Friday, February 20, 2009

I DO NOT WANT MY BOOK PUBLISHED



Sometimes we get submissions where the author seems to be telling us, "I do not want my book published." Either they could not understand our simple submission requirements or they just ignored them.

Here are some real examples that scream, "Do not Publish My Book!"

1) There is nothing in the body of the email query-just attachments. Would you even open an email like that?

2) The submission is in the email.

3) Submissions are sent as pdf's. We require a word doc. or rtf.

4) The query has no synopsis, word count, or any descriptive information about the book.

5) We actually had a query that told us to "please publish my book, no one else will."

6) We have had authors that say we look like a good publisher, but could you change your contract? This is even before we have a submission.

7) The query asks many questions that are clearly answered on our web site.

8) We have received submissions that say that the book is not complete but will we publish it when done? Our requirements clearly state that the ms must be complete.

9)The query is filled with typos. Does that raise a red flag?

10) Dear Agent or Publisher. They have not even to take the time to send to us directly.

11) A simple spelling/grammar check reveals many errors on the first page of the submission, never mind the ones in the email.

12) We have received submissions that have said, "here is the ms, but I am thinking of making a lot of revisions."

Authors must recognize that publishers receive many manuscripts, are busy reviewing, editing and publishing,marketing,as well as working with authors whose books are in the process of publication. Most small presses do not mind answering questions and making clarifications. However, when the questions asked are clearly answered on the web site, the author is not making a great impression. We implore all authors to READ THE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS. Publishers do not load their web sites with useless information. It would behoove authors to review the entire publisher site PRIOR to submission. We have received may great submissions from many great writers. If your work is good, do not have it rejected because you failed to follow some simple steps!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

STUFF PUBLISHERS HATE

FROM AUTHOR MARKETING EXPERTS, INC.

Five Things You Should Never Say When Pitching Your Book to a Publisher or Agent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(aka stuff publishers and agents hate)

If you're trying to get an agent or publisher for your book, there are a lot of things you need to do but also several you shouldn't. With writers' conference season in full swing the opportunities to pitch your book to an agent/publisher abound. Here are a few things that will turn off a publisher or agent when you're pitching them!

1) Everyone loves my book: don't lead your pitch with this. In fact my recommendation is to leave this out of your pitch altogether. The definition of "everyone" is generally friends and family, and while we love them for being a supportive bunch, when it comes to mainstream publishing they don't really count.

2) No one else has written a book like this, it's never been done before. This is a big red flag to almost anyone in the book world, if it's never been done before there might be a reason. They say there are no new ideas, certainly there are, but publishing tends to fall into categories and if it's never been done, there might be a reason. If it really is a new idea, great! But do your research first before you toss out the "first book on this topic ever."

3) My book should be a movie or - my book is going to be the next bestseller. No one can predict a bestseller or, for that matter, what will become a blockbuster movie. I know if Hollywood and the New York publishing community could predict this, they'd be in a much better financial state than they are now. The fact is, you might wish or hope that your book becomes the next classic but even you, the uber talented author, can't predict this so don't pretend you can. It's a big eye-rolling turn off. Trust me.

4) Don't stalk your agent/publisher: Ok, now I don't mean stalking in the sense that Lifetime is considering making a movie out of you, but I mean hounding, badgering, emailing daily, calling. You know, the super annoying stuff that will get you blacklisted off of every agent and publisher's list. Trust me, word will spread like wildfire if you're a pain in the you-know-what. It's also the quickest way to a rejection. Follow-up is ok, burning up the phone lines or hitting your send button obsessively isn't. Keep in mind that patience will often win this race. If you have found an agent that you trust, then trust them to do their job.

5) Not wanting to take feedback or rejecting professional advice: a good agent and/or publisher will offer you feedback on your book. Perhaps ways to enhance/correct it. Things you might want to consider adding to make it more commercially viable. Listen to these comments and learn from them, then, swallow your own opinions and consider incorporating them into your book. If you really have an objection that's another thing, but if pride is getting in your way then back off of the ego and see some of the points they're making as helpful and constructive. The writer sure to fail is the one who won't listen.

It's a competitive market out there, and with New York publishing in trouble these days it seems more and more that authors need to know the do's and don'ts before they rush headlong into publishing. From our perspective, the last thing you want to do is come across as a know-it-all or an amateur. These are the things that will not only hurt your career, but delay the publication of your book as well.

Marketing Experts, Inc.

Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: penny@amarketingexpert.com
web: http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Sunday, February 15, 2009

BETWEEN THE STORM AND THE RAINBOW



THIS IS THE LATEST BLOG FROM MARVIN WILSON AND WE COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER. READ THE POST AND VISIT HIS BLOG-AFTER ALL, HE IS THE COOLEST MAN ON THE PLANET!

Between the Storm and the Rainbow is Here!

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That's right. Now available, published by All Things That Matter Press (ATTMP), is the "Best of Free Spirit Blog posts" anthology, titled, Between the Storm and the Rainbow.

The old silly is geeked. Last summer, when I was contacted by ATTMP to not only be an editor on their staff but also to submit a book of Free Spirit posts for publication, I was like, Wow! - now isn't that cool! One year ago, Free Spirit was languishing about in the Blue Nowhere purgatory of obscurity. Today, it is an internationally acclaimed award-winning blog with a book out!

Woo Hoo!

The book features the best posts in all categories that fall under this blog's mission statement. Included also are the more memorable comments left by you - all of you wonderful friends, family, colleagues, associates, and also those who just drop in on occasion out of curiosity of what neurosis might plague the old silly on any given day. So if you read Free Spirit and leave comments now and then, guess what - you just might be in print!

Between the Storm and the Rainbow is available in paperback, ebook, and Kindle. To make it easy peasy for ya to get one, the cover image in the right sidebar is hyperlinked - just click on it and you will fly off to where it can be purchased at Create Space dot Com (my first choice - this is the publisher's selling site. That's where, if you buy, yours truly gets the highest royalty - hey - gotta make a buck ya know? Any day now you will also see it available on www.Amazon.com - Kindle book lovers will want to use Amazon fo sho.

Want to read the really cool blurb about this? Click Here.

Okay, now here's the kicker. I'm doing a launch promo. Are you listening?

The first three people who purchase a paperback copy of Between the Storm and the Rainbow and who email me (marvwilson2010@gmail dot com) a confirmation of the purchase with their invoice/sales slip from Create Space or Amazon, will receive a FREE signed copy of their choice of one of my two previously published books, I Romanced the Stone or Owen Fiddler.

So there you have it. Free Spirit has morphed from cyberspace into paper-printed-space and will be available to read for centuries to come - even if it's after the internet somehow crashes and survivors of a dark-ages-plummeting global cataclysm stumble upon a molded old print copy somewhere in a cave. Keep the Free Spirit alive!

Hey do me a favor? Fore ya click off - see that cute little bird just below? Please click on her and tweet this post out from the twittertops? Love ya, toodles, bye bye now and God bless.
TweetIt from HubSpot

THEY PLOTTED REVENGE AGAINST AMERICA


THEY PLOTTED REVENGE AGAINST AMERICA
By
ABE F. MARCH
In the latest release form ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS, an American attack on Baghdad leaves heartbroken and angry survivors. Two families, one Muslim and one Christian, are wiped out; their young adult progeny are determined to avenge the loss of their loved ones. David Levy, an Israeli Secret Service Agent with a grudge of his own, knows just how to tap into the vulnerabilities that grief leaves, and organizes the training of select individuals whose desire for vengeance is strong enough to consider a deadly covert mission in America. Trainees will learn to blend in, disappear in the multicultural mix of the US and then infest the food and water supply with a deadly flu virus capable of mutating and infecting the human population. The antidote - if it works - will only be revealed under strict demands.
Some team members come to realize that they could ultimately be responsible for millions of innocent deaths. Their actions could break the stalemate between the Israelis and Palestinians - or bring on unparalleled tragedy.
“They Plotted Revenge is an intriguing read, and one that left the hair on the back of my neck standing up. It’s one thing to think of a war “over there” that is more out of sight and out of mind than we care to admit. It’s another thing altogether to realize that the actions that have led us to this point in history could actually be unstoppable. This story – part fiction and a whole lot of real – is about an attack set to take place in the US, right under our noses. It isn’t about bombs going off, or folks firing guns and rockets at one another. This is about getting at the very foundation of our own survival. Iraqi youths from different backgrounds within their own country are recruited as covert operators of a frightening army. They are trained to blend in, become part of the society that they are preparing to unravel. They are tasked with infecting America’s food and water with a deadly virus that can mutate to humans, and for which there may not be a ready cure in time, or at a price that we can afford. Working for someone who turns out to be a double agent, at first glance they seem just like young couples anywhere, and all of them are prepared to give up their lives for their cause. As they get to know the Americans that they hide among however, some of them lose heart and decide not to go through with the plan, but in the world that we live in, there will always be someone that will see a project through to the end, even after the battle has ended. Author Abe F. March provides us with a safe haven – a good book – to read, discuss and explore what’s really happening, and this is a book you’ll want to make time for
By Pam Robertson, Ph.D. Author of “Marching Across the Heart,” and the newly published short story Catch You Later.

Abraham F. March is an international business consultant and author, living near Landau, Germany with his wife Gisela. An active retiree, he enjoys hiking and exploring the local vineyards and can also be heard singing with a regional men's choir. Mr. March's career has taken him around the world to work in many areas from his birthplace in the USA to Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
His first book, To Beirut and Back - An American in the Middle East was published in 2006, and is a memoir of his adventures that took him to Lebanon in the 1970s. Mr. March grew up in York County, Pennsylvania on the family farm, and he served in the USAF from 1957-61.
# # #

NOW AVAILABLE FROM ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS, AMAZON.COM, KINDLE, MOBIPOCKET

Saturday, February 7, 2009

BOOKS ON PHONES

The latest news from PUBLISHERS LUNCH (2/6/09) offers the following:

"Books on Mobile: Will One Sentence Change the Game?
Yesterday Google Book Search announced that they had optimized 1.5 million public domain books for reading on iPhones and the company's Android mobile operating system. (All of those books are viewable within the US; about 600,000 are accessible in full view worldwide.) The process required converting the image scan files shown on regular GBS with optical-character-recognition so that the mobile devices can display actual text rather than page images. The files are not downloadable, so you need to be connected to the internet via your mobile.
GBS post

But Google's announcement was trumped by a potentially game-changing two sentence remark by Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener: "We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones. We are working on that now."
NYT

So books on phones will increase the need for e-books and internet marketing. Do you see a trend here?

Thursday, February 5, 2009

YA Novel - 'The Profile' Perfectly Captures the 'Yes You Can!' Zeitgeist of a New American Era

Greg Babic put together this great release!

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Somerville, MN, United States, 02/04/2009 - Gregory Victor Babic has just had published his first YA novel, “The Profile”, by US publisher All Things That Matter Press and it perfectly captures the "Yes We Can" attitude of new American President Obama's exhortation that "Change Can Happen"!.



The 176 page novel follows the adventures of sophomore Danielle McCormack, Year 10 student at Middlewood High School, who wants to be a journalist. However, she could not possibly have anticipated, when Dean Lawrence Polking, head of HRL Enterprises, internationally renowned retailing magnate (think Frank Lowy, Australia's richest businessperson), and hated Destroyer of the Middlewood Old Town Mall, attended the Annual Awards Night at her school as the honoured guest speaker and returning "Favorite Son", that her life would be thrown into turmoil. How could she have known that everything she thought she knew about herself and her place in the world would come to mean nothing against truths and realities she could never have anticipated?

Seeking to secure an interview with one of the richest men in the world, who is renowned for never having given a journalist a personal interview at all, Danni is told repeatedly by her mother, her grandmother, her teacher, her 'Uncle Joe" (the father of her best friend, Ricky, from next door, and the boyfriend of her single mother), that, despite her doubts and fears, SHE CAN DO IT! They all know that she has within her the will, the courage, the talent, and the determination to succeed in this, her first public Profile of a major world figure.

How she goes about her task, the tensions and pressures that beset her as she follows through on this self-chosen mission, not only highlight the difficulties faced by student journalists, but the sense of accomplishment that can be achieved when, with the love and support of all those around you, one achieves the impossible - and becomes extraordinary as a result (just like President Obama has done with his unbelievable election win).

What others are saying about “The Profile”?

"The Profile is an excellent read that presents very real issues relevant to today's youth. Written in a style that is both direct and moving, the author whisks the reader through a tale of mystery, awe, and fulfillment. In the spirit of Rand's The Fountainhead, The Profile is rife with intrigue and mesmerizing imagery. This is a piece worth reading and reading again." – Brian L Doe, Author, The Grace Note, Barley & Gold; Co-Author, Waking God Trilogy

"The author has captured the essence of change that occurs to us all in our formative years. He has portrayed Danielle’s transition from a young girl to early womanhood in a delightful way. Young girls will be able to identify with her what they are going though themselves, and I am sure will not put the book down once they have started to read it." – Warren Thurston, Author, Gladiss and the Alien

"Greg has admirably succeeded in what he has attempted with this book.” – Thomas R Gough, Director, The Glenwood Shakespeare Company

Gregory Victor Babic (gregbabic.com), the author of “The Profile” has worked in librarianship, policing, marketing, and teaching and had three non-fiction books published previously. This novel was work-shopped with some of his students when he taught at Macarthur Girls High School, Parramatta in Sydney, Australia (and is, indeed, dedicated to "four extraordinary young ladies").

"This book is unlike any other young adult novel I can think of: because of what is not in it, I hope it will really stand out! There are NO faeries, vampires, witches, aliens, monsters, pedophiles, drunks, drug-addicts, alcoholics, abusers, criminals, gangs, sickness, or other immoral behavior! It is wholesome, life-affirming, positive, idealistic, loving, hopeful, inspired, and yet still manages to encompass major contemporary issues from a recognizable reality (like the mass commercialization of the lives of twenty-first century teens and the issues that retailing raise in working and middle class lives in the West). It is my paean to a gentler time, a sweeter age, a more measured, loving, and fruitful way of looking at life, families, love, and friendship. Corny as that may all sound - it is what I have tried to say in this book."
Gregory Victor Babic, Author, The Profile

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release (or for a PDF sample of the cover and text of the novel itself), please contact the Publishers, Philip and Debra Harris, at All Things That Matter Press

All Things That Matter Press (AllThingsThatMatterPress.com) seeks to publish those books that help the author share their Self with the world. We all have something to say, and this is a press that wants to hear your voice.