A Goal Post for 2011

How's this for finding useful goal-setting ideas in unusual places?

Recently, in a doctor's waiting room, I picked up Diabetes Magazine. Not much of interest to me, until I found an article on diabetes management, suggesting people break goals into manageable steps. The examples given were much the same as what we sometimes do as writers, but the system described looked like it might be a useful idea for you to try in  the new year:

Mark each month's page of your 2011 calendar with an attainable goal for that month. 

"At the end of the year," says article author Margaret Farley Steele, quoting Michele Jachim, RD, CDE, "you'll have twelve new habits."

We all know that once we focus on a goal, we're more likely to reach it, and without identifying goals, time drifts away and we have nothing to show for it. So, unlike the advice in the article about particular foods or exercise, I found it a helpful reminder for us to think of our specific goals as writers.

What could help you get ahead this year?

• Writing three queries a month? 
• Finding a new personal essay market? 
• Writing at the library once a week? 
• Creating the perfect book proposal? 
• Attending a conference?  

See how easy it is to fill your calendar? Set one particular & attainable goal for each month, and let us know how you're doing.

Top Ten Blogs for 2010

One of my favorite sites for writers is Write To Done.
Here is their list of the top ten sites for writers -- Make these a daily habit for you in 2011. 


Helen Gallagher

Guest post: 15 Funniest Writers of All Time: Part 1 of 2

I get a break for holiday shopping and family visits, courtesy of guest post.courtesy from Jasmine Hall of onlineclasses.org
This list of 15 writers is so good I'll split it over two weeks.

What does it take to be a funny writer? Read here and learn

The 15 Funniest Writers of All Time:

Part 1
Everyone needs to laugh. It’s pretty much the only thing that separates most people from fully succumbing to the overwhelming tragedy of it all. From the lowliest college student to the stuffiest, wealthiest CEO to the spacey young clerk at the local record store with an ironic moustache and creepy preoccupation with female bassists, we all need a chuckle now and then. Fortunately, all media lends itself to the distribution of yuks. Since reading is fundamental, this list focuses on the funny as it is written rather than as it is told in song, dance and on television.

As with all things creative, comedy comes burdened with a hefty load of subjectivity. What one finds riotously knee-slapping, another will scoff or take offense. So read this list as such rather than something definitive and solid. Anyone who grows irritated over omissions or inclusions should probably just step away from the internet for a while and reassess a priority or two. Follow an adaptation of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 mantra – "It’s just an article. I should really just relax."

1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series remains a classic of both science-fiction and comedy, with the initial radio series spawning five novels by Adams (and one by Eoin Colfer), a miniseries, stage shows, a computer game, comic books and a feature-length film. Even beyond that, though, he wrote a plethora of other essays and novels, with the Dirk Gently series comprising one of his more famous humorous contributions following the Hitchhiker’s juggernaut. With considerable cheek, wit and irreverence, he relentlessly prodded politics, religion and society, creating some delightfully absurd and memorable characters, situations and descriptions along the way.
   
   
2. Woody Allen: Though known primarily as an influential, if not outright legendary, filmmaker, plenty of Allen’s short stories and essays stand up as some of his most essential works. "The Whore of Mensa" highlights many of his strengths as a writer and comedian. His familiarity with genre literature and films allows him to play with — if not outright subvert — the associated cliches and tropes. The descriptions and dialogue alike crackle with wry, dry delivery spiked with a tinge of neurotic tension, made especially apparent in the sample readings available on his website.
   
   
3. Jane Austen: Contemporary audiences thrill to Jane Austen’s Regency romances, proclaiming them ever so sigh-worthy and clamoring to find Mr. Darceys of their very own. This mindset, unfortunately, entirely precludes the author’s status as one of the sharpest satirists to ever write in English. Beloved classics Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility all humorously pick apart English society, particularly the upper classes, and romances in a way that appears perfectly straightforward on the surface. Understandably, when the books have been completely and progressively further removed from their initial context, it is difficult for most first-time readers to pick up on their abject hilarity.
   
   
4. Michael Ian Black: The State and Stella alum’s bizarre, surreal humor doesn’t appeal to every audience, but his blog and essay collection My Custom Van elicit liberal laughs from the people who find such things appealing. Best described as whip-smart dumb comedy, he gleefully parodies the raunchy observations of his "edgy" mainstream contemporaries — when he isn’t penning some of the silliest, most absurd prose this side of Monty Python, anyways. For fans who enjoy their Cracked splashed with few shots of McSweeney’s, Black is definitely a writer who needs to be read to be believed.
   
   
5. Margaret Cho: Even factoring her stand-up and performance art out of the equation, Margaret Cho is a formidable comedienne. At a time when women receive wrong-headed dismissal regarding their capacity for humor, she challenges popular assumptions with acidic takes on gender, sex and sexuality, race, politics, body image, substance abuse and more. All of Cho’s works — comedic or not — provoke viewers and readers into thinking about serious issues, most especially her memoir I’m the One that I Want and the politically-charged I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight. Neither book is intended to be read as comedy, but her blog certainly delivers a regular dose of both humor and insight.
   
   
6. Warren Ellis: Comic books comprise most of Warren Ellis’ literary output, with Transmetropolitan and Nextwave standing out as the most kinetic and gut-busting of the lot. Frenetic silliness characterizes his more hilarious offerings, with his only novel (as of now) toning it down slightly. Crooked Little Vein injects the writer’s fondness for bizarre, obscure sexual practices into a twisting, deconstructed noir narrative that easily equals his transhumanist and superheroic graphic fare. Even those who have yet to pick up any of Ellis’ printed works still pop over to his blog and Twitter feed for boozy, hyperactive good times.
   
   
7. Sandra Hill: She writes romance novels involving time-traveling Vikings.
   
   
8. Christopher Moore: Moore’s books overflow with humor, all of them his love of parody and deconstruction. As of this article’s publication, he has released eleven novels, most notably Lamb, You Suck, Fool and A Dirty Job. Like a hybrid of Terry Pratchett and his hero Kurt Vonnegut, he blends fantasy and humanism into such diverse narratives as a hitherto-unknown disciple dishing on Christ’s childhood and an everyman thrust into a career dealing in souls. At least three of his books have landed on bestseller lists, too — certainly a not-insignificant accomplishment.
   
   Part 2 next week, and thanks again to guest post from Jasmine Hall of onlineclasses.org
   

Would CostCo want to carry your book?

Many of you know, I support groups that support writers. In one of my valued online groups, SPAWN.org, I learned of one person's experience with Costco. His story is so exciting, I commandeered it, with his permission, as a guest post here.

"A couple of months ago, while flipping through the Costco Connection magazine, I noticed a monthly column called Member Connection, where they profile Costco members who have interesting stories or events to tell about.

What caught my eye is that one of the three profiles on this page was of a woman who had written a book. They had a picture of her holding up her book (which was not available at Costco) along with a couple of paragraphs (one third of a page) about how she came to write it.

So, I sat down and emailed Costco Connection a brief version of my press kit, explaining that I had written a book and why it might interest Costco members. That was in August.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from a Costco Connection reporter who informed me that they liked my story and wanted to include me in the column in the February issue. We did a telephone interview yesterday, and I emailed some photos for them to choose from.

Good news all by itself, and I was thrilled. But, here's the exciting part... I decided, a few hours before the interview, to email the reporter a pdf copy of my book, "in case you might find it useful" for interview prep."

When he called to conduct the interview, he was effusive about how much he loved the book, and asked if I would mind if he passed it on to the Costco book buyer.  I, of course, said I would be most grateful for that, and mailed a couple of paperback copies for him to pass on and one to keep for himself.

Now, I realize that getting your book onto a Costco table is about as easy as getting it on Oprah, and I don't hold out much hope that it will actually happen. But, I do know that someone in the book buying office will read it, and it won't end up in that roomful of 100,000 books that never got opened.

And, at the very least, Costco members nationwide, and possibly in Canada and the UK, will be exposed to a couple of paragraphs about my book. I could not have purchased that kind of press.

If you have a note, photo or story to share about Costco or Costco members,  email it to connection@costco.com with "The Member Connection" in the subject line or send it to "The Member Connection," The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned."

Thanks to David Perkins for allowing me to share his success story with Release Your Writing blog fans.
Learn more about David and his book Dear Austin: A Letter To My Son, at http://www.davidmperkins.com and http://www.davidmperkins.com/amazon.

 And as for supporting groups who support writers, I think you'll agree my SPAWN membership was worth a full year's dues for this one tip alone.

Write on,
Helen Gallagher

A Snow Day!

How lovely to have a snow day for writers. Pile up the writing magazines, books, and polish up a draft article or story.
Lest the weather get you down, I'm reprinting a timely poem, courtesy of my favorite Irish pub, The Celtic Knot in Evanston:

 

"I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December.

A magical thing

And sweet to remember.

 

'We are nearer to Spring

Than we were in September,'

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December."

            ~Oliver Herford

Finally... Amazon reveals your book's sales ranking

I've had a behind-the-scenes resource for years to track book sales, and I get monthly royalty statements from my publisher, Virtual Bookworm. But many clients wait 6 months or more to know what their book is doing in the market.

Now, Amazon lets you see this information for your own books, in your Amazon Author Central pages. If you don't have an Author Central page at Amazon yet, better get going...

Then follow this link, sign in and track your weekly sales. https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/metrics

Thanks for the early Christmas present, Amazon !!

Google ebooks: READ THE CONTRACT before signing up

Signing up to distribute your books on Google eBooks will not make you rich. Be very cautious and don't sign up to have Google distribute your books until you read the entire agreement. Google can determine your price, or even make your book 'free.'  What's in it for you???  Use caution before you jump in.

Helen

Learn more about Smashwords

I've written here before about Smashwords, for brilliant ebook distribution, and I mention it in every workshop and presentation I give. Learn more about why you should take advantage of Smashwords and their offerings for your book distribution. Here's a video link about Smashwords.

The mind of a writer: On display

This photo of an author's desk shows the leaps the mind takes in putting words together. The photo is shown with the accompanying story on the Poets & Writers site here.

How interesting to have the author, John Casey, annotate the meaning of all those ideas, notes and fragments.
(Click on image to enlarge).

NaNoWriMo makes Op-Ed page in New York Times

Hello, all you ambitious NaNoWriMo participants. You're almost half-way through the month, slogging through a sea of words. Today's New York Times has a cute op-end titled "Word After Word After Word," and since you're too busy writing to read teh newspaper, I'll delivery the salient points here:

NaNoWriMo started in 1999 with 21 participants and has grown into an enormoius non-profit helping people burst free of inhibitions and work with a common deadline. Your group has now produced almost a billion words, nearing the 2009 total of almost 2.5 billion.

Last year, slightly more than 19 percent of NaNoWriMo writers made it to the finish line.

As the Times piece says:

"This is the lovely thing about language. We all get to use it, and use it reasonably well, and words are so easily recycled. ... In NaNoWriMo, the talented and inexperienced, the experienced and  untalented, and all of the rest, can use as many words as they want, knowing that we will never run out and not one will be wasted."

Write on,

Helen

Directory of Book Reviewers

Self-published and independent authors seek resource for book reviews.

Christy Pinheiro, a colleague in another writing group put together this fabulous directory.

Go forth and get reviewed!

Book Review: The Nighttime Novelist: Finish Your Novel in Your Spare Time, by Joseph Bates

I posted this on BlogCritics yesterday -and NANOWRIMO is the perfect time to read it and get inspired to write a draft of your novel this month. Published by Writer's Digest, they were kind enough to tweet my review on their page, resulting in a huge number of Facebook updates.

And yes, the book is gorgeous, as mentioned in the original review here.   The Nighttime Novelist

Worldwide Blogs

In workshops, I always remind people that the Web is indeed Worldwide. As such, we are missing a huge market if we don't attempt to reach beyond US borders in our blogs. As a reminder, here's where the US stands in the global picture. Notice the tremendous potential you are missing if you aren't targeting our Canadian friends, with useful blog posts, links to Amazon in Canada, etc.   Make a goal for the 4th quarter of 2010 to stretch your reach:  Plan now to expand your reach in 2011.

11-10-11 NOTICE Chart has been corrected by provider:

Graph source: Technorati.com / State of the Blogosphere

Ever wonder why you should keep plugging along at social media? Think no one will notice you online? One of the many sites I visit and update is scribd.com.




And, Laura Novak found out that it really does pay. A former New York Times writer, TV news reporter  and now author of Finding Clarity:  A Mom, a Dwarf and a Posh Private School in the People’s Republic of Berkeley, she rose to the top on Scribd.com. As she says:

"In less than a year, I have become a top female author on Scribd.com, with 43,000 followers. As a result, the Scribd team invited me to read from Finding Clarity at this year’s Lit Quake festival in San Francisco. 

Read her full guest post here at Chuck Sambuchino's Guide to Literary Agents blog.

Learn about her work touring the book circuit and doing in-store readings BEFORE her book is even published.  Talk about a great way to build a following, and to improve her manuscript by reading live with an audience!!

Cheers,
Helen Gallagher

Library of Congress chooses POD to re-issue out-of-print books

As print-on-demand surges ahead of traditional publishing for authors, the U.S. Library of Congress is even using POD, through CreateSpace, to re-issue thousands of out-of-print titles. I chose CreateSpace for my newest book: Blog Power & Social Media Handbook, to have a fast and inexpensive blogging guide for my publishing clients and fans of my earlier book, Release Your Writing.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Oct. 5th, 2010 – CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) group of companies, today announced an agreement with The Library of Congress to make at least 50,000 public books available through www.amazon.com. The Library of Congress also reached an agreement with Amazon Europe to make tens of thousands of books in the public domain available around the world to customers on www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de and www.amazon.fr using print on-demand technology, an inventory-free, cost-efficient publishing solution that only manufactures titles as customers order them.

"We are pleased to now give the public a way to enjoy print on-demand access to library collections around the world," said Dr. Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services, The Library of Congress.

With Createspace Print on-Demand, these national libraries will make a large selection of content available quickly and easily via CreateSpace's host of U.S. distribution channels, including www.amazon.com, ensuring wide public access with little economic investment. Since titles are only manufactured in response to customer demand, no inventory is needed and the titles will never go out of stock, making print on-demand an economic, convenient, and environmentally responsible public access solution for libraries.

Your books can receive the same good distribution at very low cost.

read full release here

Pub-It latest self-publishing service from Barnes & Noble

Publishers Weekly reports: "Barnes & Noble officially launched PubIt! today, its digital self-publishing platform for authors and independent publishers. Under the PubIt model, authors are charged no startup fee and will receive a royalty that ranges from 40% to 65%, depending on price of the e-book (or other digital content). Using a Web-based platform, publishers, upload their e-books, set the list price and track their sales and payments. Titles can be priced between 99 cents and $199.99. For e-books priced at or between $2.99 and $9.99, publishers receive 65% percent of the list price with B&N receiving the balance. For those priced at $2.98 or less, or $10.00 or more, publishers receive 40%."

So PubIt! joins Lulu and CreateSpace as great options to get your book produced and made available for sale online. Remember, though, no one will buy your book if they aren't aware of it. so, after the easy publishing process, put your energies into author marketing.

International Freelancers Day

Are you ready? International Freelancers Day starts tomorrow, and runs through Saturday - that's 9/24 and 25.

This online conference is partly run by the authors of The Wealthy Freelancer, a book I reviewed a few months ago. Read review here.



Release Your Writing, Kindle edition



Here's an introductory 90-second video if you're not aware of the conference. It's free and will have loads of video programs non-stop online.

September: What happened to your summer goals?

September is here and summer is winding down. Have you moved along on your writing goals? Have you had the time you need to follow through?

If not, here's your motivation: GET IT DONE is NAIWE’s 2010 Summer Challenge.

Visit NAIME.com

The folks at NAIME, National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, offer a challenge to take this summer to learn, grow, and get ready for a busy and successful autumn. There are three parts to the challenge:

1. Read three books that will stretch your mind and inspire your creative spirit.
2. Finish one project that’s been nagging at you for longer than you care to admit.
3. Brainstorm a new project that will bring you an additional stream of income, then take the first step to make it happen.

My goals for the Get It Done challenge are:

1. I'm on book two of the three I committed to reading. The first was The Wealthy Freelancer.

2. After attending a conference in July, I haven't kept my goal of querying one editor each week. I'm back on track now with this.

3. Additional income is easy for any writer with the power of ebooks. I'm issuing a new one in September, and one more by the end of the year. Writing an article for an online marketing is also feasible. It might be an easy goal for you to tackle too. In August, I've had $150 in extra revenue with quick sales to these markets.

Lonely Planet review of the "Eat, Pray, Love" locations

I had the pleasure of seeing the "Eat, Pray, Love" movie with an assignment to then review Lonely Planet's travel guides to the destinations: Italy, India and Bali. The full review is posted on Blogcritics.org.

Cogent POV from Seth Godin

Excerpt from Media Bistro interview 8-25-10

You blog every single day. How do you keep your ideas fresh for your readers?

"I don't buy that the people don't have enough ideas. It is hard for me to imagine how someone can go through the whole day and have talker's block, I have never met anyone who woke up in the morning and had so little to say they were mute until they went to bed that night. People don't get talker's block, so why do we get writer's block? We get writer's block 'cause we are afraid, it's easy to talk because you can deny it later and it disappears, but once you write it down, that's when the fear comes from. That's where you say I don't have any good ideas and all I do is write like I talk. If I have something interesting to say, I say it and then I write it down, it's not that hard. I think that the art here is in chopping down the wall, the barrier between what you want to say and what you are afraid of, and letting people hear your best stuff."

Seth Godin

What it takes to succeed in self-publishing

The Cliff Notes version of an Cathie Beck's articulate blog post about her self-published success story. Read the full post at shewrites.com.

Cathie Beck's take-aways:

Decide what you want. Be specific. (Do you want to sell your book or self-publish for the long haul?)

Take an online book marketing class (I teach one now). Learn what works.

Write a 25-word description of your target market: age, gender, income.

Get in front of every online (and otherwise) audience you know.

Pick a launch date and build a Web site.

Get at least one good review. Use it everywhere.

Have faith and go for it with every ounce of your being.

Well said, Cathie.

Helen Gallagher

East of Eden Writers Conference: September 24-26, 2010

Oops... The following East of Eden Writers Conference has been cancelled.... Salinas is still worth a visit though, and so is the need for all of us to support our writing groups. Sending good wishes to the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the California Writers Club.

*******

It's too darn hot this summer. Plan your autumn getaway to Salinas, California for the East of Eden Writers Conference, Sept. 25-26, 2010. If you've never been to Salinas, you;ll see the land loved by the amazing John Steinbeck is alive with his writing.

And the Steinbeck Center is an amazing museum and tribute to this great American writer. Workshop sessions cover fiction, non-fiction, poetry, mystery, and the business of writing. Learn more at http://www.southbaywriters.com/EastofEden2010/workshops.html


Helen Gallagher
Release Your Writing

A question on sending your manuscript to a POD firm

A client posed this question today, and I thought I'd let my email response do double-duty by posting it here:

Yes, it is safe to send them the manuscript before you have a contract. Until the POD firm approves it, they can't offer you a contract. They need to be sure, first of all, that it is not racist or hate literature. And, they have to be sure the document format and layout is something they can work with.

As the publisher, they have a legal obligation to produce quality, so they have to see it before you sign the contract. Nobody in the publishing book business wants to claim ownership of our work. I always say its like a shoe salesman - chances are they don't want to steal your shoes while you're walking around the shop in theirs.

Best writing of a bad sentence

A sentence comparing a kiss to the sucking of a very thirsty gerbil has won Seattle-based novelist Molly Ringle the world's worst writing contest. Ringle, who says she only writes bad fiction when she fails at good fiction, took the Bulwer-Lytton prize for the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels yesterday with:

"For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss – a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."

Courtesy: Maggie Ball, CompulsiveReader.com

Got a book in the oven?

You and your colleagues can collaborate on a book project together at Book Oven.
Writers, editors, designers, all can collaborate, even publish right from the site.



The site is fairly new. Here's how it works. I hope you'll let me know if you try it out...

-- As a writer, you either start writing on Book Oven, or upload text of an existing manuscript

-- You either invite collaborators (editors, designers, reviewers, proofreaders), or find them on our site

-- You work with editors/reviewers to improve your text. Your editors can leave annotations in the margins of your text, and if they have the right permissions, they can directly edit the text

-- You can use Bite-Size Edits to proofread/copyedit your text - either by yourself, in a private group, or by opening your project to the world
When you are ready to publish your text, you can generate an .epub ebook file, an html file, or a PDF file

-- Eventually, you'll be able to generate a PDF formatted for print-on-demand

-- Eventually, you'll be able to sell the epub and print-on-demand book in the Book Oven store, and through partner retailers

Self-publishing increases 188 percent in 2009...

Something to celebrate in this guest post by Stephanie Chandler:

Bowker recently released a new publishing industry report revealing trends in traditional and self-publishing. The report shows that traditional publishers released an estimated 288,355 book titles in 2009, down by 1/2% from 2008. Yet, non-traditional book titles, including print-on-demand and other self-publishing methods, increased a whopping 188% over 2008 with 764,448 new titles released. Yowza!

It is also interesting to note that for the first time ever, over 1,000,000 new book titles were produced in 2009.

What does all of this mean for authors? There is no denying the trend toward self-publishing (or self-publishing assistance by custom publishers). Traditional publishing channels are flat and failed to grow in 2009, which is likely due to the challenged economy.

It is also clear that the competition is increasing. With more than 1 million titles per year vying for the attention (and wallets) of readers, it's more important than ever that authors make sure to produce titles that stand out against the competition. If you self-publish, avoid cutting corners! Make sure your book is edited along with a professional cover design and all the elements one would expect from a traditionally published book.

And keep in mind that author marketing is more important than ever. Keep the wheels in motion and remember that it is a marathon, not a race. Marketing should be a daily activity that authors engage in to stay competitive.

What do you think about all of this?
By Stephanie Chandler, Author, Speaker, CEO of Authority Publishing & BusinessInfoGuide.com, Focus: Internet Marketing, Publishing, Small Biz

Ebooks: Don't Overlook the $ales Potential

If you use traditional publishing or print-on-demand, the publisher can convert your book into an ebook, and Smashwords.com can convert it to all the formats needed for ebook readers, iphones, and the next new thing that comes along. And, did you know, you earn higher royalties on ebooks? Since they cost almost nothing to produce and place into the sales channel, you can earn up to 70 percent per book, like I do on my Release Your Writing ebook.

Need more incentive:
The Hachette Book Group, states that James Patterson's novels have now moved 1.14 million copies in electronic form, making him the first author to sell over 1 million e-copies of his books.

Guest post guidelines

If you're interested in sharing a guest post at Release Your Writing, here are our easy guidelines:

1. entry should be between 200 and 400 words.
2. photo of guest author is permitted
3. topic should be relevant to writing: wanting to be a writer, how blogs make writing easier, the dream of writing a best-seller, etc.

The entry should be sent to me for approval and posting. If it all looks good, it will be posted immediately and kept on the site at least one-year.

Thanks for your interest in Release Your Writing.

Guest post: Blogging tips

The following resources are provided to Release Your Writing by Accredited Online Colleges.com


60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers
This is the first of seven posts. Accredited Online Colleges asked if they could share these with my blog readers. Let me know when you're ready for Post #2...

June 20th, 2010

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

1. Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.
2. Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.
3. PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.
4. Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.
5. Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.
6. Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.
7. PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.
8. Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.
9. One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.
10. Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.
11. Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now. (Note: Includes Small Presses. HG)

Book Review: "Writers and Their Notebooks" edited by Diana M. Raab

A collection of essays by writers about their notebooks and journals. Perfect for summer reading (and writing)...


The overall emotion in this collection is a love of writing, and a celebration of notebooks and journals as the place to embrace our beloved art. Most of the essays include a sentimental regard for the many years of notebooks the writers have amassed, a memory of their first journal, and the value of old journals for recalling experiences and details from the past. More often than not, these details work their way into new writing. Author Katherine Towler notes, “My years as a journal writer were essential to the work I am doing now, and to the work still to come.”

In Writers and Their Notebooks, Raab describes words on the pages of a journal as “the music and voice of one’s true emotions. Whether the writer is expressing deeply held beliefs, recording snippets of overheard dialog, making observations, listing ideas for future projects, or copying a favorite poem, the notebook should be a vital part of the creative tool kit.”

There is the rare reference to blogs as “simultaneously a diary and a piece of performance art,” and the need for the computer when “what’s waiting is not a thread but a flood. The pocket notebook is for the hint, the computer for the deluge.” Rare is the lucky writer who is so inspired by the notebook that it must pour forth as fast as one can type, “the resonant data impinging deliciously on the mind,” as poet Kim Stafford discovers.

Read full review here.
First published as: http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-writers-and-their-notebooks/

Jane Friedman, Writer's Digest boss-blogger at There Are No Rules, shares this statistic from the BEA sessions this week:

The computer is still biggest e-reading device (37%); then Kindle (32%); iPhone (10%); iPad (3% after 3 weeks in market!).

Once people start using/buying e-books, they don't go back & tend to become more exclusive to e-books.

Are your reading habits changing? Are you happy enough with a hard drive full of books, instead of an inviting pile of books on your nightstand? Not me. I read and review plenty of ebooks, but I want the inviting titles, colors, and shapes enticing me to hold a book and read the words.

Children's books go interactive!

This is extraordinary....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw





This is especially relevant for authors of books for children. It looks like the days of a simple picture book are gone forever! Let's hope not...

As AOL News recently reported, of the top 16 book apps for the iPad, a whopping 13 of them are children's books, a revealing statistic about the potential that multimedia e-reading devices have for the children's book genre. Many of these book apps are intended for the younger set, with activities that help children learn words and read sentences, engaging them in the plot of the story. For those too young to read, apps offer animated illustrations the reader can touch and move while a recording of the story plays, and children can record themselves reading as they progress in their ability. One app even lets parents make a recording of themselves reading the story on a web cam. Then, when the child reads the story on the iPad, the video recording appears in the corner of the screen - even when they aren't there, parents can read to their children.

These apps are not all simple illustrated storybooks. Some of them use amazing animation and allow children to interact with the story at an unprecedented level. Many book videos demonstrating the capabilities of children's book apps have been posted, including a montage of anticipated books for various age levels from Penguin and an impressive look at the Alice in Wonderland book app.


Info courtesy of bookhitch.com

How to get an agent to keep reading...

Writer's Digest had loads of free e-newsletters, and they often focus on a productive strategy to help you get ahead. Here for example are the seven reasons agents stop reading. You can see the full article here.


1. Generic beginnings
2. Slow beginnings
3. Trying too hard
4. TMI (Too Much Information)
5. Clichés
6. Loss of Focus
7. Unrealistic internal narrative

Now that you know what makes them stop reading, rework your proposal to improve your odds of success.

Self-Published book award list

Use this list of Writer's Digest Self-Published Award winners to do a little reverse engineering. Look at the winning books in your category.

1. Go to the author's web site or blog. How well do they promote the book?
2. Go to Facebook or LinkedIn and search for the author's profile. Are they highly visible? Do they have a large following?
3. What can you learn from their marketing strategy? They didn't become a Writer's Digest award winner without some effort.
4. What should you do to get your work known?

Writers Digest's 17th Annual
Self-Published Book Awards winners :

Children's Books
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_kids17/

Genre Fiction
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_genre17/

Humor Writing
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_humor17/

Inspirational Writing
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_insp17/

Middle-Grade/Young Adult
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_youngadult17/

Life Stories
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_life17/

Mainstream Fiction
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_main17/

Nonfiction
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_non17/

Poetry
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_poetry17/

Reference Books
http://www.writersdigest.com/article/self_pub_ref17/

Thanks to Rowdy at FWOI for these links.

Highlight text from web pages

Last week, I did a demo of i-lighter.com, software that highlights text on web pages.
You save the highlights on a dashboard screen, and can retrieve them, see where they came from, and sort them.

Shortly after the demo, we learned the i-lighter company is closing down, due to lack of profit. Unless someone comes along (are you listening Google?) and buys them this week, the product will cease to work.

So, not to disappoint... I found WebNotes, which does the same thing. It's more complex, but you can enjoy the basic, free features and get more complicated if you are using it for grant research or a large paper.

Women's History Month

Barnes & Noble.com has a wonderful collection of videos and interviews, celebrating Women's History Month here.

Hunting for an agent? Three good links...

I'm enjoying an agent panel this morning at the Univ. Wisconsin Milwaukee Spring Writer's Festival. Here are links to the three recommended sites for those seeking an agent:

AgentQuery
Association of Author's Representatives
AuthorAdvance.com

Giving in to blow-out card...

The fantasy: A year of Vogue magazine and an attractive bag. Not jut an ordinary tote bag, but what looked like a Vogue-ish big red textured leather bag. Big enough for my books, journal and notebook computer. How could I not.

The reality: Said bag arrived not in a handsome box via UPS but in an envelope - not even 9 x 12 - just a 6 inch envelope. Unless there's such a thing as inflatable leather, I'm about to be disappointed. The bag turns out to be vinyl [yes, I know... was I really expecting leather via blow-out card?] Yes, I was, but not $400 Vogue-leather, but maybe $40 Target or Kohl's .... And unlike the blow-out card deception, the bag is a very dorky size - like Easter purses in the 1950's.

So now I'm saddled with a year of Vogue - which, if you're not a fan of high fashion, is generally about 60 pages of full-color glossy ads before you even get to the Table of Contents. There are then about three decent articles among 200+ pages of expensive photo shoots, outrageous models, wearing "the season's all-important new braid," and eye makeup that would embarrass a Bird of Paradise.

You won't see the bag any time soon. I talked my sister into taking it to store her paintbrushes and art supplies.

Go forth and blog...

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Pope Benedict XVI urged priests to use multimedia tools, to do what we do --- have a presence where are readers are.

The Pope, though, according to the article, also “praised new ways of communicating as a "gift to humanity" when used to foster friendship and understanding."

"That doesn't mean that (every priest) must open a blog or a Web site. It means that the church and the faithful must engage in this ministry in a digital world," Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, who heads the Vatican's social communications office, told reporters. "At some point, a balance will be found." Celli, 68, said that young priests would have no trouble following the pope's message, but, he joked, "those who have a certain age will struggle a bit more."

Sisters: An Anthology, radio clips

If you were unable to attend our Celebration of Sisters event at The Book Stall on Saturday, we have an upcoming Sisters: An Anthology salon scheduled with the Women's Exchange. Date will be posted as details are worked out.

For a treat, in the interim, enjoy this brief audio clip from WFCR Radio
http://www.wfcr.org/

Amazon offers royalties on Kindle book sales

This from MediaBistro...

Amazon Announces 70 Percent Royalty Option for Kindle Publishing
By Jason Boog on Jan 20, 2010 10:23 AM

This morning, eBookNewser broke the news that starting on June 30, 2010, Amazon (AMZN) will offer a new 70 percent royalty option for works published on the Kindle.

Here's the official language: "For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option."

The new revenue split resembles a rumor about the Apple Tablet from last December. Some insiders believe that Apple (AAPL) will strike a 30/70 revenue split with publishers.

Agent's role: Or a roll of the dice?

Here are a few imiportant excerpts from a Wall St. Journal article today entitled: The Death of the Slush Pile

These excerpts point out the critical value of author marketing. That's why one-third of Release Your Writing covers the marketing strategies authors need, to keep their book alive, and why I started the Pajama Marketing blog as well. Keep visiting for ideas, and keep your marketing active. Look how critical it is today: (emphasis mine)

excerpts from The Death of The Slush Pile, WSJ

Even in the Web era, getting in the door is tougher than ever
• Don't be a barista waiting for someone to stumble upon your genius. "Our editors travel, they get around. They look at writer's conferences, at MFA programs. They look at magazine articles and at blogs. That's what editors do, they sniff things out from so many different sources." —Carol Schneider, Random House Publishing Group

• Contests! "I'm always wary to recommend to writers that they go to competitions too much because there are fees and they can end up spending a lot of money. But the ones that do get industry attention are really fantastic opportunities to network and to make important relationships." —Hannah Minghella, president of production, Sony Animation Studios, formerly in development at Miramax

A primary aim of the slush pile used to be to discover unpublished voices. But today, writing talent isn't necessarily enough. It helps to have a big-media affiliation, or be effective on TV. "We are being more selective in taking on clients because the publishers are demanding much more from the authors than ever before," says Laurence J. Kirshbaum, former CEO of Time Warner Book Group and now an agent. "From a publisher's standpoint, the marketing considerations, especially on non-fiction, now often outweigh the editorial ones."

In 2008. HarperCollins launched Authonomy.com, a Web slush pile. Writers can upload their manuscripts, readers vote for their favorites, and HarperCollins editors read the five highest-rated manuscripts each month. About 10,000 manuscripts have been loaded so far and HarperCollins has bought four.

--

A motivation boost from Writer's Digest

It's very cold in Chicago this morning. Even the little teddy bear in his pj's can't keep warm over at Pajama Marketing. So go visit him http://wp.me/pw4DH-5p and learn about the special Writer's Digest promotion. They are signing people up, just til Jan. 31, for a year of Writer's Market online edition for $29.99 - the price they used way back in 2000.

If you need motivation, need to research the markets, find ideas, read publishing industry news, that's the place to be.

Besides, Mr. Bear needs a hug over there!

Helen Gallagher

Agent reports success with eBay auction

For those following the July 5th post "Agent auctions her service on eBay..." you'll be glad to know the agent visited our blog and posted of her success with this innovative way to receive submissions.

Click here to read my original July 5th post, and Irene's comments,
and then click here to visit her web site. She is continuing to accept manuscripts through the auction method each month.

If you have a manuscript ready for critique, don't miss the opportunity for feedback. All proceeds support her fund-raising efforts for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Deafness Research Foundation.

A win-win-win ...

Let us know of your success.