Print Books that went to press, or back to press this week:
CLASS REUNION, by Michael E. Field
LAST STOP FREEDOM, by Ann Nolder Heinz
Missing Market Listings, or reformatted e-book listings repaired and uploaded this week:
FIRST WALTZ, by Terry L. White
GHOST AT STALLION'S GATE, by Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
ROUGH WATERS, by Gianni Devincent Hayes
TOBY MARTIN: PARK PATROL, by Barbara Grengs
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS, by Michael E. Field
HIDDEN GOLD OF MU, by Milton Brown
SNOW ESCAPE, by Roberta Goodman
LUCIFER'S LEGION by Gianni Devincent Hayes
YOUR PLACE OR MINE, by Lynette Hampton
THE WRITE HONOR, by Anna Dynowski
Galleys that went out this week:
LAST STOP FREEDOM, by Ann Nolder Heinz
CLASS REUNION, by Michael E. Field
Editorial Work began or continued on the following:
DRAGON SPEAKER, by Raye Morand
COMFORT OF THE SHEPHERD, by Barbara Garro
CONSORTIUM, by Steven Clark Bradley
TERROR REIGNS, by Amanda Cross
Our best selling paper book for March was GOOD FRIDAYS, by Diane Marquette.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Full Circle -- writing tip
Question: I had a call from one of those tiny magazines they give away in real estate offices. They asked me to do a regular monthly feature for them on "something humorous about houses or housekeeping..." They said I could pick anything I wanted, as long as it comes "full circle and is less than 2000 words long. I can do them ahead, too. turn in two or three and in a couple of months, a few more. Sounds great, except that I have no idea what "full circle" means. What now?
Answer: Such a regular column is always nice and it certainly enlivens your writing resume, to say I was a featured columnist for Tidewater Times or whatever they call the one where you live.
Years ago when I wrote four articles a month for a small hospital weekly giveaway called Healthways, the editor, who was fairly easy to work with, liked the idea of “disease of the week with humor." I could turn them out in 15 minutes and got $25 each — half my van payment at the time. Still, now and then he’d call and say, “I can’t use the one on ____, it doesn’t come full circle.”
Neophyte that I was, I was ashamed to admit I didn’t know what he meant and scoured books on writing to no avail. I’d send him the ordered rewrite and sometimes that was okay and sometimes he’d just call and say, “try something else.” I just didn’t get it.
Finally, one day after I had wailed, “I did the best I could” in his ear for the 20th time, I took a big gulp and admitted I didn’t know what “full circle” meant. Surprise, it was that the end, or conclusory paragraph should be tied to the lead, summing up or reiterating the point.
Any fan of Andy Rooney should recognize the technique. He was a master at coming full circle.
Such a simple little thing, and it seemed so clear once he had explained it. Yet the only writing text I’ve ever seen that describes the technique is the Writer’s Digest articles course, and even it doesn’t use the term “full circle.” Yet many editors have used it to me over the years, especially when dealing with personal experience, opinion, or humor pieces.
Answer: Such a regular column is always nice and it certainly enlivens your writing resume, to say I was a featured columnist for Tidewater Times or whatever they call the one where you live.
Years ago when I wrote four articles a month for a small hospital weekly giveaway called Healthways, the editor, who was fairly easy to work with, liked the idea of “disease of the week with humor." I could turn them out in 15 minutes and got $25 each — half my van payment at the time. Still, now and then he’d call and say, “I can’t use the one on ____, it doesn’t come full circle.”
Neophyte that I was, I was ashamed to admit I didn’t know what he meant and scoured books on writing to no avail. I’d send him the ordered rewrite and sometimes that was okay and sometimes he’d just call and say, “try something else.” I just didn’t get it.
Finally, one day after I had wailed, “I did the best I could” in his ear for the 20th time, I took a big gulp and admitted I didn’t know what “full circle” meant. Surprise, it was that the end, or conclusory paragraph should be tied to the lead, summing up or reiterating the point.
Any fan of Andy Rooney should recognize the technique. He was a master at coming full circle.
Such a simple little thing, and it seemed so clear once he had explained it. Yet the only writing text I’ve ever seen that describes the technique is the Writer’s Digest articles course, and even it doesn’t use the term “full circle.” Yet many editors have used it to me over the years, especially when dealing with personal experience, opinion, or humor pieces.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Stale Bagel Pancakes
Stale Bagel Pancakes
6 to 8 crumbed bagels (4 cups), soak until they are soft.
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
½ Teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup fine chopped apples
1/4 cup raisins
Pinch of salt
Or make Vegetable Bagel Pancakes
Add 1 ½ cups of any chopped vegetables like zucchini, potatoes, carrots, or whatever, instead of the apples.
The mixture should be moist. Mix all the ingredients, let stand for 20 minutes. Place mixture in a greased baking pan, and bake in a preheated 400-F or 204-C degree oven.
For a variation form into any size patties, fry patties in 2 tablespoons of oil.
6 to 8 crumbed bagels (4 cups), soak until they are soft.
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
½ Teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup fine chopped apples
1/4 cup raisins
Pinch of salt
Or make Vegetable Bagel Pancakes
Add 1 ½ cups of any chopped vegetables like zucchini, potatoes, carrots, or whatever, instead of the apples.
The mixture should be moist. Mix all the ingredients, let stand for 20 minutes. Place mixture in a greased baking pan, and bake in a preheated 400-F or 204-C degree oven.
For a variation form into any size patties, fry patties in 2 tablespoons of oil.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Advice about distributor sites -- writing tip
Question: Does anyone know how to get books listed for Amazon's Kindle? If so, please contact Elaine at the Writers Bloc and let her know.
Answer: Dear Elaine,
The Secretary asked that we pass along e-book venue and Kindle sales info to you.
All the books I have personally written are available on Kindle. Amazon also offers a free author's page that is an excellent tool for self-promotion.
Most of the books my company publishes are available on Kindle as well. The exceptions are books with lots of illustrations and/or color pix, as pictures do not convert well to Kindle format. Yes, it's possible to convert files with pix, but it is far from easy.
If an author has a publisher, even a small publisher like Write Words, Inc., it is the publisher's duty to get the book files available not only at Kindle, but at as many other e-book sales venues as they believe prudent. It is also the publisher's business to supply an ISBN (they are publisher-specific) and to list the title with Bowker's Books in Print.
If an author is self-published through Create-Space, the book will automatically be listed at Bowker and at Kindle with a CS ISBN, but not at any of the other e-book sites, like Nook. You can choose their wide-distribution package and it will also be listed at the wider range of sites, but that service costs money.
Any self-published author can contact Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Fictionwise through their Authors & Publishers sign-up links to list their books for sale on the site.
Amazon and FW require an ISBN. (Available for sale to any publisher from Bowker.) Nook doesn't even require that. Some people complain that they never get paid, because most of the sales venues won't do a fund transfer until the amount is $25 or more. SOME European sites require a $200 or more to accumulate before transfer.
You DO have to give them your bank account number so they can deposit the royalty money directly into your account. SOME people are reluctant to do that and pass along harrowing tales about Internet INsecurity, but we've been doing it for 10 years and never had a problem with bank information security at sales venues (Knock Wood). OR with on-time payment due to us.
Watch out for the new Amazon KDP SELECT sales promotional plan. They require an exclusive listing of titles for the first three months. THAT MEANS YOU CAN'T LIST IT FOR SALE ANYWHERE ELSE for 90 days. I have heard folks advice others to ignor this, but please, they really, really mean it! I always choose not to use that option, and just list my books everywhere all at one time.
Amazon can, AND WILL, remove all your listed titles from sale on amazon.com if you sign up for KDP SELECT and then make the books available elsewhere during the initial 90 days. So it's important not to sign up for this option unless you follow the rules and keep track of the time.
There are other sites that will "distribute" or list your book for sale at "all the big venues" as well as their own and collect your money for you. They advertise themselves as a "one-stop" distribution plan for the self-published," BUT they require money from you to opt into the plan and will charge you a listing fees for every title they handle, whether you sell any copies to readers or not.
My company has no direct experience with any of them, but I know one author who received a bill for $72 for listing her six books there for one year, when she had not sold ONE copy of any title anywhere.
To me, charging a listing fee, indicates that a site is in business to make money from authors, not from e-book sales. My company does not do business with any site that asks for up-front payment from publishers or authors.
MOST e-book readers will buy regularly from the site that sells the format they need. Kindle owners buy from Amazon.com. Nook owners buy from Barnes & Noble. Being listed at one site or from your own web-site, will not reach those people who shop only at the site where files for their brand of device are sold.
Answer: Dear Elaine,
The Secretary asked that we pass along e-book venue and Kindle sales info to you.
All the books I have personally written are available on Kindle. Amazon also offers a free author's page that is an excellent tool for self-promotion.
Most of the books my company publishes are available on Kindle as well. The exceptions are books with lots of illustrations and/or color pix, as pictures do not convert well to Kindle format. Yes, it's possible to convert files with pix, but it is far from easy.
If an author has a publisher, even a small publisher like Write Words, Inc., it is the publisher's duty to get the book files available not only at Kindle, but at as many other e-book sales venues as they believe prudent. It is also the publisher's business to supply an ISBN (they are publisher-specific) and to list the title with Bowker's Books in Print.
If an author is self-published through Create-Space, the book will automatically be listed at Bowker and at Kindle with a CS ISBN, but not at any of the other e-book sites, like Nook. You can choose their wide-distribution package and it will also be listed at the wider range of sites, but that service costs money.
Any self-published author can contact Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Fictionwise through their Authors & Publishers sign-up links to list their books for sale on the site.
Amazon and FW require an ISBN. (Available for sale to any publisher from Bowker.) Nook doesn't even require that. Some people complain that they never get paid, because most of the sales venues won't do a fund transfer until the amount is $25 or more. SOME European sites require a $200 or more to accumulate before transfer.
You DO have to give them your bank account number so they can deposit the royalty money directly into your account. SOME people are reluctant to do that and pass along harrowing tales about Internet INsecurity, but we've been doing it for 10 years and never had a problem with bank information security at sales venues (Knock Wood). OR with on-time payment due to us.
Watch out for the new Amazon KDP SELECT sales promotional plan. They require an exclusive listing of titles for the first three months. THAT MEANS YOU CAN'T LIST IT FOR SALE ANYWHERE ELSE for 90 days. I have heard folks advice others to ignor this, but please, they really, really mean it! I always choose not to use that option, and just list my books everywhere all at one time.
Amazon can, AND WILL, remove all your listed titles from sale on amazon.com if you sign up for KDP SELECT and then make the books available elsewhere during the initial 90 days. So it's important not to sign up for this option unless you follow the rules and keep track of the time.
There are other sites that will "distribute" or list your book for sale at "all the big venues" as well as their own and collect your money for you. They advertise themselves as a "one-stop" distribution plan for the self-published," BUT they require money from you to opt into the plan and will charge you a listing fees for every title they handle, whether you sell any copies to readers or not.
My company has no direct experience with any of them, but I know one author who received a bill for $72 for listing her six books there for one year, when she had not sold ONE copy of any title anywhere.
To me, charging a listing fee, indicates that a site is in business to make money from authors, not from e-book sales. My company does not do business with any site that asks for up-front payment from publishers or authors.
MOST e-book readers will buy regularly from the site that sells the format they need. Kindle owners buy from Amazon.com. Nook owners buy from Barnes & Noble. Being listed at one site or from your own web-site, will not reach those people who shop only at the site where files for their brand of device are sold.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Catching UP!
All the data entry is done, checks are written (despite the arthritis) and in the mail. Well done, authors! Congrats to all who had sales.
Print books that went to press, or back to press this week:
SNOW ESCAPE by Roberta Goodman
Galleys that went out, or went out again this week:
LAST STOP FREEDOM, by Ann Nolder Heinz
Doesn't look like much, does it?
Print books that went to press, or back to press this week:
SNOW ESCAPE by Roberta Goodman
Galleys that went out, or went out again this week:
LAST STOP FREEDOM, by Ann Nolder Heinz
Doesn't look like much, does it?
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A Sense of Humor is Needed -- writing tip
Question: Thanks for the answer on leads. I decided to do a profile on my own and try to sell it to the paper, or maybe a local magazine. A city councilman I know has been under fire recently and I thought I'd give him a chance to discuss his side of the story with someone who would listen. I said it was free-lance, but might appear in the paper where my other stories show up regularly. But he refused to talk to me, saying I wasn't a "real reporter." He was laughing, but I didn't think it was funny.
Answer: No. If the paper didn't assign the interview, then you were certainly doing it "free-lance" and could publish the information anywhere. Clearly, your guy was too distrustful to take advantage of telling "his side" to you. Can't think why your regular paper wouldn't snap it up, if he had talked to you, though. Enterprising a story always makes a stringer look good.
Still, your guy is under fire and figures he can't trust anyone not to twist his words. It won't be the last time someone says, "No." Or the last time someone laughs at you, either.
Fools, and writers, rush in where angels fear to tread. Seriously, you are a warm, articulate, interesting, and intelligent woman. Why wouldn’t anyone reasonable person want to talk with you? When I was a reporter, my "radar" would have warned me he had plenty to hide. Even so, it is not necessary to believe what someone tells you to write down that they have said it.
Sometimes people do laugh, but that’s not fatal. I admit I was a little nervous the first time I had to cover a political figure. This was when I was at the newspaper and Mike Castle, then the governor of Delaware, called a lunchtime press conference at a yacht club in Seaford. Subject: Ecology. In my town the Yacht Club is a truly classy place, so I acted based on that.
I was just a tad nervous since I hadn’t ever covered Castle before, so I dressed carefully, in neat low heels, a business suit with a straight skirt, and a neat white blouse, picturing a restaurant with white linen napkins, windows overlooking a sparkling, two mile stretch of blue river, and a nice wine list.
I knew I was in trouble when the Governor of Delaware showed up in Reeboks and a “Greenpeace” t-shirt. We stood outside in a parking lot next to a murky, green, stream overhung with shade trees, to sign in. There was a door prize and the lucky journalist who won, got an exclusive interview with the gov, one on one. Naturally I signed up. Lucky me, I won!
Now the gov wanted to demonstrate personally how the state had cleaned up the environment along the Nanticoke River, at that point about 30 feet wide. He proceeded to do that by conducting our interview in a canoe, which he paddled handily down the dusky stream.
I am a large lady. Picture me, in my tight skirt and heels stepping down into a canoe with the gov. Lucky him, it remained upright, though his end of the craft rose considerably higher than my own. Picture me sitting, chin on my knees, pad and pencil in hand, trying to ask questions while he paddled us down a river the color of old tea, that smelled faintly of wet moss and teflon from the DuPont plastics plant.
I won’t even comment on my exit from the canoe, except to say that I did not arrive back at the newsroom as dry, or as pristine, as I left it. Though the notes were a bit soggy. I had my story and the AP picked it up, so it was my first wire feature and looked good on my resume. As long as you get the information, nothing else is really important.
Now you have an idea for a good story. Talk to your editor about the idea. He might want to call the city councilman and set up the interview. The guy might change his mind if he got a call from the editor, even if he still says no, his opinion of you would change.
Answer: No. If the paper didn't assign the interview, then you were certainly doing it "free-lance" and could publish the information anywhere. Clearly, your guy was too distrustful to take advantage of telling "his side" to you. Can't think why your regular paper wouldn't snap it up, if he had talked to you, though. Enterprising a story always makes a stringer look good.
Still, your guy is under fire and figures he can't trust anyone not to twist his words. It won't be the last time someone says, "No." Or the last time someone laughs at you, either.
Fools, and writers, rush in where angels fear to tread. Seriously, you are a warm, articulate, interesting, and intelligent woman. Why wouldn’t anyone reasonable person want to talk with you? When I was a reporter, my "radar" would have warned me he had plenty to hide. Even so, it is not necessary to believe what someone tells you to write down that they have said it.
Sometimes people do laugh, but that’s not fatal. I admit I was a little nervous the first time I had to cover a political figure. This was when I was at the newspaper and Mike Castle, then the governor of Delaware, called a lunchtime press conference at a yacht club in Seaford. Subject: Ecology. In my town the Yacht Club is a truly classy place, so I acted based on that.
I was just a tad nervous since I hadn’t ever covered Castle before, so I dressed carefully, in neat low heels, a business suit with a straight skirt, and a neat white blouse, picturing a restaurant with white linen napkins, windows overlooking a sparkling, two mile stretch of blue river, and a nice wine list.
I knew I was in trouble when the Governor of Delaware showed up in Reeboks and a “Greenpeace” t-shirt. We stood outside in a parking lot next to a murky, green, stream overhung with shade trees, to sign in. There was a door prize and the lucky journalist who won, got an exclusive interview with the gov, one on one. Naturally I signed up. Lucky me, I won!
Now the gov wanted to demonstrate personally how the state had cleaned up the environment along the Nanticoke River, at that point about 30 feet wide. He proceeded to do that by conducting our interview in a canoe, which he paddled handily down the dusky stream.
I am a large lady. Picture me, in my tight skirt and heels stepping down into a canoe with the gov. Lucky him, it remained upright, though his end of the craft rose considerably higher than my own. Picture me sitting, chin on my knees, pad and pencil in hand, trying to ask questions while he paddled us down a river the color of old tea, that smelled faintly of wet moss and teflon from the DuPont plastics plant.
I won’t even comment on my exit from the canoe, except to say that I did not arrive back at the newsroom as dry, or as pristine, as I left it. Though the notes were a bit soggy. I had my story and the AP picked it up, so it was my first wire feature and looked good on my resume. As long as you get the information, nothing else is really important.
Now you have an idea for a good story. Talk to your editor about the idea. He might want to call the city councilman and set up the interview. The guy might change his mind if he got a call from the editor, even if he still says no, his opinion of you would change.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Grapeful Chicken Recipe
Beverly Jennings’s Grapeful Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed mushroom soup
1 large can French-style string beans
1 package slivered almonds
Large bunch of seedless white grapes (approx ½ pound)
Rice
Saute chicken breasts until almost done. Cover bottom of a casserole dish with half a can of mushroom soup. Add layer of white grapes. Add string beans. Add slivered almonds, layering them over the string beans. Add chicken breasts to top of mixture. Add remaining mushroom soup. Cover and bake approximately thirty minutes or until chicken is done and the sauce is bubbling.
Serve over steamed rice. Yield four servings.
Contributed by Beverly Jennings, author of When the Jay Bird Sings...The Savannah River winds its way through When the Jaybird Sings, bringing to five-year-old Maria, ships from far away and forbidden adventure, even the hint of ghosts. Maria comes to terms with a frightful looking one-eyed grandmother, discovers the marvels of the early Twentieth Century and enjoys a rollicking family life.
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