Q & A for writers

Email me questions at Martha@Engber.com and I'll answer.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Industry Tidbits: ARCs and Human Trafficking

Just as celebrity fans need their in-the-new shows, so we writers need our Industry Tidbits Hour.

Since I doubt networks will take an interest in such a project, I'll occasionally pass on publishing industry news that comes from a variety of sources.

The ARC of Big Budgeting

Most writers know that before books are published, a certain amount of them are distributed to reviewers as advanced reader copies. The books are often not yet finished in terms of copyediting and cover art. The point is to get the story out and publicly reviewed in order to heighten consumer demand.

Most writers might think in terms of 20 copies or a hundred. If your book is lucky enough to get the attention of a marketing-minded publisher, however, that number may increase to one considered by anyone as more than sufficient to carpet-bomb the reviewer market.

I say that having just read on a recent PW Daily that independent publisher Sourcebooks Fire sent out 4,000 ARCs of Jessica Shervington's Embrace, a young adult book about warring angels and humans.



The free books paid off, in that the response was so positive the publisher decided to bump the marketing budget to $200,000.

It's nice to know at least one writer will be properly taken care of!


Choosing Topics From Today's Headlines

There's no surprise that choosing a hot topic can increase a book's potential for sale and publication by a major publisher. Kim Purcell, a former journalist, has captured such attention for her new young adult novel (Viking Juvenile), Trafficked, about a Moldovan teen who thinks she's traveling to America to be a nanny in Los Angeles, only to discover she's been sold as a slave.

I am curious how many authors choose their topics based on current headlines. If you're one, let me know!

Happy writing!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's Day Love Poem Recommendations


Today The Guardian started a thread — The Best Love Poems — based on the recommendations of famous authors such as Hilary Mantel and John Burnside.

For those of us who love to write poetry, but do so only in secret, feeling the medium is too far beyond our abilities, maybe these poems will inspire you to not only keep writing, but to share your work with those you love:

Love After Love by Derek Walcott (I found the poem on a very interesting site called PoemHunter.com, which includes love, death and I'm sorry poems among its various categories.)

Thank-You Note by Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature

The Silent Lover by Sir Walter Raleigh

Air and Angels by John Dunne


For those of you seeking a more contemporary love poem scene, check out this list by Poets.org, including this one by San Francisco Bay Area poet Kim Addonizio:

My Heart

That Mississippi chicken shack.
That initial-scarred tabletop,
that tiny little dance floor to the left of the band.
That kiosk at the mall selling caramels and kitsch.
That tollbooth with its white-plastic-gloved worker
handing you your change.
That phone booth with the receiver ripped out.
That dressing room in the fetish boutique,
those curtains and mirrors.
That funhouse, that horror, that soundtrack of screams.
That putti-filled heaven raining gilt from the ceiling.
That haven for truckers, that bottomless cup.
That biome. That wilderness preserve.
That landing strip with no runway lights
where you are aiming your plane,
imagining a voice in the tower,
imagining a tower.



Happy (love poem) writing!

Friday, February 3, 2012

SomebodySays Experiment Underway: Dialogue Junkies Take Note



(Join SomebodySays)


A number of years ago I started an experiment in which each day I wrote down something I heard someone say, with the goal of continuing the practice for a year.

The results were fascinating:


"I love you so much even my socks want to be near you."

"But between the two kids I lost four babies."

"I'm getting to think novels are like waffles and children: you should throw the first one out."

"There isnít even a word for how un-delicious trash is."

"It cost too much to keep them alive."

"He said a girl in his class is bio-sexual."

"Okay, screw it, Iím going to kangaroo you to death."



What make the list of quotes so fascinating is that without context, each line of dialogue is open to reader interpretation. Where one person might find a quote funny, another might find it disturbing. That and what a fabulous way to study how people talk, both in the words they choose to express themselves and the order in which they place those words.

Unfortunately I only managed to keep up the practice for 85 days before the task got lost in the shuffle of a busy life.


The Good News

The good news is that a week ago I restarted the experiment in a public realm by establishing a Twitter account called SomebodySays. For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, think of it as a blog in which your posts can only be a sentence long.

The goal of my SomebodySays experiment is again to write a line of dialogue each day for a year.


The Rules

1. The dialogue can only be one sentence long

2. The dialogue must be written verbatim, rather than being cleaned up in any way

3. I have to make every attempt to each day choose dialogue from a different person

4. I have to make every attempt to choose different types of people in various venues to get as wide a variety of word patterns as possible



Help Me!

While I haven't been that involved in Twittering until now (I do have a Growing Great Characters account to post my blog entries), SomebodySays seems ideally suited to a medium where I'm forced to write only one sentence. Knowing someone might be following my posts each day will go a long way toward encouraging me to continue.

Therefore, feel free to help me out!


Follow me

If you have a Twitter account, sign up to follow SomebodySays. Then every day you can look at your Twitter page, which provides all the entries of people you follow. Scroll through the posts and somewhere among them you'll find mine.

If you don't have an account, consider starting one for the practice of using this social networking tool. Your profile can be as anonymous as you like and you can easily cancel your account at any time. And while others may sign up to follow you, you do not have to reciprocate. Instead, keep to people and organizations you know and like.

Pass on the info

Whether you decide to follow me or not, please pass along my SomebodySays URL (https://twitter.com/#!/2listenisgood), or forward them to this post. In a year — on Jan. 28, 2013 — I'll post the highlights of the experiment.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Happy writing!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Get a Writing Credit: Write a Review


I just got an email from editor Suzann Holland, who, along with the staff of Key Publishing House, is offering writers the chance to review the soon-to-be-published anthology Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing (click here for the Facebook page), which has gotten a much nicer book cover design.

This is a great chance to accrue a writing credit for the resume paragraph necessary for all query letters, while also getting to read a great book about writing. While win-win is cliche, the phrase is applicable in this case.

Lastly, if you'd like me to guest blog on your site regarding the topic of my article in the anthology — How to Write About Family Without Getting Sued, or Shunned — or any other aspect of writing nonfiction, let me know. I'll be happy to contribute a piece that's suitable for your blog community.

If you're interested in reviewing the book, here's some contact info. (be sure to say you heard about the book here!):

• Suzann Holland, co-editor of the anthology, (suzann@suzannholland.com)

• Carol Smallwood, co-editor (smallwood@tm.net)

• Heather in the Media Department of Key Publishing based in Toronto, Ontario

Happy writing!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Post Your Work! New Websites That Help You Gain Exposure


I recently got a message from a fellow writer about a new website where writers can post their writing. This is yet another example of how the shared writing phenomenon has grown over the past five years.

No longer do writers have to force their way through the intensely narrow, subjective doors of literary gatekeepers, agents and editors who pick and choose a few pieces from the thousands received each month. Instead, writers can post their work, thus appealing to readers directly.

In celebration of this exposure, here's a list of such websites, should you choose to follow others' example. Note that the blurbs below are from the "About Us" sections of the various organizations, so as always, check out the site carefully before uploading your work. As far as I can tell, all of the following sites are free to join:

Wattpad

On Wattpad you’ll discover a new form of entertainment where you can interact and share stories across text, video, images and through conversations with other readers and writers.



Smashwords

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers, agents and readers. We offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.

At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works.

Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.



eSnips.com

eSnips is a social content-sharing site, where you can publish and share any media type.

eSnips offers one account that allows you to share anything with anyone - giving you options on who and how you want to share with. You can create as many folders as you like, each for a different topic. Then you can decide what audience can view each folder



Scribd

Scribd is the world’s largest social reading and publishing company. We've made it easy to share and discover entertaining, informative and original written content across the web and mobile devices. Our vision is to liberate the written word, to connect people with the information and ideas that matter most to them.

Scribd’s patent-pending conversion technology has democratized the publishing process. Now, anyone can instantly upload and transform any file -- including PDF, Word and PowerPoint -- into a web document that’s discoverable through search engines, shared on social networks and read on billions of mobile devices.



Booksie

As soon as you join this free site, you can upload your work.


If anyone has uploaded their work via such sites and you're willing to share your experience, please email and I'll be happy to include your wisdom for those who'd like to try this approach, but would like to hear more about the process.

Happy writing!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Kate Whouley's New Book: A Mother/Daughter's Emotional Journey


A few weeks ago I got a great email from fellow author Kate Whouley about her new book, Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words: Travels With Mom in the Land of Dementia (Beacon Press 2011).

For those of you who don't know, in Growing Great Characters I featured a segment of Kate's writing from her previous nonfiction book, Cottage for Sale, Must Be Moved! In that very charming book, she recounts finding, purchasing and moving a tiny beach cottage for the purpose of using as an addition to her Cape Cod home.



For those of you who would like to follow in Kate's footsteps regarding a memoir, but are worried the family issue you're writing about is too serious and depressing and may turn off readers, consider following Kate's lead, which she explains in her email:

Remembering the Music is a memoir, with my mom--you may remember her as the over-the-top Santa collector in COTTAGE--at the heart of the story. She suffered with younger onset Alzheimer's. Before you hit NEXT on your e-mail list, let me assure you this isn't a depressing book or a litany of "poor-me," but rather a story that affirms life, love and connection. It's peopled by some of the same "characters" I wrote about in COTTAGE--and not to give anything away, but I gain an honorary niece in this one, too. You'll also meet several members of a community band where I play--they provide much of the MUSIC in the title. All in all, I feel like I can pretty much guarantee that if you enjoyed the COTTAGE adventure, you'll be glad you came along for this journey too. Also, I can promise you at least a few laughs.


Feel free to help Kate get the word out about her new book by either purchasing a copy or requesting one from your library. Don't forget to write a quick Amazon review!

Lastly, when I initially called Kate some years ago to request permission to include the segment of her book in my book, she was very kind. My guess is that if you contact her via her website to ask advice about the memoir you're writing, and are courteous and patient, she'll be happy to answer your questions.

Happy writing!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

New Press Publishes Fellow Writer, Encourages Others to Submit


Writer and editor Carol Smallwood recently sent me the wonderful news that her new book of poems titled Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity and Other Realms was just published by Anaphora Literary Press.

Before I tell you the market information for that publisher and two others, I'd like to congratulate Carol and encourage you to buy her book of 89 poems, which are tantalizingly grouped under the headings of nature, femininity, society, science, home, school, town and mortality.

As Carol states in the preface:

I've always regarded writing poetry as beyond me until realizing I had nothing to lose by exploring this greatly admired world... Compartments is a serious and whimsical blend of free verse, phantoms, sestinas, triolets, villanelles, chinquapins, and other forms.


Most, she adds are short as in Prologue:

I Read That Between
the highest mountain
and the deepest ocean
measures twelve miles

We, by volume 89-93%
water, live in between


In a review of the poetry, Dr. Christine Redman-Waldemeyer, founder and editor of Adanna Literary Journal and author of Gravel (Muse-Pie Press), states:

Carol can envy and love what is wild. She can shed light on what is cultivated and domestic where there is rain and gray sky. She does not disappoint and will keep your ear tuned to what is outside your window and what enters.



Promised Publishing Info

While helping Carol to spread her good news, I've just listed three new markets you can check out:

Anaphora Literary Press

This small publisher began as an academic press in 2009 when it published the Pennsylvania Literary Journal. Within the last year, Anaphora has published a dozen book-length works of fiction and nonfiction. The press is actively seeking book-length submissions in the following areas:

• poetry

• novels

• short story collections

• nonfiction (academic, legal, business, journals, dissertations, biographies and memoirs)

The press splits the profits 50/50 with writers, who do not have to pay anything to have the book published, which is what it means to be published by an independent press, rather than to be self-published, in which case the author pays part or all of the publication costs. Interestingly enough, Anaphora uses Lightning Source and distributes books via Ingram.

For further details, check out the submissions guidelines.


Adanna Literary Journal

According to the website, "submissions to Adanna must reflect women’s issues or topics, celebrate womanhood, and shout out in passion."

The submissions guidelines state the journal, which is published in hard copy, accepts poetry, short stories, short plays, essays, book reviews and interviews.


Muse-Pie Press

R.G. Rader began this press in the 1980s. The website states the publisher is known for:

...the publication of award-winning poetry and poets and has developed a reputation for being open to all styles and genres of the poetic voice, including haiku, experimental work, spoken word poetry and confessionalist, narrative, academic, philosophical, formalist, or other contemporary styles and genres. If it is good poetry, with technical proficiency and emotional appeal, Muse-Pie takes it seriously.


Currently the press does not accept unsolicited book-length manuscripts, but does encourage writers to check back or request to be placed on an email list in order to receive announcements about contests that can apparently lead to publication.

The press is, however, seeking submissions for its two on-line poetry journals, the first of which is Shot Glass Journal (submissions).

The second is The Fib Review, which specializes in the Fibonacci poem, or poems that "adhere to the Fibonacci number sequence whether in syllable count, word count or any other experimental genre yet to be created."

Still don't understand? Fortunately the publisher explains:

For those unfamiliar with the Fibonacci Sequence, it is a mathematical sequence in which every figure is the sum of the two preceding it. Thus, you begin with 1 and the sequence follows as such: 1+1=2; then in turn 1+2=3; then 2+3=5; then 3+5=8 and so on. The poetry sequence therefore consists of lines of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on with each number representing the number of syllables or words that a writer places in each line of the poem. As a literary device, it is used as a formatted pattern in which one can offer meaning in any organized way, providing the number sequence remains the constancy of the form.
The subject of the Fibonacci poem has no restriction, but the difference between a good fib and a great fib is the poetic element that speaks to the reader. No longer just a fun form to write as a math student, the poets who write good Fibonacci poems have replaced the 'geek' with the poet.


Happy writing!