Writers and Authors

Interview with Paulette Harper Johnson

2013-06-18T14:24:00.000+02:00

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

My publishing journey started in 2007.

What genre do you write and why?

I write both Christian Non-Fiction and Women’s Fiction.

Tell us about your latest book.

My latest book “The Sanctuary” is my first Christian Fiction Novel. There are two main characters in the book, the Bishop and his wife Lacey. I take the readers on a journey with these characters as their lives are unfolding, secrets are revealed, hearts are breaking and eventually people are being restored.

What marketing methods are you using to promote your book?

Some of my marketing methods include organizing a virtual book tour, local book signings, attending conferences, speaking engagements, social media groups and promotional material.

What formats is the book available in?

Currently The Sanctuary is available in Kindle and Nook. The paperback will be available later in June.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

When I’m not writing, I enjoy the movies, playing cards and sight-seeing.

Who are your favorite authors?

A few of my favorite authors are Michelle Stimpson, Joyce Meyers and T.D. Jakes.

What advice do you have for other writers?

I would encourage any writer to be committed and consistent.

Paulette Harper Johnson

What's your favorite quote about writing/for writers?

My motto is “Intentionally Living a Life on Purpose".

What's the best thing about being a writer?

One of the best things about being a writer is communicating with readers. It brings me great satisfaction when a reader tells me how something I’ve written touched their lives.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

My website: pauletteharper.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/paulette.harper2

Copies of The Sanctuary can be ordered on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sanctuary-ebook/dp/B00D1B48CG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1371323117&sr=1-1&keywords=paulette+harper+johnson

Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you Jo for introducing me to your network

Which POD Company is Best?

2013-06-16T23:37:00.000+02:00

Print On Demand (POD) publishing is widely used both by self publishers and by small presses. Even larger publishing companies are using it now for printing older titles and for carrying out performance testing.

Wikipedia nicely sums up the benefits of POD:

"Print on demand with digital technology is used as a way of printing items for a fixed cost per copy, regardless of the size of the order. While the unit price of each physical copy printed is higher than with offset printing, the average cost is lower for very small print runs, because setup costs are much higher for offset printing.

POD has other business benefits besides lower costs (for small runs):

Technical set-up is usually quicker than for offset printing.

Large inventories of a book or print material do not need to be kept in stock, reducing storage, handling costs, and inventory accounting costs.

There is little or no waste from unsold products.

These advantages reduce the risks associated with publishing books and prints and can lead to increased choice for consumers. However, the reduced risks for the publisher can also mean that quality control is less rigorous than usual."

There are now numerous options available to authors who want to use POD. Which company is best though?

Here's what some Writers and Authors Community members had to say on the subject when I asked on the Facebook page:

"After several bad experiences, I found Star Publish LLC. Actually, they found me. They have been wonderful to work with. Their basic package include a full edit (a thorough one), cover creation, some marketing help, and they pick and choose the books they publish which has garnered them a good reputation in bookstores and among readers."

Janet Elaine Smith,

Monday Knight (Women of the Week Series)

"Createspace- If you are willing to do the work yourself or freelance out the parts you can't then Createspace is an awesome POD company to go with! They allow you complete control over your price and how your book looks in online bookstores, plus their royalty programs are very generous. You will be on your own with marketing unless you purchase a service but over all they are great printers! Createspace has the best customer service I have seen so far. "

Virginia Lori Jennings

The Alien Mind

"Createspace & KDP are the best & you can change your cover and interior any time. It's easy to use and the upload works even when not everything is perfect. They've got only one problem: You have to care about your marketing & this works or not."

Heidi Ehrnböck

Eat Sleep Write Independent

Now let's take a closer look at some of the most popular POD companies:

CreateSpace

Owned by Amazon, CreateSpace offers competitive pricing and one of the highest royalties. ISBN's can be obtained for free via CreateSpace and there are no extra costs involved in selling your book via Amazon (you can opt for their expanded distribution package for a small fee - US$25 - to make it available through other channels too though). Their site is easy to use and they have one of the best customer services around.

Lulu

Lulu is one of the largest POD companies around and offers a wide variety of types of books. Many of Lulu's book options are eligible for a free ISBN and distribution through Amazon.com. They also have several paid services available both for the creation of your book and for marketing it.

Blurb

With Blurb you set the price of your book and keep your profits from the sales. Keep 100% of the mark-up for a print book (or 80% of the retail price for an ebook). The tools to create your book are free, there are no hidden fees, and your commercial-quality books are printed only as they're ordered. They also offer discounts for volume orders.

Which POD company do you think is best and why?

Stop Telling Me I’m Awesome. That’s What My Mom Is For

2013-06-15T17:46:00.000+02:00

You’re a writer. You love words. And sometimes, when you’re really on, you put words together in such a way that you could cry because they read so beautifully. And if you’re like me, you read them again and again and again. You read them until your eyes are crossed and you’re fairly certain you’ve read them eleventy billion times. And then on the next read, for some reason, the words don’t sound as awesome as they did before. They don’t look as pretty and maybe the cadence is a bit off. Maybe all along during those reads, they didn’t really come together to make The Most Amazing Metaphor of All Time.

So, you ask a friend to read it. And your friend, being your friend, tells you that it’s awesomeamazingspectacular. It’s The Most Amazing Metaphor of All Time. And she also tells you that you’re pretty. Because she’s your friend.

When I’m writing, I don’t need friends. I need Mean Girls. Capital M. Capital G. Mean Girls who wear pink every day—not just on Wednesday. Poke holes in my plots, tell me to dump the purple prose, point out that I have a blatant disregard for the semi-colon and an obsession with starting sentences with And. Help me make my words the best words they can be before I send them off into the world to fend for themselves.

This is why workshopping works. My very first workshop experience was terrifying. I wasn’t allowed to speak for the first half hour of the meeting while the participants ripped apart my latest chapter. Sure, there was a lot of positive feedback, but it was very difficult listening to criticism without jumping to my own defense. It took a lot of work on my part to sit back and really listen to what was being said. Even if I didn’t agree, who’s to say that other readers wouldn’t have the same reaction? I needed every questionable action my characters made questioned. It gave me the opportunity to go back and solidify anything shaky.

So, is it wrong to send the new short story you wrote to your mom, your sister, your bestie, your Aunt Carol? No. Of course not. We all need positive reinforcement. But have a team—people who will tell you that they’re just not into you when they’re just not into you. They’ll tell you that your main character isn’t just stuffy, she’s bordering on unlikable. They’ll tell you that you’re swearing too much and you need to buy Eats, Shoots and Leaves and if you’re really, really lucky like I am—when all is said and done—they’ll still tell you that you’re pretty.

Tracy Sweeney lives north of Boston, Massachusetts with her two young boys. Her short stories have appeared in Literary Juice, Solecisms and Slice of Life Magazines. When she’s not letting her seven-year old beat her in Angry Birds, she’s working on her second novel.

Buy Now @ Amazon

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Tracy Sweeney on Facebook & Twitter Website http://www.tracysweeney.net/

7 Types of Fans (and how to make the most out of them)

2013-06-14T07:00:00.000+02:00

Not all fans are equal. These infographic by ReachLocal gives a great overview of the 7 types of fans and how to make the most of them.

How many types of fans do you have?

3 Easy Ways to Optimise Your Amazon Listings

2013-06-13T07:00:00.000+02:00

Like it or not, Amazon has altered how people buy and sell books. With over 65 million visitors each month, Amazon.com is the largest online retailer in the world.

Amazon has several tools to help sell more books and the really great thing is they're free!

1) Author Central

Opening an account on Amazon Author central is completely free. You just need to go to http://authorcentral.amazon.com/ and follow the simple set up instructions.

Once you have an account you can correct or change your book description on Amazon, add photo's and an author bio, link to your website and your blogs RSS feed, connect your twitter account so that your tweets show up on your author page, upload video's and set up discussions with readers.

2) Personal profile

Amazon gives you a personal profile (this is related to you as a buyer and not as an author). When you log in to Amazon you will see your name at the top of the page and a link to your profile.

Make sure you upload a photo and include a caption with your tagline. Also add you website url and a brief bio to let people know a bit about what you do and your main areas of interest.

Now your profile is set up it's a good idea to post reviews of the books you've read to Amazon. Not only will this make your name show up more frequently on the site but it is also good karma.

3) Look Inside the Book

Amazon gives you the option of showing potential customers a sample from your book. Using this feature helps encourage more sales. You can sign up for Look Inside the Book here.

Example of how the Look Inside feature looks on your book page

8 Secrets of Top Book Marketers

2013-06-12T07:00:00.000+02:00

Here are a few of the characteristics that most top book marketers share:

1) They write well

It's not just about a correct use of the English language. Top book marketers also put personality into your writing to make it stand out. They expertly place their hooks and pull you in with their descriptions.

2) They're consistent

One guest post on a blog just isn't going to cut it. The leaders of the pack are constantly creating content and sharing it with the masses. They have a marketing plan and a schedule to make sure their social media presence is constant. They are always on the look out for opportunities to be featured or interviewed and never stop submitting content to sites or queries to be involved in webinars, conferences and other events.

3) They mix it up

They keep things interesting by offering a wide variety of content in a wide variety of formats. Video's, pictures, infographics, interviews, guest posts, features, webinars, radio shows, panel discussions, slideshows, humour, text, free downloads, advice and tips...

4) They have personality.

They aren't afraid to show the real them and embrace what makes them unique. They make people feel like they're connecting with a real person and not just something on the computer screen.

5) They're passionate

Their passion for what they do shows through. You can feel their excitement for a topic when they talk about it. They obviously love what they do and this stimulates their followers to get excited about it too.

6) They provide resources for readers

They understand that it's about their readers, not them. They offer value to those that follow them. By giving a lot of resources they give people a reason to come back time and time again.

7) They connect with peers and help out

They aren't afraid to promote others through linking and commenting on their own blogs. They often collaborate on projects. They will happily share others content and actively join in group discussions. They post comments on others blog posts and offer advice and tips when they can.

8) They're everywhere

If they can't be there in person, they join in online. They are guests on; radio shows, podcasts, Google+ hangouts, blogs, social media chats, webinars, etc...

So what characteristics do you think are important to be a top book marketer?

Interview with Zoe Brooks

2013-06-11T07:00:00.000+02:00

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I've always written poetry: My parents say I was making up poems before I could read and write. I was first published at the age of thirteen and was regarded as one of the bright young things of British poetry, but poetry doesn’t pay the bills and I had to focus on my career. For over twenty years I had a very demanding job working with disadvantaged people and loved it, but a few years ago it all became too much and I changed my career. I decided I would follow the dream of writing novels. I had always made up stories but up until then they were for my enjoyment only.

What genre do you write and why?

I have been told I write magic realism. I had never heard about magic realism before – but basically it's realistic but with something magical or strange in it. My books are set in an unspecified place and time, which some people find disturbing, but it means that readers are encouraged to think about what happens to Judith without bringing preconceptions. The book is also women’s fiction – I write about women, all my books have strong heroines. There’s some romance in the book, but it’s not the only thing by any means.

Tell us about your latest book.

Love of Shadows is the second book in The Healer's Shadow trilogy. It follows the story of the young perfume-maker Judith and her Shadow, Sarah. At the opening of the book Elma, their employer and Judith’s mentor, has just died and Judith is trying cope with her grief. In the city of Pharsis, where Judith lives, women healers are being persecuted in favour of the university-trained male doctors. Judith is accused of making medicine for Elma and then of killing her, but she escapes prosecution. Judith’s mother was a healer and Judith more and more feels that she is called to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Then scarlet fever breaks out and Judith must decide whether she will risk the gallows to help others. The second element in the novel is whether Judith, who has been badly damaged by past relationships, will be able to trust a man enough to let him get near to her emotionally.

What marketing methods are you using to pro mote your book?

I've used several methods. The first was sending the book to book reviewers who reviewed the previous book in the trilogy. The second is writing interviews like this one and guest posts on blogs - this interview is part of a blog tour with Orangeberry Blog Tours. The third is using Kindle Select - I offered the book free shortly after it was released. But the best promotion is that the book is part of a series: if people like the first book they will buy the second.

What formats is the book available in?

It is currently only available on Kindle via Amazon, but it will be published on Kobo and Nook shortly.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I spend half my life in the Czech Republic, where I have a semi-restored farmhouse. It's where I do my writing, but I also have a business bringing English-speaking tourists to the country that I love. In my free-time I love walking so I can enjoy looking at nature. When I was a little girl my mother used to take me for long walks and she taught me how to look at the world. That sounds strange but a lot of people when out won't see anything. My mother taught me how to see flowers and animals and how to use my imagination. Now I've caught the Czech obsession about foraging for wild food. There are raspberries and wild strawberries in the woods above my Czech home and best of all lots of mushrooms.

Zoe Brooks

Who are your favourite authors?

That is a difficult question to answer as I like so many authors. The first adult author I read was Charlotte Bronte. I read and reread Jane Eyre when I was a teenager. This trilogy has been influenced by that book, they are both about strong women who have been orphaned and abused by an aunt. Another author I adore is Ursula Le Guin. My son introduced me to her writing. I love the way she writes good stories which make you think. The worlds she creates are totally believable.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Finish the first draft. They say everyone has a book in them. I think that should be changed to a half-finished book. There is a point (at about 30,000 words) when I get stuck. I've run out of the adrenalin that comes from starting a book and there are an awful lot of words left to write. It's then that I have to force myself to continue. From what I've read nearly all writers have this pain barrier to go through and it is painful. You just have to find a way of getting through it that suits you - maybe it's locking yourself away somewhere, maybe it's taking a break from writing.

What's your favourite quote about writing/for writers?

"The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds a house, but the reader makes it a home" - Jodi Picoult

What's the best thing about being a writer?

When you get a review or feedback from a reader who clearly has completely understood what you were trying to do with your book. Good reviews are lovely, but the review which shows that the reader has really thought about your book, that is really rewarding. All my books have been about people on the edge of society. I used to work with such people and one of my reasons for writing is to tell their stories.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

On my blog Zoe Brooks - Books and Things - http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com

On my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor

Anything else you'd like to add?

First of all I would like to say thank you for the interview. I would also like to say that I welcome feedback. If anyone has any questions, please write a comment and I will reply.

I've got a great idea for a novel... then what?

2013-06-10T07:00:00.000+02:00

You've got an idea, and you want to turn it into a novel. How do you begin? First, determine the storyline – is your idea interesting enough to hold a reader’s attention for sixty thousand words and more? Coming up with an idea is the easy part; writing it down convincingly is what takes time and skill.

Next you’ll need to determine what kind of story are you writing? In what genre, or category does your story will fit into – mystery, romance, young adult, science fiction, fantasy, and so on. If you read a particular genre, then you might naturally choose to write your story in that genre since you will already be familiar with its form and elements. Go through your favorite novels and get a sense of why they are your favorite books.

Then decide where (and when) your story will take place. In the old west? On a distant planet? in the far future? In Boise, last summer? This is your story's “setting”. It helps shape the story and may point out where you need to do research. For example, women in the 1800s had fewer freedoms and more strictly-defined roles than women today. Setting also lays the background for the reader's imagination with details that make the story seem real.

Next your book must have a beginning, middle, and an end. What’s one good way to do that? You outline. Either in your head or best on paper, map your idea out. This doesn't have to be the formal outline you learned in high school, or even a very detailed map. You're the only one who will ever see it. But if you’re not sure where you’re going having a rough plan will take you far.

There are several reasons why you may want to consider an outline:

· It gives you a starting point to start writing.

· You know roughly what you have to write next. Writer’s block isn’t as common.

· You can avoid writing yourself into a dead end. Your scenes flow better.

· You can set up your ending because you know what’s coming.

Some writers, called “pantsters” (they write spontaneously by the seat of their pants), resist outlines because they think outlining stifles their creativity. Other writers do make an outline, but only after a lot of freeform brainstorming. Then, there are some writers who do the outlining and detailed planning and then choose not to look at their notes a lot while they're actually writing. If you outline, it's important to remember that your outline is a guide to help you. There are no format rules. It’s to be followed as long as it serves your story.

So what do you think about while outlining? Decide how you will start your story. Decide what events will take place in the story. Visualize the scenes that will move your story along Remember, fiction entertains. Even when you're conveying a message, you've got to make it interesting.

What makes a book interesting? Its characters. You have to have a good idea of your character's personality so you can make how he or she responds and acts in scenes seem realistic to readers. Know your characters. Your characters will react to events in the story based on their personality and background. Developing a personality and background for your character is called a character sketch. Also, be able to “see” them. Describe what they look like. One tip you may find helpful is to go through magazines or newspapers and cut out pictures of people who will be your character’s face. This might help keep them real in your mind.

Strong characters start at the beginning and “move” toward the end. If they don't move – emotionally and/or physically -- then you've got a tale, not a story. Conversely, if a writer allows the characters to wander all over the place without keeping an eye on the finish, you’ve got a story that lacks focus. Outlining is one way to keep you focused.

The most important thing to remember is: don’t be afraid to start. It doesn't have to be a perfect first draft, or even a second or third draft.

Just write your novel.

R. Franklin James was born and raised in the San Francisco East Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and completed the masters program in Public Policy at California State University East Bay. She has also received her paralegal certification.

She and her husband live in northern California with their English Springer Spaniel, Bailey.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603819177/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1603819177&linkCode=as2&tag=gina0e-20

Blueprint for the Perfect Facebook Post

2013-06-09T07:00:00.000+02:00

I'm a big fan of Jeff Bullas and found this infographic (produced by Salesforce.com) on his blog. It gives a great overview of how to put together the perfect Facebook post using images.

The main points to consider are:

1) Add a call-to-action

2) Use a simple and correctly sized image (300x300 pixels)

3) Create for mobile users (almost 70% of fans will see the post on a mobile device)

4) Engage by asking questions both in the original post and in the comments section

5) Check your metrics

What has been the most successful post you ever posted to Facebook? Image, Video or something else?

How to use 10 Social Networks to Grow Your Personal Online Brand

2013-06-08T07:00:00.000+02:00

As an author your brand is you. In today's modern world social media is a must for building your brand. This infographic by Launch Yourself gives a nice overview of how you can use 10 different social networks to grow your personal brand online.

What sites are you using to build your brand?

How to be a Good Guest Blogger

2013-06-07T07:00:00.000+02:00

Guest Blogging is so important in this day and age, with the internet being the go to place for people to find information and ultimately to find you as an author. It is a great way to share your writing skills, your personality, find new people and to let readers get to know you but it is also about helping to attract more readers to that blogger’s website. Guest blogging should benefit both of you. It is not about you writing the article and then expecting your host to do all the marketing and awareness for it. It is up to you as well. In fact, it is in your interest to do all that you can to drive traffic to their site.

There are a lot of websites that are willing to host guest bloggers. If you are looking for a blog who does host articles, check out blogs that do book reviews. Most of them are willing to host you. Please note though that they are busy and get a lot of requests, so be patient and respectful. If you don’t hear from a blog within a few weeks, move on. Send out at least five to ten a week and move on to the next thing while you wait for the response. Most blogs are more than happy to host a guest.

If you are thinking about being a Guest Blogger, there are some things to find out and to keep in mind:

1. Before you send out a request, look over their website. Is it the type of website that fits with your book, your style and who you are?

2. Send an email to the owner of the blog and ask if you can do a guest post for them.

3. When they tell you they’d love to have you guest blog, ask what topics they might like to have you write about or do they have interview questions for you to complete.

4. What date could they host you and by when do they need all of your information? Also make sure you’re clear on what of your information they are willing to post. Most will put your name, your bio, your picture and even your book but find out.

5. Get them your article and other information well before they need it, you want to make it easy for them to put it up on their blog. Remember they are doing you a favor.

6. On the day your blog appears on their website, make sure that you post a link to it all over the internet, in as many social sites as you can and if you have a mailing list send that out. You can also create an event on many of the social sites and invite people. It is also a good idea to post it more than once, especially on sites like Twitter.

7. Interact with your host on one or more social networks.

8. Make sure you thank your host on their blog and on social networks.

9. If you have a blog, reciprocate. Let them know that you’d be more than happy for them to guest blog for you if they’d like to. Or maybe there is something else you can offer to them.

Guest blogging is fun, a great way to make new connections and find new followers. What are some things you do when guest blogging?

Maggie Thom was born and raised in rural Alberta. She made the hard decision to leave her successful, twenty year career in management, to write full time. The leap was easy, the freefall was adventurous and very enlightening. Give her five free minutes and you'll find her busy scribbling down ideas. She lives in the real world but loves to get lost in the lives of her characters - who live, love and laugh and are all figments of her imagination. She is thrilled to release her first novel - Captured Lies - filled with suspense, murder, mystery and romance - available October 2012. She is busy writing her second novel, Tainted Waters, to be released, spring of 2013. Website http://www.maggiethom.com/. More details about the book

How to Become a Facebook Powerhouse

2013-06-06T07:00:00.000+02:00

Before we jump into how to turn yourself into a Facebook Powerhouse, I think it's important that you realise what you're up against...96% of Facebook fans never return to pages they like! Your Facebook Page posts actually only reach 2-47% of your fans. Now I know these statistics sound pretty depressing, especially when you consider that your page is also in competition with over 50 million other pages on the social media site.

Here's a statistic to make you feel a bit more hopeful though: more than 1.47 million books have been shared on Facebook (as of May 2013).

You'll also be happy to know that for every Facebook fan you engage, there are 34 more reachable friends.

Not sure whether to use your profile or a public page? Your fan page content is indexed by Google and you can use ads, metrics, and a whole bunch of other tools making it the better option from a business point of view. Why not have both though? You can select which of the posts to you profile get seen by the public and which stay private. As people can subscribe to your public posts this gives you another channel through which you can connect with your audience. By using both a page and a profile you get the best of both worlds.

So how do become a Facebook Powerhouse?

Here's a list of a few tips and tricks to help you optimise your Facebook efforts:

1) Have a strategy - Get clear on what you want to accomplish on Facebook.

2) Create a compelling brand look - Use professional graphics to enhance your Facebook page. Always include a description and a call-to-action every time you update your cover image... make sure they contain a narrative, a call to action and a link.

3) Have a content plan - What are you going to post and when? Add something of value, include call(s) to action and build social equity with your target audience.

4) When you post and ask for likes or shares, it actually gets more engagement! Ask your audience to to interact and they will!

5) Get to know your fans. Embrace them. Build a Community.

6) Photos or graphics gets most views on Facebook. Tag your personal profile in your fanpage images to gain more newsfeed visibility.

USEFUL INFO: Highlight post (STAR) size is 843 pixels x 403 pixels / Normal post 403 pixels x 403 pixels.

7) Grow your fan page - You have to tell people you have a page. Build your fan page by driving traffic from other channels. Put a link to your Facebook page in your email signature. Facebook follow buttons on your blog/website should be above the fold (don't make people hunt for it).

8) Include clear calls to action - 2 types: social (like, share, comment) & sales (click, sign up, buy).

9) Best time to post? Look at your insights and see where you have the most engagement.

10) Fangate: Putting content behind a page that requires people to like your page to access content

11) Every post on Facebook has it's own unique URL. It's the timestamp on the post. Just click on the date of the post and it'll take you to the post url. You can then share that post on your other social media sites and invite your other followers to join in your Facebook conversations.

12) Create a private Interest List of great Pages & observe what they do that works. A great way for getting some new ideas.

13) With your posts make sure you keep it 80% content, 20% promotion. 80% focus on *them*, 20% focus on you.

14) Contests are a great way to get new fans and engage your followers. You need to run a Facebook contest using a 3rd party app though, not on your wall.

15) Track and tweak your Facebook KPIs (key performance indicators) so you can see what's working and what's not.

There are 1.1 billion people on Facebook. How are you engaging with them?

Typical Amazon Fare, a pack of lies from the Kindle News letter.

2013-06-05T07:00:00.000+02:00

Q. Are authors allowed to review another author's book?

A. Yes. We very much welcome Customer Reviews from authors. However, if the author reviewing the book has a personal relationship with the author of the book they are reviewing, or was involved in the book's creation process (i.e. as a co-author, editor, illustrator, etc.), that author is not eligible to write a Customer Review for that book.

Authors can't review books of people they know. How does Amazon verify that? They don't, they just pull a review if one of their trolls report it.

Q. Can I post a Customer Review on behalf of someone else?

A. No. Customer Reviews are meant to provide customers with feedback from fellow shoppers. For this reason, you should use the Editorial Reviews section of your book's detail page to share content that is posted on other sites or from individuals who do not have an Amazon account. You can update the Editorial Reviews section of your book's detail page through your Author Central account.

Gee, I bet that question comes up a lot.

Q. Can I ask my family to write a Customer Review for my book?

A. We do not allow individuals who share a household with the author or close friends to write Customer Reviews for that author's book. Customer Reviews are meant to provide unbiased product feedback from fellow shoppers.

Another absurd rule that is unverifiable. Again they just delete the review on the word of the trolls.

Q. Can I pay for someone to write a Customer Review for my book?

A. No. We do not allow any form of compensation for a Customer Review other than a free copy of the book provided upfront. If you offer a free copy of the book in advance, it must be clear that you welcome all feedback, both positive and negative.

That is unless you buy reviews through an Amazon subsidy, createspace for $385, then it's OK to buy reviews.

Q. A Customer Review is missing from my book's detail page. What happened?

A. Reviews are removed from Amazon for one of three reasons:
The review did not meet our posted Customer Review Guidelines.
The customer who wrote the review removed it.
We discovered that multiple items were linked together on our website incorrectly. Reviews that were posted on those pages were removed when the items were separated on the site.
We can only discuss specific Customer Review removals with the person who originally posted the review.

Absolute lies, There is no rhyme or reason to Amazon's policy. I particularly like the last excuse, absolutely nothing to do with single item books. Just this last week I was on the phone with Amazon over a 1-star no read review. I was told only the reasons above could get a review removed. So I wrote 3 1-star reviews and posted them on the 1, 2, 3 best-sellers where they would do the least harm.

Since reason three to remove a review is not applicable, and I, the reviewer didn't remove them, that only leaves us with it violated the guidelines. I didn't know the authors, I didn't use profanity, I made no threats, and I made no racist remarks. So why were the reviews pulled? Again because the trolls didn't like them.

Listen here to the phone conversation where I am told that although the review was made by someone who admitted they hadn't read the book it didn't violate the guidelines and couldn't be pulled. Yet mine were promptly removed. Maybe the fact the trolls turned the comments into an ongoing personal attack to the turn of 150 comments on each review may have something to do with it. The trolls saw it as a huge victory, but I expected them to be pulled before I posted them. I have dealt with Amazon in this area before no actual reason will ever be given for why a review is deleted, just allusions to their ambiguous guidelines.

I am currently working on an expose' of the way the same trolls on both Amazon and goodreads have compromised the review process to such a degree, coupled with Amazon insane policies, they've rendered every review on those sites worthless. The title, “Suffer Not A Troll To Live” has already been reported as death threats to Amazon by the trolls. This book will so outrage the entrenched trolls they may try to get it banned from Amazon because of the title although not one of them will admit to being a Troll.

Here's a TV interview I did recently for the local news.

http://www.kttc.com/story/22276373/2013/05/16/could-trolling-constitute-cyber-stalking

The situation with online reviews is appalling. The trolls that infest Amazon only attack indies and everyone of them are convinced that the self-published writers only produce trash and every indie book they review gets a 1-star and a personal attack. I have over 500 forums posts from Amazon and every one is an insult and a personal attack. I have also done a press release about the cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, harassment, and cyber-terrorism rampant online. All aimed at the indies.

Rick Carufel

Here's a few things to think about. How can these trolls seem to be online for up to twenty hours at a time? Why do they target only the indies? Who has the most to gain from the persecution, and that's what it is, of the indie writers?

Traditional Publishing. I suspect the entrenched publishers are going to hang on as long as they can demeaning the indies to the end as less than reputable and illegitimate. I wouldn't put it past the big six to hire trolls to endlessly harass the very people they wrongly blame for their losses and Amazon is in cahoots with them. Corporatism is out of control and if governments don't reign them in it is the corporations who will be running everything real soon. Amazon is a prime example of the corporate attitude that they are above the law and they can do as they please. Maybe a cease and desist order, closing them down until they prove they no longer harbor a gang of cyber-terrorists operating from their forums, may sober them up.

Interview with Helga Zeiner

2013-06-04T11:15:00.002+02:00

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

It’s so far back, I can’t even remember – hope that doesn’t age me too much! But seriously, writing has always, always been part of my life, even way back, when I did my first simple school essay or a poem for mother’s day.

What genre do you write and why?

Suspense. Mystery & Thriller. I write to entertain. I want to take my readers on a journey into an exciting and unknown territory. I want them to totally connect with the story and feel upset when they have finished the last page.

Tell us about your latest book.

It is a psychological thriller. One day, I was zapping through the channels and got stuck on ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’. Not having children myself, I started to ask myself: ‘why do mothers do this’, and: ‘how does a young girl feel once she has outgrown participation in such contests’. Those two questions lead me into the world of child pageantry. In the course of my research, I was lucky enough to meet a renowned adolescent forensic psychiatrist who guided me through the story and opened many doors for me.

What marketing methods are you using to promote your book?

All forms of social media, my website, you wonderful bloggers!

What formats is the book available in?

It has been published as eBook in May of the year. By September the printed version will follow.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Reading, of course, jogging, walking, swimming, snow-shoeing (yes, seriously, where I live, we can do this all winter)

Who are your favourite authors?

Stephen King (forever!), Gillian Flynn (currently), Nicholas Sparks (sometimes), Jodi Picoult (rarely), Chris Bohjalian (always)

What advice do you have for other writers?

Have fun with it.

What's the best thing about being a writer?

That I can do it everywhere. I travel a lot and it doesn’t matter where I am, my characters are with me.

Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you for this interview – and a big hug to all my readers out there.

Book Covers

2013-06-03T07:00:00.000+02:00

Book covers are hard. We all know they are important, but for me and my two memoirs they were very personal. Both books found their covers in quite different ways.

SHORN: TOYS TO MEN was my first book. The book is a rather dark memoir about my battle with undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. I wanted a cover that conveyed the seriousness of the topic, but wasn’t off-putting. I wrestled with all kinds of ideas, but landed on a photo that had been take of me for fun by a friend years earlier. We had no idea when we took the photo that it would be the cover of a book. In fact, I had no idea I would ever be a published author when the picture was taken.

My photographer friend, Oscar Val Verde, got a new camera and he wanted to play around with it. We were at my office and wig studio backstage at Intiman Theatre when we thought it would be fun to drape me in wigs. I lied down on the floor and we took a box of old wigs and surrounded my face with them and he stood over me to take the picture. He took several shots in that series. My publisher at Coffeetown Press loved the photo and it went to their graphic artist, Sabrina Sun, for titles and we were done. Oscar did my author headshot photo for the book with that same new camera.

For my second book, ONE GAY AMERICAN, it was a much harder adventure. I wanted something that hinted “gay weddings” but didn’t want to have to fuss with getting copyright permission; in other words I couldn’t go out and buy anything in a store and use it’s image on the cover. No commercial cake tops or brides and grooms. I also wanted the cover to somehow covey “gay American”.

My friend and boss years ago, Julia Collins, made me a gay pride rainbow cake for my birthday. I LOVED that cake and had a lot of fun pictures of me with the cake. I decided maybe we could use the cake and photoshop something from those pictures. Maybe a rainbow gay pride wedding cake?

My friend Samantha Malay and I were discussing the idea of a cake cover and she suggested covering the rainbow flag cake with an American flag. Boom! It clicked! I hired Julia Collins to make a second rainbow cake (with an American Flag fondant) which ended up weighing over twenty pounds. I then hired a prop artist at Seattle Children's Theater named Amanda Gallagher Quinn (who was very pregnant at the time) to hand sculpt me a single groom for the massive gay pride, American Flag wedding cake photo shoot.

Coffeetown Press’s staff photographer, Nancy Johnson, invited me over to her photography studio (her dining room table) and we just played with the cake and the groom for a few hours. We put that groom all over the place and she shot pictures while I held different colored table cloths behind the cake. I bet we took about eighty shots to get the cover.

The tricky part of the whole event was that I wanted to make a video book trailer for ONE GAY AMERICAN that featured the cutting on the cake. That meant the cake went back and forth across Seattle for the cover photo shoot in one part of town to the trailer video shoot in another part of town. Very challenging day.

Take a look at the epic video trailer and the epic cake at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdE8s4mMnP0

This is the original picture of the first gay pride birthday cake that inspired the cover.

Dennis Milam Bensie grew up in Robinson, Illinois where his interest in the arts began in high school participating in various community theatre productions. Bensie’s first book, Shorn: Toys to Men was nominated for the Stonewall Book Award, sponsored by the American Library Association. It was also a pick in the International gay magazine The Advocate as “One of the Best Overlooked Books of 2011″. The author’s short stories have been published by Bay Laurel, Everyday Fiction, and This Zine Will Change Your Lifeand he has also been a feature contributor for The Good Men Project. One Gay Americanis his second book with Coffeetown Press and it was chosen as a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the Indie Excellence Book Awards. He was a presenter at the 2013 Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. Dennis lives in Seattle with his three dogs.

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com

Covered in Sticky Notes

2013-05-31T07:00:00.000+02:00

I’m midway through the second book, Shock Wave, in the Culture Shock Series. I used a linear outline (like the ones you learned how to make in high school) to create the plot. Pretty solid, I thought, but could use some tweaking. So I kept trying to think of alternatives to the plot to really pack the drama punch, so when I hosted a ladies night, I decided to pose my dilemma to a group of friends with an abundance of imagination.

We argued and brainstormed on a few topics and passed around ideas of the direction I wanted the book to go. The slew of ideas kept coming. Each new idea opened up the floodgates to a bucket load of more ideas.

What am I to do?

I tried fitting the notes I took from our ideas into a typical linear outline, but it was just too confusing. So I tried another approach, one used in the movie-making business, storyboarding.

Instead of using boards or notecards, I used sticky notes (post-its). I wrote each scene or major event on a certain color (blue, in my case) sticky note. After filling out a bajillion of those with brief one-liners to explain the scenes, I started filling out orange (couldn’t help it, I’m a huge Florida Gator’s fan) sticky notes with names for the emotions Macy Holmes, the main character, will experience throughout the plot. At the end of creating the scenes, I was covered in sticky notes.

I stuck the blues on one side and the oranges on the other side of my bedroom wall (it totally clashes with my décor, but whatever) and started assembling my plot. I was able to finagle the plot and move scenes around to see where they fit best—where to create drama and where to cool it down, etc. It helped maintain focus and organization. I was able to see the plot taking shape. Since most of it is written already, I did some nipping, tucking, adding and elaborating to make the story cohesive.

I’m a visual person so putting the scenes of the plot on sticky notes helped me visualize the story and see it clearly.

After finishing her degree in Sociology from the University of Florida, Jeanette Pekala had no idea what she wanted to do with her life.

While her husband was deployed overseas, she focused on what she loved to do, write, where she has finally found an outlet for her overactive imagination.

She lives a not so normal life just a wee bit north of Bougainvillea where she resides with her husband and two children working on Shock Wave, book 2 in the Culture Shock Series.

Website: http://jeanettepekala.com/

The Grass Roots

2013-05-30T07:00:00.000+02:00

I am a small-press author. While I would love to be able to share with you the secret to selling thousands of books and gaining hundreds of readers in a week’s time, I can’t do that. I can only share what I know as I go about building a foundation for what I hope will be a long and productive writing career.

I know about the grass roots effort. I know about face-to-face marketing. I know how to sell one book to one reader at a time. That may not sound very impressive, but it works, in time. I promise.

I operate on a basis I feel is imperative to my success: I am the person I present to you. I don’t go to great lengths to cultivate a sleek image I will never be able to maintain.

I’m awkward. I’m a geek. I have weird hobbies. On Facebook or Twitter, I don’t share sexy images of scantily-clad men as I link to my romance novel on Amazon. If I’m going to link to pretty half-dressed men, it will probably be Joe Manganiello, and it will be because…well, because it’s Joe.

Have I lost you yet?

I hope not, because I really believe that being yourself is a great way to connect with your readers. Now, I don’t mean you should log on to your Facebook and expose every bit of yourself, and every unedited thought. I simply think one shouldn’t be afraid to be vulnerable, on some levels.

I live in a terrible apartment complex. Half my posts are my (hopefully) amusing adventures of just trying to get to my parking spot without something bizarre happening. Without going off the deep end, I can share work stress, writing stress, single-and-still-looking stress, and it gets a response. People connect because of shared experiences. Seeing that someone else, even a recently discovered author, understands the day-to-day struggles can truly make a difference in earning a reader’s future loyalty. And I find myself drawn to people who chime in and make me realize I’m not alone in it all.

Another sure-fire way of connecting? Being appreciative, and meaning it. When I get a great review, it really does thrill me. I try to make a point of sending a general public ‘thank you’ out into the internet ether, in case that reader visits my website or my social networking pages. It doesn’t have to single out the reviewer and, in fact, I’d advise against that. But a brief, general show of gratitude certainly can’t hurt. Taking the time to do so has opened the door to, not just new readers, but new friendships.

Don’t forget your hometown, when it comes to networking and promoting your work, no matter how small. The people you grew up with, teachers, doctors, high school friends…they’re all potential buyers, and they’re all potential marketing help. Some examples of what I consider my own special brand of guerilla marketing:

My mother.

Never underestimate the power of Mom. I have an octogenarian armed with business cards. No doctor’s exam, shopping trip, or grocery run goes without her leaving cards or talking up my books. Maybe it’s guilt, maybe they think her exuberance is adorable. Either way, I see traffic increase on my website when she puts a fresh batch of cards in her purse.

The lady who cut my hair when I was in high school.

There’s an awful lot of traffic through her salon, and a lot of that traffic, including some in book clubs, have heard about my stories.

Friends and family.

They namedrop. They corner people they know are avid readers and they recommend you. They are first in line to buy your book and share links with all their friends. These people are as important as any blog tour you can book for yourself when you have a new release. Utilize them, and never forget their value as promoters and as people you are incredibly lucky to have in your life.

Most importantly, if you want to gain a foothold in the marketing game, step outside of your comfort zone. I am an extreme introvert, but I have participated in radio interviews, and was a faculty member at the South Carolina Writers Workshop Conference. Never say no when the only reason to decline is your own fear. Experiment. Try new things. Take risks. Five years ago, if someone would have told me that I’d be a published author, I’d have laughed until I cried. Swallowing my fear and opening a blank Word document and typing the first sentence of my own story led me to this incredible journey I’m on now. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Take the time to connect, one reader at a time. You’ll never have a stronger foundation for your own writing journey.

J.M. Kelley is the author of Drew in Blue, Daddy’s Girl, and the soon to be released Almost Magic. A fourth novel, She Let Herself Go will be released in early 2014. For more information, please visit www.jmkelleywrites.com.

Author Branding

2013-05-29T21:37:00.001+02:00

I, Tanya Yvonne, committed myself to doing this guest post and was racking my brain trying to come up with a topic. With my deadline only days away, I started to panic mentally drafting an apologetic email to Jo. Thankfully, though my weekly trip to the grocery store not only provided me with a full fridge but also a bit of inspiration. It is no secret that I love me some Spicy Doritos slattered with fat free cream cheese. As I stood in the chip aisle examining the many bags of chips before me, I realized something. Beside each national brand of chip, there was a generic version. And all though the price was lower than its more well known neighbor’s I ended up tossing the Doritos’ brand into my cart. You see the decision was easy because with Doritos I know what I am getting every time I pull a bag open and pop one of them into my mouth. With the generic or store brand it is a guessing game. In this wonderful age of self-publishing, it can be tempting to pen and put out books across many genres. But an author is not just a writer they are a brand. For example when I finally found the genre, YA, that makes my “writing look phat” I had to decide whether or not to fully commit to it. Which means following those on Twitter who tweet about YA, writing blog posts that often center around YA interests (I have interviewed a YA author, a ‘Teen Mom’ and written posts that young readers and writers find interesting). You want readers to know what to expect from you. Whether you love or hate my Violet Eyes’ prologue, you at least know what to expect from brand Tanya Yvonne. So please do not think of your books as individual items and think of each as an extension of your brand. Happy reading, writing or whatever.

https://twitter.com/Tanya_Yvonne

http://TanyaYvonne.blogspot.com

Interview with Cindy Cipriano

2013-05-28T10:34:00.000+02:00

What genre do you write and why?

Middle Grades and Young Adult fiction.

Tell us about your latest book.

The Circle is set in the mountains of North Carolina and is the first in the Sidhe Series.

Calum Ranson is sure of three things: his cousin Finley is alive, Calum will find him, and no one knows Calum and his family are Sidhe. No one until Laurel shows up at his mother's bookstore wearing a dark clan's mark.

When Calum learns the details surrounding the disappearance of Laurel's brother, he suspects the evil Hobayeth clan. Calum and Laurel work together in the Realm of Man and the Otherworld to rescue her brother revealing a connection between Calum and Laurel that may cost Finley his life.

What marketing methods are you using to promote your book?

My website www.TheSidheSeries.com, blogger reviews, and I was an exhibitor at the SC Book Festival. We've also had "tokens" designed of each of the faerie clans. These can be found on my website.

What formats is the book available in?

The book will be available in print and e-versions.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Join a critique group. Now. I'd have saved so much time had I joined one earlier.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

www.TheSidheSeries.com

www.CindyCipriano.com

Anything else you'd like to add?

Please read reviews of The Circle on www.TheSidheSeries.com.

Amazon ranks!

2013-05-26T07:00:00.000+02:00

One thing authors long for is a high Amazon rank, but that’s not always the easiest thing to get. I discovered this when I tried, first to get a friend’s gardening book, Garden of Visible Prayer, then to get my newest story, Greater Treasures, into the Top Ten. I’d like to share some tips I learned.

#1 Make sure your book is classified! Before you consider a campaign, make sure your publisher or you have put your book into its proper category. Margaret’s Garden of Visible Prayer was lumped under “books,” and as a result had a hard time getting that coveted status. It’s a testimony to the quality of her book and the efforts of her promoters that her book, which is targeted at Catholic gardeners who want to create a spiritual prayer garden, rose from over 110,000 to 5608. By contrast, I classified mine under Urban Fantasy, and it rose from 117,000 to the top 60.

#2 Recruit some help. Get some folks to help you out, especially those who are well followed in the social media for your genre. Equip them with information on your book, tweets, posts, and links to share on your Amazon day. These are called “book bombs,” and I’ve seen several done very successfully.

#3 Put your book on a free tracker. Amazon does not track individual book ranks, and sometimes, even if you’re constantly refreshing, you’ll miss something. I never saw Greater Treasures make #60—my husband caught it. I may have gone higher and missed it. I found novelrank.com and metricjunkie.com to provide free services. Ranktracer.com does it for a fee. Sign up BEFORE you do the campaign; they cannot get old information.

#4 Build the buzz. For Margaret, we sent out the book information and got people to blog it the week before, with the note that April 15 was her Amazon Day. We also mentioned it in the social media, with frequent reminders. I didn’t do that with Greater Treasures, and I think I’d have gotten more response if I’d prepped folks.

#5 Make it an occasion and appeal to readers’ generosity. I’ve seen book bombs where the price was cut—or free—but I’ve also seen equally successful ones that were specifically to raise funds. Often, the author had a tragedy or financial issue (like a major medical bill, not “Overspent on shoes again!”) Sometimes, that can push someone over the edge of buy now/buy later, so don’t be afraid to mention it if it’s a big factor. You might have a different occasion. I’ve seen Amazon promotions to celebrate an anniversary of a book’s publication, and for Greater Treasures, I asked for purchases as a birthday present to me.

#6 Didn’t make Top Ten? It still helps. Margaret’s Amazon Day didn’t get her even into the Top 1000, but it did boost her author rank overall into the top 11 percent of authors in Amazon—and she got some attention, including a request to interview with the international Catholic TV station, EWTN. Be sure a few days or a week after your Amazon day to ask folks to post reviews if they enjoy the book.

It was fun to watch the books rise in the ranks. I wish you all the best of luck in reaching that Amazon Holy Grail of Top Ten Seller.

Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem), Karina Fabian has imagination that takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars, but mostly is concerned with supporting her husband, Rob Fabian as he makes the exciting leap from military officer to civilian executive, getting her kids through high school and college, and surviving daily circuit torture…er, circuit training. Read about her adventures at http://fabianspace.com. http://tinyurl.com/greatertreasureskindle

Book tour link with all the stops: http://dragoneyepi.blogspot.com/2013/04/greater-treasures-book-tour.html

Give-away Here’s your chance to win a free electronic copy of Greater Treasures. Leave a comment or question for Karina, Vern, or Sister Grace.

6 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Online Events

2013-05-24T19:44:00.000+02:00

There are numerous benefits to attending online events. To name a few:

Learn new skills
Network
Promote your products and services
Find new opportunities and clients
Establish yourself as an expert in your industry and strengthen your author brand.

But how do you get the most out of online events?

1) Plan ahead. What presentations are you most interested in? Are there specific features or activities happening during the event that you particularly want to be part of? Having a vague game plan in place before hand means you won't get overwhelmed by all the action taking place. It also means you'll achieve your main goals for the day first and then be able to relax and fully enjoy the rest of it.

It's a good idea to have information and links about your books and services ready in a file. This way when opportunities come up during the event you can quickly share without having to search for them. It also makes you come across as more professional and on the ball.

2) Network with other attendees. Connecting with others is one of the best things about attending events. Strengthen existing relationships and reach out to new contacts. Striking up conversation is easy even for the most shy as you already have something in common (the event) and therefore plenty of things to comment on and discuss.

Take your networking off the event site and onto social media channels to increase impact, using the event hashtag to connect with other attendees. Not only will you become part of the action and be able to strike up contact easily with others but you'll also be getting publicity for your profile at the same time. People often RT and share comments related to events they are attending. You'll also show up in the newsfeed for people searching for posts about the event.

3) Tag your posts and content. The event will most likely have a hashtag you can attach to any posts or tweets you send out. If you're sharing a photo or screenshot from the event remember to tag yourself and the event page in the pic when you upload.

4) Write a blog post about the event. Give an overall snapshot of the event or hone in on certain features or presenters.You could even set up a blogging team to cover the event where each person picks a part of the event to cover. You can then either group comments into one post or schedule a series of posts to cover the event.

5) Get involved. If there are opportunities to get involved in activities like Google hangouts or Twitter discussions step up and join in. The content can be used in posts on your website, blog or social media profiles. Activities that involved multiple people are great as each participant is likely to share the content and therefore will be sharing about you at the same time.

6) Take photo's and screenshots. If you were at an in person event you'd most likely take your camera along so you could take photo's throughout the day. You'd want to get snapshots of you with other attendees so you can show people who you've been rubbing shoulders with. Well an online event is the same... the method just changes slightly. You can take screenshots that feature some of your best discussions with other attendees. If you take part in a hangout you can even take photo's during your chat using the capture app.

Want to put these tips into action? Take part in Promo Day tomorrow at www.PromoDay.info. It's a free online event for people in the writing industry and is full of opportunities to promote, network, and learn.

A Change is Coming

2013-05-23T07:00:00.000+02:00

In Southwest DC New Years Eve 1999 under the threat of Y2K as the 20^th century’s final hour ticked away I sat in front the computer at the dining room table. With a clear view of the Washington Monument from my high rise apartment a Millennium celebration was underway with a concert featuring Will Smith. A 20 minute walk across the Mall would have put me in the midst of it all. But I was on a mission to complete the first draft of my first book. A goal I had set 18 months prior and was then 6 months ahead of schedule and anxious to get the it done, I was convinced I was about to embark on a life altering experience. That was 13 years ago and change came albeit minutely and incrementally. It would take ten years to see my first book published. Anyone who thinks they can write one book and instantly become an overnight success, think again, to quote a very famous Langston Hughes essay on the route to literary success “the road is rocky, and the mountain is high.”

Much has passed since Will Smith’s concert performance when I had a high hope, the dream of being a bestselling author collecting a big advance with a three book deal. That dream has yet to manifest but it remains a motivation and within reach. With two books published and two in production and a steady income I learned becoming a successful writer like any other endeavor requires as the saying goes “90 percent perspiration and 10 percent inspiration.” It would take ten years for me to see my first book in print. I learned that writing requires a long apprenticeship. In my case the 10,000 hour rule, a concept popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, was never truer. Gladwell in his book The Outliers explains the key to success in any field requires a 10,000 hours investment. It is simply a matter of practicing a specific task and success can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years.

It took ten years learning the craft of writing to publish my first successful novel. The publishing industry has changed greatly in the past decade as the big 6 publisher’s gatekeepers, their agents and editors no longer have strong arm control. Thanks to ebooks and the growth of independent publishing the traditional publishing route is in no longer the only road to success. I arrived on the publishing scene at just the right time as the age of marketing, publicity and book tours were increasingly becoming the author’s responsibility. The day of the do it all publisher’s publicist is quickly fading save for the celebrity author. Today’s average authors are increasingly building their own platforms and taking responsibility for their own publicity and sales.

Success for a writer requires what some call “ass in chair time” i.e., sitting engaged in the act of writing. It’s a solitary task of which mentors can only teach the fundamentals before launching the apprentice on his or her journey. Thereafter it will be necessary--with the occasional guidance of an editor --to go it alone while mastering the concepts of voice, point of view, show don’t tell, and revision, and make no mistake writing is indeed rewriting. Also, it’s no longer just about just writing, success also requires knowledge of marketing and publicity.

That New Years Eve finishing the first draft of my first book with the final period typed Will Smith’s hip hop sounds faded as the explosion of fireworks lit up sky announcing a new century and for me a new beginning. I had written a book. It was not the end but only the beginning on a path leading down to the road to publication. I still haven’t written the best seller neither landing a 3 book deal nor a huge advance, but I believe it’s still possible. My books are selling and receiving favorable reviews and my hopes of writing that great American novel is within reach like never before. To all those seeking to embark on the journey never give up, change is up ahead just another turn in the road.

Norwood Holland is a freelance writer, lawyer, and author of the Drew Smith legal thriller series based on the capers of an urban trial attorney. He is a graduate of Howard University School of Law with a bachelor’s degree in English from Fisk University where he studied under the renowned Harlem Renaissance author Arna Bontemps. Holland favors D.C.'s local color in his fiction and currently writes the blog editorialindependence.com devoted to promoting independent authors among other things.

He has served in several government agencies including the National Labor Relations Board and a number of Washington’s top national law firms. In the mid 90s Holland began freelancing for the local media. Some of his credits include The Writer Magazine, the Examiner, and Black Literature Magazine. Minus One follows up on the success of Sleepless Nights, the first in the Drew Smith Series.

Website: http://www.norwoodholland.com/
To purchase book: http://www.amazon.com/Norwood-Holland/e/B004Q26D4U/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1365085906&sr=8-1

Tour Schedule: http://wnlbooktours.com/norwood-holland/

Writing As A Way Of Life

2013-05-22T07:00:00.000+02:00

I didn’t decide to write.

It happened. Just happened.

I was living in New York City, and Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones was in town giving a workshop. I signed up. I hadn’t written since I was a kid–not even in a journal. I sat in a room with about two hundred other people and watched as Natalie talked about her free writing method. “Keep your hand moving,” she said. Then she had people read what they wrote. It was a whole weekend of short free writes, people reading in small groups, some people reading to the whole group. I felt so unlike the others. They knew they wanted to be there. I didn’t. I remember being in a panicked state each morning on the subway ride to the workshop.

After that weekend, I signed up for a writing course at the YMCA with Patty Dann, who had written Mermaids. I was so surprised at what came out of me. I had no idea that these stories existed in me. Yes, I was writing about my life—going to live in Oregon with crazy Renee Pat; being sent to Dammash, the Oregon State Mental Hospital; deciding to keep my son Reuven instead of putting him up for adoption. The class liked my stories. They were real. They were alive. For me, it was another part of me awakening.

I had been scared to put the pen on the paper. I felt frozen. When I had a teacher give me a prompt, tell me it was okay to write, I wrote. But I remember going to a class where we were supposed to do “morning pages” according to the method developed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way—three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing done first thing in the morning. I couldn’t write in class. I couldn’t write at home. I put the pen to paper, but my hand felt frozen. And then one morning I wrote—I just wrote. I wrote the story of when I was in high school and the school psychologist told me never to write again. He said I was lying about my family. I wasn’t telling the truth. Truth. I told the truth about my father, but I was shut down until the women writers gave me permission to write again, gave me the tools. Morning pages, keep your hand moving, go deep. It’s never been easy. The words don’t just slide off the pen. But I did learn to free write.

I went to Taos, New Mexico, to more workshops with Natalie Goldberg. I took a yearlong memoir class with Jack Remick and Robert Ray, who also used Natalie Goldberg’s free writing method. Three of us from that class began meeting after completing the class. We met for nine years, almost every week. We wrote our stories. I got feedback. I got support.

But what do you do with pages and pages of free writes? Craft. I discovered that I needed to learn craft. In Seattle I was blessed to have as my teacher Priscilla Long, author of The Writer’s Portable Mentor. She taught me to write sentences and paragraphs, good ones. We had exercises—over and over. Lists, sentences, making good sentences. I felt like I was joining the world. The literary world. I couldn’t do it alone. I had to have the help of friends who learned sentence structure in high school or college. Somehow I didn’t learn those things although I took English in college. In those days I was just surviving.

I’m a Capricorn. I plod along. It took me ten years to write my memoir. I didn’t have a vision of what it would be like to publish, and, of course, the publishing world has changed so radically in recent years. With the help of a friend, Julie Fretzin, I was able to put together a manuscript and get it published. Julie got me readings—at Elliott Bay, Seattle’s prestigious independent bookstore. Over seventy people showed up. I read. I got to read in New York—the Lower East Side, where my story started back in 1964.

My son read the manuscript and called me immediately. “I’m shocked,” he said. “It’s good, really good.” I’ve seen him give copies to friends, to business associates. He’s proud. More than that, he’s had a renewed respect for me, a single mother who didn’t choose a traditional family path.

That’s the outside. For me personally, writing my memoir has been a healing journey. Just putting word after word, sentence after sentence, having a story to make sense of my life. I’ve lived a lot of my adult life in trauma. I lived with these isolated, desolate feelings. Putting it on paper, all of it, making a framework, making a book, reading to audiences—it’s given my story a place in my life. It’s a rightful place, and now, as an elder person, I can enjoy what I have today.

Some people paint.

Some people make craft, knit, run, all kinds of activities. Writing for me is a way to be in the world. I write with other people, in groups. We read to each other. We talk. It’s given me a place in the world.

It’s open.

Take it.

Hadiyah Joan Carlyle grew up in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, became active in the Civil Right movement of the sixties and migrated to San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury to be part of the counter-culture there. In the seventies, she was the first and only female shipyard welder in Bellingham, Washington, north of Seattle.

In the eighties, Hadiyah returned to the East coast to earn her MSW at Rutgers University. In 2003, she completed the certificate program in Memoir Writing through the University of Washington Extension. She is an active member of Seattle’s thriving community of writers.

Today Hadiyah lives in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood close to her son, Washington State 36^th district Legislator Reuven Carlyle, his wife Dr. Wendy Carlyle and their four children. Activist, hiker, devoted grandmother, Hadiyah delights in the wild beauty of the Northwest while remaining connected to her gritty urban East Coast roots.

Though welding is no longer a part of her life, she continues to carry the torch for the empowerment of the oppressed.

You can find out more about Hadiyah Joan Carlyle, Torch in the Dark and her World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/chrfo3t

Interview with Deborah Plummer Bussey

2013-05-21T07:00:00.000+02:00

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I was a very active girl scout when I was in elementary school and my scout leader, Mrs. Ford, brought a gift of a notebook for me to one of the meetings. When she handed it to me she said, "This is for you, Debbie. I noticed that you like to write." I was flabergasted that she knew that. I wondered what it was that she noticed about my actions that made her believe that I was a writer. I often think back to her words when I am writing and especially when I have published something. She defined for me a direction that, up until that time, was not in my full awareness.

What genre do you write and why?

The Sister Nun cozy mystery series were inspired by my family, my former life as a nun, and my life as a psychologist after I left the convent. In Sister Nun psycho-social mysteries, psychologist and former nun, Kathy Carpenter always finds out something in her clinical practice that she must bring to light without breaking confidentiality. Her gregarious sister, Tina, helps her to uncover the truth. Together these amateur sister sleuths uncover suicides and accidental deaths as murders.

The Sister Nun psycho-social mysteries include a great deal of pop culture. Pop culture provides the context for what influences the characters in the story. As a psychologist, understanding the psyche and motivations of the characters is important to me as a writer; thus, the stories have more background and character development than typical mysteries that are more driven by plot. Sister Nun series are cozy mysteries. In cozy mysteries violence and sex are downplayed or treated humorously. I am squeamish about blood and gut stuff and I can’t imagine crime scenes let alone write about them realistically. As you can imagine being a former nun, writing great sex scenes would not be my strong suit; although, who knows, I may make that a stretch goal as a writer.

Tell us about your latest book.

In They Still Call Me Sister, former nun and practicing psychologist, Kathy Carpenter, knows something is off when a patient is found dead and it's claimed a suicide. Enlisting the help of her gregarious sister, Tina, they set out to prove her patient was murdered. But with the only suspect a shadowy fiqure known to them by a nickname, the answers seem well out of reach. As Kathy gets closer to the truth, political intrique begins to surround her and her own life becomes in danger.

The Family That Stays Together will be released in Spring 2013 with some of the same characters. When Atlanta TV celebrity, Jessica Davis , becomes the main suspect in the murder of her ex-fiance, Don Davenport, Kathy and Tina rally to support their long-time family friend. Support takes on new meaning as Kathy learns that Don is also the secret love interest of a patient she has relunctantly accepted into her practice. Sister sleuths, Kathy and Tina get themselves in trouble with the law as they get closer to the truth.

What marketing methods are you using to promote your book

Having had the experience of being published in a traditional manner and by self-publishing, I realized that the essential component of book sales, beyond good writing and a good story, are authors who can promote their book. I have done the tradtional book store signings, virtual book tours, radio and television interviews. So much has changed in the world of marketing books over the past five years. Using social media is a critical component of attracting readers.

What formats is the book available in?

Both Sister Nun Psychosocial mysteries are available in soft cover and e-book.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I love to cook and enjoy great restaurants with family and friends. I also love movies, and, of course, I am an avid reader.

Deborah Plummer Bussey

Who are your favourite authors?

I greatly appreciate the writing style of Ann Patchett. I have loved all of her books. Anna Quindlen inspires me. I love the literary strengh of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. Jhumpa Lahiri is an amazing writer. Wally Lamb is very high on the list. My favorite new authors are Carol Rifka Brunt who wrote Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Junot Diaz author of This is How You Lose Her, and John Greene, author of The Fault in Our Stars. My favorite beach book authors are Jennifer Weiner and John Grisham.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Read a lot, get feedback on your writing and write a lot. The more you write the better you get.

What's your favourite quote about writing/for writers?

"The singlest biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw It reminds me that just because I think I am writing with intention and clarity that it means readers will get it as I have intended it.

What's the best thing about being a writer?

The ability to be able to get some of your thoughts on paper and have readers respond to them.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

They can visit http://www.halfdozenpublications.com/ and http://www.dlplummer.com/ Also twitter @sisternun and Facebook www.facebook.com/DeborahPlummerBussey

Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you for this opportunity to have this conversation with you and your readers.

A whole new world

2013-05-20T18:12:00.000+02:00

Writing fantasy is both a blessing and a curse. A whole new world is yours for the creating, but, if you don’t plan it carefully and abide by your own rules, you can turn it from fantasy to pure nonsense. Having now completed a trilogy of fantasy novels I’ve experienced researching like I never would have fathomed prior to it. For example;

How far can a griffon fly in a day? Or an hour? What is ‘top’ griffon speed.
How would syrens work, and why? Because as silly as it might seem debating a mythical creature, to make it believable in a tale it has to seem logical…
Why do dragons breathe fire? And would they all?
If you have dragons and griffons, what would they eat? Surely a cow wouldn’t be big enough.
How long would an ‘average’ human live?
What colour are the oceans, and why?
Is there magick on this world, and how does it work?

Creating another world, with believable creatures and characters, all in a completely foreign setting requires some meticulous note taking (well, that or flicking back and forth between your drafts *grin*) and an absolute dedication to make it read as logical as possible. It can create some writer’s block like you’ve never experienced but at the same time the sense of freedom, and adventure, in being the first to pioneer your ‘new world’ makes it all worth it.

Nicole MacDonald is a thirty something year old Kiwi who loves to read and moonlights as a novelist. From a young age she fantasized about being the heroine in the books and/or movies she watched and credits the series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ for really inspiring her. Writing only occurred to her a few years ago after reading an abysmal tale with silly useless females where upon she decided to write a tale solely for herself where the girls got to kick butt without the usual sob story—betrayed/abused/abandoned etc. That little tale eventuated into the BirthRight Trilogy.

Nicole’s current daydream is that Joss Whedon (aka the genius of film) will discover the BirthRight Trilogy and demand the film rights to it. Until then, she’s working on several other writing projects and aiming to explore the world with her partner.

Get the first book "Awakening" for free in any format from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34874