by CWC Marin administrator | Mar 16, 2020 | Classes and Workshops
We’ve never hosted a meeting online before, but this is a time of doing things differently.
Author and CWC Marin webmaster John Byrne Barry will present “Rewrite Right! 22 Ways to Make Your Book Better” this coming Sunday on Zoom, a video conferencing host.
We know this is a challenging time for all of us so this meeting will be FREE for all attendees — members and non-members alike, so spread the word.
To join the video conference, click here — https://zoom.us/j/806061116.
Here are step-by-step instructions on how to make the experience as positive as possible.
1. We ask you to RSVP, so we have a general idea of how many people will be participating and we can reach you if there are changes.
2. Please join us a few minutes early so you can address technical issues.
3. When you click the link, you will see a screen something like this:
4. Click on “open zoom.us” or if you don’t get that dialog box, click where it says “click here”
5. If you have trouble getting in, we have two CWC Marin board members who will be co-hosts who can help you. (Contact information to come.)
6. Once you’re in, you should see a screen something like this.
Click “test speaker and microphone.” You’ll be able to tell quickly if you’re connected correctly.
7. We will start with the audience muted by the host, but there will be opportunities to ask questions via chat at any time, and we will unmute as well for questions at the appropriate times.
8. Because you may not be muted the entire time, please do what you can to be in a quiet space.
9. Be patient. We’re all learning how to navigate our brave new world.
Thank you. Check back as we get closer to Sunday. We may have updates and more tips.
by CWC Marin administrator | Mar 2, 2020 | volunteer
What has the Marin Branch of CWC meant to you? We’ve heard members tell us how wonderful it is to connect with so many writers who can share their expertise, humor and general companionship — writing can be such a solitary experience. Others have been thrilled at how much they’ve learned about the writing craft, publishing and literary marketing from talented presenters. If the Marin Branch has meant something to you, we need you to read on because we need your help. Whether you can contribute one or four hours a month (seriously, that’s all it takes to help us thrive), we are asking you to step up now.
Two years ago people stepped up to prevent us from losing our chapter. Since then, we’ve continued to grow by hosting compelling presentations that are attracting larger crowds and reaching out to the community through social media — and our membership is up from 25 to 44.
While today we are one of the smallest of the 22 California chapters, a decade ago, this was a totally happening scene. And it can be again. We have a lot of new members now, and we need new volunteers and new leaders to keep improving.
What’s the difference between leaders and volunteers? Well, we’re all volunteers, but some of us might sign up for one thing, like staffing the registration table for the meetings or bringing refreshments. (We’ll pay for them.)
And then there are the board members, who lead the organization, and, as appropriate, assign tasks to volunteers.
We need both, but especially leaders, because we can’t continue without them.
These volunteer and leadership roles are not generally time-consuming, but they are a responsibility. Collectively, we, the board, decide who the speakers are, deal with finances, promote the events, keep track of members and email lists, and so on. We’re like a small business, but very small, with no employees. Only volunteers.
We’re solvent — we have enough members and money in the bank to pay our expenses. What we’re lacking is in the people who will help us keep going.
Here are some of the roles we are seeking to fill:
- Treasurer — track income and expenses, and forward our share of the membership dollars to the state organization. If you can balance a checkbook, you can do this.
- Membership Chair — meet our members, track membership, promote new memberships and renewals.
- Webmaster — update the website with new events, blog posts.
- Social Media Maven — post events and other items of interest on Facebook, Meetup, NextDoor, and elsewhere.
- Writers — write posts for the website and/or Facebook. (For example, we’d love for someone to do an interview with David Corbett to help promote his event.)
- President — chair the member meetings and board meetings, and serve as the public face of the organization. Other duties as required, such as attending regional meetings.
- Program Chair — recruit speakers for meetings.
We will train you, and be there to answer questions.
We look forward to hearing from you. Contact us at marincwc@gmail.com.
Thank you.
— Mike Van Horn (president), Mary Krefting (treasurer and program chair), Diane Vickers (membership chair), Jett Walker (secretary), John Byrne Barry (webmaster), Allison Marshall (at-large board member)
by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 28, 2020 | Classes and Workshops
Last Sunday, we were delighted to host Ruth Schwartz, a.k.a. the Wonderlady, a.k.a. the Book Midwife, as she presented “Best Practices for Self-Publishing with KDP and IngramSpark.”
Here are ten takeaways from the presentation:
1. KDP, which is owned by Amazon, is the best channel for self-publishing a paperback. Once published, it is immediately available for sale on Amazon.
2. If you want to be in bookstores or libraries, you also want to publish with IngramSpark, which is the biggest book distribution entity in the world, and has been around longer than Amazon.
3. You don’t dare walk into a bookstore with a book published by KDP and expect the bookstore to put it on their shelves. Not only can’t they make money on your book, Amazon has put many bookstores out of business and continues to be a threat to brick and mortar stores. (Book Passage has stayed alive because they not only sell books, but host conferences, events, author readings, and more, like renting space to organizations like CWC-Marin.)
4. Buy your own ISBN from myidentifiers.com. KDP will offer you a free ISBN. Don’t take it if you are going to publish on IngramSpark. Ingram will not accept it.
5. Your goal in self-publishing is to look as little like a self-published book as possible. One way to do that is to set up your own publishing company. (I did that for my third book — named my publishing company “Page-turners with a Conscience Press.”)
If you do create your own company, make sure you include it in the ISBN record on Bowker.
You should also file a DBA (“doing business as”) notice with your local county. (This is critical if you receive checks in the name of that publishing company, since you will need a bank account in that name, and the bank requires you to file a DBA.)
6. Use the same ISBN for both KDP and IngramSpark, and make sure the title, subtitle, and publisher name are exactly the same for both. Set it up in KDP first. If you do Ingram first, then KDP may not take it, because it’s already in the system.
7. There are three ways you can make money selling self-published printed books — (a) by publishing through KDP and selling through Amazon, (b) by publishing through IngramSpark and selling through bookstores and libraries, and (c) by buying author copies from either KDP or IngramSpark and selling them yourself at in-person events. (That’s where you’ll make the most.)
If you buy author copies, you’re likely to earn more from KDP because your print costs will be less than with IngramSpark. Both KDP and IngramSpark have calculators so you can figure out the cost of your book, which will help you set the price.
On IngramSpark, set the discount at 55 percent, which means the bookstores get 40 percent.
(For my most recent book, When I Killed My Father: An Assisted-Suicide Family Thriller, with a retail price at $15. When I sell a KDP book on Amazon, I make $4.11. When a bookstore or library buys my book through IngramSpark, I make $1.55. When I buy author copies from KDP, they cost me $4.89, plus shipping, so when I sell a book at presentation for $15, I make about $9.)
8. To publish your book on KDP or IngramSpark, you have to upload print-ready pdfs. Either you or a designer you contract with has to do the interior layout, and turn that into a pdf. You also need to upload a pdf for the cover, which is one file that includes the front cover, the spine, and the back cover.
After you’ve uploaded your file, KDP has an online previewer where you can see what every spread looks like. It will show you where the spine is, and you can scroll through your book page by page, on the screen. Once you’ve approved that, then you can get a proof copy, which will have a “not for resale” band around the middle of your cover.
9. No matter how many times you or others proofread your book, you will find mistakes after you publish. But you can fix those mistakes and upload a new pdf at any time.
10. KDP has no upfront costs to upload a book. You may need to pay an editor or designer to get your book ready to upload, but there’s no cost to upload. KDP/Amazon makes some money every time you sell a book, or buy an author copy. KDP also does not charge for uploading new files with corrected typos.
IngramSpark does charge an upfront fee for uploading your files — currently$49 — and they charge $25 for uploading each revised file once you approve the book for distribution.
However, if you are a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), you will not have to pay any fees to IngramSpark. And if you are a member of the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (baipa.org), you can get a $30 discount when signing up as a member of IBPA.
(You can also learn a lot more about self-publishing by attending BAIPA meetings, which are on the second Saturday of each month at 9 am in Novato. See baipa.org.)
John Byrne Barry is author of three novels — When I Killed My Father: An Assisted-Suicide Family Thriller, Wasted: Murder in the Recycle Berkeley Yard, and Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher.
by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 26, 2020 | Classes and Workshops
Dear CWC Members & Friends,
We’re moving our meeting online this Sunday. Here are Instructions on How to Join Us.
Writing is rewriting—we’ve heard that so many times, it’s lost its meaning. But in the age of self-publishing, it’s truer than ever — too often, authors click “publish” before their books are ready for prime time.
Whether you work with editors or not, you as the author have to do most of the editing and rewriting. On March 22, author and CWC-Marin board member John Byrne Barry will present “Rewrite Right! 22 Ways to Make Your Book Better.” He’ll walk through 22 rewriting and editing strategies and tactics. Such as:
- Start scenes and chapters in the middle of the action.
- Map out chapters like you’re turning a combination lock.
- Eliminate unnecessary filter words.
- Make your setting work so it’s more than a description of your backdrop, but it advances plot, reveals character, echoes theme, and more.
- Always be in scene. (Or almost always.) If you can’t picture what’s happening, you may not be in scene.
John Byrne Barry is a writer, designer, actor, bicycle tour leader, and crossing guard. He is author of three novels — When I Killed My Father: An Assisted-Suicide Family Thriller, Wasted: Murder in the Recycle Berkeley Yard, and Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher. For 25 years, he was a writer, editor, and designer for Sierra Club, serving as Director of Editorial and Design. More at johnbyrnebarry.com
by CWC Marin administrator | Feb 26, 2020 | Classes and Workshops
We are thrilled to welcome back David Corbett, one of the best writing teachers around, to present “Creating Compelling Stories with Three-Dimensional Characters and Four-Corner Conflict” on April 26.
He will be online. You must RSVP (below) to get the link for the meeting.
Desire drives action, action generates conflict, conflict creates suspense, and suspense keeps readers turning pages.
But desire and conflict operate on three distinct levels—external (real-world goals), internal (sense of self, meaning, purpose), and interpersonal (essential relationships). Building meaningful conflict means pitting your adversaries in struggles on all three levels—and interconnecting those three struggles to create narrative unity. And the more deliberate and focused the adversaries’ attacks on each other’s goals, relationships, and sense of self-worth, the greater the conflict and thus suspense.
Who will prevail? How? Why? Extending this to secondary characters, we can create what is known as four-corner conflict, creating additional thematic, dramatic, and moral complexity.
David Corbett is the award-winning author of the writing guides The Art of Character (“A writer’s bible,” says Elizabeth Brundage) and The Compass of Character. He has published six novels, including The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc HollidayHe has taught at the UCLA Writer’s Program, Litreactor, and at writing conferences across North America, and is a monthly contributor to Writer Unboxed, an award-winning blog dedicated to the craft and business of fiction. More at davidcorbett.com.
RSVP
To sign up, fill out the RSVP below and we will email you the link in advance of the presentation.
The presentation is free, however, we are asking for donations, which will contribute to the honorarium for our presenter. You can donate before or after the presentation.
(In-person meetings are $5 for members and $10 for non-members.)
