Posts tagged ‘literary’
Five Little Things You Can Do To Get More Attention for Your Book
1. Love your work. If you wholeheartedly believe in your book, other people will notice. Don’t be modest or shy about what you’ve accomplished—encourage people to read it as much as you can (without being overwhelming, of course). And don’t hold out for universal approval either. Take Hemingway, for example; he was amongst the best literary minds of the 20th century, but lots of people can’t stand to read his novels. Not everyone is going to love—or even like—your book. Stand by what you’ve written and some people may just believe in it as much as you do.
2. Know the importance of your cover design. This is the very thing that is going to make most people want to pick up your book in the first place, so don’t take it too lightly. Make sure the cover is eye-catching; whether it’s bright, beautiful or really gruesome, it must win the consumers’ attention. If you’ve hired a cover designer, such as those available through Wordclay, trust the artistic instincts of your designer—it’s their job—but make sure you’re sense of the book is reflected in their work as well.
3. Always have a copy of your book handy. You never know when you’ll run across someone who can help with your writing career! I’m not suggesting you literally take it everywhere, but maybe keep one in your car incase you need it—hey, it can’t hurt.
4. Network socially. Don’t make the mistake of only networking with people you already know are in the publishing/book industry. Lots of editors, publishers and writers have social lives and you may not know who they are when first talking to them in a bar, at the grocery store or in line at the movie theatre. Also, if your group of friends and acquaintances know all about your book, they can talk about it with other friends, and so your “buzz” increases (literally) at an exponential rate.
5. Have a description ready to go. When people ask about your book, it’s way more convincing if you already know what you’re going to say—point out the highlights, the genre and the general message, for example—but try not to sound rehearsed. And, don’t give too much away, or there isn’t any incentive to buy it!
-Colleen
Former iUniverse Author Lisa Genova Signed by Simon & Schuster for Still Alice
It’s no secret – one of the major goals for self-published authors is to achieve some literary success and then get picked up by a major traditional publisher. Recently, former iUniverse author Lisa Genova did just that, and her story has invigorated the publishing headlines with new life.
But why would an author want to self-publish and then republish with a traditional publisher? For starters, some desire the recognition and established respect of a traditional publishing imprint. Traditional publisher will also help you promote your book with trusted media contacts, since their profits are staked on book sales primarily. Not to mention how convincing a hefty financial advance when signing over the copyright can be.
Rejection after rejection by traditional publisher for her novel Still Alice, but undaunted, Genova decided to show the industry that her work would sell in the book market by self-publishing with iUniverse. Of course, soon after the book was published, copies sold like hotcakes, and the infamous publishing house Simon & Schuster approached her for a book deal soon after her initial publication.
Now, after more than twelve weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers List, Genova can definitely call herself a self-publishing success story, having already appeared on CNN.com to speak about her book and the advantages of print-on-demand companies nowadays.
Long story short, like Genova, you can also approach traditional publishers with the same strategy and mentality. If you want to demonstrate your marketability and financial value in the publishing industry, there’s no better way than giving the publishers tangible evidence in the form of a great design and sales figures.
Read more about Genova’s experience and book here>>
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Free Writing Contest at WritingRoom.com: Enter to Win Publication, Marketing and Cash Prizes
Remember WritingRoom.com’s 2009 Author’s Choice Contest is approaching its deadline, and all you need to enter is a manuscript. Register for free, upload your manuscript, shoot them an email with your entry, and mail three copies of your book to their screeners. Then you’re entered for a chance to win publication, marketing and some serious cash — it’s that simple!
The contest is designed especially to help aspiring novelists achieve their goals of success. The top 10 winners will receive help from acclaimed bestselling author Jon Land (The Seven Sins, one of the Library Journal’s Top Five Thrillers of 2008)to improve their manuscripts.
The top three winners will have their manuscripts published, marketed and promoted. In addition, one Grand-Prize winner will have their book read and considered by one of the top New York literary agents, Loretta Barrett and a traditional New York publisher.
It’s free to enter, and the only cost involved is that you have to foot the bill to order and ship three copies of your book for the judges’ review. Below are a few of the details concerning the contest, but you can read all the details about how to enter the writing contest on PublishingRoom.com.
2009 WritingRoom Author Choice Contest:
- Contest Start Date: Feb. 1, 2009
- Submission Deadline: May 18, 2009
Publishing, Marketing and Cash Prizes:
- Top 10 finalists will receive advice, help, and guidance from the judges to help improve quality and overall marketability of their books to a wide audience. The judges that will provide the advice know a thing or two about writing: 1) guest judge Jon Land, and 2) Lindsay Preston, CEO of WritingRoom.com.
- Third Place and Runner-Up Winners receive Publishing Packages valued at $600 (Third Place) and more than $1,000 (Runner-up), in addition to the book marketing campaign from WritingRoom.com, including a regionally-distributed press release and local media coverage. Let’s not forget the cash prizes either: $100 for Third Place and $250 for the Runner-up.
- Grand-Prize Winner receives: (1) Publishing Package with PublishingRoom.com valued at more than $1,000, (2) book marketing efforts by WritingRoom.com including a nationally-distributed press release, local media coverage and video interview with WritingRoom.com, (3) cash prize of $500, (4) read and considered by a top New York literary agent, Loretta Barrett, and last but not least (5) read by top editor Eric Rabb of Tor/Forge books.
Don’t let the WritingRoom.com contest pass you up without first submitting your book. Read the official contest rules and guidelines, and then enter for a chance to get read, get your book recognized by the press and win some extra money.
Submit Your Writing Tip & Prompt: Share Your Secrets with Other Writers
For those of you new to our publishing blog (and for those who already know about our weekly tips and prompts), our blogging team is now asking for your input. What helps you get the creative juices flowing? What’s your ritual like before you pull up your chair to the keyboard or press your pen to the legal pad?
Each week, us Wordclay blogger generate a writing tip and prompt for our visitors and post them on the sidebar for everyone to use for inspiration. Now, here’s your chance to share your own trade secrets with our writing community, so don’t be shy and help your fellow writers through some blocks by dishing some ingenious writing techniques that work for you.
Simply post how you start a story or poem as a comment below. Write what stretches you do before sitting down at the desk, whatever works your creative mojo. Or perhaps you have a special revising technique that’s worked for you for years — anything and everything is fair game — and who knows? you may just end up helping the next great author who makes tidal waves on the literary scene, all thanks to your little ritual.
Top Five New Literary Magazines to Read: Discovering Fresh Voices & Writing Talent
Justin here, and after a heated brainstorming sessions here at Wordclay, our team has finally agree on the top five new literary journals to which all authors and writers should subscribe. Of course there are hundreds of great magazines that are publishing amazing poetry and prose – some up and coming as we speak – so we’re certain this list will be revised in the future.
The real question is: what makes a literary magazine worth reading? With so many new journals emerging online and in print, with so many varying tastes and aesthetics, how can anyone separate the good from the bad?
The short answer is: there just isn’t a definitive way of separating them. Some prefer curling up with The New Yorker or The Paris Review, while others adamantly subscribe to The Missouri Review or The Denver Quarterly. As the saying goes, there’s no accounting for taste, and our decisions this time around could only be based on our personal preferences, the only criteria being that the magazine started publishing in the last decade.
So without further ado, here’s the Wordclay bloggers’ list of lit journals to check out in 2009. And if you’re a writer, check out their submission guidelines and current contests. Remember, it can’t hurt to submit your work, but it can seriously hinder your writing career if you never send your prose or poetry out. Besides, you might even get a free subscription to a great new magazine from submitting.
Canteen MagazineAbout Canteen: Canteen redefines the literary magazine. Their staff asks accomplished writers to reveal their creative process, and then they pair that insight with the best new work in fiction, poetry, art and photography — all designed to look more like a fine art book than a dusty old journal.
Mission Statement: “Canteen is the literary magazine that comes with instructions. We admire what writers and artists do, and we want insight into how and why it’s done. To get that, we ask contributors to move beyond the boundaries of genre and final draft to delve into reputation, ferocious drive, unmarketable dreams, the danger of reader takeovers, and just what makes a work important.”
Submission Guidelines: Canteen accepts original fiction, nonfiction, and poetry of up to 4,000 words. They are also interested in essays and commentary that relate to the creative process. Canteen accepts original individual images or portfolios of up to 10 images by a single artist, in a variety of media, including photographs, drawings, paintings, sculpture, video stills and digital art. Please submit all work to Canteen at: submissions@canteenmag.com.
Contacting a Literary Agent: Why? What? How? When? Who?
Here’s the bottom line: there are people who prefer the royalty advantages and book design control of self-publishing, and there are those who prefer to take their finished manuscript the traditional route. Either way, there are some essential questions you should ask yourself about representation.
Why Is a Publishing Agent a Good Choice?
Only you can decide the answer to this question. If you’re going to traditional publishers, then representation always helps. The acquisitions editors of traditional publishing houses are much more willing to listen to agents they know and trust rather than read blind submissions that somehow appear on their desks.
But if you’re considering self-publishing, you can be your own representation. These days, you can even publish with your own imprint through Wordclay, giving you the power to coordinate all your future publishing and marketing efforts at little cost, without a strict association to a DIY publisher.
Remember, contacting and securing an agent is more about securing a contract with a publisher than about the entire publishing process, so you’ll want to choose based on their specialties. But whether you self-publish or send your manuscript to publishers through an agent you trust is completely based on your level of comfort and the control you desire over your future publication.
What Should You Include in Your Publishing Queries?
The rule of thumb is: Give the agent only what he or she needs. You don’t want to send too much (like your whole manuscript), and you don’t want to send too little (as in just a query letter). What you want to do is send them all the relevant information and a sample (more…)
Announcing Contest for Authors & Readers Hosted by BookRix.com
Win as an author…
…and as a reader!
“Web Your Book” Award
BookRix.com is proud to present readers and writers with their first official writing competition, called “Web Your Book.” Authors as well as readers can enter the competition and win attractive prices.
Visit BookRix.com for Complete Guidelines>>
Timelines and Deadlines
The submission period of the competition runs for eight weeks starting December 9, 2008, which means that authors still have enough time to register one of their BookRix books for the competition. The deadline for entry is February 1st 2009, 6 p.m. (EST). Authors are completely free in the genre: short stories, poems and everything else is welcome. The only requirement is that the book be longer than 20 BookRix pages.
Readers are able to vote for their favorite books on December 9, 2008 and February 15, 2009 the. This vote will ascertain the winners of the competition. The authors who are ranked number one to five the competition charts on February 15, 2009 at 6 p.m. (EST) will win the listed prizes.
Prices for Authors:
First Prize: $2000.00
Second Prize: $1000.00
3rd – 5th Prize: Amazon Kindle E-Book-Reader
Prizes for Readers:
$100.00 each will be given to three readers following a raffle.
BookRix.com provides users with a platform to:
- find other readers and authors
- share thoughts about interests in groups
- discuss books and projects
join author fan clubs
- participate in writing competitions
- Connect within a literary network
- write book reviews
- send your books to friends and family
- find top-rated and new books
The Wovel: Choose Your Own Adventure Novels & Literary Fusion
Recently discussed in a NPR segment called The Wovel: Literary Alternative To Browsing Blogs, the wovel (or the Web novel) is now inching its way into the public eye. Instead of surfing the Internet for blogs and news, readers are now turning to this new form of choose-your-own-adventure writing, where users can actually decide the direction of the next installment by simply utilizing the binary vote feature located at the end of each chapter post.
For example, perhaps a character is torn between traveling north to rescue a princess from an evil tyrant, or traveling south instead, in order to meet with a wizard who may know the meaning of life itself. Either one of these scenarios can be played out, pending a majority vote, which readers can submit each week.
“The way we read is changing,” as Rick Kleffel of NPR said, and it’s true. Many individuals read in bursts nowadays, their only opportunity to enjoy writing on breaks from work or between family pursuits. Say you’re taking your 15-minute break from the office, so you jump online, check your e-mail, and afterwards, when you’re looking for something to fill the next 10 minutes, you might not want to start such a lengthy pursuit as a novel. Instead, you may turn to the breezy nature of the wovel, whose serial installments might satisfy your literary itch in whatever short time you have to spare.
As an integrated, online and traditional print publisher advocating the wovel, Underland Press has recently started publishing this new genre. Underland Press’s Founder Victoria Blake wanted to offer exciting, edgy fiction with a touch of the fantastic, and the wovel seemed like a natural approach. Combining the serial novel format with the pace of journalism and the latest in Web technology, Blake has adapted to the ever-changing literary sphere, appealing to people who love to read and actively engage writing, but those who perhaps only have time to read a chapter every now and again.
Some readers are a little wary of the wovel’s implication, suggesting that bursts of reading might cheapen the literary experience. Of course, we need to maintain the novel — Blake isn’t suggesting otherwise — but what do you think? You’re the one reading this blog burst, perhaps on your lunch break, so your opinion is the one that could make or break the wovel’s presence within the online literary marketplace. Join our discussion, submit your opinion, and keep the ideas coming.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Announcing: Ottawa International Writers Festival Coming Soon: October 18-27th
Wordbot here, informing all writers about the big shindig approaching. That’s right! Come October 18th, the Ottawa International Writers Festival starts…
Even if you’re not in the area, be sure to drop by their Web site, read about the events and perhaps even download the insightful, interesting podcasts of the events, which are sure to get your creative juices flowing.
Discover the possibilities at:
Ottawa’s Festival of Ideas (since 1997)
Read their Mission Statement below for more information…
We launched the first Ottawa International Writers Festival at the National Arts Centre on September 5, 1997. It featured sixteen writers from Ireland (the largest contingent ever to read beyond the Emerald Isle), sharing the stage with thirty-five Canadians writers from across the country. We called our inaugural Festival the “Writes of Passage” and we spoke of the gift of literature and the intimate relationship between the writer and audience that reminds us that “ultimately none of us lives in isolation, that we are all interconnected, all part of one large, often cramped, sometimes raucous, but never dull world-family.”
The Festival opened with an Aboriginal elder conducting a sweet grass ceremony, followed by the haunting sounds of Celtic music and dancing. From opening night to our closing celebration with Pulitzer Prize winner Frank McCourt reading from Angela’s Ashes, those nine days had transported us to a different world. Those were heady days, when we were crazy enough to program six writers each evening without an intermission! Heady days, when we transformed a former NAC bookstore turned storage room into our “Irishtown Pub” — selling more beer during the course of the Festival than the entire NAC summer program! The Fourth Stage was born!
For more than a decade now, (more…)
Real Writers Make Their Own Luck: Self-Promoting Your Book Sees Real Returns
“Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent.”
Much Ado about Nothing, Act 2
Some writers will be fortunate enough to fall into a lucrative writing career without much application beyond their natural talent, but let’s be realistic about the odds. With the publishing industry growing and changing, more and more people are actively participating in the market.
A colleague of mine, who works directly with emerging authors, actively reminds them not to expect full-time pay from their writing unless they are willing to put in full-time hours and effort. This is obvious, but surprisingly, many of writers are caught off-guard by this statement. Everyone would like to discover their “Golden Ticket,” however if a book is published in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, truth is it probably won’t make a dime in royalties.
That said, it’s important to adapt to the changing environment of the book marketplace. Those other authors out there are competing in the same market as you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should work against them. Ask both the writers who employ literary agents and the ones who don’t – both will tell you that ultimately they are their own representatives.
As a former manager in a retail bookstore, trust me when I say that there were several instances during which famous authors would get booked for a signing at our store and wind up sitting quietly by themselves in the café area. That is until our staff approached the author, asked for their autograph and encouraged them to keep at their promotion.
Those authors were often from major publishing houses with a team of marketers working the area. Even in the best case scenario, there is still a chance that working hard won’t guarantee a title or author bestselling status. There is, however, almost no chance that an author who isn’t working to draw attention to their efforts (whether through local media, public appearances or hosting big release parties) will be able to rest on their own laurels or retire on royalties.
Most self-publishing authors already know first-hand that personal investment is what got you this far. The good news is that the more you focus on your projects (prior to and after their completion), the better acquainted you will become with the market and the general response to your work. The more you put into your promotion, the more you are likely to get out of it.
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
-William Shakespeare
