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How Do We Feel About This: Authors Rating Their Own Books

Posted on Categories Writing, Books4 Comments on How Do We Feel About This: Authors Rating Their Own Books

A few days ago I got an update from GoodReads telling me what my “friends” had reviewed that week. I don’t generally read them in depth, I just give them a cursory look to see if there’s any reviews by my actual friends or of books I want to read.

In this particular update, I noticed an author had rated his own book and gave it a 5-star rating, natch. In the actual review he indicated he was the author, so full disclosure, no problem, right?

I don’t know, I kind of have a problem with it. It seems like cheating, you know? I posted this question on Twitter and one of my author friends said the 5-star rating he gave his own book gives it a negligible boost in the overall rating. Said author friend further justified the practice by saying it kind of evens out the unfair, 1-star ratings a book gets, you know, the kind that say “I haven’t even read this book but I’m giving it 1-star because the cover is ugly.”

I’m not convinced. Still feels like cheating to me.

I’m not published yet so perhaps I will feel different when I am. But right now, as a reader, I don’t like it.

What say you?

Oh Twitter, How I Loved Thee

Posted on Categories Writing33 Comments on Oh Twitter, How I Loved Thee

Awhile back, the super-terrific Steve Weddle invited me to do a guest post on the Do Some Damage blog, wherein I wrote:

Joining Twitter was the best thing I’ve done for my writing career.

About this, I do not joke. Virtually every opportunity I’ve had with regard to writing has come about due to Twitter, or more accurately, people I’ve met on Twitter.

For example, I’ve had four agents contact me via Twitter asking me to submit my manuscript after seeing my profile (which is essentially just a link to my query letter).

At first, my only goal was to learn about the publishing industry and I followed every writer/publisher/agent/editor I could find. I did a lot of listening and a little interacting. It didn’t take long to become a part of the community, but the key here is creating relationships—not just promoting your latest book.

The whole subject of promotion on social media has been on my mind for awhile. Obviously, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with promoting oneself on Twitter or elsewhere online–I promote myself, my own work, and the work of others regularly. I’m tempted to say I’ve earned the right to this since I’ve taken the time to create relationships, as I mention above. But that’s ridiculous. There’s nothing to earn or not earn (well, there is, but I’ll cover that later).

So what the hell is the problem?

Well, I’m not 100% sure there is one. I only know that Twitter is a lot less interesting/valuable for me than it used to be. Let me explain.

There is a certain type of book promotion going on that I find really annoying. It goes something like this:

Pls RT- NEW #REVIEW of THE DIARY OF A FRUSTRATED WRITER by H.M.F. West http://xxxxx #books#reading#readers#Prime#kindle

or

Great #vacationreading ROUND ‘EM ALL UP: A Larry Miller Hog-Tying Mystery: http://xxxxxx #books#reading#readers#Prime#kindle

or

What happens when chocolate cake just isn’t enough? GET IN MY BELLY by Tessie McMahon http://xxxxx #Kindle#Books#AmReading#GoodReads

And on and on. Sometimes nearly every other tweet in my feed looks like this. I pretty much follow every writer type who follows me, but it’s led to an influx of these type of tweets and it makes me sad. Then it makes me feel like unfollowing a crap load of tweeters.

It seems to be a result of the self-publishing revolution, which I am, in general, a big fan of. I might very well become a self-published author myself soon. This means I’m paying close attention to what other self-published authors do to promote themselves. Could somebody please tell me what marketing/PR book everyone read that led to the spred of the kind of promotion I’ve indicated above? I want to stay as far away from it as possible.

As judgmental as this all sounds, I am in no way disparaging how people choose to market themselves. I’m only questioning if these particular techniques are effective, because honestly, I can’t see how they could be. The multiple hashtag approach leaves me cold. The cutsie blurbs followed by a link and yes, more hashtags that tempt me to unfollow you, not read your book.

Tell me, people, am I missing something here? Is it that I’m just not the right audience and therefore this type of promotion rankles instead of enticing me to buy?

Let me quickly get back to what I said earlier about “earning” the right to promote. What I really meant was YOU earning the right to promote to ME, not the other way around (although it definitely goes both ways). There are people I wouldn’t unfollow if they tried to sell me swamp land in Florida multiple times every day. Why? Because they’re my homies. We’ve been tweeting back and forth for months now, sometimes years. I don’t hesitate to promote their work and they don’t (seem to) hesitate to promote mine. But I like to think we’re all engaging in “thoughtful promotion” and in between all the “buy my book” tweets there is some actual conversation going on. We support each other, not just on Twitter, but across the Internet and sometimes, even in person.

That doesn’t mean you have to be my homie to promote your stuff to me. It just means that if your tweets annoy me, the decision to unfollow is a whole lot easier to make.

That sounds mean, doesn’t it? I don’t mean it to be. I’m actually a pretty nice person. I still love Twitter. I guess all I really wanted to say is that it’s a little less fun for me than it used to be.

Goodbye, Mr. Pepys

Posted on Categories Writing, Diary of Bedlam, 17th C Eng History, HistoryLeave a comment

“And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave: for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me!” – Samuel Pepys

As you can see, I’ve got a new home on the web. I wasn’t going to post anything here until tomorrow as I’m still “populating” the new website, but something happened today that I thought was worthy of a short post.

You see, the famous restoration diarist, Samuel Pepys, recorded the last entry in his journal on this day 1669. Modern readers have a variety of resources for reading Mr. Pepys historic diary, but since I started writing Diary of Bedlam, my favorite has been the daily postings by Phil Gyford on The Diary of Samuel Pepys website. You can read the last entry here.

Writers like me owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Pepys, for his diary is an invaluable documentation of what life was like in late 17th century London. Diary of Bedlam takes place several years after Mr. Peyps’s diary ends, but his record of Charles II’s London was a cornerstone of my research.

And so I will take this opportunity both to introduce you to my new website and to thank Mr. Gyford for creating the Pepys Diary website. What a wonderful project.

 

 

The Politics of Silence

Posted on Categories More About Me, Current AffairsLeave a comment

A few minutes ago I read this post about Meghan McCain’s boobs and it got me thinking. Warning–this post is kind of tangental to the post about Meghan and not directly relevant to the original.

About a year ago I made a decision to stop posting about politics online. With the exception of very few issues I try to keep quiet about political matters, and increasingly, religious matters. I’m a lot happier because of it.

The problem, as I see it, is that places like Facebook and Twitter don’t foster meaningful dialogue about politics. This is especially true of Twitter–140 characters isn’t enough to delve into any issue, even if you post a link. Sure, there are conversations that happen there–I’ve had them myself–but it is easy to take things out of context because it’s impossible to follow every thread of every conversation. At some point someone is going to assume you’re a jerk based on a snippet of conversation that might not have much bearing on how you actually feel about a subject. How could it when the original conversation originated 24 hours ago, took place between ten people (some of which you don’t follow), and began with a link to a relevant blog post or news story, now long buried in a barrage of tweets?

To me, this fosters anger and misunderstanding, and it’s ultimately not productive. Unless, of course, your aim is to provoke, and then you become just another asshole on the Internet.

Facebook isn’t much better. It’s mostly just a place to further the culture of ugly sound bites and noise we are increasingly comfortable with. Unless I’m willing to truly engage, and this means making sure I know exactly what the hell I’m talking about on any social/political issue I post about it, I’m better off keeping my mouth shut.

Otherwise, I’m just another asshole on the Internet.

There are times when I feel like my choice to be silent is a copout, the result of my cowardice and dislike of confrontation. But this doesn’t happen very often, and over time, it happens less and less. I’m not a journalist–I don’t have time to research even my most heart felt opinions to the degree I feel comfortable shooting off my mouth about them. This might change. I’m a passionate person whose equally passionate about my views. But for now, I need to spend my time on the things that benefit myself and my family the most. It ain’t politics, folks.

This isn’t meant to be a judgement of my friends and colleagues who do post about political and other somewhat controversial matters. What one does with one’s Internet space is up to them and I’m free to follow or friend accordingly. Some people just have stronger stomachs than I do, or are adequately informed and worthy of my attention. Many are not. What’s that they say? Don’t be that gal.

Don’t be just another asshole on the Internet.

I’m curious to hear what you think about this subject. Hit me with some comments, people.

Hook Me Up

Posted on Categories WritingLeave a comment

Forget writing a novel–what about the pitch'? That one perfect sentence designed to describe the plot and provide an emotional hook so that whoever you're telling it to says "I want to read more!"

I've struggled with my pitch Diary of Bedlam, but the reason I'm writing this post today is because I'm formulating my hook for my second novel. I'm hoping it helps me solidify the theme and give me a broad idea of the direction I'm going in.

In television and film it's called a logline. Today I spent some time at the Internet Movie Database reading loglines of films I've seen so I could get a feel for it.

Training Day:
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detective who isn't what he appears.

Donnie Brasco:
An FBI undercover agent infilitrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the mafia life to the expense of his regular one.

The Silence of the Lambs:
A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.

Point Break:
An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.

A History of Violence:
A mild-mannered man becomes a local hero through an act of violence, which sets off repercussions that will shake his family to its very core.

Body Heat:
In the midst of a searing Florida heat wave, a woman convinces her lover, a small-town lawyer, to murder her rich husband.

After looking at some of these examples, I realized I've made the process of coming up with a logline way too complicated. When I knocked my story down to the essentials, it was right there waiting for me.

I'm not going to post it here because the new novel is in its beginning stages and I want to keep it to myself for now. I will, however, tell you the logline for Diary of Bedlam:

In 1678 London, a fortuneteller's client is murdered and she must find the killer amid the politics and intrigue of Charles II's court before she becomes the next victim.

Of course, Diary of Bedlam is about much more than that, but at its core, this is the plot. I'm hoping it will make my potential audience say "Hook me up with some of that!"

In Honor of National Poetry Month

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Did you know April is National Poetry month? I didn't either until a few days ago. 

Back in the day, I used to write a lot of poetry. Long before I ever found the courage to write a novel, I used poetry as an outlet for my feelings. And boy, did I have a lot of feelings back then. Feelings I really didn't know what to do with so I splattered them on the page.

The poems touch upon a variety of topics; unrequited love (all my love was unrequited back then), war, social justice, whimsy, God. I was very religious until my late twenties, and I pursued religious truth passionately because if I was going to give over my life to God, it had to make some sense, I had to understand it to the best of my ability.

I'm an atheist now, so that should tell you how that went. But that's a subject for another post.

During my senior year of high school, we studied the Shakespearean sonnet, and boy, that was a form of poetry I could get behind. All that structure! The couplet at the end! Iambic pentameter! I find my creativity needs a structure to flourish, whether it's pre-defined or I construct it myself. I don't do well with unstructured creativity–all that freedom leads me astray. Must be my Catholic upbringing.

I wrote a lot of sonnets after that. And I snagged my husband with a personal ad that began with Shakespeare's sonnet #130: My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun…

I owe a lot to the Shakespearean sonnet, yes I do.

In honor of National Poetry Month, I offer you Sonnet #3, by Holly West:

Blindness is a trait of humanity
A condition that seems to come and go.
We only see the things we want to see
And we only learn what we want to know.
What does it take to see the sad man smile?
We turn away from those whose hopes have died.
If we could only stop for a short while,
And look about us, blind eyes open wide.
Those whose eyes were born blinded to the light
Can often see better than those who aren't.
They do not seem to need the gift of sight–
The see not with their eyes, but with their hearts.
  Blindness is our own human tragedy;
  Not enough men are born able to see. 

I'm not sure how old I was when I wrote this, but I couldn't have been much older than 18. One of the most interesting things about reading my old poetry is comparing the young me to the older me. In so many ways I haven't changed much.

Do you write poetry? If so, share it with me!

The Downside of Butt in Chair

Posted on Categories Writing3 Comments on The Downside of Butt in Chair

Originally posted April 26, 2010.

Ack! I wrote this post nearly two years ago and NOTHING has changed except I've gained more weight. My pop is running the Boston Marathon this morning–he would not be amused.

The good news is I've got a finished novel–almost feels worth the added poundage. But as I start my new writing project today, maybe it's also time to start re-incorporating some good eating/exercise habits into my life.

Fellow writers (and everyone else) how do you keep Butt-in-Chair-itis at bay?

Actually, I should really call this post the "Upside" of Butt in Chair, or perhaps the "Backside."

There are loads of writing tips on the Internet. Heck, there are even some here on this blog. But one of the most simple (and yet ironically hard to do) is this: Keep your butt in the chair and write.

If you do this daily you will almost certainly have something at least resembling a first draft, a polished novel, or whatever other goal you set for yourself. In fact, keeping your butt in the chair and writing is the only way you'll accomplish these goals.

But I'm not here to discuss the effectiveness of keeping your butt in the chair as a writing tool. I'm here to talk about a wicked side effect: Keep your butt in the chair long enough, and not only will you have a finished novel, you might also begin to notice that chair has gotten smaller. Because you, my dear, have gotten bigger.

And I have. I've struggled with my weight my entire life, but five years ago I lost about twenty-five pounds and kept it off for about three. In the past two years, I've gained most of it back, and coincidentally, that's the time I've been working on my novel.

Obviously, it's not the writing that's making me fat, it's the eating. And the not moving. One of the ways I lost that weight and kept it off was a pretty rigorous running schedule, and right about this time last year I was diagnosed with achilles tendonitis. I haven't really been a runner since. To top things off, I tore my ACL two weeks ago while skiing and my capacity for exercise has diminished even further. So yeah, I'm going to have to find a way to keep moving while not damaging any of my already wonky body parts. If you have some suggestions, let me know.

Back to the eating part though. I definitely eat more now that I'm writing, and here's why: it takes mental energy to be continuously creative, and the first thing I think of when my mind freezes is "I want a snack." I don't think "I want to go for a brisk walk," I think "I want a doughnut." Unfortunately, my mind freezes (by this I mean you're happily typing along and you hit a point where no words come and you want to get out of the chair, surf the internet, or in my case, have some ice cream) a lot.

I'd love to offer some solutions beyond "Keep the pantry door closed and KEEP YOUR BUTT IN THE CHAIR" but really, isn't that the only real solution? It's no fun, but it's a fact.

My fingers, at least, are still skinny–they get plenty of exercise on the keyboard.

Turned Tables

Posted on Categories Writing, Diary of Bedlam2 Comments on Turned Tables

Well, sorta.

I'm officially querying again and so far, so good. My only real complaint is that it takes awhile to get responses, and since I'm not generally known for my patience, I've resorted to even more obsessive-compulsive gmail refreshing than usual. Stay tuned though, I'm sure I'll have plenty of complaints later.

Yesterday I spent some time on QueryTracker.net looking for agents to query. This is a good task for me, as it feels sort of like time-wasting and yet is a necessary part of the book-writing process. It's certainly easier than actually writing a novel, and anything that feels like progress in my quest to get published that doesn't actually require the gut-wrenching task of writing is okay by me.

Should I not refer to writing as gut-wrenching? Perhaps not. Except for me it often is.

Anyway, back to QueryTracker. My search yesterday was broader than I'd done in the past and thus included many agents I hadn't heard of before. As part of my research, I went to their websites, read the QueryTracker comments, and generally did my homework to decide whether I wanted to add them to my list.

Since I started writing Diary of Bedlam nearly four years ago, I've learned quite a lot about what agents are looking for when they sort through queries. So much of it is subjective, but there are a few things, like following of submission guidelines and professionalism, that are expected across the board. But yesterday, I realized that as a writer, there are a few basic (and possibly superficial) things that I'm looking for as well.

First impressions definitely count.

1) If an agent uses a hotmail address, he/she is probably not the agent for me. Heck, at this point, I'd have second thoughts about doing business with anyone who still uses hotmail for business purposes.

2) If an agent still has the equivalent of an AOL circa 1997 website, I'll probably skip sending them a query. I certainly have nothing against AOL–heck, I met my husband via that service in 1996, but a professional web presence counts a lot. I'm not saying an agency has to spend loads of money on a fancy website, but I draw the line at websites using Comic Sans as a primary font.

3) I hesitate to mention this last one and I'm certain there will be people who disagree with me, but at this point, I'm skipping agents who do not accept queries by email. I understand they have their reasons for it and there are a few top-notch agencies who only accept queries by post that I'll probably end up querying, but for now email makes more sense to me.

I have other criteria, of course, but these are the things that stop me in my tracks almost immediately. As writers, we are all looking for the best agent to represent our work, and to me, the first two items mentioned speak to an agency's ability to represent me in the way I expect to be represented.

What do you think? Am I being too picky?

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