The Final Countdown

In just three days time, four if you count today, my life will be forever changed. Okay, fine, it won't be changed in that earth shattering way, but it will be changed. In three days time, four if you count today, I'll find out if I'm moving on to round two of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.

As I've told you in prior posts, I've entered this contest every year since its inception. Three of the four years I've managed to get as far as round two. I'm hoping to continue that trend this year. In the last two years, making it to round two has become something more of a challenge than it was in the first two years. This is thanks to the pitch. The pitch is a three hundred word summary of your novel that must not only tell the judges how your book ends but also explain that you understand your target audience. It's a lot of information to cram into three hundred words and make it both eloquent and believable. I managed to do it last year so I'm hoping to pull it off again this year. You see, they won't even pass the book along to readers to judge its actual merit if you can't even write a decent pitch. I have mixed feelings about this. I won't get in to them now as I've addressed this before. Let's just say it's a lot of pressure as is this contest.

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards is a long contest with a labyrinth of layers. Round One is the submission phase in which the first five thousand entrants are accepted into two categories- general fiction and young adult fiction. Round two moves the top two thousand entrants in each category and allows a small sample of their story to be read and rated by Amazon's top reviewers. Round three is the quarter finals and entrants move on based on the rankings from the reviews. The semi finals is where things get interesting. The field is narrowed and excerpts of the novels are posted on line for all Amazon customers to review. The finals are next followed by the announcing of two winners, one in each category. There's both a cash prize and the joy of mainstream publication. While the contest begins in January, the winners aren't announced until June. Yes, it takes six months.

Every year I tell myself I am not going to obsess over this contest. I am not going to count the days and constantly remind myself and my poor husband of how many days are left. I'm not even going to think about it. I tell myself these lies every year, and this year is no exception. Not only do I want to win for the publication and cash prize, but I want that validation as a writer. I want to know I have talent. I want all of those agents and publishing houses who rejected me to wish they hadn't passed.

For now, I'd settle for moving to round two. Of course, if I do that will reset the clock. I'll have another month to obsessively wonder if I'm making it to the next round. One can only hope.

Love is in the Air

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought it was only fitting to talk about love. I don’t mean the romantic kind of love usually reserved for this day. I will say that kind of love is often the source of inspiration for me and other writers. Instead, I want to talk about the love of something I do. You guessed it. I want to talk about my love of writing.

Writing is something of an inherited talent. My childhood is ingrained with images of my mother hunched over the kitchen table, and later her desk, dashing out her latest creation. Whether or not my mother has talent is up for debate as I’ve never read any of her work nor has she shared it with me. It’s only my memories that lead me to believe I’ve inherited any talent from her, but I’m getting off track.

Along with memories of seeing my mother write, my childhood is riddled with memories of me writing. I have this romantic notion that I’ve been doing it since the first time a pencil touched my fingers, but I can’t be certain of that. I still remember beaming with pride when my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Welch, taught me the proper use of quotations ahead of the rest of the class so I could use them in my stories she loved so much. In the sixth grade, my parents echoed that sentiment when I won a district wide writing contest for an essay entitled What Peace Means to Me.  In the seventh grade, I was too vain to be embarrassed when my English teacher wanted to read the class a story I'd written. I suppose I could go on and on banging my own drum. The point is my earliest memories involve writing. 

There is nothing I don't love about writing. From the first spark of an idea to the sound of my fingers flying across the computer keys, I love the process.  I like to create and be creative.  When I start a story, I usually have no idea where it's going to end so I love to see what unfolds. I love the control, and I'm not ashamed to say I sometimes end up falling for my male lead. I'm always a little sad when I finish a story and more sad when I finish a series of stories as I know it's all coming to an end. Then I realize it's time to start anew and my love for the process is reborn.  As I grow so does my love to write.  

So on this Valentine's Day, I hope you remember there are many kinds of love.  And I hope you have or will experience one of them. 

The Power of Social Networking Strikes Again

In a recent post, I extolled the benefits of social networking.  If you recall, as a result of a Twitter connection, I became acquainted with a web radio host and book reviewer.  That host/reviewer interviewed me and then some time later read my book and gave it a rather glowing review. Not only did she give it a positive review, but she’s been kind enough to post it on web sites such as Amazon and Good Reads. Whether or not this will net me more sales remains to be seen, but it’s always good to get validation of your talent as a writer. It’s also great to see the effort I’ve invested in Twitter is paying off. As you know from previous posts, I started that Twitter account with a great deal of skepticism.

Guess what? The power of social networking, Twitter in particular, has struck again. I’m sure in my last post I mentioned that in the early days of Twitter I followed anyone who followed me. I felt it was only fair to repay the kindness.  Since then, I’ve become much more selective about who I follow. Please believe me when I say this has nothing to do with me being a snob and is more about getting back to my roots. I started my Twitter account with the intention of promoting my work and reaching fans. Following the local historical society doesn’t aid me in that. Instead, it fills my Twitter page with posts that don’t apply to me and slows down my ability to reach those who are interested in my work.

One of those who followed me was Team Duo Lit. The goal of these two wonderful people is to assist all writers, especially those who are self-published, with furthering their careers and getting their work noticed. Given this, I decided to follow them. In one of their posts, they spoke of a web site called Wattpad and gave a link to a contest the site was holding for self-published authors. As it turns out, by the time I got to this site, I’d missed the contest deadline. I did stick around to check out the site and was intrigued by what I saw. Wattpad is a web site in which both aspiring and published writers can share their work and offer one another feedback. It’s an intricate and well organized system that allows writers to upload their written work as well as a cover for their yet to be published books. I joined the Wattpad group and was emailed instructions for logging on and creating my account. Though I created the account, I didn’t begin posting right away. For some reason, I didn’t delete the email reminding me of Wattad’s existence.

Last week, after a grueling week of editing two manuscripts, I needed a break. Although I understand the importance of editing, I’m not afraid to admit it’s one of those things that sucks the joy out of writing for me. Needing a reinfusion of that joy, I decided to give Wattpad a try. I have a story that’s already completed that I’m not sure will ever see the light of day. I’ve tried many times to get an agent for this story and kept getting rejected. I suspect its controversial content scares some people away, which is what I tell myself to keep from thinking the rejections are because I’m a bad writer. With this in mind, I decided to test the Wattpad waters. My agent has strict rules about posting work on the web that she’s trying to push to publishers. Because of that, I decided to try out the story I’ve been convinced will never see the light of day. I uploaded the story and then waited to see what would happen. I checked back regularly, okay obsessively, to see if anyone read my story yet. In looking around the site, I’d noticed others were getting reads and the number was being tracked and posted by the book info for all to see. In addition to these reads, there was the chance for people to vote on whether or not they liked a story. Each vote gives the writer what are known as popularity points. These points move the writer up in the standings and could lead to them being featured on the home page. That would in turn lead to more exposure for the author. Imagine my dismay when no one was reading my story. I couldn’t figure out how everyone else was doing it. Then again, I couldn’t even figure out how to upload my own personalized avatar or update my profile or create a book cover. As you know from prior posts, I’m a bit technologically impaired. I had to enlist the help of my teen daughter to get the book cover created to the right number of pixels and what not. While she worked on this, I plodded through getting my little avatar up there and making my profile shine. Then I started poking around to find out how to get some reads. I didn’t just want reads though. I wanted some comments. I wanted to know what the readers thought of my work. Turns out there are a list of clubs on the site and one of those encourages authors to share their stories with one another. After a few posts there, I was off and running. The reads and comments racked up as did the popularity points.

What I’ve learned so far from this site is that it seems to be geared toward the younger generation. The ages of authors has ranged from twelve to twenty-five, at least those I’ve seen so far. As an aspiring young adult writer, this is great for me. With Wattpad, I’ve been given the ability to tap into the minds of my demographic. They appear to lean toward fantasy novels with an element of romance as well as teen angst novels. They still love werewolves and vampires. They also love what I’ve written so far. That’s what they’re saying anyway, and I tend to believe them given the fact that they have no emotional investment in my writing. When my friends compliment me, I get a little leery because I wonder if they don’t want to hurt my feelings.

With Wattpad, I feel like I’ve been given a new lease on my literary life. The positive comments I’ve received from the snippet of the story I’ve posted have encouraged me not to give up on my dream of being a mainstream published YA author, and I owe this feeling to Twitter and Team Duo Lit.

Fourth Time's a Charm?

Four years ago, Amazon teamed up with publishing giant Penguin Putnam to create the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  The gist of the contest is to give a new and unpublished author a nominal cash prize along with a publishing contract.  Last year, they added an additional prize and now give two grand prizes, one for a general fiction author and one for a young adult author.

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled on this, but I've been entering this contest every year since its inception.  Not only does it provide a valuable opportunity to get exposure for your work, but it's one of the few contests that's free. That is to say there's no monetary cost.  There is a great deal of emotions that authors invest in this.  I confess I'm one of them.

Last year, for the first time they not only offered two grand prizes but they also opened it up for self-published works to be entered.  Though I've been self-publishing for some time, I've never entered any of my self-published works in this particular contest.  I've always gone with the new entries.

Having been told my latest book, After All These Years, is my best work yet, I decided to take the plunge.  I've entered it in the Amazon contest.  Now, I just sit back and wait until February 24, 2011 to find out if my concept is good enough to move me to round two. That's right. They won't even be looking at the story unless the three-hundred word pitch I sent them was enough to convince them I have a good story.  This layer, known as the pitch, was added to the contest in the second year.  I have to admit it's my least favorite. I'm not a fan of having the merit of an entire novel based on three-hundred words.  Be that as it may, I don't make the rules.  I just follow them.

I will say I'm a lot more confident in my entry this year.  I know the work is polished and well thought out and initial reviews have been good. So it's time to put everyone's words to the test and see if Amazon thinks After All These Years really is my best work yet and if that's even good enough to move me on.  Here's to hoping the fourth time is a charm!

The Power of Social Networking

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm somewhat phobic when it comes to new technology. That's not to say I'm completely inept at using the computer.  I just tend to balk when it comes to upgrading or trying the latest new fangled gadgets. Like I said before, it took me forever to let go of using floppy disks and get a thumb drive.

Though I got on the email train pretty fast, that was about the only piece of social networking I liked. Of course, it does bring rejection at the speed of light! While I was also willing to start a web site, I waited three years to start this blog and open a Twitter account.  And I must confess, it was only at the urging of a friend and fellow author that I broke down and did it. As long as I'm confessing things, I'm not afraid to say that I entered into both with a great deal of skepticism.

I'm here today so admit I'm ready to change my view. While I still haven't broken the double digits on Twitter followers, I've got this feeling that will soon change. I owe this change of heart to a Twitter connection.  In my early days of Twitter, I tended to follow anyone who followed me. I didn't go searching for followers, and I couldn't believe it when I got emails saying I'd added another follower. One of those followers who found me was Nanci Arvizu of Page Readers. Nanci runs a great site for writers that helps them get exposure for their books and does a weekly radio show.  In one of her posts, she called for guests and I responded to the call.  A family emergency preempted my radio interview, but Nanci graciously posted the interview on her web site and even offered to review my novel. The review that followed a few months later was quite glowing and reaffirmed my sometimes waning faith in myself as a writer. Not only did she post that review on her web site, but she posted it on Amazon as well.

I now have a new follower, and a new fan, and I owe it all to the power of social networking.

Disaster Averted- Sort Of

Even if you've never read my blog before, you know one thing about me. The title gives it away. I'm a writer. What you don't know is how I feel about my stories. I live, eat, sleep and breathe my work. When I begin a new story, I have to confess that I become a tad obsessed with it. I feel compelled to finish the story for my character's sake. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'm not one of those writers that maps the story out before I start. Generally speaking, when I begin a story I have no idea how it will end. That's one of the reasons I push so hard to finish. I also happen to love writing. I feel a sense of joy as well as a touch of power in that creative process.

Having said that, you'd think I lived on my computer and knew all of its ins and outs. Guess what? I don't. I'm fairly adept at navigating the web and have a pretty good feel for MS Word. The rest of it is like a foreign language to me, and I'm a bit technologically impaired. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I gave up the beloved floppy discs I was holding on so hard to and got myself a thumb drive. Since getting that thumb drive, I carry it everywhere. It hangs from my neck and contains every draft of every story I've ever written. In some instances, it contains the only copies of those drafts. I know, believe me when I say the lesson was learned. 

Now, as much as I love to write, I can't always get to it right away. Besides having a day job that I'm very committed to being successful at, I also have a husband, two kids in all kinds of extra curricular activities and three dogs I have to manage.  That means I get in a few hours here and there when I can. I try to write every night and most weekends if I can, but sometimes real life calls. Last week was one of those times. I worked on my newest story during lunch on Thursday and then didn't pop it open again until Saturday afternoon.

Imagine my shock and horror to find it was gone. It was there when I opened the drive. Then my computer popped up with a message that said I should scan my drive so I clicked okay. A few moments later the file was nothing more than a memory. I had a brief flicker of panic and then rushed to my very computer savvy husband to explain what happened and beg him to help me. The longer he sat at my computer, the more trouble I knew I was in. Still, I remained in denial mode for nearly a half an hour until he gave me a most grave look and told me he couldn't find the file. How could that be? All I could think about was the hours, days, weeks, months and nights I'd spent on the story. Twenty-five chapters and five hundred twenty-five pages were all gone. I'm not ashamed to say I had a hysterical meltdown that sent my kids scrambling to pick flowers to make me feel better. Though he wasn't sure what he could do, my husband took my thumb drive to his computer and began the file recovery process. Nearly two hours later, he was able to salvage 470 pages of my newest creation. That left me just two chapters short which wasn't as awful as where I started. I did have to spend two days reformatting those 470 pages. I worked night and day and ended up with blood shot eyes and a raging headache.

Of course, this was a small price to pay for my stupidity. I should've known better than to have only one copy of my work saved. I should've been more diligent about backing it up, but I got lazy. I adopted that attitude of it'll never happen to me. Guess what? It did, and it could've been a lot worse.

Disaster averted and lesson learned.

Christmas Comes a little late This Year… And so does this blog entry!

I suppose the first thing I should warn you is that the title of this entry is misleading.  With Christmas and the New Year having just passed, it’s inaccurate to say Christmas comes late this year.  Actually, it came late last year, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

If you’ve learned anything about me since I started this blog it’s that I’m a writer still trying to break through the glass ceiling of the publishing world.  In my last post, I alternately pined for a writer’s pipe dream of publication and Hollywood movie rights and the like and longed for the simpler goal of an offer of representation.  One or both of these, with the latter being a more realistic option, was the only thing I really wanted for my 2010 Christmas gift.

Let me first make sure I clarify that I had a wonderful holiday. My family and I enjoyed the pleasure of each other’s company and were fortunate enough to be able to exchange gifts. There was good food, good fun, and a lot of laughter when a few gag gifts made the rounds. While the day came and went without that email or phone call from an agent to say my latest work was the greatest literary find of the decade, I still felt happy and satisfied and enjoyed a much needed break from what can sometimes be the grind of this career I’ve chosen.

Once the Christmas holiday passed, it became time for New Year’s resolutions. I made a few but only one that matters here.  I resolved that 2011 would be the year I took another step forward with my writing career. Let me digress for a moment and say that for the most part I’ve had an upwardly mobile and enjoyable writing career. No, I’m not making money hand over fist and I’m not a nationally recognized name, but I’ve had my own version of success. I’ve seen my name in writing and had the honor of being told my writing has changed people’s lives. I’ve reached new fans and met great people and gained a greater respect and admiration for this nation’s military. Still, I can’t break that deep rooted desire to take my writing to the next and highest level.

I’m certain I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve queried dozens if not hundreds of literary agents in the past year. Though I’ve had a few nibbles of initial interest, I haven’t been able to get the fish to bite. That changed on December 31, 2010.  I received an email from a literary agent that included an offer of representation for a young adult novel that I’m particularly passionate about. This offer came from an agent just starting out who’s managed to develop a client list and make a few sales already. The decision that was mine to weigh was whether or not I wanted to enter into the contract with her. It was a standard contact and nothing raised any red flags. The issue I needed to consider was whether or not I was willing to take a chance on a new agent who deals primarily in small publishing houses. Was working with this agent going to land me the dream of a six figure book deal? Anything’s possible, but the answer is more likely to be no. Did that mean I shouldn’t give her a chance? After all, aren’t I a new writer asking agents to take a chance on me? Why shouldn’t it be a two way street?

After some careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that I’m going to accept this offer. I don’t know where it will take me. Landing an agent doesn’t guarantee publication. This is a lesson I learned the hard way some time back. It does, however, increase your chances and get your foot in doors you might not otherwise be able to get in. I told myself 2011 would be the year I took the next step forward with my writing. I’d have to say this is a pretty good indicator I’m doing it.  Wouldn’t you?