Guest Post: Impress Your Agents With Your Branding
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 19, 2013
I’m a guest on Linda Adams’ blog today. I met Linda in the We Are Not Alone group. She is a war veteran and a writer. I’ll have her over as a guest soon. In the meantime, check out her blog and publications and my post, Impress Your Agents With Your Branding.
New Adult Genre
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 19, 2013
I posted my top 5 reasons for attending a writers conference on Saturday. I mentioned you could learn something. Well, here’s something that blew me away. There’s a new genre. This might be old news to you, but to me, it wasn’t just news, it was good news. The genre is New Adult. Now, I actually have a category for my second novel Stay since the main character is in 21. I’ve been reading a bit about New Adult and it seems to have pleased some people and annoyed others as all change tends to do. I have a lot more to read about it since I have still have to edit, create a cover and plan a marketing strategy. So far, here are a few articles I found interesting.
- What Is New Adult?
- Friday News: Amazon responds to its customers and creates a New Adult category; Big Book to Movie Flops; Diddy in Downton Abbey?
- New-adult Fiction
- NA Alley
What do you think of the New Adult genre? What can you see as advantages and disadvantages of this genre? Do you consider yourself a New Adult writer?
Traditional VS Self Publishing
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 18, 2013
As promised, here are the results of the CanWrite! Conference 2013 panel on traditional vs self publishing. The panelists were Sheila Mahoney (freelance editor), Tom Taylor, (successful self-published author), and Halli Villegas (publisher). I won’t get into the entire discussion, but, instead, will highlight points all three agreed on for success, regardless of the route taken.
- Make your work as good as possible, then hire an editor. This was emphasized as crucial by the panelists.
- Writing a book is only the first step to publishing. A traditional publisher will take care of the multitude of tasks that need to occur from that point on. A self-publisher will need to oversee all the details.
- Be willing to spend a few thousand dollars on goods and services. Even a writer seeking an agent and a contract should be prepared to hire an editor for a substantive edit to improve the chances of success. The self-published writer will need to hire professionals for every step from editing to printing.
- A self-published book should look as professional as any other which means proper formatting and a great cover.
- Be prepared to promote yourself and your work online and in person. This is obvious for self-publishing. The panelists pointed out that it is now expected from traditional publishers as well since their marketing budgets and departments have shrunk drastically.
Which path are you on? What do you find most challenging as a traditionally published author? What do you find most challenging as a self-published writer?
CanWrite 2013 Conference
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 17, 2013
I’m a post behind in this 2013 WordCount Blogathon! Ah! I’ll make it up by the end of next weekend.
I quickly threw out a post Saturday morning about writers’ conferences just as I had arrived at the Canadian Authors Association CanWrite 2013 Conference. What a great way to spend a Saturday. It started with a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon as any conference should. At ten, I headed to a creative writing circle facilitated by Susan Lynn Reynolds (writer, teacher and psychotherapist). We started with a quick meditation to relax our bodies and minds, then were instructed to write for ten minutes without allowing the pen to stop several times with various prompts to inspire us. The exercise was called On-the-Spot Writing. It was my first time doing this. I can’t say that my results were great as my mind strayed from the concepts of the prompts to multiple other things completely unrelated. However, fellow writers read some excellent material.
During a pleasant lunch, I somehow ended up joining the Canadian Authors Association Program Committee. I’m not even a member anymore! (Don’t know how I get myself into these things.) I guess I’ll have to pickup a membership at some point. Still it sounds like fun and the other three committee members are quite enthusiastic as is the executive. I’m looking forward to our first meeting.
The afternoon began with a panel on traditional vs self publishing. This one hour talk deserves its own post so check in tomorrow and I’ll tell you how a debate that, for me, has become repetitive and annoying, turned out to be interesting and informative.
“Taurus” by Salvatore Vuono
I spent the end of my day with Cordelia Strube, nominee and winner of a long list of awards. She led a writing workshop called Writing is Re-writing: Improve Narrative Drive, Deepen Characterization. I did much better here than in the morning as my mind focused on a scene with the help a three props: a green plastic ring, a postcard from Hong Kong and a horoscope which encouraged Taurus’ to have goals but to be cautious of which were attainable and which should remain dreams. From that, I set a girl next door wearing a mint green ski jacket (inspired by the ring) in a strip joint (inspired by the postcard) bumping into a male employee (inspired by the horoscope). I’d never written with props before and believe that I will be integrating that into my writing from time to time. I can see this as a great way to improve a boring scene besides hitting the delete button, of course. (I don’t know about you, but it’s one of my favorite buttons.)
Do you use on-the-spot writing to inspire you? What kind of props have led you to write interesting scenes? Are there any writing exercises you swear by?
Top 5 Reasons To Attend A Writers Conference
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 15, 2013
I’m at the Canadian Authors association CanWrite! Conference 2013. I’ll tell you all about it later. For now, let’s count down the top 5 reasons to attend a writers’ conference.
- Networking. You’ll meet other writers, editors and agents.
- Access to agents. By signing up for a pitch session, you can meet an agent and pitch your work. You’ll get some experience and exposure.
- Do some workshops. You’ll improve your writing.
- Attend panel discussions. You’ll hear about what’s happening in the writing industry.
- Be a writer for a day. Most of us have day jobs. Once or twice in the year, take the time to immerse yourself in your craft and socialize with your peers.
What writers conference have you attended lately? What was your best experience at a conference? What are your reasons for going to a conference?
Watching TV In Yesteryear
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 14, 2013
Normally, tv watching around here consists of three flavours: kids channel #1, kids channel #2, or kids channel #3. I don’t watch. If it weren’t for BabyGirl, I wouldn’t even own a tv. The tv is considered hers. Not that I voice that to her. The truth is, most weekends when she’s gone, the tv doesn’t even get a glance, let alone get turned on.
“Retro Vintage Television” by Stoonn
When I was growing up, tv was geared mostly towards adults and specialty channels, like kids channels, were unheard of. Our tv was a piece of furniture which Mom polished on the weekends. And it was firmly grounded in the adult world. The remote was definitely controlled by my parents. I watched whatever they watched: the news, game shows, sports, travel and cooking shows, musicals, romantic comedies, westerns and war movies. I didn’t understand the adult world much, but I was very aware of it. I knew people could be as beautiful as they could be ugly.
There were a couple of hours of kids shows after school and cartoons were on Saturday mornings. As a child, Sunday seemed like THE worst day of the week. Not only was there nothing to do because most stores were closed and most people hung out with their family, but tv programming consisted of a variety of fishing shows or a variety of Sunday sermons brought to tv land courtesy of the multiple Christian denominations out there. Sunday was truly the most boring day of all until supper time when the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom came on. After a day of playing with imaginary friends, watching wild animals tear each other apart (At least, that’s how I remember it.) came as a relief. Of course, such violence was then followed by a Walt Disney Presents movie.
I wonder what BabyGirl will remember about tv watching. She’ll probably say something like: “My mom used to say it was our tv, but really it was mine.”
What do you remember about watching tv as a kid? What’s your favorite specialty channel? Were Sundays as dull for you as they were for me?
Rollin’
Posted by Patricia Caviglia in Uncategorized on June 13, 2013
Some days require a little encouragement…
