Writing and Publishing News

I’m in development mode again. My latest book is finished. In fact, the printer (Fidlar Doubleday) is putting the blue line for The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book in the mail today. Once I proof and okay it, we’ll go into production. The publication date is January 1, 2006.

I’ve done tons of promotion already and the book isn’t even out of the hopper. I’ve contacted all 500 (or so) people on my mailing list to offer them a prepublication discount for The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. For those of you who missed it, this offer is good through 2005.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html/

I’m talking the book up everywhere I go. I’m adding a signature with a link to my ordering page at the end of my emails. I’ve submitted about 3 dozen articles to over 20 writing/publishing-related magazines, ezines and newsletters. And I’ve run ads in a few of them.

Did you know there were so many publications related to writing and publishing? There’s Writer’s Digest, Writing-World, Writer’s Weekly, Authorship, SPAWNews, PMA Newsletter, National Association of Women Writers Newsletter, SPANnet, Writing for Dollars, Working Writer, Book Promotion Newsletter, Writers Write, Women on Writing, Writer’s Apprentice, New Writer Magazine, Christian Writer’s Fellowship Newsletter, Absolute Write, Freelance Writers Report, Byline, Publishing Basics. Which writing/publishing-related mags did I miss?

Of course, there’s The Writer. However, while I have a good rapport with Writer’s Digest and many of these other publications, I’ve never been able to break into The Writer. In fact, yesterday, I received requests from two of the newsletters mentioned above requesting more of my articles.

Okay, so I’ve done all of this promotion for The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book as well as the book that we came out with a few months ago—How to Write a Successful Book Proposal in 8 Days or Less. And I continue to promote some every day while also trying to get back into a routine of producing—you know, writing new things and pitching them. I pitched two new article ideas to Maria over at Writer’s Digest, yesterday. I’m also working on some rewrites for my Catscapades book. What is Catscapades? It’s my play-on-words title for my upcoming book of cat stories.

I mentioned my title to a fellow-writer last week and she said, “What is this, cats at the Ice Capades?” I was going more for cats escapades, thus, Catscapades.

Writing stories is sure different than writing “give me the facts, ma’am” type stuff. It’s a real stretch for me to write in this sort of creative mode. But I’m learning. I keep referring back to the poetry I used to write before I discovered my niche as a nonfiction writer. It’s fun—but it is also a lot of work trying to squeeze artistic phrases out of my more structured mind. And that’s okay. I know people who write lovely prose and cannot write clear directions or instructions. They can describe a scene and an experience beautifully, but they cannot easily make a clear point when writing something instructional, for example.

So this will be a day of creativity for me. I’ll be seeking creative ways to attract new writing assignments and I’ll be tapping into my latent creative abilities in order to work on the cat story book. In the middle of all this, I’m taking a hike in a local river bottom with a photographer friend. And I’m taking my camera just in case we spot the young mountain lion that’s been hanging out down there. Now this could turn into something to write about.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2005 at 5:12 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.