Read an E-Book Week

Every spring lots of authors and readers celebrate read an e-book week, and I am participating with a free short story on my Website. Going Back is a short story I wrote a long time ago, and it was the basis for a script, A Question of Honor, which is the first screenplay I wrote. Both the short story and the screenplay were honored with awards, and I am happy to share the story this week.

There are lots of other authors participating in this special event. On the Read an E-Book website, you can find other authors who are offering free reads or specials all this week.

You can also find special deals from the authors who belong to Backlist e-Books. They have quite a variety of genres to select from; mystery, romance, science-fiction, and fantasy.

Nobody knows for sure what the future of publishing will look like in five or ten years, but one thing is for sure, e-books are here to stay and there are some good ones out there.

Enjoy.....

Are You Confused Yet?

Now that I have totally messed up my weekly schedule of posts here, are you as confused as I am?

Yesterday I was going to schedule a few posts in advance for the weekend since I am going to be out of town. The problem was I had a killer headache and was trying to work anyway. Note to self: do not ever work when you are feeling that sick. So what I posted yesterday was supposed to be scheduled for today, then I finished it and pushed publish post and promptly went to bed.

A little while later, I realized what I did, but there was no way I could drag my aching head back into my office.

Thankfully, the headache is much better so I am off to the Take 190 West Art Festival in Killeen, Texas. I went two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A lot of artists display their work and there is a wonderful exhibit of student art that is well worth the visit. The event is free to the public and there will be many authors and artists there to chat with.

Come on by if you live near Killeen.

Catching Up

First of all, since I was out of town when the Blog Carnival ended on Feb 28th, I want to announce the winner of a copy of my book, Play It Again, Sam. The Carnival was held by Classic Romance Revival and each of the participating authors chose a winner from the visitors to her blog. I am happy to announce that the winner from my blog is Sara J. Her name was drawn in a random selection process. Congrats, Sara.

The Take 190 West Art Festival in Killeen was a wonderful experience. The facilities at the Killeen Civic and Conference Center are beautiful, well-managed, and very comfortable. The staff at the Center, as well as Killeen library staff were all gracious hosts and hostesses, and I truly felt pampered.

Friday evening there was a reception for the artists and authors with delicious food -- we're not talking chips and dips here - and stimulating company.

Half of the exhibit area was filled with artists' booths, and the other half held displays from art students in the Killeen schools. The work was really impressive and covered a variety of mediums from sculpture to weaving to painting and drawing. It was fun to watch the students point out their work to their parents and share in the excitement of seeing their creation on display.

The professional artists also had quite a variety of work displayed for sale, predominately paintings. Burl Washington had a wonderful assortment of paintings and prints that depict the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, black Cowboys, and Blacks in Aviation. What a wonderful way to get a history lesson.

Another interesting artist I met was Todd Alan, who is known as The Crayon Man. He does all his work with crayons -- regular old Crayola Crayons -- and the results are stunning. I do some sketching with colored pencils, mostly just for fun or to share pictures in letters to my mother, but I have never thought of using crayons. And I'm not sure that I could match his abilities even if I stopped writing right this minute and concentrated on art.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed talking to Todd was the enthusiasm he had for his work, and it delighted him when people stopped to admire it. Not in an egotistical way, but much like those children sharing their art with their parents. Pure delight.

Todd told me that he really enjoys visiting schools and talking to young people about art, and I'm sure those classes are a lot of fun. Children love it when you engage them on a creative level.

The other authors at the Festival represented a number of genres and age groups, predominately children's books and young adult. I was quite impressed with Jazmine Swanson, who wrote and published a young adult novel, Avalon, during her sophomore year in high school. What a wonderful accomplishment for this Killeen teenager. For a story about how the book came to be click HERE

After I have participated in an event like this, people invariably ask me if it was successful, and in the next breath they ask if I sold a lot of books. For me, the success is not measured by how many books I sold. It is measured by the interesting people I meet and the fun I have. Not to mention how many books I can buy. So this was very successful.

How about you? If you are an author or artist, how do you measure the success of an event?

E-Book Controversy

Last Friday, Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House, sent a letter to dozens of literary agents, writing that the company’s older agreements gave it “the exclusive right to publish in electronic book publishing formats.”

This action was taken after the family of William Styron, author of Sopie's Choice and other classics, decided to pursue electronic editions of his works independent of Random House. An article in the New York Times business section written on December 12th, outlines the position of authors and their heirs, which basically says that the rights to electronic versions belongs solely to them.

As a counter-point Jonathan Galassi, the president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, wrote an op/ed piece for the NY Times stating that the electronic rights should be shared due primarily because of the contributions the publishing house made to the final product through editing, production, and marketing.

Those are both interesting articles that illustrate just how much advances in technology have changed the scope of publishing.

My earliest contracts with NY publishers specified what rights the publisher was buying and for how long. Of course, those were before people thought e-books were going to amount to anything, so that was not specified. The material was copyrighted in my name,
not the publisher's, so the rights were still mine.

My latest contracts from 2008 specified that the company was buying the hardback rights only and the author retained the rights to paperback, electronic, digital and all other ancillary markets. I did have to agree not to pursue any of those other avenues for a full year after the hardback version came out.

When it comes to most publishing contracts, they are more like a licensing agreement than an outright sale. Since those contracts entered into in the 50's with some of the authors mentioned in the story didn't specify that Random House was licensing all rights, it is obvious to me that those electronic rights belong to the author and/or the heirs.

And as compelling as Mr. Galassi's argument is that the publisher deserves more compensaion for the money expended for editing, production, marketing and artwork put into the original publication, it doesn't have a legal basis. Plus, let's not forget that the publishers more than recoup those expenses considering the typical royalty split with the author.

The most important point that seems to get lost in considering who should get the lion's share of revenue from a book is the fact that there would be no book without the author. The marketing departments of publishing companies treat books like product only, forgetting that creative output is different from any other productive output. It's not like making cars, or computer chips, or tortilla warmers. Nobody else could write Mark Twain's books or William Styron's or yours or mine.

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What do you think? Is Random House just trying to make a land grab?

Book review - Red Hot Internet Publicity

In this revised edition of Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Marketing Your Book on the Internet, Penny C. Sanservieri gives the author all he or she needs to successfully network and sell in the virtual marketplace.

The book is packed with useful information such as:
* The secret to getting thousands of hits on your web site and then converting them into sales!
* Top internet promotion techniques that won’t cost you a dime!
* The Virtual Author Tour™, how you can “tour” yourself on the net
* How to get print media from your Internet campaign
* Learn how to expand your platform and sell more books!
* How to create a campaign that will last for months, not days
* How to create a web site that sells your book
* Podcasting and blogging demystified!

In fact, there is so much information, it can be a bit overwhelming for an author who has not done very much Internet marketing. And I'll admit that I was beginning to feel an "information overload" as I continued to read. The smart thing to do, I decided, was create a marketing plan and calendar for promoting my next book, and plug in the tips and resources from this book where they apply.

When I mentioned that to my husband, he laughed. "You? Making a plan? Writing it down? Sticking to it?"

As you might have guessed, I am not a great planner. I don't even outline my books. But the business side of publishing has gotten so demanding, an author does have to be organized, have a marketing plan of some sort, and schedule time during the work week to carry out the plan.

And this book is going to be of tremendous benefit to any author wanting to increase sales through Internet marketing. It is very well organized, written in a comfortable, easy to read style, and has helpful blocks with bullet lists of important reference points.
Particularly helpful are the links. When Penny makes a suggestion, such as checking to see how your Web site ranks in popularity, she provides a link to do so. And should you find your site is not highly ranked, she offers ways to improve the standing.

Penny C. Sansevieri is the founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., a company that offers marketing and publicity services for authors. She has also written other books on marketing, and shares tips freely on the Web site and via a newsletter.

I am really looking forward to using this book and the newsletter for future online promoting.

One Lovely Blog Award

My friend and fellow author, Ginger Simpson, surprised me with the One Lovely Blog Award yesterday. She made the announcement on her blog, Dishin' It Out.

I was really touched by the reason she chose me and this is what she wrote about me: A great friend and confidante, and a very smart lady. She has some amazing articles on her site. Maryann is one of those people who comes into your life for a purpose, and she's certainly served hers well in mine.

So it is with the same gratitude that I pass this award to three authors who have enriched my life with their friendship and support.

Helen Ginger -- who has a terrific blog and newsletter packed with helpful information for writers. She is so generous with her time and expertise, and I really admire her for that. She is also a terrific editor.

Dani Greer -- another lady who shares her expertise graciously and frequently. She was the founder of The Blood Red Pencil blog, and can also be found at Blog Book Tours blog. I also chose Dani because she so appreciates my humor.

Morgan Mandel -- I chose Morgan primarily because I admire her courage in publishing her own book, Killer Career. Not only did she take the publishing bull by the horn, so to speak, she did so with an attention to detail and professionalism that I respect greatly. She shares advice, resources, and book reviews on her blog.

All three of these ladies also manage to do more in 24 hours than most people I know. I stand in awe of all of them. So ladies, I pass the honor along to you.

Here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, and don’t forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.

Internet Marketing

More and more authors are turning to Internet marketing for their books. They are doing virtual book tours, blogs, maintaining Web sites, and whatever else they can do to increase visibility on the Web.

This is all well and good, but according to Don McCauley at Free Publicity Group, many authors miss a major component of all this which is making sure that they are consistantly positioned high in search engines.

Some key ideas that he covers in his article are:

1. Over 70% of the population now PREFERS to get their buying information from the engines.
2. However, they do not sit around and wait to get hit with a commercial or an ad. When they go to the Internet, they have ALREADY DECIDED what they might be looking for and intend to purchase
3. They will look for that item using search terms
4. They will only purchase what they are made aware of through these engines
5. If you are not there - for a GENERIC SEARCH TERM, you will be invisible

Remember - your buyers will not Google your name. They will not Google your company name. They will not Google your brand. They will, however, Google words like 'book' or 'kids toys' or some other very generic set of terms.

That's why it is important to use the right keywords and labels on all that we post on the Internet. Anyone have any suggestions as to what has worked well in getting good search engine placement?

Great Contest Coming

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! In celebration of the grand opening of the new Books We Love Reader's Group at yahoo, BWL_Readers@yahoogroups.com, we're asking you to get acquainted with some of our authors by participating in a fun scavenger hunt. We promise it isn't hard. You just have to follow the provided links listed on the loop the morning of March 20th and answer some really easy questions. The answers are all there...you just have to find and collect them all to be entered into a drawing for one of eighteen books. Some will even be personally autographed. You'll have two days, with the contest ending Saturday at midnight. All entries must be received by Ginger Simpson at mizging@gmail.com by noon on Sunday, 3/22. Winners will be announced shortly after.

Whether you come to play or not, we hope you will join us in celebrating the beginning of what we hope will be a stimulating and pleasant group experience. If you aren't familiar with us, please visit http://www.bookswelove.net and get an idea of who we are and what we're about. I'm sure you may have already played in a contest or two there. Jude Pittman has assembled a wonderful group of talent, but without readers, we don't have much purpose. Come join us, won't you. Remember, Friday, March 20th.

Join us in welcoming Spring!