Sally Ember's Blog, page 82
February 7, 2015
#Authors #Marketing Yourself and Your Work Part FOUR
And, PART FOUR from Susan Toy, here, for #authors about #marketing. Great series.
Originally posted on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog..... An Author Promotions Enterprise!:
The following is an extract from a talk delivered at the Calgary Public Library in Feb. 2011.
Part 4
Okay, now you’ve completed the further editing, the proofs have been approved, and it’s just a matter of waiting for the printer to produce and ship your book. So, what’s been happening at the publishing house all this time? The main thing they’ve been up to is preparing for, and holding, sales conferences for their sales reps. A catalogue page for your book should have been completed and posted online. Be sure to link to this page on your own blogsite, and direct anyone to it who asks about your book. The reps have been told about you, and they have discussed how they can best sell your book to booksellers, libraries, wholesalers and specialty markets. Some of them may have even read the manuscript. If at all…
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February 6, 2015
Writing your own Ebook – Part Twelve Finale– Images – and Useful Links
If you are new to or not clear on #ebook #formatting and other structural issues in #self-#publishing, go back and start from the beginning of this great series! Great for all #indie #authors or potential ones!
Originally posted on Smorgasbord - Variety is the spice of life:
Images in Ebooks
There are two types of EPUB Ebooks: Standard Layout, that allow text to re-flow and Fixed Layout where the page layouts are fixed and text does NOT re-flow.
Standard Layout is used for books that are mostly text and they may have images embedded between paragraphs, or on separate pages. This is the format that is most widely used and is compatible with the widest range of Reading devices.
Fixed Layout is used when: you need to have a background colour or to wrap text around images; if your pages have aspect ratios that you don’t want to change or if you want to have horizontal orientation or columns of text.
For most fiction books and many non-fiction books the Standard Layout is fine and I will only address that format here.
Image Guidelines
Different Ebook retailers have different guidelines regarding images and you need to…
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February 5, 2015
Why I #write utopian, #Buddhist-infused, #multiverse #scifi/rom #novels & why you should #read & share them.
Reposted from 10/30/13
Writers are often exhorted to write the books we want to read that seem not to exist, yet. I am following that advice with The Spanners Series, especially Volume I, This Changes Everything, which is now PERMAFREE, and also with subsequent volumes (Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, released 6/9/14; look for Volumes III and IV in 2015).
I am an avid reader and have probably read hundreds of thousands of books in my 56 years of reading independently and quickly, sometimes devouring ten books a week. If I say books like mine—a series like The Spanners—don’t yet exist, I’m probably correct.
All buy links, reviews, interviews, readings and more: http://www.sallyember.com/Spanners Look right; scroll down.
Why am I writing #science-fiction/#romance, #Buddhist-infused, #multiverse/#multiple timelines #utopian #novels besides the reason already given? And, why should you read them? Because we live in a deteriorating, or degenerating Age, according to #Tibetan Buddhists (and probably many others I’m not bothering to research right now).
When I first hear this claim, I disbelieve it. Aren’t most things “improving” for humanity? Modern medicine, technology, transportation, knowledge of all types: in the 20th and 21st centuries, we are experiencing incontrovertible advances, mind-blowing progress, right? Plus, that POV is just such a downer!
Why would the Buddha’s followers propose and then Buddhist teachers and scholars maintain such a doom-and-gloom perspective on life? It’s not enough that Buddha focused his teachings on suffering and impermanence? Most Buddhists must be depressed: that’s what I thought.
I could understand why Tibetans, having been living under horrible oppression, genocide and cultural destruction under Chinese rule for decades, would be so pessimistic. But, we’re in the good ole’ USA: things are great here, right?
Not so much. I won’t go into the facts we all know now (even more than ever, thanks to Snodwen and Manning) about how screwed up the USA has been and still is, nor how terrible the economy is here and everywhere. I won’t provide the list. We all know too well the horrors of our modern life. Modern tragedies, however, are actually not even relevant to this discussion.
The “degenerating” part of our Age has little to do with actual external conditions. Our deterioration involves humans’ not being able to learn #dharma, not being able to find qualified and worthy Buddhist teachers, not being able to practice meditation well or at all. The Buddha’s teachings and Buddhists practitioners are what are degenerating, in what is called “The Third Age” or “The Latter Day of the Law.”
You can look this up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Ages_of_Buddhism
My point is, dystopian futures abound. Most sci-fi writers, even those that include romance in their stories, write of increasingly worsening conditions on and around this planet and across the Universe. They pile on the violence, showing increasing discord, more political and social unrest, deaths and destructions even worse than we have now. We already have too much awfulness for me to want to read about even worse futures.
Enough, already: I believe we need some hope, ideas of how else things could go, whether or not I always believe they will take these turns. Since I can’t find this optimism in the daily news or libraries’ and bookstores’ fiction, I decide to create it. I need this in my personal life, for the USA, for the continent, the water, air and land: I am imagining routes for improvement for the planet and the entire universe.
When I #meditate, especially during a #retreat phase in which I was #contemplating lives of beings in the “God Realm,” it occured to me repeatedly that we live in opulence amid squalor, all over the planet. Beauty smack dab in the middle of ugliness, every day. #Yin and #yang. We do have to “take the good with the bad,” but do we have to emphasize the “bad”?
I do not.
In my novels, even when things are “bad,” there is more good than bad. Buddha teaches often that we have to discern between “good” and “bad” even as we know these are illusory. Many teachings expound on how there is NO “good” or “bad,” no “birth” and no “death,” no “coming” and no “going.”
While you puzzle over that, I’m going to continue my utopian illusions in The Spanners Series. In my current and future multiverses, beings, including humans, will have love, better conditions and dharma: they/we have it all!
Furthermore, I’m going to HOPE—even though we are instructed to meditate partly in order to relinquish all hope and all fear—that YOU read my books and enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them.
Please let me know! Write your comments here on this and other posts, on excerpts from my novel, and whatever else occurs to you. Let’s converse!
Filed under: All Volumes, Buddhism, Mini retreat reports, Personal stories, The Spanners, Themes from The Spanners, This Changes Everything, Tibetan Vajrayana Nyingma, Volume I of The Spanners Tagged: Buddhism, Buddhist, meditation, retreat, romance, Sally Ember, sci-fi, Spanners, The Spanner Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Vajrayana, Writers, writing
February 4, 2015
Why You Should Love Spanish Olive Oil
I had no idea olive oil was being diluted/compromised. Read and share!
Originally posted on Italian Home Kitchen Blog:
Did you know that upwards of 70% of the world’s olive oil is fake?
That is not to say that it is not natural, or is made from chemicals, but 70% of the “olive oil” on the market — that is marketed as pure olive oil — is not actually pure olive oil. How can this be? This is because olive oil counterfeiters have gotten so good at faking olive oil that most of the professional tasters cannot tell the difference between the real stuff and fake olive oil.
“Fake” olive oil still contains a good portion of “real” olive oil, but is cut with low grade oils from other plants to reduce the cost of the oil. Though the manufacturers save money on creating the oil, they often still sell it as high grade olive oil and for a higher price. This practice has become so prominent in countries…
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Wednesday writer: Sally Ember
Thanks so much, Jnana, for featuring me today! I am sharing this widely. Best to you and all the new and continuing followers who join us today and after today. Will love to see responses!
Sally
Originally posted on Chicken Farmer I still love you:
NAME: Sally Sue Fleischmann Ember, Ed.D. (a.k.a., Sally Ember and Sally Ember, Ed.D.; Sally Sue Ember on Google+).
About SALLY SUE: In St. Louis, I am the namesake of my then-deceased great-uncle Saul Fleischmann, a baseball player for the St. Louis Browns, known as “Sakie,” which I was also called by his loving brother, my grandfather. In Louisville, I am considered to be the namesake of my then-living great-grandmother, Sarah, and many there believe my name to be “Sarah,” not “Sally.” Since I grew up in St. Louis, “Sally” appears on my birth certificate. I experimented occasionally with “Sarah” as my name, but I am firmly a “Sally.”
Having “Sue” as my middle name was the compromise, another name starting with “S,” to appease whichever set of relatives thought they were being left out of my naming. It’s also very USA = Southern to have alliterative names, isn’t it?
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Never-before-released Autobiographical Info about ME in Today’s Feature
Look who’s featured on today’s “Wednesday Writer’s” slot on Jnana Hodson’s site? ME!
Never-before-released autobiographical info about ME in today’s feature!
Please visit, comment, follow:
https://frugaljnana.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/1812/
Filed under: Interviews with Sally as Author, Personal stories Tagged: Author Interview, Autobiography, Buddhist, Jewish, Jnana Hodson, Sally Ember, St. Louis, The Spanners Series, This Changes Everything, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever
February 3, 2015
“Grade Inflation”—the Widespread Awards and Exalting of Effort—are Ruining Writing and Writers
I am hereby and for an undetermined length of time giving low credence to most book reviews, awards, contests and other honors conferred upon books/authors.
Why? I know some of the awardees’ writing. Many are undeserving of any accolades.
“Grade Inflation”—the widespread awards and the exalting of effort—are ruining writing and writers.
image from http://www.wrkcapital.com
Why does anyone reward mediocrity and worse? How many “open mikes” have you attended in which EVERYONE, no matter how badly they perform or how horribly they read aloud or recite poetry, gets wild applause or even a standing ovation? Does the audience believe that everyone deserves the same response regardless of the quality of their presentation?
I do not.
How does it help any author/artist grow when no one is honest with them about the areas they need to improve and all they hear are overly exuberant praises? Neither are we helping authors or keeping faith with readers when so many provide undeserved 5-star “reviews” for shoddy writing. We are helping our writers and performers when we honestly and with specificity critique their work.
We are not doing our children any favors to give everyone who participates a “winner” ribbon, unless everyone understands that showing up and participation are what get awarded. However, I contend that, for professionals, the industry should not be labeling greatness on effort alone.
Grading on effort makes greatness lose all significance and confuses us all. When everyone “wins,” no one does. For evaluations and competitions to matter, the creation being evaluated of any top-ranking writer or other artist must be excellent by objective standards to have earned that award.
When all are given “A”s, or 5 Stars, or First Place, the rankings become meaningless. Participants can’t begin to discern their actual place among their peers or the value of their work in the world when reviewers and judges do not provide accurate, meaningful, thoughtful critiques and feedback, in the form of awards to the deserving.
image from http://cutemonster.com
At the end of a sports event, such as a foot race or team game, the winners and losers are indisputable. Those that swim are racing each other and the clock, which are immutably obvious regarding who swam the fastest for that race and for all recorded events of that type.
Art assessments should not merely be based on the creator’s intention or your affection for the creator.
Exceptions: if the artist is not a child or disabled in some way so that participation alone is sufficient to earn an award. Obstacles that participant has already overcome just to be involved in that competition or performance do deserve to be honored. THOSE types of contests in which “everyone wins,” I wholeheartedly honor.
However, when the competition is on a supposedly “level playing field” (more or less: let’s not get into gender, socio-economic class, age, racial and ethnic biases that unfairly prejudice judging and preclude fairness; that’s another subject), I strenuously object to fairly set competitors’ receiving awards, praises, great reviews or any other merit when the subject of the assessment is insufficiently unscrutinized.
I know some awards are merely a matter of “taste” or “current trends,” and that what anyone “likes” is always subjective.
Fine. Let those competitions be labeled clearly as having someone’s personal preferences, not accepted standards of excellence, as the main criteria for winning.
BTW: I strongly believe in and promote cooperative games, the postponement of competition, and an “everybody wins” concept for most activities for children and youth. I wish more youth sports and other harshly competitive games would be permanently removed from options so that everyone could play, learn and grow without that pressure.
This post is not to remove those cooperative and noncompetitive games or friendly, networking-type of awards passed around for fun and support. We all need encouragement.
I’m talking about competitions that adults, professionals, and mostly, writers enter that supposedly have criteria that winners have to meet or exceed, in which the “best” is supposed to be honored the most. I wish that all of these competitions would be judged by obvious and agreed-upon standards of excellence and not determine winners based on effort, affection or popularity, or worse, entry fees.
Also, I’m not talking about what people “like.” I’m asking for awards based on what is excellent, as objectively measured as possible.
Maybe it’s easier to talk about what is NOT excellent. I believe these components, below, are not purely subjective measures and therefore can be evaluated fairly and “blindly.”
FYI: For professional writers, grammar matters. Spelling counts. Syntax is significant. Context is not everything.
image from http://the-modern-housewife.blogspot.com
Here are my “what not to award” components for all types of fiction, whatever length.
[NOTE: I do not believe these need any explanations, but comment here or wherever you see this or email me if you are not sure what I mean, below.]
Poorly plotted stories
Superficially drawn or insufficiently motivated characters
Illogical, incomplete or inconsistent world-building
Triteness in storyline, characterization or setting
Not credible settings and/or situations
Poorly edited, insufficiently copyedited, badly spelled and/or incorrectly written sentences, paragraphs, entire works
Repetitious language, situations, characters and plots across one or more works by the same author
Sexism, racism, ageism, classism, ethnocentrism and other oppressive biases as expressed through one’s characters and plots/situations
The next time I hear a writer “won” an award, I hope s/he deserved it. I really do.
In case you need a reminder of what quality is and how deserving some authors are…
Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman at the National Book Awards, 2014, in New York.
image from http://www.theguardian.com Photograph: Robin Marchant/Getty
P.S. I find Gaiman unreadable (personal preference) and adore Le Guin, but I recognize the similar greatness in their writing.
Filed under: Indie or Self-Publishing, Opinions, Writing Tagged: authors, awards, bad editing, bad writing, Book Reviews, grade inflation, Writers, writing
February 2, 2015
World-first evidence suggests that meditation alters cancer survivors’ cells – ScienceAlert
Awesome evidence of the effects #meditation has on our health.
Originally posted on The Only Buddhist in Town:
World-first evidence suggests that meditation alters cancer survivors’ cells – ScienceAlert.
Get on your mats, gentle beings. This. Is. Huge.
Filed under: Writing
February 1, 2015
Dalai Lama Agrees To Attend National Prayer Breakfast
Long overdue. Hope it happens. We should NOT be pandering to China, one of the worst human rights violators in modern society.
Originally posted on The Only Buddhist in Town:
Dalai Lama Agrees To Attend National Prayer Breakfast.
This is HUGE. This could be the first time the President and His Holiness have been seen in public since…ever…They’ve met privately three times, but Obama prefers not to antagonize the Chinese, which rankles me greatly.
The second thing that makes this HUGE is that the National Prayer Breakfast is a Christian event. Inviting His Holiness, expecially during this time of Christian extremism is remarkable to say the least. Could it be, just be, that there is more tolerance in the government that I thought?
Either way, I am delighted he is attending. What a wonderful way to start my morning to find this bit of good news waiting for me!
Filed under: Writing
Gyalwang Karmapa Makes Historic Announcement on Restoring Nuns’ Ordination – Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa
Excellent news for Kagyu and other #Buddhist nuns in the #Tibetan tradition. Trashi delek (best of auspicious wishes) to them all and t’huk te je (Thanks) to His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Gyalwang.
Originally posted on The Only Buddhist in Town:
Another historic announcement. The Karmapa is going to take concrete steps towards ordaining nuns in the Tibetan tradition. Wow, just wow. I am SO HAPPY to see this finally come to fruition!
Filed under: Writing
