Blog touring

As I get closer to the release of the print version of Safe House, I find myself scrambling more and more to find ways to promote. One of the things I decided to do was a blog tour. It sounds so nice and easy. No traveling, no big expense, just a nice virtual tour.

Ha! First just find 20 or 30 blogs who are in your genre so to speak, and ask to guest blog there. For instance, for Safe House, I would be looking at mystery blogs, of course, but I would also look at blogs aiming toward women and their issues since the book is set in a battered women’s shelter.
Just any blog won’t do. Oh, no. You need a blog that has found an audience. Hopefully a different audience than your blog. And then you have to target a post toward that blog. For instance, when we had <a href=”“>Julie Bonn Heath visit here, she didn’t write about her anthology–she targeted the post to our writer readers. She wrote about how to get your work in an anthology. Or you may remember Jean Henry Mead who wrote about the popularity of Senior Sleuths in mysteries now.
This is all a lot of work folks. You have to scope out the blogs to guest at–that takes some computer time, then you have to get them to agree to have you (many blogs are dying for content but still time consuming to find contact points on some blogs) at the time you want to do it, and then you have to write 20 or 30 original–not repeat–posts.
I am just a tad overwhelmed. Just slightly. But if any of you reading this have a blog that could host me–hey, let me know. I’m going to get this whole thing figured out.

Genre?

. Genre is a funny thing. What seems clear to us may seem completely different to someone else. What is, quite clearly, a romance, the publishers may choose to market as a Western. We may pick up a brand new crime novel in excitement, only to fling it aside in disgust hours later as we discover it is a horror story. We often don’t agree not only with what genre a book is placed into, but with the labelling of the genre itself. For example, science fiction and fantasy is normally lumped together – but would you place Philip K Dick and Tolkien in the same category?

And that’s not even looking at children’s books, which often aren’t shelved by genre, but by age – so the poor teenage fantasy fan has to read through stories of ballet shoes, pirates and teenage angst to find their books.

But genre can be all important – the marketing of a book can often depend on the correct genre being chosen. Some books, such as the Harry Potter series, have been re-issued and re-marketed to appeal to the readers of different genres (from a ‘children’s book’ to an ‘adult science-fiction’ book with more grown-up covers) And of course, there’s the ‘you may also like’ effect – where the readers of a popular book – like the Philip Pullman series – will read other authors they have never heard off but in the same genre, like Garth Nix.

And of course, genre’s have fashions. The shelves groan under the weight of ‘my miserable childhood’ books in white covers with blurry photos – but that fashion is beginning to pass.

I recently read a heart-felt cry on Twitter ‘how can I choose a genre for my book when I don’t what genre it is!’. Well, my advice is – get friends to read the book, without telling them what genre you believe it is. See where they would place it. Divide the book into percentages – for example, I would say Jane Eyre is 50% romance, 25% social commentary on women and 25% gothic mystery, and choose your genre that way. Don’t restrict yourself when trying to get published – you may see your tale as hard-nosed cyber-punk, and send it to the corresponding publishers – but they may read as the greatest love story ever told. Try everyone, and don’t be upset if they see your story differently to the way they do.

Genre can be the best marketing tool your book has – but don’t see it as a hard and fast rule, and don’t let it restrict you.

Jude Hardin writing on Crimespace recently did a post on the top ten reasons to quit  writing.  It was tongue in cheek, of course, with reason number ten comparing the odds of being published with that of being struck by lightning.   The post provoked a lot of comments along the line of  ”I write because I love it.”  And of course I agree.

  But I really could find ten (or more) reasons why I should quit.  Starting with, I can’t afford it anymore.  I don’t have the money for the postage to submit books to places that won’t accept email subs. Let’s not talk about computer costs, ink, paper and the like.  Sometimes I am literally printing on the back of pages so I can take my chapter to critique but still stretch the budget a bit further. 

I certainly don’t have the time I should put into it.  I should spend more time weeding my yard, and cleaning my house instead of trying to figure out the right word or phrase for my current work in progress or schlepping off to critique to see if they can help me fix it.  

   I should quit just for the frustration factor.  Too many people tell me they don’t have the time to read anymore.  All of the changes in the publishing industry recently certain reflect that.

    And let’s not even talk about promo.  It’s a must, a given.  All writers must promote.  But I”m the shy type.  Just the thought of giving a talk or doing a signing makes my stomach churn.   Though I do them.

      Petty stuff sure.  But real.  I’ve had friends quit writing.  They loved it they said, but….  But I’ve never quit because like the writers who commented on Crimespace, I love it.  It’s who I am.  A part of me.   But just sometimes I wonder, if I like something that is so frustrating, so difficult, so impossible to succeed at, doesn’t that make me –a little crazy?

The very first time.

. I’ve been to a few writer’s talks, and one question I notice gets asked a lot. Well, two. First being, where do you get your ideas (seriously, does any writer actually really know the answer to that one?), the other being, how did you start writing? Well, that second one I can answer.

Ten years ago, it was a very hot summer. I hadn’t written much then – a few fanfics, that was all, for sheer enjoyment, nothing else. Then one night, going out for the evening, I fell down the stairs.

I picked myself up, carried on to my night of raucous drunken behaviour, spent a week pushing trolleys round at work (I worked in a library) and on Friday, when my ankle was still swollen and in pain, I went to the doctor.

Turned out I’d snapped a ligament in my ankle. So, I was signed off work for a very long time, and told not to walk too far – or anywhere really.

So I had all this free time, and no where to go. I read and read and read, but as I read, something niggled at me. None of the stories were quite right – I wanted a fantasy story – but something different from the fantasies available (this was before the days of Harry Potter, Garth Nix, et al). I wanted a love story – but something more intense than the snappy, shallow modern tales (I’d read all the classics – I’d just finished a literature degree). I wanted something more.

So I took some pencils, and an A4 lined pad to the park (which is very close to my house, so not much walking), and started to write. I sat in the sunshine, in the grass, and spun my tales of wicked men, and werewolves, and goblins, and death, and something in the fog, and a deep love and an awkward heroine (yes, I know this sounds like Twilight – my story is different, I swear!). I took them on their journey, wrote so much I got a callus on my finger, and when I’d finished it, I read it.

Some parts were bad. Some parts were okay. Some parts were so good they left me breathless. And I cried and gasped and got excited at all the right places (no laughs – I’m not very good at writing comedy, despite last week’s Seinfield moment).

And then I had a daring thought – what if I tried to get this published?

Well, I’m not a famous author, so you know I didn’t succeed. I didn’t know that much about how to sell my book back then. But it got me started on the path. I had learnt to write my own tales, and I had learnt I wanted to write more, and get my work read by others, and I started to learn how to sell my book.

Ten years later, I’ve written two more books, and a good few short stories. But this first book still has a special place in my heart. I still think it’s a good story, and I still think it has a place. So I am re-writing it again, and am going to try again to get it published. And this time, thanks to Christine and Narelle’s blogs, I have a better idea of how to get that done.

So when I’m famous, and someone asks me how I got started, I’ll reply ‘I fell down the stairs’.

Querying

Well, here it is, 4 weeks into the querying process for the non-fiction book and so far I’ve only sent out two partials. The second was a cold call.

In my defense, I’ve been a bit sick for the last couple of weeks, but in all honesty, I think I’m scared of rejection. Mind you, that won’t stop me from querying but it does seem to have slowed me down

Twelve months ago, I was querying for a fiction project and I was blanketing the US Editors with queries. The only selection criteria I used was: do they accept e-mail queries and do they represent fiction writers? If the answer was yes to both, I sent a query. Net result was several partial requests but lots of rejections.

I realize that rejection is part of the sales process but I noticed that too many in too short a timeframe played havoc with my writing confidence last time. Hence, I’ve slowed the query rate right down this time. I think I need to pick the pace up a bit – one query a fortnight is too cautious.  Maybe I’ll aim for one good one each week.

Please share your querying/sales stories. Whether they’re success or fail stories – share them – I’d love to hear them.

Indie Bound

I’m doing something I wouldn’t normally do. I am a regular poster on another blog and I would not normally repeat posts from one blog to another. However, I want to make sure that the word gets out on this one, so forgive me but except for just a few changes, this is a repeat.

I was on Facebook the other day social networking, (okay, messing around, but doesn’t social networking sound like I really had a purpose?) I came across a post from IndieBound that I wanted to help spread.

What is IndieBound? To quote from their own site, ” IndieBound is a socially conscious movement in support of independent businesses and shopping locally, starting with indie bookstores.

I have had posts about independent booksellers before. I think the indies are the one who tend to give new writers a chance and beyond that, as someone who relies on a small business for my own support, (What? you thought I made a living writing? I only wish!) I am a big proponent of small business. Indiebound gives writers a chance to affiliate with small bookstores through a website link the same way many do with Amazon. And for readers, the site helps you find independent bookstores in your area and even search their websites for books you are interested in. They have an Indie Bestseller list and a monthly, Indie Next list which tells you what books, independent booksellers are handselling across the nation.

And it’s not limited to books.The mission of IndieBound is to spread the word about small business, hoping to help strengthen main street in each community. Talk about a stimulus package! And when you buy local, you know where the money is going. So if anybody is getting a trip to Vegas out of it, you aren’t surprised.

End of message. I return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

What do I do now?

. First off, apologies for being late – for one thing, I was partying a little last night, and for another – well, I didn’t know what to write. There was a blank page in front of me, and I had my nemesis – writer’s block.

I tried my usual tricks. I went to the toilet – sounds odd, but it works sometimes, like I just need that quick break to reset my brain. But not this time.

So I tried doing something else for a while – either reading or watching television, to allow my subconscious ‘lizard brain’ to work. Well, I reread Jane Eyre, read The Brutal Art and watched 2 seasons of 24, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed those (and rediscovered the hotness of Tony Almeida!), still my brain refused to co-operate.

There was the staring out of the window of my bus option. That did have some success. I came up with the great opening line and general outline to a ghost story, firmed up my action plan for the next year, and completely re-wrote the 1st chapter of my book, but my blog remained stubbornly unwritten.

There was one last option – shopping. A totally frivolous and shallow activity, designed to please the senses, keep my frontal lobe busy while hopefully stimulating my lizard brain. Bit of aimless drifting round the shops, quick spurt of joy at finding that perfect dress and a spot of staring at strangers out of the window of the coffee shop should work – and it generally does. I once cried out ‘of course – she should do a Sidney Carton!’ in the middle of Littlewoods when I was trying to figure out a particularly tricky ending. And though I did find a perfect dress, inspiration for my blog remained defiantly dead.

So, I had to give up. I only hope by next week I can think of something to write.

Writing: A Solitary Endeavor?

I’ve been a member of many local writers groups–some for years and years.  But lately, due to writing friends moving, giving up writing, or in the case of a couple of dear, dear friends,  dying, I’ve been feeling more and more alone.  The net result has been that I’m not attending critique, since it is too much effort right now to find a new group.  And since I’m not attending critique,  I don’t put as much of a premium on writing as I should.  I still get the promo done, still try to sell the next book  and still  plan to write but more often than not, it never goes farther than just planning.

I  groused about this in an email with one of my now distant writer friends (What is it with the East coast anyway?  Why do you all move to the East coast?  Is there some writing attraction there I don’t know about?)   and she said she was having the same problem.   She’d joined groups as soon as she moved there, but those groups were not close and she tended not to get there.  Consequently, her work in progress was not getting done either.

We theorized about it for a bit.  Her theory is that women are social, and that we need that group dynamic to keep going.  My personal theory is that I am a lazy slug who does better when I have someone to nag me.  For the record, I’ve tried doing critiques on-line, but the nagging appears to have to be in my face.  Emails are just not all that effective on me.

What helps you write?  Do you agree with the social animal idea?  Or do you charge ahead when the writing is easy and maybe let it lag when the idea cools a bit?  Tell us!  Better yet, tell us what your solution is to get going again.  I could use the help.

Getting history right

. The other day I was reading an historical novel. It was written by a modern-day American, but it was set in Regency England – and was utterly convincing. I was totally lost in the time and place – until someone said ‘gotten’.

Now that word is barely said in modern day England, let alone Regency England – and that one word alone snapped me right out of the spell of the book. I put it down, unable to read any further. True, it was just one word – but it was enough to remind me I was reading a book, not stepping into another world, and the fantasy was lost.

So I am begging you, if you are writing an historical novel, please research it. Anne Perry and Georgette Heyer are both authors of fine, brilliant historical novels – and they did (and in Ms Perry’s case, do) hours and hours of research. Ms Perry told me she works twelve hours a day – and the majority of that is research.

You may not need to work quite as hard – her novels are meticulously detailed. But whenever you write an historical book, there will always be a nerd like me, ready to spot the mistakes. (BTW, all my knowledge is based around British history. If you are not British, and are writing a British novel, PLEASE get someone British to read it for language – and vice versa,of course. No amount of research will give you a feel for language patterns like actually growing up somewhere does.)

So – sources. A good source are those BBC productions of classic novels. Watching them gives you a feel for the language – and there is usually a big glossy ‘Making of’ book, where the costume designers and choreographers and etiquette guides go into intense detail about their work

If you’re doing Regency times, there are countless ‘world’s of Jane Austen/Georgette Heyer’ books that can help.

If you’re doing Victorian, I recommend this site.

plight://www.victorianlondon.org/

Brilliantly helpful (and run by Lee Jackson, who also writes historical novels)

And of course, there’s other historical authors – I recommend Georgette Heyer, Anne Perry, Lee Jackson, Madeline Brent and Jean Plaidy (also known as Victoria Holt). They can give you a feel for the era, the language, and the social mores.

But don’t let all the research put you off. For one thing, all that research can be fascinating. And because, as a reader, it is utterly enchanting to pick up a book, and find yourself transported back to another time and place. After all, if I wanted to know about the here and now, I’d just look out the window, wouldn’t I?

This week…

Well, I can’t say that this week has been overwhelming in terms of establishing a publishing deal.  I have sent out a partial to a Melbourne pulisher who showed interest to my (premature) query in mid 2008. 

It’s a small publisher who specialise in self help/instructional non-fiction.  I feel positive about this query because it seems that this MS would be a good fit for them. 

The plan for the coming week is to go onto the Australia Writer’s Marketplace website and search for Australian publishers who are accepting non-fiction submissions.   I would say I’d search for Aussie agents currently accepting submissions, however, I have yet to find an Australian agent who shows any interest in an unpublished author. 

I’d like to hear from Australian writer’s who landed an agent while they were still unpublished.  I’ve found it to be incredibly difficult to get past first base. 

Next week I plan to report on how many Australian non-fiction publishers I could find who are accepting submissions and detail who i’m going to send the work to.