Category: tuesday tip

Whether your published or pre-published, one of the ways to get the word out about your work is to enter contests.

For those who are pre-published, contests offer a number of possible benefits. First, look for contests where you get feedback about your writing. That will help you hone your skills as a writer. Next, try to enter contests where the final round judges are editors or agents. That will get your work before people who can either acquire it or represent you so that others may acquire it. One cautionary note, avoid contests where you will be published in an anthology or other publication being printed by the party who is running the contest. You will be a “winner” and then get asked to pay for a copy of the book in which your work will appear.

You may wonder whether contests for pre-published authors ever really lead to publication. Well, one of my friends, Lois Winston, has amassed an amazing number of contest wins, both before she got published and after. The contests helped her get the word out about her work and yes, one of the contests — the American Title contest run by Romantic Times Magazine — led to her getting a publishing contract.

Now that she is published, Lois enters contests to get the word out about her published books as do many authors. The key is to look for contests where the judges are readers, booksellers or book buyers. Why? They are the ones who can influence whether or not your book makes it into a store. Also, look for contests that have established reputations in your genre or the industry in general.

Do these contests work to spread the word about your book? When I attended a convention recently, a bookseller came up to me and said that she had read one of my books as a judge in a contest. She advised that after reading the book she put me on her “To Buy” list. A very nice comment to receive, but it also shows that entering the right contests can help make a difference in your sales.

Of course, along with success in contests comes the possibility of failure and also, of conflicting opinions on your work.

Another friend and fellow author, Carolyn Martin, has recently made the finals in a couple of contests (Way to go, Carolyn!). Here’s what she had to say (FYI – m/s is shorthand for manuscript):

Here’s what I learned from entering contests, based on the
judges’ comments–sometimes in the same contest!

My dialogue is sparkling and witty.
My dialogue is flat and predictable.

My heroine is well drawn, spunky and intelligent.
My heroine is a stereotype and an “idiot.” (And that’s a direct
quote, thank you very much!)

My hero is a cardboard cutout.
My hero is a fully realized, three-dimensional human being.

My POV is too deep–it bogs down the story.
My POV is deep–it provides excellent insight into the character’s
GMC!

My m/s has simmering sexual tension.
There is no spark between my hero and my heroine.

My m/s is well researched and has great period detail.
My m/s has anachronisms that are “jarring.”

There is no sense of place.
Love the setting! So realistic!

My m/s needs work.
My m/s is ready to be published–today!

LOL, Carolyn! You’ve summed up what could happen in any contest. The important thing to remember is that much like the lottery, you can’t win it if you’re not in it. When it comes to publishing, being in the right contest can make a difference in your career.

Promo or Perish? It’s a topic I’ve talked about during several workshops and I’d like to share just some basic ideas for what you should do to get the word out about yourself if you’re either pre-published or published.

But first — my own bit of goods news! Some of you may know from reading the main site that I accepted a two-book offer from Grand Central Publishing (formerly Time Warner Books) for some new romantic suspense novels with a paranormal element. What kind of paranormal element? The heroine is a cancer victim who is developing superhuman traits as a result of a genetic engineering treatment. Worse yet, she has to battle to keep her humanity while being hunted down for a murder she did not commit! The first book will be out in 2010.

Some other good news! I’ll be doing a Silhouette Nocturne Bite as part of THE CALLING series. Silhouette Nocturne Bites are dark and sexy short stories and are available at eharlequin.com. Look for my Nocturne Bite sometime in late 2009!

Now back to today’s Tuesday Tip — Promo or Perish. If I had to list the top things an author can do to get the word out about themselves, here’s what they would be:

Whether published or not, have a website, social network page or blog where people can meet you, learn about you and reach you. Make sure to keep it current with some recent news about what’s going on with you. There’s nothing worse than visiting a page and seeing that the last time it was updated was a year ago.

There are tons of sites on the web that allow you to do press releases either for free or for a nominal cost. If something really good happens, a contest win, new contract, etc., send out a press release. Also make sure to get the contact details for local papers, television and radio stations. Local papers love featuring a “local person done good” story and those kinds of grass roots stories are wonderful.

Are you an expert on something? Can you write an article about that subject? Did you recently travel somewhere interesting or do something different? Can you write an article to share your discoveries? Of course you can! We all have interesting things that we’ve done or information that we can share. Write an article and post it to one of the many sites that will publish it on the Net. Make sure that whatever site you use let’s you keep the copyright in the article.

You have a website/blog, I have a website/blog. Let’s get together somehow. Exchange links with friends, fellow authors or sites that would be of interest in connection with what you are doing. For example, I’m on a number of romance, paranormal, vampire and Latino sites. If you’ve got a blog, do a blog tour or guest blog at someone else’s blog. Invite people to blog at your place!

Hope this helps you with getting the word out!

Copyright 2008 Caridad Pineiro Scordato www.caridad.com

My deepest apologies for not giving you a Guilty Pleasure Monday yesterday, but unfortunately a series of computer glitches at work kept me busy for the better part of the day! Yes, I do still work and write, which made me think of Today’s Tuesday Tip – Time Management.

Yes, time does get away from us in so many ways, but the one question I hear repeated often is: “How do you find the time to write since you have a full time job and a family?”

It’s not always easy since yes, I do have a full time job, hubby and daughter not to mention other important family members and friends. Then there’s the volunteer work of hosting writing groups, workshops and doing work for my local Romance Writers chapter. Lots of time taken in various ways, but here’s what I do to make sure that I find time to write and that it doesn’t get unnecessarily hectic.

1. Make a plan. You know that old adage about those who fail to plan plan to fail? It couldn’t be more true. When I’m working on a new project, I always set a deadline for myself — a reasonable deadline. I could say I’m going to set a deadline of a week, but if I don’t meet that deadline it will be depressing and start a whole negative vibe and who needs that? Life is too short to make yourself miserable so set a reasonable goal.

2. Know your schedule. When I’m taking on a new contract or planning a new project, I always look and see not only what’s already contracted, but what obligations I have with my family (vacations, trips to school) and for my lawyer job (conferences, projects, meetings). Based on that, my agent and I schedule the new delivery dates and I plan my own completion date in advance of the real date to give myself time to read and revise.

3. Use your free time effectively. I admit it — I love being a couch potato and watching television. But I’ve always been able to watch TV and do other things. In fact, doing other things keeps me from falling asleep during the shows! LOL! So, I use that couch potato time to do research, update the website, check out things to do with you on the blog, put together promo materials, etc.

4. Work on your book every day. Do I do this? Almost always, although there are days I take a break here and there (although I am almost always thinking about the book I am writing or an idea for a new book). I normally write every day on the train ride to and from work and on the weekends, I get up at 6 and put in a few hours. Sometimes I’ll write on weekend nights as well depending on my plan and the schedule.

5. Give yourself some time off. Yes, I know that sounds inconsistent give 1 through 4 above, but you do need time to recharge the creative juices and you will know when it’s time. When your mind says, OVERLOAD, take a day or two or even a week to get rid of all the excess stuff cluttering your brain so you can refocus and revitalize.

6. Find your peak creative time. Some people are better in the morning, others at night. Find when you are at your most creative and structure your writing time around that peak. I’ve found mornings are best for me and so I try to set aside those hours for writing.

7. Find your prime physical space. I have a desk in my office. I swear I do! Here’s a picture of it! What do you mean you can’t see it? It’s right there, behind my knapsack and promo stuff. To the right of the telescope. Buried beneath the mounds of paper and goodies I picked up at every conference I’ve been to in the last two years! The desk is a good place for keeping all my Buffy action figures (they are not dolls!!).

Seriously, though, you know where you are most comfortable and creative. Make that place your writing place. As you may guess, I don’t work at my desk often as that is not my comfort zone for writing. As I mentioned before, certified couch potato. I usually write on my laptop while snuggled beneath my favoritest Buffy comforter while in my sweats. Writing is so glamorous, isn’t it? VBG

So that’s how I do it. I know it sounds rough at times, but I’ve found that it works well for me. Just remember everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. Find your peak time and place. Make a plan that won’t make you miserable and try to stick to it.

Just remember, even if you write just one page a day, at the end of a year, you’ll have written a book!

One of the hardest things to understand as a new (or even established writer) is POV – Point of View.

When I wrote my first novel, I didn’t even have any idea what POV was. I had been a biology major and although I’d been writing since the fifth grade, I had never had anyone talk to me about POV. The end result was that my first completed book was 1200 pages long and in a POV that pulled the reader out of the story.

So how do you know what POV you’re using and how do you keep that POV firmly focused?

I like to use a technique that I call the POV camera. What’s the POV camera? Think of the character telling the story as a cameraman focusing a camera on the scene. That character can only see what’s happening before the camera lens. Keep that in mind as you consider the three most popular POVs in fiction, namely, Omniscient Narrator, Third Person and First Person.

What are the traits of these POVs?

• Omniscient Narrator (3rd Person): An Omniscient Narrator is someone who can see everything and comment on it. Think of the Omniscient Narrator as a cameraman perched up high up on a boom crane filming everything that’s happening down below. He says everything and can skip from one person to another and tell/see everything about them.

  With an Omniscient Narrator, there isn’t anything that is unknown. The Omniscient Narrator can tell the reader everything about everyone.

  Sounds good, right? Well, the problem is that when you tell the reader about everything, you don’t let them engage in the story. You don’t trust them to figure some things out for themselves and get involved by trying to figure it out.

To do Omniscient Narrator right is a difficult task, so I would recommend you stick to the one of the other two POVs.

• Third Person: Third Person is probably the most common POV in modern fiction today. Basically, Third Person is when one of the characters in the story is telling the tale. Because of that, think of the camera that characters would be holding and what that character would see. Those are the only things that the POV character can describe. So, that character can’t describe how they look (and please, stay away from looking in the mirror shots if at all possible!).

  Also, the POV camera can’t read the other person’s mind, so the character can’t know what the other person is thinking, they can only guess at what they are thinking.

  That helps build conflict and tension. It also allows the reader to guess at it. In addition, because you are seeing things through this character’s POV camera, you are getting to know the character by how they react to what’s happening. This builds a relationship with the character.

  In romance, we do jump to the POV of other characters, usually “head-hopping” from the hero to heroine. How do you do it right? Don’t do it too often and don’t give away too much information when you do “head-hop”. And to keep things straight, remember the POV camera and what the character can see through that lens.

Last, but not least is First Person which has become quite popular in certain genres, such as chick lit and even urban fantasy (think Anita Blake). What is First Person POV?

• First Person POV: “It’s all about me.” The “I” and nothing else. First Person is when one character is telling the entire story and uses “I” (first person singular) whenever the character is describing what’s going on.

  So, the POV camera is much like Third Person, but everything is filtered much more personally by the cameraman. Every piece of information, even that of other characters, is touched by/colored by the First Person cameraman.

  What does that create? Sometimes a greater sense of intimacy since you get to know the character very well. It can also be misleading if the First Person cameraman isn’t dealing with reality (think about using a soft focus lens on an older woman at a minimum or totally choppy and jumpy like someone wired on drugs).

  Done well, First Person can be very very effective. Done poorly, you get tired of hearing “all about me” all the time.

Personally, I really struggle with First Person. I find it very difficult to always be working in the “I” and prefer third person. I think the important thing to consider when deciding what POV to use is, which do you feel most comfortable in? You need to find you voice and what POV works best with that voice. Then you can start writing and remember — Put yourself behind the camera so you can be sure that what you’re doing is right for the POV you’ve chosen.

Good writing to you all!

Copyright 2008 Caridad Pineiro Scordato www.caridad.com