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???? TEFF HAS Twelve years on WDC! FORUM keeps ADC records. |
WOW!!! & SUPER WOW!!! THANK YOU for this, Valerie Jean. May God Bless & all His Angels totaly Bless you you every hour --- Oct 10, 2013 Here in its entirety .. as "Invalid Item"  proudly & gladly displays this tell-all for CLUB record.   To our readers & ALL visitors --- We're on the WEB babycakes presenting a slice of niiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccce!VALs NL for October start here. Oct 8, 2013 at 7:10pmFrom: Valerie Jean - loving life (132) To: TEFF!! IN THE HOUSE! (119) : Sent to members of "AUTHORS DISCUSSION CLUB" "Invalid Item" October Newsletter October 2013 FROM MANUSCRIPT TO BOOK Hello all you writers in the writing land of WdC. How are you all? Have you been productive in the months since last we met? I hope so, after all the purpose of writing.com is writing. How many serious writers are onboard? What kind of writing do you engage in on a daily basis? I know writers write anything from blogs to full blown novels. The point of WdC is to write, and soon you will all have that opportunity as November rolls around and National Writing Month gets underway. Have you picked your genre, made a plan, set down your plot points, made an outline, all that fun stuff that goes into the creation of your masterpiece? And speaking of masterpieces, Ms. Mary Moffet, our fearless leader, has hinted at this being my tell all newsletter. Im going to tell you how I finally made it into print. So okay, I dont want to bore you to tears, so if you need to grab some tissues to alleviate the boredom you are about to experience, get up and grab them now. If, as Ms. Moffet hints at that this will be one of my hilarious issues, youll need those tissues to wipe away the tears of laughter. So are you armed and ready? How I made it into print SCARRED is my first novel, my baby, my firstborn of forty-five siblings, at last count, it could be more. SCARRED was started in November of 1980. I know, some of you werent even a glimmer in your mama and daddys eyes yet, or said hello to planet earth. Thinking back on that momentous day, it seems apropos that SCARRED got its start during National Writing Month. Back in those long ago, dark days when my writing career was taking wing, SCARRED had a different name JOANNE, after the main character in the book. Not only did the book go through a name change, so did the main character, all because I changed computers and the computer wouldnt allow me to keep the title because I wasnt getting rid of all the previous copies of the manuscript. Four years ago JOANNE became SCARRED and Joanne became Jo-Ann. Her side kick also went from Emily to Emalei in keeping with the way the names were spelled in the eighteenth century. It was also about that time I came to Writing.com and met some of you for the first time. I had been through a few rejections with SCARRED and wanted to know why, when the editor at the writers conferences I went to liked the book and recommended I get an agent for it. After several rejections I found my way here and my first reviews of SCARRED and low and behold I found out why SCARRED would never make it to the big time, not in the state it was in. SCARRED needed help and you all provided that help, for which I am eternally grateful. After a multitude of reviews I knew what I needed to do and went back to the drawing board to basically start from scratch. What I learned was that this being set in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the book needed to be era authentic, which is a fancy way of saying no contractions and names needed to be spelled the way they were back then. So okay, fast forward to last year and how SCARRED went from an idea and a manuscript on my hard drive, to a published novel. After thirty-two years of revision, learning how to write, reading up on everything I could from both Writers Digest and The Writer magazines, and sitting on my closet floor for eight years while I raised my kids, it was time to make my dream a reality with a little nudge from Chicken Soup for the Writers Soul. I took the bull by the horns and submitted SCARRED to WestBow Press a Division of Thomas Nelson. In that precious book I found a chapter dedicated to self-publishing and all the great authors who made their start in that manner. My idea was that if Stephen King could self-publish, so could I. There all my publishing woes got started. When submitted I found out I needed an editor, you know that person who literally takes your manuscript and shreds every decent line and gives you nothing left to work with, or who also tells you to forget about writing and not quit your day job, that person. So okay I found an editor, her price was something I could afford. She offered to do it for free. Of course this was a surprise since I know that editors charge anywhere from $2-$4 per page depending on the size and type of book. This would have cost me a mint since SCARRED is 470 pages cover to cover. However, not to worry, after not hearing from her for months at a time, or so it seemed, she finally dropped me after the third chapter. What was I to do? Im not an editor and I wanted SCARRED published in 2012. I went immediately to plan B. So what is Plan B? I did it myself with the help of self-help books. I bought three self-editing books and immersed myself in them. Lots of highlighting went into my reading and studying for something I knew next to nothing about. Thus armed I began again from the beginning and took SCARRED apart myself, so the only person I could blame was me. It took a lot of time and a ton of effort to get what I hoped was a decent edit of SCARRED. I could only hope. I found my biggest downfall wasnt punctuation hate that comma, but instead it was something called a dangling metaphor. What the heck is that? I went to www.dictionary.com for the answer to that and found out what it was along with examples. So okay thus armed and hopefully sufficiently prepared I proceeded with the time consuming efforts of editing my own manuscript and in September of last year submitted the final copy to WestBow Press. Now editing wasnt my only publishing woe. I needed a cover designer. I had the promise of one, gave ideas of how I wanted it to look and waited. No reply from the person who said they would gladly do it for me. The date got closer and I had to do something, but I had no idea what until I remembered I had a lot of pictures taken on my cell phone of the Tall Ships Festival three years ago. With hope that something would be suitable I went to my picture folders for the perfect picture. I didnt have a lot to choose from, despite the overwhelming number of pictures I took. It turned out that the only way I was going to get a picture that didnt involve the crowds who showed up for the event, was to get one of the mast. I had a couple candidates and finally chose the one that became the cover of my book. The designer only had to make one adjustment for the time period take off the American flag. We werent a country at the time. SCARRED became a book on October 9, 2012 and became available on October 16, 2012. When I held my book in my hands for the first time, I was overwhelmed. I had seen pictures of it as I had to also go over the galley proofs for text and cover, but to hold my book in my hands was the most awesome moment of my life. Nothing compares to it, not in the writing world at any rate. I could compare it to holding my son for the first time, or the moment I became a Christian. All experiences would rank in the same category of awe. SCARRED has taken baby steps since that day a year ago this week. My first ever book signing was a bust. I sold one book. My book signing day turned out to be the first snow day of the season. As much as I love snow and winter, I also hoped for a decent showing for my big moment. It didnt happen. Now self-publishing isnt without its monetary expectations. I chose a good package with what I considered a lot of perks. However, editing and marketing arent part of the perks and come with additional price tags if I want to make use of their services. Price tags I could not afford, so SCARRED became available without marketing and has suffered the pangs of having no marketing behind it. I have my author Facebook page, and I have plugged SCARRED at every opportunity, but my sales have not taken off the way I hoped. Which means my royalty check is slim to none. What Have I Learned I'm reminded with that phrase of the line from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy states that if she wants to look for something better she will find it no further way than her own backyard because if it isnt there, its not to be found anywhere. So what did I learn from my self-publishing experience. I learned how to edit, at least enough to make a decent go of the manuscript. I learned that no matter how many times I read it, the person who bought it and read it saw it for the first time, and its not my opinion of my work that counts, but theirs. I learned through the five five-star reviews I received for SCARRED, that people really do like it. I also sold several copies to people from church and the community and they were equally impressed with my ability to write. I found out I am a credible author and have a fan club going through the people I sold the book to and those who bought it online. I have a couple friends who loaned my book to their readers circle and the comments were overwhelming. Those same people are waiting for the next book in the series and it will be available soon. It is now in design and will be available for Christmas Sales. Oh the name of that one MANIFEST DESTINY. With MANIFEST DESTINY I found there is more than one way to edit a book, and yes, I found myself editing that one as well. My second editor quit on me. I do have a cover designer however, so I didnt need to scramble for a picture from my collection again. I am just as excited about this second book as I was with the first, and have now begun work on the third book in the series and need to write the fourth. Its started, but thats all it is at this time. Back Cover Copy Jo-Ann Carter is a disillusioned young woman who decides the best thing for her is to leave. Leave school, where she has been for seven years since the tragic death of her parents, which left her an orphan at the age of ten. Leave England and a society that forgot about her. Leave everything she knows, except her best friend, who insists on going with herplunging them both into the dangers found on the high seas, with pirate battles, slave markets, and the hardships found in Colonial America. Quentin Alexander, Earl of Thurgarton, learns he is Jo-Anns guardian through a message from the headmistress of the school she attended. With permission from the Crown, he determines to bring Jo-Ann and her companion back to England. Both Jo-Ann and Quentin are determined on seeing their objectives met: she to stay in the Colonies, and he to take her back. Who will win the battle of wills, and at what cost? BIO Valerie Routhieaux started down the road to publication in 1980. Her goal is to write uplifting, faith-based, stimulating, page-turning stories, no matter the genre. She graduated from the Institute of Childrens Literature in 2006. Scarred is her first adult novel. She is the mother of three grown children and five grandchildren. She lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she is an active member of her church and an avid Green Bay Packers fan. ~ So there you have it my road to success or at least to print. You can purchase SCARRED on www.amazon.com or www.bn.com. If you do purchase or have purchased a copy, I hope you will leave a review for the next person looking for a good book to read. And keep your eyes open for MANIFEST DESTINY available soon. Until next time, may all your troubles be revisable. PURCHASING INFO @ ASIN: 1449768156 Scarred Product Type: Book Amazon's Price: $ 20.55 You Save: $ 10.40 Buy Now! Newsletter to Club Members from just4him Nothing is impossible when God is in it. I can face tomorrow because God is in my life today. Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (KJV) It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. -- President Teddy Roosevelt http://www.vjrouthieaux.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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