School Visits and an Answered Question

I've been busy doing one of the things I really love, and that's visiting schools and teaching students about writing and "My Path to Publication." It takes a lot of energy to speak to about 100 students every class hour all day, but like I said, I really enjoy it.

As part of my presentation, I have a question and answer session. It's no surprise that the students are very curious about how to get published as well as what happens after you've had a book accepted. Because that has been so interesting to them, I thought you, too, may benefit from a bit of the information I've given them.

In my experience and from everything I've heard from other authors, once you contract with a publisher to publish your book, it becomes a product to them that they want to sell. Since the cover and title are a big part of their marketing plan, the publisher has all control over them. The good news, though, is publishers usually hire knowledgeable people to come up with titles and covers they believe will best sell your book. While this might seem a bit hard to swallow, the good news is I have never been disappointed with my publisher's choices, both in my magazine articles and with MISSING. True, a few changes took me a bit of time getting used to, but overall, my experience has been a good one and I've learned to trust my publishers' marketing departments.

So, a bit of advice. While you're looking at which publishers to submit your books to, look at their current books and see if you like their covers and titles, because once your book is published, it will likely keep both for a long time to come.

One more good thing! I do get to keep my title to my second novel, TRAPPED, which will be published later this year. I'm definitely excited about that, because I have always liked this title.

TEEN WRITERS CONFERENCE

Hey, everyone! If you're a teen or if you know a teen who's dreaming of becoming a writer, check out this amazing opportunity! I'd have loved to have attended something like The Teen Writer's Conference when I was a teen. It will be a one day event held at Weber State University in Ogden, UT on June 6, 2009. Presenters will include award winning authors and editors (I will be one of them!), and we'll even host a writing conference. Check out the link here or on my sidebar. You won't be disappointed.

My Favorite Teacher

During a recent e-mail conversation with Candace Salima, I discovered we both have the same "favorite" writing teacher. Her name is Dorla Jenkins and she taught at Ricks College. Let me tell you, she was AMAZING! So inspiring, so wise, so encouraging. In fact, I'm still learning from some of the lessons she taught--lessons I didn't write on paper but which she carefully wrote in my heart. One of the phrase I use at the top of this blog: "Your value is in your individuality." Another was her belief in the value of what she was doing. She, herself, was a wonderful writer, loved horses as I remember, yet chose instead of a writing career to teach writing to others. From that decision she's influenced, for the better, thousands of lives. One day, as I remember it, she mentioned she went to the temple simply to prepare herself to teach our class because she knew of the power for good that was within us. How could we not have been influenced by such belief in our abilities?

Anyway, thinking back on my time in her classes has given me this idea: write a blog about her and invite my readers to share in a comment their stories about their favorite teachers. It doesn't necessarily have to be a writing teacher, just someone who's molded you into the person you are.

I can't wait to hear what you have to say!