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.