Annette Lyon's Blog, page 23

Reader's Guide to How Publishing Works

At recent book signings, I've had a lot of people ask questions about publishing, stuff that as a writer, you almost forget you didn't know once upon a time and had to learn.
Here's a basic run-down on what publishers do (and don't do) and how a new writer goes about it.
You do not pay a publisher to put out your book. A legitimate publisher considers your book to be their product, and they invest a lot of money into it to make it successful. That money includes editing (many rounds of editing and revisions), copy edits, proofing, typesetting, and things like graphic design, printing, shipping, and distribution. As a result of all that, they have a lot of overhead and keep most of the money.
But they do NOT ask the author for money. Companies who do are called Vanity (or, the nicer term, Subsidy) Publishers. If you go with one of them, you're essentially self-publishing. (See below.)
Vanity publishers have a very bad reputation, especially those who pretend they're legit and are doing YOU a favor. ("Just pay us $4,000, and we'll publish your amazing book!" Ha. Run. Run like the wind! An example of this type of deal: Publish America.)
(Check the Predators and Editors site to check for shady agents, editors, and publishers before signing anywhere.)
The Writer Is Paid Royalties.Royalties are based on book sales. Statements (and checks!) usually arrive twice a year. (If you ask me how my book is doing, I can't tell you until I get my next statement.)
Royalties are based on a percentage of the book price, usually retail, although sometimes it's wholesale, with royalty percentages ranging from 6.25% to 15% (lots of factors go into the number, which I won't get into now).
Larger publishers often offer advances. An advance isn't just free money. It's money that the publisher is gambling will pay off. If Joe Author gets a $5,000 advance, he gets no more money in royalties, EVER, unless royalties he would have earned from books sold exceed $5,000. When that happens (which doesn't always), he's "earned out" his advance and will then receive royalty checks.
Advances are pretty rare in the LDS market (unless your name is big enough that the publisher knows that a book by you is a guaranteed check in the bank, and I can think of maybe four names like that). I know a few authors who've managed to get advances, but they're very few and far between.
Some math: You can end up waiting years before seeing a dime on your work. I began work on Chocolate Never Faileth May 1, 2009. I'll see my first dime from it February 2011. And that's a FAST turnaround.
More math: There's not much chance of making really good money from publishing a book, especially fiction. (Non-fiction, with someone who has a big platform, is another animal.) A novelist could very well get about sixty-five cents per copy sold. (So pop that dream of a mansion and a Mercedes. Ain't happening.) The rich novelist, especially of a single book, is a serious myth. (It happens, sure, but you have a better chance of being struck by lightning.)
Return ReserveAnother issue is returns. The writer is paid on books ordered by and shipped to stores, not on books that actually walk out of the store in a customer's hand.
So your royalty check may not reflect actual sales. This can come back to bite you when a bunch of stores (especially ones who buy in bulk, say WalMart or Costco) return cases of unsold books.
What happens: your royalties account goes into the red. You were already paid on those books. While you don't need to cough up money to pay your publisher back, you ARE in the red until future royalties add up to be enough to get you into the black again.
This is why return reserve is so common. For example, my publisher withholds 10% of my royalties earned in every check to cover any possible returns. (And then we both cross fingers, hoping that returns don't exceed 10%.) If, after the next 6 months, we don't end up with lots of returns and I'm in the black, I get that 10% paid in my next check.
What's a pain is when you're in the black from other books but a different book gets lots of returns. Your royalties for your new book are then cannibalized to pay for the returns of a past one. (Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything . . .)
Agent or No Agent? (And What Does an Agent DO?)Whether you'll need an agent depends on the market you're trying to break into. The LDS market, for example, is small enough that agents simply couldn't making a living in it. It's rare that an agent negotiates a deal here. (It's happened, usually with authors who already had an agent for another project. I could list a few examples, but it's pretty rare.)
Even authors who have agents for national project often negotiate their own LDS publisher contracts. One fun example was Dean Hughes, who was working on his Children of the Promise series, unbeknownst to his national agent, who thought he wasn't doing much work (ha!) and surprised him when she sold a nine-book series for him to write.
For most national houses (versus regional or niche publishers) you will need an agent just to get in the door to be considered. Agents are the gatekeepers who pass along manuscripts to editors that they feel have promise so editors aren't wading through what's called the "slush pile."
Agents have relationships, connections to the publishing world. They're the ones with the Rolodex. You don't. They can sell your book to the best house. You can't. They negotiate the contract. After a book is sold, they can go on to sell foreign rights (which can be a pretty hefty amount of money, if you sell rights in lots of countries), movie rights, and so on.
Agents take 15% of what you earn, WHEN you earn it. That may sound like a lot, but getting 85% of, say $90,000 is a whole lot for more than 100% of $5,000. Agents earn their money.
One big caveat: NEVER pay an agent anything upfront. Run from an agent who asks for reading or other fees. If they have costs to be reimbursed for (copies, postage), that'll come out of a royalty check. You should never be paying them anything directly. They get paid when you do.
How Do You Approach Publishers/Agents?When I started, we didn't have Professor Google to help. I had to rely on the book edition of Writer's Market. Now they have an online version, and you can find a multitude of blogs out there written by agents and editors on how to write a query and how to approach publishers. (So much is out there, you really have no excuse for not educating yourself.)
Publishers Take so Much Money; Why Not Self-Publish?A couple of reasons: first, the chances of your book being professionally edited, typeset, and having a great cover are pretty sad. (Self-published books usually LOOK self-published.) That means fewer sales. (People really do judge books by their covers.)
A second, and possibly bigger, factor is that publishers already have distribution arms, relationships and histories with bookstores. Indie writers don't. Bookstores are generally wary about taking on books that don't come from a reputable publisher, especially because they usually can't return unsold books to the author the way they can to a publisher. (This is especially true if the writer used a print-on-demand company.)
It doesn't do a writer much good if they have flat of 4,000 copies of a book in their basement and they can't sell them. Sure, you'll make several bucks per book, but if you're selling under 100 copies, where's that getting you?
E-booksThey're changing the face of publishing. How far and in what ways remains to be seen.
One issue is that there are SO MANY e-books out there, so readers still need a way to vet the good from the bad. Publishers still provide that service.
That said, a lot of self-published e-book writers are making pretty good money. But they market as much as they write. They get professionally designed covers, get their books edited, interact with e-book readers, usually have multiple books for sale, and more. It's not an easy route. It's work either way.
I have one Kindle book so far (soon to be three). My first novel, Lost Without You, went out of print some time ago, and after the rights reverted back to me (and after a minor rewrite), I got it onto the Kindle last summer (it's also available on other e-reader formats through Smashwords, which includes Apple, Kobo, Sony, and more).
Sales were slow at first, but they're picking up. And while I'm not going to get rich off it, having the book there is getting me more readers all the time. And here's one great thing: the book won't go out of print again. Ever. I can get more sales as the months go by, not fewer.
For more on this, I was interviewed by the Kindle Author blog today. Check that out for more on my experience with Lost Without You and e-books.
I'm hoping that by February, my grammar guide and my second novel, At the Water's Edge (also out of print), will be available on the Kindle and other e-book formats.
Those are the most common questions I get about publishing. If you have more, throw 'em at me, and I'll add them to a future post!


© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

WNW: Things We Say Wrong--Right

Found a fun video showing a lot of incorrect usage and pronunciation in English. It's really funny and worth taking a look/listen.

Two of my favorite bits:
"Text messaging has erased any sense of spelling you may have gleaned"

"I could care less."

But . . . I have a few beefs.

First, watch the video. Then read my rant.




Okay . . .

First off, he says that if you feel bad that's incorrect. He insists that the adverb form is needed: you feel badly.

See, here's the thing: feel bad is just fine.

In fact, it's more correct . . . unless he's discussing the sensing capability of his nerve endings and how they just don't work anymore.

Then he could feel badly, because he'd be NUMB.

Aside from that example, the fact is that you don't always need the -ly adverbial form, which he brings up multiple times, like with talk different vs. talk differently.

It comes down to FLAT ADVERBS, something this dude could use a lesson on.

(For a quick lesson, check out Grammar Girl's explanation. She points out that flat adverbs go back the 1600s. They're more popular now, but hardly new.)

And then there's this complaint:

a whole nother apple

Here's the deal: English has lots of pre-fixes (like UN as in unsolved puzzle), and suffixes (like FUL, as in thankFUL), and many others.

Just about every language also has IN-fixes, where the "fix" is sandwiched in the middle of words. English doesn't support infixes very well, but guess what?

A whole nother is essentially an English INFIX.

They exist, dude. Deal with it.

Also, alternate pronunciations aren't wrong just because they exist. Yes, words are sometimes pronounced incorrectly, but if, over decades, more than one pronunciation is considered acceptable by the educated masses, the others will be added to dictionaries.

This happens with English a lot, since most of the planet speaks it (at least as a second language), and many, many countries have it as a national language and speak it with their own pronunciation and variations.

(I'm not about to tell an Aussie that his way of saying "mate" is wrong. Are you?)

Thing is, LANGUAGE EVOLVES. (Read that post for yet another rant.)

From Chaucer's and Shakespeare's standpoints, our English would be ridiculously "wrong." But no, it's not wrong. English has just CHANGED over the centuries. A lot.

The final kicker of the video would be really funny if he weren't still harping on the adverbial thing.

I wanted to absolutely love the video. I loved parts. But he lost a bit of credibility on some points. Sigh.

Note on last week's WNW: Got a few questions on passive voice, including whether something like "she was excited" falls under that umbrella. Will discuss that soon!
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved[image error]

Author Interview: Jonathan Langford

Nearly a year ago, as a Whitney Awards judge in the General category, I read No Going Back, by Jonathan Langford. I knew little about it going in, but I admit to being somewhat wary. This was a first-time novelist taking on a daunting task of telling the story of a faithful LDS young man who struggles with same-sex attraction. Basically, he's a faithful, gay Mormon.

One thing that surprised me (in a good way) about the book is that it wasn't, as I expected, a didactic, preachy story where the author had an agenda and was determined to whack the reader with so often that there's no way to avoid getting the message. (Something that did happen in another nominee I read.) I talked about the difference between the two back in January over at the AML blog.

As my long-time readers know, I don't review books here, but I do sometimes interview writers. So here's my interview with Jonathan Langford, whose No Going Back did end up being Whitney Award finalist for Best General Novel.

How long have you been writing and how did you get started? (When did the bug bite you?)

I had a poem published in The Children's Friend (its title back then) when I was 8, I think. Does that count?

I've always had an interest in stories and writing, and used to spend a lot of time thinking out plots for stories when I was younger. Mostly science fiction and fantasy. A lot of them were interactive stories that my best friend and I would make up spontaneously and act out. Then in college, I was part of a creative writing group at BYU with several people who later became published sf&f authors, including Dave Farland, who's a good friend of mine. I always seemed to do better at editing and critiquing other people's work than producing my own, though.

Eventually, I got into informational writing, which is what I do professionally now. I enjoy that — but I also felt that something was missing. Then a few years back, about the time I turned 40, it was like something in the back of my head went "Ding! Time to start writing stories again!" I floundered around for several years, working on fantasy stories that never seemed to get anywhere (though I still have hopes for some of them). Then I started working on the idea for No Going Back, and everything seemed to come together.

Where did the idea for No Going Back come from?

For me, story ideas come from imagining a particular character in a specific situation. We'd been talking on AML-List, an email discussion group sponsored by the Association for Mormon Letters, about the relative lack of stories about faithful Latter-day Saints who are also homosexually attracted. A friend of mine, Rex Goode, who is same-gender attracted but also a faithful member of the Church, explained how people in that situation often are misunderstood both within the Church and within the gay community, which has no sympathy with their desire to live according to Church standards. And then in the middle of that discussion, an idea popped into my head — from wherever it is that story ideas come — for a story about a teenage LDS boy whose best friend (also LDS) confides in him that he's gay, then is eventually outed and encounters difficulties at school and Church for being gay, even though he's committed to live by Church standards. I had a picture in my mind of the story ending with the non-gay best friend kneeling at the sacrament table and having a hard time forgiving the members of his ward for the tough time some of them had given his friend.

So originally the story wasn't going to be about Paul, the boy with homosexual feelings, but rather about Chad, his best friend?

It would still have been largely about Paul, but from the point of view of his best friend. At the time, I was envisioning it as a short story. I put the idea on a back burner, though, because I was busy trying to work with my fantasy ideas at the time. A few years later, I was feeling thoroughly stuck with my other stories, and so I started thinking about this one again. Things started clicking, and I saw how this could become an entire novel. A big part of that was adding Paul as a point of view character, and developing the character of his bishop—who also happens to be Chad's father—more thoroughly. And then I started writing, and things proceeded from there.

What research did you have to do for the book?

I wound up researching a lot of picky details, such as what kind of music was popular among teenagers in 2003 and what movies were being released. Then I had to watch some of the movies and listen to the music. I interviewed the advisor for our local high school's gay-straight alliance club, and I attended a meeting of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). I went online to check out what priesthood manual was being used that year, and then was able to borrow one of the lessons pretty much as is for what turned out to be one of the funnier scenes in the book. Research can be a pain, but it delivers gifts to the writer. Doing your research and then finding a way to stay accurate within what you found often results in much better stuff than if you just follow your imagination. At least, that's what I found.

I mentioned on the AML blog that I appreciated how you didn't approach the topic in a didactic way. Did you go into the book with a message you were trying to convey? Did the story grow organically?

The story grew organically, but I also had some things I wanted to communicate along the way. I wanted to give a sense that it was possible to experience homosexual attractions but also to be quite sincere in wanting to follow the Church's teachings. I wanted to communicate a sense of the difficulty of being pulled between the world's way of viewing this issue and the Church's teachings on this topic. On a broader scale, I was hoping that reading this book might prompt people to think about positive ways they could react if someone told them he or she had homosexual feelings, and to stimulate more discussion of the issue from that perspective among Church members. I didn't mean to advocate any particular answers, but simply to increase understanding and compassion—along with telling a compelling story about characters whom the readers would hopefully care about. Without that part, all the positive messages in the world won't get you anywhere.

Back when I was teaching freshman composition in college, I used to tell my students that they should be able to create a thesis statement for their argument papers beginning with the words, "I am arguing that . . ." Generally speaking, you shouldn't be able to do that with a story. I'm not saying that good stories never come about that way, because Milton and Vergil (among others) might have something to say about that, but as a general rule, stories aren't about themes but rather about experiences. Inevitably the stories we create will reflect our morality and the way we believe the world works. On the whole, though, story-writing—and reading—isn't really that much like writing and reading an essay or a how-to manual. As someone who's written plenty of essays and how-to manuals, I can definitely attest to that.

What was the most interesting thing you learned through the process of researching/writing NGB?

I learned that a lot of what I thought would work for me as a writer, and what I'd heard other people say worked for them, didn't necessarily work for me. For example, the tactic of writing quickly and then going back later to polish proved to be an absolute disaster for me. I almost literally could not bear to read the stuff I produced that way, which kind of defeated the purpose. Instead, I found that I need to take the time to write as well as I can the first time around — with a lot of revision afterwards, of course. And I found that when my writing quality starts going downhill, I have to walk away from it for a while before writing again: an hour, a day, whatever.

That's only an example. For me, the process of becoming a story writer was filled with surprises. It still is.

I also found myself surprised at just how definite my conceptions of my characters became over time. Often during the editing process, I'd react to a proposed edit by thinking, "No, he wouldn't say it like that. Instead, he'd say __." Once a reader referred to one of my minor characters as homophobic, and I said, "No, he's not homophobic, he's . . ." And I spouted about five minutes' worth of explanation about things I hadn't realized I knew about that character and his motivations.

What is your writing style? Are you an outliner or a by-the-seat-of-your-pantser? Somewhere in between?

Somewhere in between I think. I've tried outlining my other stories, and in fact I typically use outlining in my informational projects, but I found that when I outline my stories, I tend to stick too close to the outline and the stories never come alive. On the other hand, when I go in without any idea what comes next, my story wanders all over the place and never acquires any focus.

With No Going Back, I had a good idea of most of the major plot points and how the story had to end. The rest I worked out as I went along. I wrote the story from beginning to end, but I also jumped ahead many times to write a scene that I had just imagined or that I knew had to come further down the line. That helped me in several ways. For one thing, it gave me something to work on when I was either away from the computer or stuck on my current scene. Second, it allowed me to work on scenes while they were still fresh in my mind. Third, writing later scenes often helped me in writing earlier sections by giving me a clearer idea of where the story was going.

What is one big thing you've learned through the process of publishing your first novel?

That if you want people to read your story, book promotion can take almost as much time as writing the story to begin with—or more. That may not be true for authors who are working with larger publishers that have a bigger advertising budget. However, I've heard authors at every level make this kind of statement, so I suspect it's true whatever your sales figures may be.

To be honest, though, I don't really mind. For one thing, it gives me a chance to talk with people about my story. I wouldn't have written it if I didn't want to do that. I'm a bit like a proud papa who keeps dragging out all the pictures of his clever children. The bigger challenge for me is to learn when it's time to shut up about it.

What's been the biggest surprise about the publishing process?

The cheap answer is that the biggest surprise is that it ever actually happened! My family has been hearing about my writing for years. They were all quite surprised when I actually finished a novel and got it published. Actually, I think they were more surprised at my finishing it than at its being published.

Aside from that, I don't think I experienced that many surprises. Maybe that's because I've been around authors and book publishing so much over the years. Probably part of it also is due to having been published by Zarahemla Books, which is pretty much a one-man operation. I'm quite happy with the way Chris Bigelow (owner of Zarahemla Books) treated me, but it's probably true that I haven't experienced the "genuine" publication process as it might occur with a larger publishing house.

Maybe I'll have a better answer when/if I get another novel written and published for the national market . . .

Which authors are your biggest literary influences in the national market?

That's an interesting question. It's not the same as asking which are my favorite authors, is it? I'd have to say that writing No Going Back, I kept thinking about Chaim Potok and The Chosen, partly because he does such a good job of showing religious belief as part of an ordinary life, and partly because it's so thoroughly a novel about friendship, which at one level is what No Going Back is about too. And The Chosen is about relationships between fathers and sons, which also play a role in No Going Back, though not as big. I also have to put in a plug for juvenile sf&f writer Andre Norton, whose novel The Crystal Gryphon, which I reread many times as a child and adolescent, does a fine job with alternating viewpoints from highly sympathetic and distinctive characters—something I attempted in No Going Back. And then I'd say Willa Cather, who does an excellent job of telling quiet stories about ordinary people that are nonetheless finely crafted and heartfelt. You care about her characters—and you like them. And you feel that you know them.

There are probably many other authors who have influenced me as much as these three, but they're the ones that come to mind right now.

In the LDS market?

I haven't read as widely as I'd like among LDS authors. Of those I have read, probably the biggest influence is playwright Tom Rogers. His plays illustrate how universal themes can be dealt with powerfully within the context of specifically LDS stories. Maybe Dave Farland, to some degree, though he's published more on the national scene than in the LDS market. Reading and critiquing his work over the years—and hearing him talk about it—clued me in to the fact that people grappling with, thinking about, and talking over ideas can be an interesting element in a story.

How does being LDS impact you as a writer?

Being LDS impacts me as a writer in many ways. One of the most important is that my reasons for wanting to write stories have a lot to do with my LDS beliefs. In the LDS way of thinking, one of the principal goals of mortality is to develop compassion and understanding for other people, all of whom are literally sons and daughters of God and as such, our brothers and sisters. Fiction is a superb tool for doing that. Being LDS also places a religious value on developing one's talents, as an act of service to others and an act of worship to God.

At the same time, being LDS means there are a lot of other things that have to take priority over being an artist, like taking care of your family and doing your home teaching. I've heard people speculate that this kind of split attention might mean we're never likely to have world-class LDS artists. I don't buy that. As best I can tell, all art, whether by Mormon artists or not, is created under conditions of distraction. I don't think we as LDS artists are any worse off in that regard than anyone else.

Any advice for aspiring authors?

Keep writing, and follow your instincts. And remember that being a writer, even a very good writer, doesn't give you a pass from being a good person. Story writing is important, but so is turnip farming. Take your writing seriously, but don't deify it.

Read the first half of No Going Back for FREE on Zarahemla's website .
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved[image error]

WNW: When Passive Voice Is OKAY

Don't use passive voice; use active voice.
Ever heard that writing rule?
It's a good guideline, for sure, but like any writing rule, exceptions abound.
First, what is passive voice?
Passive voice shows up when something or someone is being acted upon rather than doing the acting. It's usually a weak way to construct a sentence or a scene because your characters are like chess pieces being moved around and having stuff thrown at them rather than actually doing anything themselves.
Often passive voice can be changed with a little tweaking, and doing so almost always results in a stronger sentence.
Consider:
Tom was hit by a car.
This is passive because the car is the one actually doing the action. Tom is the recipient of the effect.
The car hit Tom.
That's active, but it's still a bit telly.
Since the first sentence (Tom was hit by a car) was rather non-specific (ie telly), let's do better on both counts. Let's show AND use active voice:
A red Jeep squealed around the corner, its headlights staring Tom in the face. He dove for the sidewalk, but too late; the grill smacked into his torso, and tires rolled over his legs. A pop and a crunch, and then silence, save for Tom's heavy breathing and a sensation of shock eclipsing the pain in his broken legs.
Now the car (or, the Jeep, since we're adding specificity) is acting. Tom's still on the receiving end, but the action is much better.
Passive voice is one reason writers are cautioned to avoid WAS constructions. They aren't all passive voice (contrary to what some writers teach or have been taught, haha--that was passive voice), but it's a clue that you might be dealing with it.
So here's a fun detail: sometimes you WANT passive voice.
1) Use passive voice when the common sentence construction demands it and changing the sentence to active would call attention to itself. Such as:
He got arrested.
Sure, that's passive, but it's also the way that term is generally used. Pointing out that police officers did the arresting is kinda silly, and it would detract.
(Note that here and in many cases, it's GET/GOT that's the key for noting passive voice, not WAS.)
2) When you're deliberately trying to avoid pointing out the person/thing who acted.Pay attention to commercials or company communications: they rarely accept responsibility for anything, and they do so by using passive voice:

"We regret that your washing machine was improperly installed" keeps it passive and the focus on the washer.
They'd never say, "We regret that our technician installed your washer improperly," because then the spotlight is on their shortcomings and gives the customer ammunition for a refund.
You can do the same thing in your writing. Mysteries are rife with passive voice when we don't know WHO done it: "The victim was stabbed five times." Trying to avoid passive voice there would feel a bit acrobatic and awkward to the reader.
Another case to use passive voice: when you're deliberately trying to hide the person who is acting.
"Mom, one of the car's headlights got smashed," a teen says, and then slinks to their room, hoping Mom assumes it was a hit-and-run in a parking lot or something, even though the teen is the one who busted the light by driving into a lamp post.
Or when a teacher walks in to see chaos and says, "What's going on here?"and the class replies, "The same thing that happens every day."
(Careful not to point out that THEY are the ones doing whatever they shouldn't be.)
To sum up:Passive voice is when the sentence shows what is happening to who/what but avoids using the subject of the action as the subject of the sentence.Most of the time, passive voice is weak and should be avoided.WAS/GOT tend to signal passive voice.But not all sentences with those words are passive voice.Use passive voice when you (or a character) want to conceal who is doing the action.
Okay, so let's try it: After Thanksgiving, I'm amazed at how much pie GOT EATEN.
Ahem. (See? With passive voice, I admit to nothing . . .)
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

A Reader's Guide to Book Signings

Over the years, I've had a gajillion book signings, give or take. Lately, that number has been growing.
And in the last bit, some people, knowing that signings aren't totally awesome unless your last name is something like Rowling, have asked how they should act when they see a writer at a book signing. What's the etiquette?
If I hadn't been on the other side of the fence, I wouldn't have the answer. But alas, I have been there. Many times.
And some days, I wish I had a sign with tips for people to read as they pass.
So today, a list of DOs and DON'Ts for the reader who happens upon a book signing:
1) DO Make Eye Contact and Smile.In other words, don't panic, pretending the writer doesn't exist, then veer the other direction as if we have leprosy. Yes, we know you're avoiding us. And no, a simple acknowledgment of our existence doesn't obligate you to buy our book. A simple "hello" can go a long way in making the writer feel at least human instead of shunned.
2) If Something Is Offered Free, DO TAKE IT.Any published writer has likely already been through a lot of rejection, but that rejection gets compounded at a signing, when 99% of people walking by don't buy your book (and some 85% pretend you have leprosy).
Ergo, if the writer offers a bookmark, a card with their book cover, a flier, or WHATEVER, graciously take it, say thanks, and walk on. By doing so, you are not obligated to buy the book. But having a free bookmark or a (ahem) free recipe card rejected can get rather demoralizing after the 186th time that day.
Many writers bring along candy or chocolate. Feel free to take a piece WHILE acknowledging the writer's existence in the process. (Don't take the candy and pretend no one is at the table.) A friendly exchange like that is actually a nice thing, even if you don't buy a book.
3) DO Feel Free to Talk to the Writer.This does not in any way obligate you to buy anything. After constant rejection, it's nice to get even a simple comment like, "You wrote that book? Cool." Sometimes chitchat evolves into family stuff or interests. It helps pass the time, and really, at least in my case, I do enjoy getting to know people for a few minutes. Even if they don't buy a book.
A corollary for writers: Unless a person actually shows interest in your book, don't give them a three-minute spiel on it. That makes everyone uncomfortable, and you'll feel even more rejected when they don't buy it. Have ONE or TWO short sentences to use when people approach, and if they want to know more, they'll tell you. If they don't ask for more, DON'T keep pitching your book; find something else to talk about.
4) After making eye contact and/or smiling/saying hello, DO NOT keep glancing over if you aren't interested. Writers expect people to keep walking, since that's what happens most times. (And that is fine.)
BUT if someone keeps glancing your way, that's telegraphing a message that they might be interested. Writers have to read body language like crazy at book signings; it's all we've got.
If you keep looking over at us or our book display, you're asking to be talked to. If you accidentally find yourself doing a double and then a triple take and (ACK!) the writer SPEAKS, then just be polite. Smile and say something pleasant (even, "Good luck with your book"). Then feel free to keep walking. Just don't revert to the shunning and contagious disease thing.
5) If you DO want to buy a book, great! You're welcome to talk to us longer (you're our new best friend). As the writer signs the book, tell them if you'd like the book made out to a specific person, and if so, SPELL the name even if it's "Beth." It's amazing how many ways there are to spell the simplest of names, so if there's the slightest chance the writer could get the name spelled wrong, clarify it.
6) If you have no plans to make a purchase, DON'T talk for ten minutes. Seriously, that just messes with our heads. We are ON for hours at a time, keeping adrenaline moving so we can be peppy and fun and approachable. It's exhausting. If someone stops and chats, it's really nice. To a point.
But here's the thing: after ten minutes, I'm bound to get my hopes up that this person will actually buy a book. When they walk away, it's depressing.
I know this can be confusing with #3 above, but it comes down to there being a sweet spot for how long to talk.
You're safe chatting for a minute or two before you end up in commitment waters. But if you've heard several anecdotes about the book, you know what research the writer did, you've heard the backliner, and the writer knows where you live and how many kids you have, your favorite TV shows, and that you're currently potty training Joey, chances are you've been talking too long.

Caveat: These are my rules when dealing with a perfect stranger at a book signing. If you're already my friend, everything changes. For starters, I'll probably want to talk for 20 minutes. For another, you're probably THERE to buy my book.


That's my basic guide for handling book signings as a reader. Questions? Throw 'em into the comments.
Writers: Anything you'd add?
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

A Turkey Story

For your Thanksgiving reading enjoyment, and with permission from my second grader, here is a story she wrote for class.
Spelling and punctuation hers, although I've clarified a couple of words in brackets. (She got help spelling "unconscious" from a student teacher. I was stunned to see it spelled right at first.)


Turkey Trouble
Once apon a time there was a tacky turkey named Jill. Jill lived on a farm. Her Grandma told her all about Thanksgiving. Jill didn't believe her, because fore ten years the farmer had not eatan turkey. Sence she was a tacky turkey she made the farmer laugh. Until one year when the farmer got annoyed. He got so annoyd that he wanted to eat her!
So she ran and while she was runing she hit her head on a rock and lost her memory and for a fyow [few] minutes she was unconscious. When she woke up she found herself on the counter and the farmer was rite next to her. The farmer was holding a very sharp and shiny thing.
It was very close to her neck so she jumped of the counter and ran out side and she hit her had agen and she remembered every thing! She looked behind her and saw the farmer running after her!
She found some cordbord [cardboard] and some spray paint. So Jill folded here and sprayed there and by the time she was done she had made a berel [barrel] and she jumped into it and the farmer went rite paste [past] her. While the farmer wasn't looking she ran away and she lived happily ever after!© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

What One Book . . .

At a book signing not long ago, a store employee posed the following question:
If you could pick one book to read over and over again for the rest of your life, what would it be?
She said it was her tricky way of finding out people's favorite books.
I disagreed. For me, at least, the answer to that question didn't necessarily point to my favorite book. Because of the way it's phrased, the question alone eliminates several contenders.
Here's why:
Some of my all-time favorite books aren't quick, fun, happy reads. They aren't something I'd necessarily want to have at my fingertips, every day for the rest of my life even though they blew me away or I love them dearly for whatever reason.
Some of them are hard reads. Or slow reads. Some are filled with musical language or voice or character as big as plot. Some make me weep. Others make me think. Hard.
So if I could have just one book to read every day for the rest of my life, it almost certainly wouldn't be one of those favorites, as brilliant and amazing as they are.
A few titles on the list of favorites that would not make the list of books to read forever include:The Poisonwood BibleThe Great DivorceDombey and SonEast of EdenZen and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceThe SourceBooks I adore that I also might be able to stand rereading for years on end (although I'd get sick of anything eventually, I'm sure):Rilla of InglesideThe Blue CastlePride and PrejudiceSense and SensibilityTo Kill a MockingbirdThe Hero and the CrownEnder's Game and/or Ender's ShadowHarry Potter (the entire series, or forget it)Then again, if I could have just one book, I might opt for something wildly informational so I could learn something. (Does an encyclopedia, with all its volumes, count as one book?)
What books would be on your I-love-it-but-can't-read-it-every-day list?
And which books make it onto your awesome-and-fun-but-not-too-deep-so-I-can-read-it-almost-forever list?
Or am I the only weird one who has two lists?
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

Briefly out of Hiding

Checking in really quickly in the middle of my month of insanity. (So weird to not be blogging regularly. I feel rather cut off from part of the world . . .)
Just had to drop a note to say thanks to the great English 195 class I got to speak to today at BYU. You guys were awesome. Your enthusiasm was contagious, and you made me feel welcome.
(One of the student aids graduated from my high school. Yay for T-bird English majors!)
I felt like a college student again and had to remind myself constantly that it's been awhile, that I'm more than twice the age of incoming freshman, and that my son could be here in three years.
THREE. (I hesitate to ponder too long on that freaky fact.)
One story I shared with the class is something I posted here awhile back about the myth of English being a fluffy major and of Dr. Cracroft's awesomeness about it. (Read that post HERE.)
Eng 195 students: Feel free to contact me if you have questions. I'd love to help!
(And Dana, follow your dreams . . . both of them!)
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

For Mom, Who Is Not on Facebook

Taking a tiny break from my chaotic editing/proofing/NaNoWriMo schedule to post the television segment that aired like a week ago.
I put it on my Facebook page. Mom's not on Facebook, so for her sake, here it is again (especially because I mention her in the clip . . .).
The two main segments are on the Channel 2 site, but my husband compiled every teaser and clip that I was on.
Another note: Thursday is Veteran's Day! In honor of the holiday, Channel 2's Fresh Living morning show is having me on to talk about Band of Sisters and the Flat Daddy program.
(I know; when it rains, it pours! Never thought I'd do 2 TV segments for the same station in the same month but for different books!)
Fresh LivingKUTV Channel 2Thursday, November 1110:00 AM
And now the kitchen segment with Chef Bryan Woolley:


© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved

New Author Interview: Tamara Hart Heiner

Recently I interviewed debut novelist Tamara Hart Heiner, whose novel, Perilous, will be out with WiDo on November 16.
Good news for e-book readers: the electronic version is already out. (You can buy Perilous on Amazon HERE.)

I haven't read Perilous (although I must say the title rocks), but since I always find talking with new writers fascinating, I thought it would be fun to talk to her about publishing and writing.
Here's our interview.
AL: How long have you been writing and how did you get started? (When did the bug bite you?)
THH: This is a really difficult question for me, so I'll give you the simple answer. I wrote the first draft of Perilous when I was 12. My muse then took 10+ year sabbatical, returning to bug me again in 2007. I've been writing religiously ever since.
AL: Where did the idea for Perilous come from?
THH: I really have no idea. I was bored in study hall and started writing. Why on earth I chose to write about four girls that got kidnapped is totally beyond me.
AL: What research did you have to do for the book?
THH: Mostly I had to research law enforcement, particularly detective work, and also had to research different locations where the book takes place.
AL: What was the most interesting thing you learned?
THH: Everything with law enforcement was fascinating. From how easy it is to tap a phone (now I know why all law enforcement phone numbers are restricted!) to how department budgets work, to sharing responsibilities across state and even international borders.
AL: What is your writing style? Are you an outliner or a by-the-seat-of-your-pantser? Somewhere in between?
I'm a total outliner. I didn't outline with Perilous, and the plot went all over the place before I buckled down and finished it. But my outlines are very simple. Four sentences to describe a chapter. Leaves me a lot of room for creativity.
AL: What is your typical writing schedule like? (I know, I know . . . hahahaha!)
THH: What's a schedule? I wish. I try to write during nap time, giving me about 30 minutes a day. I can't do it when my kids are up. I try at night but really I'm too tired. So . . . yeah. It takes me a lot longer to do something than I want it to.
AL: What is one big thing you've learned through the process of publishing your first novel?
THH: Ask questions. Find out all the opinions and experiences you can. Be very aware.
AL: What's been the biggest surprise about the publishing process?
THH: How much a book changes. Now I read books and wonder what it was like before the publisher got to it.
AL: Which authors are your biggest literary influences in the national market?
Aprilynne Pike, Suzanne Collins, and Kelley Armstrong
AL: In the LDS market?
Aubrey Mace, Lisa Mangum, and David J. West
(AL: Gotta mention to my readers that Aprilynne Pike is LDS, but she publishes nationally.)
AL: Any advice for aspiring authors?
Don't give up, even if it means sacrificing your firstborn child to get there. (I don't mean that literally.)
Me again.
Tamara is doing two giveaways in connection with her release.
First, anyone who comments on a blog tour post is entered to win a copy of her book. That giveaway begins October 15 and ends November 15.
Second, ONE person will also win a KINDLE (you read that right).
The Kindle giveaway is point-based. It begins October 15 and ends December 15.
Whoever gets the most points during those two months wins.
Ways to get points:1 point: blog comment (can comment on all the blogs, multiple times, on the tour)
1 point: follow her blog
1 point: retweet
2 points: blog about the blog tour
5 points: purchase the book (For the ebook or paperback, email Tamara the confirmation email as proof. If you actually buy the book in the store, which is not possible until November 16, mail her a copy of the receipt.)

Add up all your points and gather your proofs (links, etc) and email it all to to Tamara at the end of the blog tour (tamara at tamarahartheiner dot com). There's no limit to the number of points you can earn.


Good luck on the giveaway . . . and good luck to Tamara on her new book!
© 2010 Annette Lyon, all rights reserved