DigitalPulp

Dare you let the truth get in the way of love? Find out in Book One of the Dareville Series, available in eBook format at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Leigh Ellwood’s erotic romance book, Truth or Dare, can be purchased and downloaded at www.dppstore.com, 24/7/365.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) January 17, 2007 -- DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are continuing to grow their online bookstore (www.dppstore.com). After opening its virtual doors one year ago this month, the DPPstore is still passionately committed to featuring eBooks by new authors and the best eBooks from self and independent publishers. This week the store is pleased to announce the addition of Truth or Dare (ISBN: 1-59426-500-3, published 2004 by Phaze Publishing) by Leigh Ellwood.
Rock and roll legend Brady Garriston is in a slump, career wise and in his love life. He is desperate for a comeback and finds a possible solution in masquerading in small town Dareville, where he can clear the slate and start fresh. Brady finds his muse in the lovely and uninhibited school teacher Ellie Shaw, and soon the two are making more than just beautiful music together. But will Brady's deception bring on a sour note to their relationship? And what of the secret Ellie is keeping from Brady?

Leigh Ellwood lives and writes in the sweltering South. Having found moderate success in writing mystery and suspense, Ellwood decided in 2004 to try her hand (and pen) at romance. The inspiration for the contemporary romance TRUTH OR DARE evolved from many a day browsing a message board dedicated to one of Ellwood's favorite music groups...and the strong feelings of one particular member as evoked by his female admirers.

Truth or Dare is Book One of the Dareville Series. The meaning of the name Dareville is two-fold: Dare is a name commonly seen around Virginia, as Virginia Dare is the first known born on US soil among the original Plymouth settlers, and of course each book in this series is quite daring, as you will soon read.

Since 2004, Phaze Publishing has presented erotic romance novels and novellas, M/M erotic fiction for women and women’s erotica in eBook and paperback formats.The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

A one-of-a-kind children’s tale of high-flying aviation adventure is now available in eBook format at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Homer the Helicopter Grand Canyon Adventures is geared for ages 4-8 (and grownups still young at heart) and is available for purchase and immediate downloading at www.dppstore.com.

Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) January 16, 2007 -- DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are continuing to grow their online bookstore (www.dppstore.com). The DPPstore, which opened its virtual doors just a year ago this month, features eBooks by new authors and the best eBooks from self and independent publishers. The store also has a terrific selection of children’s eBooks. The latest offering is Julie W. Buscher’s Homer the Helicopter Grand Canyon Adventures (ISBN: 978-0-9786352-0-6, published 2006). From his pug nose, to his emerald green eyes and shiny blades, down his sleek frame to his tail rotor, Homer the little ‘copter captivates from the start. Follow Homer from his beginnings at the helicopter factory on an epic journey, as he learns the ropes of being a touring helicopter.

Parents will delight in watching their children laugh and learn with Homer as he grows from a mischievous young helicopter to an experienced flier. With 72 pages including more than 20 color illustrations, Homer’s story is sure to engage and enchant young people everywhere.

Buscher’s book not only entertains but is useful as a hand-up book for parents to read to small children to help improve their vocabulary and understanding of the English language.

Children's author, Julie W. Buscher was born and raised in rural Central Utah.
Having graduated from business college, she has worked as a paralegal secretary,
and is an experienced business writer. Presently, she lives in Brighton, Colorado, with her husband of 30 years, where they regularly fly their vintage Cessna 180 aircraft.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

A unique romance novel is now available in eBook format at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Cream, sugar and definite surprises are brewing in Morning Coffee, by author team Elizabeth Alan, available for purchase and downloading at the DPPstore, 24/7/365.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) January 23, 2007 -- DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are celebrating their online bookstore’s (www.dppstore.com) first year anniversary.
After a successful first year, the DPPstore continues to celebrate and feature eBooks by new authors and the best eBooks from self and independent publishers.This week the store is pleased to announce the addition of Morning Coffee by Elizabeth Alan.

Morning Coffee follows the journey of Katie Mariano as she comes to grips with the sudden death of her husband, Jack, and moves on with her life. The story begins less than a year after Jack's death. Katie is still adjusting to the sudden loneliness of her life while also dealing with the guilt she is experiencing when she realizes that perhaps she never loved Jack as deeply as he deserved. Katie also struggles to come to grips with her lingering feelings for her first love, Neil Hoffman.

Morning Coffee is a romantic ride chocked full of interesting surprises. Almost as interesting as the story, is how it came to be written: in a creative volleying process, via email correspondence between California and New York.

With their first meeting on an Internet message board based on the reality television program, The Bachelor, in late summer 2004, Karen and Chet began a series of conversations on their computers. Soon, the two discovered a shared passion for the arts….and for writing.

The authors found they possessed the unique ability to write creatively back and forth creating a story that was both captivating and heart warming. Merging their middle names the two created a unique blend: Morning Coffee.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Two new eBooks from Foremost Press are now available at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Authors Tad Hutton and David Chacko offer up mayhem, violence and real-life demons in two eBooks that are sure to keep you turning ePage after ePage – at www.dppstore.com.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) April 19, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, continue to add can’t-put-it-down books to their virtual shelves. Featuring eBooks by new authors and the best eBooks from self and independent publishers, the DPPstore is pleased to announce the addition of two more books from Foremost Press. Foremost Press offers a fine library of books readers will enjoy. Both in hard copy and an electronic version, they are committed to great works of fiction and non-fiction, and above all else, to quality work that never lets the reader, down.
A writer whose work is “compelling and unexpected” (Newsweek), Davide Chacko’s novel Martyr's Creek (ISBN: 978-0-9789704-3-7, Published 2007) brings a reality to the phrase “dealing with the devil”.
What do you do when you're named the executor of the estate of your worst enemy? What can he possibly offer that will keep you interested? Find out what the most demonic man in the neo-conservative movement did to cement the deal. It's the same thing he always did, but with a twist.
A world traveler and writer, Tad Hutton's experiences in South America and Asia bring insight and veracity to his latest novel, Rio Savannah (ISBN: 978-0-9789704-1-3, Published 2007).
The story begins when Gray Hart's business trip to Rio turns sour quickly as he becomes a target for murder. Conversely, the son of the Brazilian millionaire he is investigating is kidnapped in Savannah by a Mexican drug lord and held for an insane ransom involving pharmaceuticals. Premeditated violence and mayhem are presented simultaneously in two of the world's beautiful cities, and the webs of greed and deceit are weaved into both.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Find a virtual martial arts trainer – in the form of an eBook at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Expert Richard Kirkham offers up an eBook that provides advice and skills you can use on your own to enhance your martial arts techniques. Purchase and download the book at www.dppstore.com.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) May 2, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are pleased to offer Boson Books publication to their online store (www.dppstore.com).
eBooks from new authors, independent publishers, and small presses make up the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), which offers a wide array of literary offerings 24/7/365.
“If you're like me”, says author Richard Kirkham, “it's hard to find a martial arts training partner when you need one - but we still need to practice, to improve, to forge our bodies into weapons of defense for ourselves and our loved ones.”
Kirkham wrote Solo Martial Arts Drills (published 2006) due to, what seemed to the author to be, a lack of available martial arts training partners. With thirty years experience in martial arts and a degree in Physical Education, Kirkham combines his experience and education into a virtual training experience for anyone who wants or needs a training partner 24/7/365.
Kirkham has an extensive background that includes movement education, exercise physiology, Kinese, alternative teaching methods, and behavior modification with an emphasis on positive reinforcement methodology.
Kirkham’s knowledge is not confined to martial arts and physical education, however. After years of receiving newsletters, surfing the Web, marketing his ebooks and software and meeting his wife on line, Kirkham has run across and used many excellent resources to submit his e-books, freeware and shareware. After receiving the same questions over and over and answering them by copying and pasting his answers into return emails, he finally put together an ebook of clickable submission sites: Submission Sites for eBooks and Software (published 2006). The eBook is also available at the DPPstore.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Train yourself to take back your life with the help of an eBook available at the DPPstore.

2007-05-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

Learn and apply the techniques that Dr. Kevin Ross Emery has used for many years in his successful spiritual counseling and spiritual coaching work. With a click of your mouse, you can purchase and download Combing the Mirror at www.dppstore.com, 24/7/365.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) May 3, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, invite you to visit their online store - www.dppstore.com.
eBooks from new authors, independent publishers, and small presses make up the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), providing an eclectic array of literary offerings.
Combing the Mirror by Kevin Ross Emery (ISBN: 1-890405-20-5, published by LightLines Publishing, 2007) is a light-hearted book that takes an in-depth look at how to address the patterns in your life which keep you disempowered. Learn to release your past, stay present in your present and create the future you deserve and desire.
Unlike many ‘self-help’ books, Combing the Mirror addresses the issue that information without action is useless. Thus, the issues discussed and uncovered in the book are linked with powerful; practical exercises designed to help the reader actualize the insights they receive. The book forms the basis of the powerful Combing The Mirror Coaching™ sessions in which participants work with a trained coach, in person or via telephone, to help apply the exercises contained in the book.
Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, a resident of Maine, maintains a private practice focusing on alternative approaches for dealing with Attention Deficit Disorder and Spiritual Coaching and Counseling. He is a cutting-edge practitioner whose career has spanned several different worlds. He is the founder of Synergy Business Consulting™ and Managing the Gift™ ADD coaching.
LightLines Publishing limits their production to books and other materials which touch us, as humans, in some extraordinary way. Through all of their titles they strive to promote personal empowerment, self-actualization and practical spirituality.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Three eBooks that all go beyond the common boundaries are now available at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Zumaya Publications once again offers up an eclectic assortment for readers through the DPPstore, available for purchase and downloading 24/7/365.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) April 23, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are pleased to offer more of Zumaya Publications’ books to their online store (www.dppstore.com).
New authors, independent publishers, and small presses are contracting with DPP daily, helping to create a bookstore that offers a wide array of literary offerings.

Zumaya Publications began in British Columbia in 2000. Since then, Zumaya has come to be known for quality books by supremely talented writers that go beyond the common boundaries.

Every instinct Jack Meter has tells him his clients, the Thrittene, are hiding something. So when his dead girlfriend pops up in every world he visits, Jack knows the case was personal from the outset. Now he must avenge her death and save the universe from utter destruction. This first of Zumaya’s three new offerings is entitled Metered Space by M.D. Benoit (ISBN: 1-55410-129-8, published 2004).

In a complete one-eighty, Christopher Stires’ Rebel Nation (ISBN: 978-1-55410-220-4, published 2005) begins in the Confederate States of America, where a famed civil rights leader is assassinated and the nation is plunged into rioting and revolution. McKenna Alexander, U.S.-born television reporter, and Cullen Davis, her Southern-born ex-husband, are hunted by the authorities and by assassins as they follow a trail of treachery and deceit to uncover the truth behind the murder.

And to offer another twist, Techno-Noir by Eva Batonne and Jeffrey Marks (ISBN: 978-1-55410-267-9, published 2005) is set amidst the electronic revolution, where the world has been made smaller and life easier—for those on both sides of the law. In this eclectic collection of tales both modern and not so, award-winning mystery writers and talented newcomers explore the dark side of modern technology.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

An exciting tale of love, scheming, and Russian terror and torture is now available at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hugh McLeave and Boson Books team up again and offer audiences another terrific e-Read through the DPPstore
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) April 24, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are pleased to offer Boson Books publication to their online store (www.dppstore.com).
eBooks from new authors, independent publishers, and small presses make up the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), which offers a wide array of literary offerings 24/7/365.

C&M Online Media Inc. is primarily a publisher of electronic books under the imprint Boson Books. Their mission is to showcase the works of writers and to position them for new markets via the worldwide medium of the Internet.

White Pawn on Red Square (ISBN: 1-932482-51-2, published 2007) is Hugh McLeave’s second book available at the DPPstore. The story begins at the height of the Cold War, when a Russian girl plots to steal the mummified body of Lenin and use it as a hostage to free her dissident brother and others from a Siberian gulag.

The girl recruits five people, each with a motive for settling scores with Lenin; she lures an English diplomat, who loves her, into the conspiracy. But someone is a traitor; two plotters die and four others land in the notorious Lubyanka prison before one of the group hatches a plan to outwit the KGB.

Born and brought up in the west of Scotland, Hugh McLeave once worked as a crime correspondent at Scotland Yard and later covered the great world events in science and medicine for the News Chronicle and Daily Mail. Among those he once covered a too close-up look at an H-bomb test and interviewed such disparate individuals as J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the A-bomb; and Klaus Fuchs, who revealed its secrets to the Russians. He has written twenty-four books and has lived in France for the past thirty-one years, fifteen of them in Aix-en-Provence.

McLeave’s A Moment of Truth: The Life of Zola (ISBN: 0-917990-32-3, published 2001) is also available in eBook format at the DPPstore.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

The DPPstore offers a new prequel from by Grace Anne Schaefer and GASLight Publishing

2007-05-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

A rich and engrossing story about a nomadic people is available in eBook format for purchase and downloading at the DPPstore, 24/7/365.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) April 25, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, invite you to visit their online store - www.dppstore.com.
eBooks from new authors, independent publishers, and small presses make up the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), providing an eclectic array of literary offerings.

The New Day Dawns: People of the Frozen Earth by Grace Anne Schaefer (ISBN: 0-9754796-9-5, published 2004) was written as a prequel.

In the ancient days before the Ancestors kept the stories, the People of the Frozen Earth lived in the vast wasteland that is now called Siberia. Seeking a better life, they moved south across the land bridge into a New World, traveling through what are today Alaska and Canada. Just under two thousand years ago, this semi-nomadic People settled in the basin between the foothills at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and the flat tableland of the Western Great Plains in the area now known as Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. Strong and proud, they lived, loved, hated, laughed, cried, and died in the fullness of Mother Life’s time.

Grace Anne Schaefer has worked as an English, language arts and drama teacher. She lives in Central Texas.

GASLight Publishing provides informative, enjoyable, and affordable books to illuminate the path to a brighter tomorrow for readers of all ages.

The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Interested in enjoying life with health and happiness? Find out how in a new eBook now available at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

A realized and enlightened soul reveals the ‘secret’ in The Still Mind available for purchase and downloading 24/7/365 at www.dppstore.com.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) May 8, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, are pleased to offer the English translation of ‘Thelindha Manam’, from Tamil through their online store (www.dppstore.com).
New authors, independent publishers, and small presses are contracting with DPP daily, helping to create a bookstore that offers a wide array of literary offerings.

The Still Mind by V. Krishnamurthy (published 2006) is replete with thrilling and miraculous incidents that occurred in the author’s life time which also emphasize the importance of some of the ‘basic life values’ that his personal experiences have forced on him.
The Still Mind explains that nature has gifted human beings with a conscious mind that has ‘infinite’ potential. In present day complex life we find our minds in turmoil with their own ‘limitations’ - according to each individual’s way of thinking and living. The result: we are unable to fully exploit our mind’s latent capabilities. There are ways to overcome this ‘so called limitation’ and it has been aptly demonstrated by wise men of yore- Sages and Saints. Even in present day, the same has been proved to be true by people who live a ‘true spiritual life’ with simple living and noble thinking.
In his book, V. Krishnamurthy reveals the ‘hidden secret’ to understand one’s mind with its ‘inherent limitation’. The author explains by way of his own spiritual experiences in life, the methods to enhance the mind potential so that readers can introspect and reshape their present mode of thinking and life style for achieving transformation that will guarantee success, prosperity, health and happiness in the days to come.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

There are “Virtually” eight new eBook “Tales” available at the DPPstore

2007-05-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Virtual Tales, an eBook publishing company, is offering a variety of genres for purchase and downloading at www.dppstore.com.
Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb) May 1, 2007 - DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) and DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), an eBook publishing and distribution company, continue to add can’t-put-it-down books to their virtual shelves. Featuring eBooks by new authors and the best eBooks from self and independent publishers, the DPPstore is pleased to announce the addition of eight books from Virtual Tales, a publishing company that provides readers with original eBooks and serialized fiction.
Mystery and suspense abound in two distinct books by author B.J. Kibble. Chasing the Wind (ISBN: 0-9782550-0-3, published 2007) is a fast-paced often violent thriller set in an alternative reality, while Dry Rain (ISBN: 0-9782550-1-1, published 2006) is set in London where the focus is on police detective Tom Carver who is sent to investigate, what he believes to be, a run-of-the-mill murder of a nameless vagrant.

Take a dose of historical fiction, a pair of ruby earrings and a bottle of plonk and what do you get? Three more eBooks from Virtual Tales. The Last Gunfighter by Steve Paul (ISBN: 0-9782157-8-8, published 2006), Earrings of Ixtumea by Kim Baccellia (ISBN: 0-9782550-0-2, published 2006), A Bottle of Plonk by Jacquelynn Luben (ISBN: 0-9782550-3-8, published 2007) are sure to offer readers a variety of material to choose from.

Three different settings with three distinct story lines make up the following Virtual Tales’ books: First Communion - A Collection of Modern Irish Stories by Jack Scoltock (ISBN: 0-9782157-4-5, published 2006) are set in Ireland; Elizabeth Hopkinson’s My True Love Sent to Me (ISBN: 0-9782550-2-X , published 2006) is set in the magical world of medieval romance; and The Burning by Jackie Tritt (ISBN: 0-9782157-2-9, published 2006) takes place in Pelican East, where bushfires sweep through the community.
The DPPstore offers eBooks from first-time authors to well-established experts. There is definitely something for everyone. Titles that were once only available in traditional print, and eBook titles that once upon a time were not as readily accessible, are now available through DPPpress, www.dpppress.com, at the DPPstore.The store offers some free titles and all books are priced to suit everyone's budget. Frequent buyers can reap the benefits of the Store's rewards program. The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, www.digitalpulppublishing.com, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore - reinventing reading.

Hype, Hype...Hooray!

2007-01-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

We received this posting the other day...

I feel there is a lot of hype surrounding the ebook market. I am just curious how you or any ebook publishing company attract customers. The question who reads them and how they arrive are the most intriguing to me. What do you think.?

Catherine Hodge, DPP's C.T.O. offered this response:

Great Question –

We solved our customer conundrum by opening a retail outlet. We not only feature the titles we publish, but we are aggregating the content from the independent publishing community in order to offer customers a wide array of content. Once you have something to sell, attracting customers involves; Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Link Placement, and community building. These are efforts that are essential for any internet based business.

As to the “hype”, I believe that eBooks are under hyped. They are an exciting new medium for entertainment, information and communication. eBooks offer certain advantages that paper books do not.

They are:

Portable -- Now you can have an entire digital library of books and magazines with you on your laptop, PDA, Smartphone or portable eBook device.

Convenient -- You can download eBooks instantly and read them anytime, anywhere!

Easy to use -- Turn the page with the click of a button, set a bookmark, search for a specific phrase, or use the built-in dictionary to find definitions.

Inexpensive – On average, eBooks retail for 75% of the trade paperback price.

Who reads them? The demographics of eBook readership are expanding. Many business travelers were among the first to adopt the technology since it was so convenient for them. To see how this market trend will move in the emerging eBook market in the US – look to Japan and Europe, where you may see anyone from school-children to great grandparents avidly pouring over their eBook device.

How do they arrive? eBooks are most commonly sold as digital downloads. You can find our selection of titles at the DPPstore.

Author! Author!

2006-12-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

A Piece of Cake and a Walk in the Park
By Joseph Mastroianni

So you wanna write a book? Listen up. It’s a cookie stroll. Notice I didn’t say cake walk. I learned that much. All you need do is, have no passion for writing, not follow the silly rules of creative writing, and most important, not give a flea turd about making money. How? Write a book accidentally, I did. A kindness-enhanced person (that means a nice guy - gotta watch those eponyms) even called it a masterpiece. A few others even paid money to read it!

My journey coincidentally began with an accident. One rush hour day I tried to walk across 3rd avenue in New York, a huge mistake. The flathead who hit me wasn’t insured. Neither was I, making my head even flatter. Lost my house, my truck, my dog, and my wife, all in one lucky stroke of fate. Come to think of it, I could have written a Country Western song. I spent the next eleven years rehabilitating and ─ whining. Oh yeah, started writing about every terrible thing that happened to me since my sister stole my lollipop when I was three. Put it all down on paper.

I then made the mistake of allowing a close friend, who is a passionate writer, read those six hundred pages of woe. He convinced me it could make a good novel. I complained the writing was too personal and painful to go public with. No problem he said, write it as fiction. There are some pitfalls, he said. Whether you’re writing truth or fiction doesn’t make much difference. What ever you write must ring true. Some people won’t believe the truth, or will believe a lie, depending on how it’s written.

There it was, an on-the-job training course in the making. I’d failed high school English twice, but my English teacher was also the football coach, and I could run like hell (mostly for my life). Not being able to string two sentences together proved to be a huge obstacle when attempting to tell the story on paper. The first edit was fairly simple. My friend marked the original with so much red, when I rid the manuscript of it, it was immediately reduced to four hundred pages. The rest of the editing was interesting. I got invited to join a writing group all of them published writers, and editors. That’s where I learned, the real job of editors is to make the story their own and totally unrecognizable as your work.

After being urged countless times not to begin sentences with the words “but” or “and”, I learned to say, that’s how the character talks. That also worked for my use of profanity, clichés, eponyms, and other flaws in my writing. Didn’t help much with the narrating though.

Here’s something I didn’t count on. The book is about a glorious piece of music written by Johan Sebastian Bach, and how it impacts the life of the protagonist. Bach wasn’t famous in his time, and to my dismay, nobody knew why he’d composed it, which placed me in the realm of writing historical fiction. That’s when I learned facts had to be perfect, but the gaps could be created. Boy, that’s writing fun at its best. Bach is considered one of the world’s greatest composers, had two wives, thirteen kids, and a lot of empty space from birth to death. Adding Bach to the book provided an opportunity to have some experts check the accuracy of my work. Fortunately, a professor of music theory happed to love how I filled that vacuum. He gave the book credibility, a great review, and an endorsement for acquiring an editor to have a look. The good luck didn’t last long before I learned about book publishers. The book had taken on a new meaning for me. It was never about money I was working on an art piece.

Before negotiations ever began we were at cross purposes. The publisher didn’t want to hear about art (they think bottom line). They didn’t like my font selection and type size. I wanted to use a font produced from a foundry still in existence from Bach’s time, which had been modernized, and large enough to read without glasses. They said it would increase the cost. They rejected my conceptual cover. It didn’t meet the highly technical blueprint designed specifically to make a books jump out at a potential buyer. I had written the book telling protagonist’s story, and the life of Bach in alternating chapters, they thought it distracting. That was the deal breaker. To be truthful, the publisher was on the mark for his purpose, but to achieve my artistic goal, there was little choice but to self-publish (an education all to its own).

Publish on Demand (P.O.D.) was the rage. There are some legitimate companies, and they will produce just one copy if you want, but it became readily apparent the book wasn’t what was important. It was the dough up front. That left me two choices: publish it or burn it.

The tasks of obtaining an ISBN, final editing and proofing, printing, distributing, promoting, event scheduling - the whole doughnut were my responsibility, physically and fiscally. It was easy from there. I added the costs, factored in the books I’d give away as gifts, and came up with a thousand copies. If I sold four hundred books, I could give away the remainder, and come out even. I found a good printing company, decided to go offset instead of digital, arranged for storage, distribution, and shipping, and printed a thousand copies.
The entire trip was quite a cool and interesting experience. A piece of cake and a walk in the park!

My advice? Go blindly and naively through the process, and you may well end up with a book people actually buy. Make sure to print one more copy than you can sell to family and friends. I absolutely guarantee someone will eventually buy it. But, as for me, I need to sell another hundred books or so to chalk up a financially successful project. I’ve already been rewarded many times over for my folly. Sold one yesterday. Only three hundred ninety-nine to go. Wanna buy a book?

Joseph C. Mastroianni author of Chaconne the Novel, is a former military officer and helicopter pilot. He studied in Spain for almost four years, and the classical guitar is now his avocation. His favorite composer is Johann Sebastian Bach. Presently on staff with the Santa Barbara Daily Sound, Joseph writes a weekly column, the Devils Advocate. The DA and his uniformed sources, which are fictional characters, discuss and spoof local, national, and international issues of the day. He is also contributing editor to Fly Fishing New England, writing about the history of fly fishing. ..Joseph is also known for his work in behalf of the performing arts, and has a dedication to help public libraries, especially his home town library in Woburn Massachusetts.

Chaconne is a tale of two lives intertwined across hundreds of years through music, adversity, and passion. Santa Barbara author Joseph Mastroianni artfully weaves a narrative of fictional protagonist Milo Damiani and Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, and the tie that ultimately binds them: Bach’s “Chaconne,” widely considered the greatest musical composition of all time.

Chaconne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore 24/7/365 for $16.99.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-12-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

Are You Wearing Clean Underwear?
By Bonnie Myhrum

Did your mom tell you to be sure to wear clean underwear in case you were in an accident? Mine did. I guess she was afraid that I would be judged by the condition of my underwear. Most of us probably won’t be judged on the condition of our underwear, because under normal conditions no one can see it (this is not taking into consideration the current trend of wearing underwear as outerwear), but there are many things that we mail, e-mail, publish, put on the Web and/or hand out that we want people to see and on which we will be judged.

OK. Here’s the thing. You are a poet--an artist--a writer. For the most part, you represent yourself, not a company. You are your own best marketing tool. You are your own advertisement. You are responsible for creating the impression that your current and potential adoring public has of you. Do you want these folks to think that you don’t care about how you present yourself--that you aren’t a professional?

In the current "all-technology, all the time" world of communication, it has become so easy to be easy. The use of text- and instant-messaging has created a whole new set of abbreviations for many commonly used words and someone we’ve met online might tell us he’s a businessman selling cell phones when she really is a scam artist. To those who know us via e-mail and the Internet, we are only what we appear to be. u can ruin you’re reputation w/1 mistak. If you write e-mails as if you don’t have time to use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, you are showing disrespect to your reader (you imply that he or she is not important enough for you to take the time to check your composition) as well as to yourself (you imply that you are not intelligent enough to check your composition).

Writing is not just what you do--it is who you are. You should do your best at all times, so your writing should reflect that you are doing your best, all the time. How can you not have the time to do the best that you can do?

Patricia Fry says she is surprised at how many muddy writers there are out there. Are you one of them? Do you read what you have written? Have you ever looked at your "sent" mailbox and wondered what you were talking about when you read an e-mail that you wrote a couple of months ago?

When you’re e-mailing, it’s important to remember that, because you are not face-to-face, your words and punctuation are the only clues your reader can use to understand what you are trying to say. You can easily be misunderstood in an e-mail--the recipient might think you are angry just because of the exclamation point at the end of your sentence. That person can’t hear your voice or see your body language--clues we constantly use when we are talking with someone.

The next time you send an e-mail, take a minute to proofread it and correct the errors you may have made. You have as much time as everyone else--use it to your advantage. Don’t destroy your professional credibility by being "too busy" to wear clean underwear.

Bonnie Myhrum, Professional Secretary LLC
Virtual Assistance for Virtually All of Your Tedious Tasks

· Transcription Services (mini-cassettes, videotapes, DVDs)
· Typesetting for Self-Publishers
· Proofreading and 'Final-Pass' Editing
· Word Processing
· Database Set-Up & Management
· Invoicing

bmyhrum@wideopenwest.com • 734-455-0987
www.professionalsecretaryllc.com

Hot Off The Press!

2006-11-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

Connecting the dots . . .The DPPstore opens a new chapter in eReading with the dotReader

The DPPstore and OSoft debut a revolutionary new eReading system that allows readers to engage with books in previously unimagined ways.

Palm Springs, CA (PRWeb via PR Web Direct) November 29 - DigitalPulp Publishing and OSoft introduce the dotReader (eBook software) and compatible eBooks. Both are now available in the DPPstore.

The DPPstore is the first eCommerce site to support the dotReader with commercial titles now available. Additional titles will be released over the next month.

The dotReader is an open source eBook program designed to run on multiple platforms including Windows, Windows CE, Macs, and Linux and can be used on most desktops, laptops and PDAs. Smartphone capability is planned for early next year.

The dotReader enhances the eBook reading experience in many ways by allowing users to:

SEARCH – not just single books – but every document in your whole library. Finally, multi-book searching.
SHARE – each book in dotReader is its own community, giving readers the opportunity to participate in a dialogue.
SECURE - state of the art, scalable, user-friendly Digital Rights Management (DRM) protects intellectual property without intruding on the reading experience.
UPDATE - keep your book current with automatic updates & timely information!

The dotReader is a multi-function eReader created by OSoft and named after Dorothy Thompson. The dotReader honors the memory of this legendary foreign correspondent through its powerful embedded annotation and collaboration tools.

“The dotReader is amazing!” says Pamela Turner, Digital Publishing industry consultant. “It offers advanced options for users and content creators, yet is simple and intuitive for the most inexperienced readers.”

“The DPPstore motto is ‘independent authors and presses for independent readers and thinkers’,” says DigitalPulp Publishing CEO Genene Miller Coté. “The dotReader promotes freedom and creativity in reading and thinking.”

The DPPstore, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing, offers the best in eBooks from new authors and independent presses. eBooks are offered in multiple formats allowing readers the greatest choice of reading devices. The DPPstore – reinventing reading.

OSoft is headquartered outside of Tacoma, Washington. OSoft's vision is to create a documentation standard through which publishers, authors, potential authors, and readers can share, collaborate, and exchange information in one common format. Contact: Mark Carey (253) 848-4758.

Give eThanks

2006-11-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

The last marketing tip I posted I suggested making the "e-List". This week, my suggestion is to take the e-List you have now and send out a message of thanks, blessings and/or gratitude…or simply send out good wishes for a happy Thanksgiving.

Keeping in touch and sending out good vibes, good karma – or whatever you want to name it – is a great way to go, whether it be to your family and friends, business associates, acquaintances or networking contacts. It keeps your name out there, it keeps positive channels open and sending out good thoughts manifests goodness for you and your well-being.

Sound a bit airy-fairy? A bit granola-esque? Well, okay: maybe. But truth is – it works.
The more gratitude we have (and express) to and for the people and things we already have, the better off we feel. The better we feel, the better we do. The better we are, the more people we attract. The more people we attract, the longer our e-List grows. And so it is.

So, go on – send out those messages. And then have yourself a terrific Thanksgiving!

Published Just This Week!

2006-11-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Beach Shadows by January Keck
ISBN: 978-1-933746-13-0
Published by PulpBytes, 2006
Price: $8.49

Available for purchase and downloading at the DPPstore.

Beach Shadows is a powerful and intense collection of stories, as full of life as the author, herself. If you want to be moved, if you are a thinker, here's your book. These life depictions resonate with love, hope and everything in between. Each one, a rare gem with a different sparkle.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-11-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

Making the e-List

We all want to make the “A” List…or at least we want our books to. But to make the “A” List, one of the things we need to do first and foremost is make the e-List. Literally. We have to create one – build one.

“To build a fan base you must build a mailing list,” says Lee Silber, author of Self-Promotion for the Creative Person. And if you are promoting an eBook the best way to get the word out is through email (heck, these days, even if you’re writing a traditional print book, the fastest, least expensive and far-reaching promotion is through email).

How do you make the list, you ask? Well, in the words of Maria in the musical The Sound of Music: “let’s start at the very beginning - a very good place to start”: Begin with what you have - who’s in your email address book right now…Probably friends, family and co-workers. If there’s more – great! That’s the beginning of your “fan base”.

To move on and continue building on what you already have – that’s where the footwork comes in. If you feel at a loss as to how to do this, here are some ideas:

~ Make a list of other people you know whose emails you do not have. Call them up or write them a snail mail letter and ask them for their email address. When you receive their email address, add it to your list.
~ Whenever you meet someone who might be interested in what you’re doing (your book/its subject matter, you as a writer) ask them for their email address. Tell them you’ll keep them posted on the book, upcoming books and any events and updates that are related to you and your book. Add their email address to your list.
~ Encourage the people who are already on your email list to send you email addresses of people they know who might be interested in you and your book. Put those email addresses you receive on your list.
~Research. Check out blogs and websites for writers, readers, publishers, agents, media, etc. and copy their email addresses onto your list.
~If you do any kind of promotional event, make sure you take a guest book or create a guest sign-in sheet and ask for email addresses. All the addresses you collect should go on your list.

Why make the e-List?

Email is the quickest, least expensive and easiest way to reach the largest amount of people possible. The more people you have on your list, the greater advantage you have of garnering interest and support for you and your book(s).

~ You can keep people informed about what you are doing
~ Keep your name/book(s) in the “public” eye
~ Get your name, book, info. out there through word-of-mouth (or by word-of-email, as the case may be)

With email you can send:

~ Announcements
~ Updates
~ Invites
~ Newsletters/eZines
~ Quotes/bon mots/thoughts/questions

These are things that cost next to little or nothing to do. They simply require a little bit of time, a dash of creativity and tenacity.

So get going on making your e-List so that you and your book can make the “A” List!

New - ish release from DPP!

2006-10-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Chemotroph by Ian McKinley

They know that microbes containing the secrets of rejuvenation and indefinite longevity can be found in the bowels of a deep repository for nuclear waste. A team heads for Europe, unaware that they are walking into the cross-hairs of groups who would kill to obtain their knowledge – or to stop others from possessing it. Sampling the microbes acts as a trigger; suddenly staying alive is top priority and the team is on the run, trying to stay invisible to a mega-corporation with all the resources of mid-21st century technology at its command. This hard-hitting sequel to Extremophile does not “sanitise for your protection” and thus is not for the faint-hearted.

Chemotroph by Ian McKinley is published under the PulpBytes Imprint,
ISBN 1-933746-12-2, 2006. It is available for purchase ($8.95) and downloading at the DPPstore, 24/7/365.

Ian McKinley holds Ph. D. in chemistry from Glasgow University. He has a professional background in nuclear waste management. A Scot who has lived in Switzerland for 20 years, he has been involved in an array of work related to nuclear waste management, including archeology, geology, microbiology, engineering and public communication. He has co-authored three technical books, as well as hundreds of articles in a variety of publications.

New Publications...Check 'em out!

2006-10-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Latest DPP Publications - Now available at the DPPstore

Racing History 2: Quixotic by C.A. Scott

Racing History is an ambitious, five-volume sci-fi series that proudly flaunts its appreciation for pop culture: music, film, comics, television, videogames, and yes literature of all kinds. Author C.A. Scott gave us Volume 1: Meteoric, Episodes 1-7 last spring and now the DPPstore is carrying Volume 2: Quixotic, Episodes 8-14.

What if you could remake yourself over from scratch? Who would you be? Where would you go? Who would you choose as friends, and who would become your enemies? What would you want most out of life, and what would you do to get it?
Diego Lee grew up on Virtuality and role-playing games. Becoming someone else is second nature to him. So when it’s necessary to do so, the man he invents is “Race Allen,” a quixotic adventurer with little regard for the law. He is a romantic science fiction cliché, the very bread and butter of space opera. His way of life is also completely unrealistic and, in the Stellar Union, utterly impossible to sustain. That’s not to say Diego can’t make a go of it: evading shuttlecops and bounty hunters alike, dodging between criminal organizations, and shooting without asking any questions at all.

First to Last (The Tale of a Biker) by Dennis W. Lid

First to Last is the true story of a soldier's life through the motorcycles he has owned and the most prominent action events that have occurred on those bikes and during his lifetime. The manuscript has an international tone with a heavy accent on Asia, is action oriented during peace and war, and spans the generations in its common appeal to motorcyclists, hobbyists, adventurers and romanticists of all ages. It is a factual, first-hand account of the tale of a biker, a warrior and an incurable romantic. The book includes maps and photographs with captions that follow portions of the story line. Its theme combines historical nostalgia with adventure romance to yield an avant-garde, neo-classic novella of the two-wheeled conveyance -- the motorcycle. The weave of motorcycle, man and events is nothing less than a lifelong search for the Holy Grail that culminates in answering the question of where one's treasure lies.

This is Dennis Lid's first book. In December it will be available in print from Capri Publishing.

Whatever. by Matt Lehman

One man's journey to find God, the perfect woman, and himself set in the most unlikely of places, a cruise ship. A ship where sex and alcohol are kings and love is barely an afterthought.

Whatever. is Matt Lehman's first publication under DPP's PulpBytes Imprint. His book Clam Chowder, published by Velcro Crayons Publishing, is also available at the DPPstore.

Thanks for the kudos...

2006-08-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Nicky - I want to thank you for sharing all your creative ideas. No doubt it's your background as actress, director, producer, teacher and writer that adds to the mix.Whatever it is, I for one am glad to know you.

Fran Silverman, publisher of Book Promotion Newsletter, http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com, and host of Book Marketing with Fran on Achieve Radio. http://www.achieveradio.com

Hi! Love your blog articles. A passionate fan for years so I started my own blog :-) science-fiction@theblogverse.com

eBooks: A Great Way to Publish!

2006-08-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

It’s in the news every day – Sony is touting their new eBook Reader; Dan Brown, best-selling author of The Da Vinici Code and Angels and Demons is heralding the benefits that eBooks have for readers and authors alike; traditional publishers like Random House and big companies like Google are climbing on the band wagon and launching eBook divisions. eBooks and ePublishing are steadily growing businesses.

Mind you, you may find what I have to say here biased or bravado-ist (I just made that word up…I like it) – after all, I work for a digital publishing company. But eBooks aren’t my thing. Or at least they weren’t my thing until a short time ago. I love books -- hardcover, paperback- whatever. I love the way books feel, the way they look, the way they smell. I am a reader. And a writer. And the idea of reading books or writing books that are, well, “out there” in cyberspace, seems, or I should say seemed odd to me. Uncomfortable. Even scary.

But my perspective has changed. As has my comfort level. And my fear is…gone. Poof! Really. Here’s why: Digital publishing and eBooks are not meant to replace traditional books. Not at all. They’re here as another avenue to read, write, and publish. And that’s cool. You have my personal testimony on this one. You could call me a personal case study (though no one has called me that yet).

I have found eBooks incredibly useful. My venue of choice for reading is my eBook reader. I’ve had up to ten books on it (it holds up to 100) and taken it with me on weekend vacations, and it doesn’t add any extra weight or space to my bag that ten paperbacks normally would.

I love my eBook reader at night when I read in bed because mine has a backlight and I can fall asleep reading it in the dark and it turns itself off. I can use the cool tools it provides like book marking and note making, and it makes for a great conversation piece in coffee houses (if you’re reading your eBook reader, PDA, Smart Phone, etc – probably not if you just walk up to a total stranger and start talking about eBooks…They might not be really interested when they’re in the middle of reading Kierkegaard or having some deep, intense conversation with their significant other).

Because I work for a digital publishing company…Bear with me as I insert a shameless promo here: DigitalPulp Publishing (that’s the company I work for), publishes and promotes new and lesser-known authors. We also have a division called DPPpress, which teams with self and independent publishers to distribute their books in our eBookstore, the DPPstore. Did you get all that?! Shameless promotion complete.

So as I was saying: because I work for a digital publishing company, I have had the opportunity to do a lot of research into eBooks and ePublishing. What I’ve found is that there is no reason not to publish digitally.

Bestselling author, M.J. Rose, published Lip Service as an eBook before it went to traditional print. She was able to test market her book by doing this, garner an audience, and shoot to the top in the book world.

Dan Brown who sold millions of copies of his books Angels and Demons and The Da Vinici Code in traditional print, is now selling them just as readily in eBook format. Along with the above mentioned titles, two more of Brown’s books, The Digital Fortress and Deception Point have made the top ten of the bestseller fiction eBooks list.

And the stats are in: the August, 2006 ABA report found eBooks, with sales of $1.4 million, rose 40.3%, and are up 26.3% for the year to date.

There are eBook readers out there and they’re buying eBooks. It’s about choice. Digital publishing gives readers more options. And it gives authors and publishers lots more options too.
As an author you have a vast amount of creative freedom. You can easily change cover and content with little to no cost. You can publish in installments. And, with most ePublishing companies (such as DigitalPulp Publishing), you bypass the “middle people”, i.e. agents, which means you get a much larger share of your book sale profits.

Because eBooks cost so little to produce, publishers can take greater risks with lesser-known authors and alternative stories.

For both authors and publishers eBooks offer another means of exposure and an additional venue for reaching a greater audience. Some readers like hardcover, others paperback and still others, audio books. eBooks provide readers with another choice. And eBooks give publishers and authors an opportunity to gain new readership, exposure and sales.

Why publish eBooks? Why not?!

Dennis Lid said...

Nicky,This is a good piece; it's straight to the point. Your final line says it all: "Why eBooks? Why not?" I like your blog.

Big Lucy said...

2006-08-07T12:38:00.001-07:00

Love this author and love love love the interview questions. Love, Big Lucy

Glenda Wilson said...

2006-08-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

There’s More In The Store Than The Store:
“eBooks for Kids”…amazing how time has a way of connecting our little people to so many channels. Now it’s the internet. The speed of growth on the information super highway seems to match our fascination and hunger to feed creative souls – including the souls of our children. I have often wondered how information would be passed along to our children; particularly those great treasures in books. The Arabian Knights, Little Women, Pollyanna, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden…and so many, many more are now at the fingertips of those small fingers as they explore “The Store”. Maybe it’s just up to me to direct my own next generation as to what’s in the store!

Jeannie Sloan said...

2006-08-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Nicky- Thanks for this wonderful Blog. Very informative and there are some terrific responses from your writers. While my personal favs range from Jim Harrison to T. Jefferson Parker to Tom McGuane, I love to venture out and enjoy new worlds. thank you for this, and I look forward to logging onto this site on a more regular basis.

Author! Author!

2006-08-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Innerview
with C.A. Scott

What is your ideal writing environment?

My home office, my own sanctuary, with no one else around and just the right music playing for the scene/story. Solitude is vital; I don’t work well with an audience. I have one of those Ray Bradbury style offices just full of artwork and books and toys and things, and my iMac on this very skiffy corner desk made of metal and black panels. And whether it’s Nine Inch Nails or Morcheeba or Audioslave or Steely Dan, well... I’ve got something like 6000 songs on my hard drive, all different genres, and I was raised on movies and MTV, right? So everything’s got a soundtrack in my head. And music really gets me into the right frame of mind to write.

What authors inspire you most?

Anyone who writes for some reason other than just to entertain. I’m interested in authors who have something to say: George Orwell, for example, and Alan Moore. I don’t necessarily read a lot of other people who are writing in a similar genre to my own -- mainly because if anyone out there were putting out the kind of story I want to read, then I wouldn’t have to write it myself!

That said, I am also a fan of Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Letham, Reinaldo Arenas and Theodore Sturgeon... guys who can do the kind of linguistic acrobatics I feel like I’ll never be able to pull off. You know: people who write in that style you have to read out loud because of how awesome the words feel in your mouth.

I am a huge fan, to this day, of the sci-fi grandmasters: Heinlein, Ellison, Silverberg, Frederick Pohl... Even when they’re bad, they’re good. And when they’re good, watch out!

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

Music does it almost every time. The right soundtrack will take you where you need to go...

I’ve found that generally writer’s block is my subconscious mind’s way of saying, “Hey, you’re going the wrong direction in this story, here.” So if I back up and listen to the story, the characters, etc. they’ll tell me what’s wrong and we can move on. Or I switch from one story (better yet, one kind of thing entirely) to another for a shot in the arm. I finished two lousy novels in college that way, one fantasy and one science fiction, by jumping back and forth between them. They weren’t any good, but they were complete stories, and that’s something...

I’m a perfectionist (an editor by profession), so I’m not going to put anything out before the world unless I feel like it won’t embarrass me or the characters in it. So when I can’t come up with something new, I’m usually editing (what some authors call “rewriting”). I read over and over, sometimes out loud, and fix what doesn’t work. That’ll often jumpstart me into the next scene.

Talk a bit about Diego Lee – the character that haunted you (and prompted you to write Racing History)?

He’s in many ways my alter ego, I suppose. Here’s this guy who just wanted to live a simple life doing the stuff he loves -- contributing to the world in the way he was born to do. But the civilization he lives in values other things more, things like conformity and following the rules and learning how to be a good salesman. So he’s kinda’ forced by circumstances to become what some people might consider a bad guy. A criminal. But iconoclasts are the only people who really ever change the world for good. And the society he lives in really needs changing.

We have a love/hate relationship, Diego and I. He surely got tired trying to talk to a silly teenage girl who thought he was nothing but a cool Han Solo rip-off, so he went away in disgust for a few years. When he came back, he was so impatient to get his story done that he turned me into an obsessive-compulsive nutcase for several years. I love spending time with him, and I’ve found so do most other people who get to know him. He’s like one of those guys you love to party with, even though you’d be scared to actually live with him.

But over the course of the story, he does work out some of the insanity. Enough at least to function on a more ordinary level. Unfortunately for him, the Universe needs him the way he is, and that’s not necessarily good for the psyche. But it does make for rollicking fun in fiction form. Let’s face it, happy and contented people make really boring characters anyway...

There are 7 episodes in volume I, 5 volumes in the Racing History series. What is the magic that keeps that story going for so long?

I think it’s is the continual change of venue, style, characters, etc. From episode to episode, and especially from volume to volume. Each has its own mood and theme. Diego’s really the only constant in this story. He’s like the car you’re riding in on this long, crazy road trip. And you’re never quite sure whether the car’s going to break down or not. Sometimes it does. And that in itself becomes part of the adventure.

If you want to tell the story of how some apparent nobody can literally change history, it’s inevitably going to be a big one. If Diego were some military dude or something, maybe he could jump right out of officer’s training and into the world-saving business. If he were some freakin’ nobleman, he’d have it all in the palm of his hand to start with. But I have to take this total lowlife and put him in a position of power -- and if you do that with any realism at all, it’s going to take a lot of twists and turns to get him there.

I’ve had friends like him, too. People to whom more seems to happen in just a few years than goes on in most people’s lifetimes. They’re the most interesting folks I’ve ever known. So there ya’ go.

I love this description about Racing History: “space opera with a cyberpunk attitude and a touch of film noir.” Can you speak to that a bit? What is the best definition, in your opinion, of cyberpunk? And explain how the three genres mix.

Well, space opera nowadays almost exclusively means war stories set in space with great generals and things as the main characters. You know the type, they usually start, “Fleet Admiral Goran Xeitgeist strode confidently across the spacious bridge of the Imperial Ship of the Line Interceptor...” Now, I realize there are people who like that sort of thing, but to be honest, my reaction is, “Blyeach!”

And cyberpunk has been defined a dozen different ways by a hundred different people. But I think of it as technology-obsessed dystopian fiction that tends to be rather insular in its venue. In the cyberpunk future, very often people haven’t made it off Earth yet; they’re much more interested in virtual entertainments... And that hits a little too close to home for me; I still believe in the dream, y’know? I was born in the year of the first moon-landing, after all.

Character tends to fall by the wayside in a lot of these things. People are stereotypes or at the very least slaves to their plot devices. I loved Neuromancer (talk about amazing feats of language!), but really when you get to the end, what’s changed? Nothing. The characters haven’t learned a thing from their experience, and they just go back to their crappy little lives.

Film noir is all about character. It’s about psychological weirdness, the dark side of life, and people just trying to get by. It’s gritty and full of fantastic dialog. The people in those stories are seldom “important” in any real way. And they either learn from their mistakes or die.

So I call my work “space-punk.” You got the epic adventure of space opera with cyberpunk style characters who live in a film-noir-ish world. It’s intensely character driven, heavy on thematics, and cool as hell. I think it would make a great comic series, actually. But that’s for later. Right now, it’s prose fiction as addictive drug: Once you try it, you can’t help coming back for a fix over and over again.

Got a favorite quote?

Not sure whether you mean in general or from RH. In general, my favorite of those I’ve come across lately is this thing from Henry David Thoreau: “The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?”

An appropriate quote for Racing History might be “People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people.” Unfortunately, I didn’t write that.

You can imagine that from a series as hefty as RH is, there’d be quite a few favorite quotes... I enjoy dialog probably more than anything else in writing. That’s part of the film noir thing, I guess. So let’s end on this one:

“Some days I feel like my life is just one big painting full of melting clocks and giraffes on fire.”
—Diego-Alain Lee, 2255

Racing History is an ambitious, sci-fi series that proudly flaunts its appreciation for pop culture: music, film, comics, television, videogames, and yes literature of all kinds. In her episodic series, C.A. Scott dares to challenge many of today’s boundaries in science fiction. This is the full story of a singular moment in history, not Earth history or human history but all of history — the story of everybody — and the how and why that make all the difference. This is epic space-punk: space opera with a cyberpunk attitude and a touch of film noir.

“Scott is an excellent storyteller,” says DPP critic Jacki Buck. “The settings are fascinating –rich and intricate, and the characters are well thought out and completely believable even within their fictitious scope.”

A scientific journalist and editor, C.A. Scott is author of many articles and magazine supplements covering biotechnology. As a technical editor, she has been a guest at several west-coast science fiction conventions. Science fiction is her passion.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-08-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

My Two Cents on Book Sense

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.
- Christopher Morley

Every two weeks for the last nine months I have written a marketing tip for this newsletter. Most of the tips are based on my own personal experience coupled with information, facts and expertise from marketing experts or from others in the creative fields.

I wanted to seize the opportunity this week to recognize the books and the authors who I have turned to time and again to help me write this column. I also wanted to make available, to all who are interested, information about the books I use the most, in case you are curious about gathering more marketing and promotional ideas.

Different books may tout the same techniques or ideas – but you may find you tend to like one author’s or expert’s style more than another’s. You may also find that you enjoy merging ideas, strategies and styles to create your own. That’s what I have found works best for me. This is also why I tend to draw ideas from so many different books.

I call my reliance on all kinds of books for ideas and techniques “book sense”. I devour books on writing and creativity and draw from many viewpoints, styles and expertise to help me formulate and grow my own. I do the same when it comes to marketing and promotion.

It makes sense to me to draw from as many resources as possible to get the most out of myself for myself. If an idea or method works for one person, I am always game to try it and tweak it to suit my style and my objective(s).

However, that doesn’t mean I get into action right away.

I do believe that some of the same things that hold some of us back as authors are the same things that can hold us back from self-promotion: procrastination, perfectionism and the inner critic.

Back in December, 2005 I wrote a marketing tip called One Small Step and followed it up two weeks later with Steppin’ On. The tips were about taking the first step – just a small step – towards marketing your book, and then, subsequently, adding on another step or two.

Personal experience combined with “book sense” helped me write those two articles. Sometimes, just thinking about promoting myself and my work is overwhelming. Dr. Robert Maurer’s One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way has helped me learn to break down the bigger picture, including my goals, into small, small steps. Once I was able to practice that technique, I could apply it to any marketing idea I wanted to garner results.

Another book I used for the same articles was The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers, and Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence, by Jill Badonsky, M.Ed.

For inspiration, support, and tried-and-true ideas, I utilize The Nine Modern Day Muses almost all the time. Badonsky has updated the Muses of Ancient Greece into contemporary Muses who help you get started with things (Marge – who believes in breaking things down into 15-minute increments), try new things (Albert – who believes everything you do is relative to whether you think you can do it), and who help you believe in yourself and what you are doing (Muse Song and Arnold, the Bodyguard).

Badonsky’s book has helped me think out of the box when it comes to marketing. Albert, the Muse of imagination and innovation, has inspired me with humor, encouraged me to merge two old ideas, or two or more completely seemingly unassociated ideas, to create a new one, and to look at things and do things differently.

Because marketing takes time and money (both of which many of us authors have little of), thinking out of the box becomes essential. Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person is an excellent resource, especially for coming up with and expanding upon off-the-beaten path marketing ideas: Ideas that use more brain than buck.

And speaking of lots and lots of bang for (mostly) less buck or for free, some of the best tips and strategies I have found have come from Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman and Michael Larsen. I suppose I should be careful when I say “the best”. It really all amounts to style. I love the way Badonsky, Silber and the Levinson-Frishman-Larsen book are written. They’re fun with a hint of wacky and written in a more conversational spirit than most how-to books.

But how-to books that offer lots of structure help disorganized little-ol’-me, quite a bit!

One of my favorites is Get Clients NOW!: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants by C.J. Hayden. Because I am such a procrastinator, the time-frame structure helps me. Deadlines always light a fire under my tush, and because I am also a perfectionist, I don’t want to be late and I don’t want to do a lousy job.

Some people have that built-in determined-to-get-what-I-want button, and others of us need a little bit more nudging. I’m more of the nudging variety, and that’s why Hayden’s book works well for me. I have utilized some of her suggestions in my marketing tips too.

Another book that I use as a regular go-to book is Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies. I have worked with the book’s author, Marilyn Ross, personally, and I can tell you the woman knows of what she speaks (or, really I should say, writes). Though the book is not geared towards authors, but entrepreneurs, many of its basic fundamentals apply to authors and book promotion. In a sense, all authors are entrepreneurs, really – so this book makes sense (it can be found in eBook format, by the way, at a very fabulous bookstore. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? The DPPstore, www.dppstore.com).

Ross also has another book that I’d highly recommend: Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors, Independent Publishers and Small Presses.

Other books I reference are EBook Marketing Made Easy: 101 Great Ways to Promote and Sell Your eBook, by Rusty Fischer; and Guerrilla Publicity by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Jill Lublin.

Of course I also find all kinds of ideas from newsletters, such as Dan Poynter’s, Rick Frishman’s, Judy Cullins, and John Kremer. I also get them by typing key words into Google’s search engine.

I write this bi-weekly column in the hopes that I can share some of my experiences, thoughts and game plans with you- and yes, my style, my humor: me. This issue I am sharing where I find some of those resources that help me help you. But marketing and self-promotion inspiration, ideas and strategies come from everywhere. What I am offering here are but a few. Use them if you like and then go out there and find others that work for you just as well or even better.

That’s my two cents.

Nicky’s Book Sense List:

EBook Marketing Made Easy: 101 Great Ways to Promote and Sell Your eBook
By Rusty Fisher
Bookbooters Press, 2002

“EBooks have opened up a range of new possibilities for authors to get their work published. But how do you make your eBook stand out from the rest? How do you go about promoting your eBook so that it gains the recognition it deserves? Rusty Fischer, book marketing expert and bestselling author, gives you the answers in EBook Marketing Made Easy, a plethora of proven resources and advice that will help you to promote your eBook to the widest possible audience”

Rusty Fisher is a successful freelance writer, former magazine and book editor, and multi-published author.

Get Clients NOW!: A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals and Consultants
by C.J. Hayden
Amacom, 1999

“C.J. Hayden's best-selling book is packed with road-tested tools and strategies to help you design an effective marketing plan, boost your enthusiasm for sales and marketing, and begin to dramatically increase your client base in just 28 days. Using C.J.'s reader-friendly cookbook approach, straightforward tips, and specific techniques, you will:
- Break out of "analysis paralysis" and determine exactly what you need to do first -- and every step of the way
- Find out what really works to market your own professional services... and what doesn't
- Overcome the fear, resistance, and procrastination that block effective action
- Create a customized, affordable, reusable, and realistic marketing plan”

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers: 100 Weapons for Selling Your Work
by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen
Writer’s Digest Books, 2001

“The war begins before your book even hits the shelves, and you need every weapon you can get to beat back the competition. Guerilla Marketing for Writers puts an entire arsenal at your disposal. Packed with proven insights and advice, it details 100 ways to sell your work before and after it’s published. This wide range of “weapons”—practical low-cost and no-cost marketing techniques—will help you design a powerful strategy for strengthening your proposals, promoting your books, and maximizing your sales.”

Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, has sold more than one million guerrilla marketing books since 1984.
Rick Frishman is the president of Planned Television Arts, one of the top publicity firms in the book publishing industry.
Michael Larsen is a successful literary agent and the author of Literacy Agents and How to Write a Book Proposal.

Guerrilla Publicity: Hundreds of Sure-Fire Tactics to Get Maximum Sales for Minimum Dollars
By Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Jill Lublin
Adams Media, an F + W Publications Company, 2002
“Publicity is one of the most overlooked marketing tools. With a little information and training, it can be one of the most powerful marketing tools for any company, large or small.Guerrilla Publicity builds on the potential and wisdom of the best-selling Guerrilla Marketing Series with simple to use and easy to understand tips, tactics and resources to increase the effectiveness and profit potential of your business.”
Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, has sold more than one million guerrilla marketing books since 1984.
Rick Frishman is the president of Planned Television Arts, one of the top publicity firms in the book publishing industry.
Jill Lublin is an internationally acclaimed speaker on public relations and marketing topics. As CEO of the public relations strategic consulting firm Promising Promotion and founder of Good News Media, Inc. Jill hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, “Do the Dream.”

Jump Start Your Book Sales: A Money-Making Guide for Authors, Independent Publishers and Small Presses
By Marilyn & Tom Ross
Communication Creativity, 1999

“Turn yourself into a book marketing master and make tens of thousands of extra dollars with the ideas in this one-of-a-kind resource. Get your books into catalogs, rack up lucrative bulk premium sales, and do author signings and radio interviews that get outrageous results. Find the secret to book promotion and generating tons of free publicity, then discover how to capitalize on it.”

Marilyn and Tom Ross -- authors, speakers, consultants, coaches -- are the champions of self publishing service. This internationally acclaimed team has helped thousands of authors sell millions of books. Marilyn also works as a publishing consultant. She accepts a limited number of ongoing coaching and hourly phone consulting clients. So, if you need help shaping a manuscript, advice on book printing issues, or assistance with a profit-making national book marketing campaign, contact her today!

The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers, and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence
by Jill Badonsky, M.Ed.
The Penguin Group, 2001

“Jill Badonsky takes the nine classical Greek Muses and updates them for our time, personifying ten principles designed to overcome creative blocks and embrace the wonders of self-expression. Each Muse will take you on a journey and share with you:
- Empowering exercises to awaken creativity
- Brainstorming
- Muse rituals to inspire faith and confidence
- Muse Walks
- Spiritual affirmations
- Quotes from mortals who’ve been inspired by the Muses
- Journaling, and much more”

Jill Badonsky, M.Ed., is a creativity coach, workshop leader, artist, and marketing consultant who is the founder and director of the Muse Is In, an organization devoted to coaching, teaching, facilitating, and marketing workshops and retreats to awaken creativity.

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way
by Robert Maurer, Ph.D.
Workman Publishing, 2004

“Unleash the potent force of kaizen, the Japanese technique of achieving great and lasting success through small, steady steps…Kaizen works because it melts away resistance – in particular, the ‘fight-or-flight’ brain chemistry behind people’s underlying fear of change.
An expert on the art of success, Dr. Robert Maurer has helped countless people and businesses use kaizen to reach their objectives and maintain excellence. Distilling its secrets, Dr. Maurer shows not only how and why kaizen works, but how to make it work for you…how to realize ambitions by sidestepping any impediments…As one client succinctly put it, ‘the steps [are] so small I couldn’t fail.’”

Robert Maurer, Ph.D. is an Associate Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, a behavioral health instructor at the Canyon Ranch Health Spa in Tucson, Arizona, and runs The Science of Excellence, a consulting firm.

Self-Promotion for the Creative Person: Get the Word Out About Who You Are and What You Do
by Lee Silber
Three Rivers Press, 2001

“Everything you need to know about marketing yourself is included in this book. Self-Promotion for the Creative Person is packed with proven techniques that will work for you whether you are an author, actor, artist, or accordion player who wants fresh, off-beat, and cost-effective ways to build a business or develop a successful and fulfilling career…
- How to market without money
- How to create marketing materials that will sell you even when you’re not around
- How to build a buzz using word of mouth
- How to use the internet in ways you never thought of to promote yourself
- How to get the leaders in your field to endorse and help you”

Lee Silber, author of Time Management for the Creative Person and Career Management for the Creative Person, is an accomplished graphic artist, drummer, workshop leader, and radio talk-show host and is the founder of five companies, including CreativeLee Speaking.

Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies: 307 Awesome Money-Making Strategies for Savvy Entrepreneurs
By Marilyn Ross
Communication Creativity, 2000
“With Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies you'll learn how to combine estrogen with entrepreneurship for revolutionary success (even if you’re a man)!
The material covers everything from generating free publicity (then truly profiting from it) to advertising on the cheap—from forming strategic alliances to capitalizing on nontraditional sales channels.”

Marilyn Ross, who has been called a "trend tracker" by Entrepreneur magazine, has written or co-authored 13 books. Her Big Ideas for Small Service Businesses was selected as one of the 30 best business books of the year by Soundview Executive Book Summaries. In Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies she again preaches about what she practices.

Nicky’s Newsletter/Tips Sense List:

Judy Cullins
http://www.bookcoaching.com/ezine.shtml

Rick Frishman
http://www.rickfrishman.com/newsletter.html

John Kremer
http://www.bookmarket.com/tips.html

Dan Poynter
http://www.parapublishing.com/sites/para/

Author! Author!

2006-07-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

A Bad Case of Novelism
by C.A. Scott

I am a novelist. To put it another way, I suffer from novelism, a peculiar form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that has driven many to drink, to drugs, to all kinds of self-abuse and even suicide. If you can possibly manage to live without writing, I say, then by all means do so! It is misery, it is insanity, it is not a talent but a malady. Novelists are barely functional manic-depressives for whom writing very often takes the place of prescription psychoactives. And that’s if they’re lucky.

All humans are creative to some extent. The most popular past-times these days are gardening, crafting, and scrapbooking — all arguably creative pursuits. There’s a whole entertainment industry based on exploiting the work of artists. And you can dabble in just about anything, especially if you have a new iMac on your desk. Welcome to YouTube Nation.

But novelism... Well, that’s a special kind of crazy. No other supposedly legitimate endeavor is so easily expressed in the terms of a psychological disorder. Only method actors are almost as bad. A novelist makes up imaginary people and obsesses over them for months, even years on end. She has conversations with them, even arguments, and struggles to control them but never really can. She sees the world as a reflection of her own inner landscape, spends hours and hours doing the same thing over and over again: tap-tap-tapping at the computer. Sometimes she laughs out loud or shouts “Yes, that’s it!” for no apparent reason while driving down the highway. When you’re talking to her, and her eyes go all glassy, you can be sure she’s off in that other world again, wherever it is.

This. Is not. Normal. Behavior.

I finished my first novel around age 18, and it was terrible. I actually (cringe) had some people read it, and they all said nice things like people always do. I’m embarrassed to think about it now — more for the characters than for myself (another sad symptom of novelism, putting imaginary people ahead of yourself). I even sent it out — I so hope no one who saw it then remembers it now! — and got an invitation from TSR to write for hire. But I didn’t want to write in someone else’s universe, I had a perfectly good one all my own!

Eventually I gave up and set that first one aside. After all, it was really bad. But the characters didn’t go away. They just waited... for years... until the right moment came along. Meanwhile, I went to college, played in a couple rock bands, wrote other things, toyed with acting, and started a career in journalism. Then one day, about a decade after that first novel, I went to the local moviehouse and sat down to watch Dark City for the first time.

Those eyes… I was entranced. Where had I seen them before? And that voice… Where had I heard it before?

“Oh no.”

Out of the darkened theater, he appeared, took a seat next to me, looked over and gave me that infernal smirk. “Hey, long time no see.”

“Urk,” I said, very quietly, a vain attempt to stifle my insanity.

“Honey, have I got some things to tell you…”

“Oh crap.”

And thus was Diego Lee reborn. I hear Rice had the same problem with that Lestat fellow. And Doyle too, with Sherlock Holmes. There are some characters who just won’t let you go. But look here, I’m the writer, I’m supposed to be god to this guy! I tried to tell him that the original book had been a great big pile of unsalvageable dreck, tried to explain that I had a career and a husband so there was no time to write some dang novel (series), tried to tell him I wasn’t good enough at the whole fiction thing anyway... tried everything I could think of to get him to leave me alone.

“Not gonna’ happen, ma cher. You better just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Enjoy. Ha. You should see what the MRI of my spine looked like after five years of weeknights and weekends at the computer… You should see the weight I put on when I should’ve been out hiking the Cascades… You should see what happened to my finances when I stopped paying attention to them... Ay... Diego. That bastard.

Sometimes, I tried to work on other ideas. I had lots of them, still do. But he was brutal, kicking them aside and forcing them to the back of my mind, one after the other. Some weren’t strong enough to survive.

Diego changed my taste in music, taught me some very bad words in several languages. He whispered to me in the night, lurked through crowds and on my TV, sometimes even spoke through me or my friends. Some people who have never read the book feel that they know him already. An artist I know has found herself drawing him even when she doesn’t intend to. He’s insidious that way.

But the final version is finished, and in a year’s time the whole thing will be out in the world on its own. Guess I was finally ready to write the story he wanted me to write, the one he deserved. The real story. I learned a lot in the process of hacking it out, too — about myself, about the world around me, and about writing. And I rode it all like a carnival ride — sometimes dizzyingly fast, sometimes nauseatingly slow, sometimes euphoric, sometimes agonizing — often felt as though I had little to do with what was happening beyond merely serving as transcriptionist.

And I loved every bit of it. I never feel better, more alive, or more truly me than when I’m working on this stuff. It was hell trying to market such a huge, bloated, Dickensian nightmare of a 5-volume novel series… but now finally, I get to go back and spend quality time with it again. I get to come up with cool cover imagery and fun extras for my readers… I want to podcast and find an artist for a comic series... There’s not enough time for everything I want to do. But I need to share the madness. That’s the only way it’ll ever let go of me.

Oh, there are other stories, some about characters who live in the same alternate universe as Diego, and they’re already tugging at my attention — albeit none so obnoxiously impossible to ignore as him. There are even other worlds entirely, other people with totally unrelated stories to tell. They wait patiently on each successive hard-drive every time I upgrade to a new computer, some cowering in fear whenever his name is invoked. How I’ll ever find time to write about them in the midst of all this Racing History, I have no idea.

You gotta’ be crazy to do this. You gotta’ be crazy to love it.

My name is Cheryl, and I am a novelist. A very special kind of crazy.

RACING HISTORY

"Every WayFarer has a story. Every traveler tells a tale.
And in this life… you have to make a name for yourself."

Racing History is an ambitious, five-volume sci-fi series that proudly flaunts its appreciation for pop culture: music, film, comics, television, videogames, and yes literature of all kinds. In her episodic series, the author dares to challenge many of today’s boundaries in science fiction. This is the full story of a singular moment in history, not Earth history or human history but all of history — the story of everybody — and the how and why that make all the difference. One person can change the world, and the right people can make history. Sometimes silly, sometimes scary, alternately tragic and triumphant, but never boring, this is epic space-punk: space opera with a cyberpunk attitude and a touch of film noir.

Volume 1 (Episodes 1-7) is METEORIC, a dark and gritty story of life at the bottom of the glorious star-spanning civilization futurists are always raving about. This book introduces a man who will one day change the face of the galaxy. His early years are a trial by fire, preparing him for great challenges to come. People often talk of a “meteoric rise to fame,” but meteors are really just glowing brilliantly as they burn to nothing in the atmosphere. They never rise, only fall spectacularly... And Diego Lee lives both sides of that expression.

A scientific journalist and editor (with a few "skiffy" projects on the side), C.A. Scott is author of many articles and magazine supplements covering biotechnology. As a technical editor, she has been a guest at several west-coast science fiction conventions — and will do so again. Traveling extensively for work, she has visited nearly a dozen countries (so far) and once met a real live clone. She is also an alumna of Long Island University’s "SEAmester" program and Eugene, OR’s infamous "Wordos" professional writing group. Science fiction is her passion. She lives in Springfield, Oregon, with her husband and her mother, who retired from the working world in 2003 to devote full-time to her art,after raising three successful kids on her own. C.A. Scott drives a Jeep, misses her horse terribly, and loves to hike and spend time with her black Labrador retriever and her iMac computer.

Author! Author!

2006-07-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Innerview
with A.J. Alise

What is your ideal writing environment?

Although I can write anywhere—on planes, in restaurants, in the library—my favorite spot is at my cabin in the Poconos sitting at my desk overlooking an expanse of wild overgrown “garden” consisting of rocks, weeds, mountain laurel, rhododendron, lilac bushes and cattails. My six bird feeders just outside my windows lure blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, (and squirrels) and while I’m engaged by their antics a line of dialogue, an image, or exactly the right word suddenly comes to me.

What authors inspire you most?

Too many to list, really, but I’ll mention a few who come to mind. I love different authors for different types of inspiration—Tennessee Williams, Lajos Egri, Adrienne Rich, and Shakespeare for playwriting--Colette and Anne Sexton for poetry--Jane Austen, Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, the Bronte sisters, Edith Wharton and Gustav Flaubert for novels-- Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron for writing advice and finally-- for a good escape into mystery I love Niki French, Patricia Highsmith, and Ruth Rendell.

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

I walk my dog, or go horseback riding. I sculpt. I find pounding and shaping clay amazingly therapeutic. Sometimes I get up early and drive on the back roads of Pennsylvania listening to music or a book on tape. I sit in my sky swing and read. In New York I enjoy a night at the theater or dinner out with my husband—sushi or Indian food preferably. Or I fly to California to play with people I love—Eric, Heather, and their two-year-old twins—Gwyneth and Sydney Anne.

What inspired you to write CRIMSON ICE?

When I began I thought that I wanted to write a good mystery merely as a challenge to myself and a diversion but as I got deeper into the writing I found that many of my real life obsessions were seeping into the story. I had long been concerned with the catastrophic consequences of unrestrained temper and male violence toward women and children, also how the lack of love and the damage caused by alcoholism can filter down to affect several generations. I also suffered over the loss of a sister I loved and the illusion that I could have somehow prevented her death. These concerns became somehow submerged in and threaded through the novel.

Did you know how the story would end when you began writing it?

Absolutely not! When Rocky’s body was found I was as surprised and saddened as any reader might be. It seemed that when I sat down to write this book a separate part of my brain often took over and dictated incidents and characters to me, almost against my intentions and the outline I had written. On the other hand I struggled with the final twists and turns and wrote several versions before the final one and even though it’s finally out there, I still find myself rethinking the ending and figuring out how I can take it up in the sequel.

“I was hooked with the first page.”; “Wow!! This book had me from the first paragraph.” ; “I was pulled into CRIMSON ICE…”; “This book is hands down in the top five as one of the best books I have ever read.” These are all direct quotes from professional reviewers and avid mystery readers. Besides being a great confidence-booster do you think you’ve got a sequel in you?

As for the fine quotes—of course they are encouraging. It’s terrific to know that people read and enjoy my work. On the other hand I try to keep in mind that I’m writing out of my own passion and for my own pleasure and I would keep at it even if no one recognized it or encourage me. It’s my life sentence, my escape, and my salvation.

As for a sequel, I guess I already answered that question. I’ve outlined and written part of the sequel BONE MOON already. I’m determined to stick to my outline this time, but then again I’ve said that before and then found myself exploring unexpected pathways. I’ve just completed a totally unrelated novel—a coming of age novel called SWEET WILLIAM AND ROSEMARY that I plan to market under my own name Joanne Weck rather than my mystery nome de plume (A. J. Alise) and even though I was certain I knew the ending when I started, I found that the pathway to that end took many unexpected turns.

You are also an actor and a playwright…Can you speak a bit about how those talents have played into your work as a novelist? Do you think it has helped your writing when it comes to dialogue?

I’m sure that my theater background affects my fiction. I had the opportunity to hone my skills (via a Geraldine R. Dodge Playwriting grant) with theater notable such as Adrienne Kennedy, Anne Bogart, N. Richard Nash, and I was greatly impressed by the relentless focus on the importance of the physicality and dialogue of the actors as characters. I visualize my characters movements and expressions and I hear their conversations almost as though I’m watching them on stage or in a film.

Got a favorite quote?

Yes. It’s hard to select just one but here’s something by William Trevor that keeps me going:

“I believe in not quite knowing.
A writer needs to be doubtful, questioning.
I write our of curiosity and bewilderment.”

Crimson Ice By A.J. Alise (ISBN # 0-9763083-2-0, published by PulpBytes, 2005) is available in eBook format for purchase ($8.95) and downloading at the DPPstore.

Following the disappearance of her sister, Rocky is hurled into a life changing adventure. The responsibility of caring for her own son, and her sister’s two children complicates everything and raises the stakes of this already tension-filled story.

With nods to the genre-gumshoe beset by insurmountable challenges, really bad bad guys, and great cliché bits that never get old-this maintains the good old detective form, while adding a new dimension - a strong, maternal woman as the hero.

A.J. Alise grew up in rural Pennsylvania. She spends much of her time at her cabin in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, where Crimson Ice is set. She is a novelist, actor, teacher, and playwright. Her plays have been produced in various New Jersey theatres. Alise’s other writing credits include the video productions: “World Hunger Project” and “Looking at Union, New Jersey.”

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-07-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

MARKETING MADNESS
by Kathryn Jordan

Question: What is the single most important thing you can do to promote your book?

Please resist the urge to scroll down for the answer.

Here’s the good news: if you decided to become a writer, as you probably already know, you’re crazy. And crazy is exactly what it takes to tackle the immense, many-headed beast of today’s book marketing. Most of us go in blind, swinging whatever makeshift weapons we scavenge along the way, like Don Quixote. But isn’t that how you tackled your first blank page?

Tip # 1 - Trust the process, follow wherever it takes you, and keep swinging.

Hopefully my story will at least point you in the right direction, and give you an idea what to expect.

In November, 2004, I got the phone call writers dream of - my agent, B.J. Robbins, saying we had an offer from a major New York publisher (Berkley / Penguin). My fourth novel, but first sale. B.J. was as excited as I was. For several ecstatic minutes I danced around my kitchen, clutching the phone, savoring each morsel of what my “editor” said about why she wanted the book. Editor! My God, I would have my very own editor!

Then - I will never forget this - B.J. said, “You know, you have to do everything you can to make this work. Think of it as a job, an investment in yourself and your new career.” The words hit the pit of my stomach like the proverbial chunk of lead. Five months earlier, I had retired from years of teaching high school English, years gleaning early morning hours to write before school. I retired to write full time. Now my new job was book promotion? Days later B.J. emailed info about a workshop in L.A. I went and soaked up everything.

Tip # 2 - Attend Bella Stander’s Book Promotion 101 (www.bookpromotion101.com) offered twice a year in L.A. and New York. And read everything you can find on the subject.

On a gruelling Saturday eight workshop participants refined and practiced our “elevator pitches,” learned how to give good readings, how to make a “Marketing Plan,” get media attention and much more. What struck me most was the power of “niche marketing” and this harrowing truth: If you rely on your publisher’s publicity department or on book store signings, you’ll most likely be very disappointed, i.e. paltry book sales. Premature remaindering.

Tip # 3 - Find a niche (or several) for promoting your book.

My novel, HOT WATER, takes place in one weekend at a lush spa resort near Palm Springs. Sexy, fun, full of female empowerment - perfect for spa-ing. So... why not market it as “The Ultimate Spa Novel.”

Put gold stickers on the cover. All my Adobe PageMaker practice with students paid off. I made flyers using the book cover, a Q & A, author bio, endorsements and excerpt, and sent a mailer to 100 spa resorts around the southwest. Then followed up with phone calls and advance copies of the book to those interested, and started scheduling events.

When HOT WATER was released last January, we held the launch party at Two Bunch Palms, the resort where it’s set. What a dream! Since then I’ve done book events at a dozen spa resorts, including La Costa in Carlsbad, The Oaks at Ojai, Ojo Caliente and La Posada in Santa Fe and the Aladdin and Paris Hotel Spas in Las Vegas. The first novelist to tour spa resorts. Crazy. Who woulda thought!?!

I also do book store and library signings, book club events and my second niche idea - the HOT WATER House Party, like Tupperware or lingerie parties only with me and my novel. Oh, and fun door prizes. Turquoise t-shirts and thongs that say, “Get Into HOT WATER.” Mugs with the Eleanor Roosevelt quote that starts the book: “Women are like tea bags. They don’t know how strong they are until they get into hot water.” Some fifteen parties so far. Amy Murphy, a teacher in Escondido, was so moved by the story, she compiled a CD of HOT WATER music and registered it on iTunes. More door prizes.

Tip # 4 - Use the internet as well as your personal network, colleagues, clubs, organizations, friends, relatives.

Email, make calls. Be polite and confident. (It gets easier). Explain your idea for an event or media appearance. You’re an author, remember. They admire your accomplishment. If your book fits the niche, they want you. It may take four, five, ten calls, one will bite.Brainstorm, think outside the box. Ask yourself where your book would fit. Is there a scene in a beauty salon or art gallery, a dog kennel, a museum, car dealership?

Two HOT WATER parties were held in Mexican restaurants because of scenes late in the book. An unusual event stirs interest and sales for the business too. Often they’ll do the advertising, especially in smaller towns. My best sales per time spent were in Grand Junction and Montrose, Colorado. Also Bisbee, Arizona. People said they’d never met an author in person.

Tip # 5 - Never under estimate the power of grassroots word-of-mouth.

Be a big fish in a little pond. An event with 6 or 8 people can lead to more events. You can’t track the sales from people telling people. Just do the work. Knock on every door, follow every lead, every “crazy” idea and dream, just as you do when you sit down to write. And trust those dreams enough to spend the time and money to make them happen.

Believe me, with each step, part of my mind said, this is crazy! It’ll never work. Touring spa resorts? HOT WATER House Parties? Who would have them? What if I end up with stacks of t-shirts and credit card bills? Instead, I keep running out and ordering more. Especially the thongs. (How women love an excuse to throw a hot party!)

It is working. HOT WATER keeps selling. Hey, it was #2 on a local best seller list in the San Luis Obispo Tribune! DA VINCI CODE was #4. There’s a framer! On two of my tours I never stayed a single night in a hotel, and my life is enriched beyond measure getting to know the fascinating people who set up events and opened their homes to me. Still, even with such kindness and the financial help B.J. negotiated from Berkley, it’s expensive.

In Book Promotion 101 we learned it is not at all unusual for an author to spend her entire advance on book promotion. At the time I thought, not me! Right.

Tip # 6 - Let’s get practical.

All this is extremely difficult while working and / or raising children. Save money and hire a publicist. Negotiate with your spouse to hold down the fort while you take a leave of absence. Sell something. Weigh what you want and believe in most. If it’s your book / writing career, go for it. (As long as the children still get raised).

In July I start work on a sequel. Readers keep asking what happens next. What better way to keep HOT WATER afloat? And I’ll be writing again!Here are the latest additions to my schedule:

Girlfriend Weekend with the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs www.pulpwoodqueens.com
Marshall, Texas, January 19-21, 2007.
Check it out. They expect 10,000 girlfriends. Saturday night is the “Hair Ball.” (As in big hair). Know where I can find a glam gown and a wig?

Bloggers: July 20. Join me in some HOT HOT WATER blogging at Romance: By the Blog! With romance columnist, Michelle Buonfiglio.
*(See her fab June 21 review at www.WNBC.com/romance)

And don’t miss the Southern California Writers’ Conference in Palm Springs, Sept. 29 - Oct. 1st. www.WritersConference.com.
Author, Sherry Halperin (RESCUE ME, HE’S WEARING A MOOSE HAT) and I will share a workshop, "Promoting Your Book: What the Author Should and Must Do." I’ll also do a workshop on, “Erotic Encounters: Writing Sex Scenes that Satisfy."

Me? Crazy!But no crazier than that night at The Hot Licks BBQ & Saloon in Bisbee, Arizona, complete with belly dancers and a sexy lingerie fashion show. A book signing in a bar!? Hey, I have photos to prove it.

Tip # 7 - Stay crazy.

You started this “impossible” dream. Make it happen! And get ready for the time of your life!

Answer: Write a good book.

References: PUBLICIZE YOUR BOOK, Jacqueline Deval, A Perigee Book, Berkley PublishingNAKED AT THE PODIUM, The Writer’s Guide To Successful Readings, Peter V.T. Kahle and Melanie Workhoven, Seventy Fourth Street Productions, LLC

Kathryn Jordan can be reached at katejor@earthlink.net. Web site: www.kathrynjordan.com or hotwaterthenovel.com. Her column, “Women Changing The World,” is published monthly in THE DESERT WOMAN.

Author! Author!

2006-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

Crimson Ice by A.J. Alise
ISBN: 0-9763083-2-0
Publisher: PulpBytes
Year Published: 2005
$8.95

Following the disappearance of her sister, Rocky is hurled into a life changing adventure. The responsibility of caring for her own son, and her sister’s two children complicates everything and raises the stakes of this already tension-filled story.

With nods to the genre-gumshoe beset by insurmountable challenges, really bad bad guys, and great cliché bits that never get old-this maintains the good old detective form, while adding a new dimension - a strong, maternal woman as the hero.

ON WRITING
By A.J. Alise

I got an email from a stranger the other day, and for just a moment, I felt like a real, genuine, honest-to-God author. The correspondent had seen my interview in a small Pocono Mountain newspaper, ordered my suspense novel CRIMSON ICE, (published under my pen name A. J. Alise) read it, chased down my email address and sent me an effusive, highly complimentary letter. My euphoria lasted all day. The next day, however, my inner critic had already returned, asking me where were all of the other letters and emails, and why was this writer the only one who had responded to tell me about her enjoyment of my novel.

This is one constant of the writing life, that nagging voice that says your writing will never measure up, an opinion reinforced on the bad days by the seemingly endless rejections from agents and publishers, the days when the computer screen remains blank, and all of your ideas seem about as exciting as a bowl of cold oatmeal.

So what keeps a “writer” writing? I can’t speak for the others sitting before their blank computer screens, leather-bound notebooks or yellow legal pads, but I can speak for this one.

My mother planted the seed that grew into the belief that “writer” was an honorable, even elevated calling, not unlike the religious life. As the mother of a quickly growing family that finally peaked at ten, she nonetheless dedicated an hour each day to gathering her children around her, rocking the latest baby on her lap, while declaiming in a rich expressive voice all of the poems she had memorized during her own brief education. These ranged from nursery rhymes to Shakespearean sonnets, and this ritual was the highlight of my summer afternoons.

When I was about 6, I announced that I had written my own poem for inclusion in her repertory and presented my creation in my best imitation of her style, six lines of doggerel celebrating my love for a newly acquired kitten. My mother’s reaction made me feel as though I had sprouted wings and taken a swift flight around the room. It hooked me for the rest of my life. “You’re a writer!” she declared, hugging me, her face glowing with joyous awe. “You’ve got the gift!”

From that moment on I knew that writing was my calling. I became the class poet, the class playwright, a contributor and editor of high school and college literary journals. I got a job as writer and editor for several magazines and spent my days writing plays, articles, and stories.

But then I got distracted by the necessity of making a living and abandoned the writing life for a career that allowed me to support my son. Still the itch remained. I wrote in my “spare” time and managed to have my plays performed in local theaters. I kept my “gift” alive and percolating.

Now, finally, I can dedicate my life wholeheartedly to my writing. In the last three years I have written three novels, a bundle of short stories, revived and revised plays and other abandoned projects and perused bundles of saved letters and journals for fresh material. I work in my pajamas if I wish, sitting down at my computer with my morning coffee and going into a trance that may last all day. Some days it is as pleasurable and indulgent as eating chocolate for breakfast. Some days it is as painful as sticking needles into my eyes. But it is a passion, an obsession, an addiction that only grows stronger as it is indulged.

So, if the pain and pleasure is in the process why suffer the rejection, why not just write, why pursue the elusive goal of publication? It is not about being famous or rich (although I believe I could deal with such an unexpected fate) but is, I believe, the pursuit of validation. Yes, you have something to contribute; no, you are not spinning your wheels in a vacuum; yes, someone out there appreciates your unique vision. The spirit demands to express its own vision but also requires some nourishment and some feedback in order to survive and continue to create.

Alise grew up in rural Peennsylvania. She spends much of her time at her cabin in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, where Crimson Ice is set. She is a novelist, actor, teacher, and playwright. Her plays have been produced in various New Jersey theatres. Alise’s other writing credits include the video productions: “World Hunger Project” and “Looking at Union, New Jersey.”

The DPPstore, http://www.dppstore.com/, a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (http://www.digitalpulppublishing.com/), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser known authors, just as DPPpress (http://www.dpppress.com/) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The DPPstore – reinventing reading.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-06-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

You Gotta Have a Gimmick!

I know — the word “gimmick” gets your goat. You don’t even wanna go there, right? Gimmicks are flashy. They’re used by the non-artist, the commercial author, the sleazy salesperson. I’m with ya...I get it! But ...For just a few moments I’m going to invite you, encourage you — even beg you — to rearrange your thinking about the word and the image that it conjures up and replace it with the image of possibility — the image of you sitting in a comfy chair on a sound stage of a T.V. talk show, or in a studio booth of a radio station, or sitting on a stool in a coffee house/public library/museum reading aloud from your book for a group of people who came to the event specifically to see/hear you! And what about the image of you receiving a great, big, fat royalty check for the multiple sales of your book?!

‘Cause if you’ve got a gimmick, Gypsy girl, you got it made! – Electra, Gypsy

All of these are definite possibilities - of that I’m sure. But how do you get from the image to the reality?

There are all kinds of things you can do to get noticed...The trick is finding the ones that work for you—that you feel comfortable doing and that you can afford to do. Obviously, it would take some serious bucks and a whole, WHOLE LOT of moxie to rent a theatre and put your name — or your book’s title — up on the marquis.

I would imagine that most of you wouldn’t feel comfortable pulling a “Macy Gray” (I know I definitely wouldn’t) : painting a “sign” on the front of your body saying: ”My new book gets published [on such-and-such date]” and on your rear end painting the words, “Buy it” (for those of you not in the know, Macy Gray actually did that as a self-promo pitch for her then up-coming album at the 2001 Grammy Awards). Truth-be-told, I have no idea if that boosted her record sales, but that was certainly a memorable gimmick!

Walk softly and carry a big shtick! –Lee Silber*

*Shtick: A Yiddish term used to describe a performer’s attention-stealing action or gimmick.

Memorable is what were after – well, it’s what I’m after (for myself and for all of you fellow writers out there). There is shtick and there is shtick. And there are gimmicks and there are gimmicks. They can come in “long-term” or “short-term” form. Example: Elton John’s big, wild and elaborate glasses (long-term); Macy Gray’s album plug (short-term).

Now, many of us may not want to go the route of either Elton John or Macy Gray, for whatever reason – too flashy, or raunchy, or too-too…whatever! But there can be a way to create a shtick or utilize a gimmick that feels right for you.

You just have to be willing to put yourself out there a little bit.

I’m going to throw out a few examples and you can see how they resonate with you:

Example: A book with a medical theme (non-fiction or fiction)

Every time you send an email or snail mail, do it with the theme of a prescription: have the header say: Rx. Play with writing out the ad, announcement, letter, etc. as a prescription would read. *(This idea is great to use as a pitch to T.V. and radio shows as well, i.e. offering them “just the prescription they need for a great show spot”, etc.)

Use empty prescription bottles and affix your very own Rx labels to them that promote your book. Inside place a synopsis about your book, reviews, or fill it with some fun item (i.e. candy) that will also promote your book.

Use [unused] syringes and roll a snippet of your book into it. Call it a “Title of Your Book” shot.

If the book also has a “love story” element to it – Romance – you could use candy hearts: put them in the Rx bottle or syringe with a label or note that says something like, “This book will get your heart pumping”, or “This book is the best medicine for your heart”, or “Take this message to heart: buy the book.”

When sending out reviews, headline them with Diagnosis: 5 Healthy Hearts for “Book Title”…(or whatever terminology comes to mind).

Publicize your book by creating a new “disease”, “flu”, or “fever” around it. Send out email with the name of the [new] strain, a blurb about it (along with reviews if you have them), where it can be purchased and tag-line it with something like, “This is a virus you want to catch!”

[This one’s a little bit bolder than the previous] Dress up as a doctor or nurse and pass out flyers or postcards for your book at street fairs or other public functions. If you can stand/sit/walk around the lobby of a medical conference touting your book – by all means: do it! -or- Have a “Doctor is in” booth (think : Lucy from “Peanuts”)…Tout your book, answer questions, pass out postcards/flyers/brochures; if you have your book in traditional print, do a signing…

[Another bold move] Throw, or have someone throw a “Get [the book out] Well” party. Serve “thematic” food (i.e. jello – you can make a fun mold to go with the book; or serve chicken soup), or serve the food in a “thematic” way (i.e. punch in an I.V. bag – think: M*A*S*H); Read an excerpt you’re your book and then pass out a “medical chart” with all the information about your book included in it and ask people to pass it along to other people – like a “good” virus;Fun stuff: play spin the hot water bottle, or pin the heart on the patient (see if you can round up some gift certificates from stores, restaurants, etc., to use as give-aways). For party favors: Tongue Depressors –remind people NOT to depress their tongue, but to talk up your book instead (see if you can get the title of your book on them on one side, with a catchy phrase on the other, i.e. “Can’t keep anyone quiet about this book”). Invite people to come dressed up sick or injured – in their pajamas, robe, or hospital gown

Come up with your own variations on one, two, or all of the above.

Success is the child of audacity. – Benjamin Disraeli

So, whaddya think? Any of those ideas bode well with you – what you might be willing to do? Of course, you’d have to tailor the ideas to your book – obviously syringes, and prescriptions, and other things medical won’t work if your book is about the wild west, etc.

And if the ideas above completely go against your grain, you don’t have to use them. But perhaps, at the very least, they generated some ideas of your own that suit you better.

The thing about all the ideas I’ve laid out above, is that they are fun – some of them even silly. But people like fun. And the ideas above are memorable. They will make you and your book stick out in people’s minds.

So will ideas and events that are a little bit more serious or formal.

For example, if your story is set in the mid-seventeenth century, then having a dance or a tea or a music recital to background/showcase your book might be an idea for an event. Readings from your book with classical music in the background might set a nice tone. Feather-plumed pens might make great party favors. Hand-written in ink pen, on a scroll, or emailed old-style font notes/flyers might be a way to get announcements out.

Gimmicks work. They don’t have to be cheesy or over-the-top flashy. They just need to be “catchy” – shticking in the mind and the memory of your audience. They might get you a spot on a T.V. show, a book reading at a local coffee house, and best yet: sales of your book!

Author! Author!

2006-06-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Innerview: Fredric M. Ham

What is your ideal writing environment?

That would be at home in my study, with no background noise, no music, no television… I love the silence because it allows me to be totally immersed in my world. The ideal time for me to write is in the late evening or early morning. However, I travel extensively so I have trained myself to write just about anywhere and anytime.

What authors inspire you most?

Here are just two, John Steinbeck and Leon Uris.

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

This doesn’t happen that often, but when it does occur there are a few things I do. On those rare occasions when nothing surfaces or I lose the connection, I jump on my Harley Low Rider and cruise, usually down Highway A1A along the Atlantic Ocean. Since I can do voice impersonations, I will occasionally “act out” (in my study at home) the dialogue for some of the characters in my story. This definitely helps.

Any connection between electrical engineering (your primary career) and writing a mystery/thriller?

There certainly is. It’s the research, it is all about the research. I believe that a mystery/thriller should have a riveting sense of realism. I have been conducting research for more than twenty years. So it’s this discipline I have developed that allows me to dig in and find the necessary details to inject into a particular scene. I believe it’s my obligation to ensure the realism for the reader.

DEAD RIVER is your first novel. What motivated you to write it?

DEAD RIVER was inspired by an actual event, but maybe I should say events. Although DEAD RIVER is a work of fiction, it rings true with the anguish and helplessness that a family experiences when a loved one has been abducted. Equally disturbing is our tangled and incongruous judicial system that many times ineffectively deals with criminals and leaves one with a feeling of hollowness when justice is not properly served.

I always wonder this about mystery writers: Did you know how the story would end when you began writing it?

Yes. I know the beginning, the end and most of what’s in between. However, what I believe is one of the most exhilarating aspects of being a writer is discovering several details of your story as you write it.

Care to share anything about your next novel?

The working title is The Faculty Club. It’s another thriller and will have a unique blend of story elements that I will save for the reader.

Got a favorite quote?

Actually, there are two that come to mind:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Albert Einstein

“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”
Groucho Marx

Fredric M. Ham's book, Dead River (ISBN: 0-9763083-7-1, Published by PulpBytes , 2006) is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com

To learn more about the author and his novel, Dead River, please visit Ham's website at http://www.fredricmham.com/

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-05-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

The Key Ingredient: Enthusiasm

To some of you this may sound like some rah-rah, Pollyanna-esque piece of marketing fluff, but the bottom line is enthusiasm is the fuel for self-promotion. Without it, your self-promoting vehicle (that would be you) will find itself sitting in the driveway, possibly looking pretty, but going nowhere.

I speak from experience –engaging my own enthusiasm and experiencing and observing others’.
Case-in-point: Book Expo America.

I am not being biased when I say that everyone of us from DPP was on their own wave of enthusiasm at BEA—excited about being at the event itself, passionate about our company and the services we provide, and eager to meet with all the different people we could help, or could help us, or who we could cross-collaborate and/or network with.

It showed in our faces, in our voices, and in our body language. Of course we all have different styles, different ways we approach people and talk about the company, our services— different ways our personalities come out and come across. But the commonality was every one of us was enthusiastic. And it paid off.

We came away from the show with an amazing number of contacts, and a good number of contracts.

We were also told by several of the vendors exhibiting around us how much fun we were to share a “row” with, what a great working environment we must have on a daily basis! Our enthusiasm shone through, caught on, and caught the attention of a number of people. Many, potential clients.

Most people like to be around enthusiastic people. There are people whoever, who don’t. No matter how excited, passionate, and open-hearted you are, there’s always one (or two, or three) who will not join in your delight. However, I have learned that you can’t let these people burst your bubble. In these cases, I try to maintain my enthusiasm and move on to the next person.

The cool thing is, I never know when the good energy I put out might just come back to me through those unlikely, seemingly- non-respondent people.

Even those that seem less than excited to talk with you and hear about your company (or, in most of your cases, your book), are often carefully listening, and if they respond later (by contacting you, or coming back to visit you) then your enthusiasm was not for naught.

At BEA we had an opportunity to speak with a great many authors. There were many authors who had rented booths to promote their books (expensive, but I believe most of them got their money’s worth), and there were many who simply walked around from booth to booth touting their book(s) to the myriad of publishers and agents.

For the most part, their enthusiasm was contagious as well. Those authors spoke passionately about their book(s) made a lasting impression on each of us. Some used gimmicks (and please, think of “gimmick” in a positive context here, as I know it can conjure up negative reactions) and some simply talked about their book.

One children’s book had a Western theme to it and was being heralded about the Expo floor by the author and her friends dressed in 19th century Western wear, passing out “sheriff badges” with the name of the book inscribed on them.

A family-run small publishing company had a booth on our row, and they used all kinds of marketing paraphernalia: really big book bags in a bright color that matched the color in their company’s name – those were the hit of the Expo! Everyone was walking around with one of their bags! They also had some amazing marketing paraphernalia to get the word out about their newest book, written by the father and one of the daughters.

The main thing about the two cases mentioned above (the family-owned publishing company and the children’s author), was that they were all so gung-ho. Incredibly friendly, excited to talk about their book and engage – with everybody!

The motivational speaker and author, Zig Ziglar once said: “For every sale you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”

For many of us, self-promotion is a loathsome thing. How do you put yourself out there without coming across as boastful or grandiose? How do you “plug” yourself and your book without being pushy or even obnoxious? The answer, I believe, is genuine enthusiasm.

In her book The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard), Jill Badonsky channels the Muse, Audacity, who encourages, “if you’re not having fun, reconsider what you’re doing.” Let’s be honest – not everything about marketing is enjoyable, however, approaching marketing with a sense of fun, with enthusiasm, is going to bring about far better results than not.

E = MC².

In other words: Enthusiasm equals Marketing Conductivity Multiplied!

Call it Nicky’s Theory of Marketivity, if you will (and if you won’t, then call it something else). But use it!

You can think about this theory in a couple of different ways:

1) Think of yourself as the conductor of your very own marketing orchestra: you decide what instruments (marketing tools) are going to play when - which ones will lead, which ones will follow; which ones are going to be featured and which ones will take a backseat; which ones will play the ongoing rhythm, while others may be jazzing it up – improvising. Add a tuba-full of enthusiasm. Or…
2) Think of yourself as a conduit for marketing – through you: what you say, how you act, who you reach out to, where you go, what you’re willing to do will determine how much exposure and sales come your way. Pave your path with gusto and zest.
3) Mix these two up: Conduct your conduit! Use one, two, or all the marketing tools in your arsenal and put yourself in contact with, and places where, you can get the most possible exposure. Add mirthful fervor to each and every step.

There are actually more ways to approach your marketing – but as long as you add enthusiasm you will always wind up with E = MC². Theory that it may be, I’ve seen it put to practice time and time again, and proved the theory true. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

Author! Author!

2006-05-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Paying Attention

by Fredric M. Ham

I cannot count the number of times that I heard my high school history teacher say, “Not another word out of you, or you’re off to the Principal’s office. You’d better pay attention.” However, I could have probably blamed my situation on Marsha who sat next to me in history class. She was very distracting. But that’s another story.

So what does this have to do with writing? I say everything. I think the best writers are those who pay attention to everything that’s going on around them no matter where they are or what they’re doing, and they can shut off the world around them when it’s an absolute necessity (this is also paying attention, but introspectively).

I will begin with the former premise, and cite an example. Let’s say I’m sitting on a wood and wrought-iron bench in a small park somewhere in New York City. Fall is in full force, there’s not a cloud in the sky, and the leaves have changed color. What was once lush, green foliage topping the trees is now yellow and crimson clusters everywhere I turn. There’s a nip in the air and I am so deeply engrossed in a novel that I’m off in another dimension. However, out of the corner of my eye I notice two men, probably in their early twenties, plop down on an identical bench opposite mine. They begin speaking, and it’s my trained mind that tells me to stop reading and start paying attention to them. Now I pretend that I’m still reading, but really I’m listening in and peering over the top of my paperback that I’m holding chest high.

I sense that there is going to be something said that will be of interest to me. So I tune in. I’m paying attention for the sake of building my DIALOGUE database for writing fiction. I believe that listening to others engaged in conversation (I’m not suggesting eavesdropping; face it, I was on my park bench first.) can truly serve to improve the writing of realistic and gripping dialogue. The exchange between these two individuals is so rich in dialogue potential, it’s like being in Häagen-Dazs conversation heaven.

It goes like this:

One of the men on the bench is leaning backwards, his hands are locked behind his head and he’s peering skyward (he is Mr. Upright), the other has his elbows planted on his thighs and his forehead resting on the palms of his hands (he is Mr. Uptight).

“What’s up with you, Man?” Upright asks.
“Man, I don’t know,” Uptight says, then exhales heavily.
“What’s it been, a couple of months now?”
“Yup, I quit about three months ago,” Uptight explains. “Haven’t had a crack attack for weeks now.”
“Then why are you so uptight?”
“I don’t know, I’ve been off everything for months and I’m still disturbed.” Uptight straightens up, leans back on the bench, and then runs his right hand through a mop of thick black hair. “Damn!” he moans.
Upright’s eyes sadden. “That’s messed up, Dude.”

I overheard this conversation in a park in Greenwich Village three years ago. Even though this is a very sad situation, it’s rich in true-to-life dialogue. For me it reinforces the importance of realism that must be at the core of any dialogue that I write. I have never directly used these lines in anything that I’ve written, but I certainly recall the conversation (among others that I have written down over the years) when crafting dialogue that I want to ring true with titillating and intoxicating realism. I try to listen in and write down what I hear. I carry a small spiral notebook and an ink pen with me wherever I go and jot down what I think are interesting snippets of conversation.

Then when is it time to stay in my own world and shut out the real world? When I’m writing, of course. I climb into my story and experience it, and in some cases even discover it, as I’m writing. What do the following cities have in common?

Maeva Beach, Tahiti San Francisco
New York City Chalkida, Greece
Hudson, Florida Seattle
Montreal Washington, DC
San Diego Cancun
Honolulu Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Paris Indialantic, Florida

These are the various locations where I have had the opportunity to write, and in many of them I wrote parts of Dead River. When I wasn’t enjoying the sights, sounds and conversations around me, I was in my hotel room (or my study at home) writing, in my world.

Fredric M. Ham was born and raised in a small Iowa town. After graduating high school, he served in the U.S. Navy which included three tours of duty in Vietnam. After the Navy, Fred attended Iowa State University earning B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical engineering. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States and around the world. He has explored the Far East and studied various cultures. His many years of research and writing experience have led to over a hundred published technical papers, a textbook on artificial neural networks, and the holding of three United States patents. He is currently an Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering at Florida Institute of Technology where he has been on the faculty since 1988. Dead River is his first novel. He has written several short stories and is currently working on his second novel. He resides in Indialantic, Florida with his wife.

Dead River, by Fred Ham: Adam Riley’s world is suddenly shattered when his seventeen-year-old daughter, Sara Ann, mysteriously vanishes from a small Florida beach community on a sweltering afternoon in late summer. Three days after her disappearance the abductor calls the Riley home, and when he doesn’t demand ransom money it quickly becomes apparent to everyone that his sole motive is to torment the family. The horror is only beginning.
With no clues evident to the local authorities they turn to the FBI for assistance. The clock is ticking and the kidnapper must be found. Who is this person? What motivates him? Who could be next? The FBI profiler tries to answer these questions, but the terror sweeps through the beach community like a hurricane and soon it spreads to a near-by town.
What happens to a man whose daughter has been kidnapped? To what lengths will Adam Riley go to ensure justice is served? Can his religious beliefs provide a moral compass and guide him in the right direction? Only time will tell.

Dead River, by Fred Ham and published under the PulpBytes Imprint (2006) is available in eBook format at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com) for $8.95

Please visit Fredric Ham's website: www.fredricmham.com

Response to Limerick Prompt

2006-05-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

Anonymous said...

"Oy," he said, "what a day!"
She said, "Don't worry - it will be okay.
It's not even noon,I bet this will pass soon...
At least, that's what they say."

9:35 AM

Publisher's Prompt

2006-05-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Limerick Day falls on May 12. For fun and for kicks, write a limerick about anything you'd like...or, if you are so inspired and propelled to do so, write several. Post 'em here on the blog or send 'em to me: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com and I'll post 'em for ya!

Author! Author!

2006-05-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Innerview
With John Bourne

In your essay, Law & Grace, you said that you don’t really have a “particular system of writing”, but do you have a particular time of day or a set amount of hours that you adhere to, or do you simply write when the spirit moves you?

I have a leisurely breakfast and try to sharpen my mind with a Su doku quiz. Then I go to my study and begin work. Sometimes the writing flows, and sometimes it is a real struggle. If I can’t work, I go for a walk along the seafront, always good for the mind and the body. I stop for lunch, a quick lunch if the writing is working or a longer one if it isn’t. At one time, I would work on through the evening and into the early hours. Now I discipline myself to stop by 6 pm. I write 6 days a week. I have just finished writing another novel, ‘The Depths Within’, and will start the next book very shortly.

Which makes this next question “iffy” – contingent on the first: What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

As the previous question really. I do have a good imagination and live the stories as I write them, that does help in avoiding ‘writers block’, at least it does, so far. It also makes me change the plot as I go on, because sometimes I become so upset as I am about to kill off a character, that I change it!

What is your ideal writing environment?

I use a laptop computer so I can be flexible. However, I am most comfortable in my study, the cat alongside me and a radio playing quietly in the background.

What authors inspire you most?

I guess my favourite author is Bernard Cornwell. He writes historical fiction and is very talented in bringing to life whatever he tackles, from Alfred the Great to the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. I read as much history and historical fiction as I can find. I will read any author who deals with the subject. I love history and it has so much to teach us.

What I really appreciated about The Death of Innocence was that I never felt conked over the head with what was morally “right”…it was left to Mark Green, the protagonist, and me the reader to decide. I’m wondering if you conduct your sermons the same way…?

One of the first things I learned as a Prison Chaplain was “There but for the grace of God, go I”. If I approached people from a position of assumed superiority, I would never be able to relate to them. We all make mistakes, and have no cause for smugness. In the parish, I quickly learned not to talk at people but with them. To preach to myself as much as to anyone else. So I guess that I want people to reach their own decisions, I try to put up metaphorical sign posts pointing to the right decisions and hope and pray that people will arrive there by themselves.

Temptation is a fascinating subject. Do you plan to explore it again in future books? Any ideas you can/would like to share with us?

Temptation is a fascinating subject that I will undoubtedly return to. I have a plot in mind when one of the hero’s of ‘Death of Innocence’, succumbs to the temptation to employ illegal violence, resulting in far-reaching consequences. The more I think about temptation, the more far-reaching it is. Every day is full of temptations, big and small. Their effect on us varies, for we are all open to some temptations more than others. For the effect of succumbing, look at the quote I offer in answer to the last question.

Is there ever a temptation that is worth succumbing to?

I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer that one? If I was forced to I would say no. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t succumb, but I would try not to.

Favorite quote?

I don’t know where it comes from, but it is a good pointer to think before we speak or act!

Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories. His novel, The Death of Innocence, is available at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com).

Publisher's Prompt

2006-04-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

April 29 is the 93rd anniversary date of the Zipper Patent. Write a short story, poem, or song using zipper as the subject, or by simply using the word zipper somewhere in your piece.

Would love it if you'd share your writing. Either post it to the blog or send it to me and I will: nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com

Write on,
Nicky

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-04-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Email: Expense-less, Easy & Effective!

Birds do it. Bees do it. Well, no, they don’t. But we do – email that is! Most of us do it as a routine form of communication – to send back and forth quick quips of information, to make plans, to submit manuscripts to ePublishers…At least [pretty much] anyone who is reading this newsletter does.

And, I bet, many of you have used email to promote yourselves and your book. If you have, keep reading for kicks (and maybe you’ll find a little tid-bit that you hadn’t used before). If you haven’t, read on and be dazzled beyond belief (well, perhaps not dazzled, but you might glean some good ideas to promote yourself and your book).

What I am about to reveal is no big secret. In fact, it’s pretty elementary. But the main thing about email marketing, and the thing that should drive you to utilize it, is that it’s expense-less, easy & it’s golly-gosh-dang effective! Can’t get much better than that!

Let’s start with the fact that email marketing is expense-less. It doesn’t cost one extra dime to send an email no matter how simple or how fancy, how short or how long, and no matter if you send it to one or one thousand people. It will cost you zip-zip-zippo in dollars to create and send. Which means that anyone with a computer and email access can afford to email market.

It’s Easy. You don’t have to leave your house or office to email market. You don’t have to speak to anyone. You can do it anytime you want – early morning, mid-afternoon, late at night, dusk, dawn – whatever works for you. You don’t have to worry about paper – grade, color, or whether it’s matte or glossy - packaging, or postage.

And last, but definitely not least, and probably best of all: email marketing is effective! Email reaches people. It gets to whomever you send it to and it gets there in a more than timely manner: it gets there immediately.

[Most] people read their email, especially if the subject line peaks their interest. This is in contrast to being handed a paper flyer or postcard on the street, which usually gets looked at (momentarily, if that), and either, a) dropped directly into the nearest trash receptacle, b) dropped (ecologically incorrectly) on the ground, c) folded up and put into a pocket of later-to-be-washed pants that come out of the dryer with bits of freshly-laundered paper everywhere, or d) into a purse, never to be seen again until…oh, maybe the following year.

Recipients of email marketing tend to respond more readily than to snail-mail paper marketing. Unless someone specifically wants a product or service – and wants the product or service you’re providing at the moment they receive it in the mail, the flyer/brochure/letter usually gets a) looked at briefly, then thrown in the trash, b) thrown in the trash, unopened; c) looked at briefly and put in a pile that sits for about a month and then gets thrown away, or d) not looked at all, put in a pile for about a month, and – you guessed it - thrown away.

Just as a sidebar, because I definitely feel that one is needed here: I am still a big believer in paper marketing, because depending on the venue and how it’s utilized, paper can do the trick. However, with paper comes cost: the paper itself, the printing, and the time (and often money) it takes to distribute. And right now we’re talking expense-less.

I’ve digressed (I know that shocks you). Stick with me: I promise I am getting to the meat.

The best way to demonstrate that email marketing truly is effective is to provide you with a “case study”. I am going to use one of my own experiences as an example.

My job at DPP is three-fold: To advocate and serve as liaison for our authors, to write and edit the bi-weekly periodical, NewsBytes, and to market the patooties out of DPP and get it as much press and exposure as possible.

There is a local radio talk show here in Palm Springs that airs daily called The Joey English Show. What I know about Joey is that she likes fun and she likes chocolate.
At the end of February I sent her an email. In the subject line I wrote: “A Great Recipe!”

I began the email with something catchy:

What do you get when you mix a local eBook publisher and
Small Press Month?

A great recipe for a segment on the Joey English Show

(with a dash of chocolate, of course)!

I got the fun and chocolate in there, I added a “hook” (Small Press Month, which BTW, is observed every year in March), and that we are local (that’s worth support in itself), and what we do (a little out of the ordinary – eBook publishers). I made it stand out with a different fonts (though the fun fonts in my email don't come out in my blog) and different colors. Following that I gave my pitch about who we are, small press month, and that we’d love to be on her show.

Know what? She emailed me back that day and said she’d love to have us on her show, BUT March was too busy, would I check back next month? Bummer, I thought. So much for Small Press Month! But, not to be defeated, and still left with an opening, I resolved to contact Joey again in April.

April brought to Palm Springs the Palm Springs Book Festival, and, by way of a solicitous email, I contacted the Palm Springs Writers Guild about getting table space at the Fest to display our paper materials (brochures, cards, postcards, flyers). I also let them know that we were available to speak about eBooks, marketing, and technology at any of their meetings.

Low and behold, we were given table space and we got Genene (co-founder and CEO of DPP) a speaking gig on one of the Festival panels.

There was my new hook! I sent the following letter to Joey English (yes, it’s long, so read the whole thing or skim it…the important parts are in red anyway, so look at those):

Hi, Joey!

Here I am again…Checking in the week of probably-one-of-your-favorite-days to eat chocolate (is there ever NOT a favorite day for you, I wonder?!): Easter!

Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!

I sent you an email at the end of February and you told me to get back to you this month. So just to remind you…

Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!

I represent DigitalPulp Publishing (DPP), an eBook publishing company located in Palm Springs. Founded just over a year ago, with new office space right in the heart of downtown (a hop, skip, and a jump away from you – we’re right above Jamba Juice), DPP was created to help authors, self- publishers and independent presses open a new distribution channel via eBooks by providing a free service that offers opportunities for increased exposure, sales and profits.

Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!

When I contacted you last time, it was coinciding with Small Publisher’s Month (March)…This time around, we have the Palm Springs Book Fest coming up and Easter! The PS Book Fest is pretty exciting, for all the obvious reasons. Easter is exciting because it sounds like the newly created holiday: eStir ! eStir was created to “stir up buzz about all things eWorthy…This is a great day to take time to email friends, family, and networking contacts about the new eBook you’re reading (or writing, or publishing, or selling); It’s a day to check out all the new eproducts on the market(or that will soon be on the market) – like the new Sony eReader; It’s a fabulous day to just explore and appreciate the positive benefits of all things e!” (For the origins of eStir, please open the attached newsletter and read the first column) (I had sent her an attachment).

Not-So Subliminal message: Have us on your show!

With that all said, we at DPP would love the opportunity to guest on your show. The eBook and the small publishing industries are growing in leaps and bounds. Though many people are aware of eBooks, many people are not. There are many myths surrounding eBooks (i.e. they are going to replace traditional books. They’re not), and there are a great many benefits to them (i.e. you can carry 100 around with you at a time and the most it might weigh you down is a pound). Besides – how great to have some local yokels on your show who are in the publishing business when a big local event like the Palm Springs Book Fest is on!?!

Come, on, Joey – help us create a STIR: Have us on your show!

In the above email I

- Made it fun
- Made it current (used “hooks” – The Book Fest and “eStir”)
- CLEARLY asked for what I wanted
- Used multi-colors and multi-fonts

It was

- Expense-less
- Easy
- And Effective…

Joey phoned me that day (it was a Friday) and Genene was on her show the following Monday afternoon (we brought her chocolate, BTW). I sent a very short email out to the DPP emailing list that included Joey’s radio station logo and announced that Genene would be on air with the time and day. I also followed up the next day with an email “thank you”. None of it cost a dime (except the chocolate, which was, of course, optional)!

You can do the exact same thing with your book(s). Find a “hook”, don’t be afraid to have fun and ask for what you want.

My emails were simple. But I’ve seen all kinds of email marketing: beautiful flyers, photos, and MP3 offerings. They can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish or as you think they need to be. But they’re all expense-less, easy, and effective.

Add in a dash of creativity and repeat (if you can recall from the last marketing tip, persistence and repetition are key).

Email market. The bottom line: you have nothing to lose and only exposure (and perhaps, profits) to gain!

Author! Author!

2006-04-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

Law and Grace
by John Bourne

For more than 18 years of my life, I served as a Police Officer in Kent, in southeast England. In that time I saw many dreadful sights, I saw the depths that human behaviour can sink to, I saw and experienced hatred and violence. I also found comradeship, courage and human decency in adversity. As part of the self-discipline that being a Police Officer requires I kept a diary of those years, and learned to be a student of human behaviour in all its many forms.

After 18 years of service, I experienced the call of God into the Christian Ministry and left the Police to begin training for the ministry.

During this time, I had the opportunity to visit one of the world’s poorest countries. We live a privileged life in the West compared to so many of our neighbours in the so-called Third World. We have all been touched by television and newspaper reports of starvation and drought and its terrible consequences for millions of people. Most of us have seen so many images that suffering has less impact on us, we become tired of requests for help and our hearts can become hard and our purse strings closed. However, if we actually went to a poor country, walked among the poverty, saw the suffering, smelt the decay; surely then the effect would be life-long. That was certainly true for me, when I visited Bangladesh in 1989 with four friends. It was for all us, a life changing experience, an experience that we desperately wanted to convey to others. One of the ways we sought to convey something of our experience was by means of a diary. I kept notes during the visit and produced a 60-page diary on our return. The diary sold over 1000 copies and attracted many comments about the writing. The reaction to it struck a chord with me, I had always enjoyed writing and hoped to have the time, one day, to do some more.

The following year I completed my training for the Christian ministry and was ordained into the Church of England. Over the next dozen years, I managed to revisit Bangladesh twice more, cycle 300 odd miles from Kent to Cornwall to raise funds for the Church, go on a mercy mission to Romania and form a link with a disadvantaged parish in inner city Liverpool. After each adventure, I wrote and produced a diary. They circulated within Church circles and were all well received, and each one kept my interest in writing alive.

One of the things that worried me about being a Vicar was the requirement to preach at least once, and often three times or more every week. What could one say that was different, week in and week out? I liked the story of the new Vicar who delivered his first sermon on how Christians should show the love of Christ in their lives. It was a great sermon and warmly received. The next Sunday he preached exactly the same sermon, and the Sunday after that, and the Sunday after that. A Churchwarden was given the task of challenging him about this, which he duly did. The Vicar replied; “When you are all living out the love of Christ I’m preaching about I will move on to another subject!” I found that the way to prepare a different sermon every week was to continue with some of the discipline from my police days; to be a student of human nature, an enthusiast for current affairs, an observer of life and nature. From those sources there would be endless material to build a sermon on, applying the word of God to everyday circumstances.

Ill health forced me to retire in 2003 and I moved to the Sussex Coast. Finally, I had some free time. I now spend my days in writing. My first book Coppering The Cannon was about my first 6 years in the Police. Death of Innocence followed, together with quite a few short stories. I am just completing another novel before embarking on the task of finding a publisher. I have the plot for another novel in note form and I want to write some more biographical books, including my journey into the Church. I have much to learn, I am far from the finished article, but they say ‘practice makes perfect’. I do not believe that perfection is attainable but improvement and proficiency are. I have no particular system of writing. I try to have an outline prepared and then work to it. I am not the most disciplined of writers so I do meander away from my plan. I like to imagine the scene and I live the story and sometimes feel led in another direction or the idea does not work. In the novel I am working on now, I had plotted out the story, which involved the death of a group of people. When I came to write it, I lived the story and became so upset at the deaths that I changed it. The power of being a writer!

The idea for Death of Innocence came from my experiences in the police, where temptation is something often encountered. It comes in many forms but always has consequences. In my story temptation arises which seems to have no consequences, but of course it does. If one thinks about it, nearly every time anyone succumbs to temptation they do so believing that they will get away with it. Prisons are full of people who made that mistake, and for every one in prison there are many others who avoided that penalty, but have to live with disgrace or shame, the pointing finger, the reluctance to trust again or any other of the myriad consequences of yielding to temptation. In my story the consequences of temptation are awful, the discovery of unsuspected depths of evil shocking, and the call to reassess life’s values compelling. I enjoyed writing it; I hope you will enjoy reading it.

John Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton, on the south coast of England. In 1970 he and his wife settled in Kent where John joined the Kent Police. In 1990, Bourne resigned to study for the Christian Ministry. He was ordained at Canterbury Cathedral in 1991 and became Vicar of Marden, Kent, and Chaplain of Her Majesty’s Prison Blantyre House. He retired in 2003 and has taken up writing, a long held ambition. In the last two years he has published one book, “Coppering the Cannon”, and two short stories.

The Death of Innocence by John Bourne is available in eBook format at the DPPstore, www.dppstore.com

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-04-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

Guerrilla Marketing: Go Bananas!

Chase’s Calendar of Events © cites April 12 as “Walk on the Wild Side Day”. On this day we are encouraged to do the unexpected, such as going “to work dressed like a gorilla”. This idea sent my head spinning: Why not go to work thinking like a guerrilla?!

Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerrilla marketing is “unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.” In other words, it’s getting creative with what you’ve got, what you can get, what you do, what you can do, who you know, who you can meet— it’s out of the box thinking and out of the box doing!

For most authors, self-publishers, and independent presses, time is short and money tight. Most [traditional] advertising is way out of our realm and hiring a publicist is something we would do...if we won the lottery (see Nicky’s Narrative above—there is always hope!). So what do you do when you don’t have all the resources available to you that you would like? As an old acting teacher of mine used to [repeatedly] tell me: “Work with what you have; not with what you want.”

Without using the Levinson terminology, all the previous marketing tips that have found their way into these newsletters have been types of guerrilla marketing. So don’t let the term, itself, scare you. In this issue, were just giving it some focus.

What gets me going about guerrilla marketing, first off, is simply the name. “Guerrilla” makes me think action. It sounds exciting…and off the beaten path – which is good. It’s like taking the road less traveled…which makes all the difference, doesn’t it?!

The name also makes me think : “Gorilla” – which leads me to think of all the things that go with it, like swinging around from vine to vine, beating my chest - “going ape”, “going bananas”, “it’s a jungle out there”, “monkeying around”….You get the picture: Fun. Wild. Reckless abandon.

At this moment you might be saying to yourself…”There she goes again – what is her point?” I’ll tell you: part of the point is getting to the point. It’s the excitement and enthusiasm that comes from the fun of conceiving new ideas and then having the moxie to implement them! The gusto to network and make contacts and the zest for building relationships are key principles when all is said and done.

Tenacity, persistence, and repetition coupled with out-of-the-box thinking – are all key, key, key and key components when it comes to guerrilla marketing. gmarketing.com has this posted on their site as the “Guerrilla Marketing Tip of the Day”:

When people request and receive more information, what happens? 59% file the information for future reference; 20% buy the product or service; 12% pass the information along to others; 9% buy a competitive product.

Continuing to get your book - and information about your book - publicized, and by repetitively targeting the same audience over and over puts your book and keeps your book in the eyes and minds of the people you’re marketing to. More typically than not, the name recognition, the subject recognition – the familiarity – will either, a) eventually get one of these people to buy your book, 2) lead them to tell someone else about your book, and this someone else will buy the book, and/or, 3) this someone else will tell someone else, and…or maybe the worst case scenario: someone might tell someone about your book. This someone else visits the DPPstore (or your own website, or wherever else you have your eBook posted). They may not buy your book, but perhaps they buy someone else’s. This would be “good book karma” (yes, I just made up the term – but I like it, and it makes sense).

So another author makes a sale – good for them! If their book was found and purchased this way, then there is the fabulous possibility that the same scenario can happen for you at some point!

But let’s get back to repetition. Here’s a great illustration: I was surfing through some guerilla marketing sites on the web and I came across this story about a car salesman. This car salesman used to attend his town’s high school football game on Friday nights. Every Friday evening he would stuff his coat pockets with hundreds of business cards. Whenever one of the teams (it didn’t matter which) scored and the fans cheered, the car salesman would throw a bunch of his cards into the air like confetti. Obviously, a lot of them were lost to the ground. But over time, many people picked them up, and some picked them up many times. Also, because the guy kept going to the games, he met people, he talked to them. People got to know him, to like him, and to trust him. At some point, people called this guy about a car. The man generated business for himself through fun, by creating relationships, and through persistence/repetition.

By the way, business cards can be made or ordered for an incredibly low cost these days and you can get an incredible amount of information on those things. What’s also great about business cards is that they are easy for you to carry and non-cumbersome for the receiver – they can be slipped into a pocket, purse, or wallet without taking up any real amount of space. It’s much easier to get someone to accept a business card than a paper flyer, and they’re easy to “recycle” – meaning whoever you give it to can more easily, and will, more readily pass it along.

Business cards can be tucked under windshield wipers - if you want to get into nitty-gritty urban guerrilization (yes, I made up that word too), and lots of merchants will allow you to leave a stack or card holder of your cards in their shops and cafés. You can use ‘em for many, many more ways than this – but I’ll let you research that or come up with some ideas on your own (or, if you feel really stumped, email me and ask me for more ideas – then I’ll know someone actually read this posting!).

I will let you in on one more thing (okay, maybe two more things) you can do with business cards, postcards (which can also be created on a tight budget), and paper flyers of various shapes and sizes: you can “blanket” all kinds of public places that have bulletin board displays or wall spaces that offer individuals and businesses free space to advertise. Coffee houses and grocery stores (particularly the independents) usually have such a space.

Also, if your book has a “hook” you can promote it in non-book store kinds of places. For example, let’s say you’ve written a book about boats, or a boat or boats are featured in your book, then you can see if a nautical store, sporting goods store, or novelty store would be willing to display your business cards and/or whatever promotional materials you are providing.
For the sake of time and space, I am simply going to list some other ideas to guerrilla market your book in the public jungle: If your city/town has any social gatherings, such as street fairs, weekly, monthly, or annual festivals, river walks or boardwalks – take yourself down there with your promotional materials and hand them out to anyone who will take them. If you’re not shy, and don’t mind looking silly for the sake of sales, wear a “sandwich board” that promotes your book as you hand out those materials.

Send a continual or periodic email and/or eflyer to ALL of your contacts about your book; Create a contest of some sort (contact me if you want ideas for this), offering a free copy of your book to the winner. Someone might read it who wouldn’t necessarily otherwise. They may love it and tell one to a hundred people about it – voilá: you have made an impression (and possibly some sales)!

“Outsider” artist, Lee Godie, used to stand outside of the Art Institute of Chicago with one of her canvas paintings yelling out to visitors of the museum, “the real art’s out here!” She sold many paintings that way, and since her death, her paintings and sketches are highly sought after and worth a lot of money. I am, in no way, suggesting death – I am simply saying that you can do a lot with an inexpensive gimmick (and a lot of moxie).

If you’d like more ideas, contact me, contact me, contact me - I am happy to be your personal guerrilla-marketing-brainstorming-gal. But I’d also highly suggest you check out any of Jay Conrad Levinson’s books, Lee Silber’s Self-Promotion for the Creative Person, and surf the web for sites that offer guerrilla marketing ideas. Have fun with it – go bananas!

Author! Author!

2006-04-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Innerview: Lewis James

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

I have two writing styles: one romantic and one pragmatic. In the romantic style I use a pen and notepad and physically place myself in an environment (café, park, hotel lobby) that is a novel break from the norm. In the pragmatic style I go to my office, sit in front of my computer, and begin typing.

I know you were in Calcutta when you finished writing Beating Kings, Burning Angels. Where did you write when you were abroad?

I wrote in cafes and youth hostels mostly.

What is your ideal writing environment?

I have found that being in a café or writing in a place surrounded by people, usually moves me into a more flowing creative state. I also know that the flowing creative state is an illusion and that to write, you must simply take the time to write. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Perhaps it is the beer that can be ordered while in a café that is important because it numbs the monotony of rewriting.

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

Grin and bear it and keep writing. I’ve written junk while thinking I was inspired and I’ve written good stuff when feeling unconnected to the moment, myself, or any wellspring of mystical union.

What authors inspire you most?

Steinbeck, Heller for Catch 22.

In your essay, Journals in the Attic, you discuss your obsession with Pulp Fiction and that Beating Kings was, in part, inspired by the film or your reaction to the film. Can you elaborate on that?

I got into a funk in writing, thinking it was important to try and just reflect reality for reality’s sake. Pulp Fiction snapped me out of this by making me realize that trying to reflect reality for reality’s sake really doesn’t really mean anything and is pretty boring. Would someone want to watch some random video taken at a street corner or footage from an ATM surveillance camera? This is reality but damn boring. Pulp Fiction made me realize that a novel is about the story stupid.

You wrote Beating Kings, Burning Angels pre-Crash. What was your reaction to the parallels in the two stories?

About 10 years pre-Crash. The parallels in the story are setting (LA), content (characters working through their individual dramas with race relations as a backdrop), and style (individual story lines with intersecting threads). My reaction was enjoyment and envy. Enjoyment of a well-crafted movie and envy that it made to the big screen and I haven’t.

I appreciated that you shared your fantasies about winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for Beating Kings, as I always have fantasies about the fame and glory of publishing something extravagantly spectacular. What’s your earth-bound, bottom line hope for your novel?

My hope is that I make money, lots of money, off my novel because I would like to live a life where I have the financial resources to do whatever the hell I damn please. Once I have enough money in the bank, I will change my position and preach that writing for money is crass and destroys the integrity of the artistic impulse.

Favorite quote?

“Seek simplicity and distrust it.”

Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.

Interwoven vignettes, in the style of Crash, explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution.

The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95. The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.

Author! Author!

2006-03-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

Journals in the Attic
By Lewis James

I mailed my first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels home for safe keeping from the colossal British-Colonial Post Office in Calcutta. Or was it from Varanasi and was the post office in Calcutta really colonial in construction and colossal? In the winter of 1996, or perhaps it was eleven years ago in the summer of 1995, somewhere in India, I completed the novel Beating Kings and Burning Angels.

I’d better go find the journals. I’ve looked in the closet and armoire and under the bed and behind my wife’s three colossal shoe racks and in the garage, but couldn’t find the journals that I wrote during my three years of wandering the globe and writing. Nor could I find the three backpack-worn notebooks containing the penciled-erased-penned-crossed-out first draft of Beating Kings and Burning Angels.

I don’t know why I feel the need to review my journals to explain what prompted me to write a book covering six days in the lives of five fictitious people during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. If you would have asked me after I had written my first draft of the book, I would have known what inner forces compelled me to spend hundreds of hours with imaginary people. I would not have mentioned the neurotic obsession that came over me upon seeing Pulp Fiction at a movie theater in Sydney Australia, nor the stack of books on American race relations purchased in Singapore while recovering from hepatitis (acquired from a chicken I ate on an adventure with Crazy Johnny on handmade bamboo rafts through Borneo rainforests), nor that in a moment of creative desperation, during a bumpy ride into Kashmir, I used the name of the bus line (Saxena) for the last name of a minor character in the book.

I most certainly would not have mentioned the fantasies that overcame me on that bumpy bus ride into Kashmir -- fantasies of having a dry throat as the eyes of billions watched me accept a Best Oscar award for my screenplay adaptation of Beating Kings and Burning Angels, fantasies of reading glowing reviews of myself in Time Magazine, fantasies of being a famous wealthy somebody based on the literary genius of my first published novel.

Ten years ago I would have known why I wrote what I wrote, would have erupted in a spasm of literary-correct musing, would have waxed existential over the reality of race relations in Los Angeles. Ten years ago, when I was thirty-two and knew, I wasn’t back working in the very business that becoming a famous wealthy novelist was going to save me from, wasn’t watching the Best Picture Oscar go to an ensemble cast exploring race relations in LA.

I am now 42 and can’t find the backpack-worn original Beating Kings and Burning Angles notebooks, can’t find the journals of frantic writing in search of philosophical truth and spiritual meaning, can’t quite grasp why a human would create an alternative world of intricately woven plot lines involving pretend people. Why did I write Beating Kings and Burning Angles? Why did I chronicle the daily events of my traveling life in mundane detail over a three year period of time? Why did I fill notepad after notepad with philosophical speculation, contemplation, and graphs illustrating the union of “Is” with “is” as filtered through personal and collective reality within the “poles of possibility”?

I need the journals to conjure up ghosts hidden within my neurons, to open an ephemeral gateway to the past so that my conscious mind can explain why I wrote what I wrote.

What was the purpose behind penning Beating Kings and Burning Angels? Was it a shout into the void, a wail into the grave that I was here and alive, an attempt to document the angst and concerns of humanity in LA in 1992? Was the driving force non-spiritual and devoid of poetry; more an attempt to prove myself through creating a work that could sell like Pulp Fiction, a neurotic obsession of an under-skilled artist blinding himself to his own mediocrity through the hubris of self-proclaimed creativity? Did a subconscious bourgeois compulsion drive me towards literary accomplishment in order to mask three years of hedonistic globetrotting?

Perhaps the journals are in the attic. I need to know the answer.

Lewis James lives in Monrovia, CA with his wife and three children. His writing reflects his diverse experiences. Lewis has been a dairy worker in Israel, a mortgage broker in Southern California, an Alaskan fisherman, a Beverly Hills nanny, and has even paid his dues as a solar sunscreen salesman. His travels have taken him from the top of Norway to the bottom of Chile and around Australia by van. He has traveled into the remote jungles of Borneo by way of a handmade raft, to monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and to the bazaars of the Afghanistan Mujahidin.

Interwoven vignettes, in the style of "Crash", explore the racial tensions of Los Angeles in the days just before, during, and following the Rodney King Riots. Beating Kings and Burning Angels follows the lives of five Angelinos, lacing together their personal stories and views on race relations. Unpredictable revelations bring each story to a provocative and compelling resolution. The eBook is currently available at the DPPstore under the PulpBytes Imprint, for $8.95.

The DPPstore (www.dppstore.com), a division of DigitalPulp Publishing (www.digitalpulppublishing.com), offers the best in eBooks from new and lesser-known authors, just as DPPpress (www.dpppress.com) promotes works by self-publishers and independent presses. Our eBooks are downloadable on an assortment of readers. The dppstore – reinventing reading.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-03-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Borrowers: Not just a book, but a way to market yours!

A reviewer once said about Mary Norton’s children book, The Borrowers (©1952), that it was “a book that begs to be shared.” Well, so does yours. At least you must believe it does -- you wrote it, got it published, and now it’s out there for sale in the big, big world of cyberspace.

The Borrowers in Norton’s book are tiny, little people who comfortably live below the floorboards of the homes of human beings. They live by “borrowing” things – all kinds of things. One of my favorites is they “borrow” postage stamps to use as art work to hang on their walls (I love that: using an object meant for one purpose and creating a totally new use for it).

I am sure that you have heard the saying that there are no new ideas, just old ones in new forms (I am paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of the saying). Just as the characters in Norton’s book “borrowed” objects meant for one purpose and used them for another, we can “borrow” marketing ideas and tweak them to suit our needs.

The truth is, we “borrow” ideas every time we sit down to write. But we add in our own experience, our own perspective, and/or a dash of our own imagination. We “borrow” from styles we like, genres we’re drawn to, subjects we know about or are interested in, and characters we’ve seen, known, or read about. Then we mix all those up to create our very own concoction: the story we own -- our own story.

Thus, it would behoove us to do the same when it comes to marketing our book(s). I know I “borrow” marketing ideas every time I read a book about how to market and self-promote; I “borrow” whenever I see someone else use a specific technique that renders results; I “borrow” whenever someone says, “hey, here’s an idea for you…” And, then, it becomes my idea in the way I utilize it and implement it.

My point being that the only way to get ideas is to “borrow” them…take what you like and leave the rest; take one small idea and blow it up into a bigger idea; take a seed of an idea and grow another idea from it; Take someone’s idea, give it a spin and make it your own. That’s how I write each and every one of the marketing tips that get published in these newsletters and on the blog (and, of course, when warranted, giving full credit where credit is due).

I was reading Dan Poynter’s online newsletter the other day, and I came across a really great article about book marketing and self-promotion. I thought it so worthwhile I went to the author’s website to check out who she was and what other bits of information I could glean. I thought a great deal of the information on her site, and the initial article that prompted me to investigate, was definitely worth sharing with you. So much so, that I thought, “I’m not going to borrow and make this my own. I’m going to just ask if I can publish Ms. Cullins’ piece and use it as part of my marketing tip."

With permission granted, the following article is posted here for your perusal. There’s some real gems in here, so take ‘em and tweak ‘em, and use ‘em to help promote your book! Also be sure to visit Ms. Cullins’ website for more ideas to “borrow”.

Remember, like The Borrowers, your book is just begging to be shared – if it has people who know about it. So off to market you go --
And to borrow, and to borrow, and to borrow…Just channeling my inner Shakespeare! Enjoy the article:

DISAPPOINTED IN BOOK SALES?
By Judy Cullins, 20-year bookcoach, http://www.bookcoaching.com

If other book marketing and promotion campaigns have brought few book sales, left your wallet thinner, wasted your valuable time, and left you with a garage full of unsold masterpieces, you may now be ready to set up your book's virtual marketing machine-the Internet with Free Online Promotion Methods.

Example:

a. Write articles and submit them to thousands each week through other opt-in ezines and top 20 Web sites that either want articles or have their own ezine. You'll find top sites in your field in any search you do with google.com.

b. Exchange Web site links with like-minded entrepreneurs. This win-win approach will bring you willing business people who want to be listed higher on the search engines. Create your longer and shorter version of your link and keep in a computer folder. After you search in your category, submit your link with a note saying you want to exchange with 10 or so other sites.

c. Write a powerful signature file that you send out with every email you write. Check your email service to install this. In 4-7 lines, put your name, title, benefit-driven headline such as "Helps entrepreneurs manifest their book dream," phone number, email and Web addresses. Make the lines no more than 65 characters across.

You can start right now, even if you don't have a Web site.

These "Non-Techie Email Promotion" techniques can jump start your lifetime book promotion journey. Like you would eat an elephant, just one bite at a time! Watch your sales grow!

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people's lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 11 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, "The BookCoach Says...," "Business Tip of the Month," at www.bookcoaching.com and over 216 free articles.

Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 -- Orders: 866/200-9743

Author! Author!

2006-03-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Innerview: Kathy Pratt

What is your ideal writing environment?

I am fortunate enough to have an extra bedroom in my home that I have converted to an office/library. It’s painted sunflower yellow and I have a red overstuffed chair for reading, red print curtains at the windows, and lots of bookshelves filled with my favorite books. My first published article is framed and hanging on the wall, along with other favorite things. I’ve hung bird feeders outside the window over my computer desk and I have a lovely view of plants and trees. It is all very serene and relaxing.

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

I write on Wednesday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday during the day. These are my usual days off from the job that pays the bills. I usually start writing after 11:00 in the morning. My brain doesn’t wake up until then, so I do all my mundane chores and exercising in the early morning. I also try to write for an hour or so a couple of evenings during the week.

What do you do when you’re not feeling inspired or motivated to write?

I write anyway. I make myself sit down at the computer and start typing. I figure I can always changes and edit later, and if it’s lousy just delete it. Usually it gets me going and I end up being productive. I’ve also found that it helps to start the next few lines after I’ve finished a scene or a chapter. That way I don’t have to think about the direction I’m going in.

What authors inspire you most?

John Steinbeck is the first author that comes to mind. I’ve read everything he wrote, sometimes over and over. I also am inspired by Ernest Hemingway, Wallace Stegner, and Larrry McMurty. Rosamund Pilcher is one of my favorite female authors. I also enjoy reading Elizabeth Berg’s books—especially since she is also a Registered Nurse.

Is there a difference between how you approach writing the non-fiction works you’ve published vs. how you approach your fiction writing?

I write more from an outline when writing non-fiction. I plan the entire work out first, including research, so by the time I start writing things don’t change much. In my fiction, I write from a general story idea and synopsis, but sometimes my characters will take over and take me in a completely different direction. Many times I find them wanting to do things that I’d never imagined they would want to do. That’s probably the biggest difference. Fiction is much more character driven.

What made you decide to publish your book as an eBook?

I hadn’t even thought about publishing an eBook until I met Catherine Hodge at the Palm Springs Writer’s Conference last June. We met at the end of the conference, just as I was leaving. She stopped me and asked what I was working on and then told me about the new publishing venture. Several years ago, Ellora’s Cave came to speak at my Orange County Romance Writer’s meeting, and I checked out their web site when I got home from Palm Springs. I was amazed at how huge they’d grown to be in just a few years. I don’t write erotica, so I wouldn’t submit to them, but it made me think about the changing publishing industry. I decided I’d like to “get in on the ground floor”, so to speak. I think there’s going to be a huge market for eBooks in the future.

Got an inspiring quote you’d like to share?

“CARPE DIEM”

Publisher's Prompt

2006-03-09T15:52:00.000-08:00

For those of you who'd like a little inspiration or jump start to get your creative juices flowing, here's a writing prompt. Use it however you like...to begin, end, or put in the middle of a poem, short or long story, jingle, haiku or any other kind of piece.

Patrick was a saint.

If you'd care to share your response to the prompt, please post it on this blog. We'd love to read it!

Write on,
Nicky

Author! Author!

2006-02-28T14:54:00.000-08:00

How I Came to Write
By Kathy Pratt

My interest in books began early in my life. I was read to by my parents and grandparents, and we didn’t have a television until I was around ten years old, so I listened to stories on the radio until I was able to read. I still don’t watch television, preferring instead to curl up on the sofa with a good book while everyone else is tuned into the TV.

I grew up in Indianola, Iowa, and got my first library card in the second grade. The library in our town was a red brick Carnegie library. As a little girl, the ceilings looked so tall to me that they seemed to stretch up to the sky. The first book I checked out was Tom Sawyer, followed in a few days by Huckleberry Finn. I’d tried to check them both out at the same time, but the librarian wouldn’t let me, thinking it would take me weeks to read them. I quickly became a voracious reader and would read everything I could find written by authors I discovered. I was in the fifth grade when I read every book the library had by Edna Ferber.

I spent my last Iowa summer curled up in an old wing back chair reading Gone With the Wind over and over again. We moved to California when I was fourteen and I started high school that year. One of my first classes was American literature, and I discovered John Steinbeck. I’ve read every book and short story he wrote at least once, some of them several times. My uncle lived in Northern California and we’d make the drive up the San Joaquin Valley several times a year. I’d pass the miles by staring out the car window and making up stories about the people and places we passed along the way. Many of those stories were inspired by something I’d read in a John Steinbeck novel.

My interest in writing started in junior high school when I began to be assigned creative writing lessons. Those classes were some of my favorites all through school. In college, my instructors encouraged me to write but I didn’t begin to seriously pursue writing as a possible career until the last five years. Prior to that time I’d written articles for nursing journals, travel logs for the newspaper, and short stories. Initially I made all the mistakes a writer can make. I figured all you had to do to write a novel was...write it. So, that’s what I did. I wrote the novel of my heart, and once it was completed, I promptly sent it out to a couple of houses and was just as promptly rejected. Thoroughly discouraged, I found an agency that charged ME to read my book and consider whether to represent me. Three hundred dollars later I received another rejection letter with a small paragraph of suggestions on how to edit it. Discouraged, I put that manuscript away and gave up on becoming a writer. Instead, I returned to college with the goal of getting a degree in English Literature.

I am a Registered Nurse and have worked more years than I care to admit to, in just about every area of nursing from rehabilitation to drug detoxification, to ICU/CCU, and now hospice.

This has provided me with a wealth of first-hand knowledge on human behavior under extreme circumstances. I draw from these experiences when I am creating my characters and situations in my works. In planning for the second half of my life, I returned to school to become a teacher. A couple of years into my post-graduate studies I decided that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I really wanted to be a writer--I just didn’t know how to go about it. That’s when I discovered extension programs in colleges, writer’s conferences, writer’s organizations, and critique groups. I’ve taken writing courses at UC Irvine and California State University Fullerton, and am a member of Romance Writer’s of America. I’m also an active member of the Orange County Chapter of RWA. I find my Monday evening critique group meetings invaluable.

My brothers and my mother are also writers. Mom has been published in retirement magazines and Chicken Soup for the Soul books. My two brothers are newspaper columnists, following in the footsteps of my uncle, who was also a newspaper columnist.

I prefer writing women’s fiction. Medicinal Remedies is a medical thriller with romantic elements. The protagonist, Kristy, is a Registered Nurse.

Kathy Pratt is a registered nurse who holds a BSN degree and PHN (Public Health Nursing) certificate. She spent fourteen years working the night shift in an Intensive Care/Coronary Unit in a Southern California hospital, where MEDICINAL REMEDIES was born. She returned for post-graduate studies in English Literature and transitioned into studying fiction writing at both Cal State University, Fullerton and UC Irvine. Pratt is the co-author of CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH (published by Gummerus Publishing in Finland) and has been published in The American Journal of Nurses, the Sacramento Valley Mirror, and in the Whittier Daily News. Married with two adult children, Pratt currently resides in Fullerton, CA where she works part-time as a hospice nurse and pursues her writing career during the rest of her waking hours.

Medicinal Remedies by Kathy Pratt is available for purchase at the DPPstore (www.dppstore.com)

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-02-28T14:46:00.000-08:00

EXPOSURE

Get out there and kick some book -- yours!

Exposure, is exposure, is exposure. I just channeled my inner Gertrude Stein and I’d like to encourage you to channel yours. In all the previous newsletters from this past winter, every marketing tip has centered around exposure in one way or another. Albert Sterner said, “There is art – and there is advertising.” And that’s true…to an extent. But unless you’re writing in a vacuum (see Newsletter from December 2, 2005), art and advertising must share the same path.

Advertising, public relations, marketing – words that make most writers cringe are vital to an author’s success, at least in terms of getting their book(s) sold and read.
The best way to get exposure is to expose yourself – any way you can!

Make a commitment (again, the Newsletter from December 2, 2005) to taking one small step a week towards marketing your book (see Newsletter from December 12, 2005). Keep on taking steps thereafter (Newsletter, December 19, 2005). Network, network, network (Newsletter, November 28, 2005) – anyway, anywhere, anytime, with anyone you can. Jump into action and start locally (Newsletter, January 18, 2006). No matter where you market your book, you are getting your book and your name out there!

DPP author, A.J. Alise, has been a super action wiz when it’s come to getting the word out about her book – and she’s done it very simply. Below is a short email she sent out to all her email contacts *(this is printed with the author’s permission). Nothing fancy, but a great pitch for her book, for eBooks, and inviting people to visit the DPPstore (she also included a hyperlink in her email to the DPPstore):

Get into the world of ebooks today. It's the computer age, so I hear and If you've never downloaded an ebook why not start with my novel CRIMSON ICE. It's very easy reading and please give me feedback, if you've ordered it or read it. Thanks for your support

Alise has also gone the local action route, getting herself interviewed in local newspapers and on radio stations. She has also sent her book out for review. The payoff? People have visited the DPPstore and bought her book.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, when Gwendolyn says to Cecily, “I never travel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train.” This is a great reminder to me – and hopefully to you, dear author – to travel with your book (on an eReading Device), or business cards or postcards of your book. They make for great conversation starters, and you never know who you’ll run into who will be interested in you and your book!

Exposure doesn’t have to come in the form of a grand campaign. It can unfold little by little, step by step, and relatively simply…with a little effort and ingenuity we can all be our own best marketing reps.

The Advantages of eBooks, by Michael Hart

2006-02-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Advantages of eBooks
By, Michael Hart, founder of The Gutenberg Project

The Advantages of eBooks:

1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence

1. Readability

The more readable, the better.

For the general reader the greatest advantage of eBooks is most likely to be simply readability, the advantages of being able to have the words appear in the fonts and font size most suitable to the reader, not to mention a similar ability to adjust margination and pagination to also make the books' general appearance of what readers prefer as possible.

The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.

2. Searchability

The more searchable, the better.

Most readers regard the ability to find certain chapter or page indicators of great value, hence the whole idea of "bookmarks" that has been with us pretty much all of the history of books. One of the great advantages from the changeover to bound books rather than scrolls is an ability to jump directly from one place in the books to any other place, as long as it isn't on the other sides of the pages being read at the moment.

eBooks have extended the usual "ability to find certain chapter or page indicators" to the ability to find your specific word or phrase, not just an approximate place, but the exactly spot you are looking for.

The less these abilities are present in your eBooks the less they possess the qualities that make them eBooks.

3. Quotability

The entire idea of books is to communicate.

Most books become famous because people talk about them with their friends, which usually involves quotation as an element of the conversation.

With the original eBooks you could simply cut and paste the quotations you wanted in an effortless manner.

The harder it is to quote from a book, the less value a book has to anyone who wants to pass on information.

4. Error Correction

Perhaps the greatest utility of eBooks as compared to a similar paper source is the ability to correct errors.

Trying to correct an error in a paper book is usually a losing proposition, whether you are simply trying to do a correction in your own edition, or trying to get some publisher to correct an error in future editions.

eBook publishers can fix errors literally overnight, as people send them in.

Paper publishers often leave the same errors in edition after edition for decades, even centuries, instead of a new edition actually containing a newly proofed edition of the original text.

To the extent that any eBook is not correctable, it may be considered to have less "eBookness."

5. Ease of Storage

The standard DVD can contain nearly every word that you can find in the books of the average public library and the multi-level DVDs can obviously hold twice as much-- four times as much if double-sided and double-layered.
*
The standard DVD holds ~4.3 usable gigabytes per layer.
*
The Blu-Ray DVD starts with ~25 gigabytes, and had some added potential via a layer of 8.5 G, totaling 33.5G.

Thus 30 of these would hold 1 Terabyte. 15, if they release a 2-sided version.
*
The next generation DVD has already been designed, with about 1 Terabyte of total storage, so just a few should be able to hold every word in the Library of Congress-- a few more for the British Library.
*
Think of the savings in the cost of the shelving if not the simply the cost of the books. . . .
Not to mention the time and energy savings when using a book from such a collection.
*
Many eBook producers use formats that are not so easily storable on your own media.
To the extent that these eBooks are not storable or not compressible, they lose their quality of eBookness.

6. Permanence

We have all heard the headlines published by olde media that information stored on computers is impermanent and is lost to future generations when the olde computer is no longer available.
This is only the case when the information was kept via out of general circulation via some secret encryption.

Plain text eBooks don't cause those kinds of problems.

The paper publishers tout their medium as permanent yet every year we hear that thousands of library books were disposed of because they were simply falling apart.

When new paper books are published, it takes only about five years for them to become so scarce that when local libraries have one lost, damaged, or stolen, that it is not replaceable.
Of all the things published in 1971, most are lost, and pretty much not retrievable except to the experts in an assortment of interconnected archives around the world, but not so with the first eBook as published by Project Gutenberg in the earliest days the Internet started its journey from laboratory experiments to reach out to the rest of the world.

Once an eBook is published in this manner in either the plain text or plain markup modes, the odds are it could survive indefinitely.

To the extent that an eBook does not have this quality, it is just that much less an eBook, as it has that much less a chance of survival.

Just as the more non-standard an email is the less will read it, the more non-standard eBooks will be less read by the general population.

Of course, that is the purpose of many of the formating decisions by various eBook publishers today, to keep an eBook out of the hands of the general population.

The entire idea of keeping people from being able to do all the things listed above is the general result of an astonishing philosophy that the most important aspect a successful eBook must have is that it can't be accessed in the usual manners, as that would allow copying.

Of course, this presupposes several things:

1. That enough people would only want to have illegal copy access that this would threaten the eBooks' success.

2. That it would be possible in the first place to make up some kind of protection that could not be cracked by an enterprising young hacker in its first few weeks.

3. These protection modes have not been intentionally made crackable by government enforcement agencies. [Such as the widely touted Lucifer, DES Data Encryption Standard that was intentionally weakened by some U.S. Government agencies so they could be sure to break into anything a person or corporation might ever store on a computer.]

***

The Advantages of eBooks are:

1. Readability
2. Searchability
3. Quotability
4. Error Correction
5. Ease of Storage
6. Permanence

The greater extent that an eBook eliminates the ability on the part of the potential reader to accomplish these the less the eBook has of the general qualities we have come to know as "eBookness."

DPP Newsletter, Edition XI

2006-01-31T10:46:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION XI
January 25, 2006

"Writing is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein."
Red Smith

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

I not only use all of the brains I have, but all I can borrow.

Woodrow Wilson

Pick My Brain

Please! Let me know how I can help you. You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep! will continue as an ongoing column in the new formatted newsletter you will begin receiving in February. I want to be the best resource for you in this area as I can be, so please send me any questions you have or suggestions for ideas that you would like information about to nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com

Author! Author!

Check Out…

http://www.nytimes.com/books/specials/writers.html
This is a complete archive of the Writers on Writing column, a series in which writers explore literary themes.

http://www.barbarademarcobarrett.com/writersonwriting/index.html Writers on Writing is a weekly radio program hosted by journalist and author Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. Each Thursday at 5pm Pacific, writers and poets join her from the studios of KUCI fm, on your radio in Orange County at 88.9 and simulcast worldwide at www.kuci.org

For Thoughts, Ideas, and Inspiration

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

Use the word or the idea of the word “Heart” or “Hog” to inspire a poem, song, or short story.

If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Site-ings

Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators
http://www.scbwi.org/

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, formed in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles based writers for children, is the only international organization to offer a variety of services to people who write, illustrate, or share a vital interest in children’s literature. The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. There are currently more than 19,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regions, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world.

THE SUN MAGAZINE (in print)
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/

Writing Guidelines
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/writer_guidelines.html

Unfortunately, you're not likely to find The Sun at your regular newsstand. Many distributors won't carry it because it's not "commercial" enough: we don't carry advertising; and we regularly print pieces that are too risky, too personal, too sad, too something. Yet somehow the magazine finds its way into the right hands; readers who appreciate writing that doesn't talk down to them or up to them, but meets their level gaze.

The Internet Writing Journal
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/

Submissions:
http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/guidelines.htm
The Internet Writing Journal® ("The IWJ") is seeking original articles. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Remember, we only publish nonfiction articles -- please do not submit poetry or fiction! We recommend that writers read articles published The IWJ to get an idea of our editorial style and the types of articles that we publish. Click here to see a list of links to prior articles. We look forward to seeing your submission!

Writers Write
http://writerswrite.com/
Your one-stop resource for information about books, writing and publishing

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Newsletter

We’re Continuing to Change…

As of February 1 we’re:

1) Changing formats
2) Changing our name from The Authors’ Advocate to News Bytes
3) We’ll be publishing bi-weekly (last week I had written “bi-monthly” – that was an error. You will receive the newsletter every two weeks).

Our Websites

We are still in the midst of reconstructing all three of our websites to make them more informative, user-friendly, and more interesting to peruse. As soon as they are complete, we’ll invite you to check them out (of course, you can check them out now if you want to get a good image of “before” and “after”).

Fun Facts

January:

A Room of One’s Own Day, January 25: For anyone who knows or longs for the sheer bliss and rightness of having a private place, no matter how humble, to call one’s own. [© 2003 by WH] For info: Thomas and Ruth Roy, Wellcat Holidays, 2418 Long Ln. Lebanon, PA 17046. Ph: (717) 279-0184. Email: info@wellcat.com Web: www.wellcat.com

Author Birthdays (January 25-31):

Jan. 25: Robert Burns, 1759; Somerset W. Maugham, 1874; Virginia Woolf, 1882; Edwin Newman, 1919
Jan. 26: Phillip José Farmer, 1918
Jan. 29: Anton Chekhov, 1860; Germaine Greer, 1939
Jan. 31: Zane Grey, 1872; Norman Mailer, 1923

All of the above was taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2006©

Write on,
Nicky

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-01-18T14:18:00.000-08:00

Teamwork allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Anonymous

From Here to There: Local Action

Self-promotion is great. Self-promotion with help is even better. Let me help you promote your book in your locale.

Networking has been an on-going theme in almost all of the past week’s marketing tips…and it continues to be in this week’s tip. We’re just broadening your network.

Put on your hunting and gathering cap and don your self-promotion scout uniform!

Starting locally, gather up as many names and places as you can. Start this week and make this an on-going task on your “to do” list, timeline, or calendar. Names, places, and sources -- people who own coffee houses, or businesses that might have some kind of connection to your book. Names of local community news people- journalists and local papers, radio personalities and the stations they broadcast from, local cable television hosts and the stations they telecast from. Gather contact information (especially email, and especially email if you live outside the U.S.) for each of these people and places.

Send the information to me and I will get busy contacting the names/places you researched in order to assist you in garnering more publicity for you and your book.

Together, let’s get you and your book exposure. Let’s get you sales. Between us, let’s “attain uncommon results”.
Please send any/all information to me at nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com

Publisher's Prompt

2006-01-18T14:17:00.000-08:00

Use the following, January 18 prompt from “Prompts & Practices” by Judy Reeves to begin, end, or use in the middle of a piece.

“It was noon and nothing is concluded.” (after Donald Rawley)

She sat at her desk, staring blankly at an even blanker computer screen. She had been sitting that way for almost fifteen minutes. Somewhere between what she thought was a good idea and plunking out words on the keyboard for four hours, she decided it was all a waste and deleted everything from the word document she had begun at half past seven.

She had been taught never to delete her work. That even if what she had written seemed all for naught, there might be a seed of a beginning, or a sprout to a middle or a perfect flower of an ending. She cursed that instructor in this moment for putting all those gardening metaphors in her mind. She decided to take a head hoe to them and get rid of all that she had planted. With one click she was able to make her digital harvest disappear.

So she sat, as she knew Hemingway once had, at her desk, for the set amount of time she had prescribed for herself. The clock at the bottom of the monitor turned over to 11:51 AM. Nine more minutes to go. She could sit and stare at the screen, envision what she would like to write, or maybe simply restart writing whatever came into her head.

She sat and stared at the screen.

After what seemed like hours, the monitor clock struck 12:00 PM. It was noon and “nothing is concluded,” she thought.

With a sigh, she rose and pushed her chair in under her desk, stretched, and decided to go out in the back yard and look at the nasturtiums.

DPP Newsletter, Edition X

2006-01-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION X
January 18, 2006

"I never think when I write; nobody can do two things at the same time and do them well."

Don Marquis

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

Teamwork allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Anonymous

From Here to There: Local Action

Self-promotion is great. Self-promotion with help is even better. Let me help you promote your book in your locale.

Check the Blog for more on From Here to There: Local Action…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Innerview

IAN MCKINLEY

What came first (in terms of your interest): the science or the science fiction?

Actually, I’ve been fascinated by both for as long as I can remember.

What is your ideal writing environment?

Somewhere sunny & warm and far away from my normal workplace. Extremophile was mainly written in Bermuda. I have just finished drafting a sequel – in the Bahamas. Almost all of the text was hammered into my laptop as I lay in a hammock overlooking the sea.

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

I write fiction in intense month-long blocks (“holidays”). I like to start early, with a mug of strong coffee to kick the brain cells into life. I usually write solidly for 5 hours or so, with pauses only for more coffee and to change CDs. The rest of the day I do normal holiday things – swimming, snorkeling, scuba – but gradually get more and more saturated with plot development as time passes. Luckily, I have a long-suffering wife who puts up with this!

Is there a difference between how you approach writing your science books and articles vs. how you approached your fiction work?

I write technical stuff constantly, often with several different projects running in parallel. Generally, I outline the entire structure at the start and then gradually expand it, section by section. As this work often involves collaboration with co-authors, there may be several steps of iterative reworking before the final product is ready for publication.

The fiction is completely different; I start with a basic concept and then just let it develop. When I start, therefore, I have no idea what will happen in the middle, much less the end. When I get a complete draft, I send it to friends for review comments but, basically, I just work linearly from the beginning to the end, with only minor polishing thereafter.

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

So far, I have never suffered from writers’ block when working on fiction. The opposite, in fact; I often find it hard to stop when I find a key to some twist of the plot.

On the technical side, I regularly “hit the wall” and run out of ideas on a particular topic. Here I can usually just put the offending job to one side and get on with something else until inspiration returns. I work on the boundary between such a very wide diversity of technical disciplines (geology, microbiology, archaeology, radiochemistry, …) that I can always find something to do.

What authors inspire you most?

My writing is influenced predominantly by cyberpunk authors – Gibson, Sterling, Stephenson, etc. Otherwise, I was always impressed by the authors who rattled cages by breaking taboos and questioning social mores – especially if this was done within a powerful story; examples such as Vonnegut, Heinlein, Moorcock, Delany and Farmer. It is difficult to prove, but I have always suspected that the books and films portraying the horrific aftermath of a nuclear conflict did much to mobilize public pressure for a peaceful end to the Cold War.

“Extremophile” is your first novel. What motivated you to write it?

I have always enjoyed writing for non-technical readers, but was frustrated by the limited audience reached by non-fiction. Fiction is a much more powerful medium and, despite the fact that the quality of background science in much of it is fairly appalling, this tends to form public opinion on key issues. This set me a challenge – could I produce popular fiction with a solid, but unintrusive, core of technical information relating to some of the major issues of the coming decades? This was the drive to get me started, after that I found that the process was so much fun that it was easy to keep going.

Extremophiles are used to create an elixir of youth. If there were such a “potion”, would you, yourself, take it?

It would certainly be difficult to refuse, wouldn’t it? I think almost anyone would feel this way – which is the basic problem. I believe that over-population is the root cause of most of the global problems that we now face. Just think how much worse things would get if longevity was available to all – or even if known to be available only to a select few. It’s worth taking a little time to think about, as medical science is developing explosively at present and the concept is not as far-fetched as it may sound.

Ian Mc Kinley holds a Ph. D. in chemistry from Glasgow University. He has a professional background in nuclear waste management. A Scot who has lived in Switzerland for 20 years, he has been involved in a diversity of work related to nuclear waste management, including archeology, geology, microbiology, engineering and public communication. He has co-authored three technical books, as well as hundreds of articles in a variety of publications. Extremophile is his first novel. You can also read McKinley’s piece on The Science Behind the Fiction published in the Author’s Advocate, Edition VIII, posted on the blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

Use the following, January 18 prompt from “Prompts & Practices” by Judy Reeves to begin, end, or use in the middle of a piece.

“It was noon and nothing is concluded.” (after Donald Rawley)

If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com or nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Site-ings

The Writersbuzz.com
http://thewritersbuzz.com/

The Writer’s Buzz is a community blog whose main focus is to help new and established writers announce their books to the public. Writing your book is the easy part; getting it into your readers’ hands is more difficult. Our goal is to help you gain the readership your book deserves.

WritersServices: The Website for Writers
http://www.writersservices.com/index.htm

This site contains "how to's", articles and information, editorial services, showcasing, and more.

AAA Creative Writers Service
http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=creativeservices

Unique Internet connection to creative professionals and resources that constitute media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television, in an effort to help a variety of fiction, and nonfiction writers, polish and publish their projects.

Writing Contests
http://www.writers-editors.com/Writers/Contests/contests.htm

Listing of various writing contests with inexpensive entry fees.

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Newsletter

We’re Continuing to Change…

As of February 1 we’re:

1) Changing formats
2) Changing our name from The Authors’ Advocate to News Bytes
3) We’ll be publishing bi-monthly instead of weekly

Our Websites

We are in the midst of reconstructing all three of our websites to make them more informative, user-friendly, and more interesting to peruse. As soon as they are complete, we’ll invite you to check them out (of course, you can check them out now if you want to get a good image of “before” and “after”).

Fun Facts

Pooh Day: A.A. Milne’s Birth Anniversary, January 18 The English author, especially remembered for his children’s stories: Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

This Week’s Author Birthdays:

A.A. Milne, January 18, 1882
Edgar Allan Poe, January 19, 1809
Edith Wharton, January 24, 1862

All of the above was taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2006©

Write on,
Nicky

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-01-10T16:20:00.000-08:00

Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into action and put your heart on the line.

Phil Jackson

Getting into Action!

“Your plan will never be perfect or complete. Get over it and go forward,” instructs Lee Silber, author of Self-Promotion for the Creative Person.

If you read last week’s marketing tip (posted here on the blog, January 2), you may have taken the suggestion of connecting a networking source (or sources) with an idea (or ideas) to create a new marketing idea (or ideas).

Now it’s time to put that idea (or ideas) into action.

Action steps can include creating a “to do” list, a time-line and/or calendar. By writing down what you want to do, need to do, and are going to do, you begin the process of committing to a program of action for yourself.

Time lines and/or calendars help prioritize and organize when you are going to follow through with each of your ideas. These tools help you create goals and deadlines that will keep you on top of self-promoting your book.

You might want to include in your time line/calendar the date you want to begin implementing your marketing ideas, and any subsequent dates when you want to follow up with the idea and (if there is one) a date of completion.

For example:

To Do List Items:

1. Create email flyer re: book publication and where book can be purchased
2. Mass email flyer to friends, family & other contacts

Time Line:

January 9-15: Create e-flyer; Check email contact list and add necessary addresses
January 16: Send email en mass to all contacts
January 17-24: Revise flyer…add/delete information, change look of flyer, etc.; Research new contacts.
January 25-31: Send new flyer out again to all contacts.
February 1-7: Assess progress. Is this strategy working well? How can I revise it to get more out of it? (i.e., can you attach a “personal” email along with this, asking for support to pass the information along, adding reviews of the book); How often do I want to/need to send out continual eflyers.
February 8: Write down new plan of action for e-flyers; Create new goals/dates/deadlines.

I know this is pretty simplistic information. But simple = doable, and doable means you can get something done. Hence: action. And forward action, as Lee Silber suggests. So I’ll leave you with the great words of Nike – “Just do it!”

Publisher's Prompt

2006-01-10T16:18:00.000-08:00

January is a month…

Use the above to begin (put in the middle of, or end) a thought, poem, short story, or song.

January is a month of anticipated beginnings….which sounds exciting.
And daunting.
And too expecting.
Three hundred and sixty-five days laid out before me,
A whole calendar to fill,
And fill it will.
My goal: to stay in the moment.
For all 525, 600 of them.

Newsletter, Edition IX

2006-01-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION IX
January 9, 2006

"...Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
Fool! said my Muse to me, look in thy heart and write."

Sir Phillip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into action and put your heart on the line.

Phil Jackson

Getting into Action!

“Your plan will never be perfect or complete. Get over it and go forward,” instructs Lee Silber, author of Self-Promotion for the Creative Person.

Check the Blog for more on Getting into Action…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED (Non-DPP) AUTHOR FOR THE WEEK…

An A-Musing Author

Jill Badonsky

Innerview

What is your ideal writing environment?

A cottage with a fireplace, a comfortable chair and a view… which is the place I take my writing retreats. If I can’t go there then writing in bed with my laptop is my next choice and then in cafes with loud espresso machines, reminding me when I write steam comes out of my mind.

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

My most predictable routine is 1). Coffee 2) Meditate 15 minutes (I have a meditation that taps into my creativity) 3) walk for a half hour in nature with my writing in mind 4) write anywhere from 5 minutes to 6 hours depending on my schedule that day.

What do you do when you’re not feeling inspired or motivated to write?

If I’m not feeling inspired I walk or workout, then sit down and play with words. Or I read an author who inspires me, listen to music that does the same, or return to a work I’ve written that I really like and see if it feeds my juices. Sometimes I just pour into writing using the writing prompts I use in classes…unfinished sentences, repetition or stream of consciousness starting with.. I’m not inspired right now but…

What authors inspire you most?

I’m inspired by Bill Bryson, Anne Lamott, Douglas Adams, Karen Jones, Isabelle Allende.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing, publishing, and marketing your book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard)?

Writing Challenge: The inner demon telling me my stuff wasn’t any good.
Publishing: Waiting a year and a half for the book to come out.
Marketing: President George W. Bush. He started the war in the Middle East two weeks before my book tour. Scheduled interviews, book signings and publicity were cancelled and overshadowed by the war during an author’s most crucial kick-off campaign- the first two months. After that the publishing house abandons you to the next group of authors.

What has been your greatest reward since writing and publishing the book?

Biggest reward: All of the people who email me or show up at workshops and tell me they love the book and that it has helped them. And the friends I've made as a result of the book - they're my tribe.

What has been your biggest challenge in terms of self-promotion?

Not getting enough visibility with one shot and the feeling of overwhelm with how much needs to be done.

What approach to self-promotion has been your best vehicle?

Workshops, talks, training people to use my book for classes and coaching. Magazine articles have helped too as have hooking up with other authors and people who run creative websites with a lot of visibility.

I know it’s hard to pick just one, but which Muse (from your book) is your favorite…or which one do you find yourself utilizing the most?

I don’t like to play favorites because when Muses get mad they withhold ideas. However I think I use Albert, the Muse of Imagination and Innovation the most. He gives lots of tools that make writing easier and fun.. he provides perspectives, attitudes, personas and trigger words that give a writer a starting place or a fresh angle from which to venture.

Got an inspiring quote you’d like to share?

"The mind I love must still have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody's fathomed the depth of--and paths threaded with those little flowers planted by the mind." -- Katherine Mansfield

Jill Badonsky, M.Ed., is a creativity coach, workshop leader, artist, and marketing consultant who is the founder and director of The Muse Is In, an organization devoted to coaching, teaching, facilitating, and marketing workshops and retreats for reawakening creativity. She wrote and starred in a one-woman show, I Can’t Handle Reality, But It’s Really the Only Place to Get a Good Cup of Coffee, and writes a monthly column on creativity for Blessings, a San Diego newspaper.

The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard) is an entertaining, inspirational, and practical handbook for the twenty-first-century seeker. Combining the whimsical and spiritual appeal of Sark with the concrete step-by-step approach of The Artist’s Way, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard) presents a fresh approach toward accessing your creativity, and is designed specifically for our frazzled and time-sensitive era. Creativity coach Jill Badonsky takes the nine classical Greek Muses and updates them for our time. Along with a little help from their no-nonsense bodyguard, Arnold, they personify ten principles designed to overcome creative blocks and embrace the wonders of self-expression.
You can read more about Jill Badonsky’s book at http://www.themuseisin.com/book.html

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

January is a month…

Use the above to begin (put in the middle of, or end) a thought, poem, short story, or song.

If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com or nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Site-ings

Writers Weekly
http://www.writersweekly.com/
This site touts itself as “the highest-circulation freelance writing ezine in the world.” The site offers information about jobs, classes, news, and articles that are of interest to writers.

The Write Market
http://www.writemarket.com/
This site features articles, contests, resources, links that might be of great interest to you.

Writerfind Jobs
http://www.writerfind.com/freelance_jobs/
This site offers global freelance and telecommuting jobs for writers.

Writers Events
http://writersevents.com/
This site offers a calendar for all writers and publishers. It posts daily, weekly, monthly or annual listings of promotional events, meetings, group activities, and speakers. Writers Events has been designed to be quick and easy to use by those looking for 'What's on in Writers' events online and by those wanting to promote their Writers events online.

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Newsletter

We’re Moving…

To Wednesdays! Subsequent newsletters will be sent out on Wednesdays, beginning next week, January 18.

We’re Changing…

Formats! Beginning with our first February issue (Wednesday, February 1), you will be receiving this newsletter in a new and improved format.

Fun Facts

Book Blitz Month: (Jan. 1-31) Focuses attention on improving authors’ relationships with the media in order to create a best-selling book. Free book PR evaluation available. For info: Barbara Gaughen, Media 21, 7456 Evergreen Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93117. Ph: (805) 968-8567. FAX: (805) 968-5747. Email: bgaughenmu@aol.com Web: www.goodmorningworld.org

National Clean Up Your Computer Month: (Jan. 1-31) Dedicated to the education of computer users with simple tips and methods to increase the efficiency of their systems. For info: Denise Hall, 24797 State St., PO Box 658, Elberta, AL. Ph: (251) 986-6650, FAX: (251) 986-6652 Email: denise@specterweb.com Web: www.specterweb.com

This Week’s Author Birthdays:

Jack London, January 12, 1876
Andy Rooney, January 14, 1919
Ernest Gaines, January 15, 1933

All of the above was taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2006©

Write on,

Nicky

Nicole (Nicky) Pitman
Authors' Advocate
DigitalPulp Publishing
(760) 327-3181
nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2006-01-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

All our ideas come from the natural world: trees equal umbrellas.
Wallace Stevens

Two-Steppin’

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Candy always gets my attention, so I thought it might get yours as well. If I have gotten your attention, take a moment to think about Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Remember that old commercial- One person bumps into another, and one of them says, “Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” And the other says, “You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” And then the little jingle started: “Two great tastes in one candy bar- Reese’s Peanut Butter cups”?

So you remember the commercial, and now you’re probably thinking, what in the world does that have to do with marketing?! Actually, it has a lot to do with marketing- and thinking about marketing differently. Or thinking about ideas differently...As in putting two ideas together to create one new, fabulous marketing idea!

Let’s go back to Networking, the marketing tip from November 28 (in the, oh, not-so-long-ago year of 2005). The little catch-phrase I used in that tip was the Beatles’ “I get by with a little help from my friends”. I also threw in the idea of thinking about “friends you haven’t yet met”.

Networking is probably the most essential ingredient when it comes to self-promotion. But if you couple networking with another idea, you’ve got yourself a dynamite meal (or a whole new candy bar- however you want to look at it)!

Networking + Marketing Idea= Successful Self-Promotion

This is two-steppin’ at its finest. Think of all the people you know. Perhaps you have many of them in your email contact list. That’s a great start- friends, family, colleagues. What about other people you know- entrepreneurs, merchants, coffee house owners, editors of newspapers & magazines (online or traditional), someone at the local library or college, people who work at theatre companies, or people you know who know these people? Make a list (or merge the list[s] that you already have with a new list).

Then, make up a list of ideas for marketing your book. Here are five:

1) Public readings of your work

2) Articles and essays about the kind of writing you do or about your book itself

3) Flyers (paper)

4) Flyers (email)

5) Hosting a party, tea, coffee klatch, dinner with your book as the theme or showcase

Next, match up one or more people from your list with one (or more) of the ideas.

For example: perhaps you, or someone you know, knows the owner of a coffee house, or someone at the local library or college. You could match that person (or people) to the idea of a public reading of your work, and at the reading pass out flyers about you, your book and where to buy it.

Or perhaps you could host a party, or have a friend host a party to celebrate the publication of your book. The party could have a theme, you could talk about your book, do a reading from your book, and pass out flyers with information about you, your book, and where it can be purchased.

Or maybe you know someone, or are willing to go meet someone, who is part of a theatre company that is doing a play that has some kind of connection to your book- its subject matter or the genre. If they’re willing, you could create paper flyers that fit into the production’s program that promote you, your book and how to buy it.

Of course, an email flyer is a fast, easy way to go without ever leaving your house. Create one, send it to your entire email contact list and ask everyone to pass it on to as many people as possible. Voilá!

Keep mixing and matching up people with ideas and see what you come up with- there are endless possibilities.

I am sure that some of you may have thought of these ideas already and, perhaps, have already implemented them. But if you haven’t, give it a go. Who knew that by mixing chocolate with peanut butter you’d get one of the most popular-selling candy bars of all time!

Publisher's Prompt

2006-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

Getting Physical

*(This prompt is from Roberta Allen’s book The Playful Way to Serious Writing)

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write about someone real or imagined who has one or more of the physical characteristics listed below. How has one or more of these characteristics affected this person’s life?

A Birthmark A Club Foot A Double Chin A Crooked Nose Ingrown Toenails Wispy Hair Pimples Wrinkles Tattoos Large Pores A Shaved Head Sideburns A Potbelly Freckles A Snub Nose Stained Teeth A Flat Butt Flabby Arms Dimples Thinning Hair A Mustache A Face-Lift An Overbite A Large Butt A Hooked Nose Pockmarks A Scar Fat Thighs False Teeth Big Breasts Bitten Nails A Beard Frizzy Hair Crooked Teeth A Beer Belly A Muscular Chest Thick Lips

Rose

She couldn’t go out. Not with a face like that. She stared at herself in the mirror. Hating her face. Loathing her self. Pissed off at her parents for the stupid DNA they passed on to her.

Why couldn’t she look like Samantha Markley? Why couldn’t she have clear, beautiful skin that was deplete of a blemish? Ooooh- she hated Samantha Markley in this moment! She hated everything!

She stared harder at the mirror, as if doing so would make all those thousands of pink and reddish marks go away. Of course they remained. Taunting her. Letting her know she’d never look like Samantha Markley.

How was she supposed to go to school? How was she supposed to go to Tate Rossmore’s party later tonight?

“Rose,” her mother called from downstairs. “You better hurry up or you’re going to be late for school again.”

Rose. What a flippin’ name, she thought. Too bad they didn’t add an “s” on my damned birth certificate- that would have matched my face perfectly!

Newsletter, Edition VIII

2006-01-02T10:23:00.001-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION VIII
January 2, 2006

"How can anyone do better than that- after all, I wrote it myself."
Molière

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

All our ideas come from the natural world: trees equal umbrellas.
Wallace Stevens

Two-Steppin’

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Candy always gets my attention, so I thought it might get yours as well. If I have gotten your attention, take a moment to think about Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Remember that old commercial- One person bumps into another and one of them says, “Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” And the other says, “You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” And then the little jingle started: “Two great tastes in one candy bar- Reese’s Peanut butter cups”?

So you remember the commercial, and now you’re probably thinking, what in the world does that have to do with marketing?! Actually, it has a lot to do with marketing- and thinking about marketing differently. Or thinking about ideas differently...As in putting two ideas together to create one new, fabulous marketing idea!

Check the Blog for more on Two-Steppin’ (and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups)…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Author! Author!

Ian Mckinley

The Science Behind the Fiction

Science fiction authors are a motley crew, which includes a small number of professional scientists but also many others with no particular background in science or technology. There is certainly no correlation between the quality of the literature produced and the technical background of the author – for every example of individuals who excel in both fields, there are dozens of SF masterpieces produced by non-scientists and rather dreadful efforts by highly qualified boffins.

Personally, being involved in the rather esoteric area of assessing the safety of repositories for radioactive waste, you could consider that most of what I write in my day job is a form of fiction – discussing and evaluating what would happen to such stuff over the next million or so years. Over the last thirty years, I’ve produced mountains of paper for textbooks, technical literature and articles for more general audiences. With this background, why write a science fiction novel? And, even if a novel, why in the gritty, grungy niche of cyberpunk?

Well, undoubtedly I get pleasure out of writing fiction and I greatly enjoy reading some of the imaginative and exciting books which cyberpunk has spawned, since kicked into life in the ‘70s and ‘80s by William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and the rest. Despite that, there is also a serious reason, which harks back to a common response I get whenever I talk to non-specialists about radioactive waste. Almost everyone has an idea about what radwaste is – but it seems to come from films (Robocop seems particularly notable), novels and, increasingly, comics, manga and anime. The green, glowing sludge that guarantees a horrific death – or transformation into a bizarre mutant – is a far cry from the mundane reality. The biggest risk associated with the material I deal with is dropping the heavy packages onto someone! It’s worrying when politicians try to pass the buck on difficult decisions, by asking the general public to decide on highly complex issues like the future of nuclear power. How can they do this when they haven’t the foggiest idea of what is involved?

This is my own specialist area, but I also see similar effects if I discuss even more critical technical issues which will have major effects on our society over the next few decades – like climate change, economic unbalance, runaway developments in biotechnology. Films such as Blade Runner and Total Recall have more of an impact in building mental images of what the future will be like than the entire outpourings of academia and the “popular science” literature. Many technical communicators find this frustrating and complain about the portrayal of science in arts and the media. However, this is the real world. If you believe sincerely that there are important messages to be made – as I do – then maybe more of us have to forget about conventional approaches and try to penetrate the media that has a real impact.

The important thing, of course, is the story. The plot, setting and characters have to grab the target audience – any messages lurk in the background, at an almost subliminal level. You can’t lecture, talk down to your readers or attempt to force your own opinions on them. You can, however, introduce some issues, which may well be the defining problems of the mid-21st century. If, at the end of the book, readers are left pondering some question that hadn’t occurred to them previously, it has been a great success. This will only happen, of course, if the book is read and enjoyed – so back to the importance of the story – and the marketing of the end product.

“Extremophile” looks at longevity. I introduce the extreme variant of an effective cure for aging – but this is just one end of a spectrum of developments, all of which are moving ahead rapidly at present. The promise of a longer life – that’s got to be a good thing, surely? Sounds great, until you think of it in the context of a world already strained to breaking point by overpopulation and facing up to the additional pressures of climate change and rising sea level as a result of global warming. Immortality may be the dream of the rich, but could end up the nightmare of the governments and other organisations trying to provide a reasonable standard of living to the poor. Think about it! You may worry today about GM crops and cloning – but these may well not be where the huge, global problems arise in coming decades.

So, back to cyberpunk; dystopic futures with lashings of strange sex and gratuitous violence. Is this really what we have in front of us? I suspect so. In many communities, the definition of what is “acceptable” sexually has evolved dramatically in the last 50 years and there is no reason to think this will change in the future – especially in the light of probable medical developments (cures for AIDS and other STDs) and the access to alternative lifestyles provided by the internet. Violence in society is more easily predictable, as this correlates well with social inequality – particularly when those at the bottom of the heap are constantly exposed to the excesses of those at the top. The changes in the world during the coming century will – in the absence of a complete rethink of international politics – inevitably lead to an even greater and better publicised gulf between the haves and have-nots. Does this worry you? It certainly should!

The future is a very frightening place, particularly because it is being defined by decisions made today without a thought for long-term consequences. If science fiction – even the darkest cyberpunk – can introduce a degree of caution, which then avoids some of the scariest possibilities, then it has served very well indeed. Grandiose aims for a new author, don’t you think? Maybe, but you have to remember the inherently chaotic nature of society; nobody knows what will be the equivalent of the beat of the butterfly’s wings which will eventually result in a social phase transition years afterwards. Well, I’m giving it a try and, although I’ll never know if it has done any good, I’m sure that it’s better than just sitting around complaining. And, if anyone enjoys reading my books, that makes the entire effort worthwhile regardless.

Ian Mc Kinley holds a Ph. D. in chemistry from Glasgow University. He has a professional background in nuclear waste management. A Scot who has lived in Switzerland for 20 years, he has been involved in a diversity of work related to nuclear waste management, including archeology, geology, microbiology, engineering and public communication. He has co-authored three technical books, as well as hundreds of articles in a variety of publications. Extremophile is his first novel.

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

Getting Physical

*(This prompt is from Roberta Allen’s book The Playful Way to Serious Writing)

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Write about someone real or imagined who has one or more of the physical characteristics listed below. How has one or more of these characteristics affected this person’s life?

A Birthmark, A Club Foot, A Double Chin, A Crooked Nose, Ingrown Toenails, Wispy Hair, Pimples, Wrinkles, Tattoos, Large Pores, A Shaved Head, Sideburns, A Potbelly, Freckles, A Snub Nose, Stained Teeth, A Flat Butt, Flabby Arms, Dimples, Thinning Hair, A Mustache, A Face-Lift, An Overbite, A Large Butt, A Hooked Nose, Pockmarks, A Scar, Fat Thighs, False Teeth, Big Breasts, Bitten Nails, A Beard, Frizzy Hair, Crooked Teeth, A Beer Belly, A Muscular Chest, Thick Lips

Use the prompt. Don’t use the prompt. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com or nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Site-ings

Robert Ringer: A Voice of Sanity in an Insane World
http://www.robertringer.com/index.html

There’s a great article on the home page right now entitled Beware the Discouragement Fraternity, Part II that tells the stories of how books, once discouraged by publishers and agents became best-sellers.

Dowse/Paying Ezines
http://www.dowse.com/ezine-markets.html

Good list of details and links to paying ezine markets for speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, and mystery fiction writers online from Bonnie Mercure.

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Bookstore

We’re Open!

Check out your book at the DPP Store (http://www.dppstore.com/) as well as our other DPP authors’ offerings. Tell your friends! Tell your folks! Tell everyone you meet to visit (and shop at) the store!

Postcards

They’re coming…

I know some of you are quite anxious about receiving postcards to announce and promote your book. We are too! We are sorry for the delay, but you should all be receiving your postcards by January 20, so sit tight and I’ll send an email to let you know when they’re on their snail-mail way to you.

DPP Blogs

Genene runs this blog: http://dpppress.blogspot.com/

DPP Press is geared towards our publishers, but you may also find some good information and fun postings by Genene, so check it out!

Catherine runs this blog: http://dppebookstore.blogspot.com/

Catherine runs the DPP Bookstore, among wearing many other hats (i.e. being the DPP “IT” girl, as in I.T.- she is a technological wiz!). For bookstore flashes, and Catherine’s musings, this is a fun blog to visit.

And, of course, my blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

Have you all been visiting the blog? That’s where you can find the full posting of each week’s marketing tip, the newsletter is also posted there, as well as my response to the writing prompt. Please feel free to comment and be part of the blog.

Also: if you haven’t started your own blog, and you’d like to- go for it! You can do it for free and it’s pretty easy at http://www.blogger.com/. Below are step-by-step directions that should get you through, if you get confused with the blogger.com directions. Let me know if you have any problems.

How to create a blog:

Go to http://www.blogger.com/

On the right side of the screen is a big box that gives direction
Go to the big orange arrow – create your blog now and click on it

You will enter a Create an account screen
Choose user name Maybe your name
Enter a password Pick one you can remember
Retype password Be sure to be exact
Display Name The name you want people to see
Email address The email where you want messages

Accept

You will enter the Name your blog screen
Blog title Maybe your name
Blog address Maybe your name
Word verification Enter the funny little letters

Continue

Choose a template
Pick from examples Click the button for the pattern you like

Continue

Start Posting

10. Create a post
Title Welcome
Body Whatever you want to say
Allow comments/not Invite comments or block them

Post

View

Happy Blogging!

Communication

One of the biggest parts of my job here at DPP (and one of my favorites), is working as the liaison between our authors (you) and the company. I know that every once in awhile you’ll send an email that I do not respond to automatically. This has typically been because I don’t know the answer to the question you are asking and must find out from one of our other DPP staff members or I need to research it.

From here-on-out, I will respond to your email as soon as I receive it, and either give you an answer immediately, if possible, or let you know that I am “researching” the answer and will get back to you as soon as I have one.

This newsletter is one way to communicate. I will let you know when we will be out of the office for any particular length of time, so that you will know if you call or email during that time, we are not ignoring you- we simply haven’t yet received your communication.

Our typical office hours are 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM, Monday-Friday. If you need to reach us by phone, those are the hours to do it. Email 24/7, of course.

Once again, I’d like to encourage you all to make suggestions about the newsletter, marketing tips, and blog. I am working to provide you with as much good information and encouragement as possible, and your feedback helps me do that.

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it [write].”

(I took a small liberty with the last word in the above Oprah Winfrey quote)

Happy New Year!

Write on,

Nicky

Publisher's Prompt: Word Pool

2005-12-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

Elf Red Glisten Menorah Sideways Fly Gifted Hark Resolution Kamikaze Beard Tranquil Solstice Porsche Cheer Caroling Stuff New Twelve

Use the words in the pool above any way you like and in any order you like, to create a story, poem, song, etc.

Hark!
(That’s the title ‘cause I couldn’t figure out how to get the darn word into the story)

The twelve new Porsches on the lot glistened as the sunlight reflected off the snow and bounced iridescently off the chrome and freshly-painted auto bodies.

Each one of the sportsters was painted a bright, shiny red- the most-bought car color of every December. They looked confidently snazzy, featured prominently in the front part of the lot facing the Boulevard.

It was early morning- seven o’clock- and the dealership was enjoying its last tranquil hour before it opened for its seasonal fifteen hours-a-day of deal-making/deal-breaking pandemonium.

It was December 21, winter solstice, but it couldn’t have been a more dazzling morning if it had been June 21. The sun shone with such a brilliant light, it was as if it was the dealership’s own personal cheerleader.

Like a kamikaze crashing out of nowhere, a small, spry elf descended upon the car lot, caroling Christmas songs at the top of his lungs, breaking the serenity of the early morning stillness.

He landed betwixt the Porsches, in a grand balletic plié, juxtaposed by an upward leap of his beard, which landed in his mouth, nose, and eyes.

Brushing and blowing his unmanageable facial stuffs from his visage, the mischievous imp set about playing his annual practical joke.

With glee, the elf went from car to car, replacing each Porsche emblem with that of a mini-metal menorah, engraved in a tablature that looked just like the Porsche’s: red and black stripes set in a golden background.

He glanced sideways, from time to time, making sure no one was watching, flying around the lot at record speeds as if he was propelled by an inner-Porsche engine.

He gifted every automobile on the lot with his special insignia, and when he was satisfied that his work was complete, he made his annual resolution to come back and do the same thing the following year.

He left the lot just as he came, with a grand plié and a kamikaze shot upwards.

No one at the dealership knows how the Porsche logos get removed every year and why they are replaced with menorahs. But every year it happens. It has now become a tradition, and now you, dear reader, know who’s behind it. You just don’t know why. That may be a mystery to uncover next year. ‘til then, you’ll just have to wait.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2005-12-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.
American Proverb

Steppin’ On

In keepin’ on with last week’s tip One Small Step, this week we’re moving on, perhaps, just a half-step.

In her monthly Muse Letter this December, Jill Badonsky, M.ED. offers a Creativity Manifesto for 2006 (which she suggest you “modify according to YOUR authentic nature”):

In the face of adversity, uncertainty and static in my soul’s receiver, I hereby pledge to remain ever mindful, ever grateful of the magical, infinite, loving reality I live in. This reality conspires tirelessly in my favor especially when I take tiny steps…ever so tiny, daily or even weekly down a path directed by my creative intuition.

I further recognize, that living within space and time, as a creation amongst creations, is the ultimate adventure, because I create my reality with the colors I choose from my palette of thoughts. Dreams come true when I am authentic and courageous, when I say “So what I’ll do it ANYWAY” to any obstacle rearing its silly head and so many things, so VERY MANY things remain forever possible. So there!

For some of you, the above may be a little too whimsical, or “out there”. Please take what you like and leave the rest (and, as Jill suggested, modify it for yourself in any way you like).

The reason I chose to include Badonsky’s “Manifesto” is that I find it incredibly helpful connecting how I approach my craft to how I approach self-promotion: with creativity, persistence, and gratitude.

Did you try that one small step last week- asking yourself:
What is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book?

If you did- bravo! Were you able to visualize one small thing? Were you able to write it down?
If you didn’t or you couldn’t, practice asking yourself that question ONCE a day (or more, if you’d like). You might be surprised at the answer/answers that begin to come simply by continuing to ask. That’s persistence. The same kind of persistence we continue to practice in our craft.

By continuing to ask the question daily what is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book you might find that your mind authentically becomes a creativity factory. Our mind likes to solve problems, find solutions. Robert Maurer, Ph.D. advocates dropping the same small question into our conscious thinking every day. Every time we do, our mind strives to come up with a solution.

It’s the same kind of creative thinking that goes into our work (well, at least it’s the same kind of thinking that goes into mine). I am constantly asking and re-asking myself the same question(s) over and over, like “what would this character do in these circumstances?” I continue to ask and re-ask that question until I come up with an answer I’m satisfied with. And then I keep working that question out within my writing.

When I apply the question-asking technique to self-promotion, I come up with all kinds of answers. Undoubtedly, some of my brainstorming is silly and way too out there- but I typically come up with one completely terrific idea, and then I brainstorm on that idea until I figure out exactly what I can do to bring it to fruition. Before I know it, I’ve come up with a fleshed out step for marketing my work.

And then gratitude sets in. I’m grateful for my creativity and my tenacity, not only for the joy I get from doing my work (and completing it), but my willingness to walk the walk to get it out there. As I’ve said before, I don’t write in a vacuum.

So keep dropping in that small question over the holidays: what is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book? You might get a fabulous gift by doing so: an answer.

Newsletter, Edition VII

2005-12-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION VI
December 19, 2005

"It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all."
Will Shetterly

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

It doesn’t work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps.
American Proverb

Steppin’ On

In keepin’ on with last week’s tip One Small Step, this week we’re moving on, perhaps, just a half-step.

In her monthly Muse Letter this December, Jill Badonsky offers a Creativity Manifesto for 2006 (which she suggests you “modify according to YOUR authentic nature”):

In the face of adversity, uncertainty and static in my soul’s receiver, I hereby pledge to remain ever mindful, ever grateful of the magical, infinite, loving reality I live in. This reality conspires tirelessly in my favor especially when I take tiny steps…ever so tiny, daily or even weekly down a path directed by my creative intuition.

Check the Blog for more on Steppin’ On…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Feature Yourself!

This week, take some time out to celebrate yourself. The last month of the year is always a great time for self-reflection. Think over your accomplishments, think about where you were last December and what you’ve done since. What’s been wonderful about your work? Challenging? What are your plans for 2006? Don’t forget that your book is going to be out there in January- available all over the world, 24/7. HOW COOL IS THAT?! Bask in your own personal writer-hood. And thank yourself for your talent!

Look for our featured DPP Author of the Month, Ian McKinley, in our January Newsletter.

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

Word Pool

Elf Red Glisten Menorah Sideways Fly Gifted Hark Resolution Kamikaze Beard Tranquil Solstice Porsche Cheer Caroling Stuff New Twelve

Use the words in the pool above any way you like and in any order you like, to create a story, poem, song, etc.

Use the prompt. Don’t use the prompt. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com or nicpit@digitalpulppublishing.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

P.S. I did NOT post my response to last week’s prompt because it bordered on X-Rated, and didn’t seem like the best idea for me to post it. However, if you would like to read it, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

The Bookstore

For the third week in a row, I am reiterating that everyone here at DPP is CONTINUING to work their little patooties, brains, and fingers off to ensure that the DPP Store (www.dppstore.com) is completely up, running, and beautiful for its January 1, 2006 opening. 12 more working days ‘til opening! YES- we’re still counting!

On Holiday

Just a reminder: DPP will officially be closed the week between Christmas/Hanukkah and New Years’ Day (Saturday, December 24-Sunday, January 1). The Authors’ Advocate will be on hiatus for that week.

On the Holidays…

Quotes

For holiday cheer, humor, and inspiration.

Roses are reddishViolets are bluishIf it weren't for ChristmasWe'd all be Jewish.~Benny Hill

I do like Christmas on the whole.... In its clumsy way, it does approach Peace and Goodwill. But it is clumsier every year. ~E.M. Forster

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles. ~Author Unknown

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus

One kind word can warm three winter months. ~Japanese proverb

There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ~Mary Ellen Chase

So, have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a kwaazy Kwanza, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified, Ramadan. And now a word from MY god, our sponsors!
~Krusty the Klown (The Simpsons)

Happy Holidays!

Write on,

Nicky

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2005-12-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Any small step taken toward reaching a goal is better than none at all.
Lamar Cole

One Small Step

Self-promotion, though daunting for some, can be accomplished (and accomplished well) by taking one small action step at a time. If you look at the whole, big, whoppin’ picture of marketing your book, chances are you’ll decide that it’s all too much, and it would be a much better idea to just give copies of your manuscript to your friends for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Other Holiday of Choice and be done with it.

Overwhelm. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, actually, most times, I become paralyzed by overwhelm when I have to deal with the bigger picture, or the end result. This happens to me when I get into the “I’ve got to finish my book” (or finish my weekly newsletter, truth be told), or I have to clean the whole house- pretty much when it comes to anything I want to complete.

By just biting off a piece, taking one small step, or obliging myself to a short increment of time (fifteen minutes, let’s say, or five, or just one minute if that’s all I can muster)- I can begin, and the overwhelm usually passes. I didn’t learn this all by myself, mind you.

Jill Badonsky, M.ED., inspirational seminar leader, artist, and creativity coach, channeled a specific muse to help with the problem of overwhelm and gaining inspiration to take small steps: Marge.

In her book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a bodyguard) Badonsky introduces Marge (named for the protagonist in the Coen Brothers movie Fargo), who personifies the attitude of “okay now, let’s get started,” suggests tackling any goal by taking small steps in small increments of time.

In his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: Using the Japanese Technique of Kaizen to Achieve Lasting Success, Robert Maurer, Ph.D., explains how successful one can be in any area by applying the process of taking one small step. This technique has proven time and again to work whether it’s applied to a personal goal (such as losing weight) or to big business (like a Japanese car manufacturer).

Let’s go back and take a look at the question I posed in last week’s marketing tip:

What are some things I can do, starting today, to promote my book?

Do you feel any resistance when you read that question? It’s okay if you do. Do you know what the resistance is? If you can name it- great. If not, that’s okay too. Regardless, maybe it’s just too big a question. Try making the question smaller:

What is ONE small thing I can do, starting today, to promote my book?

Last week, I shared Bob Barker’s suggestion about brainstorming. If you’re up for it, try brainstorming ONE idea. Write it down (putting the idea on paper, or your computer, can help you see it better). If that feels like too big of a step, see if you can come up with an idea in your head. Try to visualize the idea. Let it brew and manifest itself in your imagination.

See where that takes you. Can you expand on that idea? Can you see yourself actually utilizing the idea? If you weren’t able to write it down before, try doing that now.

If you can’t, that’s okay. Congratulate yourself on simply thinking about it. If you were able to write it down, congratulate yourself for doing that.

If you feel like it, try jotting down one, small action step you can take to get your idea moving. Write as much as you can or as little as you can.

Whatever you were able to do, know that you accomplished something. Congratulate yourself…because you took one step towards promoting your book!

Recommended reading:

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: Using the Japanese Technique of Kaizen to Achieve Lasting Success, by Robert Maurer, Ph.D.

The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a bodyguard), by Jill Badonsky, M.Ed.

Both are available at Amazon (as far as I know they’re not available digitally…yet)

Newsletter, Edition VI

2005-12-13T11:26:00.001-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION VI
December 13, 2005

"I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit."

P.G. Woodhouse
(after being asked about his writing technique)

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

Any small step taken toward reaching a goal is better than none at all.
Lamar Cole

One Small Step

Self-promotion, though daunting for some, can be accomplished (and accomplished well) by taking one small action step at a time. If you look at the whole, big, whoppin’ picture of marketing your book, chances are you’ll decide that it’s all too much, and it would be a much better idea to just give copies of your manuscript to your friends for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Other Holiday of Choice and be done with it…
Check the Blog for more on One Small Step…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

A big thank you to Patrick Stafford for his insightful interview, printed in last week’s newsletter!

A Departure from DPP Authors

This week I give you three websites to visit. The first two feature authors that you may, or may not have, heard of before. Regardless, you might want to check them out and gain some insight, inspiration, and/or entertainment from them.

The third site is one I just stumbled across that I thought you might find interesting- lots of good information about all that’s going on in the writing world.

Just thought I’d offer a petit smorgasbord of what’s out there author-wise. Bon ape-reading-tit!

British Council Arts: Contemporary Writers

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth52

This unique, searchable database contains up-to-date profiles of some of the UK and Commonwealth's most important living writers

Right now the site features a bio and perspective on author Kazuo Ishiguro.

Scottish Writers

http://www.slainte.org.uk/scotwrit/

Scottish Writers: Authors’ Views

http://www.slainte.org.uk/scotwrit/Views.htm

This is where you have the opportunity to find out more about writers, their method of writing and to read the answers to the questions posed to them during the course of the Project.

BookReporter.com : Where Readers and Writers Click

http://www.bookreporter.com/

A great site for all of you writers to check out!

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

OOPS! The picture wouldn't copy into the blog!

Write a poem, story, interview, ditty, or a headline about the man in the picture above.

Use the prompt. Don’t use the prompt. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

Press Releases

Last week I told you that new press releases were being posted online, one for each of our authors, announcing the release date (January 1, 2006, available at the DPP Store: http://www.dppstore.com/), ISBN number, and the publication date (March 31, 2006) and a synopsis of your book. They’re all out there and daily we receive Google Alerts letting us know. They’re popping up everywhere- very exciting!

The Bookstore

Everyone here at DPP is CONTINUING to work their little patooties off to ensure that the DPP Store (http://www.dppstore.com/) is completely up, running, and beautiful for its January 1, 2006 opening. 19 more working days ‘til opening! But who’s counting? WE ARE!

On Holiday

Just a reminder: DPP will officially be closed the week between Christmas/Hanukkah and New Years’ Day (Saturday, December 24-Sunday, January 1). The Authors’ Advocate will be on hiatus for that week.

Write on,

Nicky

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2005-12-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale

Commitment

As writers we make a commitment to ourselves- to make time to write, a place to write, and to what we will write. Eric Maisel asks, “Is commitment more about duty or love? Is it something one demands of oneself or does it flow naturally, given the right circumstances?”

For myself, I know that I am committed to what I love- which is writing. But there are days when inspiration is nowhere to be found and motivation won’t kick in no matter how many times I try to jump-start my inner motivator. That’s where “duty” comes in.

It is my duty- to myself and, of course, to my job to write. Sometimes that simply means sitting down, putting fingers to keyboard, and writing…anything- even if it looks like, feels like, and sounds like, down-right doo-doo. This is because just getting something on the page is better than putting nothing on the page. And typically, though not always, I usually find a little gem among the muck, or at least an idea for a gem.

The same can be said for self-promotion of my writing- though I can’t say I love marketing myself, I do love the results. And I believe it is my duty to market my own work. Though I do write for myself a good deal of the time, it is not my desire to write in a vacuum.

“Marketing” sounds like a big word. It sounds busy. It sounds like a lot of work. It sounds like something somebody else should be doing who has connections and knows how to hobnob. It sounds slick. And most of all, it sounds like something I don’t want to do- ugh! Put myself out there, scheme and sell myself? No way!

But maybe I have to think out of the box a bit. Maybe marketing isn’t the big corporate monster I think it is. Maybe there are some strategies I can use that are, well, maybe a little more non-traditional than the typical marketing I am so accustomed to thinking about.

In his book Unleash the Artist Within, Bob Barker suggests the employment of brainstorming. I have used brainstorming to help me in my writing, so it makes sense that brainstorming could be used in terms of exploring marketing ideas.

You could start by asking yourself one question. Try this one:

What are some things I can do, starting today, to promote my book?

Write down as many things as you can think of. Let them be silly, wild, quirky. Let them be serious. Let them be small, medium, or big ideas. Let them be fantastical. Just write them down!

If you allow yourself to come up with ideas to promote your book, you’ll probably stumble upon at least one that you like, that you think is doable, that you can commit to. I know that I am more amenable to my own ideas than being told I “should do this” or even that I should “try that”.

Barker also suggests writing a commitment statement. I’ve written commitment statements (or “personal mission statements”) for myself and my work, but I really appreciate the marketing commitment statement that Barker shares in his book:

When marketing and promoting my [book], I resist the urge to stick only with obvious methods. There are gold mines of overlooked promotional opportunities waiting to be discovered. And I have an ongoing burning desire to find them.

You could borrow Barker’s statement or create one on your own. But I can tell you, from my own experience, if you create a commitment statement and commit to one marketing idea- even if it’s a small one (especially a small one- the smaller the idea, the easier it will be to accomplish), you will have fulfilled your duty to yourself to promote your book. After all, you’re not writing in a vacuum.

*Next week, I’ll share one small self-marketing strategy with you.

Newsletter, Edition V

2005-12-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION V
December 5, 2005

"It is perfectly okay to write garbage- as long as you edit brilliantly."

C.J. Cherryh

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

I am only one, but still I am one.

I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Edward Everett Hale

Commitment

As writers we make a commitment to ourselves- to make time to write, a place to write, and to what we will write. Eric Maisel asks, “Is commitment more about duty or love? Is it something one demands of oneself or does it flow naturally, given the right circumstances?”…
Check the Blog for more on Commitment…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Inner View

DPP interviews and gets a better “inner view” into DPP author, Patrick Stafford.

(DPP) What is your ideal writing environment?

(Patrick Stafford) As a poet, for years now I guess I have followed in the footsteps of Dylan Thomas and Jack London who both liked to do some of their most inspirational writing at the local pub or tavern while imbibing the drink of choice. Mine is rum 'n coke and my home personal bar is the pub of choice! Thus, when I'm in the poetic mood and The Muse has seized me I enjoy sitting at my bar and listening either to Chris Isaak, The Moody Blues or The Gee Bees. Not the disco Bee Gees, mind you, but their later music from over the last 20 years which, like Isaak and Justin Hayward's band, I find very moody and conducive to writing verse. Besides, at my personal bar there are plenty of tasty appetizers, proper ambience and just the right kind of stiff rum 'n coke. And all are free!

Describe your writing routine…if you have one.

Most of all the prose I scribe is done on my computer as well as when I am ready to type and edit the poems I write in longhand at my personal bar. It is during the day when I enjoy writing journalism, film script and other genres of prose. And I assiduously spend at least five days a week--anywhere from three to seven hours a day--at my computer engaged in the creative writing process. But with no music nor other extemporaneous sound or noise to distract me at this time. Selective music only works for me when I'm penning original verse, not when I'm doing real writing!

What do you do when you aren’t feeling inspired or motivated to write?

Naturally, there are times when I am not inspired or motivated to be a writer or creative. I do not consider these times a case of writer's block, not that I don’t suffer from this plague upon all artists at one time or frequently. Poems, novels, articles, film scripts--you name it--all come from ideas. And no doubt artistic ideas often come from inspiration or emotional impetus. This impetus I believe can be self-generated. I accomplish this by reading and through discourse. And from what another writer has created, be it a novel or a poem, an idea is formed and takes seed in me. Often it is no more than an image or a short phrase or even one word. But throughout a day when I'm busy with domestic chores or just relaxing I let this idea fester--so to speak--in my mind, until it develops into a blueprint or outline for a complete poem or article or story that needs to be put to paper. And needs to be put there as soon as possible and while the fire is hot and the passion for writing is dire!

What authors inspire you most?

My two favorites poets are at opposite ends of the romantic spectrum, at least historically speaking. They are Robert Frost and Lord George Byron. But many others have also influenced me and continue to enwhelm me with their timeless verse. Particularly inspiring and emotionally charging are two whom I consider the two greatest female poets ever: Laurence Hope and Sara Teasdale. But I've learned my craft from a number of giants other than these enumerated- Poe, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whitman, Kipling, Keats, Shelley, Woodsworth, Service, Thomas Wolfe and Dylan Thomas, to name a few.

Your father, Elsan Stafford, is a novelist. In what ways has he and his writing influenced you and yours?

My father's teachings to me in all things, and not just in writing and poetry, have been invaluable to me. His being a writer and published author has no doubt been even more invaluable to me than any formal education or self-education I have acquired. Steady, disciplined writing precedes good writing. And this was my first lesson from him: write regularly and be self-disciplined in the craft and profession of a writing. Writing once a week or once a month doesn't cut it. Like being successful at any avocation, one must do it regularly and geared to always completing what you write. For writing is damn hard work most of the time, although a lot of fun some of the time. But it takes discipline and dedication and sticktoitness. A rocket scientist who only looks at his rocket once a month won't ever see his rocket make it off the ground. Unless he manages to live a few hundred years. But by that time, his new rocket might seem like horse and buggy!

Asian Darkness covers so many different aspects of the Vietnam War, and each one seems so personal. What piece in the collection would you say reflects your personal experience the most?

In the Brotherhood of Asian Studies and the first poem, Vietnam Thesis, are two of my favorites. And two of the very first poems I penned for Asian Darkness. They incorporate my general views on the War as well as personal feelings about how the War was handled by our government and the media. Moreover, in each poem I give a feeling how the common G.I. or military man experienced and felt the War. And the bitterness, anger, horror and emotional impact the conflict had on so many who served and fought and died in Vietnam.

Poetry is such a different expression than other works of writing. How do you edit or revise yours (if indeed you do)?

I write my poems in longhand. When I type them I do so at my office computer and tend to take my time at it. I often use a Thesaurus and occasionally a rhyming dictionary, which I do not mind admitting. The great lyricist/songwriter Cole Porter was found out later in his life to have often used a rhyming dictionary. And after this became known it much distressed him. But I feel no such distress or embarrassment. All real writers use many tools to hone their craft and create their labors of love. When I'm typing my poems I am undergoing the process of rewriting. And focusing on perfecting the rhyme, meter and structure of my poem until I am completely satisfied in the finished product, and that it is the best and most accurate labor of love it can possible become. For I believe the three greatest tools a writer has in his possession are: "Rewrite! Rewrite! Rewrite!"

In your essay on Passion (published in last week’s newsletter) you talk about how passion is the most important ingredient in writing. How do you couple that with technique?

Passion does more than allow me to exercise my own manner of writing and to develop the process of it. It motivates and galvanizes me to do a good job, and a job I will become completely satisfied with. Thus, I am spurred to pay heed to all the tools of the trade. Technique is one of them. And, like personal style, I try to pay close attention to, although personal style is not an aspect I really concern myself with. But technique, yes. For technique is the procedure of establishing structure. For me, structure is vital to a good or successful poem, and towards writing and developing it. Having a passive or dispassionate interest in the composition of anything invariably leads to its demise, I believe. And another scrap of paper being wadded up and tossed in the nearby trash receptacle. One who is passionate about his work and the quality of his work, I do believe will almost always do a good job. The greater the passion, the greater the quality of a laborer's work. And the more he will pay attention to the tools with which he writes. For a wordsmith, they are technique, theme, plot, character, dialogue, atmosphere, pace, exposition, narration and structure. Telling a good story and telling it well is, or should be, in my humble opinion, the goal of every passionate writer.

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

The following prompt is from A Creative Writer’s Kit: Prompts & Practices, by Judy Reeves

Write about a series of mishaps

Use the prompt. Don’t use the prompt. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

Press Releases

New press releases are going out this week online, one for each of our authors, announcing the release date (January 1, 2006, available at the DPP Store: www.dppstore.com), ISBN number, and the publication date (March 31, 2006) of your book.

Also included in the release is a synopsis of your book, a quote about your book from you, one from Genene, and a short bio about you, the author.

The announcements are being posted on PRWeb, and will guide search engines such as Google, Overture, Yahoo, and eMediawire to each press release- giving it the broadest search reach of any press release distribution network on the Internet.

Imbedded in each press release are links to the DigitalPulp Publishing website as well as to the DPP Store.

Congratulations- you are being EXPOSED!

The Bookstore

Everyone here at DPP is working their little patooties off to ensure that the DPP Store is completely up, running, and beautiful for it’s January 1, 2006 opening. We have already had orders and inquiries, so please make sure you tell your friends, family, acquaintances, grocer, mechanic, high school biology teacher- everyone to check out the store (www.dppstore.com) on January 1 and buy your book!

On Holiday

FYI: DPP will officially be closed the week between Christmas/Hanukkah and New Years’ Day (Saturday, December 24-Sunday, January 1). The Authors’ Advocate will be on hiatus for that week.

Write on,

Nicky

Publisher's Prompt: Write About a Series of Mishaps

2005-12-03T11:15:00.000-08:00

MISS HAPS

Miss Haps always started her first period class by dropping something. Sometimes she dropped a text book, sometimes a piece of chalk, and sometimes a tissue that she always kept tucked into her sleeve for her ever-runny nose.

Her students were used to their perpetually-dropping teacher. Whenever an earthquake drill would take place, commonly referred to as a “drop drill”, they would laugh and shout out things like, “Hey, Miss Haps- this is your kind of drill!” Or when the series of short bells would go off, they would say, “Under the desks everybody, we’re having a Miss Haps drill!”

They would say these things with a smile and affection, for they loved their teacher and they found her dropping habit endearing.

Miss Haps good-naturedly accepted her students’ rubs, for she knew that they weren’t criticizing or making fun of her- well, at least not making fun of her in a demeaning way.

During passing periods, on her way to grab a cup of coffee or to make copies of lesson plans, Miss Haps always tripped in the hallway. Sometimes there would be a sticky place on the floor that would catch one foot and make her lose her balance, or she’d trip on one of the stairs in the stairwell, usually as she was going up, but sometimes as she was coming down. And sometimes, she’d just trip over her own feet.

Some faculty members passing through the hallways would roll their eyes, not in an unkind way, just in a “there she goes again” way, while others would rush to help her, concerned that she might have hurt herself. The students who were passing through the hallways just would yell things out like, “Taking another trip, Miss Haps?” “You’re a real trip, Miss Haps!” And Miss Haps would just smile, and sometimes blush, and wave them off knowing that her students were just giving her a good-natured tease.

In the cafeteria at lunchtime, Miss Haps never failed to drip spaghetti sauce down her chin and onto her blouse, or knock over a container of milk, spilling it across the table, or to open a bag of chips, only to have them burst out of the bag and fly in ten different directions.

The kitchen workers would let out sighs, grab a wet cloth, a broom, or a mop, and with affable irritation (if there is such a thing), clean up yet another mess. While the lunching students would yell things out like, “Don’t cry over spilled milk, Miss Haps!” “Don’t worry, Miss Haps- just let the chips fall where they may!” And Miss Haps would just blot the sides of her mouth with her napkin, and smile a half-way-embarrassed grin at her silly foibles.

But that was just how Miss Haps was: all-thumbs, with two left feet, and a bit ham-fisted. Every day brought a new series of spills, tumbles, plunges and plummets. And it didn’t matter. Because for all her klutziness and clumsiness, Miss Haps had an inner grace. Her students knew it, the faculty knew it, and even the kitchen workers knew it. But most importantly, Miss Haps knew it. She made mistakes, and took missteps, but perhaps that was just so she could be an example for her students and co-workers. To have grace, you also have to be a little bit ungraceful- and accepting that about yourself, means that you accept your humanness. When you accept your humanness, you give others permission to accept theirs. And because of that, Miss Haps was one great teacher.

Newsletter, Edition IV

2005-11-29T09:59:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION IV
November 28, 2005

REMINDER: If you haven’t sent me your book’s copyright date yet, please send it to me ASAP to DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com. Thanks, Nicky

"Everything that doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. And later on you can use it in a story."

Tapani Bagge

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

I get by with a little help from my friends

The Beatles

Networking

Networking. It sounds so…so…buzz…so corporate…so Hollywood…or, at the very least, like something- gulp- scary. But, on the contrary, it can actually be rather simple and painless…

Check the Blog for more on Networking…

http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

A Bi-Monthly Column

I love what Joyce Carol Oates once said about writers: “All of us who write work out of a conviction that we are participating in some sort of communal activity.” The idea that we are not just writing for ourselves, but that we are writing to share our thoughts, our feelings, our dreams, our world (real or imagined) was the inspiration for the new addition of the Featured Author of the Month column.

Bi-monthly, each of our DPP authors will be showcased in this column. One issue will highlight a piece of their work and the second will be an interview format between DPP and the chosen author.

Last week’s edition brought you a beautiful piece by Patrick Stafford, called Passion coupled with a poem he wrote which ignited a collection of poetry, Asian Darkness, available in the DPP Store in January, 2006. Next week’s newsletter will feature an interview with Mr. Stafford.

Sharing work and sharing about our work allows for community interaction between DPP members. Perhaps you’ll find similarities in how you work, or get new ideas about how to work. You might glean insights into your own view of writing that you hadn’t discovered before. And you might get motivated to put something else on that blank page you’ve been staring at all day, just by reading someone else’s work (I know that often jump starts me).

The column also allows for each of our DPP authors to “meet” each other. Who knows- you might even purchase one another’s books from the DPP Store!

Community, Collaboration, and Connection. The 3 C’s that apply to networking are the 3 C’s I hope to generate with this newsletter and this new column. We are a network of authors- on the “net”, sharing our “work”.

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Writing Prompt

From Pablo Neruda’s The Book of Questions, answer the following question any way you’d like- poetry, story, rap, song…

Is there anything in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain?

Use the prompt. Don’t use the prompt. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate. You can find my response posted on the blog:http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

FROM YOUR ADVOCATE

This is the 4th edition of The Authors’ Advocate. I hope that you are finding the newsletter informative, useful, and/or at the very least, amusing. I am 100% serious when I say I welcome suggestions and all ideas. After all, this is for you and I want to provide you with helpful tidbits, useful information, and inspiration.

Write on,

Nicky

Publisher's Prompt: Is there anything in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain?

2005-11-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

Is there anything in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain?

There is nothing in the world sadder than a train standing in the rain.
Except maybe a train standing in the rain with open doors. And windows.
That sounds sadder, don’t you think?

I mean, if a train were standing in the rain, and the windows and doors were closed, then the inside of the train would be dry. So it’s sad…but a train standing in the rain with its windows and doors open- now that’s really sad.

Come on- think about it: Exteriors get wet. In a way that’s what exteriors are for, right? To protect the inside from outside elements. But when the interior gets wet- well…what’s the point of an exterior?

So, do you see? It’s sad- a train standing in the rain.
But it’s sadder, a train standing in the rain with open doors. And windows.

You Are Your Own Best Marketing Rep!

2005-11-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

Networking

"I get by with a little help from my friends" -The Beatles

Networking. It sounds so…so…buzz…so corporate…so Hollywood…or, at the very least, like something- gulp- scary. But, on the contrary, it can actually be rather simple and painless.

Remember that old Breck shampoo commercial in the 1970’s: “And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on”? That’s networking!

I am suspecting most of you have at least two friends. Think about this: suppose you told those two friends about your book, and that it’s available in January through your publisher in their online bookstore (http://www.dppstore.com/ – yeah, that’s a plug for us too…Every bit of marketing counts, you know.). If they don’t ask you about it, tell them about it (a very enthusiastic tone would be helpful), and also ask them to tell two friends (of course, you don’t have to limit how many people you tell- it’s just that two sounds really simple- not so scary).

Also, think about “friends you haven’t yet met”. Attending open mic readings, poetry slams, author lectures/book signings, writers’ conferences, and joining writers’ workshops gives you the opportunity to make friends and supporters within a community of like-minded people and people who do what you’re doing. And they also know people you don't. They might tell two friends, and you never know who those friends could be- avid readers, radio show talk hosts, bookstore owners...yada, yada. Think: community, collaboration, connections. C ? How great is that?!

Of course as Astrid Cooper cautions in her essay on Marketing and Self Promotion (you can read it in full at http://www.twighlighttimes.com/ACooper4a.html): “…if one approaches making friends with the idea of ‘they can be useful’, then nothing will ever come of such a relationship.” But exploring new outlets and keeping an open mind will surely lead to you meeting new people. When an authentic chance meeting happens or a new friendship develops through commonalities- well…as Cooper also states “[that’s] Karma. Fate. A universal scheme? Luck?...you decide.”

Publisher's Prompt: Returning Takes Too Long

2005-11-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

From Nicky

Returning takes too long. Which is why I don’t do it, or I should say, why I don’t do it well.

Dry cleaning is a good example. About twenty-or-so years ago, I never returned to pick up dry cleaning I had dropped off. I don’t know why exactly. It seemed fairly easy to drop off my clothes…but picking them up, well, that just felt overwhelming. Consequently, many of my clothes lay in wait at dry cleaners’ all over the West Side of L.A. Never to be picked up. Perhaps because returning takes too long.

I’ve also been saddled with countless library fees over the years, to the point that I’ve bought several books from various libraries. Picking up the books was easy enough, but returning them…well, returning just takes too long.

The same can be said for when I rent videos, buy clothes that inevitably I don’t really like or don’t really fit, receiving a present I don’t particularly care for with a gift receipt included- they all remain in my care, for the effort seems too great and returning takes too long.

I know this all makes me sound like I must spend money lavishly and that I am one lazy-ass gal. The truth is, I scrape by and am busy working my butt off. The key thing here is, returning takes too long, and I am simply unwilling to put in the time to do what it takes to return.

Luckily, for me (and my pocketbook), I no longer go to the cleaners unless I am sure I am going to pick up whatever I drop off; I rarely go to the library, and when I do, I research there instead of check books out; and I no longer rent videos. Because, for me, returning takes too long.

Newsletter, Edition III

2005-11-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION III
November 21, 2005

REMINDER: If you haven’t sent me your book’s copyright date yet, please send it to me ASAP to DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com. Thanks, Nicky

"A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness…It finds the thought and the thought finds the words."
Robert Frost

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

It’s important who you meet- after all, if you meet forty or fifty people, the one person who will produce your first film [or publish your book] might just be there.
-Martin Scorsese

You Never Know Who You May Meet at Thanksgiving Dinner…

Or over the holiday weekend (even if you don’t live in the U.S., or you don’t partake in celebratingThanksgiving)…And, if you meet no one new, well, then you haven’t lost any opportunities either! Take a break from thinking about marketing and know that at least one of your books is assured to be marketed by DPP! Also…

Marketing Tips are Moving…

To the DigitalPulp Blog: http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/ (beginning the week of November 28). The Tip Headline will be listed on all of our subsequent newsletters with the DigitalPulp Blog link. We are making room in the newsletter for a new format- Oh, boy! Oh, boy!

FEATURED AUTHOR-Of-THE-MONTH…

Author! Author!

I am pleased to announce that, from here-on-out, we will be featuring a DPP author once a month in the Authors’ Advocate. This new format will allow for each of us to get a glimpse into each of our authors’ work and how they work, and perhaps, how and from where they get their inspiration. I am always curious, and often inspired, by hearing other writers’ thoughts on why they write and how they write. I hope that this new addition to the newsletter does the same for you.

Patrick Stafford

PASSION!

Many words are often used to describe the creative process. Perspiration, inspiration, hard work and misery are a few! Frustration, drudgery and obsession also come to mind. But for me personally, no word better encompasses the whole process than the word passion.

Passion is a process unto itself. It entails developing, having and feeling the strong desire and unquenchable thirst for accomplishing something--for setting a goal and believing in it with every fiber of your being. And pursuing it until completion. No matter how arduous the journey, how difficult the challenge or how many obstacles are encountered along the way, if one is truly passionate in his beliefs and passionately determined to succeed, he will.

The passionate writer writes passionately. It's as simple as that. And the story he has to tell he is passionate about telling. There are of course many essential tools to the trade and craft of writing. But none more important, in my humble opinion, than passion. For even before a writer sets about writing his passionate tale he must be passionate about thoroughly learning the tools and skills of his trade. A dispassionate effort at formal or self-education will invariably render a dispassionate result. And its byproducts: disappointment, rejection and failure, can also be expected.

For years I had a passion to write about the Vietnam War. My passion began the very first time I termed it a war and not a "conflict" as popular media has too long called it. For a war was fought in Asia. Warring armies engaged in bitter and violent combat, and awesome weapons of destruction were employed. And thousands were maimed and slain and left destitute. So from the passion of my own personal experience and that of so many who served during the Vietnam War I was impassioned to write Asian Darkness. The process was a long one and rife with many disappointments and challenges. But never was I discouraged from completing my writing goal nor ever dispassionate about the purpose of my writing. It all began with the following poem:

MY SON

They stole him from me to send him off to war, And there he stayed to fight and die till it was done. It's bad when governments steal sons from you, And he was my son. They said this war had to be fought And that it was for a just and noble cause. So, since I was patriotic and voted for them, I stood by their laws. But it always seems to be the young who go And against whom the scales of death are swung. It's bad when governments send young men off to die, And my son was young. For what matters to them of a million deaths When war is the tender of life they promote? You can be sure when their reelection comes up, They won't get my vote! For the enemy is now my chosen leader, The enemy called peace that all governments abhor! And you can be sure they won't get any more of my sons, Till they end all war.
Oh they may think they can get away with murder And do any damn thing they feel must be done, But they won't take what I love away from me again, And I loved my son.

From this first entry as a war poet my passion guided and directed me to pen 99 other poems to complement and complete my journey through the jungles and badlands of South and North Vietnam. Along the way I found that I had also inscribed a tribute to warriors in general and to all the military men and women who fought and bled in Southeast Asia. Asian Darkness is a salute to them as well as a commentary upon almost every conceivable subject that the Vietnam War gave birth to. Moreover, my book is a salutation to every writer who has ever taken pen and paper to create from scratch a work of art or commentary. And did so through the process of true inspiration and tireless passion!

Patrick P. Stafford is a resident of Grants Pass, Oregon and resides there with his novelist father, Elsan Stafford. Patrick has written for AccessLife.com, IQ Magazine, Neighborhood America, Amateur Chef Magazine, Careerbay.com and Healthcare Traveler, and has sold poems, articles and editorial pieces to both online and print publications over the past 30 years. He recently had a book of poetry published online at the Writer’s Closet and a poetic tome dedicated to Princess Diana published in print in 2002.

PUBLISHER’S PROMPT

Another New Addition

For me, sometimes getting started is one of the most difficult tasks of my craft. As writers, we must continually start over and over. If I waited for pure inspiration to take hold, I might sit for a very long time in front of a blank computer screen. Writing prompts have been a useful tool for me to just get something on the page. They have allowed me to free myself of the destination and to simply enjoy the journey. They have prompted new thoughts, feelings, and ideas that I didn’t even know I had. And they sometimes just give me a jolt to sit down and write and get me going so that I can fully give myself to whatever piece I am currently working on- to just get to it or to approach it from another angle, a new perspective.

Each week, I will highlight a prompt in the newsletter. You can use it or not use it. If you decide to play with the prompt, and you’d like to share it, please send it to me (DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com) and I will post it in the following week’s Authors’ Advocate.

Writing Prompt

Use the following prompt(taken from Judy Reeve’s A Creative Writer’s Kit) however you like: Returning takes too long

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

Home Sweet Home

Our move is complete! We are a proud, happy, busy-working company with a fantastic office space to boot! We are located in bustling (as bustling as you can get in the desert) downtown Palm Springs! Come visit and have your choice of coffee shops to write in and be inspired! (I’ll send you our new address and phone number in a separate e-mail)

Happy Thanksgiving

Short week, Short newsletter!

Will leave you with some quotes to feast upon…

Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still, I’d like to express my thanks- I got the sun in the mornin’ and the moon at night – Irving Berlin

O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.” – William Shakespeare

God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose our friends. – Ethel Watts Mumford

Write on,

Nicky

Newsletter, Edition II

2005-11-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Authors’ Newsletter
EDITION II
November 14, 2005

REMINDER: If you haven’t sent me your book’s copyright date yet, please send it to me ASAP to DigitalPulp Pub@aol.com. Thanks, Nicky

"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper."
Steve Martin

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

I never travel without my diary. One must always have something sensational to read on the train. –Gwendolyn to Cecily in Oscar Wilde’s THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

EXPOSURE

Always travel with a piece of your work. Read it on trains, planes, and automobiles (unless you’re conducting, piloting, or driving of course). Carrying your book, manuscript (even if it’s not finished), e-reader (with your work on it), might just start a conversation, which might lead to an interest in your work, which might lead to a sale, which might lead to word-of-mouth marketing, which might lead to more sales!

In other words: Exposure, Exposure, Exposure!

No one can talk about your work better than you. So talk it up! Having your work with you is the best way to sell it. If you have a PDA we will be glad to show you how you can carry your book with you. I carry my e-reader everywhere and I solicit a lot of interest with it. I get to introduce people to the idea of reading works in a digital format, talk about DPP, our authors, and talk about my own writing. It sparks interest and provides EXPOSURE!

Come December we will be sending you postcards with your book cover on the front and information about you and your book on the back (as well as information about how to buy your book from the DPP Bookstore). These will also be a handy tool to carry with you to get the word out about you and your book- YIPEE!: More EXPOSURE!

So… EXPOSE YOURSELF (well, you as an author, not you naked- unless of course you are selling a pornography book and, then, by all means- go to town!), EXPOSE YOUR BOOK!
EXPOSURE is one of the best marketing tools in town! In the words of Nike: “Just do it!”- whenever you can, wherever you can, as much as you can!

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

On the Move…

We are moving our offices! As most of you know I have had e-mail problems due to the move, but they will hopefully be resolved in the next week or so. However, that hasn’t hampered mine, or anyone else’s, excitement over the venture! Our new offices are right in the heart of downtown Palm Springs which puts us in the middle of everything. The new space also serves us better in terms of our technology. Better use of our technology serves us, so we can better serve YOU! A complete win-win situation!

We invite you to come visit whenever you need a Palm Springs get-away!

DON’T escape THE BLOG!
Part II

The Digital Pulp Blog has been up and running for four days now. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the blog, please do (http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/)! This weekly newsletter is posted there as well as a short piece I wrote. I encourage comments and please feel free to post a short piece of your own, if you like…but better yet: CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG! (Aha- another marketing idea!)
Blogs are really great tools to get your name out there! You can write ANYTHING you want and get feedback, if you so desire. It’s another link to get people to know you’re out there. You can market your book- post excerpts, link to your own website (if you have one), post reviews- whatever you like!
If you’re interested (which I encourage you to be), please e-mail me back and let me know and I will send you the information about how to create one (FOR FREE!).
Don’t just sit there with a blog in your throat- get it out on the world wide web!

Newsletter Feedback

I received some excellent feedback last week from one of our authors on last week’s newsletter. I was offered some terrific suggestions about how to make this weekly rag more helpful and interesting for all of us. I plan to start implementing some of them two weeks from now (not one week from now because of the move and Thanksgiving- how early it’s come this year!).

If any one of you has suggestions- SEND ‘EM MY WAY! Please and thank you.

Write on,

Nicky

Newsletter for DPP Authors, Edition I

2005-11-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

THE AUTHOR’S ADVOCATE
The DPP Author’s Newsletter
EDITION I
November 7, 2005

REMINDER: If you’d like to add an acknowledgment or dedication page to the front of your book, please write one up and send it to Nicky @ nicpit@DigitalPulpPublishing.com no later than November 11. Thanks.

"I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all."
E. B. White

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST MARKETING REP!

In the modern world of business [and your business is writing] it’s useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. –David Ogilvy

In each subsequent newsletter you receive, I will be sending out tips to help you be your own best marketer. Of course, DPP will do as much work as we can on our end, but the lengths which you go to make your book a success are what is crucial to the success of your book- No one can promote your book as well as you can!

Please send me questions you have about marketing and self-promotion and topics that you are interested in learning more about. I will do my best to gather the best answers and information possible and pass it along in our weekly e-letter.
Send questions and topic ideas to nicpit@DigitalPulpPublishing.com

WHAT’S GOING ON AT DPP…

DON’T escape THE BLOG!

For those of you not familiar with blogs (web logs) here are some short and to-the-point definitions:
(n) web log, blog (a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies) "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order"; (v) blog (read, write, or edit a shared on-line journal)
Our DPP Blog will be up and running this Friday, November 11! We will be updating it weekly, with information about DPP, digital publishing in general, and all kinds of other fun tidbits! Our weekly newsletter to you will be posted and you’ll be able to post opinions, feedback, and other information you’d like to share. Check out our NEW blog at http://digitalpulppublishing.blogspot.com/

UPCOMING EVENTS:

The Third San Francisco Writers ConferenceBuilding Bridges to Better Tomorrows February 17 - 19, 2006
For Complete information and registration:
http://www.sanfranciscowritersconference.com/

Genene, David and I attended last year’s conference, and we’re going again in 2006. It’s a good networking ground, and there is good information on the publishing industry. Also, it’s a great opportunity to meet agents (they have “speed dating” where you can pitch your book to agents in about 5 minutes). They also have nightly sessions where you can read your work out loud and get feedback. And, heck: it’s San Francisco- a wonderful writer’s town and a magnificent city!

Write on,

Nicky