What It's Like Before Publication
When She Left comes out in (checks watch) about two weeks! This is your fourth'ish book out. Pretty much a process at this point, right?
Not in the least. I think it is for some writers, especially writers who put together a series, or write two or more (!) books a year. But that's not how I'm built. There's an adage, that I'm going to get mostly wrong, which says, "You never learn how to write; you learn how to write each book." And I'd say that, for me, every book has followed a different publishing process. But that's okay because I kind of like it.
Yeah, but your day job is in marketing, and you've done it for more than 20 years. Isn't it easy?
Oh man, there's a HUGE difference in the kind of marketing I do for my day job and marketing books. For one thing, it's not that hard to promote a company with a brand name. You're inheriting an audience, and it's really just figuring out how to make what you're pushing relevant to that audience. Like, "Hey, you all like Doritos, right? And you like sushi? Well, how about sushi-flavored Doritos!" Sold.
But, for 99.99% of writers, we don't have a wide audience. It's really the process of introducing a new product (ugh, that word) into a crowded marketplace. And it's very hard to convince readers to try something new. I know that the readers of this newsletter read A LOT of books (I love you). But that's not true for most people. Most readers buy a couple of books a year, and generally from the same writers. That's a tough crowd to break into.
So what's different this time?
This time I finally decided to do my own PR. I've worked with PR agencies for every book I've published, and I didn't have bad experiences. I admired what they did, but it wasn't always an exact fit. So I said, "E.A., you don't need help. You got this, son!"
And then I did a month of my own PR and promptly gave up and hired Ann-Marie Nieves of Get Red PR.
She's fantastic! So much of success in publishing comes down to simply vibing with the right people. Working with the right team. And Ann-Marie and I saw things the same way from day one. Because I hired her late, I didn't hire her for a full campaign, and there are still promotional elements I'm doing myself. But, with the next book, I want her in my corner, full-time.
Two questions about pub day: What are you dreading, and what are you excited about?
What am I dreading? That’s tough. I have friends who hate public events, or reviews, or seeing how sales go...and I get that. The demands that go along with writing, especially when it becomes a business, can be overwhelming.
That said, I don’t think there’s anything I’m dreading. I tend to do a lot of events and they do make me nervous, but I find my nervousness ends the moment I start speaking (I really like hearing myself talk). Plus I love seeing friends in attendance. I don’t get to see people that often, so that’s lovely.
Reviews are always wracking. They’re usually the first outside perspective writers have for our work, and it’s hard not to have their opinion shape how we see our books...particularly if you find the reviewer made salient points. But some of that can be assuaged if you know – and I mean, really know, without bullshitting yourself – that you wrote the best, most entertaining (in whatever sense that means to you) book you could, and you had a vision to capture, and that’s what this book did. When you have that mindset, and you can realize that truth, arrows bounce off you. And the reviews are usually decent.
But sales. Oh, the sales. They’re the one thing outside of your control and, if you’re traditionally published, they control your career. Few writers have any idea of how many books they need to sell to be a success, and the number of sales they have are almost always lower than most writers will ever admit. It’s generally sales that lead to changes in publishers, to stagnant careers, to name changes, to pondering life choices. There are wonderful writers and fantastic books that will be considered, in this sense, failures, and it’s often hard to find someone to blame. A publisher can throw all the money and resources in the world at a title and it simply may not resonate with readers. Perhaps it’s a misfire, or timing, or a similar book has overtaken it.
But if your book doesn’t sell, isn’t that on you? Shouldn’t you have written a better book? Done more marketing? Changed your hair?
Right now, as I said above, the blame tends to fall to the writer. We’re the ones whose careers will be in turmoil, who failed to meet expectations, and we suffer the consequences. And, to an extent, I do understand that! Our work has failed to find an audience, and everyone involved bet wrong. That’s not unfair.
But I would also argue that, as writers, our job is essentially over once we hand in the manuscript. We’re writers, and while it’s absolutely fair to expect writers to do promotional activities in support of their work, it’s unrealistic to expect those efforts to lead to much more than a few sales. Most of the time, we simply don’t have the expertise or reach to sell thousands of our own books. I often get ARCs (Advanced Review Copies) for reviews, and those ARCs generally include marketing plans, as a way to showcase how the publisher is standing behind this particular book. One of those plans I read, for an eventual NYT bestseller, said that the marketing budget was seven figures. A million dollars. Most of us won’t get those budgets or, more importantly, the resources to ensure those dollars aren’t wasted.
So it’s all the publishers fault? I HATE THEM. Stupids.
Nah. If you’re an editor, you’re looking for that rare combination. You bought a book because you believed in the voice, and of course you want it to succeed. Every editor I’ve met has a book (actually, quite a few books) that broke their heart because they couldn’t find its audience. You can take a chance with a writer for a couple of books, but if they’re not going to find readers, then an editor almost always has to move on.
And at that point, it’s probably on the author to take a look at their writing, and see if what they’ve written really has the appeal they imagined.
A career in writing is like a manuscript, in that sense, but one that will never be finished. It needs to be tinkered with, and edited, and maybe rewritten. But you have to keep working on it.
Okay, enough of that digression! What are you excited about, leading up to pub date?
Oh, there's some cool stuff coming up! If you're in the DC area, then I hope you can come out and see me this Tuesday night, January 23rd, at 7 pm. I'll be headlining (!) the famed Inner Loop's Reading Series at Sonny's Pizza. Readings and pizza and the chance to see one of the best reading series DC has to offer! It's free, but they do request that you register, and you can do so HERE.
And then, on publication day (February 6, 8 pm ET), I'll have a virtual launch with Lyn Liao Butler through the Writer's Center. Lyn and I have books coming out on the same day, and we’re going to spend half the event discussing our books, and the second half doing a Q&A about publishing genre fiction (in addition to crime fiction, Lyn writes romance). Lyn and I will probably spend a good deal of time making fun of each other like adolescents, but I promise we’ll try to focus. IT’S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN! You can register HERE (and I hope you do).
Also, since that's a Q&A, if you have questions about writing or publishing genre fiction, reply to this email and let me know! I'm gathering them now.
There's more that I'm SO excited about (the Tucson Festival of Books, Vox Vomitus, the Bonechilling Book Club), and you can find the most updated list HERE.
Anything else?
I’m usually nervous going into publication day...but not this time. I can honestly say that every book I’ve written is better than the last, and When She Left is my absolute best. I love it, and it also breaks my heart when I think about how it ends. This book doesn’t feel like a business which, as I detailed above, is often bewildering. It feels good. And I can’t wait for you to read it.
EA
I had the opportunity to blurb Michele W. Miller’s newest novel, The Lower Power, and found it so engaging and intriguing, particularly since it's vividly informed by her own experiences with addiction and incarceration. I could go on and on, but I’ll just tell you what I wrote for my blurb:
“Whether from the viewpoint of a recovering or hopelessly lost addict, a concerned policeman, a relentless journalist or the other citizens of New York that live and breathe within the pages of Michele W. Miller's The Lower Power, the writing never delivers less than rich characters or a story of increasing urgency. This is a harsh but necessary novel of crime and addiction and violence, and the effects they have on those who are powerless...and the beauty in power being discovered."
I was so excited to have her do my “Kiss, Marry, Kill” feature with The Lower Power, and you can read her answers, and learn more about her new book, below.
It’s 1992 and the crack epidemic rages in New York City. Raven is out in the trenches, trying to help addicts after overcoming her own addiction. But night terrors begin to haunt her and her friends in recovery. Many of them return to drug use, disappear, or commit bizarre acts of violence. A mysterious new drug epidemic grips the city, while police corruption, a U.S. attorney campaigning for mayor, and riots hamstring the city’s defense. Raven and her friends—along with a journalist trying to help a teenage prostitute—must stand up to BG, the sadistic man behind the chaos, or lose all they’ve gained. Yet, as recovering addicts, they are the most vulnerable to his inexplicably attractive powers.
Kiss: Keith
Raven is a smart, fast-talking New Yorker, who will quit her job and begin law school in the Fall. She seems to have it all together. But, when it comes to her love life, she’s still running scared after her past trauma of addiction, incarceration, and domestic violence. Keith has been her platonic friend since he helped her get clean five years before. Like Raven, he lost a lot due to his addiction, and he’s working on getting back to his medical career. But now they also share inexplicable night terrors, and eruptions of violence seem to be homing in on them. Their shared jeopardy has sparked feelings for each other that can’t be ignored any more than they can ignore the danger they’re in.
Marry: Juan
Juan is a street-smart journalist who grew up in El Barrio. He’s married to Susan, a middle-school teacher. Juan is surely marriage material—unless you have a thing for “bad boys”—because Juan is undyingly loyal to Susan and really cares about people. Maybe too much. Juan and Susan lost a child to leukemia eight years ago, which leads to him becoming overly enmeshed with Gina, a teenage prostitute he’s writing a series of articles about. She’s the age his daughter would have been…the daughter he couldn’t save. Then Gina falls in with BG, the preternaturally powerful drug dealer, and Juan really needs to rescue her. Susan has her hands full trying to keep Juan from putting his own life in danger when he chases down BG’s story and joins forces with Raven and Keith.
Kill: Corrupt Cops
In the early nineties, a crew of dozens of dirty cops known as “The Dirty Thirty” wreaked havoc in communities already decimated by poverty, blight, and the crack epidemic. They took bribes, robbed drug dealers, and beat down addicts with impunity. Scores of men have been released from prison in recent years after spending decades incarcerated due to frame-ups by corrupt New York City cops during that era. In “The Lower Power,” BG easily recruits corrupt cops to work for him, and Raven, Keith, and Juan fall into their crosshairs. As New York City descends into chaos caused by BG, can Raven, Keith, and Juan survive a war with not only BG but his corrupt cops too? Will anyone believe them if they defend themselves? Will they end up dead or in prison?
Thank you, Michele! Visit her site to learn more about Michele and her work.
It's giveaway time! I have two promo codes for The Lower Power to give away for the audiobook, which was narrated by multiple Audi award winner Bahni Turpin (The Help, Push, The Incredible Life of Henrietta Lacks). And the winners are:
jlm___si__@yahoo.com
t___ewy___@gmail.com
I'll send you both emails with the promo codes and download instructions soon.
You might notice this newsletter format is different. I left SubStack and moved to Buttondown which, to my knowledge, isn’t currently profiting from people who think Hitler may have had some good points. We’ll see how this goes, but so far, so good! Like I said, everything is always a work-in-progress, but hopefully one that constantly improves.
(Also, I came here based on the advice of my friend Sandra SG Wong, who writes a wonderful newsletter on here, so if this all goes poorly, blame her.)