Saturday, April 13, 2013

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.





Tuesday, April 9, 2013

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

Saturday, April 6, 2013

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.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Travel Writing on Location

Travel Writing On Location
Travel and writing go hand in hand. The favorite pen, time alone in a cafe, late nights in the glow of your laptop screen. Travel writing is getting paid to research and write... in other words, to do what we love, all while enjoying a break from routine and finding surprises waiting around every corner when we travel.

Travel Writing on Location is offering a terrific opportunity:  Native American & Spanish Heritage in New Mexico: Santa Fe. May 2-6, 2013. Details on this and more workshops for writers can be accessed at their comprehensive site: http://travelwritingonlocation.com/writing-workshop-in-taos-santa-fe-nm/

As I frequently tell you, "There's never been a better time to be a writer." So, when you see a good opportunity to travel, take a writing workshop and return home with new skills, find a way to make it happen!  I'll see you after the conference!

Monday, March 11, 2013

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.


Thursday, March 7, 2013

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


Monday, February 25, 2013

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

Sunday, February 24, 2013

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.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

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

Thursday, February 7, 2013

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?

Sunday, February 3, 2013

February 23rd: Join us in Hinsdale for a workshop


Hinsdale Library

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

Sunday, January 13, 2013

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."  ...


Sunday, January 6, 2013

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.