Tag: self publish

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Weekly Self-Published Book Review: Direction Memo

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review by Midwest Book Review:

direction memo 

Direction Memo

Paul M. Caspersen

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781432780722

Estate planning is a vitally necessary process to insure that property, wealth, and possessions are distributed in accordance with your instructions when you are no longer here to express or enforce them. Drawing upon his many years of experience and expertise as an estate planner, Paul M. Caspersen has published “Direction Memo: How to Write a Letter of Instructions for Your Estate Plan”, a 284-page compendium of superbly organized and presented information and instruction on creating an effect plan for the disposal of any estate of any size or cumulative value. Thoroughly ‘user friendly’, “Direction Memo” covers every aspect of estate planning from life insurance, to jewelry, to retirement plans or nursing home care for surviving spouses. It should be of special note that one of the primary values of sound estate planning is to lift the burden from family members of having to deal with these issues on top of the grief arising from the loss of a loved one. “Direction Memo” is strongly recommended for both personal and community library reference collections.

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

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 1/24/14

WARNING!!!

Two days ago I received a phone call from a former client—a memoir author who created one of the most heartwarming memoirs I’ve helped place in manuscript form.  He was very excited to tell me about a “great opportunity” he’d found in one of his favorite magazines; the “opportunity” to submit his “unpublished” memoir and WIN “big bucks,” PLUS have his work published by a major publishing house!  WOW, indeed!

My dear friend is not what he calls “handy with a computer,” so he asked me to look into the details and “rules of submission.”  That I did and I was shocked by what I read—shocked, angered, and very disappointed in the enterprises (magazine/publisher) that I considered to be among the best-of-the-best.  Imbedded in the “rules” was this statement:

“Submission of an Initial Entry grants sponsors and their agents the unconditional, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to publish, use, adapt, edit and/or modify such entry in any way, in any and all media, without limitation, and without consideration to the entrant, whether or not such entry is selected as a winning entry.”

Now I am concerned for my other clients (yes, I’ve contacted them) and all the folks out there who will read the first portions of the “rules,” follow the submission requirements, and LOSE ALL THE RIGHTS to their own stories simply by sending in an “entry.”  Bottom-line, I believe these publishing entities are on-the-hunt for excellent true stories (memoirs) that can be turned into “best sellers” by their writers—for their profit—and “without consideration” to the authors, the people who have lived those events.

SO IT IS that I offer a few pointers to those who enjoy entering writing contests:

  • READ EVERY WORD of the rules—whether titled Contest Rules or Submission Rules.  If there is ANY HINT of giving up ANY of your author rights, DO NOT SUBMIT ANYTHING to that contest.
  • Yes, there are writing contests that are reputable.  DO your homework and research the contests by contest name, sponsors, and previous “reviews” and/or comments.
  • There are many reasons for entering a writing contest.  What is yours?  Are you looking for an award that will enhance your writing resume or look good on the cover of your book?  Do you think “winning” will finally get your book published?  These can happen.  But, again, be aware of the cost to you—the time spent and emotional investment.
  • Finally, watch out for sales pitches—from associated contacts—that start coming your way.  Too many “contests” out there are simply fronts for finding potential customers in the writing software/hardware and publishing markets.

How am I counseling my memoir client?  After sending him a copy of ALL the rules and statements associated with that “contest”—and my warning NOT to submit his memoir to them—I sent him my review of a reputable self-publishing house where he WILL RETAIN ALL of his author rights.  He had not wanted to “publish” his memoir prior to seeing the advertisement for this contest.  However, several acquaintances who have read the manuscript have encouraged him to “get this story into the hands of more people.”  I hope he does.  It is a wonderful love and life story.

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.
Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Weekly Self-Published Book Review: Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review by Midwest Book Review:

 Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems

Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems

George RhoadesHowlett

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781432784997

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson

George Rhoades’ “Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems” is a rather interesting collection of poems, divided into two very distinctive and extremely different parts.

Part One deals with the cowboy life, and life along the Chisholm Trail. The author’s voice here is very distinctive, and the poems encompass all facets of such life, which is definitely epic. As the author put it so well himself:

“No wonder the cowboys rode
Into the hearts and imagination
Of the world, and shaped forever
The endurin’ character of this nation.”

The range of emotions expressed in the poems in Part One is very wide, and the author dealt with the subjects with a lot of dignity and respect. It would have been quite easy to depict cowboys as somewhat cartoonish, but that did not happen even in the most light-hearted of the poems in this collection. While this way of life is not familiar to me in the slightest, I greatly enjoyed reading about it.

Part Two is less homogenous, and much more contemporary, and deals with all kinds of ruminations on life, many of which are truly thought provoking. Some are sad, some are wistful, some downright hilarious, and of all of them my favorite happened to be one of the shortest poems in this book. “At Wal-Mart” has barely thirty-something words, yet it perfectly captures so much of what one sees there. While I laughed out loud at first after reading it, I felt compelled to re-read it later, and discovered that it was actually quite serious.

George Rhoades’ “Along the Chisholm Trail and Other Poems” was quite a departure from what I usually read, but I am glad I took the time to read it. It opened my eyes to a world that was completely new to me, and also reminded me of many everyday things to cherish and remember.

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

Friday Conversations With A Self-Publishing Writer 1/17/14

HEADLINES…

When turning the pages of a popular magazine recently, I found myself reading only the headlines of each story.  If the wording didn’t capture my attention, I quickly moved to the next.  My time—even though it was time set aside for a specific appointment—was still valuable.  I didn’t want it wasted.  However, in short order, I found myself thanking the journalists for writing such clean, concise headlines.  The career of nonfiction writing is challenging, worthwhile and rewarding.

So it is that I offer my nonfiction author friends a reminder of the useful steps in creating their manuscripts.

The basic rules of journalism always apply:

  1. Use standard English spelling, punctuation and grammar while telling the reader Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.
  2. Get the facts, statistics and spelling of names and places RIGHT.
  3. KNOW the main point.  If you can’t express it in 25 words or less, you don’t have a clear/basic handle on what you’re writing.   Be short, concise, and clear in your sentence, paragraph and article length—unless asked to “expand.”
  4. Stay as objective as humanly possible.  An impartial, detached perspective will not only allow you to write excellent nonfiction following all the above criteria, it will also protect you from being damaged by the realities.
  5. ALWAYS WRITE THE TRUTH, to the best of your ability.  A writer—every writer—has an obligation to their readers to tell the unfiltered, untainted truth.

In 2011, Craig Silverman—award-winning author and journalist—wrote more about the challenges of journalistic, nonfiction writing in this Tweet and Re-tweet world.  Published in the Columbia Journalism Review, I share some of his insights and excellent advice:

  1. “Silverman’s Law of Incorrect Tweets:” WARNING!  A piece of misinformation is much more appealing than the correction, and people are inclined to re-tweet false “news” while ignoring the corrected info.  IF you are a writer who consistently has to “edit” already printed material, that reputation will follow you.
  2. Research your “sources.”  Every “source” will have their own spin on the event and/or topic.  Some will even falsify statements.  The quality and diversity of sources is hugely important, so make the effort to find the best sources (plural) possible.
  3. VERIFY before dissemination.  Apply the discipline of verification to everything you gather. Never hesitate to correct something you’ve written.  Ignoring it or refusing to make the correct has the potential to cause far greater damage than a writer’s moment of embarrassment.
  4. If a story seems to be “too good to be true”—a real scoop—it probably is.  Writers are often fooled because we want a story to be true, and we want to write about it.  Go back to the basics—and VERIFY!
  5. Don’t fear failure—let it instruct you!  Once the slam to the ego quits hurting and the anger subsides, a valuable lesson can be seen.  That’s how you stop making the same mistakes, how you get better.

There you have it.  “Easy-Peasy.”  NOT!  Some writers love research and being that private investigator.  However, most need support.  Where “two are better than one,” many eyes on a manuscript are even better.  There is a self-publishing team out there for you—one that is just the perfect match to support your project—get it published and IN the hands of your readers.

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.
Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Weekly Self-Published Book Review: Carbavoid

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.

When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review by Midwest Book Review:

 the fuel for the future

Carbavoid

Cindy Fleck Howlett

Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN: 9781432769017

A body is a finely tuned machine, and it takes fuel to keep it running well. “Carbavoid: The Fuel for the Future” is a health guide for optimizing one’s diet with good wisdom on how to deal with a diet well and how to use one’s diet with efficiency. With a focus on preventing diabetes and when it’s appropriate to be paranoid of sugar and fat, “Carbavoid” is a sage and much recommended read for those pursuing greater health.