THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS, with author William Lobdell

In LOSING MY RELIGION: HOW I LOST MY FAITH REPORTING ON RELIGION IN AMERCA—AND FOUND UNEXPECTED PEACE, William Lobdell reflects on his eight years on the Los Angeles Times’ religion beat and how they led him to re-examine and ultimately reject his own Christian beliefs. It’s a story the award-winning journalist first shared in a moving essay that appeared on the Times’ front page in July 2007 (which you can find here), and then expands on in his critically acclaimed memoir, published yesterday in hardcover.

Early reviewer John Luftus, a former pastor and author of WHY I AM AN ATHEIST, calls Lobdell’s book “a page turner from start to finish,” and Skeptic magazine publisher and author Michael Shermer praises it as “the most intellectually honest and emotionally courageous book I have ever read.” On its first day, it broke into three of Amazon’s top 10 lists: two in the biography and memoir category, and one in the religion and spirituality category, and its ranking continues to climb.

In addition to writing, Lobdell, who left the Times last year, owns an online publishing company; teaches as a visiting faculty member at the University of California, Irvine; and serves as a media consultant. He lives in Orange County, Calif., with his wife and four sons.

What are the top 5 things you are doing to market your latest book?

1. I started blogging at http://www.williamlobdell.com/ and put any information about my book on the site (reviews, excerpts, high-resolution photos, interviews, sign-in for e-mail updates, etc.).

2. As a former religion writer, I contacted nearly every religion reporter in the U.S. through the Religion Newswriters Assn. and asked them to do a feature or review the book.

3. I really put a lot of effort into tapping the power of the Internet. I contacted the leading bloggers in the fields that my book touches (religion, Christianity, atheism, etc.) and asked them to review the book—or post about it or let me guest blog. I also have gone heavy into Facebook, including starting a “Fans of” group. I’m using http://www.meetup.com/ to contact groups likely to be interested in my book and announce my various appearances. Finally, I started “William Lobdell TV” on YouTube.

4. My story is suited for longer radio interviews so between HarperCollins and myself, we’ve set up a slew of them.

5. I’ve also teamed up with interested groups—church reformers, atheists and skeptics, victims of clergy sexual abuse—to put on events featuring a talk and book signing.

What has been the biggest marketing challenge for you so far?
Getting on TV. It’s really hard to cut through all the noise just so I have a chance of getting on the air.

Did you work alone on your book promotion strategy, or in conjunction with a publicist?

I work with a very good publicist from HarperCollins. But based on the advice of several authors, my mindset has been to do all the promotion myself, so whatever comes from HarperCollins is gravy.

What is the most important lesson you've learned about promoting books?
You’ve got to be persistent and innovative. For example, when news broke that a federal grand jury was investigating Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, I was able to get an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times that included a tagline promoting my book.

How do you balance writing with the business side of being an author?
I don’t have a second book in the works so the balance is between my day job and book promotion. I could easily spend full-time promoting the book—so it’s a difficult balance.

Any other advice for newly published authors?
I’m a newly published author so here’s some advice for myself. You only have one shot at promoting your book, and the window of time is small. You can’t afford to be an introverted writer. You need to be a shameless promoter. A salesman, even.

5 FAVES

Favorite item on your writing desk: Don’t have a writing desk. I have a laptop and write sitting on a couch or chair at home, and at a desk in the library.
Favorite way to procrastinate: Checking e-mails, with Facebook being a close second.
Favorite literary character: Raoul Duke (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)
Favorite authors: Carl Hiaasen, and any nonfiction writer who tells a good narrative
Favorite snack: PowerBar

For more about William Lobdell and his book, visit http://www.williamlobdell.com/.

Looking for someone?

With all the recent layoffs in the publishing industry, you might be having trouble keeping your contact list up to date. Publishers Weekly has put together a handy list to make the job a little easier. You can find it here.

BACKSTORY, The Story Behind FOR HER EYES ONLY, by Cait London

New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author Cait London has published more than 60 books in 28 countries over her 21-year writing career. Her latest, FOR HER EYES ONLY, published in September and is the third book in her psychic triplet trilogy.

This interview first appeared in the October issue of the online newsletter of the Orange County Chapter of the Romance Writers of America.

What was your inspiration for FOR HER EYES ONLY?

My family. As the mother of three daughters I had a really good idea of how birth position affects personality, the relationship of the girls with each other and with their mother. Basically, I patterned each book around the personalities of my daughters. As Kathleen Eagle once said about her family, I’m selling them off in pieces. Maybe I’m selling off everyone I know, too.

FOR HER EYES ONLY is the story of Leona, the firstborn by three minutes of the psychic triplets. The eldest usually takes more responsibility for younger siblings, and Leona does. The third and conclusion of my psychic triplets trilogy weaves together the sisters, because they are psychically connected, and for that reason as adults, they must live far distances apart. They still communicate with their senses, more so on the telephone. You can see the problem when as adults the sisters become romantically involved: After all, who wants to be psychically linked with their mother and/or sisters while near their own lover? Claire, the last born and the empath in AT THE EDGE, lives in rural Montana. Tempest, the middle-born’s story, A STRANGER’S TOUCH, is set near Lake Michigan. Leona’s story is set in the Bluegrass Country of Lexington, Kentucky. The settings are places that I have visited, have other books with the same settings, and have enjoyed immensely; settings have inspired me.

The story threads running through the trilogy are multiple and complexly woven, a gathering of different inspirations. My older sister seems to have some psychic ability, a natural intuitive. I believe that there are intuitives and clairvoyants around us, people who are more receptive to their senses, more “open” to other people and to nature. I once had a past life and a tarot reading. The psychic was reportedly good, and as a writer I love new experiences. When I asked the psychic if there were any people with psychic ability within my family, she immediately pinpointed five women and put them in order of ability. I had not told her of the five women, or anything about myself or my life. The whole experience was really exciting and supercharged my ideas for this trilogy, and after that I interviewed several psychics; each inspired a different element.

My own interests are reflected in the trilogy’s elements. I am an artist by nature (quite a few writers are). Thus each of the sisters has creative ability. My Viking research came into play, also my fondness for interwoven Celtic jewelry with special significance. I often wear the protection shield-style earrings.

How long did you work on FOR HER EYES ONLY?

All three novels in the trilogy were actually on my back burner for quite some time, before we went to contract. The actual writing of each one was probably three or four months. Keeping track of the intricate threads of the trilogy, building the suspense that would finalize in the last story so that the conclusion would finish all of the questions, took some doing. The biggest challenge was keeping all of those lurking-killer threads flowing and building suspense, piece by piece, over the story arc to conclude in the very last book. As the sisters are trying to solve the why/who puzzles, so is the reader. The complexity of the suspense had to be metered carefully. It’s important to understand that while each sister has her own story, this trilogy is based on a story arc, and the challenge for writing a story arc is huge. This was my first trilogy arc.

How do you get into the writing mood?

What mood? Most serious writers write on a schedule or a regimen, usually every day. “I don’t feel like writing today” is a big flag that says the writer better put bottom in chair and write something, anything. I’m an early morning writer, writing new copy faster in my biological uptime, but I usually continue rolling during the day.

If a story isn’t “rolling” as you wish, what do you do?

I write something, anything. I’m a big fan of writing professional business letters and writing dreck when breaking through a “nesting” period. When writing a novel, it’s important to keep momentum. My favorite writer-quote may be Nora Roberts’ and is something like this: I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank one.

For more information, visit Cait London at http://caitlondon.com/ or her blog at http://caitlondon.com/blogspot.com.

The other reason I'm looking forward to July 7...

I'd like to say THE BELLY DANCER has a date with Harry Potter, but I guess it would be truer to say she's sharing a date with the boy wizard.

I don't know where I've been for the past few months, but I just learned that HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS paperback version (which I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for to complete the set I have on my bookshelves) will be released on July 7, the same day THE BELLY DANCER will be published. Just another great reason to visit my local bookstore...

I've been catalogued...

I think 39 might just be my new favorite number.

It's the page number in Berkley's Summer 2009 Catalog where booksellers get to see the book cover, learn a little about what the book's about, and see what the publisher has planned marketing-wise.

And you can't imagine the warm and fuzzy feeling it gave me to see the novel described as "a vibrant debut" with "vividly descriptive prose." Ooh, isn't that sweet? It definitely made my day.

THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS, with novelist Linda Wisdom

Linda Randall Wisdom’s writing career began with the sale of two romance novels to Silhouette Romance in 1979. By 2006, she had more than 50 additional titles to her credit, including MEMORIES AFTER MIDNIGHT, AFTER THE MIDNIGHT HOUR and ROSES AFTER MIDNIGHT. Her books have been included on bestseller lists, and she’s received the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, as well as many other honors. But while that might be enough for some authors, Wisdom wanted to tackle something new.

Last year she stepped outside her familiar terrain with the publication of 50 WAYS TO HEX YOUR LOVER, her first paranormal novel under her newly shortened writing name, Linda Wisdom. Publishers Weekly praised the novel as a “sparkling entry into lite urban paranormals” and Romantic Times called it “wickedly fun.” She continued the series with HEX APPEAL, and WICKED BY ANY OTHER NAME and HEX IN HIGH HEELS are due out later this year.

During these tricky economic times, Wisdom says she’s falling back on the lessons she learned while working in the advertising field and listening carefully to the advice of her agent, a one-time owner of a public relations agency in Silicon Valley, as well as to her publicist at Sourcebooks, the publisher of her current series, on how to promote her latest novels.

Wisdom lives with her husband in Murrietta, Calif.

What are the top 5 things you are doing to market your latest book?
My biggies are guest blogging, online interviews, radio interviews, some contests and getting the word out on sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

What has been the biggest marketing challenge for you so far?
I don’t know if it’s a big challenge, but the fun part is adapting the marketing to go with the book. While all my books are part of a series, they’re still about different witches with different personalities and the creatures that go with them.

Did you work alone on your book promotion strategy, or in conjunction with a publicist?
Sourcebooks’ awesome publicist, Danielle Jackson, does a great job of finding a lot of blogs and sites for interviews, as well as setting up radio interviews. I also talk to bloggers I know, along with friends.

What is the most important lesson you've learned about promoting books?
It’s a lot of work, and you’re “on” a lot. It’s very tiring, so it’s a good idea to take extra vitamins.

With your past books, what aspect of the promotion seemed to result in the most book sales?
I honestly don’t know what worked the best. I do know I got a lot of feedback after my radio interviews, especially when I was on Playboy Radio.

How do you balance writing with the business side of being an author?
You plan ahead. If you know you have guest blogs coming up, set a day aside and write up your posts. I keep all of mine in a file, and they’re easy enough to rework for another guest blog for that book.

Any other advice for newly published authors?
Be aware there’s a lot of work involved. Don’t expect people to run out and buy your book unless you’re promoting it. Have a Web site or even a MySpace and Facebook page. Blog at Amazon. Get the word out.

5 FAVES

Favorite item on your writing desk: LOL! My wizard frog. I got him years ago before I knew I’d be writing paranormal. He wears a wizard hat and looks very intently into a crystal ball.
Favorite way to procrastinate: Elf bowling. It’s more relaxing than solitaire and sometimes I’ll play the throw paper game that’s online. And you’re tossing crushed paper balls into a wastebasket.
Favorite literary character: Just one? Menolly, the vampire/Fae in Yasmine Galenorn’s books.
Favorite CD: Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack
Favorite snack: peanut M&Ms

For more about Linda Wisdom and her books, visit http://www.myspace.com/lindawisdombooks.

A bookseller's tips on author promotion

I found an interesting thing on my Facebook page today: an invitation to "A Bookseller's Perspective on How to Promote Your Book" event. Since I'm all about learning the best ways to promote books, I of course clicked over.

I'm not exactly sure how this is an event, but I did find a link to an interesting post at the Book Marketing Floozy blog (isn't that a great name?) by Michelle Maycock, who worked in independent bookstores on the East Coast and as an independent publishers' rep before becoming a faculty member in the Virginia Tech Professional Writing program. Armed with her 20 years of industry knowledge, she offers advice to authors setting out on that tricky journey of book promotion.

Here's an abbreviated version of what she recommends:

* Offer to help your local bookseller sell your books, but don't be pushy.
* Remember that "[s]uccessful authors are exceptionally hardworking and exceptionally personable."
* "Say or ask something personal about each person who brings a book to you to be signed."
* "Be friendly and comment pleasantly to as many people as you can who show interest in your work on sites like Facebook."
* "Talk up your book to booksellers, but be brief."

If you'd like to read the full post, which has much more great advice, you can find it here.

THE BUSINESS OF BOOKS, with novelist Jennifer Apodaca, writing as Jennifer Lyon

With the release of her first novel, DATING CAN BE MURDER in 2002, award-winning author Jennifer Apodaca launched what Publishers Weekly calls her “delightful light mystery series,” featuring spunky heroine Samantha Shaw. Apodaca took time out from her series in 2007 to release two standalone novels, THE SEX ON THE BEACH BOOK CLUB and EXTREMELY HOT, but that didn’t completely satisfy her desire for something new. This month she’ll debut the paranormal romance BLOOD MAGIC under a new writing name—Jennifer Lyon—with SOUL MAGIC to follow in November.

She lives in Southern California with her family.

What are the top 5 things you are doing to market your latest book?
This book/series I’m doing differently. I wanted to build a promotion plan that will grow with the series, and that will bring readers in as part of a community. I wrote up a two-page promotion plan, and sent it to my editor and agent. Here are five things from that:

1) I had a blog with a separate “About Jen” page professionally designed. While the books are dark and sexy, I went a little lighter on the blog design—something paranormal, sexy and inviting. The site is “open ended” so if things go well and the series takes off, I can add more pages to the site for a very reasonable cost. Because this is a blog where readers can comment, this makes the site interactive and hopefully will build a community where readers can participate.

2) I had specific goals for the site: Build my “new” name of Jennifer Lyon while creating interest in the book and the series. Everything I’m doing on the site works toward those two goals. The categories on the blog are things like Witches Rock—where I talk about witches in the book, then just fun witch stuff; Hunter’s Safari, where I talk about the witch hunters; Lyon’s Lair, where I have fun with who Jennifer Lyon is … there’s more but that’s the general idea.

3) I planned to drive traffic to the site by giving away a prize each week. The winner is drawn from that week’s comments. I’m doing this for five weeks, and then giving away a grand prize on the day of the book release. The grand prize is a necklace similar to the one the heroine wears in the book, so it’s tied to the book. The five weeks of prizes is basically a count down and a way to build excitement, I hope.

4) I had postcards made up to promote the book and “launch party,” and gave my editor several so she could show the sales and marketing folks what I was doing. I also wrote in my promotion plan all the other places that I planned to promote the new site, including my newsletter and various Internet groups I’m on.

5) The last thing that I can think of right now is that I’m doing all the blogs and interviews I’m asked to do. It usually turns out to be fun! I long ago realized that we really can’t tell how many people we reach, and the best thing to do is be ourselves and have fun while we promote our books.

What has been the biggest challenge of working with a new pen name?
First is just getting used to it! Jennifer Apodaca, the name I originally published under, is my real name. So I have to make myself identify and own Jennifer Lyon! After that, it’s two things: First, letting all the people who know me as Apodaca know that I’m writing under Jennifer Lyon now. I do that a few ways: I’ve put the information on my Web site, I let everyone who e-mails me know, and I’ve written blog posts about it for the Murder She Writes blog. I often use humor to do this. Then I have to start building the name Jennifer Lyon, and “branding” it as a hot paranormal author. My new site, http://www.jenniferlyonbooks.com/ is all about that!

Did you work alone on your book promotion strategy, or in conjunction with a publicist?
I always try to let my editor and agent know what I’m doing, at least with the bigger stuff. I sent both of them a two-page “promo plan” and revised it from their remarks. I also showed them the template of my Web site and made changes per their input. For the smaller things, like where I’m guest blogging, I don’t usually tell them unless I think it’s something they should know. But I’m a big believer in keeping your editor and agent in the loop. They are invested in your career and will usually do whatever they can to help you. Additionally, they have invaluable experience that can be a tremendous help to keep us from making expensive mistakes.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned about promoting books?
Oh man, I wish I knew! I know the number one thing that I DON’T do, and that is regarding reviews and comments. I don’t respond to bad reviews, or troll the Web looking for anyone who is saying less than glowing things and challenge them. I think the most important thing we have as authors is our name, and I can’t see how getting into a flame war (and it almost always will become one) builds my name in any useful way. I learned this lesson by observation.

Also, I try to remember that anything I write can get forwarded. So if someone e-mails me that they have issues with my books, I try to respond in a polite, respectful way, even when they are not being respectful. It’s not always easy, but at least I know that if the e-mail gets spread around the Internet, I won’t have anything to regret.

As to active promoting, I guess I’ve learned three things:

1) Be nice to everyone. I’ve talked to people in causal conversations, maybe at the coffee shop at a conference, who ended up going out to buy my book, become a fan and spread the word. That kind of “real” word of mouth is a powerful tool in promotion.

2) Don’t take yourself too seriously. It will help you keep perspective. There will be bumps, bad reviews, unfortunate covers, setbacks at the publishers, various things can and will happen. The world is not just about me, and most things that happen aren’t persona,l and by not taking myself too seriously, I am able to keep that in perspective.

3) Have a sense of humor! A sense of humor has rescued me more than once from situations where I’ve put my foot in my mouth or something has gone wrong.

With your past books, what aspect of the promotion seemed to result in the most book sales?
Anything that generates word of mouth. One thing that really helped with my mysteries was setting up signings at mystery bookstores. These were stores that knew their readers, hand sold books, and I always had very successful signings there. But in general, books signings are hit and miss for romance.

One thing that has been helpful is the group blog at www.MurderSheWrites.com. We started with five very different authors, and we all drew in different people to the site. That cross-section of people began to get to know all of us, and they tried books from authors they wouldn’t normally have even known about. And then they spread the word, and that’s what “viral” promotion is all about. Now we have 10 authors blogging there. But a site like that takes a fair amount of work and cooperation.

Newsletters keep people who are already fans up to date on your releases. That way they know to go to the store and buy your book when it’s out.

How do you balance writing with the business side of being an author?
The truth is that I’m not great at promotion. I do what I can, but the idea of going out there and selling myself isn’t my cup of tea. So I try to play to my strengths, like humor and the fact that I like casual chats with readers. I tend to stay away from appearances that require a formal, polished speech, but I’m perfectly fine doing a “chat” that engages the readers so that it becomes interactive. I don’t like doing readings, but I’m more than happy to go to a readers group and answer questions. I find that if I keep it to things I enjoy, it helps me balance things, and I spend less time worrying so I can concentrate enough to write when I have the time.

But that doesn’t always work. Sometimes I have a deadline and very little time for promotion. Then I write. I have to, my job is to write the books first, them promote as time allows.

Any other advice for newly published authors?
Enjoy the experience, then get to work and write the next book. And then the next one. Learn to filter out all the noise of reviews, praise and criticism, and keep writing. It is so easy to get sidetracked from our jobs of writing books. The business will have its ups and downs, trends will come and go, but the only way we can have a successful, long-term career is if we keep writing more books.

5 FAVES

Favorite item on your writing desk: A little guy my son made in pottery class. I love him!
Favorite way to procrastinate: The Internet! E-mailing with friends! I can waste hours that way. Sad…just sad.
Favorite literary character: Does Old Yeller count? I think one of the most memorable is Scarlett O’Hara from GONE WITH THE WIND. I read it in high school. Oh! Then there’s Scout from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which I read even younger and was my first taste of injustice. Those are the ones that come to mind right now.
Favorite CD: I don’t have a favorite CD, I have an iPod with various songs. I love my iPod! However I don’t listen to it very often when I’m writing. It sits on my desk for the occasional time I want music, but I mostly write to silence.
Favorite snack: Raspberry Latte!

For more on Jennifer Apodaca and her books, visit http://www.jenniferapodaca.com/ and http://www.jenniferlyonbooks.com/.

Writers on writing...

Novelist Mary Castillo is working on a story for the RWA's Romance Writers Report magazine examining the writing process of working authors, and she's sharing a bit of what's she's learned on the Published Authors Special Interest Chapter's blog, To Be Read. You can read the post here.

I have to add that I'm thrilled and humbled to be included alongside authors like Suzanne Brockmann and Caridad Ferrer. Thanks, Mary!

So many author talks, so little time...

While I was surfing aimlessly around the Web this morning, I discovered the most amazing thing: the Authors@Google series. Did you know those clever people at Google invite authors of all stripes to visit their offices and give informal talks to the crew, and that they post many of these lectures at http://www.youtube.com/atgoogletalks? Me neither!

You can see luminaries like Salman Rushdie and Noam Chomsky, as well as Elizabeth Gilbert, who wrote EAT, PRAY LOVE; Neal Stephenson, who wrote ANATHEM and CRYPTONOMICON; Neil Gaiman, who wrote FRAGILE THINGS and so many other things; and young-adult novelist Sasha Watson, who wrote VIDALIA IN PARIS. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Google has hundreds of author videos available.

I've been paying particularly close attention to author talks lately because, although THE BELLY DANCER doesn't come out for another six months, I've already had more than a few requests to speak to groups about the book when the time comes. Don't get me wrong -- it's exciting that people are eager to hear more about the book and are already showing an interest. But nothing strikes fear into the heart of a writer like the prospect of public speaking. At least it does to me.

I'm happy to type words into a computer all day long, but stand me up in front of a roomful of people and suddenly I can't even remember my name, let alone what I'm supposed to talk about. And that's the other thing about author talks -- what *do* you talk about? How do you turn "I wrote a book, worked on it a long time and eventually sold it" into an inspirational story filling 20 to 40 minutes and which leaves others feeling like (A) they might like to read your book if they haven't already and (B) they didn't just waste their time sitting in a chair listening to you?

I'll be looking for the answer in the Authors@Google archives, but if you have any advice, please share :-)