Revision workshops


What’s up with us right now?

 

We’re reviewing some great submissions and continuing to stalk the premium distributors for our books.

 

In between that we’re designing a 6 week revision online workshop. We are not ready to launch yet, but we’re working on the curriculum. Participants will learn a process for revising their stories from a big structural check through to polishing the pre-submission draft. Including some ideas on how to deal with critiquing, how to decide what you will change and how to approach changes. Along with how to deal with conflicting critiques.

 

Along with tools and lessons, each participant will receive at least 2 separate critiques on a few scenes of their work.

 

We’re having fun creating it from our own experiences in figuring out how to get from the first draft to the polished manuscript.

 

Stay tuned over the next month or so while we get the course set up and tested.

 

Perry



Olympics and publishing


Okay, there isn’t much correlation right now between the two beyond the fact that it’s hard to keep focused on the writing and publishing when such a fabulous event is taking place in your backyard.

 

What is great about PaperBox Books right now? We are reviewing more great manuscripts every day. Wow the ideas and stories are great.

 

What we realized as we reviewed the submission was that not everyone has a good grasp on revision. It gave us the idea to put together some online workshops – the first, how to revise.

 

Stay tuned for an announcement in the next few months about the first session.

 

Perry



The road to becoming an e-publishing company


It’s been a while since my last post. I have lots of reasons/excuses, but it is all about getting PaperBox Books up and running.

Sue and I have been passing legal docs back and forth – much prefer reading fiction than legalese – testing our processes, stalking Smashwords to see if the books have been sent to the premium distributors (soon) and planning (or plotting?) marketing plans.

Our timing was great because now we’re getting more and more submissions from authors, so now we have the time to read and give feedback.

Sue has done a great job revamping our site – check it out.

Well, back to researching helpful sites for authors and thinking about workshops we can offer.

My favorite e-book question – how do you do book signings? – has been answered here.



The waiting game


If you have followed us on Twitter, you’ll know the big news. Our first books are up and available to buy on Smashwords.

Here are the links if you haven’t heard.

The Problem with Jake

Off Track

The Trouble with Jake

Dual Version of  the Jake and Kathryn

Now we wait for the process to flow through to the Kindle store, the Sony ebook store and Fictionwise and all the other great e-book retailers out there.  The great news is we did a fabulous formatting job so we qualified for the premium catalogue – important for our authors to know we are able to produce high quality ebooks.

I thought the waiting over Christmas would drive me nuts – waiting to get the components together, waiting to make sure the formatting was clean. I didn’t think ahead to how it feels stalking Amazon.com and the Sony store to see when our titles pop up.

Well, I can live with the anticipation.

Time to get going on other people’s books and helping other authors find their audience.

Have a great new years celebration – drink all you want – leave the car keys at home.



e-Books for Sale


The bestest Christmas gift of all was looking at the front page of the PaperBox Books website and seeing titles for sale. Well, ok that was the 2nd bestest feeling, the absolutely bestest of bestest feelings (can you guess my word for the day?) was seeing the statistics show book sales within a few hours of our books going online. There were dances of joy on both sides of the continent (Perry in Vancouver and me, home for the holidays, in New Brunswick).

We have several authors going through our editing process now and we’ll have even more e-books for sale in the new year.

Current Titles Available:

Off Trackby Alice Griffiths – A romantic fantasy

Madeline was on track to make partner in her law firm when she was dragged into a magical world. Can she find her way back on track through a tangle of, love, magic, and evil villains? And will she want to turn her back on love to return. Jode knew he loved Madeline as soon as she followed him to his world. Will he sacrifice his love for her freedom?

A Novel Experiment

Originally written as a paranormal adult romance, ‘The Problem with Jake‘ was re-written as a young adult paranormal romance called ‘The Trouble with Jake‘. Author Sue Nelson Buckley couldn’t decide which was the better version so she’s opted to offer both for sale either as individual novels or together in a dual version issue. While the main story is the same, the subplots are significantly different to allow readers to enjoy both books without constantly experiencing deja vu. Aspiring writers and book clubs will love this unique ability to explore the changes made and debate whether they were effective.

The Problem with Jake by Sue Nelson Buckley – the adult version

Kathryn catches her fiancé cheating. Driving all night, she pulls onto White’s Bluff wharf. As a teenager she’d spent hours weaving fantasies about a protector. Stepping onto the wharf, she discovers her protector is real. Jake, a ghost for over a century is stunned when Kathryn speaks to him. As they became closer, he can’t help but worry about the plans she is making for their future.

The Trouble with Jake by Sue Nelson Buckley – the young adult version

After catching her boyfriend cheating on her, Kathryn drives all night. Finally, in the wee early hours of the morning she parks on the wharf at White’s Bluff. Jake, watches her even though she can’t see him. He’s been a ghost for over a century and over the years has developed a fondness for Kathryn and her family as they vacationed at White’s Bluff each summer. After sunrise, Kathryn leaves her car to stand on the wharf. She is shocked to discover the imaginary protector of her childhood fantasies is real. The more she learns about Jake’s identity the more he worries she’s getting too attached. A storm is brewing, can they survive it.

Please note – When you click on the links to purchase books from PaperBox Books, you will be taken to www.smashwords.com to ensure your transaction is secure.



CBC Radio interview with Sue


On my way home for Christmas I received an interesting email inviting me to do an interview with CBC Radio on in Saint John, NB. They have a segment on Saint Johners Away where they do interviews with people who have moved away from the East Coast and done exciting and interesting things. They’d heard about PaperBox Books and wanted to talk to me.


So early in the morning, before my brain could acclimatize to the 4 hour time difference I was at the CBC Radio studios chatting away with host Steven Webb on their information morning show.


To hear the 7 minute interview go to http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningsaintjohn/int_archives/dec.html. Scroll down the page to Dec 16th and you’ll see the blurb about me and the link to the interview. The interview is in a .ram format which seems to be only playable with real player.

Enjoy.



NaNoWriMo 2009


Short post today to let you know we’re open for submissions and not completely locked down with our own word counts.

Perry here. Taking a few minutes out of NaNo 2009 (word count 19,168 as of 2:30 pm) to update you on what’s happening at PaperBox Books.

It’s challenging right now to coordinate our time. We are both doing NaNoWriMo and have our responsibilities to our region (take that New Zealand). We had a fabulous write in at the main library in Vancouver on Thursday (30 writers all focused on their craft – it was magic).

Despite that, we’re meeting with authors and giving out  cards to people who might be interested. And reviewing the submissions that come in, we are determined to keep to our commitment of short turnaround.

Hmmm, wonder if I can count these words in my manuscript. No, darn the pretechnical society of my story.

Happy NaNo everyone.

Bonus tip for NaNo participants – to keep your word count up, there’s nothing like a word war.



Introducing Perry Wilson, Managing editor


Hi, it’s time for me to come out from behind the curtains. I’m Perry Wilson and PA Wilson and Alice Griffiths. It’s pretty crowded in here.

Sue and I started PaperBox Books in response to the dwindling opportunities for new authors. We had heard too many friends report that they heard back from editors and agents that their book was great but there was no market for it right now.

What I’ve found, to my great surprise, is that I love the process of reviewing other people’s work. I read through a new author’s submission with anticipation. Where will the story take me? What will I learn about the writing art.  How will I give the feedback to the writer?

I’m excited about the possibilities in the electronic publishing world. The rules are all different, there’s a market out there for your book when it doesn’t have to fit on a precious few inches of book store shelves.

Come join us in the journey to break all the publishing rules and sell a lot of books.

Your books!



Introducing Susan Buckley, Managing Editor


Now that’s we’re underway, I think I should introduce myself. My name is Susan Buckley. I am one of the Managing Editors here at PaperBox Books Publishing. I am also an author who publishes under the name Sue Nelson Buckley.

We formed PaperBox Books to allow authors, especially first time authors to establish a track record of sales and experience to make them more attractive to the big publishers. While it is rare that a large publisher will choose to re-publish a previously published work, selling your first book through PaperBox Books Publishing will give you a better chance to sell your 2nd book.

As the wheels turn in your head, pondering the possibilities, let me tell you more about myself so you know who you’re entrusting the care and feeding of your ‘baby’ too.

I have a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of New Brunswick. PaperBox Books Publishing is the fifth small business I’ve been involved in over the past two decades. The only one that is no longer in existence, Sue Buckley Photography, was recently merged into its sister company SNB Consulting Services.
I’ve been doing web design, web copy, website maintenance and promotion in the corporate world for the past four years. More recently I’ve been involved in internet marketing and exploring the opportunities this form of media has opened.

Through manuals, instruction and hands on editing of other peoples work to better identify the errors in my own, I’ve been working hard to improve the quality of my writing. By the way, I highly recommend joining an editing group. Finding the right one can be tricky, but the pay-off is huge.

My first book started off as 30 page short story back in 1987. During the early nineties, I decided the story had potential as a novel and expanded it to over 200 pages. My first rejection from the publisher came in 1996. Devastated, I put it aside for a while to later learn that the rejection I’d received was really an invitation to follow the suggestions for fixing it and resubmit. In 2008 I pitched it directly to an editor at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. With advice from her, I made some changes and resubmitted. It was rejected again but this time it was the market, not my writing, which dictated the reason for the refusal.

Since then I’ve written two more novels. Both were rejected because of their inability to fit neatly into a genre. In speaking with other authors and professional copy-editors, this seems to be a common occurrence. This is why we created PaperBox Books Publishing. We wanted to give authors a chance to publish their novels and short stories as e-books and work together as a network of authors to promote each other, learn the ropes of the publishing industry and sell our books.



We’re up and ready for submissions


If you attended the Surrey International Writers’ Conference last weekend or are participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo you might have heard whisperings about PaperBox Books Publishing.

We’re an e-publishing company who focuses on writers.

Yes, you heard that right.

Our philosophy is that there are many writers have excellent novels ready to be published but have been refused by publishers because their stories don’t quite suit the target market. At the SIWC conference we were told that many publishers are pulling back on the number of new authors they sign because of the economic downturn. They’d rather use established writers who are less risky because of their track record.

“So what if… ” I said to Donald Maass, of Donald Maass Literary Agency during a panel discussion, “what if we published these first time authors electronically, so when they came to you they had a solid sales record. Would they have a better shot at getting published?”

His response, “I think you’re on to something.” The other publishers on the panel nodded in agreement.

We’re looking to publish our first titles near the end of November, with plans to release more each month. Our goal is to publish every publishable author who submits material to us. By publishable I mean readable stories with solid plot, sub-plot and character development with correct spelling and grammar. We will not refuse to publish because of genre or marketability. We will however automatically refuse to publish hate literature and flat out porn.

Each author brings with them an audience be-it friends, family, co-workers, Facebook friends or Twitter followers. By networking together we can help each other out and sell our books without having to do all the marketing on our own.

Please visit the ‘How to Submit’ section of our website at
http://paperboxbooks.com/howtosubmit.html