Publish Your Novel
Published September 10, 2011 | 
Opportunities for self-published authors have greatly expanded due to technology.
Your book manuscript is not earning you money if it sitting at home in your bottom drawer.
You are a writer. You have written a novel. But your novel hasn’t exactly set the publishing world on fire. Despite your aspirations, you are flummoxed and frustrated by rejection and have become a little gun-shy about submitting your work to yet another agency or publishing house. If so, maybe it is time to consider alternatives:
1. Try a smaller, independent press
Smaller publishing houses are typically much more willing to work with new, unagented writers. True, they don’t offer large advances, but right now your goal should be to get that novel out there.
2. Self-publish
Self-publishing doesn’t have the same stigma attached to it that it once did. And no, I am not talking about selling your first-born to pay and vanity publisher for a handful of books you cannot sell. I’m talking about self-publishing with a reputable service and doing so with a plan.
- Pay a professional editor to edit your manuscript and help you polish it until the words sing off of the page.
- Layout your book (or hire someone to do it) using In Design or similar program and get it into print-ready format.
- Have a professionally designed cover.
- Publish as a Print-on-demand book and in various e-book formats. Lulu.com and Amazon’s CreateSpace are good options for POD. Formatting for e books is not too difficult. Amazon Kindle formatted can be done using Mobipocket creator. You can create E pub documents using InDesign. Also, a free program called Calibre can produce E pub from other documents formats. Open Office also has a plug-in that supports E pub
Whether you try a small, indie press or self-publish, you should realize that you will have to do most of the promotion and marketing yourself. So the last point I want to make is have a marketing plan! Don’t think that you can depend on spontaneous sales based on nothing. Readers have to get to know you and your work. Use press releases. Do readings and book signings. Use social networking. Build websites. Blog about your book and get others to blog about your book. Send out review copies. Whatever works. Otherwise, except for sales to your grandmother and maybe 3 or 4 of your closest friends, no one will buy your book.
Posted in ebooks, epub, kindle, novels, POD, self-publishing, writing | 
Ebooks, EPub, Freelance Editors, InDesign, Kindle, POD, Self-publishing | Leave a commentSubmitting Poetry to Editors — a Primer for Beginning Poets
Published September 7, 2011 | 
Submitting poetry to magazines can be an intimidating process for beginning poets.
You are a budding young poet. You have probably been dabbling with the written word since you learned the alphabet while you were sitting in front of the television watching Sesame Street. Now, you are thinking it is a good time to get serious and start submitting your poems to literary journals. But where do you find these journals? How do you identify your markets? Do you submit to print magazines or to online publications? How should you format your submissions? The bad news is, when you are just starting out you may be so intimidated by the process, you may lose your nerve. The good news is, there is no reason to be intimidated. Here are some simple tips to get you started:
Identifying Your Markets
The process of selecting places to submit your poetry begins with finding the right tools. A good place to start is your local library. Most libraries carry current editions of the Poet’s Market and the Writer’s Market. The magazine section may also carry Poets and Writers magazine, and Writer’s Digest — both of which have market listings. Another great resource is Dustbooks, a publisher that produces the The International Directory of Little Magazines & Small Presses 2009-2010 (International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses)
Once you have identified a number of publication like, you are ready to submit your poems.
Follow the Submission Guidelines
Generally, unless the poetry editor states otherwise, poems should be single-spaced on standard white 8 1/2 by 11 paper and printed on one side only (with your name and address in the top left corner of each page). Many publishers now accept electronic submission via email or on-site contact form. Does the publication accept file attachments or as body text only? And if the editor specifies a particular file format, such as a Word document, do not send a .docx file.
Simultaneous Submissions
When you send a poem to more than one publishers at a time, this is called a “Simultaneous Submission.” Most editors frown on the practice. Some welcome it. However, most poetry editors will tolerate it provide you inform them at the time of submission. Make note of a magazine’s policy before submitting. Thumbing your nose at editorial policies is expedient but shortsighted if you want to pursue the life of a professional poet.
Proofread
Always submit clean copy. That mean running spell-check at minimum and correcting every glaring error before sending it to an editor. No poetry editor has the time to sit there copy editing your work. And a manuscript with a lot of mistakes and misspellings will just brand you as an amateur.
Writing the Cover Letter and Bio
Most poetry editors will, as a matter of courtesy, expect you to submit a brief cover letter and a biographical statement. Cover letters should introduce yourself to the editor, introduce the poems your are submitting by title and include a few publication credits (if any) and perhaps a personal statement about the magazine and what prompted you to submit. This is not an opportunity to tell your life story or list your entire publishing history (the editor does not care that you wrote for your high school literary magazine or that you gave poetry reading for your granny when your were five). The bio is a separate two to four line statement about yourself that may be included with your poem should it be accepted for publication. Again, not an opportunity to tell you whole life story — just a few highlights about your personal and professional life.
And there you go … that’s basically it. The rest is talent, perseverance and providence. Good Luck!
Posted in poetry, poets, submissions, writing | Poetry Editors, Poetry Submissions, Poetry Writing, Poets | Leave a commentGreat Blog Content Requires Being Gutsy!
Published September 6, 2011 | 
Blogging is a powerful medium for fearless writers.
Here are 3 almost ‘instinctive’ ways in which any blogger can easily create unique content people will enjoy even if there is no news fit to print!
Follow Your Heart
As easy and obvious as this may seem many tend to overlook this ‘source’ since it can open up a can of worms. By creating blog posts that express your own feelings as the author you open yourself up to criticism or ridicule and naturally nobody wants that! On the other hand you are entitled to your own opinions as well as the next person. When you consider that many may not share your feelings and will likely comment accordingly, you now have opened the door to more interaction on your site. You have capture the attention of your readers and will find that the discussions that result will be very thought provoking for everybody on the site. Debates may rage while pros and cons are exchanged but you have succeeded in increasing the interactivity and strengthening the ‘bonds’ of community on the site!
Share Your Insight
Do not overlook the power of your own experiences or personal perspectives when it comes to sharing them with others. Nobody ever perceives or experiences things in the same exact way therefore your own insight is a great source for unique content you can post. Using blog posts like this tend to present subject matter to others in a way they may not have considered before thereby increasing their own perspective as a result. Now these people have gained some type of value from what you have written and of course this is your objective.
Feel Free to Be Impulsive
Sometimes the most impulsive or whimsical comments can be the most thought provoking as well! Have you ever noticed that the more thought or consideration you may give to something tends to ‘temper’ the way in which you present it to others? Now it is not always recommended to make rapid-fire responses or comments about something unless of course you have strong reasons to do so. In almost every case typically an attitude has already been established based upon prior knowledge or experience. In any event when creating potentially controversial blog posts like these you ALWAYS want to have good reasons for doing so. These reasons will likely be needed by you to respond to any comments that may be left that question or even object to the post itself!
Remember blogging is more about what you feel or are passionate about and to contain this would only put limitations on your content!In this case everybody loses!
Sometimes, no scratch that, often times creating blog content that captures the attention of your readers can be challenging to do. In many cases some of the best sources which you can pull from to create thought provoking blog posts are not to be found in any research! If you are not afraid to share your insights or personal thoughts, you have within you an untapped reservoir of unique content that readers will probably love, so be gutsy and use it!
Rejection from Publishers: What to Do Now
Published August 1, 2011 | 
After completing a novel, the most frustrating part is trying to get it published.
So you’ve written a book and now, you want to share this work of art with the world; publishers are the only people standing in your way. It doesn’t really matter what genre you specialize in, the fact of the matter is, when you send your work to editors or publishing houses, you can get rejected.
Nothing can be more frustrating than getting rejected by publishers and here’s how you can deal with the rejection. Instead of sulking at home, refusing to write another word, you can try sending your manuscript to another editor. When that’s done, you can sit back, relax and spend your time doing other things besides thinking about your book. More often than not, publishing houses and editors work under strict guidelines with manuscript submission and you’ll be putting yourself in danger by sending your manuscript to other editors at the same time.
Meanwhile, you can keep a close eye on your email for a letter from the publishers. When you receive a letter, expect a no. Expecting the worst will be easier for you when you do get the worst. For this particular circumstance, you can scream and shout, rant and rave for a few minutes about how these people just let a good thing pass them by. You then get back to reading the rest of the rejection letter. Here, you’ll be given a number of tips how you make your work better. When all these tips have sunk in, you can start submitting your manuscript to another editor.
Simply repeat the process of sitting and waiting, keeping an eye out for a letter from the publisher, etc. For the first rejection slip you’ve received, you can file this letter away or you can simply throw it out. Remember that that was just one publisher’s opinion. You have a long list of publishers to go through. In the meantime, you can continue revising and editing your manuscript. When you think you’ve made it even more perfect, you can send this out to another editor. Rejection from publishers is just a part of the process for becoming a successful writer.
Posted in Articles, freelancing, novels, rejections, writing | manuscript submission, publishing houses, rejection | Leave a commentThe First Page – The Doorway To A Great Script
Published May 6, 2011 | 
Making a good first impression with your screenplay will help get you noticed by producers.
Time and again you’ll hear people say that the first page of your script is the most important page in the whole screenplay. Why is it so important? Because it sets the scene – not just for your story, but also for you as a writer.
When someone reads your script – a producer, for example, or a production company reader – they are forming an impression right away, not just about the story but also about you, the writer.
The first thing they will notice is, are you a pro? That means your script has to be script properly formatted, free from errors of spelling and grammar, packaged properly without any gimmicks.
If you pass that first hurdle – and there should be no reason why you don’t get the basics right – then they are looking at how you handle the story. Does your story start with a bang, does it engage the reader from the start in a way that makes them just want to keep on reading? A good opening page should be so interesting that they simply have to keep no reading.
There are all sorts of different ways in which you can start your screenplay, so it’s crucial that you spend some time really thinking about how you are going to open your script. Unfortunately, most writers simply settle for the first idea that comes to them, something that fits the story chronologically. While that may seem logical, it’s actually a lazy way to write, and if you do that you will be selling yourself short.
Why? Because the first page needs to much more than simply start your story – but unless you take the time to think about it and make active choices, you will miss out on many of the essential functions of the first page.
Here are some suggestions to engage the reader from the start and let them know they are in the hands of a pro:
- Open with a truly unique character: The movie As Good As It Gets is a great example of this. It starts with Melvin Udall, an obsessive compulsive trapped by his condition. Within minutes we discover that he’s a jerk, racist and homophobic – but he is also a completely compelling character who will carry us through the entire film. And guess what? It’s all there on page one where he picks up his neighbor’s dog and throws it down the garbage chute with the words “This is New York – if you can make it here you can make it anywhere…”
- Create good story questions: When a reader starts reading your script, you want to try and drop them into the middle of your story in such a way that they want to find out what’s going on. They will immediately start asking good story questions. How do you do that? You can do it by introducing future events that we care about (will the main character get married, get into law school, getthe promotion?) you can have people make threats or predictions, or you can simply introduce something downright intriguing, like the planes found in the desert at the start of Close Encounters.
- Add conflict: Without conflict, you don’t have a story – stories thrive on conflict. At their simplest, all stories are about a character – the hero – trying to achieve something, while someone opposes them. Adding conflict elevate any story – just look at the TV show House. Dr. House is in conflict with everyone – the hospital, his staff, his patients, even his only friend, Wilson.
When you sit down to write your first page you should have a clear idea in your kind of exactly what you want to achieve, and how you are going to hook the reader. You need to ensure that the dialogue, action, and scenes on your first page are full of dramatic statements – your screenplay shouldn’t just drift into life.
In addition, whatever happens on page one should be vital for the story, introducing characters and plot in such a way that we will be intrigued, and want to read on.
If you get the opening right you will have your reader hooked from the start, comfortable that they are in the hands of a pro!
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