How committed to writing are you?

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With the ubiquitous social media tempting us 24/7, it is difficult for part-time writers to sit down and commit to one hour of quality writing.

NOTE: When I say part-time writers, I mean those of us who have a full-time job outside the writing industry and only write on our spare time.
I read an article that talked about the different distractions we face. These are some of the examples below.

Distractions can range from total attention-grabbing tasks to minor distractions:

• Immersive: You completely divorce yourself from your original task to dedicate all of your attention to the distraction. Examples include incoming phone calls and face-to-face conversations.
• Dominant: You allow the distraction to occupy your mind; the original task slowly develops back into your mind. Examples include web browsing or grabbing a cup of coffee.
• Distraction: Your attention is drawn away from your original task; once you return to the original task, you proceed more slowly and less accurately. Examples include ongoing text conversations and hunger.
• Background: Your attention is slightly diverted from your original task, which reduces your speed and accuracy. Examples include overhearing conversations or the television is on.

The author of the article also offered some solutions to this problem.

• Establish Goals: Writing daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly goals can help you stay on top of your efforts. How many articles do you want to write per week? Write it down.
• List Tasks: Write down all of the things you need to do to achieve your goals in addition to daily maintenance tasks such as checking emails, following up with clients, etc.
• Prioritize Tasks: Determine how important each task is by measuring its value against your goals and its importance to anyone else involved.
• Budget Time: Create a time budget by slotting time each day for your tasks, such as writing, brainstorming, checking email, business calls, making dinner, and other activities.
• Plan Long-Term: Brainstorm topics relevant to your audience ahead of time by establishing an annual editorial calendar.
• Execute the Plan: Your plan is only effective if you use it. Tweak your plan as needed and increase efficiency by using methods like time-boxing to squeeze more value out of your time.

A word to the wise: be honest with yourself. The author also adds that you can’t completely separate yourself from these pesky distractions but you can be proactive about them.
Not all distractions can be easily dismissed, nor are they all bad! Consider whether the distraction is worthwhile by measuring its importance based on its value to you, significance to others, and urgency.

Are You Shy?

Shy is an anthology filled with personal essays and poems by authors and poets who have been labeled by the world -- teachers, parents, and peers -- as shy. Here, they proudly own up to their shyness, and their message is clear: they don't need to be cured! Why should they, when nearly half of North Americans consider themselves shy? Join Montreal contributors Jeff Miller, Eve Krakow, and Brian Campbell for readings and a semi-raucous celebration of shyness.   I am happy to share that this anthology will feature fellow writer, Eve Krakow.     Shy Anthology Launch: Monday, November 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Le Dépanneur Café, 206 Bernard West, Montréal, QC H2T 2K4 ‎ Please visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/160112187526687/   Book Jacket: Shy An Anthology

Editor Naomi K. Lewis, Rona Altrows

“We're not exactly scene-stealers, so you don't hear much from us shy folk—and that's usually how we like it.” —Elizabeth Zotova, “My Dear X” The pages of this anthology are filled with personal essays and poems of thoughtful musings, raw memories, and humorous self-examinations by authors and poets who have been labelled by the world—teachers, parents, and peers—as shy. Here, they proudly own up to their shyness, and their message is clear: they don’t need to be “cured”! Why should they, when nearly half of North Americans consider themselves shy?   Editors Naomi K. Lewis and Rona Altrows have enlisted writers from across the continent and have created a moving anthology that will appeal to all, either because we are shy or because we know someone who is. Contributors: Rona Altrows, Debbie Bateman, Wade Bell, Alex Boyd, Janis Butler Holm, Brian Campbell, Weyman Chan, Lorna Crozier, Mike Duggan, Ben Gelinas, Elizabeth Greene, Vivian Hansen, Elizabeth Haynes, Steven Heighton, Jennifer Houle, I.B. Iskov, Eve S. Krakow, Shawna Lemay, Naomi K. Lewis, Shirley Limbert, Carol L. MacKay, Micheline Maylor, Don McKay, Stuart Ian McKay, Bruce Meyer, Jeff Miller, Dhana Musil, Lori D. Roadhouse, Kerry Ryan, Sydney Sharpe, Natalie Simpson, Sylvia Stopforth, David Van Buren, Aritha van Herk, Russell Wangersky, Cassy Welburn, Madelaine Wong, Elaine Woo, and Elizabeth Zotova.

 

Format:  Trade Paperback

ISBN:  978-0-88864-670-5

Price:  CND$ 24.95, USD$ 24.95, £ 20.99

Discount:  Trade

Subject:  Canadian Literature/Essays/Poetry

Publication Date:  September 2013

http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=1095

The Girls of Piazza d'Amore

On September 19^th I had the pleasure to attend Connie Guzzo-McParland’s book launch at the Cultural Center of Little Italy in Montreal which is better known as Casa d'Italia. Connie is a versatile and accomplished author, businesswoman, and publisher, to name a few.  Her debut novel, The Girls of Piazza d’Amore, is the love story of three girls, and the forces that lead them to leave their village for a better life across the ocean.

Born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Connie shares a richly texture story of immigration and childhood. However, at the book launch she explained that she wanted to tell much more than that and hoped the reader could read in between the lines of these simple stories and see the bigger stories within them.  She then added, “In putting down on paper some of the images of village life I carried in my head for years, I hoped to illustrate how a group of people were affected by the changes happening in villages all over south Italy in the 50s- soon after the effects of the war and just before the modernization of Italy and its economic boom of the 60s.”

Connie read two excerpts from the novel; they were humorous, light, picturesque, and colorful. Before reading, she explained that “the novel only alludes to these issues in a lighthearted, cheerful tone, since it’s recounted from the perspective of a young girl. For the general Canadian reader, I wanted to show that the men and women who would become their factory workers, their tailors, barbers, gardeners all carried interesting stories behind them.”

I posted the book cover so you can get the feel of the village. Connie told the audience that, “the cover image represents a very important landmark of the village, a communal water fountain in the outskirt of the town, where women used to fetch water every evening and also do their weekly laundry. It was also the meeting place for young people to exchange glances and love notes, and some key scenes in the book are set in this fountain.”

Although Connie is the Co-director and President of Guernica Editions, she published her book with Linda Leith Publishing.

I hope I have piqued your interest so you, too, can enjoy this beautifully written story about love and friendship in Italy.

ISBN 978-1-927535-19-6 (pbk.)

Publisher: www.lindaleith.com
Leith.lindaleith@gmail.com

Seven Tips from Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction

1: To get started, write one true sentence.

2: Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next.

3: Never think about the story when you’re not working.

4: When it’s time to work again, always start by reading what you’ve written so far.

5: Don’t describe an emotion–make it.

6: Use a pencil.

7: Be Brief.

Article Source: Open Culture http://www.openculture.com/

I Have a Ton of Reviews for My Book But it's Not Selling!

I am attending two book launches in May and I will also be interviewing the authors. I thought this article I got from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter" was appropriate since one of the authors was looking for book reviewers.

I'm passing on this helpful information to my fellow writers and bloggie friends.

Over the years I've heard this phrase thousands of times. Authors getting great reviews, getting awards, even local media and still, book sales aren't happening. When you have external validation, it's hard to really understand where the disconnect is, isn't it? Sometimes though, it may be just a matter of taking a closer look and analyzing your marketing using a different lens. Let's take a look at some things that you may want to consider:

* Leverage: First and foremost is leverage. How are you leveraging all of these other things? If you're not, you might consider it. It's easy enough to slap an award sticker on your book, but what else have you done to promote this? Consider:

* Announce it locally: Especially if you won the award. Honorable mentions are great, but not as appealing to local media.
* Contact your local bookstores. If they've said no before perhaps adding an award to your resume might entice them. Remember people like what other people like. The same goes for bookstores.
* Add it to your website. That's a given. Same for your email signature line.
* Reviewers: If you have reviewers that are pending, meaning you're targeted them with no response, why not make a second (gentle) sweep and let them know you won this award?
* Endorsements: If you've been after high-profile endorsements for your book but they keep eluding you, you may have a better chance of it with an award in your pocket, so try pitching them again.

* Reviews: If you have a lot of reviews and aren't seeing a lot of sales, I would say take a lesson from the "leverage" piece above and see if any of it applies to your pulling in more reviews. For example, if you have endorsers who haven't responded to your requests, or bookstores that have given you the brush-off, this could be a great way to gain their attention. The same doesn't apply to reviewers, however. Most reviewers aren't swayed by books that have tons of reviews. They either select the book or they don't, so don't push this one too hard.

* Engagement: Sometimes when we get a "hit" somewhere we tend to focus all of our energy there. That's a great thing, but maybe now it's time to step back and see what else you can do that you haven't focused on. Try engaging readers. When was the last time you sent a round of thank-you notes to reviewers who reviewed your book, or posted a thank-you on their blog? If you're getting a lot of comments on your website, or on blogs or interviews you've done elsewhere, I would encourage you to connect with readers there, too. Additionally, have you considering getting onto GoodReads, Library Thing or Wattpad and building readership there? And a final note on engaging. If you're a fiction author perhaps you should consider engaging your readers with your characters. If you can get your readers to fall in love (or in hate) with your characters, you can really build a strong audience that way.

* Media gets media: Some authors also come to me saying, "I've gotten tons of local media but nothing nationally." This is also pretty typical but here's something you can do. Media loves media and the more media you get, the more you'll get - if that makes sense. When you pitch yourself to national media, include a one-sheet of all of the places you've been featured. Even if it's in your own town.

* The plight of book reviews: Do book reviews really sell books? Candidly, it's hard to know. I do know that lots of exposure sells books but it's really about the right kind of exposure and, beyond that, it's about exposure in a myriad of areas. If you've been heavily focused on getting a ton of book reviews, and your Amazon page is populated with more fond words than you know what to do with, maybe it's time to move into a new area of promotion. Content, content: There was a discussion around content during a recent event I attended at both Digital Book World and Tools of Change. Both of these programs had folks talking about the importance of free and also of putting out frequent content. Don't wait eighteen months to release a book which leaves your reader hanging for more from your characters.

* Realigning your perspective on book sales: Truth is, most of us think we should be selling more than we are. We hear the "average" in book sales and then on the flip side, we hear about folks like Hugh Howey who is selling zillions of copies of his book. Where's the reality? Well, the answer is somewhere in between. If you have all these awards and are selling a book a day, I would say that depending on your market that may not be a bad start. For example, if you're sitting in the contemporary romance market, that's a pretty cluttered category so you may not sell as many as if you were in something more niche. I've seen some authors who can't get beyond selling a book a month. Seriously.

Reviews, awards, and nods from important people in your industry are fantastic, but like a tree falling in the forest if you don't tell folks about it, no one will know. Yes, you do often have to hit readers over the head with things if for no other reason than people are busy. Got an award? Shout it from the rooftops. Got tons of great reviews? Let's see if that can be a stepping stone to something else.

In the end, everything is a pathway to something else. If you get a bunch of awards for your book and figure your work stops there, that's a big mistake. Follow the path to something else, which will take you to something else, and so on. At some point at the end of that road you may very well find a pot of gold, and, you'll likely be selling more books.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com