Hi everyone,

Well I didn’t make a post last week, but I’m here today.

First, things first:

Last Cliches:

Politically Correct – Avoid speaking or behaving in a way that would offend anyone’s sensibilities concerning race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic levels, or politics.  Latter 20th century, well-known to be abbreviated P.C. – used in 1793 by J. Wilson in the U.S. House of Representatives: “‘The United States,’ instead of the ‘People of the United States,” is the toast given. This is not politically correct” (cited by the OED).  Presumably Mr. Wilson here was referring to precision in political language.  Current meaning of the phrase did not surface until the mid-1900s and was a cliche by the 1990s.

Even as we speak – At this moment, right now.  An oral equivalent of at this juncture.  Sorry, no date on this one.

A sure thing – An absolute certainty.  Dates from the 1st half of 19th century; origianlly alluded to a bet one could not lose.  Jane Smiley used it in her racetrack novel, Horse Heaven (2000): “‘Curtis, you’ve been around the racetrack for 25 years or more.  Don’t you kow that the only sure thing is that a sure thing is never a sure thing?'”  Without the article, sure thing also is a reply that means “yes,” or “certainly.”  Dates from the late 1800s.

Sunday I went to my Redwood Writers’ Meeting where we have a business meeting first hour and the second hour we have a speaker.  Sunday was Patricia V. Davis who wrote Harlot Sauce.  Her topic was: So, How’s Your Book Doing? and she explained ins and outs of publishing and networking.  She reviewed: What’s the most important thing to do first, immediately after completing your manuscript, if hope to get published?; Your platform/brand and how to find specific audience; and covered a bit about working with agents, publishers and talked about Reviews and Blurbs.

Patricia opened our eyes so we could get real.  Do you know you might only make $1.00 per book?  And you should be happy with that.

She also talked about commenting on other blogs.  It’s nice to comment on friends and other writers, but what we really need to do is find your target audience, research on-line that audience and find the blogs where they visit and read those and make a few comments on them.  People will start to notice your name and then click on your blog site to see what you’re up to.  If you’ve done your homework correctly, they will see that your book is about what they are interested in, and perhaps buy it.  Hooray!  Down the road, these comments should generate you more interest than just coming outright and saying:  I have this book to sell.

So comment on blogs and get your name out there.  Thank you, Patricia V. Davis for all your insightful knowledge and enthusiasm.

Oh, what should you do first when you complete your manuscript?  Get an editor to look it over to make sure all is correct!  How did she bring that point across?  You have a new baby (she carried a doll around) and you want to show it off because it’s so beautiful.  She found an editor in the audience and showed it to the editor.  Great Laughter!  The baby had three eyes.  Now maybe she didn’t notice the baby had 3 eyes, but the editor sure did!

Keep Writing and Enjoy the Process!

Julie