Christina Hoag's Blog, page 6

99 cent ebook sale! Girl on the Brink!

Special promotional sale this week for all titles from Fire and Ice YA on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo and Nook! That includes Girl on the Brink. The publisher has marked down the ebook price to just 99 cents as part of our Kick Ass Girls of Fire and Ice YA promotional month. Great time to discover new authors in all genres so check it out at www. fireandiceya.com. Sale ends Sunday!
Here's the Amazon link:
http://amzn.to/2nseSI8
Here's Smashword Link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Here's Nook:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/girl-...
Here's Kobo:
http://bit.ly/2bFrCGQ

My latest Latin America report: Brazil's economic & political meltdown

All you wanted to know about Brazil's economic & political meltdown in my latest report on Latin America for Congressional Quarterly Researcher, "Troubled Brazil: Can it overcome corruption, inequality and recession?" Available free until Friday, then it goes behind a paywall!
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

On the blogs: Know Your Genre!

Guest blogging on Writers Who Kill today, I discuss the importance of knowing your genre and my journey with that completely unexpected aspect of writing!
The Importance of Genre By Christina Hoag

One of those writing clichés tells aspiring authors to “write the book you want to read.” That may be true, but make sure your book fits into an accepted genre or no one else will read it.
When I was writing my noir thriller Skin of Tattoos, I never gave a thought as to what genre it fell into. After all, a good story is a good story, right? Not quite. As I later painfully discovered, genre is critical. It is how publishers market your book. If your book doesn’t fit neatly into a category, they don’t how to sell it and guess what, they won’t buy it.

Luckily, genre didn’t seem to matter in getting a literary agent. After much querying I landed a good agent, after first signing with a bad one. But then the agent had to figure out how to pitch the book. Was it noir, which involves telling an inside crime story from the point of view of the criminal? Well, yes. My novel is set in the gang underworld of Los Angeles and is told in first-person by a gang member protagonist.

Or was it a thriller, which involves escalating tension between two characters as they battle over high stakes? That also loosely applied to my book as Mags, the narrator, is in a power and revenge struggle with his rival homeboy Rico for leadership of the gang.


Then there was my style. Amid the gang slang, Spanish phrases and occasional profanity, I wrote a lot of lyrical prose that was atypical for a thriller. Plus Mags’s character has an arc. In the end, the agent described it as a “literary thriller.” Although I hadn’t thought of myself as a thriller writer before, I thought that was an accurate enough description and out the book went.

The rejections rolled in. There was high praise for the writing, story elements, originality, and so on, but the most pervasive comment was “who would be the audience for this book?” In other words, “literary thriller” wasn’t cutting it, especially coming from an unknown author. My agent consoled me, saying these were rejections based on “business decisions,” which was much better than having the book rejected for story reasons. Still, I saw that my book was too different, too original. I lamented that to my agent, who responded “publishers do want original stuff, but at the same time they want the same stuff. The same, but different.” Not very helpful.

Eventually, she ran out of places to submit and I got my manuscript back, but I wasn’t going to give up on it. I knew it was a good book. Top publishing editors had said so. I just needed to find someone to take a chance on it. I revised it yet again, cutting out about 13,000 words, including stuff that both agents had me add and that I now saw went nowhere. In fact, the additions didn’t make much sense and simply made the manuscript too long.

I sent the tightened version out to small publishers that accepted unagented submissions. The same thing happened. It was praised, but it didn’t fit their lists. I started to despair then a publisher, Martin Brown Publishing, offered me a contract on it.

Skin of Tattoos finally was released in August and has been well received. Several readers told me the book is “unlike anything I’ve read before.” I take that as a compliment, unfortunately the mainstream publishing industry doesn’t.

I had another genre problem with my second novel, a YA called Girl on the Brink. I was calling it a “contemporary romance,” but it’s not a romance because it’s about teen dating violence. Romance novels must have a happy-ever-after ending, which mine does not. But then the genre gods blessed me. I discovered my book did have a built in category: “contemporary social issues.” Since it contains a lot of suspense and escalating tension between the protagonist and the guy she fell for, I also describe it as a “romantic thriller,” which sounds like a less heavy read.

As for my third book, I’m making it a thriller after another discovery: I have to have an author brand because I’m expected to keep writing the same genre to build readership. So although I never set out to write thrillers, that’s now become my brand by default. Moral of the story: Know your genre.

https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2...

Live author chat on Twitter tonight April 7

Join me and fellow YA authors for a live Twitter chat from 9-10 p.m. EDT/6-7 PDT! We'll discuss fave characters, books, our writing journeys and craft and how we keep going! Tune in with #kickassgirlsofYA!

On the blogs: Talking about writing journey!

Kade cook features me on her blog "Inside a Beauiful Mind" where I talk book and writing, what else? Keep reading or check it out live:
https://kadecook.wordpress.com/2017/0...

Inside A Beautiful Mind – Christina Hoag
APRIL 7, 2017

Good Morning Everyone and happy Friday
Welcome to Inside A Beautiful Mind.
Go grab your coffee, tea or beverage of choice and come sit with me as we get comfy and have a chat with the marvelous Christina Hoag.
Good Morning Christina, thank you for agreeing to hang out with me and wanting to be a part of Inside A Beautiful Mind.
So let’s get right to it, can you tell me a little bit about yourself.
I won a prize for writing interesting stories when I was six years old and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since as a journalist and novelist. I’m the author of two novels Girl on the Brink, a YA romantic thriller (Fire and Ice YA/Melange Books, 2016) and Skin of 15555071_10211475936482132_1667084592_nTattoos, a gangland thriller (Martin Brown, 2016), and co-authored Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence (Turner Publishing, 2014), which is about gang intervention. I live in Los Angeles currently, but I’ve lived in numerous countries as a child and adult.
Can you tell us about your books?
One is a literary thriller called “Skin of Tattoos,” in which the main character, Mags, comes out of prison wanting to get out of gang life but finds himself trapped in it by various circumstances. It’s a story of revenge and rivalry, but there are also other layers: Mags’s quest for his father’s approval, the hardships faced by a poor immigrant family, and the larger picture of the factors that drive gangs in our society.
“Girl on the Brink is a YA romantic thriller about a 17-year-old girl who gets involved with the wrong guy. At first, she thinks Kieran’s the one. He sweeps her off her feet, to use an old cliché. Slowly, however, he reveals a dark side of his character – he’s manipulative, abusive, violent, possessive. Chloe wants to help him, but Kieran’s not that keen on being helped. He pulls a huge move to harm her, and Chloe must use all her smarts, strength and courage to defeat him.
What inspired you to write your first book “Skin of Tattoos”?
I was sent to El Salvador back in 2000 to do a magazine story on gang members deported from Los Angeles to San Salvador, which most of them really didn’t know because their families had emigrated when they were infants. It was a classic “fish out of water” story. They neither belonged in El Salvador or in the United States. Some barely spoke Spanish. It’s really a strange take on the immigrant experience. Their story resonated with me. I could relate to them because I had moved around the world as a child, so I also feel I 15608771_10211475939282202_462019073_odon’t really belong anywhere. Although my novel is not about deported gang members; it’s the tale of rival homeboys in L.A., the book was inspired by those interviews in El Salvador.
Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
“Skin of Tattoos” is basically from my imagination although I did a lot of research for it, including interviews with former gang members. “Girl on the Brink” was inspired by a personal experience and I felt strongly that I wanted to write about it to show girls the red flags of an abusive relationship. I’ve had very good feedback from it so I’m glad I wrote it.
What was your favorite parts to write and why?
In “Skin of Tattoos,” I really liked writing Mags’s resolution of his rocky relationship with his dad and of his betrayal of his homie, Blueboy. Those bits come near the end but I felt very satisfied that he had grown enough to confront those issues in his life. In “Girl on the Brink,” I liked writing Chloe and Kieran’s fun relationship, when Kieran was still quirky before turning abusive. The abusive bits were hard to write.
How did you come up with the titles?
Basically brainstorming. I needed strong edgy titles for both books. Tattoos were a big symbol in the gang novel—Mags is haunted by his tattoos, which signify his gang membership that he cannot get out from under, while books with “girl” in the title seem to do well so I decided the YA book needed a “girl.” I think both have worked well.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
The toughest criticism I got was from agents who rejected “Girl on the Brink” because they said I didn’t have the teen voice right. It was tough because I didn’t quite know how to remedy it, although eventually I gave up trying and just wrote from my heart. It seemed to work. It’s interesting to note that no reader has mentioned any problem with “voice.” The best compliment is from readers who really like my lyrical, literary style of writing and from those who say my characters are well formed and deep.
Do you have any unique or quirky writing habits?
I sit in this weird way with one leg folded to the side and the other leg crossed over it, angled to the other side so basically my legs are going in opposite directions. It looks odd and I’m sure an ergonomic specialist would have a heart attack but I find it very comfortable!
What’s the strangest thing you have ever had to research online for your book?
Murder methods. I won’t give anything away about my forthcoming thriller, tentatively called “Jungle,” but I came up with a cool way to kill someone. Eek, that sounds so creepy!
Give us an interesting fun fact about your book.
“Skin of Tattoos” started life as a YA novel, but that genre proved too limiting for the character and story. I upped Mags’s age a couple years and voila, I had an adult book that granted me full rein over story without having to think of teenager-ish things like parental control, school, etc. It was far better.
Do you work with an outline, or just write?
A bit of both. I like to know where I’m going so I have a loose outline. I’ve found knowing your ending from the getgo really helps to avoid writing yourself into corners, or into a wall. That said, I change stuff as I go all the time. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. Sometimes I do detailed mini-outlines covering just the next chapter or two. It also helps to get you started when you sit down at the computer every day so you avoid wasting time wondering what comes next.
Can you tell us about your experiences in getting your first book published?
It was a long and rocky road to publication that took years, even after I finished writing the books, which took years in of itself. I eventually got an agent after sending out about 90 queries, but frankly, she was a lousy agent who gave up quickly. I did not. I rewrote and rewrote and got another agent, who was a real pro. She did not, however, succeed in selling my book (this was “Skin of Tattoos”). I kept at it. I knew it was good, and I knew “Girl on the Brink” was good, too. I kept rewriting, but I switched from seeking agents to 15556451_10211475940602235_574194989_oseeking publishers who took unagented subs. I kept searching the Internet for publishers and submitting. My persistence paid off in the end.
When did you first start writing and when did you finish your first book?
I won a prize for “writing interesting stories” when I was six years old so I think writing was something I was born with. I always wanted to write books. I discovered journalism in high school – a career that would pay me to write! I wrote short stories on and off until I really focused on my childhood goal of writing novels about a dozen years ago. I wrote an outline for ‘Skin of Tattoos” in 2006, started writing it in 2008, finished it in 2013.
How did you choose the genre you write in?
It really chose me. I naturally gravitated toward dark crime stuff, particularly thrillers. I’ve always liked reading about the seedy side of life and human nature, ever since I was a teenager.
Where do you get your ideas?
Really anywhere. Some have come from my own experience, some from people I’ve interviewed and things I’ve written about as a journalist, things I read about or that people just tell me about their own lives. It kind of all gets poured into a funnel in my brain and mashed up.
Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
I have a list of must-read books, but I’ve always been partial to Graham Greene. Many of his books are about the concept of being a foreigner, an outsider, which I relate to since I’ve lived in many countries both as a child and as an adult. That influence comes through in my novel “Skin of Tattoos,” where the protagonist Mags was born in El Salvador but left with his family fleeing the civil war when he was a child so he doesn’t really feel Salvadoran, doesn’t remember anything about the place, yet that is his identity. He’s an outsider to El Salvador, yet as an immigrant an outsider to mainstream American society, as well. He finds his home in a gang with others from similar backgrounds. As a reader, I love immersing myself in foreign cultures and settings because you always learn something new. As a writer, Greene’s work made me see how key setting can be. It can almost become almost like another character with a personality all of its own.
Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
Believe in yourself and that you have something to say. That’s the greatest gift you can give yourself. Just keep going no matter what anyone tells you, no matter how many rejections you get.
What is your favorite quote or saying?
Never, never, never give up—Winston Churchill. I think it underscores the fact that a lot of success in this game is simply perseverance. Plus, the more you write, the better you get at it.
Tea or coffee?
Two cups of Cuban café con leche in the morning and tea (PG Tips from Britain always!) thereafter if I need a pickmeup. Herbal tea at night.
Sweet or salty?
I definitely have a sweet tooth, but I don’t like things really sweet. I prefer European-style sweet, which is sort of medium on the sweetness scale.
Would you like to share with us a passage that will give us a glimpse into the world you built?
Here’s a passage from “Skin of Tattoos.”
“Ay yo, homes!” A familiar voice sliced through the bustle. “Mags!”
I twirled faster than a ballet dancer, my stomach clenching. It was him. Rico. Slashing across the street aiming the shopping bag in his hand at me. His baggy shorts slung so low the waistband of his boxers showed. Socks, white as fluorescent light, pulled neatly to his knees. Ink flowing out of the arms and neck of his plaid shirt. Exactly how he looked the last time I saw him.
The memory of that day bore down on me. We were kicking it at a street corner, and Rico was bragging about how he shot a trey-eight into the ceiling of a liquor store he was jacking, and the storeowner pissed his pants. As he was talking, he took the .38 out of his waistband in a live re-enactment, and I just had to take the piece, feeling its cold weight in my hand for just a second or two before handing it back to Rico. That second or two cost me twenty-six months of my freedom.

Free books & prizes!

My YA publisher Fire and Ice YA publisher is hosting a monthlong promotion through April to celebrate the strong heroines of YA fiction! It's called "Kick Ass Girls of Fire and Ice YA."
Great ways to participate:
April 19 Enter a rafflecopter for free books of your choosing at www.fireandiceya.com and other prizes like tote bags!
Every Friday, starting April 7, from 9-10 pm EDT, I'll be hosting a live Twitter chat, so come with your questions & comments #kickassgirlsofYA
On April 15, we'll be launching a Kick Ass Short Story Collection as a free ebook!
From April 17-23, all our books will be on sale for just 99 cents!
On April 22, we'll have a Facebook party all day with different authors hosting through the day!
Feel free to drop in and be a kick ass girl!

Skin of tattoos Review: One of best books I've read!

A terrific review in for Skin of Tattoos: 5 Stars from reader Chris Lynch:
"This is beyond a doubt one of the best books I have ever read! Christina Hoag takes us on a wild ride through a world few of us get to see. Her descriptions of the gritty mean streets of Los Angeles are fluidly poetic, and her dialogue is spot on. She does a masterful job of making her main character "Mags" sympathetic when few would initially see him as that, and fewer still could pull it off as graciously and subtly as her. I can't wait to read the sequel!"
Thanks Chris, makes all the hard work of writing worth it!
https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Tattoos-C...

On the blogs: The Importance of YA Fiction!

I'm on Linda Hill's blog today writing about the importance of YA fiction, how storytelling can drive home a message. Read on!
https://lindasbookbag.com/2017/03/21/...
The Importance of YA Fiction, A Guest Post by Christina Hoag, Author of Girl on the Brink

One of the reasons I began blogging was because in the past I had reviewed teenage fiction for Hodder so that I could say whether I thought the books would be suitable for KS3 class readers. Since then I have found there to be some fantastic Young Adult (YA) fiction which is frequently overlooked.

Today I’m delighted to welcome Christina Hoag to Linda’s Book Bag. Christina’s Girl on the Brink is a YA novel and she’s telling us all about why YA fiction is important.

Girl on the Brink is available for purchase here.

Girl on the Brink

GirlOnTheBrinkCover

Sometimes the one you love isn’t the one you’re meant to be with.

The summer before senior year, 17-year-old Chloe starts an internship as a reporter at a local newspaper. While on assignment, she meets Kieran, a quirky aspiring actor. Chloe becomes smitten with Kieran’s charisma and his ability to soothe her soul, torn over her parents’ impending divorce. But as their bond deepens, Kieran becomes smothering and flies into terrifying rages. He confides in Chloe that he suffered a traumatic childhood, and Chloe is moved to help him. If only he could be healed, she thinks, their relationship would be perfect. But her efforts backfire and Kieran becomes violent. Chloe breaks up with him, but Kieran pursues her relentlessly to make up. Chloe must make the heartrending choice between saving herself or saving Kieran, until Kieran’s mission of remorse turns into a quest for revenge.
The Importance of YA Fiction

A Guest Post by Christina Hoag

Think back to when you were a teenager. Did you like being told what to do? That you were making a mistake? Probably not, and frankly most of us don’t like that as adults, either. That’s why couching life lessons as stories is a valuable way to send messages or impart knowledge, especially to adolescents who tend to think they’ve got life sewn up by the age of sixteen.

I’m sure parents who are reading this will be well familiar with the eye-roll, the shrug, the responses of “whatever” or “are you done yet?” when they’ve tried to deliver sermons on life lessons to their teen kids, which we regard as an integral part of parenting. Somehow we get the feeling that our valuable advice simply rolls off teenagers like oily suntan lotion and because we want the best for our children, we fear for them.

Unfortunately, the best way to learn from our mistakes in life is by actually making them. We sure don’t forget those lessons quickly. But we can also learn life lessons through the power of story. Stories allow us to vicariously experience the mistakes of others and learn what happens to characters without actually having to go through the painful consequences ourselves.

That’s why I wrote Girl on the Brink, a novel that chronicles the tale of an abusive relationship that a 17-year-old protagonist falls into, and why I aimed the novel specifically at teenage girls instead of writing a book for adults. It was inspired by something that happened to me, and I felt strongly that if more girls were forewarned about the red flags of an abusive boyfriend at the start of their dating lives, they might be able to avoid such relationships not just in adolescence but also in womanhood, or at least get away from these men sooner, before the stakes intensify.

The challenge, of course, in writing a book with a strong social message is making it too heavy-handed and didactic. Readers, especially teens, aren’t going to pick up a book that’s going to preach at them. They have to be so absorbed in the plot and characters that they don’t really notice the message. The theme has to be woven into the story so it becomes secondary, subliminal, and it has to. People read fiction largely for entertainment, not for lectures.

As I was writing Girl on the Brink, I had to keep this uppermost in my mind, and it took a while. I had to keep revising and revising, sometimes drastically, until it finally twigged. I had to let go of the message and concentrate on unfolding the story, because the message was inherent in the plot points and character actions. My job was simply to make the story as suspenseful and “un-put-down-able” as I could.

When Girl on the Brink was finally published last August, I didn’t know how it would be received. It had been a hard sell, rejected by agents and editors all over the place. No one, it seemed, was much interested in a contemporary realistic tale of a bad romance. Much of YA fiction tends to land more on the frothy, unrealistic side (falling in love with a werewolf, anyone?). I at last found an editor at a small U.S. publisher (Fire & Ice YA) who was into the book—and its message. At her suggestion, we put a page of resources at the end of the book.

Luckily, Girl on the Brink was well received from the get-go. When Kirkus Reviews said the book imparted a lesson without seeming preachy, I knew I must’ve hit the right balance. That was underscored when Suspense Magazine named it on its Best of 2016 YA list. While compliments are always nice for an author to hear, ultimately it meant that I stood in good stead of getting my message about dating violence to readers. If Girl on the Brink helps just one girl avoid or get out of an abusive relationship, I will have fulfilled my goal.

Review: Skin of Tattoos

Kiwi Crime Blog gives SOT 5 stars "a great debut novel." Read on!
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 2017
Review: SKIN OF TATTOOS
http://kiwicrime.blogspot.co.uk/2017/...
SKIN OF TATTOOS by Christina Hoag (2016)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

Los Angeles homeboy Magdaleno is paroled from prison after serving time on a gun possession frameup by a rival, Rico, who takes over as gang shotcaller in Mags’s absence. Mags promises himself and his Salvadoran immigrant family a fresh start, but he can’t find either the decent job or the respect he craves from his parents and his firefighter brother, who look at him as a disappointment.

Moreover, Rico, under pressure to earn money to free the Cyco Lokos’ jailed top leader and eager to exert his authority over his rival-turned-underling, isn’t about to let Mags get out of his reach. Ultimately, Mags’ desire for revenge and respect pushes him to make a decision that ensnares him in a world seeded with deceit and betrayal, where the only escape from rules that carry a heavy price for transgression is sacrifice.

When I first started reading this book, I was thinking there are only so many stories you can tell – and that this was the one about the guy that gets out of prison, wants to go straight, can’t due to societal stigma and intolerance, so he gets back into the criminal life big time and things do not go well.

The story was being told by ‘the guy’, in this case Mags (Magdeleno) a Salvadoran LA gangbanger. I was enjoying his narrative style – salted with patois that was exotic, but also familiar from all the movies and TV programmes I have seen about LA gangs.

But then, as well as just cruising through the book, I started to become totally engrossed in Mags’ world; the characters Mags engages with are flawed and have agendas, which make them untrustworthy and far from predictable, and Mags himself is a complex character who makes some very bad decisions about what and what not to do.

Mags’ gang is the Cyco Lokos, and while he has been locked up, the ‘shotcaller’ of the gang, Chivas, has also been imprisoned. Mags was Chivas’ lieutenant, but that place has been taken by Rico – the guy who set Mags up to take his rap for illegal firearm possession – and with Chivas locked up, Rico is calling the shots. Although angry at this, Mags has decided to go straight, not wanting to go back inside and also wanting to grow his relationship with Paloma, his best friend’s sister. But he gets pushed back into gang action – and into confrontation with Rico. And there is a comfort in this: “Revenge is the regaining of control. There’s nothing so empowering, so elating.”

But truly terrible things occur as Mags tries to set things straight and get his homies back on track, and he starts to realise that the gang code gets more flexible the higher you go up ranks. If everyone is out for themselves, who can you ever totally trust to be on your side? Even within his family, his alcoholic father, his hotshot firefighter brother, his Catholic turned Pentecostal Mother, and his sisters - one of whom has got involved with a banger from a rival gang – who will see him for who he is and not just see the gang tattoos that scream out what he is.

The tattoos are a great metaphor “They were a part of me, but not the whole of me”, they are a comfort as they give Mags identity, but they are a burden as they don’t allow others to want to see who he is and to what he might aspire. Along Mags’ journey, as well as the fear and violence, there are some lovely moments: the family dinner where Mags felt “No matter what had happened in the past, I belonged at that table”, and when Mags’ clica crew sat around telling stories about a dead homeboy “til the wind blew through our clothes and the sea turned nimbus grey”.

SKIN OF TATTOOS is full of the inevitability of lost lives; of those who can’t escape the deeply worn tracks of their predecessors, even those “moving up the food chain who thought they were leaving the ghetto behind when they arrived in the San Fernando suburbs, but they just bought the ghetto with them”. The sympathy Hoag has for her unsympathetic characters is effective – whenever someone does something awful you find yourself thinking not that they are bad to the bone, but that something awful must have happened to them for this to be their reality. Mags even manages to conjure up sympathy for the despicable Rico: “For an instant I felt sorry for Rico. Just an instant.”

And it’s those instants that have you rooting for Mags and worrying about him – so, have a read and get to know him. This is a great debut novel from Hoag, who is an LA-based Kiwi writer.

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving librarian in Nelson. This review will also appear on her blog, which you can check out here.

Blog: If only I knew these things about publishing...

maybe I wouldn't have attempted being a novelist....read my post on Mysteristas today
https://mysteristas.wordpress.com/201...

Where do I start? I’ve got a lot of “if only I knews”! Perhaps the biggest “if only I knew” is how much more I should have done to build my author’s platform before I was even published. In fact, this may have helped me get published as agents and editors are all looking at an author’s platform as much as their manuscript these days.

As a journalist, I should have had a website up and running with my nonfiction book that I co-authored, and I should started other social media sites such as Instagram, GoodReads and a Facebook author page. (I’m glad to say I did do something right—I built my Twitter following to 20.4K over the course of steady daily tweeting.)

I should have started joining writers’ organizations that are open to unpublished authors, like Sisters in Crime, which would have allowed me to network and make more connections that could have helped me gain marketing and promotion expertise. Ditto with writers’ conferences. I could have saved myself so much time and energy in cold-querying agents by pitching them directly at conferences, and again doing that crucial networking.

GirlOnTheBrinkCoverSmallI should have thought more about branding myself and developing one genre instead of, as my former literary agent told me, writing “all over the place.”

So why didn’t I do all this stuff? In short, I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t have the confidence in myself and my writing that I should have. I was intimidated by conferences and organizations because they were just for published authors, or so I thought. According to me, I was just another one in the mass of aspiring novelists begging for a contract. I was afraid I wouldn’t be taken seriously until I was published.

So I got published and then ventured out into the woolly world of trying to get my books discovered. Then began a whole other set of “if only I knews.”

I had no idea developing a genre or writing a series of books was essential to building a publishing career. To me, writing the same stuff over and over again seems boring (and frankly, still does, but….). I also had no idea just how competitive publishing has become and how writing a good book just isn’t enough to catapult you above the heads of everyone else. I didn’t realize getting readers to write reviews was a Promethean struggle.

I didn’t realize I was way ahead of the game in being a newspaper reporter and foreign correspondent for many years, which gave me a far more interesting bio than many as well as more expertise in the subject matter of crime, as I’ve covered real life crime and cops, done ride-alongs and so on.

I also didn’t realize that agents were basically sales people and weren’t going to invest a lot in an author they hadn’t sold, such as in advising them that they should build a platform or social media, or give editorial advice on early-stage manuscripts.

But here’s the thing. If I had known all these things, maybe I wouldn’t have even attempted this foolhardy game of being a novelist at all. I might’ve decided it was just too damn hard. Instead, I focused on my writing, all the time improving so I can be proud to put my name on it. And let’s face it, writing the best book you can write is at the heart of this business. Still, if only I had known there was more to it than just that.

So now I’m building my author platform, slowly but steadily. It’s been a steep learning curve, that’s for sure, but now I know.