Tag: Uncategorized

Will the submissions from 2010 ever learn if they were good enough for your compilation or get the promised critique? It’s hard to want to participate again when we’re still all in limbo from B of M and last year’s Christmas contest.

I thought I’d tied up all the loose ends for the last two contests, but it looks like I didn’t. I sincerely apologize.

1. Book of Mormon Anthology: I did an update post here and I remember posting about it since then and saying “no anthology” but now I can’t find the post where I said it. That was a very messy time in my personal life—starting a new job, being overwhelmed with family issues. I confess, I let some things slide back then. I am sorry.

   The official status is: No Book of Mormon Anthology to be published at this time.

   There is a very slim possibility I may reconsider it in the future, but don’t count on it until I contact you (the authors) directly.

   If you did not receive the critique on your BofM story, please e-mail me.

2. 2010 Christmas Stories: All authors should have been notified by email with their critiques. I clearly remember sending those out because I was so proud of myself when I finished the last of them.

   If you did not receive the critique your 2010 Christmas story, please e-mail me.

Again, I’m very sorry for dropping the ball and I am promising I will do better this time.

But. Even if I do flake out (which I’m not intending to do but who knows—my house may be taken out by an earthquake at any second and if that happens, critiquing your stories will fall to the bottom of my to do list), you STILL get some valuable feedback from readers.

So please, please, please—send in your stories.

Stolen from Pub Rants, a blog by literary agent Kristen Nelson.

Late on Friday (July 29) I found out that Jamie Ford was going to be a literature question on that night’s TV show of Jeopardy!

Surely you’ve arrived if you are ubiquitous enough to be a question on a popular game show, right?

Not a single contestant got the answer. LOL!

Yep, take it down a notch Kristin. It still makes me smile though.

It makes me smile too because Jamie Ford is LDS and his book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was a 2009 Whitney Finalist.

I’m taking a summer vacation, so I’m suspending the Comment Contest for July and August. I’d still appreciate your comments but there won’t be any prizes until September.

Even though I’m on a break, you’ll want to check back here a couple of times a week because I’ll be doing a “Best of”—posting some of the more popular and/or more informative posts a few days a week through the rest of the summer. And there’s always the possibility that Jeff will show up again, or I may have a few other guest posters from time to time.

You’ll want to start working on your Christmas stories (limit 3,000 words) because we’ll have our annual contest when I come back in September!

And keep checking the LDS Fiction blog, as usual. I will still be posting new releases over there.

Oh, and the winners of the June comment contest are posted here.

Quick question, do you know if lds publishers are interested in fictional stories about missionaries?

Of course. Why wouldn’t they be? As long as it’s well-written and not preachy, has intriguing characters that readers can relate to, an interesting plot line, and upholds LDS beliefs and standards, most LDS publishers will give it a look.

There’s even some precedent for interest by national publishers. I know there are some I’ve heard of recently but Google is not my friend today. The only one I can recall off the top of my head is Charlotte’s Rose by A.E. Cannon published by Wendy Lamb Books (imprint of Random House).

[Readers, if you can think of some other titles of fiction with LDS characters published by national publishers, leave the titles in the comments section.]

Just remember, good fiction needs to be good fiction. No one wants a preachy book or a thinly disguised version of the missionary discussions. It has to be real.

Lisa Turner is one of seven women who blog at Mormon Mommy Writers.

She interviewed me last Saturday for her Saturday Stories series.

She was very, very sneaky and got me to reveal some personal information, such as:

• the “catch” behind the free writing advice dispensed here
• my lifelong search for the one true green jell-o recipe
• the scam behind the Whitney Awards
• and much more!

Go check it out HERE.

Updated 6:45 p.m.: Okay, I’m over my snit now so I’ve modified this post and taken out the attitude. But expect a post in the near future on not shooting yourself in the foot…

Please read DA RULES and WHY I STARTED THIS BLOG.

This is an advice blog where answers to your questions benefit all readers of the blog. I do not answer specific, personal questions via private e-mails.

It is assumed that all questions sent to me via e-mail are intended for publication on the blog, with all identifying information removed.

(Oh, and use this e-mail address.)

A few days ago, someone told me the Whitney Board had sent out a list of novels available to the Whitney Voting Academy as pdfs. These pdfs are guarded very closely and are programmed to self-destruct once you’ve read them—so they’re not easy to get to. I was told I needed to request them.

I diligently checked my e-mail, thinking maybe I’d overlooked or accidentally deleted that e-mail. I needed it bad because despite my very generous offer to trade ad space for e-books, not everyone has taken me up on it and there are some titles I just can’t find at my lovely local library.

Anyway. No e-mail. I was confused. Was I kicked off the Voting Academy? Did they not like me anymore? Was I such an opinionated slacker that they were distancing themselves from me? I almost cried.

Then—a lightbulb went off. I’d never let the PTBs at the Whitney Board know that I’d changed from that irritating hotmail address to the seriously awesome and nearly always functional gmail account.

I logged into the old account—something I haven’t done since last October—and what-the-heck! there were 310 messages there!!! And thus begins my cautionary tale…

Lesson #1: ALWAYS update your contact information when you’re working with an agent and/or publisher. Don’t just post it on your blog, send them an e-mail with your new address.

Okay, so yes, about 1/4th of the e-mails were messages telling me I had new Twitter followers or someone inviting me to play a Facebook game. (I don’t play those games, btw. Sorry)

And another 1/4th were from Cedar Fort’s Chapter 1 Club. (Which is really an awesome idea and I wish other publishers did it because it makes it soooo easy to find their new releases. But CFI, just a tip. Add to every one of those club e-mails an easy link to and/or instructions for joining the club so that when I forward that to a friend, they don’t have to google you to sign up.)

(Oh, and CFI is the ONLY publisher that has an easy-to-find, follow and get info from page on their website that features new releases. Some other publishers say they do, but it’s either outdated or difficult to find.)

(CFI also has a second website with good info about their books.)

Lesson #2: Every single publisher in the world should have an up-to-date New Releases page!!! And so should authors—with links to excerpts and where to buy.

Okay. Uhm. Where was I? Oh, yes. A few of those e-mails informed me that I’d just inherited £100000000 (lucky me!).

But 32 of them were important and required action from me—action which was never taken because I didn’t get the e-mails until last night.

Lesson #3: Occasionally check your old account (like weekly?) in case important people didn’t get your message.

Among those 32 important e-mails, I found the e-mails from the Whitney Board. I also found some entries for the 2010 Christmas Story Contest that never made it because they went to the wrong e-mail address. This wasn’t the case with me, but sometimes agents or publishers will create a special e-mail for certain types of submissions, and they’ll never see the one you sent to their main e-mail address.

Lesson #4: ALWAYS, ALWAYS follow the posted directions and use the e-mail link in the post.

I also found e-mails about new book releases, and contests, and Questions! Fodder for my blog!! I missed them all!

Lesson #5: If a publisher, agent or blogger has a big pink button on the site that clashes so hideously with the colors of the blog in order to make it stand out and be visible to everyone and that button says “E-mail me at:” followed by an e-mail address in very large and visible letters, use that address!

And for bloggers, publishers and agents…

Lesson #6: When you change your e-mail address, in addition to posting large garish notices in your sidebar and changing the links in as many of the previous posts as you think is reasonable (like your FAQs pages), CHANGE THE ADDRESS ON YOUR BLOGGER PROFILE!

And thus ends my cautionary tale. Do as I say, not as I did. Sorry.

All 32 of the important e-mails will receive a personal response and apology and action will be taken to correct the issue, when possible.

When I created the post for the Christmas Story Contest, I did a copy and paste from last year’s post and just updated the info.

BUT. I forgot to change the e-mail address from “hotmail” to “gmail”.

Oops!

Normally, that would not be a big problem except for the fact that hotmail is being weirder than ever. Half the time, I can’t even get to the log-in page. The Internet tells me it doesn’t exist. I don’t know if this is a hotmail issue that everyone’s having, or a problem with my browser, or if hotmail just decided to “unfriend” me. But whatever…

If you sent your Christmas story to the hotmail address, please resend it to the GMAIL address.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

I’ve been told that no one from Utah or published in Utah can break into the national Christian market, regardless of religious afiliation or genre. Is this true?

That’s pretty much been my experience. You may find a few bookstores willing to carry you outside of Utah, but it’s going to be difficult.

Years ago I represented an author who had a wonderful, non-LDS, Christian oriented book for families. Latter-day Saints wouldn’t buy it because it was general Christian. Christians wouldn’t buy it because it was from Utah.

The author self-published, changing the title and pen name, but left the content exactly the same. They got a PO Box in a Bible belt state, and sold the book online. It did well enough that it was eventually picked up by a Christian publisher. I don’t think the publisher ever knew they were dealing with an LDS Utah resident.

As far as I know, it’s still the same. Readers? What has been your experience? No speculation. We want first-hand experiences.

Thank you so much for writing such an informative blog. I love it and visit your site at least once a week.

In an old post, you stated that nonfiction sells better than fiction. Can you elaborate as to why that is?

It’s consumer psychology.

For most people, a fiction book is generally a one-time read. Then it’s over. Done. Never to be picked up again. It’s a dose of feel good by escaping from reality fix. Some people feel guilty when they read fiction—like they’re wasting time that could be better used for saving the world or something. It’s hard to plunk down $24.95 for a hardback that you’re only going to read once, and then feel guilty about. Kind of like chocolate, but more expensive.

Non-fiction is like whole foods. It is enlightening, uplifting and healthy for the brain and the psyche. It is often read, re-read, highlighted with personal annotations in the margins, used as a reference for years—plus it impresses your friends when they see it on your bookshelf. Also, when it comes to self-help books, that same $24.95 might just change your life—making you prettier, thinner, healthier, richer, whatever.

Of course, IMHO, this is all total nonsense. Good fiction is like air—necessary for life. You should buy as many good fiction books as your budget allows. In fact, if you have to trim your budget, cut out cable or go on a diet.

And don’t feel guilty! Look at it this way: Life is stressful; everyone needs an escape.* Books are healthier than drugs and alcohol, and are much cheaper than therapy and Prozac! In fact, books should be tax deductible as a medical expense.

Hey, that would be a great addition to Obama’s Health Plan. I’m calling him right now. Who’s with me?

*P.S. Note my use of the semi-colon?

Please forgive me if my question is not typical for your blog.

It was recommended to me that because I am LDS, I might have more success in finding someone who will publish or represent my YA fantasy novel if I submit my manuscript to LDS publishers.

My understanding of LDS publishers is that they prefer their material to appeal to members of the LDS faith.

The only elements in the novel that I think would make it more desirable (not necessarily marketable) to an LDS YA audience over a non-LDS market, is the lack of profanity/suggestive themes/ gratuitous violence etc… (which is inherent in my writing because I am LDS). My question is if this is grounds enough to query my MS to an LDS publisher, of if I should stick with seeking a traditional agent/publisher. I imagine the worst that can happen if I did, is that my query won’t garner any reply. However, I should hate to waste the editor’s time if I should have known in advance they won’t consider my work since there’s nothing that would really make it specific to the LDS market.

Also, were I to consider submitting a query/MS, would it be better to cater my query to the particular editor, or to send out my generic query and include a separate cover sheet with an explanation of why my novel will appeal to an LDS market?

Many LDS publishers will consider fiction that has no overt LDS message or characters. A few recent examples from the big three LDS publishers are:

• The 13th Reality series by James Dashner, published by Shadow Mountain (imprint of Deseret Book)
• A Time to Die by Jeffrey S. Savage, published by Covenant
• Flecks of Gold by Alicia Buck, published by Cedar Fort

There are also quite a few LDS authors writing books with clean content that are being picked up by national publishers. These four are YA, three of them fantasy.

• The Limit by Kristen Landon, published by Aladdin
• The Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson, published by Scholastic
• Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, published by Bloomsbury
• My Double Life by Janette Rallison, published by Putnam

So the answer to your first question is yes. Yes, there are national publishers who are looking for clean YA fantasy. Yes, there are LDS publishers looking for clean YA fantasy with no LDS references.

The answer to your second question is that you should ALWAYS customize your query to your specific editor, publisher or agent. Always.

Streamlining things to make it easier for me and for you…

Blogs:

• The Review site is gone. I’ve moved all the reviews and comments over to the LDS Fiction site, in the comments trail of the book that was reviewed. If you’re an author and have linked to your review, go update your links.
• The Contest site is gone. It’s been merged with the Author Events blog to make the new LDS Author Events & Contests site. There is a big blue button in the sidebar that says “Give-A-Ways!” Click on that to see contests giving away LDS books and book-related products. Events are still listed by month in the sidebar.

Monthly Sponsored Comment Contests:

• Up to 8 sponsors per month. (September currently has 6 great titles!)
• All thoughtful comments on all LDSP blogs go into the same pot, drawing for all 8 books.
• Updated details on sponsoring HERE.
• Updated details on winning a book HERE.

Hiatus is coming to an end—and it’s time for a fresh start.

Starting September 1st, I’ll be back with regular—although not daily—posts. I’ll post on Tuesdays and Thursdays for sure, and maybe more often as time permits. So start sending your questions now! (Remember to use the gmail address.)

I’ll be starting the monthly sponsor/contests up again. Sorry about dropping the ball over the summer. I’ll be contacting all of you who have previously signed up to see if you’re still interested. (Sorry, again.)

I’ve finally joined the world of Facebook. Don’t expect a lot of comments from me, but I’ve hooked it up to add my blog feed so if you’re a friend, you’ll see my posts that way. (Come Friend me!) Right now, I have the LDS Fiction site in the Notes feed. Anyone know how to add a second blog feed to FB?

I will be making a few other changes as well throughout next month. More about that later.

See you next week!

**P.S. Oh. My. Gosh! I just set up the FB account yesterday and sent friend requests to a few people who’d commented on the blog lately and I have 63 other friend requests! How did all you 63 people even find out I was on there??? I need to find me a book to explain how this FB stuff works!

For anyone who has e-mailed me since about mid-June…sorry.

I kept checking my hotmail account, even though I haven’t been posting much lately. I’d get a bit of junk mail now and then but nothing important.

Then today, I logged in and suddenly there are over 100 messages, some dating as far back as June 15th!

Dontcha’ just love technology?

If you have me in your address book, please change the address to the gmail address in the image below:

Hi. Yes. I’m still alive. Both my personal and professional lives have had major upheaval lately. The red line went all the way to the end on this stress test (and they didn’t even ask about some of the biggest stresses in my life).

I’ve spent the past month thinking I could get to a post “tomorrow”. . . and you can see how well that’s working out for me.

So, after much thought, I’m going to discontinue this blog for awhile. I’m leaving it up for browsing. And you never know, I may suddenly become inspired and decide to do the daily blog thing again. Who knows?

To wrap up a few things:

1. Yes. I will still publish the Book of Mormon stories anthology. I’m just way behind schedule. I can’t give you a date but I’ll make announcememts here. (Put me on your Google Reader and you’ll be notified.)
2. I will still keep the LDS Fiction blog going. I’m a little behind on new releases right now, but will get it caught up soon. And yes, I will still be coordinating sponsors for prizes on that site.
3. LDS FICTION SPONSORS: Since June is half over, I’m shifting everyone back one month. June sponsors will be in July; July sponsors in August, etc.
4. LDSP SPONSORS: If you’ve signed up to sponsor the LDS Publisher site, you may transfer that sponsorship over to the LDS Fiction site; I will do as many as four books a month. You must email me at ldspublisher at gmail dot com if you want to do that. It will not be automatic. If I don’t hear from you, I will assume you no longer want to sponsor.
5. CONTEST & EVENTS: I’ll continue to post these as you send the information to me, but give me a full week’s notice. I’ll only be updating those sites once a week.
6. AUTHOR NETWORK: I’ll continue to work on this one, as I have time. Don’t expect a lot of action.

Title of my WIP: Is This What Death Feels Like?

Ugh. Going back to bed.

BUT—wanted to let all of you know that I am being interviewed tomorrow, Friday, for Sarah M. Eden’s I Need Friends Friday.

It was lotsa fun. Back when I was alive.

So I, in my alter-identity, was catching up on a back-log in my Google Reader when I came across this:

Finding GOOD LDS Fiction…Enter, LDS Publisher

And, no. I didn’t have to pay her for that. I didn’t even know she was going to post about me.

(Thanks, Josi. You and all of your commenters are my new BFFs.)

Now that comments here have to be accepted before they display, I’m reading them before approving them.

Some of the comments coming in on the stories are just mean. Shame on you!

Critque is fine and you don’t have to like everything. It’s okay to point out weaknesses and things that didn’t work for you but I’m not going to put through comments that are cruel, calling stories “tripe” or writers “the most untalented hack I’ve ever read.”

Ain’t happenin’ here.

UPDATED COMMENTS IN RED.

Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool printed book person or a cutting-edge digital connoisseur, there is one truth that must be faced.

Ebooks are here to stay.

No, they’re not a fad.

Yes, they’ll change and morph. Various e-readers will go in and out of style. But they’re here.

Deal with it.

MAKE YOUR BOOKS AVAILABLE IN E-FORMATS!

(I say that in the most respectful way possible, while yelling at my computer.)

In my opinion, here are a few mistakes that LDS publishers are making:

• They don’t have their books available in any ebook format.
  I did a spot check from the 2009 LDS Fiction list and only about 1/4th of the titles I checked are available on Amazon as Kindle files. (None of my spot check books were available for Sony, the second largest ebook reader.) (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.)

  This is just—erm—dumb. It isn’t that hard to convert your press files to ebooks. Really. It’s an extra income stream with very little investment—and that income stream is only going to grow. It’s also a great way to keep your backlist titles available without reprinting.

• They have (some) ebooks, but they’re exclusive to ONE reader.
  Why? I just don’t get that. The Nook is doing great sales, but it hasn’t surpassed the other two main readers yet. By giving them exclusivity to your titles, you’re limiting your readership. A lot. Maybe you were offered a sweeter deal for exclusivity, but IMHO, I just don’t think it will be worth it in the long run.
• They have ebooks but they’re the same price as the print books.
  What?!? My jaw hit the floor when I saw this last week. No, no, no. You just can’t do that. Well, I guess you can if you want to, but I won’t be buying any of them.

  Ebooks should be $9.99 or less. (My vote is less because really, once you’ve created the file you have NO PRINT or STORAGE COSTS, NO RISK of having thousands of copies sitting in the warehouse that don’t sell.) (I wish I could link to an example but when I went back to Amazon, I couldn’t find it. If you know of an example, put the link in the comments section.)

Now that most of the readers make their software available FOR FREE for PCs, iPhones and other smart phones, even more readers will be purchasing ebooks.

Publishers need to join the 21st century and make their titles available to all readers.

Okay. Go ahead. Argue with me.

This question was in the comments for this post:

I do have a question, though, about swearing in LDS fiction. Maybe it’s because I now live in Australia where many members use the “milder” swear words, or maybe it’s that I’ve seen some of those words in a few books I bought from or seen sold in Deseret. But I’m curious as what words (if any) would pass the LDS censor?

I’m about 85% finished with my first novel and am hoping to market it to the LDS market as well, so I’d love to figure this one out.

I can’t really answer that because there is no “LDS censor”—at least, no single individual or committee or even guidelines. It will vary from publisher to publisher, and some publishers have different standards depending on the type or genre of book, or the imprint the book is published under.

I can live with the words used in the Bible (d—, h—) used judiciously and sparingly. If you have a few of those in your novel, and the publisher doesn’t approve, they’ll strike them out. (As I did with one of the stories in Stolen Christmas—it wasn’t really a swear word, but use of the name of deity in a way I felt would offend our target reader.)

My advice is do your research and read through what your publisher of choice is currently putting out. Are there any swear words in their latest releases? If so, feel free to use those words in your book. If not, clean it up. Or follow the adage, “when in doubt, leave it out.”

Personally and professionally, I like the suggestion of having your character “curse under his breath” or even something like, “she threw a string of curse words at me that would have made a sailor blush” or whatever. You get the idea.

(And to whichever Anon out there who wants me to be perfect. . . I know my example of the blushing sailor is cliché and I should come up with something really clever and unique but, y’know, I’m in a hurry and I do this for free and I’m behind on a deadline. Sorry.)

Before we get too far into the year, I want to request some help for the LDS Fiction site.

I try really hard to track down new fiction releases by LDS authors but at the end of each year I find I’ve missed quite a few. So. . . help, please.

If you are an LDS author and you have a novel scheduled for release in 2010—let me know.

Now.

I’ll get you on the calendar on or near your release date.

Thanks so much!

I already tweeted this, but I think it bears repeating and elaborating. Over the weekend, I read a book that was chosen as the January read for a book club I’m in. (No, I’m not telling you the book club and no, you can’t join. Start your own and maybe I’ll join that one too. Or maybe I’ll start the LDSP book club. . .)

Anyway, this was a national suspense. The author sells well. I was wary going in because I knew there’d be language and probably loose morals. I was right. Lots of language and a couple of pages I had to skip due to explicitness. I usually only give these books one chapter but it was chosen by a very close friend and I knew she’d ask me about it, so I read—or rather skimmed—the whole thing.

What a waste of my precious time!

First, it was completely predictable and LAME. There were none of the twists and turns that Stephanie Black is so good at.

The characterization was flat; no sassy and unique heroines like Josi Kilpack creates.

The plot was pretty straight forward—no loops and subplots like Betsy Brannon Green gives us.

We knew right up front who the good guys were, who the bad guys were, and pretty much how it was going to end. No red herrings like Gregg Luke throws in our path.

And unlike Traci Abramson, Lynn Gardner, Ronda Hinrichsen, Jennie Hansen, Tristi Pinkston, and most of the other LDS mystery/suspense writers, this woman kept me on edge—not in a good way—never knowing when I was going to have to skip a swear word or jump past a detailed sex scene. (Picture me shuddering over that.)

But the biggest outrage was when the hero says that he likes the heroine because she has morals—as proven by the fact that AFTER they were intimate (mere hours after they meet up), she is worried over the idea that he might be married or have a girlfriend.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!?

Seriously.

So, a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to you LDS authors out there who write intriguing suspense without all the crud in it.

Update: Had last minute scheduling changes. Won’t be at my computer tomorrow. The book cover finalists are already posted in the sidebar but voting doesn’t go live until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. Also set to go live at that time are posts with the images of the covers and voting instructions.

Wasn’t planning to post today but I got an email from Amazon.com and I wanted to try it out. This is so totally cool!!

If you blog using Blogger AND you have an Amazon Associates account (both of which are free), you can now do the Amazon links from within Blogger.

First you have to activate it HERE. It puts a little widget thingee next to your Post box.

Then you simply type in the title or whatever and highlight it.

For example, let’s say I’m talking about Stolen Christmas…easy peasy linky love.

or I can make it post an image for Stolen Christmas too.

The only downside that I can see is you have to use Blogger’s new stupid updated editor—which doesn’t give you as much control over things (like image manipulation) as the old editor did.

But still, you can easily switch back and forth between the two editors in your Settings panel faster than you can go to Amazon, find the product, create the link, etc.

Final verdict: It’s cool.