Book Event

My first book event of the season is happening on Saturday October 21 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sweet Home High School in Amherst, NY. It's great to get the holiday season underway. And it is always such a pleasure to help support the Sweet Home Dollars for Scholars program. This is a craft show with a wonderful variety of vendors. Truly something for everyone. It takes up the entire gymnasium and cafeteria. There are also sales in the lobby.

At every festival or craft show, vendors pay a table rental fee. But I love this event because the table fee goes to the scholarship program for the kids. I get to sign and sell books. Kids get money for college. It's a real win-win!

See you there!

Thank You!

Yesterday at Sweet Home High School was a wonderful day, and I thank everyone who came out to make it so! Thank you to everyone who went home with a copy of Relic or Eye of the Peacock. I hope you enjoy them.

While people shopped and helped to support the Dollars for Scholars fund, I was able to talk with so many great folks, including one young man, who was interested in writing and publishing. I hope he visits this blog to take advantage of the tips here. That goes for anyone, of course. And if you ever have a question or are confused, please add it to the comments and I will make sure it gets addressed!

I also was given the possible future opportunity to speak with a book group, and I hope that comes to fruition. I love talking about the writing process and my characters.

And a special thank you to friends who came out and offered their support. Tina and Giselle (with a special companion) from the Ken-Ton Writer's project -- what would I do without your input into my writing and your smiles that make the day full of sunshine -- even when it is pouring outside!

A thank you as well to the friendly vendors around me. It truly was a great way to spend a Saturday!

Next Sale and Signing!

Excited to let you know I will be at the Sweet Home Schools Dollars for Scholars
Spring Craft Show Saturday March 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. signing and selling copies of Relic and Eye of the Peacock. The school is located at 1901 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, NY.

Admission to the event is $2 per person, and all proceeds, including the vender's table fees, go to the scholarship fund. I can't think of a better reason to shop spring crafts than to benefit kids going to college!

The show will be throughout the gym and the cafeteria. Lunch and snack items will be for sale in the refreshment area. There will also be a spring basket raffle hosted by the PTSA.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Publishing Series: #15 A Closer Look at the Page

Let's take a closer look at preparing the pages for print.

Hopefully, you've been working in Word, since that is the most flexible program when it comes to formatting pages for a book. You've probably been typing in 8.5x11, but if you look under "layout" in the top toolbar, you will see the icon for changing the size of the page. Depending on the publishing program you are using, find out the size options for your published page. These are usually about 5x7, but they vary slightly. It is important that you know the exact size the published page will be.

At the bottom of Word's layout dropdown menu, you will see "more paper sizes." This will allow you to type in the exact size of the page you need. When you apply to the entire document, you will magically see your book in real book size! This is a very exciting part of the process!

Start to visualize your pages as you would a book, with a left page and a right page. The next thing you will want to do is to adjust the margins for the entire document. You have probably been using Word's default margins, which is one inch all around. Book margins are not that big. Start using a well published book from your bookshelf as a model. Bring a few samples to your workstation as references. The outside margins -- the one on the far left and the one on the far right of the double page -- should each be about a half inch, maybe even smaller depending on your preference. The two margins that meet in the middle of the double page -- the gutter, however, should be larger because space is needed for the bend of the pages as the reader opens the book. If this inside margin is too small, the words will flow into the crease formed by the meeting of the pages and your reader will struggle to read the story.

Once the margins are applied to the entire manuscript, it will really start looking like a book! These measurements are not set in stone. They can be adjusted during the process, so experiment until you are satisfied with the appear
ance.

Next Time: A Closer Look at the Front Matter

First Step Done

This past week, I was on vacation with my family visiting friends in Virginia. On
one beautiful 80-degree morning, I was sitting on their back deck surrounded by the chatter of beautiful bird song, and -- big news -- dah-da-da-daaaah... I finished the first draft of Periphery.

That sounds like such a huge accomplishment, and it is, but remember, a first draft is just you telling yourself the story. And even though I was just trying to tell the story, the last few chapters were a struggle. I had to craft battle scenes, which I had never written before. There are a ton of characters, and as a writer, I had to make sure they were all accounted for. Then there is the denouement, which has to tie up all the loose ends. 

And so I finally reached an end with which I am satisfied.

Tomorrow, I start revising: making sure there are no contradictions, making sure travel times between settings are accurate, making sure I let my readers experience my character's emotions. This is my first fantasy novel, and I want it to feel epic.

Now the real work begins.

Publishing Series: # 14 They Will Judge!

There is an old saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover." But they will. Your cover is your book's best advertisement.

At this point in the publishing process, thought should be given to your cover. There are many options. If you are using KDP or a similar independent venue to publish, you will have to figure out how to produce a cover. There is help on the KDP website to pull together a cover on your own, but you have to be realistic with yourself. Do you have the talent to produce a good cover? You can also search the web for people from whom you can purchase cover making talents. You can purchase art and do the layover of the type yourself.

Sometimes you know a talented friend. This was my luck. My first two covers were designed by Aaron La Porta, who is a professional graphic designer. He was knowledgeable about computer layout, so that he could help me produce a cover that fit into the dimensions required by the program.

For my latest project, Periphery, I am embarking on a new venture, which is truly exciting. I will be working with artist Erin Ruffino. This is a totally new experience for me. Erin will be producing the art for the cover and, hopefully, Aaron will once again be adding the graphic elements to produce the cover. Erin and I met virtually last week and began talks so that she could begin to see the characters and fantasy world I've spent two years creating. She is an amazing artist and I can't wait to see the results, but I expect it to be quite a process. I'll keep you posted!

Spaghetti and Books

This Sunday, February 5, I'll be selling and signing copies of Relic and Eye of the Peacock at what sounds to be a very fun event!

Boy Scout Troop #40 will be hosting a spaghetti dinner at the Wrights Corners Fire Hall on Lockport Olcott Road, New York, from noon to 6 p.m.

In addition to the dinner, guests will be able to meet local authors and peruse and purchase books. A local country group, Reunion, will be providing entertainment for the afternoon. There will also be a basket raffle and a 50/50 raffle. The spaghetti dinner is $10.

This sounds like my kind of fun! Join the Boy Scouts for a fun afternoon. And bring questions about writing -- I always love to talk about that!

Publishing Series: #13 Prepping the Manuscript

So, you've decided to indie publish. Good for you, but remember, some hard work lies ahead.

First, you must commit to being a detail person. You want the best version of your work out there for public consumption. Your author reputation is on the line.

Second, decide on the publishing platform you will use and become familiar with it. For instance, I found that if using Kindle Direct Publishing, my manuscript transferred easily if it was written in Word rather than in a Google doc. 

Third, prepare the entire book document before you transfer it. This means preparing what is called the front and back matter as well. What do I mean by this? Pull some books off your bookshelf, and look at what is written on the pages before the story actually starts -- this is the front matter. There are blank pages, a copy right page, a dedication, extra title pages, sometimes a table of contents. If you want your book to appear professional, you need all these "extra" pages. These pages appear in a certain order. Model the appearance, type font, and order and your work will appear professionally published.

Look at the back matter in these books as well. Back matter is anything that comes after the book is finished. You'll need an "about the author" page. Read some professionally done examples and model yours after theirs. Will you need author notes? Look at several examples of what other authors do.

Then you'll need to finalize the actual text. This involves inserting either a heading or a footing for page numbers. Again, look at several professional examples and decide which basic design will work for you. Word offers you several options that can be tailored to fit your needs.

This is also the time to finalize other details. What font do you want the body of your text to appear in? Take out spaces between paragraphs, unless it is used as a device to indicate a change in setting. Make sure that paragraph indents are only about 3 spaces, not the typical 5. Don't indent the first paragraph of each chapter. (Don't believe me on this one? Check out some professionally published works!) Do you want an oversized letter at the start of each chapter? Play around with that. What font and size should your chapter headings be? Should they be centered? Flush to the right or left margin? Should they have titles? If they have titles, you'll definitely need that table of contents.

As you can see, there are a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of work to be done. Take your time, and do it right. Now is not the time to rush. Remember, you want your work to look its best out there in the world!

Publishing Series: #12 The Difference between Indie and Self-Publishing

We've been exploring publishing options now that you have your book crafted. We explored traditional publishing in the last entry in this series, and there are two other options: Indie Publishing and Self-Publishing.

There is a huge difference between these two methods of publishing your work.

With self-publishing, an author finds a printing house, usually a small one. This printing house agrees to publish the work, but the author will have to pay to have a certain number of books published. This will usually cost the author several hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for a run of, say, one thousand books -- possibly more. After paying the agreed amount, the publishing house will print the books and deliver them to the author. It is then the author's responsibility to sell this inventory of books. He might talk bookstores into purchasing them, or he might sell them at author signings. Usually, the author is left with a large number of boxed books that he doesn't know what to do with. This method is also often referred to as being printed by a "vanity press."

Independent publishing has one major difference from self-publishing. It is a print-on-demand process, so that the author never has to carry an inventory. There are several ways to indie publish, but I'll probably talk a lot about Kindle Direct because that is the method I use and that I am most familiar with. Kindle Direct is the independent publishing arm of Amazon. When one of my readers purchases one of my books through Amazon, their copy is printed just for them. It's not pulled off a shelf somewhere. Amazon pays me my royalty. I am also able to purchase a small number of books, say 20 or 30, at a low author cost, when I have an author signing, so I never have to worry about boxes of books that I have to store. I also haven't invested a ton of money.

To me, this is a no-brainer. But it probably also depends on the type of book you are publishing. Explore the products of each method. Look at the quality. What do you want your book to look like? You want your name associated with the best-looking product possible.

Happy New Year!

It's the time of year that people make resolutions, and by the end of the week many of those will already be broken! Nothing wrong with having goals though.

I have a few goals in mind for this year. 

First, I will finish my latest novel. This is a must and a top priority on every list I have.

Second, I will finish the series on how to get those ideas of yours published. There are some tricky entries coming up for this series, but I will do my best to give you quality advice.

Third, I am going to expand my author platform. There are several social media platforms I'd like to explore.

Fourth, I am going to make a concerted effort to make new contacts for expanding book sales. Marketing is always a challenge for an indie author, but if our books aren't out there, how will you ever find them to enjoy?

Fifth, I am going to work on developing the cover for my latest novel. I have ideas in mind, but I need to find the right artist for the job. I have one in mind...

So, there are my top five goals for the year. To me resolutions are a work in progress, that's why I like to think of them as goals instead. Sometimes you conquer them, sometimes you get close, sometimes the goal changes as you work toward it.

So what are your writing goals for the year? Happy New Year everyone!