Promo

Prelude to Praise: A Word of Testimony is a fictionalized autobiography. This tale of inspirational fiction chronicles the life of the author through her natural and spiritual transformations, exposing the life of a Christian for what it is: a veritable roller coaster ride with valuable lessons embedded in every twist. This story confirms for every believer that "a bend in the road is not the end of the road . . . unless you fail to make the turn." (Anonymous)

Available for sale: Spring 2008

A Guide to Getting Started

This checklist of basic advice – and tips for translating the advice into action – will help you keep your newborn writing career moving in the right direction during its critical early years. As you progress, you will discover what works for you and what tips you’ll want to pass on to future new writers. Until then, post this page in your permanent writing area. Which brings us to Tip #1 . . .

SET ASIDE AN AREA WHERE YOU WRITE
If space is cramped, a card table in the corner of a bedroom is okay. Separate the space from the rest of the room with a folding screen. The best desk may still be a door laid over a pair of sawhorses.

INVOLVE YOURSELF WITH WRITING
To locate a writing class, contact a local university’s continuing education office. To locate a local writer’s group, check with a university’s English or journalism departments, or check with area libraries. To locate writers’ conferences in the U.S. and Canada, try searching online or take a look at some of the links on this page. If you have friends that are interested in writing, you may also want to come together to form your own support group, just be sure that it includes critique.

EQUIP YOURSELF WITH THE TOOLS OF A WRITER
Use a keyboard that produces clean, readable type. Even if you choose to write freehand initially, you will need a laptop or desktop and a decent printer to produce a manuscript that will not end up in a publishers trash can. An excellent set of reference books comes from Merriam-Webster: Webster’s 9th New Collegiate Dictionary, Collegiate Thesaurus, Dictionary of English Usage and Standard American Style Manual.

READ
Read general books critically: study characterizations, plotting, tension, and use of detail. Begin your writing library with these six books: On Writing Well, by William Zinnser (HarperCollins); Storycrafting, by Paul Darcy Boles (WD Books); Working Days: The Journals of “The Grapes of Wrath”, by John Steinbeck, edited by Robert DeMott (Viking); On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner (HarperPerennial); The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., E.B. White, and Roger Angell (Allyn & Bacon); and The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, by William E. Blundell (NAL).

PUT WORDS ON PAPER
Loosen up by beginning each writing session with five minutes of freewriting. Write whatever comes into your head; don’t stop writing until the five minutes pass. Don’t revise while you write. Complete the work first; then revise. This is best done freehand, but could work on a computer as well.

WRITE EVERY DAY
Writing is more than just a hobby. If you desire it to be a discipline, you must exercise discipline in honing your craft. Wake yourself up an hour early and spend the time writing. Many writers find the early morning hours the most productive. Carry a notepad. Jot down ideas while stuck in traffic, in line, or on hold. A small tape recorder may also serve this purpose well. Most recently, digital voice recorders have become a valuable tool for writers.

DECIDE WHAT TYPE OF WRITER YOU WANT TO BE
The type of writing that you like to read is probably the type of work you’re best prepared to write. Write about what you know. Use your profession, family, hobbies, family activities and experiences to suggest writing topics.

THINK SMALL
Hone your fiction-writing talent with short stories before attempting a novel; write articles before trying a book. Build your confidence by submitting to local or regional publications. The competition is usually less fierce than at national publications.

PUT YOUR WORK IN THE MAIL
Always include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) with your manuscripts and correspondence. Keep several pieces in the mail and a new work on your hard drive or disk at all times.

EXPECT TO BE REJECTED
Remember: A rejection is nothing more than one person’s opinion of one piece of writing. Examine returned manuscripts from the editor’s viewpoint: Look for the problems that the editor saw.

So you want to be a self-published author?

Well, you’d better be prepared for a lot of hard work. People say that you have more control over the process when you choose not to go to a large publishing house, but here are the immensely absorbing twelve steps that you usually don’t find out about until it’s too late.

Step One:
Complete the first draft of your novel. Some publishing companies define works of 80,000 words or greater as novels and anything less as a novella, though most standard publications fall around the 50,000 word mark. At this stage, formatting is not the most important task, for adjustments can always be made later. The goal is to have a completed story. Any minor issues can be corrected during the editing process.

Step Two:
Prepare a series of synopses about your story. Write a one-sentence summary first, then a paragraph, then a page. Each progression should contain more detail. Do not hold back on the ending to the story or any major story arcs as these could turn out to be your biggest selling points with potential agents, editors and/or publishers. At this stage, it may also be helpful to prepare a summary which breaks down the events of your story by chapter. Each of these items will aid you in developing a marketing plan for your book.

Step Three:
Research publishing companies that are successful in the market you are trying to enter. For example, if you have written a romance novel, you would want to look for a company that publishes the likes of Danielle Steel. If it is science fiction, perhaps you would lean more toward Michael Crichton’s publisher. You can find the names and contact information of publishing companies on the inside covers of books. Most will include a website as well where you can obtain submission guidelines and see other publications within the genre. This will give you an idea of how to market your product.

Step Four:
When you have outlined what you would like your story to say (see step # 2) and determined your target market, you need to make sure that the work you’ve done will line up accordingly by hiring 1-2 editors. Most published works go through a copy edit and a line edit. A copy edit simply assures that there are no typographical or grammatical errors in your text, while a line edit scrutinizes the flow of the story to make certain that all of your facts and ideas line up. (You wouldn’t want to call your main character by a different name in chapter three than you did in chapter nine.) Some editors may charge one fee to complete both edits, but most published authors recommend using two different professionals because a fresh pair of eyes may catch something that the previous one did not.

Step Five:
Once you have a complete and edited manuscript, you are ready to begin working on your marketing plan. Using the items from step # 2 and step # 3, you will need to complete a plan that not only details the publication of your novel and expected profit margin, but also market research about your potential competitors (as determined by the genre you selected in step # 3). In completing this plan, you will need to select a name under which you desire to publish your work, for it will be required to complete the process of self-publication.

Step Six:
With a completed marketing plan under your belt, you are now ready to let the world know what you plan to do. The first step in this process is research and select a printer. The amount of work that you have to do from this point forward is determined by the completion of this step. Some printers may assist you with copyrights or ISBNs, some may offer to take care of the whole process for you, and some may simply handle the printing of your book and leave the rest up to you. Once you have selected a printer, you will know how to handle the logistics of the following steps.

Step Seven:
If your printer is not handling your copyright, bar code and ISBN information for you (or if you prefer to do it yourself), you will need to contact the US ISBN Agency. Based on the name established in your marketing plan from step # 5, you will be able to purchase ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) in sets of no less than ten, for which the base cost is $275. (Only one ISBN is assigned to a book, so this means you will have at least nine other opportunities to publish a literary work.) There is an additional processing fee of $50.00 for applications that are not submitted online and you can choose to order corresponding bar codes as well for a cost of $21 - $25 per bar code, depending on the number you order. These bar codes contain your ISBN and pricing information and are used at bookstores nationwide. Your printer may provide these bar codes to you, so make sure to ask this question during your research and evaluation process. If you plan to sell your book through resellers that sell more than just books, you will also need to purchase a UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode which will be printed on your book in addition to your ISBN information. This is a step that widely distributed authors take and it can be advised by your printer. As for copyright, you will need to register your publication with the US Copyright Office by completing a Form TX and paying a fee of $45.00. This small investment will protect your work for the rest of your life and seventy years after that.

Step Eight:
Now that you have selected a printer and done all the background work, you are ready to actually begin the publication process. In this step, you will send your printer a copy of your completed manuscript in their requested format, as well as the appropriate information on your copyright, bar code and ISBN. There may be a deposit charged up front, but you should not be paying any huge sums unless you plan to use a vanity press that offers no additional services other than printing.

Step Nine:
Your printer may offer to assist you with designing the cover of your book or you may present your own ideas. In most cases, you will be required to submit camera-ready artwork if you prepare your own design. If your printer is able to assist, you will probably be provided with a standard set of covers and colors to choose from. There may be additional charges for deviations from the accepted standards as they are presented.

Step Ten:
While your printer is working on your book, you will correspond back and forth to insure that the novel is being printed to your satisfaction. Once the manuscript has been typeset, you will have one final opportunity to proofread it. This should be a minor challenge that requires no major changes. Too many changes may result in you having to pay additional monies and resubmit an original manuscript with the changes you would like to have made. Still, this is your final opportunity to be sure that every word “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed.

Step Eleven:
The deadline is quickly approaching for you to receive your books. You’ve chosen the road less traveled, so your books will be shipped directly to you and not to any bookstores. You must make contact with local bookstores and artists to find a way to promote your book. You could join book clubs, make friends with the owners of small bookstores or sell your books online through a site like amazon.com. Whatever you choose to do, you are now responsible for recouping the investment you’ve made in your own ability. When the books arrive, the pressure is on!

Step Twelve:
Now comes the hard part . . . you have to sell yourself! You have to be a marketing expert and work the plan that you put together in step # 5. You have to avail yourself of every possible opportunity to get a copy of your book into someone else’s hand. This may mean giving some away (this could be helpful in obtaining reviews or publicity), but the long-term goal is to recover as much of your expense as possible by effectively reaching your target market. Once you’ve exhausted your supply of books, you can always order more as the demand increases, but there will be no demand if you don’t make a nuisance of yourself by telling someone, anyone and everyone about your work.

So you still want to be a self-published author? Well, then strap on your seatbelt, put your pedal to the metal and write, full speed ahead! You already know you have the talent, or you wouldn’t even be taking such an awesome task under consideration. What you may not know, however, is if you have what it takes to make it in the world of self-publishing. I submit to you, in paraphrase of the Holy Bible, that if you truly have the gift, then your gift will make room for you.