I Won a book!

Wow! I won something. I haven’t won anything in a random draw since that peanut butter brittle when I was 15. Yes! The peanut butter brittle was good, but guess what’s even better? A brand new book! That’s right… a book. And even better, it is SIGNED by the author. WOO! Signed books always feel so much more special.

Here’s the scoop of chocolate: Kay Elam, over on her blog, had a contest where one could win a brand new copy of the just released book THE IMMORTALS by J.T. Ellison. I’m scared though. She says her books are scary. As in nightmare worthy… I’m going to be reading this thing through the cracks in my fingers as I hold my hand over my eyes! I love it!

Want to check it out? Here’s a linky for you:

Smack Down?

Okay, I know I promised to blog about ereaders some more. And I will. But right now, if you are a writer, there is something you should check out.

First, go to the blog “Pimp My Novel” and read yesterday’s blog which asked “What would you change about Publishing?” Wow. Some opinions. Some people have some great ideas, like the royalty rate for authors shifting to a higher percentage after the book has hit a certain number of sales and the cost of the book’s production has been covered. I like that idea. And then there are some folks where you can just tell that they have been burned by the industry and their blood has turned to boiling acid. Yikes!

Have you read the blog’s comments? You don’t have to read them all, just enough to get the gist of where things are heading. Now, pop over to a literary agent, Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary. Read her take on the blog by popping over to her page on Twitter. (You are looking for the posts with the hashtag like so: #annoying. They were posted around noon today, Eastern time.) There are parts Wolfson agrees with (like the book return policy) and there are parts that she doesn’t. These days it’s got to be tough being an agent. Not only are authors being starved out by publishers and their new tighten-our-belts royalties scheme, but agents are as well. And publishers need agents and they need authors, so what the heck? (That’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish though!)

Lap of Luxury and eBooks

I’ve been promising myself for about three months now that I’d talk about eReaders. And I will. But first, I have a really cool idea to share with you on using eBooks and eReaders to hook new readers. It’s brilliant!
First, read this article in the Washington Post so you know what I am discussing.

Yeah, that’s right. You sign into your hotel and get an ebook on a loaded reader for you to use during your stay. I like it, I like it a lot. Unfortunately, I never pay nearly enough for a hotel to actually be in the leagues of this kind of pampering, but still.

Putting aside the discussion about the exclusivity that takes place with the hotel’s choice of eReader and the partnership between Random House and Fairmont hotels (bloody brilliant marketing, I say!), here’s what I like about the idea:

Access. I love that they are literally putting books into people’s hands. (Some hotels put real books in hand.) Think of it this way, you are staying in a hotel and you start reading a book that they have loaned you. You have to check out, you can’t finish the book… what do you do? At some point, you are probably (but not always, of course) going to find that book, buy it, and finish it. Especially if you liked it. If nothing else, you are probably going to talk about it with your friend.

Two things just happened here. The publisher got a book into someone’s hands while they are relaxed and kicking back. That’s huge. Two, the person either read it fully or partially and are likely to talk it up in some form. (Not a guarantee though.) That author just got access to what could possibly be a new reader. And a possible third thing happened which is a possible sale.

The other thing I like about the access of getting these books into people’s hands is that it opens the doors for word of mouth. I’ve seen a good book sell, sell, sell, by having one person read it. Here’s the scenario. Our book club decided to read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” based on one member’s recommendation. About half of our group (7 of 14) always buy the books that we read. Right there, 7 sales. I liked the book so much, I went out and bought a copy for myself. Then I recommended it to my mother and her friend while in the bookstore as well as purchased a copy for a friend as a gift. The friend liked it so much she recommended it to her whole family. And she’s got a big family. So how many sales came from that one person recommending the book to our book club? I don’t know because, months later, the chain reaction is still going.

So what would you think if that member had read this book while staying in a hotel? (She didn’t, but the very idea of it is inspiring.)

Pen Names

Why do some authors take on a pen name? We’ve been talking about this over on the AQ discussion boards again. There are so many reasons to take on a pen name (privacy, hiding out from family, hate your name, current name is hard to spell and pronounce, want to write several genres without confusing your audience, etc).

While eating lunch, I opened up Chatelaine–which insists on coming instead of Writer’s Digest which is the magazine I actually renewed through the magazine service, but oh well–and what do I see? An article on why authors take a pen name. Here are a few they listed and their reasons along with a couple others:

Sophie Kinsella wrote a book under the Madelaine Wickham (real name) and then decided to change to writing the Shopaholic books. She figured she needed a new name to represent the change.

Stephen King (Richard Bachman) created a pen name so he could put out more than one book a year

Anne Perry (Juliet Hulme) killed someone as a teenager, did time, then decided to write. She (wisely) decided to keep her past under wraps.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) wrote under a man’s name as she felt she would be taken more seriously, and it would also serve to protect her from the scandal of being known as a novelist.

JK Rowling (Joanne Rowling) grabbed another initial (from her Grandmother’s name–Kathleen) to make her name more gender non-specific as her publisher wasn’t sure that boys would want to read about a boy wizard written by a woman.
Carolyn Keene (never was one) was created by a book packager Edward Stratemeyer who also whipped up the series idea “The Hardy Boys” and “The Bobbsey Twins” a well as “Nancy Drew.”

Anne Rice (Howard Allen O’Brien) took the name ‘Anne’ in school (probably the teasing was too much to bear having a name like ‘Howard’ and then took her husband’s last name to finish off the pen name. (Also wrote erotica under the name A.N. Roquelaure.)

Meg Cabot (Meggin Cabot) has written under Patricia Cabot for her romance books, and Jenny Carrol for her teen mystery series, but now uses ‘Meg’ for pretty much everything. My understanding for ‘Jenny Carrol’ was that Meggin was very prolific, yet wasn’t bringing in much money with what her publisher was taking and she wanted to publish more. And hence the secret names began…

AgentQuery Connect Moves

If you haven’t heard the news, the ‘connect’ part of AgentQuery has moved to a new location! (The connect part is where all the aspiring writers hang out and talk writing. It’s also where we have online chats with agents and authors from time to time.)

Here’s the new link: www.agentqueryconnect.com

The old site www.agentquery.com with that wonderful literary agent database is still there at its old address, it’s just the discussion boards that have moved.

If you have been thinking of joining us, but haven’t, now’s the time!

New York Times Bestseller List

Awhile back I stopped reading agent blogs. I do still check in here and there and follow links recommended by others. But for the most part, I have a general knowledge of the more popular topics like ‘use of dialogue’ and ‘what not to include in a query letter.’ My thirst for writing knowledge has become a little deeper, or if you will, advanced.

AQ Crew (the owner of AgentQuery.com), unbeknownst to them, issued a challenge. And that is to start paying closer attention to world of publishing. They suggested that us writers who want to slide a foot in the door start checking out more than agent blogs. (Get a real handle on the business.) We should be checking out editor blogs, publishing blogs, certain newspapers, certain publications regarding publishing, the New York Times Bestseller list, etc. It’s an idea I like. I was feeling stumped. Like I had stalled out in my learning, but wasn’t sure where the door was to take me to the next level. Voila.

<Sigh> Not that kind of challenge. Although a Pepsi and a bag of Doritos would really hit the spot right about now…

And sure, I know ereaders are big (and getting bigger, better, and cheaper by the moment) and a lot of authors are publishing directly to ebooks here and there. But really, could I predict the next trend? Maybe not. I can see the end of YA (I mean, that market has got to get flooded at some point too, right? Especially since everyone is deciding to represent it).

Recently I decided to leave chick lit writing behind. It is a totally fun genre, and one I really enjoyed getting to know, but the fact of the matter is, it is a flooded market. My rejections were rarely about my writing, but about the market. Now that I have passed the newbie mark in terms of novel writing, I am moving on to different genres and working with more business sense. That’s not to say I’m not still going to have a blast when I write. It’s saying that if I want a shot at this publishing thing, I have to think like this is a business. Because it is.

So, today I am starting by looking at the New York Times Bestsellers list. And not just reading it, but studying it. Why are these books on there? Why are some of these books still on there?

To tell you the truth, I feared checking out the list as I was sure it would be all books I hadn’t heard of. Wrong! I even have a couple on my ereader (okay, they are on my husband’s and only on my ‘to be read’ list–once I get around to downloading them to my reader). Anyway, I am realizing that maybe I’m not quite as in the dark as I first thought. (The depth of this statement has yet to be determined.)

Here is a link to the list: http://www.nytimes.c…oks/bestseller/

And here are some of my thoughts:

“The Girl…” books by Stieg Larsson. Why? Is it the bright cover art? I’d say about half of those who read it over on AgentQuery Connect gave it a thumbs down. As in slogging through backstory, wondering why the main character doesn’t appear until page 25. That kind of thing. I tried reading one of the books. Really tried. But I couldn’t. Curious about this one. It isn’t the writing, so there must be an element of ‘je ne sais quoi’ about it.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Is this one inching up the list again due to her newest release?

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m guessing the movie release of this one is helping keep this one at the top of the list.

Okay, so looking at the list has only brought up more questions for me… but they are good questions I think. (I hope.)

How about you… any thoughts on the list?

Let It All Hang Out

I was thinking about writing and the truth of a good story while trying to sleep the other night. Basically, when you are writing there’s this balance between structure (all the technical stuff that keeps the story flowing in a coherent and pleasing way) and the story (all the fun and entertaining bits–as well as the unexpected). So while in the back of your head you have that editor dude making sure the structure is sound, you have to have this slightly crazy dude in the forefront mixing things up and, in essence, letting it all hang out. This crazy dude needs to ensure that the editor lets the characters be who they need to be. It’s his job to ensure spontaneity gets a chance to rear its beastly head and allow those characters to say and do all those things that the editor might not otherwise hear or see–and therefore include in the story.

If you don’t let your characters be themselves you end up with a stiff, stilted, awful scene where you’ve accomplished everything on your writer’s list, but it doesn’t flow. It’s not real. Somehow it is lacking that something that makes it breathe and jump off the page and into the reader’s mind, coming alive to do a memorable little dance.

Think about this. What would happen if you: Sat all your relatives around the dining room table for Thanksgiving dinner? Now, as the hostess/host you rule with an iron fist and ensure that they all hold their forks properly, don’t slurp their wine, dab their lips with their linen napkin, and for heaven’s sake, put an end to those awful fart jokes. Why? Because this is your dinner and you have an image of what this dinner is supposed to look like.

Think for a moment. What’s going to happen?

Conversations and the necessary element of spontaneity, passion, and one-thing-leads-to-another that will make the night memorable simply won’t be there. In essence, you will have a fake gathering on your hands. A cardboard cutout of real life. Those characters you’ve got around the table will cease being themselves and won’t bring their zany past experiences to the table. They won’t hoot and holler. Your little nephew won’t secretly feed the dog (that has snuck under the table), causing him to barf into Auntie Ness’s 20-year-old winter boots by the end of the night. In turn, because she doesn’t have boots to wear home, she stays overnight. A blizzard traps her in your house for five days. Things ensue. If you push the scene into your little image of what it has-to-be box (let the editor have full reign of the scene), you most certainly won’t have that pesky nephew shooting peas down Uncle Al’s exposed butt crack. Nope.

On the flip side, you can’t let the editor take a huge nap in the living room either and leave everyone unattended and at the mercy of the whimsical crazy dude. Because let’s face it, the editor is going to have one heck of a hard time scraping the hardened mashed potatoes off the walls the next day when he has to give purpose to and make sense of everything that went on the night before.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that you have to balance the two. You must leave room for the editor to plan and structure, but you also must temper that with some real hootenanny moments and general shenanigans. There might be times where your character really, really needs to have a conversation with another character in order to turn the story. And another time, they might need to do something spontaneous like push a friend off a tower in order to get things heated up again.

Creating a Brand and Going Too Far

As a writer hoping to create a brand someday (Jean Oram–the author of a certain type of book) I keep my eye open for how people create their ‘brands.’ Over time I have picked up little tips on what seems to work and what doesn’t. Or to put it more aptly other words, what pisses of the potential buyer and what doesn’t.

In the past 24 hours I have discovered a method that plain and simply pisses me off.

Okay, let me back up a bit.

First of all, I live in a town of about 11,500 people. If you have even a whiff of famous on ya, I’ll hear about it. You can’t keep a whiff of fame under wraps around here. For example: OHMIGOD! Did you hear? Joe was in the same room as Wayne Gretzky!!! I know! Instant fame status for Joe.

So, you take someone who is working to build their music career and guess what, the whole town is going to know about it. Especially when you have your own charity golf tournament in town. You sing for free at the local dealership (still haven’t quite figured out why on that one–I think it may have been a fundraiser). You are in the paper every other week for something or other (no, seriously). You have your name plastered on this, that, and the other thing. For example: OHMIGOD! You donated five dollars to the library, we’d better put up a sign touting your famous support! (Okay, he hasn’t donated to the library yet. Probably because another singer has her name on the library’s coffee shop. And get this, when she popped by the other day for a latte–they made her pay! How completely and utterly wrong is that?)

Anyway, recently this guy has been popping up like he’s the mole on the hardest level of whack a mole. Which was okay. He’s got a business to run, a family to keep, no hard feelings.

Until this week. We’re talking over-the-top, annoying, spamming the town. Why? Because he wants to be voted fan’s choice or something. (I have been trying exceedingly hard to block out everything to do with him.) The town paper put out a special commemorative paper on shiny paper–sort of a collector’s item type thing–and he’s in there three times. I open my mailbox and there is a flyer asking me to vote for him. I drive into town there is a sign asking me to vote for him. I go to the grocery store, there are flyers under windshield wipers asking us to vote for him. I pay for my groceries and the cashier hands me my receipt and a flyer to… yeah, you guessed it.

I wish I was exaggerating. And while I know it makes me petty to admit this, but it is to the point where I want to go online and vote for someone who is NOT him.

So, the lesson I’ve learned by watching this guy is that there is a fine line somewhere between getting your name out there and being an annoying bother. I have seen some authors do a fabulously fine job of getting their name out there as well as the name of their book without it all being, ‘my book, mybook, mybook, ohmigoddidyoureadmybook?’ And there have been some where every tweet, blog entry, conversation and online post has been ‘my book, mybook, mybook, ohmigoddidyoureadmybook?’ Again, that fine line.

Where do you think that fine line is between just enough and too much?