What Would Your Three Wishes Be?

This week I find myself running around, clamoring for more time.  Time to sleep, eat, do laundry, market my book, blog, meet up with friends, pay my bills…but who isn’t trying to find more time to do this kind of stuff right?

Every week I think I have a great handle on my day planner as I cruise right into Wednesday with full-steam-ahead productivity.  But then somehow, every Friday, I’m left with big circles next to all the stuff I didn’t finish.  It makes me wonder what I did instead; what did I do to actually fill my week?

Most weeks the answer is simple – the emergency stuff that arises where I have to live life in the moment takes precedent.  Well, either that or I just forget to factor in how much time it really takes to shower, vacuum, clean the kitchen, make dinner, etc.

So as I look forward to next week with stuff to do at our new house like painting the interior, landscaping and cleaning out of the pool, I start wishing I had, not just a fairy godmother like the picture above suggests but, a genie in a lamp.

A fairy godmother only plinks her magic wand down on you once then runs around smiling and fluttering.  She convinces you that you’re getting everything and anything by distracting you with the pretty lights and falling glitter.  And we all know how I feel about glitter!

But a genie…

A genie makes it clear there’s a straight up business proposition on the table – 1) the genie is under your control, 2) you will get a total of three wishes for releasing the genie from the bottle/lamp, 3) after those wishes are wished you must pass on the benefit to someone else.  There’s no show or confusion about the process; three wishes, end of story.

Lately I’ve been contemplating what my three wishes might be if I happened to stumble across the genie.  I can’t help but think that my westernized greedy mentality would end up at the top of the pile and my first wish would have to be for money.

But the thing is, what I’d really want isn’t just a big pile of money sitting in front of me – boom you’re rich!  My wish would be that I could turn my novel writing career into a paying one.  That I could create that money in my bank account through a sudden snowball of sales of my first book and a nice healthy advance on my second (that has no problem paying back the publisher because NYT bestseller list here I come!) which translates into a third, and so on, plus years' worth of royalty checks.

That sounds pretty great to me, and I’m not even asking to not have to work or any of that crazy stuff.  I just want to be an Author who can sustain her life through her book sales.  I’m still going to write it and sell it, I just need a push into the public eye.

So I guess my first wish should really be for an Agent.

Or a genie.

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Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Ripple the Twine

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*photo found on Book Graphics

Judging a Book by Its Cover

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” may just be the oldest cliché in the book (except maybe for that one) and something people apply to just about any area of life.  A job, a relationship, a book.  Don’t take any of those things at first glance, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, blah, blah, blah cliché.  The thing is, even though we’re encouraged not to, we all do it.

The job’s cover might be a craigslist ad.  The relationship’s cover is how the other person looks.  A book’s cover, well, is the cover.

For me, when I’m thinking of reading something new, the only thing I base my initial instinct on is what the cover looks like.  Shallow?  Perhaps.  But honest.

After checking out the graphics, color selection and font style on a cover I essentially make a decision about flipping a book over to read the back in approximately 0.4 seconds.  If I don’t feel those three things resonate with me then it is pretty unlikely I’m checking out the jacket copy / online synopsis.

Is this fair?  Like I said, probably not, but just try to admit you don’t do it too.

I’ve been amping up my reading lately, especially for Authors within my genre of Chick-Lit.  Some of these Authors I’ve heard of and just hadn’t gotten around to reading yet (like Jennifer Weiner which, yes, I know I could be kicked right out of the club for admitting to, but in the spirit of honesty…), while others are indie, self-published Authors that are newer to the industry (like me!).

So how can I possibly know that those indie Authors even write Chick-Lit?  You guessed it, I spend a whole lot of time glancing at a whole lot of book covers.

Take my cover for example, up and over on the right sidebar.  What’s the first thing that jumps out?  Fabulous shoes, bright and sunny yellow background.  The puck is there and my font is kind of sporty but both of those things come at you subconsciously.  Right?  If you didn’t know me and were only into reading, say, murder mysteries, is there even a slim chance you’d click that cover up there to see what it’s about?  Exactly.

My issue with discovering new Authors in my genre is that the majority of books out there now are (as I like to refer to them) about dystopian societies crawling with vampires where no one is over 18, has a job, goes to school or worries about paying their rent on time.  A far cry from Chick-Lit, right?  And I’m not ashamed to say out loud that, while I truly love a great vampire story now and again, I tend to gravitate to the independent-woman-in-love stories far more frequently.

It’s a question of balance though – the more saturated any particular genre becomes the less books in that genre are actually read.  The sad reality is that in the book industry saturation works in reverse and causes a genre to become watered down because ‘everybody’s doing it’.

Kind of like Chick-Lit back in the late 1990’s and early millennium.  And now with all those creatures of the night biting into everyone’s consciousness, girlie stuff isn’t the in thing to write and sell anymore.

But what’s a girl who believes in books with happy endings and cocktails at brunch supposed to do?  I’d be a traitor to myself if I didn’t try to continue writing the only genre fiction I’ve ever been good at.  I mean, hell, I started writing it before it even had a label attached; long before anyone knew what Chick-Lit even meant.  Which means I should also be reading it.  A lot of it.

However, if everything on the shelves is from 2000, every story will be about society that existed before 9-11, before the economic snowball, before we had our first black President.  And as a Writer, reading is our research (well, part of it anyway) which means that while some of us are fortunate enough to define what’s hip, the rest of us read to learn.  And based on the fact that I just used the word ‘hip’ you can decide for yourself which side I fall on.

So I spend a lot of time scouring Goodreads for anything current and in my genre.  I look at the covers and anything with a light, airy image and color palate I read a blurb.  In 2012 finding research material is like having a part time job!

And I try to look at the positive side of things.  If only a limited number of people are writing the same genre as I am right now, at least it cuts down on my competition when I release a new book.

What’s your favorite genre?  Do you just know it will be something you’ll read or not based on the cover?

Giveaway of Ripple the Twine

Good afternoon! Hope everyone was ready to be back to work after such a lovely Mother’s Day weekend!  Here in Phoenix this past weekend temperatures were in the high nineties but will be slinking towards the door of 110 degrees by mid-week this week.  Yes, the dry heat actually does make a difference.  But also, yes, 110 degrees is still flipping hot!

And you know what that means right?  It means people will be getting ready to go swimming, head for the coastal beaches or just relax inside the air conditioning for the next couple months.  So I ask, what better way to relax than a nice light-hearted and plucky Chick-Lit novel?

I’m going out on a limb here and saying that you’ll enjoy my book for these lazy, hazy, hot and crispy days of late spring and early summer.  Grab a cold glass of whatever you enjoy – I’ll likely be pouring a frosty cold mug full of some refreshing light beer in my house – and read all about Sara Quinn and her friends in Ripple the Twine.

It couldn’t be easier to do that either, for the second half of May I’ll be collecting entries for a giveaway of one copy of my very first full length Chick-Lit genre fiction novel Ripple the Twine.

Yea!

How to Enter

I want to share the love and hopefully a few fun words with you so feel free to enter as many ways as you’d like…each option will garner you one entry.

Follow my Author page on Facebook

Follow me on twitter

Follow my personal blog Random Lunacy

Follow my writer blog (here!) at Writesy

My life motto - Tell your friends! Pass on this link to your friends on your social networks***

Once you’ve followed any or all of the sites, come back here to this post and leave a comment on where you followed or how you've promoted the link.  (And FYI, I'll be taking comment moderation down until the end of the contest.)

That’s it!

The Rules

• All notifications must be received by 7:00 EST on Thursday May 31, 2012
• I will be choosing a winner on Friday June 1, 2012 and will post here who that winner is as early as my ADD ridden self allows me to get a post together (ooh something shiny!)
• The entries will be written down, placed in, and drawn from, a hat because I’m old school and that’s just how I roll.
• When commenting, be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you
• If the winner doesn’t respond in 10 days another winner will be drawn, and so on, until I get to Kevin Bacon…

Thanks for entering and good luck! 

**If you’re planning to share this link on twitter please use the hashtag #RippletheTwine and link to me @jennshon

To purchase Ripple the Twine:

LuLu Listing

Writesy Shop on Etsy

- Giveaway valid only in the USA and Canada -

Assign Your ISBN at the Start

Today I spent a good hour live chatting with a couple different Lulu representatives with regard to garnering a Distribution package for Ripple the Twine.  My project was showing up in the list but for some reason there was no link to the Distribution selection and I was becoming concerned.

On Lulu and other print on demand service publishers there is generally an option readily available that allows the user to have their book submitted to various online markets.  Lulu works with B&N as well as Amazon and as any reader or writer knows those are the mecca places for an Author to have their work listed.

So you can understand why it concerned me that I wasn’t showing up there yet.

The project is complete, clearly, as I’ve been promoting like a mad woman (shameless self-promotion, woo hoo!) and have been selling somewhat steadily since it was released on April 20.  But I want to reach more markets and buyers outside my circle so I need it on Amazon, et al.

It was finally discovered that I hadn’t assigned an ISBN to my project.

In order to save you some monster frustration if you go with Lulu for your book project, here are a few things I learned this morning:

- If you create your project without assigning an ISBN (either a Lulu provided or one of your own) when you go back to revise the project all feedback/likes on FB will be erased.

Because Lulu considers this a brand new project even if your settings (pages, cover, etc.) hold.  This is crucial as likes and shares are the best word of mouth promotion out there!  Which brings up another key point:

- When you assign the ISBN & purchase their GlobalReach Distribution Package you have to buy a proof copy.

What’s the big deal there?  Well, I already did that when I approved it for General Distribution back in April.  But in order to garner this distro package they force you to buy it.  Now that’s another couple bucks I had to spend and time waiting for its arrival upon which I’ll have to approve the copy.  So the 8 weeks for its listing really means more like 10-11.  Yikes.

 - Chat is good but be specific and don’t feel rushed to end the session.

The first person I chatted with didn’t answer my questions or walk me through, she just said to Revise and save.  And she was quick to kick me out of chat.  Sadly the process of revising & saving wiped my Likes (it would’ve anyway) but it still didn’t allow me to add the ISBN.  She wasn’t clear about the process and I was confused.  Frustrated, I chatted again.  This time I was direct in my problem and I kept putting info out there until she got what I was saying.  And vice versa.  Then she was kind enough to walk me through step-by-step so I was comfortable with the process being completed successfully.  Which it was.

- Your project must be available to the general public in order to assign your ISBN.

VERY important tip here.  If you are playing around with the book, don’t have everything together, haven’t uploaded a cover or description, etc., be sure to get everything in order before you approve.  That way you can choose General Access option and get your ISBN assigned right away.  Any other Access option means your book is not available to anyone other than you.  Meaning your ISBN is doing nothing for you and you’ll be in the same boat as I was this morning.

In the end I’m happy with the service I received but I wish it was laid out for me in advance.  It could have been accounted for prior to the book’s release date; I’d already be 4 weeks into my waiting period for online retailers.

Hopefully this tip and advice will help to save you from the same kinds of heartache and frustration when you upload your own projects on Lulu or otherwise.

Stop Stressing and Just Ask Already!

And that’s my fish-slap for the day…yes I am giving it to myself.  I’ve been sitting here thinking up what would be cool or inspiring or beneficial to post, for the past week.  While I spent my time trying to come up with a creative blog to share with the world do you know what happened?  An entire week went by without a hint of a single posted word.

That’s hardly inspiring right?  I mean, hello!?

So today you could be reading the rambling musings of a girl stuck in marketing land, wading through the waters of sales and self-promotion (shameless, as you all know).  Or you may be reading about some of the amazing and wonderful people who have been there to support me in this journey.  Perhaps the new friends I’ve made along the way.

Sadly, I feel my words about my writing and all that I’m currently working on are falling flat these days.  Right now I feel as if I have nothing much to share because I’m sort of learning as I go.  And I like to take the time to process my experiences, analyze them, then give a well parsed recap.

But who has time to sit around and process anything anymore?  Sheesh, it’s a go, go, go society and I better just spit out whatever comes to mind as quickly as possible or I’ll be forgotten and left behind in the dust of someone with much faster keyboard fingers.

WHEW!

There’s a little voice inside my head (no, not just the one but that’s another post for another day…I’m a writer for goodness sake!) that’s telling me I should write something prolific related to my experiences up to now.  But then there’s another one (see, I told you) that wants to just ask people for a big favor.

So instead of trying to manufacture a post that will feel forced and stiff, today I’ve decided to ask each of my friends and family who have received and finished reading Ripple the Twine if they would be so kind as to do me the enormous favor of reviewing the book and telling their friends.

I’m not on Amazon (yet) but the book is up over on Goodreads and you can click here to go right to the page.  Every review and shared link helps me to promote the book.  Plus, any critical suggestions based on the story, characters, content, etc. will be used toward making my next one even better.  I’d be more than grateful for even just a click on a few stars or a FB share of the book’s buy me now page.  And I thank you in advance because it means more to me than you could ever know.

The support I’ve already received has been so amazing that I can hardly begin to thank everyone who’s shared links or shared the book with their friends (though I’ve tried & if I missed you consider this a HUGE thanks!).  Whether you have time or inclination to review Ripple the Twine or not I love you for everything you’ve helped me to achieve this far.

Feeling like the there are no limits to how far I can go and I have all of you to thank for that!

Writing and Selling a Book is not for the Faint of Heart

First things first – sit your butt down and write the book. 

Now, once that’s finished, most people think the business of writing is complete, that once you’ve written it you’re all set.  Most people would claim the hard part is over once you’ve developed and written the story about your characters no matter who those characters are (be it people you’ve created for fiction, or yourself if memoir, etc.).  Most people wouldn’t understand that the old cliché ‘it’s only the tip of the iceberg’ is about as true a statement as anyone has ever uttered. 

Because everything else that must be done to actually produce a book, lives, in massive quantity, underwater.

Once a book has been written there will be round after round of edits.  Many writers do a bit of this themselves.  I’m one of those writers.  When my first manuscript Ripple the Twine was complete I printed it, put a binder clip on it and shoved it in a drawer.  After spending 30 straight days with those people I was, quite frankly, sick of hearing about them. 

So I started researching Agents, Publishing Houses, anything to see where I could sell this pile of crap I had sitting in the darkest corner of my office closet.  Then months seemed to pass, I missed my cast and wanted to see them again.

Out came the manuscript and two red Bic ballpoint pens.  By the end of the spring the thing was hacked to death, hemorrhaging all over the place and re-written at least twice.  Characters, setting and plot stayed mostly the same.  The words that got us there however, well, you’d cringe to read that first draft!  And a few people almost did, my mom, BFF (who might as well be an editor in her spare time, seriously) and my husband, all read through with their own red pens and gave me commentary and feedback.  I used their suggestions and advice and re-wrote for a “final” time. (note the air quotes)

So then it’s done right?  Wrong.  Away it went for a while longer.  About a year in fact.  I polished my query writing skills, tracked down Agents by the handful and pitched my book to all of them.  The only trouble was that I had no clue how to pitch my book, no clue how to say what needed saying or how to bring the tone of the book to life in a query.  I mean, that’s only one page and my book was hovering around 300 pages.

For thirteen months I blogged about the book, the characters, the story.  Meanwhile working my day job and going to school.  I tried and tried and gathered rejection after rejection.  I wore the rejections like a badge of honor…hey, at least I was finally getting out there.

But you’re not an Author until you’re published.  And a rejection letter doesn’t get you published.

We moved to Arizona last July and almost as soon as we got here I made the decision to pursue the business of writing as my only job.  No more painting, no more screwing around.

So then I went right out and did nothing on my book for the next six months!  It was time to party!  Lake trips and flights back to Boston and holidays with company and suddenly it was early 2012.

I was holding onto a book I’d started in the fall of 2009.  What?

Foot to the floor, pedal down, I knew this would never do.  I scrapped all decision to query, all decision to locate an Agent and decided to self-publish.  I was tired of waiting.  Finding an Agent to find a Publisher to get my book out would mean another eighteen months of waiting.

Oh hell no.

I yanked it back out, opened to page one and started editing.  Again.  Then I started doing all the research that comes with self-publishing.  Setting up a House of my own, getting the trade name certificate, talking to everyone about it, networking and socializing, attending writer meetings, joining a critique group, finding the right printing solution for me, finding the right solution for me period (print or eBook)…

And all the while I was out there in the world collecting more information, researching and developing new characters.  You don’t think they just magically appear do you?  Oh no!  They must be crafted and created.  As I’ve said before, a book must be birthed and raised.

So I settled on a print on demand paperback.  Then it was hiring and consulting with a photographer for the front cover, my mom!  Then I had to research and handle copyright registration.  Figure out ISBN and barcode.  And then the whopper of all motha’s – formatting the pages for upload.

That alone took me half a month.

Meanwhile, I offered a preorder reduced price and free shipping to anyone who ordered before the release date (which I was pushing to have happen in April).  Ah, yes…marketing.  Hello odd bedfellow, it’s time for us to become reacquainted.

Selling happens before the book does!

Finally I completed all formatting, my mom rocked the heck out of the cover, everything was in order.   I received and approved my proof copy and got the online site set and ready for buyers.  I placed the order for the preorder copies and released Ripple the Twine to the world!

I could finally change my title from Writer to Author.

And now I market like mad, sell as often as I can, talk about it incessantly.  Because, if I’ve learned nothing else in this whole process, Authors are notoriously narcissistic out of sheer necessity.  If we stop talking about our work for even a millisecond – poof! – next...

Welcome to the business of entertaining.  Guess I should get over that fear of public speaking now huh?

But first, I have to finish writing and editing my second manuscript…

Various Categories of Genre Fiction - Where Does My Book Fit?

When I first began querying Ripple the Twine a couple years ago, in an early attempt to garner an Agent, I thought I knew exactly what category my book fell into.  Sara Quinn is a spunky, single, thirty-something who lives in the city, works for herself and considers her friends her family.  Obviously Chick-Lit.  Bingo!

But then I started writing up the queries and it hit me that this book is almost a polar opposite to the standard accepted definition of Chick-Lit.  Because, although all of that above information is true, Sara isn’t really the girliest of girls either.

Sara has no real interest in fashion; she’d rather have a snazzy pair of jogging shoes than Jimmy Choos.  She doesn’t meet the girls for cocktails in trendy locales; she drinks beer at her friend’s bar.  You won’t find Sara at the opening of a new must-see; she’ll be singing along every Thursday night to support her best friend’s band.  She’s a Sportswriter, a Tomboy, analytical and somewhat shy.

So then how can I justify Ripple the Twine as Chick-Lit when all of everyone defines the genre with someone like Carrie Bradshaw?  Carrie is a still-hot-in-her-thirties, spunky and culturally diverse woman with loads of internal baggage, but clear career focus, living in the city.

But that’s my character too!

Sara’s trends are just Boston, not NYC.  In Boston it is perfectly acceptable to wear your “nice” button up Red Sox shirt to dinner; especially on game days.  Her culture comes in the form of sports and live music and the fun sides of knowing a bar owner.  She’s been hurt viciously and carries it with her still.  She’s been blocking out the possibility of finding a real relationship for the better part of a decade.  But the girl is driven – she approaches her career with vigorous determination to succeed, and that, she does.

Carrie and Sara are practically the same person.  Aren’t they?  Oh, they aren’t even close?  Okay…

So then I had to consider the issue – where exactly did my book fit?  Could I label it Chick-Lit after all?  If not then how was I supposed to classify it?  How did I fully describe Sara and her life without knowing a category for it to fall into on book store shelves?  Would it be shelved incorrectly and reach the wrong audience?  Would Sara resonate with girlier women even though she was a Tomboy?

My brain was swimming as I dove into researching all the various genre fiction out there.

I came across the category of Speculative Fiction with high hopes.  It was something I’d never heard of before but speculation is always present when a girl-meets-boy.  I mean ‘speculative’ pretty much means a hypothetical situation and aren’t all happy ending love stories nothing more than imaginary (pure conjecture!) anyway?  Turns out, however, that genre is reserved for all things fantastical, dystopian, sci-fi.  Think The Hunger Games.  Next…

I considered Romance.  No dice.  My desire to write sentences like “Her head tossed back in ecstasy, he gently pulled on one end of the ribbon, the only thing stopping him from exposing her generous, milky-white bosom…” was only overshadowed by the fact that Sara would pretty likely roll her eyes at the thought of some damsel in distress scenario, not to mention the word ‘bosom’.  Moving on…

There was the possibility of being placed into Contemporary Women’s Fiction but while researching the genre I didn’t find any titles where the female gets wooed by some cute guy.  Mostly they’re stories of the woman on her own, making it her own way, and don’t generally include wit or humor.  Think Laverne and Shirley without Laverne.

Literary fiction was all around wrong.  While I feel my book has merit, the category is more along the lines of ‘can it win a Pulitzer’ than ‘will it be the perfect beach read’.  And we all know that the comedy never gets the Emmy no matter how much it made us laugh.  Think Bridesmaids.

So in the end I decided to go back to placing Sara and her friends into the category of Chick-Lit.  Although she may not be the standard definition of the genre, it is probably safe to say that no one woman really ever is.  At least she'll be in wonderfully dysfunctional company.

What genre do you write?  Does your fiction cross over into multiple categories?