…but you can’t make him drink. I was just reading agent and writer, Nathan Bransford’s blog, and he makes an interesting and often widely overlooked point. No one person, publisher, or business can turn any book into a blockbuster success. No one in this industry has the power to turn any book into a bestseller. Yes, publishing houses can make business deals with bookstores and have their “BIG” books placed in prime, front-of-store, realty. They can have cut-out, life size displays and ads in every paper and magazine from here to Timbuktu. But if the book doesn’t build the ever elusive “word of mouth” or “buzz” that we so frequently hear about, it is not going to move off those carefully picked shelves. And what builds that buzz? Strong, compelling, well-written work that connects with readers. Because guess what? Readers talk! As Bransford says, “Lots of books get marketing dollars. Not all books become TWILIGHT or THE DA VINCI CODE or THE HELP or HARRY POTTER.” What Bransford doesn’t mention in his piece is that sometimes great books don’t get any help out of the gate and the author has a long, hard road of spreading the word about a book they believe in. It took years before Jenna Blum’s THOSE WHO SAVE US to get the recognition it deserved. It wasn’t until it was out in paperback, years after its initial launch, that it made it onto The New York Times Bestseller List. This is why publicity is so important in the world of publishing. It can’t make a bad book a bestseller, but it can help an overlooked book rise up and shine.

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome back to the Monday Marvelous Marketer Series. The series will evolve with some new features this year. To provide your input, please take my poll on the side and give me your ideas on what you would like to see in the series this year.

We start the year off with the one and only Nathan Bransford. I'm sure we all follow his famous blog as he steers us through the publishing world. Today, he's here to share some of his Marketing knowledge.

Hi Nathan, thanks for joining us. As if you are not busy enough! Pretend that some people here don't know who you are and tell us about yourself.

Hi Shelli.

Curtis Brown Ltd. is a New York-based agency that has been representing authors since 1914, and over the years has represented an incredible array of legendary/bestselling authors. I was fortunate to have joined Curtis Brown out of college in 2002 as an assistant in the San Francisco office. I had grown up in a small town in Northern California (my parents are farmers), and living in San Francisco and working in publishing was a dream. I’ve been with Curtis Brown ever since, including a few years in the New York office, before I returned to San Francisco and began building my list in earnest.

I also recently wrote a middle grade novel called JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW, which will be published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2011.

Nathan also runs a very popular blog - if you have not checked it out yet. It is a valuable resource! You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. It's OK he likes to be cyberstalked! ;)

Congrads on your book deal. Give me a corn dog and space any day! Thinking with both an author hat and agent hat, what do you think are the top 3 things authors should do to promote their book?

I actually only have one thing on the must do list, and that’s to have some sort of Google-able, professional web presence, whether it’s a blog, website, Facebook page… anything that is th

“Whatever big events have recently occurred, sure enough, I’ll see projects that are trying to capture that lightning in a book.”

-Agent Nathan Bransford on the trends he sees in queries.

Bransford wrote last year about a wave of chick lit with heavy protagonists. Sure enough, fast forward one year and that is exactly what we are seeing on the bookshelves.

From the article:

In this brave new ‘chick lit’ world, women realize that weight loss and dieting isn’t the way to happiness. If these new heroines lose weight in the books, they do so incidentally, as a result of finding genuine happiness and fulfillment in more substantial areas of their lives.

The ultimate fantasy for most women today is simply accepting themselves, whatever their body weight.

“People are deciding what media they want to consume out of a bewildering array of choices, and the ground is constantly shifting.”

-Literary agent, Nathan Bransford, at The Huffington Post, on why it is getting harder and harder for books to make a splash these days.

I usually don’t blog on the weekends, but here I am at the fabulous Main Library up the street from my house. I’m working on creating a spreadsheet to help me with my revision process (I’ll share that in an upcoming post).

Anyway, of course the library has Internet access and so I felt the need to “ease” in to my revision process (i.e,. provide myself with a procrastination tactic).

I read some blogs, including the latest This Week in Publishing post on agent Nathan Bransford’s blog. He highlighted a publishing-related article in the NY Times, Book Sales are Down, Depsite Push. Just makes up want to jump up and sing right?

Nathan also pointed to a related blog post, Book Sales and Wails by Jane Dystel, of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Here are some things she said in her post that struck a chord with me:

“Readers are becoming used to the fact that they will be able to find the books they want to read either in their originally published form or through used book sites or e-book editions. Just because these people are not in the bookstore the day a book is published doesn’t mean that that audience, if marketed to correctly, can’t make a title a bestseller six months after publication.

Despite this, publishers are still overpaying for a tiny percentage of books and then rolling them out as if the entire business depended on them, and they are invariably disappointed when they don’t sell by the truckload within a couple of weeks.”

I also think Ms. Dsytel makes a good point in her post about how the book industry isn’t necessarily like the movie industry where readers are going to bookstores on Tuesdays to purchase new books (okay, maybe I do, but you know what I mean, LOL). Some of the best books I didn’t even know about until several years after publication.

Maybe I’m being naive about this whole thing but I do understand that publishing is a business. But if a book’s survival is based on its sales performance in the first few weeks rather than giving it time to build an audience—these are going to be some tough times indeed for writers.

Okay, back to the spreadsheet and revision.

AgentExtraordinaire Nathan Bransford has declared this week Writer Appreciation Week, and he wants us to say something nice about one or more of our fellow writers. Oh goodness, I have so many people I'd love to say something nice about.

There's Katey Taylor who I imagine will one day do a book signing on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, and traffic will be backed up for miles. Then there's Aaron Polson who will have former students declaring in book shops that he used to teach them - and they'll be buying his books for their children.

Natalie Sin who will be notorious when her characters escape from the page and kidnap members of a Korean boy band. Carrie Harris, unofficial Queen of the Undead, who will make a fortune for the needle and thread industry, when her books are released. (Splitting sides - groan, if I have to explain). And as to the most wonderful, Kate Shaw, I know she will save me a seat at the premier of Jack of All Trades when the movie is released and I can't wait to buy a plush version of Pepper.

We have Jamie Eyberg who will construct a barn, paint the ceiling and mow the lawn on the day his book is released and won't even break a sweat. Barry Napier, this Birdwatcher from Mars will have so many strings to his bow he'll sweep the boards at award ceremonies. Brenton Tomlinson and his Nathan Steele series will have pundits crying, 'Harry who?'

Jeremy Kelly and Jeremy D Brooks, who will go battle to battle in the 'Best Jeremy' awards, a sparkling affair that will take place in railway carriages and casinos, and will end with them both the victors.

And what about the editors (who also be writers), Jodi Lee, Mark Deniz, R Scott McCoy and Nate Lambert - well they'll be busy polishing their Stokers and practicing acceptances speeches.

I love these guys. They've beta read my work, they've edited me, they've supported me when I'm down and cheered me when I'm up, and they're not alone. There are so many, many, many writers I'd love to appreciate (which sounds a little weird and dirty - huh!). So who have I missed out? Is it you? Then post your own Writers Appreciaton post and make sure you don't mention me.

Our Western Washington SCBWI conference is two weeks in the past now, and still some of the wonderful snippets of wisdom and tantalizing tips stick in my mind, and continue to to nourish me.

I'll not forget Nina Laden (ROMEOW AND DROOLIET) reminding us, "If you don't make mistakes, you may not make anything."

And Deb Lund (MONSTERS ON MACHINES) reading her unforgettable poem about that inner voice that harasses us as we write, and summing it up by telling us, "Sometimes we have to revise our own story, that story we tell ourselves."

Krista Marino, Senior Editor at Delacorte, reminded us to take cute out of our dictionary, when talking about children's books.

Nathan Bransford (Agent, Curtis Brown Ltd.) gave us his pet peeves for story beginnings: Don't start your book with

• the weather
• your character waking up
• looking in the mirror
• sarcastic characters (too flip and negative)

• forced pace-building (suddenly, quickly, at that moment)
• copious tears (only one tear per story)
• faces draining white or blushing
• exclamation points!

For me, one of the hardest things to do is to revise my own work. It’s difficult for me to see the flaws, because I’ve usually read the words so many times that they become natural for me. Also, I’m usually so close to the writing that it just “feels” right. But I do understand that in order to get my best piece out there, I will have to do some major revisions.

My WIP right now is undergoing a massive revision. After attending the Prairie Writers’ Day conference in Chicago this fall, I realized that I needed to inject it with voice. The way it was, no one reading would really get to know the main characters, and that is key for good writing. I decided that the best way to do this is to rewrite it in the first person, thus hearing the story directly from the character herself.

The writers’ conference really helped me to look at my novel in a new way, but there are other ways to do this too. The best way is to have other people read it. Lots and lots of other people—and not just your mother and grandma, because as much as they love you, they might not be the most critical voices. I am a part of an amazing writers’ group—amazing because of the wide range of genres that we work in. There’s a children’s’ poetry author and fellow blogger, Kelly. Cathy has the eye of an editor, and she writes short stories. While Angela is part memoirist, part children’s storywriter, part editorialist. This range of eyes on my words can only make my work more scrutinized.

Another way to have your writing seen by others is to follow blogs such as Miss Snarks First Victim, and Nathan Bransford, or Legend of the Protectors, and hope that you enter their contests in time. On these blogs, you’ll get constructive criticism from other writers.

I have really appreciated all of the invaluable advice I’ve received from my readers, and my WIP is transforming from a lump of coal into something maybe just a bit shinier.

Agent Nathan Bransford (the literary not the 007 kind) is running a first paragraph contest – 654 entries at last count – and the prize is a partial critique or a query critique of your WIP. Deadline is this Thursday. Post your first paragraphs people.

I’m just over 7,000 words into the second draft of Theatre of Curious Acts and all is going well so far despite a serious case of the procrastination virus. Fingers crossed. As per usual I am convinced that this is the one. Gee, I’m stupid. I had a list of anthologies I wanted to write for before I got back into it but impatience got the better of me. I’m thinking 57 stories is plenty for one year though so I only kicked myself twice.

A Poisoned Apple contest coming up in a few days, though it doesn’t promise to be as fun as Natalie's.

by Garth Nix HarperCollins 2007 In his introduction Nix introduces us to a lucky boy who loved to read all kinds of stories, especially ones with monsters and adventures and all sorts of fantastical things. He then explains that he was that boy, and that when he writes he likes to write the sort of things he'd like to read. This book was written for that boy. This collection brings together