Happy 29th, Again

What is your character’s attitude toward her birthday, and her age? Does she dread every passing year, or does she celebrate with a blow-out party that includes everyone she’s met in her life? When are the birthday’s of your character’s family? If you don’t know, you are missing out on a key area of characterization that you could explore.

More importantly, you may miss her birthday all together! If her birthday falls right into the middle of your story, your character wouldn’t completely forget. At the very least, she would comment to herself about how she is far too busy to go out with her friends this year. Perhaps she’ll miss visiting her parents, because she has now moved halfway across the country to start her new job. Are your character’s kids celebrating their birthdays with a crisis filled birthday party? Her new love interest may forget, and schedule his monthly golf game on the birthday weekend she expected him to take her to his beach side villa. Unless you know, your characters will never age, and gain the wisdom that comes with reflecting over the course of their lives so far.

What’s Your Sign?

Another consideration is that you or your characters may have an interest in exploring what their birthday stands for, in the universal scheme of things. Astrology and Numerology use a person’s birthday to determine their personality traits, and the possible issues they might have to deal with throughout their lives. If you are struggling to flesh out a character, you can look up their birthday, and discover how they might act in their relationships, careers, and home lives. If you don’t like what the results turn up, you can change their birthday to a different sign, and start over. Even if you don’t care about such things, your young college student heroine might read her horoscope every morning, and you ought to have an idea what it would say.

Other uses for birthdays include exploring what happened on that day in history. If your historical hero was born on the day the Civil War started, he would have a different upbringing than someone whose parents raised him during the Great Depression. Many websites and books have such “Day in the Life” descriptions, or you could scan old newspapers near your character’s real world hometown. Even less famous events could play into your character’s life, such as if she were born on the same day the water tower fell and flooded her home.

Planning For Other Character’s Birthdays

Even if your story covers a short amount of time, it is wise to know when all of your characters are born, not just your protagonist. She may be planning a surprise party for her best friend, when she suddenly loses her job and can’t afford to do so anymore. Your antagonist may decide to cause havoc on his birthday every year, because local bullies wrecked his 18th birthday party.

Birthdays are a great rite of passage that everyone goes through each year. It marks new growth, beginnings, and a chance to start life with a clean slate. Your characters could use these same milestones, to take your story in new and unexpected directions.

What do birthdays mean to you, and your stories? Have you explored how your characters react to growing a year older?

Editor’s Note: Know another birthday you shouldn’t forget? Writer’s Round-About! We’re turning 3 this month so come and win some prizes at our birthday bash.

Image credit: Dan Taylor

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Who will star in the book-to-movie adaptation of your novel?

As our characters develop during the writing process they grow in our mind. They start off as simple sketches. Insubstantial figments that act on strange whimsy. As we flesh out these strange creatures we discover personality, history, motivation, and depth. In time they take on a life of their own. We hear their voices in our heads and they begin to push the story rather than being resistant followers to our commands.

An effective way to increase the connection you have to your characters is to cast them. There are thousands of talented actors who could be cast into the role of your protagonist. Who would be their ideal counter and play the role of your antagonist? You could even select your supporting cast and run the credits through your mind.

Visualizing these stars acting out your book can help you delve into character and story. With an actor in mind scenes become almost movie-like in the mind’s eye. As I write a scene I see Jessica Alba as my protagonist. She becomes my character. She mirrors her spunk and fire. Her dark hair and eyes reflect the sense of disturbed darkness within my character. I see the scene unfold as if I were watching in high-definition and surround sound.

I haven’t cast my leading man yet. I’m considering Paul Walker but keeping my options open until someone feels “just right”. I find my hero much more difficult not only to picture in my mind’s eye but to feel and know. He’s still fragmented. I can’t “get” him. Perhaps that is why I haven’t been able to cast him. If I could find the perfect actor to play his part would I find myself more connected and attached. Who is this man and if any actor could play his part who would I choose?

Who would you cast in the movie of your novel? Does having your star in mind influence your writing and your sense of connection to your characters?

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However, I may not know what their favorite breakfast food is, what nervous habits they have, or their belief system. Some character attributes may not be needed in the preliminary stages of writing, but if I don’t know them up front, it can cause problems later on in the story. If I don’t know that the antagonist killed their parents in a war twenty years ago, then I have no idea why she is so determined to stop his reign of tyranny now.

Borrowing Attributes From Family

If I am unsure of my character’s attributes and motivations, I turn to an unending source of human characteristics – my friends and family. It doesn’t get more realistic than using actual traits and habits that other people have. However, you need to ensure that you don’t make a character who is exactly like your Uncle Bob, and ends up leaving his wife and developing a drug addiction. That could be perceived as slander, and cause ill will and even court cases between family members.

To avoid that possibility, I take observed characteristics and play mix and match. I might take my best friend’s eye twitch, add on my grandfather’s quiet attitude, and place those traits onto my protagonist’s thirty year old love interest. That way, there is no possibility of anyone seeing themselves within one character.

Also, allow the characteristics to change and grow throughout your story. Whereas my friend might twitch her eye when she is angry, my love interest character would twitch his eye when he is lying instead. His silent streak, borrowed from my grandfather, could go away completely by the end of the story, as he opens up and learns to trust the heroine.

Observe People Everywhere

Of course, family and friends aren’t the only possible sources for character creation. Inspiration is everywhere! Take your notebook and go to a crowded cafe, mall, or park. Make notes to yourself about specific attributes that catch your eye. Add these into the mix along with those traits you picked from your family, and you will have a completely different character. Even television, music, and online friends offer more character possibilities.

Once you’ve compiled your character, you might want to write out a character creation sheet, that lists all of the facts about the character that you know so far. This can range from hair and eye color, to identifiable habits, to primary and secondary motivations. Whatever you need for your story, you can outline, and add to or subtract from as necessary.

To further ensure that your character is differentiated enough from your family, write a short story that shows a “Day in the Life” of your hero. Let your family and friends read it, and see if they identify with the hero. If they do, you may need to change a few traits.

Have you ever drawn from real life people to create a character? What are your tips to ensuring you get just the right blend of fact and fiction?

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Why I Don’t Write from Outlines

Although I carefully map out my blog topics each month, I never write from an outline. This doesn’t change, whether I’m writing a full-length feature story or a quick SEO writing tip: no outline. I have my reasons — and they might surprise you.

Like the best poetry or even a song, an article or a blog post has a rhythm – a melody, a flowing cascade of words down the page. This is different from the “voice” of the writer; it is, for lack of a better term, the “life energy” of the article. A good article should transition smoothly between ideas, leading readers down the path the author wants them to follow.

Full-length feature writing, to me, is like a quiet, spontaneous Sunday drive. I often don’t know where I’m going until I get there. As I scan through pages of notes and quotes, the facts and figures jump out at me, taking their places in line, so that each paragraph leads into the next. Who needs an outline when I have the muse?

The words for a blog post or other Web content, on the other hand, fall fast and furious from my mind in a frenzy. If I took time to outline, I’d lose the idea. Often, blog posts are written before I even have time to think about where they’re going. I type and type — and then I’m done. With my sources in different tabs on my screen and the ideas forming a cloud in my mind, I just write until it’s done and then edit for clarity and conciseness.

Benefits of Outlining

Many writing books say you should outline because it helps a writer to see an article’s overall form and ensures you won’t forget an important fact. In most cases, until I do interviews and/or extensive research, I don’t know where the piece is going. Once I have finished my research and have my notes in front of me, an outline seems redundant.

Some new writers may be scared at staring at the blank page, unsure where their story is going or how they will get there. To me, this is the fun of writing. It’s all up to me – no constraints, no order until I make sense of it all. If I forget a fact because I didn’t have an outline, it probably didn’t belong in the story anyway. (It’s the literary equivalent of the philosophy that everything happens for a reason.)

It’s not exactly a blank page I’m working from either; I have my notes, my quotes. And in my head, there exists the faintest skeleton of an idea, ready to be fleshed out. It’s all up to me to put it together.

In that sense, I guess I do write from an outline. It’s just that the outline exists in my head.

Cast Your Writing Process Vote: Outline or Not?

What about you? What’s your writing process? Do you write detailed outlines? Rough notes? Draw a mindmap? Or do you prefer to wing it, like I do?

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But what about those in the middle grounds, who would like to know where the novel is going, but don’t know where to begin? Try mapping out the world of your novel, so you know what kind of boundaries, cultures, and governments your characters might have to deal with, along with what conflicts they might encounter along their way.

Why Create a Map?

A map is a visual reminder of the landscape of your novel’s world. This is especially important in novels where you are creating your own world, such as science fiction, fantasy, and some historical novels. However, even in modern fiction, you’ll need to know where your main character lives, where he works, and how long it takes him to get to various points throughout your fictional or real city. You don’t want to have huge inconsistencies, where it takes one hour to drive to the mall, and ten minutes to drive home!

You can use a map to show natural landmarks, man-made constructs, and other topographical items that your characters may have to navigate in the course of the novel. For example, your main character may want to ride her horse to the neighboring realm’s castle, but she (and you) discover there is a large river in the way with no bridge in sight! Instant plot conflict, which you and your character will have to deal with. Will she be able to cross? Will her horse be left with nearby tribesmen – whose settlement you sketched in nearby? Your map will become invaluable, adding additional depth and description to your novel.

Map Creation Techniques

To start, all you’ll need is some paper and pencils. It doesn’t matter if it is notebook paper, printer paper, or a sketchbook. You can choose colored pencils, or just a regular #2 pencil. Be sure you have an eraser around somewhere, as you’ll find yourself changing your mind throughout the creation of your novel’s map.

Decide what kind of scale you’ll be drawing at. All that means is that you will either draw your map street by street to detail your city, or city by city to show your world. For a city view map, you’ll want to highlight buildings of interest, such as a town hall, restaurants, malls, or homes. For a world view map, your cities will be dots, while landmarks will get more attention, such as mountain ranges, rivers, and forests.

Allow yourself to have fun! Your map doesn’t have to be perfect, and is for your eyes only. Of course, if you’ve drawn yourself and your characters into a corner, feel free to change anything that isn’t working. Just be sure to make the necessary changes to your novel’s plot if you decide to alter your map!

Have you ever sketched out your story’s world? Did you have fun letting your creativity flow in visual format? Would you try this method out for plotting your next novel?

Photo Credit: Renzo Ferrante

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Publishing houses (mostly based in Manhattan) selected elite writers — the best of the best — printed their books and worked with the authors to do marketing and promotions, as well as making sure those titles found their way to those precious bookstore shelves, into the hands of New York Times reviewers, and, ultimately, to the book-reading public.

If you publish your book through a traditional publisher, it still works that way — sort of. Today’s publishing houses expect today’s writers to do more of their own promotions and marketing, and to have a platform in place before the book even sees print.

But, more options exist than ever before to publish your book. Options for publishing include:

• Traditional print publishing
• ePublishing through an eBook publisher
• Self-publishing an eBook
• Self-publishing a print book

You can also combine these, offering an eBook version and a print version, either traditionally published or self-published.

Let’s look at some of the options for each, as well as the benefits and drawbacks.

Traditional publishing

A traditional publisher still has greater prestige, although that’s changing. You’ll get a team of marketing and publishing experts backing you up, along with a professionally-produced book cover and someone else to handle distribution. It’s not easy for first-time authors to get their book published through a traditional publisher, but I would never tell anyone it can’t be done. Make sure you have a platform established, write a killer proposal, and be prepared to market the title yourself — and, of course, have a great idea and quality manuscript. The best place to find a conventional publisher is still The Writer’s Market. Small press publishers are often more open to new authors than larger publishing houses.

ePublishing through an eBook publisher

Want a green solution to book publishing and distribution? eBooks are the way to go. The growing popularity of eBook readers such as Kindle makes eBooks a viable option to really rack up book sales. When you work with an eBook publisher, you’ll have the benefits of working with a professional editor, professionally-produced cover art, and sales and marketing support. You won’t earn 100% of the profits, but you may get an advance. To learn more, read our interview with Editor Julie Fletcher at Keith Publications, a new eBook publisher.

Self-publishing an eBook

When you self-publish an eBook, you get to keep 100% of the money you make, but everything falls on your shoulders. You’ll want to hire an editor (or at least a proofreader) to make sure your manuscript is picture perfect. You’ll need to commission people to create cover art, which could include a photographer and a graphic designer.

On the other hand, you get complete control over every aspect of your book, which is important to many authors.

If you’re going to self-publish an eBook, I suggest working with a company like Clickbank or e-Junkie. These companies are like giant malls with thousands of store owners looking to put your eBook on their shelves. Every time a reseller sells your book with their Clickbank or e-Junkie hoplink you’ll earn a commission.

You can sell your book independently, too, earning 100% on each copy you sell on your own. By joining Clickbank or e-Junkie and selling your eBook through the site, you also gain permission to sell products written by other authors, earning up to 75% on the sale of every eBook.

Self-publishing a print book

Similar benefits and drawbacks exist when self-publishing a printed version version of your book rather than an electronic version — and then you have to add the costs of printing.

Most self-publishers choose to use a print-on-demand method as these smaller print runs create lower upfront costs. The price per copy of your book may be higher than mass-produced alternatives but the risk is reduced. You won’t enjoy the advance you might get with a traditional publisher and, depending on the self-publisher you select, may or may not get marketing assistance. iUniverse offers several tiers of service, from full marketing support to simple print-on-demand services.

A lot of unscrupulous companies exist in the pay-to-publish market (such as the infamous PublishAmerica). Do your research before signing on with a company.
The website Preditors & Editors, a watchdog site for writers, is a good place to start.

You can see there are a lot of options available for publishing — far too many to cover comprehensively in one blog post. If you have a book in the works, I hope this article has gotten you thinking about the many options available so you can continue the research on your own and select the best method (or methods) to get your book in the hands of eager readers.

Do you have any tips to share about choosing a publishing method? Which option are you thinking of using when publishing next book?

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I’m the type of person who naturally finds great joy in encouraging others and being genuinely happy for them when they succeed or accomplish something that is important to them. Writing is no different. When fellow writers, bloggers, and/or authors get published in a new venue, I’m ecstatic – even if it is a publication I’d love to see my work in some day.

So, I wasn’t too thrilled when I attended a session at the festival where the speaker openly trashed authors who self-publish, and discouraged us from even considering it. This author was published by a pretty well-known publishing house (as you may have guessed already) and may have lost sight of writer’s passion?

I don’t know.

But it’s one thing to be published by a big publishing house; it’s another thing to demean other writers, burst their bubble, and make them just feel like all their hopes and dreams are forever shattered.

What’s the point in that?

I tried to focus on all the positive aspects of that festival. I met some kind and sincere authors there, including a 13-year-old young man who has already authored a book!

But the negative vibes from that speaker just rubbed me the wrong way. Why trash authors who self-publish? Why not be proud of your own success, and let other writers maintain a little dignity and hold on to some hope?

Yes, there are vanity publishers – that isn’t the way to go. But there are ways for authors to self-publish and be successful. Just because you self-publish, doesn’t mean you have to ignore grammar, plot, or end up with some sad, horrible book!

Unless things change, I plan on self-publishing several books in the future. Here are a few things I plan on doing to ensure my book(s) are high quality and do as well as possible.

1. Hire an editor. No matter how well we write errors may exist in our writing that we become blind to after spending extended periods with our own work. We need fresh eyes, a new perspective. An editor will have our back, and help make sure our book is the best it can be.
2. Write with passion. Just because we’re self-publishing, doesn’t mean we have to be boring or let our passion for polished work fade. It’s important to write compelling content that will inspire and interest readers no matter what form of publication it may take.
3. Promote and market. This is one aspect of self-publishing that the author at Missouri Literary Festival looked down on. Self-published authors market their own books. Um, don’t traditionally-published authors do that, too? There was an older gentleman at this meeting and he spoke up and said he worked with a big publishing house in New York for decades. In years past, they did most of the marketing. More recently, they asked him how HE planned on marketing his latest book. So, see? Times have changed and both traditionally- and self-published authors need to get the word out about their books.
4. Consider the cover. I won’t want the cover to be too busy – or too boring. It would take some thought, and I may even seek the services of a designer to really make it pop. Just because I have to select the cover design for myself doesn’t mean it can’t be well conceived.
5. Be true to myself. I learned this as a kid. One of my favorite people in the whole world taught it to me. If I’m not true to myself, how will I share my book with the world? If I don’t maintain a genuine, kind heart, how will I present my work to the world? How will I warm the hearts of my readership? My fellow writers? This is important!

What about you? What are your thoughts on self-publishing, or even e-publishing, versus the big publishing houses? Does it matter as long as you pour your heart and soul – and talent!! – into the pages between the cover? If you were to ever make it big and land a huge book deal with a big publishing company, would you feel like you were on a mountain top and not be able to see your old writing friends for the dust you’d left in their faces? Would you be the same person you are today? If you are already a published author? Which route did you go?

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Or are they?

Romantic heroes should have great qualities. Here are five qualities your heroes need to be well-rounded, believable characters:

1. Likeability

If you don’t like your hero, your reader won’t either. More importantly, neither will his intended love interest. No interest on the heroine’s part, no story regardless of how much your hero wants to be with her.

Even if he isn’t likeable in general at the beginning of your story, he has to have at least one likeable quality. He also needs potential to grow to be more likeable.

2. A flaw

Let’s face it: People aren’t perfect. Your hero shouldn’t be either. He needs to be flawed.

Give him a physical imperfection. He’s tall, dark, and handsome… with a limp. His face is badly scarred from being burned in a fire.

Give him a psychological imperfection. His uncle is a renegade vigilante who leads bands of clansmen to ambush rival clans as they travel. He’s a womanizer who has been told he has to get married or lose his title and position.

3. A love interest

While your hero could be narcissistic and love himself, he also needs to have an external love interest. What else is a romance but a story between two people, regardless of sexual orientation, as they fall in love and deal with the conflicts that arise as their relationship grows? Well, okay, it could also be a suspense, mystery, or historical, just to name a few. The lover needs to give the hero a reason to grow, to change. He can’t be the exact same person at the end of the story as he was at the beginning.

4. Other interests/events

Do you have one interest and only one interest in your life? I think the answer is no. You have more than one interest. Your hero should, too.

What else is going on in his life that takes his attention away from his one-and-only? War drags him away just as things are starting to get hot and heavy. Hunting takes him away for shorter times. Injury, and possibly near-death, keep him away for longer (but also serves for good growth in their relationship if his love interest is willing to act as his nurse). His job makes him travel cross-country. Football keeps him glued to the television on Mondays.

Give him something else to be interested in. Otherwise, you will have a flat character that no one – including you – cares about.

5. Motivation

What drives your character?

Other than spending time with his heroine, there is another driving force in your hero’s life. Perhaps it is protecting his people, getting a promotion, defending his family’s honor, or making enough money to live comfortably. Without motivation, your character is a dead-beat.

That’s not very romantic.

There are a lot of factors that go into creating a strong character. These five traits, while not exhaustive by any means, provide a good foundation for creating your hero. They are also not exclusive to men. Your heroines also need these qualities, which should complement the hero’s, at least in some ways.

Above all, your heroes and heroines need to be individuals and not cookie-cutter copies of previous characters with different names. Figuring out these main five traits will help develop their individuality. How else can you set your heroes and heroines apart from other characters?

Jen Nipps is a talented romance author and freelance writer/editor based in south-central Oklahoma, USA. She currently spends time in the hands of her love, the hero of her latest historical romance, “Trevor’s Triumph”.

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Hey Kat, thank you so very much for joining us this month. As you know, we’re all about “Romance and Relationships” at Writer’s Round-About this February and with Valentine’s Day just last Sunday, love is still on many of our minds.

1. You’ve written a series of historical romances already, what inspired you to begin these novels and to write in the historical romance genre?

Honestly? I had a dream that started the first book, “Kiernan’s Curse”. Half of the dream is the opening of the prologue. The other half is later on in the book. That’s really pretty much why I started writing the books. From the way Kiernan was dressed in the dream, I knew it had to be historical, but I didn’t know what era, so I had to do quite a bit of research to find that out.

2. There is at least one key relationship in any romance, what is involved in developing the relationship between your hero and heroine?

Mutual attraction brings them together initially and that does remain, but there has to be something more. And it’s not always about chemistry. No relationship is without conflict, so a big part of why they’re together is how they work things out. It’s different for each one, but the key is that they grow individually and as a couple with each one.

3. What do you think is the most important aspect a character needs to truly connect with your readers?

Likeability. Even the antagonists need to have at least one likeable trait. You hear about characters people love to hate. That’s because there was something the readers identified with that they actually liked in the character even if they (thought they) hated them.

4. Do you find this aspect is also what brings your Hero and Heroine together?

Definitely! If the hero & heroine weren’t likeable, there’d be no reason for the story.

5. Although the romantic relationship between your Hero and Heroine is the most significant in a romance novel, do you think it is important for the characters in romance novels to have relationships with additional characters? How do these other relationships benefit the story?

Again, definitely! Without the other relationships, the story is flat and readers don’t really get to know the characters as people. That’s important to me in books I read, so I want to give the same feeling in my books.

6. Recently, you mentioned that your current work-in-progress, “Trevor’s Triumph might be the steamiest of the three…”, what makes a romance novel “steamy”?

I have a friend/mentor who would say the “smut factor” makes a romance novel steamy.

Sexual tension definitely contributes to the steaminess of it. Some romance novels stop there. I don’t. I actually go behind closed doors. In the beginning of the book, if Trevor lived in modern times and were a woman, he’d be called a slut. He meets the woman he’s supposed to be with and immediately gets the hots for her. He respects her father, the head of another clan, so he doesn’t try to get into her skirts (yet), but he goes back home and gives himself a hand-job. That’s in chapter two. (I’ve had another hero do that, but not until quite a bit later in the book.)

I do my best to keep from including such scenes gratuitously, but I can’t give a guarantee that all of them (usually 2 per story, if that many) are absolutely 100% necessary.

7. One of the aspects that make romance novels distinctive is the broad variation of “love scenes“, from the tender caress, to the no-holds-barred sex scene. What do you think is most important when writing these kinds of scenes?

Even with a no-holds-barred scene, you’ve got to leave some things to the imagination. Otherwise, it borders on porn. While I might write erotic scenes, I don’t do porn. Some writers do (and I’ve actually read some that has been done well). I try to be erotic without being too smutty.

The most important thing in these scenes, other than the imagination factor, is if the scene works. How does a love scene work? If you get turned on. At a conference one time, I heard a romance writer (I can’t remember who at the moment) said if you get turned on writing the scene, your reader will when they read it. And you know the scene works.

8. What do you think is the true purpose of “love scenes” in romance writing?

I think it varies. Sometimes it’s meant to show that the main characters are sexually compatible. Sometimes it’s to show some character development. I try to do a bit of both in the scenes I include.

9. Reflecting on the novels you’ve written yourself, which lines stand out the most in your own memory? Why do you think you’re drawn to those in particular?

Do you mean actual lines I’ve written? That’s a tough one.

In “Navajo Rose”, which is a contemporary romantic suspense, it’s during the second intimate scene with Paige and Ricky. The first one, she panicked and made him stop. Here’s the bit from the second one that stands out the most for me:

• She squeezed lightly and smiled when he moaned. She did it again and sat up to give him a lick.
  He stopped her then. “I can’t do that right now.” It sounded as if someone else spoke. He had never heard his voice so husky.
  “Then what?”
  “If I start, Paige, I won’t be able to stop.”
  She frowned and growled at him. “I’d kill you if you stopped right now.”
  His shaft jerked at her tone. “I don’t have a condom.”
  “I don’t care!” She squeezed again.

The key part of it is where he tells her he wouldn’t be able to stop.

10. Which book do you think has had the greatest impact on your romance writing? Why do you think it influences you so greatly?

I don’t think there’s one book in particular. There are four authors who do, though: Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Karen Marie Moning, and Katie MacAlister. Each of them have some aspects that I try to learn from. With Sherrilyn & Katie, it’s their immediacy. With Karen, it’s her description. With Christine, it’s the closeness to her characters. (They all have great closeness, but with her Ghost Walker Series, it’s even more pronounced since they’re all somehow psychically enhanced.)

Here’s a little secret: The first sex scene I ever wrote, I read one of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s intimate scenes (I think it was in Dark Side of the Moon) as a kind of guide as to how to structure it. *s*

Thank you again for your time, Kat. I truly appreciate having this opportunity to share in your experiences. Writing for the romance genre can be particularly challenging but it’s a very popular theme and it has universal appeal. We all want to experience a little love in our lives. Writing romance must be a wonderful way to be immersed in the sensation of new love and the roller-coaster of romantic relationships.

What do YOU think makes a romance “steamy”? Have you read a love scene that really turned you on? What do you think is the true purpose of “love scenes” in romance writing? Have you ever written any of your own?

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In the first part of our two-part interview with Maine-based author Jennifer Greenleaf, we talked about her Virtual Book Signing Tour, taking place this entire weekend.

A master marketer, prolific author, mixed media artist, and mother, Jenny Greenleaf doesn’t believe in getting locked into one niche in her writing – or in her life. Her current titles include:

• 101 Mixed-Media Art Projects, How-To’s & Ideas: A Beginner’s Guide to Messy Art With No Rules
• Maine Living: One Writer’s Perspective
• While We’re Apart: A Fill in the Blank Book
• While We’re Still Apart: A Fill in the Blank Book

Her goal for 2010 is 12 publications in 12 months. In the second part of this interview, Jenny shares her extensive knowledge of the publishing industry.

You have five books already published, and three coming out soon … how long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing professionally since 1999, but my book writing experience started in 2006 (with The WonderDads Handbook for Raising a Girl Ages 0-10: A Month-by-Month Look at What to Expect, Developmental Tips, & Ideas for Activities: releasing spring 2010).  Prior to that, you could say I’ve been a writer ever since I could hold a crayon – it’s been an active part of my life for as long as I can remember.

Do you have an agent?
I don’t have an agent, though I did have an agent interested in my work in 2002.  I found him when I was researching how to sell some gift books I had drawn, then life got in the way and the project was put on hold.  The process of writing the book proposal and querying the agent was far more difficult than working on the books, which I found quite interesting.  I sent out 40 queries, and received one positive response out of all that work.

Who is publishing your titles?
WonderDads is currently publishing The WonderDads Handbook For Raising a Girl Ages 0-10, and I believe I found them through freelancewritinggigs.com. I sent them a query with clips, we did a phone interview, and then we sealed the deal with a contract.  It was a very simple process, and one I wish would repeat itself over and over!  I didn’t have to shop around the idea because they were looking for authors to write specific titles.  The rest of my titles are published through CreateSpace.com.

Why did you opt to go the self-publishing route?
I ran into a lot of “issues” with traditional publishers.  I’m the type of person who needs control over the book’s content, as well as how it is presented on the page… I found myself butting heads a lot over these issues and desires, so I decided to forego it all and self-publish.

I’ve noticed that, while publishing houses do offer support in many ways there’s still a lot the authors have to do. So, there’s a lot of marketing and promotional efforts put on to the author’s shoulders that mirrors the efforts made by the self-published author.

Do you feel there’s still a stigma attached to self-publishing, or is that gone/nearly gone?
For some there is, but I’ve seen a greater acceptance for self-publishing compared to when I first heard of it in 2002.  Back then, those who self-published were often referred to as “slush pile writers” who couldn’t make the grade.  Now, self-publishing is viewed more as a business model is better understood.  When I learned that many authors, like Julia Cameron, started out as self-published authors I realized that those who turn their nose up at it might not know the true history of the matter and how beneficial it could be.

Would you recommend this route to most writers?
If you have the background, why not?  I’ve been writing professionally for ten years, so I feel like I have a lot under my belt in terms of quality and proven ability.  I wouldn’t recommend it to a novice writer because, after all, learning the ropes about the craft and business of writing is daunting for many without throwing in how to successfully market and publicize the book(s).

Is it your ultimate goal to have these titles picked up by a publisher, or is that not a consideration with your business model?
My goal, really, is to get the work into people’s hands.  I would love to see these books enjoyed and used by many.  If that means the work will be noticed and picked up by a publisher, that would be something to consider.

Thank you for being so generous with your time Jennifer. We want to wish you the greatest success with your writing goals and hope your books reach the many people whose lives you want to touch.

If you’d like to experience one or more of Jennifer’s books these four are available from Amazon right now and remember, this weekend Jennifer is also doing a virtual book signing, if you email her a copy of your receipt she’ll ship you out a custom bookplate designed and signed by Jennifer Greenleaf.

Join the conversation and share your comments on Jennifer Greenleaf, Part 2: On Publishing. I hope you enjoyed this post from Writer's Round-About. If you'd like to read more like this visit the site and subscribe to our RSS.