Patience, My Friends ... Patience

For years, it was a daily ritual to check my mailbox in search of that elusive, much hoped for acceptance letter. More often than not, I received rejections, but I figured this was part of the learning process. A number of editors offered great advice and requests to see a revised version of my stories, and I’m happy to say that all of these stories eventually wound up published.

When I started writing three decades ago, snail mail was the only means of submitting one’s work and the wait could be terribly long. I remember one magazine taking four years to publish one of my stories. Book publishers would take a year or more to respond. My experience with agents wasn’t any better. I spent four years with one agent and two years with another, to no avail, and it took many months to find them! Right now, I’ve been waiting to hear from two publishing houses for eighteen months, and I’ve lost track of the number of times an editor has responded with, “Thank you so much for your patience....”

When e-zines began to flourish, the waiting grew mercifully shorter. Five years ago, I could submit a story and hear back in a week; sometimes the same day! And I still do occasionally, yet I’ve noticed over the last couple of years that even many electronic publications are taking as long to respond as their print counterparts.

All this experience has taught me that being published is as much about patience as it is about writing well and getting your polished pieces into the hands of editors and publishers. So, to aspiring writers, I would strongly recommend that you add this trait to your list of essential writing tools. Patience can and does pay off, and the time goes much faster if you start a new writing project while you wait. Best of luck to you!

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Guest Post: Publishing is Changing - by Jerry D. Simmons

Publishing is Changing - by Jerry D. Simmons

Traditional publishing has always centered on print, with audio and foreign rights secondary revenue streams. The focus of the biggest publishing companies was on the printed book. Lists of titles were sold seasonally to an established distribution channel of booksellers via wholesalers, jobbers, retailers and eventually online stores. Manuscripts were scrutinized and only the very best were placed under contract. Discounts were standard, the rules of the game established, and everyone was making money.

Once print-on-demand technology was introduced as a way for publishers to reduce waste and streamline distribution everything begin to change. Publishers who feared losing the bookstore experience rejected the single copy print to customer demand and continued along their merry way, business as usual. Not to be deterred, the POD folks opened up their own publishing shops, accepting the written word of anyone willing to pay their price for services such as cover design and printing. The market exploded and suddenly everyone had a book.

However the marketplace that was nurtured and developed by the big six in New York decided to solidify their strangle hold on booksellers by subsidizing shelf space and retail placement. Through an assortment of discounts, fees and incentives, publishers and booksellers agreed to prevent the wide scale penetration of the "other POD publishers" by labeling everything rolling off those presses as substandard and of poor written and production quality. The strategy has worked.

Consumers today have a strong negative opinion of a self-published book, especially those that look and feel inferior to what they find in bookstores. POD printers understood their business model had to revolve around the upfront pricing instead of actual copy sales since they lacked direct sales and distribution a result of the rejection of the traditional marketplace. This decision strengthened the notion of inferior quality writing and played into the hands of the big New York publishers, eventually the marketplace was protected.

Today the self-published book is making a debut in a completely new format completely hidden behind the reputable imprint of experienced professional publishers. Booksellers are openly accepting these titles due to the fact that each one is vetted and proven to be of high quality in both the written word and production. Now through the advance of the digital delivery system, self-published books utilizing this exciting new concept is finding their work can be competitive on bookstore shelves with any published title.

As the book publishing business continues to evolve the key component for all authors in the future is control, ownership and rights over their content. Big traditionally publishers are resistant simply because their investment in each book must mean the forfeiture of an author's right to that content. Otherwise, they will go out of business. Nowhere is this fact more dramatic than the contracts that bind all authors to the large POD printers.

It is unbelievable to me that the mass produced, low production standards of some companies include retention of all files created for a paying customer, forever. Why would any writer who has invested heavily in their written word be willing to agree to such terms of publication? Unless the answer is price! The Wal-Mart mentality may work wonders for household products, groceries and paper goods, but not for books.

If you are shopping for a publisher for your manuscript, I strongly recommend you submit to the INDI Publishing Group. It's the model of publishing that will be the future of the written word.

~Jerry D. Simmons began his career in publishing at Random House in 1977, then later moved to The Time Warner Book Group where he spent over twenty years, later retiring as Vice President Director Field Sales. Jerry is now the publisher of INDI Publishing Group. www.WritersReaders.com.

Guest Post: Author Isabelle Santiago shares her thoughts on music and her YA novel Zerah's Chosen

Today's guest on The Write Type is Isabelle Santiago, author of  Zerah's Chosen, a Young Adult romantic fantasy. Isabelle shares how music influences her work and how she has particular playlists for her novels--a very interesting concept.  ~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Q: For starters, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself, Isabelle?

A: Well, unlike most authors, I haven’t always known I wanted to write. I don’t have a cute story saved from when I was in grade school or anything like that, though if I remember correctly I was very fond of storytelling (in the form of completely over the top lies). Although I’ve enjoyed the occasional short story or fanfiction romp since middle school, my real passion actually lay in music and theater. I starred in the school musicals throughout high school and then went on to co-direct three more productions after graduating. I feel that theater background often seeps into my writing, particularly in my use of dialogue. I like to speak it out loud to make sure it sounds and feels real.

While in college, I got my freshman English final published in The Everyday Writer: 2nd Edition, a teaching manual for the university. This sparked a serious inexplicable ‘something’ in my head. I’d been doing a lot of recreational writing, but nothing to really try and establish a career. Then I was struck with this intense, tortured, complicated love story which snowballed into this epic series, the first book of which is my newest release, Zerah’s Chosen.

It’s a story surrounding six Elementals personified, prophecies, forbidden love and the end of the world.

Q: Zerah’s Chosen is a YA romantic fantasy, definitely a genre switch from your previous three romance novellas. What made you want to veer from romance into YA fantasy?

Honestly, I didn’t intend to write Zerah’s Chosen as a young adult novel, it just kind of happened that way. My characters’ story began with them as children and follows them until adulthood, which gives the book crossover appeal.

It’s definitely representative of where I was in my life as I was writing it, my early twenties, tumbling into adulthood as best I could, you know? But now that I’ve written YA, I can’t imagine going back to adult romance. I mean an occasional foray, maybe, but I’m just convinced YA, particularly YA fantasy, is where I belong. I find writing characters on the cusp of adulthood refreshing. I can be daring and emotional knowing that my readers are compassionate, intelligent, and open minded individuals. It’s great.

Q: I noticed your website’s EXTRA page has a section specifically for music. Obviously it plays a big part in your writing. What’s in your player right now?

A: Right now I’ve been collecting a lot of trip-hop, dance pop, and electronica/Britpop of the likes of Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, and Imogen Heap for a YA Fantasy I have in progress. I can’t tell you what a rush it is to put together writing playlists. It brings scenes to life in my head. I absolutely love it. And although Zerah’s Chosen doesn’t have its playlist up just yet, it’s coming, so look out for it!

Thanks for coming by, Isabelle.

BIO:
By day, Isabelle Santiago fuels her muse and her love of literature as a devoted bookseller. By night, she is the mom of one hysterical infant and a cat that swears he’s a dog. She lives with her husband and her misfits in a cozy loft apartment on the New England shoreline.

WEB:
http://www.twistedfairytale.net 

Where Do Ideas and Inspiration Come From?

As I wrote on Twitter the other day, if I had a penny for every time someone asked me where my ideas came from, I’d have $5.76 by now, which is about the average weekly income for most Canadian fiction writers.

In truth, the answer to this question is not always quick or easy to identify. Sure, there’s the standard source: newspapers, TV news, conversations, family issues, day job incidents, overheard conversations, or dreams. But really, ideas come from all sorts of places and often when you least expect it. Take the day I was at a wading pool in a park with my daughter who was then three. I was watching the kids splash around when a baby who couldn’t have been more than fourteen months old, waddled into the pool alone, fell forward and began to struggle. His caregiver (possibly his mom) was busy talking to a friend at the time. I stood, other adults stood and suddenly the caregiver rushed into the pool and rescued him. My heartbeat didn’t slow for quite a while. This is where stories come from, although they needn’t be this dramatic.

One night, many years ago, I was with a boyfriend in downtown Vancouver. We were waiting in line for the movie theatre to open. I was watching traffic and pedestrians until my gaze drifted up and I saw an enormous white owl perched on the corner of a building. He was magnificent against the black sky. All these years later, I haven’t forgotten that moment, so I think it’s still waiting to appear in a story somewhere.

If you’re looking for inspiration, there are countless things to try. For me, much of them involve relaxing the mind: walking in quiet areas, washing dishes in warm, soapy water, or relaxing in a hot tub

So, I’ll toss in my penny and ask, where do you find your inspiration? Or maybe the more important question is, what do you do with it once you’ve found it?

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Authors: How do you find the right audience for your book?

Finding your audience isn't as difficult as some writers may think, though sometimes you have to think outside the box. 

The first thing you have to determine is who would read your book...


Visit Market My Novel to read more and to find out what 3 authors say about this.

New Year, Fresh Start

On January 1st, I was working the day shift in security at a university campus. For obvious reasons, it was one of the quietest shifts I’d ever had. There were no students, staff, faculty, or contractors on site and, believe me, a fair number of those people show up on weekends. Every parking lot was empty; again an unusual sight. Wet asphalt glistened under a dark sky, lights were turned off in the grey, concrete buildings, and all was silent.

Some people might view all that emptiness as bleak and uninviting, but for me it represented a blank slate . . . a fresh start for 2010. I look at every new year as a blank slate to be filled with conversation, busy-ness laughter, frustration, obstacles, mistakes, jokes, accidents, tears, events, surprises, and change. The old year is history; put away along with my 2009 files. It’s time to make new history. On the 1st, in the quiet and the rain, I experienced peace and bliss and hope for what’s to come. May you find bliss and peaceful moments as you make your own history.

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n