Jennifer Hallock's Blog: Sugar Sun Series Extras, page 10

Research with Red at the Concord Museum

I am thrilled to announce that I will join RedHeaded Girl of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books at the 2018 New England Chapter of RWA® Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference to present our workshop: Breeches, Banquets, and Balls: Living Your Heroines’ History.

Don’t just research history—live the life of your characters! See how cooking their feasts, wearing their clothes, and recreating their dances or battles will make your writing better. Join practical historian and blogger RedHeaded Girl of Smart Bitches Trashy Books, and Jennifer Hallock, history teacher and author of the Sugar Sun series, for the latest online and offline trends.

Red is an experienced practical historian and officer in the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group of over 30,000 members worldwide who are “dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe.” Dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance that she makes herself, Red attends “tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.” Oh, and she cooks and bakes for those feasts. Our workshop will tell you all about her adventures and how it gives her insight on daily life in historical times.

I have a lot to learn about making clothes (or food) from history, so Red gave me a primer at a new exhibit at the Concord Museum, “Fresh Goods: Shopping for Clothing in a New England Town, 1750- 1900.”

Red “shopping” for shoes at the Concord Museum.

Do you see those shoes? People had small feet. I learned that. Also, as Red pointed out, shoes were made from the same fabric as dresses, which is why they had so little durability. If you have read that a character danced right out of their shoes, that description may be literal. It was possible to wear through the soft soles in a single ball, especially in flats. Heels helped.

I loved the colorful clothes at the Concord Museum. These dyes must have been quite expensive, which may be why they were so treasured and therefore survived—more on that below. We saw dresses for every stage of a woman’s life, too. Below (going backward, from right to left) you can see the dress of a young girl, who then grew to be a young woman and required a formal gown to attract a husband, and then with that husband needed a maternity dress. If your family was frugal—and they probably were—they saved your baby dresses for your babies, and so the cycle went.

As Red showed me, the fabric of these dresses often predated the styles they were recrafted into. It was not uncommon to see an 1860 dress made out of an 1820 dress, which may have been sold first in 1790 in a slightly different pattern. In fact, clothes were so often repurposed that it is hard to find surviving pieces of a working-class person’s wardrobe because they were worn to the bone. What is left to us is often clothes in odd sizes—especially small pieces, Red tells me—or the clothes of the elite, who bought new duds every time fashion changed. And fashion changed a lot. Do you see the photo above, with the blue dress? Look at the dress on the far left with the big sleeves—you see the one? Yes, the 1830s were a rough time. Sort of like the 1980s.

And going to a museum with Red makes you look at things differently. For example, at the display above of life for a woman lying-in after the birth of her child, my first thought was: “Are those tea cookies real? Because I’m hungry.” My second thought was, “Look how pretty this room is!” (And our friend Namrata Patel—also a presenter at NECRWA, giving a must-see workshop on search engine optimization—said: “Where can I get this wallpaper?”) But Red’s question was, “Where is the chamber pot?” because she has lived this period (or, rather, earlier) and knows what is truly important. She also admired the washstand in the corner and wished she had one of those for her SCA “camping” retreats.

This trip was just the beginning of my education—and yours. I hope you can join us in Burlington in April! You can see all the great workshops and speakers, as well as register, at the NECRWA conference home page.

#ThursdayBookTease for Sugar Moon

From my blog, it would appear that all I have been doing is taking care of puppy and plugging along on my academic research. And, yes, those things are getting done—especially the puppy playtime because dopamines! But I have been spending most of my spring break rewriting and revising Sugar Moon with my editor, Mr. H, and we are really happy with how it is going. Readers, you deserve another sneak peek, so here we go. This dialogue leads up to Ben and Allie’s second kiss:

Allegra! *heart eyes*

More to come, I promise!

(And, yes, that date on the header image is way off. Sorry about that, dear readers. It’s looking like this book will be a year late: September 2018. I am working hard to make it worth it, so hang tight!)

Discoverability: A Sneak Peek from the History Ever After Survey

(In preparation for my presentation, “History Ever After: Fabricated Historical Chronotopes in Romance Genre Fiction,” I created two surveys, one for readers of historical romance and one for those producing it. The results are in. Do you want to sneak a peek?

I am not going to spoil the whole presentation now, but I will show you a little bit from the reader’s survey. Here were the questions asked:

Question four is my topic of the day: discoverability. That’s the toughest nut to crack in today’s market so authors, listen up! Below are the options available to the respondents. (They also had a write-in option.)

I wish I had a drum roll for the big reveal here, but since I don’t here goes…

I know what you’re thinking: Social media recommendations won? Woot woot! I’m gonna throw promo around my favorite Facebook groups like graffiti! Well, hold on there, friend. Let me make an important disclaimer before you do. My survey link was distributed via social media, especially Facebook groups and, to a lesser extent, Twitter.

It makes sense, then, that the survey respondents would take book recommendations via the very same channel that suggested the survey, right? So let’s not overvalue that response. But what can we learn from the results?

As you might expect, book blogs do sell books. If you can get reviewed by several of these sites, especially the big ones, terrific! (It does not matter the grade they give you, believe it or not. I have heard both Sarah Wendell and RedHeaded Girl from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books  say that—according to author feedback—the books with the biggest sales boosts might be those with the lowest-scoring reviews. Keep in mind that while reviewer might not like alpha-hole-bear-shifter-billionaire-holiday-baby-surprise books, Jane the Reader might want to devour them like, well, a bear.
Beyond book blogs, though, almost as many people find books through random browsing online. You can pay to promote on retail sites like Amazon, and how often your ad will show up depends on how much you bid for the spot. The real gold mine, though, is when a retailer promotes your book for free, especially in search results. To do this, you need to make friends with a nasty beast: the algorithm. How? Well, being a bestseller already is good. That’s helpful, right? To sell books you need to have sold books. Great, Jen. Thanks. Okay, how about this: a connection to another bestselling novel helps, too—those coveted “also bought” features. Outside of this survey, I have been tracking bestseller lists for three months, and I have noticed that sales on Amazon are strongly affected by our next marketing tool…
Promotional newsletters like BookBub, Bargain Booksy, and others have changed the publishing industry. Initially, BookBub was a resource targeted at independent authors, but its tremendous success (millions of subscribers) meant that bricks and mortar publishers quickly got on board. While the big New York houses do not like to discount their books too close to publication date, they do use BookBub and others for their backlists. For example, Julie Garwood’s The Wedding , first published in 1996, was discounted to $1.99 this past week, advertised on BookBub on Tuesday, and now (on Thursday) it is still number 67 in the Kindle Store. That means it is selling approximately 1500 copies a day, according to Dave Chesson’s Kindlepreneur calculator. Before you rush to submit to BookBub, know that they do not accept everyone’s request for promotion. And, even if they do take your book deal, a spot in their newsletter is not cheap: from $66 to $4,000, depending on your genre, market (US or international), or book sale price. Is this worth it for an indie author? Maybe, after you have enough other books in a series to sell at full price to the new readers you attract (called getting “buy through”).
Speaking of newsletters, an author’s newsletter still has cache! (Did you know that you can sign up for mine here? Just checking.) In fact, author newsletters came in above promotional newsletters in the survey, but I put the latter first on this list because of their success in pushing sales. (By the way, I will be writing more about my bestseller tracking results after IASPR this summer.) Just keep emailing your readers—and do recommend the books that you enjoy reading, too, because people are listening. Read on…
Fourteen people wrote in “recommendations by other authors.” This result could be compromised by the place I solicited for responses—two of which were big author pages—but I do think it is interesting that four percent of my respondents wrote in the very same idea (and that they felt it was distinct from other social media recommendations). So endorsements work. But you need to find an author with a big enough following to matter, and this is not always easy for debut authors without the support of a good agent or large publisher.
Giveaways are popular in this survey, too, but I have a question about those: will entrants buy your book if they lose the giveaway? Anecdotal evidence from my friends says not necessarily, but I imagine that if your goal is to create name recognition, a giveaway on a site like Goodreads could work for you. I have no data to back this up, other than the relatively strong showing on this survey.
Even digital people have a real life. The next response people gave was browsing in bookstores, superstores, grocery stores, libraries, and (yes!) yard sales. Obviously, this distribution channel favors print books; those who publish digital-only miss out. The deck is also stacked for traditional publishers who have distribution networks in place for Walmart, Target, and Barnes and Noble.

That’s all for now. I am still analyzing the results of this survey, and these are just my first thoughts. Do remember that this is a survey for historical romance, and the results would have been different for readers of contemporary, erotic, inspirational, paranormal, or other romance subgenres. I will put this survey together with my other research to examine the most popular settings, plots, and characterizations in bestselling historical romance—the chronotopes—and see how flexible the market is. More to come!

[Background photo used in header taken by Jerzy Gorecki, used with permission under the Creative Commons Universal Public Domain Dedication 1.0 license.]

Thank you for your help!

I have been so pleased with the number of people who have taken the surveys for my presentation, “History Ever After: Fabricated Historical Chronotopes in Romance Genre Fiction.” Thank you!

For those who have not yet participated, there are two surveys:

one for historical romance authors (or editors, agents, graphic designers, proofreaders, or others who produce historical romance);
and one for readers of historical romance. (If you are an author in another subgenre but you read historical romance, you may take the reader survey.)

You can find both surveys here: http://bit.ly/HistoryEverAfterSurveys.

Again, thank you. After the IASPR conference in June, I will post the results of this survey (and the rest of my presentation) here on this blog. Stay tuned!

Historical Romance Surveys

I need your help for my presentation, “History Ever After: Fabricated Historical Chronotopes in Romance Genre Fiction,” at the 7th Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. Whether you are a romance professional or a romance reader, please answer a short four-question survey designed just for you:

For authors, editors, agents, assistants, librarians, graphic designers, and other industry professionals:

For romance readers:

These are not the only way you can help. I am building a few lists of books outside the most popular chronotopes.

For books outside of 19th century England (Regency/Victorian), Scotland, and the American West, click here.
For books (in any historical time period) that include political, military, or socio-economic conflict or complexity, click here.

Thank you for all your help. I plan to summarize my results on this blog in the future, so please stay tuned. I hope to see as many of you as possible at the IASPR conference in Sydney. Thanks again!

Happy Year of the Dog!

Happy Chinese New Year! It is fitting that this is the Year of the Dog because it is definitely going to be that at our house. I will try to return to some book talk soon on the blog, but pardon me if I am smitten.

Mr. Hallock brought Wile E. by my classroom while the kids were finishing a test, but I did not see either of them right away. I was confused by why my students suddenly started whining, “Awwwww!” I thought to myself, “I know this was a tough essay question, but it is not that difficult.” Then I looked up to see my husband and puppy in the door window. Love!

Thank you for suffering through all my puppy photos. (They won’t end, but they might slow down. Maybe.) But know that the Hallocks wish you all a wonderful Year of the Dog!

No, Wile E., there are no red packets for you. Your life is blessed enough!

Wile E., Day Three

Wile E.’s third day was a doozy. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it included some serious puppy play time, a trip to the farm, and a trip to the vet. She was so exhausted by the time she got to the vet that there was no whining at all. In fact, she mostly just slept on the table, in Mr. H’s arms, of course.

Yesterday (day four), she came to my school with Mr. H, and she got lots of attention there. She accepts pets on the head from anyone and is comfortable with anyone holding her, too. Other than the taste for rabbit scat, this pup is damn near perfect. We’re very lucky.

Wile E. Puppy, Day Two

It has been a rainy, cold day—and guess who has had two long walks and many, many laps around our pond? Yep, you guessed it. Wile E. Dog, Super Genius!

What has surprised me is how adaptable this puppy is. In one day, Wile E. has gone from living with eight littermates to living with two strange humans, and she is already attached to us.

Maybe she just likes warming up by the fire with a chew rope. I get that.

I hope your Sunday is just as satisfying!

 

Wile E.’s First Day in the Good Place

Today was the big day! We arrived at a parking lot to pick up our Alabama-born pup, Wile E. (“Wiley”). She was safely and carefully transported with 26 other dogs—including her eight littermates—in a single 24-hour trip.

First, a littermate was lifted out of the van, and everyone oohed and awed. Then the two-legged reached in for Wile E. and brought her out of the van. This is the first time we got to lay eyeballs on the new center of our lives. “They just keep getting cuter and cuter,” someone said as Wile E. was lifted out.

Wile E. got to play with her littermates—and others—one last time before we took her home. This little girl has the ability to look pitiful in pictures, but she was one of the happiest, most active players in the pen. Her tail was wagging the whole time. I felt so bad taking her away from them that I set her down outside the pen to say goodbye, forgetting the rule about not letting the pups walk around on public park spaces. (Their immune system is not totally developed yet, hence the bedsheets in the playpen.) Whoops! I picked her back up and took her away to the car. Predictably, she whined.

But not for long. I was expecting her to howl for an hour and a half, all the way home, but she quieted quickly in Mr. Hallock’s arms. She welcomed her new human overlords as easily as Kent Brockman:

Once home, though, she was not so sure about the snow. She tried to stick next to the house, sitting on the leaves.

Soon she embraced her new New England normal. By the time we walked around the pond a few times, Wile E. learned to love the snow.

That high tail means she’s a happy girl. She even came in close to give kisses.

And after a long day of getting used to us, snow, and everything else, it was time to drag a big bone by the fire and chew. It’s been a confusing, but great first day. Thanks to the great people at For Dog’s Sake Rescue (the adopting organization in New Hampshire) and Sasha’s Hope Rescue (our pup’s home for the first 12 weeks of her life) for bringing us this adorable girl. Both are tremendous organizations who give every possible dollar and every possible hour to these lucky, lucky dogs. You guys are the best.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates: Sugar Moon on Ice?

I was watching the replay of the US Figure Skating Championships at San Jose, and I looked up to see my characters Ben and Allegra ice dancing! Well, okay, Ben and Allie don’t skate because, ahem, my books are set in the Philippines in 1905, when ice is hard enough to find for your calamansi juice, let alone dance around on. But still . . . these two are adorable. If I had not already written my characters Ben Potter and Allegra Alazas to fall in love, this real-life couple would have inspired it.

Sugar Moon lands in 2018. Until then let these two cuties tide you over in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Evan Bates was even elected as the U.S. Figure Skating Team Captain! Allow Evan and Madison to explain ice dancing to you with Legos. Video courtesy of Channel 5 NBC in Chicago.