The HEA Cafe

Archive for the ‘Chit Chat’ Category

I found this great article through Goodreads yesterday.  It’s something that should be broadcast over the Net. What you write there ALWAYS COUNTS. –Lyn

Online Badmouthing Can Cause A Writer Their Career. Don’t Do It!
Author: Stacy-Deanne

The Internet is a wonderful thing for writers. It gives us information and makes research available to us within minutes. It is also a portal to misconceptions, lies and viciousness when used the wrong way. These days more writers, especially aspiring ones are running to the Internet with their disgruntled feelings and broken hearts. It seems very harmless to talk about your latest experience with a literary agent on Twitter or to blog about your somewhat negative brush with a publisher at this year’s BEA, but it’s not harmless at all. Badmouthing people on the Internet is not as “safe” as you think. Even if you’re posting anonymously. There are many reasons and examples why not to do it.

I don’t know why people think that talking about someone on the net is safe. Why do you think that the target of your venom won’t find out? If you do then you’re living in a fantasy world. Out of all the people who are badmouthed in the industry, agents are the number one targets. Some writers despise agents to the point of tearing down their characters and devoting entire blog posts on how they feel about an agent. Be warned, the agent will find out one way or another. People think agents do not search the net. They do. They are busy people but they search the net from time to time and mostly, they Google themselves just to see where their name leads them. If you speak about them on any portion of the net, Google Alerts lets them know immediately. Do not do it.

How do I know? Well, I have Google Alerts myself and I love it. Any time someone writes my name down or one of the names of my books on the net, I get an email informing me. I started Google Alerts after I found out I’d been the target of a two-faced book reviewer. I googled myself one night and came upon a book review blog where people were discussing recent books. One person left a not-so-flattering review of my recent novel. That didn’t bother me. I am an author. I expect to get all kinds of reviews. What bothered me was the person who wrote it. This had been the same person who praised my book on other sites, saying it was one of the best of the year. Yet on this site I lucked up on, she’d said it was the worst she’d read of the year. Hmm, I didn’t understand it. It hurt a little because if you claim to like a book, why turn around and say you didn’t? I realize some reviewers have motives. Some reviewers do not review books just for the fun of it or to educate the public. Some actually review to tear down books. It’s not something I understand and these fake reviewers give real book reviewers a bad name.

So what did I do about it? I did the professional thing and left it alone. I didn’t email the woman and I didn’t confront her. It confused the heck out of me and I discussed it with some of my friends who shook their heads too. But as far as contacting the lady, I left it alone. I am smart enough to know that contacting a reviewer is only asking for trouble. If she could badmouth my book like she did then she could easily do more damage if I’d contacted her. My point is that you should keep your negative comments to yourself. As you can see, when you talk about someone, they will find out. Agents and publishers have many friends in the industry. These friends might read something you’ve written and report it. The agent’s loved ones could find your rant and do the same thing. It is much more serious than people believe.

Authors have lost book contracts because of their behavior about their publishers and agents. Some go beyond blogging and choose to badmouth their agents/publisher at conferences and festivals to other professionals. And guess how the info gets back to the person? Through the same professionals you sprouted off to. Twitter is the most damaging thing that can happen to an author or aspiring writer if they use it negatively. Authors are using Twitter to bully book reviewers and to “warn” writers about various agents they’ve worked with or were rejected by. Authors form online cliques and use these groups as a way to harass anyone who has said anything bad about their books. They go as far as putting people’s personal information online or anything else to embarrass or threaten the target’s wellbeing. I don’t care if you’re published or not, this behavior is never acceptable. If you have problems with an agent or publisher, be professional and take it up with them in private. If you have a problem with a book reviewer, you can email them but I wouldn’t. Book reviewers have a right to their opinions. Even unfair reviews have a right to be read. An author’s unreasonable and childish antics would hurt their career and sales more than any bad book review. Remember that everything you do on the net is visible. The writing world is too big of a place to take the chance.

Resist the urge to badmouth. Most times, if you feel the need to badmouth than the issue is not that serious. Every agent isn’t going to want to represent you. Every publisher isn’t going to be the greatest one you’ve worked with. Every author isn’t going to be your friend. Every book reviewer isn’t going to give you a glowing review or be fair about it. But just like you have the choice on how you want to use the net for your career, others do too. This is a big world and the Internet has made it even more gigantic. There are no such things as secrets online. If you don’t know this, it could cost you the chance of a lifetime.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/writing-articles/online-badmouthing-can-cause-a-writer-their-career-dont-do-it-1012088.html

About the Author:

Stacy-Deanne is a best selling author and novelist. She’s been in the writing industry for twelve years. She is a novelist with Simon and Schuster. Stacy was featured in 2006′s “Literary Divas: The Top 100+ Most Admired African-American Women in Writing”. She was born, raised and resides in Houston, Texas. You can visit her sites to learn more about her and her books.

http://www.stacy-deanne.net
http://www.myspace.com/stacydeanne

I didn’t do this deliberately, but having the 4th of each month as my regular blog day means every year I get to write a Fourth of July blog.  And I like that.[g]

I was listening Friday to Morning Edition on NPR, as I do most mornings.  They followed a long standing ritual of having their anchors and correspondents read the Declaration of Independence.  It was fun picking out the voices I knew–Daniel Shor, Nina Totenberg, Sylvia Poggioli and all the various anchors of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.  That was special fun for me because I used to be a news director/anchor on the radio, and even now, decades later, older residents of my town recognize my voice.  When I’m in the grocery people will hear me and say, “Didn’t you use to be so-and-so who did the news on WGGG?”, which is nice after all these years away from the microphone.

Anyway, something struck me as I listened to the NPR correspondents read the Declaration of Independence aloud.  The richness of the words contained in that document.  So many of us neglect to take the time to read our country’s historic documents, even though as writers words are our tools.  You’re missing something if you don’t.  Maybe it bored you in junior high civics class, but as an adult and as a writer you should have a greater appreciation for the clarity of the writing of our Founding Fathers, the care with which they chose the words they would pass down to us more than 200 years later.

For example, did you know that Section Eight of the US Constitution authorizes Congress to “… grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal…”?  This means Congress can authorize individuals to be privateers, and someday I may write that thriller  about Congress authorizing a post-9/11 privateer to hunt down terrorists.  Oh sure, there are now international treaties outlawing privateering (and incidentally, the US signed on very late to that–after the Civil War), but this is the constitution.  If I wanted to, I’m sure I could work out the details.

Anyway (again), the point of this rambling blog post is this:  It’s the Fourth of July.  If you’re an American, be proud!  Read your Declaration of Independence. Enjoy the shiver it sends down your spine when you think about these individuals pledging ” our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” so that you can live today in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  Had they lost, they would have been drawn-and-quartered or hanged as traitors to the Crown. They chose their words carefully.  Maybe they had a premonition that 200 years later we would be reading them, and saying “Thank you.”

My baby came two weeks early. She measured eight and a half inches long and weighed fourteen and a half ounces. Completely caught off guard by her early arrival, I was nonetheless totally in love the moment I saw her face.

 

I’d just gotten home from an errand when the brown stork, commonly referred to as UPS, pulled up outside. My husband answered the door, took the delivery, and handed it off to me. “What’d'ya order?”

The package was book size but I hadn’t ordered anything recently. I shrugged and tore the cardboard open.

 

And there she was. My first print novel. Operation Sheba, in the flesh. Or in the paper, as the case may be.

 

I wrote the first version of Sheba after the towers fell. It was my way of coping with a world gone mad. Creating a fictional world where good guys won and brought justice to the world gave me back a sense of control and from then on I was hooked. Spies took over my imagination, invaded my dreams and monopolized every free moment I had.

 

In the past eight years, I raised twins, rewrote Sheba twice, hired an agent, fired an agent, moved my family to another town and lost a dear pet. A couple friends departed and a bunch more showed up. While Sheba was making the rounds to agents and editors, I completed several more full length novels and a couple of novellas.

 

And then, last year, I sold.

 

Sheba came out first in eformat last September. It was a thrilling moment for me to see my baby with a cover and ISBN number, which was sort of like an ultrasound. I could see it, see the sales and good reviews, but I still couldn’t actually put my hands on it.

 

Nothing can compare to holding your print book in your hands. Just like you count the fingers and toes of a real baby, you flip through the pages, reread the reviews and pause for long moments at the title page, soaking it in. You put it on a special shelf and stare at it with a goofy smile on your face. You talk to it, smooth its cover. and hug it to your chest.

 

I wonder if the next book will get such special treatment. Will these feelings ever get old? Or will subsequent books be special in their own ways, just like kids?

 

I don’t have those answers yet, but I sure look forward to finding out.

 

 

Harlequin Romance Author Betty Neels, My Example

Have you ever read a Betty Neels’ Harlequin Romance? I challenge anyone to read a Betty Neels Harlequin Romance and not find it entertaining and uplifting. One of my favorite books of hers is Waiting for Deborah, a book in which she stretched her writing in many new ways.
http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Deborah-Betty-Readers-Choice/dp/0373512570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244502508&sr=1-1

Other titles that demonstrate Betty’s kind of romance: A Good Wife, An Innocent Bride, Heaven is Gentle and Discovering Daisy. Drop by www.eharlequin.com and enter her name in the Search window and you’ll find that her romances are still selling out!

The funny part is that Betty Neels never set out to be a novelist. A retired nurse,  Betty overheard someone in her local library bemoan the lack of good romance novels. So she wrote one, her first Harlequin romance Sister Peters in Amsterdam in 1969.

Betty wrote charming stories about heroines who were honest and quietly self-assured without being showy. Betty’s heroes are always the Strong Silent Type, masterful men usually with ties to Holland. Betty herself was married to a Dutch doctor if my memory serves me.

In June of 2001, Betty passed away in her nineties  after writing for Harlequin continuously from 1969– penning a total of 134 Harlequin Romances. Harlequin and the world lost a good solid novelist.

Fortunately her romances remain. I hope that at the end of my career, I will leave the legacy that Betty Neels did–good stories about real people that lift readers’ spirits in a genuine way.

I like writing in the winter.  There’s something about the crispness in the air that galvanizes my muse.  That, and the lack of humidity.  In the winter I can take my laptop out onto my Florida porch and look at all my flowers in bloom, and gloat over how my colleagues up North are buried under snow.  In the summer, I’m out for brief periods in the morning and at sunset, because in between it’s just too, too oppressive.

But you still have to write, no matter what the weather.  I meet people all the time who tell me they want to write a book, and every time I have to bite my tongue.  My automatic response is, “Well, why don’t you?”  I’ve learned though that sometimes folks just don’t get it.  The only way to be a writer is to sit down and write.  The only way to get published is to finish the manuscript.  The only way to finish the manuscript is to keep plunking it out, one word after the other.

That’s all I’ve got today.  But even though I didn’t feel like writing, I sat down this morning and plunked it out, one word after the other.  It’s not perfect, and it’s not finished, but eventually it’s going to be a novel.  Then I’ll be able to lie out in the hammock (at least for an hour or two) and enjoy summertime the way it was meant to be enjoyed.