Roxanne Conrad, who also writes as Rachel Caine, has been writing and publishing novels and short stories since 1991.  She is a former professional musician who has the distinction of having played with such musical legends as Henry Mancini, Peter Nero and John Williams ... she's also an avid movie buff, a TV-holic, and prefers a good stout Guinness to wimpy American beers.  In addition to a somewhat terrifying writing schedule, she maintains a full-time job as a Director of Corporate Communications for a large multinational company.  She's currently hard at work writing the second novel of her new Morganville Vampires series, THE DEAD GIRL'S DANCE, which will be followed in short order by the sixth Weather Warden novel, THIN AIR.  She recently turned in the first novel in a new Athena Force series for Bombshell -- TRUST.  Visit her website at  http://www.rachelcaine.com/index.html

Cat Conrad's work has been published on the covers of two novels, "The Undead" and "Red Angel."  His work has also appeared in many magazines, program books and fanzines. He is a member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAAA), as well as a member of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy artists (ASFA). Visit his website at http://www.artistsinresidence.com/cat/

Make Your Books More Marketable

By Lisa A. Smith

As an independent publisher, you owe it to yourself to make your books as marketable as possible. One way to do this is to produce books that look professional in every way, books that are well edited and that follow standard publishing conventions. Reviewers expect this; librarians expect this. Indeed, an important reason for the poor reputation sustained by self-publishers is that they have not paid enough attention to the details of how their books look. Too many of those books appear amateurish—before their covers are even cracked.

Here are some guidelines you can follow if you want your books to look professional.
Book publishers in the United States generally follow the conventions found in The Chicago Manual of Style. The first chapter in the manual is titled “The Parts of a Published Work.” It tells you the order in which the front and back matter should appear, and it tells you how to set up those parts. For example, the manual describes the material that should appear on the copyright page—and how it should be laid out.

Only the main title appears on the half title page. On the cover and on the full title page, there should not be a colon between your main title and subtitle; instead, the two titles should appear on separate lines. The colon is appropriate when writing the title in running text, such as when you describe it for book reviewers or in your copy for Amazon.com.

The heading “Dedication” should not appear on the dedication page, and the dedication itself need not include the obvious words “This book is dedicated to . . .” A simple expression is enough: “To John, who made it all possible.”

The table of contents should be titled simply “Contents.” Do not list material that appears before the contents page. For example, the dedication page should precede the contents page and therefore should not be listed on it.

The foreword is written by someone other than you—by an expert in your field. And note the spelling of the word “foreword.” You can remember that spelling if you think of the meaning: the word that comes before. If you have a foreword, it comes first, followed by the preface and the introduction.

The preface and introduction serve different purposes. The preface tells why or how you wrote the book. The introduction tells about the subject matter. You don’t need to write a preface, but most nonfiction books do include an introduction.

The introduction may be part of the front matter, or it may be at the beginning of the text itself. Many readers skip introductions. If your book is for a general audience and it’s particularly important that they read your introduction, then consider changing it enough so that it becomes your first chapter.

Page numbers and running heads should not appear on blank pages or on the half title, full title, copyright, and dedication pages.

A book may be divided into parts. Chapters may be divided into sections with subheads. Chapters start on a new page. At least the preface, the first chapter, and the index should start recto (on a right-hand page). Traditionally, all chapters started recto. Although that is no longer required, it adds a nice touch; do it if you can afford the space.
If you’re serious about publishing, you would do well to invest in a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. It covers much of what you need to know about how to produce a well-edited and professional-looking book.

About Lisa A. Smith

Lisa A. Smith is an award-winning nonfiction writer, editor, and publisher with more than 25 years of experience. She also teaches advanced copyediting for the University of California San Diego, Extension. She offers developmental editing, rewriting, copyediting, proofreading, production editing, manuscript critique, and publishing consultation—all to help you produce nonfiction that is vigorous, clear, and marketable. Her Web site is www.writing-at-work.com. She can be reached at lisa@writing-at-work.com.

© 2006 by Lisa A. Smith

Reprinted from the Wheatmark website http://www.wheatmark.com/index.cfm

CONFERENCES, CONVENTIONS, WORKSHOPS, and CONTESTS

First Annual North Texas Book Festival Book Awards

The 2007 Awards will be presented in the following categories:
• Children’s Book of the Year – The book can be either a fully illustrated picture book or a chapter book, illustrated or not.
• General Trade Book of the Year – The book can be fiction or non-fiction, illustrated or not, of any genre, intended for young adult through adult readers.

Who May Enter
Authors who have subsidized the cost of publishing their own books, whether produced by traditional printing methods or digitally by print-on-demand, may submit their books for the competition. Independent publishers (publishers who produce 5 or fewer titles per year, with an initial press run of 5000 1000 copies or less) may submit books on behalf of their authors. For the inaugural 2007 Award, we are inviting books that have been published in any year. For subsequent Awards, books submitted must have been published, or carry a copyright date, no earlier than three two years prior to the year of the award; i.e., for the 2008 Awards, books must have been produced no earlier than 2005.
Participation in the North Texas Book Festival and/or Book Trails Dinner is not required to enter the competition; however, if chosen as a finalist, authors will be asked to provide books to display and sell at the Festival if they cannot attend in person.
Members of the board of directors of the North Texas Book Festival, Inc. and their family members are ineligible to enter until the year after the member’s term on the board ends.

How to Enter
Authors or publishers may submit for consideration a total of two (2) titles in one or both categories. Submit two (2) copies of each title entered. Affix a copy of the completed entry label to the inside cover of each book. Enclose with the books the completed top of the entry form and a check for the total entry fee(s) made payable to North Texas Book Festival (or credit card billing information) to:
North Texas Book Festival Book Awards
P.O. Box 455
Argyle, TX 76226
All copies of books submitted for consideration become the property of the North Texas Book Festival, Inc., and will not be returned.

Deadline for Entry
Because of the time required for thorough reading and thoughtful judging, submissions may be made beginning June 1, 2006; all entries must be received by December 31, 2006. Please mail your books in time to arrive by this date (and the sooner, the better). Submissions received after the deadline will be returned unopened. Finalists will be notified by March 15, 2007.

Click here for entry form.

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CONVENTIONS

Convention                   Month    Place                    URL             

AggieCon                 March   Bryan, TX        http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/
Dreamin' in Dallas April Dallas, TX               http://www.dallasromanceauthors.com/conferences/
ApolloCon                June    Houston, TX      http://www.apollocon.org/
ConDFW                   June    Dallas, TX       http://www.condfw.org/
ConMisterio              July    Austin, TX       http://www.conmisterio.org/
Conestoga                July    Tulsa, OK        http://www.sftulsa.org/conestoga/
Armadillo Con            August  Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/dillo/
Mythcon                  August  Norman, OK       http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html
Bubonicon                August  Albuquerque, NM  http://bubonicon.home.att.net/
Fencon                   Sept    Dallas, TX       http://www.fencon.org/
     A comprehensive list of other conventions    http://www.fencon.org/links.html#calendar
World Fantasy Con        Nov     Austin, TX       http://www.fact.org/wfc2006/  

On-Line Writers resources