Did you miss me? I sure hope that some of you noticed my absence yesterday. I hope that you were just a tad disappointed when you went to my blog and discovered that there wasn’t a new post. Perhaps you’ve all become accustomed to finding fresh information, perspective, suggestions and resources every single day of the year at the Matilija Press Publishing Blog. You look forward to reading what Patricia Fry has to share today.
If not—if you don’t visit my blog site, if you don’t find my blog posts informative, interesting, enlightening and useful—I’ll have to wonder why I get up at 4 a.m. every morning in order to try to bring you something of value through my blog.
I know that you’re all in different stages of your projects. Some of you are just thinking about writing a book or you are in the beginning writing stages. I delight in communicating with you in hopes that I can help you to make the right decisions along the way for your particular project.
I heard from a woman recently who wants to develop a book from a journal that she wrote during a particularly vulnerable period in her life. She feels that she has something of value to share with the world. She asked me if I would look at her journal entries and let her know if her book idea is a valid one. Do you know what I told her? I strongly recommended that she sit down and write a book proposal. I said, “A well-researched, well-organized, complete book proposal will help you to determine whether you have a book at all and reveal its chances for success.” And I offered to help with the process. I hope she takes my advice. If she doesn’t, she may well write the wrong book for the wrong audience and fail.
Some of you are currently seeking agent representation or you’re pursuing publishers. You read my blog in order to discover ways to find publishers/agents and to approach them.
Many of you write articles for magazines and you gain from my blog posts related to freelance writing.
But I think that most of you are authors with books to promote and you come here for tips, techniques and leads related to book promotion.
All of you will benefit from reading my books. Most of my books reflect my experience and knowledge after over 30 years as a freelance article writer and author, 20 years as a workshop leader, public speaker and 14 years affiliated with SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). Plus I just completed my 100th issue of the SPAWN Market Update for the member area of the SPAWN website. This meaty newsletter is brimming with industry news, resources, tips and techniques, which means that I am in constant research mode on behalf of our members. Of course, this benefits you—my blog followers, as well.
I write this blog for you. I write my books for you. The articles I submit (I wrote 6 or 8 last week) are written with you in mind. My website is rich with resources you can use as well as articles on the subjects of your interest. You can also order my books.
If you are working on a project and need some additional support, recommendations or advice, contact me and I will point you in the right direction: PLFry620@yahoo.com.
Visit my website: http://www.matilijapress.com
Check out the SPAWN website: http://www.spawn.org
And come back here often. I maintain this blog with you in mind.