Pete Morin Gives an Interview

Greetings and thanks for stopping in to Self-Publishing Central.

Today I am pleased to welcome author, Pete Morin, who has just released his new book, Diary of a Small Fish, in multiple ebook formats.

I've known Pete in a virtual sense for a couple years now. And I had the rare privilege of reading a beta version of Small Fish last year. It was a terrific read back then. And I hear it's even better now.

Pete's got an agent who has been working diligently on his behalf to place this book with a major publisher. But as we have learned, even having a great agent doesn't guarantee you will find a home for your book in these turbulent publishing waters.

Pete's going to share with us today parts of his road to publication. I hope you enjoy it. I know I did.

John: How about a brief introduction, Pete?

Pete: Okay. My name’s Pete Morin. I live in a money pit on the south coast of Boston with my lovely wife, a young adult son and a flock of overbearing, diarrheic wild turkeys.

John: How old were you when you wrote your first story?

Pete: The first time I tried, I was about 10. I’d just finished reading Goldfinger. I proceeded to write my own spy novel, titled Silverthumb. I quit after the first page.

John: When were you first published?

Pete: A short story was published in the Vermont Cynic, the University of Vermont newspaper, in 1976, as the winner of its first short story contest. Soon after, I became its copy editor and arts/entertainment editor, which got me front row seats and backstage passes to concerts.

John: Why are you passionate about writing?

Pete: I really have no idea. A few years back, I visited an energy healer who read my energy and told me I should be writing. Sounded good to me. (That’s a true story.) I think it’s Karma.

John: Tell us about your ‘writing life’ to date?

Pete: Since I re-started fiction writing in February of 2008, I’ve finished one novel, started 12 short stories and finished 8, and completed most of a second novel. I spent too much time on Authonomy years back, but earned what little acclaim it offers and received a positive review from a Harper Collins assistant editor (I assume). The experience convinced me to continue. That manuscript garnered representation from the first agent who read it, the fabulous Christine Witthohn. Most of the shorts have been published in one place or another, and one is due for a rather auspicious honorable mention that I cannot disclose.

I spend anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours a day staring at work in progress.

John: What are your goals for the next five years?

Pete: Besides seeing my current two novels in print, I just want to be involved when writers come out on top of the publishing revolution. I want to learn how to write a whole novel in nine months. I want to: watch my wife stay as lovely as she is, my son become a successful fantasy writer, and my daughter become a successful New York food writer (and marry a rich man); preserve my health and sanity; and keep my handicap below 10 and my weight below 220.

John: All admirable goals. Tell us about the books you have out?

Pete: At this time, I have self-published one short story, Giving It Away, and a collection of six short stories, Uneasy Living. These are stories that are best described as literary fiction that deal with man’s reaction to good fortune, bad luck, sorrow, abandonment, alienation, loss and betrayal. They were written at a time when I was grieving the loss of my father and the imminent loss of my mother, so they are uncharacteristically somber and maudlin for a man of my usual exuberance and good cheer. Still, I know that they get inside the people who read them and make them laugh and cry, so I think they’re pretty successful.

John: What do you say to new writers?

Pete: Be yourself, keep your day job, read everything you can get your hands on, and pay attention to craft!

John: Anything else you'd like to offer? Maybe a plug for your brand new book?

Pete: First of all, thanks for hosting me on your blog, John. Decent of you. Then, of course, I'd appreciate it very much if everyone ran right over to Amazon, BN, or Smashwords and grabbed a copy of Diary of a Small Fish.

John: Thanks for stopping in, Pete. Best of luck to you in your continued writing endeavors.

Here's a cover pic of "Small Fish" and some further background you'll want to know about Pete.

Bio:

Pete Morin has been a trial lawyer, a politician, a big government general counsel, a lobbyist, and a grand jury witness. He is now a trial lawyer, a writer and a blues guitarist. He is represented by Christine Witthohn of Book Cents Literary Agency. His short stories have appeared in 100 Stories for Haiti, Words to Music, Words With Jam, and NEEDLE, A Magazine of Noir.

You can find Pete, if you want, here:

www.petemorin.wordpress.com

http://www.facebook.com/pete.morin2

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/smallfish

@petermorin on Twitter

WANTED

On Dead Tree Paperback or Alive in EBook!

For Having Way too Much Fun

Name: Tom Ryan

Age: 10

Physical Description: Too big for his britches, too tough for his own good

Distinguishing features: a scar in the shape of your nose on his right hand

Aliases: “The King,” “Tom Terrific,” “Hey Ryan,” and “Big Trouble”

Known to frequent: The Cherry Tree Hideout, Isaly’s, The Harris Theater, South Park Drive-In

To report a sighting, to read a sample, or purchase please contact A King in a Court of Fools

REWARD

Hours of enjoyment reading stories from the Book of Tom

Statement from Tom’s brother, Harry who chronicles Tom Ryan’s exploits

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but that’s how I remember the chicken scratch from the cover of Tom’s journal. Tom Ryan — he’s my big brother. He was in sixth grade at the time he started keeping it. He was ten and I was five. Sister Jeanne Lorette made him do it, he said. Tom thought it was punishment for constantly misbehaving in her class. He would say that. That’s how he was. I think she was just trying to help him express himself in ways more productive than his usual tough guy act.

Speaking of tough guy acts, I’ve always imagined that if Tom had the room on that composition book cover, he would have added:

You’re still reading, aren’t you? I warned you, but you couldn’t stop, could you, you nosey-baloney? Well, it’s too late now. And don’t bother wiping your prints off the book. I have my ways. And don’t try to hide either. I’ll find you.

Go ahead, keep reading, but once you know the secrets, it will be the last thing you ever read.

Tom was big on threats. That was his modus operandi. He was under the impression that it was the only way to get anyone to do what he wanted. So he picked on us a lot, but we all knew he was a softy deep down — all talk, no action. You know the type. I honestly don’t remember him doing anything really nasty to anyone, except kids who were picking on us. And I’m sure he felt totally justified in those cases because he was doing it for a good cause.

Of course, I can’t speak to his behavior once he moved on to high school. I saw less and less of him and the gang had, by then, disbanded. But before that, we were all part of his gang and under his protection, whether we wanted to be or not.

Tom’s journal is long gone. It’s unfortunate in a way. It would be much better hearing his story in his own words rather than from my memory of the events that took place that year. It seems like so many years ago. But I imagine like all the other evidence he wanted “lost,” he covered it with Testors cement and burned it when he moved on to the seventh grade. Or maybe he buried it in the side yard. We’ll probably never know. I’m sure he’ll never tell, and I doubt Mom and Dad will be digging up the yard any time soon to find it.

That leaves you with me to piece this together. You have to keep in mind that I was only in first grade at the time, so my reading skills were limited. Simple chapter books were easy, but not sixth grade Tom-ese. He used words I’d never heard of, words I found out later I was better off not knowing.

How did we get our hands on Tom’s secret journal? My other brother, Sam and I found it. We used to sneak into Tom’s bedroom despite the threat of the “Keep Out or Die” sign on his headquarters door. Or maybe it was because of that sign and the inherent danger involved in tempting fate. In any case, we’d play with the toys he never let us touch, we’d look out his window at the Ioli’s house across the street just like he did when he was preparing for a mission, and we’d rifle through his drawers looking for his secret stuff. That’s how we found it. He kept it hidden under a pile of shoes in his closet. It smelled like old shoes, too. That was cool, but the coolest thing? The journal was about us.

Tom was chronicling the adventures of his gang for Sister Jeanne Lorette. Every chance we got, we would sneak in, and Sam would read it to me or I would try reading to him. We had a blast with it. The way Tom described his adventure we couldn’t believe it was about us at first, but there was no doubt after several pages that this story was our adventure as seen through his imagination. And did he ever have an imagination.

So, if you’re willing to accept it on that basis and for what’s it worth, I invite you to enjoy the story of A King in a Court of Fools.

H. Ryan

About the book: A King in a Court of Fools, originally published as a serial novel, is Larry Enright’s second published work. It is humorous, nostalgic fiction about kids growing up in the 1950s and has been already enjoyed by ages ten through ninety-one. It is available in both eBook and paperback from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Click for details to Purchase or sample A King in a Court of Fools.

About the author: Larry Enright was born to Irish Catholic first-generation immigrants and raised in Pittsburgh. After college, he moved to the Philadelphia area where for the past 40 years he has filled his life with many careers including musician, teacher, programmer, researcher, and writer. He has written three other novels, including the best-selling Four Years from Home. Visit Larry Enright's site.

#100blogfest is at Self-Publishing Central

Self-Publishing Central welcomes Martin King's #100blogfest. This is what it's all about:

#100blogfest

“100 blogs as a child” August Tour. I am attempting to write 100 blogs as a guest at 100 different websites in the single month of August. You can stop whistling now. This works out at roughly 3 a day (Okay Mr. Mathematics nerd, 3.2258… to be exact). What am I going to blog about? This is an interesting question you’ve just posed. After a lot of thought about this, I decided 100 different things I got up to as a kid. So many people tell me they cannot believe how much I can remember about my childhood. It doesn’t matter what age you are, we all have fantastic memories about ‘the good old days’. And for the younger ones who are still, young (jealous), they will be able to go ‘Hey I did that only last week.’ Each and every site is connected with writing in some way or another, be it an established author, or an author wannabee, book reviewing site etc. A few of the authors have decided to write their own fond memory too, which should be fun!! Thanks for taking the time to look.

And here is today's post from Martin:

Did you ever want to play an instrument? Do you remember taking a comb and some tracing paper to make a crude form of one? We were so inventive back in those days. If you were lucky then your parents might have bought you a Rolf Harris (wrong – I’m not going to say didgeridoo) Stylophone. Now that was a great invention.

Then in music class you got to play with the maracas or the triangle. Then there were instruments with weird sounding names such as the xylophone or glockenspiel.

I remember having a recorder and going to recorder lessons. I think I learnt the two classics, London’s Burning and Three Blind Mice that every child seems to learn. And perhaps you may have had a piano; a lot of houses did back then before they ended up at the local gala being smashed to bits by the local strongmen in a piano smashing contest.

I did try to play the guitar and the drums in my later years, but I think I was destined never to play an instrument. But it was when I was about twelve at High School that my main memory takes me. I was desperate to play an instrument in music class. But because it was so long ago, I cannot remember the reason I received the instrument I did.

Maybe I was the last in the queue or our music teacher, Mr. Powell had figured out I wasn’t very talented. But can you guess what I was privileged with learning? The Tuba!

Can you believe that? And to make matters worse, we live miles from school and I had to walk home. So every week I would have to lug this great box full of the wonderful metal, musical delights of a contraption that wouldn’t even work. No matter how hard I blew into that thing, it wouldn’t play me a single, beautiful note.

These blogs are all about fun and sharing. Thank you for reading a ‘#100blogfest’ blog. Please follow this link to find the next blog in the series.

Thanks for stopping in, Martin. Best of luck to you in your blog travels!

That's it for today.

Cheers!

John

Paperback or Not?

Hello friends,

Welcome to Self-Publishing Central. Today I've got a post that is the direct result of changing times in the publishing industry. Not long ago, we were asking whether it is worth it to publish in digital formats in addition to paper. Now we need to ask . . . with Kindle, Nook and iBook digital book sales skyrocketing, is it even necessary for a self- or indie-publisher to publish ON PAPER?

The rapidly increasing adoption of Kindles, Nooks and other eReading devices (including iPads) for buying and reading books has many indies asking themselves this question. And given the necessarily high prices of POD books, I can see their point.

In my personal experience, sales of paperbacks through Amazon and BN have all but dried up, when just last fall they amounted to about 20% of my book sales (in units sold). Last month, I sold a measly SIX paperback books on Amazon - and I had FIVE titles listed for sale! In the same month, my eBook sales numbers (and profits) were higher than ever . . . with Nook making up an increasing share. (I charge $6.99 for my eBook novels, in case you're interested.)

For so few sales of the paperback format, why should self- and indie-publishers even bother to make tree books available anymore?

Reasons why tree books are still important.

While I can certainly understand the arguments against bothering to publish in paperback in today's publishing environment, I believe there are still good reasons to make your titles available in paper. Here are a few:

1) Some book buyers still don't believe that eBooks are REAL books. As uninformed as this opinion may be, authors need to be aware of this perception. Having your book available on paper makes it more "legitimate" to this group of buyers. Oddly enough, once these buyers have confirmed that your book is available in paperback, they will turn around and buy the eBook copy instead. After all, eBooks are typically much less expensive. Make sense? Not really. But we need to take this situation seriously and deal with it appropriately.

2) Some buyers want an author-signed original. I know there are various movements afoot to standardize a way to "sign" an eBook. But for many people, none of the proposed digital solutions will substitute for the good old pen-and-ink method. For these folks (book collectors among them), price is not the obstacle. They want that unique feeling of owning an author-signed original. Why not make purchase of just such a product an option?

3) Friends and family want paper. In my experience, when my friends and family members want to support my writing by buying my books, they almost always want a paper copy. A keepsake, if you will. And digital books still don't collect dust well enough to satisfy this type of buyer.

4) Reviewers want paper. Again, in my experience, many book reviewers prefer to read your book in paperback before giving their opinion. I don't know whether they consider ownership of the (usually signed) book as a memento, an investment in a potentially famous author's work, or a commodity to be resold. But regardless of their motives, many of these reviewers (who are otherwise unpaid, by the way) prefer paper.

5) Why not have your book in paperback format? In my mind, the only legitimate reasons for not offering your book in paperback are: a) lack of money for design and printing or b) lack of time to set up the book with a POD printer. I find neither of these arguments persuasive.

If you choose to print through CreateSpace (where I do), it can cost you literally NOTHING to make your book available in paperback. (I recommend spending the $39.00 for the Pro Plan because it gets you better books prices, etc. But you don't HAVE to spend even that.) CreateSpace no longer requires you to even order proofs if you don't want to. Therefore, you can literally have your book available in paperback on Amazon for NOTHING!!! (I don't use exclamation points lightly.)

If you elect to buy the Pro Plan, you can buy your own books for sale to friends IN ANY QUANTITY, at prices ranging from $3.00 for thin books to maybe $8.00 for a pretty thick one. My books are usually around 290 pages and cost in the vicinity of $5.00 each DELIVERED TO MY HOME. Of course, delivery costs vary depending on quantity. But I could literally buy a single copy of my paperback (w/o the Pro Plan) and have it delivered to my home for less than $20.00. Not bad.

But why not get five copies for around $35.00 or 40 copies for around $240.00 (including Pro Plan). Then I've got some books to sell in my local bookstore, arts association or from my home.

6) Libraries prefer paper. Most of the libraries I have contacted still only accept paper books for shelving. Some will buy your paper books. Others won't pay you, but will agree to shelve your books if you donate them. Either is great exposure.

7) Guests at book signings prefer paper. When you schedule a book signing at your local sales location, or library, or book club, most of your guests will want to buy signed paper books. Sure . . . you can have a card to sign and an eBook to download; but most of my target market would just give me a blank stare if that's all I had to offer them at a BOOK signing.

I could probably come up with more reasons why you should still go to the trouble of publishing your books in paperback. But I think you get my gist. There are advantages to paper; the costs are minimal; why not do it?

I'm open to all your opinions on this one. I'm sure everyone would like to hear your comments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers!

John

Kindle vs Nook (Again)

Welcome to Self-Publishing Central. I hope you have all been well lately.

I haven't written a post on this blog for quite some time. There's a reason for my absence -- I haven't had anything helpful to say. Sorry. I refuse to blog unless I think the message has value.

Well . . . today I do have something to say. It's a redux of the now-aging argument over whether to buy a Kindle or a Nook. I know you've heard all the reasons before. But those reasons applied to the old Nook. There's a brand new one that will ship in time for Father's Day. And in my mind, the new Nook option is a game changer for eReading.

Here's a link you should follow to get a bunch of info on the new Nook, including videos of the New Nook in action. After you read the link, I'll give you my take below.

What's important about the new Nook?

Up till now, the Kindle held two huge advantages over the Nook for readers of "word books," as opposed to books with pictures. If the lighting was even a little bit wonky -- like if a room had windows, or your porch has a sun outside -- the Kindle's e-Ink Pearl screen was far superior to the Nook's backlit display. And the Kindle's battery life (about a month) absolutely annihilated the Nook's mere hours.

With the release of "The All New Nook," these two advantages have evaporated. The Nook will now have an e-Ink Pearl screen with at least as good a resolution as Kindle's. AND it will be a touch screen! Battery life will not only equal the Kindle's, but beat it! B&N claims the Nook can live for up to TWO MONTHS on a charge.

These changes essentially result in the Nook becoming a Kindle with a touch screen. And admit it, you Kindle owners . . . you were poking at your Kindle screen for a good two weeks before you got it through your head that it wasn't going to respond to your advances.

To be honest, if you watch the videos of the New Nook in action (see previous link), the touch screen is not the completely interactive slide, drag, drop and pinch capacitative screens we're used to on our iPads, Androids and tablets. But it will respond to poking. And that's a good thing in my book.

Other features.

The All New Nook has less on-board memory than the Kindle. But it has an SD slot, so you can expand the memory infinitely. And the Nook is not available in a 3G version. But the $139 Kindle isn't 3G either. (You have to pay $189 for the 3G Kindle.) And who really needs to buy their books where they can't get Wi Fi anyway?

Both readers are light, fast and highly readable. Both come with gobs of book available for purchase.

The Kindle will display .mobi and PDF files. The Nook will display ePub and PDF files. EPub is the industry standard format open to everybody. Amazon's .mobi format is proprietary. But will Kindle learn to read ePub soon? Probably.

Kindle will let you browse the web and search with Google. But it's an emergencies-only feature. It's very cumbersome. Nook has no browser, but will let you upload snippets from books to FaceBook directly. Kinda cool.

Bottom line?

I agree with the author of the article referenced above that the Nook and the Kindle are now essentially in a dead heat. No material advantage for either. But that's great for authors!

Up until now, you probably sold most of your eBooks on Kindle. Nook was a distant 2nd. The improved Nook promises to improve B&N's share in the eBook marketplace. This is a positive development for a couple reasons.

1) Amazon needs to have some competition. The free market system works better that way.

2) B&N buyers are used to paying higher prices for books than are their budget-conscious Amazon counterparts. Tapping into this less price-sensitive market should help stabilize and support eBook prices.

3) I expect to see B&N paying more attention to eBooks now that they have a decent black & white reading device. Heck, they may even place some titles on sale -- causing Amazon to follow suit.

Conclusion.

Okay. You're an author. What does this development mean for you?

It means that, if at all possible, you need to get your eBooks decently formatted through PubIt and available on B&N immediately! No Smashwords middle man to cut into your royalties. Since PubIt now accepts .html uploads, you can use the same computer file of your book to upload to both Kindle and Nook. There should now be enough sales on B&N to justify the work to publish your book again through PubIt. I don't think that's true with the iBookstore, or Google Books, or Kobo. At least not yet. You can still use Smashwords for those outlets.

Regardless of whether you prefer to read on the Kindle or the Nook, The All New Nook is great news for authors and will substantially boost sales of our books. I promise!

Thanks for stopping in to visit today.

Cheers!

John