Literary Publicist Marlive Harris Has GRITS for You!

Join WITS owner Yvonne Perry and full time online book marketer Marlive Harris on Writers in the Sky Podcast today as they discuss the following:

The G.R.I.T.S. Online Reading Club, a leading online reading and book promotion community for adult readers and writers.

The award winning G.R.I.T.S. Kidz Book Club, an online book club for kids, parents, and adult care-givers of children who desire to discuss and learn more about African American and other multicultural literature written for young people.

The GRITS COM Literary Service designed to meet the unique Web publicity needs of authors and self-publishers.

On the Air With Marlive Harris, a collection of lively book talk podcast programs for people who love to read!

Authors will learn how they can be a guest on Marlive's radio show and glean ideas for marketing books online.

Click here to listen to the interview . . .

Audiobook Filled with Poetry and Music

The new audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry & Music by Janet Riehl is a compilation of very personal music and poetry that is not to be missed!

Audiobook Review
Book Title: Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry & Music
Author: Janet Riehl
Genre: audio book, poetry, folk music
Publication Date: 2009
Reviewed by Sarah Moore for WITS

When we diligently read our history books as part of our school’s curriculum, we learn about the famous men and women who earned their spot in print as world leaders, great businessmen, explorers, military heroes, or even criminals. While all aspects of history fascinate me, I must confess that my interest has always been more with the everyday folks who loved their families, took pride in their work, and, although they may never be studied in a classroom, made a lasting impact on the people who knew them. My ninety-eight-year-old grandmother has an amazing memory and can recount in detail an incident that happened with a playmate in 1917. She is also a musician who shares songs and piano melodies that remind her of being a teenager or raising her children during a war. I know from her that the retelling of family history and traditions is the best way to capture a picture of a bygone era. I have discovered a treasure that beautifully captures this appreciation for the warmth of family and home. The new audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry & Music by Janet Riehl is a compilation of very personal music and poetry that is not to be missed.

Riehl’s audio book developed from her written text, Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary, which was published in 2006. With the new release, Riehl adds the elements of down-home music and her own voice bringing life to the poems she created. The musical component features her father’s singing and fiddle playing as he is joined by other musicians for recordings that took place in his living room. The fact that the music was not performed in a high-tech professional studio makes its inclusion even more appealing and appropriate. As you listen to old friends gather to play music, you feel so fortunate to be let into the intimate gathering. I felt that I should be sitting in a rocking chair with my eyes closed as I let the simple beauty fill my soul. Each piece provides a seamless transition for the subjects of the poems it connects.

The poems by Janet Riehl are divided into five groupings that are spread over four CDs. The first section is devoted to her sister Julia (also known as Skeeter), who was tragically killed in a car crash several years ago. The emotional images Riehl creates through her words examine Julia’s work, her love of life, the moment of her death, and the longing of those she left behind. Riehl goes on to share equally captivating poetry about her father, her mother, and two places that have special meaning to her— the family home in Evergreen Heights and her later residence of Clear Lake in Northern California. In addition to the poems themselves, Riehl provides emotional commentary that fills in the missing pieces and develops a more complete memory for the listeners to enjoy. Her words are straightforward, beautifully crafted, and offer a wonderful piece of storytelling.

From beginning to end, the new audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry & Music is a delight for its listeners. The passion that Janet Riehl has for her family, her history, and the beauty that surrounds her is obvious. Even if you already read the printed version of Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary when it was released several years ago, you will want to enjoy the extra features and meaning that are offered through this listening experience as well. The audio segments have been expertly compiled and edited to create the comfortable atmosphere of someone’s home while also displaying professional detail to recording quality and content progression. Each moment of the CDs is filled with warmth, humor, and a deep connection to those who have come before us. Sightlines is a must-have audio book for anyone who appreciates a good love story with the perfect musical accompaniment!

Purchase Janet's audiobook on Amazon.com

Choosing a Publishing Method

Conventional publishing with or without an agent, self-publishing, or publish on demand. Which publishing method is right for your book?

Perhaps you are writing a mystery novel, and are unsure whether to: look for an agent to pitch your book to a conventional publisher, self-publish on your own, or use a publish-on-demand company to bring your book to market. There are a few things to consider with each option.

· Publishing contracts for an unknown author without a huge media following are harder to get than ever. If you do decide to go with a conventional publisher, I recommend getting an agent. It may still take years of querying and being rejected. You may not own the copyright to your book when all is said and done, so read carefully or have an attorney read over the contract. If your book doesn’t sell, the publisher may back list it, which is a way of saying it’s on the back burner but not being promoted.

· Self-publishing requires that you do all the work yourself or subcontract the things you don’t know how to do such as getting the ISBN, creating the cover design, laying out the interior of your book, finding a printer, and getting the book into distribution channels.

· A publish-on-demand (POD) company is best suited to most first-time authors. They do all the leg work for a fee. Again, make sure you are the owner of the copyright to your book when the publishing is complete.

The type of publisher an author chooses should be determined by the author’s intention, timeline, and budget.

Author Intention
What do you plan to do with your book when it is published? Do you plan to sell it in hopes of making a profit or is your intention to share it with only a few close friends or to have as a record of your life for your family’s sake?

Author Timeline
If you have a time-sensitive topic, you can’t afford to wait the typical two years of querying in hopes of getting a contract from a conventional publisher. It may take another year to get the book on the market after you have a contract. If you need to get the book to the market sooner, you may want to self-publish or go with a publish-on-demand company such as Published by Westview in Nashville, Tennessee.

Author Budget
Going the conventional publishing route may give an author a small up-front payment known as an advance. Be sure you read your contract carefully to make sure you don’t have to pay back the advance money if your book doesn’t meet their sales quota within a certain amount of time.
No matter what route you choose to bring your book to the market, the publicity is going to be up to you, the author. And, that’s fine, because who knows a book better than its author anyway? Yet, many authors do not have a degree in marketing or know where to begin with such a task. That is the purpose of my eBook, Online Promotion Made Easy—to teach authors how to market their book through online networking and promotion.
I wish you much success on publishing your book!

Yvonne Perry, is the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services—a team of highly qualified writers and editors with many years of experience in writing for articles, books, ad copy, media releases, PR kits, Web text, biographical sketches, and newsletters. Editing, proofreading, book review, and book evaluation services offered individually and as packages. Find us online at http://www.writersinthesky.com

Follow WITS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/writersinthesky

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Now Available~ 2nd Edition of Purple Snowflake Marketing- How to Make Your Book Stand Out in a Crowd!

Dave & Lillian are proud and excited to announce that the 2nd edition of Purple Snowflake Marketing - How to Make Your Book Stand Out in a Crowd is now available: www.booklocker.com - Our website (www.brummet.ca) will soon be updated to reflect the release of this new edition.

Purple Snowflake Marketing - How to Make Your Book Stand Out in a Crowd is a reference guide for self-marketing authors who want to be noticed in a snowstorm of writers. With nineteen chapters and twenty-five appendices, this e-book is a means for authors to design an effective marketing plan and utilize frugal promotional tools with the click of their mouse. The e-book also offers over 900 resources that will accelerate your marketing efforts far beyond your peers. As a reassuring marketing plan guide, it contains ample advice for avoiding pit-falls and setting a pace for marketing endeavors.

This e-book was originally released in June 2007 and since then has made the recommended reading lists of more than a dozen writing courses. Authors of most genres will find this inspiring book an essential component for marketing their book.

Announcements and details will soon be available later today at: www.brummet.ca/purple.html

Help the authors, who donate 30% of the royalties they receive from book sales, raise funds for the SPCA, the Canadian Wildlife Federation and the Seeds of Diversity Organization simply by purchasing your very own copy for only $10 today: http://www.booklocker.com/books/4120.html

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Hosts of:

Conscious Discussions talk radio show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/consciousdiscussions
Authors Read radio program: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsread
Blog: http://www.consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com

Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/canadianauthor
http://www.brummet.ca

Meet the Girl Reading in the South

Marlive Harris will be joining us on Writers in the Sky Podcast this Friday July 10th, 2009!

Marlive Harris is fondly known in literary circles as thegrits.com, an acronym for "the girl reading in the south.com" She is an online book marketer/promoter who has a fascination with technology (the Internet in particular) and a love of literature—especially African American Literature.Before becoming a full time online book marketer, Marlive was a classroom teacher and school librarian for eight years in North Texas. While working as a librarian, she launched The G.R.I.T.S. Online Reading Club, a leading online reading and book promotion community for adult readers and writers.

Her next endeavor came next in 2001 when she launched the award-winning G.R.I.T.S. Kidz Book Club, an online book club for kids, parents, and adult care-givers of children who desire to discuss and learn more about African American and other multicultural literature written for young people.

The success of those two online reading communities and her desire to meet the unique web publicity needs of authors and self-publishers is the reason she launched The GRITS COM Literary Service full-time in 2003. So, for the last eight years TheGRITS.com with its reading groups, online book campaigns, virtual book tours, and podcast network has become a place where books, readers, literary professionals, connect on the Internet!

You will find Marlive giving book promotion presentations (online and offline), participating and moderating readers' and writers' discussion panels, or you may see one of the reading organizations she moderates or facilitates featured in news and print publications!

You will want to check out On The Air with Marlive Harris. This is her radio show where she interviews authors and people in the book industry.

You can connect with Marlive Harris online at:

Facebook
MySpace
Utterli
FriendFeed

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Listening to Writers in the Sky Podcast on a computer is easy. Just click this link: http://yvonneperry.blogspot.com and go to my blog.On the right sidebar there is a list of archived shows. Click on the interview you would like to hear and it will open a post that has a link to the audio file.

Have you thought of hosting your own podcast? It's easy. Learn how at http://nashvillewriter.audioacrobat.com/

If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to leave a comment on iTunes to help others find it.

Internet Dating is Not Like Ordering a Pizza

Today we welcome Cherie Burbach to our writing blog. She is discussing her book Internet Dating is Not Like Ordering a Pizza.

YVONNE: Tell me something about yourself and your writing background.

CHERIE: I'm an author, blogger, poet, crocheter, (and most of all) geek. I've written six books, and I also blog and write full-time. My favorite hobby is following the Packers and reading about Tudor history.

YVONNE: What is the title of your book? Give us the basic story line so we’ll know what it’s about.

CHERIE: The title is Internet Dating is Not Like Ordering a Pizza. It's a guidebook for online daters on how to write a profile, email their online match, set up coffee dates, and even move on when your relationship gets more serious. The book doesn't just give blank advice like "write a better profile" but shows daters exactly what to write (and not write) through concrete examples.

YVONNE: What inspired you to write this book?

CHERIE: A few years ago I did online dating, and met over 60 guys for coffee in just six months. It was a very positive experience for me, in part because I could convey my personality with the written word. I wanted to let daters know that anyone can have the same experience. (Oh, and one of those guys turned out to be the one I would marry!)

YVONNE: Is this the first book you have written?

CHERIE: No, I've written six.

YVONNE: How long did it take to write this book? Any interesting tidbits about your writing method or how the book developed?

CHERIE: I started outlining points for the book a few years ago, but once I sat down and wrote it, I believe it took about six months. The title actually came from my husband. I said that I wanted daters to know that they can't just order up a date like they do a book or shirt or a pizza! And he said, "I think you've got your title there."

YVONNE: How did you publish your book? Tell me about your publishing experience and what you learned from it.

CHERIE: A few years ago I started my own company, and it's been a wonderful experience. I've learned that no matters who publishes your book, you must be diligent about marketing.

YVONNE: Where is your book available? Do you have a Web site or blog where we can learn more about you or your book?

CHERIE: My book is available anywhere online where books are sold (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.) The best place to find me is at my website: www.cherieburbach.com. I have links to my books and blogs there.

YVONNE: Tell me some ways you have promoted your book. Give examples and links to any sites you feel might help other authors.

CHERIE: I started a website specifically for the book (http://internetdatingpizza.homestead.com/) and place all the interviews, reviews, and news about the book there. I also did an online virtual tour in April, which was so much fun! Info (and stops) from the tour can be found here: http://internetdatingpizza.homestead.com/press.html.

YVONNE: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to get to know you and learn about your book. I wish you well in your journey as an author.

CHERIE: Thank you so much for having me as a "guest." I feel writers should support one another and am happy you do so much to help promote writers!

One Dash or Two? Using En and Em Dashes in Writing

En dashes (–) are used to show duration such as when writing the time 9:00–5:00, or range such a date April 15–31 or number 100–150. The en dash can also be used as a hyphen in compound adjectives in which one part consists of two words or a hyphenated word: pre–World War I era. En dashes do not have spaces in front or behind them.

En dashes are created on a Mac computer by simultaneously pressing option-hyphen. For Windows users, the en dash is created by holding down ALT while typing 0150 on the numeric keypad.

Em dashes (—) are used in place of a colon or parenthesis to show an abrupt change in thought or to separate clauses in a sentence. Em dashes may be also used to show an open range: Jane Smith, 1987—

Mac users press shift-option-hyphen to create an em dash. The em dash is created in Windows by holding down ALT and typing 0151 on the numeric keypad. Microsoft Word will automatically create an em dash whenever you type two hyphens without spaces between them and without spaces before or after the words connected by the hyphens: word--word will convert to word—word.

Hyphens are used to connect two words and to separate characters in a phone number (123-555-0123).

The 3-em dash uses six hyphens before and after a word ( ------ and ------ ) when a person’s name or some other word(s) is being omitted. You may want to start in the middle of a longer quote while indicating that other words actually preceded or followed the part of the quote you used. For example:

------ that religion is a matter that lies soley between man and his God ------ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Now you have the facts about dashes and it’s up to you whether you decided to dash or not to dash!

Yvonne Perry, is the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services—a team of highly qualified writers and editors with many years of experience in writing for articles, books, ad copy, media releases, PR kits, Web text, biographical sketches, and newsletters. Editing, proofreading, book review, and book evaluation services offered individually and as packages. Find us online at http://www.writersinthesky.com

Follow WITS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/writersinthesky
If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it.

Janet Riehl to discuss the process of making her audio book.

We have a special guest on Writers in the Sky Podcast today as Janet Riehl joins Yvonne Perry to talk about Janet's new audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.

Have you ever wanted to create an audio version of your book? Janet did. In fact, it was a lifelong dream to share her poetry and her family's music. She combined both in a one-of-a-kind audio book that blends and portrays the songs her family wrote and performed. These songs would otherwise have been lost once her father passes. Instead, Janet now has a priceless audio filled with memories that she is sharing with others. See the video documentary series of how this audio book was created over a one-year time period. These You Tube videos were filmed and produced by Yvonne Perry's son-in-law, Scott Kidd.

The audio book Sightlines: A family Love Story in Poetry and Music is available on CD Baby at this link: http://cdbaby.com/cd/janetgraceriehl. There, readers can listen to as much as they wish online.

Janet Grace Riehl is a seasoned writer, artist, musician, and storyteller. Although Janet roamed the world and then came home to be near her family, she defies the stereotype of a down-home, heartland gal. Her travels and work have taken her across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. With her father in his 90s, Janet returned to the Midwest to settle in St. Louis, not far from the home place her ancestors founded in the 1860s. In southwest Illinois, it sits high on a bluff above the Mississippi River. After returning to her roots, Janet embraced poetry, memoir, and short stories.

Click here to listen to the interview where Janet explains the process of making an audiobook. Learn more about copyrighting, distribution, and marketing!

Janet's first book Sightlines: A Poet’s Diary is a family love story narrated in story poems that bring together six generations of memories and history. In the words of one reviewer, the collection offers “village wisdom for the 21st century.” Janet's poetry book was recently expanded into an audiobook Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Song. This four-disc set includes not only 90 poems, but also music recorded in her father’s parlor along with his jokes and stories that anchor the original poems in their time and place.

Go to http://www.riehlife.com to sign up for a 10-minute audio download of poetry and music from Janet's new audio book Sightlines: A Family Love Story in Poetry and Music.

Sightlines: A Poet's Diary is available as a paperback book on Amazon with thirty-one 4- and 5-star reviews.

California Vacation ~ Our Trip to the Desert

Yvonne Perry, an award-winning and best-selling author, has published a book on ebooKarma!

California Vacation ~ Our Trip to the Desert is a humorous e-book about a writer who struggles to leave her business behind long enough to take a two-week vacation. She offers insight into the changes made in air travel since 9/11, gives an account of a trip to the vineyards where she becomes inebriated, and shares her encounter with the blue hairs at a local bar.

You have got to check it out. Best of all, it is FREE!

Click on the book cover to take you to the download page! Or just click here.

Get to know Yvonne!

What Can Be Done to Avoid Piracy of e-books?

Along with marketing and selling e-books online comes the issue of piracy—or folks passing them on to people who have not purchased them. If you market e-books, how can you be sure that the e-books aren't pirated?

If you want to sell e-books that others have written, be sure to deal with people you know. By establishing a network of people in your industry, you can help one another succeed. Your network will have or know of products and e-book you can sell; and because you have earned one another’s trust, you have peace of mind that you are offering quality content that is produced legally.

If you don’t have a network, you could choose products from an affiliate program that has a good reputation. Many e-books are now listed on Amazon.com and they have an affiliate program. If an e-book is listed there, it has been through a selection process that requires a registered ISBN. No ISBN; no listing on Amazon.

If you write and sell your own e-books online, you may be concerned about other people stealing your material. It’s certainly true that many copyrighted PDFs and e-books are passed around illegally. So, what can an author do? While you have a right to pursue legal representation to recover your losses, you may have a difficult time trying to locate all the places and people who are violating your copyright. In your e-book, you can request that the purchaser not forward your e-book to others who have not paid for a copy, but unfortunately this request can easily be ignored.

I recommend that you put your name, URL, or some type of identifying or marketing text throughout your book. That way, if someone does get your e-book by pirated means, they at least have a way to: 1.) report it to you, 2.) check out your site to see if you have other e-books or services they need. You never know, they may actually purchase your next e-book.

Do not offer the same e-book you sell as a give-away or prize in a contest or promotion. People may think that if your e-book is free, then people should not have to pay for it. Create other products to offer as freebies or as incentives, but let the e-books you sell be reserved only for that purpose.

Yvonne Perry, is the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services—a team of highly qualified writers and editors with many years of experience in writing for articles, books, ad copy, media releases, PR kits, Web text, biographical sketches, and newsletters. Editing, proofreading, book review, and book evaluation services offered individually and as packages. Find us online at http://www.writersinthesky.com

Follow WITS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/writersinthesky

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. I’d appreciate it.