J.L. Wilson's Blog: Why I'm not here often, page 20

Plateau Theory of Authorship

When I was getting started trying to write for publication, I realized that there were 'levels' of competency or levels of knowledge I needed in order to succeed.

For example, when I first started, I thought all I had to do was tell a story and that would make it a readable work. Then I learned about "show, don't tell" and that idea went out the door. Then I learned about character arcs, and plot points, and ... I soon realized that each level built on the last until I reached a level of Publication.

I think the same thing applies for published authors.
Whoa: these are people who are published but you ask yourself, "How? How did that book make it onto a shelf?" Maybe they were published with a smaller company with poor editing. Maybe they paid to have their work published (so-called 'vanity publishing'). But Whoa Authors are those that make you wince when you read their books.Okay: These are people who produce good but not particularly memorable works. They may have a few typos, a few plot holes, but overall, it's a competently produced book.Good: These are authors who have a modest fan base and who churn out good books on a somewhat regular basis. They have a market presence that's identifiable and they often have books that make one list or another.Yeah!: These are authors who are an auto-buy for many fans. They seldom disappoint their readers and they turn out, on a regular basis, books that are eagerly anticipated. They can switch genres and loyal fans will follow them.Wow: These are the authors who write the can't-put-it-down books. The books fly off the shelves and are buzzed about around the coffee pot. That may be due to the quality of the writing, the plot, or the marketing, but for whatever reason, the book is the Hit of the Season.Not all authors are Wow authors. Some authors have one or two Wow books in a lifetime. Some have them a lot (James Patterson. Nora Roberts). Is that due to a better quality of book than a Yeah Author's book? I'm not convinced of that.  For many readers, familiarity is what sells -- they know exactly what they'll get when they pick up a Nora Roberts book, for example.

And it truly is all a matter of perception. To some people, Nicholas Sparks is a Wow writer. To others he's an Okay Author.

I tell people in my classes that you have to define success for yourself. For some people (the Whoa Author, perhaps), it's success enough to have a book published. For a Wow Author, it means making a sales list somewhere. And in today's changing publishing world, I think it's more true than ever:

Decide for yourself what success means. Don't allow it to be dictated by arbitrary lists (hey -- like the one above, maybe?) Know for yourself where to improve to achieve that success. And when you achieve it -- relax for a minute and enjoy the hell out of it.

You earned it.

What -- you don't have enough to do?

Yep, starting another blog. Why?

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, "How do you do it? How do you work full-time, have a family and home life, and write -- almost full-time."

I write "in between." I write in-between everything else there is to do. How do I do that?

That's what I'm going to blog about. And I'm hoping I'll get other folks to chime in and give me their tips, too.

But for now, while I get organized, just relax. Enjoy the calm, pretty background on my blog. I'm not sure where you're living, but where I am, it's cold, snowy, and gray. So breathe deeply, relax, and pretend we have all the time in the world to enjoy a warm, sunny day.

Okay. Long enough. Get back to work.

Mentoring and what we learn

I have been a mentor for a year or more to a fellow Kiss of Death RWA chapter member. It isn't an onerous job -- we email occasionally, I've read her synopsis & query letters, we chat about publishing opportunities, and when she made her first sale, we talked about contracts, cover art, etc.

Lately we've been chatting about promotion. Her first book will release this spring and she's so anxious (remember that feeling?) She wanted to hire a marketing professional to "get out there and talk about her book." She asked a lot of questions of me: who to hire, where they should promote, etc.

I gently pointed out that unless she was with a major publisher (she isn't) she shouldn't expect to make a ton of money and that really, readers want to make a connection with the author, not with a publicist. That entailed a discussion about blogs, and how to blog, and where to blog, and what to do when you blog...

Anyway, the point of all this is: it showed me how much I have learned in the four years I've been published. I well remember that panicked feeling of "how do I tell people about my marvelous book!" and "I must talk about it today, on the day it releases, or...or..." (Not sure what came after 'or' but it felt dire). I've learned that promotion isn't about the one book. It's about your writing, which means it's about all the books, all the writing, all the things you're learning along the way.

Now I have to laugh, because one piece of advice I gave her was "don't sweat a blog post. If you're scheduled to blog, sit down and write what comes into your head. Don't spend a ton of time agonizing over it."

And you know -- that's exactly what I did. I sat down, knowing I had to do a blog post, and I thought, "What to write about? Oh, hey: how about practicing what I preached."

If you get a chance to mentor, give it a try. It's amazing what you learn about yourself in the process!

What the heck: another blog!

My current blog has been taken over by my web site since I lost my web site hosting (a long and angst-ridden story best told over a drink in a bar somewhere).

So hey, I'll use this as my blog for now. Of course, I blog on a regular basis at various spots around the web, so it's not like I've been blog-less, but this might be okay to have a blog home I can use while my other blog is taken over by my web site (sounds like an exorcism will be in order soon, doesn't it?)

So I'll try to blog here once or twice a week, just to keep in touch with the GR crowd. I'm trying to promote my latest book (http://tinyurl.com/4wj88ts), work on a new web site, work full-time, and write the next book... so blogging comes in a distant fifth or sixth on my List of Things to Do. But I'll drop in now and again to stay caught up.