Murder She Writes

I found this circulated on one of the writing loops I’m on. I don’t know who created it, but I thought there were some interesting points of discussion.

Nine Marks for a Bestselling Author
1. Perseverance is the key
2. They write and write and write
3. They like to write and write and write
4. Promotion is constant
5. Marketing is critical
6. Fans are an important asset
7. The more success the more pressure
8. They’re grateful
9. There is no single profile for a best-selling author

Sounds like good advice. Let’s break them apart and discuss them. Some are more important than others.

1. Perseverance is the key
Absolutely should be number one. The leading cause of unpublished writers not making it–other than lack of talent–is giving up. Sometimes we’re ahead of the market, sometimes we’re behind the market. Sometimes we haven’t found our voice or haven’t hit on the right agent or editor who sees the potential of our work. If we believe in ourselves, we will stick it out until we’re published or dead.

I don’t remember where I heard this, but it was early on in my involvement with RWA. It takes three things to get published: talent, perseverence, and luck. Someone once twisted this to suggest that you really only need two of the three–talent and perseverence, or perseverence and luck. Notice which attribute is in both equations? You got it. People who give up don’t reach their goals. In anything. Ever.

2. They write and write and write
Absolutely. Whether you’re prolific or not, writers write A LOT. The prolific writers tend to write and write new stuff. They don’t spend as much time on crafting sentences because the story is more important than the words. But practice and a natural sense of story generally help keep the flow comfortable for the reader. Slower writers–those who produce one or fewer books a year (Thomas Harris writes one book every five years; Brad Metzler one every two years) tend to spend more time crafting sentences, making sure each phrase is the exact meaning they want. The words and how they are put together are as important as the story.

But no matter if you’re a Nora Roberts or a Thomas Harris, you write and write and write.

3. They like to write and write and write
And you love to write and write and write. You have to, otherwise it’s just a job and your heart isn’t in it anymore. We all know what happens to those in any field who are just doing it for the money and don’t enjoy it: it shows in the final product.

4. Promotion is constant
I think “constant” needs to be put into context. I’d say that a writer is “continually” promoting–meaning that most writers don’t write the book, then “promote” it, then go back to their cave and write, completely disconnected from the world. Most writers are doing some sort of promotion any given day or week of the year. Or they should.

But what does promotion really mean? Different things for different people. There are some things I think all writers need to do: call them the basics. Maintain a website. Update it at least monthly. Respond to fan mail/email in a timely manner. Be polite on-line, know your local booksellers by name, and carry around bookmarks so when someone asks what you do for a living or what your book is about, you have something to hand them.

But do bestselling writers need to constantly promote? No. They don’t. Do writers climbing the ladder need to constantly promote? No, they don’t. Does it help? Maybe. Thing is, promotion IS continual in that a writer needs to be able to talk about their work, whether it’s to their agent or editor or a reader. But the huge drive that I see among so many writers today to promote, promote, promote at all cost–including spending their entire advance and then some–is not necessarily the answer. I don’t have the answer. I think every writer is unique and needs a unique plan. But when I see unpublished writers focusing on promotion, I know there’s something wrong in the universe.

And, frankly, I don’t see bestselling authors constantly promoting. Not like most people THINK of promotion. But I do see them nurturing their readership which, frankly, is what all writers should do.

Sell the book. Then think about what type of promotion suits you and your book. Not everyone is suited to all types of promotion. Some people hate public speaking. Don’t do something you hate. It shows.

5. Marketing is critical
Ah, marketing. Marketing as opposed to promotion. Is this branding? Hell if I know. Promoting I get–talk about the books. Marketing? That’s really up to the publisher except where you, the author, can capitalize on what they are doing, i.e. branding your website to match the tone of your book, etc.

ButI don’t really know the difference between marketing and promotion. Someone care to enlighten me?

6. Fans are an important asset
Okay, why is this #6? After the writing, writing, writing come the fans. You can’t have one without the other. Fans are not AN important asset, they are THE most important asset after the writing. Love them, nurture them, respond to them. Without fans, you are nothing.

7. The more success the more pressure

Like I said in Deb’s post below, I couldn’t write for nearly two months: from the day THE PREY hit the NYT extended list until THE KILL hit it six weeks later. I’m serious. I thought it was a fluke. I then thought I’d never be able to match, let alone top, what I had already written. I was sweating bullets. I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt like a fraud.

Yes, I feel pressure. Mostly from me. Why? Because I know that if SPEAK NO EVIL doesn’t hit higher than THE KILL that somehow I will have failed.

I can’t imagine what the real bestsellers feel like. People joke about how they want to be in Nora’s shoes. Um, no. Yes, I want to be as fabulous a storyteller as Nora Roberts. She’s still putting out not only good books, but they’re getting better. My mom said that ANGELS FALL is her best book yet–after over 150 books (and my mom has read them all.) THAT is the kind of writer I want to be.

But I don’t want to be in her shoes. (But I wouldn’t mind wearing that jacket on the back of the JD Robb books . . . ) no, seriously. Pressure mirrors success. It’s why building a career is so important, to grow and learn to handle the pressure, and the success.

8. They’re grateful

Damn straight. I take nothing for granted, and I know Karin will give me an earful if I ever get too full of myself. Most of the top authors I’ve met, both at Thriller Writers and at RWA, are gracious and grateful. They appreciate what they have, pay it forward, and never take it for granted.

9. There is no single profile for a best-selling author

I agree, except for one. Commitment. They love what they do, warts and all. They are committed to their careers and to their writing. But they can write in any genre, come from any background, and write with voices all over the chart. They inspire me, and they should inspire you.

As Jen pointed out on Monday, there are some people who take great pleasure in dissing bestselling authors. Why? Because they’re on top? Because that particular reader hates that particular story? Please. We have too many people attacking romance, or mass market books, or thrillers. There are literary snobs, hardcover snobs, romance snobs. Do we need to tear down anyone in order to feel better ourselves? No.

Everyone can learn from bestselling authors, and not only how to tell a good story. They are the stories of inspiration, perseverence, hope and success.

Who is your favorite chart-topping author and why?

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As writers, published or pre-published, many of us often experience uncertainty, apprehension, and even fear when it comes to our work. The questions that usually seed these emotions are; “What will people think when they read my story? Will they like it? Despise it? Have I done my best? Am I good enough to be published? Stay published?” And heaven forbid if a bad review is thrown into that mix because they amplify and multiply those questions a hundred times over.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m plagued with these insecurities from time to time, and if I’m not careful, they’ll take root and drag me into some dark cave that has no words. In other words, I get so disillusioned I can’t write for shit. Fortunately, this doesn’t occur as often as it did when I first started in the business, but it does still happen.

One weapon I’ve found that effectively beats the insecurity cooties into submission is a small brown book. Most of the words in it are over a hundred years old, but I still find them relevant, insightful, and timeless. See if you agree…

A passage from: Rainer Maria Rilke—LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

“You ask whether your verses are good. You ask me. You have asked others before. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are disturbed when certain editors reject your efforts. Now (since you have allowed me to advise you) I beg you to give up all that. You are looking outward, and that above all you should not do now. Nobody can counsel and help you, nobody. There is only one single way. Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all—ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple, “I must,” then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it. Then draw near to Nature. Then try, like some first human being, to say what you see and experience and love and lose. —describe your sorrows and desires, passing thoughts and the belief in some sort of beauty—describe all these with loving, quiet, humble sincerity, and use, to express yourself, the things in your environment, the images from your dreams, and the objects of your memory. If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it—for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place. . . And even if you were in some prison the walls of which let none of the sounds of the world come to your senses—would you not then still have your childhood, that precious, kingly possession, that treasure-house of memories? Turn your attention thither. . . and if out of this turning inward, out of this absorption into your own world verses come, then it will not occur to you to ask anyone whether they are good verses…for you will see in them your fond natural possession, a fragment and voice of your life. A work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity. In this nature of its origin lies the judgment of it: there is no other.

Therefore, my dear sir, I know no advice for you save this: to go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness . .”

So what weapons do you use against the insecurity cooties?

I’m going to kind of tag on to Jen’s post here, because I commented on hers this morning and the blog ate it.

My gripe today isn’t about the Internet so much as it is SOME writers, in general. You can’t always tell what a person is going to be like until you actually meet them face to face. I attended a writer’s conference this past summer–Thrillerfest–and I met a lot of very famous, and not-so-famous, writers face to face. And it was an eye-opening experience.

Everyone knows this business is tough. It requires a huge amount of marketing and self promotion, something many of us are not terribly comfortable with. And networking is a key part of marketing. It seems, however, that everyone networks differently.

(Note: I’ve learned a few things about this business, and one is that NAMING NAMES when one is not being entirely complimentary is a bad idea. I have to work in this business. Therefore, only the writers receiving KUDOS will be named. The rest will be left to your imagination.)

One of the very nicest, most genuine and honest people I met was author Debra Webb. Deb is a familiar name to romance readers. And I have to admit I was hanging out with her for a few days before I discovered she had more than FIFTY PUBLISHED BOOKS to her name. It’s mind boggling! Deb recently sold three books to St. Martin’s Press (my publisher and my editor), and so we had a lot in common. Well, kinda. SHE HAS MORE THAN FIFTY PUBLISHED BOOKS! Me, I have some unmatched socks. And she was very, very casual about it.

Deb was open and friendly to everyone. And great fun to be around. She asked about everyone’s books, and in some cases, of course, people were not published, but she didn’t care. In fact, she took more than one unpublished writer under her wing. She was open and friendly to everyone in every stage of the process.

And did I mention she has more than FIFTY PUBLISHED BOOKS?

On the polar opposite of Deb were a couple of writers who sat down with us the first night, and then proceeded to act–the rest of the conference–as though they had never heard of us or seen us before. See, they were there to HANG WITH THE BIG DOGS. Once they determined you were small potatoes–or at least in their eyes, of no consequence–they were moving on.

One of the most hilarious things that happened occurred during the luncheon with author RL Stine. Two of the Wannabes rushed in to the front of the crowd, pushing people aside, using elbows and making sure they were seated at tables with a huge-name authors. And I’ll be damned if Heather Graham and Sandra Brown didn’t come and sit down at OUR table, after asking nicely if the seats were taken. Cracked me up.

Look, I know you have to network. Hey, I met Lee Child, Gayle Lynds, David Morrell, Clive Cussler, the abovementioned Sandra Brown and Heather Graham, and of course my hero, Tess Gerritsen (who, by the way, is very lovely, friendly, down to earth and charming). I also met a lot of other very successful, very nice, and very helpful authors. And some who were a big pain in the patootie, too.

The only REAL message here, I guess, is an old saying my mother used to drive me crazy with. You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Wait a minute. Flies? Who wants to attract flies? Boy, that is one dumb saying.

Let me try again. Keep it real, people. Be honest. It’s not ALL about networking. You might learn something from a writer who ISN’T on the NY Times list, and the ones who ARE on the list are probably sick to death of hanger-ons like you. They see through you, just like the ones you are stepping on as you try to reach them.

Let’s be real.

(Disclaimer: I didn’t mention either Deborah LeBlanc or Allison Brennan in this little rant, because I had met both of them before Thrillerfest. They both rock. They are not stepping on people. I promise.)

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I never thought I’d fall prey to the syndrome. But it’s happened I think. The other day I was reading a link where a reviewer explained that many authors didn’t know they’d written a bad book until that reviewer told them.

Excuse me? One reviewer knows it all, huh? Knows more than the readers and decides for them if the book is good?

I’ve just had it with the arrogance and shrill ranting on the Internet. What else contributes to my fatigue?

“The first time authors who believe that every breathing person in the world is desperate to hear about them every hour of every day.” They complain about family members not being interested—honey they were interested until you wouldn’t shut up. Guess what? Your family has lives too, try asking about their lives for a change.

“Self publishing vs. traditional.” Do the math, it’s not that hard. I’m not judging anyone’s choices until they complain about the choice incessantly. And don’t think I didn’t make some bad choices, I did (still do!) and I learned from them.

“Bashing the successful authors.” Please, do you really think Nora, Tess and Janet don’t work their butts off? You’d be wrong. They have everyday struggles and problems too. But they keep working. Rock on, ladies, you inspire me!

Okay your turn, what’s your gripe today?

So I totally zoned out on tryptophane, then stayed up until 3:30 this am with hubby and number two son and watched movies. I gave no thought whatsoever to a topic for today and it will remain so. I have only ramblings to impart today, tryptophane induced ramblings at that, and quite frankly they are not worth imparting. So. I’m going to head out for my walk on this clear crisp autumn day, shower then get to some serious writing. I am woefully behind.

I will say, I had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner yesterday free of family strife. It was really quite perfect. I hope you all had the same.
I’ll be back next Friday with some wonderfully urbane angle on life in this crazy business we chose. Or maybe I’ll have a “I went shopping and discovered the world is full of evil elves” story to tell.

Oh, okay, let’s see, as I reread this poor excuse for a blog post, a question occurred to me. For those of you who wish to share: How was your Thanksgiving? Did everyone survive, or just barely?

Happy leftovers!

Many years ago I started a Thanksgiving tradition with my daughters, one we still follow today. It kind of goes like this… just before it’s time to eat, everyone is asked to stand around the table and hold hands. The unsuspecting, like my daughters’ friends or a friend of a friend who’s been invited because he/she had no one to spend the holiday with, always think it’s time to say grace. More often than not, they fidget and blush while taking the hand of the person on either side of them, then they immediately bow their head and close their eyes. You can almost hear their thoughts, “Cripes, I hope this won’t take long!”

About this time, I usually say something like, “I’m really thankful for everyone standing around this table and for the food we’re about to eat, but I’d really like to know what each of you are most thankful for. What is the one thing that came around this year that’s truly made a positive difference in your life? And no short-cuts to the obvious are allowed. In other words, although you may be thankful for this food, it’s a given short cut. I wanna know what you’re really thankful for and why.”

The newbies’ reactions to this request are always the same. Their eyes fly open and a look of panic flits across their face. You’d swear I’d just asked them to strip down to their skivvies and pirouette before an audience of a thousand monks.

To ease them into the process, I usually go first, taking a moment to dig down deep and really think of all that’s come my way since the beginning of the year. It would be easy to tick off a hundred things I’m grateful for, but it often takes effort to narrow it down to the most significant one….which is my point.

In a world where it seems necessary for everything and everyone to move at supersonic speeds just to make it through an average day, we often lose the ability to stop and think. To stop and really listen to those around us. When we’re forced to bring ‘busy’ to a screeching halt, it can feel a little uncomfortable, but the results are never short of phenomenal, especially around a Thanksgiving table.

I’ve seen this little tradition bring men, women, and children to tears, all of them suddenly acutely aware of how much they really have to be grateful for. For me, watching this ‘awakening’ unfold is like witnessing a miracle—one that always leaves me thankful beyond measure.

To everyone here at MSW, I wish you a holiday season filled with more joy, love, and laughter than you ever thought possible.

In about a month and a half, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, my second book from St. Martin’s, will be hitting stores. Needless to say, my days are consumed. I spend the first half of the day doing promotion, and the second half writing. Sometimes this works well, and sometimes, not so much.

Today was a good promotion day, but I had a harder time with the writing after the promotion.

See, the trailer for BCD is pretty cool. Stonecreek Media does an AWESOME job. The trailer is now on my site, and I also uploaded it to Youtube. I also spent some time yesterday and today setting up a Myspace.com page. I immediately discovered that my only friend there was Tom, who is EVERYBODY’S friend, the little he-whore, so I had to set about finding myself some NEW friends. Apparently, Myspace is THE place to network. For a bit, though, I felt like the nerd sitting alone at the nerd table, just across from the popular kids.

I became a little consumed with this popularity quest. But it paid off. Because now, you see, not only is Barry Eisler my friend (and that man is CUTE), but so is Lisa Gardner, Alison Kent, Harlan Coben, and a bunch of other very cool authors. I feel like the belle of the ball… Sorta. I think I got a little carried away. Most of these people have 200-1200 friends. I think I’m at around 33. And one of them is that he-whore, Tom. But a girl has to start somewhere.

After the promotion part of the morning was done, I started in on A WIFE’S SECRET. This is my third book for St. Martin’s. I am doing revisions on this book, and it’s a very complex high concept thriller. It takes a lot of concentration to work on it, and I kept getting distracted. After all, I had to keep checking my Myspace page to see if I had more friends. I decided it might be better to address my revisions in the morning, when I am fresher (and I can easier fight the urge to check my popularity status), and do promotion in the afternoon, when I can obsess to my heart’s content, so tomorrow I am going to try it and see how it goes.

I do have to admit I feel like I never get ahead.

I just turned in my second book to Berkley, and today, I also heard from my Berkley editor, and she loved the second book, TAPPED OUT, and has only minor revisions. Also today, the “first pass” or galleys for TUTU DEADLY arrived at my doorstep, so I have that to worry about, too.

But, I’m living the dream.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is being kicked off by The TomKat show, an OJ Simpson book and fights over a video game system.

Tis the Season for Idiots.

I am NOT in the holiday mood. I spent the weekend in hibernation trying to reconcile myself to facing it. The holidays are here. Already my stomach is knotting worrying about figuring out gifts, cards, schedules, parties, clothes, getting the tree, decorating, baking, not being thin enough…I have a book due soon and there’s not enough time or Advil.

So to get in the mood to list five holiday books, movies or traditions that I like.

1) Thanksgiving leftovers.
2) John Grisham’s book SKIPPING CHRISTMAS. I read that book Christmas Day years ago and laughed all day.
3) The movie CHEVY CHASE’S CHRISTMAS VACATION. My family watches it every year.
4) We stay home on Christmas Day. We established this when the kids were small. It’ll change as my kids have their own kids, but I cherish those Christmas Days that we stopped the craziness. All the stress was over and we just hung out, played with the kids toys, relaxed. People were welcome to come by but we weren’t dragging the kids all over.
5) Memories—the memories of our boys sneaking out to the tree early, early Christmas morning, whispering excitedly and trying to figure out how to wake us up. We were awake and listening to them but they didn’t know that. And the memory of the time we convinced the family that our young boys were eating dirt out of a Poinsettia plant when it was really “dirt cake” made of Oreos and other eatable items. Our sons were small but we all had a blast plotting and practicing that little stunt. Memories are gift that keeps on giving.

What’s your Holiday Five?

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