The wonderful world of book bloggers and how I evaluate blogs as an agent

Don’t y’all just love book blogs? I do! I add books to my to-be-read list based on what bloggers say. I forward links to my clients when one of their novels is reviewed. I read blog comments to see what’s hot. Book blogs drive buzz and sales and excitement and they help promote reading (which is always a great thing). I grew up a reader, but back then (think dinosaur age), books were recommended by teachers, librarians and occasionally by friends. Today, I can compare notes with other readers via book blogs and be part of a big online world of people who love books.

As an agent, how do I evaluate book blogs and how do I use them?

One of the main ways I leverage book bloggers in my job is by sending out Advanced Reader Copies of my clients’ books. Yes I do this. Is it a conflict of interest? No. I’m not trying to “drive business” – I’m just trying to connect books to reviewers. When submitting, I always follow the blog’s submission guidelines and then it’s up to the blogger to review or not and to be positive or negative. I try to provide opportunities for my clients and their books – I don’t try to censor what becomes of those opportunities. By the way, yes – our publishing houses also send out ARCs for review, but you never know who I know that they don’t.

Another way I use book bloggers is by reading their reviews. I want to know what readers think – particularly about books in genres that I represent (young adult & middle grade, romance and science fiction & fantasy). The reviews and the comments on those reviews help me understand the market from a reader’s perspective.

Do I comment on book blogs? Yes I do. I know this has been a hot topic lately and I’m sure that different agents approach this question in different ways. My personal philosophy is that I never comment in a negative way on any book or on any review. Sure, I’ve read books that I don’t love – no one will ever know what those books are. And, I’ve read reviews with which I disagree. I simply nod my head and move along. When I do love something, though, I tend to reach out to the author or to the blogger with a positive comment. Publishing is thankless more often than not and “nice work” goes a long way.

How do I evaluate a book blog? This is the checklist I use when adding a blog to my hot reading list:

- Do I read the blog and enjoy the writer’s comments and style?
- Are the submissions guidelines posted clearly?
- Is the overall layout of the blog professional and engaging?
- How regularly does the blogger post (I like blogs that post 3-4 times a week. I don’t read anything every day, but I also forget about the ones that only post once a week)
- Is the blogger on twitter? Many times I follow bloggers on twitter and their tweets remind me to read today’s post. I personally like this kind of cross-promotion.
- What is the selection of books reviewed? For me personally, I prefer blogs that review some big names AND some smaller releases. So, a blog that reviews the same 10 books that I’m seeing on the NYTimes Bestseller list is a “meh” for me whereas a blogger who takes chances on some “quieter” titles tends to be more my style. I look for the review list to include books from big press and small press and books from big authors and debut authors.
- For me to actually submit an ARC, I make sure the blogger has some sort of disclaimer clearly listed. This disclaimer should say in a pretty direct way “I receive books from publishing houses and review them fairly and for no compensation.”
- I personally love blogs that host a variety of content – reviews, author interviews, guest blog posts.
- Surprisingly, book giveaways don’t do much for me. I know they are very popular so I would never suggest removing them. It’s just that giveaways sometimes make me feel that commenters are more interested in trying to get free books than they are in initiating discussion.
- Does number of comments matter to me? Sure – I love to see a ton of comments on a blogger’s post. To me that means the community at this blog is active and engaged.

So, if you ARE a book blogger, I hope this helps illuminate how your blog can be evaluated. If you are a writer and/or reader, I hope this helps explain how book bloggers can advance your craft and your career. Network with these people when you can – book blogs have proven to be an innovative and important way to promote literature!

For the record, here are some of the book blogs I adore:

For romance novel reviews:
USA Today’s new Happily Ever After blog
http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/index

Smart Bitches Trashy Books
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/

Dear Author
http://dearauthor.com/

Ramblings from this Chick
http://ramblingsfromthischick.blogspot.com/

Romancing Rakes
http://romancingrakes.blogspot.com/

Smexy Books
http://www.smexybooks.com/

For young adult novel reviews:
The Hiding Spot
http://thehidingspot.blogspot.com/

The Story Siren
http://www.thestorysiren.com/

A Book and a Latte
http://bookandlatte.blogspot.com/

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So, do you blog?  What are you doing and what will you start doing to address the points discussed by Sara?

On Friday, Handsome Hansel joins us to give us a mans eye view of the world of romance.

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And for one lucky commenter, Sara is giving away a copy of FIRELIGHT by Kristen Callihan.

BOOK 1 IN THE DARKEST LONDON SERIES

Once the flames are ignited . . .

Miranda Ellis is a woman tormented. Plagued since birth by a strange and powerful gift, she has spent her entire life struggling to control her exceptional abilities. Yet one innocent but irreversible mistake has left her family’s fortune decimated and forced her to wed London’s most nefarious nobleman.

They will burn for eternity . . .

Lord Benjamin Archer is no ordinary man. Doomed to hide his disfigured face behind masks, Archer knows it’s selfish to take Miranda as his bride. Yet he can’t help being drawn to the flame-haired beauty whose touch sparks a passion he hasn’t felt in a lifetime. When Archer is accused of a series of gruesome murders, he gives in to the beastly nature he has fought so hard to hide from the world. But the curse that haunts him cannot be denied. Now, to save his soul, Miranda will enter a world of dark magic and darker intrigue. For only she can see the man hiding behind the mask.

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Bio: Sara Megibow, Associate Literary Agent
Nelson Literary Agency, LLC

Sara has worked at the Nelson Literary Agency since 2006. As the Associate Literary Agent, Sara is actively acquiring new clients! The Nelson Literary Agency specializes in representing all genres of romance (except inspirational or category), young adult fiction of all subgenres, science fiction/ fantasy and commercial fiction (including women’s fiction and chick lit). Sara is an avid romance reader and a rabid fan girl of super sexy and intelligent stories.

Nelson Literary Agency is a member of AAR, RWA, SFWA and SCBWI. Please visit our website http://http://www.nelsonagency.com/for submission guidelines, FAQs, resources and sample query letters. Sara’s Publisher’s Marketplace site (www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SaraMegibow) is a great place to find more about her personal tastes, clients and recent sales. You can also cyber stalk Sara on twitter @SaraMegibowHow an agent chooses what books to read.

As the world prepares to celebrate Valentine’s Day, RU is thrilled to announce our first annual Tainted Love Contest.

We want your absolute worst.

The most wretched, overwrought and bruise-worthy purple prose you can possibly fit into one sentence containing no more than seventy words. 

Here’s an example written by RU staffer Becke Martin Davis:

Sloppy kisses sounded romantic in a bodice-ripping way, but with his tongue slithering down her throat like a slightly furred snake and his stale tobacco flavored saliva mixing disgustingly with hers, she decided to leave French kissing to the French in the future, and to avoid men with hot eyes and flecks of egg in their beards altogether. 

Place your entry under our comments section on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14th. Entries must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. PST on February 14th.

One entry per person.

One sentence containing no more than seventy words.

Judges: Editor Theresa Stevens and the RU staff 

Prizes awarded to the first, second and third place winners.

Winners will be announced on Sunday, February 19th.

We hope you’ll join in the fun!

What do query critiques, blogs, and men fumbling through romance on Valentine’s Day? This week’s fabulous lectures! Join us for an enlightening and entertaining line-up of Visiting Professors.

Mon, 2/6 – Monthly columnist C.J. Redwine returns with a critique of a reader submitted query letter. Join C.J. as she celebrates the release of her query book and kicks off QUERY PALOOZA! http://cjredwine.blogspot.com

Wed, 2/8 – RU columnist and agent Sara Megibow shares her thoughts on blogs. Are they an effective tool in an agent’s toolbox? http://www.nelsonagency.com

Fri, 2/10 – Handsome Hansel’s humorous take on the trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs men experience while attempting to pull-off romance (with some form of sincerity) on Valentine’s Day. It seems most men still don’t have it figured out. http://thedanceofromanceonline.com/

All Romance University lectures are generously provided by our Visiting Professors. RU is a tuition-free zone!
All our best,
Tracey Devlyn, Jennifer Tanner, Becke Martin-Davis, Kelsey Browning, Adrienne Giordano, Robin Covington, and Carrie Spencer

One of the most common comments I received on She Can Run was praise for my hero’s dog. Henry didn’t start out as a hero. The dog started out as a vehicle to show that my hero, Jack, wasn’t as irresponsible as he claimed. And to add some lightness to a plot that was very deep and dark. But partly by the magic of writing (luck) and party through by love of dogs, Henry evolved. Boy, did he evolve.

Here’s some background. Henry is a police dog reject adopted by my out-on-disability cop, Jack. Henry has been being passed around the police department and declared useless in every division. Henry is a goof. He’s lazy. He doesn’t obey a single one of Jack’s commands. In the beginning of She Can Run, his goals in life are to dig inconvenient holes, steal food, and sleep.

Here’s an excerpt of Henry in the beginning of the book when the dog first meets the heroine, Beth, and her children. The set up for this scene: Beth is on the run from an abusive and powerful husband. She is supposed to be starting a new job as caretaker on a secluded estate, but when she shows up, the old man who hired her has died. In fact, his nephew and heir, Jack, is in the middle of a private wake.

Behind Jack, nails scrambled on hardwood. He lunged for the door just as one hundred pounds of barking German Shepherd leaped over the threshold, knocking him backward. He grabbed a patio chair to recover his balance.

Shit! He’d forgotten he’d locked Henry in the den after he’d tried to jump into the casket. Henry had liked Uncle Danny. A lot.

“Henry, heel! Sit!” The enormous blur of tan and black fur streaked across the patio onto the back lawn and made a beeline for the trio walking up the path. “Get back here!”

Jack hobbled after the dog. Fifty feet ahead, Beth’s eyes widened with alarm when she saw Henry barreling toward her like a freight train. She stepped in front of the children.

“He’s friendly,” Jack yelled. “Really friendly. Brace yourself.”

Beth held her right hand in front of her body in a crossing guard stance and commanded, “Sit!” in a firm voice. Stunned, Jack watched Henry slide to a stop, haunches tucked under his body like a champion barrel racer. The huge dog’s butt bounced on the grass in barely contained excitement as she reached down and scratched him behind his enormous ears.

Son-of-a-bitch. Damned dog did know a command.

Panting, Jack hobbled over and stopped just short of them. “I’m sorry about that. Henry has no manners. I hope he didn’t frighten you.”

She stood maybe an inch over five-foot, somewhat elfish, with a slim body and long black hair that seemed unnaturally dark for her complexion. Even in her current travel-worn state, there was no denying her beauty: large eyes, smooth skin, delicate features. Still scratching the dog behind his ear, she straightened her shoulders and looked up at Jack. Her face softened with the hint of a smile, and Jack felt an unsettling pull deep in his loins. “I’m not afraid of dogs.”

No shit. Henry’s lips parted in a goofy smile as he listed to one side, his back paw twitching in circles.

“Henry’s a police dog reject. Officially, his file’s stamped retired, but he’s only four.” Jack grinned, remembering an embarrassing incident involving a high school drug raid, a locker, and a hoagie. His buddy, Mitch, in narcotics, hadn’t thought it was so funny. “I’m pretty sure he has ADD.”

It turned out that Henry, like every other character, needed motivation. Enter my heroine and her two children. Without human emotional baggage, Henry fell in love with the small family faster than Jack. Henry helped the children adjust and heal. And, just like Jack, love changed Henry.

I won’t give away the end of the book, but Henry was da bomb. He just needed the proper motivation.

I leave you with a short scene toward the end of the book in which Henry sensed something was terribly wrong and showed he’s not just a pretty, furry face. (Ben is the heroine’s son)

Hysterical barking woke Ben. He rose from his bed and padded barefoot into the hall to listen. Downstairs, Henry was going ballistic about something. He glanced in his mom’s room. Empty. After looking in Katie’s room and making sure she was still sleeping, Ben quickly trotted down the steps.

“Mom?” He ducked his head in the living room, then the study. His mother wasn’t in either room. Henry began to whine. Ben followed the noise to the kitchen where the big dog was digging frantically at the bottom of the French door.

His mom wasn’t in the kitchen either. Where was she?

The hackles on the back of the dog’s neck were raised. “What is it, Henry?”

At the sound of Ben’s voice, the dog grew more agitated, looking from Ben to the door. He began to growl and snarl at the closed door.
The note on the counter drew his attention. Mom was down at the barn. Ben was suddenly certain something bad was happening. The hair on his neck rose to mimic the dog’s.

He called his mom one more time. No answer. He picked up the phone and dialed Jack’s cell, but Henry was making such a racket, he could hardly hear the ringing on the other end of the line. Scanning the yard quickly, he looked down at the insistent dog. After turning off the alarm the way Jack had showed him, Ben opened the door. Henry raced through the opening and headed across the back lawn toward the path that led to the barn.

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Have you ever featured an animal as a primary character in one of your stories?

On Monday, RU founders Tracey Devlyn Kelsey Browning and Adrienne Giordano tackle the delicate topic of critique partners. Don’t miss it!

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Bio:

Melinda Leigh is a fully recovered banker. She started writing when her youngest child entered first grade as a way to preserve her sanity. She Can Run, her debut romantic suspense novel with Montlake Romance, released in November 2011 and became a Kindle bestselling romantic suspense. A second romantic suspense, Midnight Exposure, is scheduled to release in April 2012. She is also the co-author of paranormal romance novella, Amazon Heat, just out from Carina Press.

Melinda is also an avid martial artist. She holds a 2nd degree belt in Kenpo Karate, studies Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and teaches women’s self-defense. She lives in a messy house in the suburbs with her husband, two teenagers, a couple of dogs and one neurotic cat with an inexplicable fear of ceiling fans. With such a pleasant life, she has no explanation for the sometimes dark and disturbing nature of her imagination.

You can find out more about Melinda and her books at her website, melindaleighauthor.com and at Attacking the Page: A Blog on Martial Arts & Writing Action.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/melindaleighauthorpage
Twitter: https://twitter.com//MelindaLeigh1

Shannon lives in Italy – her internet connection can be spotty, but she’s going to try to join us today.

“I Get By With A Little Help From My (very unusual) Friends”

Let me start with a little confession. I really am a rather shy, almost pathologically non-confrontational person. I pick up spiders on a piece of paper and put them gently out the window while praying they won’t scuttle up onto my hand. I hate hurting anybody’s feelings. I literally lose sleep over it.

It has been pointed out to me that this is ironic, considering the nature of my books. My heroes are always ready to kick ass, whipping out big guns and notched knives and grenades and claymores and God knows what all. My heroines usually start out rather timid (with one notable exception, in Tam Steele, ULTIMATE WEAPON) but by the end of the book, they always get their chance to strike a crucial blow for the cause, sometimes more than one. And my villains are unhinged psychotic head cases, slashing and hacking on their ruthless swathe towards world domination.

Do I detect the whiff of overcompensation here? Gee . . . ya think?

Maybe, but it works for me. I strongly believe in badding up the bad guys to the utmost. The badder the bad guy, the more studly, righteous and pure-hearted the hero and heroine have to be to stand up to him. Or her, I suppose I should say, since BLOOD AND FIRE does feature a couple of pretty scary villainesses.

But the choreography of violence is a hell of a job. It’s so hard to dream ones way through a violent scene. Things are supposed to happen so damn fast and hard. I keep hitting walls, stopping dead, perplexed and thrown out of the story. Sex scenes are so much easier. Whether it’s hand to hand, gunfights, knife fights, explosives, it’s all hard. I don’t do any of that guns and ammo and kung fu stuff myself. I just, ahem, fantasize about it. I’m more the yoga type.

But you need to be concrete about the details in a romantic thriller. Fortunately for me, I have a secret weapon–my good buddy, Adam. I met him at Yale University, which I attended some gazillion years ago. Freshman year, I met this guy from Brooklyn, an ROTC scholarship student who walked around dressed in olive drab. We had absolutely nothing in common—I had grown up in the deep backwoods of the Northwest, raised by hippies, and was a foo-foo musician singer literary type, all music and Chaucer and Shakespeare. He studied poli sci, a quintessential “guy” major (my apologies to all females who studied poli sci, but I never met any of them.) He would disappear on weekends periodically to do field training exercises to fulfill his ROTC obligations. And he knew absolutely everything about guns. We became good friends, and remain so to this day.

Some years ago, as I was beginning to write these romantic thrillers, and as they got more and more violent, it occurred to me that Adam could be a valuable resource. For instance, there’s this scene in BLOOD AND FIRE where Bruno, the hero, and Sean McCloud, one of the intrepid commando McCloud brothers, are trapped up a dead-end mountain road and have to singlehandedly come up with a plan to defeat a big SUV full of almost robotically enhanced super-soldier bad guys, bristling with cutting edge weaponry. Big problem.

In my initial draft, Bruno and Sean hid under the bridge over a dry creekbed that the baddies were forced by terrain to drive over. The vehicle is stopped by a heavy chain, and my first idea was, a car door opens for one of the baddies to get out and deal with the chain, and Bruno or Sean leap up and lob a tear gas grenade into the vehicle. I can justify them having one of those just lying around because Sean is a McCloud. If you ever read a McCloud book, you’ll know what I mean.

But then I watched some televised riot on CNN, and police were throwing tear gas, and I watched it trickling out oh, so slowly, uncurling dreamily into the air . . . far too slowly to incapacitate a bunch of super-soldiers. They’d zip right out of there, ready to overwhelm my hero and his pal. I could probably write it so that my guys prevail by sheer luck and bravura, because hey, it’s fiction, right?

But it was a stupid idea from the start. No way would a McCloud or any McKenna hero sign off on a bad plan. They had to think of something smarter. But damn. My heroes can’t be any smarter than I am myself. And if an SUV of baddies was rolling up a narrow mountain road towards my cabin, I would be toast. Cowering under a bush. Pink nose twitching, bunny tail trembling.

So I skype Adam, whose day job includes designing Tomahawk missile systems, when he’s not writing and lecturing about arcane historical firearms, and I throw my problem in his lap. He promptly nixed the whole scenario, and without even hurting my feelings. Solution: move the guys way back from the road, give one of them a good sniper rifle with a powerful scope that will magnify ambient light.

For the sake of the narrative, I needed at least one of the bad guys to live to fight another day, so no bombing the road a priori. New plan: chain stops vehicle. Bad guy gets out. Sean takes driver, bam. Bruno sets of flash-bangs (stun grenades) feverishly rigged at the last minute, with a cell phone. They go off all around the vehicle. Confused and disoriented bad guys boil out onto the narrow bridge . . .

Well, I won’t say anymore, don’t want to spoil the scene. Let me share with you a snippet of our skype conversation about the flashbangs . . . slightly edited to remove some of my more clueless remarks. Gotta safeguard my mystique, after all. (snort)

Check this out:

Shannon: How do you make the stun grenades all go off at once?

Adam: Let’s talk cell phones. You know how the phones have a vibrator? It’s really a slightly off balance spinning device.

Shannon: Um . . . ok . . .

Adam: If you were to cut a hole in the phone body near the vibrator (candy bar shaped phones work best) you could see the little metal spinner. Now imaging two wires were placed inside the hole you cut.

Shannon: I’m imagining.

Adam: When the spinner spins . . . the circuit would be completed.

Shannon: So these two wires are put inside, and they don’t touch until the vibrator starts to vibrate? How could the wires not touch?

Adam: On the other end, the wires lead to batteries, and then to electric blasting caps that are used in place of the regular grenade fuse. Grenade image coming your way.

The entire top assembly (with the long lever) unscrews, allowing access to the explosive content of the grenade. I’ll draw you a diagram. Give me a minute.

Shannon: So it’s a two phone thing. One phone is physically connected to a battery that will send the electronic impulse to the blasting caps once the hero calls from another phone, causing the connected phone’s vibrator to connect the wires. Or am I off?

Adam: Exactly. Diagram almost done. Sent. . .

And so on and so forth. I wish I could put the whole (very loooonnnngggg) conversation in, because I love this kind of thing, and I think he’s brilliant, but I’m over word count already! Over word count is my middle name, after all.

For the record, Adam consults for writers. Contact him at adam.firestone@gmail.com. He’s a treasure trove.

And a big shout out to all the experts that I and all other writers consult to make our stories more real and therefore, more ultimately satisfying. Hurray and thanks to you all, for being the real deal.

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Do you feel comfortable writing action scenes? What sort of problems have you run into?

Be sure to stop by tomorrow when author MELINDA LEIGH joins us!

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Bio:

I started writing my first romance novel in secret. I was working a temp job in an insurance office in Manhattan at the time, and the office manager had made it clear that even if there was nothing to do, I still had to look busy– never one of my big talents. I felt bad about the wasted time, though, and I needed something to round out my other chosen career, which was singing. Yeah, that’s right. Most artists choose a more practical Plan B to back up their improbable Plan A. Me? No way. “Long Shot” is my middle name.

So I sneakily set up a Document 1 and a Document 2 with a spreadsheet on it. If my Boss du Jour walked by I could quick-like-a-bunny switch screens, and whenever the coast was clear, I went back to my story. Not that I was slacking, mind you. If there was work to be done, I did it. The sneakiness felt familiar, though, because I’ve been teased about reading romances since I was a kid. I think the day I finally grew up was the day I stopped trying to cover up what I was reading on the bus, train or subway. Let people think whatever they like.

It wasn’t until I moved to Italy that I got serious about writing, though. I found myself with many long, quiet days alone with nothing to do, so I slogged my way bravely to the end of the manuscript and sent it out. Everybody rejected it-except for Kensington. I wrote for them for a few years, and then made a bid for an erotic novella for the new Brava imprint, and oh joy, they accepted it. Then I wrote BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. And so on, and so forth.

That’s how I started. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do. I never knew it would be so scary, and so hard . . . all that solitude and silence, a blank computer screen, and no one to blame. But still. It’s worth it. It’s great.

Shannon’s books, publishing by Kensington Publishing Corp., include BLOOD AND FIRE, TASTING FEAR, FADE TO MIDNIGHT, ULTIMATE WEAPON, EXTREME DANGER, EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, HOT NIGHT, STANDING IN THE SHADOWS, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, RETURN TO ME and more.

Find out more about Shannon here: http://www.shannonmckenna.com/

Q&A with Weapons Expert ADAM FIRESTONE

Adam Firestone: *grin* “Weapons Expert” makes me sound a bit like a candidate for Executive Outcomes or the artist formerly known as Blackwater. While it’s not an inaccurate description, I think of myself more as a weapon systems engineer and instructor.

On the other hand, it *is* tempting to have some business cards made up that say something to the effect of “Adam Firestone, Mayhem Subject Matter Expert, Wile E. Coyote School of Pandemonium (WECSOP)” *grin*

Courtesy Krebs Custom, Inc.

RU: Hard to top that, Adam! How long have you been working in the field of weapons and ammunition?

AF: My dad brought home his first pistol, a Mauser Model 1914, when I was about eight. For me, it was love at first sight. I was absolutely fascinated by the intricate mating of the moving parts, the engineering, and the attention to detail. I taught myself to detail strip and reassemble the pistol in about an hour. From that point, I think I read everything I could get about weapons and munitions, even building 1:1 scale models of rifles and pistols. It’s been downhill ever since.

Professionally, I’ve been involved with weapon systems ranging from pistols and rifles to cannons and missile systems since the mid-1980s. I went to school on an Army scholarship, and my first formal introduction to firearms was a ROTC cadet at Yale. Those were limited to the standard Army fare of the time, M1911A1 .45 and M9 9x19mm pistols, M16A1 and M16A2 rifles, hand grenades, and M60 General Purpose Machine Guns.

Courtesy Krebs Custom, Inc.

When I graduated, I became a commissioned Army officer, and that opened up entirely new vistas for me. I was trained, and literally lived, ate and slept heavy weapons including M60A3 and M1A1 main battle tanks, M2 and M85 .50 caliber machine guns, and M240 7.62mm NATO machine guns. I was also became proficient with recoilless rifles, surface to surface and surface to air missile systems as well as landmines, demolition charges and other explosives and improvised weapons and countermobility systems. As you can imagine, this was pretty heady stuff for a kid in his mid-twenties.

I continued my education in the field outside the Army, gaining instructor certifications in rifle, pistol and shotgun, among others. I’ve taught many hundreds of people not only how to shoot, but how to make educated decisions about what sort of firearm to buy based on their unique needs, whether they be hunting, personal defense or sport shooting. I’ve held instructor certifications for about twenty years, and have continued my own education, being trained on foreign military firearms including those of Russian (Soviet), British, German, Japanese, Italian, French, Chinese and other origins.

Courtesy of RGUNS, Inc.

Since the mid-1990s, I’ve been designing military command and control and planning systems for warfare areas including naval mine warfare, combat engineering and amphibious maneuver warfare. For the last four years, I’ve been responsible for the complete re-engineering of the systems that plan, initiate, control and evaluate one of the nation’s most important long-range precision strike and power projection weapon systems. This work requires me to have ongoing expertise in arms export control regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

Additionally, a book I co-wrote on Allied rifle contracts with American factories during the First World War was recently published, and I expect to soon begin work on a volume exploring the impact of the US Army pistol trials of 1910 – 1911 on the Allied handgun armament during the war. I don’t advise anyone to purchase these books unless you have a sincere interest in the subject matter, or have trouble sleeping.

Probably more than you wanted to know, huh? I suppose the short answer to the question is that I’ve been working in the field for about twenty-five years.

RU: The long answer works for me! You’ve known Shannon McKenna since you were at Yale together. Back then, did the two of you plan on pursuing your current career paths?

AF: Hah! Not on a bet. Army scholarship, remember? I was going to be an Airborne-Ranger-Snake-Eating-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Shannon was going to single handedly reinvent the medieval music for the modern age. As you can see, it didn’t quite work out that way. Looking back, I don’t think either of us would complain about the way things worked out.

RU: Was Shannon the first author you advised about the accurate use of weapons and action choreography?

AF: Yes. It was completely serendipitous. Shannon had begun to write, and knew that I had a bit of knowledge about firearms, weapons and their employment. In the course of a “Hi, how’ve you been” conversation, she asked a few general questions, and the nature of those discussions evolved into our current professional relationship. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to work with other authors, providing similar insights and advice.

Courtesy Krebs Custom, Inc.

RU: What are the top five weapon-related mistakes (or misconceptions) you’ve come across?

AF: Wow. Where to begin? Let’s stipulate up front that I’m a stickler for nomenclature and technical terminology. Words mean things. If one is going to make a living communicating ideas – and that includes writers, engineers, educators and people in the media, to name a few – then there is an implied responsibility to use language effectively and appropriately.

“Well, you know what I meant” is not a proper or effective excuse for ineffective or imprecise professional communication. If you don’t know, learn. If you don’t understand, ask – but for pete’s sake, don’t make it up; that just entrenches ignorance. Ok, stepping off the soapbox. Top five mistakes, right?

1. That spring-loaded thing that holds the ammunition for a pistol, the one that fits into the grip? That’s a MAGAZINE, not a clip! Magazines contain mechanisms not only for storage, but for delivery of ammunition as well. A clip is just something to hold cartridges together (think of a paper clip vice the paper tray on a high end printer).

2. The vast majority of modern revolvers, and a large number of modern semi-automatic pistols do NOT have a manually operated safety mechanism (although there are internal mechanisms that ensure the firearm’s safety). Every time someone writes or talks about “flipping the safety off on his Glock,” I involuntarily shudder.

3. Despite frequent use (misuse?) of this term by the media, there is no such thing as a “semi-automatic assault weapon.” “Assault rifle” is a technical term that refers to a rifle that can be fired fully automatically (like a machine gun) at the operator’s choice and that uses a cartridge whose power is between a pistol cartridge and full power rifle cartridge. A rifle that looks like an assault rifle but that that cannot be fired fully automatically, is, well, just a rifle. Put another way, plopping a Porsche 911 body onto a Volkswagen Jetta chassis doesn’t create a Porsche 911. It creates something that looks and feels like a Porsche but still performs like a Volkswagen.

4. Shooting someone with a pistol, even the vaunted .44 Magnum, will NOT cause them to be flung back across the room or knocked down. It’s simple physics – action and reaction. If the cartridge can expel a projectile from the gun with enough force to knock someone down, the reaction would be strong enough to knock the shooter down.

5. One cannot fire magazine after magazine of ammunition through a light automatic weapon, like an AK-47, as fast as they can be swapped out. Why? Because putting a bullet down a barrel creates friction. Friction creates heat. Barrels get hot. After two or three thirty-round magazines fired automatically, the barrel on an AK is hot enough to give someone silly enough to touch it a second degree burn. Fire six to ten magazines, and the heat is enough to char or ignite wooden handguards and possibly to cook off rounds coming in contact with the chamber walls. It’s not an accident that most machine guns come with quick change barrels, or that early machine guns had water filled jackets around their barrels.

Courtesy RGUNS, Inc.

RU: I hear that TV and movies often feature information related to weapons, ammunition, forensics, etc. that is incorrect, but that the public perceives as true. How should authors respond to this misinformation?

AF: Sort of a chicken and egg question. If the author doesn’t know that the information is incorrect, how can she or he react to it? I’d like to believe that authors who do know better do all they can not to perpetuate the ignorance. I suppose that the best thing to do is to vet action scenes and technical data with a “reasonably knowledgeable individual” (RKI). If no RKI is available, I guess the author can settle for, well, me.

RU: Sorry about the chicken/egg thing! All kinds of fiction features action scenes, including romance. What are the key things to remember when choreographing a written action scene?

AF: Every action scene is a system that effects a transformation. There are one or more inputs, operating constraints (physical or otherwise), control mechanisms, and an output. The scene takes place in four dimensions – space times three (height, width, depth) and time. Of these, the most important for the writer is time; the reader will fill in a lot of the space with his or her imagination. As a result the sequence of events, their timelines and the linkages and/or physical interfaces between the events are the key things that the author has to get right, if the scene is to be believable.

Put another way, the rifle can’t be fired until a round has been chambered, and the round can’t be chambered unless it is in the magazine. And if it takes thirty seconds to load the magazine and chamber a round, but the bad guy on the motorcycle is visible for fourteen seconds, then the scene doesn’t work.

Courtesy RGUNS, Inc.

RU: You also deal with cyber security. What are some cyber security issues authors might consider?

AF: Oh gosh, where to begin? Phishing, denial of service attacks, hacking, social engineering – the list can go on and on. If I had to focus on one issue that makes for a useful plot tool, it might be the inherent insecurity of public WiFi access. When you’re at an airport, a coffee shop or a hotel and you connect to the net through an available access point, in many cases, the connection is unencrypted and your data is being transferred to the access point “in the clear.” While this makes it easier to connect, it also makes it easy for a nearby hacker, using a laptop and sniffer tools readily available on the Net, to monitor and archive all your data, including usernames, passwords and even message traffic, such as the contents of an email.

RU: I’m sensing we could do a whole separate interview on the topic of cyber crime! You offer your services as an editor/advisor to both fiction and non-fiction authors. What does this involve?

AF: In a nutshell, it depends. *grin*

My non-fiction clients are usually interested in language editing – grammar, syntax, diction, sentence and paragraph construction and ensuring that ideas are communicated effectively with an economy of words. It’s astounding how many brilliant subject matter experts have difficulty stringing words together. Given my literary and technical background, I’m in a unique position to help them. We usually come to a compensation arrangement covering the scope of the book or article being written.

Fiction authors are more interested in scene construction and technical advisory services. What kind of gun should my hero use? Can this type of missile fly that sort of mission? How do I ensure that the bad guys are taken out but not killed? Is there a less than lethal alternative? How would that scene play out in space and time? While I’m happy to work on a full-scope compensation arrangement, it often makes sense for these authors to work on an retainer/hourly billing basis.

I’m happy to discuss these services offline with interested parties; I can be contacted at adam.firestone@gmail.com.

Courtesy RGUNS, Inc.

Note: Adam Firestone presents a full day workshop sponsored by the Ohio Valley chapter of RWA on Saturday, April 14 at the Kings Island Conference Center in Cincinnati, OH. The conference is free to members of OVRWA, $25 for non-members (including a box lunch). The conference is open to all. Contact Becke Martin Davis to register or for further details.

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Have you ever personally handled guns or other weapons? Do you feature weapons in your books?

Author Shannon McKenna joins us tomorrow to explain how Adam helps with her action scenes. You won’t want to miss it!

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Bio:

Adam Firestone brings more than 25 years of experience with weapon systems including small arms, artillery, armor, area denial systems and precision guided munitions to Romance University. Additionally, Adam is an accomplished small arms instructor, editor, literary consultant and co-author of a recently published work on the production of rifles in the United States for Allied forces during the First World War.

Growing up in New York City, Adam attended Yale University on an Army ROTC scholarship, and upon graduation, became a commissioned officer in the Army’s armor branch, and was assigned to a cavalry squadron. After active duty he transferred to the National Guard and attended Brooklyn Law School. Completing his legal education, Adam was admitted to a number of state and federal bars and practiced law in New York. During this time, Adam pursued his interest in firearms and firearms education, attaining instructor certifications in rifle, pistol and shotgun, among others. Additionally, he began what was to be a seventeen year tenure as a licensed firearms dealer.

In the mid-1990s, Adam left the practice of law and began designing military command and control and planning systems for warfare areas including naval mine warfare, combat engineering and amphibious maneuver warfare. For the last four years he has been responsible for the complete re-engineering of the systems that plan, initiate, control and evaluate one of the nation’s most important long-range precision strike and power projection weapon systems. As a result of this work, Adam developed an expertise in arms export control regulations such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

Adam has been providing general and technical editing services to authors and publishing houses specializing in firearms books since the early 2000s. Additionally, Adam provides literary consulting services to fiction authors including action scene choreography, technical vetting and technical editing. In this line of experience, Adam has had the fortune to work with well known authors including Shannon McKenna and Elizabeth Jennings.

Check out Adam’s blog here: http://adamfirestoneconsultant.blogspot.com/

When Indie Publishing Is a Viable Option 

I completed my first “real” manuscript in 2005 and entered it in the 2006 Golden Heart contest for romantic suspense. In a freaky run of good luck that book, “The Watcher”, won the award that year. 

To say I was elated is understatement. I’d entered on a lark, had no expectations or illusions about doing well, and even less understanding of what the award meant. 

On the excitement scale winning was a perfect ten, but in the real world of publishing it doesn’t guarantee anything. Realistically, winning RWA’s Golden Heart Award represents the fact that five of your writing peers deemed the first 50 pages of your manuscript strong enough in all elements of the scoring guide to win in a category of perhaps 150-200 entrants, depending on which category you entered. 

While that’s a big coup in the romance writing world, it guarantees nothing but the slim possibility of being published. 

News of my win brought lots of requests and an agent, but ultimately every publishing house passed on “The Watcher.” My agent was certain the book would go to auction, but it didn’t. 

That’s when I learned that “spin” is very important in selling a book, and that editors aren’t the be-all and end-all of the industry. There’s a hierarchy that has to be scaled before a book is acquired by a publishing house; the larger the house, the taller the ladder. And there are literally dozens of factors that must align like the stars for your book to get published. 

However, ever the optimist, I didn’t sit on my tush and complain. I finished a second book, “The Avenger,” which won the 2007 overall Daphne Award under another name, mutually parted with my agent, and continued to shop my books around. The contest wins garnered requests for partial and/or full manuscripts, but never amounted to a sale. 

I continued writing and learning about the craft and the business because, really, that’s the only part of the business the author can control. I wrote a third book in that loosely connected trilogy and two historical thrillers. I wrote a young adult paranormal.

Nothing sold. 

And, yes, in spite of my head telling me I was a solid writer, my heart felt like something you’d scrape off your shoes. Even though I never considered giving up, I got very weary of the highs and lows of submission and rejection, submission and rejection. 

I felt like I was on a merry-go-round that wouldn’t let me off, and I didn’t have the courage to leap toward the dizzying ground below!

Finally, I began to think about publishing “The Watcher” myself. My family and friends wanted to read it, and I thought they deserved at least a complimentary print copy. Perhaps my books would never be read outside my family, but that would bring me satisfaction. 

I had long clung to the traditional publishing model even though my common sense told me the landscape was changing, the internet was exploding, and writers were taking their careers into their own hands. Most of my writer friends gave me advice contrary to my own instincts, or I would’ve indie published a year before I actually did. I was ready to take the leap in early 2010. 

Still, I hesitated. ”Self-pubbed” had such an ugly ring to it. Did I really want to give up the “dream” of a book published by one of the NY Six? Would I sacrifice sensible and alternate publication to get my books in a brick and mortar establishment? Or did I simply want readers to enjoy my stories?

What finally moved me toward indie publishing was not Amanda Hocking’s or John Locke’s incredible success. It wasn’t my instinct that electronic books were the waves of the future. It wasn’t even my son-in-law saying, “It isn’t what percentage of the book market is now electronically published, Jo. It’s how fast it has happened.” 

Exponentially! 

Finally, it was my own mortality that kicked my ass. I thought of Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress.” The thrust of the poem is “I could take more time to woo you, but ‘time’s winged chariot’ is at my back and I don’t have ‘world enough and time enough’ to waste.” 

I felt I could no longer woo New York. 

As a mature writer, I bring many skills and assets to the table, but youth isn’t one of them. As Marvell concludes in his poem, I cannot “make the sun stand still,” but I can give it “a good run.” I can “tear [my] pleasures with rough strife/through the iron gates of life.”

So I struck out on my own, grabbed the golden lasso and trudged through the incredibly exciting and wonderfully straight-forward journey of indie publishing. 

The first electronic copy of “The Watcher” went live on August 18; “The Avenger” went live on September 3; and “The Traitor,” on December 31, all in 2011. 

I haven’t looked back, haven’t harbored regrets, and haven’t stopped to count my sales or money earned (not much anyway, <g>) because really the only thing in the writer’s control is producing the next book. Our careers should always be about that. 

I do know I’ve achieved more in sales and income  in the last five months than I could’ve possibly done in traditional publishing in a full year. Clearly some of it is luck, much of it is hard work, and I like to think a smidgen of it is talent. 

The vagaries of the book industry are wide, wild, and unpredictable. Who knows what readers will like? Often they don’t know themselves until they see the cover or read the blurb. No one can predict what will flop and what will fly. Not NY, not indie publishers, not the woman on the street.

As an independent writer, you must do it all (or hire someone to do it for  you). If that scares you to death or you lack confidence in your own vision, then possibly indie pubbing is not for you. 

But if you’re confident in your writing, if you have strong resources in family and friends, and if you enjoy managing your own career and relying on the sweat of your own brow, then you might consider dipping your toe into the indie publishing pool. 

What do you have to lose? 

You can find the entire Andrew Marvell poem here: http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm 

*** 

I’m giving away one free download of “The Watcher,” “The Avenger,” OR “The Traitor” to one random lucky commenter.

Here’s a quick blurb on Jo’s latest, THE TRAITOR 

Assistant district attorney Isabella Torres and DEA Agent Rafe Hashemi want to prosecute the same man, notorious and vicious Diego Vargas. But Isabella believes Vargas knows something about the disappearance of  her older sister twenty years ago and wants to charge him for his current human trafficking operation. Rafe wants to nab the corrupt councilman for drug trafficking.  

When Isabella and Rafe meet anonymously at an upscale bar and end up spending a passionate night together, only to learn the next day who the other is, sparks fly and the game is on for control of the case. Forced to cooperate with each other, they must balance the danger of the case against the danger of their hearts. 

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Have you ever begun a sojourn that ended up being a much longer journey than you’d anticipated? Have you ever started one thing only to see it turn into something else?

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Join us tomorrow for a Q &A with fire arms expert Adam Firestone.

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Bio: Like many writers, Jo Robertson penned her first story at a young age. However, a family and a teaching career put her writing dreams on hold until her Advanced Placement seniors conned her into writing her first complete manuscript. That story, which subsequently won RWA’s Golden Heart Award in 2006, was THE WATCHER. Contact Jo at:  http://www.jo.lewisrobertson@yahoo.com. Also follow her on www.twitter.com/jorobertson29 or www.facebook.com/jorobertson44.

Audio Books Sales

Happy New Year!

Audio Books and how I manage audio sales for my clients…

Here’s an overview of one of the most important subsidiary rights for a fiction author: Audio Books. Typically I spend 10% of my week reading slush pile and 90% of my week supporting current clients. A huge chunk of that time is spent pitching, negotiating, auditing and promoting subsidiary rights sales. Most agents don’t sell your book into print and then sit back drinking martinis (tempting though it sounds). Instead, there is a whole world of activity going on and many authors never see these details. So, here’s an inside glimpse at how I work audio rights sales.
Late 2011 was marked (at least in my experience) by an increase in pressure from publishing houses to retain audio rights. Audio books are selling well right now – especially driven by an increase in digital downloadable audio sales. Hard copy audio includes the CDs one may buy in a bookstore while digital downloadable audio are those we press “buy” from our e-devices in a similar way we buy ebooks. Authors are finding the audio rights to their books very valuable right now because of this trend.
If our agency retains audio rights, then it’s my job as an agent to shop your book for an audio sale independently. If the publishing house has acquired audio rights (true in the vast majority of my sales in 2011), then my job is to follow up with the publishing house to make sure THEY sell audio rights.
Here are some of my tasks for clients whose audio rights we control. First, I make a list of acquiring editors at various audio publishers (including Audible, Brilliance Audio, etc). I compose an email introducing the book (including the pitch, information on the publisher, the projected print run, early reviews and publicity) and I email the proposal to those editors. Sounds like a book submission, yes? Then, I spend anywhere from one to six months following up and hoping for an offer. Once there is interest, I negotiate the offer and audit the contract. One important aspect of the process is managing the production elements – for example, we try to arrange it so authors have consultation on the voices used and pronunciations in the final product. On the back end, it’s my job to watch sales and audit the royalty statements. Audio rights are one reason my work week fills up so quickly!
If the publishing house retains audio, then once a month I contact them to ask “any audio sales yet? Anything I can do to help?” It’s their job to pitch, but it’s my job to make sure that pitch happens. To reassure you authors out there – audio companies rarely differentiate between books pitched by agents and books pitched by publishers. The one major exception to that rule is Harlequin who has a wonderful relationship with Audible. Many Harlequin novels are picked up by Audible just because they are with that house (of course, this means Harlequin usually retains audio for themselves).
How does the money work? In general (and of course there are a billion variables and exceptions) – an author makes more money if the agent retains audio rights and sells those audio rights independently. Audio companies typically pay an advance and royalties on sales and if your agent sells directly, you keep 85% of those monies (and the agent keeps 15% just like when selling print rights). If the publishing house retains those rights, then they keep a percentage on top of that. Either way, a subsidiary right sale means further income on your book. This is one reason agents spend so much time negotiating these rights. For the record, all this time I spend on audio is similar to the time I spend on film rights and foreign rights.
So, why would we ever sell audio to the publishing house? For one thing, it’s become a deal breaker in many cases. There are now publishing houses that only offer for a book if the deal includes print, electronic AND audio. Authors may ask, “well isn’t it the job of the agent to fight for those rights?” Yes – that’s absolutely true. I’m a good agent though and the majority of my sales in 2011 granted audio to the publishing house. Naturally, there are some benefits to going with the publisher. For example, you all know that authors earn royalties on their books only after the advance is earned out, yes? Well, when the publishing house sells a book to audio themselves, payment is credited toward the advance and the author is that much closer to earning out. So, an audio sale via publisher means you are closer to earning royalties and that’s a very good thing (both from an income perspective and for the profit and loss statement at the publisher). Also, there is some evidence that publishers are willing to pay a higher initial advance when audio is included. An offer for $20,000 for print MIGHT turn in to $25,000 for print and audio.
One important thing to note when selling rights to the publishing house: As the agent, I ask for a contractual reversion of audio rights. What that means is if the publishing house has not successfully sold audio rights after a set amount of time, those rights revert to us. If that happens, my next step in the process is to take over shopping the rights and start back at step one. This reversion allows us a second chance at shopping the book. I don’t always succeed in getting that reversion, but I sure do try.
Finally, here are the important things to remember: whether the author retains audio sales or the publishing house retains audio sales, the important step is to make sure your book is PITCHED to audio companies. If we retain audio, then I shop it aggressively. If the publishing house retains audio, then I follow up aggressively with them. In either case, my job is to make sure you get every chance possible to make that sale. Three good questions to ask your agent include “who owns audio” “is my book being pitched for audio” and “if we’ve sold audio to the publishing house, will there be a reversion of those rights after a specific amount of time?”
May 2012 continue to be a year of profitable audio books! Cheers!

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Whew! Sara started the year off with a bang-up discussion.  The forum is open – what do you want to ask her?

On Friday, Laurie Schnebley Campbell wants to talk to you about the tricky parts. Are you game?

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And for one lucky commenter, Sara is giving away a copy of CRASH INTO YOU by Roni Loren.

Brynn LeBreck has dedicated herself to helping women in crisis, but she never imagined how personal her work would get, or where it would take her. Her younger sister is missing, suspected to be hiding from cops and criminals alike at a highly secretive BDSM retreat–a place where the elite escape to play out their most extreme sexual fantasies. To find her Brynn must go undercover as a sexual submissive. Unfortunately, The Ranch is invitation only. And the one Master who can get her in is from the darkest corner of Brynn’s past.

Brynn knows what attorney Reid Jamison is like once stripped of his conservative suit and tie. Years ago she left herself vulnerable only to have him crush her heart. Now she needs him again. Back on top. And he’s all too willing to engage. But as their primal desires and old wounds are exposed, the sexual games escalate–and so does the danger.  Their hearts aren’t the only things at risk. Someone else is watching, playing by his own rules. And his game could be murder.”

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Bio: Sara Megibow, Associate Literary Agent
Nelson Literary Agency, LLC

Sara has worked at the Nelson Literary Agency since 2006. As the Associate Literary Agent, Sara is actively acquiring new clients! The Nelson Literary Agency specializes in representing all genres of romance (except inspirational or category), young adult fiction of all subgenres, science fiction/ fantasy and commercial fiction (including women’s fiction and chick lit). Sara is an avid romance reader and a rabid fan girl of super sexy and intelligent stories.

Nelson Literary Agency is a member of AAR, RWA, SFWA and SCBWI. Please visit our website http://http://www.nelsonagency.com/for submission guidelines, FAQs, resources and sample query letters. Sara’s Publisher’s Marketplace site (www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/SaraMegibow) is a great place to find more about her personal tastes, clients and recent sales. You can also cyber stalk Sara on twitter @SaraMegibowHow an agent chooses what books to read.

Setting Goals for Your Writing.

The one question I get asked most often is how I can write as much as I do. For me, the answer to the questions is quite simple: I set goals and I meet them. Now, before to go into my goal-setting philosophy, I should tell you that in 2011 I wrote ten novels and as many shorter works, ranging from novellas to a few short stories. I didn’t do that based upon a simple notion or the onset of a particular bout of inspiration. I wrote and consequently sold that many stories because I set a specific series of goals for myself. (I’m going to use my 2011 goals as an example, but the numbers aren’t important. It’s using the process to push yourself that really counts.)

Annual Goal
Set an annual goal. This should be at a high level and in increments that are easily broken down. It should also stretch you, but be attainable in the long run. As an example, my goal for 2011 was 600,000 words.

Hint: This goal should not be anything that’s out of your direct control. This goal should not include something like getting an agent or selling a manuscript. While great things, those are out of your direct control and can lead to failure. You could add to your goal that you will send out a certain number of submissions. But keep your goals to things you can control, that way you’re more likely to succeed.

Break It Down
Now that you have an annual goal, you need to break it down into manageable pieces. First, break it down into a monthly goal that you can track and report to your support group, your best friend, or anyone who will kick you in the butt if you don’t succeed. Based upon my 600,000-word annual goal, that meant a monthly goal of 50,000 words.

With that monthly goal, that meant writing 2,000 words a day for 25 days, or 1,667 words a day for 30 days. So now we’ve gone from a huge annual number to a manageable daily number.
Hint: When I’m setting my daily targets, I consider a month to be 25 days. There is at least one day a week that I don’t write, and other things always come up. Using a 25-day month builds in some time for interruptions.

Find the Time
Writing takes time and dedication, and meeting your daily writing goal requires some planning. You need to determine where you are going to find the time to meet your daily goal. If you feel that writing 2,000 words a day is going to take three hours, then you need to determine where those three hours are going to come from. If that isn’t possible with your schedule, then adjust your monthly and annual goals accordingly. But don’t do that at the drop of a hat. Really look at your daily schedule and figure out where you’re going to find the time to write. (I write during my lunch hour and can usually get 1000 words. That means that by the time I get home, I’m already halfway there.)

Hint: Once you have set your goals, write them down and share them with anyone who will listen. Setting goals is one thing, but having a support group will help you meet those goals. I can’t stress too much the importance of the support group who can kick your butt when you’re not meeting your goals. (I belong to my local chapter of Romance Writers of America, and every month, I have to stand up in front of the group and tell 20 other people whether I made my goal or not. I have stayed up until well after midnight to write that last thousand words so I would make my goal rather than have to report that I didn’t make my goal. Besides, there are goal prizes, and I’ll all about the prizes.)

You can always start at the bottom and work your way up to an annual goal. 1,000 words a day leads to 25,000 words a month and an annual goal of 300,000 words. But the real objective is to push yourself. Set the goal you really want and then figure out how you’re going to achieve it, rather than the other way around.

I understand that this method may not work for everyone, but it’s what I do each year. I just set my writing goal for 2012 and I’m off to a great start. I hope you are as well.

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What is your method to meet your writing goals?  What’s worked for you in the past?  What hasn’t?

Harlequin Special Editions author, Helen Lacey, shares the inspiration for her book on Monday.

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Bio:
Andrew grew up in western Michigan with a father who loved to tell stories and a mother who loved to read them. Since then he has lived throughout the country and traveled throughout the world. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and works in information systems for a large corporation. Andrew’s hobbies include collecting antiques, gardening, and leaving his dirty dishes anywhere but in the sink (particularly when writing) He considers himself blessed with an accepting family, fantastic friends, and the world’s most supportive and loving partner. Andrew currently lives in beautiful, historic Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Andrew’s website

I’m thrilled to be a part of Romance University during the first week of the new year and I hope all of you guys enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. Now that we’re all rested and have eaten waaaay to much, I hope you’re as excited to get back to work as I am!
On January 19th, Market or Die will launch its third book in the series titled, “Market or Die: Integrated Marketing Plans for Writers.” In this book, I’ll go into detail on how a writer should market using an integrated strategy. For those who can’t wait for the release, here’s a sneak peek.
There are 7 key components to constructing a successful book marketing strategy. Hopefully, all of you have thought about one or all of them, somewhere along the way to marketing greatness. With marketing now resting in the author’s hands, it’s important to have a strategy before you release your book.

#1 – List your goals. So, you have a book to market, what’s your goal? To sell $1000 worth of books? To make it an Amazon.com bestseller? To have your e-books out sell your print copies 3 to 1?

Whatever your goal is, write it down. Writing down your goal(s) will keep your marketing strategy focused. When you see your goals on paper, you work harder to find a way to achieve them.

#2 – Research Social Media Sites. Make a determination of which social media sites are right for you. You’ll probably start with Facebook, Twitter and a Blog. Make a note to monitor these sites with what is being said about you and your work using an application like Google Alerts. Knowing what is being said about you online, helps you stay in the know without spending countless hours online.

#3- Build a list of connections and content. Play the who do you know game. Write down all the connections you have in the industry and how they can help you achieve your goal. Do you need marketing help? A book review? An endorsement? If so, who do you know that can help you achieve those things…write it down and reach out to the people on your list and ask for their help. You have a book to sell and a goal to achieve. Now isn’t the time to be shy.

#4- Join in. Whether you belong to an in person writers group, or online. Get involved and start making new connections. Meet new people and start networking. Post thoughtful comments on industry-related blogs or topics relevant to your books. Confident, secure people in the industry LOVE helping others.

#5- Strengthen and build on existing relationships – Now, isn’t the time to get lazy with the friends you’ve already made in the industry either. Work to get to know them more closely. Meet them in person if you can. You’ll not only learn more about your industry, you’ll build stronger advocacy connections within your existing group.

#6 – Measure your results. You will need to be able to make sure that you can measure your goal. List out how you plan to do that? Maybe it is via sales numbers? Numbers of Facebook Fans? Amazon.com rankings? Knowing how you will succeed is just as important as succeeding.

# 7 – Analyze, test and change. No matter if you achieve your goal or not, it’s important that you look at what happened during the marketing phase of your book. Do you have the right connections? Was your goal realistic? What, if anything, did you fail to consider? Change up your plan for the next release in order to position yourself for greater success.

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Jennifer would like to hear from you. What is your greatest marketing challenge?

Tomorrow, the fabulous and prolific M/M romance author, Andrew Grey, helps us with our writing goals.

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Bio:

Jennifer Fusco is the Creative and Brand Manager for the General Electric Company, North America and the author of the Amazon.com bestselling series, MARKET OR DIE, marketing books for writers.

A two time winner of the Advertising Excellence Award for 2010, Jennifer has launched successful national print and digital ad campaigns. Currently, she is a member of the (ANA) Association of National Advertisers and believes brand building is a key to professional success.

Due to the overwhelming response Market or Die received from writers, Ms. Fusco launched a website and blog designed to educate writers of all genres.

In her writing life, Ms. Fusco is a member of RWA’s PRO network and serves as the President of the Connecticut Romance Writers. She is represented by Eric Ruben of The Ruben Agency. Jennifer has also completed two paranormal romance manuscripts and will be a monthly contributor to the Romance Writers of America’s RWR Report, beginning in 2012.

Born in North Carolina, Jennifer currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and young son.