Marc Liebman's Blog, page 49

Awards and Professional Reviews

When my first book Big Mother 40 was published way back in September 2012, besides being really excited that a dream had come true, I focused on getting reviews for the book from magazines and readers. The magazine reviews were all very good and within six months of its release, the folks who buy books on Amazon.com rated Big Mother 40 as #48 of the top one hundred war novels of all time… That was in June, 2013 and was a very pleasant surprise.

Since I was a novice at both marketing a book, and despite a lot of research into who should/could/would review it, I missed two avenues to where my work could get recognized. One is a growing number of companies that, for a fee will review your book and the writer (and publisher) is free to use them how they wish. These firms tout their experience and ability objectively review one‘s work.

Number two are awards… There are literally hundreds of them out there for all categories. In the beginning, I didn’t know one from another and were warned by other writers that some are scams. As a result, I shied away from both awards and the review-for-a-fee sites.

That was then and this is now. Both Penmore Press (Inner Look) and Deeds Publishing (Forgotten) suggested that I look into both to support the “normal” group of magazines to which I send my books. And, they provided lists for me to review.

First conclusion. is that one could spend a small sized fortune on either reviews or awards or both. Fees for reviews range from reasonable to outrageous. Trying to map value of the result to the fee was difficult.

Second conclusion. Response times from payment to review varied all over the map from a week or two to five or six. Awards had calendars and release restrictions that didn’t match my books publication dates.

Third conclusion. Award and review segmentation also known as genre varied. Some had fiction categories such as general fiction, or thriller, or historical fiction, or spy/espionage. Others had very detailed ones. So, first criteria was did the site fit my genre – historical fiction/espionage/thriller/military. I found the genre segmentation with the awards was much more precise than it was with the reviewers.

In the end, I came up with five awards and five review sites. It is a nice round number and was not planned. And, I took the plunge with both Inner Look and Forgotten. Not all of them are back yet but so far, here’s what they earned. Forgotten – Finalist in Historical Fiction, Indie Book Reviews; and Five Star Rating from Reader’s Favorite. Inner Look also got a Five Star Rating. On my web site, you can read the reviewers comments. In fact, the reviews of all my books are posted on the site in their entirety.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. My first three books received excellent reviews from publications. Now, others think they are very good. The recognition is good for the soul and also spurs me on to write more books.

Marc Liebman

May 2015

Book Plans – They Are Ever Changing

One of the questions I get asked most often are what am I working on? Or, a slight variation, what’s coming?

Here’s the latest direction which could of course, change!  Now that I can look back over five years, I can tell you  the “plan” is evolving. When Big Mother 40 was published, I laid out a plan to Fireship Press that included five more books – Cherubs 2, Render Harmless, The Kurile Wedge Incident, Moscow Airlift and Flight of the Pawnee. Along the way, I added Manpads and Forgotten to the Josh Haman series.

The next book to go to a publisher will be Moscow Airlift. A few months ago, I thought the next book would be The Kurile Wedge Incident but I just finished a read through and, to be honest, I’m not happy with it. More about why in another blog.

So what’s changed? First, over the past few months, I’ve decided to pull Manpads out of the Josh Haman series and I’m debating as to whether or not to do the same with Flight of the Pawnee. Why? As it is currently written, the The Kurile Wedge Incident has the a perfect ending to the series. At the moment, I don’t think I’ll change the book’s end. Both Manpads and Flight of the Pawnee could, with a little rework, become a new series with a new set of characters.

Then, there are the other manuscripts that I’ve written or at least thought through the plots – Retribution, Hannenkam, The Assam Draggin’ and Strawberry 9. The first draft of Retribution is done, Hannenkam is sort of outlined and I’ve written what I call the “kernels” for the other two. Kernels are one or two paragraphs that describe the plot. Think of a kernel as the first pass at the back cover blurb.

What’s driving this thought process is that the plot lines for Flight of the Pawnee, Manpads, The Assam Draggin’ and Strawberry 9 could fit together in a nice new series. It would take a little work to take Josh Haman out of the two that are written, but the other two are ‘clean sheets of paper.’ Right now, Retribution is a stand-alone book and I love it, but am not sure what I am going to do with it at the moment.

Where am I headed? In the short term, the most likely route is sending Moscow Airlift to a publisher and, assuming that it is accepted, dive into Manpads with an eye on turning it into the first book in a new series. If it works, great, if not it stays as a Josh Haman book.

Then, I take another run at The Kurile Wedge Incident with the idea that it either the last or next to last Josh Haman book. If it is next to last book, great!  If I decide it will be the last, I’m also good with that. Once I figure that out, I’ll have some direction for Flight of the Pawnee. The others will have to wait! So, that’s where we are.

Marc Liebman

April, 2017

New Website – Its Up and Running

This is the second of the two blog posts that I thought were released but wasn’t.  This one was supposed to be published on April 16th.  Again, due to blogger error, it was on the old site.  Soooo, here it is done.  Chalk it up to confusion and new technology.

My new website is done…. Well, sort of.   Its up and running and is, as planned. Now, when you enter www.marcliebman.com in your browser, you’ll come to a landing page that gives you a choice – Marc Liebman the Author – or – Marc Liebman the Professional Speaker.

The speaker site is all new. It has lots of new content as well as short vignettes on everything. The vignettes are, in my mind a bit “rough,” but they say what I want. Eventually, I’ll get them re-done, but for now, they’re “good enough…” In both the vignettes and the words, there is information on each topic. The vignettes have excerpts from what I would say if hired.

The author site is based on the old one. My web mistress upgraded the technology and I added a bunch of new content. For each book, there’s a copy of the cover and excerpts from the novel. And, there is a short video on each book as one that is an overview of the Josh Haman series. On the “to do” list is adding all the reviews I’ve collected over the years.

New on the site is the “Fun and Dumb Things I’ve done in airplanes and helicopters.” Four of these stories from my flying career are done and posted. I’ve got a list of about twenty-five more that I have to write. The plan is to add one a month.

The FAQs and the Glossary have been expanded. You should find a lot of new material in it.  Glossaries from four books have been combined and after each book is printed, I’ll add new terms if my web mistress doesn’t shoot me – figuratively, of course.

The third thing that has to be posted are the awards my books have gotten. Now that I have the artwork, I’ve got to get the stuff on the site.  That stuff has already been sent to my web mistress – Christine Horner (www.christinehorner.com).

Both sides of the site should be much easier to navigate and you can go back and forth. Besides the two things I just mentioned, there’s a lot of housekeeping stuff I have to create and post.

The last big addition is the calendar. It should be much easier to find dates and events. The plan is to have both book signing and speaking events on one calendar.  It is now up to date.

Please visit the site and tell me what you think. It’s a work in process, in that I’ll be always adding stuff. So, what I have learned in this process is that, in reality, my web site is never done. It will always need something.

Marc Liebman

April, 2017

 

Getting a Book Ready to Go to a Publisher

My apologies…  This entry was, I thought, posted on April 9th, but due to blogger error, it was on my old site anad hence, it didn’t see the light of the internet!!!!  So here’s what I wrote.

Knowing that getting a book from acceptance by a publisher to the market takes six to eight months, I pulled a manuscript tentative titled The Kurile Wedge Incident out of the “archives” of my computer. It is the sixth planned book in the Josh Haman series.

And, as I opened the file, I started thinking about my options. Do I try to see if a literary agent is interested? This would theoretically get it placed with a big publishing house but could takes months or years. Or, do I send it to a large independent publisher? Result would be the same, but again, the process may take months. Or, do I send it to a publisher with whom I already have a relationship?

I’m wrestling with this decision for several reasons. The literary agent query process is quirky and is much a matter of content as it is about timing. You never know what the agent is looking for at that moment in time your query is read…  As a result, your efforts can wind up in the delete box for any number of reasons, none of which have to do with either the quality of the query or the manuscript.

Finding an agent is a time consuming process. Researching is the first step because one has to find the agents that represent my genre. Next, a customized query has to be written for each agent. No two agents ask for the same info in the same way.  And then you have to wait.  Most tell you that if they like it, they’ll contact you.  How long should one wait, it depends.  So, do I want to (a) go through the effort ; (c) deal with the uncertainty and (c) wait for a positive answer that never comes.

The best analogy I can use is sending a query to an agent is akin to sitting on a desert island and tossing a message in a bottle into the sea hoping that someone will find it and come rescue you. Trust me, I did it with Big Mother 40 and it is frustrating and lots of work.  Several agents read the manuscript, liked it, but nothing ever came of it.

On the other hand, getting an agent to represent your work is the key to getting a manuscript into the hands of a large publisher. That’s something I want to do but again, is it worth the hassle?

Sooooo, I’m between the proverbial rock and the hard place and to paraphrase William Shakespeare, I am back to the “to find a literary agent or not” question and still at square one. At this moment in time, I don’t have the answer.

Marc Liebman

April 2017

Inner Look, My Fifth Book, Is Out – Finally!!!!

On March 7th, my fifth book – Inner Look – was finally released by Penmore Press. It started when I sent the manuscript to Penmore back in January, 2015 and got an offer for a contract. The initial targeted date to get the book out was the fall of that year.

One thing led to another. I was in the midst of retiring and didn’t have time to devote to working with the editor until July, 2015. That caused a schedule slippage to January 2016.

Right after Thanksgiving 2015, we slid the release of the book back to February or possibly early March. Then, December 19th happened. My daughter-in-law committed suicide leaving my son as a single parent of four kids. We rushed out to California to take care of our grandkids and help our son.

I cancelled all of my book signings and notified Penmore that I had to stop work on the book. When I called, I didn’t know when I could begin work so book production/editing went on hold. The delay lasted until April when I let Penmore know I could, on a limited basis work start working on Inner Look. By then, the publisher said it would be the end of 2016 before he could get it out because it was put on hold.

Right after we started working on the book, the editor had a family crisis and had to stop work and fly to Canada. Again work stopped. By the time she got that sorted out, it was the end of June 2015. It was, like my situation with my grandkids, a never-ending story. When she was able to work on the book, I wasn’t.

Finally, by Thanksgiving 2016, we got in sync and by December, we were in the final stages of editing. Then, the cover had to be designed and we went through a couple of iterations before it was done.

Toward the end of January, we started the final proofreading. The book blocks began in late January it took a few tries, mainly because we had some version control issues. When it was signed off on the finished product in late February, it took about two weeks to make it available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Like the others, it is available in hard copy as well as in Nook, Kindle and iBook.

It took twenty-six months, but it was worth it. Now onto book number 7!

Marc Liebman

April 2017

Inner Look, My Fifth Book, Is Out – Finally!!!!

On March 7th, my fifth book – Inner Look – was finally released by Penmore Press. It started when I sent the manuscript to Penmore back in January, 2015 and got an offer for a contract. The initial targeted date to get the book out was the fall of that year.

One thing led to another. I was in the midst of retiring and didn’t have time to devote to working with the editor until July, 2015. That caused a schedule slippage to January 2016.

Right after Thanksgiving 2015, we slid the release of the book back to February or possibly early Marh. Then, December 19th happened. My daughter-in-law committed suicide leaving my son as a single parent of four kids. We rushed out to California to take care of our grandkids and help our son.

I cancelled all of my book signings and notified Penmore that I had to stop work on the book. When I called, I didn’t know when I could begin work so book production/editing went on hold. The delay lasted until April when I let Penmore know I could, on a limited basis work start working on Inner Look. By then, the publisher said it would be the end of 2016 before he could get it out because it was put on hold.

Right after we started working on the book, the editor had a family crisis and had to stop work and fly to Canada. Again work stopped. By the time she got that sorted out, it was the end of June 2015. It was, like my situation with my grandkids, a never-ending story. When she was able to work on the book, I wasn’t.

Finally, by Thanksgiving 2016, we got in sync and by December, we were in the final stages of editing. Then, the cover had to be designed and we went through a couple of iterations before it was done.

Toward the end of January, we started the final proofreading. The book blocks began in late January it took a few tries, mainly because we had some version control issues. When it was signed off on the finished product in late February, it took about two weeks to make it available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Like the others, it is available in hard copy as well as in Nook, Kindle and iBook.

It took twenty-six months, but it was worth it. Now onto book number 7!

Marc Liebman

April 2017

Genesis of Inner Look’s Plot

Inner Look was released in the first week of March 2017 by Penmore Press. It’s a great read – I’m prejudiced – but it has one of the hairiest flying sequences I have ever written. It is, by the way, my fifth novel.

Imagine trying to land on an aircraft carrier when you know that either of both engines are about shut down due to a lack of fuel and you don’t have control of the tail rotor. And, rather than land in the normal fashion by approaching the ship from the stern and landing on the angled deck, Josh Haman has to do what is known as a “down the throat” approach.

In other words, the carrier is coming towards him as he approaches the ship. In this passage, the Ranger is speeding towards the helicopter at thirty plus knots to help minimize the distance that the helicopter, now with enough fuel for only a few more seconds, has to cover. So now, the runway is moving towards you, rather than away from you. The whole relative motion scenario is turned upside down. The pilot’s sight picture is a lot different and when one crosses the forward edge of the angled deck a.k.a. the runway, if you are not careful, you’ll fly right down the angle and be back over the water in a matter of seconds.

I’ve flown down the throat approaches many times, but never when the ship is moving towards me at thirty knots or when I have lost control of the tail rotor or when I am about to run out of fuel. Low state yes, almost out of fuel, no. Needless to say, down the throat approaches are not standard operating procedures unless the carrier is moving slowly through the water.

The inspiration for the plot of Inner Look came from the answer to one simple question. After the traitors John Walker and Jerry Whitworth were arrested, were there any more in the Navy?

The reason that I dwell on the damage done to the United States by these two men that during World War II, the U.K. and the U.S. were able to read encrypted German message traffic transmitted by radio almost as fast as they received it. It gave the Allies a huge strategic and tactical advantage. The program was code name Ultra. Experts believed that Ultra shortened the war in Europe by several years and certainly reduced our casualty rates.

Our victory at Midway was enabled because our code breakers figured out what the Japanese were about to do and ambushed them. A little luck and tactical surprise coupled with Japanese indecision and mistakes driven by their carrier operating doctrine led to a lopsided victory that changed the course of the war in the Pacific.

Walker began giving the Soviets the keys to our codes in 1968 and ended in 1985 when both he and Jerry Whitworth were arrested. From them, the Soviets were able to read our message traffic. No one from the intelligence community will publicly acknowledge how we were affected. However, I suspect that had we gone to war with the Soviet Union between 1968 and 1985, we would have had a hard time. We would have been in the same situation that the Germans and Japanese were in. And, that is not a pretty picture.

So please read Inner Look, write reviews and let me know what you think.

Marc Liebman

April 2017

Genesis of Inner Look’s Plot

Inner Look was released in the first week of March 2017 by Penmore Press. It’s a great read – I’m prejudiced – but it has one of the hairiest flying sequences I have ever written. It is, by the way, my fifth novel.

Imagine trying to land on an aircraft carrier when you know that either of both engines are about shut down due to a lack of fuel and you don’t have control of the tail rotor. And, rather than land in the normal fashion by approaching the ship from the stern and landing on the angled deck, Josh Haman has to do what is known as a “down the throat” approach.

In other words, the carrier is coming towards him as he approaches the ship. In this passage, the Ranger is speeding towards the helicopter at thirty plus knots to help minimize the distance that the helicopter, now with enough fuel for only a few more seconds, has to cover. So now, the runway is moving towards you, rather than away from you. The whole relative motion scenario is turned upside down. The pilot’s sight picture is a lot different and when one crosses the forward edge of the angled deck a.k.a. the runway, if you are not careful, you’ll fly right down the angle and be back over the water in a matter of seconds.

I’ve flown down the throat approaches many times, but never when the ship is moving towards me at thirty knots or when I have lost control of the tail rotor or when I am about to run out of fuel. Low state yes, almost out of fuel, no. Needless to say, down the throat approaches are not standard operating procedures unless the carrier is moving slowly through the water.

The inspiration for the plot of Inner Look came from the answer to one simple question. After the traitors John Walker and Jerry Whitworth were arrested, were there any more in the Navy?

The reason that I dwell on the damage done to the United States by these two men that during World War II, the U.K. and the U.S. were able to read encrypted German message traffic transmitted by radio almost as fast as they received it. It gave the Allies a huge strategic and tactical advantage. The program was code name Ultra. Experts believed that Ultra shortened the war in Europe by several years and certainly reduced our casualty rates.

Our victory at Midway was enabled because our code breakers figured out what the Japanese were about to do and ambushed them. A little luck and tactical surprise coupled with Japanese indecision and mistakes driven by their carrier operating doctrine led to a lopsided victory that changed the course of the war in the Pacific.

Walker began giving the Soviets the keys to our codes in 1968 and ended in 1985 when both he and Jerry Whitworth were arrested. From them, the Soviets were able to read our message traffic. No one from the intelligence community will publicly acknowledge how we were affected. However, I suspect that had we gone to war with the Soviet Union between 1968 and 1985, we would have had a hard time. We would have been in the same situation that the Germans and Japanese were in. And, that is not a pretty picture.

So please read Inner Look, write reviews and let me know what you think.

Marc Liebman

April 2017

Speaker Showcase

Last Friday, I did something that was new, important to me and a lot harder than I thought. As I’ve noted before, I’ve started doing public speaking events to publicize my books. Over the months, I decided to branch out and expand the topics on which I speak.

Well, as one can imagine, you just can’t hang a shingle out and companies start rushing your door to have you come speak to them. I’ve booked a couple myself, but it is hard, hard, time-consuming work and I don’t have a track record. In short, brokering speakers ain’t a business I want to be in.

Through networking (How else do good things happen?), I was referred to an agent looking for “new voices.” She does the booking and I do the speaking. Sounds easy, but it is not.

One of the first things she asked me was, did I have a “reel?” Guessing that meant do I have a recorded speech or two she could use and the answer was no.

Next question, “Where can I hear you speak?” No problem. I gave her the date of a Rotary Club in the local area. Having her in the audience made me more nervous but it came off O.K. because it was a topic I knew cold and had given many times.

Next evolution… Her agency was holding a “speaker showcase” in which she was going to invite local clients/prospects to hear 13 of her “speakers.” It took me about thirty seconds of listening to what the event was about to say “I’m in…”

We agreed to a topic and I started prepping. One condition was “no slides….” It would be a good way to practice being a keynote speaker.

There was no way I was going to memorize a 20-minute speech. What I did was write out the speech in bullets. When I was satisfied with that, I set it aside and wrote down (actually, I typed it on my laptop) the key points in the right sequence without referring to the detailed outline.

I got most of it right, but then started reordering them to make it flow better. Next question, how do I rehearse?

One option was standing in my office and talking for twenty minutes sort of worked. To be honest, I felt stupid. More importantly, when I started, my dogs who normally sack out on the flokati carpet got up and left!

Another option was to sit in a chair, close my eyes and run through the talk. That worked pretty well. The best one was on my daily walk with the dogs, the run through the speech in my mind. That seemed to work best. I could play with intros, sections and the supporting vignettes.

We – my agent and I – did do one formal rehearsal over the phone. It went O.K. and by the day before, I was pretty confident that I could deliver on the day of the showcase. That was until I walked into the theater. My nervousness got worse when I got on the stage and faced the bright lights. You can barely see the audience because the lights make it feel like you are looking into the sun. Sunglasses are not an option!

If being nervous before a performance is a good thing, then I knew I was prepared. My biggest fear was that someplace during the talk, I would lose my train of thought. It happened almost in every run through and almost always at the same spot. It was as if I had a mental block.

Guess what? I was going swimmingly through the presentation and then, right on cue, I came up with a mental block. My mind went blank, so rather than just stop, I started another vignette that wasn’t “planned, but relevant” and sure enough, the next section popped into my brain and away I went.

It came out great… Or at least that’s what my agent thought as did several members of the audience.

Marc Liebman

March 2017

Speaker Showcase

Last Friday, I did something that was new, important to me and a lot harder than I thought. As I’ve noted before, I’ve started doing public speaking events to publicize my books. Over the months, I decided to branch out and expand the topics on which I speak.

Well, as one can imagine, you just can’t hang a shingle out and companies start rushing your door to have you come speak to them. I’ve booked a couple myself, but it is hard, hard, time consuming work and I don’t have a track record. In short, brokering speakers ain’t a business I want to be in.

Through networking (How else do good things happen?), I was referred to an agent looking for “new voices.” She does the booking and I do the speaking. Sounds easy, but it is not.

One of the first things she asked me was did I have a “reel?” Guessing that meant do I have a recorded speech or two she could use and the answer was no.

Next question, “Where can I hear you speak?” No problem. I gave her the date of a Rotary Club in the local area. Having her in the audience made me more nervous but it came off O.K. because it was a topic I knew cold and had given many times.

Next evolution… Her agency was holding a “speaker showcase” in which she was going to invite local clients/prospects to hear 13 of her “speakers.” It took me about thirty seconds of listening to what the event was about to say “I’m in…”

We agreed to a topic and I started prepping. One condition was “no slides….” It would be a good way to practice being a keynote speaker.

There was no way I was going to memorize a 20 minute speech. What I did was write out the speech in bullets. When I was satisfied with that, I set it aside and wrote down (actually, I typed it on my laptop) the key points in the right sequence without referring to the detailed outline.

I got most of it right, but then started reordering them to make it flow better. Next question, how do I rehearse?

One option was standing in my office and talking for twenty minutes sort of worked. To be honest, I felt stupid. More importantly, when I started, my dogs who normally sack out on the flokati carpet got up and left!

Another option was to sit in a chair, close my eyes and run through the talk. That worked pretty well. The best one was on my daily walk with the dogs, the run through the speech in my mind. That seemed to work best. I could play with intros, sections and the supporting vignettes.

We – my agent and I – did do one formal rehearsal over the phone. It went O.K. and by the day before, I was pretty confident that I could deliver on the day of the showcase. That was until I walked into the theater. My nervousness got worse when I got on the stage and faced the bright lights. You can barely see the audience because the lights make it feel like you are looking into the sun. Sun glasses are not an option!

If being nervous before a performance is a good thing, then I knew I was prepared. My biggest fear was that someplace during the talk, I would lose my train of thought. It happened almost in every run through and almost always at the same spot. It was as if I had a mental block.

Guess what? I was going swimmingly through the presentation and then, right on cue, I came up with a mental block. My mind went blank, so rather than just stop, I started another vignette that wasn’t “planned, but relevant” and sure enough, the next section popped into my brain and away I went.

It came out great… Or at least that’s what my agent thought as did several members of the audience.

Marc Liebman

March 2017