Pratap Divyesh's Blog, page 26

Getting Published: Almost impossible; incredibly easy.

The Hard Facts about Getting Published:

I have two things to say about getting published: One, it is almost impossible. And, two, it is the easiest thing in the world.

One:  Impossible

Many people believe that if the writing is good, the author will be offered a traditional publishing deal.  Sadly, that isn’t necessarily the case.  So many other factors come into play. Publishers, despite their protests to the contrary, exist mainly for one thing.  They want to make money.  You are basically on a hiding to nothing, even if you have a good product, if you are an unknown writer trying to break into the business. You really need to be a film star, a famous sportsperson, a celebrity of some sort, or an already established writer.

Actually, even the chances of you getting to present your MS to a publisher are pretty slim.  Nearly all of them require that your work comes to them through an agent.  This presupposes that the agent has done all the preliminary dismissing of rubbish and has held on to MSs that might make money. And getting an agent is even harder than finding a publisher. All they want is a guaranteed 15% of a money-maker and they are going to waste no time on any MS that doesn’t immediately smell of money.

And if, by some fluke, you find a publisher who is willing to take what they call unsolicited MSs, you first have to make the pitch….the preliminary letter, the one page synopsis, the three page précis, the opening chapters. All of these preparations have to be top drawer, eye- catching, impressive … just to get a reader to look at the early pages of your book. A poor pitch, your MS doesn’t even get opened. And that is only the start. These early pages have to grab the reader. Don’t think, ‘Ah, well, it gets better as it goes along’.  No publisher’s reader will ever reach to where it gets better.  Your work has to rock from the word go.  Even the first line is vital. One of the many famous first lines in literature is from a book called Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier…yet, it is the essence of simplicity. ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’ What could be more simple? Yet it opens the mind to infinite possibilities.

So, first line, first paragraph, first chapter…if you want to grab a publisher’s reader’s interest, you need to give your opening all your attention and all your skill. And note this, very rarely does a publisher’s reader ever go beyond the first 20 pages of any MS.  He has usually decided by then whether your MS goes forward to be read by someone else, or whether it gets dumped on what they call the ‘slush pile’.

Two:  Easy

Then there is the other side of the coin.  Ebook or self-publishing.  This has never been easier and there are some very reputable and reasonably priced firms out there to to help you do it.  One of the best is the Amazon KDP, i.e.,  Kindle Direct Publishing for Ebooks.

 Getting your book published as an ebook is a matter of getting a few technical details right, getting a cover designed, getting the text properly formatted to fit the Amazon requirements If you are technologically aware, you could do it yourself and many do. The technologically illiterate, among which number I include myself, generally have to pay someone for such help. But once you have these basics sorted, you can have your book published as an ebook within a couple of days and…suddenly, there it is for sale on Amazon, or Smashwords, or Barnes and Noble, etc.

If you want a paperback version, Lulu and CreateSpace are very well respected POD firms (Print-on-Demand. No stock-piling!)) But they’re American and while you get great value for your purchase prices and high royalties, the postage from the US is crippling. There’s a very well respected UK firm call XLibris.  Pretty much the same services but the postage is a lot cheaper. If you are thinking about going this route, do a bit of internet research. There is plenty of information out there.

 So which route?

Well, there is a third little known option

Small Press Publishers.  With these firms, agented and unagented submissions are equally considered. You still have to be accepted, but if the work is good, it will have a great chance.  You don’t need to be a celebrity or famous and, unlike the big houses, the authors are involved in every step of the process and their input is highly valued. And they pay for the editing, formatting, designing, the cover, and all the other expensive stuff, although authors are asked to do some marketing (for example, sharing social media posts, FB and Twitter, participating in blog tours).Royalty rates are competitive and books are made available (ebook or printed) through all major online vendors, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Nook, Smashwords, and distributed by Ingram.

So there you have it.  Three different options.

My view?

The chances of finding a big publisher, or even an agent, are very slim. And even if you find an agency, you might still have to wait forever before you hear back from them. You won’t even know if they are still trying to sell your book or have simply abandoned it. They don’t seem to care about keeping the writer up to speed. So, publish your book on kindle while you search for a publisher…whether a large publisher or a small press. At least the book will be out there.

And Watch out for scammers.  There are firms out there who say they would love to publish your book. They will have a very professional approach, hugely impressive websites, photographs of their stands at famous world book exhibitions, reports about the successes about their famous clients. Run for the hills when you see these.

How will you know you’re dealing with a scammer?  Simple. No credible publisher will chase after you for your book. Scammers, on the other hand, do chase you. They offer you discounts, usually with a deadline like, “We can only hold this offer open for one week.  After that we will have to off it to another deserving writer.” No matter how attractive and genuine all this sounds, it isn’t.  Delete, delete, delete…or it will cost you serious money with nothing to show at the end of it.

How did I find a publisher? I read somewhere a note by a published author who said, ‘If you are not receiving five or six rejection slips a day, then you are not sending out enough MSs’

Lots of well known best seller writers have faced loads of rejections before finally finding a publisher: Stephen King, James Joyce (‘baffling’), George Orwell (‘unconvincing’), John le Carré (‘has no future’) Herman Melville (‘Does it have to be a whale?’)

So, persistence is the answer. If you have faith in your product, keep sending it out there. You might just get lucky.

 

This post is contributed as Guest post by Brian O’Hare.

About the author:

Brian O’Hare, MA, Ph.D., is a retired assistant director of a large regional college. He graduated, in retirement, from academic writing to fiction and is currently writing a mysteries series, some of which have won awards.

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Ways you can Promote a Book

I’m C Gibson an Author of seven books that I self published on amazon. I decided to start a blog to help with promoting my books after hearing about blogging in one of the writing groups I’m in on Facebook. Starting a blog is not as easy as it seems, there are elements that are required such as hosting, platforms & themes to use. Once you’ve established your blog you can decide on what social media platforms to use for self promoting.

Getting a Facebook business page is a good place to start, then joining some Facebook groups that allow some self promotion of your books and Facebook page. One of the most under used social media sites for an author is Pinterest. When writing blog posts the best way to get your books out there is to share pins you design from your site to Pinterest, with over 200 million+ users it’s a great opportunity to get stir interest for your books, and get more viewers to your author/blog site. I’m an avid Pinterest user and with 14K+ followers I get almost half of my site traffic from there. It’s one Authors/Writer’s really need to explore more of.

I also use Twitter for promoting my books, there is a learning curve with it as well trying to figure out hashtag use, and learning the best ways to promote with just 280 characters allowed in a tweet. A tweet needs to be short, to the point and visually appealing to your followers, which in turn makes it more re-tweetable to reach your desired audience.

Some other ways you can promote your books are:

Reviews : Getting honest reviews will help in getting more sales if your using a site like KDP.
YouTube : If your not camera shy you can make a YouTube video showing your whole writing process and how you got started.
Book Trailer : You can hire someone to design a Book trailer for you and then share it on your site, Facebook, Twitter and more.
Newsletters : When you start a blog you can set up an email subscription service and send out monthly newsletters adding updates on your books and all future books.
Facebook Ads : Facebook ads are another way to promote your books by targeting certain demographics you can set a budget for your promotional needs.

Being an author comes with it’s challenges, but with the right strategies getting the word out about your books and book related products is not as hard as it seems. While some of these options may not work for everyone, finding the right balance to any endeavor is always key to it’s success.

 

This post is contributed as Guest post by C Gibson.

About the author:

I’m C Gibson Author of seven books nonfiction and fiction that are self published through KDP select . I have blog that I write for and I offer Pinterest Advising Services to authors, bloggers and businesses.

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Beginner’s Experiences.

Being very new to the world of book writing I have found some aspects of it rather daunting, particularly how to promote and market the book, although some was done by the publisher. However, I was recently invited to a literary event where I met other authors and found that each had some advice that helped others. Some had written more than one book whilst for most, including me, this was their first attempt. We each had a ten minute slot to stand and explain how our book came about. Although this sounds like, and was a small event, the hall was full with people standing and we all sold books.

The most interesting aspect from the point of view of the authors, was a talk from the owner of a local bookshop. I think we all understand to some degree how the big online sites work, and also the large national bookshops, but to have an explanation from a person actually selling books face to face with the public, was very useful. From her experience we should be aiming to produce books of a size that can be popped into a handbag or similar product, these were the ones that sold the most. I realise that this may not be the same in other countries ( I am writing from the U.K.) although it makes sense. She explained that hard backed books were more difficult to sell, unless they were the smaller children’s books. Books produced in larger sizes, whether they were hardback or paperback, also were harder to sell from a beginners point of view.

Another interesting point she made was explaining how book wholesale dealers could negotiate terms with the publishers to buy the books at a cheaper rate, and then bring them on to the market at a much lower price than that advertised on the actual book. This then affects the royalties received by the author. This may all sound like very basic stuff but even if we are writing about fiction or a niche subject, even something that has just been an experience, good or bad, it is nice to be able to talk face to face with a person that may sell our book for us.

Book launching is not always easy for the beginner, and having an opportunity to mix with other authors who may be equally nervous can give a sort of confidence. This was definitely the atmosphere at this event. The fact that we had to step up to a microphone and talk to a hall full of people, and explain our writing to the individuals that came to see us afterwards, was a boost in our ability to promote our work. We learned from each other, from the invited speakers, and from the experience.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Sheila Moore.

About the author:

Sheila Moore is a working medium and artist, she has written about her experiences drawing and painting portraits and pictures impressed upon her from the Spirit world

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Memoir Writing from Diary to Publishable Piece

Most writers have kept a journal or diary during some period in their lives.  I started a diary when I was sixteen.  After two weeks burned the document out of fear my parents might find it — too much incriminating evidence.  I didn’t take up journal writing again until I hitchhiked from Indiana to Florida and then to New Orleans for Mardi Gras at age 18.

For a small town Hoosier kid, some of the characters I met on the road amazed and moved me.  There was the back woods Tennessean couple who lived off shooting squirrels and rabbits.  Their car was a rim racking old Chevy with the seats torn out so we sat on bare metal.  They picked me up because they needed gas money.  We had a good ride and conversation on the $3 I could spare.  And there was the night I spent at the house of the daughter of the Town Constable of Pleasureville, KY.

Anyway, my first great adventure on my own moved me to keep a journal.  As my appetite for adventure travel increased and took me to even more exotic places than Pleasureville, KY, I thought others might find some benefit in reading what I learned from the adventures.  But, real meaning would not come through a mere recording of events.  The serious memoir writer must interpret meaning from one’s own experiences, but meaning beyond the immediacy of the moment.  I would record in my journal the facts of a travel experience and my reaction to it.  To turn the journal writing into a worthy article or book there had to be an insight, lesson or wisdom which I could offer to others.

Creating an article worthy of publication meant going beyond mere biographical journaling.  Journaling for one’s own pleasure, or to pass on to family and heirs, of course has value.  And social media has created the opportunity to bore the hell out of friends by posting the quotidian details of one’s life.  [“Here I am enjoying my first copy of coffee of the day looking out my window and a blue bird landed on the sill, blah, blah, etc.”]

The personal essays I have been inspired to write are mostly about extreme experiences such as Himalayan mountain climbing or solo sea-kayaking.  I have learned important lessons about life from these adventures.  For example, I was inspired to write about the strength and beauty of the human spirit and the willingness to be self-sacrificial after witnessing a Nepalese guide and porter risk their lives to save and care for others who had been trapped by an avalanche.

After twenty years of article writing I had accumulated enough material and confidence to risk a book.  I was lucky.  I sent it unsolicited to a publisher without representation and a contract for, and publication of, Bringing Progress to Paradise was the result.

Other writers have found meaning worthy of publication in more mundane experiences.  A friend writes about topics of interest to homeowners, parents and a general readership.  One of her published articles is a delightfully humorous essay about the different approaches her and a neighbor applied to dealing with a resident groundhog.  Its wider application for animal lovers is how to deal with what some consider pests and others consider lovable critters.

Essential to making a memoir interesting and worthy of publication is to have a central theme that carries the narrative forward.  Without a thematic narrative, we are back to mere observation or a random collection of insights without a guiding light.  The narrative must include factual details to make it interesting.  A point made in the abstract is likely to be forgotten as soon as the reading device is turned off.

As to publication, well, much has changed since I first began writing for publication in the 1980s.  I used to go to my neighborhood library and page through Writers’ Market looking for the magazines or journals interested in publishing the type of article I had written.  Now, the neighborhood library has probably closed.  Information about publishers is online, but many of the print publications have ceased to exist or been downsized.  However, the advent of the digital age and online publishing has created vastly more opportunities for publication than ever before.

Greater opportunity for publication of articles through blogs and books through direct publishing is a wonderful development for writers.  The one downside of the traditional publishing industry’s bankruptcy is the loss of secure pay for the published writer.  For several decades a writer could expect to be paid from $100 to $2,500, depending on the publication’s prestige and circulation.  Guest blogging (Thanks Being Author!) did not exist in pre-digital history.  Unfortunately, the writing is often done gratis (damn!).

This post is contributed as Guest post by Jeff Rasley.

About the author:

Jeff Rasley is author of ten books and over 70 published articles (as well as numerous photos) in academic and mainstream periodicals, including Newsweek, Chicago Magazine, ABA Journal, Family Law Review, and The Journal of Communal Societies. He has been the featured guest on over eighty radio and podcast programs.

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Achievements With Essays And Flash Fiction

An editor requests an essay. First of all, to me, essays were a dreaded school assignment. Admittedly, being forced to write an essay in grammar school was thebeginning of my writing career. And meeting that first critical deadline proved I could produce a worthwhile written piece. My demanding but fair English teacher, Sister Emma Jane Marie, an Academy of the Holy Names nun clothed in a full black and white habit, discovered I could write creatively before I knew I could. Once she took me under her wing, I wrote for the school newspaper and published many of my class writing assignments in newspapers and various magazines.

Hundreds of essays later, I am still intimidated by the request for a particular essay. How do I start writing on that blank paper or computer screen? First, the ideas flow. Then word binges and thought flashes follow. The process is similar to a horse race. Ready. Set. Go! And I am amazed that words written in a ‘tight’ order can be produced so easily once the creative juices surge. And in a reasonably short time, a finished piece is ready to send to an editor.

As a writer, I prefer to work on short stories and novels, however, presently mainstream, ezine and small press magazines require more essays and flash fiction of 500 words or less. Even simple thoughts are sought after. Not too long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive in the mail, a $50.00 check for an ‘idea’ a popular woman’s magazine printed in its “Indulgences’ page. As a result of this success, I have had acceptances of additional three or four line ‘bits.’ Due to these favorable results, I bring a pen and tablet wherever I go – doctor’s waiting rooms, on vacation where thoughts stream generously and on the playground while my three grandchildren are having fun burning high energy. Their energy ignites my energy and I am on a roll.

Essays can be read in minutes – on a train, on an Uber ride, in a plane, or on a lunch break. They may entertain, instruct, and improve one’s health and well-being.

It may be a reflection of our fast-paced world, however, essays are ‘in.’ Dig in the files, writers, for reprints to update into essays and flash fiction.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Patricia Crandall.

About the author:

Patricia Crandall has published numerous articles and short stories in various magazines and newspapers. She has five books in print, Melrose, Then and Now, a historical volume, I Passed This Way, a poetry collection, The Dog Men, a thriller, Tales of an Upstate New York Bottle Miner, non-fiction, and Pat’s Collectibles.

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New Writers Beware – One authors experiences in promoting his work.

In the last decade, things have changed dramatically in the writing and publishing business. Everybody with any kind of computer seems to be having a go at it and one consequence of this phenomenon is the growing number of predators ready to take your money! Some are genuine but many are not.

For example you see an offer for an App to give you more sales, leads, or reviews. The introductory price is low, so you go ahead and buy. Then the spiel begins, you are informed that before your download starts you really need an extra. Whther you buy it or bypass it, you next are informed you also need another offer with a bonus book, then next comes a training offer, one new thing after the other, on and on all bumping up the total price.

At the end of each section you see a line of print implying if you’re foolish enough to not want this fantastic offer, then click here to continue. That of course takes you to the next essential offer and so on.

Finally, if you haven’t given up in disgust and decided to lose what you suspect is really just a deposit for a vast system you do not need… you will eventually get to the end of the offers. There, if you can find it, at the end of a mile long page, is the place to click to get just what you first thought you wanted. You can almost sense the sneer in the wording pointing out what you’re missing.

What gets me is the contempt these people seem to have for the innocent budding writer. Nowadays,unless you part with enough money, even with a more genuine book promoter, the chance of making your first book go viral, is like winning a lottery and you know the odds against everybody doing that.

I still get caught occasionally nowadays but I should really know better.

I should mention that back in the fifties I wrote and sold a few SciFi tales. My rapidly expanding business life however, soon put a stop to those fascinating activities, and apart from writing endless reports and technical papers I had to give up writing fiction, even though the ideas still kept coming. I made notes and put them away for another day.

Eventually though I decided to retire from my professional life, and give up all the foreign traveling. So early this century I retired to happily indulge in writing, editing and promoting my speculative fiction output. Now, I’m ruefully finding the essential marketing activities take up more of my time than the writing does. There are also other hazards I’ll mention later…

I spent some time trying to find an agent but apart from a couple who were overloaded with clients, nobody else ever answered, so I began looking into self-publishing, and I’m glad I did.

I found Createspace very useful for my paperbacks and then Amazon KDP for the eBooks. Altogether I’ve published over ten collections of speculative stories myself from macabre tales to science fiction and even some humor. I also set up a website using Webs.com.

My first YA novel was published in 2012 by an Indie Publisher in California. They also gave me a contract for a first sequel which I completed and later approved their final editing copy. However just before it was to be published they were taken over by another Indie Publisher. The new owner confirmed my existing contract and we negotiated two more. One for a second sequel to my YA novels series, which I completed and approved its final editing. The first sequel in the series was expected be published around December 2016.

Nothing happened because the new owner was discovering he had take on a project far greater than he was able to control and finance successfully. e.g. his grand plan to re-edit and reformat all the hundreds of titles he had acquired.

Things soon went from bad to worse, one staff turnover crisis to the next, then around the middle of this year the new owner revealed some of his unsolved problems to me in a series of eMail exchanges. He still could not say when the paperback versions of my reformatted first two novels would be published, and definitely could promise nothing about another books I had contracted with him. I won’t bore you with details of his eBook problems. Then as compensation for my lost years he offered to give me 95% of the YA imprint of the company.

I gave his offer a lot of thought but in view of my advanced age, my foreign location, and lack of the required resources I decided against it. Fifteen years ago I probably would have accepted.

He alternatively offered to cancel all the contracts with me, for free and in writing. I accepted and after more thought decided to continue self-publishing. I couldn’t face the thought of trying to find an agent again or another publisher and waiting months for answers to my query letters.

I’ve now republished my first two YA novels myself with my own imprint, and signed them up with an international distributor and will publish the third in the series shortly. My 4th. novel in the series is about one third written to date and progressing..

My most successful effort to date however has been to self-publish a non-fiction analysis of the coming Artificial Intelligence revolution, in a book entitled, THE SINGULARITY IS COMING. It has become my best selling title because in October 2015 it was acquired by the IT Books Division of the Chinese Information Ministry Publisher, PTPress in Bejing. for publication in simplified Chinese eBook and paperback versions, released in June 2016. So how did that breakthrough come about? Their Publishing Manager found me while searching through the Internet. In his own words, “I wanted a follow up to Ray Kurzweil’s book on the subject and your book is concise and easy to understand.”

So my simple secret to success appears to be get yourself featured on the Internet, everywhere and as often as you can.

Make sure your name and your essential website URL appear whenever a potential reader enters anything relevant in the search entry box on any browser. Inexpensive experts waiting for you on www.fiverr.com can provide all the facilities you need to achieve your objective. When you have done all you can, check your website regularly, add anything new and keep it updated, but above all… be patient, like me, and never miss an opportunity.

My experiences have brought me closer to understanding that life is full of adversities. If you don’t have the money, or the time to be a perfectionist, there can be contentment in accepting adequacy, defined perhaps as the acceptable limit of one’s abilities. I must end by saying never give up until you get as far as you truly believe you can and only stop, or pass away perhaps, just before that.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Tony Thorne MBE.

About the author:

​Tony Thorne MBE is an Englishman, born and technically educated in London, England, was originally a Design Engineer, but is now retired and living in Austria. He writes near future fiction and has his numerous books published, in America, China and the UK.

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She said WHAT? – 10 Helpful Hints for Writing Dialogue

It’s not hard to write dialogue, to put words between quotation marks, but to do so with the goal of moving the plot of the story along or convey the emotional needs of a particular character, can be challenging. Here are a few tips to get you over the hyperbole hump and onto the meat of the story.

Learn to LISTEN – yep! Eavesdrop! Actually, it’s harder than that  – try to notice inflections, accents, local slang, etc. in conversations between people.  You can do this just about anywhere… but if they start talking about burying a body, LEAVE QUICKLY, AVOIDING EYE CONTACT. (Unless it’s an author you know – then it’s just brainstorming.)

LEARN from your favorite authors – when you read, notice how what one character says to another reveals vulnerability and underlying motives, or moves the story forward.

LET IT FLOW – Just write it out. You can make it shine later. This is what’s in your head and your heart, so get it all out, then polish.

ACT IT OUT – If you’ve got a willing participant, try it out with a friend. If not, see above.

READ IT OUT LOUD – You may feel silly at first, but it does help. It shows you where words may feel stilted or unnecessary. Speaking of, when writing dialogue, you don’t even have to clarify the speaker each time. If Dick and Jane are the only ones in the room and they have established the “he said/she said” then let it flow without the extra clarifications unless it moves the story along.

LESS IS MORE – If you’ve already established the tone of the conversation, no need to beat it to death with adjectives every time a person speaks. To that end as well, no need to state the obvious, “He pulled out a chair and sat down as he put his hands in his pockets.” Okay. No need for “He put his hands in his pocket.” Unless, of course, he’s pulling out a gun.

WHEN TO SPEAK, AND WHEN TO STAY SILENT – I try to use these SPARINGLY. For example, when Mac enters Dixie’s hospital room in Whistlin’ Dixie, she could have simply said: “Get out.” Instead, she throws the bedpan at him. He replies, “Well, at least it was empty.” That’s a gem moment and one in which my readers still laugh over three years later.

DROP WORDS – Depending on the tone of the conversation and the characters speaking, it may be effective to shorten sentences and still retain the reader’s interest.

POV IS CRITICAL – And this is my #1 Problem with my own dialogue. I get so involved in the dialogue, I forget which POV the scene is in. So, after writing out what is demanding to get out of my head, I take a break, then reread it to make sure I’m still in the proper POV even though one or more people have contributed to the conversation. A fellow author even changes the color of the text to help her keep in proper POV.

USE PROPER PUNCTUATION! – It’s an easy and effective way to convey the tone of the scene as well as the temperament of the characters. If the scene calls for alarm (!) or confusion (?) it’s easy; but sometimes, it can be more difficult to discern the proper punctuation. In that case, I leave it to the professionals, my editors, because I’m not a punctuation Nazi, but they are.

And if you are still having trouble with the dialogue, ask another author or your Beta readers. Sometimes all it takes is a different way of speaking to open up a host of creative ideas.

This post is contributed as Guest post by maggie adams.

About the author:

Maggie Adams is an Amazon Best Selling romance author. Her first book in the Tempered Steel Series, Whistlin’ Dixie, debuted in Amazon’s Top 100 for Women’s Fiction, humor, in November 2014. Since then, she has consistently made the Amazon bestseller 5-star list with her Tempered Steel Series.

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Drawing New Readers to Your List

For authors, success depends upon the ability to keep our current audience and employ techniques to draw new readers. While paid advertising is one way to do this, it can become very expensive. For authors on a budget, the answer to achieving this goal is to grow an e-mail list. With a bit of creativity, it is possible to drive awareness with little expenditure.

A tactic that works well is to include a tempting offer in the front and back matter of your book. I write for children and for adults. On the first or second page of my children’s books, I show a thumbnail and link for another picture book that I believe may interest these customers. When I offer a free download, the link goes to my e-mail l sign-up page where they must enter their name and e-mail address to take advantage of the offer. There are several sites that will host your opt-in pages as well as allow you to set up welcome letters and design campaigns to send to your list. The free services on Mail- Chimp have worked well for me. The first two thousand subscribers to your account are free. After that, you must choose a paid account. However, when an author is first building a list, getting the first two thousand free isn’t a bad beginning.

In order to draw more readers to my list, I have a perma-free romance novel on Amazon that offers a free-download for another romance novel.  The offer for my second free novel is prominently displayed on the front matter before the story begins and again at the end of the book before my author bio. When someone clicks to download the second free book, they see a thumbnail and a link in that book that suggests a purchase in the genre that seems to suit their interest.

Always put a clear call to action above your link that instructs the reader to “Click Here Now” or “Download Your Free Novel Now.” This prompt helps to urge them to take the action you want them to take.

Another way to grow and e-mail list is to set up a Facebook fan page and post offers for book giveaways and contests. In order to enter, the reader will click on the link to your campaign where they must enter their e-mail address. When they take the trouble to enter the contest, you are confident of a reader who is interested in your genre and someone who will be receptive to your future novels. Be sure to have a written disclaimer on your sign up page that assures the reader their name and e-mail is secure and you will never sell or disclose their information to any other party. With the amount of spam most of us receive, this is a concern. Addressing their hesitation with your assurance is essential.

Remember to keep in contact with your list on a monthly basis, at least. If they forget who you are and why they joined, you may begin to see unsubscribes. Yet with care and attention, your list can grow and flourish like a well-watered garden and you will reap the fruit of your harvest.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Karen Cogan.

About the author:

Karen Cogan is multi-published in contemporary and historical romance. She also writes books for middle-grade and young children. Her experience as a public school teacher has given her insight into the interests of young readers.

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Writing: The Agony and Ecstasy

I have written this before about the creative process in painting and photography. There is a common thread between each discipline.

Just because you want to create doesn’t mean the inspiration is available when time and the desire allows. In the past, I would have just described the inability to write as a period of fermentation of a thought but recently I’ve learned there are tools we can use to keep producing.

Organization

It is an inability that has severely crippled me through my life. Organization allows the wild electricity of inspiration to become a form. It’s much like stepping down high-voltage to a low-voltage, usable form of electricity.

The initial inspiration is often full of holes and inconsistencies. Organization pulls the pieces together and attempts to create a conducive whole.

Discipline:

Another tool that tends to be illusive to the right brain. The idea of discipline should stifle creativity and innovation but it can be a great strength for the creative person.

I have learned in two separate ways why discipline is so important. When I was very young, well-meaning teachers chose my creativity over penmanship. The problem is now I am barely able to write legibly-it is a muscle that atrophies as we get older. Thank God for computers.

Discipline is very much the same, it is a muscle that we can improve. The best vehicle I have found to use discipline in creation is the process of teaching art.

What normally would be a pause in painting becomes a teaching point for the teacher. You have to discipline yourself to continue even if the attention span is lacking.

Determination:

I’m not saying being determined will keep you on the creative path but it will allow the creative mind to stay on task. It is so much easier to allow the diversion of other activities.

I heard about an author who had the discipline and determination to write five pages a day. After you’ve written and forced through the lack of ability I believe it becomes easier to push through the stages of block.

Not only do you adapt to the feeling of working through, you learn to wrestle with doubt and get beyond being vulnerable to procrastination.

Focus:

All the tools I’ve mentioned lend themselves to the final. Focus on the feeling, the story, the idea. If you can keep writing, the gaps and interruptions should work themselves out.

After using all of these tools I believe the next post should be the rewards we reap from using these tools in our writing. Stay tuned.

 

This post is contributed as Guest post by Steven Linebaugh.

About the author:

An artist and writer who writes about the art of painting, blogs about life and the creative mind and is in the process of writing several short stories and a novel.

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There is Always a Reason NOT to Start Writing

For years, I have been collecting ideas that would lend themselves to stories at some future date. I used to write more poetry than anything and convinced myself I needed to go back to school to learn the tools of prose.

The stories grew in quantity and quality. Still I listened to others with well meaning opinions, “Stick to Poetry.” The first time I started to write a story it was long and clumsy. I used too many words and pondered too long on every detail.

I read other writers and their essays which seemed so full of thought. I hung on every word because there was meat, a satisfying nourishment that weaved throughout the work.

First I learned to shorten my paragraphs, to lessen the use of words and concentrate on sharpening the meaning. As the muscle improved, I began to weave meaning that would connect from one paragraph to another.

The structure of the paragraph began to make sense. I had developed a vehicle that could convey the story that was only an inanimate block on a page. My stories suddenly had legs.

All those years of excuses and procrastination suddenly dissolved the doubts that kept me from writing, from taking my own voice seriously.

Doubt allows us to do nothing. It teaches us to write things down for later. So many dust covered pages hide stories that will one day find a voice and get a breath of life.

Writing is that amazing world we envision come to life as we overcome our fear and doubt. Write until the muscle grows and write until you know how. It’s amazing what the future holds for someone who believes in themselves and writing. Start now.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Steven Linebaugh.

About the author:

He is a creative and nature is his muse. His words are from his experiences in nature and the stories of depression and self awareness. His poetry has slowly mutated into prose and the future is open.

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