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It’s Thursday! And I’m doing soup again because I was snarky about sick people last week and now I have sick people at my house. So being ugly doesn’t pay, just like Mama always told me. This soup is Roasted Butternut Squash. It’s pretty and yummy, but it does take a little time. Next week I’m probably going to feature pancakes or something… it’s time for something easy!

My friend Cleo Coyle who writes the Coffeehouse Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime sent me a link to an interesting article. It’s Redactor Agonistes by Daniel Menaker, who is former Executive Editor-in-Chief of Random House and fiction editor of The New Yorker.

Usually I don’t quote a lot of text from articles (and, clearly, you can all read it yourselves), but his article struck a real chord in me—I think because it sounded honest. And, frequently, I think writers are told what we want to hear by our publishers and agents.

Mr. Menaker paints an interesting behind the scenes look at the publishing industry. He makes eleven negative statements about the editing job. Included among them are:

• The editorial department is frequently out of touch with the sales department.
• The acquisitions departments include competitive editors who are going to basically stab you or your favorite project in the back.

Check out #9:

Many of the most important decisions made in publishing are made outside the author’s and agent’s specific knowledge. Well, meetings are held to determine which of those books your company is going to emphasize — talk about most, spend the most money on, and so forth. These are the so-called lead titles for those seasons. Most of the time, the books for which the company has paid the highest advances will be the lead titles, regardless of their quality.

On readers:

I have this completely unfounded theory that there are a million very good — engaged, smart, enthusiastic — generalist readers in America. There are five hundred thousand extremely good such readers. There are two hundred and fifty thousand excellent readers. There are a hundred and twenty-five thousand alert, active, demanding, well-educated (sometimes self-well-educated), and thoughtful — that is, literarily superb — readers in America. More than half of those people will happen not to have the time or taste for the book you are publishing. So, if these numbers are anything remotely like plausible, refined taste, no matter how interesting it may be, will limit your success as an acquiring editor.

And this statement (should our feelings be hurt?):

Usually, writers, like anyone else who performs in public and desires wide recognition, no matter how successful they become, have an unslakeable thirst for attention and approval — in my opinion (and, I’m embarrassed to say, in my own case) usually left over from some early-childhood deficit or perception of deficit in the attention-and-approval department. You will frequently find yourself serving as an emotional valet to the people you work with. It can be extremely onerous and debilitating, especially given the ever-decreasing number of your colleagues and the consequent expansion of your workload.

And more about writers (and other problem areas of the biz), but this is funnier:

“–to say nothing of the welter of non-editorial tasks that most editors have to perform, including holding the hands of intensely self-absorbed and insecure writers, fielding frequently irate calls from agents, attending endless and vapid and ritualistic meetings, having one largely empty ceremonial lunch after another, supplementing publicity efforts, writing or revising flap copy, ditto catalog copy, refereeing jacket-design disputes, and so on–“

At the end of #11, I was feeling fairly horrified, but fortunately he ended with a good note. #12 included a list of fun parts of the job, including:

• Despite their often intense neediness, writers are often fascinating and stimulating company.
• And most important, within its plentiful samenesses, every day brings with it some highly variegated tasks and challenges. Every single book is its own unique enterprise, every agent his or her own kettle of fish, every writer an education (sometimes in dysfunction), every book jacket a distinct and different illustrational project.

I’ve been chewing over this article like cud for days. Thoughts?

It started at the end of last week. I was driving the elementary school carpool and was sitting in the carpool line waiting the ten minutes for the school to open its doors. It’s best to get there early since the carpool line goes berserk in just minutes.

I noticed the girls were being really quiet. This usually makes me suspicious, but this particular morning I was just pleased at the amazing amount of silence at 6:50 a.m. When the doors opened at 7:00, I called to them to hop back in their seats and buckle up—they were all the way in the back, trunk area of the minivan.

Later that day I was putting groceries in the trunk when I saw our rechargeable personal DVD player back there, loaded with a Harry Potter movie. They’d hidden it under a sheet of plastic that I’d had in the trunk to lay plants from the nursery on.

Ohh. So that’s why they were looking so pleased with themselves.

Monday I was in the carpool line again and they clambered into the very back of the minivan once more. I nearly called out to them to just bring the DVD player into the second row of seats. I couldn’t care less if they quietly watch movies for ten minutes.

But then something stopped me. I realized that the whole reason they were having so much fun is because they thought they were getting away with something. To a kid, that’s just about the most fun you can have. If they could write a story about an exciting adventure, it would probably involve getting away with some misdemeanor. Very satisfying. They were just as pleased as punch.

This led me (naturally) to think about writing. What storylines satisfy me as a reader. What makes me sigh and feel pleased when I’ve read a particular passage or finished a good book? What makes me pleased as punch as a reader?

• Boy Gets Girl/Girl Gets Boy.
• Subplot where a deserving secondary character makes great personal strides or develops tremendously as a character.
• Overcoming the odds.
• Narrow escapes from death or disaster.
• Good triumphing over evil. Or good crushing evil totally.
• Order restored from bedlam.

Do you have any favorite plots that always make you feel satisfied as a reader? Do you incorporate them into your writing?

My notes on promoting seem really scattered. That might be because promoting can be overwhelming to me. There’s this huge ocean of books and my own recent release is just a bitty drop in it.

But I do have some method to my marketing madness.

Online:

I blog daily, which gives me an opportunity to stretch my writing muscles—and also gives my name and book name and genre more prominence on Google.

Twitter: I use Twitter primarily to keep up with industry news, read interesting posts and articles on writing, and to bring people to my blog.

Facebook: Facebook is a fun way for me to interact with other writers (I have a hard time interacting on Twitter for some reason. I lose conversation threads there.) Facebook has also become a way for me to connect with readers and interviewers. Apparently, if you Google me, Facebook is one of the top ways listed to contact me. I’ve gotten emailed interview requests there for print and online interviews, and have interacted with readers who’ve asked me about my first book (which is currently backlisted.)

Website: I try to keep the website updated, too. A lot of people have shot me emails through my “contact me” page. I need to update my appearances section (to get more people at my signings…and to let my publishers know what I’m doing.

Press:

Midnight Ink’s publicity department took care of the big stuff (reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, etc.) Whenever a print reviewer is interested in reading and reviewing my book, they usually contact me and I contact MI’s publicity department (and they send out the book copy.)

I did send out press releases (that Midnight Ink provided me) to some local news outlets.

I’ve had more fun—and felt I had more exposure to readers—through blog touring and appearances and reviews on book review blogs.

Appearances:

I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of appearances. But I’ve done both signings (and, now I suppose, readings) and workshops.

Signings:

I’ve done them solo and with other writers. I enjoy the ones with other writers best. The only problem is that if you have a table full of writers, it can be a little intimidating for readers (who might only want to purchase one book) to approach. If you’ve got a friend or a family member who can pass out flyers or bookmarks to passing readers, that might help pull them in.

Workshops: I like doing workshops the best (although it took me a while to warm up to them.) The writers who attend are very attentive and usually I sell some books. Plus, I like talking about writing. I’m probably more comfortable talking about writing than I am talking about my book.

Helpful Tools, Sites, and Recommendations:

This literary agency’s site details the pre-pub publicity process—mostly what your publicist is doing behind the scenes and how you should work with him or her.

This site covers “Your Book Promotion Countdown Checklist” (and might also scare the pants off you if you have a release coming up and haven’t done any of these things.) I wasn’t that organized.

Bookmarks (freebies for people to have during your signings), postcards (for marketing your book to libraries and bookstores), and business cards (for anyone who asks about your book in person) are must-haves.

Get a Facebook and Twitter account. They’re free.

Start a blog or comment on other blogs. Become part of the writing and reading community.

Enjoy! Most days it’s fun.

I had a signing yesterday at Barnes & Noble in Charlotte, NC. It ended up going well, although my plans for the event were completely hijacked. (Yes, that’s me in the corner of the picture, listening to the talented Joyce Lavene read from her latest book.)

We were seated in the mystery section and were planning on doing a regular signing. Then a lady came in (a customer) and asked for us to speak instead. There were no chairs set up at the time (because it was to be a regular signing). So the CRM at the bookstore kindly brought over some chairs and we started talking about our books.

The customer also asked us to read. I’ve never read from my books. That’s just not usually part of my dog and pony show. I don’t ordinarily enjoy hearing other people read their books, either. “I don’t read,” I whispered to her. She raised her eyebrows. “I mean, aloud.” Again with the eyebrows. “Except to my children.” She looked stern. So I ended up reading my prologue.

On the upside, I sold a good number of books. Some of the customers didn’t have time to sit and listen to speakers, but they came up to me on the side and I signed books for them during our impromptu program.

The delightful Customer Relations Manager (CRM) at the store offered to put me on her list of authors they could call up to speak at different local high schools. This will probably also pan out into more sales.

Someone else asked how much time we spent promoting and Joyce answered that 90% of our working time was in promoting (and she and her husband Jim have written over 50 books). It’s so true. I spend a lot more time promoting my book (online promotions with blog interviews, Tweeting, Facebooking—and in-person promoting) than I do with my writing. But the writing is woven into my day.

It’s funny. Promotion is a huge part of what writers do…but we’re all basically introverts who don’t like to leave home. Or read aloud. I think most of us are good sports—I had to be pulled out of my comfort zone, but it resulted in book sales.

While I was writing in Mexico (Epcot’s Mexico, let me hasten to add), a very pleasant Hispanic Disney staffer came over to talk to me. He was curious about what I was doing. This was fair enough, since I looked curious—I wrote for 1 1/2 hours in a notebook and occasionally took pictures of unusual-looking people.

I explained what I was doing and he was very interested. Was I planning to write in a Latino or Latina character?

I started out with a quick “no,” but then stopped short. Well, why not? The Hispanic population is probably the fastest-growing segment in the South. Wouldn’t it be odd if I didn’t include a Latino?

I included several African-American blues musicians in the Memphis Barbeque book. They’re a vital part of the culture and talent base of Memphis and it doesn’t make sense, culturally, not to make them part of my book.

But I’ll admit to some discomfort. I always want to do a Good Job. I’m no expert on different ethnic and racial groups and I don’t want to write anything to accidentally upset anyone. Besides, the South doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for its sensitivity. I don’t need to make matters worse by sticking my foot in my mouth (hand in my mouth?)

So I’m curious. How many of you have ventured into writing about other ethnic groups? Did you feel you were successful? Were you especially careful to avoid stereotypes? How did you handle it?