Getting paid and other book signing challenges

Signing for a very special fan - a most joyful reward for writing fiction

Rocks in the path -
How to survive book signings

Some authors cringe when thinking about book signings.  It can be an awkward experience.

I relished my debut and new-release book signings. It’s a deliriously happy time when my books release, and all my friends come to share my joy.  The book signings I’m writing about today, though, are the post-release book signings.  They typically occur in neighborhood book stores and aren’t accompanied by the trumpets and appeal of the release day.

I shriveled on the vine at my first post-release book signing. Arranged as a multi-author signing, the event featured five authors, one of whom was a “local.”  The remaining four of us were from another city.  Struggling with an embarrassingly light turn-out, we must have looked pretty formidable to book store customers, all lined up at our table with our books stacked up, waiting to be purchased.

The local author was a promotion wizard and had promoted the event well, so a steady trickle of her fans lined up to buy her books. The rest of us, being from a distant town, did little promotion and spent the time examining (and ultimately buying) each other’s books.  I imagine the experience was similar to participating in a book signing with Nora Roberts – one must endure with a smile.

I encountered another “challenging” signing when I joined four other authors at a book store run by a person who absolutely loves fiction and authors. Her enthusiasm and web site promotion had us all excited – but the turn-out was dismal because her web site had no following and she didn’t know how to promote the event in her own store.  In a two-hour period, we visited with perhaps four customers.  “Making lemonade,” we authors found consolation in each other’s presence and shared a lively discussion about craft and marketing.

From those awkward beginnings, I’ve discovered that pre-planning can make post-release book signings an entertaining and rewarding experience.  Meeting avid readers, discussing my book and yes, the thrill of signing it and seeing the look of anticipation in a reader’s eyes as she accepts my signed book all combine to make the signing sweet.  The key to a successful book signing is to plan, select a book store that can accommodate and promote the signing.  Do your own promotion as well and, once you’re there, connect with the people you meet – relax, share your joy and excitement for your book, but also listen and enjoy meeting book lovers.  Offer something fun for free.  Oh, and only display a few books, never an intimidating pile of them.  Everything else falls in place.

Getting paid for the books you sell can also be a less-than-ideal experience.  Stop by on Monday and I’ll share a couple of book selling nightmares that may help you avoid disaster.  And if you have a book selling nightmare of your own, please share it here.

The power of group writing

Cold, cold, cold …

Neglecting a WIP means playing catch-up

I’m back after a lovely family vacation in Florida. Quality time with family, sensational visits to the beach, strong waves, lean surfers, clear water. Fishing, and actually catching a fish (small, and we threw it back). Doing the Disney and falling a dozen floors in the Tower of Terror elevator. Rockin’ rollercoaster, yeah. Forgetting my age and, for just a few days, shedding my cloak of responsibilities and having fun.

Now, it’s back to work, and my WIP has cooled off. I’m on the road back today, studying my storyboard, re-reading chapters. It’s Soup Writing Day and I’m getting ready for a three-hour session with my critique partners. Writing together, live, is a great way to guarantee fresh writing. Because we’ve committed to this time together every Thursday, there’s no avoiding it. We will sit together at the same table, at the same time, and we will write.

There’s something mystical about group writing. It feels as if we’re all swimming in the same gently flowing river – maybe floating on a comfortable raft under soft sunshine. I love it. I recommend it.

Wishing you a day is filled with joy and creativity.

Father’s Day poem to my father

To all dads: Happy Father's Day

He can be your father, your grandfather, your uncle, your adopted father, or an older brother.  He’s so many things to us – coach, lifesaver, homework helper, all-round fan and supporter.  As Father’s Day approaches, we may recall the grey hairs we gave him, and the strange detours we may have taken in the past and how he tried to help us in spite of ourselves.  The older we get the wiser he seems.

In honor of Father’s Day, I wrote this poem for all fathers who love their children and give the world its greatest gift … the future.

Please feel free to put my poem to the paper of your choice for a Father’s Day or Birthday card for him.

In return, if you get a chance to read either of my novels, I would be honored. You can find them on amazon.com, at your local library and on eBay.  –Janet

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
by Janet Lane

Being a dad is more than a day
More than a thank-you or annual display
Your laughter and caring, adventure and humor
So giving, befitting the honor of father

I couldn’t be more proud of the  man
Who guides my life and our happy clan
You’re my buddy, my hero, and may I suggest
When it comes to dads, you’re the best of the best!

Father’s day poem to my husband

A poem to John on Father's Day

He’s so many things to your children – coach, lifesaver, homework helper, all-round fan and supporter.

In honor of Father’s Day, I wrote this poem for my husband, John, and for all fathers who love their children and give the world its greatest gift … the future.

Please feel free to put my poem to the paper of your choice for a Father’s Day or Birthday card for him.

In return, please leave a comment below and, if you get a chance to read either of my novels, I would be honored. You can find them on amazon.com, at your local library and occasionally on eBay.  –Janet

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
by Janet Lane

Being a dad is more than a day
More than a thank-you or annual display
Your laughter and caring, adventure and humor
So giving, befitting the honor of father

I couldn’t have picked a better man
To travel through life with our crazy clan
You’re my husband, my hero, and may I suggest
A wonderful father — the best of the best!

GMC – the juice that drives the story

GMC.  It’s a mantra

GMC-Clarice's desperation to silence the lambs provides the capital M-Motivation that drives her out of her comfort zone and makes the action riveting.

fiction writers have heard frequently, a principle that can add power to your writing.

I recommend Debra Dixon’s book, “GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict, the Building Blocks of Good Fiction.”.

While there’s a huge following for Dixon’s GMC, some writers think the concept is too simple, that it can become formulaic and predictable.  Boring, even.

Craft is more apparent in children’s stories, which makes them a good source for observing writing principles in action. More sophisticated stories require a closer look but possess the same GMC format, a format that strengthens a protagonist’s motivation and the progression of the story.

Without motivation, there is no juice.  Imagine Clarice in “Silence of the Lambs” as she explains to Lecter that she hears the lambs crying … and that it kind of interrupts her sleep on some nights.  She may even shrug as she says it.

By the dialogue and body language, the reader is cued that Clarice doesn’t much care, and if the character doesn’t care, we don’t care, either. Any heroic or dramatic actions this character may later take to silence the lambs won’t be convincing to us, later.

Characters grow when they face their fears. Like us, they’re quite comfortable with the status quo. It hurts, embarrasses, frightens them to step outside of their comfort zones and grow. What makes them do it is motivation.

The intensity must be there.  Clarice can’t just sort of want the crying to go away – she must *desperately* want it to go away.

This strong motivation is what carries her through very difficult moments in the story. Without it, she’d just leave Lecter and the next victim to their private hells and perform within the rules and requirements of her job.

That’s just one example. In GWTW, imagine how flat this classic story could be if Scarlet just “sort of” liked Tara.

GMC is the juice that drives the story.

Birthday poem for mother-in-law

I posted a Mother’s Day poem in May and have been overwhelmed with the response – thousands of people have downloaded my poem for their Mother’s Day greeting cards.

In answer to requests for a birthday poem for beloved mothers-in-law, I made some small adjustments to my Mother’s Day poem. It’s now a birthday poem and I’m pleased to share it with you.

I adore my mother-in-law, Dot, so it was a pleasure to sit back and reflect on the many wonderful memories we’ve shared. With the spirit and energy of beagles, she and I have tracked garage sales, mall sales and auctions. We’ve savored our bargains, compared recipes, cooked together, danced together, laughed and cried together. Dot even helped me plan one of my book signings in Florida, and I was able to meet her wonderful Woman’s Club friends.

Please feel free to put my poem to the paper of your choice for a birthday card for her.

In return, if you get a chance to read either of my novels, I would be honored. You can find them on amazon.com, at your local library and on eBay.  –Janet

With Love to My Mother-in-Law

by Janet Lane

A visit by phone to share the news

An e-mail you send to inform and amuse

A leisurely visit with coffee or tea

A richly amusing shopping spree

We share so much, I’m ever so thankful

To find a soul sister so warm, so delightful

My marriage brought a huge dividend

Wonderful you, who became my friend

On this special date I would never miss

My chance to send this joyful wish

A bounty of love is sent your way

With a hearty wish for a Happy Birthday!

Anxiety and writing – don’t worry, be happy!

This is you --the one on the right, LOL-- free from that nagging inner critic

“Life is what happens to you while you’re worrying.”

… Janet Lane

Is this just me? Do you worry about the past, too? Do you sometimes review and review a conversation, wondering if you could have expressed yourself better, come up with a more witty response, or remembered to be more thoughtful and inquire about your friend’s ailing daughter?

With fiction, it could be about our work-in-progress: This story isn’t working. What made me think I could write a story about ____? It could be about critique: No one liked my chapter. That was so embarrassing, I wish I hadn’t (whatever). It could be about a bad review: He’s right; my plot was thin. Why didn’t I…? Or an editor/agent appointment: Why didn’t I tell him about X?

If the book’s already in print, it’s too late. If it’s a WIP, it can be fixed and we can move on. If the critique wasn’t spot on, we can choose to ignore it and write the scene the way we wanted to write it because it’s our story. Why do we spend so much time looking backward?

I don’t have that answer, but I can share what I do when the voice becomes so loud that I am no longer enjoying my “present.”

1. Silence the voice. Just as we quickly end a sales call if we have no interest in the product, you can “hang up” on your nagging worry-voice. If the little voice is nattering away, driving you crazy about something over which you have no control, “just say NO.” If I’m obsessing, I remind myself that “you are what you think.” Since I don’t want to “be” a broken record of whining, I like to take my dog for a walk outside. Mother Nature is skilled at healing us with fresh views of nature, the green richness of a mature tree, delicate scents of flowers or just the fresh earth, awakening in spring. Good novels and movies are fabulous, too, for silencing the voice and inspiring us.

2. “Just do it.” If you’re worrying about getting a better job, devise a new or better plan of attack. If you find your life boring, write down two dozen things you enjoy, and write at least three of them into your schedule for the next week or month. Free-floating anxiety vanishes when you have a plan.

3. Call in reinforcements. Though generalizations are always dangerous, a woman may be more likely to empathize with your suffering, and a man may be more likely to help you find a solution. My personal thought is that whatever the gender, your friend will be eager to help you feel better in some way, which will get you off the one-way worry track.

4. Be kind to yourself. I founded a writer support group five years ago, and we have been holding two goal sessions a month all this time. We write goals, check in with each other every day, and encourage each other. One of the most frequent messages I share with these dear friends of mine – and one they share with me – is to “be kind to yourself.”

How can we be kind to ourselves when this chiding, deriding voice keeps harping at us? We can silence it by reminding ourselves of our successes, of our strengths.

5. Self-affirmations are powerful. Say it out loud: “I am talented. I am trying to be the best I can be.” Write these words down. Read them out loud. Smile when you say that!

I’m wishing you a pleasant, productive day in the present, unfettered by nagging voices.

Do you have tips to share? How do you silence the inner critic, appreciate your talents, and enjoy life?  Please share them by clicking comments, below.

The fairy-tale dream of Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle inspired the world with the society-induced incongruity of an ordinary appearance and extraordinary talent

I dreamed a dream -

The fairy-tale launching of Susan Boyle

by Janet Lane

 

Who hasn’t heard of Susan Boyle, the homely woman with the angelic voice who inspired the world? She stood before the Britain’s Got Talent judges, enduring their eye-rolling and other visible expressions of dismissal. Patient and gracious, she answered their questions, revealing her age (good grief, 47!), the fact she’d never been given a chance with her singing, and most of all her dream, to sing with the likes of Elaine Paige, a famous English singer. That brought another round of cruel eye-rolls from judges and the audience as well.

Then she sang, and the rest truly is history. Her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables gave me goosebumps, and I didn’t hear it live – like hundreds of millions of other people, I saw this remarkable audition on YouTube.

 

I needed to hear more. I listened to her Cry Me a River, and I saw her second performance on Britain’s Got Talent when she sang Memories from Cats, one of my lifetime favorite songs. More goosebumps. Her voice is, quite simply, fantastic, but it’s also her interpretation of the songs, the life and passion she gives them. She delivers, and she delivers with a straightforward honesty I’d almost forgotten.

Contrast her performance with the current video pop star kings and queens. Always aware of where the camera is, they “act” their way through songs, delivering carefully rehearsed expressions and movements meant to convince you that their songs are filled with the passion of the lyrics and essence of the song.  We know it’s not passion.  It’s contrived.

Not so with Boyle. She simply sings.

In addition to her unaffected delivery and her angelic voice, she represents hope for anyone who possesses a special talent and strives to succeed. It’s a tale as old as time itself, embraced more passionately in the United States than anywhere else in the world: Cinderella. Rags to Riches.  Or Rocky Balboa, from downtrodden to triumphant.

Susan Boyle touches all singers who have hope in their hearts, all singers who have a dream. By extension, she touches all people who possess artistic talent. She shows us that Cinderella can win. J. K. Rowling did much the same thing with Harry Potter, climbing from welfare-supported obscurity to dizzying fame and success.

Boyle is exceptional. Youngest of four brothers and six sisters, she never left home. She stayed long after her siblings left, sacrificing her own pursuits by taking care of her 91-year-old mother until her death in 2007. Boyle tried to do honor to her talent, learning from a voice coach, attending Edinburgh Acting School, and spending her entire savings to produce a professional demo tape which she distributed to record companies, radio talent competition and local and national TV. She endured such mocking in 1995 at a local talent competition called My Kind of People that she almost backed out of her audition with Britain’s Got Talent.

Hard to imagine now, isn’t it?  She came this close to not doing it. She was too old. Not pretty enough. Had tried and tried and failed. Why subject herself to more public humiliation?

Her mother believed in her, that’s why. When it came down to something balancing on those scales we use to make our decisions, her mother’s faith in her, her mother’s urging her to try Britain’s Got Talent, tipped the scales and made her keep that audition date.

There are many fascinating aspects of Susan Boyle’s meteoric rise to fame. As writers and artists, this is her biggest gift to us, a message. A reminder:  Thank the person who steadfastly believes in your dream. At times when your faith falters, trust that person’s faith, as Susan Boyle did.

You have a dream.

Keep it.

Success – are you a tortoise or a hare?

Control your expectations to avoid excessive frustrations on your writer's journey. Sketch courtesy of Sarah Mensinga.

Hold onto the joy
by Janet Lane

I’m always delighted to learn of a good friend who lands their first book contract. If you’re one of them, I’m thrilled for you.  If you’re from the other group, hovering on the brink of selling,  I wish you steady faith and continued diligence.  Keep writing, keep trying.

Focus on your writer’s journey, and try to avoid comparing your work to others.  Frustration can produce jealousies and bitter thoughts that serve only to weigh you down and strip the joy from your writing.
Yeah, easy for her to say, you might think.  But I do know.  Let me demonstrate …

Dumb luck, that’s what it is.

She networked her way into it, and she just got lucky.  She knows all those published authors and made the right connections at the right time.

Or … She sold herself out.  She changed genres and wrote a historical (or erotica, or vampire, or horror or whatever) novel because they’re so hot.  She’s not following her heart with her writing like I am.  Oh, well, at least I have my dignity.

Or … He stole that idea from me.  I was writing that exact same novel.  I shouldn’t have shared my stuff.  Someone told him, and he took it.

Or … What drivel!  There isn’t a multisyllabic word in her whole book.  She’s writing down to fifth graders.  If that’s what it takes I’ll pass.

Or … he’s tall and good looking/she’s beautiful, that’s why it was so easy for him/her.  Once they see how young/old/short/fat/skinny I am, they won’t want to buy my novel.

Or simply …  Why her and not me?  It’s just not fair.

Nothing’s more frustrating than watching months turn into years, than reading dozens and dozens of rejection letters that say nothing, then seeing all the people around you (or so it seems) get published.  Keep in mind that because it takes several months to write a novel, that writer might have started his novel when that genre was not hot.  Timing of the completed novel is critical.

Regarding luck, networking increases your odds for success, i.e., luck, and from what I’ve heard from editors and agents, it’s the book.  Yes, they get excited about young, incredibly talented writers who write good books, but they also get excited about incredibly talented writers who write good books, period.  It really is all about the book.  No one ever asked my age or appearance before they rejected or bought my work.

Rather than dismiss another writer’s success, try looking closer to see what they did right.
A negative view: he sold out and wrote a (whatever genre) book.
A positive view: he learned what the market wanted, and he provided it.

And, was it an overnight success?  Romance Writers of America includes useful information with their “Just Published” announcements.  They list the new author’s name and book title, then they list how many years they’ve been writing and how many manuscripts they’ve completed.  You’ll see the occasional “rabbit” writer who’s connected early in his or her journey and this is their first novel after writing only months, but most often, you’ll see “tortoise” writers who have been working at their craft for years and have several novels completed.

If you approach your writer’s journey with the expectation of a tortoise’s pace, your frustration level will be lower, you’ll keep more joy in your writing and, should you turn out to be a rabbit-in-disguise, it will be a pleasant surprise if you get published quickly.

The joy of writing is what enchanted us from the beginning.  However you approach and execute your journey, however long it takes and however much success you realize, I wish you much joy.
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My debut novel, Tabor’s Trinket, and the second in the series, Emerald Silk, both made the Denver best seller’s list.  I had been writing for eight years and had seven completed novels when I received my first contract.  Both books are available through amazon.com

Murder mystery dinner made fun birthday surprise

A murder mystery dinner made John's birthday a fun event in the mountains, with friends

I planned a surprise birthday party this past weekend for my husband, John, at Brook Forest Inn, a glorious inn drenched in mountain sunshine and rich with history.  The theme: Lords and Ladies, a nice nod to our wedding at Colorado’s Renaissance Festival in Larkspur almost 24 years ago.

Linda, our master planner, created a devious, twisting plot, and we were joined by some close friends who caught the spirit and came dressed for medieval fun.

Who was the murderer?  The victim, Lord Littledagger, could not speak the name.  Death tends to limit one that way.  The Gypsies were mischievous, devious and … assassinous?  Duchess Mora of More concealed much in her purse, and the Countess of Cleavage, did she have secrets stored in her plunging neckline?  There were many moments of mystery, confusion and hilarity as we toured the inn, gathering clues and daggers.

Historic Brook Forest Inn is set in a lush mountain forest not far from Denver

The Inn, a romantic Victorian bed and breakfast, dates back to 1913 and is set in the midst of a lush forest not far from Denver. The lobby, bar, dining and guest rooms are all beautifully decorated, reflecting lacy Victorian opulence and charm.

The romantic in me would love to rent one of the captivating suites for a summer getaway.  The writer in me would enjoy hosting my critique partners for an inspirational weekend writing retreat, taking full advantage of all those outdoor decks and benches.

The mischievous Gypsies stole all the daggers and potion

The mother in me thinks this would be a great place for a wedding for one of our daughters.  Above all, the wife in me is delighted to have found such an entertaining way to surprise my husband on his special day.

Learn more about the murder mystery dinners at http://www.thebrookforestinn.com