Great Books for Sale

You know, this conference has a lot of my attention and getting it together and ready is taking up a lot of my time, but I love the concept so much!

I just wanted to encourage avid readers to visit the site and check out the books by some of our authors, the books are fantastic and you would, of course, also be supporting a Latino(a) author. As we get closer to the conference date, we hope to add the works of more attendees, supporters, etc.

Thank you.

Editing

EDITING

I still argue that in the brouhaha that is publishing, we
often forget about the reasons that traditional publishing
existed to begin with, and why writers didn't just publish
themselves from the outset.

Traditional publishers fund works out of their pockets,
and they beat a dead horse in terms of preparing a book
for release. This has been true since Gutenberg printed
the first Bible. So I believe traditional publishing will
continue for many years to come.

Yes, I tend to lean to the . . . traditional side. (Bet you
thought I was going to say right or left, huh?) However, I've
self-published as well. I've seen good self-publishing and bad.
I've seen good agents and bad. I've marveled at good traditional
works and bad.

Nothing in publishing is perfect.

However, two items get overlooked, in my opinion, when it
comes to do-it-yourself publication.

1. Platform
2. Editing

The Steve Laube Literary Agency has quite the informative
blog, and lately they've run a series called, "A Defense of
Traditional Publishing." The latest post of April 26 addressed
"Content Development."

http://www.stevelaube.com/in-defense-of-traditional-publishing-part-three/

A reader cursed me (yes, I'm a "biatch") for advising her to
slow down, complete her book, and edit it to death before
considering the publisher, the movie, or the television
appearances. The point I tried to make was that editing
isn't a simple proofreading job before you forward the file
to a publisher.

Steve Laube explained the multiple editing tasks under a
traditional roof.

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR - Finds, acquires, negotiates the project.

LINE EDITOR - Performs the actual content edit (also call the
"line" or "substantive" edit).

CONTENT EDITOR - Reads for accuracy, balance and fairness,
cogency of argument, adequate treatment of the subject matters,
and conformity to the original book proposal.

COPY EDITOR - Scours the manuscript for accuracy in grammar,
citations, and factual content.

PROOF READER - Fine tunes punctuation and other nit-picky details.

Yes, there's room for self-publishing, especially if you
have a platform to die for, and a following that would
purchase anything you held up in your hand. But if you
are venturing into the publishing world alone, wouldn't
you want these people in your court?

by Hope Clark - http://www.fundsforwriters.com

The Latino Authors & Writers Conference

Hi. Well, the conference is on schedule and rolling along at full steam! We have four great agents joining us, guest speakers, a wonderful Mistress-of-Ceremony... and so much more! I want to thank all of the people, organizations, agencies, and corporations that are helping to make this possible. i also want to say thank you to all of the Latino media that's promised to do a story about us. In fact, Philadelphia Spanish daily, Al Dia, is doing a story about the conference and is interviewing our guest speaker, Dr. Hector R. Ortiz!

Wow, so it's really happening and I'm really proud of all the work (and money!) that's gone into it. It's gonna be a blast!

The NYC Pitch Conference

What can I say except... wow. I went to the 2010 NYC Pitch & Shop writers conference and I had a great time. I met some very talented people who also happened to be very nice and a lot of fun. I wish it didn't have to end so soon, but I have to admit I was exhausted by the time it did end. I was lucky because the editors of two publishing houses indicated that they wanted to see more of my manuscript. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Anyway, like I said, it was a wonderful time and I could feel my atrophying creative muscles come back to life. It was great!

Marketing, marketing, marketing

You know, I just LOVE beating that dead horse! I've been so busy trying to market my novel, Chickenhawk, that I haven't been able to write much of anything new. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've started plenty of things (short storys, articles, fiction and non-fiction books), but I haven't been consistant and I haven't finished anything. Three marketing things I'm doing are:

1. Participating in the L.A. Book Festival via Authorsden. They'll put three copies of my novel on their shelves at the festival, and hand out copies of my promotional bookmarks to attendees.
2. My publisher, PublishAmerica, is sending five copies of my novel to Random House. I have no illusions about the results of this, but I figure that for the opportunity to be read by someone at Random House it's worth the money I paid.
3. I'm participating in the NYC Pitch and Shop next month, in which I will have the opportunity to pitch my novel to several agents; as well as shop it around to various publishers. Again, I feel that the possibilities outweigh the costs.

Anyway, I'm going to have to cut this stuff out and get back to writing, but it's so hard...! Wish me luck!

Foreclosure Looms...

Hi,
Well, today I answered the foreclosure summons I received on the 16th of January. Everyone involved at the courthouse was very nice. I have never been this close to losing my home and yet I am filled with a profound sense of calm... it can only be God, because I really can't afford to be homeless, and there are times when I ask myself inwardly if I shouldn't be more afraid, more panicked... my daughter even mentioned it today. The entire family feels this warm sense of calm in the face of our foreclosure... it's weird. No, no, we haven't given up or resigned ourselves to losing our home, we still intend to give it our all in the attempt to save our home (such as the Answering of the Foreclosure Service today), but I think that we have all really placed this in God's hands.

Scary stuff!

Earlier this week I received a letter from a law office stating that unless I pay off my house in FULL, it will go into foreclosure! I'm at a loss... I have to admit that I don't know what to do!

Poor Christmas

Ah-h-h... well, this is going to be a poor Christmas for me and my family. I'm having money trouble, but in this economy, who isn't? A good thing is that my kids are all grown up now so a lot of the pressure I used to feel to buy them stuff for the holidays is minimized. This year everyone gets a card, a hug, kind words, and a warm, home-cooked meal. This all sounds so good, it's almost hard to believe that in the old days I'd go nuts with all the shopping, card mailing, decorating and stuff... not having any money can be kinda liberating - ya know? I still harbor pangs of guilt at not being to at least buy them something, but I assuage that guilt with the knowledge that it honestly can't be helped, and that it's not their or my birthday anyway. Putting the Christ back in Christmas should be the priority, and it's a shame that it took this long to better see that. It's Jesus' birthday afterall, and it's He who should be getting all the gifts... gifts of praise, love, faith, peace, harmony... and charity. Once again, please don't forget those less fortunate than you. Merry CHRISTmas and God bless.

Have a happy...

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. May all of your hopes and dreams come true, may all of yours needs be fulfilled. Please don't forget those less fortunate and remember them in your prayers... and please... write!

The Holidays

As we move into the holidays, I can't help but think of those who are worse off than I am... people that have lost their jobs, their homes... Americans that are going to bed hungry... I almost lost my own job about a year ago and it was scary. Financially, I'm still struggling to get back on my feet. How do those that have lost their income make it? I can only pray for them.. and for me. Still, I'm writing and reading, and hoping that maybe something that I write will make some money.
Happy Holidays everybody, and God bless.

Reflection of Me anthology...

One of my short stories, The Toll, has been included in an anthology published by AAMBC Publishing. It's a decent story, kind of a Sci-Fi/Fantasy hybrid. I enjoyed writing it and I hope readers will enjoy reading it. I encourage all who enjoy African-American/Minority literature to purchase a copy of this anthology and give it a looking over, I don't think you'll be disappointed.