This has nothing to do with publishing. . .

. . . but rather with technology. Which I am currently hating.

Remember this?

The problem is just getting worse. And of course, it happens when I'm up against a huge deadline. I don't have it in me to think of post-worthy content until I get this resolved.

So sorry. Consider this week my summer vacation.

Writing Your Book Club Questions

I've seen some book websites (and sometimes published books) with kits for book clubs—everything from discussion questions to activities to refreshment ideas. What makes for a "good" book club kit?

Having book club questions as part of the printed book is becoming very popular. You're more likely to find/need to provide these questions for women's books and Middle Grade/YAs. Discussion questions depend on the type of book and should be more than just a book content trivia quiz.

Personally, I like questions that relate things that happen in the book to the reader's real life.

From a book club perspective, get some ideas HERE and HERE and HERE. You'll want to customize them for your book.

As far as a book club kit, the more you provide, the better. You could do themed party ideas and provide suggestions for anything from decorations and invitations, to games and other activities, to refreshments and door prize ideas—your imagination is the limit.

Is this necessary? No. But as someone who attends a couple of book clubs and often finds them tedious, it is lots of fun to turn it into a party. (Which I do when it's my turn to host.)

Fatuous Friday: What I Do All Day

You say you've gone into semi-retirement. What exactly does that mean? What is your basic day like now?

I wake up around noon. Watch TV all day. Eat bon bons. Around 7:00 p.m., I eat some fast food, then get all spiffied up and hit the local dance bars until 2:00 a.m. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Oh, wait. That was college.

I basically do the same thing as I did before, but freelance and on a project by project basis. A publisher will call me up and ask if I'm interested in managing a project. If I have the time and the interest, I take it on. If I hate the book or need a break, I pass.

I take the project from manuscript submission to press ready—sometimes doing the work myself, sometimes outsourcing it to other contacts. I do the same thing for self-publishers.

I mostly work from home, rather than at an office, although sometimes I'll go onsite for a project. Just depends on the needs of the project.

I don't really have a basic day. It changes depending on the project. If I'm not too busy, I get caught up here on these LDSP sites. If I miss posting here, or post late in the day, it's usually because I've got a deadline I'm rushing to meet.

Publishing Artwork—Beats Me

Do you have any suggestions on getting artwork "published" or to a distributor? Do you recommend any sites with this info?

Uhmmm, I have no idea. Here are some places that I've seen at LDSBA. I don't know if they all publish or if some just distribute.

Altus Fine Art

Foundation Arts

Granite

Sounds of Zion

Readers, if you know anything about this, please chime in.

I'm Not Ignoring You. Promise.

If I sent you the info for my book but it never appeared on LDSF, to what should I attribute that? Will you be offended if I resend?

You should attribute it to the probability that I didn't get it. PLEASE DO resend.

I get a LOT of junk mail at the ldsp hotmail account. So much, in fact, that I'm considering closing down that email and opening a new one. Just haven't gotten around to it.

The first thing I do when I check my email is to weed out the obvious junk mail—you know the ones, where I've won the lottery or someone wants to pay me a million dollars to help them sneak their money into the U.S. If there's a question in my mind, I usually open it, but if you've put something really odd in your subject line, I might have accidentally deleted your email without opening it.

The best way to make sure I know it's a legit email is to think about that subject line. Good ones are:

• Question for LDSP

• Book for LDSF

• Contest for LDSP

• Author Event (or Book Signing or Workshop or. . .)

• From an LDS Author

• Will you review my book

• or anything else that makes it obvious you're a legit blog reader and not a mail-order-bride from Uzbekistan.

Sorry, Th. Yes, resend.

And about that Christmas Story Contest. Good suggestions everyone. I'm going to update the rules right now.

Christmas Story Contest

Updated 07/08/09 (see bolded purple info below)

Writing Tip Tuesday: Enter contests. Like this one. . .


Remember that Christmas Story Contest I mentioned last month? Well, here it is.


LDSP's 2009 Christmas Story Contest

Prize: Publication in a Christmas collection that will be published and ready for sale in October.


Submission Rules:

• FOLLOW rules carefully! In the past, I've let some of you slide a little. But since this is for a publication, I'm going to be as sticky-picky as I am when receiving real submissions. Why? Because this is a REAL submission!

• Write a short Christmas story in any genre. Stories should be positive and family friendly. I reserve the right to refuse any story I deem inappropriate for this blog/book.

• Maximum word count: 2,000; no minimum.

• Story must be previously unpublished. Stories published anywhere other than your personal website or blog are ineligible. (That includes books, magazines, e-zines or other contests.)

• Stories submitted for previous years' contests are also ineligible for this contest. (But may be selected for publication in the book.)
  

• Paste entire story into an e-mail. NO ATTACHMENTS, please.
  —Put "Contest: Title of Story" in the subject line of your e-mail. (Example: Contest: A Christmas Gift for Mary)
  
  —At the top of the body of your e-mail, type your name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, word count and whether you are a published or unpublished author (defined below). (Example:
  
  LDS Publisher
  123 My Street
  My Town, ST 00000
  123)456-7890
  ldspublisher@hotmail.com
  word count: 1990
  published author
  
  —Skip a line, then put the title of your story
  
  —Skip a line, then paste in your story.
  
  

• "Published"—as in published author—is defined as someone paid you money or comp copies (in the case of magazines) for any story or book written by you. (So either a publisher paid you, or you self-published and people bought your book.)

• If you are a published and/or agented author, check with your publisher and/or agent before submitting. They will want to know the information listed under "Book Details".
  

• You may submit more than one story. Send each submission in a separate e-mail. Include all your info, as outlined above, with each e-mail/story.
  

• SUBMIT your story any time between NOW and Saturday, August 15, 2009.

• I will post the stories beginning on August 1st, in the order that they arrive.

• We will have Reader Voting for the best stories, as we have done in previous contests. The winners are guaranteed a spot in the book. Voting will take place August 16–22nd. I will post voting rules then.

• You may tell your friends that you've submitted a story and to please go vote, but DO NOT tell them which story is yours. We want the stories to win on merit, not personal popularity.
  

PRIZE: Publication in the Christmas Collection

• There will be four winners:
  Readers' Choice/Published Author
  Readers' Choice/Unpublished Author
  Editor's Choice/Published Author
  Editor's Choice/Unpublished Author.
  
  These four winners are guaranteed a spot in the book.

• As usual, I reserve the right to not award one of the Editor's Choice awards if I feel none of the stories deserve it.

• Other stories in the book will include my choices from this and previous Christmas contests held on this blog, selected based on providing a variety of stories and book size.

• All authors to be included in the book will be notified by the end of August, 2009.

Book Details (Read Carefully):

• By submitting a story to this contest, you are agreeing to all the conditions below.

• Authors shall give LDS Publisher One-Time Publishing Rights for inclusion of story in the as yet untitled Christmas story compilation. This is the non-exclusive right to publish your story in this compilation, in various formats, and to retain your story in the compilation until LDS Publisher takes the compilation out of print.
  

• Authors shall retain all other rights and copyrights to their stories and may sell this story to any other party with a publication date after December 25, 2009.

• Compensation for use of story in this compilation shall be: one free e-book copy of the published book sent to author upon publication; author's name listed in the Table of Contents and on the first page of the story; and rights to use this compilation as a publishing credit. No royalties, advances or other monetary compensation will be given to any author. Author may not print or sell the e-book files.
  

• Compensation exception: If sales of the book exceed costs to produce it, LDS Publisher shall notify authors and arrange an equal royalty split between all authors. Conditions and terms of royalty and payment shall be determined at that time.
  

• LDS Publisher shall assume no rights to any future works by author.

• LDS Publisher shall have full editorial rights to the stories included in the compilation, including, but not limited to, title changes, editing for space and content, design and layout of book, title of book, and book cover.

• The compilation will be available for purchase online in both print and e-book formats by October 31, 2009.

• The compilation may or may not be made available to bookstores at discounted pricing, but in any case, no marketing will be done by LDS Publisher to guarantee placement in any bookstore.

• Authors agree to help spread the word about the contest and the book by any or all of the following methods:
  
  —Word of mouth to friends and family
  
  —Website/blog buttons, links, posts, etc
  
  —Facebook, My Space, Twitter, or other networking sites or forums
  

I think I've covered everything. If I update any of the above, I'll post a notice and mark it in bolded purple. I'll have buttons created later this week that you can post on your blogs/websites.

Help spread the word! Post about the contest on your blog, in your forums, and e-mail all your friends.

Creating the Buzz

My first novel was just released and I'd like to get some buzz going (my publisher doesn't do much) but I don't know where to start? Any ideas? Can you give me some step-by-step suggestions?

If I had a new novel coming out, I'd start with the free/cheap stuff first. I also would have started a few months ago, but that's okay. You can still do all these things now.

• Set up a blog or website with info about yourself and your book.
  (Good examples: Josi S. Kilpack [love the visually attractive details on her books; her site probably cost money, but you can do similar things with content for cheap] and the "Crusty Old Broads" who wrote The Company of Good Women series [good info on books, authors & upcoming events, visually attractive] )

• Contact bloggers who do book reviews and ask them if they'd be part of your virtual book tour. (Good example: Stacy Anderson's Life Is Tough Tour)

• Use the LDS Publisher sites to their full advantage. Take a look at what I do here and send me the needed info:
  
  —Send me info about your book, so I can post it HERE.
  
  —Send me info about yourself, so I can post it HERE.
  
  —Send me a review copy so one of my reviewers can post it HERE.
  
  —If you have book signings or other appearances set up, send me the info so I can post it HERE.
  
  —Offer to sponsor either the LDS Publisher blog or the LDS Fiction/Fiction Review blogs.
  
  —Start commenting on the blogs to get your name recognized (if you have a Blogger blog, your comments will auto link back to your profile, where you will have links to your website and/or blog about your book.)

• Do the same things above at other sites and forums that allow it.

• Offer to speak at schools, book clubs, libraries, etc. on a topic related to your book.

• Tell everyone you know how excited you are about your new book.
  

• Hold a contest on your blog/website with your book as a prize. (Good examples: Tristi Pinkston's Agent in Old Lace contest and Joyce DiPastena & Friends Summer Treasure Hunt Contest)

Now for the things that cost a little more money.

• Make business cards with the cover of your book on one side and your contact info on the other (including your website/blog URLs).

• Make postcards with the same info and send them out to announce book signings and other events. Be sure to include URLs to where the book can be purchased online.

• Send out press kits to local media—newspapers, radio, TV. You'll do best if you have a tie-in to an issue or event that will get good coverage anyway. (Good example: Julie Bellon's Skittles for Soldiers drive )

Readers, what am I forgetting? Feel free to share what you've done, with links to where you did it.