Sheryl Sorrentino

Showing Tag: "self-publishing" (Show all posts)

Am I Dead?

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, September 25, 2013,


I saw a rather intriguing movie last week—Margaret, in which Anna Paquin (playing 17-year-old Lisa Cohen) performs a powerful scene with Allison Janney as Monica, the woman hit and dismembered by a New York City bus after Lisa thoughtlessly distracted the driver over a stupid cowboy hat. Lying in the street in Lisa’s arms, her severed leg lodged beneath the bus’s rear wheel about ten feet away, Monica asks Lisa, “Am I dead?”

It is a gruesome, bloody, and emotional scene—one wh...


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Self-Promotion for Chumps and Hos

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, July 24, 2013,

Times may be tough, but it’s a great time to be in the self-publishing business. That is, if you happen to sell some variant of snake oil meant to transform an unknown writer into a best-selling author. Book ads. Virtual tours. Paid Tweetingthe possibilities are endless. The only catch is, these marketing devices can only deliver on one promise: To keep our fantasies alive while quickly emptying our wallets.

 

If this sounds a little like prostitution, there are definitely parallels b...


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“Make It ‘Til You Fake It”

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, May 10, 2013,

You read that correctly. I hate self-promotion, and I especially loathe that stupid saying, “Fake it until you make it.” Who came up with this, anyway? “Fake” is the antithesis of everything I strive to be, namely authentic, genuine, and real. As far as I am concerned, you gotta get the goods before you can put up a “For Sale” sign.

Besides which, while you’re so busy “faking it,” how are you going to learn what you need to know to offer something of value? That comes from b...


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An Author's Confession

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Thursday, November 8, 2012,
I have had a sad revelation. My second novel, An Unexpected Exile, isn’t as good as my other two. There, I’ve admitted it. I released AUE too impulsively, out of a misguided sense that I needed to quickly follow up my first book, Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz, with something “light” and “commercially marketable” (since Later With Myself so clearly isn’t either). But I’ve learned a few things since I wrote my first book, while the painstaking effort I...

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What the Self-Publishing World Needs

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, October 27, 2012,

I came across this article in HuffPost Books yesterday while perusing Facebook (thank you, Glenda Bixler, for posting!): "Are Self-Publishing Authors Killing the Publishing Industry?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10.... Its author, Melissa Foster, argues that we self-published types are “devaluing the written word” by selling our books so cheaply ($.99 to free as e-books), relying on “gimmicks” to gain sales, and having “mismanaged expectations.”

Allow me to offer the self-p...


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What's With the Pseudonym?

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Friday, October 19, 2012,
I recently reached out to media trying to pitch a by-lined article (that’s an article placed in a print or Internet outlet where credit is given to the author, along with a nice “plug” about his or her book). I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that virtually no one answered (they never do), but I was surprised by the one response I did get:

“O why the pseudonym. If YOU have something to say, say it. Otherwise shut up.”

Ouch! The original message was riddled with typos and mis...

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Back to the Drawing Board . . .

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, June 16, 2012,
Because I believe so strongly in my third novel, The Floater, and want to see it take off once it’s finally launched, I did something different this time around—I invited four people whose opinions I trust to read a proof copy and give me feedback on the story itself. By now—nearly a year after the launch of my first novel, Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz, I trust that my writing is respectable (if not brilliant). But I’ve come a long way since releasing LWM; ...

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The Battle of the Typos

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, June 2, 2012,
Those pesky typos. You've tried proofing your work, and spell-checking it. And yet, typographical errors pepper your book's pages like a stubborn heat rash that won’t go away.

Why does this happen? First, the eyes have a propensity to see what they want to see. Just as we overlook a few blemishes (be they skin-deep or deeply rooted) when we first become smitten by a new love interest, so do our eyes play tricks on us when we proofread our beloved manuscript. We simply don’t see flaws read...

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To Query or Not to Query: That is the Question

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, April 28, 2012,
As The Floater transforms itself from flat to fabulous, I’ve been pondering my next move. Do I repeat my less-than-fulfilling experience with self-publishing? Or should I query a few (or a few hundred) agents in the hope that one might take me on?

Let’s look at the pros and cons:

On the one hand, as soon as I hit the “send” button and fire off my first query to a faceless agent in New York, I’ve handed over the keys to my fate and signed on for a wild, emotional roller-coaster ride....

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Not-So-Great Expectations

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, April 14, 2012,

It’s one thing to hope for the best, and quite another to cling to false hope. It’s good to have faith, but not to leave one's fate in the hands of wishful thinking or fantastical fantasy. There’s a fine line between being enthusiastically positive and utterly unrealistic. Sure, Don Quixote taught us a thing or two about living with passion and hope. But he is a fictional character (not to mention, crazy).

 

So where’s the balance? Never is this question more important than when ven...


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Writer’s Block and other Fallacies

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Wednesday, April 4, 2012,

I’ve never had writer’s block. Maybe it’s because I have so little time to write, I try to make every second count. True, with all three of my manuscripts (and now a fourth in its embryonic stage), after completing the first chapter or two, there was a period when I thought my story was stupid and I lost all interest. But after a few months’ gestation, I got back into it and words began to flow.

I think some people get "writer's block" at this stage because they are trying to do more ...


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Am I Insane to Keep Trying?

Posted by Sheryl Sorrentino on Saturday, March 17, 2012,

I haven’t blogged for about a week. In part this is because I have been busy focusing on my day job. But the real reason is that I’ve been feeling discouraged. So far, I have had one Kindle sale this month. Yes, I know it’s taboo for me to disclose such a shameful fact. But if you’ve read Later With Myself, you know that I am not one to shy away from forbidden topics.

 

At my 50th birthday party last weekend, friends all told me what an incredible achievement it is to have publi...


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Sheryl Sorrentino: Real Fiction for Real Women™


Sheryl Sorrentino is a practicing attorney by day who unexpectedly discovered her passion for writing after learning of a long-deceased half-brother in 2007. She is the author of five novels (Later With Myself: The Misadventures of Millie Moskowitz; An Unexpected Exile; The Floater; Stage Daughter and Stop & Frisk) with a sixth (Smarter Than That) slated for release Spring of 2017. She lives with her husband and teenage daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can learn more about Sheryl Sorrentino by visiting her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sheryl.sorrentino#!/pages/Sheryl-Sorrentino/249323025094995. Follow Sheryl on Twitter at @SherylSorrentin.

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