Ask the Author: Stephanie R. Sorensen
Answered Questions (9)
Stephanie R. Sorensen
I have set the goal of reading and re-reading the Hugo and Nebula Award winners. All of them. It's going slow, as I'm reading lots of other things as well, but I'm alternating new work with old classics I read as a kid, which makes for really interesting mashups in my head, like last week's pairing of Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer" and N.K.Jemison's "The Fifth Season." Wow, five stars on both.
The conversation in my head about the pair goes something like this: both are post-apocalyptic how-does-society-work stories, with well-drawn worlds and interesting characters and rollicking plots. All the good stuff I love. Great world-building in both. Point to Jemison for character depth and well-roundedness (and very innovative ways to develop and show character--no spoilers but you will love it when you get to the reveals); Niven's characters began a bit more "stock" "off the shelf" "ready-to-wear" offerings--but they developed depth and multi-dimensionality in the crucible of their demolished world as they fought for survival.
Where my brain went "Boom!" was when I began to think about these talented authors' divergent handling of, well, divergent characters, marginalized characters. I don't know if the noise of the battle between writers over cultural appropriation, stereotyping and handling of marginalized characters has reached the ears of readers or not, but it's been kind of a big and noisy deal in the places where writers hang out. I'm especially sensitive to it as I, a proud Viking-American, have written a first novel set entirely in Japan, with 100% Japanese characters, so I have in some minds committed a terrible sin of cultural appropriation and probably messed up some cultural details. It is a charge I reject, on the grounds that it IS THE WRITER'S JOB to explore other cultures and other minds.
But I digress.
Back to "Lucifer's Hammer" and "The Fifth Season."
"Lucifer's Hammer" was published in 1977--forty years ago!--and I read it as a kid when it came out and loved it. On this re-reading, with last year's "The Fifth Season" fresh in my mind, I found its handling of female and black characters jarring. How to explain? As a kid, and a feminist kid, I was so excited to see a female astronaut portrayed. As an adult, it was really interesting to see her male colleagues so freaked out about her femaleness, as the authors carefully noted, in the ribbing they gave her about female plumbing and the special arrangements it requires in null gravity. It was interesting to see the Senator's daughter, in her own telling, reduced to the princess-as-prize to be awarded to the best of the male three heroes riding out on three heroic missions, and yes, she married the sole surviving hero.
As a kid, and a socially aware kid in my multi-racial public high school, I liked seeing a black astronaut, and seeing the authors refer (twice! poor editing, or really wanted to drive it home?!) to the four of them, the token female, the token black and then the expected two white males, as "like unto gods" in their superior intelligence, courage and skills. As an adult, I was struck by the detailed portrayal of the discomfort the white ranchers felt around the black astronaut, the need for forced jokes about "back of the bus" when the black astronaut climbed out of the space capsule last, and the gang of blacks who join up with the cannibals...and by the complete absence of Hispanics in a fairly detailed portrayal of Los Angeles and its social groups...
"The Fifth Season" is far more nuanced in its portrayal of the marginalized. First, it's a fantasy post-apocalyptic world, with super powers and other fantasy elements mixed in with the tech, and its races and tribes are not our world's races and tribes. It avoids the tensions of dealing with our world while reveling in the realities of cross-group tensions. It did a fantastic job of delineating the experience of the super-talented member of the despised race being reluctantly embraced and exploited by the powerful. Character and character's position in the well-drawn social hierarchy drive plot in this marvelous book. I can't say more without spoiling the story, but just want to underline what an insightful and modern take on cross-cultural tensions and relations this book offers. The author's personal background both informs this book and helps it transcend any ghetto of special racial/gender/sexual identity interest.
So, you are probably expecting me to bash Nivens/Pournelle for their forty-year-old sins of tokenism, racism and ignorance and to praise Jemison for her artful portrayal of today's issues in disguised form, as a good modern would. Half true--Jemison achieved literature, high literature, in her book as well as making it a great genre fantasy work.
But I will not bash Nivens/Pournelle for being products of their time. They may have succumbed to all the sins of tokenism and other 'isms" that today's writers are exhorted to avoid when addressing race/gender/sexual identity. Rather I would like to point out, rather forcefully, that Nivens/Pournelle wrote forty years ago, when the Equal Rights Amendment fight was in full fury, and a year before it went down to final defeat, a defeat that still shocks me. They wrote when we were barely a generation beyond legal apartheid in schools, buses, water fountains and bathrooms between black and white citizens, and a year before the Mormon church decided black men could hold the priesthood. So what looks quaint, and tainted by tokenism, was at the time of its writing crazy radical and advanced and controversial. Nivens/Pournelle may have gotten their cultural details wrong, and drawn flat characters and made the black guys cannibals (along with a bigger group of white religious nuts) and made a woman hero into a princess-as-prize. But the woman picked up her weapon and fought the cannibals and shamed the cowardly men into standing their ground. The black astronaut went off to save the day after the white astronaut died trying. And a woman and a black man flew in space a generation before their real life characters made it to the stars. So before we bash writers for stepping outside their cultural backgrounds to write, or bash them for falling into stereotype as they explore the future and the possible-that-doesn't-exist-in-our-world-yet, let us applaud their courage and radical vision.
Brava Jemison and bravo Nivens/Pournelle, for helping us see our world in new ways.
The conversation in my head about the pair goes something like this: both are post-apocalyptic how-does-society-work stories, with well-drawn worlds and interesting characters and rollicking plots. All the good stuff I love. Great world-building in both. Point to Jemison for character depth and well-roundedness (and very innovative ways to develop and show character--no spoilers but you will love it when you get to the reveals); Niven's characters began a bit more "stock" "off the shelf" "ready-to-wear" offerings--but they developed depth and multi-dimensionality in the crucible of their demolished world as they fought for survival.
Where my brain went "Boom!" was when I began to think about these talented authors' divergent handling of, well, divergent characters, marginalized characters. I don't know if the noise of the battle between writers over cultural appropriation, stereotyping and handling of marginalized characters has reached the ears of readers or not, but it's been kind of a big and noisy deal in the places where writers hang out. I'm especially sensitive to it as I, a proud Viking-American, have written a first novel set entirely in Japan, with 100% Japanese characters, so I have in some minds committed a terrible sin of cultural appropriation and probably messed up some cultural details. It is a charge I reject, on the grounds that it IS THE WRITER'S JOB to explore other cultures and other minds.
But I digress.
Back to "Lucifer's Hammer" and "The Fifth Season."
"Lucifer's Hammer" was published in 1977--forty years ago!--and I read it as a kid when it came out and loved it. On this re-reading, with last year's "The Fifth Season" fresh in my mind, I found its handling of female and black characters jarring. How to explain? As a kid, and a feminist kid, I was so excited to see a female astronaut portrayed. As an adult, it was really interesting to see her male colleagues so freaked out about her femaleness, as the authors carefully noted, in the ribbing they gave her about female plumbing and the special arrangements it requires in null gravity. It was interesting to see the Senator's daughter, in her own telling, reduced to the princess-as-prize to be awarded to the best of the male three heroes riding out on three heroic missions, and yes, she married the sole surviving hero.
As a kid, and a socially aware kid in my multi-racial public high school, I liked seeing a black astronaut, and seeing the authors refer (twice! poor editing, or really wanted to drive it home?!) to the four of them, the token female, the token black and then the expected two white males, as "like unto gods" in their superior intelligence, courage and skills. As an adult, I was struck by the detailed portrayal of the discomfort the white ranchers felt around the black astronaut, the need for forced jokes about "back of the bus" when the black astronaut climbed out of the space capsule last, and the gang of blacks who join up with the cannibals...and by the complete absence of Hispanics in a fairly detailed portrayal of Los Angeles and its social groups...
"The Fifth Season" is far more nuanced in its portrayal of the marginalized. First, it's a fantasy post-apocalyptic world, with super powers and other fantasy elements mixed in with the tech, and its races and tribes are not our world's races and tribes. It avoids the tensions of dealing with our world while reveling in the realities of cross-group tensions. It did a fantastic job of delineating the experience of the super-talented member of the despised race being reluctantly embraced and exploited by the powerful. Character and character's position in the well-drawn social hierarchy drive plot in this marvelous book. I can't say more without spoiling the story, but just want to underline what an insightful and modern take on cross-cultural tensions and relations this book offers. The author's personal background both informs this book and helps it transcend any ghetto of special racial/gender/sexual identity interest.
So, you are probably expecting me to bash Nivens/Pournelle for their forty-year-old sins of tokenism, racism and ignorance and to praise Jemison for her artful portrayal of today's issues in disguised form, as a good modern would. Half true--Jemison achieved literature, high literature, in her book as well as making it a great genre fantasy work.
But I will not bash Nivens/Pournelle for being products of their time. They may have succumbed to all the sins of tokenism and other 'isms" that today's writers are exhorted to avoid when addressing race/gender/sexual identity. Rather I would like to point out, rather forcefully, that Nivens/Pournelle wrote forty years ago, when the Equal Rights Amendment fight was in full fury, and a year before it went down to final defeat, a defeat that still shocks me. They wrote when we were barely a generation beyond legal apartheid in schools, buses, water fountains and bathrooms between black and white citizens, and a year before the Mormon church decided black men could hold the priesthood. So what looks quaint, and tainted by tokenism, was at the time of its writing crazy radical and advanced and controversial. Nivens/Pournelle may have gotten their cultural details wrong, and drawn flat characters and made the black guys cannibals (along with a bigger group of white religious nuts) and made a woman hero into a princess-as-prize. But the woman picked up her weapon and fought the cannibals and shamed the cowardly men into standing their ground. The black astronaut went off to save the day after the white astronaut died trying. And a woman and a black man flew in space a generation before their real life characters made it to the stars. So before we bash writers for stepping outside their cultural backgrounds to write, or bash them for falling into stereotype as they explore the future and the possible-that-doesn't-exist-in-our-world-yet, let us applaud their courage and radical vision.
Brava Jemison and bravo Nivens/Pournelle, for helping us see our world in new ways.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
Thank you, Danita! Book Two by summer at the latest, maaaaybe ARC form by April.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
Hi Danita,
Thank you, and I appreciate you for recommending "Toru" for your library!
On the dates, well, funny you should ask. I intended February 16 for all three versions, but this first time self-publisher got mixed up on some of the terminology for different kinds of launch dates/available dates and managed to put January 16 as whatever makes it go live instead of pre-launch printable on the paperback. Oops. So in my head it is February for all, but that would be an accidental alternative fact. Use the dates the Ingram and Amazon machine gives you. :-)
I'm hoping to have Toru II out at least in ARC form by April, but I may delay full launch a few months to see if I can get a few pre-launch editorial reviews on the scoreboard. Watch this space for updates!
Thank you, and I appreciate you for recommending "Toru" for your library!
On the dates, well, funny you should ask. I intended February 16 for all three versions, but this first time self-publisher got mixed up on some of the terminology for different kinds of launch dates/available dates and managed to put January 16 as whatever makes it go live instead of pre-launch printable on the paperback. Oops. So in my head it is February for all, but that would be an accidental alternative fact. Use the dates the Ingram and Amazon machine gives you. :-)
I'm hoping to have Toru II out at least in ARC form by April, but I may delay full launch a few months to see if I can get a few pre-launch editorial reviews on the scoreboard. Watch this space for updates!
Stephanie R. Sorensen
So glad you enjoyed it! :-)
The next installment should be out in early 2017...I'm hoping to have it ready to publish mid-February, the gods of book launch prep willing.
I'm also about halfway through a completely different book, set in 1519 Mexico. No publication schedule on that one though.
The next installment should be out in early 2017...I'm hoping to have it ready to publish mid-February, the gods of book launch prep willing.
I'm also about halfway through a completely different book, set in 1519 Mexico. No publication schedule on that one though.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
Hi John,
Hey, first of all, it's great to meet another author who is as fascinated with Japan as I am! I need to check out "At Yomi's Gate!" You and I share a big marketing challenge in our topic and subject matter, because Japan is pretty far off the beaten path in our culture at this moment in time, although maybe the Pokemon Go craze will somehow help our cause!
I'm still figuring out marketing and advertising and plugging away at that mission. Here's my untested theory on marketing an indie book for a first time emerging author, for what it is worth:
1) Long and slow, after launch, not hard and fast before launch (like a traditional book). Not because hard and fast isn't better and more effective, but because an indie author with no established reputation and a tiny budget cannot win with a big pre-launch rollout. So what does a successful "long and slow" frugal indie launch look like? My theory and plan:
2) Reviews, reviews, reviews. Good and bad. Customer, blogger and editorial reviews. Real reviews from unbribed strangers. So I query Amazon reviewers, do non-reciprocal reviews with Goodreads review groups, do Goodreads giveaways (Goodreads giveaway allocation algorithms are rumored to favor people who complete reviews), query relevant book bloggers, query magazines/book review sites (Historical Novel Society) and submit the book for editorial reviews, free where possible (Booklife PW) and paying for them when necessary (Kirkus, BlueInk, Clarion). Reviews--real reviews--help readers decide what to read, and having lots of reviews makes readers feel safe about their decision. Readers who feel safe and know what to expect are more likely to take a chance on an unknown author, so...reviews, reviews, reviews.
3) Contests for indie authors. So far I'm 2 for 5 on coming up with something out of a contest entry fee, garnering a finalist and a bronze medal, helping me break out of the endless sea of self-published books as something readable and of decent quality. Again, more reassurance for wary readers.
4) Netgalley. Netgalley is an online site for reviewers, bloggers, book buyers, media people and librarians to download free digital copies of new books, both traditionally and indie-published. My one month experiment with Netgalley has yielded, from 499 impressions, 87 downloads, 14 reviews (blogs, Amazon, Goodreads), 2 author interviews and some fun fan mail. I like Netgalley!
5) Goodreads ads: I've spent the mighty sum of $60 experimenting with Goodreads ads over the five months since I launched, not to drive sales, yet, but to understand what ad copy works with readers. I now have a good idea of what makes readers respond to my book ad. Once I reach critical mass on the customer/blogger/editorial review front, I will use that knowledge to do some real advertising. Same for Facebook--I've done some tiny sum experimenting and now have it pretty well figured out, but want to wait until I have more reviews locked down. That reader reassurance theory again...
6) Bookbub (future plan). Once I reach critical mass on reviews, a fuzzy line but somewhere between 50 and 150 reviews, with some good editorial reviews and maybe another contest win, I plan to apply to the Bookbub curated section and run a short promotion, supported by advertising on multiple channels. IF they accept my book, that lets me reach 2 million readers in a single blast, which, IF the indie publishing gods smile upon me, should translate to an exciting assault on the Amazon ranking hill and blast me to the top of my category for a moment or two. This blessed event, should it occur, will get the Amazon recommendation engines working on my behalf and jumpstart real discoverability and sales for "Toru: Wayfarer Returns." Once that happens, spending on advertising is probably worthwhile.
7) Write the next book in the series. Readers who like "Toru" say they want to read the next book, so I'm working hard on it now! I hope to do my big Toru promotion right before the launch of the next book in the series, indie publishing gods willing, and snag those readers who like "Toru" and roll them right into pre-ordering the new book.
It's a grand experiment, and who knows how it will turn out. I view the challenge as a human soul bravely struggling against the algorithms that run our world to break through and solve the discoverability problem.
I wish you the best with your book and hope this is helpful.
Hey, first of all, it's great to meet another author who is as fascinated with Japan as I am! I need to check out "At Yomi's Gate!" You and I share a big marketing challenge in our topic and subject matter, because Japan is pretty far off the beaten path in our culture at this moment in time, although maybe the Pokemon Go craze will somehow help our cause!
I'm still figuring out marketing and advertising and plugging away at that mission. Here's my untested theory on marketing an indie book for a first time emerging author, for what it is worth:
1) Long and slow, after launch, not hard and fast before launch (like a traditional book). Not because hard and fast isn't better and more effective, but because an indie author with no established reputation and a tiny budget cannot win with a big pre-launch rollout. So what does a successful "long and slow" frugal indie launch look like? My theory and plan:
2) Reviews, reviews, reviews. Good and bad. Customer, blogger and editorial reviews. Real reviews from unbribed strangers. So I query Amazon reviewers, do non-reciprocal reviews with Goodreads review groups, do Goodreads giveaways (Goodreads giveaway allocation algorithms are rumored to favor people who complete reviews), query relevant book bloggers, query magazines/book review sites (Historical Novel Society) and submit the book for editorial reviews, free where possible (Booklife PW) and paying for them when necessary (Kirkus, BlueInk, Clarion). Reviews--real reviews--help readers decide what to read, and having lots of reviews makes readers feel safe about their decision. Readers who feel safe and know what to expect are more likely to take a chance on an unknown author, so...reviews, reviews, reviews.
3) Contests for indie authors. So far I'm 2 for 5 on coming up with something out of a contest entry fee, garnering a finalist and a bronze medal, helping me break out of the endless sea of self-published books as something readable and of decent quality. Again, more reassurance for wary readers.
4) Netgalley. Netgalley is an online site for reviewers, bloggers, book buyers, media people and librarians to download free digital copies of new books, both traditionally and indie-published. My one month experiment with Netgalley has yielded, from 499 impressions, 87 downloads, 14 reviews (blogs, Amazon, Goodreads), 2 author interviews and some fun fan mail. I like Netgalley!
5) Goodreads ads: I've spent the mighty sum of $60 experimenting with Goodreads ads over the five months since I launched, not to drive sales, yet, but to understand what ad copy works with readers. I now have a good idea of what makes readers respond to my book ad. Once I reach critical mass on the customer/blogger/editorial review front, I will use that knowledge to do some real advertising. Same for Facebook--I've done some tiny sum experimenting and now have it pretty well figured out, but want to wait until I have more reviews locked down. That reader reassurance theory again...
6) Bookbub (future plan). Once I reach critical mass on reviews, a fuzzy line but somewhere between 50 and 150 reviews, with some good editorial reviews and maybe another contest win, I plan to apply to the Bookbub curated section and run a short promotion, supported by advertising on multiple channels. IF they accept my book, that lets me reach 2 million readers in a single blast, which, IF the indie publishing gods smile upon me, should translate to an exciting assault on the Amazon ranking hill and blast me to the top of my category for a moment or two. This blessed event, should it occur, will get the Amazon recommendation engines working on my behalf and jumpstart real discoverability and sales for "Toru: Wayfarer Returns." Once that happens, spending on advertising is probably worthwhile.
7) Write the next book in the series. Readers who like "Toru" say they want to read the next book, so I'm working hard on it now! I hope to do my big Toru promotion right before the launch of the next book in the series, indie publishing gods willing, and snag those readers who like "Toru" and roll them right into pre-ordering the new book.
It's a grand experiment, and who knows how it will turn out. I view the challenge as a human soul bravely struggling against the algorithms that run our world to break through and solve the discoverability problem.
I wish you the best with your book and hope this is helpful.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
Outlines and small, therapeutic doses of chocolate.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
The freedom to create a better past.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
My next book is a historical novel set in 1500s Mexico. It's big. It's bold. It's violent. It's bloody. It's epic.
Stephanie R. Sorensen
Idea: Samurai with dirigibles. I had recently discovered steampunk and wanted to write a fun adventure novel in that genre. (Think Cherie Priest's swashbuckling Clockwork Century Series.) Found most were set in Victorian England or the Weird Wild West, so I wanted to do something new and fresh with the setting. Long ago, I lived and worked in Japan, and realized that many steampunk themes would be fabulous in a 19th century Japanese setting--samurai, their rapid industrial revolution, Meiji restoration upheaval. So I researched and poked around for a while until I stumbled across the true story of a fisherman who returned to isolation-era Japan just in time to teach the Shogun about the Americans. I don't want to spoil the story, but I wove a completely fictional story from that factual spark to create a world of samurai with dirigibles who dramatically alter history.
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