Whether we want to admit or not, every book that's ever been written is a niche book. The trick is identifying your niche, or your audience, and if your audience is very limited, you may want to reconsider writing it.
For example, my
Marina Martindale books are aimed at women, ages 30 to 60. Of course, there will be some exceptions--men, teenagers, young adults, and people in their 70s and 80s who'll also read, and like my books. However, the main audience will be the aforementioned thirty to sixty-year-old women. That's a good-sized niche, so it makes sense for me to write them.
Some of my
Good Oak authors have written specialty books, so their audiences will be considerably smaller. This doesn't mean their book is bad, or that I won't publish it. It just means that there will be a smaller pool of potential book buyers out there for them, so they'll have to understand that they can't expect their books to become bestsellers. As long as they understand that, (which they do), they won't be disappointed.
Before you start writing, particularly if it's your first book, you need to think long and hard about who your book's audience is. Please don't say, "my book is for everybody," because there is no book out there that's for everyone. We're all different, so we all have different tastes books. However, if your book's audience is young adults, ages 18 to 25, then that's a good-sized market. Your book would probably be worth the time and energy to write, and you may even want to consider hiring a good book publicist once you're finished. It too might be worth the expense. But on the other hand, if your audience is, for example, young men, aged 18 to 25, who are recovering from substance abuse and who become born-again Christians, your audience will be a lot smaller. My advice to you would be to do some research
before you start writing your book so you can determine if your project will be worth the time and expense. Most importantly, you need to be honest with yourself about what your expectations are. If you've aimed for the above-mentioned ex-drug abusers turned born again Christians, and you're thinking that you're book will make a lot of money, or will become a bestseller, you really need to think again.
Writing a book is a serious investment of time, effort and money. You need to put some serious thought into who your readers are, and your reasons for writing your book,
before you begin. While it's true that there is an audience for every book, the reality is that not every book will have enough of an audience to warrant the time and expense of writing it.
GM
That's the question I've been pondering lately. Or, more realistically, is it worth the expense to enter a competition?
Back in the mid 2000s, when I first starting writing and publishing books, there were dozens of opportunities for independent authors, such as myself, to enter book award competitions. At that time the entry fees were reasonable, and if you won, or were a finalist, they'd send you some pretty gold foil stickers to put on your front cover. Two of my Luke and Jenny books were finalists in a couple of competitions, and along with the pretty gold stickers, I added a book award graphic on the front covers. Ahh, those were the days...
This morning I was going over the rules for the early-bird call to entries for a prestigious book competition. They didn't have a category for romance novels, but they did have one for cover design, and I was giving serious thought to entering my latest Marina Martindale novel,
The Deception, for its cover. Then I looked at the rules, and I almost fell out of my chair. The "early bird" entry was $90. Ninety bucks! In a recession, with money being tight, I'd have to think long and hard about it. Then it got worse. They wanted FOUR (4) copies of the book along with the $90 entry fee. Even at wholesale, that's still approximately $5 per copy, which makes the cost on entering about $110.00.
Sorry guys, but I just can't do it. We're in a recession, and that $110 will also buy a lot of groceries. While winning awards is nice, being able to eat is even nicer. So, as much as I'd like to enter some book award competitions, I'm just not going to be able to do it until times get better.
Here's the skinny about book awards: I've won awards in the past, and yes, it's nice to be able to tout that win. However, those awards really didn't increase my book sales. So I'll conclude by saying that if you have the budget, and you can afford the entry fees, then go for it. Your book might be a winner, and that award certainly won't hurt. However, if you're on a budget, and you simply can't do it, then don't worry about it. Experience has taught me that you'll sell more books by investing in a good book publicist, and by going out and asking for reviews. I know as a book consumer, I pay a lot more attention to the book reviews than to whatever awards a book may or may not have won.
My thought for the day.
GM
For more information about my Marina Martindale books please visit my author blog at
www.marinamartindale.net.
My day today got off to the best start ever. My latest novel,
The Reunion, just got another five-star review on
Amazon. One comment made so far by all of the reviewers is how well the flashback scenes were done.
If used properly, flashback scenes can greatly enhance the story, and they're a terrific tool for telling the back story. Poorly done, however, they can be a distraction at best, or a hendrence blocking your story flow and annoying the reader. Here are my suggestions on how to apply flashback scenes.
Use Flashbacks Sparingly.
The Reunion has fifty chapters, but only four are flashbacks, and the flashbacks end after Chapter Six. The story is set in the present time with the characters in the here and now. Therefore I didn't want to spend too much time with the flashbacks.
Make Sure Your Flashbacks are Relevant to the Present Time. Since
The Reunion is about two lovers having a second chance later in life, the purpose of the flashbacks was so the readers could see the two lead characters, Ian and Gillian, meet for the first time, consummate their relationship for the first time, and get a feel for their earlier relationship. Interestingly enough, I decided not to show their original break up as a flashback. That back story is instead told in dialogue when Gillian describes their break up to a friend. Dialogue, by the way, is another great tool for telling the back story.
Watch Where You Insert a Flashback. Never drop a big flashback scene in the middle of a cliff hanger. This will upset and annoy your reader to no end. I set up my flashbacks in quiet scenes, at the end of a chapter, and then begin the flashback at the start of the following chapter. This way my reader is prepared for the flashback scene.
Here is an example of how I set up one of the flashback scenes from
The Reunion. It includes the end of Chapter One, with a badly started Gillian in the ladies' room gazing at her reflection in a mirror while trying to pull herself together. The last paragraph sets up the flashback scene, which immediately begins with Chapter Two.
Gillian looked a good ten years younger than her actual age. Despite all the time that had passed, she still looked much the same. About the only noticeable difference between then and now was that her long blonde hair was now a shoulder length pageboy. She started to reminisce about the past and her mind suddenly filled with a whirlwind of images of all they had shared, the good times as well as the bad. It was like watching a movie, but the scenes were spliced together out of sequence.
“Calm down, Gillian,” she told her reflection. “You’ve got to pull yourself together.”
She took a few more deep breaths, and as she did the events of one particular day b
You know, you live and you learn, and over the past several years I've learned
a lot about book marketing and building a brand through trial and error. One important lesson learned is to get that coveted .com domain name. Hey, we all know that, but I've also figured out that you need the .net name as well.
First the obvious. A competitor can snatch up that .net name, and it can create issues down the road if you're not careful. For instance, the .com version of my legal name, Gayle Martin, is already taken, but I managed to get
gaylemartin.net. I use the bejeepers out of it, so if you do a search on my name, guess which pops up higher in the search engines. The .com Gayle Martin is somewhere in the dust. Interestingly enough, there is another Gayle Martin out there who is also a writer, but somehow I've managed to build my brand effectively enough that I still rank higher in the search engines.
The other neat thing about having both the .com and .net is you can use one for your website, the other for your blog. Please allow me to give you an example.
When I switched genres and went from writing children's books to adult romance novels I had to reinvent myself and build a new brand. I was originally going to write them under my middle name, Marie, but first I did a domain name search. It turned out that neither the .com nor .net extensions for Marie Martin were available, so I had to get creative until I found a variation that was, hence
Marina Martindale. Now I have both extensions--
marinamartindale.com is my website and
marinamartindale.net is my blog. (Meantime people tell me Marina Martindale is a little sexier than Marie Martin. Things usually have a way of working out for the best.)
I know, sometimes that cyber-space real estate can by hard to come by, and again, you may have to be creative, but it's well worth the time and effort. Remember, you're building your brand.
My tip for the day.
GM
From time to time I go a little off topic with this blog, and this is one of those occasions. The subject of this post, however, does effect authors and writers, and everyone else for that matter. It's not only about the importance of having a living will, and a medical power of attorney, it's about
having someone you can trust, being placed in this kind of position.
Before I proceed any further I would like to state, for the record, that I am not an attorney, nor is this post to be construed as legal advice. It is my opinion, based on my own experiences.
My mother is quite advanced in years and she has been in failing health for sometime. Years ago, she had the foresight to purchase long-term care insurance, which is something I highly recommend everyone have. For about the past year or so she's required full-time in-home care, and because she had long-term care insurance she was able to get the care she needs and remain in her own home. Then, a few weeks ago, she had a mild stroke. This is when her life turned into a nightmare. The stroke left her slightly brain damaged, and she now suffers from dementia. One minute she's perfectly lucid, the next minute she's off in la-la land, then she'll go back to being lucid. She requires close supervision, but she is not a danger to herself or others.
Somewhere along the line my mother apparently gave my oldest brother a medical power of attorney. So, while she was in the hospital, he took it upon himself to have her "evaluated." She was seen by a psychologist who'd never seen her before, and who probably spent no more than an hour at the most with her. The next thing I hear is that my brother has used this evaluation to have her declared "mentally incompetent." He decided to ship her off to a nursing home, against her will, and over the wishes of other family members. My mother, in her lucid moments, is now begging and pleading to go home, but my brother won't hear of it, and the other family members lack the legal authority to override him. For whatever reason, he believes he's doing the right thing. (Although my attorney tells me it's a power trip, and I tend to agree.) That said, the rest of us know that the stress, and the angst, of being held held, permanently, against her will in a nursing home, will kill her, probably within months, if not weeks.
The point I'm making is to not only have a living will, but to please, make sure you spend some time talking with whomever you decide to give a medical power of attorney to. Make sure they know what your wishes are in the event you become incapcipated, and, if possible, make sure your attorney, or whomever draws up these documents, spells things out as clearly as possible.
Unfortunately I cannot undo what has been done to my mother. There was no reason why she could not have continued to be cared for in her own home, but, after discussing the matter with my own attorney, my hands are tied. She apparently gave the legal authority to my brother, and not to me. So, all I can do at this point is what I just suggested. I'm having my own living will updated and medical power of attorney updated, and I making damn sure the relatives I've assigned my medical power of attorney won't lock me up in a nursing home against my will. And yes, once it's been updated I'll be sure to send a copy of it to my older brother, certified mail, even though he's NOT going to be my medical power of attorney. I don't want him getting any ideas, if you know what I mean.
There are time when I get a little weary trying to explain to newbie authors why they need to have their manuscripts professionally edited. Sometimes they get it, other times they don't. (Sigh.) So, if for no other reason, have your manuscript professionally edited and proofread so your readers won't go onto forums and rip your book to shreds.
Never, ever assume your reader is stupid. They've just paid good money for your book. They're used to reading well edited books, and they expect your book to be well edited too. If it isn't, they will be disappointed at best. At worst they'll feel like they've been ripped-off. They may write you a bad review, or they may go on-line to reader's forums and point out your mistakes. Either way, your dirty laundry just got hung out to dry, and your career as an author may have just come to an untimely end. That said, I'm going to paraphrase some of the avoidable errors I've seen mentioned in on-line forums. (Please note that if you are reading this in a language other than English some of the errors I've listed below may not apply in your language.)
- A leading lady gets into a Handsome Cab. (As opposed to a hansom cab. Perhaps the cab driver was handsome.)
- The leading man is locked in a dudgeon. (That must be where the threw the stupid prisoners. No doubt the others were locked in the dungeon.)
- He wrapped his arms around her waste. (Yuk! I'm seeing a really nasty visual with that one. Hopefully the next time he'll wrap his arms around her waist.)
- During a sex scene he's having an organism. (There's an interesting twist to a love scene. After his tryst is over he needs to see a doctor.)
- He would gather her up in his arts. (What? You mean he put her body parts into his sculptures? Sounds like that old Vincent Price movie about the wax museum. I'd much prefer that he'd gathered her in his arms.)
What do all these faux paus have in common? According to the forum I was reading, they all came out of self-published books. Yes, it's funny to us, but not so much to the authors who wrote them. What's sad is that these are just a few of the kind of mistakes that a good editor will catch, and correct.
Still think you don't need an editor? Well, if you don't mind being laughed at on a public forum maybe you don't. However, if you want to be taken seriously as an author, and if you want your book to be successful, you'd better find yourself a good editor.
My tip for the day.
GM
The other day I had an interesting telephone conversation with a prospective author. He was lamenting about the fact that his current book just isn't selling, and he wondered if it would even be worth his time to bother publishing his next book. I asked him what he'd been doing to market his book. He told me he hadn't done any marketing. He honestly believed that all he needed to do was list his book on Amazon and people would come along to buy it.
"Build it and they will come," may have worked in the movie
Field of Dreams, but that mindset simply doesn't apply in the business of selling books. Nor is it up to your publisher to go out and sell your book for you. They can distribute it, but unless you, the author, go out there and start marketing, it will not sell.
There are a number of things that you, as a author must do, in order to effectively market your book. This would include:
- Getting your book reviewed.
- Having a website or a blog, or both, about your book.
- Promoting your book on social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.
- Listing your book on websites such as Goodreads, Author's Den and Red Room.
- Doing some speaking gigs.
- Having book signings.
All that I have listed above are free. There are also a number of books on Amazon about how to market your book. Likewise if you do a Google search you'll find websites about book marketing, some of which offer free newsletters.
If you have the means you can hire a publicist, but be sure that he or she has experience in book promotion, because book promotion is different from other kinds of public relations. Also be sure to talk to them about the cost. Some firms may charge as much as $3000 a month for their services. Others charge much less, and they may do just as good of a job as the higher-priced publicists.
No one ever said marketing a book would be easy, especially now that we're living in a time when anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can upload a Word file onto Amazon Kindle and call themselves an author. Unless your name is Stephan King or J.K. Rowling don't expect people bust down the doors to buy your book just because you've listed it on Amazon. You're going to have to get off your fanny and do some work.
My tip for the day.
GM
I've been talking with my editor about tag lines--those little action phrases in your dialog that indicate who is talking. You know, the "he said," "she replied," "he explained," "she muttered." We both attended a meeting not too long ago where the speaker told us not to use them.
My grade school teachers taught me to use a tag line after
every line of dialog. When you're writing at the fourth grade level that makes sense. That's pretty much the way I handled the dialog in my
Luke and Jenny books, since they are aimed at fourth grade readers. However, when writing for adult readers, this isn't always necessary, particularly if there are only two characters engaged in the dialog. At that point I agree. Having a, "he said," "she replied," after every single line of dialog could be redundant, and may even annoy the reader.
Now, here is where I disagree with the speaker. He believes that by not having any tags the reader will pay closer attention to the dialog. Wrong! You have to have at least
some tags, otherwise the reader will become lost and confused, and that too would be annoying. I also occasionally use tags to add action or to indicate voice tone.
I've created my own formula that I find works well, and it's very simple.
When writing dialog between two characters, indicate early on who is speaking, then go for about three to six lines. Afterwords write another tag or end the dialog. I'll illustrate this with an example from
The Reunion. Here, as I often do, I've set up the dialog with an action narrative. I left the first line untagged and tagged the second. Notice too that I let my characters call one another by name, which also eliminates the need for a tag line.
He pulled into the restaurant parking lot and escorted her inside. The dining room was softly lit and very formal. It was in sharp contrast to the college hangouts they’d frequented when they were younger. Seated in a quiet corner, Ian ordered a half-liter of wine. Once they were served, he raised his glass.
“Here’s to old friends and new beginnings.”
“Here, here,” replied Gillian as she raised hers.
“So, now that you know I’ve stayed with the same firm I’ve been with since I graduated, I should probably thank your father. He was the one who referred me to the Salisbury office in Phoenix.”
“I think my father would have been very proud of you, Ian. Unfortunately, he passed away a number of years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. If I’m not being too bold, may I ask what happened?”
0 Comments on Tag Lines -- So Who Said What as of 1/1/1900
I enjoy spending time with fellow authors, but one thing really does make me wonder, and that is when someone starts bragging about all the rejection letters they've received while their manuscripts sit collecting dust for months, even years. It's not a badge of honor. Meantime, while they're collecting their rejection letters, my books are on the market and they're being read.
As I often tell people, the six-figure advances, and all the fame that goes with it, is more myth than reality. Unless you're already a celebrity, the odds of a traditional publisher, particularly one of the major publishing houses, buying your manuscript, particularly if you're a first-time author, are about as good as going to Hollywood and landing a role in a feature film.
That's why I've never bothered playing the game. It's bullshit. I too have had literary agents express an interest in my work, and it never went anywhere. Experience has taught me that literary agents are full of more crap than the Thanksgiving turkey. I rank them right up with used-car salesmen. Yet I hear, over and over again, "I sent an email to an agent, and they got back with me right away and wanted my manuscript, so I sent it to them. That was months ago. When are they ever going to get back with me?"
So, as I've mentioned before, while you all are being jerked around, my books are being published and people are reading them. That's because I started out doing something called partnership publishing.
Partnership publishing is when you take control and you pay someone to publish your book. Is that "vanity publishing?" No. It's a business decision. It means that you believe in your work enough that you're willing to invest your own money in it. It also means that you get to retain the rights to your work. It's really a form of self-publishing, only this time the publisher does all the formatting, printing and distribution, which is something most writers don't have the time, or the skill, to do.
With both traditional and partnership publishing it is up to you, the author, to do the marketing. With partnership publishers, however, you won't have spend years of your life begging and pleading and jumping through hoops. You get your book published, in weeks instead of years, and a publishing partner won't drop you if your book fails to meet their expectations.
Just like anything else, there are good and bad partnership publishing companies out there, so it's best to shop around. The typical price is $2000 to $5000. That may sound like a lot, but please keep in mind that producing a quality book is a time-consuming process that requires special skills and special software. Most importantly, find out about distribution. That's the key. If they aren't distributing through Ingram or Baker & Taylor, or both, you're going to have trouble getting your books in bookstores.
So, it's up to you. Do you spend the next few years collecting rejection letters while your book remains unread? Or do you want to control your own destiny and get your book into the hands of readers? The choice is up to you. If you decide to take control, please come visit our website at
www.goodoakpress.com and find out how we can create a book you'll be proud of.
GM
Awhile back I posted an article called,
So You Think You Don't Need an Editor - Part One. In that article I discussed the fact that your editor is a fresh pair of eyes to go over your manuscript and give it the polish it needs to become a successful book.
I know for many of you money is tight, and unless you're one of the very few lucky writers who gets picked up by a traditional publisher, you're going to have to invest some of your own money into producing your book. Typically, at least in my part of the county, a good editor will charge around one or two cents per word, which means for an 80,000 to 100,000 word manuscript you're looking at spending around $1000 to $1500. I know it's a lot of money, and I know that some of you are temped to take shortcuts. My advice:
Don't do it.For example, it's temping to ask your friends, you cousin, of even you mom to do your editing, and while these folks can offer good suggestions, unless they have a background in journalism, teaching English, or other professional writing experience, they're really not qualified for the job. Let me give you an example of what happens when you ask your friend or relative to do a job that should be handled by a professional. One of my friends once told me she had her mother help her with her income tax return. Her mother had no accounting or bookkeeping experience, and needless to say, her return ended up being audited by the IRS. They came after her, not only for the additional taxes that she owed, but with penalties and interest as well. She ended up paying far more for the penalties and interest than what she would have spent on a qualified tax-preparer. Likewise, when you have an unqualified person edit your book, it too can come back with penalties and interest in the form of bad reviews.
Remember, your editor really isn't interested in changing your content. They are looking for things such as incorrect homonyms, dangling participles, improper paragraph formatting and other things that make you look like an amateur.
We've entered a time when anyone with a pulse and a computer can upload a book on Amazon Kindle and call themselves an author, which means the market is now flooded with badly written books. I'm reading all kinds of comments about this on various forums from frustrated readers who are tired of bad books and want some sort of vetting process. If you want to get those five-star reviews to make you stand out from all those amateurs then find yourself an experienced
professional book editor. Nothing will kill your writing career faster than having a poorly-written book with bad reviews.
My tip for the day.
GM
I'm still perturbed over something another author recently posted in her blog, and that is that subsidy publishers are out to rip-off authors.
Admittedly, there are good and bad subsidy publishers out there, just as there are good and bad people out there in any kind of business. This woman than went on to say what she felt was a "fair price," and her idea of a "fair price" proved, conclusively, that she didn't have a clue about just how much time, and equipment, is needed to produce a book.
For example, she stated that the average price for ebook conversions is about $200 to $300 dollars, and that you should never, ever pay, more than $100 to have your ebook done. Really? What planet is she from? You might get your neighbor's teenager to do it for that price, if you're lucky. Obviously, she's never converted an ebook herself. If she had, she would know that ebook conversion is a time-consuming process which requires a certain amount of skill and training if it is to be done properly. To pay a skilled worker $100 to convert your ebook would most likely come out to less than minimum wage.
She also railed against the average price that most subsidy publishers charge, which is around $2000 to $5000. Again, she demonstrates her ignorance about how much is involved with producing a book.
Formatting a printed book is an even more time-consuming process than creating an ebook. Producing a printed book requires special training and skills, and special software if it is to be done properly. I have a degree in art, and then I was a free-lance graphic designer. I spent many, many years learning my craft. I also have a great deal of money invested in my computer hardware and software. Typesetting in particular takes a great deal of time and patience, and to expect anyone to produce a high-quality printed book for a few hundred dollars is not only unreasonable, it's also unrealistic. I haven't even mentioned the overhead costs, like rent, telephones, Internet, and office staff. Does your doctor work for free? Does your plumber work for free? Then why should you expect the people who work hard to produce your book to work for free, or for less than a living wage?
Yes, there are some out there who do take advantage and charge and unreasonable fee. That's why it's up to you, the author, to do your homework and shop around. My experience has taught me that regardless of the product or service, I usually get the best results with the people whose price is somewhere in the middle. The cheap guy usually does shoddy work, and the most expensive guy really isn't any better than the others.
The bottom line is this: It costs money to produce a
quality book. If you want cheap, then you will end up with a cheap-looking book. So again, shop around, but, most importantly, do not take advice about what is a "fair price" from people who've never actually worked in the publishing business.
GM
My first book was a WWII era ration cookbook titled Anna's Kitchen. It contained a plethora of historic recipes and it was a lot of fun putting it together. It was also my first attempt at both book writing and book publishing, so it was a real learning experience. I did all the typesetting, layouts, and I designed the front and back covers. At the time I was such a little smart-alec that I thought I knew everything. Ha! Little did I know. I was so new to the world of writing and publishing that I didn't know what else to do, so I had 500 copies printed without any means to distribute them. Keep in mind the year was 2005, and back then Kindle was still on some engineer's drawing board, or perhaps still in his or her imagination.
Looking back, it was a humbling experience to say the least, but it was good in that it taught me a lot of lessons. It also gave me the credibility to approach my first publisher. But then, once I started writing the
Luke and Jenny books, I began to think of
Anna's Kitchen as my step-child, so I distanced myself from it. In hindsight that was a very silly thing to do. Since I didn't have the means back then to distribute through Ingram, I ended up selling
Anna's Kitchen at various book signings, and I also sold it on Amazon, where it actually has been selling nicely.
Anna's Kitchen would also become the inspiration to start up my food blog,
My Timeless Cuisine. I also remember once presenting a copy to a retired chef, and he was most impressed with the book.
So now I'm reaching the end of an era. I only have a handful of copies of Anna's Kitchen left, and I'll soon be listing them on Amazon. The book is out of print, and I won't be doing another run. I may, however, format a Kindle version, but that may be easier said than done. The book is chalked full of illustrations, and right now Kindle and e-reader technology is still a little challenged when it comes to ebooks with lots of illustrations.
I've considered doing a new version of
Anna's Kitchen, and now that I've started
Good Oak Press and can distribute through Ingram, I won't have the issues I had before. The new edition, if I decide to do it, will have a different title,
Rosie's Riveting Recipes, along with some additional historic recipes as well. What's holding me back is trying to find the means, and the time, to test the recipes. When I wrote
Anna's Kitchen it was for historic preservation purposes only. Later on I learned that I really should have tested all the recipes, but that takes time, so it's something I've been doing on the side. The other issue is the recipes themselves. Food, like fashion, seems to go through trends, and something I learned doing my food blog is that old-fashioned home cooking, like the stuff that our grandmothers used to make, isn't in vogue right now. Today's cooks seem to be more sophisticated. They want more sophisticated recipes for more sophisticated pallets. Many of the recipes I have tested, however, really are delicious.
So, I guess
Okay, I kicked her out of here... Wait! I can't do that. She's me and I'm her.
It was time. As you know, I'm now writing romance novels under the name Marina Martindale, and I've been posting about those books here, but this is really supposed to be a blog for writers and authors to come and learn more about the book publishing business, so... Now that
The Reunion is starting to build a following, I've created a new blog, just for Marina Martindale. There you will learn more about the books, and maybe, just maybe, we'll figure out the crazy process I go through to write them. Or maybe not. Who knows.
Anyway, it's a new blog, so it has that new car smell. The link is
www.marinamartindale.net. I hope you'll stop by, say hello, click on the "Follow" button.
Thanks,
GM
Yes, I've been on hiatus. I just went on a cruise, and then, once I returned, I had to get back to work. I must admit that taking a cruise was a real blast, and it was also an opportunity to do some research on a future novel.
Upon my return one of the things I looked into was finding out how I could take future cruises as an author/speaker, and either get a free cruise, or travel at a substantial discount. First I contacted my travel agent, but she didn't know much about it, so I went on line. How discouraging. I found lots of websites promising to tell me how to get a free cruise by being a speaker, but then, once I started reading, I discovered that each and every website was trying to sell me an ebook.
Meantime my travel agent sent me an email about a big travel show coming up, so I went. While I was there I talked to someone with
Carnival Cruises, the same company I cruised with. I asked, and she gave me the lowdown on speaking on cruise ships. (No ebook purchase required.) Please keep in mind she was only speaking for Carnival Cruises, but I'm sure other cruise lines have a similar policy.
Yes, you can cruise for free on Carnival if you are doing a speaking program, but here's the catch. You also need to have your audience signed up for the cruise in advance. It's sort of like doing a wedding cruise. The ship provides the facility, but you have to invite your own guests. So here are the steps.
1. Decide which cruise you want to take and contact your travel agent.
2. Contact your friends, family, fans, followers, clients, whoever, and get them to sign up. Your travel agent should be able to help you with signing them up.
3. Have your travel agent contact the cruise line and plan your event.
She told me that Carnival does not allow passengers to solicit other passengers, and I suspect that's probably the case with other cruise lines as well, so you will need to bring your audience with you. In other words, you have to do your own marketing, but once you get enough people to sign up you get to cruise for free.
So there you have it. That's the big secret.
Happy cruising,
GM
Literary competitions are a great way to market your book. However, I'm starting to notice a change in the air. Some of these competitions are no longer accepting ebooks. In other words, you can't enter unless you have a print version of your book.
The problem with ebooks, I believe, it that it has become too easy to publish them. The once-dreaded gatekeepers, whose mission was to prevent most well-written and professionally edited manuscripts from ever being published, are now nearly extinct. They've been replaced by Amazon Kindle and Smashwords, who have no means of vetting the content of any of the ebooks they publish. This means anyone with a pulse who has Internet access can now publish an ebook. As a result, the market is rapidly filling up with poorly-written ebooks. I'm already seeing negative comments posted on on-line forums by frustrated and disappointed readers begging for some sort of quality control from ebook publishers and distributors. I'm afraid if the trend continues, ebooks could soon become stigmatized.
The solution is simple. First, have you manuscript edited by a professional editor. Second, publish a hard copy of your book. Printed books open the door for you to enter more literary competitions, and winning, or even placing in a competition is an invaluable marketing tool that gives you, and your book, the credibility it deserves.
GM
Got an email the other day from one of my fellow authors who does editing on the side. She's in the middle of editing a novel for another author, in this case a second book within a series. She never read the first book, and the author is apparently making a mistake novice fiction writers sometimes make--that is assuming readers will have already read the first book. As a result, she found some passages to be very confusing, to say the least, making it difficult for her to do her job.
I recall making that mistake once myself. I'd just published
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the first book in my
Luke and Jenny series. As I began working on the manuscript for the second book,
Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, I too went on the assumption that readers would have already read the first book, so I was writing accordingly. Lucky for me, my publisher clued me in. I seem to recall sending her an early draft of the first few chapters, and she caught the error before I'd gone too far. She told me to never, ever assume that the reader has read the first book. Even if they had, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for a considerable amount of time to have passed before starting the next book. She told me to go on the assumption that the reader had not read the prior book, and write accordingly.
When writing a series you don't need to include a complete summary of the previous book(s). What you will need to do is write a few brief sentences, perhaps a paragraph, when appropriate, with just enough relevant information so your reader can understand, or recall, the back story and how it relates to the current plot. You can do this in the narrative. It's even better if you can work it into the dialog.
Don't leave your readers in the dark and never assume that they've read your earlier book(s). Bring them up to speed, as quickly as possible, so they can understand your story and follow the plot. Otherwise you'll end up with a frustrated, confused reader, who may very well toss your book aside without ever finishing it.
My tip for the day.
GM
I'm approximately halfway through the manuscript for my next
Marina Martindale novel,
The Deception. My two leading characters have, at long last, consummated their relationship and I've developed a temporary case of writer's block since I haven't quite figured out what curve balls I should throw their way. In the meantime, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to go back and review and revise my earlier chapters.
A funny thing happens while you write novels. Even if you start with a specific plan in mind, new ideas will come along as you put pen to paper, (or words to screen.) Your characters will also start to develop and take on lives of their own. Oftentimes this will result in having to go back and make some revisions in your earlier chapters. Don't fret. It's all perfectly normal. In fact, one author recently told me that she always goes back and completely rewrites the beginnings of her stories.
In my experience I've found that my stories are living, breathing things. They mature and develop as I write, and they are constantly changing. Sometimes that great scene in an earlier chapter might not work so well later on because one of my characters ended up evolving in different way. In this case, my leading lady thought that I was making her look too much like a loose woman in some of the earlier chapters. She wanted me to go back and restate the fact that she really is a good person. She just happened to get caught up in a bad situation, forcing her to do something that she really didn't want to do in order to keep a roof over her head. Now that I've gone back and clarified that fact the later parts of the story read better. It's all about going with the flow.
My tip for the day.
GM (aka Marina Martindale)
It's that time of year again when I get busy doing book signings, and while my intent is not to sound preachy, as authors we can sometimes let our enthusiasm get the best of us. Please consider this a gentle reminder that we all need to mind our manners at book signings.
Looking back, I think one of the worst experiences I ever had was one time while I was signing books down in Tombstone, (Arizona). It was one of their big event weekends, and the bookstore had me, as well as another author, seated outside on the boardwalk in front of the store. Unfortunately, the author seated next to me was a non-stop talker. He talked and talked and talked to me about anything and everything. Yak, yak, yak, yak yak. He just wouldn't shut up, even while I was trying to talk to potential buyers about my books, or trying to close a sale. As if this wasn't bad enough, he started blabbing about a rather controversial book he was planning to write concerning his religious beliefs. So, not only was I stuck with him yapping my ear off as I'm trying very, very hard, to talk my buyers, he's was quoting Biblical scripture, chapter and verse, in a very loud voice, in a very public place!
Please don't get me wrong. I have nothing against religion and I strongly believe that everyone should be free to practice their faith. However, there is a time and place for a religious debate, and it is
never on a sidewalk in front of a secular bookstore, at a secular event, where other authors are signing secular, non-religious books! People were not only
not stopping by my table, they were practically running away because this other author was, honestly, sounding like a nut. Instead of a successful weekend, as I normally have at Tombstone events, I had a disaster! I hardly sold any books.
A book signing is where authors come to connect one on one with their readers, and oftentimes there may be other authors at the same venue. And while it's nice to meet and network with other authors, please remember to keep it brief and try to limit the conversations to those times when there are no buyers around. Most importantly, keep your mouth shut while other authors are talking to a potential buyers!
My tip for the day.
GM
I've just learned that Paypal has decided that it will no longer allow authors to use it's payment services if their books contains scenes of rape, incest, or bestiality. I guess I'm in big trouble now.
Those of you who are regulars to this blog know that I happen to write romance novels under the pen name, Marina Martindale. And while my books are hardly erotica I do have, in the case of
The Reunion, a scene in which my leading lady, Gillian Matthews, is the victim of an
attempted rape. Notice how I said, "attempted." Ian, the leading man, intervenes, and the rape is thwarted.
I wrote this scene because it is an integral part of the plot line. Sadly, it is my understanding that this scene is in violation of Paypal's policies, because it involves "rape," and I apparently will not be able to use Paypal to sell my book. Not a problem.
The Reunion is available on
Amazon.com,
Barnes&Nobel.com, and
BooksaMillion.com. For the time being, at least these sites do not tell me what I can and cannot write, and what you, the reader, can and cannot read.
In the meantime I guess
The Reunion is banned by Paypal. Hey, I've been kicked out of better places. Trust me.
My thought for the day.
GM
Microsoft Word is a wonderful program. I use it myself and it's pretty much the standard for authors and writers. It has wonderful features and I love the editing tools. However, one has has to take the good with the bad, and Word is not without its problems.
One of the more common mistakes I'm finding in the Word files people are sending to me is treating the software like a typewriter. Microsoft Word, however, is not a typewriter, and it should never be used like a typewriter. Doing so can corrupt your files and create all kinds of problems.
One of the biggest no-nos for Word users is using the tab key to indent the first line of a new paragraph. NEVER, NEVER USE THE TAB KEY TO CREATE A PARAGRAPH INDENT IN MICROSOFT WORD! It will cause all kinds of issues that will come back and bite you in the fanny, big time, if you attempt to publish your manuscript as an ebook with either Amazon Kindle or Smashwords. It will also create a nightmare for whoever is formatting the print version of your manuscript in Adobe InDesign.
It's very simple to create paragraph indents in Microsoft Word. Simply go to the "Format" menu and select, "Paragraph." When the new window opens, go to the "Indents" section, and select the words, "First Line" from the pull-down menu underneath the word, "Special." Once you've select it, type "0.25" in the box underneath the word, "By." Click on "OK" to close the window and you're done. Your manuscript will automatically indent the first line of your paragraphs by one-quarter inch. Again, never, never, never use the tab key to indent the first lines of your paragraphs, unless of course you want to pay someone by the hour to manually delete the tabs for you.
My tip for the day.
GM
Those of you who are regulars to this blog have, undoubtedly, noticed that it has had a face lift. That's because I've decided to make,
From the Writer's Desk, the official blog for my new publishing company,
Good Oak Press.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. As a graphic designer with many years of experience, I've been doing book design for sometime now, and people have asked if I would include book printing as well. In the past I referred authors to Five Star Publications, who published my
Luke and Jenny books. They do outstanding work. I've always been confident that they would take good care of anyone I sent their way, which they have. I'd also planned to have Five Star publish my latest novel,
The Reunion, (which I've written as
Marina Martindale.) However, once the time came to go to press, I learned that Five Star has raised their prices considerably, and, alas, they are simply no longer in my budget.
They say things happen for a reason, so the situation being what it was, I decided to go ahead and take the next step and offer POD, (print on demand) publishing services for my book design clients, along with distribution through Ingram. I think this is going to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. My goal is simple. I want to help other authors publish books that they can be proud of, and make it affordable.
For more information about the different publishing options available to today's authors please refer to my
Publishing Options page at the top of this blog. To find out how Good Oak Press can help you publish your next book please visit our website at
www.GoodOakPress.com, or you may
contact us directly for a no-obligation quote.
Please let me know how Good Oak Press can help you turn your manuscript into a book that you can be proud of.
GM
Writing memoirs has become a popular trend. I know I've been getting a lot of inquires from authors wanting to publish their memoirs. And while I won't turn an author away, I do suggest that you give a lot of thought before putting in the time to write your memoir.
Our life's journey is certainly interesting to us, but it interesting enough to capture another person's interest? There's the rub, and it's the question you have to answer, honestly, before you publish your memoir.
If you're a celebrity it's a no brainer. Our society is obsessed with celebrities and can't get enough. However, most of us are not celebrities, so that takes care of that. Then again, you don't have to be a rock star to be famous. Most of us will get our, "fifteen minutes" sometime, and, for some, it may be worthy of a memoir. For example, Daniel Hernandez, the twenty-year-old intern who saved Gabby Giffords' life the morning she was shot, would certainly be a good candidate for writing a memoir.
Okay, so you're not a celebrity, and you're not tied to some major news event. Have you overcome an obstacle in your life that is beyond the ordinary? For example, are you someone who survived a violent crime? Did you survive some horrible disease that would be fatal to most people? Have you traveled to some faraway, exotic destination, such as Antarctica, that most people will never see? Have you had some other extraordinary life experience? Most importantly, would your story be an inspiration to others? If your answer to any of these questions is, "yes," then perhaps you should think about writing your memoir. However, if you answered "no," you may want to reconsider.
Most people read books because they want to be entertained, inspired, or because they want to learn something new. In other words, there has to be something in it for the reader. If you life is fairly typical, then, I'm sorry to say, most readers just won't be interested in your memoir. It has to be a story that inspires others, and perhaps changes people's lives for the better.
My tip for the day.
GM
There is nothing quite like the thrill of seeing your latest book on Amazon.
The Reunion, (which I've written as Marina Martindale) is now on Amazon.com.
I am in the process of setting up an, "Inside the Book," feature that will allow you to take a sneak peek. And yes, I've already formatted the Kindle edition, however I have to jump through a few hoops before it can be published, but rest assured, it's on its way.
I hope you'll have as much fun reading,
The Reunion, as I had writing it. And, please, if you like it, be sure to post a review on Amazon for other customers. When I get the chance, I'll start working on my next Marina Martindale novel,
The Deception. What happens when a "nice" girl discovers her new love is a married man? That's the premise for,
The Deception.
GM (aka "Marina Martindale.")
Just read a post on one of my on-line forums from a very happy, and excited, author whose book just won an award. My advice to him, and to the rest of you out there whose books have won awards--start bragging about it.
Book awards really are a big deal. It means that someone out there, with some credibility in the book world, has determined that your work stands out above the crowd, and that's an accomplishment you should be proud of. It's also a great tool to use in your marketing arsenal. The first thing you want to do is post it on your book's website, and your blog, (if you have one), just like I've done on this blog with the awards my books have won.
My other tip, if it is at all possible, is to have a "sticker" printed on your book cover. I did this with two of my books, and yes, it did cost me money to have the cover redone. However, I decided that it was well worth the expense, and it was something my tax preparer was able to write off. As you can see in the photo, the "sticker" is placed in the lower right corner. It's discreet enough to not overpower the cover art, yet it is still noticeable, and I don't think it's hurt my book sales.
I know, I know. If your mother was like mine she probably taught you that it's not nice to brag. And she's right--most of the time. But in this case, she's wrong. It's okay. You can brag about it.
My tip for the day.
GM
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I have to agree. It is indeed a brilliant strategy. I love your posts. I hope to read more of them soon.