Mindy Hardwick's Blog, page 54

The Man in the Glass Poem

There is a scene in my upcoming YA romance, WEAVING MAGIC, where newly sober main character, Christopher, talks about a poem he read while in treatment. That poem is “The Man in the Glass.”

“The Man in the Glass” has  been a favorite poem around AA for a long time.  AA legend has it that the poem was scrawled on the walls of death row in San Quentin prison by a nameless author. It is actually the work of Peter “Dale” Winbrow Sr (1895-1954), who published it in 1934.

There is also a version, The Gal in the Glass.
The Man In The Glass

When you get what you want in your struggle for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass.

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plum

And think you’re a wonderful guy.

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please-never mind all the rest,

For he’s with you clear to the end.

And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test

If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass.

But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

Weaving Magic Cover Artist Interview

When I announced the cover for Weaving Magic, it was greeted with a lot of “Wow! That is a great cover!” When I hand out my bookmarks and postcards printed with the cover, I’m getting more of the “Wow! That is an amazing cover!” I’m so grateful to have a cover which is catching people’s eyes! As a writer, we work hard on the blurbs, tag lines and back cover synopsis of our books, but it’s the cover which snags a reader to pick up the book. It’s so important to have a great cover!

It is now my great pleasure to introduce you to the cover artist for Weaving Magic….

Please help me welcome C.K. Volnek!

Hi Mindy. Thanks for allowing me to visit your blog today. It’s a special treat to visit you as your cover artist for WEAVING MAGIC.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I have always loved writing and designing, dreaming I would be a children’s book author someday and illustrating my own stories. But life got in the way before I completed that portion of my dream. I never abandoned my desire though, writing short stories and articles and securing a position as a commercial artist, designing newsletters, brochures and other promotional media. About six years ago, with my children moving into high school and college, I found I was able to carve more time for my writing and began to pursue novel writing. To date I have two tween novels, GHOST DOG OF ROANOKE ISLAND and A HORSE CALLED TROUBLE, published and a third, THE SECRET OF THE STONES, to be debuted very soon. I also found a niche very dear to my heart as I was accepted as a MuseItUp Cover Design artist. It is a rewarding position and I’ve made some great friends.

You can see C.K. Volnek’s other cover art designs here.

Tell us a little bit about the process of creating the cover for WEAVING MAGIC. Did you read the book? How did you know what images to include?

When an author is contracted with MuseItUp, they are asked to complete a Cover Artist form. In this they highlight their hero and heroine and offer the artist a short synopsis of what the book is about. Mindy did a great job in helping me ‘see’ her characters and the conflict they would experience. Knowing the mood of the story to be a little dark, it was then my mission to find the appropriate images to create that ‘feeling.’

Explain the process of selecting images for cover art. What are some of the challenges?

To me, one of the greatest elements of designing the cover is to create the ‘mood’ for the book. You cannot have a happy, smiling image on the cover when the book is dark and moody. I enjoy finding the temper of the story and creating an image to pull the reader into it. But I admit, I spend a great amount of time sifting through photos and images to find just the perfect one.

What was the most challenging part of creating WEAVING MAGIC’s cover?

To me, the greatest challenge of designing covers is to come up with an image that compliments the image in the author’s creative mind. No one knows the story better than the author. They know their characters, inside and out and it isn’t always easy to find the image that portrays them.

What recommendations would you give to a teen who wants to be a cover artist?

Be ever aware of the book world. What covers grab your attention? What captures your interest and/or portrays the basic plot of the story? What books are selling and which ones aren’t?

Thanks so much C.K. Volnek!

Cover Art Trends

One of the blogs I read is Stacked.  Stacked is written by three teen librarians who blog about everything from YA book reviews to author interviews to commentary on YA books.

This past week, Stacked had a great post about Cover Art Trends and the Female Body. I highly recommend reading it. It’s a long post, so give yourself some time. In the post, three areas are covered: Girls are Submissive, Bodies are to judge, Girls are made of parts, Only from the backside. The posts also gives examples of cover art which portrays strong females.  More and more YA books use stock photos for cover art.  This use of stock photos brings up some good issues which Stacked covers both in this week’s post and previous posts such as:

Ya book covers don’t portray fat girls on them.

Girls under water as a cover trend

Windswept hair on covers

This whole topic of YA cover art and portraying the female body would be a great thing to discuss with a group of teen girls in a writing group, library, school, or after-school club. If you do discuss this topic with a group of girls, please leave a comment below about it.

You can read the blog post, Cover Art and the Female Body, here.

Author Bookplates

On April 25, I'll be participating in the Seattle SCBWI Inside Story at Mockingbird Books.  Inside Story is held twice yearly and is a chance for authors to talk about the "story behind the story" of the book.  There is a book signing to go along with the event, and I'll have my postcards and bookmarks to sign for both Stained Glass Summer and Weaving Magic. However, the other thing I'll have with me are bookplates.

What are author bookplates?

Bookplates are signed labels that are inserted inside the front pages of a book.  They can be useful for a couple different reasons.

1. Weaving Magic won't be released until a few days after the SCBWI Inside Story. It will take a little while for the print copies to make their way out to the bookstore. So, in the meantime, I sign some bookplates and leave them with the bookstore. When they get copies of Weaving Magic they can insert the bookplates inside the book and sell the book as a signed copy by the author.

2. Bookplates are also great for long distance readers. It's not practical for me to buy books, sign books, and mail them out to people who request. Have you mailed anything recently? Yea…the price of postage is a whole different topic….BUT, what I can do is sign a bookplate and pop it into the mail for people who request or win a contest.

So, how do you find author bookplates? You make them!

1. Design your bookplate–The first thing to do is design your bookplate. You can use the cover of your book, your author name, or any other fancy logo you want to use. If you have photo shop, you can use that to help you with the design. I love my website design, so I asked Erin at Eedee Design Studios to design a bookplate logo for me. One of the things I really like about Erin's design is that it's a versatile design. Weaving Magic is a YA romance which needs to have bookplates, but I write a lot more than YA romance. I'm drafting a chapter book series, I write adult romance novellas (ebook only as of right now), and then there is Stained Glass Summer and some companion tween novel ideas I have outlined which as Musa grows, will move into print. I wanted my bookplate design to be able to grow with me as I continue to write and build my career, which was also my goal when Erin designed my website–I didn't want to limit myself to these two books or genres when we designed the website. Here is the bookplate that Erin designed.

2. Print your bookplates--Avery 8168 labels are the perfect size for bookplates and can be purchased at any office supply store.  You'll want to download the Avery 8168 template and then insert your design into the template. Once you've got your design inserted into the template, print on the labels!

3.  Sign your bookplates--It's a good idea to think of a catchy phrase to go along with your book. For example, in Weaving Magic, I'm using "Believe in the Magic." I'll personalize some of the bookplates, but most of them will be a standard phrase with my signature.

And that's it! Bookplates!

Books for Boys–Class For Educators

My second new class for educators is ready for registration with Seattle Pacific University SPIRAL Program. This class is entitled, Books for Boys!

This course will examine picture books, middle grade fiction, graphic novels/comic books, non-fiction, and poetry books with a focus on books that are high interest for boy readers. We will examine how to integrate the books into the classroom or library as a means of encouraging, inspiring, and providing role models in literature for our male readers in grades K-8. Each learner will create a personal bibliography of books for boys based on the needs of their educational setting and student ability level as well as a PowerPoint presentation to be shown to parents and/or other educators.

The course is a distance learning course and is for five credits. It is taught through Seattle Pacific SPIRAL Program. You can find out more, including how to register at Seattle Pacific Spiral. You'll need to scroll to the middle of the listings for classes under Curriculum and Instruction to find Books for Boys.

Books for Boys Registration Information

If you are interested in other distance learning classes for educators which I teach, please check out my webpage here. All courses are for five credits, and all are taught with Seattle Pacific University's distance learning program. Students have up to a year to complete.

Mindy Hardwick Author Q & A Blog Interview

There is a really fun Q & A interview with me at the YA Scribe Blog. Angelina Hansen asked some great questions in a fun format. Here are a few of my responses.

Best thing about being a child:
Imagination

Worst thing about being a child:
Confinement to other's schedules and plans

Best thing about being a teenager:
Driving!

Worst thing about being a teenager:
Not having your own place

Most memorable teen moment:
Working at Six Flags in the Games Department on hot St Louis evenings

You can find the whole interview here.

Upcoming April Author Events

In April, I'm going to be at a couple different author events located in different parts of the country. I'd love to see some of you there!

Seattle SCWBI Inside Story–I'll be talking about the "story behind the story" of both Weaving Magic and Stained Glass Summer at the Seattle SCBWI Inside Story Spring Books event. This is a fun night, and a great way to find out about new books coming out from local authors and hear a bit of what happened on the journey of those stories. This event takes place on Wednesday, April 25. 7-8:30 p.m. at Mockingbird Books, 7200 Woodlawn Ave, NE in Seattle.

Chicago RWA Spring Fling BookFair and Signing–I'm attending the Chicago RWA Spring Fling Conference, and will be sitting at a table with other Musa Authors signing and selling our books.(or postcards and bookmarks as the case with e-books!) This event is open to the public and is held on Saturday, April 28, 2-3:30 p.m., at the Chicago Marriott Northwest in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. If you're a romance reader, these are great ways to meet romance writers and check out their new books. I'm really excited about this one.  Weaving Magic releases during this weekend, and I planned this trip as a celebration of both books.

Tacoma Public Library–I'll be on a panel talking about my contemporary, sweet romance short story, Love's Storms. Date is still being finalized.

Everett High School--I'm speaking on a panel with three other young adult writers to a group of students who are in the creative writing classes at Everett High School. We're going to be having a give-away of our books as well as doing some writing exercises. This event is only for Everett High School students and takes place on Wednesday, April 18 at 12:30-2:00 p.m. If you attend Everett High School and would like to attend, please see the Everett High School Librarian for more information.

Great Review for Stained Glass Summer

Stained Glass Summer got a great review from The Long and Short of It YA Book Reviews Blog. This was my favorite part of the review:

As Jasmine deals with her feelings concerning her father, she is also faced with liking a boy for the first time – and having him like her back. She has this idea that if she can just repeat the same set of circumstances she witnessed with an older girl and her boyfriend, she can win the heart of the boy she likes. This made me laugh because it's so typical of young girls. I could remember feeling this way at one time, and it was a memory I would never have thought of if this book hadn't triggered it. The idea that if you could just make "this one thing" happen is a theme throughout the book and, to me, a symbol of the loss of some of her innocence of youth.--Long and Short of It YA Book Review

You can read the whole review here.

Also, on another  good note for Stained Glass Summer, Musa is now an approved Overdrive Book Publisher. What does this mean? Well….Overdrive is one of the BIG players in e-books for library. In fact, when I checked, The Seattle Library, Tacoma Library, Everett Public Library, Sno-Isle Library System, and King County library system all use Overdrive to purchase their e-books. (These are all the library systems in the Seattle-Tacoma Area).

It'll take a couple weeks to get the Musa books into the Overdrive catalog, but once they are there, then Stained Glass Summer can be ordered for libraries–and family and friends can request to have Stained Glass Summer ordered in your library! I will update on when Stained Glass Summer is ready to be ordered through Overdrive.

Very exciting!

Writing with Boys Class for Educators

I'm very pleased to announce I am teaching a new class for educators. Writing with Boys! The class is for educators working with boys in grades 4th-12th. The class will identify the boy writer, look at how to overcome their resistance to writing as well as explore how things such as art can play a role in encouraging boys to write. Participants will create a portfolio of writing assignments and student samples which will engage and empower the boy writer.

The course is a distance learning course and is for five credits. It is taught through Seattle Pacific SPIRAL Program. You can find out more, including how to register at Seattle Pacific Spiral. You'll need to scroll to the end of the listings for classes under Curriculum and Instruction to find Writing with Boys.

Writing With Boys Registration Information

Questions To Consider When Submitting to E-publishing

A friend and I were talking about should she take the plunge into e-publishing. One of the things that I said was  it's important to research the e-publishing market before you submit–just as you would an agent or a traditional publisher.

Thinking about my own experience with e-publishing both Stained Glass Summer (Musa Publishing) and Weaving Magic,(MuseItUp Publishing) I came up with some guidelines to help those who are thinking about e-publishing.

Who Foots the Bill: The first question to ask is: Are you, the author, being asked to pay for your editing, cover art, formatting, or anything else to do with the e-book? Or does the publisher have people on staff who will edit your book, format your book, produce a quality cover, and distribute your book?  At Musa, the directors tell us, Money flows TO the author, not the other way around. This is key because you will end up paying out of pocket for other things that have to do with marketing such as: websites, domains, hosting services, marketing bling such as postcards, bookmarks, and any travel you might want to do to attend a conference in another place.  This is true whether you publish traditionally or e-publish. Unless the stars have aligned and you are being tossed tons of money for marketing, you're going to pay for some of your marketing and promotion bill.

Book Design/Cover Art: It's not enough to simply upload a document file and transfer it to an epub file so it can be an e-book. The book should be designed. At Musa, we have someone on staff who is the book designer. Stained Glass Summer has small paint brush graphics which are inserted in the scene breaks. The font is rich and varies from the title page to the chapter headings, and the e-book looks like a book. There is a cover page, a title page, a copyright page, a dedication page, and then the start of the book. On the same side as design is cover art. If you go to MuseItUp's cover art blog, you can see some of the gorgeous covers for MuseItUp. They win awards for these covers. Covers are very important. As an author, you plaster these covers all over the place–Blogs, Interviews, Websites, Reviews, Goodreads, postcards, bookmarks, anywhere you can think of. It's important to have a good one that is eye-catching.

Distribution: Your e-book should be available in multiple places. Yes, Amazon has a big share of the e-book market, but there are still a ton of people who want to download the book from the Itunes store for their Ipads, the Barnes and Noble Store for their Nook, and some want to buy your e-book from an independent bookseller who is distributing through Baker and Taylor. Both Musa and MuseItUp distribute through Smashwords as well as Amazon. Smashwords feeds out to multiple places including Barnes and Noble, Apple Itunes Store, and now Smashwords has a partnership with Baker and Taylor so yes, it's possible to get those e-books at your favorite independent bookstore.

Library Market: Yes. Patrons can check out e-books for their e-readers! BUT….the books need to be in a large system such as Overdrive and/or Baker and Taylor. From what I've seen, Overdrive is the big player in this game. Check to make sure that the e-publisher has this lined up. Both Musa and MuseItUp have recently been approved as Overdrive publishers. This is key to getting your book ordered for library and school library markets.

Network Opportunities: One question you can ask other published e-book authors is are there opportunities for authors to mingle? Sure, you might be involved in a local critique group, or an RWA or SCBWI chapter, but nothing beats being able to discuss writing and publishing with other authors all published under the same house. This is one of the perks I love about both Musa and MuseItUp. They both have Yahoo boards set up for the staff–including cover artists, editors, as well as the other authors.  Questions can be discussed such as: how to do blog tours, what promotional tools work best, as well as shout-outs for blog interviews and news about good reviews. At Musa, the other authors were very supportive of Stained Glass Summer and hosted me on their blogs, made comments on my blog, and joined me on Facebook. MuseItUp hosts a Fall event for authors in Canada. Authors sell their books at bookstores and get a weekend to meet face-to face. It's nice to have a team!

Reviews: Do the e- publisher's books get reviewed on blogs, Goodreads, Amazon? At this stage, you're probably not going to find a lot of reviews in places like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus simply for the fact that most e-publishers are new, and it takes a while to get the publication schedule where books have galleys three-months in advance. You may also not find reviews on some of the big bloggers websites (especially in the children's world) because most e-publishers are beginning to build their brand too, and are not well-known enough yet to be picked up. But remember, every publisher started as someone no one knew. I often think of Candlewick when it was first coming out–it took authors like Kate DiCamillo to put Candlewick on the map–the same is true of e-pubs. Maybe you'll be that author who puts an e-pub on the map!

Print Books: If having a print book is important to you, then be sure to find an e-publisher who does both print and e-books. At Musa, print will come later as the company grows and stabilizes. Musa is still under one years old! At MuseItUp, you have the option of selling your print rights or not. I sold both my print and e-book rights to MuseItUp with Weaving Magic because it just seemed easier to have my print copy under the same house as my e-book.Plus, if you buy the print copy of Weaving Magic from MuseItUp, you get the e-book FREE. How neat is that! Also, I didn't have to worry about finding a new cover artist, hiring them to do the cover art, and then using one of Amazon's packages to print my own books.  Plus, I felt that both my editors worked hard on the book and to sell a print copy somewhere else wasn't very nice to their time and effort.

Editing: How much editing will be done on your book? At both Musa and MuseItUp, I had a content editor and a line editor. At Musa, I worked on three rounds with my content editor, who also did a lot of line editing. At MuseItUp, I did two rounds of content editing and two intensive rounds of line editing. One problem I had with Weaving Magic was a tense change in Christopher's side of the story. We changed his first person present tense to be first person past tense in line with Shantel's side of the story–a very good decision!

The bottom line is do your research. Buy, download and read books from the e-publisher you are targeting. How are they formatted? How easy are they to buy? Where are the books distributed? Contact some authors and ask them about their experience.  How was the editing? How was their experience? Or, if you don't want to contact an author, read an author's blog who is e-published.  Are they happy with their publishers?  Do they blog about their experience? Do they blog about other books in the same publishing house? Look at the book's reviews. Do they have reviews on Amazon and Goodreads? What are people saying about the books?

And finally, remember….e-publishing is in the Wild West stage of it's growth. There will be pitfalls, mistakes, and major blunders, but if you have the courage, and take the plunge, I bet you'll find it's a great time to be an author and be on the cutting edge of publishing's newest chapter.  See you on the journey!