In Which I Shock Everyone

I'm stalling on things I should be doing, so I shall continue my procrastination efforts by writing a small, yet shocking blog of Startling Confessions.

1--I haven't seen "The Hunger Games" yet. I KNOW! Crazy, right? And it's been out, like, what? Twelve hours? Actually, there are very, very few movies I would rush to line up for at midnight, with "very few" being generally defined as "none." Even if I want to see the movie, the same movie will be showing next week at a reasonable hour, with no lines. The only reason I would do the midnight thing is for the social aspect, if I wanted to join the party. But even then, I don't want to kill myself off for the movie. For instance, some writer friends are getting together to see a midnight movie the night before the Storymakers conference. I'd love to join the fun, but I don't love the idea of being wiped out the next day--being puffy-eyed, headachy and sleepy at a conference I've been anticipating for a year. I guess I'm getting old . . .

2--Are you sitting down? This one might knock you over.

I think store-bought ice cream tastes better than homemade ice cream.

Whew. Sorry for the shock. If this were a Victorian novel, you'd probably pass out. But here's the thing: homemade ice cream, while pleasant, just doesn't usually have that smooth, thick, creamy texture you can get in a nice tub of ice cream from the supermarket. I LIKE carrageenan and guar bean gum, okay? Homemade ice cream is a fun treat, but in a straight taste test, I'd go for store stuff. 

3--I've never seen the following shows:

American Idol
Dancing With the Stars
Anything involving a Kardashian

4. Twitter confession (not that I'm on Twitter much these days): it gives me the freaky geekies when someone tweets something along the lines of "I know who unfollowed me!" Apparently there's some service or other you can use to determine who stopped following you, but whenever someone announces that fact, it makes me uneasy, because they seem to be announcing that they'll be offended if you unfollow them ("I know who you are!"). Shouldn't Twitter be a place where you're free to try out a new connection, and then if the person's tweets don't appeal to you, quietly unfollow, no harm done, no offense intended? You were following their tweets, not proposing marriage. It's not meant as a slight if you change your mind and back away.

5.  I get the feeling I'm only going to be finishing two Whitney categories this year. So far I've finished one (Speculative). Last year I read all 35 books, and the year before that I think I only missed by . . . two books, was it? I still get credit for that, right? Even if I'm wimpy this year?

Well, that's enough scandal for the day. Happy Friday!

Book Bomb for Caller ID!

Award-winning suspense author Rachelle J. Christensen is celebrating the release of her new novel, Caller ID, with a Book Bomb! If you buy Caller ID from Amazon. com today, March 22nd, you'll get an awesome price on the book, and if you send your order confirmation to Rachelle, she'll email you over twenty free gifts--click here to learn about your prizes and how to claim them. Congratulations, Rachelle! 

Clicking "Send"

I finished my manuscript! I submitted it last Friday! 

Submitting a manuscript is something of an “aiyyyeeeeee squeeeeee eeeeeek” sort of experience—exciting and scary. No matter how many times I’ve done it, I still get freaked out as I reach the point of actually sending it in. I look at the manuscript and poke at it. I change something. I re-read the synopsis and change something. Finally, finally, finally, I stop tinkering and work up the courage to click “send.” Then it takes me a while to work through the freaked-out stage and get excited.

I didn’t want to celebrate submitting the manuscript by, oh, catching up on things I’d been procrastinating. Eek. It was a beautiful afternoon, so I decided to hike the ridge (a nearby park area with good hiking trails). This would be beneficial on multiple levels: extra exercise for ye olde weight-loss efforts, and good strategy for working out any heebie-jeebies over submitting the book. I took a water bottle and a baggie of four malted milk eggs (yes, four—I didn’t want to undo ALL the benefits of the exercise, and I’d already eaten some chocolate), selected the Irish playlist on my phone (appropriate for March), and hiked up the hill. At the top, I sat on a bench and ate a malted milk egg. It was quite celebratory. That night, my husband and I went out to dinner (which is our usual date, but it still counts as celebration). We went to a nice Italian restaurant we hadn't been to in a long time, plus we got gelato afterward. I love food. 

Submitting a manuscript is always big, but the Giant Milestone of Overwhelming Significance came when I submitted a manuscript for the first time. That was HUGE—the culmination of over a decade of work, when after years of writing, rewriting, and reading fiction technique books, I had finally reached the point where I felt ready to submit my work to a publisher. In fact, that was almost exactly ten years ago—if I remember correctly, it was in March 2002 when I first submitted a book. This was when you still submitted in hard copy, so I printed out my book, carefully put it in a box with the cover letter and synopsis, and took it to the post office, accompanied by my kids and a sign my daughter had made and stuck in the window of the minivan, reading “World’s Greatest Author,” or something like that. Unfortunately, the publisher turned out to be unaware that this new submission was from the World’s Greatest Author, and they rejected my book in record time. But that didn’t lessen the milestoney-ness of it all. I had crossed the threshold from dreaming about being a published author to actually submitting a manuscript.

And now, ten years later, I've sent a new manuscript off. If my publisher accepts it, it will become my sixth book. If they reject it, I’ll bet my mom will still read it and say something nice about it, so it’s not a total loss. Fortunately, I don't have to start getting nervous yet, since they haven't even had the book for a week, so it's way too early for any kind of news. 

Mmm . . . malted milk eggs . . . 

Oh, sorry. Where was I? Submitting manuscripts. When did you submit your first manuscript (or when do you plan to)? How did you celebrate?

Five Tips for a Successful Booksigning: Guest Post by Megan Anderson

Well, this is not Stephanie--so when you are wondering why this post sounds nothing like the amazing Stephanie, now you know why! My name is Megan Anderson--if you have done any author signings for Seagull Book (most recently in the Murray store), you have probably met me! (Super talkative, crazy curly brown hair, recently pregnant…) I was the manager of the Fashion Place Seagull Book for two years, and I was the manager of the Brickyard location before that, and I have also worked in the Riverdale (manager-in-training), Bountiful (it’s not even there anymore!), Logan, American Fork, and Orem locations over the years. I started working for Seagull in 2003, right after I graduated from high school. I left for two years after getting married and worked as a wedding coordinator for a hotel in SLC, and then came back to Seagull once a management position opened, which I worked up until the day I went to the hospital to have my son, Noah, in August. So--I know books! I know fiction, and I know non-fiction, and I know how to sell them, especially to the LDS market.

I “met” Stephanie through Facebook and let her know how much I loved her latest novel. Then, I pestered her a whole bunch, and finally she offered to let me be a test reader for her current manuscript! (which I am HAPPY to do for anyone else…just sayin’…) Through lots of email conversations, Stephanie asked me if I would mind doing a guest post on her blog with advice to authors on how to make your signings as productive as possible, from the bookstore perspective. So, here you go!

Top 5 Tips for a Successful Signing

1    Introduce Yourself! The best thing you can possibly do is get your name out there. Introduce yourself to customers. Even if you aren’t delivering a sales pitch, at least be as friendly and approachable as you can. Try to catch them as they come in the door--but also learn to read people; if they are in a rush to get what they need and get back out, or have screaming kids, or are on a cell phone, it’s not a great time to interrupt. Depending on the store, they may have an employee “stationed” at your table to take care of the introductions for you (I always tried to be right by the author table to herd the customers in the right direction) and if that’s the case, still try to get in a little something to let the customers see your personality. If you are introduced by an employee, begin to ask questions like, “Do you enjoy mysteries?”, “Are you looking for a good romance novel?”, etc. Questions are always the best segue into a sale; invite the customer to come see what you have to offer.

2    Get to Know the Employees. Remember, long after you leave, the employees of the store are the ones who can either encourage a lot of sales for your book, or talk people out of it and into something else. There have been several times when I have read a book and enjoyed it, but wasn’t totally caught on fire to sell it, but then we would have the author come and if that person was very happy and fun to have in the store, it made me want to sell their books. There have also been other times when I was on the fence about a book, the author came in and was either boring or rude, and it became very hard to sell their book. I would even talk people out of it and into something else, on principle that the author wasn’t very nice. The employees in the store have more power than the best book cover in the world, more power than an incredibly gripping synopsis, and more power than the best written story since Gone With the Wind (my personal favorite). The employees are the ones the customers see often, and especially in companies like Seagull Book, the customers are “repeat offenders," coming in often enough to get to know and trust the employees. I had several customers who would buy whatever I told them to, and wouldn’t buy whatever I told them not to, just because they trusted my recommendations. One lady would just hand me her basket, give me a spending limit, and wait by the doors for me to get her weekly books! If you want your books to sell well, really get to know the employees. Talk to them when there aren’t customers to be attended to. You can even bring them in a little trinket relating to your book, a treat, or send a thank you card after your signing is over. The employees of the stores you sign in will remember you, and it’s up to you to make sure that memory is a positive one that will drive your book sales up.

3    Stay Close to Your Product. There is nothing more frustrating than an author who is wandering the store when they are supposed to be doing a signing. Once your scheduled time is over, feel free to browse and shop your heart out! I know that I couldn’t possibly walk into a bookstore and sit at a table for two hours, then leave without looking around, but just make sure it’s after your scheduled signing is over. Sometimes, you might even get that extra sale or two because if someone is interested in your book, and you are still in the store, they will be grateful for the autograph and will make the purchase! Just be sure to stay close to wherever you are supposed to be, especially if the employees of the store are trying to draw customer’s attention in your direction.

4    Have a Handout. For those of you who have published with Covenant Communications, I know that they will often print these great bookmarks that have a picture of the book on the front and a synopsis of the book on the back. These are awesome! Get as many of these as you can! When a customer comes in the front door, even if they don’t want to stop to talk to you about your book, you can give them a free bookmark that may spark their interest later on and get a sale! Not many people turn down the offer of, “Would you like a free bookmark?” You can even say, “If you’d like a free bookmark, this will tell you more about my book.” Once your signing is over, leave a stack of them with the employees (if they are okay with it) for them to put in customers' bags. We did this all the time and had a lot of success with it. I had people often come back in because they saw the bookmark in their bag and read the synopsis and were intrigued. If you don’t have these or aren’t able to get something like it from your publisher, make your own! Anything that has a picture of the book, as well as a synopsis of the story, is a great thing to hand out to people. Not everyone will keep it, or even read it, but you never know who will be inspired enough to come back and buy your book. (It’s not sacrilegious to compare these to pass-along cards and missionary work, right?)

5    Don’t Over-Crowd Your Table. I know that it’s tempting to bring in lots of props, posters, banners, or what have you to dress up your table, but resist that temptation! A few SMALL things here or there can be fine, but remember that you want the focus of your signing to be your book, not the life-size photo of your pet cat, even if he was the inspiration for the cat in the novel. I once had an author that brought in his own extra 6 foot table to add on to his signing table for his props, and it was a huge concern because we didn’t have anywhere to put all of that! Having a little something like a bowl of candy will entice more people to your table as well, but again, moderation is the key. Also, if the store wants to feature your newest release, and has a display set up with only that book, don’t go to the shelves to get all eight of your other books and try to cram them on the table as well. Odds are that the employees have read the recent one and are more prepared to sell it. If it is a sequel that you are signing, it is appropriate to have the first one on the table, but less prominently displayed. It’s frustrating to the employees who are trying to focus on their new releases to have the authors only trying to sell older books. The store usually bulks up on the new book to sell, and they don’t want to sit on the merchandise. (Without getting into all of the logistics of merchandising  requirements and balancing purchasing power, just trust me that it’s frustrating!) If you want to have at least one of each of your books on the table, let the employees know so that if you can sell one, then you do have it at your disposal, but do try to focus on selling the book that the store is focusing on also.

General Sales Tips:

     

      *Always ask questions to start a conversation with a customer. It’s more approachable and less intimidating. “Do you like romantic fiction?” “Did you say you needed a gift for your mom?”

      *Be prepared to talk about your book: where the idea came from, how long it took you to write it, why you like it, possibly even books it’s similar to (in case they are an aficionado), why you chose to write the genre you did, etc.

      *Smile and don’t refer to groups of people as “guys," especially older folks! For some reason, this is a little off-putting to customers.

      *Even if you aren’t talking specifically about your book, if a customer is willing to talk to you about anything, just keep talking! Odds are, if you have a ten minute conversation on tricks to getting your kids ready for school, the customer will connect with you which in turn will make them interested in your book.

      *Always strive to leave a good impression. “Have a great day!” is a good send off, to your current customers and to the potential ones that may come back in another day for your book.

Well, I hope this was helpful! I have hosted many, many authors, some great, some not so great. Signings really are great tools to get your name out there, get your book noticed, and build good relationships with the stores that sell your product. I always enjoyed having authors in the store; it was fun to put a face to the book, and I know that a lot of Seagull Book stores (can’t definitively speak for any other company) feel the same way. Good luck, and happy selling!

(Stephanie here: Megan, thank you SO much for these awesome booksigning tips. I'll be coming back to review your post before I do a signing! It's so good to get the bookstore perspective on how to make a signing successful). 

Mickey Mouse, Whitneys, and Revisions

Last week, we had a deeply awesome trip to Disneyland with my sister and her family. This was a special occasion and a last-chance hurrah: my sister's husband has been called to serve as a mission president, and they'll be leaving this summer for three years. They decided to go to Disneyland this winter (a much-needed break for the family) and we tagged along. It's crazy to think how old our kids will be by the time my sister's family returns. Already, my two oldest girls are off at college. My sister's oldest daughter graduates from high school this year. Our older sons are taller than we are. Aww, man . . . everyone is growing up. What's up with that? Where's a Time Turner when you need one? You know how when your kids are little, it feels like they'll be little forever? And then one of them gets old enough for kindergarten, and they're so grown up, and it's a new world? And then one of them gets old enough to babysit  the younger kids and it's a WHOLE NEW WORLD (such a momentous event requires all caps)? And then somebody enters high school, and then you get distracted for a moment trying to find a shoe and an overdue library book, and when you look again, your kids are adults? Weird how that works.

In other news, I'm thrilled to report that Rearview Mirror was chosen as a 2011 Whitney Award finalist. It's a tremendous honor to be in the Mystery/Suspense category with Traci Abramson, Jennie Hansen, Gregg Luke, and Anne Perry. A huge thank you to the Whitney committee and to the category judges who put in countless hours of work.

I'm doing my Whitney reading (if you are an author or writing industry professional and are not part of the voting academy but would like to be, click here for more information). Last year, I read all thirty-five finalists--whew!--which made me eligible to vote for Best Novel of the Year. That was fun, but this year--to my husband's relief--I'm not planning to attempt all thirty-five. At this point, I'm not sure how many categories I'll vote in. I know I want to vote in Speculative and YA Speculative; beyond that, we'll see how many categories I finish (I've currently read nine of the thirty-five books).

I'm still aiming to wear that red dress at the Whitney gala, but my weight loss seems to have plateaued. Sigh. It's frustrating, feeling like, "This used to work! Why isn't it working anymore?" I'm hoping I can get things moving forward again, preferably without a lot of self-deprivation and struggle, because, oddly enough, I like brownies better than self-deprivation. Especially those marshmallow peanut butter Rice Krispie brownies.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the revisions in the current draft of my manuscript, as I incorporate feedback from test readers and revise and edit and polish. My goal is to submit it at the end of the month.

I suppose I'd better quit blogging and go exercise . . .

Creepy Me

I grew up reading the suspense novels of Mary Higgins Clark. Her books are fun, suspenseful, and scary. She’s a master of the page-turner, a master of raising all these questions in your head so you want to keep reading to find out what happens. Her heroines are likeable and sympathetic, people you want to root for. And her books are clean. No worries about gore, foul language, or sex scenes. Sometimes the villains or stories are pretty creepy, as you might expect in suspense novels, but the stories are never gruesome or stomach-turning or graphic—just fun, spine-chilling reads. Mary Higgins Clark is one of my author heroes.

Despite the fact that Mary Higgins Clark creates creepy situations and villains, I don’t remember it ever occurring to me that Clark herself—not her books, but the woman—was creepy. She was simply an author skilled at writing suspense—an elegant woman with her hair swept up and classy jewelry (she has awesome back cover photos). I loved her creepy stories, but didn’t think that she was creepy. Or twisted. Or had a “dark side.” But on multiple occasions, I’ve gotten comments along these lines from readers of my books.

Naturally, if someone says something about my creepiness, I’ll just smile or joke, ha ha, yes, I’m so scary, or what have you. I assume they don't mean it in a bad way . . . I hope. It might even be a compliment on the book--what a creepy, twisty story! You must have a twisty mind!--but it’s happened enough that it’s starting to . . . um . . . bother me a little. What exactly do people mean when they say I have a dark side or a twisted mind? Do they think I’m a scary person? That behind the smiling mommy/stake girls camp director/amateur violinist/professional procrastinator façade that I’m . . . what? Sacrificing cats?

Since the comments tend to come from people who know me personally, I’m guessing they just find it . . . I don’t know . . . surprising? Odd? Scary? . . . that I can come up with these creepy stories, since I seem like . . . um . . . a person who wouldn’t be able to come up with creepy stories? Help me out here. Is it because I’m a Mormon mommy that I get these comments—is this an unusual business for a Mormon housewife to be in? (And for anyone unfamiliar with my work who is now sitting there scandalized wondering what type of horrors I’m writing, this is LDS fiction, folks. Clean stuff. My 92-year-old grandfather enjoys my books).

I guess the thinking is that to come up with scary stories, you must have a scary mind, just as, um, quilting requires a quilting sort of mind, and taking care of toddlers involves a large section of your mind labeled “sticky things and loud noises.” So I guess I am creepy. That would explain the people fleeing in terror when I utter those spine-chilling words, "Go do the dishes, kids." 

Drafts, Treats, and the Stink of Red Herrings

Sooo . . . blogging. Yeah. It’s been a while.

It’s always a bit sad to have the Christmas season end. My two oldest girls headed back to college, so the household has shrunk again. When I texted my daughter a list of some of the things they’d left behind, she wondered what they DID have in their suitcases, considering everything they’d forgotten. They didn’t have the cat, unfortunately, but I would have stuck it in there if I’d thought I could get away with it.

And now, back to real life. Strangely enough, I didn’t do much in the way of writing over Christmas break, but yesterday, with the kids all back in school and the party officially over, I was out of reasons to stall. I made some good progress and was able to finish the third draft of my book. It also helped that I’d refilled my See’s candy Bribe Supply. Hooray for chocolate, which reminds me: over the holidays, I made my first ever Yule Log. I’ve never made a Yule Log or a jelly-roll-type cake of any kind, so this was a new experience. For the cake roll, I used Annette Lyon’s recipe from Chocolate Never Faileth—oh my, but I love that cookbook—put ice cream mixed with crushed candy canes inside for the filling, and drizzled Annette’s chocolate glaze over the top. As far as Yule Logs go, my efforts were pretty basic—the filling turned out looking a bit orange, since I used French vanilla ice cream, which is yellowish, and some of the red food coloring came off the candy canes. I didn’t make it look like real wood, or create meringue mushrooms, or spun-sugar birds, or a botanically accurate model of tree fungus fashioned out of marizpan, but man, I was proud of it. I rolled up a cake! And it didn’t fall apart!

Other holiday treats: Grittibanz (a Swiss bread shaped like little people, or in the case of my son’s creation, like an octopus); “elf bark”, made of dark and white chocolate, cranberries and pistachios, Danish puff pastry, two types of cookies from my husband’s new Tartine cookbook (the Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Tartine is an amazing bakery in San Francisco), and sugar cookies, wherein I accidentally put twice as much butter in the frosting as I should have—oops—but it’s not all bad, because you can NEVER HAVE ENOUGH BUTTER.

Mmm . . . Christmas treats.

Anyway, where was I? The third draft. For me, the third draft is the one I send out to test readers. Good luck to them this time around; I’m not sure what I think of this book yet. I hope it’s okay, or can become okay after my helpful test readers point what’s wrong with it (“It started out slow, but picked up around page 360 after I finished it and went to watch Psych reruns”). I hope the villain isn’t too obvious. The chronic fear of the mystery writer—worrying the villain is too obvious. And the irony is that one reader’s Obvious is another reader’s I Never Saw That Coming. On one of my books, I got heartily criticized by a reviewer for having the villain be too obvious—it didn’t fool her at all. On the same book, I got heartily criticized by a reviewer for having the villain be so “out of the blue” and unexpected that she found the ending disappointing. Sigh. Fact is, everyone will have his/her own experience with your book, positive or negative, so as a writer, you just do the best you can and hope the people who don’t like it don’t have Goodreads accounts. I've been grumbling about concealing villains lately (only fictional ones, in case you were wondering). I think I have Red Herring Burnout. For my next suspense novel, so help me, I’m announcing the villain on page one. Heck, I’ll make it the title of the book: “Jim Did It.” Ahhh. What a relief.