What Are You Reading?

This is a fun little thing that we do on some of the industry forums I visit...we always enjoy hearing about what everyone is digging into, and in light of how often we talk about that books sell via word of mouth, well, let's start some word of mouth!

So right now, I'm tearing through Gwendolen Gross's The Other Mother - lush prose, wonderful plotting...I'm really enjoying it. In fact, I even pre-ordered this book because I was so excited to read it, but am just getting to it now because I try to avoid reading anything that I worry might be similar to my own WIP - I don't want to be unconsciously influenced. Now that I've wrapped my WIP, I'm free to enjoy it.

So what are you guys reading and loving right now?

Putting the P in Promotion

I think the subject of promotion is a never-ending one with writers, and it pops up on every writers' board that I frequent. Everyone is always chatting about the most effective ways to promote yourself and your books, and no one seems to have a surefire, solid method, other than maybe Joe Konrath, who is the king of all kings of promotion and seriously, I'm in awe of the man and could never do what he does. But it works for him, so to that, I say kudos.

But yeah, other than Joe, a lot of writers are always rooting around, looking for newer, better, shinier promotional tools (Post-its! Bookmarks! Book club phone-in!), just in case we're missing something that might help get the word out.

I was chatting about this recently with another writer whose book has just been released, and I have to say, it's remarkable how similar writers' complaints and worries are: nearly every writer feels like he or she could have had more push from his or her publishing house and nearly every writer is scrambling to make up that perceived deficit. In my case, I've been really pleased with my promotional team - they continue to support me, pitch the book and line up a variety of things for me - but from what I hear, I do feel like I'm more of an exception than not. Our worries about sales and PR and marketing are virtually universal...after all, at the end of the day, while we might pretend otherwise as we bang out our manuscripts, this is a business, and in any business, what matters is the bottom line: we. have. to. sell. books. Period. Your next book deal depends on it, and your publisher depends on it so they can earn back their advance.

Which brings me to my thoughts for the day: what, really, is the best promotional tool? I think this can and will vary from author to author. Konrath swears by store drop-ins and signings, which again, I really commend him for, but (and this has been hotly debated on Backspace), I don't know that for me, that's the most time-effective way to go. I'm an unknown author, and who shows up to hear an unknown author to read, and sure, I could certainly sell a few more books that way, but I'm also a busy mother of two, and trekking out to dozens (or hundreds, as he does) of stores to introduce myself doesn't seem viable right now, though I do agree with him that it probably leads to better shelf space, hand-selling and all of that. Published authors out there, do you agree or disagree? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

For me, I really think that the best promotional tool might have been starting this blog. I did it partly to promote the book and partly because I really enjoyed offering a counter-perspective to Miss Snark, a writer's perspective to this crazy industry. And what's been amazing, and I alluded to this earlier in the week, is not that I have thousands of eyeballs and readers and all of that, but via this blog, I've MET so many other writers and readers...and we all champion each other. I've been interviewed on blogs, and I've hosted interviews here; people have talked about my book, and I've talked about theirs. The blogging community not only has incredible power, it's also incredibly open and generous and kind, and so, from the security of my office, I can sit here and get the word out, and also befriend some fabulous folks.

Promotional tools I'm unconvinced of: bookmarks and doo-dads and various things like that. I've never bought a book because I had a pen or a stress ball with a title on it. Have you? (And I don't ask this rhetorically...I'd like to know!)

One new spin that I do think works: Book clubs. I've done a few call-ins for these, and they're not only superfun, they're a guarantee of books sold. So, for pubbed authors out there, if you can spread the word that you're willing to call in, do it. It's a great way to connect with readers, and I'm always surprised at how excited they are to have me! It completely cracks me up.

So pubbed authors, what are your favorite promotional tools? And readers, what are the ways that get you to buy books? I'd love to have a discussion on this!

Another Book Giveaway! Back to COOL!

Man, free stuff has just been oozing out left and right these days. Here's the latest contest from my fabulous friend, Rachel Weingarten, who is an all-around culture guru and who has been quoted just about everywhere, including CNN and a gazillion other places. Her latest book, Career and Corporate Cool, is a must-have handbook for navigating even the stickiest of work situations.

Here's the lowdown on the book:

Imagine if life came with a handbook to help get you through just about every potentially awkward, stressful, or over-the-top situation, with humor, grace, and dignity intact. Life doesn't come with a handbook—but now business does. In Career and Corporate Cool™, style and marketing maven Rachel Weingarten defines and details the elements necessary to succeed and stand out in the modern work environment. It's filled with witty and user-friendly advice on building your personal brand equity in the business world while staying true to yourself. Part business memoir, part hybrid of business and style, Career and Corporate Cool™ is a cheat sheet for your professional life, with fun and helpful anecdotes from people who've been there.

And here are the details of the contest:

For those of you who have been waiting to get your hot little hands on a copy of my new book Career and Corporate Cool- now's your chance! To celebrate the first week of autumn on 9/25 from 9 to 5, we'll be having an all (work) day long promotional event that will include hourly giveaways including an icy cool diamond pendant, gift certificates to iTunes, Sephora, FabulousStationery.com, Barnes and Noble, autographed copies of my book, magazine subscriptions and more.

The rules are fairly simple: Purchase a copy of CAREER AND CORPORATE COOL™ from any online retailer on 9/25/07 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EST) and e-mail your receipt to backtocool@careerandcorporatecool.com for a link with access to exclusive hourly updated content not included in the book. Once purchase is verified, you will be entered to win the cool prize for that hour, with one grand prize winner announced at the end of the workday.

Visit www.CareerandCorporateCool.com for more information and complete contest rules.

Blogging for Beginners

Question of the Week: I'm thinking about starting a blog. Can you tell me where to start and how to go about it?

Well, starting a blog is easier than you think, maintaining it is more difficult. To start a blog, simply sign up with either Blogger or Wordpress, and voila, you're a blogger. FWIW, I opted for Blogger because its functionality seemed easier, but I do admit that I like Wordpress's design and layout a bit better. Beyond that, I don't really know the differences between the two, though some readers might, so feel free to chime in on your preferences below.

Once you're up and rolling, well, that's when the work begins. According to some article I read recently, there are millions, literally millions, of blogs out there, so before you start typing furiously away, you should probably assess what you intend the purposes of your blog to be. Will it be something personal for friends and family? A promotional tool for upcoming projects? A way to help hone your writing? An niche outlet on, say, knitting, to reach other knitters? I think that without a purpose, your blog is likely to flounder because a) you won't have much motivation to keep at it and b) you won't have any readers. (Note: these two things may self-perpetuate.)

Once you figure out why you're blogging in the first place, you're faced with your next two hurdles: posting frequently, which takes more time than you'd think, and gathering an audience, which also isn't such a breeze. I don't have any brilliant insights into getting readers other than befriending - genuinely - other bloggers. Take the time to visit their blogs and leave comments. When the time comes, ask for them to link to you. Hone in on your niche - for our purposes, knitting - and maybe participate in some online forums, then ask people to check out your blog. I'm sure that there are other ways to drive traffic - I was fortunate enough to get mentioned in MediaBistro several times - and that certainly increased eyeballs, but I'll also let other readers chime in here with other tactics too.

One wonderful side effect of blogging: I've made a whole slew of online friends whom I'd never have met without the blog. It's a nice and welcome perk when you sit in a lonesome office...even when updating the blog falls to the bottom of my list, I'm grateful that I started it because I've met such awesome people through it.

Speaking of you awesome people, what are your suggestions for this reader? What blogging format do you use? And how can she increase her traffic? Any other blogging tips?

Back Next Week!

So sorry about the paltry posts this week...my son started preschool, and I've spent most of the day there, as we deal with separation (even though he doesn't really care if I leave, I have to stay!). So...I haven't had any time to catch up on posts or on your questions, which I know I have a bit of a back log of. (Poor sentence construction there, sorry.) In fact, I covertly slid out this AM to run an errand (and post this message), but I'm running back there now.

Speaking of questions, when I switched formats in July, I didn't mean to indicate that readers couldn't still ask any or all industry/writing related questions, so please do feel free to send them to me, and I'll put them up when I can.

Have a great weekend! I'm rushing back to preschool. :) (Bad mommy who sneaks out!)

YAHOO!!!

First of all, you guys had some fabulous suggestions in yesterday's post. I'm so psyched and am going to the store today to get some ingredients for these wonderful concoctions. So thank you. Keep 'em coming.

More importantly, I had to put up a quick post because I JUST FINISHED, THIS VERY SECOND, THE DRAFT OF TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!! And I'm beyond excited! Isn't it just THE BEST feeling on the planet to be done with a manuscript??

Now, of course, I'm not done done. I'll start revising it tomorrow, giving it one spin through before both my agent and my editor read it, but still! It's SUCH a thrill! I enjoy revising so much more than writing from scratch because a) I don't remember half of what I've written, so I'm usually pleasantly surprised at some of the scenes (er, and mortified at a few as well), and b) it's much easier to work with a structure rather than build it from the ground up.

So, I'm blowing the rest of the day off! What do you guys do to celebrate big career moments? Share your best celebratory ideas...maybe some of us will steal a few of them! :)

Let's Do Lunch

So I'm admitting up front that this is a mindless, silly little post, but come on, join in and help me out.

Here's the deal: I'm stuck in a lunch rut. Come midday, I almost dread the thought of getting lunch because I'm so bored with my options. I usually take a break from work and either go to the gym or run errands before lunch and then grab something from one of the gourmet markets near me - usually a salad, though lately, I've added soup into the mix. And since I've lived in the same area for six years, I've pretty much eaten the same rotation for six years: salad with grilled chicken, salad with tuna, salad with feta and cucumbers. You get the idea. For a while, I was really into the salads at Cosi, a sandwich chain around here, but they redesigned their to-go area, and now, not only does it take about 20 minutes to get my salad, 80% of the time, it's wrong. Oh, and last week, I was halfway through it when I found a dead fly in the lettuce. Nice. I wish I enjoyed sandwiches more...I just don't though, probably because I can eat them in less than five minutes, and then it feels like I've barely had a lunch break!

I don't know why I never make lunch at home - probably because I can't muster the energy. Dealing with making dinner is effort enough. But you know, my taste buds are listless, and I'm willing to give it a whirl if that's what's necessary to shake things up.

So tell me, what are your favorite lunch foods or where do you grab lunch every day? Inspire me to eat something different tomorrow!

Emmy Post-Mortem (and Some Name Dropping)

So, if you've followed this blog at all, you know that I'm a huge TV addict, my love for books aside. So, it's with a fevered frothiness that I anticipate the Emmys...not so much because I think the nominations are the true highlights of the best of TV (because, er, Lost was amazing last season and the fact that it wasn't nominated is shameful, and while I don't watch The Wire, critics said the same about that), but because hey, it's a chance to see (and critique) all of my favorite (and not so favorite) celebs. And of course, to root for a few of 'em too.

So my thoughts on last night? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Was it just me or was that not the most boring snoozefest? I mean, seriously! I guess it was made a little bit interesting by the fact that so many of the wins were unexpected (um, James Spader???), but still. I can't even think of anyone who I thought was so gorgeously dressed that I'm dying to chat about her here. And those musical numbers? Ugh, I wanted to claw my eyes out.

I will say that while I was really disappointed that Jenna Fisher didn't win, I'm cool with Jaime Pressly victory. Cool story: I actually interviewed her a few months back, and when the piece came out, she sent me flowers! I mean, come on! Jaime Pressly sent me flowers??? I almost fainted when my doorman handed them to me, and I read the card. Pretty classy, so yeah, I'm okay with her win.

And I was also torn over the 30 Rock win. If you don't watch it, you should. It's is so freaking hilarious that it even sucked in my husband, who has sworn off all new tv shows because we already have too many on our list. But, as you guys probably know, I'm a devoted Office-phile, so I was a little bummed for them, as well as for Steve Carell's loss...though when he bounded on stage, I nearly peed in my pants. I've also been lucky enough to get to know Melora Hardin a bit (she's so super-awesome and the opposite of Jan in real life), and I was hoping to see her on stage in a fabulous dress!

Anyhoo, speaking of Carell, I have a cover story out with him now! The interview might have been one of the highlights of my career...I kid you not. He was so cool and funny and warm, and writing it meant that I got to interview other members of the cast, so, here it is. At times like these, I really love my job. :)

So...what did you guys think of last night, for those of you who watched? Anyone wow you with her dress? Thrilled for anyone's victory?

Finding The One

So today, I'm talking about finding the right idea for your novel and having it click. (And giving up on ideas that don't.) Check it out on Writer Unboxed.

And Happy New Year to those of you celebrating!

Like Pulling Teeth

So, due to a variety of life-circumstances over the past week and a half including, but not limited to: a daughter who had to go to the hospital (she's fine), a son who has just moved to a big boy bed and who now seems to shun sleep time for play time at all hours, a nanny who was also hospitalized (different reasons, she's also fine, but I haven't had childcare all week - she's back today, hurrah!), a closing on a new house (an nearly all-day event, sigh), renovations and constructions plans for said house, furniture deliveries that didn't come at the appointed windows (of course!) and thus sucked up an entire day, various conferences and meetings at my son's new school, misplaced keys that left me locked out for the better half of a day, and looming and mounting magazine deadlines - I haven't been able to focus as much as I'd like to on my manuscript. Gee, go figure.

Last week, I was still relatively productive: I set a word count for myself each day, and somehow, come hell or high water, I got there despite various (see above) obstacles. This week? I'm floundering. Of course, trying to squeeze in my writing during Sesame Street or nap time (which, did I mention, is non-existent for my son right now?) doesn't help. But still...I hate not meeting my daily goal. So I force myself to write, and it's sort of like drawing blood from a stone.

So I'm curious what you guys do when life gets in the way and your brain just can't settle down: do you keep writing because it's a) a nice distraction (which it is) and b) some writing is better than nothing, or do you just toss in the towel and know that your energy is better served attending the obstacles that have been thrown in your path and returning to your work when you're feeling refreshed?

I can see arguments for both sides. If you forge on, you don't lose momentum, and I do think that even a few paragraphs per day is better than none. BUT, you also risk burning yourself out - I'll admit that I'm sort of dreading getting back to writing today because yesterday was so awful. What if I can't bust out of the funk? So you do risk worrying about that...

Hmmm, I dunno. But I bet that you guys do! :) Tell me, what are your writing strategies when life goes haywire and sitting down to your manuscript seems almost impossible?

Help with a Story: Surviving the Holidays While Pregnant

Help! I never, ever troll for sources on my blog, but I'm truly desperate. I'm working on a story on surviving the holidays while pregnant, and I need some more real-life mom tips. You wouldn't think this would be so hard, but I'm having a very tough time getting unique, interesting tips on things such as travel, stress, shopping, entertaining and energy. If you have some ideas and would like to be quoted, please email me! allison@allisonwinn.com Pretty please?? Thank you!! (Or you can post below, and I'll get in touch with you directly.)

GCC Presents: Toni McGee Causey and Bobby Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day

As if the title isn't enough to make you buy this book, Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and called it "hilarious." And this review in Book Reporter inspired me to shell out for my very own (fabulous) copy. Here's the gist, followed by Toni McGee Causey's answers to a few questions.

Bobbie Faye Sumrall knows that a day without disaster is a day in someone else's life. Criminals have kidnapped her good-for-nothing brother and are demanding her Contraband Queen tiara--the only thing of her mama's she inherited--as random. So Bobbie Faye has to outwit the police, organized crime, former boyfriends, and a hostage she never intended to take (but who turns out to be damn sexy!), in order to rescue her brother, keep custody of her niece, and get back in time to take her place as Queen in the Lake Charles Contraband Festival (think Mardi Gras, with more drinking and pirates).

Luckily, Bobbie Faye knows how to handle guns, outsmart angry mama bears, drive a speedboat, and get herself out of--and into--almost every kind of trouble. If only that pesky state police detective (who also happens to be a pissed-off ex-boyfriend) would stay out of her way . . .

1) What's the backstory behind your book?

Bobbie Faye was that rare story where the character just showed up whole, and about five minutes later, so did Trevor and Cam. I knew these people, inside and out, and knew what kind of long-term arcs they'd have. There was something so exciting about writing a kick-ass woman character, an action / comedy where the woman was capable and smart, even though she does have tons of disasters and obstacles and bad luck aiming her direction. I'd spent a lot of years in non-fiction and then screenwriting; there were some successes, but Bobbie Faye inspired me in a way no other story had.

2) What do you love most about writing fiction? What do you like least?

The daily writing is the most satisfying to me. Seriously--I love the process. I enjoy the brainstorming, character-building, world-building, plotting. I'm one of those weird people who also loves rewriting--it's where a story really takes shape for me.

The least satisfying part is probably after it's done (really done, after copy edits and galleys) and before it comes out, because there's this awful suspension of process. It's hard to concentrate on something new because there's promotional stuff to do and, and nothing can be done about the one that's about to come out, and it's a bit like holding your breath... for a month or so.

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

I started off years ago writing feature and staff articles for The State Times / Morning Advocate; from there, I wrote and edited for a regional magazine and sold to some national magazines. I wanted to get back into fiction, though, and went back to school, finished my degree and did (most of) and MFA in Screenwriting. Before I graduated, though, an agent in L.A. signed me and I spent some time doing the whole screenwriting gig. When I wrote Bobbie Faye, though, I knew I wanted to go back to the novel form, but went ahead and wrote it originally as a script to use as an outline. A friend read the script and handed it to a friend of hers, though I didn't realize at the time that this woman was a bestselling author (under a pen name). She called, asked if I was writing it as a novel; I said yes, and she pitched it to an editor friend of hers and suggested an agent. I told her that first time novelists don't sell on three chapters and a synopsis, but she proved me wrong. Before I knew what had happened, I'd signed with an agent and the editor had made an offer for that novel and the next two in a pre-emptive deal. It still boggles my mind: I'd spent years slogging it out in the trenches, though. At the point of the sale, I'd actually been writing just about twenty years from the point when I first published the non-fiction. It was incredible luck, that sequence of events, so I want to encourage people to keep trying, keep asking for feedback, keep handing your stuff to someone--all that hard work helps to create the opportunity for good luck to work for you.

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 write mostly in the evening (and blogs are my worst procrastination problem). Evening's are just when I'm most creative, though I tried to fight that for years, and when our kids were little, evenings / nights writing took a heavy toll on my morning coherence in getting them ready for school. I don't really have any necessary to-dos... except maybe quiet / no interruptions. I'll mull for a while and then write in a burst. It took me years to get my family to understand that the writing part--sometimes even the more important part--was happening even when I wasn't banging away on the keyboard. If I'm staring off into space, that's usually when I'm doing the hardest part--brainstorming or arranging/finessing something.

The Early Bird Gets the Book

Question of the week: Congrats on your sale! Um, not to sound like an idiot, but what's a pre-empt?

You're not an idiot! A few people wrote me to ask this very question, and when I was starting out, I didn't know the answer either.

A pre-empt is when one publishers jumps in before all of the others and says, "I'll give you X amount of money to take this off the table and refuse other offers." The publisher thus "pre-empts" the other bidders.

I asked my agent all about accepting a pre-empt vs. going to auction, and she explained it thusly: with a pre-empt, the publisher will usually come in with close-to-their highest possible bid, let's say, for simple numbers purposes, 50k. If you were to hold an auction, the bids would start much lower, let's say, 10k. As people bid up and up, you may or may not reach the original pre-empt offer. You can also conduct a "best bids" auction, in which publishers don't necessarily bid "against" each other in the traditional sense, rather they all toss in their highest possible bids and hope that they come out on top. In our case, my new publisher came to us and said, we'll pay X, to which my agent said, "how about you pay X+Y and we'll take it off the table." (This was an editor I was dying to work with, and both my agent and I agreed it was worth it to take our chances.) The editor called back, and the deal was sealed.

So that is a pre-empt. Remember that I'm not an agent and this is just the best that I can figure it all out - I might have gotten some of the details wrong!

Anyone else out there gotten a pre-empt? If you have, why did you decide to go with it? And for those of you shopping around your ms or hoping to one day be published, which would you rather: a pre-empt or an auction? (You know, in a dream world! I should note, to for disclosure, that most books sell on one offer, not at auctions or pre-empts...I don't want to pass along misinformation here.)

Contests Here, Contests There...

Contests, contests everywhere!

Okay, so clearly, I'm reading a bit too much Dr. Seuss with my son, but you get the point.

Writer Unboxed is giving away a full set of Writer's Market guides worth over $150.00. As if the wonderful advice and prose isn't enough over there, so go check it out!

And the lovely Sara Hantz, whose YA debut The Second Virginity of Suzy Green was just released is throwing a blog party this week. Head over there to win free books, among other things, from a variety of guest bloggers. Ooh, and here's a little info on Suzy Green, which sounds hilarious!

"Suzy Green used to be one of the coolest nonconformist "almost-Goth" party girls in Australia. That was before her older sister Rosie died and her family moved to a new town. Not even her best friend would recognize her now. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie—perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she's not technically qualified? Nobody in town knows . . . until Ryan, Suzy's ex, turns up."

Hope some of you guys win!

So Here's Something Interesting

(Quick note: the Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit (GCC) was mentioned in Sunday's New York Times! Check out the article on author tours.)

So, as I noted last week, I'm back in the swing of writing my manuscript. I took a few months off as we shopped it around - I was able to sell it on the first 100 pages and a synopsis - and I dove back in about two weeks ago. And here's something I've discovered: I'm not so sure how much I actually like writing. Hmmm, interesting isn't it? :)

Let me clarify. I LOVE spending time with the characters in my head. I LOVE crafting obstacles and dialogue and all of that. But for some reason, even as my brain spins in the story - which these days, is almost a constant - I DREAD sitting down and writing. Weird, right??? I mean, I will do just about anything to procrastinate. I get into my office, so full of enthusiasm and ideas and bursting to put them on to the page, and then I open up the document, and I'm just sort of like, "ugh." So I surf every last gossip blog, and I check in on all of my writing forums, and if there's even a teeny-tiny thing that I need to buy, I'll cruise from website to website browsing.

The only way that I get anything done is that I set time deadlines for myself. I nervously eye the clock on the lower-right hand corner, and know that say, as soon as it flips to 10:30, I have to focus, come hell or high water. Once I start writing, I accelerate and all of the ideas snowball, and I'm always glad to have done it (and enjoy doing it too), but for me, I think it's the anticipation of the work ahead that I dread. Sort of like how some people can't stand to think of going to the gym, but once they're there, they dig it.

I actually recently interviewed Peter Hedges, the author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape and the director of the soon-to-be released movie, Dan in Real Life (so good, go see it when it comes out in Oct), and he said something similar. He was trying to wrap up his new novel and had taken a lot of time away from the book to work on the movie. And he said something like, (I'm paraphrasing here), "I always kick myself when I take time off from a manuscript because it's so hard to get back into it. I stare and it and wish that I could get back those months when I did nothing."

So hey, if an incredible writer like Hedges feels the way I do, I can't be that off my rocker, but tell me, do any of you guys feel the way I do? That sometimes, writing is a battle, albeit a necessary and even enjoyable one, but a battle all the same. Am I making sense? Or am I just weird and alone in this? :)

Super-Duper, Awesomely Rad, Hyperly Cool News

Hee. I don't think I've used the word "rad" since I was thirteen, but this post calls for it.
I'm thrilled, THRILLED, to announce that we have sold my second novel, TIME OF MY LIFE, to Shaye Areheart, a Random House imprint, in a pre-empt. We're expecting a Fall 2008 publication, which means that I have to burrow my head in the figurative sand and get my arse in gear because, oh, I have 40k words to go, and a Nov 1st deadline to crank 'em out.

So, I imagine that I'll be talking a lot about my writing process in the next few weeks and all of the stuff that goes into getting a manuscript perfected and polished for publication. I'll also post about the sale process - how the whole thing went down and how, as you'll hear, you have to keep hustling and writing good stuff to stay publishable, even if you've already been published once. Establishing a long-term writing career is no easy road.

With that, I'm diving back into my ms (I took a little break to post this), and will probably check out until Labor Day. Though if I have anything else inspiring to add, I will!

In the meantime, check out my pal, Jen Singer's website, Mommasaid.net - which is an incredible network for moms who need a break and a laugh - and vote on her Wacky Wig contest. Jen's a strong face of cancer who won't let it kick her ass. Rock on!

GCC Presents: Laura Florand, Blame It On Paris

Eleven o’clock on a Friday night. The seamy, sex-obsessed center of Paris. I balanced over a Turkish toilet in a tiny bistro, one stiletto heel propped against the wall to make some kind of writing table out of my knee, trying desperately not to touch anything around me as I wrote an invitation…. Thus begins BLAME IT ON PARIS, Laura Florand’s hilarious and moving true story of a French-American romance between two people, two families, and two cultures.

What does happen when you put a small-town Georgian in Paris and a handsome, sophisticated Parisian in small-town Georgia? Especially when two huge families, one French and the other American, decide it’s up to them to further this romance. The Parisian’s family wants Laura to learn how to prepare snails, while Laura’s family keeps serving Sébastien Mad Dog 20/20 as good wine. How will true love survive?

Today, I'm thrilled to host Laura Florand, author of Blame it On Paris, which Booklist calls "hilarious," and Publishers Weekly hails as "a frothy french connection."

Ready for my five questions with Laura? Here you go...

1) What’s the backstory behind your book?
Well, BLAME IT ON PARIS actually happened. It is the true story of one American and one handsome Parisian who fell for each other and the way their crazy families and even crazier cultures met, clashed, and—got along. You know that old Reese’s commercial, where the two people collide and one’s chocolate lands in another’s peanut butter? And it turns out to work much better than they suspected? It was like that, but everything that happened was so funny and yet so huge, I ended up telling the story.

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?

Although nobody ever wants to believe me—they swear I must have exaggerated—this is a completely true story. Even my own editor didn’t quite believe me, I think, so it got published as a novel. Which leads to a very strange confusion of fiction and real life, if you ask me.

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
I worked very hard for a couple of decades (I started writing when I was nine) and studied the publishing world. Then I submitted a proposal. Yes, a proposal—despite all that research, I didn’t know memoirs were treated as novels and that I should submit the whole thing. A great agent took me on and encouraged me to finish it. When I finished it and it was much more comic and light-hearted I think than he was used to (this was a purely non-fiction agent), he referred me to a close colleague who loved it, and…she shopped it around. Et voilà. We went with Tor Forge.

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 have a 15 month old baby. I don’t really have much choice—I can either sit down and write or procrastinate my way right through her nap time. So I just jump straight in and go. In a way, it’s like having a constant deadline—those can be very effective.

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?

That’s always a tricky question, since my characters are real people and I have a hard time imagining anyone else in their shoes. I would like to go back in time and have Lauren Bacall play me, though. It’s a fantasy of mine to look and act like Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not or The Big Sleep. I suspect the director would choose someone with a much ditzier persona, alas.

Finding a "Fresh" Angle

Question of the week: I was curious about some of the evergreen stories you've written because one of the "rules" of freelancing I've been told is that an article should have some kind of new angle to them, but these not all of yours are. So I was curious: is there a magic formula might be, absent a news hook.

Oh, if only! You know, I don't really have a brilliant answer for this, but I'll give it a shot. Yes, a lot of stories that I write and that magazines cover are indeed evergreen. And a lot of them are similar to others that you've read in the past or in other magazines. (Which is why newbie writers are so often convinced that a magazine "stole" their idea: in reality, it's just highly likely that someone else pitched a similar story or that the magazine was planning a similar story.) There's just no denying it.

What makes one pitch fresh and the other stale? Well, you already got the first aspect of it: news hooks. There's no better way to grab an editor's attention than by pointing out new studies or research that make the subject worthy of revisiting again.

But other than that, I really do believe that it comes down to packaging. Editors know that there are only so many topics and subjects out there, so I think that the best way to land an article is to come up with a creative way to package it. For example, I recently had a story run in Woman's Day called Just Do It. My editor had asked me for some new ideas, so I was brainstorming various things in my life that could be improved upon. (This is how I come up with a lot of my story ideas, btw.) I looked at my closet, and it made me want to cry, and I realized that I only had myself to blame for it: I'd been putting off organizing it for so long that it seemed almost unmanageable.

So, from here, I could have pitched a general, "Hey, let's do a story on organizing or let's do a story on procrastinating," but my editor would have said, "What's so interesting about that? What makes it any different than the gajillion other stories we've run like that?"

Instead, I came up with a creative way to cover the same-old subject. Thus, I broke the pitch (and the assigned story) down like this:

TASK THAT YOU HATE DOING
Why You Resist: Because it bores you to tears
Why We Insist: Because it will change your life, blah, blah, blah

Do you see how this one little twist made the subject matter so much more interesting? I really do think that's the key to landing evergreen stories, because, after all, news pegs can only take you so far.

But that's just my opinion. How do you guys land evergreens and what do you do to set yourself apart?

When Lightening Strikes

Before I get into today's post, I HAD to link to this incredible review of The Department of Lost and Found. I was truly so touched and humbled by it, so I hope you take the time to click over. (Haven't bought the book? What are you waiting for?)

So, the other day, I was hungry for a new book. So hungry that I couldn't wait for Amazon to deliver. (I'm a Prime member, so normally, I press "order," and the books are here within two days.) After dropping my son off at camp, I mosey to Barnes and Noble, and grab Jonathan Tropper's How to Talk to a Widower.

Well, I start it that afternoon on the subway to a meeting, and by the time I turned off the light for some shut-eye, I was 200 pages deep. (It was so good that I let my son watch an extra episode of Dragon Tales, just so I could keep reading. The very model of good parenting, I know!)

I woke up the next morning, desperate to read more, toted it to the dog run, (bonus for the pooch: he also got extra play time because I was so absorbed), and then skipped out on some work to finish it, sadly turning the last few pages because I didn't want it to end. God, I miss that book.

Anyway, after I lovingly placed it on our bookshelf, I started thinking about what, for me, makes a book click. It's almost intangible, you know? I mean, every book I buy, I hope that this magic will happen, but it doesn't always, in fact, it doesn't often. Every last thing about this book worked for me. Mostly, I suppose, it was the voice: if I'm not digging the voice of the narrator, the rest of book is shot. But there are other things too - what I really appreciated about HTTTAW was how I could be cracking up in one moment, then welling up in the next. (Yes, I actually started crying in the dog run! How mortifying!) Its emotional resonance really impacted me. And the character's story arc was also totally believable. By the end, even though I suspected it was coming, I really felt like, "Yup, that could happen. Those changes not only work, they're gratifying to the reader."

It was everything I hope for as a reader, and what I aspire to as an author. Will it win the Pulitzer? Hell, no. But it was all that I ask for and more out of a book. I'm now off to order Tropper's back list and hope that he pulls out the same stops for his previous works. (And no, I don't know the guy, so I'm certainly not shilling for him out of obligation or anything like that!)

So...have you read any books recently that captured this magic?

Conversation with Cindy: A Famous Blogger

So today, I have a little Q/A going on with one of my favorite bloggers, Cindy, from Conversations with Famous Writers. If you haven't checked out the site, do it asap - she manages to lure all sorts of fabulous and interesting authors to the site, and it's a must-read for me each week. Cindy is also the author of Thousand Dollars for a Kiss, a fun read set in the world of celebrity, and she took an unconventional route to getting published. Since I know so many aspiring writers check out this blog, I thought she might make for a bit of inspiration. Check it out!

1) You run one of my favorite blogs. What compelled you to start blogging and how did you attract such a big audience?

I started blogging for fun about celebrities in my (now defunct) gossip site, Conversations About Famous People. I got many, many hits every day, which was great fun but not satisfying to my soul, you know? It's not like I was doing something really positive by making fun of celebrities. It was bad karma.

I began Conversations with Famous Writers as a way to read and review and write about books and authors in an entertaining and casual way. I didn't want a stuffy, very literary type blog, I wanted to combine interesting, off beat interviews and inspire people to read really good books while getting to know the writers behind those books.

CAFP afforded me the opportunity to gather a big audience, some of which followed me to the book blog and helped make it successful. I still can't believe that this stay- at- home mom ran a successful gossip blog and reached over seven million viewers. Like, wow, millions of people read my work! I went to the E! channel in Los Angeles and did a screen test. It was exciting but not the direction I wanted to take my life in.

2) You interview a lot of well-known authors. Has any interview stood out as the best among others? How do you approach these authors? Anyone ever say no?

Jeannette Walls was super nice, she stands out as being one of the best. Jen Lancaster is lovely and hilarious. I adore Caroline Leavitt and Gayle Brandeis who I knew before I started my site. The fact that Pamela Anderson did an interview with me and linked to it on her website was huge for me. The majority of the authors are awesome and kind and grateful. Writers are generally speaking, a wonderful bunch.

I approach the authors through their PR people, some writers contact me directly. Paulina Porizkova wouldn't be interviewed for Model Summer and Angelina Jolie's manager said she wasn't giving interviews for her book Notes From My Travels. I was totally bummed!

Imagine me and Angelina doing an interview? We would become best friends forever and our kids could play together, we could get tattoos and were matching black clothes! She really missed out.

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring novelists. You refused to give up when it looked like a large publishing house wouldn't grab your manuscript...how did you then go about getting published?

I wrote two books and sent out hundreds and hundreds of query letters to agents. I received so many rejections that I seriously lost count of all of them. I could have wallpapered my whole house with those rejection letters.

When I wrote my third novel, A Thousand Dollars for a Kiss, I began the process all over again and of course the rejections trickled in. It was torture! I thought maybe I should self publish. I couldn't bear the thought of one more "no". I assumed that because I had a well known website and a built in audience of book buyers getting an agent would be easy. Not so.

At this time, Ephemera Bound got in touch with me to review their books. Instead of reviewing books, I asked if they would be interested in publishing my novel. I submitted it; they liked it and set me up with an editor. I was anxious.

4) What were the pros and cons of taking this route?

The positives aspects of going with a tiny publisher was that my book would be published in less than a year, I would work with an editor, I wouldn't need an agent, I would have a say in the cover art, the book would be available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com. I would finally have a published book that people could read. My dream of being a published author would come true. Fame and success were sure to follow! Visions of Prada and a new Infiniti FX 35 danced in my head.

The downside is a small publisher doesn't have a lot of marketing or advertising money, I did not get an advance, they didn't send out review copies to the big reviewers so my book was not widely exposed.

Places like Barnes & Noble, Costco, and Target have deals with the bigger publishers to have their books displayed and/or sold there but not with a small, relatively unknown publisher. Had I held out and found an agent who could have negotiated a great deal for me, my book would be in every book store and I'd be zooming around in my silver Infiniti wearing my True Religion jeans, lunching at The Ivy and shopping at Neiman Marcus.

5) What are you working on now?

I finished the sequel to A Thousand Dollars for a Kiss which is called Fifty Cents for Your Soul. It's about the celebrity obsessed character of Barrett and it features Marilyn Monroe. I'm plotting out the third book in my Hollywood series; this one will take place in the 60's with Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. I love that whole era. I wish I could wear faded bell bottoms and daisies in my hair all the time. But with MAC Lipglass and YSL mascara of course.

I'm reviewing my beloved beauty products on Hello Dollface and interviewing writers on Conversations With Famous Writers. Lately on my blog, I'm featuring movie trailers and news of novels being made into films. My goal is to have my books made into movies and somehow develop other good books into films. Angelina and I will become BFF and she can also star in my movies and we could do charity work together. It's a win/win all around.