Sword And A Flute – A Masterpiece Of Historical Fiction Book Japanese Language Book
Archive for June, 2010
Sword And A Flute – A Masterpiece Of Historical Fiction Book Japanese Language Book
Posted by admin on June 29th, 2010
Posted in Historical Fiction Books 
Tags: Book, Fiction, Flute, Historical, Japanese, Language, Masterpiece, Sword 
Comments OffWhat Really Happens When You Land A Book Deal: Publishing Myths And Realities You Need To Know
Posted by admin on June 29th, 2010
Myth: Once you hand over your manuscript, your book will be on bookstore shelves right away. Patience is essential when working with a traditional publisher. It takes most major publishers about a year to complete your book and put it into distribution. With the amount of red tape they have going on, the process takes much longer than most realize. Just don’t expect to see your book on shelves within a few months, as this is highly unlikely unless your book is rushed to market under special circumstances. Myth: Your book will be produced exactly as written. Each publisher has different editorial processes, guidelines and goals. Your developmental editor may want to rework sections of your book or ask you to add or even remove content. Though you will be involved in the editing process and asked to turn it all around quickly, you may or may not like the proposed changes and you may or may not have a voice in the ultimate outcome. Some book deals end up getting cancelled during the editing process when the author and publisher fail to agree on changes. Myth: You will have input on the cover design. Cover design is an area where you will probably have little input. The publisher will design something and may send it to you for review, but requests for changes are not likely to be met. This is a point in the process when you may have to accept that your work is no longer exclusively yours. Myth: Your book must be finished before you pitch it to a publisher. This is actually true for fiction books—publishers want to see the whole story before a deal is made. But nonfiction books are an exception. During the pitch process, most publishers want to see an outline and two or three sample chapters. If they like your work and offer you a book deal, you can actually negotiate the remaining time needed to complete your manuscript. Myth: Big Press = Big Marketing Don’t expect much marketing at all since most publishers don’t have big marketing budgets. The bulk of responsibility almost always falls on the author. You might appear in the publisher’s catalog, in a press release, and may get featured at a trade show, but don’t count on them landing you an appearance alongside Matt Lauer. Those efforts are reserved for established, big-name authors. Smaller publishers may actually work a little harder to assist with marketing since they have more riding on the success of each title, but as a rule, authors should set expectations very low. Myth: Once you land a book deal, your author career is set for life. Just because you sign a deal with a publisher, there are no guarantees that they will want your next book, even though your contract will likely stipulate that they get first right of refusal on your next book. Your first book must perform exceptionally well before the next book will be considered for publication. Keep in mind that you may not want to publish another book with that same publisher. There are many reasons why you might want to move on—creative differences, other publishers that are a better fit for your genre of writing, or you may decide to pursue self-publishing opportunities. This can be a catch-22 as you must give your current publisher the chance to evaluate your next book idea before you can be released from your contract. (Hint: if you want out, pick an idea you know they won’t want!) Myth: Authors make tons of money. The vast majority of authors will tell you that there is not a lot of money to be found in a traditional book deal. Sure you get an advance check, which on average comes in around $5,000 to $10,000, unless you are a celebrity. Then you have to earn that back before you will see another dime. Perhaps most surprising is what authors earn in royalties from book sales. You can expect to make around $1 to $2 per book sold and with numbers like this, you’ve got to sell a lot of books to generate a substantial royalty check. To make matters worse, most publishers only pay authors twice per year, so don’t expect to see your monthly income increase because of your book. Some authors create other revenue opportunities around their books from things like speaking (which can command $2,000 to $10,000 fees), consulting and related information products. Myth: You can purchase your own books at cost. As surprising as this may seem, your contract with a publisher will probably allow you to buy your own books at just 40% to 50% off of the cover price. So if you have a book that sells for $20, you will be lucky to buy your copies for $10 each. Since the publisher’s cost is likely far less than $10, they are still generating a significant profit from your orders. This is a point that can be negotiated so remember to ask for a deeper discount when you receive your contract offer! Myth: If you self-publish, you kill your chances of landing a book deal. If you self-publish a book and achieve some success by selling 1,000 copies or more, you can actually improve your chances of landing a traditional book deal. Publishers want authors to come to the table with a ready made “platform.” This means that they want to know that you have an audience. Selling a significant number of books proves that you have that audience and raises your appeal. Just ask Christopher Paolini, the teenage boy who wrote and self-published “Eragon,” or Richard Paul Evans who wrote “The Christmas Box.” Their self-publishing success stories landed them multi-million dollar book deals. I know several authors who have been approached by major presses, which can demonstrate an interesting shift in power. In one case, an author who publishes instructional books for a specific trade quickly turned down a rather substantial offer. He simply makes too [...]
Wanted: Title Help
Posted by admin on June 29th, 2010
I’m working on a fourth draft of my work in progress, a novel set in Key West when Hemingway lived there. The protagonist, Mariella Bennet, is a fictitious housekeeper for the Hemingway family who’s torn between her obsession with the writer and her relationship with a WWI vet and boxer working on the Overseas Highway
Posted in Historical Fiction Books Tags: Book, girl, hemingway, labor, mariella-bennet, overseas, People, relationship, start-the-query, work, Writer Comments OffBias in Science and Belief in the Bible
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
Millions of Christian living around the world have an unshaken faith in the Bible. For them it is the greatest and the only absolute standard for determining matters related to creed and conduct. But there is no shortage of critics against the Bible who would like to tell these people that their belief in the Bible is foolish because of on reason or other. There are numerous sociological and anthropological reasons for man’s apposition to the Bible, but that is not the topic for consideration in this article. It will be enough to note that according to the Bible, people will continue to oppose it as long as they are dominated by their sin natures. The attacks against the Bible have come from the simple as will as the learned, in all generations of mankind, but the mode has changed from time to time. In this generation, the attacks are done in the name of science. They reason that if the Bible contains scientific errors in its statements, then it is nor a reliable book. The more the number of these errors, the less is the reliability of the book as a whole. We must surely grant to the critic that if the narratives in the Bible are erroneous about this world, then its statements about the spiritual world are also suspect. In the past two hundred years a flood of anti-Bible material has been published in the form of articles, books and even learned treatises. However, with the passage of time many of these writings were exposed to be shallow or biased, so that the information presented in these books against the Bible are more of fiction and less of fact. One of the reasons that has been exposed time and against the existence of Bias and Cheating in the world of science. The common notion which people have of scientist is that of men who passionately try to discover the secrets of nature; men who are not influenced by any type of biases or prejudices, whether it be religious, political, racial, or any other type which we can think of. If this view of the scientists is correct, then science, the product of their research also ought to be fully true, objective, and unbiased. However this is not the truth. Scientists are men affected by all kinds of biases and prejudices, and their work does contain things which are biased or dishonest. Many times these wrong conclusions are picked up by the critics who use them to attack the Bible. For example, in the area of evolution a good number of proof produced to attack the concept of creation come in this category. Some decades ago the famous Piltdown Man fossil was used to prove evolution and to refute creation. In the fifties this fossil was discovered to be a fake. Then there is the celebrated Nebraska Man who was reconstructed from a single tooth, and even presented in a court case to prove evolution. When the rest of the skeleton was discovered they found it to be a pig instead of a missing link in man’s evolution. The case of the Embryological proof of evolution is much more interesting. A scientist produced the pictures of various embryos to prove that the human embryo passes through several stages representing its animal past. After other scientists studied similar embryos, they exposed this man’s work to be deception. (It is an irony that Indian textbook dealing with evolution still print these pictures and teach it as a proof of evolution, eighty years after it was exposed to be a big lie) Every generation of scientists will contain some men who are biased and prejudiced in their work. They will deviate from the higher standards which should govern them. Some of them will distort the truth, while others will even invent nonexistent data or results to support their claims. Two scientific works have exposed these practices recently. One is a research paper published in the reputed scientific journal Nature and the other is a scientific book by the title of “False Prophets”. Both of these documents expose the unbelievably high rate of cheating and deception in the scientific community. According to them such practices are more widespread in the Biological science in comparison to exact science like physics. In the remote and also in the recent past many of the biased, prejudiced, and wrong conclusions of scientists were used to attack the Bible. This is not objectivity. An honest enquirer living in the twentieth century has to accept that the Bible is not in conflict with any firmly established fact of science. It might come in conflict with false information that is paraded in the name of science, but then that is not science in any way. Objective science has never contradicted the Bible.
Internet Marketing-the Ever Increasing E-book Industry
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
Books are a vast expanse of intellectual wealth. They are informative and helpful. They are man’s next best friends, next to dogs. People who are talented and can write, need to experiment with book writing. It is beneficial to you and the reader, as you are adding one more book to this already existing sea of knowledge, “Books”. There was a time, when books passed through a long and costly process, termed as printing and production. These processes would push up your investment after adding other expenses for increased sales promotions and marketing strategies. In an e-book, printing and production is not required, thus saving money. Also, what you would have spent on getting latest marketing strategies and paying for a great sales team is also avoided, thus saving money. for more detials:-www.allfreereports.com.Hence, this is one of the main reasons for an increase in e-books, since so much money is saved. Even printers lay down certain conditions. They will only print 500 or 2,000 copies, depending on how big the business is. You will never be able to choose less then these numbers, as they will refuse you outright. So, you end up paying for 500 or 2,000 copies, even if you were not sure whether all copies will sell. E-books is a good way for you to save a lot of money. You do not need to shell out exorbitant sums of money. The e-book way is still a new born way, yet to catch on. It is really a new concept and will take time to get a hold onto the market. But, it is a cheap and inexpensive way to sell or promote your e-book, compared to a hardcover book. So, I advise you to convert and go the e-book way. We have seen a huge advancement in technology, which has made the e-book a possibility. The Internet is a fantastic way to get to people. It makes it easier to deliver information to those who are looking for it. for visit detials:-www.eazy-ebook-money.com.There are hundreds of people out there, who are looking for e-information, with regard to their businesses and occupations. For example, if you run a wedding shop, you could create an e-book, giving tips on how to organize a wedding. Whether they want to get married or are people who are into event management, this book would help both kinds of people. Have your links available, through your own websites or through friends’ websites, so people can get to your e-book and use it as a reference. Understand the needs of people, before you take the plunge. But have courage and strength, you will need them and a whole lot of patience as well. When you actually start making a good profit from your e-books, you will feel completely satiated. Take a plunge into the unknown, as one day, e-books are going to become a rage. And you will be reaping the corn, golden corn!
Posted in Historical Fiction Books Tags: eBook, Ever, Increasing, industry., Internet, Marketingthe Comments OffWriting A Book Proposal
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
R. Dodge Woodson www.lonewolfent.net Writing A Book Proposal The first step in getting a publisher to publish your book idea is writing a book proposal. This intimidates some people. It doesn’t have to be frightening. Once you know the components of a professional book proposal you can attack it one phase at a time and prevail with a superior proposal. If you can’t create a winning book proposal you are not likely to be able to sell or write a book. What does a book proposal consist of? The basic elements are as follows: Cover letter Title of the book Table of contents Audience Competition Concept and approach Credentials Reviewers Sample chapters Contact information Cover Letter Your cover letter should be concise. Keep it to a single page. This letter is your sales pitch, so make every word count. Tell in no more than two paragraphs why a publisher should be interested in your idea. Follow this with a brief review of your credentials to author the book and then lead into the proposal contents. Title of Book Choose the title of your book carefully. Don’t make it too long. Avoid being cute with the title. If you are selling a how-to book, the title should reflect the subject matter. An example might be: Remodel Your Bathroom in Less Than a Month! Another example could be: Building Your Own Compositing System. The book title is the beginning hook for securing a publisher, so invest enough time in it to make yourself successful. Table of Contents How long should a table of contents be? As long as it needs to be. Most non-fiction books contain between 10 and 20 chapters. I would say a good average is around 16 chapters. The word count for such a book is likely to be between 50,000 words and 85,000 words. Chapters do not have to be equal in length. You should make them as long as they need to be to convey the required information to readers. A table of contents should begin with a heading for an introduction. From there, you list chapters in numerical order as they will appear in the book. Under each chapter title you should either write a paragraph that explains what the chapter will contain or use a bullet list of at least five key topics to be covered in the chapter. Consider if your book will benefit from a glossary or appendix materials. If so, this information should be listed on the table of contents. Audience Who is the audience for your book? Never say everyone. There should be a prime audience and a secondary audience. If you are writing a book about treasure hunting, your prime audience will be treasure hunters. Secondary markets could be bottle diggers, metal detecting enthusiasts and so forth. The more defined list of an audience you provide, the better your chances of making a sale are. Competition You need to know your competition and point it out to your perspective publisher. Don’t look for a book that has never been written. Publishers like the comfort level of being able to check the sales records of similar types of books to see what the likelihood of success is for your project. Online book stores are excellent places to conduct your research. Find three books that match your concept as closely as possible. Then record the following data for your proposal: Book title Author’s name Publisher’s name Date of publication Number of pages in the book Price of the book International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for the book Determine what makes your book idea better or different and explain it to the publisher. If you can’t do this, your book will probably not get published by a major publisher. Concept and Approach The concept and approach is your big sales pitch. This is where you describe the contents of your book, your credentials, and what will make your book a pleasure to publish and profit from. This section is usually about two pages long. When fleshing out the concept and approach you will want to include the types of illustrations you will use and how many of them the book will contain. How many book pages do you foresee the book having? Will you incorporate tip boxes or sidebars? Don’t worry about pricing the book or suggesting cover designs. The publisher will take care of this when the time comes. Use this section to describe your writing style. Conversational style is usually desired. Tell the publisher whatever is suitable to your topic in a way to make the book appear more desirable. Credentials Credentials are a key element in selling a non-fiction book. List all of your experience related to the subject matter. Make note of your education, licenses held, or other information that makes you the right author for the book. List any organizations that you belong to that might be conducive to special sales. Essentially, sell yourself. Reviewers Many publishers will want to receive a minimum of three peer reviews of a proposal before taking a project to the editorial board for approval. Include the names, titles, credentials, and contact information for people knowledgeable of your subject who may be willing to do a review for the publisher. The publisher is likely to use your people and some of their own for the reviews. Sample Chapters Many publishers will require one or two sample chapters from unknown authors. This allows the publisher to study your style and ability. It is best to use chapters from around the middle of the book. Avoid using the first or last chapter. Make your work shine. If you have gotten to the stage where a publisher is willing to read your sample work, you are well on the way to getting a book contract. Contact Information Don’t forget to include all of your contact information [...]
How to Write Blog Posts When You are Blogging to Market a Novel
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
Publishing a non-fiction book will usually make it easy for you to write a blog dedicated to your book. The non-fiction subject of your book and related topics can provide ample blogging material. For example, if you wrote a book on cooking low-fat diets, you could post one low-fat recipe a day along with insider tips to ensure the recipe turns out well. Or if you wrote a book on new social media platforms, you could write each post about one new social media platform and probably never run out of new posts. The problem of writing ongoing book blog posts really presents itself to fiction writers. If you’ve written a romance novel or a mystery novel, what are you going to write about in your blog posts? With a little imagination (and you are a fiction writer, aren’t you?) you can come up with interesting posts for your book’s blog. Let’s look at some examples: You write a novel that takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam War (yes, such as my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT). Because the Vietnam War plays an important role in the novel, you could write posts about historical events that took place during that era or historical events that led to that era. And you could write about the military today fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan and about military families back home. There’s no need to mention your book in every post; the overall context of the blog is about your book. Now let’s stretch our imagination farther. You write a mystery novel about a series of medical-related murders. You could write posts about deaths that were not murders but were actual medical mysteries. You could also write posts about new hospital procedures that are being implemented to reduce medical-related deaths. And you could write posts telling the family of hospital patients what to look for in suspected medical malpractice. What if you’ve written a children’s picture book about family members learning to get along? Children are not going to read your blog and their parents aren’t going to read your blog aloud to their children. You could write posts about parent-child issues; if you’re not an expert, you can quote other experts. You could review other children’s picture books on similar topics. You could write posts about children’s literacy issues. The truth is that you can cast your imagination net far and wide for subjects on which to blog. Just remember that every few posts you should mention your book in connection with that post. For example, if you were writing a post about children’s literacy issues, you could mention that a specific second-grader in your book could read long words but not short words and that her teacher suspected dyslexia. Or you could quote an entire (short) scene from your novel to illustrate a point you’re making. And, yes, it’s okay that people reading your blog may not know who the characters and situation are. If you choose an appropriate scene, most readers will be able to understand the context of the excerpt. Fiction authors should be as active as non-fiction authors in the use of blogs to market books. Give your blog readers interesting and well-written posts, and they will read your blog and hopefully buy your book.
Hemorrhoids – Fact or Fiction?
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
Listed below are some of the most common perceptions regarding hemorrhoids facts and more importantly, for those of us that worry, hemorrhoids fiction. • Hemorrhoids turn into cancer. Fiction: Hemorrhoids and cancer cells are completely different as cancerous cells are mutations of their former selves and not a swollen vein which is essentially what hemorrhoids are. Breathe a sigh of relief. • Hemorrhoids are contagious. Fiction: You cannot contract hemorrhoids through any form of contact with a sufferer. It is a complaint and not a disease, so don’t be afraid to be tactile with a sufferer, though just be careful where. • Only men, pregnant women and the elderly get hemorrhoids. Fiction: Any gender can get hemorrhoids at any time of life, though most will pass unnoticed. Pregnant women are more susceptible as they have extra pressure being applied to the lower abdomen and also may suffer constipation. The elderly are more likely to develop hemorrhoids as with age can come tissue weakness which increases the risk, though does not guarantee that every elderly person will suffer. • Spending too long on the toilet can give you hemorrhoids. Fact: This is true as the body automatically opens to pass waste product when sitting on the toilet. If a person sits for an extended period of time, the body will naturally continue to try to pass waste which prolongs the pressure to the cushion vein and can cause the tissue to weaken. Try not to treat your toilet as a library or puzzle room. • Sitting on a cold surface will give you hemorrhoids. Fiction: If a sufferer with external hemorrhoids sits on a cold surface this will not help as it will cause the swollen veins to contract increasing the discomfort. For all non sufferers, please be seated. • Spicy foods will give you hemorrhoids. Fiction: Eating spicy foods, including the myth of black pepper which seems to be quite prevalent, will not give you hemorrhoids. What may happen is that you could get an upset stomach which builds more pressure on the bowel, and/or diarrhea which will only go to irritate your hemorrhoids further. Eat curry at your own peril if you suffer. • Overweight people are more likely to get hemorrhoids. Fact: As with pregnancy, the carrying of extra weight on the abdominal area will add pressure which will result in an increase in the risk of developing hemorrhoids. These are the most common hemorrhoids myths with the absence of one particular one of a more sexual nature, which I will place below. So for those of you who would prefer not to read on, please don’t. • Anal intercourse will give you hemorrhoids. Fiction: The act of anal intercourse, providing it is done correctly, will not give you hemorrhoids. A sufferer will certainly feel an increased sensation, pleasurable or not. Please, if you do practice this, take extra care and please perform this act correctly. I shall say no more. I hope this article has answered some of your questions and brought some relief to those of us that worry too much and listen to other people’s pearls of wisdom. Best regards Simon Gammage
A 5-Step Guide To Buying Used English Textbooks
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
Buying used English textbooks can be a great way to save a great deal of money. There are several resources available out there. But, it is important for you to keep in mind a couple of things if you want to clinch the best deal in this regard. Following is a brief rundown on how to go about it. Find The ISBN Of The Book You Want To Buy When it comes to buying used English books, the first thing that you have to do is find out the ISBN number of the book you need. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. The book list or the syllabus that the college provides often mentions the ISBN with the books. Alternatively, you can visit your college or local bookstore to find out the ISBN number. Search For The Book Through The ISBN It is very important for you to keep in mind that sometimes the titles of the books are same but the content might be different from what you are actually looking out for. That is the reason why it is always advisable to search for the used English textbooks through the ISBN number. This way, you can easily avoid the chances of getting into an unpleasant situation where you may have to regret after buying the wrong book. This is particularly very important if you are purchasing the books on Internet. Swap Books; Do Not Buy Many websites allow you to swap books instead of just buying the book you are looking for. This can be another great way to save money on used books, especially if you have some old textbooks sitting around you, which you no longer use. You can get the books you need in exchange of the used English textbooks that you have. If you could find a classmate or acquaintance, that is fine enough. But, if you do not have any such friend who is ready to swap books with you, you can always swap your old books online with the books you need – there are several websites out there that are willing to offer you a nice deal in this regard. Visit Your Local Or College Bookstore College or campus bookstores do not only sell new books but they buy and sell used books as well. So, it can be a nice idea to visit these bookstores and talk about your requirements. Ask them if they have the used English textbooks you are looking for. However, their prices are often much higher than the charges for the same books if purchased online through a website. Look At Your School Bulletin Board Former students or their partners who want to sell the old books that they or their children no longer use often place an ad on the school or college bulletin board. Some schools and colleges have physical bulletin boards on campus while others have an online bulletin board on their official website. You may get a good deal there. So, this option is also worth considering. Overall, there can be array of different ways that can help you buy used English textbooks at heavily discounted price.
Non-Fiction Salesmanship
Posted by admin on June 28th, 2010
The research you have conducted has been exhausting, yet the first draft of your non-fiction work is complete and you are in the midst of revisions and personal editing. Your plan is to send it on to a publisher soon. Are you really finished with the work at that point? You can take satisfaction in the fact that one of the harder elements of your experience in writing is over, but there are many details yet to attend to. You will need to write a cover letter and provide a synopsis or outline of the work, but you may have forgotten a key bit of research. Market Research In order to convince a potential publisher your work will make a needed contribution to the non-fiction subject matter you have chosen it is imperative to conduct some market research. This information is not only useful to the potential publisher it is key to their continued assessment of your manuscript. If you cannot provide a reason for the publisher to consider this work unique and marketable they will likely stop the review process at that point leaving the manuscript you worked so hard on untouched. Every potential business conducts market research to find out if there is a need for the type of business they are seeking to establish. If a business decides they need to establish a hamburger fast food establishment, but the town already has enough ‘hamburger joints’ then the entrepreneur needs to establish research that indicates the hamburgers he will be selling are far superior than what is currently offered – or he might go back to the drawing board and determine if there is another specialty food item that might be more marketable (even if it’s a niche market). For the writer this lesson indicates that your best market research should be conducted prior to investing creative energy in the crafting of your book. If you have already completed your manuscript without market research you might go back through your manuscript and find the many unique characteristics about your book and the content covered. This information should provide adequate material to move forward with the market research you need. It may be hard to view yourself as a salesperson, but in the context of writing you must be able to present a clear case as to why the publisher should consider your work for publishing and in turn providing you with royalty checks for your efforts.