TV show

Have You Checked Out Writers2Writers?

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I hope you’ve had a chance to check out the TV interview series, Writers2Writers, I was a part of. Originally aired in the Fall of 2014, the series features guests talking about all sorts of author- and writer-related content. There’s something for everyone! [Update: I’ll be adding new episodes to the list below as they are released throughout the year.]

Episode 1 covered writing an anthology, NaNoWriMo, and using Kindle Direct Publishing (with yours truly!).

Episode 2 discussed paranormal fiction writing, outlining your novel, and the dos and don’ts for landing a literary agent.

Episode 3 featured memoir writing, scifi/fantasy world building, and the author/editor relationship.

Episode 4 talked about the New Jersey Authors’ Network, writing conflict for characters, and facts and figures on selling your book to a publishing house.

Episode 5 discussed the ebook price war, how to mend a “broken” scene, and starting your own writing group. 

Episode 6 covered historical fiction writing, overcoming writer’s block, and book cover design.

Episode 7 is about character creation, revision checklists, and strategies for time management.

Episode 8 delves into writing young adult (YA) fiction, tips from guests at the Princeton Children’s Book Festival, and an action plan for book marketing.

I hope you find these videos informative and helpful! 😀

Writers2Writers Episode 1

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The first episode of Writers2Writers premiered this week on Princeton Community Television and apparently, that’s a channel I don’t get! But, have no fear! Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, we can watch it over and over and… okay, maybe once is enough. This series is essentially about authors helping authors. The entire episode is 27 minutes long and the segments are interspersed with fun little interviews and anecdotes. This episode covers anthologies, NaNoWriMo, and a very basic intro to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (by yours truly). My segment starts at the 20:17 mark of the full episode below. Or, you can skip further below to see it as a standalone. Enjoy! It’s really been fun being a part of this little TV adventure. I hope someone somewhere finds it beneficial to their own writing path. I’ll be sharing new episodes every Saturday morning as the season progresses.

Full episode

Just me! 😉

 

Me? On TV? Sure, why not? – We have an air date!

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Calendar

Mark your calendars! We (finally!) have an air date for the local TV show I was involved in, called Writers2Writers. (TV show? What? You can catch up by reading my MANY other posts about the show). 😉

The first episode, Show 101, will air on Princeton Community Television on Thursday, November 13th at 7:00 PM and will repeat on Friday, 11/14 at 10:00 AM. Writers2Writers will air on FiOS in several townships and on Comcast in Princeton, NJ. The list of townships and channel information can be found on the About page.

The full episode, along with individual segment videos, will appear on the YouTube page the evening following the first airdate.

A lot of great people came together and invested their time and energy into this show. Like I said in the past, I think it’ll be a nice little reference point for writers and folks who are interested in getting into self-publishing. I hope you’ll check it out. 🙂

Me? On TV?! Sure, Why Not! – Writers2Writers Show 101 Teaser

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So, this is a small sample clip of me pretending to know what I’m talking about with regard to publishing on Kindle Direct Publishing. 😉 While we still don’t have a debut date set, the producer has created some teasers. If you haven’t followed along with the Me? On TV? Sure, Why Not? series, feel free to peruse the older posts (Take 1, Take 2, Take 3 Take 4). Be sure to follow the YouTube channel to see the full episode when it finally airs! Heck, you might learn a thing or two. The show is hosted by Jennifer Sneed and Keith Fritz (friend and fellow author K. Edwin Fritz).

Thanks for stopping by! 😀

Me? On TV? Sure, why not? Take 4!?

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So, if you’ve followed along with my Me? On Tv? Sure, why not? series of posts, you know that I’ve been involved in a local TV show production that’s delving into the various aspects of self publishing. If you haven’t followed along, I’ll give you a few minutes to peruse the older posts (Take 1, Take 2, Take 3). It’s ok, we’ll wait…

Wow, you’re slow! Anyway, just an update to let you know that there’s a website (unfinished), Twitter page, YouTube page, and Facebook page. I think there will be a lot of cool content, whether you’re new to self publishing, or a seasoned vet. While the first episode doesn’t premier until October, you can get a feel for what the first episode will include and get a glimpse of me with a funny, mid-speech, look on my face (or see below). None of the videos are live just yet, so you’ll just have to wait… like the rest of us… to see me in all of my small screen glory… looking awkward and pretending to have a clue about what I’m talking about. 😉

MeOnTV

Me? On TV? Sure, why not? Take 3!

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So, in my continuing effort to document a local TV show I’m involved in, I present the latest installment. Roll ’em!

We filmed this week and it was everything I expected it to be! Well, ok. That’s a total lie. I had no idea what to expect and when it was over, it was nothing like what I had imagined.

So, Princeton Community Television is just like every other local TV station. It’s run out of some municipal building’s basement. I walked in at my prescribed time to find some of my writer’s group friends along with some folks I didn’t know. We were all there to talk on different topics. I was scheduled to talk about Kindle Direct Publishing. Friends of mine were there to talk about NaNoWriMo. Another lady was there to talk about anthologies. You get the picture. Trick was, they were all there… and it was well beyond the time they were supposed to start. Needless to say, I had a wait ahead of me.

It was an entertaining wait though. I met a few more people. A traditionally published author who had once worked for Plume as their Art Director. She was there to discuss cover art creation. Another guest was a therapist who worked specifically with authors and writers (I should have gotten her card). We all chatted and talked about what we did, waiting through the technical difficulties the filming had experienced early on. I even got makeup. Being a pasty pale redhead, I was afraid I’d just wash out on camera.

Mind you, I wasn’t particularly nervous. It’s been a while since I’ve sat in front of a camera, but I did musicals back in college and high school, so I’ve stood in the spotlight before. However, there was the added pressure of filming live to tape. This meant that they were going to shoot the entire segment in one shot and, if someone screwed up badly enough, they’d have to reshoot the entire thing. Meh! No pressure, right? Just chat for five minutes without screwing up too badly. 😉

Finally, about an hour and fifteen minutes after my scheduled time, I was called in. I sat down at a high table across from the co-hosts, Keith and Jennifer. Keith and I had met previously, both through the writer’s group we belong to and during the lead-up to the show. He’s also a self-published writer with several dystopian suspense novels under his belt. It was nice to see a familiar face across the table and, to be honest, he looked a little more nervous than I felt. I was only their 4th interview and this was the first night of filming. We had a little chat to break the ice and chuckled over wearing makeup. The setting was very basic. We had a monitor behind us with the name of the show on it; Writers2Writers. There were three cameras, but nothing like the cameras you see in movies and such. These were remotely controlled and looked a bit like fence posts! They gave me a clip-on microphone and I was ready to go before I could even think about what I was going to say. They did a five count and we were off.

Now, if you know even a little bit about self publishing, you know that it’s a myriad topic. As I mentioned before, the topic for my segment was Kindle Direct Publishing. We had 5 minutes. So, yeah… you can image how detailed it got. It was essentially over before I knew it. And that was it. A half dozen questions on the fly and it was over. One take. Boom. Done. Next!

It was fun. It was quick and dirty and we probably made some mistakes. But, it was still fun. I’m hoping to be able to help them market the series as I think it’ll be a helpful guide for people just starting out with self publishing. The small segments might just give you enough confidence to move forward in a particular area. The series is supposed to be 10 to 11 episodes long, with 3 to 5 segments per episode. It premiers in late September/early October. I’m looking forward to seeing the end result and sharing it with my fellow writers. Stay tuned!

Me? On TV? Sure, why not? Take 2!

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So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m helping a producer to help make a self-publishing series on local access TV. Well, tonight, I sat in as the interviewee (ie, guinea pig) to audition potential show hosts. My job was simply to sit off camera and answer their questions. Their job was to throw questions out and look like an attentive show host. Some of them made my job easy. Others, not so much.

To be honest, I’m not sure how the candidates were vetted. And, it was clear that some were a) more prepared than others and b) had a clue about being a show host. Others seemed like they thought, “Yeah! Host a TV show! Piece of cake!” It was quite an experience. I didn’t have the questions ahead of time, so I just had to answer off the cuff. Some questions were presented better than others. Some questions I was able to answer with more confidence than others. The worst had to be the potential host who started the interview with, “So, what can you tell me about self publishing?” Seriously?! We’ve got 7 minutes! I could fill an entire hour talking about self publishing (easily!). That’s like asking a scientist to tell you about science. Let’s get a bit more granular. Let’s just say, he didn’t make my final cut (though I have nothing to do with the choice). 😉

After going through the process, I became very aware of just how often I say “uh” and “umm.” Gotta work on that. I also have a little more appreciation for folks who do guest interviewing. It’s not an easy process. You’re essentially trying to have an entertaining guided conversation with someone in an effort to teach the viewers something about the subject and the person. There was a distinct difference between the hosts who were absorbing what I was saying and utilizing that info to lead their next question (as you would in a conversation) and those who spent the time when I was talking focusing on what they wanted to say or ask next.

A few other random details… the show will be 10 episodes long, with each episode containing 3 seven minute interviews. That’s 30 self-published authors! The show will start filming in August and the first episode will appear in September. For those of you lucky enough to live within shouting distance of Princeton, NJ, you’ll be able to watch the series on Princeton Community TV. The not-so-lucky will just have to wait until I post the YouTube channel links. I’m really looking forward to seeing the end result. I think with that many authors, this might be a great resource for those looking to self publish. The more perspectives the better! Stay tuned! 🙂

Me? On TV? Sure, why not?

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So, I was holding off on blogging about this, mainly because I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. It still might fall through, but the prospect is pretty exciting. Recently, we had a new addition to my weekly writers’ group meetup. It turned out, she was a writer for television. She’d created several reality shows and had recently sold one. We had a nice chat about writing and selling off your precious creations. She was debating whether to sell one particular idea because she didn’t think the production company that was interested would do a good job with the content. Anyway, I didn’t think much about it after that first meeting, until someone mentioned that she wanted to do a “reality” show on self-publishing.

MeTV

“Sign me up!” 😉

Of course, I still thought nothing of it. Someone says TV and I think, “Riiiight, like anyone is going to want a no name like myself.” But, then I heard the details. This was going to be a local thing, essentially a regional broadcast to an audience of ~50,000 viewers. When the call went out for those interested, I stepped up to be a guest. The show would consist of several 6- to 7-minute spots with a variety of authors from around the area. Local self-published authors talking about their writing to local readers. Cool, right?

Then, today I received an email from the writer/producer. Would you be able to help with the moderator auditions? I’d love to! Anything to help the cause.

I have no idea how this will pan out, but it’s a fun little adventure to be on. I’ll keep you posted on how everything works out and whether it actually makes it to the air. I don’t have any delusions of grandeur about this affecting book sales in any significant way, but it can’t hurt.