Catholic Writing and Publishing – Page 39

RIP Walt Staples

March 15, 2012/8 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Karina Fabian

Many of you know Walt Staples from the Guild and online conferences. I’m saddened to have to tell you that he died Wednesday afternoon, March 14, of natural causes.

Walt was a very talented writer, with a quirky sense of humor and a unique world view. He was prolific, especially in the past few years. One of his favorite playgrounds for stories was the shared universe of Avenir Eclectia (http://www.avenireclectia.com/). Publisher Grace Bridges said he accounted for nearly a quarter of the stories there. He also loved writing stories in his small “Suthern” Danube County, and when Karina Fabian started a blog about the space industry, he pitched in each Saturday with a story about growing up during the space race. Nonetheless, he was never interested in payment. He used to say it was too much trouble finding a publisher–and it’d ruin his “amateur status,” anyway. He just liked to tell stories.

He also had a voracious appetite for books, fiction and non-fiction, especially history but also geology, space, and anything that caught his fancy. He had the same appetite for news, and often forwarded the zaniest articles, accompanied by snide comments, to his many victims—er, friends. He had several pen pals, electronic and hand-written.

He gave unselfishly. He served as President of the CWG for a while and taught workshops at the online conference, before his wife developed medical problems and he quit all that to better concentrate on her. He was very conscientious about her care, and about making sure she had enough books for her Kindle. Even in the height of stress, he didn’t complain much; just soldiered on because he knew people needed him—and he kept his good outlook and his humor through it all.

They found him at a bus stop, where death took him suddenly and unexpectedly, with his family waiting for him at home and books and letters en route from pen pals. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

This was one of his publicity shots. He never showed his face. Other photos include the back of his head and him kissing his wife, Jan, behind a hat. Some of his friends never knew what he looked like, but it was his heart and mind that mattered.

Rest peacefully, Walt. We’ll meet again.

The Stigma of Self-Publishing

March 12, 2012/4 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

I am the self-published author of four books. Three of my books are currently on various bestsellers’ lists on Kindle. My second novel, In Name Only, won a Gold Medal in Religious Fiction in the 2010 IPPY Awards (the first Catholic novel to win this award). It has been #1 in its category for nearly three months (dropping to #2 for two weeks when my third novel Stealing Jenny took over the #1 position). Stealing Jenny is #2 in one category and has been in the top 20 of four other categories for three weeks. In the past year, my books have been downloaded by tens of thousands of readers. And yet, when I recently asked a local Catholic newspaper if they would write a review of my latest book, they replied, “We don’t review self-published books.”

Another time, I attended a large “book fair,” where hundreds of local authors set up tables and sold books. There were other self-published authors at this event. At first glance, however, it wasn’t obvious that I was a self-published author. My books had professional looking covers and book trailers. I sat beside a published author who began conversing with a prospective reader. “Did you self-publish your book?” the reader asked. “Oh, no, I would never have done that. My books are published by a reputable publisher.” She would never have stooped so low as to self-publish. Ouch.

Self-publishers have come a long way. Years ago, authors who took the “vanity” publishing route were rarely taken seriously and they rarely sold more than a few books.

That attitude has improved in the seven years since I published my first novel, although many professionals in the publishing industry and some traditionally-published authors continue to have a bias against self-published authors and books.

I believe part of the reason is because self-publishing is so easy nowadays that just about anybody can do it and the quality of some self-published books is poor. Some naive first-time authors think they can do it all. Some newbies think that they are great writers and don’t “need” an editor. Novice authors often think they can design their own cover without any sort of advice from a visual designer. I have seen more than a few self-published books in my capacity as reviewer for Catholic Fiction.net in which the quality of writing was so bad I won’t even review it.

Another reason there may be a negative bias toward self-publishing could be the belief that self-published authors wouldn’t be able to get published by a traditional publisher or that perhaps they have already been rejected. This may be true for some self-published authors. But consider the case of self-published millionaire, Amanda Hocking who was rejected by traditional publishing houses and who is selling 100,000 books per month on Kindle.

On the one hand, I understand why some newspapers, magazines and websites need to have a blanket rule in place for self-published books (since there are many poorly written self-published books). On the other hand, I have also read extremely well-written novels by authors who self-published: Elena Maria Vidal, Gerard Webster, Christopher Blunt, Krisi Keley, Regina Doman, to name a few.

Although self-publishers have come a long way, we have not arrived yet with regard to “stigma” of self publishing. Despite the stigma, I don’t believe I would ever go the traditionally published route. After self-publishing four books (with lots of assistance) and after having 100 percent of the control, it would be hard to give my books to a publishing company. For me, it would be like giving my baby away to someone else to raise.

The stigma and negative bias of self-publishing will likely not disappear completely. However, if self-published authors continue to publish quality books, sell to thousands of readers and raise the bar for self-published books, it will hopefully lessen the stigma.

To learn more about self-publishing, I’ll be giving two chat presentations at the Catholic Writers Conference Online in March: Self-Publishing and Kindle e-books.

Members: We Need You!

March 9, 2012/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Karina Fabian

You can probably guess from the topic and from that fact that it’s from me, that this is a call for volunteers. It seems that my purpose in the Guild, whether as founder, President, or Committee Coordinator, has been to beg for people to help with our projects. Maybe one day, I’ll work myself out of a job?

The sad fact is that the Guild has several wonderful projects and important functions that are floundering because we don’t have enough folks. This past year, many folks have dropped out because of family illnesses, economic troubles, or sometimes for happier reasons like getting a new job. We really need some folks who can devote an hour or so a week, or maybe a few hours one weekend a month–and we need a few people who will jump in to lead some of these projects.

Sometimes, its hard to know what you can help with. To that end, I’m creating a talent survey. This survey will have two purposes–it will help us know what Guild projects might interest you, but it will also let us know your skills so that when someone comes to the officers seeking a writer or illustrator for a project, we will know who to contact. We have had several wonderful (and some high-paying) opportunities come through the Guild.

Please be on the lookout for the survey. In the meantime, three of our committees have identified the following needs.

1. Proofreader for the CWG Book News. This is a monthly ezine of about 1500 words. It only takes about 10 minutes to proof, but that second set of eyes is invaluable!

2. Database workers: All you’d need to do is input the information, not develop the database itself. We need folks for the membership committee (inputting names, addresses, and such), and for building our contact list of magazines, radio stations, etc.

3. Assistant to get guest speakers of the CWG Guest chats. This person would assist the Guest Chat chairman with:

–Contacting writers, illustrators, publishers, etc. to join the Guild in a moderated chat on the topic of their choice. (Kind of like the chat presentations at the online conference.)

–Scheduling someone to moderate and transcribe the guest chat. Remember, this is only once a month.

4. Assistant PR leader. This person would help coordinate the public relations activities. This is probably the most time-intensive duty, but is still no more than a couple of hours a week during the heavy weeks (like right before the live conference) and perhaps an hour a week the rest of the time.

If you’ve been thinking about joining the Guild and cannot afford dues, we do allow volunteer work in lieu of dues.

If you can help with any of these, please contact me at coordinator(at)catholicwritersguild.com

Why 30K For Christ?

March 8, 2012/1 Comment/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Karina Fabian

30K for Christ started (as many projects do) from a conversation in the chat room. NaNoWriMo was coming up. This was back when it was a new thing, but many of the folks in the chat were disappointed that they would not be able to participate because they were writing non-fiction, or wrote articles rather than long works. They wanted a challenge that worked for them, too.

As we got to talking, we realized that as Catholics and writers, we have a calling to use our words to serve Christ and better our world. Whether writing a Catholic apologetics article or a thriller or a humorous flash fiction piece, we needed to keep Christ in our hearts and minds as we wrote.

Thus, 30K for Christ was born. The challenge is simple and broader than NaNoWriMo: write 30,000 words in a month in whatever format. It could be 30,000 words towards a novel or non-fiction book; 10 articles of 3,000 words each, even 30 pieces of flash. (There’s a challenge—a story a day!) Even work like press releases and blogs count. The only stipulation is, you begin each writing session by dedicating it to Jesus and implore his guidance as you write.

The goal is not like NaNoWriMo: We’re not seeking to turn off the internal editor to increase productivity. Rather, we’re seeking to keep Christ present as our first editor, so that the words we produce are in keeping with The Word.

The first 30K for Christ challenge only had a few participants, but all agreed it helped them gain better awareness of the working of God in their life and writing. The challenge went on hiatus for a couple of years, but another conversation in the chat room brought it back up. This year, we’re hoping for more participants.

We’ll be signing up on the CWG forums*. Please drop by and state your intentions. Full instructions will be there, and on the blog March 22. Once April begins, check back now and again, post your progress and share encouragement and challenges.

BTW, if anyone would like to make a couple of icons (one Participant and one Winner), please e-mail me at karina(at)fabianspace.com. It’s be great to have a little something for our blogs.

*Sorry, the program is for dues-paying members only.

“Ah, Reviews”

March 6, 2012/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, The Writing Life/by Larry Peterson

It is fascinating to me how we are all so similar and yet so individually unique. Our perceptions of similar things we see and hear can be so different that it might seem impossible that we have witnessed the very same incident. Three people may witness a traffic accident, and by the time the police have asked each of them what they saw, they might have three totally different stories. What about book reviews?

My novel, The Priest and The Peaches, has received a multitude of reviews since it launched two months ago. The book deals with five newly-orphaned Catholic kids who are trying to stay together as a family. The parish priest is their guide as they try to navigate the waters of “grown-up world”. For the most part the reviews have been great. There was even one from an atheist in the UK who wrote that he was “so glad he read it because it actually made religion sound nice”. There’s a home-run for you.

Then there was one from a reviewer who wrote that this was “the first time I have to do a SCATHING review”. She literally hated the book, and wrote that it took her three weeks to force herself to get through six chapters (there are 20) and after that she “could not go on”. She hated the theme, the characters (especially the priest), the grammar, the punctuation, and even bashed the publisher for publishing it. It was almost as if the book made her angry.

The point is this: As a writer you squirrel yourself away in your little writing hole and do your thing. You pour your time and effort and sweat into creating and putting together your work, always clouded by a veil of insecurity that it is “not good enough”. Then the work gets out there. Now you are the quarterback who has just thrown a long pass down-field. If you’re good enough, most of the time you will hit your target. But you will NEVER hit it every time.

What’s it all about? How Theme can help your story shine.

February 28, 2012/9 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Encouragement for Writers, Fiction, Marketing Your Work, The Writing Life, Writing Tips and Tricks/by Leslie Lynch

Theme comes in lots of shapes, sizes, and variations, but embodies the core of what something is about, whether it’s your brand as a writer, the story you’re writing, the characters you’re writing about – or the music you’re listening to while writing. So what is theme, and how can it help focus and clarify your purpose as an author?

Theme is the underlying idea that makes something tick. It is pervasive and affects everything about the whole, without being overt or overbearing. In fact, the best practical expression of theme in writing rarely shows up as words on paper. Rather, theme directs the words in order to come up with a finished product with specific meaning at a deeper level.

Let’s look at theme from the big picture to the more detailed aspects. First is your theme as a writer. Why do you write? What do you hope to accomplish – and how are you different from the thousands of other writers out there? If you’ve never written a mission statement for yourself, this is a great exercise. The answers to these questions can keep you focused and motivated. A bonus for taking a few minutes, hours, or weeks to analyze your purpose is that you may come up with a brand, a concise statement of why you are unique and what you have to offer your readers. If you’d like to take more time to contemplate your calling as a writer, Lent is a perfect time for reflection. Use it!

On to story. What are you writing about? Not the plot – what happens – but the deeper meaning? This is the place for clichés. Not in the writing, but in your mind. Clichés tend toward the universal, and that’s what you’re after here. Identify the most resonant concept underpinning your story. Love conquers all… People and relationships are more important than one-upping the Joneses… Revenge, or mercy? Man against nature/beast (human or otherwise)/impossible odds, etc. Once you nail it down, make sure that the theme drives every scene in the story. Don’t beat the reader over the head with it—theme is best conveyed through subtlety—but your awareness will influence the words as they pour forth. Theme will provide conflict and growth throughout the book, even if each scene doesn’t have an overt thematic question.

One caveat about theme (a very large one), as it relates to story: Do not use theme to further your agenda. Readers will pick up on it and put your book down. Let the characters struggle with the issues in a natural, organic way; don’t have them act out a morality tale. Ellen Gable Hrkach alludes to this aspect of theme in her post on Feb. 13, 2012, Improve the Odds for Self-Publishing Success. Her first book, Emily’s Hope, enjoyed modest sales to a narrow audience. Please note, there is nothing wrong with this; if your mission is to be the voice for an issue, or you write without regard to readership or sales, that is your prerogative. Ellen stated, in writing that particular book, if her words touched one person, she would have achieved her goal. She clearly succeeded. But Ellen then wished to engage a larger audience. What did she do? She chose to widen the scope of theme in subsequent books – which are selling more briskly. So the idea of theme circles back to one’s theme as writer, which will inform your choices of theme in specific works.

Which leads us to the third level of theme. Characters. Each character should have a core belief or value that can be summed up in a short phrase. Duty first… Me first… Life is an adventure! Life is dangerous… Again, clichés rule here. What is most important to each individual character, i.e., what will they fight to the death for? The flip side is critical, too. What conflict will the character walk away from, and why? Once you understand your characters, keep that core belief in mind as you write. Your characters will stay true to themselves and their motivations, making for a book that readers will remember long after they’ve finished it. A bonus at this level: Your character’s theme is always a two-edged sword. Use it. Create conflict with it – and then find a way for the character to grow. By the end of the book, their theme may have changed; at the very least, they will live it in a deeper manner, and the reader will love them (and you) for it.

Do you consciously use theme in your writing? If so, how? Or, as you look back on your work, can you see theme at any of the three levels we’ve examined?

Guild Committee News: Changes in the SOA, Inside the CWG, Calls for help and more

February 17, 2012/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Karina Fabian

This is going to be a year of change for the committees of the Guild—a time to get a little better organized and get some ideas firmed up in order to be able to progress more smoothly in the future. As many of our volunteers know, we have a habit of getting very excited about a project, going into it full-steam ahead, then stopping to think, “Maybe if we…” So, in that vein, let me introduce to you some changes that are going to help make our projects even more awesome.

Catholic Writers Conference Online: Registration ends Feb 29! http://catholicwritersconference.com. Also, registration for presenters ends Feb 29. Sign up at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SXJVLJW

Seal of Approval: The Guild reviews books for Catholic content and minimum editorial quality, and provides a “Seal of Approval” to those that qualify. This is a signal to bookstores (Catholic ones in particular) that the book would make a good addition to their inventory.

Many of you help with the wonderful project, and many of you are submitting your books to it. This is a project that goes beyond the Guild, serving bookstores and aiding authors. Unfortunately, it’s also our most swamped of projects, with the organizers and readers getting inundated with book requests, some of which (I regret to say) have been so poorly written that the readers have a hard time finishing them. It’s been frustrating for authors, too, when they’ve not gotten replies in a timely manner. For the past year, the committee had been struggling with how to handle the workload and books that don’t meet writing standards. This is what they’ve come up with:

* We will have a quarterly system for submissions and evaluations, where we take applications for one month a quarter, with reports at the end of the quarter. You can see the schedule on the application at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdKWWZhOFAyREh0SVZXWF9RcTJnMlE6MQ, and we’ll be posting it to the blog as well.

* Readers may reject a book after three chapters if it clearly does not meet guidelines. We trust our readers to give every benefit of a doubt, but no longer require them to read an entire book. There are still provisions for doubts to be sent to our resident experts as well.

* Books rejected for writing quality can only resubmit if they have been professionally edited, and proof of professional editing is provided. This prevents our committee and readers from dealing with books that get only cursory changes. We are making a database of editors should authors request it, but make no recommendations. We’ve had to do this because some books are coming back with cursory edits that are addressing a few details but not significantly improving the overall quality.

–If you would like to be on the database as an editor, please fill out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RGZBXKV. We are not requiring editors be Catholic to be on the list, but they must support Catholic works.

Inside the CWG: Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey about our internal newsletter. Maria Rivera has used this to make a few changes. The newsletter will be a little shorter, as she rotates through topics, and will emphasize areas readers said interest them the most. She is still looking for members to contribute. Please go to the forum at http://catholicwritersguild.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=66 for more information. This is for paying CWG members only.

Membership Committee: Mike Hays, our membership coordinator, sure could use someone to help him with the membership database. If you know Excel and can spare an hour a month, contact me at karina(at)fabianspace.com, and I’ll get you connected.

Now, the sad news is that because of several circumstances, we are not going to do the Catholic Arts and Letters Award this year. We’re holding off for a year, getting some things figured out, and next year, we’ll allow books from 2011 and 2012 to compete.

I sound like a broken record, I know, but we need some volunteers, especially folks who can step up to lead. Some of us are getting tired! More seriously, a lot of active volunteers have been hit hard with economic troubles and family concerns—and some have had some lovely opportunities take over their time. We could use some new, dedicated folks. Don’t worry—we’ll train you up. Nothing the Guild does is too complex, especially for this intelligent group.

Last Word: The forums! We’d gotten some complaints (justifiably so) that the forums were too tangled and it was hard to find things. We decided simply to archive all the old information and start fresh. We’ve reorganized into what we hope is a simpler format; such as giving each project its own forum. We’ve also made it members-only. Please check it out, make some comments, and help us to get it moving again. It could be a great communication source.

“Government Pork” by Karina Fabian

February 13, 2012/7 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Karina Fabian

Dear Friends: The HHS compromise is no compromise—it’s an escalation, making it impossible not only for the Catholic Church to live according to its beliefs, but any small business that may also believe as the Church does. I wrote this parable to try to put the debate out of the “contraception/women’s health” light and show the other issues at stake. Feel free to copy this story and use it on your own blogs. If you do, please include this link to sign a petition to stop the HHS mandate (or if you know of another petition, include it) https://www.stophhs.com/sign-the-petition/

——————–

Once there was a wonderful town full of people who loved to eat, and many wonderful and varied restaurants that served excellent food: Italian and French, Japanese and Mongolian, Middle Eastern and even a kosher delicatessen. Not everyone liked every restaurant, of course, and some people even thought particular restaurants were odd, but they appreciated the variety available to all.

There were also a lot of pig farmers, and people enjoyed the fresh pork. One year, they had a mayor who loved fresh pork. He thought it was the right of everyone in the town to have pork at any meal they wanted. “Why,” he’d say,” if there was only one meal I could give my kids, it’d be pork chops!” Of course, lots of the people loved pork as well, and they applauded his enthusiasm.

One day he sat in his office, thinking about how much he and others liked pork, and he decided that every restaurant should serve pork and wine, at every meal. Oh, maybe not every individual would want to eat pork, but they deserved the right to have it on their plate! Otherwise, they didn’t really have a choice, right? And so, he set out a decree that all restaurants would serve some form of pork in every meal.

Well, the delicatessen and the Middle Eastern restaurant were upset by this. They couldn’t serve pork—it was against their religions. So they went to the Mayor and asked to be excused from this rule. “After all,” they said, “people know we never serve pork.”

“But you should. People have the right to pork. Some of your customers eat pork. Even some of your employees enjoy a good ham!”

“And if they wish to, they may–but not in our restaurants,” the owners said. “It’s against the kind of restaurants we are to serve pork. And we have customers who do not want pork, who would be offended and do not want to pay for pork.”

“Well, I’m offended that you won’t serve it—and I’m sure other pork lovers agree that your attitude is most disagreeable.”

“Our customers and our employees know where we stand, and they continue to frequent our restaurants and work for us. We serve them well, but we do not serve them pork. We have the right to our own menus. We should not be forced.”

But the mayor stood firm. “No,” he said. “Everyone has the right to have pork, and it’s my duty to make sure it’s always available, whether you agree or not. It’s healthier than beef anyway. If you don’t like it, you can pay a fine and stop serving food—or you can close down.”

The restaurant managers refused to change their menus. Many people stood by them—because they, too, would not eat pork and didn’t want to pay for it; or because they agreed that restaurants should choose their own menus; or because they didn’t like the mayor telling people how to run their own businesses. The movie theaters stood by him, because they were afraid if the Mayor could change menus, he might also start dictating what shows would be played.

The pork lovers, however, were incensed. How dare the restaurants not give them pork if they wanted it?

“I can’t eat beef; what should I do then?” one demanded. “Do you just want to send me away to starve?”

“We have other dishes,” they said. “Our menu and service would be no different than before. We can feed you many things; just not pork.”

Nonetheless, the press, too, said that the two restaurants would rather let people starve rather than eat pork.

Despite the outcry of the pork lovers, more and more people said, “Let them choose their own menu!”

So the Mayor called the restaurant owners into his office. He had a compromise, he said.

“I won’t make you buy pork. You don’t have to prepare it, or touch it. Instead, all restaurant suppliers will have to supply pork to every restaurant, free of charge, and for those that don’t want to serve the pork, suppliers will cook it and put it on every plate themselves. You just look the other way.”

“But there would still be pork in our restaurant!” the owners cried. “Besides, they will increase the price of meat to cover their new expenses.”

“Oh, they wouldn’t do that. I’d tell them not to. Besides, the point is you wouldn’t be actually serving pork. See how well that works? Everyone gets pork and you can say you never provided it. And if your patrons don’t want to eat it, they don’t have to; it’s enough that it’s there for them.”

So, problem solved?

—-

(“Hold on!” one restaurant supplier said. “I’m Jewish!”)

Increase The Odds For Self-Publishing Success

February 13, 2012/2 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing, Fiction, Self-Publishing/by Ellen Gable Hrkach

When I began writing my first book, Emily’s Hope, ten years ago, I did so thinking, “If just one person can read my book and feel they’ve learned something, then I’ll have reached my goal.” It never even occurred to me to “make money” with my books. But, eight years and three books later, I am making a nice supplemental income.

The average self-published book will sell fewer than 150 copies (and most of these will be to the author’s family and friends). That isn’t even enough to pay for your printing and/or editing expenses.

Remarkably, self-published novelist Amanda Hocking, has sold 1.5 million Kindle books. And while that is unusual, many self-published authors ARE selling books and making money.

So what is the difference between successful self-published books that sell thousands of copies and ones that only sell a few hundred or less? And what can you do to increase your chances of selling more books?

1) Quality of Writing
There is usually (although not always) a difference between self-published books that sell thousands of copies compared to those that only sell a few hundred and it’s most often in the quality of writing. Please, please, please don’t just accept praise from your friends and relatives telling you that your book is the greatest masterpiece ever written. Give your manuscript to a professional editor, as well as a copy-editor. Humbly consider their advice. Once you’ve finished editing, ask those friends who think your book’s a masterpiece to proofread it for you.

My spiritual director once told me that editing a manuscript is like polishing a diamond. The more you polish a manuscript, the more the brilliance shines through.

It takes a lot of work to write the first draft of a book. However, in my experience, it takes a lot more work to edit, polish, edit some more, polish some more until the book is ready for publication.

2) Eye-Catching Professional Cover
If I had a dollar for every self-published book that had a poorly designed or downright bad cover, I’d be able to take my family out to dinner weekly for the next month.

A book’s cover is the first image a perspective buyer/reader sees, whether it’s in print or on Kindle. The cover MUST be professionally produced, aesthetically pleasing and tell the story of a book with one glance. Learn more about making a good cover from my post on covers entitled “Discover Your Cover.”

3) Extensive marketing versus minimal marketing
This is the one thing that can make or break a book, in my humble opinion. There are many, many outstanding (even brilliant) self-published books out there that are going virtually unnoticed because the authors have done little or no marketing.

Writing the book is only a small part of the success of a book. In my talk at the Catholic Writers Conference Live last year in Philadelphia, I spoke about the importance of marketing: blogging, social networking (Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Linked In), blog tours, Kindle e-books. Marketing takes 90 percent of my time. But then again, I’m a social person. I like connecting with people on Twitter or Facebook. I enjoy a lively conversation on my blog. I enjoy commenting on other bloggers’ posts. If an author is not willing or doesn’t have the time to market, this will show in sales.

4) Target Audience is Too Small
Sometimes an author will write a book directed to a smaller target audience. This has definitely been an issue with my first book, Emily’s Hope, which some people have coined as “NFP Fiction.” Since NFP-users probably make up a very small percentage of women who read, my target audience for that book is decidedly small. Most readers don’t even know what NFP is, so it’s not a book they would normally pick up.

My second novel, In Name Only, is very different from my first book. Although the characters are Catholic, it’s not as genre specific. It’s an historical romance, which makes it more appealing to the female population. It’s not as religiously thick, so secular readers can enjoy it as much as Christian readers. It has been my most popular book thus far, selling hundreds of e-books a week on Amazon Kindle, often attaining the #1 position in Religious Drama.

Most self-published books sell an average of 150 books. You can increase your odds of selling more than that by considering the following factors: quality of writing, eye-catching cover, good marketing and a wide target audience.

Keep these things in mind for a successful self-publishing experience.

photo purchased from iStock

Ellen Gable Hrkach is an award-winning, bestselling author of four books. She will be doing two presentations this year at the Catholic Writers Conference Online: Self Publishing: From Draft to Quality book and The Future of Self-Publishing: E-Books.

Writing dialogue (my way)

February 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Catholic Writing and Publishing/by Larry Peterson

Since I am writing about “writing” I will be referencing my writing. How did I learn to write? Well now, my foundation in writing came from the Ursuline nuns I had in grade school and the Marist brothers I had in high-school. Those folks knew how to teach English so I had, like it or not, the “basics” ingrained in me. I do not have a degree in English grammar or composition or American literature. Heck, I did not even get to college until I was out of high-school for 18 years and, I did not study English. Anyway, consider the source when reading my tid-bits of writing tips. I am not “trained” in the craft.

Onward and forward. I try to write dialogue just the way people speak. My novel, “The Priest and The Peaches”, takes place in a tough, blue-collar south Bronx neighborhood in the mid 1960’s. There is a lot of poor grammar in the dialogue and I am sure it would cause some of the good nuns and brothers that I had long ago to either faint, or, at least get a very severe headache. There is a lot of “ain’t got”, “I dunno”, “nahs”, “yeahs”, “gimme a break” and other NY accent dialogue. But, the reality is, the primary characters spoke like this. They still do. I understand that some of this dialogue may be confusing to some readers. But—it is what it is, right? My wife, who is from Ohio, can’t believe people actually talk like that. (I should get her some of the old “Dead End Kids” movies).

I often use omniscience in the characters to show what they are truly thinking so the reader understands the folly of what they are saying. Maybe I do that too much. I’m not sure. Maybe I should trust the reader more. As I write the dialogue I become the character speaking so I dialogue in my head as two or even three different people at the same time. It is never as if I am, for example, thinking as only the protagonist as he/she speaks to someone else. Does that makes sense to you?

I also try to use a minimal amount of “he/she saids”. I try to do it in such a way that the reader knows who is speaking even though I am not saying who is, and I try to go sometimes a half-page that way. It is a bit tricky but I think it is important. I also do my best to avoid long dialogue. I’m a one or two sentence guy if I can help it. I even have a scene in my book where the priest gives a homily and it lasts less than two minutes. It takes about fifteen seconds to read that part but the reader does get the point.

Okay, that’s it. How do you guys do it?