Tools for Authors and Writers

Jackson Pollock using paint as a tool.

Here is my gift of tools for writers who want to publish ebooks, or print on demand.

 Please feel free to rate or add input to sites you feel are helpful.

ebooks, paperbacks, editing software, books, tools for writers

INFORMATION ON EXISTING TOOLS FOR WRITERS

Advanced Authors or Do it Yourself Indie Publishing

Author uploads files (Mobi, Epub, HTML, PDB, PDF, RTF, LRF, plaintext, worddoc etc. ) directly to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, Diesel and a multitude of foreign sites that can also translate to other languages. This allows author the most “commission split.” Author provides camera ready format to each different site (all have a variety of size and pixel requirements) Author is savvy enough to either hire an editor or contract with artist to complete cover art. Author determines price points and manages own “platform.” Authors talk about their platform as their whole brand that includes blog-site, website, social marketing, attending conferences, public speaking, blog tours, and face to face marketing. This Advanced author is usually a midlist author who has more than four novels and has been published traditionally. Author might have copyrights reverted back from books published prior to 2008 and they are now uploading and selling old “backlist” books as e-release. Ebooks can boost visibility and sales direct to author.
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Moderate Skill levels for Authors needed to use:

Split your profits direct with a publishing site while they provide conversion software

Publishers who will convert your word doc file completed for free into all ebook formats:

Smashwords owned by Mark Coker

Takes a percentage of sales with no upfront costs. Uses their converter called “meatgrinder” from a word doc file that has no text boxes, no tab spaces into all formats. Not simple to get a clean enough file to fit Smashword’s format. Book is live published worldwide in a week. Smashwords’ own website is not reader friendly nor optimized to attract readers to purchase direct.

LuLu another site that offers independent publishing and an Author “store”

Bookbaby $99 or $199 plus monthly $19 conversions, editing, cost for corrections a little steep


No skill needed, the publisher charges for the uploading and takes a cut of sales:
Ones that charge fees or are considered vanity publishers: TATE, Dorrance Chronicle,,Iuniverse Outskirtspress, Author House, IPRC, Independent Publisher, Hayhouse, Authorsolutions, Author solutions is $2000- 3000 super pricey Sillowaypress Upublish, Spannet, Berhahn, Continuum, justbookingJustbooks, instantpublisher, bookmarket, Baen, and a couple hundred more...

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Blogging sites that are free and easy: Blogger owned by Google and Wordpress privately owned

Wordpress is more user friendly owned by Matt Mullenwag ( also owns buddypress and Akismet)

The reason why authors will choose these as opposed to their own website the posting is fast and Google will rank a blogspot (Blogger site) better than a new website. Author controls content and can sell Adwords, make links, create page rank and link directly to Amazon, B&N, Sony, Diesel and Apple. Author makes a little side money from the blogs.

 Createspace (owned by Amazon) is a pay site that is cheap. Authors can print on demand a book paperback only and ebooks by coordinating with Amazon (Kindle Direct) for little or no cost. Create Space offers a smorgasbord of services needed: cover art, full editing, blogs, chat rooms, advice, some goofy scams.

Penguin’s Bookcountry allows authors to find agents, Harper Collins has Authonomy Authonomy. Etc.. Traditional publishing houses (Big Six) already have their own e-publishing, promotion sites and market only their own contracted author media.

Author promotion sites: Redroom, Red Room charges a small annual fee and is a well-respected author website

Also: Absolutewrite, Authorsden, and Salon are a few others to review and compare.

Online editing as we all know is not infallible. Word’s understanding and auto correct can give a write a false sense of spelling.

Editing online software:

Grammarly annual fees

Prowritingaid FREE

Whitesmoke software pricey

Brain Food For Writers?

Your New Year’s Resolution is to finish that novel and lose ten pounds? Want to write 4000 great words a day? You know those ads that say they will tell you the secret to a flat tummy? It is the same with brain foods.
These ten foods will increase your brain power and sustain you across those late night cravings.
The base foods in your diet should be raw fruit and vegetables. Add these foods in variety and have your brain never suffer from writer’s block again.
1. Nonfat Greek yogurt 14 grams of protein, calcium rich and easy to digest
2. Tuna with more than 3 g of leucine, a can of tuna contains a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids
3. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids in salmon to lower your cholesterol and increase brain function.
4. Quinoa is an ancient grain with 8 g of protein per cup, including a complete set of branched chain amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine. A cup contains 39 g of complex carbohydrates that will keep you from craving junk.
5. Coffee is one of my favorite foods. (FOODS? You say?) Humans can work-out harder/ longer if they have caffeine before exercise. Writing can be tough work. Combine caffeine, carbohydrate and a brisk walk with your notepad and you will be generating your brain into creative drive.
6. Eggs/ (egg whites mostly) This lean snack at 50 calories has intense 6 g of protein and 330 mg of leucine per egg. Yokes are O. K. once in a while with the nutrient choline, which supports acetycholine, the most abundant neurotransmitter in your body
7. Blueberries are antioxidant, reduce belly fat and anthocyanin, the selenium, the vitamins A, B-complex, C and E, the zinc, sodium, potassium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese prevent and heal neurotic disorders by preventing degeneration and death of neurons ( brain-cells). They also rebuild the central nervous system
8. Flax seed (not my favorite) big nutrient punch, but eat sparingly
9. Avocados, known as pear butter, but the fats in this delicious guacamole reduce bad cholesterol and increase blood flow to the brain.
10. Old fashioned oatmeal and whole grain bread are excellent brain foods improving circulation.
Need easy recipes to fit these into your writing schedule? Coming soon just for fun!

Contract Law for Indie Authors

Ellis Island Boat Seems Right for Indie Authors Inventing New Modes in the New World

copyright © Caroline Gerardo 2011

Contract law for indie authors:

I believe in understanding how things operate from the ground up.
I am working on two book projects that involve writing contracts.  Allow me to chat about each issue in vague terms as the parties have not all come to the table and finished their after dinner drinks, or poison potions - whatever the result may end.


One project is for an interactive poetry book. The publisher wants me to sign two clauses that I have struggled with for more than a month. First they want me to assume any and all legal liability in the event if or when I am sued. Second they want to serve notice to certain person(s) who have borrowed, profited from, stolen, and sold my copyrighted and trademarked work product. In the first stage of this process I attempted to get "model release" forms from some twenty persons in my life whom I may or may not have written fiction,  yes fiction, protected by the First Amendment, or fictional pieces similar to events in my past.

I have in hand eighteen of the nineteen release forms signed and witnessed. This may or may not cover me should I decide when I am a movie starfish to write a memoir. (I'm not writing a memoir - that is a joke.) The one release I do not have in hand is from the most contentious, litigious, and steal some party.

I have little faith in our legal system. No offense intended to my sister and brother who both practice law. My experience with attorneys is more cordial than my memory of dentists.
I looked into bonding around the issue, but the cost is HUGE. Weighing my possible profits of a poetry hardbound against the dollar amount of annual insurance makes the deal impossible.

Secondarily they want me to  sign an agreement to continue to keep the softwear, technical process and mastermind company name silent.  This is fine with me, but I countered for the E and O insurance to be paid by the publisher. No answer back to date.

If I had an agent who comes across agreements every single day, I would be in a better position to make my best practices choice. What did the Cowardly Lion say, "I do believe in agents?"

 I have read a number of Lexis Nexis cases now regarding First Amendment and have a good idea that if I was filed upon I would 99.9% likely win - but - the big bug on the pickle- legal fees are a terrible cost to pay.

There is another legal publishing question I have to pose to any writers who come upon this post. What klout can indie authors hold over the massive new numbers of torrent sites, stolen books of your copyrighted work? I am now on my third letter campaign with a new ( likely the same company owners) as the last one I found. What success have you had in getting the torrent site to 1. take it down 2. pay you for the loss and the profit they made from advertising and farming all those innocent souls who signed up giving private information to well, yes under the radar types.

I have good recommendations on the following attorneys :
I am thinking of setting up a website : We will help you for FREE to stop the book pirates.
Input PLEASE




Elaine P. English

Elaine@ElaineEnglish.com





Michael A. Kahn

mkahn@brickhouselaw.com



Alan J. Kaufman

alan@kaufmanpublaw.com





F. Robert Stein

rstein@pryorcashman.com





Daniel N. Steven

dsteven@dsattorney.com



David B. Wolf

david@davidwolflaw.com

Buy My Book

Steve Nedelton asks me this morning how have I sold so many books... here is my public answer.

 from: Caroline Gerardo

to: Steven Nedelton

subject: re: Friends

I never pay for ads, submissions, or permission.

Be yourself but be fearless - expect failure but be ready to get up and be better. I'm working on my craft as my number one goal. I write seven days a week - work full time and am sole provider for my family... all that aside I am going to give you some input here and please put your turtle shell on and ears open (I have a desert tortoise who is the dearest).

Focus on three silos at max- you need to budget your time for the number one (writing and family) above.

Pick three different internet tools and one live face to face one.

Buddy up with authors not necessarily same genre ( but you will find kindred make the most sense if they are smart and understand we are not competing with each other).

You need to blog- you need to pour your writing practice warmups in the blog or do reviews of what you adore. Wordpress is fancier I use Blogger just because I'm a loyal Google brander.  Don't bother with writing things that bore you or are negative - people don't want that in short posts. Naysay will drag your heart down.

You MUST change your photo on amazon -it is GREEN and you need a haircut and a relaxed look. The glasses are good you have a cute face but the picture is awful and readers (like everything in the world) judge a book - and the author by its cover. Be you. Its fine to be quirky, authors never dress fashionable.

Think branding - your writing, your presence, your posts, are your whole soul opened for ridicule. Be fearless, I repeat. Link up your silos but don't link all four - link two and two because readers will get bored with "buy my brand." I started using twitter 42 days ago, and just love the flash fiction aspect of writing without self editing, this may not be for you.

Go fill out Listorious with all the definitions and details. You can add- tags. What are your brand's five tags? USE them. Mine are: literary, poetry, fiction, contemporary, books. Yours I'm going to poke here are probably: thriller, spy, nerd, smart, books.

 I don't like Facebook but many authors just love it and sell books there, try it maybe you will be better there than I. I'm on Linkedin and dabble in some writers and filmmakers groups (I've produced before but not where I'm headed today). Linkedin has sold books for me to business people- most authors will tell you linkedin doesn't work for them. Goodreads doesn't sell books but is an easy place to display covers, find those buddies, and read other work to push yourself to grow. Amazon is where your links all need to point to. Amazon sells the largest percentage of paper and ebooks. Amazon slam dunk beats them all. Go look at the big boys Amazon pages Follet Baldessari Crais - they aren't even getting close to what indie authors have figured out: a slick book trailer does not sell your book- content does. The content is you - so be fearless, bleed content, the world is starved for new. God they are so tired of T.V. if you are true to your "brand" you will succeed.

Other methods: indie bookstores go to readings, go to your local library and leave fliers - try different things, figure out what works for you.

I haven't done blog tours- some swear by this and physical tours J A Konrath is a master at the dog and pony show from the back of his car and he blogs about it. He and Locke know how to package and market on a budget with great success.

Authors Den, Agent Query, Bookcountry, a million others find the ones that you like.

Russell Blake said to me yesterday, this is a long haul not a foot race 

Read. Be happy. Pay it forward. Be kind. Let the trolls and negatives roll off like a duck.

Start now.







buy steve's books here:

while you are at it buy Russell's
 better yet buy all my books....

Amazon Buzzards Come and Get Me

On Sunday the revision was final.

I deleted one ending and have chosen two.

I am emailing pdf copies and a paper copy to:

a writer buddy beta reader, a friend from twitter who fits my demographic and my friend in London. All three are men because

I believe that is who will most enjoy the narrative. This one is pretty dark, and this time frame since Thanksgiving has been the inkiest buzzard swarming betrayal in my personal life. But the story has a hopeful quality in his Don Quixote quest to connect and ultimate acceptance of who he is in the soul. A character as anti hero transforms through the diving in the pool as a lifeguard through fire, violence and electric shock. My editor in the U. K. only read two chapters and is clapping his hands to hurry me along. Editing for me is a tedium and a torture. Dean Wesley Smith in his Killing the Sacred Cows says not to use the slow process I have chosen, but there was backlash critics who sniped at me for my writing style.

A couple of the posters on Amazon are not critics of my work,

they are mean spirited individuals who know of me.

However, manipulation of Amazon is widespread. The more novels,

short stories, poetry and work I complete and publish

- the easier it is to take a swing under my chin

to break my neck.

Little do they know I am ready with my left.

Photograph copyright Caroline Gerardo 2011- yes there are buzzards in that foggy tree waiting.

Swimming Turtle

Lust

Turtle Bravely swimming into the dark future.

Copyright Caroline Gerardo

Ebook Freedom

Merideth Greene's review of Read Mill

http://bit.ly/p9Pefa

Intelligent article about choices, my hand is up in the air when called upon. Me first.

I love the freedom of reading in all formats.

There is something sacred about wandering through Laguna Beach Books and chatting with Jane Hanauer about novels she stacks. I still adore the smell of vanilla pages in my hands, dog earing the pages or leaving them upside down on a beach towel in the summer. An ebook does not fulfill the same piece of soul.

However, I also enjoy the ability to order ten books on my Kindle and decide after reading two Chapters what I will or will not continue in a faster delivery method. It is a less emotionally connected purchase. I buy on impulse on Kindle, often not reading the whole book. Why you ask? Like my teens, the siren song lures of so many other things to read and taste while online.

An interactive reading style will further develop the internet. I see authors like myself who also are visual artists using linking websites, music, and interactive story telling. Writing might be something where three authors begin a premise and readers change the direction of the tale. Not the same as gaming, prehaps in real time. I embrace the idea that ereading is the Gutenberg press of our time. Authors and artists must join together to find new ‘guilds’ and new art forms that will push the limits of narrative experience.

That a company chooses to limit or change the font I chose, certain I dislike the edges of that. Will they also censor the violence or sexual overtones in my writing?

It is an amazing time of growth ahead of us, happy to see Meredith Greene, you are asking questions.

Readmill Site in Progress

Novel Draft #2 Seeing Light

photos: copyright Caroline Gerardo

I am heading out of the writing tunnel. This book is a battle. Sanity, death, quest for family, quest for true love all smothered in drug stealing, bum fights and crime not cheerful thoughts to grip me. A reader will pick it up and finish the novel in what five or six hours?

The endurance of a year loving this guy, Seth, a character is not daunting. I have sent him off to be read. It is not a graduation ceremony in June. I will complete two more edits.

I am mentally toying with changing the first chapter to first person. The narrator able to distinguish some of what happened, but she will have a flawed lack of reliability as she was not there every step of the story. Even when we are in real life a participant can we recall or comprehend what happened in the souls of men?

This photograph, recalls Van Gogh painting Branches of an Almond, is from a cemetery in Savannah. The light is hot through the tree. The flowering magnolia, not almond but the crazy color is there. Now your perception of the image, the emotion when your eyes go back, will read the words and the picture with new clarity.



ROW80 Writing Goals

Jane Brucker, 2011 reading at her Art Opening photograph by Caroline Gerardo copyright 2011

I have not checked in on ROW80. I have kept to my writing every day schedule .I threw out word count for now as I am reducing the novel from 151108 words to around 80000. I will have second revision done done done by July 4. I am going to Thriller Fest in New York on the following day. I am focusing on finding an agent who has passion and obsession for literary thrillers. My work is not a “pigeonhole able” single genre. I am writing thrillers, but they are literary and more general fiction than just financial thrillers.


I have settled on a title now that the narrative is set in stone.
The Lucky Boy.
What do you think? I had toyed with Lucky, but Alice Sebold has a novel/memoir (that I love by the way) of the same start word title. My novel is not the same.

Side note: One of my son’s first phrases was, “I’m a yucky boy.” By this he spoke with a slight lisp intending to express his joy and good fortune, upon which his sister and I would crack into shards of laughter. Now that he is fourteen, he uses it with a sarcasm that points out that being raised by two women has it’s downfalls.

Little Sycamore Canyon Trail Ridge June 2, 2011 photograph copyright Caroline Gerardo

I ask you to vote on one title: A Lucky Boy or The Lucky Boy.


Goals this week: Get Chapters 8-10 into clean speaking order by Saturday, exercise, love my children, and pray. No gardening, no dating (sorry Harvard guy), no time for frills. Focus on the finish line.

I will have the keen eye of the red tailed hawk that we nursed back to health. My eye is on the ribbon at the end of the race.