Friday Night at the Question Emporium

A few years ago I wrote a book that got picked up by a very good agent but didn't sell. After leaving the agent, I went on to write other unrelated books, but lately I decided to write a sequel to that first book. This is a true love book, and I have no desire to make it anything but a sequel. Is it possible to query this book, knowing it can't stand alone? Should I shelve it and keep querying other things? Self-publish?

The real question is whether to write it, and the answer is yes. Always write your heart first. You never know what you're going to learn, or what opportunities will present themselves. This way you have two books instead of one ready to go for when some smart editor sees them.

Writing is first a creative act, then a business. 

BEA smatterings

Olivia!!

BEA smatterings

Our foreign rights team was in action at BEA.  It was very cool to hear what other countries are interested in reading, and what they are NOT interested in at all!

Meet Stephanie Jaye Evans!

 

1. Tell us what Faithful Unto Death is about 

Faithful Unto Death is about how we all hold darkness inside us—how we can, with the best of intentions, do terribly ruthless things to protect what we love.

2. How long did it take to write?

If you condense the down time, a year—the first 30,000 words were written before I started my Masters, the next thirty to complete the novel so that it could serve as my capstone, another 10,000 for the Shark, another 25,000 for my editor at Berkley Prime Crime.

3. Do you outline, or just write by the seat of your britches?

People who outline are clearly psycho-geniuses.  I am not a psycho genius.  But the seat of my britches is too hard to write with and I’ve been using three fingers on each hand with the occasional thumb making contributions.

4. What did you learn when you wrote it?

Okay, this is going to sound so bad, but I learned I can write what I love.  I love my book.  It’s funny and snarky and tender and sad but not too sad.

5. When you're stuck while writing, what do you do?

Laundry.  Not because it’s inspiring, but because I like to wear clean underwear.

6. What did the copy editor catch that made you groan?

Oh, my gosh—my editor, Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, caught a time-line error.  I hadn’t caught it, nor my psycho-genius husband, nor two Rice University professors—not even the Shark caught it—but Shannon did and I thank her from the seat of my britches (while not good for writing, britches are good for thanking).

7. Do you have a favorite book about the craft of writing?

I don’t have a favorite but there are many, many I love.  Anything by Lynne Truss is great fun to read and I keep a Strunk and White to hand.  I also love the author interviews that sometimes come at the end of audio books.

8. A memorable book you've read this year, and what made it stand out?

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield.  One of her protagonists is a preacher—a conservative Christian, and not only is he not a wife-beater or a child-molester, he’s genuinely sympathetic—a flawed but good man.  That’s a hard to pull off and Wingfield does it with grace.

9. If you could save the life of any one fictional character who would it be and why?

Oh, my gosh!  Sophie’s Choice here.  I can only save ONE?  What do I tell the others?  No, no.  Better we all die together.

10. Is there a book that makes you think "if I could write something like this,  I'd die happy?"

There are thousands of books that are so heartbreakingly lovely they  make me want to be a better writer—a better person.  The one that comes immediately to mind is Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead.  But I’ve had a fortunate life.  If I died today, I’d die happy.  Not happily, but happy.

11. Care to confess to any guilty pleasures?

I categorically decline to share my guilty pleasures.

12. What's your ringtone?

I’m not a ringtone person, I’m a words game person.  My game name is maliceinsugarland if any of you play Scramble.

13.  How does your dog or cat make you laugh?

Well, they’re pugs.  So, I mean, look at them.  Do they really have to do anything?  But, let me think.  Lately, they’ve been socially ostracizing my son’s new dingo puppy (Charlie says Rango is not a dingo, but he is.  He really is) and the pug’s machinations have been pretty funny. 

 

 

14. Will the world end in fire or ice and why do you think so?

Ice preserves, fire transforms.  I’m going with fire.





Library Journal chose FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH as their debut of the month saying:  "Evans, who received a Malice Domestic Grant for Unpublished Writers, turns the village vicar cozy on its head with her reluctant pastor sleuth. In addition to a smart mystery, readers will enjoy humorous takes on running a church, owning a dog, and dealing with father-daughter angst. The clever structure, remarkable dialog, and subplots result in a wholly satisfying read."

If you love Louise Penny, or G. M. Malliet, FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH is your kind of book!

BEA Book Buzz Panel

Whoever scheduled the Book Buzz panel for 4:15pm on Monday has my thanks! After a so-so day in the trenches of the education panels it was GREAT to hear editors talk about books they love and books they hope we will love. It was a great reminder that we were all there cause we were passionate about the same thing: great books.

And the place was PACKED. If there'd been chandeliers we'd have been hanging from them. I arrived at 3pm to secure prime seats. I had to fend off trespassers, interlopers and other brigands till the FPLM contingent arrived. Fortunately Brooks and Becky understand "come now!" means don't dawdle when they see it on a text message from me.

Here are the books that were buzzed:

BRAIN ON FIRE by Susannah Cahalan.
Editor: Millicent Bennett, FreePress.
Pub date 11/13/12

This is a memoir by a woman who was stricken with a disease that no one could diagnose or find. On paper she was 100% normal.  In person she was hallucinating, violent, paranoid and heading for death.

"It reads like a thriller," we were told and I believe it.  Turns out the author had a rare autoimmune disease. When she was diagnosed, she was the 217th person to have it.

More than the story of one person though, this is "an exploration of the science behind the disease," a disease that may be what people in the Middle Ages who were thought to be possessed by demons actually had.

And the last sentence left the audience gasping: the author may have contracted this disease when someone sneezed on her in the subway.

The reason there's no picture of this book above: it's at home. I started reading it last night and yes, it's amazing. 



THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY by Rachel Joyce.
Editor: Kendra Harpster, Random House.
Pub date: 7/24/12

"A love story in reverse" got my attention. And that it reminded me of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, a book I loved wholeheartedly.


A MILLION HEAVENS by John Brandon.
Editor: Eli Horowitz, McSweeneys.
Pub date: 7/10/12

"Events effortlessly tumble forward" has to be one of the greatest descriptions of how a plot moves I've ever heard.  The editor describes this as a mashup of Denis Johnson and Elmore Leonard.  For that alone I've got to read it.



IN THE SHADOW OF THE BANYON by Vaddey Ratner.
Editor: Trish Todd, Simon and Schuster.
Pub date: 8/7/12

When asked why she had written a novel, not a memoir, the author, who was 5 when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, and 11 when she arrived in the United States as a refugee, said she "wanted to memorialize the people she knew and loved with a work of art."

This is a book about "the power of words to transcend loss."

It was all I could do not to leap out of my seat, race to the stacks of books, seize this and start reading at once.  In fact, I did do all those things, waiting only until  the close of the presentations.

And I started reading this last night too. (Sleep is for later!)  I have a feeling you'll be hearing about me on the topic of this book again.

THE PEOPLE OF FOREVER ARE NOT AFRAID by Shani Boianjiu.
Editor: Alexis Washam, Hogarth.
Pub date: 9/11/12

"The Things They Carried" meets "Mean Girls." Hard to top that comparison isn't it! This is the story, a braided story, of three girls who are conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force and how their lives will never be the same.  A "fusion of pop culture and the military." The girls are cleaning their weapons and talking about Lady Gaga.  Having trysts in the shed that's used to store extra ammunition.

Alexander Chee said this is "written in bullets, teargas and love." (Since I'm a devoted fan of Alexander Chee this got my attention!)

PANORAMA CITY by Antoine Wilson.
Editor: Lauren Wein, HMH.
Pub date: 9/25/12.

This novel "puts you back in touch with your childhood self without condescending to your adult self."

I wasn't quick enough to grab a copy of this, and I ducked out early to get the other books so I missed most of what Lauren said, sadly. Next year I'm cloning myself so I can be two places at the same time!



I left the Buzz Panel with a restored sense of enthusiasm and energy.  It was the highlight of the day!

BEA Day 1

 

Good morning Publishing!

The Javits Center is a full tilt wreck this year. Honest to god I hope the Reed Exhibitions got a discount for this.  The extension of the 7 train line has torn up the street in front of the place, and the refurbishing going on inside means a hard hat wouldn't be out of place.

Dear old Javits.  I remember the year they couldn’t get the air conditioning on, and the year they couldn't get it off.  Now this. There's only one consistent problem: the line at Starbucks is so long you could conduct a three round auction in the time it takes to get a latte.

The actual registration process is so smooth however you wish Reed ran every hotel in the country.  I think it took 45 seconds to get my two badges. And that's cause I dropped one. I waited in line for abut three minutes.  Of course, the trick is to come early.

The first panel was about GoodReads.  I don't know much about GoodReads so I figured I'd stop in and learn a few things.

The presenter was Patrick Brown, Community Manager and Author Program Manager.  Here are some of the things he told us:

GoodReads has 9 million users; it's the world's largest site for book reviews and recommendations. (when asked in the Q&A who he saw as GR's competition: Facebook and Amazon)

GoodReads' mission is discovery: help people find books they love. That's a mission I can certainly get behind.

Best way to build presence on GoodReads is early in the life of the book. This gets the book into the algorithm GoodReads uses to put books front and center. Need HUNDREDS of review to make it to this algorithm.

Half of active GoodReads users cross post to FaceBook

GoodReads reviews are syndicated to Google, Powells, USA Today, and places like the LA Public Library

Erica Barmash, publicist at Harper, talked about her experience using a wide swath of advertising and networking sites for promoting the paperback edition of BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP:

GoodReads had a higher percentage of clickthroughs per impression. Some sites had more impressions, some had more clicks, but click/impression ratio was highest on GoodReads Other sites: FB, EW, People.

GoodReads can also tell you what the clickers do next: add the book/reviewed the book/rated the book, which other sites can not.

Thus GoodReads can measure (somewhat at least) the efficiency of the ad.

Erica was convinced GoodReads gave her the best value for her investment dollar.

AUTHOR PROGRAM on GoodReads

Average giveaway gets 850 entries. A lot of people who enter giveaways list the book as To Be Read.

Giveaways (in Q&A revealed that only physical books are eligible now, GoodReads not set up for ebook giveaways) are good for building number  of reviews (see above for purpose/advantage of reviews.)

BookClubs on GoodReads

There are 20,000 book clubs on GR.

Unlike general GoodReads, bookclubs are moderated.

Authors can join groups as readers, lay the groundwork for their own book being discussed.

I left feeling like I'd learned a lot.  Some of my clients have had brutal experiences over at GoodReads, so I'm interested in figuring out how to have that NOT happen, and also how to reach a nice chunk of those nine million people!

The next panel I attended was TWEET THIS NOT THAT

I'm not going to complain that the presenter didn't have the correct adapter for her laptop cause really, that could happen to anyone. 

I am going to complain that it was clear no one had given a single thought to how slides work in a large room.  This is NOT rocket science.  This is Presentations 101.

Slides should be visible and readable to the folks in the back of the room.  Not only were they not, I couldn't see them, and I was about half way to the front. And just to make sure it wasn't me, I asked the woman next to me if she could see them, and no, she  couldn't.

And the presenter, when tasked with the fact her  slides could not be read did NOT do the one thing that was easiest: read them aloud. No, she said she'd post them on her slide show account later.  Well, fuck that. Later I'll be someplace else and later I've forgotten where she posted it and later to all this anyway.

And then, she reviews the basics of twitter.  I'm about ready to blow my stack at the BEA education panel organizers. Could someone over there please get it through their thick heads that we know what Twitter is! We know what hashtags are! What we want is to hear about the stuff we don't know about--what works, what's effective, and most important what ISN'T.

So after three "case studies" that weren't--they were basically screenshots of twitter accounts, and some facts about Twitter advertising (the least affordable thing on Twitter and the least likely things authors are going to use) she STOPPED. And asked for Questions!

The audience was as perplexed as I was. Questions about what? There wasn't anything of substance here.  We couldn't see the slides, she'd given us no insights or strategy.

I can't remember at what point the presenter referred to GoodReads as a small social networking site about books, but that was what did me in.  GoodReads isn't a lot of things,  but one thing it IS is big. Unless you think nine million people is small, in which case I remind you that's the number of people who live in NYC. 

I left.

The twitter panel last year at BEA was a disaster. I couldn't believe it could get worse. This was worse.  And it didn't have to be. I'm not sure if the presenter isn't used to giving talks like this, or if she hadn't practiced, or hadn't done any research on what people want to know, but it was a #panelFail on all three accounts.

It was really disappointing cause I'm always on the hunt for companies that know how to do this stuff, and can help authors. This company probably can do that; what they can't do is teach it.

I collected my minion and headed for the bar.

I've got about an hour before I need to go stake out seats for the Buzz panel at 4pm.  That panel fills up FAST and I've learned the hard way to get there early and defend my seat with hostile vibrations.

(more on the buzz panel, which was wonderful, later)

This is a typical BEA education day: a good panel, and a panel that could have been good. Unfortunately the organizers have no way to know if a presenter is good or prepared. All they see are the topic titles.  If there's a way to fix this, I sure hope they figure it out.  I'm really tired of learning stuff the hard way. I'd really like to benefit from what some other people have learned about social media.