Cover Design: E-book vs. Paperback

Farsighted will be coming out in paperback soon, and I'm thinking hard about its cover. Paperback book covers have to perform different jobs than Kindle covers. They don't necessarily have to look great on screen, although it sure doesn't hurt. They also require more copy. I've been looking at the covers of books in my house to see which ones I like best.

Check this one out:

It's simple, which I really like, and there are graphics on the front, the spine, and the back. However, I think the back of this cover is underutilized. The back is a great opportunity for marketing. Generally speaking, people picking up a book in a bookstore first look at the front cover, and then they turn it over to look at the back before they open it up. If the back cover is gripping and intriguing, there's a better chance that they'll continue investigating it and possibly even BUY it.

Here's an intriguing back cover:

The text boxes mimic the shape of the honeycomb, and the cover designer has included a teaser and endorsements. Very well done.

Of course, if I'm feeling vain, I could try a back cover that looks something like this:

I wonder if I could pull off that scholarly profile pose. There's only one way to find out. ;)

Infographic: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money

Are Bitcoins Worth the Risk?

Sean Gallup / Getty Images

No matter how you feel about the bitcoin phenomenon, the existence of this alternative currency tells us something about the current economic environment we're living in. There are people waiting on a list to buy bitcoins, no matter what the coins' value is when the waitlisters arrive at the top of the list. At the beginning of the year, you could buy a bitcoin for $13.51. Last week (a mere 3 1/2 months later), bitcoins were trading for $266.

Buying bitcoins is risky, but many people consider are considering the risk to be worth it, especially after governmental fiascos like the one we saw in Cyprus just weeks ago. With governments behaving in such desperate and erratic ways, people are looking for a currency that is beyond the greedy reach of their lawmakers, something they can count on to take care of themselves. And yet, are bitcoins the best way to address these problems?

This is why bitcoins make me nervous:

• No government legally compels anyone to accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services, so you may or may not be able to use them when you need to.
• You have to trust unregulated institutions with your credit card information when you purchase bitcoins. This seems like a perfect set-up for fraud and identity theft.
• You have to trust a cryptographic network using computer technology that I will probably never understand.
• There's no guarantee that the existing bitcoin system will continue to honor future purchases or trades.
• Governments could intervene and render bitcoins worthless (like if the U.S. makes their possession illegal)
• The anonymous creator has mysteriously "moved onto other projects." 
• Bitcoins are highly vulnerable to theft since they're untraceable.

So that's why I'm not a big fan of bitcoins. That doesn't mean I don't own any myself, but I'm not going to make them a big part of my overall financial plan.

When it comes down to it, my 401k makes me pretty nervous sometimes, but my real estate never does. For more information about investing, check out Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money. I won't steer you wrong.

Minimalist Cover Art

Why is minimalist cover art surging in popularity right now? I have a theory. I think that there's so much information out there and so many images vying for our bleary, weary eyes that we're all craving something restful. Something simple. Something harmonious and serene like these fantastic examples of minimalist cover art that I've found for you to rest your tired eyes on. Enjoy.

Interview with LDS Author Amber Gilchrist

I had the good fortune to interview Amber Gilchrist, author of Glitch, an LDS romantic comedy. She's funny; you'll like her. Here's a peek into this LDS author's writing world:

What made you start writing for the LDS audience?

I've always been a writer and when i joined the church in 1993 at the age of 18 I started writing LDS books immediately, but I only finished one all the way through and it was ridiculously over dramatic and not worth following through, though I may rewrite it some day.  Over the years, I've started several LDS books, most of which are probably half finished.  I've been working on my career as a YA writer, but now I love to use NaNoWriMo to write LDS books just for something different.

Do you think there is any subject matter that is off-limits to LDS authors?

Uh...exotic dancing bar owners who set fire to elementary schools?  Unless, of course, they're taking the lessons and then that would probably be okay too haha.  

How would you write differently if you were writing for a general audience?

Well, I do also write for a general audience.  I write upper YA, for teenagers over the age of 16 or so, and for adults I write series mysteries.  I think the only real difference is that the LDS books have characters who allow me to explore the day to day life of an LDS person.  Religion is rarely mentioned in my other books. 

Do you write from an outline? Or do you start writing and see where the story takes you? Or some other method?

I'm definitely a panster to start.  I think about my characters and then I just let them tell me their story.  Now, if the story starts to drag, usually towards the second part of the middle chunk, I might very vaguely plot out the rest to both avoid a sagging middle and to make sure that everything pulls together at the end.  

Do you think independent publishing will change LDS literature?

You know, I really do.  There's very few LDS publishers and most of them publish the same kind of thing.  Anyone who still has a good story to tell, but colors a little outside of the lines had no chance before.  For those of us who are generally unimpressed with the more dramatic style of traditional LDS novels, indie published books are a breath of fresh air. 

You can catch Amber on Twitter (@amber_gilchrist) or on her website. I agree, LDS indie published books are a breath of fresh air.

What's Wrong with Multi-level Marketing?

In some areas of Mormondom, MLM companies and distributors are as ubiquitous as CTR rings and minivans. In areas like these, it's not uncommon to be approached by home teachers, visiting teachers, and other people in your ward about joining up. If multi-level marketing is the win-win situation many people tout it as, what's wrong with multi-level marketing?

Nothing, if you don't mind being a pawn in someone else's money-making scheme while you barely scrape by yourself. The danger is that you won't be told the real deal up front. Instead, you'll be given visions of grandeur. Writing for Forbes, Donald Frazier says, "some MLMs amp it up with messianic language and a powerful sense of purpose and community so that IRs stick with it to be loyal and keep friends, even when losing money."

For example, Bountiful-based ARIIX distributes dietary supplements through its multi-level marketing network, but the company's vision is "to unleash the human potential for good." Who wouldn't want to be a part of such a mission. Their website elaborates a little on this vision: "Our desire is to contribute to the greater good of every person we encounter because we believe that each one of us is linked together for a specific purpose." It's exceedingly difficult to find out how much you can make by selling ARIIX products. On the compensation page, you're told, "The possibilities are endless for what you can attain with the Activ8 Compensation Plan. by participating in the Activ8 Compensation Plan you will have access to a tool that can make your dreams a reality."

C'mon, seriously? I just want to know how much commission I'll earn when I sell my visiting teachers the Slenderiix weight-loss products because I already told them that "abnormal fat storage resulting from a suppressed metabolism is a disease of deficiency and co-existent toxicity."

It seems like I'm picking on ARIIX, but I'm just using it as an example. If a company is not willing to be up-front about how much the products cost, how much commission you'll make by selling them, or what you can expect from this "job," it's too risky.

Since multi-level marketing is so prevalent in some LDS areas, I've included a whole section of my book, Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money, to explaining its inherent dangers. There are so many legitimate, less-dangerous ways out there for moms to make part-time income from home. You don't have to resort to the confidence-eroding job of selling price-inflated products to your increasingly skeptical friends and acquaintances. Don't be a pawn. Take control.

Saving for LDS Missions

The United States tax code has given its citizens incentives for saving for education and retirement. Section 529 provides tax incentives for saving for college, and 401(k) and 403(b) provides retirement savings benefits. These programs are well known and used by millions of Americans to plan for events that will happen later in life. But there isn't a government-sponsored method of saving for LDS missions, so we have to figure out how to best do that ourselves.

The following are ideas for mission savings that you can use to help your children save for their missions, or they may help you to save for your own mission.

1. Matching Plan. Some employers offer matching plans for their employees' retirement savings. With 401(k) programs, employers can match up to 6% of the employees' earnings and deposit this money in their retirement accounts. When you offer your children a matching plan for their missions, you give them an added incentive, and you also teach them about their future investment strategies. Depending on how old your children are and how much they could potentially earn, you could say, "For every dollar you put in your mission savings account, we'll put in a dollar, too." They'll watch their savings accounts grow faster, which will encourage them to continue working and contributing.

2. CDs. Today's historically low interest rates are great if you're buying a house, but they're not so great if you're trying to save money in a traditional savings account. Today's saving account interest rates don't keep up with inflation, so it's wise to look for another savings vehicle. Certificates of Deposit (CDs) are a good alternative because they have higher interest rates, and you can't withdraw from them until the specified time period has expired. The longer the maturity length, the better interest you'll get. And your child (or you) cannot withdraw the money until maturity, so he won't be tempted to spend it at iTunes.

3. Money Market. Money market accounts are more liquid alternatives to CDs. You'll still get a higher interest rate than you would with a regular savings account, but you can access the money just as you would with a checking account. Money market accounts are a great option for older teens who are approaching mission age and are also learning to use a checking account. Most money market accounts allow you to write checks and use debit cards.

With the new, lowered age requirements for missionaries, starting early with your mission saving has never been more important, and many families will be sending more missionaries now that girls can go at a younger age. For more LDS financial tips, download Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money at Amazon.

How has your family saved for missions?

Free This Weekend at Amazon!

Download your free copy of Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money this weekend. It will be offered free through Monday.

Farsighted isn't one of those finance books that explains the ins and outs of the global economy. It's a down-and-dirty financial guide for Mormon moms in the trenches. It's conversational, to-the-point, and full of practical tips to get you out of debt and to start building a solid foundation for your future.

You'll get down-to-earth advice about the following topics:

• Earning More than You Spend
• Tithing and Charity
• Saving
• Investing
• Keeping Track of it All
• Teaching Kids About Money

Get your free copy today, and please write a review on Amazon after you read it.

Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money

Be the first in your ward to download Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money. In this conversational finance book, you'll learn everything from how to reduce your energy bills to how to invest in real estate. 

Mormon moms face unique financial challenges. In general, they have larger families than their neighbors, but they also have missions to save for and food storage to buy. Most basic of all, they pay tithing before they even begin budgeting for the month. These extra financial considerations require just that--consideration. But don't think you can't thrive. Mormon moms have the talents, the tools, and the moxy to see beyond today's financial temptations and to set their sights on a secure tomorrow for their families.

Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money gives LDS moms a new perspective. Instead of feeling the budget crunch of raising a larger family on less money, it's possible to put your many talents to work and broaden your vision. This book will teach you how to earn more than you spend, budget effectively, save and invest, and keep track of your finances like the pros.

Farsighted will be free on Amazon over the weekend. Download your copy here!

Release Date: January 18

My next book, Farsighted: The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money, will be released this Friday, January 18th. It will be available for free on Amazon over the weekend, so download your copy this weekend.

The Mormon Mom's Guide to Money can help you with the following topics:

Earning
Budgeting
Housing
Saving
Investing
Giving to Charity
Organizing Finances
Teaching Kids about Money

I'll post the link to Amazon's listing on Friday. Don't miss it!

Upcoming Title: An LDS Financial Book

I'm finishing up a non-fiction book about managing LDS finances. If you're Mormon, you know that you probably handle your money a little different from your non-LDS friends. After all, you pay tithing, and that eats up a sizable chunk of your income right there. You probably pay fast offerings and other charitable contributions.You may also save for kids' missions or possibly for your own. These are expenses that most Americans don't think about, and yet there's a tendency for we Mormons to compare our own financial situations to our neighbors who are living different financial lives.

Fortunately, there are many things we can do to create a sound financial foundation for our families. What are some of the strategies you have used to live within your means and save for a rainy day?

7 Free LDS Kindle Books at Amazon

Looking for some no-cost reading for the holidays? These free LDS novels will keep you reading all month long while you spend your money on gifts for other people.

• Parakeet Princess by Jandy Branch. This teen novel is set in the early 1990s, so adults will also enjoy reminiscing about their own high school days.
• He Loves Me Not by Christine Kersey. Mysterious notes warn college student Lily Jamison to stay away from a handsome man.
• Cloak by James Gough. Teens will enjoy Gough's quick-moving fantasy adventure set in New York City.
• Altercation by Tamara Hart Geiner. Suspenseful young adult story involving murder, the FDI, and nefarious kidnappers.
• A Single Choice by Juliet Ashwell. Stephanie fall in love but has to decide whether or not to follow her lifelong goal of marrying in the temple.
• Worlds Without End: The Mission (Book 1) by Shaun Messick. The Mars I shuttle has long since disappeared when NASA receives a mysterious message from the commander of the mission. This is the story of the rescue mission.
• Reigning Cats and Dogs by Jane McBride. With the upcoming wedding and grand opening of Ann's pet store, the tangle of relatives and car burglars really make for a hairy adventure.

Enjoy these free LDS e-books from Kindle!

Last Entry First on Kindle

If you're looking for a heart-warming read for the holidays, check out Last Entry First at Amazon. It's just $.99 for the Kindle version, and if you have Amazon Prime, you can borrow it for free.

Spend some time with characters who face their challenges head-on, with warmth, compassion, and courage.

Writer's Block

Writer’s Block.

You had a good story idea. Really you did. But now, after 18,253 words (but who’s counting?) it just seems so—dull. How do you get your story going again?

1.       First off, if it seems dull to you, then it’s dull and it needs some shaking up. Are your characters too nice? Are your scenes too normal? People like to relate to settings and characters, but they don’t want to read about something that’s exactly like their own lives.

2.       Spin away from your original line of thought. Maybe your characters need to go somewhere else. Maybe they need to meet a new character who will shake things up. Maybe your main character needs a different past, a sinister step-father, a handy secret.

3.       Watch a movie. I know—this sounds like a way to procrastinate. But if you watch a movie—and not just any movie but a movie outside your normal entertainment realm—you’ll get some new ideas.

4.       Or read some poetry. I picked up African American Poetry for Children on tape the other day and started listening to it during my commute. Fantastic stuff! Langston Hughes’ metaphors and Countee Cullen’s descriptions of people really got my mind churning and thinking of new scenes.

5.       Remember that your rough draft is just clay. Somebody told me once that the rough draft is just making clay. After you have the clay you can start sculpting, but that doesn’t happen until you have enough clay. You can—and you must—go back and revise later. So don’t be intimidated. Clay is supposed to be ugly, right?

Lost Languages: Do We Need Them?

In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago I asked a question about language. I framed it something like this: “Why was it so important to preserve the language of Lehi’s fathers that they had to go back and get the plates?” Most of the class looked at me funny and then several people patiently explained that without the written word they wouldn’t be able to read the scriptures and their history would be lost.

Which wasn’t exactly what I was getting at. I’ve been reading A Little Book of Language by David Crystal, and it’s a fantastic book—really well written and interesting. According to Crystal, there are about 6,000 languages in existence today. Two thousand of those are spoken in Africa. A language disappears (meaning the last native speaker dies) about every three weeks. So over the next couple hundred years, thousands of languages will be lost—just as Lehi’s language was lost long ago.

Despite the fact that languages disappear with the last native speaker, people on Earth continue to be able to communicate with one another. If we were to map out the development of languages, I wonder if we would start with one or just a handful of languages, and if they would spread out like a huge tree from there, and if now those branches are being whittled down to just a handful or possibly just one language at the other end.

If I were one of the few last English speakers in the world, would I fight to keep it alive, or would I adopt the more widely-used,  influential language around me? I’m not sure. But where Nephi and Lehi and their families were going, was there already a language in use? Why not just use that one?

William Hamblin of BYU’s FARMS department explains that there were several “reformed Egyptian” languages and scripts as people mixed their own alphabets and hieroglyphic characters with others in the search for an efficient and easy way to keep records. I wonder what Lehi’s reformed Egyptian looked like. Would Mormon have been able to understand centuries of writings? I have a hard time reading some things that were written in English hundreds of years ago. That must have been some job.

Motifs from the Life

I read an article in the Denver Post yesterday about pop culture’s strange impressions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It turns out that the Book of Mormon Musical isn’t the only theater production right now that features Mormons.

Ray Mark Rinaldi, in his article “See You Latter: Sorting Out Pop Culture’s Weird Take on Mormons” quotes some lines from Denver Center’s hit play The Whale, and they’re not very nice quotes—if you’re a Mormon, that is. Rinaldi says that audiences think they’re downright hilarious.

Now, I like to laugh about Mormon culture quirks as much as the next guy, but it seems to be open season on Mormons right now, and it can get a little uncomfortable. Here’s Rinaldi’s summary of current productions focused on the church: “In each case, Mormon doctrine is twisted, turned or selectively emphasized by non-Mormons in the name of art. And while some individual Mormons in these pieces turn out sympathetic once we get to know them, the overall Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints itself is rarely redeemed.”

What do we LDS writers and artists do with this current pop culture climate? Is there a place for sympathetic Mormon characters created by Mormons? Or does that look like propaganda in the marketplace. Certainly, other religious authors have been “allowed” to create their own sympathetic characters. Shmuel Agnon won the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people.” Will the Nobel committee ever appreciate motifs from the life of the Mormon people? It’s hard to imagine.

The Original Book of Mormon Musical by B.H. Roberts

As I write this in Denver today, there’s a full-page, section-leading article in the Denver Post about the Book of Mormon Musical because tickets for the Denver shows are going on sale this weekend. The Book of Mormon Musical creators are from Colorado, so they’re starting their tour in their own backyard.

People have called the Book of Mormon Musical“groundbreaking,” but it’s really not because B.H. Roberts, a nineteenth-century LDS historian, wrote a novel called Corianton, which is based on the Book of Mormon way back in 1902, more than a hundred years ago, and this novel was turned into a Broadway show. Granted, Roberts’ musical wasn’t called the Book of Mormon Musical—it was called An Aztec Romance—but he got there first. You can read B.H. Roberts’ Corianton at Project Gutenberg for a glimpse of very early LDS lit.

Of course, where Matt Stone and Trey Park sprinkle expletives, B.H. Roberts sprinkles verses of scripture, so we’re talking a very different genre. But Roberts’ fiction-turned-Broadway has high drama, conflict, and even a female character named Joan, which doesn’t sound terribly Book of Mormon-ish. She’s lovely, though—sweet voice, Nephite heritage, slightly sarcastic, interesting (“And with this tantalizing witchery she left him”). One wonders what Roberts would have named Nephi's wife. Pam? Sylvia?

If LDS fiction—not the biting, patronizing kind, but the sincere kind—made it to Broadway 110 years ago, certainly there’s room today. Who’s going to write the next episode of Corianton and Joan’s adventures? 

E-books and LDS Lit

How will e-books change the face of LDS literature?

Since its inception, there have been only a handful of LDSpublishers, and they’re general run on shoestring budgets because the readership of LDS fiction is so small. Because of this, the books themselves are expensive, and the quality of cover design, page set-up, and so on is sub-par, compared with books produced by publishers with national reach.

Also, self-published books have never garnered the respect that traditionally published books have held because there’s no filter for self-published books. There are no editors to sift through the heaps of manuscripts and pick the very best.

But now we have e-books and Kindles, and I have a feeling that LDS literature is going to be blessed--as we would say at church--by these developments. Distribution can be much wider, and cover and page set-up quality will not be as important. There will be lots of mediocre e-books out there, to be sure, but some will rise to the top, and we’ll get to hear some new voices and maybe even some new styles and themes.

It’s an exciting time to be writing and reading in Mormondom.

Written in journal entries, letters, and notes, Last Entry First explores what can happen when very different people end up in the same place. Their crossing lives make lasting impressions on each other, for better or worse.

Annie Smith moves from Provo, Utah, to Seattle, Washington, where her husband will attend graduate school. Their moving van burns up somewhere in Idaho, and all they have left are the meager belongings in their small, old car.

Jane Watley, a 14-year-old wannabe detective, spends her free time spying on her neighbors, family, and ward members. She soon finds out, however, that there are things she doesn't want to know, but it's too late to avoid getting involved.

Courtney Williams, a young woman from a difficult background, has become involved in addictions beyond her control. But then she meets a boy who seems to see the real her, and she wonders if it isn't too late to straighten out her life and be the girl she really wants to be.

Join these characters for a journey that will change all of them forever. You can buy the Kindle version of Last Entry First at Amazon for just $.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Entry-First-ebook/dp/B006ON3HM0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326918648&sr=8-1