This is one of those it’s funny but scary videos.  To think these people are actually out there and they have the power to vote.  This is how Bush got in for 2 terms.  Watch:

Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC author Lisa A. Shiel completes her month-long virtual book tour for her new book The Evolution Conspiracy, Vol I: Exposing Life’s Inexplicable Origins & The Cult of Darwin this week. Here’s the schedule:

Monday, 23 Nov — Spunk on a Stick’s Tips (guest post)

Tuesday, 24 Nov — The Hot Author Report

Wednesday, 25 Nov — The Hot Author Report

Thursday, 26 Nov — Marta’s Meanderings

Friday, 27 Nov — Reader Views (review)

Drop in at one of Lisa’s stops this week and start a discussion. Lisa will reply to all comments and questions.

The book is currently available online in print at Amazon and Barnes & Noble (and most other outlets), as a PDF on Scribd, and in the Kindle bookstore (and, of course, iTunes for the Kindle app).

Remember that you can now read Kindle books using the free Kindle for PC desktop application even if you don’t own a Kindle! You can find out more by reading my blog post about it.

So, if you’re just joining us, last week I announced my signing with my agent, posted how I researched, organized and sorted agents during the search process, and discussed what I learned from the first half of the query process. At the end of the last post, I promised to discuss more of what I learned since I am (apparently) becoming blogwinded.

Fast forward to the first offer. I got the first off on a Friday (all of my friends have gotten Friday calls to. We’re really curious why this is.)

I was out and about and missed her email. When I emailed her back she asked if she could call…in ten minutes. Honestly, I loved this as it cut down the panic time! The downside was that my computer was in the shop and had the list of “What to ask potential agents” on it. So I felt like I was flying blind. Agent 1 was amazingly nice about this and actually suggested questions I may have forgotten to ask because I didn’t have my list. She was friendly, professional, excited and kind. I loved her and would highly recommend her to anyone. I did wonder about some of the suggestions we discussed and she was kind enough to send me written notes. I spent a lot of time looking at these and thinking over how I could attack them. A few I knew I couldn’t do. I knew I could go back and discuss them with her, she’d been very open with me and that wasn’t a fear.

After a stressed out call with poor Gwen Hayes (because I’m a worrier, and worrying always comes first) I realized that (unlike last time) no matter what, I would have an agent at the end of this process. it was an amazing feeling.

So, when we got off the phone, I looked at my list of who had partials and fulls out. I had sent out queries to my top 20 agent’s on my Top Match list and had more requests than I expected. Looking at the list, I sent an email to each agent I knew I’d be super interested in (which since that was my top 20 was all of them. Yeah, not much for cutting the list down that way) saying that I’d been offered a contract and wanted to know if they would like the opportunity to read the full and potentially discuss my manuscript.

Everyone said yes.

Some passed for various reasons: Not as intrigued as they expected, Already had someone with a similar voice, Didn’t know what to do with it.

Some waited until the last minute to email me back because they were busy. I understand, but one thing I definitely did was include a deadline (making it very clear) and stick to it. This is a business and you don’t want to mess with the people you’re already working with.

Two asked to read it and then got back to me a week after the deadline asking to offer. I let them know it was no longer on the table. One apologized. One was annoyed.

But several wanted to offer for it. And so the phone calls began. . . Oh, and one really great get together.

I can say that speaking with Kim was easy, straightforward, fun and informative. But, it was that for most of the people I spoke with. I felt very much like we were on the same page. That the things she mentioned were either a “doh!” moment or a “yeah, I can see how that would be better. Now I just have to figure out how the heck to do it.”  There was a lot to the phone call that made my decision clear.

But it was still a difficult decision because I could see that there was no *wrong* decision. Everyone I talked to was great. It was amazingly encouraging to discuss my work and publishing with such an intelligent, driven yet nice group of women. It reinforced to me that I was being blessed by the whole process!

After making my decision and hoping she hadn’t realized she’d read and loved someone else’s book (I mentioned I worry, right?) I spoke with Kim again, solidified revision thoughts, discussed the contract and we were a go! Then the second worst part happened (beyond the worrying) — letting people I really respected know I was passing on their generous offers. It was hard. It felt personal after talking with them and it so wasn’t. I think every author who has to send those emails gets a small taste of what agents who meet and do some preliminary work with writers, and then in the long run pass, feel. Yuck.

Next step: Send quick notes to the 7 people who still had the query only letting them know that I had accepted an offer. Make sure you put something that lets them know you’re pulling your submission in the subject line so you don’t waste their time. Also, 2 of those agents thanked me for stating the date they would have received my query so they could find it quickly — they said that was a time-saver.

Two of those agents responded with the fact that they were disappointed because they were just about to request. Seriously, I could not believe this process.

So, what did I learn beyond the process?

I learned that my blog was a big help. Everything I’m about to say was mentioned by at least 2 agents:

• My free read and it’s ability to showcase my voice and writing in a different setting….also the mention of not being a one trick pony
• My fantasy – some of the agents were aware that I was actively writing fantasy as well and also had a fair idea what it was about
• Excerpt Monday – I was asked the reasons I started this and got to have a great discussion about the pre-business of being pre-published
• Bio – It’s a little less formal than the one on my query letter and gives more of a feel of what a nerdy dork I am – they should be prepared, right?

So there it is. The process as seen by a crazed YA writer. Right after this happened (like the next day) I got in the car to move across the country. It didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped and diving into the revision notes was a slower process than normal for me. But, I’m there — in my revisions — now and excited about the whole darn thing.

I love hearing your stories! To everyone who has commented or emailed, keep them coming – the support has been amazing.

I am totally in awe of this new cookbook, Cookin’ with Coolio, which, according to the Village Voice, REALLY DOES EXIST.  From the Voice:

Chapters are titled “It’s Hard Out Here for a Shrimp,” “Appetizers for that Ass,” and “Salad-Eatin’ Bitches.” Salt is not measured in teaspoons, but doled out in “dime bags.” Chicken isn’t carved into breasts, but “breastesses.” The pantry is the “pimptry.”

WOW.  I had no idea that Coolio (of “Gangster’s Paradise” fame) had been cooking in online webisodes on My Damn Channel.  Leveraging social media to get a book deal!  Sound familiar?  So entrepreneurial.  God, I love this country.

Coolio interview here.

Those who know me, or have followed the Marking Time blog , are most likely aware I’ve been posting very few entries here since the summer of ‘09 (and even longer in the case of  a simple desire , the other blog I help out with occasionally). That’s not an altogether bad thing, but I thought a note here to explain myself would be in order right about now.

I’ve still been writing, but much of the material has been of a deeply personal nature. I’ve continued to generate some interesting poems, or at least first drafts of some good stuff. But another poet friend recently told me that poems published on the web have even less chance of getting into print or being “sold” than poetry usually has. (In other words, one in ten thousand, as opposed to the usual one in a thousand…)

I’ve also been doing plenty of journaling, but that also is of a type that needs to stay private. It’s material that may lead to public material, but it’s pretty raw and needy right about now. Wrote a couple of sermons in my capacity on the lay preaching team at church, and also collaborated on a unique performance art piece for the St. Francis/Men and Nature event sponsored by Illinois MALEs and the CAC in October (see blogroll links on the right at Marking Time).

My dream journal in particular will probably yield a few short stories, and has been pretty wild so far. It’s the first time I’ve ever tried this faithfully, and I recommend it, to artists and non-artists alike. When we give our souls and our subconscious permission to speak, what they have to say can be pretty radical. And the transformation of dreams into something more fully understood, and rational, and useful, takes time. So putting them in print increases our opportunity to chew on that material for a few days, a few months, or longer. If  that translation or interpretation even needs to happen, which in some cases it does not. Dreams do their work on us and change us in ways we may not ever fully comprehend.

So this goes out to you to say I’m still here. Still okay. Glad to get an email, comment or phone call by any means necessary. I still read a few other blogs each week. And I’ll keep dropping little items into Marking Time as I’m able. Look for a new poem tomorrow, in fact… despite what I said above. A guy’s gotta blow off a little steam now and then, after all, and my blogged poems have gotten more positive responses over the years than any of my essays or columns. But my higher priority these days is to get a decent day job. And I gotta get my head together (What? Again? Yes… again.) before I give a whole lot of time to blogging, volunteering, or the other ways I’ve spent so much time the past few years. I get a lot out of those activities, of course. But I need to find new ways to give back to the world, ways that don’t keep me emotionally drained and financially strapped. And I need to get over loving the sound of my own voice far too much…

So for now, just keep me in your prayers. I’m doing the same for you.

In their attempt to take over the interwebs, one of Google’s most ambitious but least often mentioned side projects has been the attempt to digitize and sell books. They’ve had to revise one contract with US publishers/authors after several groups (including the French, the Germans and some watchdog groups) filed an appeal in the US courts. A judge is expected to rule on the revised contract in February.

Meanwhile, Google is also trying to win the French over in allowing them to digitize French literature and then sell it. But it’s not working. As it is, google has a website up to see preview books with customer reviews and links to other sellers.

A random click on the Clive and Dirk Cussler book, Artic Drift, gives you a good glance at what Google has in mind. The preview option is extensive with what appears to be well over 200 pages of the novel. To the left is a small list of book sellers with their prices next to them. There’s the expected options to review, buy, and change pages. And there’s what could be a devastatingly powerful option to search the text for something specific. Anyone who has had to write a critical paper on a literary work can probably guess at how useful such a tool would be.

This also ties into recent talk of Apple’s bringing out a tablet with a focus on e-literature. If Google can overcome its various obstacles, I have to think it would become a massive outlet for book titles for a non-dedicated tablet style PC that could be used as an e-reader. Rather than buying specialized files from Amazon or wherever, and having your files at the mercy of Amazon’s discretion, google could throw the e-reader business doors wide open to any company able to make a reasonably affordable tablet.

Of course, there will be the continued fretting over piracy (though, here’s a clue, people already pirate books – just do a torrent search) and google’s mass scanning exercise doesn’t do much for HTML or other programming language based texts, but I think the future is there.

Allbooks Review recently reviewed an excellent resource book for authors and writers. Purple Snowflake Marketing: How to make your book stand out in a crowd is a book filled with excellent ideas, tips and resource lists. Over the next few months we will be posting some of these tips and suggestions from this book. Stay tuned for some great ways to “Make your book stand out in a Crowd”

Purple Snowflake Marketing: How to make your book stand out in the crowd

Authors: Dave and Lillian Brummet www.brummet.ca

The success of your book depends on many factors starting with genre, release date, publisher’s policies, size of book, printer and publisher schedules, staffing, suppliers and condition of manuscript. The ingenuity, preparedness and experience of the author, personal finances and resources and location will determine the success of any book. All of this will influence how a book is marketed and reinforces the need for every book’s marketing plan to be unique.

#1  RESEARCH

Start by sitting at your computer and scan through all the previous postings on every section of your favorite writer’s forum and your publisher’s author forum. The reason for all this reading is that you will learn about reviews, marketing, promotion materials, media kits, distributor information….it is all there. With this information you can easily get a head start on your marketing plan. Effective, long-term networking through these forums can easily lead up to exchanging links, promotion materials and multi-author book events.

NEXT TIP:   SPYING

I’ve been asked by people where to send poems and what markets there are in Canada. Like the US and probably other countries, there are usually numerous literary magazines, either sponsored by universities and colleges or privately run.

Literary magazines can run the gamut but usually put out a perfect bound (a glue square-edge binding) trade size book, with fewer in a magazine format. The reason for the size is often the break for mailing rates, as well as what is visually pleasing. Of course there are many online magazines or those that do paper and digital at the same time. In Canada, the literary magazines could be funded by the university, provincial or federal arts grants (though these have been cut back to the demise of various arts organizations), advertising or by running contests. The latter has become a popular choice in the last ten years or more, where the magazine will hold a yearly writing contest and the entry fee can be anything from $5-$30 depending on the contest.

The bad thing with this is you only have one chance to win, or three if they have first, second and third places. The good thing is that the magazine continues to run and can pay their authors for their work. Literary magazines will vary in pay for poetry. Many may have a set rate, $50/poem, $10/poem plus a year subscription, while others will have a per page rate such as $25/page.

Other magazines are called genre magazines though I argue that they too are literary even if the focus is on fantasy or science fiction. Some of these are well-established and pay as well as the literary magazines, which on average will pay anywhere from $25-$100 a poem. A hundred bucks is a good price for a poem, unless you’re Margaret Atwood. Then you probably get more because your name will help sell more issues.

The genre and small press magazines are more likely to pay for poems by line or even by word though a fair number also have a set price that they pay . When you get to the small small press, mom and pop magazines run out of the basement of someone’s house it can be a smaller amount paid for a poem. Some of these magazines might only pay in copies and I would never submit anything without at least getting contributor copies. After all, how would you even know they printed your piece unless you had a copy and every writer should be paid. I personally don’t submit unless pay is offered for a poem and I don’t really send my poems anymore to places that offer $2 or $5 but I might. And I do send to some reputable magazines that pay $10/poem.

My reasons might vary with the seasons as to where I send. Some magazines are small and chapbook size  (8.5X11 pages folded in half and stapled usually twice) as this is a simple method for people who do not have the budgets for larger sizes and is a popular small press format. My own chapbook of speculative verse, put out by Kelp Queen Press was of this format.

It used to be that magazines, especially the literary magazines only accepted submissions through the mail. With the advent of computers in everyone’s home, more people started writing poetry and with email they would send off every little drib and drab set down. Magazines find the quality of the submissions is lower when they come through email, and therefore to discourage every would-be writer, they stuck to the snail mail method where people seem to take more time on their piece before they send. This is changing and many magazines are using the online submission format. You register and log in, uploading your file and adding some notes. You get an email receipt and can track where your submission is in the process and the magazine can track when items were received.

Most magazines ask for 3-5 poems at a time. It’s best to follow those rules and follow their guidelines (many of the college run magazines close for the summer when students are away). As to where to send your work; well it should suit the market you’re aiming for. Whereas genre markets require a particular genre and literary markets require the literary genre, when it comes to poetry there is more leeway. Poetry has often encompassed the mythical and surreal, using metaphor and simile liberally so a poem with angels or even a minotaur will have more chance of being accepted in a literary magazine than a story would. Most magazines have an online presence and may have a sample of the writers they publish. It’s always wise to read through these and get a feel for what they prefer or buy a copy if you can afford it.

OnSpec, Chizine and Neo-Opsis are three English language speculative magazines that accept poetry (I’m afraid I’m not up on the French-Canadian markets). Descant, a literary magazine out of Toronto, is open to some speculative elements. In no particular order, some of the literary magazines in Canada are Malahat Review, The Front, Broken Pencil, Capilano Review, Prism, Prairie Fire, Antigonish Review, Arc, Event, Fiddlehead, Grain. There are just as many if not more in the US and the best place to check for poetry markets is www.duotrope.com. For speculative specific markets www.ralan.com is the place to go.

The biggest part, as I’ve said before, in getting poetry accepted is perseverance; that’s both in writing and rewriting and in submitting. But there are many, many markets (even with the economy slump) and places for sending poetry.

After writing those two reviews of Twilight, I’m feeling pretty drained. But seriously, folks, today a word from the publishing industry:

Last Monday I attended “Words Worth Paying For? Publishing in the Age of Electronic Readers,” a panel discussion about the future of publishing. On the panel were Katherine Dunn, local novelist; Vailey Oehlke, director of libraries for Multnomah County; and Dennis Stovall, coordinator of curriculum for the publishing program at Portland State University and publisher of Ooligan Press. The panel was moderated by Al Stavitsky, director of the George S. Turnbull Portland Center at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Altogether, that is four great people and a lot of job titles.

Barry Johnson wrote about the evening for the Oregonian; you can read his article here. The discussion focused on electronic reading and its effect on our world. Electronic reading devices such as the Kindle (from Amazon) and the Nook (from Barnes & Noble), as well as reading on computer and cell phone screens, are on the rise. How will they change the way in which we read? Katherine Dunn made some insightful remarks about the incorporation of audio and video into e-books: vooks, as they are sometimes called, may even be able to squirt out some kind of scent to go along with the story. This is all very novel, and I wonder how this kind of interaction will affect both reader and writer.

When e-books come up, there is always a commotion about their replacing traditional books. Generally, the panel and audience felt that physical books would still be read for quite some time. The overall feeling was, too, that both physical and electronic books have merit and that technology is offering us enormous potential for both efficiency and creativity. Katherine Dunn expressed concern over the continued digitization of entire libraries: electronic archives can be damaged or lost. I appreciated her points about keeping “hard copies” of original material—not only to maintain the integrity of our history but also to preserve a physical history of the art of bookmaking. And I share her concern about the keepers of electronic history: will all this information be held in good hands? What are the consequences if some or all people are denied access?

Indeed, accessibility was a concern for the panel and audience alike. A lot of voices chimed in about the “haves and have-nots.” As we rely more on technology to do our reading, more information (aka more books) will be converted to and created for e-reading devices. Where does that leave people who do not have e-devices? We talked about this in the comfort of the largest city in Oregon. The discussion might have been more urgent and more intense elsewhere: as a friend pointed out, towns in rural Oregon represent some of the technological “have-nots.” She works for a library that still maintains collections of cassettes and VCR tapes because the community still uses these devices. This community has the sacred right to read. Will the rise of e-books deprive them of this right?

A conference room full of authors, readers, publishers, and librarians can talk for two hours about e-publishing and still have more to say. So there’s no way that I, with my limited knowledge and time, can do anything but skim the surface of a conversation that is ongoing and going on worldwide. As an editor, I frequently encounter e-publishing. Indeed, I have to stop writing now and get to work on some articles that will be published online. But I will share more thoughts about e-publishing whenever I am able to do so.

By Virginia Phiri

I was born and bred in Mzilikazi Township, Bulawayo in 1954. I now work and live in Harare. I made a decision to write in my spare time in 1990 even though I had a satisfying job as an Accountant.

I wanted to share information that would teach people something and entertain at the same time. I come from a strong family of oral story tellers in history and folk tales on my maternal side. This story telling has since died down because most of the elders in my family have passed on.

I decided to tell stories in a different way, I wanted to do that with paper and pen. I felt that writing it down would go beyond my life time and still benefit generations to come. I already knew what I wanted to write. I chose issues that would make a difference in peoples lives. At that time I only had fiction in mind. That soon changed when I was one of the women commissioned by UNICEF to write non-fiction school readers in 1994 and when I became an African Orchid expert in 1996.

Being a member of Zimbabwe Women Writers in 1990 helped me get writing skills through workshops, since Zimbabwe has no writing schools. Established female writers like Barbra Nkala, Chiedza Musengezi and Norma Kitson played a major role in moulding me into a writer. I still appreciate their help and patience.

My wishes became true. I am happy that since I started writing, I have made some contribution in the areas of education, research and social circles. Examples of some of my works are Desperate a book about causes of prostitution in third world countries which was published in 2002. The book became a prescribed text at the University of Zimbabwe in 2004. Again in 2006 it became a prescribed text at Hillside Teachers College in Bulawayo. This book has also become useful in African studies at some universities in the United States of America. It is also widely read in Africa, Europe and the Americas as the topic is universal.

In 2006 my book Destiny which is about the plight of those born as hermaphrodites was published. The book was well received as there are very few books that touch on that topic which is also universal. The book is very useful in education, research and social circles. At the moment it seems the book has had a new dimension since the issue of Caster Simenya the South African athlete gold medalist who has been found to be a hermaphrodite. There was a book review in The Herald of 28 September 2009 which had the cover of Destiny and a photo of Caster Simenya connecting the two together. I am happy that this book has brought the plight of hermaphrodites more to light. There is appreciation for the book than before.

Since 1995 to date I have contributed to at least a dozen Zimbabwe Women Writers fiction and non-fiction anthologies which are in Ndebele, Shona and English. Most of these anthologies have found their way into education and research institutions. My contributions in these anthologies are of issues that affect women and girls in the areas of health, inheritance, education, legal and social rights, poverty and crime.

Since I am now semi-retired in accountancy, I have enough time to write and attend book fairs, literary conferences and seminars. My next book Highway Queen is at an advanced stage, it should be published before mid 2010.

Resources:

• A Meeting with Virginia Phiri, Zimbabwe, so you want to be a writer, March 3, 2006
• Virginia Phiri, The Nordic Africa Institute, August 11, 2003

Related books:

,,

MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT SEMINAR
Saturday 28 November 2009

support and suggestions on how to prepare your manuscript for presentation to publishers and literary agents

Time: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Cost: €150
Venue: Centre for Creative Practices, 15 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin 2
Booking: www.cfcp.ie/maunscriptassessment.htm

NEW AUTHORS WILL GET A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO:
• present manuscript to a group of experts from the publishing industry in Ireland in One-To-One Sessions
• get profound feedback on your work
• discuss all crucial aspects of your work – storyline, plot, characters, topic, settings
• learn how to pitch your project
• get practical advice from highly experienced people involved in publishing in Ireland

This Manuscript Assessment Seminar gives new writers, more advanced in the process of writing their book, an opportunity to participate in one-to-one consulation sessions with Publishers, Editors, Literary Agents and Author.

The aim of the seminar is to give you the best support and suggestions on how to prepare your manuscript for presentation to publishers and literary agents to achieve the best possible results.

Get as close as possible to the real situation and get a constructive feedback on your work.

FORMAT OF THE SEMINAR:
Four sessions of 20 minutes each with a publisher, editor, literature agent and author.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PREPARE FOR THE SEMINAR:
• one chapter, possibly two or ‘favorite’ 5 pages of manuscript;
• double-spaced 2-page synopsis written in present tense;
• 100 words on each of two main characters Notes:
• All submissions should be double line spaced
• Submitted prior to the seminar by Wednesday 25 November 2009 at latest

Seminar: MANUSCRIPT ASSESSMENT STARTS:
Saturday 28 November 2009
DURATION: 1 day
TIMES: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
PANEL: Patricia O’Reilly Mary Webb Vanessa O’Loughlin
PRICE: €150
Booking: www.cfcp.ie/maunscriptassessment.htm

Last week saw an announcement that posh publishers Condé Nast and Adobe are teaming up to build an online eReader platform specifically for magazines, most notably a digital launch of Wired next year.

Wired UK already had a digital presence on the Ceros platform for at least the first few issues. Now however it doesn’t seem to be continuing or at least I can’t find it. Maybe this is in preparation for next years launch?

I find this whole idea very intriguing. Condé Nast have been quite slow on jumping aboard the digital magazine bandwagon. We had Wired UK and now have a digital GQ which has received a lot of praise despite it being very average. And eReaders? Does anyone really think by the middle of next year eReaders will be capable of displaying rich media interactive magazines? They can’t even do colour yet.

And what of Adobe’s investment? Are they finally fed up of waiting for Apple to release Flash on the iPhone? Do they know more than rumors of Apple’s impending Silverlight competitor, and have decided to beat them to the punch?

Conde Nast have declined to speculate on their cash investment, but could it be linked to Hurst Publishing’s $200 million investment in eInk? And the subsequent development of their own magazine reader…

There are a lot of questions, to which I have bugger all answers. Obviously Condé believe portable technology is nearly good enough to make their dreams a reality. I don’t. Unless of course their dreams are quite dull.

I think eReaders are still 2 years away from being viable portable magazine readers. I think Hurst are the ones to watch and I think a real change could be instigated by the rumored Apple Tablet and whether that supports Flash or their own, new alternative.

One thing I do agree with however and thoroughly support is Condé Nast Chief Executive Chuck Townsend’s comment “We can’t sit back and wait for somebody else to do this.” A step in the right direction can only ever be welcomed and any investment by publishing companies is absolutely necessary. I just wish someone could shed some light on this…

Bing! Microsoft appears to have opened a new frontline in its battle against Google in search.

According to the FT, the software giant has been talking with News Corp about a plan to “de-index” its news websites from Google. Microsoft is putting its money where it matters — by offering to pay News Corp money to do just that, showing the industry that it’s not afraid to use cash to buy search market share.

The story follows an odd but provoking hint by News Corp’s Chairman Rupert Murdoch who suggested he was ready to de-index his content from search engines.

In essence, this creates value for content in the search business where there wasn’t an obvious one. But really, what can Microsoft achieve from all this? Ultimately, the company is merely throwing cash at brands; it can’t buy the news. The move, if true, also creates a huge opportunity for believers in search to continue distributing their content via queries. And they may well thrive.

I took my writing on the road last night to meet up with some fellow NaNoers. I love meeting other writers. It must me feel, well not so weird in my quest to getting published. Most people who blog about writing are published writers or have gotten that YES from an agent. Me ~ not so much. I’m still one of those writers who is wallowing in the muck and mud trying to get someone to notice my work. Have I mentioned that querying sucks.

Back to NaNo. It has been an experience. Writing all the time with that deadline looming over my head constantly taunting me has been at times trying and other times exhilarating(that’s when you lose control of the words and they just spill out onto the page) – oh AND the words actually make sense and move the story forward. Gawd, that’s awesome! The past few days I’ve read plenty of blogs where the NaNoer is throwing in the towel. Why toss the towel when it’s not even Nov. 30th? Let me tell you my story is no where near complete but dammit I’m going to make it to 50k. Too bad for me the story will not be finished at 50k so I must push forward to oh I don’t know somewhere between 85,000 to 90,000. A lot of paranormal romance publishing houses require the story be between 80k-100k. All these f*cking guidelines can drive a writer mad. I think the story should dictate how long it should be, but what do I know I’m not published….YET!  Bahahahaha

Robin Davidson is a busy person.  Not only is she a full time professor of English at University of Houston Downtown, she’s also the president of the board of directors at Writers in the Schools.  And if that wasn’t enough, she just had her first book published by Northwestern University Press.

The book, The New Century: Poems by Ewa Lipska, is a collection of poems by a post-World War II era poet from Poland.  Ewa Lipska is regarded as one of the most important poets of her day but until now her work has not been translated widely.  The New Century is the first collection of Lipska’s poems to appear in English.   Robin Davidson co-translated the poems with Ewa Elzbieta Nowakowska and authored the foreword.

Has God surprised you lately?

Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think! Isn’t God like that?

When my husband and I wrote and published Baby Bible Board Books: Stories of Jesus, a collection of four board books for infants and toddlers, I never envisioned these books being published in another language, in another country.

I had my plan. My plan was to sell as many of these books as we could in the United States and Canada. So, I was pleasantly surprised when a distributor picked them up to sell in Australia.

God had even greater plans. His plan included foreign rights for these books. He wanted them published in Asian countries.

When the books were first released, we were approached by a publishing house in Central America that wanted foreign rights to publish the books in Spanish. However, after the initial contact, the publisher dropped the conversation and so this agreement never materialized. Since foreign rights were not in my plan, I wasn’t bothered by this and didn’t continue to pursue this avenue.

Then out of the blue, last year, God brought a foreign rights agent to us through Christian Small Publishers Association. This agent wanted to show our books to his publisher contacts in Asia. We said, “Yes!” The agent showed the books. As a result, we have received contracts for Baby Bible Board Books to be translated and sold in Korea and Indonesia.

Exceedingly abundantly above all that I asked or thought! God is good!

Has God done something exceedingly abundantly above all that you have asked or thought in your writing or publishing endeavors lately?



This past week was hectic to say the least. As I mentioned in my last post, I was on a roll with my NaNoWriMo novel and this all came to a head, early Saturday Morning.

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning with images and dialogue running through my head. Nothing would do but I had to get it out. Finally, just before noon, I wrapped up a really ugly first draft of my new novel. It was officially at 50,006 words. It is now on the back burner, while I work on last-minute edits for Shifter Born and a surprise project.

It will be a little while before I start the first round of edits on Cloud Dancer and by then, I’m thinking it will undergo a name change.

More to come!

“The poster-maker, the pamphleteer and the tagger aim to sway the popular heart and mind through visual public interventions. As new technologies rise, turning the public sphere into a transparent, ubiquitous communications medium and a global marketplace, is the privileged status of the poster doomed or are we seeing it transformed as part of a new wave of visual rhetoric? When the environment starts to become responsive to our very presence and aware of our individual nature what is the role of the ‘traditional poster’ delivering a classical rhetorical message? This peer-reviewed journal aims to lead the debate.

The Poster stands as a vehicle for the ideas of media theorists; scholars of Cultural Studies and Cultural Materialism; for social psychologists of visual communication, for architects and designers of wayfinding schemes; for philosophers of Aesthetics and Politics, Society and Linguistics; for social scientists, anthropologists and ethnographers; for political campaigners and artist activists; for communications researchers and visual communications practitioners.”

I’ve just been asked to be Associate Editor/Peer Reviewer on this journal – apparently they contacted me before, but I never received the email! Visit the journal site.

A few years ago, Marc Schooley’s perspective on writing (shared in some degree by the rather successful Jeff Gerke, by the way) might have been considered by some to represent a romanticist’s motivational creed.

It’s become a more tangible reality than we could have imagined: The Webby Awards explains how that can be. Everything is on its ear. It will probably stay there for some time.

As I looked further into the Thomas Nelson/Harlequin vanity press discussion on Saturday, some interesting quotes came forward.

Most people don’t know what’s involved, and don’t realize that they need to do a lot of homework first. And 99% don’t know that the time to start marketing your book isn’t when you have a book, but at least a year before that. I know people with rooms filled with low-quality books that cost 3 or 4 times as much as they should have cost and absolutely no hope of selling them.

~N.J. Lindquist, founder, The Word Guild Canada, at Chip MacGregor’s

Having been with The World Guild for several years, I came across that perspective and its caveats to writers quite some time ago. I’ve spent the last six years observing and being mildly involved in the indie sphere; eight years studying craft and the business. TWG does a good job of educating its members to market realities and the key role of traditional publishers.

At the same time, Mr. Hyatt’s been voicing those realities from a publisher’s perspective all throughout the WestBow discussion.

We “subsidize” plenty of “vain” authors in the traditional model! (at IdeaLogical)

…it’s not like book publishing by traditional houses guarantees success. Most of those books fail, too. I can’t source the statistic right now, but something like 90% of all books published by traditional houses never sell out their first printing. (at Sc > Sc)

Many would-be authors don’t need a traditional publishing house. That’s the dirty little secret. They already have access to an audience and can reach it without the help of a traditional publisher. (posted at MichaelHyatt.com)

Chip MacGregor’s reaction to this development is very much what I’ve gleaned over the last six to eight years of industry-watching:

If you can’t sell your book — either by speaking to a group or pitching them to your organization or offering them to your regular readers, don’t self-publish. You’ll just lose money. It’s extremely rare for a fiction writer to sell any self-published books, no matter what company name is on the spine. So be aware, and do your homework. [emphasis mine]

What Savvy Writers Know

Those who are adapting effectively to the demands of the digital age are doing so with cheaper media than print. E-Reads gives us the stats from August 2009 on that.

One Canadian acquaintance of mine is leveraging e-publishing via Smashwords and Kindle, among other things. He’s developed his career choices to the point where he’s able to be a full-time writer. He even has cats, I hear. I believe that’s a sign of writerly arrival.

My acquaintance has done his homework. While he does put out some products as hardcopy, he’s wise enough to know the cost-benefit ratio, and accordingly, to use an appropriate model.

So let’s talk about the long tail. (Yes, I have Chris Anderson’s book, and yes, I’ve read it.)

What’s a Long Tail?

It’s non-earners. Books that don’t earn out, blogs that don’t get read, and the place where big companies make their dollars off one common thing the small fry will pay for in their desire to get ahead. Because if corporations put all the small fry together and figure out how to sell to them, the many small fry may still lose money on their efforts, but corporations make money.

As I said in Saturday’s comments, the long tail principle says you can’t make money being the long tail, but you can make money off the long tail.

In order to apply this to the vanity industry, we have to assume non-adaptation of digital publishing platforms–insistence on retaining a primary focus towards hardcopy product. This may not be the new reality–it’s certainly the last place I’d stake my cash if I were going full-on indie–but change is happening so fast that it’s easy to get a broken neck trying to watch it whip by. In terms of WestBow and Horizons, it does mean servicing the lack of digital adaptation among writers.

It’s the writer’s responsibility to know that before they pay up. We have no excuses, with all the resources available for our education and for our use. It’s the Information Age, people.

The Rest of Mr. Anderson’s Story

While Chris Anderson wrote a good analysis of phenomena like Amazon, he also wrote that there are two ways to access the tail. Segmenting the tail are smaller but highly-targeted, highly engaged markets. (For example, Google’s AdWords has way-beyond-leveraged this by creating a system that accesses potentially every target niche. Exponential success.)

For us small fry, there’s realistically reachable potential in fragmented market bubbles–highly focussed spheres with high devotion to topic. Some bubbles burst. Others can be nurtured. Writers shouldn’t expect to do it alone with a self-published book in hand.

However, with some sense and some financial prudence, it’s possible to do what we love to do for an audience as small as one. It all depends how we go about it.

New Organisms of the Digital Millenium

A couple of years ago, two tigers had a fine conversation about marketing models, not-too-incidentally sharing platform at the same time. Really, tigers are most effective in packs.

The two tigers talked about hub creation. In order to find those who will group around a hub, access to the larger, generic group of the total tail is needed. In order to persuade niche grouping behaviour, authority is needed. Writers and small publishers aren’t going to stop needing guilds, conferences, and real-life networking. They aren’t going to stop needing crossover with the industry at large.

However, the increased accessibility of the internet era has connected everyone who ever thought of writing a book straight to publishers. And apparently they’re not listening to professional admonitions to do what they’re best at, which may not be writing. Or worse, may not be marketing.

Mr. Hyatt says:

Self-publishing rips off the authors[:] I find this surprisingly hypocritical. Where is the public outcry about publishers being ripped off? We have been investing in authors for years. Most of the books we publish don’t make money.

In Andersonian, that reads: most of the books we publish don’t reach a critical mass of target market.

Does that require inverting the buyer-seller relationship, so that those with written product become the buyers, and those with printing facilities (or the brokerage thereof) become the sellers to them?

Tail Segments, or Whole-Tail

At this point, working with many small sales points is not cost-effective for the big guys in their existing model. Until they get that figured out, they’re headed for the simpler approach of one product (such as print/marketing package brokerage) to the whole tail. I would guess that as soon as we see widespread standardization and adoption of digital reader platform, these guys’ll be there, doing both broad market and niche market however it makes sense to do so.

While publishers must answer for their ethics, as must agents, ultimately it’s up to writers to take responsibility for choosing who to work with and how to go about it. The advent of WestBow and Horizons doesn’t change a thing about the advice of industry veterans for the last decade: You will have to look out for you. You’re nobody’s charity project.

Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.

And with that, we’re back to the need to look to the Audience of One.

long-tail image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/briansolis/ / CC BY 2.0

Will we really see a Bing-News Corporation deal? A wider boycott of Google? An Opec for news? http://j.mp/7mCuli