Ryan Field's Blog, page 549
June 23, 2011
Gay Characters, Authenticity, and Writing What You Know
I've been reading a lot of blog posts and a few interviews dealing with gay characters, authenticity, and stereo-types. And like all blog posts where authors are being interviewed, I found most to be safe and lacking fundamental information. I get this and I don't blame them. Most either don't know what they are talking about and they are winging it, or they don't want to say anything that might offend anyone and hurt book sales. These days, it seems like everyone is campaigning for something.
The one thing I never see...anywhere in any form of the media...is that the LGBT community is probably one of the most diversified communities in the universe. Just look at LGBT: there are four different categories lumped into one group, and everyone in those four different categories is unique.
As an openly gay man, I base all my characters on my own personal experience. If you read about a grouchy gay man, with effeminate qualities and plucked eyebrows in one of my books, it's not a stereo-type. It's more likely a conglomeration of four or five different gay men I've known over the years. If you read about a gay republican attorney, with conservative values, who is well-educated, drives a European car, and lives for designer clothes, I based him on my own personal experiences through the many gay men I've know who are like this.
I rarely write about lesbians because I don't know that many. But the lesbians I do know are either butch or lipstick. When I owned my gallery in New Hope, I remember a ninety year old lesbian who used to live in a grand old colonial house at the end of the alley where my gallery was located. We used to call her "Denny." She and her partner owned an antique shop in Philadelphia for many years. Her partner was soft and feminine, but Denny was rough, level-headed, and masculine. Denny was an old guard Smith girl, who graduated from Smith during the depression. She wound up working at an all girls school in Connecticut, and then retired in New Hope and opened a lesbian book shop. She wore camel hair sport jackets, mens hush puppies, long sleeve shirts with button down collars, and corduroy slacks with cuffs. She had her hair cut at the barbershop and carried a pocket watch. Once, while she was talking to me and had her back to the gallery entrance, a man passing by asked her directions and mistakenly called her, "Sir."
And I loved her. I used to listen to her talk about her Smith days, and how she gave up a career in advertising to work as a teacher in order to support her family. They'd lost everything during the 1929 crash, and wound up depending on her for the rest of their lives. And when her partner of forty years died, she lived alone in that big old house at the end of the alley until she was one hundred years old.
I didn't see anyone like my old friend Denny mentioned in the interviews I read about authentic gay characters. All I saw was a bunch of garbage about love and being real and complexities. Blah, blah, blah. One blogger in particular thinks she knows it all, but doesn't know jack shit. I guess if you talk about anything long enough, and do it with a slant, you actually start to believe it yourself...and you'll get a ton of other people to drink the Kool Aide and believe it with you.
But for me, it's more about basing characters on personal experience, through real people I've known, that makes them authentic LGBT characters. This is one of the reasons why I'm always open to any challenges regarding my characters. You can't go wrong if you stick with the truth. And I don't think you have to be gay to do this. I've read many excellent books by straight women who've nailed it. I just wish they'd start speaking up more. We need to hear their voices, because there are too many loud voices handing out some very bad advice.
The one thing I never see...anywhere in any form of the media...is that the LGBT community is probably one of the most diversified communities in the universe. Just look at LGBT: there are four different categories lumped into one group, and everyone in those four different categories is unique.
As an openly gay man, I base all my characters on my own personal experience. If you read about a grouchy gay man, with effeminate qualities and plucked eyebrows in one of my books, it's not a stereo-type. It's more likely a conglomeration of four or five different gay men I've known over the years. If you read about a gay republican attorney, with conservative values, who is well-educated, drives a European car, and lives for designer clothes, I based him on my own personal experiences through the many gay men I've know who are like this.
I rarely write about lesbians because I don't know that many. But the lesbians I do know are either butch or lipstick. When I owned my gallery in New Hope, I remember a ninety year old lesbian who used to live in a grand old colonial house at the end of the alley where my gallery was located. We used to call her "Denny." She and her partner owned an antique shop in Philadelphia for many years. Her partner was soft and feminine, but Denny was rough, level-headed, and masculine. Denny was an old guard Smith girl, who graduated from Smith during the depression. She wound up working at an all girls school in Connecticut, and then retired in New Hope and opened a lesbian book shop. She wore camel hair sport jackets, mens hush puppies, long sleeve shirts with button down collars, and corduroy slacks with cuffs. She had her hair cut at the barbershop and carried a pocket watch. Once, while she was talking to me and had her back to the gallery entrance, a man passing by asked her directions and mistakenly called her, "Sir."
And I loved her. I used to listen to her talk about her Smith days, and how she gave up a career in advertising to work as a teacher in order to support her family. They'd lost everything during the 1929 crash, and wound up depending on her for the rest of their lives. And when her partner of forty years died, she lived alone in that big old house at the end of the alley until she was one hundred years old.
I didn't see anyone like my old friend Denny mentioned in the interviews I read about authentic gay characters. All I saw was a bunch of garbage about love and being real and complexities. Blah, blah, blah. One blogger in particular thinks she knows it all, but doesn't know jack shit. I guess if you talk about anything long enough, and do it with a slant, you actually start to believe it yourself...and you'll get a ton of other people to drink the Kool Aide and believe it with you.
But for me, it's more about basing characters on personal experience, through real people I've known, that makes them authentic LGBT characters. This is one of the reasons why I'm always open to any challenges regarding my characters. You can't go wrong if you stick with the truth. And I don't think you have to be gay to do this. I've read many excellent books by straight women who've nailed it. I just wish they'd start speaking up more. We need to hear their voices, because there are too many loud voices handing out some very bad advice.
June 22, 2011
Freedom to Marry
If you're interested in lgbt equal rights, especially the right to marry, please take the time to check out the web site below. There's always something positive going on over there, and it's always something important.
The more people who get on board the better it is for all of us. And nowadays it's the online word that spreads the fastest.
Thanks...
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/page/s/i_do
The more people who get on board the better it is for all of us. And nowadays it's the online word that spreads the fastest.
Thanks...
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/page/s/i_do
Is It Fair For Adults to Rate and Review Kids Books?
I honestly don't have an opinion here. I don't have kids and I didn't read kids books when I was a kid. So even if I had an opinion, it wouldn't count for much.
But I was over at goodreads a few minutes ago checking out reviews for a kids book I'd heard about, in this case it's middle grade.
I understand the concept that parents want to know what their kids are reading. I don't have a problem with that at all. If I had kids, I'd want to know what they were reading, too. But what I don't understand is when adults leave ratings and reviews for kids books.
Not everyone did this. A few of the reviews were nicely written by adults, but based on the reactions that kids had after reading the book. A few parents reviewed the way their kids reacted to the book. And I would imagine that if I'd written a kids book, the reactions from kids would be the most important thing to me as an author.
A few of the reviews and ratings I saw weren't from a kid's POV. They were written by pedantic adults, and filled with criticism and insults. Maybe this is something that's acceptable with kids books. I honestly don't know. I just thought it was interesting.
But I was over at goodreads a few minutes ago checking out reviews for a kids book I'd heard about, in this case it's middle grade.
I understand the concept that parents want to know what their kids are reading. I don't have a problem with that at all. If I had kids, I'd want to know what they were reading, too. But what I don't understand is when adults leave ratings and reviews for kids books.
Not everyone did this. A few of the reviews were nicely written by adults, but based on the reactions that kids had after reading the book. A few parents reviewed the way their kids reacted to the book. And I would imagine that if I'd written a kids book, the reactions from kids would be the most important thing to me as an author.
A few of the reviews and ratings I saw weren't from a kid's POV. They were written by pedantic adults, and filled with criticism and insults. Maybe this is something that's acceptable with kids books. I honestly don't know. I just thought it was interesting.
Anderson Cooper's Thoughts About President Obama on Gay Marriage
I received two e-mails back to back. One was from the Freedom to Marry organization asking people to tweet the President about gay marriage. The other was from a lesbian friend who wanted to share Anderson Cooper's call to the President regarding his weak stand on gay marriage.
And frankly I agree with Anderson. It's time to start talking instead of smiling and campaigning.
You know, Paul, Democrats attack conservatives for being hypocritical on issues that they're hypocritical about," Cooper said to Begala. "But I don't hear a lot of Democrats attacking their own president for hypocrisy.
Interesting. Here's a link to the entire piece.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/22/anderson-cooper-obama-gay-marriage_n_882075.html?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec3_lnk1%7C216683
And frankly I agree with Anderson. It's time to start talking instead of smiling and campaigning.
You know, Paul, Democrats attack conservatives for being hypocritical on issues that they're hypocritical about," Cooper said to Begala. "But I don't hear a lot of Democrats attacking their own president for hypocrisy.
Interesting. Here's a link to the entire piece.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/22/anderson-cooper-obama-gay-marriage_n_882075.html?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec3_lnk1%7C216683
Books Stores Charging Admission...
I came across this piece in the NYT this morning and thought it was interesting.
I have to admit that since I've been working in e-publishing for the past four years almost exclusively, I've lost track of a lot of things that are connected to print books and print publishing. I don't even go to book stores anymore. I buy everything online and read on my Kobo, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
I have to admit that I often miss the old days (I'd still be working on a typewriter if I hadn't been forced to change), but I'm not sorry I made the plunge into e-publishing at all. And as a reader, my e-readers have only enhanced my reading experience.
As for charging admission to author book signings, I'm not sure about that. It's not like they are going to make big bucks at five and ten dollars a person, and they might lose the clients they already have. I owned an art gallery in New Hope for ten years, and I know how the book store owners feel. I used to wish I could charge admission to tourists, especially on holiday weekends. I often felt more like a free museum than a gallery. But I didn't want to insult potential clients, and I'm glad I never did it.
Come Meet the Author, but Open Your Wallet
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
To see authors at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, Calif., customers can buy a gift card or the book.
By JULIE BOSMAN and MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 21, 2011
Independent bookstores, squeezed by competition from Internet retailers like Amazon, have long done something their online brethren cannot emulate: author events. And now many bookstores say they have no choice but to capitalize on this grand tradition.
Bookstores, including some of the most prominent around the country, have begun selling tickets or requiring a book purchase of customers who attend author readings and signings, a practice once considered unthinkable.
"There's no one right now who's not considering it," said Sarah McNally, the owner of McNally Jackson Books in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. "The entire independent bookstore model is based on selling books, but that model is changing because so many book sales are going online."
The Boulder Book Store in Colorado caused a stir in April when it announced it would charge $5 a person to attend store events. In April, Kepler's Books, an independent in Menlo Park, Calif., began charging customers a $10 gift card, which admits two people to each author appearance. (They also have the option of buying the book in exchange for admission.)
Ms. McNally is overseeing the construction of an event space in the lower level of her store, a warmly lighted shop on Prince Street. As soon as the space is ready, she said, the store will start charging admission to its events.
Bookstore owners say they are doing so because too many people regularly come to events having already bought a book online or planning to do so later. Consumers now see the bookstore merely as another library — a place to browse, do informal research and pick up staff recommendations.
"They type titles into their iPhones and go home," said Nancy Salmon, the floor manager at Kepler's. "We know what they're doing, and it has tested my patience."
The novelist Ann Patchett, who is currently on a three-week book tour for her new book, "State of Wonder," appeared at a ticketed event at Kepler's last week. While she said she was sympathetic to bookstores, she is concerned that people who do not have enough money to buy a hardcover book — especially students or the elderly — might be left out.
"I wouldn't want the people who have no idea who I am and have nothing else to do on a Wednesday night shut out," she said. "Those are your readers."
While e-book sales have exploded in the last year, sales of print books have suffered, hitting brick-and-mortar stores especially hard. But the independent bookstores that have survived the growth of Amazon and the big bookstore chains have tried to retool over the years to become tougher, more agile and more creative in finding new sources of revenue beyond print books.
Anne Holman, the general manager of The King's English Bookshop, an independent store in Salt Lake City, said an industrywide discussion began a few years ago about whether to charge for events.
"We don't like to have events where people can't come for free," Ms. Holman said. "But we also can't host big free events that cost us a lot money and everyone is buying books everywhere else."
The bookshop now requires book purchases or sells tickets for around half of its 150 annual events, up from 10 percent five years ago.
Heather Gain, the marketing manager of the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., said that in recent years the store had begun doing more events that required the customer to buy a book, constantly reminding them that "if they aren't purchasing the books from the establishments that are running these events, the bookstores are going to go away."
"We're a business," Ms. Gain said. "We're not just an Amazon showroom."
I have to admit that since I've been working in e-publishing for the past four years almost exclusively, I've lost track of a lot of things that are connected to print books and print publishing. I don't even go to book stores anymore. I buy everything online and read on my Kobo, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
I have to admit that I often miss the old days (I'd still be working on a typewriter if I hadn't been forced to change), but I'm not sorry I made the plunge into e-publishing at all. And as a reader, my e-readers have only enhanced my reading experience.
As for charging admission to author book signings, I'm not sure about that. It's not like they are going to make big bucks at five and ten dollars a person, and they might lose the clients they already have. I owned an art gallery in New Hope for ten years, and I know how the book store owners feel. I used to wish I could charge admission to tourists, especially on holiday weekends. I often felt more like a free museum than a gallery. But I didn't want to insult potential clients, and I'm glad I never did it.
Come Meet the Author, but Open Your Wallet
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
To see authors at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, Calif., customers can buy a gift card or the book.
By JULIE BOSMAN and MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 21, 2011
Independent bookstores, squeezed by competition from Internet retailers like Amazon, have long done something their online brethren cannot emulate: author events. And now many bookstores say they have no choice but to capitalize on this grand tradition.
Bookstores, including some of the most prominent around the country, have begun selling tickets or requiring a book purchase of customers who attend author readings and signings, a practice once considered unthinkable.
"There's no one right now who's not considering it," said Sarah McNally, the owner of McNally Jackson Books in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. "The entire independent bookstore model is based on selling books, but that model is changing because so many book sales are going online."
The Boulder Book Store in Colorado caused a stir in April when it announced it would charge $5 a person to attend store events. In April, Kepler's Books, an independent in Menlo Park, Calif., began charging customers a $10 gift card, which admits two people to each author appearance. (They also have the option of buying the book in exchange for admission.)
Ms. McNally is overseeing the construction of an event space in the lower level of her store, a warmly lighted shop on Prince Street. As soon as the space is ready, she said, the store will start charging admission to its events.
Bookstore owners say they are doing so because too many people regularly come to events having already bought a book online or planning to do so later. Consumers now see the bookstore merely as another library — a place to browse, do informal research and pick up staff recommendations.
"They type titles into their iPhones and go home," said Nancy Salmon, the floor manager at Kepler's. "We know what they're doing, and it has tested my patience."
The novelist Ann Patchett, who is currently on a three-week book tour for her new book, "State of Wonder," appeared at a ticketed event at Kepler's last week. While she said she was sympathetic to bookstores, she is concerned that people who do not have enough money to buy a hardcover book — especially students or the elderly — might be left out.
"I wouldn't want the people who have no idea who I am and have nothing else to do on a Wednesday night shut out," she said. "Those are your readers."
While e-book sales have exploded in the last year, sales of print books have suffered, hitting brick-and-mortar stores especially hard. But the independent bookstores that have survived the growth of Amazon and the big bookstore chains have tried to retool over the years to become tougher, more agile and more creative in finding new sources of revenue beyond print books.
Anne Holman, the general manager of The King's English Bookshop, an independent store in Salt Lake City, said an industrywide discussion began a few years ago about whether to charge for events.
"We don't like to have events where people can't come for free," Ms. Holman said. "But we also can't host big free events that cost us a lot money and everyone is buying books everywhere else."
The bookshop now requires book purchases or sells tickets for around half of its 150 annual events, up from 10 percent five years ago.
Heather Gain, the marketing manager of the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., said that in recent years the store had begun doing more events that required the customer to buy a book, constantly reminding them that "if they aren't purchasing the books from the establishments that are running these events, the bookstores are going to go away."
"We're a business," Ms. Gain said. "We're not just an Amazon showroom."
June 21, 2011
New Cover Preview: HOT ITALIAN LOVER
Just got the new cover for HOT ITALIAN LOVER. This was the book I posted about earlier last week that was titled, HIS TUSCAN EMBRACE. The publisher and I were going back and forth with both titles and I ultimately asked them to decide. I'm happy with it and I love the cover. Looks like they've been shooting with new models over at ravenous romance.
Solicit Reviews Through Your Blog? Another WTF Post...
I saw something interesting this morning and I'm wondering how other authors...and readers and reviewers...feel about this. You see, there's this new author out there soliciting reviews for his new release on his own blog. But more than that, he's doing this as a contest, and the person who writes the best review gets a signed copy of the book and a monetary bonus. He claims he's selecting the winner at random...but somehow I doubt "This S*^t Sux," is going to win first prize.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't book reviews designed to help readers make purchases? This is why all reviews aren't wonderful. When I shop around for books, I'm looking for the good reviews and the bad reviews. And if an author starts having review contests, where the best reviewer wins a prize, it stands to reasons that I'm going to question the validity of all the reviews he solicited in this contest.
I'm tempted to add links here. I really am. But I'm not going to do that because it might spark a flame war. And I'm not certain the author knows whether or not he's making a mistake. This one should know better, but I'm still not sure. And while it's questionable in an ethical and moral sense, I guess it's legal to solicit good book reviews and hold contests for good book reviews.
And what about book reviewers? If I were an online book reviewer and I saw an author do something like this, I'd be f**king livid. Like them or not, most of the book reviewers I read seem to take pride in their blogs and they don't screw around. I also followed an amazon comment thread for a long time and learned that most amazon reviewers take pride in what they do.
Feel free to disagree with me, but soliciting good book reviews by having a contest on your blog is downright tacky. And I can only promise my readers one thing. I'd never do this. I'll take the good with the bad, from professional reviewers and reader reviews, and hope I learn something from all the reviews.
Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a bad review will win the contest and it will be randomly selected. But I still have to wonder about any author who is willing to solicit reviews, through a contest, on his blog. Forget about authors, I don't even want to think about what would happen if a romance publisher started soliciting reviews and offering prizes through contests. The blogsphere would explode.
Update to this post: Evidently, the author I mentioned above has changed the rules. No more monetary prize in the contest. But I still can't help wondering about the basic concept.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't book reviews designed to help readers make purchases? This is why all reviews aren't wonderful. When I shop around for books, I'm looking for the good reviews and the bad reviews. And if an author starts having review contests, where the best reviewer wins a prize, it stands to reasons that I'm going to question the validity of all the reviews he solicited in this contest.
I'm tempted to add links here. I really am. But I'm not going to do that because it might spark a flame war. And I'm not certain the author knows whether or not he's making a mistake. This one should know better, but I'm still not sure. And while it's questionable in an ethical and moral sense, I guess it's legal to solicit good book reviews and hold contests for good book reviews.
And what about book reviewers? If I were an online book reviewer and I saw an author do something like this, I'd be f**king livid. Like them or not, most of the book reviewers I read seem to take pride in their blogs and they don't screw around. I also followed an amazon comment thread for a long time and learned that most amazon reviewers take pride in what they do.
Feel free to disagree with me, but soliciting good book reviews by having a contest on your blog is downright tacky. And I can only promise my readers one thing. I'd never do this. I'll take the good with the bad, from professional reviewers and reader reviews, and hope I learn something from all the reviews.
Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a bad review will win the contest and it will be randomly selected. But I still have to wonder about any author who is willing to solicit reviews, through a contest, on his blog. Forget about authors, I don't even want to think about what would happen if a romance publisher started soliciting reviews and offering prizes through contests. The blogsphere would explode.
Update to this post: Evidently, the author I mentioned above has changed the rules. No more monetary prize in the contest. But I still can't help wondering about the basic concept.
How Do You Give Publishing Advice These Days?
I made a friend about four years ago, a fairly well known psychic who has a decent platform. She's not nationally known...yet. But she's been on radio shows with famous celebs, and TV talk shows with the comcast network. She's worked hard, she's damn good at what she does, and she's been trying to get a book published for a long time.
Four years ago when I met her, she asked me advice about getting a non-fiction book published. I gave her links, I showed her how to write a decent query/proposal for non-fiction, and I even recommended her to my friend who is a literary agent. And in all the years we've been friends, I've only recommended two people to my agent friend.
My agent friend rejected her. He focuses more on fiction and already had enough good non-fiction authors at the time. My non-fiction writer friend understood and continued to query. And since then, she's been building her platform, traveling all over the country doing radio shows and TV talk shows, and helping people through her psychic abilities with their problems.
I think it's important to mention that I believe in her talents and her abilities as a pychic, and I'm the biggest skeptic there is. I met her at a time when a family member was going through a life and death crisis and she helped me with some great advice. And she was absolutely correct in everything she told me, and she made me a believer.
I truly thought that by now this wonderful, talented psychic would have found an agent and publisher. But that's not the case. She contacted me this weekend asking for advice about querying again. And this time, four years later, I wasn't sure how to respond.
To be perfectly honest, I don't have much faith in the query system. It only works for a few lucky authors, and it's designed for failure. Though I never queried my best selling book, The Virgin Billionaire, to any agents, I can guarantee it would have been rejected by all of them if I had queried. The same goes for my other books and short stories.
So I gave my non-fiction author friend the best advice I possibly could based on my own personal information. Things have changed so much in publishing it's hard to give good advice. I told her to continue querying...you never know...but not to get her hopes up too high. Even if you do get an agent, trying to get a "traditional" publisher interested nowadays is a long shot. They only seem to be interested in Snookie and Bristol Palin books.
Then I told my non-fiction author friend to run over to amazon and check out self-publishing a kindle e-book. With her platform, her large following, and her excellent promotional skills, I doubt she'll have any problems selling e-books and gaining a readership. She's been managing her own career for years, why not take the next step by publishing her own .99 e-books.
Four years ago when I met her, she asked me advice about getting a non-fiction book published. I gave her links, I showed her how to write a decent query/proposal for non-fiction, and I even recommended her to my friend who is a literary agent. And in all the years we've been friends, I've only recommended two people to my agent friend.
My agent friend rejected her. He focuses more on fiction and already had enough good non-fiction authors at the time. My non-fiction writer friend understood and continued to query. And since then, she's been building her platform, traveling all over the country doing radio shows and TV talk shows, and helping people through her psychic abilities with their problems.
I think it's important to mention that I believe in her talents and her abilities as a pychic, and I'm the biggest skeptic there is. I met her at a time when a family member was going through a life and death crisis and she helped me with some great advice. And she was absolutely correct in everything she told me, and she made me a believer.
I truly thought that by now this wonderful, talented psychic would have found an agent and publisher. But that's not the case. She contacted me this weekend asking for advice about querying again. And this time, four years later, I wasn't sure how to respond.
To be perfectly honest, I don't have much faith in the query system. It only works for a few lucky authors, and it's designed for failure. Though I never queried my best selling book, The Virgin Billionaire, to any agents, I can guarantee it would have been rejected by all of them if I had queried. The same goes for my other books and short stories.
So I gave my non-fiction author friend the best advice I possibly could based on my own personal information. Things have changed so much in publishing it's hard to give good advice. I told her to continue querying...you never know...but not to get her hopes up too high. Even if you do get an agent, trying to get a "traditional" publisher interested nowadays is a long shot. They only seem to be interested in Snookie and Bristol Palin books.
Then I told my non-fiction author friend to run over to amazon and check out self-publishing a kindle e-book. With her platform, her large following, and her excellent promotional skills, I doubt she'll have any problems selling e-books and gaining a readership. She's been managing her own career for years, why not take the next step by publishing her own .99 e-books.
June 20, 2011
Are You Switching From Borders 2 Kobo?
If you're switching your Borders E-book account to Kobo (if you're not you'd better start thinking about it because Borders is going down fast). This is the best link I've found and the easiest way to do it.
https://secure.kobobooks.com/Migration/BordersUS
I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I can sync two kobo e-readers to the same account, or if I have to have two different accounts. (The don't make this f*&king simple for readers.) But at least I've managed to save all my Borders Books on the Kobo Look Book.
https://secure.kobobooks.com/Migration/BordersUS
I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I can sync two kobo e-readers to the same account, or if I have to have two different accounts. (The don't make this f*&king simple for readers.) But at least I've managed to save all my Borders Books on the Kobo Look Book.
Titles...To Collaborate or Not...
I think choosing book or story titles for all authors is a different process. And, some authors are far more clever than others.
When it comes to titles, I'm either hit or miss, clever or lost. And I'm never actually certain when it's going to be hit or miss either. With A REGULAR BUD, I guess I hit it right on the nose. And this surprised me. I thought the title was mundane (if not a little trite) and never expected the sales of the story to be very good. I was wrong. It's been on a few bestseller lists for over a year now. And sales have been great. Why? I couldn't even begin to explain it.
With STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM AT THE PLAZA, I thought I'd nailed the title. But I was wrong again. I missed that one by a long shot. Even though this story had been published years ago in a small book by a large LGBT publisher, someone else released an e-book with a title similar right around the same time I released my story, and my story disappeared into cyberspace. Bad timing; wrong title. Had I known ahead of time, I would have changed my title immediately. Oddly, this story has received probably the best reviews of anything I've ever written. But it never sold as well as I'd hoped it would. And I think a lot had to do with the title.
And this is why I've come to really depend on a collaboration with my publishers and editors when it comes to titles. With every single Ravenous Romance book that's been released, each title has been a collaboration. Most of the RR titles originated with Lori Perkins, one of the publishers at RR. She's unreal when it comes to titles. She gets them in seconds, where they take me weeks. And a few came from Holly, the other publisher. And right now, this very week, we're deciding whether or not to title a new release as His Tuscan Embrace, or, Hot Italian Lover. Personally, I like them both. But I'm just too close to make the final decision and I'm letting Holly make it for me. I know that sounds indecisive, but I've learned the collaboration between author, editor, and publisher usually works out best in the long run.
When it comes to titles, I'm either hit or miss, clever or lost. And I'm never actually certain when it's going to be hit or miss either. With A REGULAR BUD, I guess I hit it right on the nose. And this surprised me. I thought the title was mundane (if not a little trite) and never expected the sales of the story to be very good. I was wrong. It's been on a few bestseller lists for over a year now. And sales have been great. Why? I couldn't even begin to explain it.
With STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM AT THE PLAZA, I thought I'd nailed the title. But I was wrong again. I missed that one by a long shot. Even though this story had been published years ago in a small book by a large LGBT publisher, someone else released an e-book with a title similar right around the same time I released my story, and my story disappeared into cyberspace. Bad timing; wrong title. Had I known ahead of time, I would have changed my title immediately. Oddly, this story has received probably the best reviews of anything I've ever written. But it never sold as well as I'd hoped it would. And I think a lot had to do with the title.
And this is why I've come to really depend on a collaboration with my publishers and editors when it comes to titles. With every single Ravenous Romance book that's been released, each title has been a collaboration. Most of the RR titles originated with Lori Perkins, one of the publishers at RR. She's unreal when it comes to titles. She gets them in seconds, where they take me weeks. And a few came from Holly, the other publisher. And right now, this very week, we're deciding whether or not to title a new release as His Tuscan Embrace, or, Hot Italian Lover. Personally, I like them both. But I'm just too close to make the final decision and I'm letting Holly make it for me. I know that sounds indecisive, but I've learned the collaboration between author, editor, and publisher usually works out best in the long run.
