Authors Access » Historical Books

Tyler R. Tichelaar – Creating a Local Historical Book

Victor Volkman — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:33:21 +0000

Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with local historian, professional editor, and entrepreneur Tyler R. Tichelaar about the ins and outs of producing books on local history, from research to marketing and distribution. Tyler R. Tichelaar,a 7th generation Marquette resident, has written five novels with more to come, all set in Upper Michigan including The Marquette Trilogy, the award winning Narrow Lives, and the recently published history of Marquette, My Marquette: Explore the Queen City of the North, Its History, People, and Places. We covered a wide range of issues, including:

What made you decide to write a local history book?
What makes your book stand out from other local history books?
How did you arrange the book and decide what to leave out and what to include?
What was the most difficult part of the research and writing process?
Beyond the writing, what other decisions had to be made, such as in acquiring photographs or the layout of the book?
What have you done to market the book?
What kind of response have you received so far

Tyler R. Tichelaar

Tyler has a Ph.D. in Literature from Western Michigan University, and Bachelor and Master’s Degrees from Northern Michigan University. He has lectured on writing and literature at Clemson University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of London.

Tyler is the regular guest host of Authors Access Internet Radio and the President of the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association. He is the owner of Marquette Fiction and Superior Book Promotions, a professional book review, editing, and proofreading service. Besides writing about Upper Michigan, he is interested in the Arthurian legend and recently published King Arthur’s Children, a study of treatments of King Arthur’s children in literature from medieval times to twenty-first century novels. Tyler lives in Marquette, Michigan where the roar of Lake Superior, mountains of snow, and sandstone architecture inspire his writing.

My Marquette

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Irene Watson – Target Marketing for Fiction Writers: Why Some People Won’t Read Your Book

Victor Volkman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:56:41 +0000

On August 20th, 2009, Tyler R. Tichelaar and Victor R. Volkman spoke with book marketing guru Irene Watson on the importance of considering target reader personas in the book writing process. Irene is the owner of Reader Views, a full-service book reviewing and marketing agency in Austin, TX. Irene’s psychology background and constant study gives her the ability to understand people and how they think, live, and for today’s interview, how they read. Some of the things we considered:

Importance of knowing your target market before writing your book
Understanding reading preferences, temperments and personalities of potential readers
Creating a profile of the potential readers/target market
Fully understanding why some readers like your book and others don’t.

Irene’s career took her from career counseling, to business ownership, to working for a police force, to psychosynthesis counseling, to teaching at a college, to retreat/seminar/workshop design and facilitation to her most recent – owning/managing Reader Views and its branches. She obtained her B.S. in psychology at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX and her M. A. in psychology from Regis University in Denver, CO.After retiring in 2003 Irene authored an award winning memoir, The Sitting Swing, which was originally published in 2005. Having a hard time getting reviews for her book, she started Reader Views on a whim. Within a month it exploded to a full time business. So much for retirement! Since then she has pioneered many other innovative marketing sites including Inside Scoop Live, ReviewThe Book, BloggingAuthors, and many other services from press release writing to book videos to an international award contest now entering its 4th year.

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Patricka Vaughn – How to Write Your Own Story

Victor Volkman — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:44:47 +0000

On August 6th, 2009 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with writing and publishing guru Patricka Vaughn about how to get started in your memoir/autobiography or biography of a loved one. Patrika Vaughn, world’s leading Author’s Advocate, is the CEO of A Cappela Publishing. She has taught memoir writing from Florida to Finland and is here to tell you how to do it. She addressed many key issues including

Why should you write your life story?
What do you need before you begin?
What are the forms a life story can take?
How do you get started?
How do you make your story interesting to others?
How do you turn your story into a book?

Spanning a 25-year career as a writer, editor, publisher, lecturer, author and literary agent, Patrika Vaughn understands the written word and how to market it. She is also armed with an arsenal of tools to propel the works of aspiring writers quickly through today’s prohibitive publishing arena and into the hands of readers. Her 25 years of experience include every aspect of the trade:

Professional Writer: Columnist and feature writer. Articles published in more than 100 national journals and magazines. Author of books, audio books and ebooks. (see www.acappela.com)
Ghostwriter: Books of both fact and fiction for industrialists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists, world travelers and international executives
Editor: Editor for national trade and consumer publications
Publisher: President of A Cappela Publishing
Literary Agent: Placed writers with Prentice-Hall (Simon & Schuster), McGraw Hill Publications, Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, Cahners Publications, Conover Mast Publications, Advisory Enterprises, Inc., Larkin Publications and others.
Public Relations & Marketing Consultant: To business, industry and non-profit corporations; former media coordinator for Habitat for Humanity in San Diego / Tijuana
Lecturer, Seminar leader, On-line instructor: Adult education plus university and community college level presentations.

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Lila Guzman, PhD – Successful Writing in the Children’s Market

Victor Volkman — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:18:58 +0000

On Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 8PM EDT we spoke with award-winning children’s book author Lila Guzman of lilaguzman.com. She shared with us valuable tips and techniques on how to break into this popular market including: the ideal length of a book, managing the vocabulary, plot tips and twists, marketing ideas, appropriate subject matter and genres, and historical books (a particular area of her own success).

Lila Guzman is a former language instructor who earned her PhD in Spanish literature from the University of Kentucky. She has gone on to teach at the US Navy’s Defense Language Institute to train other teachers there. She has collaborated with her husband, Rick Guzman, to create a groundbreaking series of historical novels for children. It all stems from Rick’s discovery that the Spanish were involved in the American Revolution as early as 1776 but their contribution is often overlooked in history books. And so the award-winning Lorenzo Series of books was born!

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