My next book project: Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881-82

I've just received the signed contract for my next book for Osprey Publishing: Wyatt Earp, the OK Corral and the Vendetta Ride 1881-82! Part of Osprey's raid series, this book continues Osprey's exploration of the Wild West.

The manuscript isn't due until almost a year from now so it will be some time before it will see the light of day. Of course I'll keep you updated! The Raid series looks at military or paramilitary raids, including their planning, execution, and an analysis of their success or failure.

I've written two books in this series already, including Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, and a book on James-Younger gang's Northfield raid that will come out next year.


Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Armies of the Adowa campaign gets a four-star review!

On my Civil War blog I recently mentioned that my book Armies of the Adowa Campiagn 1896: Italian Disaster in Ethiopia  got a five-star review on Amazon. Well, I just got another review. This time it's four stars, and the reasons for losing a star are just fine with me. The review follows:

"I am very surprise that this subject matter, the Adowa Campaign, never made to the Osprey Campaign series. It would have made a great addition. Instead, we are treated with short verison of Men at Arms Series instead. I must ask why the author did not see fit to write an Osprey Campaign book and why he settled on this short version format instead?

"I wrote that because I found this book to be highly interesting reading material, there are a lot of facts packed into this book and it definitely deserves a longer treatment then what this series could afford. The narrative is short but well written, obviously the author did his research and provided many colorful plates on the uniforms and outfits of the two opposing sides. There are quite a few interesting photographs included including one where Italians and their African allies were being released, most of the African allies are missing some limbs of their bodies. Another interesting photo was one of two Italian survivors of the battle barely reaching back to their home base, looking more like escaped slaves then soldiers.

"Overall, its a pretty informative book that deserves a longer format of a Campaign series. Why the author settled for less is mysterious to me. Adowa campaign is a highly interesting campaign where an African power inflicted the greatest military defeat on an European power during the 19th century. Far greater defeat then Islandlwana which was British's smaller version of what Adowa turnout to be for Italy."

So his only complaint is that there wasn't more of it? I can live with that! To answer the reviewer's question, there are a couple of reasons why it wasn't part of the Campaign series. The main reason is that Osprey requires a topographic battle map for each title. I wasn't sure I could get a topo map for the Adowa battlefield. After visiting the Ethiopian Mapping Agency in Addis Ababa, my worries proved to be correct. Another reason it was in Men-At-Arms and not Campaign is that I've been working closely with the editor from the Man-At-Arms series and he offered me the title to do for his line.

So yes, Adowa deserves a longer treatment, but a couple of factors prevented me from doing it. Still, it was a fun book to write, and certainly not my last book on Ethiopia.

It Happened in Missouri will have a second edition

I just got the contract to do a second edition of It Happened in Missouri. This is a collection of 30 tales of the Show-Me State, everything from how a 14 year-old boy founded St. Louis to Jesse James' first train robbery.

This title has been selling pretty well. Lots of libraries and schools have picked it up. State history tends to be popular, at least in that state. Most purchases are either orders from institutions or bought from the local interest sections of bookshops. Thus the Amazon rankings for state histories tend to be low. Amazon rankings are usually a poor way to gauge the popularity of a book.

Anyway, my deadline isn't until the end of 2012 so this new edition won't be out until 2013. It will include two new tales and perhaps some other goodies me and my editor will cook up.

for more insights about writing history for fun and profit, check out my article: How to Break into the Burgeoning History Market.

The Indie Press: Saviors of the Midlist?

It's tough being a midlist author these days. The big six New York publishers are cutting back and demanding every publication be a hit. They no longer want to invest in an author who can only sell 10,000 copies in the hopes that she'll either become famous with time or (horrors!) keep a loyal following that ensures she'll sell 10,000 copies of each of her next dozen books. It's feast or famine with the big boys these days.

But now small and independent presses are stepping up the the plate. Publishers Weekly has had some interesting articles about how midlist authors are being saved by the smaller guys.

An article titled Smaller Presses, Bigger Authors reveals the big six want 20,000-30,000 sales per book or you'll get dropped. Established writers, even famous writers, are having a tough time selling books that are a bit out of the box, a bit too experimental. Alice Walker went to indie press New World Library to publish a collection of her poems. It sold out its 7,500 copy first printing. Great sales for an indie, a financial flop for a big publisher.

Oh great. I have a hard enough time getting my books published even at indie presses, and now I have to compete with Alice Walker!?

But seriously, this is good news for the midlist too. Small and indie presses are more open to unestablished authors and experimental work. If they think a book can sell 5,000 copies they'll give it a shot. Some really small presses are happy with less than that. Your advance will be much lower, but you'll generally get a bigger percentage of the royalties and you'll be under less pressure to become a big name. It appears the smaller houses have a more realistic view of the marketplace. That's why they're blossoming right now.

Indie presses report seeing more manuscripts from established authors, as well as debut literary fiction from unknowns. This has been going on for some time. Back in 2007 PW profiled Night Shade Books. In that article they tell how the company has done well with good choices of authors, good distribution, and taking on sf/f books that are cool but not bestseller material. Even successful sf author Liz Williams moved from Bantam to Night Shade after her sales weren't good enough for such a large publisher.

Night Shade has a solid reputation, pays an advance, and can sell thousands of copies. Not hundreds of thousands, or even tens of thousands, but thousands. That's realistic, and they won't dump you if you "only" sell 7,000 copies. I met the owners at World Fantasy Con a few years back and they're very approachable and down to earth. That's a big plus too.

So maybe this isn't such a bad time to be a midlister after all.

My next book contract

Osprey Publishing has just sent me a signed contract for my next book.

It's another military history--that's what Osprey specializes in--and it's for a new series called Raid. This series focuses on important raids, examining how they were planned, what their goals were, and what could have been done better. The editor is a big fan of the Wild West and so I'm doing the Northfield Raid by the James-Younger gang. This ill-fated attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota, left all the robbers dead or in jail, except for Frank and Jesse James of course.

OK, so this isn't really military history. Osprey has been doing good business in the recession by playing to their strengths while not being afraid to break into new territory. The Wild West is one of them. Plus there are some military aspects. Most of the robbers were former Confederate bushwhackers and used their hit-and-run tactics to rob trains and banks and elude the law. I mention the James brothers in my previous Osprey title American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics.

Frank and Jesse James have cropped up in my fiction too. In an earlier post I talked about my Missouri Civil War horror novel and how because it was set in that time and place I couldn't avoid have the James brothers as characters. They've crept into the plot of the sequels too!

Here in Midlist land we're pretty busy, so we try to save time as much as possible. Writing novels set in periods you're already researching for paid work is an efficient expenditure of time. Now if I could only get those novels published!

Another advantage of work for hire

A while back I did a post on the relative merits of work for hire vs. getting an advance on royalties in publishing contracts. If you're unclear on these terms check out the link.

After being a Gadling travel blogger for more than a year I've discovered another advantage of work for hire--when you sign away your rights you don't have to defend them. Gadling, or more precisely AOL Media, pays me a flat fee and then owns total rights to my posts. I agree to this because their flat fee is good and they have the most popular travel blog on the web. Once my posts go live, they are their property.

What a relief! With so many people stealing stuff from online sources I'd spend half my day tracking down copyright violations. For example, one blogger reused a photo of mine without permission, others have taken articles, and the Somaliland Times, a weekly English newspaper, reprinted my entire Somaliland travel series. Actually I don't mind that last one, because how many people in Hargeisa read Gadling?

So I can sit back and watch the plundering of my work with a serene detachment. Sure it's wrong, but it gets me more readers, and if AOL Media's lawyers want to do something about it, that's their job. I hope they don't go after the Somalis, though. The Somali people showed me so much hospitality they deserve to get my articles for free.

Queen of the Midlist: Interview with Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Today we're suspending our usual Monday installment of Websites for Writers to interview longtime midlister Kathryn Meyer Griffith. Her latest horror novel, A Time of Demons, is just out from Damnation Books today. Websites for Writers will be back next week.

You've been a published author for 26 years. How have you seen the market change for midlist authors in that time?
Boy, have I seen it change! When I first started sending out manuscripts (in the days of the dinosaurs), typed on an electric typewriter with lots of spots of White-Out and then carefully stacked into copy paper boxes that I’d send expensively by snail-mail with self-stamped and addressed return manila envelopes also inside, it’d take anywhere from eight to twelve months to get an answer from a publisher; and then we’d go back and forth for another couple months before they’d give me a contract. Then I waited up to a year or more for it to hit the bookshelves and another year after that before I got a royalty statement. They’d take money off the top for returns. Never could figure out those darn royalty statements! Ech. I think of this every time I hit the send button and rocket my computerized manuscript right to my publisher or editor or when I get the edits in a neat file for me to use Track Changes on. No muss, no fuss. It’s so much easier now and I save all that postage, too.

And years ago the midlist author was respected, even courted by their publisher. I remember on my first Zebra book in 1991, VAMPIRE BLOOD, my editor found out my husband loved another of their author’s work (William Johnstone) and just to be nice he sent us the whole paperback series (14 books!) so my husband could have them. Sheesh. What editor would do that now for a midlist author? None. Truth is I don’t think there is a midlist anymore or midlist authors. They’ve gone the way of the dodo bird. Which is why I’ve published my last three (soon to be five) novels with E & paperback publishers. The bigger publishers don’t want you unless you’re a bestseller now. They don’t want to really edit your books or take any time to promote or build your career. It makes it truly hard to get published and make real money at it anymore. (As if I ever did! My best financial payouts were my Leisure and Zebra days from 1984-1994 and so far I haven’t come near those totals again. Maybe someday after all the E & paperback books for my older novels – *see below – come out I will.)

In recent years you've shifted more towards ebooks. What spurred that decision?
As I said, it’s really difficult to get published with the big guys anymore…even me…and I have 13 books to my name and more coming. I don’t know what the big guys want anymore but it isn’t me. In 2007, on a lark sort of, dejected and ready to give up writing forever, I decided to send a book, EGYPTIAN HEART, (that had been turned down by every big publisher in the galaxy) to THE WILD ROSE PRESS, a new E & paperback publisher who were really kind to me. Really loved the book. I knew the book needed a good editing and after their editor got done with it (she did a detailed, fantastic job, too, I thought) I felt it was a much better book. The cover, surprisingly, was beautiful and they’d actually asked for my input for it and on everything else, editing and all, during the editing process. Unheard of from my experiences with Zebra, Leisure and Avalon Books (my previous publishers that I did two hardcover murder mysteries for).

I remember my first novel from Leisure in 1984, EVIL STALKS THE NIGHT, was edited by some male editor and I never even saw the book during editing until it was printed and in my hands after the release date. The editor did a terrible job all in all and had actually put in three pages of his own without consulting me! They were awful and my readers to this day ask me about them!

And the covers of my Leisure and Zebra books were completely out of my hands. They made a cover for you and if it was horrible or you hated it…too bad. A few of my books, I felt, had awful covers. BLOOD FORGE. 1989. Yeck! THE LAST VAMPIRE. 1992. Awful! My experience so far with five e-books, on the other hand, have been, on the whole, excellent. I love my covers for EGYPTIAN HEART, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons and THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON. But the cover artist worked with me on each of them. They wanted what I envisioned on the cover. Amazing. Can’t wait to see all the new covers of all my older books that are being re-released in E & paperbacks.

So far there hasn’t been a lot of money in my e-books…but I see, feel, a change coming. Three years ago being e-published was looked down on from the publishing industry; now I think it’s beginning to become more respectable. All those little greedy machines out there clamoring for food! E-READS told me that this last year alone they’ve seen a 200-300% rise in their sales and they’re still rising! I’m catching the wave.

Tell us a bit about your two upcoming releases.
From DAMNATION BOOKS: BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (new) out May 31, 2010. THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON (new) in September 2010 from ETERNAL PRESS.

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons is an apocalyptic saga about traveling brother and sister musicians, Cassandra and Johnny Graystone, and their friends, who must fight evil demons, with the help of angels, in the end days (sort of like the Left Behind series or Buffy The Vampire Slayer). The sister is developing supernatural powers to aid them in the final war as they seek out and convince others with similar powers to join them.

THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON, a contemporary vampire novel, is about Willowwind, a beautiful Civil War era bed and breakfast, run by a loving couple, Adrian and Caroline Stone. It’s also haunted by a long dead Civil War era vampiress who was once a witch, Lilith, who believes the man, Adrian, is her reincarnated soldier/lover Jedidiah, and she’ll do anything to have him, body-heart-and soul, for her own again. But Adrian’s wife, Caroline, along with the help of a psychic and the ghost of her dead father, will do anything to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I also have three e & paperback books available from THE WILD ROSE PRESS….more romantic but still spooky. EGYPTIAN HEART. WINTER’S JOURNEY. THE ICE BRIDGE. And two ghostly short stories, Don’t Look Back, Agnes and In this House.

And the rereleases: THE HEART OF THE ROSE in November 2010 from ETERNAL PRESS. THE LAST VAMPIRE in Oct. 2010…THE CALLING in March 2011…BLOOD FORGE in June 2011 and EVIL STALKS THE NIGHT in September 2011 from DAMNATION BOOKS. E-READS is going to bring out VAMPIRE BLOOD and WITCHES again by the end of 2010 or so they say; no real publication dates yet on those two and they’ve had them since October of last year (and they’re charging me a hefty set-up fee for both while DB and EP don’t charge a penny…I won’t fall for that again). Imagine…ESTN came out from Leisure 26 years ago. Whew. I’m sooo happy they’re all coming out again. I’ve worked really hard to get them all reborn.

What attracts you to write about the paranormal?
It’s what I’ve always loved to read. I recall one day when I was about ten or eleven years old and my grade school class had ordered hardcover books through The Weekly Reader (anyone remember those?) and I had ordered a book on ghosts; no longer remember the name or who it was by. I think it was short stories, though. I can still recall the shivery thrill when the cardboard boxes came in and the class opened them and our teacher distributed the books to the ones who’d bought them. I was in heaven!

Then…my beloved grandmother Mary Fehrt, the first real storyteller I ever knew, used to have my brothers and sisters and I (there were seven of us and we were poor) sit around in her barely lit basement when we spent the weekends (two or three of us at a time) and she’d tell us spooky stories. We also would watch Spook Spectacular with her over root beer floats or home-made ice cream sundaes. She’s the one who told me never to gaze into a mirror in a darkened room because something scary would be in them. And that’s when my love of horror began. But I love and write traditional supernatural horror…the kind about ghosts, vampires and eerie things that go bump in the night. I rely on the characters not gore, sex or curse words. Probably that’s why I’ve never become famous. Ha, ha. Thing is, I also write murder mysteries, romantic horror and time travel. Even once did an historical romance (The Heart of the Rose, 1985)…but it was about a woman perceived to be a witch in 15^th century England during the time of Edward the Fourth. Go figure. No matter what I write a ghost, a vampire or a witch sneaks in somehow.

You've had 14 novels published. How has your writing developed in the course of all those projects?
Now that’s a really hard question as I’ve been writing for 39 years and published for 26 of them. Mainly, I don’t use as many adjectives.  Not as much flowery prose. More dialogue. More show not tell. And my great age has enabled me to write from somewhere else deeper inside myself. I’ve seen, felt more. Oh, yeah, the computer as compared to that darn old typewriter has really helped. I can rewrite so easily. Hey, I taught myself to type (I was an artist, you know, not someone who thought I’d ever need typing – I could kick myself now!). I still type with two fingers. Thank goodness my new publisher could scan in all those old books because they don’t exist on a computer or memory stick anywhere and, hey, I’d be two-fingered typing from now to doomsday. Some of those oldies are close to 400 pages each.

Where can we find you online?

Actually, I have ten social websites and now one official website so I won’t bore everyone with all of them. Here are the best of the lot where you can learn all you’ll ever want to know about me (and perhaps way more than you’d care to):

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith See all my new covers and self-made book trailers; some with my singer/songwriter brother Jim Meyer’s original songs!

http://www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG See all my new covers and self-made book trailers; some with my singer/songwriter brother Jim Meyer’s original songs!
http://kathrynmeyergriffith.intuitwebsites.com/

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

My e-mail: rdgriff (at) htc (dot) net E-mail me…I love feedback!

And Sean, it’s been nice of you to let me ramble on…nice to be here. Signing out, Kathryn Meyer Griffith The Queen of the midlist writers.

Still in the running for a publishing contract

My Missouri Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness is still in the running for a publishing contract. It's a finalist in Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood Contest. After making it through the slush pile, I and the other eight finalists had our first chapters analyzed by the judges. Only five made it over that hurdle, and now it's up to the public to decide.

For this round the public is judging cover copy, often called the back cover blurb. The judges were pretty positive with mine, although they made some fair criticisms. Drop on by the contest website and check it out. If you like my stuff you can vote by sending an email to freshblood (at) chizinepub (dot) com with the subject line "Fresh Blood Vote: A Fine Likeness by Sean McLachlan". You should get a confirmation that you voted. Voting ends this Wednesday, April 14.

I've put a lot of work and research into this novel, which inserts supernatural horror into real history. Jesse James even gets a bit part. I'd love to see it get into print!

You can also check out the book's fanpage here.

My writing year: a look back and a look forward

It's the last day of 2009 and almost exactly ten years since I began to shift my career away from archaeology and into writing. Each year has been slightly more successful than the last, a steady progression that I'm striving to continue and hasten.

So how did I do in 2009? Two of my books were published, Outlaw Tales of Missouri and American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics, and one of my books, Moon Handbooks London, went out of print.

I had two significant steps forward. I saw my first book published by Osprey Publishing, who are very professional and make a great product. They even (GASP!) pay on time. I also finished a second book for them on medieval handgonnes. I also started working for Gadling, the world's most popular travel blog. It's teaching me to write timely, breezy, catchy articles, something history writing doesn't generally encourage. It's also a thrill to have millions (yes, millions) of readers every month. Gadling pays on time too!

Another potential success was getting my Missouri Civil War novel into the finals of Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood contest. The grand prize is publication. I'm now trying to teach myself online promotion, something that doesn't come naturally to me. I've already set up a Facebook fan page and am planning more outlets to get people to know my work.

Of course every year has its ups and downs. With all the travel and nonfiction commitments my fiction languished. I wrote only one short story and only got 25,000 words into my next novel. I'm planning on pushing my fiction a lot more in 2010. Not sure where the time is going to come from. . .

So what's ahead? Well, I'm negotiating some more books with Osprey and trying to win that contest. Gadling should be happy with my upcoming Ethiopia series. I'll also be writing more fiction and trying to become better at selling myself while not overselling myself. I think 2010 is going to be a good year for me.

Check out my other blog to read about my travel year.

Crashing after my deadline

I'm in my usual end-of-the-year slump. Like last December, I just finished a book for Osprey Publishing. This one was called Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons. It was a lot of fun but a lot of work too, because until I wrote one, there was no book on Europe's first two centuries of firearms. I had to do tons of hands-on research at museums and archives.

Now I'm in a lull. I always have an energy crash after a deadline, and with no big deadlines for the next few months I can sit back, take stock, and plan out 2010. While writers need to keep up productivity and constantly look for new markets, it's also important to take some time out and reassess. The holiday season is a good time for that. It's not like publishers are going to answer your emails on Christmas Eve!

Happy Holidays everybody!

Going out of print

At the first of this month I reached a new milestone in my writing career--one of my books went out of print. Strangely, it wasn't my earliest book, but rather a book I only wrote three years ago, Moon Handbooks London. The story is a sad one and a warning for aspiring guidebook writers.

Back in 2005 I saw on a jobs board that Avalon Travel Publishing wanted to expand their Moon series, already popular for Asian and South American destinations, into Western Europe. I applied for the London gig and got it. The advance was good, the royalties generous, and I was really over the moon, as it were.

But if something looks too good to be true in your writing career, it probably is. I wrote the book and it was published, but it received no marketing. None. Zilch. Nada. Moon, a newcomer to a near-saturated market, assumed their name recognition would allow them to compete with the likes of Lonely Planet, Frommer's, and Rough Guide. Problem was, Moon Handbooks didn't HAVE any name recognition in Western Europe.

I complained to my editor about the lack of marketing, and her only reply was, "But we featured you on our website!" Now catch me if I'm wrong, but in advertising you go to the customer, right? You can't expect the customer to come to you. When I asked if any review copies went out, I received evasive replies.

It came as no surprise to me that the book had poor sales. When it came time to do the second edition, I got the runaround for the better part of a year before my editor finally told me there would be no second edition. Most of their writers in Western Europe got the same news, as did several longstanding writers in other regions.

It was a tough lesson, but one I learned well. Now I only work for publishers who have strong marketing plans, or at least publish books that don't have a huge amount of direct competitors with better marketing plans. Something to think about before you sign your next contract.

Now the rights to the content have reverted to me. I'll be updating and reusing the contents for various projects. One of the ways to survive midlist purgatory is to know how to turn disappointments into opportunities.

Excellent series of posts on writing history

As a history writer with a keen interest in the American Civil War, I was happy to discover Eric Wittenberg's blog, Rantings of a Civil War Historian. Wittenberg has written eleven books on the subject and numerous articles. His main interest is the Union cavalry.

One of my favorite bits in his blog are his rantings against idiotic neo-Confederates and the silly ways they try to rewrite Civil War history to suit their own narrow world view. This hilarious article is one of the best.

Of more direct interest to readers of this blog is a series of articles on writing Civil War history, which is useful to both nonfiction and fiction authors alike. The series is called Things I Wish I Knew Then But Know Now. Part one is "Don't Give Up Your Dayjob", a rather pessimistic view of how much money a writer can expect to make doing books. Well, if you write detailed studies of Union cavalry operations in the Gettysburg campaign like Mr. Wittenberg does, you really can't expect to make a living. You have to go for broader, more popular-level subjects and commercial publishers like Osprey, who still insist on accuracy while selling a lot of copies. It's great that dedicated specialists like Wittenberg are writing books, but narrow topics will get a correspondingly narrow readership. Despite Wittenberg's pessimism, this post is worth a read to sober up enthusiastic beginners who think they'll hit the bestseller list on the first try.

Other posts in the series are about self publishing, learning to take criticism, marketing, working with your editor, the hidden costs of publishing a book, and the costs of researching one.

Public domain photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Leading electronic publisher releases sales figures

New Concepts Publishing, one of the leading publishers of electronic books, has released its sales figures. This is a rare move in a business that generally keeps its sales closely guarded, and gives an interesting insight into this developing medium.

New Concepts pays in royalties only, ranging from 30-40%, the typical business model for electronic publishers, and reports that the average author payout over three years (the normal contract period) is $450. They've also published the range of payouts:

Science Fiction/Futuristic range: $127.89--$8455.46
Paranormal range: $78.00--$5673.50
Contemporary range: $55.18--$7913.78
Historical range: $75.16--$3863.12
Romantic Suspense range: $124.24--$1977.20
Fantasy range: $44.00--$4774.80

As you can see there's quite a range, with some authors earning next to nothing and others getting royalties that compare favorably with advances paid by major publishers. I suspect the endpoints of these ranges are outliers, but considering that the total average is $450, the average payout is skewed more towards the lower figure than the higher. Also note that New Concepts only publishes romance in all its various genres. Romance is the big seller in ebooks, so aspiring authors who publish in other genres might see an average payout lower than this.

New Concepts Publishing is one of the pioneer epublishers, having started in those ancient dialup days of 1996. Congratulations on your 13th years of publishing, an achievement for any small press and almost unheard for an epublisher, and thanks for being so candid about your sales. We can only hope more publishers follow suit.

New Year's Resolutions: Four Months On

At the beginning of the year I posted my New Year’s writing resolutions in order to pressure myself to keep on track. Let's see how I did in April. Like last month, I’m posting this late. Maybe I should have added “post on time” as one of my New Year’s resolutions!

Write 7,000 words per week minimum, 10,000 preferred.
I've been keeping up the word count this past month. Quality is more important than quantity, but a writer needs to maintain a certain level of productivity to keep the money coming in. Much of my time has been spent working on my latest novel and my next book for Osprey.

Get through that huge list of magazine article ideas I'm going to pitch. As I send them out, the list will be added to, so this is a perpetual goal. Same goes for several book proposals I have.
I’ve been doing a lot of pitching this month and have landed a couple of good magazine gigs.

Search for another paid blogging job.
A breakthrough! After four months without a paying blogging job (after my last job decided to go to a crappy “pay per click” payscale) I finally landed a job at Gadling, the single most popular travel blog on the web. I’ll be doing a variety of travel news and features, including a series of articles on my upcoming hike along Hadrian’s Wall and trip to The Gambia. I’ll post on this blog when I start to work.

Finish a how-to book on writing that a publisher is interested in.
I haven't done much work on that this month. Sorry Ms. Editor, I know you read this!

Try to get an agent for my fiction and nonfiction.
I've been keeping my novels and nonfiction book proposals on agent’s desks, but so far no luck. I’ve gotten a few rejections this month, and immediately sent the books out to the next agent on my list. This is my coping mechanism. :-)

Do another round of edits on all three of my novels.
I did another light edit of my second novel, a fantasy, and am continuing with a major edit of my Civil War horror novel.

Write my next novel, set in London and Oxford.
I did a fair amount of writing this month.

Finish two short stories and two novellas I've been fiddling with.
I did a lot of research for one novella and started with the writing, but haven’t done anything with the other pieces.

Write and send out "Willoughby: England's First Great Explorer", a book proposal I was supposed to write last year (whoops!).
Nope.

Increase my online presence.
I'm continuing with these blogs, and started work on a new blog with eight other writers. Gadling will also increase my online presence.

So all in all, not a bad month. I only wish one of those agents would finally say yes to a novel!

The London Book Fair: An Author's View, Part 2

As I said in my last post, I recently attended the London Book Fair and had an amazing time. The fair is mostly geared towards agents and publishers selling international rights, but it can be a productive place for authors if they go about it in a professional manner.

This last detail is key. On more than one occasion I saw writers desperately pitching ideas to people who were not in a position to make a decision, or whipping out a manuscript faster than Jesse James in a gunfight. Since the fair is basically an international business meeting, most of the representatives at the booths were from marketing, not editorial. These folks are good sources of information for what direction the company is taking, what subjects are doing well and what aren't, and who to contact in editorial, but there's no point hard-selling busy people who can't accept your manuscript. A little soft peddling and some educated questions can land the right business card, however.

The majority of authors I came in contact with were self-published, and hung around the big Authorhouse booth. Some made some rather odd attempts at marketing. One fellow set up a little stand of bookmarks on top of the recycling bin, which led to some cynical remarks. Another shameless guy put up stickers inside all the stalls in the men's room. Not only is this going to create even worse subconscious associations than the recycling bin marketing campaign, but it's a pain in the ass for custodial services, who were stuck with the job of scraping them off.

Despite the sometimes embarassing company, I found the fair to be very helpful. If you're a writer and decide to go, please keep in mind that the fair is not geared towards you. Maintain a professional demeanor, have something to bring to the table (like prior publications), don't be annoying, and realize that this will mostly be a learning experience, not a fast-track to publishing success.

More insights and news from the London Book Fair coming up tomorrow!

The London Book Fair--An Author's View Part 1

I just got back from the London Book Fair, the world's second-largest book fair after Frankfurt. Hundreds of publishers, printers, and other companies from around the world gathered in London for a flurry of deal making. This fair is mostly for publishers and agents to sell international rights for their titles and printing services to drum up new business. It's not a literary convention and writers were in the definite minority, but as an author I found it tremendously useful.

The first thing I did was stop off at the booth for Osprey Publishing, who will be coming out with my American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics this fall and have just signed me up to do Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons. It was nice to finally meet a lot of the people I've talked to on the phone or email. It also gave me a chance to discuss other possible titles and discover that the marketing director reads my blog anytime Osprey is mentioned. Hi Richard!

I spent the rest of the time exploring the booths and seeing what new lines publishers were coming out with, and what developed lines are missing titles that I could write. I came back with a tree's worth of catalogs, pamphlets, and sample books, plus many, many ideas. While there weren't many people from editorial, the business folks know all about what lines will be expanding and what lines are not living up to sales expectations, so I gathered a wealth of insider information and contacts. I even had one publisher solicit me for a couple of titles! Will any of this lead to more books for yours truly? It's too early to say. In this business, until you have a contract, you have nothing. But even if I don't get anything, I certainly learned a lot.

I'll be doing several more posts on the book fair in the coming days, including tips on how you as a writer can get the most out of a book fair, the latest in POD technology, what's hot and what's not in the publishing world, and more. I've also posted some impressions on my other blog.

New Year's Writing Resolutions: Two Months On

At the beginning of the year I posted my New Year's writing resolutions in order to pressure myself to keep on track. Let's see how I did in February.

Write 7,000 words per week minimum, 10,000 preferred.
I've been keeping up the word count this past month. Quality is more important than quantity, but a writer needs to maintain a certain level of productivity to keep the money coming in.

Get through that huge list of magazine article ideas I'm going to pitch. As I send them out, the list will be added to, so this is a perpetual goal. Same goes for several book proposals I have.
I sent out a nonfiction query in January to a publisher and they asked for a full proposal, so a lot of my work this month has been dedicated to that. I haven't had the time to send out any new proposals. I plan to in March.

Search for another paid blogging job.
I applied for a paid blogging gig and got the job, and then they turned around and decided that the position would be for "exposure only". Sorry folks, but I have bills to pay, and leading me on is not a good way to start a working relationship. I'm applying for another job tomorrow.

Finish a how-to book on writing that a publisher is interested in.
I haven't done much work on that this month.

Try to get an agent for my my fiction and nonfiction.
I've been keeping my novels and nonfiction book proposals on agent's desks, but so far no luck.

Do another round of edits on all three of my novels.
I've been doing another major reedit of my Civil War horror novel and it's going well. I just finished chapter four today and hope to be done by the end of March so I can start my new novel once I'm up in Oxford. I also did a pass through another of my novels, a fantasy that's sitting on an editor's desk. I found very little I wanted to change, just a few tangled sentences and the inevitable typos. You can never catch all of those. I'm glad I took the time, though, because it proved to me that I'm done with that book.

Write my next novel, set in London and Oxford.
I've been writing it in my head already, but I'm not going ot put pen to paper until I'm up in England starting in April.

Finish two short stories and two novellas I've been fiddling with.
I haven't done those yet.

Write and send out "Willoughby: England's First Great Explorer", a book proposal I was supposed to write last year (whoops!).
I plan to do that when I'm able to research at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I'll also have access to London's Maritime museum.

Increase my online presence.
I've been networking with a lot of writers on Facebook, one of the more useful timewasters on the web. I've also been keeping up with my two blogs.

I've also had other work to do from existing jobs from last year. This month I had to write up a battle map and description for a Civil War book I'm doing, and right now I'm working on an update for a Madrid guidebook. I also wrote an article for British Heritage.

So all in all a pretty good month. I'd have liked to have done more, but there are only so many hours in a day and I need to be a husband, father, and friend too. Perhaps I should hire a personal secretary. Perhaps I should get a good enough book contract that I can afford a personal secretary!

How have your writing goals been this past month? Leave a note in the comments section or post it on your own blog and leave a link.

New Year's Writing Resolutions: One Month On

At the beginning of the year I posted my New Year’s writing resolutions on my blog. Now that a month has passed how have I been doing?

1. Write 7,000 words per week minimum, 10,000 preferred.

I’ve not been making this goal most weeks because I’ve been doing a lot of editing. I wrote several pitches, but these tend to be both short and labor intensive. My average word count has been about 5,000 words per week this month. I plan to do better next month.


2. Get through that huge list of magazine article ideas I'm going to pitch. As I send them out, the list will be added to, so this is a perpetual goal. Same goes for several book proposals I have.

I’ve sent out a dozen pitches this month, mostly for books since there’s generally a longer turnaround from editors. One publisher was interested enough in my query to ask for a full proposal. I’m working on that now. This would be a new publisher for me, so I’m quite excited.


3. Search for another paid blogging job.

I quit my job at PlanetEye when they reduced their pay from a good wage to almost nothing. This month I’ve been offered two blogging jobs, one unpaid and one with low pay. I turned down both. It seems getting a well-paid blogging job is more difficult than getting magazine work. I’m applying for another major blog site that does pay well. Fingers crossed!


4. Finish a how-to book on writing that a publisher is interested in.

I’ve been organizing the chapters and worked out an outline. I have a ways to go, but now I know where I’m going.


5. Continue to try to sell my three novels to agents. Getting an agent, both for my fiction and nonfiction, is a major goal for me this year.

All my novels and nonfiction book proposals are sitting on various agents’ and editors’ desks. I keep a list of possible agents, and when I get a rejection, I send it out to the next one on the list. I’m always tinkering with the proposals to make them better.


6. Do another round of edits on all my novels, especially my Civil War horror novel, which I believe is the most marketable. Every work is a work-in-progress until it's published, so it's always good to do more editing.

I did a major edit on my Civil War novel this month. I haven’t gotten around to the other two novels yet.


7. Write my next novel, set in London and Oxford. I'm going to outline it in the first few months of the year and really start writing when I go there in April.

I’ve been giving this novel a fair amount of thought, but I’m saving the writing part for when I get there.


8. Finish two short stories and two novellas I've been fiddling with.

I haven’t done any work on these.


9. Write and send out Willoughby: England's First Great Explorer, a book proposal I was supposed to write last year (whoops!).

I haven’t done any work on this either


10. I also have some work already lined up for this year, including a book for Osprey, editing the page proofs for a book for Globe-Pequot, a few magazine assignments, and updates to a Madrid guidebook.

A whole week of this month was taken up with checking the page proofs of Outlaw Tales of Missouri (TwoDot, upcoming April 2009). I also did the research for a magazine article and did the proofs for another one. I’ve also done some work on the Madrid update.


11. Increase my online presence. I'll be getting Authorsden and Myspace accounts, and working on and promoting my blogs a bit more.

I decided to get on Facebook instead because I think it offers better networking opportunities for writers. I’ve caught up with many writers I knew when I still lived in Tucson, as well as ones I was on panels with at various conventions. While there’s a lot of silly timewasting aspects to Faceook, I can see how it can be a good networking tool. A friend of mine, who’s far more experienced and connected than I am, has gotten several jobs through Facebook connections. I also signed up for Authorsden but haven’t completed my profile yet. I've been posting more regularly on both my blogs.


So all in all, a pretty productive month. I haven’t written as much as I’d like, but January is a good month to send out lots of pitches that will hopefully bear fruit later in the year, so that’s what I’ve been concentrating on.

How has your first month of writing been? Drop me a line in the comments section or post your progress on your blog and send me the link

Who Is Writing What In 2009?

A few posts ago I talked about my writing goals for 2009 and invited other writers to share their goals.

Tracey Baptiste has a long list of goals, which she has posted on her wall as a constant reminder. She's recently broken into novel publishing, which as we all know is a very hard thing to do, and she's working on a biography of Madeleine L'Engle, whose Wrinkle in Time series seriously tripped me out when I was a kid. I'm intrigued to find out what L'Engle's life was like, as well as finding out where Baptiste is headed.

Anna Mittower has a variety of goals, but her main one is writing and publishing her novel. She's broken this task up into monthly goals. Mittower has only recently entered the wild world of publishing, but she's already figured out that big jobs are best broken up into manageable chunks. Best of luck with the book!

Rob Crompton is another aspiring novelist, and he's working on two at a time. One is further ahead than the other, and he'll be pitching that to publishers this year. Oh, and his blog has some great photos of South Wales.

If you've blogged about your writing goals and want to share them here, feel free to drop me a line. Check out my earlier post for other types of blog posts I'd like to feature here too.

Writing Goals for 2009

It's a new year, and time to get planning what to write next! Here is a list of my writing goals for 2009.

1. Write 7,000 words per week minimum, 10,000 preferred. Quality is more important than quantity, but you do have to hit a certain level of productivity to keep the money coming in.

2. Get through that huge list of magazine article ideas I'm going to pitch. As I send them out, the list will be added to, so this is a perpetual goal. Same goes for several book proposals I have. I'll be pitching a lot to Osprey, because they are a great publisher to work with.

3. Search for another paid blogging job.

4. Finish a how-to book on writing that a publisher is interested in. Details to follow!

5. Continue to try to sell my three novels to agents. Getting an agent, both for my fiction and nonfiction, is a major goal for me this year. I need someone else in my corner other than my wife, who is wonderfully supportive and helpful but has no power in the publishing industry.

6. Do another round of edits on all my novels, especially my Civil War horror novel, which I believe is the most marketable. Every work is a work-in-progress until it's published, so it's always good to do more editing.

7. Write my next novel, set in London and Oxford. I'm going to outline it in the first few months of the year and really start writing when I go there in April.

8. Finish two short stories and two novellas I've been fiddling with.

9. Write and send out Willoughby: England's First Great Explorer, a book proposal I was supposed to write last year (whoops!).

10. I also have some work already lined up for this year, including a book for Osprey, editing the page proofs for a book for Globe-Pequot, a few magazine assignments, and updates to a Madrid guidebook.

11. Increase my online presence. I'll be getting Authorsden and Myspace accounts, and working on and promoting my blogs a bit more.

Ugh, lots of work. Better get busy. I'll post regular updates on my progress as an incentive to keep myself working.

Have you posted your writing goals on your blog? If so, drop me a line at seansontheweb (at) yahoo (dot) come and I'll post a link to them here. Check out my earlier post about other ways to get your blog mentioned on this site.