More on BN.com Pub-It

Per my October 6, 2010 post, PubIt, from Barnes & Noble is a great way to put your ebook on sale today for the BN.com Nook ebook reader. PubIt is their 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%,

The process takes about 15 minutes and you'll need to have an electronic copy of your book ready to load.
What you'll need:

1. Your final manuscript in Word, html or a few other formats. Note that you can't load the book as a PDF, which is common for other ebook sales sites. BN,com puts the book into their unique ePub format for the Nook.
2. A copy of your cover, in a large size, such as 700 by 2000 pixels.
3. An "about the book" and "about the author" blurb.
4. Your desired selling price. For help, look at the current best-selling Nook "Flying Off The Shelves" link here.
5. Your ebook's ISBN if you have one. (If you don't have one, one will be assigned.)
6. Some of you may not like this part: To earn and get paid royalties, you have to provide your soc.security number and link to your bank account. Read the terms, conditions, and privacy statements if this is of concern to you.

Ready to start? Sign up here - it's free.

Improve your writing with better words and a handy phrase counter

A few years ago my presentations to writers included a demo of Visual Thesaurus. Its great to take a step back and analyze our writing. Liven up your next editing session by using the Visual Thesaurus to find a better word for "ordinary."

And now, thanks to the Phrase Frequency Counter from writewords.uk, you'll never waste time editing out all the redundant, useless language you use when filling a first draft of an article, essay or manuscript.

We all know how to say things the long way, but we can learn to be precise, crisp, and effective, instead of voluminous, clumsy, and wordy.

For Memoir Writers: a recommendation

For my publishing clients who are working on memoirs, I always recommend they take a look at the memoirs by Patricia Hampl.Her memoirs include The Florist's Daughter, Blue Arabesque, and If I Could Tell You Stories

At Hampl's site, I now see she has a new book, and if you're working on a memoir, analyzing what works, you might want to take a look at the book: Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life (Co-edited with Elaine Tyler May)

"Balancing precariously between history and literature, memoir writers have finally found their place on the bookshelf. But increased notoriety brings intense scrutiny: memoirists are expected to create a narrative worthy of fiction while also staying true to the facts. Historians, too, handle tricky issues of writing from "real life," when imagination must fill gaps in the historical record.

Patricia Hampl and Elaine Tyler May have gathered fourteen original essays from award-winning memoirists and historians. Whether the record emerges from archival sources or from personal memory, these writers show how to make the leap to telling a good story, while also telling us true.

Contributors: Andre Aciman, Matt Becker, June Cross, Carlos Eire, Helen Epstein, Samuel G Freedman, Patricia Hampl, Fenton Johnson, Alice Kaplan, Annette Kobak, Michael MacDonald, Elaine Tyler May, Cheri Register, D. J. Waldie."

More here: http://patriciahampl.com/test/tellme.html


Helen Gallagher

For Teen Writers: The Right Kind of Social Media

Harper Collins has launched InkPop - a social media site geared to teen writers, and aspiring writers. Book projects are chosen to be reviewed by Harper Collins editors, there is a weekly writing project, pop culture news, videos, teen trends and more.



It looks like a worthy place to hang out, both for teens and adults writing for teens:

Along with searching for more manuscripts from our inkpop community, we’re also working on developing more outlets where readers and writers can just get their ideas in front of editors here. We realize that writing a full novel is difficult and not something that every teen can do every day. We also realize that they are full of great ideas and we want to empower our members to share those ideas with us, so that instead of editors in a room creating books that they think teens will like, teens will really be helping to create the books they want to read.

Write your way through a snow day!

No school, no work, no errands, so write your way through the day.

As long as you have heat, and electricity to power your gadgets, relax into today's blizzard and use the time to move your writing along:

1. Write an essay, poem, or letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the magic of a "snow day."
2. Call a friend or family member, because you have the luxury of time to chat today.
3. Look up magazine submission guidelines and write a good query for an article. This might be the day you get a paying assignment.
4. Got a current writing project that just isn't moving? Sit down with it and see what you can do - delete, edit, shake it up, and get it moving ahead.

Stay safe and enjoy the day.

Helen Gallagher