When notes and critique become a balm for the soul

Cross posted from Blogetary 2.0

The proofreader at work, besides coming in to proof for us a few days a month, used to teach high school English, and now coaches kids on how to prepare for college. She's also a mom and a grandmother, and all round nice person.

When she comes in, we snatch the occasional brief conversation here and again. Since I proofread outside of work and used to write and proofread and such for a research (read term paper mill) company, we meet in a unique place. So, when I published "Gramma and the Giant Tomato Worm" last month, I thought she might enjoy reading a copy. The only copy I had I needed to go through for errors, but she said once I had a final copy, she'd love to see it. So, the next day, I brought in one of the faulty copies I had of "Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?" (I had the whole thing starting on a left hand page instead of the right hand page and had ordered a bunch for realizing it and fixing the error.) I told her it was hers to keep and do with as she would, but I thought she might get a kick out of it. She said she'd share it with someone else who teaches younger kids and let me know what they thought, which is always a good thing to know if you're hitting some kind of mark or not.

She told me about one of her favorite books, "My Grandma Could Do Anything," which she reads to her grandkids. And then we put the paper to bed for the month and she was off again until this month.

Then, last week, her first day of proofreading this month, after she got settled, she came back to my desk with a couple of tiny Post-it Notes with notes from her nine-year-old grandson, who'd been reading through the "Miss Simmons" book. He was only halfway through and really liked it, so she asked if he could keep it another month and I said, "OF COURSE!" And told her he could keep it. And then let me look at the notes on it.

Now, on Lulu, I've set the age at nine years old and up, but that was just a guess; actually hearing from a nine-year-old boy was like striking a vein of gold.

The first comment was, of course, the best. "Really scary, great story. Can I get the book back to finish it?" YES!

He saw that the page numbers were on the inside corners of the pages numbers and explained it was hard to find them when looking up the chapters and could I please remember to keep them on the outside corners. Good eye! Future editor, here! I nodded at that, because that was one of the faults I'd had to correct after that copy.

"I like the prologue."  That's important to note, because you don't need the prologue, and he told his grandma that normally he doesn't like to read prologues, but this one he did. And he also said he wasn't going to read the epilogue. So, cool!

"I like the chapter headings and the cursive writing." They're a Schoolhouse font that I'm in love with for these little things I'm doing. I don't use them in the e-book copies, but they're fun in the print editions.

I knew my drawing wasn't good enough to be pretty, but I'm kind of glad it was scary.

"I didn't like the pictures." And he thought the pictures of Miss Simmons were too scary. I'm not really an artist, so I knew I couldn't do pretty, but I got a secret thrill hearing they were scary. Though, I understand not liking scary pictures. That's a little bit of a downer. But cool, still.

"It got me interested right away!" Always a good thing note to get back from a reader!

So, I have those notes up on my bulletin board next to other notes I've received from people who read some of my other stories. Notes that encourage me and keep me writing. My "cheerleaders."

On top of THAT, our proofreader also brought in the "Grandma Could Do Anything" book, which I read in little breaks throughout the day. If you're one of my friends who's kids might be having grandkids in the future, then you might end up with it headed your way. It's the cutest kids books ever! Perfect for grammas to read with their young grandkids.

I had also passed onto her a final copy of my own "Gramma" book, and I look forward to hearing notes back on that one as well, if she likes it and passes it onto one of her grandkids.

On the whole, this experience was like a balm for my soul in the middle of all the crap that's been going on lately.

Have a cup of tea with that balm for your soul?

Goodreads Giveaways

Any author, especially those of us doing our own publishing and/or own marketing, will tell you what a struggle it is to get our work into the hands of new readers and what a joy it is when that finally happens. We love the people who already know about us, or read us, but are they buying books? Are they clicking on our books to put them into those shopping carts and spend their hard earned money on them? Or are they the friends and family we just send free copies to because it's no use those copies taking up space in our own cupboards at home? (Granted - with print-on-demand books now available, we no longer have to deal with a ton books stored in the garage.)

Some of the books in my cupboard.

There is always a fleeting hope that our friends and family will help us hawk our books out into the world and that they will somehow be bought by someone who will tell all their friends and then we'll be cooking with gas cuz they'll buy all our books! Yeah, baby! And then maybe Oprah!

But the reality is that our friends and family have lives of their own, possibly books of their own, and they may tell a few people, but mostly our books will sit at the bottom of the Amazon sales list and will be returned by the independent books stores we send them out to.

The point is, after we've saturated our captive audience of friends and family with the marketing of our books, we need to somehow reach past that boundary to new readers; it is we the writers who are the ones responsible for the hawking of said books and for trying to reach those new readers.

So, it was with great interest when I ran into the Goodreads Giveaways program a couple of months ago (as a reader this means you can get free copies of books if you go through the list and find books you like; as a writer this means sign your books up!).

Any author or publisher can sign their recently published book (within the last six months) up for the program. Provide the book description, copy of the cover, ISBN, etc., as well as how many copies you are willing to give away (and remember to include how much that will be in postage when budgeting for yourself), and time limit (from a few days to a few weeks) for the giveaway.

After an approval process, Goodreads places your book on a list of books that Goodreads readers can go through and sign up for books they would be interested in receiving for free. At the end of your own self-appointed time limit, Goodreads uses their own system to choose the appropriate number of people to receive your free copies. You get their names and addresses (with the understanding that you will not be using that info for nefarious purposes) and they get your books (with the understanding that after reading your books they will post a review).

You can see how many people signed up for my books, and I was only giving five away.

So, looking at the above pic you can see that about 300 people who would not otherwise have been exposed to my book, saw it and clicked on it and liked it enough to sign up for a free copy. And currently five copies of each book are winging their way to people completely outside my current circle of influence. Hopefully, I've broken past that boundary and into a new set of people who will (again hopefully) enjoy my book enough to spend the time to write a positive review. And maybe their friends will trust that review enough to buy a copy, and they'll tell two friends, and so on (as the old commercial says).

I'm crossing my fingers.

Who Will Sub For Miss Simmons - Blog Contest and Preview

Well, I thought Labor Day would be a grand day to officially introduce my most recent labor, Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons? I was hoping to have a complete and correct hard copy to show by now, but Lulu is having some issues. According to a recent email: "In recent weeks, we have experienced the perfect storm of mishaps - a combination of unusually high order volumes, a broken printing machine, and an early outbreak of fall cold season at our US print vendor. Unfortunately, this means that we are late in shipping your order (or orders)."

Oh, well.

For now, the closest thing to something shiny and new to show you today is the ebook, which right now is only available through Lulu.com (as an epub) until the ecopy is approved for the iBookstore (iBooks), Barnes and Noble (Nook), Amazon (Kindle) and Kobi.

Click on the cover to see the book description on Lulu.com. On sale for $1.25 through September 30.

So, because of all the above, the book is on sale for the month of September at Lulu.com (remember, epub version) for one whole shiny dollar. Click the picture above or here to read more about the book or click below to purchase.



I'll let you know when the paperback is available and maybe come up with something fun to do when that happens. We'll see.

Until then, if you have any good slug stories, or other good bug stories, share them in the comments. At the end of September I'll put your name in a hat and you may win a fun treat! (Well, maybe not candy corn, but something.)

See below for a preview: Chapter One from Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?

Chapter One

Miss Simmons

The boy stretched taut the rubber band, took a line of sight, adjusting for wind, weight of the pebble, then waited for it to be clear.

Thwack! The bit of gravel hit Mary smack in the rump.

"Hey!” she yelled. "Who did that?" She whipped her head around, a couple of kids standing in line for square ball dodging her long ponytail in the process.

"Eddie James! I saw that!" shouted Jill, the short girl next to Mary. She burst from the line, a small red and brown blur running across the playground. She skidded to a stop in front of him, looking up, hands on hips, her curly hair shaking in anger. Mary arrived a minute later, arms crossed. They stood in solidarity glowering at their playground nemesis.

"I didn't do nothing," said Eddie. "You always blame me, besides,” he paused, giving Jill a look, “if you do anything, I'll tell Miss Simmons you were the one who hacked her cell."

"Did no such thing!” Jill’s light brown cheeks turning a bright pink. She screwed up her eyes and shoved her face up into Eddie’s “Fink!"

Eddie leaned down, black eyes meeting her brown ones. "Did. So.” He looked up at Jill’s halo of curly brown hair. “Fathead!"

“Back off, Eddie,” warned Mary, voice low and hands now clenched and ready.

“Psst! She’s coming!” One of the kids watching hissed before sauntering back over to the square ball court.

The children quieted as they saw Miss Simmons' lean form coming toward them. The turnip-shaped bun on her head seemed to bristle with irritation, the pins holding it in place flying out as she strode toward them in her brown polyester pants, the squish-squeak of each step heard across the playground. Upon arriving, she straightened her olive green cardigan and peered down at them over her glasses.

“Now children," cooed Miss Simmons, grabbing Jill and Eddie’s arms. The points of her long, dark red nails bit into their flesh, adding to the pain of her steel-like vice. “What could possibly be the problem between two such lovely, well-behaved youngsters? Would you like to tell me about it?" Her voice edged into a slight threat. “Or…,” she looked back to the portable next to the school building, her homeroom and where most kids ended up spending detention — sooner or later.

Jill, Mary, and Eddie held their breaths and exchanged looks. Some of those kids were never seen again, supposedly because they were suspended or expelled, but…

Eddie and Jill weren't the first kids to “makeup" to avoid detention and Miss Simmons’ sugar voice and acid remarks.

"S-sorry, Miss Simmons," stammered Jill, anger-fueled confidence suddenly gone. "We were only p-playing." She hissed as she felt the hard fingers around her arm squeeze down even harder, one of the fingernails puncturing her skin.

Miss Simmons leaned down to look the children in the face, sharp nose pointed at each in turn. Something flickered deep in her basalt eyes. There was a clicking and a hiss, then a bright smile.

"That's better, now run along and play,” answered Miss Simmons. As she turned and stalked away there was a small noise, as if she was cackling. The trio watched her walk away, making sure she was really gone.

“Hey,” Eddie whispered at Jill and Mary as they watched Miss Simmons enter her room in the portable. “By the tree after school?”

Jill nodded, rubbing feeling back into her arm. She licked her finger and wiped away the blood from where Miss Simmons’ fingernail had pierced her skin.

“Yeah,” said Mary. “We’ll be there.”

Back to playground politics as usual....