SUMMER IS THE PERFECT TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN

It's the perfect time to drag out that manuscript you have been working on for years, or months, or weeks.

It's also the perfect time to look at how things may have changed in that novel that you started on. 

Speaking to Author Austin Camacho recently, he had been working on a novel for a couple of years and pulled it out since he was now retired and is a full time author.

First, congratulations and secondly I asked him how it was being a full time author.

He said that while he enjoyed working on his latest Hannibal novel, he found that he had to ; hold on to your computer, delete almost half of what he wrote because it was no longer relevant to today's world.

See when you begin that novel; you have to make sure to go back, no matter how much you loved it when you first wrote it, it may not be relevant in the time you are working on now.

When you first started that novel, pagers where the in thing. Now; even doctors use their phones as a paging system. So that delete key becomes your best friend. 

I know it is hard to see those words disappear from the page. The same words that took you almost three months to write just four chapters are gone within 10 seconds. 

You may even shed a tear but remember, when you get over the demise of your precious words; the words that come back will be so much better.

So, the summer is a great time to look at that novel again and tweak, delete or continue but whatever you do; make sure that you are writing the best book possible. 

When will I see you?

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a meet and greet held at Howard University book store, THE HUB.

Tamika Newhouse, CEO of Delphine Publications and two of her authors were in attendance and we learned about how she splits her time being an author and also being the owner of a publishing company.

Sadly, there were only six other people there. Most authors think that they do not need to go out to meet and greets. But I ask you this, if you don't get out there and meet new people, how do you think you are going to find fans?
The one thing I can say is that for me, meet and greets are the perfect opportunity to network with other authors and to share ideas.
Where do you think I get some of the ideas that I have?
Why do you think I started going to conferences?
Why do you think I spend as much time as I do on Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter; well it's becaues I am going to meet and greets and learning from the best.
Tamika is the owner of a small press. However I have also gone to meet and greets with agents from New York, California and Florida. Again, why do I go? Because I know to be good at what I do, I need to learn from the best. So tell me again, why you don't go to meet and greets. Hopefully the next time one is in DC, Maryland or Virginia; I'll see you there.