I run into a minority of literary agents who make at least a passing mention of their desire for authors who embrace electronic marketing.
Isn't it astonishing to you that it's only a minority? I, myself, wonder how many have a survival instinct, one you must have, if you want to exist in this new e-publishing landscape.
This is by no means a whine.
Any agent who mentions that gives me a light lift. The only issue with their listings as I see them is that they don't mention how a tech-savvy author (or author-to-be) should approach them, and just how much of the query should present that. I settle with a blog address with my personal contact info.
As soon as I get an agent, I'm ready to help them, and not the other way around.
The only reason why I haven't embraced everything cutting-edge already is that I not only don't have much time, and I don't see much reason for much e-marketing on a book that's been on the rack for a few years, which will never sell a million copies. I place my effort where it may pay off, not only for me, but for others.
Blogs, Twitter, email, there are easy ways to make a close connection with purchasers and fans. Here's an interesting and heartening example, from a few years back:
I logged on to my IM service and got a notice that one of the knuckleball fans on my message board was also on. I dropped a "HI... wassup?" and quickly discovered he was in the middle of his chem homework, and he needed help. I was a whiz at that in high school, and I quickly wound up explaining the difference between atomic numbers and atomic weights of elements depending on where they are on the Periodic Table.
Not because I'm an author of a nonfiction book. Because I could connect, the way the contact needed and wanted.
Funny, that of all the methods commonly mentioned to connect author and reader no matter where they are, IM is not mentioned.
I'm sold. It'll work.
One down.
Now I'm off to investigate electronically autographing ebooks... a cool concept that I've dabbled with by emailing personalized and autographed one-page notes.
Webcasting is on the shopping list, too.
I have a ColorNook in the house but it looks like I'll have to scoop up an iPad, just so I know how to deliver to it.
-- AIM IM: Schoolzone1331
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Opined Doors
I'm reminded of the Taxi episode in which Jim brought a few of his co-workers to his home. The camera showed an interior of a room, empty, except the walls were made entirely of doors. Dozens.
When one queries agents, one is in a room just like that.
You don't know which one gets you outta there, so you try them in turn, and wonder which one is an actual door that'll let you out.
What you're trying to leave is New Author Purgatory.
To get published, you really need an agent. Almost no publisher of any worth will take direct contact with a budding author.
That next-to-last word is more prickly than you may realize. I digress, and for a reason.
There are... hundreds? of literary agents running loose, and it's generally not a tough chore to identify which may be open to your work, and how to properly approach them.
There is not one, but two kickers.
You may need to query many of them--if not a bunch of them twice over the course of time--to get one interested enough to represent you.
Kicker #2: I'm a published author. Not a budding author... a real one. THE KNUCKLEBOOK was published without an agent, through a bizarre and convoluted string of events that reflects the subject, the wandering orb known as the knuckleball. I got the advance, earned it out in a few months by personally setting up signings at a couple dozen bookstores and talks in front of regional baseball fan groups. A website, too. Radio, print, and TV interviews. Initial print run was 1,000, and after four + years, it's sold over 3,000. In short, I've had at least a cup of coffee in the major leagues.
When it comes to rounding up an agent for OTHERS, that experience doesn't count for jack squat, it appears. You'd think that agents would have a strong interest in a manuscript backed by an author who already has a track record for pushing a book, one that earned out the advance (which happens seldom) and in a few months. No, they just want to know about that one manuscript, and you'd better serve up the taste just right, or your query is ash-canned. Sometimes, what that "just right" is supposed to be is foggy, and even when requirements are clear, following them to the semicolon doesn't seem to boost microscopic odds.
For an author doggedly working and planning to get a novel published and on the bestseller list, the path is a lengthy and constantly uphill one.
The authors on that bestseller list? They got there with very little luck, and mostly skill and persistence and refinement of the battle plan, it appears.
Oh, I did meet one author who wrote just a couple of queries and got an agent SNAP, but it was not a rookie accident. This author is a medical doctor, and she had to go through that educational proving ground and develop skills and experience and years of training to get that title... which helped her author her series of medical mysteries.
How ya gotta pay your dues is a universal mystery, but ya gotta pay them, somehow.
I really think I've paid them already, but apparently not.
Still trying doors.
--Dave
When one queries agents, one is in a room just like that.
You don't know which one gets you outta there, so you try them in turn, and wonder which one is an actual door that'll let you out.
What you're trying to leave is New Author Purgatory.
To get published, you really need an agent. Almost no publisher of any worth will take direct contact with a budding author.
That next-to-last word is more prickly than you may realize. I digress, and for a reason.
There are... hundreds? of literary agents running loose, and it's generally not a tough chore to identify which may be open to your work, and how to properly approach them.
There is not one, but two kickers.
You may need to query many of them--if not a bunch of them twice over the course of time--to get one interested enough to represent you.
Kicker #2: I'm a published author. Not a budding author... a real one. THE KNUCKLEBOOK was published without an agent, through a bizarre and convoluted string of events that reflects the subject, the wandering orb known as the knuckleball. I got the advance, earned it out in a few months by personally setting up signings at a couple dozen bookstores and talks in front of regional baseball fan groups. A website, too. Radio, print, and TV interviews. Initial print run was 1,000, and after four + years, it's sold over 3,000. In short, I've had at least a cup of coffee in the major leagues.
When it comes to rounding up an agent for OTHERS, that experience doesn't count for jack squat, it appears. You'd think that agents would have a strong interest in a manuscript backed by an author who already has a track record for pushing a book, one that earned out the advance (which happens seldom) and in a few months. No, they just want to know about that one manuscript, and you'd better serve up the taste just right, or your query is ash-canned. Sometimes, what that "just right" is supposed to be is foggy, and even when requirements are clear, following them to the semicolon doesn't seem to boost microscopic odds.
For an author doggedly working and planning to get a novel published and on the bestseller list, the path is a lengthy and constantly uphill one.
The authors on that bestseller list? They got there with very little luck, and mostly skill and persistence and refinement of the battle plan, it appears.
Oh, I did meet one author who wrote just a couple of queries and got an agent SNAP, but it was not a rookie accident. This author is a medical doctor, and she had to go through that educational proving ground and develop skills and experience and years of training to get that title... which helped her author her series of medical mysteries.
How ya gotta pay your dues is a universal mystery, but ya gotta pay them, somehow.
I really think I've paid them already, but apparently not.
Still trying doors.
--Dave
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Echoes Echoes
There's an element of standup comedy called an echo, in which the comic mentions something, and later mentions it again, to great impact. (If done well.) I thought I'd try some in OTHERS, and I'll be impressed if readers spot some and mention them to me.
(Rats... I spoiled it... unless you read the book before this.)
An example of an echo is describing a scene including a whistling teakettle. No thing special there, until the MC saunters into a bar called "The Whistling Teakettle". This is even more effective (though obviously harder to pull off) if there are additional similar elements, or if the first teakettle had something unique about it that was reflected in the bar description.
I may have a little fun with readers (once I actually have a few), and ask them if they noticed echoes, and if so, name a few. Where's Waldo?
------
I don't think I could call this an echo; merely a reiteration of an answer I gave at last night's meeting. "Why do so many male writers have female protagonists?"
I slipped a little, in that I attempted for all the other guys, when I should have just answered for myself.
In short: I'm a little tired of male heroes. Why can't a girl be a hero? Why can't a girl be a woman, and strong, and self-reliant, and precocious, and sharp, and ignorant of a glass ceiling, and yet be accessible and approachable and modest and dignified?
I also happen to appreciate women. I think they get--here's a trite phrase that's still appropriate--short shrift. They do more and are sharper and more with-it than I think they get credit for.
I think I may get myself in trouble for continuing in this vein, so let's just say that a female MC in a book like this just adds to the interest.
And as to "getting into a woman's head", well, I see that comment as maybe a bit...umm...well, let's just say that women don't all think alike, so this could be a portrayal of some women, maybe even a few. But, not all.
And I have noticed that women buy more books than men. From a marketing standpoint, I think women would prefer a female MC, and in a way, I challenge males to get as much enjoyment out of this book as women will.
As you can see, I don't write popcorn. I couldn't write several of these things a year, so I applaud any author who can crank out any novels in any shape or form in that volume.
--Dave
(Rats... I spoiled it... unless you read the book before this.)
An example of an echo is describing a scene including a whistling teakettle. No thing special there, until the MC saunters into a bar called "The Whistling Teakettle". This is even more effective (though obviously harder to pull off) if there are additional similar elements, or if the first teakettle had something unique about it that was reflected in the bar description.
I may have a little fun with readers (once I actually have a few), and ask them if they noticed echoes, and if so, name a few. Where's Waldo?
------
I don't think I could call this an echo; merely a reiteration of an answer I gave at last night's meeting. "Why do so many male writers have female protagonists?"
I slipped a little, in that I attempted for all the other guys, when I should have just answered for myself.
In short: I'm a little tired of male heroes. Why can't a girl be a hero? Why can't a girl be a woman, and strong, and self-reliant, and precocious, and sharp, and ignorant of a glass ceiling, and yet be accessible and approachable and modest and dignified?
I also happen to appreciate women. I think they get--here's a trite phrase that's still appropriate--short shrift. They do more and are sharper and more with-it than I think they get credit for.
I think I may get myself in trouble for continuing in this vein, so let's just say that a female MC in a book like this just adds to the interest.
And as to "getting into a woman's head", well, I see that comment as maybe a bit...umm...well, let's just say that women don't all think alike, so this could be a portrayal of some women, maybe even a few. But, not all.
And I have noticed that women buy more books than men. From a marketing standpoint, I think women would prefer a female MC, and in a way, I challenge males to get as much enjoyment out of this book as women will.
As you can see, I don't write popcorn. I couldn't write several of these things a year, so I applaud any author who can crank out any novels in any shape or form in that volume.
--Dave
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The First Step In a Bizarre Ramble
There is enough going on in OTHERS as well as my head so it's likely I'll post daily. I'm also counting on the innocent folks at this evening's reader's group to provide a little spray of ether down the carburetor, so this'll start up with all the roar and flame I'd like to see start this off.
Just as a note:
I call this OTHERS for a bit of a personal reason. I don't believe in writing for myself. I'd like to think that I've been enough of an observer of human beings to have a strong sense of what will appeal to them. I'd like to honor everyone who I've ever had contact with, who contributed in the most miniscule of ways, by writing a book that's huge. I can't write to please myself, first and foremost, except to know that I authored something that worked, and it provided a learning experience for all of us.
As you wend you way through the manuscript, also please understand that this is a story. I've seen an interesting facet of peacekeeping that, if brought to full flower, could result in a peaceful world. A truly peaceful one. Okay, imperfect, because people aren't perfect. But I don't have a fear that some readers will take the book to heart and go work over a few bullies and unsavory types. I anticipate that. To have an impact--which is what I'm gunning for, here--I have to assume that some will go overboard and put some elements of this into play. With all my hope, for good.
Stephen King didn't author CARRIE because he was in favor of bleeding at the prom. So, too, do I not cheer for some TAG-type organization to pull off some assassinations and localized grisly punishments to keep the violent at bay. I don't trust anyone I know to get it right, never mind the rest of those on Earth.
This is not a recipe book for peace, but it may be a recipe book for thoughtfulness on the idea of peace in a little-addressed way. An idea that, I believe, does take real form at times, in quiet and shadow. This may be best seen in the case of a bully who is jumped by persons unknown and not harmed, but WARNED IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS TO CUT THE CRAP! Once fascinating element of this is the idea that we can count all the assaults, the beatings, the murders, but all those prevented in some way are uncountable, and may already number far more than we can fathom. That, right there, is a cool thought. Intriguing.
Oh, and OTHERS just happens to also have a hero, female, precocious and whip-smart, who is just a little flawed. Just enough to get herself into crazy and very human and very dangerous trouble, but also just a little so there is still much left to admire, applaud, and charm. I wanted my lady hero to be real and accessible, to the point where she may be a role model, and some readers may actually wonder if she's a living person. Well, maybe you should check out her blog:
http://kynelleharris.blogspot.com/
And if you don't mind, I'll stop right here, and allow others to propel the discussion. Let's see just how fast the reading group contacts me for their free copy of OTHERS, then how long before they stir the pot of stew that ... well, I tried to use a worn metaphor, but I'm not up to that task. Or is it "down" to that task?
--Dave
Just as a note:
I call this OTHERS for a bit of a personal reason. I don't believe in writing for myself. I'd like to think that I've been enough of an observer of human beings to have a strong sense of what will appeal to them. I'd like to honor everyone who I've ever had contact with, who contributed in the most miniscule of ways, by writing a book that's huge. I can't write to please myself, first and foremost, except to know that I authored something that worked, and it provided a learning experience for all of us.
As you wend you way through the manuscript, also please understand that this is a story. I've seen an interesting facet of peacekeeping that, if brought to full flower, could result in a peaceful world. A truly peaceful one. Okay, imperfect, because people aren't perfect. But I don't have a fear that some readers will take the book to heart and go work over a few bullies and unsavory types. I anticipate that. To have an impact--which is what I'm gunning for, here--I have to assume that some will go overboard and put some elements of this into play. With all my hope, for good.
Stephen King didn't author CARRIE because he was in favor of bleeding at the prom. So, too, do I not cheer for some TAG-type organization to pull off some assassinations and localized grisly punishments to keep the violent at bay. I don't trust anyone I know to get it right, never mind the rest of those on Earth.
This is not a recipe book for peace, but it may be a recipe book for thoughtfulness on the idea of peace in a little-addressed way. An idea that, I believe, does take real form at times, in quiet and shadow. This may be best seen in the case of a bully who is jumped by persons unknown and not harmed, but WARNED IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS TO CUT THE CRAP! Once fascinating element of this is the idea that we can count all the assaults, the beatings, the murders, but all those prevented in some way are uncountable, and may already number far more than we can fathom. That, right there, is a cool thought. Intriguing.
Oh, and OTHERS just happens to also have a hero, female, precocious and whip-smart, who is just a little flawed. Just enough to get herself into crazy and very human and very dangerous trouble, but also just a little so there is still much left to admire, applaud, and charm. I wanted my lady hero to be real and accessible, to the point where she may be a role model, and some readers may actually wonder if she's a living person. Well, maybe you should check out her blog:
http://kynelleharris.blogspot.com/
And if you don't mind, I'll stop right here, and allow others to propel the discussion. Let's see just how fast the reading group contacts me for their free copy of OTHERS, then how long before they stir the pot of stew that ... well, I tried to use a worn metaphor, but I'm not up to that task. Or is it "down" to that task?
--Dave
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