The Author Behind the Curtain

It's been a while since I did a "Lessons from My Day Job" post. Today I want to talk about recognition…and when you shouldn’t get any.
Public Relations (my day job) can be a funny little world, because if you do your job well, no one sees you. Your name doesn’t appear on article bylines, your face isn’t the one on camera, you aren’t the one giving high-profile testimony.

True, you’ve a) organized the opportunity, b) written the articles and scripts, and c) coached your client on how to handle it. But the whole point of PR is that the spotlight shines on your clients, while you smile knowingly in the background off-stage.

In some aspects, novels work the same way. Your name is on the cover (yay!) and you get to do fan interviews and book-signings (double yay!), but aside from that, your “author personality” shouldn’t be visible on the page.

Your characters should speak for themselves without any forced commentary or viewpoints from you. Readers will see right through any heavy-handed agendas you try to weave in, and it’ll likely be a turn off for them.

Don’t feel like you can’t be opinionated in your novel, just realize you’re best served by letting your characters do the talking…and get the recognition. The best authors can make us forget we’re merely reading a book, because their voice disappears completely to allow their characters to come fully alive.

Does Your Work Influence Your Setting?

There’s nothing particularly special about my agency’s office. It’s in an old tannery building near the city, but a bit too far south to be considered in “Downtown Proper.”

It overlooks a railroad track and several mostly-empty apartment buildings whose remodeling projects got abandoned in recent years when the architects ran out of money. There’s a vodka distillery in the parking lot and an honest-to-goodness cobbler off the loading dock.

Yet it amazes me how much this place has influenced my writing!

 

Here’s what I mean:

• I used the style of the old original exposed brick walls as inspiration for a museum in a Clive Cussler-esque adventure novel I have swirling around in my brain.
• The railroad tracks, loading trains and occasional train-hopper I see out our back door became the almost sole inspiration for an awesome steampunk I’m working on.
• The exterior building façade influenced the architecture for another historical steampunk idea.
• I even used a line in one of my pieces about the constant smell of Pine Sol in the stairwells.
• Someday, I’m going to stop by the cobbler’s and ask him to make me a pair of leather boots like one of my characters wears.

It’s funny how the most mundane things can shape our stories. What about you? Does your workplace find its way into your writing?

I Get to Play Publisher!

Sometimes, my job is just so cool! Last year, I helped a client edit and publish a healthcare business book. It had great success and is currently sitting at about #50,000 on Amazon (a year after publication!).

Well, last week, I was working on a marketing plan for the sequel, due out early next year. It was such a neat opportunity for my two worlds—writing and PR—to overlap.

Here’s what happened:

• I was perusing Janet Reid’s blog, as I always do, for my own nefarious writing purposes, and happened to read her post about NetGalley.

• Writer/Reader Nicole thought: What a neat site, why have I not heard of this yet? How can I get me some of those ARCs? Books! I love ‘em.

• Business Nicole thought: This is a perfect way to expand our community of bloggers and reviewers for the forthcoming sequel. Thank you, Oh Master of Sharkiness, for this serendipitous bit of insight! I’d better find out more.

•  I emailed Netgalley and received lots of fabulous info I can use to advise my client.

So, to sum up:

• I found a resource wearing my reader/writer hat
• Got to interact with them as a publisher for my client (or at least as the duly appointed author rep.)
• And will apply all that I learned back to my reader/writer side

It’s a glimpse of the kind of decisions and interactions I hope to do with my own published material someday. *cross fingers*

Lessons fom my Day Job: Building a Platform through Relationships

Many of us are out there hitting the pavement and the blogosphere to build a following prior to publication. There’s been a significant push lately for authors to pro-actively make connections before an agent will seriously consider taking them on.

Today, I wanted to share a few insights from the PR world that might help us determine if our efforts to-date have been successful. If nothing else, these are important measures to keep in mind when connecting with readers, fellow writers and publishing contacts.

What’s your relationship status?
We often talk with clients about two main categories of relationships.

An exchange relationship: Person A does something for Person B only because B has provided benefits in the past or will do so in the future. It’s an exchange of something, for something.

A shared relationship: Person A and Person B both act out of genuine concern for the welfare of the other and value the relationship without expecting anything in return.

Exchange relationships are the most common, but shared are the strongest. You probably have a mix of both. Crit partners operate on an exchange basis, for example. You critique my stuff, I’ll critique yours.

Readers and authors have more of a shared relationship (besides the initial purchase of the book). Your readers give you reviews without expecting you to give them anything in return – they’ll join fan clubs and talk you up with their friends just because they think you’re great. And you, as the author, value reader relationships enough to offer free excerpts. You’ll probably “pay each other back” down the road, but in the meantime, you’re happy to interact with other simply because it’s fun.

For most of us at this stage, our blog readers might be our largest audience. A good goal for building that audience is to move steadily from exchange relationships to shared relationships.

Get to the Action Already!
There’s a scale we often use at work to build momentum among a given audience. It has four steps: 1) Awareness, 2) Understanding, 3) Engagement, 4) Action.

In writing terms:

Awareness
I maybe think I’ve heard you have a book.
Oh, yeah, I kinda sorta stumbled across your blog once.

Understanding
You write fantasy and I know you have a new book coming out soon.
I know what you’ve blogged about because I occasionally lurk there.

Engagement
I’ve talked to my friends about your book.
I once posted a comment on your blog.

Action
I bought your book.
I’m a blog follower and comment regularly.

The goal is to move people from Awareness to Action. You might have 1,000 people who are peripherally aware of your book or blog, but those numbers don’t matter much until you can convince your audience to go out and spend money on your book or actively support your efforts to build a larger following. The volume isn’t as important as the level of engagement.

Hope these tips are helpful!

Take a look at your audience so far. What stage in the spectrum do they fall into? And how can you move them closer to Action?

Lessons from My Day Job: Queries and Resumes

I review a lot of resumes for my day job as a public relations counselor, and in some ways, I think the experience is similar to what agents must go through when reviewing queries. Here are some observances that we, as writers, can keep in mind for the query process, too.

The Speed Test
I really can tell within about 30 seconds if an applicant has the experience and skill I’m looking for. It shouldn’t be surprising that agents can do the same with our queries.

Value of Proofreading
For the love of the written word, PLEASE proofread. It’s bad enough to see mistakes on people’s resumes, but when that “resume” is a query letter and is supposed to showcase your writing ability, it’s pretty inexcusable. Take the time to review your work correctly.

Follow-ups and Form Responses
I’m diligent about following up with everyone who sends me a resume, but I typically use a form email without specific comments. I think this gives me a unique perspective on agent rejections. I know the huge spectrum of reasons why I say “no” to candidates, so I imagine agents have a similar list and I don’t get offended by form rejections. If you don’t hear back from a company about an interview, it doesn’t stop you from applying for other jobs. Rejection shouldn’t stop you from querying either.

Things that Make You Go SPLAT
Some applicants try to think outside the box on their resumes to grab my attention. I’ve received resumes on elaborate video CDs, resumes with ribbon lacing and resumes with custom-designed testimonials from previous employers.

I once managed a “request for proposal” for a music client. The agencies that sent proposals in guitar cases thought they were being oh-so-clever…they weren’t. At least three agencies packaged them in exactly the same way, and the only thing those proposals did was take up space in our offices while we wondered what to do with the cases.

It might be tempting to show your creative side, but I’d recommend sticking with the basics and letting your writing speak for itself in your query. It’s all too easy for “creative” to turn into “annoying” or “I’ve already seen a dozen of those today.”


Hope this is helpful or at least a little encouraging for those of us wading into the murky, swirling waters of querydom. Good luck to all!