Welcome to August's edition of The Author's Corner. I'm a little behind this month as I'm trying to include all the latest information on my schedules. I hope the summer has been kind to all of you so far. I've been quite busy setting things up for the Fall and Spring, especially since Helm Publishing picked up he Eye of Icarus. For those of you who didn't know, The Eye of Icarus is the first book in my new Space Frontiers Series. Helm Publishing is publishing it and you'll see it in late March of next year.

Space Frontiers is based on the adventures of Will Saris. If you recall, Will Saris was the infant son of Billy Brock and Seneca (the shape-shifter) in Twisted Fate. The series is not a continuation of the original Fractured Time Trilogy but a next generation of adventures eighteen years later with new characters. Maya, the young girl who took care of Will in Twisted Fate is his commanding officer and close friend. If you enjoyed the trilogy, you're going to love Space Frontiers. Will has his word cut out for him when he meets his exciting and unusual girlfriend, Shanna. They are the youngsters in an adult universe which makes the adventures all the more unpredictable and foolishly daring.

The second and third books of the series are already completed and the fourth one is outlined, so there's lots of action ahead for Space Frontiers.

One of my main priorities is finding a publicist that I feel confident with. Many publicists won't handle fiction because it's a tougher sell to the media than non-fiction. I have spoken with a few that sound promising. I'll have more on this later.

Another priority is to establish a travel plan for next year. As much as I love to travel, I have to decide (with the help of the publicist) whether to cover a lot of areas lightly or work out of a few and cover them heavily with signings, appearances, etc. I'd like to do about ten trips a year but sometimes my full-time job and vacation availability limit that.

My list of other projects is still growing. Gosh, it's like another full-time job. I'm about half-way through my new horror manuscript, Night Creeps. This is derived from the screenplay by the same name. I've gotten very positive feedback from two major motion picture companies that the story is great and a book could be even better. My only drawback was timing. Both are committed to supernatural horror for the next cycle or two. Oh, well.

I've received some feedback on The Christmas Solution through my agent. I'm going to make a few changes and rewrite a couple of characters in the story. Sometimes you can cover too many things in a screenplay and that means a lot more work for a producer. So, back to the drawing board for Santa.

I've entered the screenplays for Night Creeps and The Eye of Icarus in Shriekfest, the big Los Angeles horror/science fiction/fantasy film festival held in early October. Scriptapalooza, which is in the semi-final stages of their contest, didn't pay much attention to any scripts of this genre in their contest. I guess that's a lesson learned.

Now, for my big project, the screenplay for Fractured Time. Right now is a busy time in the film industry for new releases and groundbreaking on new projects. As a result, getting the deal done for Fractured Time has been slow. Gypsy Films and du Jour Entertainment have packaged FT into a film ready project with budget, financing and everything else required to make a movie. There are other film companies that are interested in FT as well and have expressed a serious interest to du Jour about purchasing the project for a major motion picture. Unfortunately, business takes time in this industry. My contacts at du Jour/Gypsy are confident that there will be a deal and it'll happen soon. I'm sure they're as anxious as I am to make something happen.

I'm scheduling several book signings for the last three months of the year. I'd like to rekindle a lot of the interest that I've had in the FT Trilogy and create awareness for The Eye of Icarus coming in March. If any of you have questions about the business, I'm always happy to discuss these topics whether it's at a convention, library or book store. So, make your list of Q's or comments and come on by. See my list of appearances for more information.

This month's writers' tip is about publicists. Publicists can do a lot of things for you including writing third person articles that make your book or screenplay sound fantastic. It's important to find a publicist that's right for your material, though. Many won't do fiction because it's usually a tough sell to the media. Some are selective about the genre of fiction that they'll do.

Science fiction, for instance, requires a completely different database for media contacts than a mystery or horror genre. There are some publicists who will say 'yes' to everything but you have to do some homework to make sure they can effectively work with it and you'll need to supply a number of recommendations to make sure they're going after the important contacts in your genre. For instance, you can ask, "What magazines do you have contacts with regarding my genre?" If they don't have an answer readily available, you can make recommendations based on your research to make sure those contacts are covered.

In my search so far, only one has actually asked to look at a few chapters from 'The Eye of Icarus' and she's reserving comment on price and type of campaign until she "feels" the story. Now this makes sense to me.

The price for a publicist can vary and they're not cheap due to the amount of work they put in to marketing your work. The key is to only take the services that will help you and not reject any that could make a significant difference. A good publicist will recommend what you should and shouldn't do. You also need to tell them what you expect as well.

Do you want to appear on TV talk shows or radio interviews? Do you want to concentrate locally on your area first? How big do you want to become realistically? Where do you want to go after the campaign with your project?

This determines the scope of the campaign and the intensity in which the area is "saturated" with news of your project. For many of the individual services, I can recommend visiting the websites of the following for a breakdown of what they can do for you: Stacy Miller Communications at www.bookpr.com ; The Barret Company at www.thebarretco.com and McCallister Communications at www.mcallcom.com.

Pricing can vary from a fixed rate to a month by month for an average of three months. I would recommend considering between $5000 and $12000 for a good campaign. You might be able to squeeze under that but don't cut yourself short. Only you can decide what size campaign is good for you.

- Michael D'Ambrosio

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