Say What?!

read·ing

ˈrēdiNG/

noun

1.the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud.

Here’s hoping it’s not really a skill, because I don’t have time to hone it.

Last year, I submitted a 3,000-word excerpt of my upcoming novel, Flygirl, to its very first contest. Every year, San Diego Writers, Ink. invites writers from all over to submit entries for their annual anthology, A Year in Ink.

I picked a section of the book that I thought was okay—well, pretty good...or possibly really good—and sent it in. Imagine my incredible surprise when it was chosen.

Up until that point, I’d received encouragement from friends and teachers, but no objective praise. This was the first time someone who didn’t know or love me said they liked what I wrote. It could not have come at a better time for me, as I was frustrated beyond description by the rejections of literary agents all over the country!

To me, this honor said, “Yeah, kiddo, you’ve got something here!” And in early 2019, I’ll have a published novel.

On June 19th, 2018 at 6:30 p.m., Volume 11 of A Year in Ink will be launched with my excerpt in it, among many other deserving pieces of fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry. Please join me in bringing Flygirl to the public for the very first time!

Admission is free. Donations to this incredible non-profit requested.

For more information, please click here.

See you there!

R

The Wrapper

ˈkəvər/

a thing that lies on, over, or around something,

especially in order to protect or conceal it.

"a book cover"

After all these years of looking deeper, turns out you can judge a book by its cover. In fact, if you choose the correct cover, the book itself will apparently be judged by little else.

Thus began my search for the perfect cover for my debut novel Flygirl. Imagine my surprise when I learned that there are entire companies who do nothing but create covers for books! Lucky me!

Or not. First I had to choose the company. Do they provide eBook covers, because I’m going to want to make sure this book is available for the Kindles, Nooks, and other e-readers of the world. Check. Next, can they produce a suitable jacket for a hardcover book? Because, really, if you don’t have a hardcover, whatever is the point? Ok. Done. And then there’s paperback, audiobook, oh my!

I processed the overload of information that came my way about covers and the entities that create them. I chose a cover designer. I gave detailed, specific instructions about what I wanted and what I absolutely did not want. As I scrupulously followed the company’s required format, it took me forty-five minutes to write the perfect guidelines.

Which the company promptly ignored.

I wrote: “This is not a romance novel. So, a cover with a woman looking longingly at an aircraft would not be appropriate.”

And when I got the first proposed covers, there it was. A woman looking longingly at an aircraft. Well, at least she was wearing a hat!

After wearing out the walking path in my house—my protagonist coincidentally has this habit as well—I started over. With a new set of instructions.

And finally, I have a cover. A really cool one. Which you will all see…soon!

What's In A Name?

ti·tle

ˈtīdl/noun

the name of a book, composition, or other artistic work.

"the author and title of the book"

The better part of this week was devoted to picking a title for my upcoming book. I had been using the same working title since I started writing the novel over 20 years ago. Friends were drawn to it, my first developmental editor loved it, and I loved it. I was sold. Done. Check that box and move on.

Except for one thing. My publishers hated it.

Now, the three of us entered into a very delicate dance. I'm working with Acorn Publishing, a hybrid publisher, and as the novel will be self-published under their imprint, all of the revenue—and publishing decisions—are ultimately mine. But why work with people if you can't draw on their expertise, right?

Sounded good in my head. But I just didn't agree.

I fought the title change. I argued, proselytized, warned them that the title I was so loyal to made a lot of sense the minute the reader finished the first page of the novel. And they suggested that with the title I proposed, the reader would never get that far—they'd click right past my eBook online and rest their Starbucks on the hard and soft-cover versions in stores and at book fairs while they thumbed through the work of others.

I'm not gonna lie, that was tough to swallow. 

We decided to have the public weigh in, and gave a two sentence blurb about the book to Facebook followers of both my professional page and theirs. We got many interesting responses, some with really good alternate title suggestions, and some which were not going to be a fit.  

I wrote an email to my brother, a notorious avoider of social media, and asked for his opinion. His response was, "I have no idea. I guess use something from the text. 'Flygirl' sticks out to me." It happens to be the nickname of my protagonist. And there it was.

My first novel, Flygirl, will be released in early 2019.

So, in case you were wondering about the scientific algorithms run to determine the very best title choice for upcoming published novels, consider this process. And email my brother.