An Interview with Donna Galanti

Tags

Book Marketing, MG Author, Networking, Social Media, Writing, Writing Fiction, Writing Tips

Article by Susan Golden

 

Donna Galanti writes thrillers for kids and grownups. She is the author of the bestselling paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine, a writing contest judge at nycmidnight.com, and regularly presents as a guest author at schools and teaches at writing conferences. She lived in England as a child and was stationed in Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer.

GLVWG member, Susan Golden, asked Donna a few questions.

**********

If I were to meet you at a conference, what is something you would tell me about yourself that would be intriguing.

In high school in the 1980s I was obsessed with Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and dressed up as Aragorn (what I envisioned he would look like at the time). Of course, no one knew who I was in my cloak and boots. I am a fantasy reader and writer at heart.

What have you learned from the mistakes made in marketing a product?

Not realizing that I am marketing myself first, in many instances. People often want to connect to you as a person first, so they can then be drawn in to your product. Also, it’s key to build a subscriber list and a cheerleading team before you market a product so that it already has momentum to sell when it’s available.

What is the difference between marketing and selling?

With marketing, it’s important to remember that this is about being focused on what the consumer needs. Find their need and fill it. With selling, this is really all about focusing on sales, and how to increase numbers and product.

Do you have a favorite or suggested reading regarding marketing?

The Social Media Examiner is a good blog to follow to keep up with social media marketing trends. I also follow Neil Patel who has great podcasts with marketing tips through his Marketing School program.

Based on your experience as a contest judge, what are the biggest mistakes made in submissions and what advice would you give authors when selecting and submitting works in contests.

I see many of the same mistakes made over and over in submissions. I see overuse of exclamation marks, situations that are not believable, too much dialogue and not enough action/reaction/setting, too many characters and names, all telling and no showing, and head hopping. With fantasy, I see a lot of made-up lingo, places, names that bog down the story and pull me out of it. I would suggest when submitting short works, to make it simple. Have 2-3 characters we can connect with and care about. Add in sensory details to enrich the story and add in action/reaction between characters to show us about them and their motivations.

What is the greatest lesson you have learned from your experience in moving from fledgling author to success?

I wish I’d learned about how to write a book before writing my first book. I took writing workshops after I finished that first book and it required going back and fixing a ton of things! However, I don’t regret the learning that took place afterwards because it taught me how to write a better book from the beginning. Keep learning your craft and keep filling your writer’s toolbox. And remember that this writing business is not GOING to be easy – it’s going to be worth it! Visit my Writers Corner for inspiration, advice, and resources on writing.

What one thing would you like to relate to the audience?

As authors we get out of our comfort zone when we write, but we must also publicly get out of our comfort zone and into a new community comfort zone – online and in person. Through doing this, I’ve networked with all kinds of professionals in the publishing industry that have helped me get an agent, get a publisher, get blurbs, get exposure and more.

How to start? 

• Join a writer organization, general one or genre-based. Search online by your region. “writer’s organizations” + “region”.
• Attend writer meetups. Search http://www.meetup.com and create one if none available.
• Follow and connect with authors you admire.
• Check out the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers and pick a few to follow and engage with.
• Connect with other debut authors. Search online for “Debut Author” + “Year” your book releases. You can band together to do shared promotion.
• Connect with readers before your book comes out. Book bloggers are your friend. Follow them online, comment on their blogs. Ask them to review your book, do a cover reveal, or a giveaway.
• Position yourself as an expert and share what you know. Giving a talk in-person or being on someone else’s blog instantly positions you as an expert.
• Build a subscriber list. A subscriber list is your direct line to your readers, whether a blog or newsletter list. It’s the only community list you own. What if Twitter or Facebook went away? How would you reach your community? Through email.
• Start with who you know. Tip: run a Rafflecopter contest and have entrants follow your newsletter or blog for extra entries.

Donna will be available at the GLVWG Write Stuff Conference™ on Saturday, March 23, 2019 to provide marketing advice for conferees on a first come, first serve basis. To sign up for a consultation session, follow the instructions on the registration form. Your actual times for the consult will be assigned after registration is closed, and will be attached to conference materials upon signing in.

**********

 

You can find Donna at https://www.donnagalanti.com/ and learn more about her recent book series, available on Amazon.

Be sure to follow her Facebook Page, and Twitter Feed @DonnaGalanti.

 

________________________________________________________________________

  Article by Susan Golden

Program Speakers for September, October, November

Tags

Alissa Grosso, Chris Redding, GLVWG Program Speakers, Kathryn Craft, Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Tips

Mark your calendars, GLVWG’s Program Chair, Brenda Havens, has lined up excellent speakers for the new fiscal year, following the general meeting at the Palmer Library in Palmer Township.

Chris Redding

September 24, 2016

Chris Redding will present a morning session on “How to Make Money Before You Hit It Big”. Ghostwriting is just one of the ways that a writer can make money while building a career. Chris Redding will take writers through the various types of writing that will make them short- term money, and to websites where they can find those jobs. Included in the session will be tips on obtaining and retaining clients for a steady income.

In the afternoon, Redding will lead a 90-minute workshop on “Layering: Not Just for Cakes”. In this class, students start with two pages of dialogue, and transform it into a fully functioning scene. By adding each element of what needs to go into a story individually, students will see how it all makes the whole, and will be able to add all the elements seamlessly, including description and character emotions. Instead of deconstructing a scene, they will construct a scene from the ground up.

The afternoon workshop is free for GLVWG members, and $15 for non-members. Register at glvwg.org

Chris Redding lives in New Jersey juggling her family, a part time job, and her writing. She has seven books, a short story and a collection of short stories published.  Website: http://chrisredddingauthor.blogspot.com/

 

Alissa Grosso

October 22, 2016

Easton author Alissa Grosso will speak in a morning session on “10 Lessons for Writers from a Former Indie Book Reviewer”.

In the afternoon, Grosso will lead a 90-minute workshop titled “From First Draft to Published Novel (a talk on revisions and edits)”.

The afternoon workshop is free for GLVWG members, and $15 for non-members. Register at glvwg.org

Alissa Grosso is a young adult novelist whose books have been published on four continents. She’s the author of the novels Popular (Flux, 2011), Ferocity Summer (Flux, 2012) and Shallow Pond (Flux, 2013). She frequently speaks about the world of books and publishing,  and the ups and downs of being a writer on her YouTube channel Awkward Author. Her writing has appeared in a number of newspapers, magazines and websites, and she is a monthly contributor to YA Outside the Lines. Alissa is represented by Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Her website is alissagrosso.com

 

Kathryn Craft

November 26, 2016

Pennsylvania author Kathryn Craft will present a morning session titled “Developing a Confident Voice”. Readers respond to the confidence in an author’s tone. It’s that “mysterious something” that elevates prose beyond the ordinary. It inspires trust. The reader may not be able to analyze it, but he knows it when he sees it, and responds by continuing to read. Writers despair that author confidence is an intangible, bestowed by sensibility or absorbed by osmosis. Both may be true, but there’s a third element: craft. In this presentation, writers will pick up tips to infuse their prose with confidence.

In an afternoon workshop, “I Wrote It, Now What?”  based on the presenter’s personal experience as well as the types of issues she encounters daily as a developmental editor, attendees will take a hard look at what it really means to “develop” a work of writing. Hint: It isn’t only about dotting “i’s” and crossing “t’s”, and it can’t possibly be addressed in one additional draft. Attendees will leave with a game plan for how to organize a multiple-drafting process that will bring to fruition the full potential of their work. Prerequisite: a near-to-fully drafted novel.

The afternoon workshop is free for GLVWG members, and $15 for non-members. Register at glvwg.org

Kathryn Craft writes stories that seek beauty and meaning at the edge of darkness. Rich with material for further thought or discussion, her novels make a great choice for book clubs. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, Kathryn served for more than a decade in a variety of positions on the boards of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group and the Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, and volunteers as time allows with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Kathryn also hosts writing retreats for women and speaks often about writing. She writes a monthly series, “Turning Whine into Gold,” at the Writers in the Storm blog, and freelances as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com. She is a proud member of the Tall Poppies Writers, a marketing cooperative of women’s fiction writers.

GLVWG Write Stuff™ Conference

Tags

GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Tips

Conference Schedule – Friday, April 8

7:00 AM  Check-In table opens:  Pick up registration materials at the check-in table

*****

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM in the Lehigh Room    (Concurrent Session)

  Robert Liparulo 

Thrillers and Mysteries: How Knowing the Difference will Help You Write a Great Story

Never mind how booksellers tend to lump the two genres together, they are vastly different: one is a rollercoaster ride, the other is more akin to presiding over a murder trial; one targets the heart and stomach, the other targets the brain and intellect. Not that there aren’t some crossover elements—there are, usually on the scene level, but never on the story level. From character development to point-of-view, from atmosphere and setting to the opening scene—the differences define your story, and will either engage your readers . . . or confuse them.

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM in the Cedar Crest Room     (Concurrent Session)

Suzy Kuhn

Author Promotion Bootcamp

Maximize your promotional efforts. Make the most of interactions by implementing a purposeful engaging strategy. No opportunity should be left to chance. Bring this approach to your social media and learn how to be more relevant to your audience in a manner that is stress-free and easy to incorporate into your already busy schedule. Discover how to appeal to retailers and take full-advantage of meeting a bookstore staff. Learn how engagement will encourage a bookstore to hand-sell your books and keep them in stock. After this intensive training, you will be equipped to seize opportunities, virtual and live.

Part1: Live Author Interaction

Part2: Putting the Social Back in Social Media

Part3: Understanding Retailers

*****

GLVWG Write Stuff™ Conference

Tags

conference faculty, GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Tips

Thursday’s Schedule, April 7:

 Full Day Workshop with Robert Liparulo

Includes Lunch

Followed by Writers Café at 7:00 PM

Bestselling author Robert Liparulo will take you step-by-step through structure and character development, plot and setting, voice and viewpoint. By the end of the day, you will have the tools – and motivation – to design, build, and write your story.

“Writing a novel is much like designing a building: the placement of everything has to serve a function; it has to be pleasing, simultaneously unique and familiar; it has to be something people want to return to, talk about, get cozy with. And writing a novel is no less demanding than designing the coolest, most prestigious skyscraper. But how? How do you take that vivid, gotta-get-it-out story in your head and put it in a form that everyone can see, that everyone can appreciate the way you do?”

 

8:00 AM 11:30 AM	“From Mind to Manuscript: The Making of Your Masterpiece”
	Lunch with the Expert – Robert Laparulo
1:00 PM 5:00 PM	Continuation of Robert Liparulo’s workshop: “From Mind to Manuscript: The Making of Your Masterpiece”

*****

7:00 PM 9:00 PM

Writers Cafe: Informal Read and Critique (Included with ALL registrations)

The Writers’ Cafe

Facilitated by Bart Palamaro

 Get ready for Friday Night Page Cuts or Saturday Agent/Editor pitches by bringing your pitch or opening page and we will give you instant feedback! Or just bring the first page of your manuscript for a critique. All registered Conference attendees are welcome to attend this Conference version of GLVWGs monthly read and critique meeting. It’s a fun time!

It’s Here – The ‘Write Stuff’ Conference

Tags

conference faculty, GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Tips

Write Stuff Conference 2016

It’s finally here.  The GLVWG ‘Write Stuff’ Conference begins Thursday, April 7, with best-selling author, Robert Liparulo.

Join us at the Best Western Lehigh Valley Hotel & Conference Center on Thursday for a daylong seminar with Robert Liparulo on “From Mind to Manuscript“. Advance registration required.

 Former journalist Robert Liparulo is the best-selling author of the thrillers Comes a Horseman, Germ, Deadfall, Deadlock, and The 13th Tribe, as well as The Dreamhouse Kings, an action-adventure series for young adults. He contributed a short story to James Patterson’s Thriller, and an essay about Thomas Perry’s The Butcher’s Boy to Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner. He is currently working on the sequel to The 13th Tribe, as well writing an original screenplay with director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive). When not writing, Liparulo loves to read, watch (and analyze) movies, scuba dive, swim, hike, and travel. He lives in Monument, Colorado, with his family.

The session begins at 8:00 AM in the Lehigh Room, and includes Lunch with Robert in the Foundry.

Then stick around for Writer’s Café at 7:00 PM. Get ready for Friday Night Page Cuts or Saturday Agent/Editor pitches by bringing your pitch or opening page and we will give you instant feedback! Or just bring the first page of your manuscript for a critique. All registered Conference attendees are welcome to attend this Conference version of GLVWGs monthly read and critique meeting. It’s a fun time!

Meet Kelly Simmons

Tags

GLVWG "Write Stuff", Writing, Writing Advice, Writing Conferences, Writing Tips

GLVWG’s Laurel Bruce had a chance to speak with Kelly Simmons, a former journalist and creative advertising director who started writing fiction over fifteen years ago, while studying creative writing and screenwriting at Temple University and University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her critically acclaimed novels {STANDING STILL, THE BIRD HOUSE and ONE MORE DAY} she is developing a TV series and has been writing a memoir for what seems like her entire life.

Laurel Bruce: Kelly it’s a delight to have you teaching two sessions at the GLVWG Write Stuff Writers Conference this year.

How has your background as a creative advertising director influenced your writing?

​Kelly Simmons: It taught me to produce under impossible circumstances​: absurd deadlines, ridiculous revision requests, and committees of clients who were tyrants. Compared to that, the publishing industry sometimes feels like a day at the beach. (Oops! Cliche!)

Laurel: Your first published book is “Standing Still.” How did you go about finding a publisher for this bo ​​ ok ​, AND did that differ from the process of publishing your new book, ONE MORE DAY?

​Kelly: Well, first off, I wrote 8 novels before I sold one. It took the right agent and the right manuscript at the right time. ​The same for my latest, ONE MORE DAY — there were several years in between book two and book three, in which it was hard to choose the right material for me, and for that moment in time. It’s a bit lightning-in-a-bottle-ish, even once you have an agent.

In 25 Words …

Tags

Plotting, Query, Synopsis, Three Part Story Structure, Writing Tips

By Geoff Mehl

 

The 25-word thing, is of course only the tip of the iceberg. Geoff Mehl shares what he’s learned about building from a three-act-story process where setup becomes introduction, character empathy building, inciting incident, conflict begins and ends with pinch points, and resolution/climax.  He’s learned from a number of agents that 25 words should be the very first paragraph in a query, and a useful exercise to plot a story.

**********

Remember the old contests when you were invited to extoll a product in “twenty-five words or less” and perhaps win a prize? It was a means for companies to reinforce a brand and consumer loyalty, get a feel for branding possibilities, perhaps have a giant idea bin for some of those classic advertising jingles.

Fast forward to this winter, when we all curl up and enjoy a really good story — ours — because we have this really cool idea for a marvelous tale and a lot of time for the keyboard.

“So you’re actually writing a story?”

“Yes!”

“What’s it about?”

And there we are, oftentimes mumbling our way through an explanation that goes on and on until our listener’s eyes glaze over and their thoughts turn to the pressing need to clean their refrigerator.

But merrily we press on as the darker days of winter close in, the glow begins to wither from the concept, the characters become boring and we run out of synonyms for “said.” Spring offers a reprieve, distraction, escape. Our once-grand idea, now just a sad little puddle of mush, gets put aside “to be fixed later, maybe, when there’s time.”

It’s OK For Writers to Talk To Themselves

Tags

Editing, Proofreading, Reading Aloud, Self Editing, Writing Tips

By: Christopher D. Ochs

Years ago, I thought I was terribly clever when I started the practice of reading my drafts out loud as part of my editing process. Several writers have since told me that it is a common and highly recommended practice. My blissfully uninformed hubris must also be common in other writers, since I later found myself repressing a snicker at a writer’s conference, as a speaker touted the benefit of reading aloud with all the earnest fervor of Champollion revealing the secret of the Rosetta Stone.

However, despite my previous innocent self-deception, perhaps I actually have added something novel to that process? That being said, if someone has already come up with this practice, I doff my cap to them. Regardless, I still document my process here in the hope it may help and inspire others.

 

When I read my drafts aloud, I record my voice — in my case, with my Blue Yeti microphone and Sound Forge. Though these are professional grade audio tools, there are several free hardware options and software tools available that will allow you to do very much the same thing — your PC’s built-in microphone with GarageBand for Apple, and Audacity for Windows, to name just a few alternatives.

Once I start the recorder, I only use the mouse to scroll the pages as I read. I force myself not to touch the keyboard during the reading.

I read as emotionally flat as possible, speaking slowly enough that each syllable is enunciated clearly. I cannot stress that enough! If you read aloud at what you feel is a comfortable pace, you will easily misread the material as written. The danger you face here is saying what you think is written, not what actually is in the draft. You have undoubtedly observed this for yourself, if you have read along when someone else reads aloud. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve heard readers speaking at their comfortable pace unwittingly substitute, add, drop or switch the order of the written words, or worst of all gloss over actual errors in the draft. Slow down!

I allow myself to interrupt the recording to pepper the verbal flow with not only error corrections, but also with editorial commentary. For example, after a sentence I might say: “choose a better word”, “that just scans bad”, “sounds awkward”, “split up this run-on”, “it’s there, not their”, etc. Quite often, I would stop in a middle of a paragraph and leave myself the audio equivalent of a post-it note: “check if this is consistent with what happened in Chapter X”, “this gives me an idea – add XYZ to the next chapter’s outline”, for example.

If the material is long enough, I take a break after an hour of recording. After fetching a fresh cup of joe, I play back the audio file, reading the written copy along with my recording.

Then — and only then — do I edit the draft text according to the verbal notes I made in the recording. Of course, I pause the playback when the edits become extensive.

I have found this process to greatly enhance the simple step of reading drafts aloud, because it engages several parts of the brain simultaneously – reading, speaking, and listening. When all three language centers are actively engaged, a synergy occurs illuminating all sorts of errors and inconsistencies that otherwise are missed. I can attest to this, because each and every step of this process has helped me uncover additional errors in my drafts, especially during the final step of reading along as I listen to my recorded voice.

Christopher D. Ochs
Animator – Author – Composer – Voice Talent