Today I received my copy of the December Issue of The Victorian Writer and found a wonderful piece on how to get off of the slush pile written by Shivaun Plozza. She has encapsulated a lot of information in about 450 words. Shivaun talks about the synopsis and how important it is to getting your manuscript read. Drop over to her blog where she has offered even more advice to would be published writers.
Link: http://shivaunplozza.blogspot.com.au/p/services.html
Monday, 2 December 2013
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Should I set up my publishing company and embrace other authors or not.
Since writing the post below, I like many other self published writers have hacked my story around numerous bookshops across Australia. I have pestered my friends, family, associates and anyone else I can think of, for leads to people who might like to buy a book. The only thing I haven't done is to set up at any of the many book fairs, as I have only had the one book to sell. This is the same problem facing any salesperson canvassing for sales, how can I strengthen my product line to make a sale every time I call on a bookshop?
Knowing I can only realistically expect to produce and publish one quality 100,000 word novel per year if I am trying to do the marketing and selling too, it's not enough. If I wait for three years I may have three books to sell by the one author, me. While they may be great novels, they are still too small of an offering to make me a serious competitor in the book sales business. Therefore, what options do writers like me have?
- We can continue to submit our work to the regular publishing houses and hope to land a deal.
- E-publish our work on the various forms and promote it via e-mail and social media trying to drive possible buyers to our books.
- Self publish via one of the many vanity publishers and do the rounds of friends and family.
- Develop your own publishing house to manage the printing registration and distribution.
- Establish a co-operative scheme to embrace authors of a similar mindset and present their work as a combined and professional publishing company that will attract the interest of distribution businesses across the globe.
For now I'm only tossing a few an ideas around but would be interested in comments from anyone about their success and failures at becoming published in hard copy.
Either leave me a comment, or e-mail me at terry.probert@bigpond.com
Terry
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
To Self Publish or Not? That is the Question.
Having finished my novel KUNDELA I have sent out samples to different publishers. Having religiously followed their submission guidelines in the hope that someone would chance upon my masterpiece, I have checked the e-mail inbox daily with disappointment. Weeks of waiting and with response times now passing I have to face the possibility of not being picked up on this first round of enquiry letters.
I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.
Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.
From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.
Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.
Proving that writing is a business.
One of the sites I found helpful was a You tube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.
I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.
Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.
From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.
Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.
Proving that writing is a business.
One of the sites I found helpful was a You tube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Melton Short Story Competition
Last Friday night a good number Melton City Council's best writers, their families and friends gathered for the annual short story competition. Each year the council has offered an opportunity for local writers to submit stories poems and plays and compete for both monitory reward and more importantly recognition among the writing community.
The Melton City Council provided three competition categories this year and offered monitory prizes for each. Entrants were advised of being short listed a couple of weeks prior and this added to the tension in the room as every author there wondered if they had been successful and their guests wanted to know who had won too.
Amra Pajalic, author of 'The Good Daughter' was master of ceremonies for the night and kept the night moving as she introduced the judges and winners of awards.
I'm told the adult section was fiercely competitive this year, and Beverly Eikli said she had a tough job picking the finalists. This comment lifted the spirits of the entrants as each of us wanted to know if the standard of our writing was of quality.
With a great sense of pride I listened as Beverly called out my colleague Chris Mack from last year's Longitudinal Writing Workshop as the first place winner.
Her story about a child finding her place among her peers was a heart warming account of a girl from a low income family looking for clothes at the local tip was read to the spellbound crowd. It was a wonderful rendition and something I'd love to have happen with one of my yarns.
In equal second place was Fikret Pajalic and I shared this award with him.
In third place was the fantastic Melton writer, Craig Henderson, who I believe should win almost everything he enters. Yes his short stories and longer works are that good.
When I think back over the months that I have spent with some of these people I find that the work and time given by Merlene Fawdry to assist and encourage writers of all skill levels is evident in the winning stories.I met Merlene last year by attending her workshop and was impressed by her drive and commitment to help us succeed. Some months later I was in awe as she selflessly gave her time to copy-edit and produce an anthology of stories by Melton and Caroline Springs storytellers. Storytellers who by way of the book can be proud of the stories and poems she helped polish to make suitable for publication.
I have put my story 'Banib the Bunyip' onto Amazon's Kindle format and for December it is only US$ 0.99 to download.
Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Banib-Bunyip-Terry-L-Probert-ebook/dp/B00GRLFU2E
Banib the Bunyip is a Dreamtime story told by an Aboriginal boy to a group of kids on a school camp. It's a scary story that my friends and family love and it's set in Melton to the west of Melbourne. I'd love to get some feedback on what people think of the story so please let me know as both good and bad critique is welcome.
Blog Links:
The Melton City Council provided three competition categories this year and offered monitory prizes for each. Entrants were advised of being short listed a couple of weeks prior and this added to the tension in the room as every author there wondered if they had been successful and their guests wanted to know who had won too.
Amra Pajalic, author of 'The Good Daughter' was master of ceremonies for the night and kept the night moving as she introduced the judges and winners of awards.
I'm told the adult section was fiercely competitive this year, and Beverly Eikli said she had a tough job picking the finalists. This comment lifted the spirits of the entrants as each of us wanted to know if the standard of our writing was of quality.
With a great sense of pride I listened as Beverly called out my colleague Chris Mack from last year's Longitudinal Writing Workshop as the first place winner.
Her story about a child finding her place among her peers was a heart warming account of a girl from a low income family looking for clothes at the local tip was read to the spellbound crowd. It was a wonderful rendition and something I'd love to have happen with one of my yarns.
In equal second place was Fikret Pajalic and I shared this award with him.
In third place was the fantastic Melton writer, Craig Henderson, who I believe should win almost everything he enters. Yes his short stories and longer works are that good.
When I think back over the months that I have spent with some of these people I find that the work and time given by Merlene Fawdry to assist and encourage writers of all skill levels is evident in the winning stories.I met Merlene last year by attending her workshop and was impressed by her drive and commitment to help us succeed. Some months later I was in awe as she selflessly gave her time to copy-edit and produce an anthology of stories by Melton and Caroline Springs storytellers. Storytellers who by way of the book can be proud of the stories and poems she helped polish to make suitable for publication.
I have put my story 'Banib the Bunyip' onto Amazon's Kindle format and for December it is only US$ 0.99 to download.
Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Banib-Bunyip-Terry-L-Probert-ebook/dp/B00GRLFU2E
Banib the Bunyip is a Dreamtime story told by an Aboriginal boy to a group of kids on a school camp. It's a scary story that my friends and family love and it's set in Melton to the west of Melbourne. I'd love to get some feedback on what people think of the story so please let me know as both good and bad critique is welcome.
Blog Links:
- Chris Mack: http://chrismackauthor.wordpress.com/
- Merlene Fawdry: http://www.blogger.com/profile/08318707687125028987
- Amra Pajalic: http://www.amrapajalic.com/
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Save Mona 693 petition signatures and climbing.
With every project we plan there are milestones and one of these is a tipping point. For the wild rhinos across the world their extinction has already crossed that point and it seems they are doomed for extinction. So why should we care. We should care because we can and we don't wan to tell our children and our grandchildren we stood by and did nothing while these animals crashed into a bloody and horrible death at the hands of poachers.
From my point of view the problem needs to identify why the animal is being poached? Oh and I do know it is for the belief that the horn is an aphrodisiac but if that is the root cause it should be easy to manage a change in opinion by offering a substitute, the makers of products like Viagra spend millions each year telling us about a better sex life. I think this is like many things only available to the rich, it is about status and power. Rhino horn is about power, being dominant showing that you can thumb your nose at the world and everything in it. Proving that everything has a price and you can pay it..
Ask yourself these questions and maybe you will find the answer:
Click here now to take part: http://savemona.org/ and please remember to post the link on your social media timelines too.
Cheers,
Terry L Probert
From my point of view the problem needs to identify why the animal is being poached? Oh and I do know it is for the belief that the horn is an aphrodisiac but if that is the root cause it should be easy to manage a change in opinion by offering a substitute, the makers of products like Viagra spend millions each year telling us about a better sex life. I think this is like many things only available to the rich, it is about status and power. Rhino horn is about power, being dominant showing that you can thumb your nose at the world and everything in it. Proving that everything has a price and you can pay it..
Ask yourself these questions and maybe you will find the answer:
- What turns a farmer into a poacher?
- What can we do as a group?
- What can I do as an individual.
Click here now to take part: http://savemona.org/ and please remember to post the link on your social media timelines too.
Cheers,
Terry L Probert
Friday, 15 November 2013
Kundela Update
Today has been one of frustration, and missed opportunities for NaNoWriMo. I have been refurbishing my contacts database to ensure that it is up to date and I'm sure that most of the bookstore were busy when I asked them to confirm their details.
The reprint of KUNDELA has arrived and I'm extremely pleased with it. The new cover distinguishes it from the old one yet retains its Aussie character. I have taken an opportunity to change a couple of irritations that bugged one or two fo my critics but that's all it needed.
To say I'm a happy camper is an understatement. A big shout to all of you who have bought the first copies, they were a small print run and your support is power for my pen.
More updates to come.
The reprint of KUNDELA has arrived and I'm extremely pleased with it. The new cover distinguishes it from the old one yet retains its Aussie character. I have taken an opportunity to change a couple of irritations that bugged one or two fo my critics but that's all it needed.
More updates to come.
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Save Mona
Thanks to all my Facebook friends who have liked and shared the Save Mona page. Your actions will create a groundswell of people expressing the same opinion and one day we may save these creatures and many others from extinction.
Let us all hope our grandchildren don't point to a photo of a rhino and say why didn't you do something Gramps?
Check out the website and leave a comment please: http://savemona.org/
And the petition: http://www.change.org/en-AU/organisations/save_mona
Thanks everyone.
Terry
Let us all hope our grandchildren don't point to a photo of a rhino and say why didn't you do something Gramps?
Check out the website and leave a comment please: http://savemona.org/
And the petition: http://www.change.org/en-AU/organisations/save_mona
Thanks everyone.
Terry
Introducing: Gino Di Massimo, Charlie Winkler's henchman
Meet Gino, a fictional character in my new novel Les Gillespie's Gold. Gino as you can see from his profle is a very clever and dangerous man. Probably a latent psycopath he manages to keep his urges to kill under control. He can hurt without leaving a mark and his presence is enough to intimidate most.
I'm not quite sure where he will pop up in the story but when he does he will cause trouble.
Check him out below
I'm not quite sure where he will pop up in the story but when he does he will cause trouble.
Check him out below
NAME: : Gino Di Massimo
Position
in story: : More than a Secondary Role
|
Age:
|
37
|
|
Nationality:
|
Aussie born Italian
|
|
Socioeconomic level as a
child:
|
Good
|
|
Socioeconomic level as an
adult:
|
Middle income group
|
|
Hometown:
|
Torrensville
|
|
Current residence:
|
Mile End
|
|
Occupation:
|
Mr. Fix-it for Raydor
|
|
Income:
|
|
|
Talents/skills:
|
Trained in Psychology and is
a martial arts expert with a very mean attitude he is feared by most of his
colleagues (Based on Harry Bennett. Henry
Fords right hand man)
|
|
Salary:
|
$120,000 + bonuses +
expenses
|
|
Relationships:
|
Can’t keep a woman for long
he tortures them both mentally and physically
|
|
Birth order:
|
Oldest of two
|
|
Siblings (describe
relationship):
|
Rocco (dead, died in
uncertain circumstances)
|
|
Spouse/partner (describe
relationship):
|
None
|
|
Children (describe
relationship):
|
None
|
|
Parents (describe
relationship):
|
Maria came out from Sicily
to marry Angelo in 1969. Angelo worked in the market gardens in Virginia
until they started a fruit shop in the Central Market
|
|
Grandparents (describe
relationship):
|
In Italy no current
connection
|
|
Grandchildren (describe
relationship):
|
None
|
|
Significant others
(describe relationship):
|
Retains a mechanic to look
after his dragster
|
|
Relationship skills:
|
Very smooth with everyone
until he has what he wants and then discards them
|
|
Physical Characteristics
|
|
|
Height:
|
187 cm
|
|
Weight:
|
78kg
|
|
Race:
|
Italian
|
|
Eye Color:
|
Brown
|
|
Hair Color:
|
Black
|
|
Glasses or contact
lenses?
|
Gold rimmed glasses photo
grey tint
|
|
Skin colour:
|
olive
|
|
Shape of face:
|
Square jaw
|
|
Distinguishing features:
|
Crooked nose
|
|
How does he/she dress?
|
Expensive suits and RM
Williams outfitter when in the bush
|
|
Mannerisms:
|
Keeps looking over his
shoulder and always chooses a seat in the back corner of any room he is not
familiar with
|
|
Habits: (smoking,
drinking/drugs/addictions etc.)
|
Doesn’t smoke. Likes good
wine and only eats Italian food if possible
|
|
Any physical illnesses?
|
No
|
|
Health:
|
Excellent
|
|
Hobbies:
|
Drag Racing
|
|
Favourite sayings:
|
You’re mine
|
|
Speech patterns:
|
Aussie with a touch of
Italian
|
|
Disabilities:
|
None
|
|
Style (Elegant, shabby
etc.):
|
Elegant
|
|
Greatest flaw:
|
He has been able eliminate
all his shortcomings but vanity will sometimes cause him to lose his cool
|
|
Best quality:
|
There isn’t one
|
|
Personality Attributes and Attitudes
|
|
|
Educational Background:
|
Adelaide Uni
|
|
Intelligence Level:
|
Very high
|
|
Any Mental Illnesses?
|
None
|
|
Learning Experiences:
|
Grew up being bullied for
his glasses and being Italian it made him mean and vengeful
|
|
Character's short-term
goals in life:
|
Screw everyone to benefit
himself
|
|
Character's long-term
goals in life:
|
Become very rich
|
|
How does Character see
himself/herself?
|
As perfection in a man
|
|
How does Character
believe he/she is perceived by others?
|
He doesn’t care for the
opinion of others much
|
|
How self-confident is the
character?
|
Very and driven by ego
|
|
Does the character seem
ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?
|
Logic he is very cool when
cornered
|
|
What would most embarrass
this character
|
People referring to his
being bullied
|
|
Spiritual Characteristics
|
|
|
Does the character
believe in God?
|
He is a devout Catholic and
attends Mass most weeks
|
|
What are the character's
spiritual beliefs?
|
God will forgive him for
anything he does
|
|
Is religion or spirituality
a part of this character's life?
|
Religion is a means of
finding peace in his actions
|
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