PressReader: A Great App! 5 Out Of 5 Stars

Occasionally I'm approached to review an iPad app and if it's related to blogging, reading, writing, or the publishing world I'm happy to oblige. In the case of PressReader it was a no-brainer.

Every day I read many online newspapers and blogs looking for interesting information to share with you good folks, but I have never read a digitized version of a newspaper.

Everything about PressReader is easy, smooth and bug free. Ordering a paper takes one click followed by a 5 second download. Rather than paging through sections to get to the article you want to read, you simply click on an embedded link and your chosen article unfolds in front of you.

Or, if you simply want to page through the paper quickly to get to a particular section, use the SmartFlow bar at the bottom of the screen. Although the images of each page are about the size of a playing card they are crisp, even on the iPad 2. Of course you can always just flick through the paper page by page. Once you've reached the article just do a reverse pinch motion to zoom in on the text and glide through the article.

What has made me fall in love with this app is the fast, smooth, movement. I've paged through two newspapers now and it hasn't stuttered once, let alone crashed.

Sometimes when I write an unreservedly glowing review of an app one of my readers will write to me and chastise me for being uncritical, so I asked a friend of mine who subscribes to two newspapers to take a look at it. He loved it! His one comment was that he couldn't find a way to view the entire page at one glance. (It could be that there is a command for this that I don't know.)

The next question is: how much? A monthly subscription will run you $29.95 a month but for casual readers--that would be me!--you can download a newspaper for only 99 cents. That's not bad, it's certainly cheaper than buying one.

Has anyone else tried PressReader? If so, what did you think?

Other articles you might like:
- Pixar: 22 Ways To Tell A Great Story
- Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management
- Kristen Lamb: Don't Let Trolls Make You Crazy

Harper Voyager Open To Unagented Submissions For 2 Weeks

Who is accepting submissions:
Harper Voyager

When to submit:
October 1 through October 14th

Where to submit:
 www.harpervoyagersubmissions.com

What sort of submissions:

We’re seeking all kinds of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural. For more idea of the type of books we love to read and publish, check out our authors and their titles at www.harpervoyagerbooks.com.

How to submit your manuscript:

To submit, go to www.harpervoyagersubmissions.com and follow the instructions to fill out the form and upload your manuscript.

Due to time constraints, we will not be able to respond to every query. If you do not receive a response after three months, unfortunately that means your story is not right for us this time.

Why is Harper Voyager allowing unagented submissions for two weeks and then only publishing ebooks?

The growth of eReaders and e-books have created an exciting new opportunity that allows us to begin increasing the number and diversity of our speculative fiction list. And speculative fiction readers are the most savvy early adopters so we’re keen to provide our readers with the best ebooks possible.

Read more here: Harper Voyager Guidelines for Digital Submission – Accepting Manuscripts from October 1st – October 14th, 2012!. Thanks to The Passive Voice Blog for mentioning this opportunity.

Harper Voyager plans to release one book a month. Initially the books will be published as ebooks but if one does well a print copy will be issued.

Good luck!

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Writing Resources
- Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free

Photo credit: Unknown

The Role Of The Unconscious In Writing

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, Philippines

Have you ever had a song looping through your head that just wouldn't go away? Have you ever broken down and played the darn thing and listened to the lyrics?

That's what happened to me today. A catchy fragment of a tune I hadn't heard, or even thought of, in years began looping through my mind. I'd think it was gone and then I'd find myself singing the blasted thing! Finally I broke down and listened to the song on YouTube.

I was stunned. Something has been going on in my life and it was as though the lyrics--which I no longer consciously remembered--were lecturing me. This got me to thinking about the role of the unconscious in writing.

In Write Away, Elizabeth George shares the following:

When I'm on to the right story, the right location, the right situation, the right theme, my body tells me. I feel a surge of excitement in my solar plexus that literally sends the message Yes yes yes! to my brain. Until I feel that surge of inner excitement, I remain in the pre-plotting stage simply because I have nothing to plot about." (p 47-8) (The Role of the Subconscious in Writing Fiction)

In his essay It All Began With a Picture ... (published in Of Other Worlds) C.S. Lewis tells how his The Chronicles of Narnia series began with a picture:

[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe] all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it.'

. . . .

At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him. (Wikipedia, The Chronicles of Narnia)

I want to begin a dream journal and write down what I remember of my dreams each morning. I'm interested in how the simple act of trying to remember my dreams would affect my writing.

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Writing Resources
- Book Promotion: Where's The Line?
- Becoming An Organizational Genius: The Tickler File

Photo credit: Paul Chin

Writing Resources

Writing Resources

I thought I'd try something different and share a few links. Originally I was going to share 5 or 6 but I kept finding more!

 1. The Hero's Journey: giving your story structure
- Blake Snyder's beat sheet. A fabulous explaination of Blake Snyder's beat sheet is here: Save The Snyder – The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet of Structure.
- Michael Hauge's hero's journey. I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Hauge talk about the Hero's Journey. Excellent! He also explains it here: The Five Key Turning Points Of All Successful Scripts.
- The inner journey. Janice Hardy has a terrific article going into more depth about what Michael Hauge has to say about the inner journey: The Inner Struggle: Guides for Using Inner Conflict That Make Sense.
- Your story: where to begin
- The hero's journey: an interactive illustration
- The hero's journey: summary of the steps
- Story structure: What is it and why should I care?
- Jim Butcher: how to write a story

2. Outlining
- Dan Wells On Writing A Short Story
- Outline your novel in 30 minutes
- Novel Outlining 101
- Chekhov's Gun
- How to write a romance novel

3. Character Building
- Here are 10 ways of building your characters. 
- Web Resources for Developing Characters. Dozens of personality tests you can use for character building.
- A character sheet. Another character sheet. Do you know your character's eye color? Their favorite desert?
- Build your character! Here you'll find there quizzes. See how well you know your character.
- Interview your character: Interviewing Characters: Follow the Energy
- Different kinds of antagonists: Villains are people, too, but ...
- Character writing exercises

4. Dialog
- Robert J. Sawyer, Speaking of Dialog
- All Your Characters Talk The Same — And They’re Not A Hivemind!

5. Names
- Medieval Names Archive
- Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names

6. Idea generators
- 36 dramatic situations
- 200 plot ideas

7. Conflict
- Does your story have enough conflict? Give it a conflict test.
- Plot without conflict

Miscellaneous Links:
- 102 Resources for Fiction Writing
- The Uncomfortable Pantser: When Your Method Doesn't Fit Your Personality.

Are there any links you'd like to add?

Other articles you might like:
- Five steps to better proofreading
- Writing: The Starburst Method, Part 1
- Thinking of becoming an indie author? Some tips

Photo credit: Macskafaraok

The Espresso Book Machine: Print A Book In 6 Minutes

The Espresso Book machine allows bookstores and libraries to print books on demand in about 6 minutes. This allows independent authors to buy print copies of their books; something that has been a boon even to traditional authors wishing to emancipate their backlist and sell it themselves.

The following is from the Bookshop Santa Cruz:

The EBM [Espresso Book Machine] offers Bookshop customers instant access to over eight million titles that are written in a variety of languages. With the push of a button, any book from EspressNet(R), On Demand Books’ digital catalog of content, can be printed, bound and trimmed, creating a paperback book that is virtually indistinguishable from the publisher’s version. Patrons can also use the EBM to self-publish their own work on-site and will have the option to make their book available for sale through EBMs worldwide. Bookshop Santa Cruz is the first location in the Bay Area to have an EBM and one of only twelve bookstores nationwide to have one.

Here's a video of the book machine in action:


Espresso Book Machine at Bookshop Santa Cruz from Vernon Alexander on Vimeo.

How much do POD books cost?
The Santa Cruz bookstore charges the following:

The base printing price for the EBM is $5.00 + 4.5 cents a page, although we do offer some bulk discounts and price breaks depending on the nature of the project.  We also have publishing packages which include various levels of service including graphic design, proof copies, obtaining an ISBN, etc. (Self Publishing at Book Santa Cruz ...)

Let's say we want to print one copy of a 300 page book:

$5 + (300 * 4.5 cents) = $5 + 1350 cents = $5 + $13.50 = $18.50

$18.50 for one copy of a book isn't too bad, but the writer would want to earn something on each sale, let's say 10%. 10% of $18.50 is $1.85, so the sale price would be $20.35. Before tax.

Another source, though, claims that an indie writer could use an Espresso Book Machine to print 100 copies of their book for an average cost of 8 dollars each:

[T]he prospect of a vast inventory of millions of titles to choose from and the excitement for authors of holding a book while still warm "with a laminated cover and bright white paper" at a price of $8 per book for 100 copies is a major attraction. (With This Machine, You Can ...)

This makes CreateSpace look attractive. If you go to this page and click the "Buying Copies" tab you'll be able to see how much you'd have to pay per book, as well as how much it would cost to ship your books. I've just taken out a Create Space account and, so far, the site seems very helpful.

I've never seen an Espresso Book Machine, but I'd love to! It would be an amazing experiencing having a book printed right before my eyes. Thanks to Kim for sending me a link to the article, Self Publishing at Book Santa Cruz Using the Espresso Book Machine.

Here is a link to a listing of all the Espresso Book Machines in the world! Thanks to Peter Smalley for the link.

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- The Secret Of Learning To Write Well: Write
- Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files

Photo credit: Politics and Prose Bookstore

Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files

If you haven't read anything by Jim Butcher you should!

- Here's JB's first story featuring intrepid sleuth and kick-ass wizard Harry Dresden: Restoration of Faith.
- Vignette (A short short)
- Dresden Files reading order.
- The series was also made into a TV show: The Dresden Files Complete First Season and graphic novels.

Here's what else is happening in the universe of The Dresden Files:

Harry takes Bigfoot on as a client
I didn't know JB had a Bigfoot trillogy!
- B is for Bigfoot in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron. Occurs between Fool Moon and Grave Peril.
- I Was A Teenage Bigfoot in Bood Lite 3: Aftertaste. Occurs around the time of Dead Beat.
- Bigfoot on Campus in Hex Appeal. Occurs a little after Turn Coat.

Cold Days
I know I've mentioned this before, bu the next installment of JB's Dresden Files series is due out November 27, 2012 and is available for pre-order from Jim Butcher's website.

The Most Important Thing an Aspiring Author Needs to Know
That's the title of one of JB's recent blog posts. A great article for a writer at the beginning of his or her career.

Quotations from the Dresden Files

Jim Butcher's Twitter Account: @longshotauthor

Jim Butcher on Goodreads

Jim Buther's Facebook account

If you know of a Jim Butcher/Dresden File related link that's not here, let me know. :-)

Other articles you might like:
- 5 Ways To Make Your Writing Better
- Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway
- Diane Lefer's Writing Conference From Hell

5 Ways To Make Your Writing Better

I admire Johanna Penn. She was one of the first indie authors on YouTube and her blog, The Creative Penn, is a wealth of information for writers at any stage of their career.

Recently guest blogger Scott Bartlet dropped by The Creative Penn to share what he has learnt about writing. Here are his tips:

1) Write
"Only writing will make you a better writer"
Scott remarks that reading the sort of thing you like to write helps make one a better writer--as does reading about the business of writing, thinking about writing and taking writing classes--but that only actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) will get one's book story to being published.

2) Be Yourself
"Every novels origin is different"
Some folks, like Stephen King, write without an outline (pantsers) and some do (plotters). It doesn't matter so long as it works for you.

3) Write every day
"Vibrancy comes from writing every day"
Scott writes:

To keep your characters alive on the page, you need to spend time with them daily. Cory Doctorow writes his novels at a rate of one page a day. His rationale? No matter how busy his day gets, he can always find 20 minutes to write one page. As a result, he stays in close contact with the people populating his stories.

4) Write down your ideas when you have them
"Become a perpetual note-taker"
Scott writes:

Your mind is a colander with large holes—if it functions anything like mine does, that is. Life’s experiences flow through, and, you being a writer, they probably generate some great fiction material in the process—snappy lines of dialogue, incisive observations, beautiful snippets of description, et cetera.

So write them down! An old-fashioned pad would do the job or you might want to use your cell phone if you already carry that with you wherever you go. Whatever works.

5) Edit
"Every novel's first draft needs editing. A lot of editing."
I think it was Stephen King who wrote that the first draft is for you and the second, etc., drafts are for the world.
Scott writes:

Hemingway had some choice words for first drafts. I won’t repeat them here, but the upshot was that they universally stink.

Amen! I've just completed the first draft of a novel and I know it needs a LOT of work.

I hope you found something useful. Click here to read Scott Bartlett article in its entirety: 5 Lessons Learned From Writing 3 Novels.

If you have a tip you'd like to share please do leave a comment.

Other articles you might enjoy:
- Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- Book Promotion: Where's The Line?

Photo credit: *_filippo_*

Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway

Peter V. Brett wrote The Warded Man, a novel which went on to sell 100,000 copies in 17 countries, on his commute to work.

[Peter V. Brett] wrote The Warded Man aka The Painted Man on the ‘F’ train riding from his home in Brooklyn to Time Square where he worked in medical publishing. Using his HP Ipaq 6515, a phone similar to a BlackBerry, he followed up with another book before quitting his day job to write full time.

Released as The Painted Man in Great Britain in 2008, Brett’s debut novel, The Warded Man, arrived from Del Rey Spectra in 20o9, and went on to sell 100,000 copies in 17 countries. The follow up, The Desert Spear, released in 2010 and is currently on bestseller lists. Four books are planned altogether in this Demon Cycle series, with the next chapter, The Daylight War, scheduled for a February 2013 release [...].

How did he do it? PVB says:

I write on Docs to Go on my iPad. It syncs wirelessly with my desktop, and I work in Word there. Shift back and forth constantly. Always, always music, though selections depend on my mood. I like to write on the subway. It is peaceful when the internet goes quiet. Takes getting used to, but now it is very natural. Anywhere I can put on headphones and not be bothered by anyone for thirty minutes or more works now.

. . . .

Now, the producers behind the Residential Evil Hollywood films franchise have taken an interest, calling a planned trilogy “the next Lord Of The Rings.” Brett has signed a lucrative deal and discussions and plans are underway to start filming later this year.

British producer Jeremy Bolt said the first film would have a budget of up to $100 million and be shot in 3D with director Paul W.S. Anderson attached. He couldn’t believe the book was typed on  a phone.

All information and quotations are from: One Novelist Composed His Best-Selling Novel on a Cellphone – While Commuting to Work on the Subway Every Day. Thanks to the Passive Voice Blog for the link.

* Sigh * I love reading success stories but they can be a tad demoralizing. In any case, The Warded Man seems like a great book--I wonder why I haven't read it all ready!--and I'll keep my eyes open for more news of the movie(s).

Other articles you might like:
- What To Write About: Fiction That Sells
- Indie Writers: 10 Things Not To Do
- 8 Tips For Blogging Success

Diane Lefer's Writing Conference From Hell

From Diane Lefer:

I think it was Muriel Rukeyser who said offer your work to publishers. A writer must never submit. Never never never submit. 

Ms. Lefer gives us a funny, whirlwind account of her writing conference from hell. At one point she was trying to "get people to explore the emotions of their characters". She writes:

“I can’t do that,” said one woman, “All of my characters are dogs.” 

“Don’t your dogs have personalities?” 

“Oh, no,” she said. “They’ve all passed away.”

A good read: The Terms of Success—Guest Post by Diane Lefer.

Other articles you might like:
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- 8 Tips For Blogging Success
- Stephen King's Latest Book: A Face In The Crowd

Photo credit: petesimon

Becoming An Organizational Genius: The Tickler File

Want to organize your blogging? Try using a tickler file. The Daring Novelist writes:

A tickler file is made up of 43 folders, always.  It doesn't matter how big or small, or how complicated the jobs it is designed to take care of.  It's always that length, because it's actually a physical manifestation of a perpetual calendar.  It helps any production office keep it's editorial calendar in order.

There are 31 folders representing the days of the month (numbered 1- 31), and 12 more folders representing the months of the year.

As you come up with stories and material, you schedule them by dropping them into the appropriate folder.  For things more than a month away, you don't worry about the exact date, you just drop it in a month folder.  For things coming up in the next 31 days, you drop it in the days folder.

Each day you begin by pulling out the folder for the day, and taking out the items to be worked on.  Then you cycle the empty folder to the back of the stack of days, so it's ready for next month. When you're ready to schedule a new month, you pull that folder, distribute what's in it to the right "days" folders, and then stick it in the back of the "months" batch, to be ready for next year.

Productivity gurus (such as David Allen of Getting Things Done) love to use tickler files to organize their whole lives.  It's designed, after all, to make simple order out of the chaos of a busy production office.  However,  the tickler file was designed for deadlines, and that's where it really shines.  With a newspaper office you have to put the issue out every single day -- so it's not just a to do list, it's a must do list.

This emphasis on publishing and deadlines makes it a natural for a blog.

Read the rest of this wonderful article here: Organizing the Blog - The Tickler File.

Other articles you might like:
- Fifty Shades of Alice In Wonderland: Sales Peak At $1,000 Per Day
- Creativity: Use It Or Lose It
- Are You Writing The Right Book? 5 Ways To Find Out

Photo credit: benchristen