Showing posts with label book authors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book authors. Show all posts

Friday, December 15, 2017

"Back Matter" matters for The Most Brilliant Woman in the World.

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


In 2018 I will be releasing three new books, the contents of which have been written over a period of two years, informed as they are by a lifetime of being The Most Brilliant Woman in the World (TMBWW), which began when I was a mere child of thirty months.

TMBWW is not Hillary Clinton. We all know her friends have identified her as "the smartest woman in the room", a title I will graciously allow her to have for two reasons. One: We're never going to be in the same room together, and since the use of the word room is limited to a finite space and small stretch of time, I can, two: Be gracious as the victor and allow a small win for the vanquished. 

Although, frankly, Hillary is like a camel getting its nose under the tent. She will take that small victory as proof that she is wanted and will continue to put on grand airs. Which is why she must continually be "kicked in the nose" like the camel who wants to get inside the tent and take over the bed. That is to say, she must be reminded of her place. 

I am able and willing to do that. But let's get back to the most important thing and why you are reading this: Me. 

Every book must have something called "back matter", pieces of marketing and snippets of quotes that, when one picks up a book and looks at the back cover, one reads and believes it is so brilliant one says, "I will invest in this book because it will fulfill its promise of..." whatever that promise is. 

There's a formula to producing back matter that matters. First, you got to have quotes from people that are recognizable to the general reading public. If their name is not known, then at least have a list of titles establishing their bona fides. Known name and impressive title list at the same time? Score!

The second thing is the paragraph that describes the author without repeating what would be anywhere in the interior of the book.

My upcoming books are all in need of back matter. In this, my faithful readers, I would like your opinion on what has been suggested to me as the back matter that matters. Here it is. Please feel free to email me with your opinion. My email address is angeladurden@msn.com. If I do not hear from you, I will assume you believe the back matter that matters works well as written and I will take your silence as a double thumbs-up to proceed.





— — —  BEGIN BACK MATTER THAT MATTERS — — — 

"If I were alive today, I would highly recommend you read this book by Angela K. Durden. It is no brag because it is fact that she is The Most Brilliant Woman in the World. I can say that because as The Most Brilliant Man in the World, at one time, I know excellent humor when I see it. Also, my good friends and faithful readers — Neal, Rush, and Sean — only wish they had the guts to write as she does. If I were alive today, I would be taking her on tour with me. Oh, to see the faces of those ticked-off politicians and social justice warriors when they would hear her opine humorously. Damn, I hate it that I'm dead. But since I am dead, and the world has not had another humorist such as me since that plane crash, I nominate Angela K. Durden to take my place. I am sure you will agree. Please give her your money as your ancestors once gave me theirs. You won't regret it."

Will Rogers
No longer bookable because he's dead, 
but former highly paid actor, performer, 
syndicated columnist, and expert lasso artist


"I apologize to the reader of this book that I, Mark Twain, dead these many long years, have not been given more space to write back matter that matters. So let me be quick for I shan't much have time to say it any other way in this short space: The writings contained in these covers as written by my good friend Angela K. Durden — I would call her that if I was still alive — are a must read for all with any intelligence. Just like the many books and articles I wrote through the years that most politicians publicly smiled at but privately railed against, and which mantle of humorous social commentary was taken up by Will Rogers after I died, Angela K. Durden is today ably filling that huge sucking void. That is, she does a fine job of pointing out the foibles of those who take themselves so seriously they believe they have all the answers for everything and know better than you how to live your life."

Mark Twain
No longer writing because he's dead,
but former world-wide celebrity, writer, 
columnist, author, novelist, and 
world traveler who loved his wife and kids


In one of her many public statements, Angela K. Durden noted that the reason she can get away with saying what she does is because she is a Southern Woman who looks like a school teacher yet knows how to fake sincerity. Prefacing her hard-hitting comments with words and phrases like Sweetie pie, Honey, Sugah, Bless your heart, and Oh, aren't you just the cutest thing ever, Durden throws people off guard with sweet words and smiles, and by giving them the feather because they aren't worth a whole bird.  

Durden does not speak French, Spanish, or Greek, but she proves her love of multi-culturalism by uttering the phrases "Oui, oui, Monsieur", "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!", and "Periménete, periménete, periménete ... nai" when the time is right and the situation calls for it. 

Angela K. Durden has been a humorist her entire life. Just ask her mother who always said, "You're joking, right?" or her ex-husband who is well known for saying to her "Oh, you think you're real funny, don't you?", and to friends and relatives "She thinks she's a comedian." (And now you know one reason why he is the ex, though her mother still thinks she jokes.)



 — — —  END BACK MATTER THAT MATTERS — — — 




Monday, September 11, 2017

The smaller the stakes, the fiercer the fight.

by Angela K. Durden
Technology inventor protecting creator's copyrights. Business writer, novelist, songwriter, and Citizen Journalist.


Bookending two recent weekends was a writer/publisher//agent convention called Killer Nashville, which I attended for the first time and wherein I had one fine blast and installed and began to use this new app for my iPhone called Snapchat. 

The other was the twelfth annual AJC Decatur Book Festival wherein the main reason I had fun was because I was with my fellow Atlanta Chapter of Sisters in Crime in a tent we shared with the Southeast chapter of Mystery Writers of America

From cozy mysteries where the crimes happen off the page to thrillers where the good guys kidnap the bad guys and use mind games to make them write their confessions to fun and snarky rock'em-sock'em action, we sisters (and a couple of misters) know how to kill you and get rid of your body while at the same time we can solve the crime, too. 

But this article is not about those fine authors or organizations.

"In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional 
to the value of the issues at stake." 

To that I add: 
"That is why the book publishing business is so viciously petty."

At Killer Nashville, I signed up for a pitch session that was scheduled the hour before I was to moderate a bevy of kick-ass panelists, only one of whom I had ever met. Explaining my situation, the two agents allowed me to pitch first and leave the room since I had to get things set up and make sure all was well. The next day, I saw one of the agents who...well, let this Snapchat video to my friend tell you what happened: 



Now, I've been good and properly dissed in my lifetime so I know dissing when I see it. I was dissed.


Turning the page to the next weekend...


Taking my turn handing out brochures to passersby at the AJC Decatur Book Festival, I was smiling and engaging with book lovers of all sorts. I talked to old and young, white and black, Asian and undetermined (it was the same weekend as DragonCon; see picture at right).

Then I saw this couple walking toward me. I can only describe them as smooth. That is, their clothes were crisply starched and ironed. Their hair was perfection itself. Even their skin looked like it had no imperfections. I doubt either of them had ever broken a sweat in their life. Both the man and woman seemed to be somewhere between 45 and 60 years old; these days it's sometimes hard to tell ages.

But hey, they looked like they could afford books. So of course I myself an author of over fifteen books — several novel length — am taking my turn handing out marketing materials for our booth, approached this couple and said in quite a friendly fashion...

"Hello. Are you fans of murder, mystery, and mayhem?"



At this I point to the sign showing that branding along with the logos of the two groups whose authors are represented. [See the picture at the left.]

Remember I told you that I've been dissed good and proper before, so I know when I'm being dissed. I got dissed again by this smooth couple.

First, they stopped dead in their tracks.

Second, their noses locked onto me like laser beams. Those noses quickly traced a pattern from my head to toes and back again.

Third, the woman rolled her eyes and looked away with such an elegant snort of derision.

Fourth, as if I had missed the big sign above their heads announcing it, the man said just prior to walking away in a huff, and I'm not kidding you, he said, "We're authors."


"We're authors." 


"We're authors." We. Are. Authors. Hahahaha. I just can't get enough of saying that. 

I wanted to holler after them, "Oh, yeah? But are you selling any books?" 

Because frankly, if you've got to advertise the fact in such a petty fashion, then it's a sure bet you aren't selling any. Further, it's a sure bet you can't figure out why you are so successful in the rest of your life but can't sell a damn book. 

At Killer Nashville, I asked a question of the agent I mentioned above. I said, "So, how difficult is it to sell a publisher on a book?" 

Her first unguarded reaction told me all I needed to know. She isn't selling many at all. You need to understand that she's only been in the publishing business for a year. Being an agent looks fun and sexy, but it is damn hard work. Like many, she thought she would just jump in and make the next star.

After all, how hard is it to form an opinion on what makes a book the public will like? Like many who have just such an opinion, she thought she had the agent's role all figured out. I know this because her introduction to the pitch group was: 


"I look for books I can fix." 


Oh, honey. It's a good thing you have a rich husband in Big Pharma. You must have a lot of free time on your hands. 

Her idea of "fixing" my book — based on only reading two double-spaced pages — was that on the first page I had to include gory details of the torture murder and make the woman who found the evidence the main protagonist of the story. 

On the first page. 

No wonder she's not selling anything.

To show you how unpetty we real authors are, here is me and my friend Linda Sands using the Snapchat app and giving hints and tips on how to get an agent. Enjoy.