The HEA Cafe

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

Part of the legacy of growing up in a small, midwestern town is that I had a strong work ethic drilled into me from an early age.  So when I signed up to blog here on the 19^th of every month, my first question was – what useful thing could I blog about?  What could I say that might be of interest to other writers? 

So I decided to talk about some of the things you can do BEFORE you’re published to make the transition from unpublished to published writer easier — things I wish I’d done.  Because once I got “the call,” my life changed.  It was a great change, of course, but it came fast.  Suddenly I had to deal with all sorts of issues I never worried about before: publicity and promotion, back cover blurbs, book signings, marketing, branding.  Did I need bookmarks?  A book trailer?  Did I have to advertise?  Hire a publicist?  The list was endless and overwhelming.  I felt panicked and lost.  Even worse — I lost valuable writing time as I dealt with these suddenly pressing issues.

 Not that there is an easy answer to these questions.  A lot depends on the type of book you sell (category or single title) and your budget.  But there are still plenty of things everyone can do to prepare for life after “the call” and make the transition to published writer smoother.

So that’s what I figured I’d blog about — helpful tips for the pre-published.  In other words, how you can learn from my mistakes.  Today I’ll start out with a basic sales tool — marketing blurbs. 

You might already have these.  I didn’t.  They are hard to write, so I ignored them (big sigh).  Your life after the sale will be easier if you write blurbs in the following lengths:

A one-sentence blurb.  This is your elevator pitch (what you say when you have 15 seconds to explain what your book is about).  It should be short, exciting, intriguing.  Before you sell, you can use it in query letters and pitches.  Afterward, you can use it on bookmarks, in advertisements, on your website, postcards — basically any place you promote your book.  So make it good!

One and two-paragraph blurbs.  I was surprised one afternoon after “the call” when my editor emailed and asked for a two-paragraph summary of my book that she could send to the senior editor — and she needed it within the hour!  Of course, I didn’t have one, which threw me into a total panic.  So be prepared.  This is basically the back-cover copy.  I suggest having both one and two-paragraph versions prepared.  You can use these blurbs in advertisements, on promotional materials, and on your website.  Think hooks!  I now write these blurbs before I write the story to make sure that I’ve got a marketable book.  And I put them at the top of my synopsis as a lead-in to the story itself.

The short (one to two page) synopsis (oh, dread, dread).  Seriously, you need this, even after the sale.  If you sell to Harlequin/Silhouette, for example, you have to fill out something online called the Art Fact Sheet, which they use for both the cover art and overseas sales. Included in that Art Fact Sheet is a short synopsis that overseas buyers will glance at to decide if they want to buy your book.  Other editors in your publishing house might read the synopsis to get an idea of what the book is about.  Your future editor might use it to pitch your book in-house to get you that sale.  So while it isn’t fun to write, it has to be done.

 One more thing — put effort into these blurbs.  You really want them to be snazzy.  They will (or won’t!) sell your book.  You can take online courses to learn how to write them (Suzanne McMinn offers a great one).  Or collect bookmarks and study back cover copy to see how it’s done.  Either way, it’s worth getting them right.

So these are my first tips.  Have your blurbs ready.  I hope this helps!  More on the 19^th of next month!

Gail Barrett

Heart of a Thief - Book One of The Crusaders miniseries, coming May 2008 from Silhouette Romantic Suspense

www.gailbarrett.com