All those quiet months when it seemed like nothing was happening here in freezing hot New England…were actually feverish months of intense work that have finally come to fruition.

My first book on Amazon is now available: Small Business Rocket Fuel: Marketing Tools to Boost Revenue. (link below for Kindle- No Kindle? Try Kindle PC and Kindle iPad app too). I have often seen writers, consultants and other small business owners struggling to get their work noticed and open up the tap of revenue that will keep them in business. Why should writers know how to market? Their skills lie in storytelling, which is what they do best. Only a few eccentric writers like myself have this aberrant affinity for business and marketing (and it brings us many sideways glances and odd looks because everyone knows writing is left brain and business is right brain- isn’t it? It’s almost like Frankenstein’s monster to do a mash-up of the two.) The book will be available soon for the Nook on Barnes and Noble as well.

But, being able to market your work is critical to your success. And it can be fun! Really!

To show you how much fun I have, take a look at my free (funny) You-Tube video:

http://youtu.be/L0SdAWmekds

Then if you want to get some great tips on marketing try my new book:

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Business-Rocket-Fuel-ebook/dp/B005AXY472/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1310220277&sr=1-1

Comments on so let me know what you think!

A few days ago, Eric Felten published an interesting essay in the Wall St. Journal on the value of the publishing industry. His take is that the publishing industry primarily serves as gatekeepers or bestowers of quality labels. This function allows the book buying public to have some confidence that the book they’re buying is up to the acceptable standards for quality publishing.

In comparison, self-publishing is the Wild West. Or as Mr. Felten calls it “American Idol” for authors. I agree there are a quite a few poor quality books in the self-publishing world. The worst being people who don’t even write their books, but essentially steal material from other people then publish under their own name (book spammers, in Mr. Felton’s lexicon).

However, I don’t believe the entire self-publishing arena is bad. There are books that have a small audience that can’t be profitably produced any other way. For example, some years ago I worked on a book (nonfiction) on a medical topic. I dutifully sent it out and eventually found an agent to assist me. However, the word came back that the target market was too small. I put the book aside. But, what if it could have profitably been published? Wouldn’t people concerned about this condition have been able to learn from my knowledge? Maybe felt better able to handle their condition or even to avoid developing it? No one will know since the book wasn’t published. But, now, in the crazy, wild world of self-publishing, maybe those type of books can have a home.

Where publishers need a large staff and have considerable overhead, self-publishers can publish with a small coterie of freelance assistants. The reduced overhead means that books with lower sales can be profitable since the creation and production cost is lower. Thus smaller, niche audiences can be served.

Yes, in the Wild West of self-publishing, much sifting is needed. However, there just might be other Amanda Hockings out there. Plus what is one man’s dross could be another man’s gem.

Great news today! Three of my poems (Lying, Christina’s Reflection, and Troy) have been published at The Lyon Review. It’s always a lot of fun to see your work in “print” (or digital ink) after working so long and hard polishing the words. Just like spring, which arrived today in full force with purple crocus and 75 degree F weather, publication is the rebirth period for writers- the time you can relax for a few moments and say to yourself, “This is what I’ve been working for.” (Paychecks are also welcome, of course.)

The Lyon Review is a newly launched publication. I encourage you to click over to the site (link below) and take a look at the variety and quality of the work they’ve put together ranging from book excerpts to poetry and essays.

The Lyon Review can be enjoyed at: www.thelyonreview.com

That’s it for the pat on the back. (Happiness is fleeting, I know.) Back to work on my novels and other projects….

New England was blanketed in a deep snow (around 2 feet here in southern New England) this Christmas holiday- a relatively rare occurrence. It was exciting to watch (from behind a window in a snug warm house). This was a true Yankee blizzard with gale force winds whipping bits of ice through the air, tearing down tree branches and, for once, making the roads go quiet.

The rare sliver of quiet was ideal for baking cookies and for family reading on the couch. Which got me thinking about holiday books. Authors continue to release holiday books, which means they must sell. However, I’ve never been a fan of them. It seems too much like a school assignment, “What did you do over your holiday?” or “How does the holiday make you feel?”

To me, an author’s job is the same no matter what the day. Weave a story from air. The story burns in the dark like a candle. Feeding on oxygen. A delicate thing to be expanded or blown out.

Wishing all a Wondrous New Year!

Studying for an MBA has steeped me in numbers, which at first are slippery and awkward. Gradually as the weeks go by they develop rhythms and tones. Formula’s coalesce naturally, while not being an Albert Einstein, I can tip-toe up to the edge and gaze down into a world where numbers communicate more succinctly, more precisely than words ever could. All of this helps me understand the main character in my forth novel, which is still unraveling toward it’s end. Maybe this is a bit excessive, an extreme length to go to understand someone not even living. Only it’s not just that is it? No, for a linguaphile, for an author addict, it is never just the character. No, it is also about them and how they can shape the clay of letters. And so, a linguaphile floats, immersed in numbers. I can tell you they can’t be misunderstood like words, not by someone who “reads” them, no, only misused. So which is better? Is the reason we love stories rather than calculus texts because we enjoy being deceived? Are we still thrilled by the cottony yellow blanket, eyes appearing above, peek-a-boo so many years later?

I think the answer is yes. Do you?

I have also been studying the peek-a-boo itself. It’s all in the feel and touch of the blanket. One you know so well, you can feel it on your fingers just by looking at it. The tension of the taunt blanket stretched in mid-air by what? Magic? Hiding what? It’s just there if you could reach it, but you can’t. It might crumple down any minute. In the dark behind it might be your neighbor’s pit bull, red-tongued, slavering, breath like rotting meat on your face. It might be your mother, smelling like flour, eyes crinkling, puffing with laughter.  Puffing against the blanket, blowing it in and out slightly. In the still air, the blanket moves, panting.

Cascading down the blanket reveals Steven King, the master blanket maker. If you want to know how to make a blanket, something sweet and baby-yellow, read Steven King. I have now finished Wizard and Glass.

For fun, if you like crime, watch the new Sherlock Holmes on PBS.

Besides making a fabulous story (product), if you are an author, you’ll want to know how to build your products and career. Try reading The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy. It’s a bit heavy on Harvard Business School, but has some good pointers.

Above all, this week give thanks for readers and publishers of alternate realities (fiction, electronic or print). Happy Holiday!

It felt a bit like peeking at my horoscope, which I admit I do once in awhile for a lark. I’m talking in this case about a writer’s mysterious black box- “I Write Like”. Everyone’s doing it, I thought, why not me?

So who do I write like (according to “I Write Like”)? Drum roll- envelope please. The answer is….JD Salinger.

Since he passed away, perhaps he won’t mind that I write like him. Particularly that I’m a woman who writes like a man who writes about what it’s like being a boy growing up to become a man. If that makes any sense at all.

Now I’d better go and begin scouting remote towns in New Hampshire for a cottage.

Because the frightening thing is that both JD Salinger and I have lived/worked in New York and Connecticut. But then he fled deep into New England to Cornish, New Hampshire. And I wonder if that is what “I Write Like” noticed- something in the Yankee words spiced with New York attitude. Then again maybe it’s just a mysterious black box like whatever generates the fortunes in Chinese fortune cookies.

Now you can follow me on Twitter.  Keep in mind that my tweets will cover both my thriller author life and my alternate identity as a pharmaceutical communications expert. I’ll try to hash tag so readers will know which is which but, being a woman who juggles many bowling pins at once, I may forget once in a while so apologies ahead of time. My twitter link is below:

http://twitter.com/candicemhughes

Apologies for the relative silence on my blog! If I released audiorecordings, the past few months wouldn’t be silence (as it appears on the blog) but an unrelenting click clack of keys typing out words. I’ve been fully consumed by editing novel 2. Beside the editing there’s the query and synopsis writing. Finally, the dreaded pitch (yes, indeed, you can get 400 pages down to one line)!

I’m tremendously lucky to be part of CoLoNY and RWA as a whole. Through these groups, I’ve been cramming with my writer friends. I feel just like I’m at college again! Only this time, I’ve got generous, wonderful, highly experienced writers showering me with advice and reading drafts (not to mention listening to my pitch!)

So, please, excuse the silence and do check back! I hope to get some posts in during the conferences and will definitely post afterwards with some highlights of RWA Nationals and ThrillerFest.

This weekend I thoroughly enjoyed myself being an archaeologist for a day. Who ever thought that digging through someone’s trash could be so much fun! After several hundred years, the yuck factor disappears and trash becomes an amazing window into another world. I was lucky enough to get a look into a world almost four-hundred years ago when Native Americans lived throughout New England (and other parts of the United States as well, only they weren’t states then, and you get the picture…).

Archaeologist call the trash pit the midden. In the 1600s, a Native American midden contains things like oyster and clam shells and burned seeds. Our group was lucky to find some European flint. Not bad for a hour or so of digging! Other members of our group investigated an area of the old fort that used to be living space and found glass, beads, and a large piece of flint.

I also learned about a field unknown to me, archeobotany. Since most seeds have been cooked or burned by Native Americans and since seeds lose water and shrivel, it can be hard to identify them. Of course, it’s not easy to find them in the first place since they’re small! But if you’re patient and  have a good eye, seeds show what types of plants people ate or utilized in daily life.

The downside of archaeology is trudging through mud and poison ivy. Of course, there are also mosquitoes, ticks and other insects to dodge (or if unlucky, to suffer from). Overall, I’d say it’s worth getting a bit dirty to watch the past unfold before your eyes.

For anyone who has missed it, Elisabeth Sifton has an essay in The Nation this week (The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes). Her experience in the industry spans decades giving her a rare perspective. She expresses frustration and sadness at the many changes in the industry, particularly the consolidation and transformation to what she describes as a poorly functioning profit-focused model. She declaims the lack of interest of those running publishing companies in their products and product generators (books and writers). Her essay is well worth reading.

I know so many people who are passionate about books. A good number of these people are young- just the sort of readers the industry needs because they have many years of book buying ahead of them. I’ve seen tweens drooling over catalogues of books at libraries. They aren’t shy about putting in requests for book orders with their librarians. Recently when I commented on how teens/children may soon be reading text books on the Kindle, one groaned and told me he certainly didn’t want his books on one.

Books as objects have a special power. Think of magic books like in Harry Potter. Would it work to have a magician’s blog? How about books so controversial they’re banned. I have an early edition Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The cover is stamped, “Not to be introduced into the British Empire.” Woolf’s book provoked thought and discussion. It served it’s purpose. How does one ban a web site or a blog for offending sensibilities? Except for the most egregious offenders, few web sites or blogs are removed. Electronic words are more accessible and more pervasive yet Web sites and blogs simply have less psychological power than books in my opinion- even though all are based on words and all attract readers and discussion. Somehow being intangible dilutes the power of the words. Imagine holding up a print out of a blog as one shouts about its seditiousness. Or maybe one would bring a laptop on the podium and (shudder) display it with PowerPoint?

While I welcome and embrace electronic media (I am a true techie at heart), I think books retain their magic. Why, I wonder, can’t electronic media and books continue to live in harmony? Each will serve it’s purpose.