Writing and Publishing News

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

December 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3

 

Editor: Patricia Fry

plfry620@yahoo.com

 

A Holiday Gift for Authors

This is the third issue of Publishing/Marketing News and Views. In August, we covered how to build promotion into your book while you’re writing it. The October issue featured the psychology of a book proposal. (Visit our archives here: <a http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081The feature article for this holiday issue focuses on getting your book published—what are your publishing options and how can you be sure that you’re making the best choices?

 

Hopefully, you built promotion into your book while you were writing it, you’ve written the right book for the right audience, you’ve done a serious market analysis and you know there is a market for this book, you are aware that you’re responsible for promoting your book and you have had your manuscript professionally edited. Now let’s pursue publishers. Where does one start?

 

Too many authors rush through this phase of the process. By now, they have put a lot of time and effort into their projects and they’re ready to move on to something else. All the author wants is to find someone who will take over from here. Stop! This is the wrong approach.

 

You may think that writing a book is hard work. It takes a lot of concentration, time and effort. But I have to tell you, writing is the easiest part of the publishing process. Gaining an understanding of the highly competitive publishing industry and learning how to successfully navigate it is much more difficult for most authors. We won’t even discuss the enormity of book promotion—that’s for another issue of this newsletter. Read “Get Your Book Published” below and you will have the tools and the knowledge to make better decisions on behalf of your book.

 

For those of you who have one or more books to promote, the book promotion activity featured this month is book festivals. There’s a huge one coming up in Southern California. Find out how you can participate and how you can make all future (large and small) book festivals more successful bookselling experiences.

 

Included in this issue:

• “Get Your Book Published” (Excerpted from Publish Your Book)
• Special Report—“Publishing Mistakes to Avoid”
• Recommended Reading—Publish Your Book
• Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Take Your Book to a Show
• Bonus Article—“How to Work a Book Festival So it Works for You”
• Resources of the Month—Book Festival Directories
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

(If you do not wish to receive information from Patricia Fry and Matilija Press, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.)

 

Get Your Book Published

(The following is excerpted from my book, Publish Your Book.)

 

A point I’d like to make right away is that publishing is not an exact science. The publishing option that is right for one author may be wrong for the next. A particular publisher that is right for one project, may not be right for yours. And you’ll find that you can’t become successful in this industry when you make uneducated decisions—when you go with the first company whose representatives compliment your book, for example. Consider yourself the CEO of your book project. While writing is a craft, publishing is a business—a highly competitive business. Take charge. Educate yourself so you are more apt to make the best choices for your book. The following will help in your quest for knowledge. I’ve also included some of the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of each publishing option.

Choose a Publisher Before Your Book is a Book

Locating and landing a publisher can take time. Most hopeful authors, after devoting several months or years to writing the perfect manuscript, don’t want to spend another several months in search of a publisher. It is at the point where the author has finished the writing, that way too many of them make a major mistake. They go with the first publisher who expresses an interest in their project without considering the consequences or the cost. If you have a few appropriate publishers in mind before writing your book, you could save time, money and heartache.

 

Your first choice of publishers might have some specific requirements that you need to know about before writing the book. I know one successful author who forged ahead with her book without considering her publishing choices. It took her only five or six months to find a publisher, but he wouldn’t publish her book without a major rewrite designed to more appropriately focus the content of the book. This extra work might have been avoided had she put more effort and thought into a publisher before writing the book.

 

Choose a publisher before you write the book and you may get an advance. Yes, a publisher might pay you a fee to write the book. This amount would then be deducted from future royalty earnings. Generally, a publisher will pay half of the advance when you sign the contract and the remainder upon satisfactory completion of the manuscript. While publishing advances are sometimes in the thousands of dollar range, it is rare for a first-time author or the author of a book with a narrow niche audience to receive more than $500 or $1,000.

 

Keep in mind that publishers generally won’t issue a contract based on a query letter by an unknown, unproven author. However, an excellent book proposal for a viable book including chapter summaries, sample chapters and a marketing plan just might generate that contract.

 

Here are some key things that you need to know before you start writing:

 

• What are your publishing options for this particular book? Are there publishers who produce books like yours and if not, are you willing to self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or go with a pay-to-publish company?

 

• What is the general word count for a book like the one you want to write? Some publishers have word count requirements. One publisher might want no more than 40,000 words while another won’t publish anything less than 70,000 words. There are strict word-count guidelines for children’s books based on the age group. And few, if any, publishers will invest in an oversized novel by an unknown author.

 

• What does the publisher need or expect from you? Does the publisher of your choice want to see the completed manuscript, a synopsis and two sample chapters or just a query letter?

 

Manage the Maze of Potential Publishers

I receive the same question from hopeful authors many times each year. “How do I find a publisher?” Another even more important question might be, “What is a publisher?”

 

A traditional royalty publisher assumes the expenses involved in publishing a book and gives the author a percentage of each book sold. Depending on the policies of the publishing house, royalties are figured on either the retail or the wholesale price and generally range between five and eighteen percent. The more you understand about the publishing industry, in particular what drives a publishing company, the more well-prepared you will be to land a publishing contract. For example, a traditional publisher is more interested in his bottom line than your wonderful story or nonfiction book. It is up to you to demonstrate to the publisher your understanding of book marketing and provide evidence that you can and will launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign for your book.

 

Subsidy or vanity and co-publishers produce your book for a fee. This publishing model has changed in recent years. Under the original premise, the vanity or subsidy publisher was hired to produce books for authors who didn’t want to establish their own publishing companies. With the advent of the digital age, a new model of subsidy publishing began to take shape. And today, there’s a blurred distinction between the old vanity press and the modern-day all-inclusive pay-to-publish services.

 

Pay-to-publish services (formerly known as fee-based POD publishers or self-publishing companies) charge anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars to produce your book and then they print the number of copies that you need as you request them and charge accordingly. They also offer various promotional packages and advantages for additional fees. These companies are extremely popular right now, but they are also the brunt of numerous complaints. I maintain that this is due mostly to the authors’ lack of industry savvy and unreasonable expectations. (Read more about pay-to-publish services in Chapter Three of Publish Your Book.)

 

Self-publishing (also called independent publishing) means that you establish a company through which to produce your book and you arrange for and pay for all of the necessary components—copyright, ISBN (International Standard Book Number), barcode, cover design and so forth. You audition printing companies and hire one for your project. You also promote, distribute and ship your books. (Read more about self-publishing in Chapter Eleven of Publish Your Book, including a time-line of tasks involved.)

 

How to Find the Right Royalty Publisher for Your Project

Traditional royalty publishers are everywhere—not just in high-rise buildings in New York City. They reside and work in practically every state in the U.S. And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of them; large, medium and small. So how do you find out about them?

 

Start in your home library. You probably have books on the topic or in the genre that you will be writing. Look at those books. Who published them? Would your book idea fit into their list?

 

Visit local bookstores and locate recently published books similar to the one you have in mind. The publisher’s name and contact information is usually on the copyright page and/or the back cover of the book.

 

New authors typically say, “But there is nothing out there like my book.” Then consider this: Maybe it is not such a good idea. If you can’t find any books like yours, perhaps there’s no market for it. This reality check ought to help you develop a more open mind when seeking your book’s rightful place in the scheme of things. Now, go determine where your book is likely to be placed in bookstores. What section would it fit into? Who published some of the books in that section?

 

I met a man at a writer’s conference in Northern California a few years ago who told me there was nothing on the market like the book he was writing. It was a book of recipes and stories handed down by his German ancestors. Out of curiosity, I did my own search and immediately located a book featuring recipes and stories handed down by the author’s German family. This book would be stocked with other cookbooks—perhaps more specifically, family cookbooks, memoirs, etc. A publisher who has produced books on Italian, Polish, Mexican family recipe albums, for example, would surely be interested in one related to German family cooking.

 

Use reference directories to locate appropriate publishers. Here are a few:

Writer’s Market http://www.writersmarket.com (Writer’s Market comes out each fall in print. Cost around $30. Or sign up for their online database.)

http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory

http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory/media/book-publishers

 

Your ABC List of Publishers

It’s unlikely that your first choice of traditional publishers will accept your book, especially if you are a first-time author. However, it is possible, particularly if you use the correct criteria in making your choice.

 

Note: The more thoroughly you research publishers, the more realistic you are in choosing one, and the more stringently you adhere to their guidelines and requirements, the more likely you are to receive a positive response from a traditional publisher.

 

BUILD YOUR “A” LIST OF PUBLISHERS

Who is the ideal publisher for your project? Most authors start at the top of the publishing chain. And that’s okay. Keep in mind, however, that few of the major publishing companies will entertain a proposal without representation by an agent. (Read how to find and select an agent in Chapter Eight of Publish Your Book.)

 

Advantages of Landing a Big Name Publisher

• You pay no publishing costs.
• You are validated as an author.
• There’s prestige associated with this partnership.
• Your book will most likely be available in bookstores.
• Your book has a greater chance of becoming a bestseller.

 

Disadvantages of Landing a Big Name Publisher

• You will wait for a year or more to see your book in print.
• Your book may have a very short lifespan. Typically, major publishing houses give a book a year or less to prove itself. If it isn’t paying its way, they will not reprint it.
• Communication is often difficult. The company is so large that your itty bitty problem or miniscule request can become quite insignificant.
• You have to rely on someone else to get your books to signing events on time and to send out review copies within deadline. Even the largest publishers are sometimes lax when it comes to amply supporting an author’s promotional efforts.
• You are expected to help promote your book.
• You earn only a small percentage on sales.

 

CREATE YOUR “B” LIST OF PUBLISHERS

Your B list might include some of the many appropriate medium and small traditional royalty publishing houses. Time spent researching these publishers is definitely time well spent.

 

Advantages of Working With a Small to Medium-size Publisher

• You pay no publishing costs.
• You are validated as an author.
• Your book will most likely have a longer shelf life than if you go with a large publisher.
• The publisher will participate to varying degrees in promoting the book.
• The publisher may have access to important promotional avenues such as bookstore sales.
• Smaller publishers seem more loyal to their authors.

 

Disadvantages of Working with a Small to Medium-size Publisher

• The publisher is less well known—there may be minimal name recognition.
• You could wait for a year or more before seeing your book in print.
• Author/publisher communication is sometimes a problem.
• You must rely on the publisher to ship your books to a bookstore for a signing or to get copies to you in time for a book festival.
• There’s a greater chance that a new publishing company will go out of business.
• You are expected to promote your own book.
• You earn only a small percentage on sales.

 

DEVELOP YOUR “C” LIST OF PUBLISHING OPTIONS

 

Pay-to-Publish Company

You could pay a company to produce your book. While there used to be few subsidy publishers and few people used them, there are now at least 100 of them, and thousands of people publish through them each year. But with advanced technology and an increase in new authors, the paradigm has changed considerably. And the contracts come in a wide variety of patterns. In most cases, you own the copyright and, depending on the company, you may get some assistance with promotion. Different companies offer different packages. I know of one co-publisher who becomes a royalty publisher after the author has sold 1,000 copies of his book.

 

The general description of a pay-to-publish company is a subsidy publisher that uses digital technology to produce books when you need them. This is a popular means of book publication these days. Some pay-to-publish companies try to confuse you by advertising that they are royalty publishers or that they will help you to self-publish your book. I urge authors to exercise caution when considering a subsidy publisher. I can’t stress enough the importance of heads up research before signing any publishing contract. Read Chapter Three in Publish Your Book for a more detailed explanation and evaluation of this modern day publishing model.

 

Advantages of the Pay-to-Publish Company

• You are guaranteed that your book will be published.
• You’ll have a book in weeks rather than months or years.
• Your book stays alive for as long as you promote it.
• If you sell enough copies, you may be able to interest a traditional royalty publisher in your book.
• You don’t have to store boxes and boxes of books.

 

Disadvantages of Pay-to Publish Companies

• It is often costly.
• Yours may be one of the countless books that are riddled with errors.
• Your book won’t be welcome in bookstores unless you can bring in enough customers to warrant them carrying it. And this is enormously more difficult than you might think.
• You may be asked to sign away the rights to your book for a period of time. (One such publisher holds your copyright for seven years.)
• You are expected to do the majority of the book promotion with very little help. What help you do request from the company will cost you. (One company charged their authors thousands of dollars to sit in a booth at a major book festival for an hour and give their books away.)
• Some reviewers and booksellers still reject pay-to-publish books.
• Books are often priced above market value making them difficult for you to sell.

 

Before choosing a pay-to-publish (self-publishing) company, read Mark Levine’s book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. He rates and ranks dozens of these companies for you. (Highly recommended.)

 

Self-Publishing

You establish a company through which to produce your book. You obtain your ISBN (International Standard Book Number), barcode, etc. You arrange for the page layout and cover design work. You hire a printer. You accept total responsibility for writing, producing and marketing your book. (Learn how to publish your own book in Chapter Ten of Publish Your Book.)

 

Advantages of Self-Publishing

• You’ll definitely see your book in print
• You could have a product in weeks instead of months or years.
• You are in charge of every aspect of production and sales.
• You can keep the book alive for as long as you promote it.
• You have a book to show around to publishers. If it does well, you may land a royalty publishing contract.
• You keep all of the profits.
• You have legitimate tax breaks.

 

Disadvantages of Self-Publishing

• Self-publishing can be costly.
• You are in charge of every aspect of production and sales; promoting a book is extremely hard work.
• You are also the distributions manager, shipping clerk, PR person and bookkeeper.
• Some bookstore managers and book reviewers may shun your book.
• Unless you use POD (print-on-demand—digital) printing technology, you may have to store boxes and boxes of books.

 

Ebook

An ebook is a digital book posted online for consumers to purchase and print out, download onto a handheld electronic device or read online. It appears as though ebooks are here to stay. Novelists are selling hundreds of books for Amazon’s Kindle reader. More and more books are being formatted for print, ebooks and audio.

 

Advantages to Publishing an Ebook

• There is no or very little cost. Generally $0-99.
• You do not have to store or ship books.
• You can make changes to an ebook at any time.
• You keep all of the profits, except for any royalties you pay to web hosts of sites where the ebook is sold.
• There are more support companies than ever before for authors of ebooks who want to convert them to Kindle, Nook, MS Reader, iPad, etc. or who want to distribute them through wider channels.

 

Disadvantages to Publishing an Ebook

• They may not be well received within the genre or topic of your book.
• You may not be taken seriously as an author when you produce only ebooks. (Self-publishing of print and ebooks is discussed in Chapter Ten of Publish Your Book.)

 

If you are interested in the rest of the publishing story—locating and approaching agents, how to write a book proposal, distribution issues, a timeline for self-publishing, marketing and a whole lot more, order your copy of Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author today. http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html or at http://amzn.to/1a7KUOt

 

7 Publishing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

It happened again at a writers’ conference a few weeks ago. I met two disgruntled, disillusioned, almost bankrupt authors who admitted to making most of the mistakes listed below. They both have wonderful books in hand, but little understanding of the publishing industry and even less marketing savvy. They learned too late that the time to ask questions and study options is BEFORE you begin to make publishing decisions.

 

First-time authors are eager to see their books in print. I know this. I’ve been there and I’ve made mistakes. As authors, we work long and hard on our projects. The last thing we want to deal with after finishing a manuscript is the learning curve. Rather than spend weeks, months or years searching for a publishing opportunity, we’d rather sign with the first “publisher” who extends a friendly hand.

 

I’m on a mission, folks—a mission to help hopeful authors become more well-educated and informed about this industry so they will make more appropriate choices on behalf of their publishing projects.

 

Following are 7 mistakes that many new authors make—mistakes that can cost you large sums of money and dramatically diminish your opportunity for publishing success.

 

1: Inexperienced authors write a book as the first step. Why is this considered a mistake? If you aspire to have your book published and widely distributed, this may be the wrong approach. Whether you’re writing a how-to book, biography, self-help, romance novel, children’s story, mystery, memoir or dictionary, write a book proposal first.

 

In the process of writing a book proposal, you will:

• Learn if you have a viable book at all.
• Discover whether there is a market for this book.
• Determine your target audience.
• Ascertain the best way to promote your book.
• Be prepared to establish your platform.

 

Write a book proposal as a first step and you’re more apt to write the right book for the right audience. How better to snag a traditional royalty publisher than with a promising project?

 

2: Eager new authors often go with the first publishing opportunity they stumble across. You don’t make other business decisions this quickly. You research the possibilities and study your options. Many authors forget that publishing is a business. We get so attached to our projects and so eager to see our books in print that we act emotionally rather than logically.

 

Learn the difference between a traditional royalty publisher and a fee-based print-on-demand publishing service. You’ll find hundreds of traditional royalty publishers listed in Writer’s Market (available in the reference section of your library or for sale for about $30 in most bookstores. A new edition comes out each September).

 

Visit bookstores in search of books like yours. Find out who published these books and contact those publishers.

 

As an author, you have many options. Research them, understand them and scrutinize them in order to choose the one that is right for your project.

 

3: New authors believe that they don’t have a chance with a traditional royalty publisher. This is simply not true. If you have a viable project, you arm yourself with knowledge and you approach the publisher in a professional manner, you have a definite chance of landing a traditional royalty publisher. There are more publishers than you might think eager for a good book with a fresh voice.

 

Find publishers who produce books like yours. Study their Submission Guidelines. Follow these guidelines in approaching them with your project. If they request a query letter first, do NOT send your complete manuscript. If you don’t understand what goes into a query letter, study books and articles about writing a query letter.

 

There are hundreds of small to medium-sized publishers eager for good, marketable books.

 

4: Many authors don’t understand publishing terms. Authors will say to me, “I’m self-publishing with ABC Publishing Company.” What they are actually doing is going with a pay-to-publish company. What are your primary publishing options? They are listed in the article above.

 

5: Newby authors don’t generally solicit advice from professionals until it is too late. Do NOT sign a contract with any publisher or purveyor of publishing services without hiring a literary or intellectual properties attorney. This should go without saying, yet thousands of authors each year bypass this important step.

 

I also recommend that inexperienced authors talk to other authors who have used the services they are considering. Contact organizations such as SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) www.spawn.org. Ask questions.

 

6: Uninformed authors blindly sign up for unnecessary services. Beware of over-priced add-ons that come with unrealistic promises. Stay grounded. Study books, newsletters and articles by professionals and do your own research before signing up for any services your pay-to-publish company might offer.

 

7: Authors neglect to hire an editor. Many authors, by the time they complete their manuscripts and do some self-editing, are more than ready to get it published. Some of them don’t feel they have the money to spend on a professional editor. Some expect to get a good enough editing job through their pay-to-publish company. Still others believe that they don’t need to hire an editor because traditional publishers have editors on staff.

 

One of the biggest mistakes a hopeful author can make is neglecting to hire a professional editor before approaching publishers of any type. News flash: publishers want to see professionally edited manuscripts. The fee required by many pay-to-publish companies for editing services, is often wasted money. Hire our own professional book editor.

 

If you want to enter into the world of publishing, learn something about the business. Study your options and the ramifications of your choices. Define your responsibilities as a published author. You may still make a few mistakes along the way—we all do, but knowledge will definitely save you money and heartache.

 

Recommended Reading

Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author (Allworth Press) $19.95 at http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html. Also available in print, Kindle and audio at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. $19.95. This is a definitive guide to publishing with insider tips, marketing strategies, timelines and more. Some consider it a comprehensive tour of the world of publishing designed to help authors successfully navigate the industry. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, Publish Your Book will help you succeed.

 

Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Take Your Book to a Show

You’ve probably attended book festivals, where you see authors and publishers sitting in decorated booths talking to passersby about their books. Perhaps you’ve participated in one or two of them in your community. You should know that there are book festivals of all sizes held in hundreds of cities throughout the US and beyond every year. If you’ve had what you consider a bad experience at a book festival, please don’t call it quits. Learn from the experience. And learn from this article.

 

I’ve attended dozens and dozens of book festivals in many cities—St. Louis, Los Angeles, Dallas, Santa Barbara, Tucson and so forth. Some of them were tiny, little affairs and others were huge events. I sold numbers of books at some of them and only a few at others. But one thing I and so many of my colleagues gain at every single book fair is exposure—valuable exposure. No one will buy your book if they aren’t aware it exists. Each and every contact you make in person or online or through printed material, represents one or dozens of potential sales for your current book as well as others you may produce.

 

Authors sell more books through personality. Readers like to meet authors of the books they read. They are apt to buy and read a book by an author they have met.

 

And there are other gifts that arise from the book festival experience—invitations to speak to your public, opportunities to be interviewed on Internet or live radio, introductions to key people who can get your book before your audience and so forth. If you offer a service, you have a perfect opportunity to solicit clients. I know one author who met a filmmaker at a book festival who filmed a documentary featuring him and his book. It still airs on the military channel.

 

Now that I’ve convinced you that book festivals are a good idea, here is my article on how to have a more successful experience at a book festival. Read it here: http://www.matilijapress.com/articles/promo_bookFestival.htm

 

How do you find book festivals to attend? The best way is to do an Internet search using keywords, “book festival” or “book fair” and “your city/state.” Here are a few Directories Book Festivals

http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/events/festivals/?skw=book+festival+directory

http://childrenslitnetwork.com/book-festivals-directory

 

If you live in or will be traveling to Southern California, consider taking your book to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) April 12/13, 2014. This is one of the largest and most prestigious book festivals around. Most of you are aware that I am the executive director or SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). SPAWN has participated in the LATFB since the beginning some 18 years ago. Because the booth fee is so high, SPAWN secures booths and invites members to sell their books. Here is the promo that went out in the December issue of SPAWNews (http://www.spawn.org)

 

Join SPAWN at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Date: April 12-13, 2014

Place: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California

 

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) is billed as the nation’s largest public literary festival, attracting around 140,000 people last year.

 

It wasn’t always this big, and some of us here at SPAWN remember its beginnings. The LATFB launched in 1996, the same year that SPAWN did. SPAWN has had a presence at this now-gigantic event almost every year since.

 

The LATFB will be held at the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles again this year on April 12 and 13, 2014. SPAWN has secured two booths to accommodate our members. The fee for selling your books from our booth is $203 per day. (Three titles per member, only.)

 

We are also offering to those who cannot attend the LATFB the opportunity to display a copy of their book(s) in the SPAWN booth for $20 each title. For an additional $37, members can list their books in the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services, which will serve as the brochure for all participants. Everyone visiting the SPAWN booth will walk away with one of our beautiful full-color print catalogs. The absolute deadline for having your book included in the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services is February 7, 2014.  (Yes, it’s a short deadline this year. So don’t procrastinate.)

 

Visit http://www.spawn.org/latfb.htm to read about all of your options and to sign up.

 

Visit http://www.spawn.org/catalogofbooks.htm to view the online version of the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services.

 

The LATFB opportunity is open to members only. If your SPAWN membership has expired or you haven’t joined yet, this is a good time to take care of business. If you want a major bookselling opportunity and incredible exposure for your book, sign up to join us in the SPAWN booth—first come, first served. Learn more about the LATFB here: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

 

Join SPAWN here: http://www.spawn.org

Questions? Patricia@spawn.org

 

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of 40 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain a daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 1,950 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog  I also write a blog related to cats. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

 

My articles have appeared in over 300 publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

 

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak to authors several times each year at conferences and other author events. My topics relate to publishing and book promotion.

 

While I’ve been writing nonfiction for all of my 40 years, I recently dipped my toe into the world of fiction and have launched the Klepto Cat Mystery series. Catnapped is the first in the series and it has been closely followed by Cat-Eye Witness. These cozy mysteries are on Kindle only. The third in this series, Sleight of Paw is scheduled to debut this winter.

 

To order Catnapped for your Kindle http://amzn.to/14OCk0W

To order Cat-Eye Witness for your Kindle http://amzn.to/1bJiq0x

 

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in the highly competitive publishing industry.