WITH PEN IN HAND

Self-publishing is not as new as we sometimes tend to think, and is becoming more prevalent with advances in technology.

It is as individual as the person using it, so you must know what you want. Assume you now have a book that is complete, well-edited, and thoroughly proofread. You have come up with a good title, determined the size and format you’d like and obtained ISBN numbers. You are ready to decide if you want to self-publish. What obstacles might you encounter?

Several NETWO members have provided us with accounts of the most difficult things they encountered in the self-publishing process. Perhaps you will find them helpful.

“If your primary interest is getting your manuscript into book form and available to readers, self-publishing is the way to go. Most POD companies are quite cooperative and work closely with the author to get you through the process. Remembering back to my first attempt at self-publishing, perhaps my most trying part of the process was becoming familiar with the parameters electronic publishing requires. At times, I felt like I was learning a whole new language. It required that I spend considerable hours reading instructions, trying to follow what I’d read and being willing to fluff up in the process of learning.”

--- Gay Ingram

“After choosing the typeface and interior design template, the most difficult part of the self-publishing effort was staying on top of the publisher’s editing and formatting process. Keeping up with the manuscript approval was not easy because different errors would creep in each time. Otherwise, it was simply a question of time lags between communications. Fortunately, Xlibris did a wonderful job on the cover design and the quality of the printed work is excellent.”

--- William Carl

“The idea of having control of formatting, cover design, and sales of my work enticed me to self-publish Shaking the Apple Trees. The company I chose, after much research, had an excellent five star rating and was highly recommended by writer friends who’d used them. A year

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later the company was bought by Amazon, and everything went downhill. I made the mistake, three years later, of using them again for The Family Tree. It was a night-mare of miscommunication and formatting errors between my POC there, the formatter, and cover designer, which delayed the book six months. They made delivery promises they didn’t keep. If I was to consider self-publishing again, I wouldn’t go with a company owned by, or who distributes books through Amazon, since it’s likely Amazon owns them, too. Self-publishing is too expensive to be disappointed in the finished product. I now have an excellent agent and a traditional publisher for my next five books.”

--- Janice Monk Glass @

BITS AND PIECES

NETWO photographer, Bryan Freeman, will be taking a break from his duties while he undergoes radiation. Everyone keep him in your prayers.

Gay Ingram would like to introduce us to a new website. It’s a way to purchase books directly from the author: http://www.45caliberbooks.com.

She has posted her books on this site and hopes you will take the time to look it over and maybe even post a review of her books you’re familiar with.

Ken Loveless reports he is about finished with volume 3 of Grouchy.

Georgia Henson’s wonderful true story Kate the Mule appears in the September issue of East Texas Journal.

EVENTS

The Texas Book Festival in Austin is scheduled for November 1-2, 2008. About 200 authors are expected. The Texas author honored with the Bookend Award this year is Robert Caro.

WORKSHOP FOR WRITERS

Presented by

Jory Sherman

Noted Author & Instructor

November 1 - 22

Jory Sherman will conduct a unique writing workshop for writers during the month of November at the meeting room of the Pizza Inn in Pittsburg, Texas.

Sessions will cover every aspect of writing, including the short story, the novel, essay, article and memoirs. Writers can attend 1 or more of the 4-week sessions.

Time: 9-11 a.m. at the Pizza Inn on Hwy 271, Pittsburg. Fee is $50 for all 4 Saturday sessions, $20 for each 1-day session. Bring your manuscripts, laptops or notepads.

Workshop is limited, so hurry.

Jory Sherman

38 Pvt Rd 52041

Pittsburg, TX 75686

or for more information call: 903-856-6064

Please include your e-mail address and phone number with your reservation. t

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MY FAVORITE POETS – A COMPARISON

By Jackie Brown

I love the writings of many poets, but I always think first of the three poets whose work stays in my mind permanently. They have in common a certain swagger about their writing, both the words and the rhythm. A boldness of emotion and style that makes them similar in my mind. They all happen to be men, which is not really surprising, as in the days when they lived and wrote, men tended to have more dangerous and exciting adventures to write about than most women did. It was men who went off to war, and to the gold fields of Alaska, and other daring adventures.

These three men are Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert W. Service. Kipling was born in India, in 1865, and died in 1936. His work interpreted India in all its heat, strife, and ennui, and he had a romantic view of English imperialism (to quote my Columbia desk encyclopedia). An English author, he is known for many famous works, poems, novels, and children’s stories, i.e, Gunga Din, Barrack-Room Ballads, The Light that Failed, and The Jungle Book. He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Mass., in 1809, was one of our most brilliant and original American writers. He died young, in 1849, of alcoholism, and was known as a complex, tormented figure. In addition to brilliant poems and stories, he was also a witty and intelligent literary critic and an editor. He is best known for poems such as “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee”, and his compelling short stories such as “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. He’s considered the father of the modern detective story, as in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, and is also known for his work The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838). He attended the University of Virginia and West Point briefly, but was forced to leave for infractions.

My third, and perhaps my very favorite poet is Robert William Service, (1 874-1958), a Canadian novelist and poet, known for “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”, Songs of a Sourdough, and other celebrations of Klondike life. He is not as famous as the other two, and is harder to find in libraries and book stores. When I saw a copy of his book Rhymes of a Rolling Stone in a used book store, I grabbed it in a hurry. It was published in 1912. His writing is perhaps more emotional and undisciplined than Kipling and Poe, and his body of work not as large, but there’s something so joyous and rhythmic about his verse that I find it exhilarating to read. His dedication in his book reads, “I have no doubt at all the Devil grins, As seas of ink I spatter. Ye gods, forgive my “literary” sins—The other kind don’t matter.”

I’m going to show just a stanza or two from each of these poets here. See if you agree that they all write with a wonderful rhythm and a musicality of phrases.

Here are the last two stanzas from Kipling’s poem, “IF.”

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Here is a short poem of Poe’s, “ELDORADO.”

Gaily bedight, And as his strength

A gallant knight, Failed him at length,

In sunshine and in shadow, He met a pilgrim shadow—

Had journeyed long, “Shadow,” said he,

Singing a song, “Where can it be—

In search of Eldorado. This land of Eldorado?”

But he grew old-- “Over the Mountains

This knight so bold-- Of the Moon,

And o’er his heart a shadow Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Fell as he found Ride, boldly ride,”

No spot of ground The shade replied, --

That looked like Eldorado. “If you seek for Eldorado!”

And here is a brief excerpt from Service’s poem “A ROLLING STONE” – I read this in an Edgar Rice Burroughs book years ago, and never forgot it until I finally found the book and poem some 30 years later!

There’s sunshine in the heart of me,

My blood sings in the breeze;

The mountains are a part of me,

I’m fellow to the trees.

My golden youth I’m squandering,

Sun-libertine am I;

A-wandering, a-wandering,

Until the day I die ….

In a flannel shirt from earth’s clean dirt, Then here’s a hail to each flaring dawn!

Here, pal, is my calloused hand! `And here’s a cheer to the night that’s gone!

Oh, I love each day as a rover may, And may I go a-roaming on

Nor seek to understand. And may I go a-roaming on

To enjoy is good enough for me; Until the day I die!

The gipsy of God am I;

I hope you’ll read more of these inspirational poets. <

SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The 9^th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Story Competition is accepting entries! We’re looking for fiction that’s bold, brilliant…but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or less. But don’t be too long about it –the deadline is December 1, 2008.

The Grand-Prize winner will receive $3,000 (that’s $2—or more—per word). Full details at: www.writersdigest.com/short. <

Answer key:

Across: Down:

1. literal 2. anticlimax

3. climax 4. anecdote

6. explication 5. irony

9. symbol 7. protagonist

12. diction 8. allusion

14. motivation 10. soliloquy

15. imagery 11. setting

16. denouement 13. Theme

17. plot

18. parody