Indenting Paragraphs

When one starts to publish books, and wants them to look ‘professional’, there are many things one must think about that you probably haven’t stopped to think about before. I think the first thing I ran across that surprised me was the rule, “Thou shalt not indent the first line of the first paragraph of each chapter.”

Huh? Why not? I thought it was a rule that all paragraphs should be indented, unless you are going for a block format, in which case no paragraphs get indented, but you do put a line between the paragraphs, so they don’t become a run-on mess (like this sentence).

But the only explanation was that it was to ‘look professional’. They even went further than that and said that it would be even better to make the first letter of the first paragraph of each chapter oversized and ornate.

For some reason, I found that suggestion silly and downright medieval. What are we, monks calligraphing our way through these books?

I’ve read a lot of books during my lifetime. I tried to think back, remember if any of those books had indented or not indented the first paragraph of each chapter. I didn’t know. I apparently never noticed.

Oh, I did remember occasionally reading a book that had oversized and ornate first letters for each chapter, and I vaguely remembered that those paragraphs were not usually indented. But it didn’t seem to be the norm in the books I read. Sometimes, I struggled to figure out what letter it was, it was so ornate and seemed to have nothing to do with the word it started. I probably thought, “How weird,” and then promptly forgot it as I plowed my way through the rest of the story.

Now I am faced with the question of whether or not I will indent the first paragraph of each chapter in the books that I publish. To be truthful, I want to. It is much simpler to indent all the paragraphs and be done with it. To indent all the paragraphs and then go back and un-indent the first paragraphs, all while trying not to make it a global command, making ALL your paragraphs un-indented… It seems like a tedious and unnecessary endeavor. Too easy to make a mistake. And I have made mistakes during formatting. It’s no fun having to rip out ALL the formatting and then go back and put all the formatting back in again.

But I’m taking a very unscientific survey. What is your opinion of not indenting first paragraphs of each chapter? Do you expect it? Have you ever noticed it being done in the books you have read? Drop me a comment and let me know your opinion.

Ebook Coupon

Have you ever wondered what MoonPhaze books are like? I’ve got a coupon for you. Let’s try a little short fantasy. The title is “Woman on the Dock”, which can be found at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108681. The coupon is to get it for free, and the coupon code is BH45S, which is good through Dec 31, 2024. Check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!

Woman on the Dock

“Woman on the Dock” takes place in my Atlan Universe, where tribes of women have certain powers that others don’t have, and are thus called Witches. When their island home was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, their evacuation boats got separated, and pockets (usually just 4 or 5 survivors, from old crones to infants) of these women set up new homes wherever they could hide. Those women who are called Blackbirds—one of the Atlans’ best warriors—are sent out periodically by their village disguised as traders, to search for rumors of other Atlan villages. But as generations go by, it is hard to believe that other Atlan settlements exist.

Inna, coming to a fishing village disguised as a merchant, was shocked to find a woman tied to the dock, battered and near death. She didn’t know the beaten woman, but she was clearly Atlan! And Inna wasn’t going to let one of her kind be treated like that!

 

SyFy Bartow!

MoonPhaze will have a booth next Saturday (Feb 17) at the Syfy Bartow street festival. This is a festival we try to attend every year, but sometimes, life intrudes, and we don’t get there. For instance, last year, my husband was sick in February, and we didn’t make it.

This year, we will be located in the next to last block on the east end of Main Street in downtown Bartow (FL), between Florida and Hendry Avenues. This will be a new area for us; we have mostly been located on the western end of the festival. Booths will be lined up along Main Street and several side streets.

We are planning to take books and some small cosplay prosthetics (ie, wounds, cyborg pieces, and so on) to sell. But our vehicle also needs to carry displays and stuff for the KAG (Klingon Assault Group) area, so I am limited in how much I can take. I also have to take a table, at least 2 chairs, a gazebo to provide shade, a cooler of cold drinks and some snacks to get us through the day.

The festival runs from 11 AM to 6 PM. Hundreds of vendors, cosplay, a costume contest, food trucks, a car show, music and other entertainment… what more could you ask for? Attendance is free. Cosplay is encouraged. Hope to see you there! 

Our Adventures at the Book Festival

We spent last weekend at the Sunshine State Book Festival in Gainesville, FL. This was the second time I was there, and the first time for my hubby.

We drove up Friday afternoon, arriving just around supper time. We unloaded our car (except for the books we’d brought) to our hotel room, and then went to the hotel bar to have supper. The hotel also had a restaurant, but after seeing the prices at the bar, the restaurant was probably too pricey for our budget. At about 7 pm, we went down to the conference center for the meet & greet reception. We talked with several other authors, and ran into Joe Haldeman and his wife, Gay, which made hubby happy. But before too long, hubby either got uncomfortable or tired, so we went back to our room, watched a little tv, and went to bed.

Check in for the festival started at 8 AM on Saturday. Our tables were supposed to be set up and ready to go by 10 AM. I wasn’t worried about getting there right at 8, because I knew it wouldn’t take very long to set up our table. Hubby must have been tired, because he didn’t get up until 8, and he was worried about missing out on the breakfast that the festival was providing for the authors. So we went down and found our table, then I sent him off to have breakfast while I unloaded the books from our car. I wasn’t worried about breakfast, because I’d had a couple pop tarts with my morning pills.

After I brought in our books, I unloaded the 3 boxes and began to set up the table. Hubby arrived in the middle of that, so we were all done by 9:30, ready for the crowds of customers to come in.

At noon, I sent hubby to the buffet being supplied by the festival. When he got back, he sat at the table and I went to get some lunch. Lunch consisted of build-your-own tacos, churros and key lime pie. When I got back to the table, I could tell Hubby was tired, so I sent him to our room to rest. He came back a couple hours later, feeling a little better.

Throughout the day, we talked to various people. One children’s author told me where he got his books printed for a lot less than anyplace I had found. Of course, getting them printed is only half the battle; then you need a distributor to get them into the book stores. He was negotiating with a distributor.

Another author told me how to indicate the reader was going into a flashback. One of our books has multiple flashbacks, which at least one reader found confusing. Now I can fix that problem.

Another author gave me information on two cover artists he’s worked with and recommended. He also gave me some information on potentially getting our books in his wife’s bookstore.

And then a potential customer stopped by, and we started talking about book covers. I always thought the book cover should be an indication of what you would find inside the book, which should make it fairly unique. She agreed but had gone to a publishing seminar a few months ago where everybody was saying, “No, you want the book cover to look like every other book in your genre.” In any case, she had nice things to say about our book covers.

And then, at the very end, the President of the organization that hosted the festival came to us and said, “I sold 2 books, how did you do?” We told her we hadn’t actually sold any books, but we did hand out lots of coupons to get our eBooks at a discount. At least one person came by and picked up one of each coupon, while her mother picked up one. We ran the gamut of coupon dispersal; some took several while others took only one.

In the days before the festival, I had repacked our books, trying to get it down from 5 boxes to 4. I actually got them down to 3. But, when it came time to pack them all up again, I didn’t have room for the two coupon holders. I had to put them in with my laptop and hope they didn’t get squashed and broken. (They didn’t.)

We took the books back to the car, had supper in the bar, and went back to our room for the night. Hubby doesn’t seem to think that selling our books face to face is the way to sell our books, but he doesn’t want me to ‘waste’ my time studying marketing, either. But I’m not ready to give up.

Believe it or not, I had fun. I also had a disadvantage. We were located near one of the entrances, which was good. But sitting right next to me, even closer to the entrance, was a very out-going author who greeted every potential customer with, “What do you like to read?” Which is what I usually say. And then, depending on what they said, he would regale them with some variation of his elevator pitch for his series of 5 books. I felt a little silly asking the same question as him, and so I fumbled several times, looking for something to engage their interest. Also, he had dragon stickers he was giving away, and I only had boring coupons.

I’m still processing what I can learn from this experience. I’ve often thought of having things to give away, but I’ve never gotten around to doing it. Maybe it’s time I do that. Among other things. Then if the person next to me is asking, “What do you like to read?”, I can fall back to “Would you like a free sticker/trading card/temporary tattoo?”

My First Book Festival, Part 3

Saturday. The big day.

My room was cold when I got up. I checked the thermostat. It was set for 74, but the actual temperature was 64. I checked the unit under the window, and it said it was set for heat, to the temperature of 64. I tried to bump it up to 74, but it immediately went back to 64. I didn't have time to mess with it. I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I chose some oatmeal, bacon and orange juice, since I don't drink coffee. The breakfast lounge was humming with people.

When it came time to go to the festival site, I had to scrape frost off all my car windows. Well, actually, I turned on the car, set the defrost to high and scraped the side windows. By the time I got that done, the windshield and rear windows were clear. I wasn't sure we still had an ice scraper in my car, so I had originally had visions of trying to clear my windows with a credit card. Thank goodness I didn't need to do that.

It was a 15-minute drive to the site, and then waiting in line to unload of about the same amount of time. An aide showed up with a cart, and I unloaded my 5 boxes. She went to park the cart in the lobby while I took my car to 'the grassy area' and walked back to the building. It was probably 8:45 or so when I got my books transferred to our table, and the aide came to take the cart away so it could be used again.

The festival opened to the public at 10 am, and I had our table all set up by 9:30, so I pulled out my phone and my square reader and tried to figure out how to use it. I couldn't get it to connect to the church's wifi, no matter how hard I tried. Consequently, every time I opened the square app, it had a bright red banner across the top saying I wasn't connected to the internet. I got up and consulted with a couple other authors to see if they were having problems, but they weren't.

In sheer desperation, I called one of my sons to see if he had any suggestions. And it was sheer desperation, because he doesn't use the square app, so he was making things up as he went along. Eventually, he and his wife were going out for breakfast, so I knew I was on my own with my problem. But something he said made me look in my settings, and my data connection wasn't turned on. I turned it on, and opened my square app... and I no longer had that bright red banner about not being connected to the internet.

I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to figure out how to navigate the square app. It was a lesson in frustration, because it seemed to open to a different page each time I opened it, leaving me with no idea where I was at in the app, and even less of an idea how to get where I wanted to go. Thankfully, I only needed to use it once that entire day. A young man wanted to buy 2 books, so I discounted the price. I got the amount put in the app, but when I ran his card through the reader... it didn't register, and therefore didn't charge him. But I didn't realize that until later.

I now have a new chore on my 'to do' list: Practice with the square app.

It was not a tremendously busy day. They had 150 authors in attendance. They may or may not have had that many people come in and shop. Our table was in the 'science fiction' section, but there were no signs to indicate what section had what kind of books. When customers were scarce, I pulled myself away from our table to go network with other authors. That was actually kind of fun. I always started the conversation the same way; "What type of books do you write?"

And I talked to people who walked by, usually starting with, "What type of book do you like to read?" Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but at least I wasn't just sitting there like a bump on a log. My husband would have been proud of me.

About 4:45, they announced it was time to start packing up what books we had left and leave. I hadn't sold that many books, and I was trying to pack them away in the same boxes they came in, so it was about 5:30 before I found a cart, loaded up my boxes and went to get my car. A helpful person saw me pushing the cart towards my car, and helped me transfer the boxes into the trunk. She was very helpful, and upon hearing where I was from, she got my phone number and sent me the contact information for the 'book festival' being held in Orlando. I thanked her profusely and went back to the hotel.

All I'd had for 'lunch' was some pumpkin seeds and a bottle of pop I had bought from the hotel before I had left that morning. There were supposed to be food trucks at the festival site for most of the day, but they never announced that they had arrived, and I didn't have my husband there to watch the table, so I ate my seeds and was glad to have them. By the time I got back to the hotel, nearly 6 pm, I was hungry, so I went to bar and ordered loaded nachoes and a piece of cheesecake. I should have forgotten about the cheesecake, because there were enough nachoes on that plate to feed 2 of me. But I finished most of them, and the cheesecake, then I went to my room and watched tv to let my nerves settle down.

The whole experience had been so-o-o-o far outside my comfort zone! Even going for supper was uncomfortable, because I was by myself, the bar was busy and noisy. I was pretty desperate for some solitude by the time I reached my room.

The room was still cold. I had neglected to bring a jacket or sweater with me, so I climbed into bed and watched tv.

At one point, my youngest son called me. He had signed up for an online class on IT, one that would 'probably' take him 6 months to finish. He had finished it in 3 weeks, and he wanted to crow a little bit about it. I understood the feeling, I wanted to crow a little too, about how well I had handled the book festival. So we talked a little bit, and then I promised to call him back on Sunday afternoon, after I got home.

So, about 11 (I'm usually up until midnight), I turned off the tv and the lights, pulled the blankets up to my ears to keep the chill air away, and went to sleep.

My First Book Festival, Part 2

So there it was, Friday, and at some point, I needed to leave for the 1 ½ to 2 hour drive to Gainesville. At first, I thought I’d leave at 1 pm. I put my 5 small boxes of books in the trunk of my car. I put my suitcase in the back seat. I filled a grocery sack with snacks and a 6-pack cooler with drinks, and about 2 o’clock, I stopped procrastinating and pulled out of the driveway.

After I filled the tank, I meandered through some back roads to get to the turnpike. Before I got on that, I had to stop and find my sunpass box, which had popped off the windshield. I tried to get it to stick to the windshield, but it kept popping off, so I placed it on the dashboard and hoped it would work. When I took the entrance to the turnpike, the machines recognized my sunpass, so I breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn’t have been a disaster if it hadn’t recognized my sunpass, but it would have been more expensive.

I reached the service plaza on the turnpike and pulled in for a few minutes. I very seldom drive on highways anymore, and had been having problems keeping my speed fairly consistent. The speed limit was 70, and it seemed the fastest I was comfortable going was 60, and even that wasn’t consistent. After about 10 minutes, I got on the road again.

About an hour later, I pulled off at a rest stop to eat a little snack and drink some pop. My speed still wasn’t very consistent, but at least it was fluctuating between 60 and 70. Again, after about 10 minutes, I got back on the road.

I was still having trouble keeping my speed steady, but now I kept finding it veering toward 80. And then we approached the Gainesville exits, and the right hand lane, where I was, came to a dead stop, as the exit lane was backed up that far. Having come to a stop, traffic was heavy enough that I could not pull over into the next lane to continue. Eventually, the exit lane moved forward enough that I could move past the exit and continue on my way.

The Gainesville exit I need was the most northern one, naturally, since I was coming from the south. But I found it, successfully got off, and drove right by the street leading to the hotel. I had to turn around and come back to it. The hotel was busy with people checking in, but I got checked in with no problem, and got my stuff up to my room.

Now the nerves really started to bother me, thinking about that 'meet and greet' I was supposed to go to from 7 to 9. I got myself ready by 7, memorized the route to the site, and took off. It was dark, since it was the end of January, and I was trying to keep an eye on the street names so I didn't miss my turns. I did not keep up with the speed limit, and thankfully, I did not need to change lanes. I thought there would be signs on the church campus to direct us to the correct building, but there weren't. I parked my car and headed for the building that had lights on.

I had the right building, as evidenced by the Sunshine State Book Festival sign that stood outside the doors, but I hadn't seen that from the road or parking lot. I walked inside, and found there was some confusion going on at the registration table, where we were to claim our name badges. The registration person had stepped away for some reason, and 3 or 4 people (myself included) were going through the badges, trying to find ours. Instead of being arranged alphabetically, they were arranged by table number. I found the badge for Table 45, but it wasn't my name on it. When the registration person got back, I asked if possibly my table number was 145, and sure enough, there my name was. Which meant John's name badge was 146.

I wandered into the large inner room, where lots of tables and chairs were set up, just like for a dealer's room. I found my way to the refreshments, and realized I hadn't bothered to eat any supper. Not that there was an awful lot to choose from. There were a few pinwheel sandwiches, but I didn't know what was in them, so I skipped those. I selected a couple cookies, a few pieces of vegetables, fruit and cheese, and a glass of lemonade to drink, since I don't drink coffee.

I had worn one of my MoonPhaze shirts, with the MoonPhaze logo on the back, and 'Author' on the front. I received 3 or 4 comments on that shirt, all thinking it was a good idea. One lady said she had done something similar, but had put the front of her book on her shirt, which is also a good idea. Most of the authors were already gathered in small groups, talking, but several paused to exchange pleasantries as they wandered from 1 group to another.

After I finished my refreshments, I noticed a man sitting at a table alone, staring at his phone. So I decided to REALLY step outside my comfort zone and start talking to him. Turns out he's not an author, he's a computer geek, but he was there to support his wife, who is an author. Pretty soon, our little group of 2 people grew to 5 people, and we were having a nice little chat about nothing in particular. About that time, the organizers announced it was time for us to leave, so we all said good-bye and I went out to my car.

Having memorized the route to get there, I only had to follow it backwards to get to the hotel. That only took me 15 minutes, but I didn't feel like going to the sports bar restaurant attached to the hotel for supper, so I just ate some more of my snacks in my room before climbing into bed. I had to get up early in the morning to have breakfast and get to the site by 8:00.

My First Book Festival, Part 1

I had been looking forward to this for months. Months, I tell you! I had paid for memberships in the writer’s organization that organized the Sunshine State Book Festival in Gainesville FL, and then, I paid for and reserved a full table at their book festival, held on Jan 28, 2023. I read all their emails, trying to figure out how this would be different from having a table at a Midwest sf convention, either literary or media. Because that was where I had sharpened my teeth, so to speak, trying to sell our books.

It would only be 1 day long, not like those Midwest cons, which were almost always 3 days long. Okay, okay, there would be a ‘Meet and Greet’ for 2 hours on Friday night, which might be analogous to a sf con’s con suite on Friday night, but it was only for 2 hours. Surely I could manage that, couldn’t I? Let’s face it, when it comes to sitting and not speaking to anyone, I was one of the best.

Saturday would be the actual book festival. It would be one big dealer’s room, to compare it to sf cons, with each author getting half a table from which to sell their books. There would be no wall of t-shirts, games, or other things being sold, only books. I’ve done 3 and even 5 days sitting behind a table and trying to sell things, so 1 day can’t be too bad. I could do that. Besides, my husband, who is a natural talker, would be there to start conversations and hopefully whet the appetite of potential customers for the books we were selling. Piece of cake.

There would also be ‘panels’, although in the case of this book festival, they were a limited number of readings scheduled throughout the day. I put both our names in as willing to read, but neither of us was selected. Well, pooh. But really, was there a difference between not being selected to read and giving a reading to an empty room?

So I was ready, at least mentally, to go and see how many books we could sell.

And then things kind of fell apart. Or seemed to.

The writer’s group suggested bringing 10 copies of each book to sell. I normally only take 5 or 6 copies each when I go to a convention. But I dutifully set about packing up 10 copies each… only to find I had several books that I didn’t have 10 copies of. With less than a week before the festival, I didn’t have time to order any more. I’d just have to deal with the numbers I had.

I had recently upgraded my old android phone to an old iphone, and I suddenly discovered my square card reader would not plug into my apple phone. Luckily, my son came to my rescue, ordered a new card reader that would plug into my apple from Amazon, which delivered it on Sunday. One disaster averted.

My husband was sick with a sinus infection, which he’d been waiting for 2 months to see the sinus specialist, so he was getting pretty blasted sick. I didn’t want to leave him alone for 2 ½ days, so we planned on him going to Gainsville with me, but staying in the hotel room if he wasn’t up to going to the festival. Another disaster averted.

Or was it? He managed to sleep pretty decently the day before I was to drive to Gainesville, and decided he would just stay home while I went. I wasn’t exactly happy with that plan, but the alternative was that I stayed home with him, which would be throwing away all the money I had spent on this endeavor. So I filled the frig up with food that required little work to get ready to eat. And when it came time to drive off, I went. Maybe next year, I can get him to come with me.

Getting Things Right

Have you ever had a project that you had to try several times to get it to come out correctly? It could be something you've done before, but in any case, you know the steps that have to be done, and you've done them, so why won't it come out right this time?

That's been me, this past month and more, trying to get 5 books correctly formatted as ebooks. Okay, yes, there were parts of that time when I couldn't work on them; the time we were on a cruise, the 2 weeks we were fighting covid, and a weekend spent in Kansas City. But when I could work on them, it felt like I was repeatedly slamming my head against a brick wall.

I studied the instructions each time before I started the process. I would work at the procedure for 2 hours and then take a break, because it was mind-numbing, repetitive work. 5 times I formatted these books and fed them through the converting software, only to open up the converted epub file and find mistakes.

Different mistakes each time. Where were they coming from? How could I be flubbing up that badly each time, in a different way from the time before? There was the time when most of the paragraphs were indented from the left margin by an inch. How could I have made such a stupid mistake and not notice it at the time? Another time, some paragraphs were in 12-pt font, but others were in 10-pt. And then there was the time when all the paragraphs were justified except one, and it was centered. And always, always, the 2 pictures that I had added to these books would float away during conversion and wind up as much as 3 pages from where they were supposed to be, making it impossible to read 2 or 3 paragraphs of the story!

Last week, I carefully went through each epub file and noted the problems. I actually wrote them down so I could remind myself what they were. I looked for answers in the instructions. I wrote the Help people with a couple questions. I considered hiring a professional to get it done right. But there were 5 books, and that would have involved a bit of money.

Last Saturday, I swept all my chores aside and devoted the day to formatting. I had stumbled across a way to 'anchor' the pictures to a particular location, and I was going to give it One Last Try, myself. I drank lots of caffeine that day, and when I took a break, I made sure I got some exercise as well as a change of scenery. I only got 4 of them done on Saturday, but I got the 5th one done on Sunday. Then I took the rest of Sunday off and forgot the whole project for a few hours.

Since then, I have fed them through the conversion software. I've checked the pdf files, and they look great. I'll be checking the epub files later today and tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Panic Time

This has been a hectic week. I finished editing a book on Saturday, and decided I'd better concentrate on getting stuff together for the convention we'll be at this weekend. This was in addition to the work I'd done last fall, taking inventory of everything I ever took to a convention to sell and organizing them in boxes so I could pick and choose what I wanted to take. My husband encouraged me to make more product (cosplay prosthetics) before the raw materials went bad, so we set aside a couple days to do that. Otherwise, I've been working on them every afternoon since last Saturday, and I've got quite a bit done.

And it's only Wednesday.

Wait, did I say it's ONLY Wednesday? Oh, no! It's already Wednesday! I've got product to package up, and then pack into the proper boxes, and displays to prepare, and table props to paint! AAAARRRGGH! (Run around the house like a chicken with its head cut off, and get absolutely nothing constructive done!)

Okay. That's enough panicking for now. Tomorrow, when I'm trying to finish everything up, plus pack a suitcase and load up the car, I may have a few more panic attacks. I try to keep them short, so I can use most of my time plugging away at what I need to do.

I suppose that since I have some control over how long they are, they might not be true panic attacks. Basically, they are moments when I feel overwhelmed by how much I still have to do, no matter how much I've managed to get done. And when I feel like that, I don't seem able to communicate to anybody else how to properly do one of my chores so that I can hand it off. Been there, done that, wasn't pretty.

I suppose I should train somebody—such as my husband, who's been prepping his own stuff to take for the Klingon table—how to do some of these chores for me before I'm overwhelmed. Then we can both be overwhelmed together!

No, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Better that one of us manage to remain calm even when one of us is being a headless chicken.

I am grateful that I did, once upon a time, sort through and organize all the boxes, and labeled them, so I know what boxes I want to take. You know, books are in boxes 4, 5 & 14. Prosthetics are in boxes 8, 10, & 12. Made it so much easier to sort out the ones I wanted to take with us.

Anyway, we're both going to be at Villicon this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the DoubleTree at the Entrance to Universal, 5780 Major Blvd in Orlando. If you're going to be there, stop by our tables and say hello! John (Lars Shoberg) will be at the Klingon table, and I (Trudy V Myers) will be manning the MoonPhaze table (basically across the aisle and down a table from the Klingons), selling prosthetics and books. We'd love to chat with you! 

World Con 2016

Today was the first day of World (SF) Con 2016. The World con moves around from year to year. This year, it’s being held in Kansas City and is called MidAmeriCon 2. (Kansas City held its first World Con – MidAmeriCon – back in the ‘70s.)

The cheapest time to buy a membership is right after the vote that determines where the World con will be held TWO years from now. The votes happen at World con, so the members of this year’s convention get to decide what city will host the convention in 2 years. Of course, their choices are limited to those cities who have figured out how and where they would have the convention.

Worldcon 2017 will be in Helsinki. We didn’t buy memberships to that one, because we seldom follow the con outside the US. When the worldcon is held somewhere other than North America, there is a North AmeriCon held that year. That location for 2017 will be chosen at this worldcon. We might go to that, depending where it is. The choices are San Jose and New Orleans.

World cons last for 5 days. They used to be held over Labor Day weekend, but that made it difficult for parents to attend, because the school year was just beginning. So they have migrated to mid-August. North Americons are typically 4 days long.

Worldcons generally have a few thousand people. When they are held in large cities – like LA – they might have 8,000 attendees. So much larger than the 200 attendees at the first, held in New York in 1939.

Other conventions are larger; Dragoncon in Atlanta, Nebcon in Omaha are just 2. But worldcons are big enough to be daunting, especially to shy or introverted people. The dealer’s room is large, the art show amazing, the costume contest can be over the top. And the panels! LOTS of panels, on all sorts of subjects. As usual, I find 2-3 panels I want to attend, all at the same time, and probably at opposite ends of the convention center. It can be tough to choose which one I will actually go to.

Sooner or later, we run across friends at worldcon. Some are people we know from smaller conventions. Others we only run across at worldcon (or North AmeriCon). In either case, we take some time to chat and catch up.

If you’ve never been to a worldcon, a description really can’t do them justice. I suggest you save up your money - tickets can be $250 for 5 days at the door, and the surrounding hotels are high-end brands. If the WorldCon is close enough for you to drive, you could save some money finding a cheaper hotel further away. But you will have to pay to park somewhere near the convention each day. And don’t forget to have money on hand for food; WorldCons provide snacks (chips, veggies, crackers) and soda at certain times of the day, but not anything that could be considered ‘real food.’

Despite the expense, they can be fun and informative. However, they are not a comicon, an anime con, or a media con. They are a literary convention. They are aimed mostly at science fiction & fantasy readers. When we walked through the dealer’s room today, we saw 4-5 tables selling t-shirts, and at least twice that many selling books.

So if you don’t read, this probably isn’t the convention for you.

Learning New Tricks 1

Remember that old saying, “Old dogs can’t learn new tricks?” Now that science says older people should be learning new things in order to keep their mind sharp, this ‘old dog’ is determined to learn new tricks. Even if I’m not a ‘spring chicken’ anymore.

Happily, there are plenty of opportunities to learn new things, ranging from free to costing quite a lot.

FREE - Tandy Leather offers free lessons in working with leather, from beginning to advanced. Generally, these lessons are offered on Saturdays for 5-6 weeks. I am in the middle of my 3rd class with them, learning to lace and sew leather projects. Usually, I come out of these sessions with 1 (maybe 2) projects done, but there are a lot of different lacing techniques to learn, so I am keeping my projects small and otherwise unadorned (no carving or stamping), and I am finishing one project a week.

A couple months ago, I discovered dospace, located in Omaha at 72 & Dodge. They offer crash courses in various computer programs. Afterwards, you can go in at any time (that they’re open) and use one of their (many) computers to practice and do projects in that program, so you don’t actually have to run out and buy it. I’ve taken 3 classes from them, and try to get there for a couple hours each week to practice on the programs we don’t have.

YouTube offers lots of instructive videos. We’ve watched many on using particular types of materials for specific pieces of costumes or props, and more on makeup techniques.

Company websites sometimes have instructional videos to show you how to use their products. Smoothon, for instance, will show you how to make molds, and how to use those molds to cast items in resin. Hubby really enjoys doing that, and that’s how he learned the method.

Television is a relatively ancient method of learning, but still an active teacher. I think the best (easiest) to learn from tv are cooking and sewing. There are other opportunities, such as doing a mosaic tabletop with pieces of broken china or tiny glass tiles, but too often, you get 1 or 2 10-15 second shots of some of the steps in doing that, with verbal instructions for the entire process delivered at 90 miles per hour. That has never been enough ‘learning’ for me to actually try it, although it is for other people.

Of course, you might get a book from the local library to teach you how to do whatever you have a hankering to learn.

Hmmm. I’m running out of room, and I haven’t even gotten to some of the learning opportunities that cost money. And actually, I intended to write about the different ways people learn, but I’ve wandered quite a ways from that topic. Okay, then, this is Part 1 of “Learning New Tricks”. Stay tuned for future parts, one of which may or may not show up next week. It all depends on if I find some other fascinating subject to talk about before then.

How Many Hats?

Long, long ago - they tell me - all an author needed to do was write. And maybe go on a speaking tour from time to time.

Now, an author wears many hats. How many hats can one person balance on their head before their neck snaps?

First, there's the Writing Hat. You have to get that rough draft done, or your writing career will go nowhere.

At some point, you will probably need the Research Hat, even if you write fiction. If your story involves some military, how is it organized? What ranks does it have? If it's science fiction involving humans, you might research militaries throughout history, and extrapolate from what you've learned. If you're writing a fantasy about dwarves, you might study the tales about dwarves, and try to figure out how they might organize an army. (Hint: A dwarf army is not likely to have cavalry. At least, not a cavalry on something as big as a horse.)

Next comes the Self-Critiquing Hat. You go through your rough draft and make it better by smoothing out rough spots and inconsistencies, adding description and explanation where it's needed, making sure you've said what you intended to say. Actually, you wear this hat more than you wear the Writing Hat.

Next comes the Listening Hat. You ask for feedback on what you've written, and you listen to what they say. Maybe your hero's eyes changed color mid-book, or you use the same phrase over and over, or 3 out of 4 readers didn't understand the first half of chapter eleven.

Back to the Self-Critiquing Hat as you go through your manuscript, considering the feedback, whether or not to change anything, and if so, what's the best way to do that?

Many authors are opting to self publish, these days. Once they've gotten their manuscript as good as they think they can get it, they probably hire an editor, maybe a copy editor, possibly a proofreader, and some will even hire someone to format the manuscript into e-book and print templates.

Or maybe they don't. In which case, those are all hats they should make sure fit their head; the Editor Hat, the Copy Editor Hat, the Proofreader Hat, and the Formatting Hat.

If they are making print copies, they must wear a Deciding Hat (What company will I hire to print this? Where do I get cover art, and who can do the cover layout?), the Receipts Payable Hat (How did the final printing bill get 30% higher than the quote they gave me?), and the Signing Hat (I only ordered *** copies, so why are there so many big, heavy boxes on my doorstep?).

Think they're done? Oh, no, not yet. This part is for all authors, even those with a publishing company, whatever that company's size. Very few authors don't have to wear the following hats:

The Marketing Hat (How do I let people know about my book?) often leads to The Social Media Hat (How many times can I announce something about my book on fb, twitter, linkedin, goodreads...?), the Webmaster Hat (How do I get this shopping cart to work?), the Personal Appearance Organizing Hat (Did that bookstore ever respond about the reading I wanted to do?), the Merchant Hat (Step right up! Get your brand new red hot sf book by that upcoming new author, me!), which, of course, leads to the dreaded Bookkeeper Hat (I gave away 5 books. There's no money involved, so how do I put those in the bookkeeping records?).

I will be wearing the Merchant Hat this weekend. I have rented a table in the Dealer's Room at a Dr Who convention in Wichita KS. Tomorrow, I will be madly trying to wear both the Publicity Hat and the Organizing Hat as I try to design some way to 'decorate' that table and decide how many copies of each book to take with me. A full box of John's book, because, you know, I still have 6 full boxes to sell, 15 of my first book, 12 of the anthology I'm in (plus 6 of the companion volume for that anthology), and 12 of my latest book. Wait, will all those fit in the car with John's suitcase, my suitcase, the costume suitcase and my full make-up case?

Too many hats!

The Secret

This year's World Science Fiction Convention was in Spokane, WA. The layout of the convention center made absolutely no sense. You entered on ground level, only to take an escalator to the 2nd level, where you could find registration, the dealer's room and the art show. From there, you could do one of 5 things:

·       Take an escalator down to one set of rooms,

·       go down a few steps to a down escalator to another set of rooms,

·       walk down a long corridor, turn left, follow a hallway to an (inadequate) bank of elevators to get to the hotel lobby, which you walked across to another set of rooms (I never personally made this trip, although I did try, once.),

·       don't turn left but continue down that long corridor to a down escalator to another set of rooms, or

·       walk past that set of rooms to take an elevator up a floor to yet another set of rooms.

Rumor has it that there were even rooms in another building that one had to go outside to get to.

Even with a map in the pocket program book, convention center staff were stationed at corners so people could ask, "How do I get to X?" We got our exercise!

There were wild fires in Washington, one of them north of Spokane. The city wasn't threatened, but on Friday, the smoke was as thick as heavy fog. Even inside, you could smell it. Played heck with people's sinuses.

But the thing I will probably remember most was The Secret. I heard it in a panel given by authors, and one of them quite nonchalantly stated, "I hate to give away secrets, but we authors don't come to conventions to see our fans; we come to network with other authors and people in the business."

I was shocked!

Now that I have thought about it, I wonder, Then why do they attend the smaller conventions? I mean the smaller, regional conventions where they may be the only 'known' author attending. No editors, no agents, only small press publishers. What would local authors and small press people offer?

I suppose networking is networking, and you never know, the person who is completely unknown this year could the Big Item next year. But still, the fan is in that mix somewhere, right?

How can you sell books if nobody wants to read it? If fans aren't important, why are newbie and wanna-be authors advised to produce the most excellent work they can, because "Your first book is what sells (or doesn't sell) your next book."

Okay, maybe this 'Secret' doesn't say it all. Maybe it was just my personal wake-up to use conventions, not just to have fun, but to network with like-minded people. That's not an easy thing for me to do. But I can talk to people, one or two at a time. Time to give it a try.

What Takes so Long?

What takes so long from an editor accepting a manuscript for publication and the book appearing in book stores? The process can take months or even years with a ‘Big Boy’ publisher.

Yet, there are exceptions: Books about some political scandal can appear days after the scandal comes to light; Biographies of a celebrity can be bought within a week of their death. So it can be done faster. Why isn’t it?

Small press and self-publishing don’t take that much time. How do they do it?

Editing. Every manuscript needs an editor. It may be the rare exception that only needs one comma added and one numeral (like 9) spelled out (into nine), but no publisher knows that until an edit is done. With the Big Boys, sometimes the editor who decides which manuscript to purchase is also expected to edit those manuscripts. Obviously, an established author’s manuscript will be edited before those by new authors. Small presses don’t publish as many books, and often use free lance editors, who fit their assignment into their schedule in order to meet their deadline. In my case, I ask for a month (and occasionally wish I had two).

Cover Art. This is, apparently, the next step for the Big Boys, because nothing else can happen without the pretty picture for the front. Of course this takes time, from concept through several renditions until it is ‘just right’. And then, it’s sent to somebody else to put the type (title, author, etc.) on it, and that may take several attempts before it is deemed ‘acceptable’. Remember, the Big Boys have many of these being done at the same time. Small presses, again, may work with free lance artists, who may even put the type on. Or they might use a stock photo, which takes even less time.

Reviews. I never paid attention to these myself, so I was surprised at how much emphasis is placed on getting them. In the past, reviewers expected to receive a printed book, complete with cover art, that they could read. This would be months before the book was officially published. Some still want it done this way, but others accept e-files of the book. Some small presses don’t get reviews early enough to quote them on the back of the book, so that cuts some time off the process.

Sales Materials. This seems to be a long, drawn-out ordeal for the Big Boys. Each book must get added to their catalog, the sales teams must be trained in how to best pitch it to the book stores... Many small presses don’t pitch to book stores, because the book stores won’t carry them. Therefore, their efforts for one book are simply added to the marketing of all the others they have available. Add it to their catalog and website, mention it in the newsletter and their social media comments. They might create fliers to send to gatherings of likely readers.

A typical Big Boy book stays on the shelf about 6 weeks. A small press may never ‘discontinue’ a book.

Is being published by a Big Boy worth wasting all that time? What do you think?

Monopoly Money

Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to sell books. He created a website and negotiated deals with the big publishers to put their books in his warehouse. It took him a few years, but he built up his business to the point where he was the first place people thought of going when they wanted a book.

Meanwhile, more than one national chain of book stores went out of business.

At some point, this young man realized changes had occurred in the book market. People also bought electronic books. The big publishers were resisting going electronic, considering it a fad, but lots of small publishing companies had sprung up. Some authors were their own publishers. These small companies and individuals not only embraced e-publishing, they were also able to create paper books by using POD printing.

The young man thought, “People are spending money on e-books and POD books. If individual authors can set these things up, then I can, too.” So he became not only a book seller, but a not-so-small publisher of e-books and POD books. His company grew even bigger.

The big publishers finally, reluctantly produced e-books, but they charged virtually the same amount for the ebook version as they did for the paper version, despite the much lower cost of production. When the young man saw that, he demanded that they lower their e-book prices. Or else! Some did, but one did not, and he punished them terribly, by not selling pre-orders for them, and by letting their orders languish for weeks before they were sent out to the customers.

Some authors and small presses thought, “I’m all for lower prices on e-books, but this guy is throwing his weight around.”

One day, the young man thought; Since he had the capabilities to POD print, a warehouse, and people to mail books to customers, it only made sense that he do all the POD printing. He ‘negotiated’ with the various POD companies, making arrangements for them to ship their printing jobs to him (and pay him) to print.

Upon hearing of this, some who had been ready to use his POD/e-book services thought, “Whoa! Now he’s trying to put POD companies out of business? He wants exclusive rights to sell your e-book for at least 3 months? This guy is not only a bully, he wants a monopoly!”

In a round-about way, I’m trying to explain the reason why I (and MoonPhaze Publishing) will not be working with Amazon. Even though not being listed on their site is likely to make it harder to sell our own books, we cannot condone their practices.

Since we don’t know which POD publishers are still independent, or how long they can hold out, we’ll have to have a number of books printed and store those we haven’t yet sold. And we need to get a move on, because we have a book due out in January.

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