Category: Tales From the Writer’s Life
My Year In Blogging — A Personal Top 5
In honor of the arrival of 2012 I am taking a look back at my very first year of blogging—2011. Here are the five blog posts—some written for “From the Write Angle” others for my personal blog—that I consider my best work.
The top of my list HAS to be “Voice, It’s Not Just for Manuscripts Anymore” discussing how essential it is for writers to infuse their query letters (the letters they use to try to attract a literary agent) with their unique voice.
I would posit that snagging an agent with a good query is NOT merely about what you say but is equally about HOW you say it. For those of you who have seen “The King’s Speech” (and if you haven’t, forget reading my post and get yourself that DVD) think of the moment at Westminster Abbey when Geoffrey Rush (playing speech therapist Lionel Logue) asks Colin Firth’s George VI of England, “Why should I waste my time listening to you?’ The King’s answer. . . “Because I have a voice.” If you want agents to listen to you, to pay attention to the punchy mini-synopsis of your oh-so-clever plot that you spent a gazillion drafts perfecting, then you’d better let the voice that imbues your manuscript sing out from your query letter as well.
Number two is “Give me A Little Kiss — Sex and the Historical Novelist,” in which I discuss and defend the place of sex in straight historical novels (not just historical romances).
The inclusion of sex in historical novels is neither good nor bad in a vacuum. It’s not the sexual content that determines whether a particular scene works—it’s whether that scene (sex or otherwise) has a REASON for being in the novel. Tossing in an orgy (or even a kiss) into your work of historical fiction without a solid reason is a bad idea. The scene will feel “added on,” and gratuitous sex is no more acceptable in a novel than gratuitous dialogue.
At number three I have selected my reflection on the very act of blogging itself and how it can become a digital distraction from the author’s most important task—writing books:
Blogging takes an enormous amount of time compared to most on-line community participation. A tweet is a quip; a facebook post can be a couple of sentences or a useful link. A blog requires topic selection, thoughtful analysis and a couple of hundred solid words in support of your argument.
So if blogging is such a huge time-suck, why do we do it?
Blog number four tackles the question of why our sisters (or more broadly our siblings) are NOT very much like us.
I’ve certainly had moments when I’ve thought how can my sister and I have had such a different experience of the same childhood or how could we have played the same games (together), walked to the same school (together) and heard the same family stories and yet turned out so very differently? If you have a sibling chances are you’ve had such thoughts as well. At the heart of my questions lay the idea that nurture shapes people, and since my sister and I were raised in the same environment that should have made us similar.
Turns out that’s just dead wrong when it comes to siblings. Being raised in the same environment helps to make us different.
And finally, sitting at number five, is the first blog I ever wrote—“Not THAT Sophie.” This one is all about the marketing lessons I learned from a teething toy. Half-a-year after I wrote it, as I struggle to build my author brand, I still marvel at the power of Sophie the Giraffe. And yes, she STILL comes up before I do in an Amazon search and she continues to top the ranks of baby items.
Coming behind a rubber toy in a “suggested search” list is a humbling experience. But when I looked more closely at Sophie G, I realized I could learn a thing or two. Sophie is NUMBER ONE in the Amazon “Baby” bestseller rankings (we will not discuss how far from number one I am on any list presently). She gets an average of 4.5 stars from reviewers. And she is able to command some serious cash for a figure only 7” tall. In fact, a single giraffe teether costs $7.00 more than a copy of my novel. Wow (hint to readers, buy the book – I don’t care if you chew on it).
Sophie G is obviously doing something right. Here’s what I think. . .
Happy New Year all!!!
I am Game – Using My Son’s Christmas Gift to Get to Know My Characters Better
Writers are always looking for ways to get under their characters’ skins. Only fully realized characters have the ability to make books come to life and please readers. That means knowing far more about each of our characters than readers ever will. We have to “wear” our characters (no, not in a “Silence of the Lambs” way). We have to be able to react instinctively as them to plot points and events in our novels as they arise.
The first step as a historical writer is, of course, historical research. We research, research, and research waiting for that “genesis moment”—the moment when a character’s voice sounds inside our head for the first time. After the “genesis moment” writers have varying techniques for getting to know their characters better (questionnaires, lists of character history and details, etc).
I’ve decided to play a board game with mine. Here, live, on the blog. No kidding.
This year for Christmas my elementary-aged son received “The Ungame.” Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it, I hadn’t either until recently when he started talking about it after playing with a friend. My son is a fairly reticent child – reserved even. So when he came home enthusiastically raving about a game that was all about talking, sharing opinions and feeling, and learning about your fellow players I knew it would be making an appearance under our tree.
As of this writing I have played The Ungame three times. I love the darn thing. It has asked me to reflect upon and answer some pretty significant questions (“What would you do if you were told you were going to die soon?”). I’ve even learned some new things about the man I’ve been married to for more than two decades—a man whose sentences I am fully capable of finishing (though he doesn’t like that so much).
So this morning I thought why not play with my sisters, Marguerite and Eleanor of Provence? Before I begin I hereby declare that I have the actual game board on my desk, that I will be rolling actual dice, and that I will be selecting the top card off the pile (a shuffled pile) when the game requires any player to draw a card. Here goes:
[Sophie—the startling orange game piece—rolls]: 5! That’s an Ungame spot. I get to ask another player a question.
Marguerite, what comes to your mind when you think about your childhood?
[Marguerite of Provence, Queen of France]:
The landscape of Provence; the Court of my father, Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence; and, of course, my sisters. I thought all families were as happy as ours and all courts were as warm and hospitable. [Sighs]
Shall I roll next?
[Eleanor of Provence, Queen of England]:
No Marguerite! It is my turn. We are going clockwise.
[Eleanor—royal purple—rolls]: 6! That’s MightyMountain. Hm, Eleanor has to talk about a time she’s felt challenged by something.
My most recent challenge was acting as Regent of England for nearly ten-months while His Majesty was inGascony. My appointment was outside of English custom and I wanted to do such a good job that none could afterward question the wisdom of Henry’s choice. My largest task was raising money to keep Henry and his troops in the field, and to pay the French to stay out of the conflict. I ended up paying Alphonse of Poitiers (Louis IX ofFrance’s brother) over three-thousand pounds sterling from my own allowance to keep him out of the war.
Your turn Marguerite.
[Marguerite—playing black—rolls]: 1. An Ungame spot. Marguerite draws a question card.
Sophie, to whom can you turn if you need to be comforted?
[Me]:
Doubtless like you, my mind turns immediately to my sister. She’s always loved me unconditionally. If I need to hear a kind word she will provide it—of course if I have a stern word coming she’ll provide that too but only after comforting me.
[All ladies laugh. Sophie rolls again]: 2. An Ungame spot.
[Sophie]:
Marguerite, what is something you want people to remember about you?
[Marguerite]:
That I saved my husband Louis from captivity and likely death in theHoly Land. Because I am quiet and try always to behave in a ladylike manner I fear that people underestimate my will and my ability to act decisively when such action is needed.
[Eleanor rolls]: 5. An Ungame spot.
Marguerite, if you have ever felt ‘brokenhearted’ talk about it.
[Marguerite, hesitates, casts Eleanor a meaningful look, then speaks]:
I have been heartbroken more than once. Early in my marriage I believed myself in love with my husband—I was certainly infatuated. Between the demands of his mother and his God, Louis drew further and further away from me, leaving me very lonely. So Louis broke my heart first, but perhaps nothing is more heartbreaking than the death of a child and I have had that sorrow.
[Marguerite rolls]: 2. Takes a card.
Eleanor, talk about the most loving person you know.
[Eleanor]:
Without doubt my husband Henry. It makes me furious how harshly people judge him. He is no statesman—though it pains me to say it—but he is such a good husband and father. He is entirely faithful to me. There has never been even the rumor of a royal mistress. And he wants me to be happy. He can be a worrier, as during my pregnancy with Edmund when he ordered 1000 tapers kept burning before Saint Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury and another 1,000 at St. Augustine’s, all for the delivery of a second son and my safety. But what woman could fail to see the love underlying such concern? As for the children, Henry is besotted with them. Absolutely besotted.
By the way, am I winning this game? How do we know who wins?
[Me]:
There is no “winner” in The Ungame. It’s an un-competitive learning game.
[Eleanor]:
Pshaw, everything in life has winners and losers. [Turning to Marguerite] But if I must tie then I am happy to do so with my sister The Queen of France.
[Marguerite inclines her head, graciously]
[Me]:
On that happy note I declare our game at an end. Who is in favor of some wine and sugar-coated aniseeds?
How Belva Lockwood Got Me Thinking About Overlooked Women in History
Once upon a time I was young. No, honestly. Then as now I was a history nerd—big time. In fact (trivia alert), I was the first member of my graduating class to declare a major in history. Anyway, one day the younger me was given a postcard by her Woman’s History professor. A postcard showing the black and white image of Belva Lockwood. This image as a matter of fact. 
It took me a while to discover the importance of this gift, delivered, as I remember it, with no real explanation beyond the mild-mannered comment, “I thought you might like this.” With age and distance I now realize my professor gave me the postcard to galvanize me to action; to make me angry—not at him but at the way history was taught and who got left out. You see Belva Lockwood was the first woman to have her name on the ballot for President of the United States (yes, I know Victoria Woodhull “ran” but her name did not appear on official ballots and votes for her were never tallied). She was also the first woman to be admitted to practice before the Supreme Court (though mind you she had to write to President Grant just to get the law diploma she’d earned and it took an act of Congress to see her admitted before the High Court). But I’d never heard of her.
That DID make me angry, and it also made me think. Just what does a woman have to do to be noticed, historically speaking? Give birth to a King? Have her head chopped off? How can that be when there were so many women throughout history who did so much more? Even today, Belva remains only the tip of the “over-looked” iceberg. And because we continue to under-represent women in history and underestimate their activities readers—both of non-fiction history and historical fiction—often think writers get it WRONG when they accurately report what historical female characters did.
I recently saw an example of this in a book review. A reviewer took Author X to task because her female main-character pressed her right to rule her own territories. “How dare the author suggest,” and I am paraphrasing here, “that a woman in the Middle Ages would assert such authority, or would even have the desire to rule in her own right!” The reviewer went on to castigate Author X for imposing modern feminist ideas on long dead women. But the truth is plenty of women held territory (and titles) in their own right during the time period of the author’s book. The reviewer was just wrong—likely because he/she had never heard of such women. I remember wondering what said reviewer would make of the fact that my main characters’ uncle, Thomas of Savoy, was Count of Flanders only by marriage and lost that title when his wife died and her title passed to her SISTER. My guess is the particular reviewer would think that bit of history was made-up, feminist-revisionism as well.
It is time to recognize, as consumers of history and historical fiction, that women have filled many, varied, roles throughout the centuries—even if we haven’t always heard about them. Some women did extra-ordinary things with those roles (e.g. just like male rulers, some female rulers were better at it than others), but the fact women held such roles wasn’t, in and of itself, necessarily as extraordinary as modern audiences seem to think. In each period of history we need to look at the specific facts rather than relying on broad assumptions. For example, to assume things were necessarily better for women later in history than they were earlier is to incorrectly posit a linear progression in women’s rights and opportunities.
I am happy to say that, imo, there’s a lot of really wonderful historical fiction celebrating women who have been historically overlooked these days. There are also fabulous books that examine “big name” historical women in new ways—as more than “ornaments of royal courts” or “mothers of kings.” Personally, I am very interested in telling the stories of women who are more obscure than they deserve to be. Probably because of that darned postcard. When I stumbled upon a footnote in a history of Notre Dame de Paris about Marguerite of Provence (her image is carved over Notre Dame’s Portal Rouge) and her sisters I had a Belva Lockwood moment. Clearly these young women (all of whom made significant political marriages) were celebrities of the High Middle Ages. Marguerite and Eleanor were the queens of France andEngland for heaven’s sake! Yet I had never heard of them. I made up my mind right then to tell their story.
I wish Professor T was alive today. I’d send him a copy of my book and I’d put the Belva Lockwood postcard in it—as an excellent bookmark and a thank you of sorts.
When Authors Become Spammers They Waste Readers’ Social Media Time (and Their Own)
You know what drives me crazy (currently)? How much of what passes for author interaction at social media sites these days resembles spam.
I made the connection while clearing out the spam comments at this blog. They almost all start out the same, with a sentence that looks like the writer (probably a bot) might actually have read my blog post—“I enjoyed this post. This topic is really very interesting. . .”—then they turn into self-serving sales drivel. While I was gleefully emptying the spam folder it occurred to me that I’ve been seeing lots of this same sort of “let me say a polite thing about you so I can talk about ME, ME, ME” stuff on twitter, in on-line writing groups, and on facebook lately.
Frankly, it’s cheesing me off.
It’s gotten particularly bad in writing and reading related facebook groups. When I join a group devoted to say “Lovers of Mysteries with Dogs as Their Main Character” (okay I made that one up, but I don’t want to point fingers at actual groups or communities) I expect folks therein to share information on good books with doggy detectives, or links to websites to help me in researching or writing same. Instead what I am getting these days are nearly naked advertisements—“My book ‘It’s a Dog Eat Dog World’ just got a super-duper review at ‘Dog books R us!’ Read it here. Or better still buy my book here, or here, or here.” This is just annoying. If I want advertisements there are plenty running along the top or side of every darn website I visit. “Come on fellow writers,” I want to scream, “you’ve got a personal facebook page, probably an author FB page, and doubtless an author website to share good reviews and ‘buy it now’ links.” The essence of communities and/or shared-interest groups (like FB “bookclub” pages) is dialogue—even in the virtual world.
A hybrid of “boast posters” are the folks who share EVERY blog post they’ve ever written or will ever write to a facebook group, or to twitter, irrespective of whether it’s on topic. Sure, if someone has written a post that is germane to the topic of a group or comment thread (or touches on one of the subjects that they assume people follow them on twitter to hear about) then posting that link is a worthy public service. But if a blogger is just slapping up everything he can think of to increase his name recognition then he should spare us and save himself the time (because pretty soon I for one am going to stop looking at his posts because I already KNOW what they will say – some version of “look at me.”)
As a writer I understand where this behavior has its roots. There is a great deal of pressure on writers today to market our own work, and very specifically to have a presence in the virtual world. If writers join any community of like-minded people as part of “building an internet presence,” however, I firmly believe they should try to interact in a genuine, non-agenda-driven, manner. And just for the record the interaction is neither effective nor genuine when it amounts to commenting on topics started by others in true spam form (“I am fascinated by cocker spaniels but for a really great blog on poodles, more specifically MY poodles, click here”). I think spam-types fail to recognize a basic truth – all on-line presence is NOT equal and, specifically, an annoying presence seldom sells a book.
If you are a spammer not a genuine community member you are wasting your time—at least as far as I am concerned. Because the truth is, when I have my “reader hat” on, I buy two kinds of books: 1) those receiving notable reviews or buzz from reviewers I trust (whether that’s a “R”eviewer in the print or digital media or a guy I sit next to on the bus every morning and discuss books with); and 2) books written by friends (folks I’ve gotten to know through writers conferences, through on-line communities and through their blogs). You are no friend of mine if you spam me.
Readers, what do you think? When you join a “readers” or “lovers” group on line (as in “mystery lovers” that was NOT meant to be an X-rated comment) do you expect to encounter posts/comments that are nakedly self promotional? When you do see them do they bother you or do you merely consider it a convenient way to discover new books in a particular genre? Am I must imagining a sudden spike in such spam-like posts (after all I am a writer and I do have an overactive imagination), or have you noticed a similar phenomenon?
They’ve Got Authors Covered – Design Departments Not Writers Create Book Covers
Have you ever walked into a bookstore, picked up a historical novel set in renaissance Italy and thought “my goodness WHAT is this headless woman on the cover wearing? Her gown is SO obviously Tudor!” Yeah, me too. And here’s the thing, before I started writing historical fiction I might have drawn some erroneous conclusions based on such a book cover.
First, I might have concluded that “author X” hadn’t done her research or just didn’t care that her cover model was wearing a gown from the wrong period. Since becoming an author I’ve learned that this is probably not the case. Shall I tell you a secret? Authors have VERY limited influence on the covers of their books.
I am NOT saying that good publishers don’t seek author input before holding a cover conference. My editor asked me for examples of existing covers that I loved as well as examples of covers I didn’t like. She encouraged me to explain why I felt as I did. She also asked me to collect images from fine art imbued with the feeling I wanted my cover to have, and to submit descriptions and pictures of what my 13th century sisters might have worn.
What I AM saying is my cover was still a big surprise when I saw it. So if you LOVE the cover of The Sister Queens, I am glad but, please, give credit where it is due. I did not create the cover painting (you should be thankful for this – profoundly thankful), the cover artist did. And folks in the design department picked that gorgeous lettering. So send your warm and fuzzy thoughts (or compliments) their way. And if you HATE the cover of my book (or any author’s book) please spare me a note upbraiding me.
This leads me to the second flawed conclusion I might have drawn back in my “fan-but-not-a-writer” days: covers exist to accurately portray a period of history, or a scene from a book. Nope. Sorry. Some covers may do those things, but covers in general are designed for one reason and one reason alone – to sell books. This is precisely why authors don’t (and probably shouldn’t) design them.
I never viewed covers as sales tools until I signed my book contract. But believe me once you have a book coming out selling books is foremost in your mind. I want to sell books, and more than that, I want to sell books to people who are not ME. Therefore, what I would personally like to see on the cover of my book runs a distant second to what a majority of book-buying, cash-carrying potential readers will find attractive. And the truth is I am not in a position to predict what will catch the eye of the average book buyer. I am not trained to do that, nor have I conducted studies or otherwise made it my business to keep my fingers on the pulse of such things. The folks in my publisher’s art and design departments, on the other hand, ARE in a position to predict what will make a reader reach out and lift The Sister Queens off a table full of books all looking for a home. They have been designing covers for years. That’s why design departments and not authors get the final say over what book covers looks like.
Perhaps the folks designing the cover for a historical novel know that a certain color gown makes books jump off the shelf and into readers’ hands, so they use that color even if it may not be precisely “period.” They might even (gasp) put Tudor gowns on non-Tudor-era women because books about Tudors sell like hotcakes and they are hoping to entice readers of Tudor historical fiction to pick up, and ultimately try, something new. Who can say? As an author I certainly can’t. And as a reader I am now careful to examine covers with a different eye than I did in my pre-writing days—I may still judge the book by its cover, but I no longer judge that book’s author.
Authors are in the business of writing books, design and art departments are in the business of covering them.
It’s Banned Book Week — Read a Banned Book Because You CAN
In September of 1939 you couldn’t find Steinbeck’s iconic The Grapes of Wrath on public library shelves in Kern County California (it had been banned by the county board of supervisors). And The Grapes of Wrath is just one of many books now considered “classics” that has come under attack over the years (Call of the Wild or Lord of the Rings anyone?). In 2010, 2008, 2007 and 2006 the most frequently challenged book in America was a picture book — And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell – about two (male) Penguin’s at the Central Park Aoo who are given a chance to hatch an egg that needs a home and do an admirable job (based on a true story).
Now I have NO PROBLEM with people deciding that THEY won’t read a particular book, whatever their reasons (plenty of people will doubtless choose to forgo mine). Think Harry Potter promotes witchcraft? Then for heaven’s sake don’t buy it, and walk right past the series on the library shelf. Deciding not to read something because you object to its content isn’t much different, in my opinion, than not picking up a book because you don’t like the genre, or putting a book down mid-read because you just aren’t engaged. It’s called consumer choice.
What I DO object to in the strongest possible terms are people who want to keep me or anyone else from making our own reading decisions. This is sanctimonious hooey! It’s my free time, it’s my library card (or dollar); I don’t want to be told what I can or can’t read with it. And I especially don’t want others attempting to parent my children – which is precisely what they are trying to do when they challenge a book’s inclusion in school or public library. If a card-carrying member (oooo, if they have cards do you think they show little piles of books burning) of the book challenging/banning crew doesn’t want his children to read a particular title then he should make a rule—FOR HIS OWN FAMILY and nobody else’s. Seriously, if you have so little control over your progeny that you need to keep a book off a public shelf to keep it out of Junior’s hands you have a much bigger problem to worry about than whether or not Twilight is going to turn your child into a Mormon.
So how can we support (to quote the American Library Association) “the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and [stress] the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them?” The simplest way I can think of is to read a banned book this week in celebration of the fact that you CAN and mindful of the fact that there was a time and a place when somebody couldn’t. Better still, borrow a banned book from the library with your child and, after he/she has enjoyed it explain that “once upon a time” that book was excluded from the shelves. It is never too early to instill the values of “open access” and open mindedness in the next generation.
When Bad Things Happen to Good People, In Books
First a confession . . .I got the idea for this post while watching a movie—a movie I’ve seen before that always makes me cry. As I swallowed hard, trying to fight back tears during the climactic scene I found myself wondering, why do I put this film in the DVD player when I know the response it is going to evoke? Why do I take a perfectly good Sunday afternoon and willingly lower my own spirits?
A similar question can be asked about books. The first time we read a novel we don’t know that it is going to end uncomfortably. But the next time we most certainly do. So, why do we re-read such stories? When I was sixteen I thought that Ivanhoe would end up with Rebecca (totally unrealistic—I know). Decades later I know with certainty he will not. Yet I take Sir Walter Scott’s novel off my shelf again and again. What value is there to be found in reading an “unhappily ever after” tale?
1) Books where everything doesn’t end well for everyone make us think. When life is smooth sailing we tend to “go with it.” Nothing wrong with that! There isn’t much call for pondering our fate or closely examining our own actions when everything is moving along smoothly. And the same is true in reading. I tend to race through happy books, enjoying every minute, but not exactly mulling over the deeper stuff of life. That’s not to say I never think about ethical issues when reading a book that ends—who hasn’t considered the role of duty and honesty in life when confronted with the juxtaposition of Mr. Knightly and Mr. Frank Churchill? But nothing makes me confront the BIG issues like a book that ends badly. Want to tackle human evil, racism, illness, the death of a child, inequality before the law, loneliness, colonialism, religious intolerance? A novel can make you do that, but only if you read novels that put their characters through the ringer. These are the books where bad things happen to good people, but I would argue positive good comes out of reading and discussing them (even heatedly).
2) Books that don’t resolve neatly for characters we think of as “deserving” set realistic expectations for real life. Life is full of difficult stuff (see the list of issues in the last paragraph and that doesn’t scratch the surface). Stories that sanitize human existence don’t do us any favors. Look at what believing that her life would be like a romantic novel did for Emma Bovary. Seriously. Readingfor escapism has its place, but if it is all we do then it is easy to start believing the hype. And when we hit obstacles in our lives that don’t resolve with hard work or a convenient plot twist we can start to feel aggrieved, even though common sense and experience tell us that life is not fair. I call this the “where’s my happy ending” syndrome. The occasional book where the good are not rewarded and/or the bad are not punished goes a long way towards restoring our balanced view of our own lot. The Disney version of “A Little Mermaid” may have tunes I can hum but the original story resonates with me on a deeper level.
So bring on the tear-jerkers, the novels that make me grind my teeth in frustration, and the books that make me hope against reason that next time I read them they will end differently. I am ready to feel the horror as Anna Karenina realizes too late that she wants to live. I am ready to shed an angry tear with Jem when he learns Tom Robinson has been convicted. I am ready to be tied up in knots again by Richard Wright’s Native Son. I will continue to read and re-read books where bad things happen to good characters because they make me attend to matters of my own character in a way that nothing else can.
To Trail or Not to Trail,That Is the Question (a book trailer, yes or no?)
If cost were no object I would definitely make a book trailer. It would be just like a big-studio film trailer—atmospheric music, gorgeous settings, first-rate live actors, dramatic editing effects.
But cost is not irrelevant. Not in my world (if it is irrelevant in yours and you want to bankroll my big budget book trailer just let me know). So when I got my book contract and started to plan my personal promotional budget I had to look critically at every possible piece of the marketing puzzle. As part of that process I asked myself what I could reasonably expect to achieve with a book trailer for The Sister Queens, and given that did I want to invest in one?
Never one to make a decision in a vacuum (or to miss an opportunity for goofing off on YouTube when I should be reading an obscure reference work), I looked at dozens of book trailers. Along the way I realized that writers of historical fiction face special challenges because our trailers must create and populate a rich visual world removed in time and place from the present and transport the viewer there. Of course we had to do this in our novels as well, BUT we were working with words and that left the visual images up to the fertile brains of our readers. In a visual medium (a video trailer) we must craft the images ourselves (or pay someone to craft them), and they must be convincing.
Having finished my “tour de trailers” I have pretty much decided that not to do a trailer for The Sister Queens. But I’ve been known to make the wrong decision (more than once even). So I am asking you, AS READERS (fellow writers, put your “readers hat” on please) to disabuse me of the following conclusions I drew along my journey.
Lots of book trailers view like educational power point presentations. They have music, they have art. Sometimes they manage to have both from the same (and the correct) period. They might even have well-done voice-overs (don’t get me started on the trailers that just have rolling text like extensive film credits). But I have to admit a vast majority of book trailers without live action felt educational to me. This was true even of the trailers that wove a bit of author interview in (this technique reminded me of the “talking heads” used in documentary films).
I am big on education (especially history education), but I thought the purpose of a book trailer was to make me want to BUY THE BOOK. These fact-heavy trailers full of still images just didn’t sweep me up and leave me all shivery the way good film trailers (and by good I mean trailers that make me come back and plunk down money to see the full product) can. I guess when a visual medium—video—is employed I want action. So what about trailers featuring live actors?
Live-action trailers can be more gripping but NOT if they look homemade. Blame the production values I am used to seeing in costume-drama on PBS, but if I can tell that a live-action trailer for a book set at the Tudor court was made in someone’s dining room or backyard, you’ve lost me. If the costumes look homemade or, god forbid, halloweeny (if that is not a word I hereby create it), I can’t even watch to the end. My reaction to such trailers is similar to when I attend a recital at which one performer botches badly and I don’t know where to look because I am just SO embarrassed for him. I know this is unfair because creating a realistic look for a historical trailer is difficult whereas if you write a contemporary novel you can come up with a convincing setting and wardrobe pretty easily. But I guess we historical novelists ought to have thought of that before picking a genre because the bottom line is I am not willing to forgive hokey.
And then there are the acting and editing aspects of a live-action trailer. Have a look at the trailers for The Borgias or The Tudors or Game of Thrones. Setting aside any historical accuracy issues you may have, have you ever seen a book trailer that looked like them? I haven’t. They are pure, pulse-pounding drama. If these were book trailers I would crawl over broken glass to buy the books. But I suspect they cost big, BIG money (see paragraph 2 – I do not have big money).
Finally, even if I poured vast sums of money into a trailer (and was subsequently divorced by my spouse and beaten to death by my children whose tuition payments I failed to make as a result of my spendthrift ways) I am not sure how many people would see it. Yes, I know they are out there on YouTube but that is a huge pond and trailers are little fish. How can I be certain that potential readers would ever see my trailer? Many of the trailers I looked at had low “views” numbers. Of course I could put the trailer on my website as well, but presumably if I have managed to lure some unsuspecting potential reader to my site the blurb for my novel will provide her with the best way of gauging both the content of my book and her interest in it. There simply needs to be a better and more direct forum for readers to browse trailers before I would consider pouring cash into one.
I will close by admitting I saw some good trailers—trailers that did their authors and the books they represented proud. Even so, I have no way of knowing whether or not those book trailers were effective in interesting readers and generating sales. So I am back where I started, no book trailer for me. Unless one of you wants to point out my errors of reasoning. Any takers? The comment section is wide open. Do you use book trailers to select books? Has a trailer ever sold you a novel you didn’t already intend to buy anyway?
Mispronunciation – It’s a Killer
Everybody mispronounces a word or uses a malapropism now and again (well, not again in this scenario). Lighten up people.
Oh, and have a marvelous Labor Day weekend!
Fake On-Line Reviews Hurt Readers and Writers Alike
The best writings, like the best men, tell the truth.” (Sophie Perinot, The Sister Queens)
This past weekend I read this article in the New York Times about the increasingly prevalent practice of “buying” good reviews in on-line venues to boost sales. This is a despicable practice (and I do not use words like despicable lightly because, as a writer, I know the power of language).
The idea of offering someone a quid pro quo (whether cold hard cash, savings, or swag) to say something good about you is dishonest and demeaning. I know in the current economic climate competition – whether you are hotelier or a novelist – is fierce, but cheating is still cheating. I wouldn’t want to win a race because I put pebbles in someone else’s shoes, and, likewise, I wouldn’t want to trick anyone into buying my debut novel.
One of the idiot businesses in the New York Times article claims they are only soliciting honest positive reviews and then rewarding those “loyal” customers with discounts on return visits, but PLEASE—pecuniary interest and honest judgment have never been comfortable bedfellows. Does it matter that this hotel truly believes it is an excellent place to stay? Does it matter that the authors who purchase 5-star reviews for their books on Amazon likewise believe what they’ve produced is 5-star worthy writing? No. The truth of the matter is buying reviews is NOT the same as earning them—no matter how well deserved those stars might be.
We don’t always get what we deserve. The best man doesn’t always win, nor does the best novel. But the minute we start to think that we are just “leveling the playing field” or we make other excuses for disguising promotional materials as impartial reviews we diminish ourselves as persons of honor and integrity. As far as I am concerned honor and integrity are more important than sales.
What about the folks who write these reviews? Many of them are being hired to do so. It’s just a job, right? Surely they are less culpable. Hm. Maybe I live in the past (an occupational hazard when writing historical fiction) but what happened to the idea that a man’s word (or a woman’s word) is his bond? What is an individual’s betrayal of his own word worth? Surely more than the $5 or $10 dollars per review that he is being paid to prostitute his honor? As I the bard said, “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” (William Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well, Act 3 scene 5) Continue reading Fake On-Line Reviews Hurt Readers and Writers Alike