Friday 31 January 2014

What to Expect When You’re Prospecting by Kirsten Krauth

Hi everyone, I am pleased to share with you today an interesting article which was written by Australian author, Kirsten Krauth. Her debut novel just_a_girl published by UWA Publishing was released in June 2013.

About just_a_girl: just_a_girl tears into the fabric of contemporary culture. A Puberty Blues for the digital age, a Lolita with a webcam, it’s what happens when young girls are forced to grow up too fast. Or never get the chance to grow up at all.
Layla is only 14. She cruises online. She catches trains to meet strangers. Her mother, Margot, never suspects. Even when Layla brings a man into their home. Margot’s caught in her own web: an evangelical church and a charismatic pastor. Meanwhile, downtown, a man opens a suitcase and tenderly places his young lover inside.
just_a_girl is a novel about being isolated and searching for a sense of connection, faith, friendship and healing, and explores what it’s like to grow up negotiating the digital world of facebook, webcams, internet porn, mobile phones and cyberbullying – a world where the line between public and private is increasingly being eroded.

What to Expect When You’re Prospecting

My first novel, just_a_girl, was released in June 2013 by UWA Publishing. It took about seven years to write, on and off. It took about five years to find a publisher, on and off. For most of that time I was consumed with the end goal in mind. What was the end goal? To get a book published. To see my words wrapped up in a cover. To hold this precious object in my hand, put it on the pile next to my bed.

Many writers have made the link between launching a book into the world and having a baby. I heard a quote which said that releasing your novel into the world is like watching your baby crawl across an eight-lane freeway.

If you’ve had a baby, you’ll know that, try as you might, you can’t really think beyond labour. You have nine months to prepare, but still, you can’t imagine what it’s going to be like. There’s always the fear — of labour, of the unknown — that gets in the way. But once you go through the birth, you realise, you need to reinvent yourself, that actually the labour is just the starting point, and you have a whole new set of things to learn and challenges to adapt to.  

When you prepare for your book to be published, it seems to work much the same way. The focus is on structural edits, getting the words right, negotiating the cover, but your brain seems to stop at the launch point. Really, you think, my work here is done. Let others take it from my hands, review it, read it.

But it doesn’t seem to work like that. Finding readers is not as easy as you might imagine. Even if you have a big-name publisher behind you, I’ve heard a number of writers say that in the current climate, the publisher may not have the resources or the motivation to push your book. The worst possibility of all is releasing your book to … resounding SILENCE. And this does happen.

I expected that, in the months leading up to my book’s release, the publisher was doing a lot of work behind the scenes (and they were), that the newspapers and bloggers would receive their review copies really early and be hard at work, that after the book launch, I’d be immediately sitting there fielding reviews and interviews in the first month. But that didn’t happen for me. My local bookstore took three weeks to get the stock in, due to a distributor problem. I sat there waiting and wondering. I waited a month before reviews started to happen. I waited two months before a large article in a major newspaper.

I moved to Castlemaine a few years back. It’s a goldmining town in rural Victoria. I see the process of releasing your book as something like panning for gold. In this case, the gold isn’t fame and fortune. I never really expected that. The gold is your readers and bloggers who like the book and pass it on. If you write fiction that’s contemporary and crosses genres (mine is an adult novel but branches into YA themes), it takes a slow build and word of mouth. But it seems, there’s a lot of sifting required to find out who these people are. Marketing isn’t easy. If you have a low budget, there’s no option but to be creative.

I think my creative spirit remains galvanised if I keep coming up with ideas for just_a_girl. So here are some tips on how to begin the sifting process…

Start a blog when you start writing the book

I started my blog, Wild Colonial Girl, just before I got a contract with UWA Publishing, but it would have been great to do it a lot earlier. I didn’t set it up as an author website to promote the book. I started it as a website to catch my thoughts and fears and joys about moving from Sydney to Castlemaine: the tree change experience. I began writing on anything I felt passionate about: film, writing, other books, learning to be a mother. I interviewed other writers who were mothers, like Anna Funder and Kirsten Tranter, to get some insight into how they managed it all. Gradually, and it wasn’t overnight, I began to get a following. Over time, I got readers who would comment regularly. It was an exciting experience to get that instant feedback from people, to carry on a conversation about ideas. I still get a thrill every time I hit the ‘publish’ button.

Of course, the blog has now become an avenue through which I promote the book. But I do that somewhat reluctantly. I try to use an angle that I feel comfortable with. For example, I have always had a fear of public speaking. Yes. But I used the blog to talk about that, to explore how when you become a published writer, the focus shifts and you suddenly find yourself called on as a speaker too, to track the personal challenges in that journey. My character, 14 year old Layla, has a fear of public speaking too so I could bounce off the similarities between us.

Start following other people’s blogs. If people comment on yours, go and comment on theirs. Many book bloggers are passionate. They will help promote your work. It doesn’t matter if they are friends. Ask people you know to write about the book, do interviews. Take up every opportunity if a blogger offers to feature you on their blog. My publisher told me that the longer your book gets mentioned on blogs, the more ammunition the book sales team has to keep it positioned well in book stores. That’s something I didn’t realise. Keep the momentum going any way you can.

Promote your blog on Facebook

Work between the various social media to promote your blog. I set up a page on Facebook called Wild Colonial Girl. My twitter name is @wldcolonialgirl. I wanted to create a persona that people would remember. It linked in well with the idea of just_a_girl too. A girl pushing the boundaries, so to speak. For my Wild Colonial Girl page, I decided to have an experiment with Facebook advertising. I took a little ad out to ‘Like’ my FB page to see what would happen. Thirty bucks was my outlay. The number of likes for my page went from 30 to over 1,000 very quickly.

Now, let’s be cautious here. Many of my likes were obviously from people who never visited the page, let alone the blog. I became very popular with men from the Middle East who obviously liked the twin concepts of Wild and Girl but didn’t read any of the often feminist material on the site. But, I added the FB widget to my site, and damn it, the little pics of 1,000 followers looked quite good in my sidebar.

Use Goodreads as much as you can

The sifting process is made much easier if you already know where in the creek to find little nuggets. Goodreads is a wonderful marketplace because the audience there are already readers. Many people — who can even begin to understand them? — don’t like reading or don’t read at all. On Goodreads, in general, people are passionate about books. It’s truly a refining process here. Begin before your book is out. Make lots of friends. Talk about books with other people. Review books. Follow reviewers you like. Make sure your blog is on Goodreads. This is easy – as Goodreads will automatically pull your blog posts into it.

Join author groups of people you love. For example, I love the Japanese writer Murakami. I joined a discussion group about him. My book is heavily influenced by him, to the point where the Japanese character Tadashi is seen reading one of his books, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, on the train. I mentioned this in the discussion group. I got a lot of feedback saying people were interested in checking just_a_girl out.

When your book is out, set up an author page on Goodreads and do a competition and giveaway for your book. I did this and my book went from having about 20 people wanting to read it, to about 600. Again, whether this has translated into people actually buying it, is not clear. But your book is being noticed. And the perception is that people want to read it.

Make your book launch a bit different

I’ve been to hundreds of book launches over the years. They are usually exactly the same. Cheap wine and bad nibblies are set up on a table. Someone gets up to introduce the book, the author does a reading, everyone lines up to get the book signed (you hope). Why not challenge this set up a bit. Make your launch memorable. Fit it to the content of your book. Get some dynamic people to launch it. If you have a friend with a camera, make sure you video the launches. Emily Maguire launched my book in Sydney and her speech was sensational – it’s up on YouTube now.

For my Castlemaine launch, we had a ball. I got a local punk band to sing No Doubt’s just_a_girl, a song the book revolves around, plus a few covers of Pink and other grrls with attitude. The kids in the crowd started off a moshpit.

If you can’t find a reader community, build your own

Many of the most successful writers working in social media have a loyal community wrapped around them. I’m thinking of Allison Tait and Walter Mason in particular. After my book was out a few months, I came across a writer posting on Facebook saying that she felt absolutely despondent now her book was out, and did anyone else feel this way. She got an avalanche of sympathy and tales from writers, mostly debut authors. Of course, they were meant to be blogging about how exciting it was to have a book published, and felt guilty about their negative feelings, but they were comfortable venting in this other space. They had released their books to the loud silence I warned you about earlier.

So I had one of those ‘wake up at 5am working on a solution’ moments. What if I set up a monthly club on my blog where the aim was to promote the work of debut writers and short story writers working in fiction, people who were essentially in the same boat as me? What if I opened it up to include all genres and those who were self-published or working only in ebooks?

But if I was going to do this, I needed to set up some groundrules. My conditions were: the writers involved needed to subscribe to my blog, they needed to promise to promote the blog when their book was featured via social media, and they needed to start commenting on each others’ work and hopefully review it in some way. Of course, I would list my debut novel — so in a roundabout way, setting up this community would be a means of promoting my blog and my writing too. It worked a treat. I got some new followers, some people passionate about helping others, and I enjoyed seeing what new writing was out there. I also got the feelgood factor. The word people kept emailing me with was ‘hope’ – it gave writers a sense of hope that people would be reading their work…

So if there are any debut novelists or short story writers out there, it’s called Friday Night Fictions and comes out the last Friday night of the month. The next issue will be February 2014. Contact me and I’ll add your work…

Keep on fossicking…

Unlike paperbacks, ebooks can have a long and lingering life online. I think most publishers tend to overlook them or ignore the possibilities completely. My next plan is to see how I can zero in and find an audience for the ebook of just_a_girl. I don’t feel like I’ve quite found the nuggety bits there yet.

A number of people have asked me whether I want to continue on with the book’s characters in the future or leave them behind. I decided to set up a page for Layla on Pinterest, to see how she could shape herself off the page. At the moment it’s mainly quotes from the book, but I’d like to extend this into a new narrative based around the visual rather than text, from Layla’s perspective. People have started sharing the pins, mainly the sexy ones at the moment. It’s one of those things that needs time. I’ll find it one day.

I also want to have a video campaign of some sort. My husband works in film production. We both find most book trailers pretty cringeworthy. I want to film something that really works on its own as visually engaging, while also being linked to the book.

I have a writers’ group in Castlemaine. When we talk about social media, I admit, sometimes we roll our eyes and get this fatigued look on our faces. Because all of it, the guest blogs, the comments on other people’s writing, the email interviews, takes time and dedication, time taken away from the next writing project. And some people aren’t interested in being entrepreneurs, they just want to be writers, for the creative buck to stop there. I understand that, but I don’t want to sit in silence and wait for readers who never show up.

I’d suggest making a plan. When your first book comes out, leave two to three months free of other commitments, if you can. Open yourself up to new possibilities. Dedicate time to thinking up new ways to promote your work. Think of it as a new creative space. Use your local communities, both online and on home soil. The more you sift, the more you’ll find.

Kirsten Krauth is author of the debut novel, just_a_girl, published in 2013. Her writing has been published in Good Weekend, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, RealTime and Peppermint magazine. She edits the NSW Writers’ Centre magazine, Newswrite, blogs at Wild Colonial Girl and is regional arts writer for ABC Arts.

This article is based on a talk I gave at the NSW Writers’ Centre’s OPEN ACCESS seminar on marketing books in the digital age.

Blog: Wild Colonial Girl http://www.wildcolonialgirl.com


First novel, just_a_girl, out now:  http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/books-and-authors/book/just_a_girl/



Wednesday 29 January 2014

ARC Review: Me Since You by Laura Wiess

Me Since YouMe Since You

Author: Laura Wiess
Series: -
Pages: 368
Publisher: MTV Books
Amazon
Release date: 18th February 2014

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

“Laura Wiess’s masterful prose kept me turning the pages. This is the first book in a very long time that made me say, ‘Wish I’d written this’” (Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank, on Such a Pretty Girl).Oh c’mon, Dad, nothing’s going to happen.

And for sixteen year-old Rowan Areno, shielded by her parents from the dark side of life, nothing bad usually does…until that last Friday in March when Rowan cuts school for a day of fun—and a random stranger’s shocking crime sets a traumatic series of events into motion that will change her life forever.

The crime video goes viral, the cruel, relentless aftermath threatening Rowan, her family, and Eli, a witness haunted by losses of his own. But when tragedy strikes, shattering Rowan’s world and destroying all she thought was true, not even Eli can protect her from the devastation.

Her life now divided into Before and After, Rowan struggles to survive, searching for answers, and desperate to make sense of what remains. She discovers that everyone grieves differently, though, and the path to love and forgiveness isn’t simple or straightforward. Will she carry these emotional wounds with her forever, or with Eli’s help, can she learn to trust, hope and believe in happiness again?

Me Since You is Laura Wiess at her finest—a beautiful, gripping, and painfully honest examination of love, loss, and a family in crisis.

Review: 4 out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers

I have to admit, I felt so down after I finished this book and needed to start on something a little more happy go lucky straight away; it is an overwhelming poignant read that really makes you think and feel.

Me Since You is depressing but written in a way that is believable and true to life; filled with betrayal, loss and heartache it follows the story of Sixteen year-old Rowan who is devastated, angry and lost since her police officer father sunk into a terrible depression after a job he responded to went downhill and as a result it led to a devastating event.

Witness to the terrible incident was Eli, uprooted from the life he has known since his own father was killed in action he understands what Rowan is going through and tries to help her in her desperate time of need in spite of his own personal demons, they form a sweet friendship and eventual romance but it wasn’t at the forefront of the story at all; it was a small glimpse that showed the hope.

Me Since You is written beautifully, I am not a crier when it comes to books but by the end of this I was frantically grasping the tissues, it was heart-wrenching seeing the characters crumble after loss and watch them slowly having to pull themselves back together and live again; you can grasp the hopelessness.

This isn’t the type of book I tend to read, I honestly tend to steer clear of books that are so emotionally draining and you know from the synopsis alone this book is going to tug at your heart-strings but it was compassionate and convincing and I was eager to see a bit of comfort and optimism for the characters, the author draws you into her storytelling and makes you grasp what the characters are feeling – the sensory details were written to perfection, you feel the anger, loss and sorrow and understand the reactions.

Overall, Me Since You gives you all the feels, it is a morose story but also shows that there is hope after loss.

Thank-you kindly to MTV Books/Edelweiss for the opportunity to read and review Me Since You.


Waiting on Wednesday - The Shadow Prince (Into the Dark #1) by Bree Despain

 
Hi everyone!! thank-you so much for stopping by today.

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

My WoW for this week is The Shadow Prince by Bree Despain.

The Shadow Prince (Into the Dark, #1)
Author: Bree Despain
Series: Into the Dark
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Egmont
Release date: 11th March 2014


Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Haden Lord, the disgraced prince of the Underrealm, has been sent to the mortal world to entice a girl into returning with him to the land of the dead. Posing as a student at Olympus Hills High—a haven for children of the rich and famous—Haden must single out the one girl rumored to be able to restore immortality to his race.

Daphne Raines has dreams much bigger than her tiny southern Utah town, so when her rock star dad suddenly reappears, offering her full tuition to Olympus Hills High’s prestigious music program, she sees an opportunity to catch the break she needs to make it as a singer. But upon moving into her estranged father’s mansion in California, and attending her glamorous new school, Daphne soon realizes she isn’t the only student in Olympus who doesn’t quite belong.

Haden and Daphne—destined for each other—know nothing of the true stakes their fated courtship entails. As war between the gods brews, the teenagers’ lives collide. But Daphne won’t be wooed easily and when it seems their prophesied link could happen, Haden realizes something he never intended—he’s fallen in love. Now to save themselves, Haden and Daphne must rewrite their destinies. But as their destinies change, so do the fates of both their worlds.

What are most anticipating this week?

Sunday 26 January 2014

Review: Going Long (Waiting on the Sidelines #2) by Ginger Scott

Going Long (Waiting on the Sidelines, #2)Going Long

Author: Ginger Scott
Series: Waiting on the Sidelines
Pages: 243
Publisher: Self
Release date: 1st October 2013


Synopsis. (Goodreads)

They fell in love in high school and found their way back to one another despite the odds. But can first loves really be forever? For Reed Johnson, the dream was always football. But then Nolan Lennox took over his heart. Is he willing to give up his first love just to keep his true love? Or will he be too late? 

Reed and Nolan’s story continues in "Going Long," sequel to "Waiting on the Sidelines."

Review: 3  out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Waiting on the Sidelines so I was eager to dive into the sequel, Going Long to see how Nolan Lennox and Reed Johnson are doing now that they are in a steady relationship.

There was a lot of angst, drama and miscommunications in the first book and it flowed over into this as well with an onslaught of problems in their relationship. I don’t want to reveal the details to avoid spoilers but there were a lot of ups and downs which seemed to me to outweigh the good parts, it was drama overload unfortunately.

Reed and Nolan are at separate colleges and commuting to make things work but distance makes it tough, with Reed being drafted to football he is wanting Nolan to make a few changes in her life which isn’t an easy decision for her and with his chosen profession it came with a lot of attention and insecurities for Nolan; I really felt for her at times despite Reed only wanting her, this aspect seemed to create unnecessary drama which I found extremely frustrating. Their love story in this book seemed quite unbelievable.

The secondary characters are wonderful and each of them played an important role in the overall story; the friendships were quite strong which I valued and all were developed extremely well.

In Going Long we get both MC’s POV’s and it worked out well, it explained their actions and reactions which I appreciated. I couldn’t fault Ginger Scott’s writing which was crisp and engaging; I may have enjoyed this more at a different time but the gamut of emotions didn’t appeal to my mood at the time so this may be it’s more me rather than the book.

Overall, Going Long was an emotional roller-coaster ride and despite being frustrated on many occasions by the characters behaviours it was entertaining none the less.

An ARC was provided by the author via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.



Ginger Scott-EidenAbout the author: Ginger Scott is a writer and journalist from Peoria, Arizona. Her newest novel, "Blindness," will be available in February 2014. 

Her debut novel, "Waiting on the Sidelines," is a coming-of-age love story that explores the real heartbreak we all feel as we become adults throughout our high school years. The story follows two characters, Nolan (a Tomboy with a baseball player's name) and Reed (the quarterback she wishes would notice her) as they struggle with peer-pressure, underage drinking, bullying and finding a balance between what your heart wants and what society says you should want -- even if you aren't ready. You can read it, and the sequel, "Going Long," now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other e-book outlets.

Scott has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website athttp://www.littlemisswrite.com. 


Friday 24 January 2014

Review: Dust (Silo #3) by Hugh Howey

Dust (Silo, #3)Dust

Author: Hugh Howey 
Series: Silo
Pages: 464
Publisher: Random House
Amazon
Release date: 24th October 2013

Synopsis. (Goodreads)

In a time when secrets and lies were the foundations of life, someone has discovered the truth. And they are going to tell.

Jules knows what her predecessors created. She knows they are the reason life has to be lived in this way.

And she won't stand for it.

But Jules no longer has supporters. And there is far more to fear than the toxic world beyond her walls.

A poison is growing from within Silo 18.

One that cannot be stopped.

Unless Silo 1 step in.

Review: 3 ½ stars out of 5 stars

Contains possible spoilers from the previous books.

Dust by Hugh Howey is the final installment in the Silo series and one I have been eagerly anticipating.

I have really appreciated this series to date and have enjoyed learning the secrets and revelations as they unfolded about the Silos. The inhabitants have now discovered the truth about silo 1 and in Dust we finally see if they are able to go outside without being consumed by toxic air but there were many obstacles and complications along the way.

The bleak world Hugh Howey has written is fascinating and extremely creative and really makes you think, his writing grips you as we learn more about the toxic air, the silos, investigations and the politics within as well as the characters, some good but no one who really stood out amongst the others.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I still have a number of lingering questions that have risen over the course of the series that have been left unresolved; maybe I have just missed little tidbits along the way but I felt the ending was a little bittersweet and I wasn’t as hooked as I have been in the previous books. The MC’s Donald and Juliette I also found to be lacklustre, there was no one person I completely sympathised with or liked unfortunately which would have to be my biggest gripe, I haven’t felt this with Wool or Shift; everyone seemed overly manipulative, whiny and emotionless which didn’t leave me able to connect with them on any level.

Overall, The Silo series is an extraordinary story of survival and despite a few minor issues this series is still a unique, suspense filled and extremely well-written. It has been optioned for film by 20th Century Fox and is one I’ll definitely be watching.

Thank-you kindly to Random House for the opportunity to read and review Dust.

 

Hugh HoweyAbout the author: I'm the author of WOOL, a top 5 science fiction book on Amazon. I also wrote the Molly Fyde saga, a tale of a teenager from the 25th century who is repeatedly told that girls can't do certain things -- and then does them anyway.

A theme in my books is the celebration of overcoming odds and of not allowing the cruelty of the universe to change who you are in the process. Most of them are classified as science fiction, since they often take place in the future, but if you love great stories and memorable characters, you'll dig what you find here. I promise.