MSI Press Blog

  Today's book excerpt comes from  An Afternoon's Dictation  by  Steven Greenebaum . This book has been in the Amazon top 100 among interfaith and ecumenical books on many occasions. PART TWO: DEALING WITH DEATH AND DYING CHAPTER SIX   For me, while the thought of a soul being with God forever was indeed warmly comforting, the idea of a soul dwelling in, or confined to, a gated heaven was not. I’d grown up and indeed lived most of my life surrounded by people who talked about heaven’s “pearly gates.” Heaven as a gated community? The image was perfect—perfectly horrible. Only the “anointed” need apply. And who was the guardian of the gates, checking off who would be admitted and who would be turned away? Peter, a white male Christian saint. No, thanks. I’ve never liked gated communities on Earth. I certainly wasn’t interested in one for our souls. So, what to do with, “You cannot live forever, but you can be with Me forever.”? If religion is but a language for sp...

  (photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic shares an important reason for a book being turned down by an acquisitions editor. While there are almost as many reasons for turning down a manuscript as there are manuscripts submitted, there is one reason that has nothing (or very little) to do with the manusciprt. It has to do with the author, and it comes across in the proposal, the cover letter, or the enote (if emailed), or in all of them. That trait is arrogance, and it will turn off an editor before the editor even reads the manuscript. After all, a publisher has to work with an author, and if they dynamics are poor, it wi...