Break It Up, Sell It Off By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Someday, you’ll probably create a piece of writing that becomes a white elephant. It’s good writing, but for some reason, it has no value for the intended publication…
10 Days of Rain
My mom, who lives in Texas, sent me a picture of her pond last week. It’s almost gone, looking more like a large mud puddle than a sanctuary for sweaty farm animals. It’s certainly not something their horses or even the local deer will be able to drink from much longer.
In Maine, we have quite the opposite problem. Farmers are worried their crops will be ruined by all the rain we’ve been having. Whenever the sun does manage to peek out, we rush the children outside for some much-needed fresh air and Vitamin D, knowing they’ll be stuck inside for days on end once another band of clouds approaches. The current forecast is another 10 days of rain…and the forecast only goes out that far so there could be more…
POD SECRETS REVEALED: Feeding On Your Vanity…or Ignorance: More Hot Air on POD Publishers’ Websites – Angela Hoy, co-owner of BookLocker and WritersWeekly.com
As I wrote last week, “Some companies will say or write just about anything to get your business…”
Letters To The Editor For May 18th
Letters will return next week.
Avoiding Pay-Per-Click Meat Markets
Could you please give me advice on another avenue to take as a new writer? I want to get my writing out there, but I don’t want it to be on a “meat market” – as you put it – that degrades my work.
Narrow Your Scope to Achieve a Goal By Lauren Carter
After writing full-time for a local paper and then freelancing for newspapers and websites for a few years, I set the broad objective to break into a national glossy…
Backwards Snowbirds? – Part II
I wanted to thank everyone who wrote in with opinions on safe (and unsafe) cities in Florida! I’ve made a list of the recommended city names that were sent in…
POD SECRETS REVEALED: Ridiculous Hot Air on Some POD Publishers’ Websites – Angela Hoy, co-owner of BookLocker.com
At BookLocker, we are frequently contacted by authors who say they are surprised by our candor. We never tell authors their book might become a best seller…because it probably won’t (most traditionally published books never become best sellers, either). We don’t twist our words around to make it appear an author’s book will be stocked by “25,000” bookstores. It won’t. And we don’t publish verbiage that makes an author think we do something we don’t. We just don’t do business that way.
Authors appreciate our honestly because they have read so much confusing blurbage on other POD publishers’ websites.
Here are a few examples of what we believe is “hot air” on some POD publishers’ websites. Of course, this is our opinion. You can form your own…
Investigative TV Series to Feature Co-Authors’ Story!
Hi Angela,
I just had to tell my fave editor the great news…and to let you know, again, thank you for the suggestion to use Skye Wentworth Public Relations as a publicist for my book!
This fall, Investigative Discovery T.V. series The Will will feature our story, inspired by my co-written book, The Inventor’s Fortune Up For Grabs by Suzanne G. Beyer and John S. Pfarr.
Filming began last week and the French-Canadian film crew is now working their way cross-country to interview the other “characters” in the book.
Best, Suzanne Beyer
https://www.theinventorsfortune.com
Being Honest About a Project’s Commercial Potential By Rich Mintzer
The American Society of Journalists and Authors holds an annual writers conference each spring in New York City. One of the three days always intrigues me. It’s the day in which they have what is called the Personal Pitch. This is an opportunity for writers to meet face to face with editors, publishers and agents and pitch ideas for books, blogs, articles or whatever they have to sell. Pitches need to be concise as this is almost akin to speed dating, except we need not determine that we both love walks on the beach…