New Comment Policy: No Name, No Comment

I have tried to make commenting here easy and beneficial to commenters. DoFollow links, monthly thank-you posts, and Keyword Luv ensure readers who leave comments get do-follow keyword links, both on the original comment and in the thank-you post. I reply to each comment so you know I read and appreciate what you write.

The only things I ask of commenters are that you read the post and say something relevant and that you identify yourself. Yet I continue to get keywords left in the place of names—even when simply writing Your Name @ Your Keywords will give you a keyword link and let me reply to you as a real person instead of an inamimate object, a job function or place, or a concept.

Frankly, I can’t relate to Printer Cartridges, Jonestown Plumber, or Divorce Advice like I can to Sue of Printer Cartridges, Joe of Jonestown Plumber, or Terry of Divorce Advice. I have requested over and over again that commenters leave their names, yet many ignore my request for what I consider a simple courtesy.

Therefore, I will no longer approve comments that are identified only by a keyword. You must leave a name. I realize that some people prefer to remain anonymous online, and I respect that. If you consistently use a nickname that I can recognize as a person, I will continue to approve comments as long as you continue to leave relevant comments.

However, if you leave a comment identifying yourself with keywords only, your comment will be sent to spam. If you have commented before, and your comment doesn’t go into moderation, I will delete it and add you to the spam blacklist. I hope you will start leaving comments wih a name or nickname.

I am sorry if this policy seems unreasonable; however, I believe it is only common courtesy to identify yourself when you carry on a conversation.

photo credit: annapmagistra

Post #600

This is post #600. Just thinking about writing 600 posts makes me tired, so I think I’ll go take a nap.

Seriously, I love blogging and have enjoyed writing each of those posts. I just hope you enjoy reading my blog a fraction as much as I enjoy writing it.

Ten Tips to Impress an Editor after Acceptance

The last post covered ten tips to impress an acquisitions editor. Now, you have the assignment for a magazine article or your book has been accepted for publication. The following ten tips will help you impress the editor for the project.

1. Meet deadlines—submitting work early is even better.
2. Self-edit—give the editor the cleanest manuscript you can so she can focus on making a great work even better instead of correcting errors.
3. Follow house style—your style preferences aren’t important; a consistent style is important to the publication.
4. Share a common goal—you both want to produce an article or book that readers love.
5. Accept critiques and advice gracefully—the editor sees your work from a different perspective; even if you don’t agree with everything she says, respect her position and opinion.
6. Make revisions pleasantly—no writer likes to make changes, but all have to do it; being unpleasant only makes revisions more difficult.
7. Stand up for your work when important—if you truly believe the change the editor asks for will make your story or article worse, politely and firmly explain your position and ask the editor to reconsider.
8. Collaborate—work together with your editor to leverage your individual talents and skills to produce the best work possible.
9. Say thanks—everyone likes to be appreciated.
10. Remember, editors are people too!

Ten Tips to Impress an Acquisitions Editor

Writers who are submitting work to magazine or book publishers want to make a good impression from the first contact. These ten tips will help you do just that.

1. Target the market—make sure your work is a good fit with the publisher.
2. Know the editor—verify her name and spell it correctly.
3. Follow submission guidelines—your work may not even be reviewed if you don’t.
4. When in doubt, find out—ask questions rather than do it wrong.
5. Take your cue from the editor on formality and style—be businesslike and formal until the editor responds less formally.
6. Tailor your pitch to the publication—let the editor know you are familiar with the magazine or book imprint.
7. Respect the editor’s time—don’t expect them to chit-chat on the phone.
8. Follow-up only after the response time has passed—response times are published to let you know how long to expect to wait to hear from the editor.
9. Say thanks—everyone likes to be appreciated.
10. Remember, editors are people too!

Show and Tell Exercises

In a recent post, I said writers should both show and tell in fiction.

I gave an example of re-writing narrative summary (telling) into an action scene (showing).

Now, it’s your turn. Select one or more of the narrative summaries below and re-write as an action scene. If you’d like feedback from me (and anyone who’d like to join in), post your scene in a comment.

1.  Thelma was very angry.  She told John she never wanted to see him again.  He had betrayed her once and she wouldn’t give him the chance to hurt her again.  She told him to pack his bags and be out of the house before she got home from work.

2.  Michael was determined to make the basketball team.  He practiced long hours every day, neglecting his homework and ignoring his friends.

3.  Melissa was frightened when she heard footsteps behind her.  She thought about the article she’d read in the morning paper about a serial rapist who had eluded police for weeks.

4.  Sue was an excellent cook and liked to create her own recipes.  She decided to come up with something special for her holiday party, and she experimented with a number of ideas before she found the perfect menu.

5.  Judy was a compulsive gossip.  Whenever she heard anything about any the neighbors, she considered it her duty to tell everyone else in the neighborhood. 

Join in by posting your action scene in a comment or giving feedback on scenes others post—or both.

Blog Book Tour Stop: Morgan Mandel

My guest today is Morgan Mandel. She is on a blog book tour for her latest novel Killer Career.

Lillie: Thank you for visiting A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye today, Morgan. Tell us about Killer Career.

Morgan: Changing jobs could be a killer when Julie McGuire latches onto her sexy psychotic mentor, despite the warnings of her best friend and law partner, Dade Donovan. To save herself and Dade, she must face her greatest fear: claustrophobia.

Lillie: I always like to know the story behind the story. Where did you get the idea for Killer Career?

Morgan: Inspiration came innocuously enough. I was sitting at a mystery conference listening to a panel of mystery authors when I thought it would be fun to create an author character who acted on what he wrote.  For the setting, I chose a workers’ compensation law firm. Since my day job happened to be an administrative assistant at such a firm, I had information at my fingertips, as well as stored in my brain.

Lillie: Julie and Dade are attorneys with their own practice. Did you call on personal experience for the cases they handle?

Morgan:  In one part of the book, my heroine went on trial for a client who got hurt in a designated employee parking lot.  I’ve known of such accidents and of the client being covered under workers’ compensation.

Also, I know of instances where employees are off work due to injuries on the job and they’re videotaped by investigators to make sure they’re obeying their doctor’s orders. This practice also plays a role in the book.

Lillie: Julie wants to become a writer, but she is waiting to quit her job first. I know you hold down a full-time job, yet you have  successfully published three novels. How do you find the time to write, publish, and promote your books?

Morgan: I never have enough time. I’m always playing catch-up. Giving my heroine the ability to follow her choice is my vicarious way of experiencing a full-time writing career. In the meantime, I make do, writing and marketing on the train, during work breaks, at home after dinner. There’s never enough hours in the day, but I’m thankful I have the opportunity to do what I love, even if it’s not as often as I wish.

Lillie: It seems that you’re everywhere on the Internet. How do you decide what social media to use in promotion and how do you determine what works?

Morgan: Almost every day I hit ping.fm, where a short message travels to my sites at Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Hi5, MySpace.  It saves me the trouble of going to each myself. After that, I click to mybloglog.com to make sure whatever blogs I’ve got going that day are showing.  Next, I post on favorite egroups that accept promo each day. Some of them are: Pump Up Your Blog, An Alternative Read, and Write Publish Market. Depending on the content I’m promoting, I’ll post to mystery and/or romance egroups as well, being careful to do so on designated days. For special events, I also add the information to the main page at Book Place, where I’m the network creator. After the initial round of promo in the morning, I follow it up with Tweets on Twitter off and on during the day.  When I get a chance, I use Google Analytics to see how many visitors have stopped at my blogs.

Lillie: I believe you chose to self-publish Killer Career. Please tell us about your experience: what led you to that decision, how you went about it, and how well it worked for you.

Morgan: I chose to self-publish from a chance encounter with Austin S. Camacho, author of the Hannibal Jones mystery series, at the Love is Murder Conference in February, 2009.  Although he’d done marvelously well in the small press field and was much praised by his publisher, he’d also accepted the challenge of self-publishing and told me he was doing even better in that regard.

I’d spent a lot of time promoting Girl Of My Dreams and had paid scant attention to getting Killer Career out to the public. I’d only sent it out to a few publishers and all but ignored it. When I realized I’d neglected something important, it was too late.  If I decided to send out more submissions, most likely it would take a year for a response, maybe another to get the book published. Too many people were asking when my next book would come out. I didn’t want to make them wait when I had it in my power to act.  Also, other projects were lining up awaiting their turn after Killer Career.

I decided to take the plunge. I hired Helen Ginger as my editor; I pestered Austin Camacho and his wife Denise with questions; I read and re-read Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual. Then I signed up with the printing house, Lightning Source, where I hounded my representative with even more questions until I finally got a finished product I could feel proud of.  I’ll be delving into more detail about self-publishing the week of August 24 through August 31 at The Blood-Red Pencil, where I’ll reveal the ups and downs I encountered.

As far as sales, it’s too early to tell. The book is just out.  With regard to the looks and quality of the product, I’m very well satisfied. I hired the best and did my best.

Lillie: My readers know I’m a big fan of self-publishing. Most of editing clients self-publish, though they typically do short print runs with a printer than print-on-demand. I wrote a series of posts on self-publishing that is now available as a free PDF download. I hope you have as much success with self-publishing as most of my clients do. One thing I always recommend is to make the book available in different formats. Is Killer Career available both in print and e-book? Where can people buy the book?

Morgan: Killer Career is available in print and electronic formats at major distributors such as Ingram, at Amazon.com, Bn.com, Target.com, Mobipocket.com, and By Order at Bookstores. I’ve also just sent in the forms to Amazon to make Killer Career available on Kindle.

 Lillie: Where can readers learn more about you and your books?

Morgan: You’re invited to visit my Web site,  my daily blog, or any of my group blogs at Acme Authors Link, Make Mine Mystery, and The Blood-Red Pencil.  You’re also invited to join my Ning site, Book Place. If you go to my blog and click the link in the left column, you can get my entire tour schedule. Also, each day in the main column I mention the stop of the day with its link.

Lillie: Is there anything else you’d like to share that I haven’t asked?

Morgan:  Don’t believe everything you’ve heard about self-published books. You need to judge each one on its own merits as you’d do with any other book. 

Lillie: I certainly agree with you on that. Thank you for visiting. I’m sure I didn’t ask everything my readers want to know so I hope you’ll check in during the day to answer questions.

Morgan: It would be my pleasure to respond to comments. Thanks so much for hosting me and picking my brain, Lillie.  I had a great time. 

I do want to mention, for those following my tour each day, tomorrow’s stop is at L. Diane Wolfe’s Spunk on a Stick, where it’s excerpt day.

=====================================================================================

Morgan Mandel

Morgan Mandel enjoys variety as an author.  She writes romances, mysteries, and even has a dog book in the works. Her latest release is the romantic suspense, Killer Career, published by Choice One Publishing Co. 

Morgan’s back list includes Girl Of My Dreams, a romantic comedy about the misadventures of a reality show contestant, and Two Wrongs, a romantic suspense involving wrongful imprisonment.

Morgan is a past President of Chicago-North RWA, presently serves as Library Liaison for MWMWA, and belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. She also freelanced for the Daily Herald newspaper before being published in book form.

Interview with Morgan Mandel Wednesday

Morgan Mandel is on a blog book tour for her latest novel Killer Career.

I’m excited to be hosting her on Wednesday, April 19. Here’s a little about her and her book. Be sure to come back  Wednesday to learn more about Killer Career. Morgan will also be checking comments to answer your questions.

Morgan Mandel enjoys variety as an author.  She writes romances, mysteries, and even has a dog book in the works. Her latest release is the romantic suspense, Killer Career, published by Choice One Publishing Co.

Changing jobs could be a killer when Julie McGuire latches onto her sexy psychotic mentor, despite the warnings of her best friend and law partner, Dade Donovan. To save herself and Dade, she must face her greatest fear: claustrophobia.

Morgan’s back list includes Girl Of My Dreams, a romantic comedy about the misadventures of a reality show contestant, and Two Wrongs, a romantic suspense involving wrongful imprisonment.

Morgan is a past President of Chicago-North RWA, presently serves as Library Liaison for MWMWA, and belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC.

You’re invited to visit her website, MorganMandel.com, and her daily blog, Double M’s take on books, blogs, dogs, networking & life.

Mission Impossible: Book Trailer for Dream or Destiny

This post is an entry in Confident Writing’s Mission Impossible group writing project. Joanna Young challenged us to post something on our blogs that we’ve never done before. I’ve wanted to create a book trailer for Dream or Destiny since the book was published last fall, but I’ve been hesitant to try. I don’t know anything about multimedia except that whatever talent I have is in words, not images and sounds.

Joanna’s challenge motivated me to create this basic video montage. Now I’m motivated to move beyond this to a better and more professional book trailer that I can post on video-sharing and book trailer Web sites.

Thanks to July Commenters

	Thank you to the 184 commenters who left 263 comments in July. I responded to every one of them. Your comments extended the conversation and added value and interest.
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Show and Tell

Fiction writers often hear show, don’t tell.

But I advise my clients to show and tell.

What does it mean to show or tell? When should you show and when should you tell?

You show in an action scene, like in a movie:

• An action scene takes place in real time.
• It takes place in a specific setting with specific characters.
• There is action—characters are talking or moving; something happens.
• Major action scenes involves conflict between two opposing forces; minor action scenes show character or give information important to the story.
• Action scenes involve the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste.

You tell in narrative summary:

• Narrative telescopes time and events when nothing interesting or important happens.
• It can summarize repetitive action to give impact to one event (such as series of races).
• Narrative may include interior monologue.

Should you show or tell?

• You need to use both narrative summary and action scenes to vary the rhythm of the story. Too much action maintains such a high pace it exhausts the readers and doesn’t give them time to reflect. Too much narrative bores the reader and doesn’t give them the sense of what is important and what isn’t.
• Use narrative summary for events that are less important or interesting and for transitions.
• Use action scenes for major events.
• Like a child making a scene with a temper tantrum, make a scene (action) when you want to get your readers’ attention.

When I tell clients they are doing too much telling and not enough showing, they ask me how to change from telling to showing.

Let me give you an example. Before is all narrative summary.

Eleanor got into the car and put her packages onto the front seat.  She was glad to be finished at the mall.  She didn’t like crowds, but she had to buy Christmas presents for her family.  She drove out of the parking lot and onto the street.  When she was stopped at the traffic light, she heard a man’s voice from behind her seat.  He told he had a gun and if she did what he said, she wouldn’t be hurt.  He told her to turn right at the next intersection. 

After is an action scene.

Eleanor  juggled an armload of packages as she opened the car door. She tossed the bags to the far side of the car, breathing a sigh of relief that she’d passed up the glass figurine she’d considered for Sue. The blouse she’d ended up choosing was as unbreakable as the stuffed toys for her nieces and nephews.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Man, I hate crowds. When will I learn to get my Christmas shopping done early? If I could stand the disappointed looks on the kids’ faces, I wouldn’t even bother.

Vowing to take something for her headache and go straight to bed the minute she got door, Eleanor started the car and drove out of the parking lot. At the intersection of Bayles and Crockett, she stopped for a red light, massaging her temples as she waited for the light to change.

“Just do what I say. I’ve got a gun.”

 Eleanor jerked her head up at the sound of a man’s voice coming from the back seat. Her hands trembled on the steering wheel as she told herself she’d fallen asleep and was in the middle of the nightmare. She started to look behind her.

“Don’t look at me! If you just do as you’re told, I won’t hurt you. But if you don’t …”

What he didn’t say frightened her more than what he did say. “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do whatever you say.” Her voice quavered and tears threatened.

“The light’s green. Drive to the next intersection and turn right. And no funny business. Understand?”

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