What I Learned at Author (R)evolution Day – Part III – The Future of Authorship

This is a continuation of the past two posts on surviving – no, succeeding in the challenging new publishing environment. Check out Brave New World of Words – Part I and What I Learned at Author (R)evolution Day – Part II, to see how the conversation evolved.

“Gate-keepers are less powerful. Institutional support by brand name publishers is less powerful. It’s up to the writers and community to make the work really good!” This is the battle cry of the new publishing republic, the aftermath of the self-publishing and digital revolutions. As I heard it explored throughout Author (R)evolution Day, I realized that the community I needed to support my writing life has been right here in front of me all along.

First, think back to my last post when we were evaluating personal strengths and weaknesses. What does each of us do well? Better yet, let’s reframe the question:

What do you need to professionally publish a book?

1) You need a brilliant editor. If you’re lucky, you find that editor at a publishing house (or the editor finds you), along with a copy-editor who’ll make sure you’d not overlooked any glaring errors. More and more these days, we first find these editors in our personal writing community. They may be author-friends doing a quid pro quo. They may be freelance editors or other trustworthy, meticulous readers. In any case, every writer knows that we can’t edit ourselves. We’re too close to the work. We can’t see what’s right or wrong. We need an outside eye. In fact, one speaker noted, “The #1 mistake of self-publishers is overestimating their editing skills. You really need a ‘developmental editor’ who will help shape your book into a powerful, readable and engaging professional work.”

2) You need a professional package, inside, outside and virtually. Whether it’s an ebook, print-on-demand or hardcopy print-run, we’re talking format inside and out, from page layout to cover design. You also need to understand the many new and different digital publishing platforms. If you’re doing it yourself, you need to choose the right self-publishing service that will give you a gorgeous product and make it available on iTunes, Kindle, Nook, and whatever other platform is out there. As for cover, perhaps you have some artistic ability, so you might be tempted to try your hand. But I wouldn’t advise it. Even though I’m a published photographer and also do all the design work for TWC, I’d definitely hire someone else to do my book cover. An agent once said to me, “I don’t judge a book by its cover.” I laughed. Agents generally read books before they have covers! We all know we’re drawn to a book because of the cover first, unless we have a foreknowledge or a personal recommendation. A cover is not something to skimp on.

3) You have to get your beautifully edited and packaged work into the world. Possibly hardest for all of us – authors and publishers alike – is spreading the word. That’s why publishers rely increasingly on their authors to do a concerted marketing campaign.  (Yes, for self-publishers, there’s also distribution – getting your book into bookstores – but aside from a kindly local bookseller, most self-published works are sold online at least to start. Let’s focus on getting the word out, since I honestly haven’t figured out how to distribute a hard-copy either, and it wasn’t addressed at the conference. ToC, please put that on the agenda for next year!)

Do you focus on building buzz through social media? Do you build your own website or hire a professional? Do you spend all your time booking in-person author appearances? Do you pay for ads or hand out sample chapters on the street? I swear, I’ve seen authors do it in New York, usually poets or prosthelytizers. I definitely wouldn’t choose that path myself.

So how exactly do you jump-start this marketing campaign? Oddly enough, it should’ve started already. It should start right now, right here. And for those of us at TWC, it already has. I smiled as I took these notes on distilled from several of the Author (R)evolution talks, which apply equally to traditionally published and self-published authors. So everyone, take heed:

THE FUTURE OF AUTHORSHIP

1) Build a Community ASAP - This is a community both flesh and digital. It’s a community like we have – thank the Universe for all of you! – at The Writers Circle. It’s a community of people who are familiar with your work and can give you honest insights into how to make it better. It’s a community that will “like” you and “follow” you and “tweet” about you and maybe even come to your readings and buy your books when they finally arrive on their Kindle, Nook, iStore, or, hey, Barnes & Noble.

When you’re building this community, you want to make friends, not worry about selling books. You want to give as much as you get – maybe more. You want to respond to interesting comments, start great conversations and share cool links and ideas. It’s a friendship, in essence. But you can’t do it only because you’re planning to release a book. Ideally, you should do it because you care.

2) Build an Author Platform - Here’s the area that calls for some relevant expertise or a good reason why you should take the lead in some of the above conversations. With The Thrall’s Tale, I managed to craft myself into a true Viking and history expert. I was even asked to give keynotes, lectures and comment on the MANKIND documentary. How cool is that?

But if you lack an academic focus or the inclination to write about such things, you might start the conversation with your characters. Amanda Havard apparently set up six of her characters with social media accounts and started tweeting and chatting as them, building a community around “real” people who became “real” parts of people’s digital lives. So you can be really creative about this thing, have fun with it, and make it matter to people all at the same time. Here again, stick with what feels authentic to you. I still can’t imagine having done something like that with my first millennium Viking slave girl!

3) Build Social Media Contacts and Nurture Them – Daily. No, more often than that. I hear Ann Rice and Margaret Atwood tweet five or six times a day, and they are “brand name authors”. They already have a following!

I’m terrible about doing the social media thing, but those of you who are following me might notice a slight uptick in activity. (Kick me in the pants if I slack off, please!) I also wrangled my partner Michelle for a totally self-serving training session in HootSuite, a social media aggregate program that is supposed to simplify things. Find a good friend to do the same for you, or maybe grab Michelle at TWC!

4) Then, and only then, hope that your community will buy your work. Of course! But that’s not the point. It really shouldn’t be. The point is to offer up real content, real concern, real energy and real authenticity to a community of friends and followers who just might become readers. And they’ll like your work and tell two friends and so on….

OK, I know. All that sounds exhausting. I’m tired just writing it all down. In fact, one speaker at the conference suggested, “If you’re not a self-starter, don’t self-publish.” Yet it’s really no different than what any wise author does when they get a traditional publishing contract. Believe me, I see it every day with the authors I connect with on Facebook and face-to-face.

So, how to make peace with the demands of the publishing Perelandra where you’re on your own, better or worse, navigating the tumbling boulders and rippling sinkholes and heaves? More wise advice from Eve Bridburg and friends:

Find community and make good friends. For me, this means friends like all of you that I hug the moment you enter the door and am so happy to see when you show up after an absence on our class roster.

Be purposeful so you won’t feel lost. This means setting specific goals and tasks, and limits to those very same. I’m working on it (not too successfully since I barely wrote these past couple of weeks. But I’m going back to it as soon as this post is done!)

Don’t let the tactics lead. Maintain control over what you do and when you do it. Don’t try to do everything because you’ll get pulled under the horse. (Note the lead-horse metaphor? I love these things!)

Do what gives you energy and joy and makes you feel authentic. For me, again, it’s all of you and what we’re building at TWC. I love you guys and would do this even if I never wrote another word – God forbid! It’s a good life doing things I care about with people I enjoy. Who could ask for more?

Celebrate incremental success along the way, like getting out of my comfy rut and going to this conference. Clearly worth the lost time for work given all I’ve learned and all I have to share with all of you.

Last thoughts: sustaining a campaign, whether traditionally published or self-published, is hard. It takes time and commitment. It’s a distraction from your true love of words. But stick with it. Turn to your good friends and network for support. And don’t do too much. Little by little. Tweet by tweet. It’s just like writing: bird by bird.

What I Learned at Author (R)evolution Day – Part II: To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish

This is a continuation of last week’s post on the changing publishing landscape. Check out Brave New World of Words to see where I began.

The first question each of us must ask ourselves is, “Is self-publishing for me?”

Eve Bridburg, founder of Boston’s Grub Street, has been working with writers to help them answer that question and position themselves, whether they take the self-publishing route or not, to successfully confront the new publishing paradigm.

She suggested that all authors consider their strategy in three components:

1) Mission & Intent – Ask yourself what you want to accomplish, why you’re producing a book, what you want to offer and to whom? Sorry, the answer can’t be because I want – no, I need to write! It’s got to have a commercial intent to help you focus on your publishing objectives.

If you’re writing your memoirs for your children, then you know your audience well; you know how to find them, and you know why you’re writing in the first place. If you’re writing about a new theory of space travel, it may be easier to find an audience for your academic paper than for a popular book on physics. For novelists, defining the why’s and for whom’s is even more difficult but, believe me, it is possible. I did it for The Thrall’s Tale and discovered an entirely embracing Scandinavian, Viking-proud and book-loving community all across North America. The point is to look at the nonfiction threads of your work and figure out who might actually be interested in what you’ve written, reach out to them in the world, and help them find your book.

2) Defining Success – What are your goals for your book? How do you want to spend your time? What makes your life richer? And most importantly, what will success look like for you and your book?

Success can mean many things – emotional satisfaction, professional recognition, learning new skills or something more. If success is hitting the bestseller list or making enough money to quit your day-job – this goes for traditionally published authors, too – you’re almost certain to be disappointed. So whatever you do to help your book find readers, set reasonable goals that will keep you feeling satisfied no matter what the numerical outcome of your effort.

3) Your Campaign – What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you enjoy doing? And which actions align with your mission, per above? Also, what can you afford in terms of time and money?

Book publishing involves more than just writing. Traditional publishers provide writers with an experienced editor, a copy-editor, designers for interior layout and cover art. They give you a publicist – not for long, but they do give you one. And they have a nationwide team of account managers who sell your book to booksellers and, if you’re lucky, Walmart, Costco, Target and more. They make sure you’re properly listed on Amazon, BN.com and other valuable online retailers’ sites. They sometimes even pay to make sure your book is featured where people will see it. That’s an awful lot to do all by yourself. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible. You have to decide what you’re good at and what you’re not, and how you want to spend your time.

Regarding publicity, if you spend much of your day on Facebook and Twitter, you’ve already made a good start. If you’re no good at virtual schmoozing, or if name-dropping your book makes you feel like a sandwich board hawker in Times Square, you might want to reach out for help.

“Whatever you do,” Bridburg advised, “stick with what feels authentic. If you really enjoy what you’re doing to push your book forward, your efforts will be more effective and you won’t feel like a fraud.”

If you’re anything like me, it’ll take some adjusting from the “writing a book” persona to the “selling a book” persona. You can do it. Authors are now in control of every part of the journey. Entrepreneurialism can be exciting and enriching. Fully own it. You might as well enjoy the ride because, traditional publisher or not, you really have very little choice.

Next time, I’ll post Part III when I’ll get into the nitty gritty of what I learned about “The Future of Authorship”. Trust me, it’s breath-taking but at it’s heart – and I find this comfortingly ironic – it’s what we do every day at The Writers Circle.

Brave New World for Words, or What I Learned at the Author (R)evolution Day Conference – Part I

I couldn’t decide if it was my personal “coming out party” for my latest book or my moment to come to terms with reality. But with a new novel very nearly ready to share, I knew I had to get back in touch with the publishing world.

What I had been reading in the trades – Publishers Weekly, Publishers Lunch and a dozen other publications that report on the state of books – was that publishing was in a dramatic state of flux. I didn’t really want to believe it, fearing what it might mean for my own creative work. So I registered for Author (R)evolution Day, part of the Tools of Change Publishing Conference held in New York City a couple of weeks ago. And yes, it took me this long to organize my whirling, disoriented thoughts into a three-part blog post to share with all of you.

Note two critical ideas in the conference titles: “(R)evolution” and “Tools of Change”. My son has been learning about the aftermath of the American Revolution and how, once they’d won their freedom, the Patriots had the challenging task of figuring out how to govern themselves. What I understood clearly from the conference dialogue was that we authors are now similarly in control of our own fate. But as Porter Anderson, a journalist and publishing expert, stated on the first panel, “With freedom comes great responsibility.”

“We are in an era of abundance,” Kristen McLean, CEO of Bookigee and conference organizer, explained. It was a dubious pronouncement from the standpoint of a traditionally published author like me. In the past few years, we’ve seen traditional publishers losing their grip, literary agents losing their relevance, and bookstores disappearing like icicles on a warm day. Meanwhile self-publishing is on the rise as no one could have imagined a decade ago.

Jason Allen Ashlock of Movable Type Management calls what’s going on “disintermediation”, the disruption of the intermediary in the process of, in the case, publishing. He brilliantly compared the current landscape to C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra: “The earth moves beneath the hero’s feet. Only one place remains stable, but the protagonist can’t go there because his enemies inhabit that land. So he must learn to live with the earth shifting beneath his feet.”

This new reality is both breathtaking and debilitating. Sure, we have many incredible new options. But which is the right way to go?

First, let’s be honest: we authors really like to — well, write! We prefer that all that business stuff be taken care of by others. The idea of self-publishing is overwhelming. A self-published author must not only make their work the very best it possibly can be; she must also create an appealing, professional package, figure out how to distribute and promote it, and finally sell it, all by herself! And what about the clout and prestige that a traditional publisher brings? By even thinking about self-publishing, or having no other choice, aren’t we diminishing our hard-earned “brand”?

At this point, I really should dispel a fantasy: much of what’s required of a self-published author isn’t all that different from what a traditionally published author must do these days. In full, honest disclosure, the traditional publisher’s care and tending ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Most of us rarely get the nurturing encouragement to “just go and write”. Almost all of us have to do some, if not all, of our own publicity. Even when we get fleeting attention from our publishers, most authors bemoan the deficient support behind their books, the missed opportunities and inevitable orphaning when an editor moves on.

Perhaps it’s not so ironic then that, in this new world, traditional publishers are struggling to demonstrate to the marketplace “that they add value to the publishing process in an era where anyone can publish a book.”* For authors willing to self-publish, “The worst deal they can offer you must be better than what you can do on your own,” said Cory Doctorow, one of the most outspoken and successful author-proponents of the new paradigm.

Suddenly we authors are in a position of power, something I honestly worked to come to terms with through the course of the conference day. If we consider publishing on our own, we would not be alone. “A third of traditionally published authors are interested in self-publishing their next book,” according to a recent survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest.

So, how do we confront our new power and freedom? In my next post, I’ll try to distill what I learned from the experts. They taught me a lot, and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Finger Biting Days

First, my apologies for letting this blog languish these last few weeks. We’ve been busy with holidays, planning for spring and summer, and yes, actually WRITING. In fact, that’s the topic I’ll focus on in this first entry for 2013: Finger Biting Days.

I know I’m really writing when my fingers are a mess, bloody and bit to the quick and slightly aching from all the gnawing. I pick my cuticles when I think. I always have. I know, it’s a terrible habit, but it’s one I’ve accepted as part of the way I work. Honestly, when my fingers look good, I know I’m not writing deeply enough. And right now, my fingers are wonderfully horrific.

(No, these are not my hands.)

When we write, we want our work to be perfect. We think deeply and muddle for hours, days, sometimes weeks to get a scene just right. Yesterday, though my schedule wasn’t luxurious, I thrilled simply to find a single perfect word that I’d been mulling over the day before, going from Thesaurus.com to the real thesaurus and back, knowing that it was there if I could only find it.

We want our work to be perfect because we love it. We want to fully express ourselves and share with the world what is living inside our heads all this time. But on a more practical note, we NEED our work to be perfect – as perfect as humanly possible in the subjective world of words.

If our work going to have even a chance in the competitive traditional publishing world, it’s got to be better than anyone else’s. No – more important still – our work has to look like it will sell.

Now I shall tangent to acknowledge the many avenues available to writers today that don’t require the approval of an established editor and a Big 6(-1) publishing house. Still, that is the brass ring. It’s what every writer who is honest really wants. I recently listened to an interview with Guy Kawasaki, a successful published and now self-published author, talking about the challenge of self-publishing and how, if he had the chance, he’d still go back to the traditional route.

What none of us want is to have to hock our books to the market like common street peddlers. (“Books! Books for sale! Fifty cents a book!” I see myself with a pile of books on my head like the classic children’s tale.)

So we anguish to get our work just right. We muddle and fuss and ponder and fret and bite our nails to the quick because we’re anxious – no terrified – that we won’t be good enough to have a shot at the “big sale”.

In truth, the market is taking fewer and fewer chances. In order to survive, traditional publishers have turned increasingly to sure-bets, authors with well-established reputations or celebrity or both, and fiction from well-recognized names. When you’re not one of those authors, you’re in the midlist. Even in the old days, five or six years ago, midlist meant struggling against obscurity and begging for just five minutes of your over-worked publicist’s attention. These days, more and more, it seems the midlist is simply gone.

And yet any one of us would claw with our half-bitten nails to get that glorious five minutes. We’d claw for the chance to realize at last that someone cares about what we write besides our family and friends.

In fact, I often wonder if publishers today are cutting their nose to spite their face, as it’s said. Without the midlist, they are taking their bestsellers and putting them at risk of the chopping block. In a shrinking pool of offerings, each book simply cannot be a bestseller, can it? Statistically, there has to be a bell curve – some winners, some not quite , a few inevitable bombs. Will the lists shrink more and more until all that’s left are a few prefabricated “surefire hits” as risky and interesting as a McDonald’s hamburger?

So, back to biting nails. I’m clearly almost finished with my draft – yet again. I shouldn’t even say it because the last time I did was over six months ago and I’m still not finished yet. But I’m really almost there. And I want it to be perfect. So I glory in the discomfort and occasional Bandaid.

As Guy Kawasaki said in the same interview, “The best two motivations for writing a book are first, because you have something to say that is of value – what a concept! The second would be because it’s on your bucket list, it’s an intellectual challenge.”

If that’s all I get from all this angst, then it’s worth it. But I can still hope for just a little more.

Tortoise vs. Hare

I have been pondering the pace at which I write my novels. I’d thought that I’d been working on this latest book for five years now, until I realized just today that in fact it’s edging past six, since Memorial Day half a dozen years ago when I cried my way through a wholly unsatisfying draft of a different half-baked work and finally realized it was destined for burial in the bottom drawer.

So here I am, six years, five drafts, and a whole lot of paper, toner and heartache later, ALMOST DONE!!! If I ever had a following among readers somewhere out there, they’ve almost certainly completely forgotten who I am!

I comfort myself that another dear author friend has been working on her novel for at least that long, and that Stephanie Cowell, who used to amaze us at writers group meetings by pulling out an entire, completed manuscript from her tote bag every month or so way back when, now sometimes also struggles for years on a book. (Though she as easily finishes one in a few months, which leaves my mouth gaping.)

I had started to call myself the Queen of the Ten-Year Novel, until my truly brilliant and wise editor, Carole DeSanti, revealed at a book talk the other day that her newly released and absolutely gorgeous novel, The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R., first formed in her mind seventeen years ago. Seventeen years!! If I am the queen, then she is the duly crowned empress!

No one in their right mind begins to write a novel of any scope and thinks, “Oh, I’ll whip this off in a few months, maybe a year.” Writing novels is a labor of love – emphasis on LABOR. If you value your craft, if you respect and love books – reading them, holding them, pondering them, standing in awe of them – and if you long to see your own broad spine proudly tucked beside others in one of the few precious bookstores left in this world – then you must accept that the work will be long, lonely and hard.

You do it because of that love, or because of an insane vision that shows up in your head one foggy dawn, or because of the voices that start speaking and won’t shut up or leave you alone until you have finally listened to them.

This is the writing’s tormented blessing, its muse, its terrible genius. In her recent TedTalk, Elizabeth Gilbert defines “genius” in its original sense: genius wasn’t in us, it spoke to us. We did not own it. It was separate from us and came to us at its will, not at our calling.

Let me tell you truthfully, that is the nature of this strange work. And sometimes it comes, and those days for a writer are glorious.

But they are rare. Many days for most writers are just work – hard work that requires attention, discernment, discipline, a critical mind and the patience to expect that some days you won’t get it, that you’ll stare at the screen and move paragraphs around and write three dense pages and delete them. And that’s OK. That’s part of the process. Whole drafts are scraped and thrown away. But we pick up and keep going because we have to get it right. Only then do we dare to put our work out into the world.

And yet the pressures of modern technology and the voracious consumer market seem to scoff at the deliberate slowness of both the novel and its creators. A recent article in The New York Times declared “In the E-Reader Era, a Book a Year Is Slacking“. Should this make writers like me feel guilty?

No!

The best rebuttal to this pressure came in a comment to the article itself, that if we want our work to join the mass of forgettable fiction that’s piling up out there, feel free! Dash it off! Self-publish and start your marketing! Everyone has something to say and something to sell!

And I don’t blame you. In a world where we can reach an audience so readily, it’s all too tempting.

But in this very same world where writers can push a button and be instantly “published”, the true craft and expectation of excellence are all the more on authors’ shoulders. In respect to the larger goal – to create something memorable, worth reading at least once and perhaps even again – we must take the time to craft the very best novel we can and not regret the labor or the time involved.

As Graham Swift wrote so eloquently in his essay, “Words Per Minute“: “a benign intrusion into someone else’s life for even such a short duration seems to me quite a feat of communication, … a time-suspending experience that stays with them well after they’ve closed the book and that they might one day wish to return to, …that’s as much as any novelist can hope for.”

More Lessons from a Friend: My Experience So Far: Indie Publisher vs. Self-Publishing

As I noted in our last post, Kathy Lynn Harris and I go way back. But I think it’s how we kept ourselves moving forward that really mattered; encouraging one another through the good times of our individual writing careers and — regrettably — the bad. I’m celebrating right along with Kathy on the publication of her novel, Blue Straggler. Here she shares more of her experience finding an independent publisher for her novel after first striking out on her own. — Michelle Cameron, TWC Associate Director.

In my first guest post, I wrote about how the decision to self-publish eventually led to a publishing contract with a small, independent press. In fact, Blue Straggler was officially released this week in paperback! Exciting times for this writer who has waited more than 10 years for this moment.

Working with my publisher, 30 Day Books in Seattle, has been a wonderful experience so far. I’ve had input into the book cover (We decided to keep it the same as the ebook.), the contract and profit-sharing arrangement (a splendid 50/50 split), the release date (March 1), and our publicity plans. (Did I mention I need a clone?)

There have been a few factors that have taken some adjustment. First, I’ve had to relinquish a bit of control, and trust someone else to love my work as much as I do. That’s not as easy as it may sound when you’re a complete control freak like me.

For instance, while my publisher kindly consulted with me on the paperback’s pricing, it was ultimately not my decision, of course. The publisher knows how Amazon and traditional bookstores work — and understands the discounting process that will likely take place after the book is on the streets.

Also, with my ebook, I had complete control over proofing and making subsequent changes. Now, I have to trust that my publisher gets it right and that my changes are eventually made as I envisioned them.

My publisher is outstanding at publicity and promotional ideas – and has plenty of them! The plan includes everything from blog tours and media interviews, to book signings and social networking goals, to contacting reviewers and media and book discussion groups. It’s a great plan, and I’m sure it’ll generate a large amount of buzz on a small budget. But a majority of the publicity work requires a close-knit relationship between me and my laptop. I’ve had to learn to break down our substantial promotional plan into smaller chunks, so that I don’t get overwhelmed with all that is expected of me.

The publisher also hopes to “brand” me, building a certain image of who I am as an author, which I know is great business sense. But it’s difficult for someone like me, a feisty Texas girl at heart, who would really rather hide away in my log cabin in the mountains and not actually have any attention focused on me.

A commenter on my last post asked if I’d seek out self-publishing again. The short answer is yes, absolutely. I felt freedom, pride and accomplishment from my self-published ebook.

But the long answer is that having an indie publisher believe in and back my work still carries a certain legitimacy that self-publishing does not have, at least not yet. Bookstores and libraries are more open to purchasing copies. The publisher has contacts and channels I do not. They know how to get my book into distribution processes that I had no idea even existed as a self-published author.

And in the end, all of that will hopefully move the book-sale meter a good deal farther than I could have alone.

Have other questions about self-publishing or working with an indie publisher? Post them here, or please feel free to contact me at kathy [at] kathylynnharris.com.

Read more from Kathy on her blog. Add Blue Straggler to your Goodreads Shelf. Follow Kathy on Twitter (@KathyLynnHarris) and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BlueStragglerFiction.

Blue Straggler is available for purchase via Amazon:

Lessons from a Friend: “How My Ebook Helped Me Nab a Publishing Contract”

Kathy Lynn Harris and I go way back – all the way to the first writing conference I ever attended, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, some 15 odd years ago. The conference, in addition to solidifying my ambitions to become a published author, also gave me a great gift ― our enduring long-distance friendship. I’ve shared Kathy’s frustrations when her worthy novels were passed over for publication ― many times getting very close.  Now I am thrilled to share the story of her eBook success as today’s guest blogger at The Writers Circle. — Michelle Cameron, TWC Associate Director.

I began my fiction-writing journey by just putting pen to paper, joining a critique group, reading everything I could get my hands on, and attending writer’s workshops and conferences as much as my day-job would allow. Through the years, I finished one novel, and then another. My manuscripts placed in a couple of regional novel-writing contests. I landed a New York literary agent, then an even better one on the West Coast. My novels were pitched to all the Big Publishing Houses. The result was a “maybe” here and a “maybe” there, all of which eventually turned into a solid “no”. The feedback? Interesting stories, good character development, but plots that were “too quiet” to make it past the All-Powerful Marketing Departments.

I licked my wounds for several more years but kept writing, having some moderate success publishing children’s books, poetry and essays. But one of my fiction manuscripts ― Blue Straggler ― persisted in keeping me up nights. I loved my characters — Bailey, Idamarie and Rudy, a quirky threesome of unlikely friends. I loved my settings — rural South Texas, the city of San Antonio and a small mountain town in Colorado. I liked what the story had to say about friendship and family secrets and discovering who we really are inside. I liked that no matter how many times I reread chapters, I smiled. I knew it was a polished and well-edited manuscript. Readers (and not just family members or friends, by the way!) seemed to enjoy it. It just seemed like such a waste to have it sitting in that proverbial desk drawer gathering dust.

Then, in 2011, I began to travel by plane a lot for my job. I noticed the gradual rise of the e-reader — probably two out of every three fellow travelers were now reading on Nooks and Kindles, and then iPads and other tablets. The ebook was reaching a tipping point.

I reconsidered why I wrote Blue Straggler in the first place. I quickly realized that what matters to me most is pretty simple. I want readers to enjoy the story and characters. To read a passage and laugh. To think about something just a little bit longer than they might have otherwise. To read the last page and consider that their time with my story had been time well spent.

And I recognized that I didn’t really need to be on a Random House bestseller list to feel good about my work.

I made the decision to get in on the ebook action. I spoke with a friend, Jeremy Kron, who helped me navigate the ebook formatting world. He was also — lucky for me — a wonderful interactive designer who designed my book cover. Together, we prepared Blue Straggler for publication as an ebook via Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Program and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! Program in August 2011.

Positive reviews began to come in from readers and bloggers. People began to talk about the book via social media. Sales were promising. And then an independent publisher, 30 Day Books, emailed me with interest in publishing Blue Straggler as a trade paperback in early 2012.

Within four months of releasing my novel as an ebook, I signed a contract. The paperback’s official release date is March 1, 2012 (even though it can be ordered right now via Amazon).

The moral of my story? Well, I could stick with the age-old adage, “persistence eventually pays off.” But really, what I’d rather other writers know is this: Technology and ebooks have opened up a whole new path to publishing, whether it be self-publishing or catching the attention of traditional and indie publishers. If the conventional gatekeepers have declined your work, but you still believe in it with all your heart, and you want and need to get it out into the universe, it can pay to take a chance. It did for me.

Stay tuned for Kathy’s second guest blog in a few weeks; she’ll be discussing her experiences working with a small indie publisher as her first novel debuts.

You can read more about Kathy Lynn Harris and Blue Straggler via her author website at http://www.kathylynnharris.com/. Check out Kathy’s blog, as well. And connect with her via Twitter (@KathyLynnHarris) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BlueStragglerFiction).

Revision, Revision… (part 1)

There’s nothing like the excitement of starting a new work or the infatuation you might have with having written it. But professional writers are really made by the serious way they approach the revision process.

It’s important to take time with your revisions and not to rush through them just because you want to be done. Most professional writers would not dream of submitting a manuscript until it had gone through four comprehensive revisions – and sometimes more.

STEP #1 – STEP BACK

It’s good to gain some objectivity for your writing by stepping away from the work for a time – a month if you can manage it, a week if you can’t. Letting the work lie fallow for a bit will help you see its flaws more clearly.

STEP #2 – SEE THE FOREST

Read the entire manuscript for sense. Your manuscript needs to be a comprehensive whole before you can start honing in on the details. Look for the following issues, remembering that the reader isn’t in your head and doesn’t necessarily know what you know:

• Are there any gaps in the plot? As you reread your story, is there any place where your reader might grow confused regarding how you got from point A to point B?
• Are there any holes in context? You’ve invented an entire world with your manuscript, and it needs to live and die by your internal rules. And often also by the rules of the world around you. I once read a story that had a man on the West Coast calling a woman on the East Coast to wish her a Happy New Year, and magically, bells were tolling on both coasts simultaneously. Such minor holes in context can hurt your credibility and interrupt our acceptance of the world you’re trying to immerse us in.
• Are there any major character flaws that you need to address? Your characters need to grow, of course, but they must do so within reasonable bounds for the character you’ve worked so hard to develop. A timid character will leap into the lion’s den because her much loved child is in danger – but not because she suddenly has an unexplained burst of bravery.
• Do you need more or less description? Have you given your reader enough to be “grounded” but not so much that it is drowning the story? There is nothing like evocative description to give your reader a sense of “being there” – but it can’t overwhelm the plot. There’s a delicate balance that you need to achieve.

This stage of revision can be a challenge for writers who generally can’t see the forest for the trees at this point. You may need to cultivate an “early reader” or two, who has an eye for the arc of a story and its characters, who will tell you honestly where you are going wrong – and who will praise you when you deserve it!

Next up – Steps 3 and 4 of revision!

Pitchapalooza coming to Words Maplewood

As an addendum to my last post, I just heard from Words Bookstore in Maplewood that Pitchapalooza is coming on October 27. You can get all the details at Pitchapalooza’s site, but here’s a brief intro to what they do. I hear from friends that their events are well worth a visit.

“Five years ago, we created an event that has drawn thousands of people into bookstores, writing conferences and book festivals all over the country. It’s called Pitchapalooza, the American Idol for books (only without Simon) and it works like this: Anyone with an idea for a book has the chance to pitch it to a panel of judges. But they get only one minute. Eckstut and Sterry team up with two guest industry insiders to form the judging panel. The Judges critique everything from idea to style to potential in the marketplace and much, much more. Whether potential authors pitch themselves, or simply listen to trained professionals critique each presentation, Pitchapaloozas are educational and entertaining for one and all. All attendees come away with concrete advice on how to improve their pitch as well as a greater understanding of the ins and outs of the publishing industry.

“At the end of each Pitchapalooza, the judges come together to pick a winner. The winner receives a half hour consultation with Eckstut and Sterry. From Miami to Portland, from LA to NYC, and many stops along the way, Pitchapaloozas have consistently drawn standing-room-only crowds, press and blog coverage, and the kind of bookstore buzz reserved for celebrity authors.”

Picking Borders’ Bones

OK, let’s admit it. We’ve all done it at some point over the past few weeks – headed over to the nearest Borders to pick the last meat off the bones, grabbing whatever we could to add to our personal libraries before the doors finally closed for good next Friday.

My Borders Stack

Not that most of us have ever really loved the big box bookstores. Yeah, they have some nice cafes. But every writer worth his salt knows that the local independents treat us better, care about us more, actually welcome us (sometimes personally!) when we walk through their doors.

Still most writers live on really tight budgets. And a bargain is a bargain. This is just a one time thing, trust me! – as we peruse the shelves for hidden treasures, novels by our favorite forgottens, obscure poets or essayists, dictionaries, and research for our in-progress novels.

I was looking for The Landmark Herodotus, but, believe it or not, there wasn’t a copy in sight. Instead, I found rows and rows of cheesy romance novels, cookie-cutter thrillers by authors I’d never heard of, plenty of cookbooks, large-format non-fiction glossies, and those books for kids that include a toy or a small stack of collector cards. Oh, and smelly candles, fuzzy throws and coffee mugs with hackneyed aphorisms embossed in funky fonts. But books worth reading? Well, there were a few I finally bought, but finding them took a while.

Going through the stacks, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of futility, first, that the second largest bookstore chain in America was closing, and second, at the pallid offerings – our industry’s blemishes bared to the world. True, most of these books were the very last of the leftovers, the ones that no one else would touch. The words between the glossy, trying-too-hard covers may even have been reasonably good. Perhaps I’d never heard of these books because they were poorly marketed, as most books are. Perhaps it was their sycophantic packaging. Pink = chick-lit. Woman with head cut off, turning away from the reader = genre historical. Woman with head still visible, looking just a bit too sexy in her period attire = romance. To me, these packages wreaked of predictability and bad taste. But I don’t blame the authors. Hey, they were lucky. They got published! That’s a feat of such magnitude that none of us has the right to see anything but a fellow comrade in arms.

But in these last dregs of pulp, I saw the precipitated futility of our industry, the sweaty desperation to get something – anything – sold, especially in a landscape that is digi-bytes away from literary destruction.

Or is it? I’m definitely not sure right now how or where books will be sold in the coming years. But stories? There’s no lack of hunger for stories.

I’m no longer afraid of the digital transformation of the book. In fact, I see a lot of value and possibility. First, no longer will books kill trees or burn so much fossil fuel as they are carted in tractor-trailers from printer to warehouse to bookstore to gigantic shredder. And no longer will it take months or even years to publish. It could and should take only weeks, as today’s NY Times article about news-based non-fiction proves.

It’s just a question of how we’ll discover what’s worth our precious reading time and what’s not. That’s what bookstores have always been for.

My husband and I love to go to bookstores on our “date nights”. After a satisfying meal where we actually get to talk about something other than the kids, we head to the nearest bookstore, sometimes losing ourselves in opposite corners, coming together now and then with a book in hand we think the other might like, inevitably leaving the store with a small stack of tomes.

Surfing on Amazon.com or GoodReads.com doesn’t come close. There’s no romance and little chance for serendipity.

The future of bookstores looks good.

Still I see great hope in the least likely corner – the diminutive local, independent bookstore. Anne Patchett’s essay about her book tour this summer portrays independent bookstores as alive and well. In fact, many forecasts say that indies will benefit most from Borders’ demise, and may well take their place once again as the vital central hub of the literary world.

In these smaller, cozier havens for books and their dwindling lovers, authors and their fans can still meet one another to discuss the vagaries of character, setting, language and plot. And booksellers can “hand-sell” as they always have, recommending books based on their customers’ personal interests and passions.

At the Barnes & Nobles and Borders, it has always been a bit like meeting someone at a bar. Sure, you might hook up and have a little fun. But if you’re looking for a more serious relationship, wouldn’t it be better to be introduced by a trusted friend?

That’s what indie bookstores have always been like, and now, after years of struggling to survive, they are emerging from the clouds, populating the book universe like small, twinkling stars. Perhaps their influence will never be enough to recapture literature’s place at the radiant core of culture and society. But for as long as books are produced, printed and sold, these small, local bookstores might just be the best place to pick them up and bring them home.