Editor Meghan Farrell at Santa Clarita Romance Writers
April 14, 2017 by marianne h donley in category Writing, Writing Meetings tagged as Bobbie Cimo, Editors, Meghan Farrell, Santa Clarita Romance WritersThis Saturday, April 15th, is Santa Clarita Romance Writers’ monthly meeting.
Our speakers will be Meghan Farrell, Executive Editor of Tule Publishing.
You might be familiar with some of the authors published by Tule: Charlene Sands, Barbara Ankrum, Justine Davis and Jane Porter. (By the way, Jane is Founder and CEO of Tule.)
Meghan’s talk is going be on the almighty “query letter”. She’ll also be giving an overall view of Tule, on how they run and what they’re looking for.
Come for the meeting. Stay for lunch.
The meeting is from 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM at The Newhall Library-24500 Main St. Newhall, CA (aka Santa Clarita). We’re in the Heritage Room on the second floor. After the meeting, we will be taking Meghan out to lunch. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome to come. This is a great opportunity to spend some up-close and personal time with an editor. The meetings are casual, and best of, they’re free if you’re a first time visitor.
More about our new chapter.
Our chapter might be new, but the quality of our speakers is top notch. So far we’ve had Tessa Dare (2017 Rita finalist), Debra Holland, Elena Dillion, Debbie Decker, Lisa Green, Martina Boone and our own Margaret Brownley (author of over 40 books and also a Rita finalist for this year).
If you can’t make this month’s meeting, here’s list of some of the upcoming speakers for the rest of the year, Mia Hopkins, Judy Duarte, Linda O. Johnston, Susan Squires and Liz Donatelli of Liz D Publicity Promotions. The name of Liz’s talk is, “Authors Meets Reader: Engaging in a Real Life Love Affair”. She’s going to explain why it’s important to make personal appearance, along with book signing events. Knowing how most writers are introverts, she’ll also be giving out pointers on how to feel comfortable at these events, even when they’re not buying your book.
If you want to know more about our chapter, check out our website. Santa Clarita Romance Writers. Hope to see some of you this Saturday–don’t worry taxes aren’t due until the 18th this year.
Bobbie Cimo
0 0 Read more7 Ways to Market and Promote Your Books Without Breaking the Bank
April 9, 2017 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing Classes tagged as Kitty Bucholtz, Marketing, promotion, Writing Workshops
Perhaps the most difficult part of a writer’s career is selling your books. Whether your book is traditionally published or self-published, trying to figure out how to let readers know your book is available can be enough to make you tear your hair out.
In this 4-week online class, learn at least seven things you can do to find your readers and tell them about your book. We’ll look at creating newsletters (including why, what to say, and how often to send them), giveaways, free promotions, free advertising, paid advertising, Facebook ads, box sets, and more!
Join us and find more ways to increase visibility of your books without emptying your wallet. It’s easier than you might think!
To join: http://occrwa.org/classes/April-online-class/
Taught by Kitty Bucholtz
Kitty Bucholtz writes superhero urban fantasy and romantic comedy, often with an inspirational element woven in. After she earned her MA in Creative Writing, she decided to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher, forming Daydreamer Entertainment and self-publishing her first novel in late 2011. Founder of WRITE NOW! Workshop, she loves to teach writing workshops online and in person.
4 0 Read moreSelf-Publishing 101 for the Dazed and Confused
March 18, 2017 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing: It's a Business tagged as Kitty Bucholtz, KOD, Online Classes, self-publishing, Workshop, WRITE NOW!
You’ve been hearing about self-publishing for a long time now. You may have heard the stories of wild financial success, or stories of massive amounts of work with virtually no sales.
Perhaps you’re feeling a bit dazed about all the steps involved. Maybe you’re interested in becoming an indie author, but you’re confused about where to begin.
If this sounds familiar, you may not have decided yet whether this is the right path for you. No worries! There’s still plenty of time.
I’ve put together a 4-week class called Self-Publishing 101 for the Dazed and Confused. I’ll help you understand all the parts and pieces so you can make an informed decision about whether this is the right publishing option for you.
I’ll cover the kinds of business decisions you’ll need to make, and the kind of business tasks you’ll need to commit to as a new entrepreneur. You’ll learn about finding and hiring editors and cover designers, things you’ll need to do to build your audience and market your book, and the least complicated ways to make your book available at the major online retailers.
This isn’t a “how-to create and publish an ebook” class (I teach one of those, too!), but a “tell me more so I can make an informed decision” class. If you decide this is a direction you want to take, I’ll explain to you what your next steps are.
Self-Publishing 101 for the Dazed and Confused is sponsored by the RWA Kiss of Death chapter, and costs only USD$30 to attend – just $15 for Kiss of Death chapter members! The price will never be this low again, so sign up today.
The class will run April 4-29, 2017, as a Yahoo Groups email class – meaning you’ll get all the lessons as emails so you can participate on your own schedule. There will also be some live Q&A sessions in a video classroom, so you can ask all the questions you can think of in order to feel confident about whatever decision you choose.
The world is changing, and technology seems to be changing even faster. Some days, it’s a little scary wondering how we’re going to keep up. Don’t worry. You’ve got friends to help you through, one day at a time, and I’m one of them. I look forward to helping you decide if 2017 is the year you become an independent author, publishing your own books!
Kitty Bucholtz writes superhero urban fantasy and romantic comedy, often with an inspirational element woven in. After she earned her MA in Creative Writing, she decided to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher, forming Daydreamer Entertainment and self-publishing her first novel in 2011. The founder of WRITE NOW! Workshop, she loves to teach writing workshops online and in person.
2 0 Read more
How I Got Bit In The Butt And Survived!
February 20, 2017 by Meriam Wilhelm in category A Bit of Magic by Meriam Wilhelm, Writing, Writing: It's a Business tagged as editing, Meriam Wilhelm, self publishing, The Witches of New Moon Beach
This past year I authored my first fiction series, The Witches Of New Moon Beach. Like all new authors, I was totally excited to share what I had written and couldn’t wait to see my books posted up on Amazon. I had such a blast writing the series and had fallen in love with both my characters and my newly created beach city. I felt confident that my book covers were strong and that I had a solid plan for marketing each of the three (now four) books in the series.
Unfortunately for me, I let my excitement to share override my common sense. Sure, I had checked and rechecked for spelling errors and I even had three different people read my first book. I knew that there were individuals out there that you could pay to edit your books, check for typos, misused words or grammatical errors. But since I hadn’t yet made a dime I was resistant to spend money on the above mentioned even though in the back of my mind, I had a pressing fear that I might just have missed something. Grammar is just not my thing!
And so I proudly posted my first book for all to see and was immediately bitten in the butt by reviewers. Yes, there were a few kind comments, but then the bite came as I read “the grammatical errors were sometimes humorous” and “the book is filled with typos that simple editing could rectify.” One reader said I wrote like a teenager. Ouch!
How had this happened? I had done more than simple editing. What had I missed? I immediately took the book down and got some help. I repeatedly read the book back to front searching for errors. I tried out several editing software packages before purchasing Ginger and I ran book one past a high school English grammar teacher who I respected. I agonized before putting it back up. But the cleaning apparently worked since 73% of my reviews from then on were 4’s and 5’s and I’ve not been hit with negative remarks on spelling or typos again.
Let me say this clearly, I deserved to be bitten in the butt for posting a book with internal errors. I own this and boy did that hurt! I’m sure that I lost more than a few readers who were disappointed by my poor editing skills and either didn’t finish reading book one or never ventured toward purchasing books 2, 3 or 4. I’m saddened that they never got a chance to get to know my characters or to experience the magic within the pages.
Skip forward to my 5th book which will be out in early February 2017. I have spell checked it repeatedly, used my Ginger software for grammatical screening and had two different people read it for possible errors. However, this time, I’m also going to spend a few bucks to have a professional edit my book. Why? Because I can still remember how badly I felt when reading those negative reviews; reviews that I had earned. There is nothing worse than being disappointed in yourself.
I also learned something very important. It’s hard to see your own errors after you have lived with a story from birth to finish. I guess that I read right past mistakes more than once. My brain read the word site when I had actually spelled it sight. And semicolons took the place of far too many commas. I even failed to capitalize a word or two clearly by reading too quickly through the story.
In the end, I survived. Painful though it was, I learned a great deal from this experience. My counsel to you? Protect your butt – take your time, do your homework and then consider getting some professional help.
My best wishes to you as you successfully share your future stories with the world!
The one thing I know, after all my years as an elementary school principal, is that there is magic everywhere and in everyone. When I retired after 35 years in education, I longed to share all that I had learned and created several parenting books on topics from bullying to homework strategies. While I miss those enchanting moments with children and their parents, I always wanted to let my imagination run wild as I sought out my own magic and wrote about it. In short, I was lured into the world of fiction writing where I soon created my first series, The Witches of New Moon Beach. The first book, Morning Magic is currently FREE.
Inspiration isn’t hard to find as I have lived in Redondo Beach, California all my life and New Moon Beach might have more than a passing resemblance to my hometown. Every day I walk on the path that runs along the beach, sometimes with my sisters, but most often with my thoughts as I plot out my next book. I am long married and mom to three great grown kids. When I’m not writing or walking on the beach, you’ll find me sewing, reading or traveling and taking pictures.Feel free to check out my website: www.meriamwilhelm.com
Planning Your 2017 Calendar by Kitty Bucholtz
February 10, 2017 by Kitty Bucholtz in category It's Worth It by Kitty Bucholtz, Writing: It's a Business tagged as It's Worth It, Kitty Bucholtz, time management, Valentine's Day
It might seem in December when the new year is looking bright and shiny and empty that you can get everything done you ever imagined! But when you look back over the last year, you may realize that you are often overconfident about what you can do.
Being disappointed in yourself erodes your confidence for the next year, which erodes it for the following year, etc., and I want to help you keep that from happening. So this is what we’re going to do: go get a calendar. Any calendar will do, but one you like and can use easily will be the best one for you.
Starting in January, cross off every day that you know you won’t be able to work on your goals. For instance, if weekends are always for family, cross off all the Saturdays and all the Sundays from the year. Your 365 days just came down to 261 – poof! Just like that!
About how many days were you home sick last year? How many days were you taking care of someone else who was sick? Plan a few sick days into your calendar, subtracting them from the total days left but leaving them “available for use.” There is no point in feeling guilty about being sick, and we both know that a good rest will often get you back to work sooner and better than trying to work through it.
Now look at your list of the 5 to 10 goals you wrote down since last month. You can either plan forward or plan backward. To plan forward, look at each goal and figure out about how much you can accomplish per day on that goal. Then plot it out on your calendar to see what date that last day lands on. Put a sticky note on that date with the goal. The sticky note is so that when things come up, you can move the goal without scribbling all over your calendar.
Or if you already have a goal date in mind, you can plan backward. Say you want to finish the first draft of your next book by May 1. How many days do you have left on your calendar, the ones that are not crossed out, between now and May 1? And how many words do you expect your first draft to be – 50,000 words? 100,000 words? Take the word count and divide by the number of days. This is your daily writing goal.
Continue in this way, planning forward and/or backward for each goal, until you’ve plotted everything out on your calendar. Now look at each of the twelve months. Is it challenging but doable? Does it make you break out in a cold sweat? Do you need to move a few things around? Did you schedule in a little down time, “you” time?
Kitty Bucholtz
Kitty Bucholtz decided to combine her undergraduate degree in business, her years of experience in accounting and finance, and her graduate degree in creative writing to become a writer-turned-independent-publisher. Her superhero books for women and romantic comedies are available wherever ebooks are sold, as well as in print and audiobooks. Check out her new Valentine’s Day novella, My Bullheaded Superhero Valentine.
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