AGT meeting, March 7, 2019

The Authors Guild of Tennessee met on March 7, 2019 at Faith Lutheran Church, Farragut, Tennessee. The meeting was called to order by President Cheryl Peyton at 11:08

The following members were present:

Don Pardue, Bobbi Phelps, Cyn Taylor, Cheryl Peyton, Nadine Richmond, Kaye George, Jody Dyer, Russ Fine, Eva Wikes, Tilmer Wright, Ray Strobo, Jerry Morton, Darlene Underwood, Denise Sherriff, BJ Gillam, Randall Carpenter, and Linda Fitzpatrick

Guests present were: Sherry Fine and Jared Jackson

February minutes. Stand as corrected.

Treasurer’s report (Jim Hartsell) We ended Feb. with balance of $3,058.87 which will go down as Jim has written several checks he can send out as he’s now on the checking account.

President’s report (Cheryl Peyton) Talked about words that don’t sound like their meaning: craven, fungible, noisome, pulchritude, and plethora

Brief updates from the following Committee Chairs

Events.  Since Danielle Asher was not present, Cheryl relayed her request for everyone to review the two emails she sent on 3/6/19 on upcoming events and to let Danielle know if you’re interested in any asap. Lenoir City and the Dogwood Festival are not filled.

Library.  Chair Laura Derr was not present. Cheryl advised that next month the winner of the prize for reading and reviewing the most books will be announced. Cyn Taylor suggested that borrowers who lose books should pay the wholesale price to the author for replacement. Jerry moved, Bobbi seconded, and all voted in favor.

Marketing, website, training  Chair Sam Bledsoe was not present. Linda Fitzpatrick reported that the Marketing committee wants to push for more marketing on Facebook. At next meeting they will have a testimonial from an author about social media.

Membership (Kaye George) Kaye advises she is still asking applicant Joe Guy for a book. He writes local history.

Publicity Chair (Cyn Taylor) Two press releases this past month. A lot of people have sent articles to HUC (Historic Union County). Kaye George’s article on winning a literary prize was published in the Farragut paper.

Announcements. Directories are still available for those who don’t have them.

Program: Cheryl introduced our speaker, Kaye George, who spoke on the topic: “Standing Alone or Going Together,” exploring the differences in writing a stand-alone novel vs. writing a book for a series. Kaye is a national best-selling author through Barnes and Noble. She has been nominated for 3 Agathas. She has won a Silver Falchion.

All her novels are series.

In writing a series: You must think about continuing characters, setting, what will hold them together and how many books. You have to give depth to your characters because they’ll recur.

You can set stories in same place or you can move around, but then you need a connection.

Themes are numerous. It may be the occupation of the main character as in police procedurals.

You need to know how the story arc will go to plan out the number of books in your series in advance.

Put thought into naming series as the name recognition will bring readers back. Readers like series as they know what they’ll get. It’s a good way of selling more than one book.

Cons:

You as a writer can get tired of characters.

You need to continue tone and mood because readers want the same thing.

You must be productive as readers soon expect a new book in the series.

Using continuing characters is a balance between boring those who read the previous titles and those who are new to the series.

Be careful not to give away what happens in previous books.

Stand-Alones

Pros

You have freedom in the roles you assign

Your name on the cover is what will bring the reader back.

You can build a new world for each character.

Your characters are all unique for one story.

Cons

Previous books don’t help reader.

Arc has to be defined.

Less room for character development.

Have to build a new world for each book.

Kaye handed out names of sites with information on stand-alones and series.

Meeting adjourned was adjourned at: 12:07. Next meeting: April 4^th.