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I have a writer friend who says he plans to start hiding $20 bills in his manuscripts as a test to see if the editor is really reading it. He’s going to note exactly what page he tucked that bill into and if it hasn’t moved when the manuscript returns, he will know it wasn’t even read. What do you think about that?

He may call it a test, I call it a bribe–and it is a silly idea on so many levels.

1. Ethical editors will not accept money like this. So if he gets his manuscript back with the money removed, all he’s done is found someone he shouldn’t do business with. If I were to get a submission with a $20 tucked between the pages, it would stay right there exactly as I found it. I’d also stop reading when I found it and reject the manuscript. I refuse to work with someone who a) doesn’t trust me; and b) thinks this is appropriate and professional behavior.

2. Most rejected manuscripts DON”T get read all the way through. Many, many times I can tell within the first couple of pages that it’s not what I’m looking for. Why would I bother to read any more? I am looking for manuscripts to publish. I am not a free reading service.

3. Assuming I do read all or even most of the manuscript, does your friend think it stays all nice and neat in the box or envelope as I read it? No. I grab a chunk of papers and take it with me–to the doctor, parent-teacher conferences, running errands, etc. A $20 bill could easily fall out without my even noticing it.

4. He better make sure he includes a SASE for the return manuscript. If he doesn’t, and I don’t read far enough to find the money, the manuscript goes into the trash bin–$20 and all.

5. Has he never heard of things getting lost in the mail? Packages getting damaged and opened?

Tell your friend that his $20 would be far better spent on a subscription to Writers Digest magazine.

About a year ago I submitted a manuscript to a publisher who seemed very excited about it. They assigned me some rewrites and we agreed I’d work on them for the next 6 months or so and then resubmit the changes this fall. But when I contacted them about resubmitting, suddenly they’re not so excited anymore. If fact, I think I was just politely told, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

I don’t understand what happened? If it was timing, why didn’t they tell me they wanted it sooner? Now what do I do with this manuscript?

So many things can happen in six months. Maybe the market changed and sales for books that are similar to yours dropped. Maybe their competition published something that was just too similar to it. Maybe the person who was really behind your book left the company and the person replacing them is just lukewarm. Maybe there’s someone new in the budgeting department and they’ve decided the numbers aren’t right.

All of these things are out of your control–and you will probably never know which of these reasons apply to your situation. But one thing you do know: at some point, an editor or publisher really liked your work. That’s the silver lining. So take a deep breath. Do your best imitation of Doris Day singing, “Que sera, sera.” Then move on.

What do you do with your manuscript? Send it to another publisher.

Comments only counted as a vote if they specifically stated a variation of “I vote for this one.” Nice chatty comments without a clear vote indication did not count.

We have a two-way tie between
Entry #1 submitted by Ghost Writer
and
Entry #3 submitted by FHL.

If Ghost Writer and FHL want to identify themselves, feel free to do so–either in the comments trail, or let me know via e-mail the name you want posted and I’ll update the posts.

After reading a comment from FHL, I’ve googled everything I can think of to find a page-a-day writing prompt calendar. I’ve come up empty handed. Hmmm…maybe I should publish one.

Let me know if anyone finds one. E-mail the URL address to me and I’ll post it for everyone.

UPDATE TO THIS POST:
I was talking to a colleague about this. We both think it’s an incredibly good idea. So FHL, and others, if someone were to create a writing prompt calendar with a prompt a day, which format would you prefer:

1. Traditional hang on the wall, month at a glance calendar, with a new prompt in each square. (There would be no room for writing appointments.)

2. A table top one day at a time calendar, like the vocabulary building ones (click on the “click for other item views” link under the image; then click on “Back Cover Image”)

3. A day planner type bound calendar, with a writing prompt at the top instead of a quote.

How much are novel submissions censored to fit LDS “standards”? Do most publishers censor similar to Church magazines or are they more open to situations outside traditional LDS values?

Depends on the publishing company. Some are very circumspect in the topics and treatments that they will consider for publication. Others, though few in number, are willing to take on non-traditional treatments. You can easily tell which is which by a quick browse of their website or reading a few of the books they’ve previously published.

Also, for most LDS publishers, it’s not so much a case of censoring what doesn’t fit LDS standards, as promoting and selecting items which do fit those standards. I know that’s a small distinction to those attempting to sell manuscripts which explore things outside the LDS box, but it’s a distinction that is important to me.

I only received 4 submissions and they are all posted. Since there are so few, only vote once.

To vote, type “I vote for this one” in the comments trail. You can elaborate on why you liked it if you want.

Q: Where does Jack Sparrow go for Halloween?

A: To the Scaribbean!

Wow, that was easy to keep under 500 words! =)

What am I doing here, alone in a corn maze?

I came with a couple of old friends who are trying to cheer me up. I’ve been in a dark mood for the past couple of weeks, since my girlfriend was killed. I thought that coming out here might lift my spirits.

It isn’t working. Personally, I blame Devin, the new friend Chris and Sean had started hanging out with recently. I couldn’t say exactly why, but there was something about him that made me uneasy. They brought him along on this trip and, instead of walking with me, the three of them are out lurking in the shadows trying to scare other corn walkers. Alone, I start thinking about the past.

Katie and her roommate were on their way home from the grocery store. No one knows why they pulled off the road on that stretch of deserted highway. Their bodies were found a short ways into the neighboring woods. Identification would have been difficult, if not for the car. The few details from Katie’s family suggested the girls had been ravaged by bears, but they sounded skeptical. The Sheriff’s Office continued to investigate, but hadn’t come to any solid conclusions.

Looking around the cornfield, I wonder how far I could go without running into anyone else. And really, what would stop me from just picking a direction and going between the corn stalks until I emerge? I stare at the dark sky and wonder again why I’m here.

A short while later, Chris and Sean catch up to me and ask if I have seen Devin. Apparently, he had gone to retrieve something from the car and hadn’t returned. Getting no response from me, they race back into the corn forest.

After a bit, I think I hear a low growl in the darkness. I know my mind must be playing tricks. I strain to hear more. I hear crashing stalks from behind me and another, louder growl. I can feel my heartbeat thudding in my neck as it races in fear. For just a moment, I wonder if my friends are playing a cruel prank on me, but then I see a pair of glowing eyes, much too close.

My first thought is to run, but I can’t seem to break the connection with those menacing eyes. My mouth opens, but no sound comes out as if my breath decided to run when I didn’t. I close my eyes and will this apparition, caused by my dark thoughts and lost sleep, to vanish. After a moment, I squint at the ground in front of me and see a pair of shaggy feet and … blue jeans above them? I look up and see Devin, wearing contact lenses and holding a baseball bat. I angrily get up and lunge at him when he swings the bat at me! My last thought before blacking out is that there’s a realistic looking bear claw on the end of the bat…

The Ruthless Grave
by Melanie Goldmund

It was Halloween, and Jeannie was trying to get out of a grave. Not hers – she hoped it wouldn’t come to that – but the open grave she’d fallen into when she’d tried to take a shortcut across the old cemetary. She’d already tried to climb up, but it hadn’t worked, and she’d fallen back in. Now she spread her arms and legs to shimmy up the sides of the grave like she’d done with doorways when she was a kid. The grave, however, seemed wider than those doorways, and Jeannie could tell that middle-age and motherhood had taken its toll on her body. She put all her strength into one last effort, but finally had to drop back to the bottom.

“Blast it all,” she snarled, angry at her son, Kyle, who was responsible for Jeannie’s predicament. Just as dusk had fallen and the trick-or-treaters had started to come out, Jeannie had discovered that her stash of Halloween candy had been reduced to three empty bags.

“Oh, was that for Halloween?” Kyle had asked in mock innocence. “Ooops.”

To make things worse, Kyle had had to leave just then, and Jeannie hadn’t even had the chance to demand that he go to the store and replace what he’d eaten. Instead, with the rest of her family out at various places, she’d been forced to go herself.

At the store, the cashier had given her glow-in-the-dark mummy costume a double take, then grinned. “Thought you were my mother-in-law, come back to haunt me. She always insisted that I call her Mummy Dearest.”

Jeannie had still been in a good mood then, so she’d laughed at the pun. Now she wished she’d dressed up as Teddy from Arsenic and Old Lace, complete with shovel, so that she could dig her way to freedom. Resigned to using her fingers, she began to scratch out hand- and footholds.

She was still clawing at the first hole when there was a screech and a whump from behind her. Somebody else had fallen in! Straightening up, she turned around, but before she could speak, she heard a whisper of horror.

“Ruth?”

“Help me,” Jeannie started to say, but the person let out a scream that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight. The heavy breathing turned into panicked gasps, and there were scrabbling sounds as he literally went up the wall.

“Come back!” Jeannie shouted. “Don’t leave me here alone!”

But whoever it was had gone, and Jeannie was left to continue digging by herself.

The next evening, Jeannie read a story in the evening paper about a man who’d turned himself in to the police, asking for protection from his wife, whom he’d killed ten years before. He claimed that her ghost had lured him into an open grave and tried to drag him down to the underworld with her. Jeannie sat back with a shiver.

The man’s wife had been named Ruth.

Guilt. It consumed him.

He knew now he shouldn’t have done it but, at the time he wasn’t thinking.

Oh, some people would excuse his actions as a fit of passion but the fact was, he wanted to. He’d heard about people who’d done similar things. They showed it in movies and talked about it on the pages of books.He always wondered what it would be like. What it would feel like.

Now he knew exactly what it felt like.

It felt awful.

Worse, he knew his actions were even affecting his appearance. Some choices you just couldn’t hide, but he needed to try.

Carefully he washed his hands, then scoured the sink. That finished he moved through the rest of the house, cleaning up the evidence of his ‘fit’ before his wife and children returned home from trick-or-treating. He didn’t want them to find out. They’d be shocked, hurt, angered.

He could just imagine the looks on their faces.

How could he have done such a thing?

With his stomach in knots he gathered up the last of the proof and took it outside to the trash. Carefully he buried it beneath the dinner refuse.

Walking in the back door, he heard the front door open. Excited shouts filled the air. They were home early. Maybe, if he didn’t act different…

Forcing himself to face his family, he moved down the hall and past the bathroom. He turned to look at his disheveled reflection in the mirror and grant himself a moment of self-loathing. Then he saw, with horror, a hideous stain still on his face. Evidence! Frantic he darted to the sink, turned on the water and scrubbed at the tell-tale sign.

His wife appeared in the doorway. “Why did you turn off all the lights, dear? Trick-or-treaters won’t come if the house is dark.”

A princess bounded into the room, toting her crown and a bag of goodies. “We got so much candy, Daddy!” she exclaimed, and dumped it on the bathroom rug.

A vampire squeezed in next. “Yeah, it was great, Dad! We got JoJo Balls and Chocolate Bursts.” Dracula looked into his bag, taking inventory. “I even got six packages of Fruit Chews, some cinnamon gum and licorice sticks, only nobody had any Peanut Crunches.” His fangs and bloody makeup frowned, but only momentarily. With delight, he looked up at his father. “Where are our Peanut Crunches, Dad?”

The princess jumped up from her treasures. “Yeah! We bought three bags.”

Three bags? The number horrified him.

Had he really eaten all three bags?

Deep in his stomach, he felt the answer rumbling. He’d turned off the porch light, taken the entire bowl of Peanut Crunches to the living room, turned on a Halloween show and stayed there eating one after another until the bowl was filled with empty wrappers and chocolate and peanut crisps littered the couch and covered his fingers.

Candy. He’d consumed it all.

Time is running out to send something for the Halloween contest. I said I’d post the top 10, but I haven’t received 10 yet. So pretty much, if you send it, it gets posted.

This does not have to be a major composition. And the 500 word count is the MAX. Minimum word count: 2.

We’re not going for polish in this one. We’re having fun. So send me a joke, a story, an essay. Everything goes.

I get some pretty good comments about this blog–but I don’t always get them here. I get them in my e-mail. And it’s really too bad because sometimes other readers could benefit (and my ego certainly would also) from seeing the comment. Case in point, the comment left on yesterday’s blog by Rob Wells. Great link, great info.

When I get a comment in my e-mail, I will ask the sender if I can post them to the comments trail here. Frequently, I get no reply to that request.

I know it says in my blog info that I will repost e-mailed comments here anonymously, but I just don’t have time. So please, if you want to make a comment about the blog, please, please, please do it in the comments trail.

(P.S. I read every single comment posted here.)

I’m in high school. If I wanted to write a book someday, where would I start now?

1. Write something creative every day. This can be a journal, a blog, letters, stories, poems–anything, as long as you do it regularly and use your imagination.

2. Take any creative writing classes that your school or community offers. You may or may not learn how to write well there, but you will be “forced” to write creatively on a schedule. Also pay attention in your grammar and spelling lessons.

3. Read LOTS. While you read, pay attention to what works for you and what doesn’t work. Does the dialog sound corny? Why? How would you write it differently? Does a character really intrigue you? What about the way the character was described really captivated you? Take notes. Then practice those techniques.

4. Write, write, write–wherever you can. Join the newspaper staff or set small writing goals for yourself. At Writers Digest, they have a daily writing prompt. Do those. Practice writing in different styles and genres.

5. Build a support group. Don’t let anyone talk you out of writing. If your friends and family aren’t supportive, then stop sharing your writing with them. Find a network of other writers who will support you and cheer you on. I like latterday authors and I think there are a couple of teenagers who post on that.

6. At some point, look at getting published. Local papers will sometimes publish columns from a teen perspective. Submit to magazines for teens. Read blogs and forums and books that talk about how to publish.

Most importantly, if you love to write, WRITE! Don’t give up on your dream. And good luck.

This was sent for the contest, but I couldn’t wait to post it.

Okay, here’s a quick joke then:
Q: Where does Jack Sparrow go for Halloween?
A: To the Scaribbean!

Wow, that was easy to keep under 500 words! =)
FHL

I’m trying to decide what to be for Halloween. I was thinking Dead Publisher might be fun. White face, teased out hair with rotting leaves in it, broken horn-rimmed glasses, red pen behind the ear, elbow patched and moth-eaten sweater, a huge armful of papers and manuscripts…

No, too much like real life.

Some of you have asked for a description of my typical work day. I haven’t written about it because there isn’t one. Maybe that’s because I’m not a very well-organized person. Even though I’m highly attracted to the allure of structure and regimen, I rarely am able to live by it more than a few minutes.

But since I can’t think of anything to write about—and I currently have a dearth of questions from you guys—here goes.

Depending on what I’m doing, sometimes I go in to the office to work; sometimes I telecommute and work from home. Today is a work from home day, partly because I want to catch up on some query and manuscript reading. That’s easier to do at home, where I have easy access to hot chocolate and candy. Plus I can scrunch up on my couch and hang my head backward over the edge of the seat. This position sends plenty of blood to my brain, facilitating good solid literary analysis and encouraging hair growth.

7:00 a.m.—Start my work day. Check my e-mail to see if any of my authors have like, gone crazy or something over the weekend. No. Good. But I have 6 spam messages, a potential author checking on my progress in reading their manuscript, and a tirade from my daughter arguing about who was right: dooce or Kensington. Just as I’m about to hit send on my reply to both author and daughter, my internet goes down. Unplug and replug everything and messages go out. Then I take a kid to school.

8:00 a.m.—Go to open submissions file (Excel) where I track who sent what and when and all that, and I hit the Word icon instead. That’s okay, because I wrote some rejection letters over the weekend and I need to print them out and mail them anyway. However, instead of bringing up an empty document file, it brings up a file I backed up last time I used it. That’s weird. I click on the Open New icon and it brings up another copy of that same file. Again. And again. Uh-oh. Do I have a virus? Run my virus software while filing some contracts and organizing my desk. Nothing shows up. Can’t deal with this, so I’ll just ignore it.

9:00 a.m.—These aren’t the rejection letters I wrote last weekend. I think I mailed these already. Not sure. Now here’s a dilemma. Do I print and send and hope I didn’t do that already? (Note: If everyone sent a SASE, it would be easy to match them up and figure this out. Look at log. Neither of these authors sent a SASE.)

9:05 a.m.—Phone rings. Confirming an appointment later this week.

9:10 a.m.—Phone rings. An author who has been working on a new book for the past 6 years tells me they’ve decided they don’t want to finish it. They have lots of really good reasons. And lots of ideas of what they want to write instead. Whatever. Send me an e-mail.

9:30 a.m.—Leave for doctor’s appointment. The other reason I am working from home today. 🙁

11:30 a.m.—Back home. Okay, which item in this vast pile of slush do I need to look at next? Do a fast sort into “Rejections” and “Maybes”. Okay, ready to start…

11:45 a.m.—Phone rings. Another author: Where is my royalty check? Shouldn’t it have arrived by now? I really, really needed it by this weekend or… (Like I can just wave my magic wand and get it to them.) Okay, I’ll see what I can do. (Wish my mother had not ingrained courtesy and politeness so deeply into my psyche.)

Check in at the office. Checks are going out tomorrow. Get involved in some other conversations with office staff. Get sidetracked by a printing project that was supposed to be finished today and is not. Have no idea when they will be done.

That reminds me of another project I need to finish. Darn! Completely forgot about that one. Well, they aren’t on the phone yelling at me yet, so maybe I have some time.

1:45 p.m.—Author calls again: Have I found out about the royalty checks yet? Listen to financial woes. Wish I could tell them my own financial woes. Could match her toe to toe, and then some—I’ve got teenagers and kids in college and my husband is home from his job today because his car won’t start…

2:00 p.m.—Where is that reading pile? Now, where was I? Should I read first, or write more rejections? Drop my pen and bang my head on the desk picking it up. Throw pen across the room. Throw a couple of other things too, just for fun. What is wrong with me? Oh yeah, it’s way past lunch time. I tend to get cranky when my blood sugar is low.

2:45 p.m.—During my lunch break, my daughter called from the dentist’s office. She had to have a root canal this morning because she fell at work a few weeks ago and banged her mouth on the trash can. Turns out, the tooth died and is turning dark. That stress just sucked up all the sugar I had from lunch! And I’m out of candy.

3:00 p.m.—Phone rings. Another author: Do you have my press kit ready yet? And have you talked to XYZ Bookstore? Are they going to let me do a signing? And what about this conference on Saturday? (This is the first time she’s mentioned it to me) Are you going to be there? Are you going to have a booth and FEATURE ME? I try to explain that it will cost me $200 between booth rental and man hours to be at that conference and the chances of me selling more than two of her books is worse than the proverbial snowball’s. She’s mad.

3:41 p.m.—Teen-age daughter is home from school. Wants to borrow my copy of The Scarlet Letter because the school’s copy is falling apart. I have to check five bookcases before I find it.

3:45 p.m.—Pick up the packet that is on top of my stack of unread submissions, start reading.

3:47 p.m.—Phone rings. It’s the printer about that job that’s not done. What kind of paper did I want for the cover? (The same kind we’ve used the last four times we’ve had you print it!!!)

4:05 p.m.—Where was I. Oh yes, page 1, second paragraph.

4:11 p.m.—Phone rings. Another author. Proposing another book idea. Okay, let’s see…we’ve published one book by you. It’s doing okay. But I’d really like to see the other three proposals you’ve already run past me before you hit me with this fourth one. Yes, I know you’re creative. Yes, I know you have so many ideas you can’t sit still and work on any one of them. Fine. Whatever. Send me that proposal too—if you ever get it done.

4:25 p.m.—Page two, first paragraph. Good thing I read really fast. Too bad this one isn’t going to make it.

5:00 p.m.—Daughter drops by the house to show me her newly root-canalled tooth. She can see a difference between the lovely shade of off white of her still good front tooth and the lovely shade of off white of her now dead front tooth right next to it. I can’t. She turns on a light. Then another one. I still can’t see a difference. Daughter leaves to go back to college. I won’t see her again until December.

5:20 p.m.—Phone rings. Another author. Geez, I give up. Move the slush piles from my desk back to the cabinet while she’s talking. Finish filing the rest of the paperwork from earlier while she’s talking. Look at my calendar and update my To Do list while she’s talking. (If you’re wondering why I don’t just hang up, it’s because she’s my current best-seller and I’m listening to her worries about the book she’s working on now. Whatever it takes to get that next book.)

6:00 p.m.—Start writing this blog.

6:15 p.m.—Teen-age daughter walks into my office and with a dramatic sigh falls down in the doorway. She hasn’t moved in the past 15 minutes. I think she’s trying to tell me that she needs some attention. Or that she likes The Scarlet Letter almost as much as I do.

I did four posts yesterday. How did that happen? Blame it on jet lag, I guess.

So I’m taking it easy today. No big discussions. Just another contest you can enter (after you’ve entered something for mine, that is).

In last week’s free FFW Small Markets newsletter (sign up at FundsforWriters), they mentioned the following contest:

HAVE YOU ENTERED YET? FUNDSFORWRITERS ANNUAL CONTEST. 70 entries so far. Imagine that…you have several chances in 70 to win a prize. Where are you going to find odds like that? Also, this year we are surprised to see that half are paid entry fee submissions and half are no entry fees. Do the math. You have one chance in 35 to win $150? Where do you have an opportunity like that?

www.fundsforwriters.com/annualcontest.htm

(If you can’t get this link to work, copy and paste it into your URL address line.)

And while you’re there, surf around her site. It’s got lots of cool stuff on it.

I’m bored. Time for another contest. This time it’s a Halloween short story contest.

Rules:
Write a short short story suitable for Halloween.

Maximum word count: 500

Paste entire story into an e-mail and send to me.

SUBMIT it any time between now and Thursday, October 26th.

I will pre-select the top 10 stories and post those by Saturday, October 28th.

Then you VOTE between October 29th and October 31st.

Winner will be announced after Halloween.

Prize: bragging rights.

Back to contracts and some serious stuff: the right to first refusal.

This keeps coming up, so even though I’ve discussed it here and here, I’m going to talk about it again.

What’s fair?

I’m sure that there will be both publishers (who feel they have the right to all of their authors’ future stuff) and authors (who feel they should be able to shop each new piece to the highest bidder) will disagree with me. But in MY opinion, fairness of first refusal falls into three categories: number of future works, category of future works, and length of enforcement.

Number of future works
Fair: a specified number of future works; as in ONE, perhaps two. The exception to this is if you are selling a series. In that case, the number of books in the series—but make sure it spells out that it only applies to the books in that series. Other books are up for grabs.

NOT Fair: More than two; more than one series.

Category of Future Works
Fair: The next novel in the same genre.

NOT Fair: Every genre that you might consider writing in, including non-fiction.

Length of Enforcement
Fair: Two to three years (because sometimes it takes an author that long to write their next novel.)

NOT Fair: More than three years.

All three of these categories need to be addressed and balanced in your contract. If they aren’t, ask for clarification.

Now, I know that many authors want to get rid of this clause entirely. I understand—really, I do. But from a publisher’s perspective, let’s say I have two authors and, all other things being equal, one of them is looking at me with “long-term relationship” burning in their eyes, while the other one wants to “keep their options open.”

If it was your $10—$15 grand (or more) going into the project, which one would you ask to the prom?

WARNING: RATED PG-13 for Violence

I regularly read Kristen Nelson’s blog. (She’s a national literary agent.) Today she linked to a blog by Jenny Rappaport, also an agent. Jenny then linked to another blogger who didn’t like what she had said. You are free to read these blogs at your leisure, but the content is not what I’m posting about.

Scroll down to the cartoon at the bottom of the first comment of this blog.

Well, it is Halloween.

And yes, I am warped.

But I did warn you.

Can you describe the publishing process–from the time the author submits a manuscript until it shows up on the bookstore shelves?

Geez, you want a book! And this is a blog. But okay, I’m game. Here it is in a nutshell. (Some of these items are done concurrently–for example, cover design and promo plans are developed while author is doing rewrites, etc.)

Manuscript arrives on editors desk, where it sits to wait its turn to be read.

Editor reads manuscript and likes it.

Editor sends it to company readers and gets analysis back.

Editor creates a proposal for the book which includes things like a profit and loss estimate, marketing hooks, why the company should publish it, etc., etc.

Editor has meeting with various departments and they yell and scream and throw things at each other until finally, someone gives in and the manuscript is officially accepted. (These steps can take 6 months or longer.)

Contract is sent to author. Author dances around the room in ecstasy. Contract is reviewed by author’s attorney and/or other financial/legal advisors. Points are negotiated between author and publisher. Contract is signed and returned to publisher. (This step better take you at least a week or you haven’t done enough homework.)

Manuscript is sent back to the author with rewrite suggestions. (Actually, they are rewrite commandments or the contract might be voided.)

“Finished” manuscript is submitted to publisher.

Manuscript is edited.

Manuscript is typeset.

Cover is designed. Manuscript given a new title (probably). Back blurbs written.

Marketing and advertising plans are developed.

Promotionals start. Advance sales are made.

Final pre-press check is done.

Manuscript sent to press.

Finished books arrive at warehouse.

Pre-sells shipped to bookstores and books are placed on shelves.

Total Elapsed Time: 1 to 2 years

Now the work really begins…

I am going on a trip. I will be taking my laptop with me, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out how to make everything work correctly. So if it seems like I’ve dropped off the edge of the world for the next week, I have not. I’ve only dropped off the edge of the Internet–and I will be back.

What would you suggest as the top three most effective ways for an author to promote his or her books?

Some authors feel they can’t do much to promote their book because they can’t afford a big ad or book signing tour, but that’s not the case. The three items I’ve listed below can be done free or for very little expense. They do, however, take a commitment of time, energy and creativity.

1. Establish a quality web presence–this can be a website or blog or both. The best ones are frequently updated and have things that entice a reader to visit–like contests, newsletters, freebies. Absolutely have one that will let visitors sign up to receive messages and announcements from you. This is a good way to get news out about personal appearances and new releases. There are several free web hosting companies, and blogspot (this site) is free.

2. Make personal/virtual appearances–not just book signings. Go talk to church groups, schools, libraries. Even if you only do these within a 30 mile radius of your home, it will still help you to establish a readership. Create a platform or get behind a good cause that you believe in. When you speak in support of your cause, have your book mentioned in your introduction. Join a variety of online forums and participate regularly, using a signature that mentions your book and links to an online store where the reader can purchase it. The more that people see you, hear you, read you, make a personal and positive connection to you, the more likely they are to buy your book.

3. Tell everyone you know about your book. Don’t be embarassed–be enthused. Mention it in your Christmas letter. Give your book as birthday and Christmas gifts to your family and close friends. Carry business cards or bookmarks and hand them out whenever you see old friends and acquaintances. Strike up conversations with strangers and when they ask what you do, whip out your BC or bookmark and give it to them.

If you’re proud of your book and excited about it, let that bubble over and infect everyone you come in contact with. Your enthusiasm is THE most effective way to promote your book.

I’ve noticed that the majority of LDS suspense novels have a strong romantic subplot. If there isn’t much romance in my book, will this hurt my chances in the LDS market? Do readers demand romance?

Traditionally, the LDS fiction customer is female. LDS women who prefer romance novels have increasingly turned to LDS romance as a replacement for national romance which is becoming more sensual. LDS publishers have tried to satisfy this demand for clean romance.

LDS readers who prefer other genres have not really moved to LDS fiction simply because very little exists in other genres. As LDS publishers move into other genres with quality, well-written stories, they will attract other readers. While romance may be leading the pack right now, I think it’s just a matter of time before the demand for other genres, including stories without much romance, catch up.