Welcome to Our First Newsletter!
Authors and families have a lot in common
By Kathleen Osborne
Is the end of 2022 coming too fast? Are you concerned as 2023 approaches? Do you have a game plan for the new year?
When the new year arrives, your family faces some heavy planning. You must plan for things like budgets and events—events that include kids or just parents. The financial side has to be figured in. Scheduling time is another concern. When are you going to take vacation(s), and where? How much money do you need to save? Will someone need to house-sit and/or pet-sit? Is one of your children graduating from school or college? There are birthdays to celebrate. Will you buy a new car or move to a new location? You must schedule events and activities into the family calendar and also work them into your budget.
Authors have to plan (even pantsers, who aren’t into planning at all) their characters, and the beginning and ending of their stories/books.
Here at Transcendent Authors we’ve been planning
We actually started planning in September for all of 2023.
We will release our final book of the Seasons series, entitled Summer—When Doors Open, in April. And our next book is going be released in 2024. The theme for the 2024 release is Deceit.
We’ve budgeted for the editor and cover and are making decisions on whether to use Amazon only or go with a wider distribution publishing plan. Our e-book and paperback publications will continue for those who love having them in either format.
In our authors’ eyes, our books are like children. After all, we birth them from our imagination, watch them grow through the power of words, then see them leave home fully equipped (we hope) when they are published. We trust we have planned for everything. And we do allow a little wiggle room for the unexpected.
Our 2023 marketing plan includes a monthly newsletter, beginning with this one. It will only be once a month… and if everything goes smoothly, you will receive it the second week of each month.
We hope you will share our newsletters with friends and family. Because we count you as both.
We would love to hear if you are making plans, even if you’re planning “by the seat of your pants” (pantser).
You can leave your comments in the area provided below.
The Write Habits:
Suggested Resolutions for 2023
By Yash Seyedbagheri
If you’re a writer, resolutions are a potential gift, helping make your new year more productive. Maybe you’ve had a bad year for whatever reason. Perhaps you’ve fallen short. Fear not! The new year offers a tabula rasa or blank slate. Resolutions don’t have to be grand and sweeping. You don’t need to shoot for The New Yorker or a book deal. They should be realistic ways of measuring your progress. Concentrate on achievable goals. Achievement is no small feat, and the ostensibly smallest steps can be significant ones! Here are a couple suggestions to help.
- Foster writerly connections. As a college student, taking creative writing courses is a real boon. I came to the creative writing world through this avenue, beginning with one summer course, followed by additional classes. I say this as a political science major, who later pursued an MFA in fiction!
Another option is to find writing groups through community centers or searching online. Consider starting your own if you don’t have any luck. Of course, seeking feedback, let alone starting a writing group, certainly seems daunting. It’s understandable. You’re putting a piece of yourself out there for people to break down and seemingly judge. Visions of people laughing or dissecting your beloved creations like frogs could flash through your mind. Or worse, you’re the naked person out of a nightmare in a room full of authors.
On the plus side, getting friends and peers to read and review your work, and in turn, reading and reviewing theirs, is symbiotic. Critique sessions nurture connections. They bolster your writing, revising, and even submitting skills. The ideal writer not only needs to analyze his or her own work, but others’ as well.
- Read every day. The best writer is the best reader. When you have moments of malaise, don’t surrender to procrastination. Leap into a favorite short story or chapter from a novel. Reading can catalyze future ideas or help you get back on track with present projects.
- Banish distractions. It’s easy to retreat into Netflix or Facebook, especially when you’re stuck. But discipline is a writer’s best friend. Cultivate it now, as it becomes helpful down the road. Professional writers work under deadlines. In fact, some learn to thrive under such pressures. Banish the cell phone and disconnect your Wi-fi if needed. Write away!
- Stay resolved. Create a conducive environment in which to achieve the other goals. Blast Tchaikovsky or other beloved classics, as long as they are stimulative. The main issue again is to keep your resolve! Resolutions are not throwaway things!
Write and Submit Daily
- Write daily, whether it’s a short story, flash fiction, or even microfiction. No matter how much you write, the act itself helps maintain good habits. Put your pen to paper, or more likely, your hands to the computer keyboard! Going hand-in-hand with generating new work, also return to something you’ve written. Revise daily. When you do, hone in on one element to address, such as dialogue, pacing, or characterization.
- Submit every day. If you don’t have work ready, then focus on writing! The impetus is even higher. However, if you have stories or other pieces that you deem ready to send out, go over them one last time. Identify lingering issues. Hunt for typos or thematic elements that need strengthening. Does the pacing work? Does the ending pack a full punch?
Once you deem the pieces ready, after careful review, pinpoint journals that might be good fits. Web-based venues like Duotrope and Submission Grinder allow you to search for journals and literary magazines, using a variety of metrics, such as response time or genre. Many have an online presence. In those cases, I’d strongly suggest reading some samples. See if they bear stylistic or thematic similarities to yours. Does this lit mag like romantic, fluid prose? Do they prefer pieces with declarative, Hemingway-like sentences? Are they partial to longer material, or are they flash fiction mavens?
Consider submitting to a certain number of journals each day in order to further hone this goal. I used to strive for half a dozen journals. Beyond establishing your own personal parameters, consistent submission is a vital habit!
For more information on , go to: Yash Seyedbagheri https://transcendent-authors.com/author-yash-seyedbagheri/
Please leave us a note in the comments section on if you are making any resolutions and what they are.
Thank you! I’m resolving not to make resolutions.
Hi Jane, I can absolutely understand that! lol
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Kathleen
I joined T A in time for the Autumn submissions which came out last year. Spring and Winter books were published in 2022. Summer is coming out 2023. I think we should aim toward late 2023 for publication of ‘DECEIT’. We should publish frequently to build Reader Interest. Keep the pressure on, so to speak.
Hi Lawrence,
Let’s talk about that at our first meeting on January 5th?
Thank you for commenting
Kathleen
Thinking about submitting… it sorta makes me crazy…. seems a lot of research is necessary before you can pick a journal and then you find out, opps, submission period has passed or they only accept stuff on a theme. Anyway…. I try to submit often but I think it is a hard road to just throw my work out into space like that. Anyway… advice bout reading is super good. Coming home from Mexico with two books yipee.
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