National Mental Health Awareness Month - What We Can Do as Writers

Last time I checked (and maybe it's been a while), I was human. The tricky thing about being human - that is, being a brain driving a barely-held-together bag of meat and bones - means we make mistakes. Cthulhu knows I've made a lot of them. Like that time I tried to make banana bread muffins without adding flour. Or the time I recycled a receipt, on the back of which my partner had written a bunch of measurements he needed for a home improvement project. Or the several months in which I tried to query a 168,000-word YA fantasy manuscript.

Yup. Mistakes have been made.

It's okay to talk about mistakes. Oftentimes, the only way we can improve - whether it's our attitude, our behavior, our craft, or any number of other things - is by understanding how we have failed in the past. And yet, as querying writers, it can be so hard to talk about mistakes, or about anything that's gone wrong in our querying lives recently. Sometimes, it feels as if we have to pretend as though nothing bad ever happens. Those 50 unanswered queries? Never happened. That blistering feedback from a CP? All good. Nope, nothing unpleasant to see here, folks, here's a photo of my cat.

There's this fear that we can't say anything even remotely negative on social media, Twitter especially, because an agent might see it. Not even just agents anymore - there's this fear that anyone could see a tweet, take a screenshot, and sit on it, just waiting for the right moment to cancel us. It leads to this idea that we have to be perfect online: no mention of failure, of mistakes, of problems, of how much we're struggling. Everything has to be flawless, carefully curated quiet perfection.

It doesn't have to be this way. May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. As writers, let's start to normalize the practice of admitting when we fail, or talking openly about our struggles when things get tough. Let's admit to the fact that we sent all those unanswered queries. Let's let it be okay to have to work for our successes. And as a community, let's stop condemning the truth about how hard writing can be to the silent darkness.

Dear O'Abby: Should I Enter Twitter Pitch Contests?

Dear O'Abby,

There's this thing called #PitMad happening on Twitter this week.  I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's a thing where you tweet a pitch for your book and agents and publisher request the things they like the look of.

Are these kinds of contests a good idea?  The word limit on Twitter is so small, I can't quite figure out how an agent or publisher can figure out what's worth asking for.

Do you have any thoughts about this?

X Twitchy

Dear Twitchy,

I actually got my agent through a Twitter pitch contest, so I'm evidence that they work, at least sometimes.

Like any contest, these Twitter pitch parties are another way to get your project seen.  They are also a really good way to distill your story down into a really tight, punchy longline that will catch attention.  If you can get people re-tweeting and favoriting your pitch tweet, chances are you've managed to write a compelling pitch.

The key is to just focus on the main details of your story and make them unique and interesting.  For example, here's the pitch that got me my agent (and is for my recently published novel, The Sidewalk's Regrets):

When Sacha's sheltered life entwines with sexy rocker Dylan's, she gives him her cutting-edge sound; he gives her his drug habit. #PitMad #YA

Or this one, for a project I've been re-working recently after several agents requested it and gave me feedback on why they didn't think it worked:

A trans-boy and a pregnant stranger struggle to survive in the woods after an earthquake. But are they as alone as they think? #PitMad #YA

Like any other contest, it pays to do your due diligence on any agent or publisher who favorites your tweet before you send them the material they're requesting.  Just because they like your idea doesn't mean you have to send them anything.  If you don't think they're someone you want to work with, just ignore their interest.

So my advice would be to do it if you want to, but don't get too hung up on whether your pitch gets noticed or not.  You can always query.  That option is always there.  And even if you do get noticed in the pitch contest, you still have to send a query to the agent.

There are no shortcuts, I'm afraid...

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby - I got an offer from an agent, but it wasn't the one I wanted

Dear O'Abby,

I entered a Twitter pitch contest recently and got a few 'likes' from agents.  I sent off the requested material, and received rejections from most of the agents a couple of weeks later.  Then today, I got an email from a different agent at one of the agencies than the one I sent my material to.  A junior agent.

She loves the book and wants to schedule a call to talk about it.  What should I do?  I'm excited to have come this far, but I'm not sure I want to sign with this junior agent, or even why she's the one who has read my book when I sent it to a different agent.

Yours,

Uncertain.

Dear Uncertain,

It seems like you have a couple of different questions in there, so I'll try to answer them one at a time.

Firstly, junior agents in larger agencies often read the slush coming in.  Busy agents rely on interns and junior agents to read the slush and dig out the gems for them to read.  It sounds like your Tweet caught an agent's eye, and she asked her trusted junior agent to read the material.  And said junior agent loved it.

Maybe the other agent (let's call her senior agent) also read the manuscript and didn't love it as much, but saw that it has potential in the right, passionate hands.  Junior agents don't have a ton of clients already and are building their list of authors and contacts. They have more time for individual authors and projects. If senior agent believes the book is good enough, and may sell, she might have suggested junior agent takes it on and will then offer support and advice as junior agent goes through the process of trying to sell it.

Junior agents may not have the same number of sales as a more senior agent, but they often have more time to spend on individual projects than their more senior counterparts.  They are just beginning their careers and don't have a large number of authors competing for their time and attention.  If a junior agent has the support of an established agency or a single experienced agent, signing with them might be the best career move you can make.

XX O'Abby

Why the Standard “Author Platform” Doesn’t Work

Welcome back to guest blogger, A.P. Fuchs. He's spent well over a decade in the business and has seen many trends come and go. Thanks for sharing with all the readers at Operation Awesome!

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All right, let’s talk straight. Specifically, let’s talk author platforms. You’ve read the articles. You’ve been told how important they are. You’ve been given a list of what to include. Heck, you’ve even taken all that information to heart and acted upon it.

And the book sales aren’t happening.

So you keep at it, hoping one day it’ll all pay off. Day in and day out you bust your tail on social media and the Web only to keep missing your goal sales-wise. Or, perhaps, you hit it some months and others you wonder what it’s all for. Frustration sets in and you don’t know what’s going on. You did what Author A said. You got your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your blog, your Instagram and all the others—yet still you’re just another author voice shouting into the storm.

Here’s the issue: you’re following someone else’s advice. Worse, you’re following it to the letter and in the game of publishing, following the author platform advice to a T is a death sentence.

This is why:

▪ Publishing is a giant crapshoot. There is no sure-fire way to do anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or trying to sell you something. While true there are basics and groundwork you can lay, that’s all those things are. Yes, your standard author platform recipe should be part of your game plan. That’s no different than saying you want to sell your book but you know you can’t sell your manuscript as is. You need to make it pretty and put it between two covers before you can do so. That’s a given. The basics.

▪ The standard author platform isn’t working for you is because you aren’t making it yours. You’re making it like someone else’s or, simply, following the basic recipe without adding the personal tender loving touch that makes your cookies taste better than the other guy’s.

This is how to fix the issue, written step-by-step, but don’t treat it like an instruction manual. Customization, you know?

Step one:

Lay down the standard recipe. All good baking has a fairly consistent base across the board. Have your Facebook page, your Twitter, blog, Instagram and all that. Customize each page and make it about you and your books then commit to a Web plan where you’re active on each on a regular basis.

Step two:

Start adding the TLC. Don’t make your Facebook page like Joe Famous’s. Make it like yours.

I hate the word “brand” when it comes to this author stuff. It turns us into a product and, frankly, art is never about product. It can become a product, but should never be a product. See the difference? This world is sickly loaded with consumerism and people pushing products non-stop twenty-four hours a day. Most of us have tuned out the racket. But what draws us and captures our attention? Unique items and unique people. This so-called “brand” you’re supposed to become? How about voice? After all, your voice is what makes your art what it is to begin with. Why turn that off when sharing it with people?

So . . .

Format and design your pages to reflect you and your books. Don’t be all authorish. Don’t be all bookish. Don’t make people feel like they’re in a stuffy library when they visit you on the Web. In other words, don’t be so professional you come off as cold. Cold people suck.

Into baking or crafts? Build that into your page designs and content.

Into superheroes and comics? Put up some indie superhero character art as part of your banner and pictures.

Into sci-fi and tech? Give your page(s) a mechanical flare and make the electro-junkies squee on the inside when they visit you.

Into horror? Spook it up, man.

Get the idea?

Step three:

With your on-line base of operations already established, leave it alone for a bit and start playing around with other marketing ideas.

Some items . . .

▪ Set up book signings. Table at conventions. Hook up with some craft shows and flea markets. Arrange a book tour, say, local at first then, depending on success, look at traveling out-of-province/state, even country.

▪ Set yourself up as a unique property at these events. Don’t just have a plain table. Add some posters and signage. Add some props. Display your books in a pyramid-like tower. Stand out. Fool around. Don’t be the lonely author who sits there with a handful of books laid out boring and flat in front of them, longingly gazing at the passersby, your eyes pleading, “Please come talk to me. Please come buy my book.” I mean, you took all this time to personalize your on-line presence, why wouldn’t you do the same for your off-line one?

▪ Casually bring up you’re an author into everyday conversations. You can subtly work your pitch into whatever you’re talking about with someone—choose appropriately, of course—and at a bare minimum leave them with a business card. But have books on-hand or in your car in case a sale is to be made. Trust me, it happens.

▪ Go to open mic nights and share story excerpts or poetry. This is your chance to pimp your work, network and perhaps get hired for new projects.

▪ Do workshops.

And a thousand other things. These examples are to make this point: lay your groundwork—that author platform—then play around with other marketing avenues. You’ll be surprised what works. You’ll also be surprised at what doesn’t because what works for Author A doesn’t always work for Author B.

Book marketing is all about customization. It’s about finding what works for you and putting energy into those things while discarding the things that don’t after you’ve given them a fair chance (i.e. six months to a year or something). And you know what? Even that thing you did that didn’t work for your first novel might be the goldmine that works for your second one. Each book is different. Even each book in a series is different.

Authors want the easy way out. “I just want to write,” they say. Well, if that were really true, you wouldn’t be publishing as well, right?

Or they want to be told what to do: that standard author platform recipe. Come on. How can you be so creative in fiction then totally useless outside of it? Don’t you know your life is a story and so is your book career? That creative flare that you put on the page can be used off of it, too. Stop thinking inside of your book and start thinking outside of it.

After this article is drafted, my plan for the day is to revisit my platform, one that I’ve already customized to me over the years—self-publishing since 2004—and take inventory on what’s working and what isn’t. I’m going to make some changes and try new things. Going to add my own TLC instead of relying on the standard Author Platform recipe.

I’m eager to see how these cookies turn out. I already know my zombie chocolate chip ones are dead ringers for a win and my Axiom-man cookies are super.

Screw the standard author platform. It’s boring and useless. But your own? The one with your personal touch?

That’s something special.

Get to it.

About the Author: An independent writer and cartoonist, A.P. Fuchs has been part of the underground publishing scene for twelve years. He is the author of more than forty books, loads of comics, short stories and poetry, and has a weekly newsletter called The Canister X Transmission, in which he currently discusses publishing and marketing tips, past work, indie creator spotlights and whatever’s on his mind that week. Heck, he’s so passionate about writing and publishing he even wrote several books on the subject, one a collection of the first year of his weekly newsletter, another called Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. Plus a few others. Sign up for his newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs and get a free thriller e-novelette out of the deal, and be sure to visit him on-line at his main hub at www.canisterx.com

More Changes Afoot at Operation Awesome

So we've said "goodbye" or "til we meet again" to a few Operation Awesome members lately, and my own role will be changing just a bit.

I've been handling the Twitter and Facebook sharing for OA a while now, in addition to blogging every other Monday, but I need to put some serious BIC* time in on my second book in the Crow's Rest series. So this will be my last regularly-scheduled post for some time, though I'll pop in occasionally as my (and OA's) schedule allows. We're mixing things up a little and our operatives won't have such rigidly assigned days here on the blog, so that should make it easy when some of the alumni and I want to jump in!

For example, I'm doing a bloghop for the release of Crow's Rest on May 12, and no way am I leaving OA out of that! I'll be sharing photographic proof that the Fae are real, with a photobombing _________ (You'll have to check back on the 12th to see what it is!)

But from here on out, I'll still be handling the Facebook sharing for Operation Awesome posts; following our Facebook page is a great way to keep up on new posts. Karen will be taking over Twitter after May 1st, so you can all look forward to her take on Operation Awesome tweets!

Thanks for all the comments and interactions on all my posts over the years, and I'll see you around the web!

*Butt in Chair

The Cult of Book Marketing

I've been reading Kristen Lamb's book, Rise of the Machines this week. And it's given me a lot to think about. If you haven't heard of Kristen Lamb, she's a very vocal supporter of indie publishing and the creator of something called WANAtribe, which is a place for writers to commune and offer each other support. You can read about Kristen and WANA (which stands for We Are Not Alone) through the links above -- and I recommend you do -- she's very wise!

Anyway, Lamb's book has a lot to say about the way social media fits into the marketing plans of every writer, indie or traditional. It's been a little bit eye-opening to me, because she's rather plainly stating that everything I've been doing is wrong. The only comfort here is that I know I'm not alone. I learned how to use social media from other writers, and basically copied what they were doing.

The biggest issue Lamb brings up -- and one I've wondered about a lot -- is that writers using Facebook and Twitter seem mostly to be targeting other writers. In some ways this is good marketing if you ask me. After all, I don't know any other writers who aren't voracious readers. I go through several books a week, even when I'm on deadline, and I'd guess I'm not alone. But I've also been aware all along that my small community of writer friends -- no matter how much they'd love to help me -- cannot make me a NYT bestseller all by themselves. I need those elusive "regular folks" to read my books, too. And talk about them. But I don't really market to them, unless they stumble across my very writer-focused blog or FB page.

I've attended lots of FB launch parties for fellow authors, and helped host a couple myself. And the folks who comment a lot and end up winning the giveaways? Other authors. I'm part of plenty of author groups and have an entirely separate author persona, to keep my writing segmented from my "real" life.

And Lamb is making me see that this might not have been the best path. Part of the segregation between my "real" identity and my pen name is due to the type of work that I do in the "real" world. But I'm starting to see that maybe inviting my "real" friends into my writing world would be the best way to share the thing that has been most important in my life (besides those little mini mes that wander around my home shrieking). I wouldn't "market" to these folks, exactly...that feels quite wrong. But maybe NOT giving them the opportunity to support my writing is wrong, too.

I'm not going to post any spoilers from Lamb's book or tell you how she proposes that we move past our limited view of author-to-author social media marketing to connect with "real" people... mostly because I haven't gotten that far in the book yet. But she's setting the stage and preparing me for the big reveal... I'm about halfway through the book, and the woman has thoroughly built the case for why everything I'm doing is spectacularly unsuccessful. So at this point I'm invested and really REALLY hoping that the book can deliver on the promise that it's making. But even if it doesn't manage to do that (has anyone completed it? Does it???), it's well written and has inspired plenty of thought.

So my questions to you guys:
- have you felt trapped in this cult of author-to-author marketing, too?
- what have you done to break out and reach "real" people?
- do you keep your writing life segregated from your "real" life? If so, why?

#Pitmad: Defining Your Story in 140 Characters or Less

Well, it's that time again...time for #Pitmad on Twitter. It's a crazy day filled with endless RTs and creative ways to define your completed and polished manuscript in 140 characters or less (and it's less because you have to include category and hashtag in the tweet).

Don't know what Pitmad is? It's a day long Twitter pitch party hosted by the amazing contest hostess with the mostest, Brenda Drake. From 8am EST to 8pm EST, you can pitch your book (any category & genre) in the feed. Literary agents and publishers will scroll through the feed and favorite those pitches they'd like to see. Most times, agents/publishers will give specifics as to what materials they want submitted after they favorite.

It's a fun day and a great way to learn how to pitch, but there are rules:


1) You can only pitch 2x/hour


2) Pitch should include category (PB, MG, YA, NA, Adult) as well as #Pitmad designation (or you won't see it in the feed.)


3) It's okay to RT pitches you like so they have more exposure in the feed, but don't hit the "favorite" button - this is reserved for agents or publishers who want to see more.


4) Don't pitch directly at agents - use #Pitmad and agents will see everything in the feed


Want more details? Check out this link on Brenda Drake's blog: http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitmad/

If you're participating in the pitch frenzy today, good luck and may you get many favorites!