Publishing, Writers, Writers Conference, Writing

Writing Conference

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This past Saturday I attended my first writers conference. It was free and not to far away.

“Getting Published: What Do Publishers Want?” was the first seminar I attended. While the information obtain was not earth shattering new I still enjoyed being in the presence of actual publishers. Copious notes were taken for me to share with fellow writers who had not attended the conference.

I got two things out of this . The first was that small independent presses are willing to work with the author up front without a literary agent. In fact most prefer you don’t have one. Second, I was introduced to five more firms I can send my query letter to. For me these two things were worth my attendance.

The next seminar that caught my eye was “How To Write for Children”. One of the presenters was a 12-year-old boy who has three books in print. Most of the information was not new to be but I did learn again two thing. What I gained from this was two more publishing house names that I had not come across through the Writer’s Market book.

The last seminar I attended was “Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing”. This section reaffirms what I have been doing since last March which is creating an online presence through social media outlets.

One of the panelist stated that people who go the traditional route are taken more serious. Also, more doors are open to them through the contacts they meet apart from the publishing house they are with.

If you are an aggressive individual and can promote yourself well self- publishing would work for you. If that is not your style and you need the help of a publisher it was recommended to try to get your book in print.

At the moment I am trying to go the traditional route. My books deserve the chance to shine in this avenue. For the past three weeks I have steadily been submitting query letters, chapters, synopsis and cover letters to various publishing houses. The list I am working from is only half way crossed off. A deadline in my head has been given and when that time frame comes then will be looking at self publishing.

Whether I am aggressive enough to promote myself remains to be seen. At least in this day and age I’m fortunate to have the option of ebooks where years ago that was not the case.

Character Development, Characters, Class, Writing

Bringing Good Things To Life

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Week 3: Bringing Characters to Life

The notes from my Character Development class.

The chart below was passed out. This is one way of testing your character from your storyline. The four sections are for action, how it is revealed, feelings and appearance.

character_trait_chart

Your story should have all of these. The action that occur and how is it revealed. How does the character feel about this occurring and lastly what do they look like physically.

If the function of our characters are not convincing or can act out or function in a believable and right proportion then the reader will get bored.

When you start revising from the first draft onward, your character should stay consistent. If you need to change their actions or thought patterns from A to B, it needs to make sense to the readers and the story.

We need to grab the audience within the first few pages about the main person or else you will lose readers.

One more thing, the naming of one’s character is not something to be taken lightly. You have a small window at the beginning of the book to grab your audience. Giving them a memorable yet interesting name will help.

There were little notes taken during this class since we discussed and asked questions throughout.

Author, Book, Electronic, Electronic submission, Publishers, Writer

Submitting my book electronically

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Time: 3:30pm

Date: 2.16.2012

Task: Press send

This was the day I submitted my first electronic submission. I had everything lined up. The synopsis, cover letter, query letter and edited MS for two of my books were ready to go. I lined up the publishing houses that seemed compatible. It had taken me months to get this all straighten out. The hard part was done. I thought wrong.

I opened up my email and got the right address in place. The subject line that was required was listed. In the body of the letter I placed the necessary information that this particular publishing editor wanted.

There I was done, all I had to do was press send. That is when I stopped cold. I just stared at that button, wondering why I could not press it. Time was ticking away as I mulled in my mind what the problem was. A simple process to do right? I had done all the leg work. This was supposed to be the easy part.

So after ten minutes why was the email still sitting in front of me? I knew once I sent that email I could not reach in and grab it back. It would be official and there was nothing I could do about it. I froze. The easiest part of this whole process and I just froze.

Getting up from my desk I walked around my office trying to knock some sense into me as I contemplated my goals. This was what I had been working on for the last two years. Yet here I was scared as hell to send my first electronic submission.

Finally I sat back down, closed my eyes and pressed send. While I felt a chill run down my spine at this I still felt nervous as heck. The second submission by email would be easier I thought. Again I was wrong. Setting up the second email and placing what was required I stared at the button again. It did not take me as long this time around but it was not easy either.

My body was in a cold sweat and I had goosebumps on my arms. You would have thought I had climbed the highest mountain instead of sending two emails.

The day ending with a grand total of four submissions being processed. I am hoping it gets easier and feel it will. For now my written word is out there for people to look at and decide yes or nay. There is no turning back.

I am proud of myself for getting to this point and step, even if it meant drinking two Cokes in a row for it to occur.

The Musings of A New Englander