See Javacia Lead

Even though it was quite horrifying to see my big head taking up a whole page of a magazine, I am extremely honored to be featured in B-Metro’s women’s issue this month. The article is about my wrote with See Jane Write and you can read it here.

xo,
javacia

A Recap of Our Latest Event, I Wrote a Book…Now What?

Our Amazing Panelists:
Irene Latham, Kathryn C. Lang and TK Thorne





Another See Jane Write event is in the books! Last night’s panel discussion I Wrote a Book…Now What? was a huge success with more than 50 people in attendance. Irene Latham, Kathryn C. Lang, and Teresa (T.K.) Thorne were amazing panelists and I can’t thank Stephanie Naman enough for being such a great moderator.

Thanks to Christina J. Wade for tweeting this picture.
She was ready to take notes!

 

Things went so smoothly. The hardest part of the night was trying to tweet out and take note of  all the words of wisdom our panelists and moderator were sharing about the publishing industry. I learned so much.

The question that seemed to be on the minds of many attendees was if they should self-publish or go the traditional publishing route. Lang stressed that this was a question you’d really have to answer for yourself based on what you really want out of your writing career.

One of the advantages of going the traditional publishing route is greater distribution and more opportunities to get your book reviewed. Also, with a traditional publishing house you will receive help with marketing. Even if you have a book deal with a major publisher, however, Latham advises doing your own marketing in addition to what your publisher provides for you. For example, when she published her children’s book Leaving Gee’s Bend with Putnam/Penguin in 2010, she took it upon herself to arrange school visits to help market her book.

“I wanted to give my book the best shot it could get,” Latham said.

 

Being the English teacher that I am, as I listened to last night’s panel discussion I found myself searching for a theme and I didn’t have to search for long. The thing that kept coming up was the importance of building relationships.


If you are publishing the traditional way, one important relationship will be that with your literary agent.

To find a good agent the panelists suggested attending genre specific conferences. You should also check websites like QueryTracker.com for reviews on agents. Lang says if a literary agent asks you for payment upfront, run! Typically, the arrangement is the agent receives 15 percent of they sell for you. 

Additionally, if you read a book that’s similar to yours check the acknowledgements as writers often thank their agents. Find the agent and send him or her a query letter.

Speaking of which, Thorne stressed the importance of mastering the query (and gave me an idea for a future See Jane Write workshop) and the importance of having a tough skin in this business. You’re going to get rejected (by agents, publishers, etc.). Accept it. 
Your relationship with your literary agent is a serious one. “It’s like a marriage,” Latham said. An agent, for example, can serve as a mediator between you and your editor.
“And my agent can talk me off the ledge when I’m freaking out,” Latham said.
Nonetheless, it is still a business. Remember you hired your agent.
Moderator Stephanie Naman had plenty of wisdom to share too!

By a show of hands, most of the people in the audience last night were interested in self-publishing. There was a time when self-publishing was looked down upon in the writing world, but Naman said that’s changing. For example, self-publishing is now a huge topic at writing conferences, she added.

Nonetheless, quality is still important. Even if you’re not seeking a traditional publishing deal you still need to present your best work. Attend writing conferences and join a critique group, Thorne recommended. Get an editor and a professional graphic designer to help with your cover, Naman added.

Having a good marketing plan is essential for writers who want to self-publish. And the key to successful marketing is, you guessed it, building relationships. 

Thorne, who has found much success with email distribution lists, said having an online presence is important but reminded us not to be a pest. She said she understands how excited you’ll feel after your book is in print. “I had to resist stopping strangers on the street when Noah’s Wife was published,” she said.  
Of course, you also need a website or blog and using social media is a great idea too but don’t post about your book every three minutes on Facebook, Lang said. 
Naman recommended that authors use methods that work best for them; stick to things you’re good at. For example, Naman is not a fan of book signings. Instead she loves blogging and networking on Twitter and thus has used those platforms instead to promote her book Murder on the First Day of Christmas
When marketing remember to focus on how you can help people. This will help you build relationships and make people really care about the success of your projects. So instead of your emails and blog posts simply being about you and your work, use these tools to share valuable information (such as writing, publishing, or networking tips) with your followers. 
Marketing will be a lot of work, but don’t stop writing to focus solely on marketing. The more you write the more connections you’ll make. And the money you make from your first book can help you produce and promote your next one. 
“The key to a successful writing career,” Lang said, “is to keep writing.” 

How You Can Carry On the Mission of Magic City Post


We were very sad to learn yesterday that Magic City Post is closing. Since 2010 the Magic City Post website has been publishing great stories about the positive aspects of Birmingham, about the passionate people dedicated to helping Birmingham live up to its nickname of the Magic City, and about all the hip happenings of the city. 

Yesterday’s farewell post by MCP founder Emily Lowrey was the site’s final post. The Magic City Post website and social media channels will shut down in a few weeks. 

It’s so hard to say goodbye, but Lowrey says it’s time.  In her post Lowrey writes:

If you’re wondering why we’re shutting the site down…well, it’s just time.  In many ways, we feel like we fulfilled some of our mission to help inform people about the bright side of Birmingham.  More often now, we’re seeing positive local content covered by other publications and that’s a good thing.


Magic City Post Founder Emily Lowrey

Still I can’t help feeling as if the closing of Magic City Post is going to leave a huge void in Birmingham’s media and blogging scene. Perhaps that is a void that you can fill. 

I asked Lowrey to share with me any advice she’d give to someone hoping to pick up where she left off by starting a website like Magic City Post. Lowrey gives these ten tips: 

1. Develop a posting calendar. For MCP, this meant working the calendar out weekly, but it’s a tool that should work for you. Adjust to fit your niche.   


2. Don’t do it all yourself.  If you can afford to pay writers to contribute, then do that because you make the local writer community stronger.  Also, rely on your writer friends for guest posts to help fill your editorial calendar and be sure to reciprocate.   


3. Find under-served communities who need to be brought together, and do that through your blog by producing content important to them.  On that same note, remember that if you and your community share common values and interests you’ll likely find content ideas or even complete stories just by asking your community for contributions.  


4. The “right” intern can make your blogging experience far more enjoyable.  Mandy Shunnarah worked well for Magic City Post not only because she was a writer, but I’d say even more importantly because she shared MCP’s mission to experience and share the positive side of Birmingham. She was absolutely invaluable to this experience. 


5.  If you choose to partner with anyone, most especially a business partner, make sure that you share those common values and that you’ve agreed upon a list of ground rules for how you’ll resolve any issues that you encounter. 


6. Be mission focused.  For you, that may mean that you are building up your presence and expertise in a particular topical area.  However, if you are blogging because you want to make a living off blogging, then you either need to become a sales expert or you need to find a sales expert partner.  


7. Extend the reach of your blog by partnering with a network.  On the content side, this could be a group like See Jane Write where you support and share information with one another.  On the revenue side, this could mean finding advertising solutions that allow you to sell into a larger network.  MCP’s real estate partnership with Zillow was one example of revenue network extension.


8. Rely on expert resources.  I still learn something new each week that I visit Feverbee.com, a site with information that will help you identify and develop online communities.  

9. Some of my favorite experiences at MCP was meeting our readers, but nothing can ever top hearing that you connected two readers who then went on to fulfill your mission (for us that was making Birmingham a better place to live).  That, my friends, is liquid gold.  

10. Finally, you aren’t married to your blog forever; you do need an exit plan.  If you develop a community and decide to shut down that community, point your members toward new resources where they can find similar content.  



I Wrote a Book…Now What?

Have you written a novel that you’re just letting collect virtual dust on your computer? Or maybe you have an idea for a book that you haven’t started on because you have no clue how you would ever get your book published once it’s complete.
 
If either of these scenarios sounds familiar, then the next See Jane Write panel discussion is one you don’t want to miss.

I Wrote a Book…Now What? is a panel discussion on the publishing world and is set for Tuesday, May 7 at 5:30 p.m. This free event will be held in the Arrington Auditorium of the Central Branch of the Birmingham Public Library. To register visit: http://sjwpublishingpanel.eventbrite.com


Whether you have questions about landing a deal with a major publishing house, working with a small press, finding a literary agent or self-publishing, our panelists can help.

Irene Latham
Birmingham poet and novelist Irene Latham is the author of  Leaving Gee’s Bend, published by Putnam/Penguin in 2010. That book is set in Alabama during the Great Depression and was awarded Alabama Library Association’s 2011 Children’s Book Award. Her latest novel Don’t Feed the Boy (Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 2012) is about a boy who wants to escape his life at the zoo. Irene is also poetry editor for Birmingham Arts Journal and has authored two award-winning poetry collections, What Came Before (Negative Capability Press, 2007) and , The Color of Lost Rooms (Blue Rooster Press, 2010).


 
Kathryn Lang



Self-published author Kathryn C. Lang was presented with the Nation’s first Tourism Fiction Awardfor her short story, “Digging Up Bones.” The short story will be featured in the third novel of her Big Springs novels. Kathryn’s books are published in paperback through CreateSpace (Amazon’s publishing wing) and online through Smashwords and Kindle. 

TK Thorne
Teresa (T.K.) Thorne is the executive director of CAP (City Action Partnership) and a retired captain from the Birmingham Police Department. Active in the community, she also moonlights as an author, and her debut novel, Noah’s Wife won ForeWord Reviews“Book of the Year” award for 2009. Her short stories and screenplays have garnered awards as well. A film from her screenplay, Six Blocks Wide, was based on her experiences in the Birmingham Police Department and has shown at juried film festivals in Alabama and Europe. Her next book, Last Chance for Justice: How Relentless Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers is being published by Chicago Press Review and will be out September 1, 2013.




Our panel discussion will be moderated by Stephanie NamanStephanie is an advertising and editorial writer with fifteen years experience. Her first book, BarCode: Your Personal Pocket Decoder to the Modern Dating Scene, was turned into segments for a syndicated dating show called “The Single Life.” In addition to writing for advertising clients like Little Debbie and AT&T, she is working on the Chloe Carstairs mystery novel series written under the pseudonym Billie Thomas. The first novel in the series, Murder on the First Day of Christmas was released in December 2012. Stephanie is also the marketing director for Indie Visible, a collective of writers working to use social media and other resources to promote quality independent work. 


Leave your questions for our panelists in the comments section of this post and don’t forget to spread the word about this event to all your writer pals! 






Letter of the Law: Keep Your Blog Legal

Editor’s Note: The following post is by Keith Lee, an attorney with the Hamer Law Group and the man behind the popular law blog Associate’s Mind. Ketih will be a special guest at See Jane’s Write Bloggers Who Brunch event set for April 7. RSVP via Facebook or in the comments section of this post. 

Guest post by Keith Lee 
Blogging is one of the greatest revolutions in publication since the printing press. It has given the ability to publish and be heard to essentially everyone with access to a computer. Almost all of the filters or barriers between a person wishing to share their thoughts, and display them in public, have been removed. Computers and the internet have given everyone the opportunity to have their voice heard.
But with this opportunity comes responsibilities and liabilities. You decide to blog about a bad experience you had at a restaurant which then reads your review and decides to sue you for defamation. Or someone makes a comment on one of your blog posts that attacks a politician. That same politician decides to come after you instead of the commentator. You decide to tweet about something that a local business gave you as a free trial – and the FTC decides to open an investigation file.
All of the above are worst case scenarios that are unlikely to happen. But at the same time, it makes sense to take some basic, and generally easy, precautions to familiarize yourself with laws and make sure you are complying with them.
Free Speech
First and foremost, you have the right to free speech. The government has no right to censor or impede you sharing your opinions. It is unlikely you will ever face any restrictions on your speech from the government.  But sometimes individuals or businesses will attempt to suppress an individuals right to free speech through what is known as a SLAPP – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
To go back to our bad restaurant review as a example, the restaurant learns of the bad review by a blogger. The restaurant files a lawsuit against the blogger as a way to threaten and bully them to take the review down. The restaurant is betting on the fact that they have deeper pockets, and better lawyers, than a small-time blogger. So while the restaurant’s lawsuit would likely fail if it ran its course, it doesn’t matter. The restaurant doesn’t need to win in court, they only need to intimidate the blogger enough to take down their review. Hence, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

Other People’s Speech
Another difficult issue that can arise in blogging is the comments on a post. Comments are fantastic to receive because it indicates that your readers are engaged with your writing. But it can also be a headache it they are negative or attacking people in public. But as a blogger you are generally protected. Specifically, you are protected by a section of the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996. While much of the Act has been struck down as restrictions on free speech, one important part has survived:

Section 230 says that “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider” (47 U.S.C. § 230).

Essentially, you are not responsible for the speech of others on your website. Under the law, bloggers are not liable for comments left by readers, the work of guest bloggers, tips sent via email, or information received through RSS feeds. Section 230 provides the protection that has allowed innovation and freedom to thrive on the internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent infographic on why Section 230 is so important.
            
Paid or Compensated Speech
Many people who start blogs do so in the hopes of them becoming a business. Maybe not a full-time one, but a passive, secondary business nonetheless. The way many bloggers make money is through the endorsement of products and services through affiliate links. Affiliate links are unique links that serve two purposes: A) it directs a visitor to a sales page AND B) credits the host-blog with a commission should the visitor make a purchase by tracking the link back to them. The most common example of this is Amazon’s Associates program.
This type of activity went unfettered for many years before the government stepped in. In 2009 the Federal Trade Commission revised its rules and regulations regarding endorsements and testimonials in reaction to blogs and online advertising (warning: only read that you link if you are a glutton for punishment or a lawyer!). What these new rules mean is that there is now a requirement for voluntary disclosure of endorsements and affiliate links.
The easiest way to do this is a simple statement: “This is an affiliate link,” or “I received this product from X company – but I am endorsing it because I use it and believe in it.” What matters here is honest communication with the reader, not compliance with some obscure legalese.

Want To Learn More?
As I stated earlier, blogging is a fantastic revolution, and one that people should embrace. But you should also be aware that, like everything else, it is governed by rules and regulations. These rules should not intimidate you. You just need to take a small amount of time to learn about them and make sure you are complying with the law and keeping yourself protected. Which, admittedly, can be tough – just last week the FTC released a new set of rules that particularly affects Twitter. So it’s worth your time to keep tabs on the laws affecting blogging from time-to-time.
            
If you would like to learn more about these, and other issues you might face as a blogger, I’ll be speaking at See Jane Write’s Bloggers Who Brunch at noon on April 7 at Black Market Bar. I look forward to meeting and speaking with you.