Writing Settings

One of the most loved and respected authors of western fiction was Louis L’amour.. His fans found his stories to be very realistic because of the accuracy of his settings. If one of his stories mentioned a specific well or spring, you could go to that location and find it. This is because L’amour had done so before he wrote about it. His research was meticulous.

Does this mean you need to become a world traveler to be able to construct realistic settings? Not necessarily. I’ve been fortunate to have lived in or traveled in a number of countries in Europe and Asia, so I could search my memory and describe a particular location I had personally experienced just like L’amour had done.

Detailed, accurate settings make for interesting reading. This is why books are often referred to as armchair adventures. But, what’s an author to do if his story takes him to a place he’s never been? All is not lost. First there are atlases for those of us who know how to read a good map. Second, there are sources of good information in Google and Wikipedia. Most importantly, there are UTube  and documentaries which can give you a look at far away places. Any author who doesn’t avail himself of these resources is just plain lazy. By studying and seeing for oneself the locations you’re writing about, you can produce much more interesting works.

OK, how about science fiction and fantasy? Did you ever notice how many fantasy novels come with an excellent map of the stories’ settings? I always find myself checking such maps as I read just so I’m clear as to where everything is. The beauty of scifi is its settings are whatever the author wants them to be; therefore, detailed descriptions become essential.

Good settings are the sign of good fiction writers. They add spice to your stories. They also add connectivity with your readership for those who have been to the places you write about. Do your due diligence to make what you write as believable as possible.

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

Mcdonald’s UK To Put Books Into The Hands Of Families

This news release, from The National Literacy Trust in the UK, originally appeared on that site on 1/11/12.

"…almost four million children in Britain – one in three – do not own a book."

McDonald’s UK is to hand out around nine million popular children’s books with its Happy Meals, as part of a new partnership with publishing house HarperCollins. The promotion aims to get books into the hands of families and support mums and dads in reading with their children.

From Wednesday 11 January to Tuesday 7 February 2012, McDonald’s will offer its Happy Meals customers copies of the much-loved Mudpuddle Farm series of books by Michael Morpurgo, former children’s laureate and War Horse author.

The announcement follows research released by the National Literacy Trust in December which revealed that almost four million children in Britain – one in three – do not own a book.

Jonathan Douglas, Director of The National Literacy Trust, commented: “Our recent research showed that one in three children in this country don’t own a book, which is extremely concerning as there is a clear link between book ownership and children’s future success in life.  We are very supportive of McDonald’s decision to give families access to popular books, as its size and scale will be a huge leap towards encouraging more families to read together.”

Families will be able to take home copies of favourite titles including ‘Mossop’s Last Chance’ and ‘Martians at Mudpuddle Farm’.  Each book comes with a finger puppet to help parents bring the stories to life for their children, and to encourage children of all reading abilities to use their imagination and create their own tales.

 

 

What has Hitchcock got to do with good writing?

Why was Alfred Hitchcock a great director? Consider his film, PSYCHO. Robert Bloch’s PSYCHO is an inspiration to all writers who aspire to create a lasting thriller. Why? Because he ushers the reader into the story by showing, not telling. Hitchcock does likewise by allowing the viewer to build a much more terrifying vision in their mind than he could put on the screen. The shower scene is a Hitchcock classic. Sure, a movie is mostly showing – after all it is a movie. However, there is a point where one can "show" too much which becomes like "telling" too much. I think the comparison is a good lesson for a writer.

 

Writer On The Road: Wherever. Because I Have Skype.

This post, by Jenna Blum, originally appeared on grub street daily on 12/22/11.

Dear Writers,

Just when you thought it was safe to visit book clubs by phone and therefore wander around in your underwear drinking wine while you talk to readers…..now there’s SKYPE!

I find Skype miraculous. Every time I use it, I think of my dad, who died in 1999. How amazed he would be that you can talk to people through your computer screen!  It’s so space-age. So Jetsons. Yet another way to bring us all closer together. How can you not love that?  I can be in Wichita, Duluth, Boston–and have a book club literally in my lap.  (That didn’t sound quite right. What I meant was, I use my laptop for Skypeing, and I often hold it….oh, never mind.)

 

Even still, the prudent writer will benefit from certain ground rules about Skypeing with readers. I have learned these rules through painful, inadvertently exhibitionist trial-and-error.  I will share them with you.

A gift. Use as you wish.

JENNA’S RULES FOR SKYPEING WITH BOOK CLUBS

10.  GET YOUR YA-YAs OUT. It may take you some time to get used to seeing yourself on the screen.  And even if you hide yourself during the book club (yes, there is a link that allows you to do this), remember, THEY CAN SEE YOU. So get your ya-yas out beforehand. Find and strike that perfect pose.

 

9. I personally would go with your SMART AUTHOR POSE, the one that has a disembodied hand in it a la most author photos. Glasses help, too, even if you don’t really need them and they are just for show.

8. GET DRESSED. Again, THEY CAN SEE YOU. So don’t get caught like this:

 

Read the rest of the post on grub street daily.

The Publishing Cart Before the Storytelling Horse

This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 10/5/11.

I got a little rant stuck between my teeth. It’s like a caraway seed, or a beefy tendon, or a .22 shell casing (hey, f*** you, a boy’s gotta get his vitamins and minerals somehow).

Self-publishers, I’m talking to you.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump]

And I’m talking to the pundits, too. In fact, I’m talking more to the pundits than to those actually walking the self-publishing path. Not everybody. Just a handful.

If you get a little froth on your screen, here — *hands you a squeegee* — just wipe it away.

Here, then, is the core of my message to you:

It is time to upgrade the discussion.

Let’s talk about what that means.

First, it means: we get it. Self-publishing is the path you’ve chosen and further, is a path you believe is lined with chocolate flowers and hoverboards and bags of money and the mealy bones of traditionally-published authors. Self-publishing is a proven commodity. You can stop selling the world on its power. This isn’t Amway. You don’t get a stipend every time another author decides to self-publish. You’re not squatting atop the pinnacle of a pyramid scheme. (And if you are, you should climb down. One word: hemmorhoids.)

Instead of trying to convince people to self-publish, it may in fact be time to help people self-publish well. While self-publishing may by this point be a proven path it doesn’t remain a guaranteed path. In fact it’s no such thing: I know several self-published authors out in the world with great books, kick-ass covers, and they are certainly not selling to their potential. In fact, if they continue to sell as they appear to sell then I would suggest these books would have done much better had they been published — gasp — traditionally. Succeeding in an increasingly glutted space is no easy trick. Every bubble pops. Every gold rush either reveals a limited supply or instead ends up devaluing the gold one finds there. The reality is that it’s going to become harder — note that I didn’t say impossible — to succeed in that space and so it behooves the Wise Pundits With Their Long Beards to acknowledge the realities and help authors do well.

It may then be a good time to acknowledge some of the challenges of self-publishing rather than ignoring them. Filter, for instance? Dogshit. Total dogshit. Discovering new self-published authors is left almost completely to word of mouth or to the marketing efforts of one author’s voice. The discovery of just browsing a bookstore and finding great new stuff to read is gone. Amazon offers little in recompense: browsing there is like trying to find a diamond in a dump truck full of cubic zirconiums. Marketing as a self-published author is a whole other problem: it’s tricky as hell. Half the self-publishers out there still manage to sound like Snake Oil Salesman — myself included — and so why not try to discuss the best practices? Why not talk about the way forward?

 

Read the rest of the post on terribleminds.

Ten Daring Predictions for 2012 from the Indie Author Trenches

This post, by Bob Mayer, originally appeared on his Write It Forward blog on 12/26/11.

2011 saw great change.  2012 will bring even more. 10 predictions below.

The reality is, to thrive and not just survive, everyone in publishing must be willing to change on a dime and innovate.  My background in Special Forces taught me how to do that.  Also, it taught me that to succeed, I must take risks.  The company isn’t called Who Dares Wins for nuthing (as we say in da’ Bronx).

What do I see for 2012 in publishing from the perspective of someone who spent two decades in traditional publishing and two years in indie publishing?

 

  1. One big thing lurking is a major trad author who goes indie, once they crunch the numbers on their royalty statements (which are still working via the Pony Express rather than the Internet) and realize their loyal readers will follow them regardless of which imprint the book is published under and how their royalty rate can skyrocket on their own.  I still feel the fear coming off many authors about abandoning traditional publishing, even though trad publishing will dump them in a hearbeat if the P&L statement isn’t favorable.  And gives them very lousy royalty rates and restrictive contracts to boot.  Fear will kill you.
     
  2. Slow will also kill you.  I’d forgotten that “I’ll get back to you next week” in traditional publishing equals “I might get back to you in a few months, but likely never” in the real world.  That’s not going to cut it in the electronic age.  Five years ago, when describing publishing, I’d use two terms:  SLOW and TECHNOPHOBIC.  Both are killers today.  And they’re still damn slow. Tick-tock says the reaper.
     
  3. Agents as publishers.  Yep, every agent wants to make a living and keep their clients.  So they’re cobbling together some “experts” and offering services to their clients.  I’m not even going to weigh in on whether it’s ethical, my issue is can they do it?  Being an agent is not being a publisher.  It took almost two years to get feet on the ground with Who Dares Wins Publishing Can an agent do it?  Can their clients afford to go through their growing pains and mistakes?
     
  4. Authors as publishers: ditto.  I call myself indie, but in a blog post earlier this year I pointed out the term “self-publishing” is a dangerous one.  I’m not self-publishing.  I’ve got a company.  I can’t do it all myself.  I think the success stories from self-publishing will occur, but be few and far between.  What will happen is agents and publishers will use self-publishing as the new slush pile, letting the author do all the work, and then scoop in.  Nothing wrong with that.  I think it gives authors a fairer shot by letting readers and thei authors’ own initiative and work ethic count a lot more than the vagaries of the unpaid intern reading the slush pile.

 

Read the rest of the post, which contains 6 more daring predictions, on Write It Forward.

Is Your New Year's Resolution "Inbox Zero"? Here's How To Do It.

Inbox Zero is that state of digital communications nirvana in which you empty your email inbox, and keep emptying it on a daily basis. This may sound like a pipe dream to many, especially if you’ve had your email account for many years and your inbox message count is hovering somewhere around 1700, as mine was when I finally bit the bullet and tackled Inbox Zero. But believe me: it can be done, it’s not that difficult, and you don’t need to worry about the possibility of deleting messages you’ll later wish you hadn’t. First, let’s look at why Inbox Zero is a very, very good idea.

 

THE WHY

If you’re like me, you receive anywhere from 15-40 new emails on a daily basis. Some can be immediately deleted as spam, or filed in some existing folder, but many of them fall into that gray area where you know you’ll need to take some action or respond in some way, but can’t do so immediately for whatever reason. Maybe you need to do some research, maybe you need to invest some time in crafting a thoughtful reply…whatever. So you make a mental note to deal with those "gray area" emails at your first opportunity, and maybe you even mark them with a star or checkmark or whatever other symbol your email program allows to highlight important messages, then the next load of 15-40 new messages comes in and the "gray area" emails slowly but surely get pushed off your inbox screen and are soon forgotten.

Next thing you know, you’ve got 1700 emails in your inbox, you know that quite a few of them required a response or action at some point, and you also know that finding them will be a big, hairy pain. And even if you can find them, it’s probably too late to take whatever action you had in mind when you first saw them. Meanwhile, the people who sent those emails are thinking you’re a huge flake and entirely unreliable. These are not good traits for the reputation of an indie author, for whom building and maintaining a contact network are important.

You’ve thought about spending a day, or several days, or a week going through your inbox one message at a time and dealing with them once and for all, but it’s a daunting task. You can’t just summarily delete any messages that are older than a certain date of receipt, because many are from people you really will need to get back in touch with at some future date. You know you’ve got a problem, but you can’t see your way clear to a workable solution.

THE HOW

Here’s how you do it.

1) Create a folder called "Old Mail" and archive all messages that are 60 days or older into that folder. This will take a little time, since you’ll have to do a search based on your date criteria, mark all the matching messages as "Old Mail" and archive them, but it’s a whole lot less work than paging through the actual messages one at a time.

Yes, you will definitely be archiving many messages that really ought to have been deleted instead. But if you don’t have the time or desire to look at every one of your inbox messages individually, this is the most efficient tack. Besides, most email providers allow their users gigabytes of storage, so space limitations aren’t generally a concern. The important thing is, you haven’t deleted anything. So if at any point in the future you desperately need to find the email address of that contact who, back in 2010, offered to interview you when your book was published, you can easily do so by searching your email.

2) Go through the remaining, relatively recent messages in your inbox one at a time, and dispose of them appropriately: reply, and/or file, delete, or report as spam. Again, this will take some time, but MUCH less time than tackling the original virtual stack. If there are any you’re filing, but not opening to read because you already know what’s in them, be sure to still use the "mark as read" option before filing them away. This will prevent your email system from showing you an alarming count of supposedly new, unread messages for each folder.

2a) Don’t be afraid to create LOTS of folders. If you need to create a folder called "Reply After [date of your choosing]", by all means do so. Your goal is to get every single message out of your inbox, whether by replying, filing or deleting. Creating some folders with built-in action triggers in their titles, such as certain dates or events, can be very helpful, since you’ll see those folders sitting right there on your email screen every day.

In December I received many emails related to cross-postings for Publetariat and already had content scheduled through the end of the year. Rather than let these emails sit in my inbox, where the old me would’ve reasoned, "How can I forget about these if I keep them in my inbox?", I created a folder called "Publetariat-Publish In Jan". Now I’ve got all the relevant emails collected in one handy spot. After everything from the folder’s been published, I’ll re-label the emails as "Publetariat – Contributors" and archive the messages permanently there.

Be sure to create folders for your personal emails, too. I have folders for "Family", "Shopping", each of my kids’ schools, and plenty more.

3) Unsubscribe from any mailing lists that aren’t really adding value to your life, or that, despite your best intentions, you know you never actually have the time to read. If there are some you just can’t bear to part with, or don’t want to unsubscribe from because they’re from members of your network and you may need to refer to them at some point in the future, create a folder for each subscription and immediately mark each copy as "read" and file it when a new one comes in.

4) Gaze admiringly at your spiffy, EMPTY inbox and give yourself a pat on the back. And a cookie. You deserve it.

5) Going forward, every time you receive an email dispose of it on a same day basis: reply, and/or file, delete, or report as spam. Create new folders as needed, and dispose of the mail in your action-trigger folders when each trigger occurs.

You will find Inbox Zero becomes addictive. The presence of a mere 4-6 emails in your inbox will seem an unbearable clutter, and you’ll long to see that inbox screen empty once again. But most importantly, you’ll be back to taking care of business and done with letting important messages and opportunities fall through the cracks.

 

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

Happy New Year!

Publetariat staff will be off Sunday 1/1/12 in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday. No new content will be posted to the front page of the site until the evening of Monday, 1/2/12 at 6pm PST, but site members can still post to their blogs and use the Publetariat Forum in the meantime. We wish you a safe and happy holiday, and will see you next year—or, um…in this case, tomorrow.   No need to click through – this is the end of the post.

The Three Essentials Of A Great Acknowledgements Page

1. Make It The Appropriate Size

Your book’s acknowledgements page will play an important role in the critical and financial success of your book. Therefore, it is essential that you do not skimp on the quality of information and quantity of time that you need to put into this section. Do not listen to those that tell you to keep this section “short and sweet”. There is no such rule about “keeping it down to one page”, or else you risk “boring your readers”. This is nonsense. If your non-fiction book is on the short side, maybe a few paragraphs are enough. A much longer non-fiction book will almost certainly need a longer acknowledgments section. You need to plan this section with some serious thought while you are developing, writing, and building your book.

2. Find A Good One To Emulate

With some research in your library and on the internet, you will be able to find some acknowledgements pages that are done correctly and certainly look like they should have a beneficial impact on the book’s success. Acknowledgements pages in too many non-fiction books are poorly planned and not well written. When you see one that is done correctly, you will notice it immediately. It will look, sound, and feel like it is talking to you with respect, and show you, the reader, how much effort the author put into making his book.  It will pull you into the book, and give you an inside look at what went into building that book. As you read it, it will make an emotional connection with you, and you will want to know more about that book and about the author. This is a good acknowledgments page to emulate.

3. Do Not Be Superficial

Making superficial statements about your spouse supporting you while you were writing your book, or your hard-working editor, or favorite professor in college, or the famous author you met for thirty seconds, will not help you or your book be a success. Making superficial statements about anyone will instantly make your readers realize that you are superficial, and not treating your book, the book’s subject matter, or the reader, with respect. You must give your readers an honest, sincere, and insightful view into who and what went into making your book come to life. It is your job as an author to write this section in a narrative format and in such a way as to keep it interesting. Show your readers all the wonderful and interesting and productive people that helped you make your book a success – and worth reading.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.

 

Top Posts of 2011: Lightning Source – Reviewed

This post originally appeared on Publetariat on 6/3/10 and has had 3129 unique pageviews since then. It’s been one of the most popular posts on Publetariat in 2011.

Lightning Source (LSI 268.40) has become synonymous with authors pursuing what is described as ‘true self-publishing—whereby an author sets up their own imprint, purchases a block of ISBN’s and uses Lightning Source’s global print and fulfilment services to publish and make their books available for distribution.

 

“Lightning Source, an Ingram Content Group company, is the leader in providing a comprehensive suite of inventory-free on-demand print and distribution services for books to the publishing industry. Lightning Source gives the publishing community options to print books in any quantity, one to 10,000 (POD or offset print runs), and provides its customers access to the most comprehensive bookselling channel in the industry in both the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Founded in 1997, with its headquarters in La Vergne, Tennessee, Lightning Source is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries Inc., and a sister company of U.S. book wholesaler, Ingram Book Group. Lightning Source quickly established itself as the global leader for print-on-demand book printing and fulfilment services with massive operations in their La Vergne base and their plant in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. The Lightning Source digital library database holds over 750,000 books and has built lasting partnerships with Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Gardners. LSI’s strength is the flexibility to print and ship a single copy of a print-on-demand book or several thousand copies.

LSI has become so synonymous with POD (print-on-demand) that authors often lump the global print solutions provider in with so-called self-publishing companies like Lulu and CreateSpace. LSI is neither a POD publisher nor an author solutions service. They are a global digital printer for the publishing industry, but due to the explosion in self-publishing, they now deal directly with authors wishing to utilize their services. However, dealing with LSI directly requires a new account holder to verify that they have registered blocks of ISBN’s under a publishing imprint name and they provide an accessible bank account and sign a commercial contract with them.

Working with LSI as a publisher or author does require a reasonable hands-on knowledge of book creation software and the proficiency to provide and load-up print ready files to industry print standards directly to their website. This is not a service that should be used by the faint-hearted or novice author and I would strongly suggest that previous experience in self-publishing and book design is required, or contracted out to a professional prior to attempting to submit a book file to LSI’s database. My own experience with LSI reveals a company laden with online tutorials and guidance, a strong commercial customer focus, but a professionalism that means they are not available for hand-holding. This is one of the reasons their website is packed with the necessary information an author might need; from technical book specifications, a spine width calculator, and a step-by-step manual. The actual process of loading up a book file to LSI can be mastered with a degree of study, patience and attention to detail—by no means beyond any computer-savvy author.

https://www.lightningsource.com/covergenerator.aspx
https://www.lightningsource.com/spinecalc.aspx
https://www.lightningsource.com/tutorials/tutorials_title_set_up.aspx
https://www.lightningsource.com/ops/files/pod/LSI_FileCreationGuide.pdf
 

“Thank you for your interest in Lightning Source.

If you are a publisher…

… and want to become a customer please proceed to our New Account page.

Please note that Lightning Source does not provide design, file work, editorial, promotional or marketing services. These are solely the responsibility of the publisher.


If you are not a publisher…

… and require publisher services, like design, editorial and marketing services, please contact an author services company.”

 
Lightning Source, in the following benefit section, explain the Print to Order and Print to Publish programs they offer – meaning the author or small press operator has the option to utilize LSI’s print and distribution services or simply use their print facilities.

Print to Order

With this service the publisher sets the retail price, wholesale discount and return policy.

We send the data out to our Distribution partners (including leading distributors such as Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and others).

They capture the demand from booksellers, libraries and consumers and we print to fill the order.

We collect the wholesale price, deduct the print cost and pay the publisher the balance.

The price for this service is $12.00 a year per title. Just one dollar a month.

B&N purchases through Ingram Book Group.

As you know Lightning Source titles are listed in the Print-to-Order program – an exclusive service that allows Ingram to display 100 copies on hand at all times. As part of this arrangement, and to avoid book buyers from having to backorder, we at Lightning Source guarantee books ordered by Ingram will be printed and returned to their shipping dock within 8 – 12 hours, generally in time to be included in the book buyer’s regular order.

Print to Publisher
 
With this program we fill orders placed by the publisher and ship them in any quantity to any location. That can be one book to a reviewer or 5,000 to a warehouse.

As part of that service we offer Offset printing on paperback quantities of over 2,000 or hardback quantities of over 750.

Turn around time on digital printing is days, turn around time of offset is about 7-10 days depending on the books specifics.

Offset printing
 
Offset printing isn’t a component of Print to Order.
 
We also offer traditional printing services for titles that require large print orders.

In effect, dealing directly with LSI, is simply cutting out the middle-man—or in this case the author solutions services who use LSI, like Lulu, Outskirts Press, Xulon, Xlibris, and hundreds of others. The difference is—the author will pay $75 for title set-up ($37.50 each for interior and cover files). You are also required to purchase a proof copy and you are charged $12 per year to keep the title in LSI’s database. One important detail authors should be wary of is the LSI submission load-up fee of $40. This does not apply to the first submission load-up, but does apply on any subsequent file revisions after the proof is delivered. This is why I believe LSI is really only for the seasoned self-publisher, familiar with working with print ready PDF files. Print charges for POD books are set out below, and taking our normal 200 page colour cover and black and white interior as an example, her is how it plays out:
 

PRINT CHARGE EXAMPLE

$0.90 per unit $0.90
+ 200 pages x $0.013 per page $2.60
Total print charge per unit $3.50
 
Authors buying copies of their book directly from LSI only pay for the book at print cost—there are no mark-ups or built in fees imposed by LSI. The author, when setting up a title, decides what retail discount should be given, but LSI advises not to go below 20%. However, some retailers may expect far more discount (up to 55% – Amazon) before they will even consider stocking your book.
 
In light of the above costs – pause for a moment – and just consider what fees other POD publishers/printers will try to charge authors. Yes, sometimes the fees charged by other author solutions services can be in the thousands, and often, the author is getting little more than a printed book made available online.
 
When it comes to royalties—LSI don’t do a ‘Mill City Press’. You really do get 100% profit following the subtraction of print cost and retailer discount.
Returns Program
The decision to make a book returnable lies with the author/publisher, and significantly, LSI do not charge a fee for this service. Why should they? Returned books will be subtracted off author/publisher payments. This is one area which should really highlight to authors using author solutions services, and paying anything up to $500 for a returns program, just how much authors can be gouged on profits when the POD publishing middle-men muscle in on the business of publishing.
 
Online Distribution and Availability
Provided an author ensures their book is listed with Nielsens Books in Print, using LSI, who are owned by Ingram in the US, you are, for the most part, getting exactly the same promised distribution that you get with Lulu, CreateSpace’s Pro-Plan or AuthorHouse (AUH 222.38), or most other POD author solutions services.
 
Yes, you will have to look after all the promotion and marketing of your book, but the reality is, many POD publishers actually use their affiliation with LSI/Ingram as if that in itself was the gateway to heaven. It is not—but it is no more or no less than you as an author are getting from most other author solutions services.
 
Lightning Source may be a bridge too far for some authors, unfamiliar with preparing book files for a printer, but for the charges and gouging practices engaged by some author solutions services, it may actually be worth the effort to pause and contemplate crossing that bridge.
 
Frankly, LSI’s reputation as a digital printer and fulfilment service is not in question—they are also used by the world’s leading mainstream publishers just as much by author solutions service providers. Bluntly, if you are not using a service like LSI, Lulu (LUL 244.75) or CreateSpace (CSP 256.21) for printing and making your book available—you must think beyond the production of your book—and ask what exactly it is any other company is providing you with, beyond what the above companies do economically.
 
RATING: 8.5/10
 

This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney‘s The Independent Publishing Magazine.

Who Should Be Acknowledged In Your Book?

Here is a guide to help get you started in building the acknowledgements page of your new book. Your acknowledgements page does not need to be an exhaustive listing of every last person that help you. But at the very least, you must include all the people that had an important impact on you and your book. And, of course, the bigger your book, the longer the acknowledgments page, or pages, will be. Explain to your readers, in a narrative form, exactly what each person did to help you complete your book.

And don’t forget that the acknowledgments page is showing your readers that many people were involved in helping your book come to life. This will make your acknowledgments page become a great way for you to not only thank those that helped you, but also show your readers that you had many people helping you build a credible book. And don’t forget, the acknowledgments page is not the same as the dedication page.

Family: Your parents, spouse, children, siblings, and relatives who supported your efforts while writing your book. In my case, my mother does errands for me so that I can stay in front of the computer writing. My kids are experts at finding information on the internet. My wife helps with editing and freely offers constructive criticism of my work. I generally find extra time to write by getting up in the morning before everyone else does, and staying up later at night after everyone else has gone to bed. The family plays a very big part in the success of my books.

Sources: Anyone, such as librarians, teachers, professors, or industry experts, that provided data or information that was used in your book. In addition, anyone that you interviewed that provided useful information and assistance. Be specific in what each source provided for your book.

Editors: Make sure that you list any editor that helped you complete your book. Be specific in describing what each editor helped you with.

Researchers: Anyone that took the time to assist you in finding data and information in the library or on the internet, etc. Don’t forget those college interns and librarian assistants. Again, mention what research was found and by whom.

Illustrators/Photographers: These are the people that helped bring your text to life. If you used illustrators and photographers, you will certainly have a lot to tell the reader about them.

Graphic Designers: You should also give the name of those that designed your book’s interior, as well as your book’s cover. Discuss some of the great designs that they gave you to choose from.

Mentors: These are all the people that taught you the ins-and-outs of your business and career. These are the people that you credit with helping you move up within in your industry.

Writing and Publishing Coaches: If you used a coach, mention in what ways they helped you. These people save you a lot of time and grief. These people have much more experience with writing and publishing, and help you in creating a professional looking book.

Writing Buddies: The one can cover people such as your co-author or even a co-worker that you bounce ideas off of. Don’t forget your professional acquaintances that you work with and share ideas with. Of course, if you had a co-author for your book, you should have a lot to tell your readers about how your writing relationship with this person greatly enhanced your book.

Publisher: If you used a publisher, mention each person at the publisher that actually helped you improve your book. Mention what each person at the publishing company did for you and your book.

Foreword Author: You will owe a great debt of gratitude to this person. A proper foreword will have a great impact on the financial and critical success of your book. In some cases, this person might also be one of your mentors.

All The Rest: Here you can give a blanket “thank you” to the countless others that assisted you in finishing your book. This includes those that helped with research, writing, and editing, and those that helped you to develop and understand the concepts that you write about in your book.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com.

The Sixty-four Million Dollar Question – How Do I Become a Writer?

The other day a friend of mine said she wanted to become a writer and asked me for advice. At first I thought, "Who the hell am I to give advice. I’m still not sure if I’m a scribbler, a writer, or an author. Well, I have written a book. Maybe I’m a writer. The book has been published – maybe I’m an author. Hummm . . . OK, here is my advice.

 

Sit down and write – write everyday. Set aside a specific time each day. Maybe in the beginning it’s just thirty minutes or an hour, but do it religiously. Soon writing will become a habit. At first don’t get bogged down with creating the perfect sentence. Nothing is ever perfect to a writer. I have revised my book at least thirty times. If I allowed myself, I could revise it several more times. Write what’s in your head and sort it out later. Also read books in the genre want to write in. The authors you read have spent a lot of time learning their craft and have things to teach you. Consider, but don’t be deterred by the opinions of others – follow you dreams.

 

Anything can be fixed, but try to use the same word processing program all of the time. Each program leaves residual formatting that can lead to frustration when you move between programs. Don’t let your word processing program "auto-correct" your grammar. Spell check is ok, but also has its limitations (for example: to, two, and too are all correctly spelled, but may be incorrectly applied. Spell check won’t pick that up.)

 

There are many books on writing. Some of my favorites are: THANKS, BUT THIS ISN’T FOR US by Jessica Page Morrell, A WRITERS GUIDE TO FICTION by Elizabeth Lyon, and GETTING THE WORDS RIGHT by Theodore A. Rees Cheney. Finally, join a writer’s group, keep writing, take everything people say with a grain of salt, and listen to your passion.

 

For what it’s worth – that’s my two cents.

 

 

Why Santa Claus Became an Indie Author

This post, by Jeff Bennington, originally appeared on The Writing Bomb on 12/11/11.

Back in the day, before the Internet, global warming and eReaders, an old friend of mine who goes by the name of St. Nicholas, aka Santa Claus, wanted to write a book. He enjoyed reading the old classics such as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Frosty the Snowman and the ever popular, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He wasn’t trained in the craft of literature by any means, but he certainly had an appreciation for the literary arts.


As you can imagine, the Christmas season would take its toll on the old-butter ball. So after the packages were delivered, the cookies eaten and the payroll met (damn elves had formed a union and nearly brought the north pole into bankruptcy court), my holly-jolly friend would find himself kicked back in his leather BarcaLounger with a stiff drink and a good book. While reading, and slowly getting buzzed, he’d dream up his own novels. His love for the story, or perhaps his bout with ADHD, would send him into a dream state where his mind did a dance, forming new characters and worlds and plots that only he could imagine.

You see, Santa had lived quite a life. He had many stories to tell, you know, the usual world-traveler fare: fine dining, the occasional holiday mascot kidnapping/ransom thingy and  Colombian cigs. Finally, his vast experiences and love of the arts had come to a head. He took one more drunken sip of his Jack-n-Coke and rang his little jingle bell that he kept near his side at all times.

 

The bell rang and a sexy little elf strutted into his private quarters and humbly bowed before the saint. He asked her to get him his old typewriter. She suggested he use the new MAC laptop that had recently come in from R & D. He smiled, parting his beard with his happy lips and his eyes beamed. Minutes later, after a brief tutorial, old Santa was off and running, well, typing actually.

His life-long dream of writing a hard-boiled crime fiction series had begun. Words came to him fast and furious, whipping through his thoughts and into the computer like Balzac on his sixth cup of coffee (look him up). Day after day he crafted his series, finally giving him the sense of fulfillment he had always longed for.

He once told me that bringing presents to those snot-nose brats year after year had lost its glam decades ago. But writing had ignited a spark in him. He had discovered that he wasn’t a saint after all, but rather, a novelist, a gosh-darn-can-you-believe-it novelist.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Writing Bomb.

PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX – December 2011

The most asked question we get at The Independent Publishing Magazine is often along the lines of; ‘What self-publishing service should I go with?‘; ‘Is so and so a good service to go with?‘; or ‘Is so and so a scam?

In some cases, that is an easy question to answer, cut and dry, but in other circumstances, the answer is entirely arbitrary. We are not here to review and run down a company’s name, nor are we here to endorse a company’s services. If we were only to review author solutions services according to every point in our ideal list of what an author should get from a company offering publishing services; we would have very few reviews to share with you. In truth, no company has ever attained a 10/10, and only a few have recorded more than 08/10. In the autumn of 2010 we [posted] all our reviews with a rating, and any new reviews since February 2010 have automatically had a posted rating at the bottom of the review.

 
The reality is that some author solutions services begin in a blaze of glory and we might rate them favourably  at the time; others, frankly, are just poor, and yet, they improve (sometimes in response to our reviews) to offer reasonable services for authors. We are constantly updating our reviews, but this takes considerable time, and so do the initial reviews.
 
We get a vast amount of information from authors and the companies selling author solutions services every day – good and bad. We get a great deal of information from monitoring services week by week against the experiences of what authors report back to us. Simply put, and truthfully, we cannot reflect all of this information through the reviews. That is why the comments section under each company we review is so important. It is your recording and dealings with that specific company, and a positive or negative flag to subsequent authors considering using the same company.
 
So, how do we reflect the changing ups and downs with services?
 
We believe the PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX will help to guide authors to services on the up, and those, gradually on the down. If you like, what we are proposing is effectively, a kind of stock exchange for author solutions services.
 
The SELF-PUBLISHING INDEX was first launched in June 2010. The PUBLISHING SERVICE INDEX for author solutions services is something we [at The Independent Publishing Magazine] have been working on since June 2010. Here is the final index for 2011.
 
 
 
This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney’s The Independent Publishing Magazine.

But Why Would You… Insult Writers Like This?

This post, by Dean Wesley Smith, originally appeared on his site on 11/29/11.

 

A few weeks back, while out of town, I got a form letter from a traditional publisher in my SASE. Normal for writers, right? I get form letters all the time and they honestly don’t bother me.

Except I mailed the novel to that editor exactly TWO YEARS ago.

 

Who the hell do these editors think we are out here anyway?  Wow, talk about insulting to all writers. I was stunned. Did the idiot editor really think I still cared or was tracking my little submission to her after TWO YEARS?

Flash to editors: Treat this like a business, like writers are in business and your partners. I can see no reason why you would ever insult a writer like that by assuming we still cared while you screwed around for two years. You really are not the centers of the universe.

Two Years Ago… In Another Age of Publishing

Let me tell you the fun story of how this submission to this stupid editor came about in the first place. You might have guessed…from another challenge.

Starting on November 1st, 2009, a friend of mine and I decided to do a challenge and see how many novels we could get in the mail to publishers. (Remember, this was before the world actually changed for most of us. Traditional publishing was still the only real choice just two short years ago, even though Konrath and others were starting to shout about the coming new world.)

I put a new book in the mail every Monday morning to five different editors for three full months.

Thirteen different novels in thirteen weeks. (Then I had to stop and actually write another novel under contract.)

Now, before you scream, hold on and let me explain.

I didn’t write thirteen books. I just wrote the first fifty-or-so pages of each book, did a five-to-ten page synopsis of the entire novel, did a cover letter, and mailed the package with a #10 SASE. Easy to do in one week, actually. Like writing a short story per week, only with a ton more plotting. (grin)

It was great fun and I came up with some books I still want to write. Oh, and yeah, I sold two of the books and almost sold a third, but the sales force of the company couldn’t figure out how to market it. Go figure. Stunning what mailing books to editors can do for you.

Just stunning.

And can you imagine me doing that through an agent? (snort…choking with laughter at my own joke…sorry)

Here is what I did on the mailing side.

— Eight of the books were under three different and brand new pen names, but in every cover letter I told the editor who I was and gave my credentials.

— Two of the books were to specific editors for certain projects and those I sold, both as ghost novels, since the editors liked the writing and the idea.

— Three of the novels were under this DWS name which did no good at all. (grin)

— I mailed nine of the books to five editors for each book. Most of the time I told Kris I had finished a certain type of novel package and she just gave me five editors she thought might be right.

—I didn’t send any novel submission to any editor I actually knew.

— I never sent any of the novels to more than the first five editors. In other words, I never kept the books in the mail as I tell other writers to do. (I plan on writing a few of the novels now as indie published books.)

— On one book (beside the two special-project books) I only sent one package out because, to be honest, I didn’t want to write the book. (Got bored with it before I finished the submission package and mailed it to an editor only because of the challenge.)

— So the total number of novel submission packages I mailed in thirteen weeks was fifty-three. All different editors. No repeats.

Here are the basics of the responses I got.

 

Read the rest of the post, which covers the responses received and includes a set of guidelines for writer submissions, on Dean Wesley Smith’s site.