In My Hands at Last - Ghost Orchid

I have Ghost Orchid in my hands! The book is exceptionally beautiful in cover and content. I am so impressed and pleased. My mother received her copy today and had a surprise by the acknowledgement to her part in my writing - she's 90.

I opened it as though it was new; not a story I already read hundreds of times. I wanted to visit Mel's swamp and feel her serenity and hope there. Then, I shook myself and said, "Diane! That's your Everglades. Go!"So, I put my book in my purse (the perfect size) and am ready to depart.

Compared to my first novel of nearly 500 pages, Ghost Orchid is an intimate read, just one third as many pages. I hope the reading world enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed the birth of the real Ghost Orchid at Corkscrew Swamp and its power in my own thoughts.

"From the moment I walked onto that boardwalk my senses were bombarded with pleasure and sensations of wellness. I felt the cycle of life pulsing through the trees, in the earth and in the sounds. Signs of birth and life and death are everywhere, mixing together in a beautiful harmony. If I could write a song, I would call it, 'The Swamp Song.'"

I'm pleased for you, Diane. It's a very good story, well told.

10/10/2009

Diane..

" CONGRATULATIONS "

Cheers..Joe

DK,

CONGRATULAIONS!

There is nothing that can compare to holding your book in your hands.

It sounds beautiful DK.

Enjoy the moments.

Carol

When can I get one DK?????

Congratulations. I look forward to reading it knowing the romantic that you are.

Congratulations, DK!

Thanks so very much for the congratulations! Writing Ghost Orchid has been a work of love, love for my beautiful Everglades and love for the charming characters within. I was truly possessed of the ghost orchid and remain so; as long as I can stalk its blooms, I will be there for my birthday surprise each summer. I hope to write more stories from my obsession.

Ghost Orchid by D. K. Christi (thank you for asking :-) ) is found at all the ebook sites, Fictionwise, Mobipocket, eReader and Kindle at Amazon. It is also in print through B&N.com, Amazon.com and all online book stores. It is in distribution channels to brick and morter stores so hope with me that it catches the eye of the buyers and shows up on some shelves. If you have a favorite store, it always helps the cause to ask them for the book.....

Also if you have figured out how to be an affiliate of BN.com and Amazon.com (which I have at various times), please do put the buy button for Ghost Orchid at your web site or blog.

Also, for my friends and family and trusted colleagues (most everyone registered at this forum), a check in the mail to my P.O. Box found at my web site will yield a generally less expensive print book since I charge real postage instead of using that as an income stream :-)....to those with whom I share this field of dreams......

The romance in my books is generally part of the plot and not the whole plot. So, it tends to be more true to the life of ordinary people, not graphically written but rather sensual and thoughtful, part of the flow of living. The story line is primary and the experience with the importance of place. However, passion for living can be expressed in many ways; love is one.

Again, thank you for being such a welcoming place to express that "holding my book" feeling that you understand beyond any of my non-writing friends.

Just saw the thread, DK, and on the book. It does indeed look good, and as I have read some of your work, I am sure the inside is every bit as tasty as the cover.

Please know that I didn't insert the little yellow thing in my last post. I used the word, and this guy popped up automatically.

Yep, Don, CONGRATS (lowercase) will bring up the smilie . Maybe that happened to me once or twice when I typed a word and pulled up a smilie. Who knows? Would anyone have given me the benefit of the doubt? Or were they intent on putting words into my mouth?

Oh Don there is no shame.
It is no crime to admit you might possibly be going soft or be revealing your true heart in the post to you as well.

We need to have a celebration party for several of us finishing our novels. I was on a high that seems to be going "poof" too quickly. Maybe it's because I started a new day job that is quite demanding, and I see my time challenged for promotion, etc.

With Arirang: The Bamboo Connection, sales took off on a rocket immediately; and I actually thought Ghost Orchid would do the same and better because the publisher is reputable. Maybe having ebooks at the same time diminishes some of the print sales.

Ghost Orchid is a tighter story, but it packs a punch in a few pages. It's out for reviews - maybe that will make a difference.

About that party.......

I hope you get plenty readers and plenty money too.
Congratulations!

DK,

I'm afraid that your experience was predictable. Not to those with high hopes and expectations but for those of us who know that the only way to sell a product is through expensive marketing. Books are not a special case and are probably harder to sell than most products.

Authors who sign up with POD publishers will find that selling books to strangers is difficult if not impossible. So, who buys POD books? Friends and family. Once they have bought a copy of your book, they have done their bit and will not be buying another one.

"What if the second book is as good as or better than the first?" you may ask. The answer is that it doesn't matter how good the book is. Readers have egos just like writers and they want to be able to impress everyone by saying that they are reading such and such by a well known author.

Nowadays, even young children refer to clothes without designer labels as no-name products and won't be seen dead in a pair of trainers without a Nike or Adidas label. If that's the way they feel about the clothes they wear, why would they feel any different about the books they buy?

My colleagues at L & L Dreamspell have followings that purchase their books as they are published. I imagine their sales are in the 100's as opposed to 1000's; but I don't know (no one discusses numbers......perhaps a bad omen). We receive an advance against royalties that indicates expectation of commercial sales.

I was on a cruise working on my novel. The young woman (stranger) next to me asked about my writing, and the conversation moved on to my publisher. She was thrilled. She said she was addicted to the L & L Dreamspell web site and bought each paranormal romance as soon as it was published.

These glimmers keep one going, I guess. It seems DT has made progress; you have a radio series; and there are others also. Perhaps progress is the operational word?

As long as you realise that lack of sales does not reflect the quality of your writing or the extent of your imagination, then you will be able to move on and, maybe, make sales that don't rely on friends and family.

The traditionally published midlist authors would like to believe that their work is in some way superior -- but it isn't. With the help of a good agent, their work may be more polished and edited to appeal to certain publishers but that will not turn them into literary giants. The key to success is in writing something that agents know they can sell. Too often, authors want to write stories that appeal to them when they should be writing stories that will appeal to tens of thousands of readers -- that's what agents are looking for.

Unfortunately, my writing is not something my friends and family appreciate with the exception of my mother, one friend in Michigan and two in California (who also read my manuscripts).

One friend has actually terminated our friendship because the time I "waste" writing has impacted our communication. A few colleagues were fascinated three years ago that I was doing something outside their experience; but now it's of no interest since I did not become a J. K. Rowling.

So, it's either commercial sales or bust for this kid. I agree about writing a book with potential for agents to snag. The small presses make it clear that they operate in a target market unique to their business plan. If fame and fortune are immediate goals, an agent and a major pub are the most promising route.

I have gone to two Marine conventions in the past month. This last one was for all those who had flown the airplane my husband flew, which my husband told me he found out was the most dangerous military plane ever.

There was a man there who had written a book about this plane and the pilots who flew it. He told me he had purchased 2000 books and had sold 1000. He also told me the name of his publisher although I think it might be a self-pub.

I have watched the women at these events, beautiful ladies who have gone to these things over the years. They need a book. They need their voices heard. I am focused on combining all: pilots, wives, planes. These ladies need a book in the museum bookstores where most are for the men.

This is a niche market, but I've got to inch my way into it. I have websites and email groups to market when I eventually have a book. But it will be a much better book than I originally wrote as I have listened and made changes.

DK, having a book published is a remarkable feat, finally getting it right, learning along the way. Don't let anything take away that joy.

Carol

Good luck with your goal, Carol. It sounds promising. I knew a guy who had 5000 books in his garage, self-published. He sold them all. He left no stone unturned. I have a former high school acquaintance who has a similar amount of books in a warehouse. He wrote a great book about his ancestors, but it's mainly of interest to family members; I have the book but have no interest in reading the rest of it. I lost interest along the way.

When the checks came there never were more
than few dollars two or so. Sent by P.A. after I didn’t even open those posts I
threw them into trash cam right away. I am not writer of any sort, however to
sending me a check with two dollar from America -
I feel it be more some sort of joking than the royalty from two books.
I have never dreamed to be a writer - nor dreamed making my living by writing a
book or two. I would like say as a Possum said on a Liberian ship when I
asked him whether was holding post aboard as Poss., " I am Poss for
myself" was the reply, And so will I say; " I am writer for myself",
I am freelance, who get sale some articles to a newspapers and every time have to dispute about the payment.

Well I think the writers’ time is over and there
could be very few profit making writer in world.
Hi
harry

Shelagh wrote:

The key to success is in writing something that agents know they can sell.

I have to agree that this is part of it, but even after writing something that you're pretty sure tens of thousands want to read and buy, and that you're pretty sure an agent will surely know they can sell, you still run into the concrete wall of actually getting an agent to take a look at what you've written. If no agent ever reads anything you send them, then they never know if you've sent them something commerical or not. As a general rule, I think the best way to attract an agent is through a referral. If you can find a successful author friend who will reccommend you to their agent, and then go the extra mile by actually encouraging their agent to take you on as a client, you have an excellent chance of selling some books. But don't hold your breath waiting for that "successful author friend" of yours to help you out, because most of them aren't going to do it. Nothing hurts a successful person as badly as seeing one of their friends become as successful as they are. After all, if all of their friends are successful authors, who are they going to look down on?

The safest way to become a successful author remains to find a retired politician or an old movie star or music star and get them to let you write their story. If the public still has an interest in them, you'll get published, and you'll sell some books. You won't be a better writer than you are now, but that's not what this game is all about anyway, is it?

Don, that hasn't been my experience with mystery writers but you may be right about others. When I first began attending MWA functions I was amazed at how eager they were to help not only each other but newcomers who were complete strangers. I had no interest in getting an agent but ended up with two.
Based on experience, I believe the surest way to find an agent is to attend meetings of those who write in your field. The next best way is to attend conventions, seminars and workshops where agents are on the program. The Bouchercon in Indianapolis this coming weekend is a fantastic place for those who write any of the sub-genres of mysteries to make contacts. From a distance it is difficult.

Dick, you are undoubtedly right. However, getting an agent the way you describe it is not so far from getting one the way I describe it. Both are accomplished by networking.

I suspect that the mystery writers may have a bit more reason to help out new authors, in that over the years the genre, as has many others, has declined in readership and in publications where short storys are still accepted. They are more willing to help, I would think, because they are more farsighted than some others, and would rather see new writers than to see the entire field fade away. Some people do not have the ability to see that now and then the good they do for others is actually helping them as well.

I have preached networking as long as these kinds of boards have been around, and yet most of the time I heard the same of silly BS that says there is only one way to get published, and that is the old fashioned tried and true method used by so many, the vast majority of whom, ironically, never manage to become published. And yet they keep trying. To which I say: Stop! Desist! Quit! Give it up for Christ's sake. If you've been writing, submitting, and being rejected for ten years, what in the world makes you think the next ten will be any different?

Network, make connections, use your brain. There are as many ways to find publishing as there are writers, but most just refuse to look for them.