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| OMG, what's gonna happen next? |
The task of engineering exciting excerpts is actually easy for a writer. You've already written it. Now you just have to find it. An excerpt is typically 500 words, and for a short story about 200-250 words. The advice I have is general—pick an excerpt from the first third of your book. Told you it was easy! Although very rarely does that mean that you need to copy and paste the first five hundred words of your story and call it a day. For a short story? Yes—that's exactly what you do. But not a novel.
Why, you ask? Well, that's inherent in the differences between long and short fiction. A successful short story begins with a strong hook. In order to sell a short story, you have to pull the reader in from the very first sentence. With a novel, the creation of the story comes along with a more deliberate pace. With a novel, you want to select a scene that sets up the story and above all makes the reader want to read MORE.
In other words—a cliff hanger.
Say you're writing a young adult romance novel. A good choice for any YA romance novel excerpt is a scene between the heroine and the hero. A first meeting, perhaps. A confrontation. The moment when the heroine first realizes that there's something different about this guy.
Say you're writing a middle grade fantasy novel. Pick a scene that jump starts the action. A fight. The moment when the hero realizes that he or she has a purpose to fulfill. The moment when everything changes.
Once you've decided on a scene, the real skill comes into play. You need to pick the moment of that scene where the reader absolutely has to know what happens next. And if the reader wants to know, what does he or she have to do? Buy the book. Which is, of course, the point.
So that's the kind of scene you want to choose for your excerpt. And here's another little hint, too—if you DON'T have a moment like this in your book, then you have some work to do. Every good story should have a moment like this—several in fact. That's how you want to end a chapter, a POV section. That's a real cliffhanger—the excerpt, the paragraph, the SENTENCE that forces the reader to turn the page. The moment that the reader thinks, "Well, one more chapter won't hurt. I'll just read a little while longer." That moment is the holy grail for every story in existence. This is how writers should approach every excerpt they choose.
And one last thing—wait to pick your excerpt until an editor has gone through it with you and cleaned it up. The absolute worst thing that can happen here is for spelling and grammar errors to make it through to publication. Your excerpt, like your blurbis part of your sales strategy. You can't sell a car if the engine doesn't work, right? Well, technique—grammar, spelling, structure—is the writer's engine. It doesn't matter how great your story is, it's not going to run unless those techniques are there and sharp.
If you’re an author, how do you go about choosing excerpts? If you’re a reader, what makes you purchase a book based on its excerpt? Would love to hear your comments! Cheers and thank you for reading my post!
Hi, folks! Welcome to the blog! This month I am offering a series that shares some of the inside story of my book PLUMB CRAZY (Swoon Romance, June 2014). Consider following the link and giving it "a like" on Goodreads.
Here is a fact: I fell off the couch laughing while writing PLUMB CRAZY. Now, I am living in the tension of "I hope my readers will too." I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas day. You know, will I really get the bean bag chair? This is a bigger story than you think. This is about the power of belief and my best marketing advice.
I remember the excitement of that Christmas morn, and the big let down when I ran to the Christmas tree. Santa Claus dropped unwrapped stuff under the tree. There was no Christmas bean bag chair, and I had been a good girl! Oh, dear God, my sister was right--there was no Santa Claus. I wailed into a couch cushion. Then my mom tapped my shoulder. She said we should check the attic because bean bag chairs were really big and didn't fit down cardboard chimneys. Dad pulled down the fold-down ladder, and I scampered up. I found my bean bag chair. I screamed, shoving my face into its buttery softness. Santa was real! All was right with world!
So here I sit, waiting for PLUMB CRAZY to make its way into the world. I am jittery and excited. All I have is belief right now. Will any of my readers fall of the couch like I did? Will they laugh so hard that their head aches? Will they feel the "big hug" of knowing Elva Presely? Writing a book is a very exposing thing, a private and intimate process. The process of publishing a book is the exact opposite, revealed and public.The shift is nevre-wracking for writers.
And now, for the big moment, my best marketing advice. The best marketing thing you can do for your book is write your best possible book. Pour out your soul. Uncover your secrets. Say what only you can say. Write sticky thoughts that readers won't forget. Write something that connects with readers worldwide. Believe and believe. Send it out to readers and let them decide. Then start the next book.
Yes, I know you wanted it to be how to get your book on NPR or something, but I am a truthteller and "soul on page" is what you need. Please come back as I share more of the inside story of PLUMB CRAZY. I hope that you pour your belief into your books this week because I love to read a good book. Love! See you next week!
Here is a doodle: Sun!
Quote for your pocket from Mr. Neil Gaiman.
Here is a link to the longer quote because it is a fun read. I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. Neil Gaiman
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
I had the great O-MI-GOD kind of privilege yesterday to hear the New York Times Best Selling author, Elizabeth Gilbert speak at UCSB as part of their phenomenal Arts & Lectures series.
In case you were recently hijacked and forced to live in absolute seclusion for the last year (not like that's a bad thing), you might have missed hearing about the incredible success of Liz Gilbert's memoir entitled Eat, Pray, Love that has been on the Bestseller List for 60 weeks. Wow. Yeah, that's what I think, too.
She lectured for about a half an hour about writing process, which I loved, and then turned it over to the audience for questions. This always makes me a little anxious because people can ask the corniest, most embarrassing things. And for some reason, I feel completely responsible for every inane thing that might come out of a fellow audience member's mouth. Like I'm the room monitor and Liz might hold it against me if someone says something truly stupid.
But the audience behaved itself quite nicely-- save for the guy that asked for her phone number. My favorite question to her was about intention vs. impact. A man asked her what the "size" of her intention was when she started her book. Did it match the impact? I knew that she had sold the book proposal for her memoir before she made the trip to the "I" countries-- Italy, India, Indonesia. She'd spent her advance money traveling and supporting herself for the year.
Her answer surprised a lot of us. She said she wrote that book for one reader-- her friend, Darcy, who was going through a hard time. Liz thought Darcy would benefit from hearing what she had learned about living. She said, the book could actually start out "Dear Darcy" and end "Love, Liz". She credited her younger sister, Catherine Murdock Gilbert, a young adult author, who had given her this sage writing advice. Write to one reader.
Know exactly who you are writing to, and stay with them. If you are focused on just one person, it will help you to know what to leave in and what to keep out. For example, Liz started to ask herself at some point in the book if she needed to explain yoga, then remembered that Darcy wouldn't need that. She moved right on.
In addition to "one reader" being strong writing guidance, it is powerful marketing advice as well. Liz Gilbert could have put the intention and pressure on herself to write a bestseller. But, she didn't. She wrote the best book she could to help a friend, and in doing so, wrote from an authentic place inside of herself. That naked, honest voice attracted ONE MILLION readers.
I was inspired by Robin's post last week about the Butterfly Effect and I think this dovetails with that. Yes, for god's sake, we all want to be phenomenally successful, great writers and strong promoters of our work. But there is enormous power in doing one thing-- one butterfly flapping their wing. One author speaking to one reader.
I also loved that in the middle of her lecture, Liz Gilbert took a moment to promote her sister's work. There will probably be a significant spike in the sales of Dairy Queen while she is on tour.
But her celebrity aside, that was one writer talking up one book. That's how it gets done.
The power on ONE. Take heart, friends--
Best,
Mary Hershey
Gather round children and you will hear, a midnight tale of …well, really good news for introverts. Remember lo those many months ago when I shared with you my favorite piece of marketing advice? Remember?
Well, you don’t have to take my word for it. Donald Maass, founder of Donald Maass Literary Agency and author of the wildly helpful WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL has spoken. And I want to share his answer with you.
First of all, I found this blog entry via a link on Writtenwyrdd’s blog (which is a fabulously informative blog and I highly recommend it, especially for writers of fantasy) to a post on Josephine Damian’s blog, which is, I’m guessing, the cyber equivalent of six degrees of separation. Anywho—Josephine attended one of Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workshops and asked him about the benefits of blogging and other promotional activities. His answer?
You really must go read the entire thing to get the full impact of what he said, but here are a couple of highlights to motivate you to read it.
…here he made his palms and fingers flat, then held his hands a few inches apart and said with the same vehemence of his earlier reply, "It’s what’s between the cover that sell the book." Tender reader, he doesn’t so much say these words but rather hurls them at me.
But wait. It gets better....
To sum up, Donald was willing to concede there were examples, few and far between, where an online presence helped in some small ways, but in terms of significant sales or opportunity, you have to wait until you’ve released 4-5 books for the time and effort spent promoting yourself online to payoff in any way that’s worthwhile, sales-wise.
And don't forget to read the entire comment thread, because she has more gems in there, such as the following:
DM made note of all the promotional bookmarks and postcards being handed out by the romance writers in my group (the group that hosted the workshop), and he says they are a waste of time and money as well.
So check it out. And Josephine promises to have more posts up soon on her encounter with Donald, so you may want to follow along.
I should state up front that this poem uses some colorful language, in case you're a fan of such things. Or not.
In a previous life I worked at a radio station as the Director of Public Affairs programming. Basically I oversaw the non-music programming that fulfilled our FCC requirements and allowed us to maintain our license. That sounds much more important than it really was; my duties
What great advice, Donna. Thanks!
This is fabulous. Thank you a hundred times over.
THANK YOU! How did you know I needed to hear these exact words this morning? I'm having total guilt over taking time away from promoting upcoming book to work on next one. Think I'm gonna let that go :)
Thanks for this advice. It's easy to lose track of the fact that writing the best book you can (and then writing the next one!) is the only thing authors can control. Very timely advice!
Love this. It is hard to know the MG market and how to reach them. Great advice.
Great advice. Especially for those of us who write MG that's harder to promote. Thanks so much.
"Think about the process as connecting and giving." This is just such good advice. Ditto for "write the best book you can." The rest will fall into place.
Thanks for all the links included with this great advice, too. They sent me to some great info on school visits, something I really enjoy and want to do more of. (After all, when there's some form of marketing that I actually enjoy, I definitely want to take advantage of it!)
And liz, thanks for reminding me that the writing is the only thing I can control. That's just what I need to hear when I'm getting frustrated about promotion.
Thanks,Donna. Valuable advice that I need to be reminded of again and again and again. Off to share this link with the world - or at least my Twitter world.
Number 3! Number 3!
It is just so important to not just look at how to "promote" but really look at how to do something that needs doing.
Well said.
Shelley
Thanks, Robin and Mary, for having me. And double thanks to your generous blog readers for the kind comments.
You guys rock!
WONDERFUL, Donna! Thank you so much! It's always fascinating to hear about an author's journey and the ups and downs as well as your advice. Perfect. Really enjoyed this!
Three cheers for Donna! And you, Robin, for facilitating this fantastic post. It all comes back to the WRITING, doesn't it?