IDEAS

 

Ideas. Where do they go?

Now that sounds like a rhetorical question, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s a literal one. Where do you store that idea that flashes like a brilliant meteor you try to catch before it flickers out while you’re working on something else?

Sometimes those ideas come from dreams. I’m very envious of folks that remember a dream and then turn it into a bestseller or sellers.😊I do well to remember the gist of my dreams let alone convert them into a block-busting series.😊

 Besides trying to remember them before they fade, I have an extra step. These days, everything I write has a Western theme. So not only do I have to remember a thought as it’s dissipating, I have to convert that idea into a Western setting and often to a different time.

Somehow the great ideas that start as a saga in my dreams often trickle down to a few sentences, a vague beginning and ending. I type up that sentence or two then wonder what happened to the rest of the dream. I save them in doc where they languish. And languish. And languish. Often times outliving my computers.

Recently, I started a folder labeled Unfinished Ideas then began combing through my documents. I found some of those ideas I’d forgotten about under ‘unknown’, ‘next western romance’, etc.

 

I haven’t converted those dreams into stories yet, but at least now I can find them.

What about you? What do you do with your ideas, your story-worthy dreams? Where do you keep them?  Have you actually converted a dream into a story? 

 Wherever you keep your dreams, I hope you hold them close, take them out, dust them off and one day bring them to life.

 

Sandra

 

Word for Writers

 The Vocabulary Habit 

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson, 

book and marketing consultant, writer and,

when my life needs a dose of joy, a poet, too!

 I was in love with writing—and even grammar—long before I was in love with words. I became smitten with words about the same time I fell in love with my husband about sixty-three years ago. When we opened the door to our new one-bedroom apartment ($75. a month, I kid you not!), we found a tattered book that once belonged to a previous tenant. It was one of the early paperbacks (pocketbooks) called something like “A Word a Day” and we committed exactly that—one word a day—to memory before we went to sleep each night. We did it together. That list was spot-on, a list of words that might appear on an SAT exam or a Graduate Record Exam (GRE). 

My vocabulary-intensity rating went up and down after that, mostly down. Jobs, children, and a business interfered. But lately it crescendoed along with my interest in poetry. And then one day (it was a cloudy, uneventful day during my self-imposed isolation during the Days of Covid) an email from WordGenius appeared in my email box. I may have signed up for it. If I did, I don’t remember, and I was a bit annoyed. Spam, I thought. But I played their little games and got hooked again. Then the emails kept getting more frequent. New and even more fun features. It was a little like the internet in general, designed for addiction. 

I was especially intrigued with the words that were directly related to writing. They reminded me of a column I once wrote for a print magazine in the early 2000s for…was it Writer’s Magazine? I remembered what the column was called, so I did a search in my computer for “Affecting Words” and there they were. Every single column. Soon I was adding words I collected from my new email games that I might someday use for more “Affecting Words” columns, words I didn’t know then, some words I had never heard! 

That list is getting longer, and I started thinking about a kind of memoir based on the love of words—especially words associated with writing—and what Carolyn See, a now-deceased writing friend called “The Writing Life” in her memoir. 

And then it turned out that another auspicious email from Elizabeth Seckman, the editor of your IWSG newsletter, showed up in my email box. The "Ask Carolyn" column needed more posts. I suggested a change from writer advice, to the love of words. She, also being a lover of words, readily agreed and now, starting in June, IWSG authors and fans will have a new series from me which will allow me to continue to indulge in this newly revived addiction of mine. They will appear in IWSG’s News & Updates monthly newsletter. The last Wednesday of every month, you will get a word fix if you are signed up for the monthly newsletter. If you're not, there's no secret handshake, just sign up HERE.   

If you are wondering if an author—a wordsmithery by trade—could possibly need a word game other than The New York Times’ crossword you may already do, here are some of “my” affecting words as a little test to see if you think you might run across some you need. As you can see, most are associated with writing or publishing in some way. Some may even nourish your crossword skills! In any case, why not give it a try! And send me words you’d like to see there at HoJoNews @ AOL dot com with “The Vocabulary Habit”in the subject line. 

Demiurgic 

Palimpsest

Semantic Narrowing 

Metonymy 

Asyndeton 

Antiphon 

Synecdoche (one of my favorites) 

Test yourself. Or just join WordGenius.com and play with me. (No, I don’t get paid for inviting you!) Of course, all my IWSG words won’t have appeared there and may not have appeared in there in the past. 

Have I written the first page of that book I mentioned? Not yet. Do you want to take bets on whether I do? I believe I will if I live long enough. But here’s the thing. In the meantime, I have lots of meat and potatoes for just such a book and I have renewed and fostered an old love. And all your visitors and subscribers to ISWG will be helping me with my trek. What more could one ask from reviving an old habit (or is it a hobby?) than that?

*Be sure to check in each month to see what fun, clever words Carolyn has to challenge us with. If you're not a member of our newsletter, be sure to sign up HERE. 

 MORE ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER: 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson brings her experience as a publicist, journalist, marketer, editor, and retailer to the advice she gives in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers and the many classes she taught for nearly a decade as instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program. The books in her HowToDoItFrugally Series of books published by Modern History Press include the third edition of The Frugal Book Promoter with more to come including The Frugal Editor which won awards from USA Book News, Readers’ Views Literary Award, the marketing award from Next Generation Indie Books and the coveted Irwin award in its earlier editions. Yes, she also loves #SharingwithWriters anywhere she can. Thank you, IWSG!

                                                      CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON

Celebrate International poetry month with me!! 

Deeper into the Pond, part of my multi award-winning Celebration Series coauthored with Magdalena Ball,  Artwork by Jacquie Schmall 

Self-published in the tradition of poets everywhere since the advent of the Gutenberg Press 

Web site: http://HowToDoItFrugally.com 

Blog: http://SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com 

Twitter: @FrugalBookPromo

 Facebook:  http://facebook.com/carolynhowardjohnson 

Amazon Profile: http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile

Amazon Buy Page: Https://bit.ly/DeeperPond

E-mail: hojonews@aol.com 

PS: Learn more about my fiction and poetry at: carolynhowardjohnson.com. [Use this link without the “http://“ or “https:// to access the correct page! Ahem!]

What Can Bowker do for Authors?

If you are setting up a publishing company or self-publishing, Bowker is an important component of your publishing set-up.

Bowker provides numerous services for publishers and hosts the largest database of titles in the industry—Books in Print. They are also the sole legal supplier of ISBNs. All other sources, regardless of money paid by the author or publisher, are simply “renting” the ISBN. Titles using those ISBNs are still listed as published by the original purchaser of the ISBN, not the author or publisher “renting” the ISBN. (Examples would be using an ISBN provided by a distributor such as Smashwords or using one from a subsidy press.)

Once you have your contact information (address, phone number, email, web address, etc.) register your publishing company with Bowker. Upon approval, you will be given a password and be able to access their services and Books in Print. Then you will be accessing Bowker’s My Identifiers.

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. If your titles are to be sold through retail outlets, online or in the real world, you’ll need ISBNs. Each ISBN is unique to a book’s format and designates hardback, paperback, eBook, or other format. Currently, eBooks require only one ISBN regardless of format, but this could change in the future.

Once a ten-digit number, ISBNs are now thirteen digits – e.g., 978-1-9816210-2-9

Bowker sells ISBNs in batches of 10, 100, and 1,000. Single ISBNs can be purchased, but there are downsides. Part of the ISBN represents the publisher identifier number, but when a solitary one is purchased, it is not assigned to a single company. Since it does not represent a particular publisher, this can throw up the red flag of “self-published.” A single ISBN is also half the cost of a block of ten. Unless you only intend to publish one book and in one format, purchasing a single ISBN is impractical.

A block of ten or more allows for multiple books and formats. It also gives you a publisher prefix and legitimacy as a company. ISBNs are non-transferable, so once you have made your purchase, those numbers are assigned to your press forever and cannot be given or sold to anyone else. Fortunately, those numbers never expire.

Once your book reaches this stage, you can add it to Bowker’s Books in Print. (Which you do in your "My Identifiers" area.) Enter as much information as possible. You can go back and enter details later. Once the book is listed in Books in Print, it can be accessed by any retail outlet.

Bowker is one of many companies that supply bar codes. Some online businesses provide bar codes for free but be warned—often the disclaimer states that the bar code may not scan properly. (Wouldn’t it be terrible if you printed 1,000 books and the bar code didn’t work? No magic “beep” at the register?) Bar codes are necessary if your book will be sold in a physical store. Even if your print book will only be available online, it will appear more professional with a bar code.

Bar codes shouldn’t be purchased until your book is formatted and the price is set. When ordering through Bowker, you can order them singularly or in blocks for a discount. In your “My Identifiers” section, you will then be able to generate a barcode for each ISBN. Be sure you have set the price as it will appear in the barcode. Note that bar codes are not required for eBooks, only print books.

Now that you know all of the ways Bowker can help authors and publishers, why wouldn’t you take advantage of the opportunity? Time to look more professional and level the playing field with the big boys!