78–Writer’s Digest Conference Open for Registration!

At Last! The Next Iteration of the Writer’s Conference that Changed Everything for Me! (http://www.writersdigestconference.com/)

If this is the first time you’ve stopped by this blog, I invite you to check out the November 4, 2009 blog launch posting (https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/hello-world/). That original post (and the decision to start a blog in the first place) was a direct byproduct of my attending the first annual Writer’s Digest Conference held in New York City in September of last year (2009).

When I checked into the hotel on the first day of the conference, I had not yet finished my second novel (Separation of Faith, released last month, September 2010), nor did I have a clue about the realities of the publishing business/world today–a reality that changes almost moment-by-moment. Like so many other writers I’ve met over the years, I still believed that continuing to write and send out those “carefully crafted” query letters would eventually get me where I wanted to go on my publishing Journey.

But since I didn’t understand the new realities of the world I was trying to enter with my novels, I also didn’t understand what would be the best way for me to proceed with my second novel, given my personal goals and my stage in life. Well, the blog post on November 4, 2009 outlines the revelations and shifts in my Journey’s direction after I’d spent three days at that conference.

In a nutshell: 1) Everything I’d been thinking/planning changed, and 2) I was shot out of a cannon when I left the conference, with a clearer direction about what I wanted and needed to do than I’d had in decades. I reordered absolutely everything I was doing the day after I returned home.

This blog has followed every single step of those changes and the subsequent unfolding of the Plan, including the things that went smoothly and those that didn’t. In short, though, the second novel is not only finished and released, but there’s already been recognition for editorial excellence, which emerged  in the process of that conference as one of the keys–if not the key–to a successful book. Getting to that level of editorial quality took almost a year, but there wasn’t an option, as far as I was concerned. You can read all about that whole editing struggle, if you feel like perusing the posts in this blog since last November.

You’ll also read about how I started blogging in the first place, a process about which I knew absolutely nothing, but something else that wasn’t optional for me after that conference. The same was true for my entire approach to the whole social media thing in general. (Again, the November 4, 2009 post will lay everything out for you—https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/hello-world/.)

The New Conference–January 21-23, 2011  

Writer’s Digest did not have their second annual conference this year due to scheduling issues, much to my disappointment, but delayed the event until January 2011. I’ve been watching for registration to open for the last month–and needless to say, I’m already confirmed. (Not packed yet, but soon … 🙂 …)

After more than fifteen years of trying to find my way through the publishing morass, and after attending dozens of conferences, I can honestly tell you that this one is different! If you’re a writer going after the same Dream we’re all chasing–and if you’re ready to hear/learn what it really takes to even have a shot (with an open mind to the realities that will quickly open your ears and eyes as wel)–this conference will leave you a changed person/writer at the end. And by this time next year, perhaps your own Journey will be a lot further along as a result.

If I had not attended the Writer’s Digest Conference in September 2009, none of this would be a reality for me right now:

• This blog–www.cherilaser.wordpress.com
• All of my social media connections (see the right hand column of the blog).
• www.Amazon.com (Separation of Faith under Books)
• Video Book Trailer for Separation of Faith: www.YouTube.com/cherilaser
• By the end of October, we’ll also be releasing a Second Edition of my first novel, The Truth About Cinnamon (on Amazon.com too), because of what I learned about the importance of quality editing (as important, if not more so, than the quality of the writing) at the WD 2009 conference.  

If you want the conference experience of your writing life, check out the January 2011 Writer’s Digest Conference at: http://www.writersdigestconference.com/. If you decide to attend, please let me know! I’d really love to meet you there and have some great conversations in person!

Have a Great Weekend!

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77–For Writers Just Starting to Think about Publishing

A Great Place to Start Organizing Your Thoughts

This will be a quick note to share a post published by Jane Friedman (Writer’s Digest) this morning. If you’re just beginning to consider publishing options for your work, her piece is extremely helpful in organizing thoughts and direction.

There are several “sidebar” links that take you to sub-categories, and I highly recommend that you read each of those as well, in order to get the full picture of what she’s presenting. The link on self-publishing is of particular interest and really points out the realities quite succinctly.

If you’re trying to figure out which way to go on your Journey, or if you’ve already gone one way and would like to consider going another, spend a few minutes exploring Jane’s post in depth: “I Want to Publish My Book. Now what?” http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/10/05/IWantToPublishMyBookNowWhat.aspx

Hope your week is off to a good start!

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70–Promotional Craziness

“It Was All So Different Before Everything Changed.”

Last night I was scanning through the posts written last spring and in the early summer. At that point, I was deeply focused on edits–doing them myself, waiting for the results of someone else doing them, blogging about the importance of submitting our work to professional editors, reviewing the edited proofs, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera–for both Separation of Faith and the re-edited version of The Truth About Cinnamon (which is still in the final proofing stage, by the way). And my words were directed a few times to the fact that I was growing tired of that part of the writing process and feeling anxious to move on to the next stage.

Well, here I am, in that next stage. And with my book launch party less than a week away (Thursday, September 23), this is what I’ve been doing this week:

• On Monday, I met with the printer about the T-shirts and shopping bags I’m having made for the book launch party and subsequent book events currently being scheduled in the area. The shopping/book bags (canvas) will have Separation of Faith‘s cover printed on one side. The T-shirts will have the cover on the front and the following excerpt on the back (except the paragraphs will be properly formatted, single spaced, indents on first line, no extra line space between paragraphs, none of which can be done in this blog format): 

… “Chronological order, huh? Well, that might not be as easy as you’d think. But I guess the front end musta been on Saturday, October 23, 1948.”

Isaiah put his fork down on his plate and studied Zeke’s face. “You remember the date and the day of the week?”

“That’s what I said. You got a hearing problem?”

“Is that when you met Abby?”

“Yup. Everybody’s got a fork-in-the-road story, you know. And that was mine. Got up that morning, just like always. Ate breakfast just like always too. Didn’t wear my overalls, though, ‘cause we was going into Charlotte. Put on my go-to-meeting jeans and a clean shirt that I even ironed. Guess I should a seen it coming, but I didn’t. All I know is that nothing ‘bout my life—and I mean nothing, not even the color of the damn sky—was ever the same after that day.”

• The T-shirts and bags will be for sale at a very nominal fee, but I’ll also be giving a number of them away in raffles at the book launch party. And anyone who buys three or more books will automatically get a book bag. (I’ll also be giving away a lunch with me, so we’ll have to see whether or not that’s a particularly exciting prospect for anyone. 🙂 …)
• At the local Party City store, I bought rolls of raffle/50-50 tickets. In addition to the T-shirt/book bag/lunch giveaways, I’ll also be holding a special 50-50 at my book launch party to benefit my Rotary club’s scholarship fund.
• While at Party City, I picked up a helium canister to fill the 50 balloons that will be anchored at each table. So, of course, I also had to buy the balloons and balloon anchors. The anchors are sort of a sea blue, shiny with ribbon fringe on top. The balloons are powder blue, cobalt blue, and white, all of which coordinate with the book’s cover. Three balloons (one of each color and secured with white ribbon) will be tied to the anchors on the eleven round tables plus the reception table, the book sales table, the T-shirt/bag table, and the table where I’ll sign autographs. (There will also be a podium where I’ll do a couple of quick readings at some point.)
• I picked up a big container of glitter too, to sprinkle over the white tablecloths. At the book launch party, which will be from 4:00-7:00 on the 23rd, we’ll be serving cocktail appetizers. There will be a cash bar, but every book purchase will get a free drink. The video book trailer (www.YouTube.com/cherilaser) will be playing in a loop on a huge laptop screen at the book sales table. There will be other music as well throughout the room. My current music phase is doo wop, but we’ll see how I’m feeling on the 23rd. 🙂 Pictures and videos of the event will be posted on this blog by the 25th or 26th.
• About seven hours this week were spent sending out announcement emails containing links to the video trailer and this blog. Because I’ve lived and worked all over the country and have only been here in the New York Metro area of New Jersey for ten years, the majority of people that I know personally all live somewhere else. And they’re all getting their own announcement emails, because that’s what the “experts” suggest is the best and most appropriate approach (versus a blanket email that goes out to everyone at once). Guess we’ll learn eventually if that approach turns out to be the most effective. But I must admit that it’s been giving me an opportunity to say hi to lots of folks I don’t get to talk with very often.
• Today I have to meet with a new client about an editing job (oh yeah, that make-a-living thing too) that I’ll be doing for her, and then I’ll come back to my home office to do more emails. I also need to make several signs and posters for the book launch party–and I want to make them generic enough to use at other book events. Then there will be a few phone calls to managers/proprietors of various local establishments where I want to hold events over the next month. And, finally, I’ll need to start booking my travel arrangements for the trip to San Francisco and Kettle Falls, Washington that I’ll be making in October (the first stop for an IBM reunion, and the second tied in for a book event, because Kettle Falls is a key locale in Separation of Faith).

So, last spring I’d grown itchy about moving on into the promotional elements of publishing a book, impatient with the seemingly endless process of shepherding a book through production and into print. But you know what? I haven’t even held my first event yet, and my next book is clamoring to get out of me.

True, as writers in this new age of publishing, we are all responsible for promoting our own books whether we publish traditionally or not. But, in the end, the process of writing–the nuts and bolts of our craft where we pull ideas from our imaginations and weave them into stories that bring hours of reading pleasure (hopefully) to those who take a chance on us–simply will not accept second billing beneath promotion for very long.

The next challenge will be figuring out how to create a balance than enables me to create a brand new book from scratch while selling another (actually, while selling two others) at the same time. And you’ll be in the front row while we see how all of that works out. 🙂

Have a terrific weekend!  

 

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54–Marketing & Promotion Elements of the Journey Kick In

Separation of Faith Is Almost Here!

Last week Separation of Faith, the novel that’s been tracked through this blog since the launch posting last November 4 (https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/, went into post-production where all the formatting is finalized and the printer files are established. By the end of this week, I should have in my hands the “printer copy” for the hard cover and the soft cover for one final review. These will be actual copies of the book, covers and all, and their receipt will be a hugely monumental moment! I’ll take pictures and post them for all to see!

Once I approve everything, the book will “go live,” marking the official publishing date, and the title will begin feeding into all of the online and brick-and-mortar retail outlets. That process will take another couple of weeks, and I’m not going to do any promotion until I know that the book is available everywhere. Needless to say, the next two or three weeks will be unbelievably busy as I pull what feels like millions of marketing pieces together.

The one date that I do have confirmed is my book launch party, which will be at the Hilton in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, on Thursday, September 23, from 4-7 pm. That’s when all stops will be pulled out and the Journey’s next phase will officially begin. A Calendar of Events will be added to the Web site very shortly (www.SeparationOfFaith.com), and the last quarter of the year promises to be extremely full of stuff (much of which I probably can’t even imagine yet). My second surgery (search my blog for “breast cancer” to find relevant headings in posts) will be on September 2, and that operation (part of the reconstruction process) is supposed to make me a lot more comfortable than I’ve been since the big surgery on May 4. So I should be in great shape and kicking at the gate by September 23. A high energy level will definitely be crucial.

As we’ve discussed, one of the key elements in this plan is the video book trailer, which is going to be an amazing little thriller running 90 seconds. On Tuesday July 27, I’ll be spending the better part of the day with the fellow who’s putting the thing together for me. We are very close to having a finished product, and I absolutely cannot wait to share the end result with you! In preparation, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about using video book trailers effectively, and I’ve learned that there are at least 14 different sites, in addition to YouTube, where our masterpiece will need to be loaded. As I’ve said many times since I started trying to get my arms around this octopus–Yikes!

The Focus of My Reading Lately 

Now that there is really nothing left to do to the internals of Separation of Faith, my editing focus has been on the reduction of The Truth About Cinnamon (which seems to have been going on for a millenium at this point). Right now I’m entering the changes from the last edit. When finished with that, I’ll do one more read-through on the computer–and then–YAY!–the updated manuscript will go to the publisher–hopefully by the end of July!

Since this will be a re-do agreed to by the publisher when I elected to publish Separation of Faith with them, the book will basically go directly into production. At that point, the original version (which will then become an official 1st Edition) will no longer be available for purchase anywhere. The new 2nd Edition will probably take about six weeks to go live. So, by the time I’m launching the promotion for Separation of Faith, the new Cinnamon should be available. At least, that’s the plan.

Meanwhile, in addition to thoughts about my third novel, which are beginning to gel in the spare recesses of my mind, my attention has been drawn to every blog and article I can find relative to book promotion. I thought my list of avenues to attack was fairly comprehensive as a result of the Rising Star Application (https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/48-journey-update-whew/). But there is actually a seemingly endless list, I’m discovering, of things I need to try. Looking at the whole picture is always a little overwhelming for me, so I’ll take a topic or two at a time, as they develop, and share them here like I’ve been doing with the video book trailer. The concentration on the promotional elements will begin in earnest the moment the Cinnamon edit is complete.

Some Additional Information for You

Along with things I need to learn and do for my own Journey, I continue to be on the lookout for information that I think will be helpful to you on your Journeys as well. This week I found several articles that touch on topics we’ve addressed before, but that I continue to believe are extremely important for all of us:

• Alan Rinzler, Consulting Editor at Jossey-Bass Publishing in San Francisco, wrote a post titled The Author Background Check: Cautionary Notes (http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/). This subject was one of the huge revelations that launched my blog and Journey last fall after attending the Writer’s Digest Conference in September in Manhattan. The fact that our queries of agents or editors in traditional publishing houses immediately triggers a Google search of us blew me away. Well, there are apparently lots of other checks performed as well, and since everything ever posted online about any of us remains there forever, that could be highly problematic. Decisions that affect our Journeys are frequently made based on what’s being discovered. Rinzler’s article could be very sobering for some of us who are trying to break into the traditional publishing arena. (In March, I referenced another of Rinzler’s posts on his view of self-publishing, which you might find of interest if you missed it the first time: https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/30-journey-from-publishing-obscurity/.)
• We’ve talked a whole lot about the importance of having our work edited by professionals (something I did not do, much to my regret, with my first novel). Here are three more perspectives on that subject, which has become a major hot button for me: 1) The Myth of the Evil Editor by Victoria Strauss (http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/07/myth-of-evil-editor.html); 2) A Fourth of July Lesson in the Value of Editors by writingfordigital (http://writingfordigital.com/2010/07/04/a-fourth-of-july-lesson-in-the-value-of-editors/); 3) A Good Edit Would’ve Fixed That by April L. Hamilton (http://aprillhamilton.blogspot.com/2010/06/good-edit-wouldve-fixed-that.html). The point abundantly made by all three of these is that the quality of editing in our work is as important, if not more so, than our writing, our stories, and our characters combined. And this is true whether we’re pursuing our Journeys via a mainstream route or an alternate path.
• Since I’m beginning my focus on the development of my third novel, I was drawn to Janet Fitch’s 10 Rules for Writers (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/07/janet-fitchs-10-rules-for-writers.html), which I found very useful and thought you might as well. I especially enjoyed her point #10: “Torture Your Protagonist. The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, and then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerablity and fear, the better the story. Sometimes we try to protect them from getting booboos that are too big. Don’t. This is your protagonist, not your kid.” After reading wonderful pieces like this, I begin to think that I should have my head examined for trying to compete in this business … 🙂
• Here’s another interesting take on self-publishing–My Novel: There’s An App for That! by David Carnoy (http://publishingperspectives.com/?p=17935).
• Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest posted about “New Tools for Entrepreneurial Writers” that consolidate social media input into a daily newspaper: (http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/CommentView.aspx?guid=f0aa3c49-14df-4391-82a7-a77bc90d93d4).
• And finally–and probably my favorite–Victoria Mixon, Editor, posted 6 Personality Types Who Will Succeed as Writers (http://victoriamixon.com/2010/07/13/6-personality-types-who-will-succeed-as-writers/). I encourage you to read the entire post. But I was particularly struck by her “#5. THE PATIENT: those who take their time, realizing life is long and a career in the arts takes the whole of it and even the greats never lived long enough to learn it all.”  What she goes on to write is so beautiful and so applicable to all of us that I want to end this post with her words:

“Somerset Maughm lamented it. Flannery O’Connor lamented it. You can lament it too: you will never live long enough. You can devote all the decades of your life to the craft you love and be ecstatic you did, but you will still die, like Albert Einstein, leaning out of bed with the last frail ounce of strength, grasping for a reproducable theorum of the divine.

“And you will know, as you lean, that you gave it your all, every day of your life: your passion and curiosity and love and devotion to this craft that means so much to so many but, especially, to you. And you will die grateful you had the chance, thanking heaven you stumbled on it while there was all that time to luxuriate in it … even if you became a writer only days before you died.

“It came to you–this extraordinary craft–as a free and unfettered gift, and you got to own it, for just a little while.”

Have A Great Week, Everybody!

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52–Publishing Journey Update Plus Other News

First …

Please forgive the distance between this post and my last one. I have been popping in through comments and tag surfing. But otherwise I’ve been so consumed with everything that’s going on, and with everything I’ve been learning, that the time hasn’t been available until this Saturday morning to sit down and write a post about what’s been going on and what I’ve been learning. I’m uncomfortable with this much space in between posts, and I’ll do my best not to go this long in the future.

So …

What’s Been Going on with Separation of Faith?

We’re still in the final proofing/revision stage, which is where we’ve been for about a month and a half now. The other editing stages moved along at a nice clip, but things have really slowed down to a frustrating pace at the moment. The change in momentum started when the proofreader at the publisher took a month instead of the quoted 2-3 weeks. I then had to review the proofreader’s recommendations and then accept or decline each one. In a book that will print at 300 pages, there were only 39 notations, almost half of which were formatting errors that happened when the manuscript was changed from a Word document into the publishing design. I declined five of the remaining issues, which were all semi-colon situations.

After completing that process, I had to go through the entire manuscript again because I was allowed up to 50 additional revisions/corrections, which could be as small as a punctuation mark or as large as adding a paragraph. I ended up with 48 changes, 99% of which were tiny-to-small issues, and there was only one big change where I added a paragraph to the Acknowledgments. In three cases, I added clarifying words to a sentence or reworked the wording. That entire process ate up several days.

Then I returned to the publisher the proofreader’s changes, my changes, and the required changes to the cover all in one email on June 28. The cover changes were done almost immediately, except for one error that’s currently being fixed. Yesterday (July 9, almost two weeks later) I was notified that the proofreader’s revisions had been implemented. But my 48 changes haven’t even been started yet.

There’s a big promotion through the publisher that lasts until July 30, which will enable me to purchase a large supply of my books (for submission to reviewers, contests, etc) with free shipping, a free extra 10% copies, plus substantial author discounts. But in order to take advantage of that promotion, Separation of Faith has to be live.

The editorial staff and everyone else at iUniverse as well has been unbelievably fabulous to this point, and I have every expectation that this little log jam will be unplugged come Monday. But I do admit to some frustration. This is amplified, I’m sure, by the fact that I’m going through breast reconstruction at the same time, so my patience is somewhat altered by the cement bowling balls currently attached to my chest wall … 🙂 … At least I’m getting a shape back, though. The only problem at the moment is that “they” don’t move, and if someone hugs me too hard, they get broken ribs. This situation will be rectified by my next surgery, hopefully in early September.

This sort of production issue (I’m referring to the novel again now … 🙂 …) happens all the time when a book is coming out, regardless of the publishing method. So no matter which path you’re considering (or that you’ve already selected) for your own publishing Journey, be prepared to be patient. Setting expectations levels in advance for a long gestation period is a good idea.

That said, my cover is absolutely amazing, and I can’t wait for you to see the gem. And reading through the beautiful proofed PDF, which is already in the book design format, does turn on the light at the end of the tunnel, even if the train has temporarily slowed to a crawl.

If all goes well this coming Monday and things get back on track, I could be holding my first copies of Separation of Faith in my hands by the end of this month. Considering how long we’ve been talking about that event in this blog, that is going to be one heck of a day! I will take pictures and post them here. 🙂

Once Again, Let Me Emphasize the Importance of Editing!

This sounds like a broken record, I know, but seeing the quality of my novel now, as compared to six months ago, I can’t believe I even entertained the idea that I was good enough to edit the book myself (or that any of my relatives were good enough). Professional editing makes more difference than you can imagine!

Separation of Faith has been through two editorial reviews, a copyedit, and a proofreading, each of those followed by at least one and usually two revisions cycles in which I incorporated recommendations from those edits. Yes, the steps have added months to the publishing process. And yes there was a financial investment involved along with the additional time. But when the novel is released, I will challenge any person in the traditional publishing world to tell me that this book would have been more beautifully edited coming out of a traditional house.

And because the do-it-yourself/self-publishing/print-on-demand world is so flooded with every level of book imaginable, a major key to rising about the pack and having a shot at getting noticed resides in the quality of both the writing and the editing. And some will say that the latter is more critical than the former. So even if you’re still pursuing the traditional route on your Journey, invest in having your manuscript edited before you ever start querying. The odds of getting anyone’s serious attention become slimmer by the minute without that investment.  

The Video Book Trailer for Separation of Faith

The more I study the importance of video book trailers, the more I wonder how anyone could consider publishing a book these days without a video as part of the promotion. If you’re at the stage where you’re trying to decide if one is necessary, the answer is yes. Again, this business is so competitive that trying to get attention for the book you’ve slaved over for months/years/decades is a batlle under the best of circumstances. So we all need to be automatically adding a video book trailer to our plans.

The video for Separation of Faith is about half finished. The fellow who’s helping me is a technical/video genius–but he also has a real job plus a wife and three children (ages 5, 3, and six months). So even though the video is only going to be 60-90 seconds long, we’re still only halfway there after three multiple hour sessions together and I-have-no-idea-how-many hours of individual time for both of us. I know I spent about six hours hunting down appropriate royalty free pictures to use along with others I’d already taken and collected during my initial research for the book.

The music on my video will be an original song by my tech genius, and the “script” (words across the screen) is something we’ve designed together (and is very much a work in progress still). But as this thing comes together, I literally get goosebumps on my arms thinking about this film promoting Separation of Faith being on YouTube and every other conceivable site.

There is a ton of information online to help you if you’re at the point where you need to start thinking about a video book trailer. Everyone seems to have a different formula, and the best one for you will undoubtedly be a combination of what you read, who you know, and what you can contribute yourself. But here are a few links to get you going:

• http://www.writersdigest.com/article/4-simple-steps-to-creating-a-book-trailer/
• http://letthewordsflow.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/make-a-book-trailer-in-10-easy-steps/
• http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2009/10/book-trailers-11-steps-to-make-your-own.html

Yes, there’s a lot of work involved–but boy is this part fun!

The Press Release Preparation

The actual publishing date of Separation of Faith will be the day my author copies are ready to send to me. But I will need to wait several weeks after that before officially launching my promotional campaign. That’s because of the time required for the novel to go live on all the online and traditional distribution sites.

Sending out press releases to get people excited about the book would not be a good idea if the book isn’t yet available for ordering everywhere. Even though this novel won’t actually be stocked on the shelves of book stores yet, once the title is live you’ll be able to go into any Barnes & Noble, and any other brick-and-mortar bookseller, and order a copy. And, of course, the title will be available on the major as well as minor online sites as well (not to mention my own book store on my Web site: www.SeparationOfFaith.com).

So I have some time to get all of my ducks in a row. And I’ve been studying up on press releases. Over and over again I’ve been reading that sending out a blanket press release–something identical that goes to bazillions of people–is a bad idea. Press releases need to be tailored and individualized. And since I do have a lot of categories of people/organizations to contact (see my blog post on June 18 https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/48-journey-update-whew/), I’ve begun the process of creating different versions. There are core pieces that will remain the same from one to another, but I really do see the importance of tailoring.

The press release that will go to my little local county newspapers, where I can be billed as a “local author” and already have some publicity history through my community service work, will be vastly different from a press release I’ll send to a potential reviewer. I’m not sure how many versions I’ll end up with. As many as it takes, I suppose.

Update on the Rising Star Application (also discussed in my June 18 post: https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/48-journey-update-whew/)

When I launched this blog last November 4, I promised to share the good, the bad, and the ugly involved with this Journey. Well, I was not accepted into the Rising Star Program–yet. I’ve asked for more detail regarding what was missing from my marketing and promotion plans, and hopefully that information will be forthcoming. But the important point to note is that I will automatically be reconsidered for the program as soon as 250 retail copies of Separation of Faith have been sold.

I know that doesn’t sound like very many copies, if you haven’t been “out there” trying to sell your book yet. But keep this statistic in mind: More than 90% of all books published (whether they’re published via traditional or alternate paths) sell fewer than 1000 copies total throughout the life of the book!

So, as we all hear all the time, if we’re writing because we want to make money, we’re probably in the wrong business. A tiny group of us amidst the tens of millions reaching for the dream will end up earning a few dollars–and a handful of those will eventually earn enough to make a modest living–and a handful of those will do very well–and a couple of those will become celebrities.

Now, as I say to myself almost every day, after hours of all the stuff I’m summarizing in this post, I absolutely cannot believe I’m doing this voluntarily!

At any rate, once I sell 250 copies of the new novel through retail outlets, the Rising Star option will again become available. Getting into that group would raise the realm of possibilities up a bit within the tens of millions of other dreamers on the Journey.

What’s Been Going on with the Reduction Edit for The Truth About Cinnamon?

Substantial progress is finally being made on this element of the Journey’s Plan. For those who are here for the first time, The Truth About Cinnamon was my first novel. And in preparation for the release of Separation of Faith, I’m re-editing Cinnamon, cleaning things up a bit (because I didn’t have someone hammering the editing advice into my head seven years ago) and shortening the length (all without my many Cinnamon fans knowing that anything is missiing … 🙂 …).

But this is a long novel (as first novels often are), and the effort has been huge. Plus, this part of the Plan has been secondary to getting Separation of Faith as perfect as possible. (And things were set back even further through April and May after my breast cancer diagnosis … I’m doing great, by the way). However, I’m now in the midst of a hard copy edit, and as soon as I’m finished with that effort, I’ll key in the changes, do another proofreading, and then I’ll be finished at last! Yay!

The hope is that the 2nd Edition printing of Cinnamon will somewhat coiincide with the launch of Separation of Faith’s promotion.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to check out a free serialization of Cinnamon‘s original (1st Edition) ten chapters, you’ll find them at: http://www.filedby.com/author/cheri_laser/2721580/documents/24081497/

What’s Been Going on with My Other Writing (Articles, Short Stories …)

A new book is taking shape that chronicles my surgery and reconstruction. Obviously, until the physical process is complete, the book won’t be either. But I think this one might be a new slant on what’s become an epidemic event among women in this country. I’ll keep you posted.

If you’d like to check out the free reads on my other stuff, I recommend that you start with the short story Life at Bat, which is hundreds of times more popular than any of the other pieces, for some reason. You’ll find the story and all my other offerings at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32280899/Life-at-Bat.

Interesting Reading Links that I’ve Been Collecting to Share with You

• http://nicolehumphrey.net/2010/06/favorite-tweets-for-writers-june-21-june-27-2010/
• http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/06/top-8-cover-design-tips-for-self-publishers/
• http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/5+Lies+Unpublished+Writers+Tell+Themselves+And+The+Truths+That+Can+Get+Them+Published.aspx
• http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2010/06/21/do-you-have-a-marketing-plan-or-do-you-have-a-business-plan/

Stats

• This blog: 2809 (last posting 2669)
• My Web site (www.cherilaser.com): 38,515 (last posting 38,017
• Scribd: 1291 (This is the first time I’ve posted this stat, but it’s been a lot of fun to watch, so I’ll start tracking it here now.) Click on this link to get to my page–http://www.scribd.com/claser–and then click on Documents up at the top.)

Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! I’ll look forward to hearing from you, as always.

All the best–Cheri

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51–Kickstarter.com

A Huge Exciting Discovery for Self-Promoters!

Hi and good morning! One of the key blogs that I follow is by Jane Friedman, strategic director of Writer’s Digest (http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/). She published a post this morning about a site called Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com), where anyone–writers, artists, you-name-it–can try to get backing on a project they’ve developed/are developing/are thinking about developing.

People pledge money (doesn’t have to be much) to back a project, but no one actually pays unless the project reaches its pledge goal within the prescribed time frame. Project creators seem to offer give-aways for backers that are appropriate/relevant to the project, and you can see how the pledges are doing and how much time is left. The whole thing is really fascinating and really caught my attention.

And this isn’t just for writers but for anyone who’s trying to get a dream off the ground.

Perhaps this will be another avenue of promotion for Separation of Faith …?

I did pledge to back one project–a woman in Boston who’s trying to start her own publishing business (http://kck.st/9NwlvH). We’ll see if she meets her goal.

Just thought some of you out there might find this of as much interest as I did.

Later …

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50–Novel’s Release in Sight!

Journey Update–Production Just Around the Corner for Separation of Faith

Considering the length of the road traveled since this blog was launched last November 4 (https://cherilaser.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/), not to mention all the curves navigated in the process, this is a very exciting point! The proofreader at the publisher has completed his/her task, and the list (not very long) of recommended changes has been returned to me. My job now is to review those recommendations and either accept or reject them. They’re all pretty minor issues (a punctuation mark missing, or one on the wrong side of a parenthesis or quotation mark, etc.). I’ve already been through the list and accepted all but five. Each of those five addressed sentences with semi-colons–and I went with my interpretation rather than the recommendation.

Some of the issues highlighted by the proofreader were created by the design process itself, wherein the transfer of the manuscript into the publishing world’s book format resulted in some weird symbol showing up or some weird line spacing. But I have to tell you that there were several places where inadvertent errors were found that would have absolutely driven me nuts if they had ended up in the printed book. For example, in one of the revision cycles I changed a sentence, and somehow an extra verb was inserted:

• The way the sentence is supposed to read–“I waited a long time before taking the plunge, until I was almost forty-four …”
• The way the sentence appeared to the proofreader–“I waited a long time before taking the plunge, until I was almost was forty-four …”

Throughout the dozens of times I read the manuscript, my eyes went right over the extra “was.” And there were several other situations like this one that the proofreader found. So I cannot stress enough (as I’ve done so often before) the importance of submitting our manuscripts to rigorous, professional editing. After working as hard as we do to create these books, we need to ensure that what we’re putting out there is absolutely the highest quality possible. I know the precise “Oh $&$#!” reaction I would have had if those errors would have shown up in the printed book.

Even with all of this editorial diligence, though, I’m sure there will still be something that slips through, as we’ve all seen in books by even the most famous, prolific mainstream authors. But I’m now confident that the editorial quality of my novel will be on par with the best coming out of mainstream houses–and, for me, that sure beats the option of reading through my long-awaited book and finding errors that would have easily been caught by another pair of trained eyes.

In today’s ever-changing publishing climate, the editorial quality of a book can be as important, if not more so, than the writing. So please don’t shortcut (or overlook) the editorial process for your own creations, after you’ve already invested so much of your time and sweat equity.

Now that the proofreading is complete, I have one more opportunity to go through the manuscript and make any last-minute changes. That process should be wrapped up by the end of the week (and so far there aren’t many new things I want to add/change). Once I return everything to the publisher, signaling the end of this round, the proofed changes and any new things I add will be implemented, and I will then have a last sign-off review. Hopefully that turnaround won’t take more than a week. And then–at long last–the book will go into production. That means I’ll have my first copies of Separation of Faith in hand by the middle of July.

At that point, I’ll need to wait until the title has gone live on Amazon and all the other online retailers (a week or ten days after I receive my copies) before I start sending out the press release, posting the video book trailer, and othewise launching the promotional plan. But I can now see that launch point from where I’m standing, and the view is spectacular!

Domain Connections

This is a part of the Plan that I mentioned in an earlier post, but it’s one that will ultimately prove to be very important. I’m talking about domain names. You can secure domains very inexpensively now (like under $20 a year!), and you don’t need to have a product or a Web site in order to get a domain name. So I encourage you, if you haven’t done so already, to get the domain for your own name (and/or your pen name), and for the title of your book(s), no matter what stage of your writing you’re in. (I’m using www.GoDaddy.com as my domain registry.)

And you don’t need to create a separate Web site for each domain name. You can link the domains to any existing site (Web site, blog, etc.) that you already have out there. Social media Neanderthal that I was until last fall, I created a separate Web site for www.TheTruthAboutCinnamon.com. But now that I know what I’m doing (sort of), I’m going to let the separate Cinnamon Web site expire and then link the domain to my primary site. That’s what I’ve done with the following domains, connecting them to the appropriate pages of my primary Web site (www.eWritersRUs.com).

I did have to ask the fellow who’s doing my video book trailer to show me how to do the linking–and it’s so easy that I did all the rest on my own. (I felt sort of stupid for asking, actually, once he showed me.) If you click on these links, you’ll see what I mean:

• www.CheriLaser.com
• www.SeparationOfFaith.com
• www.ReinventingYourPossibilities.com
• www.MakingYourWordsWork.com
• www.ReinventingYourselfAtAnyAge.com

The minimal expense for domains is deductible, if you’re making your book(s) a business enterprise (which is what our books do become, if we want anyone to actually buy them … 🙂 …)

Life at Bat

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, part of the Plan/Journey involves publishing other examples of my writing online (free publishing/free downloads). Several of my short stories and articles are currently available at www.FiledBy.com, www.Scribd.com, and www.RedRoom.com. But universally, the short story titled “Life at Bat” ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/32280899/Life-at-Bat) has been getting the most traffic, which has been extremely interesting for me to observe.

The story is a humorous approach to a life message, and is universally applicable. But if you’re someone who attended Catholic school in the 1950’s and ’60’s, you might find an extra level of enjoyment through reading this story–in case you find yourself with a few free minutes where you have nothing else to do.

Stats

• This blog–2669 (last update–2591)
• Web site–38,017 (last update–37,689)

Speaking of www.TheTruthAboutCinnamon.com (which I was doing earlier), the stats at that Web site this morning show 3511. I haven’t really been focusing on that one, but the number is up by a couple of thousand since I last looked. So something is going on there.

Maybe people are checking in to see how the seemingly never-ending reduction edit for the 2nd Edition is coming along … 🙂 …  Answer: I’m finally making great progress. “This summer” is what I’m thinking now for the re-release. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks, as always, for checking in and for following along with this Journey. I love hearing and learning from you! 

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