VIEWS
NATIONAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION LOS ANGELES DECEMBER 2010
I can hear the voices singing All the tuneful bells are ringing Snow is falling across the land And decorations are really grand— It’s Christmas!
Photo by Paul Hartman http://picasaweb.google.com/StardustAZ
All the cards are in the mail Plans are made and cannot fail Children are getting more excited Travel plans are expedited— It’s Christmas! Shopping is done for every toy To light the eyes of each girl and boy! Choirs are practicing for that day When hearts and minds can join to say Merry Christmas! —Wanda Weiskopf
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
’Tis the season
Yes, as impossible as it may seem, December is here again, with all its concomitant activities. Views is a little behind this time because in addition to all the usual stuff I have going on, I have been occupied with medical issues that just never seem to end. Please send good thoughts our way to help my husband and me get past this challenging time in our lives.
HOLIDAY PARTY
TABLE DECOS
At NWALA we like to recognize the holiday by giving the members an opportunity to get involved through performance. Reading your own material or the work of an author you admire is welcomed. We love poetry, short stories, appropriate extracts from longer works, and music. Joe Panicello wants to read a tribute entitled “My Dad” and I will be reading a short story by James Colasanti, Jr. So sign up and be heard! We may also have a big surprise for you!
Yesterday, I purchased some Christmas table decorations to spruce things up a bit for our festivities. I am looking for a volunteer to join me at Mo’s at 1:00 p.m. to help me with the arrangements. Please call me at 661-267-2220 to let me know you will be there.
Sacred Fire magazine is looking for writers who know what’s cooking! Times are changing. If you sense the awakening world and can light a fire with your words, we want to know you. Sacred Fire is a provocative magazine that provides a fresh perspective on modern culture. We want articles, interviews, stories and poetry that explore the connection between people and the living world, and the value of traditional wisdom to guide us toward sustainable living. During the last five years we have attracted an international readership through contributions by writers such as Barry Lopez, Louise Erdrich, Martín Prechtel, Dorianne Laux, and Malidoma Somé. We are broadly distributed across America through Borders, Barnes and Noble, and countless smaller newsstands. Sacred Fire seeks talented writers who can produce short material, develop features and pitch great stories that reach and enrich our readers. Send your queries to submissions@sacredfiremagazine.com. Or contact Jonathan Merritt, Editor-inChief, jmerritt@sacredfiremagazine.com, 503-7018168
FUND RAISERS In my capacity as fund-raising chairman, I’m going to start a circulating secondhand rental operation. I will have books at every meeting that will rent for a dollar. After you have finished reading it, you can return it and rent another book. That way the library will continue to function profitably and you will get access to some good reads for very little investment. You can also put in a request and we will take steps to acquire a title for you. Any book donations or funding you would like to contribute will always be welcome as well. We will also have a raffle for the centerpieces on each table. Raffle tickets go for a dollar apiece.
TOM’S HELLO FROM AMHERST Looking at November Views, it appears LaVonne has a graceful grasp of the helm of NWALA. I miss everyone and wish you the best of the holidays. I focus all my energy these days on staying warm and finishing the collection of my mom’s stories, Mrs. Foley’s Flowers, in my new temporary quarters in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is only three hours by bus to my Mom and sister in Cambridge near Boston and brother who lives north of Boston. I gave up my Hollywood apartment and put things into storage in California. Arturo is taking excellent care of my cat. Starting Jan 1, 2011, if all goes according to plan, I will be residing in a basement apartment up on Coldwater Canyon at Mary Ports’ house and still maintain the same e-mail address, tom4art2@aol.com. Best wishes for the holiday season and happy writing! Tom Howard
TIPS ON PERFORMANCE
1. Before the event, re-read your material aloud to yourself several times. 2. Next rehearse it in front of a mirror and time your reading to fit within the parameters set by those hosting the meeting. In the case of our December 18 gathering, make it between five and eight minutes. 3. Don’t be afraid to interject emotion and pauses into the material. Pauses can be very effective, just like negative white space in visual art.
P Happy Holidays to all!! P 2
November’s Crossword Answers Down Across 1. Daylight Savings 3. Topaz and citrine 2. Guy Fawkes 5. Black 3. Thanksgiving 7. Pilgrims 4. Indian Heritage 10. Saints 6. Chrysanthemum 11. Veterans 8. Voting Booth 13. Marine Corps 9. Election Day 12. Nine
REDUX
National Writers Association Los Angeles thanks Diana M. Johnson Ms. Johnson says, “If you want to write a book and just want a few copies of it to give to family friends, that’s fine. You can take it to any number of places that can do the technical part of putting a book together. However, if you want to sell the book, you have to take steps to do it legally and up front. In the November 20, 2010, meeting she covered the nitty-gritty steps, some of which follow, to becoming a successful self-published author. Ms. Johnson recommends making a notebook. “I keep my whole publishing business in a notebook. Each year I put the stuff that pertains to the previous year in a notebook dated with that year, and keep the stuff that needs to remain perennially in the current year’s notebook.” The reason systematic record keeping is so important quickly became apparent to Bill and Diana. The first year they published two books and spent a lot more money than they had earned, so that raised a red flag with the Internal Revenue Service. The Johnsons received notification that they were going to be audited. “On the day of the event, I took my notebook with me and answered every question the IRS agent came up with by referring to my notebook.” “In your notebook keep separate sections for a record for your inventory, invoices, speaking engagements, bank deposits, earnings, expenses, mileage, business papers, licenses, ISBN numbers … everything pertaining to your company.” THE STEPS 1. Set Up a Publishing Company A. After you choose a name for your company you must register the name with the county registrar’s office as a DBA (Doing Business As). The registrar will help you find out if there is already a business in the name you have chosen. If so, you need to have a backup name ready. Next you have to make a public announcement in two different publications, stating your DBA and giving information on your new business. B. Get a seller’s permit from the state board of equalization. This step is to help the state collect sales tax. A viable business has to have a seller’s permit. Report what is sold each year. Every county has a different percentage sales tax. You have to keep a record of where you are located when you sell a book. Set up record keeping so there is a code for every county where you sell a book.
C. Go to the city hall and get a city business license. You have to file every single year what the previous years’ gross income was. D. Get a business bank account. Keep it totally separate from your personal account. E. Get ISBNs (International Standard Book Number) available from RR Bowker, Providence, NJ. This company provides all sorts of services that have to do with the publishing industry.
Diana with her notebook
F. To sell commercially, you must have a bar code on the back cover for scanning purposes. Bar codes are available from many companies that generate them based on the ISBN. G. You also need a SAN number, which can be accessed from Bowker. This is important if you want to do business with large corporate book sellers such as Barnes & Noble. This is how the booksellers keep track of whom to send the check to when books are sold. H. Get a FAX machine. 2. Set up an Accounting system A. Diana uses Quicken accounting system. B. You will be asked to account for the price of each book that was sold out of state or to book stores (for which you collect no sales tax); as mentioned above, sales county-by-county (in which sales tax varies); and for those books that you didn’t sell but gave away.
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Diana’s family tree
C. Complete expenses can be deducted for IRS, so it behooves you to keep meticulous records. D. Keep track of your mileage for everything writing or publishing related that you do. Mileage is deductible according to the IRS. E. Design invoices for various bookstores. Johnson has one for B&N with serial numbers so that she doesn’t have to retype it each time, but she also has a generic invoice design for other bookstores and miscellaneous other sales. 3. Produce the Book A. Your best marketing tool is your cover art so having a good designer is of utmost importance. Howard Goldstein is the graphic designer of all her covers except Cradle of the Nation. Diana created that one herself from a map that she had drawn during her research. An experienced cover artist should know how to design for cover components, such as the width of the book’s spine and the correct location of the bar code, for example. B. She emphasized the importance of proofreading your manuscript. Keep your work on a disc. Proof it many times over and have other trusted individuals do so as well. C. Get bids on printing the interior. Give them all the parameters and ask for bids per book. D. Pricing your book: In theory your retail price should be six to eight times the cost of producing the book. But that may make the cost of your book prohibitive. A better way to price the book is to add a few dollars to the wholesale amount for each book. E. It is a benefit to have a Library of Congress number, which you can do online with the Library of Congress. They give you a number that you will add to your copyright page, then you mail them a copy of the book after publication. F. Copyright the book, which can also be done online with the Library of Congress. In theory you copyright the book as you create it be-
BLUE EYES
(Sonnet) Proud peacock with those captivating eyes of deep pavonine blues and wondrous greens, how well you emulate the lawns and skies ~ Kaleidoscope with scintillating sheens. Intriguing, how those wooing moves are made from royal blue flamboyant-feathered fan. Wild call to mate is answered and obeyed as ‘love’s sweet song’ sings on since time began. Grand, iridescent creature, how you show vainglorious display upon command. Proud, ostentatious beauty, all aglow; divinely sculptured by The Master’s Hand. Held captive, yet unfettered, free to roam through gardens, lawns and palaces, your home. —Mary L. Ports
Johnson’s tips on successful self-publishing continued cause it exists on your computer but once it is published and being sold to the public at large, you should have a copyright listed on a copyright page at the beginning of your book.
this war would one day lead to American Independence. Subsequently, Johnson was able to spin off the first few chapters of Cradle into a teen readers’ book titled Will & Davy.
THE WRITING LIFE Ms. Johnson grew up knowing she was a fourth generation Californian and a direct descendant of the great medieval king Charlemagne. Her grandfather had drawn a family tree based on research by his aunt. During the 1920s, he typed up his aunt’s notes and put them into hand-bound booklets.
Her latest work is about her great, great grandfather coming to the California gold rush, Wagons to Hangtown. Nowadays she spends a lot of time in the mother-lode area of California marketing her book. She says, “I write about things I’m passionate about. You have two choices when you start to write. You can write what the market wants that can ‘easily’ get published. Or write what you’re passionate about, in which case the market may not be as interested in it as you are.”
Diana is a people person. She has always been interested in the personal aspects of historic people: what they felt, what they thought, how they lived. Even as a child she knew this would eventually lead her directly to writing her ancestors’ stories. However, before starting to write, she took a life detour and spent quite a few years as a music teacher in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. After an early retirement she started writing. Destiny’s Godchild: A Novel of Intrigue and Enchantment in Frankish Gaul, Pepin’s Bastard: The Story of Charles Martel, and Quest for the Crown comprise her Charlemagne trilogy. She spent twelve years researching and writing about the ancient family tree, and then took a
President LaVonne Taylor presents a thankyou plaque to Diana M. Johnson.
thousand-year leap forward with Cradle of a Nation. Set in Colonial Virginia, this family saga centers on Will Daingerfield and his faithful companion and personal slave, Davy. We follow their childhood on Greenfield, schooling in Williamsburg, and return home to assume their positions as adults. In time, William and Davy’s sons go off together to fight the French and Indians, to protect Virginia’s claim to the Ohio River Valley. They have no idea the cracks in the colonists’ relationship with Mother England that developed during
At a writers’ conference she met Dan Poynter, whom she calls “the godfather of self-publishing.” She recommends that anyone interested in self-publishing avail him- or herself of the manual his company produces, Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, 16th Edition: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book that is updated yearly. He also has a website http:// www.parapublishing.com. You can find out more about Diana M. Johnson and her work at: http://www.superiorbookpublishingco.com.