Life is way too short to fritter away on work that you hate.

Don’t get me wrong, we all have to do things we might hate from time to time. I have three dogs. As much as I love them, they come complete with dog hair and smelly other chores that are gross.

Ugh. Not my idea of a good time.

Same with my garden. I love my flowers and veggies, but I hate the weeds. I would love for there to be a gardening Fairy to come and pull weeds in the hot, hot sun so I can stay inside in the air conditioning.

I won’t even get into the parts of having kids that can be a challenge.

All great things come with chores. Kids and pets have stinky parts. That’s the price we pay for sloppy kisses and unconditional love. And one bite of a summer tomato, and I forgive every weed and my aching back.

But what about our businesses? 

We talk a lot in creative entrepreneur circles about designing the business and life that we dream of. Those dreams don’t usually include the day-to-day boring tasks that make us weary and drain our energies and yet, we still do them.

Some of them, like paper work and accounting, still have to be handled, though I highly recommend finding someone else to take over both of those tasks if at all possible.

The rest of stuff  that takes up your time and energy, how important is it really?

In coaching creative entrepreneurs, I have repeatedly seen the same three themes come up time and time again.

• Clients who are no fun and suck the life out of you.
• Projects that are too complex for your skill set that frustrate, exhaust and deplete you.
• Mundane tasks that take too long and keep you away from your creative gift.

All three of these categories are keeping you from the success that you could be having right now! I am talking about you, the start-up business who hasn’t gotten the resources yet to hire someone to do all of your unpleasant tasks. You don’t have to wait. You can begin right now to shift away those un-fun catagories and move toward having a business you can enjoy right away.

Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?

Clients who are no fun and suck the life out of you: Bar none, this is the hardest lesson for new business owners to learn and sometimes it has to be re-learned a few extra times before it sinks in. You do NOT have to work with stingy, selfish, rude, mean, uninteresting, unmotivated and undeserving clients. EVER.  Here is the problem that you are probably running into:

You don’t realize you are working with the undesirables until they have snuck up on you half-way through the project. That might seem like a perfect example of  “Why do these things always happen to Me???”  But the answer is that you have not taken the time to create ideal clients and then qualify your potential clients to be sure they fit.

How to work with only clients you enjoy.

• Figure out which clients you enjoy working with. Figure out WHAT you love about working with them. Who is your ideal client, the one who you are excited to go to work to work with? Make a written list.
•  Identify the type of people that you DON’T love working with.  What is it about them that makes work a drudge? Make a list. Knowing what drains your energy and enthusiasm is a very important piece of clarity to have.
• Create a Qualifier System. This can be a series of questions, a list of policies on how you work, A phone or email interview, or more likely all of the above. The key is to identify the key good and bad issues with potential clients before you take them on. And Here is a hint: If the red flags start flying, step back! You do not need to take on that client. Repeat after me:  Bad Clients cost too much money and suck the fun out of life!

Projects that are too complex for your skill set that frustrate, exhaust and deplete you.

• Re-evaluate. Just because it seemed like a great idea at the time, doesn’t mean that right now is the right time to be taking on that project. Creative Entrepreneurs love to START new projects a heck of a lot more than they like SUSTAINING them. Ask yourself: Is this something that is sustainable, will I get bored quickly maintaining this? Ask: Would this project be better served by finishing some of this other stuff piling up? Consider rescheduling this when you can focus on the training to do it right..
• Hire. Take a good look at the project. If it is above your skill-set, can you find someone to educate you on the most efficient process? Or do you need to hire someone for one part of the process that will make the project more joyful? Do you need a designer to help you get the look you envision? You may not need – or be able to afford- to hire someone for the entire project, but can you take the pieces that are above your current skill set and get some help?

Mundane tasks that take too long and keep you away from your creative gift.

• Automate, automate, automate. That can mean hire an assistant, but it doesn’t have to. You may want to get some help in figuring out systems to make life easier so that the task handles itself.  With every new project or system that you create in your business, ask yourself, is there a way that this can happen hands free without my needing to manually do it myself. The answer is probably yes.
• Batch Time and Tasks. For a lot of owners, mundane tasks tend to be procrastinated and hang over their heads for the rest of the week. They cloud up the fun stuff and suck the joy out of  business. By scheduling them in Timed  Batches, you can thwart the devil of procrastination. Deb and I get a lot done in a week without the help of an assistant. Automated systems help that to happen, but  for the tasks that still must be done, we set aside times to focus on that, get it done as efficiently as possible, and then move on to the good stuff. Knowing that we are going to get the boring stuff out of the way first and then get to look forward to doing all of the fun parts of the job for the rest of the week, motivates us to get it done. We don’t let it hang over our heads mucking up the good stuff.

Focus on the Fun

I have teenagers.  When I suggest that a task or project needs to be done, I am often met with, “Awe, that’s no fun!”  and a considerable amount of foot dragging. They want life to be a party. They would much rather be part of the “Good Times” than the “Drudge Club”.

Do you blame them? At what point in adulthood, did we buy into the belief that,  “If it feels fun, it must not be real work”  and, “Work is SUPPOSED to be hard!”

Stop listening, and take a cue from the kids.

Find the fun in your business and focus on that, do your best to minimize, re-evaluate or eliminate the drudge.  You aren’t making money on your drudge list, your future lies in your passion list. This isn’t irresponsible, it’s good business sense!

And…I promise, you will fall in love with your business all over again.

January and all of its resolutions have gone whisking by in a flurry of snow storms and bad weather. Well meaning plans and dreams have been tucked back into the someday jar and the lid screwed on tight.

It’s February. We’ve passed that chilling reminder of Groundhog’s Day with its frightening message.

Keep doing what you’ve always done, and you will get exactly what you have always gotten.”

And the more subtle question it asks:

If it isn’t what you want, then what are you doing what you are doing for?”

January first brings motivation, or disillusionment for those who have let themselves down too many times in the past to believe in their own rhetoric anymore.

By February many of the people who made resolutions have forgotten what they were in the first place.

Are you one of them?

I don’t make resolutions. I claimed a word of the year (I have been for several years now) and the word that made the final cut was the word BE.

In the front of my journal for this year it says:

BE- In all its glory, BE.

BE-Love, BE- Creative, BE-Joy, BE-Abundance, BE-One, BE-Open, BE-Healthy, BE-Active, BE-Generous, BE- Serenity, BE- Productive.

My to-do lists have gone by the wayside. That BE-list is the list I wake up to and look at every day.

It reminds me of who I want to BE.

From there, I decide, “What do I need to do today to BE who I want to be?”

All of my plans and action steps are built from there.

Except when they aren’t.

It turns out that BE-ing is  harder than DO-ing. It requires a dedication to focus and being awake to my every moment that is challenging and I have to admit somewhat slippery.

And BE-ing the Human BE-ing that I am, sometimes I fall out of Being, and fall into just “Doing the next thing.”

When that happens my momentum of BE comes to a crashing halt. I forget my purpose, my reason for what I was doing it all for in the first place and then the day turns into a chore again, another tick-tock on the clock while I push through to get everything done.

“HEY! Where did my BEing go?” I have found myself asking that woman in the mirror on several occasions so far this year, when I have caught myself standing in front of the fridge munching away, or reaching the end of the day and wondering what I got done, or rushing to get things done in a very non-mindful way, focused on the urgent and forgetting what is important to me.

So I’ve had to change it up. I brought back the checklist, but a new and improved version of it. Instead of chores on it, there are states of being and the activities I need to do to continue to BE that person.

Do I want to BE healthy? Then there are action steps on there that involve eating a lot of green food, drinking water and doing my daily yoga ad meditation.

Do I want to BE creative? Then there are action steps that involve daily painting, exploring, reading, writing and taking space in my day for asking the WHY questions that spark my imagination.

Do I want to BE love? Then there are action steps on my list that answer the question what does Love need to do today?

The point of creating tangible action steps for the day is that they are measurable, have a built in completion, give me a sense of progress and are a concrete way of staying awake and focused on how I purposefully want to live.

When I feel myself beginning to drift, wander, being reactive instead of being proactive, I can pick up my BE-ing list and get instantly back on track.

Sounds simple enough?

Well, there’s a catch.  (There is always a catch isn’t there?)

In order to really put this mindful living in practice over and over again throughout the day, I have to be in a constant state of re-commitment.

I have to be in a state of self-love and core strength that keeps me from being blown over the first time someone says…”Can you just…” Which is always the precursor for, “Can you just drop everything that is important to you right now and come and do this thing for me?”

I have to be in a state of self-love that reminds me that I am worthy of living a life of BE-ing, not jumping and doing.

I have to be in a state of Self-love that puts the BE list before the DO list. Because that DO list is a siren song always beckoning, always pulling me away from the truly important.

I have to stand my ground.

And so do you.

It’s so easy to say, “Just this once, and then I’ll get right back to BE-ing.”

The problem with that is it is a lie that is created to tear your self love down. Because just this once is the first step to letting go and saying, “What difference does it really make after all, I can’t really do that thing I said was the most important way I want to live. It’s only a dream. It’s not real life.

Here is the Big Truth that keeps trying to hide.

Your real life is the series of tiny choices you are making every minute that you are either BE-ing a wide awake person, or wandering lost as a SLEEP-walking one.

Your Real Life is being created minute by minute and you have countless options every day in exactly how you want that life to BE.

You have to love yourself enough to stand up for what you want to BE first though.

Take a Stand. Decide who you want to BE…and then don’t let life whisk by while you are waiting for it to come.

BE it.

When Wendi and I first began writing together professionally she confessed that if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have had any inclination toward writing paranormal fiction. Shifters weren’t her main draw at all. Neither was fantasy, be it urban, sci-fi or traditional sword and sorcery.

My initial reaction was I see enough reality on a daily basis, I didn’t want to write about it. I luvs me my shifters. I love the supernatural and the escape. If I wanted reality, I’d turn on the news.

Fast forward six years later. I’m watching Avatar. I never get tired of that film. The visuals are stunning, the story, though told a million times before, is still good and solid. I care about the characters. I cry at all the same places each and every time as if I’ve never seen them before and had no idea what to expect.

I’ve also been hooked on Grey’s Anatomy. Never watched it until after I read Shonda Rhime’s book, The Year of YES. Let’s just say I’ve got a lifetime pass to Shondaland now. Her rollercoaster logo couldn’t be more perfect either. Grey’s has all the emotional ups and downs of a feature film or well-written novel packed into one hour. I laugh, I cry, I want to throw things at the television, I stare in utter disbelief and mutter, “Oh no, she did not just go there…”

While I was watching Avatar for the umpteenth time the thought hit me: I felt the same way about it as I do about Grey’s and the reality of Grey’s goes against everything I had previously believed of myself as a writer! Oh, snap! What just happened there?

Drama. Drama happened. It was in that split second that I realized what I love most about storytelling. It’s the drama and intricacies of relationships. It’s the every day strengths and flaws that make us human.

In our stories our shifters do very little shifting. The plots aren’t about their supernatural abilities. Those are a byproduct of who they are. Underneath the flash and magic are real people. They have emotions like we do. They have problems and insecurities. They have lives we all can relate to one way or another.

It’s these elements that make your story credible. The moment you neglect a “realistic” reaction to an event is the moment you lose your audience—they don’t believe you anymore.

So many new writers make the mistake of not digging deep enough into their character’s psyche. Every character has a reason for doing what they do, even if those reasons don’t make it into the book. When you know your character inside and out you know exactly how each one will react in any given situation.

This is the idea behind the character sketch. For us,  a character sketch is a separate document where we let our creativity go wild and brainstorm a character’s background, psychological profile, family history and so on. Ninety-nine percent of it never makes it into the books. In fact, it could be a book all on its own.

A prime example (though somewhat of an exception to the 99% rule above) is our character Diego in Uncivil Wars. Diego started out as a bit player, but after we finished Loyalties, our favorite Cajun Alpha had a much bigger part to play. The problem was, though I had a general idea where he came from and what shaped him, I didn’t have all the details and reasons for much of his motivation.

I sat down at my favorite Starbucks/Barnes & Noble one Sunday morning with my pen and notebook, and got into Diego’s head. When I do this, I write in first person. Probably the only time I’ll write in that POV (Point of View). Doing so allows me to “be him” for a little while.

When I came back home I typed it all up and showed it to Wendi. It held promise and we used it in a number of flashbacks that ran parallel to the main plot line.

Diego’s life experiences brought him and the story to life for our readers. Although he’s a supernatural being, he was a human being before all that. He knew love and heartbreak. He had a family growing up. He suffered loss, injury and setbacks. He had real life problems the same as you and I do every day. And baggage. Lots of baggage.

All of our characters are beautifully flawed, and we love them for it. This is the true meaning of “hurt your darlings”. Who wants to read about a perfect person? They’re pretty boring when their life happens without conflict and everything is easily solved. Nobody wants to read a story like that. Where’s the fun? Where’s the drama?

This week, dear readers, I challenge you to take a deep dive into your characters. How have you shaped their lives? Have you made it too easy for them? Do they take horrible, traumatic experiences far too well? Do they solve major life issues too easily? Have you handed everything to them on a silver platter?

If you answer “yes” to any of those questions it’s time to shake things up.

Not sure how to do that or wondering if you’re doing it enough? Contact us for some one on one mentoring. Give us one month and we can show you how.

So many indie authors get their start writing on creative writing role playing forums. Whether it’s fan fic or a gaming system adapted for online creative writing, creating characters and bringing them to life on a daily basis is what sparks the flame for a lot of writers. You may be one of those gamers who everyone wants to write with. The one people actively seek out to do a scene or two. People tell you, “You should be writing a book!”

Maybe so and it’s a good thing, but there’s a long road between gaming and writing a coherent story for the masses.

Wendi and I learned this over the last four years as we’ve developed and published our Bonds of Blood & Spirit saga.

Humble Beginnings

The year was 1998 when I was first introduced to play by post online. It was a Yahoo! group. I created a werewolf character and started writing. The game and storyline (if one actually existed) were rather rough around the edges. There was direction, but at the same time, none at all. The loose story rambled on and on forever.  As I learned more about the web (and got increasingly frustrated with the politics of gaming with boards that weren’t run by me), I struck out on my own and for the next ten years ran three very successful creative writing games.

Along the way, I met some very talented writers, including our very own Wendi Kelly—and you all know what happened with that. Our partnership gave rise to the Bonds of Blood & Spirit saga, four full length novels with characters we just HAD to share with the world.

The Pros and Cons

When it comes to transitioning from gamer to author, I won’t kid you, it’s not as easy as it looks. For as good as we were, we had also developed a lot of bad habits and ways of writing a story that seriously did not work at all when it came to writing a novel. Here are a few of those pros and cons we’ve discovered:

Pros:

1. You will write EVERY DAY. Yes, you will. For hours when the game is good and you’re in a scene you just can’t leave, even if it’s 4 am and you have to go to work in less than three hours.
2. You will learn how to think fast. Gaming (role playing) is a form of improvisation. On creative writing boards, you still have time to think about your responses, but you still have to react fast, keep the dialogue engaging (if you want people to keep playing with you!) and stick to the current plot while doing your part to move it along all at the same time.
3. You will learn teamwork. If you don’t like writing alone, you’ll learn how best to work with other writers in a collaborative atmosphere. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll end up with a partnership like what Wendi and I have.
4. You will inspire and be inspired. The constant flow of new ideas, the turn of a phrase, character concepts, a wicked twist in the plot by your favorite players or a devious game master will light your creative fires.
5. Character development. Face it, when you’re writing, living and breathing your characters each and every day, they GROW. And you grow. You will push that character to their limits and beyond. You will add depth to that character without realizing it, giving them a history beyond the initial background and prelude.

Cons:

1. Bad habits galore. Writing on a gaming board you’re not concerned with editors or the masses reading your posts in print. Not everyone knows the mechanics of proper spelling or grammar. What looks right may not necessarily be right.
2. Lack of true plot. Games like these are divided up into campaigns. Game masters devise a plan of action for the players, they set the ground rules for the “universe” in which they live and everyone reacts or takes action within those predefined boundaries. Not so different from a novel so far, right? Here’s where it deviates; there is no real story structure. GMs (Game Masters) have a rough idea where they want the players to go, but as a famous tactician once said, plans never survive the first line of contact. Each player has a mind of their own, and so does each GM. It’s a constant push and pull between the two as they try to outwit, outplay and outlast one another. This kind of thing doesn’t fly well in a novel. You need a beginning, a kick ass middle and an end. On a board, the Game never ends. It just keeps going and far too many gamers turned writers get used to this floating along and have a hard time settling down with specifics.
3. Head hopping. In most games it’s standard you write in third person. That’s fine. Most novels are written like that too. The only problem is you’re writing with dozens of other people doing the same thing and you are only allowed to react and respond for your character. Including an action or dialogue for another person’s character is a mega gaming sin. This was one of the most difficult challenges for Wendi and I to overcome. We had to let go and trust the other to handle any character at any given time. Until we figured that out, the rough drafts were extremely choppy, each paragraph jumping from one character’s head to the other. We’ve since gotten so good at making smooth transitions between characters we can’t tell anymore who wrote what. Creating a novel is more than just copy/pasting your gaming exploits into a Word doc. You’ll need a lot of refinement and work.
4. Fan Fiction and Copyrights. Remember, above all else, the universe you game in is not your own. Chances are  your GMs are using an already established system or basing it on a pop culture movie or TV series. You and the GMs do not own these ideas. Amazon has instituted a means for fan fic writers to publish their works with the permission and licenses of the creators. Games like the White Wolf system on the other hand, will smack you down hard if you so much as think about using their ideas from their games in your work. Authors (like Anne Rice and ourselves) while flattered that fans love our character so much, don’t want fans destroying the integrity of our characters by putting them into situations we wouldn’t approve of. Plus, there’s the rights of all the other participants on the board. Technically, unless otherwise stated by the board’s rules, those characters belong to each individual player. You can’t just take them and use them in your own novel. In some cases, not even the admins of those boards will allow you to keep your own characters for your own personal work. So, if you’re on a board or thinking of joining one with plans for writing that beloved character on your own later on, read the fine print.
5. No filter. When playing on a forum you think in individual little scenes you’d like to do with other players. Sometimes they move the plot along, sometimes they don’t. You can be as self-indulgent as you like for as long as you like. In a novel, every section, every chapter, every paragraph, sentence and word is carefully thought out to move the plot along. You have to have a filter or else your story will just end up a string of scenes that never go anywhere.

Overall, creative writing forums are fun and a great way for dipping your toes in the waters of writing and maybe even find a lifelong writing partner while you’re at it. You’ll get in the habit of writing, you’ll collaborate, you’ll build characters and worlds. But…there comes a time when you’ll want to stop spinning your wheels, create something of your own and leave your mark on the world. One day you’ll get the bug to strike out on your own, and when you do, we’ll be right here to help you out.

We’re well aware that when inspiration hits, we’ll be off and running like a freight train without breaks. But after we finished the first draft for Storms we had 120 chapters spread across over 900 pages that kind of fit. How can that be? Either it fits or it doesn’t, right?

Honestly, we started work on Storms two summers ago while Wendi was on family vacation. We were deep into Legacies edits and were stalled out because it was hard for her to concentrate in the midst of family summer chaos. Yet, we still needed to write. So we started on Storms.

Therein lies the good thing and the bad thing. On the one hand we had a great time and cranked out ten chapters. On the other, after the BBS saga was done, not a lot of it fit into the grand scheme of things.

I never gave much thought to the process of rewrites. Doing edits, tweaking the story and everything else is something Wendi and I do on the fly a lot while we’re writing. Sometimes we have to totally put on the brakes, go back to the beginning and tear everything up to get back on track—which is what we did for the next year with the material for Storms.

This is all before we get finished with the first draft and into an official rewrite.

The process for rewriting is going to be different for everyone. When you write solo, you’ll have your own method and don’t really have to answer to anyone but yourself for the changes you make. But a collaboration is different. There’s you and your partner to consider. And Wendi and I work so seamlessly I rarely pay attention to the how’s and why’s.

The Ultimate Secret of a Successful Collaboration

Methods of collaboration, much like marriages, come in all shapes and sizes. A collaboration is a very intimate and complex relationship. To have a good one, you have to know how to effectively communicate, know how to compromise, know how to listen and above all, know how to leave your ego at the door.

Most importantly, assumptions of any kind are a big no-no.

Here’s a prime example: When we were almost finished with the Saga, we were nearing the end of Legacies, writing the Big Ass Battle Scene. Somehow, I forget how it came about, we got hung up on logistics. Wendi said the kitchen in the farmhouse was on the left side of the entryway, I said it was on the right and the study was on the left.

Whoa…did our worlds ever explode.

I was really angry. “What do you mean it’s on the left? It’s never been on the left. That’s where the study is!” (yes, that was me). I couldn’t wrap my head around how she could possibly see the floor plan any other way. It devastated me having to think that this carefully staged image in my head wasn’t what she saw too, and worst of all, I had to change it!

That was when we both took a step back, stopped writing and started drawing everything from the farmhouse’s layout to the battlefield happening on the grounds around it.

The Rewrite(s)

Our rewrite process has been adjusted and we don’t move forward until we’re both very clear on what our expectations are. We’ll spend time reading through what we have, either together or alone, look for images to pin up on Pinterest, draw things out and share snippets of research.

For the most part, we change what we need to. When we get to a section we think the other might like a lot and not want to change, we ask first if we can make changes to it. A majority of the time we’ll say, “I like it, but I’m not attached to it. Have at it.”

And the other times? There’s nothing wrong with saying “But…I LOVE that part! How can we work with it?”

Sometimes it stays, sometimes it doesn’t, but we always talk about it first. We don’t automatically assume it’s okay to cut something out.

We’ll both read through it on various formats (in the doc, PDF, e-reader devices and printed out) and make notes. When we’re done with that, we’ll go through page by page and discuss what we need to do next, what gets changed, what needs to be beefed up or reduced and what ends up on the cutting room floor.

With us, it’s not so much a matter of who does what at this stage, that comes with the final edits and production. Wendi will usually do the bigger edits and rearranging after we’ve gotten a draft back from the focus groups and then I’ll handle the cover design and layout after it’s all done.

Even so, we still have a lot of discussions between ourselves for those portions too.

If you’ve never done rewrites with a partner, or for that matter, never collaborated before, take some time to talk with your partner. Take a good look at how you collaborate. Ask yourself, is this working for us? What would you change if you could? Would you write “together” more? Would you prefer more solo time?

Our methods may not work for you. We’ve spent several years refining ours. You may choose to try the Google Doc method and meet on a regular basis to get the book done. The bottom line is, find what works best for you and keep the lines of communication wide open.

***

Are you considering collaborating with another author? Want to know if it’s right for the both of you and learn more of what’s involved? Contact us today for a free consultation.

This morning, The Post and Courier posted news sure to break the hearts of many authors: This year CreateSpace will be eliminating their author services.

Amazon’s self-publishing service, Createspace, is laying off workers in its editing, marketing and design division in July because the company is getting out of the business of offering services to writers. The layoffs will mostly affect customer service positions. Createspace will continue to print books for authors with ambitions to sell their work without a publisher.

I’m not surprised. Amazon is constantly changing the rules of the game, throwing the indie authors into turmoil at every turn. While CreateSpace still plans to publish books for authors who want to do it themselves, authors will now have to find other means to format their files and design covers, then be responsible for uploading the complete files in PDF form.

Fear not, though, dear DIY authors. We here at Blue Sun Studio have you covered (pun fully intended). Whether you want to learn how to design your book yourself or have us do it for you, we have the experience and skills to help put you on the path to a professional end product.

Design: Blue Sun offers extensive design options for your book inside and out. Our covers and interiors have the extra polish you need to get off the shelf and into the hands of your readers. View our publishing portfolio here.

Manuscript Mentoring: The first draft is only the beginning. Through our Manuscript Mentoring we’ll help you eliminate plot holes, sharpen your character development, and fix flow and pacing.

Publishing: Looking for a publisher? Consider Blue Sun Studio. We are a hybrid publishing company and as one of our authors we will take you through the whole process from beginning to end, with continued support long after the book is finished.

Training: Still determined to do it all yourself? A professional product requires the right tools and techniques. Learn the basics of industry standards such as Adobe’s InDesign and Photoshop with Deb and stop trying to put a band aide on your work struggling with Word alone.

While the news may not be good for many of you, you still have options and we’re here to help. Contact us today.

This weekend Blue Sun Studio attended the 16th Annual Las Vegas Book Festival. This had to be the best production the Festival has put on to date. The weather was perfect, plenty of foot traffic, and we added some new Packmates to the LV ranks.

In attendance were my fellow Henderson Writers Group members Paul Atreides and Rick Newberry, with authors/friends Katie Salidas and Alexia Purdy.  Linda Weber, president of the HWG, moderated the session.

The topic was Step Into Our Worlds, where we discussed what it’s like building the fantasy/paranormal worlds we write. Watch the video (by Authors In Training) below:

We’ve got something special for you today. Recently, Wendi was interviewed by Maribeth Kuzmeski for The Female Insight Zone podcast. Click on the image below to visit Maribeth’s site and listen to Wendi’s interview.

On March 25th, Deb will represent Blue Sun Studio at the annual Clark County Spring Fling book festival at the Clark County library in Las Vegas. This will be our third year in attendance selling the Bonds of Blood & Spirit Saga, signing books, catching up with current Packmates and meeting new ones.

This year, we will also be listening to pitches from local Las Vegas authors who are interested in publishing with Blue Sun Studio. In order to help you decide if we are a good fit for you, we’d like to tell you how we work and what we expect.

Hybrid Publishing

Among our  Blue Sun Studio services, we offer Hybrid Publishing for both fiction and non-fiction books. There are many advantages to working with a Hybrid Publisher that you might not be aware of.  For example, there are no copyright commitments and you retain all the rights to your book. You are not obligated to follow a specific marketing plan and instead are free to market it any way you like. In addition,we provide you with expert hand-held guidance  and coaching through the writing and publishing process, ISBNs for print and digital, create a professional, eye-catching cover and interior design, formatting for print and digital, and the credibility that comes with having a publisher listed among your credits.

While we don’t offer advances, we also don’t take any royalties. Instead, we’re paid for the services required to produce your professional quality book and after that, your book is all yours.

The Pitch

The first consultation with us will determine what stage your manuscript is in and whether or not you’ll need some Manuscript Mentoring before we continue to the next phase.

Often,  an author  may have already worked with an editor and believe they have a final manuscript. Sometimes, that editor may have corrected spelling and grammar, but wasn’t a developmental editor. If the story hasn’t benefited from the polishing that developmental editors can bring to the table, then the manuscript might be in need of some refinement before we start talking about design.

A Word About First Drafts

What is a first draft? This is the part where you’ve written the last line of the story, typed “The End”, and sit back for a celebratory glass of champagne.

It may be the end of your story, but it’s not the end of your work. The first draft is a brain dump. You’ve spilled your story out on the page, paying no mind to character arcs, flow and pacing, or plot holes. Truth be told, there’s no room for that when writing your first draft. You can’t let the creative floodgates open and edit for all that at the same time. If you did, you’d be spinning your wheels and it would take you much longer to finish the story.

Your first draft you write with the door closed. You’re not looking for input from anyone else yet. Rewrites begin when you dive back into your story with your editor hat on and open yourself up to the world, asking for feedback from eyes that have not seen your story yet. This is where the real work begins and may take several weeks or months.

This is why we need to see your manuscript as highly polished as possible. Not doing so may mean several more weeks or months writing, with or without coaching, before we can discuss publication.

What to Show Us at the Spring Fling:

• Bring with you a final, edited first chapter of your manuscript in word. No fancy formatting, in other words, don’t waste a lot of time trying to make it look pretty. Simple formatting like bolding and italics are fine.
• Have a brief summary of your story ready. Don’t worry about “selling” us on the story, you don’t have think about pitching a concept to us. We want to know what the story’s about—and it’s okay to include spoilers and how it all ends.
• Know your genre. Who’s your audience?
• Know what your publishing goals are. A few questions to ask yourself are: Is this a story you want to share with family and friends only? Is it a non-fiction book meant to support the work you do on a daily basis? Do you want to get your book into brick and mortar stores?

What we don’t want (please don’t send/bring/do):

• Full manuscripts
• Unfinished manuscripts
• Concept proposals (the manuscript isn’t written at all)
• Cover sketches/ideas

We’re also willing to talk to you if you have a book you’ve tried to publish yourself and you want to re-do. Many first time authors are dissatisfied with their DIY results and know they need a more professional look. We’re more than happy to talk to you about a new cover design, new formatting, or helping you clean up your book’s story.

Good luck and see you at the fair!

A while back I wrote a post called Who Is Your Website For?. A common mistake made by new web owners is they design their site for themselves rather than for their audience. The same could be said about other aspects of a business. Each day we use multiple methods to reach people and generate new clients, among these methods are emails, books, workshops, business cards, flyers, postcards and online classes. Being a part of the whole creative process opens us up to criticism from everyone involved. After all, opinions are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.

Those of us devoted to quality spend hours perfecting our chosen products. It’s easy to get emotionally attached and believe we’re beyond any criticism at all, so when some well-intentioned advice rolls our way, we’re crushed to think our work isn’t appreciated. We may even get angry and lash out with, “What are they talking about? This is perfect!”

The truth is, there is no such thing as perfect. And…not everyone will see the same things in the same way you do.

When I work on a project, whether it’s for a client or ourselves, Wendi is definitely the voice for the audience before it hits public viewing. Wendi will be the first to tell you she’s no techie. She’s also dyslexic (though you’d never know it from all the novels we’ve written together). Wendi is also an accomplished artist in her own right with a keen eye for color and composition, and she has an uncanny knack for finding exactly the right stock photography we use in creating composite images for our cover designs.

The fact that Wendi lacks technical understanding keeps me from getting too complicated while writing “how to” posts. When I write, I ask myself, “Will Wendi be able to follow this?” Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but I know that it’s nothing personal when she tells me she didn’t understand one word of it. These last looks before a post goes live also tells me when my message is unclear or when I’ve gone on a tangent.

I was also blessed with perfect eyesight (well, until I needed readers) and I’m not dyslexic. I have two hi-res monitors to help with the professional aspect of my work. I have more fonts than Imelda Marcos had shoes. When I use those fun fonts, I already know what they’re supposed to say. Sure, it all looks beautiful to me, but for someone else? Maybe not so much—especially to someone who sees words in a jumbled mess to begin with.

Composing a book cover, an interior, a website or an email mailing requires I look to the least common denominator—the person who is dyslexic, the older members who read our books and need a little more spacing between the lines or a slightly larger font, even if it does increase our already massive page count. Exchanging what may be a busy background for a more subdued one, or making a minute color adjustment, helps clarify the overall message to someone who may be easily distracted from the noise.

True, there are folks out there who pick for the sake of picking. They’re never happy with anything anyone does, and I’d go so far as to say this stems from their own insecurities, so they make themselves feel better by offering useless criticism, meant to harm rather than help.

But there are other folks who do want to help. They may be the one voice in ten who points out a flaw.

There are times I’ve been working on a project that’s had 20 revisions already and spent so many hours on it I’ve lost count, I have a knee jerk reaction like I described above. How dare they tell me how to do my job! Who’s the expert here anyway?

But…I’ve learned to take a step back and think, okay, maybe there’s something to it. Maybe there are others who won’t speak up. Maybe what I have here could be a touch better?

As difficult as it may be at times, try not to take this kind of feedback personally. Communicating in text (instant messages, emails, etc.) is difficult. The tone we perceive may not be the one intended. Not everyone is a wordsmith and they may not realize how they “sound”. Objectively look at the suggestions or offer solutions. Is a reader having trouble seeing the text on your website? If you’ve already got your text set to 14pt and it’s as big as you’d like to go, suggest they change the size of their text setting in their browser. If your text is on the small side (10 to 12pt), then yes, you could stand to bump it up a bit.

When you’re publishing books, consider the age of your audience. I’m always amazed when I look at trade paperbacks I read back in the 70s and 80s. That text was tiny! How on earth did I ever read all that and not walk away with a raging headache?

Details do matter and it has nothing to do with being a perfectionist. Knowing your audience and your clientele tells you exactly what details you should be paying attention to. Listening to what your audience has to say goes a long way in making that audience stay with you and gaining new readers or clients.

Take what’s useful and let the rest go. You can’t please everyone, but you can try to please the specific people you’re talking to. Figure out who that least common denominator is and speak to them. Chances are, when you do, everyone will have a much better experience.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save