Ideas, Thoughts, Tips?

We at The Unvarnished Author are always looking for ideas for our posts. And getting ideas for other authors or people in the business is the way we make these posts happen. So if you, or someone you know, has an idea to pass along please do. Do not post them in the comments as we might not see them right away. Send them directly to our email that we check daily.

You can email us at:  the-unvarnished-author@gmail.com

All ideas, thoughts and tips will be accredited to those that supply them so make sure you give us what you'd like attached to the post we do. First name and Last name initial only for the post credit. Links to interesting things and information will NOT be credited to the supplier, sorry! Unless we use something from the link's post or postings in a post on our own site, then you will be credited.

So, hit us up with what you've got! Just keep it clean and polite, no rants or off the handle tirades. Only we are permitted to do that and we do try to limit such things as much as possible. But we're human so even we have days we just have to flip the hell out.

The Unvarnished Team

Meet the Team

Since we've been running around providing you with all this information for the last couple of months, we thought it was time to introduce the Team. We're keeping all the information "generic" so that no one feels pressured in any way to buy something or perhaps feel biased by any information we give. Not saying it would happen, but who knows - right?

June Smith – Owner of our blog. June is a multi-published author of several novels and a couple anthologies she writes under a couple different names. Her main genre is Historical Romance though she’s been stepping out of her box of late and exploring more of an Erotic Romance theme with a new novel. Nineteen years married she has two daughters she occasionally will claim as her own, more often than not she tries to pawn them off on some unsuspecting sucker. June does a number of charity events as well as volunteering with a not-for-profit group for young mothers in her local area. With the spare time she has left between all her projects and her own family, who she never skimps on, she does a number of artsy type projects. Her current projects are learning to cross stitch without stabbing herself and swearing as well as finding a medium (ie: painting materials and surface) she can work with easily for painting. She has just recently thrown out water paints as they are too hard to get "just right".

Sam “The Moderator” – Answers only to Sam or Sammy, only an idiot or her mother ever uses Samantha and the idiot usually ends up limping. Sam was an only child until the rather shocking arrival of her twin brothers when she was nine. According to her, her parents were rather worried about how she’d take the news she was no longer the soul focus of their attention. Her reply at the time, a direct quote, “Thank God there’s someone else for you to finally smother”. Sam, if you hadn’t yet guessed, can be a bit of a smart ass. She is an up and coming author with four books, three full length novels and one short story, under her belt with a fifth currently slotted for early spring of 2014. Single and loving it she lives in a “quaint little place” that she has decorated to express her eclectic nature in what she calls a “you’ll love it or just not comment on it” manner. Sam is our primary poster for the page as she can touch type, chew bubble gum, cheer on her NHL team and hold a conversation all at the same time. Multitasker be thy name! Sam will also be the one answering your emails should you send one needing answering as she has the time and leniency with her day job to do a lot of the Internet stuff some of the others cannot or choose not to do.

George “The Original G-man” - Is another Moderator you should, in theory, be meeting in the future. George writes mystery novels for a living under two different pseudonyms. He claims that computers hate him and will only post when Sam goes on holidays if a gun is held to his head. We might just have to get him to post something strictly for the entertainment factor. He prefers sitting back and dictating to someone else or hand writing everything, including his novels. Which, given what happened to his last laptop, is likely best for the tech world in general. Though at least his computer place is loving him and we know for a fact the guys over there squee in anticipation of his excuse for why this particular computer broke "this time around" when he walks through their front door. He also picked out his own moniker and wouldn't let us veto him. He claims he will post the instant he finds his theme song. Yes, George is one of "those" people, but he has a lot of good ideas and can actually spell so we keep him around. George is a widower with two adult sons, one is just finishing college (or so George hopes) and the other is happily married to his childhood sweetheart and expecting baby number one. Georgie's going to be a grand-daddy! HA!

Tammy “The Newbie” - Last, but not least, is our final Moderator for the blog. Tammy is a budding author and actually part of the reason that June managed to talk Sam and George into starting this blog up with her. Actually, it was more like talking Sam into writing the blog for her than anything else. Because Tammy is just starting out in the business we've all been passing along helpful tips we've picked up over the years as authors - in between scaring the shit out of her. And, smart little cupcake that she is, Tammy said it would be nice to pass this along to others. So here we are, all because of Tammy. Boy this could come back to bite her in the ass later depending on how this all plays out LOL! Tammy is taken, for anyone that's wondering, she is engaged with a rough date set for early 2015 for her wedding. She has one older brother serving in the military that we are all very proud to have met and are sad to see go back each and every time he redeploys. Tammy will be posting when she has time with her current school workload (she's in university currently), her first book and all the wedding plans running amok. She won't be posting all that often for a time, at least until she likely has a few tales to tell all her own or school breaks occur - whichever comes first.

And there you have it. The Unvarnished Author Team. We're all certifiably insane, a little bit off balance and would go to the wall for anyone we call friend or family. We're eccentric and strange but you'll either love us or leave us.

The Team (insert Team theme music here that will be decided upon at a date yet to be announced)

And, we're back! Sorta...

Hello everyone! Long time no post, we know. We are back to some degree though it will be a little spotty for the next week and a half as a couple of the crew are still under some pretty serious deadlines. But we didn't want you to think we've abandoned you or any of the woes you may be dealing with.

Thankfully we won't have another possible crunch with all of us involved for a good long time. Our schedules are usually randomized enough that this doesn't occur, unfortunately this was on of two, sometimes three, times a year when it does. So, good news for you (or bad depending on your POV), we're ba-a-a-a-a-ack!

The Moderator

Sorry all!

Hey everyone,

We're so sorry! We all forgot about some major deadlines some of us have approaching too damned fast and are now currently scrambling to get everyone back on schedule. Too many things all going on at once obviously. We will be back soon, don't know for sure when that will be, but we will be back.

Until then - ideas, tips and/or questions shoot them on over to our email and we will get back to you as soon as we can. The email is:  the-unvarnished-author@gmail.com in case you don't know it.

Back to the grindstone for us all. Stay aware and question everything!

The Moderator

The Unvarnished true story

We recently had someone send us an email that asked us just why we had started this blog and why now. These were very good questions and June knew we absolutely had to answer these for everyone to hear. So, for this next part it will be in first person from the person's point of view of just why this all came to be. No names will be mentioned at any time to protect everyone's anonymity and events mildly altered to give no information away that could cause trouble for anyone.

"It was a great day, a Wednesday if we want to be specific and I was meeting with a couple of my author friends for drinks to discuss life and just generally be social. The sun was out and the day was warm, there was a slight breeze bringing the scent of freshly cut grass right to us as we sat on the patio sipping our various and seriously alcoholic beverages. We were waiting on food to arrive when I get a call.

Excusing myself from the table I step away to take the call. It was not a good call, not in the least. My skin broke out in a cold sweat, my heart and pulse were thundering and I swear there were black spots dancing around my eyes. It was another friend and associate, one that was at a publishing house with me calling, she was in tears. We'd been screwed six ways of Sunday. The absolute worst mistake an author could make had just happened to me and in the blink of an eye I felt like I'd been hit by a speeding train that hadn't quite done the job.

The publisher we were with was in a legal tangle with no end in sight and, therefore, so too were it's authors. Myself and my associate on the phone with me included. Getting all the information from her that I could I thanked her, hung up and stumbled back to the table. Falling into my seat I grabbed my rum and Coke and downed that sucker like I'd just come from the Sahara desert after a month without water. My friends with me were all wearing various looks of concern as I waved down the waiter and asked for another double, hold the Coke.

Once I had the fortifying beverage in hand and half of it down I told them everything. They were all there for me, sympathy and offers to help in any way they could. But how could they? Really, how could these wonderful people help me dig myself out of this pit I find myself in without a rope or even a glimmer of light to guide me? Downing the rest of my drink I sat there staring blankly into space for who knows how long before I snap out of it.

Refocusing on them I look them each in the eye and say, quite clearly this I remember, don't make my mistake. Take this as a lesson for each of you and don't do what I did."

We all took those words to heart and got our friend through the mess that followed that phone call. While there is still a bit of turmoil over it we knew that we had to do something to help other authors out there. Yes there are groups out there already but so many of them are very clinical and slightly off putting in the way they are put together - absolutely NO offence meant to any of these groups, they just aren't the way we felt we had to do this endeavor. We wanted to do something that came from us, from the heart and from real life experiences that we all have had or heard about. So this is why June and the three moderators all got together to do this blog.

While we are all in varying stages of our careers we all felt we had something to offer to new and even established authors who are thinking about moving on or expanding. We can all learn something from one another and that is what this blog and the posts on it are all about. While a lot of our posts are from our own personal experiences, there are other posts that have been inspired by things we've read on various sites or have been triggered by the way someone has said something to us during our day.

So, there you have it, the main (but not only) reason The Unvarnished Author came to be. We hope that you enjoy our blog and please, if you ever have a question, email it to us and we will answer you either directly or if we feel it merits being a post, we'll do one up just like we did here.

The Unvarnished Team, via The Moderator

New FAQ page

Greetings one and all,

You may have noticed we now have a 3rd page added to our site - look at us grow! This is a page of FAQ's that we thought may help you know more about us.

If you too have a question you'd like to see up on the page with our answer email it to us at:  the-unvarnished-author@gmail.com and we will post it up. The FAQ page will grow over time so remember to check it out once in a blue moon.

June Smith, Owner

Contract Information

Since this post kind of hits many of our normal tags from Rules, to Insider Info and even into The Scoop, we felt we'd leave this in the "General" realm and just give it multiple tags.

The below links are from an authors website (Tymber Dalton). Please note: We are NOT promoting her as an author. We are NOT promoting her works by any of her pseudonym's. And we are NOT promoting any of her publishers.

We were pointed toward her by one of our Moderators and, after reading the posts we've supplied links for, felt the need to share them with you. She is quite knowledgeable about contracts as her husband used to practice law and has a few years experience that also allows her to know what she's talking about. Now, she is NOT a lawyer, just married to a man who used to practice law and what she has to say is sound advice but in no way admissible in a court of law. However, if you read through each of the articles we've supplied links for, you will see she has provided quite a bit of information to assist you in untangling the legal web a hokey publisher can weave.

We found the articles detailed, intriguing and with a very unique and informative spin to them. But if you happen to buy her books that's fine too, that's just not the purpose of this post or why we are supplying her links.

Pop Quiz: Contracts

A Bad Publishing Contract Deconstructed, Part 1

A Bad Publishing Contract Deconstructed, Part 2 - The Ugly Truth

A Bad Publishing Contract Deconstructed, Part 3 - The Uglier Truth

And since you may not also remember these other links that she supplied here they are again nice and clear:

The Passive Voice (Contract Counsel)

Writer Beware

Preditors & Editors

Duration of Copyright (USA) things to know and understand

There you have it. Some more information about contracts spelled out in a manner that makes sense for those of us who get the urge to fall asleep the moment we see legal documents. Hopefully this extra information will help you to avoid pitfalls that some of us have had to learn the hard way. Now, one last time, the author that supplied the deconstruct of the contract in question is NOT a lawyer. She has been in the business a while and has a husband who practised law so she is knowledgeable but not, in any way, shape or form a lawyer. If you ever have a question about a contract, ask your own lawyer.

The Moderator

Happy New Year

We at The Unvarnished Author hope you all had a wonderful time saying "goodbye 2013" and "welcome 2014". We definitely did a bang up job ourselves and are now starting to recover from it all.

As we all welcome in 2014 and welcome new people to read our blog we'd like to quickly review our one rule and standards, few though they are. We enforce these with an iron fist and take no prisoners.

• Rule #1: Be nice, if you can't say anything nice do not say anything at all
• All posts are our opinions and only our opinions on the subjects discussed
• We welcome discussion but will not tolerate argumentative behaviour
• Name calling and attacks on people or their opinions are not welcome - will have you banned/removed
• Watch your language - while we may get hot in our posts all comments should be kept cordial and polite
• Have a topic, tip or piece of wisdom you want discussed, email us at: the.unvarnished.author@gmail.com with how you'd like to be recognized (ie: real name or a moniker), note that how you send it to us will be exactly how we place it into the post, no editing provided

And there you have it, our one and only rule and all the standards we expect those who visit us to abide by. They are very simple and shouldn't be that hard to continue to hold to in the New Year. Now, that said, everyone you may return to nursing your hangovers and praying to the porcelain gods.

We'll be back soon with a lot of new and interesting stuff.

June Smith, Owner & The Moderators

Christmas and New Years 2013

As promised, here is our second heads up about this coming holiday season. We the moderators and our owner will be off imbibing to excess and stuff our gullets full of everything and anything we can lay our mitts on. So our posting will come to a near screeching halt.

We will be "off" from December 21, 2013 until January 4, 2014.

If you see a post during this time pray it was before the heavily laced eggnog - we may end up having to clean up all the posts that show up during this time frame, god help us all! So, we the moderators will apologize in advance for anything that we may post during this 2 week period - we're blaming the alcohol right here and right now.

For all our readers we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and wonderful New Years. May you have a chance to spend time with your loved ones, or at least the relatives, your friends and any you care for. DO NOT drink and drive during this season. There is absolutely no reason you need to be a statistic.

Lastly, before we sign off and start into our holiday spirits...

For all those serving in the military, be it American, Canadian, British, Australian, whomever. We salute you and pray you come home soon. No one should be away from their family during Christmas. But, if you aren't able to come home, know that we are all thinking of you and we thank you for sacrificing your time with family so we may have our time with our families. God bless and be safe.

June Smith, Owner & The Moderators

See everyone in the New Year!

Advertising Links

If you haven't yet noticed you will after this post. We've added a new page to our site, one fully and totally dedicated to places for you as an author, new or established, can advertise and promote your books. These include Google+ Communities, Facebook groups and Yahoo! Groups. One of our author friends uses these for all her promotions and advertising each and every month so thanks HJ for the help! We would never have found all of these lol!

Now, you need to remember to check the front page descriptions for these groups to ensure you are in a place you can actually advertise and promote your works in without worry of being in the wrong genre group. Also, read the rules and guidelines of each and every page before you start to advertise and promote and if you have ANY questions, contact the owner or mod off site with a PM (private message). Remember, if you don't know, ask. The owners and mods are willing to help those that ask and don't just assume. Assuming will get you tossed off the list and banned - not a good thing for your reputation.

Anyway, lots and lots of links for you to use. If we come across any more we'll put them up as they come along. Or if you have any you'd like to share with us please feel free to email them to us - sorry, no credit given for these. Our email is:  the-unvarnished-author@gmail.com

The Moderator

A new category - The Scoop

We've tried to figure out where to put a few of the topics and tips we want to share but they really weren't fitting under the other categories so we came up with "The Scoop". This category will be a little more relaxed and should be taken as both a cautionary tale and some comic relief. It will basically cover all the categories we currently have with a twist, gossip darlings, gossip!

Okay, not really ... but sort of.

It's a category that will provide you, as a new author, with some interesting details and nuggets of wisdom that we all wish we'd had when we started out. Sadly we all had to learn the hard way, as with everything else we post on the site, just how naive we all were to begin with. It will cover topics that we just couldn't fit into a category or covered too many of them at once. It will hopefully give you the wisdom you need to never repeat our mistakes and hopefully allow you to step away just a little bit wiser than we weren't at the same point you're in now.

The Moderator

The coming holiday season

As most of you will be doing we, the moderators and owner of the site, will be spending time with our families. There will be a two week period - December 21, 2013 until January 4, 2014 where our posting will be spread out quite a bit. Don't worry, we're just off drinking heavily, eating too much and sleeping really late as we try to survive the annual family get together's and too many activities packed into too few hours. But come the New Year we'll be back in full force to give you more insight into being a new author and how to avoid all the pitfalls we may have found during our first years.

We will post a reminder just before this time period for those that may have missed it this go around. Until then, keep writing and keep reading. No matter what you read or by whom, you can always learn something new about the art that is writing.

The Moderator

Have a voice

Here at The Unvarnished Author we want everyone to have the opportunity to have a voice. So, if you have a topic you'd like us to discuss or have a tip you'd like us to share here on our page, feel free to email us. We're open to ideas for our posts as we sometimes end up stumped for something to talk about. We know, authors who get stumped, shocker right? But it's true. We all hit points where the blank page haunts us and the cursor seems to say "write, write, write!" in a very taunting undertone over and over again and yet, nothing comes out.

Topics and tips should be emailed, not posted in the comments. While we will read each and every comment on the board we're not on here constantly so we might miss something without meaning to. If you are emailing us a topic, let us know your interest or questions about that specific topic so we make sure to cover it fully and not leave you hanging. If you have a tip, make sure you write it out exactly how you want it to appear. All tips will appear as you sent them to us, down to the last period. Let us know the tag you'd like to appear - be it your real name or a pseudonym. We're cool with either but we do want to give credit where credit is due.

We only have one rule for your tips, keep it polite and make sure it's not a rant against ... whatever or whomever. We're here to provide help and perhaps spark conversations that lead to more discussions. Not to goad anyone into an on-line slap down. We do not mention names in the posts, we do not point fingers, we keep everything as general and broad as possible.

So, do you have a tip to share or a topic you want to see written up here? Send it to us at:  the.unvarnished.author@gmail.com and remember to let us know how you'd like to be identified for credit for it. Make sure your subject lines are marked accordingly - Tip to Share or Topic to Discuss depending on what you're sending us.

The Moderator

Welcome to The Unvarnished Author

On this site we will be giving you the completely raw and, as the name says, unvarnished truth about being an author. All the opinions here are ours and ours alone. Everything written is from the personal experiences of published authors.

What we are providing you is advice that, like all advice, should be taken with a grain of salt. Our experiences may not be and, hopefully, never will be, yours. But we've been through this a few times and we want to help new authors looking to be published for the very first time know what to look for when approaching publishers.

We will have lists, tips and random trivia about the world of being an author. It should be taken in the vein we are offering it, as help and not in a hurtful manner. We should also warn you that we all write books ranging from general up to the super spicy erotic so the language, at times, might be more than a PG-13 rating.

That being said, we do have one rule for commenting that all must abide by. And it is:

1) Be nice. Rule of thumb is, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. We live by this. While we may get a little heated we are not going to be attacking authors or publishers - that leads to lawsuits.

So, if you can not play nice with others know that we have a zero tolerance policy here. You will be removed/banned and in all ways sent to the corner if you step over the line. Debates are welcome, conflicts and name calling are not.

That being said, if you have additional tips or something to say that you'd like to see in one of our posts, you can send it to us and we will give you full credit. But it must be constructive, helpful and, unlike us, 120% polite. And we will post it EXACTLY as you send it to us, so make sure you like how it reads, it shall be eternal. We are all here to gain wisdom and help everyone avoid the same pitfalls we all encountered.

So, have something you want to pass along and have forever memorialised on the site, you can send it to our Gmail account at:  the-unvarnished-author@gmail.com and send along the name you'd like it attributed to.

All right, enough of this, I heard a rumor that it's National Cake Day (and even if it's not) I'm going to go and get some cake.

The Moderator