Fact of Fiction -- Choosing Your Setting

By Leeann Betts

So you have a great idea for a book. You’ve done some character sketches. You know where the story is going. The only thing that’s left, apart from the writing, is to decide where to set your book.

Your hometown? No, too many people know you there. That little town where you went on vacation last year? You loved the soda shop, the green grocer’s on the corner, the barber with the cool twirling red, white, and blue sign. And what about the man at the post office? All the stories he told you about bank robbers and--wait a second. Was the main street through town called Main Street? Too boring. You want a street name that goes with the title of your book. Something more literary, more foreshadowing.

Scrap that town.

But wait a minute. Maybe not. Maybe that town is perfect. Except for the Main Street thing. And the fact that Pelican Lane--perfectly aligned with your book’s character arc, by the way--runs the wrong direction.

What’s a writer to do?

Simple. Do what you do best. Make up a town. Sure, draw from this town that you liked so well. But give it a new name. And while you’re at it, maybe it needs to be in another state.

I choose to set all my books in fictional towns for a couple of reasons. I don’t want to be constrained by what a real setting would be, and I like to make things up.

Blame it on the writer in me.

Here’s how I come up with the name of a town:

1. I look at my book and my title and come up with something that goes with it. For example, in my latest Carly Turnquist mystery, Five and Twenty Blackbirds, Carly and Mike are at Mike’s college reunion in Raven Valley, AZ. The college team mascot is a blackbird, so Raven Valley was pretty close.
2. I checked to make sure there wasn’t a Raven Valley, AZ by searching on the Internet.
3. I looked at towns near my desired setting and saw how they were laid out. I did this by some actual visits to the area, and you can also go on Google Maps and look at the Earth View of addresses in the real town.

So go ahead. Put on your thinking cap. And make up a town. Or a city. Or an entire world.

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Leeann Betts writes contemporary suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, pens historical suspense. No Accounting for Murder and There Was a Crooked Man, books 1 and 2 in her By the Numbers series, released in the fall of 2015. Book 3, Unbalanced, released in January. Book 4, Five and Twenty Blackbirds, is released in April, with more planned for later dates. If you like accountants or are an accountant, check out Counting the Days: a 21-day devotional for accountants, bookkeepers, and financial folk. Leeann and Donna have penned a book on writing, Nuggets of Writing Gold, and Donna has published a book of short stories, Second Chances and Second Cups. You can follow Leeann at www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com and Donna at www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com  All books are available at Amazon.com in digital and print, and at Smashwords.com in digital.

Why Digital First?

By Leeann Betts

There is much discussion in the publishing world about whether e-Publishing is “real publishing” or not. And it seems that the answer to that question depends on which side of the publishing desk one is sitting.

With the marked growth in Amazon, Nook, Smashwords, and other e-publishers, “digital first” has become a way for independent authors to publish their books, get their names in front of readers, and create a selling history in the hopes of attracting a traditional publisher.

Here are the steps I took to e-publish my first two books.

1.     Polish the book—regardless whether the book is available in print or digitally, put your best foot forward. Readers know bad writing, and they won’t buy another book with your name on it, even if they only have to pay 99 cents for it. And they’ll tell all their friends not to buy.

2.     Do the legal stuff—if you don’t have a business name, set one up. I set up a separate entity with a name that looked like a publishing company, because e-publishing is still publishing.

3.     Copyright is the right thing to do—register your book. Wait until you have the final version, because once you upload the manuscript, any change made to the title, author, or body of the book will require you to register—and pay for—another copyright. You can do this at www.Copyright.gov

4.     Buy the ISBN—this is the unique identifier for your book. Even an e-Book needs an ISBN. The good news is that you can use the same ISBN for each digital version of the book. You buy these at www.Bowker.com . I bought the (gulp) package of 100 ISBN’s. I dream big.

5.     Decide where you want to release the book—Amazon.com is the largest e-Book retailer, but there are others. Nook and Smashwords are two I chose in addition to Amazon. If you work on a Mac, you can also publish to the Apple store. Each venue has advantages and disadvantages. Smashwords lets you put out a coupon. All of these venues will allow you to upload the manuscript in advance of the actual launch date. Try different options for different books and see what works best for you.

6.     Design a cover—I made the decision early to design my own cover. I took high quality photographs, about 20 of them, from different angles, positioning the elements in the photos in different positions, then chose the one I liked best, using Photoshop to design the cover. I plan to use the same cover on the print version when that time comes.

7.     Tell everybody—create a group in your email program of everybody who might be remotely interested in your book or will tell others about your book. Then send an exciting call-to-action email to them.

Hopefully, all this hard work will result in a best seller and the phone will start ringing from publishers. But even if it doesn’t, you will have the satisfaction of answering in the affirmative when someone asks, “A writer? Are you published?”

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Leeann Betts is the alter ego of Donna Schlachter. Both live and write in Denver, Colorado. Leeann writes contemporary suspense, while Donna pens historical suspense. When they aren’t coming up with another story that involves a body in a closet or an ax murderer on the loose, they can be found at www.LeeannBetts.com, www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com, www.HistoryThruTheAges.com, or www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter. WRITING AS LEEANN BETTS: Counting the Days: a 31-day devotional for accountants,bookkeepers, and financial folk and No Accounting for Murder, Book 1 of By the Numbers series, recently released as an eBook at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Smashwords.com. RECENTLY RELEASED BY DONNA SCHLACHTER: Second Cups and Second Chances – sweet stories of second chances from a God of second chances. Available at Amazon.com and Kindle KDP Select.