Doris Booth is founder and president of Authorlink.com, the news and information magazine for editors, agents, writers, and readers. She began her journalism career at age 19 writing weddings and obituaries for a local newspaper, a subsidiary of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She eventually became the company's vice president and the award-winning managing editor. Doris amassed numerous journalism awards early in her career. Her newspaper series on U.S. race riots of the late 1960’s was included in the U.S. Congressional Record. In Washington D.C. and Texas she worked as a District publicist for the third most powerful man in government, then U.S. Congressman Olin E. (Tiger) Teague. She was hired as an investigative reporter by then-Dallas Times Herald Publisher Tom Johnson (later head of the Los Angeles Times). Instead, she turned to advertising and marketing.
After a short stint at a Dallas advertising firm, she opened her own advertising firm, representing Fortune 1000 companies. She produced award-winning video advertising and training pieces. But her first love has always been books and writing.
In 1996, she founded Authorlink.com, ranking among the top 100 best websites for writers. The company also has a literary agency that represents several bestselling authors. Booth has sold projects to St. Martin’s Press, Simon & Schuster, Sterling Press, Berkley Books/Penguin, Farrar Straus Giroux and other dominant houses. The agency is no longer accepting new authors but writers are encouraged to use www.authorlink.com as a comprehensive resource.
She has lectured for a number of writers’ conferences, including the Independent Book Publishers Association and the Whidbey Island MFA Writing Program.
Doris adamantly believes in and supports traditional publishing houses and maintains there is an overwhelming need for curation in the literary world.
However, self-publishing also fills a specific niche. Authorlink‘s production unit has produced more than 200 e-books and print books, using the latest technology.
The challenge for authors today, Doris believes, is in navigating the complex publishing market. One of her primary goals is to provide traditionally-published and self-published authors alike with the resources they need to navigate the publishing process and to get savvier about distribution. Her book, UNLOCKING THE SECRETS OF E-BOOK PUBLISHING, GET YOUR BOOKS INTO EFFECTIVE SALES CHANNELS (WITH OR WITHOUT AMAZON), has been cited by Ingram Spark/Ingram Content Group as “A must-have resource…packed with imperative information for navigating the [sales] channels.”
Insights Into Doris
Doris is a slightly reclusive writer, speaker, editor and entrepreneur who relishes people’s stories. Her favorite place is a secluded get-away house in the East Texas piney woods. She hates traffic, noise, and crowds. She also hates fish and likes pizza and Mexican food. She loves being around other creative people and spending time listening to sounds of the woods from her long porch overlooking the forest.
Reading and writing have been Doris's lifelong interest. The books that appeal to her the most are those with heart, and yes, an intelligent “message.” To catch her eye, the story must have shape. Her favorite writer remains Ernest Hemingway who indeed fathered the modern novel. Doris's favorite contemporary is GREEN ON BLUE by Elliot Ackerman, which gave her more insight into the Afghan War than any other work.
She believes most American writers have forgotten how to tell stories, while Europeans still know how. Somewhere out there in America, excellent writers are waiting to be discovered. Getting readers to notice good writers is the ultimate challenge. Authorlink is passionate about helping them achieve that goal.
Authorlink talked with Steve Riggio, vice chairman of both Barnes & Noble.com and Barnes & Noble, Inc. in his New York office in mid-April about his vision of eBooks
David Ebershoff is author of The Rose City, a collection of seven short stories about men and boys forging their way in a chaotic world (Viking; Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK, May 2001). David also is publishing director for The Modern Library , an imprint of Random House.
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