Deborah Woehr

It’s been a while since I talked about Prosperity, but I’m happy to say that I’m finally approaching the end. Over the past two weeks, the ideas have been blooming. Then a humdinger for an ending hit me last night and stayed long enough to cement itself inside my mind.

I’ve got about 15,000 words left before I reach my word count goal. Whether the the story will fall short or a bit over, I can’t say. But I’m excited by the fact that I’m almost finished. I was hoping to get it done and published by the end of this year. That’s not going to happen because I need to do a final edit. So my goal is to have it available by the spring of 2007.

Lately, I’m bouncing back and forth between submitting the manuscript to traditional publishers versus self-publishing it. The big drawback to traditional publishing is (if I can get the manuscript accepted) the waiting time between acceptance and actual publication. A collegue of mine submitted his manuscript to Leisure, who decided to accept it, only to have it sit for two years before he pulled it and submitted it to another publisher. As of this date, the manuscript hasn’t seen the light of day.

This drawback has made self-publishing look more promising, despite its stigmas. I was very happy with the Lulu process until it I saw how clunky their ordering system was. For instance, I tried to ship a copy of the anthology to a friend in Canada, but Lulu wouldn’t allow me to ship anywhere inside that country accept for some military province. Then John told me that he couldn’t order the anthology directly from the site because his PayPal account name didn’t match with his Lulu account name.

On the flipside, I was very pleased at the speed in which the anthology got listed on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Not only that, but it got listed on Tesco, which is UK’s equivalent of Walmart, I think. It’s a very popular retail chain, according to John.

I’ll make my decision once the final edit is done. In the meantime, I’ll check out Lightning Source, which costs a pretty penny ($500) to see if I have to establish my own publishing company first before I use their service.

Then I have to write a compelling synopsis, which I’ve yet to do. Would any of you be interested in critiquing it, if I post it here?

Over the past month, I’ve been lurking/commenting on the blogs of writers who are participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo contest. I’ve particpated in the last two contests, but this year I passed on NaNoWriMo due to time constraints and a lack of ideas. I hope to participate next year.

I’ve yet to reach the 50,000 mark, and I’ll tell you why. I read the word “contest” and get all jazzed because I love games. Then I get nervous over the possibility of failure. I drew up an outline the first year and managed to write about 25,000 words before the deadline, most of it on a blog I’d created for this contest.

Despite the favorable comments from readers, my inner critic screamed, “It’s not good enough! Look at this plot hole. This character isn’t behaving the way I expected him/her to behave.” The list goes on and on. I’m my own worst enemy.

Last year, I read several posts from writers who said that NaNoWriMo caused major writers blocks not only with their contest projects but with their WIPs. As a result, they had to take a break from writing for several weeks. They put too much pressure on themselves to the point where they were crippled.

This year, I’m seeing some backlash against NaNoWriMo. Eric Rosenfield Wet Asphalt says, “NaNoWriMo trivializes novel writing.”

Yes, it does. That’s what it was meant to do. I remember reading the guidelines on the NaNoWri website. They don’t care if we write masterpieces. All they care about is the word count.

But we do care. We’ve been conditioned from the very beginning by how-to books as well as the writing and publishing communities to strive for the best writing we can produce. Many of us can’t shed this conditioning and fold halfway through the month because we enter this contest with high expectations and standards.

I feel that the real challenge of NaNoWriMo is allowing ourselves to have fun by breaking the rules (self-imposed or industry-imposed) of writing. What are your thoughts?

The reactions of the people when they lifted their blindfold are hysterical. For all my American friends, hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This is an excerpt of an interview of me, given by Laura Spencer, who writes for Associated Content. I’ve given interviews of other writers for The Buzz in the past, but this was the first time I’ve ever been interviewed.

Deborah Woehr’s popular blog, The Writers Buzz, highlights the work of new authors by posting excerpts and reviews of their books. Deborah also has a blog under her own name at www.deborahwoehr.com where she comments on the writing industry and on her writing experience. She also blogs professionally for Syntagma Media.

When she makes observations about writing and about books, Deborah knows what she’s talking about. Deborah is an editor, a writer, and (of course) a blogger. She recently created the 2006 Writer’s Blog Anthology, and has several other books are currently in progress.

The reviews and excerpts on Deborah’s The Writers Buzz cover a wide variety of genres. From fiction to nonfiction, from Young Adult to Horror, from Romance to Politics - this blog reviews them all. In the interview that follows, Deborah shares a few of her favorite titles.

Deborah Woehr’s blogging skills have already landed her a spot on the C-List at Blogebrity and The Writers Buzz has the potential to become even more popular as booklovers and writers explore them as a way to discover and discuss favorite new books.

Recently, I caught up with Deborah and she kindly agreed to the following interview. I think you’ll find that she’s got some interesting things to say about blogging, publishing, and where the writing industry is going.

Read more at: Deborah Woehr of the Writers Buzz

I found “Blooks” Are in Bloom while researching for information to answer a question for an interview. Yes, I’m being profiled. More on that later.

Big-name publishers such as Putnam and Little, Brown & Co. have begun releasing books based on blogs. “I am now more open to blogs than I would have been [before],” says Judy Clain, executive editor at Little, Brown. And a dozen new businesses have sprung up with the intent of helping scribes turn their blogs into books. Blogbasedbooks.com, specializing in blooks, has set up shop on the Net.

I checked out their website and found one blook about the stewardess who got fired for posting “inappropriate” pictures of herself in uniform on her blog. That doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but the Reality TV crowd will surely love it.

I’d be more apt to buy one of the Iraqi soldier blooks or the Julie & Julia blook (a blogger’s experience with cooking Julia Child recipes). It’s comforting to know that sensationalists aren’t the only ones who are attracting publishers.

I’ll be watching this trend over the next year to see if it “takes off” with the public eye. If it does, then we may be witness to a new publishing revolution.

How many of you have written a blook or are writing one right now? If you’re not, would you consider this option?

Amazon: I’ve submitted a contact update, plus signed up for the “search inside the book” program. You can’t order the book directly from Amazon yet, but there are six sellers in the Amazon Marketplace who are selling it.

Borders: It appears that you can buy directly from them.

I also found the book listed on Buy.com!

Trying to target an audience for the anthology proved to be difficult due to the multiple genres in this collection. If I had to do it all over again, I would have narrowed the anthology’s focus to fiction or nonfiction. Then I would have narrowed that down to a specific genre.

That said, I’ve narrowed the anthology’s marketing field to two possible audiences: writers who haven’t started a blog and are looking to promote their books online, and the public/private education system. I’m finding that I still have to tell people what a blog is because, despite all the media attention blogs have received over the past two years.

The challenge I face is educating the general public what a blog is and how they will benefit from reading blogs about their favorite subjects. I’ve chosen two possible markets for the anthology.

1. English teachers and their students, ranging from junior high age on up to college. I’ve read several posts from writers who have said how blogging has improved their writing and research skills. I’m going to approach my oldest son’s english teacher to see if she would be interested in having me come to class for a presentation.

2. Writers. I’m looking for writers who may or may not have heard of blogging. Although I’ve found many net-savvy writers in my surfing travels, I’m still reading about how many writers don’t have a website, much less a blog. I plan on reaching this audience through writer’s magazines via informative articles about blogging and (possibly) blogger profiles in different writing genres.