One Author’s-Eye View of Bookstore Signings

My favorite local bookstore died sadly and suddenly a few months ago, and my world seems diminished without it. That’s where I had hoped to have my launch party in June, my first signing of the real live copies of Breath of Angel. Sigh.

In reality book signings have always been an iffy deal for me. My very first signing “back in the day” (no, I won’t tell you how long ago) drew about two people. My second book signing was so well-attended, I signed for about three hours straight and went home thinking my fingers might be cramped in signing mode for the rest of my life. I’ve signed at conferences and conventions, for crowds of hundreds and for so few people I could count them on one hand.

These days, I’ve been told that most authors’ signings fit the count-them-on-one-hand model. So most bookstores turn the event into a “stock signing,” wherein the author comes to sign stock, which the store will later sell as special autographed copies. That way, if people show up to buy the book at the signing, great. If not, the time was not wasted.

This week, I learned about a new twist. Many bookstores are happy to host a signing event but ask the author to bring their own books to sell. That way the bookstore has not invested in stock they can’t sell. The downside for me: If I purchase my own books from my own publisher, those copies don’t count toward recouping my advance or generating royalties, both of which are very important to me. Nor do those copies count in numbers sold for any ranking on the sales charts – also important. Plus I’m liable for state sales taxes in locations where I sell my own books. (Yes, wherever you sell books, you’re responsible for the state tax, filing the forms, etc., which varies state to state. Messy.) On top of all that, I pay all travel expenses to and from the signing. (If it’s here in town, no big deal. Out of town . . . you get it.)

The upside: I connect with bookstore owners and whoever comes for the signing (at the signing recently offered to me, the bookseller suggested that I might sell twenty books). Worth it? Hmmm.

Enter book bloggers and the virtual book tour. The downside of the virtual book tour: the author can’t autograph books for everyone who buys, and buying is a click or two away. The upside: the book is actually reviewed, the author may be interviewed, and depending on the blog, hundreds, even thousands of interested readers get to see what you’ve got. (Of course, if the review is negative, that could be a downside.)

Bookstore and/or book blogger. May be an apples and oranges thing. I love both. We need both. The truth is, it’s the book that sells itself if it’s well-written. The author’s challenge is to let readers know it’s out there.

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Fantasy + Teens = Fantastic Teens

Harry Potter, the Twilight series, Hunger Games – these are some of the most recent bestselling books in series for tweens and teens. Just this morning, I did a phone interview for my publisher about Eye of the Sword, fantasy novel #2 in the Angelaeon series. One of the questions: “Why does the fantasy genre seem to connect so well with young people?” Here’s my answer:

First of all, I wouldn’t limit the connection of fantasy only to the hearts of young people. That said, tweens and teens experience life with an intensity that fantasy matches. Teens are going through a natural process of questioning, wondering, and forging their own identity. They’re facing a lot of the darkness and real difficulties of the world for the first time. They have deep interior wishes and dreams – as well as anxieties – which fantasy addresses particularly well.

Fantasy shows us heroes and heroines confronting tremendous difficulties – physical, mental, and emotional – and shows our heroes overcoming those difficulties against great odds, which is not unlike the task that tweens and teens confront growing up. It’s just that in a fantasy world, the rules are different. I like that about fantasy. We can’t take a fantasy world for granted. It shakes us awake, keeps us thinking and on our toes (or the edge of our seats).

Part of what makes fantasy “true” – and appealing – is the moral cause and effect, the emotional cause and effect, the inner world. Yes, fantasy often reveals chaos, fear, hatred, vengeance, and despair. But the best fantasy uses chaos in order to get to calm, fear to get to courage, hatred to get to love, vengeance to get to forgiveness, despair to get to hope. Those are issues teens – and all of us – confront.

So go forth, find yourself a good fantasy, and read!

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Writing as Magic and Miracle

“Writing your first book is hard, not because you have to build the house, but because you have to have to build the hammer.” – Kathryn Schultz

Before I wrote a novel, I thought the process must be akin to magic. I was wrong – and I was right. I discovered I was wrong as I learned to create motivated characters, to plot, to sculpt scenes, to do the intense work involved in creating a novel. Work. That’s what it is. Plain, hard work. Not only building the hammer, but building the entire toolbox and everything in it.

But I was also right: Creating a novel is akin to magic. British writer David Mitchell said that when you’re reading great writing, “your mind is nowhere else but in this world that started off in the mind of another human being. There are two miracles at work here. One, that someone thought of that world in the first place. And the second, that there’s this means of transmitting it. Just little ink marks on squashed wood fiber. Bloody amazing.”

Amazing indeed. Writing is a miracle. Reading is too. So read – or write – and help yourself to a bit of a miracle today.

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Kid Lit for Japan

Want to help Japan through the kid lit community? Authors have donated books, ARCs (pre-publication Advance Reading Copies of upcoming books), and other services to raise money. Bidding starts today at kidlit4japan. Each item will be available for bidding for a couple of weeks, new items to be added during that time. Money raised will be sent from the bidder directly to a reputable charity (like UNICEF). I’ve donated an ARC of Breath of Angel. If you’re interested, watch for it to come up in the list for bidding.

Some of you know that my daughter-in-law is Japanese. She lives in L.A. with my son, but her family lives in Yokohama. They felt the quake, of course, and have been facing the usual inconveniences of no train service, etc. But they’re all fine, and we are very grateful. Since we have a direct connection to Japan as many of you do, kidlit4japan was another way for us to help out.

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Create and Consume

We humans are both creators and consumers. Both are necessary. Both have their own satisfactions. But . . .

It is far easier to read than to write.

It is far easier to eat bread than to bake it.

It is far easier to watch the dance than to join it.

It is far easier to listen to the music than to make it.

But the words are not yours until you write them.

The bread is not yours until you bake it.

The dance is not yours until you dance it.

The music is not yours until you make it.

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One-Book Authors

True or false: Once a writer’s first novel is published, he or she is “in,” and a career in writing novels is assured.

Ah, we novelists wish it were true. But many 2011 debut authors now have the second-book blues. Fortunately the manuscript for my second novel, Eye of the Sword, has been received well and is in the publication process. But that doesn’t guarantee novel #3. A common woe among debut novelists is the publisher’s rejection of the second book manuscript or at least a request for a complete rewrite or extensive revisions before the novel can be accepted. Reality check: Publication of book one does not necessarily guarantee book two.

A lot of famous novelists were one-novel writers. They’ve won awards and their books are classics, studied in schools, but for various reasons, they didn’t publish a second novel. Take a look:

Harper Lee:  To Kill a Mockingbird

Ralph Ellison:  Invisible Man

Boris Pasternak: Dr. Zhivago

Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind

Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights

Anna Sewell: Black Beauty

Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces

Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar

Arundati Roy:  The God of Small Things

Some of these authors published essays or poetry, plays or screenplays. But none wrote a second novel, though Ellison’s huge second manuscript was heavily edited and published after he died. And Arundati Roy may yet write another novel. To find out more about these authors, their awards, and why they may not have published again, check out onlinedegreeprograms.

Here’s wishing all my debut novelist friends a second novel, a third, and many more!

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A Duo of Debuts: Illegal & Mandarin

Illegal mandarins? No, but a couple of great Elevensies novels that debut this week. Take a look:

 Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard: “Grace longs to stand out, but rejects her mom’s beauty pageant ideals.  She thinks Mandarin Ramey, three years older, is the true beauty. When a teacher pairs the two girls for a  class project, they forge a friendship. But Grace discovers Mandarin’s unique beauty hides a girl who is  troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no  friendship can withstand betrayal.”

 

 

 

 Illegal by Bettina Restrepo: “Nora holds on to Papa’s promises that they will be together for her fifteenth  birthday and that he will provide her with an education, which can’t happen until he comes home to  Mexico. So Nora follows an inner voice telling her to find her father in America. But living the life of an  illegal immigrant means assuming the identity of a person who doesn’t exist. Gang warfare, tentative  friendships, assuming a parental role . . . Who can Nora trust? And how can she discover her own voice  when she doesn’t even count as a person?”

I hope you’re enjoying some good reads this week. As for me, I’m finishing up revisions on book 2, Eye of the Sword, and getting the manuscript back to my editor – on deadline. Hooray!

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Loud Cheers for Librarians!

Whoopie-pies, a teen book club and sponsor, and librarians – what more could an author ask for at the end of a week of mind-bending revisions?

Last Thursday afternoon, I made my way to the Hillsboro High School library to introduce myself and Breath of Angel to Hillsboro teen book club members and librarians from various local schools. Great people, all of them. They love reading and are keenly interested in transmitting that book-love to students. As a result of the meeting, I think a couple of other schools will start a book club. Getting enough copies of the same book was a concern. The sponsor at Hillsboro says she buys as many copies as she can at a used book store and puts out requests for parents to donate copies.

So I left plenty of copies of my ARC with the book club. I also reminded them that there are errors in an ARC that will be corrected by the time the final book comes out. One librarian warned me that her students will pick up on every error they find in the ARC – and will often email the publisher to tell them what they discovered that was wrong. Future editors?

I also gave everyone a teacher/reader discussion guide, which I’ll be adding to my web page this week. So if you’re interested in that sort of thing, it should be available by the weekend. One warning: The questions on the guide may include a few spoilers. I tried not to give away anything crucial, but it’s amazingly hard to write questions and not reveal twists in the story!

Oh – and for those of you wondering what in creation Whoopie-Pies are, they’re the most delectable cream-filled chocolate cake-like big cookies I’ve ever tasted! Available at Trader Joe’s!

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The Story-Go-Round

Remember singing “Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall” or “This is the song that never ends” or “Michael Finnigan … begin again”? (Sorry if I gave you ear worms.) It’s “begin again” for me on the story-go-round.

If you’ve followed my blog since I started in August of 2010, you’ll remember that one of the first happenings, besides edits, was a CD interview my publisher did in order to present Breath of Angel to sales reps and to prepare for stirring buzz about the book. I just got an email asking me to do a CD interview for book 2, Eye of the Sword (due out March 2012). So here we go again, even before book 1 is released. I’m sure that if I get to continue the series, this kind of schedule will be so normal, it won’t be even a bump on the story-go-round, but since this is my first experience with novels, the schedule is new to me and provides a reality check about the work ahead of me.

From what I’ve been told, publishers like to release one novel per year of an author’s series. So here’s how it goes. Sell series. Edit book #1, write #2, promote #1, edit #2, write #3, promote #2 and #1, edit #3, write #4, promote series . . . These are not sequential, but overlap. Like waves.

Somehow I get visions of Lucy and Ethel trying to wrap chocolates coming down a conveyor belt that keeps going faster and faster! (For you young-bodies, check out I Love Lucy, “Job Switching.”)If you don’t get the reference, either you’re way too young, or I’m way too old!)

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Clarity, Circles, Liars, and Shades of Gray

More delectable debuts from the Elevensies for you to try:

 

 Clarity by Kim Harrington – “When Clarity touches objects, she sees visions and secrets no one else sees.  It’s a gift. And a curse. Her ex-boyfriend wants her to help solve the murder of a teenage girl. But when  Clarity’s brother becomes the prime suspect, where will her sight lead her?”

 

 

 
 

 The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan Le Fay by Alex Epstein – “How does an exiled girl become a  king’s nemesis? When Uther Pendragon uses Merlin’s magic to murder her father and seduce her mother,  eight-year-old Morgan flees. As she comes of age, she discovers her own primal magic. She also discovers  love. But will her drive for revenge against King Arthur destroy her one chance for love and happiness?”

 

 

 

 Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – “Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas risks everything to save her family  amid Stalin’s genocide.”

 

 

 

 

 The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker – “Kate’s best friend, Grace, died a year ago, so when Kate gets  an email from her, she’s more than a little confused. She teams up with a couple of knights-in-(not-so)-  shining-armor to prove that Grace’s death was not just an accident. But their elite private school holds  secrets so big, people will do anything to protect them.”

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