Time to Stick my Sequel in a Drawer

Well, it took a year and a half (the same amount of time it took me to write the first book, coincidentally) but I’ve finally finished writing the sequel to Baby Grand. Woo hoo! Cue confetti!

What’s the next step? Stick the manuscript in a drawer (yes, I’m showing my age), or, perhaps, on the back burner of my life, and refrain from looking at it for at least a month. Why? It’s important to get some distance from your work, and that’s something that only time can achieve. Even when I write feature articles, I can go an hour or even an overnight between reads. Time has a way of revealing all kinds of typos and issues. My students at Hofstra University always hear me say that just because you can write “The End” on a manuscript and upload it to Amazon the same day doesn’t mean that you should. Like my mother-in-law’s chili, manuscripts need to marinate a bit for maximum flavor.

So, a month from now, I’ll go through a round of editing, and I’ll have a better idea of where things stand, because I’m sure there will be more to work through (there always is), but for the moment I am breathing a sigh of relief and giving myself a little pat on the back. My book may not yet be ready for prime time, but the first step of the publishing process is completed, and that certainly is worth celebrating. Yay, me! :)

Marketing Your Novel WITHOUT Social Media: Press Releases

Although I’m a HUGE proponent of social media with regard to successfully self-publishing a book — seriously, there is no other marketing tool that lets you reach so many people so affordably — in the class I’m currently teaching at Hofstra University there seems to be some (gasp!) resistance to the idea of using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to market novels. Is social media the ONLY way to market a book? Of course not. Is it the BEST way. I say yes. However, I put together some non-social-media tools that novelists can use to boost their visibility and help increase sales. Here’s one of them: the press release.

What is a press release?
A press release is a “news story” that you write about yourself — it is written in a professional manner and in third person. The goal of a press release is, first and foremost, to gain editors’ or reporters’ attention so that your news will be placed in their publication or on their website. You do that by conveying newsworthiness, which means your press release should include the five Ws and one H:

•    Who is this news release about?
•    What has happened that is newsworthy?
•    Where did the newsworthy event take place?
•    When did this happen?
•    How is this newsworthy?
•    Why should I (or my readers) care?

How are press releases sent?
Nowadays, most press releases are sent by email, but you can also use snail mail or fax.

What is the proper press release format?
There are various acceptable formats, but all press releases should include a header, dateline, a paragraph or more of news, and contact information.

Hugh Howey: `Every Author Has to Sort Out the Pros and Cons for Themselves’

Today, Hugh Howey, author of the best-selling WOOL series, conducted a Facebook Q&A. Tempted, of course, to ask Hugh “if he were a tree what kind of tree he would be,” I instead decided to pose a publishing question. In the Continuing Education class I teach at Hofstra University, we discuss the various paths authors have available to them, and I asked Hugh what, in his view, publishers were able to offer authors these days that they could not attain by self-publishing? Here’s what he said:

A few things:

1) Better print distribution.
2) A seal of approval (good for asking for professional reviews, interviews, blog mentions, etc.).
3) A team to offload the business stuff.

The question is whether or not what you give up is worth these advantages. Countering each, I would say:

1) You only get 3-6 months in a bookstore, and more and more books are being bought online these days.
2) I’m not sure if these mentions drive enough sales to warrant losing ownership of your art. You are better off writing than worrying about blog mentions and reviews. They follow sales rather than drive them.
3) Hiring your own team, each member based on merit and able to be replaced if need be, might be better than having people you don’t know assigned to work on your book, and only for a very brief time.

Every author has to sort out the pros and cons for themselves.

I totally agree. Frankly, if I had to point to one author today who is successfully “hybrid-ing,” as they say, between traditional publishing and self-publishing, it would be Howey. If you have a moment, check out the piece he penned earlier this year for Huffington Post titled, How WOOL Got a Unique Publishing Deal. It’s a fascinating read, and I think you’ll agree that what separates Howey from the crowd is not just his willingness to embrace new technologies and self-publishing, in particular, but his confidence and staunch belief in his craft and his abilities that allowed him to say no to a deal that wasn’t right — or, as he calls it, “an offer I can refuse.”

7 Things I Learned About Shooting a Video on the Cheap

I have been meaning to shoot a few promotional videos for Baby Grand to put up on my YouTube channel, so yesterday I took (dragged) my daughter, husband and youngest son with me to Hofstra University for a video shoot. My daughter is thinking about a career in directing and my oldest son has expressed an interest in video editing, so I figured why not encourage (take advantage) of these aspirations and get some publicity as well. Well, after an hour of frolicking in the sun on campus, I learned seven important lessons:

1. Make sure you have a charged battery. If my husband hadn’t come along for the ride, it would have been a very (very!) short shoot. The minute my daughter, who served as camera-person, pressed record for the first take of the afternoon, the screen went black. “I had a feeling that would happen,” my husband said, pulling an extra charged battery out of his knapsack. I didn’t know if I wanted to slug him or hug him. :)
2. Know your lines. I wanted to kick myself for not having memorized my script. There are so many things that are out of your control during a photo shoot, like the weather or the amount of people milling around if you’re in a public place. The last thing you should have had to worry about is knowing your lines. Lesson learned.
3. Empty your memory card beforehand. Luckily, it was after an hour of shooting that my memory card screamed, “No more, please!” Otherwise, as I said in Tip #1, it would have been a very short shoot.
4. Vary your shots. As an undergrad at Hofstra, I took a few television classes so I know a thing or two (but that’s it) about video production. So I had my daughter video me saying the same paragraph several times — while sitting on a bench, while walking, etc. This helps to make your video more interesting and dynamic when it’s put together in post-production.
5. Have cutaways. Basically, a cutaway is a shot of something different from the main action. In my case, for example, we shot the university’s name on a sign for a few seconds and my legs walking. Cutaways are crucial to the editing process, particularly when you have talent who apparently hasn’t memorized her lines. It gives the video editor options and helps piece together different shots that wouldn’t otherwise go together so that they look cohesive.
6. If you’re not going to pay your tech people, feed them. And if you’ve got anyone 10 years or younger there for the ride, it might behoove you to feed him BEFORE the photo shoot. It keeps the complaining to a minimum (and while you’re at it, bring a jacket for him too).
7. Have fun. My daughter and I giggled the entire way through. “I feel like I’m in a writer horror movie!” she squealed when I asked her to walk backwards with the camera as I approached. Sure enough, we watched the playback, and it did. Perhaps an idea for my next book…

Writing Tip #108

Always remember why you became a writer. Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking to prospective MFA students at Hofstra University about my experiences in grad school there and about publishing as a career. I got to see old professors and old friends, but perhaps the most exciting aspect of the afternoon was the opportunity to hear current Hofstra students perform readings of their work. How inspiring it was to see these students recite their poetry, their creative nonfiction and fiction. How proud I could tell they were to have been asked to showcase their stuff. You could see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices. It’s been, gosh, almost four years since I graduated from Hofstra, and I had forgotten how exciting it was to be in a place where the written word was cultivated and so valued. (Can you tell I miss being there?) As I struggled with my current work-in-progress this morning, I thought about the faces of those students I saw yesterday who didn’t seem worried about agents and publishers and readers and sales. They just seemed to be enjoying the moment, the opportunity to share their thoughts with others. That’s why most of us have become writers, isn’t it? Because we thought we had something to say, stories to tell. Good. Bad. Long. Short. Funny. Sad. Whatever it is that we’re struggling to say, we have to always remember that it deserves to be written.

Meet Dina Santorelli

I was recently interviewed for Hofstra University, my alma mater, about the making of Baby Grand and about being a freelance writer. Although I normally showcase fellow debut authors on Tuesdays, I thought it might be fun to feature myself today since these videos just went live. I hope you enjoy them.

On writing Baby Grand:

On being a freelance writer:

Sometimes a Fantasy II

A quick addendum to yesterday’s post: I am now reading a New York Times Magazine article on Haruki Murakami from last fall (as you can see, I’m behind on my reading…). Murakami’s latest, 1Q84, is on my reading list, and I have read a few of his short stories in The Elephant Vanishes, which he was kind enough to sign for me during his recent reading at Hofstra University. His stuff has been called “supernaturally entertaining” and “strange fun” and “literary fantasy.” Imagine… literary fantasy. Looks like vampires and boogeymen aren’t just fodder for commercial fiction, after all — not that there’s anything wrong with commercial fiction. (I’m not a big fan of the distinction between literary fiction and commercial fiction. I mean, I like a Big Mac just as much as I like a steak, and which one I eat is dependent on my mood.) I hope that somewhere out there my fellow grad student and writer — the one who penned a ill-received fantasy novel and left our little fiction class forever — is smiling.

Writing Tip #53

Kill the alarm clock? Far be it from me to tell anyone how to start their novel, but every time I read a work of fiction and it begins with someone slapping the snooze button of an alarm clock or an alarm clock ringing and someone growling and crawling out of bed, I can’t help but think of one of my graduate school professors at Hofstra who told our creative writing class: “For the love of god, please don’t start your novel with an alarm clock. Do you know how many of those openings I’ve read?”

The alarm clock thing has been done. And done again. And it makes me wonder about the nature of beginnings and how, as writers, we feel compelled to begin our novels in logical places — like the beginning of a day. And while I believe that every writer should write what is true in their heart, particularly for a first draft, it is a good idea, down the road in the editing process, to question these kinds of choices that we’ve made.

Hey, if you’ve always envisioned your novel beginning with someone throwing a bunny slipper at an alarm clock, then do it. But perhaps you should ask yourself why you’ve made that choice and see if you like your answer. Or if you even have one.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Yesterday, I found out that I had been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Terri Giuliano Long. What an honor! What I particularly like about this award is that the nomination comes from a fellow blogger and then is passed on, a la Pay It Forward, by the nominated blogger to other deserving bloggers, forming a never-ending chain of kudos. Thank you so much, Terri, for allowing me to be a part of this!

Here are the Versatile Blogger Rules:

1. Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3. Pass the award on to 5 newfound blogging buddies.
4. Contact the winners to congratulate them.

Seven random facts about me:

1. I was named after Rat Packer Dean Martin.

2. I have absolutely no qualms about driving a minivan.

3. I received my Masters in English/Creative Writing from Hofstra University.

4. I sleep curled up in the same spot every night in the corner of my king-size bed.

5. My favorite thing in the world to drink is chocolate milk.

6. My grandfather, who passed away in 2008, taught me how to drive.

7. My whole life, people who’ve met me for the first time have asked me if I’m a teacher. It’s only now that I’m starting to think that they’re onto something.

5 nominations for the Versatile Blogger Award

It was difficult for me to come up with just five nominations, since I come across so many terrific blogs, but here goes…

1. Torre DeRoche. Torre’s blog, The Fearful Adventurer, features, as Torre puts it, “refreshingly honest travel and adventure stories from the perspective of an alarmist who likes to arm-wrestle with her fears.” An enjoyable, fun read by a terrific writer.

2. Erika Marks. Erika’s one of my #1kaday tweeps. Her blog, On Writing, Publishing and Other Delicacies, discusses the writing life as well as the road to publication for her soon-to-be-published first novel, Little Gale Gumbo (NAL/Penguin, October 2011).

3. Brandi-Ann Uyemura. Brandi is a doll. Her blog, The Inspiring Bee, aims to “inspire people to keep motivated, positive and feel hopeful on the path towards pursuing their dreams” and features a compilation of inspiring interviews, reviews and crafts, photos and paintings.

4. Carol Garvin. Carol is the author of Careann’s Musings, what she calls her “mental meanderings on life and writing.” It’s such a wonderful little treat when I see her posts pop up in my email inbox.

5. Rebecca Tsaros Dickson. Her blog, Thinking Too Hard, is like a poem, fed to the world line by line, verse by verse, day by day. Sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching, but always gawgeous.

Writer’s Block? Talk It Out.

At last month’s meeting of the Long Island Writers Group, we discussed methods of breaking through writer’s block. One of our members mentioned how talking with someone about her assignment or writing, explaining what it was about, helped her overcome her block, because helping it make sense to someone else helps it make sense to you.

I agree. Just yesterday, I visited my alma mater, Hofstra University, to chat with one of my professors, who continues to be so supportive of me and Baby Grand two years after graduation. I mentioned that there was something about my main character, Jamie, that seemed to be missing and that I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Tell me what happens to her in the book,” my professor said.

So I did. I traced her path, from beginning to end, and explained in generalities her transformation and the ways she was different by the end of the book.

As I was talking, it was like the proverbial light bulb went off. I was able to visualize in my mind what I needed to do to make Jamie’s journey clearer in the reader’s mind and make her more relatable. I think in my rush to finish the book, I gave my main character short shrift when she deserved a longer moment in the spotlight, a proper ending to her story.

“You need to say that. Make the reader feel that. Exactly what you just said,” my professor said.

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened. On many occasions, my husband will ask me what I’m working on, a freelance assignment, and I’ll tell him casually and in the process come up with a killer lede or an interesting angle that I have to run and jot down before I forget.

Talk it out. To someone else. Or even to yourself. I can’t tell you how often I’ll be talking myself through a scene while driving my car or in the shower, and I’ll suddenly have a breakthrough.

You’d be surprised at what you can learn about something you thought you already knew.