I told you about going to the Writers' League of Texas Agents Conference last month. At one of the sessions I heard about how bloggers can get free books from publishers in return for reviews. One publisher mentioned in particular was Thomas Nelson. I knew this company published Christian books so I contacted them and was approved to do reviews.
When asked, I specified Christian Fiction because that would fit best with The Christian Bookmobile. However, when I checked in to request a book, the only one available to me was Fearless by Max Lucado, a non-fiction book.
While waiting for the book to be delivered, I read the sample chapters provided online (Chapters 1 and 9) and, based on what I read, found a solution to a problem I was experiencing in my life. I didn't think until later that perhaps this was another example of how God helps us in mysterious ways.
I have much to be thankful for in my life, but two recent negative incidents, both out of my control, completely overshadowed the positives. As I read Fearless, I realized I was feeling fear. Lucado writes, "...fear is unwilling to share the heart with happiness. Happiness complies and leaves." Aha, that was what was happening to me.
Continuing to read, I found the solution. "What if faith, not fear was your default reaction to threats?" Then, I understood. At that moment, my fear and feelings of being out of control went away.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
On Becoming a Writer
I think about being interviewed after Where Love Once Lived comes out and one of the questions sometimes asked is "When did you first become interested in writing?"
My earliest memory of writing is when my sister, Barbara Cagle, decided we would publish a neighborhood magazine. We were living on Pete's Path in Austin at the time, so I had to be about twelve years old. She had written and produced some neighborhood plays several years before this when we lived on Josephine Street in South Austin.
But, my involvement as a writer didn't occur until the magazine phase. By publish, keep in mind that the magazine was handwritten and each copy was handwritten as well. So there wasn't a wide distribution and the magazine only last for a summer. When school started we were too busy to continue it. But I remember getting to write and I remember the encouragement from Barbara.
She also told me I had to keep a journal of all the movies I went to see. We included movie reviews in the magazine as well as news about our neighbors. I remember getting a spiral notebook and on one side I pasted the ad for the movie clipped from the newspaper. On the other side was the movie review itself. I wish I still had that spiral notebook. It was lost in a heavy rain that flooded my basement bedroom years later while I was away in the Marine Corps. I lost all my precious books in that storm, but that's a story for another time.
I had the writing bug from then on. Aptitude tests showed an interest in creative writing, but my school counselors said I should think of it as a hobby since few people made a living from writing. So, I ended up majoring in computer science and wrote for the fun of it, including a novel written about my time in the marines that was never finished.
I also wrote short stories. Only one was published, but it was a thrill to see it in print. Much of the writing I did was as a part of my jobs as a computer programmer and systems analyst. I was called on to do the reports, or apply for grants, and I learned my writing gave me a way of persuading others that I couldn't do face to face.
I published one computer book, Automated Law Office Systems
, but it was short lived due to the rapid changes in computers.
I realize this would be too long an answer to the question posed at the beginning, but there you have it. And, by the way, my sister is still writing. She had a funny article published in the Sunday magazine of a Houston paper and she has placed in writing contests as well.
Thank you, Barbara.
My earliest memory of writing is when my sister, Barbara Cagle, decided we would publish a neighborhood magazine. We were living on Pete's Path in Austin at the time, so I had to be about twelve years old. She had written and produced some neighborhood plays several years before this when we lived on Josephine Street in South Austin.
But, my involvement as a writer didn't occur until the magazine phase. By publish, keep in mind that the magazine was handwritten and each copy was handwritten as well. So there wasn't a wide distribution and the magazine only last for a summer. When school started we were too busy to continue it. But I remember getting to write and I remember the encouragement from Barbara.
She also told me I had to keep a journal of all the movies I went to see. We included movie reviews in the magazine as well as news about our neighbors. I remember getting a spiral notebook and on one side I pasted the ad for the movie clipped from the newspaper. On the other side was the movie review itself. I wish I still had that spiral notebook. It was lost in a heavy rain that flooded my basement bedroom years later while I was away in the Marine Corps. I lost all my precious books in that storm, but that's a story for another time.
I had the writing bug from then on. Aptitude tests showed an interest in creative writing, but my school counselors said I should think of it as a hobby since few people made a living from writing. So, I ended up majoring in computer science and wrote for the fun of it, including a novel written about my time in the marines that was never finished.
I also wrote short stories. Only one was published, but it was a thrill to see it in print. Much of the writing I did was as a part of my jobs as a computer programmer and systems analyst. I was called on to do the reports, or apply for grants, and I learned my writing gave me a way of persuading others that I couldn't do face to face.
I published one computer book, Automated Law Office Systems
, but it was short lived due to the rapid changes in computers.I realize this would be too long an answer to the question posed at the beginning, but there you have it. And, by the way, my sister is still writing. She had a funny article published in the Sunday magazine of a Houston paper and she has placed in writing contests as well.
Thank you, Barbara.
Monday, July 12, 2010
More About Software and Writing
I told you about how I use Microsoft Excel to summarize scenes in my novels, Where Love Once Lived and Vengeance Is Mine. That made me think about how I use hidden words in Microsoft Word. At the beginning of every scene, I include the following information formatted as hidden:
• Time (day of week, date, time of day)
• Weather (temperature, rain, etc.)
• Scene number
• Scene setting
• Scene goal
• Scene conflict
If you're not familiar with hidden text, read up on it in Word Help. It can be quite useful. You'll also need to go to Word Options to turn on display and print for hidden text. If you want to see the manuscript without your notes either on screen or in print, modify the settings
Sometimes the date doesn't matter to a story. However, I included it anyway to add realism. I don't always include the year, but it helps to know the month and day. Same for weather. You can use the real weather for a particular day by looking it up online, or use some imaginary dark clouds or rain to add a mood if it helps your story.
One problem with using hidden text in this way is that when scenes are added, deleted or moved, the numbering has to be changed. However, if you do this in conjunction with the Excel scene summary I described previously you can make the change there first.
I teach Excel, plus the rest of Microsoft Office at Austin Community College, so feel free to ask if you have questions.
• Time (day of week, date, time of day)
• Weather (temperature, rain, etc.)
• Scene number
• Scene setting
• Scene goal
• Scene conflict
If you're not familiar with hidden text, read up on it in Word Help. It can be quite useful. You'll also need to go to Word Options to turn on display and print for hidden text. If you want to see the manuscript without your notes either on screen or in print, modify the settings
Sometimes the date doesn't matter to a story. However, I included it anyway to add realism. I don't always include the year, but it helps to know the month and day. Same for weather. You can use the real weather for a particular day by looking it up online, or use some imaginary dark clouds or rain to add a mood if it helps your story.
One problem with using hidden text in this way is that when scenes are added, deleted or moved, the numbering has to be changed. However, if you do this in conjunction with the Excel scene summary I described previously you can make the change there first.
I teach Excel, plus the rest of Microsoft Office at Austin Community College, so feel free to ask if you have questions.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Let Your Computer Help Your Writing
In a recent post in The Writer's Alley, Krista Phillips talked about using software such as Microsoft's Outlook and Excel to keep track of the timeline in your novel. Her reason was to make sure you don't overlook an important event such as Independence Day as you are writing.
I used an Excel spreadsheet while writing Where Love Once Lived for a simple scene summary worksheet. The fields included:
• Chapter number
• Scene number (computed after scene 1)
• Number of pages in chapter
• Number of words in scene
• Total number of words (computed)
• Date
• Day of week (computed)
• Location
• Scene Goal
• Conflict
This worked fine for Where Love Once Lived, but when I started working on Vengeance Is Mine, I ran into trouble trying to line up events with the calendar. I had my amateur detectives finding clues hidden in a field in Massachusetts that was more than likely under five or six feet of snow at the time. As it is, they spend Christmas day in the Galveston jail. I decided I liked that and made use of it in a later scene.
To simplify change, I only enter the date of scene 1. The rest are computed. That way, I can modify the starting date until all the scenes fall into place. So, I've added a new field before Date called Days. It is the number of days from scene 1 to the current scene. With this information I can easily compute the date and day of week of the scene.
It's not easy to explain worksheets in text, so if you're interested, I'll be glad to send you a copy of what I ended up which includes the formulas.
I used an Excel spreadsheet while writing Where Love Once Lived for a simple scene summary worksheet. The fields included:
• Chapter number
• Scene number (computed after scene 1)
• Number of pages in chapter
• Number of words in scene
• Total number of words (computed)
• Date
• Day of week (computed)
• Location
• Scene Goal
• Conflict
This worked fine for Where Love Once Lived, but when I started working on Vengeance Is Mine, I ran into trouble trying to line up events with the calendar. I had my amateur detectives finding clues hidden in a field in Massachusetts that was more than likely under five or six feet of snow at the time. As it is, they spend Christmas day in the Galveston jail. I decided I liked that and made use of it in a later scene.
To simplify change, I only enter the date of scene 1. The rest are computed. That way, I can modify the starting date until all the scenes fall into place. So, I've added a new field before Date called Days. It is the number of days from scene 1 to the current scene. With this information I can easily compute the date and day of week of the scene.
It's not easy to explain worksheets in text, so if you're interested, I'll be glad to send you a copy of what I ended up which includes the formulas.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Taking a Break From Writing
My goal is to provide something of interest to both readers and writers who like fiction that shows the love of God without being preachy. Since my book is set in Austin, Texas, this blog also includes some of my memories about growing up in Austin before it became weird.
So, a trip to China where Celeste and I sang in five choral concerts doesn't fit the goal of the blog. In fact, I made an effort to take a vacation from working on Where Love Once Lived while on the trip. Although I had written enough articles to post one each day while we were gone, I only touched a computer once in China and that was to get better seats on the plane for our return trip.
Besides seeing most of the tourist sites in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an, we rehearsed and gave concerts. The night before we sang at the Great Wall, we got together in the parking lot outside our hotel and went over the music. We had joined up with a group from Mineral Wells, Texas and it was the first time we had rehearsed the American music concert together. Another day, we rehearsed the Haydn Mass in Time of War for three hours.
The trip was wonderful. Often, the choral aspects of such trips become secondary to the singer's tourist activities. Not so, for this trip. The concerts were the highlights of the trip. The Chinese loved what we did. In one venue we were in tight quarters and an older woman stood behind me, looked over my shoulder at the music, and sang along. I shifted the music over to where she could see better and encouraged her. All those around her smiled.
By the time we reached the Shanghai Expo, most of us knew Great Gettin' Up Mornin' by heart since the words are repeated. Ryan Heller, our conductor for that part of the tour, looked pleasantly shocked when we dropped our music folders on the floor so we could clap along with the music. The audience cheered and clapped with us.
The Chinese cheered most loudly when we sang The Jasmine Flower, in Chinese. We had the words written phonetically, but we must have sounded right because the audience cheered every time we sang it.
So, you see, there's not much in here about writing. Perhaps, the only way to justify this post is to say, all writers need to take a break from time to time and do something to collect new information to write about. When you read Where Love Once Lived, for example, you'll find I've included much about a trip or two to Germany. In fact, the book was completed while in Germany. But, that's a story for another day.
This was an unusual post, so please feel free to let me know what you think about it.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Where Love Once Lived Cover
I received two cover proofs from CreateSpace today. The next step is for me to choose one. I can request a third concept, but there will be an additional fee for that service. The exciting part of this is that I like both covers. That's also a problem because I can only pick one. Will you help?
Here are the descriptions of the differences provided by CreateSpace:
Cover 1 -- Both covers use the illustration provided. This one uses a blue background and a simple type treatment. The word Love is in red to represent the blood of Christ.
Cover 2 -- This concept uses a green background that matches the style of the illustration. The back cover also contains a few flower petals faintly visible. The type treatment is more prominent in this example.
The words are the same. Only the colors and the fonts vary. Which one do you like best?
Here are the words that are on the back of the cover:
She'd once loved a bookmobile driver. Memories of that time with him poured in so rapidly she caught her breath. It'd been long ago, but her heart remembered. At first she remembered the love she'd felt back then, but the good memories didn't last long. She'd gone to the bookmobile as usual that last day, but nothing was to be the same again. She went to Brian with love and exciting news. She left alone. Not just without him, but alone in the world and apart from God.
Is it ever too late to find happiness? No, says Sidney W. Frost in his inspirational Christian novel, Where Love Once Lived. Brian Donelson returns to his hometown after a thirty-year absence to win back his beloved Karen. But Karen, who has grown closer to God than he has, harbors a secret that keeps her away from Brian at all costs. While driving the local bookmobile, Brian struggles to earn her trust, even as he grapples with secrets of his own. With God’s help, can these two find happiness? Beautifully written and told with wit and grace, Where Love Once Lived is a moving love story filled with the glory of God.
Sidney W. Frost is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and a Stephen Minister. While a student at the University of Texas, he worked as a bookmobile driver for the Austin Public Library.
Here are the descriptions of the differences provided by CreateSpace:
Cover 1 -- Both covers use the illustration provided. This one uses a blue background and a simple type treatment. The word Love is in red to represent the blood of Christ.
Cover 2 -- This concept uses a green background that matches the style of the illustration. The back cover also contains a few flower petals faintly visible. The type treatment is more prominent in this example.
The words are the same. Only the colors and the fonts vary. Which one do you like best?
Here are the words that are on the back of the cover:
She'd once loved a bookmobile driver. Memories of that time with him poured in so rapidly she caught her breath. It'd been long ago, but her heart remembered. At first she remembered the love she'd felt back then, but the good memories didn't last long. She'd gone to the bookmobile as usual that last day, but nothing was to be the same again. She went to Brian with love and exciting news. She left alone. Not just without him, but alone in the world and apart from God.
Is it ever too late to find happiness? No, says Sidney W. Frost in his inspirational Christian novel, Where Love Once Lived. Brian Donelson returns to his hometown after a thirty-year absence to win back his beloved Karen. But Karen, who has grown closer to God than he has, harbors a secret that keeps her away from Brian at all costs. While driving the local bookmobile, Brian struggles to earn her trust, even as he grapples with secrets of his own. With God’s help, can these two find happiness? Beautifully written and told with wit and grace, Where Love Once Lived is a moving love story filled with the glory of God.
Sidney W. Frost is an elder in the Presbyterian Church and a Stephen Minister. While a student at the University of Texas, he worked as a bookmobile driver for the Austin Public Library.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Book Promotion in the Digital Age: Dos and Don'ts From the Media
The moderator was Rusty Shelton of Phenix and Phenix Literary Publicists. The panelists were: Book editors Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle and Jody Seaborn of the Austin American-Statesman, and Ed Nawotka of Publishing Perspectives.
The book editors stressed the need to emphasize how the book would be interesting to their readers. A local connection is a plus. They both said they get many books to review and currently have hundreds unread. Neither accepts self-published books as a way of cutting back on the number of books to be considered. Jody said he knows they will eventually need to take a look at self-published books, but he's not sure when that will happen. Press releases from self publishers are filtered and not read. They mentioned Lulu and iUniverse in particular.
They said a local bookstore (BookPeople, in Austin) stocks and pushes self-published books that have a local connection.
Kimberley suggested trying to get reviewed on blogs instead of newspapers since the review will be available much longer in the blog than in the paper.
In addition to the many books they receive, they get about 200 digital galleys each day. However, neither one of them reads anything unless it is printed so that they can easily make notes in the margins.
They also talked about the need to be timely, since they write for newspapers. However, if the book has been out for awhile, they may use an event date such as a book signing as a reason to write about the book. Events may help you get reviewed, or at least listed in the newspaper.
Jody said a book with an Austin or Texas back story has a better chance of mention in the paper. This was encouraging to me since Where Love Once Lived is set in Austin. However, it is self-published, so it probably won't be listed for that reason.
If you have a book to sell, let me know if any of these suggestions from the panelists help.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Celebrating Independence Day
The United States is a youngster compared to Asian and European countries. I have read some of the first novels published in America. James Fenimore Cooper's
The Last of the Mohicans, written in 1826, is on my iPhone eReader as I write this. I've read it several times and still enjoy it.According The Norton Anthology of American Literature
, published in 2007 and edited by Nina Baym, the first American novel is William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy published in 1789. Think about all the great American novelists. I've read everything written by James Michener
, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, and many others. James Michener lived in Austin for a time and my father was his barber during that time. Michener is buried in the same cemetary as my father. In 1993, The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas was created with a $20 million donation from the author.John Steinbeck also has an Austin connection. There is a collection of his papers and edited manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin.
Today, technology provides a way for all of us to publish a book. I'm using CreateSpace
's professional approach for Where Love Once Lived and paying extra to make my book look more like one published by the big publishing houses. However, both CreateSpace and Lulu let you create a book at little cost. You can design your own cover using software tools they provide and you can lay out your own pages and print your book for less than ten bucks. With print on demand, authors can order only the books needed. The cost doesn't change if you order one book or thousands.We've come a long way America.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Social Media: How to Make It Work for You -- Rather Than You Working for It
The moderator was Shennandoah Diaz of Greenleaf Book Group. The panelists were: Scott Allen of BookRix, author Lynn Reardon
, Jennifer Hill Robenalt of Robin Hill Media, and Rusty Shelton of Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists.Rusty said that an author should act like a media outlet and a resource for others to use. When doing so, don't try to sell books. Provide content that others can use and you'll get your name out there. Jennifer agreed and said to talk about yourself the way you would at a party. Be real, knowledgeable, not superficial.
Be consistent about who you are and get the most out of the content you put out. Develop a following. The more followers you have, the better chance you have to get an agent. Use content in your blog that causes readers to keep reading and recommend your blog to others.
Include book reviews of books similar to yours in you blog. Review best sellers so that your reviews have a better chance of reaching more people. Most authors will want to link to you after a favorable review. Also, the author's agent and publisher will take note of you. They probably have Google Alerts set to find any information that mentions their client and their client's books.
Jennifer said to request an interview with an author for your blog. This will give you access to their publicity. Usually, all you have to do is send them questions and they'll send the answers for you to publish.
Scott said he found interviews generate more traffic than book reviews. Also, interviews take up more pages and there's more for the search engines to pick up. In addition, interviews last longer than reviews since interviews are about the author and reviews are about the book.
Rusty said to use Google Alerts to help find timely subjects for a blog. If you don't have time to do everything, the top priority is a blog and a website. After that comes Twitter followed by Facebook.
Scott said the fastest and cheapest way to get to the top of the Google search page is to have a video. Jennifer mentioned using http://animoto.com/ to help prepare a video.
See Paulo Coelho
on Facebook for an example of using social media to advertise yourself and your books.Lynn said she started using social media six months before her book came out. She calls it an accidental bestseller.
Jennifer mention virtual book tours with like-minded authors. Scott said he didn't do face-to-face tours and now regrets it. He recommends doing as many book signings and speeches as possible.
Rusty said you should publish your book for e-Readers and add links at the end to get to your website and/or blog.
Scott said to look for ways to link to a charity in your blog. This generates a wider audience while doing some good for the charity.
Lynn suggested sharing a dilemma with your readers. Get them involved. Readers want to know your writing process.
One of the panelists suggested http://www.mediabistro.com/ to learn more about using the media.
With Where Love Once Lived, I need to look for Christian Fiction groups in and around Austin for face-to-face meeting. I could offer to talk about my experience with CreateSpace, writing the book, and using social media for publicity.
If you have a book to sell, let me know if any of these suggestions from the panelists help.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Why It's Never Too Early to Start Thinking About PR & Marketing
The moderator was Shennandoah Diaz of Greenleaf Book Group. The panelists were: Marilyn Carter of Marilyn Carter Marketing and Communications, Lisa Lawrence of LL PR Media and Public Relations, and Jennifer Hill Robenalt of Robin Hill Media.
The panelists suggested getting ideas from other writers and publishers, especially those with books in your genre, by using Google Alerts. I use Google Alerts to see what's being said about my books, but I hadn't considered using it to get information about other, similar books. It's easy to use. Go to Google.com and click on more and then even more. From there, select Alerts and it'll be easy to figure out the rest.
Another idea I got in the session was to set up an author Facebook page. The panelists disagreed on whether to have one for each book or one for all books. After they discussed it, I decided it was best to have one for all books. This gives you a chance to sell yourself more and you don't have to get fans all over again when a new book comes out. I haven't set mine up yet, but when I do, I'll tell you more about it.
The panelists talked about the importance of videos to help sell your books. If you don't have the software to do it yourself, you may want to check out http://animoto.com/. I haven't tried it yet, but I looked it over and it looks promising. The use public domain photos and music so there are no royalty payments. There is a free version and a paid version.
Another suggestion was to look for blogs in your book category and add meaningful comments on as many as possible. Keep your comments to the subject and don't try to sell yourself. The benefit will come when other readers (and the blog authors) see your name and comments and decide to check you out. I've picked up several blog followers using this technique.
Publishers still use press releases, but they are seen by the panelists as necessary evils that don't do much to increase sales. Most of the people who receive them disregard them because they know the same message was sent to many other outlets. It would be better to send a unique message and pitch to each place you want some free advertising.
Many bloggers are looking for content. You can write your own questions and answers to send them. Make each one special. Look for blogs that do virtual book tours.
If you're doing a non-fiction book, and are an expert in some field, a good place to go is http://www.helpareporter.com/. You can sign up to receive queries from writers looking for expert information. You may then be quoted in a high-distribution publication along with the title of your book. I'm not sure it will be useful for fiction, but I signed up anyway.
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