| Memoirs of a Texan Author Gallery |
| The publishing industry has changed. As readership drops, traditional publishers pull back to only selling books of top listed authors. For the vast majority of aspiring authors, like me, there is no commercial demand for our work. But, in change, there is opportunity. We have our money and print our books. In earlier years, these were the vanity presses - publishers who would print your pathetic book so you could show it off to family and friends who pretend to like it. Print on Demand (POD) publishers, and there are dozens of them, are eager to take In the "new" publishing environment. Commercial publishers look for POD books that are selling well and will sign the author whose submission they would not earlier consider. It is a "survival of the fittest" model where each author must promote his or her book and hope for help after initial success has been demonstrated. As I have learned, it is much the same as funding for new website ventures - no support at the beginning, possible support to expand success if success is achieved. In this environment, one of the best things unknown authors can do is swap website links. In that regard, the following are the websites of quality authors I have come across and endorse. |
| Lloyd Wagner http://www.lloydswagner.com Of all my writing friends, Lloyd is the closest to being a professional. He works as a script writer. I first came across him as he was completing "El Chupacabras", a delightful children's story based on the adventures of the Oliver Family which Lloyd has expanded into a series. He started a semi-historical story of a survivor of Little Big Horn and Devil's Island that was an inspiration to me in writing the Memoirs of a Texan series. |
| Gordon Payne http://www.gordonpayne.com What more can you say about a song writer who worked with the Crickets and in Waylon Jennings' band? He is a talented story writer. His current book, The Hail and the Fury, and an earlier short story, The Peppermint Tree, are two of my favorites. The last name of Sam Payne, a character in the first book is based on Gordon. |
| William M (Bill) Barnes www.williammbarnes.com Bill has been a mentor to me. After a successful career as a geologist, he began writing late in life and has learned lessons that were made easier for me by following Bill's lead. Bill has written numerous articles in the Houston Chronicle Stateslines section of their Texas Magazine and Cup of Comfort printed by Adams Media Corporation, and essays for the Stone River Press. He has published three novels - The Nonesuch Chronicles, Running on the Edge, and The White Cockroach. I have purchased, read, and enjoyed each of the books. Bill and another friend, Jim Smith, are developing an oil play in remote West Texas that Bill uncovered in a geology survey. |
| Mavis Anne Bryant http://www.denisonalumniassociation.com/thebooks%20have%20arrived.htm Mavis Anne and I go back to Denison Junior High School where we were girlfriend and boyfriend. Our romance did not survive high school, but we have remained friends. Mavis Anne has a sterling academic career starting with Austin College, where her father headed the Biology Department, on to a bachelor's degree from Stanford, then a Master's degree from University of Texas, and PhD from the University of Tennessee. Along the way, she became a National Merit Scholar and Fullbright Fellow. Mavis Anne was a reporter and freelance editor for the Texas A&M and University of Tennessee Presses. She was editor of one book and author of two books centered on our home town, most recently, Two Schools on Main Street: The Pride of Denison, Texas, 1873-2007 she coauthored with Donna Hunt. |
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