The Writer’s Table

E-Publishing the Write Way

May 18, 2012 By Michaele 2 Comments

Just as there are “write ways” to publish indepedently (without the backing of the “Big Six”), there are several exceptionally good ways to e-publish; some are ever so wrong. During the next two chats around The Writers’ Table, we’ll discuss some of them.

E-Publishing is here to stay. It’s not only here to stay, but it’s a rapidly growing market. Half the world owns a Kindle. My friends brag that they have 400 titles uploaded on their Kindle e-book readers. (I haven’t asked which ones they’ve actually read, but that’s another topic!) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advice for Writers, E-Books, E-Publishing, Writing and Publishing Advice Tagged With: Advice for Writers, E-Books, e-publishing, Writing and Publishing Advice

Create Space–Is it the Answer?

May 12, 2012 By Michaele 4 Comments

For the new or upcoming author, my answer might be “Yes.”

CreateSpace certainly is one good opportunity for today’s author who wants a print book in addition to his/her e-book. This company does professional work. Their staff is very easy to work with. There’s no pretense or high pressure.

For print publishing, which is also conveniently POD, CreateSpace will provide quality, economical books, especially for authors who are starting out and want an actual book to hold and sell. Besides, it’s an excellent way to get noticed. Many bestselling authors have started out using this route. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advice for Writers, Writing and Publishing Advice Tagged With: Advice for Authors, Advice for Writers, CreateSpace, Marketing advice, Publishing Advice

Publishing the Write Way

May 5, 2012 By Michaele 4 Comments

Some more of the Write Stuff. Yes, Virginia, there are several reputable ways to publish your book “The Write Way.”

However, here’s one bit of advice that I share with my students and clients. If your main concern, as you work on your story each day, is simply getting it published, maybe you’re going about the whole matter wrong. Your first and only concern should be to write the best, most intriguing, most original, and finely written story with the best characters ever.

There are many good ways to publish that will not cost you thousands of dollars. Here’s a little secret: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advice for Writers, Writing and Publishing Advice Tagged With: Advice for Authors, Advice for Writers, CreateSpace, e-publishing, Independent publishers, Publishing Advice, Writing and Publishing Advice

Thinking Write about Publishing

April 27, 2012 By Michaele 2 Comments

Beware Fee-For-Publishing companies. This is a warning that cannot be emphasized enough, but an area where a blogger must tread lightly. I know the entire staffs of two FFP local companies and I consider these people my friends. However, I won’t mention any specific names in this industry, because there is always the touchy issue of libel—the truth can hurt.

In the United Statesalone there are at present approximately 100 large fee-for-publishing companies. These are the major ones, but scattered around it seems that everyone is trying his or her hand at the business. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advice for Writers, Writing and Publishing Advice Tagged With: Advice for Writers, Writing and Publishing Advice

Some of the Write Stuff

April 23, 2012 By Michaele 6 Comments

As a published author with many friends and students who are also writers, I’m often asked for advice. I find this flattering but daunting. I hear recurring themes, even from writers who were published fifteen years ago. For those who were last published before then, the changed new world of modern book publishing might as well be on another planet.

Over the next several blog posts, I’ll be sharing some information and opinions about matters that concern writers. Sometimes my answers are not exactly what those asking the questions want to hear.

Remembering January 8, 2011

January 8, 2012 By Michaele 1 Comment

Does it require a senseless tragedy to bring out the best in a community?

There’s probably no good answer to that question. Today, as we commemorate Tucson’s mass shooting and tragedy of only one year ago, this is something we should ask ourselves.

[Read more...]

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Goodbye to 2011–Reflecting on Ten Years Ago

December 31, 2011 By Michaele 1 Comment

The year of 2011 has come and gone, without disasters like we knew on 9/11. That’s not to say our world is at peace or there is no more danger, because that isn’t true. But revisiting that one day was a time of reflection: all of us remember where we were and what we were doing, ten years ago.

On September 11, 2001, a group of us were cocooned in natural beauty, indulging in the completely hedonistic pursuit of wine, fine cooking, and our shared passion for history. We wallowed in the peace of this golden setting, once a luxurious estate of the 1930s set amongst rolling grassy hills that were topped with sprawling oaks and surrounded by the vineyards of Northern California’s world-famous wine country.

Here are the memories we all should have treasured from that special week: [Read more...]

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Getting into the Holiday Spirit

November 15, 2011 By Michaele Leave a Comment

Jody's Story: A Christmas Legend

Mornings in Tucson are nippy and our fall is finally here. What a beautiful time of year!

Brilliant orange sycamores reach toward the heavens in competition with the bold color of our western, cobalt blue skies. This morning, when the clouds parted over the Catalina Mountains, we even noticed a hint of snow, high on the pine-covered crests. Next week it will be Thanksgiving… there’s always so much to be thankful for, like good friends and the time to enjoy them.

It seems like the year will speed by after that and Christmas will be here. Just in time for this special time of year, my piece of short fiction, a tender, modern Christmas tale, Jody’s Story: A Christmas Legend, has just been published

Essay Published in Blue Guitar Literary Journal

November 14, 2011 By Michaele Leave a Comment

It is a comforting thought that, in this era of financial cuts to anything resembling the arts in general and writing in particular, our State of Arizona actually has a Consortium for the Arts! Sure, it may not be the grand-scale financing that we all might wish for, but we do have support. That’s the great news.

The Consortium is supported in part by the Arizona Commission for the Arts with funding from the State of Arizona and the National Endowment for the Arts. All of us who support our local PBS station and NPR should rejoice. We are part of that bigger picture too.

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Welcome to my Writers Table.

October 31, 2011 By Michaele 2 Comments

Writing a book is easy.

That’s discounting those many hours of thinking about it before you even put pen-to-paper (or sit down before your computer), when ideas simmer in the back of your mind and bubble over with what-ifs or the hours of necessary research so you won’t get a tidbit detail wrong that might discredit you with your readers.

Then follow those long, soul-searching moments—should I include that passage or is it really helping the story? Those moments go on and on.

[Read more...]

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