Yearly Archives: 2007

Self-published Books – Continued

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I’ve read some great self-published books, and I’ve also read my share of badly-wriiten ones. On the average, I find that the self-published books are not as well written as the commercially-published books. I feel that if you want your book to be in the hands of more readers, and get His message out there, then you need to try to find a commercial publisher to publish your work. However, if you have a unique subject matter, and you can’t find a commercial publisher to publish you, then you may consider self-publishing. However, I’d recommend getting a GOOD editor to help with the process.

However, if you feel the Lord is leading you to self-publish, then my all means, let the Spirit guide you.

Trying to find a commercial publisher for your work is hard, that’s why it’s important to attend writers conferences, and if you write fiction, you might want to consider joining American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). They have an awesome conference every September, and you can connect with other published writers as well as editors of major Christian publishing houses.

Self-Published Books Part One

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I attended my writers’ meeting last Saturday. I gave a presentation on fiction book proposals. Before the meeting started, we went around the room and introduced ourselves(the same people do not always attend.) There were a few people in attendance who were self-published authors.

One of the attendees has already sold a lot of copies of her self-published book. I suggested, since her book of devotions was so popular, that she go with a traditional publisher. She stated that she felt the spirit telling her to do it this way, and she thanked others for their publication suggestions, however, she couldn’t go against what the Spirit was telling her to do. Can’t say that I blame her, but when she told the pricetag attached to her self-published book, I nearly had a heart attack!

Another woman had her self-published titles with her. She’s a reverend, and has a large speaking platform. This enables her to sell lots of books.

I’ve learned over the years that self-publishing can work for some. I think it works for those who have a unique subject matter for their books. Also, if you have speak regularly and have a large platform, then it may work best since you’ll probably sell lots of books after the speaking engagement.

I’ll be posting part two, the down-side of self-publishing later this week.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Tropical Banana Bread

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I know I said I would blog about self-publishing today, but I’m tired and currently don’t have the energy to do my blog post about self-publishing. I’ll be posting blog entries about the following later this week: self-publishing, my writers meeting yesterday(Saturday), and The Winter Pearl by Molly Noble Bull.

It snowed today, but it only left a dusting on the ground. When it’s cold, as it has been over the last week, I love to bake! Yesterday, we baked a Mrs. Smith’s Apple Pie and it was great! Almost tasted like homemade. Since I forgot to take my daily banana to work last week, we had a bunch of over-ripe bananas left over this weekend. I decided to make a loaf of banana bread. Here’s the recipe that I used:

Tropical Banana Bread

1/2 cup CRISCO all-vegetable shortening or 1/2 CRISCO Stick (I didn’t have any edible Crisco since I rarely use it. I found an old can of it in the back of my cupboard, but the shortening was old and cracked, and was not fit for use so I threw it away. Instead, I used a stick of fresh butter! The bread still turned out yummy!)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup mashed bananas (2 to 3 medium)
1/2 cup dairy sour cream (I didn’t have a half a cup of sour cream. I only had about 1/3 or 1/4 of a cup of sour cream left in my refrigerator. I just used what I had and kept going!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I didn’t have any nuts so I omitted them.)

Heat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inch loaf pan.
Combine Crisco and sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until creamed.
Add eggs, bananas and sour cream. Beat until well blended.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix at low speed of electric mixer until blended. Stir in nuts. Spread in pan.
Bake at 350ºF for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool conpletely before slicing.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Self-Published Books

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I plan on doing my next few blog entries about self-published books. There are various reasons why authors choose to self publish. I prefer getting my books published by a commercial publisher because there is more money and exposure that comes from being published in that fashion.

However, with self-published books, the book is your own, and you can edit and do whatever you want with the book…have total control.

An author acquaintance of mine recently blogged about self-published books, which gave me the idea to blog about it since I feel so strongly about the subject.

I’ll post more on the subject over the next week.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Snow And Chocolate Pound Cake

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Happy Valentine’s Day! My hubby and I already celebrated this past weekend by attending an old-school concert in Washington D.C. We had a great time! Today, I’m at home since we had a snow and ice storm and the roads are really treacherous today! My job is closed and I’m making the most of my time by working on my novel and by baking! Yum! Below, you’ll find a recipe for the chocolate pound cake I made today. I’ve also included a recipe for the glaze, also.

I’ve been having trouble with my son and his sweet tooth. I guess he inherited that from me? He doesn’t want to eat food. He only seems to crave the lemon cream-filled cookies we purchased from our last trip to the grocery store.

Here are the recipes below and happy eating!

Chocolate Pound Cake
1 1/2 cups of softened butter or margarine(three sticks)(I only use real butter when I bake. It tastes better in sweets.)
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules
1/4 cup of hot water
2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of buttermilk or sour milk
***to sour milk use 1 tablespoon vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup

Cream butter or margarine, sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl 5 minutes on medium speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Dissolve coffee granules in hot water. (I did not use instant coffee and I didn’t want to purchase it just to make this recipe. I used 1/4 cup of regular coffee that was leftover from the pot I’d made this morning. I just heated it in the microwave for 30 seconds to heat it up.) Combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder; add alternately with coffee and buttermilk or sour milk to creamed mixture, beating just until mixture is blended.

Pour into well-greased and floured 12-cup Bundt pan or 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 to 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely; sprinkle with powdered sugar. (I’m going to use a chocolate glaze on mine, instead. Glaze recipe follows:)

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar

Combine cocoa, water, butter, or margarine and corn syrup in small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens; remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Gradually add confectioners’ sugar; beat until smooth and thickened.

Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Going Fishing

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Going fishing. That’s the term I use for submitting my rejected manuscripts to other houses. It’s been awhile since my last book was published, but life kind of got in the way. I got married and then I had a baby. My baby is now eighteen months old and can amuse himself to some extent while I try and get some writing done. Also, since I work full-time, it’s hard to devote much time to writing when I have familial duties to take care of.

When I started sending my rejects out to various houses, my husband said, “Maybe one of them will bite.” That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea of calling this re-submission process ‘going fishing.’

I encourage all of you who have been rejected to go fishing. My next book, tentatively scheduled for a March 2008 release date, was sold to a publisher because of my fishing expedition. I still have others floating around out there, searching for a home while I work on my current project.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Dakota By Lauraine Snelling

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***NOTE THAT THE DAKOTA DUSK, DAKOTA DREAM, AND DAKOTA DAWN COVERS ARE FROM THE THORNDIKE LARGE PRINT EDITIONS.
Title: Dakota by Lauraine Snelling
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Incorporated (October 1, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1577483553
ISBN-13: 978-1577483557

I’m reposting some entries from my old blog on diaryland.com. Just disregard the next few posts if you’ve already read them!

Have you ever started reading a book and then discovered that you’ve already read it? Well, that’s what happened to me recently. I had an old Lauraine Snelling Anthology published by Barbour Books. The Anthology is called Dakota, and it’s been on my shelf for years.

Anyway, I started reading the first story, Dakota Dawn, and realized I’d already read it. So I didn’t finish that story. I HARDLY EVER read fiction books more than once. I just don’t do it. Reason being, I have so many books that I want to read and it seems like by to-be-read pile just gets higher and higher and I can’t put a dent in it.

I believe I had read the first story when Barbour released it as a single novel. That’s why I didn’t read it when it was released in the anthology.

I read Dakota Dream and Dakota Dusk and I enjoyed both of these stories. They’re nice historical Christian romance stories that you’ll want to read on a rainy afternoon, curled up by a warm fire. I loved the way she showed how the character, Jude, got saved and changed. Ms. Snelling shows that all of us can accept His grace and change for the better, no matter what kind of wrongs we’ve done in the past.

When I started reading the last story, Dakota Destiny, I realized I’d already read it when Barbour released it as a stand-alone novel.

Now, on to my writers group. I meet once a month in Bowie Maryland with a group of Christian writers. Some of us write articles, some write short stories, and some are working on non-fiction books. I’m the only one in the small group who is doing fiction. I enjoy fellowshiping with these women (we have one male member who comes sometimes). We also have timed writings where we have a topic and we have fifteen minutes to write about it. Sometimes you can think up story ideas when you have a free-writing exercise.

That’s all I have to say for now.

Stay blessed,

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com
www.blackchristianfiction.com

Faith-Based Arts Conference

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The Faith-Based Arts Conference is an awesome event where readers and writers of Christian fiction gather together for fellowship, workshops, and novel discussions. I recently discovered that Jacquie Thomas, the person who usually hosts this event, has stated that she will not have a conference this year. However, she plans on hosting this event every two years, so the next Faith-Based Arts conference will be held during the following dates:
June 20-22, 2008

To read my blog entry from last year’s Faith-Based Conference, go to the following link:
http://cdnovelist.diaryland.com/060704_49.html

To read more about the Faith-Based Arts Conference, go to the following link:
http://www.fbfictionlovers.com/

I also wanted to point out that I received an interesting email today. Tiffany Warren, a Christian fiction author, is holding an event that is similiar to Jacquie Thomas’s. It’s called the Faith and Fiction Fellowship Retreat for Readers and Authors. It’s to be held on the following dates:

August 10th – 12th, 2007

To read more about this event, visit Tiffany’s link:
http://www.tiffanylwarren.com/retreat.html

It’s being held at The King And Prince Golf and Beach Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia. The resort looks fabulous! I’m sure all authors and attendees will have an awesome time! Here’s a link to the resort:
http://www.kingandprince.com/

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Shelving Black Books

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I’ve noticed that bookstores are not consistent in the way that they shelve books by African American authors. Sometimes they are shelved in the AA section, and other times I’ll find them in the general fiction section. Sometimes, if it’s a romance, it’ll be in the romance section.

I wish there was a way for the bookstores to automatically place books by AA authors in the AA interest section(for those who only read Black books, like the people I was speaking of in yesterday’s post) AND to place them along with their genre of fiction. For example, I’d like to see my romance novels shelved in the romance section AND the AA section. I’ve even entered bookstores, and if they have multiple copies of my book, I’ll take one or two and place it in the AA section, so that those browsing in that section will see my titles.

I guess it’s hard to find a consistent method for all bookstores to follow, but it would be great to find a way so that the books by AA authors could be easily found by all parties interested in these novels.

Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com

Black Authors

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Whenever I read a book by a Black author, both secular and Christian, I always put it aside to give to a friend of mine. She tells me that she only reads books by Black authors. I’ve read several authors over the years, of different races, that I think are truly phenomenal. When I try to recommend a book by an author of another race, she refuses to read it.

I just feel that it’s closed-minded to be that way. I’ve been reading books since I don’t know when, especially fiction. When I was growing up, there were not that many Black authors around who wrote popular fiction. So, if I had not been open-minded enough to read the White authors, I wouldn’t have had anything to read during those long boring summers, since I read books so quickly it was like I was inhaling them!

I would anxiously wait once every two weeks to hear that loud honking horn of the bookmobile that would pull up in the front section of my neighborhood. I would glance through the titles, choosing enough books to fill the next fourteen days! I had a fondness for romance novels, however, I gave just about any type of fiction a chance.

I believe the explosion of Black fiction started around the time Terry McMillan’s book Waiting To Exhale was released. I think it was around that time that publishers realized that Black people read books too, and this was an untapped market that needed to be conquered. If I don’t have my facts straight, feel free to comment so that I can correct this blog entry.

I try and support other Black Christian fiction authors by putting them together on the website, www.blackchristianfiction.com However, I don’t limit my reading tastes to the people listed on my Black Christian Fiction website. I have Black authors who are my favorites and I have some white authors who I think are fabulous. As a matter of fact, I have some of the White authors listed on my website, giving them as examples of people to read when one wants to target the Christian fiction genre for publication.

I don’t think that God wants us to read books by only people of a certain race. If you see a book by someone of another race, feel free to give it a try. You just might like it! You can always put it down and not finish it if it doesn’t entertain you!

Until next time,
Cecelia Dowdy
www.ceceliadowdy.com