Small World: Dog-Teams

Posted by Thomas Alan Gray Oct 2, 2009

Two dog-team writers have showed on my horizon this week.

The first is Terry Lynn Johnson, who is taking a course from Winghill and is on a writers forum I frequent. Terry is a musher and kayaker in Napean, Ontario. I've critiqued her non-fiction dog and kayaking articles (I think she's sold six, so far). This week, she solicited critiques of the first chapter of her juvenile novel about dog-sled racing (working title: Rebecca's Dog Team). The current revision of the first chapter is strong and I expect this book to do well.

Last night at a square dance out in the country (Sandholm, Alberta) I met Linda Fair. Linda is the author of Five Dog Night, the story of her 5000 mile trek across Canada by dog team (a first-ever feat reported in Ripley's Believe it or Not on April 13, 2003). Linda's team of five rescue dogs pulled a heavily-loaded tricycle through what appears to be a series of adventures both heart-breaking and wonderful. So far she has done two volumes (Volume 1: The First Year; Volume 2: The Coasts), with an audio-book coming soon and a coffee-table DVD planned.

Marketing is an issue for both of these authors. In today's literary climate, first-time writers have to learn to be their own publicists. They need to market their work, place their product in bookstores, arrange book signings, set up web sites, advertise, develop a presence on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. It's as much work as writing the book – or more!

• Terry is currently looking at acquiring a publisher for her novel and is researching agents. Even so, Terry knows that she'll still have to push the product herself and is working to build a web presence and an article portfolio to add weight to her marketing.
• Linda appears to have gone the self-publishing route through her company Fairberry Press, but I'm darned if I could find out on her web site where to buy her books, how much they cost, or how to order*. It appears that copies need to be ordered individually from the author, but that's nowhere stated on the site. Linda says that she is working to get them into bookstores and campgrounds.

I wish both of these dog-loving ladies success with their books.

*PS on a fourth visit to Linda Fair's site, I found a place to buy the first book for $25 plus $3.95 S/H.