Submission Tips - Guidelines

When you submit your book for consideration you can contact agents or publishers, I have looked into both. When considering an agent you will almost always send a query letter while publishers may have different needs. Regardless of which you pick it is important to do your homework in order to send exactly what they are looking for. Most agents and even a majority of publishers do not want to receive your entire manuscript right away. Their websites often times will even say that unsolicited manuscripts will be discarded.

Not only will it get your work thrown away but it makes you appear extremely unprofessional. So once you pick out your agents and publishers it is vital to not only get their addresses, email addresses, names and agencies but also to know what they will accept. Starting with the query letter for agents I came across dozens that only wanted the letter. In facts about seventy percent of the agents I queried desired a query letter as an email and nothing further unless I was contacted by them.

Because they are busy and constantly being bombarded with queries they will tell you that they may not respond to everyone and while some do give an expected response time there were a handful that I simply never head from again. Once you have the letter printed and the envelope stamped you may include a few pages if the guidelines call for them. In the case of an email follow the given instructions. It is easy to just add an attachment but because of all the viruses online many will ask for the first chapter or so many pages pasted into the body of the email itself.

Publishers can be even more specific. Not only will they tell you what they want in a query letter, how much of the manuscript to include or not include but also they will tell you up front exactly what kinds of books they publish and then you can figure out if they may be a good match. They will give brief examples of the types of books found in their lines and I have seen a number that are giving word count ranges because they may or may not consider novellas or epics depending on the branding of their company.

Make sure when you are preparing to submit that you read all of the information carefully. If you are like me and submitting to a number of publishers and agents simultaneously it is also a good idea to make sure you keep the information organized so you don't accidentally send a single letter to an agent looking for the first three chapters or send the entire manuscript before you were asked by another. Knowing who wants what and keeping track of who you have contacted will make the road slightly smoother and you travel your publishing journey.

Book Profile - Washington's Spies

AT the beginning of 2015 I started a reading challenge at which I failed miserably. The goal was to read books from a number of different categories as a well rounded reading list. There were books like a classic romance, a trilogy, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a memoir that were relatively easy to pick and then there were ones that were more difficult to find such as a book based in your home town, a book with antonyms in the title and a book with bad reviews.

I only successfully read about fifteen books over the last year which I am ashamed to say but I have decided to try again for the coming year and each week I will do a promotion for the book I am currently reading that week. I will also post reviews on Goodreads for them and will be adding the entire collection of books to my To Be Read list. I am still in the process of picking all of them out though I have a very good start.

Right now even though it will not count toward the list for next year I am reading Washington's Spies - The Story Of America's First Spy Ring. It is somewhat like a text book in that it is packed with information during the revolutionary war and entails not just the spies and their duties but also discusses the war and politics of the country back when America was first asserting its independence. Because it is non-fiction and reads somewhat like a text book it is somewhat slow to read but since I have always been interested in history I find the information intriguing.

Alexander Rose eloquently paints a picture of the harsh winters and epic battles that plagued not only the military but also the colonists of the time. He writes about family ties and faith based politics while also capturing the fear instilled by the enemy. The American military had to fight now only the British but also many of their own that stood by the mother country. There were significantly fewer colonists that demanded freedom from British rule than I had known. I had always believed it was mostly a universal desire because my history classes focused solely on the battles and not the inner working of the country at the time.

I am closing in on half way through the book and looking forward to seeing what other facts I am able to pick up as I continue to read and then starting on Friday I will be starting on my list beginning with a book set in a place I have always wanted to visit, Paris. I am planning on reading the Count of Monte Cristo next.

Creating A Business Plan

Many years ago when I was first beginning my college experience I took an introduction to business class. Throughout the course of the class we did a number of projects that involved acting as a start up company and the final exam was for each of our companies to create a business plan then present it to our teacher as though we were asking a venture capitalist for the start up capital to make our companies a reality.

I do not remember much of what we did in that class or even what company I was a part f but I do remember that when we presented our plan we received an A as well as a certificate stating that he would have invested in us if we had planned to move forward with our idea. I am now researching and doing my best to create a new business plan for my future as an author and hopefully someday that will be my only job.

I started by making a list of all of the aspects I have learned about and feel would be vital to incorporate into the plan such as having a website, specific financial goals and distribution channels as well as making sure I have a path laid out to reach each of these milestones. On top of simply making a list of goals and eventually the steps needed to reach them I also want to make sure it is a progressive plan of at least five years so that I can not only reach the initial stages of what I would deem success but also have points that I can modify if needed and continue to build on each and every year.

Once the business plan is created I will be focusing on another document that goes hand in hand which is the marketing strategy. Business plans touch on marketing and distribution but truthfully they are rarely in depth when it comes to this important part of growing a business. I have a degree in marketing so I am eager to utilize what I studied to help turn my goals into achievements. It should be a good test to see what I have retained, though for the parts I may have forgotten I found research materials on that as well.

Finally I have my list of projects because as a writer I can create a marketing strategy, I can draft a beautiful business plan however if I have to books to submit it is all just a waste. It should be an exciting and interesting year. Now I just have to get to work as soon as I make a good cup of coffee.

Marketing Tips - Know Your Audience

When a business of any kind is planning its marketing the most important thing they must ask themselves is "Who is my target customer?" In order to market correctly you have to know who it is you are selling to. For a writer this can be tricky however because unless you are writing only one specific type of book your audience may change with every new publication. There is certainly a different type of reader for sic-fi than for erotica. Romance readers tend to be very loyal to their genre and wouldn't necessarily pick up a random thriller.

As an author it is vital to know who would buy each style of book you may create so that you can tailor your marketing plan to that audience. By presenting images and teasers from your books you can draw the reader into the story but you wouldn't want to post something frightening to a group that buys children's picture books. I have a number of books and have files for each genre with subfiles for each book that fits into that category. I am still learning the how of making teasers and promo pieces but when I figure it out I will also keep them all separated.

Another thing to keep in mind is when you do a promotional event the audience is one of the biggest factors to identify. A few months ago I held a book launch at my work, The Venetian Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The book is about domestic violence and I partnered with a local shelter I support very strongly. The Shade Tree celebrated its twenty sixth year along with Domestic Violence Awareness Month and in conjunction with Sands Cares, the philanthropy side of Venetian we held a raffle, shared a reading and even enjoyed a delicious dessert while launching my book.

I had to keep many things in mind while planning the event. I had to know who my potential readers were in order to spread the word about the book. I had to remember things important to Shade Tree so as not to offend them or those they worked with. When gathering raffle items and working with different promoters I also needed to focus on stores and restaurants that were within the Venetian so as not to create a conflict of interest.

It can be difficult to know exactly who your audiences and how to reach them but if you take a moment and ask around you can find out what your friends read and build on that. Go to book stores and watch as people browse the shelves. If your are outgoing enough strike up a conversation with other book lovers or even ask the cashiers about who buys what. You can go and observe readers at your local library as well. Once you have a basic idea you can begin to look at the covers of the books. What makes them appealing? What books seem to make people stop often and which ones are passed by all the time? Identify a few books and look them up online to see what kind of advertisements have been created for them. Are they mass marketed to several types of people or are they specific? You can build your personal database book by book and reader by reader to help understand who to market each of your books too.

Character Profile - Asmara Syntel

When I first thought of writing something outside my comfort zone I looked into several different possibilities. I could change genres or try a series of short stories. I had never done either of those before. I had also never done a series of full length novels and so I decided to try and make that happen. I landed on the seven deadly sins as my inspiration and as soon as I committed to it the first book in the series took control.

The first book centers around the mother Persyphone and introduces us to her seven daughters. I have written a profile of Lucasta before because she will be the second book in the series and her sin is pride. along with Lucasta however there are six other girls; Levana, Asmara, Samiya, Maryn, Belicia and Beatrix. The last two are the youngest and are twins. Even though Levana will take the third book in the series I wanted to focus on Asmara because she is the essence of stepping out of my comfort zone.

Asmara Syntel is a fifteen year old beauty that possesses the power to seduce people through the sin of lust. I always wrote clean young adult books though one of them did have a slight romantic angle. I never attempted anything remotely erotic until this series came to mind and while they all have elements of erotica it is understandable that the Lust book will be the most hardcore in the sensual sense. I have gotten a few erotica books to read in order to make her as realistic and sensual as possible.

What makes Asmara even more scandalous than just being the source of lust and having the power to control it within people is that the books take place during the time of the Salem Witch Trials when society itself was significantly more prudish. There is nothing wrong with the values of those days and even though I am very accepting and open with my own sexuality I can agree that today's society maybe be less drastic and chaotic if some of those values were still in place.

I am looking forward to seeing exactly how Asmara channels her gifts and to feeling her take control when I write her book. She is a feisty girl and as her powers grow within her she will be more than a handful for anyone that crosses her.

Submission Tips - Going Indie

It is true that in today's competitive world of traditional publishing an agent is almost a necessity. There are those however that for any number of reasons choose instead to self publish and become an independent or "indie" author. Many will tell you that because this route has grown in popularity that there is no longer a stigma associated with it. That is not true. Many still question a self published author because of the ease with which someone can publish. There is no guarantee of quality when anyone can publish anything at any time.

As Indie authors we must work harder and smarter to set ourselves apart from our fellow authors. We are in a way competing with other indie authors as well as traditionally published authors because we are trying to get noticed but instead of looking at it as competition try to see it as association. The beauty of readers is that they tend to devour books one after the other so if you can get an association with a genre or author that they already like it is that much easier to stand out. With books most times it is not one or the other so much as it is one of many.

I have written about the importance of editing and making sure that when you do publish yourself you still go through the diligence of a traditional publisher in order o give your readers a product they will respect and want to follow with more of your work. When publishing on your own you have far more creative control as well as all of the rights to the book and for those reasons alone it is a very attractive option. I just want people to be aware of the level of commitment required to promote the story when going down this path.

It is not impossible, far from it. In fact there are a number of well known indie authors that have done well and live the dream so many of us have to be full time writers. It is however, more work to be an indie author. You are in charge of one hundred percent of promotions, marketing strategies, sales, networking, distribution and anything else that may arise. Without the branding of the traditional publisher and their team it can be significantly more difficult to break in to a number of locations. If you are willing to put in the effort though it can be worth it because you are able to retain all of the rights and keep every cent of the royalties without anyone else trying to take a cut.

There is no one right way to publish. There are several paths within each journey. It truly is just a matter of finding what works best for you and being willing to put in the work to make it once you have found the road you feel most comfortable traveling along.

Book Excerpt - Breathe

Breathe. Back in the shower Kelsey realized that while reminiscing she had been lightly tapping her forehead against the wall and now was getting a small headache growing behind her eyes. She stepped back and rubbed her eyes groaning internally as her aching muscles rebelled against any and all movement. She stretched her arms out behind her and let them fall again feeling every fiber of her being longing to simply lay down and relax.

            She reached up and turned the shower head adjusting it to kneading and turned around trying to smile as the powerful flow struck her back and attempted to burrow the heat deep into the knotted mass of her shoulders. However as quickly as the smirk danced across her lips it fell away again. There, drifting across the back wall of the shower stall was Naomi’s face. Her limp hair now tangled and her glasses askew but the nervous glance had been replaced with fear and a twinge of anger.

            This simple girl with a family Kelsey had never met or even known about before today, now a glaring memory that would follow her forever. She tried keeping eye contact but it was impossible to win a staring contest with a figment of her imagination. With a sigh she gave up and backed up into the flow of the shower letting the water run all the way through her hair. The heat was intense but she was barely unaware and with her eyes closing once again, heart beating faster than it should, she reached for the shampoo and thought to herself again, just breathe.