Learn Way Too Much About Your Neighbors from Their Yard-Sale Books

A few weekends ago, our subdivision had its semiannual neighboorhood-wide yard sale. I'm genetically incapable of ignoring such things, especially when the weather is nice. I decided to take a stroll and see what was on offer.

At one house they had several boxes of books that I decided to rifle through. As I read the titles, I grew more and more uncomfortable.

First there was Time Management For Dummies. Okay, we could all use a little help there.

Then there was Your Pregnancy Day by Day. Uh-oh, the bad time managers are having a baby.

Next I ran across Keeping the Spice in Your Marriage. Bad time management plus a new baby equals no time for romance.

Then the final blow: Surviving Separation and Divorce. Guess we should have seen that coming.

I had better luck in the next box: A copy of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons for 50 cents. Not my kind of book, but my associate editor once worked for Brown's agent, so I figured I'd better brush up. And so far, even though I see its flaws, I'm enjoying it.

Book Expo Starts Tomorrow

The biggest event in American book publishing and bookselling, Book Expo America, starts tomorrow in Los Angeles. It's a mind-boggling confab of education sessions, celebrity autographing, special events, and a trade-show floor with booths from thousands of publishers and publishing-related companies. If you've never been, you should go at least once in your lifetime, if only just to get an idea of the massive scope of our industry.

Our sales and marketing people are already on their way out there to set up the booth. My boss and I are making like seagulls and swooping in Friday morning and swooping out Sunday morning. We mainly want to be there to support our authors and scope out the competition. Oh, and maybe to get Alec Baldwin's autograph.

Several of our authors will be making appearances in the Autographing Area on Saturday:

• Molly Fletcher, Be Your Own Agent, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, Table #7
• Susan Britton Whitcomb, The Christian's Career Journey, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, Table #3
• Robert Orndorff and Dulin Clark, The PITA Principle, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, Table #13

Interestingly, my husband the book fair maven is not going to be there. Any customers he didn't manage to see in London in April, he'll see in Frankfurt in October. His customers are all based in eastern Europe, and L.A. is just a bit too far to travel for them. But his colleagues' Asian customers will be there in full force.

If you'll be at the fair, drop me in line in the comments and maybe we can plan to meet up.

I'll be posting again tomorrow. But after that, you might not hear from me again until Monday. At seven pounds, my four-year-old dinosaur laptop with the bad wireless card is not worth lugging there.

Quoted in Publishers Weekly

The article that Publishers Weekly's Juan Martinez interviewed me for is online today here. I was relieved to see that I was indeed quoted, and what I said actually rather fit with the article and didn't make me look too silly. He mentioned one of our books, but it wasn't the one we wanted him to mention. But that's OK--a mention is a mention.

Big sigh of relief!

101 Best Sites for Writers

Writer's Digest recently announced its picks for the 101 best writing-related websites. I'm drooling because I see a month's worth of blog posts here just talking about these awesome resources. They're grouped into these categories:

• Agent blogs
• Challenges/creativity
• General Resources
• Genre/Niche
• Jobs
• Just for Fun
• Protect Yourself
• Publishing Resources
• Writing Communities

There's lots here for everyone, so check it out!

Friday Fun: Laughing at Editorless Authors

For all of us sad sacks who didn't think ahead and make this a four-day weekend, here's something that will brighten your last day at work. Surf on over to this post at Editorial Anonymous, where the writer has some fun at the expense of some iUniverse authors. (Yes, I'm about a week behind in seeing this, but it was worth the wait.)

The unspoken point is, of course, that when people are allowed to just publish books without the help of a professional editor and a traditional publishing house, you're gonna get some crazy stuff. I still applaud everyone's right to write, and I don't think the few should be able to decide what the many will read. But it's sad to see what some people think passes for a good book idea, a great title, and good editing. This is, as one commenter put it, what my slush pile looks like.

The Benefits of Guest Blogging

Looking for a creative outlet without the commitment of starting your own blog? Or maybe you already have a blog and are looking for a fresh, new way to drive more traffic to it? The answer to both dilemmas could well be this: Do some guest blogging!

As summer approaches, I am seeing more and more bloggers announcing that they are going on vacation soon and need people to fill in for them while they are gone (why didn’t I think of that instead of just leaving you hanging for 10 days while I went and contracted influenza in Europe?).

Although you can’t usually expect to get paid for it, guest blogging is a great way to channel your creativity and add “published” pieces to your portfolio. And if you already have a blog, the exposure you get during your guest stint could probably win you a few new readers.

How do you go about finding opportunities to be a guest blogger? This post at ProBlogger gives some tips. And hey, I would be glad to look at any guest blogging ideas that any readers might have (just be sure they're relevant). Send them to me via the comments or loricateshand at yahoo dot com.

Ironing Out Details for a Hardcover Book

I've mentioned before that we're publishing our first hardcover trade title, The PITA Principle, this summer. We're in uncharted territory on a number of fronts, not the least of which is "How do you manage the details of producing a hardcover book?" We are so used to doing our softcovers that we are having to really study up to deal with the various aspects that are different for a hardcover, such as

• Designing a dust jacket: In addition to the usual front and back covers, we need to have a front flap and a back flap. I did research at the bookstore to figure out which text goes where. And we have to get a special template from the printer to show us the dimensions to use. And we have to decide whether we want matte or gloss finish, or a combination, and whether we want to emboss anything (make it stick up) on the cover.
• Picking a paper stock: We have to decide whether we want white or "natural," and how thick it needs to be to give us the spine width we want without going over the budget I set earlier.
• Selecting a color for the hardcover: We can choose from just a limited selection, and of course none of the colors matches our dust jacket exactly. So we have to go with something that complements it.
• Deciding whether to have a "spine wrap": That's the contrasting color band on the spine of some hardcover trade books. It costs more, so we're skipping it.
• Choosing a finish for the cover: We have several textures to choose from, from flat to leathery to dotty to something that looks like cloth.
• Finding a foil color: The title can be embossed on the front cover and spine using foil. We have to select the color of foil that looks nice with all our other colors and is readable. We've also decided to emboss just the spine and not the front cover.

Our challenge was to design the most appealing package for the audience without blowing the budget. I'm happy with the choices we've made and am now looking forward to seeing the finished book. But first...back to checking second-pass corrections on it!