Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Category: Online publishing

A Fresh Spot for Personal Essays

Whether you're looking for a market for your personal essay or just enjoy reading great pieces, check out FRESH YARN , the online salon for personal essays. Every month the site presents six new personal narrative essays from writers in various fields — TV, film, journalism, fiction — as well as other creative types. It is created, hosted and edited by award-winning author Hillary Carlip, whose latest memoir is Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan

Posted by Julie on October 11, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Online publishing
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New online literary magazine: Wild River Review

Check out Wild River Review, a new online magazine. The first issue is available now:

Wild River Review showcases the finest works of creative prose, poetry, and contemporary visual artists. We will continually search for and offer high-quality inventive voices, experimental themes, and erudite subjects along with riveting images from around the world.

Readers are encouraged to follow different paths through the magazine?s menu, making their favorite choices from interviews, columns, blogs, novel excerpts, and essays as well as short stories, poems, and original artwork. We want to hear from you, foster connections, and build a community of writers, artists, and readers.

The Wild River Review is accepting submissions in these categories:

  • Fiction
  • Non-Fiction
  • Science Fiction/Horror/Fantasy/Mystery/Romance/Thriller
  • Poetry
  • Comics and Graphic Stories
  • Art

Check their submissions guidlines for more details.

Posted by Cindy on February 16, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Calls for submissions, Online publishing

The writer as blogger

I've written before about Neil Gaiman, the author of many sci-fi and graphic novels, and how he uses his website to stay connected with fans. The Business-Standard offiers a brief but useful profile of how readers perceive his blog:

A professional writer for more than 20 years, Gaiman has been at the forefront of the revolution that has seen comics and graphic novels gain a measure of literary respectability; his Sandman series is one of the most highly regarded works in the genre. Now, his official website has a cult following that rivals his published work ?with 400,000 unique visitors per month in 2004, and close to 600,000 per month expected in 2005. Gaiman?s online journal (which forms a section of the website) is syndicated to thousands of blog readers every day, and provides treasured insights into the writer?s inspiration, style, and working method.

(Link thanks to Syntax of Things.)

Posted by Cindy on August 24, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing
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More on Google Print

Google is, not surprisingly, running into controversy regarding its new Google Print program (about which we posted previously). According to PublishersWeekly:

Google says it's making changes that will accomodate publishers objecting to its Google Print for Libraries program, the biggest of which is that it will allow publishers not to participate. Publishers, however, were not appeased.

Essentially, the company is making the program an opt-out instead of an opt-in, allowing houses who contact them about Google Print for Libraries to pull books. (Earlier, the firm had said that all books would be a part of it regardless of publisher preference, in part because only snippets of these works were being made available.)

The company's Adam Smith, senior business product manager for Google Product and Google Scholar, said Google "still maintains that legally this isn't something that's required" but is doing this "in the interest of balancing the needs of publishers and users."

Publishers are notoriously protective of online rights, so it's to be expected that they would try to block or fight the program. And it's unlikely that Google has been "surprised" by their reaction, even though they claim to be.

All the same, I repeat my recommendation that authors do what they can to get their books listed in Google Print. You'll want to work with your publisher, without fail. Think through carefully how much of your work you want to have published online -- an extended excerpt could be enough to appear in relevant searches. Your goal should be to reach as wide an audience as possible, through useful search mechanisms. Google Print sure seems to be an innovative tool, one you should check out.

Posted by Cindy on August 12, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Online publishing

Promote your books on Google

Google is testing a new service called Google Print. Here's how they explain it:

Google's mission is to organize the world's information, but much of that information isn't yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily ? right in your Google search results.

How does Google Print work?
Just do a search on the Google Print homepage. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "Buy this Book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title?s bibliographic data and brief snippets). You can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it.

Where do these books come from?
The book content in Google Print comes from two sources: publishers and libraries.

And that's where you come in. As an author of a book, you can submit it to the system, so that it shows up in searches. Potentially, people everywhere will be able to discover your work.

If your book was published by a company, you'll want to work with your publisher on this. The Google site offers a page of publisher information, including rights concerns and reasons why it would be smart to be included.

If you self-published your book, you're free to submit right away. Make sure you've got the book's ISBN number handy and get cracking.

Posted by Cindy on August 03, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing

Inbox novel: The Daughters of Freya

An intriguing idea: a fictional story played out real-time through emails, delivered straight to your mailbox in readable doses. Jane Perrone of the Guardian Unlimited describes it:

The story centres around a journalist called Samantha Dempsey, who begins to investigate a cult in California that recruits women to sleep with strangers to bring about world peace. She does so after getting a desperate email from a friend whose daughter has been inveigled into the group, known as the Daughters of Freya.

It's as though some invisible IT gremlin is bcc'ing on you on a series of juicy messages as they're sent: a "24" via email, if you like.

The story is The Daughters of Freya, written by Michael Betcherman and David Diamond. At the low, low price of $7.49 US ($9.99 Cdn), this novel is a bargain for mystery lovers -- so long as they don't mind waiting for the next chapter to arrive in their inbox.

I signed up for the free preview. While this isn't my sort of mystery -- I'm more inclined to Donald E. Westlake or Elmore Leonard -- its topical combination of sex and cults putting young women in peril will hit many readers' hot buttons.

More importantly to us at Fat Plum, this demonstrates an interesting way to get your book read. It's not traditional publishing by a long shot, but if your story is good then word of mouth will spread (and quickly on the Internet). When it comes time for you to sell your next book, publishers will be more likely to take notice.

Posted by Cindy C on April 06, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing

"Written from 12:26 to 12:47 (I got a phone call for one minute) in my awesome windowless office."

The third-place winner in McSweeney's Twenty-Minute Stories Contest has been published: Goodbye Ernie Flynn by Wendy Molyneux.

For three days now I have been followed by an ambulance. I first noticed it while I was driving home from a lecture I gave at a museum. I am not an artist or an art historian. I work for a company called Safety Net. We help employers figure out if any of their employees are shoplifting, embezzling, or planning heists. It is my job to teach the employees how to spot colleagues who might be stealing or planning to steal. I also teach the employees how to resist if any of their colleagues try to rope them into some sort of scheme. All of our teachings are based on Christian principles, but we don't tell them that. Not everyone believes the same way, and I accept that.

Posted by Cindy on May 07, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration, Online publishing, Recommended