My Latest Ailment - Writer Angst

I'm getting writer-antsy. I'm doing a lot of promoting for people for these virtual book tours and I'm dying to get back to my paranormal comedy I started on months ago. As you know, I have a paranormal romance I've written with two other authors, Heide Kaminski and Pam Lawniczak, called The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost which is going up at Amazon any day now. Heide just emailed me saying she's received twenty copies of the book and I'm dying to get mine!

I just have to wait, but I'm not so good at waiting!

But, anyway, to get back to the subject, I'm DYING to get myself back in my WIP. It's basically about a twenty-something (think paranormal chick lit) chick named Ashleigh Pemberton who finds herself dead and slips away from Heaven to finish where she left off before the Mr. Whippy ice-cream truck had other plans for her.

On the other side, she teams up with an older woman, Amelia, who helps her get back to earth to find Ashleigh's fiance so that she can tell him good-bye, which is one of the reasons she wants to go back. What happens thoroughout the rest of the story is that she finds out that the second time around is much more fun than the first when she finds out that her fiance has taken up with another woman. Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.

The book takes place in California where her fiance is a big movie producer and was going to turn Ashleigh into a movie star. However, she gets run over by a Mr. Whippy ice-cream truck and the rest is history. Ashleigh's mission? To get back what was rightfully hers.

It's a fun little book actually because Ashleigh is such a spirited, fun character. She has that chick lit attitude for sure. Here, this is what she thinks of being killed against her will...

“Grrreat. God has freaking killed me.”

Ashleigh Pemberton, soon-to-be co-star of Unbridled Obsessions, and the latest Hollywood protégé, carefully eased herself out of the bed of gravel that was carving permanent indentures in her once-picture-perfect-thirty-six-inch posterior.

For the first time in her twenty-eight-years on earth, she felt an incredible sense of not being connected to a body that was so beautiful, even she found it baffling that someone from the wrong side of tracks could have turned out as well as she had.

And, now, she was dead.

This is so not cool, she half-heartedly mused. One stupid mistake and I’m dead as a doornail. This can’t be happening. It’s a dream. Yeah, it’s a dream, and I’m going to wake up any minute!

So, anyway, that's the beginning. I'm only 30,000 words into it, lots more to go, but I'm dying to get back.

Okay, gotta get back to work. The virtual book tour for The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost will be in June. If anyone is interested in hosting me, leave a comment or send me an email and I'll fill you in on the details.

Happy writing to you!

Tags: boomer chick, Over the Hill Boomer Chick

What's the Latest News in Chick Lit?

So, what's the latest news on chick lit? Is it dead? Are they calling it something else? Is it a no-no word in the publishing industry if that's what you write and you want it published in your lifetime?

It's been ten years since Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones. After its release and watching its popularity spread like wild fire, authors jumped on the chick lit bandwagon. I was one of those authors, although it took me a few years into it to find it. But, once I did, I loved it! Not the shoes thing, but because of the witty and sarcastic tone of the heroines. Ahhh...the shoes thing. One of the things the critics loved to stomp into the ground. Fluff, they said. Isn't worth the money spent, they said. Drivel. Not literary-oriented enough.

What I believe happened is that while some people believe the popularity of chick lit has run its course, authors who write the genre are not discouraged. They've just changed their game plans which is encouraging to me because I love reading about heroines who who are strong and catty beings who take the knocks long enough to find answers to their life's problems in such a way that we can all relate, not to mention their kick-ass way of doing it.

Some authors will tell you their agents aren't as gun-ho taking on these stories anymore and the agents themselves will tell you they're a hard sell because NY has been overrun by them. However, chick lit is still alive and well. Their stories might be more focused to please the literary audience, but they're still cranking out these wonderful light reads, only they're punchier, have more depth and don't rely on a pair of shoes to pull off a story (sorry, had to throw that last phrase in for those naysayers who believe that's what chick lit stories are all about).

So, here's what I found out about chick lit around the recently. I was amazed. Chick lit is still alive and well and I believe will be around for a long time...

1. Teen chick lit is selling real well. According to the Seattle Post, teens are buying books at the fastest rate in decades.

"Not only are teen book sales booming -- up by a quarter between 1999 and
2005, by one industry analysis -- but the quality is soaring as well. Older
teens in particular are enjoying a surge of sophisticated fare as young
adult literature becomes a global phenomenon."

2. The Age reports that chick lit has now "grown into" hen lit.

"As a recent New York Times article pointed out, it's 10 years since Helen
Fielding invented Bridget Jones, and even the perpetually adolescent Bridget has
given birth. Both the Chick Lit authors and their readers are getting older and
becoming mums, and they want to see their experiences in print."

3. Chica lit is hot. According to a review at Blogcritics.com for Boston Boys Club by Johnny Diaz, chick lit had to make way for chica lit.

"Chick lit had to make way for chica lit, and I'm glad to say the the ground for
chico lit is being broken by Johnny Diaz and his own tale of the city,
filled with hot boy on boy sex, friendship, romance, trying to make sense of
who you are, and what you really want against a well-crafted backdrop of
Beantown."

4. According to The Nation, it's all about J-books, K-books and chick lit.

"A man promotes Pramuan Pengchan’s bestseller ‘Dern Soo Issarapab’ (Walk Towards Freedom). The book is expected to be a hit at the book fair. Youngsters
will likely brush aside economic worries and snap up Japanese and Korean chick
lit as their summer vacation reads, the organisers of the Bangkok
International Book Fair 2007 said yesterday."

5. Caffeine Nights publishes a new form of fiction...Chick Noir.

"Chick Noir could be the result of living in modern times where almost overnight
a new generation of readers has had to grow up quickly. Caffeine Nights
Publishing certainly believe that the time is right to produce a brand of
fiction that has an element of escapism that also carries a healthy dose of
21st century realism. "

6. According to San Mateo Daily Journal, teen lit enters the golden age.

"There is also a new proliferation of chick lit, a genre that gives this
generation their own version of Nancy Drew, Baby Sitters Club and Sweet
Valley High. The new generation of teen chick lit has the same salacious
plot lines with a definite older vibe, which caters to today’s fast growing
teens. It’s Judy Blume to a higher level. The stories are compared to a
toned down Sex and the City or Paris Hilton escapades."

7. The Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania says more books are aimed at the single audience.

"These books are not about the rules, whether he's into you, or love languages.
The newest kind of "nonfiction chick-lit" - as we're dubbing it - is a backlash
against the idea that people who are married or in coupledom are happier,
healthier, and more prosperous."

8. The Baltimore Sun believes that books are crossing color barriers.

"The whole young adult field is expanding, and this trend is just part of the
general healthy growth of the genre. Instead of being one flavor, it's
many flavors. The black experience in America is expanding, and the genre is
simply catching up to social reality."

9. Literary agent Kristin Nelson of Pub Rants says, "...Penguin is still game for Chick lit with sassy main female protagonists (action-adventure works well)."

10. At Trashionista, "We've told you before about the Nibbies (or the Galaxy British Book Awards as they're more properly known) and now we're delighted to bring you the news that much-loved Queen of Chick Lit Marian Keyes won the award for popular fiction - way to go, Mazza! (As she'd probably loathe me to call her...) It was also great chick lit news for Lauren Weisberger, who won Television and film book of the year for The Devil Wears Prada (of course)."

I don't know about you guys, but I don't think chick lit is going away anytime soon. ;o)



Tags: boomer chick, Over the Hill Boomer Chick, chick lit, Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding, teen chick lit, The Age, hen lit, chica lit, Blogcritics, Penguin, Trashionista, Kristin Nelson

Track with co.mments

The Other Side of Being an Author

It didn't occur to me until last night that I have at least four manuscripts sitting in my files doing nothing but sitting. This doesn't include another five or so at various stages of completion, plus a relationship book that will be sent to Zumaya real soon.

But, getting back to the Fab Four, I took a poll in my writing group to see which one I should be concentrating on getting a contract for and the overall winner was Over the Hill. The book has been rewritten I know six times. Every time I'd get an agent rejection, it would get revised.

Crazy, but true. And this really isn't the way to go about it being as every agent has their own set of rules and guidelines and maybe the book was perfect in every way, but wasn't right for them. I would not know this, of course, and would rewrite it again.

But, everytime I rewrote, I did feel the book getting stronger. Against what I'm hearing, I changed everything from third person to first. And I really like it better this way.

But, after the fifth rewriting, I put the book aside and started teaching authors how to promote. I self-published A Complete Guide to Promoting & Selling Your Self-Published eBook, appeared on Fran Silverman's book marketing radio show, set up a promoting blog, Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion, and have started representing authors in various degrees of promotional representation.

What I am learning through this is that now I can look at being an author from the other side of the fence and what I'm seeing, it ain't pretty.

Publishers are a business, that we all should know. They "buy" your book for the intentions of making money from said book. They give authors a free service (unless it's vanity, of course) - free editing, free printing, free distribution - and, in return, they want reinbursement in books sold. If I were a publisher, I would definitely expect this; after all, I've invested my own monies into this venture and I want to see some of it back or I'm going to be in the red and will question why I got into this business in the first place.

The problem is that as the population of writers grows, the amount of books being published is astronomical. Everyone seems to be writing a book and everyone wants said book published or all that work is down the drain.

So, they search for a publisher or an agent, or opt to self-publish or pay for it through one of those vanity publishers. Either way, they are determined this book will be published.

For those who self-publish or pay through a vanity publisher, the stress is minimal. Sure, they want to make money off their books, but there's no one standing over them with death threats if a certain amount isn't sold within a reasonable amount of time.

For those authors who go with publishers, whether it's a NY house or even a publisher who prints using POD technology, it's a whole different ballgame.

There is an incredible amount of stress involved because if said book doesn't sell a reasonable amount of books according to what the publisher deems reasonable, they are automatically blacklisted. And by that I mean, either a) they will not accept anymore books from said author or b) they will pull their book. I know of one publisher who is actually putting their "promotional agreements" in their submittance guidelines (authors, read your contract carefully for said agreements).

One author who I'll call Sallie is published by a NY publisher. She came to me, wanting me to help her promote her book because she simply was stressing out because she was afraid of not selling enough books. I checked her Amazon rankings (they were great), I checked where the book was reviewed (they were great), I checked her website and blog (again, great). So, what's the problem here?

I represent an author right now who was published by a POD company. They turned down the last book she sent to them simply because her past sales from her past books weren't what they considered "enough."

It's a scary world out there. The reason for this post is that I want new authors to go in with their eyes open. There is no magic success secret. There is no magic potion. You can have the greatest Amazon rankings, the greatest reviews, have a blog and website up with everything perfect, and still, sometimes, it isn't enough.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Are publishers getting over their head and going into this business with their own eyes closed?

As an author, I know I have done everything possible I can do for my books, although maybe there's more I don't know, that I haven't done. But, you can better believe that for subsequent books, and maybe that's why I'm even stalling submitting them, I will definitely have a marketing plan already in place. I will do my research. I will do my homework. I will make sure before I put a publisher through this, and myself, that I will do everything possible to make sure I'm not one of the victims of having a contract being pulled or a publisher who feels that my sales weren't enough to publish subsequent books.

It's a scary, scary world out there, but a good idea might be for publishers to contact said authors ahead of time and help them. Maybe they don't know what to do next. Maybe they don't even know their sales are lagging to the point where the publisher is going to pull the plug.

I say it's time authors and publishers get together on this. No surprises. Honesty. Up front honesty and help these authors. Everyone is already in the game; how about we help each other win?

Tags: boomer chick, self-published, NY publisher, publishers, agents, vanity publishers