Planning to Publish a Book?

Important decisions when you are planning to publish a book:
Don't skimp on cover design.

Cover design - Most important. If you want to use a picture or photograph, find a cover designer who can use your picture in the best way. You might find your photograph does not make the best cover. Look at the work of a cover designer online and find one whose work you like. Authors are not always the best judges of what makes a good cover. I learned the hard way. 
When I published my chapbook in 2009, I did not use color in my cover. What a mistake. My book that I worked on for years, gets lost on a book shelf. Make sure your cover is eye-catching and represents what your book has to say.

https://blog.bookbaby.com/2019/01/you-cant-skip-hiring-a-cover-designer/

Second most popular post on Writers Circle around the Table

I recently met with a writer who brought along her first book. She had not published before and now wants to know how to sell her book. Luckily she knows many people, has tons of friends and will likely sell her first printing if she follows my guidelines.

I gave her pointers that I have learned over the years and we brainstormed ways she can reach her audience. Her finished product is a beautiful work of art. She is an artist (visual) and did her own illustrations and used her own

photographs. She published with a company called Blurb. She bought a finished copy first and then made some revisions before she bought more books. Her next order was 20 books and they costs her almost 20 dollars each. The more books you purchase the less the cost. 

The artist/writer had really planned to print only a few books for friends, but she has become enthusiastic after a few sales and compliments. Because this beautiful book is as much a work of art as it is a story, her audience will be wider than most. When she is ready to take orders for her book, I will announce it here and give you much more information.  

Meanwhile, if you want to publish a book, read this post from 2015. I think you will find it helpful.


https://tinyurl.com/y2psg64g     Second Most Popular Post

Another post on publishing and marketing:

https://tinyurl.com/y2q574qr      

Poet, Michael Diebert is our guest today.

It is my pleasure to have back with us, Michael Diebert, Poetry editor for the Chattahoochee Review. His last post is very popular with my readers and I'm sure you will enjoy this one.

 

 

Gulf Shores, Alabama, January 19.  As I draft this, my feet are propped on a leather ottoman in a house not my own.  I face an empty fireplace.  I hear a pen scratching paper and the thwack of a knife chopping vegetables for dinner.  I see four fellow writers hunched over monitors and notebooks, in pursuit of the proper word.  Outside, Mobile Bay is our backyard.  There’s a pier over the water, a covered porch, a pool.  Pelicans roost on posts near shore.  Past the RV park next door is a little lagoon where mullet arc out of the water and herons troll the surface.  The Gulf of Mexico is near, but we’re not here for the big water or the beach.

I am here on a writers’ retreat with four dear friends; we have been retreating together since 2011.  Our travels have taken us to northeast Georgia and here to coastal Alabama.  We gather for a long weekend; we bring suitcases, food, and writing essentials.  We cook, laugh, go for walks, stare at the water, work on our writing, and share.  Sometimes we read other poets aloud.  Sometimes we fantasize about winning the Pulitzer.  One hard-and-fast rule: the TV stays off, and phones are set to silent.  The mood is relaxed, the body and the mind are receptive, and much gets done—more than can get done in our busy day-to-day lives.

The complaint is familiar: we live in a world where it’s hard to make the proper time for writing.  The common lament of our email correspondence to each other is “Man, am I ready for writing time!”  So we make the time.  We gather; we exit one world temporarily, and we enter another.  When we retreat, and when the writing is going well, we are, again, in that most exciting of places, the realm of receptivity.  And when I’m receptive, I’m nicer to others and to myself, and I become a better writer.

I was lucky to be asked to join this group eight years ago, and we have maintained the same core group since.  There have been necessary, regrettable absences—schedule conflicts, health scares, children moving off to college—but we continue to meet, write, and exist in each other’s company twice a year.  Chemistry, that ineffable ingredient, has been present in our group from the beginning. 

I write this post to encourage you to find your own group and cultivate it.  This takes time, but it’s essential.  You don’t necessarily need to retreat far—your house, your local coffee shop, a park.  The support of a few like-minded friends, engaged in the same pursuit you’re engaged in, can bolster your motivation and keep it going.  And above all, that’s the trick when our day-to-day comes calling again, all too soon: to keep the buzz alive, to be able to retreat to that place of receptivity even when we’re not there. 

Michael Diebert is the author of Life Outside the Set.  He serves as poetry editor for The Chattahoochee Review and teaches writing and literature at Perimeter College, Georgia State University.  In recent years he has led workshops for Writers Circle around the Table, the Chattahoochee Valley Writers' Conference, and the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference.  Recent poems have appeared in Free State Review and jmww.  A two-time cancer survivor, Michael lives in Avondale Estates, Georgia with his wife and dogs.

Read What a Literary Agent Says

I just discovered a blog by a literary agent, Janet Reid. With so many writers asking me about how to find an agent, I suggest novelists subscribe to Janet's blog and read it regularly. I did not know that agents sometimes revise a manuscript before they send it to a publisher. Did you?

 

I am re-blogging Janet's blog post here:  

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2019/01/what-makes-agent-take-on-book-that.html  

Finally, that vacation I wanted last year!

I am cozy in bed at a Marriott resort tonight. I can see the ocean from my window. I am finally getting the vacation I needed before I got sick at Christmas.

What a pleasure to relax and just enjoy life for a few days.

I lost an old friend last week. Her birthday was Sunday. She would have been 75. She was full of life and loved people. A massive heart attack struck her down and she was gone within hours.

My friend had a good life and a good marriage. She adored her only child, a daughter, and two grandsons. I'm sure she had no regrets. 

When my friends pass away, I am once again reminded that it can happen to anyone at any time. None of us are promised a tomorrow. So this week I am going to pack as much enjoyment into the days here as I possibly can. 

I want to visit the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beufort, SC. If you are not familiar with the author, look for his books. He wrote The Great Santini which was made into a very popular movie. I have read many of his books and seen most of the movies made from his books. It will be fun to drive around the area, see the marshes he loved and imagine his characters, especially the students he taught on Daufuskie Island. His book The Water is Wide was made into a movie, Conrack. I hope to visit that island while I am in the area.

The temperatures are perfect. Forties and fifties during the day. Not cold like January in the mountains. 

I want to eat good fresh seafood, while looking at the ocean rolling in. I want to watch the sunset on the water. I will also do some writing, I hope.

I plan to take photos to share on my blogs. 

I miss my little Lexie, but she has a baby sitter who is keeping a careful watch over her.

My friends, my readers, please live life fully, and make each day count. Don't waste one minute being resentful, spiteful, jealous, or devious. Find joy and hold on to it with both hands. 

I think you are kind and caring and generous. I love to hear from you and what you are doing with your precious life. 

THE DEATH OF MARY OLIVER AT 83

Today poet, Mary Oliver, died from lymphoma. (That is the cancer that killed my husband, Barry. It loves to take the good ones.)

Mary Oliver was widely known and greatly admired. She loved nature and "dead poets" who, she said, were her friends when she was a child. 

I like accessible poetry like Mary Oliver's poems. Following is a quote from the article on NPR announcing her passing. 

"Mary Oliver isn't a difficult poet," Franklin says. "Her work is incredibly accessible, and I think that's what makes her so beloved by so many people. It doesn't feel like you have to take a seminar in order to understand Mary Oliver's poetry. She's speaking directly to you as a human being."   https://tinyurl.com/y7dkxdxc 


When I first began reading Oliver's poetry, I thought of her as a young woman hiking through the fields, strong and healthy. I thought of me when I was young and healthy walking in the woods, exploring small things, bringing home yellow, pink or green pieces of fungus growing on a downed tree. I checked out the bird's nest in low-hanging branches, hoping to see baby birds with wide open mouths. We had still ponds on the farm where blue herons stood on one leg waiting for something, I did not know what. In tall dead trees, black crows congregated and cawed like a chorus of bad voices.


Max, my brother has always been enthralled with the natural world. When I was about four or five years old, he would hold me up to look into the blue bird's nest in the wood fence posts.


I grew up loving nature, all living things, plant or animal. The prickly may-haw bushes, the wild plum trees that grew along fence rows, the chinaberry tree with its fragrant flowers and little green berries, they all piqued my interest. And I loved wildflowers. In early spring a field of Easter Lilies blanketed a low lying pasture. My sister and I picked handfuls to take home to gift our mother. On the hill where large oak trees grew wide with heavy limbs, tiny wild violets hid where only those who knew their secret could find them.

You can see why Mary Oliver's poetry appeals to me.

I am listing some links so you can listen to Mary Oliver read her poetry or you can read her words.

The Summer Day

When Death Comes

Mary Oliver reading Wild Geese

Writing about Poetry Today

I hear from writers who say this time of year they just can't get motivated or inspired to write. I think that it is universal. When we spend time in our homes because of the weather, we find other things we need to do or want to do and just put off writing.

I found a wonderful site tonight that should give writers and poets plenty to think about and possibly to write about. Twenty-Five of the best poetry writing prompts had me making notes by those listed so I can write a poem or a story that the prompt uncovered deep in my mind.

https://trishhopkinson.com/2018/12/18/125-of-the-best-poetry-writing-prompts-for-poets-via-writers-relief/

Visit this site and let me know if you found anything that jolted a memory or an image for you.

One of my poems was accepted yesterday for publishing in April during the Poetry Parade on www.yourdailypoem.com The editor, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer has gone a great job with this site.

She says: This site exists for one purpose only: to help dispel the ugly myth that poetry is boring. Granted, a lot of poetry is boring, but you won't find it here. At Your Daily Poem, you'll find poetry that is touching, funny, provocative, inspiring, and surprising. It may punch you in the gut, it may bring tears to your eyes, it may make you laugh out loud, but it most assuredly will not bore you.

If you subscribe, you will receive a poem sent to you daily. 
Go the Archives of Your Daily Poem. Under the Bs in authors you will find my name.
Read other poems by me that were published and sent out to subscribers of Your Daily Poem. If you are a poet, think about sending one of your poems to Jayne at www.yourdailypoem.com

What Should be My Word for 2019?

Last year I chose a word for the year. I printed it and posted it in several places in my house where I saw it every day. My word was

FOCUS.

I know I have a big problem staying with a task until it is finished. I have been told that my house is evidence of this issue. My dining room table is covered right now with papers--papers pertaining to four or more tasks I started but have not finished. But next week, I will focus on those tasks and complete them.

I am contemplating what my word for this year should be. 
First I have to decide what I want to accomplish this year. I always have such grand plans for the next twelve months that I over-schedule myself. Then I suffer with physical pain from lack of rest and being too stimulated mentally to sleep well. I absolutely make myself sick. My sister, Gay, can attest to this. 

I know others have this same problem. Some of them are my good friends. Owning a home takes so much of our time and finances. I have been making a mental list of what has to be done to my house this spring. My deck needs repairs and painting.

My health is uppermost in my planning for the next twelve months.I will begin with physical therapy and go on to water exercises as I try to deal with fibromyalgia and other concerns that have no name. I already incorporate massage therapy and chiropractic care in my regimen. That takes way too much of my time.

Of course, my work with NCWN-West is always of the utmost importance. Soon I will be scheduling readers for Coffee with the Poets and Writers for the months of March through November 2019. NCWN West will sponsor a workshop by Valerie Nieman this summer. We will need to publicize this event with emails, articles in local papers, etc. 

We are going to hold another Day for Writers in August. Carol Taylor is co-chairing that event with me. This all day writers' conference is a time consuming project as we search for the best presenters, arrange for a caterer, and line up volunteers to help with all the details.

I want to teach a couple of workshops or six week courses on memoir writing at Writers Circle around the Table. Maybe I can teach another course for the Institute of Continuing Learning at Young Harris. I enjoy these classes, seeing my students improve their writing and hearing their unique stories.

My own writing tends to get pushed way down the list of things to do, but I hope to get a poetry book published this year, and I am working on a collection of short stories. Estelle Rice and I will continue to market our book, Paws, Claws, Hooves, Feathers and Fins. We have been overjoyed at the reception this book has received. But it has taken much time and work to get it out there and let people know about it.

Wow! I get tired reading all my plans for this year. I didn't even mention working on my genealogy. 

We know it takes patience, persistence and perseverance to achieve success.

Maybe perseverance should be my word for 2019. What do you think?

Definition of perseverance :
 continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering

What would you choose for your word for 2019?