Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 19

I Don't Think We've Made A Big Enough Deal About Stephanie...

Did everyone here realize that Stephanie's book One Final Step has won the RT Reviewers Choice Award for Best Superromance? This is Steph's second RT Award, she won best Bombshell a few years ago with The Contestant . So, to sum up, Steph has two RT Awards and a RITA nomination. My guess is, like any writer, most days she doesn't even remember this. Under the pressure of trying to write books and decide what to do next, she's probably forgotten that she's a big-deal award-winning author. Congrats Steph - and it's super well-deserved.

Another friend of the blog Cecilia Grant is also an RT Award Winning Author. Her book A Gentleman Undone won for Sensual Historical. Which is tremendous and supremely accurate.

Congrats friends!!

Where have all the good men gone?

I was on Publishers Marketplace the other day, a place I probably need to stop going as sometimes it drives me crazy, when I saw several deals involving New Adult books. All of them featuring… Bad Boys. Bad Boys are the new chic. And I dig it. I read Kristen Ashley’s Own the Wind and I was completely down with the idea that a girl’s boyfriend would beat up her boss just because he was giving her a hard time at work. I mean really what’s a little assault and battery when a man’s woman is being hassled?

But here is the thing about bad boys… in fiction they are not really “bad”. In fiction there is a core of goodness that runs through them usually driven by the powerful love they feel for the heroine. I mean what girl doesn’t want the biggest, baddest, strongest man standing between her and the rest of the world. (I will also add that I do think there is a link between women getting stronger, professionally and financially etc… and wanting the bad boy fantasy even more. If we in the US elect Hillary Clinton as president oh my goodness we’re going to see some bad bad boys. Just sayin’)

But I’m not worried… or I can’t be worried… about young teenage girls devouring these New Adult stories riddled with angst and bad boys and fearing that they are going to only want for themselves in real life bad boys. Because despite what people say to the contrary women and girls can separate fantasy from reality. I was fourteen reading Kathleen Woodiwiss. I didn’t think Roark was going to ride up on his horse and carry me away.But one of the things that does worry me a little is that we seem to be losing balance. Yes I read bad boy stories back in the day. Elizabeth Lowell alphaholes - I could not get enough of them. But there were other heroes too. Jayne Ann Krentz’s heroes were always strong steady reliable family men. Nora Roberts heroes were often similar.

I get New Adult is the spawn of Twilight and all that entails but I also hope there is room in there for the good guy. I wrote about Pitch Perfect as a New Adult movie and that is a perfect example. The hero in that story was a great guy. He was funny and personable. He won the girl over not by grabbing her by the neck, sticking her on the back of his bike and saying you’re mine. Instead he was just nice and friendly and he sang. Also he was really nice to his geeky roommate. Let’s not forget them… The good guys. Because at the end of the day… in life those are the guys you want to spend your time with. They should be represented well in fiction too.

 

Self-Publishing by the Numbers

Here at Storytelling Rules, some of us are going back to school to earn MFA's (very cool, Eileen!) and others are trying to get skooled in self-publishing.

In a moment (day? week? month?) of recent depression, I commented to Molly and Sinead that I felt like everything I'd spent the last 10 years learning about publishing had become obsolete. And while I didn't really mean it, not literally, it has felt that way at times. And there's certainly a whole new area of publishing to learn about.
Over the past year or two, self-published authors who've had success have been bragging sharing their enthusiasm for self-publishing with the rest of us, and while it's been difficult to know what to believe at times, certainly it's been hard impossible to ignore some of the huge successes that have hit the news, or the authors who've sold enough to hit the conventional bestseller lists. 
But I also had the feeling that some of the bragging claims were exaggerated. Not everyone could be doing that well, and some of the successes being reported didn't sync up with objective and public data like Amazon rankings, and bestseller lists, etc. 
Yes, some self-pubbed authors have been upfront about their disappointing numbers, but for the most part, the author community has heard most from the people who've been doing really well. And that makes sense, whether it's human nature or careful protection of a public image or whatever. Definitely makes sense that we've heard more from the people doing the best.
Then, last week, author Marie Force posted the results of an informal survey she's done, where authors reported their actual numbers, and most of them also disclosed their names along with their numbers, making it easy to check the facts against titles out there, etc. Thank you to all who participated. It's so much easier to learn and make decisions with some actual information. Bravo to all. 
My preliminary conclusions/observations after scanning the numbers:
1) It's time to start taking this publishing option seriously. (Okay, a year ago was probably the time, but since I don't have a time machine, now is the best I can do...)
2) Some of the authors are doing extremely well. Especially in romance.

3) People who were traditionally published first, seem to be doing better. But they aren't the only ones doing well.
4) Many are earning a lot more as self-published authors than they ever did as traditionally pubbed authors.
5) That said, even with the people doing very well, it's not quite as spectacular as I feel I'd been lead to believe on some loops where there was the impression that everyone was making 7 figures a year. (Don't get me wrong. Many authors numbers are super-impressive. It's just that with some of the talk, I thought some numbers would be even higher.)
6) The people who aren't doing that well, yet, really aren't doing very well. It almost seems to be hot or cold. Either people are earning a lot, or peanuts much less.
7) Related to #5, everyone's definition of success is different. Some people selling fewer books seem to be very pleased with how they're doing. And that's awesome. (What it's all about.)
8) There are no straightforward answers as to what works and what doesn't and who will do well and who won't.

9) Perception is important... and some of the people who tout their success, yet aren't that successful, might be smart like foxes... Sometimes the appearance of success builds success... 
10) Suddenly everything is both terrifying and exciting. And I guess that's a good thing.
If you're a writer, are you thinking about self-pubbing? Why or why not?
If you're a reader, do you buy self-pubbed books? Do you even pay attention to who the publisher is?  

Ring, ring goes the bell

I have some big news. I'm going back to school. In June, I'll be heading down to Los Angeles for my first term in the Antioch University low-residency MFA program in Creative Writing.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I finally got the nerve to apply to some programs and was lucky enough to get into Antioch which has an awesome reputation. I'm slightly terrified and really really excited.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I don't know what we'll do in our classes or what our homework will be like or exactly how much older than my fellow students I'm going to be. It's a big adventure.

The thing that has surprised me the most is how supportive everyone has been. Well, one of my sisters did sort of pause and say, "but don't you already know how to do that?" But she's been totally on board since then. No one has said I'm too old. No one has said I'm wasting my time. Everyone has been uniformly thrilled for me, even my day job although I think they realize that part of the impetus for this is to be able to quit working for them.

I've waited awhile to go public. I needed to figure out where I was going to go and let people know. It's all official now.

Wish me luck! I'm betting it gives me LOTS more to blog about.

I would have gotten away with it, except for you meddling kids

It's a phrase I loved as a kid, when I loved Scooby Doo and now my kids love the show, which looks almost identical, but has a weird over arcing plot about evil aliens and a strange owl.

There's a real comfort in familiarity, and a structure where we know all works out in the end. My kids love the show, because Scooby and Shaggy are still hilarious, but also because that line still comes up at the end and every time, they giggle.

There's nothing wrong with comfort. It makes the journey more secure. It's why I always get annoyed when people talk about formula and romance. Lots of genres have a formula of sorts. Look at the big action movies, where the hero always saves the day. Always! And yet that formula is accepted, but one where two people fall in love and live happily ever after is criticized endlessly.

I think about this a lot, because I still have acquaintances who refer to romance as the trash they read when they need to shut their brains off and no matter how I defend the genre, I know I'm just wasting hot air.

Anyone else come up against this? Am I the only one who still gets annoyed?

So you want to be a writer...

I had a business colleague reach out to me about a friend of hers who wrote a book and was thinking about getting it published and how to start the process. With the myriad of issues in publishing today I had no idea where to begin spewing my knowledge. Do I talk about editing, agent getting, publishers, self-publishing options. Do I talk about creating a fan base with facebook and twitter and all the other things involved with marketing?A thousand things went through my head but when I finally settled down I realized I needed information from this newbie writer first in order to think about what information was going to be the most useful to her. So I came up with a list of questions and I think they pretty much some up where a person who has never previously published a book before needs to answer before beginning the process.

1.      How long did it take you to write this book? How long do you think it will take you to write the next? This tells me several pieces of information because while saying that it took five years to write the first book is okay – because then it’s just a hobby and your tinkering with it, having fun, say it will take five years to write the next means unless you’ve just written the great American novel, the publishing world isn’t going to be thrilled with that.
2.      What do you write? Who do you most closely resemble in the publishing world? So many times people will tell me – I’m totally unique. I’m like no one else. I don’t fit any genre. This is not an okay answer. If you are deciding to go the traditional route – you must be able to give agents and editor of who you are and where they are going to shelve your books. I would make the same argument for self-publishers because in that case you have to know what target audience to market your book to.
3.      What are you goals for this book? Do you just want to see it published? Or do you want to hit the NYT list? This helps me figure out if Indie Publishers are in play, or maybe you would be okay with just selling a few copies from Amazon or you want to go whole hog into the business of publishing.
4.      What are your goals for your career? Do you see yourself making the NYT  or will you just be happy to publish a book and say you did it? Obviously this helps me decide if I’m going to explain to the newbie author so much of what goes into building a writing career.
Any other questions you can think of to add to this list?  

Originality

We often hear that there are no new stories and everything is derivative of something... and yet there's still so much pressure when starting a new book to be original.

I actually love thinking about new ideas and they always seem so shiny and exciting to me when they arrive in my little brain. Until I start talking to other people. Then they start to sound derivative or unoriginal or cliché. Or worse, all three.

I know this is part of the process, especially if you're pushing yourself to be better, and I do think it sounds smart to discuss new ideas with people you trust who are smart about storytelling and the market before investing too much time in the actual writing part, but even that is no guarantee of originality... (For example, it's kind of funny (and disturbing) to me that Deviants has been called derivative of books I've never even heard of, never mind read...)

And for me, discussing an undeveloped idea too much creates the risk that others (CPs, agents, close friends) see it through their own lenses with their own histories of reading and/or their own writers' voices and story preferences, and what I thought were my original ideas get lost or buried, at least. Often, I think, because I'm unable to articulate my ideas well, when they're still in development and fragile.

I'm definitely one of those writers who needs to write things down. I need to organize my thoughts and ideas, before I present them, rather than saying them aloud... And even then, I usually have open questions that could change everything...

And as a result, developing new ideas, for me, has gone from my favorite part of writing, to one of the most angst ridden and stressful parts.

But really, instead of whining about my mixed up story ideas and scrambled brain, right now, what I meant to blog about is: how important is it to be original?

I mean, 10 years ago, I thought it would be incredibly dumb to write about vampires, because Anne Rice (not to mention Bram Stoker) had already covered that ground so well. How could one possibly write another vampire book? And now I wonder why the hell I didn't write a vampire book back in 2004...

It's hard. But I think that we (and by we, I mean me at this very moment of my process) need to trust that our unique writer's voice will bring things to the table which will sound fresh even if others see similarities to other stories.

And back to originality... What's amazing to me is how everyone sees similarities to different things, depending on what they've read, or what books have stuck with them, or resonated, or what images pop into their imaginations when they hear the scraps of your story idea before it's formed.

Is it possible to be truly original? Am I chasing unicorns??? Hmmm... unicorn story idea... joking... sort of.

Context isn't everything, but it is awesome

Putting things in context makes them so much more interesting. I think it's why I've always loved art history. Seeing a beautiful painting is, of course, enjoyable, but it's even more enjoyable to me if I understand the context in which it was created. I've discovered I feel the same way about TV shows, apparently.

Last fall, I read Tina Fey's book BOSSYPANTS. It was very funny and wise and I really enjoyed it. I hadn't watched 30 Rock. I'd blown past it a few times here and there, but it never kept my attention for long. I just started watching it from the beginning (thank you, Netflix!!!!!) and I'm loving it. It cracks me up, but the best episodes are the ones that I know about from the book. When one of the writers calls Liz that really bad name that men call women that rhymes with runt? You see Liz grappling with how to handle it in a funny way, but it's even more interesting because I know how Tina Fey grappled with it real life and enjoy it even more because I see how she made art out of her life.

Several years ago, my youngest (hereby known as Thing Two) complained about a field trip to a museum. "You go into a room and there's a picture of a lady and then there's a picture of a flower. You go into the next room and there's another lady and another flower. Booorrrrinnnng."

I explained to him that there were probably reasons that those particular flowers and particular ladies were meaningful and that if he just understood the context it would make it more interesting. He seemed doubtful. The next time that he and I were at a museum together, we stood in front of Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Ginevra de Benci and I explained to him about Leonardo's unique use of figure and field, the atmospheric quality of the painting, the use of light and shadow, the softness of the lines and Leonardo's use of symbolism.

I asked him if that made it more interesting. He gave me one of those smiles that seemed to say that I might shut up if he agreed with him and he said yes.

I'm taking that as a win.

Have you ever had a TV show/movie/book/piece of art become more interesting to you once you understood its context? Or does it not matter to you?

Professional jealousy and Twitter

You know - it used to be the writer loops that would kill me. They'd drain my energy and make me crazy. When they became easy to dismiss as a time-suck, I happily got out of them. But Twitter is beginning to feel like this to me now too. If I'm circling the drain emotionally Twitter makes it worse. Everyone's success, everyone's ability to be funny and charming and smart in 140 characters, feels like a mirror held up to my lacking soul. I wish I was being over-dramatic, but I'm not. Of course, if I'm feeling on top of things, twitter is a great place to drop in, share a joke with some writer friends and then get back to work, my narcissism and neediness in check. It's a hugely successful way to connect with book bloggers and writers.

But there are days when it is as bad a time-suck as the loops are. Maureen made a comment about how she can go onto Twitter and spend hours, not saying a word, but scrolling through every one else's updates and feeling like garbage.

YES!! Exactly!! It can be so poisonous.

But I also feel like we can't walk away from it like we could the loops. As we're supposed to be doing more and more marketing, our publishers want us facebooking and Tweeting and Pinning because no one can point to those things and say they don't work. They do. Not all the time, not in any perfect way - but it's an important part of the promotion puzzle.

And the smart advice is "Molly, when you feel bad, don't go to Twitter." Right. Yes. Smart. But you're talking to a woman who hasn't totally figured out that food is NOT comfort. I have some self-sabotaging behaviors that are not totally in check.

So what do you do?

Critics

So the news this week that Roger Ebert has passed away is sad, and he certainly will be missed. I watched his show with Siskel from a pretty early age, and loved the show. I loved that they had such strong opinions, and adored when they argued with each other over loving versus loathing a movie.

What always came across was a deep respect and admiration for movies in general and it helped me nurture mine.

It's really hard to create something, put it out in the world and then have someone tear it to pieces. (I know, that's such a duh! statement), but the critics out there, the ones that take the time to read books, asses them, think about them and then write a blog post serve an important role.

The really good bloggers have opinions, and champion books they love and give poor grades to the books they don't and of course it's subjective, but more and more it's important. In the age of self publishing bestsellers. A lot of those successful authors credit book bloggers for their success, for getting their name out there.

And I know there are authors out there that have voodoo dolls of certain bloggers, and I feel for those authors, because a scathing review is soul destroying, but better a bad review than nothing.

We need the critics. As a reader I rely on them to guide me, and while I may not always agree with their opinion, I really appreciate that they took the time to put it out in the world.