Friday 5 – The iBook Author App and agents as publishers.

By Laura

1. The iBook Author App has had me excited since it was announced. One author has already fooled around with it and loved it. And her book is on sale. Check out her thoughts on it.

2. Fortunately, I have a Mac.

3. Unfortunately, I need to upgrade to Lion. (30 dollars) (I can do that.)

4. Unfortunately, I don’t have an iPad and don’t know when I will. But I have connections and when the time is right I can borrow one to preview any iBooks. But honestly? My focus right now is self publishing my first book. I’m excited to learn coding (the nerd in me). My computer teacher from high school would faint because I could not program at all. The kind boy next to me passed the class for me. But this feels different, a bit easier than C+.

So I’ll upgrade and experiment someday, it just won’t be right now. But sometimes it’s hard to shut off my brain. I’ve never been so inspired to write. (But that’s partly due to my decision to self publish too.)

5. And the ARR announced that agents as publishers is a conflict of interest! Kristin Nelson posted about it today. And in the future she will talk about her agency’s model, which has been approved!

My kids are home today because of icy roads. I’m signing off for the morning to get some writing in and them help them with at-home school work so we don’t have to make up this day at the end of the year! I’ll be visiting everyone later! Have a good one!

Posted in Friday 5 on January 27, 2012 – 11:50 am | Comments (17)
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Book buzz, cover design, and a confession.

By Laura

Looking back on my past year of reading, I’ve come to some decisions.

I will no longer buy a book based on book buzz and cover design. This will be hard. But I will wait.

Too many times this year I just had to, I mean just had to read certain books. The premise interested me. The book had a rockin’ cover. The kind you want to hold next to you and stroke the pretty picture on and off during the day. And the book got major buzz. Call me a sucker.

Okay, sometimes this paid off. Most recently I bought these three books for the previously mentioned reasons and it paid off. I loved them!

Sadly, there were several books I purchased for previously mentioned reasons and they disappointed. I shoulda waited. I shoulda read the reviews because it turns out I wasn’t the only one who had certain issues with them. I shoulda gone with my gut when I read the first page and didn’t get that confirmation of insta-love.

That’s not to say these books were badly written or weren’t entertaining. I finished them.

On the other hand, I will be willing to try books that have a terrible cover. As in at least read the first chapter, especially if it’s at my library!

Because I almost missed out on this incredible book.

(Seriously? Is that the best cover they could come up with?)

And, okay, here’s my confession. I’ve had this one arc for a few months. I didn’t even read the first page because the cover was so unappealing and I didn’t get the title at all. When I finally opened it, I didn’t make it past the first page. It wasn’t the book. It was me. It’s the kind of book I need to give more than a page. But sometimes I end up loving those kinds of books.

Can you guess which book I’ve shrugged off for months?

Yeah, that’s right. I feel like such a schmuck.

Posted in Writing on January 25, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (30)
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How to bring emotion to your plot. (Plot Busters)

By Laura

In Act II there is something that Blake Snyder refers to as the B story (or basically the subplot).

And this is where you bring in the emotion, the personal stakes.

I figured with a humorous mystery like I SO DON’T DO SPOOKY that the emotion might be on the weak side. With the focus being on the mystery.

Boy was I wrong.

Barrie Summy does an incredible job balancing the main storyline or the Fun and Games of the first part of Act II with the B story.

In other words, the mystery is there but we connect to Sherry when we realize how much she misses her mother, which makes us care more about the mystery.

The emotion of the B story provides the motivation for the character to solve the mystery.

Below is a one-sentence break down of Act II

Break into two: (protagonist must make a proactive decision)

Sherry and her best friend, Junie, make a plan to follow leads.

B story: (the love story – not always romantic)

Sherry misses her mom (who is a ghost) and wants to earn some “real time” with her by solving the mystery.

Fun and Games: (the heart of the book – why we read it)

Sherry investigates and follows clue after clue – some of them leading to a dead end, but others set up the midpoint and climax.

Midpoint: (stakes are raised significantly – another big game changer)

In her undercover work, Sherry is found out and dropped off in the middle of a desert where she learns that the Ruler’s stalker is a ghost!

Bad guys close in: (Things get worse.)

Sherry goes ghost hunting with a “real” ghost hunter and learns how to catch a ghost and she learns who the ghost might be.

All is lost and Dark night of the soul:

The mystery continues and more truths are revealed but I didn’t find a true dark moment where Sherry feels all is lost. She does feel the stress of time running out, but that’s not quite the same thing.

And this ends Act II.  So without that dark moment how did I know where Act III started? With an obvious Break into three. But that’s next Monday.

How do you add emotion to your main storyline so it works? Share your tips.

Posted in Plotting a novel on January 23, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (15)
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Will the new Apple author app revolutionize education? (Or not.)

By Laura

Over Christmas I chatted with an extended family member about iPads. Her job is to work with teachers and help them transition to a new teaching model. Of course, using enhanced textbooks on the iPad.

The mission isn’t for each child to have an iPad. But one tablet per 3-4 kids. The iPad would be a station. The other rotations would include other modes of teaching – hands on, writing…etc.

I tried to hide my doubt at this concept. Computers were supposed to revolutionize teaching too. But did it happen?

No.

Where I live, each classroom has 2-3 computers – Macs of course. From what I can see – and it might be different where you live – computers in the elementary classrooms are used for the following reasons:

  • Advanced reader quizzes
  • Educational video games (Cool Math, Study Island…etc)
  • At times, a child might work on a simple Power Point project.

I believe many teachers are willing to embrace technology and new ways of teaching but change requires a big learning curve and a lot more work. It won’t happen overnight. Teachers? What do you think?

Then Apple comes out with this new author app. It sounds incredible! Yes, I’m excited, drooling, anticipating the chance to create cool stuff.

The focus is on education. But this app gives authors the opportunity to create enhanced ebooks. Just think what nonfiction authors could do with this? Teachers? Travel writers who have video and photos?

There are some bottom line issues that are confusing. Distribution issues. We’ll see how that plays out.

I don’t know what will happen in the future. Will this really revolutionize education? (Honestly, I’m way more excited for what this app means to authors!)

What do you think?

If you want to know what people are up in arms about check out the Passive Guy’s post on it. People don’t fully understand the terms. I think that once you create the file, you can only sell that enhanced ebook through iBooks. But you can use the text and sell your book with other retailers – just not the enhanced version. But I could be wrong.

Posted in publishing industry on January 20, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (19)
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Contests, workshops, and news galore! Have you heard?

By Laura

I love seeing the burst of creativity that is exploding on the Internet from writers I’ve known for the past couple years and ones I’ve recently met.

It’s awesome!

First, we have a writers’ chat tonight (Wednesday) on the Indelibles blog. It’s not on Twitter. Most of the Indelibles’ authors will be there to answer questions on indie and self-publishing. Just lurk or come with your questions.

Second, Addison Moore signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox! They plan to make her Celestrial Series into a T.V. series. Huge news! I’m so incredibly happy for her and even though she’s eaten sushi to celebrate – I’m just doing dancing to celebrate! Ew. Raw fish.

In the anthology arena, not only do we have IN HIS EYES being prepped for our Valentine’s Day release but Pugalicious Press is open to submissions for a YA anthology. Check them out!

In the way of online workshops there are some incredible ones coming up. Ali Cross is holding NinoCon on Saturday Feb. 4th. She’s accepting queries now to be critiqued by one of the presenters, Elana Johnson!

Susan Sipal, known for her love for Harry Potter and analyzing the writing behind it, is offering a month long workshop for 10 dollars based on her book: A Writer’s Guide to Harry Potter. I’m sure you won’t regret it! The adventure begins on Monday, Feb. 6th! Sign up now.

Don’t miss out on The Bookshelf Muse and their anniversary contest! Critiques and books from the Indelibles! Don’t miss it.

Okay, I’m almost done with the good news. Many of the Indelibles have books fresh off the press!

Rival Demons by Sarra Cannon is released Friday the 20th but it starts with Beautiful Demons. If you love the HEX HALL series, you’ll love this one too.

Michelle Muto’s DON’T FEAR THE REAPER

Karly Kirkpatrick’s  THE GREEN.

Lots of great stuff here. Hope you find something useful! Anything I missed? Add it into the comments!

Posted in publishing industry on January 18, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (24)
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I SO DON’T DO SPOOKY – Act I breakdown.

By Laura

Welcome to Plot Busters and the story structure breakdown series of this terrific middle grade mystery.

Act I:

Opening Image: (before snapshot of the protagonist’s life)

Sherry is getting ready for school, and the Ruler asks for Sherry’s help to find her missing car keys. We see Sherry’s poor attitude, learn about her boyfriend, her family; and because it’s the third book in the series, we already know a bit about her.

Theme stated: (What is the story really about?)

Not finding a specific statement, the theme was obvious as I read it. It’s about family and self-sacrifice.

Set-up:

For me, there is less flexibility with structure when it comes to mysteries. Early on, the mystery needs to be introduced, clues planted, and the detective introduced, who has motivation to solve the mystery. I SO DON’T DO SPOOKY has all of that.

Hero:

Sherry, a middle schooler, with emotional lessons to learn, takes on any challenge with spunk and fight.

Goals:

Outer: Sherry and her mom must figure out who is stalking the Ruler.

Inner: Sherry must be more respectful to the Ruler while solving the case, or she won’t be allowed to work with her mom anymore.

Stakes:

For sherry, it’s all about spending time with her mom, but evolves into saving her step mom. For a middle schooler those are high stakes.

Six things that need fixing: (or the plants in the plant and pay-off concept)

1. Sherry does not respect her stepmother.

2. Someone is hiding the Ruler’s stuff in the house and the Ruler blames Sherry.

3. Sherry misses her mom.

4. Someone is stalking the Ruler.

Okay, so it’s not always six.

Catalyst:

In chapter one, someone is playing pranks on Sherry’s stepmother and Sherry is getting blamed. Call it a clue or the inciting incident. But everyday life has changed. The question is – what is Sherry going to do about it?

Debate: (asks some kind of question of the main character)

Is Sherry going to help her stepmother or continue to be disrespectful?

In chapter 4, the real mystery is stated. Sherry meets with her mom and her mom’s counselor. Together, they are given the mission to protect the ruler and find her stalker. With one rule – Sherry must show respect to the Ruler.

She might not have come to that conclusion on her own, but what middle schooler would?

The debate section in this story isn’t huge. Honestly, I think the question of how Sherry treats the Ruler is more a part of the character arc than the debate. What do you think?

And with the introduction of the official mystery, Act I ends.

Do you have all these elements in your Act I? Or do you not even pay attention to that sort of thing?

Posted in Plotting a novel on January 16, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (15)
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And the winners are…. (And some thoughts on blogging.)

By Laura

Wow! What a week. I had a ton of fun working my way through the blog hop and getting to know my fellow Indelible authors a little better.

Welcome to all the new followers on the blog, twitter, and through readers! And a big thank you to everyone who posted on their blogs and tweeted and supported us.

And now onto the winners!

The winner of THE LIAR SOCIETY is Denise Z.!

The winner of an Indelibles author’s ebook is Susan @ the Book Bag!

And if you haven’t checked the Indelibles blog, Chris Fenimore won the Kindle Fire. Yay!

And now let’s talk about blog reading trends. And you.

What makes you click through?

Are there certain hot topics that seem to take up most of your blog reading time?

I definitely read the blogs in my feed even if I don’t comment on them. But when I’m scanning Twitter, I go through phases.

At one point, I was reading all about query letters. Trust me, I don’t need to read another one as long as I live. There cannot be new info on those things that I don’t already know. (Now knowing and applying are completely different things.)

I’ve been through the story structure phase; and, of course, the result of all I learned and how I learned to apply it to my writing came out on the blog in the form of Plot Busters.

Last spring and summer, I was reading all about the pros and cons of traditional publishing and self-publishing and agents becoming publishers. I was fascinated! And that all came out on the blog this past summer.

So much is changing.

So much has changed.

But in a lot of ways, some aspects of writing have stayed the same.

Most recently, I’ve been reading about formatting, coding, and HTML. Oh and throw in marketing and promoting for good measure.

What about you? What have you been reading and does it influence what you blog about?

Posted in social media on January 13, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (24)
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Indelibles on FIRE!

By Laura

Winner of the Kindle Fire will be announced soon at the Indelibles blog.Contestants are being verified.

And the winner of THE LIAR SOCIETY by Lisa and Laura Roecker will be announced tomorrow!

Welcome to the Indelibles blog hop!

Marketing guru Shelli Johannes Wells has teamed up with twenty-four other indie and small press authors to brings you the Indelibles. (Yes, I’m one of them!)

Each week we’ll explore fun, fabulous, and fierce topics for today’s teens, drawing on pop culture and themes from the books we write. We’ll also be having a “blogger” chat and a writer/author chat to answer questions about self and indie pubbing. Details coming soon.

In celebration of our official launch, we are giving away a KINDLE FIRE! Woo hoo! Start at the Indelible writers blog. The contest runs from 12:01 a.m. Monday to 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

If you are mid-hop, then welcome to your next stop! By following the link at the bottom of this post, you can proceed to the next author (and check out the awesome, individual giveaways we are doing along the way!) If you are entering to win the KINDLE FIRE, don’t forget to make a note of the keyword at the end of every blog post – the words spell out a phrase you will need to enter the contest on the last stop.

And now a little bit about me.

Laura Pauling writes Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction where the real and the incredible combine for heart stopping and often root beer snorting adventures.

She lives her cover of suburban mom/author perfectly, from the minivan to the home-baked snickerdoodles, while hiding her secret missions and covert operations from the real world.

And her kids wonder what she does all day while they’re at school; or why on Monday mornings she’s a bit grumpy.

Living the life of a secret agent isn’t easy, but someone has to do it. But shh – don’t expose the truth to her friends and family.

This may or may not be what she really looks like.
And she may or may not actually bake cookies.

You decide.

Her debut YA novel will release in spring of 2012.

A SPY LIKE ME is a cat and mouse adventure full of spies, a nefarious pastry chef, and a completely innocent teen girl. Well, not completely innocent.

From the top of the Eiffel to the depths of the catacombs, Savvy Bent must sneak, deceive, and spy to save her family and friends and figure out whether Malcolm is one of the bad guys before she completely falls for him.

Check it out on Goodreads!
Connect with Laura on Twitter!

Wait! Did I forget something? Oh, yes. My giveaway. My SURPRISE giveaway open to the U.S. and Canada. Want some clues? Okay, fine. Paperback. Published in 2011. Young adult. Hilarious. pink hair. All you have to do is comment. Feel free to take a guess. Every day I’ll add a new clue until the contest is over Thursday at 12:01 a.m. You only have to comment once.

A second winner can choose an ebook from one of the Indelible authors! (You’ve got some majorly awesome choices!)

If you’d like to follow me, or tweet about this, or mark A SPY LIKE ME  as to read on Goodreads that would be awesome!

The word for the blog hop is: WRITERS

And don’t forget to click ahead to the next stop at the author of the incredible book, OPEN MINDS! Take a guess at who it is? Click here.

Good luck! And thanks a bunch for stopping by!

Posted in Random on January 8, 2012 – 8:53 pm | Comments (57)
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Plot Busters – I So Don’t Do Spooky – Is it high concept?

By Laura

Surprise! I’m giving you a dose of Plot Busters early. On Monday, myself and 24 other self published and indie published authors are launching The Indelibles blog. There will be chances to win a Kindle Fire and all our books in a blog hop. So be sure to check it out!

Now let’s move on to I So Don’t Do Spooky by Barrie Summy. I just love this series.

Logline: (from book) Thirteen-year-old Sherry helps her mother, a ghost, to investigate who is stalking Sherry’s stepmother, but Sherry is also very busy with school and friends, while her mother is also striving for a gold medal in the Ghostlympics.

Eh, this logline is just okay. I like my shorter version below.

Thirteen-year-old Sherry solves the mystery of who is stalking her stepmother to earn real time with her mother’s ghost.

High concept?

Let’s see. Ghosts, a mystery, high emotional stakes – I’d say yes. (I end up thinking that every book is high concept when the emotional stakes are high. So technically, this book might not be high concept. But that’s just semantics.)

1. Does the character offer the most conflict for the situation?

I love Sherry’s shopaholic, peppy personality. This is a mystery series and I love that we don’t have a noir detective, but a cute middle schooler who just wants to hang with her friends and boyfriend.

It’s not her personality or flaws that bring conflict to this mystery. It’s the fact that she wants to spend more time with her mom’s ghost. High emotional stakes.

2. Does she have the longest way to go emotionally?

In some ways, yes. Her dad has remarried one of Sherry’s teachers, who kids call the Ruler. And we can see from the first chapter, that Sherry is struggling accepting her as a mother figure.

3. Demographically pleasing?

I’d say yes. This is a perfect mix of contemporary with a bit of paranormal to make it fun. This story would appeal to middle schoolers and elementary age girls.

4. Is it primal?

Yes, definitely. Sherry misses her mom and longs to spend “real time” minutes with her. Without this emotional aspect, the story would not have carried the same level of impact.

If you’re wondering how to add emotional impact to your humorous middle grade or young adult story, look no further than this book. Summy does a masterful job. Lots to learn.

A week from Monday, we’ll cover Act I. So if you want to join in the fun and give Plot Busters a whirl, pick the book up at your library and break down Act I! We’ll compare notes. (Because really this is not my area of mavenness. I’m learning, just like you.)

Posted in Plotting a novel on January 6, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (13)
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2012 resolution – Become a maven. Of something.

By Laura

There’s something magical and alluring about certain words like….

Maven

Guru

Expert

So one of my goals for 2012 is to become a maven. It just sounds so sexy like I should be standing on the top of a cliff with the wind blowing my long raven tresses while I hold my book in my hands. (Or maybe I’m confusing maven with raven, who might’ve been the name of a character in a book I read at some point? Not sure.)

And certainly readers will line up to sign up for a newsletter or buy a book if one is a maven.

Right?

I mean a maven sounds so official like this person knows what they are talking about; hence one must buy all their books.

Makes total sense.

In fact, it’s a marketing or promotional strategy (I’m still trying to figure out the difference between the two) that I’m surprised more authors don’t take advantage of. Clearly that would shoot them up the NY Times bestseller list.

So, maven. What could I proclaim myself a maven of? And it probably should have the whole alliteration thing going too.

I can’t really say I’m a Marketing Maven; well, because I’m not. Though maybe just by saying it readers will believe me. That’s not very ethical and considering I write middle grade fiction along with YA, I’m naturally very moral.

How about Meatball Maven? I make a mean crock-pot of meatballs with almost little or no prep. But that doesn’t really fit into my brand. And meatball is an extremely small niche. I wonder if there is a Kindle list for: children’s literature – spy thrillers – humor – meatballs?

Hmm. Let’s see.

Marvel comics Maven? (My son loves comic books.)

Mailman Maven? (I know exactly when my mail person comes each day, especially when I’m expecting a book in the mail.)

Geez. This is hard.

Any suggestions? Are you a maven? Guru? Or expert? And how have you sufficiently incorporated that into your brand and your use of keywords, tags, and lists?

And there may or may not be meatballs in my short story, THE ALMOST ASSASSIN, in the In His Eyes Anthology. Not making any promises. You never know how lethal meatballs can be.

Posted in Writing, social media on January 4, 2012 – 10:00 am | Comments (32)
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