The Day I Found a Publisher

I cannot believe the day has actually arrived but it has. After years of writing and reading and learning; after rejection, dejection and frustration the light at the end of the tunnel is shining big and bright. A lot has been going on the last four weeks. I submitted my manuscript to three publishers; much to my delight all three e-mailed back and requested a full manuscript. One even went as far as to request that I give them a five day exclusive period. I agreed to this because, to be honest, I didn't expect a contract offer in those five days. I would have anyway because I was really excited about this publisher.

The five days came and went; I heard nothing back so, being the human that I am, I instantly started thinking the worse. What if they didn't like it? What if they did like it but didn't think they could market it? What it they liked the story but not my style? The 'what ifs' continued for two days. Yep, drove me crazy. Finally I got the break I was looking for to contact them. Another publisher asked for the manuscript so, being that this was a multiple submission, I e-mailed all the publishers so everyone was on the same playing field.

Later that day I found out that the publisher had passed my manuscript to their editors for feedback. Pause for a moment; it is one thing to hear that a publisher likes your manuscript it is another to hear that they are waiting for feedback from the editors. I tried very hard not to sweat bullets as I waited but then it happened. On Monday the offer was ready but I had to clarify a few things. Wednesday night the contract was in my inbox waiting for me. This is an interesting time for an author because you can't put a finger on what you are feeling. You feel just about everything - joy, shock, nerves, surprise....just any emotion you can imagine. To be honest, I'm just now realizing the fact that I am now a published author.

Just about an hour ago I submitted my contract back to the publisher. It has been interesting and I will share as much as I can about the journey. I can tell you this; I have a content editor, line editor, and a cover artist to work with. My novel is projected to be released on March 2012 and it will come out first as an e-book. Hopefully it will be released as a paperback later on that year but I will have more information on that later.

Many of you are familiar with the founder of this publishing company. Her name is Lea and she is also the creator of the Muse Online Writers Conference which is held every year. Yes, I am an author for MuseItUp Publishing. If you are not familiar with this publishing company here is the link http://museituppublishing.com/. Why did I submit to MuseItUp? I have spoken to Lea before and have participated at the Muse Conference during which time I saw her passion for helping authors and producing solid books. Her editing ability is very strong and she has put together a very good team. This was verified by the long list of awards they have won in a short time. My goal was twofold: get published and learn from others who can improve my skill. I believe I have that now.

I am really excited about this and I can't wait to share what I learn during this experience. I bet I could write about this all night but I'm not. It is time to get going. Before I close there is one more thing; I want to thank all of you here at the New Author. This is where the journey started and many of you have been with me every step of the way.    

News and Updates

Things are really starting to pick up around here. The New Author is getting busy to say the least. With that said, I thought I would give you an update on the happenings of the coming days and weeks.

First - You have one more week to get your short stories and poems submitted to me for this year's contest. I have submissions already but, as you know, I always want more. The more I get the more fun we have so don't wait; send them in. You can e-mail me your submissions to sb.knight@live.com.

Second - In April we will be crowning a winner for the best poem and best short story.

Third - On April 7th and 17th I will be hosting a blog tour for a friend of mine and his book "Immortal." On April 7th I will be posting an interview with not only the author but also the main character from the book. That should be very interesting. The 17th will see a book excerpt posted right here. I will have links on both articles to his site for Immortal.

Now, I know I just covered a few days of next month but I have ideas for articles to post in between those events. Also, I am very hopeful to have some amazing news to announce in the coming weeks but I'm not dwelling on that right now.

With the coming weeks spoken for let's take a look at the previous few days. As many of you know from Twitter I submitted my novel to a number of publishers. I have been in communication with them and, to be completely honest, it has been very exciting. I remember when I submitted my first novel and all I received was rejection letters with little else to build upon. Well, I can't say that because I did learn from that experience but this time around has a completely different feel. Perhaps it is because of the previous experience; I don't know. I'm not superstitious; however, I've learned not to talk about a hatched egg until it actually hatches so I will keep you posted once I have some news to share.

Writing Advice - Help or Hinder?

I enjoyed digging through my past articles when I reposted a guest write up by Rebecca Woodhead so I did it again here. As before, I encourage you to read the comments and share your own.

An interesting topic of discussion caught my attention over at the Writer's Digest Forum today. Basically the author of the thread asked "What's The Best Writing Advice You've Heard?" As you might expect, there were many responses. As I read those responses I could not help but think - is this helpful advice? Have you ever received advice that really helped you with your writing? How about advice that really threw a wrench in your work?

Lets take a look at the advice shared by other writers. Maybe they will help us. The actual advice is in bold.

Have fun and don't give up. This is more encouragement then advice. Then again, encouragement can sometimes go further then advice. We all need encouragement.

Write at least a few sentences every day and keep writing. Motivation like encouragement is always needed. This is meant too keep the momentum of your manuscript going.


Don't quit your day job. Sad but true. This is a stark reminder that life goes on and bills must be paid.

Make sure tension is on every page. This will help eliminate dead weight or slow areas in your manuscript. I'm not sure about this one. If you have tension on every single page how do you maintain the pace and flow of your manuscript? At some point, in my opinion, a manuscript should have a slow point after any climatic scene. Be it for a subplot or the main climax. This allows the reader to catch his/her breathe. The book should be like a roller coaster. If tension is on every page you could take away from the full impact of your climatic scenes. I believe tension should be spread out through the entire manuscript.

Know your characters. Know them backwards, forwards and upside down. I cannot express enough how important this is. This is really good advice.

Show don't tell. Another example of really good advice.

Less is more or K.I.S.S. This is good advice; however, it is very hard to follow. We should use simple writing when writing about a complicated subject. Avoid all the flowery descriptions and stick too the basics. When we get this one under control we are really on the right track.

Heinlein's Rules - You Must Write, You Must Finish What You Start, You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order, You Must Put Your Story on the Market, You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold. This one is unique. I don't think this is advice at all. This is more like commands and goals. If you have the passion too write then you will finish what you start. Getting our story on the market is the ultimate goal I would say. Keeping it on the market? Other then marketing and promoting we don't have much control over that. Refrain from rewriting? This is not good advice. We all know that manuscripts go through revisions, which can mean rewriting at times, before the manuscript is submitted to an agent.

What do you think? What advice have you received? Was it helpful?

Recession Expression: A Guide to Writing Through the Fear by Rebecca Woodhead

This is a reposting of an article prepared by Rebecca Woodhead back on March 5th 2009. I believe the information in this article is still good and useful in today's economy as well. Enjoy!
We’re in it Together

We’re all in the same boat: it’s sinking, but we’re all in it. This is the time to give thanks to your chosen deity that you are not a banker. You were born creative and with creativity comes inventiveness and resilience.

Your laptop is your life raft. As a writer, your job is not to stand on the sinking ship complaining that the brochure said it was ‘unsinkable.’ As a writer, your job is to chart the progress of the journey. The vessel may not be heading towards its intended shoreline – it may, in fact, be going down – but it is still on an historic journey and your fingers are the ones that can tap that journey out.

Why Write in a Recession?

Why not? This is a decisive moment in history and anything you write now will be valuable. Does that mean it will make you a millionaire? Probably not but it will certainly make you more wealthy. In a recession lots of bad things happen. People lose their jobs; creditors call in debts; houses are repossessed… none of this is good news. These external factors can affect you badly and make you feel trapped and fearful but none of them should stop you writing.

The things that trap us and make us feel truly hopeless are what William Blake called “mind forg’d manacles” and these, not the external factors, will have an effect on your ability to write. If you decide to write no matter what is thrown at you then, while other people are able merely to complain about what they have lost, you will be able to create new things: books; articles; blogs... Creation in the midst of destruction: that is true wealth.

Releasing the Mind Forg’d Manacles

Well, now we’re all fired up to write, and feeling great about our creativity and place in the scheme of things, it might be time to throw in a few practical tips. The theory’s sound but if the manacles are clamping down or the raft has sprung a leak what then?

1. Forget everything. Forget the money you hope to make from your writing; forget the collapse of the global economy; forget the endless to-do lists. Simply find a space to write and commit to doing so.
2. Understand that the space doesn’t have to be a location, it can be a time. Give yourself a set period of time when you will not allow yourself to be disturbed. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a room on your own or a busy coffee shop. You have to decide that this moment is your writing space and it will not be disturbed. Once you’ve done that, write. Don’t edit it or criticise it. Let it flow. Let yourself write unutterable garbage. The point is to keep the pen moving or the fingers tapping. You can edit it later.
3. Know that you are doing something important. I have read many letters from writers saying that they lack support. They frequently express a lack of confidence in their work because their friends or family members mock them for thinking they can be a writer. Tune it out. You know you are a writer. That is enough. If you act as though your work is important, your mind will pick up on it and make the time and space for you to write.
   

And Finally…

Even with the best intentions, it can be hard to focus on writing when you haven’t enough money for food or heating. You need to know that this is no excuse. It is perfectly possible to be living in subsistence level poverty, scraping by on benefits and still be creative. I have had two brushes with hypothermia over this winter and we can’t afford to go food shopping more often than once every two weeks, so I’m not writing from an ivory tower myself, but I’m in a far better position than many writers and I’m sure the same is true of most of us. Anne Frank was creative. What do we have to complain about? That said, here are a few tips to make the process easier.

Writing on a Budget – Tips

1. Keep your food costs down by buying in bulk. If you buy unbranded sacks of rice and pasta and store them in airtight containers, you’ll save a fortune. They keep for ages so, if you find yourself with some spare pennies one week, stock up. Also, stock up on vitamin pills for the weeks when a food group or two goes astray.
2. If you’re an omnivore, buy chicken but don’t buy chicken breasts. When you buy chicken breasts, you’re paying processing and packing costs you don’t pay when buying a whole chicken. You can get 16 meals out of a chicken (see my blog for more info on this obsession of mine!) Let none of it go to waste. Make stock from scratch and you’ll have soups, stews, pasta sauces etc for the week. I don’t choose to be a vegetarian, but I strongly believe in being an ethical omnivore. I don’t buy ‘battery’ chickens or eggs however poor we get. If I can’t afford free range, I don’t buy the chicken. If you scrape together the money to buy a free range chicken and you can get 16 meals out of it (or 20 as my husband managed the other week – don’t think I’ll beat that) then the food is way cheaper than the price of some breast meat from a battery-farmed animal.
3. Make friends with your freezer. If you’re on a real budget, freeze everything you can. If you make meals from the chicken as soon as you get it home and freeze them, you can live on the food from the fridge in week 1 and the food from the freezer in week 2.

Now you’re equipped to thrive through the recession as a writer. If you have a shaky moment when The Fear grabs you, ask yourself one question:

‘If Shakespeare were alive today, would he complain because his television had been repossessed or his games console had been sold or his electricity had been switched off?’

Would he? Or would he pick up his pages, sit at his table, light up a candle and write?

To follow my writing journey and for more tips on writing through the recession, go to my blog: http://frombrain2bookshelf.blogspot.com

Rebecca Woodhead

Contest Update and Information

It is time to get excited! Submissions are already coming in and I can't wait to get more. Remember you have until 8:00 est on April 1st to e-mail me your submissions. Please send your submissions to sb.knight@live.com.

I have the judges panel set and ready to pick the winner. Who, you might be thinking, would take on such a grand adventure that holds the fate of the contestants in their hands? Well, for privacy reasons, I will not share their names but I will give you a little job description. Their are five total judges and to make sure we have a variety of interests and views I picked individuals from all areas of the writing and publishing world. Here is a list of our judges -

Judge #1 is the creator and editor for a magazine that has a focus on writing, publishing and the arts.
Judge #2 is a published and award winning poet.
Judge #3 is an avid reader of just about every genre.
Judge #4 is a publisher and editor for romance novels and short stories.
Judge #5 is an aspiring author and avid blogger.

As you can see, the full range of the writing and publishing world is represented with the judges. What does that mean to you? That means that your story and/or poem will be read by not only readers but editors, publishers and peers; each bringing a different viewpoint and approach to judging the submissions. To win this contest will be another verifying step for you as you continue with your writing.

Okay Brian, rules and judges are all great but what do we when? I have a prize package prepared for the winning short story and the winning poem. The package includes:

• A badge to place on your blog and/or website displaying your name and the title of your poem or short story. (It will be very much similar to the plaque I posted below.)
• A $10 gift card from Amazon.com to the winner of each category (short story and poem).
• The winning short story and poem will be submitted to the publishers mentioned above for consideration of publication.
• You and your winning submission will be announced on multiple websites and social networks.

I might even pull out a surprise or two; you never know until you submit and win. It is now time for you to finish up your short story and/or poem and submit them. I'm looking forward to reading all the submissions.

Oh wait, I forgot one thing! I plan to post the short stories and poems that make it to the judges but I will have more on that a little later.

A Blog, Like Everything Else, Needs Up-keep Too

Many of you have noticed the new, fresh look and layout of the New Author. I have really enjoyed the videos attached to it now and I hope you have taken some time to check them out as well. One particular comment I got caught my eye. In short it pointed out how the blog loaded much faster than before even though there are a great deal of links involved now.

Needless to say, the revamp of this blog is not entirely the solution for the faster load time and response time; however, the deep cleaning is. How do you deep clean (or spring clean) your blog and why should you? Your blog is an extension of you and your writing. If the saying is true that you only get one chance to make a first impression then what impression will you leave if your blog loads slowly, looks depressing, has broken links and delivers an overall poor experience? Chances are that person will not be coming back; now take it a step further and imagine that your newly released book is attached and associated with your blog. Yes, you run the risk that your book will be associated with the experience had while visiting your blog. I know, it is a little out there but, as many of us know, anything can happen and this is a problem better off fixed then running the slightest risk of bad publicity. What should we do? How do we keep our blogs in shape, fresh and running smooth?

• First, make sure all the links on your blog are active and connecting to the proper destination. Click on each one. Do they take you to the intended site or social network? Do you get an error message? If the link is broken take a few minutes and fix it. If the site your link connects to is no longer active then remove that link from your blog.
• Make sure your layout provides plenty of room for all your widgets, gadgets and things like that. You want your blog to have a comfortable flow to it and not make the visitor feel like everything is crammed together. Also, make sure your layout is supported by blogger, word press, etc. and that it opens quickly. Some layouts have bugs in them and may breakdown after a short time which means you have to reload everything again.
• We love comments but our blog and computers don't. After a time the comments can build up and worse yet, spam can hide in comments. Yes, you can password protect your comments and that will eliminate a large portion (if not all the spam) but it can also limit your comments. It is beneficial to scan through your comments and delete those that are spam, make no sense, spiteful or just don't fit with the article it is associated with. I eliminated a great deal of 'anonymous' comments that were associated with spam and this single action went a long way to speeding up my blogs load time.
• Go back to your older posts and delete the images. You can determine how far back or how current you want to go but keep the images to a minimum. This will greatly impact response time for your blog.

There you have it, a few suggestions that will improve your blogging experience and the experience of your visitors. We work hard to make our blogs fun and engaging but without these few steps we could derail our efforts without even knowing it. What suggestions would you add to this list?

It's that time of Year Again - The Third Annual New Author Writing Contest

**UPDATE** I have potentially 3 judges on board for the judges panel. I hope to enlist at least 2 more but hopefully more. Also, the prize package is growing but I cannot release what it will be as of yet until I confirm everything. Please see the note above regarding submissions for this contest.

Yes! That wonderful time of year is upon us. This is the call for the Third Annual New Author Writing Contest!!

This contest has been a lot of fun the past two years and last year we saw some great poems and short stories in the line up. I believe the winner of the poetry division won by one vote. With that said, here is how it works:
I will begin taking submissions today, March 7th until 8:00 est on April 1st. That should be plenty of time for you to dust off those poems and short stories or write up that new idea you have in mind.

I will read all of them and narrow them down to the top three or five (depending on how many I get) short stories and poems. After I have selected I will notify those moving to the next round right here on the blog on April 4th. I have something special planned but I need to work out the kinks first. The selected stories and poems will then be read by a panel of judges; they will vote on the best short story and poem. The short story and the poem with the most votes will win. As for the rules; here we go:

• You are allowed to enter a total of 2 submissions. They can be a combination of short story and poem or 2 shorts or 2 poems.
• All short stories and poems must be your original work and you must have the rights to those works.
• Poems must be limited to one page with a minimum font size of 10.
• Short Stories must be a Max of 1500 words. Grammar and story structure will be a factor in the judging.
• Once a poem of short story is submitted to the Third Annual New Author Writing contest I ask that you do not submit it to another contest or publication until the contest has concluded.
• You can write about any topic and in any genre.
• If you have been previously published before this contest you ARE ALLOWED to enter. This contest is open to everyone who writes.

What will you win? Well, I don't have that portion of the contest nailed down yet but I can tell you that it will be a cool prize package and this will be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for updates!

If any of you would like to be a judge please leave me a comment with an e-mail so I can contact you. Also, if you have any questions feel free to leave those as well.

One more thing - the winners will be announced on April 11th!

Ideas, Memories and Thoughts - Oh My

**UPDATE** The tool bar along the bottom is full of useful tools you can use to connect with multiple social networks. I invite you to check them out; however, today I want to draw your attention to the You Tube button to the right on the bottom toolbar. Once you click that you can watch interviews with many great authors. The videos across the top of this blog are based on advice for aspiring authors but I thought it would be fun to listen to some of those who are already there.

It seems the spring cleaning bug got to me a little early this year. What do you think of the results? I thoroughly cleaned, dusted and polished the New Author for another year. I'm happy with the results as there are some pretty cool features on here now. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the very first layout of this blog just to see the transformation again; that would be fun. Before I get to that I do want to point out that the Youtube videos will refresh as you refresh the page and there are a lot of really good videos loaded in there.

What brought about this change? I had an idea that change was needed and I wanted the New Author to be brighter, more entertaining, welcoming, and warm. I believe that was lost in translation the last time. It is funny how a blog can take on the mood of the owner but that is a different article entirely. While I was cleaning and polishing I took a trip down memory lane with the past articles I've posted over the years.  As I drifted through some of the more interesting, funny or popular articles I felt both joy and sadness. The joy was simply from the memory itself because the further back I went the more I realized just how much fun this blog has been. From the guest post to those articles that were overshadowed by the comments posted regarding it there have been some good times here. What saddened me was the fact that many of those who left comments then are not around or, should I say; don't comment as they once did. That got me thinking so I ventured over to my blog list and started searching that. I found a handful of blogs that haven't been updated in 4 months to a full year. What's happened? What's changed over the years to bring this about?

I believe many things contribute to the ebb and flow of blogs, social networks and, in general, the Internet. When it comes to blogs, I'm mainly speaking of this one; I believe it is mostly my fault for not updating as often as I once did. I also think the demands of life play a role; things get hectic or life just throw you a curve ball (or many of them). Unfortunately I think many become hardened by the frustrations of the writing business and it is reflected in their blogs and the comments (or lack thereof) on blogs they once frequented. Do we still remember the thrill of a new follower or writing about that great character idea?

Writing, not writing, want to write, in the middle of writing - it really doesn't matter where you are in the scheme of things as long as you are following your passion. If you feel your passion waning or burning out then it is high time to reach out again; get in touch with friends and fellow writers. Post an article about what you are experiencing so others don't feel like they are the only ones. Yes, writing is a solitary passion and craft but the life of a writer doesn't have to be.

I did have one additional idea that I think I will move on. As I said, there are a fair number of past articles here that many of you may not have read. I plan to go through and select a handful to repost in the coming weeks. I think you will find them both entertaining and interesting.

I'm Feeling Better - Time For a Trip.

Yes, I've been away. I have a great reason for it too. Sunday I felt weird; it was like I was trying to get a headache but never really did then a little coughing started. Monday rolled around and I felt like a bus had hit me and then backed over me for good measure. I managed to make through the day but to be honest - I don't remember much of it. That night I got a wicked fever; I thought I was literally on fire. Yesterday the fever and cold chills just beat me up all day so for the most part I stayed on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, drinking cough medicine like soda and eating chicken noodle soup when my stomach would allow.

Fortunately I am feeling much better today although the cough is still lingering. Unfortunately, I am catching up yet again and really didn't have anything ready for today's post. As luck would have it, I did a guest post over at Romantic Shorts. I attempt to answer the question - what is romance? I like it is a good idea to load up and take a trip over to Romantic Shorts and check out my guest article. It is a little on the long side but I do believe you will enjoy it.

Have fun over at romantic Shorts and I will write more soon.