Advice for newbie writers

The other day I received a ping on Facebook chat from one of my FB friends who wanted to ask me about how to go about getting published.

It is a common starting point question for those who have begun the process of writing a book. What do I do after I finish writing?

Well, before you finish your first draft, I recommend that you begin thinking of yourself as a writer.  Start using that term when you refer to yourself.  It is a psychological shift, but one you need to make in order to take yourself seriously as a writer.

You also need to work on your craft.  That means you must write all the time.  You must also read all the time.

Discover what you enjoy reading, and then write the kind of book that you would like to read.

Analyze your favorite books.  Tear them apart.  Dissect them.  Take copious notes. Discover the plot points, the subplots, the plot twists.  Think about the characterizations and settings.  Could the story be set in another place and time?  If so, how would it have changed the story?

Here are a few books on craft that will be thought provoking and help improve your storytelling ability:

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass
Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld

Here is another book that I adore for understanding drama:

Audition:  Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff

Beyond working on your craft, you also need to start educating yourself about the business of publishing.  I recommend that you subscribe to two different daily electronic newsletters.

Publishers Lunch and Publishers Weekly Daily

You should also read industry blogs.  If you do not have a reader to help manage blog subscriptions, please remedy that today.  I use Google Reader and I have far too many blogs to comfortably follow, but I do scan them.  If you don't have a Google account, please get one.  It's free and easy to obtain.

Here is one agent's blog that I think is helpful:  Kristen Nelson.

Start there, check out her blogroll.  Try a few others, subscribe to ones you like.  Scour more blogrolls. Rinse, repeat.

You must also find a support network.  Try and find a writers club near you.  Check your Sunday newspaper to see if there are any listings for meetings in their author signings area.  Look in the advertisements in your papers for meetings.  Perhaps you have a writers club that meets that you've never heard of before.

Then again, maybe you'll have to dig a little deeper to find a writing community in your area.

You can also try and utilize a cyber community of writers.  Absolute Writer Water Cooler is a great place to start.

Getting feedback from fellow writers is essential.  Finding a good fit critique group is important in improving your writing skills.  It is helpful to not only hearing from others about what works and what doesn't work in your drafts, but by reviewing others' work you begin to develop stronger editing muscles by identifying strengths and flaws in someone else's writing.

I feel it is more important to find someone you have good chemistry with in your critique group than it is to find a group of same genre writers.

Now onto a word of caution: there are many who will try and take advantage of writers.  Please do not click on any links for "Publish your novel here" that you might see.  It is doubtful that you will be happy with the result.

You should check out a website called Preditors and Editors and familiarize yourself with the various scams that are done to unsuspecting writers.

A companion blog that is entitled:  Writer Beware Blogs!

Another tip is to find a good adhesive to secure your backside to your desk chair or as some of my friends call it:  Butt Glue.

Any other suggestions from my writing friends for those just starting out?



http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2012/05/advice-for-newbie-writers.html

Sonoma Squares Murder Mystery - Coming Soon!

I will be a part of a literary experiment. One of the members in my writers club, Robert Digitale, is a reporter with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Robert has created a murder mystery to be published online with sixteen different writers. I am honored to say that he invited me to participate in this fun endeavor.

Robert wrote the overview and gave us direction as to what he wanted covered in our assigned chapters, and then he served as the air traffic controller/editor in assuring that the storyline was as seamless as possible.

The story will be available online starting Monday, April 23rd and can be found here. There is one last chapter that has yet to be written and is still up for grabs. Details of how you can apply to write that installment will be posted online this Thursday.

You can find a lineup of the different participating authors here.

Check it out and you can even "Like" the Sonoma Squares Murder Mystery page on Facebook.

I hope you enjoy the story and my small contribution. I found it difficult to try and cover as much ground as Robert wanted in as small of a word limit as he gave. Going from epic historic fantasy with room to elaborate on settings, characterizations, etc. to writing a distilled essence of a scene was challenging.

Should anyone here wish to join the mystery, I wish you the best of luck getting chosen and have fun in the writing if you are!

Linda



http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2012/04/sonoma-squares-murder-mystery-coming.html

Upcoming conferences

The next three months are going to be busy for me as I will be at three different conferences.

The first chronologically is the Women's Power and Strategy Conference organized by my friend Patricia V. Davis and being held on Saturday, March 24 from 9-5 pm at the San Domenico School in San Anselmo, California. I will be a vendor at this conference that is billed as "a gathering of leaders from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise who are joining forces to educate and inspire women of all ages to believe and invest in their own talent, skills, and potential.

Speakers include keynote Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, California Arts Council Chair, Founder - Feruzzi Fine Art, Evan Bailyn, Erika Bjune, Christine Bronstein, Nancy Calef, Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, Marisa Churchill, Kaye Cloutman, Deborah Cooper, Verna Dreisbach, Deborah Grabien, Dr. Tamarah McClintock Greenberg, Jeb Harrison, Laura McHale-Holland, Joe Klocek, Dena Kouremetis, Vicki Larson, Linda Lee, Frances Lefkowitz, Monique Lessan, Ivory Madison, Gil Mansergh, Amanda McTigue, Hyla Molander, Kimberly Moore, Justin Oliver, Kim Pipkin, Laurie Berry, Rebecca Rosenberg, Jeannette Sears, Ransom Stephens, Alex Vargas, Niko Volonakis, Jody Weiner, Susanna Solomon, and Mimi Towle.

All registrations of adults at the regular rate of $100 will include a gift registration for a girl. More information and to register for the conference can be found here.

I will be a presenter at my writers club upcoming conference on Saturday, April 28th at the Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, California. It is Redwood Writers Next Step Conference where writers are encouraged to take their "next step."

I will be moderating the luncheon panel of four industry experts: Mark Coker founder of Smashwords, Charlotte Cook principal of Adapting Sideways, Joel Friedlander proprietor of Marin Bookworks, and Laurie McLean literary agent with Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents. We will be discussing the rapid changes in the publishing industry in the 21st century and how writers can use those changes to their advantage.

The morning keynote address will be done by the marvelously talented David Corbett.

A description of the talks given by the following presenters can be found here.

Abby Lynn Bogomolny

Catherine Brady

Frances Caballo

Robert Digitale

Verna Dreisbach

Kate Farrell

Jody Gehrman

C.W. Gortner

Deborah Grabien

Suzanne Lang

Rob Loughran

Pete Masterson

Arlene Miller

Kemble Scott

Jeane Slone

Geri Spieler

Lee Stein

A special newsletter created for the conference can be found here.

There is also a banquet the night before the conference with the focus on poetry including the keynote speaker Al Young, California Poet Laureate Emeritus.

The deadline to register for the conference and the poetry night is April 13th!

And lastly, I will be presenting a paper "Deconstructing Carolingian legends to discover feminine archetypes and symbolism" at the biennial national conference of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology being held in San Francisco from May 11-12. For more information about that conference, please see their website here.

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2012/03/upcoming-conferences.html

Upcoming literary events in Sonoma County

November promises to be a busy month for me. I decided to take the plunge and participate in NaNoWriMo, which for those who haven't heard of this before is short for National Novel Writing Month. A fast and furious thirty days where the goal is to write 50,000 words. Quality is not the underlying goal, but instead it is quantity. Why? This is to encourage writers to silence their inner critic which can make you stop and re-read every sentence as soon as it is written.

That need to self-edit needs to be restrained so that your creative side can have free rein and possibly come up with something wonderful.

It will be less likely to happen if you spend an hour agonizing over the position of commas and debating whether or not the word "that" belongs in a specific sentence. Honestly, I have been there and I know how insane that type of editing can be on one's psyche.

I have an advantage of many of the NaNoWriMo participants because the sequel to my novel Quest of the Warrior Maid is outlined in great detail. I just have not allowed myself to start writing it in earnest because I have been trying to market my first novel. So I have a plot and a detailed one at that. I just have to start putting my thoughts down in the first draft format.

Beyond NaNoWriMo, I will be reading from my novel in the Odd Month Reading sponsored by Redwood Writers at the Windsor Public Library.

The theme will be:

Rain! Here it Comes!
Ready or Not!

Details:
SATURDAY, November 12 , 2011
1:00 – 3:00 PM
Windsor Library
9291 Old Redwood Hwy.
Windsor, California

I plan on reading from a chapter where the leader of the Islamic forces is planning an attack on the fortified city of Paris and the weather promises a terrible thunderstorm that evening.

The next day, Sunday, November 13th my writers' club monthly general meeting will be held from 2:30-5 at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. Our guest speaker will be Terri Farley, author of the well known Phantom Stallion series. Her topic will be "Writing a Series isn't Child's Play."

Then on Monday, November 14th I signed up to participate in the Dine with Local Authors event at Gaia's Garden, 1899 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa at 6 pm. Seven local authors will be reading from our work after eating dinner with friends and fans of the local literary community.

Hopefully, between those events and Thanksgiving I shall get somewhat close to "winning" NaNoWriMo by composing 50K words.

Wish me luck, and for those who live in Northern California, please stop by at some of these events if you can.

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2011/10/upcoming-literary-events-in-sonoma.html

Critique Groups and Self-Editing

Becky Levine and Linda C. McCabe

It has been over a month since I last posted.

I have not been hospitalized, abducted by space aliens or any such dramatic excuses. Nor is it due to me running out of blog topics. Nope, I have just been busy writing. And editing. Again.

The biggest part of writing is the re-writing process.

One of the most difficult aspects of re-writing is recognizing what works, what isn't working and what needs to be changed.

My writing club held a series of editing workshops this year and we were fortunate enough to have a roster of wonderful speakers. One of which was my friend Becky Levine who spoke on a topic near and dear to her heart: critique groups.

She was able to use her workshop as a "testing ground" for her forthcoming book by Writers Digest books on the very subject of critique groups and how to critique other people's writing.

How to offer constructive criticism that will help others to know what works and how things can be improved. It is in the process of using your analytical eye on another person's work that you can then recognize things in your own writing that had heretofore been invisible.

Because the writer is always too close to their own work to really see it objectively.

Becky has been a member of various critique groups for about twenty years and she stresses that the purpose is to help writers improve their work, but never to get them to write a different book. It is the individual's work and the writer determines what advice is taken and what is rejected.

Her preferred critique group structure is one where pages for review are submitted a few days before the meeting. This allows for thoughtful consideration of the work rather than immediate response to the text.

Becky gave handouts which included a form for a written critique. She includes questions for the reviewer to answer such as:

Character: can you identify the hero (main character) in this scene? Has the author written a hero that a reader can sympathize or identify with? Does the hero's personality show complex, even conflicting, traits? What would you do to strengthen this character as the hero?

She also includes spaces to discuss Plot, Description (settings and people), Dialogue, Point of View & Voice, as well as Scene Structure.

Becky insists that when writing a critique that you always start with something good. We are dealing with people's creative sides and their egos, so find an area to praise. Becky did not allow for the possibility that there would be nothing worth praising. She adopted her "stern mother voice" if someone wanted to skip that part and directed them to find something to admire.

After starting with praise, then move to areas where you see weaknesses. Identify areas where you were bored, confused, or taken "out of the story." If you had a negative response to the text and try to identify why it did not work for you. Offer suggestions such as "what would happen if...." or "Have you tried..." Then end on another note of encouragement.

Face to face interactions are important, but it is the written critiques which can sometimes provide the most lasting help. They might be filed away for months at a time and then the tangible bits of advice are used later during revisions.

In regard to the in person critique group meetings, Becky suggests that only one person speak at a time with the writer being critiqued remaining silent. That is unless there is some confusion and questions for clarification. However, one should remember that most readers will never have the writer there in person to answer a question so if there is confusion in the text, it may need to be addressed in the revision process. (Unless that is a deliberate aspect of the story such as a clue or red herring designed to make the reader guess the solution.)

If while another person is giving their critique you think of something you wish to add, jot that down in a note rather than interrupt. You will have your turn to speak.

Overall, Becky did a wonderful job presenting how best to conduct yourself in a critique group and it reinforced many of my thoughts on the subject. I look forward to buying a copy of her book The Critiquer’s Survival Guide, due out in Fall 2009.

I had meant to do this write up about Becky's workshop shortly after it happened, except I ran out of time. I was busily preparing myself for a week-long plot intensive workshop sponsored by Free Expressions. It was the Breakout Novel Intensive known by its participants as BONI.

The classes were taught by literary agent Donald Maass, author of Writing the Breakout Novel and its companion Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.

Donald Maass

Mornings were filled with lectures, but they were more like motivational seminars fused with writing challenges. Donald Maass is an excellent public speaker who has great passion for the subject of writing and drama as well as a quick wit.

During his talks we were barraged with questions about our characters, plot points and challenged to make things worse.

One of the first exercises was to consider the main character or hero of the story, identify defining characteristics about them and then consider what the opposite qualities would be. Then find a way to show both the ideal and its opposite in the first five pages.

Here is the notes he wrote on the easel for that day:



I realized while listening to that lecture that I had those elements built into my first chapter, but they had not been brought out sufficiently. In challenging myself to find a way for my hero to show a negative quality, in this case to be disrespectful, I had to make him hurl an insult.

A nasty insult to a superior officer.

That afternoon I worked on implementing the homework assignment. My first attempts were a bit lame, but it was a break through for me to allow my hero to do something against his nature so soon in the story.

I was excited to print out my new revision to show to the critique group that night. We were assigned groups according to our genres and I was fortunate to be a part of an incredibly lively (and bawdy) group of writers.

One of the reasons I signed up for the BONI workshop was to discover what was wrong with my first few chapters. I had good luck in getting agents interested in seeing my work, so I knew that my premise and pitch were working. However, none had ever asked to see more pages.

I had received some feedback that the beginning seem "too distant." I had been polishing the chapter for so long that I could not understand what was being asked of me to change.

I brought those comments to the fresh eyes of my BONI critique group members and it was as if I had given a sock to bloodhounds in a fox hunt. One person mentioned that when I used the term "ominous" that they wanted more. Another thought I should cut it, but then I began challenging myself to give more personal stakes for my hero in that first scene.

It was as fireworks were going off in my brain. Later that night I stayed up late re-writing the first chapter and including the new insights. I fell in love with the story again.

I also want to personally thank one of my critique group members who helped me tremendously in how to increase the insult to the ego of my antagonist. By changing the dialogue slightly, without changing any plot events, he showed me how to increase the size of my hero's cojones.

And, the insult that I am now using to end my chapter wound up flowing from my lips as the group brainstormed. Thank you, Lucien.

Lucien Nanton

The afternoons were designed for you to have time to work on your writing as well as the time set aside for one on one consultations with faculty members who read portions of your work and synopsis.

Here is one more snapshot of a morning workshop's notes which is in honor of my friend Terri Thayer. During the discussion, there was mention of some designer quilts going for as much as $100,000 to collectors. Donald Maass showing his quick wit decided to change gears and switch topics from scenes to quilts.

Not really, but it was funny and led to several rounds of puns tossed out by people throughout the room.




I have found after going to my writers club meetings that I feel energized. As if simply being around other creative people releases endorphins into my bloodstream.

Interacting with the other BONI students was fantastic. Many were veterans of other Maass workshops, but all were serious writers committed to bettering their craft. So even when I wasn't at class or in a consultation, I was networking with other writers.

The week spent at BONI took my natural post-meeting high and amplified it tenfold. I felt as if I was on mental steroids.

Seriously. I had trouble sleeping, because my mind was so fired up. I rested, but could not really get into deep sleep because of the intense mental stimulation wouldn't allow me to shut my mind off.

It took me several days at home before I was able to revert to my normal sleeping patterns.

One of the last bits of advice Donald Maass gave to us was to take 20-30 pages of our manuscript and throw them off a staircase so that the pages are in disarray. Then take another 20-30 pages and repeat the process. Do this until the entire manuscript is out of sequence. Then edit page by page for microtension.

Ye Olde Grading by Gravity trick.

The rationale was to force yourself to look at each page in isolation to identify weaknesses and avoid getting "caught up" in your own narrative by doing it in sequence.

I have begun that process and am about a quarter of the way through this round of edits, but have not yet entered any into my computer. Because I am fearful of potentially introducing continuity errors by editing out of sequence.

So I shall wait until I have finished this round of edits and then enter them sequentially. I am finding areas in my manuscript that were a bit heavy on exposition that can be tightened and/or changed to dialogue.

But I now have a new focus and energy toward making this manuscript as strong as I can make it.

Write on!

Setting, Scenes and Book Signings

Jean Hegland

I have mentioned before on this blog how much I enjoy belonging to a writers club. It is the process of interacting with others who share my obsession with the written word that inspires the creative flame within me.

This past weekend my club sponsored the second of three editing workshops and had its monthly meeting.

So I saw writing friends and colleagues on both Saturday and Sunday. On the drive home Sunday night I felt euphoric.

Things had gone fabulously and I had some incredible new insights that will inform my future writing and that I wanted to share with my blog readers.

Jean Hegland, author of Into the Forest, led a workshop regarding the importance of setting. She began with the situation of a person waking up from a coma and that the first thing they would ask is, "Where am I?"

That is the question that a writer needs to answer when they begin a story or a scene so that the reader will know whether it is day or night, what season, what year, whether it is indoors or outdoors and where this scene takes place geographically. Because each choice has an impact on the overall story.

Setting gives a story verisimilitude when it takes readers to a place they have not been before or if it is to a place in which they are familiar. It is vitally important to get the details right for if you choose a real location and say you put a grocery store on the wrong side of the road, those who know the area will complain.

Jean then gave an example of how important it is choosing settings for individual scenes and how by playing with your choices you can change the tone and meaning of a scene.

She referenced Jordan Rosenfeld's earlier workshop about scenes and Jordan's insistence that a scene not be comprised of "talking heads in space" and that each scene involve some action. Then Jean gave an example of an action such as a couple having sex where the setting chosen would reveal character.

The actions by the characters could be written the same, but depending on the setting the meaning and the tone of the scene would be different.

The following were the three different settings she used to illustrate her point:

1) a cemetery (ewwww)
2) a bedroom
3) a boardroom

During that discussion I could not help but blurt out my "ewwww" comment in the class, which led to a nice round of laughter from the group. Camaraderie among writers is a wonderful thing.

Jordan Rosenfeld

Now onto the subject of scenes which was Jordan Rosenfeld's topic. She described scenes as the building blocks of a story similar to beads on a wire. Meaning that each scene needs to be complete in and of itself and it is the stringing together of the scenes that create the overall story.

Each scene should be comprised of:

action
character
POV (point of view) in which the scene is communicated
new information revealed
conflict and drama
and it must take place in a tangible setting

In other words: No talking heads in space!

She also stressed that not only is the first scene in your book important to hook your readers, but that as each character of any relevance is introduced that you must take the time to recognize that this is their first scene. Writers must reveal something compelling about each important new character without resorting to a data dump summary.

Jordan feels that it is better to give such information via dialogue and action than by summary. Ye olde "show don't tell" maxim.

She described dramatic tension as a sense of danger, complexity, mystery and a sense of discovery. Each scene should have some dramatic tension. She also stressed the need for variety in the style of scenes so that there are peaks and valleys in the tempo or else the reader will become either fatigued or bored.

Plot is created in relationship to the scenes. She gave a list of 4 D's for plot revelation that each scene must include at least one of these:

Dialogue
Discovery
Demonstration (such as a flash of unexpected anger)
Devices - e.g. letters or memorabilia

She described a well balanced scene as one where the reader is:

not confused
knows the setting
knows the characters
there is tension and drama

The time to change a scene is denote a break with time, place or POV. That can be done with a full chapter break or by using a blank space within a chapter to signify the change.

For those interested in knowing more about Jordan's thoughts on scenes, you can buy her excellent book Make a Scene

by Writers Digest Books at your local bookstore or available online.

Then on Sunday at the monthly meeting of my writers club we had Stephanie Deignan the events coordinator of Copperfield's Books come and speak.

Stephanie Deignan

For several years now I had wanted to schedule a speaker who could give the bookstore's point of view in regard to author appearances. I had approached two other events coordinators in the past to give such a talk, but they declined. So I was excited when last summer I spoke with Stephanie on the phone and she accepted.

I wanted our members to know how to go about getting an event scheduled, what to expect in regard to publicizing from the bookstore, and what their responsibilities are in order to have a successful event.

Stephanie started by saying that we should all be aware that bookstores are understaffed and underpaid and so when you approach a bookseller in the hopes of arranging a signing, you need to be understanding and patient. The information that you need is to discover the name of the events coordinator, their phone number and email address. Do not bother the harried bookseller with the information about you or your book as it will probably get lost in the shuffle.

In your initial contact via phone (most likely a voice mail message) and email you should include your name, your contact information, the title of your book, the publisher information, give a brief synopsis about what the book is about, any publicity information such as radio interviews scheduled, any published reviews, as well as book distribution information. Mention if it is carried by Ingram, Baker and Taylor or a smaller independent publishing distributor or if it is a POD title (print on demand) which would necessitate being on consignment.

Then be patient and wait for a few days or so to hear back. Be professional and be willing to call back if necessary. Again, they are short staffed and bookstore employees are trying their best.

Stephanie at some point discussed the difficulty bookstores have with PODs titles because generally they are non-returnable. Bookstores will order POD titles for customers if it is paid at the time of ordering, but they do not want to be stuck with books they cannot return and might never be able to sell.

The different kinds of author events were described as "traditional author talks" where an author talks about their book, does a short reading, a question and answer session and then signs books versus "meet and greets" where a table is set up and an author can interact with customers in a more informal setting and talk one on one instead of to a group.

She said that for authors who are not yet established would find it easier to have a "meet and greet" scheduled than an "author talk." If for no other reason than it causes less havoc for booksellers since they do not have to rearrange the bookshelves in the store to make room for chairs for people who may or may not show up to the signing.

She admitted that the emphasis that bookstores give to publicizing their author events is tiered depending on the name recognition of the authors. Those who are big named authors are given "A list" treatment and more time is spent on trying to generate crowds. Then publicizing for "B list" and "C list" authors are by necessity given less time and energy. This comes back to the reality of being understaffed.

That means that a large onus of publicizing the events rests on the shoulders of authors. Once you have a scheduled event, you must do as much to publicize as you can by utilizing the old tried and true methods of fliers, posters, and postcards, as well as newer media such as online events calendars, keeping an up-to-date website with your events listings, and social media such as Facebook and blogs.

She also stressed the influence that radio interviews can have in making the events a success. If you should be lucky enough to score a radio interview with someone like Michael Krasny of KQED Radio - who has an audience known for being book buying fiends - be sure to let a bookstore know so that they can buy adequate stock. Recently an author returned for a signing and after having been interviewed on Krasny's show and he drew a significantly larger crowd than the had the year before with a previous title. The problem was that the publicist did not alert the store and there were not enough books on hand to meet demand.

Which is why authors should always carry at least a box of books with them to signings...just in case. You never know when a bookstore's order might not come through on time due to blizzards in the midwest or strikes by UPS, etc.

(A few side notes: if you are lucky enough to score a radio interview prior to a book signing, do not forget to mention your scheduled book store event including the date, time and location. That is what will bring people into the store and get their butts in the seats for your signing! And if you want to know more about what to expect with talk radio and radio interviews you can read an old post of mine on the subject of the Do's and Don'ts of Talk Radio.)

On the day of your event you should call the store early in the day to confirm, arrive early and check in with a bookseller. You should bring a sign up sheet for those who would like to be on your mailing list as well as fliers to any upcoming events such as workshops or conferences. You should also bring postcards with the cover of your book, business cards and even book marks with your website and blog addresses. Make it easy for people who are interested in you to follow your career.

Stephanie suggested an event drawing between five to ten people for small authors is doing good. She also said that if there is a ratio of 30%-50% of books sold to the number of attendees present than it is a successful signing.

During the discussion with our members, Persia Woolley mentioned another reason for authors to always be prepared. One time she went to a signing and the author never showed. The audience was getting restless and being a trooper - she offered to pitch in and give a talk about her book. The events coordinator was thrilled to have someone save the day and she had the opportunity to talk to an audience she otherwise would not have had.

Stephanie thought that was great of Persia to help out in that manner.

Persia then said that the favor wound up being returned by another author when she got lost trying to find a small venue. She arrived late after finally getting directions from someone at a gas station and discovered that another author had warmed up the crowd in the interim. (Another reason for authors to keep a box of books in the trunk of your car. You just never know when you will get a chance to sign and sell them!)

Stephanie was asked about timing of when to start trying to schedule events at bookstores and she thought that two months before publication would be a good time to start. Then on the other end is how long you have before the books start getting returned. That happens at about three months post publication for hardcovers and six months for everything else. So after about a year of publication unless your book has really taken off, it will be hard to interest a bookstore in doing an event.

Her last words of wisdom on the subject was to enjoy yourself and make it fun.

C.W. Gortner, An overnight literary sensation 13 years in the making

The Redwood Writers branch of the California Writers Club

I started this post a week ago, but have not had much chance to finish it due to visits from relatives and - ahem - home improvement projects.

On Sunday, December 7th my writers club was fortunate to have Christopher Gortner as our guest speaker. The title of his talk was: "Thirteen Years in the Making: C.W. Gortner's Personal Journey to Publication."

Before the meeting started I was chatting with Christopher and happened to mention an anecdote about one of the members of my club. As he heard her name, Christopher's eyes grew large.

"You know Persia Woolley?"

"Yes." I looked around the room, saw her and said, "and she's here today."

He told me how much he loves her book How to Write and Sell Historical Fiction and how he refers to it frequently during his writing process and that he has bought replacement copies of it over the years.

I beckoned Persia over and made introductions.

Persia Woolley and Christopher Gortner

Christopher is also a fan of her Guinevere trilogy and expressed regret that he did not have his copies with him to be signed.

Persia's books may be classified as out of print, but they continue to have an impact on readers and writers. Hopefully her trilogy will be reprinted for new audiences to discover and she should update the How-to book to incorporate the internet age and how to sift through information found by online searches.

Now onto the meat of Christopher's talk. He loves historical fiction. He loves reading it and writing it.

He has always wanted to be a novelist writing historical fiction, even when the market for the genre was considered to be "dead."

His first agent was from New York City and his first novel about Anne Boleyn made the publishing rounds. During the waiting period of hearing back from publishers, Christopher busied himself by writing another book. This one was on Juana of Castile also known as "Juana la Loca."

After his novel got some glowing rejection letters and the novel The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell was published it was suggested there would not be much interest in the market for another Anne Boleyn book at the time.

Disillusioned with New York, Christopher signed with a different agent, one who was from another part of the country.

She sent his book on Juana of Castile around, but did not have any better luck. The publishers liked his style and his voice, but no one was buying.

At one point she told him that the difficulty might be in his name. Because most buyers of historical fiction are women and it was thought that female book buyers preferred books about women written by women.

She suggested he adopt a pen name like Caryn Gortner. Or Catherine Gortner.

He did not want to do it.

For one thing, he would be hiding behind a persona and for another, how are you supposed to publicize your book if you are a man pretending to be a woman? Dress in drag to signings?

His agent was not amused.

He received one offer for his book on Juana, but there were some matters that needed to be agreed to before any contract could be signed.

The biggest sticking point concerned the ending.

They wanted it to be changed, because they wanted a happy ending.

Juana of Castile is an historical figure with a tragic life story and it is not in any form a Happily Ever After Ending.

Yet that is what this publisher wanted to have happen. They wanted this story to be a category romance with those genre expectations which are antithetical to the historical reality of the person depicted in the story.

His agent was pushing for him to accept the deal and make the changes.

Christopher was torn because he really wanted to be published and he had been through the publishing merry-go-round for several years at this point in time. He consulted a trusted friend and she told him that if he did what the publisher wanted that he would live to regret it.

He would be savaged by the critics for changing history and he might get steered into becoming a category romance author. He prefers writing about complicated historical figures with tragic fates. That is not the formula for category romance success.

Christopher declined to change the ending. His agent then dropped him from her list of clients.



He tried again with a third book, this time about Catherine de Medici. He signed with an agent at the Jean V. Nagar Literary Agency and once again he had a book making the rounds.

Christopher said that each book seemed to take about 2 1/2 years of submissions and received about 45-55 rejections. Many of the rejections described how much they loved his work, but mentioned all the difficulties in the marketplace, including the perception that historical fiction was a dying genre and the tremendous challenges in launching an unknown author in the genre.


During this time, his agent left the agency and wanted to take him with her. There were some contract unraveling that needed to be done, but he chose to stay with her rather than try to have his book "adopted" by another agent.

He decided at one point to chase writing trends and he spent countless hours in a book store studying the market. It was because of that experience that he wrote a short "thriller" set in the Tudor Court and with a male protagonist. Christopher said that he would not recommend anyone trying to follow trends because by the time you finish writing your book and if it makes the publishing rounds and gets picked up, you are talking a couple years from when you did your initial research. By that time, that trend may no longer be in vogue.

The situation with his third agent deteriorated and after a final round of submissions for his Tudor thriller, they parted ways.

For years he had been excited when he talked with his literary friends because he had an agent and his work was "making the rounds." He was anticipating good news. The years of repeated rejection had begun taking its toll on his psyche.

He avoided the literary community, because he did not want to admit he had given up.

He stopped writing for eight months and went through a period of depression, until his partner gave him a swift kick in the backside and instructed him to start writing again.

Christopher decided that his writing deserved an audience and if New York publishers could not find their way to publish his works, then he would himself. He started researching various POD publishers such as iUniverse and AuthorHouse when he met someone who was planning on starting a small publishing house. This guy knew of Christopher's writing reputation and offered to publish a book without charging him any fees.

He chose the short Tudor court thriller as his first test case. The Secret Lion was all set to print and he received a call saying that there was trouble with the cover. His name was giving them fits because of its length.

It was "the name thing" again.

Christopher asked them to try his initials of C.W. and see how it looked.

That worked.

And so, due to cover art considerations, he adopted the pen name of C.W. Gortner.

Using the strength of the internet and his own networking of friends and associates, he wound up selling around six thousand copies of The Secret Lion online.

He followed up that success by self publishing The Last Queen and had sold about a thousand copies of that title within a month when he received a phone call from Jennifer Weltz at the Jean V. Nagar Literary Agency. He had talked with her during the process of leaving the agency to follow his previous agent and she remembered him when she came across his name while looking at The Secret Lion at Amazon.com. She asked about his sales record as well as wanting to see his manuscripts. Christopher sent her everything she requested and signed with her, but he did not allow himself to get his hopes up.

He had been through this dance three times before.

Then in a few months, Jennifer called with good news. She had an offer, but other houses were considering the manuscript and she wanted to notify them that an offer was on the table. To everyone's surprise, the book ended up going into auction.

In the end, he had a two book deal for six figures with Ballantine.

Huzzah!

Christopher Gortner and Linda McCabe

The Last Queen is a wonderful book. I loved it.

I knew from the book trailer that Juana suffered a tragic fate, but I was unfamiliar with her life story and did not know how it would end.






Christopher has painted a vivid picture of how limits felt by women of the time and the motives of those surrounding her were predicated upon political power.

If you are looking for a Christmas present for someone who loves historical fiction, I heartily recommend C.W. Gortner's The Last Queen.

By the way, he has a great blog as well.

First Drafts, Guest Blogging, Book Trailers, and a Movie Review

On Sunday my writers club had their monthly meeting and our guest speaker was Guy Biederman.

The topic of his discussion was "Why I will not write today" and dispeled several myths about the writing process and how writers allow impediments to interfere with their writing. He tossed out that question to the room and there were numerous replies from being too tired, too busy, and nothing to write about. One woman, who was a first time attendee of our meetings, said, "Because I'm afraid of writing crap."

I was not running the meeting and so I had to restrain myself from trying to take the reins of the meeting and interjecting my thoughts to her in response.

The first draft is important to get your thoughts down on paper or in your computer screen even if it is crap. I remember Gillian Roberts saying in a keynote address that writers should not worry about "writing it right, you need to write it down." Later you can fix it.

Anne Lamott has said on more than one occasion that she has never writes anything but "shitty first drafts."

Hallie Ephron said at the recent East of Eden Conference that she hates writing, but loves re-writing. Only after the first draft will she have something to work with and to perfect.

I wanted to share those accumulated bits of wisdom I had heard from other writers over the years and reassure this woman that she should not her first draft. She may find that the first words written are indeed crap, but that in the creative process she might also come up with something inspired. The first she needs to do is get it down on paper and she can fix it later.

However, I was not the guest speaker and did not want to interrupt in order to interject a point because when it comes to writing I have many opinions and insights. Unfortunately, after the meeting I did not get the chance after the meeting to schmooze with her convey my thoughts in response to her statement.

It was an enjoyable meeting and I found this statement by Guy Biederman to be profound: "writing is not therapy, but it is therapeutic."

Onto the subject of guest blogging. My friend Erika Mailman will be guest blogging at Lee Lofland's wonderful Graveyard Shift blog on Wednesday, October 8th. His blog normally deals with police procedurals and anything law enforcement related. This time the subject will be expanded to look at historical interrogations in the form of witch trials and the Malleus Maleficarum which Erika used as inspiration for her novel The Witch's Trinity now available in paperback. Here is a direct link to her post which is chilling.



She will be there all day answering questions, so if you have any in regard to the tests used to determine guilt or innocence of those accused of witchcraft, be sure to post it in the comment trail.

Erika has other events associated with the launch of her paperback including other guest blogging stints, public appearances and a radio interview planned for this month. You can find a list of them here.

Now to book trailers. I wanted to share a wonderful book trailer that I saw yesterday that makes me want to read about a woman from history I had not heard about before. She is Juana of Castile also known as Juana la Loca. She was the sister of Catherine of Aragon (Henry the VIII's first wife) and the mother of the Emperor Charles the V. She was the last queen of Spanish blood and is said to have gone mad over love.



The Last Queen has made the Marin Independent Journal's best seller list and the rights have been sold in nine countries.


Christopher Gortner will be our guest speaker in December for my writers club and I am excited to hear him speak. His topic will be his path to publication which took thirteen years, four agents, and included self-publishing a novel that was later republished by a large publisher.

At one point, he had an agent suggest he adopt a pen name that would make him appear to be a woman. Because it is thought that since women buy most historical novels that they prefer books written by women.

The irony of it all.

Women such as Mary Ann Evans hid behind the masculine pen name George Eliot in order to be published and now a man has been told he needs to hide his true identity in order to be published.

GAH.

That is why Christopher uses the name C.W. Gortner.

J.K. Rowling had been told that boys prefer male authors and so she was advised to hide her sex behind her initials. As it turns out, I do not think that boys really care if the author is a man or a woman as long as the book is enjoyable.

I feel that women are the same. Write a book that takes me away from my own day-to-day life and I will not care if it was written by a man or a woman.

I feel insulted that such a suggestion was made to an author, especially since we are told time and again that writers must actively promote their books. No writer cannot depend on reviews causing books flying out of the bookstores without working to make sure people know about the book in the first place.

One cannot sit back and depend on the publicity department of a publisher to do that for you.

Nor can you simply hire an independent publicist so they can handle those pesky matters to generate sales while you can devote your time and attention to writing your next book.

Not in today's publishing world.

It is up to the author to push their product.

How is a male author supposed to do that if he has a female pen name?

Guest blogging with a picture of some hot chick might work, but what about when you are scheduled for personal appearances? Do you hire someone to play the part?

And isn't that what made all kinds of people upset with J.T. LeRoy?

I am glad that Christopher has achieved success without having to follow such a suggestion.

:head on desk:

...

Now onto a subject that disturbs me and I find myself continuing to think about days after first reading it.

Gil Mansergh is another one of my writing friends and among his many talents he reviews movies. He views over three hundred movies a year and he found the movie Towelhead so disturbing that he felt compelled to write an open letter to Alan Ball the screenwriter and director.

In part, Gil wrote:

What were you trying to accomplish when you made this film?

Because whatever you intended your message to be, the inclusion of voyeuristically graphic sex scenes between the dad-next-door and the thirteen-year-old girl make your movie into a pedophile's fantasy come true.

Gil then mentions that he is also a "psychological educator who uses movie clips to teach thousands of teachers, psychologists and other licensed mental health professionals in seminars like 'Sex, Trust and Intimacy,' 'Parenting Teens.' And 'Spousal/Partner Abuse.' "

In these seminars. I use carefully selected clips from some quite controversial films (i.e. Larry Clark's "Kids," Alexander Payne's "Election," and Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed's "Thirteen,") to focus on important topics for discussion including sensuality, sexual identification and sexual abuse.

Gil goes on to describe how in this movie a character methodically ingratiates himself with the teenaged girl until she sees herself as his girlfriend and submits to his sexual advances so that force is unnecessary.

Gil's description of those scenes make me ill.

Movies are powerful because they project images that resonate with our subconscious and their influence can last for years.

I do not think that I could stomach watching such a movie. I like Aaron Eckhart as an actor, but I will not subject myself to watching him play the role of sexual predator of a child.

I would not be entertained, I would be sickened.

I trust that Gil's assessment of the film is spot on and shall spare myself from needing to take a long, hot shower after going to the cinema.

I hope that mentioning this on my blog will spare others from seeing a movie whose content you might not be fully aware of beforehand. Consider yourself forewarned.

Linda

What would you like to see in a writers conference?

My local writers club is starting to plan for a one day writers conference to be held in October 2009.

I have attended a lot of writers conferences over the years. After awhile it seems that some sessions are ones that I could mumble in my sleep because I have attended them in one form or another multiple times.

Last year on one of the numerous agent blogs I follow, (unfortunately I cannot remember which one), I read about something that I have never seen in a writers conference but sounded as if it could be very instructive.

Volunteers submitted portions of their work and an agent read it aloud and gave their brutally honest feedback. The part that sounded the most intriguing would be learning at what point the agent would stop reading and say "Next!"

It sounds potentially bruising to one's ego, but it could also be incredibly helpful in identifying weaknesses in writing as well as understanding exactly how little time we have to grab an agent's attention.

I would like for our conference to have workshops and sessions that are more than just re-treads of standard fare because I want my club to be able to attract attendance from more than just our members or local writers.

Therefore, I am turning to the blogosphere in asking for feedback and suggestions.

Please tell me what are your likes and dislikes with writers conferences.

Is there a subject that you would drive one hundred miles to hear discussed?

Perhaps there is something you have never seen covered in a writers conference, but would like to see?

Is there any topic you have seen addressed that was particularly helpful that you would recommend?

Or is there a topic you have heard so many times that you would be bored to tears to hear it ONE MORE TIME.

Please let me know. I am open to all suggestions.

Success in Writing and Publishing: A Mixture of Hard Work, Networking and Luck

I had been asked to write a summary of Kemble Scott's talk for my writers club, and thought I might share those efforts with my blog readers as well. Think of it as revising and extending my remarks from earlier when I posted about him and his book.

Kemble Scott was the guest speaker at the second annual Marin-Redwood Writers Joint Meeting. He is a San Francisco Chronicle Best Selling author of SoMa, a novel about the South of Market Street neighborhood in San Francisco.

Scott is a journalist, an alumnus of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, and has won three Emmys for his work in television news. He moved to San Francisco and wanted to live in an "urban" setting and decided against the tonier neighborhoods with Victorians and instead chose the SoMa neighborhood. He moved there without really knowing about the area's longstanding reputation. Some of the streets there were named after prostitutes from the Gold Rush era when the neighborhood first developed its own distinctive character.

After living in SoMa for awhile, Scott started becoming aware of unorthodox activities surrounding him and some of the dirtier secrets of San Francisco. Due to the sensitive nature of these human interest stories, he decided rather than use his reporting skills -- which might potentially embarrass people -- that he would take the events and situations and fictionalize them.

He also wanted to separate his fiction writing from his journalism writing and adopted the nom de plume Kemble Scott.

He couldn't find a proper venue for his stories, so he created one: the SoMa Literary Review. He was new to the literary scene in San Francisco and decided to take a leap of faith by launching how own online literary magazine and hope it would find an audience. The first issue featured ten of his stories and he used ten different pen names. Word quickly spread about his online literary journal and he soon received submissions from real writers meaning that he no longer had to hide behind multiple personas.

Scott also created the San Francisco Bay Area Literary Arts which sends out email blasts every Friday to publicize literary events and book signings. This effort has helped him generate many contacts within the literary community which came in handy when he sought venues for book signings.

He joined the Sanchez Annex Writers Grotto as well as the San Francisco Writers Workshop where he has connected with many authors such as Erika Mailman, Tamim Ansary, and Khaled Hosseini.

At one point, Scott was approached by an editor and suggested he turn the SoMa Literary Review into a book. He took the man at his word and printed out his favorites and stapled them together and sent it off. However, the editor did not want a collection of short stories, he wanted a novel with an overarching theme that wove those stories together in a compelling narrative. Scott had never written a novel before and it took him a while to figure out how to do it.

By the time he had something to show, the editor was no longer at that publisher. Scott "lucked out" and one of his manuscripts at the house of a trusted reader happened to be spotted by an agent who picked it up, started reading and liked it. The young agent contacted Scott and offered to represent him. Scott thought it was the break he needed. As it turned out, the agent was unable to sell the book and after a year, Scott fired him.

He decided to strike out on his own and identified an editor at Kensington Press who had published several offbeat travel books and thought it might be a good fit. Not only did he send off a manuscript, but he included blurbs from his writing friends and even one from the notorious JT LeRoy. Then Luck played a part. The editor was on vacation at the time SoMa arrived in the slush pile. The editor's assistant read the manuscript and fell in love it. The day the editor returned from vacation, his assistant sprang at him and passionately insisted that he buy this book.

Getting published was one hurdle, but spreading the word about his book was going to be an even greater hurdle since getting reviews for his book would be a difficult proposition. Newspapers have been cutting back on their book reviews and his novel's subject matter deals with kinky sex making it less likely to be reviewed.

One of his neighbors worked for YouTube and suggested he make a video about the book and post it online. Scott decided to make a series of short promos showing some of the locations mentioned in his book. Along with showing the places, he uses suggestive language to reference some of the unusual behavior in those places which are represented in his book. The video clips preceded the publication of his book and his novel appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle's best seller list the first week it was released, and according to Google he was the first author to publicize a novel on YouTube.

His video promos were panned on an online Silicon Valley gossip site named ValleyWag, but they spelled his name right and they included weblinks to help promote his book.

Because SoMa was listed as a best seller by a nationally recognized newspaper, even though it was not a New York Times best seller, his book has been purchased by libraries and has been sold in venues such his local Costco and even airports in Singapore that otherwise would never have carried his book.

Overall Scott's advice is to become part of your local writing community, network with other writers, create your own opportunities when you need to, be persistent and hope for a little luck.

YouTube and Book Trailers: a Success Story

Yesterday, agent Lucienne Diver made a guest appearance on my friend Lee Lofland’s blog. Her topic was how writers can create buzz for their work and she brings up a lot of great ideas.

On the comment trail there was a question posed about book trailers and whether or not they were a valuable marketing tool for authors.

I replied to him, but thought this was a topic I could expand upon and make my own blog entry.

This past Sunday my writers club meeting had Kemble Scott as our guest speaker. He has the distinction of being the first author to use YouTube to launch a novel.

His novel SoMa is about the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco and it has subject matter that is sexually explicit in nature. He knew that it was going to be near impossible for his book to be reviewed in mainstream publications and so he was casting about for ideas as to how to publicize his book. One of his neighbors worked for YouTube and suggested that he make some short films.

Scott has had a career as a television journalist for years, but he was initially stumped at the suggestion. She then challenged him that with all his TV experience, he should be able to come up with something.

He decided on a series of short promos showing some of the locations mentioned in his book. Along with showing the locales, he uses suggestive language to reference some of the unusual behavior in those places which are represented in his book.

At first he had a professional help him with the filming, but when he viewed it he thought it looked too slick for YouTube. So he bought a $600 video camera and handed it to someone with no experience. He also changed it to black and white to give those short videos a grittier feel to match the tone of the book.

The video clips preceded the publication of his book and his novel appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle’s best seller list the first week it was released.

You can see him talking at Google’s corporate headquarters in the Authors@Google series. This video is about 42 minutes in total length, but he credits YouTube for the successful launch of his book at about 29:40 and he includes one of his videos as part of a demonstration.

Those video clips didn’t generate a million hits like the Drama Squirrel video, but they did help generate word of mouth which translated into sales. And because he made a major newspaper’s best seller list, his book has been sold in places he would never have expected including an airport in Singapore.

I finished reading his book, it is laugh out loud funny in parts, but it is blue. Very blue. It is not for those who are easily offended.

Please tell me if you know of other authors who have successfully used video clips to promote their books. I would love to see more of them to get ideas for my own future reference.

Nonfiction memoirs. Do they exist?

A few years ago Susan Bono spoke in front of my writers club about the subject of memoir writing. She opened the discussion by asking the audience what they thought of when they heard the word memoir.

I gave the flippant reply that I thought the stories ought to be true.

Facetious or not, my remark actually led us off into a good discussion about how a writer needs to be careful when writing about other people's lives (especially living people) when you are writing about your own life.

Another meeting of my writers club had one of our members mentioned she was writing a "nonfiction memoir." I thought it was funny because of its redundancy.

However, I am now beginning to believe that perhaps it is a distinction that needs to be made.

A week or so ago I read about an author admitting that her memoir was fiction. That the supposed Holocaust survivor was not Jewish as she had contended and had not been raised by wolves.

The story of Misha, she said, "is not actual reality, but was my reality, my way of surviving."

I was disgusted that someone would take the real tragedy of the Holocaust and then try to profit off of it by making people believe in a faux reality.

Then a few days later I read another story of another author who fabricated a story and passed it off as truth.

She claimed to be half-white, half-Native American, being raised as a foster child in South-Central Los Angeles and growing up as a drug runner for gangs.

Margaret Seltzer's charade did not last very long because her sister saw a feature piece that ran in the New York Times and called the publisher to alert them of the truth.

After reading the newspaper article about Margaret Seltzer admitting to her fraud, I began ranting about ethics in publishing to those who were sitting next to me. They got an earful whether they wanted to or not.

I am sick of writers who lie to get ahead.

That is the heart of this issue when writers such as Margaret Seltzer and Monique de Wael devise elaborate stories and then pass them off as reality rather than fiction. They lied to their agents, they lied to their editors, they lied to reporters and everyone else in order to sell their books.

The question in my mind is: why would anyone do such a thing? Are they so delusional that they believe this alternate reality or did they just think it was an easier path to publication?

According to this article in the Register-Guard, Seltzer said publishers “didn’t want to buy it as fiction.”

That implies that she actually tried to sell her book as a novel first and then after being tired of rejection decided to pursue a different path to publication.

I doubt that is true because it would mean that her literary agent, Faye Bender, tried selling it as a novel and then colluded with her by repackaging work that Bender knew was fiction and sent it out again to different editors as a memoir. That would mean that Bender assisted in perpetrating a lie and I cannot see any reputable being willing to risk their career over the sale of one book.

That statement by Seltzer also contradicts a passage in the New York Times where it mentions how she got an agent:

Ms. Seltzer said she had been writing about her friends’ experiences for years in creative-writing classes and on her own before a professor asked her to speak with Inga Muscio, an author who was then working on a book about racism. Ms. Seltzer talked about what she portrayed as her experiences and Ms. Muscio used some of those accounts in her book. Ms. Muscio then referred Ms. Seltzer to her agent, Faye Bender, who read some pages that Ms. Seltzer had written and encouraged the young author to write more.

In April 2005, Ms. Bender submitted about 100 pages to four publishers. Ms. McGrath, then at Scribner, a unit of Simon & Schuster, agreed to a deal for what she said was less than $100,000. When Ms. McGrath moved to Riverhead in 2006, she moved Ms. Seltzer’s contract.

It does not sound like Seltzer quickly found an agent due to networking with other writers and that she never tried submitting her work in the fiction market before choosing to go down the road of serial lying. Instead it appears more likely that she is grasping at any convenient excuse to shift blame onto the publishing industry rather than accept responsibility for her actions.

Nathan Bransford asked his readers as to what we thought should be done with cases like these.

My first reaction as to what the industry should do with them deals with the dishonesty. If I were an agent, an editor, or a publisher I would have a hard time working with someone I realized had been lying to me. It would be difficult if not impossible to have a long-term relationship with someone you do not trust.

This is borne out by a quote from the editor at Riverhead who said,

“It’s very upsetting to us because we spent so much time with this person and we felt such sympathy for her and she would talk about how she didn’t have any money or any heat and we completely bought into that and thought we were doing something good by bringing her story to light,” Ms. McGrath said.

“There’s a huge personal betrayal here as well as a professional one,” she said.

I doubt that either Seltzer or De Wael will have any future as writers since it is now well known that both women went to extensive lengths to fool people.

I would not mind seeing them sued for breach of contract (or for knowingly misrepresenting themselves) and for the publishers to try and recover damages. There may not be any real damages from the Misha book since it has been on the market for so long and has hopefully earned through its advance years ago.

That is definitely not the case with Love and Consequences which was just launched. Obviously any book that is published represents an investment in time, effort, resources, etc., by a publisher. Even if they were to recover their advance from Seltzer (reported at $100,000), I doubt it would cover all the other expenses incurred in its publication.

I do not think that the publisher should necessarily recall and destroy the books in question. I am assuming since Love and Consequences garnered positive reviews and even a profile in the New York Times that it was well written and "a story well told."

Is that not what we really want? A story well told?

The human race has been programmed from the beginning of time to listen to stories; some are history, some are parables, and some are just good yarns. We want to be entertained and to be moved emotionally whether or not it is based on true events.

Truth can be stranger than fiction, but readers want to know whether or not it is truth *or* fiction.

Most books that are published unfortunately have a short shelf life. They are published, distributed, shelved and after a few months will either earn their keep for repeat purchases by bookstores or be returned in order to make room for new titles.

I would have no problem with the publisher having a disclaimer slapped on the cover and ask that bookstores reassign the shelf designation to New Releases in Fiction. As long as the customer is aware of what they are buying, what is the harm in that?

It is not the first time that memoirs have been revealed to be false. Not just James Frey-styled exaggerations, but false in their entirety.

The Education of Little Tree was published as an autobiographical story, but was later revealed, after the death of its author, to be fictitious. The book garnered enough acclaim that it was repackaged as a novel. It is still in print and selling well. At this moment in time it is ranked #7,945 on Amazon.com. Not bad for a book originally published over thirty years ago and has been the subject of public controversy.

There is now such a blurring of the lines between the literary techniques in novels and memoir that I feel sometimes it is not always the fault of the author when there is confusion. For example, last Christmas as I was browsing in a Barnes and Noble store I found Stephen Clarke's A Year in the Merde in the travel essay section. It was shelved near Peter Mayle's books on Provence and Rebecca Ramsey's French by Heart. So I thought Clarke's book was a light, humorous memoir similar to Mayle's and Ramsey's. It's not. Clarke's book is a novel, which incorporates his love/hate relationship with France based on his time living there.

My husband had no such confusion when he was reading the book because he just dove right in and enjoyed it. He knew instinctively that it was a novel, but I was still a bit confused because it was written in first person POV and well, it could have been a memoir and a blurb on the back cover from the New York Post calls it an "almost-true memoir."

It was only after reading the FAQ’s on Clarke's website that I really understood that it was a novel.

Q: How much of the books is true?
A: Because this question was being asked so often, I decided that I needed a definitive answer. So I asked for my novels to be analysed by France’s famous INSL (Institut National des Statistiques Littéraires). It took them several months, but they eventually came up with an answer, which was 64.3%. What this means is that any event in one of my books is likely to be 64.3% true – on average, of course. Some events might be 100% true, others zero.
Note: this compares to 75% for the average biography and 69% for an autobiography (which drops off to 47% for a politician, actor, sportsman or pop star).

Q: Have you ever owned a tea shop in Paris?
A: No. I did once toy with the idea, but gave up when I realized I didn’t want to spend my days listening to French people mispronounce “fruit cake”.

The question of how much of it was true was the first question on the page, so it proves that I am not the only one to be confused about whether or not his book was a novel. I blame my confusion on the shelving, but I realize that I might never have found the book if it was in the literature section. It was the publisher’s decision to list "Travel" as the category on the back cover rather than novel or humor, but it is not a travel essay book.

Regardless of any initial confusion on my part, the book is a damned good read and I am glad I bought it regardless of its genre.

Writing is such a difficult craft that the humanitarian in me feels that talented writers should be not be banned forever from this creative life, but should somehow be redirected to utilize their talents appropriately. I just don't know if it is possible in cases such as Seltzer and De Wael due to their serial lying in order to achieve success.

The real downside is that the book buying public might become averse to buying memoirs in the future because of these scandals. Publishers might also become hesitant in publishing memoirs.

I am not going to say that publishers should hire private investigators or have in-house fact checkers, but there are voices who are calling on the publishing industry to do just that. The reality is that it might just be too expensive for that.

Instead, I could envision new clauses being written into book contracts in response to these cases in the hopes of indemnifying the publishers should they unwittingly enter into another hoax memoir. Possibly asking for monetary damages if claims are shown to be false or fabricated in the future. I do not know if that will happen, but I would not be surprised if it did.

On a related ethical subject, I feel compelled to say that my good will does not extend to writers such as Cassie Edwards who have been exposed as plagiarists. I am puzzled as to why her publishers have not recalled the books which have been demonstrated to have many troublesome passages. To me it is just wrong to continue selling those tainted books.

Please weigh in on your thoughts as to whether or not you think that there is any truth to perception that publishers are more likely to accept stories such as Seltzer's, Frey's, De Wael's as memoirs than as novels. Also whether or not you agree with my thoughts about publishers reclassifying the genre of books in order to provide “good reads” for the public or if you feel they should just recall them and eat their losses.

2008 San Francisco Writers Conference

Last year I wrote a post about why anyone should go to a writers conference as well as my experiences having volunteered at the 2007 San Francisco Writers Conference.

I volunteered again this year, and had an even better time than before.

I carpooled down to The City (which is what San Francisco is called by people in the Bay Area - NOT Frisco or San Fran) with my friend Cindy Pavlinac. I have known Cindy for several years and she holds the same position on the board of directors for the Marin branch of the California Writers Club as I do on the Redwood Writers branch.

Cindy and I arrived early Friday morning wanting to hear Kemble Scott speak at the opening session. That was important because we wanted to introduce ourselves to him since he will be our guest speaker at a joint meeting for our two clubs in April. He had been a speaker at Litquake last fall with my friend Erika Mailman talking about their experiences as newly published authors.



His session was great and he gave several anecdotes demonstrating his business savvy. His book is entitled SoMa which is a nickname for the gritty South of Market Street neighborhood of San Francisco. He made Youtube videos of the areas in his novel helping to publicize his book.

One thing he did not plan on was being attacked by a local online critic who hates everyone. At first Scott was taken aback, but then he realized that it was great publicity. People were learning about his new book and it increased sales.

His book has gone on to become a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Not bad. Not bad at all.

He has many reviews listed on his website, but this one seems the most intriguing to me:

"I read the first page of SoMa and never put it down until I read the last page. Then my housemate took it from me and read it in a day. It flows through your hands like water, yet it shocks, awes, repulses, exposes trade secrets, and illuminates the deep motives for extreme behavior. I know people who are less real than these characters. I laughed out loud. Kemble Scott is one sick bastard."

— Joe Quirk, best-selling author of The Ultimate Rush and Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women.

I had a great time meeting and schmoozing with Kemble Scott. I think he's a great guy, even if Joe Quirk thinks he's "one sick bastard" from his novel. It was nice that Scott hung around the conference all three days, and not just there simply for his session and leaving afterward. I even was fortunate enough to go out to dinner with him, Yanina Gotsulsky and Ransom Stephens on Friday night. We had a great time laughing, telling tales, and enjoying each others company.

I haven't read Scott's book yet, but I shall make a point of doing so before his talk at our joint meeting.




At our arrival I ran into Bryce Holt and his brother Kyle. I had met Bryce the previous year and had corresponded with him a few times over the past year. It was nice to see him again and to hear about his progress to publication in the intervening time.

I was surprised when I looked up and saw someone who had been a member of my writers club, but had moved to Oregon. I was happy when I was able to immediately come up with his name. As it turns out it was his first writers conference and being greeted by an old friend at its onset helped set his mind at ease.

Here's a picture of me with J.S. McDaniel as well as the glamorous Yanina Gotsulsky.


On Saturday morning as I was on my way to the first session of the day I crossed paths with J.S. He was on his way downstairs to the lower conference rooms. I asked where he was going, and he told me the name of the session he was planning on attending. I shook my head and said, "No. You need to go hear about Pitchcraft. Trust me." Then I redirected him to attend the session by Katharine Sands of the Sarah Jane Freyman Agency. J.S. had paid to participate in the Speed Dating for Agents on Sunday morning, so I knew he needed to hear what Sands had to say.

He did thank me, by the way.

I knew J.S. from the Redwood Writers meetings, and for some reason he always reminded me of Ransom Stephens. Here's a picture of Ransom and I mugging for the camera.



Yes, Ransom and J.S. are both white guys with black hair, about the same height and around the same age, and are both writers. However, Ransom has a dry, acerbic wit which is far different than J.S.'s style of humor.

I wanted to introduce them to each other because if for no other reason than they are both friends of mine. I had forgotten that both used spirituality in their novels. (Then again, I have only talked with them about their writing and without reading their stories, so I have an excuse for not recognizing that commonality.)

They hit it off with each other and I am hoping they will develop a correspondence and their own friendship.

That leads me to what I feel is most important aspect of the conferences. It is not the workshops, but it is interacting with the people there: the speakers, the organizers, and the attendees. It is in exchanging of ideas and expertise about various aspects of the craft of writing and the business of publishing that allows you to expand your circle of literary friends.

One of the best summaries I have ever read of how best to schmooze with others at a writers conference was written by Beth Proudfoot the past chair of the East of Eden Writers Conference.

She urges everyone to embrace any and all lines at conferences as opportunities to speak with people, exchange business cards, and establish friendships with people who share your interest in writing.

In my volunteer duties I saw myself as a roving ambassador to help answer questions about what to expect at the conference as well as offering tips for blogs, websites, etc.

I worked the Editors Roundtable session on Saturday afternoon. There were about ten editors participating and each sat at their own table with nine seats for participants to ask them questions. Each person had two minutes.

The volunteers had two minute egg timers to enforce the two minute rule.

Two minutes is not a lot of time to pitch your book and have an editor form an informed opinion about your book that you have spent years agonizing over each fine detail. We did not want individuals to try and monopolize time with the editors and cause others at their table to be given the short shrift. Overall, I think it ran pretty smooth.

The volunteers were allowed to choose which table they preferred working at and I picked Ten Speed Press. That is because of my time spent as a bookseller at Barnes and Noble and my being impressed with not only their titles but their organization as a whole. They are one of the largest independent publishers which produces about 150 titles each year. (That tidbit is from their website.)

I was impressed with the writers who pitched to the editor from Ten Speed because I think for the most part, they understood what that house published. The pitches were succinct and well received. I was surprised when Jo Ann Deck actually took sample pages, book proposals, etc., from writers. In the past I have seen most agents or editors refrain from taking anything, but instead handing out their business card to those people whose projects interested them.

She left that night with an armload of information and had made connections with a lot of writers who had promising sounding books.

And they did it in under two minutes. Incredible.

I was given another task which was to serve as a greeter at breakfast. Basically I was there with another woman to assure that those walking in for the coffee and pastries were paid conference attendees and not just people staying at the hotel who wandered downstairs and thought, "hey, free food!"

We greeted the bleary-eyed writers who were in desperate need of caffeine. I tried reading the badges for the home towns of the attendees as they walked by and saw that they were from all over the country. I remember seeing Florida, Virginia, New York, Nevada, Michigan and Hawaii. The one that surprised me the most was Zita Weber, a writer from Australia. She crossed seventeen time zones (!) to attend that conference.

Now that is commitment to your career.

On Sunday morning I not only worked as a breakfast greeter, but I worked the Speed Dating for Agents session. I was stationed outside in the hallway and did my best to answer questions of those who standing in line waiting to go inside.

Here I am trying to calm their jittery nerves.


If you squint you can see the logo for the California Writers Club on my tote bag. Yes, I was a walking advertisement for my writers club.

The one piece of advice that I tried to impart most often was to not immediately launch into a pitch upon sitting down in front of the agent, but instead to take a moment and make eye contact and smile. Make a human connection first before you start talking.

I also warned about complaining about anything, especially about not getting the full amount of time (three minutes) should the person in front of you not get out of the chair when they were supposed to.

You do not want to be perceived as a Client From Hell.

Agents are looking for professionals whose writing excites them and are a pleasure to work with. They do not want temperamental primadonnas.

I had read an agent's blog a year ago where an anecdote was related about two different writers at a Speed Dating session. The first writer grumbled and complained that they only got two and a half minutes and not the full three minutes (meanwhile wasting valuable seconds while whining.) The second writer sat down, cast a knowing glance behind them at their predecessor and then said something like, "wow, that must have been fun."

The agent was so grateful that s/he was far more likely to ask for a partial from the second writer even if it was not a subject s/he is normally interested in. Because the second writer treated him/her as a human being and not a magical gatekeeper lacking feelings.

After the conference I saw a post on Nathan Bransford's blog and contacted Joe Ramelo who mentioned he had attended the conference in his reply. I wrote to him, and as it turns out, Joe was one of many people I spoke with while waiting in line. He felt that I was an "encouraging presence" who dispensed good advice.

Yay. It is nice to know that my objectives were achieved.

One of the high points of the conference was having the opportunity to meet and talk with Tess Gerritsen. She is an amazing author as well as a warm, engaging and witty person. She gave a fabulous key note address on Sunday afternoon in which she talked about the idea of storytelling as an organic process that is difficult to define or predict.

She has given lectures to physicians who want to become novelists and she says that many of them are astounded when for the first time in their life they are not successful. They all want to know the secret. As if there was a mathematical equation which can be described and used to allow them to simply plug variables into an algorithm and get the desired result.

It is not that easy.

She gave as an example two people who might have had the same experience. "Uncle Harry" who when he begins a story causes everyone to yawn and check their watches and "Aunt Maude" who can tell the same story and have people hang on her every word.

It is not necessarily the events that are important, but it is the telling of the tale.

I was also blessed by chatting with Tess on Saturday night about medicine, wine, archaeology, and California along with my friend Cindy Pavlinac. At one point Tess looked at the two of us and remarked with a little surprise about how open we were about expressing our opinions. She now lives in Maine and people there are reserved.

We kind of shrugged at that. Cindy and I are both Midwestern gals who now live in Northern California and we do not hesitate in speaking our minds. It is part of who we are.

Here I am standing next to the lovely and talented Tess Gerritsen. I think she must have leaned down a little, because she is statuesque, whereas I am decidedly not.



I want to thank my good friend Cindy Pavlinac for taking these pictures and allowing me to share them on my blog. (My camera was being used in Yosemite while I was in San Francisco.)

All in all, I had a wonderful time at the San Francisco Writers Conference. It was some of the best weather I have ever experienced in The City, and I got the chance to schmooze with a lot of people.

For those who are interested in hearing any of the sessions from the conference, they are available on CD as well as downloadable MP3 at VW tapes. You can also find sessions from other writers conferences including the famous Maui Writers Conference at the same site.




By the way, after I returned home from the conference I was checking my overstuffed email box. I opened my spam folder and quickly scanned the contents seeing multiple notices for my winning overseas lotteries that I never entered, confidential communiques from people requesting my assistance in transferring large amounts of money from Nigeria, offers to lengthen anatomical body parts that I lack, and advertisements for horribly spelled pharmaceuticals. It was after I hit "delete all messages" that I noticed the letters SFWC in one of the message lines.

Too late. I did not notice the name of the sender and it was gone. Forever.

So if anyone reading this post tried sending me an email after meeting me at conference, and I did not respond to you -- I apologize and request that you write to me again.

Thanks and I hope everyone muse is treating them well!

Linda