I’m energized.  Just went to a Spring into Publication workshop presented by the Redwood Writers Branch of the California Writers Club.  A great day with talks about editing, revising, critiquing, how your books gets published, a panel on self-publishing do’s an don’t’s, and insights on How to Pitch to Publish or Sell Your Book.

First-Last Cliches:

Better Late than Never–Rationalization of tardiness.  Traced to Greek and Latin writers, including historian Livy, appears in several early English proverb collections.  Full proverb: “Better late than never, but better never late.”

New Lease on Life–Renewed health & vigor; a fresh start, or opportunity for improvement.  Alludes to a new rental agreement dating from early 19th century.  Sir Walter Scott used it in a letter of 1809 re an invalid friend who was improving.  By mid-19th cent. use as a kind of fresh start.

Cast a Pall upon–To spread gloom.  Pall=cloth or cloak thrown over a coffin.  By 18th century term referred to a spiritual darkness. (“By this dark Pall thrown o’er the silent world,” Edward Young, Nightly Thoughts, 1742).

Throw in the Towel–Acknowledge defeat; give up.  J. C. Hotten’s Slang Dictionary of 1860: term comes from prizefighting, where throwing up the sponge used to clean the contender’s face was a signal that the “mill,” or round, was concluded.  Hotten was wrong: the sponge (or later towel) more often was thrown up as a signal of defeat, and expression was used to other enterprises.

I’m sure you’re all ears to hear about my experience yesterday at the publication workshop. I learned about: editing, revising, and critiquing; if you really want to be published, getting some sort of editor is a key; and the differences among revision or critique groups, developmental editor or content editor, copy editing, and proofreading.

It did my heart good to learn about how one author went through the publication process and gave us some insights on presenting your manuscript and what to look out for.

The Panel on Self-Publishing consisted of five published Redwood Writers–, and JoAnne Rosen, a book designer. Their explanations on how they self-published, pitfalls and good experiences and what the finished product looks like was very informative. JoAnne gave us a handout on the differences among LuLu, CreateSpace, and Lightning Source. One of the authors gave us a detailed report on her self-publishing process.  A lot to go through, but she’s now awaiting her first published book, proving that your dream can be realized.

And last but not least, the afternoon session with Charlotte Cook and Jon James Miller was mainly about How to Pitch to Publish or Sell Your Book. They explained what you need to tell about the book and yourself. Six attendees were able to give a pitch and were critiqued in front of everyone, so we all learned mainly not to tell the story step by step, but give  a general idea of the context. Unfortunately they ran out of time, but briefly discussed the manuscript.  Check Charlotte and Jon out at www.adaptingsideways.com.

Several books were recommended regarding Self-Publishing: The Well Fed Self Publisher by Peter Bowerman, other authors to read are Dan Poynter, Reiss, and going to Yahoo Self Publishing group with Peter Masterson.

I’m energized and raring to go!  Time to get my 4 finished novels out there and continue writing on my other two.

Until next time,

Keep Writing,

Julie