Feb 6 2019

Meet Jon Gibbs

The 2019 Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group “Write Stuff” conference is fast approaching. For those who aren’t aware of this awesome action-packed 3-day event, visit the link above. Keynote speaker this year is Ben Wolf but there are many fantastic presenters for this 20+ workshops, Page Cuts critique, Writers Cafe read and critique, Book Fair, agent pitching, networking grand old time which is big enough to draw excellent talent and small enough to actually talk to most of them.

One of these brilliant presenters is Jon Gibbs. I hope you enjoy his interview. More can be found of him and the other presenters at the GLVWG conference blog.

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Hi Jon,

It is so exciting knowing you will be presenting at this year’s Write Stuff conference! And looking over this year’s schedule, I’d have to say, your sessions look quite enticing. Thanks for taking time out to be interviewed and I suppose my first question is…

1) Could you give us a little teaser about your two-hour workshop “The Seven–Sentence Solution” and also a teaser for “Are Your Characters Right for the Part?”

There’s a classic summary–tool used by great story-tellers like the folks at Pixar Animation.

In The Seven-Sentence Solution, I’ll be showing how to apply that same tool to sub-plots and individual characters in a way that can really help bring a book, and the people in it, to life.

In the Characters workshop, we’ll be working through some subtle techniques that can make the people in stories even more memorable/relatable to readers.

2) If you wrote a letter to your younger self about the writing journey, what would it say and what advice would you give?

There’s always going to be a great excuse for not writing, something that seems more important, more urgent, or simply more enticing. The question is: Would you rather look back in twenty years and have a body of work to be proud of, or a long list of great excuses?

Basically, don’t let your ‘but’ get in the way of your dream.

3) On your website I see you do Classroom talks with 3rd graders on up and I see one of your talk modules is entitled “Terrific Titles.” Titling for anyone can be challenging in of itself. What are your techniques for titling your works and what advice would you give an aspiring author?

I always start with the title because I suck at coming up with one after I’ve written the story. If you brainstorm titles before you start writing, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to come up with something eye-catching. As an added bonus, a great title can be a huge inspiration for characters and/or plot.

4) It’s always interesting to learn how other writers juggle writing time with family and work commitments. What strategies work best for you?

I try to get my writing done in the mornings because I have to fit my schedule around my twin daughters. They’re both severely autistic which makes for a lot of unexpected excitement (and plenty of sleepless nights). If I’m not careful, days, even weeks, can go by without me doing much on the productivity front, but I’ve learned to make the most of it when things are going well, and not to beat myself up when I hit a rough patch.

5) What resources do you use to research? How long do you typically spend researching before beginning a book? And what are you working on currently?

Mostly, I use Google, but I rarely do much research until I have the initial story down. My first drafts are riddled with notes like: INSERT: check this, INSERT: research needed (not to mention INSERT: witty line here or INSERT: write this gooder!).

Currently I have five projects on the go: I’m seeking representation for my middle-grade novel, ABRAHAM LINCOLN STOLE MY HOMEWORK. I’m revising two other novels: DEAD DORIS (MG), and a thriller, WAKING UP JACK THUNDER. For my next wip, I’m bouncing around ideas for two MG novels, GLASS-HEAD, and #MY_SUCKY_LIFE – I’ll decide which one to focus on when I have their outlines finished.

6) When did the “writing bug” bite you? And what was your favorite genre and/or books at that time. Why?

I was in my 40s when I started writing. Before then, I hadn’t written a word of fiction since leaving school – unless you count tax returns. That changed when I started walking my son, Bill, to his primary school in England. He’d pick an animal, and I’d make up a story about it, with Bill as the main character (I still remember one about a giraffe who was afraid of heights).

I’ve always been an avid reader. At the time, my favorite author was probably Terry Pratchett. I love books that make me laugh, especially when they also put you through the emotional wringer, which Pratchett’s books often do.

7) And finally, is there anything that you would recommend giving up to become a better writer? Is there anything you’ve given up in order to become one?

I would recommend that anyone serious about writing gives up complaining and/or arguing online. Social media can be a beautiful thing, but if you’re not careful, you can get sucked into the ‘With us or against us’, ‘If you don’t think like me, you’re stupid/evil’ mentality that seems par–for–the–course these days. Some folks love to surf the web, trolling people they disagree with, or reading the spiteful back–and–forth of folks who probably wouldn’t dream (or dare) be so obnoxious in person,but that kind of bile is pure poison for creativity. In this digital age, we all have to get online, but if you ask me, the worldwould be a better place if the internet had more funny cat videos and less pointless arguments.

When I moved here from the UK in 2004, I made a conscious decision to give up music, and focus on writing stories instead. Before then, I’d been lead vocals and keyboard player in a rock band since the late eighties. As far as fame and fortune goes, we were very much a legend in our own lunchtime, but we had a lot of fun, especially writing and recording songs.

I don’t know if giving up singing has made me a better writer, but I’m sure my neighbors are happier.

Born in England, Jon Gibbs now lives in New Jersey, where he lectured on Creative Writing at Georgian Court University from 2014-2017. Jon is the founder of The New Jersey Authors’ Network (www.njauthorsnetwork.com), his middle-grade fantasy, Fur-Face (Echelon Press), was nominated for a Crystal Kite Award. The sequel, Barnum’s Revenge (also from Echelon Press), was published in 2013.

Jon has a website: www.acatofninetales.com and a blog: http://jongibbs.livejournal.com. When he’s not chasing around after his three children, he can usually be found hunched over the computer in his basement office. One day he hopes to figure out how to switch it on.

Mar 19 2014

Meet Jessica Dimuzio VMD, Conservation Educator and Author!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-jessica-dimuzio-vmd-conservation.html

Hi Jessica,

The stories you must be able to tell…conducting research on elephants, rhinos and wild baboons in Kenya, Africa, visiting six continents and teaching field-based conservation programs in here in the states, Africa, and Asia. I am curious. What originally got you into this field? Was this a childhood dream? What do you like best about it? Also, how did wildlife preservation lead you to not only being published in veterinary journals and conservation newsletters but also writing children’s books?

Jessica Dimuzio: Both my husband and I read Thornton W. Burgess books about animals as children, a fact that obviously greatly influenced us. Our favorite thing to do is look for wildlife in their natural habitats. He became a conservation biologist and I pursued veterinary medicine,
specializing in wildlife preservation. Winning a scholarship, I had the opportunity to study wild baboons in Kenya, Africa. Soon after my studies ended, the land was sold to a cooperative of small farmers who regarded baboons as pests. The only way to save the baboons was to relocate them to a remote area of the country. The realization that land preservation was as vital as species studies led me, with my husband, Dr. Tim Halverson, to design holistic conservation education programs. We incorporated animal studies, land use, culture, and economics and conducted these conservation programs for college students and wildlife biologists in the United States, Africa, and Asia.

But it wasn’t enough for me. To create a lasting conservation impact, I believed I needed to reach youngsters, inspiring them to connect with the natural world and revel in its mysteries. The enthusiasm of students in naturalist programs I led in the U.S. and abroad encouraged me to engage even more children by relating true stories from my work, through writing and speaking engagements.

May I say, what a brilliant idea of grabbing children’s attention while conveying conservation ideas by using Johnny Angel, a Papillon dog, as Bark! Bark! Bark for My Park!’s point of view character. And how exciting to have received a personal note of appreciation from celebrity Betty White and an excellent review from US Review of Books! Could you tell us the inspiration of behind the tale? Also, could you tell us a little bit about your new book “Bow Wow Wow! Green Beans Now?”

Jessica Dimuzio: I have always considered myself a non-fiction storyteller, and one day I was relating to a friend of mine the fact that my 5 pound, not even 2 year old Papillon puppy saved a 700-acre farm park from being destroyed. She said, “Jessica, you write for kids. This is a great story.” You know, sometimes when it is in your backyard you don’t think it important or newsworthy? So the next day, I sat down and wrote “Bark! Bark! Bark for My Park!”

Bow Wow Wow! Green Beans Now? recounts Johnny Angel’s obsession with eating garden-fresh, mouth-picked green beans and I thought it would be a unique approach (and hopefully humorous one) to get kids interested in organic gardening and eating homegrown vegetables. But the ending was a surprise to me!

I understand Nature Tales and Trails, LLC came into existence in 2011. Could you tell us a little about it, its programs and what you do? What do you find most rewarding? What would you like to see in its future?

Jessica Dimuzio: Our mission at Nature Tales and Trails is to connect children to the natural world through classroom talks, nature walks, and books about our adventures working with wildlife at home and around the world.

If you are interested in “Stories from the Wild—Programs for Your Child” contact me through Nature Tales and Trails, LLC at http://www.naturetalesandtrails.com .

In 2009 you joined Young Writers’ Day Program and began teaching persuasive writing and civic responsibility to elementary school children. What do you most rewarding? What do you find most challenging?

Jessica Dimuzio: Young Writers’ Day has been in existence for 30 years and writers of all genres teach their craft to elementary schools. I was hired as a last minute replacement (okay, I was given 12 hours) to come up with a writing exercise for third graders. I told the leader, Mary Beth Lauer, that I talk about writing a petition in Bark! Bark! Bark for My Park!, can I teach that? And I have been teaching petition writing and civic responsibility ever since. Through Nature Tales and Trails, I now bring persuasive writing, civic responsibility, and conservation programs to middle schools as well.

I’ve always struggled with discussing “adult” topics with kids but I have learned that there are ways that you can awaken their awareness in a positive way. With all the negative news they receive, when I show them they can make a difference in their world—whether home, neighborhood, school, and they see it and feel it, I know I we need to influence them that they can do amazing things. When I ask them “What is Johnny Angel’s message in Bark! Bark! Bark for My Park!, and they say: It doesn’t matter what size, age, or species we are, we can make a difference” it is truly rewarding and uplifting.

On your personal website you have “The destination: unchanged. The path: unpredictable. The journey: full circle.” Could you tell us a little bit about how your activities have come full circle?

Jessica Dimuzio: My passion is wildlife preservation and that destination has never changed.

The path has been unpredictable, starting with single species research to saving habitats, to teaching holistic approaches to conservation, to writing for children, to sharing the work and the journey with children.

It was the children’s books about nature that I read as a kid that inspired me to love, respect, and ultimately want to protect wildlife. With my childrens’ books and programs, I feel I am reaching more people, having a bigger impact through my work—whether writing, teaching, or conducting nature walks. I feel I have come: Full Circle.

I understand you are the founder of Milestones Children’s Critique Circle. Could you tell us what it is and how it came into being?

Jessica Dimuzio: The course I took with Vivian Grey on writing for children had the most diverse and yet most compatible participants I’d ever had the pleasure of taking a course with. When the course ended, I offered to organize a monthly meeting. I founded this organization in July, 2006 and am proud to be the leader of such a diverse and accomplished group of people. Milestones Children’s Critique Circle is a support group exclusively for dedicated writers of all genres of children’s books. Our motto is: E=MC3 because the group generates so much energy, we beat Einstein’s equation!

To be invited as a guest, please contact:
dr.d@naturetalesandtrails.com

Out of curiosity, during your presentations what the best or most memorable questions or comments you have fielded from the children?

Jessica Dimuzio: There are so many wonderful, funny, surprising, and emotional interactions followed by incredibly touching communications through thank you letters. There are two that stand out for me.
After one school visit where I read Bark! Bark! Bark for My Park!, a third grader wrote me that we shared many things in common; love of dogs and a park near her that was closing. She asked for my help in saving it. I was so thrilled to find a third grader understanding the impact of losing open space, it gave me hope.

At a recent school visit, a student in a knee brace reminded me that if it wasn’t for boogie boarding, I wouldn’t be a children’s book author.

I was wondering if you could give us a teaser of what you’ll be covering in “Whoops, I Did It Again!” and “How to Catch a Kid?”

Jessica Dimuzio: Whoops, I Did It Again!
I will be presenting my journey from moment of conception through the pivotal points that led me to become writer, illustrator, director, groomer, publisher, publicist, vendor, and speaker of an international award-winning children’s picture book. And learn, yes, I did it again. Through discussion of lessons acquired and questions to participants, I will help attendees determine whether self-publishing is the route to go or not.

How to Catch a Kid—Creatively Luring Children to Non-Fiction
5 key components + 4 tips + 1 small piece of advice=
10 criteria for creative non-fiction for children

Thank you Jessica for taking time out for this interview and sharing so many wonderful and thought-provoking answers. Looking forward to meeting you at the conference.

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Jessica Dimuzio, VMD, will lead two Saturday sessions on non-fiction writing that grabs children’s interest. Besides being published in the fields of veterinary medicine, veterinary education, and conservation, she is an award-winning children’s book author. “In fact,” she says, “during my school visits I tell children why should I spend the time making up characters and plots like a fiction writer when no one believes my true stories any way!” In her conference session “How to Catch a Kid”, she will explain the key to good non-fiction: there must be a compelling story arc, and a main character with which children can connect. Dr. Dimuzio has lectured internationally, taught college classes, and currently leads a critique group for fiction and nonfiction children’s book writers. She has published two picture-books. Her website is: naturetalesandtrails.com

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Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

Mar 17 2014

Meet Kathleen Zakhar, associate agent at Harold Ober Associates!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-kathleen-zakhar-associate-agent-at.html

Hi Kathleen,

What a delight having you join us at this year’s conference! And what an intriguing combination of things you have dabbled in. I was wondering if I could ask about missile engineering? It’s not something you see everyday in a bio. 🙂

Kathleen Zakhar: Thank you, I’m very much looking forward to the conference! I suppose I do have a bit of a colorful background. I had a job working metrics and program management on the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, which take down satellites with kinetic energy alone, no traditional warhead needed. While I’ve always loved science and math and really enjoyed the job, I think I’m probably better suited to reading science fiction instead.

It has to be pretty exciting working with such a respectable agency that’s been around over 100 years and have represented legends such as Jack London and H.G. Wells. Can I ask what’s one of the best things you like being part of Harold Ober Associates?

Kathleen Zakhar: While we’ve only been around about 85 years, I am definitely lucky to work at such a legacy agency where these names, and others like F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, Richard Adams, James M. Cain stand on our shelves. In addition, I work on some of the film/TV deals we do in the office, so I’m looking forward to the miniseries reboot of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby and the movie adaptation of The Giver by Lois Lowry. And, it goes without saying that the 14-year-old me would have loved the big wall of Tamora Pierce novels!

What do you find most rewarding as an agent? What do you find most challenging?

Kathleen Zakhar: Agenting provides me with the opportunity to pursue passion projects. There’s no marketing team, publicity department, or approval board to shoot down the books I want to represent. The challenges I face as an agent are constantly honing my list of editorial contacts so that I may draw up the perfect submission list in order to find the right home for a book.

Having a degree in Creative Writing (along with a degree in Finance) I was wondering what you enjoy writing most. How old were you when the “writing bug” first bit you?

Kathleen Zakhar: I’ve always enjoyed searching for the perfect word that captures exactly what I’m trying to make a reader feel. I had parents who encouraged creativity, so I must have penned dozens of short stories as a child which turned into the requisite embarrassingly angsty teenage poetry. It was in college that I realized I preferred editing and helping others to achieve their best work. Working in publishing, I can combine my background in business with my passion for the written word.

I understand you originally hale from Tucson Arizona. I was curious if you have ever been to TusCon (a SF, Fantasy and Horror convention) particularly since one of the things you are looking for are Science Fiction manuscripts. Also, out of curiosity what’s your favorite SF story?

Kathleen Zakhar: No, I haven’t actually attended TusCon. But if you ever find yourself in the southwest, I highly recommend the Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention and the Tucson Festival of Books, a wonderful convention that brings hundreds of authors and readers together.

As for my favorite SF story, it’s so hard to choose. Classics aside, I am particularly obsessed with Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos. It has everything I love in a great SF story: beautiful worldbuilding, a unique premise, and, most importantly, a diverse cast of characters that I cared about. More recent favorites include The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, John Scalzi’s Redshirts, and the science fiction and fairy tale blend that is The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.

In your bio it says you like “all things YA.” In your opinion, how has YA grown, what makes it so “hot” and where do you see it going?

Kathleen Zakhar: It wasn’t so long ago that shelves dedicated to YA fiction didn’t even exist. Young adult fiction is being embraced more and more by a much wider demographic, where a significant portion of the readers are adults. There’s an energy, or perhaps a certain amount of recklessness, that accompanies being a teenager that I think readers really admire, regardless of whether that’s a contemporary or a high fantasy novel. Coming-of-age tales will never go out of style, despite whatever “trend” seems to be happening. It all comes down to good literature. Regardless of age, nobody likes to feel static, and I think reading YA embraces that feeling that anything is possible.

Do you recall a favorite book when you were a teen? Is it still a favorite? What are your favorite books now?

Kathleen Zakhar: When I was a teen I read both YA and adult fiction, so my favorites from that time period range from Jane Austen – Mr. Darcy was just one of many literary crushes – to Heinlein to Harry Potter. I recall that Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and The Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee were among my favorites when I was younger.

Today, I’m a huge fangirl for Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. I probably reread The Dark Tower series once a year. Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is an absolutely brilliant novel that my friends are probably sick of me recommending. Living in NYC, I absolutely depend on audiobooks, so I’ve enjoyed Jake Gyllenhaal reading The Great Gatsby and the ensemble reading of Ellen Kushner’s Riverside series.

Could you give some examples on quirky and adventurous middle grade novels you have recently enjoyed?

Kathleen Zakhar: The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis is a great example of quirky middle grade novels with a precocious protagonist and a captivating story. Another middle grade novel I like is Caroline Lawrence’s P.K. Pinkerton and the Deadly Desperados, a western with a high-functioning autistic narrator. I see a lot of middle grade queries that I believe underestimate their reader and what middle grade readers face at that age, so I am always happy to see it proved otherwise.

Are there certain things when reading a manuscript that are apt to “spark” your interest? And what pet peeves do you have?

Kathleen Zakhar: One thing I definitely want is to be swept into a story within the first few pages. I was recently reading Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood and found myself truly admiring her first couple sentences: “Our mother was a witch, too, but she hid it better. I miss her.” Right away the author is creating a tone, while also presenting background information without being heavy-handed. There’s a lot packed into those 14 words!

Along those lines, if there’s any info dumping or the exposition is wonky, I’m going to have a hard time. Beginning with elaborate battle sequences and lengthy prologues can also be tricky, because I’m not yet invested in the characters or the world. Starting with too much or too little dialogue is also a pet peeve of mine.

And one last question…if you could share three pieces of advice of what to do or what not to do when pitching a book, what would they be?

Kathleen Zakhar:
1) I know it’s been said a hundred thousand times, but make sure your query letter is perfect. It’s the first and perhaps only impression an agent will have of you, so why not make it the best it can be? That means no “Dear Mr./Ms. Agent” introductions (do you want me to reply “Dear Author”?), no spelling errors, and a concise and gripping representation of you and your work.

2) Be in tune with your readers. Classics ≠ comp titles. Do your research on what’s out there (including other media like TV and movies) so that you can answer any questions about how and why your book is different and appealing with alacrity.

3) Don’t jump the gun and start suggesting actors for a film adaptation, discussing media tie-ins, or weighing in on which imprints might be perfect for the book. There’s a cart, and there’s a horse, and they go in a certain order.

Thank you Kathleen for taking time out for the interview. We really look forward to seeing you!

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An associate agent at Harold Ober Associates, Kathleen Zakhar is actively building her client list. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a dual-degree in Creative Writing and Finance, and dabbled in journalism, real estate, and missile engineering before coming to Harold Ober Associates. She put in her time as an intern at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, Foundry Literary + Media, and McIntosh & Otis. Having grown up in the deserts of Tucson, she now lives in Brooklyn with her med school husband and a tiny potted cactus. You’ll find Kathleen on Twitter at @kzakhar and Harold Ober Associates at @harold_ober.

Looking for: I love all things YA and am also looking for adult science fiction, fantasy in all its varieties, historical fiction, and horror novels. I am also interested in representing quirky and adventurous middle grade novels. I’m not opposed to picture books, but I’m extremely selective.

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Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

Mar 12 2014

Meet Agent David Forrer from Inkwell Management!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/by-tammy-burke-hi-david-it-is-delight.html

Hi David,

It is a delight to have you join this year’s GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference. The breadth of experience you bring…working as an assistance at Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, a small boutique agency to becoming an agent for one of the world’s leading literary agencies…is sure to be a wonderful boon for our conferees. Welcome!

I am wondering…did you always know you wanted to be an agent or was this a decision you made later…perhaps as you were working on your Master’s Degree in Creative Writing?

David Forrer: In 1996, I was accepted into the creative writing program at Boston University. I had written some short stories but I had no idea how anything got published. The more ambitious writers in my workshops were already “querying agents” – I didn’t know what that meant until the head of the department suggested I read manuscripts for a former student of his who had just opened her own agency on Newberry Street. Well, I quickly realized that reading other people’s work was more satisfying than creating my own. When I finished at BU, I went through the job listings in Publishers Weekly and got an interview for an assistant’s position with an agent in Manhattan. I took Amtrak to Penn Station – it was my first time in New York. I’ve lived here now for 17 years and I’ve worked as an agent the entire time.

Out of curiosity, was crime fiction something you enjoyed reading as a kid? What would you say some of your favorite stories were growing up? Also, do you ever get time to read just for enjoyment only? If yes, what do you like to read?

David Forrer: My life has always been full of books. My mom was a school librarian and as a kid I used to make my own books by stapling pages together, drawing (awful) cover art and writing stories that were heavily derived from the authors I admired. Most of the reading I did as a child was classic young adult but I remember I had a book about the famous racehorse Man O’War that I read obsessively, over and over again – I wish I could remember why because that knowledge would be valuable to me today as publishing professional!

My relationship with crime fiction really started when I was representing books on behalf of some UK agents. Val McDermid, Mo Hayder, Mark Billingham, John Harvey, Peter Temple, Minette Walters are some of the major crime writers who I’ve been privileged to work with through their primary agents and publishers overseas.

I think it’s important to read for enjoyment – there’s a lot of rejection and disappointment in this business, but the pleasure of reading is what first drew me to publishing, and a really good book always inspires me. I recently read Adam Johnson’s THE ORPHAN MASTER’S SON and I was like, How did he do that? That came out of his imagination!! When I’m reading a manuscript that I really love I start to imagine the thrill of sharing it with other readers as a finished book and having them feel the same way I do. Also I need to know what’s working in the market. I once read a whole bunch of books by Debbie Macomber during my Christmas break because I wanted to understand the appeal. She writes great contemporary romances – and I really enjoyed them!

Do you work on your own writing?

David Forrer: No, I think really successful writers are compulsive about it, and as much as I wanted to be “a writer” I never actually felt an overwhelming urge to sit in front of a blank page and fill it with words. To quote my favorite Kristen Wiig skit from SNL, “that’s a major red flag!”

Could you tell us what type of historical fiction really “grabs” you? Also, what exactly do you mean by popular history?

David Forrer: For ANY work of fiction to really grab me it has to have a great story and great characters, particularly a protagonist that you can root for. An historical novel that illuminates a way of life on an intimate, human scale (GIRL WITH A PEARL EARING) can be just as absorbing as one that’s written on a larger canvas (WOLF HALL). Also, if something sparks my interest in historical events – SHADOW OF THE WIND probably isn’t considered “historical fiction” but reading that book made me want to learn more about the Spanish Civil War.

You asked about “popular history.” I represent a writer named Vicki Leon who is a self-styled “historical detective” and she publishes very accessible portraits of life in ancient Greece and Rome that are meant to inform and entertain. That’s what I mean by popular history. One of her books explores career choices in the ancient world. The working title was HELP WANTED: ORGY PLANNER but her publisher made her change it to WORKING IX TO V. I still think that was a mistake!

It must have been an exciting time during the “birth” of Inkwell Management (the 2004 merger of Arthur Pine Associates, Carlisle & Company, and Witherspoon Associates). What has been some of your best experiences about the merger and/or agenting at such a prestigious agency? What would you say has been the most challenging?

David Forrer: I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of InkWell. We work very collaboratively – I share clients with Kim Witherspoon (David Vann, Carol Cassella and Kaui Hart Hemmings) and Michael Carlisle (Elin Hilderbrand), and I spend a lot of time in Richard Pines’ office strategizing and talking about what I’m working on. Every day is a “moment” but the best experiences always involve witnessing a writer’s success. At the New York premiere of the film adaptation of THE DESCENDANTS, I was remembering the phone call with Kaui when said she was planning to expand her short story “The Minor Wars” into a novel, and it blew my mind that here we were with George Clooney and Alexander Payne bringing her imagination to life on the screen. At the other end of the scale, I was recently working with a first-time author who was absolutely thrilled to get rejection letters from publishers – it meant that someone was actually reading his book! It reminded me that the whole point of writing is simply to make a connection with one reader – of course, you do that a million times and it’s called a bestseller. (By the way, we did get an offer and the book is publishing this summer.)

The biggest challenge is obviously all the rejection but I’m an eternal optimist so I keep putting one foot in front of the other – there’s always some happy payoff or a nice surprise right around the corner.

If at some point today your dream submission “fell from the sky and landed in your hands,” what would it look like?

David Forrer: It would be fresh and innovative and if the ending made me cry that would be a bonus. And it wouldn’t have any typos on the first fifty pages.

And last question, what three pieces of advice would you be most apt to share with would-be authors?

David Forrer: Write a book you’d want to read but also know who your audience is.

Don’t expect to make a living from your writing. Some writers do, eventually, but most writers need another source of income to give them the security to write.

There is rejection at every level of the business, whether you are a writer, an agent, a publisher or a bookseller. Don’t take it personally!

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David Forrer began his career in publishing in 1997 after receiving a Masters in Creative Writing (fiction) from Boston University. He has been an agent with InkWell Management since it was created in 2004.

His areas of interest and representation range from literary, commercial, historical and crime fiction to suspense/thriller, humorous non-fiction and popular history.
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Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

Mar 10 2014

Meet Sunbury Press’ Owner Lawrence Knorr!

by Tammy Burke

Reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-sunbury-press-owner-lawrence-knorr.html

How delightful having you back at the “Write Stuff” conference again! And wow! Is it coming up fast. Anything new and exciting you can share regarding you and/or the Sunbury Press?

Lawrence Knorr: Yes! It is an honor to be asked back. It is hard to believe two years have passed since the last time! Sunbury Press just completed its best year ever from a sales perspective. We continue to grow and succeed in a very tough, competitive environment. We are celebrating our tenth year in business in 2014 — but I can tell you it feels like 100 years! We’ve transformed ourselves twice in that span — caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly — what’s next? Most recently, we have seen ebooks peak, their growth rate slowing, while independent bookstore sales have picked up. While our Amazon business has continued to grow, other channels are growing faster. We have dubbed 2014 our “Year of Collaboration” focusing on ways our 120+ authors can experience better results by helping each other and by working together in teams. So far, there has been a lot of positive energy. We also opened, February 1, our first company bookstore in Mechanicsburg, PA, where our headquarters is located. Our goal was to provide a storefront for all of our books — and a venue for our authors to meet the public. We really want to be an important part of the local community for our local and regional authors — and provide another option to our more far flung partners. It’s a great place to meet prospective authors and to talk about books with the general public.

Based on your webpage, I understand the your company holds a “Continue the Enlightenment” mentality from the 18th century and the “Age of Reason.” Could you expand more what that means to you and to the Sunbury Press?

Lawrence Knorr: “Continue the Enlightenment” is a motto that represents our mission statement. Simply put, we are a publisher of diverse categories, but we are always seeking to bring new perspectives and voices to the marketplace. The Enlightenment was about a new order of things — not unlike what is happening in publishing today. The old order governed by a strong center of control is being challenged by more democratic ideals. This is what the independent publishing movement is all about — whether doing it yourself or with an independent publisher. We are experiencing an era of rapid democratization of the publishing industry. If only Hugh Fox had lived a little longer! I’ll never forget the day he called me – Hugh Fox – one of the founders of the Pushcart Prize. He revealed he was dying of cancer and offered me the opportunity to publish his remaining works. He said Sunbury Press was exactly the kind of publisher he was looking for. I was very grateful for his offer, and encouraged him to spread the dozen or so works around to other presses, keeping two of them for ourselves. Hugh liked the motto, and we think it is very appropriate at this time.

What was the motivation to start the Sunbury Press? What makes it different than other publishing companies?

Lawrence Knorr: I started the company in 2004 because I wanted to publish some family histories. I didn’t want to pay someone else to do it, so I embarked on figuring out how. While this was only ten years ago, it was when vanity presses were a cottage industry and print on demand and ebooks were in their infancy. I just wanted to sell some books at cost to family members. But, I really enjoyed it and realized I could publish other books — not just my own. Two hundred and twenty titles and one hundred and twenty authors later, we have really grown thanks to our business model and our philosophy. We are different for several reasons:

1) We are very tech-savvy. My wife and I both have long careers in IT and understand the Age of Content and the importance of search engines, ecommerce and mobile commerce.
2) We do NOT charge for services. Many publishers are experimenting with vanity, hybrid or subsidy models. We refuse to go in this direction, instead making our money by selling books.
3) We have editors working for us as employees of our company. We take quality very seriously.
4) My wife and I are also photographers and digital artists, able to design book covers, marketing materials, graphic designs, web content, etc.
5) We are “generalist opportunists” — working in a broad number of categories. We understand the advantages of breadth and scale to the economic sustainability of an enterprise.
6) We love what we do. I really enjoy working with authors to bring their work to the marketplace. It tickles the soul.

I was wondering…Is there anything in particular you are looking for in an author and his or her manuscript?

Lawrence Knorr: Quality Manuscript + Motivated Author + Publisher = Success

We are always looking for high quality manuscripts — in a variety of fiction and nonfiction categories. Quality is more than just well-written / grammatically correct. Quality is about fresh ideas, new found truths and entertainment. We like material that brings value to our readers.

We like to gauge an author’s motivations. Gone are the days of sitting at a typewriter, mailing a box of paper to a publisher and then waiting by the door for the checks to arrive. Authors need to be involved in their success. While we provide editing, design, formatting, ebook creation, printing, distribution, marketing, etc., we do best when authors are out and about advocating their work and promoting themselves. We are an ideal option for authors whose work is good enough not to have to pay to publish — who want to be writers and not start their own publishing businesses. Most writers are not business savvy. We bring the business expertise to the mix.

Anything you’d like to see more of? Anything you’d like to see less of?

Lawrence Knorr: Thankfully, the vampire craze has past. There’s probably a metaphor somewhere in that regarding the publishing industry! We are always looking for more history and historical fiction — more clever YA and more entertaining police procedurals and mysteries. We like good literary fiction too! We’ve had a lot of inquiries about poetry — something we rarely publish.

Do you work with authors to help them increase sales? Or do you allow them to do that for themselves?

Lawrence Knorr: We generate our revenue exclusively from selling books. So, we are ALWAYS looking for ways to sell more books — whether a new channel to open, a new retailer to call upon, a new country to access, or an author’s activities. As I stated in the opening, we have dubbed 2014 the “Year of Collaboration” and are seeking new ways to collectively leverage our scale. There are opportunities for Sunbury Press authors to go beyond our activities and their individual efforts — to work together within a category or region.

I understand you have authored eight books on regional history. Could you tell us more about them? What were their inspiration.

Lawrence Knorr: Where did I ever find the time? My early books: “The Descendants of Hans Peter Knorr,” “The Relations of Milton Snavely Hershey,” “The Relations of Isaac F Stiehly,” “General John Fulton Reynolds,” “The Relations of Dwight D Eisenhower” and “The Hackman Story” were family history / genealogy focused. I wanted to write about my relations — a very deep and rich history linked to important people and events in Pennsylvania and the nation. While researching at the Lancaster County Historical Society, I also stumbled upon the journal and letters of my great uncle David Bear Hackman, describing his adventure to California for the Gold Rush. I edited and contextualized this treasure into the book “A Pennsylvania Mennonite and the California Gold Rush.” My more recent works have been collaborations: “Keystone Tombstones Civil War” with Joe Farrell and Joe Farley — about famous people buried in Pennsylvania who played a part in the Civil War and “There is Something About Rough and Ready” about the village in the heart of the Mahantongo Valley at the center of that region’s Pennsylvania Dutch culture. I have several other projects under way for release in the coming years: “The Visiting Physician of Red Cross” – about the career of Dr. Reuben Muth of Red Cross, PA (I have his collection of visiting doctor records from 1850 to 1890), “Palmetto Tombstones” — about famous people buried in South Carolina, “Scheib of Shibe Park” — a biography of the former Philadelphia A’s pitcher — and youngest American Leaguer ever — Carl Scheib of Gratz, PA.

Being born and raised in the Susquehanna Valley myself I was wondering if you’ve done anything regarding Sunbury, particularly the Hotel Edison or Lewisburg?

Lawrence Knorr: We borrowed the name Sunbury from the town in Pennsylvania because it was near the Mahantongo Valley — and I liked the name. But, that’s about as far as it goes. We have yet to publish anything about Sunbury, the town in Pennsylvania or nearby Lewisburg. However, our book “Digging Dusky Diamonds” by John Lindermuth is about Shamokin, PA and the nearby coal regions. Our best-selling “Prohibition’s Prince” is about the famous moonshiner Prince Farrington from Williamsport, PA. Our “Keystone Tombstones” series spans the entire state and often touches on historical figures from the Susquehanna Valley.

Do you have favorite time period and place regarding history?

Lawrence Knorr: I teach Comparative Economic and Political Systems at Wilson College once a year. I really enjoy teaching this class because it allows me to span economic history from classical times to present. My favorite time periods / places are the Roman Empire in the first few centuries AD and 19th and early 20th century America. I am intrigued by our industrialization in the early 1800s — and the entrepreneurship and personal responsibility that was present. Most of the people living today would feel very insecure without their comforts, insurances and government safety nets. I long for that time when individual hard work and creativity could amount to something tangible — and when we relied on ourselves, our families, our religious institutions and our communities.

What did you like best about holding the office of president for MidAtlantic Book Publishers Association (MBPA)?

Lawrence Knorr: I was honored to be elected the President of MBPA for one year. I met a lot of great people, including my predecessor Mary Shafer. My goal was to make sure our organization survived the struggles it was going through and could become sustainable. The new team that formed was very motivated to do so, and they continue on without me. Unfortunately, the demands of my growing business prevent me from volunteering at this time.

Your digital photography is quite beautiful. I particularly enjoy your vibrant use of color. How long have you been practicing this art and I’m curious…how many book covers have you designed?

Lawrence Knorr: Thank you! I’ve been a photographer since I was 12 years old. I began showing my work in 2006, after a local gallery liked my attempts at “Photo Impressionism.” I was one of the pioneer artists who was trying to make photographs look like paintings. My work has been shown around the country and has won awards — and is in collections and even a museum or two. While I have not been as active at showing my work, I have designed over 100 book covers over the last three years. My wife says they are getting better! I really enjoy doing it, and most of the authors are very pleased with the results.

What are your thoughts on selling internationally? Do you find that foreign bookstores cater to the same reading choices as here in our area?

Lawrence Knorr: We sell our books in at least a dozen other countries — UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Australia, India, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan … even Lebanon! We’re developing expertise in foreign rights as well as foreign distribution. We have found the rest of the world lags the US in eBook adoption — and still have a very strong book retailers. We’ve had the most success in the UK, for obvious reasons – but have also broken through where our titles touch on target markets.

I want to thank you for taking time out for this interview, Lawrence. We look forward to seeing you soon!

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Lawrence Knorr has been involved with book publishing for fourteen years. His company, Sunbury Press, Inc., headquartered in Mechanicsburg, PA, is a publisher of trade paperback and digital books featuring established and emerging authors in many fiction and nonfiction categories. Sunbury’s books are printed in the USA and sold through leading booksellers worldwide. Sunbury currently has over 120 authors and 200 titles under management.

Lawrence has taught business and project management courses for ten years, and is the author of eight books. He is also an award-winning digital artist, and has designed dozens of book covers . Lawrence is the former President of the MidAtlantic Book Publishers Association (MBPA)
Most interested in U.S. & World history and other nonfiction (sports,
professional, hobbies) — also historical fiction, mystery/thriller.

Will consider YA fiction, contemporary and historical romance, horror (no
vampires), literary fiction.

Not looking for children’s picture books and poetry at this time.
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Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

Mar 6 2014

Meet Paranormal and SF Author Phil Giunta!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-paranormal-and-sf-author-phil.html

Hi Phil,

How exciting to have one of our own teaching at this year’s “Write Stuff” Conference and what intriguing sessions you’re teaching!

I have to admit, the description for your “Time Management for Writers” session gave me a sheepish moment because…well…I admit it, sometimes I’m terrible about getting off FaceBook! I’m wondering if we might get more of a teaser about what you’ll be sharing with us? I wouldn’t mind a teaser about “The Differences Between Writing Novels and Short Stories” too…please. 🙂

Phil Giunta: My focus with “Time Management of Writers” will be guilt. Yes, guilt…and why you shouldn’t necessarily feel it when you don’t achieve a specific word count per day or find yourself unable to spare time on a daily basis or the words just don’t flow when you finally find that hour or two. Writing time can also be spent in other ways. Editing the previous day’s work or research are also valid uses of writing time.

“The Differences Between Writing Novels and Short Stories” seem obvious, right? One is short, the other is long and that’s all folks, goodnight! Yet there are writers who have a challenging time keeping to word counts. Why is that? Well, there might be differences in the amount of characters needed to tell a story, the level of character development, character points of view, timeframe, pacing, and plotting. With novels you have a bit more elbow room than in short stories.

However, there are no absolute hard and fast rules for much of what we’ll talk about and I definitely look forward to audience participation. I stake no claim on omniscience. Every writer has his or her own unique methods and experience and I find that many writers are eager to share, which I encourage.

Your first book “Testing the Prisoner” presents an interesting combination about a person’s innermost psychology and the paranormal. Seriously creepy stuff here. How did this story idea come to you?

Phil Giunta: Testing the Prisoner began as a story of a broken family, child abuse, and—eventually—forgiveness. Suffice it to say that I have some personal experience in these matters and wanted to write a tale for all of those dealing with the same pain to let them know that they are not alone.

However, as I began writing the outline, my fondness for the paranormal crept in and I realized that it would be more dramatically told as a ghost story. So we have Daniel, our protagonist, estranged from his abusive mother for over a decade. On the night he learns of her death, he finds himself haunted by an angel and a demon. He soon learns that each is a manifestation of his own personality. They battle for one purpose—to convince Daniel to either forgive his mother or not, thereby determining the fate of her soul. The victim has now become the judge, jury, and potential executioner.

Yes, it’s creepy. It’s also emotional and dark, but is not personal experience often the source of an artist’s creativity? I recently read an article on The Creative Penn blog by Eric Praschan called “Using Real Life Fear and Pain to Springboard Your Story” and I firmly agree that if you can imbue in your characters the same emotions you felt while enduring a similar tribulation, the story will gain verisimilitude and truly reach your readers’ hearts.

Out of curiosity, how did you first become interested with ghost stories and the paranormal? And may I ask, have you ever been part of a paranormal investigating team such as the one your heroine Miranda Lorensen had?

Phil Giunta: I’ve always loved an atmospheric, suspenseful ghost story. Think of The Sixth Sense, What Lies Beneath, Stir of Echoes. By its very nature, the paranormal removes certain boundaries and in doing so, allows a writer to create scenarios and explore emotions not always possible in other genres.

Ironically, other than Edgar Allan Poe and very few others, I rarely read paranormal fiction. SF is my first love and I am an avid reader of books from the golden age of SF (Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, Heinlein, etc) and just beyond that era (Bova, Ellison, etc). In fact, I’m developing an SF novel right now.

I can count on one hand how many paranormal investigations I’ve participated in and even those were years ago. I was never part of an organized group, just a few curiosity-seekers with still cameras and voice recorders.

However, like any good writer, research was in order when it came to writing By Your Side. The television series, Ghost Hunters, and other shows provided some assistance to that end.

Miranda had been a last-minute addition to Testing the Prisoner as Daniel’s old flame who also happened to be a psychic-medium. During a dinner scene, she mentions to Daniel that she belongs to a group of paranormal investigators. That, along with many other aspects of her character, led me to write By Your Side as a spin-off novel focusing on Miranda, her abilities, her team, and her life. Daniel’s story ended, but Miranda’s continues.

I understand “Testing the Prisoner” is on Podiobooks and “By Your Side” is on Prometheus Radio Theatre. Can you tell us a little bit about what these are and the benefits you are seeing by being a part of it?

Phil Giunta: A bit of background: My publisher for both novels is Firebringer Press, started by Steven H. Wilson. Steve created The Arbiter Chronicles, a podcast SF audio drama featuring a full cast of voice actors and earning him both the Mark Time and Parsec awards. Since he loves audio and has been podcasting for years, Steve encourages his prose writers to record their own audio books.

Prometheus Radio Theatre is Steve’s podcast site where listeners can, free of charge, listen to episodes of any full cast audio show that he has produced as well as audio books written and read by those published via his imprint, Firebringer Press. Audio books are serialized; typically one chapter per week.

Podiobooks.com offers all audio books free of charge. The site was founded by Evo Terra and Tee Morris. Tee, also a Parsec award winner, was the first writer to serialize a novel as a podcast audio book and Evo coined the term “podiobook”. Hence, the site was born and now hosts probably thousands of audio books. Evo and Tee also wrote Podcasting for Dummies. Many popular writers have their work on Podiobooks such as Scott Sigler, Nathan Lowell, and others.

The largest benefit I’ve seen is promotion and exposure. Though we give away the audio books, they have generated sales of the ebooks and paperbacks from supportive listeners. As I’m still a newbie, I’m not yet seeing stunning sales as a result of the audio books, but like anything worthwhile, it takes time. I’m focused on the long tail.

Beyond the above reasons, reading for audio is simply great fun, albeit time intensive for longer works. Listener feedback is often immediate. So far, I’ve been fortunate to receive many positive comments on my audio books.

Testing the Prisoner’s audio book had its first run on Prometheus Radio Theatre before being uploaded to Podiobooks. By Your Side will eventually end up on Podiobooks as well.

I understand you wrote fan fiction in the 1990s. Could you tell us a little about how this helped your writing and career? Do you think this contributed to writing the short stories in the ReDeus anthologies?

Phil Giunta: These are two excellent questions and yes, they definitely relate. For those who need a definition of fan fiction (or fan fic), it is simply fans of already-established universes writing their own stories based on those characters. To me, fan fic was a great training ground to hone my writing and storytelling skills.

Between 1995 and 2003, I wrote short stories in the universes of Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and several others. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but by 2003, I wanted to move on and pursue original stories with an eye toward getting published.

Couple that with the fact that for 20 years, I’ve been attending SF conventions in Maryland where many of my favorite media tie-in writers are guests. In the early years, I would take my stack of Star Trek comics and novels and have them signed by folks like Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Howard Weinstein, and others.

Many of these writers would take the time to offer writing advice to me personally as well as host writing workshops and discussion panels at the conventions.

Flash forward to 2012. I received an email from Bob Greenberger in June inviting me, and several other writers that attend the Maryland conventions (including Steve Wilson as he and Bob are longtime friends), to contribute stories to the ReDeus series (more details about ReDeus in the next question). Bob knew I had published my first novel a few years before and was now including me on a dream project. I was, and still am, deeply honored.

So in two ways, writing SF fan fic definitely helped me contribute to the ReDeus series. I was already adept at the short story format and I had become friends with one of the series creators, which leads us to…

Speaking of Crazy 8’s ReDeus (the anthology depicting the world’s mythological gods returning), mythology has always been one of my favorites! Do you have a favorite pantheon? Can you tell us how this anthology started?

Phil Giunta: I’m not sure of the exact year when the project began, but the series is the brainchild of Bob Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, and Aaron Rosenberg. The premise: what if all of the ancient gods from every pantheon returned at once? How would they look upon us now with our cars, aircraft, technology? How would they reinstate themselves as absolute rulers over their old domains?

I was only able to participate in the first two volumes (Divine Tales and Beyond Borders). By the time the third book was open for submissions, I was on deadline to finish recording the audio book for By Your Side, working on a novella, and about three months away from my wedding. Alas, I could not commit to Native Lands.

As for my favorite pantheon, I wrote about two: the Tuatha dé Danaan of Ireland and the little known Gaulish gods (of the Gaul Empire). I had so much fun with both stories that it’s challenging to pick a favorite. I will say that Irish mythology has a wealth of characters to choose from whereas much of Gaulish mythology has been lost in comparison.

It is my understanding that ReDeus will continue. So I hope to have an opportunity to return.

I understand your anthology, which you edited and contributed to, is launching this August. Congratulations! Could you tell us what it’s about?

Phil Giunta: I am so very proud of this. In 2011, I asked Steve Wilson if he would consider publishing a collection of SF, Fantasy and paranormal stories written mostly by as-yet unpublished writers. I had specific people in mind, some of whom started in fan fic, but had gone on to write original material. They just needed an outlet. My hope was that Firebringer Press could provide that opportunity.

Steve and I would also contribute tales, along with fellow Firebringer author Lance Woods. The plan also called for one illustration per story provided by Allentown artist Michael Riehl, who would also create the cover art.

Steve agreed on the condition that I serve as editor. 2012 was spent gathering and editing stories and writing three of my own. It was a wonderful experience and I could tell immediately that we had something special building here. We ended up with 13 fantastic stories from 8 writers.

The manuscript was submitted in February 2013 and accepted in October. The artwork is nearly finished as I write this, and Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity is set to launch at the Shore Leave convention on August 1 in Maryland.

I love your blog, Phil, especially the blurb paragraph about what you’ll find and then all these COOL links. How did you come up with that?

Phil Giunta: Thank you! Well, when I started my blog back in 2010, I simply needed material. I started with author interviews (including many of the aforementioned writers) and book reviews as well as SF convention news and announcements about my upcoming publications. Of course, I still do all of this, although the author interviews have dropped off a bit. Those will pick up again as part of promotion for our anthology.

At one point, I noticed that fellow GLVWG member Jon Gibbs had a feature called “Interesting blog posts about writing” each week on his blog. So, I stole the concept from him. Hi, Jon, hope you don’t mind!

I began scouring the interwebs for cool articles about the craft of writing, the business of publishing and the controversies that occasionally erupt (as when Joe Konrath takes someone to task or a vanity press like Author Solutions is caught fleecing writers…again).

Now, the collection of cool articles has become a weekly routine, though it’s potluck as to which day I post them.

And last question… so what’s next on the docket for you?

Phil Giunta: I have a novella-in-progress that will detail the first manifestation of Miranda Lorensen’s psychic-medium abilities when she was six years old. I consider it her origin story. The second draft is currently finished and awaiting revisions.

My medical SF story “First, Do No Harm” was accepted into a digital anthology called Local Magic by Antimatter Press. It is their first publication and is due out in Spring 2014.

I’m just starting to outline a SF novel regarding the journey of a generational ship, carrying the survivors of a dying Earth, across the galaxy in search of another habitable planet.

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A Pennsylvania resident, Phil Giunta graduated from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and continues to work in the IT industry. His first novel, a paranormal mystery called Testing the Prisoner, debuted in 2010 from Firebringer Press. His second novel in the same genre, By Your Side, was released in 2013. Phil has also narrated the audio version, available in podcast episodes at Prometheus Radio Theatre: http://prometheus.libsynpro.com.

In August 2012, he was among an exclusive group of authors selected to participate in Crazy 8 Press’s new venture, ReDeus, a collection of anthologies depicting the return of all the world’s mythological gods. The series was created and edited by veteran authors Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg, and Paul Kupperberg. Phil’s short story about the Celtic gods, “There Be In Dreams No War”, was featured in the premiere anthology, ReDeus: Divine Tales. He followed up with “Root for the Undergods”, a tale about the gods of the Gaul Empire in ReDeus: Beyond Borders.

Phil has recently finished editing an anthology titled Somewhere in the Middle of Eternity for Firebringer Press to be released in 2014, and is currently working on a paranormal thriller.

Visit Phil’s website: http://www.philgiunta.com

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Tammy Burke, GLVWG member, 2011 conference chair and past president, has published around 400 newspaper and regional magazine articles. She has interviewed state and local government officials, business and community leaders, everyday folk and celebrities, in addition to helping write scripts for over a dozen television commercials and writing various business communications. Currently, she is in the revision stage for her first YA fantasy adventure book, the first in an intended series. When not writing, she works in the social service field and is a fencing marshal in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA).

Mar 3 2014

Meet Sarah LaPolla, associate agent from the Bradford Literary Agency

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com/2014/03/meet-sarah-lapolla-associate-agent-from.html

Hi Sarah,
How delightful we have the good fortune of having you back at the GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference! I believe last time you were out I was the co-conference chair for Kathryn Craft and James N. Frey was our keynote. How are you?

Sarah LaPolla: Thanks so much for having me back! I’ve been doing very well since the last time I was at Write Stuff. A lot of changes – in a good way. I’ve been continuing working primarily with YA fiction, but I sold my first adult urban fantasy and my first middle grade last year. The biggest change has been my new agency, Bradford Literary Agency.

What are you liking best about the move?

Sarah LaPolla: The agency move was a huge decision I made last year, but I know it was the right one. I had been working in foreign rights, primarily, at Curtis Brown, and it was an area of publishing I loved. But, I wanted to focus on domestic rights and build a client list of my own, which I was able to begin doing at Curtis Brown. The experiences at working both places have been quite different. I think what I’ve enjoyed most about the move is that I’ve been able to make my list more diverse and have the time to focus more on what “type” of agent I want to be. Do I want to be totally specialized in a few areas or do I want to expand based on my tastes? Do I want to give in to trends or work on more timeless genres? These are questions I’ve been asking myself since I switched agencies, but I don’t know if that has anything to do with the agency specifically. It’s more that I’m growing as an agent, and Bradford just happens to be the new home to guide me during this new phase of my career. It’s pretty exciting! Plus, Laura Bradford and Natalie Lakosil are amazing women, and I am so proud I get to join their team!

Based on other interviews, I know you originally wanted to be an editor. What made you decide to be an agent? On that line, what is the most favorite part of your day (as an agent)? What do you find most challenging? And do agents really work 12-16 hours a day?

Sarah LaPolla: It’s true; back in my youth I dreamed of being an editor. I knew I wanted to be on “the other side” of publishing even while I was studying creative writing in college. I carried that with me to my MFA program, which I entered, again, because I wanted to be a better writer and editor, but without any real drive to be a (capital W) Writer. When I got to New York, I almost immediately starting applying to editorial assistant positions, and the HR departments at various Big 6 publishers were nice enough to humor little 22-year-old me. I spent over a year getting rejected until I remembered most people do unpaid internships first. That’s how I fell into agenting. I didn’t really know what an agent did. They weren’t something we learned about in creative writing classes, and Twitter wasn’t a thing yet. But, I knew they meant “publishing!” so I interned at a small agency that represented books I didn’t read, then I interned for an agent who represented books I loved. By the time I was actually qualified for a paying job, I knew I wanted to stay with agenting, and lo and behold, Curtis Brown, Ltd. needed a foreign rights assistant. So here I am!

My favorite part about being an agent is finding that manuscript that reminds me why I wanted to work with books in the first place. I like being reminded that I can help others read this manuscript that no one else has read before. Another nice thing about agenting in the post-digital era is that agents have taken on a very editorial role, so I still get to use those creative skills I love using. But, yes, it is true we work 12-16 hour days. I’m never not working. Whether it’s emailing editors and clients, making submission lists, reading clients’ manuscripts, editing, reading queries, reading requested manuscripts, doing conferences, or just thinking about what I want to find next – my job is never technically “over.” I try to create boundaries. I check my email all the time, but I don’t make it a habit to send emails after 8:00 or on weekends. Queries, however, are pretty much exclusively answered on nights and weekends. But I try to get to them during work hours as often as I can so I can have what the kids call “a life.”

So could you give us a quick backstage look regarding what it’s like to be an agent? Maybe two or three things most writers probably don’t know.

Sarah LaPolla:
1) We don’t just read all day. We like saying we get paid to read for a living because it’s kind of true, but that’s not actually reality. I rarely-to-never read during business hours. My nights and weekends are devoted to reading, and that includes client work, requested material from potential clients, and queries. Our clients and the work we do on their behalf are our first priority. If you’re wondering why your query is being answered at 3AM on a Saturday or why it’s taking us a month to read three chapters, that’s why.

2) Agents edit, but we don’t have to. To be clear, most agents are editorial and will work with their clients on revisions (sometimes more than one) before submitting a project to editors. The current market has practically demanded that manuscripts be as retail-ready as possible even before editors consider them. But, at the end of the day, agents pitch manuscripts and editors edit them. When we edit, we’re putting in hours (if not months) of free labor that is not a required part of our job description. Please remember that before complaining that an agent isn’t “editorial enough.”

3) No one wants to reject you! Agents have this reputation of being “gatekeepers” who burn our slush piles, but the truth is that most of our clients started in our query folder and we continue to find people we love in the slush pile. We don’t dread opening new queries. We hope we’re going to find something amazing. We look for reasons to request a project, not to reject it.

I enjoy your Glass Cases blog and I’m sort of hesitant to admit I could really relate to “Aren’t Real Writers supposed to put writing ahead of everything else?” from your post “On Being a Real Writer.” Out of curiosity, how is your writing panning out in 2014 so far?

Sarah LaPolla: Thanks for asking! I felt pretty good about my own writing toward the end of last year, but I haven’t had much time to myself in 2014 yet. Like I said in my blog post, I don’t put writing ahead of everything else. There are things I do put writing ahead of, but my career isn’t one of them. Even if I do ever finish a novel I think is worth querying, I could never give up being an agent. My clients are too important to me.

Could you tell us what your favorite book was when you were a kid? Is it still your favorite? Do you think it influenced what you look for now?

Sarah LaPolla: As a kid, I’d have to say the Fear Street Saga by R.L. Stine. I was a big Fear Street kid, but the Saga trilogy were my favorites. Yet, I can’t say with confidence that those books influenced what I look for now. It helped shaped my love of reading and books in general, though. As a teen, my favorite book was The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it remains the most important book I’ve read (on a personal level). That book has absolutely shaped my taste in literature, specifically with character types and overall themes in YA.

If your dream submission landed on your desk this moment, what would it look like? Would there be anything that would make you walk away from it? What would you say is the most important part if a submission is not quite perfect but caught your attention?

Sarah LaPolla: The thing is, I have no idea what my dream submission looks like because it doesn’t exist. I won’t know what I fall in love with until I read it. I know what genres and styles I’m drawn to and what I’m usually not a fan of. Beyond that, I just want something that surprises me. Something with depth. Something that matters. Something I can’t stop reading.

The most important of a submission is showing an agent that it stands out in the market, no matter what the genre is. Nothing is perfect and everything needs revision. Agents are good at seeing potential, no matter how slight. If we see something worth working on, we’ll keep reading.

What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of?

Sarah LaPolla: I’d like to see more originality. While most premises have been done before, writers still need to bring something new to their genre. Otherwise, why do we need that book to be published? With a lot of queries I receive, I end up thinking, “this seems fine, but I can re-read 4 or 5 books that are just like it instead.” I want to see fewer manuscripts that are already in bookstores and more of what I didn’t even know I wanted.

And finally, what three pieces of advice would you give to writers looking for representation? And looking to pitch?

Sarah LaPolla: Have patience and understand that rejections are not personal. Querying and pitching are about telling an agent what your book is about and who you are as a writer, and they’re about finding the right agent for your work. Don’t waste your time getting mad at the ones who weren’t enthusiastic about your projects. Appreciate feedback when it’s given, but don’t expect it, and don’t feel obligated to revise based on one agent’s advice unless you agree those changes will make your book stronger. You’re not just pitching your books to us; we’re pitching our vision for your books to you. A rejection just means we didn’t have a vision for you, but that doesn’t mean another agent won’t have one. It’s about being a good match on both sides.

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Sarah LaPolla joined Bradford Literary Agency in May 2013. Prior to joining Bradford Lit, Sarah worked for five years in the foreign rights department at Curtis Brown, Ltd., and became an associate agent there in 2010. She received her MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) from The New School in 2008 and has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Ithaca College. She runs a writing-focused blog called Glass Cases (http://glasscasesblog.blogspot.com/) and tweets about writing, publishing, and pop culture at @sarahlapolla.

What she’s looking for:
Sarah represents YA and adult fiction. On the adult side, she is looking for literary fiction, science fiction, magical realism, dark/psychological mystery, and upmarket commercial and/or women’s fiction. For YA, she is interested in contemporary/realistic fiction that doesn’t shy away from the darker side of adolescence. YA sci-fi, horror, mystery, and magical realism are also welcome; and she would love to find a modern Judy Blume for the MG market. No matter what genre, Sarah is drawn to layered/strong characters, engaging narrators, and a story that’s impossible to put down.

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Feb 28 2014

Meet Agent Monica Odom from Liza Dawson Associates!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com

Hi Monica,

We are delighted you will be joining us at this year’s GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference! Looking over your information, I can’t help but think what a well-rounded and fascinating background you have. Not only a firm education (English, Publishing, Film Studies and Journalism) but a wide range of practical experiences including finance, social media, websites, community development and editorial matters along with being backed by a prestigious agency.

I understand you came to be an agent a little differently than most and, in fact, (based on an earlier interview I stumbled on) had an earlier goal to become an editor. Could you share a little of your story about how you became an agent? Was there a deciding moment?

Monica Odom: As I was about to graduate with my Bachelor’s, a professor whom I’d met with for career advice forwarded me an internship listing for a literary agency. I must admit, until that point I did not know literary agenting was a thing (and the same goes for a lot of people, I’ve realized). I just knew I wanted to work with books outside of the academic realm. I graduated, got the (unpaid) internship, and worked with them for about six months before I was referred to my current company. I started at LDA as an assistant, and imagined that I would stay there until I was able to find something in editorial at a house somewhere (mainly because that’s what I had heard was the apprenticeship process for getting into publishing). It wasn’t until a couple of years in that I began to entertain the idea of me getting more involved editorially at LDA (since I’d been hired for finance and admin, and not editorial). Since I’d done a good job of managing my other responsibilities, and since I had expressed such a passion for agenting (especially after learning a ton about the business with my hands-on position), Liza was happy to let me start accepting queries and taking on clients. The deciding moment was probably when I took The Role of the Literary Agent class with Gail Hochman during my NYU program, and heard her describing all of the things I’ve ever wanted in a career.

Out of curiosity, what was it like to intern at the MTV Networks’ Public Affairs department? Do you find similarities between a public affairs department like MTV’s and what writers should be doing regarding press and marketing media platforms?

Monica Odom: I interned at MTV in 2009 and it was my first internship (and my first in the big city!). I loved going into the Viacom/MTV building and feeling like something magical was happening behind all of those closed doors. But actually, a lot of my time there was spent doing research and building communities (and this was before businesses were on the social media bandwagon). I was also responsible for the Obama report during our weekly meetings, where I described how Obama’s new presidency was affecting young Americans. So the department was very politically minded. One of my best memories from MTV is a buzz-building marketing stunt a group of interns and I did on the Today Show. A group of us had to wear t-shirts with a cryptic message written on them, and our mission was to get on camera. We ended up meeting Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer, and got a great plug for the mystery campaign. I love this story, because it was such a cheap yet effective and organic way to build buzz, and in publishing we are always looking for affordable buzz-building!

I know as an agent you have to be reading practically all the time. Do you ever get a chance to read for just pleasure and if yes, what types of things do you read?

Monica Odom: I do get some time to read for pleasure! I’m in a book club (we call ourselves the Lovely Ladies), and we try to do a book a month. Right now we’re reading Jennifer Egan’s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD (my selection!), and we use Google+ and Google hangout to talk about the book if we can’t all meet in person that month. I think it is super important to keep your personal tastes fresh and to keep reaffirming or challenging those tastes, being an agent. I occasionally try to sneak an extra “for pleasure” book in between book club books, but my grad school readings usually prevent me from that! Still, I consider myself very lucky for having a job that demands a lot of reading.

One of the descriptions you used for what you are seeking (and which I found quite attention-grabbing) are “writers with big ideas that push the boundaries of storytelling and its traditional forms.” Could you give us an example of this?

Monica Odom: I took the class New Fiction Formats in grad school with Jacob Lewis, who was working for Figment at the time. In the class, we discussed a bunch of different projects that were so amazing, yet so different from traditional formats. For example, a man created a fake Twitter account named @mayoremanuel, and would tweet as the mayor who was currently running for office in Chicago. He basically assumed this alter ego, and there were enough tweets to eventually put them together as a book, called The F***ing Epic Twitter Quest of @MayorEmanuel. The thing is, these tweets actually tell a story about a fictional character. I think this is so original, and so fun, and I want to be an agent who helps interesting projects like this come to market. I think I am well positioned as a younger agent to be a bit more open to new and interesting projects like this, and I’m hoping to let creative people feel more able to think outside-the-box (or outside-the-book!).

Do you think women’s fiction is growing as a genre…either in popularity or in subject matter?

Monica Odom: I do think women’s fiction is a growing genre, and I also think the topic areas that constitute women’s fiction are changing. In popularity, yes, because women are ever more a growing group with purchasing power. I also think ebooks have given women’s fiction a good push, with the boost in romance and thriller titles. A major shift that is happening lately, I think, is the backlash caused by the lack of women writers on bestseller lists. Women’s fiction is a popular genre, and women can’t always accept a book about women written by a man. I think the real shift that is happening is a growing support for women writers, writing about and for women, because that’s what many readers (many women) want to see more of. And I’m all for it!

Do you have any pet peeves regarding story? Do you have any instant likes?

Monica Odom: I’m not really crazy about romance, or female characters who are driven solely by a love interest. I’m also not into things like eating disorders or body issues, really. I’m really drawn to stories about family, especially siblings. I love magical realism (I’d love to find the next NIGHT CIRCUS) and literary fiction. I’m a sucker for a great voice, too. My first client’s MS was signed based on her high concept and her amazing voice, so that’s definitely something I am looking for.

You are open to some nonfiction such as history. Being a history buff myself I can’t help but wonder, is there a time period which you draws you the most?

Monica Odom: I’ve always been drawn to post-Civil War U.S. history. I do love WWII stuff, but it’s a bit overcrowded of a market and tough to differentiate (but I’d still take a look!). The Mad Men era is a time period that I’d love to see an MS based in. I’m also very into Civil Rights era things and African American history. And I swear I should’ve been alive during the 70s (think American Hustle), because the period from 1960-1980s fills me with wonder. Probably because I’m a 90s kid. My interest in world history would just depend on the topic area, and less so the time period.

Since you prefer authors who have strong social media platforms, would you consider anyone who is still in the learning curve of social media?

Monica Odom: Of course! I’m the social media manager for our agency, and I work very closely with our authors on their social media. I’ve found that most authors have some knowledge about social media, but many have varying degrees of experience. So it’s less helpful to send out an informational packet, and more helpful to do a social media audit and to sit down and talk to the author about what terrifies them about social media. I’m a believer that agents and agencies need to be more involved nowadays than ever before with their authors’ marketing campaigns, especially since helping an author navigate and build their social media followings may help sell their book to publishers. Also, I would rather be the one, as the agent, guiding my author through the process and answering their questions, than say, a marketing person at a publishing house who may not have time for that author once the book is out for awhile. So, yes, I think everyone can use some social media help, and writers shouldn’t be discouraged if they’re not super savvy online.

And last question…. Based on your experiences, if you were to give three “pearls of wisdom” on what you should do, or better yet, what you should NOT do when giving a pitch, what would they be?

Monica Odom: My pitch pearls of wisdom are:

1) Don’t mention that your mom or your friend loved the book. It’s silly.

2) Currently, I generally do not accept queries for books that have already been self-published. I really do work closely with my clients editorially, and I think the agent is an important layer of the editorial process. By already self-publishing a book and then querying, the text is already out in the marketplace, and I’m not able to provide any editorial feedback.

3) Don’t compare yourself to some huge prolific author (yes, such as Tolkien). I understand that you’re trying to position yourself, but it suggests you’ve done little research if the only comparable author you can come up with is a legend. It’d be great if you instead listed a couple of midlist or debut authors similar to yourself who had done well and who you consider comparable to your writing.

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Associate Agent Monica Odom joined Liza Dawson Associates in 2010. She is also the agency’s manager of finance and social media. Monica graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Montclair State University, and is now a candidate for her Masters in Publishing from New York University. Prior to joining LDA, Monica interned at Joelle Delbourgo Associates, New Jersey Business Magazine, and MTV Networks’ Public Affairs department.

Interested in representing: Monica is building her client list with a focus on literary fiction, women’s fiction and voice-driven memoir, as well as a focus on nonfiction in the areas of pop culture, food and cooking, history, politics, and current affairs. Monica is looking for writers with big ideas who push the boundaries of storytelling and its traditional forms. She is especially interested in writers with strong social media platforms who have something original to say.
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Feb 25 2014

Meet Mary Shafer the Indie Navigator, Indie Publisher, Award-Winning Author, and More!

by Tammy Burke

reposted fromhttp://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com

Hi Mary,

Can I just say wow! How impressive the number of “hats you’ve worn!” From award-winning author to marketing consultant to indie publisher and professional speaker (and illustrator, freelance graphic designer, art director, etc.) …everything in the publishing industry from what I understand except distribution. I’m so glad you are taking part in this year’s conference!

Mary Shafer: Wow, thank you! I think in another point of view, the only thing impressive about my background is apparent. ADD. Truth is, I’m a true Gemini and I get bored very easily. Also always afraid of missing out on something if I don’t learn and try everything that catches my interest. Up till now, that has always kind of hurt me in a world where specialization is most rewarded, at least financially. But with the weird turn the publishing industry has taken in the past decade, having this diverse skill set has actually helped, and that’s one reason I launched Indie Navigator — because I remember what it feels like to be in that place where you know what you want to do, but have no idea where to start or how to get there.

I would imagine those taking your pre-conference workshop Indie Publishing Intensive better bring a notebook so they can capture all this excellent information you have listed. I was wondering if we could get a bit of a teaser on some of the things you’re covering?

Mary Shafer: Sure. Actually, I do encourage those who learn better by writing things down (as I do) to take notes. But for others, it’s not necessary. I always prepare very thorough handouts for each of my presentations, as well as making my Powerpoint decks available as PDF downloads for all attendees. I just post the download URL at the bottom of each slide so people can copy that down and that’s about all they really need, because I put any handouts, examples, etc. in the same folder they access for the slide deck download.

That said, here’s a bit of what they can look forward to in my Indie Publishing Intensive, which I’m really excited about. I’ve presented all the elements before, but never all together in one time and place. So this will truly be intensive — I’m thinking of it as more of an Indie Publishing Bootcamp, with the exception that we’re not actually going to go through any hands-on workshops. It’s just going to be an insane amount of real-world information — not hype or vaguely disguised wishfulness — shared in a four-hour afternoon. But I guarantee that anyone who’s been on the fence about whether or not to become an indie publisher won’t feel that way when it’s over. They will know what to truly expect as an indie/self-publisher, and will either feel energized and excited by the challenge, or will save themselves a lot of time, effort, money and heartache by resolving to seek a traditional publishing deal because they realize they’re just not cut out to be a publisher themselves.

What I’m going to cover includes content from several of my more popular narrated slide presentations. I’ve broken out the process into three steps: Possibilities, Publishing and Promotion.

Possibilities will explore in detail what to expect if you decide to take the traditional publishing route and, alternatively, if you decide to self-publish. This is the amalgamation of these presentations I currently give to writing and indie publishing groups:

I Finally Finished My Book…Now What? – Options for modern authors
21st Century Books: What Is A Publisher, and Should I Become One? – Telling it like it is; the good, the bad and the ugly

Publishing will outline the very real considerations of what it means to actually be a publisher: setting up your business structure; choosing whether to publish only your own work or that of others, as well; apps and other technology that can help you manage day-to-day operations; sourcing vendors, etc. It encompasses some of the content of my presentation.

Digility: Digital Agility in Publishing – bit technical, laying out important considerations for someone building a modern publishing house from scratch

Promotion offers guidance in the nitty-gritty of publicizing and marketing your publication products and authors – arguably as important as offering a quality product in potential for success. It includes content from these presentations I often give at writer’s conferences:

Getting Published Ain’t For Sissies – Marketing for Nonfiction Authors: Finding your niche, building your author’s platform, effectively employing guerilla promotion tactics, creating a killer press kit, mastering modern technology to serve as your 24/7 personal publicity agent, and anticipating, identifying and leveraging trends.
Takin’ It to the Tweeps: Twitter for Authors and Independent Publishers
Your Book’s Website: Separate or Connected – Explores the advantages and disadvantages of single author/book sites and separate sites for each title inside a whole publishing web presence strategy
Online Newsrooms: What You Need and How To Build It – A step-by-step tutorial on this most important yet often neglected element of any successful author and publisher website

As you can see, it’s truly an exhaustive amount of material, but that’s what an intensive is about. Attendees may leave feeling a bit overwhelmed, but they will no longer face the dizzying confusion of wondering what they should be paying attention to and what lies ahead of them depending on the route they choose. Plus, they’ll be able to refer back to my handouts and slide downloads again and again. I tried hard to formulate a way to share the hard-won knowledge I wish I’d had when I faced the need to become an indie publisher. I don’t want anyone to have to struggle that way.

One the things you mentioned in your bio is that you share what you know so other authors and indie publishers don’t have to learn the hard way too. (And thank you for that, by the way) I am curious…what do you typically find as the top three most common mistakes?

Mary Shafer: Among authors and would-be authors seeking publishing deals, the top three mistakes I see are:

Failing to invest themselves and perhaps a bit of money in making their manuscript as polished and fully edited as possible before turning it in to the publisher or publishing it themselves. (I consider this a cardinal sin, frankly. There’s no excuse for turning in or publishing shoddy work other than laziness or lack of caring, both of which reflect not just on that author but on all authors and indie publishers.)
Failing to build a promotional platform for themselves as an author “brand” before ever approaching a publisher.
Not understanding the publishing process, resulting in their having unrealistic expectations of the experience.

For indie publishers, I think the top three errors I see would be:

The same as #3 above: lacking an understanding of what to realistically expect from being a publisher because they don’t really comprehend the entirety of what’s entailed in present-day book publishing. Far too many would-be publishers are still stuck in the last century when it comes to grasping how drastically this industry has changed in the past 10-20 years.
Overestimating their own knowledge, skill sets and capacity to get the work done. There are few fields in which it’s so critical to know what you can do well on your own, and what parts of each project you’d be better off delegating to someone with the right mix of skill and experience.
Underestimating the start-up costs in money, time and energy it takes to become a truly successful publisher.

I’m certainly not pointing any fingers—I’m as guilty as the next person in not having really known what I was doing when I first got started as an indie publisher almost 10 years ago. But I have a rather unique background that provided me with the exact mix of diverse skills that allowed me to survive all my dumb decisions.

It is both fascinating and inspiring to hear tales of the “blissfully unaware” overcoming the odds — like the success you had marketing your first book when, at the time, it wasn’t expected to earn out. What did you do that perhaps others haven’t or didn’t do?

Mary Shafer: In addition to the relatively unusual skill set I just referenced, I’m also lucky to be a quick study. When I’m in focused mode, I can take in a great deal of information at once, process it quickly and almost immediately integrate it into current projects and apply it in place of less-than-effective activities I would previously have used to get a job done. Not unsurprisingly, this typifies why indie publishers are able to be successful in today’s ever-evolving book industry: we’re small, and so much more agile. Our lack of overhead and the structural inflexibility that plagues larger organizations allows us to adapt quickly to the rapid changes that have characterized book publishing for decades now. Other advantages I had were that I am a proactive seeker of new information, and I have the courage of my convictions. If I know I am capable of doing something, I just don’t listen to the naysayers.

In the case of my first book, though, I must admit that I wasn’t up against that — I simply didn’t know the prevailing conventional wisdom was (and still is) that first-time authors are pretty much expected to fail. This isn’t nastiness on anyone’s part, it’s simply an acknowledgment of how much work it is to create, publish and market a book. Happily, there are many first-time authors not just succeeding, but doing so at a level unprecedented before the rise of digital technology. My entire reason for doing the presentations I do is to dispel that myth. Yes, odds are against the first-time author, but that’s mostly because the majority of them are woefully ignorant, unprepared, arrogant, lazy or all of the above. Anyone who doesn’t fit that stereotype in fact has a good chance of succeeding not only with their first book, but also in the long term!

You mentioned a new “Wild West” of publishing. I like that term. Could you tell us some of the opportunity that’s available?

Mary Shafer: I call it that because, just as on America’s frontier in the mid-1800s through the turn of the 20th century, the industry is without most of the “laws” that governed it for centuries. There are no longer any hard-and-fast gatekeepers and exclusionary forces that served for so long to keep people out of publishing. The Internet has largely democratized access with a still-proliferating array of publication/distribution platforms, marketing and promotion services and tools, and apps to handle almost any business operations function. Provided people are willing to self-police against inadvisable business practices, poor production values and bad customer service, there’s no reason they can’t create and sell books very successfully to an international audience of repeat buyers.

Is it easy to determine if someone should consider self or indie publishing?

Mary Shafer: If it were, GLVWG would not have had to hire me to give this intensive. 🙂

I understand being in a Category 3 storm as a child along with having two tornadoes (yikes!) pass by either side of your house during the early 1990s left you with a bit of a weather obsession. How much do you think these experiences led you to the writing and publishing of your award-winning “Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955?” Also, I’m curious, what does a Skywarn Weather Spotter do?

Mary Shafer: Just to be clear, I was not in the main circulation of Hurricane Alma as a child, only in the outer bands — so I never experienced true Cat 3 storm conditions. But what I did was certainly bad enough to have made a lifelong impression. And yes, I do absolutely believe these brushes with Nature’s most violent forces played a large part in forming my weather obsession. SkyWarn is a program of the National Weather Service that trains volunteers from age 14-100 to recognize conditions amendable to severe weather and to use established criteria to spot and report actual severe weather conditions to local NWS offices. This is far easier and more immediate to do today, with smartphones that allow us to call in our observations or to report via a mobile Internet interface. You can learn more at SkyWarn.org.

I understand there is a story behind how “Word Forge Books” came into existence. Could you tell us a little bit about when, and maybe more importantly, how you decided to create it?

Mary Shafer: I had begun writing my book under contract with a new indie publisher in Doylestown in 2003, with guidance from a trusted colleague and friend who was, at the time, affiliated with the non-profit organization. Two years later, as I was in the final revisions of the manuscript, I was informed that the publisher had been forced to go out of business, leaving me with no publisher and no rights to my own work, since I’d already been paid a partial advance. Two wonderful friends/business clients of mine who supported my project graciously donated the $2,500 for me to buy back my rights, for which I’ll be eternally grateful. However, by that time it was far too late to find another publisher if I were to make my goal of publishing in time for the mid-August, 2005, anniversary of the flood, which I was going to use as the publicity “hook” on which to hang the launch of the book. Realizing that I had most of the experience and know-how I needed to get the book published, I decided that rather than throw away the three years I’d invested in the project, I’d just publish it myself. And so Word Forge Books was born. I named it as a division of The Word Forge, my freelance copywriting and marketing consultancy business.

It’s worth noting that in 2005, Facebook was just being born, most folks didn’t yet even have a website or know what a blog was, many weren’t yet even fluent on email, and Amazon.com was just getting on its feet. There was no Kobo, Smashwords, GoodReads or any of the other online tools that now make getting a book into the hands of readers such a relatively easy process. As has happened more than once in my career, my needs were ahead of the market, so I plowed ahead using the tools I had at hand. I try not to think now of all the money I poured into that pioneering effort and just try to be happy for my colleagues who won’t have to go through that now, when they try to do the same.

Less than a year ago, you started “The Indie Navigator” so you could focus on the consulting work on publishing…presumably one of your favorite parts. Could you tell us about that deciding moment and what you envision for its future?

Mary Shafer: It wasn’t any earth-shaking thing, really. I just finally realized that the majority of my new consulting clients in 2011-12 were authors and indie publishers, and that it would be far easier for me to brand myself that way. After all, one must take one’s own advice, no? So I found my market niche and am now working on building the Indie Navigator brand among those professionals. As for the future, I’m trying more to envision simply success, without too much detail around what that means. I’m learning, albeit slowly, that even though creative visualization (my way of manifesting what I want from my life) usually works best when it’s very detailed, sometimes those details can be limiting when they’re taking place in an industry changing as rapidly as publishing is. SO I’m just remaining open to following the needs of my market right now. I don’t need to lead the market — that’s an expensive and exhausting place to be, I’ve discovered. I’m happy simply helping people not make the same mistakes I did, and hopefully making their publishing experiences as rewarding and enjoyable as possible.

Last question, with as many “hats on your head” do you still have time to write? And if yes, what are you currently working on?

Mary Shafer: Sadly, I don’t have much time to write anymore, and that’s one thing with which I struggle these days. Still, I have had some success the last two years using NaNoWriMo as the disciplined framework upon which to work up to nearly 26,000 words on my novel-in-progress, “Lonely Cottage Road.” It’s a Civil War-era historical romance with a slight paranormal twist, whose theme is the importance of honoring the creative urge. How’s that for vague? It’s my first novel, and I’m looking forward to having more time to work on it as I consolidate some of my other obligations in the near future. I’ve recently finished some rather large volunteer commitments that had become tremendously time- and energy-consuming, and I’m also re-tooling how I make my living to produce more income in less time. We’ll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, as I do all that, I’m also laying the groundwork for a novel series called “The Storm Diaries.” It features the adventures of forensic meteorologist Stephanie “Stormy” McLeod, her special needs dog Oogie, and her best pal, metal detectorist T.J. Tanner in solving cold-case mysteries around severe weather events. This series will allow me to combine my three great passions — severe weather, treasure hunting and animal rescue — into what I hope will be a long-running novel series that will allow me to make a living while writing off as a business expense my research trips to the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, and my own storm chasing tours. You can learn more at StormDiaries.com, and follow me on Twitter at @stormdiaries, where I often live-tweet severe weather events all over the US. You might wonder why I’m doing all that so long before the first novel even comes out. I’m taking my own advice and building my author platform ahead of time so that when it’s time for the book to come out, not only will I have a ready-made market to promote to, I’ll even be able to fund the first printing with pre-orders!

Thank you again, Mary, for taking the time for this interview! I look forward to seeing you at the conference.

Mary Shafer: Tammy, thank YOU for the good questions and your willingness to write up the interview. I hope I’ve been helpful and not too overwhelming. Also looking forward to meeting you at The Write Stuff!

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Mary Shafer. The Indie Navigator, is an award-winning author, indie publisher, marketing consultant and professional speaker. She shares what she learned the hard way with other authors and indie publishers, so they don’t have to make the same mistakes.

Entering book publishing in 1990 as an art director, Mary developed experience in most facets of the industry, including editing and marketing. By 1993, her first book was published by a mid-sized indie publisher. As a first-time author, her book wasn’t even expected to earn out. Blissfully unaware the odds were stacked against her, she used what she knew about marketing to tirelessly promote her book. It eventually went into three printings, selling 15,000 hardcover and earning her some attractive royalties. Her second hardcover came out in 1995, and her first self-published book sold out its entire first run of 2,500 copies in 42 days. Now in its second, updated edition and sixth printing, it has sold more than 6,000 print copies to date and is about to come out as an eBook.

In 2013, she launched The Indie Navigator brand to allow her to concentrate her consulting work on the market she knows best, publishing. She doesn’t want other authors to have to make all the painful mistakes she’s made, but believes that despite all the upheaval, this is the most exciting time to be a small, independent publisher and self-published author. In addition to her consulting work, she presents at writers conferences, to writers groups, publishing organizations and online to help authors and small publishers recognize the great potential for success in the new “wild west” of publishing brought on by technological innovation and the resulting changes in the marketplace.

Mary brings her knowledge and experience to every project she works on with her Indie Navigator clients (IndieNavigator.com).

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Feb 24 2014

Meet Melba Tolliver, GLVWG president & Founders Panel moderator!

by Tammy Burke

reposted from http://glvwgwritersconference.blogspot.com

GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference always offers so many varied choices. It’s sometimes hard to pick which thing to do and this year is no different. One of the new items on this year’s docket is Friday night’s Founders Panel hosted by GLVWG President Melba Tolliver.

Not only will you “meet the catalysts behind the dynamic group we call GLVWG” but you’re likely to get a personalized look at how changes in the writing world affects how a group evolves in response.

And that is a great way to get ideas percolating on an individual basis along with the obvious exposure to really fascinating stuff! President Melba Tolliver joins us today to give a glimpse behind the Founders Panel.

Hi Melba,

What a fascinating topic this year’s GLVWG “Write Stuff” Conference has for Friday night with the Founders Panel. I’m sure many will love to getting a real look at how our dynamic history unfolded.

First of all, who’s brain-child was it adding this to the conference docket? Will it be anything like GLVWG’s November program? Who is slated to be on the panel? Could you share a teaser of some of the things we might learn?

Melba Tolliver: The circumstances of GLVWG’s beginnings is a fabulous story and the telling of it in a panel discussion at our November meeting inspired Brenda Havens, WS co-chair and me to reprise it as one of the Friday evening events.

Hard to believe now, given the size of GLVWG’s current membership, but the group’s first meeting was called to order in a living room. Two good friends and very determined writers, Lorraine Stanton and Annie Kelleher, had spent a lot of time researching writers groups, and decided to start one of their own after cherry picking what was best about other organizations. Annie told me that she and Lorraine conceived GLVWG in the fall of 1992 and birthed it in Lorraine’s living room with 3 other writers the following spring. A month later, as word spread, they had a dozen members and it was clear that Annie and Lorraine had tapped into the hopes and aspirations of folks like themselves in the Lehigh Valley who loved writing.

At our November meeting, four of the very earliest GLVWG members, Deb Maher, Peggy Adamczyk, Joan Zachary and Jill Peters entertained us with tales of those early meetings, describing some of the concerns on the minds of the personalities who set the tone for the group early on. They also remembered some of the first Write Stuff conferences—really luncheons—at the Bethlehem Club.

GLVWG has had its ups and downs over the years suffering growing pains and overcoming what Annie calls “Founder’s Disease”, a malady that strikes when people who start an organization are reluctant to see it change. The November panelists shared their various insights on how GLVWG dealt with challenges in the past and how it might meet new and different ones going forward. One issue raised during the Q&A involved the fiction and non-fiction factions within GLVWG, whether both are equally served in a group whose members write across many genres.

Time was way too short and we could have spent the entire 90 minutes on changes in the book and publishing worlds never anticipated by the early GLVWGers. We’ll get into more of this, allowing more time for Q&A in what is sure to be a lively conversation. Deb Maher, GLVWG’s first president, and Peggy Adamczyk, who’s bringing her remarkable archive of GLVWG newsletters, will be back for the WS panel. Kathleen Coddington, former GLVWG VP, treasurer and librarian, and a writer with a passion for history, myth and magic, will join them.

I understand you are moderating the panel. Can you tell us a bit of your history with GLVWG? How did you discover the group? What drew you in?

Melba Tolliver: The late Bill Marley introduced me to GLVWG, suggesting I sign up for the WS conference in 2009. That did it. I joined the group and made my conference experience the first post on my new blog. I wrote about chatting with keynoter, Matt Birbeck, an award-winning investigative journalist and author, whose book on Sammy Davis, Jr. had brought him a movie deal.

When GLVWG librarian Rachel Thompson went on the road and and asked for a volunteer to take over for her I was happy to do it. I later moved on to be secretary and now president of the group.

What do you believe is the greatest thing a writer can get out of GLVWG?

Melba Tolliver: Support. Support. Support. Whether it’s a critique group or the Writers Cafe, you can get and give feedback on works-in-progress. In our morning programs or afternoon workshops members can educate themselves on any number of relevant topics and even serve as presenters themselves if they have expertise in a given area. A lot of networking happens in our group when members pick each others brains, exchange skills, or find a writing partner. If someone wants to volunteer to fill a leadership role, they can go for it and find benefits for themselves while helping the group. I like it that GLVWG provides so many opportunities to get and to give what’s needed.

With being a member for five years, holding offices such as librarian, secretary and president, you have had an eagle’s eye view of how the organization has grown and changed. What do you think are some of the biggest or most profound evolutions?

Melba Tolliver: I’m especially pleased that GLVWG has stepped up efforts to educate members about the tremendous changes in the book and publishing worlds. The late Bill Marley, Bart Palamaro and David Miller deserve much of the credit for keeping us current about independent author publishing. The technology has changed everything, even the way we in GLVWG communicate. Email, sharing through our blogs and social media was stuff not available to our founders. Not that I think we’re well served by everything available to us in this digital age. For instance, our library became obsolete when members quit borrowing books, turning instead to blogs and other resources for help with craft and research. So we reluctantly sold off most of our books (they found good new homes) and closed the library.

Thank you for undertaking the office of president this term at GLVWG. What do you think is the most important part of the office? How would you like to see GLVWG evolve?

Melba Tolliver: Keeping track of the various tasks of the board and making sure everyone knows in a timely manner what’s going on is what I find most demanding as president. I’d like to see us developing more partnerships with other entities. For instance, I recently attended an evening at East Stroudsburg University as it closed out its One Book One Campus year. They had chosen as their book “The Other Wes Moore” by the author of the same name who gave a wonderful, inspiring talk. The audience—ESU students and an entire HS class–put aside their cell phones and other devices to pay attention. I sat there amazed and wishing there was a way GLVWG could help support a program such as this.

We have so much talent in GLVWG, I’d like to come up with more ways to share it.

If memory serves me, wasn’t there recently a Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Day in Easton?

Melba Tolliver: Last fall I made requests of the Easton mayor and Northampton County supervisor. Both responded and created proclamations for each of five GLVWG founders or early members (Stanton, Kelleher, Maher, Adamczyk and Barbara Haines Howett) acknowledging them and noting the work of GLVWG on its 20th anniversary. Additionally, and to my pleasant surprise, Mayor Salvatore Panto proclaimed November 23, 2013 Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group Day in Easton.

One thing my years of reporting taught me: it pays to ask (about and for nearly anything) the worst that can happen is you get a “no” and sometimes no response. So I’ve become pretty practiced in my asking skills.

Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview, Melba. GLVWG is such a diverse, dynamic and growing entity. It will indeed be a real treat for our conferees to interact with our Founders Panel.

Ladies of the Borobudur
by one of GLVWG’s earliest member –
Barbara Haines Howett

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Melba Tolliver. Her writing has appeared in the newspapers Akron Beacon Journal, Amsterdam News, USA Today; the magazines Black Sports World, Good Housekeeping, Unique NY, Networking. A longtime broadcast journalist she has written news and features for ABC, WABC, WNBC, News 12 Long Island and the Food Channel. She has served as writer-in-residence at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY; Howard R. Marsh Visiting Professor of Journalism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; journalism teacher, College of Old Westbury, NY. Her honors include NEH Fellowship, University of Michigan; NY Urban League’s John B. Russwurm award; NY Association of Black Journalists’ Lifetime Achievement award; NY Women in Communication’s Matrix award; Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Molloy College, NY.

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