The Write with Abandon Issue of WPNews for August 2024


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WPNews, August 2024

The Write with Abandon Issue

From Kathleen Kaiser, President

The merger of IWOSC and PALA is now complete, and they are part of the Writers & Publishers Network. This gives us more educational events for all members (many free) and non-members for a small fee.

The rest of the year's offerings are on the calendar below, which will appear in each issue of WPNews from now on. I'm thrilled to have the talented and knowledgeable members of the WPN Programming Committee to extend our reach in speakers and topics.

WPN is continuing its support of the ALA's Unite Against Banned Books. I'm pleased to see many talk shows with Banned Book Clubs, especially Ali Velshi. He has most of the authors as guests to discuss their book and the topic of book banning. Check his show out on weekend mornings.

If you are a member and want to join a committee, please contact me, and I'll direct you to the chair. Since this is an all-volunteer organization, we are always looking for more people to help.

Not a member? Check out the many benefits of membership. We are expanding more opportunities all of the time. Join us!

Kathleen

kathleen@kathleenkaiser.com

From Sandra Murphy, Editor

As summer draws to a close and school looms, schedules change once again. For most people, it’s been a stressful year. This is the time to do something special for yourself, to create a calm and relaxing space, to take a breath before it’s back to the usual rush and busy days.

It’s also an opportunity to write whatever you want without care or worry about each word. If needed, you can fix it all later.

Write for the enjoyment of putting one word in front of the other.

Write like no one’s reading over your shoulder.

Write with abandon.

Sandy, Editor, editor@writersandpublishersnetwork.com

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For contributions to the newsletter and Letters to the Editor, please e-mail editor@writersandpublishersnetwork.com

Articles are due the 15^th of the month before publication, run 1,000 words or less, can have a photo, a moderate amount of self-promotion or links, and are about writing, publishing, or being paid for your work.

Please email me with your topic idea before writing to avoid duplication.

If you are not a member, to enjoy the many benefits, join now at www.writersandpublishers.com

October 19: Save The Date To Protect The Freedom To Read At The Polls

Saturday, October 19, will be a nationwide day of action to fight voter apathy and support pro-library, anti-book-banning candidates. Join the Freedom to Read Community Day of Action by organizing an in-person rally in your community. Sign up now to be part of this important movement! www.uniteagainstbookbans.org

A preview of some of the changes coming with the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, due out this fall.

Many good changes are coming to the grammar bible for book publishing, The Chicago Manual of Style. If you are a WPN member, you can subscribe for 50% off and have the online version at your fingertips.

WPN Calendar of Educational Events and Activities

August — DARK – enjoy your summer!

September 14 — Irresistible Query and Cover Letters webinar with Leslie Lehr

Week of Sept 23 — Annual Literary Agents Panel (date to be confirmed)

October 13 — From Historical Mystery Writing to Marketing with Jeri Westerson

October 24 — Latest News and Techniques Creating Amazon Ads the Sell with Sonja Dewing

October 28 — Panel discussion on Graphic Novels

November 9 — Designing Book Covers that Grab and Sell with Eric Labacz

November 21 — AUTHORS: Don’t Get Scammed with Desiree Duffy and Kathleen Kaiser

December —DARK - too many holidays…too much fun!

Look for emails announcing when registration opens. These events are for both members and non-members.

Features and Columns

Ask the Book Doctor: About Author Intrusion by Bobbie Christmas

Q: Someone online the other day inquired about a quick, easy way to look up questions about writing. People suggested The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, as well as The Chicago Manual of Style. Those are well known. I suggested Bobbie Christmas’s Purge Your Prose of Problems.

Now, I’ve just looked through that book and your other gem, Write In Style. I think I remember reading something in Write In Style, where you said when writing in third person, the writer’s voice should not have opinions about the story or characters that they impose on the reader. I hope I’m remembering this correctly.

I want to be sure I’m not advising a client wrongly about her story. If the main character says someone’s a jerk, that’s fine, but the narrator should not be calling that character a jerk. Right?

I’d like to quote you (if that’s your position) but I can’t find it in the book.

A: You’re absolutely right. The issue is one of author intrusion. If the narrative calls a character a jerk, it reflects the author’s opinion and is therefore author intrusion. If a character calls someone a jerk, that’s the character’s opinion and it’s fine.

Example of author intrusion: The jerk who stole Marie’s purse threw it in a trash bin.

Example of character’s opinion: Marie looked at her battered pocketbook and said, “The jerk who stole it threw it in a trash bin.”

Send your questions to Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications. Bobbie@zebraeditor.com or BZebra@aol.com. Read Bobbie’s Zebra Communications blog at https://www.zebraeditor.com/blog/.

The Publishing Game by Jay Hartman

Nobody’s perfect. And neither is any book.

Let’s face it, we all want any books we put on the market to be the best they can be and free of errors. Punctuation and grammar should glisten with perfectionism. Every word and phrase should sparkle with fairy dust. Chapters should flow like a rainbow through the sky.

And then…reality sets in. Living up to that kind of standard is exhausting. For some reason, we expect books to be perfect when we don’t expect any other creations to live up to the same standards. How many (as I age myself) CDs have you listened to where you didn’t like all the songs? How about a favorite artist who does a painting that doesn’t speak to you? Is a wayward brushstroke or a messed-up lyric any worse than an improperly written paragraph?

The statement “nobody’s perfect” is absolutely true. Another great adage is “sh*t happens.”

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Be part of the discussion! Send your questions to jhartman@mistimedia.com with TPG in your subject line.

When you lift all voices, everyone becomes a winner in The Publishing Game. Read More...

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Be part of the discussion! Send your questions to jhartman@mistimedia.com with TPG in your subject line.

WPN Vice President Jay A. Hartman has worked in the publishing industry for more than 30 years. For 13 years he served as the creator and Editor-in-Chief of Untreed Reads Publishing. In 2023 he created Misti Media, a company dedicated to book publishing and author education.

The “Throw Spaghetti at the Wall and Hope Something Sticks” Approach to Marketing by Ellen Byron, reprinted with permission, originally published at the Chicks on the Case blog

Through the years since my first mystery was published in 2015, I’ve developed a finely honed approach to marketing my books, something we are all tasked with these days. Let me bullet-point my approach for you:

Do a bunch of stuff and pray something works.

Yup. That’s it. One poor, lonely bullet point.

Like all authors, I’ve blogged, guested on podcasts, and done in-person and virtual appearances at bookstores. My overall goal is to try one new marketing idea per book release, so I’ve also done Bookstagram tours, bought ads, and augmented my own graphics with ones done by a professional.

Thrower of spaghetti. Reformed performer. Lover of wine, hater of sunshine. Canine enthusiast. Author of the Cajun Country Mysteries, the Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico), the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and the Golden Motel Mysteries.

reprinted with permission, SleuthSayers.com

Bad Advice by Michael Bracken

Recently, I was talking to a writer who was feeling overwhelmed. She sought advice about accomplishing all the projects she had committed to while taking advantage of all the opportunities coming her way.

These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure.

I suggested she divorce her spouse, abandon her children, ignore her friends, and hole up in a little apartment where she could concentrate on her writing career. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have also recommended copious amounts of caffeine.

Michael Bracken (www.CrimeFictionWriter.com) is an Edgar Award and Shamus Award nominee whose crime fiction has appeared in The Best American Mystery Stories, The Best Mystery Stories of the Year, and many other publications. Additionally, Bracken is the editor of Black Cat Mystery Magazine and several anthologies, including the Anthony Award-nominated The Eyes of Texas. In 2024, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his contributions to Texas literature. He lives, writes, and edits in Texas.

When NOT to Seek an Editor by Arthur Vidro

Sometimes, it’s better to delay or forgo hiring an editor.

You might be a professional-caliber editor and capable of editing your own material.

You might wish to self-publish a small run of a simple book (i.e., a thin pamphlet of your poems to give away to loved ones), and it’s not going to matter how “right” you get it, because nobody will be buying it.

You might have a first draft that you wish to improve by rewriting on your own, before seeking an editor. If the editor charges by the hour, the better you can make your manuscript ahead of time, the less it will cost to have it edited.

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Arthur Vidro is a freelance editor/proofreader/writer and has sold eight short stories and hundreds of newspaper columns. He may be reached at vidro@myfairpoint.net.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2018 issue of Calliope, whose ISSN is 2691-1388.

Bits and Pieces – News You Might Have Missed

Resolution From The Episcopal Church: Harmful Book Bans Undermine The Beloved Community by Rev. Qiana Johnson, Associate Dean of Libraries, Dartmouth Libraries and Member, ALA Policy Corps Unite Against Book Bans Cadre and Rev. Kim L. Coleman, National President, Union of Black Episcopalians.

https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/resolution-from-the-episcopal-church-harmful-book-bans-undermine-the-beloved-community/

How to Reveal Your Character’s Vulnerability (Even Though It’s Human Nature to Hide It) https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/2023/07

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Hachette Book Group’s Orbit division has a new imprint (number four). Run for It will publish Orbit’s current horror authors and has plans to add more. Look for it in Summer 2025.

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With horror becoming more popular with readers, here are six ways to write better monsters:

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/how-to-write-monsters-in-fiction

Also at Hachette, the discontinuation of the Algonquin Young Readers, Hachette Books, and Hachette Go imprints as the latest reorganization under CEO David Shelley continues. Layoffs were barred for three years following Hachette’s purchase of Workman Publishing. Now the three years are up—layoffs are part of the reorganization plan.

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July 12^th, Turkey blocked access to online writing and publishing service Wattpad, a clear restriction of the freedom to publish. Free Web Turkey says Turkish authorities blocked access to 219,059 URLs in 2023 alone. The International Publishers Association, Turkish Publishers Association, Turkish Writer’s Union, and PEN International have called for the Turkish government to reverse its decision.

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LitUp Greenlights Fiction Debuts from Underrepresented Authors. LitUp connects with authors long before the manuscript is headed to print. There’s an educational retreat, mentorship with an established Reese’s Book Club author, intros to editors and agents, and marketing support when published. The book club is a brand of Reese Witherspoon’s media company, Hello Sunshine.

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Book sales rose 10.9% in May, were up 5.5% over sales of the first five months of 2023. Comic book and graphic novels fell by 7% in 2023, to $1.87 billion from the high of $2 billion in 2021.

However, comics and graphic novels have good news too—comics thrive in libraries through digital lending. Comics Plus, powered by LibraryPass, serves school libraries, but the number of public libraries is now a growing market. A popular feature allows multiple patrons to check out the same book at the same time, unlike OverDrive.

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Looking for ways to bring attention to your book or a special sale? Check out the 25 marketing ideas shown here, complete with notes as to why they work:

https://insights.bookbub.com/book-marketing-display-ads-stunning-designs/

Conferences

For a running list of cons, also check out BV Lawson’s blog at https://inreferencetomurder.typepad.com/my_weblog/upcoming-conferences.html.

August

August 22-25, 2024

Killer Nashville

Nashville, Tennessee

https://register.killernashville.com/

Special Guests: Karen Dionne, Rebecca Zanetti

August 28-September 1

Bouchercon

www.bouchercon2024.com

Nashville, Tennessee

Guests of Honor include JT Ellison, Brad Thor, Heather Graham, Harlan Coben, Rachel Howzell Hall, Anthony Horowitz, V.M. Burns, Mick Herron, Kelli Stanley, Clay Stafford

September

September 7-14, 2024

International Agatha Christie Festival

Torquay, United Kingdom

https://www.iacf-uk.org/2024

September 12-14, 2024

BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival

Sydney, Australia

www.badsydney.com

September 13-15, 2024

Bloody Scotland

Stirling, Scotland

www.bloodyscotland.com

September 13-15, 2024

Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity

Columbia, Maryland

Special Guests: Lee Goldberg, Jack Campbell, Sujata Massey, Emily Hockaday, Carolyn Ives Gilman

www.creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

September 20-21, 2024 VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Write Now! Desert Sleuths Sisters in Crime Chapter

Friday, 9/20 PitchNOW! Price: $35 per session; 8 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

EditNOW! Price: $60 (email submissions) with WPN VP Jay Hartman

Saturday Presentations and Interviews:

Mysteries with Staying Power: How to Create Books that Maximize Reader Engagement by Naomi Hirahara

Forensics Faux Pas and How to Get Away with Murder. This interview with forensics specialist Jennifer Dornbush, who has a penchant for writing mysteries … click to read entire description

Humor Hacks from a Sitcom Veteran with Ellen Byron. For some, writing is hard enough. But adding humor? … click to read entire description

Saturday Panels:

Truths, Lies, and Myths Debunked: Editors Tell All. Moderator Jay Hartman will lead the discussion with editors Michael Brackman, John Connor, and Barb Goffman

https://desertsleuths.com/writenow-2024/

writenow@desertsleuths.com

September 26-29, 2024

Presented in partnership with the Southeast Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and Georgia Writers Museum.

https://www.georgiawritersmuseum.org/southern-fried-crime-con/

Conference Location:

The Lodge on Lake Oconee

930 Greensboro Road, Eatonton, Georgia (706) 485-7785

September 26-29, 2024

Sleuthfest

St. Petersburg, Florida

Special Guests: Lisa Unger, Dr. Katherine Ramsland

www.sleuthfest.com

September 28, 2024

The Missouri Writers Guild conference will partner with the St. Louis Publishers Association for a one-day event in St. Louis at the Richmond Heights Community Center. A box lunch will be served. More details to follow. www.missouriwritersguild.org

Saturday, September 28th, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Early Bird price of $55 for members and defaulting to $65. Nonmember price will be $75.

www.missouriwritersguildconference.org

September 28, 2024

Men of Mystery

Long Beach, California

Special Guests: Matt Coyle, Leslie S. Klinger, Matthew Quirk, Marc Cameron, Joe Ide

www.menofmystery.org