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Comment by Art Rosch on January 23, 2009 at 12:36pm

Alistair, asking a writer to give advice on writing a book is like asking a kid to ignore the candy sitting on the table and maturely look forward to the broccoli. I say this: write. write some more. Then write some more. Ignore how "bad" or "good" your attempts are. You will get better. Sometimes (in fiction) it's good to have an ending in mind. The rest will unfold. Can you believe how brief my advice has been?

Comment by Alistair Glendinning on January 23, 2009 at 8:43am

Hi Folks,

I am new to this group and have only joined Startbiz today! I have never written a book before, though I have a real desire to do so and am making notes at the moment. So any advice would be greatfully recieved!

kindest regards

ali

Comment by MURALEEDHARAN P G on January 23, 2009 at 6:48am

I'm new to this group although I am an author, I am a software professional and have autored technical books.

Comment by alzheimersideas on January 20, 2009 at 6:37pm

Want to make a little extra cash while you are writing your book Go to dementia expert
Alzheimer's Activities Expert and click on the red box on the right that says Get Paid to Blog

Comment by Gary Val Tenuta on January 20, 2009 at 4:22am

Art,
Camping in Utah in over a hundred-degree heat? How could you be so stupid? LOL! Loved the bit about your dad's car, too. Again, How could you be so .... Oh, wait. I shouldn't be talking. When I was a teenager I took a "cherry-bomb" (one of those big, fat, 2-1/2" red firecrackers), wrapped up inside a baseball-sized wad of aluminum foil, lit the fuse, swung my arm back to toss my little bomb up in the air, but waited too long. The thing blew up in my hand. Apparently the gods of Independence Day were watching over me because, miraculously, I didn't lose a single finger. My hand was numb for about 2 hours and I was scared to death that it would be that way forever. I could just hear what my dad was going to say. How could you be so stupid? But that's another story.

So, "Gods of the Gift" is a novel for hipsters? Tibetan Buddhism, jazz and abstract art? Sounds pretty cool. Do guys like Thelonious Monk and Mose Allison play a role? :-) Tell me more.

Regarding publishing, when I was working on The Ezekiel Code I knew a little about how the traditional publishing business works. As a first-time author with no sales track record I wasn't about to sit around for months on end waiting for rejection letters so I decided to save up my pennies and go POD. I was aware of the negative stereotype that "self-published" books had but I also knew my book had a potential niche market and I figured if I could somehow use the internet to get the book noticed by the people who comprised that demographic then it would probably get some attention and make a lot of sales. Turns out I was both right and wrong. I was right in that it has attracted a lot of attention. My website consistently gets an average of a thousand hits a month. That means over the past year and a half somewhere in the neighborhood of 18,000 people were enticed enough by whatever promo they saw (press release, video, banner ad, my MySpace page, my Facebook page, etc.) that they took the trouble to go to my website where they could purchase the book. But I was wrong about the sales. The book has sold just over 300 copies out of those thousands of visits to my website. I puzzled over this for a long time and the only conclusion I can come up with is that the price of the book killed a lot of potential sales. That price issue is one of the big negatives when it comes to POD books. You may have noticed many of them are priced anywhere from $5 to $10 over the cost of traditionally published books. I could have had the publisher (Outskirts Press) put a lower price on it but that would have meant that my royalty would decrease. The book is priced at $21.50 although both amazon.com and B&N actually sell it for a slightly discounted price of $19.95. But even at this price I only receive $3.51 per sale. I've thought about having the publisher lower the price to maybe $15.95 which would bring my cut down to around $1.50. But if that would increase the number of sales then it could be worth it.

Comment by Greg Booth on January 20, 2009 at 12:17am

Hi. I'm new to the group and although I am not an author, I am a photographer that can do photo illustrations. So if you are an author that needs to have your work illustrated, stop by my page or my website and check out my work.

http://turrilliumphotoartandillustration.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Comment by Art Rosch on January 19, 2009 at 9:31pm

Thank you Gary. I read your post with interest. I just posted
the first page of "Green Highway" on the "tell us about your book"
page. Yes, I'm doing it too. Who else will do it (talk up your book)? It's so difficult to get someone to read your book! First of all, you never know if you're putting someone in an embarrassing situation.
"Green Highways" is fairly universal, but "Gods of the Gift"
is something for people interested in Tibetan Buddhism, jazz,
abstract art....in other words, hipsters. I would like to know
details of how you're getting yours published. G Highways
will eventually sell....even in this horrid book market. But
I'm open to e-books, just about anything. I wouldn't be here
at this network if I weren't pushing hard at every opportunity.
I have faith in my work! (Go on little kids, do well in the world)

Comment by Gary Val Tenuta on January 19, 2009 at 7:05pm

Hi Art,
Promotion is the biggie, isn't it! I can't count the hours I've spent online this past year promoting my novel, The Ezekiel Code (www.ezekielcod.com).

See? There I go again. It's become a habit. I need a 12-step program. :-)

I loved the excerpt from your book, The Miracle Highway: Journeys In a Changing America. Nice hook. Pretty enticing.

I couldn't agree more when you said: "When your
characters start telling you (via dreams or intuitions) what they
need to do next, then your writing is coming to life."

That was one of the best parts of the writing experience I had during the years it took me to complete The Ezekiel Code. So I totally understand why you're having such a great time working on your new sci-fi/fantasy novel. May it become a best seller! And we can say we knew you when.... :-)

Comment by Art Rosch on January 19, 2009 at 12:49pm

Hello writers! It isn't the writing part that's difficult for me.
It's the promotion. I work every day on my fiction and
non fiction projects, and my greatest victory was winning
a "Best Story" award from Playboy Magazine. The publishing
industry has changed drastically. I write what I can write,
not what I think will sell. I've been getting articles and photos
published by Shutterbug Magazine. It isn't "literary" writing
but it pays! When you love the book you've been writing as if it's
your own child, then you're reaching your best. When your
characters start telling you (via dreams or intuitions) what they
need to do next, then your writing is coming to life.I've been having
a great time working on my sci-fi/fantasy novel, "The Gods Of The
Gift". I don't know what I would do if I couldn't sit down to
work on it every day. And it's taken me 35 years to bring it
to maturity! I write agents every day. I pull every string I've
got, contact every friend in the publishing business. I've
just made a blog entry at my site here, and I would love
to have you read it and have a laugh at the expense of
this whole social networking thing!
Come visit me at www.artsdigitalphoto.com

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