Now think about Human Nature. People are visual creatures. They want to SEE the story.

Back in the day, an author like Charles Dickens paid illustrators to help bring his stories vividly to life. Illustrations were the Ads of the Day! Today, an author’s writing skills alone must create dramatic visual impact. The writer must hone his skills – a good thing – but he is deprived of the instant interest generated by evocative illustrations.

Now there is a free and easy way to appeal to human nature in your marketing. With simple computer strokes, you can embellish your marketing exposure using professionally designed, beautifully apt examples of your writing, made visual.

Memes create a dramatic visual impact. Memes reveal your plot and tell YOUR story. Memes can also garner interest in your writing style.

This is not my idea. I have seen it done by some mainstream professionals, but not by very many. This is still an under-utilized strategy and it is finding a most receptive audience. I am now creating Memes to market my writing, and it is proving to be much more effective than simply sharing cover photos and reviews of my books.

Now, for the exciting part! Meme Creation can be done free, and with no fear for copyright infringement on the gorgeous, funny, abstract, or dramatic photographs you feel best represent your story.

The First Step: Search out an online site that offers ROYALTY-FREE downloads of professional photos. My site of choice, offering a huge variety, is Pixabay, but there are others. Morgue File is also good.

The Second Step: Find an online site that offers FREE MEME (or Poster) creations. My site of choice is Big Huge Labs, but again, there are many to choose from. You can also create memes using PowerPoint, or most slide-show software.

The Third Step: This is the fun part. Not only do you get to choose the visual (photograph) to represent your story, and insert a favorite book quote, and insert the title and author of the book, but you can choose the border (if you have one) and text colors to best complement, or better yet – dramatize– the photo.

All that is left is to market, market, market. Wherever you display your work – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, Book Clubs, Amazon – simply upload the Meme. It speaks for itself.

I can guarantee that this will garner interest in your writing more than simply sharing Reviews or Book Cover photos. The beauty of adding visuals to your work comes from the immediate interest and engagement of your audience. The Meme tells your story while also demonstrating your unique style.

Memes work! Interest in my book has risen dramatically, and sales are increasing. And the really cool part? It is a whole lot of fun!

Bio:

Joel R. Dennstedt – Author, Journalist, World Traveler – was born and raised in San Diego, California, and lived 15 years in Alaska: the setting for his book Orange Cappuccino and parts of Hermit – A Novella. In 2012, he and his brother Stephen, a professional wildlife photographer, embarked on a lifetime journey to travel the world. Learn more at his website www.joelrdennstedt.com or visit his Joel R. Dennstedt Facebook Page.

This is how the journals editor describes the significance of clothes in the About section of the website:

Clothes are often overlooked in life and literature and considered frivolous, but they shape character, draw out concepts and connect you to your culture and landscape. As signals for who we are, where we are and what we are, clothes are invaluably transformative and revealing.

They have published one previous issue in the fall of 2014 which is worth reading if you are considering submitting your work to them.

They publish poetry, narrative non-fiction, essays, short fiction, and flash fiction (under 1,000 words in length) all on the subject of clothes.

They have a simple website, that is just a WordPress blog. However because of the limited scope of the work they publish, they have managed to find and already publish some interesting work in their first issue.

Now journals with this type of focus are not for everyone, in terms of readers or writers, but a niche market can actually help a lot in terms of drawing in readers committed to a specific subject matter.

At the time of publishing this review the editor has stated that the journal is only going to be a six month project, although if it is successful that may not be the case. All submissions are to be made via email.

To learn more or to submit visit their website here.

Bold Strokes is interested in publishing books that fall under the LGBTQ umbrella including literary fiction, romance novels, young-adult novels, genre novels (including science fiction and mystery), and works of nonfiction. The only genre of books they do not appear to publish is poetry.

Bold Strokes has a good distributor because their books are available in most stores, including Barnes and Noble. They generally publish a digital edition first and then release the print edition later. However, occasionally they release both editions at the same time. Because their print distributor requires 15 months notice, these books have a longer turnaround time, between acceptance and publication.

I have heard mixed things about their contracts, so review them carefully before you sign anything (which is something you should do anyways).

Two editors review every submission. Because of this intensive process it can take them up to 16 weeks to respond to most submissions.

They are not interested in reprints without proof that the previous publishing contract was terminated.

They only accept online submissions of complete manuscripts. Manuscripts must be attached and formated as a .doc, .docx, or a .rtf file.

Make sure to submit a cover letter in the body of email. The cover letter should contain a 1 page synopsis of the plot, working title, category or genre, and a word count. It should also include a short author bio as well as contact information.

Because Bold Strokes publishes such a diversity of genres, it is good to thoroughly read their submission guidelines to get a better feel for what they are looking for. To get a better feel for the books they publish, visit their homepage.