Introduce Yourself

[Author101]

We all would love to know new members. Please introduce yourself. Do you write? Are you published? Are you a marketing proffessional, publisher?

[Steve Roberts]

Author101,
I would guess the number one question among authors and wanna-b's is how so you get anyone in the industry to actually agree to look at a manuscript. Writing is the fun part, it builds one up, then comes the selling part, which pops the balloon.

Steve

[Elaine Williams]

Hi Carol: Thanks for the invite. I'm a writer, self-publisher with a small press, OnWings Press. I have been published traditionally by a major publisher in women's fiction, and currently have publishing under my imprint, A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss. I much prefer being in charge of my own publishing and writing destiny! I'm in the midst of marketing my book, and thus far things are falling into place very nicely. It's alway a learning experience. Elaine Williams

[Author101]

Hi Steve,
That's a good question. I recall sending out about 20 queries which seemed to take a lifetime to proffessionally compose only to recieve back a mere 5 cold and generalized responses from publishers. It does seem to be a useless effort unless you know a friend who is the friend of a friend who has a brother-in-law who distantly knows a publisher (or the errand boy to the company).
I desperately try to encourage new "want-to-be" authors to look into self-publishing by way of setting up their own publishing company (very easy) and having their books printed themselves. It's really the only effective way I have found to become published. Then of course, there's promotion. That's another discussion group all together. Let's go there sometime!
Carol
http://www.booksbydenbow.weebly.com

[Author101]

Members! Don't forget, if you have a book, you can upload your books image on the home page for all to see!!!
Best wishes,
Carol

[J. A. DiSpada]

Hi Author 101
I am J. A. DiSpada, and yes, I am a published author.
I started writing what I thought was an average length, 3 to 4 hundred pages, novel about ten years ago. Little did I know that my average length novel would metamorphose from novel to trilogy and finally end up as a saga.
When I started writing it I went through all of the phases a beginning writer does, or should, go through. Excitement, beginners determination, the desire to get every idea down on paper so they would not be forgotten, and writing. Writing at all hours of the day and night. Waking up from a sound sleep to jot down some possible portion of the plot.
Then I met my first crux point! It came at me out of the blue, and hit right between the eyes! For me it was realizing that I could not see the end of my story, and that stopped me dead in my tracks 250 pages into it.
It took me six months, and a lot of sleepless nights and agonizing, to accept the fact that my novel was going to be a trilogy.
It took another 200 pages for me to realize that I was facing the same problem I had thought solved. I faced the same roadblock as before. I could not see the end of my story, and again the writing came to a near standstill.
Now the second level of phases began. Reading and re-reading what had already been written to refresh the original intent. Going over all of my notes to see if I had strayed from my original concept. Worst of all I faced the specter of self doubt! Had I bitten off more than I could chew?
It took me nine months to realize what the problem was. The solution fell on me like a ton of bricks one night as I sat at my desk drinking a cup of coffee, with my pencil in hand and an empty sheet of paper in front of me for the last hour. It is truly amazing what an empty sheet of paper on a pad can tell you!
As I lifted that first empty sheet and viewed the next empty sheet, and the next, I finally got it. I had limited my horizons when I accepted the first major change to my perspective as the defining change to it!
Those empty pages did not imply inability on my part, they implied the potential that I was trying to fit into a box that was too small for it! My story would become a saga, and as many books as it would take to tell it!
As soon as I accepted this I could finally see the end of the story, where and how to end the first book, the outline for the second book, and the rough outlines for the third, fourth, and fifth books.
Book one of The Earth-Chai Saga, Waking The Dragon was published by PA, and released in May of 2007. In December of 2007 it was awarded 'Best New Book of 2007' by New Book Reviews.Org and is available through 53 outlets worldwide. Book two in the saga, Whispering Into The
Dragons Ear, is near complete as I write this.
Through all of this I should have been following my own best advice: Never stop asking questions. If you are persistent enough you will eventually ask the right ones!
It took me nine months with an agent that did absolutely nothing for me before I fired her, and six weeks of intensive searching on the net to find a publisher to look at my work seriously, then publish it. I have spent the last year and a quarter marketing that work, and writing the sequel to it. PA may not be the best venue to be published in, but my work is out there, and people are buying it!
This is my story in a nut shell.
J. A. DiSpada

[Author101]

Bravo J.A.!
I think P.A. is great because they give you the opportunity to get published without the expense of it. It's clearly a test of your marketing abilities. Those who publish with P.A. who do not take marketing sereous, will be sadly limited to seeing a book in print.
Might I add, you have clearly pointed out the importance of an outline!!!!
Best wishes on your book!
Carol
http://www.booksbydenbow.weebly.com

[Monifa]

Hello everyone,

I'm a published poet based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also write prose, or short story fiction, although I'm not sure what genre I fall under at this moment, but I'm leaning towards social commentary and satire. My poems, on the other hand, tend to be autobiographical.

All in all, I love writing as much as it drives me nuts.

Thank you, Carol, for inviting me to join your site.

Monifa

[Author101]

So glad you're here Monifa! You can post some of your work here for critic if you like. We're all writers in some form and I'm sure all would love to read your work. Where have you had your poetry published?
Carol

Monifa said:

Hello everyone,

I'm a published poet based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I also write prose, or short story fiction, although I'm not sure what genre I fall under at this moment, but I'm leaning towards social commentary and satire. My poems, on the other hand, tend to be autobiographical.

All in all, I love writing as much as it drives me nuts.

Thank you, Carol, for inviting me to join your site.

Monifa

[Tony Walker]

I'm a gun-owning liberal, probably one of the few in Arizona, and I write regular columns for various gun magazines. My pieces have been published in the USA, UK, Australia, and South Africa, and the checks for these have kept me in gin and cigarettes for a number of years.

I've also had three books published, one by a mainstream publisher in the UK, and two self-published books here in the US.

My latest book is titled How to Win a Gunfight, and it has garnered a couple of excellent reviews. My first novel, Snides , an action thriller, was published back in 2004, and a sequel, Pilgrim's Banner will be published soon.

I also teach the Arizona Concealed Weapons classes, which allow students to qualify for a concealed weapons permit. In addition, I also teach advanced self-defense shooting classes with my wife, Vannessa (the Amazon Queen), who is the only person still living who has ever shot me in the back six times!

Hobbies: Avoiding all forms of hard work, drinking (Tanqueray gin and Schweppes tonic until sundown, Jameson's Irish Whiskey after sundown), smoking, mocking politicians and religious nuts, and trying to keep my cat Jinks off the keyboard.

[Author101]

Welome Tony!
For someone who dosen't like hard work, you're a busy bee! Thanks for joining our group and hope you make many friends and have fun here!!
Best wishes,
Carol
http://www.booksbydenbow.weebly.com

[Tony Walker]

1fdsjfigt0jlik.,m,

That was Jinks saying "Hello."

[Tony Walker]

By the way, I forgot to add my web site address, where you can read a segment of Snides, go to the page that tells you all about Cockney Rhyming Slang, and even tells you how to come and learn to shoot with my wife Vannessa (the Amazon Queen) and myself in sun-scorched Arizona.

www.johnpilgrimbooks.com