The Yosemite Writer’s Conference August 24-26, 2007 – By Melinda Carroll

“The Yosemite Writers Conference is the best I’ve seen. You’ll find a terrific selection of publishers, agents and writers from which to learn. The conference participants are bright, serious and ambitious. All this, taking place in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, makes the Yosemite Writers Conference a dazzling boost to writers of all levels.”
--T. Jefferson Parker

The Yosemite Writer’s Conference last year was by far the most rewarding experience I’ve had as a writer. I was inspired. I learned so much about the publishing industry and about writing. I met and connected with so many wonderful writers and publishers including: Bonnie Hearn Hill, Cindy Wathen, Carole Sargent and Malcolm Margolin and so many more.

Noveltown’s own N.L. Belardes will be speaking at this year’s Yosemite Writer’s Conference. I managed to get him to sit still long enough to answer a few questions about the upcoming conference.

Here’s the interview:

Noveltown: N.L. I hear that you are going to be speaking at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference in August. Are you planning on teaching everyone the ins and outs of maintaining a controversial media blog?

N.L.: For those of you who don’t know. I’m getting interviewed by Matildakay. My hands are sweaty. Gulp. Oh, the conference? Blogging? Actually I will talk more about blogging in general, though media blogging will be included. I want to let people know how to get started, and how they can utilize their writing talents as a kind of community service rather than just an online journal. It will be a discussion rather than a lecture. We’ll talk about some of the leading blogs, what they do, and about myspace too.

I’m hoping by the time the conference comes that Noveltown will have 10,000 friends on myspace, and that people I speak to will be able to build some of their own networks with Noveltown already having paved the way a bit.

In a way, myspace is where more of the writers, publishers, bookstores, poets and organizations seem to be congregating. They like blogs, but they love myspace. Though blogs are a cool tool that authors can use to gain web traffic and a potential loyal following.

We hope to literally be hands-on and help writers sign up from the conference.

Noveltown: What topics will you be sharing with the conference attendees?

N.L.: I just asked one of the organizers, Bonnie Hearn Hill about that very question. I offered some panel topics. The conference organizers haven’t released all the titles of the panels… I’ll keep you posted. With that said you can expect industry tips from professionals, writing discussions by authors, and a lunchtime pirate table for any rebel writer wanting to talk shop with me and you, Matildakay. We might even have a flag this year.

Noveltown: Will you have a workshop on drawing bug cartoons?

N.L.: No, but I will be peddling The Noveltown Review at the conference and there’s a bug cartoon in there. When I listen to speakers I do tend to doodle lots of scavenger bugs. It’s a weird habit. If anyone asks at the pirate table, I will teach some bug drawing skills free of charge. I don’t do tattoos.

Noveltown: Will you be talking about Noveltown and Indie publishing companies versus commercial publishing companies?

N.L.: Away from the panels, most likely those conversations will constantly take place. People do need to know Noveltown is searching for authors, about our magazine, and about Indie presses. We’re not setting out to bash commercial publishing. We believe in it. Our magazine captures the spirit of both worlds. But we also believe in the DIY universe. It’s all very much as if Luke Skywalker and a hip Yoda could chill with stormtroopers in a smoky cantina.

Noveltown: Are you taking your pirate gear and will you be attending any swashbuckling pirate meetings again this year?

N.L.: Like I said, a pirate table is a necessity: somewhere you can speak your mind away from all the formalities of the event. Though I hope to sneak into some of the formal tables just to hear Bonnie Hearn Hill talk shop.

Noveltown: What products will you be taking with you and talking about at the conference?

N.L.: Wow, I could answer this so many ways using my lame attempt at comedy. In all seriousness, I will take a computer to show people the media blog and to help people sign up, the Noveltown Review magazine to show the print community side of what we’re building, and my book to promote how we do books and to talk about the fact that we’re looking for an author or two to publish… oh and to promote my own writing some… I’m going to enter their book contest! Sounds fun!

Noveltown: How exciting! Thanks N.L. for a peek at what we have to look forward to at the Yosemite Writer’s Conference in August.

If you want to meet literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is the place to be.

If you want to learn about the many facets of writing in today’s literary world, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is the place to be.

Whether you’re a published author or just realized that you want to be a writer, the Yosemite Writer’s Conference is for you.

Noveltown is going. Are you? Register now online at www.yosemitewriters.com

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2007 Partial List of Presenters

Keynote Speakers: Steve Yarbrough and David Morrell
Literary Agents: Katharine Sands, June Clark, Irene Webb, and Jeffrey McGraw
Magazine Editors From: Sacramento Magazine and Visalia Lifestyle
Editors: Meg Bertini of Dream Time Publishing, Kate Gale of Red Hen Press, Susan Chang of Tar Books, Farrin Jacobs of HarperCollins, Brenda Knight of Weiser Books, Steve Mettee of Quill Driver Books and Word Dancer Press, Melissa Manloe of Chronicle Books
Authors: N.L. Belardes, Hallie Ephron, BJ Taylor and Ginny Rorby
Yosemite Faculty: Rik Bollman, Hazel Dixon-cooper, Bonnie Hearn Hill, John Koontz, Sheree Petree and Cindy Wathen

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Conference details

$370 Early Bird until April 15th
$380 April 16 to May 31
$390 after June 1

Registration fee includes: all workshop sessions Friday and Saturday, continental breakfast, two keynote luncheons and evening reception Friday and Saturday.

The registration fee must be paid in full by check or credit card in order to secure a space for the conference.

Registration fee does not include lodging.

The beautiful Tenaya Lodge is the official conference hotel. When booking your room, be sure to ask for the Yosemite Writers Conference rate of $189 per night. Call (559) 683-6555, 800-635-5807 or log on to tenayalodge.com to reserve your room.

Consultation: Confer with any of the agents or editors at the conference for only $30 per session.

Visit Yosemite Writers online for more details.

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Read Noveltown’s experiences at last year’s Yosemite Writer’s Conference:
By N.L. Belardes
A Writer in Yosemite: Part One
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Two
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Three
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Four
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Five
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Six
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Seven
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Eight

By Matildakay
A great literary weekend
What's your type?
How to Approach a Literary Agent...
The Mary Wong Lee Memorial Scholarship
Malcolm Margolin is Posh
Hanging out with the Pirates of Yosemite and setting the record straight
Kill Your Darlings

Futureproof Author N. Frank Daniels talks about his novel, his DIY journey and more – By Melinda Carroll

In a revealing blog, N. Frank Daniels reflects on his novel Futureproof, which garnered some recognition in 2006 from Entertainment Weekly, New York Press and as being one of the top five finalists for the coveted Needle award on the PODdy Mouth blog (a blog that reviews self published books).

Noveltown reviewed Futureproof last year declaring it: “… a book I consider the most important of 2006. What does his book mean to the average American? Perhaps what Jessica Cutler’s trashy novel Washingtonienne says about the state of America’s post-Millennial sex-warped political machine, N. Frank Daniels society numbing book Futureproof says for an entire generation with slacker origins: there’s a slow numb, what should we do?”

(Read Noveltown’s review of Futureproof and interview with N. Frank Daniels)

Even though Futureproof didn’t win the coveted Needle award Daniels states: “Hope of the American Idol flavor still reigns in my bloodstream. As in, many of the AI runners-up have found record deals despite not having won the title, most notably Jennifer Hudson, who just won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the movie Dream Girls. Not bad for having lost what was surely in her mind her one shot at a career in entertainment. So here's to perpetually crossed fingers.”

Daniels also talks about his DIY journey as a self-published author.

“I had more than five opportunities to sign with top-tier agents in 2006 but in the end chose not to because I was too stubborn and "married" to the book as it is. My rationale was that it wouldn't have been able to gather as much support from readers as it already had if it wasn't good enough to be published as is--with possibly a few minor changes. But when I was asked to change entire story lines and themes, on down to the point of the book in the first place, I respectfully declined. Now I'm not so sure that was the best choice. As a first novel, and as a first time novelist, I should have realized that when one is trying to break into such an exclusive club, one almost always has to compromise.”

The DIY journey involves a labyrinth of decisions that every author has to make. Without a guidebook or the advice of literary agents, DIY authors make these decisions the best they can. They don’t always make the right decisions, but they follow their hearts and their dreams and what they feel best represents their work.

The same can be said of DIY Indie publishers like Noveltown. While there may be more of a guidebook or direction an Indie publisher follows as we learn from the commercial publishing industry and other Indie publishers; the whole idea of DIY or Indie is to carve your own niche and follow your own dream. Noveltown is doing just that.

Daniels garnered advice from established writers along the way including: LA Times Best Seller Brad Listi, Susan Henderson of LitPark and N.L. Belardes of Noveltown among others. In a similar effort, Noveltown is building a literary community befriending the commercial publishing world, Indie publishers and writers. Noveltown wants to be your friend, join us on myspace and on Paperback Writer. We have a lot to discuss.

Daniels DIY journey, which he shared in part on the Nervous Breakdown site, is an important one and one that he’s decided to turn into a memoir. He’s also currently working on a memoir with Deena Neville and a sequel to his novel Futureproof, as well as a complete revamping of his writers collective site RiotLit, which he hopes will be online again soon.

Daniels also recommends a fabulous reading list.

(Read Daniels full blog)

Noveltown is a big supporter of N. Frank Daniels. His work is being featured in our upcoming inaugural edition of The Noveltown Review. He’s a fabulous writer with a DIY riotous attitude that Noveltown loves. If you haven’t read his novel Futureproof yet, you need to buy it.

Literary writing versus Genre writing – By Melinda Carroll

Literary agent Kristin sparked a great conversation among writers when she tried to define the term literary on her Pub Rants blog.

Kristin defines literary as:

“I wish there were a quick and dirty definition I could give you but there’s not. It’s often like porn. I know it when I see it. It’s pretty clear.

I can at least make a stab at defining it though. The term literary refers to the level and quality of the writing. The language itself is art. It also refers to the level of complexity in the story. So works like THE CLOUD ATLAS or GILEAD are definitely literary.

The writing itself has a beauty that’s palpable. Now, these works can also tell a good story (which both do by the way) but when you sit back in awe at the tightness of the writing and the sheer scope encompassed, then you know it’s literary.”

She went on to explain that most genre writing or commercial fiction is not necessarily literary but it could be genre or commercial fiction with literary leanings. Her statements got everyone in an uproar over literary writing versus genre writing.

(Read the full blog and the comments)

Kristin followed up the discussion in another blog post titled: “Literary Can of Worms.”

She states:

“Where in my post do I denigrate genre writers? Simply because I mention that “literary” writing is usually recognizable or defined by level or art of the writing doesn’t mean that genre writers don’t also achieve that. It’s simply that the industry doesn’t DEFINE them as literary. Folks, I don’t make the rules. I simply try and point out that they exist. That there is an expectation an editor has if I pitch a work as literary fiction. They are expecting whatever it is they consider to be literary—and in the way I took a stab at defining.”

(Read the full blog and the comments)

I myself love good literary prose and literary themes. I would agree with her statement: “The writing itself has a beauty that’s palpable.” Even though I read a lot of commercial fiction and women’s fiction I’m always looking for a great literary work of art that just blows me away.

What are your thoughts on literary writing versus genre writing and the labels the publshing world uses to define books?

No matter the genre or label, I think most people want to read good writing. Good writing stands out. And that is exactly what Noveltown is looking for. (Submissions accepted here.)

Booksquare asks: “Do Publishing Houses have a future?” - By Melinda Carroll

Do Publishing Houses have a future? It’s an interesting question. With the wider range of publishing options authors have, Kassia Krozer of Booksquare talks about the future of big publishing houses and how they will have to evolve to compete.

Kassia Krozer writes:

“Most books simply aren’t marketed, at least in ways that impact the reader. Most books are dumped on the market and told to sink or swim.

Publishers will distinguish themselves with editing and marketing skills. Editing, we have decided will gain new importance in the future world — an about-face from today’s bottom-line, shareholder driven model. In a world where anyone can throw up their work, it will be the good stuff (or the most salacious) that attracts a wider audience. We might chide today’s youth for their casual approach to things like punctuation and spelling, but complete sentences and words that are not one step away from initialisms will continue to matter. Good editing will continue to matter.

Marketing, too, will be an asset offered by publishers. As we all know, today, most books simply aren’t marketed, at least in ways that impact the reader. Most books are dumped on the market and told to sink or swim. This is an inefficient way to run a business, but that’s how it’s always been done in publishing, and only the future — that future with more competition and more at stake — will change this. Once committed to the notion of fighting to acquire and retain authors, we believe that publishers will find new and creative ways to market the books these authors write.

Publishers must, necessarily, adapt to new processes to grab an increasingly fragmented audience… We are not sure that publishers — the big entrenched ones — fully understand how to go about this. Time and again, they miss what’s going on, they lack the key ingredient of today’s online culture: authenticity.”

(Read the full article)

Krozer brings up good points. I think this is why more and more authors today are turning to Indie publishers like Noveltown. Indie publishers work more closely with their authors, pay more attention to editing and find creative ways to market books and reach readers. Books aren’t just thrown on the market to sink or swim with Indie publishers like Noveltown. Rather authors and books receive individual attention to make each book as successful as possible when every dollar counts.

Ain’t got that writing feeling? – By Melinda Carroll

You’re a writer, you sit down at the computer to write, but nothing happens. The prose isn’t pouring from your fingertips onto the page. You’re frustrated. You can’t find any inspiration. You’re not motivated. You just don’t feel like writing.

Most writers have experienced a lack of writing energy at one time or another. I know I have. Salon.com has some good advice for writers needing motivation.

“You know, to me it seems possible that all the dire things you imagine could be true, and you could still write. You might very well be lazy, afraid of failure and undisciplined and still write. You might lack the urge and still write. You might not be a writer and still write. After all, a writer is just someone who writes. If you're writing, you're writing. It's a verb.

As a writer, you are dependent on others. Why should you believe that you can write without any external stimulus? If you need to meet with a writers group, enroll in a class, arrange with a mentor or writing friend to share work on agreed-upon deadlines, or if you need to work out a schedule of deadlines with your editor or agent, then please do so. This is often the case. The idea that a writer works only from inner inspiration is, I think, a bit of a romantic myth, rooted in the idea of writer as solitary and mysterious hero. The writer may be that, but he is also a person in a web of community, and he is also fallible. He may be lazy and unable to meet deadlines; he may be, as I am, fearful of completion. So there is nothing wrong with building into your life some structures that compensate for your weaknesses. We are not supermen. We all need a little help.

There will be times that you have to write even though you don't feel like it. In that sense, writing is like your other roles in life: It requires you to do things you don't want to do. You do it because that is your role.”

(Read the full article)

So Writers, treat writing as a role in your life. Something you have to do instead of a talent you use when you feel like it. Writing is a verb after all. And Noveltown is waiting for your finished manuscripts.

Query Letter Dos and Don’ts – By Melinda Carroll

Do you need a query letter? Yes. You do need a query letter when submitting your work to a publisher and/or literary agent. What is a query letter? Simply put, a query letter is your first, best and sometimes only chance to pitch your work to a publisher and/or literary agent, hook them, and make them want to read more. And just maybe publish your work or sign you to their agency.

Pub Rants, a literary agent’s blog, recently gave some don’t tips for query letters.

Don’t #1:

“I just hate when writers highlight (as if this is the main selling point of the query letter) that their work of fiction is based upon their true life story.

Writers are often told “to write what they know.” I’m good with that. But one’s true life story may or may not translate well into fiction.

If the story is amazing, it will stand on its own despite the “true story” declaration. Let the story sell itself. Once taken on by the agent and then sold to a publisher, the true story aspect can then make a good human interest angle for promotion.”

(Read the full blog)

Don’t #2:

“Don’t query for a work you haven’t completed if you write fiction. (Obviously, if you write nonfiction, all you need is a proposal and sample chapters—not the complete manuscript.)

Why? Because if an editor or an agent requests a full, you need to be able to send it.”

Don’t #3:

“If you’re querying, you should be ready to submit sample pages. Period. There’s shouldn’t be any requests such as “can you discard what I previously sent you because I just had an epiphany and I’m rewriting.”

It’s either ready or it’s not.”

(Read the full blog)

This got me thinking about query letters…

Noveltown receives query letters/emails with submissions. Most writers, myself included, do not know how to write the perfect query letter. And query letters are a big deal in the literary world. The Yosemite Writer’s conference even has a query letter contest and workshop.

So how do you write the perfect query letter?

Recipes for Word outlines how to create a novel query letter. A query letter that is:

“A concise, one-page query letter that describes something brief about the novel's plot or distinguishing hook, the genre or category the offering is in, and other titles the author believes comparable. The letter should include basic information about the author, previous publishing credits, previous agent, significant writing awards, education, participation in writing groups, conferences, and any other distinguishing information relevant to his or her profile as an author.

Agents and editors reject ninety-nine percent of all queries submitted to them. What does this mean? It means the minimum quality level acceptable is perfect. I repeat perfect. No mistakes, none, nada, zip. Perfect.”

(Read the full article, which outlines step by step how to write the perfect query letter).

(Use the query word wizard!)

And finally, Be Your Own Editor blog offers ten query letter dos and don’ts tips.

(Read the query letter tips).

So hone your query letters before submitting your work to Noveltown, other publishers and literary agents, you don’t want to end up in the NO pile because of a bad query letter.

The Making of an Indie Press Part One. Is it self-publishing? And what’s the DIY battle in the literary world all about? - By N.L. Belardes

(NOVELTOWN 2.0 is on the way, an entire DIY marketing campaign filled with lights and attention-seeking fanfare… more on that in another post. Coming real soon!)

Self-Publishing Scam Can Hurt Indie Writers

There’s a trend going on in the literary world: Indie writers with books fighting through the masses, swinging as they go. They need you. And Indie publishing companies need support too.

Maybe you’re just a reader who wants to support. Maybe you’re thinking about starting a press. Maybe you’re a writer who wants to get published. What do you do? How do you even start the fight? And what are you fighting for?

If you’re a writer maybe you’re confused. Do you send your book out into the world to slog through commercial publishing rejection swamps? Do you invest your own money in self-publishing? Or, do you take it a step further and go the Indie route: submit or start your own company? What’s the damn difference?

Right away you need to get it straight. I may have published my own novel through Noveltown. But I didn’t use the fly-by-night iUniverse, Authorhouse, or Lola (kings of print-on-demand publishing). I self-published once before and that’s a killer headache unless you’re already famous or have thousands of dollars at hand for a publicist. Even my old agent who died in a car wreck had negative remarks about print-on-demand self-publishing. In 1999 he was on special assignment for ebooks & print on demand publisher, iUniverse. Yet he would call me on the phone and rant and rave about print-on-demand services being a scam.

Why the hell did he do it? He had friends in high places and probably needed a paycheck.

Those places are rape artists, scamming potential self-publishers who waste their money creating a couple of books to throw on a shelf. There’s no marketing involved from the publisher perspective, and it’s a very hard road to even make a splash in the literary community. I learned the hard way by self-publishing The Blimperwhirls. Notice I don’t promote that book on here? Why should I? I see no profits and iUniverse is just a big phony wanting people to invest their money so that print-on-demand houses get fat pockets.

Noveltown, an Independent Literary Publisher

So I took DIY (Do It Yourself) axiom to the next level. I created a company and expanded my vision. Noveltown was born out of the fight to help all Indie people. 99.9999% of the artists Noveltown has promoted are self-starters, self-publishers, self-creators: TOTAL DIY… That’s the media side of Noveltown…

Why do you think I have been talking about World Wide Spies? DIY. The Filthies: DIY.

Noveltown is publishing other authors, that’s the literary side. One of the biggest and most exciting secrets Noveltown entertains is: who will be our next author? Do we even know? YES.

It won’t be me, thank goodness. Lords: Part One was an experiment of the Indie and self-promotional kind. Noveltown had just started out. None of us with Noveltown knew the business. We couldn’t afford to take a risk with anyone else’s book. Who wants a potential flop using someone else’s art? So we used a controversial novel to kick some life into Noveltown and to stir up controversy. It’s done a decent job. We’re ready for the next step: NOVELTOWN 2.0… (More in another post)

Join the Indie Fight


Should we beat ourselves up over books?

Maybe all you know is that you need to join a literary fight somewhere. There’s room for lots more warriors. I can tell you that NOVELTOWN 2.0 will be trying to recruit you all…

But more on the Indie fight…

I’m part of the fight, Noveltown is part of it, LitPark is on board. Many fans and writers we’re affiliated with want to change the literary world as part of an Indie fight to help folks have success in a commercially dominated literary world.

In a way, it’s LIT FIGHT CLUB. Us against them, us against ourselves and the world, us against the spirit of rottenness that’s out there in big lazy television-filled living rooms that says: books are boring, pass the potato chips, send me the football stats and throw me the remote control.

Why spend all your time watching TV when you can spend your time creating change?

It’s not just a music revolution out there. Indie houses are making waves because of the ability to pay attention to marketing one book at a time.

Fighting to Reach the Few Readers in the World


This can't feel good for very long... or can it?

The Noveltown blog is part of a fight to gain readers for literary fiction and non-fiction in general (not to mention music, the arts, etc). When a mere 3% of the population is interested in books, something has gone wrong. Is it with you? With me? With our parents? With my parenting? With our ability as a society to read?

Axioms I seriously live by:

1. If you want attention, start a fight - Blanksy.

2. When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something. - Robert Browning, 1855

3. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time. - Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 3

4. I just don't want to die without a few scars. - Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 6

5. Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion. - Jack Kerouac

The Physical Making of a Company Through Building a Book

Noveltown finally took shape in 2005 when we decided to go forth experimenting with publishing Lords: Part One. We figured it was a hot topic, that the book could be utilized to raise capital to publish other writers.

Which writers?

You’ll see.

The process was tough. But we thought: doable.

We had to figure out how big the book would be. We used a copy of Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Angels we had lying around. 5 inches by 7.75 inches looked good for several reasons: It was smaller than the 6 x 9 print-on-demand scam format, and we thought it a good size for the page count we had.

But where to print? What kind of paper? 2-color? 4-color process print job? Grayscale? What kind of paper for the cover? How did we buy a bar code and ISBN number?

We started talking to friends in the industry and were finally recommended a printer out of China. We decided grayscale was a good choice since the cover was a foggy depiction of youth gone wrong.

What about design layout? We used Adobe InDesign and mimicked layouts from favorite books. I took the cover photograph in a living room with a fog machine blasting mist into the photo’s surreal textural background. The camera was a wimpy off-brand digital piece of crap. Yet the photo works. We think it’s a good cover.

Paper is always a tough issue. We went with a nicer stock. We found out how to buy bar codes and ISBN numbers from friends in the publishing industry. Easy enough.

Money for publishing?

Money is money and is tough to come by when you’re only three people in Bakersfield with a literary vision of a publishing company. Especially with an Indie publishing company. A few people accused Noveltown of being a vanity press, or self-publishing whores—the works. Some idiots still don’t know the difference and yet are DIY themselves. As if DIY can’t affect books. DIY isn’t just about music, theatre, fine art. It’s about all the arts. Every self-publishing accusation I read has stemmed from disgruntled readers of the controversial media blog, Paperback Writer.

So, is Noveltown a real company?

Yes. Does Lords: Part One have an ISBN number and Bar code? Yes.

And yet, early battles on the Paperback Writer blog took place as a defense for local artist self starters, self-publishers. I’d love to see the stats on how many musicians out of cities like Bakersfield are actually signed to a music label? I’m guessing 99.99% of all Bakersfield bands have burned CDs out of their living rooms and spent their own money having albums professionally made.

We’re still learning and have a long way to go.

So we scraped up and fronted most of the cash. I sacrificed getting a car so I could follow the Noveltown dreams. A few hundred trickled in from friends.

Thank goodness chingpea and Matildakay are part of Noveltown.

That makes three people in the fight. They help promote, make phone calls, do the accounting, and pick me up when I’m fighting and slogging through the blogosphere.

I said it was lit fight club, right?

We’re still find answers and solutions to the complex process of creating and selling books.

Solutions and answers for a young company: You!

We’re getting somewhere. Last year we converted the Paperback Writer blog to the official blog of Noveltown. It was a marriage waiting to happen.


Samurai swords, boxing gloves, a blog and books... that's us!

That’s risky in itself: a business with a controversial blog. We didn’t want to keep the two separated anymore, especially after Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Books called the Paperback Writer blog the “Paris of the Central Valley.”

That’s a big compliment and tells us that both the blog and Noveltown are going in the right direction.

Literary agent Erin Hosier of the The Dunow, Carlson, & Lerner Literary Agency recently wrote in an email:

“Paperback Writer is by far my new favorite... I am so impressed with the loyalty of its readers and the conversation Paperback Writer generates. So good for books.”

Did you catch that? It’s the community of readers who enjoy the blog and the books. That’s you. You make the idea of Noveltown work and we appreciate you.

Erin just sent me a new book to review. I can’t wait to dig in. And I can’t wait to write about NOVELTOWN 2.0. It’s all about you and community making a difference.

After all, I believe books are one of the deepest part of our cultural lifestyle that we can embrace.

We have to sell our stock of books to build our niche of Independent literature in Bakersfield. That means we need your help. Will you tell a friend? Will you help? Ask us how and give feedback by leaving a comment.


Help us grow so we can publish our next book!


More on Indie presses in part two: NOVELTOWN 2.0…

New Noveltown contests are on the way? - By N.L. Belardes

Bakersfield's Indie press, Noveltown (That's us) is gearing up for some cool contests. Get ready. Get your thinking caps on. Get your game on... Keep checking the Noveltown site for details... go there now for some hints...

You ready?

-n.l.