Monday, August 13, 2012

1st SPOTLIGHT - Pitch Your Dreams to Zumaya Publications

Marketing for Romance Writers.Org is excited to announce our annual “Write-place, Write-time” Submissions event scheduled for September 8th and 9th, 2012.

We have an amazing panel of Publishers and Editors ready to give YOU, aspiring authors or seasoned authors, an opportunity to “pitch your dreams” to a listening audience.

BUT…that ever tricky timing can be a slippery little rascal. So, for you - MFRW is providing a platform of:


“Write-place, Write-time”

Let's say you are on an elevator when...

...the publisher/editor of your dreams steps through the door. Your heart is pumping, your hands are clammy and you know you have a limited amount of time to tell this person about the next New York Times Best Seller for which you have just assigned those coveted words "the end".

MFRW brings you that elevator moment. 

THIS IS OUR FIRST SPOTLIGHT OF THE MANY PARTICIPATING PUBLISHERS/EDITORS:

Bad news first: we don’t pay advances. Your book begins earning you money the moment it goes on sale. How much will depend on your willingness to market it and promote yourself. We help as much as we can, given limited staff and a tight budget. On the other hand, we contract only for the rights we’re going to use, leaving you free to sell or use the others as you see fit.

We do not accept queries or submissions other than electronically. Queries and manuscripts sent by surface mail will be neither read nor returned. We will not go to your website or one of those collective sites where authors are encouraged to post their queries and samples. We have rules for a reason.

In addition to the above, all aspects of our production process are handled electronically, using email, Google Drive and Google Calendar, among other services. If you aren’t at least reasonably knowledgeable about your word processor, browser and other computer programs, or willing to become so, please don’t waste your time and ours. All genres are welcome; a list of our imprints and what we want for each is provided at the end of this document.

This isn’t to say we wouldn’t consider a beautifully written manuscript that doesn’t meet those requirements. We just know from experience those are rare. We publish one short story collection a year; the stories need to have a unifying theme of place: geographical, emotional, psychological. Factual accuracy is important. While we understand that fiction is fictional, that doesn’t apply to verifiable and/or historical facts. Using TV, films or even other novels as resources for action scenes or cultural elements, for example, isn’t a good idea. We look for multi-dimensional, believable characters, good pacing and solid plotting.

For this event we handle non-erotic romance, including LGBT, and women’s fiction. Here is a list of our imprints:


IMPRINT SPECIFICATIONS

The best way to get a handle on what Zumaya is looking for is to sample what we’ve already published. Trying to explain what is a very subjective election process is all but impossible, but a skilled writer should be able to determine what sparks our interest by analyzing what already has. The following may help a little, if only to make it clear what we aren’t interested in.

EMBRACES

Although Zumaya Embraces publishes romance, what we look for might more properly be referred to as women’s fiction. We look for quality stories about women, which may take the form of the traditional romance but aren’t limited to the standard requirements. We don’t want category ro-mance, and we aren’t interested in stories riddled with the standard category clichés or shortcuts.

OTHERWORLDS

Our Otherworlds schedule is over-full through 2012, so we aren’t actively seeking unsolicited submissions. However, when we do, we look for solid SF without fantasy elements (think Star Wars), fantasy that’s not yet another rehash of Tolkien or Robert Jordan, and horror that relies on psychological terror rather than slice-and-dice gore.

ENIGMA

As we already have several cozy mystery series (or potential series),we’re in the market for police procedurals and noir PI more than anything else. We look for reality in our procedurals, which means don’t get your in-formation on how law enforcement works by watching TV. The same applies to mysteries with paranormal elements; we expect authors to research the field of paranormal investigation and apply that information.

BOUNDLESS

Our goal at Boundless is to publish LGBT novels with broad market appeal. We don’t do erotica per se, but graphic anything—sex, violence, language.—is acceptable provided it’s essential to the plot. The character’s sexual orientation should not be the focus of the work, with the exception of coming-of-age stories or those in which that orientation is a pivotal plot point necessary to establishing the conflict or the conflict resolution. As one of the current Boundless authors put it, these are books with LGBT people rather than about them. All genres are welcome. We are particularly interested in SF/F, police procedurals, romance, historical and dark fantasy. We are also open to YA and middle-grade material, which may be released under our Thresholds imprint. The specifications noted for the other imprints also apply here

THRESHOLDS

We want good stories with characters young readers can relate to. We aren’t interested in teaching them about anything, except what evolves from the stories. If you set out to write with a particular lesson in mind, please seek publication elsewhere. We also don’t follow trends, so knock-offs of Twilight or the Harry Potter books need not apply, either. Science fiction should be based on the same facts as adult SF. Fantasy involving characters who are the savior of their world had better have something seriously original to say. This also applies to lost royalty. Mysteries need to challenge the reader to figure out the puzzle. Historical novels should provide accurate information without being boring. Much of modern contemporary fiction for young readers focuses on sex, abuse and drugs. These are easy topics to write about. They are also foreign territory for a large number of young people. We challenge writers to find away to create an interesting story that uses a world where those subjects may intrude, but where they are not the focus, and do so in an original and entertaining manner.

ARCANE

Arcane is our newest imprint, and encompasses both fiction and nonfiction. For nonfiction, we want ghosts, but only material that reflects application of paranormal investigation techniques. In other words, we don’t want yet another compilation of folklore and anecdotal tales that lack any vestige of having been investigated. Fiction submitted for Arcane should be based on actual beliefs and practices. If the characters in a romance are Wiccan the story should have Wiccan ceremonies and beliefs as outlined in the literature, not what passes for it on TV and in the movies. If the protagonist in a paranormal suspense novel is a Voudon priest, then he should behave as such.

YESTERDAYS

Yesterdays wants historical fiction, including Westerns. We will consider memoirs but
Only those that reflect the writer’s experience with a specific era in modern history, c.f. Vallie Fletcher Taylor’s Eyes in the Alley. We are not in the market for recovery memoirs, whether from addiction or abuse, or memoirs of self-discover. Our goal is to preserve world history as experienced by those who lived it. We define history as anything that occurred 30or more years ago. The general Zumaya Publications imprint is an eclectic mix of literary fiction and niche nonfiction. There are no specific categories; decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. Short story collections that aren’t of a single genre are also published under the Zumaya logo.

CLICK HERE!! For more information and detail to submit your manuscript to this publisher click here for further instruction on this event.

Monday, August 6, 2012

New Author Advice: Joining Social Media

What's the Key?
This week, my friend Karen Cote' and I talked about what a new author should do to get started in social media. We feel there are several important places to start. Just who are we to give advice? I'm a multi-published author, founder of Marketing for Romance Writers and Romance Lives Forever (two active Yahoo groups with well over 1200 members each) and owner of nine blogs. Karen is the best selling author of Erotic Deception, creator of a unique talking website, a Twitter maven with over 5k followers, and the Promotions Director for Marketing for Romance Writers.

We recommend that before you jump in and start joining social media everywhere, you take time to read MFRW member Cassandra Carr's guides for Twitter (there are two). You can download them on our resources page. http://marketingforromancewriters.org/resources.htm
Then, do the following things to begin your journey.
To me, the top thing to do is join Marketing for Romance Writers and stay actively involved. After that, start here:
1. Make a Facebook page, and start friending the members of MFRW Authors https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
2. Get a Twitter account and follow people who use these hashtags: #mywana #mfrworg #amreading That will make more sense after you read the Twitter guides.
3. Create an Amazon Author page https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/help
4. Blog at least three times a week. Use Networked Blogs to gain readers, plus, when you post a blog, it will automatically feed to Facebook, saving you time. You can pull your blog post automatically into Goodreads, and other sites as well.
5. Join Goodreads, post your books on your page, and link your blog. http://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
6. Shelfari is a good spot.  http://www.shelfari.com/help
7. Get social by joining WANA Tribe http://wanatribe.com/  (we are not alone - authors helping authors)

Marketing for Romance Writers
Above all, be open to learning new things. Take them one at a time, and don't try to do everything at once. Have a daily schedule. I start my day by checking email, then check my Facebook account, Twitter page, and jump over to my blog, and then stop by my other accounts. I repeat that round of visits during the day. Sometimes, depending on what else needs to be done, I'll do it again in the evening. We need time for writing, a social life, and family. Social media is important, but if you don't have a new book -- what good is it?

Remember, balance doesn't mean that everything is stable. It means you are always in motion, making the fine adjustments to keep your career and life on track.

When you decided to take the plunge and join a social media site, which one was it? Why that one? Would you recommend it to a newbie?

MORE ABOUT MFRW

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

MFRW Summer Camp on BlogTalk Radio

MFRW Promotions Director Karen Cote' shared the Marketing for Romance Writers Summer Camp program on "The Best People We Know" radio program. Deb Scott's show is inspirational and features people who write and market their work. You can enjoy the show in its entirety by clicking below. I was invited to take part as well. I hope you'll give this a listen.

Drop by the site and see other programs Deb has to offer.



Listen to internet radio with Best People We Know on Blog Talk Radio

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Focus: An Important Element of Storytelling


Books by Julie Eberhart Painter.

Focus: An Important Element of Storytelling

By Julie Eberhart Painter

Of all the skills I've learned in this last quarter of century’s worth of concentrated writing, it's that three elements are key to a successful piece of writing: point of view, story and focus.
POV is a learned skill. There are many articles around to guide writers through that tunnel. And story tells itself providing we stay true to it and the POV characters living it. The easiest way to accomplish this is to put the POV camera on the shoulder of the character with the most to lose and let that character see and react to the story unfolding.

A Slippery Issue...

Focus is a slippery issue, easily lost when we are distracted by a cute joke or a sidebar kind of addendum. The “let's include this,” mindset will not get a story past the first editor. I find flash fiction, a good place to put those distracting asides.
But truly focusing, “Now there’s the rub.” With focus the writer must stay on point. Characters must speak as themselves, act in their own style and have a clear voice—so clear that very few dialogue tags are needed. The characters must dress and look like the person the writer is portraying. (No tart clothes on a nun.)
Some bit players will not be thoroughly described. The days of a person entering the room, followed by a full bio and inventory of their appearance are gone. Minimalism is in. Get to the point. Elmore Leonard says he leaves out the parts people skip over. That might be extreme, but it's a good measuring stick to apply when you get verbiage in your wordage.
When choosing a way to tell any story, it must come from the most visceral place, the heart of the character. 

Characters...

Focus on how this character is acting and what part of the back story must be included. For instance might he have just gotten out of jail? Is she not wearing a wedding ring but obviously expecting? There might be a physical disability that can only be caused by the back story itself.
How we chose to tell the story means everything. Over all, whose story is it? That will determine the point of view and focus; and what method are you going to use to bring this story from your inner being to haunt your readers.
If all else fails, keep your focus by taking that distracting little gem you're just dying to use and make it the focus of a short-short or flash fiction story.

Application...

Applying the disciplined pen to the focus of your piece will get your readers laughing in the right places and crying as you might have when you first wrote the scene. Weed out the extraneous details cluttering the point of the story. And, never forget writer Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried saying, “When you come to the end stop!”

Julie Eberhart Painter is the Champagne Books author of Mortal Coil, Tangled Web, and CTRR award-winning Kill Fee, also recipient of Champagne’s Best Book for 2011 Award. Web site at www.books-jepainter.com Check out http://bewilderingstories.com to read Julie's latest flash fiction stories and articles and stories in Cocktails, Fiction and Gossip Magazine, an online slick.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Good Author Signatures for Yahoo Groups

Sign Here, Please.

Which of the following is the point of a signature?

1. To identify you
2. To reinforce your brand
3. To create interest in your work
4. Drive traffic to your site
5. Sell your books
6. All of the above

If you answered 6 - you're right, but identification - item #1 - is the key to accomplishing the rest. Your name is vital. Your author name. If you write as Mary Jo Smithe, sign as Mary Jo Smithe.
You are your author name when you are on Yahoo groups. If you don't use a pen name, then it doesn't matter. Or does it? If you use a non-writing-oriented email to post messages, it might be costing you readers. For example, if you sign your posts with only "Mary" but your email address says "BobbysMom2012" - how is anyone supposed to find that wonderful book you just told them about? If they hop over to Amazon and search for Mary BobbysMom2012 -- are you going to show up? Sign with your author name - Mary Jo Smithe.

Do you need a signature for every email? That depends. Are you posting as an author? Do you hope this post will accomplish the items listed above? Then you must post as a professional. Sign your emails. It is not hubris to identify yourself. You are there to accomplish a purpose.

What belongs in your signature?

At a minimum, your name and website. If you have a brand or tag for your writing, don't be afraid to use it. I sign everything with my name, my tag (unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, unforgettable passion), and a link to whatever website(s) pertain to the message.

What does "pertain to the message" mean? If I'm replying to a question about blogging, I use my blog url. If it's about Twitter, I use that one. In most cases, I include my website's home page, my Twitter account, and my company's site, The Author's Secret. I have a signature page on hand with all the pertient links available, which makes it easy to click/drag the info into my message as needed.

What shouldn't you include? 

It depends on where you're posting. On some Yahoo groups, be aware images might not translate well. A group that disallows embedded images might turn your embedded cover into 3-4 inches of white space.

Multiple colors in your signature can be hard to read. Some people are color blind and cannot differentiate various shades. To them, your list of books might go from looking like this:

Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4 

to words run together like this:
Book 1 Book 2 Book 3 Book 4

Likewise, using embedded links and substituting the site name can give you more room, but if you write your signature as:

readers who receive their messages as text see: 
Twitter Facebook

How long is long enough? 

If you are posting to a Yahoo group, you are limited to what the group allows. Read the rules. If you post regularly to a group that permits only three lines, create one you use for that group. In general - you are safe with three lines that are short enough not to wrap around and start accidentally making a fourth line. I use the one below for most situations.

Kayelle Allen
Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
http://kayelleallen.com  ~  http://twitter.com/kayelleallen  ~  http://theauthorssecret.com

If I'm promoting a new book, and I'm on a group that allows longer signatures, I've found one like this is effective:
Kayelle Allen
Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion
Surrender Love  |  Not rebound, payback, loneliness, or great sex, and far beyond love. This is surrender.
Loose Id: http://www.loose-id.com/Surrender-Love.aspx  |  Kindle: http://is.gd/surrenderlove_amz

It's better to err on the side of caution. If you are banned or placed on moderation for violating rules, you can't accomplish your goal.

How long is too long?

How many times have you seen signatures that seem to go on forever? They include lists of every book the author has written, where it's been reviewed, the various places you can buy it, mini-images of the book, a banner... 

Simple is better. Follow the rules of the group where you're posting.
Signature, please...

Okay, so what's the best signature?

Your author name
Your brand, book name, or book tag
Your website, Your blog, Your Twitter/Facebook

Less is more. You want to identify yourself, reinforce your brand, create interest in your work, drive traffic to your site, and sell your books. To do this, be professional. Using a signature that underscores this message will help you accomplish that.

What other questions do you have regarding signatures for a Yahoo group?

Kayelle Allen is the founder of Marketing for Romance Writers, a Yahoo group focused on learning marketing and publicity. 
Group site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/mfrwauthors/
Newsletter http://www.issuu.com/MFRW