GENREALITY

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last week I talked about the choices we make and the path we each choose, and I wanted to touch on that again… but in a different way.

When I first decided to pursue a writing career I went at it with everything in me. I was super focussed, determined and very lucky. I happened to be writing erotic before the genre really cycled in as popular. Therefor when I heard New York publishers were looking to start erotic lines I was in the right genre at the right time and things moved fast for me. 2 years after I decided to try to make a career out of writing I quit my full-time job to write full-time because I had contracts for novels lined up, and I couldn’t spare the time to work. I wrote 9 novels (and half a dozen short stories) over the next 2 years, and I was well on my way. Then I pulled back on the writing, and went back to work part-time.

If y’all want to know why I pulled back, I’ll blog about it another time for you, but right now I want to talk about my other job, and how it’s helped my career choices, and writing itself.

What I did full time before I started writing is the same thing I went back to – bartending and waitressing. I’m a 40 year old waitress, and I love it. (Okay, there are times I hate it too, but that’s life.)

What I’m loving about it right now is that I feel I’m actually helping some younger people find their own path in life. You see, I’m forty years old, and I work with a bunch of twentysomethings. Most of them in University and waiting tables to pay their way. Not only does working with them keep me young, but it also helps me with characterization in my stories. The funny thing is that I’ve recently realized that we help each other because they’re getting as much out of our talks about what’s going on in their lives, and life in general, as I am. It shocked me a couple weeks ago when one of the girls I haven’t shared a shift with in a while told me she missed me because I always made her think with my advice. I thought “Advice? I’ve been giving advice?”

Then another girl came up and explained how I’d inspired her to follow her dream of being a singer. She’d tried out for Canadian Idol three times. The first two times she almost made it to Toronto Week, so on the third she’d fully anticipated making it only to have the judges comment on her eyebrows and say some not encouraging things. So she gave up the dream.
That made me sad because she was so passionate about singing, and I think if you’re passionate about something you should follow through on it. We talked a bit about how I got into writing ( how I have no education geared toward it, and it was basically all drive and desire that got me where I was) and I encouraged her. A couple days later she told me she was going for it- and she is. On Sunday night I went to a small private concert she did simply so it could be recorded for a demo/audition reel and I just have to say WOW!! This girl can sing.

I know that singing is a lot like writing in that theres so much more to building a career than talent, but just seeing the light in her eyes, the spring in her step, and the overall glow she had going on made my heart swell. She’s chasing her dream, and knowing that I helped her get back up after her confidence had taken a hit made me take a good hard look at some of my own recent choices. I really think I’ll keep working the night job for as long as I’m physically able because I love being part of so many people’s lives. Not only do they help me keep my characters real, they inspire me to practice what I preach. You’re never too old to chase a dream.

Do you have a dream? A goal you want to accomplish? Or maybe you helped someone else on their path? If so, share it in the comments for a chance to win a $20 Amazon Gift Certificate. If you don’t have anything to share, just say hi, and you’ll be entered. I’ll post the winner tomorrow, on Sundays News Post.

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“Don’t compromise yourself, you are all you’ve got.” ~ Janis Joplin

We often talk about being true to yourself in your writing. Hone your own voice, follow your own path, write the story as you see it, not as others tell you it should be. I firmly believe in those things.

I also see plenty of blog posts or articles that put a lot of emphasis on things being all about the story. Hearing things like “As an author all you can really control is the work.” or “The best thing you can do to ensure a successful career is write a great story.” over and over again, but I don’t believe that.

Now get this straight. I am not saying that the story doesn’t matter. What I am saying is that we, as authors, control a lot more than we’re being trained to think we do. We can control more than the story.

I’ve been agent hunting for about a year now, and I’ve queried many many agents. Some passed on my ideas, some wanted to know more. Some told me what to do, and some talked with me about my choices and options and left it to me decide what to do. However, I’ve yet to connect with an agent enough to seriously pursue a business relationship. I’m being very picky, and I know it. I think that’s okay because I know what I want, and I’ve decided if I can’t get what I want then I’m not willing to settle for less. Instead of settling with an agent I don’t believe in my heart will be my final agent just so I can get some proposals out there, I’ve decided to submit them myself, and use a literary lawyer for the contract work if I need to.

A short time ago an author friend of mine emailed and announced a book sale. She was super excited because it was to a new publisher, and it seemed like a great move. Not only was it a sale, (which is always good), but it was one that would get her more exposure and help her move in the direction she wanted to take her career. Then, a couple weeks after her announcement, she walked away from the deal. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it was one she made because she was smart enough to think ahead and know that she’d regret it later if she didn’t make her stand.

Those are just a couple of examples of the power we have. Power that has nothing to do with the story, but everything to do with building a career. Sometimes we concentrate so hard on being writers that we forget that if we want to make a career out of this that we have to be businesspeople too, and that means that we have to make tough choices at times. Sometimes it’s about more than the story. Sometimes it’s about knowing that the choices you make and the path you follow is ultimately your own responsibility.

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This will be a brief topic for me, because to be honest, I don’t deal with rejection very well. I know in my head that it’s just business, but my heart is on that page. While I know I should wear my big girl panties and suck it up, I take it all personally.

That said, I have found some tricks to get me through the rough times. As soon as I’m done with one project, I move on to the next. If I keep my momentum moving forward and always on the next thing, it’s easier to say, “whatever,” when those rejections come in.

When they do come in, I give myself one day to be bummed. I can cry, eat chocolate, whine to my friends and then I have to shove all those crappy feelings up on a shelf and be done with it. Honestly, it isn’t easy, but it’s necessary in my world, which moves like a speeding bullet. I don’t really have a lot of time to be miserable, there’s so much to do. (Smile)

My friends and I came up with a fun thing. We have a beautiful hat and in it we’ve placed slips of paper. When you get a rejection you have to pick a piece of paper. They say everything from go and buy and new pair of shoes to rent Pride and Prejudice (Your version of choice.) It’s a positive way of looking at what really is “just business.” We go to dinner once a week and if you have something sucky to deal with, you get to pull a fun thing from the hat. Some weeks you get to pull more than one. We all laugh and it takes the sting out of it. We actually haven’t done that in a while. It’s time to find the hat again.

Whatever happens, don’t let it get you down. This business is subjective, so just keep moving on to the next thing. And remember it is a business. One agent/editor may not like your work, but there may be six others who do.

I’ll give you a good example. Before I had an agent, I had a chance to meet with an editor at a conference. She was interested in my work and asked to see it. She rejected me. A year later, with the help of my agent, I sold to another editor at the same house. That editor didn’t want to change a single thing with the book except the title.

Flash forward two years. That original editor who had rejected me became my editor when mine left to become an agent. When we first chatted she said, at the time I sent in my manuscript that sort of thing wasn’t selling in the marketplace. I never said anything, but always wanted to. The same time I sent mine in was about the time Mary Janice Davidson and Charlaine Harris hit big, but I never did.

The truth is, you don’t know why someone is going to pick something up. That first editor was nine months pregnant and liked that I made her laugh on the second page. She got me. Some day, someone will get you.

But you have to persevere and keep moving forward. Always.

Tell me what you do to get past those evil rejections?

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We always talk about hard work and persistence.  Especially on this blog — we’re all working very hard, I think that’s clear.  Hard work breeds success.

So it seems a little odd to talk about luck.  But that’s what I’m going to do today.  Because I got lucky in two specific ways that I couldn’t have predicted or controlled.  This is also a good way to talk about how some parts of the publishing business work.

The first piece of luck:  I wrote the first Kitty short story in 1998 and the first novel in 2002-2003.  Urban fantasy in its current incarnation didn’t quite exist then.  In my query letter, I called the novel supernatural/dark fantasy.  In fact, one agent I queried told me he was turning it down because even though he liked it, he wouldn’t know how to sell a novel with a werewolf heroine.  This was December 2003.  Oh, what a difference a year or two makes.  Because within a couple of years, urban fantasy had become a bandwagon.  By the time Kitty and The Midnight Hour was released in late 2005, the urban fantasy bandwagon had turned into a nuclear-powered rocketship.  And the series was right there to take advantage of the trend.  I couldn’t have planned that if I tried.  I got really, really lucky.

The second piece of luck:  The publisher got behind the book in a big way.  Here’s some behind-the-scenes publisher neepery.  General-interest mass market book publishers have a monthly schedule.  Each month has slots to fill:  a lead title (usually the paperback release of last year’s big hardcover blockbuster), a second lead title (this might be a big paperback original), and then new titles in various categories:  a couple of titles in nonfiction, and a couple of titles each in mystery, romance, and science fiction and fantasy.  Kitty and The Midnight Hour was acquired to fill one of the science fiction and fantasy slots.  It was going to be a basic, normal book, and I got a basic, normal advance ($7500, for those keeping score).  Books in these slots will get print runs of something like 20,000, unless they’re a big title with a big name author.  Then something weird happened.  I got word that ARC’s of the book were given away at BookExpo, the American Booksellers Association’s big annual conference and trade show.  The publisher had decided to promote the book and give it a huge push.  (I’m sure this has something to do with my first point, and signs that this genre was about to get big.)  In the end, Kitty and The Midnight Hour appeared in the catalog as the second lead title for that month, and got an initial print run of something like 50,000 copies.  This meant that the book didn’t just go to a lot of stores — it got stacks in the new release racks up front.  Under normal circumstances that never would have happened.  Again, I got really, really lucky.  (More neepery:  If you look on the spine of one of those ARC’s of the first Kitty book, it has the logo for Aspect, Warner Books’ SF&F imprint.  But the actual published book has the logo for Warner Books — now Grand Central.  That goes along with how the book was bumped from one section of the catalog to the other.)

Other ways people get lucky:  We’ve all heard stories about the writers who landed a big, prestige publisher or agent right out of the gate, on a query or an elevator pitch.  They had exactly the right project on the right day to get attention.  The first Oprah Book Club book was a first novel by an unknown author — The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard.  That selection made the book hugely successful, and no one could have predicted that.

So how do we get lightning to strike?

There’s a saying, that luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.  Preparation is what you have control over, and the reason preparation is so important is that you never know when those moments of opportunity are going to arrive.  Be prepared.  Write the best book you can.  Meet your deadlines and continue writing the best books you can.  Behave professionally.  Have more pitches ready to go when the publisher makes another offer.  Have a plan.

It’s now five years after my first novel release, and I’m trying to keep these things in mind.  I have no idea what’s going to happen next, but I want to be prepared for anything.

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I get this way every time a book is about to come out. Well, one of my books. I have trouble sleeping. I think about stupid things like: Will the book sell? Will people love the characters as much as I do? Will they get into the story? The truth is, I can’t control any of that.

Of course I want the book to do well. Who wouldn’t? It’s my first time out with a new publisher and I want to impress. I’ve done my bit. Worked on promo, although it never quite feels like enough, and I’m tweeting, updating facebook and blogging all over the place.

You may hear stories of writers who don’t worry about their books coming out, but I have a feeling they are lying. I’m the last person to judge, but I don’t know how you can be successful in this business and not worry about it. Before you’re published you think that all that matters is selling the book to the publisher, but there is so much more.

But the writing really is the only thing we can control. When I feel like jumping on Ozzie’s Crazy Train, I ask myself two questions. Did you write a book you enjoy? Do you love the book? The answer is always yes. I can’t turn something in that I don’t believe in. I’ve created characters I want to spend more time with and that’s always a good sign. And I wrote a spy story that I’ve always wanted to write.

I’m happy with the book. I just want it to sell really well so I can do more. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

But back to that train. The best way to stay off it is to constantly move forward. I’m already two books ahead of the one that is coming out. And I’m contracted to write three more Blazes. So when the scary stuff bothers me, I think about the future.

Yes, you say, but what if you don’t have a new contract yet? You keep writing. I’ve been there too. Sometimes with Berkley I went close to a year between contracts. I just kept writing.

I was talking to a friend the other day who was upset about someone, who is at the same level as her in the publishing world, getting a huge world tour. That person also had special placement in stores and all kinds of advertising. My friends argument, was why not me? I get it. But we can’t control that stuff. It’s a combo of a pushy editor/publisher and a marketing department that thinks they can make big bucks, and sheer dumb luck most of the time.

So, when you ask what I’m doing these days. I’ll tell you trying to finish the first draft on a YA and then I’m jumping headfirst into the next Blaze, which I’m super excited about. Oh, and I’ll be doing book signings (Feb. 6, Hurst Texas, B&N, 2 p.m., you better be there) and blogging about TAKE ME IF YOU DARE. But most of the time I’ll be writing, because that is really all that matters.

What makes you crazy and how to you get through it? Tell me, I really want to know.

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