I’ve been talking to a lot of authors lately who are fighting the clouds. Inspiration seems to be gone, replaced by a sense of overwhelm. In some cases, it’s a defeatism. I know I talked about some of this with my “Comparison Queen” post of a couple of weeks ago. And I want to get back to that topic. But, since I’ve been approached lately by so many authors dealing with gloomy writing schedules, I wanted to take a moment and talk about these clouds.

I could be all stoic and say that it goes back to why we write. We should write for the love, for the inspiration, for any number of lofty goals, with the money being a nice side benefit. And for many people that’s true. But, when there’s money and business involved, it can add some clouds pretty quickly. It’s important as authors that we can overcome that and continue to pursue our craft. After all, we have readers who might not care a bit about the business side of things, clamoring for our next book.

So here are some tips to battle the clouds:

1. Remember you have options. Even if rights of first refusal are given in contracts, unless it’s so broad as to preclude anything in the genre in which you’re writing (Tip: we only ask for right of first refusal on related works, as do many publishers.), try something else. A different story, a different world, a different genre if necessary. Try something else and broaden your horizons.

2. Remember the business is only part of it. The craft of writing the best story you can is the largest portion of having a career as an author. Keep learning. Keep trying. Most of all, keep crafting and writing!

3. This too shall pass. In the end, the sky can’t stay gloomy for long. And the love you thought long lost might return with a vengeance when different circumstances are applied. Take care of yourself. And know that the clouds will part. It may just take some time.

And in the meantime, keep writing!

I’ve been hearing a certain phrase lately in my travels across the internet, and it really bothers me. The phrase is simple, and there is a genuine question masked within it. However, this phrase also implies something that I don’t think is true…writing is not a zero-sum game.

The phrase in question is: But why would I want to share/tell/give [fill in the blank]?

Usually this has to do with promotion or marketing, or even the sharing of information. After all, if you give that great market tip to a certain group or individual, then what if they take advantage of it. Wouldn’t that be one less spot for your book, one less market for you to utilize?

Well, yes and no. It is true that publishers only have certain numbers of publishing openings a year. At some point market saturation is reached and the publisher simply can’t put out any more books either due to internal resources or external forces like how many books a reader will buy. So if writer A takes one publishing slot, that’s a position that writer B cannot take. Writer B can however take a different spot, either an additional release at the same time or one in a few weeks or months. And, the truth is, most publishers are always looking for new writers because we all know life happens. People get busy, move away from genres, etc., so the space which writer A might have held will become open at some point in the future.

The other thing to think about is that writers don’t exist in a vacuum. Many times we write because we were once readers who thought we could tell an excellent story. And we were right. *smiles* This means that while yes, you want to reach readers with your promotional efforts, frankly, I don’t think there’s any distinction between the writer-reader or the reader-reader (i.e. someone who doesn’t write books at all). Both groups read, and I bet if you did polling, both groups might even have the same amount of time to devote to reading, because just as the writer doesn’t write in a vacuum, so too the reader doesn’t read in one. She (or he) has a family, a job, a life, and frankly, other interests.

There’s also the fact that most writers can’t act upon every submission call he or she receives. Some aren’t interesting. Some aren’t in genres in which the writer works. And some, frankly, the writer runs out of time with. The same holds true with marketing information.

For the most part the writing community is an open and caring one, and that’s one of the beautiful things about it. And while many of us are vying for those few coveted spots with big publishers, in reality the publishing business has opened up so many new opportunities that other publishers or other formats might actually be the better fit for us and our work. For one writer to gain a publisher doesn’t mean that the other writer won’t get a contract at all. The world is big enough and fluid enough that there is no zero-sum, and while at times it can be win-lose, most of the time this business is win-win. Sometimes it just takes a bit longer or in a different direction from which we originally planned for that second win to come in. And that, my friends, is a blog post in and of itself.

We are pleased to announce the Spellbound Treasure world and line of books from Pink Petal Books is now open to all submitting authors. Regular submission guidelines apply, and we encourage all authors to download the Spellbound Treasure Encyclopedia for authors to obtain information on all the books, worlds, and characters.

We encourage submissions to this line and can’t wait to see what treasures you come up with!

As a special incentive to authors, if you write our submissions email with your Spellbound Treasure idea and anticipated date it will be finished, we’ll send you a coupon good for a 25% discount off of one Spellbound Treasure story.

I suppose I should give a shout out to our author, Lex Valentine, who always considers it a win if she can make her editor (me) sniffle a time or two during her books. And how can I not, with the rich, emotional story, the depth of feelings, and the characters that you can really are about? It’s those things that make a reader (or an editor) cry.

I was thinking about this topic as I was finishing up the most recent book in a series (non romance). I was lying on the couch, tears leaking down my face, though I blamed it on allergies and being overly tired, and there I was…crying over a book. In fact, I hadn’t cried in the first few books, but in the fourth, when the sniffles threatened, that was when the author hooked me, and she’s an auto-buy/auto-read ever since.

Readers want an emotional connection with their books and characters. Most authors probably don’t have to have a reader cry to get on their auto buy list, but that visceral, emotional reaction to a book will certainly do it. At least for me. I don’t think authors should shy away from those heart wrenching scenes. And those scenes will be different from one reader to another. An emotional reunion might not threaten tears, but have someone’s cat or pet be in danger, and the waterworks are on! We probably shouldn’t put in things to try and make every reader cry, but if a story is deeply emotional, then there’s no reason why an author wouldn’t want to make as deep a reading experience as possible. And yes, sometimes that includes tears.

I like to joke that I’m a sap. I do get emotionally involved in characters and stories. I love it when a story brings itself to life through brilliant execution and pulls at my emotions. That’s what a good book does. I still can’t read the entire Vanyel trilogy by Mercedes Lackey without bawling my eyes out, and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So writers, go for the heart! Make your reader (or your editor) cry. We’re waiting!

I had the joy of watching someone become a fan, the kind of fan who stays up into the wee hours of the morning to read, of a new-to-them author this past weekend. Even better, this was a genre that this person really hadn’t read, and didn’t seem to be his “thing”.  You see, Patricia Briggs was the author guest of honor at Demicon this past weekend. (www.demicon.org), and I had purchased the first two Mercy Thompson books to read, because I wanted to familiarize myself with her works. Plus, I felt kind of late to this very awesome party. Well, I’d mentioned to my partner that he should read her books, too. Just so he’d be familiar with her work. The next thing I know, as I’m pulled into this world and reading as fast as I can, he is, too. It was amazing to watch.

As a writer and a publisher, this is the kind of reaction I’d hope to hear of when someone discovers my/our books, that a series filled with beloved characters turns into a “can’t put them down” and “gobble up all the books” reading marathon.

So how do you create that kind of reading experience?

First, whether the book is in third or first person, make sure there is an intriguing main character who has a compelling voice and story to tell.

Second, don’t give away all your thunder before the climax of the book. Hints and tidbits are great. Those are what makes the reader go, “ohh, so that’s how it all worked out” when the ending is finally revealed, but doesn’t make them guess the murderer ten pages in.

Third, each book needs to be better than the last. I can list at least half a dozen series where readers are still raving, but for me, the books just got…well, “meh” by the second or third one in, and I couldn’t really justify the money, nor the time, in reading them. And these are pretty big name authors. I bet the names would shock you. But when each book is better than the last, when each book reveals something new and different about your world, then the readers will keep coming back for more.

I was informed this morning that someone stayed up until almost five am reading. Yes, he’s almost done with the series. And I just smile, because my hard science fiction, logic, politics, and math guy is hooked on urban fantasy which he’d never have picked up, unless I said, “honey, you really want to read these books. They’re good.” I may have offered the bait, but it was the author’s talent which made him swallow it– hook, line, and sinker!

I’m going to mention a dirty word…grammar! Learning the parts of speech, correct punctuation use, and how to correctly apply these things is the bane of every elementary school student. Some pick up on this easier than others. Even in this house, my partner is a grammar god, and I’m always asking him questions or double checking things, but that’s how we learn. I’ll get to that in a minute.

So I’m going to start with a baseline belief that everyone wants to produce well-written, grammatically correct stories. How do you do that? Well, one of the biggest and best ways is to self-edit. There are numerous classes out there; I’ve taken a few of them. Being able to go back through your work and catch the missed, or overused (but more often these days missed) commas, the singular-plural mismatches, tense shifts…well, I could go on and on.

In order to self-edit, an author needs education. This can be obtained through the aforementioned classes or from books. I routinely mention two of my favorites. I love The Transitive Vampire and The Well-Tempered Sentence, but I’ve also heard good things about Eats, Shoots, Leaves, or anything that the Grammar Girl puts out. (She also has weekly podcasts.)

Another way we get education is from others. Whether they’re critique partners, boyfriends and friends who read our work, or editors at other publishing houses, this education also plays a role in our grammar usage. It also, for those of us who know grammar, grates like hell on our nerves when publishers have grammatically incorrect house styles. And yes, I’ve seen it.

This means that when you have some look at your work, be it a professional or just someone helping out, you need to be sure of their grammar knowledge. Sometimes that’s going to be based on trust. You can’t know that an editor, or a publisher, has a particular house style until you either a) read books edited/published by them or b) work with them. Now errors are going to slip through. It’s the nature of words and writing. And, when an author knows the rules, he or she can break them. That’s also part of writing.

But, it’s vital that those first readers–critique partners, friends, family–know grammar. Hiring an editor might be one way to get the problems fixed, but if you don’t know how to fix them yourself, then you will still make the same issues. Education and hard work are key.

The money and time invested in learning grammar, taking classes, and educating yourself will pay off no matter where you are in your career. Even seasoned authors need refresher courses now and then.

*****PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED*****

Call for Submissions for “Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men” anthology.

Pink Petal Books, a high-quality boutique publisher, is actively searching for erotic short stories between 7k-15k words for an anthology to be released in April 2012. At this time, we are looking for four to six tales for a 50k-word finished electronic and print book. Both published and unpublished authors are welcome.

Theme: Dangerous places- Dangerous men Do you have a survivor-type story? A shipwrecked hero, a heroine stranded on a desert island with a hot rogue, or a couple who’s lost in the steamy jungles? Did your hero drop into a war zone or does he work in an extremely perilous occupation?

If you have or are currently working on a story that might be suitable, please send directly to anthologysubs@pinkpetalbooks.com Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men Anthology Guidelines:

• 7k-15k word stories must have romance, and either a happily ever after or a happily for now ending.
• M/F, M/M, F/F and ménage accepted
• Heat rating: crank up the heat! All erotic heat levels accepted

Submission deadline is January 15, 2012. Submit the full short story plus a blurb to anthologysubs@pinkpetalbooks.com with “Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men” in the subject line. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Publishing And Payment Information: This anthology will be released in print and ebook format simultaneously. Approximately ninety days later each story will release as individual ebooks. Royalties are paid monthly, and our general royalty structure is 40% of the sales price for all sales from our website. For third party sales, we pay 40% of what we receive. All print books pay 10% of cover price regardless of sales outlet. For anthology sales, all authors in the anthology will split royalties equally. Individual ebook sales will receive full royalties.

For more information about our submission guidelines and publishing program, please visit our website at: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Submissions.html. If you have any questions, please contact us at anthologysubs@pinkpetalbooks.com

“Nothing sells your current book like your next one.”

“Build a backlist.”

“You have to keep putting out books so readers don’t forget you.”

All signs point to GO when it comes to productivity. Especially in the e-publisher markets, authors are pushed to write more and more. But at what point does being too productive become counter-productive?

Read more »

In their Things I learned from RWA 11, Jane at Dear Author mentioned that readers still love the sweet, small town contemporary romances. The responses, understandably so, ranged from what about cities and urban areas to those who love those stories. I have to admit, as someone who grew up in a small town (population under 800) and spent most of her childhood life in the small town, I am of mixed thoughts about these books. Now before I continue, the last small town contemporary sweet book I read was recommended because of the heroine’s chronic illness, and it’s not my usual reading genre. However, I understand the appeal (and the unappeal) of these books, and as a small town girl, well…frankly, I couldn’t keep quiet.

(We’ll also skip the sociological impacts and analyzing that could happen from these, too. *smiles*)

I like small town romances only if they’re realistic. What does this mean to me?

First of all, small towns are notorious for everyone knowing everyone else and everyone’s business. (Living in a trailer court in a suburb, I think this also applies for apartment complexes, and smaller communities within a larger one quiet easily.) That means if Molly, our heroine, decides to dye her hair red, then by golly everyone in town is going to know. I used to joke that if someone farted, the news would be across town in five minutes or less.

The small town news is also usually fueled by the “old ladies’ gossip network.” (One little old lady hears everything and so she calls all her old lady pals (or thirtysomething pals if they’re not “old ladies”. LOL!), who then calls everyone they know. In the small town where I grew up, I pretty much know the news within twenty four hours because I talk to my gran every day, and she tells me. So nothing, and I do mean nothing, is secret. (Facebook is also awesome for making this happen, because now I call gran and say “I heard or I saw such and such on Facebook” so then SHE has the news to spread. *big grin*)

I often joke with gran that if all the little old ladies in town had Facebook or cell phones, or back in the day AOL Instant Messenger, then news would travel much more quickly.

It takes a rare person who grew up in a small town who doesn’t want to get away from it at some point. Some of us never go back. (Some of us look for small towns in other places, because we like the laid back life without all the gossip.)

There is a lot of people helping people, but there’s also a lot of the not so good side of humanity. It’s a melting pot, just like the rest of America.

Does this sound like any where else? I mean seriously, there’s a lot of small town = good and wonderful in these books, that frankly, could be found in a close knit community in NYC or in a midsize town.

I promised I wouldn’t go all analytical, but really, I think what I liked about the book I read is how the characters cared for each other. There’s a real sense of “It takes a village” whether they’re dealing with one character’s chronic illness, or another character’s single parenthood. That’s the connection, and that’s what I liked. And honestly, that’s what I liked about the small town where I grew up. I know people pay attention. If gran wouldn’t get her mail for a few days, or someone else like a relative get it for her, then someone would check on her. Someone shovels/snowblows her sidewalk when winter gets bad. It’s a sense of caring for each other, and honestly, that can happen wherever you live, and it’s something that should probably happen more often.

There have been numerous articles and blog entries written about how to research a publisher. However, an author has to be just as careful when choosing service partners. Luckily when you research a service provider (such as a hosting company or a design company), you’ll use many of the same techniques.

Why would you want to research a service provider? First, you’re paying your hard earned money. And it doesn’t matter if that money is a gift, your royalties, or a paycheck. You want to get what you paid for. Secondly, a bad service provider can leave you worse off than when you started. In a “best case” scenario you simply don’t get what you paid for. Moving down the scale to the worst case scenario you’ll get something that you have to pay to have finished, possibly quite a bit more than it originally cost, because of the way the person put it together, or you might have someone up and vanish, leaving you with no website, no service, and no reputation.

So how do you check out your service provider?

1) How long have they been in business? What’s their track record?

2) Do they have sample work and can they provide references? If they do not, or cannot provide references that should be a huge red flag. It should also be a flag if their only references are people who you know the individual is buddy-buddy with online.

3) What is their service guarantee?

4) Google them. Granted, this might not turn up any implosions, but you have to try. Not googling is akin to not telling the waiter about the fly in your soup.

5) Be careful. Don’t enter into long-term contracts or ask for a 90 day money back guarantee (In the hosting world 30 days just isn’t long enough to find any issues.)

Hopefully this will help you when it comes to finding service providers. As authors, we work with a number of different people from our web hosting service to graphic designers, marketing gurus, and more. A little due diligence goes a long way towards a beautiful professional relationship.