Steve Mwase: 2015 Winner of The Voice Achievers Award!

Steve Mwase won The Voice Achievers Award: Outstanding African Writer Award. The award will be presented on October 22 and 23, 2015, in The Netherlands.

"Mr. Mwase, you were a unanimous choice because of your tremendous contributions to the development, advancement and general awareness as a writer from Africa, blending your new cultural environment, the Netherlands with your African heritage, exposing the beauty of Africa. You are an exemplary leader and a rare breed of excellence whose quality of character and sincerity of purpose places you on the platform of a role model and a mentor to African youths." 

The Achievers Voice Award Committee wrote in their letter to Mr. Mwase on 4 September 2015.

STEVE MWASE was born in the district of Busoga in Uganda. He joined the army in 1979, as a cadet officer following the fall of Uganda's renown dictator, Idi Amin Dada, and served in the army for fifteen years. In 1995, Steve relocated to The Netherlands where he developed a career as a writer. His first novel, LIFE AFTER A DICTATOR, was published in 2011. DUNIA is his second novel. He is currently working on a third novel, Exodus.

We at Cactus Rain Publishing are extremely proud to be witness to Steve's success.

To learn more about The Voice Achievers Award, look at this: 

www.thevoiceachieversaward.com/about

Achieve Greatness!

Two weeks ago I was interviewed on the topic of inspiring others to greatness. Not that I'm an expert, but I am a student of the topic and I have endeavored to be self-aware enough to improve every day. On the days that I fall short, then I begin again, renewed in effort. 

I believe that an empty vessel cannot fill another vessel, so it is important to find things and people and beliefs that nurture. 

At one point I gave a reference to a video that I watch frequently. The premise is simple. It takes just a bit more effort to achieve greatness than to be average.

It goes something like this: 211 degrees is hot water. At 212 degrees water boils. Boiling water makes steam. Steam powers a locomotive.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDgKdjf7M4I

That is all you need to know. One extra degree of effort makes all the difference; it makes greatness.

Slow Down! Sloooow Down!

While it makes sense in the human perspective to be excited that you've come to the point of submitting your ms for review, try not to rush through this exclusively important piece of the process.

You get one shot at a "First Impression," so don't blow it.

When I open the sample chapters and see a wonky looking file, I wonder what else you've rush through about the work.

Have you read it aloud from a printed format? You should. That is what I'm going to do if I have any interest in your work after reading the first page.

Use Control + * (in Word) to reveal hidden formatting symbols. Even without doing that and looking closely at your ms, you should notice that some of the quotation marks (especially the ending ones) are backward. Fix those.

I understand that quite a few beginning writers don't know that the first line of a new chapter is flush with the margin. I can overlook that. It is an easy fix.

But, you all should know that paragraphs begin with an indent; tab not spaced over with the spacebar. The idea of letting the software dictate your format is absolutely silly. If you've allowed the software to add a space between paragraphs with no indent for the new paragraph, that isn't the fiction format.

Look at the print novels from major publishers that you have on hand. Do they have a space between paragraphs? Nope. Now, go find a text book and look at that layout. Spaces between paragraphs! And by the way, we do not publish text books, so back track and fix your formatting...even if you are querying a literary agent or some other publisher.

You want to get things as right as you can because of that First Impression thing that happens when we first open your file.

Yes, of course, we read your sample chapters. We look for all of the elements that make a work great. However, we are small and if the formatting is going to be overly time consuming, we might pass if we have other works in the queue.

You've put a lot of time into your ms, present it in the best light possible with a darn good query letter, synopsis, and polished sample chapters.

Give yourself and your work the chance you deserve.

First Edition

Because it is so easy to self-publish, both ebooks and paper books, people leap before they look. The only problem with that is if the work isn't professional level, it won't gain traction.

 

I casually collect first editions. It is all the better if they are signed. While getting a personalized signature from an author seems the way to go, unless the author and I know each other, I'd just as soon that they don't personalize it to me. But that is my preference. I'm not a serious collector, so I'm free to do it my way.

 

Nonetheless, as a publisher, I'm less enthused about publishing a second edition than a first edition. Of course, it depends on the circumstance of the first edition, but it does weigh heavily in our decision to move forward on a project.

 

What is a first edition? It is the first publication of a book. These days, that includes ebooks, though I find ebooks a bit difficult to add to my library of first editions because they fall over on the shelf (kidding), so they don't interest me (true).

 

Obviously, a first edition is not the first version of a book. They start as a manuscript and hopefully by the time it is submitted in a query, it is not the first draft.

 

After the ms is under contract, depending on the publisher, a galley copy will be printed; printed, not published. This is an extremely small print run; extremely small. This copy is sent to book reviewers and sometimes to book purchasers for major book retailers. It is a rough copy of the book with the purpose of introducing the work to reviewers who will later help "put the word out" about the book that is timed with the actual publication.

 

The reason that Cactus Rain rarely prints galley copies is that very few small time reviewers, bloggers, or even book reviewers for hire, understand that this is not the finished product. They may comment on the grammar or some other non-item for a galley copy, whereas professional book reviewers understand that the purpose is to get the basics of the story into their hands. It is like tasting the cookie dough. It isn't a real cookie yet, but a preview of what the cookie will taste like when it is baked.

 

(If you're interested in collecting galley copies of books, some can be had at used book stores in NY City.)

 

Fast forward through a lot of dusting and polishing of the manuscript (ms) and designing the cover art, and a proof copy is printed. After revisions or corrections, ta-da! the real book goes into print and that is ... the first edition.

 

Querying a work that has already been published is a bit like going to the dealership to buy a new car and being shown the used car section. You might find a good car, but it isn't a new car.

 

Want to know more about first editions? Look here: http://www.biblio.com/book-collecting/basics/what-is-a-first-edition/

 

 

Synopsis Writing

Quite a few people are realizing their dream of writing a novel. We have been inundated with queries in the last three or four months.

There are two things that beginning authors fail to do before they query:

1. Dust and polish their ms. (I have written several blogs over the years about this, and no doubt, I will write about this again.)
2. Write a professional grade SYNOPSIS.

After hours, days, months, and often years writing the ms, it is worth the time to research what comes next. I just googled SYNOPSIS and found many useful links regarding synopsis writing.

Here is my version of the basics to a synopsis in a nutshell:

1. A synopsis is a one page document
2. It is single spaced lines
3. It is written in third person
4. It tells the summary of the whole story from beginning to end
5. Yes, it tells how the story ends
6. It introduces the main character
7. It tells who the antagonist is
8. It tells the conflict that starts the story for the main character
9. It tells what the goal is for the main character; what they need to resolve and why
10. It tells the barriers to reaching that goal; the antagonist's actions
11. It tells the setting
12. It tells the time period
13. It tells the genre
14. It tells the word count

What a synopsis is not:

1. It is not a vague paragraph about why the ms was written
2. It is not about the author or their writing experience
3. It is not the back of a book blurb

It has come to the point that we are not responding to queries that do not have an adequate synopsis. Previously, I wrote a reply asking for a synopsis. Sometimes the person would respond that it was in the query letter -- um, no it wasn't or I wouldn't have asked for it and it is a standalone document.

 

Since we are receiving so many queries that we could spend the whole day with that one task, we are not moving past the inadequate synopsis to read the sample chapters. We are a small publisher. We don't have time to spend on an incomplete querry -- sorry. I think of Cactus Rain Publishing as a proving ground for the writer to gain experience and move on to bigger and better things.

 

We are not a "for hire" publisher. Our money goes into publishing our books. Honestly, writing to us that your lover, parent, or high school English teacher loved your ms isn't the same as them putting their money and expertise into your project. I don't care who else loved your ms, what has to happen is that Judith and I love your ms.

 

We don't publish a ton of books a month. We don't crank them out like some sort of paper version of a puppy mill. What we publish is damn good. We contract out some pieces of the process to experts in that area. Again, what we publish is damn good.

 

We are looking for writers who read the submission requirements on our website:

http://www.CactusRainPublishing.com/submissions.html
...And follow them.

 

We are happy to work with first time novelists. However, we do expect that person will present us with their best, professional quality work. 

 

Write your best work. Give it your best pitch to us, another publisher, or a literary agent. You can do this. This is the next step.

Query: Speed Dating?

This week I was showing off the proof book for GRAVE. My friend has no writing or publishing connections, but had good questions about the process. The analogy that queries were like speed dating was made.

I have no experience with speed dating, but perhaps it is a good analogy of how books are selected. Then again, maybe not.

Judith and I read every query letter, synopsis, and sample chapters. We both have to agree on the merit of the work before we go forward with the project. We've never discussed our style, but this is how it looks for me to read the submissions:

The letter:
What's the tone? What does it tell me about the ms and the author? Does it look like they read the submission guidelines?

www.cactusrainpublishing.com/submissions.html

The synopsis:
Does it follow the industry standard for a synopsis? Those of you who know to put the character names in all caps get extra points. That tells me that you have done some research on how to write a synopsis. 

The sample chapters:
There should only be three chapters. I'm looking for a quick hook that isn't a tease. I'm looking at style and voice. I'm looking at dialogue and whether everyone speaks exactly the same, or hopefully not. Good grammar and a working knowledge of punctuation is a plus. But, if everything else grabs me, I know that our certified proofreader Anita Beery will correct all of the errors. 

This is where the speed dating comes in, I guess. I click "Show/Hide" (control and *) to look at the level of computer skills of the writer. This shows if there isn't a page break between chapters, it shows if things are centered with a million spacebar (or tab key) strokes, it shows if there are two blank spaces between sentences, and it shows the random spacebar stroke between words or at the start of paragraphs. 

Besides the show/hide thing, I look at details like the backward quote mark (caused by a space between the word and the quote mark). This is just one example of the things the writer should have caught and corrected before they submitted the sample.

This makes me think that the writer did not look at their work before they sent it. Or maybe they think they are so wonderful, that they are exempt from doing a good job.

I don't know what that means in the big scheme of things. Are they sloppy? Do they rush through things? Are they not taking this industry seriously? Do they think small publishers have lower standards?

When you're asking a stranger to fund your book, do look at what you are submitting in the light of a business arrangement.

Write your best story. Give it every chance of success by taking the time to make sure that you submit your best sample of your ability and your ms. This is your one chance to impress us.

No News is Good News

I have no idea where all of the queries come from. We do no advertising, no ad words, no ANY-THING, but we get tons of queries each month. It started out that 9 out of 10 queries were horrible. But that isn't the case now.

If we haven't sent an email saying that we are passing or it isn't a good fit, or we don't publish that (didn't you read the submission guidelines???), then Judith and I are working our way though the stack and your submission is still pending.

I suppose the only good thing about that is we don't take vetting lightly and we give your submission a serious reading.

So chin up. Keep sending out queries (don't put all your eggs in one basket) and keep the faith.

Boring writing

My friend Irene Watson and I would have long conversations about writing and the publishing industry. (She has passed now.) I found one of her posts that I want to pass on to everyone about boring descriptions.

First, (or firstly if you speak British English), whether or not you've taken writing classes at uni, you have some sense of pacing. It happens in everyday conversation, music (tempo), and even how we walk.

In writing pacing is driven by telling and showing. It is demonstrated by the length of the sentences and paragraphs, and even chapter length.

One of the most common edits that I do to an ms is cut the wordiness and make the sentence content straightforward.

Here are a couple of examples:

• Some 20 or 30 feet away... change that to one or the other number of feet and delete "some."
• It was about 9:00 pm...change that to it was 9:00 PM.

You get the picture. Most writers have pet words that get infused into the writing too often. They are vague words that keep the writing from being crisp and fluid.

Every word and every sentence needs to be purposeful. If it doesn't move the story forward, then cut it. The same is true of characters. If they don't serve a purpose to move the story forward, they need to be in some other ms.

Anyway...check out Irene's blog.

http://www.bloggingauthors.com/blogging_authors/2012/7/15/writing-description-without-boring-readers.html

(I'm not sure why that didn't turn into a clickable link. It is worth copying and pasting into your browser. Give it a try.)

Catching my attention

Every acquisition editor has their own style. It is 50% subjective and 100% business decisions.

I recently read that publishers will pass on a great story by an unknown writer for one nearly as good by an author who has a following and a good track record of sales; which makes sense on the business side of things. Name recognition (branding) counts in retail.

Just like any reader, the opening has to hook me. That's one reason that I don't care for prologues. I've said many times to start the story where it starts. If the prologue is important, put it into the book proper. Is that a hard-fast rule with me? Apparently not.

Raise your hand if you've heard a million times not to start a story like this: "It was a dark and stormy night," Paul Clifford, 1830, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I like that imagery. And I love the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities, 1859, Charles Dickens.

Here is what I loved at first sight about the Cactus Rain Publishing books.

The Doctor, The Plutocrat, and The Mendacious Minister, by Glyn Pope. This story opens at a train station where the main character is introduced though an incident with one of the most colorful locals, Reg. It is a great opening and full of British humor. The difficult thing about writing anything humorous is that once the punch line is known, it isn't as funny. While not intended as a humorous book, it is very funny in the way that I've come to expect from British sit-coms. It shows the naive young doctor's attempts to "do good" in the post WW II village and actually unravel the structure that holds things together. Sorry for the spoiler, but unfortunately, this book is out of print because it was pirated. There are a few remainders. If you want to purchase one, email me at
info@CactusRainPublishing.com 

The Lacemaker's Daughter, by Diane Keziah Robertson. I love stories about strong women, even though this is about a strong young girl who overcomes difficulties to keep herself and her younger crippled brother alive. It shows the kindness of key people in the village. At times it is one step forward and two back, but as tired as she gets, she carries on and does what is required of her. It tells of sibling love. And it has a fairy tale ending. I do love books that have a feel good sense about them.

PASSENGERS, also by Diane Keziah Robertson. It revisits the setting of The Lacemaker's Daughter, but what is interesting to me is how Diane weaved the six passengers' lives and story throughout the novel. I've read books published by big publishers that tell the story of multiple people and hated them -- did not finish reading any of them. While PASSENGERS was complicated to edit, it is not complicated to read. Diane is a fantastic story teller. The characters are well developed and the pacing is great. As much as I loved the main characters, there are several secondary characters I'm hoping that Diane includes in a next novel -- hint, hint, Diane, if you're reading this.

Damsels of June, by Kira Vorobiyova. This is a mischievous story about a young girl in Kiev, Ukraine. She and two friends from dancing class run about the city chasing a mystery, only to be surrounded by colorful underworld characters. There is adult content, but if you're expecting 50 Shades of Grey, you'll discover that there are only hints at what the spinster piano teacher does in her free time. But the ending reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's style. Fade black. Drop the curtain. Then sit back and wonder what just happened. It's all there, read it again.

Dunia, by Steve Mwase. See the previous post for a video interview with Steve. Dunia is the Swahili word for "world." What I like about this story is the "grass is greener" thought process of the north and south peoples. The idea of conquest is the first thought, rather than one of collaboration between the two cultures. It is just as distressful to read about the sensless meanness as to watch a bully in action on the playground. It is a timeless story that is playing out now.

GRAVE. by J.C. Dreger. Coming soon and well worth the wait. Right off this reminded me of a Clint Eastwood movie. It isn't a western, but it has the mysterious stranger who comes to town and quietly gets everyone's attention -- one way or another. He is steadfast in his sense of right and wrong. He chooses issues rather than sides. He takes risks to fight for the weak. And there is this quizzical guy with a white parasol who watches from afar. He reminds me of the old man in Milagro Beanfield War, 1988, Universal Pictures; based on the book of the same name by John Nichols. Once again, it is a story of good overcoming not so good. Everything about reading this book plays soundtracks of great movies in my mind.

Obviously, there is a theme to the books that Judith and I select. Check them out at
www.CactusRainPublishing.com

Dunia

Set in a past that parallels the present and future, this is a story about a land called Dunia mothering two races of people – the light-skinned and the dark-skinned. A large body of water bisects Dunia into two parts. Each part becomes a sovereign state at the center of cultural, spiritual, political and military rivalries caused by climate change.

 https://youtu.be/yOSXZIfrIbw