The HEA Cafe

I have a question for all you blog-savvy people out there.  Some published writers I know are thinking about creating a new blog.  The purpose, of course, is to draw in readers and get some publicity for their upcoming books.  But should they bother?  Is the blog “market” saturated?  Do people still read blogs?

Since I’m not on many blogs myself (and rarely have time to read them), I thought I would ask you:  If you read blogs, what draws you to a particular one?  What draws you back on a regular basis?  Great information?  The latest gossip?  An interesting guest blogger or a guaranteed laugh?

Or are you sick of blogs?  Do you rarely read them?  Should these writers forget a blog and move on to the next new thing?

I’d like to know.  So if you have a second to post a comment, please do!!!

I recently saw a survey online (Live Journal, November 2007) about what influenced readers to buy a book.  Of course, as an author, this interested me very much.  I don’t have much money to spend on publicity, yet I worry that if I don’t advertise or climb on the latest gimmick bandwagon (book trailers, bookmarks, My Space page, etc.), no one will buy my books. 

So here are the results of the Live Journal poll:

Question: Which of the following promotional tools has (even once) led you to purchase a book (Check as many as apply.):

1. Previous familiarity with author’s other work - 99.1%

2. Recommendation of friend - 91.1%

3. Reading about book on another person’s blog or website - 80%

4. Reading first chapter of book online or in store - 63.2%

5. Cover art - 63%

6. Cover or flap blurbs (promotional quotes) - 58.2%

7. Published (print or electronic) book review - 56.2%

8. Attending a reading or signing event with author (including a convention) - 51%

9. Bookseller or librarian recommendation - 41.8%

10. Other - 7.8%

11. Contest sponsored by author or publisher - 7.2%

12. Receiving promotional email from author - 6.3%

13. Receiving postcard in mail from author - 3.9%

14. Receiving toys or other promotional gimmicks from author - 3.5%

I have no idea how many people were polled in this survey, but I tend to agree with these results simply because they fit my own book buying profile.  Number one is absolutely true.  If I read a book and love it, I will definitely look for another book by that author.  I also agree with the lower results.  While receiving a pen or bookmark might increase my recognition of a writer’s name, I have never once bought a book because of one.

So as May approaches, and with it comes the launch of my new miniseries with Silhouette, I’m leaning towards forgetting the postcards and other promotional gimmicks, and trying to network with booksellers instead.

So what do you think?  Do you agree with these poll results?  What influences you to buy a book?

You’ve finished the book.  You’ve stopped editing and mailed it off to your editor.  Now what?  Do you celebrate?  Immediately start another?  Collapse and begin obsessively checking your email/phone messages/mailbox for the editor’s verdict?

My post-book routine has evolved over the years, but this seems to be it:  First off, I celebrate — usually with a dinner out and a good bottle of wine.  After all, writing a book is a huge accomplishment, and I want to reward myself for all that hard work.  So I take an evening, maybe even a weekend, to splurge.

I try not to obsess for at least a couple of days (I have to give the manuscript time to arrive in New York before I start wondering if my editor or agent has read it yet).  I also try not to second-guess what I wrote, wondering if I should have changed this or that scene, etc., but I have to admit that I find this hard to do.  It seems to be my nature to obsess.  About the best I can do is relegate the doubts to the back of my mind and try to ignore them.

In the meantime, as I’m trying not to obsess, I clean my office.  When I am writing, I don’t do much housework.  In fact, the dust got so bad while I was writing my latest book that not only could I blow it across my desk, but every time I sat down to write, I got an allergy attack.  (Of course, I didn’t take time to clean.  I just took an allergy pill, got out another box of tissues, and kept on writing.)

So once the book is done, I get out the dust rag, vacuum behind the desk where the dust collects, and sort through the huge piles of papers I’ve been collecting.  Then I admire my temporarily clean and nicely organized office.  And yes… since I only finish a book a couple of times a year, I have a very dusty house.  Thank goodness for allergy pills!

And then it’s back to work.  I’m happiest when I’m working on a book, so the sooner I get back to writing, the better (and I have an excuse to ignore the dust).

So how about you?  Have you developed any end-of-the-book routines?

As we all know, a writer’s job is to challenge her characters, put them in impossible situations, and really make them suffer.  That’s how we force them to change and grow.  Well, little did I know when I took a recent research trip to Peru that my experience would challenge me as much as any character in my book.

I went to Peru to do research for the second book of my upcoming miniseries for Silhouette Romantic Suspense (To Protect a Princess, coming Fall 2008).  I didn’t want to stick to the usual tourist routes; I wanted to get off the beaten track and into the remote mountain villages just as my characters do.  So I got the bright idea to spend a week with a medical missionary group working around Ayaviri, a town at nearly 13,000 feet in the Andes Mountains.

Of course, I prepared for the trip.  I read everything I could about Peru, spent weeks planning, packing, gathering supplies.  I got a slew of shots, started taking Diamox, which is a medicine that helps your body acclimate to high altitude.  Unfortunately, none of this helped.

First off, I got sunburned.  Ayaviri is a dusty, treeless place with freezing winds and brutal sun.  And I mean brutal.  My 65 SPF sunblock was useless.  Luckily, someone in our group lent me a hat to wear (I had planned to buy one there, but it turns out that Ayaviri is not exactly the place to shop, unless you are in the market for potatoes and coca leaves).  And October is “springtime” in Ayaviri, which means dressing in several sweaters, a jacket, a wool scarf, hat and gloves.  Night and day.  I froze.  I’ve never worn so many clothes to bed in my life.

And despite the medication, I immediately came down with altitude sickness.  My head throbbed constantly.  My blood oxygen level dipped to a dangerous 71%.  Walking across a room left me gasping and heaving for breath.  One of the doctors in our group had to be hospitalized and put on steroids because the fluids in his brain swelled. I escaped that fate, but the entire week I was there I felt dreadfully weak.

It didn’t help that we were “roughing it” on this trip.  We stayed in a hotel with no heat, no hot water, no towels, soap, toilet paper or mirror.  Electricity was sporadic.  Toward the end of the week, even the water completely shut off.

But like a true heroine, none of this kept me from doing my research.  Each day I staggered around with the group as we went to different villages to set up our medical clinic.  And I got lots of authentic details for my book.  The people in that area are mostly Quechua, descendants of the Inca.  Many don’t speak Spanish.  They grow potatoes and beans, sheep, cattle, alpaca, and pigs.  They live in mud-brick huts with thatched roofs and no running water, electricity, or heat.  Bathrooms consist of holes in the ground.  Women herd animals and hoe potatoes with their babies strapped in blankets on their backs.

The poverty is overwhelming.  Disease (especially caused by parasites) is rampant.  Health care is nonexistent.  Dental care consists of pulling rotten teeth.  Even the children’s cute “rosy” cheeks are thick calluses caused by the damaging sun.

So, obviously, after seeing how they live, I could hardly complain about my temporary deprivations.  So what if I had to do without heat or hot water for a week?  So what if the electricity occasionally went out?  These people went without such necessities their entire lives.

At the end of the week, my husband and I left the medical group and traveled by bus to Cuzco.  My plan was to wrap up my research by touring Machu Picchu, which I have always wanted to see.  We booked a room in a beautiful hotel which felt sinfully luxurious after our week roughing it in Ayaviri.

Unfortunately, fate had further punishments in store for me.  Not only didn’t the altitude sickness subside at the slightly lower elevation, but I came down with a violent case of traveler’s diarrhea — so bad, in fact, that I missed the tour of Machu Picchu.  I spent the entire day sitting by the baño while my husband enjoyed the tour.  I came home ten pounds lighter, and with the depressing knowledge that I lead a spoiled and pampered life.

I’m sad to conclude that I’m probably not heroine material.  If I had to face any of the disasters my characters face in my book, I would not prevail.

But despite everything, the journey really did make me grow and change.  I certainly appreciate such amenities as safe food, hot, clean water, and heat.

Will I do it again?  Maybe.  I’d like to think so.  A real heroine would.  But me?  Hmm… I’ll have to think about that for awhile…

If you’d like to see photos from my adventurous trip, you’ll find them on the EXTRAS page on my website: www.gailbarrett.com.  I hope you’ll take a look!

It’s the 19^th and I’m back, continuing with my tips about things you can do before you get published to make the transition from unpublished to published author less overwhelming.  Last month I talked about blurbs.  Today I thought I’d talk about something else that’s important: your website.

Some of you may already have a website.  I’m not going to argue about whether an unpublished writer needs one.  I didn’t have one, but that’s up to you.  But most people agree that you do need a website once you’re published.  It is arguably your most important marketing tool.  Plus you need it to look professional, evocative of your writing brand, and successful.

Even though I had already taken two online courses about websites before I sold my first book, I still spent the entire summer after I sold getting it designed.  It was an incredibly time consuming process.  So here’s what I suggest you do now (things I wish I’d done) to save yourself some time:

1. Get your domain name reserved.  If you haven’t decided on what name you’ll write under, do it now.  Then go to Go Daddy or one of the other domain registration sites and get your name reserved.  It’s very cheap and easy.  That way you won’t have to worry that someone else has taken your name when you want to start up your website.  Don’t wait.  Do it today!

2. Start looking at authors’ websites and decide what you want on yours:

• * How many pages will you have?  What will you call them?
• * Do you want the navigation buttons (the links to the pages) on the top of the main page or the side?
• * What colors will you use?  What fonts?  Your website is part of your author branding.  How do you want the public to see you?
• * What is the overall mood you want your website to evoke? Whimsical?  Suspenseful?  Romantic?  Humorous?  The mood should reflect you and your books.  Be aware that this might change as your writing evolves.  When I first had my website designed, I was writing for both Silhouette Special Edition and Intimate Moments.  I wanted an emotional, intense, but friendly look to my site.  Now I’m writing primarily romantic suspense — still emotional and intense, but edgier.  It may be time for me to make some changes to my website so that it better reflects what I write.
• * Do you want photos on your main page?  If so, start looking at free stock photos to find what you need.
• * Are you going to have animation (videos, etc.)?  Animation looks cool, but if your readers are on dial-up, they might never go to your site because it takes too long to view.
• * Are you going to design your own website?  If not, find websites you really like, then check to see who designed them.  The designer will be listed on the site somewhere.  Check their portfolios and prices.  Prices vary enormously — from hundreds to thousands of dollars.  Check around.  And some designers have waiting lists, so the sooner you know who you want to hire, the better.
• * Who will maintain your website?  There is nothing sadder than an out of date website — or worse for sales.  Can you do your own monthly updates?  If not, you need to find someone who can — reliably.  Your teenage son might have the skill and come at the right price (free), but do you really want to work your updates around his sports schedule or nag him endlessly to do it?

3.  What will bring people to your website?  Okay, your book.  But if you are a new author, hardly anyone is going to know about your book.  So how will you drive traffic to your site?  One way is to belong to an online community.  For a monthly fee, they advertise your contest, announce your awards, do your updates, send out your newsletter, post your book cover, etc.  There are lots of communities out there, such as Novel Talk or Access Romance.  Check them out, compare prices, decide if you want to go that route or not.  They offer a slew of services, so you need to start thinking about what you need.

4.  What will bring people back to your website once they’ve found it?  Will you have games?  Run a contest?  If so, what will you offer as prizes?  There are pros and cons to contests, so it deserves some thought.  What else can you put on your website to make people come back?  Articles you’ve written?  Links to other sites?  A blog?

5.  What happens if you go a long time between sales?  How will you make yourself still look busy and successful?  What content can you add to enhance your professional image? 

Creating a website takes a lot of work.  It’s fun, but time consuming.  And even after you’ve designed it, you need to keep it updated, add content, work on drawing readers to it, create the impression of success. 

But the good news is that once you design your website, you can use the same design for your newletter, My Space page, business cards, and so on.

And remember - no matter what you do, look professional.  If you can design and maintain your own website, fabulous.  You will save a lot of money.  But make sure you are projecting the professional image you want editors, agents, and readers to see.

Bottom line: start now.  Do the legwork now before you need to launch your website.  You’ll be so glad you did.

I hope this helps.  I’ll be out of town when this posts, so if you’ve got questions, I’ll answer later this month.

gail