Month: September 2009

Just Another Warning Un-heeded…

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Every author that sells books on Amazon has got to come to terms with a couple of things.  First, you’ll have to promote until you’re blue-in-the-face, everywhere possible, leading necessarily (no matter if you’re a private person down deep) to lots of emails in your in-box(es).  Second, you’ll need some reviews. Most of these, you’ll have to ask for.  Here are a couple of recent tips I fell into…the hard way, of course.

1. If you swap reviews with another writer, be sure to read excerpts of their work first.

Not every Independently Published author is as serious about the quality of their finsihed work as you are.  Some are in a hurry to publish, others’ stories are terribly derivative, others never passed their fourth grade English class, etc., etc. 

2. Don’t read from manuscript, read from the actual book — even if you have to buy it.

You can’t review a book from a page of type online.  Not possible. Really.

I recently made an agreement.  The other writer purchased my book ($11.95 on Amazon), read it, and left me a really good review.  He writes very good reviews. 

Now, I’m 5 chapters into his novel( more expensive than mine, but I digress…).  It’s not terribly thick (good) and it’s in 12 point type (also good), but within the first four chapters, the POV changed four times with no warning, characters’ dialog appeared out of thin air, and the puctuation/capitalization is horrendous! And I’m a guy with the comma disease!

To add insult to injury, it’s typeset (shudder) justified instead of Rag Right, so every page is filled with rivers and streams of vertical white space making reading near impossible.  Here’s one way that mainstream publishers usually creat a better product: They can afford to have a book professionally typeset.  Using the best of the newest typesetting softwarte and fonts, it is possible to set a page with justifed margins, that doesn’t also have terribly inconsistent word spacing, rivers and streams of whitespace running vertically on every page.  It’s very difficult to do this with the level of softwarte and fonts most Indie Authors utilize.  Better to set your book flush left, ragged right, to speed reading and prevent holes in your prose, but I digress…

I promised the guy a review, but it’s going to be difficult.  What I’m going to have to do is give him a free edit and make up "notes".  A deal is a deal.  It’s a good thing that with POD, a published book can be easily edited, because if his sales were slow, up to this point, a few changes may make a world of difference.

The real shame of it is that the story is a good one, and the pacing and characters would normally make it a fast, fun read!  So…

Don’t get caught in this situation yourself, and never, never, never put another writer in this situation.  Do your homework, make your book as good as it can be, first…before you publish. That way, when agents and publishers start to go on and on about the garbage that self-publishing and POD foist upon the public, you can beg to differ honestly.

And be sure to read a book before offering to review it.

 

 

 

 

One Thing Leads To Another For Book Promotions

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When I signed up for the internet a few years ago, I researched about author promotions on the internet. I still do search for new ideas. One thing I learned right away was that authors need a website. This was before I had a book published but dreamed that it might happen some day. So I hunted for a free website. I tried several and couldn’t figure out how to submit to them. Finally, I found tripod and understood the easy instructions. I haven’t had problems submitting to my website, but I hear that people have trouble finding it. Perhaps that’s because it’s free. http://www.booksbyfay.tripod.com

Every site I’ve registered on, I use booksbyfay to log in. I wanted a name that clued people into what I do. Now thanks to google search, I get about four pages when I put my name Fay Risner in the search box because of all the websites I’ve advertised my books on. Google uses a small portions of the websites announcing my books or events.

Now I have four blogs. I copy and paste the same entry on each one, but hopefully, I attract the attention of many different readers. Awhile back a woman emailed me she had linked one of my blogs to a website she belongs to because she likes what she read and wanted others to read my blog. Good Reads website put the bookshelf containing my books I entered there next to my blog on blogger. Amazon decided to give each author a page and blog.

A woman approached me at Civil War Days to ask if I would like to be a guest blogger on her blog. She asks people who are writers or illustrators. I told her I’d be delighted.

Another woman asked me to be a guest speaker for her church group "Golden Girls" to talk about my books.

　

 

Sometimes I hear things and think I should remember that for future reference. About five years ago I was told a successful business man from Texas came back for a high school reunion in Belle Plaine. A former classmate said he brought each of them a signed copy of his new book. So the 8th of August I had a high school reunion. I gave out 21 copies of my latest book "A Promise Is A Promise". Since then I have sold 11 other books to the classmates and one teacher.

This particular teacher wasn’t but a few years old than me when she taught high school home economics and girls gym. She took a liking for my whole class of 32 students and has been our cheering section ever since. She comes to all our high school reunions and keeps in touch with many of us. Always, she gives us encouragement and praises our successes. While I was at my book sale on Saturday no one could have been more surprised than me when she came walking across the park toward me. I asked how she happened to be there. She said because she heard I would be selling books. I thought she was teasing but turns out a former classmate passed on my news about going to Civil War Days. Do teachers today still have that commitment to students so many years after they are out of school? I think not. Oh, maybe they take an interest in one or two, but not 32.

I let you know how my guest blogging and book presentation for the women’s group turns out.

 

　

　

　

　

What Makes A Great Author Website?

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This post, from Thad McIllroy, originally appeared on his Future of Publishing blog on 9/19/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.  

A colleague of mine who is a noted Canadian historian, and a prolific writer, asked today what makes a great web site for an author. So I began an exploration:

Most publisher websites for authors are pathetic, placeholders with short bios and links to books. A case in point is Canada’s “most venerable” old publisher, McClelland & Stewart. I wrote:
M&S is pointless:
http://www.mcclelland.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31934

With their partners in crime (Random House, Doubleday, etc.) they have created BookLounge.ca, which makes the first mistake of forcing you to register (I never did succeed in completing my registration).

I try without success to find any content from M.G. Vassanji (who was well-featured on M&S). Odd.

So I check out my old friend, Lucinda Vardey, and find that her listing is no better than if it appeared on the M&S site:
http://www.booklounge.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=31912

Then I turn my search to well-known (i.e. bestselling) historians:

Niall Ferguson has what I would call an “adequate” website.

http://www.niallferguson.com/site/FERG/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=1

There’s some substance to it, but many flaws. He doesn’t offer a blog per se, but rather a blog-like “thing” labeled “journalism”. The entries are often short and blog-like…it appears they were published elsewhere, but we can’t find out where.

There’s a listing of the two spring courses he taught at Harvard, but no listing of what he’s teaching this fall.

There are three videos offered with no indication of their content or length or why we might want to watch them.

You can sign up for a newsletter, but have no method to view a sample and no idea how frequently it might arrive.

NONE of his publications has a live link (including his books), so you have to expend extra effort to find out more about them.

Well, enough of Prof. Ferguson

* As an aside, I do not like E.L. Doctorow’s site: http://www.eldoctorow.com/ for essentially the same reasons. There’s a professional design and lots of content, but none of it is particularly engaging.

Jared Diamond does not appear to have a website.

Gary Wills does not appear to have an independent website

Bob Woodward has a surprisingly uninteresting website: http://bobwoodward.com/

Thomas L. Friedman, has a pretty good site because it’s packed with relevant, current stuff. There’s no interaction, per se, other than the usual “subscribe to my newsletter”.

But, for example, on the page for his latest book: http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded-2
…you can download a sample, hear an audio preview and download a discussion guide. These are useful and show some generosity and thoughtfulness on the part of the author (or his publisher or publicists or whatever). Foolishly he offers no blog nor a way to contact him directly (although if you go to his page on the New York Times you can contact him directly there).

You’ll see he’s now on LinkedIn, which is the best professional social networking site (as vs. the child’s FaceBook). I recommend LinkedIn— basic membership is free. Plaxo is roughly 65% as good as LinkedIn and also free for basic service.

Malcolm Gladwell has a very simple site: http://www.gladwell.com/index.html

There’s always something to be said for simplicity. He also offers a genuine direct way to email him and a COMPLETE and accessible archive of all his great articles from the New Yorker. He’s generous with his excerpts from each book, and has a good Q&A for each. The blog is badly out of date. Not bad overall.

Back to the Yankees:

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s site rates about 5 out of 10. http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/

The good is the personal stuff in the right-hand column on the home page. Also there’s a way to email her directly. The material available on her books is pathetic.

So here’s a Geist author with a beautifully-designed site:
http://www.sheilaheti.net/

Would this be “the right site” for you? Probably not. By the nature of your profession, more formal approaches are called for. But that doesn’t mean your site shouldn’t be fun also.

To me the keys to a great author web site are:

  1. The short answer is ENGAGEMENT: your site should make the reader feel that they’ve been inited into your living room for a chat.
     
  2. The same keys as apply to all great web sites: good design, clear navigation, lack of clutter, etc.
     
  3. A distinct personality to the site, which, god-willing, mirrors the personality of the author.
     
  4. More good stuff stuffed into the site than a child could pray for on Christmas.
     
  5. Backgrounders, audio-podcasts, videos from YouTube, discussion points. etc.
     
  6. Your blog should be hosted on you key site: your author site. Comments must be allowed, but moderated. The blog MUST be current.
     
  7. Generous links to other material you’ve produced that’s available online.
     
  8. Generous (AND APPROPRIATE) links to colleagues and other sites of interest. In return, they should agree to offer a link to your site.
     
  9. A direct way to email the author.
     
  10. Do not favor a single online bookseller as a source to get obtain books. Let your reader decide.
     
  11. Free previews of work-in-progress.
     
  12. Friendly personal info on you and your family and friends with lots of cute photos.

    [Publetariat Editor’s note: let your comfort level, as well as the comfort levels of your family members and friends, be your guide here, but we do recommend at least including the same quantity and type of personal information one typically sees in the author bios printed on book jackets.]
     

  13. A “Resources” section for those who want to explore BEYOND your work.
     
  14. You must establish your authority. This can be done in subtle ways (which I think comes naturally to good authors), but also requires a link to “Reviews,” and wherever possible links to live online reviews.
     

So there it is…one of several viewpoints about the ideal author’s online site. To overlook the effort is to overlook your career. 

September 21 update. Forgot ito include:

15. Don’t be shy about using ALL of the social networking tools available to you, at the very least Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace…

Thad McIllroy has authored or edited a dozen books on technology and marketing issues surrounding electronic publishing, color imaging, PDF, workflow, publishing automation, and the Internet. He’s also written some 200 articles and delivered innumerable seminars on a broad range of industry-related topics. He acted as Program Director at Seybold Seminars for five years, and in 1990 co-founded (with Miles Southworth) The Color Resource, a publishing and distribution company devoted to books and training materials on color design, imaging and prepress.

More recently he wrote the Composition, Design, and Graphics chapter (with contributions from Frank Romano) for the Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing (Columbia University Press, January, 2003). He’s a contributing editor to PrintAction magazine, a columnist for XMLPitstop.com, and a member of the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Content Management Professionals. For three consecutive years he was named one of Canada’s 50 most influential people in graphic communications.

How Can I Help You With NaNoWriMo?

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This post, from David Niall Wilson, originally appeared on his Glimpses Into An Overactive Mind site on 9/23/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Sometimes I have so much to say I can’t shut up.  Seriously.  Just ask people within earshot.  Other times, though, I sit and tap the keys nervously and think – I should be working on that story instead of doing this.  Currently that story is Glenn and the Tart of Mortar Psycho Maine Tenants which I hope to complete tonight, or tomorrow night.  Still, I like to be productive in many arenas, and one thing that has become an annual goal is to help as many people as I can to prepare for the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge.

I’ve done Nanowrimo successfully every year since 2004, which was the first time I managed to say I was going to do it and actually start.  I’ve sold most of what I’ve written durning those challenges, and I’ve got a couple of decades of writing experience, a few awards, for what they’re worth – I like to think that when I post here I am somehow giving back and helping with the next “round” of creativity.

So here’s the deal.  If you have a particular subject you are interested in regarding Nanowrimo or writing, post it in the comments section and I’ll do my best to get to it.  You might want to type it into the search box here on the site though, because odds are I’ve covered it at least once.  Here are search links to a few common writing topics, and a couple of less common topics.  Sorry, the Nanowrimo lolcats keep showing up in all the searches … 🙂

Outlines

Characters

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Wordcount

Scheduling

Lolcats (these are important)

You might also find these links helpful / interesting:

Vintage Soul – dedicated to my Nanowrimo-written novel due out in hardcover this December – you can pre-order and get a signed copy cheap – particularly if you are a Nanowrimo winner, or Follow Me On Twitter!

Heart of a Dragon: You can register here to read along as I write this year’s Nanowrimo Novel – which is book II in the series begun in Vintage Soul – the DeChance Chronicles.  There are also more Nanowrimo tips posted here.

The Necronom-Icon – not really Nanowrimo related.  Short stories inspired by the smiley faces and tiny Emoticons proliferating on the web. All free.

Hope I’ve been of some help…

–DNW

Written by David Wilson – Visit Website
Follow me on Twitter

David Niall Wilson has sold 17 novels and nearly 200 short stories and has won the Bram Stoker Award for poetry and short fiction.  His novel Vintage Soul is due in December from Thompson/Gale Five Star and his collaborative novel with his wife, Patricia Lee Macomber – Stargate Atlantis: Brimstone is also due in November.

The Second Tour

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I invite you to visit my website: http://thesecondtour.com, which showcases my best work, a novel titled The Second Tour that describes my experiences during the Vietnam War as a combat Marine. The Second Tour has been adopted for use next year in English literature classes at The Air Force Academy and Tulsa Univ. It was also taught this year in Behavioral Sciences classes at the Air Force Academy. If the Vietnam War or combat experience is something of interest to you, I believe my book will provide a window to a world few understand or imagine. Thank you for letting me toot my horn.

A Conundrum…A Long Conundrum (Be Prepared)

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This is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and get ready to mull with me…

I’ve been mulling over one of many, odd conundrums that seem to exist in the murky world of mainstream publishing. It’s an obscure, opaque condition writers can run into with a first novel.

It is an undisputed fact that most books sell poorly. No matter whether they are mainstream published with the requisite fanfare, or Indie Published with the fanfare authors can muster on their own. Very, very few books become best sellers, let alone covering their own publishing run costs, with the one exception of POD books.  It can be depressing for any writer who really has the drive and desire to publish.

Now, if we take a look at publishing from the Literary Agent’s perspective, facing the fact expressed above, they must concentrate upon books they are pretty sure they can sell, and remember, they are selling to in most cases, long-established publishing relationships. Personal relationships.  An agent "vetting" a book reduces the risk for the publisher substantially.  It also cements relationships within in the industry. 

There are clearly observed, followed trends in book buying. What readers buy in numbers is what publishers need to publish.  It is a matter of economics, especially in the downturn we are all experiencing. 

Most publishers show great pride in their discovery of a new author with a great, new voice, especially if their work has marketplace traction.  Let’s assume the writer writes fiction, which is harder to sell well than a self-help, non-fiction title.  So the writer starts out with reduced expectations.  The publisher will promote and distribute the book, but probably not as well as they would if it were determined to be a current "best seller" genre book.  The author is still heavily responsible for promoting the book as much as possible in order that a great number of readers is exposed to it, just like an Indie Author must do.  No difference, yet.

When the book sales begin, for most new authors, they will be initially slow.  If you browse discount sales table at book sellers and library fund raisers, you’ll find books from recognized writers, but titles you probably never heard of.  Some of them are early work that didn’t gain market traction. I have several of these in my personal library — some from hugely selling writers, whose initial work wasn’t grabbed up.  Some of it is good, some of it is really terrible by comparion with later work. 

Taken as a whole, despite a huge outpouring of argument I’ve heard regarding the traditional role as gatekeepers, protecting the public from an influx of bad books, mainstream publishers produce bad books too. They also produce good book that don’t sell well. Right now, they can’t afford to tie money up with many mistakes, so they will rely more and more on LIt. Agents to only send them really saleable new work. This puts tremendous pressure on agents to dismiss the overwhelming majority of work submitted, in favor of book genres and styles that are currently enjoying success.

That, by and large, leaves most new literary fiction authors out.  Once a new author’s book is as good as it can be honed, assuming the writer wants to publish these days, the only option seems to be Indie Publishing, for one big reason.  An author who writes well, but whose genre isn’t currently popular, may get an agent to represent them, but if, after the launch and a year on the market, with book poor sales, the publisher will blame the agent.  Depending upon their financial committment to the book, they may cut back on their reliance on this agent.

Publishers today, can rarely afford to put their money towards tenuous future sucess. They need success now. An agent must help create success in order to keep their own bills paid and cover more than their expenses. If a represented book languishes, the agent will think less of the writer’s work, in fact being less than anxioust to pitch the next one.  The writer gets a bad rap, right at the start. A smart writer with an eye to the future would want to avoid this kind of situation. 

Poor booksales, are a killer of potential for everyone involved, yet without promotion, review and backing, good sales are very hard to achieve, even if your book is a jewel.  Most of the — hell, all of big media press goes to best sellers, not to competent novelists working in a literary genre.  The web is full of blogs and writers articles confirming the "death" of literary fiction.  I believe that it is a premature announcement, personally. On the other hand, if you write literary fiction, you must either adapt and begin writing in genres that sell (read: vampires, serial mysteries and religious conspiracies) or be realistic and expect that you won’t be the first best selling author on your block.

Confronting that fact tends to deflate the writer’s ego pretty quickly.  But you can always blow it up again.  By choosing to publish independently, you eliminate most of the poor industry associations that plague most debut novelists.  You are still required to produce work as good or better than anything mainstream published. To do less work in honing your novel is just foolishness.  You will need to involve outside editors, whether paid or unpaid. You will need to keep submitting your work to agents and to online reviewers, but all of the results will reflect upon your involvement. If you were accepted as a mainstream published new author, and your first book did poorly, you would probably not have the automatic deal for your second book anyway. Be realistic.  If you are an Indie Published author, when it’s time to move on, you can move on with little of the baggage that would accompany you to new pitches after a lackluster track record. 

Another important force in mainstream or Indie Publishing are book reviewers.  Reviewers also like the cache and potential financial gain of being in on a great ride, so they are also becoming more selective. Indie authors, unless self-published with traditional distribution will find most mainstream doors are closed to them.  I’ve read repeatedly on the web that the one bright spot in reviews for Indie Authors seem to be the Amazon Top Reviewer List. Not all are actively accepting new book submissions, but the ones that are — and you have to be very selective yourself, pairing your work with the individual reviewer — will read your book, and give you a review that will sit on the page where your book appears.  It doesn’t seem to matter if your book is self-published or not, and online promotion is one area where Indie Authors usually shine, or at least glow brightly! Besides the obvious, these reviewers have followers, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands! It will just cost you the postage and a copy of the book.

So, the daunting task of getting a first novel published can be a conundrum — a puzzle within a puzzle.  Translation: you’re damned if you do, and almost damned if you don’t.  Fortunately for Indie Authors, some of the most opaque, inscrutable parts are missing, along with an out-of-pocket percentage here and there. This leaves you free to find your readers and provide them with entertaining novels, at less risk to your long-term reputation, and less risk to your financial health.

Whew!  Thanks for having the patience to listen to the whole sermon.  Let me know if your experiences differ, how and why, or if you can add anything else to this dicussion.

Pam Satran's Web-Book Synergy

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This article, from Laurie Lico Albanese, originally appeared on Shelf Awareness on 9/22/09.

Humor author Pamela Redmond Satran offers many lessons. For one, she advises those of us who are not-so-hip that the young and vibrant read vampire romances and graphic novels while assiduously avoiding eternal dieting, perpetual negativity, excessive housework or anything in leopard print spandex.

How Not to Act Old (Harper, $14.99, 9780061771309/780061771309), Satran’s self-help humor book inspired by the eponymous blog site known by its acronym HNTAO, was released August 7 and immediately hit the New York. Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List at the No. 7 slot, thanks to pre-pub orders fueled by the author’s tireless electronic networking outreach.

This included early cross-posting on the Huffington Post, marketing through More.com magazine in conjunction with Barnes & Noble.com and scoring a Best New Humor Website plug in the Los Angeles Times last year.

The lesson in this: as she has before for various literary projects, Satran was able to harness the evanescent attention and lightning-fast Internet connections needed to cross from blog to book to YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, print media, TV and beyond. And she did so on the cheap. Her start-up costs were "zero," plus "my own sweat-equity," she said.

After posting 70 entries on her new HNTAO blog site in July 2008, Satran went from web launch to book contract in six weeks, and from contract to book in a year. The book’s been favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and has taken her to the Early Show, Good Day New York and dozens of radio spots. In July, Slate’s doublex.com Hanna Rosin praised "the great genius of How Not to Act Old," and the New York Times Book Review featured Satran at the top of "Inside the List."

Ironically Satran started the HNTAO blog after trying unsuccessfully to place a piece on the same topic in a national magazine.

"This is a hard market for people to understand," Satran said of her largely over-40, predominantly female market. "Ageism is deep-seated and pervasive and really at its heart is very vicious. I sometimes think that young people secretly wish we’d all go off somewhere and just die."
 

Read the rest of the article on Shelf Awareness.

Self-Publishing: Future Prerequisite

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Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be long before agents and editors will routinely respond to queries by asking what you’ve self-published, and how it’s doing. That’s right, and you heard it here first:
 

I predict that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, aspiring authors hoping to land a mainstream publishing deal. It’s the logical, inevitable next step in author platform.

At the conference, the prevailing message was that authors, both aspiring and already published, need to be getting themselves and their work out there in front of the reading public at every opportunity. And guess what? If you’re blogging or making your writing available for download in ebook or podcast formats you’re already self-publishing. As for those who aren’t doing these things for fear of intellectual property theft, in numerous sessions attendees were reminded of Tim O’Reilly’s now legendary quote: that for anyone trying to build an audience, “Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy.”

Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, both of whom broke through to mainstream success after building an audience for their podcasts, advised conference attendees that the best way to get publishers to sit up and take notice is to demonstrate your ability to build an audience and move your material on your own. Social media guru Chris Brogan said the easiest way to get a book deal is not to need one—because you’ve already established your own platform and have your own audience—, and proposed that rather than follow established roads, aspiring authors should go where there are no roads and create their own. Writers Digest Publisher and Editorial Director Jane Friedman reminded us that here in the 21st century there are no longer any rules in publishing, and reiterated the notion that for aspiring authors, platform comes before the book deal. Be The Media author David Mathison hammered away at the importance of connecting with your readership directly. Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser urged authors to push out into every available channel to enable readers to find them, and as for The Writer Mama Christina Katz, the title of her most recent book is Get Known Before The Book Deal (’nuff said!).

So, how do you intend to enable readers to find you, or build an audience, or connect with readers directly, or get known before the book deal if you’re not publishing or podcasting any of your work? You can’t just tell your site or blog visitors your writing is great, they should trust you on that, and then expect to hold their interest with what amounts to a lengthy series of hang-in-there-I-swear-when-the-book-comes-out-you’ll-love-it messages.

As we all already know, a manuscript’s content is only one piece—an increasingly small piece, unfortunately—of the decision-making puzzle when it comes to convincing a publisher to make an offer. When the editors, marketing wonks and other decision makers get together to consider which manuscripts to acquire, Risk is the name of the elephant in the room and mitigating risk is the key to a sale. When you approach an agent or editor with a quality manuscript, you may convince them you can write but you’re doing nothing to reduce their fears about the eventual book’s performance in the marketplace. If you can approach those same people with a book that’s already in the marketplace and already has a fan base, you’ve already answered the question of how the book will perform post-publication. You’ve reduced their antacid intake by half and given them some very good reasons to invest in you and your book.

Don’t let anyone tell you self-publishing is a desperation move. It’s a power move.

April L. Hamilton is an author, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author Blog.

Sucessful Book Sale Event

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Civil War Days in Belle Plaine, Iowa was last weekend. My preparations were perfect for my book sale event. Both poster boards I mentioned in my last blog post worked. People were comfortable buying from a local person when they saw the words Keystone Author. Others who knew me made the comment they didn’t know I had written so many books or that I write books at all. So I received exposure in my area plus for miles around with reenactors that came from Minnesota, Wisconsin and around Iowa. The weather cooperated. All three days were beautiful; low wind, sunny, warm days. Since I was in period clothes (a homesteader/pioneer dress and bonnet), I asked if I could play first person like the reenactors. The man in charge said I could but the person had to be real. Wonderful! My Civil War book "Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia" is full of real people.

I picked Ella Mayfield, lady bushwhacker which is the main character to call attention to my book. I asked if there were any other bushwhackers in the park. The man in charge yells over to the shelter house to Union soldiers, "Are there any other bushwhackers here?" The reply was, "What’s a bushwhacker?" After three days of non stop talking and pointing to my Missouri poster board for visual effect, everyone that came to that park now knows who a Missouri bushwhacker was.

The first day was for schools. An outing away from the classroom is always fun. With this field day, the students learned so much more than they will read about the Civil War in a history book. They were able to experience what gunpowder smells like and the loud explosive sound of a gun going off. A drummer boy beating for a march, a trumpet player playing revelry, an up close look and explanation about a cannon, a talk with Abe Lincoln and a look at army camp setups on the Union and Confederate sides were the things the children experienced. I enjoyed being on the side lines of all that. Also, I received as many interesting stories from the reenactors as I told about Ella. They each are a walking history book about their portion of the Civil War.

My son was a volunteer that helped the event run smoothly and with clean up when it was over. Something that big with so many people coming and going is not an easy undertaking to pull off. The good part about Duane being there was he watched for me to show up and helped me set up. At closing, he came along and helped me pack up which was a big help. He enjoyed watching me go into character and sell books. Before I left Sunday afternoon, he bought both of us a Civil War 2009 Belle Plaine, Iowa shirt. He said we need to go to more reenactments. The shirts were for advertising. Reenactments wind down about now so we will see what next summer brings.

Friday, I sold two books to a reenactor. The thought might be that I should have skipped being there that day. My answer would be no. First, I needed the practice, speaking on Ella Mayfield’s behalf. The reenactors speak in first person, and I wanted to join in. Second, I developed a following of students that came back over the weekend to talk to me again. One girl brought her mother over to buy a book. I suspect on Friday it took the reenactors some time to get used to me. When they stopped to talk to me, I was in period dress, but I wasn’t just trying to sell books. I had a story of my own to tell and was well versed about my potion of the Civil War between Missouri and Kansas.

Saturday and Sunday, the public came. I had a good location next to a photographer’s tent full of 1800’s costumes. The public had to walk by me. They couldn’t miss my posters which made them curious enough to stop. Once they did, I gave a brief synopsis of each of my books and ended with the Civil War story. Setting up a table at the event was well worth it for me. My book sale was successful. Saturday at the end of the day, I and my son walked through the reenactors camp sites and talked to people. I wanted a feel for the passion these people have that makes them do the reenactments all summer.

This was one of those one thing leads to another events. I was approached by a woman who is writing a book. She has a blog. Now I have an invitation to be a guest blogger on her blog. A woman from a small town nearby asked me to come speak and sell books at her church group meeting soon. A newspaper reporter came to take pictures of the school children Friday. She stopped to talk to me. So I’m hopeful I might have a brief mention in her article.

At the end of Sunday, the reenactors had a First Person Contest. Someone told me about it about at the time the contest was happening. Afterward, a reenactor came by and told me he would like to see me enter next year. I was flattered to have been accepted by their group. That told me I must have been doing something right when they stopped to hear me talk about Ella Mayfield. I can’t wait to go back next year and be Ella all over again.

　

To sum it up, I had a very successful book sale at the Civil War Days in Belle Plaine, Iowa. The preparations I made to catch prospective buyers attention as they walked by my table paid off. From posters to period dress and my knowledge of the Civil War, I sparked attention and interest. The fact that I was the author of the books and signed them impressed the buyers. My Civil War book helped give me an introduction for being there and lead to buying my other books. I was well pleased with this event and looking forward a repeat performance. My Civil War book turned out to be a hit with the reenactors as well. Word of mouth from one reenactor to another brought me many sales. Now those books will go back to Minnesota, Wisconsin and around Iowa. Later, I should get more sales from the reenactors as well as buyers I gave bookmarkers.

5 Lessons I've Learned About Writing Dialog In Fiction

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This post, from Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader site on 9/21/09.

One of my biggest weaknesses is writing dialogue. A lot of times, my characters ramble on about nothing and I end up cutting a lot of dialogue out while editing. So I decided to read up on how to write better dialogue so I can improve this very important element of fiction. Here’s a little of what I learned.

I decided to read the book Write Great Fiction – Dialogue (aff link) and although I’m still reading it, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons on the art of dialogue. First and foremost, dialogue is not easy to write. Beginning writers, and even seasoned writers, tend to struggle with it. So if you’re like me and have trouble making your characters talk, you’re not alone.

Here are 5 things you should consider the next time you sit down to write a scene with dialogue:

1. Dialogue needs to propel the story forward. If your characters are just standing around chatting, talking about the weather or their weekend plans, chances are the dialogue is not being effective and you need to cut the scene or rewrite it. Dialogue needs to move the plot forward and keep readers interested.

2. Dialogue is used for pacing in a story. Long and drawn out narratives in a story will slow the pace down. At the same time, dialogue generally speeds things up. Good fiction should be a balanced combination of the two. If your story has too much narrative you are likely to put your readers to sleep. On the other hand, if your story is all dialogue with little narrative, you will probably lose your readers and they’ll have a hard time following the story.

The bad news is that pacing isn’t something that can easily be taught. It’s more intuition than anything. The good new is that you can get better at it by reading a lot of varied genres and practice, practice, practice.

Read the rest of the post, including lessons 3-5, on Brad’s Reader.

The Fiction Writing Workshop: Point of View

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This post, from Kristin Bair O’Keefe, originally appeared on Writers On The Rise site on 9/15/09.

Confusion
When I ask a student, “In which point of view is this story written?” I often get a blank stare, a long “uuummmmm,” or a wrong answer with a question mark tacked onto the end (for example, “First person?”).

Clarity
When making decisions about point of view, you must consider two important questions:

From whose perspective is this story going to be told? (In other words, whose story is it?)

Who is going to tell the story?

The Breakdown

First Person: an “I” (or sometimes a “we”) tells the story; everything in the story is filtered through that narrator

          Example: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
           1.   This is Holden Caulfield’s story. No doubt about it.
           2.   Holden is the first-person narrator. He is the “I” in the story.
 
Advantages: strong sense of intimacy; constant opportunity for characterization; a strong voice that draws readers into the story
 
Challenges: a first-person narrator walks a fine-line between interesting and self-indulgent; readers might doubt the narrator’s interpretation of events (thus creating an unreliable narrator); readers can only climb into the head of the narrator

Read the rest of the post, which includes a breakdown on second and third person POV, on Writers On The Rise.

Break Through By Taking Breaks

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This post, from Matthew E. May (In Pursuit of Elegance), originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum. While it was originally aimed at small business owners, the advice here is equally applicable to writers struggling with writers’ block, or who are feeling creatively "stuck".

Ever wonder why our best ideas come when we’re in the shower, driving, daydreaming, or sleeping? Most people know the story of Archimedes’ shouting “Eureka!” upon suddenly discovering volume displacement while taking a bath and of Einstein’s theory of special relativity coming to him in a daydream. But there are many others:

  • Friedrich von Stradonitz’s discovered the round shape of the benzene ring after dreaming about a snake biting its tail.
     
  • Philo Farnsworth was plowing a field gazing at the even rows when the idea for projecting moving images line by line came to him, leading him to invent the first electronic television.
     
  • Richard Feynman was watching someone throw a plate in the air in Cornell University’s cafeteria when the wobbling plate with its red school medallion spinning sparked the Nobel Prize-winning idea for quantum electrodynamics.
     
  • Kary Mullis, another Nobel winner, was driving along a California highway when the chemistry behind the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) came to him, stopping him in the middle of the road.
     
  • Car designer Irwin Liu sketched the innovative new lines of what became the shape of the first Toyota Prius after helping his child with an elementary school science project involving the manipulation of hard-boiled eggs.
     
  • Author J. K. Rowling was traveling on a train between Manchester and London, thinking about the plot of an adult novel, when the character of child wizard Harry Potter flashed in her mind.
     
  • Shell Oil engineer Jaap Van Ballegooijen’s idea for a snake oil drill came as he watched his son turn his bendy straw upside down to better sip around the sides and bottom of his malt glass.
     

When you look deeper into these ingeniously elegant solutions and brilliant flashes of insight you can see that they came at strange times and in random locations. They didn’t occur while actually working on the problem but after an intense, prolonged struggle with it followed by a break. A change of scene and time away seems to have played a part.

Read the rest of the post on the American Express OPEN Forum.

Curmudgeon, late, as usual.

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Foiled again!  I had been sent a specific , well-written set of directions for posting my article to the proper location on Publetariat: Indie Indie Curmudgeon.  Of course, within a couple of days, I inadvertenly deleted it. Before I printed it for safe keeping. So this morning, frantically searching for a solution to get today’s column posted, I posted it in the wrong place twice! 

THEN… I had my only flash of brilliance for the day: I looked in the email "Sent" folder, where my reply, including the quoted original message still resided.  I always knew there was a reason not to clean up too often! 

One Electronic Thingie an Indie Author Can’t Do Without….

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It’s been another strange week, in a strange year.  The wholesale adoption of the previously (all through the “dark ages”) shunned Print On Demand production model by the mainstream publishing industry continues unchecked.  The last reported Big Publisher to succumb is Hatchette as reported in Publisher’s Weekly.  Soon, I’m sure at least publishers and agents will have to admit that POD alone is not sufficient grounds to disregard a writer’s work!  But then, I’m not here to rant on…

As technology, especially communications technology continues to spin out new and improved ways to spread the word, Indie Authors may face a dilemma.  What gear do I really need to promote and sell my work? 

Now I’ve been called a gear-head by my wife – repeatedly – and something of a luddite by younger friends.  If a Blackberry or I-Phone is on your horizon, don’t let me stop you.  There are plenty of blogs and articles out there explaining how to use these devices along with web-based social networking sites and Twitter.  I don’t tweet.  At least not yet, and not in mixed company.

Today, I want to discuss adding traditional, consumer-targeted promotion tools to your arsenal.  We’ll assume relative computer literacy – you’re reading this online, after all.  You have a computer, can operate some photo editing/design software and probably a laser printer to handle the manuscript printing and submission letters, but do you have a photo printer?

Now I don’t mean one of those tiny, snapshot machines, although they do have some promotional applications.  I’m speaking of an inkjet or dye sublimation printer sufficiently large to handle at least letter sized stock.  The current crop of offerings by most manufacturers produce beautiful results – good looking photo prints, but they can also be used to produce excellent point-of-sale tools and mailers.  Important, for most of us, they are not terribly expensive. Be sure to choose one for which you can get supplies (ink, paper) locally. My favorite online gear seller is Tiger Direct, but there are many out there who discount quality hardware.

I use a Canon PIXMA ip6600D a few years old, which prints up to letter size, full bleed (no white borders) images on up to 10 point (fairly stiff) coated card stock.  It has helped me secure bookstore accounts for my first novel.  Along with a sample copy of the book and a nice, to the point cover letter offering direct sales with a good margin based upon the cover price, I enclose a counter postcard. This is made from the book cover graphic, and includes a very truncated pitch. At the bottom is a space that says simply, “Bookseller’s Imprint Here”.  I offer these, customized with the seller’s logo and contact info, free to the bookseller, the same as a book distributer would offer.  The last part of the package is a letter-sized full color poster of the book cover & blurb for the bookseller to use wherever it fits.  Letter size is actually better than larger for most booksellers as space for display is often at a serious premium. 

By using my photo printer to produce collateral promotional materials, customized for the bookseller, I improve my chances in two ways.  First, it makes my sales pitch more professional and businesslike. It shows that I’m serious about helping the bookseller make money with my work – not a small idea. Most independent booksellers are “Mom & Pop” operations that need any help they can get in stretching their profits.  If your promotional items are used, it will give your book better recognition with readers, and not just while they’re in the book store. 

As readers enter the visual clutter of a bookstore, they’ll be bombarded by images – hundreds of them, from posters to book jackets.  Despite the apparent confusion, marketing tests have shown that our human brains may not recall exact words, but a good image will be retained.  A color image, is retained much better than a black and white or grey-scale image.  An image displaying excellent composition and a clear subject focus are the very best. Like an excellent jacket cover design.  Retained images (of your excellent jacket cover) will come in handy when the shopper passes the table or shelf where your book is displayed, and ..something…calls out to them to pick it up.  That’s where recognition comes in very handy.  Of course, once they’ve picked up the book, your writing skills are put to their biggest test: presenting the pitch a reader can’t say no to.

If they drop your gorgeous, full color postcard into a pocketbook or briefcase, it will surely surface again, often where others can be exposed to its wonderfully insidious pitch and presentation.  Think: Ralphie with the ad for the Red Ryder BB Gun stuck in Mommy’s magazine, heh! heh!. Hopefully, as long as it gets passed around (intentionally or not) it can pitch your book and establish recognition.  This continues until it finally enters the trash bin.  We can discuss the green implications at a later time, if you think it’s important.  For my money, it sure beats a bumper sticker on a Hummer. 

We operate a small – tiny, really – online and mail-order company.  That’s where I got the idea, initially for the cards.  Using 4×6 photo glossy sheets, I began printing postcards years ago, with our store images and information to pack inside of each sale shipment.  Now when one of our customers opens their shipping box, they not only get a nice full-color store promotional card, but another card which offers “A Fine Addition to Your Fall Reading List”. As the seasons change, it will be easily revised to read: Winter, etc. 

My first book sales, outside of immediate friends and family came directly from these cards.  You may have your own business, or not, but you may be able to approach your employer about including a book postcard in shipments or correspondence.  It may not be possible, but it may, and it’s worth the risk to inquire.

There is another use for the photo printer that I’ve found very important.  Business cards.  You can purchase letter-sized sheets of glossy or matte card-stock that are pre-perforated, actually scored.  Each sheet can produce 20 beautiful business cards that you break apart with no ragged edges at all.  They look just like the ones I used to have printed by a color gang press in Texas. The really neat thing is, if I need a card with my personal contact information on it, as opposed to our business info, I can print whatever I need. They even make up fold-over cards that can make nice gift attachment notes, etc.  Small, full-color cards also make excellent postings for community bulletin boards, often found in bookstores and libraries.  I’m not too proud to hang my shingle and promote my book wherever I can. 

Now, you might be thinking that this doesn’t sound like what a successful author should have to do, but Indie Authors must wear at least two hats: writer as well as book promoter and publicist.  Also, try to get used to the idea of being a manufacturer of a product.  Once the writing is over, your job is to sell product.  It will put you in a very exclusive club with members such as Samuel Clements who, writing a short novelette under the name Mark Twain – his first commercial fiction work – resorted to distributing handbills himself to sell copies of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

He lost his shirt in the effort, but he didn’t have a color photo printer, did he?

Next Time: My Tips for Designing & Proofing a Cover with Impact! Nuts & Bolts 101

The Indie Curmudgeon is Richard Sutton, Indie Novelist, graphic designer, marketing consultant, guitar picker, Indian Trader and online retail merchant since 1995.

Starting Your Story

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This post, from Nicola Morgan, originally appeared on her Help! I Need A Publisher! blog on 9/17/09, and with NaNoWriMo right around the corner, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

"Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." Lewis Carroll makes it sound so simple.

Thing is, where is the beginning? Where does any real story start? And in fiction, where should you choose to start it?

Although it was a blog-reader or two who asked me to talk about beginnings, it’s also a sore point for me because I’ve been struggling with a beginning of a new novel. Sometimes the beginning is the easiest bit – in fact, we’d probably agree that usually the beginning is the easiest bit. It’s certainly the most important bit, because if it’s not good enough no one will get to read the middle or end.

I think there are three aspects of beginnings that we need to look at. [God I sound serious / pompous today.]
 

  1. When to start
  2. How to start
  3. Things to avoid

1. When in the story should I start?

Simple: start at the point of the story which will hook the readers and draw them in quickly.

This could be with a flashback or a much earlier event which triggered the main narrative. Examples are Kate Atkinson’s brilliant latest novel, When Will There Be Good News? and [if you don’t mind my mentioning my own books but they are the ones I seem to know most about] Fleshmarket, by me. Both start with a shocking event which happened years before the main story. Both also enable a childhood event to be related, with a child’s POV, but then for the main narrative to be from a more interesting and sustainable viewpoint than a child’s.)

Or it could be a flashforward, but only if relevant. You can’t contrive a flashforward: it must be intrinsic. And, you have to be careful because you risk giving the game away. I used this device in The Passionflower Massacre and it is also how The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein, my favourite book in the world, starts.

Or it may not be an earlier event, but simply "in medias res". Jump right in with a compelling episode; get right to the point. This is the method with fewer drawbacks. Perhaps the most common way to start and one which readers find most comfortable?

Or you might decide to begin with backstory /scene-setting straightaway. Clearly this has got to be very carefully done and the back story has to be compelling enough. Never start this way just because you feel the need to explain things – only start this way because you think that’s what’s going to draw the reader in most compellingly.
 

Read the rest of the post on Help! I Need A Publisher!