Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: serious author

  • Jumpstart your author career at CAC17 with Wendy Delaney & Jacquie Rogers

    Jumpstart your author career at CAC17 with Wendy Delaney & Jacquie Rogers

    We have a LOT of terrific sessions planned for CAC17, and we are still adding more. One of those amazing sessions will be:

    Author Career Plan Boot Camp –There is so much more to being an author than just writing a book. In Career Plan Boot Camp, Jacquie & Wendy share their experience as authors who have “been there,” and provide ten “must have” tips to help emerging writers learn how to create a professional writer’s platform and grow their writing careers. Wendy Delaney & Jacquie Rogers.

    Jacquie and Wendy are both authors of multiple book series’ (between the two of them, they have over 2 dozen books!), with twenty years of experience in the business of being authors. They’re also veteran Chanticleer Award winners and know how to use awards, ribbons, book stickers, reviews, and all kinds of things you never even considered before, as TOOLS to enhance their success as authors.

    We asked them to tell us a little bit more about their upcoming session at CAC17 and they took some time to give fill us in.

    Chanticleer: Hi guys, what inspired you to create the session Author Career Plan Boot Camp?

    Wendy & Jacquie: A good share of us started this writing gig with a great story in mind, but had no idea what being an author actually meant.

    Chanticleer: What is the reality? Lay it on us.

    Wendy & Jacquie: The average book sells fewer than 200 copies. [This] intrepid writer has spent $1,000 on editing, cover fees, and pre-publication promotion to sell 200 copies (remember, that’s average—many books don’t sell that many), and of those probably 25 went to family and friends. How does this pencil out? At the entry level pricing of $2.99, gross receipts would be $598. Of that, Amazon pays out 70% so the book would net $419.60, leaving a net loss of $581.40. None of us want to be that writer—but without a solid platform, we are.

    Chanticleer: A lot of people assume that a book with average sales is just an average story, they believe that a really good story will sell itself. What do you think about that?

    Wendy & Jacquie: Writing a good story isn’t enough. Essential, but not enough. Polishing the manuscript isn’t enough. Hiring the best editor and cover artist are not enough. All those things are vitally important, of course, but unless a writer has built a solid platform, potential readers will likely never see this fantastic book.

    Chanticleer: What is your advice for authors who want to have better than average book sales?

    Wendy & Jacquie: Focus on success. You can achieve your dream!  With some hard thinking to build an organized and targeted author platform, your book won’t be flailing in those sub-200 numbers. Come to [our session at] the Chanticleer Authors Conference and learn how from two authors who’ve spent nearly twenty years perfecting their writing and building their platforms, Wendy Delaney and Jacquie Rogers.

    Award-winning writer Jacquie Rogers is author of eleven novels, including five books in the Hearts of Owyhee series, two books in the Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter series, and others. She’s published over a dozen short stories and novellas in three genres.  Under the house name Ford Fargo, she writes for the Western Fictioneers Wolf Creek series.  She co-wrote Nail It! The Secret to Building a Fiction Writer’s Platform, and Growing Your Audience: Workbook for Published, Unpublished, and Under-published Writers.

    Wendy Delaney writes fun-filled cozy mysteries and is the award-winning author of the Working Stiffs Mystery series. Like her human lie detector sleuth, Wendy loves to bake, so when she’s not killing off story people she can be found on her treadmill, working off the calories from her latest culinary adventure. Wendy makes her home in the Seattle area with the love of her life and is a proud grandma.

  • Spotlight on: Sara Dahmen, CAC17 Speaker and 2015 Laramie Grand Prize Winner

    You wrote a book. You published it. Congratulations, you are now heading up your own business. Even if you are traditionally published, so much of being an author is all about having good business skills, but so few treat their author career like a business. Time to be serious authors and learn how to be an authorpreneur.

    Meet Sara Dahmen, who is both an author and an owner & designer at Housekeeper Crockery (plus a blacksmith which is really really cool!). She knows what business skills need to be applied to a successful author career.

    And you can find her at the upcoming Chanticleer Author Conference—CAC17—March 31st to April 2nd. She will be on hand to teach authors how to treat publishing like a business–and other topics (check out her bio below, she’s been a radio and TV producer, event planner and more–maybe we should just call her Wonder Woman).

    If you need to learn more about being an authorpreneur be sure to attend Bigger Than Books: Business Growth Applied to Authorship & Beyond.

    As part of our spotlight series, we asked Sara our five questions to get her perspective on professional success.

    1. When did you know what you really wanted to be?

    As a Gemini (can I use that excuse?) I feel I’ve had multiple professional lives and enjoyed most of them. As an event planner, I did it because I was good at it and enjoyed the design and the puzzle of producing. As a metalsmith, the challenges are constant and exciting and unique and the learning curve is huge, which I enjoy. As a writer, which I feel has been a part of my identity since middle school, I know it’s my blood, so I feel it was never a choice – I’ve always known I needed to write. The stories burn, and must be told to satisfy my spirit. Whether people read and like them…that’s gravy.

    2. What was the biggest challenge you faced?

    I have always faced multiple issues. Horrific bosses, people who purposefully didn’t want to give opportunity “just because” no matter how hard one works…or fighting against a mentality and culture (as an event and wedding planner). As a metalsmith? The WHOLE THING IS PECKING HARD! Building up an American cookware business from scratch is ridiculous. As a writer, it’s fighting time (I never have enough) and the work of doing the promotion. It’s a tough game, so one has to enjoy enough of it to keep going.

    3. How do you define success?

    Being happy over 50% of every day. No matter what is going on. As a writer, I think success is knowing in your gut that you’ve finished a good book. It is a huge bonus if it wins awards and people like it, because, let’s face it, that’s vindicating and wonderful. But finishing a GOOD book, one that you are insanely proud of (and not constantly fixing and nitpicking)…that’s happiness and success together.

    4. How long did it take to achieve your success?

    It’s ongoing, obviously. But, for the sake of time, let’s say I started writing when I was in 4th grade. So, I was…9ish. So well over 20 years of working at writing bit by bit to feel good here and now.

    5. What is the best advice you have ever received?

    To always know the answer to the question “Who are you?” Everything good comes from that place of knowledge, comfort, and self-security. Goodness and happiness generally follow, or even if it doesn’t, you’ve the self-possession enough to handle it.

    If you have not registered for CAC17 yet, what are you waiting for? Sara Dahmen and more fantastic speakers (including yourself possibly, if you register before the schedule is full) will be sharing their experience and knowledge about writing books, selling books, and everything to do with being a successful author.

    About Sara

    Sara Dahmen is a metalsmith of vintage and modern kitchenware in tin, copper and iron. Her debut novel, Doctor Kinney’s Housekeeper, won the Laramie Award Grand Prize for Western Historical Fiction, and inspired House Copper & Housekeeper Crockery – American-made cookware. She has published over 100 articles as a contributing editor for multiple magazines, book blogs and review blogs and spoke at TEDx Rapid City, at the Historical Writers of America inaugural conference in Williamsburg VA, and has co-chaired the Port Washington Literary Festival since its inception. Prior to her writing gigs, Sara was a print, radio and TV producer in Milwaukee and owns and has operated a nationally award-winning event planning company since 2006. When not writing or sewing Doctor Kinney'sauthentic clothing for reenactments, she can be found hitting tin and copper at her apprenticeship with a master smith, reading the Economist and reference books, or playing with her three young children.

    Her book Doctor Kinney’s Housekeeper was last year’s Laramie Grand Prize winner in the Chanticleer book awards and writing competitions. She will be presenting this year’s Laramie awards to their new recipients.

    Sara’s class:

    Bigger Than Books: Business Growth Applied to Authorship & Beyond – What more does it take to be a successful author?  Whether you’re represented or self-published or somewhere in between, using overarching business tools are a huge assistance in building success. How can the tools commonly manipulated by marketers, large and small companies, and retailers help you create a successful ‘business plan’ as an author?  From multi-pronged approaches, to developing a tiered ‘clientele’, to organization and presence, business is business, whether you’re an author or the manager of Apple.  Use those same tools to create yours.

    Check out all the classes and sessions we have scheduled!

    Register for CAC17 NOW!