Featured Author: Darryl Bollinger

Posted on by Admin

Meet Darryl Bollinger, an award-winning author of seven medical thrillers. The richness of detail in his books can only come from someone who spent twenty-eight years working in the health care industry. It’s a field that touches all of us from time to time — and this author has collected a lot of juicy stories to tell.

The Healing Tree was inspired while Darryl and a friend were walking in the woods near his North Carolina home. He says:

I was halfway through the first draft of what, at the time, was going to be book number seven. On a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a friend mentioned that he had a great idea for a book. “What if someone hiking in the park discovered a tree that was thought to be extinct?” he asked. As ideas tend to do, this one reached out and grabbed me. By the time we finished the hike, I’d sketched out a story. I shelved my then-current work-in-progress and immediately started writing The Healing Tree.

Plants as Medicine

Most good novels contain some fascinating research and this one is no exception:

Since the Cherokee Indians are so much a part of this area, I wanted to incorporate them accurately and respectfully. I probably read four or five books on the Cherokee and their history and visited the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, NC. (Highly recommend!)

The Healing Tree is based on the premise that the Cherokee know about the healing tree and its properties, so Darryl also delved into how plants are used for medicinal purposes. His local bookstore, Blue Ridge Books, recommended a great book on the subject: Plants of the Cherokee by William H. Banks.

How Far Would You Go?

We asked Darryl what he would like readers to take away from The Healing Tree.

First, the question of “how far would you go to save the life of a loved one?” Justin Reeve, my protagonist, faces this question a number of times. His sister is dying and conventional treatment is not working. He desperately wants to save her, but at what risks? What compromises will he be willing to make?

The second takeaway is the realization that our health care system is driven by money and greed. As a country, we spend twice as much per capita as the next closest country, yet our outcomes are in the middle of the pack at best.

A Long Time Coming

Like many of us, Bollinger had an interest in writing from an early age.

I’ve always loved reading fiction. As a child, it was an escape. I tell people that it took me over twenty years to finish my first book which, by the way, is still unpublished. I didn’t have the confidence to try to make a living writing, and went into a business career instead. So, I was a “closet” writer for those twenty years.

When I finally retired, my wife challenged me to give writing my undivided attention. That was when I finally finished my first novel. I realized it wasn’t ready for prime time, so I put it in the file cabinet and started on The Medicine Game, which became my first published novel.

When asked about his writing inspirations, Darryl took the difficult step of limiting it to three.

Ernest Hemingway. I love his brevity and concise prose. Every word in his writing counts.

John Updike, probably one of America’s greatest writers—a writers’ writer. One of only four to have won two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction, he also wrote non-fiction, short stories, poetry, stories… everything.

Michael Crichton. Brilliant. An M.D., author, and filmmaker. He always started with a kernel of truth and then wrapped an incredible story around that core. Like Jurassic Park. The kernel of truth was dinosaur DNA found preserved in amber. I give Crichton credit for my belief that my books are fiction rooted in reality.

Finally, loyal readers will be happy to know that Darryl has picked up the manuscript he put on hold when he began to work on The Healing Tree.

It’s called The Treatment Plan. My last two books are set in North Carolina, but I’m going back to Florida for this one. When a stranger asks for help in finding his daughter who has been kicked out of a drug treatment center for non-payment, a reluctant ex-federal agent must battle a corrupt health care company to save her and prevent more victims

To receive updates about author friends and their work be sure to subscribe to the Amelia Indie Authors newsletter. Learn more about Darryl and his work at http://darrylbollinger.com

Want to help spread the word about this talented #indieauthor? It’s easy to tweet.

The premise of The Healing Tree by Darryl Bollinger came on a hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. “What if someone hiking in the park discovered a tree that was thought to be extinct?” Click To Tweet

The Healing Tree by Darryl Bollinger looks at area customs.“Since the Cherokee Indians are so much a part of this area, I wanted to incorporate them accurately and respectfully.” Click To Tweet

What would @DarrylBollinger like readers to take away from The Healing Tree? First, “how far would you go to save the life of a loved one?” What risks would you take? What compromises would you make? Click To Tweet

grayscale photo of man standing while writing in book

The Sell Sheet: Why You Need a Resume for Your Book

Posted on by Admin

What’s a Sell Sheet and why do you need one?

One of the ways people get to know authors is through our resumes. When dealing with large book shows, retailers and library lists authors are fortunate that we can develop resumes for our books, as well.

Just like a ‘help wanted’ posting can generate a great deal of incoming correspondence there are times that bookstore owners and other large buyers receive a major inflow of catalogs and other information about new releases. A good sell sheet is a whole lot easier to scan through than an entire catalog and, as with any sales effort, our job is to make the buyer’s job as easy and hassle-free as possible.

The author sell sheet is an important tool in your book sales arsenal. Sometimes called a one-sheet or a sales flier, it contains — on a single page — all a bookseller (or buyer) needs to know about your book.

Of course that’s something that could come in handy for individual readers, too. You might consider creating two versions: one for booksellers that has a broad, industry focus, and another for consumers that has a slightly different approach for individual readers at book festivals, book clubs and other general uses.

In any case, this is a place to put your best foot forward. Sometimes authors are reluctant to engage in their own marketing so we will remind you to include a clear call to action.

The purpose of either version of your sell sheet is to encourage the reader to order the book.

What information helps book buyers to make a decision?

Your sell Sheet Should include…

Overview: book title, subtitle, author and/or other contributor, logline, and a brief description (no more than 150 words)
High resolution book cover image
Book identification information: ISBN, category, formats available with price information for each, trim size and page count of print version, publication date, rights available, distributor or direct sales information
Reviews: one or two short quotations from your best reviews
Comparables: any competitive information to help show where your book fits into the market (particularly helpful for bookstore managers and agents)
Author bio and high resolution headshot: Include credentials, awards or other information that supports your work and/or subject area expertise
Marketing: Events, tours or advertising campaigns from which a bookseller could benefit
Publisher, logo and contact information

What if your Sell Sheet works?

What if they like it? Of course they’re going to like it — so getting ready for when your sell sheet draws some interest is your next step.

You may be contacted and asked for additional information. For this happy occasion, you should be ready with a packet of more detailed information including:

A more detailed author bio
Audience profile: Who is your ideal reader? Include gender, age, geography, prevalence, etc. Whatever you do, please do not pitch your book as one “for everybody.” That most often leads to “for nobody.”
Excerpts from the book that are representative of its style and content
Reviews: 5 or 6 of your best listed on a single page
Book press release or announcement
Media clips, such as author interviews and event coverage
Links to your website and social media profiles

The Amelia Indie Authors private library contains some member Sell Sheet samples that you may use to help you create your own. If you haven’t yet joined us and you use MS Word, look in the templates as a starting place. Photoshop also has them. There is a crisp and clean resume template designed by MOO as well as several in Pages for Mac. Any one of these could be adapted easily.

If you’d like help, our co-op encourages members to provide critique to one another. And, if you’re still reluctant? Amelia Indie Authors can recommend a trusted provider create one for you.

Go ahead. Tell the little birdie — you know you want to.

What’s a Sell Sheet and why do you need one? Click To Tweet

A good sell sheet is a whole lot easier to scan through than an entire catalog and our job is to make the buyer’s job as easy and hassle-free as possible. Click To Tweet

Sometimes authors are reluctant to engage in their own marketing so we will remind you to include a clear call to action. Click To Tweet

Words We Love – #wordnerds

Posted on by Andrea Patten

Many authors find it easy to become overwhelmed, to feel as if they’re behind in their goals. The words just don’t come. Or, if and when they do, they are clunky and pathetic.

This feeling of heaviness can slow us up even further — so much so that we can forget why we do what we do. We forget all of the wonderful stories we have to tell and the amazing “characters” we’ve met — people whose stories are itching to be shared.

We forget there are readers “out there, somewhere” waiting for that next release. We forget that any political- or pandemic-related heaviness will eventually pass as well.

Sometimes we even forget the love of words that launched us as readers and, probably not long after, as writers.

In an effort to lighten the mood and to celebrate those wonderful building blocks that allow us to do what we do, Amelia Indie Authors started to celebrate Word Nerd Wednesdays. Members of our team create delightful graphics, in celebration of some of the quirky words we love and would like to get to know better. The posts are light and social and (we hope) lots of fun.

#WordNerdWednesday

Funny, as I think about our collection of weird words, I’m reminded of the usual Monday night homework in elementary school days. You might have had the same assignment. On Mondays we would receive a list of new spelling words. After copying them down from the chalkboard, our homework was to look up each of them in the grown-up dictionary and write the definition beside each word.

I don’t know about you but this almost always turned into a very long assignment for me. Each page was a source of adventure as I got distracted by the tastiness of all of those amazing ideas. They were magnetic.

The Amelia Indie Authors are not the only ones with such a fascination. Some authors are intrigued enough to create entire books on the topic. Favorite Husband and I are currently on a lengthy road trip so my personal collection is in storage. As I looked around Amazon for the exact titles and publishing info, I turned up a few new ones. (So far I’ve managed not to buy any new ones. So far.) Perhaps one of these will speak to you.

If you’re on social media, you can find our Word Nerd Wednesday offerings on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. When you run across them, please take a moment to “like” or comment. If you find a particular favorite, go ahead and share it. Believe it or not, that’s a wonderful way to attract people to our work.

We also invite you to use the comments section of the posts to suggest new words for consideration. In fact, if you have any favorite “weird words” you’d like us to add to the queue, please add them in the comments below.