Buzz, Balls & Hype

THE DOCTOR IS IN

If you will be in the Boston area on Friday, July 6, please stop by Borders Back Bay, 511 Boylston Street, at 12:30 pm. Career advisor and radio host Mel Robbins will interview me as part of her Live at Borders: Advice for Living program.

In line with the expert advice of MJ, Lauren Cerand et al to explore Internet marketing, here is a (totally unsolicited, I swear!) commercial for my book! 

Dear Dr. Sue,

I consider myself a creative person and love to write. Unfortunately, when I am about three-quarters of the way through with something, I start to get all these ideas about other projects.  I then find it very hard to find the energy to complete the project I was working on because it is much more fun to start something new. Help!

Distressed and Incomplete

Dear Distressed,

There are a number of emotionally based reasons why writers are tempted to abandon a project partway through, and I'll discuss some of these below. First, though, have you ruled out the possibility of attention deficit disorder? If you have difficulty organizing and managing your time generally, and find that you lose track of other important projects (for example, if you chronically forget to answer email or return phone calls that aren't related to your writing or to promoting your work; if you are always losing your keys or your phone; or if your home or checkbook remains chaotic despite efforts to impose order) you may wish to consult a neuropsychologist or psychiatrist. As writers, we tend to look for the deeper, symbolic meaning underlying every conflict, and in my experience this is a valid way to proceed. However, it's often best to rule out the simpler explanations first.

If your distractability is confined to your creative endeavors, you may wish to explore what the consequences--real or imagined--might be of actually bringing a project to successful completion. (Check out my book for visualization exercises that facilitate this.) Some writers uncover a fear that outstanding achievement or public recognition will come at a high cost--that their success will threaten a romantic partner or make them a target for the envy of less successful peers or family members. While on a conscious level they want to succeed, they are held back by fear of abandonment or reprisal. Others discover that a seeming inability to complete a project allows them to postpone dealing with a problematic situation that is waiting in the wings. If they were to achieve closure in their creative work, they might have to face a deteriorating relationship or unresolved grief that has been allowed to simmer on the back burner while they worry about finishing a book or essay.

When these conflicts are brought to the surface, they often lose their power over our creative output. Either we realize that the feared conflict is not nearly as threatening as it seemed--our friends or loved ones may make some snarky comments about oversized egos, but they won't actually hate or abandon us--or that the issue that was masked by our procrastination needs serious, immediate attention. In either case, the conflict usually ceases to contaminate our ability to work.

Some writers are perfectionists. The initial inspiration for a project promises the opportunity to achieve flawless brilliance. As we approach the end, however, we are usually forced to acknowledge that the finished work will fall somewhat short of our ideal. Most of us have an inner voice that tells us when we have done our best with a given work; that it is time to either wrap it up or give it up. Perfectionists tend to ignore this voice. Not finishing allows us to sustain the illusion that if and when we do complete it, it will be as perfect as we had envisioned it. If this is an issue for you, try to think of your writing career as a whole as a quest for profundity and perfection, with each discrete work an important step in that direction. Accepting that we're human, that we will make mistakes, and that sometimes we'll fail--and that none of this disqualifies us as writers or creative individuals--is vital in taking risks and unleashing our deeper creativity.

You may also wish to try scaling down the scope of your projects a bit. A sweeping family saga or three-volume biography may seem, in prospect, like the ideal expression of your vision, but even the most privileged writers--those whose advances or trust funds obviate the need for day jobs, and who can rely on a support staff to keep the household running--find it hard to sustain energy for a huge undertaking amidst the competing demands and stimuli of twenty-first-century life. Dream as large as you like, but when it's time to glue your posterior to the computer chair, ask yourself what it is realistic to expect given your other responsibilities and interests. It's usually preferable to complete a shorter work than to curate a disc full of huge, ambitious projects that would be smashingly brilliant if only you would finish them.

Finally, try to keep your WIP to yourself as much as possible. Writing can be lonely work, and it's tempting to try to populate our solitary worlds by discussing a current project or showing incomplete drafts to friends. Naturally, if you feel stuck, need technical advice, or think you may be missing the mark in a given chapter or passage, you will want to share the relevant parts with a trusted friend, teacher, or critique group. Do this sparingly, though. The unconscious doesn't distinguish well between oral description of a work and the work itself. It is thus actually possible to "talk a project to death"--our unconscious mind considers it done, and starts egging us on to the next item on the agenda.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. Her book,  Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity, is now available in bookstores. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.

Art/Business - Part 6

On Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. What is the number 1 business rule you want authors or publishers to rethink, or to understand better. Or what is the rule you feel is most misunderstood.

Today's essay from Jacqueline Deval - Publisher, Hearst Books & Author, Publicize Your Book (Perigee)

Both publishers and authors need to be aware that
theirs should be a state of constant learning about
the business of publishing. For authors, the learning
curve may seem steep: There's a lot of homework to do.
But while authors are boning up on how to help market
their books, publishers shouldn't assume that they
know it all.

Publishers need to be keenly aware that
because the business is changing so rapidly, unless
they stay on top of what's going on and plan to
continuously re-educate themselves and
self-consciously innovate, they'll get left behind.

Not all publishers understand this and they operate
stuck in past models -- especially when it comes to
publicity and marketing. The companies that fail at
embracing new opportunities -- namely the potential to
reach new audiences through the fabulous new
electronic tools at our fingertips -- tend to be
dismissive of new ideas.  But the ones who are good at
it -- at trying new and intersting ways to bring a
book to market -- are truly exciting to watch.

The second point I would make is one that's rarely
entertained as a formal business practice but should
be: it's the philosophy and practice of generosity.
It's a simple idea, really. As an individual, help
others and be kind about it. Your generosity will be
remembered and is part of the foundation of how you
create your own good luck. And it's a point of view
that brings you to a situation with an open mind. It
works in publishing. It works in life.

Art/Business - Part 7

On Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. What is the number 1 business rule you want authors or publishers to rethink, or to understand better. Or what is the rule you feel is most misunderstood.

Today's essay by David J. Montgomery who writes about authors and books for
several of the country's largest newspapers. He blogs at Crime Fiction Dossier (http://www.crimefictionblog.com).

Challenging tradition
By David J. Montgomery

I am not an expert on marketing, nor on the business
of publishing. But having observed the industry over
the past five years from my position as a critic, I've
come to believe a few things.

More than most businesses, publishers seem to operate
based on traditions, rather than research or
innovation. "We do it this way because we've always
done it this way." Not necessarily because a
particular way works, and not necessarily because
there is data or evidence to suggest that a particular
way works best.

As a result, there is little in the way of objective
justification for the practices that publishers use.
This is not only inefficient, it's stifling, and it
leads to a lack of innovation when it comes to
changing those practices.

Most notably, publishers tend to rely on the same old,
marginally-effective strategies for promoting books. A
five-city author tour, a random mailing of advanced
copies, a quarter-page ad in the New York Times. (And
that's if the author is lucky.) Money is spent in a
scattershot, almost haphazard way, with little
coordinated, concentrated effort.

Do those strategies work? Maybe, maybe not. Do the
publishers test to see if they work? That's an even
better question. If they do, I've never seen any
evidence of it.

As just one example, publishers need to be open to
spending their promotional money in more innovative
ways. The industry is still mostly ineffective when it
comes to internet-based marketing. They'll spend
$10,000 on an author tour, but might that money be
better spent on a comparably-priced web advertising
blitz? These are the kinds of questions that need to
be researched.

Hollywood test markets everything they do. They screen
films for audiences and make changes based on their
reactions. But in publishing, even something as basic
as a focus group study of alternative book covers
seldom if ever happens. (On the other hand, let the
buyers at Barnes & Noble say they don't like a cover,
and it immediately gets changed.)

Consumers are willing to buy books. The DaVinci Code
and Harry Potter have proven that. But the industry
has to do a smarter job of reaching those consumers.
The demand exists and the supply is certainly there.
Publishers just need to find better ways of matching
the two. And challenging tradition is the first step
in accomplishing that.

Art/Business - Part 5

On Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. What is the number 1 business rule you want authors or publishers to rethink, or to understand better. Or what is the rule you feel is most misunderstood.

Today's essay from NYT Bestseller, Adriana Trigiani.

   

When MJ asked me to write about the number one business rule that authors and publishers might need to rethink, I went for a classic: the customer is always right.  When it comes to the business of books, I believe the reader is always right.  We need to listen to her.   We need to meet her where she lives. And, we need to provide a human and personal touch in a world where electronics, with their might and speed, have begun to do the connecting for us.

     Do you ever get so busy that you don’t pick up a book and read for awhile? And then, when you pick up a good book again and read in glorious silence, you remember how much reading matters and how it adds to the quality of your life?

    The days of publishing a book and letting the market carry it are over.  The publishers now buy and edit and distribute so many books that there simply isn’t the support for the novel that there used to be, let enough space in the stores to stock them in a way that your book might be featured.  As an author, you might get lost.  If the reader can’t find your novel, she loses and you lose.

 

    If a book club finds your novel and chooses it, something wonderful happens.  Your work is shared and now has a context for discussion.  You are invited to join, and to listen to the reaction of the readers.  They tell you about what you wrote and it’s fascinating.  I’m reminded time and time again how words – a story, a novel – open up the reader to her imagination and her dreams.

    Our readers are living proof that books matter.

     When I’m asked why I talk to several book clubs a week, or why I lunch with book clubs or why I care about them so, it’s because my reader is always right.  During a meeting, the reader tells me what works in a story, or what scene made a difference or to what character she most relates.  But the truth is the novel is simply our jumping off point for a deeper conversation.  A good book leads us to talk about the characters’ lives, what they’re going through, what’s happening in their world(s).  A book club is in the business of feeding hungry intellects and addressing matters of the heart.  Maybe the readers are inspired by an incident in a novel, or maybe a theme shines a light on something they know or are feeling.  Or maybe it’s a night out with the girls with good wine and the book is the excuse for coming together in a community. Or maybe it’s all of that.

     Art is the landscape of the emotions of a culture. Reading is the only art form left where the audience has access to the artist (I’m talking about living authors of course).  Actors leave the stage, musicians exit the pit, sculptors don’t stand in the park waiting for someone to ask about the materials they used, and painters hang their art and go.  Authors, when they’re not alone in a room writing, would be well served to meet their readers.  The readers are grateful and very often thrilled to know the person behind the novel.  On the business side, the publisher knows this relationship sells books and creates a loyal reader base.  This is how the publisher learns that the reader is always right – after all, the reader is doing the choosing.

    When I talk to book clubs, they know I’m choosing them.  I’m taking time to answer questions, to listen, and to meet them where they live.  What I couldn’t know when I started talking to book clubs is how much I would look forward to our meetings. I love my readers and I trust their taste.  What they can never know is how much I’m inspired by our conversations.  But that’s what art is all about: the exchange. 

What I Learned About Sex on the Internet

What happens when you google the word "sex" all night long? 

Novelist-writing prof Elizabeth Benedict (and one of my closest friends in high school which has made several people over the years ask what they put in the water), dubbed the Sex Priestess of the Ivy League in 1996 when she published the fiction writers' resource, The Joy of
Writing Sex takes us on her  cyber-journey -- "What I Learned About Sex on the Internet" -- in the
spring issue of Daedalus, the otherwise prim Journal of the American  Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She discovered Christian porn, the benefits of anal sex before marriage, an anti-masturbation T-shirt, the
infinite wonders of Google, and how she really feels about W., Susan  Sontag's essay on porn, and her late mother, who once asked, "Before  the evening gets away from us, could you tell me what dot com means?" 

For a free copy of the essay, follow directions on www.elizabethbenedict.com or go to Daedalus to buy a single issue or paid subscription.

Art/Business - Part 4

On Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. What is the number 1 business rule you want authors or publishers to rethink, or to understand better. Or what is the rule you feel is most misunderstood.

Today's essay from Simon Lipskar, literary agent and one of the smartest people I know.

These days, one of the first things a new client asks me is “what should I do to support my book?” Since the rise of the internet and the opening of certain doors of communication that had previously been sealed except to big money media players, authors have rightly realized that there are opportunities to market their work and to develop relationships with their readers. It’s become the seeming #1 rule for today’s authors: do it yourself or assume it won’t be done.

 

The catch is that we’ve reached a stage of sound and fury in which a whole lot of effort may not signify very much. It’s depressing to admit this, but if anything, I think it should be freeing for authors to realize that the burden of turning their books into bestsellers remains where it has always been: on the publishers.

 

That’s not to imply that authors shouldn’t do all the things that they can to promote themselves, but the ugly truth is without massive effort and expense, there’s not much they can do to break out of the pack that’s independent of their publishers’ efforts. Websites, for example, don’t really market books – they’re just static, if important, informational placeholders for the most part – and to make a site really valuable it has to provide regular compensations to visitors for their time. Whether blogging or aggregating or having active reader forums (pretty much the domain of superstar authors anyway), this stuff takes time, and a lot of it. If you’re independently wealthy, you can hire someone to do it for you, to update a site regularly, to be your web marketer. But if you’re a typical debut novelist who was paid a typical debut novel advance (say, $25-50,000 if we’re talking about a major corporate publisher) and you support yourself by working any of the thousand day jobs writers work, this is all far beyond your monetary resources.

 

There are certainly some excellent, maybe even essential, e-marketing programs available – such as MJ’s own AuthorBuzz or Bookreporter.com – but these are not promotions that “make” a book. They do that little bit extra, making sure readers are that small percentage more than minimally conscious of your book. These promotions are, to my mind, like coop placement, which has become the single largest marketing expense for publishers. Coop is completely essential: it’s just hugely unlikely that a book will work without significant front-of-store placement that is bought and paid for by the publisher, but it doesn’t “make” the book. Rather, it makes it possible for other forces – tremendous reviews, a brilliantly conceived and executed word-of-mouth marketing campaign, a major advertising spend, lightning striking, whatever – to “make” the book.

 

So, should you throw yourself wholeheartedly into becoming a world-class marketer of your books? Should you begin writing a daily blog that’s pithy and brilliant and specific enough about a certain topic to begin attracting readers and then holding their attention? Maybe. But, remember: as an author, your most valuable commodity is time, and this stuff takes time, and lots of it.

 

It might be time better spent on your actual work as a writer. Maybe you can write that second novel faster – or maybe spending more time on your new book will mean that it will just be better. And that, I think, is the most powerful and valuable thing an author can do to help his or her career: write the best possible books.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

If you will be in the Boston area on July 6, please stop by Borders Back Bay, 511 Boylston Street, at 12:30 pm. Career advisor and radio host Mel Robbins will interview me as part of her Live at Borders: Advice for Living program.

Dear Dr. O'Doherty,

I gave the characters in my novel names that seemed right for them, and now that it has been published
people are mad at me. One of my friends thinks a dog in the story has a name too much like her dog's name. One of them told me I had stolen something that was personal and hers because one minor character has her late mother's first name, and this has truly damaged our friendship. Yet, another friend reminded me that I had forgotten my promise made a very long time ago to include her name in some way if my novel were ever published. She had eagerly turned every page hoping to find her name tucked into the story in one way oranother, only to reach the last page in disappointment. What's a novelist to do?

-- No Name, Please

Dear No Name:

Cognitive psychologists have documented the "cocktail party phenomenon," the near-universal ability to filter out competing stimuli in order to register the mention of our own name or other personally significant information. This was apparently our cave dwelling ancestors' version of Google, and it remains a useful tool for discovering that everyone hates your new haircut, that your roommate is sleeping with your boyfriend, and other information you are assumed to be too far away or distracted to overhear.

The mechanism doesn't work perfectly, and, as self-referential creatures, we are more likely to make "false positive" errors than "false negative" ones--that is, we're more prone to interpret ambiguous information as pertaining to us than to dismiss actual references to us as coincidence. We're also, as a group, more likely to interpret ambiguous information in the most negative light possible.

I haven't read any studies on this, but I imagine that this phenomenon operates even more intensely when we already have a personal connection to the setting. For example, I'm more likely to tune in when someone mentions "Sue" at a friend's party than when I hear it in Times Square.

Your friends' assumption that you have appropriated their personal information is thus natural and expectable, though, of course, it is uncomfortable for you. Even if you were to scour your next work for personal associations and purge from it any reference to anyone you have ever known (which would be a terrible idea because of course you draw on your fund of experience to write your novels), it wouldn't work. Somebody somewhere would find, or create, a connection, and would take offense.

Try explaining to these friends that your intent was to create a complete fictional world--but that to do this, a writer needs to use any and all available resources (short of libel or plagiarism, but obviously that is not the issue here). It might help to liken the process to the way a painter might incorporate a friend's feet or facial contours in a depiction of an imaginative or historical scene, or a choreographer might make use of a loved one's familiar hand gesture in a dance. These are not references to the actual individual; they are attributes the artist recognizes as useful to the work in some way and adopts without regard to their real-life origins. If your friends are not artists themselves, this may be difficult to comprehend at first, but with goodwill and patience on both sides things should settle down.

Your promise to include your old friend's name, on the other hand, created the expectation of insider status, of a shared in-joke. Of course she was disappointed--it's as if you had promised to single her out at a party or to stand on a corner of Times Square and call her name, and then stood her up. I urge you to rectify this omission in your next novel. A promise is a promise, even if it's made in kindergarten.

.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. Her book,  Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity, has been shipped and will be available in bookstores later this month. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com

The Ad Man Answers #11

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

  Q:  I wrote a novel that I think has special appeal to college students.  How would I go about marketing to them?

A:   Good luck.  I hope your novel is named “Principles of Managerial Finance” or “A Photographic Atlas for Physical Anthropology.”

Body soap, light beer, compact cars, energy drinks, mp3 players, cell phones, video games, hooded sweatshirts… these are all good fits for marketing to the college crowd.

But popular fiction?  The typical college student is short on cash, tight on time, suspicious of advertising, and so burdened with assigned textbooks that rushing out to purchase “free reading” is probably low on their priority list.

But if you insist on trying – or happen to be selling one of those other products I listed above – the heavyweight of college marketing is Alloy Marketing (and no, I don’t work for them).  They are a one-stop shop that can do everything from putting ads on college newspaper racks to event sponsorships to campus movie screenings.

Other vendors can sell you campus washrooms, door hangers, postcards, newspapers, plasma TVs in high traffic areas, or even volunteers for charitable causes.

Advertisers who spend money to reach the college crowd, like Mountain Dew, do so because people in this life stage are still forming their ‘brand preferences’ – which may carry through to adulthood. 

But if you’ve written a murder mystery that takes place in a college setting, why not wait until these folks graduate, start earning paychecks, and get nostalgic about pulling ‘all nighters’? 

That way, if you do advertise your book, they might actually have the time and inclination to read it.

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

Music's in the Air

Booktrailers are so yesterday! 
(Not really, I love them and have two coming for my Sept release. You can watch them here, and here.)

But I'm predicting original songs are going to be the next hot thing to help promote books.

Why do I think so? Because I have one for my new book, which you can listen to here.
It was written by the award winning singer/songwriter  Doug Scofield. (He also happens to be my significant other.)  The features the amazing Liberty DeVitto on drums and I'm using it in a variety of ways, including one of the booktrailers.

Music can evoke the sense, spirit and tone of a book in a way that sticks with you and gets under your skin. And I'm excited to see what the reaction to the song for my novel is going to be. As well as think up ways to use it. 

And not to be outdone, one of my best friends and favorite writers, Douglas Clegg is going me one better and doing a contest to get a song for his new book, The Queen of Wolves.  Which comes out in Sept and is the amazing follow up and last book in Vampyicon trilogy.

Art/Business - Part 3

On Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. What is the number 1 business rule you want authors or publishers to rethink, or to understand better. Or what is the rule you feel is most misunderstood.

Today's amazing essay from Lauren Cerand, independent public relations representative and consultant.

THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG
by Lauren Cerand

For an industry with such a staggering concentration of brilliant minds, it astonishes me to no end that so few of them have set themselves to the task of decoding the limited mysteries of the Internet. Online publicity is an art form, and yet too often treated like a dismal science.

It’s easy to stereotype bloggers as operating at odds with traditional publicity, and to then shift the burden of what is potentially the most electric and relevant component of media outreach onto authors. So what if bloggers are perceived as a surly, incorrigible lot (which most of them aren’t)? They’re also too important to dismiss.

Although it’s fashionable to decry the emergence of online media as akin to the gates of culture crashing open for the unwashed masses, the honest truth is that many publicists’ dealings with bloggers lack sophistication, and sometimes basic common sense. As a blogger myself, albeit a not very dedicated one, I often find myself the unwitting recipient of heavy-handed and presumptuous inquiries. If by “anti-traditional publicity,” a phrase often tossed around, one means the awkward, aggravating feeling of receiving unsolicited books up to a dozen times per week, then yes, that’s fairly accurate. Perhaps bloggers have been less than reticent to call out the worst pitches that they receive, but then again, the best of publicity is not often what sees the light of day. More to the point, nobody spells “Oprah” wrong, nor do they send emails that say “Hey Kathy Couric...”

People often regard blogs, especially those of the literary variety, as though they have been discovered in an unexpected universe that wasn’t supposed to harbor life. In reality, online media are simply another avenue for getting the word out about a worthy book (are you equally as suspicious of radio?). With the same ease that one can look up the arts editor at The San Antonio Express-News, it’s possible to locate a blogger’s email address and send her a casual, thoughtful note that demonstrates that you have at least glanced at the site.

Any investment in familiarity with the online world is bound to return higher than expected yield. Blogs have an authenticity that many readers feel mainstream media lack, and their influence as a whole is growing exponentially. Dynamic, fascinating and personal, online outlets can present opportunities that would never exist in the “traditional” world. A flurry of user-generated comments on a blog post can spark a fascinating debate that encourages casual readers to seek out the book and decide for themselves, even if only to return armed with wittier ammunition. Best of all, connectivity is the buzzword and buzz can make all the difference in whether a book flies off the shelf or takes a nosedive into the remainder bin.

Publishing professionals bemoan the state of publicity to no end, and many hardworking publicists are unfairly maligned, but bad publicity is just a symptom of a larger problem. Too often plans for the future are ominously dictated by exactly what worked, or didn’t, the last time around. There is no effective metric for measuring the results of a media outreach campaign. The power of positive branding, increasingly central to the corporate outlook in the mainstream business world, is rarely considered in publishing, where any publisher contains a jumble of imprints all vying for influence and resources in the marketplace. The long-term benefits of an author’s presence are too frequently overlooked in favor of the publisher’s short-term goals, and in-house publicists always juggle too many books at once.

This industry faces many challenges. At the dawn of what is arguably the most promising century in human existence, publishers are trading information much as they did at the opening of the last one. Galleys come out six months in advance and they are expensive to produce. Newspaper reviews, even as their reach rapidly diminishes, are still considered the cornerstone of any campaign. There is never enough alcohol at literary events in bookstores.  Book parties exist for the sole purpose of impressing one’s colleagues and feeding the interns. But for today, let’s start small: never begin an email with “Dear Blogger.”

Lauren Cerand (laurencerand.com) is an independent public relations representative and consultant in New York.