The Path to Publication

 

Imagine from pixabay.com

What does it take to get published? Does a writer try the traditional route or go Indie? And what is given up and or gained by choosing? It was a crossroad I faced after completing my children’s chapter book, Pink Sneakers in Space.

 

The most successful authors such as JK Rowling and Stephen King were unknown at one point. Ms. Rowling started writing her first book in about 1990 and didn’t get published until six years later. Stephen King’s first novel Carrie was rejected 30 times before it hit the bookstores. But they were lucky with traditional publication.

Traditional publishing has been around for centuries controlling what was printed and left many writers out in the cold. But self-publishing has also been around a long time too. Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and Edgar Allan Poe self-published, and just think what would have been lost if they didn’t.

Getting something into print is not easy no matter the path chosen. If the author wants to go the traditional route, the manuscript must grab the attention of the targeted literary agent. Does this work? Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen often enough. The slush piles are high and maybe the agent is looking for something else.

I feel too much control of the author’s work is lost publishing traditionally. There is little to no say in the editing process or cover art. Is advances and prestige of proclaiming to having a literary agent worth it? Not sure.

However, with self-publishing, the author has a direct line to the publisher. No writing and sending the query letters. No disappointment when the rejections roll in. And the Indie Author has no time constraint on when the next book is ready for publication. You write when you want. But it’s a double edge sword. No book equals no sales.

One drawback with self-publication is editing. Every literary work needs it. Authors try to do it themselves and few are good at it. A writer will read and reread a WIP (Work-in-Progress) and not see all the grammatical errors or plot issues. Indie Authors need to pay for a good editor which can cost a lot. However, I find critique partners and using Grammarly works well.

Another thing to consider is the book cover. They are probably the most important thing about a book. It is what captures the attention of the reader as they skim Amazon or walk the aisles of a bookstore. If it isn’t compelling enough to make a reader pause, the book will sit. To me, having control with the cover is important. The story inside is mine, and I should have a say what’s on the outside.

There is a bottom line to business. With traditional publishing, the average percentage of sales that goes to the author is about 15%. They also give up the rights to their book. The literary agent gets their cut. The publishing house gets their cut. Of course, the author didn’t have to front any money, but exactly who is profiting on the creativity?

On the other side of the coin, the Indie Author receives 100% of the sales and holds all the book’s rights. This includes movie rights. It’s a long shot for a new author’s book to be made into a movie but think about the book, The Martian. The author Andrew Weir, self-published the story, but after selling 30,000 copies, it was noticed by the publishing world. Weir sold the rights for $100,000, and I hope he retained the movie rights.

Today, the traditional publishing world is trying to reinvent itself while holding onto its old ways and habits. The all-inclusive club that controls what the public reads has been threatened by the explosion of self-published books. Smashwords, Cafepress, and CreateSpace are a few tools used by Indie Authors populating Amazon and cutting into the traditional publications profits.

Traditional publishing houses are losing market share to Amazon. There has been a downward trend over the last few years, and because of this contracted authors are being offered less and less.

Indie Authors are expected to market their books and build a fan base. However, contracted authors are expected to do the same. Yes, all authors must have a social media presence. Yes, all authors need a website. But is the author ready to give up control of their hard work?

This was my dilemma. Do I try traditional publishing or go Indie? I weighed the pros and cons of each and decided becoming an Indie Author was best for me. It has taken me years to push the button, and I wanted control of my work. I’m not saying it’s an easy path, but it’s my own.

Saturday, October 8^th is Indie Author Day. Please join me in supporting the mavericks of the publishing world by visiting,  <https://www.pinterest.com/kathrynrbiel/indie-book-day-2016/&gt;

The Slopey Room

The house I live in is old and was built before closets were fashionable. It’s a challenge to find places to store the vacuum cleaner and Christmas decorations or hang up coats. So the slopey room upstairs (named because of the slant of the ceiling) became the catchall. Boxes of forgotten clothes, furniture we no longer use, and things we just had to have is stored here.

Each time I passed the slopey room, I’d tell myself I need to go through the clutter. Well, this week I bucked up and opened the door. The room was hot and the air stale. Staring at the sea of boxes and a lifetime accumulation of stuff, I rolled up my sleeves and jumped in. But after only fifteen minutes, I didn’t think my idea was as brilliant as first thought.

I was about to give up when I stumbled across a box sitting on top of a trunk hidden in the corner. I opened the cardboard flaps and wonderful, fabulous memories stared back at me.

 

Spiderman @ the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade taken by me at Times Square

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade at Times Square. New Orleans. Florida. England. Germany. My brother’s wedding.

 

The forgotten pictures from years gone by were a pleasant surprise. I’m not someone who takes a lot of pictures. My friends have albums filled with vacations, parties, and special occasions but not me. Print pictures are nice, and unfortunately, it’s a dying practice. With iPhones, Instagram, FaceBook, and other social medias, our memories are digital and saved forever on the web. It’s sad that we are losing a tangible connection to our past.

After spending the day visiting happy times, the slopey room is still cluttered. I really need to get rid of most of the stuff in there but not today. I have a smile on my face and there is always tomorrow.

Free Writing

One of my favorite writing exercises is free writing. It’s a great way to break through writer’s block. At first, it is hard to grasp but once it takes hold, wonderful things will spill out from the tips of your fingers. Give it a try. It will surprise you.

How to free write

Sit somewhere, anywhere and let your mind wander. Release each cell of your body so it can roam, touch, feel and experience with your mind following close behind. Each thought, sound, and smell becomes a new discovery. It’s similar to meditation but instead of looking for inner peace, you are exploring your environment.

Below is a free write I did while sitting at the kitchen table one night. I transformed it into the beginning of a short story and a poem.

Lizette’s Free Write at the Kitchen Table

Sitting on a chair at the kitchen table, I watch and listen. Stillness. No, that is not true. There is movement. The clock pendulum swings back and forth. Tick, tick, tick with each arc.

The air doesn’t stir. Stuffy and stagnate. A whiff of toast lingers and reaches my nostrils. It invokes memories of my toasted tomato sandwich I had for dinner.

Humming from the refrigerator is low and constant. A cacophony of night sounds drifts in from an open window. Chirping, trilling, and clicks. Tires rolling over the road pavement from a passing  car.

The lighting is low, only the light over the sink is on. I need to vacuum the floor. I need to wipe the counters.

I focus on the clock, it draws me. The rhythmic movement is soothing and hypnotizing. I feel somewhat anxious and at peace at the same time. My mind is combing through the list of things I need to do tomorrow but the ticking of the clock draws me back.

The Intruder

By Lizette Strait

Sitting at the kitchen table, I watched and listened. Stillness. The light over the sink cast shadows throughout the dimly lit room. De Ja Vu swept over me as the day’s events flooded my mind.

I focused on the mantle clock. Tick, tick, tick.  The rhythmic movement was soothing and hypnotizing. I felt anxious and at peace at the same time. How odd.

The rustle of clothing drew me away from my thoughts. I looked down at the man lying on the floor and watched him stir. It surprised me he stayed unconscious this long. I didn’t hit him that hard, did I?

 

The Kitchen

By Lizette Strait

 

Sitting at the kitchen table,

I watch and listen

Stillness

 

No, that is not true

There is movement

Tick, tick, tick

 

Time slips by

You are not here

Where did you go?

 

The air doesn’t stir

A whiff of toast lingers

Memories

 

Your toasted tomato sandwiches

The taste of summer

Tick, tick, tick

 

The refrigerator hums

low and constant

Why did you leave?

 

Night drifts through an open window

A cacophony of sounds

Chirps, trills, clicks

Past the house, tires fly over pavement

Waiting for you to come back

Tick, tick, tick

 

The clock draws me

Rhythmic, soothing, hypnotizing

Anxious yet at peace at the same time

waiting for you

What to Write….Plot Ideas & Characters…

I love fiction. Paranormal, sci-fi and fantasy stories are my favorite. Stepping into another world, to experience a tale through the eyes of the protagonist will take me away even if it’s for a few hours.

Where do writers come up with their ideas? For me as a writer, it’s easy for an idea to cross my mind, but to get it down on paper is another thing. However, that’s only half the battle. What’s just as difficult is to come up with plot twists, characters, and congealing it into a story someone wants to read.

One way I find ideas is to use generators. Scifiideas.com is a great site for writers and has a brilliant generator,

http://www.scifiideas.com/story-idea-generator/

The ideas will be a sentence or two but it’s enough to nudge you in the right direction. Some of the ideas are strange and bizarre but to find something new, you need to reach out to the obscure.

Another way I get ideas is from everyday life. People watching is one of my favorite past times. It’s amazing the drama playing out right in front of you. All you have to do is be observant and listen. The stories of ordinary lives with a little twist and dark shading can be the next best seller.

Characters too. Everyone has a friend or relative that needs their story told. Even the person on the street has something lurking in the dark corners of their mind. I was sitting in Starbucks waiting for a friend and a little old man walked in. He was short, probably in his eighties using a cane. After getting a cup of coffee, he sat across from me and pulled out a tablet. His smiles and laughter were priceless as he read whatever was on the screen. I would have loved to go over and talked to him but I thought it would have been intrusive. There was a special gleam in his eyes that lit up his face. This man had a story.

I can imagine him a sailor in WWII. Fighting on a PT boat in the South Pacific was tough and one night on patrol, he and a few others were marooned on an island. At one point the men thought all was lost. What they did to survive is to be revealed by the last survivor, the little old man.

So the next time you read a story, take a moment and think what the author had to do to get the book in your hands. You will be amazed how authors come up with their ideas.

Pink Sneakers in Space

So the book is written. What now?

I have written a children’s book, ‘Pink Sneakers in Space’ and now it’s time to get someone to read it. It’s a sci-fi fantasy where a little girl travels into space to save an alien princess’s planet. A friend designed the cover and drew illustrations. The book looks great if I don’t say so myself. But what do I do next?

There are so many great books out there waiting to get read but are never discovered. And there are horribly written books that become best sellers and even made into movies. Why is that? I’ll tell you why marketing. It all boils down to your fan base and reaching readers.

My book has been out for about 2 weeks and every day it sinks further down the Amazon list. It’s rather discouraging but I’ll not be defeated. I’ve watched a few webinars on how to market your book and got some good ideas. Instagram and LinkedIn are two social media tools that can be used for promoting books.

Another marketing strategy of mine is book signings at independently owned bookstores and hosting a ‘Meet the author’ at local libraries. It’s going to take a lot of work. Probably more than writing Pink Sneakers, but the reward of a child reading my book will make it all worth it.

Pink Sneakers in Space

Getting Published

After spending years spinning my wheels, I finally pressed the button. I guess I’m a bit like my mother. Mom was a great storyteller and loved to read. She would tap away at her computer, creating a scene or two but never made the leap to getting published.

That was me up to this week. Every Sunday for years I would join my writers’ group and sit in front of my laptop writing. It was one of these Sundays after eating a plate of fries that I knew something had to change. I needed to start smaller and wondered what I could do. Short story? Poetry? Children’s book?

That was it, a children’s book. If I wanted to get published, I needed a smaller project. So I did some research and borrowed a few children’s books from the library. It looked easy.

But I needed a story and characters. All it took was to look down at my feet and it hit me like a lightning bolt. Pink sneakers! Yes, that is it and the rest fell into place.

My inspiration

It only took a couple of weeks to write and edit but then I hit a brick wall. What next? Do I send out query letters and try the traditional route? Or self-publish? I decided on self-publishing and thought that would be the quickest and easiest way to get my name up on Amazon.

However it didn’t turn out so easy and now I know why writers drink. Formatting my illustrated book to Kindle’s specifications was tedious. Correcting silly mistakes were painful. Dealing with CreateSpace frustrating. But it was definitely worth it. My ebook is on Amazon and the print on demand is coming out soon. So what if ‘Pink Sneakers in Space’ is ranked 107,000. I’m a published author. Now onto the marketing and book 2.http://www.lizettestrait.com/

 

The Death of a Beautiful Woman

I fell in love with Edgar Allan Poe in high school. We had to read something by him so I chose the poem, Annabel Lee. Afterwards, there was no turning back. There is something beautiful and hypnotic about his writing that will transcend you to a higher place. Maybe this is why I love to listen to crashing waves.

Poe’s quote, “The death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world,” reinforces my love for Annabel Lee. What is your favorite EAP poem?

http://www.jkcandlen.com

Annabel Lee

By Edgar Allan Poe

(Published 1849)

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of ANNABEL LEE;–

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by me.

She was a child and I was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love–

I and my Annabel Lee–

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud by night

Chilling my Annabel Lee;

So that her high-born kinsman came

And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me:–

Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of a cloud, chilling

And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we–

Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in Heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:–

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,

In her sepulchre there by the sea–

In her tomb by the side of the sea.

Bewitched by JK Candlen – Weekend Writing Warriors #17 May 17, 2015

It’s the weekend and here is the next snippet from my story, Bewitched. Enjoy?

 

She looked up and glared at him. Her mind worked furiously on a story but couldn’t come up with anything. Which one had she already told him? Carol couldn’t remember. There were so many that the manipulations were getting mottled in her mind. Sometimes even she couldn’t tell what was true and what was fiction.

“I don’t have it,” was all Carol could come up with.

 

If you want more of a good read, check out my fellow Weekend Writing Warriors. They are just a click away.

Zinfindel

       

“Hey, you won’t believe what just walked in,” Donna said as she leaned to the left to get a better view.

“Oh, you mean Ares Stoner?” Bev said nonchalantly.

“Isn’t he the new police chief?” Val asked standing up looking above the crowd toward the front door.

“Yes he is. And rumor has it, he’s Iris’s Boo.” Lauren piped in. She picked up a menu and hid behind it to avoid Iris’s disparaging look.

All eyes turned to Iris. The woman, who proclaimed herself single for life, now had the most wanted man in town chasing after her.

“Tell us everything, Iris, especially the sexy parts. Don’t leave anything out.” Lauren looked over her menu and wiggled her brows.

“There’s nothing to tell, he’s a friend of Rick’s,” Iris said. Bev rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Iris shifted her weight from one side of the chair to the other. She was feeling uncomfortable the way the girls were grilling her and the looks Ares was sending, didn’t help. Where was the uneasiness coming from? Iris never had a problem dealing with unwanted interests from a man before. Maybe that’s what made her feel so odd. She didn’t consider them unwanted coming from Ares.

Damn the potion. If it wasn’t for Bev’s meddling, she would have gone out with him. Iris couldn’t determine if Ares’s interest was true or lingering effects. Aunt Alice said it wasn’t a love potion and Zelda agreed. So what was it?

“Ladies, compliments of Chief Stoner,” Tobie said as he placed the open bottle of Zinfandel and glasses on the table. All the girls turned to look at Ares. He lifted his beer in a toast.

“So, there’s nothing to tell,” Val said picking up the bottle and started to pour.

“He’s just being nice. So, who wants to play darts?” Iris stood up trying to change the subject.

Vicarious Vacations

We like and comment on our friend’s pictures posted on Facebook, retweet and favor them on Twitter. But are we living our lives vicariously through social media?

Some would say yes. And the more and more I think about it, they may be right. The past week I’ve been vacationing in New Orleans with 2 friends. I’ve eaten at the finest restaurants the city has to offer, walked the streets of the garden district and enjoyed the delights of the French Quarter. I am having a wonderful time and I never left my hometown.

But I’m just as guilty of doing the same thing when I’m on vacation. I want my friends to come along with me and enjoy the sites my traveling takes me.

Here are a few pictures of a recent vacation to California when I visited 2 of my brothers. So come along and enjoy the sites.

Japanese Tea Gardens in San Francisco