Your Success Stories: Trana Mathews

On 27. January 20217. January 2021 By whispererforbooksIn Publishing Success storiesLeave a comment

About:

I’m Diane Hildebrandt; Trana Mathews is my pen name. A limited edition of my third great-grandfather’s diary was published in 1932. When I read it as a teen, I found it fascinating and thought someone should write a novel, never dreaming I’d be the one to do it!

After I retired and moved to beautiful southeastern Arizona, an online friend suggested I try writing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I decided to participate by writing my family history and managed to meet the monthly word goal, but my first book was far from finished. It needed a lot more research and fact checking. The following year I again joined NaNoWriMo, added another 50,000 words, and still wasn’t done. My initial novel metamorphosed into a trilogy, a family saga of three books.

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A Pen Name? Why Bother?

On 20. January 202130. September 2020 By whispererforbooksIn Publishing2 Comments

Some authors naturally use their real names. Some choose a pen name. There is a number of reasons for that. Are there advantages?

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Your Success Stories: Wendy H. Jones

On 11. November 20207. January 2021 By whispererforbooksIn Publishing Success stories3 Comments

About:

I was born and brought up in Dundee, Scotland, which has a huge literary tradition. In fact, the first lending library in Scotland was established in 1680 and you can still visit the library to this day. Books, reading and libraries were a part of my life from an early age and I first joined the library at the age of three. An early reader, I read voraciously, and cut my reading teeth on all the Enid Blyton Books, especially the Famous Five and Secret Seven. I also read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys; I am sure you can see a pattern forming here. By the age of 10, I was on to adult books and read my way through all the classics and started on Agatha Christy books. P.G. Wodehouse was also a favourite. All of these shaped not only my life, but my future life as a writer. I wrote stories from an early age, writing fan fiction as a child, long before fan fiction was a thing.

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The Problems with Publishing

On 19. September 202019. September 2020 By whispererforbooksIn Other1 Comment

A must-read!

Nicholas C. Rossis

Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch recently shared a must-read post about today’s state of publishing, aptly titled Trainwreck, Fall Edition.

As she explains, she tried in June to order a copy of a book she liked for her sister. However, she wouldn’t get the book until September. Understandably, her reaction was: How odd. The book had released in February, so she should have been able to get her hands on a copy quickly. But she couldn’t.

Then she remembered that the same thing had happened with a couple of other books she had ordered for her sister back in May. They were backlist for an author her sister hadn’t tried and it took six weeks for her to get the books, with the shipment getting delayed more than once.

Putting two and two together, Kristine realized the ugly truth: traditional publishing is headed for a trainwreck.