2008-10-07T09:46:33Z No Author Copyright 2008, No Author SPHPBLOG

Not a pretty picture!]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080804-060029 2008-08-04T00:00:00Z 2008-08-04T00:00:00Z
After that session, my group was taken on a tour of the facilities, and I found it fascinating to see the catalogues the sales reps use, to hear about the various bundles offered to libraries, and to hear how many different boiler plates Nivette has to sift through to make sure the right contract is used for any one author.

The best part of the day, of course, came when we were led outside under a large tent and heard the words: The lobsters are here.

It's been years since I tackled a whole lobster, and I truly thank the Portland, Maine, librarian, Lisa Joyce, for her instructions. I had so much fun talking with her and with Michelle from Rochester, Michigan. I know I squirted my husband more than once with lobster juice, but he was so busy devouring his, he didn't notice.

The entertainment (provided by Tiffany and ) and the five minute talks each author gave after lunch brought laughter to all. I wasn't ready to say goodbye when the day officially ended. and I was glad some of us met for a drink afterwards. It was so great, not only to meet the people I've talked to on the phone for over a year, but to also get to know them a little better.

Thanks so much Five Star for a fantastic day. ]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080803-111254 2008-08-03T00:00:00Z 2008-08-03T00:00:00Z http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080731-181626 2008-08-01T00:00:00Z 2008-08-01T00:00:00Z
I have a suspense that's set in Skagway, Alaska that I recently completed. Those who have read the story have liked it. I'm hoping a publisher will, too. I've also been looking into other venues for The Crows . It's presently being considered by a company that makes audio books, and I'd like to see it published in paperback form. In addition to the above, I have started a sequel to The Crows . So you'll have to excuse my lack of blogging--I need to figure out what's in the briefcase in the trunk of P.J.'s car.

Until later, have a great summer!]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080711-062235 2008-07-11T00:00:00Z 2008-07-11T00:00:00Z The Beekeeper's Daughter . I like the way it came together and I like the characters. It's different from anything I've written before, so it's allowed me to stretch a bit. It also gave me a great excuse to take a trip to Alaska last summer. While I was in Skagway, I was able to visit the police station and talk to the sergeant there, and one of the park rangers took an hour out of her day to tell me about her job. I'm always amazed by how helpful people are.

Of course, in addition to finishing up with The Beekeeper's Daughter , I've also been doing promotion for The Crows . One exciting bit of news is the Portage Library chose The Crows as one of the books they'll be putting in their "Book Discussion in a Bag" kits. Those bags are for book clubs to use. It meant coming up with some discussion questions for the book which was a new experience for me. I think I finally came up with some good ones. I'm going to add them to my web site...just in case a book group (or individual) would like to use them. I always enjoy hearing from readers, so do let me know what you think.

]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080529-131223 2008-05-29T00:00:00Z 2008-05-29T00:00:00Z ]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080411-203604 2008-04-12T00:00:00Z 2008-04-12T00:00:00Z
Well, there are grammar rules and punctuation rules, but writers often break them. Agents and publisher don’t have rules, they have guidelines, BUT if you don’t follow them, you’re “breaking the rules.” I have found it’s best to know the rules before I break them. I’m sure an English teacher will find many rules broken in this blog. I often use sentence fragments. I think they work in a suspense story. Spelling rules, however, when broken can interfere with understanding and can give a bad first impression. I try to follow those rules.

Actually, I’m one of those people who does follow the rules . . . generally. In my formative years, my parents would have grounded me if I hadn’t, and it seemed like whenever I did break the rules, I got caught. Over the years, however, I’ve met a lot of people who not only break the rules, but seem to get away with it and benefit from it. Books that “break the rules” often become best sellers.

So what’s a writer to do?

I think it’s like most of life, you have to choose your battles and be willing to take the consequences. I met one man who said he never sends an SASE when he mails his work to an agent or editor. Why waste the money? was his argument. Okay, so he saved some money and maybe once or twice he found an agent or editor who thought his work was so great, it didn’t matter that he hadn’t followed the “rules.” But I wonder how many times his work was tossed before it left the mailroom or didn’t get read because the editor found his behavior unprofessional?

Nowadays the competition to be published is fierce. Publishing has become big business. Publishing companies are owned by a handful of conglomerates. The emphasis is on the bottom line, which has resulted in publishing houses reducing staff, editors having to take on more roles, and marketing having a greater influence on what books will be purchased. Agents have basically become first readers for publishing houses, and many agents are using outside readers (who charge the writer money) to polish stories with potential because the agents are being inundated with manuscripts.

Peter Rubie (a New York Agent) has been quoted as saying: “A book must be 95% ready to be published.” No more sending in a manuscript written in longhand on a yellow legal pad. No more hoping the editor (or agent) “sees” the potential in a story that needs work. A manuscript that isn’t formatted according to a publisher’s guidelines, doesn’t follow standard grammar and spelling rules, or isn’t anything like what normally crosses the agent’s or editor’s desk is more likely to look like an editing nightmare or amateurish first try rather than an inventive and exciting new style.

So should you break the rules?

I think so…if doing so seems the best way to tell the story.

On the other hand, if breaking the rules means you’re jeopardizing your chance of having the story read, if it’s longer than the guidelines require, not presented in the form the publisher has requested, or sent without an SASE, is it worth it? Don’t break the “rules” because of ignorance or laziness. Break them for a reason, and then be prepared to take the consequences.

]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080408-143236 2008-04-08T00:00:00Z 2008-04-08T00:00:00Z
Cheryl Peck, author of Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs and Revenge of the Paste Eaters , along with a poetry book titled Splitting the Difference , has a wonderful success story. I sent her a few questions, and she gave me permission to tell her story.

My first question was about her first book, Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs , which she and her partner initially self-published. Cheryl said: “The essays and poems in FG were articles I wrote first for a newsletter my friends put out and later because I discovered I think things out best in essay form. I had no idea what to do with them, so I stuck them all into notebooks. When I met my partner—who worked for a small independent publishing press—I had probably three notebooks full of essays. She said, ‘We need to get these published, at least so your family has a record,’ because many of them were about my family. So I handed them to her, she did all the work, and ‘we’ published 250 copies of the book, intending to give or sell them to family and friends.”

Cheryl and her partner gave a few of these books to Tom Lowry, who owns Lowry’s Book Store in Three Rivers (Michigan) and he agreed to sell them on consignment.

I asked Cheryl if she’d run into any problems or expenses that she didn’t expect in self-publishing her book. She said:

“Self-publishing is neither hard nor expensive if you are sleeping with someone who likes your work and knows Quark or Pagemaker. Nancy (her partner) designed and laid out the book and put it on disk so the printing company could just print it and send us the finished copies. Her expertise saved me the financial difference between publishing and not publishing. Printing fees are based on the size of the manuscript, the number of copies you want, and sometimes now soon you want them, but again, you need someone with Nancy’s expertise to even answer their questions. By ‘printing fees’ I mean having a book printed by Fidlar-Doubleday or another purely printing company. They print it and ship it back to you. That’s all they do.”

As I said, she gave 10 copies of the book to Lowry’s Book Store. That was in 2003, when independent book sellers were really struggling (as they continue to do). He was opening a second store in Sturgis,Michgan, so Publisher’s Weekly called him and asked what he was doing that was making bookselling a profitable business. He said that, among other things, he was carrying Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs by local author Cheryl Peck, and it was selling fairly well. Within four days, five editors from New York called and requested a copy of the book from Cheryl. Amy Einhorn of Warner Books (she has since moved to Putman) bought it, and then a year later published Revenge of the Paste Eaters as well.

Because of their friendship with Tom Lowry (and his willingness to support a local author) Cheryl and Nancy didn’t run into the problems many self-published book authors face—that is, getting a bookstore to carry the book and getting word out to the public. And because she went to contract with Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing), one of the major publishers in the industry, the marketing was handled by Warner. Cheryl did a book tour, which she said, “I suppose if you do enough book tours they get old, but I got to go to Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio in a week and stay in very nice hotels. I had a blast.”

Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs and Revenge of the Paste Eaters are both available in any bookstore that will have them, and if they don’t have them, they can order them. Lowry’s Book Store in Three Rivers carries it. Bestsellers in Mason, Michigan has it. Kazoo Books in Kalamazoo either has it or can order it. And, of course, Barnes & Noble and Borders either carry it or can order it, and the books are on-line with Amazon.com.

Cheryl says, if you like the poetry in those two books (or just like poetry) she has a book of poetry that she and Nancy self-published called Splitting the Difference . To get a copy of that, contact Cheryl at c.peck@yahoo.com. Write ‘Your book’ or something to identify your interest in the subject line so she doesn’t dump you into spam. Also, she has a regular blog on Xanga called ‘Mommacakes’ but Xanga can be a little fussy about letting people on.

Cheryl said, “I will also cheerfully come speak to book groups, book clubs, libraries, writers groups, or anyone else who wants to listen.” Email her if you are interested.
]]> http://marissoule.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry080317-085857 2008-03-17T00:00:00Z 2008-03-17T00:00:00Z
A phone call I received a few weeks ago reinforced one fact: no matter how often unpublished (or pre-published, if you prefer) writers are told not to pay to have a book published, many are so desperate to have that final product in hand they ignore the warning.

Now, I believe certain types of books are fine to self-publish or pay to have published. Most memoirs won't sell well enough for a paying publisher to invest in, but they will make wonderful gifts for family and friends and will leave a legacy for generations to come. And books that are focused on a topic (such as a craft or hobby) that has limited appeal (and therefore, limited marketability) may need to be self-published and hand sold. But the writers who have their genre novels (romances, mysteries, scifi, children's books, etc.) published by vanity presses are simply fooling themselves. They are going to discover that even with an ISBN and a book that looks like a novel, book sellers are not going to be eager to stock their books, libraries won't buy them, and reviewers won't review them. These "self-published" books will demand a lot of self-promotion (even more than most writers have to do nowadays), and will be priced higher than comparable books, making them harder to sell.

So what do writers do if they can't find an agent or publisher who will publish their books and PAY THEM?
1. Accept that maybe the book isn't quite ready to be published and find ways, either through critique groups,contests that give critiques, or book doctors (make sure the book doctor has editing credentials that fit your genre) to correct the story's flaws. (Don't ask family or friends for a critique. Do you really think they'll be honest?)
2. If you truly believe the story is good just as it is (or as you've improved it), keep sending it out. Dozens of books that went on to be mega-hits were rejected multiple times. Sometimes it's pure luck (getting the story to the right editor at the right time) that makes the difference.
3. Make sure you're working on something new as you market the first book. Many writers have found the first book doesn't sell, but the second one does, and after that the publisher will publish (willingly) the first book.

My point is, if you write a fictional novel, make it the best you can, keep sending it out, be working on something new, and remember publishers PAY THE WRITER, not the other way around.

Good writing to all. Maris
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