Make It

Online Marketing and the Self-Published Author

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled self-publishing success story Darcie Chan, who spent $1,000 on some really effective marketing strategies for her first ebook and sold 400,000 copies.

I've always wondered why self-published authors don't do more online advertising like this. I think the quick answer is that they don't even know where to start. This overview is a nice overview of some of the basics, and even taught me a few things. For example, I didn't know that anyone could purchase a review from Kirkus.

Just as agencies have emerged to help businesses with social media marketing, I wonder if we'll start to see the emergence of marketing agencies specifically geared toward online promotion for self-published authors. (via)

 

Making A Deal

My computer is dying.

It overheats like crazy, is noisy, the keyboard sometimes jams up, and - most heartbreaking of all - it can't maintain an Internet connection longer than 15 or 20 mins at a time. This means I've resulted to major use of my phone for Internetting and use Matt's computer for blog posts. Typepad doesn't have an Android app, otherwise, I'd be tapping out these suckers on my Swype keyboard during my bus commute.

Even though a sick computer is annoying it's not the worst thing to have for someone who's trying to finish writing a novel. I'm not going to lie, the Internet is a major distraction, so knowing that I can only stay online for 15 minutes, with another 15 minutes of downtime before I can connect again, makes random Internet surfing seem much less appealing. When I sit down at my computer now, it's only to write.

So, I've made a deal with myself. No new computer until I finish this book. I think this will actually prove to be quite good motivation.

Applying Skills from Writing and Querying a Book to the Workplace

The process of writing and querying a book has touched other aspects of my work life in ways I never predicted. For example, last year when I kicked my search for a new job into high gear, I used some of the techniques I'd utilized when writing query letters to craft a more effective cover letter.

This included tactics like:

• Keep the letter short and focused.
• Hone in on the key plotline of the book (focus only on the job experiences most relevant to this position).
• Include a paragraph on why this specific agent is the right agent for me (why is this specific job the right job for me).
• Tweak the letter to customize it for each agent/job.
• The letter should tell a story. In a cover letter, this should be the story of why I am the perfect person for a position.

The major lesson from writing a book that I've put to use my day to day activities as an employee is this: know your ending. When you're writing a book, you need to have an idea of how the story will end in order to make all the other decisions about how your story unfolds. The way the plot ends determines plot elements that come earlier, but also issues of theme and pacing and character development.

In the workplace, this means I'm always asking myself, what's the goal of this project. What does success look like? And then in the job, as in writing, once I have the ending in mind, I work backwards from there to craft the steps I need to get me to my goal.

So it was with a small sense of smug self-satisfaction that I read this (long but very interesting) Wired article on the development of Google+ and saw that the Google exec in charge of the project works in the same way (though as far as I know, he hasn't written a novel).

Gundotra’s philosophy of product design is to envision the demo he will eventually present at the launch event and work backwards from there...

Great minds think alike!

 

 

Why "Query Widely" Is The Worst Advice Ever For Unagented Writers

A little bit of a scandal has rocked the YA writer community of late, and I actually have something to say about it.

A literary agent - who shall remain unnamed, but shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you do some research on the Absolute Write forums - recently disappeared quite abruptly. She simply left agenting without notifying her agency or her clients, some of whom had submissions out to editors. She posted a message on Facebook and that was that.

Since then, a handful of former clients have come forward with different variations on the same story. Turns out this agent hadn't even submitted manuscripts as she had promised. She hadn't responded to important messages from editors. 

I read through these blog posts and through the AW forums and I thought two things:

1. Why on earth would an agent behave this way? What is there to gain? How can she possibly continue to work in publishing after such an epic flameout?
2. Thank god I didn't accept her offer of representation.

That's right. At the end of last year, after 60+ queries, 10 partial and full requests and months of querying for THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER I ended up with a few close calls but only one offer of representation. An offer from this very agent.

I had a few concerns about her at first. I did my research (not only because I love research, but because any aspiring author should do so) and I had some reservations. Her agency had been involved in some weird behavior in the past and had received warnings and non-recommendations on a handful of the agent resource sites I looked at. 

On the other hand, she had recently sold a debut YA author's series for big six-figure money and had a decent track record in non-fiction. What the hell, I thought. "Query widely" is the first rule of querying. You never know what agent will respond to your story. It doesn't hurt to send her a letter and see what happens. Famous last words.

What happened was that as time went on, I began, and got excited about, a newer, stronger story. And I got promising rejections from legitimately impressive agents I would put on my "dream agent" list. I wanted the chance to go back to those agents with my new manuscript.

I started to hope she'd never get back to me. I started to wish, that out of all the agents I queried, she would be the one to forget about my full submission and just leave me alone. I wanted this because I didn't want to face the decision of having to choose between an agent I really wasn't excited about or remaining unagented.

In hindsight, it seems like a simple choice. But there really is a fear that this might be your only chance. This offer of representation might not be perfect, but at least it's something. And isn't something better than nothing? She scheduled the call. I came prepared with my list of questions. And the knot in my stomach only grew larger. 

She seemed kind of irritated at a lot of my questions. I brought up my hesitancy about her agency, based on this prior activity they'd been involved in, and her explanation was completely lacking. I asked about her sales record. Yeah she had that one big YA sale over a year ago, but what else? What was on submission? What had sold in the past year since then? The answer: nothing. Big Red Flag. She was very complimentary, threw around all the names of the big publishers. Someone at Little Brown was a personal mentor of hers and she just knew she'd love THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER. That all sounded good, but what was the point of saying you had these connections if you didn't have any actual sales to back it up.

I kept coming back to that point. She kept getting more irritable. Up until that point, she was giggly and causal in a way that made me question her professionalism. Did I really want this person to represent me? I had a full ms still floating around with another agent, so I told her I'd need a week to let the other agent know I had an offer of rep and think about things. In the meantime, She'd send over her suggestions for the first three chapter revisions so I'd have an idea of the type of re-write she had in mind. 

I hung up feeling conflicted. I emailed the Interrobangs. Returned to Absolute Write. Scanned the Publisher's Marketplace listings. And I kept thinking, Little Brown, Harper Teen, Dutton, all great YA publishers she said we would submit THE MERMAID'S DAUGHTER to. I was so close. So why did I feel so uneasy?

In the end, she never ended up sending those revisions. It only confirmed what I had suspected all along. This agent was not for me. I sent the email saying as much and received two of the most passive aggressive responses ever sent in the history of Gmail. It didn't matter though. My decision had been made. I still remained unagented. But at least I didn't have a bad agent.

When I query RUN, ZELLA, whenever that may be, I will absolutely not "query widely." Why should I? I know what agents I'd be excited to represent me. I know what types of sales history or agency activity will send up red flags. I'm going to query selectively. Querying widely is exactly what got me into this situation in the first place. I overlooked my hesitations in order to just get my work in front of an agent who would accept it. Any agent. But any agent isn't good enough. 

SelfControl App for People Who Can't Limit Their Internet

I've been working on a printed out version of my manuscript just so that I can avoid the dreaded distractions of the Internet. But when I inevitably have to work on the computer once again to make my edits and add my new words, I should download this SelfControl App.

SelfControl is an OS X application which blocks access to incoming and/or outgoing mail servers and websites for a predetermined period of time. For example, you could block access to your email, facebook, and twitter for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, it can not be undone by the application, by deleting the application, or by restarting the computer – you must wait for the timer to run out.

via GalleyCat

 

First 215 Words of My Work In Progress

I really enjoy Miss Snark's First Victim's Secret Agent contest. In these contests, she invites unagented authors to submit the first 250 words of their completed manuscripts. They are posted online and commented on by the blog readers and by the secret agent (a literary agent whose identity isn't revealed until the end). At the end of the reading period, the agent picks a few selections to read more of and gives a personalized critique to a handful of lucky winners. Sometimes this results in an offer of rep.

In YA, the opening is extremely important. The genre is very hot right now but also competitive. Teens naturally have a shorter attention span. While you want to write a quality book from beginning to end, you also want to grab their attention right from the first words, either with compelling characters or a mysterious setting or blistering action.

My manuscript isn't complete, though I have been waking up at 6am everyday this week in order to get an hour of writing in before work. This has been working out really well. Getting up at that hour isn't as heinous as I thought it would be and I find that I'm focused because I know I only have about 60 - 80 mins to write before I have to stop get ready for the day. I think my brain is a little more loosened up at that time of day also, still slightly in a dream state or something.

In any case, I couldn't submit to Miss Snark, but I'd like to share the first 215 words my opening with you. After this it gets into spoiler territory. And I don't want to reveal more until it's closer to being done. Still, I think you'll get a little sense of the tone and the world. This is not a final draft, but the beginning is the most worked over section of the ms right now and I think it's in decent shape.

CHAPTER 1

“Have you fixed me yet?”

I sat in the examination chair, adjusting to the uncomfortable sensations that always came during these weekly visits. Bleariness in my eyes from the drops. Soreness in my forearm from the prick of the needle. And always, the tightness around my scalp.

“Not now, Zella. Don’t slouch,” my doctor said over the top of his steel rimmed glasses.

His voice echoed in the cavernous space that was the laboratory. Separated from my living quarters by digital walls that appeared and disappeared at the flick of a switch, the doctor demanded that this side of the compartment be kept dust-free and meticulously clean. Nothing should interfere with the accuracy of his equipment. No rugs or blankets. No books. Not even Lolo, my best friend, who had a tendency to shed and drool when he was relaxed and purring in my arms.

I wished I were on the other side of the wall with him and not in this sterile cocoon, thirteen floors above the ground, and miles away from my true home. But it was for the best. As my doctor had told me ever since I’d moved here five years ago – if you can call being drugged and taken against my will “moved.”

It was for my own good.

NaNo…Yeah, No

So obviously I haven’t kept up my attempt to blog the book’s progress everyday. I’m embarrassed to say that I’m still stuck on the leaf chapter. Or rather, I keep tweaking it and the first couple of chapters that precede it. This is exactly what every craft book on writing tells you not to do. But I can’t help it. The first 10 chapters or so set the tone for the whole rest of the book. I need to nail them early on before I can write the rest with confidence.

My back story is somewhat complicated and I’m trying to walk the fine line between getting the story moving, while explaining the very weird world in which its take place. All through the POV of my emotionally stunted narrator. It’s challenging.

But I also have another very good excuse for my lack of progress, which is that I have a new (second) job. I’m working at an online advertising agency and splitting my days between the library in the morning (where I still work part-time) and the agency in the afternoon. It’s incredibly fast paced, to a degree I’ve never experienced at any of my other jobs, in addition to making my work day much longer than it has been for the past 2 years. So last week when I started, I was pretty much exhausted and useless in the evenings.

Now, a week into it and with Daylight Savings on my side, I’m finally adjusting to the schedule. And I really feel motivated to get this book going. December 31 is my goal to have a polished draft ready for readers. Can I make it?

NaNo Day 4

This is from a NY Times article on "Brazilian Blowouts" but I'm thinking it could just as easily be a scene in my WIP. Doesn't this look like some weird futuristic scifi grooming ritual?

 

NaNo Day 3

Here is a good example, I think, of my writing process and my brain at work. Remember the post I wrote  yesterday about getting stuck on a plot point?

Well the plot point had to do with the 4th chapter of the book, in which my protagonist (who has been locked away in a tower for seven years) finds a leaf. I was stuck on what her reaction to the leaf should be. She hasn't been outside in 7 years, she vaguely remembers what a leaf is from her life before the tower, but this is the first one she's seen since then. This needs to be an important scene because it marks her first connection to the outside world and will foreshadow what her experience will be in future chapters when she actually escapes the tower. I literally could not move forward in the story until I figured out this little 200 word scene with the freakin' leaf.

At first, I had her picking up the leaf with her fingers and bringing it into her library and researching it in her books. This makes sense because her books are essentially her lifeline, offering her a way to experience the world outside in a very safe, passive way. Also, as way of dealing with her isolation, she is very scientific and methodical in her actions.

But that reaction didn't exactly feel right. It made sense for her character, but I wanted something with more symbolic punch relating to the story at large. I love symbolism in books, it's something I love to look for when I'm reading and it makes my own writing that much more fun. So I pushed harder, stared  some more at my Word doc, got up and brushed my teeth, played with the cats, and then of course, it hit me.

I started thinking about the leaf as a symbol of the outside world and how it relates to the bigger theme in my story of "fear of the unknown." How could I use the leaf to evoke that feeling? Maybe instead of just picking up this leaf, my protagonist gets a stick (or a chopstick or a broom) and pokes at it. She treats it like it was the most fiery piece of poison ivy and doesn't let her skin touch it, holds her nose so as not to breathe in the fumes, and gets a plastic bag to pick it up and seal it before bringing it to her library to research.

Her irrational fear of this very small, harmless leaf is completely based on the fact that it's an unknown entity to her. Later in the book, after escaping, when she meets people from the outside world and immediately fears them, despite not knowing them, I can have her think back to this story of the leaf and the reader will recall this earlier scene.

An even more powerful metaphor will be if I make this leaf a weed (something growing against all odds, in a place where it shouldn't be) that actually is incredibly beautiful or has important healing properties (maybe a dandelion, which is cheery and bright).

And so later in the book, when my protagonist meets a handsome boy from the "outside" with spiky yellow hair (dandelion petals), whose family has remained in their homes despite the development efforts of the rich and powerful (a weed where they should not be), she will fear him at first (thinks he's like the poison ivy leaf) but ultimately find that he makes her happy/can help her/etc, the reader can connect all of this back to the earlier scene in the tower with the single leaf.

I'm not sure yet what the leaf/weed will be, and the paragraph above is not really how my story will unfold, just an example. But I just wanted to show how this is the type of thinking I do for lots of little details in the story. And why in some ways, I need to know the whole story before I can get any writing of any real quality done so that I can effectively plant symbols and foreshadowing from the beginning.

NaNo Day 2

For today's writing, I'm having to work through some tricky plot points I passed quickly over on my first draft. I remember thinking, "I'll deal with this later, the important thing is just to get the ideas down." But now that I have to return to this portion and actually work out the nitty gritty of what's happening, I wish that I had just spent the time to figure it out earlier.

This is hard to do during an alloted writing time as most of my best plot ideas come to me at random moments. While I'm reading other books and on the bus are the two most frequent times when I'm struck with inspiration. So even though I've had my Word doc open for nearly an hour today, I have not. made. much. progress.

I think I'll read instead (currently reading: THE DUFF) and hope to dislodge some worthwhile ideas from my brain.