Great Summer Reads (By My Friends)

It's impossible for me to wrap my brain around the fact that it's already May, but, indeed, life has sped forward without pause, and now that it's May, it means...spring reading! So here are a few great picks, all of which have been written by fabu writers whom I've been fortunate enough to get to know, for book clubs, your nightstand or the beach - wherever you find a second to lose yourself in a read!

1) Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass LookBig, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer by Jen Lancaster. If you've read either of Jen's previous memoirs, you know that she is scathingly funny and this time, she turns the spotlight on herself as she trucks to the gym and puts herself on a diet, in an attempt to slim down. Jen sent me a copy of the book, and while I've been swamped, I've only be able to read the first few chapters, but needless to say, it is laugh-out-loud funny. Like, really laugh-out-loud funny. If you've ever wished a few pounds away, dragged your ass to the gym or tried to stuff yourself into skinny jeans, this book is for you. Check out more on Amazon.

2) The Divorce Party by Laura Dave. I'll have more with Laura next week on the blog and full disclaimer, she is a very dear friend of mine, but for a little objectivity, I picked up her first book, London is the Best City in America, before I knew her and absolutely adored it. So I am sooooooo excited for her second book, which explores love and family dynamics when one young couple gets engaged and another couple, set to celebrate their 35th anniversary, throw themselves a divorce party instead. Kate Jacobs and Marisa de los Santos have raved about this book, and did I mention how excited I am to read it and for Laura? She is one of my favorite people - generous and kind and smart and lovely - and she deserves all of her success. Check out more on the book on Amazon. (Oh and yeah, Jennifer Aniston's production company optioned the rights to the movie!)

3) Driving Sideways by Jess Riley. I met Jess through the blogosphere, and we endured the process of getting our debut novels sold and published together. So now I'm thrilled that hers is finally (almost!) here. This one, which follows the journey of Leigh Fielding, a recent recipient of a new kidney, as she treks across the country, sounds tailor-made for bookclubs and beaches reading - the perfect mix of poignant, funny and sharp. Check out more on Amazon.

4) Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp by Stephanie Klein. This one had me at the title...and then at the cover. Oh man, do I love this cover. Some of you might know Stephanie from her put-it-all-out-there blog,

Greek Tragedy, or from her first memoir, Straight Up and Dirty, which chronicled her young marriage and subsequent divorce and how she got her life back together, and she's back this time with a touching, honest and damn funny account of her lifelong struggle with her weight. But this one is more than just about losing a few pounds - I've never been to fat camp and was really sucked in by the writing and just the universal story and struggle for self-acceptance. Buy it for the cover, if nothing else. :) More about it on Amazon here.

5) Frenemies by Alexa Young. This is a must-read if you dig YA or if you have someone running around your house who digs YA. Or who watches Gossip Girl because this is sooo the literary rival to the show...or to the books, if you want to get technical. Frenemies poses that lifelong, philosophical question, "What happens when two besties become full-blown worsties?," and for the answers and all the dish, you'll have to dive into the book. Alexa is a friend of mine, and I can certify her as officially awesome, so I'm sure that you (or your teen) won't be disappointed! More about it on Amazon.

So, go ahead and share, what's on your summer reading list?

So, Where Do I Sign?

Question of the day: I'm finishing up the work on a book and starting to think about looking for an agent and I have some questions. I assume that when you do finally find an agent, you sign some sort of contract with them? What kind of things are in the contract and what kinds of things should not be in the contract? I assume that in this type of situation their is the potential to sign your writing life away (just like with publishers) or am I just being paranoid? Any clarification would be helpful, thanks.

You are not being super-paranoid - this is a great question. Too few writers don't think about the fine print and can end up getting screwed as a result.

Every agent and agency handles contracts differently. Some (I'd venture to say most) agencies do indeed have standard contracts that they'll issue to you once you've been offered (and accepted!) representation. The clauses in the contract may include everything from stuff like the percentage fee that the agent receives to how they deal with foreign and film rights to how you can both remove yourself from the agreement. If you have any doubts about some of these clauses, I do suggest that you hire a lawyer - for one hour's fee, he or she can save you a lot of headache in the future. But basically, you should definitely ensure that you're not granting the rights to your agent for any and all future works and that there are clear terms on how to end the relationship. Agents are going to be inflexible on some things (i.e. their fee, which the industry standard dictates is 15%), but if anything is a real red flag and they won't waver, remember that having shady representation does no one any favors.

That said, there are plenty of agents - good, top agents - who operate with a gentleman's agreement. And this isn't necessarily indicative of whether or not they're legit. If this practice makes you uncomfortable, simply ask your future-agent to put it in writing: it won't be the first time he or she has been asked, trust me, and it shows good business acumen for you, your career, and your future.

So readers, what are some other contract red flags? What else can one expect to see in said paperwork?

And The Winners Are...

So I held the big drawing last night for the I Spy contest! (Okay, so this involved me putting names into a bowl while my son watched Diego and pulling out four names...much less glamorous than it sounds.)

And here are our winners!

1) Jewels

2) Karen Lynch (who went so far as to send me a photo!)

3) Sarah White

4) Krisl

Congrats all! I promise to hold many more future contests as the pub date for Time of My Life approaches, so don't despair if you didn't win - more chances coming up soon. If you're one of the above winners, please email me at allison@allisonwinn.com b/c most of you entered with the blogger no-reply email addy, and I can't write you directly.

And in the meantime, if you're looking for free books, head over to Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell's blog. She's giving away a book a week, per each author whom she interviews. So not only will you get great writing/author info, you might get a freebie! Here's more info:

"I've got a great batch of authors lined up from Jen Miller, author of "The Jersey Shore" this coming Tuesday (5/7); John Grogan, author of the best-selling "Marley and Me" on 5/13 (and yes, he talks a little about the movie which will be released Christmas Day 2008); Lisbeth Levine, author of "The Big Book for Your Big Day" - a wedding book featured in People Magazine last week; and Sean Murphy, "The Time of New Weather" a Taos writer/teacher who won a Hemmingway Award for his first novel and also taught with Natalie Goldberg for a time....and many more!"

Check out Kerri's site here: www.kcwrite4u.blogspot.com and add it to your daily blog check!

GCC Presents: Sara Rosett and Getting Away is Deadly

Winners of the I Spy contest will be posted tomorrow! Yay!

I love the premise of Sara Rosett's new novel, Getting Away is Deadly, for several reasons. One, I'm always up for a good mystery, especially when the heroine is pregnant (LOL!), two) Publishers Weekly calls it "sparkling," which is hardly faint praise, and three) the plot revolves around a murder in which someone is pushed on a subway platform, and as a rider on the NYC subway, I always, always think about this...someone pushing me over the tracks or how easy it would be to kill someone on the spot. (Yes, I'm evidently disturbed. Moving on...)

Anyway, here are some more specifics on Sara's book, and then, she answers my five usual questions for Ask Allison readers!

GETTING AWAY IS DEADLY is the third book in the mom lit mystery series about a military spouse who runs a professional organizing business.

It was the perfect vacation until murder rearranged the itinerary.

With swollen feet, pregnant Ellie joins the nation’s tourists in seeing the sights in Washington D.C. But a fatal incident at the Metro station convinces Ellie that something is rotten in the capital city. Should she do the safe thing and pack her bags? Not likely when too many people are telling lies, hiding secrets, and acting suspiciously. Luckily, Ellie Avery is just the right woman to clean up the most mysterious cases of murder—even if she has to brave the most dangerous byways in the corridors of power . . .

1) What’s the backstory behind your book?
I accompanied my husband, who is military pilot, when he went to Washington D.C. for two training classes and those trips inspired the book. I didn’t witness a fatal accident in a Metro station, but I couldn’t help thinking what dangerous places they were. And then I made the typical mystery writer leap—what if someone fell into the path of an incoming train? It would be a great place for a murder since there aren’t any guardrails to prevent someone from falling into a train’s path.

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
This happens to me all the time! Just because I’m a military spouse and I write about a military spouse, doesn’t mean the book is autobiographical. Of course, I understand how people could make that leap, but I’ve never found a dead body or helped the police solve a crime, so you’d think, it would be pretty obvious that Ellie isn’t me! I use my experiences as a military spouse for background for the book. I’ve written about deployments and what it feels like to move to a new city. In Getting Away, I write about what it’s like to go on a sort-term training assignment with your spouse. He’s focused on work and you’re flitting around the city sight-seeing. It’s a fun experience, but not quite a vacation. I try to include details about being a military spouse and a mom. Real life often inspires some of those tidbits, but the mystery and mayhem is all made up.

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
I always wrote stories as a kid. They were very short, usually about one chapter. I realize now that I didn’t have any plot in those early stories! Anyway, I went to school and got an English degree, then I worked as a reporter at a few Air Force base newspapers and as a writer/researcher for a travel company. All the time I was working at these jobs, I was filing away ideas for stories and reading as much as I could. I finally started writing a draft of what would become the first Mom Zone Mystery, MOVING IS MURDER, about eight years ago. It took me about a year to complete the manuscript. I revised it, entered it in contests to get feedback, and then began querying agents. After a year, I find an agent and then it took her several months to sell my mystery. Kensington Books published MOVING IS MURDER in April 2006.

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What’s your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
I began writing during my kid’s naptime, which was wonderful training in getting down to work right away. No time to surf the Net or check email. I had thirty minutes to get some words down on paper and I had to write fast! Now my kids are in school and I can be a little more relaxed. I usually start at the beginning and write all the way through to the end before I go back and do a revisions, but I do look over what I wrote the day before when I first sit down. For some reason, going over what I’ve already written helps me get into it and before I know it I’m into the story again.

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal! Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
This is always a bit of a stretch because I don’t think about movie stars as I’m writing, but I’ll give it a shot:
Ellie: Sandra Bullock—she’d be able to pull off the seriousness and the humor.
Mitch (Ellie’s husband): Val Kilmer—loved him in The Saint
Livvy (Ellie’s daughter): don’t know any actor this young—Livvy’s only 20 months old!

Why I Read - A Shout Out to Trish Ryan!

So I've explored the whole notion of why I write here on the blog, but given that today is Trish Ryan's pub day, I wanted to also explore the notion of why I read. Obviously I read to be entertained and to get sucked into a story that sticks like taffy on my emotional radar, but sometimes, I read because it educates me in ways that I didn't even realize I needed or wanted to be educated.

Cue: Trish's debut memoir, HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT: A MEMOIR OF FINDING FAITH, HOPE, AND HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

A while back, Trish sent me a note asking if I'd take an advanced peek at her manuscript and if I liked what I read, if I would be comfortable blurbing the book. Now, Trish's memoir is not only about finding a man (something I could relate to), it's also about finding religion, specifically, Christianity (something I couldn't). I wrote Trish back and said, a) I'm Jewish and b) I'm not such a good Jew on top of that and c) the subjects of Jesus and God and all of that make me a little squirmy. But because Trish is a generous friend, I also said, "But, if you still want me to read knowing all of this, I'm happy to."

So the manuscript arrived, and I worried - because, as I said, Trish is a friend - that I would flip it open and find myself in the middle of the literary equivalent of The 700 Club. (And I mean NO disrespect to people who adore The 700 Club or anything similar...I just mean that it's so outside my bounds that I was worried about relating.) But lo and behold, I started reading, and then read some more, and finally, after two or three days, downed the entire manuscript with yes, a few squirmy moments that took me outside my comfort zone, but mostly with an entirely new view and perspective into Christianity, into Trish and even into my own spirituality, whatever that may be.

And I realized that I'd done both Trish and myself a disservice by prepackaging up her book into its "religion" box because really, this book, not unlike my own book which gets packaged up into a "cancer" box, was about much more than finding God. It was about how one woman found her way in the world, and at its heart, the underlying story or message, truly resonated with me, even though Trish's life - in some ways - so wildly differs from mine.

Oh, and yes, I gave her a blurb.

So...anyway...all of this is a long way of saying that sometimes, consider picking up a book that you've heard great things about, even if you don't think it's entirely up your alley. Stretching yourself (and your reading list) even a teeny bit might be just what you need to open your eyes a little wider and gain insight into your own world.

So tell me, what books in recent memory have surprised you, sucked you in when you didn't think they would?

Hey Agent.....____ Or Get Off the Pot

Hey guys! Last day to enter into the I Spy contest! If you spotted the book anywhere over the weekend or online or wherever, post below to enter...

Question of the week: I had been working with an agent on a book proposal for awhile and it eventually fell through (due to lack of publisher interest). I am developing a second book idea, which I really like, but sent the proposal to her about a month ago and despite repeated follow ups have yet to hear back from her, either by email or phone. Does that mean she is just not interested and I should move on? What should I do?

Ah, that good old agent radio silence. What writer doesn't love that? (And chew his or her fingersnails down to the cuticle in the process of waiting?) For the record, I know of what you speak - not with my current agent, who is so fabu that she'd never dream of waiting more than a day or so to get back to me, which, incidentally, is one of the reasons I went with her - but with my agent before said fabu agent. Her seeming inability to return a phone call or an email was completely maddening, and ultimately led to the conversation in which we parted ways.

But, I've digressed. Enough empathizing from me, more advice, right?

Here's what I'd say to your specific situation. While a month in writer time is forever, a month in agent time really isn't that long. I'd give her two or so more weeks to get back to you. If you still haven't heard even a peep in your direction, I think that you are well within your rights to send her a very nice note (or give her a call, but it doesn't sound like she's easily reachable) flatly asking if she's still interested in this project and/or representing you.

In my case, with agent #1, who, like your agent, tried but failed to sell my first book, she was hemming and hawing and not responding to me because she had lost faith in me as a client. (I should note here that when I say "failed," I certainly don't blame her - I'm just using that word in the most literal of ways: she didn't sell the book. Turns out, in hindsight, that book was crap.) My agent was dodging me like we've all dodged romantic partners about whom we no longer felt romantic, but didn't know how to pull the ripcord. I have NO idea if your agent is over you, or if she's merely so busy that she can't respond to you, but either way, I think you deserve better. Maybe it's simply better communication with you or maybe it's that you need to find a better agent to suit your needs, one who still fully believes in your capabilities. I really don't know. And it sounds like you don't either. So until you have a discussion with her - awkward as it may be - you can't move on.

I've long said on this blog that agents need to be your advocates. You simply can't feel like the one person who is always supposed to have your back...doesn't. Much less doesn't even return your phone calls. In this case, it might simply be that you need to clarify with your agent what your needs are: that, if you're going to work together, that you'd like her to return your emails, and in turn, she might say, "no problem, but know that it takes me two months to read a proposal and respond." That's communication, and as long as both parties are cool with what they're hearing, you're good to move forward. But she also might say - and you need to be prepared for this - that she's NOT jazzed about this idea or whatnot.

And if she does, it's okay. You can and will recover. Really. Look at me. I did. I'm thrilled that my agent and I mutually agreed to ditch each other. It was seriously the best thing that happened to my career. Truly. Find an agent who always has your best interest in mind, and you'll already be better off than where your are now. Even if it sucks in the meantime.

Readers out there, ever been in this position or have any advice? Chime in!

Adventures in Book Signing

Update: right now, the odds of winning a $25 gift certificate on Amazon are pretty good - I think they're running at about 75%!! Doesn't anyone else out there wanna win? (I do realize that most people do their book shopping over the weekend...) Remember, just enter a comment below at any point before Monday as to where you spied The Department on sale, and voila, you're entered!

Anyway, so I spent the week canvassing NYC and signing stock in just about every bookstore in the city. (I think I missed two of them - apologies to folks who live in Tribeca and/or near the Borders on 32nd and 2nd. Both stores are in way too random places for me to get there.) And for the most part, it was a lovely experience. Booksellers are nearly always happy to have an author pop in, though I suspect in NYC, they're fairly used to it. They're gracious and warm and excited for your book, and try to thoughtfully place the sticker where it won't obscure the title and all of that.

But at one particular store, I had a less than wonderful experience, at least initially. I looked and looked for the book on the front shelves - called co-op space - for which my publisher, Avon, has paid handsomely and for which I am greatly appreciative. But it wasn't there. I approached a bookseller who already seemed annoyed that I asked her for information, despite the fact that she was at the "information" desk. She looked on the computer and told me that yes, they had a lot in stock, but after vaguely looking around for them in the same place that I had, she sort of shrugged her shoulders and was like, "I don't know what to tell you." When I very, very nicely suggested that I *thought* they were supposed to be displayed on the front tables, per my publisher paying for it, she sneered at me (seriously) and said, "That doesn't necessarily happen at our store."

Huh.

I started to very graciously protest (and was turning beet red in the process), but fortunately, a manager came over and asked if he could help. When aforementioned bookseller explained the situation, the manager directed her to "Cindy."* Aforementioned bookseller then walked up to a woman and asked her who "Cindy" was, and it turned out that this very woman - the one aforementioned bookseller approached - was "Cindy."

*Names changed to protect the innocent.

I sort-of did an internal chuckle and figured this bookseller was new and just trying to disguise her inexperience by being a know-it-all, though, it turns out, she knew, in fact, very little.

Anyway, I proceeded to the top floor, where I found 15 copies, and where another lovely, lovely bookseller rushed over to me, just as I was grabbing them to sign, to tell me that he had been directed to move them downstairs to the front table as soon as I signed them.

So - moral of the story? Speak up! Ask! Even if it's embarrassing, and you wonder if you're in the wrong! I'm sure that this isn't the only store which had inadvertently tucked the book away in the back, but I'm glad that at the very least, I remedied this one situation.

And, I should say, these lessons are certainly not just limited to my book signing experiences! You all know that here at Ask Allison, I encourage asking questions - even if you think they're silly - so if you have one about the way things work in our crazy industry, don't be shy! Post them in the comments section or email me directly. I'm always happy to try my best to help.

And in the meantime - enter into my contest!! Don't forget to spy the book this weekend at your local bookstore - or request it from your seller if they don't have it - and then come back here and post about it! (Or even better, send me a pic, and I'll post it on the blog!)

Happy weekend!

I Spy!

So I ran around the city yesterday signing stock and am headed out to sign more today. I figure that this is one easy, if tiring way, to try to make a little dent in the competitive book market...maybe if someone sees the "autographed copy," she'll be more likely to pick up the book to read the back, and from there, buy it. And, as we all know, stats show that autographed copies do sell well.

Another thing I've noticed, just from email feedback, is that people are DEFINITELY more inclined to buy a paperback vs. hardcover. Before I got serious about supporting author friends, I remember feeling this way too, but I'd sort of forgotten about it, to be honest. But yeah, it's a much easier sell this time around. TIME OF MY LIFE is coming out in hardcover, but my publisher is doing a super-big push with it, and I feel confident that with their backing, I won't have to plead with my personal email address book to ensure sales! LOL! A lot of authors like the prestige of being published in hardcover but in terms of pure sales, there is zero doubt in my mind that paperback is an easier route, at least for the unproven writer.

So we're still keeping this contest going all week - don't forget! To recap: post where you spotted the book - I saw it on the front shelves at two Barnes and Nobles and one Borders, all on the Upper West Side of NYC - and you'll be entered for the chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate! So come on and post!

Where's Waldo? And I'm Giving Away Stuff!

Or, in this case, where's The Department?

So, in case you're just tuning in, today marks the release of the paperback of The Department of Lost and Found! The always awesome Trish Ryan, whose own book is out NEXT WEEK (more on that next week!), was cool enough to email me yesterday to say that not only did she spot the book in the Borders at the Detroit airport (which is so awesome because those stores take a limited selection, and to be honest, I never thought mine would be among them!), but she proceeded to snap a picture of it, and in doing so, nabbed the interest of two shoppers and convinced them to BUY IT!! Yes, Trish is a rock star.

Which got me to thinking...

Because I live in NYC and am not capable of teleporting, I obviously can't spy the book out and about the country. So...let's play a little game here at Ask Allison. Let's all rush out to the bookstores (yes, right now!), and come back here and post where you saw the book. If you can snap a picture and send it to me, even better! In return, I'll randomly choose four people who post their results and reward them with $25 gift certificates to Amazon...which, if you're doing the math, means essentially, that you'll make a profit on purchasing the book! (Should you choose to purchase it, that is.)

So, to recap: spot the book at your local store, snap a pic (if possible), post about where you saw it/the experience, and enter to win a gift certificate! I'll put all the names in a hat and draw from there, and I'll let this run through the end of the week.

Who's in? This should be fun!

Pre-Game Day

So tomorrow, I'm hoping that you'll all bum rush your local bookstore and pick up a copy of the paperback edition of The Department of Lost and Found. I know that a lot of people don't like to buy hardcover books, especially from unknown writers, but most folks are willing to splurge on the $14 paperback ($11 on Amazon!!), so I hope that you will too! (And please spread the word far and wide, via blog, email or just plain old word of mouth.)

Publishing is an interesting business, which I've surely noted before. And what many non-authors don't realize is that the first two weeks (or so) of your book's release can make or break its success. So when the hardcover came out, I implored all of my friends to plunk down their credit cards asap, but a lot of them looked at me blankly and didn't really get the urgency. Here's the thing though: your publisher places all of its cards (and co-op money) into those first few weeks. If the book sells well, they'll continue to support it, and if it does so-so, then that support goes out the window and moves on to some other author who will pin all of his or her hopes on those first critical two weeks all over again.

I recently emailed with best-selling author Joshilyn Jackson, who has written, among other things, the fabulous The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, to let her know that I'd be picking up a copy of her book, and she emailed me back right away, thanking me for purchasing it "the first week," because, to paraphrase her, "we all know how much that first week matters." This is coming from a huge best-selling author, so it seems that no one is immune from these concerns.

Interesting stuff, right?

All of this is a very long-winded way of me imploring you to head out tomorrow or stop by Amazon and pick up a copy!

Jen A. Miller is a Jack(stress) of All Trades

Hmmm, what's the feminine version of "Jack?" I'm not sure, but regardless, Jen A. Miller is it. So I'm psyched to host her here on Ask Allison because there is nothing that this gal can't tackle. Case in point: her new book, The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May, just hit bookshelves, and when she's not busy penning guide books, she's reviewing other authors' books for major magazines and newspapers like The Philadelphia Inquirer. Oh, and she still finds time to write articles for some heavy hitting national mags and complete 10-mile races. I know, I'd hate her too if she weren't such a fabulous person and friend.

Here, Jen stops by to answer a few questions on everything from how she got her start to whether or not she feels guilty over slamming a book. After you're done reading, check out her two blogs; Down the Shore With Jen and Book a Week With Jen, (which, incidentally, means that she's reading a book a week, not that you can book a week with her in person!).

1) Best I know – and correct me if I'm wrong – you're not a travel writer, so how did you land a gig writing a book all about the Jersey Shore? Did you go to them or did they come to you? From there, what happened?
I'm not a travel writer in the sense of "hey, Jen, we're going to send you to a location and you write about it" sense of the term -- well, not all the time though I do some of that now. My speciality became writing about my own backyard because of location and, quite frankly, money. One of my first freelance gigs was writing articles about South Jersey people and places for SJ Magazine [http://www.sjmagazine.net/]. I was writing about things I knew, and things that were within short driving range. I eventually became editor of that magazine, and really found this area, which is where I grew up, fascinating.

One of my favorite assignments was putting their annual "best of" feature because it was so fun to read about and write about what people told me were the best. After editing the magazine for about a year, I went freelance, and continued to write about my area -- Philadelphia for USAirways Magazine, New Jersey for New Jersey Monthly, Bust, The New York Times. It seemed so much easier to write about things that were in my area -- I could drive to there, interview people, take notes, and then drive home. It was cheaper, too! And fascinating. People started recognizing my name and would feed me information. I never knew you could 'hunt' the Jersey devil, or visit Walt Whitman's tomb.

As I wrote more about New Jersey, I learned more, and the cycle kept going. The shore also has a special meaning for me and my family. We've been vacationing there since, well, before I was born -- my grandfather started taking the kids down when my mom was little. I spent my summers up until college, and it remained this place where, even then, I knew life was a little easier, a little more casual, and always involved the beach. I wrote pieces about it here and there, and I was pitching a lot of articles about the sort of re-birth of Atlantic City when I read a market guide on Freelance Success that Countryman press was looking for guidebooks. I wrote the editor a quick note seeing if she would be interested in a book on Atlantic City, and she said maybe -- the area needed to be bigger for the book. So I thought about regions and looked at what would fit with AC. The answer was simple, at least for me: the South Jersey Shore. That's where most people in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs go on vacation. They go down the shore, and that region has created its sort of own identity. Plus, I couldn't find another book that catered just to that area. So I pitched that, and they accepted.

2) I remember that you had some tight deadlines. Any tips to help readers crank out to meet their deadlines? What did you do when you absolutely felt like you couldn't face the computer for another second?
I did and I didn't. I had the contract for about a year, but the problem with the shore is it's not a year round kind of place. Aside from Atlantic City, I really only had a four month research window. So I spent some time in the library before the spring/summer season to get the history portions done, did as much Atlantic City research as I could, and as the early days of spring rolled around, started heading down on weekends since most places open up on weekends after Easter. After that, it was a sprint.

Someone gave me the advice to set up magazine deadlines since that's how I was used to writing. So I made a chart and gave myself word count goals, daily and weekly so that if I was doing research one day and couldn't write, I could at least hit the weekly total. I made a mistake and estimated too many words for the book, which was a blessing in disguise because I not only caught myself up but was ahead by August -- which left me with a month to fill in the gaps and fine tune the manuscript. When I couldn't face the computer another second, I didn't. I stopped. I've learned my breaking point, and if I keep trying to go past it, I get frustrated, and nothing works. I spent a lot of time writing after dinner, which I rarely do. I would reset my brain by making myself another cup of coffee and go until I couldn't go anymore. And then I'd stop.

3) You've really built a stupendous platform, something that we're always chatting about here on AA. Can you give us some insight as to how you did that?
My platform, at least for this book, came from what interested me. It was with me from the start of my writing career, and once I realized it was there, I turned it into a book. I don't know if everyone has that advantage. As I start trying to build the platform for what should be my second book, I'm doing the same thing: writing magazine articles on the topic. This works out in a few ways. First, it lets me know if I really want to write about the topic. If I can't get through two articles without wanting to throw my hands in the air, then I shouldn't be writing a book about it. It also allows me to start research and get paid for it instead of doing the research for the proposal on spec. It also starts building a network of contacts that I can use for the eventual book. Finally, it will show an agent/editor samples of my writing in that topic. Voila, platform.I did this with the Jersey Shore book as well, but without realizing it. It's weird trying to recreate that happy accident!On another note, I think my shore blog at downtheshorewithjen.blogspot.com has really lifted that platform to another level. It kept me into the shore loop even though the book was done, and I'm writing a lot of magazine articles NOW about the shore, not only because of the book, but because editors as well as readers are finding my stuff. It's an ever growing circle!

4) How critical is it these days for a non-fiction writer to have a platform BEFORE the sale of a book?
I think it's necessary, yes. It doesn't have to mean that you've written 20 articles on the topic and are hired by scores of groups to speak in the topic, but you should have some experience working in it. It lets you test the waters as a writer first. I pitched a lot of books I didn't have a platform on, and I'm glad I didn't get any of them. You spend so much time with a subject in a non-fiction book. I think you have to love it to make it through because writing a non-fiction book -- ESPECIALLY a travel guide -- takes so much work that you better love what you're writing about. I think the greatest evidence of that, for me, was that when the book was turned in, edited and ready to print and I wanted to get away for a break, where did I go? The Jersey shore.

5) You're also a fairly prominent book reviewer. How does someone break into the review market, whether it's books, movies, tv, etc.
Persistance. It took me about four years to get my first review in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I've just started reviewing for a woman's magazine, and that took a year and a half. It's tedious sometimes, but for me it's been worth it. Book reviewing was never a big financial part of my freelance life, but I still carved time out of my day to work on it anyway because I loved it. And I think it's paying off.

6) Do you ever feel guilty over panning a book? J Just curious to get inside the mind of a reviewer!
Absolutely. No matter how bad the book, someone has put a lot of time and effort into writing it, and a lot of money's been spent producing it. But I work for the readers, not the author, so it's my job to tell the readers whether a book is worth their $20 or not. That being said, I have asked to be let out of a review if it's really bad since there are plenty of good books that I could review instead. But sometimes a book's going to be talked about anyway, and it's my job to tell the readers what I think. I also have a better sense of what I like, so I won't take on reviews of, say, Jennifer Weiner's latest book. If I didn't like the previous books, why would I tackle the new one? That kind of thing.

Calling All Future GCC-ers!

The Girlfriend Cyber Circuit, a virtual tour for female authors, currently has openings. If you're a published author with a blog you might be eligible. Here's the link with more information:
http://www.karingillespie.com/page0014.html

Contact Karin Gillespie at kgillespie@knology.net if interested!

Meanwhile, Across the Pond...

Question of the week: Can you explain what happens at the London Book Fair? It seems it's all I've been reading about this week.

Um, sure, if I can! I'm not sure that I have a complete understanding of the entire situation, but I'll do my best. The London Book Fair, along with the Frankfurt Fair, are the two biggest forums in which publishers sell foreign rights to, well, foreign publishers! From what I understand, here's what happens:

A publisher, in my case, the Shaye Areheart imprint at Random House, starts generating buzz about a book to foreign publishing houses long before the actual fair. Book sales are often all about buzz, so they try to get as much momentum going into the fair as possible. Once at the fair, they sit down with various representatives and contacts and push the book even more. Though a lot of deals used to happen at the actual fair, these days, from what I understand, most of what happens is an attempt to generate enthusiasm and excitement, and the actual offers for the books come about in the subsequent weeks. Which means, for sure, I'm biting down my nails in anticipation.

(Also, having attending BEA last year (Book Expo America), I can tell you that from what I imagine, LBF is really whirlwind of socializing, networking and hobnobbing. It's also really freaking tiring. I was completely wiped out after one day at the event.)

That said, foreign rights sales can happen at any time, which is exactly what happened for The Department. I'd just get a random out-of-the-blue email from someone at Harper's subsidiary dept saying, "We're thrilled we got an offer from X...do you accept?" And duh, obviously, I always did! But don't be fooled into thinking that foreign sales will make you rich: most of these deals are for probably (this is based on nothing scientific, only an estimated guess) less than 20k, and most for much less than that. AND, unless you've earned back your advance, you won't see a dime: they just get added into the overall tally of your sales and earnings until you've crossed that lucrative line.

So tell me, anyone else have inside scoop on LBF? Or foreign rights insights in general?

Theo Pauline Nestor Sleeps Alone in a King-Size Bed

Today, I am so super-excited to bring you Theo Pauline Nestor, author of the newly released memoir (okay, as of tomorrow), How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed.

I am not what you would call a classic memoir reader. What I mean by that is that if I'm in Barnes and Noble, I rarely drift to the non-fiction table and instead wander over to the novels. (And I do sometimes feel that some memoir subjects are less fascinating than the authors might have deemed themselves...geez, though it feels lousy to say that.) That said, there are a lot of upcoming memoirs that I'm truly psyched about including, but not limited to Jen Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat, Trish Ryan's He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, and Stephanie Klein's Moose, but most often, yeah, I'm a fiction type of gal. But I was sent a galley of Theo's book, which chronicles her divorce and her subsequent recovery, and though most galleys I receive go unread, for whatever reason, I was drawn to this one, and as soon as I read the first chapter, I was sucked in for the long-haul.

The reason, for me, that this book was so readable is because it's not "memoir-y," and by that I mean, yes, this is a true slice of the author's life, but it also reads as smoothly as a novel. I wanted to get to that final chapter and uncover the ending just as I do any fictional creation. I've never been divorced, never even been close to divorce, but this was a universal story about how one woman struggles through the muck and finds her way, and that message resonated with me, regardless of my exact life circumstance. What also made this memoir so intriguing is that it is one of several that got its roots in the NY Times's Modern Love column, which isn't an easy gig to land in and of itself.

So, whew, without further ado, I'm thrilled to have Theo here today to answer a few questions for Ask Allison readers. After reading the Q/A, head out and grab her book. I don't think you'll be disappointed! For more on Theo, check out her website.

1) The germ of this book started out as a Modern Love column. As you drafted that essay, did you ever think, “Oh, this is a much bigger story?”

I actually extracted material from a larger (frankly, rambling) piece to create the 1800-word Modern Love column. In the first days of my divorce, I found every day was full of terribly profound moments, and even though I had no intention of writing a memoir about my divorce, I kept taking notes. Some time after the column was out, I started to realize that what I was writing was becoming a book.

2) Can you tell us how indeed it evolved from a column to a memoir? Was it seamless or, as I’d imagine, a little tougher than it sounds?

The essay that appeared in Modern Love describes the sudden end of my marriage and then an overview of the pain and shock I felt in the first few months after our split up. I knew I couldn't use the article as it was because it covered too quickly the crucial time frame that held a great deal of my story, but I did end up taking the break-up scene from the essay, expanding it and using it as the opening chapter of the book.

However, publishing the essay in the New York Times helped the article evolve into a book in many ways. First, I received an enormous number of emails from readers of the column and their letters gave me a lot of good ideas for the book. Also, the fact that the essay had been published in such a popular column helped get publishers interested in the project while it was still a proposal.

3) I know that you’ve also published fiction. Did it ever occur to you to fictionalize your story and instead write a novel? Especially these days when memoirists are really held up to a lot of scrutiny re: accuracy.

I didn’t want to write a novel, partly because I could hear the voice of this book even before I knew what all it would cover. I knew it was a memoirist’s voice, one that said to the reader: Listen, this is true. In one moment I was married and in the next I wasn’t. I was afraid and angry and sad and then I was hopeful and tired and happy. I thought it would be a voice that would earn the trust of readers, especially those going through a divorce themselves.

4) If I were to write a memoir (which I never will!), I’d always be concerned about portraying other people fairly and accurately, and you did indeed mention this in the acknowledgments, in terms of your ex-husband. Were you ever tempted to downplay what really happened out of concern over upsetting others and if not, how did you get over this?

I wanted to write this book without mentioning that my marriage ended because of my husband’s gambling addiction. I had no desire to reveal that to the world. I didn’t want to do anything to hurt (or frankly, anger) him and my purpose in writing a memoir about my divorce was not to “tell all the dirt” but to share my experience with transitioning suddenly from being married to being divorced. The trouble was the story didn’t make any sense without the reason why we split. I tried multiple times to write it without the gambling in there, and it never worked. People who are reasonably happy (we were) don’t split up overnight unless something big has happened and when I wrote about the split up without including the reason, it seemed like either 1) I was being overly coy or 2) we split up because my husband had an affair (or something worse…although I’m not sure what that would be). So, what I decided to do was include the gambling but write just the minimum about it. I also tried to offset that information by including scenes in the book that showed what a good person my ex-person is despite his addiction. Still, it’s not easy.

5) What I loved about your book is that to me, it read like a novel. How did you decide which stories to include, which aspects of your divorce and post-divorce life to highlight, and which to discard? Was this an instinctive process or is this where an editor really helps you out?

At first I wrote from instinct, but as I drafted the proposal for the book, I tried to think of which of the experiences I went through in this post-divorce period were universal because I wanted to write a book that readers who’d been through divorce would relate to and find helpful. During this process, I read self-help books and talked to friends about their divorces and then returning to my own experience, I picked out the events and experiences that seemed endemic to the divorce process--telling friends and random acquaintances, looking for work, dealing with depression, helping kids through their anger and grief, rebuilding life as a single person and even falling in love again.

6) I know that I found my novel’s release to be the most nerve-wracking aspect of the entire process, and I imagine it’s even more so when it’s such a personal book. You’re right on the cusp of publication: can you tell us how that feels?

Sometimes, I think I’m okay and then I realize I’m really nervous. Oddly, it’s not so much that strangers and friends are going to read personal details of my life. For some reason, I don’t really think about that. I just want the book to do well out there in the world. It’s sort of like I’m sending my youngest child off to kindergarten.

7) You also teach memoir writing at the University of Washington . What are the three (or so) biggest tips for memoir writers to keep in mind as they go about turning their own histories into books?

1) Be patient with yourself. Throughout every stage of the memoir writing process, you will feel internal resistance. It is very scary to tell the truth about your experience and expect that you’ll need to keep giving yourself permission to do so.

2) Learn everything you can about story telling. Study the craft of fiction writing. Character development, plot, theme---all those things that make a novel work are present in memoirs. An excellent book about shaping your story into a memoir is Your Life as Story by Tristine Rainer. I highly recommend it.

3) Don’t hold back. When you’re writing you’ll no doubt think oh I can’t write this. Everyone I know will leave me and I will die penniless and alone. Yes, maybe, but that might happen anyway, but in the meantime, there’s a reason why you came to the page and that reason is you need to tell Your Story. Once you have it down, if it still scares you terribly that you’ve written all this crazy stuff, you can tear it up if you want. But the words unwritten, they might be the greatest danger of all. Some call it regret.

Getting By With a Little Help...

So I usually don't blog on Fridays, but I wanted to take a moment to share a wonderful experience that I had last night. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a get-together with several other authors, and we convened yesterday for high tea. What a blast! (The company might have even been better than the scones, and that's saying a lot.)

In attendance were Sarah Mlynowski, Jane Green, Laura Dave, Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus, and Lynda Curnyn. (Leslie Margolis was sick, so couldn't make it.) Now, these are women who, conceivably, do not need to sit down with other writers to chew the (literal and otherwise) fat. The above names, for the most part, are big, big names in women's fiction and YA and the world of writing in general, so the fact that they all hustled their butts to a tea salon in Gramercy Park to meet other writers says a lot about them.

And oh what fun we had. Yes, there was some industry gossip, but mostly, it was just getting to know each other and supportive stories from the trenches and figurative pats on the backs or shoulders to bitch on. And this, to me, is what makes these women so amazing...and what we need more of in this industry. It's even more fitting because I'm attending a dinner for FLX members tomorrow, and nowhere is there a more supportive writers network than on FLX.

Writers need to support other writers. Women need to support other women. As Emma said at one point, we are not opening weekends. We are not competing with one another for box office seats. Their readers are my readers, and vice versa. Failing to realize this can not only alienate you from other authors, I truly believe that it can limit your personal growth, which, really, is probably leaps and bounds more important than your total book sales at the end of the day. And, incidentally, this is the same reason that I don't post negative reviews on places like GoodReads: this writing business is tough enough, why bring someone else down?

And, of course, that's also what this blog is all about. So, even though we haven't all met for high tea, I do hope that we all put out there what we take in, that we all sow and reap and reap and sow. I'm grateful that other writers feel the same, and I'm grateful that you guys do as well.

Cover Me

Today, I'm over at Writer Unboxed, chatting about covers and how they influence different demographics - for example, the softness and more heightened emotion of my paperback cover compared to the striking, stronger image of my hardcover and what that's all designed to do, in terms of sales.

Check it out!

Btw, this paperback version is out on April 22nd! (Don't worry, I'll remind you!) But please do look for it in a store near you. I know that a lot of folks don't like to shell out for hardcovers, but I hope that you'll consider paying $11 from Amazon or the $14 at your local store. (And yes, you can pre-order it now! It might show up a few days early.) :) First week sales and pre-orders make all the difference (something I'll be chatting about next week), so I can't thank you enough for your support.

GCC Presents: Wendy Tokunaga and Midori by Midnight

So I haven't done a GCC post in months, and I can think of no better way to get back into the swing of things than with a Q/A with Wendy Tokunaga, whose debut novel, Midori By Midnight just hit bookstores and which Publishers' Weekly called, "a delectably frothy romp!" Sounds like the perfect beach novel when/if spring ever arrives here in the Northeast! (But my weather complaints are another post for another day...) I especially like her answer to #3, and suspect that many blog readers will as well.Here's the scoop on the book, then read on for her wonderful answers to my usual questions:

What happens when a young woman, fresh from Japan and too independent for Japanese society, finds herself suddenly lost in translation in San Francisco as she searches for her American Dream and the perfect dessert?

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga answers this question and more in her poignant comic novel, MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT, where we meet thirty-year-old Midori Saito, whose dream seems about to come true. A strong independent streak has always made her feel like a stranger in a strange land in her native Japan, but now she’s embarking on a new life in San Francisco. She’s about to marry Kevin, the perfect American man—six feet tall, with curly hair the color of marmalade. Unlike a Japanese guy who’d demand she be a housewife, Kevin doesn’t mind if Midori follows her dream of becoming a master pastry chef. Her life is turning out as exquisitely as a Caramelized Apple Tart with Crème Fraiche, until Kevin dumps her at their engagement party in favor of his blond, ex-fiancée, whom Midori never even knew existed.

Now Midori is not only on her own—with just a smattering of fractured English in her repertoire—she’s entered the U.S. on a fiancée visa that will expire in sixty days. Unable to face the humiliation of telling her parents she’s been dumped, and not wanting to give up on her American dream, Midori realizes she’s “up the creek without a saddle.” Her only hope is new acquaintance Shinji, 30, who long ago escaped Japan after a family tragedy, is a successful San Francisco graphic artist and amateur moon gazer, and who lets her share his apartment as a platonic roommate.

Soon Midori finds herself working at an under-the-table hostess job at an unsavory Japanese karaoke bar, making (and eating) way too many desserts, meeting a charming and handsome chef with his own restaurant who may be too good to be true, and trying to uncover the secret behind a mysterious bar hostess who looks strangely familiar. But Midori’s willing to endure almost anything to hang on to her American dream, and she just might find that the love she’s been searching for far and wide is a whole lot closer than she thinks.

1) What’s the backstory behind your book?

~ MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT is about 30-year-old fresh from Japan Midori Saito, who finds herself lost in translation in San Francisco searching for her American dream and the perfect dessert. It is inspired by my Japanese husband’s story of how he never felt he fit in Japan and ended up trading his native culture for a new one when he settled in the United States.

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?

~ MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT is the story of a Japanese woman who feels like a stranger in a strange land in her native Japan and escapes to the United States, so of course it’s not autobiographical (I am Caucasian American and was born and raised in San Francisco). But I have had a long love affair with Japan and Japanese culture, am married to a man born and raised in Japan, have Japanese in-laws, and I speak the language half-way decently so I have put a lot of my experience and knowledge into the book.

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?

~ MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT is my debut novel, but is actually the fifth I have written. For me to get a major publishing deal it took over ten years of trying, along with getting hundreds and hundreds of rejections from agents. I did win an award in the Writer’s Digest Best Self-Published Book Awards in 2002 for my novel NO KIDDING, but that didn’t help much in getting notice from agents. Along the way I published some short stories in small journals and wrote a couple of children’s non-fiction books as works for hire (flat fee, no royalties). So this has been a long road (including finally getting an agent who couldn’t sell book number three or four, then him dumping me). I decided that maybe out of these five novels I’d written I could at least get an MFA in Creative Writing. So I applied to grad schools, decided on the University of San Francisco, and right when I started in Summer 2006, I got my great agent Marly Rusoff and she got me a two-book deal with St. Martin’s about eight weeks later.

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What’s your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?

~ I procrastinate when I know I have to write something new because that’s the hardest part for me. On the other hand, I can spend hours happily revising, rewriting, and tweaking. I don’t have any particular rituals. I am deadline driven and always meet my deadlines so I guess that motivates me.

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal! Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?

~ Rinko Kikuchi ("Babel") as Midori and Masi Oka ("Heroes") as Shinji.

Anatomy of a Book Sale

So this weekend, I picked up Meg Wolitzer's The Ten-Year Nap. We've discussed the book-buying decision several times on this blog, and since I'm fresh out of a meeting with my marketing and publicity team for Time of My Life, in which we talked about which publications actually get people to buy books, I've been paying particular attention to how I make my book-buying decisions. (Btw, I'll have more on my FABULOUS meeting coming up on the blog soon.)

So here's what happened: I saw a great review of TTYN in Entertainment Weekly, which, I believe, gave the book an A-. The book seemed to cover similar themes as those covered in Time of My Life - motherhood, the bigger picture, discontentedness, fulfillment, etc. Over the years, I've come to learn that my sensibilities match EW's nearly exactly, and since they so rarely give As, this review caught my attention. (Incidentally, the pr/mktg team agreed that EW is one of those places that really can sell books, so I'm not alone.)

From there, with my interest baited, I headed to both Amazon and GoodReads to see what others had thought. All good things, it turns out. And from there, because I suspected that Wolitzer might be a little too literary for my specific tastes (and because I judge a book based on its cover, and that too, seemed literary), I tried to read the excerpt on Amazon, but the link wasn't working, so I googled an excerpt, found one on NPR and discovered that this book was right up my alley.

I bought it later that day and dug into it that night (whoohoo, rockin' Saturday night at the Scotch household, thanks to an emergency in our babysitting situation!) and read until my eyelids could no longer hold themselves upright.

I have no idea if this is how most of the book-buying public makes their decisions, but I think this is a pretty standard way that I make mine. A lot of times, I buy books simply because I know the author, and whether or not it's truly a book that speaks exactly to me, I want to support him or her, so I whip out my wallet. But beyond that - and other than referrals from friends - this is the best way that I know how to end up with a book that I enjoy reading from first page to end.

So...let's get this discussion going. A) What are you currently reading? And B) if you're up to elaborating, how did you make the decision to buy it?

When You Screw the Pooch

Today, I'm giving confession (even though I'm Jewish). This week, I royally screwed up an article. I didn't realize, of course, that I'd screwed it up so badly - in fact, I thought it was perfectly fine, if not better than fine, or else I wouldn't have handed it in - but when my editor pointed out where and why it wasn't fine, I realized just how in the wrong I had been.

And when I realized my error, I also wondered if it were possible to die from mortification, because I nearly felt like I might.

I've written, I dunno, hundreds of articles in the past few years. I can't remember a time, barring the second article I'd ever written for a national magazine, when I hadn't produced what I was capable of...or at least made the editor happy enough so that he or she thought it was what I was capable of. And this time, well, in retrospect, I didn't. In retrospect, I see why I didn't: I did an interview in which I was totally charmed by my interviewee, and we were having such a good chat - in the way that you do with a confidante - that I failed in my mission to conduct a really probing Q/A.

So what was I to do? I did the only thing I knew how to: I tried to rectify the situation as fast as humanly possible all the while owning up to what I did. I sent off a contrite note to my editor saying, in essence, "Look, I take responsibility for this mistake, it was my fault, and I'm busting my ass to fix it." And in the subsequent nights, I lost sleep (literally) until I found a way to resolve it.

But resolve it I did. That's all I could do. One of my biggest pet peeves in work (and in life - just ask my husband) is when you don't take ownership for your mistakes. No one is interested in excuses, even if you somehow think they cast you in a better light. Most often, they don't. So just get on with it, apply the band-aid and find a way to heal the wound.

I'm hopeful that I did. And you can be damn sure that this is a lesson well-learned. Just because you're a pro doesn't mean that you're infallible. I won't forget that again.

So tell me, anyone want to share their own screw-up story, just to make me feel a little better? :) Or if not, share what you do when you realize that you've made a professional screw-up.

When the Payout Doesn't Pay

I'm guessing that a lot of you already saw this piece from the weekend's NY Times on how bloggers are still being offered huge book deals. Basically, for those of you who haven't yet read it, the article highlights a recent (rumored) $300,000 deal for a blogger who runs a blog called, Stuff White People Like. There are then various quotes as to why this is a ridiculously high number, how bloggers are still sought after but most of the hot ones are already taken by agents, and how a good many of these books, including Gawker's, fail.

Interesting. To be honest, I didn't realize that this was still such a trend: I thought that publishers had maxed out on bloggers and weren't really pursuing their deals with the same frenzy.

Evidently, I don't know what I'm talking about.

This article - and the $300,000 figure - were being discussed on several boards I frequent, and the general consensus was some sort of weird ire at the blogger. Or maybe I mistook that and people just thought the publishing house was insipid to throw this sort of money at an unproven author. But in my mind, certainly, the author shouldn't be blamed. In fact, I say, good for him! If he can milk that money out of a publishing house who foolishly threw it at him, who am I to hold it against him? It's the publisher, the one who got caught up in the bidding frenzy, who should be held responsible - as noted in the NY Times piece, it's highly unlikely that said publisher will earn back that money, but then again, ya never know, and I guess they wanted to take their chances.

But herein is the big problem with our industry: no one knows which books will sell. Maybe it will be this $300,000 purchase, maybe not. There is little to no market research, little actual marketing beyond the first few weeks of a book's release, and while many people involved love books, they don't have a real understanding of the financial decisions behind the business, and thus, many books "fail," despite these huge advances and/or buzz.

My husband, who is in finance, always shakes his head and says things like, "It's like no one wants to make any money in publishing." And while, obviously, this isn't true, the net effect of it is the same: few books do make money, and no one is really fixing the problem. In my opinion, the problem is this: too many books are published and then left to languish with no marketing or publicity behind them. Too many other books are given huge pushes, and it turns out that they're not so good. When a book does succeed, sometimes it's serendipity, sometimes it's a really good book, and sometimes, it's just luck. So what's the solution? Gasp...I think the industry should publish fewer books and rather than try to meet some sort of quota with how many they have to churn out, focus instead on finding gems that will resonate (or even be heard of!) with their respective markets.

I've rambled. I meant to stay on topic about bloggers and book deals because certainly, some can do well, like the success stories of Jen Lancaster and Stephanie Klein. But the larger point, I guess, of this post, is that when a publishing house throws $300,000 at an author, and no one buys the book...who is to blame? To me, it's the publishing house, even though the author will be the one to take the fall.

Jen Singer is a Good Mom...And Her Books Aren't So Bad Either

So today, I'm thrilled to host a Q/A with my friend, Jen Singer, who founded the very prosperous MommaSaid.net network and is the author of two books, including the newly-released You're a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren't So Bad Either). Jen is admirable for a lot of reasons - for one, as you'll read below, she turned the other ear when rejection knocked on her door; for two, she then went ahead an established an unbelievable platform; and for three (among other things), she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma smack in the middle of writing You're a Good Mom, but she absolutely refused to put her life on hold because of cancer. Read on to see why I (and a lot of others) think that Jen is pretty kick-ass. And don't forget to pick up a copy of her book!

1) You have a great story about how tough the road can be to publication and how if you dig into the trenches, you can come out on top. Can you share with us that success story?

When I tried to publish my first book, 14 Hours 'Til Bedtime, all I knew about platform was the About the Author paragraph in the back of books. I figured that if I'd been published in major magazines like I had been, that would be enough to get a book deal. Silly me. The subsequent rejections from publishers all pretty much said the same thing: "Talented writer, but she has no platform." One editor even lamented, "Too bad she's not famous!" If only I could prove I was Elvis' love child.

My book was published by a very small publisher and sold well despite being available pretty much only on Amazon and the trunk of my mother's car. But I wanted more for my future books, so I set out to build my platform up from the ground by growing my web site, MommaSaid.net, from a cute little site that only my mom and a neighbor read to a formidable presence among the mommy blogging community. I hired a personal publicist, who still works with me today, and together we blasted the media until my platform got big enough to get the attention of publishers, especially the ones who had wished I was famous.

2) We've been chatting a bit about platform building recently on the blog, and you are one of the best examples I know of as someone who created an amazing platform for herself. How did you go about doing this?

The short answer is dogged determination and the desire to keep on writing funny little things. But it's more complicated (and exhausting) than that. Launched in 2003 when my kids weren't in school at the same time, MommaSaid is now the base of my platform. It allows me to keep in touch with moms around the world, which makes me attractive to journalists and producers who want to know what makes moms tick. I answer Profnet leads relentlessly, and I set up a page on MommaSaid called the Magazine Rack, where journalists and producers can troll for sources. It keeps MommaSaid in front of the media while providing them a free service. Meanwhile, my readers get to see their names in print.

Over the years, I've acted as a spokesperson for Huggies Pull-Ups, Similac and Listerine, and as a consultant for Disney's Family.com. Their PR firms contacted me through MommaSaid. I've also forged relationships with the publicity departments at various publishing houses by giving away free books as Housewife Awards. So, when my books are being shopped around, the PR folks already know me. And I blog and blog often. That keeps the readers coming back for more. Plus, relentless blogging helped me land a parenting tweens blog at Good Housekeeping. I could prove to my editor that I could keep up a quality blog for the long-term because I'd already been doing it. Now that I've blogged for them for a year, the deal has gotten even sweeter: Yahoo will syndicate it starting this week. That's about six million readers, and I don't have to do anything more than I've already been doing.

Finally, I've built up a fan base by being true to the moms who visit MommaSaid, which is about to have a makeover. I keep up the site -- posting just about every day. (I taught myself HTML, but my husband is an IT guy who can help me with the technical stuff. I married smart.) I've even created a social network based on my newest book, "You're a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren't So Bad Either)" out this week from Sourcebooks.

3) How critical do you think having a platform is these days and do you have any beginner's advice for readers who are looking to establish a name for themselves?

Platform is king. The writing has to be good, too, but we all know that celebrities get book deals and sell books because of their names. You can build platform, too, but you have to shift your mindset. For example, at last year's ASJA meeting, fellow author Paula Spencer was telling another writer about my online success. She had just published a book, and was trying to build an accompanying blog after years of success in traditional media, most notably as a Woman's Day columnist. The other writer, a curmudgeonly old-school journalist was unimpressed. "Why would I give away my writing?" he barked. "I'm not writing unless I’m getting paid." If you want to be a working journalist, that's a fine approach. But if you want to build platform, you need to "give away" some of your writing in order to create a fan base. ("The Long Tail" author Chris Anderson wrote a great article about this concept in Wired: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free. A book is due out next year.)

I won't kid you; it's a lot of work. But it affords me the opportunity to do the kind of writing I love. There aren't enough essay markets to make a living, and, even though I've managed to garner a lot of back page spots in Parenting magazine, that's only part of the multi-faceted platform behemoth that MommaSaid is becoming.

4) How much easier was it to sell/publish your second book than your first?

Actually, I didn't sell my second book. Two years after my first book was published, my (now former) agent tried to shop around a book called, How Come I Only Get to Sit Down in My Mini-Van? But I was up against an onslaught of mommy bloggers, and, apparently, my platform was still too small. I was deflated. A year later, I switched agents. My new (and current) agent shopped around You're a Good Mom (and Your Kids Aren't So Bad Either). Sourcebooks bought it in January of 2007. At the same time, I got a call from an editor at Healthcare Communications, the publisher of the Chicken Soup series. They wanted to create a series of books based on the MommaSaid brand. Four years after launching MommaSaid, my platform had arrived -- and I didn't even have to write a book proposal. I've finished writing the first of those books, a guide book to raising toddlers, and now I'm working on the preschooler version between publicity gigs for Good Mom. Those two will be published before Mother's Day of 2009. A baby book is slated for the following fall.

5) I LOVE the cover and title of this book. How did you come up with the concept and what made you want to write it?

I had been writing a blog called MommaHeard designed to bring the news that's important to moms who don’t have time to read more than the headlines. (I still write it. I am a news junkie.) I also did a weekly radio spot based on the blog until the show's host left radio. What I found is that mothers were trying too hard to try to keep up with Super Moms, thereby giving up and becoming Slacker Moms. One was bad for mom and the other bad for the kids. But I knew that there was a sweet spot between the two where you can raise perfectly good kids without losing yourself or your sanity. My editor at Sourcebooks, Shana Drehs, pushed for a better title, and I'm glad she did. It was originally "Don’t Answer the Phone When the Class Mom Calls," after one of the chapter titles, but that didn't tell the whole story of the book, so she asked for more. Then, just like "14 Hours 'Til Bedtime," I woke up with the Good Mom title one morning.

I pushed for the cover, because I didn't like the image Sourcebooks had chosen. It was stock drawing of a retro housewife, and I felt it didn't fit the book. (Turns out, it's on another book's cover anyhow.) They used Goldfish crackers first, and I loved it, but when Tom Perrotta's publisher had used them on "Little Children," Pepperidge Farm sued them. So we ditched that idea. On the way to the pediatrician's office one night in December, my kids and I brainstormed and came up with the rubber ducks. I love that Sourcebooks made one of the ducks going the other way. We all have a kid like that. So far, it's gotten a lot of attention from radio shows and magazines. We'll be pitching TV soon.

6) You've also had an incredible year personally: in addition to publishing your second book, you kicked cancer's ass after you were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and managed to keep an incredible sense of humor about the whole thing as you did. And I know that your snarky good humor is also in full form in the book. I'm always talking about positive thinking on my blog - both as a mother and as a writer - so how do you maintain your healthy attitude, even when things, whether it's your aspirations for your book or your health, veer wildly off-track? I think there are some wise lessons to be learned from you!

I had four chapters of You're a Good Mom left to write when I found out I had cancer, fittingly on D-Day, June 6th. I know I could have abandoned the book and nobody would have flinched. But when you're faced with death, you find out what's truly important to you. Turns out, writing -- or at least the kind of writing I do -- is important to me. Sourcebooks gave me a six-week extension, and my brother gave me his laptop. I wrote parts of the book on the oncology floor at New York Hospital and parts at outpatient chemo. (When else do I get to sit for four whole hours and write?) Lucky for me, humor is my defense mechanism. I turned in the manuscript a week early, and I'll bet no one can tell which chapters (written out of order) were penned pre-diagnosis and which were fueled by Percocet and fear. Meanwhile, Good Housekeeping let me blog about parenting with cancer once a week on my blog. My editor and I call it "Cancer Thursdays!" like it's a special at Applebee's or something.

Even though I'm in remission now, I still write about cancer, because it's cheaper than therapy. Besides, I still have something to say. The three-book deal has also helped pull me through this crisis. I had just met my HCI editor at BEA five days earlier when I found out I had cancer. At that point, we didn't have anything in writing, and I feared they'd dump me. When my agent e-mailed me in the hospital to tell me HCI was 100% behind me, I cried with relief. My nurse went out and bought me Haagen-Dazs pops to celebrate, and I've been hooked on them ever since. I attribute the hard work of "my people" for helping save my career. My agent, my publicist, my manager/lawyer and my assistant all kept the MommaSaid machine running, even though I was laid up. I didn't start out with all of this help five years ago, but as MommaSaid grew, I needed them to get my platform to the next level, because unless you're Dave Barry or Madonna, there's always a next level. Frankly, I'm just glad I have hair now. You know, in case The Today Show calls.

Funny or Die? Funny.

This post has nothing at all to do with writing and frankly, what I'm about to post is not-safe-for-work and can be crass. So if you're offended by R-rated themes, don't click!

BUT. I like to give props to good people who have good things happen to them, and to that end, two friends of mine from college just got named to EW's must list (that's Entertainment Weekly for those of you who aren't as obsessed with pop culture as I am) for their short film, Matumbo Goldberg, which is currently running on Will Ferrell's website, FunnyOrDie.com.

Check it out and then vote "funny!"

(Again, I don't want to offend anyone, so if you're pure of heart, feel free to ignore this!) :)

Are You a GoodReader?

(Hey Suzanne, I owe you that Jodi Picoult interview link: here ya go.)

Have you guys checked out the site, GoodReads.com? I'd think that anyone who is an avid reader would enjoy it. Basically, it's sort of like a Facebook for readers: people post objective reviews and comments on books and share those thoughts with their "friends." For some reason, I find the reviews there more objective than on Amazon, and I find the navigation a lot easier too - it's cool to see all the books someone has reviewed and their baseline for what they deem good vs. crappy, as well as what sorts of genre books he/she enjoys.

I only post about books I like, though plenty of people offer middling reviews. But as an author, I have no interest in eviscerating another author publicly, especially because I know that one person's trash is another person's treasure. I also suspect that it's a good tool for an author to reach readers, but I haven't quite figured out what tool that is yet. :) For now, I'm just enjoying the community.

Anyway, check it out. I'm curious what you guys think: is this just another time waster (for sure!) or a cool resource for readers who are always looking for recommendations? (Or my vote: both!)