Press Send- Part 1

“PRESS SEND- PART 1”

Hi everyone. I want to thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog for my five week blog series. Follow me from the beginning to where I am now. Hopefully you might pick up some ideas. Hey, maybe you can even give some!

Remember every time you leave a comment your name is entered into a drawing and at the end of the series someone will win a copy of one of my backlist titles!

I will monitor the comments and make sure all you cats are being nice. While I want you to express your opinion I will not tolerate any negative words directed to the commenter’s. I reserve the right to delete comments at my discretion.

PLEASE NOTE- I AM NOT AN EXPERT. THIS BLOG IS MY OWN STORY. ANY ADVICE OR TIPS GIVEN IS STRICTLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH.

Now with all that out of the way let’s get started.

One question I always get is- how long have I been writing.

My answer- Forever.

Or at least it seems like it. Okay a little background here.

My dad (who will be mentioned a lot) has been an aspiring writer my entire life. As a child he wrote children books. This is one of my best memories. He would write after I went to bed. The next night he would read me what he wrote. I still remember the airplane story with the dog.

So me being a daddy’s girl wanted to be just like him. At about eleven or twelve (my own daughter’s age) I started writing short stories in a spiral notebook. (Yes I still have the spirals.)
Writing has always been in my life. Reading too for that matter. But more on that later.
Anyway, so I have always written as a hobby or for school projects.

I started my first manuscript for submission in the Spring of 2008. It was published October of 2008.

Second question I get a lot- Why e-publishing?

My answer- Why not?

So there I was after leaving a job I hated for nine years at a new job. Where I basically answered the phone and sat there. Talk about your long and boring days.

That is when I got back into reading. I always had a book with me as a child/ teenager. But after having my daughter I hadn’t read a book in years. My sister introduced me to the Stephanie Plum books. Which I loved. But my sister-in-law introduced me to other books. Books with a little more HOTNESS! Which I looooooooved!!!!!

Since I was able to read at work I started to find authors I liked, then loved, and then couldn’t live without. Hello Nora Roberts/ JD Robb, Christine Feehan, Angela Knight, and Emma Holly.
But… like most good things I had two problems.

1. We don’t have a bookstore in my town. I know, it should illegal not have a good bookstore. But our Walden’s in the mall closed down years ago.

2. My second problem, damn books cost a lot of money.

While I am at this job I also get into social networking. Namely- MySpace.

And WOW I am introduced to e-books.

I start grabbing them up! E-books are much more affordable than most of the hardcover books out there. I find genres I really like and authors become my favorite. But esp. I find certain sites I like to buy from. (You know publishers)

So when I decided to write my own e-book of course I went to my favorite publisher’s website to see their submission guidelines.

So here is your first HINT for submitting.

Ask yourself-

Would I buy an e-book from them?

Do they have a good updated website? How long have they been in business?

Do they have new releases weekly, monthly, that is also important. You don’t want your book sitting there 12 months waiting to be published after you have a contract.

Are their submission guidelines straight forward? Can you understand what they want?

And most of all- Buy some of their books and see what they publish! That is the best way to check to see if they do a good job editing the book, and any problems you find, now keep in mind there is always room for human error. But if every page in the book has a typo there is a problem.

After a couple of months of reading the 15-25k stories I just knew I could do it. Lol! If I only knew then. But I sat down and during the day job had seven hours to get my story down. And I wrote and wrote and wrote.

And learned more about myself than I thought I would ever. Who knew I had a problem finishing things!

Tip #2-

Are you on the social networking? Myspace, Facebook, yahoo groups, etc. If you are- start friending authors. If you are interested in e-publishing read their blogs. There are several authors who posted about being published that really helped me.

Yahoo Groups- This is the best way to read what is happening in the publishing world. Get involved, ask questions, if won't hurt- trust me.

Does your favorite author have a website or blog? Check it out! I found on one author's website where she had posted email addresses for agents and publishers she recommended.

So there you have how long I have been writing and some tips on picking an e-publisher. Next week join me for how I submitted my first manuscripts. Three went out in a week. One got contracted.

And feel free to ask questions you would like answered or share your own stories to help others.
Don’t forget every comment enters you into the contest at the end of the series.

Crissy Smith

http://www.crissysmith.net