Does your spouse or partner belittle or demean your ‘writer dreams?’

Call for Submissions

 

You see it all the time in dedications and acknowledgements of books:  Words like: “To my dear husband, who has supported my writing all throughout the years in spite of the odds,” or “To my wife, who never stopped believing in me.”

 

But what happens when your ‘significant other’ doesn’t support your writing, either because he thinks you’ll never make it or because she thinks you’re wasting your time and efforts for nothing?

 

Writers often talk about their supportive spouses/partners, but seldom do we hear about theunsupportive ones—mainly because it is a cause of great sadness and shame to the writer.

 

I’ve heard of cases where a husband told her writer wife flat out, “You’ll never make it.” I even once heard a story about a husband who was so jealous of his wife’s ‘writing world,’ that he burned her manuscript. 

 

Though I don’t have a working title yet, I’m looking for 2,500-3,000-word (or longer) honest, poignant first-person accounts in the style of Chicken Soup for the Soul series. That is, true stories that are ultimately inspirational and show a great deal of perseverance and determination from the part of the writer in spite of the odds—in short, essays that will offer hope and moral support to writers who are experiencing a similar situation. The essays will be compiled into an anthology.

 

• Does your significant other totally ignore your ‘writing world’ or view it with contempt either because you’re not making enough money or because they feel jealous?
• Does he/she refuse to consider your writing as anything other than a ‘mere hobby?’
• Does he/she belittle or demean your ‘writer dreams?’
• Does he/she believe you’re wasting your time and should be spending that time in something more ‘valuable?’
• Does he/she make you feel guilty for those hours you spend writing?
• Does he/she say they understand, but then they put demands on your writing time and don’t respect it?
• Is he/she jealous of the time you spend writing at the computer?
• How does their behavior make you feel as a person and as a writer?
• To what extend do their criticism contribute to your insecurity, anxiety, and maybe even depression?
• How do you cope with their behavior?
• What keeps you writing and persevering in spite of all the odds?
• What would you like he/she to understand about you as a writer?

I talked about this idea with my agent and she’d be interested in representing this type of project providing I come up with a compelling set of personal essays. Of course, submissions will be treated in confidentiality and real names of people and places can be replaced with fictional ones.

 

Deadline:  March 31^st 2013

 

If you’re interested in submitting or if you have questions, you can drop me an email at:mayra.calvani@gmail.com.

 

You may pass on the information to people who you think might be interested. 

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How Creating an Imaginary Friend Can Make You a Better Writer

Most kids ditch their imaginary friends along with their sippy cups and security blankets.

That’s a good thing, right?

Well, marketers have discovered a new benefit to finding (and keeping) those imaginary friends again.

One top advertising agency –- Organic in Detroit –- even gave its imaginary friends their own office space.

Why?

Because these fictional characters, or “personas,” make it much easier to make a deep connection with your writing and content marketing.

“Personas allow them to journey into a relational territory where they can understand on an emotional level the most important determinants of real consumers’ brand preferences and purchase decisions,” Dale Buss writes in Advertising Age, “And personas give marketers a meaningful shorthand for communicating with one another.”

I agree with Mr. Buss. If you’ll humor me for a moment, I want to translate some of that advertising-speak and show you how to create your own imaginary marketing persona … and how he or she can make you a better writer.

Craft your own persona

Creating a persona can help your writing better resonate with audiences -– and it doesn’t require having extra office space.

You only need a willingness to be creative.

Create your own persona by first envisioning your perfect reader.

Then, write down the bare facts: name, age, gender, income, education and marital status. Focus not only on demographics, but also personal details that help you identify with this person on a more intimate level.

You can even do a quick search on Google Images to find a photo that matches the persona. Don’t use stock photos –- you want someone who looks real. (Just don’t share it publically unless you have permission to use the photo.)

The idea here is to get as specific as you can about the appearance of your imaginary friend.

Dive deeper into your persona

Once you’ve filled in the basic facts, write a paragraph or two for each of the following categories:

Personal information Describe her as if she was standing in the same room. Write about her goals, her values, her likes and dislikes. Write about her biggest problems, and the things that keep her up at night.
Needs What are her needs? What problems does she hope that your writing will solve? How are these problems causing her pain and discomfort? What end result does she want, and what end result does she really need? Are they the same?
Influence Here’s where you lay out all the factors that go into her decision to take your advice. What influences her decision? How does she find out about your writing, and why does she remember it? What differentiates you, and why is that important to her?

So, who is your imaginary friend?

Click here to download a PDF that takes a look at what the completed persona from the example above might look like.

Then take the time to create your own persona page.

Once you’ve finished, hang it somewhere you can refer to it often. That way, you can apply your future writing to this persona, and get an idea of whether it will resonate with your target market.

How about you — think you’re too old (or too smart) to have an imaginary friend?

Or maybe you’ve used a persona and found it improved your writing and marketing.

Either way, let us know about it in the comments below.

About the Author: Kelly Kautz is a freelance copywriter who blogs about marketing for small business owners.

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Guest Post by Mark LaFlamme, Author of DIRT, THE PINK ROOM, and VEGETATION

So, I’m sitting at a gloomy bar and gazing dreamily into the mirror behind the array of bottles. I’m not thinking about anything deep, really. Just wondering if my nose is getting bigger and if I should do something about that.

A burly man sits down next to me and taps his fingers on the bar to summon the bartender. Then he turns to me.

“You must be a writer,” he says.

I nod happily, giant nose bobbing up and down.

“That’s right,” I tell him. “What gave me away? The deep thought? A clip of conversation that hinted at an ability for literary gymnastics? An air of seething imagination?”

“No,” said the man. “I just noticed that you drink a lot.”

Misconceptions about writers are everywhere. There are still those who remain convinced that we are all modern incarnations of Faulkner, stumbling from our drunken beds just long enough to eat food directly from pans and to pound out five thousand words of prose before climbing back into our bottles.

I can live with this particular myth. Let them romanticize the craft by imagining us all as brooding intellectuals chained to our addictions as we cope with the crushing weight of genius.

But other misconceptions absolutely slay me.

If you get one book out there – just one, mind you – there will be those who assume you are fantastically rich. They will wonder aloud why you’re driving around in a 1992 Stanza when you must have a vault of cash somewhere from all of those book sales. They will ask you directly why your shoes have holes in them when Saks is just a short jet ride away.

Is it any wonder we drink?

There are those who will offer up advice on getting your book into the hands of a behemoth publishing house, or getting crazy buzz for an existing book, in one easy sentence: “You ought to send your book to Stephen King.”

Yes, Stephen King, who writes three novels a week and tours like a rock star, will probably save your ass. He’ll drop everything, flip through your rough draft with all its crazy margin notes and coffee stains, and see that it gets off to Random House.

With a personal recommendation, of course.

When the masses get wind of your writing efforts, they will immediately presume that after writing a novel or two, you are now tapped out of ideas. They will approach you in corner stores and windy parking lots to save you from literary asphyxiation.

“You know what you should write about?” they will say. “Boy, have I got some ideas for you.”

They say Faulkner was a sober man until this started happening.

Most authors I know have more ideas afloat then they have time to write them. Presently between novels, my most pressing problem now isn’t conjuring up some grand idea but deciding which of a half dozen to tackle next.

Do I want to write about the iPod playlist delivering subtle messages to the music listener? Should I go with the cannibalism plot dreamed up one weird night while dining with the in-laws? Do I want to write that story about what happens within the brain in the final seconds of life?

Lots to choose from, yet a minimum of two people today will try to convince me that their ideas require immediate attention from me personally.

Who among you will share his bottle with me?

There is a certain mystery about anyone who makes a living out of the written word. Non-writers look upon the author the way they look upon a campfire, wondering over the seeming magic of it. They want to know where all those ideas come from. They want to know what it is like to have a million words circling in the sky of your mind all at once, like a murder of crows that never flies away.

The mystery and the stereotypes don’t hurt much. They’ve been around since the first caveman, having not yet discovered liquor, scrawled his thoughts upon a stone. When people marvel over you as a writer, they will be more tempted to check out your work, forking over money you can use to buy new shoes.

Embrace the mystery, I say. Greet all of those misinformed comments and answer those endless questions with flourish. Stare into the mirror above the bar like the pensive literary beast that you are and make them wonder about what goes on within that writer’s mind.

And while you’re at it, take a look at my nose. Seriously, is it getting bigger?

Mark LaFlamme is an award-winning crime reporter and columnist at the Sun Journal in Lewiston, Maine. His weekly column, Street Talk, where he often compares editors to bats, spiders, extraterrestrial slugs, and “other beings too diabolical to describe,” has been named Best in Maine and Best in New England. In 2006, LaFlamme was named Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association.

Read an interview with Mark LaFlamme here.

Check out LaFlamme’s books on Amazon:

DIRT

Vegetation

The Pink Room

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The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing Virtual Book Tour – Days 1 & 2

Hey there,

This month I’m off again touring the blogosphere, this time to promote my nonfiction work, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.

On the first day of the tour, Nov. 4th, I was at Donna McDine’s wonderful blog, Write What Inspires You. Donna posted the prologue of the book and we had a very succesful first day with lost of comments from visitors. Thanks again, Donna, for allowing me to be a guest on your blog!

Today on the 2nd day of the tour my co-author and I are off at Book Pleasures for an interview with Editor in Chief Norm Goldman.

Cheers!

Mayra

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Halloween Festival: Interview with Karen L. Syed, Owner of Echelon Press

Started in 2009, Echelon Press publishes short stories, novellas and novels in various genres. Under their new imprint 'Quake', they also publish fiction for middle graders and young adults. At present, Echelon publishes two paperback novels a month as well as one or two of their popular short story and novella downloads. Here to talk about the company and how it was created is owner Karen L. Syed. If you want to know what a publisher blog is about, visit Karen at The Life of a Publisher.

Thanks for being here today, Karen. Why don't you begin by telling us a bit about Echelon Press? When did it get started?

Echelon will be eight years old in February 2009. We started the company to make a place for writers to make a name for themselves. People seem to confuse that with not wanting to be successful. It has ALWAYS been my goal for any author at Echelon to go onto bigger and better things. If that means many books with Echelon, great! If that means one or two with us and then a contract with a bigger house, awesome. We are definitely not just a playground for writers who want to be published. I have recently discovered that there is a difference being an author and being a published writer.

You publish a fair amount of horror, both short stories and novels. What type of horror do you publish?

So far it hasn't been as much as I would like. I love the horror genre. What I'd like to see more of is the types written by John Saul or Douglas Clegg. I don't mean alien horror, they are more thrillers. I love the stuff that presents the unknown and grabs you by the throat and holds on tight without letting you immediately know what 'it' is.

What you do not like to see in a horror story and what are the most common mistakes horror writers make?

I am not a big fan of the total gore scene. I love the unknown. Knowing something is right around the corner, your skin crawling with apprehension and fear, while adrenaline rushes through you, leaving you breathless and unable to move. So many of the horror stories I read focus so much on the shock value that they don't give their stories a chance to develop fully. They spew slime and blood all over everything and think that this makes it spooky. It just makes it gross. Why can't authors rely on their senses to indulge the fear gene instead of just wanting to make people sick?

What makes a horror novel or story truly compelling?

The only thing compelling is the unknown. To recognize danger and fear and not know where that danger comes from. To feel the presence of an unknown entity so close that it's putrid breath blows across your cheek. To shiver against the chill of dread caused by words so powerful and explosive you have to close your eyes against the next phrase.

How do you see the state of the horror fiction market at the moment? Is it thriving or declining?

I don't know that it is declining, but neither is it thriving. I think so many authors in the genre have resorted to the shock value of the gruesome. The movie industry has made that so glamorous that authors feel the need to "keep up." This is not the case. Books are not the same as movies. Some people say that Friday the 13th and the Halloween movies are horror, but in fact I think they are more thrillers or gore flicks. Keep in mind this is just my idea, and many others may disagree.

What types horror books do you think are most popular with readers?

I can't even begin to answer that question. Different readers like different books.

You also publish horror for young adults. How much horror is too much horror in a young adult book?

I'll take a stab at this one, but let's be clear on one thing. How much is too much is up to the reader and their parents. For Quake, our new young reader line we like to keep things in the head. We aren't going to go out on a limb and offer gratuitous gore just to sell books. We all know that kids love all that blood and guts spurting here and there, but perhaps it's because it's all we offer them. When you present something as cool then what do you expect? A dude running around chopping off heads is not cool. A cloud of mist that sweeps into a room and envelops a sleeping girl while whispering secrets of evil, a little cooler.

On average, how many submissions do you receive in a month? Of those submissions, what percentage you end up accepting for publication?

Our paperback submissions are closed except for invitations and referrals, and eBooks, but we still get at least a dozen or so unsolicited submissions per week for paperback. Writers seem to ignore the potential for eBook sales and all want paper publication. eBooks have such great potential to build a readership, and if an author can build a readership with an eBook they can do anything.

As for acceptance, we do only twelve titles per year in paperback and right now aren't even getting enough submissions for eBook to do one per month. Did you know that tens of millions of dollars are spent on eBooks each year? Why wouldn’t an author want their share of that?

What tips would you offer authors who are doing book signings this Halloween?

Make them fun! They have to be fun. Don't let the readers wonder why they even bothered to come to your event. Show them with your words, you attitude, and your books that they are important to you. Don't make them wonder. And by all means get into the spirit! A little bit of spook goes a long way!

Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?

This industry is one of the greatest. Don't take it for granted, whether you are a reader or a writer. Writers, don't ever forget why you sell your books for publication. It's all about your readers. You can write all you want, but if you are serious about being a solid published author, don't ever forget how you get there.

And readers, let the authors know what you like and don't like. Your opinion matters. If you don't like something, don't buy it, be honest and be open about your favorite authors. If the last five books you read by your favorite best seller stunk, then why keep buying them? Don't be afraid to try new authors, they are the future of the industry, and you might be surprised!

Thanks, Karen!

Interview by Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvani is a multi-genre author and reviewer. Her paranormal books include Embraced by the Shadows (romantic horror/vampire) and Dark Lullaby (atmospheric horror). She is also the co-author of the nonfiction work, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.

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Halloween Festival: Interview with Lee Masterson, Co-Founder of Horror Factor

Horror Factor is an online source for horror authors who want to hone their craft. The site offers not only monthly tips, a writer's forum, and articles on the horror writing craft, but also on publishing, promotion and marketing horror fiction. Here to talk about the site is co-founder Lee Masterson. Read on to find out all the goodies this site offers and how to subscribe to their monthly, highly informative newsletter.  

Thanks for this interview, Lee. Tell us a bit about Horror Factor. When and how did it get started?

Horror Factor was created in 2002 – about 3 years after we first launched the original Fiction Factor (http://www.fictionfactor.com). The original site contains hundreds of articles on general fiction writing advice. It occurred to us that the information a horror writer might need would be more specific that just learning grammar or sentence structure or finding a publisher. Horror writing tips are also going to be vastly different to writing tips for a children's writer or a fantasy writer. So we sat down and had a huge brainstorming session and came up with the various sub-sites that are aimed specifically at writers in each of the individual genres we chose.

As I'm a huge horror fan, I decided to build Horror Factor before the other sub-sites. It's remained my favorite to this day!

What does your site offer authors?

The websites as a whole were specifically created to help all writers to improve, hone and strengthen writing skills. There are entire sections in the Fiction Factor article archives on getting published, finding editors or agents, submitting or formatting work and much more.

Horror Factor specifically caters to horror or dark fiction writers. We try hard to find quality horror-specific tips and advice that could potentially help a writer to improve his or her craft or to find publication. It's surprisingly difficult to find enough quality work in this genre designed to assist newer writers to hone their craft. We're always on the look out for more ways we can help out horror writers.

What about promotional opportunities?

We would sincerely love to promote all authors on our site somewhere – but our web host wouldn't be happy! We already blow out their hosting and bandwidth capacities quite often with the heavy traffic such an enormous site produces.

What we can offer is a bit of promotion in the "Writer Announcements" section in the newsletter. If any writer at all has some writing news they'd like to shout out or perhaps get some free promotion for a book/story publication, then feel free to hop onto our forum. Post your 'woo hoo' into the Announcements section. Remember to leave a link where everyone can find you. I'll get that announcement into the email newsletter and we'll let the world know about it for you!

How may authors interested in a review by Horror Factor submit their books?

We receive hundreds of submissions for reviews and even more queries every year. We're currently so overstocked with reviews that we won't be opening for further submissions until mid-2009. We do post an announcement in the newsletter when we do open for submissions, but we've learned that we only need to open for one week a year to create a backlog that keeps us busy all year round.

Do you consider freelance articles and reviews? What about short stories?

Yes absolutely! We're always happy to receive freelance non-fiction articles that might help writers in some way. If you'd like to submit any writing-related article at all to Fiction Factor, Horror Factor or any of our other genre sites simply visit this page. Don't let the scary warning that says "we're closed to submissions" deter you – I'll always happily read a well-written query from any writer willing to email me.

We do prefer that articles are written and formatted in a similar style to the existing articles on the site. Feel free to take a look around some of our article archives to get a feel for what kind of things we like! If you see a gap in the information there, chances are we'd love to see an article covering that topic.

We don't accept fiction short stories but we do have plenty of short story market listings available. If you're looking for a published home for your short horror fiction, check out our market listings here. You're sure to find a publication suitable for your work.

Tell us about your newsletter, Fiction Factor, and how we can subscribe to it.

Fiction Factor was created in 1999 to cater for a complete lack of information for fiction writers (at that time). Our Managing Editor, Tina Morgan, and I noticed a growing need for information directed at helping writers to establish successful writing careers so we created the site. The first email newsletter was released in January 2000 and has just grown enormously to become the award-winning site we have now in the years since.

You can subscribe to our newsletter by visiting our group on Yahoo or you can send a blank email to fictionfactor-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Our newsletter is free and each month we try to include at least three great articles pertinent to writers or writing. We also include market listings and occasionally book reviews and author interviews. All our content is dictated by what our subscribers want to read about or learn more about so we take particular notice of any email queries we receive and then take steps to source articles that cover this information.

Tina and I are both also very active on the forum (which has a dedicated Horror Writing section, by the way). Any questions that seem very popular or anything we feel could be great information for other writers immediately goes into the newsletter from here as well. You can find the forum here.

Do you think the horror fiction market has declined, reached a plateau, or is still climbing?

I think the horror market has gone a little stale in recent times but it doesn't seem to be declining in popularity. There seems to be an abundance of regurgitated vampire tales around right now, along with a gore-fest of slasher type stories.

It's a shame the supernatural thriller style of horror seems to be on the decline though. You know – the ones that make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up and make you check whether you locked the doors at night. These are my personal favorites.

Having said all that, it is heartening to see so many diverse short horror markets still running strongly and actively seeking submissions. This would indicate that the genre as a whole is still very strong with a lot of readers out there.

Within the horror genre there are several subgenres. Which one do you think is more popular at the moment? What about in the past? What are your predictions for the future?

Horror seems to run in cycles. No matter what's popular now or what was popular yesterday, the themes will eventually make a resurgence somewhere in the future cycles. They might be updated, modernized or given a fresh face but they're still similar underlying themes.

We seem to be in a part of the cycle where there's a glut of slasher/gore-fest and vampire horror around right now. When there's a glut, readers tend to wander off in search of something different. Sales slump and publishers start sniffing around for something else to sell. This makes the market appear flat or stale.

Sooner or later a fresh new style or something completely different to the usual stuff we see will appear and spark reader's interests again. Sales will spike and publishers will rush to grab hold of any copycat styles they can find, which then causes a glut and the market goes stale again until another new writer emerges with something fresh and original to begin it all again.

The great thing about cycles is that you can often sense when the wheel has turned full circle and it's about to launch into a new phase. I think this is what's about to happen to the genre in the near future.

When you look at the history of horror fiction, which type of supernatural "creatures" have had the most success and notoriety under the public eye – witches, ghosts, zombies, monsters, or vampires?

Unfortunately I think vampires have received the most success and notoriety lately. Vampires have been romanticized in recent times almost to the point of being nauseating. That's a shame because there's massive scope within these supernatural beings to create really cool, scary scenarios. Let's hope someone creates some really scary vampires soon and bring them back to their former horror-glory.

What is the scariest book you've ever read?

The books that get the little hairs on the back of my neck tingling most are the ones that affect me in ways I least expect. A good example of what I mean is Stephen King's Pet Sematary. It's not really a scary book, but my black cat, Scruffy had me creeped out for a few days after reading it (actually, he still creeps me out when he stalks my hair in the middle of the night).

Another one that unexpectedly affected me was Richard Laymon's All Hallow's Eve. Again, it wasn't a scary book, per se, but when the creepy guy dressed in his last victim's clothes turned up on the old lady's doorstep to make her his next victim…. Let's just say I'd recently divorced from my husband when I read that book and was living alone at the time in a little cottage on a secluded road. I slept with the lights on that night (and a German Shepherd beside the bed for reassurance!)

Oh – and anything with spiders. I have a bit of a phobia-thing about spiders

Which authors, in your opinion, will be remembered as the best horror writers of the 20th Century?

There are so many good horror writers around right now – Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Richard Laymon – like I said, there's so many. I should add such favorites as Dean Koontz, John Saul, Peter Straub and Graham Masterton as well.

Being an Aussie, I also make an effort to follow some of our great Australian Horror Writers. I think some of these will make a huge splash in the international horror arena in the not-too-distant future. If you get a chance, I can recommend you look up Stephen Dedman and Jack Davis. Stephanie Gunn's short fiction is worth watching for too.

Thanks again for this interview!

It was my pleasure, Mayra. Thanks once again for inviting me! <

Interview by Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvani is a multi-genre author and reviewer. Her paranormal books include Embraced by the Shadows (romantic horror/vampire) and Dark Lullaby (atmospheric horror). She is also the co-author of the nonfiction work, The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.

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Interview with Rose desRochers, Founder of TodaysWoman.net

Rose DesRochers is the founder of Today's Woman, a site catering to writers–both men and women–of all levels and genres, including poetry. The site features articles, stories and interviews and also publishes press releases. It also has a forum for writers to share ideas and promote their work. In this interview, DesRochers talks about what makes her site special.

Why don't you begin by telling us a little about yourself? Are you also a writer?

Yes I am. I have been writing poetry for 20 + years. I am also a freelance writer. I have written several articles and essays.

How did Todays-Woman.net get started?

In the beginning Today's Woman was going to be a woman's portal. I changed my mind and decided it would be a friendship community for both men and women. Some of the first members joined and started submitting their writing. It took on a writing theme of its own, so we began to gear the site more towards writers. Today it is a full fledge writing community.

Who is your audience?

Our audience is writers of all genes, but a higher percentage are poets.

What does your site offer readers and writers?

Today's Woman Writing Community has a useful selection of services including author interviews, regular columns, interactive forums, and a place for writers to share their work for critique by their peers. We have monthly writing contest that spark member’s creativity and we have a variety of writing lessons submitted by experience writers to help writers. We also offer a full directory of links to literacy resources, famous poets, online book store, and an area in our forums of calls for submission and writing contests. We also offer our visitors and members a writers warning section that keeps them up to date about various poetry contests and publishers to avoid.

How do you become a member?

All you need to do is register. Potential writers must be 18 to join. You have a choice between a free account or a premium account.

Are your members mostly women?

Funny you would ask that. The name gives the impression that the site is only for women, but we have an equal number of male members. Sometimes we have more male members posting that women. Our webmaster is male, our co-admin is male and even our moderator is male. What would you know this month's writer of the month is also male. Maybe we should change the name to Today's Man?

What types of promotional opportunities do you offer in your site?

Today's Woman Writing Community offers writers the chance to be recognized as writer of the month. In addition any writer can submit a link to their website to our link directory. For a small fee authors can advertise their book on our website.

What types of articles and stories do you accept for publication?

We are interested in seeing well-written articles on writing, self-help, humor, motivation, true stories and other articles that might be of interest to our loyal readers. Members who join can submit any story, except erotica, to our story board.

What is the hardest task in running such a site? The most rewarding aspect?

Administrating Today’s Woman has been a wonderful experience for me. Not only have I made some wonderful friends, but I have grown in my own writing.

Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

Todays-Woman.net has been a team effort. The site not only belongs to me, but the members. I’m very lucky to have a supportive family and the kind of members, friends, and staff who are willing to devote so much time and energy to helping all writers fulfill their goals.

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Interview with Andrea Sisco, Armchair Interviews

Andrea Sisco is the co-founder of Armchair Interviews and the author of the forthcoming mystery novel A Deadly Habit, to be released from Five Star in 2009. Started in 2005, Armchair Interviews now has about 100 staff reviewers who review an average of 200 books a month. This popular review site receives about 2 million hits a year and has been named by Writer's Digest one of the Best 101 Websites for Writers for three years in a row. Armchair Interviews has a lot of offer authors and readers, from audio interviews, to audio blurbs, to contests, to ads, to a whole range of resources on books and writing. It also publishes a monthly newsletter. Sisco is always on the lookout for quality reviewers. Just drop her an email at Andrea@armchairinterviews.com and she'll get you started. Armchair Interviews reviews most type of books in about 43 genres, with the exception of ebooks. In this interview, Sisco talks about the challenges of running a big review site, and about her forthcoming novel, among other things.

Thank you very much for this interview, Andrea. Tell us a bit about Armchair Interviews.

Our knowledge of books and our excitement and passion for the idea of Armchair Interviews was the beginning of creating a great site. We placed ourselves in the able hands of Paul Larson of Creative Arc in Minneapolis and he patiently worked with Connie and me to design an attractive, user friendly site. We then began to add other things like audio and written interviews, contests, a reader's page, an author's page, etc. for our visitors.

But it's the reviewers. They're passionate about the written word. They're good writers, responsible people and oh so much fun. They work hard. They work with us, not for us and that's the difference I think. They are Armchair Interviews. And we've gained new friends from around the United States and the world through Armchair Interviews. They simply are the best. Check out our site and then other sites and you'll see what I mean.

What is the most challenging aspect of running a review site?  

Time. It's primarily two people (Connie and I) running Armchair Interviews with some help from Paul Larsen (our go-to guy for web help) and Jeff Foster who does some marketing for us. Connie has a business (that pays the bills) and must give that time. I am a writer, I travel a great deal with my husband, we live in MN and AZ (which is a time and logistic challenge) and we have numerous children and grandchildren I want to spend time with. Connie and I always want to do more and wonder where we'll get the time.  

But money is another important aspect. It takes money to create a good site and money to maintain and improve a site like ours. Authors often don't like paying for ads, interviews, etc. The problem is, if the site isn't paying for itself, it goes away. They don't understand the number of people we reach and what it costs to maintain a site like ours. Some authors are appalled that sites like ours would charge to promote their titles. Hey, think New York Times, People, USA Today… We may be small, but like them, we have to have revenue to survive. I can never understand why they don't blink an eye at the idea of a magazine, television or newspaper ad, but believe that the internet should be free.

Note: We don't charge to review a title.  

How should an author contact you about a review request? Do you review e-books as well?  

An author should go to www.armchairinterviews.com and click on our FAQ for review submissions and follow the directions. You'd be amazed how many people don't think the rules apply to them. Often though, they read? the directions and send me an email and a link to their web site so I can gather the necessary information myself. That will not get an author a review. Time is short; we have about 400 submissions a month and can't fill them all. It's easier to go with the people who follow the directions. So read the FAQ and follow the directions! How to get that review or interview is another Q & A interview and one every author should hear if they want review coverage. But that's for another time.

Do you think there’s a lot of ‘facile praise’ among many online review sites? What is your policy when it comes to negative reviews?

Criticism is okay. And we criticize books. But we will never, ever trash a book or an author. We want to celebrate authors and their work. If a book (and unfortunately it's almost always self-published) is so awful (poorly written, edited, etc.) we won't review it at all and inform the author of the issues. But we'd like authors to remember: A review is one person's opinion.

In your opinion, what defines a ‘legitimate’ reviewer?

I'm not sure I can give you a definitive answer. It's like art; I may not know what good art is, but I'll tell you when I see some. Peruse the sites. What do they look like? How many titles have they reviewed? Do they offer anything besides reviews (nice for building traffic and authors want traffic)? If you contact them do they respond in a timely manner and are they professional in their responses? Ask them how long they've been in business and what their stats are.

But the bottom line is: Print publication continues to reduce their coverage of books. Internet is the coming wave and is even now, becoming the place to go for learning about new books. If I had a small promotion budget, I know I'd get more bang for my buck with Armchair Interviews than with a magazine or newspaper. Why? Because other than USA Today, most newspapers are local or regional. And I could never afford USA Today. Magazines? Well most are out of the price range also. Television and Radio are usually local (budget restraints). That leaves the internet and it is huge!

What does your site offer readers?

Armchair Interviews offers readers well-written and comprehensive reviews in approximately 43 genres. What’s really nice is we have ‘experts’ reviewing for us. Authors, engineers, medical doctors, veterinarians, professors/teachers, you get the picture. So if we have a book that fits into a particular field, we can usually find someone who is ‘in the know’ about the subject matter. And for fiction, well, we have some well read, talented writers who can give a ‘spot on’ critique of the book. Without our reviewers, we couldn’t exist. They are simply the best in the business.

Armchair Interviews also provides readers with written and audio author interviews. We’re branching out in our interviews and including industry professionals such as publicists, editors, agents and the like. While contests and give aways are not a big part of the site, we also do a number of those yearly. We try and keep up with and report industry news and let people know who has won the various writers’ awards.

But most importantly, we have grown to a point where our site is filled with information for readers, but it’s also a great place for author’s to be seen, because our readership continues to grow.

What promotional opportunities does your site offer authors?

We offer ads, audio author interviews and written Q&A interviews. They are really reasonable in cost, given our audience. We can provide an author with tailored packages to fit their needs and pocketbook. Connie and I are very conscious to remember that most authors do not have a huge promotional budgets. Contact us for promotional information.

We have authors, publishing houses and publicists that regularly work with us to promote their authors. Oh, and sometimes, for fun and to help, we'll do a give away for an author we feel strongly about. That's a freebie in conjunction with the author or publishing house.

Tell us about your new 'Audio Blurbs'. What are they and how can they help authors and publishers?

Armchair Interviews wanted to do something different to help promote authors. After some thought, Connie Anderson and I decided to record audio ads. This is like a movie trailer, but with the audio only. They are approximately one minute in length and if the audio interests readers, they can click on the book cover icon and purchase the book.

It’s simple, fun and unique. We’ve just enlisted several professional actors to help with the voice work.

I understand you're also an author with a mystery novel coming out soon. Tell us about that and how you find the time to write while maintaining such a demanding review site.

Yes, my agent recently guided me through the first time novelist contract. I am so happy that is done. Now I’m in edits. And I’m happy to report they were miniscule, but still demanded time. A Deadly Habit will make its appearance in 2009 and will be published by Five Star (a part of Cengage Learning).

I don’t know how I find the time to do all that I do. Perhaps I’m overly organized. But let me tell you, living in two different parts of the United States, having a large number of children and grandchildren, traveling, running Armchair Interviews, writing a mystery series and now coauthoring a Young Adult Fantasy series with romantic comedy author, Kathleen Baldwin is like negotiating a mine field, time wise. Frankly, I do what I can and to the best of my ability.

There is one thing I know for sure; there will not be a second Penelope Santucci mystery published exactly one year from the publication to A Deadly Habit because I’m just plotting it now. I also think that it is helpful to have a supportive and understanding husband (Bob Pike). He is the author of 21 business books, a professional speaker, runs our family consulting business and is the chairman of a non-profit faith organization, so he knows what a full schedule is and he pitches in and helps when needed.

I also have some great kids and in-laws. They’re helping with the promotion of A Deadly Habit. My actor/screenwriter son, Guy Wegener is producing a video trailer of A Deadly Habit. Not the still shot videos one sees, but a real ‘movie’ video trailer. And my son-in-law, Alan Pranke is building my personal author web site, www.andreasisco.com. It will be up sometime in late summer of 2008.

And Connie Anderson, my best friend and co owner of Armchair Interviews feeds me info, helps out when I’m on a deadline and keeps me sane. I could go on, but you get the picture. I’m blessed to have wonderful people in my life who want me to succeed. Oh, and I don’t watch a great deal of television and I don’t sleep a lot. But at my age, I’ve heard we need less sleep. I love all the things that I do and they are so exciting. I don’t want to let any of them go. I might miss something.

Anything else you'd like to say to our readers?

We'd invite you to check us out. We've got almost 3000 reviews, numerous audio author interviews (they change all the time), contests and a lot of scrumptious information. And the newest thing is: We have a member's only site. For a very small amount of money monthly, we have a place where members can go for 'stuff' that's not on the regular site.

Thank you, Andrea! I appreciate your time!

 

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Guest Post: “Inspiration/Perspiration,” by Cody Mc Fadyen

One of the things writers are asked most often is: where do you get your ideas from? I’ve heard all kinds of responses. I’m envious of the writers who know… but I suspect they are few and far between. The truth, for me, is that they fall out of the sky. They are an amalgamation of the life I’ve lived, the people I’ve known, the books I’ve read, the movies I’ve watched, the songs I’ve loved… and often all at oblique angles.

Example: I watch a lot of true crime shows. I watched one recently that was telling the story of this poor woman who’d been kidnapped by a man and his wife and imprisoned for six or seven years. I won’t go into all the horrible details, but suffice to say that it sparked something. What I ended up writing had little, if nothing, to do with the original story – but it started the ball rolling. Another time, I was writing about a relationship between two characters, and I remembered when a woman in my life had asked me to sing her to sleep because she loved the sound of my voice. My voice is nothing special, in my opinion, but her love of it was so honest and genuine, I couldn’t refuse. This found it’s way into the book, even though the character I ascribed it to was nothing like the real life woman I’d sung to.

I suppose people (self included) look for formulas for things. An ‘if you do A and B, then C will occur’. Writing is no different. In the end, I guess there aren’t any easy answers, or, if you really want to get down to it – there are too many. ‘Write what you know’ is true sometimes. ‘Less is more’ is true sometimes. But ‘rules are made to be broken’ can be true in the right moment as well. It’s all about a feeling in the gut, for me. ‘This goes there.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it does.’

A last, too-cutesy little mention. If you want to get all butterfly effect and zen-ish. I once sat down and wrote out an idea for a story. It was a good idea, and, I thought, an original one. A few days later, I was watching one of those true crime shows, and there my idea was – in real life. Something that had happened years ago. I’d never heard the real life story, but the parallels were downright spooky. I’d come up with an idea for a story. A real life killer had executed this idea years before. Did we both get our inspiration from the same place?

Maybe, sometimes, ideas come from a dark little man in a dark little room who sings and claps his hands and laughs while we dance to his tune.

–A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Cody McFadyen is the author of the international bestsellers Shadow Man and The Face of Death. A third book, The Darker Side, is coming out this October.

Read an interview with Cody at The Dark Phantom.

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Cool Summer Contest at Armchair Interviews

Hi,

I just heard from Andrea Sisco at Armchair Interviews that they have a cool summer contest going on!

Here is the message by Andrea and Connie:

Announcing 2008 Contest: Summertime Blues For all you authors out there — or those who simply like to write –Tell us in fewer than 1,000 words (in any genre) a short story that takes place in summer. Our panel of judges will be looking for:

• Good storytelling
• Unique turn of words
• Use these words: summer, hotdogs, campfire, “Kumbiah” and blues.
• Well-written (grammar, word usage, etc.)

Winning story will receive $50 in prize money and the first and second runner-up will receive two books of our choosing. All three stories will be published on our site. AND you can list your winning honor on writing resume or book proposal.

Guidelines:

• Submit to Connie@ArmchairInterviews.com as a Word doc (if Word not available, submit it inside an email)
• 1,000 words maximum
• Please underline the required words used (listed above)
• Your favorite genre
• On cover sheet, list genre, name, email address, mailing address

Deadline is September 30, 2008

Only one submission per person Winners will be notified after the judging decisions are made. Get writing, get creative–and don’t wait until September 29 to submit. And good luck!

Andrea and Connie

–Mayra Calvani, aka The Dark Phantom

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