A six-week course on self-publishing

Two publishing workshops I've done in 2013 attracted a total of nearly 150 people. Clearly, many of you writers are ready to explore the avenues to publishing. And a huge number of people are ready to produce an ebook, either as an adjunct to a current print book, or as a first step in the digital world. Your timing is great because Media Bistro has a six-week online class that might be perfect for you ...

Transform your manuscript into an eBook in our Self-Publishing Finishing School. Develop a strategy to design, market, and publicize your eBook with industry professionals such as Mark Coker (founder, Smashwords) and Guy Kawasaki (author, APE! What the Plus).

Register here.  The online class runs April 3 to May 8, 2013.

You've heard me speak highly of Mark Coker, of Smashwords, and if you aren't familiar with Guy Kawasaki, he is a real delight. He will be discussing two of his books. What the Plus refers to understanding the power of Google Plus. Here is my review of his recent book:  APE: Author Publisher Entrepreneur. I can guarantee, with these two speakers, the online workshop will also be great fun.

How long does it take to blog?

Many people think blogging is time-consuming. Judge for yourself. ...

We know creating a blog involves choosing a template and making a first post. But does it take a lot of time every week or every month to keep it up-to-date?  Not really. Your blog is a communication tool, and composing a blog post is as easy as sending an email:  Just like typing a subject line, message, and clicking Post.

For writers, who are busy juggling words all day, a blog can seem like one more item on the to-do list. But starting a blog gives you another opportunity to do what we do best -- write.

Your blog can be informative about your topic, inquiring or pondering issues that come up during your writing, aspects of your book, or those of famous writers, and general observations on the writing life.  You can quote other information sources, share photos, or ask questions.

As I mentioned yesterday in an OCWW workshop, you can always make the leap to a blog and keep it private at first. Or you can post references to items of interest that you read elsewhere, just to begin sharing and begin building the base of your readership.

Believe me, if you want to write for a magazine, get a column, or attract an agent, your blog will be crucial in showing off your personality, your voice, and your future.

You don't need to be profound.  Just be found.

Helen

Chicago-area Writing Groups

Chicago-area writing groups

Chicago Women in Publishing (cwip.org)

Chicago Writers Association (chicagowrites.org)

Illinois Women's Press Assn. (iwpa.org)

Independent Writers of Chicago, (iwoc.org)

Midwest Writers Association (midwestwriters.com)

Off-Campus Writers Workshop  (ocww.bizland.com)

Story Studio.com (storystudio.com)




By loose definition, these are groups who charge an annual membership fee and/or charge per-session for events held year-round. There are also many writing groups in our area, but these are the main ones that offer public events, and guest speakers,  Some national organizations such as ASJA.org have local chapters. There are many powerful and rewarding online writing organization too. One I belong to is Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network at spawn.org. I also recommend all writers join the free online groups:
SheWrites.com and RedRoom.com.  Take a look at them and see what you're missing.

If I missed a group you like, add it below by leaving a comment. Let's keep the Chicago-area a vibrant writing community.
By 2015, we'll welcome the new American Writer's Museum to Chicago as well.

See you online,
Helen

Natl. Assn. Memoir Writers - next roundtable

Tired of Just Saying You're Going to Finish Your Memoir?

"Rev Up to Write Your Memoir"

FREE call on Tuesday, Feb 26, at 4pm PST | 7pm EST

At a wonderful workshop in Hinsdale, IL yesterday, I mentioned the resources available at the National Association of Memoir Writers. Here's an upcoming online event on Tuesday you might enjoy. Even if you're working on fiction, essays, or short stories, the techniques of good writing cross all boundaries.



This call is for you if you have a memoir-in-progress, or even an idea for a memoir, and you're needing that extra bit of motivation to just make it happen already! 
In this call, join Linda Joy and Brooke to explore:

• common reasons for abandoning your memoir and how to get your groove back
• strategies for prioritizing your writing
• ways to confront what's holding you back
• ideas for reconnecting to the heart of your story and what moves you

Learn more by clicking here.

 

 

Free Memoir Roundtable:  Real Life Characters--The Heart of your Memoir 

March 7, 2013 

4 PM PST 5 PM MST  6 PM CST  7 PM EST
We're so pleased to have Suzanne Sherman talk with us about developing your characters in a memoir. We know that they're "real people" yet we have to bring them alive so others can know them too.
In fiction, writers give focused attention to creating characters that carry the plot forward. Character motivation is a continuing consideration as they reveal the central and secondary characters through the book or short story. In screenwriting, the same is true.
In memoir, our job is different. We aren't creating characters and deciding their relevant motivations, we're taking what's here and turning it into story. We're writing about central and secondary characters and we're drawing them in 3-D, so readers get to know them.
Characters -- the people in our life stories -- are at the heart of it all.
Sign up here.

Dozens of book promotion links

46 Book Promotion Resources. How many are you using?

Thanks to Savvy Writers & Ebook blog for this extensive list of book promotion resources. You're sure to learn of a few new resources here.  Enjoy!


http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/18-top-websites-to-promote-your-book-for-free/

Helen Gallagher

Oh, say it isn't so...

This just in from Publishers Weekly today...

Amazon Poised to Sell Used E-books

Amazon’s business model has long been dependent on resellers of used books and other merchandise. But a U.S. patent that Amazon Technologies in Reno, Nev., received last week indicates that the mega-retailer has its sights on digital resale, including used e-books and audio downloads. According to the abstract, Amazon will be able to create a secondary market for used digital objects purchased from an original vendor by a user and stored in a user’s personalized data store.

Comments?

February 23rd: Join us in Hinsdale for a workshop

Inside Writing & Publishing A Writer’s Guide to Tech Tools

Saturday, February 23
2:00 p.m.
Join author and national speaker Helen Gallagher to learn about the tools and skills you need to gain visibility for your writing and publishing. Blogs, social media sites, eBooks and other digital options will be explored. Register at the Library, over the phone or online...

Is 2013  the year you reach your writing goals?

Helen Gallagher

Honest advice to a young writer, from F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thanks to Brainpickings.com for this excerpt from a 1938 letter written by Fitzgerald to a family friend's child:

"Dear Frances:

I've read the story carefully and, Frances, I'm afraid the price for doing professional work is a good deal higher than you are prepared to pay at present. You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell.

This is the experience of all writers. It was necessary for Dickens to put into Oliver Twist the child's passionate resentment at being abused and starved that had haunted his whole childhood. Ernest Hemingway's first stories 'In Our Time' went right down to the bottom of all that he had ever felt and known. In 'This Side of Paradise' I wrote about a love affair that was still bleeding as fresh as the skin wound on a haemophile.

The amateur, seeing how the professional having learned all that he'll ever learn about writing can take a trivial thing such as the most superficial reactions of three uncharacterized girls and make it witty and charming – the amateur thinks he or she can do the same. But the amateur can only realize his ability to transfer his emotions to another person by some such desperate and radical expedient as tearing your first tragic love story out of your heart and putting it on pages for people to see.

That, anyhow, is the price of admission. Whether you are prepared to pay it or, whether it coincides or conflicts with your attitude on what is 'nice' is something for you to decide. But literature, even light literature, will accept nothing less from the neophyte. It is one of those professions that wants the 'works.' You wouldn't be interested in a soldier who was only a little brave."  ...

Working on a memoir? Study Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton's memoir Then Again, published in May 2012, can serve as a writer's guide to the craft of memoir. Spend some time with it and you'll see an excellent example of a memoir with a twist. Not wanting to write a movie-star biography, Diane Keaton used her mother's journal writing as a way of revisiting and having a conversation with her. Along the way, Keaton takes use through the years as she became an actress, and enjoyed major success with movies, and also with several famous fellas in the industry.

Keaton speaks of "opening and closing doors all my life. But the door marked LETTING GO has remained shut." As her Mom struggled through Alzheimer's disease, Keaton recognizes there is no turning back her mother's illness, nor that of others: . "...even genius didn't stop Ralph Waldo Emerson, Iris Murdoch, E.B. White, or Somerset Maugham from the "insidious onset."

You'll be intrigued by Keaton's ability to weave the stories of her life together, and will agree with the New York Times claim that Then Again is "A far-reaching, lucid book about mothers, daughters, childhood, aging, mortality, joyfulness, love, work and the search for self-knowledge."

Read it for pleasure, and by all means, study it if you're working on a memoir.

Make a good impression in 2013

Start the new year with an aggressive approach to earning new freelance assignments

Besides finding markets, crafting a clever pitch, what's the best thing you can do to get noticed?

The answer is "Wow 'em with yur clips."  Until now, this was an ugly project for most writers. Either send them a link to your site or links to the original articles on magazine sites. Of course, you hope those links remain fresh, but we know that's not always the case. Besides bad links, you can send PDFs or JPGs that may not make the best impression.

So the solution is:  Pressfolios where you can manage an online portfolio of your work. You add a link, whether clips are stored on your site or elsewhere, organize them, and use the one simple link to let editors view your work. You can choose the photo to accompany each article's link, refer editors to the permanent link, and be proud of your queries with smart clips.

Spend an hour this holiday weekend to get started, and you'll put your best clips forward for greater success in 2013.

A Time for Gratitude as 2012 rolls over to 2013

It's been a difficult year for many, if not most of us, in this country. Emotions are raw but we soldier on, because that's what we do. If you've had a tough year, it may be beneficial to start or return to your gratitude journal. There's much research showing the benefits of this technique. Here are five tips to encourage you to give it a try.

• Don’t just go through the motions. Research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky and others suggests that journaling is more effective if you first make the conscious decision to become happier and more grateful. “Motivation to become happier plays a role in the efficacy of journaling,” says Emmons.
• Go for depth over breadth. Elaborating in detail about a particular thing for which you’re grateful carries more benefits than a superficial list of many things.
• Get personal. Focusing on people to whom you are grateful has more of an impact than focusing on things for which you are grateful.
• Try subtraction, not just addition. One effective way of stimulating gratitude is to reflect on what your life would be like without certain blessings, rather than just tallying up all those good things.
• Savor surprises. Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to elicit stronger levels of gratitude.
• Don’t overdo it.

These tips are excerpted from  Greater Good at UC Berkeley --Read more here..

Best regards for 2013.

Helen Gallagher

If you have a book on Amazon, make sure you use your free Author Page

Amazon Author Pages   (courtesy of Amazon)

Amazon Author Pages are a great way to keep your readers up to date about you and your work. You can create your Author Pages on Amazon.com and many of its European websites though Amazon Author Central. You must create a separate Author Page on each of the websites you want to appear. You can sign up for your Amazon Author Pages at each of the following sites:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr

On your Author Pages, provide a concise and meaningful author biography to help your readers get to know you. You can also upload a photograph and videos, add your Twitter handle, and even highlight events you may be attending. Author Pages also bring together all of your work as an author in one place, which helps customers discover more of your books. Use Amazon Author Pages to make a direct connection with your audience.

My author page is nothing special, but you can view it here if you want a sample:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMFK78

Helen Gallagher

A quick holiday tip from Amazon to get your books noticed for fast holiday sales...

Here's a quick holiday tip from Amazon on getting your books noticed for fast holiday sales...

From Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Newsletter

Tip of the Month:
Prepare your Book(s) for the Holidays

The holidays are fast approaching, and that means millions of Kindles will be delivered over the next several weeks. There are some simple steps you can take to be sure your book(s) are ready for all these new readers that will be looking for books to read. First, publish your book! Be sure that it is well edited, proofread, and properly formatted. Upload a compelling cover and write a great book description. Once your book is published, join Author Central and set up your profile to introduce yourself to your readers, then start promoting your book online through social networks, a website for your book, message boards, and other communities. Remember that your books can be read in color on Kindle Fire, Kindle Cloud Reader, and on Kindle apps. For additional KDP help resources, click here.

Retiring by Post-It?

From 11-18, 2012 New York Times, Page One:

On the computer in Philip Roth’s Upper West Side apartment these days is a Post-it note that reads, “The struggle with writing is over.” It’s a reminder to himself that Mr. Roth, who will be 80 in March and who has enjoyed one of the longest and most celebrated careers in American letters, has retired from writing fiction — 31 books since he started in 1959. “I look at that note every morning,” he said the other day, “and it gives me such strength.” Full story here.