Writing Spaces

Tip of the Day: (Disclaimer: This is not my tip but one snagged from the October issue of Writer’s Digest because I found it amusing.) If you want to escape the slush pile, “Be Hot”. As in, look GOOD people. Get the hair and teeth bleached, get on the tread mill, slather on the Proactiv and take some glam shots to send in with your submission. And you thought you just had to write well. :-)

You know how the first wedding anniversary is paper? And the sixth is iron and so on? Well guess what the ninth is?

Yep. Door.

As in, my husband gave me a door for our anniversary! I’m positively giddy let me tell you!

I’ll explain why. A couple of years ago my husband deemed our then den/dumping room for all random things in the house as my official office. He even bought me floor to ceiling bookshelves for the entire one wall for that Mother’s Day, which I quickly filled with all of my books and knick knacks. (Side note: Aren’t book shelves just one of the best things in the world? I’ve always loved them).

Anyway, he thought with this I was all set up and I would have many many hours of writing in this room. But it didn’t happen. The problem? No door. This was the one room in the whole house that the builder didn’t put a door on and with no door, the kids were in there every two seconds with “He hit me” and “She’s eating ketchup again” and “Her head is stuck under the bed frame.” How could I possibly enter another world to do my writing with all that going on? It just wasn’t happening. So I’ve always written in cafes.

But that all ends now! My husband installed my new door and now I have a quiet place to write in. And I’m going to try it out soon I swear. I’m just a little nervous. Like, after all of my husband’s hard work (did I mention he stained the door too?), what if I sit down to write and I still can’t get anything done? Like just physically being in my house will make me want to do laundry or go check on the baby one more time.

For those of you that write from home how do you do it? How do you not get sidetracked with all the never-ending life stuff?

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub

Musings From the Poolside (or What Happens in Vegas...Gets Blogged About Here)

Tip of the Day: Like a little kick in your eats? Try the new Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce from Tastefully Simple. So good if you can't eat Vegas buffets for dinner every night.

After a four-day journey to Las Vegas, I'm sleeping off the jet lag and getting back into the writing groove. But I didn't completely stop thinking about all things writing related while enjoying the good life. Here are some tidbits that crossed my mind while in Sin City.

1) Poolside Propaganda. While swimming in the hotel pool, I found something strange at the bottom: the first page of a novel. My friend fished it out and read it, intrigued by its words -- but there was no author or title info on the page. No headers or footers other than the page number. What the heck book was this? Why was the first page submerged? Then I had a brilliant thought: what if I purposely left the first page of my novel (when it's published) in places like waiting rooms, poolside cabanas, and restaurant lobbies -- but with the title and author on the page? Would it intrigue people to buy the book? I might have to try this tactic....

2) Silent Research Studies. Observing the books people read on airplanes, in the airport waiting areas, and at the poolside is interesting market research. I saw adult women reading EAT, PRAY LOVE; TWILIGHT; and Barbara Taylor Bradford. Men were reading Nelson DeMille and newspapers. My conculsion? Thanks to Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer, YA and MG are spreading far and wide to adults even in the land of adult entertainment!

3) Photographic Evidence. My sister just got her esthetician license and did me up some glamour shots. She's good, with her professional make-up and photographer's lamp. My question is, can I rely on these pics to be a good professional author photo if they were take with an 8 megapixel camera? Or do they look too "adult"? Should author photos for a YA/MG author be more "playful"? (And yes, I'm bragging about her photographic and make-up techniques as I do not look like this in real life.).




Deena, Miss Recently Repped

Tips from a Picture Book Author

Tip of the Day: if you are looking for something creative to do: a camera and a walk in the park to look at all the leaves changing might be just the inspiration you need.

Local picture book author Denise Brennan-Nelson gave a talk at my library last week and shared some tips on her road to publication. Since most of the people in the room were newbies the ideas were mostly refreshers (which I always like hearing): keep an "idea book" on you at all times to jot down ideas and if you believe in your story and want to share it with others than you have to seize every opportunity that comes along that could possibly get you where you want to be.

My favorite piece of advice she gave, however, has to do with knowing when to quit. I think many people in the Awaiting an Agent stage go through this daily. Trying to figure out when to put a book in your drawer. Is it a certain number of agent rejections? A certain number of revisions and then rejections? But basically when do you come to grips with the fact this book isn't going to be published. Or when do we realize that we need to go back to writing instead of being a published writer. Is it a certain number of books that were rejected? Or is it just realizing that not everyone is meant to be traditionally published. Just like not everyone with talent is meant to be an actor. Or a musician. Or a paid artist, etc.

Now if you don't question this all the time, like me, then more power to you. But for the rest of us, here was her piece of advice. It's time to quit when you stop "feeling the dream."

Which I think sums everything up nicely and is a good reminder. I don't think it has to be taken with a writing career, but can be translated as advice for the book you are currently working on. If you no longer believe in your book, I don't think you can persuade others to believe in it. So if that's the case, maybe it's time to find another idea that you can believe in again.

Sometimes it's that simple.

Which reminds me of another favorite piece of writing advice that seems to be everywhere: "a published writer is an amateur that never quit."

Happy Writing everyone.

Emily, Miss Awaiting an Agent

What Did I Get Myself Into?

Tip of the Day: The McDonalds in my town has Friday in Spanish spelled wrong on their window signs. It should be "Viernes," not "Verenes" like they have it. Don't ask your kids what to do in this situation. Mine said, "Yeah, Mom, definitely go in and complain. Pick up some chicken nuggets while you're there."

Nominations are open for the third annual Cybil Awards until October 15. Cybil stands for Children and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. There are nine categories of awards: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Novels. Anyone may nominate any book published in 2008 at the website--http://www.cybils.com/--but you may make only one nomination per category.

Okay, why another award? Well, where are the book reviewers for children's and young adult's literature? Online, of course. And every book nominated according to the rules (check out the website) will be considered by a panel of judges. I know this because this year, I'm on the panel for the Young Adult nominations.

The finalists will chosen by the panels after we read a lot of books. We'll discuss and pass on our final choices to the judges on January 1. They'll have the difficult job of selecting a winner. I'll have the job of reading ... how many books? Right before Christmas? What was I thinking??

Actually, if you read the nominations, you'll know exactly what I was thinking. The opportunity to read and discuss these great titles has me psyched. Lisa's I Heart You, You Haunt Me was nominated, and novels by authors we've interviewed on this blog were nominated, such as Shift by Jennifer Bradbury. So, yes, this will be fun, but obviously, it's going to take away from my writing time. So why did I volunteer?

Because I believe that reading makes me a better writer. I've been busy writing the end of a novel I worked on for many, many, many months. My reading took a back seat. I think a solid month of immersive reading is exactly what I need right now to improve as a writer. I know this will be a tremendous learning experience, as I'll be forced to track and articulate what about a young adult novel makes it stand out and shine. So I think it will be worth the temporary trade-off in lost writing time. I'll definitely be in revision mode when January 1 comes around.

So don't forget to nominate your pick for best book of the year at the Cybils website before November 15. Or maybe you should forget and I won't have to read so much. No, don't forget! Make sure I'm reading the best stuff!

-- Kate, Miss Apprentice Writer

Looky looky, linky linky - Author Promotion!

Tip of the Day: Books should not be banned. That's really all I have to say on the subject.

I'm not doing a post on banned books. I hope my A2A buddies won't kick me out. I just don't have much to say on the subject. It makes me mad, and that's about it. So, moving on...

In the past week or so, there have been two outstanding posts around author promotion. I’m going to link to them separately here, and then add a few of my thoughts about each one.

First, YA author Lauren Barnholdt gave us a list of ten things she would tell her “old self” when it comes to marketing and promotion. You can read the blog HERE.

I found myself saying yes, Yes, YES throughout the whole post, but a few things that really hit home for me, and I wanted to talk about those.

The book she did the most promotion for (REALITY CHICK) has sold the least amount of copies of all her books. The book she did the LEAST for (THE SECRET IDENTIFY OF DEVON DELANEY) has sold the most.

This is why we must not, as authors, freak out about promotion and feel like we have to do everything under the sun. Because it really is true that you can do a whole bunch of stuff and your book still won’t take off and you can do hardly anything and your book will be the next TWILIGHT. Lauren goes on to say it’s important to do the things you enjoy and forget the rest. Amen!

For example, I really don’t like book signings. They are time consuming plus they take up my valuable weekends and evenings since I work a day job. So, I rarely do them. I know some members of the Class of 2k8 have done a ton of them, and they work hard at getting people there by sending out postcards to high schools and that kind of thing. That’s great. They enjoy doing that and it fits in with their schedules. On the other hand, I know some class members have talked about how they hate myspace and just don’t get how to use it to their advantage. Well, guess what? I like myspace. I’ve spent lots of time friending teens, connecting with them, talking about books, and I definitely think that’s helped with the sales of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME. Lots of teen reviewers have featured my book and/or done an interview with me. Is one way right and one way wrong? Absolutely not. It’s figuring out what you can do and like to do, and being okay with letting the rest go.

One other thing you have to remember, which Lauren talks about as well, is the power of word of mouth. Is that something we as authors can control? Nope. Not at all. It’ll either happen for your book or it won’t. If I knew what might cause one book to get more lip service than another, I could make a fortune. So, write the best book you can and then cross your fingers that something about it will resonate with readers so they want to share it with their friends.

The other great article blog post was written by YA author April Henry which lists some specific things an author can do before the book hits the shelves. Read it HERE.

April talks about the importance of timing with newspaper articles and I wanted to expand on timing a bit more. Okay, this is my personal opinion and I could certainly be wrong, but I think authors need to be careful about too much promotion with their book too early on. I think over-saturation is very real. Too much talk about the book too soon, and by the time the book is actually on the shelves, people are sick of hearing about it. This includes talking about it in your own blog. Sure, share the little steps of the journey from manuscript to printed book if you’d like, but day after day, week after week of posts all about the BOOK gets old real fast.

I’d love to know if anything really struck you from either of Lauren or April’s blog posts? Anything that surprised you, or scared you?

~Lisa, Miss Pinch Me I’m Pubbed

Speak Out Against the Banning of Books

Tip of the Day: Read a banned book this week.

Since all the cool kids are talking about banned books this week I thought I would to. To kick off this banned book week popular banned/challenged authors like Judy Blume, Lauren Myracle, and Lois Lowry all got together near me in Chicago for a Read Out in which they each read passages from their favorite banned books. I, of course, didn’t realize this until the day after or I so would have been there! I actually didn’t realize that so many books were challenged (List)! It’s really puzzling to me how people find things so offensive in books, like talking about puberty etc., but then don’t lead big campaigns to ban all TV shows and movies because really, the stuff we see on TV is far worse than what is read in books. John Green mentions a character having a botched sexual experience in one of his books and people go crazy. On the pilot of the new 90210 there is a guy having a similar experience (although, apparently not botched) in his car near the beginning of the episode. Why aren’t people up in arms over that?

Books seem to be held to a much higher standard. Why is this do you think?

In the mean time, Judy Blume talks about when/why books started getting banned and why we need to speak out against the banning of books in this TV interview here. Pretty interesting if you want to check it out!

Kristina, Miss Soon-to-Pub

I Am A Blushing Fool But Not Over Male Penguins (or M. T. Anderson Rocked My Writer's Group)

Tip of the Day: Celebrate Banned Book Week! Read my rant on the would be banners here.

Kate learned that last Tuesday a YA star would be in our midsts here in Rochester. M. T. Anderson!!! Not only was he here to read at the local community college, but also to answer questions and sign books -- all for free! So our Writer's Group had a field trip to see him. Yay Kate! Yay Writer's Group!

Mr. Anderson was humble (after his reading and before the Q&A said, "If you're bored, you can leave now." I am pleased to say not even the most exhausted of college students left), hilarious (CP Maureen had to leave right after his talk, so I got her book signed for her and he wrote, "To Maureen -- Who I've never met. Where were you?"), smart (he took 6 years to write the two Octavian books to make sure the historical aspects and voice were just right), and a great reader (he read from FEED and OCTAVIAN Vol. 1).

I must admit that according to my CPs, I blushed upon seeing him standing casually in the college hall like he was a regular person instead of a Writer God.
(File photo -- do you blame me?)

It is always interesting to hear writers read their own work; it's like all of a sudden you can hear what was going through their head -- the voices they were hearing -- as they wrote. I will never read Chapter 1 of FEED the same again (it will now always be better and funnier!).

Because I've already rambled on too long here, I'll condense my last points in a list.

1) When a 20-something student asked, "Why write YA?" he said that the stories of self- and world-discovery could only have been told through the eyes of teens.
2) It was super cool that college classes have YA novels assigned as their reading.
3) Mr. Anderson likes to capture the language of a different time and place.
4) The questions the college students asked were, um, way above my level of cognition at 8 PM on a Tuesday night.
5) I managed to resist bringing all of his books that my library own to have them autographed.
6) FEED has been challenged by over-protective, mal-informed, closed-minded parents. Read it.

Deena, Miss Recently Repped