Lorina Stephens was kind enough to tag me in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop, which is a Goodreads promotional enterprise among indie authors and publishers to highlight authors and books which might otherwise slide under the radar of many readers. We all answer the same 10 questions, which allows readers an opportunity to receive a brief overview of either a published work or a work in progress. 1. What is the working title of the book? Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero 2. Where did the idea come from for the book? I grew up reading comic books. I always wanted to be a superhero myself and tried various things to get my own super-powers (too goofy to go into at this […]
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Get Published Episode 95 – A Method to the Madness: Anthology Update
I’ve been on the road a fair amount the past few weeks and I have learned that the tools you use are critical to your creative success. There are plenty of applications that will allow you to stay in touch with home and keep your writing and podcasting moving forward. Things like Dropbox, Google docs, Skype and Logmein can really help. In today’s episode, Jeffrey Hite and I talk about the progress of our anthology, A Method to the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil. We talk about the challenges, what has worked and what we have accomplished. JR Murdock also has another Unorthodox Writing Tips in the Tips and Typos. He discusses some tricks you can use to […]
Read moreKnowing Your Audience
I thought I would talk about audience today. Specifically, knowing who you are writing for and how you can ensure that you’re hitting the mark. I’ve been shown the value of understanding who might want to read my stories several times. When I sent in Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero originally, I kind of knew who I expected my eventual readership to be: boys, ages 9 – 15. Simple enough, right? After all, the book is about a boy in that age category who wants to be a superhero. I expected some girls might like it and the occasional adult too. Then my editor, Robert Runte, and I had the chance to meet last Fall. He told me that when he […]
Read moreThe Proof is the Next Step
The process of publishing a book can be a long one with many steps. The author, of course, has to present a clean, completed manuscript to a publisher. It has to be well-written and interesting and something the publisher is prepared to spend money on. Once that is agreed to, there is the contract, the editing, revisions, more revisions and finally a manuscript that is ready to see print. Or is it? The publisher then lays out the book and then… well then the laid out book is sent to the author (and other proof-readers) for final review as a galley. That is where I’m at right now. This minute, in fact. My publisher, Lorina, sent me my galley on […]
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