There is no shortage of anonymous bloggers, sources, and commenters on the web. It could even be said that such anonymity is a blight on the quality of online interaction—when people are anonymous they can often be much more careless, rude, or downright obnoxious. But for introverts, there can be remarkable freedom in anonymity, and I think we can use it to help gain new levels of creative expression. As introverts, we like to think long and hard about what we say and how we say it. We are very aware of the affect our words will have on others, and the very many different ways they can be misinterpreted. We like to practice things in private until we’ve perfected them, only then going public with our efforts. But that preference is not necessarily the best approach for expanding one’s creative horizons. Creativity demands risk, and risk is often uncomfortable for introverts. Especially risk with an audience. And this is where I think a bit of judiciously applied anonymity can be invaluable. Sometimes we need to be invisible before we can find and speak our truth. We know we need to take the step of speaking that truth in a public forum, where others can encounter it, but we also need an extra layer (or two) of protection to keep that oh-so-tender and unexposed skin from all that, well, exposure. I’m not talking about sock puppets, but rather a chance to get comfortable with a new way of being, a new way of interacting with people or of speaking truth on a deeper level than you are used to. I know a couple of different writers who found their voice by creating anonymous blogs. It gave them a platform for attempting new things—for stretching outside their comfort zones, but with a safety net. I myself created an anonymous blog many years ago when I first started blogging. I found I really wanted to get the hang of blogging and commenting on other peoples’ blogs, but in a private rather than public way. (Again, I realize this is something only introverts will get—and even some introverts won’t understand. This is for those of you who do.) As I think I’ve mentioned before, two of my strongest books came from projects that were initially just for me; my eyes only. They were safe playgrounds where I allowed myself to take risks and push the envelope, but away from any sense of an audience or judgment. The fact that they did end up being some of my strongest work has taught me a valuable lesson. It also wasn’t until I had blogged anonymously for a few months that I found my footing with blogging. In retrospect, I probably didn’t make any huge gaffes or errors, but I couldn’t have predicted that at the time. I easily COULD have made such gaffes or errors, and if I did, no one would know, so I felt secure enough to try. Conventional wisdom says to blog, tweet and comment under your own name, as you are trying to build a brand, fer gawd sake, and you can’t build an anonymous brand. You can, however, use anonymity to experiment until you find the brand and personality you are most comfortable with Sometimes I find myself having similar urges with pseudonyms—I could write anything I wanted, and no one would know it was me. I could, in essence, step away from my own backstory and start fresh. In fact, that’s an interesting question to ask ourselves: What would we write if we thought no one would know it was us? Would it be different from what we’re writing now? In what ways? How would our online persona be different if we felt it
We're doing something new this week. Here on Shrinking Violets, we talk a lot about how the strongest promotional strategy is to write an aMaZinG book, so I thought it might be helpful to talk about the writing process from time to time. And we're going to start this new feature with a BANG! I'm very excited to have children's fantasy author Erin Bow here today to give us some anti-advice... How to Get Stuck and Brood (anti-advice for writers) Hey fellow writers: here's a deeply bad idea. Google "How to Write a Novel." Three million four hundred thousand hits, and presumably at least some of the posters think they know, and can convey to the searcher, how a novel is written. The top return is from the Snowflake Method guy, who gives us the "ten-step process for writing a design document." It includes step eight: "Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline." Further down Google's list are others, many others, who while they don't win my heart by naming themselves after well-known figures in fractal mathematics, do still offer the prescription, the method, the one true key idea that will make the grand words come to you and order themselves into some kind of story. And then there are the books -- oh, shelves and shelves of books -- on how to write. A writer could crumple under the weight of all the words about writing. (Do painters have this problem? I suspect they do not, if only because painters don't assume they can write instructional books, and for some reason paintings on how to paint don't sell well.) Still, these books are attractive, because they Seem To Know What They Are Doing, while I, A Writer Of Very Little Brain, generally feel Entirely Surrounded By Vague Flailing. So the authority is tempting, even seductive. But giving one's self over to authority has its downsides. Chief among them is that one generally discovers that one has been Doing It Wrong. This can lead to either strained efforts to Do It Right, or to Guilt. I will acknowledge that trying new ways to write can lead to good stuff too: you can be stretched in new ways, think about new ideas. Sometimes one falls into the navel of writing, and finds it is dark there, without much room to manoeuvre. Perhaps trying someone else's writing method can help one pull one's head out of the place where it is stuck. One looks around, blinking in the sudden light. But I think the Doing It Wrong and the Guilt are the more common reactions. Oh, fellow writers. Don't you already feel that you're Doing It Wrong? Don't you already have The Guilt? Why are you seeking out more? I wish we could be more gentle with ourselves. Here is my gentling manifesto: - No process that results in writing is a bad process.
- No process that results in a miserable writer is a good process.
- No one process works for everyone.
- No process works for long.
No, you do not need to write 1000 words every day. No, you do not need to outline. No, you do not need to make a spreadsheet. No, you do not need to write first thing in the morning. No, you do not need to give yourself permission to write crap. No, you do not need to push through the spots where you are stuck.
Sorry for the late post today! But it's worth it to read about this unique approach! Introvert Innovation at work! How to Meet 14,000 Librarians Before the Babysitter Leaves Shade helps. Also water and a fully charged laptop battery. Last June, the American Library Association (ALA) conference came to Washington, DC: 14,000 librarians, three miles from my home. I planned to spend a full day, Friday, meeting librarians in the exhibit hall. But at the last minute, I learned the exhibit hall wouldn't open until Friday evening, right around my preschoolers' bedtime. Weekdays were when I had childcare. I had to meet those librarians. I sulked. I rechecked the ALA website. Finally, I bought foam board. Friday morning, I collected my badge at the Convention Center. Then I crossed the street, put on sunscreen, and sat down to write in Mt. Vernon Square. The foam board announced, "YA Author At Work. Please Interrupt--I Love to Meet Librarians!" And librarians came! From North Carolina, then from Paris. I met librarians from 10 states and four countries, plus a School Library Journal blogger and someone from the ALA's YouTube channel.I even got some writing done. Sure, my second location, closer to the main sidewalk, required propping myself up against tree roots. But I met two dozen friendly people who wanted to learn about my books and Skype visits. And I gained confidence as a publicist. Of course, not everyone lives in a big conference city. But librarians, reading specialists, and other book people meet in state and regional groups too--often with trees or benches nearby. Just remember they want to meet you--and remember plenty of sunscreen. *** Pamela Ehrenberg is the author of Tillmon County Fire (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2009) and Ethan, Suspended (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2007). More information about her Skype author visits and her online workshop, "Making Time to Write in an Impossibly Busy Life," can be found on her website, www.pamelaehrenberg.com. ; This posting was reprinted with permission from the SCBWI Bulletin (January/February 2011).
Now that I’ve sold three novels, I wish I could talk to myself when my first book came out. I’d tell myself:
“Stop freaking out! People will read the book. You will get amazing e-mails from young fans, teachers, librarians and old boyfriends. You will even win a couple lovely awards.” To you, dear reader, I say, “Do what feels comfortable. Say, “Yes” a lot. Let people know about your book and about you as a speaker, then move on and write the next book. If contemplating marketing and promoting gives you hives, think about the process as connecting and giving.” Here are some examples from my experience that may be helpful:
School Visits:
When a friend told me a local middle school library was desperately in need of books, I gathered a bag of books our kids were not using as well as copies of my two novels and headed over there.
The librarian and I hit it off immediately. She was friendly and enthusiastic and really appreciated the donation of books. When she found out I did school visits, she invited me to give a (paid) presentation to the entire sixth grade class (about 400 students) and sign books at the school’s book fair. A win for both of us.
Since that time, I’ve gone in to help her encourage reluctant readers to find books they’ll enjoy.
13 Comments on Guest Blogger Donna Gephart: 6 1/2 Thoughts on Marketing & Promotion, last added: 4/28/2011
Dear R. L.
My debut middle grade novel has been out for a few months now, and I must say, the initial numbers are discouraging. It makes me wonder if I had unrealistic expectations in the first place. What are reasonable expectations for a debut middle grade novel? Can you share some thoughts on what a successful debut might look like?This is such a great question that I thought I’d talk about it here, because so few debut authors have any idea on what to expect, either experience-wise or sales-wise. This is made even worse by the fact that so much of official marketing and promotion is about smoke and mirrors: it’s about making the book look more popular and ‘must-have’ than perhaps it really is. So how can authors possibly gauge how well their book is doing? As we've touched on in a couple of recent posts (one by agent Erin Murphy and another by Sarah Prineas) there are so very many expectations a publisher might have for a book, and how success is defined by your publisher (and therefore you, to some degree) will depend upon those. Middle grade novels in particular, rarely come out of the gate with the same big splash potential that YA novels can engender. I’m trying to think if any middle grade debut novels have ever hit a bestseller list. J. K. Rowling did, and so have Rick Riordan and Jeff Kinney, but not right out of the gate with their first book. Their first books did get there eventually, but it took a while. Okay, I just quickly consulted the PW 2010 Kid's Book Sales list and there are two: Big Nate by Lincoln Peirce and The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angelberger. This is in large part because the end user isn’t the one buying the books, and is, in fact, not very plugged into the information streams along which books news travels. It takes a while to get word out to the gatekeepers, and then passed from the gatekeepers on to young readers. Younger middle grade novels can take even longer to find their audience because they’re niche is so specialized (emerging, independent readers) who stay at that reading level for only a short while. Some publishers know this and actually plan for it, knowing there will be a slow-but-steady build for a given title. Other publishers, however, do still acquire books intending to use the Spaghetti Against the Wall approach. (throw a bunch of stuff out there and see what sticks.) Which is one of the reasons you hear so many insistent voices saying that the authors themselves must promote, promoted, promote. And why others insist that authors write such a kick @ss book that the publisher will be compelled to do something different. Part of your expectations will have to do with the size and nature of your publisher. Some publishers are big, bestseller producers, some are more backlist builders, and others are small independent publishers trying new things. This is where the advice and knowledge of an agent can be invaluable—recognizing what sort of book yours is, then matching it to the right type of publisher. With middle grade especially, the first book is about laying the groundwork for your career. Because middle grade builds much more slowly, there are less flashy initial expectations. Especially when in hardback, the biggest initial consumers for these books are libraries and schools, an
It is no great secret that it took me a while to warm up to Twitter. And I am fully aware that I have probably not maximized it’s effectiveness in terms of marketing and promotion potential. We talked last week about how it can be really important for introverts to learn to master skills they aren’t comfortable with before deciding certain activities aren’t for them; how competence can make you far more comfortable with an activity, which in turn might surprise you by actually being something you like. So today’s post is for those of you out there who haven’t yet tried Twitter or who have given up on it or who are just plain flummoxed by it. Yes, I think one can have a perfectly fine marketing/promotional strategy without it, but as with most things, it’s best to fully understand and be comfortable with a tool before deciding not to use it. Twelve Tips for Twitterphobes 1. If you’re not comfortable with the idea of a broadcast medium, don’t use it that way. Use it as a way to connect with other readers and writers on subjects that are of interest to you. 2. Do NOT pay attention to follower numbers. Remember, you're not using it as a tool just yet. You're simply exploring it as an option and getting comfortable with it. 3. Pick some role models of big, successful Tweeters you admire and study their strategy. Some of mine are Mitali Perkins, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Meg Cabot (I love that as successful and ‘big’ as she is, she follows everyone back.) It’s just such an inclusive strategy. 4. Try to talk a buddy or critique partner or two into doing it with you. That way you will have someone to have a conversation with. 5. Practice in private. Before going official, practice making small random observations and wry, ironic quips about life and jotting them down. And they don’t really even have to be ironic. Entertaining or relatable also work. I know it’s a big joke how everyone doesn’t need to know about what you had for breakfast, but honestly, sometimes those posts—wittily expressed or touching on the human condition in general—generate the biggest amount of conversation. 6. Find friendly people to follow. They don’t necessarily have to be people who follow you back, but people who at least respond to @ theirname replies are good. It's easy to get one's feelings hurt to keep trying to connect with someone and have them ignore you, so just realize they're on Twitter for different reasons than you and move on to friendlier people with similar goals. 7. Just play with it for five minutes each day (it doesn’t have to be more than that initially) to scan the tweets of the people you follow. See if you can find just one thing that’s interesting enough to retweet. 8. To get started, you can ease into it by simply giving a shout out to a book you’ve recently read and enjoyed. If the author is on Twitter, you can say Just finished The Second Duchess by @elizabethloupas and loved it. (Which is mostly true, btw, only I haven't quite finished it yet. DO love it, though!) 9. If you read blogs or news sites or anything on the web, try linking to just one article you think others might find of interest. (To save characters, you can link using
16 Comments on Twelve Tips For Twitterphobes, last added: 4/14/2011
In the comments a couple of week’s ago, someone said they were still looking for a uniquely introverted approach to being an author rather than settling for Extrovert Lite, and I thought that was an interesting point. It got me to thinking, what would a uniquely introverted presence look and feel like? Is there a way to craft presence that is truly based on introvert strengths and not Extrovert Lite?
If one’s idea of an introvert presence is to have to do absolutely no engaging or connecting, the answer is probably not. One exception to this might be if you wrote such a dynamic, compelling kick @ss book that the publisher gets behind it in a BIG way and does all the heavy lifting for you. Even then, they will most likely want you to have some presence, some way of your readers to find you, a web site, a Facebook or Twitter account, or a blog. But how you use them is up to you.
So how does an introvert take these tools and use them wholly in their own way?
I think part of that answer is to use them with a different end in mind; to connect with readers rather than to draw and create new readers. It is a small thing really, a shift in perspective, but one that is based solidly in the introvert’s personality and strengths.
Introvert strengths that can be used to connect with readers are: 1. We are good at connecting deeply and meaningfully with people. 2. We like to think and talk about big, important things and ideas. Not chit chat, but deep conversations. 3. While we do like to connect with people, it needs to be in keeping with our own energy levels. This is why the internet is such a huge breakthrough for introverts.
So we build our marketing presence on those three principles. In fact, it will not so much be a marketing presence but more about creating opportunities to connect. It might seem like a matter of semantics, but it radically shifts the focus and the goal of what you’re doing—and that goes a long way to taking it out of the Extrovert Lite category and putting it solidly into the Truly Introvert category.
The thing is, if you’re a writer, I’m guessing that means you had something to say, something that compelled you to give voice to the ideas and thoughts in your head. Connecting in an introverted way is simply about extending that at the edges, just a little bit.
As an introvert: DON’T pay attention to numbers and visitor counters. DON’T promote your work or put a scintilla of pressure on yourself to shill your books. DON’T feel like the focus has to be all about you.
DO pay attention to each reader that stops by—answer their comments, create a relationship. DO have your book cover and title and appropriate links somewhere on your site or FB page, just as one additional aspect of who you are. DO focus on and talk about things that move you, things that you care about and are passionately involved i
We're off on an introvert's retreat this weekend! Feel free to borrow the idea if you're hungering for a little peace and quiet... We'll be back next week...fully refreshed and rejuvenated.
As most SVP readers know far too well from first hand experience, the myths about introverts abound. If you get tired of being misunderstood by friends, family, and coworkers, consider printing this list out and handing it to them next time they insist you really do want to attend that company picnic or huge party.☺ 1. We are not all shy.Shyness is actually a trait that is quite separate from being an introvert, and while some introverts are shy, there are also some very confident introverts, just as there are many shy extroverts. Shy involves being nervous or timid about social situations, or having a fear of being humiliated or in the spotlight. Introvert means that we draw our emotional and psychic energy from solitude. VERY different things.
2. We are not anti-social. Quite the contrary! We have many close, dear friends, but we also recognize that being with people just for its own sake does nothing for us and, in fact, drains our batteries right quick. We love to connect with people, but not just mingle with hoards of people for its own sake.
3. Introversion is not a mental health issue. In spite of the American Psychiatric Association’s current inclination to view it that way, introversion is a temperament, a way of being in the world, it is most decidedly not a mental health issue. Unfortunately, as our psychiatric profession puts more and more emphasis on medication and external behavioral therapies, and total conforming behavior. I think the argument could very easily be made that the drawbacks they often attribute to being an introvert come from introversion being MISUNDERSTOOD, rather than introversion itself.
4. We don’t not like people. We DO like people! In fact, we love quite a lot of them. We just like to do it on our own terms. In fact, part of our desire to recharge is so that we may connect with those we love in a more meaningful way.
5. We do contribute to society. Puh-lease! Artists, writers, philosophers, therapists, the clergy—all these fields are dominated by introverts. There are also introverts in just about every field you can name, from scientists to teachers to nurses to pilots and engineers. Well, maybe not salesmen, although I bet there are some introverts out there who have had very successful sales careers. The thing is, the very thing that makes us introverts—that inward focus and desire to surf the world of ideas as if it were one giant wave is what makes our contribution to society so valuable.
6. Introversion is not a weakness that must be overcome. It is not something we need to be cured of, or coaxed out of, or shamed from. Just FYI, many of the traits we introverts have are (or at least were) considered virtues and the signs of a contemplative mind.
7. We do not have intimacy issues. In fact, introverts have some of the closest, most in depth, intimately connected relationships on the pla
I am very excited to be able to share this guest post by Cate Tiernan with you today. You sill see that she is most definitely One of Us, an introvert to the core. I first 'met' Cate online years ago through her incredible, gripping YA series SWEEP. Her most recent book, IMMORTAL BELOVED, was one of my favorite reads last year, on of those terrific books that make you forget you're a writer. I love when books can do that! I can do blog posts. I can do blog posts out the wazoo. Need a blog post? I’m your woman. If, however, you for some reason need me to speak to strangers in public . . . you’ll find me under the nearest bed, trying to self-medicate with chocolate. I understand that this is part of who I am, part of what makes me me. This is partly why I’m a writer, working alone at home in my bathrobe, and not, say, pursuing a career in customer service, where as soon as someone was mean to me, I would cry. I’m a writer. To me, being a writer is basically trying to decipher yourself and others with a whole bunch of words--in the way that being a painter can be trying to decipher yourself and others with a whole bunch of paint. Or whatever your chosen medium is. But the point of the whole bunch of words is that ultimately, I’m trying to make a connection with other people. I know: the irony. But that’s what my writing is about. I’m trying to interpret the world around me (and the world inside me), and I’m trying to express that in a way that others will understand, and perhaps come to see themselves in, at least a little bit. For that reader, and for me, that’s a connection, and it means that we’re not alone: Someone understands us. The trick is to do all this without someone really noticing. People often tell me they’d like to be writers. They ask how I do it, and how they can do it too. I wish there was an answer like, You go to a certain website, and there’s a game there, and once you get to level sixty-five, boom! You’re a writer. But no. What I do is: I try to create worlds I’d like to live in. I try to create plots that are exciting, that I can live vicariously through. I create people I’d like to meet, or be, or love. Everything I see in the real world, everything I hear, everything I learn, taste, smell, feel--all of it is the raw material for my work. I take it all in and then I smush it together into a story, into characters, and I write it all down. And afterward, when I read it, I can see myself in the words. I can see my feelings and my heart and even things I keep hidden in the real world. And I put it out there in the hopes that my words will mean something to someone else--that someone else, shaped by entir
 Wherein I Expose Myself as a Bit of a Numbers Nerd
Okay, so a lot of the hoopla and hysteria has died down about Amazon introducing limited Bookscan data to authors. Now that the surprise has worn off and those that were liable to be shocked and dazed have recovered, let’s talk about just how useful a tool they can be. Especially now that we’ve talked at length about the very many different ways success can be measured and achieved, these numbers shouldn’t hold terror for you.
Because yes, I always come down firmly on the side of the more information the better and knowledge is power and any permutation of such sentiments.
Plus, isn’t it better to know if the numbers aren’t great early rather than later? Because if you find out early enough, at least you can do something if you want to. [Note: This is a luxury that applies mostly to children’s and YA books. As I understand it adult books have a much shorter window to ‘make good’ and by the time you realize it’s not happening, it may be too late to do much about it. Kids books, by virtue of their sales channels and distribution patterns, usually have six to twelve months, often longer.]
Important Caveat: You are only allowed to look at and play with your sales numbers if you can be professional about it and not panic and whine to your agent or editor. If numbers make you hyperventilate or break out in welts, best to come back next week. ☺ Also? Don’t engage in any of the following activities while you are in an active, creating phase. Save it for a fallow or dormant time.
So the first thing to do is begin recording your weekly sales numbers (by book) on a spreadsheet of some sort—either computer based or plain old paper. The thing is, four weeks of data is pretty much meaningless. It is putting that data in context where we can see patterns and trends and directions. So record your weekly sales. Not only are you compiling important information, but it is also a great metaphor/microcosm for the cyclical, up and down nature of publishing that you can see with your own eyes. Your book might spike one week, then be on a downward trend for the next two, then spike back up in the fourth week.
If you have more than four books out, as I do, and you only see three titles listed in the graph then a nebulous “other” listing, you CAN find out your sales numbers by individual title. Up at the very top left corner of the screen where it says All Books, there is a little orange arrow. Click on that to reveal each individual title’s numbers. (I actually just found this out last week.)
One reason it can be so helpful to see this information real time is that, if you’re lucky, you might be able to detect a cause and effect with your marketing efforts. After a series of Skype visits, or a blog tour, or school visits you may be able to see your numbers move, which will be a good indicator of which type of activities have an impact on your sales. However, it is also important to remember that sometimes the impact a particular activity has may not show for a while, so only use this in a reinforcement type capacity—not as a means of eliminating stuff.
See if you can get your agent to finagle some sort of performance expectation from your publisher or editor so you’ll have a benchmark you know you’re shooting for. Although a good rule of thumb is the goal of earning out your advance within the first 12-18 month
As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, the INTeRnET can be an INTRovErT’s best friend. Never before have so many introverts been able to connect and socialize with others (also often introverts) from the comfort of their own home and on their own time table. It is a great tool—when we don’t allow it to overwhelm us. This week I’m going to share some underutilized tools most of us have at hand that can help us control the internet and the demands it makes on us and our oh-so-finite time and energy. In order to manage all that is available to us, it is more important than ever to use all the time management organizational tools available to us. - Create Inbox folders (using Rule function with Outlook Express or Entourage) that send email directly to the designated folder where you can then choose when to read it when you're ready. It's surprising how much less overwhelming it is to not have every incoming thing cluttering up your inbox and demanding attention.
- Consider the Digest setting for yahoo groups or listservs.
- Organize your web browser’s bookmarks. Create folders on your toolbar that are separated or defined by their function and use to you. For example, instead of having an RSS feed where everything comes into your inbox, demanding attention, consider having a series of Blog folders grouped by their role in your life: whether they inspire, inform, or are for socialization.
 - Use a blogging platform that has a pre-scheduling feature. That way when you have a bunch of ideas or are feeling in a social mood, you can sit down and whip out a couple of blogs posts and then parcel them out on a more regular schedule. (Not that I ever do that. I write each and every one of these posts at 5:00 Monday morning then hit publish immediately!)
- Depending on how you use Twitter (say, for broadcasting purposes) consider one of the many Tweet Scheduling programs. (I bet we could get Greg Pincus to tell us which ones he recommends!)
- If you want to experiment with chats on Twitter, DO be sure to use TweetChat. I cannot even begin to tell you how much less stressful this is than just following the hashtag. Having said that, however, tweet chats are still pretty stressful for
Okay, I know I promised you practical tools for managing online information but I was just SO DANGED thrilled about this interview that I decided it couldn't wait another week, while practical online tips most definitely could. I am HUGELY excited to share with you an interview with Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, better known to those of you on Twitter as @Literaricat. In an industry that can often overwhelm and confuse, Jennifer is an invaluable, accessible source of publishing insight and helpful information. After reading her blog and following her on Twitter for lo these many months, I felt sure that many Shrinking Violet readers would benefit greatly from some of that insight... SVP: Are you an introvert? How about your clients, would you say a large number of the writers you’ve met are introverts?
JL: I am sort of a mixture. I can be quite outgoing, "on" - I am quite noisy and confident when in this mode, and I'm OK with talking to large groups or strangers. But I do need a lot of time to decompress afterward. I'd say for every hour of "on" I need two of quiet alone-time. I am not sure how my clients would define themselves in this regard. I'd imagine that most of them are kind of like me - able to be lively raconteurs, but possibly work better in solitude.
SVP: Your client list is widely varied and includes debut authors, those who have published a few books, and those who’ve been publishing for years. Can you pinpoint what qualities those authors or their writing have in common that drew you to them?
JL: They are all at the top of their form. Their work is all totally different, but always fun to read. They are all pretty much straightforward and open communicators.
SVP: What is your agenting style? Are you a hands on agent editorially? A shark?
JL: I do read and give notes, but the are likely to be big-picture or "Meta Notes." Like, I might tell you that I feel the main character seems too young to be credible and ask you to consider aging her up a bit. But I am unlikely to give detailed line-edits or copy-edit type notes. My authors tend to give me pretty polished work (and if it wasn't almost ready, I wouldn't have taken it on to begin with.) So, yeah. I consider myself a SELLING agent.
SVP: What do you think aspiring authors would be most surprised to hear about agents in general or you in particular? JL: I think there is a lot of mystique surrounding agents. In fact, we are quite normal, and rarely drink writer blood. SVP: What is the one biggest misconception authors seem to have about the publishing business?
JL: Many people think (quite erroneously) that there is some easy shortcut to publication that nobody is telling them, and that once they are published everything will be covered in rainbows and sparkledust. In fact, getting published is mostly a very long, very slow, at times quite painful, slog. It is HARD WORK to be a great writer. Publishing is SLOW and AWFUL much of the time. I mean, don't get me wrong, it is probably better than digging ditches, and there can be momen
The internet can be a wonderful thing, or it can be the most overwhelming time sink known to man. Indeed, it is both and I think one of the trickiest balances is finding how to use the internet so that it keeps one informed and abreast of one’s industry, without drowning us in too much information. How do we find that balance? How do we learn to filter out the 24/7 onslaught of publishing tips, publishing trends, publishing warnings, writing rules, writing tips, and writing Must Dos? Not to mention all the marketing and promotional directives orders commands advice out there? The problem with the internet is that the information available is infinite, and our time is not. It is so easy to sit there and follow the trail of links, certain that they will lead us to the One Vital Answer that we seek, when all they are really doing is taking us away from more important and nourishing tasks. For me at least, this is where the discipline part of writing comes in. I have no trouble producing pages, it’s the blocking out unnecessary ‘information’ that lurks everywhere, promising to inform and enlighten me to within an inch of my life. For example, I keep reading everywhere that authors need to be ready for the coming revolution in publishing, whether than means e-books only, or no gatekeepers or fitlers, or all our books available free on the internet and the collapse of the paying model, such as what happened in the music industry. But you know? There just isn’t much I can DO about any of that. There is no proactive action I can take to ‘prepare’ myself other than be aware that it might happen. Some people feel that because of those coming changes authors need to be even more vigorous/vigilant about building an online presence and following so they can interact directly, but you know what? Nearly every author I know who has the desire and the temperament is doing that already. Which is why I have stopped reading those sorts of articles. I found one or two sources which I've found to keep me informed, and I ignore the others. The thing is, yes, it is good to be informed as to how the industry works in general. But 95% of the stuff we read about is not something in our control. Most of us have no control over distribution or what the publisher does to market us, or get word out, and most of us simply don’t know thousands of people to tap into. So I try to limit my internet information intake to those things that help me do better those things I am committed to doing. And I try to eliminate that information which serves no actionable purpose. For example, I don’t subscribe to Publisher’s Marketplace when I’m writing a book. Yes, those deals are fascinating and numbers are like crack to me, but dear gawd, every time I read one of those suckers I begin comparing and competing and get all tangled up in the very least desirable aspect of writing. The only time I subscribe is when I have a new project I’m shopping, then I cancel the subscription. Even information I am interested in, profiles of new writers and books, for example, I only ‘take in’ on certain days or after all my writing is done for that day. Which is I am so in love with my Holy Trinity of Guiding Principles: Trust, Nourish, and Persevere. Is this article, blog, tweet feed helping me to trust in my process and skills? Is it nourishing either of those by helping me expand my boundaries
[I am very excited to share with you the wisdom and perspective of my agent, Erin Murphy in today's guest post!] Success is Like a Snowflake, Too It’s not just writing careers that are like snowflakes—it’s equally true that the success that each writer experiences is unique. This is something my clients and I talk about a lot as we look at the big picture of their careers. Some big quantifiable measures of success out there in the publishing world for all to see: Bestseller lists; deals that Publishers Marketplace calls “very nice,” “good,” “significant,” or “major”; star treatment at conventions like ALA; special placement in chain bookstores; starred reviews and awards; Amazon rankings. And those measures are even more visible today than they were just five years ago, thanks to the many authors and industry professionals who talk about their experiences on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Sometimes I think it must feel impossible to believe anything else is important when you’re a writer. These seemingly quantifiable measures are simply not as concrete as you might expect. There are many articles out there about the myth of the bestseller list and the Amazon ranking, and about the negatives of large advances. And the major chains (perhaps soon to be the singular “chain,” although I certainly hope not) carry such a small percentage of new books on the bricks and mortar shelves that I believe our entire industry needs to stop using a buy-in from the chains as any kind of requirement for satisfaction. However, these things are not the only measures of success in publishing. It might appear that way, but it’s just not true. In Robin’s case, it was tremendously helpful for us to realize that she had reached a benchmark point in her career: her publisher values her steady contribution to their catalogs and sees her as a lifetime author, someone whose work is valuable on their backlist and continues to grow in value as she continues to publish and grow creatively. While her sales figures aren’t bestseller-level, they are steady, and most importantly, her publisher is happy with them. There are many authors out there that don’t know or understand that their publishers are happy with their sales, or aren’t sure their publisher will want the next thing they write. So having achieved this is huge, but it isn’t quantifiable. And it certainly isn’t as sexy as a significant deal or NYT Bestseller designation. The danger of the most obvious benchmarks is that it’s too easy to fall into the comparison game, stacking up your own career against someone else’s. You can’t compare apples to oranges, and you can’t compare one snowflake to another and declare one prettier or better. The author whose books have never been carried by the chains is jealous of the one who has a presence there. The author who has never had a starred review is envious of others who have. The authors who are unhappy with their advances are jealous of having never cracked the elusiv
And no, it’s not because they melt away into nothingness two seconds after hitting the ground. Don’t even let such a negative thought taint your mind! It’s because no two are ever exactly alike. Pretty simple, huh? But one of the hardest concepts for us authors to grasp. Hell, even publishing professionals have a hard time accepting it, although they are aware of it more than the individual author since they have access to data for all their books. Someone on Twitter last week (and I can’t for the life of me remember who it was—if it was you, let me know so I can properly credit you!) linked to this year old post by Christina Dodd. The whole post is definitely worth reading, a twenty year’s veteran’s look at the biz, but this nugget in particular really struck me: 9. From my vantage point, everyone in publishing is doing better than I am. From everyone else’s vantage point, I’m doing better than they are. The truth is somewhere in between — and an author who’s published is not going to get any sympathy at all from an unpublished author who’s written for ten years, finished three manuscripts and has twenty-five rejection letters. Believe me. I know. I was that author. The fear of failure nips at our heels no matter what stage of our career we're in. It is so, so easy to sit from the outside looking in and be certain-- absolutely certain--that Author A is a raging success and has it all and their books are selling like hotcakes. But the truth is rarely that simple. The really hilarious thing is I’ve had people say that of me, and I can never hold back a snort of wild disbelief. (See previous paragraph.) A couple of weekends ago I attended ALA. While there I became convinced of two things. 1. Twitter does help buzz books. I can’t tell you how many times I heard people standing in lines for arcs saying, I heard about this book on Twitter. (Which will be the subject of a future post) 2. A big web presence or Twitter following does not guarantee actual book sales. Standing in line for free ARCs is a very different thing from plunking down cold hard cash for the book I cannot tell you how many people I’ve talked to over the last month or heard talking on blogs, bemoaning their lack of sales, and yet these people DO have really big followings. These are people who are worried about earning out their advances, whose sales are far below expectations, or who are worried about their next contract. Every single one of them has what I consider to be a pretty healthy--if not downright BIG--web presence. Which proves precisely what I’ve suspected all along: Big blog/Twitter followings propel a teensy percentage of people to publishing success, but no more and perhaps even less than a greatly written book, an award nomination, or the full force of the publisher’s marketing department behind the book. It is ONE way in a myriad of ways to achieve success. And the important thing to remember is that no one really, truly understands how one book becomes a success and the other one does not. Sure, there are certain things that must be in place: good storytelling (notice I did not say brilliant writing), publisher support, usually co-op of some kind, but not always. But any given publisher can have two books that should by all intents and purposes appeal to the same audience, and yet the marketing efforts th
If you’re like me, you no doubt had lots of plans and goals (not resolutions!) for this year. And if you are like me, you may already be feeling a teensy bit overwhelmed by all that you want to accomplish. My year’s to do list looks something like this: Write 2nd #medievalFrenchteenassassinbook Revise 1st #medievalFrenchteenassassinbook Redesign and relaunch website Promote 4th Theodosia book (pubs April 2011) Promote 4th Nathaniel Fludd book (pubs April 2011) Create Marketing plan for above Attend agency retreat (Austin, TX, April) Teach one day session at SB Writer’s Conference (June) RWA Nationals SCBWI Nationals?? (August) Attend first World Fantasy Con in San Diego (October) Write weekly entry for Shrinking Violets Write weekly entry for GeekMoms Write entries for my own blog Participate in Enchanted Inkpot Write entries for Theodosia blog Comment more on other people’s blogs Twitter Facebook That doesn’t even count the big personal To Do items like: Do my taxes College search for son Get son settled in said college De-clutter house of twenty years worth accumulated crap So where do I even start? If I think of all that I have to do, I immediately feel fragmented and overwhelmed. As introverts, our energy for this stuff is finite and we have to use it wisely so that we gain maximum benefits without draining our battering to the emergency levels. How do we do that? And that’s when I realized that my word for the year really does need to be TRUST rather than confidence. Not only do I need to trust in myself a lot more than I do, but I need to trust that I will be able to get to what needs to be done. Even so, when I look at that To Do list, I have to dig deep to find that trust. Trust that I can get to everything, trust that the things I don’t get to won’t really matter in the end, that if I just keep washing my bowl and washing it the best way I know how, that will be enough. But trust isn’t much help in prioritizing. True prioritizing has to come from a deep, centered place and takes more than a cost benefit analysis. We have to understand on the deepest level what our life and career goals are. At this point in my life, my priorities are: - My family (But they are all very independent and (mostly) on their own now, so require much less of me.)
- My health (Which seems so obvious but I am willing to bet I am not the only woman here who has put that on the back burner for far too long.
- Writing (Although sometimes, quite honestly, writing comes before health, which I need to work on.)
Looking at those two lists side by side, another word I almost chose for 2011 kept floating around in my head: nourish. I got to thinking about trusting and nourishing almost being a complete directive on their own. But to reach our dreams, and find the energy to tend to the business side of our dreams, something more was required. Perseverance. Suddenly I had a To Do List Triage Protocol in place; a veritable Holy Trinity of words to use as my guiding principles as I pursue all that I want to do this year. By asking how the items on my To Do List help me achieve my goals by building trust, nourishing, or helping me persevere when it is required, voila! My priorities suddenly became much clearer. I was able to identify those tasks that are most central to my life/professional goals. The unpleasant truth is, there are lots o
This week we're going to shine the light on a couple of fellow violets who've had some pretty big milestones in their promotional lives. First off, I was lucky enough to meet Miss Sarah Stevenson (whom some of you may know as aquafortis) at ALA Midwinter last week where she was signing her debut novel, THE LATTE REBELLION! Sarah has been a violet since the very beginning, so it was very cool to see her signing books and greeting her adoring fans like an old pro. (And look at that, both she and Cindy Pon were wearing violet in honor of the occasion--although I will tell you right now, Cindy is NO shrinking violet. She is, however, the perfect person to follow around at big events like this because she very graciously takes all the social heat.) Sarah even signed a book for you (yes, YOU) and we will be giving it away here as a prize in the next few weeks. Congratulations, Sarah, on the release of your first book! ### Lisa Schroeder, author of numerous books for kids and teens, including CHASING BROOKLYN (Simon Pulse, 2010) and IT'S RAINING CUPCAKES (Aladdin, 2010);also experienced a huge promotional milestone--she was on TV! ::shudder:: and has graciously agreed to allow us all to live vicariously through her experience.  An Introvert's Worst Nightmare - the TV interviewI only have myself to blame, really. You see, when I met someone who worked for a local television station, I jokingly said to her, "Hey, maybe you could pitch a piece about my new novel for kids, It's Raining Cupcakes. Everyone loves cupcakes, right?" She went to work and did just that, to another producer who works for the show Better Portland. And within a couple of weeks, I had an e-mail asking if I'd be willing to meet up with one of the hosts of the show and do an interview. I read the e-mail and pretty much started hyperventilating. Me? On television!? Most people would probably be excited. I mean, it's a great promotional opportunity! I don't think excited is the word I would use, however. Terrified is the word I would use. Still, I went through with it. I knew I'd be crazy to turn down an opportunity like this one. The day of the interview, it was rainy and windy. Yes, yes, I live in Oregon, but we don't get big rain storms like the one that day very often. Fortunately, I found a parking spot fairly close to Cupcake Jones, the shop where they were conducting the interview, and I ran in, with my styled hair t
Welcome back, Violets!! I hope you had a lovely holiday, full of peace, joy, and quiet! No? Neither did I. Well the joy part, yes. The peace and quiet not so much. In fact, On Christmas Day as we were headed off for the second big family gathering in 24 hours, we decided that we would designate Dec. 26 as the LaFevers’ Official Cone of Silence Day. It was awesome! We were all at home, engaged in individual pursuits, yet we would connect briefly throughout the day, but without a whole lot of talking. It was a much needed balm to all our introverted souls, and we plan to make it a permanent part of our family tradition. With my deadline met and the holidays behind me, I have been filled with a white hot rush of all the things I can’t wait to talk about here on Shrinking Violets. I am struck again by how very bi-social I am: an extreme introvert when in my writing cave, but when I come out, almost extrovert-like in my desire to catch up on all the people and connections I’ve missed. Almost like a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter, I immerse myself in these social interactions until it’s time to go back to the writing cave. This year I want to learn to accept that and work with it more rather than fight against it. With the New Year comes the urge to make new resolutions for the next twelve months. I haven’t made resolutions in a long time as I set goals on a continuing basis, an ever changing and evolving set of challenges I want to meet and things to accomplish. Instead of New Year’s resolutions, one of the things I like to do is to choose one word for the coming year. That way, I have none of the painful self-loathing if the resolutions fall by the wayside, and just being mindful of that word can act as a touchstone for my growth and focus for the entire year. Some examples of the kind of words I mean: One of the things I want to focus on in the next year is unmuzzling myself a bit—not letting fear of offending someone or their not liking what I have to say box me in quite so badly. Some words I’ve been considering for this have been: Courage Truth Brave RiskBut none of those have quite clicked for me. Courage just doesn’t feel right; Truth, well, when I DO speak, I do tell the truth, so that isn’t quite right either. I feel I am brave already in many ways, and Risk, well, that word feels too big and loud for what I want to accomplish. In my search for the perfect word, I stumbled upon Jessica Spotwood's LJ and fell instantly in love with her word. NOURISH. It is the perfect word. As she points out on her blog: According to Merriam-Webster, nourish means to:
1. nurture
2. to promote the growth of
3 a: to furnish or sustain with nutriment: feed b: maintain, support And I’ve sat with that word for a few days now, thisclose to selecting it as my word. But as I was typing up the list of words for the word cloud to spark your own ideas, when I typed Trust, I had a warm little zing that told me that was the word. Trust is going to be my guiding word for 2011 And actually, now Trust is no longer my word for the y
Tis that season again, the season where introverts everywhere must dig deep to find the energy needed to survive the holiday--or pray they get snowed in! In an effort to give you some tools to survive the holidays, I am re-posting our Introvert Holiday Survival Guide! 1. Find a quiet spot in your day, even if it is just for five minutes, and allow yourselves to just be…still, calm, centered. At least for five minutes. A true gift to yourself. 2. Tell everyone you’re going Christmas shopping, but instead indulge in an hour alone with a warm, soothing drink as your only company. No, it's not being selfish; you will have more energy and heart to deal with all your holiday demands if you take care of yourself! Trust us on this. 3. Give yourself some time this holiday—even just fifteen minutes—to do some writing or dream or make big plans for the coming year. 4. If your time is too frazzled to actually make progress on your manuscript, consider personal journaling or maybe even character journaling. Journaling your character's thoughts and feelings can be a great way to stay connected to your WIP without having to actually produce pages. In fact, one of my favorite writing exercises one year was this: Choose a character you’re currently working on and write his or her Christmas wish list. 5. Don’t forget ear plugs. They can be a lifesaver. Especially when the TV is blaring, the kids are playing too loudly, or the snow-blower is going down the street. 6. Don’t forget to plot—plot for a few hours solitude, plot for a quick escape, plot to get everyone to leave early. . . 7. Naps! Either a long luxurious two hour nap where you sleep hard enough to get bed head, or quick refreshing pick-me-up of a 20 minute cat nap, allow yourself a luxury of a nap. Special Perk: Writer + nap = work. (Or at least, that’s what I’ve managed to convince my family.) 8. A plea on behalf of all the introverted children out there in the world—for introverted children, having to get up in Santa’s lap and TALK to this perfect stranger, usually IN FRONT OF other perfect strangers can be the six year old equivalent of public speaking. 9. Fill your holiday well by doing the things that make your holiday feel complete and yours. Remember, this is not self-indulgence, it’s self-preservation. It’s also a way to honor the spirit of the holidays in a way that has personal significance for you. Better yet if it is something that no one else really cares for: a local production of The Nutcracker, Watching Love Actually (my favorite Christmas movie EVER), a certain collection of holiday music that makes everyone else groan when you put it on. 10. Don’t forget to recharge your batteries—and no, we don’t mean Duracell or Eveready! We really can’t state this one strongly enough. It’s something introverts have to be vigilant about during the best of time, but during the holidays, it is critical! Take the time to recharge your battery! Do not risk depleting your reserves! (Yes, that’s an order. Or maybe just a sternly worded warning: Whichever makes you most inclined to follow it.) 11. Enjoy the dead zone between Christmas and New Years, when life kind of stops—or at least slows down. It’s a fallow, fertile time when we’ve just capped the year with a celebration and have yet to start the new year with all its resolutions, plans, and intentions. It’s a time for dreaming, reflecting, of reviewing and savoring. If you haven’t had a chance to refill your well or recharge your ba
Phew! You made it! You stuck with this workshop for all eleven sessions! Hurray YOU! (And yes I know, eleven is a strange, untidy number, but that’s how the cookie crumbled.) Hopefully you’ve gained some insights not only into why and how you are online, but also discovered some of the different layers and aspects of your self and how they might interact with your professional online presence. If not, well, you can repeat the course as many times as you’d like and no one will be any the wiser. ☺ Someone had asked a few weeks ago in the comments what sorts of numbers and metrics to shoot for in terms of followers. How many new followers/friends should we aim for each week? Month? Year? The truth is, while I love measurable metrics as much as the next person, (Hel- lo Amazon Bookscan numbers!) I’m not sure this is the best way to approach your list of followers & friends. The thing we’re after here is building meaningful connections. It is much better to have a small, dedicated, truly interested group of 500 friends & followers than it is to have 1,000 who are all just mutually following each other to inflate their numbers. So . . I’m not going to answer that question. I think a much more effective approach—and saner—is to focus on the quality of the interaction between you and the community you are building. Having said that, I also know it will not be enough to satisfy the truly metric-centric among you, so I will say that there seems to be a general sense that if you can garner 1,000 dedicated followers, that then you begin to have something. (If you Google 1,000 followers you’ll see lots of talk about it, but basically the concept revolves around a committed, dedicated core of true fans, not mutual number-padders.) The truth is though, not all of us will find 1,000 followers—at least not for a long time. It takes a lot of work and stick-to-itiveness, very much akin to building a writing career. It will also depend HUGELY on your genre and who your ultimate audience is. Genres that are able to interact directly with their audience online (YA, romance, fantasy) will be able to build a following faster than those who rely on gatekeepers (PB, MG). The vast majority of us will have friends and followers who find us after they’ve read our books and decide to seek us out online. We want to be sure and have a solid presence ready for them when they do. Another, smaller percentage of us will manage to build a significant online presence that will then lead our friends and followers to our work. You have to decide for your own self and your own path where you will put your energy. Where you WANT to put your energy. For every person who found a book deal through their blog, there are many more who sold the book first and developed on online presence to interact with the readers that book brought looking for them. Where do you want to spend your emotional and creative resources? This isn’t a trick question and there isn’t one right answer. You have to do a cost/benefit analysis of how maintaining an online presence fits into the current stage of your writing career. If you are getting up at 4:30 every morning to write before work, then falling asleep at night sometimes before your kids do, then time is probably your most precious resource right now and best not to squander it. Better to spend your time learning the craft and pursuing your dream. But if your engine is set to high idle and you’re just raring to go, by all means, dive in and being putting some of that energy to work for you i
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Yes! You have described my situation with my super extroverted firstborn daughter! The early years were so draining for both of us as I was trying to figure things out as a new parent. She is ten now and I believe we're understanding the other's needs much better.
Recently a friend, very extroverted, complained that her daughter doesn't tell her "anything" and she has to keep pushing just to get some answers. When I told her our situation is the opposite, she said that surely my situation is a lot easier. It was a reminder how different our (introverts and extroverts) needs are and how much effort is necessary for us to build bridges and if not totally understand each other, then at least understand that there are opposite scenarios that feel just the same to the other person.
And the guilt. Wow. Not just the guilt I feel for not being able to help her with her needs as much as I'd like, but also the guilt I think she feels for needing "too much" from me. That is the hardest part; I hate that I might have inadvertently caused that. But I know that she knows at the core that I love her and all of these can be worked out within that secure basis.
YOu can see this is a subject close to my heart.
I love this post! Thank you.
Terrific post and great advice. The youngest of my 3 kids is the lone extrovert in our family. She's 17, and I couldn't be more proud of her--but she still pushes me out of my comfort zone on a regular basis!
Excellent post!!!!
Yay, so glad this post was relevant for some! Gawd knows being an introvert affects a lot more than just our desire to market our books. :-)
Yat-Yee, I have the same situation with my extroverted son, so I totally understand! Also, how interesting to hear from the *other* side of parenting. Raising kids is not for wimps, that's for sure.
So glad you liked it, Stephanie! I take it that means Mr. D is a little extrovert?
Ruth, yes on the comfort zone thing! And in some ways, I think that is good--if not exactly comfortable. If nothing else, we are now more flexible introverts. :-)
Thanks, Lisa!
My sister experiences this exact challenge, so I will pass it along! Hubby and I often count it as good fortune that we and 3 sons are an entire family of introverts. We all understand each other and want the same things from vacations, etc... we have other challenges,of course, but introversion is a convenient thing to share.
* Great post! Thank you.
Thank you--I'm a classic M-B tested introvert and while I've done theater and public speaking, it takes a lot out of me. I don't have children and I wondered how I would react, as I see kids who never meet strangers. Also, love the quote from LeGuin. It's so true and a true literary science fiction convention is sometimes an exercise in awkwardness!
I had two introverted boys and an amazing extroverted daughter right in the middle. (we're talking cheerleader here...big time extrovert!)
Not only did her personality cause conflicts with DH and I (both happily introverted) but with her brothers as well.
I love your advice, wish I'd had it when the kids were younger. My daughter is 21 now, and a delightful person to have around, but we certainly had our moments!
BTW, DH was out of town this weekend and I'm in that writing place where I'm letting the first draft rest a bit before going back to it...so I decided to use the quiet time to set up a blog. You guys are entirely to blame for this (ha!). It was your series on setting up an online presence that made me decide to do it someday, and this weekend was "someday" I guess. I'm not really putting it "out there" for the most part right now because there's not much of substance on it, but I figure having one and knowing how to mess with it will be helpful should the happy day ever come that I need to really do some "platform building"
Melissa (remember me? reluctant laundress...plant killer...yadda yadda)