Verifying that there's a market for your book proposal, must you start a newsletter, querying one agent for two genres, why I'm remiss to talk about hiring independent publicists and more!
The ex (very very ex) boyfriend refused to come out of his room and wouldn't join us at meals so the family actually cut the entire trip short and we all went home early, and a few weeks later when I was at college the father-- yes, the father-- sent me a bottle of men's cologne and an Andrea Bocceli CD for my birthday. You can not make this up. Even a fiction writer can't make this up.
Young men can be very weird. Sometimes we're like knights longing for a crusade to fight but we don't have one so we sign up for something else if only to have a mission we can devote ourselves to. The more it sets us apart from the mainstream the better. I think it's a way to feel moored in a world where we feel deeply unmoored whether it really suits us or not. Mine was keeping to the austere tenants of the Catholic church and the ban on premarital sex. Thank goodness I grew out of that phase as I matured in the second half of college.
I bet your boyfriend waited until you were at cruising altitude to tell you so he could test his devotion to his newly found path. It was unkind but those austere paths rarely take kindness and human feeling into consideration. He probably kicks himself whenever he thinks of it.
These are ALL fabulous, relevant questions to so many writers, and I love your answers. So much good information and advice here!
I totally agree about the newsletter--I ran my Constant Contact for 15 years until I convinced myself I could post something interesting every week, THEN I moved it to Substack. Substack is definitely (to me) a working writer's land and the newsletters are top notch as a result. I am still learning Notes (just moved over in April from CC) but I love the community so much.
A different take on independent publicists: I've worked with two over my career and both have done a bang-up job. Right now I'm working on my new novel with two publicists who specialize in different areas, rather than across the board media. One does blogger tours (instagram, mostly) and the other podcast tours. The blogger tour publicist has been fantastic--her bloggers posted over two days, with the cover reveal, and it got my novel into bestseller status on Amazon in three categories in pre-orders, which blew me away. I've also worked with do-everything publicists but I don't think I would anymore. This has worked a lot better.
The mis-date in Italy story was great, made my afternoon. Thanks, always, for your great posts.
Thank you for this insight-- I'm so glad you are having good experiences with the outside publicists you're working with. I do think finding publicists who have a specific task (blogger tours, podcast tours) other than someone who does "it all" is the way to go for sure. I'll keep your experience in mind when I finally write a post about independent publicists!
So what happened after Sienna? Did you continue on the grand tour?
The ex (very very ex) boyfriend refused to come out of his room and wouldn't join us at meals so the family actually cut the entire trip short and we all went home early, and a few weeks later when I was at college the father-- yes, the father-- sent me a bottle of men's cologne and an Andrea Bocceli CD for my birthday. You can not make this up. Even a fiction writer can't make this up.
Young men can be very weird. Sometimes we're like knights longing for a crusade to fight but we don't have one so we sign up for something else if only to have a mission we can devote ourselves to. The more it sets us apart from the mainstream the better. I think it's a way to feel moored in a world where we feel deeply unmoored whether it really suits us or not. Mine was keeping to the austere tenants of the Catholic church and the ban on premarital sex. Thank goodness I grew out of that phase as I matured in the second half of college.
I bet your boyfriend waited until you were at cruising altitude to tell you so he could test his devotion to his newly found path. It was unkind but those austere paths rarely take kindness and human feeling into consideration. He probably kicks himself whenever he thinks of it.
Oh yeah, he sent me an apology ten years later as part of his recovery in AA. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
These are ALL fabulous, relevant questions to so many writers, and I love your answers. So much good information and advice here!
I totally agree about the newsletter--I ran my Constant Contact for 15 years until I convinced myself I could post something interesting every week, THEN I moved it to Substack. Substack is definitely (to me) a working writer's land and the newsletters are top notch as a result. I am still learning Notes (just moved over in April from CC) but I love the community so much.
A different take on independent publicists: I've worked with two over my career and both have done a bang-up job. Right now I'm working on my new novel with two publicists who specialize in different areas, rather than across the board media. One does blogger tours (instagram, mostly) and the other podcast tours. The blogger tour publicist has been fantastic--her bloggers posted over two days, with the cover reveal, and it got my novel into bestseller status on Amazon in three categories in pre-orders, which blew me away. I've also worked with do-everything publicists but I don't think I would anymore. This has worked a lot better.
The mis-date in Italy story was great, made my afternoon. Thanks, always, for your great posts.
Thank you for this insight-- I'm so glad you are having good experiences with the outside publicists you're working with. I do think finding publicists who have a specific task (blogger tours, podcast tours) other than someone who does "it all" is the way to go for sure. I'll keep your experience in mind when I finally write a post about independent publicists!