Terena Scott's Blog, page 31

Preparing my Profit and Loss Statement for 2009 - How did Medusa's Muse do?

2009 was a quiet year. Sales were down, but so were costs. Happily, that makes the paperwork easy.

I've been organizing and totaling the receipts for last year, updating my inventory, calculating sales, and figuring royalties, all to prepare my Profit and Loss Statement. Last year at this time I wrote a blog post explaining what a Profit and Loss Statement is and how to create one. Click the link to read that post. There is also an explanation of how to keep the records of your publishing busi...

Letting go

Mumbling feverishly to myself, I edit a manuscript as quickly as I can. "Gotta get this done before school starts."

My muse walks silently into my room and watches me for a while, then she says, "It's time to stop."

I turn around and see her standing in the doorway. "What?"

"Time to stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop trying to do everything."

Pushing my glasses higher on the bridge of my nose, I say, "What are you talking about?"

She walks to me and sits on the edge of my desk, folding her hands neatly in he...

I have too many books

It's a terrible thing for a book publisher and writer to admit, but I have to say it: I am a book addict. I LOVE books. If I could, my entire house would be nothing but a library with a bed and a bathroom in the back. I'd order take-out because a stove would take away space from my wall to wall book-shelves. Unfortunately, I live in a thousand square foot house with two other humans and a dog and they insist on keeping the kitchen.

Today, I stood in my cluttered, dusty, paper strewn office an...

Odiogo

I just discovered a great tool called Odiogo. It converts your blog posts into pod casts with an auditory reader. The great thing about it is the speech software is very clear, making it an excellent tool for people with Vision Impairments. I'm trying it out now on my blog and I hope VI readers will find it useful. I haven't tried it out through ITunes yet, mainly because I'm not sure people will want to listen to an electronic voice reading my posts. Instead I'd like to record my posts mysel...

Trapped in the Christmas Time Warp

Whew! What the hell happened? One minute I was driving home from my last class, having completed my finals and feeling good, and now it's New Year's Eve. 2009 is just about over and I know there was a Christmas in there somewhere. I see remnants around the house: wrapping paper under the couch, half-burned Christmas candles, new stuff lying in piles around the Christmas tree waiting to be put somewhere, six more pounds of body weight on my frame. Six pounds! Yikes.

My muse decided what we need...

Happy Birthday Jane Austen!!!!!!

Today is Jane Austen's birthday and I'm celebrating by re-reading Sense and Sensibility, one of my favorite books written by one of my all time favorite writers. Jane Austen was highly successful in her time, despite the fact she was a woman and a spinster, and her work has resonated with people for 200 years. How did she create such timeless characters who still speak to us today? Their circumstances may be different, but the deeper drives and longings are not so different from our own.

Here...

Who is the reader of "Punk Rock Saved my Ass?"

Toss out all the drafts I wrote for the back-cover copy in my last post. They were all tripe, mostly because I wasn't thinking about WHO the book is for. Thank you Tony and Annie for reminding me of that. Before I can write an engaging, compelling, back-cover copy for the anthology, I need to remember who I started the project for. Visualize the person I'm trying to reach: what does he look like? How old is he? What does he believe in and fight for?

The anthology idea first came to me as I wa...

Back of Book info

How do you write a captivating, informative, and concise back cover copy for a book?

I'm asking. Really, I need to know. Any ideas?

Punk Rock Saved My Ass is the third book I've published, so you'd think by now I'd have this figured out. But deciding what to write on the back of a book's cover to entice a reader to buy the book is tricky. The information must tell the reader what the book is about in only a couple of sentences and show the reader WHY they need this book (as opposed to any othe...

Really cutting it close on launch date

We only now have the punk anthology cover mostly done? Are you kidding me? We launch in four weeks! How am I going to make our deadline with only a mock up of a cover, no back copy, and an uncorrected galley? Shyte!

This is what's going through my head right now as the Medusa's Muse deadlines crash into the end of the semester finals time and the holidays. No matter how organized I appear to be at the beginning (believe me, it's an appearance), everything becomes chaotic and disorganized by th...

The secret inside Christmas Jars

My muse is examining the book we got in the mail last week: Christmas Jars, by Jason F Wright. She turns each page slowly, studying the words, the font, weighing the book in her two hands, stroking the paper, turning it upside down to hunt for hidden message or more money.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"What is the secret of this book?"

"Secret?"

"Why did it inspire a total stranger to send you money?"

On the day before Thanksgiving, a mysterious package arrived in the mail addressed to my husband ...