You Can't Judge a Writer by Their Genre

Not too long ago, I had lunch with a friend, then last week she was in Austin for a talk and book signing and I got to see her again. She’s a prolific writer – it seems like she has a book coming out every few months. She writes in multiple genres, is nationally known, and this year was nominated for an Edgar award. And, she’s funny, outgoing and fun to be around. This might be a surprise to some people. Why? Because she’s multi-published in … true crime.

I’m talking about Diane Fanning. If you’ve seen her on TV or in person, or heard her on the radio, then you know how interesting she is. If she comes to your town, go hear her stories about the cases she’s written about. Read her books and you’ll see how much research she does. She makes the stories, people and emotions come alive.

She’ll tell you that writing true crime takes a lot of research and can take you into some strange places. Luckily, she loves the research part. She’s also a multi-tasker. She can work on two true crime books at once, but she’ll reach a point where she sets one aside and focuses totally on one. She can also work on two genres at once since she just had a true crime, Baby Be Mine, come out and she’s already got a mystery in the pipeline for next year and she’s at work on another true crime right now.

But although her writing may take her dark places and she may write about horrendous real murders and solving of fictional crimes, she’s not a depressed (or depressing), weird person. Just goes to show you can’t judge a writer by their genre.

Austin Museum of Art, the Texas Book Festival, and Hel

This year I’m once again an Event Chair for the Texas Book Festival. Although I’ve worked at the festival for many years, with Sisters in Crime or the Writers’ League of Texas, this is my second year volunteering for the festival organization. Two years … two great events.

Last year I chaired Book Church, a fun way to spend the morning. We had three authors who’d written books about gospel music plus entertainment from a gospel group – all of it on the south steps of the Capital. Lots of singing and clapping. Since it was only one morning, I also co-chaired former President Bill Clinton’s talk inside the Capital.

This year I’ll be working with the Austin Museum of Art where authors of photography books will be showing their photographs. This ought to be a fabulous series of events over both Saturday and Sunday. Wonderful pictures, the photographers, their books, all showcased in the AMoA.

As I learn more about the set up and schedule, I’ll post the information. In the meantime, though, mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, October 28-29. There will be so much to see, vendors to visit, and authors to listen to, as well as books to buy. But be sure to take time to make the short walk down Congress to the Austin Museum of Art. I’ll be there.

Books and the Bookstore

In her blog entry “I Wonder…”, MJ Rose mentioned the online transcript of Barnes & Noble’s second quarter earnings conference. Even if you don’t understand all the “talk” about authorizations, gross margins, derivative complaints, and traffic vs. ticket, it’s still an interesting read.

You can learn not only what the bigwigs at B&N told the shareholders concerning the financial well-being of the company, you can see:

*the books and authors they’re expecting to be big sellers in the near future

*the names they see as “brand names”

*who’s coming out with cookbooks, memoirs and biographies

*the two books coming out that are getting a lot of buzz

*the big name fiction author coming out with a non-fiction that is “one of the most eagerly-awaited books we have seen in a very long time”

*what they think about competition from Borders and Amazon.

One paragraph I found really interesting concerns Kim Edwards’ novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. They say it’s the fastest-selling trade paperback in B&N history. That’s not really what I found intriguing. What caught my attention is: “I will mention that there was one notable bright spot in the quarter and it’s due to some extraordinary of steps we took to promote a single book.”

Steve Riggio doesn’t go into any more explanation – this is a shareholder’s meeting after all – but wouldn’t it be interesting to know what extraordinary steps they took to promote the book? What did they do to support “this title very strongly on its publication”?

Writing Residencies

Going away to a writing residency can be one of the most productive and rewarding experiences of your life. It was for me. Last year I was awarded a fellowship from the Brown Foundation to spend a month at the Vermont Studio Center. I’d never been to Vermont, never been on a residency, and couldn’t imagine dedicating a whole month to nothing but writing.

I met fascinating people from around the world, made friends I’m still in touch with today, totally relaxed, and got a ton of work done. I would go back in a heartbeat.

I would encourage any writer who has the ability to take a month off from his or her life to apply. If you have the money you can, of course, pay to go. But they also have fellowships.

It doesn’t have to be at the VSC. There are places like the VSC all over the states. The VSC has a chef who cooks, along with volunteers, all the meals. Some places have a shared kitchen where residents prepare their own meals, either separately or together. The VSC is a big place with many houses and studio buildings. They’re just now breaking ground for a new writing studio. Between all the writers and artists there, they host over fifty people a month. Other places are much smaller, hosting five or ten artists and writers at a time. The VSC is in a small town. I’ve heard of others that are far away from civilization, isolated.

They seem to all have a fee to apply – twenty-five or thirty dollars, mostly – and you’ll have to supply references. Check to see if they waive the fee. The VSC does for certain fellowships. If you get a fellowship that covers your expenses there, you’ll still, most likely, have to pay your own way to and from. Be prepared to bring your own writing utensils, whether it’s a laptop or pen and paper. They’ll probably have a communal computer and printer, but it’s for everyone’s use, not just yours.

If you get to go on a residency, consider volunteering while you’re there. Almost all of these places are non-profits. A couple of hours a week won’t cut into your writing time too much, will help out the staff, and will allow you to meet interesting people and see what goes on behind the scenes.

I’m heading to Wyoming later this week. A group of friends gather each year there for fun and golf. This year I hope to skip the golf and drive out to two residencies fairly close by. They’re working ranches out in the middle of nowhere, so I won’t be able to tour, but I thought I’d go by to see what they look like or at least what the area looks like. So, stay tuned for a posting about these two residencies.

Friends

The older I get the more friends I have. Somehow I thought it was usually the other way around. The older you get, the more you pare the friends down and solidify three or four friendships.

I have individual friends and circles of friends. The individual connections are loosely established. I may get together with one or two of them at a time, for dinner or drinks. We talk, laugh and reconnect. Some of those are writers; some aren’t. I even have some Internet friends, most of whom I’ve met via my e-newsletter. Some of them I’ve never even seen in person.

Then I have what I call circles of friends. One group meets every month. That’s twelve months a year for twenty years now. I’m the only writer in the group.

The other circle meets three or four times a year. We’re all women. All writers of one kind or another. Humor, travel, mystery, journalism, essay, nonfiction, fiction. But we’re not a critique group. Just friends who enjoy getting together on a regular, irregular basis. Occasionally we talk about writing, but not very often. And yet … writing is important to each of us individually and therefore plays a big role in the circle. On birthdays we write notes or poems to each other, for example.

But the real joy of this irregular circle of friends is the connection we make with each other. Each time we meet, we learn more about each other. We learn to trust, respect, and treasure each other.

The important thing is not whether you have thirty friends or three, though. The important thing is how good of a friend you are.

British Readers

Interesting article today in The Guardian Unlimited. The author talks about the top-selling books in Great Britain for this past week. Among the things he noted were that nine of the ten are written by women. Eight of ten were, as he says, depressing. He also pointed out they’re all long – an average of 459 pages.

He attributes the somber tone of most of the books to the post-911 attitudes. He seems to feel readers are looking for heavier books now, and writers are leery of writing what could seem “entirely trivial.” Don’t know about the rest of the world, especially England, but I’m veering toward lighter books, ones that make me smile and take me away from reality.

The fact that nine of the ten authors are female doesn’t bother him since women are the biggest buyers of fiction. He seems to assume women buy books by female authors, primarily. I’d have to go take stock of my books, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case for me. Usually, I don’t pay any attention to the sex of the author.

The author’s unbiased reporting gets dropped as the article lengthens. Toward the end, he begins to put down more popular authors such as JK Rowling and especially Dan Brown. He calls Brown’s writing “subliterate drivel.” It would seem that although he says, “Only an insomniac on a month-long desert-island break could read all ten books,” he still believes it’s best to read boring, depressing literary novels than popular fiction.

Da Vinci-size Me

What does it take to be proclaimed the next Da Vinci Code or the next Harry Potter? A book about a great world-wide hunt for an amazing, life-altering treasure? A book about magic and sorcerers and evil out to destroy the world?

Despite the fact that if you google “Da Vinci Code” you’re likely to come up with a list of 15 books about The Da Vinci Code before you see a link for the actual book by Dan Brown , the answer is no. There is really only one Da Vinci Code and only one Harry Potter, no matter how many books appear about magical other realms.

But books do get compared to other successful books. It’s not usually the author doing it, but a marketing person, or a critic perhaps. Yesterday, a USA Today article declared the book Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton the next Da Vinci Code. They also provided a short excerpt from the book for those who hadn’t heard of it before.

It’s not because the book is about the subject matter of the Da Vinci Code. Heck, it’s not even aimed at the same readers. Endymion Springs is a young adult novel. The comparison is because the reviews have been so good critics are saying the book will sell and sell big. It’s already a hit in the UK and the first printing in the US is 150,000. Movie rights have already been optioned.

Agents don’t want to get a query letter from an author who proclaims his manuscript is the next Harry Potter. But when critics, media and your publishing house say it, it’s a good thing. But they’re most likely not saying you’ve written a sequel. They’re saying they expect your sales to be huge.

Send in a Stunt Double

Yesterday I went to see my hair stylist. As she usually does sometime in the summer, she said, “Your hair’s too dark. Let’s brighten it up with some blonde highlights.” If this were a movie, I’d probably say, “Cut to two-an-a-half hours later.” I left the salon looking like the double for the albino in The Da Vinci Code. My hair is so blonde it’s practically white. Which got me to thinking, what do I do now? Do I let it grow for a month or so then get it cut really short and have brown highlights put in?

It also got me thinking about the albino in The Da Vinci Code. (If you’re a writer, you know that’s how the mind of a writer works.) For me, that character is more memorable than any other. Why is that?

The key word there is “memorable.” He’s not bland like the protagonist. Despite his appearance, he has color. He has motivation, purpose, perseverance. This is true whether you’re talking about the movie or the book. He doesn’t get the screen or page time as much as the protagonist, yet he comes close to over-shadowing him.

That’s one thing (among many) you have to be aware of when you’re writing. Don’t let your secondary characters or your antagonist take over. The antagonist has to be strong, has to be a worthy adversary, for the main character, but if he takes over the spotlight, then the book becomes his.

When you have your readers read your whole manuscript, it’s a good idea to ask, “Which character was most memorable to you?” and “Why?” If the answer is the antagonist or a secondary character, then you need to work on your protagonist.

And I need to work on my white hair. Anyone have a really good hair stylist they can recommend?

The Azure Blue Sky

A streak of white light cut across the azure blue sky --

Okay, stop right there. What's wrong with this sentence?

The thing that stands out to me is "azure blue sky." Why? Because it's wasteful. You only get so many words per book. Don't waste even one. You don't need to say, "azure *blue* sky" since azure means "pale blue." That's like saying, "the pale blue blue sky."

Yeah, I know we all tend to zip through the first draft, waxing poetic, as they say, and don't take time to edit our lyrical voices. And the second draft focuses on dialogue (or continuity or chapter hooks or ...), but what about the fifteenth draft? Somewhere along the weary staircase of drafts, we have to stop, catch our breath, and take a close look at the actual words we've used.

Examine your writing. Have you used two words when one would do? On the other hand, did you use one word when two or ten would have been better?

Your characters are stranded on a boat, in the middle of a seemingly endless sea. You write, "Dark clouds approached."

Look at what George R. Stewart wrote in Storm:
"Hour by hour the cloud-deck grew lower and thicker and darker; swift-blown scud sped beneath the low stratus, seeming to skim the wave-crests."

Wow, much tenser than "Dark clouds approached."

Whether you're trying to chisel down your words or use the exact words to evoke an emotion, go through your manuscript and look for the opportunities to make use of the language. No need to say a character's ears were large and projected outward from his head when you could say he was jug-eared.

Think about your descriptions. Sometimes it's the little things that say the most. As an example, read this sentence by V.S. Naipaul in Guerrillas:
"A triangle of white light was advancing from the porch into the sitting room, over the curling edge of the electric-blue carpet, which lay untacked on the terrazzo floor."

"Porch" and "sitting room" evoke almost genteel images. "Electric-blue" seems rather modern. But the words that really get to the core are "curling edge" and "untacked." Without those miniscule details, the sentence would have a whole different meaning.

What could you say about an object or a scene or a character that would be so right-on it would be unforgettable or would bring that image into sharp focus? Look at this from Rumer Godden in _Black Narcissus_:
"The woman's face was Chinese, brown and withered like a ginger root; she wore dark blue clothes, a necklace of turquoises and sharp little silver knives, and her hair in pigtails like two grey wires."

I don't think I'm going to forget a face withered like ginger root and pigtails that look like two grey wires.

What you're describing may not require eloquent words. The mood may need starkness. Here's Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale:
"When I'm naked I lie down on the examining table, on the sheet of chilly crackling disposable paper. I pull the second sheet, the cloth one, up over my body. At neck level there's another sheet, suspended from the ceiling. It intersects me so that the doctor will never see my face. He deals with a torso only."

Look for just the right words that evoke the emotion, the image, the soul of what you want to say or describe. It's not necessarily easy. It may take many rewrites and a lot of searching for the telling aspects and perfect words. But when you get it right, it can be an epiphany. The azure blue sky opens up and releases a torrent of beautiful, shining words onto your manuscript.

Okay, maybe not an azure *blue* sky.

Age, Looks and Publishing

An article in today’s New York Times is interesting and probably will stir up some controversy. It’s already getting the attention of bloggers, like Jason Pinter. The article is about the debut book by Marisha Pessl, or more specifically, about the way Pessl looks.

You may be thinking, what the hell does that have to do with anything?

The idea has been put forth that Pessl got the six figure deal for the book because she’s young and attractive. The Times article points out, though, the book, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, has been getting good reviews and is expected to appear on the New York Times extended best-seller list.

There has always been a grumbling about how youth-oriented the publishing industry is. Not as prevalent as it is in Hollywood, but definitely there. Even Miss Snark addresses the issue in her blog and admits to an age bias. Just as the age of an author can affect the deal as well as the house’s marketing push, so looks can influence decisions.

But if you’re young and pretty, does it also influence sales? Do bookstore browsers ever rate a book higher than another choice because they like the author’s cover picture?

But even more important to the thousands and thousands of unpublished authors, do looks hurt the chances of getting an agent? Would looks stop an editor from making an offer on a manuscript?

There are plenty of authors who never even see their agent or editor. So how could it influence them? They may not meet them in person, but agents and editors are internet savvy and know how to google someone. Most people, if they have a website or a blog, have pictures up. And clearly some agents and editors ask for a pic upfront. Yes, there are agents who want a picture of you BEFORE they’ll sign you.

There are those who say it’s not how you look, or how old you are, or even whether you can write a good query letter … it’s the writing that sells. Perhaps that’s the bottom line, whether you can write. But don’t think for a moment it’s the only thing.

Agents in India

Each issue of my newsletter, Doing It Write, has specific sections, such as Hot Topics, Contests, Events, Websites, etc. One section is called “In Case You Missed This” and quotes from an article on or about some aspect of writing or the publishing business. It’s sort of a “just the facts” section. I quote from the article and give the URL for subscribers to go read the whole thing if they want. No comments from me.

In my research, I came across this article which was, to my thinking, very interesting. It’s from the Hindustan Times. The article is called Write Matchmakers

Apparently, English publishing in India has become so huge they are now second in the world in terms of sales of books. That’s interesting enough. But what makes it more so is they have almost no literary agents.

A country as large as India, second in the world for book sales in English, and they have no middle man (or woman) to go between authors and publishers. And there’s not even a consensus agents are needed. Some publishers think they would be helpful. Others say agents could misguide authors or they’re not needed. One author and former agent said, “Agents are like a gynaecologist directing a pregnant woman.”

Imagine a world without agents in the United States. It might seem nice to bypass that step in the road to getting published. But would it completely slow down the process?

It used to be, not many years ago, authors could send manuscripts directly to almost all the major houses. Then things began to change. Houses merged and split and merged again. Imprints flourished. Editors moved and seemed to become less available to new writers. Agents became more important. They, in fact, became practically essential to getting published, at least at the big houses. Now, even agents are hard to get. There are some agencies that won’t even read queries unless you’re a celebrity or are referred by a client or a celebrity. Are we heading toward developing agents’ agents? A middle man between the author and the agent?

Are we headed toward more gridlock? Is India following right behind us? Or is the American system the best?

Marketing and Publicity

What's the difference between "marketing" and "publicity"?

This can be confusing. Am I marketing my book? Or am I publicizing it?

To differentiate the two, let's go back to basics. Marketing your book is two-fold. First of all, it means figuring out who and what your audience is -- i.e., you define your audience. Who is going to read this book; why would it appeal to them; and how do I reach them? The second part of marketing is coming up with a plan to sell your book to those readers and to sell books as fast as you can.

Your marketing plan is something you think about long before you finish writing the book. As you write, you can jot down notes in a marketing notebook.

This is not to say you don't think about publicity as you write. Publicity, however, means getting your book (and you) mentioned in as many media forms and as often as possible. Newspaper, book reviews, TV, radio, church bulletins, blogs, ezines, websites, alumni magazines, and so on.

Marketing and publicity are words that are sometimes used interchangeably. And, of course, when you publicize your book and yourself, you're marketing your book. But if you can try to keep the basics in mind when you're using the two words, you'll understand more of what your publisher's marketing person is saying to you.

And speaking of the marketing department, you can't depend on them (or her/him) to do all of your marketing. You need to be prepared to do it yourself. So, develop your own marketing plan and media/VIP contact list.

Welcome to the blog from Hel

I've been writing and editing an e-newsletter for writers for seven years. This blog will expand on that newsletter, but will also have posts about things other than writing -- recipes, women friends, bunco, even events in my life.

I may even reminisce back to my mermaid days and explain how to eat, drink and blow air rings underwater.

Whatever I write about, you can be sure the words, the emotions, the craziness came straight from Hel.