Space City Scribes

Meet our new Self-Publishing Coordinator!  By  Margaret Lea If you are self-published or thinking about self-publishing, you need to meet our chapter’s Self Pub Coordinator, Tiffany Obeng. In fact, I recommend you go to her website right now at sugarcookiebooks.com . If you have some time (because you will definitely want to read many of these posts), click on “Blog.” You will learn much and also pick up money-saving and money-making tips.       For example, here’s a tip from her Dec. 6, 2021 post : If you’re selling at a vendor’s market event, give the customer the book they bought in a clear plastic bag, and they will be doing free advertising for you as they stroll the market!        The Jan. 5, 2022 post explains strategies to get your books into U.S. libraries. The Oct. 11, 2022 post is a “Cheat-Sheet for Creating a Fascinating Amazon Book Page that Captivates Buyers.” And the Nov. 17, 2020 post explains ISBNs. Did you know,...

 By Margaret Lea The longest work meeting in the history of the world (at least it felt that way to Kacy Ritter) was when, as a behavioral health professional, she glanced at her phone and saw “Deal Memo” from her literary agent. When the meeting finally ended, she opened the email and confirmed— Yes, she got a book deal... from HarperCollins!  This debut Middle Grade, THE GREAT TEXAS DRAGON RACE, was not her first novel. Previously, she worked three years on a not-to-be-named-here, self-proclaimed “horrible” YA work. After crickets querying the first novel, she attended a conference put on by Andrea Brown Literary Agency. There she discovered flaws in her first novel— the biggest being that it was not unique but too similar to other published works. She decided to start over with a new project. When finished, she queried this new novel for only three months before receiving two offers of representation. One agent loved the book as is. The other gave many editorial comments, ...