Category Archives: writer’s conference

A Novel Release During A Novel Virus Pandemic

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Close your eyes and imagine – no Internet, no Google, only dial-up email. There are two generations of individuals who may not remember such a terrifying vacuum. Even if you were 10 years old in 1996, you don’t understand what “dial-up” felt like. We thought it was slow before we had a clue just how truly slow it was.

Back then individuals who wanted to be published had to send their queries and sample chapters by snail-mail in large brown envelopes to agents and/or editors to review. In fact, one really needed an agent, because most editors would not look at unsolicited or un-agented works. Writer’s Market was a source for potential publishers/agents, but writers could also pitch their books at conferences.

Selling one’s work has always been, to a great extent, the responsibility of the author, through book signings, conference attendance, and word-of-mouth. Since the mid-to-late 2000s, the internet has provided additional tools: an author platform (website or blog), Face Book, Twitter, Goodreads, among others. But, while these social media sites help, they are not the easiest applications to figure out, especially when you were born before Eisenhower was president of the USA.

In 2019 I began a series of postings about seeing a novel through the publication process. I’d posted articles about renewing my search for and finding a publisher, considering the offer, and working with the editor. On March 2, 2020—seven days before my book was to be released—I was working on a blog regarding marketing the work (see above paragraphs). But by then COVID-19 was inserting itself into the lives of the citizens of Planet Earth.

I’m not going to relate in any form what happened during the pandemic. We all lived through the months since March 2020. In fact, we still exist in a COVID-19-centric world.

But we have begun to move forward.

In that spirit, I’m pleased to say that the first two books in my Kate Starling Mysteries series have been released. Mistaken Identity was released on March 9, 2020, and Connections was released on July 6, 2021.

My marketing activities are gradually resuming although they are still somewhat limited. Many of the conferences and writers’ group meetings have been cancelled or simply “Zoom’d” thus far in 2021. In addition, many book stores and other venues were reluctant to host book signings during the pandemic (until recently). But the good news is, unlike in the 1990s, we have social media platforms to help.

Please check out my Books Tab to read information about the series and the first two books.

Editing Your Manuscript

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Remember those speakers at writers conferences who said you need to borrow or buy a professional editor to help you with your manuscript? Well, if you haven’t followed their advice, it’s not too late.

I’ll confess that I did not use a professional editor to prepare my manuscript for submissions in the 1990s. I did belong to a feedback group that provided a lot of advice and suggestions. Good, but not the same thing. Later, I was fortunate to have a professional editor look over my manuscript and begin editing before the “2016 publisher” went out of business.

My full-on experiences with an editor have come with my current publisher, first with Mistaken Identity, then with Connections. I’m not sure if there’s a “standard” for processing a manuscript for publication, but the process set up by my publisher seems logical and has worked well for me.

Initially, my editor marked up the submitted manuscript and returned the file to me via email. I read the marked up manuscript, making changes to a “clean copy” file of the manuscript. When I returned the new file, I noted in the email any variance from the editor’s changes and any significant changes I made. We then completed a second editor-author edit exchange for each book.  

Once the galley had been created from the second round clean copy, I had two opportunities to make any final changes, first by reviewing a PDF version and finally by reviewing a print version.

Here’s what I’ve learned from this experience:

  1. If you think that those “A’s” you scored in English/grammar classes prepared you for the challenge of being a professional editor, you are mistaken. As I was, you may be confident that your manuscript is in pretty good shape, but there is a lot more to the task.
  2. If an editor gives you a list of global style changes, take the time to make them. This person knows what is current and acceptable and can help you with consistency and word flow. This can be from an editor at a conference, an editor to whom you submitted your work, or the editor assigned by your publisher.
  3. If an editor asks you a question about a character, relationship, event, time reference, or anything else, don’t just answer the question in a note to the editor, answer the question in your book. I found that the answers can be provided in a sentence here or there. Even more importantly, the questions may point out an “oops” in your plot line or a character’s behavior.
  4. If an editor makes a word or format change, think about how it might be applied elsewhere as you read your manuscript again.
  5. Finally, don’t be too timid to challenge your editor’s changes. If it’s a technical edit that you aren’t sure of, look it up in your own source and send off an email to discuss it with the editor. If your editor challenges something in the story itself, think it through and then discuss it with the editor. Editors are good and necessary, but they do not claim to be perfect. Right or wrong, the discussion will help you to hone your writing skills.

Another Writing Career Reboot – Renewing the Search for a Publisher

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If you’re familiar with my blog postings from 2017 and 2018, you know my writing career has been full of starts, stutters, stops, and restarts over the last three decades. While I’ve learned a lot about writing and the publishing business through conferences and networking, there’s been limited success. I’ve completed four novels—one has been hidden away, one has been put aside for future consideration, and two are currently in play. The 2005 publication of Suspect was not successful or even memorable, and my short-term experience with a publisher in 2016 was disheartening.

But there’s always hope, right?

In 2017 I pitched both Mistaken Identity and Connections to an editor and an agent. I received some good comments from one and nothing from the other. I took those comments and the advice that I received from the editor I worked with in 2016 and set about polishing the two manuscripts.

My next task was to send out more queries. The internet is great, but it was quite tedious to find viable editors, publishers, and agents to approach, even with the help of Writer’s Market. This is not news to any unpublished writer. Many publishers require a writer to go through an agent. Some are no longer accepting new authors or unsolicited submissions. Nevertheless, I found a dozen feasible prospects in January 2019. It was a start.

While all those I queried were accessible through the internet, only a few accepted email queries with attachments. A few accepted email queries only and would ask for chapters if interested.  About half provided a link to either the Authors.me or the Queryme.Online website, each of which provided a platform for the author to submit a profile and manuscript.

The first time I used Authors.me it matched my work to other perspective editors and publishers as well as the publisher who “sent” me. I was able to do a quick look up to research the match and agree to or decline the opportunity. I was also provided a link to my profile so that I could monitor progress for all my submissions.

Queryme.Online linked me directly to the particular editor/publisher’s account and provided me with a link to monitor the status. As is typical, some of the queries were rejected immediately while others went unanswered for many weeks. Painfully slow progress was visible through the review cycle on Authors.me or Queryme.Online.  

As time went by, I questioned if working on the third novel in the series was a waste of my time since neither of the earlier series novels had been published. I considered starting a totally new book with a fresh idea. Still, I was determined to continue sending out queries. In addition, I made plans to attend a couple of regional conferences to do pitches and network.

Unfortunately, the notion that I might never be published made itself comfortable in my mind.

And then I received the email I had been waiting for. A publisher was interested.

Considering the Offer—in my next blog.

Writing Career Reboot

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Determined to fulfill my dreams of being a published author, I realized I’d have to write full-time. Given my aversion to risk-taking that meant I would have to be financially independent, with a little help from Social Security. Toward that end, I developed a list of must-dos:

  • wait a few years until eligible for Social Security benefits, including Medicare
  • no big purchases I couldn’t justify and pay off quickly
  • pay off car loan early
  • pay off house mortgage early
  • save as much money as possible
  • depart from my job in an orderly fashion by giving plenty of notice, documenting job descriptions and procedures, organizing files and archives, and locating and training my replacement.

There were a few bumps along the way, but by March 2014 everything fell into place. In May, my replacement fortuitously transferred from a sister store and required very little time to train. I stuck around until early July to fill in for an office vacationer and to tie up some loose ends.

Through the end of 2014 my primary goal was to put my house and yard in order—cleaning, culling, organizing, and fixing things that had been ignored for a decade or more.

But I also began the reboot on my writing career. All I had to do was finish the second book (ultimately titled Connections) of my mystery series and maybe polish the first one along the way, then sell them both to a publisher. Piece of cake, right?

The first draft of Connections was completed in September of 2015. It would be another eleven months before reviewing, reworking, and revising were “completed.”

Nevertheless, from October 2015 through March 2016 I submitted numerous queries via email and made many pitches at writers’ conferences for both Mistaken Identity and Connections. Two regional publishers expressed interest and I signed a contract with one of them in April 2016 for the publication of Mistaken Identity. The publisher hoped the book would be in print by October 2017.

My experience working with an editor over the next several months was illuminating and beneficial. My editor’s suggestions gave me a new perspective. It turns out that the best advice writers are given is to engage a professional editor to objectively review your work and make suggestions.

Bad news first: Due to unforeseen circumstances with the publishing company work on Mistaken Identity stopped in January 2017. I did not become aware of the situation until May and did not realize until August that it was unlikely work would resume.

Good news: It’s easier to “re-reboot” one’s career when you’ve done it a few times. And so I have begun anew making pitches and submitting queries. And I am working on the third novel in the series.

There’s always hope!!

Writer’s Feedback Groups

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Writing is a solitary endeavor often taking place in a workspace carved out in a bedroom, the den, or perhaps the basement (or attic) of the writer’s home. The more co-occupants in the residence, the smaller and more remote the area set aside for her creative sessions.

An author can spend hundreds of hours alone crafting each sentence, paragraph, and chapter, lost in a world inhabited by characters of her own imagination. Subsequent periods of editing and rewriting, including restructuring and major plot deviations, add to the total time the novelist, poet, journalist, or playwright spends to complete her masterpiece.

But all the time spent in solitude is not enough to achieve a truly polished product ready for publication. It is crucial for the author to receive impartial analysis of the work.

Such independent review can come from a friend or relative—an interesting and helpful, but not always effective, first step. A more expensive option is to engage the services of a professional editor. Between these two extremes is one of the most useful tools for any author, regardless of the stage of her writing career: the writer’s feedback group.

Here are a few things I’ve learned in my personal experience with feedback groups.

  1. Group “meetings” can be in-person, via email, in an online chat-room, through private website exchanges, or even via snail mail. Personally I think the group dynamic is more active and, therefore, more helpful when the meeting is a face-to-face encounter. This is not always practical or possible, but this century’s internet options are almost as good.
  2. Group members are typically “selected” by fate and opportunity. This is not a bad way to pick a group or a new member. The important thing is for all members to respect one another’s opinions and to agree on the format, such as that described in item 3.
  3. Group members should establish a time limit for each reviewed item. Author of work being reviewed should specify what and why work is being presented and, in particular, what assistance Author needs. Another member of the group—not the Author—should read aloud the piece being considered. Members should offer only positive comments, suggestions, and questions, keeping negative criticism to themselves (remember what Mom said—“If you can’t say …”). Reviewers should be brief and to the point to allow everyone to speak. Author should accept comments graciously, avoid rebuttals, and ask for clarification if a comment is unclear. Additional discussion should be taken offline from the group.
  4. Leaving the group is okay. A day may come when you are not getting everything you need from the group. Perhaps the membership dynamics have become uncomfortable for you or are no longer helpful. There are many reasons to leave and you will know when it’s time. Be courteous, give some notice, suggest a new member to replace you, and be on your way to your next writer’s feedback group.

Writer’s Conferences: Ten Reasons to Attend

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Hundreds of conferences for writers are held each year in the United States. If you aspire to a career in writing or simply want to expand your expertise in the field, you must consider attending.

Expending the funds—including conference fees and travel—to go to any conference must be weighed against what will be gained.

Here are ten potential benefits to evaluate, in no particular order.

  1. Learning new skills/techniques for writing
  2. Learning about publishing processes—traditional, small press, and self-publishing
  3. Selling your writing products
  4. Pitching your products to a publisher/editor/agent
  5. Speaking to other writers—sharing experiences, difficulties, successes, & questions
  6. Making professional contacts
  7. Participating as a speaker—discussing your products or writing/publishing experiences
  8. Entering your unpublished products in contests
  9. Taking a break from your normal life-activities
  10. Visiting cities/states away from your home