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5 Ways Authors Can Benefit From Libraries

English: Jordan Sonnenblick doing a book-signing at the Eldersburg Library in Eldersburg, MD. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think it might be true to say that for most of us our desire to become writers grew out of our love for reading. And that love for reading grew out of our visits to the library. For many of us, those book-lined buildings were like a second home. Now as authors, we still treasure our local libraries and visit them often (I hope) either to satisfy our hunger for good quality reading material, or to do research. But did you know that your local library holds other benefits to you as an author?

Below are some ways we can benefit from our library:

1. Submit your book. As an author, one of the best ways to gain exposure is to have your book included in the library system. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for indie authors to get in because of the overwhelming number of indie titles being churned out in the US alone every year. But now there is hope. If you have written an ebook for which you hold the rights, you can submit it to SELF-e, a library curation process open to ebooks written in the English language. Your book has to undergo a vetting process by the Library Journal’s evaluators, and if selected, it will be made available to librarians nationwide. You can get more information here

2. Hold a book signing or library reading. If you have a print version of your book, holding a book signing or library reading is a great way to get the word out. After I self-published my book Women For All Seasons, I plucked up my courage and approached my local library to do a book signing. To my surprise, the librarian was very pleasant and helpful. She gave me all the information I needed and even made a large poster for me with my photo and the title of my book and placed it at the library entrance on the day of the event. I felt like I was a famous author. Read about it here.

3. Participate in group discussions. Writers’ groups, book clubs and other community groups hold regular meetings in the library. Getting involved in these events not only helps you get known, but it may help you establish valuable contacts. Readers also love to see the face behind the wonderful book you have written.

4. The ideal environment. Above my desk, I have rows of bookshelves. Whenever I look up from my computer screen, I see books, and even though I’ve had most of them for a long time, they still inspire me and help to keep me anchored. If you are not blessed with the right environment for writing, what better place to go than your library? It’s usually quieter than a coffee shop or bookstore and has all the books you may need for research right at hand.

5. Donate your print book. In #1 I stated that it’s difficult for indie authors to get their books in the library. Difficult, but not impossible. Marlene Harris, a librarian with 15 years experience, advises that you call or email the person in charge of Collection Development or Acquisitions. He/she may request two copies, but Marlene warns there are always exceptions – textbooks, fill-in-the-blanks books and books with spiral or comb bindings may not make the cut. You can also check to see if your library’s website has a blog. They may be happy to help you promote your book there. But, say Marlene and a librarian I spoke to, the best way to get your book noticed by libraries is to have it reviewed by a reputable reviewer like Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and others. Get more information here.

So, the next time you visit that revered building to return or check out books, look at it with a new pair of eyes. Think of ways you can use your library to promote yourself and your writing. Best of all, make friends with your librarian. Let them know you are a local author and what you write. You never know what unexpected benefits may come your way.

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

How do you begin writing a novel? How do you build the plot, recruit a cast of characters, place them in an exotic setting and do all that in a way that will keep your readers turning the pages? In other words, where do you get your ideas? At a conference I attended, one of the presenters suggested that authors browse popular magazines for stories that interest them and build a plot based on that. She actually had us draw up a simple outline during the session. I came up with a few other fountain of ideas.

From other novels. As a writer, you should be reading – a lot – especially in the genre you want to write. Even famous novelists report that they have been influenced by other authors, especially the classical ones like Hemingway, Dostoyevsky and others. One editor suggested you summarize a novel you enjoyed, but change the entire premise. Instead of the good guy riding off into the sunset with the girl, have her marry the bad guy instead. It could mark the beginning of a series.

From your life. What kind of life experiences have you had? Have you ever stumbled on something you were not supposed to witness? Have you ever found yourself in a place you were not supposed to be? How did you get out of it? At the last conference I attended, one of the hosts mentioned that the fourth floor of the hotel in which we were staying was not accessible either by elevator or escalator. Why was the fourth floor cut off like that? What was on that floor? The mystery writers among us all had their antennae up.

The media. One thing we can be assured of is, people love bad news. Every book on writing will tell you that an effective story begins with someone facing a disaster or conflict of some sort. Therefore, if you want bad news, where do you turn? To the media, of course. They dole out mini plots everyday. Think of the stories that dominated the headlines last year. The disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the Ebola outbreak, the Bill Cosby rape allegations, ISIS, police shootings, and other less popular stories can all provide us with enough material for many books.

Your job. Regardless of where you work, your job can be a treasure trove of interesting stories. Your co-worker who is going through a divorce, a grandmother whose son has just moved back home, a woman who has just been diagnosed with cancer, an accountant who is cooking the books to keep his mistress. The list is endless. The idea for my first novel Coming Out Of Egypt came from when I worked as a schoolteacher. There were two sisters who, it was rumored, were being abused. In my novel, the older girl kills her father.

Your imagination. Of course, no matter where you look for ideas, you will not have a salable idea without imagination. You cannot rewrite a news item and make it read like a novel without infusing it with some imaginary details. If the situation you now come up with intrigues you and makes you want to keep on writing, then you can be sure your readers will want to keep on reading.

After you hit on an idea that sparks your creativity, draw up a plot then run it by a few friends. Listen carefully to what they say, but go with your gut feeling. You will write many drafts before you type The End. Drop me a line in the comment box below and let me know where your ideas come from.

The Beginning Of My Novel Journey

With January just half-way through, you may still be trying to refine your resolutions, craft new ones or just reflect on what improvements you can make to your life this year. I haven’t made any resolutions. I simply prefer to reexamine my values and set my goals based on those values. And one of my values as a writer, and I daresay, that of most writers, whether you are a veteran or a newbie, is to grow and improve. How you translate that depends on what stage you are in in your writing life.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember, and have been fortunate to have some short stories and articles published. However, I still have not realized my dream of having my novel Coming Out Of Egypt published. And it’s not for want of trying. I have queried agents and publishers, attended conferences, pitched to agents and editors, obtained paid critiques as well as having my work critiqued by my writers’ group. Most of the feedback I received has been positive, but still no contracts.

So this year I’ve decided to take the plunge and self-publish. I know, most people say it’s always too soon to give up. I am not giving up. I am simply using a viable option available to me in this brave new world of publishing. I think my book is as good as, or even better than, some of the traditionally- published ones, and I expect it to do well in the marketplace. Meanwhile, I’ll be editing and pitching the second book in the series, In The Wilderness. So please follow me on my novel journey. Maybe you’ll pick up a few tips, and if you see me going the wrong way, please advise me to make a U turn.

Why not share your novel journey with us in the comments box below?

Expect Only Your Best

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year. With my grandchildren around me, my Christmas could not have been better. I am now looking forward to what 2015 holds. Which brings me to the reason for the headline above. Actually, it came about as a result of a post I read this morning, one that had nothing to do with writing. The author was speaking about expectations in general and she stated that expecting too much from others can lead to disappointment. And she was right. We should only set standards by ourselves.

So, what expectations do we have of ourselves as writers? I know for myself, I set my expectations very high. I want to be the best writer I can be. I want my work to stand out from among the others. There is a trend in writing and publishing toward producing work that is quite similar to what is already on the market. One person writes a successful vampire story and hundreds flood the market. One person writes a dystopian novel and we get hundreds more. And I wouldn’t even touch on the romance market. I suppose we are afraid that no one would read our books, or, worse yet, we would not be able to find an agent. The latter may very well be true, but whatever happened to originality and creativity and uniqueness? Where are the Shakespeares, the Jane Austens, the Faulkners of our day?

A friend of mine who is a voracious reader told me recently that Agatha Christie, who wrote 91 books, 82 of which are mysteries, has a unique plot and unpredictable ending for each one of her mysteries. Now that’s what I call creativity. I read Agatha Christie when I was growing up, so I may have to go and reread some of them through the eyes of an author.

In 2015, my expectation is to be my creative best, and if I get only one reader, then so be it. What are your expectations? Please share them in the comments box below.

Farewell To Maya Angelou

Yesterday the world said good-bye to an icon of American literature. Maya Angelou is best remembered for her memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Much has already been written about Maya’s turbulent, early years and her rise to phenomenal success in the arts, literature and political activism. Many young people met Maya through her memoir, which was required reading in high schools, and for decades, Maya continued to educate us with her wisdom and mesmerize us with the magic of her words.

Maya Angelou with Bloomberg and Nadler (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a writer, I am always looking for words that stir my soul, quicken my pulse and thrill me beyond measure. Maya Angelou’s writing does that to me. This excerpt, taken from the poem Still I Rise is one of my favorites, and I daresay, the favorite of many:

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Gifted person that she was, Maya has left us a treasure trove of words that we as writers can live by. As I reflect on the life and passing of this “great light,” her words inspire me to remember that my beginning does not dictate my end. Maya’s light shines on.

Maya Angelou Quote

Creating Memorable Characters

English: Image at the beginning of Chapter 34. Darcy proposing to Elizabeth. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: George Allen, 1894. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Some time ago I wrote a post about how important it is to create characters that your readers will love and will come to think of as friends. Think of Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, or Katniss in The Hunger Games. How can we forget these characters? According to Donald Maass in Writing The Breakout Novel, what makes a character memorable is their inner conflict.

Donald Maass says, “In creating genuine inner conflict, it is not enough simply to create inner turmoil. True inner conflict involves wanting two things that are mutually exclusive. It is most effective when it tears your protagonist, or any character, in two opposite directions.” In other words, if she gets one, she may have to give up the other.

In my novel, Coming Out of Egypt, I tried to do this with my protagonist, Cicely. She is a schoolteacher, a Christian, whose only desire is to go on living a Christian life, take care of her ailing father and help two of her former pupils get over the effects of their abusive past. Despite her best intentions, Cicely falls in love with the detective who is investigating the murder of the girls’ father.

Her conflict now becomes both internal as well as external when the detective, now her fiance, tells her he may have to arrest the older girl for her father’s murder. Cicely doesn’t want to see her pupil arrested for murder because she suspects the abuse is what may have driven her to kill him, if in fact she did. Also, if her fiance ever finds out that she too was abused as a child, would that mean the end of their relationship?

What conflict does your character face? Does he/she have to deal with external as well as internal conflict? Share with us in the comment box below.

Use It Or Lose It

Today I heard a sermon in church that had me thinking how the phrase above may apply to writers. We have all heard it in connection

Physical Fitness Test (Photo credit: The U.S. Army)

with physical fitness, but this sermon had to do with the parable of the talents. In case you’ve never heard it before, here’s what it is in a nutshell. Three servants were given 5 talents, 2 talents and 1 talent respectively. In the parable, the talents referred to money. The first two men worked their talents and doubled them, but the third man hid his in the ground. When their master returned, he rewarded the first two men for their accomplishments, but he rebuked the third man strongly. Not only that, he ordered that the one talent be taken from him and given to the one who had the most.

Use it or lose it! As I listened to the sermon, I wondered why the third man had done nothing with his talent. Was he lazy? Afraid? Indifferent? Whatever the reason, we as writers cannot afford to be like him. Many times I hear would-be writers say, “I can’t just bring myself to sit down and write.” Or, “I started, but I stopped.” Or some other excuse. If writing is something you want to do, do it. Don’t bury your talent in the ground.

Well, you say, I don’t know if I have the talent. You may not have the talent, but if you have been thinking about writing, then you have the desire. And writing is a craft that can be learned. Going back to the story above, I believe the master gave them talents according to their ability. The third man was not expected to produce as much as the first one did, but he could have produced something. You may not be able to sit down and write a 400-page novel right now, but you can begin by writing a blog post, an article, a poem, a short story. Whatever your level of ability, use it or lose it.

Slow Down And Speed Up

I can’t believe it’s almost a month since I wrote my last post, but 2014 has opened as hectic as last year was. It seems like there are more people everywhere, more traffic on the roads, and less time to do everything. Or maybe I’m just getting older. I know that last one is definitely true. So, this is a reminder to myself, as much as to you, to slow down and speed up. Huh?

Sounds like a paradox, but what I’m trying to say is if you want to accomplish your writing goals in 2014, you may have to slow down on the things that don’t really matter and speed up on the things that do. What are the things that slow you down and clog your day? Is it phone chats, texting, web surfing, social media? Take a look at your day and see what you can chuck in order to have a more productive life. When you have found them, throw them out or cut down the time and spent on them.

Then you would want to increase:

a. Writing time

b. Researching time

c. Marketing time

Try it this week and see if this doesn’t improve your productivity. Do you have any other thoughts on the subject? Leave me a comment below.

Economic Or Artistic Success: Which Do You Prefer?

One of my favorite Christmas pastimes is watching reruns of popular Christmas stories. This year with all the family activities taking

Copy of Sketch of Charles Dickens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

place, I didn’t get a chance to watch any of them. However, a post on AWAI’s The Writer’s Life, a blog I subscribe to, set me thinking about the authors and what they had to go through to create and market these stories.

The first one that sent me digging for information was the perennial favorite, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This manuscript, which was later to become a masterpiece, was first intended to be a political paper championing the cause of the poor and their children. Dickens himself had suffered humiliating childhood poverty after his father was imprisoned for debt and Dickens, at the age of twelve, was forced to leave school and work in a shoe-blacking factory. Dickens later decided that a Christmas narrative would be the most effective way to awaken the population to his concerns about poverty and social injustice.

Dickens took six weeks to write the story and it was published on Dec. 19, 1843. The book received immediate critical acclaim in London, and the first run of 6000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve. Initial reaction in America was not as enthusiastic, but the book later caught on after the New York Times published an enthusiastic review. Despite this, revenue from the self-published book was disappointing. Production costs ate into his profits, and to make matters worse, the book was later pirated in January 1844. Dickens sued and won, but the pirates, Parley‘s Illuminated Library, simply declared bankruptcy and Dickens was left to pay £700 in fees.

A Christmas Carol may not have been an economic success for the author, but it has impacted millions over the years and continues to do so today. So, which do you prefer – economic or artistic success? This famous work by a beloved author proves that no matter how magnificent our writing, financial success is not guaranteed. Rather, we should always strive to produce our best, most heartfelt work and let God decide the outcome.

Creating Your Characters

Joyce Carol Oates at USF (Photo credit: shawncalhoun)

If you are a fiction writer, one of your major challenges is creating memorable characters. Think of your characters as the pillars of a structure. If they are not strong, or don’t have the necessary qualities to support that plot, it’s likely to collapse. If your readers don’t care for your characters, especially the major ones, chances are they won’t care for your story either. Think of a movie you saw that you really enjoyed. Why did you enjoy it? What do you remember about it? Of course, great acting may be one of the reasons you enjoyed the movie, but if the main character was weak, then the acting couldn’t do much to improve on it.

In my critique group, I get a lot of praise for my characters, even the lesser ones. I think it’s because I try to get to know them – their likes, dislikes, what makes them tick, what is likely to set them off – that sort of thing. When I began my first book in the Egypt series, I searched faces on the street and in magazines looking for the right faces to match my characters. I found that people in public gave me what I wanted more than magazine photos, for the simple reason that I could commit to memory their build, their gait, facial expression, mannerisms etc. Nothing gives me more pleasure than when my critiquing friends say, “I just love Marva,” or, “I just love David.”

In the video below, popular writer Joyce Carol Oates discusses how to create outstanding characters. Enjoy!