Tanya Sousa's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-starling-god"
Serendipity and Publishers
I know we've all been brainwashed to seek publication in the "normal" ways -- seek out publishers who fit your subject, genre and style, carefully read the submission guidelines, then do your best to send what they want with hyper-vigilance to crossing your i's and dotting your t's. HA! Did I catch you there? Of course I meant dotting your i's and crossing your t's. However, the entire process is just so formal and nerve-wracking it can throw anyone off.
I've gone through this process of submitting many times over the almost thirty years I've published, and I am happy to report that I've had reasonable success with magazines and anthologies but the books -- oh the books! It's been a different process there, and that's what I want to tell people:
Writers, look outside the box.
I'm not speaking of usual self-publishing here. I'm talking about paying attention to serendipity. I'm talking about talking your literary project up to people who might be passionate about things you are. I'm talking about not being afraid to walk the walk a little differently.
I have never landed a publisher traditionally.
For instance, my first nonfiction title was called "Can Dogs Read? Starting and Implementing a Literacy Program". I wrote it because I had a passion for working with my dog as a reading dog in schools and I wanted to provide a comprehensive "how-to" that was cheaper than any materials I'd found. I also thought it would be lovely to donate this book to any library in Vermont that wanted it.
I knew a lovely woman who worked with therapy animals and called her to see if she knew about any grant funding that I might apply for to fund the project. She said, "I have money. What is it you want to do?" She had published something before under her business, and after reading my manuscript and observing my own reading dog program, she took it on under her Cairn Terrier Publishing label. We donated almost one thousand copies to libraries and now they are selling.
My latest project was a novel -- environmental fiction titled "The Starling God". It was a bit different, and I knew it would be hard to place, but as I was talking with an acquaintance, I learned he was branching his own business into environmental publishing. Forestry Press is brand new, and this businessman's original goal was to publish books about forestry. As we shared what we'd each been working on lately, I told him about my own book. He mused, "Why not have an environmental fiction section of Forestry Press?" Shortly after I landed a publishing deal.
Don't just seek the obvious sources, folks. Keep your eyes wide open for other connections that may work. Don't be afraid to suggest a connection between your manuscript and your goals and the goals of another person or company. You never know where it might be the perfect match.
I've gone through this process of submitting many times over the almost thirty years I've published, and I am happy to report that I've had reasonable success with magazines and anthologies but the books -- oh the books! It's been a different process there, and that's what I want to tell people:
Writers, look outside the box.
I'm not speaking of usual self-publishing here. I'm talking about paying attention to serendipity. I'm talking about talking your literary project up to people who might be passionate about things you are. I'm talking about not being afraid to walk the walk a little differently.
I have never landed a publisher traditionally.
For instance, my first nonfiction title was called "Can Dogs Read? Starting and Implementing a Literacy Program". I wrote it because I had a passion for working with my dog as a reading dog in schools and I wanted to provide a comprehensive "how-to" that was cheaper than any materials I'd found. I also thought it would be lovely to donate this book to any library in Vermont that wanted it.
I knew a lovely woman who worked with therapy animals and called her to see if she knew about any grant funding that I might apply for to fund the project. She said, "I have money. What is it you want to do?" She had published something before under her business, and after reading my manuscript and observing my own reading dog program, she took it on under her Cairn Terrier Publishing label. We donated almost one thousand copies to libraries and now they are selling.
My latest project was a novel -- environmental fiction titled "The Starling God". It was a bit different, and I knew it would be hard to place, but as I was talking with an acquaintance, I learned he was branching his own business into environmental publishing. Forestry Press is brand new, and this businessman's original goal was to publish books about forestry. As we shared what we'd each been working on lately, I told him about my own book. He mused, "Why not have an environmental fiction section of Forestry Press?" Shortly after I landed a publishing deal.
Don't just seek the obvious sources, folks. Keep your eyes wide open for other connections that may work. Don't be afraid to suggest a connection between your manuscript and your goals and the goals of another person or company. You never know where it might be the perfect match.
Book Trailer is a "Go"!!!!
The funding from the Kickstarter campaign came through and work on the book trailer for my novel "The Starling God" has begun.
I always step off cliffs with faith that something will be there to step on even if it doesn't SEEM to show yet, so I already began work recording the bird (and whale) character voice-overs with John and Janet Heartson of Barnet, Vermont in John's recording studio before the funding was secured. Here's what I said about the recording experience on the Kickstarter update:
"Yesterday I worked with John and Janet Heartson of Barnet, Vermont, to create the character voice-overs for the book trailer. I can't describe how exciting this process was for me. I have lived intimately with these characters for more than five years now. I see them and hear them in my mind. I've written their thoughts and actions until they seemed to write themselves.
And then I wrote the script for the trailer.
Not every character could be represented there, but a number of key birds are -- and one very wise and joyful whale.
The process of sitting at the table over tea with the script -- the three of us hashing out what kind of beings each is and how they might sound, and then hearing John and Janet try different voices and tones until it was just right -- was nothing short of magical. Then when we were ready, we moved to the studio and I watched the husband and wife breathe life into the characters who had until now only existed in my head and on a flat piece of paper. They had VOICES so true to what I imagined!
I had shivers listening to it and was almost brought to tears at the end when I heard the whale song blend into understandable language as that wondrous whale's voice rang out for the first time. I wish I could bottle what I felt and give a sample to each one of you!"
I always step off cliffs with faith that something will be there to step on even if it doesn't SEEM to show yet, so I already began work recording the bird (and whale) character voice-overs with John and Janet Heartson of Barnet, Vermont in John's recording studio before the funding was secured. Here's what I said about the recording experience on the Kickstarter update:
"Yesterday I worked with John and Janet Heartson of Barnet, Vermont, to create the character voice-overs for the book trailer. I can't describe how exciting this process was for me. I have lived intimately with these characters for more than five years now. I see them and hear them in my mind. I've written their thoughts and actions until they seemed to write themselves.
And then I wrote the script for the trailer.
Not every character could be represented there, but a number of key birds are -- and one very wise and joyful whale.
The process of sitting at the table over tea with the script -- the three of us hashing out what kind of beings each is and how they might sound, and then hearing John and Janet try different voices and tones until it was just right -- was nothing short of magical. Then when we were ready, we moved to the studio and I watched the husband and wife breathe life into the characters who had until now only existed in my head and on a flat piece of paper. They had VOICES so true to what I imagined!
I had shivers listening to it and was almost brought to tears at the end when I heard the whale song blend into understandable language as that wondrous whale's voice rang out for the first time. I wish I could bottle what I felt and give a sample to each one of you!"
