Hurricane Sandy Library Update

Congratulations are in order for the over 100 authors from around the world involved in Indie Authors for Hurricane Sandy Library Recovery. As of this week, they’ve shipped out over 500 books to libraries in need in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

Our own K. S. “Kat” Brooks founded this group back in November 2012 to help libraries which had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Even now, well into March, some schools and libraries have still not reopened. “People don’t realize how bad the situation is,” Kat said. “I received an email from an elementary school principal this week which broke my heart.” Kat shared an excerpt from this email with us:

Yes, our school was devastated by the Hurricane. Our entire first floor took in over three feet of salt water and raw sewage. We have been displaced…  Our kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms, the literacy hub of our building, have been totally destroyed; everything thrown out. Our reading center which housed all of our guided reading books was also destroyed. All of our books are gone.

If you’re an author interested in donating children’s books or if you know of a library in need, you can contact the group through their web page. Please keep in mind, not all books or genres are accepted, and great pride is taken in matching up books with libraries.

The Title Will Tell

Long before the prevalence of internet keywords to help people narrow down a search, the concept applied to book titles. To be more accurate, it applied to books in popular fiction. Literary fiction has its own thing going. You pretty much know if you see a book with a title like As Grow the Wild Tulips, or A Garden in Antioch, you’re probably looking at literary fiction.

With popular fiction, the keywords become genre-specific. You can be pretty sure if you see words like heart, song, secret, or forever that the book is a romance novel. As with all rules, there are exceptions. Other keywords also play a role, so Cannibal Heart might not necessarily be a romance. Neither is this short list all-inclusive. I’m sure there are romance titles that don’t include any of the keywords I mentioned, but those words are strongly representative and indicative of the romance genre. Continue reading “The Title Will Tell”

Thomas Sullivan Announces New Title

Author Thomas Sullivan is pleased to announce the release of his new humor collection, So Much Time, So Little Change.

Life is full of awkward events seemingly designed to annoy us like searching for an old-school barber, but landing at a frantic corporate salon that smells like a meth lab; running late for a flight, only to end up on The Terrorist Watch List; watching The Peoples Court with a stranger in the world’s gloomiest bar; fixing up a house knowing nothing about home improvement; and much more wonderful absurdity.

So Much Time, So Little Change was released in February 2013 by Wayman Publishing and is currently available from Amazon.com and Amazon UK.


Writing is Not an Entitlement Program

I demand a hefty advance!

I was having a nice chat the other day with a friend who’s a fellow author and the owner of an eBook publishing company. She was regaling me with stories from the trenches: namely, book submissions from diva authors.

“Then he sent me an email insisting he was expecting a six-figure advance for his fantasy tome, even after he’d read the contract and agreed to the percentage split,” she said, laughing and shaking her head.

My mouth dropped open in surprise. (Note to readers: this is an unattractive expression, and I don’t recommend it. The flies are annoying.) Continue reading “Writing is Not an Entitlement Program”