The folks over at POD People are giving away a free copy of Triangulation: Dark Glass today.
Category Archives: Publishing
Hide and Seek
Every would-be novelist, self-help author, or poet has the occasional dream of fame and fortune.
You get your book into bookstores, put it out there on amazon.com, and voila! you have an instant bestseller and get to spend your afternoons strolling with Stephen King.
Not so much.
What few writers realize in the beginning is that when you publish a book, whether traditionally or self-publishing, you are starting a business. That business is you: the words you write, the opinions you publish, and the entertainment you provide. You are a seller in a marketplace that is positively flooded with other sellers.
So how do you get yourself noticed?
It’s a question I’m asking myself as I craft the first draft of my first novel. I do not think it’s too early to start considering a marketing plan. And these days, one of the least expensive and most effective means of marketing oneself is via online social networking and the Internet.
Here’s a great “how I did it” post by a new start-up SEO company (and friend of mine) that I found enlightening.
On the day I gave notice at my previous employer, I knew that I would need to have a web presence ready to go before the day I was actually out on my own, both for explaining to people what I was doing and for SEO reasons. I gave notice on Monday, July 27th, 2009. I gave the customary two weeks, so my last day in the office would be Friday, August 7th. more…
And the 75,000th word is…
…”hand.”
In my not-so-spare time, I have been working on a novel.
I’ve been writing for 1-to-2 hours per night for months, after a nearly year-long hiatus on the project while the duties of my day job spun my life into a 24/7 tech support spiral. I originally stopped working on it in May of 2008. I picked it up again almost exactly a year later after finding a new job that required me to spend less of my spare time working.
I actually began writing this novel while on vacation at Myrtle Beach in the early summer of 2004. At first it was a mere 1,500 word introduction to an idea without a direction. Really, I didn’t even have any characters at that point. I started with a simple description of a scene in my head. From there, the story just kind of grew on its own.
Tonight, that simple scene has produced words that form sentences, sentences that form paragraphs, paragraphs that form pages, and pages that form chapters, and chapters that form…well, 75,000 words. It’s a magic number in the world of novel writing. Everywhere you look online, you’ll see that 75,000 words is often the delimiter that defines the difference between a novella and a novel. Once you hit the 75,000 mark, you are writing a full-on novel.
To put it in perspective, what I have written so far is almost 2,000 fewer words than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
That said, I am not done. I have begun the concluding arc in this tale, but there is much more left to do. One thing I can say at this point, though, is that I now have an expectation of approximately how long the first draft manuscript will be when completed.
And, yes, the 75,000th word in my novel really is the word “hand.”
Two Peas Launches Paperback edition of “Jennifer’s Plan”
Two Peas Publishing announces the paperback release of Don Meyer’s novel Jennifer’s Plan (ISBN: 978-0984077311). The book is available through amazon.com and other online retail outlets.
The novel is an action-oriented crime drama that follows Jennifer Cerriety as she fulfills her plan to seek retribution against a gang of roughnecks who commit unspeakable acts of violence against her and a man named Harold Seaweather.
Midwest Book Review gave the hardcover edition of Jennifer’s Plan five stars, calling it “a masterpiece of narrative storytelling and a highly recommended addition to community library collections and supplemental reading lists.”
Don Meyer is the author of three books, including Jennifer’s Plan, Winter Ghost, and the Vietnam War memoir The Protected Will Never Know.
Jennifer’s Plan is available for purchase by booksellers from Two Peas Publishing. It is available for retail purchase through Amazon.com, Don Meyer’s website, and other retail outlets.
Are Self-Publishers Saps?
Bill Ruesch thinks not.
Today’s publishing reality is that approximately 4% of manuscripts submitted to publishers ever become books. If you have written a book you need to face the truth. The odds of getting your book published through traditional methods are slim to none.
Recently a self-publishing author of my acquaintance inked a deal with a major publishing company for some very large bucks, maybe the largest in history for a new author. How did he do it? I’ll tell you.
“Writer’s Digest” Devotes Issue to Self-Publishing
The March/April issue of Writer’s Digest contains an excellent series of articles under the featured header “Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing.” Everyone’s writing books these days, so the world of self-publishing has suddenly become a busier and more interesting place.
Writer’s Digest explores the pros and cons of self-publishing, as well as advice on using professional editing and design services to give your book a marketing edge.
Two Peas Gets Media Mentions
Two Peas Publishing was profiled in the Lifestyles section of the Columbia, Tenn. Daily Herald recently. We were on Page 5C of the Sunday, March 15, 2009 issue. Unfortunately, the article is not on the newspaper’s website. You can see a scan of it on Two Peas’ Facebook page.
Two Peas is also mentioned in the April issue of Her Nashville magazine. Check us out on the “Her Favorites” page.
Two Peas Publishing Launches
I would like to announce the formation of Two Peas Publishing, a new self-publishing venture started by my wife and I. Two Peas’ main focus is on talented unknowns who may need a little “spit and polish” to get their work up to market quality.
Visit Two Peas Publishing online to get started.
360
It’s been ten years since I last submitted a paper-and-envelope style manuscript to any publisher of a fiction magazine. Building a technological career and writing columns and articles for newspapers kind of stole away my desire to sit down in front of the glow of a word processor and imagine different worlds, mainly because I was too busy trying to build my real one.
But in 2007, a story idea popped into my head while I was running on my treadmill, and I could not ignore it.
I wrote at night. I wrote in the mornings. I wrote on lunch breaks at work. I wrote any time I had a spare moment and a computer in front of me.
What evolved from that was a short piece of fiction about life, love, and time.
I submitted the piece to approximately two publications immediately upon finishing it. Then other pressing matters and new people entered my life, and, once again, the manuscript sat forgotten on my hard drive.
I rediscovered it recently, while attempting to start a new project. Upon rereading it, I also rediscovered my passion for it.
So, here I go–360-degrees and more than 365 days later–starting the submission process all over again.
It feels good to be back, seated in this comfortable chair and clicking Submit buttons with fingers crossed on my left mouse button.
Wish me luck.
Southern Festival of Books Oct. 10-12
The 2008 Southern Festival of Books is scheduled for Oct. 10-12 at War Memorial Plaza in Nashville, Tenn.
Details are available at the Tennessee Humanities website, as is this year’s schedule.