Taking a little break from the writing world to touch base on one of the many other things that I consider to be a "hobby"....genealogical research.
Yes, I know, there are people out there who are giving their screens that look that several of my friends and family give me when I mention that one of my favorite ways to spend a day when I have nothing else pressing is to go to the Maine Room at the Portland Public Library to search for records that might indicate who my great-great-grandparents might be. Before any of you suggest one of the online libraries, like Ancestry.com, I already have a subscription there. I've traced other branches of my family back to "the old country", and have confirmed or disproved a lot of the rumors involving my family. The one exception is the one who started this whole search back in 1980, when I started using this search as a means of dealing with my grief over the loss of my father to lymphoma.
My great-grandfather, who appears in a census in Maine in 1870 with the young bride he had just wed that spring, is James Parker Dow. According to the family bible, he died in February 1876, so his widow and their three children appear in the 1880 census of Maine. I've located that widow, Susan, both in later census reports until her death in 1925, and in earlier census reports with her family. I've traced most of her family tree back to England, where most of them boarded ships to the "New World" in the 1600's.
James is something of an enigma, as the only known record that would have named his parents would have been his marriage license. A fire in the town where he and Susan got married destroyed that record. Census records from 1860 have three boys by that name, but two out of the three can be traced to other families. The third's family is as much of an enigma as James, as they appear only in that one census, then disappear from the town where they were living. Like the record of the license for James and Susan, the records that may have given further details appear to either have been destroyed by either a series of fires that burned thousands of acres across the state in 1947 or by fires that occurred in the towns I'm searching. The records that weren't destroyed by fire seem to have, at some point, been considered "unimportant" and have disappeared into vaults to collect dust.
Unlike a lot of other states in early United States history, Maine seems to have been a little behind the times in beginning a systematic means of keeping records of births, deaths, etc., on a statewide basis, as they began to keep all of these records in 1892. Going to the towns and pulling up records that should indicate some of this information prior to 1892 has proven that there weren't necessarily sensible thoughts when it came time to vote in clerks to keep such records even on a town level, as I've sat staring at what was supposed to be a record of the happenings at a town meeting, trying to decipher what was written by an adult, but looks like the scribbles of a first grader who is in a rush to get to recess. In other towns, I've read through pages of notes about how much Farmer Brown got for his prized bull and how many offspring said bull produced on which cows, but there is no indication of how many children Farmer Brown had or who he married said children off to....
In my own little way, I'm playing at being a detective. It's probably a good thing that I didn't have to solve a crime this way, as the bad guy would have probably been long gone after 33 years of searching with as little result as I've had. In the meantime, I can probably trace Farmer Brown's prized bull to his pedigreed great-grandbull who came over from Spain.....
Monday, September 30, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
Yes, my precioussss.....we're talking about accents.....
I've been reading a lot of debates among writers lately, trying to learn how to be a better writer - and how to sell the books once I write them. Among one of the most heated discussions is the question of whether or not one should try to write the way a character speaks. Some believe it should NEVER be done, because it's distracting. Others insist that not showing the accent means that the character is never fully developed. Using one of my favorite pieces, let's experiment, shall we?
How would you hear this line if you read it this way?
"What is he, my precious?"
And now the way "The Master" wrote it?
"What iss he, my preciouss?"
So, did Tolkien distract by indicating Gollum's soft hiss? I always found it easier to "hear" Gollum because of this indication of the way he spoke.
I, personally, find it more interesting to have the characters speak in dialects and accents - as long as the writing is done well. Phonetic spelling isn't really necessary to indicate a dialect. Sometimes all one has to do is spell things the way the character would pronounce them.
Of course, sometimes one also needs to indicate what the dialect or accent is when writing a line. Take, for instance, this line from a letter I once received while I was living in Florida and most of my family was living in Maine....
"I won't write you a long letter because I have a sore tum."
If your reaction is the same way as mine was when I first read that sentence, you're probably scratching your head and wondering what in the world.......
But what if you learn that the person who wrote that sentence had a heavy French accent? Does reading it aloud with a French accent make you realize that the "tum" is that other digit on your hand in addition to fingers? (This letter was sent by my Memere, who also spoke of what "the mens" were up to that week.)
So what do you think? If a writer has a firm grasp on an accent or local dialect, should the wording reflect the way the character would talk?
How would you hear this line if you read it this way?
"What is he, my precious?"
And now the way "The Master" wrote it?
"What iss he, my preciouss?"
So, did Tolkien distract by indicating Gollum's soft hiss? I always found it easier to "hear" Gollum because of this indication of the way he spoke.
I, personally, find it more interesting to have the characters speak in dialects and accents - as long as the writing is done well. Phonetic spelling isn't really necessary to indicate a dialect. Sometimes all one has to do is spell things the way the character would pronounce them.
Of course, sometimes one also needs to indicate what the dialect or accent is when writing a line. Take, for instance, this line from a letter I once received while I was living in Florida and most of my family was living in Maine....
"I won't write you a long letter because I have a sore tum."
If your reaction is the same way as mine was when I first read that sentence, you're probably scratching your head and wondering what in the world.......
But what if you learn that the person who wrote that sentence had a heavy French accent? Does reading it aloud with a French accent make you realize that the "tum" is that other digit on your hand in addition to fingers? (This letter was sent by my Memere, who also spoke of what "the mens" were up to that week.)
So what do you think? If a writer has a firm grasp on an accent or local dialect, should the wording reflect the way the character would talk?
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
I've been waiting so long to be where I'm going.......
The waiting game for "The Tiger's Cub" continues....
So far, the printer has sent me two advance copies to confirm that all is well - and I'm sincerely hoping that no one has purchased any copies yet, because all is NOT well....
Here's the deal:
I was of the opinion that my publisher wasn't going to send anything on to the print shop until we were done with all the corrections to the book. Obviously, even at 52, I'm still VERY naïve about this, as the printer has a copy of "The Tiger's Cub" file from BEFORE the final corrections were approved on August 24th. The publisher keeps insisting that they weren't supposed to be using that copy to print any books, but the question remains in my mind: WHY would she have uploaded the file to their site if they weren't supposed to have it?
She insists that she was VERY clear that the file from August 24th was the one that was to be used for doing printing, but as I have witnessed myself - TWICE - that is NOT what the print shop is doing.....
Suffice to say that I'm very underwhelmed at this point with the professionalism I'm seeing. Admittedly, I was the source of a couple of the issues early on, as I was speaking to a nice young man in California about having him as my cover model, but didn't realize that he has an agent and I needed to make any arrangements with that person instead of the model himself. (I have several model friends here in Maine who are freelance, so the thought never occurred to ask about an agent.) But there have been several issues that I've had no control over - and I can't even express what that does to my OCD level......
There have been corrections I sent through that didn't get done - and that I had to keep emailing over and over before they were finally fixed. There have been "wrong file uploads" more than once when my approval was sought to insure that the corrections were finally made. There were "blips" added to the cover art when the title and author name were added that were explained away as "hairpins" when my model wasn't wearing any hairpins, then the "correction" to mask the initial mistake was very sloppy and I had to get belligerent to get the error corrected. There was a color change made when putting the cover into PDF format for the printer that I also had to fight to have corrected. And now another file issue when the book got posted up for sale two full months earlier than the release date I had been given.......
Suffice to say that, without the emotional help of my friends, I would be in a corner this morning, banging my head against the wall, as that would be just as productive as anything else I can do at my end of things right now....
In short, I'm seriously looking at what it would take to build my own publishing company before the science fiction is ready to go onto the market. I already have a "storefront" (so to speak) in the form of a "web design company" that I put up online when several local companies were offering rewards cards to businesses to get coupons that I could use for supplies that I use a lot - and would use more of as a publisher - even though the company has never had a single client, and therefore has never made a profit. Instead of just blogging about the highs and lows of writing, I could actually be offering my services to help others to get published and get their books offered on places like Amazon, IBooks, Barnes and Noble, etc........
Or maybe I'll just test drive that theory with "Rhawneth" and see where it takes me, as the Fates have a way of blasting my ship out of the water just when I can see it starting to come in.....
So far, the printer has sent me two advance copies to confirm that all is well - and I'm sincerely hoping that no one has purchased any copies yet, because all is NOT well....
Here's the deal:
I was of the opinion that my publisher wasn't going to send anything on to the print shop until we were done with all the corrections to the book. Obviously, even at 52, I'm still VERY naïve about this, as the printer has a copy of "The Tiger's Cub" file from BEFORE the final corrections were approved on August 24th. The publisher keeps insisting that they weren't supposed to be using that copy to print any books, but the question remains in my mind: WHY would she have uploaded the file to their site if they weren't supposed to have it?
She insists that she was VERY clear that the file from August 24th was the one that was to be used for doing printing, but as I have witnessed myself - TWICE - that is NOT what the print shop is doing.....
Suffice to say that I'm very underwhelmed at this point with the professionalism I'm seeing. Admittedly, I was the source of a couple of the issues early on, as I was speaking to a nice young man in California about having him as my cover model, but didn't realize that he has an agent and I needed to make any arrangements with that person instead of the model himself. (I have several model friends here in Maine who are freelance, so the thought never occurred to ask about an agent.) But there have been several issues that I've had no control over - and I can't even express what that does to my OCD level......
There have been corrections I sent through that didn't get done - and that I had to keep emailing over and over before they were finally fixed. There have been "wrong file uploads" more than once when my approval was sought to insure that the corrections were finally made. There were "blips" added to the cover art when the title and author name were added that were explained away as "hairpins" when my model wasn't wearing any hairpins, then the "correction" to mask the initial mistake was very sloppy and I had to get belligerent to get the error corrected. There was a color change made when putting the cover into PDF format for the printer that I also had to fight to have corrected. And now another file issue when the book got posted up for sale two full months earlier than the release date I had been given.......
Suffice to say that, without the emotional help of my friends, I would be in a corner this morning, banging my head against the wall, as that would be just as productive as anything else I can do at my end of things right now....
In short, I'm seriously looking at what it would take to build my own publishing company before the science fiction is ready to go onto the market. I already have a "storefront" (so to speak) in the form of a "web design company" that I put up online when several local companies were offering rewards cards to businesses to get coupons that I could use for supplies that I use a lot - and would use more of as a publisher - even though the company has never had a single client, and therefore has never made a profit. Instead of just blogging about the highs and lows of writing, I could actually be offering my services to help others to get published and get their books offered on places like Amazon, IBooks, Barnes and Noble, etc........
Or maybe I'll just test drive that theory with "Rhawneth" and see where it takes me, as the Fates have a way of blasting my ship out of the water just when I can see it starting to come in.....
Monday, September 9, 2013
Captain's log, stardate 1980........
The next tale I'm working on was started that summer, 1980, while I was babysitting for my neighbor at their camp in Newport and spending the weekends going home to help my mom take care of my dad, who was dying of cancer - lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes, to be exact. I was mostly in charge of the care of the smallest child of the family, but while she napped, I told parts of my story to entertain her older brother.
In some ways, editing the story draws me back to those days of sitting out in the sun and telling the "clean" version of the tale, as it's quite violent in places, but in other ways, I see how much I - and the story - have grown since those days.....
My writing space is starting to change, as well, as if my spirit needs a more mature space in which to write now. My original notebooks, complete with notes on napkins, scraps of paper, even a few pieces of cardboard that I wrote on during breaks at a job where I was building cabinets for a while sit on my new work space in a corner of our living room, sorted and waiting for the editing to finish and the real work to begin. The new work space has several reasons for existing.
First and foremost is the fact that my desktop is dying a slow, lingering death on the desk in my "office" just outside my bedroom, partially due to the fact that the desktop was put together from parts of other computers for me by my son while he was in college, rather like the Frankenstein's monster. It was a step up from the over-the-counter HP Pavilion I was using at the time, as the HP had about 4 gigs of hard drive, and the new computer had about 40 gigs of hard drive. Only problem is that now, some 6 years since it was originally built for me, all the drivers are starting to have issues, so although it's attached to the printer, making it very convenient for me to pay my bills and get the confirmations of payment as print-outs, it takes FOREVER to load each page and is prone to crashing at the most inopportune times. And of course, there's the fact that it still has Windows XP as it's base platform and it would cost me more to upgrade than the machine is worth. So, naturally, I prefer to use my laptop...
The second reason I needed a new workspace revolves around the laptop, which my husband bought me a few Christmases ago in response to my expressed wish to be able to write in something other than a notebook when we went on vacation. The laptop's "workspace" prior to now has been a TV tray in front of the futon, where my husband could watch television while I wrote, or checked Facebook, or surfed the 'net, or whatever struck my fancy while he watched his sports or fishing shows. It was on the futon that I let out the reins on Chase Benton - and almost came out of that 22 day marathon with a hunch back, as I had to lean forward to reach the keys......
So, enter the huge metal desk that was left behind by the former owners of our house, which our children hauled up to the second floor to use as a school desk. When they moved out, the desk stayed in the former bedroom that we repainted and turned into our living room, and the desk was, at first, taken over by my husband as his fly tying bench. When the children finally removed all of their various pieces of furniture about a year ago, he moved his fly tying bench Into the other, smaller bedroom, which had a built-in desk (also from the prior owners of our house).
I've tried to use the big metal desk as a writing desk a few times, but there was a slight problem: I didn't have a desk chair unless I wanted to constantly be hauling the desk chair from my office on the third floor down to the living room on the second floor. Since the desk chair is quite heavy - and I'm quite clumsy - I had tried substituting in a massage chair that we bought eons ago, but it's in a permanently reclined position, so it was even harder on my back than the futon. I tried using an old rocking chair, but when I leaned back to stretch for any reason, it would rock back - and because it no longer has rockers that sit quite even, I would find myself having to constantly get up and reset where I wanted the chair, which is VERY distracting when you're trying to concentrate on a story line.
So, this past week, when my current workplace had a sale on desk chairs, I got a really nice one....and I can't express how truly liberating it is to sit in a comfortable work space, close enough to my husband that he doesn't feel the need to come up over the stairs to tell me what's going on in whatever show he's watching, yet far enough away to be able to put in my ear buds and ignore the television, and concentrate on working on the old/new tale. Roth Garrett and Rhawneth Kenna are speaking to me about what happens after the part that I had already transcribed onto the computer, and all the bits in between the scenes I have on the various notes are finally coming in.
If you don't see me here for a month or so, that means that the writing is going well, so while I'm working on the next tale, feel free to visit the brand-spanking-new Facebook page I've made for it. Instead of continuing to struggle with a clever title that someone else hasn't already come up with, I've decided to name the book after the lead character: Rhawneth. During insomnia periods, when I didn't want to ruin the work by reading and trying to edit when my brain wasn't functioning 100%, I've found several models to represent the many characters who inhabit the world Rhawneth lives in, and they appear on the "fan page". I would appreciate any feedback or alternate suggestions for the characters here: https://www.facebook.com/Rhawneth
Thank you, Constant Reader, for coming to visit my blog yet again and wading through another long dissertation. Let me know if you have anything you would like me to address in future blogs.
In some ways, editing the story draws me back to those days of sitting out in the sun and telling the "clean" version of the tale, as it's quite violent in places, but in other ways, I see how much I - and the story - have grown since those days.....
My writing space is starting to change, as well, as if my spirit needs a more mature space in which to write now. My original notebooks, complete with notes on napkins, scraps of paper, even a few pieces of cardboard that I wrote on during breaks at a job where I was building cabinets for a while sit on my new work space in a corner of our living room, sorted and waiting for the editing to finish and the real work to begin. The new work space has several reasons for existing.
First and foremost is the fact that my desktop is dying a slow, lingering death on the desk in my "office" just outside my bedroom, partially due to the fact that the desktop was put together from parts of other computers for me by my son while he was in college, rather like the Frankenstein's monster. It was a step up from the over-the-counter HP Pavilion I was using at the time, as the HP had about 4 gigs of hard drive, and the new computer had about 40 gigs of hard drive. Only problem is that now, some 6 years since it was originally built for me, all the drivers are starting to have issues, so although it's attached to the printer, making it very convenient for me to pay my bills and get the confirmations of payment as print-outs, it takes FOREVER to load each page and is prone to crashing at the most inopportune times. And of course, there's the fact that it still has Windows XP as it's base platform and it would cost me more to upgrade than the machine is worth. So, naturally, I prefer to use my laptop...
The second reason I needed a new workspace revolves around the laptop, which my husband bought me a few Christmases ago in response to my expressed wish to be able to write in something other than a notebook when we went on vacation. The laptop's "workspace" prior to now has been a TV tray in front of the futon, where my husband could watch television while I wrote, or checked Facebook, or surfed the 'net, or whatever struck my fancy while he watched his sports or fishing shows. It was on the futon that I let out the reins on Chase Benton - and almost came out of that 22 day marathon with a hunch back, as I had to lean forward to reach the keys......
So, enter the huge metal desk that was left behind by the former owners of our house, which our children hauled up to the second floor to use as a school desk. When they moved out, the desk stayed in the former bedroom that we repainted and turned into our living room, and the desk was, at first, taken over by my husband as his fly tying bench. When the children finally removed all of their various pieces of furniture about a year ago, he moved his fly tying bench Into the other, smaller bedroom, which had a built-in desk (also from the prior owners of our house).
I've tried to use the big metal desk as a writing desk a few times, but there was a slight problem: I didn't have a desk chair unless I wanted to constantly be hauling the desk chair from my office on the third floor down to the living room on the second floor. Since the desk chair is quite heavy - and I'm quite clumsy - I had tried substituting in a massage chair that we bought eons ago, but it's in a permanently reclined position, so it was even harder on my back than the futon. I tried using an old rocking chair, but when I leaned back to stretch for any reason, it would rock back - and because it no longer has rockers that sit quite even, I would find myself having to constantly get up and reset where I wanted the chair, which is VERY distracting when you're trying to concentrate on a story line.
So, this past week, when my current workplace had a sale on desk chairs, I got a really nice one....and I can't express how truly liberating it is to sit in a comfortable work space, close enough to my husband that he doesn't feel the need to come up over the stairs to tell me what's going on in whatever show he's watching, yet far enough away to be able to put in my ear buds and ignore the television, and concentrate on working on the old/new tale. Roth Garrett and Rhawneth Kenna are speaking to me about what happens after the part that I had already transcribed onto the computer, and all the bits in between the scenes I have on the various notes are finally coming in.
If you don't see me here for a month or so, that means that the writing is going well, so while I'm working on the next tale, feel free to visit the brand-spanking-new Facebook page I've made for it. Instead of continuing to struggle with a clever title that someone else hasn't already come up with, I've decided to name the book after the lead character: Rhawneth. During insomnia periods, when I didn't want to ruin the work by reading and trying to edit when my brain wasn't functioning 100%, I've found several models to represent the many characters who inhabit the world Rhawneth lives in, and they appear on the "fan page". I would appreciate any feedback or alternate suggestions for the characters here: https://www.facebook.com/Rhawneth
Thank you, Constant Reader, for coming to visit my blog yet again and wading through another long dissertation. Let me know if you have anything you would like me to address in future blogs.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Preparing to switch gears
As the last few gaffs in the publication of "The Tiger's Cub" are taken care of, I'm preparing everyone for the sale of the advance copies that I'm ordering so that I can sign them for those who are wanting signed copies. I'm in touch with a couple of venues in Maine, where I hope to be able to meet and greet the friends and family who want to make the trip in order to save shipping costs. I've checked with the post office about the shipping costs, and have the following comprehensive cost guide for any of the blog readers who are interested in ordering. (Just contact me privately if you want to either get my snail mail to send me a check or money order or if you want to connect to my PayPal account to prepay.)
Here's the info:
The book itself = $15
In USA media mail = $3.50 (arrives 7 - 14 days)
In USA First Class = $5.75 (arrives 5 - 7 days)
In USA Priority Mail = $6.95 (arrives 1 - 2 days)
International = $18.00 (Only checked first class - no apx. delivery date available)
All prices include packaging and tracking - so I can hunt the package down if it doesn't come when expected.
I'm hoping to have the books all sold by Christmas, but will gladly place more orders or travel outside of Maine if a book signing is set up after that. In the meantime, I've managed to find most of my notes for the science fiction and will be starting to edit the written pages. The characters are starting to talk to me again, so I suspect there'll be another book that will be getting shopped around in a year or so.
I'm just thinking that I need to get it to a company that does the publicity stuff for me, as I'm exhausted from doing all of this.....
Here's the info:
The book itself = $15
In USA media mail = $3.50 (arrives 7 - 14 days)
In USA First Class = $5.75 (arrives 5 - 7 days)
In USA Priority Mail = $6.95 (arrives 1 - 2 days)
International = $18.00 (Only checked first class - no apx. delivery date available)
All prices include packaging and tracking - so I can hunt the package down if it doesn't come when expected.
I'm hoping to have the books all sold by Christmas, but will gladly place more orders or travel outside of Maine if a book signing is set up after that. In the meantime, I've managed to find most of my notes for the science fiction and will be starting to edit the written pages. The characters are starting to talk to me again, so I suspect there'll be another book that will be getting shopped around in a year or so.
I'm just thinking that I need to get it to a company that does the publicity stuff for me, as I'm exhausted from doing all of this.....
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
A link for anyone interested in reviewing "The Tiger's Cub"
My publisher has been saying, every time I mention the "official release date" in any of my posts on any of the sites I belong to, that "advance copies will be available before then". When she told me that the official first book sent through the printer was on it's way for my final approval (and I posted the previous blog post about advertising, which she insisted needed to be started as she seems to forget that I've been already spreading the word), I tested what would happen if anyone followed my suggestion to search "The Tiger's Cub" to see what I meant about the results......
and this came up at my publisher's web site, two full months before the "official release date" that she gave me: http://www.writewordsinc.com/tigerscubp.html
So......
If you want a copy to review for Goodreads, Amazon, your local newspaper, etc., contact Write Words Inc. for your copy. Or you can just contact me, as I plan on ordering my own set of advance copies for friends, family and fans who have requested a book signing as soon as I can set up a venue in Maine. (Those who live too far away to meet and greet are getting theirs via snail mail - and, if the book arrives as it's supposed to today, I'll be confirming mailing costs, so I should be able to give a very accurate cost by this weekend.....)
Thank you to the constant readers who come and read these blogs. Soon you'll be reading about my adventures with the next project: the as-yet-unnamed science fiction/fantasy tale....
and this came up at my publisher's web site, two full months before the "official release date" that she gave me: http://www.writewordsinc.com/tigerscubp.html
So......
If you want a copy to review for Goodreads, Amazon, your local newspaper, etc., contact Write Words Inc. for your copy. Or you can just contact me, as I plan on ordering my own set of advance copies for friends, family and fans who have requested a book signing as soon as I can set up a venue in Maine. (Those who live too far away to meet and greet are getting theirs via snail mail - and, if the book arrives as it's supposed to today, I'll be confirming mailing costs, so I should be able to give a very accurate cost by this weekend.....)
Thank you to the constant readers who come and read these blogs. Soon you'll be reading about my adventures with the next project: the as-yet-unnamed science fiction/fantasy tale....
Sunday, September 1, 2013
And going into the home stretch......
Too tired to think straight this morning, I'm going to share these hints on how to advertise so that those who actually got decent sleep last night can add any suggestions that I missed (as I covered babysitting for my granddaughter so my son could work a double shift):
1. Authors can join Group forums at sites like Yahoo and Google. Don't just join author's groups, either, but readers' groups and any kind of group interested in your subject. If your book features a bowling detective, hit bowling groups. (Done. I have a lot of truckers thinking I'm weird, but....)
2. Use social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In to set up profiles about yourself and mention your book, with links to purchase sites. Update those messages whenever there is news about the book and "SHARE" the information. (Done - ad nauseum, per some.)
3. Google "Internet Radio" and your book's subject together, for a list of Internet Radio Stations, LISTEN to some of the shows, then contact that show's moderator, listed on the web site (giving positive feedback on something you have heard), and offer to be a guest on talk radio. (Done, but no major responses in the positive yet because they want to be able to read the book first. Some have been sent "Night of the Tiger" as a prep for this next book.)
4. FAX or e-mail press releases to your local paper, TV, and local Radio stations, and all nearby media outlets and those wherever your book is set, and to organizations that might be interested in the subject with contact information and saying you are available as a guest speaker (keep this local as most of them will not kick in for travel expenses). (Ongoing. No real positive responses yet - unless I pay for advertising - and a lot of Maine towns won't run a press release "if you don't have direct ties to the town". Not only is Maine a little snobby about those "from away", they're even snobby about those who were born and raised in the state.)
5. If you can afford it, hire a publicist to arrange an Internet tour where you can be a guest on other people's blogs and so on. (No cash = unable to do this one.)
6. Start a blog of your own, if you have time to keep it up. Post often. (Done. It's called "Living In A Writer's Head", should anyone wish to check it out, and I've posted the link in my profile. in Facebook.)
7. Get the book reviewed as often as you can. If people tell you they have read it, ask them to please post a review on amazon.com. Save the reviews as they will be useful advertising to put into the print edition. (Ongoing for "Night of the Tiger" and had some select peeps do so for "The Tiger's Cub". Once it's up on Amazon, I'd love to have some of y'all go on and review it there and on Goodreads for me.)
8. Once the book shows up on there, set up your free author's page at amazon.com. (Have done so for "Night of the Tiger" and will be adding "The Tiger's Cub" ASAP)
9. Read books on advertising, promoting and marketing your book. (I've read a BUNCH of these - and they all have this same list in one form or another.)
10. Tell your mother, brother, co-workers, and all the biggest gossips you know. (An age-old joke in my husband's family from before the internet: "The major forms of communication are telephone, telegraph, teleneighbor ["tell-a-neighbor", technically]....lol)
For anyone thinking I've been sitting on this while waiting for the final piece to fall into place, try Googling "The Tiger's Cub" (complete with the quote marks so you can narrow it down to things NOT related to raising tiger cubs or Tiger Cub Scouts). The basic idea, per one of the marketing books I've been reading, is to have most of the hits on the first page be about you.......
Any other suggestions I've missed?
1. Authors can join Group forums at sites like Yahoo and Google. Don't just join author's groups, either, but readers' groups and any kind of group interested in your subject. If your book features a bowling detective, hit bowling groups. (Done. I have a lot of truckers thinking I'm weird, but....)
2. Use social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Linked-In to set up profiles about yourself and mention your book, with links to purchase sites. Update those messages whenever there is news about the book and "SHARE" the information. (Done - ad nauseum, per some.)
3. Google "Internet Radio" and your book's subject together, for a list of Internet Radio Stations, LISTEN to some of the shows, then contact that show's moderator, listed on the web site (giving positive feedback on something you have heard), and offer to be a guest on talk radio. (Done, but no major responses in the positive yet because they want to be able to read the book first. Some have been sent "Night of the Tiger" as a prep for this next book.)
4. FAX or e-mail press releases to your local paper, TV, and local Radio stations, and all nearby media outlets and those wherever your book is set, and to organizations that might be interested in the subject with contact information and saying you are available as a guest speaker (keep this local as most of them will not kick in for travel expenses). (Ongoing. No real positive responses yet - unless I pay for advertising - and a lot of Maine towns won't run a press release "if you don't have direct ties to the town". Not only is Maine a little snobby about those "from away", they're even snobby about those who were born and raised in the state.)
5. If you can afford it, hire a publicist to arrange an Internet tour where you can be a guest on other people's blogs and so on. (No cash = unable to do this one.)
6. Start a blog of your own, if you have time to keep it up. Post often. (Done. It's called "Living In A Writer's Head", should anyone wish to check it out, and I've posted the link in my profile. in Facebook.)
7. Get the book reviewed as often as you can. If people tell you they have read it, ask them to please post a review on amazon.com. Save the reviews as they will be useful advertising to put into the print edition. (Ongoing for "Night of the Tiger" and had some select peeps do so for "The Tiger's Cub". Once it's up on Amazon, I'd love to have some of y'all go on and review it there and on Goodreads for me.)
8. Once the book shows up on there, set up your free author's page at amazon.com. (Have done so for "Night of the Tiger" and will be adding "The Tiger's Cub" ASAP)
9. Read books on advertising, promoting and marketing your book. (I've read a BUNCH of these - and they all have this same list in one form or another.)
10. Tell your mother, brother, co-workers, and all the biggest gossips you know. (An age-old joke in my husband's family from before the internet: "The major forms of communication are telephone, telegraph, teleneighbor ["tell-a-neighbor", technically]....lol)
For anyone thinking I've been sitting on this while waiting for the final piece to fall into place, try Googling "The Tiger's Cub" (complete with the quote marks so you can narrow it down to things NOT related to raising tiger cubs or Tiger Cub Scouts). The basic idea, per one of the marketing books I've been reading, is to have most of the hits on the first page be about you.......
Any other suggestions I've missed?
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