Category: Uncategorized

Just wanted to say thank you to all who have already responded to my request for sponsors. I’ll be putting a calendar together soon and getting that out to all of you.

I still have plenty of room for more sponsors, so if you haven’t responded yet but you want to, go right ahead and do it!

I’ve been doing this blog since April 2006. I’ve done 483 posts. In celebration of that fact, I’m going to list 483 things about me. (Laughs maniacally.)

Just kidding. (Sorry, I could not resist.)

Seriously, during that year and a half, I’ve held several contests, the prizes of which have been funded by me. But since I am cheap …uhm… tired of funding this all by myself …uhm… need to use that money for chocolate we’ve been talking about promotion, I thought it would be a good idea to let you do a little self-promotion via sponsorship of this blog.

To be a sponsor, you need to be willing and able to provide a prize during the term of your sponsorship in the form of a copy of YOUR book, plus the cost of shipping it to the prize winner.

There are two forms of sponsorship—sponsoring a contest or sponsoring the blog for a month.

1. Contest sponsorship. Writing contests have two prizes so each contest will have two sponsors. The sponsors of the contest will get a brief bio on the contest introduction page AND the cover of their book with link to website or blog on the sidebar. At the end of the contest, I will announce the winners. Winners will send me their mailing address which I will forward to the sponsor of their prize. Sponsor needs to ship the prize within a week of receiving the winner’s address.

2. Blog sponsorship. At the beginning of each month, I will select a new sponsor(s). Sponsor will get a brief bio on the post for the first business day of the month AND the cover of their book with link to website or blog on the sidebar. At the end of the month, I will put the names of everyone who has commented on the blog that month into a hat and draw out a winner. As with the contest sponsorship, I announce the winners and the sponsor ships the prizes. Depending on the level of response, there may be up to three blog sponsors each month.

Why you want to be a sponsor: This gets your book cover and link to your website or blog in front of a targeted audience. (Writers are generally avid readers and BUY books.) My average unique visitor count per day is around 70; some days it goes over 100.

More stupid requirements details for being a sponsor:

• Since the prize is your book, you must have a published book (traditional or self-published; no e-books).
• Book must currently be in print and available for purchase via the Internet.
• If you have published multiple books, you may choose the title you want to offer as the prize.
• Authors may only sponsor one prize per month and cannot sponsor both a contest and a month at the same time.
• If you have multiple books and want to give them each a turn at sponsoring a contest or month, sponsorship will be alloted in a way that’s fair to others who want to sponsor. (Example: Depending on the response, your first book may sponsor in January; second book may not have a turn until April.)
• You may choose one link for you book. It can be your personal website or blog, or your publisher’s website, or any other website where your book may be purchased.
• Publishers may sponsor a contest or month, but they must do so in their author’s name.
• Publishers may submit multiple authors/books. Each author will be considered as a separate submission.
• I will calendar sponsors in the order that I receive the e-mailed request.
• In your e-mail to request a turn at sponsoring, tell me whether you want to sponsor a contest or a month, the title of your book, the website or blog you want it to link to, a short bio and a photo of yourself (photo optional). E-mail me now.

To win a Contest Prize: Participate in a contest, follow the rules, and win.

To win a Monthly Prize: Leave thoughtful comments. Comments like “That’s cool” or “Way to go” do not count. You need to show by the content of you comment that you have read the post and given the topic at least 3.5 seconds of sincere thought.

If you guys like this idea and volunteer to be sponsors, we’ll start the Monthly Sponsors in December and the Contest Sponsors with the upcoming Christmas Story Contest. (Look for details on Monday.) If no one volunteers, then we won’t.

What are the criteria publishers use in determining which books will be recorded as audiobooks? Who chooses the voice talent, and is there any chance of a first timer having their audiobook “read by the author?” Thanks for your helpful blog.

You’re welcome.

It varies depending on the publisher. Covenant records a lot of their books on audio. Other publishers, not as much. A lot of the time it’s based on sales. If a book sells really, really, really well, most publishers will consider an audio version.

The publisher chooses the voice talent. If you have done voice recordings before, there’s a possibility they will let you do your own but it’s unlikely.

Kristen Nelson, over on Pub Rants (bookmark that blog if you haven’t already), talked about a query she got last month that stated if she didn’t get the writer a book deal, it would be her fault if the writer died. I really wanted to laugh but I can relate too closely to that situation. Only I get threatened with eternal damnation. (Not kidding.)

I think the one that takes the cake for me is where the writer submitted a book and it was really, really horrendous. There were no less than 40 errors (mostly spelling and grammar, some misuse of words) in the first page. In his/her query, the writer stated that they had prayed about this book, that God had told them to write it, and that my company was the publisher God wanted to publish it.

I was very nice when I rejected it. Even included a personal note. She was devastated. I got a scathing reply which included insinuations about my level of spirituality and my commitment to the gospel. The writer warned me that if I didn’t repent and live righteously enough that the Spirit could speak to me that I would suffer the punishment of e.d.

About two years later, the writer resubmitted. The errors were down to about 25 on the first page. I rejected again. She cursed me again.

Just recently I heard from the writer. They wanted to inform me that another publisher had snapped up their book and very much appreciated its spiritual quality and said publisher was non-LDS so what was my problem?

If any of you feel the same way about your books, you could try this writer’s publisher.

P.S. I’m all out of questions. Please send more.

Yesterday, LDSPublisher hit a milestone. We topped 100 unique visitors in one day. We’ve gotten close to that a few times–97 was the highest. But yesterday this site had 119 unique visitors, 77 of whom were returning visitors.

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you for the support you’ve all given to me and this endeavor (even Jeff Savage and David Woolley who keep trying to weasel my true identity out of me). I appreciate your comments and the way you’ve jumped in to help each other, answering questions, and pointing out to me when I’m way off base.

When I started this blog back in April 2006, it was on a whim. I thought I’d do it for a few months and readers would get bored and that would be the end of it. It has surprised me that questions keep coming and participation has continued to increase. I have taken that as a sign that my intent to be helpful has become a reality. I hope I can continue to help you on your journey to publication. As long as you continue to send questions, comments and queries for critique (yes, I’m still willing to do that), I will continue to respond.

Thanks again for visiting.

LDSP

I do a lot of reading in the LDS market and have found that nearly all of the books being published are more formula fiction, whereas the books being published nationally are more literary. Do you think that there’s a place in the LDS market for literary books, and, why aren’t we seeing them on the LDS market? Beulah

LDS literary novels don’t come across my desk very often. I’ve seen a few attempts, but nothing of publishable quality. I’m sure the big publishers see more than I do, but they, too, must feel they’re not up to par because they aren’t publishing many.

There are a few that come close–I liked The Kaleidoscope Season by Sharon Downing Jarvis. There might be others, but nothing that really zooms into my mind as an outstanding LDS literary book. (But then, I’m tired right now and my brain is a little foggy. Perhaps I’m overlooking the obvious. Readers, help me out. Post titles in the comments section of books you think might qualify as LDS literary fiction-and why.)

A few years ago I saw a handful of published books that billed themselves as LDS literary fiction, but in my opinion, they weren’t very good and they didn’t sell well.

Is there a place for LDS literary fiction? I hope so but often “literary” is synonymous with “realistic” and there are lots of LDS readers who don’t like the realism, who are uncomfortable with the soul-searching and life-questioning themes of the literary novel.

Why aren’t we seeing them? In addition to the lack of good manuscripts, again, money is the bottom line. We know genre fiction sells; literary fiction is a risk. But I’d like to think that if I got a really good mss, it would be a risk I could convince the bean counters around here to take.

I have an event this weekend and need four guest blogs–Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

Do you recall all the times I’ve blogged about how important marketing yourself is? This is your opportunity to amaze your fellow writers, to practice marketing and to have your work seen by millions (well, okay. Subtract a couple of zeroes.)

Blog about anything connected to writing and/or publishing. You’re welcome to “recycle” a post from your own blog, if you like. You may shamelessly plug your own book/blog at the end of your post.

I’ll pick the four I like best for this week, but eventually I will post all that are well-written, informative, and/or entertaining.

In one of your blogs [this one], you stated that your company isn’t marketing YA fiction for boys. A company I submitted to told me the same thing. Does this mean I should just forget the LDS market for my “next Harry Potter novel”? (the Harry Potter comment is a joke, but the question is serious) Thanks!

It’s not that no one is writing/publishing YA for LDS boys, it’s that smaller publishers need to invest in books that they know will give them a return on their money. The chances are better with adult fiction than for YA. So you need to match your manuscript with a publisher that is big enough to take the risk (there are a few), or a smaller company with an owner who is personally committed to expanding that market and willing to swing by their toenails. (I personally don’t know of any, but if a reader does, speak up.)

Also, we don’t usually market directly to the young man because he doesn’t usually go to the LDS bookstore to buy his fiction, his mother or grandmother does. But that is starting to change just a tad–with Leven Thumps, Fablehaven, and others…

So short answer, write your book for the audience you think it fits best. By the time you’re ready to shop it to publishers, the market might be ready for it.

I’ve been told that for YA literature, most editors want it told in 1st person POV. The rationale is that 1st person is more intimate, and young readers can identify better with the main, or POV character.

I’m not sure I totally agree with that. I’ve been writing a YA novel in 3rd person, and I think it is very intimate, getting into the thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. of 4 different characters, all having their own stories (sub-plots) that tie into the main character’s story. I was told recently that I should re-write it in 1st person as most editors won’t accept one written in 3rd person. If I were to re-write it, I think it would lose a lot, as I would have to cut out all the sub-plots that give the main story so much richness.

Is there any truth to that rumor?

Two words: Harry Potter.

Added to original post:
Perhaps I need to give more than a two word answer. Harry Potter, the biggest selling children’s/YA series in the history of the world, is written in third person.

First person works very well for YA books for the reasons you list but it’s not the only way to write. Do what works best for your story.

I’ve recently received several requests from bloggers asking to be added to my “Writing Tips for LDS Authors” links list (scroll WAY down toward the bottom).

It would be impossible for me to keep a list of everyone, so I have to be discriminating. But where do I draw the line?

After several days of thinking about this, I decided to draw the line a little closer to the descriptive title of my list. To be on the list, your blog must be PRIMARILY (as in mostly, almost all, only deviating a little bit on occasion) on the topic of writing and publishing for LDS authors; not a slice of life with a few tips thrown in, nor one that details daily experiences as an author. So, even though there were several blogs on my list that I personally love and read often, they got deleted because they are not PRIMARILY writing and publishing tips and information.

To get on my links list, your blog also needs to be kept current and posted to on a regular basis–at least weekly (although you’re allowed to take vacations, as I just did).

However, because I want to support all of you in supporting each other, I have added two other links below the “Writing Tips” list:

LDS Blogs–a very long list of LDS bloggers
and
LDS Blog Webring–a shorter list of LDS bloggers, but the only other one I know about

Any LDS blogger may apply to these two lists.

If there are other lists and/or webrings for LDS bloggers, please let me know and I will add them to my sidebar.

I was asked this question over on my blog, and to be honest, I’m clueless.

I did a blog on formatting and mentioned putting the author’s name, copyright symbol, and the year on the right at the top. That’s what I’ve always been taught to do, then someone said they’d been taught to never use the copyright symbol and wanted to know if the rule has changed. Help?

I read your post. THE most important formatting rule is your manuscript must be easy to read and to mark up–12 pt Times, double-spaced, 1″ margins, white paper, single-sided, page headers with name & page numbers. Everything else is a matter of preference.

The second most important formatting rule is to follow the preferences of your publisher/agent. These are usually listed on their website.

The copyright mark and All Rights Reserved are unnecessary. You have copyright protection from the moment you put your first word in tangible form. It is understood that all rights are reserved until you sell them. I’m a professional. I know this. You don’t need to remind me. However, if it makes you feel more comfortable you are welcome to include this. I won’t make fun of you, not even in my mind.

Everything else in your post is fine. I have a personal peeve with using style sheets in Word instead of the hard indent. I prefer the hard indent because Word can go all skeewampus when we convert it to our typesetting program and we sometimes end up with some paragraphs converting to a hard indent and some converting to a first line indent and then we have to go through and fix it manually. (If you’re using WordPerfect, don’t.)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the June 2006 Promo Contest–both those that entered promo ideas and those that voted. Really appreciate it.

Winners are…

Publisher’s Choice:
#6 Eli Slater
I picked this one because it has the potential to get the most free media attention–nationwide. That’s what you want–other people doing your marketing for you. A little bit of controversy doesn’t hurt either. It’s also the easiest and least expensive.

Reader’s Choice:
The Jump Boys.
(Which would have been my first choice except for the cost and other things I mentioned on the post itself.)

I put comments on all of the entries, why I thought it was good or wouldn’t work, etc. To see all posts, click here. Authors, take credit for your work in the comments section. Winners, e-mail your mailing address to me so I can send the cheesy prizes.

My sincerest apologies to the last three submissions that came in under the wire. I had some severe technical difficulties and wasn’t able to post them until just now.

To make it fair, if you already voted for one of the first three, but would have voted for one of the last three if they had been posted on time, you may delete your previous vote (click on the trash can) and then vote again.

BOOK: Confederate Sergeant Eli Slater had an assignment to complete and it only included a coffin, not a hostage; especially not the LDS daughter of a Northern general. Forced to take her in a raid, Slater now finds everything at risk–especially his feelings for the ‘Mormon’ Church. He was hoping to forget his experience in the Utah War and his involvement in an assassination attempt on Brigham Young but the dark-eyed hostage is now forcing him to face his past and his heart. With his troop of highly trained sharp-shooters waiting orders to assassinate Abraham Lincoln along with several top Northern generals, and a mysterious series of unbreakable codes flowing over the wires, Slater doesn’t need more things to draw his attention away from his assignment. Then a single bullet finds the sergeant and he is left to live or die in her hands. And she now knows he has been sent to kill her father. I remember this one from a previous contest too. Is it finished yet? Have you started submitting?

PROMO IDEA: Start a media sweep with facts on the real, but little known, assassination attempt on Brigham Young during the Utah War. Visit talk shows, radio shows and send press releases discussing the actual history of that assassination attempt. (Teasers and headlines here could be great.) Then let people know that the truth is found in a new fictional book, Beyond Enemy Lines, which goes beyond North and South to discuss the LDS role in the Civil War. In addition to the attempt of Brigham Young’s life, did you know the failed Utah War was the reason for the Civil War? Did you know that Robert E. Lee, who hated slavery, was sent by God to lead the South? Do you realize the assassination of President Lincoln was foretold and
that Lincoln needed to die? The truth of the Lord’s hand in the Civil War, found in Beyond Enemy Lines, may change your entire view of the war.
GREAT IDEA! You’ve got enough controversy to get the media interest. As long as you have the facts to back it up. Radio interviews are FREE because you can do them over the phone. I’d include podcasts with as many people as you can. Maybe to a trivia game/test on your website that scores people with cute titles depending on how many questions they got right.

But we need a contest as well, where people can win something–free copies of the book.

Title: All The Colors of Blue

Teaser: Angela Baker is an artist that doesn’t paint, living in Salt Lake City – a place she doesn’t want to be. She hasn’t been to Astoria, Oregon since she was 18 and has no intentions of changing that, but when old family friends invite her for a visit in the middle of August — she can’t resist. When she finds out the family has a handsome son she’d never met, life takes an interesting turn. Things become complicated when he turns up missing, linked to drug trafficking in a private school and her simple summer vacation turns upside down as she wonders if any of them are going to come out of it alive. Interesting…

Promo Idea: I’m thinking a key chain with the Astoria Column, or one that has something representing Seaside or Astoria in a memorable way. A kind of cheesy touristy item that will get the person thinking of Oregon and how beautiful it is there, and wanting to read about it.
Like the concept, but this is another one that is not financially feasible–unless you can think of a way to run a contest from it. But at that, I’m not sure a key chain would be enough of a motivator to get people to participate in the contest. What about a digital camera? I could cough up enough for an inexpensive digital as a prize–IF you had a way to really get people excited about the contest, like if you had an e-mail list of 1,000 or were getting a lot of hits on a website/blog. What would we have them do to try to win it?

The key chain idea would work at LDSBA–give one out to all the book buyers who visit the booth during your signing. In fact, that’s a really good idea. Maybe I’ll do something like that this year…

Book: Grasshopper Pie

Synopsis: Mom is busy cleaning when Logan and Madolyn insist they “cook” for her. They whip up some imaginary dishes like Watermelon Burritos and Sunflower Soup and Mom grudgingly plays along. But, what happens when Mom asks for Grasshopper Pie and the dish isn’t so imaginary after all? Cute idea. Recipes included?

Promo: Since this is a children’s picture book, I would schedule a reading and while wearing my antennae headband, I’d offer a free book to anyone who’d eat a live grasshopper. (I’d have a jar of grasshoppers).

Okay, I love this idea! It appeals to the perverse side of me. Reminds me of the time my seminary teacher brought chocolate covered grasshoppers to class so we could discover what locusts and honey might taste like.

However, there could be potential liability problems here. Even if you got signed releases from the grasshopper eaters. If someone got sick, we could all be sued–me, you and the bookstore. I don’t think I could actually let you do it. Darn!

Maybe make a fake Grasshopper Pie as refreshements for anyone who comes to the book signing/reading? Although that has liability potential as well…

We have three whole entries in this contest. I suppose others could come in at the last minute. I will check in tomorrow morning and post them if they do.

Voting starts tomorrow (June 1) and goes through midnight on Saturday (July 7). Vote for ONE by leaving a comment that clearly indicates it is your vote on the entry post. Please tell us why you liked it.

If you click here, it will bring up the June contest posts and you can see all the entries on one page.

There will be two winners–Publisher’s Choice and Reader’s Choice. Since the entries are few, the same one might win both cheesy prizes.

Book: The Devil’s Daughter

Teaser: Desi Black’s parents are evil. She has just turned sixteen and it’s time for her to go into the family business; the business of ruining lives and stealing souls. But Desi wants nothing more than to be good. Just like any other girl, Desi’s dealing with homework, friends and boys, but somehow she’s got to find a way to save those people her parents hope to ruin. In a world where evil is commonplace, how does a demon choose to do good? Desi will find a way. Or she’ll die trying. I LOVE THIS!

Promo Idea: I’ll make a commercial showing a teenage girl and her parents where they have an argument. But the argument will be ‘backwards’ – the parents supporting the bad thing, the girl defending the good. (Kind of like that one cell phone commercial? I liked that.) Accessible to anyone with an internet connection, the video would be short, tongue-in-cheek and really make people take notice and say “I wanna read that book!”

This one is do-able and financially practical. You Tube is great for this type of thing and viral video can really create a buzz for something. I’d want approval over the “script” and the finished video. And I’d want to have something that would drive people to watch it–some kind of contest of sorts. People sometimes need a little nudge. And we’d want everyone you know who has a blog to link to it in their sidebar.

Book: The Jump Boys

Teaser: Don’t believe what the science books tell you, Jupiter is really a thriving community hidden from the view of marauding space pirates. Two adventurous boys, Jayce and Valen Jump, are as busy as any other students on Jupiter or elsewhere. Will they be able to settle a dare from an arch rival, solve a planet-wide mystery, battle space pirates and save a desperate family from disaster and have time to finish their homework? Enjoy a fast ride through this amazing world that’s everything and more that you ever imagined Jupiter, and space beyond, could be. Sounds good. I’d like to read this one.

Promo Idea: I would provide all the buyers with their own jump drive, on which there would be a copy of The Jump Boys, a copy of the first chapter of the next Jump Boys book, and for fun, a little game called Graviton. The buyers would enjoy the game (it’s consistent with the book), would love the portability of The Jump Boys copy and they’d love knowing that the next book was well on it’s way and was just as good as the first book. They could stock their shelves with The Jump Boys with confidence knowing that the author was committed to the art and to the Jump Boys books to follow.

Great idea; would never work.

First, jump drives are way too expensive to give out to all purchasers of the book.

Second, unless you created/owned the copyright for Graviton, this could cause problems.

Third, giving away a free electronic copy of the book would allow readers to e-mail it to all their friends. Bookstore buyers won’t like this and it would discourage some from stocking the book. (And before anyone says that all books have free readers via the library and people loaning them, yes, I know. But trust me, electronic copies have much easier availability and it hurts sales if it’s not handled correctly. I know. I lost money on a project like this.)

Now, having a contest where say, twenty people could win jump drives by answering a trivia question from the book online…that would work. You could have a web-page style something on there (assuming you, as the author, or one of my in-house employees had the skills and time to create it). You could include fun interactive facts about the boys, planets, science, etc., maybe a couple of short stories that weren’t included in the book, maybe out-takes, and some other fun stuff. I’d definitely put the first chapter of the next book on the jump drive–IF the second book was already written, submitted and accepted by me. (I’ve had way too many promised books fall through and never materialize.)

Book: The Mummy’s Tunnel

Synopsis: Teenager Jonathon Bradford accompanies his father on a research trip to Peru. There he hears the ancient legend of hidden tunnels connecting Machu Picchu to Lima. The Incas supposedly escaped the Spaniards by disappearing through the tunnels with their gold and sacred mummies. Jonathon doesn’t believe the stories until a wrong step plunges him into the hidden labyrinth. There he finds the Inca mummies and the Lost Inca Gold. He also becomes a hostage in a deadly game where terrorists will kill to obtain the lost Inca treasures. I remember this from a previous contest, I think. Good idea. Hope you finish and submit the book somewhere.

Promo: Everyone loves chocolate, right? At the checkout counters of bookstores, set up ceramic pottery decorated with Inca symbols. Fill them with chocolate coins wrapped in foil. On one side of each coin have stamped or embossed, “Lost Inca gold found!” On the other side have the book’s title and release date. (You can order customized chocolate coins for 10-12 cents each.) Good idea, but not financially practical. Promo items should cost maybe a penny a piece and there needs to be some control over who gets them–like, you only get one if you buy the book. Chocolate could also melt during shipping and then it would be a mess. Some bookstores like having things at their counter, but the like it most when it encourages customers to BUY things. This doesn’t force the customer to act. Bookmarks are a good thing to have free at the counter because when a customer takes them home, they have them as a continual reminder to buy the book. But once they ate the chocolate, that reminder would be gone.

Shirley Bahlmann did something like this with one of her books, but the books came shrink-wrapped with a coin included with purchase, and it was metal, not chocolate. I hesitate to shrink-wrap a book because a lot of people like to flip through it before they buy.

Anyway, the chocolate idea would be a good one if we did something like this–have a pot of these candies as a virtual buried treasure. Visitors to your website would click to get an online treasure map that would have lots of promotional teasers and clues connected to the book. If they “found” the treasure by a certain date, they would be entered in a free drawing to win the pot of chocolate gold.

I have the attention span of a flea and I’m easily bored…You know what that means. Time for a new contest.

Over on Pub Rants this week (June 4-8), she’s been talking about promotional things that authors do for their books. Some of the things her authors have done are great ideas. (I loved the alligator and the youtube examples.)

So this is the contest: Pick a book and develop a promo idea for it. It needs to be your book (existing, in the works or on a back burner) OR public domain (pre-1923). I need the title of the book, a short synopsis or teaser paragraph and ONE promo idea. You can enter multiple titles but only one promo per title. Be creative. If you have images of your book cover, promotional items, or links to websites/blogs, send those as part of the promo.

We’ll have a Reader’s Choice and Publisher’s Choice, both of which will win a cheesy prize. (Last month’s cheesy prizes were stickers and free promotional bookmarks that I swiped from my local LDS bookstore.) And I might throw in a few other categories, if the response warrants it.

E-mail submissions between now and June 30th. I will post them as they arrive. Voting will be July 1-7. I’ll post the winners the following week.

So I finally upgraded to the new Blogger formats but I can’t figure out how to get back my old pretty khaki background (now dark blue) and the pretty purple sidebar (now medium blue). Any hints, tips or suggestions?

Miss Snark posted a comment on my blog. I have now fulfilled my life’s ambition.

Almost makes me want to reveal my identity so I can brag about it.