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Death of the Midlist

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In the mid 1990’s, most of the major New York publishers were bought by huge conglomerates—some of them foreign owned. Literary people were no longer in charge. They were replaced by the long knives accountants—bottom line bean counters extraordinary. I’ll never forget when one of these major publishers canceled the contracts of 100 new books. They told the authors to keep their advance; however, their books were not going to be published after all. At the same time, mid list authors—the ones whose books were selling ok but were not considered to be best sellers—were being dropped and their books were going out of print.

Blockbuster became the watch word. All marketing and editorial resources were to be directed toward the works by the known top selling authors. This created what I call the old warhorses. They were urged to pump out as many books as possible. When these authors began running out of creativity, the publishers began pairing them up with young turks destined to be the next generation of blockbuster authors. They shamelessly drew on the old warhorses’ reputation to pump up the volume of sales.

The downside of this was the elimination of publishing opportunities for many new authors. The output became predictable and lamentable. The long tail of the marketing curve (more on this in a later blog) was completely ignored. Many long-loved authors lost their forum.

The upside was the opportunity for medium and small publishers to grow and fill in the sudden vacuum in the book marketplace. It also opened up the market for canny self-publishers. For example, a mystery specialty bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ called The Poisoned Pen was concerned about the sudden disappearance of many midlist mysteries. They decided to buy up their rights and created their own publishing house, Poisoned Pen Press, which has become one of the top mystery publishers in America. They now take on many excellent unknown mystery writers.

How did the death of the midlist affect some of you?

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

#fridayflash: Special Delivery

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Gears grinding, the sorely abused SUV careened through the four-way stop at full speed, forcing the half dozen cars in its wake to scatter like ants in the rain. From there it wove at top speed down 17th, scuffing too many bumpers and setting off too many car alarms to count.

It literally cut the corner at Holt Street, jumping across a small triangle of sidewalk to bypass a Mini Cooper that showed no signs of forward momentum—never mind that the light was red—, displacing a bus bench and adding yet another battle scar to its disfigured chassis.

From there it screamed down the alley behind Carver Avenue, sending trash cans and boxes of refuse flying like so many bowling pins, and frightening two dogs, a cat and several pigeons nearly to death. It barely slowed taking the turn out of the alley and onto 19th, though the engine’s squealing plea for a much-needed downshift was heard for blocks all around. Thus alerted to their impending doom, pedestrians and bicyclists fled before the primer-spotted terror as it sped toward the t-stop intersection up ahead, and the floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows of the Mironi Brothers Bakery.

At one hundred feet, it held steady. At seventy-five, no change. At fifty the driver yanked the wheel hard to the left and stomped on the brake pedal, sending the rear tires into a smoking, sideways skid. The heap of metal, fiberglass, plastic and melting rubber plowed sideways into the loading zone, caromed off a parking meter and bounced to a stop.

The twentyish driver killed the engine and stepped out into the street, clipboard and pen in hand, head bobbing enthusiastically to whatever his iPod was piping into his cranium. He circled around to the sidewalk, entered the bakery and yanked one earbud loose.

“Yo!” he announced to the girl behind the counter. “Cake pickup for the Carruthers wedding.”

Time Stands Still….

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We’ve been on the road, traveling I-40 West bound to our New Mexico Hacienda.  Since our primary care physician didn’t get any seasonal flu shots before we left, he suggested we get them in NM. Not a bad idea, but the whole trip, especially through Tennessee during a Nationally-televised Swine Flue Outbreak, we were sanitizing our hands every fiftenn minutes and driving with the air conditioneer cabin air filter "ON".  Pretty cowardly. 

Once we got in and settled, I checked out my book’s Amazon page to find I’d managed to garner a 5-star, Highly Recommend from Midwest Book Revue!  Hooray! Hooray!  It turned out the excitement faded quickly, though…. No more flu shots in NM!  Ok, I’ll deal with that. I had work to do.

I wanted to upload my book to Smashwords for conversion to their electronic format. I had heard that Smashwords was going to partner with Sony and another BIG HITTER, so I figured this would be a slam-dunk selling venue.

Herein lies the tale of woe….file format conversions are not for sissies.  Right now, my writer’s forward progress has been slowed to a stand still.  A little back-sliding can be entertaining, though.

I’ll give you the whole, sad tale on this Saturday’s installment of the Indie Curmudgeon. 

 

Post-Gutenberg: A Culture of Ideas

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This post, from P. Bradley Robb, originally appeared on Fiction Matters on 10/14/09.

In our modern world, it is difficult to separate the concept of art from the medium it is delivered in. For most of our lives, music has been synonymous with the package it was delivered in – be it vinyl, cassette, or compact disc. Movies are even more difficult to pin down, having existed wholly in their medium as film before expanding into video cassettes and DVDs. And books? Since Gutenberg, books have been a wholly contained identity, where the package and idea were tightly intertwined.

With the blurring of medium and message naturally came entrenched industries dedicated to delivering the package more than idea. Thirty years ago, you had to leave your house to see a movie. A century ago, music was wholly witnessed live. And six hundred years ago, the story and the idea were not typically delivered to the great unwashed masses in books, but orally in a communion between thinker and audience.

Because of the financial requirements of packaging ideas – regardless of delivery method – each industry erected walls, barriers to entry, and in those walls were gates and gatekeepers. These individuals and organizations were tasked with deciding which ideas were worthy of the industry’s money, and the audience’s time. And for a long time, such a concept worked. The industries delivering ideas as product flourished, billions upon billions of dollars were made. The public was largely happy.

Or they were, until the mediums suffered a vast digital destruction. The combined increase in computing power paired with a popularized communications medium meant that the bar to entry was suddenly and significantly lowered. That bar which continues to fall.

I was working as a music journalist when that industry was waking up to this quiet, slow, yet dramatic power shift. For the first time, technology allow a properly motivated individual to remove vast swaths of the music industry. Home recording equipment could be completely purchased for about the same price as a single weekend in a professional studio. Making matters worse, the quality of the new end product was roughly on par with that of former standard. Discerning ears could and did tell the difference, but passionate pioneers were able to blaze forward – many removing the remainder of the music producing chain and selling directly to customers.

You see, it wasn’t Napster that spelled the doom of the music industry, it was Pro Tools and MySpace. These two items tore down the gates going into and coming out of the walled industry. These empowered the solo musician to both create and promote without someone else telling them how or what or where or when. And while the modern music industry is still alive and arguably kicking, the world today is experiencing a musical renaissance never seen before, largely without the Big Four labels.

How does this relate to publishing? The actual mediums bare very little similarity. Music is easily portable and nearly ubiquitous in the daily lives, able to be consumed and shared in small chunks. Books, while quickly reaching that same level of portability, asking much more of the reader in terms of time and attention.

But look at the similarities in disruption that allow me to write and you to read this essay. It was written on a computer which I paid nothing for, on an operating system freely given away, and in a pair of programs (1,2) that give me every ounce of production power that publishing industry had a near monopoly on when I was a child. While musicians have ProTools, writers have the entire computer and we’re waking up to the power of the server.

Read the rest of the post on Fiction Matters.

An Award!

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I was happy to learn yesterday that Storm Approaching has been given an Honorable Mention in the 17th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards, in the Genre Fiction category.

Excerpt from Open A Window – Alzheimer's Caregiver Handbook

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This is my description of what happens to a person’s brain when they have Alzheimer’s disease.

 

 

When we are born, our brain is full of well lit, airy, vacant rooms with an open window in each one. Knowledge and experiences flow through the open windows to fill the rooms as we grow, and flow back out as we mentally call on them to create the type of human being we become. Imagine if by the time you are in your sixties, you was to find yourself searching for a thought in the memory room. You find that the room had become dark, the drapes are drawn. You strain to see the familiar object you are searching for in your mind, trying to remember what it looked like the last time you saw it, but you can’t find that object in the dark.

That’s what happens to a person who is afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. One such person was a large framed, boisterous farmer who spoke with a loud voiced, salty vocabulary. First, the memory room in his brain became dark, then other rooms darkened as they were covered with a black shroud called plaque that continued slowly to spread from room to room.

As it entered the open windows, the plaque closed them, and the drapes drew shut to put out the light. As this happened to the farmer, he became a shell of the man his family and friends once knew and was admitted to a care center. In time, he forgot how to feed himself, had trouble swallowing, couldn’t do his activities of daily living skills, and could barely stand long enough to transfer from the bed to the wheelchair. The only vocabulary he had left was loud, frustrated profanity unless he chose to parrot short sentences he heard from the aides such as "It’s time to eat.", or "It’s bedtime.".

There came a time when the farmer quit repeating what he heard. His face became expressionless, and his eyes stared vacantly. I was sure that most of the windows in his brain had shut, became locked, and would never reopen again. I was wrong!

Since the farmer was in his room most of the day, I had taken to sitting him in the living room with the other residents after the evening meal. I hoped people talking, and Vanna White flashing across the television screen would stimulate his mind. As time went by, I gave up hope that what I was doing would trigger anything in the farmer that I would see outwardly, but I consoled myself with the idea that I didn’t know what was happening inside those dark rooms in his brain. You know how the window frames in an old house doesn’t fit quite tight, and a small amount of air seeps between the sills and the frames? I thought maybe that might be how the windows in the farmer’s mind were working so I felt I shouldn’t give up trying to stimulate him even if I couldn’t see I was helping him.

One evening at bedtime, I pushed the farmer’s wheelchair across the living room. As we neared a visitor, sitting by his wife, the visitor reached out his hand and patted the farmer’s knee.

"Hello," the visitor greeted.

"Hello," the farmer returned in his booming voice, and he called the man by name. The blank expression on the farmer’s face changed to one of joy at seeing an old friend.

"He knows you!" I exclaimed in surprise as I realized the farmer recognized the visitor, and he actually spoke without repeating another person’s sentence. The farmer’s eyes remained focused on the visitor.

"He should," the visitor replied. "We’ve been friends for years, and we were both on the board of a business in town for a long time, weren’t we?"

"Yes," the farmer answered with gusto.

I could see a calm look of contentment on his face as the memory room’s window crept open to let out the memories I had been so sure were trapped forever in darkness.

"We went to a lot of those board meetings together," the visitor continued. He patted the farmer’s knee again as he said, "This is the man who made a lot of the important decision at the meetings, didn’t you?"

Tears welled up in the farmer’s eyes as he struggled to grasp memories long forgotten. I hated to see him so sad, and I didn’t want this to be an uncomfortable situation for him or the visitor so I tried to add a little humor to the conversation.

"Oh, sure! Were those important decisions what time to go get the beer after the meetings were over?"

Both men laughed at my teasing as the farmer slowly boomed out, "Yes!"

Then I explained to the visitor that it was the farmer’s bedtime so he had to leave. By the time I had wheeled the farmer the short distance down the hall into his room and closed the door, hiss face was expressionless again. His eyes stared vacantly, focused on the drapes behind his bed which were closed across the window just like the pair that darkened the window that had shut again in his mind.

For all my trying, I hadn’t been the one to open a window for the farmer, but that’s all right because I was there to see it happen, and that was enough incentive to make me keep trying.

　

Published in Open A Window – Alzheimer’s Caregiver Handbook by Fay Risner CNA    ISBN 1438244991

And in Jolene Brackey’s book Creating Moments Of Joy –third edition 

ISBN 1557533660

 

 

 

 

Excerpt from Open A Window – Alzheimer’s Caregiver Handbook

 

Windows In The Brain

 

Crafting Your Back Cover — The Selling Continues….

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…or at least it should continue.  The work you’ve put into designing an effective, attention-grabbing cover now continues with the spine and back.  I’ve made a point of mentioning in the first installment of this discussion, that I believe the spine can be as important as the front cover in generating interest.  It might be where your sales presentation begins.

If your book is going to be marketed to book sellers, and they will display it in the stacks, then the spine may be your only chance to persuade a reader to pull your book out and give it a look.  It’s a possibility that you should plan for, whether bookseller sales are a definite part of your strategy right now or not.

Of course, if your book will be hard-bound in cabretta leather with gold-leaf titling, then this discussion won’t be appropriate, but for anyone marketing a paper-bound book, this is for you.  

Tradition seems to work…

Tradition dictates that on a book spine, the authors name appears at the top, and is smaller in size than the book title.  Unless you have a very compelling reason why you want to alter this, having to do with your book’s content, resist the temptation to get too creative here.  The traditional way is what readers expect to see, and it might confuse them, and lose their interest, if it is not set up that way.  Be sure to leave space for your publisher’s imprint, if needed. 

I like the way a wrap around cover/spine/back leads the reader to naturally turn the book over and over in their hands.  If your background graphic image can be set up that way, it subtly implies a "continuing" story — on the cover.  Hard vertical edges, such as in abruput color changes, from font, to spine, to back cover, stop the eye and might distract the reader’s attention from abosrbing your carefully crafted pitch.

Even if only a small section of the front image will wrap around, I believe it is an effective tool to carry the reader’s interest to the back cover, where you do the main selling.

The point of the excercise…

The reason for a back cover design, is to persuade the reader to open up your book.  It will carry some very important information.  Foremost, is your hard-hitting, highly condensed lead-in copy.  A paragraph. Two at the most. Only narrative that leads to action. Events.

Use a "lead in" as the heading. It should be considered your agent pitch on steroids — lean and mean.  You shouldn’t summarize here, you should give the reader a savory taste. Whet their appetite for the salient meal inside: tasty, well-defined and believable characters, an intriguing plot, and questions. 

I’ve found that it makes good sense to end your back-cover pitch with a question or two.  The idea is that the answers will be found inside — in the reading.  Never ask a prospective buyer a question they can answer "no" to.  Leave them with "leading" questions — the kind that pose a situation, impart emotions or create empathy.  In the case of a non-fiction work, it’s always a good idea to reinforce the benefits by leaving them with specifics — here, concentrate upon the strengths of your work, as opposed to any other source where the answers might be found by the prospect.

Assembling the pieces…

Insert this element using the grid we discussed before — the rule of fives or fifths.  Be sure to include live space for barcoding/publisher’s imprint in the grid design.  A cover wrap around here can carry over to bleed, or end 1/3 of the way over.  You can end it with a hard color edge — creating a dark field for your copy — or a gentle fade, if a white or light-valued copy area is what you have in mind. 

If the background ilustrative or photographic cover image wraps, look for apparent lines within the image that will provide a good visual tie-in the the pitch heading.  Use the same visual eye-movement ideas we discussed in the first two installments. Lead the reader’s eye to your pitch. Put your pitch copy in the proper position for maximum retention and readability using at least 12 point type here in a font that carries into the book’s content.  You’ve got one more element to place.

Smile….Really?

Another element that will be found on the back cover is the author photo.  It isn’t an absolute, unless who you are is central to the work inside.  On the other hand, a good portrait can work well in helping the prospective reader find "comon ground" with the author.  This personalizes the message, and gives the writing inside a real voice. 

Don’t just use any old shot of yourself you happen to have handy.  You’ll want to consider contrast and lighting, so the best of the image will be communicated even in a smaller size. It should be cropped tight for maximum "interaction" with the viewer, and your eyes shuld seem to make eye contact. 

Your expression, in the image should connected with the feeling of the "voice" inside, and the subject matter.  For example, I wouldn’t use an author photo with a big, toothy grin on the back of a work dealing with the Irish Famine.  I wouldn’t want to use an image that looked like you were burying your mother either.  I tend to like a generous, open, yet pensive expression in author photos.  Unless you’re pitching (you’re still pitching here…) something hilarious — when a big grin might actually work well. 

Try out a few different images, on dummies of the back cover, printed on your trusty photo printer, until you select one that covers all the bases for you and those whose opinions you trust.  Find out why they like the shot, not just that they "like" it.  You’ll get more insight as to what an author photo can do.  Also don’t be afraid to use a gray-scale image for your photo — it seems to carry a bit more "gravitas" for most viewers, but color might really be important, say if you’re a colorful person (red hair, green eyes, for example) or need to make a more personal connection with the reader.

Double-check the size of the publisher’s live area — for your publisher’s barcode, imprint, etc.  They will usually tell you what size they want you to leave, or it will be in their cover template.

Testing…testing…1,2,3…

One final step, that I recommend, is to find an old paperback, the approximate size of your book and glue (rubber cement works really well here) an actual size full-color dummy of your cover to it, making up a full dummy of your book. 

Then, dummy or full color proof from your publisher in hand, pay a visit to your local book seller. Even if bookstore sales are not going to be a major part of your marketing, the knowledge gained from hands-on experience running a bookstore can be invaluable to acheiving the best cover you can for your book. 

Make an appointment firsthand, explaining that you want to get some impressions from the seller and staff, and that you want to test your cover on tables and in stacks to see if the cover design works the way you want it to. 

Then go in, and do it. Take notes.  Be sure that every impression you receive is the one you’re after. If one differs, be sure to take it seriously. Consider a re-design if the departure is distracting enough to be a problem.  You’re looking for raves here — and while they may be low key (no gleeful clapping, etc.) they are what you need to hear. If you don’t — ask why not, and try to get your respondents to be specific.  Take their comments seriously — and consider them all before signing off on that final proof.  It’s always easier to fix something before putting it out there in front of the market. 

Finally — keep listening. Keep asking. If there is a distraction of problem with your cover, you can still revise it — if you’re POD publishing, that is — and acheive better sales as a result of your effort.  Don’t lose interest.  Your book may have new lives ahead you haven’t considered.  Maybe an entirely new market niche will open up that will require a specialized edition — who knows?  Keep your options open, and be ready to implement them on a moment’s notice. 

Good luck — remember that the writing is supposed to be the fun part. The rest is hard work.

Note: If you’d like specific feedback, in a curmudgeonly fashion of course, on your book’s cover design, then by all means, submit jpg image(s) for my consideration in your comments.  I’ll get back to you within a week, if I can.

#FridayFlash: Justice For Cody

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This is something new for me. Since I’ve been so busy with the whole indie author dog and pony show, I haven’t had time to work on my latest novel in over a year. But this new thing, flash fiction, has come to my rescue and I’m finding I really like it. Flash fiction is short stories of just a few pages (or less!), and many authors have begun posting them on Fridays. Hence, #FridayFlash.

The brevity of the format makes it feel much more doable than trying to make progess on a novel, and I’m finding the limited space forces tight writing and necessitates focus in a piece. I think it builds and hones skills. As often as time allows I’ll be posting my #FridayFlash here on Publetariat, since people come to my Indie Author Blog to read stuff about self-publishing and indie authorship, not my fiction. So here’s ‘Justice For Cody’. – A

 

She drifted back into awareness as the voice intoned, “…but we’re afraid your son’s—” the doctor glanced at the chart, “Cody’s vision impairment is permanent.”

“Vision im…you mean the blindness?” she whispered.

“Yes, Mrs. Cortez.”

She didn’t react, just sat there, pale and blank, in shock. After a full minute of uncomfortable silence, Dr. Whaley cleared his throat and motioned for a nurse to take Linda by the elbow. “Mrs. Cortez, Carrie will take you to a private lounge where you can lie down and rest for a while. Is there anyone you’d like us to call?”

“My husband,” she mumbled.

Two long, blurry days later, Linda and her husband sat at the breakfast table in their small apartment. Linda slapped the Formica surface hard with an open palm and raged, “No, Rafael! Paying the medical expenses is the least of this, our son is blind! He will be blind forever!” She stood up and paced the room as she became desperately businesslike. “He’ll have to quit Little League, and you know how he loves it. Then there’s karate, I don’t see how he can keep going to karate. The fun run in May, he’ll have to withdraw.”

Rafael grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to stop her frantic movements and thinking. “Linda, please. Forget about all of that for now, none of it matters. What Cody needs most right now is both of us, and his best friend.”

Linda’s eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched. “A proper best friend wouldn’t have made him do anything so dangerous. I never liked that Steven, I never trusted him!”

Rafael pulled her firm to his chest. “Shhh! You know that’s not true. We both love Steven as much as Cody does; he’s a good boy. It was an accident.”

“No!” she shrieked, and Rafael hugged her tighter. She buried her tears in his chest. “Don’t you care? Don’t you want…justice for Cody?” she whimpered.

“Baby, there is no justice for Cody. This is nobody’s fault.”

Linda yanked herself back from him and fixed him with a hateful stare. “You can give up on our son, but I never will.” She grabbed her purse and stalked out, leaving Rafael to gaze out the window. And feel guilty for being able to do it.

It took weeks to find the right attorney, but at last Linda was satisfied the Lynch boy’s family would pay and pay dearly for what their son had done to hers. She knew Steven’s mother would be bringing him to visit Cody at 4pm today, as she did every day right after school at Steven’s insistence. All of this Linda had learned from Rafael, having successfully avoided running into those awful Lynches herself during visiting hours.

Linda clutched the papers in her hand as her heels clicked curtly on the tiled hospital floor; she was looking forward to seeing the reaction on Debbie Lynch’s face. Rafael’s ultimatum sprang to mind one last time like a warning bell, but she shoved it aside. If Rafael didn’t want to do right by his only son, then she didn’t want to stay married to him, either.

She took a deep breath and threw the door open. “Debra,” she said, flatly.

Steven rushed up to her, shoving brochures and papers up toward her face. “Mrs. Cortez? I been learning about all the things to help Cody—well, my Mom helped me look on the internet…” At this, Linda shot a glance at Debbie, who averted her reddened eyes and lifted a Kleenex to her nose.

“—an’ I found out there’s this special school for the blind right here in Austin, an’ I got this application for a seeing eye dog an’ my mom and dad said it’s even okay if I wanna raise a puppy to be Cody’s seeing eye dog, an’ I can help Cody learn his way around the neighborhood till then, an’ I’ll walk him anywhere he wants to go, an’…an’ I’ll….” he burst into tears and threw his arms around her hips.

“Mom?” Cody’s small voice called from the bed, his bandaged head swimming to try and locate the sound. “Is Steve okay?”
Linda’s hand curled into a fist, crumpling the papers. She weighed them for a moment before tossing them in the wastebasket. She put a hand down to stroke Steven’s head. “Yes, honey,” she said. “Steven’s just fine.”

Open A Window

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I’d say out of all my books Open A Window (Alzheimer’s Caregiver Handbook) ISBN 1438244991 is the one I am most proud to have written. At the nursing home, I’d been approached by resident families with questions. Not realizing the awful twists and turns Alzheimer’s takes, family members were caught off guard. They needed education.

 

 

The thought came to me that I should write an Alzheimer’s Caregiver Handbook to help educate people who have loved ones in the nursing home. I made a list of all the symptoms and behaviors that went with Alzheimer’s disease. While I was working, I watched for examples to use in this book. Each example, I wrote down right away when I got home so I wouldn’t forget any of the details. Eventually, I had enough information to make a book.

 

The program – Lotus – came with my IBM computer in 1999. I know that program has been outdated for a long time, but I like using it for documents. I’m used to it. The program has a booklet maker which came in handy back in the day when I had to make hard copy. The book pages are printed from the middle of the book back to the front on even pages. Turn the pages over and print the odd pages. This wasn’t a perfect system. I had to start over several times, because of printer errors.

Finally, I had a completed manuscript. After some consumer shopping, I found a Print shop to make my books. I wanted two staples to hold the book together on 100 books. That must have been a time consuming job that the workers weren’t crazy about doing. The woman at the counter tried to talk me into using the spiral plastic or perfect binding. I didn’t want my book to look like a telephone book, and perfect binding was expensive. This special book should look as much like any other book as possible so I was determined to use staples.

I designed the cover myself. A simple window with tie back curtains in purple, because that is the Alzheimer’s Association color. That cover didn’t suit the printer. They had to use one of their clip art windows. It’s been awhile, but I think the reasoning was I had too many shades of purple in my curtain plus the brown window. Thinking back on that explanation, it seems to me that no matter what the cover colors, the printer should have been able to print them. Anyway, I paid the extra $25.00 for the cover. The discussion about the staples and the cover kept up over a couple of weeks while they held up my printing job. By that time I was anxious to get my books done before the Printer found some other problem. The window turned out to be a good choice for the cover after all.

The nursing home administrator helped with book sales since many prospective book buyers that needed educating went through her office. People read the book and sent me complimentary comments. They were relieved to at last understand in layman terms what happens to a person who has Alzheimer’s disease.

In 2000, I started an Alzheimer’s support group at the nursing home. Open A Window came in handy as an ice breaker. I read a chapter. That was enough to get people started talking about what has happened with their loved ones. You would think that the many people in this support group over the eight years I facilitated it would be book buyers. In some cases, that was true. More times than not, someone would get me aside, with tears in their eyes, to whisper about a particularly hard situation they had at home. Always, I could say I knew how these people felt, because I had been there while taking care of my father. I offered advise from my experiences but I wanted to do more. I gave them a copy of my book. At the December meeting, I always came up with some small gift for the members. One year, it was a copy of my book. Since I hadn’t meant for this to be a profit making adventure, all I wanted was enough money to cover the printing cost.

Most of the books I sold went to audiences I spoke to on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association. I was asked to speak at a training session for new employees at a Cedar Rapids Nursing Home. I left one of my books and mentioned reading from the book worked well for a support group. Soon after that, the social worker asked me to come to her support group meeting to speak. I sold several of my books as a result of that meeting.

The nursing home gives a inservice each month to educate the staff on various topics. One time, Jolene Brackey, a well known Alzheimer’s speaker and author, was invited to talk. At that time she lived at Polk City, Iowa. Since then she has moved to Montana. To find out more about her, her website is http://www.enhancedmoments.com This young woman gives a very dynamic speech that has her audiences laughing one minute and close to tears the next. Jolene asked if we had a support group she could talk to after the inservice. My group met at night, but I put out the word and had an afternoon meeting.

What I didn’t know was the administrator had sent Jolene my Open A Window book. After she read Jolene’s Creating Moments Of Joy book, she told her there was an author at our nursing home. She sent me a note to let me know how much she liked what I had written. One day, I received a call from Jolene. She was writing her latest book Creating Moments Of Joy the third revised edition. Jolene asked me if she could use some of my stories in her book. I was thrilled. That was the first of my writing to get published. Jolene said I was more descriptive than she was. That was quite a compliment from a woman who writes as well as she does.

When my supply of books ran out, I wanted to order another 100. By then I had come up with more examples so I had to do a new hard copy. Then I set to work on the cover. I didn’t want to pay another $25.00 so I scanned the window on the cover. For the new cover, I enlarged the window and the title. I bought stock paper and printed my covers to be stapled on the books. The old question of did I really want staples came up again. I held my ground and got what I wanted.

Under the window on the cover, I put By Fay Risner CNA. The idea of using CNA was to give my book some credence as help in a complicated disease. I got the idea while I attended an Alzheimer’s annual conference in Cedar Rapids. A speaker was listing who would be talking that day. One topic was about therapy dogs. The speaker said the dog used in the session was so well trained, he had more alphabet soup behind his name than she did. It occurred to me that I had alphabet soup behind my name. Granted I was way down on the health care totem pole, but still I should use what I have.

In 2002, I had mentioned to the Alzheimer’s Association director that CNAs aren’t getting enough training about Alzheimer’s before they start work. An evening session was started that year for CNAs to coincide with the evening session for family members. I was asked to be the first speaker. One woman in the audience is a social worker. She bought a book. Months later, I received a call from her. She was taking books to a social worker conference in Ames. Would I like to give her a box of my books to put out for sale? I was thrilled. She sold them all. The next year, the social worker took another box. A social worker at the conference took her book back to Grinnell. Loaned it to an nurse training CNAs and that nurse ordered three more to use for her training sessions.

Now I have Open A Window published. This is one of the books sold at the Lemstone Christian Bookstore in Cedar Rapids at Collins Road Plaza across from Linndale Mall. On the back cover of my book is a review from Jolene Brackey. Below that is as many of the reader reviews that I could fit on the page. I’ll talk more about the importance of reviews one of these days.

 

 

　

　

 

Mom tells me you haven’t fed her all day.

Dad keeps asking me the same question over and over.

Aunt Mable wants me to take her to her parents house. Her parents passed away years ago.

NaNoWriMo 3: What I Love

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This post, from Jodi Cleghorn, originally appeared on her Writing in Black and White blog on 10/7/09. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place annually in November. 

Knowing what you love about NaNoWriMo and always being able to remind yourself of those seductive elements, is possibly the difference between finishing NaNo and getting your winners badge, or committing yourself to the wayside and another lost opportunity.

I learnt this important lesson, of focusing on what you love from my dear friend Dan Sinclair (aka Mama Magic). She wasn’t actually writing about NaNo when she imparted her wisdom, but about mothering. All too often (and I am one who falls into this trap) we can focus on what we hate, what we struggle with, what bogs us down, what we just don’t and can’t love enough or at all. It’s no wonder we get caught in all types of negative circular thinking. If instead we look to and cultivate the things we love and enjoy, AND have them at the ready, we really can get through any crisis or low point. Or even better, we can create environments, both internal and external, where we don’t end up having to deal with a crisis or low point.

So I thought it would be a good idea to suss out what it is I love about NaNo in the lead in, to get a psychological jump start on November. Then if the going gets tough, as it will undoubtedly do at some stage, there will be a point of reference to return to and refresh myself on why I chose this somewhat crazy path (again!)

These are the ten dot points I came up with and over the next few days I will explore them in more detail.

  1. It’s all about writing fiction
     
  2. It gives me an opportunity to truly get lost
     
  3. It provides me with a continuing story
     

Read the rest of the post, which includes her dot points #4-10, on Jodi Cleghorn’s Writing in Black and White blog.

My Bio: www.davidluck@davidluck.net

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I was born in rural Wyoming during a June snowstorm. The wide open spaces of Wyoming’s high plains provided the perfect place for me to grow and develop a keen imagination. It was working ranches along the Laramie River that help me develop an ability to write from a cowboy perspective: sparse, direct, and from the heart.

 

I attended Colorado State University, graduating with a degree in veterinary medicine. I make Denver my home with my wife Shirley. Together, we have four children and six grandchildren. I have written three books: Ghosts of Leadville, a book of poetry and photography about Leadville, Colorado, Men Are, short story fiction about the loves, lives, and feelings of men as they age, and Scraps, my latest book of fictional fragments.

 

When not writing, bicycling, photographing, or reading, I perform orthopedic surgery for dogs and cats.

 



Scraps

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My new book of short stories, Scraps, is now available through Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble, and I invite you to check it out.

From slice-of-life vignettes to narratives with suspense, the short stories in author David Luck’s fiction collection stem from his observations of life around him. After moving from an isolated mountain cabin to a home near Sloan’s Lake in Denver, Colorado, Luck was intrigued by the activity surrounding the lake. Luck used these situations as fodder for this book.

Scraps’ first story, “Angelica and Carlos,” introduces the young Angelica as she waits for her son to be returned from a weekend visit with his father, Carlos. When Carlos and Roberto are more than an hour late, Angelica wonders if she will ever see her son again. In “Balby, England,” an American couple, married for forty-one years, travel to England for the first time and become the unwitting targets of a beautiful thief. “Going Postal” tells the tale of Maggie, a homeless woman; Jasper, a retired gentleman who has taken up in-line skating; and Merna, a cantankerous mail carrier —and how their lives intersect in an unusual way.

Infused with sensory images woven with beautiful language, the stories in the collection give a glimpse into situations, people, and places with which we can all identify. Author bio: www.davidluck.net.

Learn To Sell Yourself As An Author

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On Saturday, I went to a niece’s bridal shower in Cedar Rapids. Along with the rest of the family I now eagerly await the wedding November 14th. This couple, after five years of making sure this commitment is for them, have decided to tie the knot. We are so excited for them. We are looking forward to having the welcomed edition of this new nephew to the family. To sanction this union, the couple did what we in-laws have had to do for many years. They made a trip to Arkansas to get the approval of the rest of the Risner Clan. That consists of the groom being able to hold his own in bragging rites about hunting and fishing. For the bride, this test means being appreciative of the women kin’s southern cooking. Truthfully, I almost failed that test. I’m not a fan of white gravy but I do occasionally make it because my husband and I were raised eating gravy and biscuits. Where I had a problem was hiding my breakfast egg under bacon grease gravy. My refusal to dip into the gravy bowl the first morning was cause for concern that was only alleviated by my husband’s aunt passing the blackberry jelly for my homemade biscuit. I’ll never turn down any food flavored with blackberries. We’re proud to say the groom to be passed the Arkansas scrutiny test with flying colors. Now we can relax and enjoy this couple as they grow old together.

A book selling instinct kicks in when I least expect it. A couple weeks ago, I was talking to the bride to be’s mother who hosted the shower. She told me 20 women were coming. Many of them friends of the couple and groom’s relatives that I don’t know. So at the bottom of my gift bag under the shower presents I placed my latest book – A Promise Is A Promise (ISBN 0982459505). My niece already owns three of my books. I thought she might like one more. When my niece held up the book, she proudly announced that Aunt Fay wrote it. Fay who? "That woman over there. She’s an author," my niece told them. As the book went along for gift inspection, the guests passed on other items the bride had opened up (barely looking at them) and held onto the book to read the back cover. Questions came fast for a moment. What genre do you write? How do we get your books? Then the attention was turned back to the bride where it should be. This was her moment.

Did it end there? No. I happened to have a stack of business cards with me just in case. Now I didn’t feel comfortable pushing the cards on the women at the shower, but the niece sees these ladies all the time. I had no problem handing the cards to my niece when I went to her house after the shower. I ask her if any of her friends or the groom’s family wanted to contact me about a book could she give them one of my card. She was delighted to help me out. She informed me these same women all belong to a book club. She grinned mischievously as she watched an eager glow light up my eyes at the mention of a book club.

The hardest thing in the world for a self published author of a new book is to sell themselves as an author. Putting the spotlight on ourselves is hard. I came from long line of women too bashful to keep on nightclothes after they got out of bed each morning just in case company showed up early. I live in the country, hidden by seven feet tall corn stalks on all sides for months. Still I find the thought of stepping outside in my nightgown difficult. To my amazement as I drove through town one early morning, I noticed a woman in her pajamas setting her trash on the curb. Her family tree surely had women the total opposite of mine.

Public speaking has been a big help for easing my bashful streak. Knowing my subject (my books) helps me have the confidence to stand in front of an audience. Last June when I was invited to Anamosa for the library’s author day, the other authors and I had fifteen minutes to talk about our books in front of a video camera as well as an audience. I was at a slight disadvantage since I had 13 or 14 more books to discuss than the rest of the authors. Talking about that many books in that length of time took some doing. My husband sat in the back of the room. He told me later while I was speaking he heard one woman remark that I was a good speaker. It must be that my public speaking training was something the other six authors didn’t have. I have no idea what purpose the video was used for, but I can hope that it will be to my advantage as an author.

I went to Author Day convinced that I wouldn’t sell many books. New to the area, unknown author and this is a small town. So I took a basket and a small note pad to use for a book drawing. My three smaller books of short stories, inexpensive to publish, were made to use for giving readers a taste of how I write if they don’t want to pay for the larger books. The audience could pick the book they would like to win. After the day was over, I drew a name and mailed the book to the winner. I sent the library a thank you note for inviting me and being so gracious. Whether I had sold any books or not, I felt the librarian deserved to know how much I appreciated the invitation. The audience was around forty strong. I sold a variety of my 16 books and gave out many bookmarkers for their future reference. From the way the day ended, I am fairly sure I will get an invitation to Author Day next year.

In August for my high school class reunion, I gave away 21 copies of my latest book. For me that was quite a sizable amount of money, but I put an inventory list in each book along with contact information. These former classmates live all around the country. Hopefully, my gift of a book will lead to other sales. Giving each of them a book wasn’t easy to do. Their critiques of my book might be quite critical. (So far I’ve only heard from readers who were pleased.) They have known me for years and never once thought of me as a prospective author at the other reunions. They do now. Since that night, I’ve sold classmates 11 other books which helped me to break even on the give away.

I signed in on Classmate.com awhile back. I spent most of my childhood in southern Missouri so besides signing in for Keystone High School in Iowa, I signed in for Schell City High School in Missouri. Recently, I heard from a former classmate and emailed another one. Now do I expect to make books sales from those contacts. Not really but by word of mouth, one former classmate might say to another, "I heard from Fay the other day. She has become an author. Sells her books on Amazon. Isn’t that something?" The curiosity to see what my books are about might lead these former classmates to check out my books on Amazon and eventually to a sale. After all, one of my books is about a family from that area in Missouri during the Civil War.

During a book sale, one of the hardest things for me to remember is to ask if the buyer would like to have me sign the book. At the start of the Civil War Days book sale in September, I didn’t think of asking until the buyer started away. She liked that about me that I was a novice yet about the workings (pushing myself as the author) of a book sale. However, I did try to remember to ask to sign the books after that. Once in awhile, someone would have to remind me to do it. In one instance, I asked if I should sign the book. The woman said yes because she only buys signed books. My first thought was lucky her. If I waited for a signed copy of books, I wouldn’t have very many on my book shelf. Then it occurred to me I should feel honored that I would be in this lady’s collection of signed books.

Of course, speaking one on one to a buyer is easier than a whole room full of people. Knowing the books I want to sell by heart because I wrote them does help my sales pitch. I talk nonstop about the book a prospective buyer is interested in until that buyer shows me the cash. One man listened to me start a detailed account of my Civil War book and he stopped me. (I try very hard not to give away too much, but I want to make the buyer curious enough to buy the book to get the rest of the story.) That buyer told me not to tell him too much. He wanted to buy the book and read it. I’m so enthusiastic about my stories and eager to share them that I don’t see how that can be all bad.

When I’ve been asked to sell my books, my first thought always is I probably won’t do very well with sales. Each time it has been my experience that I have done very well indeed. I feel it has something to do with that personal one on one contact with my buyers. You see by selling myself, I sell books.

Interview With The FTC's Richard Cleland

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This post, from Edward Champion, originally appeared on his Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits site on 10/5/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. In it, he speaks to Federal Trade Commission representative Richard Cleland about the FTC’s new guidelines regarding blogger product endorsements with a specific focus on bloggers who review books.

This morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced that its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials would be revised in relation to bloggers. The new guidelines (PDF) specified that bloggers making any representation of a product must disclose the material connections they (the presumed endorsers) share with the advertisers. What this means is that, under the new guidelines, a blogger’s positive review of a product may qualify as an “endorsement” and that keeping a product after a review may qualify as “compensation.”

These guidelines, which will be effective as of December 1, 2009, require all bloggers to disclose any tangible connections. But as someone who reviews books for both print and online, I was struck by the inherent double standard. And I wasn’t the only one. As Michael Cader remarked in this morning’s Publishers Marketplace:

The main point of essence for book publishers (and book bloggers) is the determination that “bloggers may be subject to different disclosure requirements than reviewers in traditional media.” They state that “if a blogger’s statement on his personal blog or elsewhere (e.g., the site of an online retailer of electronic products) qualifies as an ‘endorsement,’” due to either a relationship with the “advertiser” or the receipt of free merchandise in the seeking of a review, that connection must be disclosed.

ftcIn an attempt to better understand the what and the why of the FTC’s position, I contacted Richard Cleland of the Bureau of Consumer Protection by telephone, who was kind enough to devote thirty minutes of his time in a civil but heated conversation. (At one point, when I tried to get him to explicate further on the double standard, he declared, “You’re obviously astute enough to understand what I mean.”)

Cleland informed me that the FTC’s main criteria is the degree of relationship between the advertiser and the blogger.

“The primary situation is where there’s a link to the sponsoring seller and the blogger,” said Cleland. And if a blogger repeatedly reviewed similar products (say, books or smartphones), then the FTC would raise an eyebrow if the blogger either held onto the product or there was any link to an advertisement.

What was the best way to dispense with products (including books)?

“You can return it,” said Cleland. “You review it and return it. I’m not sure that type of situation would be compensation.”

If, however, you held onto the unit, then Cleland insisted that it could serve as “compensation.” You could after all sell the product on the streets.

But what about a situation like a film blogger going to a press screening? Or a theater blogger seeing a preview? After all, the blogger doesn’t actually hold onto a material good.

“The movie is not retainable,” answered Cleland. “Obviously it’s of some value. But I guess that my only answer is the extent that it is viewed as compensation as an individual who got to see a movie.”

But what’s the difference between an individual employed at a newspaper assigned to cover a beat and an individual blogger covering a beat of her own volition?

“We are distinguishing between who receives the compensation and who does the review,” said Cleland. “In the case where the newspaper receives the book and it allows the reviewer to review it, it’s still the property of the newspaper. Most of the newspapers have very strict rules about that and on what happens to those products.”

In the case of books, Cleland saw no problem with a blogger receiving a book, provided there wasn’t a linked advertisement to buy the book and that the blogger did not keep the book after he had finished reviewing it. Keeping the book would, from Cleland’s standpoint, count as “compensation” and require a disclosure.

But couldn’t the same thing be said of a newspaper critic?

Cleland insisted that when a publisher sends a book to a blogger, there is the expectation of a good review. I informed him that this was not always the case and observed that some bloggers often receive 20 to 50 books a week. In such cases, the publisher hopes for a review, good or bad. Cleland didn’t see it that way.

“If a blogger received enough books,” said Cleland, “he could open up a used bookstore.”

Cleland said that a disclosure was necessary when it came to an individual blogger, particularly one who is laboring for free. A paid reviewer was in the clear because money was transferred from an institution to the reviewer, and the reviewer was obligated to dispense with the product. I wondered if Cleland was aware of how many paid reviewers held onto their swag.

“I expect that when I read my local newspaper, I may expect that the reviewer got paid,” said Cleland. “His job is to be paid to do reviews. Your economic model is the advertising on the side.”

From Cleland’s standpoint, because the reviewer is an individual, the product becomes “compensation.”

“If there’s an expectation that you’re going to write a positive review,” said Cleland, “then there should be a disclosure.”

But why shouldn’t a newspaper have to disclose about the many free books that it receives? According to Cleland, it was because a newspaper, as an institution, retains the ownership of a book. The newspaper then decides to assign the book to somebody on staff and therefore maintains the “ownership” of the book until the reviewer dispenses with it.

I presented many hypothetical scenarios in an effort to determine where Cleland stood. He didn’t see any particular problem with a book review appearing on a blog, but only if there wasn’t a corresponding Amazon Affiliates link or an advertisement for the book.

In cases where a publisher is advertising one book and the blogger is reviewing another book by the same publisher, Cleland replied, “I don’t know. I would reserve judgment on that. My initial reaction to it is that it doesn’t seem like a relationship.”

Wasn’t there a significant difference between a publisher sending a book for review and a publisher sending a book with a $50 check attached to it? Not according to Cleland. A book falls under “compensation” if it comes associated with an Amazon link or there is an advertisement for the book, or if the reviewer holds onto the book.

“You simply don’t agree, which is your right,” responded Cleland.

Disagreement was one thing. But if I failed to disclose, would I be fined by the FTC? Not exactly.

Cleland did concede that the FTC was still in the process of working out the kinks as it began to implement the guidelines.

“These are very complex situations that are going to have to looked at on a case-by-case basis to determine whether or not there is a sufficient nexus, a sufficient compensation between the seller and the blogger, and so what we have done is to provide some guidance in this area. And some examples in this area where there’s an endorsement.”

Cleland elaborated: “I think that as we get more specific examples, ultimately we hope to put out some business guidance on specific examples. From an enforcement standpoint, there are hundreds of thousands of bloggers. Our goal is to the extent that we can educate on these issues. Looking at individual bloggers is not going to be an effective enforcement model.”

Cleland indicated that he would be looking primarily at the advertisers to determine how the relationships exist.

[UPDATE: One unanswered concern that has emerged in the reactions to this interview is the degree of disclosure that the FTC would require with these guidelines. Would the FTC be happy with a blanket policy or would it require a separate disclosure for each individual post? I must stress again that Cleland informed me that enforcement wouldn’t make sense if individual bloggers were targeted. The FTC intends to direct its energies to advertisers. Nevertheless, I’ve emailed Cleland to determine precisely where he stands on disclosure. And when I hear back from him, I will update this post accordingly.]

Edward Champion is a New York journalist who maintains The Bat Segundo Show, a high-octane podcast featuring interviews with today’s writers. Be sure to bookmark his site and watch it for his updates on this developing story.