Friday, November 9, 2012

Guest post by D L Richardson






Thank you to Wenona of The Creatively Green Write At Home Mom for hosting me during my virtual book tour. Being green is a noble cause that more of us need to take up. Perhaps one of the greenest things I can do as an author is to release my books as ebooks and print on demand books. Ebooks are a huge reduction in resources, and print on demand means that the book only prints when someone buys it. Mainstream publishers will print about 5,000 copies of a book to make it profitable to sell. Not every one of these books will sell so this can end up becoming a huge burden on the environment.

Anyway, I wrote this little guest post and I hope you like it.

Guest post by D L Richardson
Why weighing yourself daily will make you fat.

Okay, maybe this post isn’t about the downsides of weighing yourself every day. Chances are if you’re reading this post then the title captured your attention, and that’s what this post is really about – book titles.

So you’ve written a book and you’re ready to submit it to a publisher. Before you hit Send it’s a good idea to make absolutely sure that the name of the book is perfect.

The book title is important because you want to intrigue readers into picking up your book. You also don’t want to name it and then find out that there are already ten books with the same time. There are many novels titled Firelight, Embers, Shattered. Checking Goodreads and Amazon before you submit is an easy way to make sure your novel will look original when it is read by a publisher.  And lastly, do you choose a one word title, as is popular with young adult fiction, or do you choose the more classic title?

Classic titles – One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Cather in the Rye, The Spy who came in from the Cold, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

My first novel has a classic or traditional title: The Bird With The Broken Wing. There is a bit of psychology behind this title. It is a story about second chances and putting things right, and in order to fix things they firstly need to be broken so that is where the ‘broken’ of the title originates from. The messenger of this story is an angel, an angels has wings, so that is where ‘bird’ of the title comes from. It took me a while to nail this title. For me, it’s lyrical, it’s beautiful, and it sums up my novel perfectly.

One word titles – these are popular with young adult fiction but they’re nothing new. Authors like Dean Koontz and Stephen King have had one word titles for years (if anyone has read my blog or any of my other posts you’ll notice that I refer to King and Koontz quite a bit. The reason is that they are both mega successful novelists who release a new novel each year and my goal is to be the King or Koontz or ya fiction. Yes, writers have mission statements too and mine is “Become a successful, prolific author.”)

Examples of one word book titles by Stephen King – Misery, It, Cujo, Carrie, Christine, Firestarter, Cell, Thinner, Dreamcatcher

Examples of one word book titles by Dean Koontz – Shattered, Velocity, Watchers, Intensity, Phantoms, Lightning

My second novel features a one word title: Feedback. The reason for this title is that feedback is a scientific theory that is a key element to the storyline of this novel.

One thing to be mindful of is that the publisher has final say over the book’s title. If they have a book with a similar title they’ll request you change it. Coming up with a unique and original title to start with is the key, but whichever way an author decides to go – classic title or one work title – the title of your book should reflect the story so that is remembered in years to come.


Feedback
D L Richardson

Genre: YA Sci-fi/Fantasy
Publisher:    Etopia Press

ISBN: 978-1-937976-77-4
ASIN: B009LKHUQM

Number of pages:  208
Word Count: 69,263

Cover Artist: Eithne Ni Anluaine  

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/vEluhYM8WNw       


Book Description:

Listening to your inner voice can get you killed.

Ethan James, Florida Bowman, and Jake Inala are three teenagers who receive much-needed organ transplants. Two weeks later they are inadvertently recruited by the CIA when a spy dies halfway through his mission. Three bacteria bombs are set to detonate, spreading illness and death across the planet, and it’s up to Ethan, Florida, and Jake to deactivate them.

Except that they have no idea where the bombs are located.

Kidnapped for information they can’t possibly know, and fuelled by the spirit of a dead CIA agent, Ethan, Florida, and Jake must look deep inside themselves if they are to finish the mission and save millions of lives. But they’re being held captive in a strange place by a man who believes in Feedback, the theory that information is retained in the memory of organs–in this case those of a certain dead CIA agent donor. And their captor will stop at nothing to get the information retained in their newly transplanted organs.

 About the Author:

D L Richardson was born in Ireland and came to Australia with her parents as a baby. She went to a public school in Sydney's western suburbs and the books she read were given to her or borrowed from the library. However it was music that first captured her creative interest.

​She joined the school choir at age eight and got her first acoustic guitar at age ten, although she really wanted a piano. In high school she took up lead vocals after the girl she was to sing a duet with failed to show up. After that she told her stage fright to get lost and took up singing with the school band where she performed in many concerts. When she left school she helped form her own rock band where she sang lead vocals, played bass guitar, and wrote all the lyrics. At age 26 she realized she wanted to write novels for the rest of her life or die trying so she sold her equipment, quit pursuing a music career and began writing instead.

​She has two young adult novels published, "The Bird With The Broken Wing" and "Feedback" and is currently writing her third novel "Little Red Gem".

​She lives in Australia on the NSW South Coast with her husband and dog. When she's not writing or reading she can be found playing her piano or guitars, renovating the house, or walking the dog.

Website:       www.dlrichardson.com



Twitter:        twitter.com/#!/DLRichardson1

1 comment:

Debbie Richardson said...

Thanks Wenona for hosting me during my virtual book tour. It was fun writing htis post for your readers. I hope they enjoyed it.
D L Richardson
xox