Murder She Writes

What is a street team you ask? Well I’m a gonna tell you. It’s a group of dedicated folks who go out armed (with bookmarks, pens, tri-folds, fliers, smiles and happy faces) with the sole intention of making readers aware of your book.

My friend Amanda mentioned to me a couple of years ago she was part of a street team for an author, whose name escapes me at the moment. I heard her but I wasn’t actively listening. My bad. So my friends Edie Ramer and Tawny Weber and I started a writer promo tip yahoo group a month or two ago to bring authors together to discuss various ways to promote our books. Most of us don’t get co op, or the distribution needed to push a book, so it comes down in many ways to a grassroots movement. Promo is tiring. It sucks the energy right out of me, and most everyone else I know who has to promote. So, in Edie’s ever prolific web surfing she mentioned an article by MJ Rose she read chatting about promo, and one of the things MJ has done is create her own version of a street team.

While Edie, T and I were discussing the pros and cons of this concept the other day, Tawny whips out her street team agenda (I should have known. Anyone who lives and dies by color-coded excel sheets is a freak). She’d been there, folks and done it. So, I’m going to share her street team thoughts, add a few of mine own, and then ask the questions.

So let’s hit the streets!

In Person team spirit:
• Take promo materials (bookmarks, postcards, etc) to your local stores, place them with the booksellers.
• Take promo materials (bookmarks, postcards, excerpts, etc) to your local reader group, writer group or RWA Chapter to share with other members.
• Talk the books up and share promo materials with friends & family to spread the word.
Karin’s addition: With the stealth of a panther, take all of my books and front them on the new release table in the front of the store! Note, if you insist on slipping one or two in a few best seller slots it won’t hurt my feelings.

Online team spirit:
• Feature interviews, reviews, excerpts or my video trailer via your blog, site, MySpace page, etc.
• Come visit during online appearances (workshops, blog tours, chats, etc)
• Share your (honest) review of the book via Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com

So what’s in it for the Street Team aside from our undying gratitude? Goodies in the form of signed books, chocolate, and book paraphernalia. Tawny did a big drawing for a loaded gift basket. She took all of the team member’s names, put them in a hat, had her daughter pull a name and the winner was very nicely rewarded.

So, as a reader and a fan or just for shits and giggles, is this something you would ever contemplate doing for an author?

And as an author, is this something you have ever done, contemplated doing or are you having eureka moments as you read this?

Please chime in with your thoughts, good, bad or indifferent, and any suggestions to tweak this idea.

PASIC, the Published Author Special Interest Chapter, has had online workshops for the past year, and this Fall is turning the monthly workshops into quarterly events. We want to provide writers, both published and unpublished, with workshops that can’t be found elsewhere.

As PASIC President, I think it’s important as both a fundraising tool, promotional opportunity, and service (paying forward concept) to provide such workshops to members of RWA and other aspiring and published authors. So I’m developing a unique workshop for November that is exclusive–at least for the year after I present at PASIC online, you won’t get this same information from me anywhere else.

CJ Lyons, who coordinates the workshops and is a fabulous writer as well, reminded me yesterday that I need to come up with a workshop description. It’s kind of hard to do that when I don’t know what I want to “teach!” But she gave me some ideas, and I’m running with them. I’m taking a concept of a workshop I did in 2005 at RWA Reno with my agent and Dianna Love Snell called “From The Call to Publication” which covered all the things you could expect after receiving the call until your book hits the shelf. But I want to go a step further and not only cover the basics of author responsibilities, but working with an agent, an editor, publicist, and others and the roles of each; contract basics; troubleshooting problems; picking your battles; what terms mean in theory and practice (i.e. co-op); distribution; retailers v. wholesalers; promotion basics; what bestseller lists mean and don’t mean; genre and format; etc. So I think the class would appeal to not only serious aspiring writers, both those on the verge of a sale or with a recent sale, but also midlisters and others. The class is not going to be directed to romance writers only, so ALL genre/commercial fiction writers should find the information valuable. I’ll also talk about the different genre expectations, pros and cons of being marketed as A, B or C, and what bookstore shelving means practically.

I’ll admit, I know a lot about this stuff, but I know far less than I should AND I know that my experiences are different from others. CJ had the brilliant idea of interviewing editors and agents and bestselling authors for their take on different aspects of the business and what it takes to STAY published as opposed to GETTING published.

To this end, I need to hone my description and come up with questions. That’s where you come in. And because I’m in a relatively good mood, I’m giving away three copies of TEMPTING EVIL randomly to commenters AND those same commenters get to pick three friends to send one of my backlist books. Everyone is eligible, even if you just say “hi, love the concept.”

BASIC DESCRIPTION

The Writer’s Business Journey (okay, the title needs help, too!)
What happens after you receive THE CALL? You’re going to be published . . . then what? Join New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan on a writer’s journey from The Call to Staying Published.

Part One: The Call to Publication
Learn what happens after you sell, who the players are from your agent to editor to publicist and more; what does everyone do in a publishing house and how do they impact your book and you career? What should an author expect from their agent and their editor? How do you query an agent after you receive The Call? What are common contract clauses and what do they mean? What are foreign rights? Subsidiary rights? Defining terms like copy edits, page proofs, rights, etc. What happens in production? What is expected from the author? This is the nuts and bolts of what is required for every author after a sale.

Part Two: The Three Ps: Publication, Placement and Promotion
What do you HAVE to do before your book is released, what MIGHT you do, and what should you NOT do? Pre-book buzz–what is it and how do you get it? What is co-op and other publication terms? How are books distributed? What are wholesalers and what do they do? How are bestseller lists determined? Velocity, word-of-mouth, reviews, interviews, fans, blogs, MySpace, and your space. What will your publisher do, what MIGHT they do, what can YOU do? Is promotion worth it? Pros and cons of promotion–from authors, agents, editors, and publicists.

Part Three: The Career Author
What it means to be a career author and how to get there; roadblocks; and success. Blunt and to the point, you’ll never again say to an author, “I wish I were you.” Stories from authors who are successful, and those who are struggling. What they’ve learned and why it’s never the same path for any author. How to be a career author from the viewpoint of agents and editors; how to rebuild your career; professional jealousy; career management; changing agents; changing houses; and everything in between. Business management and surviving, pros and cons of quitting the “day” job, and practical issues like managing deadlines, speaking engagements, and family. Dos and don’ts of being active online–i.e. you’re now a public figure, what does it mean? The rudest questions authors get and how to answer them without telling the person to go jump in a piranha infested river.

That’s what I came up with today. Anything I’ve missed? Anything you want to know? If you could ask anyone in publishing a question or three, what would they be? I plan to “interview” at least 10 people in publishing, as well as many authors. I want people to be blunt and honest, so I’m going to offer anonymity if they want. So ALL questions are welcome. Post away!

OTHER STUFF:

TEMPTING EVIL debuted at #12 on the NYT list. Yeah!

An excerpt for PLAYING DEAD is posted on my website.

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, do it now–this summer I’m giving away a LOT of books, to you, your friends, your family–you don’t want to miss out!

I spotted the following short article the other day and thought, ‘Woohoo, at least I’m not the only wild woman on the planet!’ Here’s what it said . . .

AP) A 96-year-old great-great-grandmother says it was “fun” going around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 180 mph. “Oh, that was fun!” Edith Pittenger of Muncie said recently after taking a trip around the famous track in a two-seater Dallara with driver Arie Luyendyk Jr.

“I didn’t know how fast we were going, but we were going,” said Pittenger.

Of course I loved that the 96-year-old woman went zipping around that track at 180 mph, but even more, I love that her children gave her the experience as a gift. That says a lot. They obviously knew, accepted, and loved their out of the ordinary mom, quirks and all, and it really doesn’t get better than that.

I can see myself going through a Bucket-List of sorts when I get old. Considering all I’ve done, how those things might have affected others, then what I’d like to do before my time on this planet is over. I hope the last part of that list only holds one or two items because I’ve already done damn near everything already. Right now, still quite a few years away from 96, my list contains too many ‘want tos.’ I want to do a cattle drive, take a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon, go to Tuscany and dance in the vineyards, walk through the catacombs in France, fish for blue Marlin off the islands of Hawaii. . . .

Some folks think I get a bit too adventurous at times, but the way I see it, whether we only have one lifetime in the grand scheme of things or more than one, there should be no little bit with living. It should be approached as one would settling down before a chocolate cake. Fill a glass with milk, collect a few napkins, set both near the cake platter, then undo the top snap to your jeans, all BEFORE you start eating. Now dive in. Yeah, ya might puke somewhere down the line, but lawd what a feast!

So what’s on your “Want to” list?

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I am writing this late Saturday night, because I will be on a plane headed for New Orleans, Tuesday morning when I am supposed to be posting this. I am very excited about being a part of the Pen to Press Retreat, with my good friend and fellow MSWer, Deb, aka Deborah LeBlanc.

Although I have been to Louisiana in the past few years, it’s been about 18 years since I have been to New Orleans, which is when the pictures below were taken. I thought it would be fun to post them, and then to post updated pictures of New Orleans now.

I know that the city has changed in many ways, especially after the horrible devastation of Hurricane Katrina. But New Orleans is more than just a “place.” It is a spirit, a way of life, an attitude.

So enjoy the pictures, and I promise to update from the Pen to Press Retreat, both on my personal blog at www.nataliercollins.com/weblog, and on the Jenny T. Partridge blog, at http://jennytpartridge.wordpress.com/

You can read more here about the authors, agents and publishing big wigs who will be in attendance.

And now, to the pictures from the past…..

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It’s Memorial Day, which for the United States has a double meaning:

It’s a day to reflect and remember those who gave their lives for our country.

And it’s the unofficial start of summer…which means swim parties, barbeques, boating, picnics and fun.

Sometimes that dichotomy confounds me, other times, I really think it comes down to simple basics of life and death. Many times, we remember those who died, who sacrificed for us, by living. By celebrating that we are alive with our families and friends.

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Which brings me to a question: How do you want to be remembered? I was thinking about this early this morning when I was looking at the pictures of my dad and my husband’s dad that we have on our mantle. Both our father’s served their counties; my dad in WWII as a fighter pilot and my husband’s dad as a medic in Korea. Then they came home and had their families. My husband’s father died very young in a car accident, leaving so much of his life unlived. But his memory had a very strong impact on my husband and was a strong influence in shaping him into the man he is.

My dad died when I was young as well. He left with me a legacy of doing the right thing and living with the consequence. He was sometimes haunted by the war, unable to sleep. I would get up early to watch cartoons and he would already have been up for hours. Apparently, he occasionally had nightmares of the battles he fought. The one reoccurring dream was waiting to see if the plane he shot down had a parachute. If he saw the parachute, he could tell himself the other pilot lived. There’s more but it’s grim so I’ll just say this: I once asked him if he regretted the things he’d had to do. He told me no, he’d stepped up and did what had to be done and that made him a man. But he felt the weight of his choices each day and that made him human.

It was a profound lesson for me at about thirteen years old. I understood that my choices would live with me, and in some ways, beyond me.

And so I looked at the pictures of our two father’s this morning, remembering their service, but even more, recalling that they were men of character remembered long after their lives had ended.

And how would I want to be remembered? As a woman who stepped up when called, made tough choices when necessary but always, always felt the weight of those choices because I am human and I care.

What about you?

And for those of you who are not in the know, Wednesday night was the final night and David Cook got the nod as the next American Idol. I could not have been happier. It really looked like the wrong guy was going to get it, but in the end it all worked out. Life, I have discovered has a way of doing that. We may not get what we deserve at first, and bad things happen to good people, but I truly believe in the ‘what goes around comes around’ mantra. I also believe that good guys and gals can and do finish first. A lot.

The entire American Idol journey also shows you can have a bad performance once in a while and if you have true talent that glitch doesn’t define you, so long as you don’t allow it to. Same with a crit partner. How many of you have one or two or five? How many times have you gotten a sub back and it’s hacked to death? Does it demoralize you? Or does the CP point out critical errors? Can you suck it up and put your big girl panties on and see it for what it is or do you take it personally? Now, when I say not take it personally, I’m not referring to those nasty eye rolling type of crits, but a hard, detailed, objective crit.

In this business while we are putting our heart and soul on the line it has to be done with a huge boulder of salt. The more salt to rub in the wounds the tougher your skin will become. I have to hand it to those Idols who kept getting back on that stage week after week and not only allowed Randy, Paula and Simon to shred them up into little pieces, but they allowed us, the viewing public to do the same. Talk about guts. Even if I had a voice, weighed 40 pounds less and was twenty something instead of forty something, I doubt I would have the courage to do what those kids did. But they did it, and for many of them, David Cook especially, the pay off is going to be huge.

We can learn a lot from these kids. They are brave, they are talented and they are willing to learn and be coached and put their heart and souls into bettering themselves. Never have I seen a more talented bunch of Idols this year and never have I seen a more humble group. I loved them all and wish them all well in their endeavors. The Idol Class of ’08 is going to shine brighter then the other years combined, and I think the reason for it is their willingness to learn, and to try something new, to mix it up to not be stagnant. It’s the same with our writing, we have to constantly evolve. We must avoid ruts at all costs and not rehash stories past. It’s not easy, especially when you don’t have a producer shoving new ideas under your nose. Nope we writers are a solo act, we have to come up with the story ourselves. And we have to be brave, and we have to continually put ourselves out there for ridicule, and as much as it can smart, and it does, it’s all part of the business, a business I love.

So, tell the truth; if you could carry a tune and loved to sing would you try out for American Idol? And let’s go a step further, has anyone here ever entered a talent contest? Care to share the experience?

Did you ever see the Pixar movie CARS? Lightning McQueen believes speed is what will catapult him into the winner’s circle, but learns instead that without technique, speed won’t cut it.

Yesterday, I interviewed with a Boston Globe reporter about writing three books a year. Apparently, there are some authors who are struggling to write one book a year. Granted, they are hardcover “big book” authors who are expected to deliver one book a year, and said book will likely stay on the NYT list for 4-8 weeks, there will be an author tour, speaking engagements, and the like.

Still, we all know hardcover authors who can’t hold a candle to some of the best mass market originals. Quality isn’t in the format, much as some people would deny it.

I was my usual happy, talkative self in the interview. I talked about business: meeting deadlines, keeping a regular schedule, not having the “luxury” of writer’s block, time management. I talked about crunch time and 12 hour writing days–9-3 in the day, and 9-3 at night, because I have kids and they have needs. Like they want to be fed and entertained and transported from point A to point B to point C, oh and back to Point A because they forgot their backpack . . .

But the reporter asked me one question that has been on my mind for the last 36 hours.

“If you had more time to write a book, do you think they would be better?”

This wasn’t a disparaging comment–he has never read any of my books. It was a question that required looking inside and honestly assessing my storytelling skill.

I paused–probably for the first time in the entire conversation. (As those of you who work from home and have kids, adult conversation is rare and therefore we tend to overcompensate and talk TOO much during those rare moments.) But the question had me briefly stumped.

Would I be a better writer if I had more time?

I honestly don’t know. All I can use as a measuring stick is my experience and self-knowledge.

What I told the reporter was true: I took longer to write THE HUNT than any other book–nearly a full year–and that was the book that I completely rewrote after my editor read it. As she said, “You wrote the scenes that didn’t need to be written and all the good stuff happened off the page.” FEAR NO EVIL took me only six weeks to write–by necessity, I had a tight deadline for the last book of that trilogy–but it had the fewest revisions of all nine books to date. (Full disclosure: I had very few revisions on my 39K word novella in WHAT YOU CAN’T SEE, but it took me nearly 12 weeks to write it.)

I also know myself. I am a huge procrastinator. I know that it takes me, on average, 8-10 weeks to write a book. That’s my comfort zone. If I had a full year? Well–I’d fool around. Go shopping. Play video games. Go see every movie the day it was released. We’d spend a week at Disneyland, then head up to Lake Tahoe for a week of camping. Because the book isn’t due! I have plenty of time! I’d read more nonfiction, participate in more ride-alongs, and get sucked into research. I’d spend all day reading about underwater forensics just because–even when I already found my answer. And then, about ten weeks before the due date I’d start writing, and then panicking, and then the day it’s due I’d email it off to my editor.

I interviewed the fabulous Lisa Gardner for the July issue of Romantic Times. She writes one book a year. She knows she can’t write more–she tried when she was writing for Harlequin Intrigue and she struggled. She has her system–and it’s a great system. AND she gets to spend lots of time researching. She spent tons of time with SWAT guys. As I said to the reporter, okay, I’m jealous. I’d like to spend lots of time with SWAT and I’d have the time if I wrote one book a year.

The truth is, Lisa Gardner writes nearly every day just like I do. She writes at her own pace. I write at mine. We are all slaves to our own personalities. It would kill me to slow down. It would kill Lisa to speed up. And guess what? I think both our books would suffer for it.

But the question has still been bugging me all day. Until I remembered something else I mentioned to the reporter, kind of flip, but when I thought about it later I realized something else about not only myself, but the art of storytelling in general.

Writing is the physical process of putting story on paper. Story, on the other hand, is the feelings, thoughts and images those words give to others.

It takes me 8-10 weeks to write a book. It takes me months to create the story. While I don’t plan or plot, I am thinking about the story in terms of images and feelings and character. When I research, I don’t research in a vacuum. I put my characters in that situation, or viewing that evidence, or dying that death.

During one of my FBI Citizen’s Academy classes, there was a case presentation on an eco-terrorism case. One of the principals was an undercover informant who had helped the FBI for nothing except her own personal desire to stop people from doing something wrong. As the story developed, I saw much more into her character, and by the end of the presentation–though I didn’t know her name, age, where she came from–by the way the agents who worked with her talked about her with respect and admiration, I saw her. I created a backstory for her. I tweaked the case she went undercover on. I saw a hero emerge from the shadows.

This story has been turning over and over in my mind since. Almost every day I read or watch something and put it in my mental file on the “domestic terrorism” book, which is how I’m thinking of it–though the crime may change. Could I write this book today? I doubt it. I haven’t absorbed the characters enough, and I would be stumped because I wouldn’t know how to begin. But at some point, I’ll see the opening scene and I’ll stop whatever I’m working on to write it. Just that opener. The beginning of the WRITING, but certainly not the beginning of the STORY.

I told the reporter that I had an idea for five years, longer than I’ve been published. Five years ago, I didn’t have the skill to write my Seven Deadly Sins series. I had the snippet of the idea–but I’ve been thinking, researching, absorbing the STORY for the last five years. When we were ready to go back to contract this last time, I told my agent I really wanted to sell this series. I felt READY to write it. Does that mean I have the skill to pull it off? I don’t know. But if not now, when? I FEEL the story is ready, and that is really all I need to get going.

So this first Deadly Sins book may be written in 10 weeks, but it has five years of research and thought behind it. Does it matter that during those five years I wrote nine books? No. Because it’s always been in the back of my mind, simmering.

Five years to create this one book. Maybe my name isn’t Speed after all.

BSP: TEMPTING EVIL went on sale this week. If you’re planning on buying Book Two of the Prison Break Trilogy, I hope you’ll pick it up this week . . . velocity, you know! Ballantine created a radio ad for this book, you can check it out on my website here.

Okay, I know it’s sort of customary for kids to do the flowers and chocolate thing for Mother’s Day because they really don’t know what else to buy. Am I right? Well, I did get my fair share of both this year, but one of my daughters really went the extra mile. She went out and bought me something I’ve really wanted for some time….the course needed to get a concealed carry license! Woohoo!

Yeah, I know, I know, while some women are out there hankering for diamonds, I’m out here wanting to blow up stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn my back on one of those sparkly rocks, but I’ve got to tell you, I wouldn’t have traded this adventure for a roomful of them.

Most of the concealed carry course was spent in a classroom, which was filled with men, of course. Here we learned the history of revolvers, semi-auto pistols, rifles, etc, (that part was pretty damn boring because it was taught by a guy who’d missed his calling as a geometry teacher) then went onto safety issues. I tolerated most of this fairly well, considering I was itching like you wouldn’t believe to get out on the firing range. Although I have to admit that I did learn one really important fact—that thing that holds a round of bullets in a semi-auto pistol is NOT called a clip. It’s called a magazine or mag. Call it a clip in a court of law, should you wind up there due to overzealous James Bond tendencies, and a prosecutor will fry your butt because it will label you as an amateur who shouldn’t be carrying a pistol in the first place. Geez, so much for Hollywood training, huh?

The last instructional part of the course delved into the law, which really got my attention because it prompted so many terrific questions. Things like, “If I witness a robbery, can I shoot the robber?” or “If someone breaks into my house, should I shoot them in the leg or shoot to kill?” The training officers really came to life then, telling story after story about some of the tough calls they had to make while on the job.

Then, after 7 grueling classroom hours, came the best part—the firing range! We only needed to go through 36 rounds to complete the course. I went through 100, and it would have been more had I not run out of ammo! What a blast! Here’s a little pictorial of my day….

THE DUDES–There was more testosterone flying around this room than in a packed football stadium!

INSTRUCTOR GEO-

MY TOYS- .380 and a 9mm Luger

THE M-A-G-A-Z-I-N-E

WAY COOL!

SAY WHAT?

LEFTY ON THE MOVE

COME TO MAMA

YEAH, I MEANT TO DO THAT!

SOME MAMAS SHOP WITH THEIR DAUGHTERS. ME? WELL….

YEAH, THEY WERE BRAVE ENOUGH TO MAKE ME OFFICIAL!