Posts filed under ‘Behind the Scenes’
The Voice of An Author: An Interview with David O’Leary Wielgosz
“Something about being a teenager just tears the whole world away from you, and I guess the outcome of that is what makes you the man you are going to be. So, what will I be…?” — Gardener Fox, main character in author David O’Leary Wielgosz’s first novel, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.
A writer well beyond his years, Wielgosz debuts his novel with an honest insight and real-life approach to the intricacies of a teenage world. Through a story of struggle and a message of self-acceptance, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired touches on the relevance and intensity of such a defining age. We are able to look behind the scenes, into the heart of the story — the heart of this 17-year-old author hoping to open up alternatives to a generation — to an age of constant uncertainty with life-changing consequences.
Wielgosz, a “kid” from Holyoke, Massachusetts, dreams of stories — “of creating new worlds for people to escape to.” In his first work of fiction, Wielgosz describes Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired as “honest with a lot of heart.” The story of Gardner Fox, a 16-year-old boy dealing with the hand life provided. A hand that leads him to question who it is he should be and the struggles of change within his surroundings — or perhaps the struggle to remain who he is…who we all are.
“I started off as a fat, love-sick fanboy with delusions of grandeur, but at the end, after God, Buddha, or Vishnu, or Odin, or Superman, or whoever the hell up there got through throwing rocks at me and brought me back down from that miserable tree I was in, I ended up being something I was even less proud of.” — Gardener Fox
According to Wielgosz, this is “a story about growing up and how on any given day you can feel like the king of the world or just another chump.” A story of significance that transcends from generation to generation as we all search for our place, our meaning, and our relevance.
Inspired by life right now and by friends, peers, acquaintances, and those simply observed, Wielgosz took the actions and emotions to their “logical extremes.” He hopes “to show that we are all better than this.” That the beautiful and ugly chaos is simply being a teenager, but that your choices will change you.
“Everything about this book is a product of me, and nothing in the world could ever make me more proud. It is not a work without flaws, but what is?” says Wielgosz, a quote almost symbolizing the story itself. “I don’t pull my punches and each character is a real teenager, [struggling through] morality, sexuality, friendship, life and death.” Through his book, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired, Wielgosz proposes a challenge. A challenge to better yourself, to believe in who you are, and to realize that these years are critical in the shaping of who you will become.
- Melissa
New York Times Reports Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books
This is an excerpt from the New York Times article by Brad Stone-originally published 8/12/2009 Read the full article>>
“Paper books may be low tech, but no one will tell you how and where you can read them.
For many people, the problem with electronic books is that they come loaded with just those kinds of restrictions. Digital books bought today from Amazon.com, for example, can be read only on Amazon’s Kindle device or its iPhone software.
Some restrictions on the use of e-books are likely to remain a fact of life. But some publishers and consumer electronics makers are aiming to give e-book buyers more flexibility by rallying around a single technology standard for the books. That would also help them counter Amazon, which has taken an early lead in the nascent market.
On Thursday, Sony Electronics, which sells e-book devices under the Reader brand, plans to announce that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins.
Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied.
After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub. Those include the Plastic Logic eReader, a thin device that has been in development for nearly a decade and is expected to go on sale early next year.”
This is an excerpt from the New York Times article by Brad Stone-originally published 8/12/2009
See full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/technology/internet/13reader.html
What Makes Great Authors and Artists Tick: 20 Questions by PopMatters.com
Thing is, great authors are people, too! Oftentimes, while immersed in their intoxicating prose and seductive poetry, we forget these people visit the grocery store, wash clothes at the laundry mat, listen to the same music we do, among numerous other things that make a person a living, breathing human being.
Luckily, Popmatters is wise to this fact about writers and artists. To help reveal the person behind the literary (or musical) magic, the editors have devised their “20 Questions” column, where bestselling authors are interviewed and asked only 20 questions about their favorite books, their favorite albums, whether they prefer Star Trek or Star Wars, whether they prefer wearing Armani or Levis, whether their essentials are strict diets of coffee, cigarettes and chocolate, or perhaps vodka and frequent visits to the spa.
Read just a few of the authors profiled, and gain some insight into the similarities between your life and theirs as great writers.
Aleksandar Hemon
[23.Jun.09] : “Hell,” Hemon tells PopMatters 20 Questions, “is being stuck at an airport without a book, starving for thought, forced to watch CNN.” Heaven might be a bathtub full of Turkish coffee … Read more>>
Lynn Freed
[6.Apr.09] : Award-winning writer Lynn Freed’s delicious replies to PopMatters 20 Questions may have you wishing, like us, that she could be your dinner guest. Her new novel, The Servants’ Quarters, was published in April 2009. Read more>>
Laura Miller
[1.Dec.08] : Cofounder of Salon.com, ravenous reader Laura Miller talks with PopMatters 20 Questions about C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and other influences that led to The Magician’s Book. Read more>>
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Visit PopMatter.com, and learn about the muscians, writers and activists who have made a significant impact on our culture. So too, learn how their habits and preference resemble yours. Remember, they put their pants on one leg at a time after all, even if their pants might sell for a small fortune on eBay.
Michael J. Fox Memoir Always Looking Up: Writing with Purpose
Everyone knows Michael J. Fox, and you’ve probably heard about the recent release of his newest memoir Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. Actor turned activist turned author, Fox has stolen the hearts of television, movie and literature fans around the world, in no small part because of his passion and optimism to share his experiences as well as his positive spin on his illness.
That said, writers must always have passion! Without the ambition and drive to capture your stories and interpretation of life, you’ll never be able to instill your message or stir emotions in your readers.
Consider Fox’s devotion to revealing his message. While balancing his family life and his activism at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, he managed to dictate and help edit a book that had inspired (and continues to inspire) optimism in millions of people, whether they agree with his political views concerning stem cell research or not.
Writers are constantly faced with challenges; some deal with writer’s block; others map out crucial scenes over and over again until perfect; and still others pace the length of their office just like Fox, physically fighting to communicate his idealism and hope for the future. Watch the below Borders video in which Fox talks about his writing method and the challenges he faced writing Always Looking Up.
Whether the obstacles in the path of your writing career are large or small, remember that your passion for writing and your interesting experiences will fuel the completion of your manuscript. Though you may waver on occasion and neglect your writing schedule, never forget that you started writing for a reason, maybe personal, political or creative. Seeing your sentences move from chapters to a full manuscript to a publication that’s read by your target audience will definitely be a rewarding testament to your artistic achievement.
The Point: Like Fox, writers have unique insights and inspiring stories, and though you may struggle distilling your thoughts and experiences into a manuscript, ultimately the reward of sharing your story will be measured in the hope and revelation it instills in readers.
Self-Branding: What Your Web Site Says about You and Your Book
Authors, and perhaps especially self-published authors, can have a difficult run after production of their books is complete, mostly because, just when you thought you were done, then comes the necessary marketing.
Simply put, in order to sell books, you have to sell yourself. Just like a book cover can catch a reader’s eye, so too, your Web site can attract new fans and audiences to your work, but what kind of Web site is going to attract the right people? It’s a good question, and one that has no easy answer, but the truth of the matter is: without a creative and straightforward Web site with compelling content, your book might go unnoticed for a time in various Internet circles.
There are, however, a few questions you can ask yourself when designing your own Web site (or hiring a third party to design one for you) that may help:
What type of book are you marketing? Fiction? Poetry? Inspirational? Christian? Perhaps a children’s book? Whatever type of book you’ve publish, the genre and content of it will definitely affect how you market and subsequently how you build your Web site. For that matter, you need to reveal the specifics of your book on your site right away–on the homepage–not only to keep visitors interested, but to increase your keywords for Internet searches as well.
What is the primary thrust of your marketing plan? Are you approaching the media with press release and follow-up calls? Are you planning a book tour in the near future? Are you selling your book in local or regional bookstores? Whatever the main push of your marketing strategy is, you’ll want to reflect its importance on the main page of your Web site.
What information do people need to know? Obviously, people coming to your site are interested in the content of your book; but if you’ve only posted vague information about the formats, prices or materials within your book, you might not convert a reader into a customer. Hence, the importance of drafting compelling copy that tells your visitors exactly why your book is so valuable and worthy of being purchased beyond all doubts.
How can readers get your book? Okay, so maybe you’ve convinced them to buy your book, but you still have to make the process of actually ordering a copy quick and easy for them. If ordering a book is too complicated or buried in other material, a potential customer may be dissuaded and leave your site. So be sure to post links to your Book Ordering page, or offer visitors a simple way to order your book on your site.
Long story short, your Web site is an important aspect of your marketing campaign, and as such, it requires a great deal of forethought and planning when developing if you’re looking to keep target readers interested and convert them into customers.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Don’t Call It a Comeback: eBooks and the State of the Market (early ‘09)
It’s not a flying surfboard or a cloned beloved pet, but the future of the e-book is something to look at. Some of us have had the inkling that the eventuality of this technology would replace the printed page. That hasn’t quite happened, and it may never happen. We have discussed various angles of the Kindle-Sony Reader growth over the past year. In that time I have personally seen the discussion go from ‘maybe we should try that out’ to ‘how can we do that for all of our titles’ here at Author Solutions.
The early advancers have adopted the machines, and the powers behind the two platforms are working to enhance the means by which publishers can go to market with these titles. Software companies have been working toward perfecting the output of various file-types for the displays, and the manufacturers of the screens and e-ink technology have been working to increase the size and function of the displays. If you keep an eye on the technology tab of your favorite news provider, you will see occasional mentions of the new prototypes, flexible displays, color displays and lower costs. If you put all of that together, it is clear that the people who sell you books believe that you will be buying e-book readers and e-books.
Ask Amazon how much of their overall income for 2008 was related to e-books for their Kindle device, and you might be surprised to find that demand for titles that are available in print or e-book has pivoted to over 12 percent preference for Kindle, a percentage which is only growing. The number of titles currently available compared to the total market is low, but the market share for the Kindle is definitely on the rise.
The discussion is exciting. There are any number of parties out there talking about the next generation Kindle and the possibility that Apple will get in on the game. This massive coalescence is still in its early stages, but it is starting to swirl. I predict that more content which is non-book in origin that will continue to drive the sales of these devices. Newspapers and magazines are getting their feet wet as we speak. In the future will you purchase a book on the Internet that you can then read or listen to or watch on one machine? Will video be a part of the package? How much of the page will need to be ads before the device is free? Will it be in your phone? Will it be flexible and online? Does anyone know for sure???
Angry Villagers Burn Books: E-book Zealots Versus Sentimental Booklovers
Earlier this week, Computerworld Blog posted an article entitled “Clueless book publishers miss huge opportunity,” which adamantly predicts that the growing convenience of e-books and development of e-reader technology like Kindle and the Sony Reader will soon render physical books obsolete.
Undoubtedly, e-books and e-readers have opened new areas of publishing and marketing for all genres of books, but does it necessarily follow that the printing of books is doomed to dust as a result of this digital boom?
For me, the question is not one of the merits and benefits of digital content. Of course online content has given us more convenience learning information and accessing entertainment. In fact, I found the Computerworld article online, but I could have easily read the content on an iPhone as well.
Instead, I believe the question concerns the value of the physical book, whether our hardcover or paperbacks will truly become obsolete, relics of an out-of-print past. In order to look deeper at this issue, however, we’ll need to address a few fundamental questions about the concept of the book itself and the publishing industry at large.
What’s the value of a book?
Of course there’s huge value in the content of books. Otherwise why would you search out and order particular books, by specific authors, talking about the topics or stories that interest you? And obviously, that content translates (and should translate) to a digital format. But is that the end of a book, its content? Why wouldn’t we dispose of them after reading then? Why would they decorate our house? Why would communities like BookCrossing exist if not for the demand and interest in the physical book?
The simple answer is: a book is more than its content.
For starters, a book’s design, especially when it comes to art books, children’s books and novels with nontraditional formatting like House of Leaves, can have unique, experimental layouts that are just as compelling as their content at times. (more…)
Wordclay Blog Suspended Until December 2nd
Greetings all,
Please be advised that the Wordclay Blog will suspend posting until after the coming Thanksgiving Holiday, but rest assured, we will resume normal operations effective December 2, 2008.
Should you have questions about Wordclay or suggestions for future blogs, don’t hesitate to pitch your idea within a comment, and our blogging team will definitely address your submissions upon their return.
Thank you for your time and patience.
-The Wordclay Blog Team
When to turn your blog into a book: The fuzzy lines between formats
How many inches doth fill up one mile…-Wm. Shakespeare
The Power of Paper in a Paperless World
So many people out there are blogging. These daily (and sometimes posted several times daily) entries track concepts and topics while communicating content to friends, family and the general public. Some bloggers who place ads on their sites make some money. For others, it’s a serious career, earning enough to live comfortably. But for most bloggers, this is not the case.
One way to drive the traffic to your blog is to aggregate and publish collected thoughts in print. There are several books that have become bestsellers which had originally been published online as blogs. Often the publication of the book drives more traffic to the blog and vice versa. Perhaps having a printed version of your blog for sale is the equivalent of pop stars having fragrance lines and clothing lines. It’s a way to leverage your notoriety to further cement your own financial footprint, thus also preserving your ability to focus on citizen journalism and blogging with more of your time.
Moving across platforms to draw larger audiences is the rule for success in many creative fields. Many new bloggers are working at the local level to make a splash with their thoughts. By ‘crossing over’ to other media you can improve the odds that people might see your name more than once or recognize your brand as more prevalent.
This goes for those of you who are writing books as your main focus as well. You can go out there and start free blogs on the Web. You can use this platform to sell your books and to expand your perceived expertise in your field.
Our duty is so rich, so infinite, that we may do it still without accompt.-Wm. Shakespeare
Creating & Promoting Audio Books: Voices.com & Voice123
It’s no secret that audio books are a thriving business for authors, and if you’re already publishing a book, why not look into having a voice over talent record your manuscript for audio publication?
Think about it. Millions of people listen to podcasts and books on their morning commutes and even in their offices as they peck away at the keyboard. Making your audio book available can really get a great buzz going about your book. Even if one person purchases an audio copy of your title, you can bet that others will overhear, inquire about your book and perhaps even add your audio book to their online shopping cart for a listen.
Plus, with iTunes coupled with the iPod hardware so available as the modern listening technology of choice, recouping your investment can be easy with the right marketing plan.
Since Author Solutions, Inc. has yet to offer audio books, our marketing gang found two superb and trusted organizations that handles voice over talents, namely Voices.com and Voice123.
VOICE OVER TALENT AGENCIES FOR AUDIO BOOKS
Voices.com
Voices.com is a unique web service that helps you complete your voice over recording, music production and language translation projects online. It’s simple, fast, and web-based. You don’t need to download or install anything — everything happens in your web browser.
Helping more than 58,000 people, some of their clients include ABC, NBC, CBS, Dreamworks, Disney, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Bell South, Nortel Networks, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Xerox, Ford, GM, BMW, Shell, Texaco, NASA, the US Army and many more.
In addition to being fast and diplomatic, ensuring you get the best deal while connecting to the best voice over talents, their clients have said they have reduced their costs by as much as 60 percent by using their service. By working directly with professional voice talent you don’t need to book recording studios, hire an audio engineer or casting director to complete your project.
With their free Client Account you can:
- Post a job or search the database
- View voice talent profiles and listen to audio demos online
- Compare qualifications, quotes and availability of professionals
- Pay the voice talent using SurePay™ Escrow service
- Download finished work securely from Voices.com
- Satisfaction Guaranteed when you use SurePay™ Escrow!
Voice123
Voice123 is one of the biggest and most technologically advanced group of voice over talents and voice producers in the world. Whether you want a local voice talent for your next national TV commercial or a fully-produced piece of audio in Japanese for your book promotions in Japan, Voice123 can help. Voice123 allows you to hire thousands of voice over talent and voice producers from all over the world within your budge. Language, accent and geographical borders are now things of the past!
Post a project and let talents or producers submit auditions or proposals. No time for auditions? Easy: get in contact with the talent or producer right away. Use Voice123′s SmartSearch feature to find the professionals you like, or simply allow SmartCast find the best voice for you.
The entire process may take a couple of hours. Most of their talents and voice producers have their own recording studio facilities, saving you time and money.
Manage all your castings quickly and free! Talents submit their audition using their state-of-the-art online auditioning system. You manage the auditions as you wish grading them, sharing them, downloading them, storing them and much more!
The Point: An investment in audio books can not only earn you money, but also become a lucrative strategy to promote your book worldwide and even break into yet another marketplace.
