GENREALITY

Last week’s discussion by Lynn about writing conferences reminded me of one of my long-time rants:  the benefits, or lack thereof, of networking.  I see so much attention paid to networking, and so much pressure put on new writers to go to conventions and conferences.  And the issue isn’t just about how much cash you have to shell out for the experience.  The thinking goes that if you can meet editors and agents face to face, get your name out there in person as well as on the page, you’ll increase your chances of making it out of the slush pile.  It gets to the point where aspiring writers think that if they don’t jump through these hoops, they’ll never get published.

Lies, all of it.

You can have a fine career as a writer without doing any networking.  You can never go to a convention or conference, never correspond with a big name writer, never link to a single soul on LiveJournal, and still sell your novel and have a career writing.  Lots of people do.  Because ultimately your writing will stand or fall on its own merits.  You can be best friends with the biggest names in the business, and it still won’t help you if you haven’t written a saleable book.

The trouble is, we’ve all heard stories of somebody who really did pitch their novel to an editor in an elevator, somebody who did get a leg up in the business because they knew someone on the inside, got their manuscript read because the editor or agent in question is their best friend’s brother, or whatever.  Those things really do happen.  But those stories are rare exceptions, and at that point we’re drifting into the realm of things that we have no control over.  The one thing that all of us do have control over is what we write, and for most of us our time would be better spent working on our writing than trying to cultivate a lot of industry connections.  Because your best friend’s brother may be a high-powered editor, but he’s still going to want to see the manuscript.  This is one business where you may know lots of people and have lots of insider contacts, but you still have to do the homework.

And let’s face it, most writers are chronic introverts.  The thought of pitching to an editor in person makes me ill.  I’m better off keeping to the back of the room and e-mailing my pitch later.  I never met the editor who bought my first story.  I didn’t meet my agent before I hired him.  I didn’t meet my editor until after she’d bought my books.  If I know lots of editors now, it’s because I’ve been working in the business for 10 years.  For me, meeting people and making contacts has been a natural progression of my career, not a means to an end.

I go to lots of conventions and really love meeting other writers and editors, hanging out at the bars, listening to their stories, venting my spleen on occasion, and pushing my books on an unsuspecting public.  What do I get out of this so-called networking?  I get a lot of friendships.  I know a lot of people I can call on when I need advice.  To me, that’s the real benefit of networking — developing literal networks of contacts, a support group that understands the business, feeds me the gossip, and gives me pep talks when I’m feeling down.  Heck, this blog is a form of networking.  It’s not likely to get anyone a contract directly, but it’s just as useful in other ways.  Like, helping with sanity maintenance.

I tell people, don’t network on the basis of who you think can get you something.  Network based on who you get along with, who you’d like to be friends with, and who’s fun to hang out with.  Because then networking isn’t work — it’s fun.  We spend so much time alone, at our computers, wrapped up in our heads, it’s important to develop our social side as well, for our own emotional well being.

“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” ~Samuel Johnson

2001 was the year I decided I wanted to give writing a try. I didn’t have any friends who were writers. I didn’t know any writers, and I didn’t know anything about the business. Basically I decided to try writing because I’ve always been an avid reader, I enjoyed creative writing in high school (I refused to think about the fact that, for me, high school had ended in 1987), and I wanted a new career that I didn’t have to go back to school for.

After almost 2 years of thinking about giving writing a try, I actually gave it a shot, and sold right away. I started writing short stories on my days off, and basically whenever I felt like it., and I sold everything I wrote. Part of me thinks this was luck, but mostly I think it was because I approached this as a career, and not a passion.

When I decided to seriously try writing I took a correspondence course that guaranteed it would teach me how to make money with my writing. That course didn’t teach me to be a good storyteller, it taught me how to write to the market. It taught me that if I wanted to make money, I had to write what was selling. And when my tutor found out I was a reader of erotica, he aimed in that direction with my writing.

Many authors will tell you if you don’t love writing, don’t try to make a career. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I disagree. When I started writing it was purely to build a career. I keep writing, because I love the job.

I’ve been writing erotic fiction for 6 years now. I know, it’s not a long time compared to many authors, but it’s been a busy 6 years. I’ve had over 9 novels, 3 novellas, and easily over a dozen short stories published in that time. Oh, and I have another novel coming out in 2009.

Erotica has been around for decades, but traditionally it’s leaned to quite a literary stance. Today’s erotic fiction is mostly aimed at female readers, authors that used to write more traditional erotica have started adding more romance to their stories, and romance writers have started to add more heat. This has it’s pros and cons…but one of the biggest pros is that it means that those who like to write hot and sexually intense stories have many more options to get their work out there.

There are some people out there, be they authors, frustrated writers, reviewers or readers, who can’t stop sniping and snarking that erotic fiction is nothing more than sex or porn, and while that sometimes frustrates me, that’s not what this post is about. What I want to share with you is how the erotic market has changed, and grown. Why has erotic fiction been gaining so much popularity in the last couple of years?

I think it’s because women aren’t shying away from their sexuality anymore. Instead, we’re embracing the power we have. The strong innate sensuality that most women have inside them that has been crying to be let free of its restraints. For years adult entertainment was focused solely on the male point of view. Then women slowly started breaking that barrier. Playgirl was the start, and is still going strong, helping make it mainstream for women to openly enjoy the sight of a hot hard body… and to explore and express their own sexuality

Today’s erotic stories are about women exploring and enjoying their sensual, sexual and downright primal side, sometimes without the need for love and a traditional happily ever after. That’s not to say that there isn’t a happily ever after, just that it’s not always a HEA of the traditional man-woman-marriage sort. (Although there is also plenty of erotic romance with traditional HEA’s as well)

Society is changing; women don’t always want love and a traditional happily ever after anymore. We’ve become stronger and more focused on our own needs and desires instead of the women of my mother’s generation who thought any man was better than no man. And this new mentality is showcased in novels that contain an engaging story, and a plenty of hot sex for those of us that like to read about real honest and intense emotions.

There are critics out there who think just because the stories have a sexual focus that there is no emotion in them, or worse yet, no story. I challenge those people to tell me that desire isn’t an emotion. Or yearning. What about excitement, anger and fear? Those are emotions, and many of them are found in erotic stories. And yes, love can also be found in many erotic stories.

The market for erotic novels and stories has ballooned in the last couple of years. It’s gone beyond fringe magazines, ePublishers, and small press. New York Publishers like Berkley, Kensington, Avon, and St.Martin’s Press are now releasing erotic fiction in multiple styles, lengths, and sub-genres. And that means there are plenty of options for readers … and writers in the erotic market.

I love that the more I write, the more fascinated I became with the genre I’ve chosen. Human sexuality is multifaceted and there are so many ways to write about it. So many sub-genres and specialties and levels of heat. My personal favorite place to check out what publishers of erotic fiction are looking for is the Erotica Readers and Writers Calls For Submissions Page. It’s where I found the guidelines when I started to build my career 6 years ago, and where I still go to see what publishers are looking for. To be a successful career writer, you need to know the market, and be able to write to it. I enjoy writing erotic fiction, but I’m also smart enough to know that enjoying what I write is just a bonus.

Unless they have social anxiety or are writing a fictional tale about a politician whose name does not rhyme with Gill Minton, new authors are desperate to aid their publishers in promoting their books. We long for the email asking us to go on tour, and long for the chance to partake in interviews in which we’re asking everything from our creative process to the brand of coffee we drink. We spend money that we likely won’t recoup, we join every social networking site under the sun, blog until our fingers bleed, and run contests where we give away everything but our first born child.

We build websites. Hire publicists. Send out newsletters. Do everything short of go door-to-door to sell our books (and I’m sure some do that as well). So how much does it all help? It’s an impossible question to answer. The simple is that it all helps. We just don’t know how much.

As authors, we control certain aspects of our publication. Most importantly, the book itself. We control the quality of the manuscript. The subject matter. The timeliness in which we get it to our publisher. How easy–or difficult–we are to work with.

What we can’t control are things like packaging. Co-op. Review attention (this may come with writing a great book, but more likely than not it will happen because either the book or author are particularly publicity-friendly, or because the publisher has declared the book a ‘make’ book and are pulling out all stops).

Yet for every ‘make’ book, there are dozens of books that aren’t getting the red carpet treatment. They’re being supported to varying degrees, and in most cases the author takes it upon him or herself to augment this support. 

One of the eternal questions facing authors is how much time–and money–to spend on self-promotion. How much each venture helps. There’s a risk/reward in every minute and dollar spent. And it’s up to us to decide how much time is spent that could otherwise be working on their manuscript (right now I could be working on my sixth Henry Parker novel or a side project, but I’m writing this).

I have a MySpace page. A Facebook page. I Twitter. I am currently paying someone a decent amount of money to redesign my website. I belong to two writers organizations, and have considered joining a third. I have spent a few thousand dollars promoting my books, via travel, lodging, and other things.  I have no idea how much it all helps. I do know it doesn’t hurt. Which is why I do it. 

At this point in my career, unless I know immediately the reward is not worth the risk, I’m more than likely to join a network if invited, take a speaking engagement if offered, and travel if an opportunity for a book signing or interview presents itself. Again, I don’t know how much each of these helps. But they don’t hurt. What’s the doctor’s maxim–first, do no harm? Well the author’s maxim should be–when it comes to promotion, you can do no harm.

So here’s my point. I believe for every book there exists a point system. The higher the point total, the more books you’re going to sell. Some variables which can be granted points are:

–The quality of the book

–Publicity (quantity and/or quality)

–Co-op placement

–Subject matter

–Packaging (cover, etc…)

–Attractiveness of author

–Active participation on social networking sites

–Review coverage

–Title

–Film deal

–Foriegn or subsidiary rights sales

–Blog

–Website

–Author profile/platform

–Advertising

–Signings

–Controversy

Each of these, and dozens of other variables, are worth a certain number of points. Some variables, obviously, are worth more than others. Co-op placement is more valuable than a book signing. A great cover is worth more than a lot of friends on MySpace. A terrific platform is more valuable than an ad in the NYTBR. As an author, you only control so many of these variables. You can only grant yourself so many points. Some take copious amounts of time and yield few points. Some likely take less time and yield more. The variables outside of our control (co-op, jacket art) tend to be more valuable than the variables in our control (the exceptions being our platform, book quality, and subject matter). I remember reading a chapter in FREAKNOMICS regarding campaign spending which I believe is a fair assessment of publishing as well. An author can double their spending and sell barely any more books. They can halve their spending and sell the same, or even more. And some books, no matter how much money you put behind them, simply won’t sell because they don’t appeal to audiences.

I’m going to take some time and think about how much different variables are worth. Each gets a point total of somewhere between 1-100. If you’re a 1, you can count your readers on one hand. If you’re a 100, move over J.K. Rowling. Book quality, cover art, publicity and co-op rank very high on this scale, though probably not more than somewhere in the teens (those of you book quality should be worth more, consider how many terrific books are published that don’t sell diddly squat, and vice-versa). On the lower end would be social networking sites. They’re fun, but do you really sell enough books to justify the time it takes to sell them? Of course a flat out  fantastic book might get more review coverage, get award nominations, get great word of mouth (which is probably the most difficult variable to quantify). So of course each variable itself can be worth more or less, depending on quality or lack thereof. Plus some variables, when combined, might be worth more than the sum of their parts.

So what do you think? What other variables should be on this list? And which do you think are worth the most? The least?

I’m going to cue off Lynn’s post about editors last week to talk a little bit about one of mine.

You see, I’ve been working on a book for the last year entitled EYES TO SEE.  It’s the story of Jeremiah Hunt, a man who gives up his sight in order to see through the eyes of the ghosts who surround us all in an effort to find the daughter who disappeared from his home months before.

I’ve really enjoyed working on this book, but it has been a long haul.  The initial writing effort wasn’t too bad; a few months or so.  But then came the hard part.

Revisions.

You see, my editor at Droemer-Knaur read the completed manuscript and sent me his usual editorial letter.  I greatly enjoy working with him – he is one of those rare individuals that can inspire you to push for greater heights even when you don’t believe it’s possible and usual, that’s what he did with this one.

I think it was his third sentence that stopped me short – “This is good, Joe, quite good.  But that’s not what I want from you at this point in your career.  EYES is your fourth book for us and it deserves to be great.”

Tim was right – EYES did deserve to be great.  After coming out strongly in Germany with my first three titles (Der Ketzer, Der Engel, and Die Schatten) it was time to push the envelope a little.  So with a short sigh of resignation, and an understanding that I had a fair degree of work ahead of me, I kept reading.

And reading.

And reading.

Tim editorial letter took up some ten pages and it was one of the best editorial letters I had ever received.  He went through my manuscript with a fine tooth comb, showing me both where I had risen to brilliance and where I had tripped over my own two feet.  He made suggestions, but not orders, and left it to me to figure out how I could take what was a strong B to B+ effort and turn it into an A.  The fact that he did it all so completely when English is his second language still amazes me.

As you can guess, several months of work followed.  I tore that manuscript apart, striving to be worthy of the trust he had in my effort and abilities.  I cut almost 45% of the original book, shored up the main plot and rewrote it back to its original length, and then added another 33,000 words on top of that.   Just before Christmas I turned it in a second time.

Only to be hit with another round of revisions in late January.

Thankfully, these were much shorter – just minor details that needed to be checked and a few short changes here and there.  I’m putting the finishing touches on those this week, in fact.  But what has really struck me in thinking about it all this week is the simple truth that EYES is now a far stronger book than it was when I turned it in the first time.  In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it is likely the best thing I’ve written since I started doing so eight years ago.

And there is absolutely no doubt that I couldn’t have gotten there without the help of my editor.

As writers we often grumble and groan when it comes to editors – after all, they hold the keys to getting our stuff published.  But I think it is only fair to give praise where praise is due.

My hat’s off to Tim and all the other editors out there who care as much about their work as he does.

I thought I’d take a cue from Lynn’s post and offer some advice on literary agents. I wrote this for my blog this week, but I thought it worth reposting for any aspiring authors looking for hard, practical advice on getting an agent.