Lauren Carr Seminar: Writers in Bathrobes

Want to learn the ropes of the writing/ publishing business? Want to work from home? Then you need this! Top Selling Mystery author Lauren Carr is going to be teaching all this and more in historic Harpers Ferry, outside Washington, D. C., in March 2015.

Here’s an excerpt from her e-mail!

BIG NEWS: I have just scheduled to conduct a SIX HOUR workshop in
March at the church called: AUTHORS IN BATHROBE. I am still working out  the details, but this workshop will break book promotion down into an understandable format for writers. Even if your book is not out yet,
then this will include things that you can do now to get the ball
rolling for sales when you book is released.

Focused completely on using the internet to promote your book and your
writing career, the workshop will include no less than an hour on
Twitter and an hour Facebook. (My own sales drop 10-20 percent on days I don’t tweet!) It will discuss the importance of a website and how to set
one up without breaking your budget. What is a blog? What goes into a
blog post. Virtual book tours. It will even cover the basics of an
author bio and what makes a good profile pic.

It will be 9 to 4 on Saturday, March 21. Lunch will be included. Price
is still being determined.

You are the first to hear this, so spread the word.

Another Baby Step in the Right Direction

The chapters for Dead with Envy are now properly formatted and ready to send out to a few critical readers to get that last input from outsiders before publication.

–There is more good news. I am going to be reading another author’s work (for pay) to provide him with feedback. I am at a point in my life where I can use the extra cash. The timing is very good.–

So back to the main point. I am getting some critical reviews. I have the cover art in hand. Now I have to write acknowledgements, a dedication, a bio (really hard for me, believe it or not), and get my head shot (for publicity use–not for inspiration on the next story line). A friend who is retired from professional photography agreed to take some candid photographs. I am hoping one of those will work for my publicity photo.

It’s little stuff now, loose ends to tie up, that stand between me and publication. The launch is very near. I am quivering.

Thoughts from a Self-Published Author

In the June 24, 2013 issue of The Journal, Juliet Lauderdale interviewed Yawatta Hosby, an author and founder of The Procrastinators, a writers group in Charles Town, WV, about her career as a self-published author. Here is an excerpt from that interview:

Though the traditional method for becoming known in literary markets is via an MFA program according to William Miller, Ph.D., director professor of George Mason University’s MFA program. He said self-publishing has gained enormous popularity in recent years among writers who desire to maintain control over their project.

Hosby said for her this means determining the pace at which she will complete a project, the edits she will accept or decline, a book’s cover design and her product’s pricing.

Additionally, not wanting to spend the average $30,000 it would cost to complete a typical MFA program, Hosby, who is a 2000 Jefferson High School graduate and a 2004 graduate of West Virginia University, said she was confident she could obtain essential writing experience and training on her own, and she utilizes social media to gain exposure.

The self-starter said her research revealed that she would need to build a platform early to build an audience, so Hosby created a writer’s blog, which so far has received 16,000 hits.

She also created pages on Facebook and Twitter. She connects with other writers via Goodreads, and she added that The Absolute Write Forum is the best website she has found to network with publishing industry professionals to gain marketing and promoting tips.

The article contains more information for those who wish to self-publish a book. To read the entire article, click here: http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/595927/Aspiring-authors-talk-self-publishing–creativity.html?nav=5006

The Newspaper Interview Is in Print

RE-RUN OF MARCH POST

JUST WANT TO REMIND YOU, YOU CAN BUY THE ANTHOLOGY USING THE LINKS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.

OUR 30-YEAR-OLD MEMBER MISSED THE PHOTO OP. SHE IS VERA SINES-KLANK.

http://www.herald-mail.com/lifestyle/hm-the-writers-of-the-desert-rose-cafe-discuss-themselves-and-their-first-anthology-20130228,0,7573201.story?page=1

Wow! In my little writer’s hideaway, I got a phone call to tell me the newspaper interview was published March 3. Not only was it printed in the local newspaper, but it is available on-line, too. The link is above. I don’t know how long they keep on-line articles floating in web-space, so look now.

(The photo was taken by staff photographer Joe Crocetal of The Herald-Mail newspaper in Maryland. The dark-haired one on the top left of the overhead shot is me.)

We received 5 pages of publicity in the on-line article. How lovely!

In case you are hearing about this for the first time, let me give you background. I am a member of Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe. We published an anthology in late December 2012. The book is available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble (on-line only) at a very affordable price. If you have an interest in a sneak preview, click the Amazon link below. The Barnes and Noble link is also available for you with Nook readers.

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Desert-Cafe-An-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00ARYTOYC

or

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writers-of-the-desert-rose-cafe-an-anthology-fay-moore/1114018983

Let’s Party at a Writers Conference!

The Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Conference is coming to Maryland in the fall of 2013. Why don’t we all go and have a party while we learn to write better? Sounds like fun to me.

Several links below will tell you more about it.

Registration form: http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com/?page_id=2

FAQ: http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com/?page_id=319

Schedule

3 Day Conference

Friday, September 13, 2013 Registration begins at 8:00 am Early registration ends November 30, 2012

FRIDAY

8:00 am to 5:00 pm – Registration 11:00 am to 11:30 am – Welcome presentation 11:30am to 4:30pm – Writers Roundtable 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm panels 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Agent Meetings 2:00 pm – Panels 3:00 pm – Panels 4:00 pm – Panels 5:00 pm – 5:45 pm – Book signing by all Friday authors 6:00 pm – Buffet dinner – opening ceremonies & keynote talk

SATURDAY

7:00 am to 9:00 am – continental breakfast 9:00 am – Panels 10:00 am – Panels 10:30 am to 12:00 pm – Writers Roundtable 11:00 am – Panels Noon – lunch / special guest interview 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm panels 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Writers Roundtable [1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Agent Meetings] 2:00 pm – Panels 3:00 pm – Panels 4:00 pm – Panels 5:00 pm – 5:45 pm – Book signing by all Saturday authors 6:00 pm – Banquet dinner – Keynote talk

SUNDAY

9:00 am to 10:30am – Buffet Breakfast (w/omelet chef) – special guest interview 11:00 am – Panels Noon – Panels

Attending Authors

Ann Arbaugh Bob Bailey Austin S. Camacho Lauren Carr DB Corey Jeffrey Deaver Christina Freeburn John Gilstrap Tracee L. Garner Christopher Golden Cherley Grogg Trice Hickman Norwood Holland Deliah Lawrence Larry Mathews Amy McCorkle Cynthia McDonald Larry Mild Rosemary Mild Juli Monroe Robin Murphy Penny Clover Peterson Ramona Rene B. Swangin Webster

Attending Agents

We have already confirmed the following agents will be attending the 2013 conference. Check them out and don’t forget to sign up to pitch your work to one of them!

Emily Gref – Lowenstein Associates

Emily Gref is an associate agent and subsidiary rights manager at Lowenstein Associates. Prior to Lowenstein Associates, she worked at the Strand Bookstore (and later at Shakespeare & Co.), and interned at Serendipity Literary Agency, Donald Maass Literary Agency, Penguin Young Readers’ Online Marketing, Tor Books, and Arthur A. Levine Books.

In fiction Emily is particularly looking for speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy for middle grade, young adult, and adult. She has a special weakness for historical fantasy, steampunk, and unique fairy tale retellings. In any novel she is hoping to find a strong voice, stellar world-building, surprising twists, and main characters that represent diverse experiences.

Berta Treitl – Grosevenor Agency

Berta Treitl is an attorney and literary agent. Berta is selectively building her nonfiction list in three areas: science and technology; current events, law and politics, biography, business and marketing; and art, design, cooking, health, and lifestyle.

In fiction, she’s interested in historical and high-quality mysteries. Berta focuses on projects that present a counterintuitive or fresh viewpoint and that feature unusual communities, travel and foreign locales, and female main characters.

Before joining the Grosvenor Literary Agency, Berta worked at a respected New York agency and in private legal practice. She is a member of the New York Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.

C3 Anthology

Acorn Book Services has graciously offered to publish an anthology for the C3 Conference in 2013.

Please pay close attention to their submission guidelines below:

Word Count: Maximum 7,500 words.

Genre: Any of those genre accepted at C3

Limit: One short story per author, who must be registered and attending the C3 conference.

Limited to twenty-five stories accepted for publication so be sure and get registered today so your story can be part of the anthology!

Please include author photo, bio, website, and other information to accompany short story in the anthology.

Short stories accepted for the anthology must be edited, and will be edited and proofed by Acorn Book Services. By submitting a short story, the author agrees to giving Acorn Book Services rights of usage of the short story in the Anthology to be published in print and e-book form (at the cost of Acorn Book Services). The printed format will be given to attendees of the C3 conference. This anthology will serve as a promotional tool for the authors, who will retain all ownership rights to their story.

After the conference, Acorn Book Services will then release the anthology in e-book form on Amazon. In this e-book format, in exchange for use of their short story, the author will receive further promotion as the e-book will also include the author’s bio and links to their website and places where their books can be purchased.

All of this is at no cost to the author, other than the cost of attending the C3 conference. All proceeds from the sale of the e-book version will be retained by Acorn Book Services to help offset production cost of the anthology.

Deadline to submit: March 1, 2013.

For more information or to submit your story contact Acorn Book Services at writerlaurencarr@gmail.com

The Newspaper Inter-view

One of our Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe members started the ball rolling on marketing. He used an inside contact to connect me to the head librarian in charge of programming. That conversation led me to volunteer our writers for library programs. The librarian offered to refer news of the release of  Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe, An Anthology to her press contact at the local newspaper. Consequently, a reporter from the Lifestyles section called me to schedule an interview.

I invited our publisher Acorn Book Services to attend the interview. This turned out to be a good move for many reasons that I’ll share in a minute. My thought when inviting the publisher was as a thank you for helping us and sharing a bit of the limelight.

During the course of an hour-long interview, I learned that the reporter attended the same seminar at the library where I first collected names to form Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe. That coincidence warmed him to us because he had first hand knowledge of our origins. That piqued his curiosity about how we moved from a start-up organization to a published entity in a relatively short period.

Further, the reporter was on a first-name basis with our publisher. The publisher offered to place an advertisement on the same page as the article in the newspaper. That financial incentive is apt to generate a better place on the page and a longer article than our group would get on its own. The reporter also proposed sending a photographer to the next meeting to snap a some candid photographs of the working group to go with his article. Photos are eye-catching and will draw attention to the article.

Finally, our most organized member and I took the publisher to lunch after the interview to discuss costs for producing print versions of the book. That led to conversation about select members appearing at a writing seminar as members of a panel during a teaching segment. Mr. Organization will not let that opportunity fall through the cracks. He’ll stay on top of it to be sure the writers group seizes every chance to promote our endeavors.

Do you see how that works? Chances are if I cold-called either the library or the reporter directly, the response would have been less successful. But by networking through personal connections and utilizing the special talents within the group, Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe will get free publicity both through the news story and through the local speaking circuit.

Commercial success for writers is like success for politicians. It all starts locally.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the exposure translates to sales!

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Desert-Cafe–Anthology-ebook/dp/B00ARYTOYC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357500066&sr=1-1&keywords=writers+of+the+desert+rose+cafe

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writers-of-the-desert-rose-cafe-an-anthology-fay-moore/1114018983

From Dream to Reality

Dates don’t stick in my brain. That’s why I always disliked history classes. The tests seemed to focus on memorization of lots of dates. I was at an instant disadvantage. I would have preferred that the instructors focused on the lessons we can learn from history. If that had been the case, I likely would have majored in history. I love to learn. I hate memorization.

But I digress.

I was saying dates don’t stick in my brain. I can’t remember when I first decided that I would start a writers group. If I were to guess, I would say it was two years ago. About that time, I started attending writing workshops by mystery author Lauren Carr, hosted by different local libraries. In fact, it happened after the first Carr workshop, but before the second. At the second workshop is where I asked for anyone interested to give me his or her contact information.

It took a bit of time to find a meeting place. I had a list of 25 names. I had no idea how many would actually show up. Rose Harris, owner of a local coffee-house in historic Williamsport, MD, was willing to let the group use her back room free of charge two times per month. The local library also had a meeting room, but it was in high demand. The writers group may have to compete for meeting dates. That was no good. Plus, the library felt sterile. The vibe at the Desert Rose Cafe was nurturing, creative, friendly. As an added bonus, “the eats” were good and inexpensive.

It was the vibe that made the decision for me.

Over time the group whittled down to a dozen, then ten regulars. The group was very diverse, from writing styles to personalities to topical interests. Yet we jelled. We shared work by reading aloud. We criticized (in a constructive way) and guided each other in developing our craft. We encouraged and inspired each other.

The restaurant hosted a writing contest, posting short works from the group in the dining room, asking diners to read and vote on a winner.

We all were winners, because, after the contest, we decided to put together the Anthology. We had faith we could create a collection of short works, edit them, compile them, then publish them in a period of about six months.

With the professional assistance  and coaching of Acorn Book Services in Harpers Ferry, WV, by December, 2012, the humble writers group–Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe–released its first e-book. The members range in age from 30 to 80-plus and live in a three state area.

One member with Asperger’s Syndrome remarked that the release date of the e-book was one of the greatest days in his life. During the course of writing for the Anthology, he made a decision to move out of his parents’ home and into his own apartment, so he could enroll in college. He is currently working on a solo writing project.

An administrator in the local library system called me a couple of days ago to express her surprise and joy that Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe had achieved its goal. She offered to help arrange publicity for the book through the local newspaper. In turn, I offered to promote the library workshops as wellsprings of creativity. Without the library’s workshop, the Anthology would never have been written.

An idea led to a call to action and resulted in the creation and e-printing of a publication. A young man’s life changed. Others came to see that setting a goal and working on it faithfully yielded results. Several are working on new solo projects.

Dreams do come true.

Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe, An Anthology, available from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble

Here

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Desert-Cafe–Anthology-ebook/dp/B00ARYTOYC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357500066&sr=1-1&keywords=writers+of+the+desert+rose+cafe

or here

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/writers-of-the-desert-rose-cafe-an-anthology-fay-moore/1114018983

Anthology Sales Update

Without any serious marketing as such,  Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe (Hmmmm. Is that singular or plural?) has sold 35 copies of the anthology to date.

And there are two reviews written and posted on Amazon.com. Reading the reviews was exciting. It gave insight and feedback to us on our work.

The sales break down like this:

Amazon.com 34 copies sold

Barnes & Noble 1 copy sold

Several copies have been purchased by the dining patrons of the Desert Rose Cafe. Owner Rose Harris reported there is a lively interest in the book and how the group came to publish it.

Perhaps, in the near future, there will be a “Meet the Writers” event, which may garner a bit of newspaper coverage. That event, or a complimentary newspaper article, may yield a couple of more sales.

What can be done now to sell books?

I have to buckle down and prepare press releases. All of the writers group members need to promote the book on their own social media, blog or web site. This year, I postponed sending out my Christmas letter. I want to write a New Year’s letter and include a promotional blurb in it about the book. Next, I need to put on my thinking cap to figure out other ways to exploit the “local writer” designation.

In sales, they teach you to sell first to family, then to friends or acquaintances, then to neighbors or the local market, then beyond. Until a writer has established himself, the likeliest buyer is someone who knows him or knows of him.

Finally, I need to utilize the “store” component here on WordPress. Obviously, visitors to this site should be able to buy the book.

The lesson in all of this?

Sales don’t magically happen for an author. To sell books, an author has to promote his or her books. That means getting creative so that whatever selling the writer does is effective and affordable.

Writers hate marketing. However, it is a necessary evil, especially for the new author.

Don’t overlook the sales that can be generated by friends or family. Word of mouth is always the best sales tool. A person who reads and likes your book is the most credible advertiser. Ask for help to promote your book.

I would love to hear from other independent authors about the success you’ve had selling your books. Please share the lessons you’ve learned, the mistakes you’ve made or the tactics that have succeeded. In what venue did you sell the majority of your books? Where did things fizzle? What was hard? What worked well?

Talk to me.  I am all ears.

Uploading the Book to Amazon.com

I got a phone call today from Acorn Book Service that the Anthology has been uploaded to Amazon.com. I don’t think the book is immediately available for sale. Rather, the internal processes inside Amazon.com get set into motion by uploading the manuscript.

Similarly, the book will be uploaded to Barnes & Noble by next week.

Smashwords, I’m told, is much more user friendly, so I will work with one of the other members to upload the manuscript to Smashwords ourselves. That will be a learning experience. Smashwords is a distributor to other e-book retail outlets.

Amazon.com uses a .mobi file format. Barnes & Noble and Smashwords use .epub files. That is one of the services Acorn Book Services provides to the Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe, taking our .doc file and converting it to e-publishing-ready formats.

Next comes the marketing learning curve.

I will share with you how things progress. I’ll share what I learn and the mistakes I make.  We’ll learn together about this thing called self-publishing via the e-book.

What We Write About When We Write

What we write about when we write.

Please, please take the time to read this wonderful article (click the link above). It explores the agony of creation, the search for the perfect telling of the story, the revisiting of person, place and thing for the sake of getting it right.

Once I concluded my reading of it, I was revived to write. I realized that the wall I am hitting in my work is simply a part of the greater process. Now I embrace the wall, wrapping my arms around it, pressing my chest against its coolness, smelling the stale scents trapped in the paint. By entangling my essence with what stops my writing, I change both the obstacle and my response to it.