Comment

Comment by Shawn Lamb on April 12, 2011 at 10:12am

Those are good questions you posted, Bobbie. With the publishing industry changing almost daily, established authors, new authors and aspiring authors MUST keep up with so much it is mind-boggling. However, staying current is the only way to navigate such choppy waters.

Social media has it's advantages for both traditional and self-pub authors. But NOTHING - technology, changing industry standards, etc.- will ever replace the face-to-face human experience between authors and readers. For me, that is the most important thing I can do is make personal contact through signings, events, shows or personal appearances.

Comment by Sherrie Bain on April 2, 2011 at 3:42pm

I decided to self publish my book "Presenting: The Virus Invader". I had already decided that I wanted to create my own publishing company to write and publish children's books prior to this project. However, I had still wanted to publish my first couple of books with an external [established] publisher.

However, I was dissuaded from doing this because of responses I got indicating that the subject matter I wrote about wasn't something that a lot of children's book publishers would be comfortable publishing. I was shocked and a bit disappointed because I write about serious, health related topics such as HIV/AIDS, that affect so many children worldwide. These topics are often difficult for parents or affected loved ones to explain to children and so my goal is to help by providing fictional narratives and educational books that address such issues.

However, it appears that many children's books publishers would prefer to just stick to the fairy tales or stories about talking toys, wizards, vampires, etc (things that are completely fictional). I'm not bitter towards the fairy tales--I enjoy reading them myself, however I just wonder what we're really teaching our kids about life, about being tolerant and compassionate towards others, etc., if the industry is more comfortable promoting stories about things that are 100% fictional.

Comment by Bobbie Crawford-McCoy on February 18, 2011 at 2:54pm

While doing some searches on Google, I found an interesting website called Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. They seem to have a lot of useful advice and information for writers in many genres.

They have a section of their website dedicated to exposing potential or real fraudsters in the literary world.

Here's the link to their Writers Beware section, if you are interested in learning more: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/.