How to judge a book's covers

Beyond writing a good book, and creating the perfect title, the next critical element for a book's success is your book cover.

The 12-15-13 New York Times book review section has a disappointing photo piece titled The Best Book Covers of 2013.  It's hard to judge but I see better covers every day. How are these the best?  Of the twelve shown, I honestly only like the final one "The Art of Sleeping Alone."

As the columnist Nicholas Blechman (the Book Review's art director) quotes book designer George Salter, regarding a good jacket ... "must be in perfect accord with the literary quality of the book."  I agree but can't see why the covers chosen fit the bill. It sure does prove how difficult and how subjective the world of cover design is. It is becoming more difficult to settle on a cover that pleases the publisher's sales team, marketing department, and of course, the author. But again, it is of critical importance, whether your book in on store shelves, display racks at airports, or a one-inch image among thousands of other books sold online every day.

I realize it's no easy task to convey the book's tone along with an eye-catching cover, but it is a crucial element of your next book.

To see the slideshow of all twelve, visit http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/12/13/books/review/15covers-slides-1.html

Journalism by robots? Whoa....

This comes from Meg Weaver, publisher at woodenhorsepub.com
Copyright (c) 2013 Wooden Horse Publishing.

 

The Long Good Read is a very special project from The Guardian, the British newspaper, and The Newspaper Club, a company that prints small-run DIY newspapers. The Long Good Read is produced by robots.

Before writers of all kinds get worried about the future of their careers, maybe we should call it “repurposing” rather than “producing.”

The Long Good Read is a collection of articles from The Guardian selected by algorithms for their lengths and their interesting content. A human then selects the articles appropriate for the issue. These are then laid out by another software tool and printed by The Newspaper Club. 500 copies are then distributed for free to another Guardian experiment, a coffee shop in East London.

You can read the whole interesting story in an article by Nieman Journalism Lab. It ends with a quote by The Guardian’s head of technology, Jemima Kiss, speaking about print: “It’s not the medium that’s in trouble; it’s the business model.”

Author marketing ideas to last all through 2014

This collection of 89 good marketing ideas comes from Caitlin Muir, a social media maven.

http://www.authormedia.com/89-book-marketing-ideas-that-will-change-your-life/

Instead of being overwhelmed by 89 more things you should be doing, consider tackling just one category per week or month.  The categories themselves will help keep you organized...

1. Increase your web presence

2. Build your fan base
 
3. Cultivate community
 
4. Make some extra money:  (Note her reference to MyBookTable, a WordPress plug-in you can use to sell books and make affiliate money from online book sales.)

Also, on a related topic, Amazon previously refused to keep Illinois authors in their Associates program, where you could earn money by leading people to amazon to buy your book. They have now reached an agreement with Illinois to allow authors back in the program. This would be in addition to what you might do using the MyBookTable plug-in from WordPress, which would allow you to also sell your books directly, not just through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. 

Good luck!
 

Again, the loss of handwriting looms

If you're sweating over the fast draft you wrote in NANOWRIMO, or sorry you stopped along the way, pick up a pen and write a while. To inspire you, herewith an excerpt from Andrew Coyne's essay in National Post, entitled: Losing Longhand Breaks Link To The Past:

"I’ve been writing on a computer for more than 30 years. But I can tell you I would feel something vital had been lost if I could not express my thoughts longhand. Often when I am stuck at the keyboard, unable to find my way out of whatever mental cul-de-sac I have put myself in, I will pick up a pen and start writing — and the words start to come again.

This is not by accident. You’re using different parts of the brain. Typing is file retrieval, remembering where a letter is. With handwriting, you create the letters anew each time, using much more complex motor skills. Whether it’s the flowing motion of the arm, or the feel of the page under your hand, or the aesthetic satisfaction of a well-turned “f”, it seems to engage the more intuitive, right-brain aspects of cognition."

Read Coyne's full essay here.

Marketing your book: What matters most?

This great chart from Lulu.com lays out the answer to the perplexing question all new authors have. What matters most when it comes to reaching my audience:

click on image to enlarge

Excerpted from Lulu's marketing guide - click for free download of the 34-page ebook from their site.

Writers: A reminder to honor your work

The Artist’s Creed
~Jan Phillips

I believe I am worth the time it takes to create
whatever I feel called to create.

I believe my work is worthy of its own space
which is worthy of the name sacred.

I believe that when I enter this space, I have the right
to work in silence, uninterrupted, for as long as I choose.

I believe that the moment I open myself to the gifts of the Muse,
I open myself to the Source of All Creation, and become
one with the Mother of Life Itself.

I believe that my work is joyful, useful, and constantly changing,
flowing through me like a river with no beginning and no end.

I believe that what it is I am called to do
will make itself known when I have made myself ready.

I believe that the time I spend creating my art
is as precious as the time I spend giving to others.

I believe that what truly matters in the making of art is not what the
final piece looks like or sounds like, not what it is worth or not worth,
but what newness gets added to the universe in the process
of the piece itself becoming.

I believe that I am not alone in my attempts to create,
and that once I begin the work, settle in to the strangeness,
the words will take shape, the form find life, and the spirit take flight.

I believe that as the Spirit gives to me, so does she deserve
from me: faith, mindfulness, and enduring commitment.

(a favorite of mine is her book "Marry Your Muse.")

Book and art lovers.... read this...

[Review first published at BlogCritics.org by Helen Gallagher 9-30-2013]


Art Made From Books: Altered, Sculpted, Carved, Transformed will likely transform your appreciation of books … books as art objects.

This surprising anthology brims with charming, pure art, created by hands and tools. The spirit of magical realism is alive as characters are literally lifted out of books through delicate carving. Some are carved, some are books embellished with light, wire or glass. The stunning result is a recurring delight; and our appreciation grows each time we consider the delicate artistry and spirit in the objects.

There is unmistakable joy of the creation of these altered books; a fairly recent modern form of art. The process, known since the 18th century in England has become more appreciated today when outdated reference books can see new life as treasured, whimsical, works of art.

Continued here:  http://releaseyourwriting.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews-for-writers-by-writers.html

Illinois Arts Council events

Events for this Week

Event Date	Event Name	Location	City
09/19/2013 - 12:00pm	Love and Labor: Domestic Workers as Community Docents	Jane Addams Hull-House Museum	Chicago
09/19/2013 - 4:45pm	Another Chicago is Possible: An Evening with Chicago Activists Engaging Critical Ethnic Studies	UIC Forum	Chicago
09/19/2013 - 7:00pm	The Last Mission of 'Hog Wild'	Taylorville Public Library	Taylorville
09/19/2013 - 7:30pm	Civic Cinema at the Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference	UIC Forum	Chicago
09/19/2013 - 7:30pm	Syria & American Foreign Policy	Panera Bread	Carbondale
09/20/2013 - 12:00am	East West Riverfest Festival	Various Locations throughout the Quad Cities
09/20/2013 - 7:30pm	Civic Cinema at the Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference	UIC Forum	Chicago

Chicago Writers Conference: Sept. 27-28, 2013

Writers, not traveling out of town for a conference this year? Don't miss this chance, right in town...

Get Ready for CWC 2013! 1. Get inspired: Read more on what to expect. Our blog showcases past speakers, CWC 2012 success stories, and interviews with this year's panelists. 2. Get details: Our website has information on how to get to the conference, hotels, and nearby conveniences. 3. Get organized: With over thirty speakers, twenty sessions, and several events, CWC will keep you busy all weekend long. Explore our Speakers Page and Schedule to see what sparks your interest. Attend the talks and panels that will help your writing career the most. 4. Get registered: Regular registration is open until September 13. Signing up for the conference is as easy as clicking on this button:

On a Languid Summer Saturday

While browsing the stacks of favorite books on my many shelves, I came across Virginia Woolf's small masterpiece, The Waves, this morning.

We've all read it but as a writer seeking the secrets of true writing, The Waves has special meaning, and it takes a slow summer Saturday to sit down and appreciate it. Other days, other months are too distracting, but a steamy August Saturday lets a little more light and warm air swirl around us, so we sit, and we read amid the garden's glory.

"There are hours and hours,' said Rhoda, 'before I can put out the light and lie suspended on my bed above the world, before I can let the day drop down, before I can let my tree grow, quivering in green pavilions above my head. Here I cannot let it grow. Somebody knocks through it, They ask questions, they interrupt, they throw it down."

Have you ever noticed the chapters in The Waves? The author mentions she wrote to a rhythm and not to a plot. This tiny book explores Woolf's individual and collective identity, moving through the passage of time and the cycle of nature as her six main characters develop from childhood to maturity.

Each chapter begin in a delightful style, using the sun to pace the reader's way through the story, as I did on this languid day...

The sun had not yet risen.
The sun rose higher.
The sun rose.
The sun, risen, no longer couched on a green mattress darting a fitful glance through watery jewels, barred its face and looked straight over the waves.
The sun had risen to its full height.
The sun no longer stood in the middle of the sky.
The sun had now sunk lower in the sky.
The sun was sinking.
Now the sun had sunk.

It may interest you to know that Virginia Woolf worried that The Waves would be 'fundamentally unreadable' and yet also 'my first work in my own style'."

It is a rare Saturday that this blogger can to sit on the porch with this old favorite book, and slow down enough to read it in a new way. If you don't a copy of the Waves, ride your bike to the library or check Amazon. they have many copies at true bargain prices here.

Helen Gallagher

Wearing many hats

Writer? Author? ... Here's an interesting viewpoint on what it takes to make it today.

We know this, but this blog post excerpt, from Cheryl Pickett restates the facts in a direct way.

So, let me ask you.... my friends and clients who've successfully published this year, I'm sure this will resonate with you. She's right... so how many hats are you wearing to keep your book alive?


From Cheryl Pickett, TheNonfictionZone.com

"The biggest rule change? Unless you are writing just for a hobby, you need to wear much more than your writer hat. You’ll need to write, potentially publish, and definitely market. Bottom line, you are a small or micro business owner, not just an author. And that means you need to do all the things that go with running a business."

"Real artists ship."

This should be especially interesting to those of you who, like me, crave more time for writing. We put in a lot of face time at the screen and keyboard, but perhaps the following excerpt from  Notes From My Desk, the weekly motivational blast from Mridu Khullar explains why we aren't shipping the goods, metaphorically speaking...

Productive people ship, as she quotes Steve Jobs who said "“Real artists ship.”

Mridu continues:
"It’s not about how many blog posts you can write or how much you can tweet or how many relationships with editors you can build, though all of those things are important. What matters most, is how many words you can write, how many projects you can finish, how quickly and how often you can ship. How are you going to use those relationships? What is the purpose of the blog posts? Is tweeting taking you away from your goal of shipping?"

You can read her full post here.

Does technology bring us closer or further apart?

Poet Rita Dove, in The Writer's Chronicle, was asked how the audience for her current anthology differs from the audience for older poetry anthologies published in the 1970s. Her response likely resonates with many of us...

"It's tempting to think we're connecting on websites and so-called social networks, while we're actually turning into physical hermits in the guise of social butterflies, fluttering about in our quotidian cocoons of cyberspace."

One can only hope at least a few of us will be as articulate after we survive a few more years of social media and its related distractions.

Helen Gallagher

Do you measure up online?

We used to measure our popularity and successful relationships by the number of friends we had; those who exchanged birthday cards, met for lunch, sat on the front porch on a summer night. now, though, our friends are measured by the activity in our social media sites.

We measure our business success perhaps by a fully booked calendar, making large bank deposits from speaking gigs and book sales, or signing contracts for lucrative freelance writing.

Who knew that today's mark of "Success" is defined instead by social media? How many followers are enough to make you popular? If you have more social media traffic, are you inclined to make more frequent posts?? Is it an effective way for you to keep in touch with close friends?

A recent Writer's Digest article posted counts for notable pageviews for writers trying to prove they have a decent following for their work.

Notable numbers are high, starting with:

Blog page views: 20,000/month 
Twitter followers: 5,000 followers or newsletter subscribers
Speaking appearances to 1,000 people per year
Book sales total:  4,000 for self-published nonfiction, 2,000 for fiction


By those standards, most of us are lurkers - reading just the blogs and Facebook/twitter feeds we can scan in a few minutes.

Don't take it too seriously though. It's summer, and we know where our real friends are - out on the porch, reading a good book.

Diligence in our writing

Do you quit when your writing is 'good enough?"  Most of us revise our work three or four times and feel its ready to publish. I try to follow the good advice to set any piece of writing aside until at least the next morning.  When I read it over again, with fresh eyes, I almost always find another error.


That's what the professionals in the news business do too, although they have to work much faster. The following journalism fable comes from Carl Sessions Stepp, who marked 50 years of journalism with 50 lessons learned. Here is #49..


49. My favorite fable about journalism.
"According to John Hersey, in the New Yorker's early days a critic complained that unsophisticated theater audiences would "laugh at the drop of a ha on the stage." The pun on "drop of a hat" looked like a typo, so Editor Harold Ross determined to make sure it survived. He wrote "do not change" on galleys. He followed it through the production process. He even climbed into the press, read the plate to make sure "drop the ha" remained, and told printers not to change it. The next day, he picked up the new issue and saw "hat." The printers had changed shifts after he left, and someone proofreading pages had made the change.
The fable, Hersey said, offers two eternal truths. Writers should be willing to risk their lives by climbing into the press to save a word. And they should recognize that no matter what they do, the work will never be perfect."

See Stepp's full list of fifty items here at American Journalism Review.

Over 30,000 viewers...

Thanks to all my readers for letting me reach the 30,000 visitor mark here at the Release Your Writing blog.

Helen Gallagher

Notetaking: Yesterday and today

Are you old enough to remember learning to "outline" as a child in English class?

As I scribbled notes for an article last week, I suddenly felt I'd never make sense of the fragments I jotted down.  I picked up the notes today and found I was right. My brain works better at laptop-speed. My notes are caotyred qyucjkyt, oops, that was supposed to be 'captured quickly,' make more sense, and are legible. If I failed at outlining in school, at least I excel at fast typing.

Yet before computers let our ideas fly with instant transfer from thought to document,  people sat with paper and pen and gave great thought to each word written. After all they could not highlight and delete a paragraph of longhand, so better preparation by outlining might have been the only way to organize the flow of words from mind to hand.

To my delight, I found Creative Nonfiction's weekly email led me to evidence of the very thing I was contemplating: notetaking.

Here, for example is Sylvia Plath's outline for The Bell Jar. This one-page outline is hard to read, but you can clearly see her math showing it would top out at 280 pages. Published in 1963, Wikipedia lists the book's published page count at 288. Isn't that impressive?




Okay, just one more -- J.K. Rowling's outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix



You'll find these and a half-dozen more at FlavorWire here

The "slow" move to better online content

We've seen a resurgence and new respect for long-form journalism, after a few years of tweets and status updates that don't add anything lasting to our literary world. Now comes a call for "Slow Media." 

"Every person with an Internet connection now has a place to go to find news as it breaks. We are only just beginning, however, to realize the Internet’s power as a promoter of longform content, a recognition that is helping to drive the rise of micropublishing, a movement that emphasizes the quality of the publishing environment over timeliness, and one that eschews the primacy of the pageview. We are just starting to see the emergence of startup publications that are seeing opportunity beyond the blog format. Included among the most prominent proponents of the written form are Medium, Atavist, Byliner, Longform, and Longreads."

For us, it means more quality reading, more places to write, and an appreciation for our good writing.

Read more here at Pando.

It started with chick-lit

First there was chick-lit, segmenting the popular fiction category into a subgroup of lighter novels, fun to read and easy, Most importantly, it was aimed at the target audience of book-reading females. Those who like the genre and found it relevant helped spread the popularity of chick-lit titles.

Then we saw the proliferation of YA (young adult), gothic and the recent steamy books turning people 50 shades of red.

Where have we come today? Writer's Relief suggests we're up against "new adult fiction" (NA) as the hot new thing. A USA Today article suggests this sub-genre appeals to readers between adolescence and adulthood, mostly those in college

Think 'young love' but without the happy ending readers desired in the past.


Writer's Relief helps you decide if your next novel fits the NA category with a brief checklist. Read their full post and the checklist here.

Yes, writers must work at promotion...

Quoting here from an ASJA's 2013 conference speaker, Brian Feinblum.

"Take matters of PR and marketing into your own hands.  Few people are solely writers – most writers also must promote and market their work, or hire others to assist.  But if you just have wild expectations, hopes or misguided beliefs about your role and what publishers do for you, you’ll find yourself frustrated.  You are a writer, and you are a promoter, and marketer, even if your business card doesn’t say so."

Source: Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts

A little advice on succssful pitches

Thanks to Book Marketing Buzz for their timely tips on their blog. If I was going to BEA this year, I'd definitely nest in their corner and absorb more of their top marketing ideas.  With Spring in full swing, those of us who want to get articles published this year better step up. Knowing the long cycle from query to assignment, your pitch in May might be in print by November.

A recent post on their blog discusses the best ways to pitch the media when most of them are understaffed. The answer ,of course, is to make their job easier.

The way to appeal to the news media is:

<    * Localize your story when possible

<     * Have a truly timely and news-worthy hook

<     * Present a story that is easy to cover, with well-packaged materials such as written content, videos, or visuals

<     * Let them know you have a large platform, such as a big number of Twitter followers or YouTube viewers –
  this will move them to cover you because they hope your social media fans will follow them

<     * Say something new or something old in a new way

<     * Don’t make the media have to think, do research, or download 50 things – make your pitch short, simple and catchy.

Santa Fe photo shoot-out

Part of the travel writing workshop with Travel Writing on Location was our photo shoot-out yesterday.

What better American city than Santa Fe to take great photos. From the amazing LaFonda Hotel filled with art and history to "The City Different" in glorious color.

LaFonda Terrace Concierge

La Fonda La Plazula hand painted art throughout

La Fonda Terrace courtyard gardens

La Fonda hot tub

St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral

Santa Fe street musicians

Balloon fun

A fine quote for those days when you're stuck...

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."-- Mark Twain

 

 

 

When you get some time to spend on your writing, don't let anything get in your way. Even if you can't remember what you wanted to write about, or what magazine you wanted to pitch, sit down and start writing. Something good will come of it, I promise.

Ebook stats that tell the truth

Great infographics that tell the story about ebooks vs. print revenue and royalties, courtesy of Now Novel. Read full story here.

Courtesy of: Now Novel

Publishing: Nook Press now competes with CreateSpace.

CreateSpace has been a great resource for my client projects, with me as midwife for 14 books in 2012 and 2013 to date . Self-publishing for print and ebooks with no upfront cost is an ideal solution for many authors who don't need the services of a print-on-demand firm for marketing add-ons or special personalized services, custom sizes, photo management or other magic.

Now Barnes & Noble has expanded their Pub-It ebook publishing service to include Nook Press:  full self-publishing for print books, with no upfront cost.  I'll test it as soon as the next client picks up the phone and requests help in publish a book. Or, if time permits I will do the 2nd edition of Release Your Writing that you've been asking for.

Until then, if you're thinking of self-publishing, give Barnes & Nobles new service some consideration.

Magazines aren't dead

Magazines aren't dead. Our screen time just keeps us from taking the time to explore and enjoy them. Stop in at the Chicago/Main newsstand at the power reading corner of Main & Chicago in Evanston, IL. There you'll find an aisle of gorgeous magazines on the arts. While reading Letter Arts Review, one of five new magazines purchased, I came upon this, in reference to the rhythm of writing:

Come at it

the way you would

a pile of clothes on an empty beach at dawn.

Circle it slowly.

Hold the pieces up one by one.

Be a cop: ask questions.

 

                                   -- Al Zolynas, How to Read a Poem

Anne Lamott on social media

Had the pleasure of seeing Anne Lamott in Winnetka, IL last night, thanks to The Book Stall and Women's Exchange. An 'intimate group' of 300 people packed the auditorium and were rewarded with an entertaining evening of Anne reading from and talking about her books, sand about writing, grace, and God.

Thought you might like to know her view on Twitter. For all the people who think they don't have time to use it, she says:

"It's called Twitter, not Treatise. It takes about a minute!"

Anne also loves the intimacy of it and says she finds the 140 character limit is great writing practice. She also said social media doesn't take anything away from her writing time. "Its part of my real writing."

Her two newest books are Some Assembly Required,  and Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers,

Think big for your book promotion

Beyond your local bookstore and local library, there is a world waiting to discover your book. Work a book tour into your summer vacation this year if you're promoting a new book. Poets & Writers has a huge database of literary places here:
http://www.pw.org/literary_places


Libraries, book shops, museums, arts centers.... you're sure to find a few great places where you can book an event.