Mark Leslie Lefebvre's Blog, page 42

Episode 36 – It’s Not You, It’s Your Crappy Book Cover

In this solo episode, Mark talks about two specific examples from his own publishing experience, where having a crappy cover didn’t help book sales. He walks through the back-story for the eBooks in question, his reasoning behind the initial crappy cover (which he didn’t realize was crappy in the first place) as well as the positive results that came after he recognized his mistake and created a better cover.

[image error]

He explains that he is using personal examples for a few reasons, which include:

the fact that it’s easier to see fault in someone else’s mistakes; perhaps seeing the mistakes Mark made makes it easier for an author to understand for their own purposes
to illustrate that, even though he has fourteen years of experience in self-publishing and more than twenty-five years in bookselling, and should know better, he still makes these types of mistakes – which means everyone can and will make these mistakes (so don’t beat yourself up over it)

Prior to the main content of the podcast, Mark provides a personal update about two items.

[image error]

1) Recently received audiobook royalties from ListenUp Audiobooks for Evasion and Findaway Voices, for that novel and three other shorter works (With a mention that this podcast is sponsored by Findaway Voices – because he’s just that slick at slipping it into the monologue)

 

[image error]

Findaway Voices provides all the tools that an independent author or s mall publisher needs in order to get into the digital audiobook market. From audiobook production to distribution, and with the bonus of being able to set and control your audiobook pricing.

 

 

 

2) A recent promotion that Mark ran on his book A Canadian Werewolf in New York in order to help support the Kobo/Walmart promo that is taking place. Mark walks through the logistics of how some of the Kobo lists are set up and explains the third-party promo from Written Word Media that he used to help elevate the ranking and status of his book in the Kobo/Walmart list. He shares the numbers and results (so far) for this promo (the details from this are shared with Mark’s Patreon supporters)

[image error]

 

The two examples of book cover updates that Mark walks through are:

Spirits – a 6,000 word short story that Mark originally launched in eBook in June of 2011. Mark walks through the reasoning behind publishing this short story as an eBook in terms of the financial return based on his original goals to sell the story to a pro market.

[image error]

He also shares the back story about the “virtual launch” he used for this book in 2011 and the resulting 18 people who watched it live and the sales in the first month and beyond.

Snowman Shivers – Two snowman-themed tales that Mark launched in 2012 that required BOTH a cover and a sub-title makeover. The cover design was a much-needed improvement that better speaks to the type of mini eBook this is, and the original subtitle of “Scary Snowman Tales” was misleading and off-putting to readers who were expecting dark and macabre tales, but, instead, got dark humor with a thin layer of eerie.

Mark closes up the podcast by thanking his Patreon supporters as well as explaining a new option that Kobo Writing Life recently announced to authors, the ability to transfer ratings and reviews to new eBooks, and what that can mean from authors interested in updating/changing their distribution to Kobo.

 

Links of Interest:

Findaway Voices
ListenUp Audiobooks
Episode 33: Two Wrongs That Make a Writer Spite
Episode 8: Author Promotions with Ricci Wolman from Written Word Media (BargainBooksy/FreeBooksy)
Transferring Your Ratings & Rankings on Kobo
Details about Canadian Werewolf Promo Cost, Numbers, Results, for all Patreon Supporters
Free Friday Frights
Mark’s books mentioned in this episode

A Canadian Werewolf in New York
Spirits (Short Story)
Snowman Shivers (Two Short Stories)

#FreeFridayFrights reading of Snowman Shivers (YouTube)




Mark’s Blog Posts related to this episode

A Virtual Success (the virtual eBook launch of Spirits)
That’s the Spirit: A Dollars and Sense Analysis of a Self-Publishing Decision

 

 

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP036_ItsNotYouItsYourCrappyBookCover.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner

Episode 35 – Lessons Learned From The Novel Intensive Workshop

This episode includes a conversation with three guests: Ara Grigorian, Janis Thomas and Julie Strauss. Ara and Janis are the brains and brawn behind the Novel Intensive Seminar and Workshop and Julie was a writer who has attended and benefited from these sessions.

[image error]

The Novel Intensive Workshop is a hands-on full day collaborative workshop in which writers are able to apply the Novel Intensive Tools and Principles to their current work in progress. Guided by best-selling author Janis Thomas and award-winning author Ara Grigorian, the workshop gives writers an opportunity to share their writing, ask questions, focus on their own and unique challenges, and receive immediate feedback. Hands-on exercises are provided which are designed to help writers hone their storytelling skills.

[image error]

For this episode’s personal update, Mark shares the fact that this week he is embarking on a two day personal writing retreat to a location that is about a two hour’s drive from home; while there, he will be focusing on finishing the first draft of a non-fiction book for writers that will be released under his Stark Publishing Solutions imprint. The book shares Mark’s what he has learned about the business of writing and publishing in the more than 25 years he has been a writer, a bookseller and an industry representative.

He also shares that he recently secured the audio rights for his novel I, DEATH back from Edge Publishing and plans on posting the project to Findaway Voices, this episode’s sponsor.

[image error]

Findaway Voices, (this episode’s sponsor), provides all the tools that an independent author or s mall publisher needs in order to get into the digital audiobook market.

 

Mark thanks his Patreon sponsors and then moves to the main interview feature for this episode.

[image error]

In their conversation, Mark, Julie, Ara and Janis discuss:

How the Novel Intensive workshop first came together (Janis and Ara’s own “meet cute” style reciprocal teaching relationship which led to the eventual collaborative workshop

[image error]

The way that the workshop was born out of the desire to gather all the things Ara and Janis have learned about writing and then package it into an easily digestible info-filled interactive workshop that other writers could benefit from
Julie’s discovery of the program via a presentation (a significantly abbreviated and truncated version of the full day workshop) that Ara gave at an annual RWA (Romance Writers of America) Conference and how, half-way through that session, she had that “a-ha” moment which helped solve a dilemma she’d been struggling with on a novel in progress
Why Julie plans on returning to some of the same workshops she has already attended for insights and inspiration on future projects, and how Ara and Janis always keep one of their own works in progress in the back of their minds while teaching, to draw similar inspiration
How Ara and Janis use the Novel Intensive principles in different ways they adapt into their own distinct writing processes
The thing that surprised Julie the most about the way that Janis and Ara teach together and the way that each of the 10 students in one particular workshop had their own unique “a-ha” moments at different times throughout the day
The underlying messages of the Novel Intensive workshop, such as “formula doesn’t have to mean formulaic” and the importance that a writer fights for fully realizing the emotional moments in the story
The use of popular or well-known movies from multiple genres in teaching and highlighting examples of story and character moments through a workshop
How it’s not about plot VS character, but rather how those two elements interact and play off one another
Julie’s thoughts on what her investment in the Novel Intensive workshop (both money and time), has meant to her writing
The reason why this course is an in-person experience and the value that comes from the intimacy of the group (between 10 and 20 people per session)
A series of excellent tips for how writers can apply Novel Intensive techniques to being their own story coach

[image error]

A look at the opening scene in Julie’s Prosecco Heart and the way that the Novel Intensive workshop helped her with that novel
Forthcoming projects that Julie, Ara and Janis are each working on

After the interview, Mark shares thoughts on two things.

The first is the value of how you can learn something new from re-reading, re-watching, re-listening, re-learning, re-experiencing something.

The second is magic and serendipity that can happen during physical encounters with other writers at workshops, conferences, etc which can be far more powerful than the experience of a digital or virtual one.

 

Links of Interest:

Novel Intensive
Janis Thomas
Ara Grigorian
Julie Strauss
Superstars Writing Seminars
WMG Publishing Workshops
Findaway Voices
Patreon for Stark Reflections

[image error]Ara Grigorian is the international award-winning author of Game of Love (2015), and Ten Year Dance (2017), his critically-acclaimed second novel. Ara is a technology executive in the entertainment industry. True to the Hollywood life, Ara wrote for a children’s television pilot that could have made him rich (but didn’t) and nearly sold a video game to a major publisher (who closed shop days later). Fascinated by the human species, Ara writes about choices, relationships, and second chances. He is a public speaker, a story coach, and a workshop leader for the Southern California Writers’ Conference, Writer’s Digest Novel Writing Conference, Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and others, including the popular Novel Intensive. Ara is represented by Stacey Donaghy of the Donaghy Literary Group.

[image error]Janis Thomas is the author of best-selling What Remains True and All That’s Left of Me from Lake Union, as well as three critically-acclaimed humorous Women’s Fiction novels, Something New, Sweet Nothings, and Say Never. Award-winning Murder in A-Minor is the first book in her Musical Murder Mystery series featuring songwriting detective Samantha Wedlock. Janis is a popular workshop leader and speaker, and a passionate writing advocate. When she isn’t writing or fulfilling her PTA duties, she loves to spend time with her kids, sing with her sister, play tennis, and throw lavish dinner parties with outrageous menus. She lives in Southern California with her husband, children, and two crazy dogs.

Julie Strauss[image error] is the author of the three stand-alone “Chefs in Love” novels that include Moonstone Heart, Hungry Heart and Prosecco Heart. She lives in Southern California with her husband and four kids. Julie says that she eats dark chocolate and drinks good wine and reads lots of books and regularly speaks in movie quotes. She used to publish romance novels under the pen name Emma Foster, but says she realized that she was way too lazy to keep up two online profiles in addition to all the other personalities inside her head. So she dumped the pen name, and now you can find her at social media places under the persona “Julie Wrote A Book.”

 

 

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP035_LearningsfromTheNovelIntensiveWorkshop.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner

Episode 34 – Samantha Davidson on Inspiring Creatives

Mark interviews Alberta writer Samantha Davidson a writer he met at the recent When Words Collide conference in Calgary about the author branding of hers that immediately caught his attention immediately and about her next plans while being just at the point of finishing the first novel she plans on publishing. They also talk about the way that she helps to inspire creative people, not just writers but creatives from all pursuits.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update, including a few of the talks he presented at WWC.

Knowing the Basics and Steering Clear of the Pitfalls of Digital Publishing
What 25 Years as a Bookseller and Industry Rep Taught Me About the Business of Writing & Publishing

[image error]

The 2nd presentation is a bit of an early look at the non-fiction book on writing and publishing that Mark plans on releasing later this year.

Links to PDFs of both presentations are available to all Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast.

Mark also shares some info about a talk he did on the art and business of telling ghost stories, as well as the #FreeFridayFrights performed at WWC in front of a live studio audience and a chat about audiobook options for writers.

[image error]

Findaway Voices, (this episode’s sponsor), provides all the tools that an independent author or s mall publisher needs in order to get into the digital audiobook market.

 

 

In their chat, Mark and Samantha talk about

How Samantha has always been interested in writing and other creative pursuits, including photography; and the suspense novel that she finished years ago that is still sitting on a shelf
The way that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) re-inspired her to get most of the first draft of a YA novel completed after being previously disheartened about her writing (with that book being the “first act” of something that appears to be a four-act series of books
Samantha’s experience at When Words Collide, including details on how much value she took away as well as a negative experience with the “Live Action Slush” editor panel critique sessions (a live critique of anonymous submissions of first page readings of various submitted pieces), and how, this time around, with another year of experience writing under her belt, she has been able to recognize some of those writing rookie mistakes that she hadn’t been able to see the first time through
Why Samantha did not give up even after getting her writer ego beat up a little
Some of the highlights from Samantha’s experience at When Words Collide, which include recognition of how important that sense of community can be for a writer

[image error]The S M Davidson (the name Samantha writes under) logo

The author branding that Samantha has already started on, which comes from her experience as a graphic designer and her long-time desire to create a community of followers sharing meaningful things and feeling inspired
Samantha’s podcast “The Inspired Author”
The mentoring and coaching program where Samantha helps creative people with how to adapt their creative passions into a sustainable career, and the fact that she has a few open spots starting at the end of September
The “bookish soap company” that Samantha operates called “A Novel Idea” – soaps and similar products all inspired by classic literature – http://shopanovelidea.com/
The important things Samantha has learned about writing, including getting over the “downward” moment that comes right after that initial “getting-started high” that new writing and creating projects can come with as well as the risks that come with the pursuit of perfection
The recognition of the “sometimes it’s not okay” dark moments and struggles that writers regularly deal with (but which usually stay hidden)
The next steps that Samantha is taking with her YA series, including the process of working with her editor, the query process and the open-ended approach

 

After the interview, Mark reflects upon perfection, sharing the darker sides, “the good, the bad and the ugly” of a writer’s life and the struggle of introversion that he regularly faces when at conferences.

 

Links of Interest

Samantha Davidson Website

Facebook (AuthorSamanthaDavidson)
Instagram
Twitter
Podcast
YouTube
The Write Tribe (podcast, videos, etc – coming January 2019)


When Words Collide
Jonas Saul
Darren Lacroix
Free Friday Frights
Stark Reflections Survey
Patreon for Stark Reflections
Findaway Voices

[image error]Samantha Davidson is a world-travelled photographer, who began her career as an editorial journalist for a weekly publication in British Columbia, Canada. After touching many of the arts, her heart brought her back to the written word.

She is currently working on her debut series – a young adult fantasy due to be published in 2019. Samantha offers mentoring and coaching services to “creatives” who are looking to build a career in writing, photography, or any creative business endeavour; truly believing her purpose is to inspire aspiring authors and artists in their dreams of marrying their passions and career.

Samantha lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband. Her work is the result of passion, positivity and perseverance.

 

 

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP034_SamanthaDavidsononInspiringCreatives.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner

 

 

Episode 33 – Two Wrongs That Make A Writer Spite

This week’s episode is solo, with Mark reflecting on Two Wrongs That Make a Writer Spite. He takes a look at two negative things that writers often focus on which can be demotivating and make them hateful or spiteful – things that detract from what writers should be focusing on to move onward and upward in their writer journey.

Before the main content, Mark shares a few personal updates, one of which is related to the sell-direct BookFunnel and audiobook sell-direct option recently offered by Findaway Voices via Authors Direct.

This week’s episode is sponsored by listeners and Patreon supporters to the show. Mark explains that his nickname for listeners have been christened as Reflectives, and the outlines who he believes his ideal listening audience to this podcast is.

[image error]

He also outlines the ways that listeners can help support the show, which are:

continuing to listen to the podcast
sharing the podcast with someone who would likely get value from it
becoming a Patreon supporter for as little as $1 a month
leaving a review on the podcasting/podcatcher platform of your choice
filling out the recent podcast listener survey
leaving a comment on show episodes where applicable.

MAIN TOPIC: Two Wrongs

Writers have a difficult time. Just the creation aspect of writing is a tremendous feat in and of itself. There’s so much to learn, so many mistakes to make along the way.

[image error]

And yet, writers tend to put more on their own shoulders that cause more pain, more angst, more anxiety, more self-doubt.

[image error]

Those two things are COMPARISON and REJECTION. Mark talks about each of them and shares his own reflections on ways that he attempts to overcome them and turn these two negatives into a positive.

He looks at some personal fitness running goals recently achieved and the possibility of what might happen if he were to compare his personal achievements and goals with those master runners. He parallels that to the goals and comparisonitis that writers struggle with.

Then he uses an analogy that author Kerrie Flanagan writes about in a recent book she wrote for writers, comparing the rejection a writer feels from either submissions not accepted or self-published books that haven’t been selling. He looks at how a waiter might react to restaurant patrons NOT choosing the “daily special” and asks writers to consider the reasons for not choosing that special, which likely have NOTHING to do with the quality or value of that special, and thus shouldn’t be taken personally.

[image error]

He reminds writers that they already have enough self-doubt and anxiety and needn’t put the additional COMPARISON and REJECTION issues on their own shoulders.

 

Links of Interest:

Joanna Penn’s Interview (Episode 2)

A great post and video about comparisonitis with helpful tips on overcoming by Joanna Penn


Kerrie Flanagan’s Interview (Episode 31)
Bookfunnel
Findaway Voices – Authors Direct
Books2Read.com
Mark’s US Authors Direct Page for Stark Publishing
Mark’s home-page for EVASION (with links to ebook and audiobook purchasing)

 

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP033_TwoWrongsThatMakeAWriterSpite.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner

Episode 32 – C C Humphreys on Hybrid Author Publishing

The feature interview in this episode is with C.C. Humphreys, an actor, playwright, fight choreographer and novelist. Chris has ten novels that were all traditionally published, several of which have been Globe and Mail Bestsellers and his historic novel “Plague won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a few personal updates that include being in the Sudbury area to participate in a multi-author event in support of a book launch for his friend Mathew del Papa for his latest book, Capreol at Bat. He also talks about how he has been slipping in the uploading of his #FreeFridayFrights weekly videos to YouTube as well as an update on how the free first in series sales for the Nocturnal Screams series are going on Kobo and iBooks.

Mark then talks about how this podcast’s sponsor, Findaway Voices, has soft-launched a new product called Authors Direct, a platform and app that allows authors the ability to sell their audiobooks directly and keep 70% of the income.

[image error]

Findaway Voices, the sponsor for this episode, provide all the tools that an independent author or s mall publisher needs in order to get into the digital audiobook market.

 

 

Mark’s store that includes four of his audiobooks is live at . . .

https://stark-publishing.myshopify.com

. . . and he shares his excitement for what is likely to prove to be a major and game-changing tool for authors to be successful with audiobooks.

[image error]

In their conversation, Mark and Chris talk about:

Chris’s new historical thriller, CHASING THE WIND, about a young woman aviatrix named Roxy Loewen and how Chris fell in love with Roxy as well as historical figures like Amelia Earhart while working on this book
Writing historical fiction and incorporating real-world figures into the fiction text and honoring who these people were by “fictionalizing real people and realizing fictional ones”
The difference between writing “modern” historical fiction (1930s) and writing earlier historical periods (such as the 1450s of the 1600s)
The amount of time and type of research that Chris does when working on a historical novel, including the risk that “research” can be procrastination
The cedar octagon hut in a luscious forest where Chris does most of his writing (and the back-chat he gets from other authors about this) which is just the right distance from the house
The changes to the publishing industry that have changed for mid-list authors, which is what led to Chris’s latest novel being a hybrid published book (traditionally published in Canada by Penguin Random House) but indie or self-published by Chris in the US and the rest of the world
The Creative Academy that Chris learned from before starting on his self-publishing journey
Chris’s decision to publish the book to Kindle exclusive for the first three months before going wide with it in 2019
The debate of the $4.99 USD price point Chris struggled with (which is far cheaper than the Canadian traditionally published price), or the US price of his traditionally published book
The countdown deal that Chris is running this week, the third party services he has used, such as Written Word Media, to help boost the sales and ranking for the title and the great service they provided to ensure that Chris would be pleased with the results of this investment
The rights Chris still has and has received back for a few of his previously published novels, such as Plague and Fire and the “soft-launch” he is conducting for Plague
Advice Chris offers to authors on the “performance” involved in doing author readings as well as a reminder that the people in the audience WANT the author to succeed and are there to be entertained and engaged with
A bit about Chris’s parents, including that his dad was a fighter pilot and his mom was a spy, and his intrigue in the world and the drama that brought them together
How Chris’s father met famous English playwriter Noel Coward and the very frank letter and writer advice that he wrote back on a manuscript his father sent to him which began with “Dear Peter, be prepared, I’m going to be rather beastly to you.” but ended with amazingly safe advice: “You must read more, you must write much more, and let your characters dictate your plot rather than your plot dictate your characters.”
How that advice leads to the oscillation between plot and characters that Chris talks about when teaching other writers
Chris’s favorite advice to share with writers including removing the words “good” and “bad” from the writing of the first draft of a manuscript

 

Links of Interest

C C Humphreys

Website
Facebook Author Page
Twitter
Author Central Page
Pinterest


Chasing The Wind (Amazon US link)
Plague Book Trailer
Plague (Amazon US link)
Chris in AD – Anno Domini: The Gladiator
The Creative Academy
Sudbury Star article about Matthew Del Papa’s new book
Findaway Voices
Authors Direct
Written Word Media

Mark’s interview with Ricci from Written Word Media (Episode 8)


Free Friday Frights

 

[image error]As an actor Chris (C.C.) Humphreys has performed on stages from London’s West End to Hollywood in roles ranging from Hamlet, through Clive Parnell in ‘Coronation Street’, the Immortal Graham Ashe in ‘Highlander’, to the voice of Salem the cat in ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’. A playwright, fight choreographer and novelist, he has written ten adult novels including ‘The French Executioner’, runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers; ‘The Jack Absolute Trilogy’; ‘A Place Called Armageddon’; ‘Shakespeare’s Rebel’ and the international bestseller, ‘Vlad – The Last Confession’. He also writes for young adults, with a trilogy called ‘The Runestone Saga’ and ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’. The sequel, ‘The Hunt of the Dragon’, was published Fall 2016. His recent novel ‘Plague’ won Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel in 2015. The sequel, ‘Fire’ is a thriller set during the Great Fire, published Summer 2016. Both novels spent five weeks in the top ten on 2016’s Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller lists. His new novel is ‘Chasing the Wind’ about 1930’s aviatrix – and thief! – Roxy Loewen, published in June 2018. He is translated into thirteen languages. In 2015 he earned his Masters in Fine Arts (Creative Writing) from the University of British Columbia.

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP032_CCHumphreys_on_HybridPublishing.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner

Episode 31 – Writing and Selling Magazine Articles with Kerrie Flanagan

Mark interviews Kerrie Flanagan, author of the author of Guide to Magazine Article Writing by Writer’s Digest. Kerrie is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience. As a writing consultant, she works with writers, giving them the encouragement, support, resources and tools to find success on their writing journey. She is the author of 8 other books published under her label/publishing company Hot Chocolate Press.

[image error]

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a message from this episode’s sponsor, the BOOKS GONE BAD BUNDLE from BundleRabbit, which features about 260,000 words from 11 authors in 2 books and 10 stories of “Speculative Visions of a Uniquely Portable Magic.”

[image error]

You can learn more about the bundle via BundleRabbit or check it out at your favorite eBook retailer. http://books2read.com/booksgonebad

 

 

Mark then shares a few personal updates, which are:

The new FREE email course he launched via Reedsy called Kobo Hacks for Optimizing Sales. It is a series of 10 emails that each take about 5 minutes to read that will be automatically delivered over ten days

[image error]

His story “Active Reader” appearing in the latest issue (#3) of Pulphouse Magazine and how that ties back to a goal/dream Mark had several decades ago when he first started writing.

[image error]

 

In their conversation, Mark and Kerrie discuss:

[image error]

How Kerrie hadn’t been someone who had always dreamed about being a writer; and how it was her role as a teacher that ended up leading her down that particular path
The submission process she originally went through to get her first book published, and how that led to her self-publishing that book back in 1997 when self-publishing was an almost taboo path for a writer to take

[image error]

The local writer critique group that first exposed Kerrie to the idea of magazine article writing
Kerrie’s first magazine article query, which was to Better Homes & Gardens magazine
The genesis of a Colorado winery article that Kerrie wrote, based on her interest in wine
The biggest mistakes that writers make when trying to pitch article ideas to a magazine, which include not doing one’s homework or properly researching and understanding the readership/audience of the magazine
One of the things that surprised Kerrie about the writing of this book after she had begun the process
The many hats that Kerrie has worn as a writer and publisher
The thrill of having a hugely respected publisher of books for writers behind her on this new book
The importance of building connections with people (as an underlying factor that contributed to this book happening)
The work Kerrie did as an event coordinator for Writer’s Digest
The very meta experience of using an article from Writer’s Digest to help Kerrie with negotiating the contract she signed with Writer’s Digest for this new book

[image error]

Hot Chocolate Press, the publishing company Kerrie heads up that has 18 books and 8 different authors

[image error]Reflection. A Hot Chocolate Press book


The challenge of balancing the various hats that Kerrie wears as a writer, a ghost-writer and a publisher
The three conferences that Kerrie will be speaking at in the next little while :

Mendocino Writer’s Conference

August 2-4, 2018

Mendocino, CA

Writer’s Digest Annual Conference

August 10-12, 2018

NYC

Writer’s Digest Indie Lab

September 29-30, 2018

Cincinnati, OH

Northern Colorado Writer’s Conference

May 3-4, 2019

Fort Collins, CO

How Kerrie connected with Angela MacKintosh, Editor-in-Chief of WOW! Women on Writing and landed her first assignment with that market
The use of magazine article writing for building your author brand and expanding your reach in a way that isn’t as likely via standard social media
How libraries and the internet have made the process of researching magazines so much easier than it used to be
The advice that Kerrie would give to a writer wanting to get started
Her avoidance of the use of the term “rejection” when a magazine article isn’t accepted by an editor
The importance of not giving up, and how it took Kerrie 20 years of hard work to get where she is today

[image error]

After the interview, Mark shares his reflections on what the conversation with Kerrie and reading her new book made him think of, including his own rise through publishing selling short fiction to magazines (comparing that to non-fiction selling to magazines), and a few ideas he is planning on implementing related to niche article writing.

He also talks about selling articles to magazines as an additional revenue source for a writer, helping to balance out dependencies and income streams.

Mark then thanks listeners and Patreon supporters and closes off the show.

[image error]

Links of Interest:

Kerrie Flanagan’s Website
Hot Chocolate Press
Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing
Writer’s Digest
WOW! Women on Writing and a few of Kerrie’s articles there:

Five Things You Need to Know to Write for Magazines
Investing in Your Writing Career: How to Spend Money Wisely
How to Pitch to an Agent at a Writers’ Conference


Mark’s FREE course of 10 emails: Kobo Hacks for Authors at Reedsy

Interview with Ricardo from Reedsy (Episode 18)


BundleRabbit

The Books Gone Bad Bundle
Interview with Chuck from BundleRabbit (Episode 9)


Findaway Voices
Mark’s Stark Publishing Survey
Patreon Page for Stark Reflections

 

 

[image error]Kerrie Flanagan is a freelance writer with over 20 years’ experience and is the author of, Guide to Magazine Article Writing. As a writing consultant, she works with writers, giving them the encouragement, support, resources and tools to find success on their writing journey. She is the author of 8 books under her label, Hot Chocolate Press. You can also find her on Twitter (Kerrie_Flanagan) and Facebook (@KerrieFlanaganWriter).

Founded by Kerrie Flanagan in January 2014, Hot Chocolate Press brings readers books they will want to read again and again. They have books in all genres; fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, creative nonfiction, children’s and gift books. Their authors include April J. Moore, Jenny Sundstedt, Jim Campain, Dean K Miller, Kelly Baugh, Suzette McIntyre, Kerrie Flanagan and Jerry Eckert. Our Graphic Designer is Carmen Ruyle Hardy.

 

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

http://traffic.libsyn.com/markleslie/StarkReflections_EP031_WritingandSellingMagazineArticles_with_KerrieFlanagan.mp3

RSS options for this podcast: Mark Leslie at Libsyn or Feedburner