It's been a productive couple of days

It's been a hectic couple of days:

1. Selling my old romance novels - Attended the local fair and sold more second-hand books. The interesting thing about selling second-hand romance novels is that the majority of people feel compelled to tell you that they DON'T read them...but when the fans come, they lots and lots of them. Sold enough books to buy week's groceries and I left around mid-day.

Took my notebook to the craft market, so I had the chance to scribble some story scenes on my WIP during the lull between customers. Happy with what came out.

2. Meeting potential clients - Had to drive across town on Monday morning on the way to an 8am meeting with a potential client. Managed to avoid most of the morning rush hour, but it was still long and traumatic; reminded me of the old days when I used to commute and leave home early. The meeting went extremely with client and he said he'd use my services. Will celebrate once the contract is signed and deposit is in the bank:-)

3. Polishing a document for the client publishing project - Submitted the manuscript today. Yay me! I can take a breather.

4. Scoping a new editing assignment - A client I usually do a couple of reviews sent me a huge assignment. The assignment was a shock for a freelance writer friend of mine, to whom the assignment looks dull and does not pay fantastically well ( per word, but there is a huge volume).
"Dull assignments like this buy me the time to do more projects that are creatively challenging. Sometimes it's pretty much like having a day job and you don't always get to write what you like."
Let's just say she's not very happy.

5. Doing quality control on the ebook design - Things are moving along in that quarter. I want to load the ebook by Friday at the latest and test it all weekend so Monday it can go live around 5am (automatically). Yay us!

6. Organising a workshop for my publishing project writers for next week- Venue and catering finalised, programme and invitations sent to the writers and now I just need to finalise with them and get my material together.

What  are your feelings about writers having to either hold down fulltime jobs or take on writing assignments to pay bills and but time to do projects they find more fulfilling?

How to get quoted in the media - the cover

So what do you think of the draft cover of our ebook? Do you like it? co-author Christelle du Toit took photographs of old newspapers. Cover design was done by Ofentse Mokgethi, a multi-disciplinary artist friend whose bag of skills include graphic design. 

And yes, he does take on freelance graphic design and typesetting assignments. Feel free to email him if you need his services.

Why Books Sell

By Pamela Moeng

 

Read an interesting article the other day about marketing your book in The Book Designer newsletter. I particularly liked the section below and all credit to The Book Designer for the quote:

 

 

"Why Books Sell : There is no replacement for a good book...we can point to a few clear reasons why some books sell better than others:

• It has unique information that’s in demand, but that cannot be found anywhere else
• It solves a problem that many people have
• The story is compelling and/or entertaining
• The author is a celebrity
• The book is already selling and people start telling others about the book."

 

I don't know about you but I am no celebrity, which means I best write books that fit one of the other criteria for selling well. Of course, every writer believes or wants to believe that her writing is compelling and entertaining - if they didn't, why write?

 

I find putting the WIP away for a while to sulk from lack of attention helps me see its weaknesses. Until I see them, I can't make them stronger. Even if a work has been sent out into the world to find a home, re-reading it months after completing it reveals the weaknesses and gaps - not to mention the typos - that were missed by me, and the first reader (usually a friend who writes/edits too).

 

This is not to say a work is never finished - every dog has its day and every manuscript should be typeset and printed sooner rather than later. But if anything humbles an arrogant writer, it's re-reading that "perfect" novel and finding the mistakes you've missed in your self editing.

 

I've gone a bit crazy lately subscribing to lots of writer forums and newsletters and I've found a wealth of information and support on them. Check out The Book Designer - he has more useful tips.

 

Keep writing...

How to get quoted in the media

Yesterday was very hectic so I didn't get a chance to blog.  I was very productive though, as I managed to attend 3 meetings before 11am and people were quick and efficient.

I'm almost ready to hand over the first book to the client with quality control, artwork briefs and all references done.  I'm still doing quality control and review for the second book, which I'm handing over to the client at the end of October.

(P.S. my name or the name of my company will not be in the books, so I won't be able to do any publicity for them once they come out.I can  honestly tell you though that you are NOT a target audience for the books, as they are being written for a very specific niche market with a built-in audience).

Count-down to a book launch

The fantabulous news is that I am now finally ready to launch an ebook on media relations that I have been working on for the past couple of months. The book, entitled "How to get quoted in the media" was co-written with my friend Christelle Du Toit and is being published through Damaria Senne Media.  Christelle also took the images used in the book.

We've already done the edits, and we met with the lay-out and design professional this morning to hand over the manuscript and brief him on the lay-out and design.

Launch date is the Monday 3rd October 2011. The book will be available on this site, with a Paypal and credit card payment facility. We're also exploring the sale of the book in other outlets (e.g smashwords.com etc)

I'll post the book cover here once it's ready, so you can get a preview of what it's going to be like. I'd also like to thank the following people for helping make the book possible:
Judy Croome - for her excellent suggestions on content and flow
Pamela Moeng - for a very thorough edit of the book.
Itumeleng Mogaki - for his suggestions on phrasing  so the advice resonates better with the readers
Nkuli Mngcungusa - your comments told me we were ready to publish.
All my readers - your encouragement was the catalyst that pushed me to start this book.

The launch and publicity plan is ready and the press release is also ready to go out ( should you wish to blog about the book, please email me and I'll send a copy of the press release).

Through a series of meetings this morning, Christelle and I have also organised a radio interview and the possibility of having articles published by a major community newspaper group in their community newspapers. Hopefully that will go a long way to creating the media blitz we need for when we launch in October.

Phew! It's been a busy couple of days, no? How is your week going?

Friday note

Yesterday was rough day which ended with a pounding headache with a touch of nausea. And I know it was stress doing this to me.


But there were good bits. I finished a client document that had been driving dilly for weeks and am starting a fresh leg of the client publishing project. I also wrote quite a bit on my nameless WIP. It’s still a very rough draft, but at this stage, all I want is to lay down the bones of the story. I can worry about rewriting and polishing the story later.

A friend gave me a lot of lemons from her tree, so we made lemonade, which was very nice. I can see why the fresh lemonade is popular; wonder why I never thought to make it before?

Today I woke up less tired and stressed (could it be because I sent the stressful document to client or maybe it’s because it’s Friday?) and the day’s tasks are going well.

How was your week? Are you happy it’s over or are you still revved to do more?

Pam's 12-hour tour of London + some other stuff

Pam’s article on her 12-hour tour of London is live on the Independent Online Travel. Check it out.

I also want to point you to my writing friend Tam, who has posted a rant about the writing life. I could so relate to Tam's view, because a lot of the writing that I do to pay bills is not exciting. I don't hate it and I'm grateful for the work, but it's not exactly what little girls think of doing when they dream of becoming writers.

Finally, check out this article, where American authors say that they were asked to "straightwash" their gay characters in a young adult novel.

The reason this article resonated with me is because two of the main characters in my NAMELESS WIP (which I have made a lot of headway writing) are actually gay and they are falling in love and it's a lovely story that I feel compelled to tell. I second-guessed myself for months/years, trying to make the couple heterosexual, but somehow, the story didn't quite work. Then I made the heroine a guy and suddenly, he came to life and he was growing and evolving throughout the story.

There are a lot of gay romance publishers out there ( I researched), so I'm only worried about writing a good story, not where to place it when it's done. If it's good enough, it will find a home. It may not be a mainstream novel, and it certainly isn't a story that I thought I would end up with when I first started working on the project, but I had to get it out.

Some of the questions I had to grapple with, and I also discussed some of them with Pam, relate to whether writing romances is real writing (yes we know it is, but there is also the school of thought that we could do better, write more literary works). And in that context, a gay romance becomes the cousin who's looked down by everyone else.

Yet, during my research to see if there is a possible home out there for my WIP, I found that gay romance publishers are constantly looking for manuscript ( big market for writers) and the novels sell like crazy (read that somewhere with stats, but can't remember the publication link).

In any case, I have created  pen name by which I will likely publish the WIP, if I ever finish it and can place it with a publisher. Some months ago I also created a blog for her and started posting portions of the story online to test the market. Interestingly, the target audience love the story and they have also offered very constructive criticism on the story, which will help me during the edits.

Safeguarding and nurturing our indigenous languages

By Pamela Moeng

One of my small luxuries is a subscription to the Sunday Times taken up mainly because it was accompanied by Monday through Friday delivery of The Times.


Often I only read my morning paper in the evening, lounging in bed after a trying eternity at the day job. Yesterday was no exception, and I read Megan Hall's piece on language - mother tongue (any African mother tongue) - with interest. Hall doesn't think any African language should die on this generation's watch.

As someone who studied Spanish throughout high school and varsity only to promptly go to a place where no one else spoke Spanish, I think I agree with Hall. She speaks eloquently about the legacy a language leaves with its speakers, citing poetry and novels along with letters and sms's as carriers of the beauty and utility of the words.

Hall highlights famed South African singer Simphiwe Dana's work around literacy. Dana believes that maintaining the most widely spoken South African language - isiZulu - might at least ensure all children get to learn one African language.

I don't love her THAT much!

'What are you doing here?" was my first words to my helper, Thobile when I got up this morning.
"I work here," she said, as if she was talking to a not-very-bright child..
"Not today you don't. Go away! Go home!"
Ok, I admit it: I was feeling seriously lousy. I had a lot of work on my plate and was feeling a bit stressed. But she looked flushed (like she had a fever) and was coughing hard enough for bits of her lungs to fly out through her mouth.
"It seems we were right yesterday and you do have a cold. So why are you here? Why aren't you home nursing that thing? I love you, but not enough to want to share whatever germs you've got!"
Apparently she came because there were things she thought couldn't wait. I argued that the house was tidy, I had clean clothes and she could take the laptop home to do some transcription work at home in bed if she absolutely had to do something. But that would not be done at my house.
I have another friend from out of town visiting, so when she heard our "discussion," she offered to take Thobile home.
"And drink some ginger tea, Ms Grumpy! I'm sure that will make you feel better," Thobile said when she left.
Honestly though, I don't know what I would do without Thobile. She runs my life and makes sure that all I have to do is focus on my work and family and friends and the house is always tidy, laundry is done and somehow, she discoevered where socks go to hide from their partners, so I always have socks that match when I need them in winter.
The tea did soothe me a little, but my friend came back home via the local bakery, with some very sweet, delicious cupcakes. Not very healthy, but I needed the sugar rush.
So I'm going to spend the day shut in my office finalising some production schedules and book plans and doing some research. 

So, how's your day going? And what's your take on the issue of going to work even when you're sick, especially when what you have is contagious? Is it better to go to work because work waits for no man and a cold doesn't kill anyone, or should the patient stay at home to avoid infecting colleagues and friends  and maybe even affecting the productivity of the rest of the staff?

A good start to a week

Woke up to an email from the Independent Online Travel notifying me that Pam's article, Boston or burst, was live online. The piece relates part of her journey while she was visiting family in the US. Check it out.

I also received an email from one of the writers I'm working with on the client publishing project, sending me the full manuscript of his next book. Gosh, I love this author! He knows what he's supposed to do and does it with no muss or fuss. Of course it means my work has doubled, as I now need to oversee the manuscript review and editorial process, make sure artwork briefs are clear etc before submitting to the client. But he has done a big chunk of the work. The writer was in town, so we met for coffee this self-same morning, which was lovely.

Cooked a huge meal to send to my family in Phokeng. My nephew came over last night and I like to cook and send stuff over for them when I can. Not that they need the food, but it's nice to feel I can nurture them, especially my mother, even a little bit and they do appreciate it. Also picked some vegetables from my garden to send over. There's irony (?)there cause the city girl is sending vegetables from her garden to her family in the rural areas. Isn't it supposed to be the other way round? Nevermind.. it works for us.

Anyhoo, the week promises to be busy in a good way. How's your week like?

Thank God It's Friday!

1. I started the morning drinking another 440ml of Play. Yes I know the caffeine content on that thing is scary and I should find another way to boost my energy levels. But it works and for now, so it'll do.
2. Sometimes it's nice to work with company in my home office. There's someone to bounce ideas against and just having another person working nearby is enough to motivate me to stay on the chair. Thanks for the company, Christelle.
3. The opening ceremony of the Rugby World Cup 2011 was great. I'm not a big rugby fan but I've watched a few games. And then there's the patriotic element.
4. I have a big editorial meeting first thing on Monday morning. So I'm going to spend a portion of the weekend going through the material so I'm well-prepared.

Have a good weekend!

Buzzing brain and falling tree

I woke up to an email from the Independent Online Travel accepted two travel articles Pam wrote about her trip through London and Boston. Really great tonic. I'm not sure when the articles will be published but I'll provide the links when they go live.

This morning I was also feeling a bit tired, so I drank a can of Playa. Not very healthy move, but my body is now buzzing with energy and caffeine, which I needed. Must have also got my poor fried brain moving because the words have been flowing endlessly since and my fingers can barely keep up typing the words as the story ( in the UNNAMED WIP) unfolds.

Pam came over to my house for lunch ( she doesn't work too far) and he brought me my complimentary copies of Starting Yur Own Business (12 edition, Oxford University Press, published August 2011), which she edited and co-wrote with Barrie Terblanche and Guy Macleod. Of course I was most interested in the case study about my company, Damaria Senne Media. If you buy the book ( available at most Exclusive Books and Kalahari, among others), check out page 272. That's where my case study begins.

Sticking to the facts

For the past couple of months I've been struggling with a project. I was editing something and the content and structure of the document were not compatible with what it was supposed to be. 

The problem was, I started out from the viewpoint that the writer was right (because he's very experienced) and since I was the newbie on the block, I was the one who was making some kind of mistake. I felt like I was in that nightmare class where my lecturer tell the class 2 + 2 = 6 and all the students in class agree with him. And instead of challenging the lecturer's premise, I battled with my math problem trying to find out why my answer did not fit.

Anyhoo, today I decided to start working on the project from scratch and examining the facts only. It was such a relief to see everything fall into place! I should have done this much earlier instead of trying to make something that was broken look okay.

Question: How do you deal with situations where someone whose opinion you respect is wrong? Are you quick to examine the facts and let them speak for themselves, or are you like me, sometimes stuck on the fact that the source is credible and therefore, you must be the one making the mistake somewhere?

The art of negotiation

Spring Fair on Sunday was fabulous. My stall, which specialised with romance novels only ( I was selling my romance novel collection from childhood, so it was A LOT of books,) was set up by 08h30 in the morning, though the fair was only scheduled to start at 09h30.

So I was able to get business from some early birds, which helped put me in a positive mood. Business was brisk for the rest of the day and I got to hang out with friends attending the fair, make some new friends, chat about books and make good money. Here are some of the things I learnt from selling books at the Spring Fair:

1. Romance novels are still as popular as ever - Yes, there were people who wrinkled their noses when they realised I only carried romance novels. And I did have a big sign stating that so that those who weren't interested in that genre shouldn't even bother stopping.  did. But those who stopped to look bought lots of books. For the most part, they knew what authors they liked and some had author collections and were looking to fill some gaps.

2. Hard-selling was not necessary. Most of the customers loved talking about books, so we had lots to chat about and I didn't actually have to sell to them: either I had what they wanted to buy or I didn't. Also, their decision to buy was based more on how many books the money they had could get them, rather than trying to get as cheap a price as possible for a book.

3. Lotsa men buy romance novels. Many said it was for their wives or girlfriends. But I did wonder if they also read them?

4. I learnt a harsh lesson about the art of negotiation. I had a couple of second-hand book store owners stop at my stall. One was very friendly and probably just checking out the competition. The other one, who was with his wife and some friends, I'm not so sure about. At first we joked and laughed and they looked at my books and selected what they wanted. He wanted me to give him a flat price without my actually adding up the original prices of the books. I was very friendly then because I thought he was still joking around. Eventually I got the books from him, and the price he was asking was not even the value of one book ( he was taking 4).

So I said a friendly no and informed him I would be happy to give him a 50% discount. Which is very substantial. But he insisted on his own figure. Eventually he said he's walk away unless I gave him the price he was asking for. I told him that the books were mine to sell or keep and I was under no pressure to sell to him. So he put the books down, took for 5 more books ( from the el cheapo basket) and insisted I give him the 50% discount which I'd initially offered (the original books were excellent quality and from the more expensive portion of my collection. Hence my willingness to negotiate.)

By then I was so disenchanted with him I gave him the 50% discount so he'd just go. Losing R10 to him was no great loss to me. He's what I learnt from negotiation from this man and his wife ( who condescendingly offered me "free advice" and told me my books were not good quality, were dirty and I should price them at less than half the price they were): it's great to bargain for the lowest price you can get, but don't push the seller so much that they feel you look down on them/you're trying to cheat them/they'll end up feeling that they got the slimy end of the bargain. Push enough to get a good price, but still leave them happy with the deal. Because if the seller feels like you're trying to take advantage, negotiations end.

In the case of the bookseller, I decided to take my chances with the romance readers, who interestingly enough, were happy to pay my prices and to call their friends and even mothers in laws and sisters in law to invite them to my stall.

The bookseller also invited me to bring more of my romance novels to his store, which I didn't know about, to sell to him. Not a chance! Better yet, I'm not even going to be buying from that store, or telling my friends about it, because if the way he tried to negotiate with me is any indication, he's not someone I want to do business with.

I think this very same negotiation principle applies to my writing work as well. I'll negotiate my writing fee with a client so that they get the best possible price and I get enough value for my work. But I will not allow myself to be bludgeoned into slave wages. And if the prospective client can get the quality of work they need from someone who is prepared to take the slave wages, then I wish them all the best.

So how's the week so far? What do you hope to accomplish?

National Book Week Starts Today

By Pamela Moeng

National Book Week will run from 05 to 10 September. According to the Sunday Independent, we can thank the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) and the Department of Arts and Culture for the joint initiative.

Yesterday's article claims that only 14% of the population read books and only 5% read to their children. For me that statistic is like saying only 14% of the population breathe. As a five-year-old child, I loved when my mother read my Little Golden Books to me and I couldn't wait to get big enough to decipher those magical black marks on paper to discover the stories beneath them. When I finally did learn to read - see Dick and Jane run, run, Dick and Jane, run - I read everything I could get my hands on, including cereal boxes, toothpaste tubes and the books and children's magazines my parents provided.

As a mother, I have read to all my children and, just like my parents before me, I made sure our home was full of books. I continue to be a voracious reader and if I have a book I don't mind the wait in doctors' rooms or any queue. This year's theme of SA Book Week is "The Book That Changed My Life". How could I possibly choose one out of so many "old friends" - from Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Five Little Peppers and How They Grew and the Bobbsey Twins to Wuthering Heights, the Red Badge of Courage, As I Lay Dying, the Colour Purple, the Old Man and the Sea and so many others?

Government has appointed Simphiwe Dana and Azania Ndoro as ambassadors for the week and activities will happen around the country with no entry free. Did I become a writer because I loved reading or did I love reading because I was born a writer is a question with no answer.

One thing I know for sure, reading was an escape from my narrow world and a highway to a wider world. Books helped me develop mentally, emotionally and spiritually and I see them as the key to a treasure trove of precious gems. Some say the book as we've known it - between two covers in traditional print form that you hold and turn pages - is dead or dying, I say books are merely the vessels that hold the stories. The vessel may change shape, form or material but the stories will be with us forever. They are how we make sense of ourselves and the world around us, they give meaning to our existence and help us create meaning.

 I hope many more parents than the 14% who read books and the 5% who read to their children take advantage of National Book Week to begin a new habit of reading and a new family tradition of reading to their children. Viva books viva! Viva National Book Week viva!

A week of ups and downs

It's been an emotionally tough week, with lots of ups and downs.
1. Computer went funny and started using up more bandwidth than I'm used to. Some of the projects I've worked on in the past have involved videos and high resolution pictures, so I have a pretty good idea of my consumption rates. Turned out I had a lot of automatic software updates (thumbs down to Microsoft).
2. Was invited to bid on a web site project. Gave potential client a very reasonable price but was undercut by someone who asked for less than 50% of my bid price and potential client went with that bid. It shook my confidence a bit because I wondered if I've turned into an over-priced prima donna. After chatting with Pam, I realised that my pricing structure is actually middle of the road for the client base I'm trying to attract. I'm not sure how the service provider my client went with can afford to build a web site and online store for the price he asked for, but I wish everyone best luck.
3. Several old clients got back in touch and two offered immediate assignments on the same day as event 2. Kinda wiped my tears very quickly and reminded me that things happen for a reason.
4. Emailed publisher to take back a manuscriptthey accepted. That was hard, because publisher made an email offer but then the whole process got stuck in bureacracy ( I think) and they stopped communicating. Starting from scratch to shop a manuscript makes me nervous but we can't wait forever when publisher doesn't communicate.
5. Baby's coming to visit this coming weekend. I'm soo looking forward to seeing her!
6. Learnt to use blogger's new interface. It looks nice, but change means spending more time on a task I didn't initially budget for.
7. Spring Day celebration is on Sunday and I spent some this week clearing out my romance novel bookshelves, deciding on what books to sell and pricing them. Will finish the bulk of the work tomorrow.

When New Brooms Come On Board

Today I got a call from an old client I like, wanting information about a project I worked on approximately 2 years ago. The person who contacted me was not my old liaison contact; just someone I was aware of in the project but I didn't have anything to do with him directly. I was able to fill in the blanks he had about the project and how it ended, and what my recommendations were at the time.

I hope that they plan to resurrect the project. And if they do, I hope that they will invite me to work on it again.

This is one of the projects that touched me personally. Yes, I liked the people and the money and the actual doing of the project was also fulfilling. But there are certain projects that you want to be involved with because they mean something to you personally/ creatively and this is one of them.

The call reminded me of a very important lesson: unless the parting with the client is less than amicable and you don't want to ever have anything to do with him/her, keep enough information in your files to remain knowledgeable about your client and his/her agenda.

I've found that sometimes when employees move on, the people who take over don't get as much information as they need. If such a thing happens, fill the new guy in on what has previously happened (in my case it was my final reports on the project, our contract and dateline of events. )

Of course you do it in such a way that the new contact understands that you respect that they will want their mark on the project and do some things differently. But if you position yourself as a helpful resource who has institutional memory, a liaison person who doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable to his new colleagues will appreciate it. And you may very well land yourself new assignments from it.

[P.S. I am aware that sometimes the new broom is so set on sweeping the whole department clean they may even throw out the good things about the project. Good things like you.In that case, walk away. It's their loss and they may learn too late that what you know could have saved them time and money.]

Question: What's your experience with people who have taken over projects that you worked on? Did they treat you like the resource you are, or did they sweep you aside in their quest for "new and better?" Or maybe they expected you to stay on under conditions that were less favourable than before?