Felix F. Giordano has a calling: to bring a better appreciation of the Native American to the general public . He is doing this through a series of books he has named The Jim Buchanan Series. Montana Harvest is the first book in the series. Torn between two dif-ferent worlds, sheriff Jim Buchan-an, the son of a Scotsman and Na-tive American woman, had it all: a lucrative sports career and celebrity status. Yet, taking on a missing per-sons investigation, he sacrifices a lot to return to his roots, to the land he knew and loved. The book is colorful and descriptive, with an attention to detail—a suspenseful story with a realistic depiction of

Native American Indian spiritual customs, mytholo-gy, and law en-forcement. Even as a student, Felix was inter-ested in the Native American after reading a book about the Oregan Trail, a 2,200-mile historic east-west large-wheeled wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. For a class assignment he wrote his own ver-sion of the story.

The Authority

Connecticut Authors & Publishers Association—Since 1994

Connecticut’s Source for Writing, Publishing & Marketing Information

Inside This Issue

Cover Design Strategies p. 2

Media Tips p. 2

Clear Sell Sheets p. 3

Small Publications p. 3

Connections p. 4

Editing Errors p. 4

ABCs of Editing p. 5

Celebrating Success p. 6

Writing Group p. 6

Upcoming Meetings p. 7

Sales Presentations p. 7

CAPA Webinars p. 8

Co-op Connection p. 8

Continued on page 3

Volume 22 Issue 8 August, 2015

Meet Felix Giordano — July Meet-A-Member

By Jason Alster

Contributors Jason Mark Alster Adele Annesi Roberta Buland Crescent Dragonwagon Kathi Dunn George Foster David Garnes Felix Giordano Brad Hartado

Brian Jud D’vorah Lansky Pam Lontos Jean Rusin

Tom Santos Natalie Segal Robert Trexler Dan Uitti

August 15— Power of Podcasting for Authors By D’vora Lansky

Podcasting provides you with a way to amplify your voice and reach more readers. This month's speaker, Dvorah Lansky, M.Ed., will be talk-ing about the Power of Podcasting for Authors. You'll discover a varie-ty of ways to share your message and your book, as a guest speaker on other podcasts as well as on your own podcast show. D’vorah recently conducted a webi-nar sponsored by CAPA —one of the highest attended webinars this year

CAPA Board of Directors

CAPA Officers’ & Board Members’ Contact Information

Founder Brian Jud brianjud@comcast.net Co-Founder (CAPA) Jerry Labriola Labriola00@aol.com President Deborah Kilday kildaykrafts@aol.com Vice President Steve Reilly sriles40@aol.com Treasurer Brian Jud brianjud@comcast.net Secretary Roberta J. Buland rjbuland@comcast.net Immediate Past President Richard Moriarty rmoriarty285@earthlink.net Newsletter Brian Jud brianjud@comcast.net SECAPA Chairman Tom Santos santostom@comcast.net SWCAPA Chairman Steve Reilly sriles40@aol.com Program Brian Jud brianjud@comcast.net CAPA University Peggy Gaffney gaffney@kanineknits.com Membership Dick Benton robenton@optonline.net Webmaster Dan Uitti dan@uitti.net The Big E Bookstore Deborah Kilday kildaykrafts@aol.com Publicity Dennis Schleicher dennisschleicher@me.com Networking Jason Alster jasonalster@gmail.com Social Networking Peggy Gaffney gaffney@kanineknits.com Past-President, Advisor Beth Bruno bethbruno@comcast.net

Article Submission

The Authority welcomes articles written by members. Here are our guidelines. Topics may cover any aspect of writing, publishing and marketing. Your personal slant on this is of in-terest to all of us and welcome. Articles should be no longer than 400 words. If the article is longer, the editors reserve the right to reduce the size or divide it into sections that would be run in successive issues. All articles will be edited. Submit single spaced with no built-in for-matting. Submit all articles to Brian Jud at brianjud@comcast.net. Send submissions for the Meet-A-Member column to Jason Alster at jasonalster@gmail.com

ARTICLES DUE BY THE 28TH OF THE MONTH

Editor—Brian Jud, Meet-a-Member Column—Jason Alster Copy Editor—David Garnes, Staff Photographer—Deborah Kilday,

page 2 The Authority

The Cover Story - George Foster (George Foster has designed the covers for more than a thousand books and is contributing author to "1001 Ways to Market Your Books". Contact him at

www.fostercovers.com)

This award-winning thriller in-volves arson at a recording studio in the Bahamas, so let's set the book on fire. I wrote the title by hand with charcoal. Sometimes messy is good. The paper is a combination of different stock photos with music notation added. Black and red are standard crime colors. The overall effect is frenetic, alarming, and def-initely on fire. The burnt hole par-tially hides the author's name while also featuring it. The cross-directions of the music notation adds to the chaos. Barnes and Noble placed this book face-out on their "New Mystery" shelf.

”One author never understood why he didn’t get more than three minutes on an interview and never sold any books. I said, ‘You’re bor-ing. Boring, boring, boring. And if you don’t pay any attention to that, you aren’t going to sell any more books. You asked me for my opin-ion, you’re boring.’” Brad Hurtado, Producer of Maury Povich, Phil Donohue shows You will generally have more time on the air during a talk show than a news show, enabling you to include more points about your topic and your book.

Media Tips For Getting On The Air

The Authority page 3

I asked Felix, “When did you de-cide to write Montana Harvest? I got a surprising, but, in retrospect, not so surprising reply: “After I wrote about an autopsy.” Not sur-prising, because Montana Harvest is a murder mystery. At a writing class in Manchester Continuing Ed-ucation, the teacher told Felix that he so loved the scene-by-scene de-scription that he though Felix should consider writing a book. Fe-lix also began to think about the Native American in particular after going to a spiritual medium who told him that he probably was, in a past life, an Indian. “Were there other writing experi-ences that would prepare you to become an author?” I asked. Felix told me, “I went to CAPA Universi-ty and took a class with editor/author Eileen Albrizio. She also had a number of additional classes at the Buttonwood Tree Café in Mid-dletown on different writing top-ics.” When I asked Felix if there was there something he learned with her that was critical to his novel, he told me: “Yes, she taught me that you should not reveal too much up front. Keep the reader in some sus-pense. Eileen taught me how to make the transition from short story to novel.” Felix is now working on the release of his second and third books in the series, but is waiting until he learns the lessons well from his first re-lease. I wondered, “Felix Giordano does not sound too Native American too me. What research did you do?” With a chuckle, Felix told me that with a name like Giordano he is Italian, but he actually went to Montana and spent time with Indi-ans there for his research on their

Felix Giordano— Continued from Page 1

The perfect time to create your book's sell sheet is the moment after your front cov-er is designed, while you are polishing your manuscript, getting the interior of the book designed, and making production decisions. Use it to create buzz about your book early on so you're ready to sell as soon as it's completed. Wholesal-ers and distributors will ask for your sell sheet to assist them in sell-ing your book. Organizations like APSS will promote your book more easily with a professional sell sheet that clearly provides all the im-portant details about your book on this one document. Your sell sheet should include a quality image of your cover, which, as the package of your book, is your most important marketing tool. Ad-ditionally, include your title, author name, category, format and trim size, publication date, number of pages, price, and how it's available for purchase, as well as a brief syn-opsis, short bio, and any stellar re-views. Here is an example of a sell sheet

created for Karen Simmons' forth-coming book Perfectly Clear, which she is promoting at a trade show in Israel. Because we are also promoting her as an expert on this topic, we've chosen to include a photo of Karen taken at a profes-sional photo shoot for this specific purpose.

customs and spirituality. For further information, check out

Felix' blog at http://

thejimbuchanan-

novels.blogspot.com/ .

Make Your Book's Sell Sheet Perfectly Clear

By Kathi Dunn, Dunn+Associates Strategic

Design for Authors and Experts

Although they aren’t sold on news-stands, you never know who’s read-ing them. Pam Ammondson did an interview with a small travel maga-zine not expecting anything to come of it. A writer at Time magazine hap-pened to read the article and called to interview her. When Time came out, NBC Nightly News saw it and she ended up having a film crew come to her house for the Tom Brokaw news-cast. And boy, did she sell a lot of books! (Pam Lontos, President of Pam Lon-tos Consulting, Tel: 407-522-8630;

Pam@PamLontos.com; www.PamLontos.com)

Don’t Ignore Small Publications

By Pam Lontos

page 4 The Authority

Summer fun is in full sway, but the school year is fast approach-ing. With a nod to sum-mer in resi-dency re-sources and the academic calendar in its education listings, here is a refreshing assort-ment of writers’ resources.

Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) http://cwp.uconn.edu: The CWP sponsors the annual Invitation-al Summer Institute as a professional growth opportunity for teachers in all disciplines who value writing as a way to learn any subject. The CWP, headquartered on UCONN’s Storrs campus but hosted at various venues, also offers professional development and publishing opportunities. The Summer Institute provides a stipend to attendees.

Funds for Writers http://fundsforwriters.com: Chosen for the 101 Best Writing Websites by Writer’s Digest for 15 years running, Funds for Writers from Hope Clark offers the inside scoop on grants, funding, crowdfunding and paying contests in its free and fee-based newsletters. Clark vets every oppor-tunity.

National Writing Project (NWP) http://www.nwp.org: The NWP focuses the expertise of U.S. educa-tors to improve writing and learning for all learners. With its network of sites on U.S. colleges and universi-ties across disciplines at all levels, the NWP provides professional de-velopment, resources, research and knowledge to improve the teaching of writing.

Res Artis http://www.resartis.org/en: Established in 1993, Res Artis lists over 500 residency venues in 70 countries dedicated to offering crea-tive folk time away and respite from the rigors of daily life. The largest network of its kind, Res Artis pro-motes residential programs as vital to the arts, stimulating creative de-velopment and furthering culture.

Wisdom House http://wisdomhouse.org: Located on 70 quiet country acres near historic Li-tchfield center, Wisdom House re-treat and conference center provides overnight accommodations and spir-itual retreats at reasonable prices for creative writers. It also provides edu-cation and arts opportunities. If you want to conduct a writing seminar, it makes a great host venue, with meet-ing rooms, classrooms, living room with fireplace, onsite food service, outdoor pool and labyrinth.

Writers Relief http://writersrelief.com: Writer’s Relief began in 1994 to help creative writ-ers make targeted, professional sub-missions to agents and editors. This organization of writers, researchers, motivators, organizers, proofreaders and submissions strategists helps writers submit their most creative work. The FAQ page answers ques-tions about the process, clients and success rate to help writers accom-plish their goals.

Happy writing!

Adele Annesi is an award-winning

writer, editor and teacher, and co-

founder of the Ridgefield Writers

Conference. Her book is Now What?

The Creative Writer's Guide to Suc-

cess After the MFA. Her editor’s

blog is wordforwords.blogspot, and

her website is

www.adeleannesi.com. Email her

with queries at

a.annesi@sbcglobal.net.

Connections

Adele Annesi

Publisher— Continued from Page 3

A good editor will check to make sure that you are communicating exactly what you intended. Here are some examples of text that could have used some editing. Sign in a Laundromat: Please re-move all your clothes when the light goes out Sign in an office: Would the per-son who took the step ladder yester-day please bring it back or further steps will be taken Sign in an office: After tea break staff should empty the teapot and stand upside down on the draining board. Seen during a conference: For anyone who has children and doesn't know it, there is a daycare on the 1st floor. Sign in a London department store: Bargain basement upstairs Headline: Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers Headline: Miners Refuse to Work after Death Headline: Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant Headline: War Dims Hope for Peace Headline: If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile Headline: Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges Headline: Man Struck By Light-ning: Faces Battery Charge

Editing your book is not simply a matter of correcting typos

The Authority page 5

E. L. Doctorow, the famous American author, died last month at age 84. You may remember his rollicking narrative, Ragtime, which is perhaps his most well-known novel, later becoming a hit movie and Broadway show. Woven into it are the dawn of movies and roots of the American labor movement, tab-loid journalism and women’s rights.

The central plot of Ragtime in-volves a black musician who takes violent retribution against a society that has left him without redress for his heinous victimization. The events described never took place, but are instead “borrowed” from another writer’s account of a 16th-century news event. Yet, they con-tribute to Doctorow’s foreshadow-ing of racial conflict as one of the great cultural themes of the 20th and 21st centuries. Ragtime also in-cludes the back stories of characters like Sigmund Freud and Emma Goldman, the anarchist.

Doctorow knew when he was nine he was going to be a writer. How many of you knew at what age you wanted to write? Many of us began our writing careers when we were in elementary school. I pub-lished a neighborhood newsletter, which I wrote by hand with carbon copies! What a time that was! Oth-

ers of you may have not thought about writing until much later. It isn’t important when you started; what matters is that you are now becoming or have become an au-thor.

Doctorow said that two ques-tions in particular were important to be answered by the novelist:

1. What is going to happen next? How would it be done?

If the author answered those

questions satisfactorily for the read-er, that is, if he/she kept the reader involved so that the answers occur almost without even thinking about them, the author accomplished his/her job.

Those questions spurred me to

develop additional questions that you, the author, might address. And, should you then submit your work to other writers to critique before it is published, you might include a list of these questions for them to consider:

2. How does the main charac-ter grab the reader? 3. How do the characters move the story along? 4. How important are minor or subordinate characters?

When writing a novel, think

about if they are all needed. If you left out some of them, would your novel be better? Note: This is one way to decrease the size of your novel if you need to.

5. Is the heroine/hero likeable?

Or, will readers relate to the charac-ter? Readers don’t have to like a character to enjoy your novel.

6. How well is your antagonist developed? Will readers like him/her or not? If not, will read-ers continue reading your book? 7. If your novel is a mystery, when does clue 1 appear? Is there a rhythm to the clues that the reader will recognize? 8. Is the place significant or the best setting for your novel? Would a different geographical locale provide a better setting? 9. Finally, why should a reader read your novel?

There are many other questions a writer should answer when writing a novel. When you think of them, add them to your list. If your critic looks for the answers, he/she will have used realistic, objective direc-tion to help you. Not all questions have to be answered, of course. However, ask your critic to be sure to answer Questions 1 and 2. If they were important enough for Doctorow, they are important enough for the rest of us.

E. L. Doctorow was an author I

would have been proud to have met. Questions or comments? Email:

rjbuland@comcast.net Roberta J. Buland is the Owner-

Editor of RIGHT WORDS UNLIM-ITED, a full service editorial and publishing firm in West Hartford. She is a past president of CAPA and may be reached at 860-308-2550.

The ABCs of the Editing Process: E. L. Doctorow Inspires 10 Questions to Answer about Your Novel

By Roberta Buland

page 6 The Authority

CAPA Members Celebrating Success

Robert Trexler (Winged Lion Press, publisher) has been invited to give a talk at Hagaman Library in East Haven, CT, on Thursday, September 10th at 7pm. The topic is: "C.S. Lewis: Mere Christian and Mere Christi-anity: The Work of C.S. Lewis During World War II." The talk will follow a 28 minute documentary film about Lewis' rise to fame during the 1940s. Winged Lion Press has published ten books related to the life and writings of C.S. Lewis, which will be available for sale at the lecture. Robert is also the editor of the bi-monthly publication, CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society. Jean Rusin says, “I was mentioned in the “Journal Register” in Palmer, MA. I went to a Polish festival and was stopped by a reporter, who asked me about my books. I also told him about being in the Big E.” Jason Alster spoke at CAPA SW this month about how to improve reading ability and his newly released video, " Improve Reading Speed and Comprehension." I'm Crescent Dragonwagon. I teach a workshop called Fearless Writing, both online and regionally. (Among many others writers, some well-known and some not, I taught Julia Child, when she was over 80, a fact that still surprises me; it was when she was in the process of moving from cookbooks to her final work, a memoir about her life in Paris). This year, my New England Fearless is going to be not in Vermont as it has been the past five years, but in Connecticut. It'll be held at a re-treat center in Chester the second week of September, the 11th-13th. Early-bird prices are in effect until Au-gust 15th. If you have any further questions, please feel free to call me. My landline is 802-869-2696; cell doesn't work when I'm in Vermont, as I am now. From CAPA member Adele Annesi: One of the most instructive short conferences for writers, the Ridgefield Writers Conference, takes place at the Ridgefield Li-brary Fri., Sept. 25, and Sat., Sept. 26, with new work-shops, panels and resources for writers. Our keynote is author, columnist and playwright Lary Bloom, and fac-ulty include Chris Belden (fiction), Sonya Huber (nonfiction), Adele Annesi (cultural narrative) and James Chesbro (creative nonfiction). The cost is $175. To register, visit www.ridgefieldwritersconference.blogspot.com, email a.annesi@sbcglobal.net or call 203.894.1908.

Do you turn out first drafts that are perfect in every re-spect? Perfect grammar, perfect word choice, perfect plot, perfect pace? If you do, stop reading now. This piece is not for you. But if you're like me, please keep reading. Most of us who write prose, including me, know that our work isn't perfect, not that first draft, not even the last draft that we submit to editors in hopes of publication. But we make progress with each draft, finding better words, filling in the plot holes, fixing the pacing. The problem, of course, is that we are close to our creations, maybe even in love with them. So it can be hard to see what works, what doesn't, and how to improve what isn't working. Not to mention the fact that we aren't experts in everything. I am a wizard of grammar, syntax, and usage, but pacing? I agonize. A writers critique group, a group of writers who regularly produce pages, whether fiction or non-, and who are will-ing to have other serious writers look at their work and say what works and what doesn't and perhaps offer sug-gestions for improvement is the solution. When it's their turn to be critic, members of such a group have to be hon-est but impersonal in their critique, addressing the work, not the writer. And when it's their turn to be critiqued, they have to drop any defensiveness, including those "yes, but" arguments, and listen. Maybe learn. Let's not forget, too, that with people in a group, you have access to other people's knowledge and experience, not to mention ideas and connections. Writers critique groups can be a valuable step or six on the way to regular publi-cation. If you're interested in forming a writers critique group, two serious writers, members of CAPA, would like to talk to you. Wayne English (info@webcontentrx.biz) and I (nataliedeesegal@gmail.com) are both published writers who know the advantages of working in a critique group and would like to form one in central to eastern Connecti-cut. We're both experienced in running these groups, and we're looking forward to talking to you, perhaps having a group up and running by the fall. Please email one of us if you're interested.

Looking for Writers—and Critics

By Natalie Segal

The Authority page 7

CAPA CENTRAL Sycamore Hills Park Community Center Avon, CT 10:30 am (http://www.aboutcapa.com/avon.htm) August 15: D’Vorah Lansky: Podcasting September 19: Tish Rabe — children’s book author October 17: Cloris Kylie: Building Your Platform November 21: CAPA Shark Tank CAPA SOUTHEAST Location: Groton Inn & Suites 6:30 pm (Tom Santos, santostom@comcast.net; find current meeting information at http://www.aboutcapa.com/capase.htm)

August 17: Annual Picnic, Nancy Rupert’s home in Stonington, CT September 21: Best Western, Olympic Inn, Rte 12, Groton, CT October 19: Best Western, Olympic Inn, Rte 12, Groton, CT November 16: Best Western, Olympic Inn, Rte 12, Groton, CT

CAPA SOUTHWEST Location: Plumb Memorial Library, Shelton. 6:30 pm (Steve Reilly, sriles40@aol.com; find current meeting information at http://www.aboutcapa.com/capasw.htm)

August 10: Speaker and Topic To Be Announced September 14: Speaker and Topic To Be Announced October 12: Speaker and Topic To Be Announced

CAPA NETWORKING MEETINGS Location: Wethersfield Public Library on the last Saturday of every month (Jason Alster, jasonalster@gmail.com) August 29: Networking topic TBA September: 26 Networking topic TBA October 31: Networking topic TBA

Schedule of Upcoming Meetings

Making a large, non-returnable book sale to corporate buyers usual-ly requires that you make a formal sales presentation to one or more people. The larger the sale the more people involved with the decision. Murphy’s Law is alive and well in the special-sales arena, and to pre-vail you must have the flexibility to deal with a variety of unexpected circumstances. 1. Your presentation is post-

poned, generally at the last minute (reschedule as quickly as possible)

2. A major decision maker can-not attend or must leave early

minute (reschedule as quickly as possible)

2. A major decision maker can-

not attend or must leave early due to another commitment

3. People go off on a tangent,

taking the conversation with them

4. You allotted time is reduced 5. You are not given sufficient

time to prepare (Your prospect says, Can you meet with my boss later today?)

6. Your audio/visual aids do not

work properly

Making a large, non-returnable book sale to corporate buyers usual-ly requires that you make a formal sales presentation to one or more people. The larger the sale, the more people involved with the deci-sion. Murphy’s Law is alive and well in the special-sales arena, and to prevail you must have the flexi-bility to deal with a variety of unex-pected circumstances. 1. Your presentation is post-

poned, generally at the last

Top Ten Things You Should be Prepared to

Deal With When Making Sales Presentations

7. Disruptions occur (people con-gregate outside your meeting room; assistant interrupts; cell phones ring)

8. Conditions beyond your con-

trol force you to be late (traffic or delayed flight)

9. Change in meeting room (can

be too small or not suited to your plans)

10. Prospects may become bellig-

erent, or delight in playing Devil’s Advocate

page 8 The Authority

Save money as you market your books by sharing the cost of events with other CAPA members. Want to participate in one of these sales opportunities with other CAPA members? Log on to the CAPA social network (http://authorsandpublishersct.ning.com/).

CAPA’s Co-op Connection

September 5 Bethel Bethel Buskerfest 5 Madison Madison Markets 5-6 Mystic Ann. Labor Day Weekend Show 5-7 Goshen Goshen Fair 10-13 Hebron Artisan & Craft Show 12-13 Glastonbury On-the-Green Show 20 Mystic Garlic Festival 20 Simsbury Arts & Crafts Festival 20 Seymour Seymour Pumpkin Festival 24 Durham The Durham Fair 26 Avon Avon Fall Arts & Craft Show October 2 Madison Madison Markets 2- 4 Southington 47th Apple Harvest Festival 3 Ansonia Harvest Festival 3 Bethel Bethel's Got Talent Music Fest 3 Madison Arts & Crafts Fair 3 Wethersfield 34th Annual Old Wethersfield Craft Fair 3 Southington Elks Arts & Craft Show 4 Shelton Shelton Day Festival 9 Southington 47th Apple Harvest Festival 11 Madison Autumn Art Trail & Outdoor Arts Festival 11 Warren Fall Festival 17 Wolcott Arts & Crafts Fair 24 South Windsor Craft Fair 25 Cromwell Arts & Crafts Fair 25 Farmington 12th Annual Bridal Show 25 Shelton Shelton Autumn Craft Festival

CAPA P. O. Box 715 Avon, CT 06001-0715

Free Book Marketing Webinars

Brian Jud will host webinars that can help you sell more books, more profitably. These webinars are free to CAPA members and are spon-sored by CAPA and APSS. Each starts at 6 p. m. Eastern Time. If you cannot attend, a link to the recording will be posted at www.aboutcapa.com. You may also find details about future webinars there. The two free webinars in August sponsored by CAPA are: “Marketing and Monetizing: Online Promotion and Revenue Streams for Authors, Speakers and Consult-ants,” by Stephanie Chandler. In this content-rich presentation, Stephanie Chandler shared real-world strategies that you can use to build an audience online and add lucrative revenue streams to your business. The link to the recording is www.bookapss.org/MonetizingOnlinePromotion-Chandler.wmv Aug 19: "How to get more and bet-ter book publicity” by Joan Stewart; 6:00 pm Eastern time