Guest Post: DUBLIN WRITERS CONFERENCE by M C Raj
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| MC Raj |
That I am a frequent international traveler had its advantage when Lufthansa quietly put me in the business class when I had only an economy class ticket. This was on my way back. Leave aside what happened to me and come back to the conference.
The weather in Dublin was like the English one. You never know when it would rain. It can rain anytime. Oh, we are not supposed to speak of weather in the beginning. It should come at the end, na?
But then it had a bearing on what was being discussed at the Conference. Just as the English weather, so is the world of publishing, with many unpredictable “gate keepers” playing the role of truant watchmen, who decide what material should be taken for publishing. How can one explain novels trashed by traditional publishers becoming best sellers elsewhere?
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| Ken Atchity |
What of Art Johnson who lives in a wheelchair and yet made it to Dublin all the way from the US? His sharing was also exhilarating, to say the least.
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| Laurence O'Bryan |
He is an active advocate of people publishing their own stuff and the Dublin Writers Conference seemed to have this singular purpose of helping authors to move ahead on this line. His ‘BooksGoSocial’ is a veritable portal of multiple help to established and new authors.
Writing may be a joy. But what follows writing is the most important thing in the molding of the writer into an author and that too into a selling author. Editing comes first in the line. Jessica Bell made a marvelous two sessions presentations on editing. Though am an author of 25 books, some of her tips are still very helpful for me. To know that she is a publisher, a cover designer, and a musician gladdens the heart. A multifaceted personality indeed!
Not to be outdone was the highly professional Ben Galley from London who dwelt on the different and difficult dimensions of marketing. This is a much-needed area when one witnesses the struggles of many writers. They write. They need to know how to sell their writing.
There are those, like me, who write for the pleasure of writing. However, marketing is very important if one publishes. One does not write to lock it up in a box. The word and your joy of writing have to spread and be contagious. The art of marketing is as important as the art of writing and editing. Ben Galley argued well for the need for self-publishing.
In order to make one’s writing saleable it is important to know what sells. Sheila Bugler made an impressive and lively session on getting the first draft out.
There were many others whose presentations I could not attend. Am glad to have listened to Debbie Young and Laurence O’Bryan again on the last day making our knowledge bank/tank on writing overflow.
The interludes made significant contributions too. Laurence asked me to introduce myself and make a reading from my book during dinner in the Gresham Hotel. I chose my book Madderakka.
I understand that quite a few people liked it. Some came and told me so. The next morning Laurence came to me and said how happy he was to have me in the Dublin Writers Conference. He didn’t know how happy I was to be there. Or perhaps he knew. Who knows?
On the second day, they interviewed me on my book, The Crossbow Code. That was a double damaka. More than that I understand that there was an award function during dinner on the second day. Ken gave away some awards. I could not be present.
I extended a warm welcome to Laurence to visit Bangalore and Booshakthi Kendra and he asserted that he would come. Now that we have planned for an Asia Writers Conference on similar lines, am sure to see him soon in our place. It is a boon that two other resource persons have also expressed their desire to come for the Asia Conference. Requests in India have already started flowing. I love to have all of them here. Let’s see.
Outside of the Conference, the biggest event in my life was re-connecting with Sr. Annette whose contact was also because of Laurence, in a way. I was in a training in Thailand in the year 1989 on Justice and Faith for four months. Annette was my spiritual guide. This training and Annette turned my life around from compulsive anger to a more meaningful and tangible commitment.
Going through Myer’s Brigs and the Personality and Human Relations packages I began to work on myself with the assistance of Annette. Now am happy that my life has become worthy of living. Annette and I had lunch together on the last day. With that energy filling experience of meeting her after 27 years, I left for Frankfurt to take my flight back to India.
The surprise galore did not end there. At the airport in Frankfurt, I met Dr. G Parameshwar, the Home Minister of Karnataka. He is a long-time friend of ours. We both were very happy to see each other at the airport. On an earlier occasion too I met him at Goa airport. Lufthansa did me a favor by putting me in the business class. That made it possible for me to travel with Parameshwar.
Is it a past experience that I am narrating. NOOOOO! It’s a future hope that I am talking of. I am having my latest science fiction on hand and Ken Atchity will do something about it. That is a suspense for me as well as for you. Let’s remain in unending hope.
Congratulations to Laurence O’Bryan and his beautiful and efficient team for executing this coup. All the best wishes for them in the next Conferences. They also have indicated that I should go there the next year. Let’s hope that I can make it. There’s no end to our hopes.
Story Merchant Books Prepares to Launch MaryAnn and Joseph Anselmo's Through Fire and Rain!
Story Merchant Books is proud to be publishing MaryAnn and Joseph Anselmo with Lisa Cerasoli’s Through Fire and Rain.
Look for it in the next week—an inspiring true story of a couple who
survived and triumphed over four huge life-changing catastrophes with
their love and spirit intact and thriving.
IN
2012, MARYANN ANSELMO WAS at the height of her career, headlining at Chico’s
House of Jazz—the premiere venue in New Jersey for jazz artists. It was a
sold-out show. The love of her life and husband, Joe, was by her side when she
brought the house down. Her dreams were becoming a reality. Two days later she
lost everything including the will to live when her son Dustin died
unexpectedly.
“I’ve
never thought of myself as a strong person…. After all, I’m just a jazz
singer.”
MARYANN
A
month later, MaryAnn and her father, Artie, suffered a devastating car
accident. Dad was going to be okay, but she shattered dozens of bones, and had
a string of strokes she suffered while in a coma. This ultimately left her
without the use of her left vocal cord.
“My
girl had a string of strokes. She was in a coma for weeks. I believed in God, I
trusted Him, but we had just recovered from the Crash of 2008, then Dustin
died, and now this. It’s too much. She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.”
JOE
With
Joe’s love and constant support, MaryAnn worked hard to recover, even starting
from scratch with her longtime vocal coach. She was determined to sing again.
Then in mid-November of 2013, she was given eighteen months to live, diagnosed
with a high-grade glioblastoma—a later stage brain tumor.
“Everything
happened so fast—the diagnosis, the surgery. chemo and radiation. Joe kept
saying, ‘It’s going to be fine, Mare, it’s going to be fine.’ And I believed
him. Even when we had to stop the chemo because it was killing me, I knew I’d
be okay.”
MARYANN
Joe
did not know it was going to be okay, but he needed MaryAnn to feel secure, to
feel loved, to have faith. Joe, for the second time in less than two years,
left a job he had built from the ground up since the crash, and made finding a
way to save his wife his life’s mission. He called all over the world—no doctor
too far, no medical procedure out of reach. What Joe discovered was a new type
of procedure called genomic sequencing. It fell under the category of Precision
Medicine, and it was going to change their lives; he felt it.
Through Fire and Rain is a story of deep
loss and salvation found through love, prayer, and faith in the future of
medicine. They had made it through the fire.
They had survived so much. This was
just a little rain…. Joe Anselmo believed that, and his wife, MaryAnn was
convinced of one thing: Joe’s love for her was without boundaries. She had seen
this kind of love before in her parents. Her dreams of becoming a
world-renowned jazz singer was still “in the works.” For decades it had been,
but she had found something perfect in this imperfect world—the love of a great
man—and this is what would save her life.
MaryAnn
Anselmo recently spoke at The 2016
National Brain Tumor Society event in New Jersey.
***
“…In 2013, I was diagnosed with
something I couldn’t even pronounce—a high grade glioblastoma multiforme. The
prognosis was 18 to 24 months. Like I said, I don’t believe in self pity, but I
do believe in miracles…. For I am still here.
I went through surgery and radiation like most cancer
patients, but it nearly killed me. I had no other options until my tissue was
genetically sequenced and a mutation found in melanoma patients was discovered
in my brain. Joe researched and I got into a clinical trial for this mutation, and
2 ½ years later I am thrilled to say that I am tumor free!
Your body and brain can take a lot. Fight through this
and you can fight through anything. Don’t ever give up! For there is hope.
With the grace of God and the power of science you
will get through this. The future is here!”
***
Joe and MaryAnn don’t believe in coincidences; they believe in the power of God and Precision Medicine. That is why they’re sharing their story with the world. They believe this happened to MaryAnn so that they can create awareness, bring hope, change they way the word “cancer” is perceived, and open up minds to new possibilities.
Shortly after Dustin’s untimely death in 2012, Joe and MaryAnn created The Bungalow Foundation. They created this to initially help people with depression through music and art, but then expanded it to become a public charity that funds bio-medical Precision Medicine Initiatives by way of grants to post-doctoral and clinical research fellows working with academic, medical or research institutions. This is their mission.
Through Fire and Rain, their memoir of impossible loss and deep faith is a story for all people from every walk of life. Just like cancer, their story does not discriminate. Unlike cancer, they will never be defeated. Their purpose is to share their story with the world in the hopes that more people see the possibilities in Precision Medicine: Believe that the future is now!
Register Now for Ken Atchity's FREE Training Program July 14th
You’re invited to a brand new free training program I put together based on my forthcoming book called...
Sell to
Hollywood: How to Tell If Your Story Idea Will Sell To Hollywood for Big Bucks (Guidelines For The Neophyte)
Register
here: http://danielhallpresents.com/rfhd
Why
should you attend? When you do you’ll discover:
·
Why TODAY it’s easier than ever to sell your story to Hollywood… but it must
contain certain elements that most authors are oblivious to… you’ll get in the
inside track during this training
·
The counter-intuitive path from taking an idea to a book to a New York Times
bestseller to a sold story in Hollywood production.
·
Why so many novelists fail to ever sell one of their books to Hollywood… and
how you can avoid their mistakes
·
Master producing the key document that actually sells a story to Hollywood
(hint: it’s not a book)
·
The “tune up” most stories need before they will sell to Hollywood
·
Plus, much more…
Here are the
details:
Day:
Thursday, July 14
Time: 7pm
Eastern / 4pm Pacific
Registration
link: http://danielhallpresents.com/rfhd
If you’ve
ever dreamed of seeing your story on the big (or small) screen this is a
must-attend event.
In The Rooms Book Club Recommends William G. Borchert's How I Became My Father ... A Drunk!
How I Became My Father…a Drunk
By William G. BorchertWilliam G. Borchert’s inspiring and courageous memoir probing the intimate details of a family devastated by the disease of alcoholism, and blessed by recovery. Borchert wrote the screenplay of My Name Is Bill W, the most-watched television movie ever made. “I am a fan of neither pain nor discomfort which is what this effort of disgorging the past entailed,” Borchert reports. “But some very good friends finally convinced me over a period of time that sharing my own experiences in addition to the generous input from those in my family closest to me could offer hope to other alcoholics and show families devastated by the disease that there is a way out. In an age when there are still more than 44,000,000 alcoholics affecting at least eight others around them, over 200,000,000 people are looking for help. That is a plague. My personal experience with this disease proves there is help available as well as a pathway to a new life beyond their wildest dreams.” The author of eight books and producer of other successful films, Borchert not only wrote the Bill W story about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, starring James Woods, James Garner and JoBeth Williams but also the highly acclaimed movie, When Love Is Not Enough, about the founding of Al-Anon, starring Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper. The author and screenwriter said his new book was by its very nature even more difficult to write.
MEG Production Set to Begin August 29, 2016!
At the same time, Warner Bros. has set a March 2, 2018, release date for the pic, which will be directed Jon Turteltaub, best known as helmer of the National Treasure movies. Gravity will distribute the film in China, while Warners will release it throughout the rest of the world.
Dean Georgaris wrote the latest script for the project, which has been swimming upstream for 20 years in order to adapt the book by Steve Alten. It centers on a Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 40-ton prehistoric kin to the great white shark.
The studio put forth the plot of Meg as such:
An international underwater observation program, led by Chinese scientists, is under attack by an unknown danger, and its deep-sea submersible lies disabled and trapped at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. With time running out, former Naval Captain and expert deep sea diver Jonas Taylor (Statham) is recruited by Dr. Zhang Suyin, lead oceanographer of the program, for what is likely a suicide mission.
Years before, Taylor had encountered this same terrifying threat, which forced him to abort his mission and abandon half his crew, resulting in disgrace and a dishonorable discharge. Now, Taylor must confront his fears and risk his own life to save everyone trapped below … bringing him face to face once more with the apex predator of all time.
Fan’s next English-language movie is Skiptrace, the Renny Harlin-directed action movie starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville.
Marketing Ideas That Can Help Authors Increase Sales: Prepare Your Book Marketing Assets
Poll your audience to test marketing copy. Use polling software like PickFu to test variations of description or marketing copy and see which variation your audience likes better. Always test and optimize to discover what copy will resonate best with readers.
A/B test marketing copy. Unlike polling, A/B tests give you quantitative data (i.e., the number of clicks). Use your email service provider to run A/B test emails and see which copy has the highest click-through rate, or use ad platforms like Facebook to A/B test your copy.
Get blurbs from reputable authors in your genre. Blurbs can effectively catch readers’ attention, especially if they’re familiar with the quoting author or publication, and can help entice them to make that final purchasing decision. Our tests showed that book descriptions including blurbs got an average of 22.6% higher click-through rates than those without blurbs.
Create images for teasers and quotes. You can easily turn your quotes into vibrant images using free apps like Canva. Publish these teasers to your website and social media accounts in the weeks and months prior to a book’s release.
Read more at BookBub
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