Elizabeth Dougherty's Blog, page 2

more momentum, less resistance

This from Chi Running coach Ryan Miller at a recent workshop I attended. It has become my running mantra. Stop fighting the road, says Miller. Instead, let it rush beneath you. (And try to avoid having it smack you square in the face, says me.)

As it is for running, so for writing. Stop fighting the page. Stop fighting the ideas. Let the words come without criticism and let them grace the page as it rushes beneath you.

Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Words long and short, dancing across a white background, fingers flying effortlessly across the keyboard. Birds singing. Right. So let's talk substance.

Momentum, to me, is what you build up when you really get engaged with a story. You know you've got momentum when every magazine you pick up has something in it that's somehow related to your book. Every radio show mentions something you need to go look up or jot down. You've got it when little comments made by friends, bartenders, even the woman at the post office, seem to feed your stream of ideas.

But to keep momentum, these connections need to move. Otherwise, you just end up with mess, like a giant knotted ball of yarn. You've got to tug on them, tie them together, take them apart, wind them up.

And to do this, you need time.

While pondering my new mantra — more momentum, less resistance — during a recent race down in Hyannis, MA on a snowy, yucky day, and using it to fight my urge to finish with the 10K crowd rather than the half-marathon crowd and get a jump on the clam chowder I knew was cooking up at the finish line, it occurred to me that I am an endurance person. I am not a sprinter. I'm too slow and I don't like expending lots of energy all at once. I like to get inside of something and stay there. At the end of the long haul, I like to be done with it until next time.

This ephiphany made me realize that my recent approach to writing fiction was destined for failure. I've tried on and off for the past several months to write for an hour a day. I start off strong, hitting 5, sometimes 6 days a week for the first week or two. By week three, I don't write a word. By week 5, I feel so far from my ideas that they hardly seem worth having.

Momentum? Zero. Resistance? Full on.

So for the past two weeks I've tried a new approach. I dedicate one full day per week to fiction. I've written over 5000 words, re-read the first third of Story by Robert McKee (an amazing book on writing), written a press release for The Blind Pig and had it reviewed by a friend, and have a plan to send it out this coming week.

Not only have these two days been productive, I feel engaged and I feel as if my next writing day is tugging at me, pulling me towards it. The road isn't exactly rushing beneath me yet, but I think I'm starting to get some momentum and I'm starting to let go of some of the resistance.

book tour report: stop #5

I joined Chris and Nancy Obert at Pear Tree Publishing for a local authors book sale and signing event, this time at Zorvino's Winery. They do a few of these a year and I'm lucky to have gotten on their mailing list. Thanks again to my friend, bookseller and book reviewer Jeannie Mancini, for connecting me with this group!

The winery is in Sandown, NH, known for it's old vines and Mediterranean climate. Not! Sandown is one of those places that's not really close to anything, and when I left last night, the temps were just barely clinging to the teens.

I cursed myself on the way home for not having a GPS as I drove the dark and lonely back roads, hoping to run into route 93. I did, eventually. In fact, I didn't get lost because I'd run a race a few weeks ago in Derry NH and I recognized the rotary that led to the race start at West Running Brook Middle School. (Note the literary connection.)

Zorvino's itself was charmingly isolated. The main room had a roaring fire and a busy bar. The author tables had nice linens and elegant chairs. It's amazing how much of a difference nice chairs make. The setup was easy now that I have my schtick. I had my bowl of apples, my poster, my trailer, and my book stands. I even had my money box with lots and lots of 10s for change.

I sold 10 books, which hit my goal. 10 is a nice round number. Everyone goes into these events hoping to sell, like, 20 books, but it's just not realistic. What you hope is that you sell more than 3, which is what I sold at the last one of these events. It helps when your customers are drinking! But it also helped that the room felt warm and welcoming and that people had come there to have a fun evening out.

Also the room was full of berets and tweed, so you couldn't help but feel like reading. Seriously. A bunch of writers wearing polyester and baseball caps would not have had the same effect.

The things that worked best for me last night were my poster (it made people stop and look, giving me a chance to pounce), and my overall presentation (people stopped to tell me the cover design, title and overall clean display grabbed them). So yay and thanks again to Luke Strosnider. Design matters, and great design matters a lot!

To break the ice, I tried asking people if they liked science fiction as they meandered past my table. It's an innocent question and not too pushy. If they said yes, I'd launch right into my pitch. If they said no, I'd tell them about the people who loved my book even though they never read sci-fi.

It worked. I sold a few non-sci-fi readers on the book and even got one excited about the idea of doing a book club session. The whole point is to get people engaged as quickly as possible.

My pitch backfired on me a few times, too. I'd say "Food's been replaced by government prescribed nutrition. Keeps everybody healthy. You know, cut down on those pesky healthcare costs…" I wanted to get people thinking about what's going on right now with healthcare. I wanted them to feel the slippery slope.

It worked, but too much. One guy asked me if I was in the Tea Party [I am purposefully not providing a link here]. Another got so uncomfortable with any hint of politics that she, literally, backed away slowly.

I recovered by assuring them that the book was full of "food, science, and speculative fun." People liked "speculative fun." Lesson? Fun sells more than conflict on a Friday night at a winery.

My favorite customers were Willie and Margaret from Scotland. They run Stillmeadow Bed and Breakfast in Hampstead, NH. Willie was obviously Scottish, but when his wife spoke, she sounded like she was from Belfast. I couldn't shake it, so I finally said something to her about it. She said she's from the Orkney islands north of Scotland and that they all sound like that there. So interesting! I love accents. I can't mimic them but I can hear them, and I just love the way they add so much character and depth to people. Plus I love that Willie bought 2 books. He's going to send one to his son in Edinburgh, one of my favorite places.

The night ended with a bunch of punchy authors tasting wine in the basement tasting room. That's where I sold my 10th book. I didn't stay too long — with all the dark windy roads, I needed to practice some temperance — but I did stay long enough to enjoy a Pumpkin Port, which would be amazing with a slice of warm gingerbread, a fresh un-oaked Chardonnay, which I would pair with goat cheese and honeycomb, and a nice Malbec that I would not be embarrassed to bring to a book club.

I left with 6 bottles, 3 for my running friends, and 3 for me. I'm spending it as fast as I can make it.

the kiss of death or the great leap forward?

I've been told that self-publishing is the kiss of death. If I want to be a real novelist — that is, one who gets paid for her efforts and receives the benefits of partners who help edit, package and publicize her books — I should bury The Blind Pig. I should take it off my website, remove it from my resume, close down this blog, and pretend the whole thing never happened.

While driving up to New Hampshire last week to run Boston Prep in the frigid near-zero temps, I was contemplating this advice (which wasn't the last word on the subject, just the most brutal). I'd already decided that I most definitely wasn't going to bury The Blind Pig. Rather, I was going to try to sell the hell out of it.

But I couldn't say why I felt so strongly about this. Was I being stubborn and inflexible? I can become pretty rigid when I'm being led somewhere I don't want to go. I can also be fiery about it. I blame my German and Irish roots.

As I drove, my iPod flipped and Billy Bragg started strumming his classic Great Leap Forward:

There I was, chiming in with what I could remember of the lyrics, and out came these words:

If no one seems to understand

Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman

Be still my heart.

Self-publishing is a publishing revolution. And like most upheavals, it is uncomfortable for everyone involved.

I can assure you that I am uncomfortable. I took a big risk by self-publishing. Some may judge The Blind Pig by it's publisher. They may assume that it didn't get picked up by a legitimate agent because it's not good enough. They may fear that it's pages are filled with bad writing, a plodding narrative and flimsy characters. They may dismiss it, their foregone conclusion that it suffers a lack of editing.

I have heard from many authors that they get pages of edits from their editors and that these revisions almost always make the book better. I'm sure my book would have benefited from more editing. Even now, with the book already "out there," I would welcome the chance to receive suggestions and to make the book better.

To me, it's all a process.

Maybe I think that way because of my software roots. I've never worked on a software project that was "done." Despite the large teams of highly-paid, over-educated engineers working long hours, the products always ship with bugs. Eventually they get fixed and packaged in a newer, better version.

I also think this way because I came to writing in a step-wise way. I didn't set out to be a writer. I didn't dream of being a writer as a child. The prospect was as absurd as being a singer (which would be more obviously absurd if you had been in the car listening to me sing the other day). Not practical. Not for sensible folks.

When I did start writing, I didn't set out to write fiction. And then when I started writing fiction, I didn't expect to get anywhere. I certainly didn't expect to fall in love with it. And when I self-published, I didn't think I could earn a living as a novelist. I just wanted to share my book. Now, however, I know that I want to write novels for a living. I would never have gotten here, to this moment of realization, if I hadn't self-published The Blind Pig.

This is my path. I'm paving it with a mix of discomfort, agitation and hope, and I'm waiting for my great leap forward.

Write the truth

I just returned from an amazing Aspiring Writer's weekend at the MIT Endicott House. Jane Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott Mystery Series), hosted a group of 11 writers, a group that ranged from people who had written novels and childrens books to those who'd written but never shared their work to a few who hadn't really written anything at all.

I was absolutely WOWED by everyone's writing, honesty and openness, including Jane's, who shared above and beyond my expectations and turned a group of strangers into a family.

It didn't hurt that we spent the weekend in the idyllic Endicott House, which looks like a French Chateau tucked into a wooded corner of Dedham, MA, just outside of Boston. Our first task was to drink wine and mingle in front of a blazing fire in the gun room, the dismembered, stuffed heads of bears, rams, foxes and bobcats looking down on us.

After drinks and dinner, Jane sat us down for our first lesson. At 9pm on a Friday, she made us write. It was a pivotal exercise for me because it showed me that I don't need to find the right time to write, or to be wearing the right clothes or to be at the right desk. I don't need anything except pen, paper, and ten minutes.

I'm going to relate this to running again. I remember a time when I used to be afraid to run if I'd recently eaten, or if I hadn't slept well, or if I'd run late the day before. When I started marathon training, I had to throw that out. Now I just do it. I just fit it in. In fact, I ran 15 miles when I got home from Dedham today, finishing just before sunset. It was worth it, and even if it wasn't the best run of my life, it is serving its purpose by building my endurance and boosting my immunity so I'll beat the annoying cold I'm getting.

Same with writing. Just do it. Even if it isn't the best prose of my life, it will serve its purpose by maintaining my focus and fueling my creativity.

This lesson translates into some concrete changes in my life that I am going to implement tomorrow. (Actually I'm implementing them now, writing this even though I'm absolutely wiped out!) I'm going to make a writing schedule that is just as detailed and structured as my marathon training schedule. And I'm going to stick to it. If I miss a 2-hour writing window in the morning, I'll make up for it in the evening even if I can only squeeze in an hour.

I realized as I was running today that if I'd done this a year and a half ago—and two marathons ago—I might have two novels to show for it.

The weekend continued with lots of writing, a review of lots of fundamentals which I really needed to hear again, and a survey of different types of writing, from YA to literary fiction to mysteries and memoir.

I think the entire group would agree that a lesson that resonated most with all of us also came on Friday night: Write the Truth. Yes, we make up our stories, but they must hold true, and the voice must be your own. The same way people can spot a poser in person, they can spot one on the page.

So the hardest part of finding your story is finding your voice. That requires finding yourself.

The Blind Pig Book Trailer

is now up on YouTube. Check it out!

Sometimes people ask me, when did you decide to start writing? I decided on a whim, in the drive-through of a McDonald's in Richmond, VA, when my friend from high school mentioned somewhat offhandedly, "I always thought you'd be a writer." The trailer started the same way. At an author event at the Haverhill Library, a publicist wandered by, listened to my pitch, and said, "You should do a trailer."

It's important to pay attention to the little things people say. Some of them turn out to be big things.

And as Calvin Coolidge said, it's important to Press On. We worked on this trailer for months. It was a big project and there were lots of details to figure out along the way. And like any project, there are people, places, equipment, expenses and ideas to manage.

Eric Joslin, the Director, and I kept each other going. This, despite the fact that it was enormously time consuming, was a side-project for both of us, outside our "normal" work routine, so we needed to press on and make it happen.

And I still need to press on to build an updated website for www.writtenbyelizabethdougherty.com and to distribute the trailer so lots of people can see it. But first, I've got to run. A 7-mile tempo run is on the Boston Marathon training schedule for today.

Time to bundle up and hit the trail!

so what have I done for you lately?

Happy New Year everyone! It's been awhile since my last post. Quite awhile. I'm still here. And I'm still writing and working and trying to figure it all out.

The book trailer is nearly done. In fact, Eric Joslin (my filmmaker) and I have just made the final editing decisions and I'm expecting to get the final final cut any day now. Whee! I had been planning on doing a 5K snowshoe race up in NH tomorrow morning, but since it's about 60 degrees out and there's almost no snow left, I'm going to spend the morning figuring out where to post the trailer instead.

I'll post it here too, just as soon as it's ready.

And to keep my writing going, I've signed up for a Writer's Weekend at MIT Endicott House in a few weeks. I cannot wait. I have a few ideas about how best to start the year off writing, and I'm hoping that this workshop will help keep me motivated and give me momentum.

2010 was in many ways a long and challenging year for me, but it was also amazing. When I look back on it and think of all of the good that came from self-publishing The Blind Pig, I feel very satisfied and excited.

Who knows what 2011 will hold? I can't wait to find out.

Vermont

I traveled to the Green Mountain State (no passport required!) last week to attend a book club at my friends' house in Shelburne. If you haven't been there, it's worth a visit. Shelburne Farms is right around the corner from their place (which is steps from Lake Champlain). The farm has cute sheep, pigs and chickens, a gorgeous renovated barn, the most beautiful property (if I lived there, I'd be running on those trails every day!), and really great cheese.

I sort of expected the Vermonters to be excited that Vermont was its own country in my book. I picked Vermont because, when I enter the state, I really do feel like it's different somehow. The landscape changes. The people change. It's just different there.

Another woman from Mass had the same sentiments, but the others didn't feel it. It makes me wonder if there's something about Massachusetts that makes people love Vermont.

It was a fun trip, so a big Thank You to Doug and Lisa for hosting me!

On other business, I raised the price of my book today. The word has been getting out about The Blind Pig and a few libraries/bookstores have tried to order the book, only to find that they cannot.

Distribution management is one of the most frustrating things about self-publishing. What I would really like to do is set one price for direct sales through Amazon and CreateSpace, and set a different price for bookstores.

The reason I would like to do this is that the bookstores take a much bigger cut. So I have to raise the price of my book in order to not take a loss on every sale. I should say that I don't actually know who gets what part of the money from each sale. I just know that if the price of the book is $10, I take a loss for each sale to a bookstore. If I set it to $12, I get 19 cents per sale. The cut varies based on trim size (the size of the book) and page count.

The real question is, do I want to be in bookstores? When I first started out, the answer was No. It won't matter. An author friend of mine put it this way: Does it really help readers find me if Barnes and Noble has one copy of my book sitting on a shelf in the back corner?

She's right. It only helps readers who are specifically looking for your book. And based on the amount of time I spent at Borders the other day trying to find "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Brian Weiss (it took a long time, partly because the Paranormal section is hidden back behind the CDs and racks of bookmarks), it may help as much as it frustrates.

(Ok. I will admit that it took a long time partly because I was too embarrassed to ask for directions to the Paranormal section.)

On the other hand…I've also learned that booksellers make a huge difference because they know people. They talk to people. Knowing just one bookseller, my dear friend Jeannie who is, very sadly, closing her shop this month, has made an enormous difference for me. (If you're looking for books in volume, let me know!)

Also when people read a review of my book (like the fantastic review in Boston Book Bums yesterday!), they check the websites of their local bookstores. Borders. Barnes and Noble. Tatnuck Booksellers. The Vermont book club members all turned to The Flying Pig bookstore in Shelburne.

If The Blind Pig isn't listed, the bookstore will look it up. If they don't find it, there is an instant sense of disappointment. A feeling that maybe this book isn't the real thing. A book that a bookstore can't order? What's up with that?

So as of this morning, I've raised the price of The Blind Pig to $12 and I've begun distribution to bookstores. I'm not sure when the book will be listed in the databases they reference but I hope it will be soon.

For my friends and family and my faithful addverses readers, I have set up a discount code that gives you the happy original $10 price. To use it, buy the book here and apply this code — ZLABSVBV — at checkout.

This topic still requires more research, since I know there are other alternatives. When I have a little more time, I'll look into them and adjust accordingly. As with most things in life that aren't scripted, publishing and publicity are never ending cycles of trial, error, and correction.

what's a book trailer?

I spent today filming a book trailer in my basement. What's a book trailer, you ask? You aren't the first.

A book trailer is a video advertisement for a book, just like a movie trailer is a video ad for a movie. It is the latest thing in book marketing, or so I've been told, so I decided to make one. And I'm glad I did. Even if this thing doesn't sell a single book (which I cannot imagine, because it's really going to be very cool) it was so much fun to make. I kind of want to do another one.

Whoa! Did I just say that out loud? The past few weeks leading up to today have been incredibly stressful. So many details to work out, logistics to manage, and so many hats to buy. (Literally, I bought, like, seven hats.) I definitely do not want to do it again anytime soon. Except that I sort of do…

I'm going to end up thanking the people who helped me today over and over because I can't believe how fantastic it has been to have so much help. I would never have been able to do this without their support.

First thanks goes to Gino Del Guercio, Jenny Berglund and Youme Araki of Boston Science Communications for their time and generosity. Without their expertise and their amazing equipment, we would never have been able to capture the exact mood we were looking for.

Second thanks goes to Michelle Romano, our actress, who braved the cold basement for hours and cut up more steaks than any one person should in an afternoon, always with a smile (or with whatever expression we were looking for at the moment). Also thanks to her friend Nacho for driving her all the way out to central Massachusetts and for keeping me entertained while I cooked more steaks than any one person should in an afternoon.

And thanks to Robert Katuska, my nephew, for lending a hand with lights, keeping the cats off camera, and running steaks up and down the stairs.

Final thanks to Eric Joslin, my filmmaker, for his vision, enthusiasm, creativity and professionalism. Eric did the job of an entire film crew today (director, cameraman, producer, gaffer and grip) and I never once saw him sweat even during the most stressful of moments.

I cannot wait to see the finished product! Even though today felt like the end of a long road, we've really got quite a long way to go. I've still got some photography to do, plus we need audio, and Eric's got to edit the whole thing and, as Tim Gunn would say on Project Runway, he's got to Make It Work. We've got what we've got now for video. It's time to stitch it together, hang it on the model, and send it down the runway.

Well, I'm exhausted. And happy. And grateful. And I'm going to go to bed now.

 

book tour report: stop #4

The Northboro Library!

About 25 people attended my reading/book signing at the Northboro library last night and about 15 books walked out the door with them. It was a wonderful evening! We talked cheese, lard, healthcare, science and publishing — all great topics as far as I'm concerned! — and I am so grateful to everyone who attended for making me feel comfortable. I hope they all had as much fun as I did.

I'm also very grateful to Eileen Palmer for setting this up and hosting, and to Diane and Matthew Webster for helping make things run smoothly!

The other great news is the the Northboro library has decided to carry The Blind Pig! The biggest win is that part of stocking it involves cataloging it. This is something that takes a fair amount of time on the part of the library, so if you aren't Steven King, it's challenging to get someone to do it for you.

This is the book club phenomenon in action. The Northboro Mom's and Tot's book club and the Algonquin HS book club are reading the book, and they are asking for it at the library. Similarly, a book club in Shelburne, VT is reading the book and they've been asking for it at their local bookstore, Flying Pig Books.

I've taken this new level of demand as a sign. It's time to take another look at Lightning Source. This is the printing service that, for a fee, will print the book on demand and also stock it in all of the catalogs that bookstores and libraries use. It's a step up in printing and distribution. At least, I think it is. Before I do anything, I've got to do some comparative shopping.

I could use CreateSpace, my current Print On Demand service, to get into these catalogs, but if I do, then I need to raise the price of the book. I just don't want to do that. I like my price point and other people do too. I think $10 is a fair price for a paperback. I could set up a discount for non-bookstores, but it would be a lot of work on my part to communicate it. And readers would have to remember to use it. It's just not the same as having a book priced right.

The other big publishing project on the docket is getting my ebook on Amazon. I published my ebook through Smashwords months ago and it's still not sold through Amazon for the Kindle. When I asked Smashwords why, here's the response I got:

"We're working with Amazon to get clearance for our files, but I can't guarantee when that date might be.  It might be one week, two weeks, or much longer, since much of this is in their hands."

I think this is preventing Kindle users from buying it, so I'm going to publish directly through Amazon's ebook service. This kind of pisses me off — I'm doing exactly what Amazon wants by using their special service — but who am I to fight the giant? If I go back to my core goal here — I want people to read my book — then it makes sense for me to open every path in front of me and keep the price down.

So that's what I'm planning to do.

I'm also meeting with my film-maker, Eric Joslin, today to talk about my book trailer. Whee! I'm very excited about this project! And I'm so so grateful to all of the people who are volunteering time, equipment and energy. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have the support of so many friends.

it's time to read Moneyball

Not because Brad Pitt is making it into a movie, but because my writing is stalling. I always say, if you have writer's block, it's because you don't know enough.

The blank page doesn't intimidate me. I like to write and I'm not afraid to put down something terrible. I have faith that editing will take away most of the terrible parts. And I'm okay with the fact that I'm human and, yes, some terrible parts will undoubtedly remain.

Nevertheless, there are times when I sit down to write and nothing comes. I don't know where to begin. There's no loose thread to tug at. None of the characters are talking. They're just sitting there, like Barbie dolls, lifeless, awkward and unnatural. Nothing's happening.

When this happens to me when I'm working on non-fiction writing, it's usually because I still don't understand what I'm writing about. If I understand it, I know what the Big Idea is. I know what the article is supposed to be about and I know how to explain it. What I write doesn't always work, but at least I know where to start and I usually know were I'm headed.

If I don't get it, the blank page usually helps me figure out what's missing. Sometimes it talks back to me and tells me to go back and do my homework. Do some reading. Do some research. Talk to some more people. The blank page is actually a pretty good friend. It's saved me from making some pretty big mistakes.

I've found that the same thing holds for fiction. You might think that fiction, since it's all made up anyway, is kind of easy to write. But it's not. Tons of research goes into fiction writing. Maybe that's obvious. But maybe not. I think the stereotype of the author sitting alone at a little table with a typewriter — an image I saw recently in a Time Magazine article about Jonathan Franzen — is pretty well burned into the American psyche. Remember that movie Funny Farm?

It's hard, sitting here at my small table in front of my little laptop, alone in the house, not to beat myself up for my stunted creativity. It's also hard to get my butt out of the chair and to invest my time in "research" for my "novel." It is easy to feel ridiculous about yourself when your work is, essentially, self-indulgent mental masturbation. It gets even weirder when you spend the rest of your spare time telling everyone about it.

But here's the thing. If you do that research, and you really synthesize whatever it is you're taking in, what you end up is something authentic and original, which is the whole point. Fiction should be as true as nonfiction. You have to do the research. There is no other way to make it real.

So I'll start with Moneyball and see where it takes me.