Friday, January 29, 2016

Book Publishing Secrets with Robert V Baynes, Author of 'The Day the Dollar Died'

Name: Robert V Baynes
Book Title: The Day the Dollar Died
Genre: Political / Christian Novel
Publisher: Self published
Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?
Robert : I felt like I had a message I needed to get out. I decided that putting it in story form would be the easiest to read and could get the message across the best.
Is this your first book?
Robert: Yes
With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?
Robert: I published it on create space. I chose that because I had heard the stories of authors who spent years trying to get a publisher to publish their work and sometimes never getting it published.
Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?
Robert: The good thing about self publishing like I did is that it is relatively easy to get the book to market on Amazon. The bad thing is that it is very difficult to publicize the book and get people to know about it.
What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?
Robert: People sometimes think that writing a book is hard and quite an accomplishment. Actually, writing the book is the easy part. Getting people to know about the book and to buy it is the hard part.
Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?
Robert: Probably, but I would warn them that this is only the beginning.
What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?
Robert: First of all, make sure that your book is good enough to cause people to want to read it. If you have a good product, then you will have to work very hard to promote it. It is a long process and doesn’t usually happen overnight.

/////////////////////////////////////
Title: The Day the Dollar Died
Genre: Political/ Christian  Fiction
Author: Robert V Baynes
ABOUT THE BOOK
This is a novel about an ordinary farmer who finds that his country is changing and it affects his own life. He loses more than he ever imagined and has to make some hard choices to save his family.
The main character is John Birch and he has a pretty good life. He has a great wife and children and is doing pretty well financially. He gets to do a job he loves and still spends time with his family. He finds that circumstances beyond his control change his world so that he ends up losing the financial security he worked so hard to build up. All he has left is his family and now he has to risk everything to try to save them from an ever growing government.
This book is very realistic and follows a line of thinking  that many find very logical and possibly inevitable.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Book Publishing Secrets with Georges Ugeux, Author of 'The Flying Dragon'

Name: Georges Ugeux
Book Title: The Flying Dragon
Genre: Mystery Novel
Publisher: Archway Publications
Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?
I always wanted to do it but I have such a high esteem for literature that I thought I probably wouldn’t be able to write a novel. The evening I began writing my novel, I had just finished my non-fiction book, International Finance Regulation. It was a huge undertaking and a great relief.
What inspired me to write a few pages of a novel? Let alone, a mystery novel? I think I must have had something I wanted to communicate…and doing it under the fiction umbrella seemed like a great way to do it. After three chapters and a dozen pages, I printed it and read it. It didn’t sound that bad at all…and definitely felt the need to continue.
Another element of inspiration: my eldest daughter. She had a real gift as a writer but passed away when she was 35. She would have been a great French author. Maybe I wanted to carry the torch?
Is this your first book?
I wrote my first book in London in 1981. Floating Rate Notes was written for Euromoney Publications with a reedition in 1985. After my first publication, I began writing essays and articles. After the financial crisis, I published my first essay in 2009 with Odile Jacob in French: The Betrayal of Finance. It was translated in Dutch and English.
In addition to my books, articles and essays, I am also a regular blogger in France (Le Monde.fr) and in the United States (Huffington Post). I am interviewed often as an “expert” in global finance because in addition to being knowledgeable, I have an independent view and can see the broader picture (and sometimes the manipulation of financiers and politicians).
When I began teaching at Columbia Law School, I published International Finance Regulation, published by Wiley & Sons, Inc in 2014. I am currently working on a new non-fiction book on Central Banking.
The Flying Dragon is my first novel.
With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?
For fiction authors, it is a daunting task to publish one’s first novel. I attempted to find a literary agent but almost all declined without reading the few pages I sent. I think many agents are limiting themselves to established authors and have become risk-adverse.
Without a literary agent, it is unlikely that publishers will look at a manuscript. They too are in the blockbusters business and seem to have little interest in new authors.
Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?
I decided to self-publish and keep the rights. I chose Archway Publishing because they are a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster which gave me confidence in the quality of their service. They did a fine job.
I currently have a contract with a Chinese publisher who will be translating it in Chinese (the plot is set in Hong Kong). Additionally, the French version will be finished by the end of December. I plan to approach publishers in January and am targeting Easter as a publication date in France.
What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?
The publishing industry in the United States is undertaking a serious revision and its future is unclear. It is shrinking and acquisitions are seriously reducing the diversity of choices. We live in a world of diverse formats. I am using Audible (an Amazon company) for my audiobook version of The Flying Dragon.
Publishers have sliced their offerings. Often enough they subcontract between editorial, publishing and marketing, and they even slice marketing. It is close to impossible to one human contact for the entire journey. I had to learn how to manage the various contacts and departments.
Writing can be a very solitary exercise. I feel fortunate to have had friends around me who were excited by the prospect of the book.
As a small publisher, it is extremely difficult to distribute a book. It has become very clear that distribution is direct result of great publicity, online presence and social media. Getting one’s book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble is nearly impossible (unless you are already an established author).
I chose to manage social media myself and to hire a traditional media publicist, specializing in the mystery genre. Working with a real person is extremely important to me. The US publishing industry is completely product-driven - the author and book are treated like products. Fortunately, my credibility in the world of finance (the world in which the plot takes place) gave me a bit of an edge and I was taken seriously.
With the importance of e-books, the industry will need to transform its culture and its practices. If they do not begin to focus more on the authors, we will all choose to self-publish.
Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?
I would recommend it. There are very cheap ways to get published and it is not likely that one’s first novel will be published by one of the major publishing companies.
What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?
It took me six months to admit that I had no choice but to self-publish. It is not as gratifying, at least initially, but in my opinion, it is a waste of time to focus on literary agents and major publishing houses.
The internet and social media make it both easier and cheaper to do it yourself.
Be sure you to have plenty of help on the editorial side. Creating a well written, succinct, and polished novel is not easy. If writing is truly a passion, just do it. Work hard and utilize all of your existing relationships and networks. If your manuscript is ready to go, launch it!

////////////////////////////////
Title:  THE FLYING DRAGON
Genre:  THRILLER/SUSPENSE
Author:  Georges Ugeux
Publisher:  Archway Books
Find out more on Amazon
About the Book: 
Celebrated non-fiction author Georges Ugeux delivers an intense, imaginative and intriguing financial thriller in his debut novel, The Flying Dragon.  Set against the backdrop of the high-energy, high-tension world of global finance, The Flying Dragon plunges readers deep into a world where power, greed, money, and passion can intersect in a most dangerous way.
The Flying Dragon introduces protagonist Victoria Leung, a beautiful, brilliant, fearless, and highly accomplished financial fraud investigator.  Responsible for taking down Sun Hung Kai Properties’ Kwok Brothers, a real estate empire, Victoria not only established herself as a formidable talent, but earned the nickname “The Flying Dragon” in the process. When she leaves the fraud department of the Hong Kong Police, Victoria accepts a position as a senior detective at Pegasus, an international security firm based in London.  The Pegasus job affords Victoria much-needed freedom, but that calm is shattered when Victoria receives an urgent message from her close friend Diana Yu. It seems Diana’s ex- boyfriend Henry Chang is in danger.  Henry’s co-worker, Bertrand Wilmington, head of the derivative trading desk of a global bank, has fallen from a window of the twenty-second floor trading room.The Hong Kong Police Force quickly concludes that the death was a suicide, but is there more to this story than meets the eye? Henry Chang thinks so—and knows that if anyone can find answers, it’s Victoria, the Flying Dragon herself. Hong Kong and Mainland authorities are unsuccessful in cracking the case, but Victoria uses her expertise to discover key clues. And Victoria, a dogged, tough, tenacious investigator, won’t back down until she gets answers. As she races to piece together the puzzle of what really happened, Victoria is swept up in a world of danger, deception, and deadly consequences.   Can she extricate herself from this perilous web of arrogance, power, money and greed? Will she expose the corruption and bring down a financial giant?  Or will time run out? The clock is ticking….

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Book Publishing Secrets with Tracy Weber, Author of 'Karma's a Killer'

Name: Tracy Weber
Book Title: Karma’s a killer
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?
Tracy:  The idea to write a mystery series came to me on a rainy evening about five years ago, while in the middle of a brutal workout at my favorite health club. I was pedaling away, reading a Susan Conant novel to distract myself from the evil exercise bike, when a quote in Black Ribbon about crazy dog people made me burst out loud laughing. I knew I’d found my author soul mate.  Someone who truly got me.

I went home, looked her up online, and stumbled across a site about cozy mysteries. As I read about hundreds of other wonderful cozy series, I began to wonder: What would happen if a yoga teacher with a crazy dog like mine got mixed up in murder? Kate Davidson and Bella popped into my head a few days later. The rest is history.

Is this your first book?
Tracy: No. Karma’s a Killer is the third book in my Downward Dog Mystery series, with hopefully many more to come in the future. I currently have a contract for six books in the series.
With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?
Tracy: My publisher, Midnight Ink, falls somewhere between traditional and small press, I believe. It’s not one of the big four publishers, but it’s very well regarded in the mystery field. It was important to me to see my books on the shelves of bookstores and libraries, so I wanted to go the traditional route. However I wouldn’t hesitate to self publish either. There are pros and cons to both.
Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey?  The pros and cons?
Tracy: Everything happened so fast, which was both fabulous and a little crazy-making. I signed with my agent, Margaret Bail of Inklings Literary Agency, only a month or two after I started submitting the manuscript, and she sold the series within a month of sending it to publishers.
I wish I’d had more time to learn about the industry before I signed on the dotted line with an agent and agreed to a three (and now six) book contract. Ultimately, I probably would have made the same choices, but I would have felt better prepared, especially when it came to negotiating the contract.
So the biggest advice I would give to new writers is make sure that you do your research. It may take you years to find the right agent or publisher, or you may have one in weeks. You need to know what criteria would make you say yes or no to their offers.
What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?
Tracy: I think I’ve answered that above, though I would add that the publishing industry constantly changes, faster than anyone can keep up with it. Any lessons that I learned when I signed my first contract three years ago are null and void now. Amazon continues to roll out new programs, some of which are great for writers, others of which are still to be determined. And social media channels pop up and change faster than I can learn how to log on to them. So I’d say be prepared to strap on your rocket suit and hang on for the ride.
Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?
Tracy: I’m very glad I’m traditionally published, but it’s not the right solution if you’re a control freak. Once you sell your work to a publisher, you give up both creative and marketing control. In return, you get marketing and editorial expertise, a little prestige, and a potential path onto the shelves of major booksellers. If you decide to self publish, you need to be more than a writer. Successful self publishers are small business owners who spend as much time editing, formatting, and marketing their books as they do writing them. It’s all about trade-offs.
What’s the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?
Tracy: Don’t give up!  Writing is a TOUGH business.  No one gets published without facing rejection.  When I was trying to land an agent, I allowed myself 24 hours to feel bad about every rejection, then I forced myself to do something proactive. Send out another letter, connect with another author, write another page. 

You can’t please everyone, and yet when you write, you so desperately want to.  (At least I do.)  Just keep writing what you love and know that your work isn’t defined by what any one person thinks of it.


Above all else, have fun! If you have fun on your writing journey, you will be successful—even if you never make it to The New York Times Bestseller list.