to dig into this report if you want to structure and direct your marketing efforts well.

For example, in this study I learned that women buy 68 percent of all mysteries and more than half of mystery buyers are more than 45 years old. Another r31 percent of mysteries are bought by 18-to-44 year olds.

A series of graphs showed that 48 percent of mystery buyers live in the suburbs. 27 percent of them are in rural areas, leaving 25 percent in cities.

Geographically, 35 percent of mysteries are sold in the South, 26 percent in the West, 20 percent in the Midwest and 19 percent in the Northeast.

To my surprise, 39 percent of mysteries are sold in brick-and-mortar stores, and more are borrowed from the library (19%) than sold online, although mysteries sell better on line than any other kind of fiction. and if you REALLY want to focus your marketing, the survey has lots of demographic data, and a lot of feedback on what makes someone by one mystery instead of another.

If you’re a mystery writer, you should first join Sisters In Crime to support their efforts, then click into this survey to see how you can make your novels appeal to the people who read mysteries.

Are you ready to be a published author?

2011-01-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

Maryland novelist B. Swangin Webster started writing in middle school and says she’s still amazed at how “life-like” her characters become. They all vie for her attention and will “talk” to her at the most inopportune times. Her novels, “Let Me Just Say This” and its sequel, “And Again…Let Me Say This” deal with the real-world issues confronting 21^st century women. Like her books, Webster is encouraging and inspiring, as her guest blog will make clear to all of you starting on the road to publication.

Ok, if you are reading this blog, than you are one of the elite people who want to know what I mean by this.

Being a published author doesn’t mean you can sit back and wait for royalty checks to start coming to your mailbox. Being a published author means the real work now begins.

If you are a published author you do know what comes next, don’t you? No, well it means that the hard work must now begin. Oh, you thought writing your novel, editing, proofing and designing your cover was hard work, well you haven’t seen anything yet.

Let me ask you a few questions.

Have you started your website? Have you dedicated at least one email to ONLY author related items? Have you signed up for Google alerts on your name/book name? Do you have your marketing materials? Have you contacted book stores about possible signings?

No? Well what are you waiting for? Being an author; especially a self published or author published by a small publishing house (that would mean you didn’t get a half million dollars to write your book) means that all of these things should already be done, or at least half way done.

See being a published author means, that as soon as you answered no to two of those questions, you should have called your friends or whomever you share your excitement with and said, “I need you to help me set up a website, book signing, or where can I buy stuff with my book cover on it”

Let me digress for one second. Did you see me say, call your friend and say I need you TO DO….no, I said, you need to ASK FOR HELP. Do not turn your duties as an author over to someone, unless you are paying a publicist. Being a published author means you must take this opportunity to brand yourself, market yourself and TALK about yourself to anyone that you come into contact with. And for goodness sake, don’t whisper that you are an author….say it loud and proud.

Now, if you have answered YES to all of those previous questions, then you are an author.

So I will ask again, are you READY to be a published author?

Keep up with B. Swangin Webster’s writing career at http://bswanginwebster.webs.com

Back on the Blog

2011-01-08T06:00:00.001-05:00

After a low-production ending to 2010 I’m back in form, writing and promoting at the level I like. I have big plans for 2011 and hope you’ll come along for the ride because I need your help.

As regular readers know, this blog is intended to be very interactive. It’s all about the life we authors live: what it feels like to be a writer, our successes, failures, challenges, and triumphs. It’s a place for non-writers to get a feel for what it’s like to have this disease where you have to commit thoughts to paper in order to stay alive.

It’s also a place for tips and ideas that can help writers do what they do better. We can share our experiences, our ideas and our opinions of what works and what doesn’t. I’m happy to share all that I know, and I hope you feel the same.

I intend to post to this blog twice a week, every week in 2011. But I don’t want this blog to be my voice droning on about me. So this is my official invitation to all of you out there who have been bitten by the writing bug. I’m looking for guest bloggers to chat about anything that fits the theme as described above. I prefer a fairly short piece, in the 400 word ballpark, but it’s a generous ballpark.

Whenever I post a guest blog I will add your book cover (or your photo if you aren’t published yet) and the web link of your choice (your web site or where to buy your book, etc.) I’ll also add a bit of an intro so if there’s something specific you’d like me to say, send it along. Otherwise, I’ll pull info from Amazon.com.

I hope to post stuff that we all can both enjoy and learn something from. If you look thru last year’s posts you’ll see just how diverse these posts can be. I’m not eager for “Here’s what my new book is about” articles, but if you’re talking about how it feels to get that first book out there, what special research you had to do to write it, what you went thru to get it published, or the cool new idea you had to market it… well, there are lots of acceptable excuses to promote your book here.

So, put your thoughts and feelings into a guest blog, send it to me at ascamacho@hotmail.com or thru a Facebook message and become a part of our little support community.

A Murder in the Family

2011-01-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

Rosemary and Larry Mild plot murder together, as a husband and wife should, but instead of getting jailed they get published. Of their latest novel, Cry Ohana, one reviewer said "The authors write with such eloquent detail, you can almost feel the island breezes and see the breathtaking scenery. This is an uplifting story of family and love, as well as an extremely suspenseful novel with a very satisfying ending.” I thought you'd like to hear how they do it, in their own words.

We work at dueling computers in our home office in Severna Park, Maryland. But only seven months of the year. During the winter, we write back-to-back in our Honolulu apartment, on the island of Oahu. Honolulu is our second home so we can spend time with our daughter, Chinese son-in-law, and two college-bound granddaughters. They live deep in a rain-forest valley behind Diamond Head. Huge mango and avocado trees surround their house. They have to be quick about snatching the ripe fruits off the ground. Otherwise, the feral pigs get there first in the middle of the night.

How does the actual writing process work? Rosemary says: “Larry conjures up our plots and writes the first draft. Then it’s my turn. I breathe life into the characters, intensify scenes, sharpen the dialogue. Sometimes I throw a new trait into a character. In Cry Ohana, Larry created a gentle, no-stress romance for Leilani and Alex. But I’m a combative sort, so I made her feisty to give her scenes more conflict. Of course, changing a character has consequences; it can actually derail the plotline, so I have to watch out.”

Then, with sleeves rolled up, we “negotiate.” Here’s our typical scenario.

Larry: You cut that whole paragraph! It’s cruel, operating without anesthesia.

Rosemary: Just a little judicious pruning, dear.

Larry: But it took me hours to create those metaphors.

Rosemary: It’s too much already. Less is more.

Larry: Talk about overdoing. Your description of Mrs. Raggs goes on for a whole page and she’s just a walk-on.

Our jousting is short lived. We resign ourselves to the compromises required. Maalox helps, too. We relish the writing process, but we have to take Stephen King’s advice: “To write is human. To edit is divine.” And Harlan Coben agrees: “If someone tells me he doesn’t rewrite I don’t want to party with him.”

Cry Ohana was our first foray into fiction. We slaved over it for so long it was in danger of growing a beard. The hardest part was to stop writing it. Every winter we’re on Oahu, we become more local and find more good stuff to share. But according to Lawrence Block’s basic rule of fiction, every word must further the plot. Rhapsodic tangents slow the momentum and bore the reader. So . . . in the late ’90s we stowed the manuscript of Cry Ohana on a shelf to age, cure, whatever.

In 2001 we introduced our mystery series with Paco LeSoto, a dapper retired detective, and Molly Mesta, an eccentric housekeeper/cook. Molly whips up the English language in her own special stew that the authors call “Mollyprops.” She’ll criticize a villain for his “defecation of character.”

In Locks and Cream Cheese, mayhem erupts in a mansion on the Chesapeake Bay. Hidden rooms, locked doors and dead bodies embroil Black Rain Corners in scandal. Paco and Molly expose the mansion’s lurid secrets—and fall in love.

In Hot Grudge Sunday, Paco and Molly are married. They’d rather smooch than sleuth. But conspirators and thieves derail their honeymoon bus trip out West. Not even the Grand Canyon can suppress the out-of-control passions and quest to kill.

Boston Scream Pie returns readers to historic Annapolis and southern Maryland. Young Caitlin Neuman hires the sleuths to decipher her nightmares of a lethal car crash. They lead to a harrowing tale of twins and two families plagued with jealousy, hatred—and murder.

Learn more about the Milds and their writing at http://www.magicile.com

Tips to Help You Become a Successful Freelance Writer

2010-12-02T06:00:00.002-05:00

BrainTrack® – The Web's Most Complete Directory for University and College Search - lists more than 10,000 higher education institutions in 194 countries and is continually updated with new resources for education and careers. Brian Jenkins, a member of the BrainTrack.com writing staff, has been contributing content on topics related to college and careers since 2008. Today he shares some useful info for those of you who would like to get paid for freelance writing.

Are you an aspiring writer? You can increase your chances of being successful by tailoring your writing to meet the demands of potential employers. Good writers can use their talents to make money without having to sell books or write for newspapers or magazines. Writing opportunities exist all over the Web, and Internet companies are always looking for freelance writers for copywriting, business writing, press releases, technical writing, writing web content, blogging for commercial websites, and ghostwriting

Instead of waiting for potential clients to show up at your fabulous website and offer you some work, it's best you seek them out. You need to make your presence known with potential clients and other freelance writers

Let's take a look at some things you can do to become a successful freelance writer:

Beginning writers can build their portfolio by finding customers at popular freelance writing websites. Even if the writing fee is low (which is often the case), when writers bid on your articles, you'll have an opportunity to build a portfolio to impress higher paying clients

Join professional networks such as Freelancers Union and LinkedIn at no cost. These resources provide networking opportunities, which in turn can provide job leads. Some of your fellow freelancers may have job leads that are not good fits for them but are for you

Write a few informative articles for Ezine and other similar websites. You don't get paid, but you get credible exposure. Write articles in your specialty areas. Add a link back to your website to increase traffic

Place an advertisement for freelance writing services at online classifieds such as Craigslist

Submit articles to local online newspapers and magazines. You won't get paid much, if anything, but you'll get noticed as a local writer, and this can lead to other assignments

Send a query letter via email to online writing services. Make the pitch short and catchy. Show off your writing skills. Don't be boring or modest and include some samples of your best work. You may want to copy and paste them into the email since some businesses are concerned about attachments carrying viruses

Maintain a blog. Most web hosting sites allow you to maintain a blog for free. You can also get free accounts at WordPress, Blogger, and others. Include a link back to your website and other sites where your articles are published. Write about topics related to your writing business. Offer free tips. You may attract clients who are impressed with your writing skills

Use social media such as Facebook or Twitter to make contact with other writers and to announce new promotions or articles

Join a writers community. It's another venue for networking opportunities

Marketing your writing skills and finding networking opportunities is vital to the success of any freelance writer. Keep these tips in mind if you want to get more exposure and more assignments

Get more valuable info and follow Brian's work at http://www.braintrack.com BrainTrack.com

Are Online Writing Courses Advantageous?

2010-11-09T06:00:00.002-05:00

Carrie Oakley - an online graduate with experience as a Math Professor in an Online School - started the website OnlineColleges.org to help students find the right online school for them. OnlineColleges.org is a nonprofit resource for students considering an online college for their associates, bachelors, masters or doctorate level degree. This completely non-sponsored site provides students with honest answers to navigating the often confusing world of online colleges and universities. Today Carrie shares her views on the value of learning to write on the web.

Some people are born with an aptitude for writing; all they have to do is put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard if we’re keeping up with the times) and the words flow without end. They’re able to bring out concisely, clearly and creatively any topic they write about, and they hone their craft by reading extensively and listening to the right kind of feedback. Others become good writers through experience and practice – their skills are raw, and even though they have the potential, they need to work off the rough edges and learn how to write effectively.

It’s this second group that needs writing classes and workshops – these sessions allow aspiring writers to give form to their words; they teach them how to control their creativity and steer it in the right direction; and they teach them how to make their writing more attractive and compelling.

Online writing courses are generally not for those who prefer to interact with a group of peers and exchange ideas with their teacher and the rest of the class. However, it works well for those who:

· Are looking for flexibility in their classes because they cannot take time off to attend them on a full-time basis.

· Prefer to take the course on a one-to-one basis because they’re reticent about opening up before a group.

· Don’t want to shell out too much for a writing class; however, some online courses are as expensive as the regular ones, especially if they’re offered by reputable institutions.

· Want to sign up for classes held in locations far from where they live.

· Don’t want to commute to and from class.

Writing courses are not for everyone; whether they’re online or conducted as offline workshops, they’re meant only for those who have at least the minimum aptitude for this creative task. While you may want to be a writer, you need to know if you have it in you to become one. So before you sign up for a writing course, it’s best to assess your ability to write. You can do this by writing a short article on any topic that’s close to your heart, and asking an established writer to gauge your potential.

In general, writing courses benefit anyone who has raw talent that can be honed to good writing. For such courses to be beneficial, they must focus not just on tapping creativity, but also on language, grammar, form and content. Good writing is characterized by near-perfect language, impeccable grammar, correct spellings, and a good narrative. Established writers know not just the right words to use, but also when, where and how to use them. They know when to tone it down and when to go all out when it comes to flowery and descriptive language, and most important of all, they know how to deal with praise and criticism in their stride.

While an online writing class can get you started in honing your raw talent, only continuous practice and constant efforts serve to bring you success in this field.

This guest post is contributed by Carrie Oakley, who writes on the topic of online college . Carrie welcomes your comments at her email id: carrie.oakley1983@gmail.com.

Will Not Accept Electronic Submissions

2010-11-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

Thomas White has had an interesting literary career. A veteran theatrical director and producer, he has written several screenplays and gets extra coolness points for having directed the world tour of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-Coming Out Of Their Shells. His first novel, "Justice Rules," takes a fresh approach to the crime procedural and was a 2010 finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest . But in the search for an agent he has met a surprising stumbling block that I found interesting, and I think you will too.

As I was searching for a literary agent last year I found that an inordinate amount of agents will still not accept an electronic submission. A decade into the 21st Century, I found that to be odd. Frustrated with printing and shipping costs I quickly decided that if an agent will not accept modern technology then I was not interested in them representing me. ( I did find an agent and we do have an electronic relationship so I know that it can be done.) The unwillingness on the part of so many agents to accept technology is what astounds me.

I certainly understand the volumes of material that is submitted each year and that the ease of electronic submission only encourages those who are not ready for submission, but to totally ignore the medium is silly. To me, it is the same mentality that originally rejected cell phones, then rejected e-mail and now will not text or read a book on a Kindle. Eventually, they all come around. Why not recognize the reality of our world and join us? Why fight it? It's just a book submission and it is a lot easier to hit delete than to recycle. If an author is convinced that they have written the next great American novel making them print it out and mail it will not be a deterrent, it will only use paper resources that should, by all right, be conserved.

I have run into a similar mentality with e-books. Many people I have spoken with will not use a Kindle or electronic reader. They enjoy the comfort of holding a book in their hands and turning the page. Okay, I get that. But to turn your nose up at the alternative with stubborn indignation is also silly. I had a potential reviewer of my novel tell me that he will never own a Kindle or anything like it. He went on to say that his greatest pleasure is to travel with" a few good books in his suitcase". The image of him lugging a 49.5 lb suitcase through an airport made me smile. I responded and hoped that one day he would be able to travel with hundreds of good books in his 1 lb Kindle.

Technology has changed us and the way we lived from 10 years ago to today, heck, from 6 months ago to today. Eventually, we all adjust and respond to the changes. The adage , "If it was good enough for my father, it's good enough for me." is as antiquated as the mentality behind it. Our fathers never conceived of the technology that we take for granted.

The truly odd part of this thinking is that, more than likely, the book they are holding in their hands was originally written in electronic form. By printing it onto a piece of paper it does not magically transform it into a work of art. They are the same words that are now filling a page of parchment rather than a screen. The ideas and emotions behind those words are unaltered. If a book is in electronic form it does not become less intriguing, less exciting or less moving.

So open up your minds and accept the inevitable. It's not evil, it's just a novel in a format that allows you to adjust the size of the font. How wonderful is that?

Get a closer look at Thomas White's writing at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003K16TCY

Small Press Success!

2010-10-19T06:00:00.011-04:00

Stephen Brayton is an editor at Echelon press. He is also their Short Story Marketing Director and has two novels pending publication. I considered questioning that he really was involved with all aspects of publishing (writing, publishing, marketing) but he’s also a Fifth Degree Black Belt Taekwondo instructor so instead I respectfully asked how he got in that position and what it’s like to wear all those hats. Here’s what Stephen had to say, and I suggest you pay attention.

So, last year, around this time, I was thinking of where next to because three out of the four agents I had spoken with at the Killer Nashville writers' conference had sent me rejections. When I brought up the latest emails, there was a message from Echelon Press. I had pitched to Mary Welk and, with a little help from my friends and family, put together the required submission. After I read the email from the senior editor, I stopped myself from hitting the print button to add to the pile of rejections because my brain had registered something different. This was NOT a rejection. So, I read it again, and then a third time because the brain caught something else. Not only did Echelon want Night Shadows, but they also accepted Beta for e-book publication.

A year later, I'm still riding high because the release date for the first book is fast approaching and I'm in marketing mode. Since last October, I've acquired two new hats for Echelon. Author, of course, but also Short Story Marketing Director (December) and editor (April).

Hindsight is 20/20, so if I could have pursued serious editing years ago... Well, since April, I have learned so much.

I recently interviewed Echelon's senior editor for a future blog. She affirmed my thoughts on editing. Writers write. When they think they have a decent story, they do re-writes. Edit and edit again. They pick apart the story, polish action scenes, and fix clunkers. Still, that's not enough.

Writers get so familiar with their own stories, they miss words, punctuation, grammar, and content even when reading aloud. It takes another set of eyes to pick up on these mistakes.

Some writers use professional editors. Some find friends to read the story and comment/critique/edit. Writers' critique groups are great for this. By learning the rules of editing and reading and recognizing other people’s mistakes, I can go back to my stories and realize, a little better, how many errors need correcting. My own writing can only be improved.

One example: Echelon Press is avoiding tag lines after interrogatories and exclamations. “Where are you going?” she asked. “To the market!” he shouted. The question is obvious with the existence of the question mark so there is no need to tell the reader somebody just asked. Similarly, the mood of the scene should relate the friction or the tension to elicit an exclamation point without adding the fact he raised his voice. When I was working with my editor on Night Shadows, I had to step up a level with my creativity to avoid these. Just recently, I grabbed Beta, the second book, from the 'ready to edit' file and went through it again, hopefully saving some future editor some headaches.

An amusing part of editing is now when I read my favorite authors, I pick up mistakes in THEIR books. When Mary sent back first edits on Night Shadows, she pointed out the number of instances of semicolon and hyphens (which should have been EN dashes) and told me to fix these. There were too many.

Ironically, at the same time I was starting to read a new mystery and in the first twenty pages, the author used more semicolons and EN dashes than I did in half my book. You wouldn't believe how much I howled.

That's the nature of the beast, though. Writing is difficult. Editing is difficult. Anything worth doing well and appreciating is difficult. I am so glad, however, to have the opportunity to be published and to edit and thereby assist others. I know I learn from them and I hope the benefits are mutual.

You can follow Stephen Brayton’s career more closely at http://www.stephenbrayton.com

How to become a Speed Writer

2010-10-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

LM Preston is a writer with a mission. Yes, her young adult stories are thrilling and exciting, but beyond that they subtly teach kids that they have the power to overcome anything. Writing stories for and about kids that overcome the impossible is a noble goal, but of course first you have to WRITE. Here she reminds us of an annual event that can help you get moving at the keyboard.

Nano (National Novel Writing Month) from November 1st-30th. It’s the writing frenzy where you kick out a large number of words to hopefully finish a novel in record time. Many people start the challenge and end up with a sizeable number of pages by the end. Some are inspired to start writing for the first time. Others are inspired to finish something for the first time. Some, like me, find that writing at breakneck speed produces a lower quality of work that doesn’t reflect what is normally produced when writing within your own timing. Truth is, my natural timing is four months from start to finish. I tried to increase my speed and did it without much trouble. It increased by 3 weeks, and for me, that cooking time for a novel fits just right.

There are ways to make speed writing more effective. The overall goal, is to produce more in a shorter period of time. If you keep this up, who knows, speed writing may become a habit.

Prepare for it

When you set out to write a novel in a short period of time, outlining is your friend. Take a week to write a detailed outline of the story. It will help to work out most of the kinks before you even sit down to write. Create character profiles of the main characters and review outline before the start of your writing marathon.

Plan it

If you are going to focus on spitting out as many words as possible a day, then plan it. Block out your writing time for the month. Figure out when you are most productive. Is it in the morning, at night or midday? Make a rule – no sleep unless you have kicked out a minimum of a certain amount of words. Make sure you schedule extra time for working out of corners or temporary writer’s blocks. Make your schedule somewhat flexible so that you don’t get burned out and give up.

Write it

With a printout of your outline next to you and a bullet list of your character profile – start the race. Follow your outline. If you want to go rogue, go ahead, write until the roadblock. If you reach a road block – write anything, take some time off to think on it, then re-work your outline and get back to it. Whatever you do – don’t stop writing. Remember, you will always have to edit it.

Don’t look back

Whatever you do, don’t read over what you’ve written until you are finished. That is an easy way to get distracted. Remember, you’ll have to edit the thing many times before your piece of art is perfected. Just write forward, don’t make corrections, don’t read over it, just push forward and write.

Learn more about LM Preston and her work at http://www.lmpreston.com

Strengh -- and Promotion -- in Numbers

2010-10-08T06:00:00.007-04:00

You would be hard put to find a more talented OR more charming collection of mystery authors than the ladies who contribute to the Cozy Chicks blog. The blog is always a fun and interesting read but I was curious as to why these women of mystery decided to band together in this way. I received a wonderful answer from Maggie Sefton - New York Times Bestselling author of the Berkley Prime Crime Knitting Mysteries - and am happy to share it with you.

Austin asked if I’d comment on why I chose to join a joint mystery blog like the Cozy Chicks and what benefits I’d noticed. Having been a novelist since the mid-90s (first pubbed in historical western romance in the mid-90s), I’ve learned that there is definitely strength in numbers. We all know about the advantages of joining large genre-specific groups like Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Novelists, Inc. But today’s market is different in that we’ve splintered the mystery genre in all directions. We’ve still got the long-popular cozy amateur sleuth mysteries, detectives, true crime, and thrillers, but now we’ve also got “crossovers” like paranormal in all its fascinating forms---urban fantasy to legions of vampires, werewolves, and other menacing creatures from the Dark Side. Romantic Suspense, a genre all its own, has spawned newer mysteries with a lot more going on between hero and heroine than solving the crime.

I find all of this variety healthy and stimulating to me as a novelist. But it does lead to a traffic jam of new mysteries coming out every month and competing for the reader’s attention.

How to make your mystery stand out so readers will find it? That’s the problem not only for newbie authors but for us who’ve been in this writing game a looooong time.

That’s why the joint author blogs suddenly popped onto the scene. I first paid serious attention to the joint blogs in 2005 when my first Berkley Prime Crime Kelly Flynn Mystery, KNIT ONE, KILL TWO, was released. Hitting four national bestseller lists the first week definitely helped the series get noticed, but every author knows that CONTINUED sales are the key to success. Especially long term success, and that’s what I was working for.

So. . .in the spring of 2006, at a Malice Domestic mystery conference in the Washington, DC area, two other pubbed mystery authors and I first started Cozy Chicks and decided to use the webname: www.cozychicksblog.com. Michelle Scott (Berkley Prime Crime Wine Lovers Mysteries), Karen MacInerney (Midnight Ink Grey Whale Inn Mysteries), and I agreed we needed to ask four other published mystery authors to join us so we’d each be contributing one day a week. We figured we’d keep the blog fresh that way and hopefully attract readers---not only to the blog but to our books as well.

And, boy. . .has it worked. The Cozy Chicks Blog has grown steadily in daily readership since then despite the inevitable changes in members that happen in group efforts. The blog has enabled us to have another great promotional outlet for our individual releases in addition to our own websites. AND. . .we help each other out with promotion by passing out each other’s bookmarks & promo items at our own individual book signings and appearances. That increases our individual promotional reach seven-fold. Each of us lives in separate areas of the country, and we each attend a lot of regional conferences the rest of us cannot. Those travel dollars only stretch so far, so these “Multiplier Effect” activities are invaluable.

This past January, we decided to broaden our scope even more and joined another mystery author joint group that had recently formed---Cozy Promo. There are 25 mystery authors in this email loop and again---we all help each other with promotion by handing out bookmarks, etc at our own events. That Multiplier Effect got a heckuva lot more powerful with 25 authors working it.

Plus, having all those eyes and ears out there on the Web means there’re more people finding interesting articles or book news that would be of interest to the entire group.

And this June, the Cozy Promo group started a new blog all its own, with a twist---www.killercharacters.com. Killer Characters is where our characters do the posting---as themselves---not us. In fact, our characters are known to chase their authors off some of the postings. If you’ve ever wondered if we authors suffer from split personality disorders---well, you get to see it front and center on Killer Characters. Kelly Flynn first posted on June 8th, so if you’re curious about Kelly, who she is and why she’s poking into murders in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado, check out Killer Characters.

Those promotional efforts not only help us bring existing characters to the readers’ attention, but they’re also invaluable when we’re introducing a new series with new characters, as I am.

I’ve sold a second mystery series which will be published in August or September 2012. The Molly Malone Mysteries take place in my old hometown, Washington, DC. There are good guys, bad guys, and politicians all mixed in with mystery and some intrigue. It’s not cozy, but I’m hoping readers will give Molly Malone a try anyway. And I’m definitely planning to use Cozy Chicks and Cozy Promo to help me get the word out in 2012 that “there’s a new girl in town.”

The eighth novel in Maggie's Knitting Mystery series, SKEIN OF THE CRIME, was Barnes & Noble #5 Bestselling Hardcover Mystery after its release in June and is still on their Bestseller list. Learn more about Maggie Sefton's work and the rest of the Cozy Chicks at http://www.maggiesefton.com

http://www.cozychicksblog.com

http://www.killercharacters.com

Insanity has Never Been so Sexy

2010-10-05T06:48:00.000-04:00

TL James is the author of the speculative family saga, The MPire Trilogy. James’ storyline showcases her love of research, biblical studies and literary classics from Chaucer to ancient mythology. But since this is a character-driven saga I asked James to tell us about one of her main characters and how she writes him so well. Her response gives us some insight into her books... and HER, as a writer.

An insane person is usually scary but Malcolm Haulm gives insanity a hint of sexual appeal. When I created this character for The MPire Saga, I removed all boundaries, reasoning, restrictions and social consciousness. Malcolm possesses a reserved animalistic demeanor - on a constant prowl. He attacks everything and everyone in sight, but his fondness of you is based on you surviving his attacks.

Malcolm Xavier is a twin and second sibling to three brothers and two sisters. As a child, he advanced in all his studies with a strong aptitude for math and music. He surpassed his oldest twin, Mallory-Paul. He was slated to take his twin’s position and lead his generation until his terrible accident at the age of seventeen.

Before joining the Family Business, he worked on Wall Street and he was noted being one of the creators of the NASDAQ. He owned a million dollar hotel where he lived on the top two floors. He was well traveled, played in a jazz band and spoke 17 languages. He had his choice of wine, women, clothes and toys. Nothing stood in the way of Malcolm getting want he wanted. If he desired it, it was his… no questions asked. And that often included lives.

Malcolm married his guardian angel, Felecia. He never wanted kids; however the board pressured him to do so. He attempted to stray from the paper bull request by staying in New York, but his efforts proved pointless. From unwanted and adversarial help from his twin brother, Felicia bore three boys.

Although he fathered only one child, Mallory Towneson, during the marriage with Felicia, he raised all four of the boys as his own. During three boys’ childhood and with the constant help from Felicia, he kept his insanity intact and closely controlled. It wasn’t until Mallory’s birth, and consequentially Felicia’s death during childbirth, did Malcolm’s bizarre behavior reared its ugly head.

Fourteen years later when Mallory returned home, Malcolm behavior erupted again. With the mood-swing pendulum swinging from super sweet loving father to violence aggressor, his erratic behavior proved to be detrimental to his existence.

How did I create him?

After I created the main character, Mallory T. Haulm, I went back over his characteristic and crafted a dark mirror image of him thus creating his father, Malcolm. They both have a love for finance and music. Their taste in designer clothes, exotic toys and beautiful women were identical. Some of their life experiences were similar, such as forced marriage and conception of child outside of the marriage bond. However, the few differences that they had, defined their character. Mallory had never deliberately intends to harm people. In fact, Mallory has to be backed in a corner before he retaliates. Malcolm, on the other hand, has no conscience or compassion. He would often inflict pain on others as easily as taking a breath.

Learn more about the MPire novels at http://www.authortljames.com/.

Un-American Publisher

2010-09-28T06:43:00.000-04:00

Laura Ann Ford not only completed her novel but managed to get it published! Then, due to unresolved problems with her publisher, the contract was terminated -at her request. Her book is no longer available for purchase, but she has agreed to share her story with you. This is an unusually long post, but I wanted you to hear about her experience in her own words, uncut, as a clear warning to those of us who want so badly to see ourselves in print.

It took me almost a year to finish my novel, and another year to watch it go up in smoke. I was prepared for rejection; that’s just part of the game. What I wasn’t prepared for was the devastation of realizing that I had been suckered into a scam. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was more than a little naïve about how the publishing industry works. I hadn't planned on publishing McCullen at all. It needed work and a real editor. Having heard the story, my grandmother suggested I get it published. Though I had my doubts, I did a search for book publishers. Going down the list of results, I read the guidelines and submitted inquiries to a few. Most of them never responded and others sent rejections. Since I couldn’t afford to self publish, I assumed I was out of options. Then, the call came, “Congratulations! Your work has been accepted for publication.” I nearly dropped the phone on the floor.

I figured out something was off very soon after I submitted my final manuscript. Some unnerving comments had been posted on my website. One of them has remained etched on my brain since the day I read it. “You have just signed on with the Satan of publishers.”

The second shock came the day I received my page proofs. I was given forty-eight hours to review the entire manuscript and notify them of publisher errors. Right away I noticed the title was misspelled. The title page its self was correct, but at the top of every other page it read, “McMullen” instead of “McCullen”. The rest of the manuscript was riddled with typos and grammar errors, which I later discovered were not considered to be publisher errors. I emailed the company with my list of changes, only to be informed that they would not fix those mistakes, unless I paid them to do so. It was my responsibility to ensure that all such errors had been corrected before submitting my final manuscript. Basically, they did no editing whatsoever before creating my page proofs. In fact, the proofs had mistakes that were not in the final manuscript I sent them! Nonetheless, I paid them to correct the mistakes and never received corrected proofs. I waited until my printed copy arrived to see if corrections had been made.

I didn’t even get any author copies. I had to buy my own book just to see what it looked like. I found out later that other authors were given copies of their book. The expression, “You can’t judge a book by its cover” was meant for McCullen. I was happy with the cover but on the inside it was mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. No revisions were aloud unless I bought more copies, of course. I sold a few copies to family and friends, but I was becoming more and more ashamed of the book. I defended the company at first out of pride and embarrassment, but eventually I kept quiet and removed all proof of publisher identity from my websites. However, I continued to promote McCullen and finally landed a book signing. I was so excited; I even posted a thank you on the company message board. A message they continue to use as a testimonial on their site. A month before the signing, the store manager notified me that he had been unable to order any copies of McCullen, but he would keep trying. We eventually decided to reschedule. The second date neared and McCullen was still not available. The publisher would not respond to his messages. The official release date for McCullen was August 22, 2009. It was not available for purchase, except publisher direct, until December. Even then, no bookstore would stock it because it was considered POD (Print-On-Demand).

I received email after email attempting to bribe me into buying my own book. "We’ll send copies to Oprah, Walmart, the New York Times, and even Random House Publishing." All I was required to do was buy a bunch of books I couldn’t afford.

The last straw came when the company decided to discontinue soft covers, only to turn around and create their own version of a paperback. At the same time, I noticed McCullen was no longer available on any of the online stores. That was it! I sent them an email requesting to have my contract terminated. The answer was no, unless I purchased 50 copies of McCullen! Now, I don’t have seven hundred plus dollars lying around for books I couldn’t use. I never received a dime in royalties, other than the measly one dollar they call an advance, and I had already paid for corrections, e-book format, and author copies! I emailed them again to no avail. I also reported them to the BBB, though I doubted it would do any good. I wanted out of their trap so badly. It had been fun to say I was a published author, but it was an illusion. I’d rather not be published at all than to be under their spell for six more years! And then, for some unknown reason, the certified letter came telling me my rights had been returned, and the contract terminated. My nightmare was over.

By now, some of you already know who my publisher was. I am tired of hiding behind a veil of embarrassment over my mistake. Let me make it perfectly clear, this is what happened to me. If you have had a good experience with them, I’m happy for you, and wish you the best of luck. All I know is that PublishAmerica treated ME unfairly, and I am not alone. I won’t speak for anyone else but there are many others that have had a similar or worse experience. Writers Beware! Do your homework before signing a contract with a publisher or agent. If I had only checked with the BBB or done a simple Google search, I could have saved myself a whole lot of headaches. No one goes from unknown to a bestselling author overnight.

You can learn more about Laura's journey toward publication at http://www.lauraannford.net.

Learn more about publishers to avoid from Writer Beware - a publishing industry watchdog group that shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.

A Fearful Journey

2010-09-24T07:02:00.003-04:00

Diane McAndrew is a brave woman. Not only is she embarking on the journey of writing her first mystery novel, but she had the courage to talk about that experience to a bunch of total strangers - YOU. Maybe after you read her guest blog and comment on it, you won't be strangers any more. Here is Diane's experience in her own words.

I was recently asked what it was like to be writing my first mystery/suspense novel. My response to the question was that it was scary, exciting, intense and exhausting all at the same time. If I had an endless amount of space I’d write today about all of them. However, since I have to keep this short I want to address the “scary” part of it.

I say scary because, for me, it is one of the most fearful things I have done. Fearful because, even though I wrote my first “book” at the age of eleven and have dabbled in a lot of other writing since, this is the first time that I have attempted to do any formal writing (not counting school papers which for the most part were generally impersonal) where I have the intention of letting other people read it, critique it, embrace it or reject it. What if I found out I wasn’t quite the writer that I thought I was? I would be crushed! Writing has been one of my loves for so long that it would devastate to find out I was terrible at it!

And, what if, by reading my book, people would actually be able to penetrate the brick wall that I’ve built around me over the years and see who I really am? That thought stopped me in my tracks! I’m a very private person (ask my mom – she hates that I’m that way) and I don’t easily let people in, and this book has a lot of me – my personality, my character traits, my thoughts, my view on the world – in it. Made me shiver just thinking about it!

And then there was the fear of not knowing what I was doing! I had never written a “real” book before and I didn’t know the first thing about it. What if I did it all wrong and got nothing but rejection letters? What if my dream died because of my own ignorance?

All of these fears paralyzed for me for a bit and almost made me quit before I had even gotten started! However, being a stubborn girl and one that refuses to quit anything (and having a very supportive husband who kept telling me I could do this), I decided to just jump in with both feet! I began reading every writing book I could get my hands on and attending as many writing conferences as I possibly could. Both were instrumental in helping to guide me down the right path. Scared or not, I was soon able to push my fear aside and just sit down and start building my book. I learned to approach it like a jigsaw puzzle – I found all the outside pieces (the bones of the story) and then I have begun filling in all the other pieces! And what a challenging but fun puzzle it has turned out to be!

Keep us posted on your progress, Diane. We can't wait to read your novel!

5000-Word Days—Part Inspiration, Part Determination

2010-09-21T01:00:00.010-04:00

There's a lot I find interesting about fellow author Tielle St. Clare. She's the author of more than 20 novels and novellas. She writes hot and sexy romances, typically involving werewolves or dragons. She has lived in Alaska for 38 years. And Recently she wrote 5,000 words of fiction in one day! I asked her how one manages to do that, and she was kind enough to send an answer for my blog. Take it away, Tielle!

I know there are some people who can sit down and pound out 5,000 words of wonderful text in a day and still be smiling when they finish.

Not me. Oh, I can make it—5,000 is such a nice round number, isn’t it?—but to get me there I need a mix of inspiration and determination.

Like many authors, I work two jobs—writing and the 40-hour-a-week day job that gives me benefits. Writing is more flexible, time-wise, so it often gets squeezed around my day job.

I’ve learned that when the day-job starts to take over my life, I get crabby. The voices in my head get louder and to release them, I need a solid, nothing gets in my way, writing day.

Most days, I try to put down about 1,000 words. Not monumental but it keeps me moving forward. For me, 1,000 words equals about an hour of writing—though it tends to run a bit long because I’m easily distracted by bright shiny objects like online Scrabble and hunting down book reviews.

Recently, I hadn’t been giving my writing enough attention. I cleared the decks I found a day to devote to writing.

I sat down with the intent to make some decent progress on my WIP. I was focused on about 2,000 words. It wasn’t a goal, just a number in the back of my head. This was the determination portion of my day. It took me almost three hours to reach 2,000 (remember, easily distracted and there was free wireless at the coffee shop). In the end, I’d made decent progress, filled out some scenes and felt pretty good.

I could have stopped there but I had a bit of time in the evening and decided to spend it writing.

This is when inspiration hit. Nothing specific, no revelations, but the scene started flowing. Words tripped out of my fingers. I was happy. The story was moving, characters were behaving (or misbehaving in my case). I did a quick word count and I was at 4300 for the day.

Determination returned. I was that close? I was going for it. I remained at the computer determined hit what had now become my goal. The last three hundred words were a bit of drudgery and might not make it in the final version but by that point, I just wanted to reach the goal.

For me to write 5,000 words in one day is part inspiration, part determination. Of course, that’s most of my writing days. Determination gets me to the keyboard and I hope that inspiration comes to visit.

Learn more about Tielle St. Clare's writing at http://www.tiellestclare.com/

Life of a Happy Ficton Writer

2010-09-15T01:00:00.003-04:00

Bryan Davis is the author of three series filled with fantasy, adventure, and mystery! He’s also one of the most dedicated authors I’ve come across. I am very pleased that I was able to get him to take a moment out of his busy schedule to tell us about his love of writing, his approach to creating, and his unusual relationship with dragons.

I am often asked what it’s like to be a writer, and I wonder if describing my life would create a false perception. Based on what I hear from others, I’m an anomaly.

Okay, that’s too formal. Actually, I’m a freak. I’m a possessed writing/promoting machine. If I’m not actually at my keyboard pounding out my third or fourth novel in a calendar year, I’m thinking about my story while driving to one of the two hundred speaking engagements I have lined up for the year.

I love doing this writing thing. It’s such a great adventure. I get to write about my passions, and people actually want to read what I wrote. And to top that off, readers write to me saying how much my books have changed their lives. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Another aspect I love is being with my family, getting their feedback, and traveling with them across the country and across the ocean as we conduct research and promote our books.

For example, with every story that takes place in our world, I have traveled to the specific locations and explored, including taking fifteen-mile hikes in the snow and walking the streets of Glastonbury, England. And I often take virtual tours through the Internet by browsing photos and reading interviews. Whenever I need expert information, I find an expert and send an email. It’s wonderful how so many people are willing to help a novelist.

One of the most rewarding aspects of writing is being able to create characters. In my mind, they come to life, and people often ask how I make fictional people seem so real. I think the secret is to write a character’s normal way of life before the story crisis strikes. Get to know the character through his or her typical activities. I might eventually cut out a lot of what I have written, but this is what helps me to learn how a character ticks.

Then, when the crisis comes, the character will react the way I have built him, and he will guide the story arc. This is why I never outline a story beforehand. I have a basic premise and an idea about where a story will go, but once I create the main character, I then sit and go on the adventure with him. This makes the story organic and alive, and the character will always feel realistic, because he is doing what his characteristics dictate, not what the preconceived story dictates.

This technique works for all my characters … even dragons. It also allows me to explore the human psyche. By allowing the story to bend to the character’s actions, the character feels truly alive, and the story isn’t harmed, because it is, after all, the character’s story. I breathe into them, and they, in turn, inspire me with their sometimes surprising decisions.

So that’s what this writer’s world is like. I bring fantasy to life in a way that allows a reader to do what I do—go on an adventure with a character who feels real, thereby becoming infused with the same passion that I infuse into the story.

In a way, since we feed each other with inspiration, my characters and I are symbiotic. And since I am symbiotic with dragon characters, I guess I really am a freak. :-)

Get deeper into the world of Bryan Davis at - http://www.facebook.com/l/87953nNtTMftx3YiZ_pGTO3khCw;www.daviscrossing.com

Silent Moments: Expressing Non-Action in Writing

2010-09-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

I bumped into Tim Handorf on the web site for accredited online colleges where he had posted a well-researched list of search engines for serious writers. As it turns out he is a serious writer himself and has submitted this every thought-provoking guest spot reminding us that even action stories can't be action all the time.

Think about what you do every day. You probably wake up, engage in some sort of hygienic routine, eat, go to work or school, eat again, hang out with friends, maybe read or watch a bit of TV. Whatever it is that you do on a daily basis, whether it's humdrum or more exciting, you probably perform repeated actions that you don't really think twice about anymore.

When we are asked by friends or family members what we did during the day, we either gloss over these routines or describe events that were more out of the ordinary--the break-up of a relationship, a boss giving you a difficult time out work, a flat tire, or whatever. The one thing common to communicating life's events to others is that we are always describing action.

As fiction writers, especially if we are writing novels, we are charged with the task of recreating life as it is actually lived. Although we don't often really think about it, life is not simply always doing. Whether or not we realize it, we spend a lot of time not doing anything, no matter how busy we are. We spend a lot of time thinking and processing information about our surroundings. And these moments are difficult to pin down because they are often short, fractious, and they occur in silence.

Charles Baxter, a renowned novelist, essayist, and critic, described this quality in an essay entitled "Stillness", which was included in his collection, "Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction Writing". In the essay, Baxter noted that contemporary writers, whether published or not, have begun to avoid these moments of non-action. He explains that this phenomenon may have much to do with the fact that we live in a hyper-connected, attention-deficit age in which doing or saying nothing is considered almost sinful.

Baxter warns, “If, however, we have truly lost the ability to be interested in stillness, we will have lost the capacity to be accurate about an entire dimension of our experiences.” I think that this is very wise assessment, and since reading “Stillness,” I've begun to watch out for those moments in which nothing much is going on to take note of my surroundings―the sound of a brewing coffee dripping into the pot, the way a particular room smells, what's going through my mind when a friend I haven't seen in awhile rings the doorbell.

Observing these details, however, is only the beginning. While it's not all that difficult to become aware of these moments if you try, it is difficult to be able to describe these moments in writing. One way to do that is to see how other writers have fashioned silence with the written word. In my own reading, Marcel Proust is particularly adept at recreating stillness. It's not only the words he uses when putting silence on paper that I find remarkable, but also the places he chooses to insert these stillnesses. Stilness, as Baxter explains, if placed correctly, can serve to make those moments of action that propels our stories along much more intense and meaningful.

For more information on Baxter's conception of stillness, check out his essay collection or read this recent Rumpus interview.

Tim Handorf regularly writes on the topics of online colleges and universities. He welcomes your comments at his email Id: tim.handorf.20@googlemail.com.

Who has the Rights?

2010-09-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Andrew Wylie, the literary agent who decided to start his own publishing company to produce e-book editions on Amazon.com. He started with 20 books which were published before e-books were even thought of. Despite that fact, Random House thought IT had the electronic rights to. This prompted Random House to declare it would no long do business with Wylie’s agency. This was potentially bad news for Wylie’s 700-plus clients, among whom are the estates of such literary giants as Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, Ralph and John Updike.

The real question is obvious: who owns the rights to publish the e-book versions of books that were bought by publishers before e-books existed? Wylie was saying that those rights have not been sold and so belong to the author. And if a publisher holds those rights, what kind of royalty should authors get? These days 25% is common for e-books, although if you do it yourself on Amazon you can get 70%.

I can see how this can impact the survival of publishing companies. A lot of money is made from backlist books like Portnoy’s Complaint, The Invisible Man and the Rabbit books, and those books cost the publisher almost nothing to publish now. A couple of classics can make up for a new title that flops.

But as an author, I can’t accept a publisher making green off rights it didn’t pay for. And sometimes I think big publishers miss the point. They are no longer the only game in town. They don’t get to make all the rules as they did a couple of decades ago when the only way to get your book in front of buyers was to either invest tens of thousands of dollars to self publish or to accept whatever deal a publisher offered.

Regardless of how you feel about e-book rights, the unavoidable truth is that if publishers want to stay in business they have to attract good writers and if they hope to do that they will have to make a radical change. They will have to actually be NICE to authors and treat them with a little respect. They may even have to (gasp!) deal with them fairly.

The Big Kindle Price Experiment

2010-08-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

The most successful author I know of in the world of ebooks is J.A. Konrath. Joe and I go way back, to the first Love is Murder conference I attended, and he blurbed my first novel in print. His blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing is a bottomless font of valuable information. And Joe is paying his bills with ebooks, mostly for the Kindle. So, yeah, I pay attention to what Joe says when it comes to selling novels.

Konrath has created an interesting model for ebooks sales: publish several titles, sell them cheap, and promote them like crazy online. Sounds like something someone like me should try.

So I did.

My five mystery novels and two thrillers were already available for the Kindle, but prices varied. The Intrigue Publishing titles sold for $6.99, while the Echelon Press book (Blood and Bone) was priced at $2.99. Each was moving at the rate of 2 or 3 each month, so price didn’t seem to matter. But I had not explored the third leg of Konrath’s plan, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Two mystery-writing pals of mine, Debbie Mack and Rob Walker, had had success chatting with readers on forums. Since both were on the Kindle Korner Yahoo group that seemed like a good place to start. But if you’re going to be there you need to have something to talk about. They don’t allow you to just pop up and start talking about your books. I needed a news hook.

Well, that seemed obvious. I dropped the price of my first novel (The Troubleshooter) to $2.99 to match Blood and Bone. And since the moderators wouldn’t let me start the conversation about the change, I asked a friend to mention it in a post. That got people asking questions, which it was then okay for me to answer. Here was an unexpected happy result of this sly marketing approach – I got to have serious, honest conversation with readers about my books and others. I gained priceless insights, received valuable feedback and became part of a community of people who love books! It was already worth the effort.

But, did it result in my book becoming a bestseller? Maybe not yet. But when I checked the stats yesterday I was stunned to see The Troubleshooter ranked #6901 of all Kindle books. With 690,419 titles available for the Kindle, that put my novel in the top ONE PERCENT of Kindle titles. If that wasn’t enough of an ego boost, Amazon breaks titles down by genre. In the hard-boiled mystery category The Troubleshooter was #88. I don’t know how many hard boiled mysteries there are on the Kindle, so I choose to believe there are tens of thousands. (If you happen to know there are only 90, please keep that knowledge to yourself.)

So one Kindle copy of the Troubleshooter sold last month, and 40 sold in the last week. I guess I have to declare the experiment a success. How long will it last? Who knows? But you can bet I’ll try the same approach with another book next month!

Have YOU had a moving Kindle experience? As a writer or a reader?

A Real Blockhead

2010-08-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Richard Gazala is NOT a blockhead. He IS a pal and the author of an excellent thriller entitled Blood of the Moon. When we talked about his writing a guest blog for me about the experience of being a writer he said he'd like to give a somewhat different view of that author nemesis, writer's block. The impressive bit of creative writing below is the result.

Call me Blockhead.

It’s not my real name. I don’t have a real name. I get called plenty of other names, always by frustrated writers thinking I’m the enemy I’m not. Just about all those other names are unprintable in a family-friendly blog like this one, though. So we’ll keep it clean, and go with Blockhead.

You can’t understand me, unless you understand writers. I understand writers. I spend a lot of time tormenting them. I torment them, because I respect them. Sure, I delight in agonizing writers, but I know without them I wouldn’t exist. And without me, they wouldn’t write as well they can. We need each other. Of course it’s twisted and codependent. However, unlike other spheres of human endeavor, in the arts twisted and codependent often produce stellar results.

I understand writers, but they usually misunderstand me. There’s no number high enough to count the times I’ve been damned as an unfeeling and unyielding monster, content to sup on the misery of a writer stuck for a word or a plot twist or even an entire storyline. Unfairly cursed, I hasten to add. I do what I do out of love for literature, and the literate. All the bedeviling I do is with clearest conscience and purest heart.

Look, to me, writers are superheroes. They willingly confront a barren page and out of nothing more than their inherent creative powers concoct memorable characters and compelling stories in places familiar or strange to amuse, inform or shock us.

Think about it. Leaping over skyscrapers and running faster than a speeding bullet are astounding feats, no doubt. So is dressing like a giant bat and ridding our streets of psychopaths. Yet even those superpowers are unimpressive next to the indefinable creative brawn necessary to wrench Superman and Batman from sheer nothingness and propel them to global sociocultural immortality.

Still, what is Superman without Lex Luthor? What is Batman without the Joker? Inarguably detestable as Luthor and the Joker are, they are the indispensable nemeses that make Superman and Batman worth embracing. Without their supervillainous banes, these superheroes would have no reason to be either super, or heroic.

Enter Blockhead. My writers are superheroes. I am their supervillain. They struggle mightily to create. I use my power of writer’s block to stop them at every turn. True, I can be a tad sadistic from time to time, and I can’t recall ever being accused of understaying my welcome. To write their best my writers have to battle me knowing I never fight fair. When they persevere and overcome every obstacle I hurl at them, their writing is sharp, clear and far more worthy of reading than had I failed to make them suffer and sweat. I’m not their enemy. I’m their ally. I just don’t dress the part too well, and my P.R. team does an abysmal job trumpeting my invaluable contributions to authorial achievement.

Call me Blockhead. Or call me those other words unfound in respectable dictionaries. Sticks and stones. The only way a writer can hurt me, is to let me win.

You can see more of Richard Gazala’s creativity at www.richardgazala.com

Why I Blog

2010-08-03T06:15:00.000-04:00

Author Ann Simon has recently become a regular blogger so I thought it would be nice to have her tell us how she feels about that. In the process I think she offers an interesting perspective on what makes a writer write anything.

Some time ago, I went to see my Perfect Grandchildren. I slept on the spare bed wedged next to my 18-month-old grandson’s crib. I was awakened in the middle of the night by Alan sitting straight up, singing to himself. I opened my eyes, and he grinned at me. I thought, “Oh, boy. Now he’s going to want to get up and play.” I shut my eyes quickly, but I needn’t have worried. He continued to babble happily and then, being almost two, practiced saying no in various pitches and inflections. Satisfied with his own performance, he lay down and returned to sleep.

The exact impulse that stoked Alan’s middle-of-the-night performance impels me to write. If there’s an audience, fantastic; if not, I still find myself up in the middle of the night putting on the show. In fact, the only way to get the stuff out of an endless loop in my head is to write it down.

The middle of the night show is just a metaphor (you knew it was, didn’t you?). There’s plenty of middle of the night rumination, but the show is often my Blog. I’ve been a technical writer and teacher for most of my professional life, and the “show” for my writing has been published as articles and poems. I’ve tried to get my book published, but its cross-genre world (modern-day thriller with Shamanic spirit animals racing around all over the place) seems too risky for agents and publishers despite their compliments on my writing.

I had a Blog a few years ago when we lived in Moscow (yes, Russia, although Idaho would have been pretty foreign to me, too). It was a great way to convey my experiences and observations to friends and relatives. Its purpose faded on our repatriation.

About couple of weeks ago, though, I was trying to drift off to sleep when I felt the old writer’s curse return: sentences, topics, phrases were racing through my mind, demanding to become real. I resisted the urge for at least three days – for me that’s the epitome of patience -- but I couldn’t quell it entirely. During those three days, I kept a list.

By the fourth day, I couldn’t contain myself. I chose my venue by the highly scientific method of asking a friend which site she thought was good. I set up the background, lay-out, etc., and narrowed my focus (retirement, aging and membership in the sandwich generation). I wrote in my first entry, a sort of general hello. Now I sign on, babble on my chosen topic until I’m satisfied and then hit “publish.”

“Publish”: is there a more satisfying word in the English language? Please, visit me at http://www.annsannotations.blogspot.com/, and maybe Austin will write something for me there, too.

That last bit I can guarantee. Keep an eye on Ann's blog...

The League of Phantom Authors

2010-07-23T01:00:00.001-04:00

Would it surprise you to learn that half the best selling authors in the country aren’t writers? It seems absurd, but I recently read that as many as 50 percent of all New York Times bestsellers are ghostwritten. I’ve also heard that there is great demand for ghostwriters for other types of books and in businesses of all sizes.

This legion of behind-the-scenes writers has been scattered and isolated until now. But an enterprising author has now launched a new trade association designed to help professional writers and authors interested in finding and landing more ghostwriting work. Bestselling author and experienced ghostwriter Marcia Layton Turner (www.marcialaytonturner.com) has founded the Association of Ghostwriters (www.associationofghostwriters.org) to help us all tap into the growing demand for ghostwriting services.

Why are talented ghostwriters in such demand? For one thing, professional speakers, consultants, business executives and coaches want the credibility that comes from having a book published. They know a book will give their business a boost, but either don’t have the time or the skills to write one.

In addition, business people have learned that sharing their knowledge online through blogs and articles helps highlight their expertise and they need help from professional writers. The growth in self-publishing also presents opportunities for subject matter experts to reach a wider audience, if they can present their expertise in a well-written book.

And don’t overlook fiction possibilities. Do you really think James Patterson can write half a dozen novels a year in 7 or 8 different genres? Not by himself he can’t. He employs five full-time collaborators that he pays out of his own pocket. He provides the elaborate outlines and story editing but they provide the actual text. I sure wouldn’t mind being on that team, even if I only got to write the manga version of the next Maximum Ride book.

The Association of Ghostwriters helps members tap into this expanding market for their services. Members get access to monthly teleseminars on marketing, project management, outsourcing, time management and other relevant subjects. There’s also a newsletter, a private forum and most valuable, job postings for ghostwriters. So if you’re more concerned with getting paid for writing than seeing your name in big letters on the cover, this might be the group for you.

A Writing Guide Only an Idiot would Pass Up

2010-07-12T01:00:00.000-04:00

It has happened to all of us. You’ve read hundreds of thrillers and finally you decide you could write one as good as that last one. You’re ready to try your hand at creating a bestseller, but you don’t know where to start. The answer may be to pick up a copy of the newly-published second edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel by Tom Monteleone.

This book is perfect for the first time novelist because it covers all the basic elements of the novel, plus the various tactics and processes to make it happen. And when it comes to writing what sells, Monteleone knows what he’s talking about. He’s published more than 100 short stories and 25 novels, including The Blood of the Lamb which was both a bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

“Regardless of how many novels writers produce, the real barometer is whether people like reading them,” Monteleone says. “As far as that goes, I’ve had my share of rave reviews and dedicated fans over the years so, yeah, I’d say I’ve been doing the job well enough to qualify to write an Idiot’s Guide.”

Clearly one of the acquisition editors for the Complete Idiot’s Guide series agreed, because he asked Monteleone’s agent to put him on the case. And the first edition was a hit, remaining one of the ten most popular Idiot’s Guides for the last five years. Despite that success, Monteleone felt the need to freshen the book for a second edition.

“I had to go through the entire book and do a lot of updating—economically and culturally, and even technologically,” he says. “That part of the job makes you realize how fast things can change. I added a section to examine the new arena of e-publishing. And I included more interviews with some of today’s best-selling writers - Dean Koontz, Lee Child, Heather Graham, and a few others.”

The book also includes tons of advice on agents and editors, illustrated by clever stories and anecdotes with an informal approach that seems perfect for beginners.

“I wrote the book in a very informal, conversational style so it would be accessible and easy to read,” Monteleone says. “I wanted it to sound like the reader was sitting with me on the steps of the front porch just talking writing. And I get letters and email every week from people who’ve bought the book—from high school kids to doctors and lawyers to retirees - who claim to have gotten tons of great advice, info, and encouragement from my Guide.”

But Monteleone is quick to add that this book’s value is not restricted to rank beginners.

“I honestly feel that writers who have never written anything longer than a vignette to those who’ve pounded out several novel-length manuscripts are all going to get something out of my book, because I cover a lot more than just the essential mechanics. Lots of people who want to write have little understanding of how the publishing industry works, or things like time-management, subsidiary rights, trade shows and literary agents.”

This book is filled with the wisdom of those who have been there and done that, like Thriller Master David Morrell who said he believed he could teach you how to write clean, grammatical, stylish sentences, but he could never teach you WHAT to write well—that has to come from that dark well of imagination and need.

However, Monteleone says that the single most important thing anyone should derive from his book is that writing a novel has to be fun.

“The need to write may come from any number of magical psychological sources,” he says, “fired by engines of fear or love or even a simple sense of wonder about the world. But I honestly believe you can’t really be a successful writer if you do it out of obligation. If you approach it like that, it becomes a job, rather than a joy. And your lack of enjoyment will show up in your prose.”

While interviewing Monteleone about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel I couldn’t resist asking (with tongue in cheek) if his guide to writing a novel was actually written for the complete idiot. He replied that in fact the opposite was true.

“Even though I’ve written my book in a most easy-going style, I think it’s for people who have intelligence, wit, and imagination. Even the clumsiest of novels were written by people with an earnest belief in their abilities, a determination that remained undaunted, and one more thing: a mind fueled by curiosity and the need to create the same in others.

Nothing idiotic about that.”

Stretching Exercise

2010-07-05T01:00:00.001-04:00

Elizabeth Flaherty is a rarity in my experience. When I critique manuscripts I often end up teaching new writers the very basics of pace, structure, voice, and dialog. When I read Elizabeth's writing sample at the Bay to Ocean writers' conference I had to dig a bit to find things to correct. Her prose was strong, fresh and stylish. I did make some recommendations and she took them well. Recently she wrote to me about her active response to one of my suggestions, and agreed to let me share it. Writers who are stuck on one form take note!

I met Austin this past February at a writers’ conference and he made a strange suggestion. Or at least it seemed strange to me at the time. He asked me if I’d written any short stories. My memory may be wrong about this, but I’m pretty sure I laughed at him. I write thrillers and mysteries, typically with a psychologically damaged protagonist. How, I wondered, was I supposed to wedge that into 15 pages?

But, there I was, talking to another writer in a similar genre and he was suggesting I do just that. I was skeptical, but I’m also pretty competitive. He’d laid the gauntlet – told me I’d be a better writer for it – I had no intention of backing down.

The result was surprising.

For me, the process of writing a short story wasn’t really any different than my usual process. I’m not an outliner; so when I first start writing, this is all I typically know: Who is the main character or characters? What’s their internal conflict? What’s the twist we’re heading toward? Where’s the end of the story? To be clear, I don’t always know what the end of the story will be, just what issue needs to be resolved.

In this case, after a couple weeks of kicking ideas around in my head, I’d come up with this: Our hero would be a female detective; she was an alcoholic; her partner had just died. As for the twist, I knew that I wanted to introduce a man on the first page, who was a shadowy figure and I knew that his identity would be a primary “mystery” for the reader. And I knew the end would have to be the revelation of what happened to Stella’s partner.

Armed with my basics, I booted up the laptop and settled in. My personal rule is two pages a night; don’t think; just write. I began - Detective Stella Ortiz sat alone in her car, a cold cup of coffee untouched by her side.

Within two weeks, I had a story. It needed work, of course, a good amount of it, but it had a beginning, a middle and an end. On top of all that – and this was the big part – I’d managed to cram it all into less than 15 pages.

The lesson I learned in all this was unexpectedly simple. Writing a short story isn’t any different than writing a “long” story. Every writer has a different process, a different way to organize and prepare to write their book. My thought, for what it’s worth, hold your process steady and just write. The only change, simplify the story. Typically, when I write I’m looking for new conflicts to beef up that original list. With the short story the challenge was to make sure there were no new conflicts, to just focus on the original list, resolve, write to the end. Actually, it’s not all that different than the mindset I have when I’m hitting those last couple chapters and pushing to the finish line in a full length novel.

Oh, and I should mention, Austin was right. It was a good exercise - kind of like yoga. In some ways it’s nothing more than simple stretching, but when you’re done you realize you just got a really awesome workout.

Halfway There

2010-06-28T01:00:00.001-04:00

Most writers would agree that the most wonderful moment in an author's life is the day his book is accepted by a big-name publisher. But what about the second most wonderful moment? Future best seller Natasha Peterson offers an interesting view of a milestone in her budding career. Here's a peek into another writer's life.

A.A. Milne wrote a little poem called Halfway Down. In the first verse, Christopher Robin explains that he always stops and sits on the middle stair, “I’m not at the bottom, I’m not at the top.” This pretty much describes my feelings these days.

I’m a nonfiction and marketing writer by profession, but over the winter I completed my first novel, Delta Babies. It’s a fictionalized memoir about a group of teens coming of age in New Orleans. After one last rewrite, I felt ready to submit and emailed agents I had met at conferences and workshops. In March, Delta Babies was picked up by Lisa Hagan, Paraview Literary Agency – what a happy miracle! Just like that, I was halfway to finding a publisher.

Then a weird thing happened. After three years of living and breathing my novel, it disappeared from my life, out there somewhere. Research, rewrites and submissions were suddenly off my to-do list.

“Halfway up the stairs isn’t up, And it isn’t down,” so reads the poem. No kidding; I’m so there. Then it goes on, “And all sorts of funny thoughts Run round my head.” That’s when it starts getting intense. I can feel myself next to Christopher Robin on the middle stair conversely weepy, giddy and freaked out with funny thoughts, OMG it’s getting submitted. I can feel people reading it. Where are they now? Will they laugh when..? Will they get the part when..?

Granted, the current trend is to always think positive, in which case my version of Milne’s perfect nursery scribble would be Halfway Up instead of Halfway Down. Trends notwithstanding, the time between signing and sale is strange indeed, as strange as the middle stair. “It isn’t really Anywhere, it’s somewhere else instead.”

You can keep up with Natasha Peterson's career at http://www.natashapetersonwriter.com

Search Engines for Writers

2010-06-24T01:00:00.001-04:00

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore and as I've recently learned, there are loads of search engines out there that can help us find what we need. A website for Accredited Online Colleges seems like an unlikely source, but I just read a blog on that site that is a collection of 60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers.

The search sites are broken into logical categories. For example, under the Professional heading you'll find sources like the Writer’s Cafe, an online writer’s forum to find and share creative works; and the Literary Marketplace, a great place to learn about the publishing industry.

The Writing list includes WriteSearch which focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing, and the self-explanatory Writing Forums. Under Research you’ll find Google Scholar for reliable, academic results for your searches, OpenLibrary which can help you find books you can use, and lots more.

And if you need to look up a quote or a fact, check the Reference search engines such as Quotes.net, Literary Encyclopedia and Acronym Finder. There are also search engines for Niche Writers, books and Blogging.

Every writer can benefit from this fine collection of sources to start his or her search.

Everybody Loves E-Books!

2010-06-16T01:00:00.000-04:00

If you’re a Kindle, Nook or Sony Reader fan I just want you to know that you are no longer a member of a tiny minority of readers who go for e-books. Recently the Boston Consulting Group completed a survey of 13,000 people on the subject. They say that e-readers are poised to take off if they just get a little less expensive and have more features. Apparently the ideal would be a $200 device that will accept e-mail along with the books, magazines, and newspapers.

Almost all the people surveyed said they’d use the device to read books, which is good news for Echelon, but maybe not so good news for other publishers who will need to give up their fight with e-book prices and start offering new titles at more reasonable prices.

Some interesting statistics from the report: 49 percent of the respondents planned to buy a tablet device in the next three years. The three countries with the greatest awareness of these devices are India, China, and Japan. Some 71 percent of the people in India were at least somewhat aware of the tablets vs. 54 percent in the USA.

The survey also had bad new for the iBook. Consumers want to be able to buy content from multiple sources rather than being locked in to the iTunes store.

I just hope that more eBook readers sold will mean more eBooks purchased (like my own Blood and Bone available on Kindle for $2.99) and, most important, more people reading!!

Five Questions - Another take

2010-06-02T02:00:00.000-04:00

Hank Quense saw my last blog post responding to 5 basic questions on writing and accepted my invitation to add HIS answers. Quense writes humorous fantasy and science fiction, and with more than three dozen short stories and articles published he is well qualified to offer his opinion.

What is the most interesting part of your work?

I write humor and satire. The best part of the job is creating characters with bizarre mentalities. I also love to put them into absurd situations and figure out how to get them out harm's way.

The least interesting?

Editing and revising. My general practice on short stories and articles is to keep revising them until I realize that I read it one more time, I'l l get sick. That's when I send it out to an editor.

If I wanted to pursue this area, what advice would you give?

Read and write: constantly. Limit your exposure to TV. The stuff on TV will rot your brain and fill it with material that won't work in print. See my blog post: Daytime TV: a valuable addition to your writer's toolbox. If you commute to school using public transportation, that is great time to read and write. I wrote a lot of stories while riding on a bus to Manhattan.

What skills should I be working on in school?

I can't add anything to what Austin said. All I'll do is emphasize that you follow his advice.

How can I get more information?

The best way to improve your writing is to have other writers (NOT family or friends!) read and comment on your writing. If you write fantasy, scifi or horror, join the Critters, a world-wide organization of writers who critique each others work.

Readers: check out Hank Quense's writing, which is always great fun, at http://hankquense.com/

Writers, get more of Hank Quense's valubabl insights at http://hankquense.com/blog.

Five Basic Questions

2010-05-26T21:40:00.002-04:00

I received a note from a student recently that led to some pretty serious thinking about what I do and I thought I'd share my response. Here's her email:

My name is Dominique and I'm a student at Northern Virginia Community College. I have an assignment I'm working on and I have to ask a writer a couple of questions. What is the most interesting part of your work? The least interesting? If I wanted to pursue this area, what advice would you give? What skills should I be working on in school? How can I get more information?

Well, before I even began to respond to these questions I had to let her know that I am a genre fiction novelist. A short story writer, a literary writer, an essayist, a poet, a journalist or a nonfiction author might answer very differently. We all come to our calling for different reasons and approach it from different angles. That having been said…

What is the most interesting part of your work?

I write mystery novels so the great fun for me is in crafting the puzzle, building the mystery people will try to solve along with my detective. More than anything else this requires an understanding of human motivations – why people do the things they do – and that is certainly the most interesting aspect of my craft.

The least interesting?

Well, that would be the necessary mechanics. You can’t be a good writer of any kind unless you can communicate clearly, and that means mastering grammar and punctuation. Knowing the difference between being eager and being anxious. Learning where a paragraph should end. And knowing what constitutes a sentence, so you won’t fill your work with fragments like the 3 I just wrote.

If I wanted to pursue this area, what advice would you give?

My most important advice is to read. Read the kind of work you’d like to write, but also read a variety so you can borrow techniques from different places and have more colors on our writing pallet. Whenever you have an emotional reaction to something someone wrote, go back and look at the word choices and the technique used. Figure out how they got that reaction out of you so you can learn to do it to others.

The second most important advice is to write. Write every day. Don’t wait for inspiration or your muse to speak to you. Get in the habit of creating. The writing muscle is like any other, you need to exercise it to make it stronger. We get better at just about anything through practice.

What skills should I be working on in school?

In good literature courses you can learn the basic plots and why they are so often repeated. You should always seek out the theme of a story, not just the plot.

Study history and dig into the biographies of the movers and shakers of our past. These can be the foundation of your own great characters. Learn about other cultures. Expand your vocabulary. Perhaps most important, ask your professors to be hard on you, critiquing every paper sternly, raising the bar for your written communications.

How can I get more information?

There are hundreds of good books on writing, but I don’t think anything takes the place of the fellowship of other writers. So I recommend you join writer organizations. There’s the Virginia Writers Club, the Maryland Writers Association and the American Independent Writers right in this area. Plus, there are organizations for every genre of author. I belong to the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers Inc. Surround yourself with writers and you will be able to learn things you didn’t know you needed to know.

Would anyone else out there like to share THEIR answers to these five basic questions? If so, send them on and I'll post them here. Frankly, I'm curious about what other authors will say.

From Self-Pub to Success

2010-05-20T12:24:00.001-04:00

Larger publishers like to think of themselves as the gatekeepers of the literary world, so when I see a clear example to the contrary I get a kick out of pointing it out. Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann is an excellent example.

This semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school days in the ’70s to her early adulthood in New York during the ’80s.

The cool part is that this oversized volume was originally self-published. Hamann created an imprint - Vernacular Press – to launch her novel in 2003. After seven years of hard- won and well-earned success the book is getting re-released by Spiegel & Grau, which is a division of Random House.

Hamann actually closed Vernacular Press three years ago, probably for the same reason most small presses die – way more work and money out than recognition or money in. But the book remained an underground success. And now that it’s on a “legitimate” label, reviewers are reading it. Publishers Weekly said “if publishers could figure out a way to turn crack into a book, it'd read a lot like this.”

I imagine that editors at Spiegel & Grau are hoping that this book will have a real impact on the literary world. I think it may have already had an impact on the publishing industry.

Werewolves & Wolves - Fiction and Facts

2010-05-03T05:00:00.002-04:00

Have you considered writing an historical or urban fantasy? Today's guest blogger, T.L. Mitchell, writes the ferocious "Dark of kNight" series and is therefore an expert on the victims of lycanthopy. Here she serves up a primer on real wolves and their fictional human subset.

Over the years there have been many paranormal romances and thrillers written containing werewolves. In past years, the term werewolves struck fear into the heart of anyone who heard the term. However, lately werewolves are used in another form as friendly and loveable. So how do we term the evil creatures from the good creatures? What is the difference?

In our discovery, let’s start with understanding some facts about wolves. Wolves have been very badly misunderstood animals over the last decade. They are important creatures to our eco system. Many farmers and live stock owners disagree, claiming they are a nuisance and should be destroyed. Truth is wolves are just as important to our world as the air we breathe.

Wolves are the largest member of the canine family, with a height from 26-32 inches. They weight from 55-130 lbs and have a life span of approximately 7-8 years. Some wolves have been known to live 10 years or more. The diet of wolves consists of large hoofed mammals, such as dear, elk, moose and caribou. I think you see why live stock owners would consider wolves a problem. In Alaska, there are an estimated 7000 to 11,200 wolves and more than 5,000 in the lower 48 states. In earlier times, there were estimated populations of up to 2 million wolves, where now there are only estimated 200,000 in 57 countries.

In the mid 1930s, wolves were once common creatures in North America and killed in most areas. Today their range has been reduced to minimal areas throughout the US and Canada.

The behaviors of wolves are mainly pack-like. They live, travel and hunt in packs of 4-7 animals. The packs include the mother and father, their pups and several other young wolves. The alpha female and male are the pack leaders that track and hunt prey. These leaders choose den sites and establish the pack’s territory. Wolves develop close relationships with one another and strong social bonds. They demonstrate deep affection for their family and may even sacrifice themselves to protect the family unit.

Werewolves are considered wolf-shape shifters by many. The name werewolf comes from the “wer” Old English term for man. Man-wolf. Legends around the world speak of men and women who could turn into wolves and back into human form. In their animal form, the werewolves were bloodthirsty creatures that devoured humans.

The werewolf legends occur in all parts of the world. Some scholars have suggested that these transformation legends are no more than echoes of ancient ceremonies where people wore animal skins.

An interesting note, European werewolf tales date back from ancient times. A Greek king named Lycaon was turned into a wolf as punishment for serving human flesh to the gods. The Greek word lukos(wolf) and anthropos(man) comes the term lycanthropy.

Now let’s discuss the difference between werewolves and Lycans. We know they pretty much mean the same thing- a man (or woman) who can turn into a wolf. Truthfully, they do not need the light of the full moon to change. They can change at will. So where do we form the opinions of bad and good werewolves? In Europe, the werewolf folklore is not just a simple myth or legend. There was a time where werewolf legends were rich and varied in stories. These stories were interesting as we begin to see tales about hero werewolves and a variety of species. So in fact, the werewolves in the older, darker days were considered blood-thirsty beasts. Which is probably where we come up with the evil looking, more scary creatures in the movies.

Another folklore, I would not want to pass up is the one I use in my Dark of kNight Series. My wolf- shape shifters are termed Lycans and they hunt evil werewolves. The background history on their characters is from the Native Indian’s folklore. Some facts about where the Native Indians came up with their legends were said to be based on early settlers. The early settlers brought with them their European beliefs and either retold old tales or created new ones. This statement or fact, I disagree with. The Native Indians are rich in their folklore, legends and beliefs. It is my belief that the Native Indians already had stories about wolf spirits, eagle spirits and shape-shifting long before the European settlers arrived.

If we would take the true nature of a wolf as a Lycan, then we would see a family who has a strong relationship, loving and would die for one another. The parents would be the forefront leaders of the pack and the children would learn from examples and discipline. Does this sound like an evil creature? Not really. This sounds more or less what we find in our paranormal romances or shape shifter novels. I think any woman who reads a story about a strong male, determined and confident, would swoon in his arms…werewolf or not.

Branding, Keep It Simple Sister!

2010-04-28T05:00:00.000-04:00

Today Lisa M. Campbell, one of my favorite guest bloggers, offers some well-thought-out advice on branding. If you're a genre writer, you should pay attention.

Nowadays you can't have a serious discussion about writing and book promoting without hearing the word brand thrown into the conversation.

What is branding, and why is it necessary for writers to use this technique? Take a moment and think of your favorite authors. What is it about their stories that keeps you into a repeat customer? Why do you search for one particular author first, before checking out someone else who may write in a similar manner?

When I began writing historical romance, I defined my style simply, Where romance begins…. I wanted readers to understand no matter what dramatic, treacherous or humorous events occur in the plot, I would never shortchange them on the romantic development of my main characters. Where romance begins…, is the tag line upon which I build my particular brand of romance.

Eventually I branched out to paranormal erotica under the pen name Marie March, and soon realized the WRB tag line, while perfect for my historical novels, didn't necessarily speak to the unrestrained sexual element of my shorter works. I needed a tag line that packed a bit more oomph, something that set my paranormal erotica apart from others writing in the genre.

If you look me up on MySpace, I bill my erotica as stories that feature sinister, yet sexy vampires, earth and sky Faeries, Fallen Angels, and nubile Nymphs with a heat rating that falls anywhere between sensual and scorching. Although this description reads well for MySpace, how could I begin to translate everything into a succinct memorable tag line?

After some thought, I whittled down the above descriptor to three words--you read that correctly. Remember, a good rule of thumb is KISS! Keep it simple sister! Think of any annoying television jingle and you will understand why the rule of three works. For example, one magazine ad that sticks in the corner of my brain is, got milk? It's certainly clear what the advertisers are pushing, and with two simple words, the entire dairy industry is represented.

In the end, branding plays a large part in an author's success; it's what initially draws a reader to your work. Staying true to your brand is what the reader expects, and ultimately, the reason that keeps your readers coming back for more.

Learn more about Lisa M. Campbell and her wonderful writing at:
www.lisamcampbell.net
Where romance begins…
www.myspace.com/lisamcampbell
www.twitter.com/darceezgrl
www.myspace.com/mariemarch
sin~sational romance!http://www.celticqueens.blogspot.com

Face to Facebook

2010-04-14T12:39:00.002-04:00

Recently I've been trying to respond to some of the most frequently asked questions, on the theory that if one new author asked, a dozen more want to know the same thing. Here's one about social media:

My publisher is pushing me (and rightfully so) to make better use of Facebook, but I find I'm reluctant to do a big promo push when I have so many personal contacts and communications on my profile (young family members, church friends, etc.). I know that I can do an "Author Page" (like a fan page, although it doesn't have to be called that), but I think maybe I should have an Author Page, and Author Profile, and then a whole separate profile for personal contacts and family networking, etc. Do you have any advice?

I understand your conflict concerning Facebook. I think it’s good to separate “social” networking from “business” networking.

I personally have only one Facebook page but as you can see if you visit it, there is very little there about my personal life. My page was created primarily as a marketing vehicle although I hope it’s a friendly one.

Authors who really ARE social on Facebook should establish a separate author fan page. Your profile and postings should be oriented to your writing, and it’s a good place to keep people up to date on your writing career.

Each Facebook page should be established based on a different email address. After you set up your Author page you should send a notice to all your friends at the original page suggesting they become a “fan” as well, at the new page. I would also suggest that you place restrictions on your original Facebook page so that no one can access the information unless they know your email address. That way, strangers who are looking for you on Facebook will flow to your fan page, and only actual friends will be checking out your personal page.

When you have free time, you can go to the profile of each of your fans and friends and message their friends with something like, “We have a friend in common – XXXX - and I’d like to be your friend too.” I did that until I got to 500 and now have people finding me (I currently have 640 friends.)

Just be sure on your new page that you work in some personal stuff that’s writing related: how you feel about the manuscript you’re working on now, who you met that inspired you, etc. Even on your writing site, people want to know YOU, not just your stories.

The Price is Right

2010-03-31T18:20:00.001-04:00

A couple of months ago, Amazon.com practically went to war with Macmillan over the sale price of e-books. I think a lot of publishers were unhappy with the $9.99 price point that Amazon established fore-books, thinking it was too low. They didn't want book buyers getting used to such a low price for literature. And this was when Amazon paid those publishers half the hardcover price for each sale. Why wouldAmazon set themselves up to take such a loss? One can only guess that they had their eye on Kindle sales.

On the other hand, publishers set the price for books on the iPad, and publishers get a 70/30 split. When Amazon took down the buy buttons for nearly all Macmillan titles. That's harsh.

Presumably Amazon wants e-book prices to be as low as possible to lure more people to buy Kindles. The more people who buy Kindles, the more people who won't buy e-books in other formats. And if you look at sales figures, it appears that the less expensive an e-book is the more copies sell. So, since, Amazon AND readers want e-books to be cheaper, smart publishers are pushing farther and farther in that direction.

Echelon Press is one of those smart publishers. To test the waters, Echelon has reduced the price of my flagship novel, Blood and Bone, to a mere $3 for the month of April. If you own a Kindle, this is your chance to read my best selling Hannibal Jones mystery and get hooked ona great detective series. Download it now while this reduced pricelasts, at http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Bone-Hannibal-Jones-ebook/dp/B001IDZ59O/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

And if you want to support this crazy experiment, please pass this link on to everyone you know who owns a Kindle. I'll let you know the result at the end of the month

Coming Soon - A Thinking Person's Guest Blog

2010-03-19T08:46:00.003-04:00

Hey guys and gals,

Want a free book signed by the author?

I’m excited about hosting an international blog book tour for Resolution 786. American author, Mohamed Mughal, will be joining our blog from 23-25 March 2010 to answer questions about his novel and about his approach to writing. Mohamed will answer up to three questions from blog visitors during the dates noted above. The first visitor to ask a question receives a free signed copy of Resolution 786!

You can read more about the novel and the author in the interview posted at http://www.harfordneighbors.net/index.php?section=1&subtype=136&id=2732 .

Remember, this is an international book tour so if you miss Mohamed on my blog, you can still catch him in Germany or the U.K. at:

21-23 March 2010, “Onions and Tea” by Inna Selipanov, Germany, http://www.onionsandtea.blogspot.com/

22-24 March 2010, “Not-quite-a-blog” by Imran Ahmad, United Kingdom, http://unimagined.typepad.com/unimagined/

This should be both fun and an interesting insight into another writer's process. Stay tuned!

Let’s Get it Started

2010-03-09T12:09:00.002-05:00

While I was teaching my most recent class on writing basics I mentioned the importance of the first line of a novel. Today’s readers expect a writer to hook them fast and keep their attention. I spend a lot of time agonizing over the first sentence of a book and I know a lot of other writers who do the same. But when questioned, I was hard put to clearly define what a good lead sentence is or how to create one. What will let the reader know what kind of book to expect, create suspense that draws them in, yet doesn’t leave them feeling lost and confused?

In my on line search for enlightenment I came upon an entire web site dedicated to first lines. The Opening Lines section of Wikiquote is almost a class in itself, an extensive lesson on how to grab the reader at the start of your book. The lines are laid out alphabetically by book title and just in the A section I found great examples of opening with humor:

"Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out. " - The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

Profound, thought provoking starts:

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

And beginnings that tell you what the whole book will hinge on:

"Who is John Galt?" - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

I’ll admit that I’m also partial to openings that make you want to know why:

"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge." - The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

I was surprised to see just how many of these familiar books opened with a description of the weather, something I’ve been told is a bad idea. Of course the most famous bad writing example starts there: “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Anyway, I found the pages to be a fun read, and I think others who enjoy short works might enjoy trolling thru these opening lines and if they work, you might be looking up the books too.

BTW, I am particularly proud of the opening line for my short story, “A Little Wildness.”

"Sometimes Hannibal thought he could actually hear trouble coming."

I hope it convinces others to check that little story out at Echelon Shorts.

Schizophrenia and the Writer;or What's that pervert doing behind the tree?

2010-03-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'd have to be crazy not to share this cute but oh-so-true guest blog from top notch historical fiction author Lisa M. Campbell. Take it away, Lisa!

E.L. Doctorow once said, "Writing is a socially acceptable form ofschizophrenia." As a reader, I never understood. Now, as a writer, I agree with part of that quote, as I tend to live inside my head more often than not. I'm just not certain the way I go about the writing process is socially acceptable.

Merriam-Webster dictionary describes schizophrenia as "a psychoticdisorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life."

In the beginning, I had a problem with Doctorow's assertion until I dissected this statement and realized his quote wasn't too far off themark. After all, those of us who write fiction, and romance inparticular, spend a lot of time shaping characters, situations, and places in our imagination, agonizing over their fictional lives fordays, months and sometimes years.

Now, before you shake your head in complete denial, check your concentration level the next time you study a couple sharing a passionate kiss. Ask yourself this question. Were you a bit more interested in cataloguing hand and lip placement for the upcoming first kiss scene in your manuscript, rather than giving the couple a passing glance? Uh-huh, thought so. Now that I have your attention, ask yourself another question. Do you find yourself falling off chairs, or skulking around corners to eavesdrop on private conversations for the sake ofc haracter development? What interests you more, the topic of the discussion, or the emotions behind it? If you have answered at least one of these questions, you, my fellow writer, are completely uninvolved within your external environment. Mmm-hmm... shocking, is it not?

A solitary person, I shy away from such behaviors in my un-writing life,and yet, I have no problem indulging in these dubious traits for the sake of my story. Therefore, I can safely assume this is writer's schizophrenia taking over. Now what, you may ask? Well, the next step should be admitting there is a problem, and finding a solution to correct the behavior before you wind up in an arraignment hearing.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to pin down such inappropriate actions ifyou're unaware of them. Enlisting the aid of family and friends is a proactive first step, though I have to admit my own husband isn't always useful in certain circumstances. He's a great help positioning himself between my subjects and me when he sees I'm sidling closer to a group, notepad at the ready, to record outbursts and the like. However, he's more than eager to parse a few love scenes when I want to confirm positions or pacing. In this instance, he supports my schizophrenia one hundred percent---and in the end that is all any of us wants; one special someone who understands, accepts, and supports the schizophrenic side of a writer's life.

Playing to the Room

2010-02-25T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Lisa M. Campbell, who writes Celtic romances... MOST of the time. Lisa has some interesting ideas about how to decide what to write.

Those of us who write undoubtedly have a passion for it. Why else would we put ourselves through the difficulties of creating a cast of characters with seemingly insurmountable problems?

As an author of historical romance, I have noticed the high volume of paranormal books lining the shelves of our local bookstores. Publishers and readers alike clamor for these stories and though the saturation level is high, there doesn't seem to be any sign the genre is tapering off. Moreover, it's not just brick and mortar stores packing them in. E-book sites all over the internet display page after page of paranormal titles and what once thought a fad is now a cornerstone of the billion-dollar a year romance industry.

No doubt, it sounds as if I'm opposed to such books. However, I write erotic paranormal under the pen name Marie March and have four titles due out this year. As well, I eagerly await the next Sookie Stackhouse adventure from Charlaine Harris, and the last installment in Karen Marie Moning's Fever series. What I enjoy about these authors is their ability to create stories in which I'm able to suspend my disbelief and immerse myself in an all too real fantasy-world.

This brings up the question of writing strictly for profit or playing to the room. Should an author who stands out in his or her own category write to a specific market? From what I have read and heard, most Editors view this as a no-no. Yet, how many publishers out there, big and small, have calls out for paranormal manuscripts above anything else? With werewolf, vampire and shifter stories in demand the conclusion may be any submission will have a better than average acceptance rate. Such logic will set anyone up for disappointment and failure.

As a romance writer, you have to enjoy reading what you set out to write. With a paranormal, you have to believe in the unbelievable yourself otherwise the rudiments of your story just won't work. Therefore, I believe success in any form of writing depends on the blend of two essential elements…your talents and interests.

Lisa M. Campbell's author info:

http://www.lisamcampbell.net/ - Where romance begins

www.myspace.com/mariemarch - sin~sational romance

www.damselsatthegate.blogspot.com
www.celticqueens.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/darceezgrl
www.heetr.com

Self Sufficiency in Character Creation

2010-02-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

I've received some excellent guest blogs recently, and here's another, this time from Robin Cain. Cain lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, daughter, three dogs, three horses and a donkey. As a novelist and regular contributing writer for online publications, she spends her days searching for the perfect words to amuse, enlighten and touch her readers. You can learn more at http://www.robincain.com/. Her new book, "When Dreams Bleed" examines sexual temptation and the ensuing consequences in today's world. But today she tells us about the lives of some of her fascinating characters

As a novelist with a newly published book, I now spend a great deal of my time doing things that are greatly annoying the forthcoming characters of my imagination. Instead of getting lost up in their joys and sorrows, I have to set them aside – literally put their journeys on hold – so that I can spend time introducing the world to the ones whose story now resides in book form. I tell you, they don’t like that one bit and they’re becoming quite vocal about it.

The already-brought-to-life characters of WHEN DREAMS BLEED, thrilled to now be out in the world, are just rubbing it in the faces of my new characters who sit cooling their heels, waiting to do the same. The new characters mumble and complain, pop into my head and distract me, waiting for their story to be told, while I spend my time booking social engagements for the others.

I have to tell you - it’s causing a great deal of angst among all of us.

The WHEN DREAMS BLEED characters, finally out of my head and living their own lives now, want nothing more than to be shared, experienced and introduced. Frank (the main character) tells me constantly that it’s HIS time to be on center stage and living large. After waiting nearly four years to be in print, his power hungry, Type-A personality wants his efforts recognized. Proud of his accomplishments and tenacity, he’s looking forward to being pretty smug. Despite his accident and the misery he’s caused others, he thinks he’s got it together now and wants to share it with the world.

Meanwhile, Sadie tells me that she just wants everyone to comprehend her reasons for doing what she did. She cries out for compassion and understanding of all she left behind; the decisions that nearly killed her. My heart still breaks for her.

Citra, on the other hand, frankly just doesn’t give a whole good gosh damn what anyone thinks. Self-absorbed and greedy, she’s only out for herself and willing to squash anyone and anything in her way. She is 100% convinced that everyone will agree with her actions. Frankly, she tells me, one would be a fool to not see it her way! She keeps telling me if it wasn’t for her their book wouldn’t be selling. Between you and me, I never liked that bitch, anyway.

Don’t get me wrong. My characters in WHEN DREAMS BLEED are nice people –at least in their own right. Honest. Yes, even Citra at times. No one would ever accuse of them of not being able to liven up a cocktail party, add interest to a lonely solitary night or not be remembered long after they’ve left the room. The lessons they’ve learned are good ones and all they want to do is share. Their actions have created a real page-turner and they are darn proud of it. If only they could just tell you themselves…

You see, each of them had dreams – dreams to be rich, dreams to be successful or dreams to be forever loved. Not unlike a lot of people, they thought happiness would be theirs…“if only”. Yet their dreams began to bleed – and for many of them, it was just a little too late.

So now they harp and whine and pester me in my sleep,
“Who are you telling about us now?”
“Where have you placed us?”
“You haven’t forgotten us, have you?”

They sit among the pages waiting to tell their story while just hounding me to get the word out. And at the same time, the new characters poke me on the shoulder, tap on my brain and wake me in the middle of the night…

“What about us?”
“When do we get our chance?”
“C’mon, leave those others to their own devices! We have a story to tell, too.”

Next time, I tell you, I’m making everyone far more self-sufficient…

The Next Big Thing in Promotion?

2010-02-13T08:42:00.000-05:00

When I saw the first couple of book trailers I thought it was a quantum leap in book promotion. Now that almost everyone has a trailer or two for their book, I see little hard evidence that they spur sales for most writers. I was beginning to think that internet technology simply wasn’t the answer, but now I’m thinking that maybe it just went too far too fast.

I just listened to what may be the next great idea and it’s a techie step back. Medallion Press is doing something called the “action interview” as an audio download. Interview probably isn’t the right word. Instead of the author discussing his or her work with an interviewer, the author is joined by actors and sound effects to create more of a radio play feel.

The one I listened to, which I think is the first, featured Kathy Carmichael talking us through her book Diary of a Confessions Queen. The book is a mystery with lots of humor, and the action interview has that feel. We hear the interviewer (who really makes the production IMHO) walk into a crowded tavern to meet the author. Crowd noise and general babble put you into the location immediately. After he sits with Ms Carmichael she actually introduces him to the characters in her book and they play through a couple of scenes.

This way she doesn’t just ell you what her book is about, but you experience it. It’s hard to imagine a better way to pull a reader into the story. The interview/performance ran nearly 15 minutes but it felt much shorter. More importantly, it was FUN and made me want to pick up Diary of a Confessions Queen. I think this idea may motivate a lot more people to seek out a book than a 2 or 3 minute trailer regardless of the production quality.

I recommend that every writer check out the action interview and consider if they can get on this bandwagon early.

Another Great Loss for Mystery Lovers!

2010-02-10T11:31:00.001-05:00

The mystery genre has faced a number of tragic losses in recent months. We will see no new books from Robert B. Parker. We will have a much harder time finding Waldenbooks or Borders Express stores. And now, we will never be able to buy another book from The Mystery Company. That means something to me because this particular independent bookstore was the first to order my novel Blood and Bone. On a less personal note, Jim Huang was a great friend of mystery writers.

Don’t know Jim Huang? Then you probably didn’t attend Bouchercon 2009, which Jim worked hard on. Nor did you attend the smaller but equally fun Magna Cum Murder mystery conference in Muncie, which Jim helped to organize. Jim ran The Mystery Company in Carmel, Indiana for seven years until he was forced to close its doors in the last few days. For those seven years Jim Huang was a great friend to mystery authors and a voice of reason in the industry. His love of the genre was evident, as was his leadership among the small fraternity of mystery booksellers.

The store’s closing had nothing to do with Jim’s business acumen, level of effort or determination. I’m sure it had everything to do with the economic downturn, the consumer shift to online shopping, the huge discounts big book retailers can offer, and the slow but steady growth of e-books which cuts the brick-and-mortar retailer out of the sale entirely. In other words, the loss of The Mystery Company is a symptom of what’s happening in the industry in general.

My understanding is that Jim hasn’t abandoned book selling, but that in a few days he will be managing a college bookstore - at Kenyon College in Ohio to be exact. We wish him the best.I know that Jim gave The Mystery Company everything he had. More to the point, he gave mystery writers and their work everything he had. I hope he maintains a presence at conventions and conferences, and I look forward to shaking his hand again at a future event and thanking him for his years of support.

Musical Marketing Muse

2010-02-02T10:01:00.001-05:00

I promised you more guest blogs and here’s the first of the year. Sara Taney Humphreys is the author of the Amoveo Legacy and the upcoming An Amoveo Heart, due out in a few days. Both are part of the award winning Amoveo series.

Sara has received top reviewers pick from PNR, 5 Blue Ribbons from Romance Junkies, 5 Hearts from Romance Book Scene, and major inspiration from a musical connection, as you’re about to see.

Soundtracks for movies and television shows are standard. In fact, a really great movie or show is often instantly associated with kick ass music. Well thanks to my old college buddy and DJ John Campbell...I found the soundtrack for Book 2 in my shifter series.

Actually, I had been in a major writing rut. Completely blocked. Book 2, Amoveo Heart was not coming to me as easily as the first book did. At any rate, John wanted to interview me on his weekly radio show and had gotten some musicians who were willing to let me use their music as an intro for the interview. He sent me the links and the second song I listened to stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn't believe it. It was as though this song was written just for the heroine in Book 2. Amazing! The combination of the lyrics and her hauntingly beautiful voice were absolute perfection. I immediately contacted the artist and asked if I could use her song for Amoveo Heart's book trailer. Gratefully both she and her record label said yes!

Then I had an idea to take it a step further. Luckily, she is located not far from me and as a new musician is looking for new opportunities for exposure. Why not have her play at my book launch/signing? Gratefully she agreed. Amy played at a couple of my book signing events and it really brought a great bit of texture to the signings.

The song that sparked my creative juices and woke up my muse is called "Honey on the Skin". You can find Amy Petty and her spectacular music on her website http://www.amypetty.com/

John connected me with another awesome musical muse. The Strike Nineteens. TSN are a band of adorable guys from Scotland. Ladies...think William Wallace/Braveheart accent....yummy. Their music is gritty and intense. These darlings actually wrote me two songs! One of which will be on their new album "Screams for Denver" which will be released this Spring. I look forward to checking them out LIVE when they come to the USA later this year.

You can check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/thestrikenineteens

Cross marketing with music is fun and a little outside the box...just the way I like it.

Sara Taney Humphreys
http://sarataneyhumphreys.com/

Break's Over - Back to Work

2010-02-01T13:30:00.001-05:00

It has become traditional for me to take January off from writing. Often toward the end of the month I can barely hold off but the break does serve a purpose. By February 1st I am chomping at the bit to get back into action, to greet new readers, and to find out what Hannibal Jones, Felicity O’Brien and other old friends have been up to during my vacation.

So now the blog returns to its weekly activity level. That will at least make looking here less boring for you, but you may be wondering what else 2010 will hold in store for this writer’s life.

Well for one thing, 2010 holds an ironclad commitment to complete the sixth Hannibal Jones novel. The story was worrying me a bit at the end of last year but now I’m ready to bull my way through to the end.

I will also be on the hunt for a new agent. I’ve written a pretty strong letter and subscribed to the Writers Market on line database to help me find the right person to handle my work. Said service is worthy of its own blog entry so I’ll be explaining it more fully in the future.

I’ll get back on the road to meet more readers, but I’m keeping it local this year. There’s plenty happening in the neighborhood, so I’ll be presenting at the Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, the Virginia Festival of the Book, the Malice Domestic mystery convention, the Gaithersburg Book Festival, several local book clubs and even the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

And to keep the blog itself more interesting I’m inviting a broader selection of authors to come in and guest blog about their writing lives. I find that we each have a unique perspective and can generally learn something from or be inspired by each other’s point of view.

So keep the feedback coming and I’ll keep giving you the view from my desk.