Category: Uncategorized

Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 03/06/15

MARCHING INTO SPRING

This month I want to especially encourage my Fiction writer friends.  A very famous author and professor—S.I. Hayakawa—once said, “Fiction is a tool to increase one’s experience of life experiences.”  I wholeheartedly agree.  I’m just now realizing (in my adult years) that the main reason I’ve always enjoyed reading books of fiction is because I learn so much—without the tedious work and/or study of history, psychology, sociology, cultures, governments and laws, etc.  One well written Fiction Book exposes me to all those elements of life, expanding my knowledge and often adding the component of mystery or adventure.

It seems that I have very little time for pleasure reading these days, so I’m becoming quite selective in what books I purchase, not wanting to be disappointed in them.  If you’ve read previous blogs, you’re probably aware that I’m a big fan of author Lloyd C. Douglas, most specifically his novel THE ROBE. From the very first page I walked back in time and became part of the events in the lives of those characters.  The first time I opened this book I wasn’t far from my teen years and immediately identified with the main character’s little sister.  She (and I) matured together, dealing with lost loved ones, questions about “proprieties,” ethics, faith, war and much more—all elements pertinent to my own present-day life.

For the Fiction/Science Fiction enthusiasts, another book that I would re-read IF I had the time is titled The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.  The basic info statement about it reads: “In 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems…. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The ancient civilization (at least one million years old) are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years.”

BOTH books present readers with “real life” experiences IN unique settings of time and place.  Although the plots of these stories may seem dramatically different, they are basically quite similar.  But we won’t discuss that today.  Instead, I offer you the following Creative Writing for Fiction Readers pointers for your consideration.

  1. Does your novel immediately engage the reader in the mind-set and emotions of the characters?
  2. Are you providing enough background information (woven throughout the pages) that allows readers to understand why the characters DO what they do?
  3. Can readers describe the relationship dynamics between characters (friendships, siblings, marriages, co-workers, etc.)?
  4. Fiction readers want to know the characters well enough so that they can form an opinion about who they are and whether (or not) they admire them, dislike them, respect them or want to leave them on a deserted island somewhere because they are not fit for human companionship. Are your characters that well-defined?
  5. Do the characters—at least the main characters—evolve during the timeframe of your novel? (Suggestion: Watch the TV series Downton Abbey and observe the personalities as the development of these characters unfold.)
  6. Will your readers be able to discern whether a character’s actions were justified or unwarranted?
  7. Will your readers be able to “live” the lives of these characters?

Writing Fiction novels is quite possibly one of the most enjoyable of writing careers.  The character types you create will come alive in the minds of your reading Fans and bring you—Author! Author!—acclaim in the publishing and literary realms.  Film makers are also actively seeking the amazing characters only you can write-into-reality.

Royalene ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene Doyle is a Ghostwriter with Outskirts Press, bringing more than 35 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their writing projects. She has worked with both experienced and fledgling writers helping complete projects in multiple genres. When a writer brings the passion they have for their work and combines it with Royalene’s passion to see the finished project in print, books are published and the writer’s legacy is passed forward.
Book Promotion, Uncategorized

Why March is the Best Time to Promote Your Self-Published Book

March is National Small Press Month, which celebrates small publishers and showcases the unique voices of the authors who choose them. This makes March the perfect time to promote your self-published book! To help you take advantage of this, I will be offering promotion advice and ideas on the blog every Monday this month.

To get you started, here are five things you should do to maximize your  promotional efforts this month:

1. Order author copies.

Author copies are important at events such as book signings and giveaways. Be sure you have plenty on hand to support your promotional efforts this month.

2. Contact to your local bookstore.

Contact your local bookstore and inform them it’s Small Press Month. Encourage them to help promote books published by small presses by hosting events and offer discounts. Be sure to mention your book during this discussion.

3. Contact your local newspaper.

Contact the book review editor, features editor, the calendar editor, and business editor. Inform them about Small Press Month, introduce yourself and your book, and tell them about any events you are planning for the month.

4. Contact professional organizations.

If you belong to any professional organizations, be sure to share information about your planned events with them.

5. Get on the radio.

Reach out to local radio stations. Pitch an interview discussing your book and/or small press topics. Be sure to mention any events you have planned.

Check back next week for more promotion ideas.

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 25 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.
Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 02/27/15

LOVE CAN SHINE A LIGHTthe boys next door

 

Not long ago I caught the end of a conversation in a grocery store parking lot.  In a very animated voice, the woman was saying, “…but you just can’t do that to someone who depends on others to do the right thing by them.”  My imagination flew into action as the group—two ladies and two gentlemen—got into a van and drove away.  The sign painted on the side door read: HELP For Disabled Children Is Here.  I wondered.

Do you remember Mother Teresa?  She passed from this earth in 1997.  However, while on the planet she taught us a lot about LOVE.  “I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like,” she is quoted saying, “but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, He will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather He will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?’”  How will I answer that question?  Will examples of what I’ve written become evidence?

Back in 1996, I watched a TV movie titled: THE BOYS NEXT DOOR.  It was adapted for film from a stage play by playwright Tom Griffin. The story centers on a social worker (Jack) who found himself in a “job” that basically made him the “house-father” of four mentally challenged men living “regular” lives (to the best of their abilities) in a neighborhood house.  At one point in the story, there is a State Senate hearing that will decide the sustainability of this group home.  Jack and one of his charges (Lucien) are seated at the defendants table.  In this formal setting, the writer developed a short soliloquy, spoken by Lucien who steps aside from his mental illness for a few brief moments and speaks to the senators as if he were a “normal man.”  This superbly written dialogue is forever etched in my memory.  I would like to share the whole scene, but with limited space I will offer one quote.

Lucien stands up from the defendants table, straightens his rumpled suit and says: “I stand before you a middle-aged man…whose capacity for rational thought is somewhere between a five-year-old and an oyster.  I am retarded…damaged…sick inside from so many years of utter and profound confusion.…But I will not go away.…Damaged though I may be, I shall not wither, because I am unique and irreplaceable and part of you all.…Civilizations are judged by the way they treat their most helpless of citizens.  I am that citizen…and if you turn away from me, you extinguish your own light.”

Do you have such thoughts—such words—in your collection of BOOK ideas?  Are those concepts tossed about on scraps of paper or organized neatly in files?  PLEASE!  Don’t waste another minute!  Get your stories written!  The human condition of our world NEEDS to be encouraged!  There are too many lights hidden away under self-doubt and the fear-of-success.  You’ve been given the GIFT of writing—the skills and inspiration—to make a difference.  GET TO IT!

Royalene ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene Doyle is a Ghostwriter with Outskirts Press, bringing more than 35 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their writing projects. She has worked with both experienced and fledgling writers helping complete projects in multiple genres. When a writer brings the passion they have for their work and combines it with Royalene’s passion to see the finished project in print, books are published and the writer’s legacy is passed forward.
Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Jodee Speaks, Publishing Trends, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized

What makes for a great self-publishing company?

Many of the questions I hear most often, working as I do in the self-publishing business, can be distilled down to one very simple one: “What makes for a great self-publishing experience?”  The answer is equally simple: “A high-quality self-publishing company.”

First, we have to consider the business side of things.  A self-publishing company is, in the end, a company––and a company works according to profit.  As end users, either clients or readers, we want to know that we are receiving the best possible product and service for our investment.  You definitely want to look for a balance of:

  • reliability
  • affordability
  • quality production
  • excellent customer service, and
  • out-of-the-box thinking and solutions on offer

Of course, we don’t want to reduce the process of writing and publishing a book down to a simple exercise in corporate dynamics.  Book lovers, both writers and readers, know that there’s something, well, special about literature.  The advent of self-publishing has seen fierce debates spring up over the role of literary agents and publishing companies as “gatekeepers” for the written word, and rightfully so.  The stakes are very, very high when it comes to the stories we create and let influence our lives.  And because the stakes are high, it’s important that we look for a few more things out of a great self-publishing company, in addition to sound business practice.  We should look for:

  • sound ethics (from start to finish)
  • self-awareness (including of the company’s place and stance on being a “gatekeeper”)
  • authenticity (including a genuine interest in the client’s and reader’s satisfaction), and
  • sensitivity to a changing market and a changing world (which can translate to adaptability, but also to advocacy in the broadest and best sense)

Do your research!  Check online for customer satisfaction ratings––impartial ones––and contact the companies you’re interested in beforehand to gauge their possibilities.  After all, once you commit to a self-publishing company, you’re likely to be in close contact with them for quite a long time.

Now, someone might honestly point out that I work for one specific self-publishing company and therefore that I’m likely to view my own company in a favorable light, but here’s the thing: a great self-publishing company doesn’t need to be territorial.  All a great self-publishing company needs to do is offer a good product––a great package––and a service that puts its clients first and advocates endlessly for them.  The wonderful thing about the self-publishing industry is that at its core, it is a kind of fellowship of free (or freer) spirits who believe that the more voices that are heard, the more stories that are told, the better off we will all be.  So I’m not just an advocate for one company; I’m an advocate for the whole movement!

 

These are just a few thoughts to get us started.  What do you think makes for a great self-publishing company?  Drop me a line in the comments section to join the conversation.

 

ABOUT JODEE THAYER: With over 25 years of experience in sales and management, Jodee Thayer works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Jodee Thayer can put you on the right path.
Conversations with a Self-Publishing Writer, Royalene Speaks, Uncategorized

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 02/20/15

LOVE CAN TURN HATE ASIDEthe long shadow

 

The month of February is also the celebration of BLACK HISTORY—recognizing the accomplishments and contributions of African Americans from the foundation of America to this very day.  I felt it fitting to highlight this concept of LOVE as stated in the heading, not to dredge up painful events but to demonstrate that WRITERS throughout history can—and have—made a big difference in creating harmony in the lives of millions around the world.

Do you recognize the name Daisy Gatson Bates?  I would have said “no” just a few years ago.  However, this publisher, journalist and lecturer played a leading role in the Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957 and is honored for her lifetime accomplishments in the state of Arkansas on February 19th (or the 3rd Monday of every year) right along with remembrances of George Washington’s birthday and Martin Luther King.  As a foster child, Daisy attended the city’s segregated public schools.  In her teens, she learned that her birth mother had been raped and murdered by three local white men. No one was ever arrested and hate festered in her.  Her father told her: “Hate can destroy you, Daisy.  Don’t hate white people just because they’re white.…hate the humiliations we are living under…hate the discrimination that eats away at the South…and at the soul of every black man and woman.…Then try to do something about it.”  And so she did.

As an adult, Daisy and her husband published a local newspaper, the Arkansas State Press, utilizing her writing talents in her chosen field of advocacy journalism.  Stories about Civil Rights ran on the front page as well as the violations of the Supreme Court’s desegregation rulings.  However, the main stories that filled the paper spotlighted achievements of the black community in Arkansas.  Daisy had turned the painful events of her life into actively supporting those who wanted to change the segregated school system and increase opportunities for everyone.  Her clear and organized writing skills and positive attitude eventually led her to a position in the administration of President Johnson, working on anti-poverty programs.

Daisy wrote a memoir in 1962—The Long Shadow of Little Rock—which was banned throughout the South.  However, in 1988 the University of Arkansas Press reprinted it, after which it won an American Book Award.  President Bill Clinton (then Governor) said Daisy Bates is “the most distinguished Arkansas citizen of all time.”  In her later years, Daisy moved back to rural Arkansas, to concentrate on improving the lives of her neighbors (anyone who needed help) by establishing self-help programs that were responsible for new sewer systems, paved streets, a water system and community center.

Highlighting this woman’s life and accomplishments—as a person, journalist, publisher, author and advocate—exemplifies the points made by author Francine Rivers in my blog last week.

  • Tell the TRUTH, no matter how messy it is and get the details right.
  • Bad things happen. Ugly things. Sad and malicious things. There is also the TRUTH that good people make a difference. Their concepts of love, Faith, values, and doing what is right because it is right will make a difference.

Who is the person (or people) in your life demonstrating this element of LOVE?  Can their examples be incorporated into what you’re writing?  Do you need to write a True Story/memoir about their lives?  What is holding you back?  The WORLD needs more examples like this!  Write it! Get it PUBLISHED!

Royalene ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene Doyle is a Ghostwriter with Outskirts Press, bringing more than 35 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their writing projects. She has worked with both experienced and fledgling writers helping complete projects in multiple genres. When a writer brings the passion they have for their work and combines it with Royalene’s passion to see the finished project in print, books are published and the writer’s legacy is passed forward.