Editeyes

The book launch for Between Two Women was one year ago this past weekend. It was a fabulous party and wonderfully validating. And it was my first promotional event!

In the year since, I can’t say I’ve been a highly successful book promoter, but I’ve learned a lot, and it is quite clear that book sales rise in direct proportion to book promotion. That’s a fairly obvious conclusion, and it points to the fact that promotional efforts have to be given full attention and lots of time and effort. My attention has been sporadic. Like my exercise program this year, there have been bursts of enthusiastic effort followed by thinking and not doing.

In my more energetic moments, I’ve found some excellent resources, including the following books:

• The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard Johnson
• Plug Your Book: Online Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber
• Speak and Grow Rich by Dottie Walters & Lilly Walters
•  Sell Your Book on Amazon by Brent Sampson

My absolute favorite, however, is Freocious Promotion for Timid Authors by Hope Clark and Gwynne Spencer.  I like this book because these women understand that book promotion feels like a chore and it’s scary. To that end that offer practical, easy to implement and inexpensive practices.

Whenever I start feeling down in the dumps about what a lousy promoter I am, I grab this book, read a few pages, and suddenly I’m re-invigorated. I start scribbling notes about things I can do immediately to get my promotional efforts back in motion.

Then I set the book down and get to work!

Make sure you get Ferocious when you start thinking about book promotion.

Tags: Books, Going Public by ph
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When I was pregnant with my third child, I read that each time a new child enters a family, a number of new relationships are formed, that number being relative to the number of people already in the family. In other words, in our family of 4, when we added 1, we would then have 4 new relationships. That’s a whole lot of dynamics going on!!

When you add a new member to a writers group, the same thing happens. Suddenly there are a number of new relationship. Group process theory suggests that when a new member is added, the group has to re-form and norm all over again. My writers group had first hand experience with this phenomena last spring when we invited some new members.

New folks came to several different meetings. Not all of the original members were present at each of these meetings, and we had differing ideas about how to handle our visitors participation the first time they came. Some of the newcomers said they would be back and then didn’t come nor did they let us know when or if they would be coming.

Suffice it to say that the experience was very disruptive to our process. So this summer we dedicated a portion of one meeting to discussing how we wanted to manage new members. We decided to have open enrollment once a year, and we drafted the following guidelines to help the process:

• Because group dynamics change each time someone joins, we will only add new members once a year in September. The size of the group will determine if we have room for new members. Our group size will not exceed 8 members.
• We will not extend an invitation to a prospective member without running the person’s name by the entire group.
• When inviting a new member, we explain our practice of only bringing new people in once a year in September.
• Prospective new members will be invited to the first meeting in September. We will send them this protocol ahead of time. They will observe rather than participate in the meeting.
• We will set aside time at the end of the meeting for prospective members to describe the focus of their work and ask questions.
• If after visiting the group, a prospective member is interested in joining, she should send an email to the entire group declaring her commitment to participate. The email initiates her enrollment, and we will expect her to begin regular attendance beginning the second meeting in September. If we are working with a schedule for submissions, we will notify her regarding her place in the schedule.
• We assume that we will have already given thought to those invited to join and that we will not be refusing admission. However, if after a person joins, we discover an unsuspected incompatibility, we will find a means to tactfully and kindly dismiss the person. We recognize the awkwardness and discomfort of such a decision and will therefore be thoughtful about invitations to participate and decisions to dismiss

What do you think of these guidelines? Do you think it’s overkill to be so specific? Do you have a group in which writers come and go and everything works fine. Let me know how you handle membership in your writers group.

Tags: Community, Going Public by ph
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Last time, I wrote about the challenges of maintaining a committed writers group.  I promised that in the next post I would list the guidelines that have proven effective in my writers groups. Here they are:

1. We agree to get our pieces to one another at least two days in advance of meetings.

2. Our protocol for responding to pieces is as follows:

1. Readers come to group having read each piece in advance and prepared written commentary to offer the writer to supplement verbal critique.
2. Readers discuss each piece for a predetermined amount of time while the writer listens and takes notes after which the writer is invited to participate.
3. Readers discuss the piece saying the writer or the narrator or the writer’s name, but not using the pronoun you.
4. Responses begin with what is working in the piece, specific places where language is exciting or full of energy, images that are sparkling, writing that is fluid, etc. Sufficient time should be given to discussing the merits of the piece before turning to critique.
5. When pointing to places that don’t work well in a reader’s opinion, the reader is as specific as possible. We offer suggestions with the clear understanding that the writer ultimately decides what will work in her piece.
6. Writers listen carefully to the opinion of others, recognizing that this is simply one opinion in many and that others, including the writer, may view the work differently. Writers take what is useful and leave the rest.
7. Writers needn’t defend content, style, or word choice. Critique is simply meant to give one reader’s response. The impulse to defend comes from protectiveness around our work but can also be a signal that something deeper needs to be communicated on the page.

3. We put writing first. We are not an emotional support group. Our discussions come from a writerly perspective. We agree that if a conflict among members arises it will be managed with honest self-examination and one-to-one communication as the first option and a separate full group business meeting as a last resort.

4. A full group business meeting will be called separate from our regularly scheduled meetings to make major changes in our guidelines. Temporary or minor changes can be discussed at the close of each regular meeting.

5. We agree to keep our criticism fresh, focused, honest, and generous. We all wish to grow as writers.

6. We will have quarterly retreats that will particularly focus on exploring craft and technique as well as developing the level and perceptiveness of our critique.

Please let me know what you think of these guidelines or if you have additions, questions, or other considerations when it comes to developing a protocol for a writers group.

Tags: Community, Going Public by ph
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I can’t say enough good things about my writers group. They are kind but astute critics. They are dependable both in putting writing first in their lives and in making our group meetings a priority. We celebrate one another’s successes, be it publication, finding just the right title for a piece, or winning a contest. We are generous with one another too, concerned about each other’s comfort at meetings or challenges related to getting to group. Like I said, “I love my writer’s group.”

Finding a committed group of writers was not an easy thing. During my first creative writing workshop in 1990,  I discovered the value of getting feedback and encouragment from fellow writers. For this reason, several of my class members decided to continue meeting after the class ended. However, that group lasted for only six months. That was the start of my experience with short-lived groups.

For the next five years, I worked doggedly to convene groups of writers–anywhere from 4-6. Each group would started out enthusiastically and gradually diminish until I was the only one left. The longest any of these groups met was 6 months. I was frustrated because I’d read about successful groups and wanted to be part of one. But I was getting gun-shy, thinking that either I didn’t know any writers with same the level of commitment to a group as I and/or that I was doing something wrong in the way I organized such groups.

After my fifth group faded into oblivion, I suspended the urge to start again and simply went solo for over a year. One day, I was talking with a friend about my wish for a group, and she mentioned another friend who was writing who might be interested. I thought about it for a week before finally calling this woman. She was game, and we decided to meet for coffee and talk about what we were looking for in a group. That coffee date was the start of our “group of 2.”  For 4 years, we met twice a month for an hour and half at 7am in that same coffee shop.

Then we decided to expand our edges, and we each invited one writer friend. Both accepted and that group meet for 2 years. We were a dynamic foursome, and it was during that time that I completed my first book as did 2 of the other members. Then sadly my original partner decided to move out of the area and another member had health issues, so we were down to 2.

Since it had worked before, the 2 remaining members each invited one writer to join us. That group never jelled as nicely as the first group and seemed to limp along for a year until 2 of the writers dropped out including the one from the great foursome. Summer was coming and the remaining writer and I decided to organize a summer group of mostly teacher- writers who liked to use summer to pursue their writing vocations. Big egos in that group caused the most contentious group I’ve ever been a part of and by the end of summer I was deeply disheartened.

It took some fast talking from the women who had helped organize that group to convince me to try again. But I’m glad I did. This time we started with a large group of 8 writers in September and by the following summer we were down to four. By fall, 1 of those had dropped out but 2 more joined. The five have worked together for a solid year, though at the beginning of this summer we lost a member to a cross country move.

I’m glad that I’ve consistently made the effort to keep a writers group going.  Having the support of other writers means a lot to me. Next post, I’ll offer our group guidelines for your consideration.  In the meantime, let me know what your experience has been with writers groups.

Tags: Community, Going Public by ph
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Yesterday, I put together a registration form for the 2009 Medocino Coast Writers Conference. This morning I read an article in Poets & Writers (May/June 2009) entitled “Conferences, Festivals Taking a Hit.” The juxtaposition helped me answer a question I’d been asking myself: Why do I need to go to yet another writers conference?

Conferences tend to be an expensive venture, what with registration fees, travel and accommodation costs. Why put out all the money, especially when finances are tight, so tight that many conference organizers are canceling this year because they can’t pull together sufficient funding to offer a quality conference?

Wouldn’t my time be better spent staying at home and WRITING? Shouldn’t I simply focus on practicing my art, cultivating the craft? What more can I learn from mentors and teacher? Shouldn’t I “put writing first?”

These are the questions that come up every time I think about going to a conference. However, the thought that the economic situation might curtail the option to go to conferences put these questions in perspective.

Going to a conference puts me in touch with other writers, a connection that fertilizes my motivation to write and offers essential nutrients for growth. I’ve gone to conferences alone. I gone with a writer friend and once my entire writing group attended a conference together. I’ve been to conferences that were one day, three days, or a full week! I’ve signed up for festivals where I have worked with a single teacher in a workshop context and others where there were a variety of presentations to choose from. Sometimes presenters were big names like Natalie Goldberg or Dorothy Allison, but more often they were lesser known writers who had published one or two genre books or had been successful getting published in literary magazines. I’ve even taken my turn as a workshop presenter. Conferences usually have a bookstore venue and and most important, there are social gatherings, like a dinner, a tour, or a wine tasting.

I come home from such engagements energized and motivated. The subsequent spurt of the productivity and growth is exciting. I have made new friends, and the expansion of my writers network has more than once offered unforeseen assistance in later endeavors. My notebook is filled with new ideas, techniques, and books to read.

My registration for the Mendocino Conference is in the mail.  Yes, I’m ready for time among writers. In fact, I think the time is overdue.

Tags: Community, Going Public, Teachers, Writing First by ph
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Tonight I’ll be reading with fellow writer Kate Evans at Books Inc in the Castro.  I met Kate at a writer’s conference several years ago, and coincidentally our books were published in the same month last year. To learn more about Kate read the interview that I posted here on Editeyes about her book For the May Queen.

Readings are one way of promoting one’s book. Though most authors agree that you don’t sell a slew of books at a reading, one can hope they make the book more visible and then that viral thing happens . . . you know, a friend tells a friend who tells another friend. This post is one of those telling moments: check out Kate’s book at Amazon and buy it.

And while you are there, take a minute to write a review for Between Two Women. There is apparently a pretty good correlation between 5 star reviews and book sales. And if you are any where near San Francisco tonight (2/5), join us at Books Inc at 7:30.

Tags: Going Public by ph
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Last year when I did NaNoWriMo, I experimented with writing in public places. I didn’t think I would do well writing away from the privacy and comforts of home, but I was wrong.

I started off with baby steps. First, I took my laptop to the public library and hid away in a little carrel at the back of the stacks. A few days later, I decided to try writing at Starbucks. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I disappeared into the writing and for the most part was undisturbed by the comings and goings in the shop. The hardest part was when I needed to use the facilities and couldn’t figure out if I should take my laptop with me or ask a nearby coffee drinker to watch it for me.

In the third week of NaNoWriMo, I decided to try something suggested by veteran WriMos: The Write-In.  This is when a group of writers carrying laptops gather in a public place–generally a coffee shop but there are other possibilities.  For a set amount of time, the writers sip caffeinated drinks and clack away on their novels. Two of my WriMo buddies agreed to meet for a Write-In last November, and by the end of the evening we were hooked.

This year, I jumped at the chance to regularly join 6 other WriMos for weekly Write-Ins. Here we are at the kick off event.

And here is a list of the wonders of write-ins:

1. Never underestimate the power of camaraderie in any foolish activity, such as writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. It’s a known fact that kids get into more mischief when there is more than one. Well, the same can be said for writers except that mischief is a good thing when it comes to written expression.
2. When you get blocked regarding a word or the name of an actor, movie, song, car part, kitchen utensil or some other triviality that figures into the scene you are currently writing, you can ask your cohorts, and they–not being invested in your story–  immediately provide the term that is alluding you.
3. I like to ask all the writers for one word at the start of a Write-In. I jot these words in my notebook and then aim to get each one into the story somewhere. These words stretch my thinking in directions I would never have otherwise taken. For example, here’s a list of words I was given at the Write-In pictured above: sizzle, Timbuktu, assassin, mimic, and fiddle.
4. When you are in a public place, you often hear snatches of dialog that wiggle their way into your scene. The same can be said for aromas, textures, tastes, and other sensory data.
5. If you are even a tiny bit competitive, the fact that your neighbor has reached the requisite word count in under 2 hours will spur you on to reach the goal, and more likely motivate you to get a few words more than the eager beaver sitting across from you.
6. The last push to get one more sentence, phrase, or word before departure time sometimes holds the seeds of much better stuff to come.
7. And when you are with friends, you never have to worry about leaving to use the facilities because you can trust your friends to watch your laptop while you are gone and who cares if someones steals the last line you wrote. It won’t look the same in their novel as it does in yours anyway.

So Write-on and Write-in.

Tags: Going Public by ph
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I’m getting tired of receiving political email, usually messages that have been forwarded hundreds of times. I’m sick of reading blog posts that slander or at least underline the foibles of McCain and Palin. But yesterday I got an email message–it was another forward– that brought me up short and made me think about perspective and point of view.

Early on as writers, we learn to consider the importance and relevance of point of view in writing. Here are segments of the email message that made me shiver, that frightened me and forced me to recognize how deeply entrenched our country is in a racist point of view.

What if things were switched around? Consider the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

Why aren’t people talking about John Sydney McCain if they are saying Barack Hussein Obama?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing three planes?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes, and minimizes the positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Education isn’t everything, but I think it should be a part of one’s perspective when evaluating candidates for the most important position in the country. Consider the disparate educational backgrounds of the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

There is no minimizing the power of point of view when one considers how much harder a bi-racial man has to work to reach the same heights as a white man or a white woman.

Tags: From Whence We See, Going Public by ph
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Recently, I mentioned Julia Cameron’s idea about Artist Dates, and it seems the mere mention of this idea manifested one big fat date for me. According to Cameorn’s description, the Artist’s Date is a block of time especially set aside for nurturing your creative consciousness–an excursion, a play date that you take all by yourself–quality time in which you open yourself to insight, inspiration and guidance for your art form.