Susan Buffum's Blog: Welcome to My World, page 8
April 27, 2017
Off to the Next Contest!
Black King Takes White Queen made it pretty far in the recent OZMA book AWARD making it to the finalist list for the shortlisted novels, and then being shortlisted in the group of novels from which the five finalists were selected for the Grand Prize award. I was excited and happy to have my novel selected twice in the process, and of course disappointed it didn't go further, but I'm not complaining. It did a lot better than I had imagined it would when I entered it at the last moment last October 30th!
Because of it's modest success in that contest, it was my obvious choice for the Writer's Digest Self Published Book Awards contest in the genre fiction category. After a gut-wrenching realization that I had failed to edit out all the words that ended up hyphenated in the middle of a sentence when the interior text was recently revised and justified to make it line up down both sides of the page (but only in the first half of the novel, for whatever reason!), I had to scramble to pull the book one more time, fix the issues inside, and then changed the green title band and back cover to earthy brown and the title and back cover text color to spring green because it was difficult to read the black print on the green, and that was an issue that was pointed out to me last year when I entered two novels in the contest- the covers needed attention (they loved the stories).
The amended book arrived today! It is going out in tomorrow's mail to meet the postmarked by May 1st deadline. Talk about cutting it close!!
The book as it stands right now- on Amazon, is the best version available. I'm done tinkering with it!
Moving on to my next project!
Because of it's modest success in that contest, it was my obvious choice for the Writer's Digest Self Published Book Awards contest in the genre fiction category. After a gut-wrenching realization that I had failed to edit out all the words that ended up hyphenated in the middle of a sentence when the interior text was recently revised and justified to make it line up down both sides of the page (but only in the first half of the novel, for whatever reason!), I had to scramble to pull the book one more time, fix the issues inside, and then changed the green title band and back cover to earthy brown and the title and back cover text color to spring green because it was difficult to read the black print on the green, and that was an issue that was pointed out to me last year when I entered two novels in the contest- the covers needed attention (they loved the stories).
The amended book arrived today! It is going out in tomorrow's mail to meet the postmarked by May 1st deadline. Talk about cutting it close!!
The book as it stands right now- on Amazon, is the best version available. I'm done tinkering with it!
Moving on to my next project!
April 25, 2017
The Best Moment Last Saturday
This past Saturday I was among the local authors featuring our books at the second Articulture event in town. I was sitting at a table when a middle-aged woman and her husband suddenly materialized across from me. She asked if I was Susan and I replied that I was. She was holding a small piece of paper. On the paper were three names- mine, Melissa Volker's (she was sharing an 8' table with me) and Katherine Anderson. She purchased Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I, thanked me, moved to Melissa's side of the table and bought a book or two from her, then went to Kate's table and bought a book from her. She had a shopping list! I LOVED that! I LOVED being on her list! I hope we all live up to her expectations as Melissa, Kate and I are friends from our Blue Umbrella Book Store events- we've mutually supportive authors.
Sitting in a hall full of watercolorists, oil and acrylic painters,a scratchboard artist, photographers, origami artisans, and other visual and tactile artists in various other mediums, authors tend to get lost in all that creative overload. There is so much to look at, so much to see. It's just dazzling.
But, I was having a discussion last night with an author in Vermont, a former Westfield home town boy, and we were discussing how we, as writers, paint pictures with words and the use of language. We cannot display these images on easels or pegboards. All we can do is package these beautiful words and images in what we hope will be an eye catching cover. We pour our hearts and souls into our work- and it stings a little when people walk by, more into looking at beautiful artworks. They are missing something more than images crafted from words- they are missing an experience. The experience I am talking about is the one where the reader is drawn into the story being told, into the world inhabited by characters created, molded and brought to life on the pages by a skillful weaver of tales. Authors strive to lure the reader into their narrative. It takes skill, patience, and dedication to ones craft to produce a book or story that gives the reader a journey into another time and place, another world.
You don't see a book, you experience it like IMAX theater in your brain, in your own imagination. At a show, this concept doesn't translate very well.
Therefore- having a woman who obviously enjoys reading come up to my table with my name on her list, and purchase a book I spent a lot of time writing, editing, proofreading, and assembling into the best book possible was the best moment of my day last Saturday.
Sitting in a hall full of watercolorists, oil and acrylic painters,a scratchboard artist, photographers, origami artisans, and other visual and tactile artists in various other mediums, authors tend to get lost in all that creative overload. There is so much to look at, so much to see. It's just dazzling.
But, I was having a discussion last night with an author in Vermont, a former Westfield home town boy, and we were discussing how we, as writers, paint pictures with words and the use of language. We cannot display these images on easels or pegboards. All we can do is package these beautiful words and images in what we hope will be an eye catching cover. We pour our hearts and souls into our work- and it stings a little when people walk by, more into looking at beautiful artworks. They are missing something more than images crafted from words- they are missing an experience. The experience I am talking about is the one where the reader is drawn into the story being told, into the world inhabited by characters created, molded and brought to life on the pages by a skillful weaver of tales. Authors strive to lure the reader into their narrative. It takes skill, patience, and dedication to ones craft to produce a book or story that gives the reader a journey into another time and place, another world.
You don't see a book, you experience it like IMAX theater in your brain, in your own imagination. At a show, this concept doesn't translate very well.
Therefore- having a woman who obviously enjoys reading come up to my table with my name on her list, and purchase a book I spent a lot of time writing, editing, proofreading, and assembling into the best book possible was the best moment of my day last Saturday.
April 18, 2017
On Self-Publishing
I am not just an author. I am a publisher. I also hold every job within that little publishing house from copy editor, to proofreader, to interior layout designer. I am also the cover copy text writer and the cover art designer and layout artist.
I don't farm out the work to a subsidy of a major publisher that "helps" self-published authors. I prefer to do all the work myself so I have control of my entire book.
Maybe I'm a little OCD, but when I publish a work I've spent a lot of time writing and polishing to make it the best it can be, I don't want a shoddy job done making it into a book. I want my readers to have a wholly satisfying experience.
It annoys me no end when I pick up a novel by one of my favorite authors, published by a big name publisher, crack the cover ready to dive into a good story and find myself constantly perturbed by errors in spelling, word usage, grammar, punctuation, completely wrong words, wrong verb tenses, etc. littering the pages. These are stumbling blocks to my enjoying the work of the author. It may just be me, but when I pick up a book, I want to get lost in it. I don't want to be constantly tripping over clunky stuff that the big name publisher should have paid a professional proofreader and editor to fix prior to publishing the author's work. It's often like trying to read someone's horrible text messaging made into a book.
I do not want to cheat my readers out of a total experience. I want my story to flow without these annoying interruptions. Maybe the average reader won't even notice or care, but I notice and I care when something isn't the quality that I expect it to be when I pay out a chunk of change for a good read. I want my money's worth from the entire book. I want something I can lovingly place on my permanent library shelf, not chuck in a cardboard box for the next local library book sale.
A self published author has an obligation to produce a quality book for the reader who is paying for it. I always order two print proof copies of any book I self publish- one for me to tear into and edit the crap out of, and one for my daughter to do likewise with. And this is after I've read through the book two or three times making corrections, changes, additions, deletions, etc. And here is the honest truth- every proof copy kicking around my house is chockfull of corrections to punctuation, spelling, verb tense usage, divisions of run-on sentences, continuity corrections...the list goes on and on. It is astounding how much you can miss! I then take my proof copy and make all the corrections I've found. Then I take Kelly's copy and go through it again-and am floored to find things I still missed that she's caught!
Each book I self publish is a long labor of love. And even after it's published I will go back and read the book-and if I find stuff that needs to be fixed, I am not shy about yanking the book and fixing my mistakes. I'm not perfect by any means, but I do have a passion for writing. When I share that passion, in the form of a novel or a story collection, I am sharing a piece of my heart and soul.
I am also giving the reader the very best reading experience I can offer because when you read a book it should be about getting lost in the story, not about stumbling over all kinds of mistakes to the point of disgust and throwing the book aside.
I put a lot of work into each book I craft- and that is exactly what it is- a craft. The craft of writing, the craft of self publishing. I ask a reasonable price for my work. In exchange for that price, the reader gets an experience in print form that is the best that I can offer.
Because I do all the work myself, I have an obligation to produce the best book possible. I know how fickle readers can be. I am a fickle reader myself. (I have bought books that looked promising and then tossed them aside in disgust after only a few pages because they have been poorly written and even more poorly edited.) I am as critical of my own work as I am of the work of other authors.
I am not perfect...but I am learning and growing in my craft every day. Writing isn't just a hobby, or a job, to me- it is a labor of love.
I don't farm out the work to a subsidy of a major publisher that "helps" self-published authors. I prefer to do all the work myself so I have control of my entire book.
Maybe I'm a little OCD, but when I publish a work I've spent a lot of time writing and polishing to make it the best it can be, I don't want a shoddy job done making it into a book. I want my readers to have a wholly satisfying experience.
It annoys me no end when I pick up a novel by one of my favorite authors, published by a big name publisher, crack the cover ready to dive into a good story and find myself constantly perturbed by errors in spelling, word usage, grammar, punctuation, completely wrong words, wrong verb tenses, etc. littering the pages. These are stumbling blocks to my enjoying the work of the author. It may just be me, but when I pick up a book, I want to get lost in it. I don't want to be constantly tripping over clunky stuff that the big name publisher should have paid a professional proofreader and editor to fix prior to publishing the author's work. It's often like trying to read someone's horrible text messaging made into a book.
I do not want to cheat my readers out of a total experience. I want my story to flow without these annoying interruptions. Maybe the average reader won't even notice or care, but I notice and I care when something isn't the quality that I expect it to be when I pay out a chunk of change for a good read. I want my money's worth from the entire book. I want something I can lovingly place on my permanent library shelf, not chuck in a cardboard box for the next local library book sale.
A self published author has an obligation to produce a quality book for the reader who is paying for it. I always order two print proof copies of any book I self publish- one for me to tear into and edit the crap out of, and one for my daughter to do likewise with. And this is after I've read through the book two or three times making corrections, changes, additions, deletions, etc. And here is the honest truth- every proof copy kicking around my house is chockfull of corrections to punctuation, spelling, verb tense usage, divisions of run-on sentences, continuity corrections...the list goes on and on. It is astounding how much you can miss! I then take my proof copy and make all the corrections I've found. Then I take Kelly's copy and go through it again-and am floored to find things I still missed that she's caught!
Each book I self publish is a long labor of love. And even after it's published I will go back and read the book-and if I find stuff that needs to be fixed, I am not shy about yanking the book and fixing my mistakes. I'm not perfect by any means, but I do have a passion for writing. When I share that passion, in the form of a novel or a story collection, I am sharing a piece of my heart and soul.
I am also giving the reader the very best reading experience I can offer because when you read a book it should be about getting lost in the story, not about stumbling over all kinds of mistakes to the point of disgust and throwing the book aside.
I put a lot of work into each book I craft- and that is exactly what it is- a craft. The craft of writing, the craft of self publishing. I ask a reasonable price for my work. In exchange for that price, the reader gets an experience in print form that is the best that I can offer.
Because I do all the work myself, I have an obligation to produce the best book possible. I know how fickle readers can be. I am a fickle reader myself. (I have bought books that looked promising and then tossed them aside in disgust after only a few pages because they have been poorly written and even more poorly edited.) I am as critical of my own work as I am of the work of other authors.
I am not perfect...but I am learning and growing in my craft every day. Writing isn't just a hobby, or a job, to me- it is a labor of love.
April 14, 2017
Kindle Update
All my books are now available on Kindle as ebooks, except for the three Christmas story collections, and my young adult novel and young reader storybook written under the pseudonym Victoria Bell.
That was a massive project because all the books received revamped interiors (same text, but new Chapter headers) and revised covers in the process on Amazon before they were converted to Kindle ebooks. It took me two months to accomplish that, but 22 books are now available. Even Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I which has a soft release right now in time for my appearance at Articulture2017 on the 22nd of this month. I'll also have 13, Black King Takes White Queen, and a few copies of Black Knight, White Rook with me, plus a box of discounted $5 books with the original covers as I need to make space for new stock with the revised covers for future events. Spring cleaning! I'll also have 15% off coupons with me for a discount on any of my books at Blue Umbrella Books in town (not just the day of the show, but infinitely good for any convenient time to drop into the book shop to browse and shop.)
Have also been busy doing the proofreading and editing of a new novel I am really excited about...cannot say more about it right now! It's still top secret!
That was a massive project because all the books received revamped interiors (same text, but new Chapter headers) and revised covers in the process on Amazon before they were converted to Kindle ebooks. It took me two months to accomplish that, but 22 books are now available. Even Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I which has a soft release right now in time for my appearance at Articulture2017 on the 22nd of this month. I'll also have 13, Black King Takes White Queen, and a few copies of Black Knight, White Rook with me, plus a box of discounted $5 books with the original covers as I need to make space for new stock with the revised covers for future events. Spring cleaning! I'll also have 15% off coupons with me for a discount on any of my books at Blue Umbrella Books in town (not just the day of the show, but infinitely good for any convenient time to drop into the book shop to browse and shop.)
Have also been busy doing the proofreading and editing of a new novel I am really excited about...cannot say more about it right now! It's still top secret!
April 10, 2017
Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I
The first Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories collection is now available. This is its soft reveal. It will be more heavily promoted the nearer we get to autumn.
This volume contains 16 ghost stories, a number of them new, written for Ghost Stories LIVE!. I tend to write 2-3 stories for each event and then choose one of them to read at the last minute.
I decided to put all my ghost stories together in one volume since Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volumes I, II, and III had only a smattering of them among the stories in those collections.
Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories is exclusively ghost stories.
The book is making it's local debut at Articulture2017 on April 22nd here in Westfield where I live. Copies will also be available at the May 20th Ghost Stories LIVE! event where I'll be reading a new story, and daughter Kelly will be participating for the first time reading one of her ghost stories. (Kelly just self published her first novel that has a few ghosts in it- Parapsychology, available now on Amazon.)
This volume contains 16 ghost stories, a number of them new, written for Ghost Stories LIVE!. I tend to write 2-3 stories for each event and then choose one of them to read at the last minute.
I decided to put all my ghost stories together in one volume since Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volumes I, II, and III had only a smattering of them among the stories in those collections.
Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories is exclusively ghost stories.
The book is making it's local debut at Articulture2017 on April 22nd here in Westfield where I live. Copies will also be available at the May 20th Ghost Stories LIVE! event where I'll be reading a new story, and daughter Kelly will be participating for the first time reading one of her ghost stories. (Kelly just self published her first novel that has a few ghosts in it- Parapsychology, available now on Amazon.)
April 7, 2017
The Best Thing About Writing Fiction
The best thing about writing fiction is that you construct a world, populate it with characters drawn from your own imagination, and manipulate them in the environment that you create, also from your imagination- and anything can happy in that world. Anything.
It's a powerful and profound experience to be the one in control of an entire world and its inhabitants.
It's humbling and amazing to be able to draw a reader into that world and influence their emotions just by the use of words written just so.
It's a powerful and profound experience to be the one in control of an entire world and its inhabitants.
It's humbling and amazing to be able to draw a reader into that world and influence their emotions just by the use of words written just so.
April 4, 2017
Adding Titles on Kindle
I have a few books available for Kindle and added a few more tonight. I've just been too busy to get around to adding titles...poor excuse, but there's the truth of it.
Black King Takes White Queen has been updated. Its sequel, Black Knight, White Rook, plus the chilling little 13 and the brand spanking newly published Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I will also be available as ebooks.
I may be adding more books on Kindle in the future. Will keep you posted since when I have giveaways I usually restrict it to the US due to exorbitant international shipping expenses...which makes me feel bad, but, unfortunately, I'm not rich by any means.
Enjoy!
Black King Takes White Queen has been updated. Its sequel, Black Knight, White Rook, plus the chilling little 13 and the brand spanking newly published Miss Peculiar's Ghost Stories, Volume I will also be available as ebooks.
I may be adding more books on Kindle in the future. Will keep you posted since when I have giveaways I usually restrict it to the US due to exorbitant international shipping expenses...which makes me feel bad, but, unfortunately, I'm not rich by any means.
Enjoy!
March 31, 2017
OZMA AWARD Winners announced April 1st
I am sitting here nervously awaiting tomorrow when the five finalists and the grand prize winner of the OZMA AWARD are announced at CAC17. Black King Takes White Queen was shortlisted so is on the lst from which the finalists and winner will be chosen.
Black King White Queen is a multi-layered novel and one of my favorites. Ivy and Romney's story continues in Black Knight, White Rook. In this sequel, the young queen faces some of her most difficult challenges yet as she is personally attacked, her husband is attacked and her young son is terrorized by events happening around him. Ivy must dig deep and tap into a well of inner strength and determination to defeat the truly evil wizard who seeks to destroy her and her family, take her son and gain control of what Romney and she are duty bound to protect as King and Queen.
My fingers are crossed. Wish I could be at CAC but health issues have grounded me at the moment.
Black King White Queen is a multi-layered novel and one of my favorites. Ivy and Romney's story continues in Black Knight, White Rook. In this sequel, the young queen faces some of her most difficult challenges yet as she is personally attacked, her husband is attacked and her young son is terrorized by events happening around him. Ivy must dig deep and tap into a well of inner strength and determination to defeat the truly evil wizard who seeks to destroy her and her family, take her son and gain control of what Romney and she are duty bound to protect as King and Queen.
My fingers are crossed. Wish I could be at CAC but health issues have grounded me at the moment.
March 28, 2017
New Author, Kelly Buffum
Last evening there were two packages awaiting my 25-year old daughter's arrival home from work. The packages contained the prof copies of her first self published novella, and her first self-published novel. She was excited, but acting cool as a cucumber as she decompressed from the workday prior to opening the packages and handing me my copies to proofread and do any edits in.
I cannot begin to describe the swirl of emotions within me as I held my daughter's first two printed works in their glossy covers in my hands. I am so incredibly proud of her, and so happy for her for having the courage to pursue her dream of writing, or being an author twenty-something years sooner than her mother did.
Watch for Kelly Buffum in the young adult novel section in the near future!
I cannot begin to describe the swirl of emotions within me as I held my daughter's first two printed works in their glossy covers in my hands. I am so incredibly proud of her, and so happy for her for having the courage to pursue her dream of writing, or being an author twenty-something years sooner than her mother did.
Watch for Kelly Buffum in the young adult novel section in the near future!
March 25, 2017
New Looks
I have been busy for the past few weeks cleaning up the interior copy of my books. It's hard to believe it's only been 22 months since I began self publishing my vast body of work that has been accumulating in file cabinets, file boxes, and binders in the den and dining room. I made a tiny dent in the material by self publishing 26 books so far (two have not yet been released but are in proof form in hand being edited at this time.)
When I first started I really didn't know what I was doing. I have grown as a self publisher in leaps and bounds since Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume I was launched. I've spent two weeks working on the interior copy- justifying the text so it lines up down both sides of the page which eliminates the excessive hyphenated words that plagued my books. Advice from a Writer's Digest Self Published Books Contest judge and a goodreads reviewer led me to realize that I really didn't distinguish the chapter headers from the text much, and started chapters too high on the page. That has been corrected in all the books I've revised so far (about 7 or 8 pf them to date.)
The thing I am grateful for is that judges and readers are responding favorably to the stories in the books while most of them have not critiqued the flaws. I appreciate critiques because having something that can be corrected pointed out to me helps me get better at what I do. I cannot improve if no one says, "Hey, you could have done this...or that."
It's really not a big deal for me with the self publishing platform I use to pull the book, make the revisions/adjustments, and submit the new file for review. Usually within 36 hours I can have the book back up in the marketplace. There are no hassles about cover color changes since I do all the work myself and am free to make whatever changes I want to make. I like that freedom to be as creative as I want to be.
By the first week of April I should have the majority of the novels and story collections polished up. As a self published author I want to put my best foot forward as much as possible. I am still fairly new at this, still learning and growing not only as an author, but as an editor, proofreader, book interior designer, book cover designer, and publisher. I wear all the hats in what I do to get my books out there into the marketplace for readers to enjoy. I like doing it- and I enjoy the feedback I'm receiving that is letting me know that while I haven't attained perfection yet, I'm not the worst self publisher out there by any means!
And my stories and novels are entertaining people- that's what writing is all about!
When I first started I really didn't know what I was doing. I have grown as a self publisher in leaps and bounds since Miss Peculiar's Haunting Tales, Volume I was launched. I've spent two weeks working on the interior copy- justifying the text so it lines up down both sides of the page which eliminates the excessive hyphenated words that plagued my books. Advice from a Writer's Digest Self Published Books Contest judge and a goodreads reviewer led me to realize that I really didn't distinguish the chapter headers from the text much, and started chapters too high on the page. That has been corrected in all the books I've revised so far (about 7 or 8 pf them to date.)
The thing I am grateful for is that judges and readers are responding favorably to the stories in the books while most of them have not critiqued the flaws. I appreciate critiques because having something that can be corrected pointed out to me helps me get better at what I do. I cannot improve if no one says, "Hey, you could have done this...or that."
It's really not a big deal for me with the self publishing platform I use to pull the book, make the revisions/adjustments, and submit the new file for review. Usually within 36 hours I can have the book back up in the marketplace. There are no hassles about cover color changes since I do all the work myself and am free to make whatever changes I want to make. I like that freedom to be as creative as I want to be.
By the first week of April I should have the majority of the novels and story collections polished up. As a self published author I want to put my best foot forward as much as possible. I am still fairly new at this, still learning and growing not only as an author, but as an editor, proofreader, book interior designer, book cover designer, and publisher. I wear all the hats in what I do to get my books out there into the marketplace for readers to enjoy. I like doing it- and I enjoy the feedback I'm receiving that is letting me know that while I haven't attained perfection yet, I'm not the worst self publisher out there by any means!
And my stories and novels are entertaining people- that's what writing is all about!
Welcome to My World
Here I will write a little bit about my writing, how I write, how I create characters and environments...and maybe some little glimpses into my real life because writers and authors are real people af
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