Plan B

There was no new information forthcoming about the picture in the post below or its photographer. Bummer. Someone somewhere must know of its source, but this post didn't become far reaching enough to connect with the creator.

 

Thus the idea for Plan B. We want to use this photo in a cover art. Next best thing is to put the word out that we are looking for a photo similar to the photo below. We would like a photo of a fat-footed little girl dancing on her daddy's feet. We'd like the sense of ease that this is a common occurance between these two.

 

Does anyone know of such a photo? Please ask around.

Need HELP!

We are looking for the person who holds the rights to this photo. (See below.) Please post this on your social media accounts and help us out with finding this photographer.

Any assistance is appreciated. Post away and see how far reaching you can send this request.

I might even come up with a gift for the person who locates this photographer or the right's holder.

This is where we found the photo. No response from them to date...

http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/32-wonderful-creative-and-unique-ways-to-take-a-family-photos-youre-gonna-love-this/ 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all the writers out there!

 

If last year is any indication of a popular resolution for writers to make, then there will be a pile of manuscripts in our email coming soon.
 

Congratulations to you for finishing your manuscript. This is an exciting time to move it out your door and into ours.
 

We thoroughly vet every ms that meets the submission criteria found here:
http://www.cactusrainpublishing.com/submissions.html

Spend time working out the perfect industry standard query letter. There is no prize to be first to submit. The prize (publication) is in submitting your best work. You get one shot at making a good first impression. Take your time and show us your best work.
 

The advice I give you, whether you submit your manuscript to Cactus Rain Publishing, another publisher or a literary agent, is to print your ms on paper and read it aloud before you submit it to anyone. If the voice in your head tells you that you don’t need to follow that suggestion exactly, then you probably aren’t ready to send your ms to us.
 

Printing it on paper will show you how it will look to us. You should be willing to fund the cost of a ream of paper when you expect someone else to spend hundreds of times that cost to publishing your manuscript. If it isn’t worth your investment, them it might not be worth ours.
 

Reading it out loud will help you catch content mistakes where the person walked out of the room, then four paragraphs later, walked out of the room. Right, there is no mention of returning to the room after the first exit. Another thing that reading it aloud will help you catch are the miles long paragraphs. Creative use of a semicolon doesn’t really impress us. Read about pacing and see how your work improves by shortening some of those sentences and paragraphs!
 

That last sentence reminds me to warn against excessive use of the exclamation point. If everything that the character says is followed by an exclamation point, they need to get put on medication and dial it down a bit.
 

Whether your manuscript is finished or is still a work in progress, when you submit it, make sure you are submitting your best work.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving today, and every day.

 

May a thankful heart color every moment of our lives.

 

Will Bookstores Come Back?

Only people who have never had a conversation with me would not know my feelings about books; paper books, that is. I don't care what anyone says, ebooks are not books, they are digitized manuscripts. (I bet that comment makes me lots of friends.)

This book was published in 1848. That's a book!

I'm fairly certain that an ebook won't last 158 years. Just saying...

Here is another of my treasured books to share with you. This was my mother's book of Bryant's Poems. I loved this book during my teen-aged-poetry stage.

And this little book of essays was published in 1907.

The copyright is on the front cover...I hope you can see it. I can click on the picture to make it larger. Can you?

Back to my point. Amazon is opening a physical bookstore in Seattle, Washington, on November 3rd -- yes! It is a bit ironic that the online book seller that helped fuel the end to many bookstores has brought the industry full circle. 


Check out the article here! Amazon opens Bookstore 

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.