Category Archives: Book Development - Page 5

Patrick Snow – Book Covers That Sell Books

Posted by Victor Volkman on October 12, 2007 No comments

On October 12th, 2007 Victor R. Volkman and Irene Watson spoke with Patrick Snow, bestselling author and book coach. Patrick is author of Creating Your Own Destiny: How to Get Exactly What You Want Out of Life which has sold over 125,000 copies since its first printing in July of 2001. He spoke with us about the crucial elements of cover design and what turns consumers on (or off) when looking at your book. We also talked about realistic amounts to spend on cover design and your role in promoting the book after its printed. Patrick also touched on effective generation of the title and subtitle and how important they are to your platform. He generously shared many real-life examples of books that he has helped shepherd into production.

For more than 20 years, he has studied the field of personal growth and development. Patrick’s “DESTINY” message has been recognized in major newspapers such as The New York Times, Denver Post, and the Chicago Sun Times. His book and photo were also featured on the cover story in the December 5, 2002, issue of USA Today. His message has also been featured on hundreds of radio stations throughout North America and Europe. Patrick has also been a TV guest on Seattle’s popular Northwest Afternoon.

Patrick has been in business-to-business and high-tech corporate sales for more than 15 years. During this time, he has been tracking layoffs and worker discontent. As a Business-Ownership Advocate, Patrick’s mission is to help others overcome their fears by turning their career distress into personal success, through business ownership.

Originally from Michigan, Patrick graduated from the University of Montana in 1991, and now lives in Seattle with his wife and children.

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Jacqueline Church Simonds – To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish

Posted by Victor Volkman on October 5, 2007 No comments

On October 4th, 2007 Victor Volkman and Irene Watson spoke with author and publisher Jacqueline Church Simonds. She is the co-owner of Beagle Bay, Inc., publishers of women’s adventure fiction, travel guides and self-help books. Jacqueline helped us navigate the dangerous waters of self-publishing including such tough topics as:

Do you have the skills needed or drive to acquire them?

Do you have the money to do justice to the book?

Do you have the temperament given the long odds of breaking even?

Who can help me?

Jacqueline’s company also offers small press distribution and book packaging services through their imprint of Creative Minds. She is the author of Captain Mary, Buccaneer, a pirate novel for adults, which was her first novel and the genesis of her company. She is also the creator of the New Self-Publisher’s FAQ and Jacqueline is one of the co-moderators of the SPAN Self-Publishing Discussion List otherwise known as Self-Publishing@Yahoo Groups.com

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Anya Achtenberg – Writing for Social change

Posted by Victor Volkman on September 21, 2007 No comments

On Thursday, Sept 20th, 2007 Tyler Tichelaar spoke with writer and advocate Anya Achtenberg about how to write with an eye for expressing the need for social change. Anya teaches Writing for Social Change: Re-Dream a Just World, a workshop for both new and experienced writers of poetry and prose, fiction and nonfiction to learn effective techniques for presenting social and political viewpoints. She shared with us her philosophy and practice of how to reframe our ideas about writing. Specifically how to write about what moves us from a standpoint that educates and argues for justice without becoming a screed or manifesto. Recognizing who you are and how what you have to say makes a difference in the world

Anya Achtenberg, an award-winning fiction writer as well as poet, has seen her recently completed novel, More Than the Wind, excerpted in Harvard Review, and her novella The Stories of Devil-Girl released on CD. Her second book of poetry, The Stone of Language, was published in 2004 by West End Press (Albuquerque) after being finalist in 5 poetry competitions. Her stories have received awards from Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope: All-Story, New Letters, the Asheville Fiction Writers Workshop, the Raymond Carver Story Contest, and others. Her first book of poetry, I Know What the Small Girl Knew, was published by Holy Cow! Press (MN). She is at work on a novel centering in the experience of a Cambodian woman born of an African American father at the moment the bombing of Cambodia by U.S. forces began.

She has taught creative writing widely, including at New York University, School of Visual Arts in NY, Springfield College Boston, Hamline University, the University of Minnesota’s Split Rock Arts Program, the University of New Mexico’s Honors Program, and their summer conference in Taos; for organizations such as The International Women’s Writing Guild—at their yearly conference at Skidmore, at Scandinavia House in Manhattan, at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Cottage in Hyde Park, NY, and at the Santa Fe Women’s Club; at the Center for Contemporary Arts and for Word Harvest in Santa Fe; The Leaven Center—for the bringing together of the political and the spiritual, in Michigan; The Loft in Minnesota; and with drop-out youth, working adults, and through residencies in Minnesota and New York City public schools. She spent years writing curriculum for young people in and out of the public schools.

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Bob Rich – Working with an Editor

Posted by Victor Volkman on September 14, 2007 No comments

On Thursday, Sept 13th, 2007 Victor R. Volkman and Tyler Tichelaar spoke with Bob Rich, a writer, editor, and psychologist living in Wombat Hollow, Australia. In addition to writing, He has been a professional editor since 1999, working his way through two books in a typical week. He has worked on everything from abstruse Ph.D. theses and graduate textbooks to children’s picture books, and all genres of fiction. Bob spoke to several key issues of editing including:

Why use an editor? Can’t I get my own work right?

Surely, if the content is good enough, it doesn’t matter if it is a bit rough in presentation?

Won’t the publisher have my book edited after acceptance? So why should I bother with all that grammar and spelling stuff?

Are there different kinds of editing? What are they?

Do you need specialized knowledge to be able to edit a non-fiction work?

Do you need to like a book in order to do a good job editing it?

How does editing differ from criticism?

What are the kinds of things you look for in a book?

How may my book be improved by having it edited by someone like you?

Bob’s services are used by several independent publishers, including Loving Healing Press. However, most of his work is from writers wanting to polish their work before submitting to an agent or publisher (or self-publishing), and comes to him through recommendation from happy clients. He does both line editing and content editing. What I like best is how he applies his deep knowledge and study of human psychology to each editing project.

Bob is the author of more than a dozen books on a wide range of topics including the “Earth Garden Building Book: Design and build your own house”, now in its 4th edition, “Woodworking for Idiots Like Me”, Cancer: A Personal Challenge, and many others. Four of them have won international awards.