I have added some of the photographs from my new book, "AnnaBelle"s Spirit". I am hoping that seeing some of the family that I write about may help spark some interest. Plus, I want everyone to see AnnaBelle, my Mother, for whom all this was done. Her life was amazing. She was a beautiful person, both inside and as you can see, outside.
Carolyn Sue Morris's Blog
I am interested in finding out about writing contests for self-published authors. I'm sure they are around, at least I hope so. There are so many authors having to self-publish these days. That is, if they ever want to see their work in print. It is almost impossible to find a traditional publisher to even look at your work unless you are an established author, and you cannot become established without getting published. There are so many good writers that will go to the wayside because they…
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Posted on July 29, 2009 at 10:23am — 1 Comment
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Congratulations on your new book and newspaper article. It's great when your hard work is acknowledged :) I just wanted to mention to you a website I built called AlreadyPublished.com. It's for authors to promote their book. You do so by posting your book's first chapter, giving readers a peek into your book. The site is free and the list of books is growing, so please check it out. :) BTW, good luck with your book!
p.s. You can also check out this blog post on the Already Published Ning Network, I explain how to post your book. You can also learn more about the website there.
Best,
John
Most recent post: You can get her name here and then talk to her on Facebook.
In reply to an earlier post Georgia Akin
Rinnie, I have a wonderful suggestion for you! I have read these books, and they are awesome! Here is a little bit about them.
They are called "The Paradise Series" by Dr. Robert E.McGinnis. There are five books to the series:
1. A Beckoning To Paradise 2. Secrets Of Paradise 3. Paradise Is Where You Find It 4. Paradise Grows
5. Raised In Paradise
"ABOUT THE SERIES"
A young man is called by his guiding spirit to return to the land of his parents to help his people with modernization and to establish order in the lives of several different groups living in a wide range of conditions. At first his past is unknown to him because he was deserted as a baby and raised by non-family members who were unaware of his origination. The main character, Harry Raven is guided by spiritual forces that are not always apparent, but seem to offer clues and help at the right time and place. Harry Raven leaves a wonderful job in a big city to become the leader of two different Indian tribes, one ancient and one modern. When his connection to the two tribes is revealed, he will bring the two together in a way that is beneficial to both.
Well, that encouraged me to go ahead and write the book, which was eventually published in 1993 and is still selling well today. Scary to think that I took their not writing back about the manuscript as a sign that it wasn't any good.
That's all to say that it's hard for us to judge our own work. I suppose that's why Solomon said that there was safety in "many counselors", not just a few. I recommend people to get their chapters out to as many people as they can - friends, an English teacher, members of a writing group, etc. Ask them for honest input. If some don't like it much, that's okay. Not everybody's going to like your style. But get their specific input anyway - "What would make it better?" Use your own wisdom to separate the personal opinion from great insights.
Typically, I think that the only way we knew if our writing is good is by getting it into the hands of a lot of people and getting a lot of specific feedback. When enough people honestly say, "That's really good!" then we have good evidence that we're on the right track.
And by the way, I've found that people are honored to let them look over my stuff. Makes them feel smart and needed. Don't hesitate to ask people.
Does that make sense?
Good luck, Dr Robert E McGinnis, author of the Paradise Series. (see what I was talking about?)
I had no idea where she lived or who she might be married to, but my intuition told me to send a letter addressed to her maiden name and the corner of those two streets, (Marie and Keebler). I never heard anything back for a couple months, but one day I got a phone call (she hates writing letters) from her in a state of shock from my letter. The letter had been carried past the street corner by the local mailman who saw there was no house near by and remembered he had seen that last name before, but it was way across town. He readdressed the envelope and sent it to the only name in town that he thought might know the person to which it was addressed. It happened to be her brother, the only living relative left in Collinsville, everyone else had moved away. Back to the phone call. She told me that the letter came at a time when she had been very depressed over the loss of one of her parents. As a six year old I had seen both her parents, her Polish father, would sit on the front steps in the evening, after a long day in the coal mines and drink beer from one of those double container, food and drink miner's pail. Since that time, our families have visited a few times back and forth, but she still doesn't write and we are as close as a brother and sister can be. Both Anne and her husband are nice people, He calls her Shirley and I call her Anne and her school friends called her Anna Banana, she is highly energetic, her husband highly laid back. They had three kids of their own and three they adopted. She likes to take in strays.
But, that is a little curious history of our past and how we have stayed friends for so long.
Speaking of memories, I can remember getting my baths at a few weeks old, yes, I didn't like it.
Now, to your book selling efforts. There are a lot of things to help with the marketing. One, I make appointments to set up a table at the nearby colleges, the college kids love my books for some reason. I guess my writing is so non-threatening, they get some relaxation from it. (others might call in boring) The sedond thing is that if you like, you can put information about your book on my Facebook page, which is not big, but three or four of my readers are there as well as my family and my readers love reading self-published. I have two pages, one is under Dr Robert E McGinnis Sr and the other is under Dr Robert E McGinnis author of the Paradise Series. You are welcome to comment on both and tell about your books. I do a lot of social networking, but ninety percent of my sales come from one particular site and to mention it here on a public page would be to give up a great audience.
Good luck, the world is a better place since self-publishing came into view.
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