Facebook Dilemma

I joined Facebook. I even created a Facebook Networked Blogs widget. See it there, in the sidebar? Some of you showed me how to do it and quite a few of you have networked me back.

I’ve got another question for you experts.

What do I do with all the invitations I’ve gotten?

I’ve got:

1 event invitation

8 group invitations

17 page suggestions

2 farmville gift requests

2 farmville building requests

1 café world neighbor request

1 frontier neighbor request

5 networkedblogs invitations

1 vviissiioonnss invitation

1 lifescapes invitation

1 author stacy juba invitation

1 goodreads invitation

2 cause invitations

1 diabetes awareness r invitation

I’m thinking I should follow the 5 networkedblogs invitations and ignore the Farmville requests. I might want to follow the author stacy juba invitation and the lifescapes invitation since I know those two authors. The rest I’m clueless about.

How do y’all respond to all the invites and requests? And how do you keep from going crazy? Okay, a couple of you can skip answering that last question. You know who you are and why it’s too late.

Book Review: Broken Places

 Broken Places by Sandra Parshall received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and also from the Library Journal. That’s impressive. Parshall won the 2007 Agatha Award for Best First Novel and this is the third in her veterinarian Rachel Goddard series.

It was the first one I had read. As I read the first chapter of Broken Places, I thought, man, there are a lot of characters to remember. It took me a couple of chapters to sort them out. Once who’s who began to stick in my head, I got caught up in the plot, the connections between the characters and the complexities of their relationships.

The main characters are connected in the present and the past. The protagonist, Rachel Goddard, has secrets that even her love, Deputy Sheriff Tom Bridger, doesn’t know. The secrets and lies of various characters cause problems, mistrust and pain. Parshall pulls all the threads together in the end, but that doesn’t mean every character goes away happy.

Although Rachel Goddard’s profession of veterinarian didn’t play a huge role in the book, it was interesting to have a protagonist with that job. It not only gave Rachel a softer side, but reason to be places she shouldn’t have been.

There are several possible suspects and Parshall keeps you guessing throughout the book. Parshall also sets up Rachel Goddard as a complex character with secrets she’d rather keep hidden. Unfortunately, Lindsay, former girlfriend of Rachel’s love interest, and big-time nosey snoop keeps getting in the way. The question becomes how many more will die before Rachel can solve the mystery.

I’m giving it a Hel-Yeah. (New rating system I’m trying out.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FTC Disclaimer: This signed book was sent to me by the author, but that’s not why I’m recommending it, nor did it influence my review. Nor was I influenced by the starred reviews and Sandra Parshall’s Agatha Award. Lots of people have awards. I, myself, received the Best Mom award from my son. My daughter is still undecided. I’m thinking I’ll get it from her -- I am her only mom, after all. She’s holding out, though. I’m a bit worried since she now lives in another state. I suspect she’s trying out other finalists for the Best Mom award. That’s okay. There’s still her birthday, Christmas, money and bribery. Whadda ya think? Five bucks? Ten?

Christine Verstraete

 Award winning journalist and author Christine Verstraete is here today to talk about her children’s novel, Searching for a Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery, now available for Kindle and coming in other eBook formats. Christine’s stories have been featured in several anthologies including Dragons Composed, The Bitter End: Tales of Nautical Terror, and in DAW Books anthologies, Timeshares and Steampunk'd.

Christine said she was willing to talk about anything, so today I’m tossing her some questions about why she’s decided to put Searching for a Starry Night in the Kindle format and how in the world she did it. (This sounds incredibly intimidating to me! Does it to you?)

After her answers, I’m throwing open the Comments section for questions or Howdies to her.

Welcome Christine Verstraete.

Getting Kindleized

Hi Helen, thanks for letting me visit your blog today.

1. The idea of formatting an e-book and getting it ready for the Kindle seems overwhelmingly intimidating to me. Was it a big learning curve for you?

Intimidating is putting it nicely. Haa! Well... I learn by doing — and doing – and... I did it over several times as I couldn't get rid of a multiple-blank page problem. It finally corrected though I ended up with one extra blank page and decided to leave it at that.

I began by trying out a short story, "Motherly Love," on Smashwords to see how it would work. The directions there are pretty good and straight-forward though I have to thank fellow author Marian Allen for putting up with my numerous questions.

Smashwords says, "simple is better." How true. I did the same formatting for Kindle (pasting story first in notepad to "erase" extra "invisible" formatting, using single space, and a roughly 0.33" or 27 px indent on first line.)

2. What made you decide to go with Kindle, instead of some other e-reader like the iPad or Nook?

I wanted to start on Kindle first, hearing such rave reviews from other authors like J.A. Konrath and Robert Walker, who've had great success with it. I haven't found that pot of money at the end of the rainbow yet, but I'm still looking! (lol) I will be putting the book up on Smashwords next since it handles conversion for all the different sites (Sony, Nook, iPad, etc.) I don't think I want to do the formatting for each site individually. I know my limits. Ha!

By the way, readers should note that you do NOT have to buy a Kindle to read the book or other stories. Amazon has a free Kindle for PC version. (which I have on my computer.)

3. Searching for a Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery, has a beautiful cover. Were you able to use that for the e-version and how difficult was the cover to put up?

As I don't own the cover for the original print version, I decided to make a new cover for the electronic version and an upcoming new print version using another view of the Dachshund photo which resembles the dog "Petey" in the book. He's always been an attention-getter so I decided to use him much bigger on the cover. He makes me laugh!

4. How will you be promoting Searching for a Starry Night as an e-book?

Besides doing this blog tour, I'm active on several writing lists and hope to attend some local conferences. There has been such a big growth and interest in eBooks and Kindle online, so it'll be interesting to see what readers have to say in person.

5. Do you think e-books are becoming more popular with kids?

I hope so. Having grown up with computers, kids are used to reading stories and lessons on the computer in school. I plan to talk with teachers to get their views and talk with them on their interest in using eBooks in their classroom lessons. I do have a lesson plan with possible questions for teachers to use as well.

Helen, thanks for hosting me! I'm looking forward to answering any of your readers' questions.

Thank you, Christine!

Here are some great links for Christine:

* Website
* Blog
* eBooks page
* Searching For A Starry Night on Kindle

Plus, Christine is having a contest during her tour:

**CONTEST: Anyone commenting on any of the blog stops on the tour can win:

* One person who comments on any of the blog tour stops will win a free Kindle copy of Searching for a Starry Night. (You can download Kindle for PC free here.)

* One person will also win a miniaturized dollhouse collector's edition of the first chapter from the first print edition, made by miniaturist LeeAnn Borgia. See my blog for links and photo.

** To celebrate the revised Searching for a Starry Night, one person will win a copy of the new print version when it is available.

Clearly, the more comments you leave, the better your chances of winning, so here are links to her other stops:

Blog Tour Schedule:

Thurs, 7/22: Acme Authors Link - Real vs. Fictional Friends

Mon, 7/26: Morgan Mandel's Double M blog = Dogs and Such

Tues, 7/27: Killer Hobbies with Camille Minichino - Crafts and Writing, what comes first?

Weds, 7/28: Marian Allen's - Talking about Writing

Thurs, 7/29: Helen Ginger, Straight from Hel - Getting Kindleized

Fri, 7/30: J.E. Taylor's blog – Writer's Quiz and Other Stuff

Mon, 8/2: Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers - craft how to with Anastasia Pollack – Writing and Crafts: Make Easy Miniature Cloth Decorations

Tues, 8/3: L. Diane Wolfe, "Spunk on a Stick" – Making the Switch from Nonfiction to Fiction

But before you zip away, leave a comment or question. Christine will be stopping by during the day.

Searching For a Starry Night

 Christine Verstraete is the author of stories that have been featured in several anthologies. She’s also the author of a children’s novel, Searching for a Starry Night.

I’ve been visiting her blog for a long time and love the cover of Searching for a Starry Night. She’s going to be stopping here tomorrow on her blog tour. I’ve got lots of questions for her, including whether she keeps that cover on the Kindle version of Searching for a Starry Night.

Since I’ve never done an e-book, just the thought of having to do one is totally intimidating. I was happy when Chris said I could ask her questions about what she did to get the book on Kindle and why she chose Kindle.

You, too, can ask Chris questions, as well as read her answers to mine. Come back tomorrow to say hi or ask a question. In the meantime, if you don’t already know Christine Verstraete, here are some links where you can find out more:
* Website
* Blog

Oh, I forgot to mention, she’s giving away some great prizes on her tour!

Being Versatile

I received The Versatile Blogger Award from two wonderful bloggers:
Vivian Zabel of Brain Cells and Bubble Wrap
and
Nancy Sharpe of Realms of Thought

I’m a bit slow in passing on this award. Not because I didn’t appreciate it, but because, as they say, stuff happens.

As with most awards, this one comes with rules:

1. Thank the person who loved me enough to bestow this gift.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Bestow this honor onto 15 newly discovered or followed bloggers – in no particular order – who are fantastic in some way.
4. Drop by and let my fifteen friends know I love them.

I’m passing it on to five new-to-me bloggers:
1. Roland D. Yeomans of Writing in the Crosshairs
2. Joanie Rich of Joanie Michelle Rich
3. Victoria Saavedra of I Have a Story to Tell
4. Rosie Connolly of East for Green Eyes
5. L’Aussie of L’Aussie Writing

Yeah, I’m only passing it on to five bloggers, but I’m being versatile and breaking that rule.

Visit these five and say “hi” to them. While you’re out web surfing, tell Vivian and Nancy “hi” as well.

I’m Issuing Orders

When you come to Straight From Hel and leave a comment, I go visit your blog and leave a comment. Each day I also try to visit a few blogs that are new or that I haven’t seen in a while. For those of you who came by here in the last week… before I issue orders… I’m issuing an apology. If I didn’t come to your blog, I wasn’t ignoring you and I apologize. I got flattened by a train.

My older sister, by three years, unexpectedly and suddenly died. For every second of my life she has been with me. And then she wasn’t.

The night she died I was in Washington, D.C. It took me until midnight the next night to get back home. At the same time, my younger sister and her family got in their car in Minnesota and began the drive to Austin. And the next day, my daughter caught a flight home. We had to figure out where to put everyone and then… the memorial. Throughout it all, little things happened, sometimes nutty or frustrating, and I’d think, I have got to call or email Cathy and tell her. Then in a split second, I’d realize I couldn’t do that, ever.

My younger sister and her family and my daughter have gone home now. My husband and son are still here. I’m waiting until I’m alone to let loose and cry ‘cause I know once I start, it’ll be hours before I can stop.

It occurred to me, though, that with my mother and two older sisters now gone, I am the matriarch of the family. So, as the matriarch, I’m issuing two orders.

One: No one in my family is allowed to die before me. That includes my immediate family, all in-laws, nieces and nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles. Period. No one.

Two: Although I am not the matriarch of your family, I order you to not leave condolences. Instead, tell me one good or happy thing going on in your family right now.

Those are my orders. So shall ye obey.

Authors Profit

Blaine Loomer, after 20 years in the corporate world, decided to write a book and make some money. Then he found out he’d take home 5 to 10 percent of the profits. He didn’t figure that was enough to bother writing.

So he decided to publish it himself.

Sounds familiar, huh?

He also created an online platform to help other authors publish and market their books. Thus was born Wubbit.com.

I have no first hand knowledge of Wubbit, but according to Cincinnati online:

Wubbit lets authors and small presses register books on the site for sale directly to consumers or bookstores. Wubbit charges a one-time $36 registration fee but then pays the seller 65 percent of all retail sales. Bookstores can purchase on the site at a wholesale discount, still giving authors 45 to 55 percent of sales

Loomer is working on getting books on Galaxy Press and in independent bookstores.

For authors, Loomer will continue to roll out new services, like the ability to use Mitchell's publishing services and the marketing and printing offerings of other partners. Wubbit.com will also have a platform for them to build personal web pages and to offer electronic books that can be used on an iPad, Nook or Kindle.

He’s also investing in electronic bar code technology. All in all, he expects by the end of this year, he’ll have invested $1 million.

We may have to wait to see what happens with Wubbit to know whether it’s a great deal for writers, What do you think?

It’s All About the Wine

The Financial Times, of all papers, has an article about wine books. Even if you don’t want a book about wine or don’t drink wine, it’s an interesting article about publishing and self-publishing.

For instance, there’s an interesting tidbit about Allen Meadows, apparently a “burgundy guru,” whose wife helped him publish his book.

What she had to do was “put together the entire team – and cover all the costs – featuring several artists, photographers (including taking one up in a helicopter for specific aerial views), mapmakers, book designers, copy editors, printing, computer programming for shopping cart and sales, indexing, book production manager, storage facilities, all fulfilment, etc”.

Or this opinion from Benjamin Lewin, who wrote a book about Bordeaux wines:

There are two general problems to conventional publishing. One is the general incompetence of the publishers: all they really know how to do is to publish more books following exactly the same model as in the past. The second is the way the cost of the book becomes enormously inflated by their overheads.

You might want to click over to read the full article and hear what one author thinks of Lulu.

Me? All I think about is the wine.

Bypassing Print

Many authors are bypassing print and going straight to e-publishing. And I’m not just talking about new authors. Some well-known, established authors are doing it.

We’ve talked about Stephen King releasing his e-book Blockade Billy a month before Scribner put out the hardcover version. He also released a story exclusively for Kindle.

Now comes novelist Ryu Murakami will release his latest novel exclusively through Apple’s iPad before the print version comes out.

 The digital package will include video content and set to music composed by Academy Award winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, according to the Japanese business daily Nikkei.

Some authors, like business expert Steven Covey, are taking away backlist titles that traditional provide print publishers with a constant stream of revenue. Covey has granted Amazon “exclusive e-book rights for two of his best-selling books for one year.”

According to the Wall Street Journal,

 The new equation, in theory, would give authors a bigger chunk of royalties. Mr. Murakami said his initial goal of 5,000 downloads would cancel out the investment costs, and if the plan is approved, Apple will receive 30% of the revenue with the rest to be parsed among Mr. Murakami, Mr. Sakamoto and the software company, according to the Nikkei.

Whether you publish solely e-books or a combination of print and e, what do you think of this bypassing of tradition print by big name authors?

Birth of a Small Press

A brand new press has been born and it’s being run by an experienced and enthusiastic publisher. Dystopia Press is the dream-come-to-life of Mark Long. Mark runs TSTC Publishing, which publishes the TechCareers series of books that I have been involved with. He’s now opened his own small press.

While I don’t write the genre of books he’s looking for, I was still excited to hear what he’s been doing. I’m also excited because I think there may be one or two of you out there who do write what he’s looking for.

So, I’m going to turn Straight From Hel over to Mark Long. Welcome, Mark.

Dream Big

One summer night when I was in my late thirties, my wife Melody and I were having a few beers with a friend of ours out on our back patio when she made each of us answer the question “What would you do if you had the choice to do whatever you wanted?” Melody said she wanted to be a full-time college history teacher, our friend wanted his own recording studio, and I wanted to run my own small press.

As it happens, since then my wife has become a full-time history instructor at our local community college, our old friend has been recording CDs at the home studio he put together, and I’ve been a book publisher for the last six years, first at Texas State Technical College and, simultaneously for the past year and a half, at Dystopia Press, working to get it off the ground to publish dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels.

One of my wife’s favorite quotes is from Quincy Jones about kids’ problems today stemming from the fact that they just don’t dream big enough. Thanks to her—and that night of saying out loud what we really wanted to do in our lives—we’re all actually doing what we had always secretly wanted to do.

Why Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Novels?

To really make a go of it in small press publishing you need to publish books that you love as well as ones that fit into a clearly defined market niche. My two favorite genres when growing up were mystery and science fiction. It was kind of toss-up there for a while as to which way to go—mystery or sci-fi—but the mystery market is so saturated that niche-specific sci-fi looked to be a better bet.

Plus, I had always a real interest in those kind of end-of-the-world stories whether they were the result of some calamity like Day of the Triffids or On the Beach or even just societies gone wrong like 1984 or Make Room! Make Room!. It’s one of those truisms that everybody tends to be nice when things are going their way but it’s when the chips are down that true character is revealed. So these types of novels take that conceit to a really epic scale.

How Did This All Get Started?

I’d been teaching college English for about ten years but six years ago TSTC, the school I was teaching at in Waco, was looking to start an in-house book publishing operation so I moved over to help out with that. At first it was just me sitting in an old conference room desperately reading books about publishing but since then we’ve grown to a full-time staff of five with a slew of editorial and graphics interns each semester along with a pool of freelancers who work on projects as well.

Back when I was still in the English department I figured out it was really easy to throw away a ton of money in book publishing if you didn’t know exactly what you were doing—my biggest fear has always been ending up with 5,000 copies of some book sitting in my garage for the rest of my life—so working at TSTC Publishing has been absolutely invaluable experience. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time so I’ve tried to make the most of by learning as much as possible about all the various aspects of publishing before finally starting Dystopia Press.

What’s Happening Right Now?

 Our first title coming out will be 20 Years Later by Emma Newman, a writer from England. A young adult (YA) novel set in London twenty years after a plague has wiped out most of the world’s population, it has a kind of Charles Dickens meets 28 Days Later vibe (minus the zombies). Although post-apocalyptic novels aimed specifically at the YA demographic were something new to me, it was a great story that was well told so it was an easy decision to work out a deal to publish it.

What’s the Plan for the Future?

Everyone who gets involved with small press publishing has a real love of books—usually in one particular genre—but the hardest thing is taking care of all the nitnoid details that aren’t nearly as interesting as books themselves: buying ISBNs, generating Bookland EAN barcodes, lining out effective distribution, keeping good business/financial records, and doing all those other day-to-day things that are necessary to having an effective publishing operation. So, with that in mind, with Dystopia Press I’m trying to thoughtfully set it up to last for the long haul.

In the short term, it’s all about reading manuscripts. With a small press, you need to be sure you’re publishing the best books you possibly can because the margin for error is so small. The hardest part of that is getting someone to take a chance on working with a press that doesn’t have an established track record. So I’m always on the lookout for the next great manuscript that fits into our niche and would be a crime not to publish.

Thank you Mark.

Mark is making it easy for you to find out what he’s looking for. He blogs and tweets, and Dystopia press has its own Facebook fan page and website, of course. And in case you’re wondering how to submit to Dystopia Press, go to the submission guidelines page.

Right now, you can ask questions or leave comments for Mark. He won’t mind. He’s put up with me for a long time.

Dystopia Press

I am quite excited to get to announce the birth of a new press. You may or may not know that I have written three books for TSTC Publishing. My publisher there is Mark Long. Along the way, Mark has also become a friend. He’s still the head of TSTC Publishing, but he’s also started his own press called Dystopia Press. And – drumroll, please – he’s looking for manuscripts.

Dystopia Press’ first book will soon be out and Mark is even more excited than I am. The author christened to be the first published by Dystopia Press is from England. If you come back tomorrow, you can find out what her book is about, what kind of books Dystopia Press will be publishing, how this new press got started, and what Mark plans for the future.

If you’ve ever had questions for a small press editor, come back tomorrow to read Mark’s post and ask away. While you’re jotting down those questions, zip over and read Mark’s blog for Dystopia Press and follow Dystopia Press on Twitter.

Are You Buying This?

Books can take months or years to write and get published. But that’s something you already know. Authors, to get themselves established, are selling their books for $2.99 or $9.99 or even giving them away for free.

Well…not all authors.

Publisher Kraken Opus has ten copies of a book. That’s all. Ten copies. Each one sells for $75,000. Each one has a signature page that’s a mix of paper pulp and a pint of Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar.

According to the Wall Street Journal, that’s not the only high-priced book.

 Earlier this year, Taschen Books sold pieces of the moon with 12 copies of its massive photography book on the lunar landing (one of the lunar-rock editions sold for $112,500). Taschen previously published a $7,500, 800-page book on Muhammad Ali, "GOAT" (for "greatest of all time"), that comes with four signed photographs of the boxer and a sculpture by Jeff Koons.

Believe it or not, some of Taschen’s luxury books go up in price.

 Its massive Helmut Newton photography edition, titled "Sumo," now costs $15,000, up from $1,500 when it came out in 1999. The Ali volume now sells for $15,000. The 2006 book featuring work by the artist Peter Beard now costs $18,000, a 260% increase from its $5,000 original price tag, while a book of Mr. Koons's work went up to $4,500 from $1,000, and goes for even more on eBay.

I’m not coveting these high-priced books. For one thing, I don’t have a climate-controlled vault to keep them in. I do have a closet library and I’m happy to say it’s packed with books.

Book Review: Shut Up and Kiss Me

 Shut Up and Kiss Me is a Romance by award winning author Christie Craig. Three things immediately appealed to me:
1. The cover is pink and white. Can’t say “romance” more clearly than that.
2. It’s set in Texas. Gotta read a book set in Texas, although I’ve never heard of Precious, Texas.
3. Christie Craig signed it.

So, I started reading. It starts off with an immediate attraction/dislike between the two lead characters. I think that’s pretty standard for a Romance. What pulled me in was the setting. Precious, Texas, is a town that’s primarily inhabited by people of the Chitiwa tribe. Economically, the town is in trouble and photojournalist Shala Winters has been hired to promote the town. Not everyone is happy about having an outsider come in, including Sky Gomez. Things immediately get off on the wrong foot between the two. And that tug and push continues throughout the book.

There’s lots of action, near murder and mayhem. Even though you know Shala and Sky will end up together, you keep reading to find out who’s behind all the chaos and, of course, for that scene where Shala and Sky eventually end up together. And Christie Craig doesn’t disappoint.

The characters are interesting, including the side characters. I especially liked Redfoot, Sky’s foster father. He’s the wise one who anchors the characters and the town, but even he is not above danger.

Craig keeps the action moving and the push and pull between Sky and Shala constant.

I enjoyed Shut Up and Kiss Me and would read another book by Christie Craig.

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FTC Disclaimer: This book was sent to me by the author, but that’s not why I’m recommending it, nor did it influence my review. I was, however, influenced by the interesting characters, the action, the humor, and the sex. There was only one vivid, hot sex scene, but the main characters weren’t the only ones having sex. Wait! Get your minds out of the gutter! I meant in that one scene -- they were the only two in that particular scene. I meant they weren’t the only ones in the book having sex. The others just did it off-camera and we heard rumors. Jeez, people, this is an official disclaimer, quit thinking about sex. You’re gonna get me audited or traded or whatever the FTC does.

Networking News

During my search around the news world, I came across an article in the National Post that I thought I’d share with you. It’s called: “Amber Mac: Social Media for Authors – The Rules.” Amber Mac, or more accurately, Amber MacArthur, has a book out called Power Friending.

She wrote: “In 2010 and beyond, authors are responsible for leveraging personal and professional networks to ensure books get bought.” I agree with her. It is almost imperative that you have a platform and a network built before your book is published and, in reality, before you approach an agent.

Here are her tips:
1. Act Authentically
By this, she means be yourself on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t hit people over the head to get them to buy your book.

2. Be Brave
Here, she’s saying do something original to make yourself stand out. She posted her own trailer as an example.

3. Be consistent
Once you start blogging, tweeting and networking, keep it up. She says to set aside a few minutes every few hours to check in with online friends.

Not bad advice at all. Link over if you’d like to read her explanation of each tip.

The Giant Head

Late Tuesday night I added a widget to Straight From Hel – a Networked Blogs widget. You can see it in the sidebar. It wasn’t hard to add. You can google “Networked Blogs” to find where to go to get the code (or click the link above), then add it to your own, if you’re on Facebook. I’m pretty new to Facebook, but thought I’d give it a try.

I’m happy to report it’s working.

When I signed up for it, I also signed up to follow about three or four blogs that I recognized. Being the neophyte that I am, I thought my new widget would show the blogs I’m following. It doesn’t. It shows the blogs following me.

When I went back to my blog to see the pics of the blogs I had followed, all I saw was my “giant head,” as I call my avatar picture. Just me. I kept coming back to look at it ‘cause it made me laugh. It was like I was stalking myself.

I sent an email to the BBTCafe and told them about my giant head stalking myself and about five of them went right over and followed me. So my giant head is not alone now.

I thought I’d post about this because it shows how wonderful cyber friends are. They may not live close enough to stop by for coffee, but they offer advice, cheer you on when you’re stuck on problem, and step in when a giant head is stalking you.

I’m trying to remember to check each blog I visit to see if they have a Networked Blogs widget so I can follow them and to watch my widget so if someone follows me I can follow them back.

Hopefully, if I keep doing that, eventually the giant head will disappear from sight.

Editing

Today, I’m over on Murderous Musings answering Jean Henry Mead’s questions. She’s asking me about freelance editing.

For years now, I’ve been a freelance editor for both published authors and aspiring writers. Within the last year, I’ve also started doing one-on-one coaching.

Jean asked if I would do an interview about editing. You can link over to read my answers and ask some of your own, if you’d like.

I think it’s purely coincidental that writers, when they get their edited manuscripts back, sometimes want to murder their editors … and that Jean’s blog is called Murderous Musings. Coincidence. Right?

Author Brett Battles

 Brett Battles writes award-winning international thrillers (his second book in the Jonathan Quinn series, The Deceived, won the Barry Award for Best Thriller of 2008). He also blogs over on Muderati and writes short stories.

If you like to write or read thrillers, today’s your chance to hear from one of the best thriller writers and maybe even throw out a question of your own. We’ll start with five from me.

Hi Brett. Welcome to Straight From Hel.

Helen: I love the strong, intelligent character of Orlando and how she handles the relationship with Quinn. When you first envisioned her, did you see her as an ongoing character?

I always wanted there to be a strong female character to balance out Quinn (in fact, I would argue that Orlando is even stronger than he is). And, yes, I had planned from the start for her to be ongoing. But how she actually came to be? It was organically as I was writing. She just showed up on the page when I needed her, and grew very quickly into the person she has become.

H: Quinn does a lot of traveling in the books. What kind of research do you do on the various settings?

I try to visit most of the locations in my books. Or, at least, the main ones. I’ve spent time in Berlin, Vietnam, Singapore, London & Paris (the main locations of the next Quinn book). When there, I take tons of photos and movies as I wander the streets. Often I’ll find a café or restaurant I like, and just plop myself down for several hours and watch the world go by to get a sense of the local ebb and flow. One thing I don’t do a lot of is hit the obvious tourist spots. I prefer the city or town or country as they locals see it.

H: What is your process for coming up with each storyline? Does an idea percolate in your head for months, then you research, then you begin to write? Do you already have outlines for future books?

It’s kind of a combination of things. I usually have an opening scene in mind, and kind of know where I want to end things. Of course, more and more, I’ve been outlining as it helps me stick to deadlines, but these are only about 10 to 15 pages, so not overly detailed. I do let ideas percolate for a while, too. I would consider this percolation mental loose outlines of future books. Other than that I might have some notes written down, but don’t have detailed outlines for future work. On the research/travel front, sometimes I’ll travel first, before I even know what the story will be about, and let the location inspire me. Sometimes I’ll have the story in mind before I hit the road.

H: My husband has gotten hooked on your Jonathan Quinn series, so I asked him what question he would like to pose. He said he would like to know how you came up with Quinn’s job description of “cleaner.” When my husband thinks of a “cleaner,” he thinks of someone who cleans up a crime scene.

I’ve always been fascinated by what happens after the action happens. For instance, after one spy kills another. What if the body needs to disappear? Who would do that? What kind of skills would he need? I’ve seen characters like this in the movies LA FEMME NIKITA and, most notably, PULP FICTION (the Harvey Keitel character really stood out to me.)

H: And lastly, what has been the most difficult part of promoting your books?

I don’t think about it as difficult, not in the sense of doing promotional things. I want people to know about my books, so promoting is a necessary part of that. I enjoy connecting with people, too. I guess the difficulty would be getting people’s attention from all the other choices they have (other books, movies, video games, other activities.)

Thank you so much, Brett!

 Publishers Weekly said this about the Quinn series:

"Breakneck pacing, colorful locales and dizzying plot twists make the Quinn series a welcome addition to the political thriller genre."

If Brett’s answers have piqued your interest in Jonathan Quinn, you’ll want to visit Brett’s website where he posted a conversation with Quinn.

But before you go, say hi to him or ask a question of your own.

Shadow of Betrayal

 Brett Battles is the author of three international spy thrillers in his Jonathan Quinn series. Not long ago, I reviewed his latest, Shadow of Betrayal. As soon as I started reading it, I knew this was a series my husband would like, so I gave him the book. He’s now going back to start from the beginning of the series, with The Cleaner. The second in the series, The Deceived, won the Barry Award for Best Thriller of 2008.

The protagonist, Jonathan Quinn, is a “professional Cleaner.” If you’re wondering exactly what a professional Cleaner is, come back tomorrow. Brett will be here answering a few questions – and that’s one of them.

You can find out more about Brett and his books on his website. He’s also part of the co-op blog, Muderati. He posts there every other Thursday. And if you like suspense short stories, you can find him in the anthology called Killer Year.

But most importantly, come back tomorrow to talk to him or ask a question of your own (I have five for him to get things started).

What Would You Do?

I believe there’s a news program that asks, “What would you do?” They’d set up a situation and ask you to say or think what you would do in that situation.

That’s what we ask ourselves when we write. We put our protagonist in a “situation” or we cause something to happen to her or him, then we ask ourselves, what would we do, then we have our character do that. And, voila, the plot moves forward.

So now I’m asking you, Does it? Does the plot move forward?

You trap your protagonist in a cave with no obvious way out, then you ask, OK, how would I get out? How would I react in this situation? Or you have your protagonist find out she has cancer or diabetes and you then think, how would I react?

How you would react is not integral to your story. What matters is how that character would react. How that person would react and what that person would do. If your characters are just mini-yous, then they are not real people. Sure, they’re gonna have bits of you in them (you are their creator), but they are not you.

Stop and think of all the different possibilities. Your character has just been given really bad medical news. What will she do?

Go to bed and cry for two days.
Run to the gym and exercise herself into exhaustion.
Call friends and tell each of them.
Hide the prognosis and tell no one.
Tell only one trusted friend.
Get on the Internet and begin researching.
Stop on the way home to have her will changed.
Sit by the lake and try to soak in the beauty of the water and ducks.
Sell her house and begin a quest to do the things on her bucket list.
Call her siblings and tell them the prognosis so they can get tested.
Throw out her brown suit and pumps and head to the nightclub for some fun.
Make appointments with specialists and begin treatment.

In any situation there are a myriad of possibilities. Don’t just go with the first one that comes to mind – the one you would do. Your protagonist has to be real to you or she won’t be real to the reader. So ask her or let her tell you.

Have you written a character that didn’t do what you would have done? Were you surprised? Did you learn something by listening to him or her?

Author Blurbs

How many of you, when you look at a book in the store, check out the blurbs recommending the book? You’ll probably see blurbs from other authors or from reviewers and review sites. Do they influence you?

Lately, there’s been buzz around the Internet and in the news about author blurbs. One thing that’s turned it into such a hot topic is a blurb by author Nicole Krauss for fellow author David Grossman’s book, To the End of the Land. It apparently is so effusive that people are laughing and even mocking it.

According to The New York Observer, this is how the blurb starts:

Very rarely, a few times in a lifetime, you open a book and when you close it again nothing can ever be the same. Walls have been pulled down, barriers broken, a dimension of feeling, of existence itself, has opened in you that was not there before.

It seems to get even more over the top with phrases like:

 look inside a person and discover the unique essence of her humanity

If you want to read the full blurb, link over to The Gawker.

And for more opinion on Krauss’ blurb and blurbs in general, check out Laura Miller’s Salon post. Here are a couple of comments from her:

Everyone seems to hate the process, from the authors who are compelled to plead for blurbs to the publishing professionals who have to lash their authors onto it, to the blurbers themselves, who often wind up walking a knife's edge between honesty and generosity. It stands to reason that, if many blurbs are bestowed for extraliterary reasons like friendship or professional collegiality, then many of them are insincere….

But overall, blurbs just aren't very meaningful. Yet, apart from a minority of skeptics, much of the public still seems to take them at face value. One British publisher claims to have seen research showing that as many as 62 percent of book buyers choose titles on the basis of blurbs

What I take from this is when you read the blurb on the back of a book, take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes they’re sincere, sometimes they’re hyperbole. It also tells me that if you’re an author and you get a fantabulous blurb from a fellow author, think twice about putting it on the back of your book. You may feel that such high praise will sell books, but will it? Maybe. It does help to have a blurb from a big name author, but your book better live up to the praise or you’ll lose readers.

Will Grossman’s book really live up to Krauss’s praise?

To read it is to have yourself taken apart, undone, touched at the place of your own essence; it is to be turned back, as if after a long absence, into a human being.

Do author blurbs influence you when you’re shopping for a book?

Sunday News from the E-World

I regularly fly around the Internet checking out the news in the writing world, sometimes finding information to pass on here, sometimes finding articles to post in my newsletter. There’s a lot of interesting stuff out there, like the article in The Philadelphia Inquirer called “E-readers are on the rise thanks to older readers.” Right off, the title’s interesting because we tend to associate computers and e-books with young people. So, I, of course, started reading.

Here are a few quotes:

 It's early yet, and the data are churny, but some see an unusual tech trend - led by mature users, 40 and above.

Fully 50 percent of all downloaded books are still free - but the e-books market is finally starting to be substantial.

Sony debuted its Reader in 2006, and since then has sold 10 million e-books …
About 1.5 million Kindles had sold as of December - and the world took note when Amazon said that on Christmas Day, it sold more e-books than physical books, for the first time.

E-sales rocketed to $117.8 million through April of this year, at an annual rate double 2009's. Americans now own an estimated 2.8 million e-readers - not counting computers, still the most common kind.

E-book users, Becker said, tend to earn more than $100,000 a year, be college-educated, and be very Web and social-media savvy...

The iPad is one potential game-changer. Another is the Google Editions eBook Store, scheduled to go live any moment now, Google-big, Google-strong, to square off against Amazon and other e-vendors.

And these are only snippets from the article. Feel free to link over and read the full article, called “E-readers are on the rise thanks to older readers.”

What about you? Are you warming up to e-readers? We have one in our house. It’s my husband’s, so I’ve not yet read a book on it. He loves his iPad though.

Book Review: Save the Cat!

The full title of this book is: Save The Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need. ‘Course, it’s not the last book since this is book 1 in a three-book series.

The series was recommended by the fabulous author and writing instructor, Les Edgerton. You can click over and read Les’ post on the book. Based on his post, I bought both of the first two books in the series – and I’ve no doubt I’ll end up getting number three.

I’ve taken a class in screenwriting and have read other books related to movies and writing in general, like The Writer’s Journey. What was interesting about Save the Cat! is that the author Blake Snyder is a working screenwriter. He’s been in the business for years. He not only knows what he’s talking about, he backs it up with lots of examples from movies. He doesn’t use just his movie scripts as example, but other well-known movies. Each chapter has Exercises at the end for you to do if you want. He also includes a glossary at the back of the book.

You don’t have to be a screenwriter to learn from Snyder. By breaking down a movie, he shows all writers how to better their own stories.

I opened a random page and found I had highlighted this:

 The forces that are aligned against the hero, internal and external, tighten their grip. Evil is not giving up, and there is nowhere for the hero to go to get help. He is on his own and must endure. He is headed for a huge fall…

That was from page 86 and it was in the section called “Bad Guys Close in (55-75) in Chapter 4: Let’s Beat It Out!

Personally, I think this book would be a good resource for any writer. And in case you’re wondering, he doesn’t just cover action or thrillers, he looks at all genres of movies. I’m looking forward to starting book number 2 in the series. Thanks Les!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FTC Disclaimer: Save the Cat! was recommended by Les Edgerton, someone I respect and admire as a teacher and writer, but that’s not why I’m recommending it, nor did it influence my review. And I paid for the book myself. I was, however, influenced by the cute kitty on the cover, hanging onto a rope for dear life. Clearly, that symbolizes the writer, hanging onto her story by a thread and hoping someone will pull her up and teach her the kitty kung fu needed to finish the book and get it published. She’s in such danger I bought book 2 so I could see if she gets saved on that cover. I’ll tell you the outcome when I finish reading book 2. You’ll be shocked. (This, folks, is what’s called a cliffhanger.)

Taking a Path Less Traveled

Lisa Koosis writes in a lot of different genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, mainstream. Her primary medium is short stories. She’s had stories published in a number of great speculative fiction magazines and anthologies like Abyss and Apex, Murky Depths, Meadowhawk Press’s Touched by Wonder anthology and recently, Blade Red Press’s Dark Pages anthology, among others.

Her first sale was via a contest. Her entry placed second in The Poughkeepsie Journal’s Talespinners short story contest and was published in a special supplement to the Journal. This year, she was the grand prize winner in Family Circle’s fiction contest. Now, Lisa is a finalist in Dorchester’s Fresh Blood contest.

The Fresh Blood Contest has a grueling judging process. First, Dorchester Publishing, ChiZine Publications and Rue Morgue Magazine choose the Top 10 submitted manuscripts. Then a panel of judges narrows it down to the top 5. Then it’s up to the top 5 authors to get votes. In other words, they have to learn to promote their work and get votes American Idol style. Each month, the author with the least votes is kicked off. Lisa is now in the final two.

All authors have to learn how to promote themselves and their books. Lisa is learning at top speed. She agreed to answer a couple of my questions:

Helen: How hard is it knowing that you could lose not because of the quality of your writing, but because of the number of friends you can get to vote for you?

Lisa Koosis: That’s been tough. Over the course of the contest I’ve had people say to me, “Wow, it looks like you’re the judges’ favorite. You’re a shoo-in,” which felt good to hear but also sometimes frustrating knowing that I could potentially be the judges’ favorite and still not win. Still, I understand and respect the promotional aspect of the contest because after all, it’s so vital these days for an author to be able to self-promote, to help sell their own books and I understand a publishing house wanting to see how well an author was capable of doing just that before signing on with them.

Helen: What have you tried? For example, could you get ten friends to start pushing you on Twitter and ten more on Facebook, etc.? See if the push could go viral.

Lisa Koosis: I’ve made sure to have a presence on most of the major social and professional networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, etcetera. I also started a blog at the inception of the contest and started putting feelers out into the blogging community. I also did rely heavily on my friends and their networks (and the whole “and they told two friends” philosophy). I was genuinely surprised at times to see people--people who didn’t even know me--posting about the contest on their own profiles.

I also found that each round I made it through would push me to explore more and more networking and promotional opportunities, even printing out flyers that family and friends could distribute.

Most of all, I tried to always remember to say thank you and not to take a single vote or word of encouragement for granted.

Lisa said that for a long time, she didn’t tell people that she was a writer. Now, she’s taking a crash course in self-promotion and networking. Win or lose – and she’s certainly hoping to win – she says she’s been astonished by the people who have been supporting and encouraging her.

Here’s a quick blurb for Heart of the City:

The Phoenix particle, created to burn out and replace damaged DNA, should have been the medical breakthrough of the century. Instead, it was the beginning of the end, its fires decimating person after person and city after city with a ferocity its creator could never have imagined. But cities don’t die so easily. The Phoenix particle was engineered to remember, and in the ashes, the particles remain, carrying within them the genetic blueprint from the billions fallen prey to the burning. And the Phoenix still has a mission, to pass on that information.

Eva Moline—immune to its devastation—is the perfect conduit for the Phoenix. She’s prepared to help put the world back together in any way she can, even when she feels the Phoenix at work inside of her, somehow sentient, somehow knowing. As the children of the Phoenix grow to term in Eva’s womb, so does the essence of each city become a part of her. And as Eva joins the creator of the Phoenix in a cross-country journey from city to ruined city, she must decide whether she’s recreating a world or giving birth to monsters.

If any of you would like to support her, you can read the first two chapters of Heart of the City. Once the page opens, scroll down to Heart of the City. If you like what you read, send a blank email to freshblood@chizinepub.com with “Fresh Blood Vote - Heart of the City” in the subject line.  It’s as easy as that. They’ll accept one vote per unique email address and voting closes on July 14th at midnight EST.

I’ve voted for her twice, each time using a different email box.

Jean Henry Mead

 Jean Henry Mead is a multi-published author. Her magazine articles have been published domestically and abroad and she’s written both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels have been published under the name Jean Henry; her nonfiction books and magazine articles as Jean Mead, S. Jean Mead and Jean Henry Mead. Currently, there are three books out in her Logan & Cafferty senior sleuth series. She’s also involved with 7 different blogs. You can find a list of those blogs on her website.

I asked her here today to talk about her latest non-fiction book. Over the years, she has interviewed so many authors that she decided to compile some of their words into a book.

Please welcome Jean Henry Mead.

H: When you had all these authors guesting on your blog, you hadn’t planned on compiling a book. How did you approach these authors to get their approval once you decided to put together a book from those visits?

I emailed each writer and asked if they would like to appear in my book. No one turned me down and only one writer asked to share in the proceeds. Unfortunately, not all of over a hundred mystery writers interviewed were included in the book because of space restrictions, so I plan to include some or all of them in my next book.

H: Did Poisoned Pen Press approach you or did you approach them with the idea for the book?

I approached them after two smaller presses showed an interest in the collection. One of PPP’s authors suggested that I contact their publisher, Robert Rosenwald, to ask whether he was interested. I also asked a couple of writer friends which publisher they thought I should go with. They all agreed on Poisoned Pen Press, which is the second largest mystery publisher.

H: How involved were you in getting the book ready for e-publication?

I first made a list of each writer’s subgenre and grouped them accordingly: cozies, historicals, niche mysteries, suspense, thrillers, police procedurals, etc. I then copied and pasted each interview from the blog site to a Word file and began the process of editing the 150,000 word manuscript down to size. I also had to copy and paste each photo separately into a special photoshop file, making sure they they were all the same size—all 75 of them. I then submitted the manuscript via the Internet. We had some problems with Word and they eventually had to send written proofs in the mail, which pushed back the release date by over a month, but it eliminated all the electronic glitches.

H: Since Mysterious Writers is an ebook, how have you been promoting it and getting out the word on it?

Strictly on the Internet. I’ve promoted it on great sites like yours although I haven’t had time to conduct another blog book tour because I’m proofing my children’s mystery and finishing the third book in my Logan & Cafferty mystery/suspense series. Facebook and Twitter have also been good places to promote the book as well as my own blog sites. I’ve also done some online speaking engagements on sites for aspiring writers.

H: You’ve interviewed so many authors, you couldn’t get them into one book. When will the next edition be out?

I’m tentatively planning another interview book next spring after I interview Sue Grafton. I received a very nice reply to my interview request from her, via snail mail, asking that I wait until she finishes her latest novel, V is for (Victim?) in six to eight months. She and her husband are also in the process of changing residences. My letter to Janet Evanovich, however, has gone unanswered, but J.A. Jance, Lawrence Block, Vicki Hinze and others have been gracious about being interviewed, so I’ll have another good group of writers in my fifth collection. Next time in a print edition. I’ve learned a great deal from the writers interviewed and hope that others writers—especially those struggling to publish a first book—will learn from the book as well.

Thank you Jean!

 You can find Jean’s latest book of interviews with some outstanding writers on Amazon. The book is called Mysterious Writers: The Many Facets of Mystery Writing and includes interview with, among others, Carolyn Hart, Nancy Pickard, Jeffrey Deaver, Rhys Bowen, C.J. Box, Elmore Leonard and Louise Penny.

If you’d like to ask Jean a question of your own or to say Hi to her, head to the Comments section and leave a shout-out.

Mysterious Writers

Author Jean Henry Mead has interviewed so many mystery writers on her blog that she’s now published a compilation of some of those interviews. That book, just out, is called Mysterious Writers: The Many Facets of Mystery Writing. She includes a wide variety of authors from Rhys Bowen to Jeffrey Deaver.  You can check it out at Amazon. My guess is that one of the authors you love is included in this book.

Jean has published both print books and e-books. She’s been a magazine writer, a news reporter and an award-winning photojournalist. In addition to writing articles, she’s written and published in both fiction and non-fiction.

So, come back tomorrow to ask Jean some questions. I’m asking her about things like getting permission from the authors to publish their interviews and how she’s promoting this new e-book.

Why Go?

I've always found conferences to be inspiring and rejuvenating. But, I think you need to know your goals before deciding to attend a convention, conference or workshop.

When clients ask me which one they should attend, the answer is: It depends.

Let's look first at the differences I see between a workshop, a conference, and a convention, as they pertain primarily to an aspiring author.

To me, a workshop is a hands-on, intense learning experience. I would go there with paper and pen and expect to be taught something and receive lots of handouts. The workshop might be taught by one person (if only a couple of hours long) or several people (if days long). My goal in attending would be to learn something, with a secondary purpose of networking. Therefore, when choosing a workshop, I would look at what the topic is and who is leading the class.

I see a conference as being longer than a workshop, first of all. Secondly, while it may have an overall theme, such as "craft of writing" or "agents" or "writing the romance" or "nonfiction," I expect it to have multiple tracks of lectures or mini-workshops on subjects related to the overall theme. And thirdly, it will have more people in attendance. Once again, I sign up for the conference because it deals with a subject I'm interested in, but, just as important, are the speakers and attendees. In choosing, I would consider what stage in my career I'm at: Do I want help in the basics of writing? Am I at the point where I need an agent? Do I want to learn about a particular genre? Am I searching for directors, producers, or other screenwriters? But the theme of the conference isn't always the deciding factor. I may feel I've moved beyond the basics of writing, but a certain conference with that as its theme has several speakers or attendees with whom I really want to network.

And, finally, conventions, to me, are huge deals. Lots of people, lots of talks and panels. These are networking heaven. Yes, you can go to hear writers or agents talk on subjects you're dying to learn about, but your primary goal in attending a convention is to meet people, exchange business cards, make contacts and friends, tell people about your book or manuscript, and have fun. (I'm talking the kind of fun where you meet favorite authors or laugh at dinner with other writers and their agents -- not the kind of fun where next year you see Writers Gone Wild videos of yourself dancing naked on the beach.)

So, what conference, workshop or convention you should attend depends on what you are looking for and want to get out of the experience.

Incidentally, I maintain a weekly-updated list of events for writers, ones that I find or ones where others send the info to me.

Do you have a favorite - workshop, conference or convention - that you like to attend? As an aspiring writer, what do you gain from going? If you're already published, do you still go to workshops, conferences or conventions? If so, why?

Enjoy the Sunshine

Recently, Carol Kilgore of Under the Tiki Hut gave me the You Are My Sunshine Award. A very appropriate award for Carol since there’s always sunshine under her Tiki Hut. Carol said: “I'm passing the award on to five bloggers who always offer smiles on rainy days - and whenever I need one.”

I’m going to follow her lead and pass the You Are My Sunshine Award to five bloggers who brighten my day with their posts, their blogs, and their comments:

Jan Morrison

Rayna Iyer

Miriam S. Forster

Laura Eno

Maryann Miller

I hope all five of these bloggers have sunshine today. If you have time, link over and say hi to them, including Carol Kilgore.

Happy Fourth!

To all Americans, wherever you may be, Happy Fourth of July. It’s time for barbecue, beer or wine coolers, fireworks, and friends.

The Fourth of July is also known as Independence Day, as in, we won our independence from Great Britain and became our own country with no one else to blame for our problems and only ourselves to congratulate for all the good stuff, like … the Model T Ford and reality TV and Pecan Pie and the Grand Canyon and … you know, good stuff like that.

In addition to eating, drinking, laughing and making loud noises to scare dogs into whimpering puddles, it’s a time to say thank you to the men and women who keep our country independent and safe. Thank you to those serving now, to those who have served since the beginning of the U.S., and to those who will serve in the future.

I hope you all have a fabulous Fourth of July. And if you don’t like fireworks, beer, wine, or meat and have no friends…go to the park and read a book. You’ll make a friend or two and may even pick up a runaway dog. Take a leash and doggie treats.

Book Review: Sword and Sorceress XXIII

 This thirteenth issue of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s anthology Sword and Sorceress was edited by Elisabeth Waters. It is the first one I’ve read. Judging by this one, I’ve missed out on some great stories. Until I started blogging and met so many fantasy/magical arts writers, I rarely read books or stories in this genre. Marian Allen, one of the authors included in this anthology, generously sent me a copy of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress XXIII.

One thing I liked was that Elisabeth Waters, who edited the book, wrote a short introduction for each story. She’d tell a snippet about the story and/or the author, sometimes letting the reader know that the story character lives on in the author’s books.

Usually, I read novels, although I sometimes tackle nonfiction books about writing (primarily). This anthology was great fun. I could read a story in one sitting. When I picked up the book again, I didn’t have to try to remember what happened before since I would be starting a new, standalone story. A lot of the authors were returning and even told stories with characters who had appeared in earlier anthologies. Almost all are authors published in magazines, novels or other anthologies. Their experience in writing came through in these nineteen stories. I enjoyed them all.

Here’s part of the blurb on the back cover:

 Here are nineteen original stories of powerful women, swashbuckling and magic, spells and duels, arcane sorcery and heroic sacrifice, written by familiar spell-casters of wonder and bright newcomers who are sure to become favorites.

You don’t have to get the book because you love fantasy. Sword and Sorceress XXIII will make you a fan, plus introduce you to new authors to follow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by Marian Allen, one of the anthology’s authors, most likely in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review, although it did influence my attitude toward fantasy. Since Marian signed this copy, it’s going on my bookshelf, which, if my husband doesn’t find time to prop up, will soon crash to the floor since it’s already tilting that direction. It’s to the point that I’ve given up on alphabetizing the books. Now they’re just stacked or slipped into crevices in what used to be my closet library, but has now been taken over by my son’s clothes. Frankly, I think having an organized library is more important than my son having clothes. But I seem to be in the minority.

Blog Book Tours

 Have a book coming out in a few months? Or have a book that’s just come out? Want to set up a blog tour promoting your book, but the whole idea is mind boggling, scary, and seemingly impossible? Maybe you’re not even sure what a blog book tour is? Dani Greer teaches a month-long class on how to do a blog book tour, and here’s her definition:

An online book promotion method in which an author visits a series of high-traffic blogs for the purpose of promoting their latest book release. The process works best for everyone involved when the author stops at 10-15 blogs, one each day, consecutively over a period of 2-3 weeks. Each blog post should be different and slanted to "fit" the hosting blog, and the author should plan to visit each blog during the tour in order to interact with readers. The tour is also promoted on the author's blog and website, and on social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter. This formula seems to create a high degree of search engine notice, and thus helps boost author profile, with an ultimate goal of selling books.

What will you learn in this class?

How to fine tune your own blog.
How to find blogs that you can approach to host you and open new reader markets
What you’ll need to create and look for in your tour
How you can promote your book and tour

She recently opened the door for authors interesting in the class to sign up. For this class she’s going to take about 25 participants. And those spots are filling up quickly. I’m a co-moderator and every day I see emails coming in from two or three people requesting permission to join the group.

This class is not a breeze. You can expect to put in a lot of hours. You can also expect to gain and learn and grow, if you put in the time and work.

Interested? Act soon. Sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blogbooktours and be sure to give your name and book title.

Thinking you might want someone to hold your hand? Dani has also started a five-stop blog book tour service for $200 to guide the author - you can then easily expand the tour by adding more stops based on the  foundation and guidance from the first five. Sometimes a bit of assistance with the time-consuming parts of planning a tour is just what every busy author needs. Email Dani at quoe2@earthlink.net  if you'd like more information. She specializes in children's literature, cozy mysteries,  and any book with an environmental focus.

Lisa Brackmann

 On her website, Lisa Brackmann says she began writing at age five. By junior high, she’d decided to be Secretary of State. She didn’t reach that goal, but she did work “as an executive at a major motion picture studio, an issues researcher in a presidential campaign, and the singer/songwriter/bassist in an LA rock band." Now things seem to have come full circle. Her book, Rock Paper Tiger, is a huge hit, with blurbs by other well-known authors and a starred review by Publishers Weekly.

She’s here today to tell us three things we can do to get our books out to readers. Whether you’re looking for an agent or already have a publisher, you can begin working on her ideas.

Welcome Lisa!

Tilt the Odds in Your Favor

As an author, there are a lot of aspects of the publishing business that you aren’t likely to be able to control – the resources that your publisher has or is willing to commit to your book, the amount of review coverage that you’re likely to get, the mysterious alchemy whereby one book becomes a hit and another disappears without much trace. But you can make informed decisions, and you can certainly help tilt the odds in your favor.

Here are a few things I’ve learned as I’ve gone through the publication process and recent release of my debut novel, Rock Paper Tiger -- things that you can control…

Write the best book you can write

Well, duh, right? But I feel with all the push to market and promote, the whole notion of quality sometimes gets short shrift. It seems like we’re all in such a hurry to succeed that we forget what success is really about. I’m not one of these believers in “the Muse,” in waiting for inspiration before I’ll sit down and write – I’d never finish a book if I did. But I also think it’s a real mistake to rush something as complicated as a novel just to get it out there.

Take the time you need to get it right.

Set up a professional, easily findable author website.

The publicity person at my (totally awesome) publisher, Soho Press, told me this was the single most useful thing an author can do. It seems obvious, but there are still authors who resist this. Or they resist the necessity of making it look good. Here’s the thing: if you don’t have web design skills, you should bite the bullet and get some help. There are great designers who will work for not a lot of money, or skilled hobbyists who will work for free. Find one.

This is not a place to skimp or cut corners. You’re a pro—present yourself like one.

Build your network.

Building a network isn’t about following a kajillion people on Twitter and spamming them with constant ME, ME, ME!-grams. It’s about finding/creating a community of common interests, providing value to that community and also, interaction.  The salient characteristic of social networking is its interactivity – communication goes both ways, and audiences are no longer passive spectators.

I started with two basic “communities” – other writers, and China bloggers. My involvement with these groups preceded my novel’s release, and in some cases, my novel’s composition. To the extent that you can genuinely participate and not just be a carpet-bagger showing up to promote, this is only going to help your efforts when it comes time to market. Why? Because you’re going to be among real friends and fellow travelers who are more likely to support you and want you to do well.

Get out there, and have fun!

Odds are you won’t enjoy or be equally talented at every angle of the self-promotion business. But I’m surprised at how much fun I’ve had with parts of it. Though my blogging has dropped off (when I’m deep into a MS, I just don’t have the energy), I really enjoy keeping the website up to date and a fresh stream of relevant Twitter content flowing from my Facebook author page. My online writing circles have been invaluable, for feedback, support and general moral boosting – and I hope I’ve been as good a resource for them as they’ve been for me.

And I love going to bookstores for events! It surprises me how much I’ve enjoyed this, because I’m not always comfortable in public situations. But being with book people feels like being home.

Thank you Lisa!

 Sometimes we think having big sales numbers or tons of readers is based on luck or magic. It’s not. Lisa’s telling us that we can make it happen. It’s not magic, but rather hard, steady work.

You can find out more about Lisa Brackmann and Rock Paper Tiger on her website.

In the Comments section, say “hi” to Lisa, ask a question, or give us your own idea or experience in “tilting the odds in your favor.”