What makes a Book Star (or how can you be The Hunger Game too)

Tip of the Day: did anyone else keep thinking it was Monday today? Which is why I'm posting a bit late. Let this be a lesson that you should always get your stuff done ahead of time. Now if I could only apply my "tip" to myself, I'd be all set :) 

After watching America's Got Talent this evening (yes, I know I watch way too much TV and reality TV and talk about it on this blog more than any normal person should, but oh well...that's life), Sharon Osbourne made a comment to a 6-year old performer (or more specifically a 3+2 child) that for some reason has stuck with me this evening. It was something to the effect of: "very few people in life have star quality--and you have it."

This got me thinking about books in general and what makes a book a "star." There's so many amazing books out there, but not all of them can have "star" sales like Twilight, The Hunger Games, or even Fifty Shades of Grey :) So what makes these books stars in the public's eyes (and pocket books)?

Obviously a push from the publisher helps. But what else makes a book a star? Here are some of my thoughts:

Neat, literal book star from www.quietfiredesign.com

• You need a killer title! Enough said. Would The Hunger Games have caught on nearly as much as it did if the title was something as simple as District 12? Maybe, but it doesn't command your attention as much. At least not mine.
  
  
• You need a cool concept. And even more, you need a cool concept that can be summarized in one sentence, or better yet the title. Even though people say there aren't any new concepts, there are still ways to make a story stand out with a simple, yet intriguing concept. 
  
  All of the above titles I mentioned can be summarized in less then a sentence. Even just "YA vampire love" gets across the concept of Twilight. Though there are many vampire love stories out there now and I'm sure there were several at the time Twilight came out, so I guess we could expand it a bit to just be "teen girl falls in love with a hot, sparkly vampire." Which gets your attention if you like love stories. If you like adventure, then a story about "a televised competition to the death" pretty much makes you sit up and pay attention. And if you like "adult" romances, then you know the book for you. Though I do think Fifty Shades of Grey is a bit vague of a title, however, I'm sure that was probably done on purpose, in this case.
  
  
• Then it needs to sparkle enough with the writing, characters, and plot, so that people start talking about it. And if the above two apply it makes it "very" easy for people to start talking and spreading the word, because they have a simple concept to relay with a unique twist, and a cool title that summarizes it all and makes it easy for the next person to pass the info along in a large game of "book telephone." And then, bam, before you know it the book is mentioned on every single show from The View, Saturday Night Live, and everything in between.
  
  
  So basically, also like Sharon mentioned, to be a "star" you obviously need to have some talent, but much of it is being able to move people and get them talking about you, or in this case "the book."
  
  
  --Emily, Miss Querylicious

Happy Memorial Day

For my Dad, who sailed around the world with the Navy. For my uncle, who served in Vietnam. For my Grandfather, who served in France in WWII. And for my brother, who is spending this weekend with the Army Reserve. Thank you!

As writers, we explore the human potential to sacrifice for others. We describe worlds created by people who were willing to give everything to make those worlds better and to keep them safe and free. I hope I can always do this with the proper respect and awe.

Let's Talk Money

Tip of the Day: Read this post by Nathan Bransford and swoon. I LOVE it when trad and self-pub come together. I'm a fan of ALL books, no matter how they're published.

If talking about money freaks you out, then avert your eyes. However, I'd like to encourage you to read on anyway.

Let me make a statement first:

I DO NOT WRITE TO MAKE MONEY.

I PUBLISH TO MAKE MY BOOKS AVAILABLE.

I WORK MY <bleep> OFF TO MAKE MONEY.

I've been writing since I was seven - back when I thought a penny was the most valuable of coins because it was the same color as my hair. So, please, don't waste your time thinking I'm writing just to make some bank. No, I write because my over-active imagination needs an outlet.

Okay, let's get back to the today's topic: money, moolah, coin, bank, cash, the almighty dollar.

Self-publishing can be very lucrative.

I'm closing in on 20,000 sales overall, mainly spread across four books because I usually have two or three of my seven products free at any given time.

I'm on track to clear six figures this year.

Last year, I made under $5,000. This year I'm going to make over $100,000.

I've never made that much in any job. Granted, all of my jobs have been in the arts (bookstores, museums, libraries, teaching flute lessons, a stint at Hellmark, I mean, Hallmark).

Why bring this up? Am I trying to make you jealous? Ha, not close. Most of that money goes to business expenses, paying for my kids' education, and our house is aging which means every appliance is dying. If it weren't for this income, we'd be struggling a lot.

I wanted to share this because you need to know that money can be made in self-publishing. "They" say that less than 10% of all self-pubs make more than $10,000 a year.  Either I just happen to hang out with uber-successful indie authors, or the findings are skewed.

Many of my self-pub friends are pulling down double or triple or quadruple my sales, which leads me to believe their incomes are far exceeding mine.

When I wanted to get traditionally published, I expected, I hoped, I'd land a $5,000 or $10,000 advance - knowing full well I'd probably never earn it out. I'm not against traditional publishing. Self-publishing is not for everyone and I have no clue what my future will bring, so keeping all doors open is very exciting.

What I do want to stress are these points:

- Writing and publishing are two different jobs. Don't write for money, write for love of writing. But if you're going to publish, treat it as a business.

- Publishing is a business. Wait, I just said that! I cannot emphasize it enough. If you're going to self-publish, you are becoming a business owner. You must think like a businessperson.

- Network, network, network. Self-publishing is the biggest misnomer. Other than writing the first draft, there is NOTHING I do by myself. In fact, I could call myself a self-author and then say I run a small publishing business. That's more accurate (though self-author sounds really dumb - lol).

- Never give up. Last year at this time, I was selling just a few copies of my books here and there. Never in a million, billion, gazillion years did I ever think I'd make more than $500 a month. Seriously. My first goal was to make $100 self-pubbing. Then it was to make $550 a month to pay for my kids' tuition. Now, well, now I just hope it keeps up.

- Don't rest on your pile 'o' cash. Publishing is a fickle business. Last year's bestseller could be this year's dud. You never know what your income will be. It's impossible to predict when your sole income is based off the whims of the buying public. I grew up on a farm. Some years were better than others. Some years we barely made it. I use this mentality toward my publishing career. I'm saving money like crazy because I have no idea if it will be there tomorrow. I sit down at the keyboard every day and work around the clock.



I wanted this post to give you hope that maybe you could do it too. There are a million magical reasons surrounding my success. I can't quantify all of them and give you a clear path to success. I just want you to know - it is possible. 

Writing Middle Grade Books

Tip of the Day: Midde Grade readers ARE using kindles etc. to read ebooks. I know this is something a lot of us authors wondered. We kind of thought that most ebook readers would be a little older, at least into YA. When I had a chance to hang out with a bunch of 4th and 5th graders the other day I took a poll and the majority of them said that they read ebooks on their parent's ereaders in addition to paperbacks. Want to hear more about my book club visit with the kids? Read my blog from Tuesday.

Last week Giora asked how we, as middle grade writers, get into the heads of middle grade characters and have the dialogue sound authentic. Since I'm working on a middle grade right now I thought I'd tackle these questions. I spend a lot of time thinking back to when I was that age and how I handled different situations. And while that was some time ago, things aren't THAT different. Sure we have more technology now so it's wise to pay attention to that kind of thing. You probably wouldn't three-way call your frenemy and hit mute while your best friend got her to say a bunch of stuff you weren't supposed to hear (which we did ALL of the time). But you'd have her forward you the e-mail she sent talking smack about you. And you wouldn't wear big hats and tease your hair ala Saved by the Bell:

http://badassdigest.com/2011/11/28/the-week-in-fake-movie-news-saved-by-the-bell/

So you should pay attention to fashion current trends. But the basic stuff that happened to us as kids at that age still goes on today. A middle grade girl is still hurt when her best friend starts hanging out more with a new friend. Or the boy she likes rejects her. Or she doesn't get the role in the school play that she wanted so desperately. So if you recall how you felt when things like that happened to you, it's easy to get into the heads of your middle grade characters.

When I wrote my first middle grade, My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours, I was thinking about my own 7th grade fake boyfriend and the trouble I got into because of him and my BFF at the time. It was in thinking about this that I came up with the idea for the book. And the idea of fake boyfriends must be eternal because people are always telling me about the fake boyfriends they had (or still have!) when I meet them at book signings.

And to answer your question about realistic dialogue, just listen to how kids are talking now. Turn on Disney or Nickolodeon and take note. Listen to a group of kids at the library chat. Kids today really don't speak all that differently than we did at that age. I hear my 9 year saying "Dude!" to his friends all the time. And I said "Dude!" at that age too. Though I can pretty much guarantee that no one today still says, "Like, gag me with a spoon!" :-)

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Teen Book Fest Year 2012! (or Lucky Seventh Year)

Tip of the Day: Stay tuned for future posts from me on: 1) what teens in my lib are reading now; 2) how teen fans of different genres show their author/book love.
On Saturday, I volunteered as an author handler for the Seventh Annual Rochester Teen Book Festival in upstate NY. WOW! What a great day!

Highlights for me:

1. Meeting online writer aquaintance Cyn Balog in person for the first time (her paranormal romances are excellent because they are so different; no vamps, zombies, or werewolves for her).

2. Learning that everyone loves Beth Fantaskey's JESSICA books so I should read another vampire novel too.

3. Scoring an ARC of Cyn's cool new book TOUCHED (my review here). Thanks, Cyn!

4. Hearing A. S. King talk to teens -- and adults -- about how your high school self does not identify you for life. And how we all must learn to accept everything about ourselves.

5. Watching a teen volunteer whip up an awesome PowerPoint of Cyn and Beth's book covers in a matter of minutes, and then man the computer and slides during the next two sessions.

6. Hanging with my old awesome intern/new YA librarian Kelley (she blogs here).

7. Being in a gym full of music and teens and authors and noise and seeing people of all ages sitting on the bleachers quietly reading their new autographed books.

8. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of teens excited about books, reading, authors, and TBF!

Thank you to the librarians, authors, publishers, donors, and attendees who make this festival possible and FREE for all to attend!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Tip of the Day: publishing continues to change, most recently with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt filing bankruptcy yesterday. Hopefully they can get all their finances restructured and continue to put out great books!

Last week Tina held an Ask A2A day and one of the questions for us working in a library is what books are most popular among teens. Deena is the expert on this and I'm sure she'll share her experiences tomorrow. I don't work in YA much, so I was actually curious about this question myself. So I decided to do a bit of investigating and pulled a report for the most popular books checked out in the YA department for the last three months.

By far the most popular ones were Manga, followed by anything with a movie tie-in. Not extremely surprised. But if you are curious, here are the top five books checked out at my midwest library.

5.) My Girlfriend's a Geek

4.) Catching Fire

3.) Marmalade Boy

2.) The Hunger Games

1.) Hikaru No Go

A bit more surprisingly were the most popular subjects checked out: high school students--comic books; survival; best friends--fiction; vampires--fiction (does a big sigh--hoping this phase is over soon); dating (social customs); insurgency--juvenile fiction (hmm...); spies--juvenile fiction; wizards--comic books; X-men; Spiderman; orphans

Just curious if this surprises anyone? Now, I do think a lot of what people read reflects what is available at the time. So I'm not sure this is exactly what people are asking for or not.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Stage Direction (Exit Stage Right Even)

Tip of the Day: Anne R. Allen has an information-packed post on her blog called Who Are the Big Six and What Does Indie Publishing Really Mean?

Looking for a way to drop some word count? Check your stage direction.

I'm talking about the words in your manuscript that get your characters from one place to another. For example, your character is sitting on the couch and gets up to walk across the room:

"I sat on the couch. Then I stood up and walked across the room to my desk, where I keep my computer. I turned it on and logged in. I couldn't wait to look at my ex-boyfriend's prom photo on Facebook."

You don't need to include things we know have to happen. If you're sitting, we know you have to stand up to walk. We know computers have to be turned on to work and they don't float in midair. So all that can be cut:

"I sat on the couch. Then I walked across the room to my computer. I couldn't wait to look at my ex-boyfriend's prom photo on Facebook. Did he really wear a neon pink tux?"

See, I got to do something fun with the word count I saved.

Remember, we know you have to find your car keys to start your car. We know you have to open a box of cereal to pour the cereal. We know you have to turn a door knob to open a door. So cut out all that stage direction unless it matters to the plot. If your character is late because it took her computer 10 minutes to warm up and she lost her car keys, then your stage direction isn't really stage direction any more. Now you've created obstacles.

How do you know when you've cut too much? Because I cut too much, or don't write it at all. That's when my beta readers say things like, "Wait, she's speeding down the highway? I thought she was still stalking Facebook."

Stage direction is a balance game. You need just the right amount. Too much and your pace drags; too little and your readers have to go back and re-read to figure out where your characters are. In other words, it's not something I can get on the page perfectly on my first draft. I need feedback. Desperately. I know how she got to her car, so I often don't notice that I forgot to tell my readers.

How do you think you balance out? Do you naturally write too much stage direction or too little?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages