pamelaboleseglinski.com

I’m in the process of e-publishing my two novels and a short anthology. Someone asked me if this was my method of finding an agent or a publisher. I said something like this: maybe. First i want to see how well i can do without giving up 85% of the gross income that agents and publishing houses take. I want to see that flip the other way. Amazon and Createspace can do that for me. Amazon [the distributor] takes 30%, leaving me with 70%. [It will adjust given the price you charge for your book[s]. My goal right now is to finalize the editing on my novels [the best editor in the world is doing that for me], then gain LOTS of good info re drawing readers and writers to my sites — web, twitter, facebook, blog, general chatter. That’s where e-marketing comes in. It’s a big challenge but we have a group in Kansas City that is working very hard to perfect our marketing platforms. We’ll get there! I’m certain. I intend to “go viral” with my books. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. Never forget that.

Just returned from Romance Writers of America conference in NYC. What a wonderful organization. So nurturing! I return with ideas to revise my first mss into a Romantic Thriller, and prepare my second mss for e-publication. Met a friend of mine at the conference that I haven’t seen in 41 years and she has become my new writing coach and copy editor! Can’t ask for more!

Where have you been this summer and what are your writing projects? Feel free to share. — pam

My friends often ask me where I get my ideas. “It depends on what I’m writing,” I say. Memoirs are easy – I’m writing about a family member, a vacation or my wonderfully tolerant husband. Creative non-fiction is easy too – you just take liberties with the dialogue, but the story is basically true.

I soon discover that my friends are more curious about novels than anything else. “Where do those ideas come from?” They ask. Then, almost wistfully, they add, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel….” This is when their eyes glaze and they stare blankly into the distance, minds groping for an idea.

I snap my fingers, and bring them back. “You’re making it too difficult. Ask yourself what you want to know more about, what settings you love and how you might imagine yourself as one of the characters. Then, begin your research, and the ideas will come. The more you read,” I tell them, “the more you realize you can’t make this stuff up.” About then I begin rattling off a host of books and articles I’ve recently read. Their eyes focus, their ears perk up. Maybe I can do it, I imagine them thinking.

Put simply the events of our time or of a time gone by; shape my ideas, my plots and my characters. I’m reminded of a line in Steve Martin’s movie, LA Story. “Let your mind go and your body will follow.” Your muse is there…tucked inside. You just have to let it free.