Needless to say, I was thrilled and delighted at the opportunity. I’d like to return the favor by offering a plug for his new book called “The Dragon Hunters.” Be sure to watch the book trailer below for a short synopsis of what his novel is about. For more about Paul and his books, visit his website at: www.paulgenesse.com. Happy reading!

Most publishers within the book publishing industry are currently based on a business model that does not pay authors an annual salary to write an unlimited number of books. Typically, authors sign a contract that spells out how much they’ll make and what their rights (in terms of copyrights) are. Translation? Authors make a living based on the contract with the publisher, and the publisher stays in business by selling their books. The more books the publisher sells? The more likely the author will get picked up for another book or a series.

Now, ask me again what I think about writing for free.

To me, writing for free only works if it is part of an author’s business model. Free samples or offering free stories to get that lucrative publishing deal are great ways to leverage “free” writing — but let me be clear: I do not believe those techniques can be equated to “writing for free.” Why? When you turn your work into an advertisement or a promotional tool, you are doing so with a very, savvy business strategy behind it. You are offering your free writing (e.g. your advertising) with the hope that someone will hire you, promote you or buy your existing work.

Eddy Webb, who works for White Wolf Publishing, had this to say on the subject: “Free is a great way to build up an audience for sales. But at some point, money has to come in if you’re not a hobbyist.”

The word that stands out to me from Eddy’s quote is “hobbyist.” Much of what I do online personally and professionally are part of my career goals; there are reasons why I blog, why I write for free through Flamesrising.com and why I offered my first draft of “Argentum” for a limited time through Violetwar.com. That body of work has allowed me to not only build my portfolio, but it’s also led to paid work. If you enjoy writing, and you don’t expect (or want) to ever sell your work that’s one thing. If you write for free and post it online — not expecting anything in return professionally — then you are a hobbyist. There are differences between hobbyists and professionals in any career, and writing is no different.

What I sincerely hope I’m expressing in this post, is that there are reasons why you might want to write for free. I am not — in any way, shape or form — saying that writing for free is wrong, bad or a mistake. Instead, I’m suggesting that you think before you post or submit your work online. There is a time and place to write for free, but you need to think about “why” you’re doing it. Writing just for the sake of writing won’t guarantee that you move closer to your goals as an author.

After working with Windows Movie Maker and a site that provides royalty-free images located at either http://www.istockphoto.com or http://www.sxc.hu, I used photo manipulation software to make the images the right size. (For these trailers, you can do an 800 x 600 pixel canvas.) From there, I ensured I had permission to use the music for the book trailer. You can also find royalty-free music online or you can use what are known as public domain songs as well. For more about the free video software, you can watch and learn how to use Windows Movie Maker online.

Below is my latest trailer. This time, I decided to keep it short and go with an “impression” style theme, where color was a focal point. This trailer is a bit different from the other two, because it doesn’t tell a story. It’s more of an “ad.” In my opinion, the book trailers I’ve liked the best have been short — especially if there isn’t any action in the vid. It is very hard to keep up the pace for five minutes or more if you have nothing but still frames appearing in your trailer.

Video can sometimes work great to promote your book, simply because it alludes to a mood rather than cover the entire back blurb. However, there is more than one way to put together a book trailer. This is just the start for me, and I’m finding I enjoy storyboarding and playing around with film.

Check out the book trailers I linked to above, or view this one for a horror anthology dubbed, “Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas.” Thanks for sticking with my blog, and I hope you share a link to your trailer, too!

Part of what started the hiccup for me is when we were given a freezer full of organic meat. I’ve had a hard time with processed meats before, and the rest of my family eats meat. While we tried to have a vegetarian meal here or there, we’ve been supplementing our diet with probably the most organic meat you can get.

In a way, falling off the vegetarian wagon has made me feel a bit guilty. I really want to make the choices for that healthier lifestyle, but time seems to be my enemy. In theory, it’s great if you can stick to a shopping list and have a clear cut schedule, but in these gorgeous summer days that seems to be a luxury for me.

In a way, I feel like the hiccup makes me more determined to get back to a better integration of fresh vegetables and tofu. Already, I’m trying to plan my meals this week now that I’ve been getting caught up on all the little things that seem to distract me from focusing on good eats.

Thank you to everyone who have supported my efforts to incorporate more vegetarian meals into my diet. Really appreciate your kind words as I move toward better (and healthier) eating habits with my crazy schedule.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Why Not Every Book Promotion Will Work For Your Book

Marketing a book is not like marketing a carton of milk because books don’t have an expiration date stamped on their cover. A reader may buy your first book when it’s newly published, or they may discover your work after you’ve written your twentieth novel. Additionally, online media has enabled readers to establish a closer connection with the authors they admire. Because of these phenomena, book promotion is fairly complex because it often caters to multiple audiences while promoting both the author and the book at the same time.

Book Promotion Takes Time

If you’re considering a dip into the waters of book promotion, the good news is that there is plenty of information out there for you to read. From e-books extolling the “tried and true” methods of marketing your book to free tips offered by book marketers, there is no shortage of friendly advice on the subject. Before you hop online and take advantage of the free tips that many book marketers are offering, I want you to place your book in front of you. Take a good, long look at the cover and think about how many hours it took you to write and edit that work. Then, ask yourself this question: How much time are you willing to spend to promote your book? Read more…

To read the rest of the article, please visit my guest blog post for Apex Book Publishing. Be sure to let me know what you think!

This morning started off okay, I had some apples with a little bit of peanut butter, which is one of my favorite snacks. By the time lunch rolled around I was pretty hungry, but the mushroom/lettuce/cheese pitas (that were made for me) ended up being not enough protein for me. I was full, but I was fading fast even though I only had two cups of caffeine.

So I did what I normally do when I’m “crashing” and got a small protein bar to tie me over until I got home. I was still pretty crabby, but dinner ended up helping. I’m making sure that I limit my pasta portion in comparison with my veggines and get a brand with protein in it.

Not sure whether or not this is because I was eating too much protein and now I’m scaling back or what, but it’s something I definitely need to keep an eye on.

Unfortunately, this accessibility also encourages the notion that these highly visible people are your personal friends. Friends that you can make recommendations to, ask for favors from and expect to publish or create specifically for you. Should you?

I’ve been involved with social media (both professionally and not) for some time, but I’ve also worked with celebrities as well through my photography, Flamesrising.com and conventions. It still surprises me that online accessibility is creating strange expectations that include things like: reciprocal “follows,” personalized responses for every comment, charitable donations, invitations to dinner or things like free plugs for your work, agent referrals, critiques, etc.

Remember, that many of these celebrities have thousands - if not millions - of followers that they are trying to maintain. The primary reason why many people can’t respond to you, personally, is time. Engaging in internet activities can be a time sink, but especially when you have thousands of followers. For many authors, even though they don’t put in a 9 to 5 schedule, they need to spend their time wisely in order to meet deadlines and promote their own works. There are only so many charities they can support, and only so many people they can follow up with. For example, the sheer volume of responses to a single Tweet for people like Amber Benson, Neil Gaiman or Warren Ellis creates a situation where your response might get lost in the shuffle within minutes.

As part of the creative process, authors can’t provide individual critiques to fans because if they did — then they’d have to do it for everyone. Moreso than responding to a Tweet or a comment, critiques take time away from an author’s day. It’s also not uncommon for some fans to send story ideas. Unfortunately, that opens authors up to potential legal issues if they publish something similar to what you sent them, even if they didn’t read it.

That’s not to say that authors won’t interact with you or offer advice, it just means that anyone who is visible online can’t be everywhere at once. Many authors will offer up-front policies for what they will and won’t do (e.g. critiques, interviews or offering advice, etc.), but not everyone does.

So let me be very clear: I recommend not being “that” guy that has specific expectations from following people online in order to further your own agenda. Don’t. For just a minute, put yourself in the shoes of those you admire. Celebrities are not magical beings, they’re just more highly visible than other folk because it’s part of what they do for a living. That’s not to say that they don’t care about your comments or don’t want to interact with you, it’s just impossible for them to respond to even a few hundred people all at once.

Do you have any thoughts on the subject? Agree or disagree? Feel free to comment below.

Not sure about you, but I find that quite amusing.

Since I had the leftovers from last night, I thought I was going to make it through to the salmon and mashed potatoes dinner I had planned. Then I gave up. Why? Sheer laziness… My other option was vegetables plus tofu. Even though I got some tofu sitting in my cupboard, I am an amateur when it comes to making and preparing tofu. Anything soft crumbles and ends up reminding me of flan and feta cheese. Which pretty much meant that I hit the “I’m lazy I don’t want to make vegetables + grains” wall.

So instead of fabulous mashed potatoes or a salad, I’m writing this with my smoothie in one hand and a deep regret. Was doing pretty good on low caffeine until about 6 tonight, then *poof* and now I’m over-energized…

Today was pretty challenging in that food prep does take a bit of my time. I’m swamped the next, few nights so I know I need to make a concerted effort but still…feels like there’s a bit of “work” involved to me. Sandwiches and turkey burgers were a great stand-by when I was eating meat, but now I have to think about it.

So note to self: need filling “finger food” I can stock if I’m lazy. And yes, that does happen even in my world from time-to-time. Everyone needs a break.

I knew that there were a few people at work who were vegetarian (or who knew folk who are) so I asked around a little bit for some advice. The big topic of discussion was the “evils of soy.” Really? I had no idea? While I’m not one to form an opinion without reading multiple sources, I was surprised that a few people agreed relying on soy solely as your main source of protein was bad. I’m not going to be able to do that anyway, but I thought it was pretty interesting that this is the first time I’m hearing about it. I’ve been drinking Silk soymilk for years because milk and I no longer got along. Might be worth reading more about, but if you have resources or links on the subject I’d appreciate them.

Besides the soy discussion, I’m consciously trying to move toward better portion control. Funny thing is, I slow down when I’m eating vegetables so I’m wondering if the inhale of carbs has something to do with my habit for over-sized portions. Of course, there might be another culprit for that — caffeine. I know I drink way too much and I’m quite addicted to the stuff, but darn it all! This is my last vice. So, as part of this experiment I’m going to consciously cut back to three cups of coffee a day and stick with the “no soda” option. We’ll see how long this lasts.

Wanted to make sure I had lunch for tomorrow that consisted of something other than soup, so shared salad and homemade mac-n-cheese. The mac-n-cheese recipe I have comes from the book pictured here: The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. I have to say that I get a lot of use out this particular cookbook, because there are recipes in here my meat eater will gladly indulge in. There are two recipes for mac-n-cheese here with variations for vegan vs. not. One is a milk-based sauce, the other is tofu-based. I haven’t tried the tofu-based one yet, but am keeping that as an option since I have issues with cooking tofu.

The true test of this pesca-vegetarian journey is going to be the next few nights, which look like they’re pretty busy. Until next time…

Monica was curious about how editing an anthology is different than editing a story, a novel or something like marketing copy for Amazon that pays-the-bills for us full-time authors. In essence, editing an anthology is the same as any other editing with one big difference: all of the short stories need to blend with each other to make the overall theme of the anthology flow into a cohesive storyline.

I would liken it to putting together a string of freshwater pearls. Each pearl must be a beauty on its own - just like each story in the anthology must be perfect on its own. The technical writing has to be excellent, the story itself must be interesting and each story must adhere to the theme, genre and word count of the anthology in question.

Once you have all of the pearls for the necklace, you need to string them together in such a way that, when hanging together, all of the pearls become a necklace that is more than the sum of their parts. Just like an anthology becomes more than just the sum of the individual stories. No one pearl can stand out in a way that interrupts the flow of the string. It cannot be too big, the wrong shape or the wrong color. Just like all of the stories must have a sense of an overall cohesion. Each story is telling a part of a bigger story. There is no room for rogues in an anthology.

This is what makes editing an anthology so difficult. All of the stories must play nice together. None of them can introduce a plot point that will throw off any of the other stories. In the GRANTS PASS anthology (Morrigan Books, August 2009), we had to be very strict on how the world was destroyed by nature and where specific bioterrorists plagues were released.

One story could not mention volcanic eruptions in the Hawaiian Islands while the stories set in California neglected to mention ash haze. Neither could one story state that an earthquake split the Americas in half while other stories described people traversing the Americas on foot. All of the stories were in the same shared universe. The details matter.

In other anthologies, like monster anthologies about vampires, werewolves or zombies, there needs to be a cohesive and consistent story background on how the monster is defined. Are they non-brain eating Voodoo zombies, slow moving Romero zombies or fast moving Synder zombies? An anthology editor must consider the overall project and what it is they want from the anthology as a whole.

That is why reading and understanding the submission guidelines for anthologies is so important. You may turn in a beautiful story that would have been perfect if everyone else had the same vision you did. But if your story does not fit well into a collection you will be rejected every time.

About Jennifer Brozek

Jennifer Brozek, the creator and co-editor of the Grants Pass anthology (Aug 2009, Morrigan Books), is a freelance author for many RPG companies including Margaret Weis Productions, Rogue Games and Catalyst Game Labs. Her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Castlemourn, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun and Serenity. She has also co-authored three books including Dragonvarld Adventures with Margaret Weis. She is published in several anthologies, is the creator and editor of the semi-prozine, The Edge of Propinquity, and is a submissions editor for the Apex Book Company. When she is not writing her heart out, she is gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. You can learn more about her by visiting her blog at http://jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com.