Traditional publishing houses and imprints are today’s topic. The best analogy I can think of is a grocery store. Stay with me. The store represents the publishing house and the different departments or aisles represent the imprints. Houses Let’s dig a little deeper. Traditional publishers are made up of big, medium, and small size houses. So, the Big Five compare to big box supermarkets like Costco and Sams serving large and varied populations. Mid-size houses would be like Krogers and Safeway, well-stocked with a variety of products including ethnic foods and often offering locally produced items. Small-size houses would be your Mom and Pop corner stores catering to the needs…
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Publishing Overview
In today’s post I will give you a publishing overview. Let’s say you’ve written the next great American novel. You’ve shared it with a critique group, applied feedback from beta readers, and had it professionally edited. What’s next? This publishing overview post will introduce three kinds of publishing: traditional, hybrid, and indie (formerly known as self-publishing). Traditional Publishers Traditional publishers are businesses that procure, produce, and promote written work. They have a team of experts for everything from cover design and editing to marketing and distribution. Most traditional publishers work with literary agents who pitch manuscripts that fit a particular publisher’s needs. The author signs a contract with the publisher…
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Choose Your Words
Word choice can make or break a piece of writing. When you find the perfect words, they will convey the exact tone, expertise, and information you want your reader to have. Tone Word choice can set a serious or humorous tone. Consider the following: Ricky puffed out his chest and flexed his arms Ricky thrust his chest forward and struck a strongman pose The first example shows preening where the second paints a humorous caricature. A tear slid down her cheek A tear coursed down her cheek One is a trickle the other a torrent. Or consider Spoiled children Spoiled brats Two distinctly different vibes emerge by…
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Create a Board Book
Create a board book for that special infant or toddler on your gift list. Board books are typically concept books with a single theme: family, animals, vehicles, toys. Usually, one page will have an illustration or photo and the facing page will have limited text-sometimes a single word. With durable pages and personalized content, board books are sure to be read and reread. Choose a Recipient I’m a long-distance Grammy. To create a board book for my new grandchild, I focused on photos of family members including those of us who live in a different state. Grammy, Grandpa, and Auntie are featured on two pages each with rhyming text. I…
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Writers Wear Many Hats
With Halloween days away, I’ve been thinking about how writers wear many hats. As children, Halloween is an excuse to slip into another skin. If you dream of being a firefighter, it’s perfectly acceptable to portray yourself as one. Likewise, if you have an obsession with Freddy Krueger, no one will bat an eye if you don a fedora and strap on some wicked fingernails. Costuming How does this apply to writers? Well, unless you are a memoirist or nonfiction writer, you make stuff up. You create firefighters or Kruegeresque characters with nothing more than a vivid imagination and a keyboard. Feel like writing a character who works at a…
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How do You Name Your Character?
I like my character’s name to be compatible with the time period. For instance, if my female character was born in the 1920s I’m inclined pick the name Evelyn or Doris. But if my female character was born in the 2010’s I’m more likely to pick Emily or Madison. So how do I select a time-appropriate name? Historically Accurate When writing in a different time period, my go-to website is SSA. The social security administration has compiled the 200 most common names for girls and boys from each decade starting in the 1880s. Generally speaking, when choosing a character’s name, I pick a number before I pull up the list…
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Plot and Story
Plot and story: Plot is what happens. Story is how plot causes a character to change. Effective writing needs both. Back to School Assignment Every September of my school life, the first writing assignment was some variation of What I did over summer vacation. In retrospect I pity my teachers who were forced to wade through boring itineraries. I took swimming lessons. My sister and I played in the sprinklers with the neighbor kids. Our family vacation was driving to Aunt Wally’s and Uncle Pete’s. We swam in their pool with my cousins. It was fun. Bo-oring. That was merely a disjointed listing of events. If my summer vacation…
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Avoid Passive Voice
If you want your reader to feel emotion and action on the page, avoid writing in passive voice. It creates distance between the characters on the page and your reader, it dilutes the immediacy, and waters down action. The most common culprit is helping verbs. Passive Voice and Helping Verbs Ban helping verbs from your writing to eliminate passive voice. That may be a little harsh, but in all honesty helping verbs are the most common indicator that you have slipped into passive voice. When active verbs like take, sing, or walk are aided by a version of the verbs ‘to be’ or ‘to have,’ (also known as helping verbs)…
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Whose Story?
Recently a friend and I met for lunch. The conversation drifted to our childhoods. She shared that her daddy died when she was seven. I asked a few questions and the conversation moved on to other subjects. One detail stayed with me, though. His hands were scrubbed clean. She insisted they weren’t her daddy’s hands at all. Visual Inspiration That powerful image of a seven-year-old staring at her daddy’s hands in the hospital stuck with me. I slipped into the mind of a seven-year-old and committed the story to paper. But was it my story to tell? Elizabeth Gilbert writes in Big Magic that stories live in the ether, waiting…
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Author Readings
Author readings don’t have to strike fear in your heart. This post will talk about why, where, and how to have a successful reading. Why Writers tend to shun the spotlight. But the reality is writers are responsible for marketing their own work. To be successful, you have to put yourself in front of your target audience. Nonfiction authors reach their audience through interviews, articles, and presentations. Fiction authors will write short fiction, enter contests, do interviews, and yes, read portions of their work to live audiences. Reading short work aloud in public is great practice for when you publish that novel you’ve been working on. Where So, where does…
