WRITING WITHOUT A NET

What They Got Right

2011-12-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

This is the first time since December 2010 that I have not had a deadline looming within the next thirty days. I have written, formatted, designed, marketed, promoted, and published four books in the past eight months. Seriously. So that’s why you haven’t heard from me in awhile.

I currently have 18 books under the Blue Merle Publishing logo, and I am finally beginning (and I do mean beginning) to feel like a real publisher. And let me tell you something: it’s hard.

There are people who have been doing this far longer than I have, and who have far more claim to expertise than I do, so I don’t pretend to set myself up as an authority on the subject of independent publishing. However, with all the rockets buzzing around the internet about what traditional publishing has done wrong, my recent experience in indie publishing, juxtaposed against twenty-plus years in traditional publishing, has pointed out to me that there is a reason why traditional publishing has survived for over a hundred years, virtually unchanged. As much as I hate to admit it, they got a lot of things right. Here are a few of them:

1) Give the people what they want

There is a reason why you can’t pick up a book today that doesn’t have a vampire, zombie, angel or wizard on the cover. This used to outrage me, until I was faced with a choice: a solid fan base who was begging for the continuation of my mystery series, or my own literary leanings toward something more daring and esoteric. Suddenly I understood why publishers had declined to take a chance on some of my more creative proposals, and I no longer held them in quite such contempt. Once you have a proven audience for a product, it is very scary—and foolish-- to turn your back and walk the other way. My decision was to go with the proven product, and I don’t regret it for a minute.

2)Know Your Strength

Over the course of my career I have written under seven different pseudonyms and in every fiction genre known to man. Great for the resume; bad for the sales figures. Again, I didn’t understand why my versatility didn’t command the respect that was clearly its due until I was the one who had to reconcile the bottom line. When one series outsells the others three-to-one, it really doesn’t matter how well-reviewed, innovative, or close to the heart the other books are. You publish the books that sell. Everything else is collateral damage.

3)It’s Not Personal, it’s Business

In the “It Only Hurts When I Laugh” category… my pet project was highly praised and ultimately rejected by a dozen of the top literary agents in New York with the inevitable disclaimer: I love this, but I can’t sell it . I finally decided that, rather than turn the book into the shredded wheat that would please the New York publishing community, I would publish it myself, and guess what? I couldn’t sell it either. Well reviewed? Yes. Commercial success? Hardly. Will I continue the series? Not a chance in hell. Nothing personal, fans. But this is business.

4)It’s All About Marketing... and Budget

Not to continue to beat the poor dead horse whose screams we’ve all been hearing for years now, but (to mix another colorful metaphor) it’s not the steak but the sizzle. And yes, that pisses me off now as much as it did when I was Number 11 on the Top 10 Bestseller List in the world of traditional bookstores and traditional publishers… not because my book was any better or worse by merit than #10, but because someone, somewhere had randomly decided to put more money into front-of-store placement, magazine and trade advertising, book tours and promotional spots for #10. (To be fair, next year, the same random decision might be made in my favor and I will be #10…or 9…or 7) This is not a merit-based industry. How many times have I heard that? Yet, until I was the one who had to actually come up with the cash that would make the difference between a book that faded into obscurity and a book that would receive the attention it deserved, I never truly appreciated how brutal and dispassionate was the view from this side of the checkbook. I discovered that I am not nearly the risk taker I thought I was… and that’s while dealing with my own money, on behalf of a product that I passionately believe in. How much less willing would I be to gamble with someone else’s money, for someone else’s book? Suddenly the decisions made by my former publishers about my marketing budget don’t seem quite as stupid as they once did.

5) Timing is Crucial.

When the new Harry Potter, Grisham, or Stephen King is shipped to brick and mortar bookstores, it is very likely in a box marked, “Do Not Shelve Until…” with a date. Years of experience have taught traditional publishers the value of a “crisp lay-down” to build buzz, maximize presence, and yes, inflate sales rankings and bestseller lists. Despite the fact that, as so many indies happily proclaim, e-books are forever, if you want to give your forever-book a chance to make itself known in the e-book jungle, following this simple practice from traditional publishing is the easiest and most cost effective thing you can do. Launch with a bang. Build your product page first and have it filled with reviews before announcing your release to the public. Arrange contests, Goodreads giveaways, discussion groups, blog tours, ad campaigns and reviews all to fall within a two week period of publication (Resourceful authors will plan to repeat this process in a few months, as sales start to fall). The more visible your book is, the more popular it seems,and the more popular it seems, the more popular it actually becomes because its very popularity will nudge it onto Amazon’s also- bought list, which will in turn push it up in the rankings. The higher in the rankings your book goes, the more visible it becomes, which means more people buy it, and so on and so forth. This is, believe or not, pretty much the same process that traditionally published print books have been undergoing to make the various bestseller lists for years. There’s nothing new under the sun.

6)Holding its own is not good enough.

This was perhaps the most painful and difficult lesson for me to learn. I have complained ad infinitum about the publisher who canceled my mystery series while Book #2 was on a bestsellers list, and the publisher who canceled my women’s fiction series while Book # 1 was approaching a 95% sell-through. Their reason for doing so, in both cases, was that Book #3 had failed to live up to the sales numbers generated by previous books. Here’s what they got right: it’s not enough to maintain your readership. Unless your fan base continues to grow, you cannot sustain a series.

What they got wrong (among many other things)

The assembly-line mentality upon which corporate America was built does not work in the Arts. Simply put, when a book fails to live up to expectations in a Big Six house, it is cut, cast off, arteries severed; it is tossed, still writhing with life and screaming protests, into the teeming sea like so much chum. Moving on; next project.

When a book fails to succeed in my house, I want to know why. Did it fail to give the readers what they want? Did it fail to find its audience? Was it marketed incorrectly or not at all? Bad cover? Bad blurb? Wrong price? Did it have enough time to succeed? What can I do to change its fate? If I believe in a book I will do everything in my power to give it a second chance… and a third, and even a fourth, if I have to. I will find out what I did wrong, and I will fix it. I will accept responsibility for a less than stellar performance, and I will correct flaws in marketing, design, pricing and placement. I will beat the bushes for new readers, come up with innovative ad campaigns to draw people in, go for markets I hadn’t considered before. Only when I have done everything that I can do, as a publisher, to help a book a find its audience—and , if necessary, when I’ve done it again and again—will I give up. This is my book, you see. I care what happens to it.

And that, in the end, may be the most important thing I’ve learned from the Big Six. Bad things happen when you don’t care. Good things happen when you do. I’m glad I finally found a publisher who cares.

Me.

The Million Dollar Deal That Ruined My Career

2011-10-31T20:49:00.001-04:00

Now available at Amazon.com

Before Harry Potter, before Twilight, before the hundreds of thousands of vampire , wizard, demon, zombie, angel, fairy and just-plain-strange books that proliferate the marketplace today, I wrote a book about werewolves. It wasn’t, in my humble opinion, just an ordinary book, and these were not ordinary werewolves. It was at that time the best book I had ever written. Believe it or not, I wasn’t the only one who thought it was pretty good. The Passion (and its sequel, The Promise) sold after a ten–day auction for a phenomenal amount of money (to be strictly accurate, it was not quite one million, but by the time sub-rights were sold the difference was negligible, to me, at least). Within the week, offers for audio, foreign, and large print rights were pouring in. James Cameron and Stephen Spielberg were both interested in film rights. And then it all went to hell.
For reasons I still don’t entirely understand, the publisher abandoned the book. Possibly it was caught up in inter-company politics; possibly the publisher genuinely did not know how to publish it. While logic would suggest that no publisher wants to lose money on a book, the only way this publisher could have lost more money on this book would have been not to publish it at all. I remember screaming at my agent at one point, A million dollars is not worth an entire career! –which turned out to be eerily prophetic. In a desperate effort to save the project, I personally invested a disastrous amount on promotions, which resulted in the development of a small cult following (thank you, readers!) But in terms of the commercial sensation The Devoncroix Dynasty books were meant to be, the project was a monumental failure.

After that, no other publisher would touch me —primarily because it makes no sense to invest in an author and/or a series on which a previous publisher has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also, I think, because what I was writing at that time was crap. I had spent ten years perfecting my craft, publishing anywhere from three to six books, in various genres across the board, a year. I routinely received awards and made lists and, perhaps more importantly, had been pulling in six figures a year for most of my writing career. But none of that mattered at the time. Because when I finally got the break every writer dreams of, the Big Contract for the Great Work, I blew it. My best wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t a writer. I was an imposter. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to write. It was that I couldn’t. I was broken from the inside out. I went from writing 500,000-700,000 words a year to not writing a single word for the next five years. Broken.
Eventually, with no other marketable skills and with homelessness becoming an ever-increasing possibility, I forced myself to start writing again and found a publisher willing to take a chance on me—for $8000 a book. Meanwhile, readers were still e-mailing me, wondering where the sequel to The Promise was. My new series was canceled (while the second book was still on a bestseller’s list) and after a couple of desperate years I found another publisher and another series and yet another genre. Meanwhile, reader mail continued to wonder what had ever happened to my werewolf series.
Despite an enormously enthusiastic editor, a fair advance, and an initial display of support from the publisher, I knew in my heart of hearts the new series wouldn’t last long. Every word I wrote was excruciating. I envied my friends with real jobs. I hated my life. And just before the series was inevitably canceled, I started secretly fooling around with an idea for re-launching in the Devoncroix Dynasty werewolf series, and I discovered something profound: it wasn’t writing I hated. It was the business of writing.
Two years later, Renegade was completed, and it turned out better than I thought it would. Because it was a stand-alone book that was not necessarily dependent on the previous ones, I thought it had a real chance of, not only impressing the powers-that-be in New York, but of finding the audience this storyline deserved. And yet the more I thought about surrendering this work to a publisher, the tighter my gut got. I faced the future with bleakness and dread. I kept hearing my own voice screaming, A million dollars is not worth a career! And I think what a meant was, It’s not worth a life.

Fifteen years ago, the breakthrough deal on the original Devoncroix Dynasty books represented what every writer works toward: that moment of sublime validation that will lead to a lifetime of creative freedom and financial security. It led instead to a monumental personal and career crisis, severe depression, and financial ruin. Poised on the brink of doing it all over again, I realized that the price of the Big Deal was, for me, entirely too high.
The only real validation of a work comes from readers, and the only creative freedom I had ever had was when I was not writing for a publisher. So here is Renegade, ten years in the making. I am the author, publisher, and distributor. I wrote it for readers, because in the end, is there any other reason to write? And I wrote it for me, because this story was the love of my life, and it was time to tell it the way it was meant to be told. If you buy it, I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t, that’s okay too. Because now that I am in charge of my own career, I have plenty of projects in the works. And I’ll just bet that one of them is the story you’ve been waiting to read.

The Reader's Prayer

2011-09-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

Tell me a story.

Hold out your hand, take me on a ride. Entertain me, transport me, amuse me, inspire me, educate me, uplift or enlighten me. Engage me. Tell me a story.

Don't waste my time with pretentions of grandeur. Save the world on your own dime. I'm here to be delighted, enraptured, moved and transformed. I want to believe. I want to be transported. Make me angry, make me weep, make me afraid, but for heaven's sake, make me care. Tell me a story.

Keep me awake at night, turning pages. Haunt me through the day. Draw me in to your world, wrap me in the shimmering, glittering colors of your imagination, let me drown in your words. Make me never want to leave.

Take me, I'm yours.

Tell me a story.

--Donna Ball

Writing Without a Net

2011-08-28T19:51:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that it was only eighteen months ago that I first starting dipping my toes into the chilly waters of e-publishing. For the first year I was still under contract with my print publisher, and I experimented timidly with uploading some of my backlist titles to Kindle. All the time I kept daydreaming about sitting down and actually producing a new title-- an entire book--exclusively for self-publication. Finally, in May of this year, I got the courage to do it. And everything changed. Three weeks ago I actually withdrew a book from submission because a) I realized I could make more money by publishing it myself b)the book was too important to me to see it massacred, as so many other of my books have been, by the Big Six publishing system.

So wow. I guess I am now officially on my own. Papa Publisher is no longer there to pat me on the head, tell me what's best for me, and make all my decisions. My safety net is gone, and it's a long way down.

In my career with New York publishing have written (not even counting category romance) over fifty books in four different genres. Fifteen of them have made one bestseller list or another. I have been doing this for a living since the time of carbon paper (that would be the good old days when editors actually edited and the only reviews that were worth mentioning came from Publisher's Weekly or the New York Times.) I am what you call a professional fiction writer. And up until now, I have been completely addicted to The System.

This is how it goes: I write a proposal for a novel and send it to my agent. I wait, grinding my teeth and pacing the floor-- sometimes literally banging my head against the wall, until Agent reads my proposal and decides which editors to send it to. This process can take days with a good agent, or months with a bad agent (about the three month mark is where it reaches the head-banging stage). Agent sends the proposal to editors. I get rejections, which I receive with disdain (what do they know, anyway?), anger (how stupid can these people be?) and depression (I'll never sell another book. Just kill me now). Eventually I get an offer (usually within three months) and the euphoria is so high that all the previous agony was totally worth it. Someone loves me! Someone wants me! I am a genius!

If this dynamic sounds familiar to anyone, that may be because it's based on the same psychological principle used to torture prisoners of war.

My new editor heavily reinforces my genius status, of course, and showers me with adoration, thus ensuring my dependency on her. Sometimes she even sends me flowers or champagne! More importantly, she totally "gets" my book, and we spend hours e-mailing back and forth and talking on the phone about how to make it better. I am in heaven. Finally, I can settle down to write, knowing that when I have written the last sentence someone out there in the big bad world is literally waiting with hands held out to read it.

The writing process takes six months or so, during which time I am in heaven. Someone loves my work. Someone loves it enough to give me money for it (sort of). Someone loves it enough to make artwork out of my story, and write letters soliciting quotes, and have meetings at which my book is on the agenda. I get notices of advance reviews. I get e-mails from my publicist, setting up this book signing and that interview. Every single e-mail, every phone call, every request is another hit of adrenaline. My brain is flooded with dopamine. I want more and more and more. E-mails from readers start trickling in; you know the ones that begin, "I was in Borders the other day and was attracted by the cover on your book. So I picked it up and..." Livin' the good life, baby, livin' the good life.

Then I turn in the proposal for my option book. By this time the first-quarter sales figures are in (keeping in mind that my book may have only been on the shelves for three or four weeks) and, well, they are somewhat disappointing. Unfortunately, the publisher will not be picking up my option at this point. The crash is hard. The withdrawal is severe.

And the whole torture phase starts again.

I have lived like this for over twenty years. Day in, day out. Willingly. I was so brainwashed that even when I was offered an escape I wouldn't take it. How could I write a book when no one was waiting for it? How could I afford to write a book that no one had paid for? Who would even read anything I wrote unless someone in New York told them to? It seriously never occurred to me that the people who were really waiting for my book might be readers; that long before the pennies-per-copy that the publisher paid me actually trickled down into my hands, some reader had paid them twenty dollars, or that a writer with fifteen bestsellers to her credit might have accumulated a few readers along the way.

For me the hardest part about writing without a net was realizing that I don't need a net. Once I got over that initial, paralyzing conviction that, since no editor was waiting for this book it couldn't possibly be worth writing, I was amazed at how easy it was. Writing actually became fun again. My style was not inhibited by the constant balancing act between pleasing the editor and pleasing myself. The only person I'm trying to please now is the reader, and much to my surprise I've discovered that my readers almost always like what I like. Who would have thought?

Of course there are struggles, and of course there are downsides, and sometimes it's scary out there. But the important thing is that I've broken the cycle of addiction; I've escaped my own personal Stockholm Syndrome. And freedom tastes good. In fact, it tastes great.

I could definitely get used to this.

One More Time

2011-06-12T22:09:00.000-04:00

Words written since last post: 57,323
Words deleted since last post: 17,201
Words rewritten since last post: way too many!

Okay, back to a semi-regular schedule after tornado recovery, internet failure and yes, in the midst of all this, the completion and publication of my very first original e-book!

On that subject, I am still getting e-mail from readers complaining about my decision to publish digital editions of my books. Some of these are a little snippy. Some are simply hurt and confused. Have I abandoned books? What will become of those who don't have, or want to have, e-readers? Don't I care about my reading public?

These letters are particularly disheartening when they begin by saying, "I just got your last three books from a used book store/book exchange/friend or relative..." since, as we surely all know by this point, neither authors or publishers receive money from these sources and a lack of money is precisely why publishers don't buy books-- and why authors are starving.

So one more time, let me try to explain. The following is in fact a quote from a response I just wrote to a reader who contacted me expressing her disappointment over the fact that my latest book (a novella) was not available in print. I have said it before, to other readers:

No one loves books more than I -- the smell, the feel, the weight of them in my hand, the way they look on my (far overloaded!) book shelf. But I also love stories-- the telling of them, and the reading of them. Perhaps even more importantly, I love writers, who deserve to make a living at their craft, and readers, who deserve to be able to read good books at a price they can afford.

Please keep in mind it was the publisher who canceled the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series , not I. For years I read the e-mail from readers begging for another installment, and my frustration grew. Once a series is cancelled, no other publisher will take a chance on it.   I considered self-publishing, but the technology available at the time was a huge learning curve, and the profit margin so small that even if I sold every copy--difficult to do without a distributor to get the books into a bookstore--I would barely be making minimum wage for the time I spent writing and producing the book. And that was IF I sold as many copies as a big NY publisher,while the truth is most self-published novels sell about 100 copies.

Enter e-publishing, and a whole new way to make books available to millions of readers for little or investment--and with up to 70% of the profits going directly to the author!  With those kinds of numbers, writers could afford to price their books below the cost of a paperback and still make more money per copy than they would if their book had been published by a big NY print publisher. And readers could buy 4 or 5 brand new titles (sometimes more!) for the price they would have spent for one book at a used book store (where the author of the work receives absolutely no royalty whatsoever). It's a win-win for everyone.

I decided to publish Bone Yard, Book Four of the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series, as an original e-book novella to test the waters. I have been publishing my backlist for Kindle for over an year now, but this was my first genuinely self-published novella. The response has been overwhelming. It turns out that readers really did  want another installment in the series, even after waiting four years, and most of them were delighted to have it in digital form.  Now that I know I have a real reader base who are willing to actually buy these books, I am encouraged to continue the series. And for those who weren't  delighted that Bone Yard was an e-book exclusive, good news: Amazon's Create Space program has overcome the learning curve even for the techno-challenged like me, making it possible for me to publish and distribute print copies of subsequent full length novels in the series (as a novella, unfortunately, Bone Yard is too short to bind).

So one more time, this is why I, and so my authors like me, are so excited about e-publishing:

1)Price
      Our ability to keep prices under $5.00 means that more readers can buy our books. Good for you, good for us.

2)Royalty
       The fact that 70% of the price of the book (as opposed to 8% of the price of a traditionally published print book) remains in the author's hands means that writers who otherwise might never have been heard from again can afford to continue telling the stories you love.

3)Availability
        The e-publishing option means that no series needs to be abandoned simply because the publisher could not make its P&L statement balance. Your favorite characters do not (as in the case of the Ladybug Farm series ) have to be left standing in the midst of their ruined vineyard wondering what they're going to do next-- and neither do you! Writers you have loved, abandoned by their publishers for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of their books, can continue to tell their stories-- and they can get them to you faster, easier, and cheaper than ever before. This is huge, people. This is mammoth! Embrace the future; it is yours.

And one more time-- yes, of course my books will still be available in print. They may be somewhat difficult to find, though, with so many book stores closing. And they will be far more expensive than an e-book. But if you look hard enough, you'll find them. Because I love books. And I'll get mine to you however I can.

I couldn't resist:

$1.99 for your Kindle!

By the way, what am I reading?

On my Kindle: The Confession by John Grisham

In paper: The Traveler by Stephen Twelve Hawks

Confessions of an Introvert

2011-04-25T20:34:00.000-04:00

So here’s the thing: I have danced with my dog on stage in front of three thousand people and a television crew. Swear to God. I have been featured on television talk shows, news broadcasts and documentaries dozens of times. I’ve stood before audiences in aggregate of the tens of thousands over the years to give speeches, workshops and key note addresses, and my heart never skipped a beat. I am not shy. In fact, some people might even say I shine in the spotlight.

Most of the time.

You see, I am at heart an introvert. That means, among other things, that I spend more time thinking than acting. That I value my privacy. That I give one hundred percent of myself to every experience and because of that, I choose my experiences carefully. And that I suck at social media.

I have to point out that I am not talking about the comfortable, day-to-day interaction with my readers through e-mail, my blogs and discussion groups. I could not live without the encouragement from and contact with my "people". If I don't hear from readers daily I desperately start dialing tech support to see if the server is down. Seriously. Don't stop writing to me. I'm referring here to all the time consuming extraneous things writers are expected to do to promote their books that most of us, myself included, simply are not suited for.

Shrinking Violet Promotions did a wonderful post on dispelling myths about introverts, and I don’t think I can improve on that. Basically, what it boils down to is that introverts can dance on tabletops (or onstage in a top hat with a dog), give knock-dead speeches in front of stadiums filled with people, and host our own reality television shows if required, but at the end of the day we really just want to close the door, take a deep breath, and gather ourselves. Alone. We don’t want people all up in our biz-ness every single minute of every day.

I became a writer, in part, because I am in introvert. I can work for long periods in isolation without ever hearing the sound of another human voice. I can create something out of nothing, all by myself. I am comfortable with my own thoughts. I enjoy keeping to myself.

I recently read that in order to be successful at promoting a book, a writer should update his Facebook status 2-3 times a day, Tweet 3-5 times a day, blog once or twice a week. Minimum. Additionally, of course, said writer would also be expected to reply to all relevant tweets, post on everyone else’s Facebook wall, and comment on 12-15 blogs a week. In order to do that, it seems to me that the writer would spend half his life just thinking of things to say!

Here are my status updates:

1) Woke up

2) Walked dogs

3) Wrote some stuff

4) Wrote some more stuff

I’ll be back with more updates when I have something to actually report.

I’m not shy. I’m just a writer. Please buy my books anyway.

In Review

2011-04-15T16:32:00.000-04:00

Long, long ago book reviews were an elite art form. They were written by professional journalists and established writers who were considered masters in their field—Mark Twain reviewing James Fennimore Cooper, for example, was a masterpiece in itself—and carried an appropriate amount of weight. The majority of book reviews appeared in newspapers, magazines and trade journals, and most readers never saw more of the review than the pull quote placed on the book cover by the publisher.

The internet has changed all that. Today the self published or small press book is likely to be reviewed by the same blogger who reviews top selling hard covers from major publishers. A hundred great customer reviews can easily overrule one mediocre review in the trades—and let’s not even talk about what a hundred one-star customer reviews can do. So in this time when everyone has an opinion about everything, and anyone with an internet connection has the means with which to express it, it might be a good idea to keep a few Rules of Responsible Behavior in mind before you sit down at the keyboard.

For Reviewers:

Be Honest. Don’t write a review on a book you haven’t read. Don’t give a book a one-star review because you thought the price was too high, because the author snubbed you at a conference or failed to answer your e-mail. An honest review takes the book as a whole, measures the positives against the negatives, and concludes with an overall impression of the reading experience.

Be Fair. Personally, I will not give any book less than three stars out of five. The reason is that if it was a two-star (hated it) or one-star (barely readable) book, it clearly wasn’t worth finishing, and as mentioned above, no review should be written on a book you haven’t read. If you feel you must post a review on a book you hated, be very specific about why. It’s fair to say, “the heroine was shallow and unbelievable”, not so helpful to say, “I hated the heroine so much I want to throw the book across the room”. I know, we’ve all felt that way. But sometimes it’s best to keep our feelings to ourselves.

Be Concise: A book review is not a book report. You can always tell an unprofessional review because it reads like a story outline: This happens, that happens, then something else happens and in the end other things happen. Never give away the ending. Never give away crucial plot points (also known as spoilers). The worst review I ever got was actually a five-star review that gave away both the unexpected plot twists and the ending of my book. I repeat: Don’t do that. Writers will hate you for it, and so will readers. A good book review gives as much information about the book as the back cover copy does, or no more than could be discovered if the reader downloaded a free sample for her Kindle (about 30% of the book). The rest of the review should concentrate on your reaction to the book—what you loved, what you didn’t—and why.

Be Quotable: This of course only applies to those of you who are doing professional-caliber reviews for blogs or print, or if you are an author asked to review a colleague’s work. The reason writers and publishers submit their work to you for review is so that they can quote you. This would seem to be self evident, but I am frequently amazed by reviewers who genuinely seem to like a book but whose writing style is so clumsy, or who are simply so rushed or careless, that there is absolutely nothing we can use to let readers know they liked it. We like pithy quotes. “This book reminds me of the long lazy novels of Jane Austen, in which the much-besieged heroine is pitted against the dark brooding hero in a deeply complex and troubling way” is nice. Who doesn’t like being compared to Jane Austen? But there is nothing, absolutely nothing quotable there—unless we want to try to pull “complex and troubling”, which might not portray the book in its best light. Why couldn’t you just have said, “Wonderfully reminiscent of Jane Austen” or better still, “The new Jane Austen!”. Toss us a crumb, guys.

For Authors

There really are only three rules for authors regarding reviews

1)Do not respond to reviews

2) Do not respond to reviews

3) Do not respond to reviews

I don’t care if the reviewer was so stupid he got the name of your protagonist wrong and misspelled yours. I don’t care if he reviewed your SF novel as a romance. I don’t care if he thought your techno-thriller was non-fiction. Do. Not. Respond. It’s unprofessional. Period.

Okay, here’s one more rule: If you submit your book for endorsement (which is different from a review request) to another author, or if your agent or editor does, and if that author takes the time to actually read your book and to craft, in his or her own inimitable prose, a publishable quote and allow you to use his/her words to promote your book—send a thank you note, or an autographed copy of the published book at least. Even if you get so many quotes from big-name authors you can’t possibly use them all, even if this author’s quote was the least memorable of them all… send a thank you note. It’s only good manners.

And one last note: If you think customer reviews don’t matter, think about the last time you considered purchasing a product you didn’t know much about. Chances are you looked it up on the internet, and were directed to a page filled with customer reviews (probably from Amazon.com!) designed to sway your buying choices. How likely you are to buy a product that no one has endorsed? Customer reviews do matter, and writers—and readers—depend on them. So if you’ve read something you liked recently, by all means, take the trouble to leave a review on one of the internet sites. If you read something in which you were disappointed, it’s okay to let us know that too—but do it in an effective, professional manner.

So go forth and review. We’re waiting to hear what you think.

Then and Now

2011-04-09T18:13:00.000-04:00

I hardly ever use this blog to promote my own work-- well not much, anyway! --but I have had such an interesting experience preparing SANCTUARY for release that I thought it was worth commenting on. Briefly.

A few years back (quite a few, actually!) I sold what is called a "breakthrough" novel (THE PASSION by Donna Boyd) at auction for a great deal of money. I had been a hardworking, steadily selling midlist author until this point for ten years, and I understood that what I had written was really, really good. I thought it deserved all the attention it was getting. But when my editor said to me, "It must feel wonderful to write such an extraordinary book!" I remember replying, "Yes, it does. But this isn't the first extraordinary book I've written. It's just that no one noticed the others."

SANCTUARY is one of the books that no one noticed.

In the early nineties, I sold the manuscript for Sanctuary to a somewhat cheesy publisher for a set of outrageous promises and less money than I had ever been paid in my life. Said publisher then changed the title, insisted upon changing some essential elements of the story, slapped on a cheap cover, and printed probably 2000 copies.   I'm sure I was heartbroken at the time. To tell the truth, I've been heartbroken so many times I can't remember. I know I moved on. I wrote twenty or thirty more books, some of which were even extraordinary. And no one noticed.

Fast forward fifteen years. The rights have reverted to me (believe it or not there was a TEN YEAR license in that contract) and we live in a new and glorious age in which authors can actually control the fate of their own work. I found an old copy of Sanctuary (its original title, not the one under which it was published), dusted it off, and began to read. I discovered something wonderful, and terrible. The wonderful part was that I couldn't put it down. I was the author, I kind of (but not entirely) knew what was going to happen, and I was rivetted. There were places where I honestly couldn't believe I had written that book. Which leads us to the terrible discovery: I was a much better writer then than I am now.

I don't know what happened. Too many heartbreaks, too many capitulations to an industry in which field salesmen  had more input into a writer's work than the editor with the MFA degree did; too many rejection letters condemning me for writing exactly what the publisher announced at last month's conference they were looking for. Too many print runs that didn't even cover the advance. Too many vampires.

There is a technique of behavior modification in which a negative reinforcer (i.e. electric shock) is paired with the undesirable behavior (i.e. smoking) to create such an unpleasant association in the subject's mind that the behavior is extinguished. The pain simply isn't worth it. I think that, over the years, that's what happened to the spark of passion that drove all of my best work: writing a novel, and submitting it for publication, became so associated with pain that it just wasn't worth it. Clearly, I continued to write and to sell. But I think that, as I grew more and more enmeshed in the publishing industry, I put less and less of myself into the process of creating the work. I stopped being extraordinary. The pain wasn't worth it.

But that was then. This is now.

I currently have three proposals under submission to print publishers. If I receive an offer on any of them, I will accept it, because print publishers pay in advance and I need to survive. But I have just realized that, after these proposals have run their course, I will not go knocking on New York's door again. Ever.   The reason is not because I can make more money self publishing(J.A. Konrath and Amanda Hocking nothwithstanding) because at my current rate of return I will starve to death on e-book royalties. But if I am going to be a writer, I need to be  that. I need to write my best.

Stand by for something extraordinary.

How Vampires Killed Publishing

2011-03-27T19:42:00.000-04:00

You know me. If I can possibly blame anything on vampires—from the Russian Revolution to the current price of gas—I will. So here’s my theory about why publishing houses are crumbling, book stores are closing, and tens of thousands of writers are wondering how they are going to feed their families this year. It has absolutely no basis in fact, so please don’t look for one.

From: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
To: Pathetic Writer @ Nowheresville
Subject: Sorry, Charlie

Dear Pathetic,
I’m afraid I have bad news. Despite the fact that your last two coming- of- age novels set in Small Town, USA, have received excellent reviews and done reasonably well for their genre, and even though your new proposal about a young nun who is struck blind and receives the gift of healing while on an archealogical dig in Syria does have a certain appeal, I’m afraid we will not be offering another contract at this point. The consensus of the editorial committee is that, while your writing is lyrical, your characters deeply and convincingly drawn, and your storytelling ability can’t be faulted, the whole just doesn’t make for a saleable novel. Best of luck in placing this work elsewhere.

Your (former) Editor

TO: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
FROM: Pathetic Writer @ Nowheresville
SUBJECT: Re: Sorry, Charlie

Dear Editor,
But I’ve worked for you for five years! My fans are begging for a sequel! I just bought a house! I don’t understand—lyrical writing, convincing characters, good storytelling—what else do you need to make a saleable novel? Isn’t there something I can do to make this story work for you?

Pathetic Writer

From: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
To: Pathetic Writer @ Nowheresville
Subject: Re:Sorry, Charlie

Dear Pathetic,
As you know, I love your work and really want to buy something from you, but please understand we have to be fiscally responsible. Lyrical writing, convincing characters, and good storytelling just don’t work for our list right now. I suggest you study what we are currently publishing and try to adapt your story accordingly. Charlie and the Vampire Slayers, for example, has done very well for us, so I guess my question to you is: Does she have to be a nun?
Best regards,
Your (former) editor

TO: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
FROM: Pathetic Writer @ Nowheresville
SUBJECT: Sister Sunshine, Vampire

Dear Editor,
Attached as a Word document please find my proposal for my new vampire thriller, Sister Sunshine, Vampire. I’ve taken your advice to heart and have tried hard to find something that will fit with your current list. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Fondly,
Pathetic Writer

To: Pathetic Writer @ Nowheresville
From: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
Subject: re: Sister Sunshine, Vampire

Dear Pathetic,
I’m so pleased you’ve accepted our offer for a six-book series of Sister Sunshine books! I’m delighted to be working with you again, and can’t wait to receive your manuscript.

BTW hope to see you this year at DragonCon, FantasyCon, SciFi Con and RWA, and don’t forget to get started on that blog!
Cheers,
Your Editor

To: Editor @ Bigass Publishing
From: AgentofMany @ Bigass Literary
Subject: Congratulations!

Dear Editor,
Congrats on snagging the deal of the century with Sister Sunshine! I agree these books are bound to make publishing history (although I confess I will miss the lyrical writing,deeply drawn characters and convincing storytelling of Pathetic Writer’s Somewhere USA books, which I find strangely lacking in the vampire series. I suppose it’s because they are written to such tight deadlines). I recently signed two clients on proposals similar to Sister Sunshine; would you be interested in taking a look?

Let’s have lunch next week!

Agent @ Bigass Literary

To: Agent @Bigass Literary
From: Editor@ Bigass Publishing
Subject: re: Congratulations!

Send them on!

Editor

************Press Release************

FROM: Bigass Publishing, NY NY

SUBJECT: Multi-Million Dollar Deal

For Immediate Release

Bigass Publishing announced today that, after a spirited bidding war, they have acquired World English language rights to Vampire Space Lawyer , the first in a planned 8 book series, for publication in early spring, at a final offer of 6.4 million dollars. “Vampire books are our strongest sellers,” said B.A. Publisher, President of Bigass Publishing. “We see no signs of this trend fading any time in the near future.”

To: Editor@Bigass Publishing
From: LiteraryWriter@ Patheticville
Subject: My next book?

Dear Editor,
I just wanted to make sure you received the proposal for My Next Great Work of Literature, the follow-up to the Nobel-prize nominee Debut Work of Literature. I know you’re busy, but it has been eight months sent I sent you the proposal, and since I was the youngest writer ever to win the Book of the Year Award I did expect to hear from you by now. I’m anxious to get started on this masterpiece, so I hope we can begin discussing terms soon.

I hope all is well with you.

Best wishes,
Literary

To: LiteraryWriter@ Patheticville
From: Editor@Bigass Publishing
Subject: re: My next book?

Dear Literary Writer—
I’m sorry. Who are you?

Editor and Sr.VP,
Bigass Publishing

FOUR YEARS LATER:

TO: Sales@ BigAss Publishing
FROM: PREZ@BigAss Publishing
SUBJECT: Vampires

What do you mean, there’s been a 20% decline in sales of vampire books? Our entire inventory is tied up in vampire books! You’re fired! The Editor of Vampire Books is Fired! All her writers are fired! So is her assistant, her cover designers, and her marketing people! I’m not throwing good money after bad! We have to be fiscally responsible!

And get me something about angels, will you?

******************************************

Okay, every now and then, even I have to get a little snarky. Because the best thing about my books is that there are absolutely no vampires in them (werewolves are a different story).

It's March, and I'm reading...

2011-03-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

Patrick Taylor’s An Irish Country Courtship, of course!

There is something about these Irish Country books that, for me, define the word “cozy”, although I’m quite sure that in terms of genre they are not categorized that way. They transport me to a quiet and peaceful world, where folks tend to meander rather than stride, where the problems are real but manageable, and where no one ever, ever texts. This is a world I want to live in. But because I can’t, I look forward once or twice a year to visiting there.

As I look back over my reading life I realize that my love affair with peaceful, orderly worlds is decades old. I discovered the novels of Georgette Heyer when I was a teenager and devoured every one, pulling them off the library shelves like they were candy waiting to be unwrapped. Of course I realize that these books were technically Regency romances, but they were at heart stories about a kinder, gentler world where the rules of society were clearly understood and observed, where problems were small and easily solved, and where, in the end, everything turned out all right. And no one ever texted.

As a young woman I adored Lillian Jackson Braun’s “The Cat Who…” mysteries. I couldn’t name to this day even one of the crimes that the cats solved, but I’ll never forget Qwilleran’s big apple barn and the colorful characters of Moose County. At the same time I discovered Elizabeth Peters' Egyptian mysteries, which I very much doubt are classified as cozies. But to me they are just that—comfortable, comforting, familiar. They take me away to a place where, even when the bad guys are chasing, I feel safe.

I found the same kind of easy reassurance in the Jan Karon’s Mitford novels. I love Margaret Maron’s Judge Knott series, not for the clever plotting or derring-do, but because when I settle down to read one it feels like coming home. I’m cozy there.

Of course in between escapes to these warm and comfy places I’ll visit fistula clinics in Ethiopia, drug dens in L.A., bombings in Ireland, massacres in Kuwait, ice floes in the North Atlantic; I’ll commune with serial killers, burnt-out cops, hard-assed prosecuters, sex offenders and junkies. I’ll plod through the history of the automobile and soar to another galaxy, doing my best to avoid vampires along the way. But at the end of the day it’s nice to know there is a Patrick Taylor in the world, or an Elizabeth Peters waiting for me. Sometimes you just need to relax.

I realize that now that in writing the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery series and the Ladybug Farm series—which are two very different types of books—I wanted to give readers the same feeling of comfort, familiarity and ease that I have with Maron or Karon or Taylor. I want them to settle back and enjoy a slower paced world that probably doesn’t exist much outside of imagination, a place where neighbors still know your name and problems are fairly manageable and no one ever texts. I want them to feel cozy.

There’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world. There’s no doubt even more to come. But today, after a long hard winter, I’ll make myself a cup of tea, warm up some blueberry scones, close the door against the harsh March wind and settle back with a good book.

Boy, do I ever deserve it.

The Worst Book EVER

2011-03-12T20:09:00.000-05:00

You know I rarely give bad reviews. I respect the work of the author—however misled he/she might have been—too much to publicly defile it. I know what it takes to write 70,000 words. I know they can’t all be jewels. But O.M.G. I have just read the worst book ever written…

And it was mine.

The heroine was so stupid I wanted to slap her. Get a life, already! Are you supposed to be real, or did you just step out of a Marvel comic? Ever heard of a little thing called backbone?? Grow a set, already!

The hero at least had two dimensions: flat, and flatter. Excuse me, even actors need motivation. Do you have any background whatsoever or did you spring full grown, Glock in hand, from the mind of a singularly demented writer? Are we supposed to believe that dialogue? Give me a break!

And the plot! Don’t get me started. First of all, can we say Paranoid Delusional? And pul-eeze, it’s the freakin’ 21st century. Ever heard of a little thing called CSI? Not that hard to solve a crime, cupcake. Just pay attention.

I tell you, I had my finger on the delete button. I have never been so close to pushing it. And yet…

It was kind of an intriguing premise. There were parts of the story that really left me breathless. Surely there was something worth saving . There had to be a way to tell this story that was gripping, heart-rending, contemporary, and didn’t make me want to track down the protagonists, wherever they might be in happily-ever-after land, and do a Charlie Manson.

Two weeks of sleepless nights later, I came back to the manuscript with a fresh eye. And I saw immediately that what it needed was a unifying motif. Three paragraphs. Done. And as for Ms.Too-Stupid-To-Live Heroine, there really was only one character flaw that was making me crazy. Global search and replace; delete. Done. Hey, I kind of like her now. She’s okay. In fact, I want her to live; not just live, but triumph. I’m pulling for you, baby. You can do it. I believe in you! And the hero—well, he really was only doing the best he could, given his leading lady. A nip here, a tuck there—voila. All right, then: sturdy, reliable, tender, courage under fire and a little bit sexy too--that’s what I call a hero. Done. As for the plot—well, what do you know? It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. Turns out that when the characters are in order, their motivations are clear and the sympathies of the reader are engaged, the story just naturally falls into place. I could hardly believe my eyes. I was looking at a story I could be proud of. One of the best I’d ever written in fact. Done and done.

The moral of the story is: nothing is beyond redemption. With skill and patience, you can uncover the passion beneath even the clumsiest effort, but don’t you dare stop until you do. There are readers out there expecting your best. Your job is not to give up until you deliver it to them.

And the title of the masterpiece that inspired this discovery for me? Well, I don’t think I’ll tell you that right now. But get ready for a treat. It’s really, really good.

The Great E-Book Experiment: Conclusions

2011-03-09T18:38:00.000-05:00

Well, this has been a fascinating few days.

I thought the learning curve was high when I first began to tackle the process of formatting, uploading and designing covers for my e-book backlist, but I hadn't even scratched the surface. In the past 72 hours I have written nothing, created nothing, accomplished nothing. I have been down the rabbit hole and back. I have read hundreds of thousands of words (ok-- maybe only tens of thousands) of blog and forum entries and posted comments on most of them. My quiet, calm, essentially secluded writerly world has been invaded by dozens of internet personalities I don't even know. I have an agent waiting for a proposal, a book I need to edit, and I can't seem to drag myself away from the internet long enough to do either. I am about ready to start ravng like Charlie Sheen.     BUT... I have learned something.

1) I hate The Social Network, don't want to be a part of The Social Network, could care less what The Social Network thinks. And, if I am to exploit the full potential of e-book sales, I have to be a part of The Social Network. Please follow me on Twitter (oh, crap, where did I put that stupid Twitter button, anyway?)

2)There's no such thing as a free ride. I started uploading my backlist to Kindle because I really loved the stories and thought it was a shame not to give them a second chance at life-- and also because I wanted to see what would happen if an e-book author had nothing going for him/her but a good story (this is not a judgement call--I assumed the stories were good because they received rave reviews when originally published) .  I did minimal/no promotion, invested Zero dollars, and waited to see what would happen. The answer is Nothing. I am selling a product, and promotion is key -- here as anywhere else. The difference between promoting my e-books and my traditionally published print books is that, well, with e-books, I get most of the money. So the effort should be a little less painful.

3)It's the Internet, Stupid. Somewhere between midnight and 6:00 a.m. on the third day I had one of those DUH slap-yourself-on-the-forehead-AHA moments. The one thing the E-Book Millionaires have in common is that they all went viral.  Someday someone will do a study on the mechanics of virality (which will make millions as it goes viral on the Internet) but for now what we know for sure is that it's fairly unlikely you will go viral on the Internet unless you make your presence known on the Internet. Promotion is key.

4) I absolutely, positively believe that it is possible for a writer with nothing more than a good story to make a living from self-published e-books-- as long as she is willing to spend as much time exploiting the market as she does writing the book.   I have always preached that a book unread is the sound of one hand clapping...so I say exploit the market.

5) Writers are (next to dog lovers) the best people in the world! Thanks to everyone for your generous advice and comments on this blog and elsewhere. Write on!

And now back to the real world. I've got proposals to write and books to edit.

And marketing to do.

The Great E-Book Experiment: Results

2011-03-06T19:09:00.000-05:00

This month marks the one- year anniversary of my Great E-book Publishing Experiment. With 11titles now live on Kindle and 5 live on all other platforms via Smashwords, I am here to report the results. Here’s a hint: they are somewhat less than spectacular.

Background: around this time last year I became intrigued by the success of authors such as Joe Konrath who had begun making their backlist and original titles available on Amazon.com’s Kindle platform, and whose staggering monetary rewards far outshone any print deal offered them (or me!) by traditional publishers. One of my own print publishers had offered one of my titles for free on Kindle over the 3 day Christmas holiday and over 60,000 copies were downloaded (more importantly, my spring royalty check was 5 times higher than it had ever been before) Even more surprising to me was the fact that many of the most successful Kindle authors were completely self-published, with no previous New York publisher to give them a platform, and none of them claimed to do any extraordinary marketing. I have a huge backlist, with most of my titles in two of Kindle’s most popular categories: romance, and suspense. Moreover, I have four titles from a major New York publisher currently in print, which you would think might give me something of a platform. With the rights to ten of my most popular contemporary romances and two mysteries in hand, I wanted to see whether or not I could approach the kinds of numbers I was hearing from other writers. My goal: $2000 per month in sales—which was modest according to some of the figures I was hearing.

I fell a little short.

For those who want the short version, here are the numbers tracing the Kindle sales of my highest selling book, Smoky Mountain Tracks, and my lowest selling book, Matchmaker, Matchmaker, through the year. (I had no sales in March of last year and March of this year has not yet been reported):

SMOKY MOUNTAIN TRACKS:
April: 19 May: 20 June:61 July: 64 Aug: 75 Sept.: 56 Oct.:63 Nov. 66 Dec. 60 Jan. 94 Feb.: 113
TOTAL: 691 for the year

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER:
April: 2 May: 12 June: 8 July: 7 Aug: :9 Sept.: 7 Oct.:2 Nov.: 3 Dec.: 6 Jan.: 15 Feb. 16
TOTAL:87 for the year

Here’s my analysis. Anyone who has a better theory, PUL-EEZE share it, because there is a reason I went into writing and not economics.

Most people agree that there are four major factors driving e-book sales.
1) Content (a good story, professionally written, edited and presented)
2) Product description page
3) Cover
4) Pricing

Because all of the books I uploaded were previously published, professionally edited best sellers and award winners in their category, I modestly submit I think I had the “quality product” part covered. Since my print publishers actually use the copy that I write for their product descriptions, I feel pretty good about the product pages as well. I even added editorial reviews and quotes from major trade publications, which is an advantage most self-published e-books don’t have. That left two big variables:

Cover
The first book I uploaded was Smoky Mountain Tracks , the first book in the Raine Stockton Dog Mystery Series. I was such a clutz at this, I accidentally uploaded a grayscale copy of the cover , which I didn’t notice for three days. Embarrassing, but what difference could it make, since no one even knew the book was published. But when I went back to upload the color cover a week later – holy cow! Eight people had already bought my book! In one week, with a grayscale cover, no publicity, and the product page on Amazon.com not even completely built yet. Clearly, this internet thing was out of control. My expectations soared.

But here’s the interesting thing: the color cover made no difference. The book continued to sell at about 8 copies a week. Throughout May, with three more books uploaded ( all of them cross-referencing the other e-books), and a complete product detail page built, still 5-8 copies a week. I sent out a notice to my reader list, featured the books on my blog and web site, made an announcement on Facebook and Kindleboards. No change. 8-10 copies a week on the dog mysteries. I upgraded the cover (this cover is still pretty bad, but you should have seen the original!) No difference.

In June, something happened and sales doubled. My only theory is that by this time I had nine books live and the cross-promotion between books was beginning to take effect. Or maybe people who downloaded samples in April had just gotten around to reading them in June. Who knows?

Old Cover

New Cover

The romances all sold about 4 copies or less a week, which made no sense to me. First of all, there were seven of them, all cross-promoting each other, and only two of the mysteries. Secondly, they had much better covers than the mysteries. The exception was A Man Around the House , whose cover was so bad even I laughed at it. However, since it sold exactly the same amount as all the others (even better than some) I left it alone for most of the year. In October, I replaced the old cover with a professionally designed one
to see if it would make any difference. In August and September (old cover) A Man Around the House sold 12 copies each month. In November (new, sexy cover) it sold 9! By December and January it was selling 12 copies a month again, just as it was with the old cover.

Price
In June I sold 61 copies of Smoky Mountain Tracks at 1.99 and 47 copies of Rapid Fire, its sequel. I raised the price to 2.99 to comply with Kindle’s new 70% royalty option at the end of June. In July I sold 64 copies of Smoky Mountain Tracks and 42 of Rapid Fire , but by August Rapid Fire was up to 55 and Smoky Mountain Tracks to 75 (more copies of both books than were sold at 1.99!). The romances, which were selling 10 or less copies per month, dropped in July to 7-10 copies a month, but were back up to 15 by August, and by the end of the year were selling more copies at 2.99 than they were at 1.99. Go figure.

What I did notice is that my two best sellers are the dog mysteries (the ones with the least impressive covers, IMHO). This could be because of the genre, the dogs (a suspicion supported by the fact that my next best seller, For Keeps also has a golden retriever on the cover) or—and this is what I think—the fact that these books still have an active product page from the print publisher, with links to the original print books and dozens of customer reviews. I know that many independent authors seed their product pages with reviews from family and friends (hey,if I had enough family or friends to write reviews on 11 different titles, I would too!) but I actually have not been able to do that. Most of my romance product pages look pretty barren, and none have links to print books.

The other thing one can’t help noticing is that in January, when everyone was downloading goodies for their brand new Christmas Kindles, all my sales doubled or tripled across the board. They’re still not giving my print publisher anything to lose sleep over, nor are they even beginning to approach what I had hoped for. But if they stay at this level or grow, I can live with that.

Conclusion
From April-December 2010, with nine e-books available on Kindle for most of that time, I made $1685. For the year. Even if you added a zero, that would still be far less than the worst year I’ve ever had with a print publisher, so will I be relying on e-books to pay my mortgage any time soon? Probably not. In terms of the sense of control over sales I hoped for when I started this project, it would appear that actual sales are linked more to the things I can’t control-—the number of customers who write book reviews and the number of people who buy Kindles —than to the more obvious things like cover and pricing.

On the other hand, I acknowledge that there is still a lot of room for experimentation in this Great E-Book Experiment. For example:
*While the difference between $1.99 and 2.99 might not make all that much difference in sales, the difference between 2.99 and 99 cents might. I just published a non-fiction book, Ten Things Your Puppy Needs to Know to Be a Great Dog (hey, who says I don’t know anything about self-promotion?) that’s selling less than 1 copy a week. Today I lowered the e-book price to 99 cents on all platforms. We’ll see if it makes its way to the head of the pack now.

*Kindle doesn’t allow authors to give away their books for free, but with Smashwords coupons you can run a “free e-book” promotion, and that’s exactly what I’m doing during Read an E-Book Week March 6-12, 2011. (Here's the info on how to get your free books. ) Because I have selected only a few of the lowest selling romances to feature in this promotion, it should be very easy to see whether this makes a difference in sales when the price goes back to normal.

*After A Man Around the House *(from worst cover ever to sexy naked man)I remain unconvinced that the cover alone has a substantial impact on e-sales, although it certainly may contribute if there are enough other negative factors. Eventually I may redesign the dog mysteries for print, at which time I’ll invest in a professional cover. It will be interesting to see what happens.

*Finally, I would love to know whether filling the product pages on my romance novels with customer reviews would make a difference in those sales. So anyone who’d like to write a review for any of my e-books can contact me for the coupon code for a free e-book, a shameless offer made with absolutely no apology (Although I'll probably limit the offer to the first 10 on each book).

When I started the project a year ago I speculated that the formula for success in e-book sales had more to do with chaos theory than algorithms, and nothing has happened in my experience since then to change that opinion. Does that mean I consider this experiment a failure? Absolutely not. Am I giving up on the search for that elusive golden goose of e-book megamillions? Hell, no. In fact, I’m more enthusiastic than ever. Why?

Chaos theory. If lightning is going to strike, it might as well strike me.

And because, as I’ve said many times before, if I were smart I wouldn’t be trying to make a living in this business in the first place. The experiment isn’t over. It’s barely begun. Stay tuned.

Ten Things Never to Say to A Writer

2010-06-26T11:30:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 25

Books uploaded to Kindle:Under Cover

He was one of the most notorious racketeers on the East Coast. She was a cop who wanted nothing more than to see him behind bars. But just how far was she willing to go to get her man?

Recently I was on a panel at which one of the questions was: What do you hear most often when people find out you’re a writer? My answer was, “ Oh yeah? How come I never heard of you?” This got a few laughs, but it also caused me to start thinking about some of the other conversation-stoppers I’ve heard from people over the years. Here are just the top ten:

10. “Have you ever written anything I’ve read?”

The unsuspecting writer has only two possible responses to this. The first is, “Umm, how would I know?” and the second—more common—response is to hang his head in shame, mutter, “Probably not.” and slink off to the bar.

9. “I always wanted to write a book but I never had the time.”

My standard pithy reply to this is a heartfelt, “I know! I always wanted to perform open heart surgery, but I just never had the time.” However, people have heard this from me so often I’m going to have to start coming up with something else. The implication in this statement is that anyone who can find a moment or two to waste can write a book; why don’t you get a real job?

8. “How much do they pay you for that?”

Almost nothing.

7. “ You’ve written how many books? Wow, they must be really easy!”

Yes, someone actually said this to me. I then, as now, simply stood there open-mouthed. I have absolutely no reply for this.

6. “Listen, I have this great idea for a book. You really need to write it.”

The truth is, writers have plenty of ideas. We have ideas coming out of ears, and most of them are better than anything you could come up with (sorry, but we do this for a living, you know.) Ideas are not the problem. The problems are theme, characterization, narrative drive, research, suspenseful storytelling, evocative setting, lyrical prose… isolation, defeat, rejection. publishing, marketing, and low sales figures to name but a few. That’s why we get paid the big bucks (see #8) .

5. “But it’s not autographed!”

If you are fortunate enough to have a friend, family member, client, customer, patient ,student or casual acquaintance who has written a book, and should that person be so magnanimous as to give you a free copy of that book, please be aware that you hold in your hands not only a $27.95 retail value, but the hopes, dreams, and years of labor from the giver. The only possible reply to such an act of selfless generosity is “Thank you so much! I’m not worthy! How can I ever repay you?” (you can repay her, by the way, by writing a glowing review on Amazon.com). There are many reasons why an author may not autograph a give-away book, but the chances are she didn’t simply forget. When you receive a book as a gift from an author and you return it for an autograph, you are returning a gift. Worse, you are putting her on the spot. She just wrote 80,000 words and that wasn’t enough? Now you want her to write more? Right now, right here, while you watch? The most important words of the whole book (since the previous 80,000 clearly were not good enough)? I know that most people consider asking for an autograph a form of flattery. But for a writer, the implication can often be something entirely different.

Of course, if you pay good money for a book at a signing or other event where the author is clearly present to autograph books, and barring extenuating circumstances (like she’s in the restroom with the stall door closed), you absolutely have the right to expect her to sign every crisp new copy you present to her.

4.“My cousin/uncle/brother/auntie/ just wrote a book. How can he get it published?”

Would you like that answer in ten words or less? This is our profession, guys. Sometimes we actually give workshops, write books, teach classes and blog on that very subject. Occasionally we even get paid for doing so. Would you ask a plumber how to remodel your bathroom—for free?

3. “I’m working on a book, too. Can you recommend me to an agent?”

If I’ve read your book of my own free will and I am so blown away by it that I want to see it published as much you do, I will voluntarily write letters to agents on your behalf before you can even think to ask me to do so. I’ll also give you a cover quote and help you design your web site. I want good books to be published! Otherwise, agent information is readily available to anyone with an internet connection, and when I am looking for a new agent I have to go through the same laborious submission process as anyone else. No free rides here.

2. “Will you read my manuscript?”

No, no and no. We do this for a living, remember? In fact, one of the main reasons that I started offering coaching and manuscript critiquing is so that I could set a price on my time and expertise that anyone could understand. Furthermore, there is a certain liability factor involved for working writers who read other people’s work that has occasionally resulted in nuisance plagiarism suits. I have known agents and publishers who would not deal with writers who read unpublished works by amateur writers.

And the number one all time please do not ever say this to a writer but you’d be surprised at how many do, particularly if they perceive your book is successful enough to merit their invaluable criticism:

“What I hated about your book was….”

Unless that sentence ends with “it was over too soon”, believe me, no one wants to hear it. Do you have any idea what it takes to write a book? The hours upon hours upon months upon years that we labor in solitude, agonizing over every word. The rejection, the perseverance, the endurance against all odds. We have already heard what agents didn’t like about it, what editors didn’t like about it, what reviewers didn’t like about it, what bloggers didn’t like about it so often that by now that we are bruised and bleeding and barely standing. We don't need you to tell us our book wasn't good enough. Never mind that it's been on the bestseller list for thirteen weeks, that it was optioned by Stephen Spielberg for a film starring Tom Hanks... we already know it wasn't good enough. Yet for some reason, some people feel certain that we will appreciate the opinion of a real reader who can tell us exactly what went wrong with our latest book. This actually has only happened to be once. The lady in question invited me to a party so that she could spend the entire time telling me how my latest book was so much worse than my others, and what I should have done to fix it. I appreciated that so much that I’m still blogging about it twenty years later.

With all of this in mind, the next time you are introduced to a writer there’s really only one safe thing to say: “I absolutely love your work!”

Say it. Even if you have to lie.

But I Love New York-- Part Two

2010-05-31T20:41:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 28
Books uploaded to Kindle:

CAST ADRIFT She was a marine biologist on a quest to find a dolphin; he was a sailor with no time for sentiment. But two weeks alone at sea could change everything...
When last we met, I was trying to think of all the advantages to being published by a major New York publishing house. Here they are:

1) The advance. I think we all can agree that a $25,000 advance from a publisher is appreciably better than $25 a month for uploading your self-published book to Kindle. At least, it sounds better. No, it is better, really--- at least, it would be better, if only publishers would actually pay it in advance. Here’s the way it breaks down:
       1/3 on signing of the contract. This means approximately 3-4 months after the deal is struck. If you are writing the book on spec, you’ve probably completed it by now.
       1/3 on delivery and acceptance. If you submitted a complete manuscript, one would assume that the book was accepted when the publisher actually went to contract on it, but nooooo. Acceptance can come six months to a year later, after the editor re-reads the manuscript, sends you notes for revision, reads your revisions, approves them, forgets to put in a request for payment, you get the idea. And that’s if all goes well.
       1/3 on publication . Most contracts allow for publication 18-24 months after acceptance of the manuscript (see above); a semi-alert agent will change that to 18-24 months from the date of the contract which, as we have already seen, can be 3-4 months after actually selling your book. So you’re quite possibly looking at three years before you receive your final payment.
      $25,000 divided by 3 years equals $8,333 per year which is just about 10 self-published Kindle books a day at 2.99.
      The average advance for a first-time author, by the way, is still around $5000. Divide that by three years.

2) The distribution. My books are supported, published and distributed by Penguin USA, a pretty big player in the New York publishing biz. Dave’s book is published, supported and distributed by–well, Dave. In an informal tour of five independent bookstores within a twenty-five mile radius of where I live, Dave’s book was prominently featured beside the New York Times bestsellers in the windows of four of them. My books were not carried.

3)Marketing and Promotion. The publisher’s job is to sell your book. That’s why they get 90% of your money, right? But so much has been written about the publisher’s failure to do exactly that that the whole thing has become a cliche, a joke that has been told so many times it’s not even funny anymore. Bottom line: Every over-worked, underpaid publicist on staff at Big New York Publisher is responsible for 50-100 titles every campaign period (roughly 2 months before the book is published to one month after). Dave is responsible for one book. Only. His whole life. Dave has time to chase the radio interviews, the cable t.v. spot, the book signings, the reading group appearances, the blogs, the lectures. Dave knows somebody who knows somebody who can arrange a major signing at Barnes and Noble with print advertising tie-in. My publicist is only allowed to arrange two events for me per book. Let’s hope someone shows up at one of them.

3.Reviews. It is absolutely, positively true that the one advantage a major New York publisher has is the ability to get your book reviewed in the trades. Booksellers read the trades, and decide what books to order. Movie producers read the trades and decide which books might be worth optioning for film. Foreign rights agents find their next purchase in the trades. A quote from Publisher’s Weekly or Library Journal will live on your book cover forever. This is huge. And huge would be the word to describe the number of books that cascade onto the desks of trade publication reviewers every day. Ditto the major newspapers and magazines. It took two years for my last book to be reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly. Nice quote, but it would have been even nicer had we been able to use it to actually sell the book. Meantime, I get great reviews from amateur bloggers... just like Dave.

4.Okay, I’ve been sitting here with my arms crossed for five minutes and I really can’t think of Number Four.   I can think of things that should be true, or used to be true, but here is what I think is really true about the advantages of being published with a major New York publisher: If you are a multi-published, midlist author with a fan base, the difference between being published in New York and publishing yourself is so small as to be almost indiscernible, with the advantage leaning ever-so-slightly toward the self-publishing and promoting side. If you are first-time author who takes his career seriously, I still think you need the credibility of having been published in New York . Earn your stripes, and move on. I think this for absolutely no reason other than the fact that I had to do it.
       On the other hand, if you just want to see your book in store windows, do book signings, radio and television interviews, see your picture in the paper, have people talking about your work, and cash lots and lots of checks... may I introduce you to my friend Dave?

But I Love New York-- Part One

2010-05-18T20:34:00.000-04:00

pages written since last post: 11 and 1/2

Books uploaded to Amazon Kindle: For Keeps-- This was my first book featuring a dog as a major character. It had to be completely rewritten to reflect modern dog-training techniques. Only $1.99 on Kindle!

So I ran into my friend the other day-- I'll call him Dave to avoid embarrassment (mine, not his)-- and congratulated him on his recently self-published memoir. I couldn't help knowing about his recently self-published memoir because everytime I opened an e-mail, visited a shop downtown, or glanced at a newspaper, I saw an announcement. He was very pleased with the way it was going and reported he had already sold 600 copies. "That's great!" I told him sincerely because it was great-- for a self-published memoir that had been out less than three months. Feeling smug, I didn't bother to mention that, had I failed to sell less than six thousand copies in the first quarter of my book's release, my fancy New York publisher would have dumped me like toxic waste.

Still, that was a respectable number, and money in Dave's pocket that he hadn't expected. The book sold for $25, and I happen to know he hand-sold at least 80% of the copies, so his profit was about $12 per book. Allowing for the other 20% that he sold to bookstores and on which he only collected $5, that was roughly-- very roughly-- $6000. Free and clear. In his pocket.

Furthermore, Dave had finished his book at about the same time I had finished mine. His book was already in print and he had $6000 in his pocket. I was still waiting for my publisher to send me the money that was due to me on signing of the contract six months earlier. Bottom line: he had money, I didn't. Who's looking smug now?

This caused me to start thinking-- obsessing, really-- about what, exactly, are the advantages of being published by a traditional New York publisher, and why those of us who have made that choice (or, some might say, have been lucky enough to have that opportunity) have allowed ourselves to be convinced that we're getting the better deal. Sure,belonging to one of the Big Six publishers is an elite distinction, and one that's becoming harder earn every minute, but beyond the cachet is there any real value to being published in New York?

Believe me, I'm not the only one who's giving this question some serious thought. My conclusions, as they develop, are forthcoming.

A New Day

2010-05-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

pages written since last post: 150

But no... getting a start on a new book is not all I've been doing since February. Like so many of my colleagues of late, I've been re-evaluating the publishing business and my place in it. (I've also been trying to get off sugar and processed foods,lower my resting heart rate and plant an organic garden, but that's another post altogether). I've also been giving a lot of thought to books in general and the way we read them, and, frankly, how much all of these things have changed. When I first started buying books, a paperback could be had for 2.99. When I first started writing books, the average price of a paperback book was 4.99. When the cost of a paperback book jumped to 7.99, and a hardcover to $20.00, some of the most dedicated readers I know swore they would never buy another book. Well, now they're paying $35.00 for some titles, but guess what? They're not doing it very often.

So here's the thing. I think books should be affordable. I think this because I am a reader, and because I am a writer who would very much like to have her books read. The problem is that print books are impossibly expensive to publish, so that even when every corner is cut and every middleman is eliminated, it's very difficult to price a trade paperback (that would be the size of AT HOME ON LADYBUG FARM) for less than $14.00. Fortunately, there is a solution: the e-book.

I'm pleased to announce that as of today I have four titles available for the Amazon Kindle for $1.99. They are:
Smoky Mountain Tracks
Rapid Fire
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
A Man Around the House

Over the next several months I will be adding at least fifteen new titles, all for under $3.00, because I believe people should read!

All of titles that I list for Kindle will also be available on your other electronic reading devices-- I-pad, Sony, nook, etc. a week or so later. The best-selling of these titles will also be released in print-- but, alas, at the usual 14.95 or higher price point.

If you don't have a Kindle, you can actually download an ap for your PC for free that allows you to read books on your computer or other device, like BlackBerry or I-phone, which I think is incredibly cool.

I'll keep you updated as I add new e-books, and if you enjoy any of my titles, post a review on Amazon.com or elsewhere, and let me know. After all, for 1.99, what have you got to lose?

By the way, what am I reading now? In paper, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. On my Kindle:Every Day in Tuscany by Frances Mayer .

Faster, Higher, Stronger

2010-02-22T22:10:00.000-05:00

Pages written since lost post: 57

Okay, I confess: I’m a complete Winter Olympics junkie. I love downhill, ski-jump, snow boarding, bobsled, luge, skeleton, short track, 1000 meter, cross country, and oh yes, figure skating– men’s women’s, pairs, ice dance. Once every four years, I even love hockey. For two weeks in February, I am glued to the television set for six to eight hours a day, cheering– not for a nation or an individual– but for the best. Because when records are broken, when personal bests are surpassed, when the impossible becomes history, gateways open up for all of us to surge through.

This is what I’ve learned from the Olympics this year:

You don’t make the podium by accident.

Every one of these kids had a dream, and they believed in it enough to be at the rink at four o’clock in the morning to practice, every morning, without fail, for fifteen years, rain, snow, sleet, bad mood, heavy date, flu, birthday, Christmas , New Year’s, whatever ; to move across country to study under the best coach; to leave their families, their friends and their lives behind to perfect their sport; sometimes they even give up their citizenship– for life!– for a chance to pursue excellence. They don’t do this part time. They don’t do this half way. Greatness is not something you achieve when you get around to it. Greatness is a lifetime commitment.

When they fall down, they get up again.

Bode Miller, Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn. Need I say more? Okay, I’ll say one more thing. Shaun White, having already locked down the gold, did not have to do the most dangerous trick of his career, the 1260 Double McTwist– which just happened to result in a spectacular crash at the X Games. He did it because when you’re the best, you can’t not do your best.

It’s always harder than you think it will be.

No one likes to hear this. No one likes to even think about it. But the truth is, sometimes your best isn’t good enough. Sometimes you work for years, train twelve hours a day, spend thousands on coaches, perfect your craft, do the best you can possibly do... and still fail. You fall on the throw-quad, crash a gate on the downhill, take a spectacular spill on the Super-G, and this in spite of everything you could do. You think it’s over. And sometimes, truth be told, it is. But sometimes you get up, start all over again, and make a spectacular comeback. Because champions know it’s always harder than you think it’s going to be. And 100% is rarely good enough.

No one who came to Olympic games said, “I came here to lose.” or “I came to play it safe.” No one got there by giving the effort what they had to spare. They came for the gold, and they gave it everything they had.

How about you?

Catching Up

2010-02-06T16:43:00.000-05:00

Pages written since last post: 267

As you can see from the above statistic, that pesky little thing called writing a book has once again interfered with keeping this blog up-to-date. Here's what you missed:

1) Favorite book of 2009 (only two months late!): The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. This, friends and neighbors, is why there will always be paper books. This is a book you want to hold in your hands, savoring every word, touching the pages, marveling over the design. It's not only that the book within a book does, in fact, look as though it was painted on a cellar wall by a fugitive in Nazi Germany; it's not only the elegance of the story; it's not only the prose that makes you want to weep from the sheer beauty of it; it is all of those things that come together to make one perfect novel. This is why there will always be paper books.

Second Favorite Book :The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. This book made reading fun again.

2)My take on the whole IPad/Amazon/Macmillan broohaha

Now I know that most of you who read this blog really don't know (or care) much about what's going on in the industry, and you are probably all the happier for it. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of it all too. But because everyone assures me that the world as we know it is at stake, and because I did spend a good bit of time before Christmas posting about e-readers, and-- most importantly-- because it actually makes for a semi-good story, here's my summation: (a caveat-- I very often get things wrong. For a much more coherent, and undoubtedly more accurate, depiction of the situation, go to this post by my favorite industry blogger, Nathan Bransford)

To support the launch of its seriously cool new Ipad mini-computer (some people have made the mistake of calling it an e-reader, but get real), Apple, sensing discontent in the publishing industry over Amazon.com's 9.99 pricing of e-books, went to the Big Six publishers and proposed a deal whereby e-books on the Ipad would be priced at 14.95, and publishers would receive 30% of retail (Amazon pays publishers 50% of retail; i.e. the hardcover price Even I can do the math on that). Macmillan seems to have been first to publicly snap up this gem of a deal, although I understand all six major publishers are either coming or have already come on board with it as well. All fine and good except Macmillan then went to Amazon.com and told them they would no longer be allowed to sell Macmillan e-books under any terms other than the ones Macmillan had agreed to with Apple (14.95). Amazon said Okay, fine-- and immediately deleted all the "buy" buttons for every Macmillan title they carried! Not just the e-books, but all the books.

Now here is what I found interesting. The vast majority of public opinion seems to be casting Macmillan as the victim in this gambit. Amazon is being accused of behaving childishly, of throwing a temper tantrum, of trying to control the marketplace, of bidding for a monopoly on e-books. No one seems to have much to say about who gathered the Big Six in an alliance against 9.99 pricing in the first place. And what about the Macmillan authors? They're the ones who lost sales over the course of a very, very long weekend while their publisher duked it out with the internet's biggest bookseller. But, again to my surprise, the Macmillan authors who have spoken out on this matter seem to be supporting their publisher. As I said at the beginning, I very often get things wrong. And sometimes I just don't get things at all.

The upshot is that Amazon.com admits that it will be forced to "capitulate at some point" to the demands of publishers on the 14.95 pricing (gee, do you think?). And I am downloading every 9.99 book I can while I can.

And, in case anyone is wondering: yes of course I want an Ipad! It has color!!

3)Enough about that; let's talk about ME. Those 267 pages cited above represent my first completed book of the year (the first half of which was written in the last two months of last year) which was e-mailed to my editor with 5 1/2 hours to spare before deadline. Yay, me. My goal this year is to complete two more books and at least two proposals (a proposal, for me, is 50-100 pages). My fantasy also includes 1)completing and self-publishing a book I started last year, just to see what all the fuss is about 2) writing a screen play (who says I don't know how??) 3) uploading at least ten of my out-of-print and reverted titles as e-books. The latter is not such a challenge if you have actual digital copies of your books, but in my case the titles are 20 years old, exist only as bound paperbacks, and have to be scanned into my computer... page, by page, by page. This is what I do for a living, folks. I am a writer.

4) What am I reading?

On my Kindle: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
In hardcover: An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor
On my Ipod: Evidence by Jonathon Kellerman (hint: never download the unabridged version!)
On CD: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to download more 9.99 e-books.

The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent

2009-12-29T19:56:00.000-05:00

This is what I love about my new Kindle e-reader:

1)The coverage map was wrong! I am in a Whispernet coverage area after all, it seems, which means I can have any book or periodical I order delivered to my Kindle within a minute. I know! I couldn't believe it, either! So I kept ordering, and ordering...
2)The price. Much has been said, of course, about the 9.99 best seller, but I am only moderately impressed by this. After all, Amazon.com has been selling 27.95 hardcover bestsellers for $13-$15 for years. What I love are the $2.00-$3.00 mysteries and suspense/thrillers, the $1.49 per month magazine subscriptions, the 75-cent Sunday New York Times. Moreover, many authors are giving away their back list titles for $00.00, presumably to generate interest in their new releases- a terrific promotional idea that I just might try myself!
3)Portability. The Kindle slips into my purse as easily as a day planner and takes up a lot less room, so if I have a few minutes to spare while waiting to meet a friend or sitting in the dentist's office, I always have something to read.
4)Audio books. I listen to an awful lot of audio books. Books on CD are expensive and bulky to store, and trying to change a CD while jogging or driving is, well, inconvenient to say the least. I've recently begun downloading audio books to my Ipod, which has worked out fine, but, now that I have a choice, it's much more convenient to have all my books stored on one device.
5) Speaking of audio, I love the text-to-speech feature. Admittedly, text-to-speech is rarely enabled for new titles, and the voice is a close relative of the one that narrates your GPS, but you can slow down or speed up the voice for clarity, and talk about convenience! Now you can continue reading your book without actually reading it.
6)Free samples. You can read the first chapter of a book or try a periodical for fourteen days at no charge. Brilliant.
7) Adjustable font sizes. This is huge for eyes as tired (and as old) as mine.
8) The bookmark feature. I know this is not particularly clever or inventive, but every time I
click on a book, I am taken back to the last page I read, even if I have two or three books going at once. That's nice.

What I don't like about my new toy:

1) No color! I know the greyscale/electronic ink is easier on the eyes than reading a computer screen (or, so they say, actual print on paper) , but I find reading black on grey depressing, and wonder if it will eventually shadow my enjoyment of the reading experience--especially when I can't flip to the color cover to give my brain a break.
2) Speaking of flipping, I can't get used to not being able to flip forward to see how many pages I have left in a chapter-- or in the book. There is a small counter at the bottom of the screen that marks your progress, but it's not the same. This makes for a very different reading experience.
3) I found holding the reader to be uncomfortable and unintuitive--books have two sides, right? So I actually made a cover for my Kindle (they sell much nicer ones) so that I can hold it in two hands like a real book.
4) The Biggie: Too much information! I spent all day Sunday reading newspapers from around the country. Why? Because I could. I downloaded more books than I would ever purchase if I went into a bookstore and had to physically carry them to the check-out counter (my one rule of thumb having always been: if you can't carry your purchases, you've probably spent too much) . Who has time to read that much? I know I don't. But there is great comfort in knowing that if I ever do get time, books are waiting.

In summation:

Will my e-reader replace print books for me? Not a chance. Audio books did not replace print books, either, but I enjoy them both. The e-reader is a supplement, not a substitute; a convenience, not a necessity. Do I absolutely, positively desperately need one? Well, no. I didn't actually need an Ipod either, but every time I get on the treadmill and crank up the music, I sure am glad I have it. I suspect the Kindle will be the same, once the novelty wears off. It will have its uses, even if they're limited. It won't change my life, but I think I'll always be glad I have it.

And the E-Winner is...

2009-12-28T16:02:00.000-05:00

pages written since last post: 2

Over the last few days before Christmas, the debate changed from whether or not I would get an e-reader to a much simpler choice: which one. Yes, the nook is too cool for words (it has color! At least of the book covers) , and Barnes and Noble has posted a terrific comparison chart between the nook and the Kindle. The nook claims to have over one million titles (although a cursory search revealed several titles that were available on Kindle were not available on nook), and the pricing between nook and Kindle is pretty much the same for the device and books to read on it. The size, weight and features of both devices are virtually the same (but the nook has color!). My choice: The Amazon Kindle. Here is why, in order of importance:
1)Speedy delivery. I wanted it over the holidays, while I had a little bit of time to play with it. Amazon.com promised 2-day delivery, and by George, I got it. The nook, on the other hand, would be delivered on or about Feb. 1.
2)Trust. See above about promises.
3) Customer Service. As soon as my order was processed, Amazon.com sent me an e-mail inquiring whether I would like to purchase books for my new reader, and promising they would be delivered to my Kindle en route. Did I order books? You bet! And I just loved thinking about the technology that could track down my little Kindle on some FedEx truck somewhere and send to it the books that I had personally chosen, so that I would have something to read when it arrived. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but that's what I call service.
4)Convenience. Everything I needed to know about my purchase was available right there at my fingertips. I did not have get in my car and drive anywhere to receive the benefits of my Kindle (the nook implies that some of its most desirable features are only activated when you walk into a B&N store).
5)Free shipping. Okay, on a $259 purchase, free shipping does seem like the least they could do, but it was a nice touch.
6) One-click shopping. They just make it too easy.

And as I glance at the above list, I realize that those are, for the most part, the reasons I've always chosen Amazon.com over a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Almost since its inception, bookstores (and publishers, oddly enough) have felt threatened by Amazon.com. Speaking strictly as a consumer, maybe they should be.

So now I am sitting on top of a mountain where high speed internet only became available three years ago and where the waiting list for best sellers at the local library is still six-plus months, the proud new owner of a Kindle e-book reader. How do I like it?

Stay tuned...

On the Other Hand...

2009-12-16T19:14:00.000-05:00

Pages written since last post: 7

I'm still struggling with Kindle lust, but as promised, I am examining both sides of the electronic books issue (from a purely self-centered point of view, of course). Having searched high and low, here are the downsides to e-readers that I've come up with:

For authors and publishers:
1)For most titles, you can download the first chapter free. Here are the books that I purchased in hardcover that I would not have not have bought at all if I could have read the first chapter before purchasing:

South of Broad by Pat Conroy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson
How I Became A Famous Novelist by Greg Hely
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

This is not to say that these might not turn out to be wonderful books, but so far I have not been able to get past the first chapter in any of them. And with ten or more absolutely delicious titles waiting on my nightstand at any given time (think how many more titles I would be tempted by if I weren't limited by the space available on my night stand!), one chapter is pretty much all you get before I move on to something more interesting. Bad news for those literary types who think the tried-but-true rule of writing "Open with a hook" doesn 't apply to them (and for those very un-literary types who never took the trouble to learn that rule).

2) E-books are cheaper. Well, DUH! screams the publishing industry, because this simple fact is, of course, at the center of the entire controversy (in case you haven't been keeping up, the truth of the matter is that publishers are not at present losing money on the cheap e-versions of their books, but they seem to be worried that they might somehow do so in the future). Because here's the truth, a dedicated reader like myself will in fact buy books (like those mentioned above) sight unseen, in hardcover, at full price if given no other choice. Books I wish I had ordered electronically:

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I definitely paid too much for this one.

Under the Dome by Stephen King. In fact I only paid 9.00 for this, but at 1123 pages it's too heavy to hold! I definitely wish I had this one nicely tucked away in a lightweight e-reader.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Neffenegger

For Readers

Here I am limited because I don't, you'll recall, actually own an e-reader yet. I hear the page-turn function can be slow, which would make me crazy. I put a good deal of value on the interior design of a book-- how it's formatted, the type that's used, the design of chapter headings, etc.-- which would be missing in most electronic editions. And yes of course I would miss paper books, and when I do, I will buy one. What really bothers me is the cover art. Can someone assure me that when I download a book I will also be able to download a full-color, full-size version of its original cover?

2) Not every title is available electronically and publishers are now joining forces to make certain that top titles are not released electronically until close to the time the paperback edition comes out.

3) Here is the bottom line for readers: Price, and convenience. If, like me, you buy most of your hardcover bestsellers from Amazon.com (where I live, I really have no choice), and you always order in quantity and get free shipping, you'll end up saving only a dollar or two on Amazon.com's already heavily discounted hardcover price if you buy the electronic version. Last year about this time I added up the amount I had spent on books all year and compared that to the cost of the electronic editions of the same books. Over the course of a year (and a LOT of books) I would have saved less than $70, hardly enough to pay for a pricey e-reader. So what you're mostly paying for with an e-reader is convenience.

$259 is a lot of convenience.

Kindle Envy

2009-12-12T19:52:00.000-05:00

Pages written since last post: 145

If you’re not in The Industry, you may not be aware of the firestorm of controversy regarding the evil e-reader which is destined to destroy publishing as we know it forever (speaking strictly from the point of view of a writer, this may not be a bad thing). It has taken me a really long time to comprehend the significance of this, because I am pretty much at the bottom of the technological curve. I’ve never sent a text message in my life. Totally don‘t get Twitter. My big-city friends are shocked and appalled when they dial my cell phone and, like, no one answers (don’t they know the only use for cell phones is when your car breaks down on the side of the highway at midnight in an ice storm?) I don’t know anyone– yes, this is God’s honest truth– who owns a Kindle. I live in one of the 3% or so of America that is not covered by Whispernet.

Yet....

Every time I open up the Amazon.com page that $259 Kindle flashes in my face like some kind of subliminal siren’s song. First I am intrigued. Then I’m hooked. Now I am obsessed.

Here are the books I would download today, immediately, right now, if I had a Kindle:

Super Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner (okay, this one I would probably buy in hardcover anyway)

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Knit The Season by Kate Jacobs

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Ford County by John Grisham

The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans

Angel Time by Anne Rice

The Lost City of Z by David Mann

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Mann

And that’s not even to mention the dozens of less expensive (2.99-3.60) books I would download simply to glance over– because I need to know what the competition is writing, why these books are selling and who is buying them; in other words, for business.

Publishers and authors take note. With the exception of one or two titles, these are books I would not otherwise buy at all. Here’s why:

Michael Crichton, John Grisham, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Rice : I usually buy these authors in hardcover, but each of the titles seems to be a diversion from what I usually expect from them. I’m not sure I’d actually finish any of these books, and these titles, together, amount to over $100. I could buy half a Kindle for that.

On the other hand, if I read and enjoy these titles, I will buy them in hardcover to keep, particularly the Michael Crichton book, which I know is his last. That’s a promise.

The Christmas List, Knit The Season: Fluff. Enjoyable, but not worth $25.00 each. Sorry.

Super Freakonomics: Because I want to read it right now. I’m in the mood. I live 60 miles from the nearest bookstore. I want something to read.

All Others : These have been recommended to me by the Literary Elite who, in my opinion, have only about a 40% success rate (much like movie critics). I will occasionally take a chance on their recommendations, but not to the tune of $27.95

So there you go, the honest truth from a real reader, and this is a factor that I think might be too often brushed aside in the e-book wars. These are potential sales of books that would otherwise be borrowed from the library, loaned by friends, or not read at all. The author, and the publisher, make money from these sales. Words are read. Stories are told. This is a good thing.

Of course there are down sides to the $9.99 e-book, and I will endeavor to uncover them in the coming days. There is more and more controversy, as everyone tries to get in on the act. And, bottom line, $259 is still a lot of money to pay for a device that does only one thing, and that one thing is something you can do by yourself: read.

On the other hand... Christmas is just around the corner. Santa Baby, I’ve been an awful good girl this year.

Happy Release Day to Me!

2009-10-06T20:01:00.000-04:00

pages written since last post: oops! Been a little busy, here.

Today the second book in the Ladybug Farm series, At Home on Ladybug Farm, hits book store shelves everywhere. Yay! If you haven't yet purchased yours, run, don't walk, to the nearest bookstore, or simply click the link above. And that concludes this brief commercial announcement.

Since this is the second book in a series, today seems as good a time as any to address a question that comes up over and over again: Why does a series get canceled? Or, "What ever happened to... (insert the name of your favorite author or series here)?" There are lots of reasons, of course, but the most common reason a series disappears is really quite simple: the first books in the series did not sell enough copies to justify the publisher's continuing it. An unfortunate corollary is that most series--especially mystery series-- are canceled before they have a chance to gain a following. The reason? Because they are passed around from friend to friend, or purchased from used book stores, and in the world of publishing only new book sales are recorded.

I still receive e-mail asking when I'm going to write the next book in series that have been out of print for five years or more. In fact, some of my books gained their most enthusiastic following after they were out of print! How can this be? you might wonder. The answer is, once again, simple: the books were passed from friend to friend, borrowed from the library, purchased at used book stores. The problem is that the only way a publisher can track a book's popularity is by how many new copies are sold. The author gets no credit for books bought at used bookstores. A book that is shared between 10 people or checked out of the library by 100 people still only counts as one sale. The bottom line is if you really love a series (or an author!) by her books new, and tell your friends. Otherwise, you too may be wondering Whatever happened to...

Happily, however, that will not be the case with the Ladybug Farm series, which has another book scheduled for next fall. In the meantime, you're invited to celebrate with me by entering the contest for a drawing that will be held November 1. The prize is a hand-bound ladybug themed journal, and all you have to do to enter is post a comment on the "Notes from the Real Ladybug Farm" blog, or write a review of At Home on Ladybug Farm on Amazon. com and let me know that you've done it, either by posting here, on the Ladybug blog or by contacting me through my web site.

And Happy Reading!

A Good Book Year Part Two

2009-09-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 25

Every year I am given the weighty responsibility of choosing the last book of the year-- the Christmas book--for our reading group. The reason this is such a difficult choice is because, traditionally, all the good books are released in the fall/winter. Just look at what we have to choose from this year:

John Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory Krakauer, author of the unforgettable Into the Wild and Into Thin Air takes on the tale of NFL hero Pat Tillman, who abandoned a promising career to die a hero in the war against the Taliban. Whenever Krakauer undertakes to tell a story, it promises to be rivetting. For this and no other reason, this book makes my list for consideration.

Audrey Niffenegger: Her Fearful Symmetry. Did we love The TimeTraveler's Wife? Well, yes, actually-- it was my book cluib selection two (or three) Christmases ago! We're all wondering whether she can possibly follow it up with something as tame as a story of sibling rivalry... although I must say it does sound as though it has some intriguing twists. I love the setting of Highgate Cemetery, and the promise of Elspeth-from-the-Other-Side. This will have to be done well, but it's definitely worth looking into.

Margaret Atwood: The Year of The Flood Ah, now. The author of A Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake... this one I am sure of. If the earmark of a good book club selection is a book with potential for controversy, this one definitely makes the list.

And last but not least, coming September 15.... Wait! That's now!

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol Okay, welcome back from your trip to Mars if you haven't heard the news. Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated book since the last Harry Potter installment, the manuscript was only three years overdue (care to guess what would have happened to me if I'd tried that??). All I can say is, it had better be good! And yes, my copy has been on order for two months now, and no, when it arrives I will not put aside all else, turn off the phones, close the curtains, order take-out and settle down to read it straight through... until the weekend.

The problem, of course, with having such a luxury of choices is that some of the lesser known writers risk getting trampled in the stampede... and by lesser known writers, I mean anyone not on this list who has the misfortune to have a book out in the fall. That would be me.

So, my Christmas Book Club selection this year? At Home on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.

Hey, these days a girl has got to look after herself.

The Seventh Deadly Sin for Writers

2009-08-30T20:31:00.000-04:00

Today we come to the last, and most powerful, of the seven deadly sins for writers:

Fear

Fear is the most dangerous vice of all. Fear stops nine of ten writers dead in their tracks before the first word is written. Fear will cause a writer to put away her manuscript the first time she runs into a plot problem she can’t solve or a character who seems wooden. Fear will rob a writer of her dream the first time someone confirms– or appears to confirm– what she has always secretly believed to be true: that her book is no good.

The problem is that you can’t be a writer without fear. Writers live in a constant state of fear. Those who make friends with fear will win the race. Those who do not will never even leave the start line.

Fear of failure keeps you going back to that manuscript until you get it right; fear of rejection keeps you sending it to agent after agent, publisher after publisher in the desperate hope that someone, somewhere will give you a chance; fear of losing– your time, your faith in your story, your belief in yourself and even your train of thought!– is what keeps you sitting in front of your monitor every day until you get it right, and then coming back the next day to face that same fear again. The fear of dying with his song yet unsung is the motivating force behind most writers. Fear is your strongest ally, and your deadliest enemy. The difference can be found in whether you use the fear, or let the fear use you.

So if the definition of courage is to be afraid, and do it anyway... Do it anyway.

The Sixth Deadly Sin for Writers

2009-08-29T12:10:00.000-04:00

Laziness

Or, "It’s good enough."

Laziness, believe it or not, is more closely akin to defeat than it is to arrogance, singularity or ignorance. Laziness is usually justified by "Oh, what the hell? No one is ever going to read it anyway."

Laziness refuses to tweak that one scene that just doesn’t make sense, to rewrite Chapter Five even though it clearly has nothing to do with the rest of the book as it stands, to do the final read-through, to rewrite the last sentence one more time. Laziness won’t waste time or paper printing out a draft for proof-reading, or run the spell checker more than once. Laziness doesn’t show, but tells, resolves plot dilemmas with thinly-disguised twists from last week’s CSI: Miami, sets his stories in his home town so he doesn’t have to research other locations, writes cartoon sketches of characters because he can’t be bothered to delve into what really makes people interesting .

Laziness doesn’t read– his own genre, other people’s genres, the best seller list, the trades, or even blogs posted by experts in his profession. Laziness says, "He got away with it, why can’t I?"

Laziness stops writing when the book is "good enough."

Laziness is deadly.

Deadly Sin for Writers #5

2009-08-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

Envy

Otherwise known as "He got a 2 million dollar advance for that?"

Make no mistake about it, friends: envy will slap you down, immobilize you, eat you alive. Envy is everywhere. Envy says, "I don’t know why I have to do three different rewrites when everything Famous Writer X publishes reads like it was written by a third grader with a learning disability." Envy says, "I guess the reason Writer Y gets all the great covers is because she’s sleeping with the Art Director." And, "My books are so much better than X’s, Y’s and Z’s, but they get all the attention and I can’t even get paid!" The truth is, publishing is a capricious business and readers are oftentimes a fickle lot. Maybe everything your envious little heart tells you is nothing more or less than the truth. So? And what does that get you?

Write better.

Write more.

Move on.

Deadly Sin for Writers #4

2009-08-26T12:09:00.000-04:00

We are on Day Four of my list of the Seven Deadly Sins for Writers, and this is one of my favorites. I could have written volumes on this particular subject, but, you know, brevity is a virtue.
Ignorance

As hard as it may be to believe, ignorance is a vice that afflicts our industry more often than you might imagine. It may have to do with the proliferation of mass media, particularly the Internet, and the belief that if you can post a comment to a blog, send a Tweet, or set up a Facebook page, you can write a book. What truly amazes me is that with such an abundance of legitimate information out there on the subject of writing and publishing-- the numerous agent, publisher and writer blogs, the hundreds of books written on the subject, not to mention the online writing courses offered-- so few people actually bother to research and/or educate themselves in the profession they want to join. I recently scanned through a thread on the "literature" section of a social networking site in which a young man was asking for help in finding a publisher for the book he was "thinking of writing"– in all lower case letters, with three words misspelled. The true tragedy of this post was that in the 46 replies I read , no one pointed out the obvious to him. 1)Learn to spell 2)Learn to write 3)Learn your craft.

And before you look for a publisher, you might, ahem, actually want to write a book.

Seven Deadly Sins For Writers: #3

2009-08-25T15:19:00.000-04:00

Today's deadly sin for writers is:

Singularity

Sometimes known as stubbornness, inflexibility, or self-importance

This writer is easy to spot. He has a Vision that he refuses to compromise (never mind that no one else is at all interested in reading about that vision). He has a Style that is all his own (and completely incomprehensible). His words are a pure and unmitigated expression of Himself (which is, unfortunately, painfully obvious). This writer never takes a class because he has nothing to learn. He refuses to hire an outside editor or coach for fear his words will be tampered with. He never bothers to read the query or submission instructions on agents’ or publishers’ web sites because those kinds of mundanities do not apply to him. He will never take a suggestion for revision because of the afore-mentioned Vision. And he will never be published.

The Second Deadly Sin for Writers

2009-08-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to my series on The 7 Deadly Sins of Writers. Yesterday we talked about Arrogance. Here is today's topic:

Avarice

a.k.a. "I deserve more than this!"

Well, don’t we all? Avarice, when used in reference to a writer, has a slightly different meaning that it might for the average person. While a greedy person is commonly assumed to be seeking more than his share, a greedy writer usually spends his career just trying to get enough. Enough money, enough attention, enough promotion, enough marketing, enough books printed to actually earn out his advance. The problem with this affliction is that it, too, is self-destructive, and after a time it becomes such a way of life that even the writer doesn’t know how much is enough.

Here’s the thing: if you think you deserve more, get better at what you do. And if you still think you deserve more, you’re probably right. And you’re in the wrong business.

The Seven Deadly Sins for Writers

2009-08-23T19:39:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 5

This week is Graduation Day for my summer writing class (an extraordinarily talented group of people if I do say so myself) and as always I’ ve been searching for a inspirational speech, some weighty last words with which to send them off into the cold harsh world of publishing. I finally decided that in these uncertain times what is needed is a call to the Straight and Narrow Path, and devised this warning against falling prey to the seven deadly sins for writers (I was going to call it The Seven Deadly Sins of Beginning Writers, but then realized how many of them I’ve been guilty of, myself!). Over the next week I’ll be blogging about a different writer’s vice. Do any of them sound familiar to you writers out there?

Here is Deadly Sin Number One:

Arrogance

Also known as the you-won’t-believe- what- I-can-do or the I’m-the-best-that’s-ever-been syndrome, arrogance is often considered more of a survival tool for writers than it is a sin. Anyone who has actually written (much less had accepted for publication) a book is already one in several thousand, and he has a right to be proud. He also runs the risk of seeming very much like the new mother who believes she is the only one to have ever given birth. A quiet walk around a medium-sized bookstore is the generally accepted cure for a writer afflicted with arrogance, but for those die-hards who refuse to believe that their masterpiece is not the most extraordinary accomplishment ever to grace mankind, we may all rest assured: the arrogant writer rarely writes more than one book. Publishers find his demands outrageous, editors refuse to work with him, agents erase his e-mail from their address books. Because he is far too important to promote his book to anyone other than the major broadcast networks(who, for some reason, never got the memo that The Best Book Ever Written was about to be published) his sales plummet and his contract is not renewed.

Arrogance is, indeed, its own reward .

A Good Book Year

2009-08-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: Are you freakin' kidding me?

I’m not sure if everyone has heard, but this country is experiencing an economic downturn. The publishing industry is experiencing a full-on melt down. Fortunately for readers, the great, cumbersome, archaic beast that is publishing moves exceedingly slowly (think: Ice Age), so the effects of today’s economy may be felt in, oh, 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, we are having a PAAAAR....TY! I say again, Woooooo!

Look at what just arrived on my doorstep:

Pat Conroy’s SOUTH OF BROAD . His first book in– can it be??– fourteen years. It had better be good.
Richard Russo’s THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC , his first since Pulitzer Prize winning EMPIRE FALLS . Again, no pressure there.

Barbara Kingsolver’s ANIMAL VEGETABLE MIRACLE. This is one of the few authors that I collect. She doesn’t publish every year, but I’ve never met a Kingsolver book I didn’t love.

Margaret Maron’s SAND SHARK. What can I say? I love the Judge Knott mysteries, which are set just up the road from me in North Carolina. Thank you for publishing this year!

And, already making my hit list:

THE RELIABLE WIFE by Robert Goolrick. The opening scene of this book has to be the quintessential example of building dramatic tension: The train is late. Why? Because our hero ordered a mail-order bride. Why? Because he wanted sex. Dark, hot,writhing-in-the-night sex. Now the whole town is staring at him. Because the train is late. Because his bride is traveling by private car, which made the train late. He has an image to uphold. But the train is late. And it’s all his fault. Because he wanted sex. Meanwhile, his mail-order bride is tossing her prostitute-garments out the window and assuming the demeanor of a Reliable Wife. And if you think that’s the only twist, boy are you in for a surprise or two! Well done, well done.

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This may be my favorite book of the year, perhaps the decade. But it does inspire me to give a seminar on choosing titles. I have never once recommended this book to anyone by its correct title– hint, hint to the author/publisher for future projects. Otherwise, I was utterly and completely enchanted, from opening sentence to last. I simply loved this book.

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett. I grew up in the South in the 1960s. My mother did not have Help, but my grandmothers did. I thought I knew both sides of the story. I didn’t have a clue. THE HELP was deeply disturbing, heartwarming, enlightening, brave. I was changed, having read it.

HANDLE WITH CARE by Jodi Picoult. What can I say? Every time I read Jodi Picoult I say that this book will be my last. Her books are formulaic, predictable, and absolutely irresistible. Jodi Picoult has the courage to ask the hard questions: What if the only way you could get the money you needed to care for your special-needs child was to swear in court that you wished she had never been born? I say, You go, girl!

I have only skimmed the surface of my extraordinary book year (so far) but want to close with an homage to Blake Snyder, who passed away far too young this year. His book SAVE THE CAT is a guide to dramatic form that was the result of his outrageously successful career as a screenwriter and, in my opinion, will never be surpassed. If you have ever cast a wistful eye toward a career as a story teller, this is the book you need to start with.

And, guys– you won’t BELIEVE what’s coming this fall!

Writing Fever

2009-08-06T11:44:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 297

I have just written an entire book (yes!with words and everything!) in 62 days. Do you know that wonderful scene in Romancing the Stone in which Kathleen Turner finishes her latest masterpiece, blubbering like a baby (and searches all over the apartment for tissue, paper towels, toilet paper, anything on which to blow her nose but of course there is nothing because she hasn’t left her desk in weeks, perhaps months)? The average movie-viewer thinks that she’s crying because she’s so caught up in the beauty of her work. The average writer knows she’s crying because she is undergoing a complete meltdown due to a) sleep deprivation b)starvation and/or dehydration c)she knows (or believes) she’ll never have a high like this again.

This is what I call Writing Fever. It is a rare degenerative disorder that affects only the most talented, the most brilliant, and the most dedicated of our kind. It happens when the writer gets so caught up in the passion for his book that he is writing pages almost faster than he can read them. It is not a sustainable state, and it has absolutely no relationship to how good (or sellable) his opus might be. There is no cure. There is only management. But, oh my, when it strikes you, there really is no choice but to hold on tight and ride it through.

Here are my guidelines for surviving a bout of writing fever:

1) Don’t fight it. It may never happen again.
2) Lay in a stash of bottled water. Yes, I know that walking all the way to the kitchen will disrupt the flow, so keep it by your desk. People have died from less,
3)Try, at least once a week, to have a dinner more nutritious than Chex mix and wine spritzers. I know it’s hard to swallow with all that adrenaline surging through your veins. Try protein drinks. If you can manage it, a 250-calorie Lean Cuisine meal or a microwaved veggie burger will keep you going till midnight.
4)Every two hours, stand up. This is not optional. You may recall one of our vice-presidents suffered an embolism that was directly attributed to his remaining immobile on a long flight– and he didn’t even have the stress of writing a book! So stand up, walk around the room– and then succumb once again to the magnet- pull of the keyboard.
5)Don’t neglect your friends and family. Of course they have no place in your universe right now, of course they haven’t the faintest inkling of what you’re going through, but, as hard as it may be to believe at the moment, one day you’re going to need them again. So the next time you open up your browser to Google “everyday life in a Tibetan monastery” or “flight times from Amsterdam to New York”, send them an e-mail. “I love you. Please be patient.” are time-honored classics.
6)Exercise. Oh, what the hell– plenty of time for that when you finish the book.
7) Don’t lose perspective. Just because you are so caught up in the magnificence of this story that you can’t sleep, eat, drink or breathe anything else doesn’t necessarily mean it will translate to your agent, editor or reader (although, I have to admit, it’s a pretty good sign). Take a few days after you write “the end” to step away. Go back to it with a clear eye. See what you’ve written. It’s absolutely fantastic, isn’t it? Yes, yes, yes, the best book ever, destined to be a bestseller, to change the world of literature forever, never will this degree of excellence be achieved again... but I digress.
8) Give yourself time to grieve. It’s over. You’ve been to Jupiter and back, but now you must live again in the world of mortals. They have no clue what you have accomplished; they can’t begin to relate to your struggles. Pity them. Because they also will never know your joy.

And... wait for it. The idea. The speeding heartbeat. The burst of inspiration. Could it be...

The fever has struck again?

On Hope

2009-06-02T14:07:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: 4 (most of them e-mails to my agent)

In a recent television special based on Michael J. Fox’s bestseller Always Looking Up, the question was posed: How can it be that, in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the majority of Americans polled report that they are more hopeful now than ever? And later, Fox observes that in his own industry, acting, 99% of participants fail to make a living– yet almost every actor describes himself as an optimist. Is there something about the arts that attracts only optimists? Not if Chopin (manic-depressive), Van Gogh (there was that little cutting-off-of-the ear thing) or Hemingway (alcoholic) are examples.

I think the answer may lie in the fact that the view from the bottom is, well, always up. The reason Americans feel hopeful now is because most people realize there’s no place to go but up. The reason those who try to make their living in the arts describe themselves as optimists is because, if they were not, they quite simply could not stay in the business.

Today I start work on my seventeenth book this year alone. Some of those "books" were one-paragraph long and never made it past my agent’s hard drive. Some were developed into 100-page proposals so that they could be officially rejected by every publisher in New York. One is even now rolling off the presses all bright and shiny, where it will decorate bookstores everywhere this fall... And disappear before Christmas.

But you just never know. This could be the one. Things could turn around any day now. After all, it’s happened before. And isn’t doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results the very definition of hope?

Or wait. Maybe that’s the definition of insanity:)

What I Learned From Idol

2009-05-25T16:20:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post: ABSOLUTELY ZERO (but I had lots of great ideas!)

Okay, I’m busted. For the past four years I have been a closet American Idol fan. I resisted as long as I could, but really, as a writer, isn’t it irresponsible to ignore a cultural phenomenon? I can’t help noticing that over the years the competition has gone from an amateur talent show to a battle of the professionals, and that’s what made this season to interesting to me. When the top ten contenders are all outstanding, what is it about that one that defines star power– in a singer, a dancer, an actor or a writer? If Idol is emblematic of success in the entertainment industry– and, take my word for it, if you are a writer, you are in the entertainment industry--what can we learn from this past season?

One by one I watched the front-runners fall. Lil Rounds. Allison. Danny?? They were all incredible performers; they had risen above the crowd and defeated thousands upon thousands of competitors to be among the best in the entire nation. They could all make records today (and some of them will). What I learned from Idol is that even if you stand head and shoulders above the crowd, just take a look around: you’re likely to find several hundred others sharing your view. When the entire playing field is composed of the best of the best, it takes more than talent and hard work to be a superstar.

Sometimes it’s completely random.

And that’s yet an other reason to be true to your own vision, to create the work you love, to sing your own song. In the end, if superstardom doesn’t tap you on the shoulder, at least you can be sure it wasn’t because you made the wrong song choice.

Oh, and what am I reading? The Shack by William Paul Young. There are three million copies in print, and I rest my case.

Back Again

2009-05-11T13:38:00.000-04:00

Pages written since last post:273 (50 of which have been written over...and over..and over again)

It's the same old story:when you make your living as a writer, you sometimes have to actually write. Not to mention proofread, edit, revise, review the copy edit and promote the book you've written. I am in awe of those writers-- and agents, and editors-- who can do their jobs and still have time (and words!) left over for blogging. Who can possibly have that much to say?

However, acutely aware of my failings as a blogger, I hereby resolve to be more conscientious about expressing my opinions on a variety of topics online, whether or not those opinons have any merit at all, and whether or not anyone is interested. So stand by.

Meanwhile, what have I been reading? Most memorably, An Irish Country Doctor and An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor. These books are like comfort food for a cold rainy spring.

Current Favorite

2009-03-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

I thought The Associate would top my list this month-- how can you not love John Grisham doing what he does best?--but I finally got around to Jeffery Archer's Prisoner of Birth and it's a hands-down favorite so far. This is the kind of brilliant story telling I most admire: clever, sophisticated, and unabashed. Books like this make me remember how much I love reading.

On My Book Shelf

2009-02-28T19:40:00.000-05:00

I have a tendency to buy books in stacks, whether shopping in a brick-and-mortar store or online. I can't eat just one potato chip; I can't buy just one book. I love spreading them all out around me, looking at the covers, reading the front flap, stacking them and rearranging them, anticipating starting each one. This week the results of my latest shopping spree arrived and it felt like Christmas. Now they are lovingly stacked on my night table, waiting for me to finish the last book (Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin) on my winter reading list The books I'm looking forward to reading as spring slowly --ever so slowly!-- arrives are:

The Associate by John Grisham
Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin
How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
From the Heart: Seven Rules to Live By by Robin Roberts
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get started.

And the Pulitzer Goes To....

2009-02-23T15:50:00.000-05:00

My friend Gisele is probably the most well-read person I know. She is one of those people that writers love– she’ll actually go into a bookstore, pick up a hardcover book by someone she has never read before, peruse the front matter, and if she likes it, she’ll buy it. Go, Gisele! She regularly orders the Amazon.com recommendations just because they sound interesting. Again, we love you, Gisele!

But recently, this wonderful, literate, adventuresome reader fell into the dark pit of Pulitzer Prize Winners, sucked in by a book club that reads only Pulitzers. I have to give her credit; she stayed with it longer than I would have. She stayed with it longer than I thought she would have, and I have great admiration for her determination. It began with tentative comments, “It’s hard to find a book I enjoy” and escalated to “These Pulitzer books are brutal!” and finally, “Why is it so hard to find a Pulitzer book I can actually read? Who chooses these things anyway? How can a book win a Pulitzer Prize when it’s unreadable?”

I think that's an excellent question. Shouldn't the first requirement for a book-- prize-winning or not-- be that it's, well, readable?

This is not to say that there have not been some wonderful reads among the Pulitzer Prize winners over the past half century or so: Gone With the Wind, Lonesome Dove, Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tales of the South Pacific, The Color Purple to name just a few. These books prove that a novel can be engaging, evocative, tell an actual story and still be important. A book doesn’t have to be incomprehensible to win a prize. A book can, in fact, do what it’s supposed to do– inform, transform and entertain (yes, that dirty word–entertain!)the reader and do it so extraordinarily well that it is recognized for excellence by the literary community. So I guess the real question is, why can't more of them do that?

If you’d like to join Gisele in her Pulitzer struggles, here, in absolutely no particular order, are my personal top recommendations:

The Road
March
Lonesome Dove
The Color Purple
To Kill a Mockingbird
Advise and Consent
Tales of the South Pacific
Grapes of Wrath
Gone With the Wind
The Good Earth

For a more complete list, you can go to www.pulitzer.org

Ten Thousand Hours

2009-02-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

Years ago I gave a speech to a writers’ group on the secrets of success in which the recurring theme was “And then you work really, really hard.” Know your material, and work really, really hard. Do your research, and then work really, really hard. Develop your skills, and then work really, really hard. Know your market– and work really, really hard. Seek out opportunity– and then work really, really hard.

There was a reason for my fixation on the subject of hard work. At the time of the speech, I was a working writer who had not been out of contract (in other words, I published steadily) for over ten years. I was tired of people telling me how lucky I was. I worked fourteen hours a day, without sick leave, holidays,vacation time or a pension plan, to be so lucky. In my experience, there was no such thing as luck. There was preparation (being good at your job) and then there was extraordinary hard work.

Imagine my surprise (and delight) to find my theory validated fifteen years later in Malcolm Gladwell’s The Outliers. Gladwell posits that the fluke of success we attribute to legends like Bill Gates and The Beatles is really just a matter of preparation/opportunity combined with hard work. According to Gladwell, the one difference between equally talented people who achieve success and those who don’t is not just that the successful ones work harder; they work much, much harder. In fact, the magic number across the board seems to be ten thousand hours.

Well, what do you know about that? Ten thousand hours of really, really hard work was exactly what I had under my belt at the time I gave my speech on the secrets of success.

It's nice to be right every now and then.

What Writers Read

2009-02-18T21:05:00.000-05:00

What do writers read? Well, if you’re me the answer is-- not nearly enough!

As I write this we are six weeks in to 2009 and so far this year I’ve read books on neuroscience and dog training, behavioral psychology and marketing-- and behavioral psychology as it pertains to marketing!--sociology and economics. I’ve read two memoirs, one futuristic fantasy, one horror, one speculative fiction, two mysteries, two suspense/thrillers and one book of poetry.

Before the year is out I will have read biographies, women’s fiction, a great deal of “literature” (thanks to a relentless book club that keeps trying to improve me), some Southern fiction, a travel book or two, adventure, a multitude of best sellers, self-help and (thanks again, book club!) at least one Pulitzer Prize winner. And I still will not have read all of the books I should have, certainly not as many as I want to.

I consider reading a part of my job. I have my favorites, of course, and I do listen to a lot of the commercial best-sellers on audio, but I need to know what other people are reading, and what other people are writing, in order to do my job as a writer well. In one of my recent beginner-writer workshops I read off a list of the year’s top twenty-five best sellers--hardcover and soft, fiction and non--and asked participants for a show of hands for each book they’d read. I was stunned at how few of them had read more than ten percent of the books on the list. How can you expect to write books if you don’t read them?

Reading is not only my job, it my joy. Every book I open is filled with promise and expectation. It could change my life. It could take me places I’ve never been before, or make me see the places I have been in a new light. It could make me a better person. How can you not read?

So today’s question is: What are you reading?

Books I Remember

2009-02-17T16:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know. The average person would have published this list two months ago. However, the trouble with being a writer is that sometimes you have to, well, write. So even though I’m a little behind in looking back, here is my list, in order of preference, of the top five favorite books I loved in 2008.
1)The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
It’s been a long time since I read a book so exquisitely crafted. It did everything it promised to do and it did it flawlessly. There were times when I had to actually check the copyright date to make certain this wasn’t a reprint of a little-known classic, so well did this modern author master the Gothic genre. Now this is what I call a novel!
2) These is My Words: the Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy Turner
I know the tale occasionally lapsed into melodrama, but that was part of its charm. I was absolutely captivated by the character of Sarah, and I wanted her story to be true. There were times, in fact, when I was almost convinced it was. Well done. Extremely well done.
3) Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult
This is a perfect example of why it pays to occasionally check out a book or a genre you wouldn’t ordinarily read. This was my first book by Jodi Picoult and I couldn’t put it down. I looked forward to getting back to it. I was involved with the characters and I enjoyed their worlds. I thought the religious subtext was cleverly done. Of course I figured out a few of the plot points before I should have, but who cares? I was thoroughly entertained. Who can ask for more?
4) My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
By now everyone has heard about the neuroscientist who documented her own stroke. But this book is so much more than a handbook for stroke victims. It’s simply the most fascinating account of how the brain works that I’ve ever read. It made me question how much of what we call the ‘soul’ is, in fact, neurochemical. It astonished me with its account of how closely a state of transcendental meditation resembles a simple shut-down of a functional portion of the brain. And I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the fact that the author’s description of her perception of the world as the left side of her brain lost function was almost exactly now, to the best of our knowledge, animals see and conceptualize the world, too. Absolutely fascinating.
5) The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Another book written by a dog? And the hero is a race car driver?? I almost didn’t fall for this one, until a friend– who never recommends books– e-mailed to say she had stayed up all night reading it and that it was the best book she had read all year. I did not stay up all night reading it, but I was sufficiently impressed to recommend this one to my book club. When Enzo (the dog) said, “what you manifest is before you”, I knew this was no ordinary dog book.

So there you have it! Having paid homage to the books I’ve loved in the past, I can now move on with a clear conscience to books I’m loving right now. One note about this list, though. In looking over it, I realize to my shock that three out of my top five favorite books from last year were actually selections from my book club. In my book club, I am known for whining and complaining about the selections (“Oh God, not another book about Afghanistan!” I have been heard to moan loudly at least once a year) so this is fairly remarkable. Surely this is a fluke. It couldn’t possibly happen again.
On the other hand, we haven’t gotten our reading list for 2009 yet...

On Being Rich

2008-12-10T18:45:00.001-05:00

These are tough economic times for all of us. If you don't believe me, turn on the news. Or try making your living as a writer of novels in an age where Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, and Miley Cyrus command seven figure advances-- and the top spots on the best sellers lists (not that I have issues or anything:)) Yet even in the current economic climate I feel blessed. Did I say blessed? No, I feel rich. I feel obscenely wealthy, I feel absolutely hedonistic; I am rolling in abundance. Why? Because it's December: the longest, darkest night of the year is approaching, and on my bedside table is a stack of crisp, new, unturned hardcover books.
I am almost afraid to open them. Sometimes I just walk around the table, looking at them. Occasionally my hand will drift toward one of them and stroke its glossy cover and then quickly, shyly, withdraw. I don't want to use up the magic too soon. It's only December, after all.
There have been winters when I was not so fortunate. There was a brief, glorious heyday in the nineties when publishers could be counted on to deliver a veritable plethora of good, solid guaranteed-to-entertain commercial fiction on their fall lists: Stephen King, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Dean Koontz , P.D. James, Elizabeth George, to name but a few. And, later in the season, around the time we in the mountains are seriously thinking about killing something (hopefully not our neighbor), there was the lighter fare-- Mary Higgins Clark, Lilian Jackson Braun, Elizabeth Peters, and Susan Conant's delightful dog mysteries. And of course, every once in awhile, we'd be thrown a real bonus: A Harry Potter, or a Dan Brown. Ah, those were days of wonder and delight. But eventually it was over, as all good things inevitably are. Someone missed a deadline. Someone screwed up a contract. Someone else failed to sell enough copies of his last book to justify a lead position in the fall, and someone, well, passed on (although it seems to me he or she might have made arrangements for the delivery of the manuscript in case of just such an eventuality). The bottom line: it was December, and I faced a long, cold winter without a single thing to read. I don't like to talk about it. I don't even like to think about it.
But this year is different. I have books. I am rich. Who is waiting on my bedside table to see me through the cold, the dark, the dismal, rainy, slushy, bone chilling, snow-caked days ahead? Dean Koontz, Margaret Maron, Philip Margolin, Nelson DeMille and-- even though it sounds like an entry in a "which one doesn't belong?" problem on a grade placement exam--Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The latter was presented to me by my friend Claudia with an earnest thank you for letting her borrow it. I replied, "I'm so glad you enjoyed it, but I didn't loan it to you." Without missing a beat, Claudia pressed the book into my hands and insisted earnestly, "If you haven't read this book, you're going to love it." Okay, Claudia. Counting on you.
My needs are simple. I don't need a masterpiece. I just need a story. Don't try to change my life; just change my afternoon. Don't let me down, Dean. I believe in you, Nelson. I can't make it without you, Margaret. Don't disappoint me, Phillip. I need you guys.
After all, it's cold out there.