4RV is Competing in the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest

This post has two parts, both written by Holly Jahangiri, who was kind enough to allow me to reprint her content. Part One is about the Staples PUSH it Forward Contest that 4RV Publishing has entered into. Part Two is a wonderful interview that Holly conducted with Vivian Zabel, founder and owner of 4RV. Images are courtesy of Holly also!

So, off we go.

PART ONE

Staples is celebrating small businesses in May and they are awarding digital marketing prize packages each worth $50,000 to three small businesses as part of the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest. 4RV Publishing has entered this contest, and you can help! By voting every day for your favorite small business, you increase your odds of being randomly selected to win a $1,500 Staples Voter Prize Package. Voting ends May 31.
Link to vote for 4RV Publishing: http://tinyurl.com/a7hrdmv

Help 4RV Publishing Win Staples’ PUSH It Forward Contest

You can help a deserving small business (4RV Publishing) win $50,000 – and maybe win $1500 for yourself, while you’re at it! Voting is easy:

1.    Go to http://tinyurl.com/a7hrdmv – this is Staples’ Facebook page already set up for you to vote for 4RV Publishing.

2. Next, you’ll be taken to this page, where you can Vote for 4RV Publishing – just click Vote now > :

You will be asked to give Staples’ app some permissions (Might as well – you can always revoke them later, but they ask only for access to your public profile data – something everyone can see, already – and to your friends’ list, presumably so that you can share this with them and promote the contest via Facebook. I have plenty of friends participating and have not seen any of them “spamming” me in the name of Staples, so I feel pretty confident in granting the requested permissions.)

 3. Last, but not least, when you vote, you’ll have a chance to enter to win $1500 for yourself – how cool is that? Just for helping a small business achieve more. We could all use this kind of “push,” right?

 NOTE from Karen: I'm one of 4RV's authors and one of its editors and can attest to the care that goes into 4RV books. 4RV works hard to find and publish quality books at NO cost to the author, but doing this costs money, and like most publishers today 4RV is feeling the financial  'squeeze.' So, give a vote for the small publisher, for a company that cares and helps put great reading in your hands. VOTE FOR 4RV TODAY and every day through May 31st. Click on the link to vote now: http://tinyurl.com/a7hrdmv

Okay, now on to Holly's interview with Vivian.

PART TWO

Interview with Vivian Zabel, Founder/Owner of 4RV Publishing by Holly Jahangiri

I recently chatted with my friend Vivian Zabel, founder of 4RV Publishing, the company that published my first two children’s books, Trockle and A Puppy, Not a Guppy.

“Tell me a little bit about 4RV Publishing,” I asked.
“4RV Publishing came into being when as an author I realized that writing had few choices: a major publisher through an agent, subsidy publishing, self-publishing, or vanity presses. I wanted the opportunity for good writers to be able to have quality books published, traditionally. Authors also deserved to have a personal connection to the company that adopted their ‘babies.’” Vivian smiled, knowing that’s the number one reason I chose 4RV Publishing for Trockle, a story which I had written for my son and one that I did not want to sell all rights to or lose all creative say over.

“How many books do you publish each year?”

“How many we publish each year depends on several conditions: staff availability, funding needed, and what submissions are worth producing. In the less than six years we’ve been in existence, we have published a total of 101 books, some of which are no longer under contract (we put a limit on the number of years we have publication rights). We have 26 more titles to prepare and publish this year. We’ve had to close submissions for children’s picture books until 2015, except for authors under contract or invited to submit, because our illustrators can only do so many books during a year.”

Staples is celebrating small businesses in May and they are awarding digital marketing prize packages each worth $50,000 to three small businesses as part of the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest. 4RV Publishing has entered this contest, and you can help! By voting every day for your favorite small business, you increase your odds of being randomly selected to win a $1,500 Staples Voter Prize Package.

Voting ends May 31.

Link to vote for 4RV Publishing: http://tinyurl.com/a7hrdmv
“What awards has 4RV Publishing or its books won?”

“We have received a number of awards and honors the past few years,” said Vivian. Asking her to talk about the accolades earned by books her company has published seems to give her almost as much pleasure as asking her to talk about her grandchildren’s accomplishments. “The most recent were two books which received the Children’s Classical Literature Choice Award: Life on Hold by Beverly Stowe McClure – a book is now in the running for another CCL award – and Walking Through Walls by Karen Cioffi, illustrated by Aidana WillowRaven, which won a CCL silver medal also. Viji Chary’s Porcupine Seeds, illustrated by Bridget McKenna, received the Mom’s Choice Award for Excellence.

“The 2009 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction went to Kirk Bjornsgarrd for Confessions of a Former Rock Queen.

“We had a number of books place in the Homeland New Day book competition: your book, Trockle, illustrated by Jordan Vinyard, took 1st in Children’s Books, and A Puppy, not a Guppy, illustrated by Ryan Shaw, received 2nd in Tween books. Another author’s books took 1st in Novel and in Young Adult. One book received 2nd place at the North Texas Book Festival. Aldric & Anneliese, by Harry E. Gilleland, received honors from the Military Writers organization. Time Pullers, by Horton Deakins, placed in the top five for the USA Book Awards for Science Fiction. We have books entered in other competitions that haven’t released the winners list yet.”

“‘Another author’s books’? Don’t you remember the titles and who wrote them?” I pressed. I know Vivian doesn’t forget the names of the authors who’ve written award-winning books published by 4RV Publishing. It turns out, they were hers.

“Sure, I remember the titles: 1st in Novel was Midnight Hours by…me. 1st in Young Adult was Prairie Dog Cowboy by…me; 2nd at North Texas was Base Stealers Club by…me.”

I laughed. Vivian is a retired teacher, a mom, and a grandmother. She’s proud of her own books, but would rather shine the spotlight on others’ accomplishments. As the owner of 4RV Publishing, those are the kudos she’d rather promote. Next, I asked the million-dollar question: “Do you charge authors anything to publish their books?”

Vivian shook her head. “No, we do not charge authors anything to publish their books, or for any of the services needed to prepare their books once under contract.”

“I hear things are kind of rough in the publishing industry, these days – even some of the big publishing houses are opening subsidy imprints.”

“One reason publishers get in financial difficulties is the return policy. If a bookstore orders many more copies than they know they will sell, they can return left over copies years and years later and have their money returned. Publishers have to pay that money back, either through Ingram or their own distribution system. 4RV finally did away with returns after being hit with a huge bill for books returned that we could find no record of being bought, much less when they were bought. Major publishers pay millions every year for returned books. Of course that hurts. People aren’t buying books as much as they once did, and it has nothing to do with eBooks being available. It’s the economy. So many Big Guys are opening subsidy imprints. They need the income.”

“So why don’t you do the same?”

“Yes, we need the income, too, but we want the best books possible to be under our imprint. Once we accept payment for doing our job, putting out quality books, we lose at least some control over what is published under our name. We want the authors who deserve to be published to have their books in print and then in electronic format without a black mark against their names, which, no matter what some people say, still exists for self-published books. We try to give our authors the best chance to be successful we can.”

“Is it true that even the editors and illustrators work for royalties? So if books don’t sell well, they don’t get paid, either?”

“True and true. However, the owner of the company doesn’t even take royalties, nor does the head of the editorial department. We believe in the company enough that we leave what earnings we have in 4RV. What staff we have are dedicated to our cause. Of course we lose people quite often. They use 4RV to build a good resume and go on to bigger and better things. I can’t blame them, just ask they leave nicely without putting the company in a bind with unfinished projects. However, some stay even when they get positions elsewhere and do a few projects a year.”

“You’re an author, too – does owning the publishing house mean automatic acceptance and fast-track to print for your books?”

“Excuse me as I laugh. All submissions are sent to acquisition editors anonymously, no identification anywhere on the manuscript. One of my submissions was rejected — yep, rejected with malice. The head of the editorial department asked if the manuscript should be sent to a different acquisition editor, and I said, “No, she had valid reasons, and when I have time, I’ll revise and resubmit.” I’ve never had time. In fact, since 4RV was created, I have had only five books published by the company, and they were back when we had few submissions. I will have the first book come out later this summer, the first since early 2010, and it was in the works for three years.”

“So, 4RV is entered into the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest – what would you do with the prize money if you win?” Personally, I can’t think of many businesses that are more deserving of this “push” from Staples.

Vivian has big ideas on a shoestring budget. $50,000 lets her dream bigger – and lesser-known authors stand to benefit, too. “We need to upgrade all our technology and use digital accounting and record keeping. We would be able to create more eBooks. We need to hire people trained in digital marketing and promote our books even more effectively. The prize money from Staples would give us the “push” we need to compete in today’s publishing world.”

Please check out Holly's original post at: http://jahangiri.us/2013/interview-with-vivian-zabel-founderowner-of-4rv-publishing/

Thank you Holly, for allowing me to share your article on Vivian, 4RV Publishing, and the Staples' PUSH It Forward Contest.

Dynamic Dialogue - Bring Conversation and Life to Your Writing

by Holly Jahangiri  

The Gift of Gab
      Dialogue is an important tool that every writer should strive to master. Good dialogue does the following:

• It yanks the reader into the story, rather than keeping him at arm's length, as a casual observer.
• It gives valuable insight into each character - his socioeconomic and educational background, his mannerisms, his thought processes, his reactions to others, his attitude.
• It provides clues about the time period and setting.
• It helps keep you from getting bogged down in lengthy narration, provided you don't let your speaker get bogged down in lengthy narration.

     Good dialogue is dialogue that is essential to the story or to the readers' understanding of the character. It always serves a purpose - either it moves the story forward towards its conclusion, or it illustrates an important facet of the speaker's character. Good dialogue is not idle chit-chat.

Writing Believable Dialogue
      Believable or natural dialogue is not the same as "real speech." Listen to a group of people talking in a restaurant (yes, of course - eavesdrop!). Record them, or attempt to faithfully jot down what's said. Real, everyday speech is not very interesting to the casual observer, for the most part. It won't be interesting to your readers, either. How many real conversations have you heard that are devoid of annoying little lack-of-forethought time fillers, like "well," "you know," "uh," "um," "like," and so on? A well-placed "uh" or "um" can render dialogue more believable, but use them very sparingly to avoid turning your dialogue into a sleep aid.

      Good dialogue should sound natural. One of the best ways to gauge this is to read it aloud, or ask a friend to read it aloud to you. Subvocalize, if you're very shy. If your tripping over the words, or getting your tongue wrapped around your eyeteeth and can't see what you're saying, then it's not natural.

      Try to make dialogue match character. Consider the character's socioeconomic status and background. A guttersnipe speaks differently than a college professor. Consider "My Fair Lady." It would be easy to distinguish Henry Higgins from Eliza Doolittle, even if the same person read their lines. As Eliza learns, she is more careful and precise in her speech, even, than Higgins - because she is conscious of and cares about the perceptions of others. To her, it is not a game. He can afford to be casual in his speech, even though it is not truly in his nature to be; she cannot.

      Use dropped terminal consonants (doin', goin', seein', wanna, gimme, etc.), contractions (don't, wouldn't, didn't, etc.), profanity and slang if the character would naturally use them. Pretend your mother and your Fifth Grade English teacher will never read your work. You can't be a real writer and live in fear that someone will be shocked to learn that you know "those words." Consider using profanity when it's out of character to give dialogue "shock value." For example, if the preacher's wife runs across a dead body in her geranium bed, she's not likely to say, "Oh, dear, it's a corpse." She might actually scream and yell a bad word. It'll get the reader's attention if you suddenly have a well-established character act out of character. That said, remember that profanity is the last resort of little minds, and use it sparingly - for deliberate effect.

      Show - don't tell! Make sure your characters understand this rule. Using dialogue to relate past events may tempt you to tell the story in between quotation marks. Don't let one character simply narrate the whole story. Dialogue should give us insight into each character's unique traits - it's your opportunity, regardless of the point of view from which you've chosen to write, to give the reader a glimpse of the character's thoughts and emotions. Use dialogue to show how characters respond to situations and react to one another.

A Few Quick Tips

• Consider the character's socioeconomic and educational background.
• Give the character a distinctive "pet phrase" or set of commonly-used expressions (e.g., "Valley Girl" speech). Be careful not to exaggerate speech mannerisms to the point of annoying the reader; a little seasoning in the pot works better than dumping in a whole jar of spice.
• Show, don't tell! Avoid academic or wordy statements, unless they reflect a character trait.
• Use contractions, dropped letters (goin', doin', etc.) slang, profanity, accents, etc. with deliberate intent.
• Recognize when characters are likely to relate past events in present tense.

AVOID:

• Unnecessary repetition of a phrase or idea.
• Small talk that doesn't illustrate character OR move the story forward.
• Having one character address another by name (they know to whom they are talking; it should be clear enough to your reader in context and by other means)
• Wordy, academic, stiff, stilted phrases rolling off your characters' tongues, unless it's a character trait.

Notes on Formatting Dialogue

• Dialogue starts and ends with quotation marks: " and "
• If one speaker's lines extend beyond one paragraph, each paragraph of dialogue opens with opening quotation marks ("); the last paragraph ends with closing quotation marks (").
• Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks: "And so," explained Liz, "that's why I killed him."
• When one speaker is quoting another, the quotation is enclosed in single quotation marks: ' and ' For example: "I told him Liz said 'Eat more oatmeal.'"

Challenge Yourself!
      Try writing a story using nothing but dialogue between two or more characters. Don't include any dialogue tags ("he said," "she cried," etc.). See if you can convey all the elements of a good story, including distinct and interesting characters, through dialogue alone.

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For more of Holly's writing, be sure to visit her blog, "It's All a Matter of Perspective" at http://jahangiri.us/new. Holly Jahangiri is a professional writer who claims, tongue-in-cheek, to channel the spirits of Edgar Allan Poe, Erma Bombeck, and O. Henry. Her books are available through 4RV Publishing  and Amazon.com.

Promotion: Book Trailer for Trockle

posted by Vivian Zabel  

            Once upon a time, about four and a half years ago, a young boy named Stephen and a little monster named Trockle became the first to join the 4RV family of children's books. Written by Holly Jahangiri for her son who "knew" a monster was under his bed, the story hid in a drawer for a few years before I begged the author to allow me to have it for the company. Jordan Vinyard agreed to illustrate the story, and a book to delight children from two to one hundred two was born. After all, not everyone knew that not only was the boy on the bed afraid of the monster under the bed, but the little monster under the bed was afraid of the big monster on the bed.

          Aidana WillowRaven added her "magic" to the promotional illustrations and created a trailer to show off this story that makes us all feel safer about going to bed in the dark.


         



          Trockle can be found through the 4RV Bookstore.

          

Promoting Your Book with QR Codes

by Holly Jahangiri  

I’ll bet it never occurred to you, while writing your book, that writing would be the easiest part of becoming a published author. I still remember the “deer in the headlights” look on my face when Vivian Zabel said something to me on the phone about attending a book festival and arranging for book signings. “WHA—? Oh, no, no, no… I WROTE the book. You have to promote it!!”

I still remember Vivian’s laughter on the other end of the line. After my blind panic subsided, it did start to sink in – it even made sense. What’s a good book promotion without the active involvement of the author? When’s the last time you went to a book signing and thanked the publisher for their autograph?

Book Promotion: 20 Strategies That Will Broaden Your Reach is a great list of things you can do right now to promote your book. As an introverted technical writer who writes children’s picture books by night and still wakes in a cold sweat from nightmares involving kindergarteners and flying globs of Jell-O, rotten fruit, and spoiled milk, virtual book tours are one of my favorite methods of book promotion. I also like new, cutting edge, or creative ideas.

What Are Those Squiggly Things?

One such idea involves the use of QR codes – a form of two-dimensional barcode that can be easily scanned and translated by any number of free smartphone apps. A lot of people ask me, “What are those squiggly things?” My dad would call them “curiosity generators.” The cool thing about QR codes is that, although they’ve been around for quite a while, they’re just now gaining traction as a marketing tool, and they’re actually useful because they are so easy to use and so accessible thanks to the popularity and widespread use of smartphones. Look closely, and you will see QR codes on billboards, shop windows, buildings, magazines, coupons, ads, business cards, postcards, web sites, and more. If you have a smartphone, odds are you’ve seen them as a way to quickly download apps from a catalogue or web site. Odds are, they pique your curiosity and you want to scan them – to discover the “secret message.”

Here are a few examples (if you have a smartphone, go ahead and scan them!):



Adding a QR code to your business card lets you embed your contact information in a standard format, or allows you to create a “landing page” with dynamic content that can be updated as needed. When resizing the QR code or changing colors, or when placing text or other images near the QR code, be sure to scale the graphic, preserving the original aspect ratio. Always double- and triple-check to be sure it still scans, if you make any changes to it at all. The “quiet space” around the QR code (more commonly known as “white space” to us writers) matters, and some codes have a higher amount of “forgiveness” built in (higher error checking). A higher amount of error checking results in a more complex code that allows for up to about 30% of the pixels to be replaced or altered artistically. This often comes at the cost of scanning speed, and people may give up trying if they think the code doesn’t work, so sometimes, simple is best.



You can use a QR code to make it easy for people on the go to sign up for your newsletter, or bookmark your blog. QR codes can be printed or placed on your blog. This example goes to a signup form for a mailing list I created for a blogging contest. You can use a QR code to link to your book trailer on YouTube (keep in mind that Android-based smartphones may only be able to play video hosted on YouTube).

It is easy to create your own QR codes, at no cost, online – just search for “free online QR code generator.” One of my favorites is Qurify.com. If you prefer artistic QR codes that you can integrate with your brand image, you may want to hire a designer. The following promotional codes were created using Qurify.com and Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3:

Now Create Your Own – It’s Easy!

1. Using your favorite web browser, visit http://qurify.com.
2. In the blue box, enter your text. You have 255 characters to play with – that’s 115 characters more than a Tweet on Twitter! You can use a URL shortener, too, to buy more space for your message.
3. Click the Qurify! button. Your QR code appears to the right.
4. Click the link to Download (PNG file)  |  Download (JPG file) - choose your favorite format, or download both.

You can use the black and white QR code as is, or add it to your promotional materials using your favorite illustration program.

This should be enough to get you started! Any questions? Fresh ideas for using QR codes? Share them in the comments, below.

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Holly Jahangiri is a technical communicator, social media analyticator, children's book author with 4RV Publishing (Trockle, and A Puppy, Not a Guppy), blogger, happy wife and mom living in Houston, Texas. She would really appreciate it if you would read her post, Good Goals Gone Bad on TheNextGoal.com.