Non-Fiction Authors: Opportunities Abound

I have bookshelves everywhere in my home. If you look at my shelves, you will see I have a lot of literary classics, poetry books, art, reference, and science books, among others.

I also have a lot of popular books with wide market appeal. Like everyone, I’m interested in books that will instruct me on how to save time, make money, stay healthy, have a fulfilling career, and improve myself in some ways.

If you’re interested in writing a non-fiction book, remember that  people want to learn about the above topics and a host of other ones of instructional nature. These types of books are marketable because they help people solve problems.

You must choose a marketable topic for your book. With the millions of books being sold today, every subject has been written about. However, that’s okay. As a non-fiction author, you can find a different angle or fresh approach. People are hungry for information. Write about what you know. But first, ask yourself if there is a need or desire for your book.

Remember, no matter who you are,  you know some topic better than most people. Consider your hobbies, interests, jobs you’ve  held, accomplishments or honors.

“Books In Print” and “Forthcoming Books In Print”  will tell you what books are already in print or scheduled for publication, respectively. Inquire through your local library about these valuable resources and whether they are available  online.

Read some of the books in your subject area that you discover. Can you fill a gap that they haven’t covered? You can if you think hard enough.

Consider trends. You want to write a book that will not become obsolete in a year. Consider the difference between a trend and just a fad. You want your book to sell for many years to come. Don’t think so much in terms of what’s hot now, but of what will be hot a year or more from now.  If you don’t think ahead, your book’s topic could even be obsolete on the day it’s published.

Below, are some books on my shelves, some that were written long ago, but are timeless.

1)   The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking, by Dale Carnegie

2)  Mary Gilliatt’s Shortcuts to Great Decorating

3) What Should I Do with My Life, by Po Bronson

4) Cooking Can Be Fun, by Zoe Shippen

5) What to Say and How to Say It For All Occasions, by David Belson

6) Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, by Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner

7) Success, by J. Pincott, ed.

8) Get a Life Without Sacrificing Your Career, by Dianna Booher

9) 101 Ways to Promote Yourself, by Raleigh Pinskey

10) The Older Cat: Recognizing Decline & Extending Life, by Dan Poynter and Stephen G. Lewis

11) Making Decisions, by Dean Francis Juniper

Be savvy, like the authors of the books above. Planning ahead and thinking things through will make you a successful non-fiction author.

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

 

Authors: Book Covers Are Vital to Your Book’s Success

If you read the comments after my post, “Writing a Book? Your Title Is Key,” you noticed that William Sheehan, one of my followers, asked me to address the topic of book covers. The Wall Street Journal once published, “You can’t tell—but you can sell–a book by its cover.”

I believe this is true from my experience of writing and publishing four titles. The cover of your book is a sales tool, just as much as its function is to protect the book. According to the Wall Street Journal, the average bookstore browser who picks up a book, spends eight seconds reading the front cover and 15 seconds reading the back cover. Of course, at first, the spine with the book’s title catches the browser’s eye, otherwise he wouldn’t have pulled the book off the shelf. The front cover with the title, perhaps a subtitle that further identifies the subject, and the author’s name, should have an illustration or photograph with appeal and impact.

It’s important for you as a writer to visit bookstores and look at the covers of similar books on the shelf. Your cover must intrigue in some way. The spine of the book has the title, author’s name, and can even have some symbol that relates to the subject matter of the book. If your book is about love, you could have a heart-shaped symbol on the spine. The spine is your first sales tool.

As for the back cover, it should not only contain information about what the book is about, but it should also have comments written by others about your book, such as pre-publication reviews of it, or testimonials from colleagues about your expertise. The back cover can include your photo, too. If you include a photo, it must, of course, be a good one. If you’ve written a book on a serious professional topic such as death and dying, chances are, a photo with a great big smile on your face may be inappropriate.

Study book covers–spine, front, and back– to get a feel for what they are all about, and how you can attract the browser’s attention. You don’t have much space on the back cover so make each word count.

As an example of how book covers are important, I’ll tell you about an experience I once had. I’ve never written a gothic novel, but I bought one for a friend who loved reading them. I remember buying one with a front cover that contained a woman fleeing from a strange- looking man. I don’t remember the title or author of the book, but I do remember the artwork on the cover. The cover attracts the reader. Its art must reflect the mood or tone of the book. As for color, to take an obvious example, you wouldn’t want to have a cheerful bright yellow cover, if you wrote a book on death and dying.

Below, I’ve reprinted my comment to William Sheehan about book covers, and I’ve also reprinted Merrill Gonzales’ comment on color. I interviewed Merrill for one of my previous posts, as she is a talented haiku poet and artist.

William, I only briefly referred to book covers in my blog. So, thanks for asking. As for the cover, bright colors stand out. Red is always a nice color for a book cover. It calls attention to the reader, particularly if it’s a non-fiction book that deals with an issue or problem. For example, my book “Everything You need to Know About Nursing Homes,” has a red cover because I want the subject matter to stand out and alert people to a problem. I also have a red book cover on my book “You Can Be A Columnist” because it can, in certain cases, also convey something upbeat. It just depends on the subject matter.

I tend to think white covers should only be used if you have a literary book like a poetry book. That would give it a nice clean look. A conservative, serious look.

Yellow, orange or purple covers would appeal to children.

You obviously understand the nature of your book and the ideas you want to convey, so you can offer cover suggestions to the graphic artist. A good artist works with concepts to promote the subject matter of the book and design it accordingly. A graphic artist can consult with the author about color.

For example, my book “Your Original Personal Ad: The Complete Guide to Expressing Your Unique Sentiments to Find Your Dream Person” has a gold cover. This is very appropriate for the subject matter. It also gives it a gifty look so people would even feel comfortable giving it to a friend who is looking for a mate. The cover is stunning with designs of quirky people writing ads and also reading newspapers for ads.

My book, “Beginners’ Guide to Writing & Selling Quality Features” has a blue cover with red and white lettering. Blue with red and white lettering is very attractive. The design with “Article Accepted” obviously attracts readers.

My “You Can Be A Columnist” has a quirky design of an old-fashioned typewriter just like the famous columnists in past decades used.

If you had a sci-fi novel, I would think deep purple would attract readers.

Again, a good graphic artist should work with the author to come up with something appropriate, and it’s important to work with one specifically versed in book covers. Everyone is a specialist these days, after all.

Hope this helps, William, and thanks for reading my blog and commenting! Keep writing your poetry!

In summary, just be sure your book cover “sings” out to readers from the bookshelf.

Artist Merrill Gonzales says:

Color has a great literature of psychological influences on us… red tends to energize, pink tends to calm; blue and green tend to relax; orange is a color of gregariousness, yellow is often forward looking…. and so on. You learn that blue gives distance to a painting, whereas yellow brings it forward. It’s a very interesting science and one worth studying.

If you learned one thing from this post, it’s that once you’ve written a book, you, as the author, will need to be involved at least to some extent in the production of it. Always be helpful, and offer your publisher and the graphic artist suggestions on any concepts you may have in mind for cover art.

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

Writing a Book? Your Title is Key

If you’re writing a book or thinking of writing one, consider that the title of that book is extremely important. Good titles sell books, just like attractive book covers do. A good title will grab the readers’ attention so they’ll buy it or check it out at the library. Your book may be a great one, but it won’t get discovered as easily if the title is ho-hum.

Through the decades, I’ve seen some really great titles on bookstore shelves. If your writing a book, investigate the titles of similar books, and strive to do better with your title. Remember, too, that a title must be understandable, particularly with non-fiction. If one doesn’t understand a non-fiction title, one may not always investigate the book’s back cover that tells what it’s about.

Make your title engaging. If it’s non-fiction, you can include a sub-title to clarify the title. With non-fiction, often a title that is effective includes an action-packed verb. Or, an effective title is one that piques your curiosity with its cleverness, while at the same time being comprehensible.

I’ve listed some books below with good titles, some of which I’ve read, others that I intend to read once I have some time:

Non-Fiction:

1) The Unabashed Self-Promoter’s Guide by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

2) From Victim to Victor: A Step-by-Step Guide for Ending the Nightmare of Identity Theft, By Mari J. Frank, Esq.

3) Live Your Road Trip Dream, by Phil and Carol White.

4) Time Outs for Grown-ups: 5-Minute Smile Breaks, by Sheila Buska.

5) Too Smart To Be Rich: On Being A Yuffie* Young Urban Failure, by Patty Friedmann

6) Winning the Pain Game, by Bill Code, M.D.

7) The Absolute Beginner’s Cookbook Or How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg?, by Jackie Eddy and Eleanor Clark

8) Body Esteem: Weight Loss Through Self-Discovery, by Sherri Dawson

Fiction:

1) Disposable Girl, by Kate Moulton

2) Wearing the Spider, by Susan E. Schaab

3) The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

4) Rage of Angels, by Sidney Sheldon

5) The Devil’s Alternative, by Frederick Forsyth

6) Looking for Mr. Goodbar, by Judith Rossner

7) The Street Life Series: Is It Suicide or Murder?, by Kevin M. Weeks

Children’s:

1) Sad Sam, Glad Sam, by L.E. Rainey

2) I Can Be Anything Creative Activity Book, by Betsy Chasse and Gary Craig

3) Hunting for Hidden Gold, by Franklin Dixon

4) If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff

5) The Littlest Angel, by Charles Tazewell

6) The Tale of Jemina Puddle-Duck, by Beatrix Potter

7) The Silver Slippers, by Elizabeth Koda-Callan

It’s always helpful to brainstorm for titles, and then try them out on friends or fellow writers. Their first reaction may be telling!

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

Writer Hooked on Japanese-Style Poetry

Terri L. French is the new Southeast Regional Coordinator of the Haiku Society of America, and she brings to the position a varied professional background. With a degree in journalism, she’s published feature pieces in newspapers. However, she earns a living as a Licensed Massage Therapist.

Terri began writing poetry as a child and took a serious interest in haiku about five years ago. Her book of haiku, A Ladybug on My Words, illustrated by Logan, her son, was self-published in 2011. Born and raised in Michigan, she and her husband make their home in Huntsville, Alabama. They have four children and three cats.

Terri, her husband Ray, and Poets Curtis Dunlap and Susan Nelson Myers recently penned the first renray (a linked collaborative poem), that appeared in the September 2011 edition of Notes from the Gean.

Her haiku, senryu (humorous haiku), haibun (prose and haiku), haiga (art and haiku), and tanka (five-line lyrical Japanese-style poetry), have appeared in various journals, including Frogpond, Daily Haiku, A Hundred Gourds, Prune Juice, Paper Wasp, Moonbathing, South by Southeast, and Modern Haiku.

I recently interviewed Terri about her love for Japanese-style poetry.

Tell us about your journalistic and professional background, and how you discovered haiku?

I received my BA in Journalism in 1981, but was never much of a cutthroat news reporter. I’ve written for several small papers throughout the years, preferring feature pieces about people doing interesting things in their personal lives and for their communities.

I must be honest, I don’t remember how I became exposed to haiku. I don’t recall writing it in school. I think I wrote my first “haiku” in the five-seven-five syllable format about thirty years ago, then put them aside and went on to other things. I rediscovered these haiku years later, started researching haiku, and decided to write a journalistic article about the form. I interviewed several people for the article, including longtime Haikuist Michael Dylan Welch. I was bold (or silly) enough to share my own poor attempts at haiku with him, and he became a very patient and instructive mentor.

Do you find haiku easy to write or hard to write?

I don’t necessarily think haiku is hard to write, though at times it is difficult to get into the right frame of mind to write it. I write better haiku when I have my “me time”–time to read, rest, walk in the woods and reflect. Sometimes my first drafts are the best, other times I edit–that’s where the journalism background comes in handy.

Have you written any haiku that express happiness?

I have a witty and dry sense of humor so “i” love to write whimsical haiku and silly tongue-in-cheek senryu. Here are a couple:

even my old Slinky rests
after
three
steps

Prune Juice, Issue 6, Summer, 2011

autumn winds
campaign signs
shifting positions

Daily Haiku, Cycle 10, February 15, 2011

Have you written any haiku that express sadness?

I do write sad haiku as well. In nature and in life there is sadness as well as happiness, but I usually try to add humor and hopefulness in my sadder haiku.

after chemo–
finding more beauty
in the petal bare bloom

Second Place “With Words” International Online Haiku Competition, 2010.

lighting the tiki torches
he thinks of
an old flame

From Terri’s book, “A Ladybug on My Words”

What are some samples of your other work?

If I may, I’d like to share a short haibun, which is my favorite form to write because it combines concise, almost journalistic prose with haiku.

Expectancy

My cheeks burn and the salt of my sweat stings my eyes. The soil is still damp from yesterday’s downpour. Turning it exposes a half dozen ecstatic earthworms. I work a week’s worth of coffee grounds around plants heavy with ripening fruit and urge Mother Earth to hasten her delivery.

barely blushing
I ask if you’re ready
tomato season

Contemporary Haibun Online, Oct. 1, 2011, Vol. 7, No. 3

Terri’s poetry is lovely, and her writing credits are numerous, as listed below.

• Selected as A Daily Contributor for Daily Haiku, Cycle 10 – 2010-2011.

• Selected, with her husband, Ray, in the haigaonline Collaborative Haiga Family Challenge, December, 2010.

• Poetry selected for Limestone Dust Poetry Anthology, 2010 and 2011.

• Second Place “With Words” International Online Haiku Competition, 2010.

• Alabama Writer’s Conclave, Second Place Non-Fiction Category, 2011.

• Top Ten Writer’s Digest Poetic Asides Haiku Contest, 2011.

• Work to be included in Carving Darkness, Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku, 2012.

• Work selected for the Snapshot Press Anthology, 2012.

If you’d like to purchase Terri’s book, A Ladybug on My Words, which will inspire you to write, you may either log onto Amazon or contact Terri directly by email to receive an autographed copy. Her email address is: terri.l.french@gmail.com.

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

 

Multi-Talented Writer Captivates a Wide Audience

From non-fiction and fiction to poetry, Marsh Muirhead of Minnesota is an accomplished writer. I’d already been enjoying Muirhead’s haiku for years, when I read an essay about his work, featured in Modern Haiku journal. At that time, I also became aware that he was successfully published not only in other forms of poetry, but that he was a talented fiction and non-fiction author.

Muirhead’s popular book, Key West Explained—A Guide for The Traveler, is a concise, lavishly illustrated book that is entertaining. The book offers his personal insights on traditions in Key West, lodging, dining, and fun activities. Further, he covers love, sex, romance, drinking, biking, and keeping the kids busy.

When he’s not working as a dentist or flight instructor, he’s advancing his writing abilities and getting published in a variety of journals.
His Key West guide is the result of about 50 trips there since 1986, “in all seasons for all reasons.” He goes there to write and do photography, to attend literary events and workshops, to enjoy the sun, “the stories and the rum.” His book has sold more than a thousand copies on Amazon alone.

Muirhead is not only a savvy writer, he is a savvy marketer of his work. He researched how to sell a book on Amazon and read all the other guidebooks on the Keys. “Having a very narrow topic and book title helped in attracting attention, as did chapters on love, sex, romance and drinking—something most guidebooks do not address.” Muirhead describes Key West as “tropical, literary, bizarre—a garden of delights for any writer.”

 

Below, is a recent interview with Muirhead:

1) Tell us about your professional background.

I am, by day, a dentist and a part-time flight instructor and commercial pilot. I received an MA in English from Bemidji State University in 1990 after practicing dentistry for several years, finally understanding that I was a writer, or maybe more to the point, an observer, more than anything else. The degree was a way to formalize my efforts, broaden my reading base, review the nuances of grammar and syntax.

2) When did you start getting published?

I have been writing non-fiction (magazine stuff—aviation, auto racing, commentaries for the local public radio station) for twenty-five years or so. I was also writing short stories, and short shorts, publishing some of both here and there. I liked writing short and shorter, the 500-word limit on some of the micro fiction contests I was entering. I like the task of seeing how much can be said in the fewest number of words. I took workshops from Billy Collins and Charlie Trumbull in 2007, and have been writing poetry and haiku ever since.

3) Why do you enjoy writing poetry?

I love the idea of taking the germ of an idea—an observation, an overheard conversation—for a walk so to speak, a line at a time, seeing where you end up. And sometimes, mulling this observation around in your head, on the page, a little miracle happens—a line drops out of your subconscious onto the page. Some of my best haiku just sort of appeared suddenly, with little effort of cogitation as I recall, although in truth what happens is that all your previous reading and experience gets perfectly connected as a result of both chance and readiness.

4) What poetic forms do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy free verse and formally structured poetry, the way form and idea seem to find each other. I was on a villanelle kick for a while and I’ve tried to write sonnets—not very successfully. But in working within a given form, new relationships and some surprises occur. Some of my free verse poems and haiku started as formal poems. The form found the treasure, but then the treasure, in revision, was better stated otherwise—if that makes sense.

5) Who are your favorite poets?

Billy Collins, Jane Hirshfield, Charles Simic, Kay Ryan, James Tate, Stephen Dunn, and Todd Boss, but the list is always changing. I’ve taken workshops from five of these because I loved their work, compared my own with theirs, thought they offered work that I could grow from and try, and, in my own way, to imitate. I have several “favorite” haiku poets, but I always perk up when I see the work of Barry George and Janelle Barrera. Perhaps because I know them, can hear their voice in the poem, and have a sense of how they observe the world, their haiku feel so “spot on,” funny, and clever.

6) Below are a few of Muirhead’s favorite published poems:

Public Radio

When feeling too much of
Public Radio and progress,
charity and hopefulness,
living well and healthfully,
I switch to Country and Western,
long dark cigars and Jack Daniels.
I speed and hunt without a license,
flirt with check out girls
half my age, let the badger loose,
let the rain come in my window,
custom sills be damned.
I add more salt, eat toast
soggy with butter,
suck out all the flavor that toast
can have. Screw my annuity,
every drug my doctor might advise,
all the assurances of a life
everlasting, if everlasting
isn’t right for me.

–Finalist at the 2008 Robert Frost Poetry Festival contest, Key West

Thin Ice

The island, a quarter mile out in the river–
nine days frozen over, a dusting of snow,
the dilemma: is the ice thick enough?

The river runs beneath, left to right,
under a glass skin, the silent lifestream
sliding underfoot, under footprints in the snow as

south to north I leave the safety of one shore to another,
tapping with a heavy stick, walking slowly,
listening for any creak or snap or breach in the surface.

I reach the island, build a fire, eat my cold sandwich,
wait for the stingy November sun to set behind clouds
whose flakes have dusted over my tracks,

the path I try to remember, tapping back in the dark,
testing the distance, finding some way
from here to that other side.

–Fire Ring Voices, Bemidji State University, 2007

Releasing the Animals (the anti-haiku)

I am releasing
the animals
from their three-barred jails

the seventeen
shackles
of their confinement

the prohibition
keeping them from
seasons not their own

setting the frogs
free of the pond
that plop in water

cicadas
their
summer slavery

walking sticks
herons
beetles and geese

free to travel
any climate
any month

accepted in
comparison
not a cutting word in sight

crows allowed
a wedding in the tropics
the cemetery vacant

let the rabbit
in winter
reside in Palm Springs

let them all be
like something else
if they like

let seem
be the finale
of any line

–Modern Haiku, 41.1. Winner of the Robert Frost Poetry Festival Prize in 2009.

Above all, Muirhead proves that you can have a busy life and still be a successful writer. Those interested in getting a copy of Muirhead’s Key West guide can log onto Amazon. If you’d like an autographed copy, you can contact Muirhead by email, mgmuirhead@midco.net

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

Haiku: Beauty in Brevity

Recently, I was asked to write a long essay for a university anthology on haiku. Therefore, haiku has been on my mind a lot recently, and I’d like to bring out some relevant points about it in this post.

People often ask me if you have to be a Buddhist to write haiku. No, you don’t have to be a Buddhist. I am not one. But keep in mind that life is short. You don’t want to go through it without stopping to appreciate the little things around you while you are waiting at the red light or walking to the grocery store.

If you have had experience as a freelance writer of articles or as a staff journalist, you are used to writing with an economy of words. This will likely help you get used to writing haiku. Many haiku beginners find it especially difficult to be parsimonious with words.

Recognize these significant aspects of haiku:

1) It is insightful, dealing with human nature, your fellow man, nature, or anything around you. The fun is often in discovering the various levels of a haiku’s meaning.

2) Haiku helps us to share our emotions in a subtle way. In so doing, we dust ourselves off, and understand ourselves better. It is good therapy without seeking counseling.

3) Buddhist thought and sensibilities run through haiku, telling us that life is not always beautiful, but that we should appreciate the beautiful moments. Haiku, written in the present tense, allow us to capture these beautiful moments.

4) Use your observational skills to write haiku and develop a “camera eye.” Freeze an image in time by writing a haiku.

5) Consider yourself an artist. Paint a picture, only with words. Haiku is imagistic poetry.

6) Indulge yourself with the free things in life– the scenes around you. Appreciate nature, the seasons, and human scenes through your five senses. You can discover correspondences between nature and yourself–how you are feeling, how you experience life. We are one with nature.

walking by sun
along the frozen lake
i melt into winter

–Charlotte Digregorio
Haiku Society of America Anthology 2009

after reading
the morning newspaper
i step out into gray

–Charlotte Digregorio
bottle rockets #21, Aug. 2009

If you don’t know much about haiku, read the many posts on this blog that deal with it. You’ll begin to develop an idea of what it’s all about. My blogs feature a lot of haiku written by others, and even interviews with haiku poets. You can also read about related Japanese forms like tanka.

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.

Is Writer’s Block Becoming A Common Excuse For You?

Post these affirmations to your desk or on your computer when Writer’s Block becomes too familiar to you:

1) My greatest piece is yet to come.
2) I can write. I have knowledge, wisdom, and discernment.
3) I have a “camera eye” for ideas.
4) I will write at least one page today.
5) I will write beautifully like an impressionist painter who does art.
6) I have a way with words.
7) My mind absorbs everything around me.
8) I will submit at least one piece for publication this month.
9) I have the courage to talk to anyone about achieving my writing goals.
10) I will get one piece accepted for publication this month.

Further, read an inspiring story or book about someone who did something courageous. Then, writing won’t seem so daunting. For example, I suggest the book, “Across African Sand,” by Phil Deutschle. He was stalked by lions, charged by a herd of enraged elephants, and he encountered poisonous snakes in his travels. Is writing that scary?

Finally, just tell yourself that Writer’s Block is for blockheads and that you are intelligent. You are an intelligent person because you choose to write and keep learning about things.

Write, simply write!

Copyright 2012 by Charlotte Digregorio.