The Best-Seller Label

One of my books was the Kindle Romance Daily Deal last week. (Oh yeah, for those of you who didn't know, I'm also Julie Particka. Surprise?) It was one of those awesome but really stressful things. You see, when you're a KDD, that means Amazon is promoting you--they're sending your title out to all their readers and saying "look what's on sale!"

What if it still doesn't sell?

That was literally my thought when I woke up that morning and looked at my 7:30 am ranking. I was stuck in this void of "OMG, I totally suck."

The universe must have liked me that day because the rankings kept climbing and climbing. (Bear with me here. I'm only showing evidence for the discussion to come.) Eventually I had this:

#19 overall in Canada!

And this:

#93 overall in the US

And this:

#1 in NA/College! WOOT!

Which...is pretty fucking cool. I mean, between this and hitting something like #7 on the Australia iTunes with the book, I can technically call myself an international best seller.

But I don't.

You see, I know what kind of numbers people have to hit to make the NYT and USA Today lists. For most people, those are kind of life-altering sums of money. This? Not so much.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy as a clam about doing as well as I did. However, I've been paying a lot of attention to how people use the best-seller label, and it makes me a little squicky.

There is an author I know who gave away one of her self-pub books on amazon for several days. Lowered the price to FREE! and then advertised the hell out of it. I don't remember exactly how high her book got on the free list, but she proceeded to start calling herself a best-selling author.

*blink*

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy for her that she grabbed so many new readers. But I kind of have this thought that to be a best-seller you have to actually sell the books. I mean, if she'd lowered the price to $0.01, technically that would have been selling, but all those people who click on all the freebies might not have grabbed it. I don't know, but I don't count that.

I know another author who joked because their book hit #1 on some small, obscure sub-category that they were now a best-selling author. (Thankfully in that case, it was a joke, because I would have lost some respect for this particular person who legitimately deserves to sell enough to be a bonafide best seller.)

Now, in my case, the NA/College list isn't obscure. That's a pretty tough list (Colleen Hoover, Jamie Maguire, Jennifer L. Armentrout...the list could go on for a while), but until someone "in power" slaps a title on me, I'm not going to use one because it kind of feels like crowning myself mother-of-the-year or something.

Words have power, and people have used "best-seller" so deceptively (I won't say they are out-and-out lying, but making the best seller list at a specific publisher for a day or week is not the same as making an amazon list, is not the same as making the NYT or USA today.) that it's almost ceased to have meaning. If the time comes that my publisher decides they can legitimately put it on my books, I will probably start using it, but until then, this post is as close as it's going to get.

So my advice to all you aspiring authors, indie authors, new authors--choose to use the best-selling label with care. In order for it to have meaning to readers (which it's starting not to), it has to have meaning to us as authors.

Who Do You Write For?

I'm sure most writers have heard it at least once. Chasing trends is bad. Basically, the rule goes like this: once it's a trend, it's already on the way out. Once something becomes really popular, everyone and their brother jumps on that bandwagon, and suddenly it crumbles under the added weight. 

So, if you're not trying to write to the trends, how do you decide what to write? 

That's where the world gets dicey, my friends. See, the problem is a lot of people write to trends, not because they are trendy but because they genuinely like the genre/trope/whatever. So the old adage of write what you love doesn't necessarily work here. Yes, you should write projects you're passionate about, but when the thing you love happens to be vampires/dystopian/whatever-the-hell-else-was-huge-and-then-dead you have to accept that said project may never sell. 

And that's okay. 

Yes, you read correctly. If you have a passion project, by all means, get it on paper, whether or not it will sell right now. Most trends are cyclical. As long as you're willing to hold onto that project until the next cycle, you're fine. Or if you don't care if it sells, you're also fine. So, yes, write what you love...

Unless writing pays your bills. 

No pitchforks, please. Obviously professional authors can still write what they love, but we also have to be more aware of the limitations of that. We also have to be aware of contracts. Sometimes a multi-book series that starts as a passion project doesn't end up that way by book 3, 4, 5...12. But it's still a contract, it's still a book you have to write--whether you want to or not. In that particular case, you kind of have to trick yourself into believing you're writing it for yourself. 

Perhaps it's a character you've been dying to get on paper. Or a setting you've always wanted to visit. Or even a catch-phrase you finally have the perfect place to use. Find the thing in the book that is for you and hold onto it for dear life.

Yes, writer friends, write for yourself, even if you're writing for someone else. 

Con Prep!

Eep! I looked at the schedule yesterday with an "Oh shit, don't forget to blog." Then what did I do? Completely forgot.

My only excuse is that I have con-brain. I leave in less than 72 hours for the Romantic Times Booklovers' Convention and I'm all mushy with the things I need to get done. Promo, packing, arranging stuff for the kids and dogs...

But I wouldn't change a thing. RT is my favorite con every year because there are sooooo many people I only get to see there. So all the stress and panic is well worth it.

The one thing I haven't really prepped is my liver, but it remembers what alcohol is like, so I should be okay. I hope.

Anyway, if you are going to be in the New Orleans area (or at RT specifically), please look me up (and remind me to eat and hydrate).

I’m actually arriving early in New Orleans, so feel free to say hi if  you are at the convention hotel. Unless I’m otherwise engaged, I’m available for drinks, chats, practice pitches, pretty much anything goes. (It is NOLA, after all.)

Official stuff:

Wednesday 2:30-4:45 — Entangled’s Candy & Spoons Event

Thursday 10:00-11:00–STEAMPUNK:Putting the “Steam” in “Steampunk”

Thursday 1:30-2:30–Clockwork Carnivale Tea

Thursday 6:30-8:30–RT Pub Crawl (I’ll be with Entangled Publishing at Bourbon Heat)

Friday 11:15-12:15–STEAMPUNK: From Aether to Zeppelin (Steampunk Basics)

Saturday 11:00-2:00–Giant Book Fair

Saturday 6:15-6:45--FanTastic Day Party

I will likely be at ALL of the last parties of the night, but that’s not official stuff, so…

One big reminder about book conventions and authors. Most of us are introverts, so we're as nervous about meeting you as you are about meeting us. We have to actively put on our "time to talk to live people" hats when we walk through the door. So, please, come up and say hi because if you don't, we're likely to just stick with our known people...and none of us wants to be seen as that author who ignores fans in favor of other authors. 

Your Genre Is So Yesterday's Formula

I was chatting with another author about trends in romance novels on Monday, and the conversation turned to "romance stories are basically fairy tales set in the modern world."

She didn't say it. I did. Because it's true, not because it's bad. Let me explain.

We discussed how main characters still have to fit the same basic roles of prince and princess, with the cool ride as noble steed and the ex as the villain. The basics are there, and that's okay.

Problem is we're all so used to people having a sneer in their voice when they say "romance stories are basically fairy tales for grown ass women" that it gets our hackles up. And then those same people go on to bitch about how romances are too formulaic for them to bother with so they read ________ (really, you can fill in the blank here with any genre of fiction and the argument I'm about to give remains).

Guess what, boys and girls, all fiction is formulaic within a genre. I'm going to go with mystery because it's the easiest example:

• Intro: crime scene (but maybe not THE) crime scene--serves to either intro the mystery and/or the main character (often but not always an underling detective or a retired one of some sort)
• Refusal: Hero(ine) either tries to step away from the case or is forced away form someone higher up. 
• Call to arms: Criminal hits too close to home, hurting someone the hero(ine) cares about, that makes them insist on being on the case (with or without that higher up's approval)
• Clues: Pretty much act 2 is all about seeding clues and playing cat and mouse with the bad guy.
• … 

And really, I'm bored now. The point is mysteries follow the same basic formula of

Bad guy does something, good guy chases bad, almost loses him, and catches him in the end.

Let's compare that to romance, shall we (heteronormative for ease of writing only):

Boy meets girl, they chase each other, they almost lose each other, but catch each other in the end. 

Yep. Not so different. Yes, subplots. Yes, backstory. Yes, all those things that make each book unique--but that is true in any genre. Here's the dealio--people like formula, even if they flavor it with bourbon. We all want to sit back with our bottle full of formula and snack on it--because it's comforting. Like having a nipple in your mouth.

So, they naysayers shall say nay, but romance readers need to stand tall and proclaim their love of fairy tales. After all…

And no matter what our genre of choice, don't we all have dragons we'd like to slay?

Happy Birthday Seleste!

Come, my minions! Join us for a ritual sacrifice in honor of the birth of Seleste deLaney!

An irreplaceable member of the ELEW and supporter of evil in general, our Blasphemous Dispensator of Expenditures is one of the hardest workers I know, juggling being an evil mother with being an evil writer and somehow not completely destroying the world in the process. In the time you've taken to read this post, she's probably written more words than you will in the entire year, and looked fabulous while doing it.

And so to celebrate this day, we did what all evil organizations do and kidnapped someone. Just for you, Seleste.

He's in the dungeon with a set of floggers. Enjoy.

Seeking Inspiration

I recently joined an online dating site (I know, I know, don't start…or do, it'll make the comments interesting. Anyway…) and I keep getting the same question from guys who are interested in my writing. Where do you get your inspiration?

Yes, it's also a popular interview question, and I always try to explain my "everywhere" answer. This morning, as I sit in my kitchen, eating my breakfast (and remembering I forgot to write a post yesterday--oops), I looked out my window at my neighbor's US flag.

They have a very nice flag pole in their backyard--almost as tall as their house--but the flag is…sad. The stripes are so faded as to be nearly invisible and the entire thing looks more like someone strung up an old flag-style beach towel rather than a proper flag. (During recent visits, both my parents pointed out the flag, which is probably why it got more of my notice today than other days.) But as I sit here, watching it whip back and forth in the wind, proudly snapping like any other flag, it hit me that the damn thing has to have a story.

You see, the neighbors that live there are not the type to leave it out for no reason. They tend their garden daily. Their house is one of the best kept in the neighborhood (they are the original owners--which means they've been here for 40+ years). In short, there is no way they'd leave a dillapidated flag flying if it didn't hold significance.

And so I started subconsciously making up the story behind that faded rectangle of fabric. (Honestly, I started making up a few because the first ones that popped into my head were horribly tragic and sad.) But I think the one I'd go with if I ever wrote it would be the one about the guy who left behind a girl when he went off to war. Unbeknownst to him… she was pregnant. During a battle, another soldier (probably they started out hating each other, but became grudging friends over time) did something heroic to save his life…losing his own in the process. Our soldier makes it home after his tour, determined to hunt down the girl, only to find out about their child…

You get the idea. Oh, and the flag? Somehow it came from the frenemy who saved his life, the one without which he never would have refound his true love and never have met his child. And that's why it's flying every day, no matter how faded or sad it is.

So yeah. Inspiration is truly everywhere. In the song you hear a random snippet of, in the conversation between strangers, in the email you get from some jerk on a dating site, and in the view you see out your window every day.

I was going to end with a quote that I love, but then I discovered it was said by an author who I refuse to promote because I know and hate his politics. So we'll go with this one instead (he might be an ass too, but I don't know so I feel safer with it…)

If you look at anything long enough, say just that wall in front of you -- it will come out of that wall.
- Anton Chekhov

So stare at your wall, take a walk, talk to a stranger, but find your story out there. Find one every day. That way when the time comes to write, you have a bevy of them to sift through looking for the best one.

(Also, this is my last post before the holiday hiatus here at the ELEW. So I'd like to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season. Catch you in the new year!)

Happy Birthday, Seleste!

Today is an auspicious day. It is the anniversary of the birth of our Blasphemous Dispensator of Expenditures, Seleste deLaney!

Seleste is smarter than you, handles a lot more shit than you do, and is just generally better than you. Also, she looks FANTASTIC in a corset. If you don't believe me, check out her site and see for yourself.

Additionally, she shares this day of natality with none other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer (shut up, I have this on good authority from someone who knows the 'verse canon, so I don't want to hear ANY ARGUING). That adds many, many points to her Evil Cred. She is truly a valuable and outstanding member of the Evil League of Evil Writers, and we're very pleased to count her among us.

Happy birthday, Seleste! May you enjoy your day in the manner which most pleases you, drinks borne to you buy scantily-clad members of your preferred gender, and booze-filled cupcakes.

Evil hugs,
The ELEW

NaNo Then Versus Now

by: Seleste deLaney

I did my first NaNoWriMo in 2007 (aka--very pre-published). I started with a bang, finished with a whimper, then took the next 10+ months to finish the draft. NaNo 2008 (still pre-published) was more of a slow and steady thing. Finished, won, completed the draft in December (I did eventually sell this one as well, under my other pen-name). NaNo 2009 (still pre-published) was like chewing off body parts to finish. I loved the idea, hated the manuscript, but I won anyway. Shelved the manuscript for a few months, then completely re-wrote it and sold it in early 2010. (It was Badlands, for those who care about such things.)

I went into NaNo 2010 as a published author, but at the time I only had one short story (Of Course I Try) out. I had a couple other holidays shorts coming in December and Badlands in February, but I wasn't on deadlines and didn't have a ton of things going. (Badlands was done on my end, and the others were short enough that edits weren't killer.) This year, my NaNoNovel soared and finished up pretty quickly. Granted, I took a year to tweak it and sub it, but that's when Kiss of Death happened.

By NaNo 2011, I had a backlist, I'd won a couple little awards. I was starting to think I was a big deal. So I took that year to write a book that I loved but I knew might be unpublishable because of the plot. (I've let it sit for a year, but I do plan to go back to it and look again.) But once again, I wasn't on deadlines. Everything was easy.

Now, in 2012, I feel like I'm finally doing NaNo as a published author. The lead up to November involved releases in August and September. I have another holiday short coming out in December. And I had a submission due in the middle of November... that I didn't have drafted until the end of October. Uh... this is when the panic-heavy music should be cued. Because of all that, I barely had an outline for Kiss of Life when November 1 hit.

I do not advise doing NaNo this way (published or not)--especially when dealing with a sequel. However, I digress...

I wrote on Kiss of Life for the first week of November and really floundered. I mean hard-core, thought I was going to drown in the suckitude. Then the second week, I took the book I finished in October and spent a week revising it. Once it was subbed, I looked at Kiss of Life and actually groaned. I'd had such a hard time staying on target the first week, the I couldn't fathom how I was possibly going to catch up from missing a week.

Then I remembered how last year Skyla abandoned her first NaNo project half-way through the month and started another one...and finished it. And it hit me--that's how a real author behaves. Writing is our passion, but it's also our job. We get up, dust off our whiny pants, and do the job. So, I sucked in a deep breath, choked on my fear, and remembered that I love these characters and their story. As of 8pm on Tuesday, I have just over 9,000 words left to write to win NaNo. I'll get at least 2,000 of those before I go to bed, hopefully more. That means unless something horrible happens, I'll win NaNo. By the skin of my teeth, but I still did it (or will).

It's weird how I have a bunch of contracts for books sitting in the filing cabinet next to me, but this makes me feel like a real author. The pressure, the deadlines, more than one of them... and busting ass to make sure they happen.

Am I certain this version of Kiss of Life is worth the time I put in? Nope. But that's what I have my awesome beta reader, Janelle, for. She's volunteered to look at the early draft and kick me if I'm way off-base. That means come December 1, I'm sending her what I have and taking a much-needed (and recently ordered) break. Said break doesn't mean I won't be writing, but I'm going to write something for me for a week or so while I wait on Janelle's feedback. Because that's the other thing this year's NaNoWriMo has taught me--that sometimes an author has to write what they want rather than what they should.

Because that, my friends, is what makes it fun and magical and keeps me coming back for more. It's time to re-discover the magic, if only for a little while.

Then it's back to work, because I have the best damn job in the whole world. <3