Sandy Nathan's Blog, page 7

Winners in the 2012 IPPY (Independent Publisher) Awards Have Been Announced! Your Book Didn’t Win? Here Are Some Words to Cheer You Up

The Gold Medal in the IPPY Awards--So near, but so far

On May 2, 2012, awards for the last few categories of the 2012 IPPY (Independent Publisher) Awards were announced. Did your book receive an award?

Mine didn’t, either. I’ve been entering the IPPYs for years. This was the first time  I didn’t win something. Kinda shocking.

It hurts to have your masterpiece spurned, but doesn’t hurt half as much as getting a one star review. That’s like a crossbow bolt to the heart, except you don’t get to die. You get to read those words savaging your beloved baby forever, or as long as your book’s Amazon page lasts. So losing in the IPPYs isn’t that bad.

You feel better already, don’t you?

This is an article about dealing with not winning a book contest. Usually I write about how to win book contests. One of the things I say in those articles is that you can do everything I say to do to win and still lose. I just demonstrated that.

Here’s another cheery thought: There are more of us, I won’t say losers . . .  non-awarded participants than those who got prizes. Maybe 4,000 books were entered in that contest. How many won? A couple hundred? See, we’re the majority. We could beat them easily in anything demanding numbers. Don’t you have a feeling of fellowship? Maybe we should set up a Facebook page.

Not winning in the 2012 IPPY (Independent Press) Awards brought to mind an actual event that happened to me in the olden days, before my body started disintegrating. I used to show horses.  My family was into horses. That means: We’d blow the kids’ college tuition fund if a good show prospect came up. We were over-the-top, raving horse maniacs, like everyone else we knew. We bred, raised, trained and showed our horses, which were Peruvian Paso horses. That’s right, they originated in Peru. What follows is an uplifting to you (I hope), though extremely embarrassing to me, tale illustrating what can be learned through losing.

Hang in there: This is more of a short (or medium length) story, than a blog post. Actually, it’s a free Kindle short.

Azteca de Oro BSN & I at the Monterey show. This is NOT me riding Vistoso. I couldn't find a picture of the Big V and me. I'm riding Vistoso's full brother, Azteca, at the Monterey Fairgrounds. Close enough.

OK. I was riding one of our top horses, Vistoso, at the Mission Trails Classic Championship Peruvian Paso Horse Show in Monterey, CA.  The Monterey show was very large and prestigious. All the top ranches attended the show; winning there was a big deal.

Vistoso and I were in some class, most likely Performance Geldings, since he was a performance gelding. In performance classes, the horses don’t just zoom around the arena looking beautiful. They have to do something: stop and back up, go fast, go slow, turn in circles, reverse, and serpentine through poles set so close that the animals looked like snakes with manes and tails.

Vistoso and I were having the ride of a lifetime. We were on. We were in perfect harmony: a gorgeous young horse and an aging-but-still-pretty-together woman. Vistoso was a tall, bright chestnut gelding. He was big; he was bold. He was magnificent. (Which is what Vistoso means: Beautiful, delightful, showy, spectacular. Peruvian Paso horses are required to have Spanish names, in homage to their Peruvian roots.)

We moved around the carefully groomed arena. The stadium surrounding us was filled with everyone who wasn’t riding a horse or getting ready to. Vistoso didn’t take a false step the whole class. I could hear the four-beat sound of his gait, the paso llano, a slow gait particular to his breed. We were in perfect balance, horse and rider.

Other horses were in the arena, but I knew we had it nailed. We’d win the class, go on to the championship competition, and win that. From there, Vistoso would become the new Champion of Champions.

TWIGGY & LILY at Monterey–- This is my daughter Lily riding out of the arena on Twiggy, probably the hottest horse we've ever owned. Notice how the horse seems to be compressed horizontally, smashed from front to back. That's because she wants to leave the ring. If Lily let go of the reins, that horse would launch faster than something from Vandenburg Air Force Base.

The judge pointed to a number of horses moving along the rail, including Vistoso and me, and indicated that we should move to the center of the arena, next to the flapping canvas pavilion where the ring steward and officials sat with a pile of gaudy trophies. I eyed the trophies, panting slightly. We were in “the good pile.”

The judge then motioned to the horses still moving along the rail, indicating that they should leave the arena through the newly opened gates. They were “the bad pile.”

If you’re in the good pile, you’re that much closer to winning. Except that horses do not care about winning. They are herd animals: they care about being with their their buddies, who were leaving the arena. Horses in the good pile can become very anxious at this point.

The judge sent us to the far end of the arena and the announcer began  calling out winners, working from the lowest place to the highest. A couple of honorable mentions. Fifth place. Fourth . . . When their numbers were announced, riders piloted their horses to the flapping pavilion and picked up their ribbons. They then left the arena, the horses practically bolting as they neared the open gates.

The higher your placement, the worse it gets. I was circling Vistoso at close to light speed as he became increasingly distressed watching his fellow equines escape. Finally, the Big V and I were the only horse/rider pair in the arena, except for this other woman on a little liver chestnut. (Yes, he was the color of liver.) I knew her. She was a really nice lady. Little horse. No sweat. The class was mine. I kept circling Vistoso, hoping that my triumph wouldn’t be overshadowed by him bucking me off. Then the announcer called the second place number.

It was MY number! I came in second.  That was impossible. I had won the class. No one could have had a ride as good as ours. I rode out of the arena with my lousy red ribbon. I was pissed off, and I stayed that way the rest of the day, and into the night.

Evening fell, as it inevitably does. The big dinner dance was on. The Monterey fairgrounds have a really cool party set-up. Soft lights twinkled and the band struck up. A gorgeous buffet was laid out. Champagne flowed and folks in “Western/Peruvian formal” attire chatted it up or took to the dance floor.

I made my way through the crowd, turned a corner, and ran smack into the show’s  judge. My eyes narrowed and my back went up.

The judge recognized me and put out her hand, grinning broadly. “Boy, did you ride that horse this afternoon!” Her praise was as heartfelt as any I’ve heard.

She didn’t fool me. That class was MINE. “Well, if you liked us so much, why didn’t you give us the blue ribbon?” I said. You see, I’m a liberated woman. I’ve also taken nine million assertiveness trainings. I was not about to let someone ***** me over.

The judge rocked back, and then replied without missing a beat. “Well, this is a very good show. A second prize in this show is equivalent to a championship somewhere else.”

I disengaged and walked away, feeling slightly better and proud that I’d spoken up for myself. I was no wimp.

* * *

Fast forward to the end of the show season, late Fall. I’m at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA. The National Championship Show for the Peruvian Paso breed is  in full swing. This is the big, BIG time. Griffith Park is a real equestrian center. Massive cement grandstands circle an over-sized ring, creating a bowl which is spanned by a very high and equally massive ceiling.

The Nationals are like this: All the horses you’ve seen  in the magazines are there with their famous trainers, equally famous ranch owners, and enough stable help to run a small resort. The barns where the horses are kept when not performing sport flags and banners and swags up and down the aisles. Each ranch has its signature colors. Videos advertising the ranches’ charms and horses for sale play at the end of each stall row. Multicolor ribbons flutter, too––whatever each ranch has won at the show is displayed front and center.  Believe it or not, some ranches deck out their turf with potted palms and carpeting. It’s a spectacle that looks like it came out of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, but with more horses.

My nervous system goes into overload and then flames out with the tension of the Nationals. I’d already blown the classes I was riding in. “The bad pile” was probably above my head in that company.  I had plenty of free time, so I sat in the stands, watching the show.

I jumped out of my seat when the  woman who stole that class from me in Monterey rode through the gates. I leaned forward, teeth bared, staring at her. She was a petite, slender woman with rich dark hair. Her spine was erect, perfectly balanced as she sat the horse. Her stirrups were long, permitting her legs to extend downward gracefully. If you had dropped a line from her knee, it would touch the tip of her toes. She held her hands low, almost touching the front of the saddle. Her equitation was plu-perfect.

Her horse, the grubby little thing I’d dismissed, wasn’t so grubby when I looked at him carefully. Liver chestnut is actually a rich medium brown, very correct and conservative. The horse was small and fine, like its rider. They were a brilliant match of type and style. Her poncho, saddle, bridle, everything, was exactly what the rule book specified. The animal moved along, relaxed, but alert, and precisely gaited.

Riding is one sport where the better you are, the less you do. You can see dressage riders in the Olympics whose horses are doing unbelievable things, but you can’t see the rider doing anything. The pair before me were like that. Exquisite. You know, there’s good riding, and then excellent riding. This was riding touched by angels.

I sat there, my mouth falling open. My hands went cold. I didn’t win that class in Monterey because I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t see my competition because I was busy riding my own horse. Seeing her in that arena told me that she and that little gelding were world class. (In fact, they would win the National Champion of Champions Performance Gelding title later in the show.)

I had a sinking feeling when I realized what I’d done. I felt like my center of gravity was ten feet below the stadium and dropping. I remembered what I had said to that judge. My cheeks flamed. Embarrassment so powerful that you could almost see it washed over me. I had been so rude to that nice woman. I am still embarrassed about what I said, many years later.

I’ll never forget it.

* * *

So there it is: I didn’t win because I didn’t deserve to. I didn’t know I wasn’t the best because I was busy riding my own horse and couldn’t see the others.

* * *

Am I saying that your book didn’t win in the IPPYs because it wasn’t good enough? Well, . . .

Let’s take a look at that. When you enter your book in a contest, it’s like entering the arena on Vistoso that day in Monterey. You’re busy with your own entrant and can’t see the competition. You don’t know how good the other entrants’ books were. And you’ll never know. Remember me mouthing off to that judge when you feel like screaming over your placement. Don’t embarrass yourself.

Let’s look at book contests. You’ve zeroed out at the IPPYs this year. What should you do? Here are some options:

1. Walk away and never enter a book contest again. This is a pretty good option. Book contests are expensive. Aside from the cost of editing, proofreading, having the book designed, and printing my book, along with the two years of my life I spent writing my entry, Lady Grace, I forked out maybe $150 for the single category I entered. That includes the entry fee, postage and materials for the press kit, which I included even though it wasn’t required. If I’d entered more categories or books, the cost would have multiplied.

Lady Grace, my 2012 entry into the book contests. Finished moments before entries close,will the Lady have what it takes?book, plus the two years of my life devoted to writing Lady Grace, I forked out maybe $150 for the single class I entered. That includes the entry fee, postage and materials for the press kit, which I included even though it wasn't required. If I'd entered more books in more classes, the cost would multiplied.

Having that $150 to spend on on-line advertising on one of the reader-friendly sites like Kindle Nation Daily likely would have produced more book sales than entering the contest. (Though I wouldn’t have gotten to write this article if I’d done that.)

Those who promote book contests say winning them does a bunch of things, like increase your visibility in the market, set you above the non-winners, make your mom proud of you, and give you some really cool benefits like medals and certificates.

What do awards actually do? I’ve won twenty-one national awards in book contests, including the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals at the IPPYs. I’ve won a bunch of other prestigious prizes, too. What have they done for me?

I cannot directly attribute the sale of a single book to my contest wins. I have some things that I think my wins have brought me. I have a terrific international rights agent who found me because of my wins. I suppose. A company in France is working on distributing my kids’ book, Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could. Maybe they found me through my contest record.

I can tie one offer to my awards, because the guy trying to sell me on it mentioned them a bunch of times. He offered me the chance to appear on regional TV in Florida, the opposite end of the continent from my home. I’d get to appear on an early morning show, talk up my book, and get an edited tape of my appearance which I could play wherever I wanted. How long would my appearance be? Five minutes. For this I would pay a special discounted rate of $6,200. I also had to cover the cost of my airfare and accommodations.

If you do not know this is a bad deal, you shouldn’t be selling books.

Do you need awards to sell books? No. Think of those hallowed authors whose names we repeat like mantras as we go to sleep. John Locke, the indie who’s probably sold a couple million ebooks by now and parlayed his success into a big contract with Simon & Schuster. A contract written just the way he wanted it, no yanking him around. Amanda Hocking, who did just like John Locke, sold millions of books and made millions of dollars. And got a contract with St. Martin’s Press.  Darcy Chan, who’s probably closing on a million ebook sales. J. A. Konrath, who started the whole “you can sell big as an indie” movement.

Do any of these people enter contests for indie authors? No. They just sell more books than anyone can count.

Cutting  your losses with contests and figuring out how to effectively sell your book is a good way to go.

2. Say you want to win prizes and enter more contests. What then? I’m like that. A compulsive competitor. I like to say, “Hi, I’m Sandy Nathan, award-winning author.” I like stickers and medals and certificates. I like to increase the number of wins I’ve got and post the new numbers all over. Look at my website, for Pete’s sake. If that isn’t ever conspicuous flashing of glitz I don’t know what is. My husband says, “Isn’t twenty-one awards enough?” I say, “No! A million wouldn’t be enough!”

You’re like me, you didn’t win the IPPYs this year, but you want to try again. Read the article below and follow it. This is my famous “What I do to win book contests” article. Do all that and enter your new book next year.

Or––take a look at your book and what you’re writing now. The IPPYs are a huge, prestigious contest, like the National Championships I described above. Are you up to that competition? If you don’t think you you can make it in the rarefied atmosphere of the IPPYs, pick a different contest. My article on how to win book contests has links to some very nice smaller contests. Maybe one is just perfect for your book.

3. If my recitation of what you actually get out of book contests sticks in your craw, pick a contest with really good prizes. Good prizes are a reason to compete even if you’re horrified by what I’ve said above.  I’m sharing a secret now. The 2012 National Indie Excellence Contest has killer prizes. Check ‘em out on their web site. They have regular prizes for the classes, but the overall winners get stuff like thousands of dollars of services from top publicists. This is worth competing for. It’s too late to enter this year, but 2013 is coming fast.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy––Winner of the 2011 Gold Medal for Visionary Fiction in the IPPY Awards

4. What does winning really mean? In 2011, I was thrilled and delighted when I discovered my book The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy had won the Gold Medal in Visionary Fiction at the IPPYs. I’d won in previous IPPYs, but never a Gold. The whole experience was wonderful. I feel tremendous gratitude to the people putting on the contest for acknowledging my book as they did.

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is Book I of Tales from Earth’s End. The series is a fantasy/sci-fi/visionary fiction tale about people pushed to the literal ends of the earth. In The Angel, nuclear holocaust looms as the characters work to mend their past “business” and figure out how to survive the destruction of the planet. The Angel is a good book. It’s an important book treating the possibility of nuclear weapons destroying our world, as well as what can come from economic disaster which is not successfully resolved. It’s beautifully produced and has a killer cover. I like this book very much.

Lady Grace is the second book in the Tales from Earth’s End series and was my entry in the 2012 IPPY Awards. Lady Grace sets out what happens to a small group of survivors of the nuclear war as they begin to create a new world. Every book professional who has seen Lady Grace has told me that it’s not just better than The Angel, it’s way better. “Your pacing, the plotting, the characters––all are terrific. This is the best writing you’ve done.” That was my editor. Others have said the same sort of thing: I’ve hit my stride with Lady Grace. I knew it, too.

A woman in my book club who told me she’d hated everything I’ve written called me babbling in rapture after reading Lady Grace. “It’s fantastic, Sandy. It’s the best book I’ve ever read. How did you do that? Where did you come up with all that?” And more, she went on and on.

Lady Grace, my 2012 entry into the book contests. Finished moments before entries closed, Lady Grace was left in the paddock area at the end of the race.

OK. The Angel won the Visionary Fiction category in 2011, for which I will be eternally grateful. Lady Grace didn’t win anything in 2012, but it’s a better book in every way. Except maybe its cover. The version I submitted was straight off the presses, maybe even a proof. We got the book in that close to the contest’s deadline.

The final issue I’m raising is about judging. I’m not doing the snotty thing that I did to that poor judge in Monterey. I realize that the emerging National Champion of Champions might have been in the Visionary Fiction category in 2012. I don’t know what the competition was, or what the competition was in 2011 when The Angel won the Gold.

It’s just really weird to me that a lesser book should win the competition and a superior one not even place. Did the judges read it? Maybe totally different judges were working in 2012, and they had different preferences. You see that showing horses all the time. Some judges hate a particular type, while others love it. Maybe the fact that the cover wasn’t totally jelled knocked it out. That’s possible. We’ve since modified the cover, cleaning up the colors and changing the tag line.

A lot of things could have happened, and some of them must have.

What does the judging mean? What do you win when you win?

The more I think on these things, the more I tend to agree with my husband. Maybe twenty-one awards is enough.

So, campers, we’ve finished our romp through Contestland. I don’t know if I made you feel any better after your non-award, but maybe I made  you more thoughtful.

I look forward to hearing from others about their contest experiences. Would you do it again? What did it do for book sales? Your career?

Let me know, folks.

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground (paperback. Kindle coming)

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love (paperback. Kindle coming)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

 

The Structure of the Publishing Industry: Writers and Authors are the Children, Literary Agents Are the (Good or Bad) Parents and Publishers Call the Shots

Today, we examine the structure of the publishing industry, trying to figure out why we may feel so lousy pursuing a literary career. (Unless you’re one of the anointed few making mega-bucks with your scribblings. I doubt that feels lousy.)

We’re going to take three different points of view, which add up to very similar conclusions. My fellow authors, Ruth Harris & Anne R. Allen, wrote a great blog article about Writers’ Masochism.  That refers to writers taking  garbage and ill-treatment from their bosses that no one in any other industry would.

Except maybe law, our second point of view on this issue. Here’s a  link an article by Will Meyerhoff, an attorney and psychotherapist. If you read Mr. Meyerhoff’s article, I think you’ll agree that the legal profession and publishing industry have much in common. Or at least people living and working in them feel similarly.

After practicing law for a period of time, Hoffmeyer discovered that depression is common in attorneys. He became a psychotherapist treating attorneys (and others). In his article, Hoffmeyer presents a psychological model explaining how depression is created and supported within the individual’s mind and by the legal industry. The depression-creating system he presents is one basis of the writer’s masochism post by Ruth Harris & Anne R. Allen. I recommend reading both for an understanding of writer’s masochism. Hoffmeyer’s description of how lower level attorneys feel in Biglaw mirrors my own feelings as a fledgling author.

Professionally, I was an economist, negotiation coach, businesswoman, and horse rancher before entering the writing field. I have a couple of Master’s degrees, including one in counseling. I took my counseling degree in a program stressing family structure and systems––how a family’s unspoken rules can work to keep some family members powerless and unhappy and allow others to be fat cats, throwing their weight around. This background served me well when I started writing seriously.

I entered the world of writing after an explosive personal experience back in 1995. I jumped into writing groups and editors and spending all day sitting at a word processor. Once I had enough quality work on paper and needed a publisher, I became acutely aware of of the structure of the literary/publication world.

At the bottom of the pyramid are hordes of wannabe authors––and they have to be published traditionally, only. Being traditionally published means: a publisher buys your manuscript according a contract, which the publisher writes and controls. You get money and they get to do whatever they want with your work, including not publishing it. If it does come out, you, the author, get to pay for publicizing it and do the work. Being traditionally published is supposed to be far superior to and more prestigious than publishing your work  yourself.

I recall seeing a video of a famous author giving a seminar about writing. Her fans gazed at  her with devotion normally reserved for east-Indian gurus. Rapture didn’t come close to the intensity of their focus. They were addicts, of her and of getting their work in print. Lust lived in that room.

Back to the publishing industry: Above the wannabe authors in the power hierarchy (way above) are the literary agents, gatekeepers to the hallowed realm of the publishers. The literary agents are numerous, but a tiny fraction of the wannabe authors.

Above the literary agents are the publishers, a much smaller group which  hold the keys to kingdom: publication.

In this system, power flows downward: publishers have way more power than agents who have way more power than writers/wannabe authors, who have almost no power.

The publishers and agents take on the parental and adult roles in the system, doing everything good and bad parents do. Judging, evaluating, rejecting, and generally doing the naughty things described in Ruth’s and Anne’s article. This hierarchical dehumanization is part of the structure of the industry.

Very quickly, I realized that in this model, the writers/authors were trapped in a PERMANENT state of the powerless child. That’s what Ruth and Anne describe above, in talking about rotten deals and being forced to overwork and accept bad terms. This is a PERMANENT state, unless a writer gets lucky and enters the hallowed realm of the ACTUALLY PUBLISHED and her book sells like crazy. (Or unless the industry topples. It’s been shaken by the Great Recession and the eBook and self-publishing revolutions.)

Everyone in the traditional system is stuck. Literary agents and representatives of publishers are also mired in a PERMANENT state of the ADULT or PARENT. They are perennially superior to and controlling of the child/writers. Who are shoved into permanent INFANCY. This is lousy for the personal/spiritual development of everyone involved.

I have some background in addiction theory and treatment. Many of the writers I’ve known are ADDICTED to striving for the state of being published, no matter what it costs them. You can see this by the lengths to which they’ll go to get published and the worship piled on successful writers. The scene at the author’s seminar I noted above described it perfectly. This is WR in its pure form.

After querying a bit and observing the system by which one obtains literary representation closely, something inside me went, “**** this. Nobody jerks me around like this. I’m not willing to be abused.” I could not participate in the traditional system.

When I was in economics or coaching negotiations at the graduate level, professional life was different. In a “regular” profession, if you write and present a few excellent papers and do your work well, you’re treated like a valuable adult team member. Not so in publishing.

Anne and Ruth present some steps to take to reestablish oneself as a powerful individual in the writing world.

My solution was to create an independent press––a legal entity as  valid as any other  small press.

Some people start foaming at the mouth when anyone talks about  indie-presses or self-publishing. I would like to suggest that that attitude belongs with the folks who are addicted to being published, at the cost of themselves.

People talk about the abysmal quality of self-published work. A lot of it is junk from one cover to another. But not all of it.

I’ve won twenty-one awards at contests for indie-presses. I have judged one such contest. I’m not allowed to say anything about that contest, but I will say that the best of the indie-produced books far exceeded the quality of books published by the majors.

And of course they do––the majors can’t afford to put the resources into a book that some independently-funded small presses can. Books of amazing quality won in that contest.

What is the point of this diatribe? Everyone needs to create a path which will allow him or her to attain goals, while maintaining one’s soul. Anne’s and Ruth’s article gave some suggestions. Will Meyerhoff’s article gives others.

What do I suggest? Do what works and dump what doesn’t.

I chose to create my own press. I’ve got six really great books on the market and have won multiple awards with them.

As and indie-press owner and indie-author, I work harder than even I, the achievement-addicted economist from Silicon Valley, could have predicted. Seven days a week at this point. The market is so flooded with author-produced ebooks and POD books, that making a good book show up above the deluge is difficult. How is a tastefully and impeccably produced book going to stand out among 100,000 ebooks uploaded that day? In a situation where buyers can’t see its quality through the Amazon sales page?

The bottom line is: Writing/authoring is a tough way to make a living, no matter how you do it. Is what I’m doing easier than going the traditional route? No. It is easier on my gut. All the pressure comes from my own drives and needs.

Writing can be an addiction. It certainly is for me. It’s a soft addiction, like gambling or over-spending. Twelve step programs say you have to completely give up the addictive behavior to be free of addiction.

Well, forget that. I’m struggling with what I want to do with my writing and my life. I think that reading articles like Anne’s and Ruth’s have written give perspective. I think Will Meyerhoff’s article, and the information I’ve presented on a systems view of the publishing industry can be very liberating––strengthening the writer/author and freeing him or her to make decisions that enhance the self, as opposed to denigrating it.

I’m going to take it one day at a time, noting the carpal tunnel creeping into my wrists and the shrieking of the bursitis in my hips that I got from sitting too long, and weighing them against benefits achieved.

That’s all a person can do.

Best wishes in your writing and life!

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Winning Book Contests: It’s too Late to Enter Most of the the 2012 Competitions, but You Can Still Be Hysterical Waiting for the Results

Lady Grace, my 2012 entry into the book contests. Finished moments before entries closed, Lady Grace muscled its way into the pack. Will the Lady go the distance?

I just received a notice from Jim Barnes of the Jenkins Group, which hosts the IPPY (Independent Press) Awards. The IPPYs are the oldest and largest contest for books produced by independent presses.

THEY’RE STARTING TO ANNOUNCE THE 2012 WINNERS ON APRIL 27TH. ALL THE AWARDS WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY MAY 1!

HOLY MACARONI! THAT’S THIS WEEK! 

In honor of the last phases of book contest participation, I’m re-posting my Mother’s Day bulletin of 2011. In it, I set out exactly what I do to win. It’s too late to do any of that stuff this year; the contests are closed and in the judging is in process. (Though you can still get into the Best Books of 2012 (USA Book News). They have the latest closing and award announcement dates of the indie contests.)

If you do read my earlier article, which follows these introductory remarks, you may want to run screaming, vowing never to think about book contests.

Is that what it takes to win? Yeah.

I have a track record of winning––I’ve received twenty-one awards in book contests to date. How is no mystery: I outline exactly what I do in the re-posted article below. It’s a combination of dogged persistence, superhuman devotion to excellence, and bullheaded drive from the minute you write the manuscript’s first word until you pick up the award.

Does the fact that I’ve won before make the waiting easier? No. Having won Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals at the IPPYs simply makes me more certain that I won’t win this year.

At Your Shelf Life, we talk about feelings. How does it feel to be in the final weeks of a contest? People approaching the guillotine probably felt about the same.

With the IPPY announcement this morning, we  enter the almost final phase of book contest participation: The Wait. It’s awful, though I suppose I don’t feel any more stressed and anxious than usual.

My new book, Lady Grace, wasn’t finished until the contests were almost closed. I threw together press packets and shipped books off, getting them in just before the contest’s “drop dead” dates. I only entered one category of the IPPYs: Visionary Fiction. No hedging my bets by entering other categories; no backup in case I don’t win in Visionary Fiction. I won the category in 2011, but that was then. This is now.

No guarantees with book contests. The books of the current year are judged. Don’t matter what you did last year. Or the year before that. Or before that . . .

Once they announce the contest winners, participants enter the “Thrill of Victory, Agony of Defeat” phase. If you win, this phase is terrific. If you don’t win, it’s not quite so much fun. One thing you can do is read the article below and see where your book fell short.

Remember: The top end of the books produced by indie presses are better than those produced by the major publishers. Not winning is no disgrace. To get an idea of what winning means, here are some numbers from the Jenkins Group email about the IPPYs. These are the number of books in these categories:

Photography – 41 entries
Literary Fiction – 126 entries
Wartime Fiction (new this year) – 38 entries
Autobiography/Memoir – 171 entries
History – 86 entries
Poetry – 81 entries
Science – 18 entries

To win your category, your book may have to beat 171 entries. There’s no shame in losing.

On the other hand, winning is really fun.

The Agony/Ecstasy stage is followed by the Market-Like-Crazy stage. Your win won’t do you any good if no one knows about it.

HERE WE GO––THE RE-POSTED “HOW TO WIN A BOOK CONTEST” FROM 2011.

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground, Book II of Tales from Earth's End. This book didn't make it to the 2012 contests. It came off the presses just a little too late. Thought I'd post it to doll up the article a bit.

MOTHER’S DAY, MAY 8th, 2011.

OK. I’m fudging a bit. I started writing this article on Mothers’ Day, 2011, but have updated it to include contest wins that were announced later in the the year. As of today, December 5th, 2011, my books have won twenty-one national book awards.  In addition to the twelve awards my first two books garnered, my two new books won nine more this year. The awards are listed way, way down at the bottom of this article and on my web site.

Why am I telling you this? Winning is thrilling, for one thing. It’s worth letting people know about. Plus, all the articles say you should write about topics that you know.

I know how to win book contests. I’m going to share my “secrets” with you here.

After you’ve read this article, you may decide you would rather do anything than try to win a book contest. I used to be a straight A student. One of the guys in my class looked at my notes and saw what I did to maintain my 4.0. “I don’t think I want to be an A student,” he said, looking slightly green.

Winning takes a lot, you’ll see. I’m going to start with two basic questions:

How do you enter a book contest?

The contests that I’m talking about are contests for independent publishers, small presses, and self published authors, though “the majors”––the big, traditional publishers ––do enter some of the competitions I’ll be talking about.

I’m not discussing the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, the Nebula or Hugo Awards, the Booker Award, or the Nobel Prize for Literature. Professional associations and literary big-wigs nominate books for these are awards; you don’t sign up for them.

I was talking about contests for indie authors and presses on an on-line forum once. Some guy posted a list of the big-big literary awards, intimating they were the only ones that mattered. If that’s how you feel, go back and get your MFA at Iowa or your PhD in literature somewhere and have at it. You might ask the universe for a brain re-do, too, giving you an English aptitude in the 99th percentile. And a stratospheric IQ.

Let’s stick to what’s doable.

To enter a book contest, pick one you want, go to its website, fill out the forms and pay your money. Send them your book and whatever else they want. Voila! You’re entered.

How much does it cost? I have paid entry fees of between $50 and close to $200 per category. So if the entry fee per category is $50, and I enter two books in two categories, I’m going to fork out a not-insubstantial $200. Plus the cost of the books they want and the cost of creating a press kit/marketing materials to go with the books.

Which category to enter? Look at your book’s BISAC category. BISAC is the Book Industry Study Group. They establish a list of official categories into which books are sorted. You selected categories when you sent your book to your printer, most likely, or when your registered your book’s ISBN with Bowker’s Books in Print or My Identifiers. You did register your ISBN, didn’t you? Or have your publisher do it? You need to do this.

Which category to enter? The obvious one is your book’s BISAC code. But some of the categories in book contests overlap the BISAC codes, and some books could be described by several categories. Some categories in book contests are going to have lots more entrants than others, too. Chick-lit, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, for instance. Lots of books are written in those categories; winning in those groups will be harder.

What to do? My advice: Enter every category that your book fits, which may be four or five. You don’t know what the competition is going to be like in those different categories. You may hit one with only a few entrants. Or the judges of a particular category may like your book better. Hedge your bets.

To pay the entry fees, you will be spending your children’s educational funds and maybe your retirement savings, too, but this article is about how to win, not save money. (We do the same thing putting young horses in shows: Enter them in every class that seems like a possibility for a given horse. You don’t know what a horse will do at the beginning. We might have  Luxury Gelding when we thought we had a Pleasure Horse. After a few shows, we’ll have a better idea of where the horse performs best.)

Where do you find book contests? Here are a couple of web sites with lists of book contests. I have entered many of these.

SPR Self Publishing Review  This link provides a list of contests.

Publishing Basics: A Book Award Adds Value to Your Book

Reader Views: Literary Awards

The awards have specific calendars relating to the publishing year and copyright dates. Some are for the previous year’s books. Read the instructions on every contest’s page carefully and make sure you are complying with directions. For instance, the Benjamin Franklin Awards accepts books with copyrights from the previous year. So in 2011, it accepted books with 2010 copyrights.

The contests have final dates, after which you cannot submit a book. Most of them close in, maybe, February or March, others are later or earlier. Check your dates and your copyright data to make sure you comply. They often have big award ceremonies at the BEA Book Expo America, the largest book trade fair in the US. The BEA is a trip. Like a huge party for all the book glitterati. With free books! All you can carry.

Why should you enter a book contest?

Now you know how to enter a book contest. Why should you enter one? What will a book award do for you?

I’ve read promotional materials that claim that winning an award will catapult your book into the ranks of best sellers and make your name as an author.

It hasn’t worked out that way for me. I do have a friend who read my earlier article on this subject, Win Book Contests –– Make Your Book a Winner! on Your Shelf Life, this very blog. He took my advice and had his self-published book made into a hardback, entered it in a contest, and won. He was signed by a traditional publisher within weeks. Years later, he remains signed and happy and selling like crazy.

It can happen. (The other thing about my friend is that he’s a supreme marketer and his book sales were spectacular before and after the contest. Also his book is really good.)

While I don’t promise life-changing results, here are a few reasons book awards are worth pursuing.

1. An award will increase the visibility of your book. My first book came out in 2007; the second in 2009. I’ve just brought out two more books. I’ve found it much harder to make sales and keep sales momentum going now than in earlier years. I think that the difference is due to the phenomenal increase in the number of Indie books and authors and their marketing activities. Your book must stand out from and above the hordes.

An award can provide that essential difference, provided it’s part of a marketing arsenal. The unspoken truth about book awards is that you have to put your winning book, with its pretty new sticker or badge, in everyone’s face and keep it there, or nothing will happen.

2. Goodies. Some contests have really good prizes. Money, publicity campaigns. Trips to holy places: Book Expo America, for one. These are worth competing for by themselves.

3. An award can be a badge of quality and reassure your buyers. I was participating in an on-line discussion the other night when a woman EXPLODED about how sick she was of buying poorly produced self-published books. Here’s a really good, though rude and insulting, blog article with an incredibly vulgar title that talks about this problem and presents an excellent critique of self-published books. (Read the comments and links beneath the article. They’re also good.)

We in the self-publishing/independent press world need to face this problem and police ourselves. I think that book awards can do exactly that. An award-winning book should represent the highest quality available in the indie/self-published book scene.

Now that we’ve established good reasons for entering book contests, how do you win?

I’m going to give it to you straight. Winning a book contest requires a huge investment of time and a relatively large investment of money. It takes years to prepare a book good enough to win. Getting the peripherals––your web site, blog, and press packet, with everything it includes––can take more years if you do it yourself.

As an example, I started my new book, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, in January of 2008. I’ve worked on it full time since then, except for when I was working on my other new book, Tecolote: The Little Horse that Could. Tecolote was supposed to be a redo/upgrade of an eBook we already had that I thought would take two weeks. Hah! What a joke. I worked on Tecolote for almost a year.

I’ve been in constant communication with book designers, proofreaders, editors, graphic artists, web people and more, for three years. I’ve even been in touch with Tecolote, the horse behind the book.

When I started thinking about this article, I didn’t know how my new books will do in contests; the results weren’t in. I was very nervous. As it turned out, I’ve won nine national awards this year.

But it’s not guaranteed. Because I did well in the past doesn’t mean I will again. No guarantees in life. I’m not guaranteeing you anything in this article, either.

Now that I’ve made you really happy, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of winning.

The key is: If you win a book contest, you already know how to set up a winner. You know what excellence is and you know how to bring it forth. Getting the result is a job of work, like mucking out stalls at our ranch. Or getting straight As.

I think I’ve done well in book contests because I used to show horses and win. When you win in a horse show, it’s because you started with a winning horse, then schooled, conditioned, fed, bathed, and trained him to perfection. You know all the rules as to the type of equipment and attire you should be using, and you employ them. You know how to ride and enter the arena with all sails flying. The judge will recognize you the instant he sees you.

In a book contest, the judge faces an array of books. Your book has to leap out and SING. Also tap dance.

HOW DO YOU GET A BOOK TO TAP DANCE?

1. Hardbacks show up better. You’re a judge. Thirty or forty books are sitting on a table. You won’t be able to read all of them. You see a well-designed hardback with a killer cover. Your eyes and hands gravitate to it. Wow. It’s beautiful. The paper even feels classy. You put the book in the “keeper” pile. Hardbacks have more weight in competition.

Though this is changing. The hardbacks do show up better, but so much contemporary fiction is put directly into a trade paperback (and eBook) format that well-produced soft backs can also win.

(I have a bit of experience judging a book contest, which is one reason I know all this stuff. I can’t say anything about the contest except that the quality of the books was fantastic. And the winners showed up immediately.)

2. Your title and cover will make you a winner or sink you. Do you know how to judge a cover? Lewis Agrell of The Agrell Group, wrote a terrific article on what makes a winning book cover. Contact Lewis here. (He’s really good, by the way. He did the covers and interiors of The Angel & Tecolote, plus other work for me. One sheets, etc.)

For a quick tutorial on commercial design, let’s look at phone book ads. Open the yellow page ads in any phone book. Scan the page quickly. Where do your eyes land? Note the ad. Do it again on another page, and another.

In all probability, the ad that draws your attention is simple. Uncluttered. Either black, white, or mostly empty. The ads that grab your eyeballs and hold them have attained page dominance. People hire consultants to create dominant ads for them.

Now go to a bookstore sale table and look at the books. Which books grab your eyes? Which do you pick up? Buy? A book contest is like that table. Clear, bold design that dominates the competition will win.

Your cover must have an emotional hook. Think archetypes. Primal images. Something that grabs the inner psychology of your reader/judge.

To win and much more importantly, to be purchased, your book cover and spine must dominate any table and any bookshelf.

3. Your title is really, really important. Your title embodies your book’s essence. It is the first text the reader sees. It should be engaging, easy to read, evocative, and compelling––it should set the emotional tone for your book. As should the subtitle or tag line (the one line description below the title). Also, most of the big catalogs of books will list your book by its title only. It better be memorable. If your book is in a book store, in all likelihood, only the spine will be visible to the buyer. The spine must be able to hook your reader.

4. The words on your cover, flaps, and first few pages of your book, your book’s copy, should be unforgettable. These words are your prime real estate and are what will make your book succeed. The book contest judge, book store owner, and your buyer will make a decision about your book based on these words––in seconds. You want emotional hooks, ease of reading, and enchantment.

Writing copy is a skill. You can write text like an angel and not be able to pump out a winning tag line. Emmy-nominated screenwriter Laren Bright, the best copy writer I know, wrote an article about “The Most Important Writing in Your Book.” It’s copy. That’s what sells the book.

I say: Hire it done if you can possibly afford it. Copy writing is like writing good poetry. You need to be able to produce succinct messages packed with meaning and emotional associations in a tight space.

5. Book design, interior & exterior: Your book should look like Random House produced it, no less. Every page and every word should be as well designed as your cover. Go to a book store and look at bestselling books. Get a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style––a gigantic book that lays out everything about books––and make it your best friend.

A very important note: Never have your title page on the left side of the book. Do not do that. (I saw books with this flaw in the contest I worked on. This is such a bad error that if you don’t know how bad it is, you’re in big trouble.) Know the proper order of pages in a book. Know what a half title page is and where it goes. The contest judge will know about this stuff.

6. Self-publishing, small presses, template designs. Some contests are specifically for self-published books, by that I mean books put out by the big POD printers like lulu.com, iuniverse, createspace, and the rest. If this is your competition, let your lulu imprint show.

If you’re in open competition, hide any evidence that you are associated with these mass printers. You don’t want their names on your book anywhere.

Some people/judges have prejudices against self-published books. There’s not as much of prejudice against author-owned small presses––after all, Benjamin Franklin had one. So did Mark Twain, DH Lawrence and tons of big literary names. If you own and operate a small press, that puts you in a different category, even if your book was printed by CreateSpace or Outskirts Press. Just make sure that nothing about the mass producers shows.

If you decide to set up your own small press, create a killer logo and press name, and have the book professionally designed and produced, you’ll be in good shape to compete.

Templates: Don’t use these. Many of the big POD publishers set up their books’ interiors using templates. Templates are standardized arrangements of a the elements of a book’s interior and/or cover design. With a template, text blocks are a certain size, font choices are limited. Books designed using templates don’t show up well in contests. The text is set too tightly, and the margins are too small. There’s not enough variety in the overall design. In contests, judges may see several books with standard interiors and the same cover photo. If your book is one of thirty in a category, or one of three hundred, it has to stand out. A template won’t do it.

7. Professional production: The book contest judge may not have time to read all of your book, but he or she will sample pages and text. Typos, lousy interior and exterior design, cheap paper, all of it pops out. Hire a content editor, copy editor and proofreader. Hire a book designer. Believe it or not, they’re not all super expensive. Look at my blog roll on Your Shelf Life. Some great professionals are listed there.

Also, you can find independent book-making professionals who are cheaper than the design and other services offered by the big POD, author services. I was poking around on one of the major sites recently. They were offering a “big sale” on their “professional editorial and design services.” The sale price was twice what I pay for my professionals and I get top quality work. I was on kindleboards the other night, and a number of old-timers advised newbies the same thing. Shop around; you can do better with your own pros.

8. Peripherals: your web site, stationery, & press kit. You did include those with your entry, didn’t you? I assure you, the winners did. The book contest judges are very likely to check your website, especially if you make it through enough of the hoops to stay in “the good pile” to the end. The “ad-ons” are breakers.

Two books might be ranked about the same, but if one author has an amazing web site and hosts a blog with a bazillion visitors a day and provides vital services to the world––who do you think will win? Ditto if an author provides copies of his book’s terrific reviews, testimonials, and advertising materials in a lovely custom folder.

I also suggest sending a press kit with your books when you send out review copies. Lots of time and trouble to do, but the reviewers love them. And the star treatment you’ve given them by providing a professional presentation.

Oh, yeah. What about the video for your book? Is that linked prominently on your site? Mentioned in your press kit?

As a reality check, the press kits for Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could & The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy took me about four months’ work, sandwiched between other book production tasks. The press kit for each book includes a one sheet (an 8.5” X 11’ glossy sheet advertising your book), custom business cards, over-sized custom postcards, and a Press Release, Author Bio, and Sample Interview specifically written for each book and designed with in Word with custom graphics. All are designed and printed professionally. These items were placed in presentation folders that matched the books’ designs.

10. The book itself, as in––what’s between the covers? In your writing group, you concentrate on literary skills and arts. Word by word, you construct and deconstruct and reconstruct your masterpiece. Ditto working with your editor. You write, rewrite, slash and burn, and make your manuscript rise again. You struggle to express exactly what you want, and worry about pacing and plot and characters.

I was in two writing groups for a total of eleven years. I’ve worked with maybe six or seven good, tough editors. Almost all of this was grueling, painful, hard work. My writing has improved. The quality of the content of your book matters, especially if you want it to sell. If you want word of mouth to propel it. If you want to read it yourself in future years and not be embarrassed.

Most likely, the contest judge or panel of judges isn’t going to read all of your book. They’ll sample it and look at different aspects of it.

Does that mean you can skip the eleven years of writing groups and all those creative writing classes? No. Whatever random page a judge’s eyes fall upon will produce an impression. All the pages have to be good, since you don’t know which ones will be read. You need to know lots. For instance, what terms relating to race, ethnicity, or sexual preference are OK to use in modern literary and cultural circles?

11. The “you’re on your own” clause. Even if you do all this, you have no guarantee of winning anything. What you toss into the arena may be great, but you don’t know what the other contestants submitted. I never feel secure that I’ll win, no matter what my book is like, no matter what I’ve done in the past.

Producing a book that wins contests is a big job requiring a commitment of time and money. It doesn’t have to be a HUGE commitment of money, but its going to cost something. Before you enter a contest, you should know what you’re up against. I’m thinking something else as well. Don’t the buyers of your book deserve a product that measures up to these standards? I have a blog article on assuring quality in self-published books right here.

[Note also that I'm posting this on Mother's Day. What kind of compulsive, obsessive whacko does that? The kind that wins book contests.]

Sandy Nathan

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Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

 

Here’s a list of the awards my new books won this year. The stuff my two older titles, Numenon and Stepping Off the Edge, won is shown on my website. Note that being a Finalist in a book contest counts as an award. Book contests are like the Academy Awards. Academy Award nominees can add “Academy Award nominee” to their names the rest of their lives. Being nominated is a mark of distinction itself.  Ditto being a book contest Finalist.

My book,Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could won the  2011 Silver Nautilus Award for Children’s Nonfiction (Grades 1-6). The Nautilus Award recognizes books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change. I love that, because that’s what I’m trying to do with my writing.

On May 5th, my sci-fi, fantasy, visionary fiction novel, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, won the the 2011 IPPY (Independent Publisher) Gold Medal for Visionary Fiction. The IPPY Award contest is the oldest competition for independent presses. In 2011, 3,907 books were entered in the IPPYs.

On May 15th, the winners of the 2011 Indie Excellence Awards were announced. The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy won the Visionary Fiction category.  Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could was a finalist in two categories, Animals/Pets General and Juvenile Non-Fiction. (In book contests, being a finalist counts as an award, just as being an Academy Award nominee counts.) I have the books entered in one more contest which has not announced winners yet.

The Best Books of 2011 Awards (USA Book News) were announced in the Fall.  I won four more awards. The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy won two awards. It was a Winner in the Fiction, New Age category, and a Finalist in the Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could also won two awards. It was a Winner in Children’s Nonfiction and a Finalist in Children’s Picture Book Softcover Non-fiction.  

 

 

At Last I Know Amazon Cares . . .

 I awakened this morning to find an email from Amazon in my inbox. I was shocked to discover that it was about my new book, Lady Grace. They were promoting my book! I didn’t have to pay anything! I didn’t even know about it!!

I must have hit some critical mass for Amazon to notice me. I wanted to share the email with the entire universe, or as much of it as I could reach.  So here it is, the text of Amazon’s pitch for Lady Grace: (Unfortunately, their email wouldn’t copy, so the wonderful Amazon logo isn’t here. Neither did the cool hot links, Buy button going to Lady Grace, or any of that.) But here it is: the text of that email and proof that Amazon cares.

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love. In the absence of official links from Amazon, I'll give you the cover here. The cover was on the Buy button on the actual email.

From:     Amazon.com

Subject:     Now available: “Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love” by Sandy Nathan on Amazon.com

Date:     April 15, 2012 2:21:27 AM PDT

To:     Barry Nathan

(The Amazon Logo appeared here.)

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

Customers who have purchased or rated books by Sandy Nathan might like to know that Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love is now available.  You can order yours for just $15.95 by following the link below.

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

Sandy Nathan

Price:    $15.95

Product Description

BEYOND THE END OF THE WORLD

The Earth is devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Technological wizard Jeremy Edgarton and a few of his friends are whisked off planet moments before the horror by the goldies, a race of super-evolved aliens who seem too good to be true. Unfortunately for Jeremy, that’s exactly what they are. Now he wants out.

Jeremy’s mother, Veronica Edgarton, is awakening from a cryogenic sleep in a chamber deep beneath the ice near the North Pole. She faces life with one of the most ruthless and cruel men ever to have lived. She is not the kind of person to take this lying down.

In another place, 105 generations after the missiles struck, the inhabitants of a bunker designed to preserve them … Read more

More to Explore: [OK. So they included a link to every other book in my genres. So what?]

See more in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Metaphysical   Try Numenon, where “Bill Gates meets Don Juan.”

See more in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy  Check out Lady Grace.

See more in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Adventure    [This goes to book I of Tales from Earth's End. Major adventure!]

And the crowning glory: The Amazon signature!
Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/

Now that you know Amazon cares about my work, you can feel reassured and care about it, too.

Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground (Book III of Tales from Earth’s End) will be out within the week, I’d say. And all three books from Tales from Earth’s End will be in Kindle form pronto!

Sandy Nathan

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Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards for her writing. She’s won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

 

Lady Grace Launches Officially on May 1, 2012

Lady Grace, Book II of the Tales from Earth's End Series. Lady Grace is a Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love

I want to update everyone. You may have heard it elsewhere, but here it is again: Lady Grace, Book II of Tales from Earth's End will be officially launched on May 1, 2012. We at Vilasa Press think you'll be as pleased with the book as we are.  We're planning gala launch activities, including free books and who knows what. We'll be announcing the details  here. Information about the book follows. You can also read more on Sandy Nathan's website. And the video is below.

Barry Nathan, publisher, Vilasa Press

* * *

BEYOND THE END OF THE EARTH:

Three stories intertwine:  Earth is devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Technological wizard Jeremy Edgarton and a few of his friends are whisked off planet moments before the disaster by the goldies, a race of super-evolved aliens. They seem too good to be true, and unfortunately, they are. The humans want out.

Jeremy's mother, Veronica Edgarton, awakens from a cryogenic sleep in a chamber deep beneath the ice. Next to her is her husband, one of the most ruthless and cruel men ever to have lived.

The inhabitants of the gigantic underground bomb shelter Jeremy and others built are preparing to emerge. They were supposed to become a super-race. Regrettably, evolution can work for evil as well as good.

Each of these events is potentially volatile. Combine them and the results are explosive! The players from across time and space are catapulted into a struggle of cosmic scale, challenging them to draw upon every ounce of their physical, intellectual and spiritual strength.

Lady Grace is a thrilling, action-filled adventure wrapped in the embrace of epic love.

* * *

Praise for Lady Grace:

Lady Grace holds its own with the best of today's sci-fi page-turners while accomplishing much more. Nathan's second book in the Tales from Earth's End is just as much a spiritual and psychological exploration as it is science fiction/fantasy thriller. Nathan has created a unique niche that leaves her without rival in the canon of contemporary fiction.

– Nathan Fisher, MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business

A gripping original sci-fi tale that brings politics, spirituality, and personal responsibility into the mix. As in all interesting tales of good versus evil, the path to outcome is not predictable but the trip is super enjoyable and will keep you clicking for the next page.

– Consuelo Saar Baehr, author of Daughters

I LOVED Lady Grace! From the first moments, I could not put it down. Sandy Nathan has done it again. Within her believable, gripping tale of people who have somehow survived a thousand years, Sandy explores instant telepathic teleportation, human-animal relationships, survivalism, personal relationships, social experimentation, dehumanization, and the most of these . . . Love. The twists of

Jeremy's evolution with Eliana and his mother, Veronica Edgarton, are breathtaking.

– Ilene Dillon, MSW, Host, Full Power Living Internet Radio, www.emotionalpro.com

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Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards for her writing. She's won in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children's nonfiction. And more.

Sandy's  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

 

The Real Reward of Writing

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

I'm redoing my website and bopped onto Amazon to check a fact about one of my books. I noticed that it had a new review. I froze. This is a tender moment for an author. I've gotten reviews that were so complementary that I practically levitated. And––like any author who's been published for more than two weeks––I've gotten reviews that expressed the thought that tar and feathering was too good for my book––and me.

I was in pretty good mood. Should I look at the review and chance wrecking it? Yes. No. Yes. No. Well, what the hell.

As I read the review, my eyes filled and I started to tremble. I've gotten lots of very good reviews by wonderfully articulate readers, but something about Glenda A. Bixler's review moved me.

I thought about it. Why was this review so touching? Because Glenda got me. She understood me and my writing. I am quirky (in a good way.) She captured and expressed her insights in a very deep way. I thought about my reaction to her review some more and realized that the connection that Glenda and I shared through The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boywas a heart connection. What I want more than anything is that kind of connection from my readers.

THAT'S THE REWARD OF WRITING FOR ME.

I talk about writing from the heart, living from the heart on this post from my blog. There's even a video so you can see what I look like.

I'm going to quote a bit from Glenda's review. Not only to I want to share my books with you, I want to share Glenda's words. My husband just read her review and said, "She does the best review writing I've ever seen. Wow, can she write."

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Glenda's review of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy:

"Sandy Nathan had a dream–and she named it! You are now reading my thoughts about this quirky little book telling that dream–

'something that is strange, not normal but cool' according to the Urban dictionary. Strange, for one thing, because as I read, the word quirky came to my mind! I've never used it before! Certainly there are other books out there about the end of the world and I've read quite a few recently due to the "2012″ scare… But I don't think there is ever going to be another like this one! . . .

"[Paragraphs removed]  This dream goes on and on…until we learn how the end of the world had started, moving across the earth, a city or a country at a time, was being destroyed…

"This dream also includes a love story like no other–really!

"Enchanting, fascinating, and heartwarming are the words I am left with as I think about the story. The end of the world? Yes, it did happen…

"Highly recommended!"

GABixlerReviews

Phew. It will take me days to recover from all that praise! But the operative word here is "quirky." She names the distinguishing characteristic of my work. It's unusual. Things aren't what they seem. You won't know what's going to happen. My stuff isn't like a mainstream novel where there's a tough, but basically good-guy hero and you know what he's going to do. I don't write books that come out of some publisher's standard formula. (Though I am enamored with love stories!)

That's the joy of the indie author. We can be different. In a good way.

PS: Here's a secret. The Angel's sequel will be out in a couple of weeks. Lady Grace is a thrilling, action-filled adventure wrapped in the embrace of epic love. The link will take you to the Tales from Earth's End Series official blog. Check it out: The blog has lots of information about the upcoming books in the series. Scroll down and you'll find an "interview" with Sam Baahuhd, the headman of the village. It's a fun interview and captures Sam perfectly.

The real secret is . . . people are telling me that Lady Grace is better than The Angel.  

All the best! Keep going for the real rewards!

Sandy Nathan, Award-winning Author

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards, in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children's nonfiction. And more.

 

Sandy's  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

 

How to Finish Books, Find True Love, and Live, Write, and Speak from the Heart

Sandy Nathan at the Book Loft, Getting Ready to Expound on Life

Getting to know each other is hard in this information age. I've wanted to get to know you for a long time. I've been in the writing and publishing business for years. I'm at least on––if not particularly  active in––pretty much every social media avenue that exists.

I've seen people shuffling and jiving, "Look at me! Look at my book!" "Look at my award, review, letter from mom!" all over the Net. It turns me off about as much as a person could be turned off. And it seems with all this frantic "socializing", no one gets acquainted. Certainly in the great junior-high school of the social media, no one connects profoundly.

But I've wanted to get to know you. The you you. The you beyond the hype.

I've finally found a way to introduce myself, the real me, so you could sample my side of the equation.  I gave a talk at our local book store, The Book Loft in Solvang, CA the day before Valentine's Day.  I hate Valentine's Day. The talk was recorded and the link below will magically transport you to YouTube, where I'll tell you why I hate the famous day of hearts and flowers. I'll share a lot of other things with you, too. How I write. "Literature through disaster" is my own personally trademarked term to express how my soul transforms personal wipe-outs into books. It may work for you too.

This video captures me pretty much as well as I've been captured. I invite you to watch the video. I think you'll find it worthwhile. I hope you get to know me better, and then let me know you.

Click here to go to YouTube and Sandy Nathan on Valentine's Day, Writing from the Heart, Finding the Heart in all the Inner Mess, and Literature through Disaster.

(Also mystical experience and how it jump-starts the writing process.)

Authors Mara Purl and Sandy Nathan at the Book Loft

My friend and fellow award-winning author, Mara Purl, joined me at the Book Loft. Mara is an amazing person and writer. She's lived a legendary life. Click here to go to her website. She also was videoed. You'll probably find a link to her talk on her site.

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Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards, in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children's nonfiction. And more.

Sandy's  books are: (Click link to the left for more information on each book. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production. If you liked  The Angel you'll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.

How to Market your Self-published Book––Twelve Points that Really Matter (Well, Fifteen Points)

I sat down this morning to write an article about how to obtain testimonials and endorsements and how they can help sell your book. That led me to think about what does sell your book. Are testimonials all that count? Not by a long shot. Here's my list of things that sell your book, in order of importance:

Your name. If you're a top-selling author with a huge following, all you need to do to sell books is put your name on a blank cover. (Some of Cormac McCarty's covers bear this out.) In the online age, authors who are well-known on the Internet have the same advantage. Up your recognition and fan base, and sell! Repeat customers are the best customers. Check out John Locke's phenomenal rise.
What people say about you.  I think this is the most important criteria in getting people to buy your book, assuming you aren't one of the big names noted in #1 above. In looking at what influences me to buy a book, my friends' recommendations count more than any ad,  any review, any anything. A real, flesh and blood friend, talking to me face to face and recommending a book, will get me to buy. On-line chatter about books also matters, both ways. A few bad-mouthings on-line and a book's sales can be dead.
Your book's name. Here we get into the craft of book creation and selling. Your book's title matters really, really a lot. A book buyer may see the title and nothing else  on a list in a directory or catalog or just its spine in a book store. Your title has to have emotional appeal. If you can make it funny, charming or terrifying, depending on your genre, bring it on.
Your book's cover. Buyers make up their minds in seconds. Maybe nanoseconds. Your cover is a tool of seduction, be it physical, mental emotional, or spiritual. The cover needs to grab and hold on. Here's an article about award-winning book covers.
Your book's copy.  Copy is the most important writing in the book. Once you've gotten the buyer to look at your book, the words on the cover take over. Copy––the book's title, rear cover text, book jacket flap text, "about the author," and "about the book"––is what sells the book. This writing is not a summary, introduction, or display of your verbal talents. Its sole function is to SELL THE BOOK. Copy should have more hooks than a bait shop. People who are good writers tend to be lousy copy writers. Writing copy is more like writing poetry than prose, but prose intended to sell. 
Testimonials. On the back of the book, the testimonials can be used as copy. How many times have you seen a book where the back cover is nothing but testimonials? That's because they're powerfully persuasive. If some famous person or institution says you or your book are great, buyers may take a chance. You can also plaster them all over your web presence and advertising materials. I'll write about testimonials in another article.
Reviews. Are they as important as testimonials? I think so. A testimonial may move a potential reader to buy a book, but its reviews may, also. Reviews sites are all over: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Amazon UK, Shelfari, and Goodreads, to name a few. All sorts of personal blogs review books. The most important thing is to keep those star ratings up. How? I think the most important thing an author can do is watch to whom you send those important initial review copies.  Make sure they like your genre and writing style. How? Ask reviewers who liked your first book to review the next one, if you have more than one. The other thing you can do is look at a reviewer's other reviews on a site such as Amazon. What do they like? What kinds of reviews and star ratings to they give?


Book awards. I have twenty-one national awards for my four books. I have no idea how these have affected my sales. I know that they have brought me other things. Like a wonderful literary agent, a distributor for one of my books in France, and  guest spots on radio shows. My awards also attracted a major scammer for a TV program who wanted to charge me thousands of dollars for a five minute slot in a live show on the opposite side of the country. It would have had no impact on my sales; I know from doing advertising in other fields.  So, the jury's out about book awards. But, better to have awards to flaunt than not have them at all.
Distribution. If you don't have a good distribution network, your book will go nowhere. That's not that hard for eBooks. Try smashwords or Kindle. It's also not that hard for print books. Try Lightning Source or CreateSpace.
Marketing plan and actualization of that plan. Same as Distribution. No show, no go. What marketing means is knowing your target market–– the people who like your kind of book, knowing who they are, where they are, and how to contact them. Then you have to contact them and follow through skillfully. See John Locke's marketing plan for some really good ideas.
Advertising. We used to own a furniture store. During that period, we did all sorts of advertising, from print ads in newspapers, the yellow pages and glossy magazines, to my husband talking about being the "Robin Hood of the furniture industry" on the radio. All of it did absolutely nothing that we could measure for our sales. Despite my rotten experience with paid ads, I am going to try some advertising on the "reader friendly blog sites" with my two new books for one reason: Darcie Chan, author of The Mill River Recluse. Ms. Chan parlayed her self-published eBook into a national bestseller. This article from the Wall Street Journal sets out her process.  Here's what she did in her own words on Facebook. This article could be a marketer's Bible. She advertised on some of the sites catering to readers of indie-produced eBooks. If Darcie did it, I'm gonna do it, too.
Your book. Notice where I place this item on my list. Analysts usually put this item # 1. I place it where I do because I've seen books become major bestsellers that would make the professor who ran my writing group vomit. I've seen books succeed like crazy that would make people in MFA in writing programs gag. I've seen lots of books like this. It's a mystery why people buy books about werewolves, zombies, vampires, mayhem, mawkish drivel, and semi or not so semi porn. But they do. All a book needs to to to succeed is hook something in a significant number of readers. It doesn't have to be their higher Self or even a good part of their characters.  The "hookie" subject needs a fast moving story around it and a good editing and proofreading job.

Well that's it . . .

PRICE! OMG! How could a former economist forget price?  This very important item could go anywhere after #1. If you're really famous and people line up for your books in bookstore parking lots before they come out, you (or your publisher) can probably charge pretty much whatever you want. That's called price inelasticity. The change in the quantity sold doesn't vary much as price is changed. Everyone who's not in the magic circle of authors has to worry about  price elasticity. That means how much the sales of a book fluctuate with its price. I just had a personal wake-up about this. I price my eBooks at 99 cents. Yes, that a ridiculous amount to charge given what I put into the books, but it's a price that sells. I was given some marketing advice by someone I admire highly, a pro in the book biz. "You should charge more. The 99 cent books are the junk books. You deserve more." I raised the price of one of my Kindle books to $2.99. It went from struggling along to absolutely tanking. Its rankings dropped like a plummeting stone. That's price elasticity. My books' sales are highly price elastic. Why? Because I'm an emerging writer. I think I'm about 200 yards underground and digging out. I should emerge later this year.
GETTING RICH SELLING BOOKS AND THE 99 CENT BOOK: Are 99 cent books junk books? John Locke and Darcie Chan, both tremendously successful self-published authors, charge 99 cents for their books. There's no shame in that price. Yes, I'd rather have the 70% return than Amazon gives for books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, but I'd rather get 35% of something than 70% of nothing.
ANOTHER THING: An on-line friend said the two greatest words in marketing are FREE and NEW. Amazon is running a new KDP program in which, if you sell through Amazon exclusively for 90 days, you're given 5 days in which you can offer your book for free. People are jumping for this. Facebook, Twitter and the blogs are ringing with people crowing about how many thousands of books they downloaded on their free days. This is very cool, except that all it measures is how well known an author is. The very Internet-savvy authors with huge numbers of Facebook "friends" and lots of readers are going to have thousands of people download their books. The others are likely to have a bunch of people download their books, but maybe not many. How does this translate in terms of longer term, paid sales? Write to me, regular authors, and tell my how FREE worked for you. (All the big name authors are already blogging about their spectacular results) How about the word NEW? Is it as big a selling draw as FREE? I've got two new books coming out very shortly and a third in the birthing process I'll find out.

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Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards, in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children's nonfiction. And more.

Sandy's  books are: (Click link to the left for more information. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production with early 2012 publication dates. If you liked  The Angel you'll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.

 

Sandy Nathan Leads the Depth Psychology Alliance’s On-Line Book Club in January 2012

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Award winning author, Sandy Nathan, will hostess the Depth Psychology Alliance’s Book Club for the month of January 2012. This is the Club’s first meeting and an exciting event. Sandy will use her book, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Magic, to illuminate major themes of depth psychology.

Numenon is the story of a Silicon Valley billionaire, the richest man in the world, meeting a great Native American shaman. The world of worldly  power and all it can buy is contrasted with the inner world of true riches. The book is jammed with archetypes and psychological symbolism. It is an Amazon Bestseller and won six national awards, including the prestigious Silver Nautilus Award and the Silver Medal in the IPPYs (Independent Press) Awards. It has a close to five star average reviews on Amazon.

“I am so excited by the opportunity to facilitate the Depth Psychology Alliance’s Book Club,” says Sandy Nathan. “I’ve had many wonderful, very spiritually developed readers and reviewers in the past, but none have delved into Numenon’s themes as explicitly as we’ll be doing. For instance, the first chapter of the book shows our hero, Will Duane, doing some pretty bizarre things. (Will’s a loosely defined hero, a dark and tormented person.) I’m looking forward to the group examining Will with eyes informed by depth psychology.

“Similarly, the shaman, Grandfather, is a spiritual master. How did he get that way? What shaped him? We’ll look at him––and many other characters––the same way. What made them the way they are? What keeps them going? What signs of spiritual growth do they exhibit? We’ll even look at Will’s Duane’s gargantuan corporation,  Numenon, as a “person.” What is Numenon’s culture? Values?

Depth Insights Is the Name of the Alliance's On-line Magazine Don't you love the bee?

“You don’t have to have a degree or credentials in depth psychology  to be in the book club. You just simply have an interest in going below the surface and mining the jewels of the psyche.

“I would love it if you joined us.

“AND IT’S FREE! Yes, membership in the Alliance and Book Club are both free. I’ve even arranged a coupon to get to download an eBook of Numenon   for free. That’s available to those who sign up for the Book Club. To do so, go to this page, and click where it says, “Join the book club.”

“You’ll be able to enter the club’s discussion board when your membership is approved. I’ll be putting a LOT of information up on January 1st. I’ve got more for the next week. And the coupon to get the free download of the  Numenon eBook will be on that post,” says Sandy Nathan.

 By the way, what is Depth Psychology?  Depth Psychology focuses on the deeper parts of human experience––it concentrates on the psyche or soul. Depth Psychology seeks to know the Unconscious realm of the human mind, which is outside of our awareness and which we are unable to know directly. Our everyday awareness––the habitual way we think about ourselves and see life––collapses our experience into a collection of programmed responses. It makes TV sitcom of  something a life with is potentially grand.  A vast inner world which is largely unknown exists beneath this day to day reality. It communicates  through dreams, myths, and symbols, giving our lives great meaning and richness.  If we listen, this unseen world has much to give us. Depth Psychology is about learning to listen to our deep currents.

Depth Insights On Line Book Club

Depth Psychology Alliance was created to be central gathering place, a global village for academic discussion, research, and development of Depth Psychology ideas. The first online community of its kind, The Alliance hopes to a community that will enable Depth Psychology to emerge more fully into the everyday world. The Book Club will be hosted by a different author each month. Check on-line to see the roster for 2012.

 

 

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards, in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children’s nonfiction. And more.

Sandy’s  books are: (Click link to the left for more information. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production with a late (very late) 2011 publication date, or early 2012. If you liked  The Angel you’ll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.

Sandy Nathan Leads the Depth Psychology Alliance's On-Line Book Club in January 2012

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Award winning author, Sandy Nathan, will hostess the Depth Psychology Alliance's Book Club for the month of January 2012. This is the Club's first meeting and an exciting event. Sandy will use her book, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Magic, to illuminate major themes of depth psychology.

Numenon is the story of a Silicon Valley billionaire, the richest man in the world, meeting a great Native American shaman. The world of worldly  power and all it can buy is contrasted with the inner world of true riches. The book is jammed with archetypes and psychological symbolism. It is an Amazon Bestseller and won six national awards, including the prestigious Silver Nautilus Award and the Silver Medal in the IPPYs (Independent Press) Awards. It has a close to five star average reviews on Amazon.

"I am so excited by the opportunity to facilitate the Depth Psychology Alliance's Book Club," says Sandy Nathan. "I've had many wonderful, very spiritually developed readers and reviewers in the past, but none have delved into Numenon's themes as explicitly as we'll be doing. For instance, the first chapter of the book shows our hero, Will Duane, doing some pretty bizarre things. (Will's a loosely defined hero, a dark and tormented person.) I'm looking forward to the group examining Will with eyes informed by depth psychology.

"Similarly, the shaman, Grandfather, is a spiritual master. How did he get that way? What shaped him? We'll look at him––and many other characters––the same way. What made them the way they are? What keeps them going? What signs of spiritual growth do they exhibit? We'll even look at Will's Duane's gargantuan corporation,  Numenon, as a "person." What is Numenon's culture? Values?

Depth Insights Is the Name of the Alliance's On-line Magazine Don't you love the bee?

"You don't have to have a degree or credentials in depth psychology  to be in the book club. You just simply have an interest in going below the surface and mining the jewels of the psyche.

"I would love it if you joined us.

"AND IT'S FREE! Yes, membership in the Alliance and Book Club are both free. I've even arranged a coupon to get to download an eBook of Numenon   for free. That's available to those who sign up for the Book Club. To do so, go to this page, and click where it says, "Join the book club."

"You'll be able to enter the club's discussion board when your membership is approved. I'll be putting a LOT of information up on January 1st. I've got more for the next week. And the coupon to get the free download of the  Numenon eBook will be on that post," says Sandy Nathan.

 By the way, what is Depth Psychology?  Depth Psychology focuses on the deeper parts of human experience––it concentrates on the psyche or soul. Depth Psychology seeks to know the Unconscious realm of the human mind, which is outside of our awareness and which we are unable to know directly. Our everyday awareness––the habitual way we think about ourselves and see life––collapses our experience into a collection of programmed responses. It makes TV sitcom of  something a life with is potentially grand.  A vast inner world which is largely unknown exists beneath this day to day reality. It communicates  through dreams, myths, and symbols, giving our lives great meaning and richness.  If we listen, this unseen world has much to give us. Depth Psychology is about learning to listen to our deep currents.

Depth Insights On Line Book Club

Depth Psychology Alliance was created to be central gathering place, a global village for academic discussion, research, and development of Depth Psychology ideas. The first online community of its kind, The Alliance hopes to a community that will enable Depth Psychology to emerge more fully into the everyday world. The Book Club will be hosted by a different author each month. Check on-line to see the roster for 2012.

 

 

Sandy Nathan is the winner of twenty-one national awards, in categories from memoir, to visionary fiction, to children's nonfiction. And more.

Sandy's  books are: (Click link to the left for more information. All links below go to Kindle sale pages.)

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

Tecolote: The Little Horse That Could

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Two sequels to The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy are in production with a late (very late) 2011 publication date, or early 2012. If you liked  The Angel you'll love Lady Grace and Sam & Emily.