Authors Corner October 2008!

By Yvonne Perry

Fall is in the air and with it comes the celebration of harvest and of course Samhain, better known to some as Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve. Along that theme, we have a special treat for our podcast listeners this month with near-death experiencer and psychic medium Juliet Nightengale joining us on October 31, and science researcher and shamanka MaAnna Stephenson sharing The Sage Age on October 3. Plus, I will be uploading an interview about my own book More than Meets the Eye True Stories about Death, Dying, and Afterlife.

Speaking of podcasts, I thought I might let you know that we use Audio Acrobat to record and broadcast our show. Please use the link above to learn more.

My eBook Book Marketing in the Digital Age, Online Promotion Made Easy is nearing completion and will be available October 15. While working on the book, it dawned on me that I needed to update my Web site in order to not only show examples of the techniques being explained, but to actually be utilizing SEO (search engine optimization) on my site. That required a complete overhaul since many of the pages had dual purposes and did not focus on just one topic. As you will learn in my eBook, this is important for attracting visitors to your site. Our new URL is http://www.writersinthesky.com/ so please be sure to bookmark or change it in your favorites.

Our new site will have a project board where you may see what each member of the WITS team is working on. We have all been busy on multiple projects, but I would like to share a little info about the ones I’ve personally been working on:

Keep the Legs You Stand On, by doctor of podiatric medicine Mark Hinkes, is an insightful and personal look at the high-risk patient with diabetes and a reminder of what can be done to help keep them healthy, active, and on their feet. Mark's personal experiences and comprehensive text is written in a manner that a lay person can easily understand and provides a tremendous resource for patients with diabetes and their caregivers.

Rita Alexander was referred to WITS by Denna Shelton who is a wonderful client I’ve worked with on several occasions. You may have seen Denna’s Twenty Gems, Journey to the Self meditation DVDs on a US Airways flight. Rita asked me to write a few media releases and articles for her company, International Stem Cell Institute. Having authored a book on the subject, (Right to Recover) I was happy to assist her. Since posting the media release online, the number of hits on her Web site have doubled.

When I started the developmental and copy edit for Carl David’s book, I knew I come upon a skilled writer with a superb story. It has the drama of human emotion stirred by true events that bring lovable characters to life. Plus, there are interesting historical facts intertwined throughout the telling. Add some mysterious and ghostly happenings to those components and you have a great book—Bader Field.

Our chief editor, Barbara Milbourn and I have edited and proofread ten books for Hal Leonard Publishing Corp. since January. This batch includes authors Bobby Owsinski, Lisa Aschmann, Karl Coryat, Greg Forest and others. Four of the titles have published this year and are available on our new Web site.

One thing I love about networking online is that you meet (okay, virtually meet) some of the nicest people and get to interact with them on their projects. One such example is Irene Watson. She and I have participated in several joint ventures. She and Victor Volksman are coauthoring a new book Authors Access: Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers. Irene asked me to write a chapter on getting started in the freelance writing business. I had notes on this topic scattered among the files on my computer, but since I have given the robe and royal scepter as our team’s author publicity assistant to Sarah Moore, I asked her to provide the developmental editing for me. She did a great job making sense of my haphazard material and getting it into a publishable format.

In the past month, I’ve been a guest on Authors Access as interviewed by Irene Watson and Victor Volkman. I enjoyed speaking for Nashville Writers Meetup Nonfiction Writers Group on September 8, and I had a great interview with H. Les Brown of ProActivation® Coaching on his Blog Talk internet radio show The Frazzled Entrepreneur Program on September 18.

In this month’s issue, I am proud to recommend Jessica Dockter, the graphic designer for the WITS team. She is able to create book covers, lay out the interior of a book, design logos and icons, and assist clients with branding a company image.