Publetariat

This post, from bookseller Rich Rennicks, originally appeared on his The Word Hoarder blog on 10/20/09.

[The intent of this post is to step back and consider the industry-wide implications of $8.99 bestsellers. I’m making multiple assumptions where I do not have all the info, so I invite corrections, counter arguments and real numbers before anyone jumps off any cliffs.]

The shoe is on the other foot this morning, with indie booksellers contemplating deserting publishers for cheaper $8.99 books at the mass merchants. Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com are waging a price war over the top dozen-or-so projected bestsellers of the holiday season.  To do so they are all willing to make a loss of $5-$6 on each book – which is staggering, because last time I checked market share wasn’t legal tender. Naturally, indie bookstore buyers have concluded that if you can purchase books you know your customers will want, at a lower price than directly from the publisher, and force a competitor to take a loss on each copy, why the hell wouldn’t you?

This is my attempt to make a case not to desert the publishers. [Full disclosure: I work for a small publisher and part-time for an indie bookseller, hence the need to look at the situation from both sides.]

The reason to support publishers by buying directly is because of all the services they deliver which indie bookstores value: selection, curation, marketing, creating demand? (You know, many of the same things we tell customers they’re supporting when they shop indie…) The irony of this situation is not lost on anyone.

The question is, who loses if indie bookstores cancel and reorder at 8.99 from the gamblers who are prepared to take a loss of almost $5-$6 on each copy? Publishers theoretically ship the same number of books, just through different channels. Those publishers are making the same profit whether they ship through Wal-Mart or directly, as giving one channel a larger discount than another would be illegal, right? [Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that the ABA took publishers to court over this exact issue several years ago.]

 

Read the rest of the post on Rich Rennicks’ The Word Hoarder blog.

This post, from Kat M., originally appeared on her Adele Journal site on 12/13/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

I used to hang out with a lot of musicians — really good ones of various flavors.  One of them was in one of those PBS-sponsored youth classical contests (can’t remember if he won, though.)  A couple of them were in the Hollywood movie-scoring scene already.  Some did work in games soundtracks.  A couple semi-famous singer/songwriters.  And some were electronic musicians who wrote dance songs.

The electronic musicians had a problem.  Like any artist, they wanted to make something enduring, but they knew that their work was destined to be, at most, a seasonal hit in the clubs.  Whatever they wrote would be replaced with the next tune that satisfied people’s dance music cravings.

Electronic music is inherently consumable and disposable.

Electronic dance music is functional — it’s designed to make people want to dance for a long time and strengthen people’s ties to certain lifestyles. These things don’t happen by accident; a good dance music writer knows why people listen to it and leverages his knowledge. To non-expert listeners (people not in the scene), all the songs in a style — like house, hip-hop, trance, d&b, 2step, etc — sound basically the same, since they have to operate within the guidelines of this function.

You’d think that this would make dance music producers take their art less seriously, knowing that their audience is going to consume and discard their work.  But no, the best of the electronic musicians still thought of themselves as “real musicians,” regardless of their genre’s critics or their work’s fate.

These composers proved to be as dedicated to their craft as the Hollywood orchestral soundtrack writers.

But it makes sense.  If they’re serious about making good music, they have to think of themselves as 1st class musicians, not just “dance producers.”

If they think of themselves as 2nd class musicians — “I just write electronic stuff” — they damn themselves to settling for a lower grade before they sequence a single beat.  They won’t think it’s possible to write a great piece within the genre, and their music will never be great, just satisfactory.

Even worse, they will limit themselves to tools within the style only, taking the conventions, cliches, and standards as their starting point.  This creates me-too music and basically precludes creativity — the same kind of creativity that Massive Attack had when creating their signature sound and broke out of existing genre rules.

Are you a writer, or a “popular fiction writer?”

So, what does this mean for you, a writer?  Let’s pretend you’re a romance writer.  How do you think of yourself and your stories? Are you a writer, or a “romance writer?”  Have you lowered standards for your own stories just because you write fiction that people tend to read & recycle?  In your heart of hearts, do you feel like a 2nd class citizen just because of your genre?

Do you believe that it’s possible to write a masterpiece in your chosen genre?

If you truly want to write something that endures… that’s not automatically destined for the read & recycle fate… that won’t get replaced in the reader’s memory by the next satisfactory thing… then start thinking of yourself as a 1st class writer, not a “romance writer.”  Think of your stories as stories, not “romance stories.”  Believe that even though you write in a popular genre, you can achieve masterpiece level with your stories.

Only then will you stop being limited by your own thinking, and only then will you be able to write at maximum capacity.

 

Kat M. is both a successful publisher and dedicated critique partner for mature-audience fiction.  As a result of her dual life, her blog, Adele Journal, has a dual focus: helping authors write better adult genre fiction, and helping them market themselves more effectively. Visit www.adelejournal.com for the latest articles and tutorials.

The end of another year has arrived. Seems like time goes by too fast. I hear people say all the time, where has this year gone? I think the same thing. Sometimes I wonder if I made the most of the last year, but I have no intention of reflecting back long to see if I did. My intention at the beginning of 2009 was to try. I ‘ll never know if I succeeded, but my New Year’s resolution this year is to try very hard to concentrate on my writing in 2010 and see where that resolution leads me. With that in mind, I’m going to start blogging once a week on Tuesday instead of twice. The book I’m working on is about two thirds done. While working on the story I get caught up in the characters and lose all track of time. Perhaps, that’s why I can say I don’t know where the last year went. I consider myself very lucky. I’m doing something that makes me content and keeps me busy. What more can I ask for any year in the future?

Did Santa bring me my book Computer for Dummies? No, but I found an answer to my problem on my own. Well, I had some expert advice from my brother who knows computers. Happily, I find I can buy a small device that will play my new printshop photo software. That means I won’t have to send the software back and keep struggling with my old software. It means I don’t have to unhook everything attached to my computer and take it to the shop in the middle of winter. My problem is solved. Would I have spent so much on the software if I had known that it downloads from a DVD which I don’t have the means of playing? No, because I wouldn’t have wanted the expense of the player. Perhaps, there is a reason for everything that happens. No matter the cost, I am looking forward to trying my hand at new and improved pictures to use as book covers. However with that problem solved, knowing that the coming year is only a few days away has me reflecting on more important things. I was recently absorbed with links and search words while trying to get the word online about my books. However, I know my most important links and search words have nothing to do with the computer.

I retired a year ago from my CNA job which I really liked. I go back to the nursing home once a month to visit. The handful of women residents that I visit are always glad to see me. A couple weeks ago, I stopped to talk to one of the CNAs. While I was in the break room I noticed a envelope on the bulletin board with my name on it. Always in a hurry in the winter to get the errands done and get home before the wind blows the roads or my driveway shut, I laid the envelope in the car seat until later. When I finally looked to see what I had, I found a Christmas card from one of the residents I hadn’t visited in the last year. His family had enclosed a Linda Eder music CD as thanks for my taking good care of him. My first thought was didn’t they know I’ve been retired for a year? The resident certainly must have missed me or maybe not. I called the administrator to find out if I should bring the CD back in. How could I deserve a gift for a year I hadn’t worked?

It turns out there wasn’t a mistake. When the man’s family asked which of the staff did he want to have a CD, my name went on the list. I made it a point to go see that resident and thank him. The pleased smile he gave me when I told him I appreciated his thoughtfulness and that I really loved Linda Eder’s music told me a mistake hadn’t been made. Though he has made me a fan of Linda Eder’s singing, the gift he gave me had far less to do with that CD and more to do with how he appreciated my company and help in 2008. So often while nursing home staff are caught up in the hard work they do, they don’t take the time to contemplate the little things they do for the residents that might not have been a part of their training. Things that mean so much to them and make them remember the staff like a pat on the hand, staying long enough to listen and really hear, and giving a hug when needed. The staff might not get a CD, but they certainly will make the residents day.

The search words family and friends are very important words to me. They are the blessings I count this time of year, because I have them in my life. The last day of the year is the birthday of one of my nephews. He a second grader, full of enthusiasm for life, smart beyond belief and a joy to be around. I look forward to watching him grow and seeing each new year through his eyes.

That next book I talked about. It’s the second in my Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. For those of you who read the first one watch for the release sometime in the next year. The tentative title is Nurse Hal’s Rainbow. Now I wish you a safe and fun New Year’s Eve and good luck and health in 2010 from http:/www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com

This post, from Megan Rebekah, originally appeared on her Megan Rebekah Blogs…and Writes blog on 10/26/09.

I had a wonderful weekend! How about all of you? I got to spend two days with my best friend, her husband and their 3-week old baby.

As any parent knows, a household with a newborn is somewhat chaotic. We noted several times how great it is that we know each other so well, and are so comfortable and and open, that there was no awkwardness or need for apologies. I could blend in easily with her new life because we’ve been friends for almost ten years. Not just friends, but best friends. 

Like everything else in life, I made the mental connection back into writing. There are different types of characters in our books, and they each play an important role.

Background characters.
In real life, I would equate these to people I see at work but don’t really know. I might see them come in and out of the lobby, I may even know their name, but that’s often it. We’ll exchange friendly smiles as we pass in the hall, but that’s the extent of our relationship.

In our books, these characters need to be just as fleeting. They flit in and out of the novel so quick, or play such a minor role, that we don’t need to know much about them. We don’t need to know the full name, age, occupation and dream date for the doorman at the heroine’s apartment building (unless he’s her love interest, but then he wouldn’t be a background character).

Intermediary characters
The real life comparison would be co-workers, neighbors, and maybe that blind date your great-aunt Gertrude set you up on last month. You learn details about these people, but you might be hard pressed to describe them to a police sketch artist if the need ever arose. I know our receptionist has a twin sister and she takes cream and sugar in her coffee. She wears slacks and skirts. I’ve never seen her in a dress. But I don’t know if she hates dresses, or just doesn’t have any appropriate for work.

In our books, these characters might be the same roles: a minor co-worker, a bad blind date, a random neighbor. We need a tiny taste of who they are, and that’s it. Enough that we understand their role, but significant or personal details don’t need to be revealed.
 

Read the rest of the post, which covers Recurring Characters and Main Characters, on Megan Rebekah Blogs…and Writes.

This post, from Roxane Gay, originally appeared on HTMLGIANT on 12/23/09.

Every single writer and editor these days has some idea or theory about how to change publishing or save publishing because, haven’t you heard? Print is dying and people aren’t reading and the sky is falling and the literary world is coming to an end.

Criticism is leveled against big publishing and independent publishing and micropublishing and often times, that criticism is delivered with the rather self-righteous sentiment that everyone is doing it wrong. Often times, it seems that publishers spend more time detailing how they are innovating or how they will innovate rather than letting their actions speak for themselves. Some days, we’re talking about publishing more than putting out great books and magazines and just doing the work of publishing.

Two recent blog posts got me thinking about all this.

First, at the ZYZZVA blog, Howard Junker wrote an awesome post about the McSweeney’s Panorama issue. I don’t necessarily agree with everything Junker says but I really appreciate that he’s taking a critical stance instead of simply fawning all over the Panorama issue because it was published by McSweeney’s. The Panorama issue is an interesting but flawed endeavor. The issue is by no means a salvation, a notion which may not have been actively encouraged by McSweeney’s but wasn’t necessarily discouraged either.

The second interesting post is at Identity Theory in which editor Andrew Whitacre questions the relevance of the (small) print literary magazine in the digital era. Whitacre calls out many of the print journals on a list of journals he received from a professor in 2002 for not publishing content online, referring to them as “technologically stingy.”

Whitacre goes on to address out of date, poorly designed websites that are not taking full advantage of the technologies available in the digital era.  He says that in this digital age, people want access to literature and that many of the more established print journals are not communicating as effectively with their readers as they could. He suggests that print journals don’t need to print a bound issue four times a year because the purposes those journals satisfied are now being met by online journals.  Finally, Whitacre defines the mission of the literary journal in the digital age as such:

The mission of journals, as I now see it, is to contribute to and nurture conversation around good writing. To be experts without excluding. To offer literary context without condescension. To carve out space for literature.

 

Read the rest of the post on HTMLGIANT.

I’m settling in. The day is winding down. All the snow’s been shoveled, the gifts are wrapped, the tree watered, the cards organized, the rum poured over the fruitcake.  The cd player on our stereo system finally gave up the ghost three nights ago, but this morning, the Fedex man appeared miraculously with a replacement I hadn’t expected until well past the weekend. 

So, we’re listening to one of Harvey Reid’s Christmas CDs.  Harvey, along with his wife, Joyce Anderson have been producing their own acoustic music for years. They live in Maine, sells their CDs and do concerts occasionally when they have the time, I suppose. The music is uplifting and relaxing at the same time.  It catches me off-guard, as it does every year — feeling thankful for the Season despite myself.

In the days before Padraigh brought the story of Jesus to the Irish, this time of year was referred to in the common Celtic tongue as Yule.  It was observed as a time of rest and re-grouping, gathering the family’s strength together to think about the year that had gone before, and prepare for the coming Spring.  Fires were kept burning until the days got longer, and the sun began to do its job full-time again.

It’sd no wonder that the new Church thought it was a good idea to embrace this existing tradition and assign to it a proper religious celebration.  Despite the excesses and stresses that have evolved to become identified with this time of year, the ancients really were on to something.  I ‘m sure that what I look forward to every year as the Holidays approach is primarily the gathering together, the "holing up" with loved ones, a cup of spirits and the thoughts of the year past.  It may be distracted by the large-scale celebrations, but the smaller, intimate observance of our need to rest is the one that propels me through the Yule ’til the Spring.

Traditionally, most cultures also make plans, or set goals, or see the new year as a new chance to grow and prosper in new ways.  It just seems like the proper time to prepare for change.  I’m not much of one for New Year’s Resolutions.  They;re usually impossible to keep, anyway, but thinking about Harvey Reid and his music — completely independently produced, and of exquisite quality despite the lack of a huge budget for promotion and publicity. 

I’m making one resolution.  I’m going to experiment with the music and writing I buy over the next year.  I’m not going to buy anything that is produced or published by a Big Operation. I’m going to buy only books that are either self published or from small presses, nor will I buy music that comes from the Big Record Companies. I’ll look for music the musicians themselves have produced. 

At the end of the year, I’ll see if I’ve lost any entertainment, been bored by the music or found any of the writing wanting, shallow or second rate in any way.  I expect I’ll enjoy my purchases just as much as I would had I succumbed to media-blitz advertising, publicity and high-powered, celebrity endorsed, "buzz". 

We’ll see.  Have a restful and happy Yule.

 

Publetariat staff are taking December 24-25 off in observance of the Christmas holiday, and December 31st – January 1st off in observance of the New Year’s holiday.

Staffing will be minimal on the intervening days, so please bear with us if comment moderation or response to your emails is slower than usual.

We wish all of you a safe and happy last week of 2009, and hope 2010 will be a year of great productivity and writing/publishing success!

Here’s an old chestnut from my screenwriting days. Back then, for fun, I used to enjoy creating three-minutes-or-less editorial screenplays of movies I’d seen which strained my credulity, patience or sanity on some level. In other words, I’d mock those movies by rewriting them. This was my take on Spiderman.

 

INT. UNIVERSITY LAB – DAY

TOBEY MAGUIRE, KIRSTIN DUNST and JAMES FRANCO attend a high school field trip to a college laboratory where for some reason, scientists are using a scanning electron microscope to study genetically mutated spiders that are visible to the naked eye.

 

TOBEY MAGUIRE: Look, I’m wearing glasses and carrying a camera and I’m mooning awkwardly over Kirstin Dunst. I am a nerd, not someone you’ve seen on People’s 100 Most Beautiful People list and certainly not anyone you’ve seen boinking Charlize Theron in a John Irving adaptation.

 

KIRSTIN DUNST: Hello, Tobey.  Even though I’m class princess, I’ll be friendly to you so everyone will know I’m actually a good person and worthy of your geek love.

 

JAMES FRANCO: Even though Tobey is my best friend, suddenly deciding to take an interest in Kirstin will set up a love triangle subplot and may enlarge my role in this movie. Hi, Kirstin.  How you doin’?

A genetically mutated spider bites Tobey Maguire. Despite the fact that most spider venoms attack and debilitate the nervous system, this one just gives Tobey a 24-hour flu and then he wakes up with superpowers.

 

INT. ROW HOUSE – MORNING

 

CLIFF ROBERTSON: Hi, Tobey. I’ll be playing your Uncle Ben—no, not the rice guy. Let’s share a bonding moment, then you can tell me to f**k off, then I’ll get killed to provide you with a superhero ethos of defeating evil and to leave you with nagging doubts about whether or not you’re actually just a prick in red spandex.

 

TOBEY MAGUIRE: Cool.

Uncle Ben gets killed, Tobey acquires superhero ethos and nagging doubts.

 

EXT. SKYSCRAPER ROOFTOP – AFTERNOON

 

WILLEM DAFOE: I am such a whore. What happened to me? I won so many accolades and awards for my portrayal of Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, yet here I am chewing scenery as the Green Goblin. Why, oh why did I take the check?

 

TOBEY MAGUIRE: Stop whining, and cackle your lines.

 

WILLEM DAFOE: Aha, Spiderman, my arch-nemesis! I will kill you before you can stop me from…from…well, I haven’t got an evil master plan yet, but when I work out all the details it’ll be really great. And evil, too. By the way, James Franco is my son.

 

Tobey Maguire, now dressed in a space-age spandex suit that appeared out of nowhere, and Willem Dafoe, now dressed in body armor that was lamely introduced as some kind of military product in an earlier, contrived scene, fight in a sequence of very obviously computer-animated encounters. 

Much scenery is chewed. Lots of stuff blows up. Innocent citizens and Kirstin Dunst are saved. The Green Goblin is killed.

 

EXT. CEMETARY – MORNING

 

KIRSTIN DUNST: Oh, Tobey! Even though Spiderman is hot for me and he’s way cooler and sexier than you, I love you and not him.  Pay no attention to the fact that I’m dating your best friend, James Franco. You are the one I love.

 

TOBEY MAGUIRE: Kirstin, despite the fact that I’ve worshipped you from afar since we were in the fourth grade together, I must pretend not to share your feelings because you are dating James Franco and I just killed his Dad. Wait, that’s not a good reason…

 

JAMES FRANCO: Thank you for killing my father, Spiderman. I have succeeded in enlarging my role, and my payday for the sequel is assured since I’m now a handsome young guy with money to burn and an axe to grind against you. And I think I’m still dating Kirstin Dunst.

 

TOBEY MAGUIRE: Okay.  See ya in the sequel, then.

 

AUDIENCE: We’ve never seen such a blatant set-up for a sequel.  We are outraged, and will not be taken advantage of! 

            (beat)

Where can we buy the limited edition action figures?

 

 

This post, from Marelisa Fabrega, originally appeared on her Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online on 5/24/09.

The entire writing process is fraught with perils. Many writers would argue that the hardest part of writing is beginning. When asked what was the most frightening thing he had ever encountered, novelist Ernest Hemingway said, “A blank sheet of paper.”

Other writers believe that ideas are easy, it’s in the execution of those ideas that the hard work really begins. You have to show up every day and slowly give shape to your ideas, trying to find just the right words, searching for the right turn of phrase, until it all morphs into something real.

Then comes the wait to discover how your writing will be received. Chilean author Isabel Allende once said that writing a book is like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it in the ocean. You never know if it will reach any shores.

So just how do you go about facing an empty page, coaxing your ideas into the world of form, and steering the end result toward shore? You can start by studying the tips and advice from writers presented below.

photo credit: visualpanic

Stephen King – Read A Lot and Write A Lot

“If you want to be a writer,” says Stephen King, “you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

King, who has written over 50 books, emphasizes that writers have to be well-read. He adds that he has no patience for people who tell him that they want to be writers but they can’t find the time to read. The answer is simple: if you don’t read, you can’t be a writer. You have to read just about everything. In addition, you also have to write in order to develop your own style.

When it comes to the reading part of it, King explained during a lecture at Yale that if you read enough, there’s this magic moment which will always come to you if you want to be a writer. It’s the moment when you put down some book and say: “This really sucks . . . I can do better than this . . . And this guy got published.” So go ahead, read all you can, and wait for that magical moment. (Watch the YouTube video clip).

“On Writing”–published in 2000–is both a textbook for writers and a memoir of King’s life. Here’s an excerpt from “On Writing” in which King offers advice on pacing:

“Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggests cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings)…I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: “Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.”

Read the rest of the post, which includes advice from authors John Grisham, Erica Jong, Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard, Maya Angelou and Seth Godin, on the Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.

This post, from Nick Mamatas, originally appeared on his nihilistic_kid blog on 12/8/09.

All right, all right, here we go. These are reasons why one should write and seek to publish short stories, in order:

1. one enjoys writing short stories
2. one enjoys reading short stories
3. one can gain some benefit from publishing short stories.

If you’re writing short stories to "get your name out there", let me assure you that there are many many easier ways unless your short stories are superlative. (And yes, plenty of people publish some stories and then some novels, but that is not the same as saying that the publishing of stories contributed to the publication of the novels.) If you’re writing short stories to "practice" writing novels, please stop right now as this practice tends to lead to both mediocre stories and mediocre novels. (Which doesn’t mean you won’t make money or get awards or have little fanboys or anything, but you will stink up the place, regardless.) If you don’t like writing short stories and don’t like reading them, the benefits you can even hope to gain from publishing them will be even slimmer than otherwise.

The benefits of publishing short stories depend partially on genre. In science fiction/fantasy/horror, one of the benefits is the payment of anywhere from $25 to a thousand dollars or so. Generally, payments for stories fall somewhere in the low three-digits and there are some opportunities for reprinting or repurposing stories. Perhaps as many as a couple tens of thousands of people will read your story as well, which is both a psychological benefit and some level of commercial benefit—more solicitations, for example, and to a much lesser extent some way of having one’s novel looked at (not published!). Venues that do not pay very well or at all are generally not read by more than a few hundred people, many of them submitters. Thus, there is no value in publishing in most of these venues, especially since the editors are generally dim bulbs themselves, so anything they may have to tell you about good writing will likely be idiosyncratic at best or just wrong at worst.

There are exceptions, of course, and these are generally based around this or that particular marginal aesthetic (e.g., Lovecraftian fiction, contemporary versions of "classic" ghost stories, First World attempts at "literary fantasy", etc.) It’s not that these venues are widely read despite not paying well, but that they are closely read by some editors and other "important" people and that help with having a specialty press put out a collection, or almost winning an award, or republication in a best-of annual, or a soliciation to a larger venue, etc.
 

Read the rest of the post on Nick Mamatas’ nihilistic_kid blog.

I’ve written a book titled Christmas Traditions – An Amish Love Story ISBN 0982459513

The story is set around Christmas, but that shouldn’t stop readers from buying the book any time of year. Having said that I can tell you this book will make an excellent Christmas gift and if purchased from me, I’ll sign the book.

The book is about an Amish man and a once Amish woman. When forced to spend time together at Christmas, the couple make each other miserable while they try to carry out Amish and English traditions for a little boy they both love.

Here is a list of sites to check out my book or to buy it. Looks like Christmas Traditions isn’t that hard to find if you know where to look. If anyone is interested in purchasing Christmas Traditions from the author so the book is signed you may go to my bookstore

www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com

Ebay – the synopsis and physical description for the book is on my seller’s site and reviews from buyers

Free classified ads websites

Www.freeclassifiedads/fayrisnerstore

Www.oodle.com/christmastraditions

Amazon sells my books so look up search words – amish fiction – an amish love story or put my name in the advanced search Fay Risner – Christmas Traditions – isbn 0982459513

Curious about what search words bring up my book for internet searchers to find, I typed in a few to see what I’d get and was surprised at what I found, including my books advertised in other countries.

Search – Iowa authors

That search didn’t bring up any authors. Another self published Iowa author mentioned to me recently that Iowa should find a way to promote Iowa authors. That would especially be a help to self published authors. I’ve had buyers purchase my books because I am from this state and because some of my stories are set in Iowa. If there is a website or organization that does promote Iowa authors (without fees attached) as part of our state’s creative resources, I’d like to know about it.

Google searches

Amish fiction didn’t work. I don’t understand that since Christmas Traditions is Amish fiction.

Search – Amish christmas love book

For this book amish christmas romance book didn’t work. I think the reason is I used love story as the subtitle.

Page 1 www.amazon.com/Christmas Traditions

www.olx.com/christmas traditionsanamishlovestory-41502734

Search – Amish christmas love story

Page 2 www.oodle.com/view/Christmas Traditions

Page 4 books.google.com/books

Search – Fay Risner

Page 1 www.flipkart.com/…fayrisner

www.librarything.com/author/risnerfay

Page 2 reviews.ebay.com/christmastraditions-byFayRisner

Page 3 www.oodle.com/view/christmas…an…fayrisner

Page 7 www.kalahari.net/books/Christmas-Traditions/911/34687679.aspx

Page 8 tweetmeme.com/…./amazon.com-Christmas-Traditions-9780982459515-sylvia-fay-risner-books

Page9 www.classified.com/books-magazine-ad 1858361.htm

Page 10 www.scribblygumbooks.com.au/9780982459515.html-

Page 12 www.booktopia.com.au/christ…/pro970982459515.html

Page 15 www.campusbooks.com/authors/f/fay-risner.html

Page 16 www.bookrenter.com/products/details/9781438248899

Page 17 66.220.11.194/visit/viewwork.asp?authorID=87483&id=27698

Search – Booksbyfay (this is my login name)

Page 7 books.google.com/books/christmastraditions

Yahoo search engine

Search – Amish christmas love story

Page 1 www.oodle.com/view/christmastraditions

Page 3 www.amazon.com/tag/fictions/christmastraditions

Page 11 www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/author/risner-ChristmasTraditions

Page 13 www.booktour.com/author/fay_risner/christmastraditions

Search – Fay Risner

Page 1 search.barnesandnobles.com/ChristmasTraditions

Reviews.ebay.com/christmas-traditions-by-Fay-Risner

Page 2 www.weread.com/book/christmastraditions

www.authorden.com/visit/viewwork.asp?christmastraditionsid=27698

Page 3 www.oodle.com/view/christmas-traditions-an-amish-love-story-byfayrisner

www.classifiedad.com/books_magazines-ad1858361.htm

www.published.com/published/8207published.aspx

Page 6 www.flipkart.com’christmas-traditions (India)

Page 7 www.amazon.com.uk

Page 9 www.amazon.de/religion-spirituality/spie=utf88christmastraditions

Booksbyfay

Page 7 www.weread.com/book/….&container_type=booksread

Happy Hunting!

　

　

As per usual, I’ve been struck with inspiration for a new novel at a time when I have a plate that’s already filled to overflowing. I’ve made some notes and will probably steal an hour here and there wherever possible to keep working on it in the months to come. It’s a crime drama, something I’ve never attempted before, but who can argue with the muse? Here’s the opening scene.

 

The tableau of the dead girl lying on her side in the bed of the truck was beautiful.

Loosely curled into a fetal position, her head resting on her backpack and her glorious, sable mane fanned out behind her on the irregular oval of dark red that could just as easily have been a satin sheet as blood, the girl bore a countenance of peaceful, contented sleep. The clear, pale skin of her face took on a translucence in the dawning light, and a silvery film of mist clung to the cardigan and skirt of her immaculate school uniform. Her small purse, cell phone, iPod and car keys, the totems and talismans of her life, were arrayed before her in a deliberate semicircle, and as the sun rose in earnest the shadow cast by her shoulder imbued the scene with the impression of a carefully constructed sundial. Maroon gapes ran from her wrists nearly to the inner bend of each elbow, the one on her right arm shorter and more jagged than that on her left. A box cutter lay directly in front of her abdomen, seeming to point to the 4 o’clock marker of her iPod. Her name was Lily.

 

 

Well, at least it’s getting somewhere! I’d like to extend a Holiday Thank you to all the Publetarians and various assorted other readers out there who’ve enjoyed, or been annoyed by my rants and articles.  Thanks, especially to those who’ve left me comments I could actually use — there have been quite a few of them. I may be an old crank, but I’m still learning, and the cranking is beginning to get easier as I turn the handle!

My day job will be taking all together too much of my time through the Holidays, so my curmudgeonly output may become a bit sporadic.  If any of you have the desire to read my weigh-in on any subjects close to the heart of book marketing techniques, or anything else, for that matter, please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below. 

The past few days have had lots of breaking news that seems to be "all good" for Indie Authors and Publishers.  I’m going to concentrate on doing whatever I can to maximize the benefits for my own publishing, and I’ll let you all know what I think, of course, as I get results worth thinking about.  There are quite a few bumps in the playing field that are getting in my way, so something will have to be done.

Now, get out there and work your levels and shovels — we still have a long way to go until the field is indeed, democratic!

 

 

This post, from Lynn Price, originally appeared on the Behler Blog (of Behler Publications) on 11/30/09.

“Thank you.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Are they attacking me personally?

Eh, sometimes. Face it, there are some real wheezbags who, for any number of reasons, enjoy ripping the heart out of writers  – anyone seen Authonomy lately?

Maybe they were dropped on their heads at birth. Who knows? Regardless of their motives, they took the time to read your work. Don’t own those critiques, even when they’re good. It’s one opinion of many. Look beyond the sting or the joy, and see if they may have a valid point. If they do, great. If they don’t, great.

The long and short of crits is that they are designed to point out flaws that the reader felt existed. Remember, our writing doesn’t come directly from the hands of the Great Cosmic Muffin, and we all need to be critiqued and edited.

Am I ready for crits?

My philosophy is that anyone who reads crits and goes into the fetal position and cries while sucking on a pound of chocolate may not be ready to put their work out there. The only time you’re allowed to drink heavily, eat pounds of chocolate, and cry is when you’re writing your book and when you get your edits back from your editor. Everyone else is navel lint and not worth expending such emotion. [Edited to add: Ok, fetal position, drinking, eating chocolate is also allowed with crits PROVIDED you understand you’re being unreasonable] …thanks, Pelo.

I remember one a friend of mine blew his stack over a tepid review from Publishers Weekly. He was ready to contact the reviewer and read him the riot act. I told him that under no circumstances would he do anything of the sort. First off, the reviewer took his time to read the book. Secondly, out of the thousands of books that come into the magazine each week, he chose his book. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Do they have a point?

 

Read the rest of the post on the Behler Blog. Lynn Price is the Editorial Director for Behler Publications and the author of The Writer’s Essential Tacklebox.

This post, from The Denver Bibliophile, originally appeared on The Denver Bibliophile blog on 12/2/09.

In fiction, probably the most important question and certainly the very the first question that needs to be asked is, who is my protagonist character? This question invariably relates to another–who is a person? One may answer this question, as many writers do, by the seat of their pants, relying on personal observation and nuggets of insight gleaned from reading other fiction. But this leads to a poverty of ideas and a poverty of characters. There is a better way.

The question of the nature of personhood has been explored by theorists of personality. There are many theories out there, the most famous, to most people, being that of Freud.  But the writer of fiction would do well to familiarize himself with all of personality theories, adapting them for his own use. In this article, we will look at the Snygg and Combs theory of personality and the work of Carl Rogers and work with the  concepts to create a theory of story character. (A good introduction to personality theories, with citations for further reading, can be found here, http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/perscontents.html )

Snygg and Combs theorize that there exists something called the “phenomenal field,” which is a way to conceptualize our subjective reality, the world of a person’s awareness. It includes a person’s thoughts, concepts, beliefs, and ideas. If we wish to understand why a person behaves as he does, we need to understand their phenomenal field.

But the field is not something that can be observed and certainly it is not something the writer should explain in exposition.  Rather, the writer must present this phenomenal field to the reader through the character’s behavior. Specific action in specific situation becomes, then, like a snapshot of the phenomenal field. Character’s phenomenal field, therefore, is revealed continually through the character’s actions in the story.

Initially, the character’s phenomenal field is only hinted at and its totality remains unknown to the reader. In fact, the phenomenal field should never be revealed completely, nor can it be, for the character in a story may not go through the required range of behaviors to allow such a complete revelation. And this is as it should be, for a character that is completely knowable is boring. The character must be understandable, but not completely knowable, for no human being is.

Read the rest of the post, and many more excellent articles on craft, on The Denver Bibliophile blog.