Published on November 23, 2011
Someone who read my book asked me to do a booksigning at the local high school craft fair. I read what you wrote about this, and decided to give away cinnamon cake with the recipe since there is a chapter in my book about cinnamon cake. The recipe contained an excerpt from the book with the title and info. as to where to buy, etc. This worked as people stopped for the free cake and, in doing so, read about my book and talked to me. The local paper, hearing of the booksigning, called me to do an article.
Sincerely,
Jane Reville
The Plaid Robe
A memoir of a Baltimore girl who transitions from blissful innocence to austere realism. The upheavals of the sixties merge with her journey from an innocent fifties childhood.
Published on November 23, 2011
I want to share a secret with you. A secret that will help you make your reputation as a writer and land repeat assignments with editors in every field…
Published on November 17, 2011
Next week, relatives from three different states will be converging on our home. We are VERY excited because chefs Ali and Mikey will be cooking us a five-star gourmet Thanksgiving feast!
Published on November 17, 2011
complaints, Complaints about specific publishers, lulu, pod complaints, top page
Back in 2009, we published THIS ARTICLE, which featured numerous complaints about Lulu, posted directly to Lulu’s forum by Lulu’s own authors.
I recently surfed back to their forum to see if things have improved. Apparently, they have not. Below are quotes taken directly from Lulu’s own author forum…
Published on November 17, 2011
Hi Angela:
I read your piece about using email addresses, trademarks, etc. in books, and wanted to add something.
First of all, it seems like it would be more trouble than it’s worth to put email addresses in a book. If the writer is going to put the text of an email in a book, why not just have the characters’ names in the From and To fields? Or, if the character is described finding an email address that’s key to the story, why not just say something like “He came across an email address that was also used by so-and-so” rather than say “He came across xyz@someisp.com, which was also used by so-and-so”?
Second, if an actual email address must be used, writers should realize that addresses with Yahoo, Google, etc. can become defunct if they’re not accessed for a long time, so they’ll end up having to log into those accounts every six months or so just to keep them active, which would be a hassle. An easier solution might be to register one or more domain addresses and just use email addresses associated with them. That way, they only need to keep the domains active, which is fairly cheap to do, to ensure that no one else will get those addresses in the future. They can even establish that said domain is a provider of free email accounts, a la Yahoo or Google, in the story world, so multiple characters could have those accounts. (Or the domain could be a pretend business in the book, etc.)
As always, I appreciate the good info in your newsletter. Keep up the great work.
Brad Cook, Writer/Editor
AIM/Twitter: bradcwriter
~~~
Dear Angela,
Thank you for reminding writers to check for “fictitious” business names they use in their stories and novels.
When beginning a mystery about a fictitious product manufactured by a fictitious company, I searched the Google and U.S. Trademark websites for the names and also the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website for the product. Many of the names I initially selected for the company were already listed as real organizations and it took about twelve tries before I found a truly fictitious name.
As a former FDA investigator, I periodically scan the website. Imagine my surprise a year later when I spotted a recall alert for a non-drug product with the same name as the drug product in my story. At the time, I was editing the second draft and had to change the product name.
It is not only important to check for fictitious names when starting to craft your manuscript, but double-check them before publishing as well.
Barbara-Helene Smith
Mystery Writer
Poway Pen and Ink
Published on November 17, 2011
Writers are a relatively introverted bunch. To many of us, the idea of phoning a potential client to say, “Hire me!” is downright scary…
Published on November 17, 2011
I see your point, but how does this really differ from the problem of character names? I write a story, and I make up a name for my character, but with just about any name I pick, say “Phil Walters” or “Susie Kimball” (and I just now made those up), there are going to be dozens of people across the United States with that name. And now the cops are after Phil because Susie is missing and they think he murdered her, or after Susie because her boss says she embezzled $10,000. How does this differ from (a suspected fictious business name) running a sideline in smuggling drugs?
Coming up with names and such is enough of a pain when writing, without making it harder. And what if I do check a name/URL/e-mail out today? Somebody could easily start using the name between the time I submit the story to a publisher and the time it is published (lead times of a year are not unusual). Do I have to recheck everything when I get the final galley? My publisher would be *most unhappy* if I made a whole slew of changes that late in the production cycle.
You can’t be a hundred percent safe on something like this, that’s what the usual disclaimer is for.
Published on November 17, 2011
When my neurologist diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis two months before my 30th birthday, I thought of one thing – what’s going to happen to all of the stories I want to tell, but haven’t found the time to write?
Published on November 9, 2011
Ali and Mikey arrived in Florida late last week. They decided to live in our RV and travel to different nearby cities to look for jobs…
Published on November 9, 2011
Well, it happened again. An author submitted a novel and a so-called “fictitious”, non-profit organization he created for his novel was accused, in his novel, of being involved in a child abuse ring. He listed the “fictional” organization’s name and website URL in his novel. I’ve seen this before and it took me a mere second to Google the name and the website address and, guess what? They both exist…
