EBOOK WAR?

I just heard an interesting program this morning on NPR radio that Wylie, one of the leading and largest literary agencies now putting out classics on ebook with an exclusive with Amazon Kindle. It seems the publishing world is up in arms, angry both at Wylie for getting into the ebook business and at Amazon for once again grabbing a big bite of the market. It appears that publishers are now refusing to publish authors with Wylie.

The war between publishing houses and Amazon has raged for a while now, ever since Amazon decided to get into the publishing business as well as sales. Now literary agencies are getting into the business, too. It seems that everyone wants a piece of the pie...

Apparently the literary agency disagrees with the amount of money authors make from the ebook sales and thinks they should get more, hence their emergence into the market. Of course most of the agency's authors make millions, so it doesn't affect us lowly indie authors who couldn't get a foot in the door, anyway.

Any insight into what is happening?

How to End a Book!

I'm rewriting an old 'tween historical novel and expanding it into the next level of reading, a teen/adult historical romance by doubling the number of words and upgrading the concepts and vocabulary.

Now it getting away from me and I can't seem to end it. I feel like I'm running on some endless track that winds around and around with no finish line in sight. The book just goes on and on and on and I'm getting bored, so I wonder what a reader would think; "She should have stopped 50 pages ago?"

Therefore, as enamored as I am of my words and the historical facts I'm trying to cram into the story...I'm going to get a sharp axe and commit story murder. It may get emotionally bloody, but ENOUGH!

Homage to a Classic

Today, July 7, 2010 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a classic in literature, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Every writer's dream is to be like Harper Lee, for she didn't just write a book, she created a masterpiece that will live on forever in literature, enjoyed by young and old alike. Once you've read the book, you will never forget precocious Scout and her brave father, Atticus Finch and the rest of the characters who make up this incredible story set in the south, so appropriate for the era that heralded the civil rights movement.

So I pay homage to this fantastic author. If you read this and you haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird, read it now. This was her only book, a loss to the world.

Fran Orenstein
www.franorenstein.weebly.com

Marketing Indie Books

Thank you to those who turned out for the Billie Williams Blog Tour yesterday... Norm, Linda.

It's so hard for indie authors to market their work in this financially tough economy and to reach people who don't know anything about the authors or the quality of their writing. That's why something like a blogtour gives readers a chance to learn more about the authors and their work.

All we ask is that you the reading public give us a chance. Everyone has to start somewhere and in this downsizing of major publishing houses and a tough economy, look to the ebook for good reading material. You don't have to own a fancy, expensive reader, you can download a book to your own computer for 1/2 the cost of a hardcopy book or even less.

Think electronic age!!!!!

Billie Williams Blog Tour

WELCOME TO THE BILLIE WILLIAMS BLOG TOUR

Best-Selling, Award winning Mystery/Suspense author Billie A Williams is the author of MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING and THE ZODIAC SLEUTHS mystery series. She is a fiction, non-fiction and poetry author and has won numerous contests for her short/flash fiction stories, essays, and poetry with over two dozen works published. She is published in various magazines such as the literary magazine Thema; Guide, a Magazine for Children, Novel Advice.com, Writing Etc. WritingNow.com, and Women In The Arts newsletter as well as

Sister’s in Crime, to list but a few.
Her articles, columns and features have appeared regularly in newspapers. Short stories, Flash fiction, poetry and book reviews have appeared in Mystery Time, True Love Magazine and various anthologies and on line e-zines and web sites. She writes a bi-monthly column titled “Whodunit?” for Mystery Fiction’s Voices in the Dark and is a contributing editor for Writingnow.com a Blueberry Press Newsletter.

Billie also hosts her own writer’s group, Word Mage Writers and Readers as well as The Amberg Writers Group that meets at her home monthly. She is an active blogger; http://printedwords.blogspot.com/ and http://onewomansgarden.blogspot.com/ a Free Writer’s course Titled Pens In Motion is a five week series of writing lessons pulled from her four published books on writing how to write and is available by email.

Williams is currently a member of The Wisconsin Regional Writers Association (WRWA) Upper Peninsula Writers Association (UPWA)National Association of Women Writers (NAWW) Sister’s in Crime, Women in the Arts Program, Electronically Published Internet Connection (EPIC), Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. (SCBWI) and Children’s Book Insider, and the Children Writers Coaching Club. Visit her at her websites http://www.billiewilliams.com/ or http://writingwide.com/ and sign up for her Newsletter Word Mage

She lives with her husband, Tom, and Lady Slipper, (the kitten she acquired the day she got the contract for The Pink Lady Slipper novel from Wings ePress, Inc,) in Amberg, a small Northern Wisconsin community where the winters are cold and long, but the people are warm and friendly.

HOW TO CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFT, EMAIL YOUR NAME AND CONTACT NUMBER TO franoren2@yahoo.com;

A WRITER'S LAMENT

I am a professional writer and editor and have been doing this in some form or another for nearly 50 years, so I can tell you from experience that nothing should ever leave your computer, typewriter, pen and paper, quill and parchment, or chisel and stone that hasn't been edited and proofed.

There are always mistakes, that is inevitable, and they jump out at me from even the most famous author's books, but to send out something that has many obvious errors is unacceptable. There are publishers, hungry for money who will take anything, but they are not reputable and this lack of integrity will always come back in their faces one day...people won't trust their publications any more. This is something I have seen happen.

Rule Number One: YOU CANNOT PROOF YOUR OWN WRITING!!!!! You are too close to it and we all make the same mistakes every time. For me it's typos because I type very fast... and I just did it and had to correct it...always typing it's for its or you're for your.

Rule Number Two: YOU CANNOT EDIT YOUR OWN WRITING!!!! Because every writer loves every word of everything they've ever written and it's like cutting off a limb to change something, or sanding flat the stone and chiseling a new hieroglyph. Imagine if Moses didn't like the wording in one of the commandments and sanded it down and rewrote it...I wouldn't want to be standing near any burning bushes after that.

So be smart and diligent and find someone who can proof and edit your work, who is objective, good with grammar and the English language, and doesn't have a stake in your well-being, because you may not like some of the suggestions. That's the beauty of the process, you can argue with the editor and get the reasons behind the change and then make your own choice.

So write the great American novel, but make sure that before you send it anywhere you find someone who can proof and edit the masterpiece. Good luck!

THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE

My latest 'tween novel is a second edition of a book originally published as The Ghost Under Third Base. Sporting a brand new title, THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE features a beautiful new cover by artist, writer and publisher, Randy Young of Sleepy Town Press.

Kids, ages 9-14 will enjoy following the adventures of Willie, the smartest kid in town who meets a strange new boy, Huby who can appear and disappear in a sunspot, knows things he shouldn't know, and has magical abilities...or seems to. A loner, Willie comes up with an idea for the town to build a ball field (with a little help from his new friend) and wins a school contest. But before anything happens, Willie must solve THE MYSTERY UNDER THIRD BASE.

Find out more information at

http://www.sleepytownpress.com/ or at my website, http://www.franorenstein.weebly.com/