Tag: After the Sucker Punch

‘Share Stories About YOU’: Advice From a Twitter Follower

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized2 Comments
Little LDW...waiting for the cows to come home.
Little LDW…waiting for the cows to come home.

Self-promotion. It’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? 

It doesn’t matter whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram; it makes no difference if you’re famous, not famous, flinging commentary, sharing jokes; promoting books, movies, restaurants, mascara lines, or family pictures, everyone’s in on it. The rushing, churning, never-ending flow of information being pushed, shoved, bandied, and sometimes battered online. 

I regularly scroll through my Twitter feed and am amazed at the sheer volume of information rolling down the screen: this or that meant to snag my curiosity enough to make a click that leads to a link that, hopefully, compels a read, a retweet, or, most desirous, a purchase. It reminds me of those street bazaars where you wander through narrow aisles of merchandise as sellers wave items and hawk their wares in a rush of cacophony…or those scenes in movies where cars get stuck in traffic to be bombarded by rowdy street kids chattering over each other for a hand out. Frankly, it’s exhausting.

And I’m right in there with the best of ’em.

Yep, like every other self-whatever, I’m jostling along with the crowd, jumping up and down in earnest effort to grab attention for my work. Why? Well, first of all, because it’s worthy, and second of all…we have to. It’s what you gotta do to be viable in today’s world. It’s mandated by the “welcome to your self-career” handbook. 

But, despite business need and protocol, what you discover when you become part of that hand-waving, ware-hawking, book-bandying horde, is that you sometimes feel akin to a polyester-sweating used car salesman dangling bizarre freebies in hopes of closing a sale (“Buy today and we’ll throw in a toaster!!”). I know it’s part of the gig—dear God, I know it’s part of the gig—which is why I’m delighted to be working with a publicist in launching my upcoming novel, Hysterical Love. But beyond that thrilling collaboration, to the more day-to-day, “takin’-it-to-the-streets” stuff, damn if I don’t covet my own full-time carnival barker! 

Today was one of those days. So I posted this Tweet:

“Sincere question: what kind of tweets make you chk out a book? Cover? Blurb? Quote? I see so many & wonder what works. Feedback appreciated.”

And the first, almost immediate, response was:

“The WRITER! Share stories about YOU…”

Fascinating. I can’t say I’d have thought sharing stories about me was a particularly welcomed way to interest potential readers—what with our many unwelcomed narcissistic cultural trends—but I got the meaning. And it was appreciated.

Because, though I’m not shy, I do tend to steer away from anything that blares of self-trumpeting. I’d always rather talk about you than about me. And I’d certainly rather talk about the work than share personal anecdotes. When I spent my time years ago writing two-four articles a day for various publications, I figured people learned enough about me via my politics, my views, my philosophy; my take on things. Even now, I still write the selective essay that offers my perspective to anyone paying attention. But beyond what is gleaned from all that jabbering, I’m not much of a self-promoter. I’ve never taken or posted a “selfie” (and won’t); any travel pics I put up are usually bereft of images of me, and I’m not much compelled to participate in TBT. I will share special events or notable information related to my work, but, really… is there that much about ME that’s pertinent to selling my books?

Beyond my quick-commenting Tweeter, a business-savvy friend of mine says “yes.” She concurred that people want to get a sense not only of the book (movie, restaurant, mascara line) they might choose to enjoy, but of the person who created it. Which, okay, I’ll concede: considering how much I myself enjoy the interesting interview with people I find interesting, point taken.

So in a nod to my responding Tweeter, I offer this little anecdote…yes, about me! 

Though I was born in Chicago, I grew up in a tiny farm town in Illinois—Richmond (does every state have a town named Richmond?)—and when I was a little girl, my father threw out our TV and demanded we spend our free time reading books. He’d bring home boxes from the Chicago library and, despite my true annoyance at not being able to imbibe in Saturday morning cartoons and the like, getting those boxes was like a never-ending literary Christmas. It did, no doubt, have much to do with sparking my love affair with words and writing.

My favorite writer during that period? Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her books transported me to a time and place I could actually see, touch, and feel. As a young country girl surrounded by prairies myself, I became part of that big, frontier family she chronicled. It was a transformative experience. She later became an inspiration as both a tenacious female author, and one who didn’t have success until later in life, two things to which I  can relate!

And, this last fact might intrigue you: the same father who encouraged my passion for reading was also the one whose enigmatic journals incited the story behind AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH… 

There. How’s that? A little something about me. I hope my Tweeting friend enjoys it! And maybe I’ll try it again some time… you never know, this could be fun! 🙂

[Btw, the photo at the top is a favorite of mine from our days in Richmond; one day—either before or after that shot was taken—a cow rambled by that same swing set without much notice of me and my siblings playing in our scruffy back yard! Gotta love the country!]  
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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

How We Find Our Stories and What Sparked Mine: AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Latest Thoughts2 Comments

Meeting with Readers

Do we write for ourselves or for our readers? Do we write what we think will sell, what might get us the most attention, or what we’re compelled to write? All fair questions, particularly given the challenges of marketing a book, specifically an indie book, in an ever-changing industry.

A colleague of mine, quite the brilliant writer, spoke with me recently on the topic, specifically about “fan fiction,” that ubiquitous genre that has unleashed vampires, zombies, paranormal lovers, and whip-yielding CEOs on an eager reading public. In his weariness at the uphill climb of promoting literary fiction (my genre, as well), my friend asked if I thought I could ever write a “genre” book, for no other reason than to tap into the trend and hopefully hit the mother lode. I thought about it. I mean, if you used a pseudonym, if you created an alter ego, why not?

Because I couldn’t do it. Not because I’m above such things, but because the Muse that compels me to write, to sit down at the computer and tap into something ephemeral and demanding and propulsive, has to be sparked by the Idea That Must Be Written. For me, that happens rarely and only with stories I’m moved by, stories I’d want to read myself, stories I feel contribute something of depth and value to the world. They don’t have to be dirges, certainly humor is a big part of my style, but they’ve got to tap into something meaningful. For me. Nothing against vampires—if I had a vampire story that tickled my brain to the point that I had to write it, I would—but I cannot imagine finding the mental, emotional, and creative energy to write a “trend-tap” story in hopes of going viral.

Could you? How do writers find their stories? What does move most authors to do the work, take the steps, dedicate the time to complete a novel? 

Fact is, I wasn’t sure I’d ever write a novel… of any kind! It seemed so large and looming, that process, particularly after years of writing screenplays with their 120-page formats and mandate to move the story along with just visuals and dialogue. That was certainly its own challenge and skill set, but it couldn’t approach the depth and breath of an 80K-100K+ word novel! And I never felt I had a story deep enough to compel the novel format… until After The Sucker Punch came to me.

ATSP has gone global... now being read in Greece in by Marina Terzopoulos!

Some of you are familiar with the story: a thirty-six-year-old woman—ex-rocker, lapsed Catholic, defected Scientologist, and fourth in a family of eight complicated people—finds her father’s journals on the night of his funeral and discovers he thought she was a failure. The journal she reads is ten-years-old, there are others that may offer more contemporary, less denigrating, opinions, but the impact of knowing he’d ever dismissed and mischaracterized her struggles, her successes, her relentless quest to achieve her goals, is shattering… a “sucker punch.” As the title suggests, the story follows her journey as she goes from reeling at the information to attempting to make sense of it, getting beyond it to rebuild her sense of self, her view of her family and childhood, and certainly her understanding of her father.

It was a story sparked by a real incident: My own father wrote journals and, many years after his death, one was brought to my attention that was particularly focused on me in a somewhat, shall we say, critical way. I had my understandable reaction, but since I’d had a fairly distant relationship with my father throughout my adult life, his retrospective critique, while hurtful, was not, for me, particularly life shattering. It was only when I brought it up in a women’s group I was in at the time that I realized how painfully and provocatively the incident translated to others: The women in the group were collectively horrified; the variety and intensity of their responses was fascinating, most exclaiming that such an indictment from their own fathers, particularly posthumously, would have left them devastated. Suddenly this seemed like a story worthy of novel treatment! 

My enthusiasm stirred, I then took the prompt – “how would you feel if you found your father’s journal and he said you were a failure?” – to a number of others, both men and women, and accrued a panoply of replies on all sides of the spectrum. From there, so excited about the depth and variety of what I was hearing, I began to piece my story together, dug deeper to go beyond the “inciting incident” to explore issues that resonated with many of the people I spoke to: love, relationships, religion, careers, how we frame success, how we define ourselves, etc. 

At that point I had the arc, created a plot, fleshed out characters informed by my research, and became driven to write that narrative, with those characters, and the very specific ending they all led me to. It was an exciting, exhilarating, creative process…

Lining up for a book signing.
Lining up for a book signing.

… and the only way I can write a novel: relentlessly pushed by my Muse to tell that specific story. Literary fiction? Not genre? Won’t necessarily bring in the hordes,  go viral, inspire a rabid fan base? So be it. But I guarantee, whoever lines up to purchase my book, whoever clicks a buy button, whoever goes to a bookstore to find it on a shelf, will find a narrative told with passion, imbued with heart, and reflective of people and experiences that have moved me. And will, I hope, move them as well!

How do you find your stories, fellow writers?     

Reading Photographs by Tom Amandes

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

Falling Into HYSTERICAL LOVE: the New Book Cover Makes Its Debut

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized4 Comments

HL front cover

When you ponder the task of writing a novel, the idea alone seems to come with certain cultural longing, the sense that everyone with a love of words has had the urge to do the same. Write a novel, that is. Some talk about it, some have tried and failed, some have worked hard and succeeded; even the phrase, “the great American novel,” is an embedded part of our national lexicon. Writing a novel seems to be an almost mystical journey, a creative vision quest filled with trials and terrors, but still, and always, a goal of profound eminence.

And it is. It really is. It’s a singularly stellar experience, a creative process I seriously love, and one I’ve had the good fortune to experience twice (so far), first with my debut novel, After the Sucker Punch, and, most recently, with the completion of my latest, soon to be released, Hysterical Love, publication date, April 7, 2015. I’m excited to introduce the book with the colorful prelude above, the cover designed by Grace Amandes, who also created the evocative cover of After The Sucker Punch.

My publicist, Julie Schoerke of JKSCommunications enjoying an advanced read!
My publicist, Julie Schoerke of JKSCommunications, enjoying an    advanced read of Hysterical Love!

I’m sharing this with you now, so many months ahead of the pub date, because this go-around I’m working with a top-notch publicity company, JKSCommunications, whose team, led by the indefatigable Julie Schoerke, is currently rolling out a robust pre-launch campaign to get this new book properly and prominently introduced, launched, and promoted. As in indie writer, it’s exciting (even comforting) to have a team of highly skilled, warmly accessible, and incredibly enthusiastic professionals getting in the trenches with me, a place that tends to be lonely for those of us publishing on the path considered “non-traditional.” I’m delighted to have their collaboration and guidance, and certainly the shared intent to make Hysterical Love a smashing success in all the ways it can be.

Towards that end, the book is currently available as a preorder at both Amazon and Smashwords; you’re all invited to jump to the front of the line to sign up for your copy! 🙂

(And for those interested, the paperback will be set up for preorders soon…stay tuned.)

Now that you’ve met the cover, the publicity team, and the preorder links, let me tell you a bit about the story. It is, in some ways, a bookend to After The Sucker Punch: though very different stories told from very different points of view, both involve adult children reading the written words of a father and being propelled on a journey of a personal and/or transformative nature as a result. Here’s HL‘s synopsis:

Dan McDowell, a thirty-three-year-old portrait photographer happily set to marry his beloved Jane, is stunned when a slip of the tongue about an “ex-girlfriend overlap” of years earlier throws their pending marriage into doubt and him onto the street. Or at least into the second bedroom of their next-door neighbor, Bob, where Dan is sure it won’t be long.

It’s long.

His sister, Lucy, further confuses matters with her “soul mate theory” and its suggestion that Jane might not be his… soul mate, that is. But the tipping point comes when his father is struck ill, sparking a chain of events in which Dan discovers a story written by this man he doesn’t readily understand, but who, it seems, has long harbored an unrequited love from decades earlier.

Incapable of fixing his own romantic dilemma, Dan becomes fixated on finding this woman of his father’s dreams and sets off for Oakland, California, on a mission fraught with detours and semi-hilarious peril. Along the way he meets the beautiful Fiona, herbalist and flower child, who assists in his quest, while quietly and erotically shaking up his world. When, against all odds, he finds the elusive woman from the past, the ultimate discovery of how she truly fit into his father’s life leaves him staggered, as does the reality of what’s been stirred up with Fiona.

But it’s when he returns home to yet another set of unexpected truths that he’s shaken to the core, ultimately forced to face who he is and just whom he might be able to love.

Hysterical Love offers a deft mix of humor and drama in a whip-smart narrative told from the point of view of its male protagonist, exploring themes of family, commitment, balancing creativity, facing adulthood, and digging deep to understand the beating heart of true love.

More as we go…!

PREORDERS: Amazon & Smashwords

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

My Early Christmas Present: the B.R.A.G. Medallion For After The Sucker Punch

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized
All gussied up with a B.R.A.G. Medallion!
All gussied up with a B.R.A.G. Medallion!

One of the most challenging aspects of being an indie author is the sheer volume of tasks related to marketing your own book. What traditionally published authors look to their publishers to offer, or at least implement, in terms of promotion and marketing, indie authors do all by their lonesome, unless they are fortunate enough to be able to work with a publicist (which I’ll be doing on my next book!). And given the staggering number of books flooding the self-publishing marketplace (reportedly 500,000 in just the US in 2013), finding ways to get your book pulled out of the rumbling pack is a tug-of-war like no other!

So when you get a boost from a group, an organization, that is not only well-regarded in the publishing industry, deeply involved in promoting self-published authors, and very selective about the books it chooses to award their prestigious B.R.A.G. Medallion, you feel a little bit like Christmas came early. Which is how I felt when I got the news this week that my debut novel, After The Sucker Punch, has been selected for a Medallion.

IndieBRAG was founded by Founder and President, Geraldine Clouston, with a mission statement to “to recognize quality on the part of authors who self-publish both print and digital books.” From author Alison Morton’s interview with Ms. Clouston at Roma Nova:

One fearsome, but in a way reassuring, statistic is that IndieBRAG rejects 90% of books that it considers. Not quite two years old, it already has an excellent reputation as a serious “Guardian at the Gate”. At the recent Self-Published Book Expo in New York, IndieBRAG presented an authoritative report on self-publishing and was the only panel out of 17 filmed by C-SPAN’s Book TV

What is the background to you starting IndieBRAG?
Several years ago my husband and I attended the Self-Publishing Book Expo in New York City for the first time. We were, of course, not surprised to find many self-published authors at the Expo who were looking for help. However, we were surprised to discover that after these authors had published their books very few of them knew what to do next. We quickly realized that with the explosion of self-publishing, it is very hard for an indie author to get any attention for their book. And more to the point, given that much of what is self-published is not worth a reader’s time or money, it is a major challenge for a good self-published book to rise above the rest.

Tell us about your process for evaluating self-published work.
After a book is nominated through our website it is subjected to a rigorous selection process. This entails an initial screening to ensure that the author’s work meets certain minimum standards of quality and content. If it passes this preliminary assessment it is then read by members drawn from our reader group. We have over 150 readers in 11 countries who regularly read self-published books for us. They judge the merits of the book based on a comprehensive list of criteria, the most important of which is whether or not they would recommend it to their best friend. If a book meets our high standards, we award it our B.R.A.G. Medallion and present it on our website.

There are two important things to note about our process- First, we are not agents, literary experts, or publishers. We are simply ordinary people who are passionate about reading books; the same people who buy books. And second, we do not permit any contact between our readers and authors, or other readers. This gives the reader an opportunity to make a decision without any undue influence from anyone.

[To read the read of the interview, click here.]

I’m not only deeply honored to have my book in such good company, I’m delighted to be part of a “family” so passionately focused on independent authors putting out excellent work and raising the bar on what can be expected from artists working outside the traditional publishing paradigm. It’s encouraging to me as an individual author and it’s empowering to the entire indie movement. Suffice it to say, I’m thrilled!

I encourage you to go to the IndieBRAG site not only to check out my page, but to view and explore the work of the many other  authors who’ve been selected for this distinguished honor. I know many of you are avid readers always looking for the best in books  to add to your libraries; IndieBRAG is a great place to find titles that have been carefully vetted and selected with the highest standards in mind.

Thank you, IndieBRAG, for honoring my book. A very Merry Christmas to you too!

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

Mark Barry of Green Wizard Publishing Has Some Words About AFTER THE SUCKER PUNCH

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized2 Comments

GW publishing

When I cyber-met Mark Barry, UK author/blogger/publisher @ Green Wizard Publishing, via another very thoughtful writer I shared some appreciation for in The Kindness of Strangers… Meet Brenda Perlin. I had no idea I was meeting one of the most enthusiastic and passionate lovers of the written word to be found on this planet. But this quickly became evident, particularly after he invited me to participate in an interview for his dedicated author/interview site, The Wizard’s Cauldron, and I had the pleasure of corresponding with him across the pond and over a very fun and thorough set of questions (A Whizbang Interview with Author and Book Blogger Wiz Green).

At the time he was in the midst of reading my short story, “She Tumbled Down,” and promised to get to my novel, After The Sucker Punch, as soon as he was able. Which was delightfully soon, considering how busy this guy is. I say “delightfully” because Mark did that thing every writer loves when someone’s reading their book: he sent emails during and throughout his read, exclaiming over bits he liked, sharing thoughts on various characters and plot twists, assuring me that, when he was done, he would write a proper review. He and I did share some thoughts about the review conundrum (bracingly discussed in OK, Let’s Discuss This Whole Book Review Thing… Please), and I made him swear on a stack of indie novels that whatever he wrote, it would be his authentic opinion, good, bad, or in-between (I made the pact in return, given his status as a fellow author whose books I’ll read).

Of course, this sort of promise is always a dicey thing, something every reader of indie novels (and even some traditional novels) knows. You pick up the book of someone you’ve met in a writer’s group, a book club, online, or at a convention, and you do so with a certain gnawing fear that you’ll discover, sentences into the thing, that writing a review is either going to be a painful process or something you’ll eschew all together for the sake of the friendship. So when you make that pact with someone directly, well… there’s no turning back, is there?

So when I got the news today that Mark’s review had posted, I approached it with bracing fortitude, hoping for the best but, mostly, wanting Mark to have felt comfortable enough to stay true to his word, no matter how the reading experience transpired. And I couldn’t have been more thrilled, pleased, delighted, honored, and really touched by what he had to say.

I’m leaving the whole review here, because I loved the depth with which he analyzed the narrative and shared his perspective. However, I have left the links to his sites above and below, so you can check them from time-to-time for his ongoing reviews and updates about his own work.

Thank you, Mark Barry, for being such an unabashed supporter of the literary arts… and those of us who love painting our creative pictures with them!

ASTP Nottingham Library Lorraine
Wiz Green and ATSP at the Nottingham Library

After The Sucker Punch: A Review

After The Sucker Punch (ATSP) is a fantastic novel.

I’m writing this because I know most of my readers are always on the lookout for a good book – and ATSP is a very, very good book.

The Context

I met the novel’s author, Lorraine Devon Wilke, two weeks ago through a lovely friend of mine, Orange County’s Brenda Perlin. A resident of LA, Lorraine came around the interview Cauldron to widen her exposure to a UK audience.

Out of respect, Lorraine made a gift to me of both her novel and short story “She Tumbled Down” and while I loved the short story, the novel is something else entirely.

An Indie novel, it is definitely in the top ten of the books (Trad or Indie), I have read (which is a fair number) since I started Green Wizard.

After reading twelve chapters on Kindle, I immediately logged on to Amazon and like some literary Victor Kiam, I bought the paperback.

I am glad I did. It is a magnificent paperback indeed.

The Paperback

I teach the odd hour of Creative Writing and Self Publishing, and last night, I took the paperback of ATSP to our latest group to demonstrate how to structure dialogue.

The group I teach are professionals, experienced diarists, bloggers, report writers who wish to learn about e-publishing and between them, they read 100-200 books a year.

Not one of them could tell that this was a self-published book.

Printed by Createspace and professionally edited, it is a beautiful piece of work to hold in your hand. ATSP would not be out of place in Waterstones (and, without getting political, it makes a total nonsense of the idea that self-published work is somehow inferior. Saying so would be an insult to this novel and its creative team).

The Review

ATSP is a family saga. Tessa, a dreamy, thirty-something, sometime artist/writer/drifter with aspirations to something better than her current humdrum life, attends the funeral of her father, Leo.

After the Wake, and while staying at her mother’s house, she reads one of his many journals.

What Leo wrote is so shocking, it changes Tessa’s life and the lives of everyone in her extended family.

Four factors mark Lorraine’s brilliant debut as something special.

Firstly, her characters. Each so individual, so distinctive and so well defined, you can tell who is talking without the character being named. That’s no mean feat. Secondly, the dialogue is crisp, sassy and real, patter so realistic, you can hear it taking place. Thirdly, the way Lorraine links and merges the historical comments Tessa reads in the journal into the real time narrative is shrewd and repays rereading.

Then, finally, there is Tessa herself, the novel’s protagonist. You may not like her – two days after completing the novel, I am completely ambivalent about her * – but she is real and you can follow her train of reasoning at all times.

None of her behaviour is extranormal and you can imagine doing the same things she does (and that’s not a necessarily recommendation).

You watch her progress and change. You understand her one minute, then you can’t comprehend what she’s up to the next. Then immediately after, you want to reach into the pages of the book and wag your finger at her. You live her deliberations and you can feel her confusion on your fingertips as you turn the page.

At no time does Tessa lapse into stereotype. She constantly surprises you and – whether you like her or not, you cannot stop following her trials and tribulations for a second.

The supporting cast is excellent. Her family, particularly the harassed Micheala, and the alcoholic brother, Ronnie, are similarly absorbing. Tessa’s long suffering boyfriend, the corporate sportswear schill David, struggles manfully to accommodate Tessa’s whys and wherefores before being completely overwhelmed by them in some of the novel’s saddest scenes.

Her relationship with best friends Katie and Ruby would satisfy any fan of chicklit, (and I quite fancied the hapless, heartbroken Ruby, in a Sir Lancelot kind of way), but it is Aunt Joanne who steals the show.

The Catholic Nun-cum-Therapist helps Tessa deal with the aftermath of the revelations unleashed by Leo’s journal and becomes by far the strongest foil for her increasingly self-destructive angst.

You long for her to reappear in the narrative – perhaps because she is the only person strong enough – and brave enough – to confront Tessa, whose self-absorption is relentless.

Contemporary Drama

Like the best contemporary fiction, nothing extraordinary happens.

People talk on the telephone (which happens a lot in this novel). Conversations take place in cars, in coffee bars, around the water cooler, on sofas, in the still life of the marital bed, the post-coital cigarette smoke still swirling between the blades of the fan rotating overhead.

There is virtually no action – just like real life.

The sheer joy of the ATSP is its very ordinariness. These are ordinary people going about their business, all of them affected to one degree or another by the portentous, unhinged rantings of Leo Curzio.

The richness of the everyday needs no explosions, because the revelations are the explosions.

A Christmas Conclusion

If you like contemporary work, I strongly recommend After The Sucker Punch.

Forget the e-book for once: Treat yourself to an early Christmas present and buy the paperback for seven quid or so. It is lustrous, with its cream pages, one and a half line spacing and comforting, airport-shelf heft.

It is a book which is written for paperback and meant to be read in bed; absorbed, over time, savoured by lamplight.

*Maybe its a man thing. 😀

UK readers buy ATSP here
US readers buy ATSP (in paperback) here.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Click here to access Green Wizard Publishing
Click here to access The Wizard’s Cauldron

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

A Whizbang Interview with Author and Book Blogger Wiz Green

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized

 

In the always adventurous world of indie publishing, the assignment to unearth and implement as many new and innovative ways to market and promote your books is ever at the forefront of your thoughts:

You maintain a small library in the backseat of your car in case you run into someone to whom you’d like to gift a copy; you seek out indie bookstores and eclectic gift shops that might prop up one or two at the cash register or on a “local authors” bookshelf; you even chat up friends in certain writing circles hoping for fair ways to exchange creative services. It’s a tap-dance like no other and you soon discover you must not only believe in your book, but must equally enjoy the art (challenge?) of marketing and promotion if you want to keep your literary baby’s head above water until it goes viral… or at least gets in a good swim!

Then, every once in a while, a serendipitous connection leads to an unexpected opportunity. Sometimes someone introduces you to someone else who happens to be a person with their own foothold in the indie book world, and who also happens to be an enthusiastic and prolific book blogger excited to write about and promote the work of authors he likes. In my version of that scenario, the introducer would be the unflagging and always generous Brenda Perlin, e-troducing me to the very creative UK author/blogger, Mark Barry, who goes by the name Wiz Green and has a blog, The Wizard’s Cauldron, focused on books, writers, and all things literary.

The Wizard’s Cauldron is described in its headline as a Dedicated Author Interview Blog from Green Wizard Publishing of Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Publishers of the fiction of Mark Barry.

In it, you’ll find concise, witty, well-written reviews, features on books and authors, promos on Mark Barry’s prodigious library of books, and, as mentioned, interviews with authors. After meeting Wiz via Brenda, I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in one of those interview. Given that I am always happy to chatter about my books, and the fact that Wiz asked a lot of great questions, it was fun to converse across the pond about my creative journey, indie publishing in general, my books in particular; even who I’d invite to my favorite dinner and what would be on the menu (no hints… go read!).

As an author, it’s incredibly gratifying when someone discovers your work and gets excited about it. When that someone is an author himself, knows well the journey we all take, and makes it his business to shout-out about writers and books he likes, that gratitude is multiplied.

Thank you, Wiz Green, for your enthusiasm and generosity, the results of which were published this morning with the blush-inducing title: The Multi-Talented Lorraine Devon Wilke – Around the Cauldron! 

Please enjoy our conversation…

California’s Lorraine Devon Wilke has packed an awful lot into her life and she shows no signs of stopping

The third-eldest sibling of eleven, she packed her bags and hit the road as a travelling rock singer in the big-haired eighties, carrying her camera with her, before settling down to marriage, motherhood and a life of popular bloggery, including her current stint working for the Huffington Post.

Her list of past achievements and current work is quite staggering – and she’s a delightful person too!

Lorraine is now a novelist writing (in Indie terms), that quiet, shy and vulnerable industry step-child Literary Fiction.

The genre the 101 blogs tell you to avoid like the plague and yet, it’s the one area where a reader can find really, really decent writing if you look for it. And Lorraine is a really, really decent writer.

I was introduced to her by Brenda Perlin and received both her short story and novel. The former is a cracking read, but the latter – I am twelve chapters in and I am engrossed is possibly a great book. I had to buy it in paperback.

It’s a sweeping, sassy, cynical, redeeming, tricky “Terms of Endearment” type family saga – remember those? – with dialogue so acute you can experience it, a real sense of place, and characters you can see and hear as if they were next to you, the novel deserves a wider audience.

I picked up the Wizphone and interrupted Lorraine while she tapped out her latest blog on a sunkissed veranda overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Here’s what she had to say:

CLICK TO READ FULL INTERVIEW:

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

OK, Let’s Discuss This Whole Book Review Thing… Please

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized18 Comments
read your novel
“Oh, yes… 5-STARS GUARANTEED!!”

I spent some time chatting with a group of writers today, discussing a topic that seems to not only be tripping up indie authors in a variety of ways, but contributing to the persistence of stigmas and attitudes about the self-publishing “brand” in general:

REVIEWS.

Coveted, powerful, manipulated; misguided reviews.

It was a spirited debate — though, in truth, everyone was in agreement — focused squarely on the corrosive effect of what some in the discussion called the “5-Star Circle” and the “Review Swap Gang.”

For those unaware, the 5-Star Circle is that loose contingent of indie author who will automatically award 5-star reviews to colleagues regardless of the quantifiable merits of their books. This is done, purportedly, to show support for fellow self-pubbers, but there’s also an unspoken quid quo pro element at work, assuring that the 5-star-wielding reviewer will be gifted in kind. The Review Swap Gang is essentially an off-shoot, a more organized venture whereby authors agree to write reviews for each other and I don’t think anyone need guess how rife with corruptible possibilities that deal might be!

I expect a holler at this point, an insistence by some in the self-publishing world that they will and do and always give honest, authentic reviews regardless of how swappers review their own books, and, hey, it’s possible. But what’s also possible (and likely probable) is an inherent awkwardness to the set-up, the politics involved if, say, they give you a good review and you don’t return the favor. In fact, I spoke to one author who confessed that he often gives weak, inept books much higher than deserved ratings for the sake of group politics. Another spoke of feeling pressured within professional friendships to do the same; someone else mentioned not wanting to spark trollish behavior from disgruntled authors unhappy with their “swap.”

And the result of all this? Far too many poorly executed and amateurishly written books sporting a raft of undeserved 5-star reviews from gushing (or, perhaps, intimidated) “friends” who apparently don’t see the value of creative accountability; a fact that has the long-term effect of misguiding readers and perpetuating negative attitudes about all self-published writers, even those whose work is worthy of the accolades.

There’s a book blogger I happen to like, Tara Sparling, who regularly offers sharp (and very funny) analysis of the self-publishing world on her blog, Tara Sparling Writes (check out her posts about book covers, fonts, and what compels readers to choose — or not choose — self-published novels). She recently wrote a piece on the topic of reviews, Why 5-Star Book Reviews Are Utter Rubbish, that triggered a strong reaction from readers on the title alone (my response is in the comment section). Tara offered seven reasons in support of her thesis, some of which echoed my own points; for example:

“One 5-star review is ok. But, if there are only 7 reviews in total and all of them are all 5 stars, I don’t believe a single one of them.”

OK, I’m not sure I wouldn’t believe a one… maybe, but she lost me a bit on the next sentence:

“So I disregard the lot and vow never to read the book instead. Which rather defeats the purpose.”

I got her point, but took umbrage with the resolution. Since I am not a swapper, nor a review solicitor, I can’t control what reviewers end up saying about my work and certainly don’t want to be discounted out-of-hand — by Tara or anyone else — if the lot of them happen to honestly like my book! I made this rebuttal in my comment; she graciously took the point, as well as similar points made, allowing that, yes, if a book truly deserves 5-stars, wonderful. But the more salient issue is that, like me, like others, she finds solid reason to raise a ruckus on the topic, a shared impulse that indicates just how transparently corrupt this reviewing thing has become.

Look, the value of reviews to anyone selling anything — whether a toaster, movie, restaurant, or book — is indisputable. But the politics of reviews has turned the process into a sort of creepy, virtual-payola scenario that’s about as manipulative as A&R thugs dropping cash-packs and trip tickets into the laps of slick fingered radio programmers. And when we’ve got countless threads on Goodreads hawking “swap requests,” Yelp choked with either phony take-downs or BFF gush-fests, and Amazon battling some version of the same on all kinds of products (including books), we’ve lost the point of the endeavor… for honest people to leave honest responses to just how much they did or didn’t like something. Period.

Here’s my personal stance: I do not want ONE, not one, review on my author page that is not authentic or honestly felt. Whatever “star” rating or review comments you think my work warrants based on your truthful, visceral response to my book, that’s what I want you to leave. Don’t troll, don’t be irrational or other-agenda’d; but don’t feel obligated, under any circumstances, to leave a puffed-up, bullshit review. If you’re uncomfortable about what you might honestly have to say, I’d rather you not leave anything than an unauthentically positive review. And I mean that. An unearned “star” should mean nothing to any of us.

To my indie author colleagues: Please understand that I will not leave a 4- or 5-star review on work that does not warrant it based on my experience and perceptions as a writer and my response as a reader. It doesn’t matter how famous you are, how much I support your efforts, how well I like you, or how much you’ve done for me. But, taking into account the shared obstacles and challenges of being in this self-publishing game together, the best I can agree to is that I won’t leave a decidedly negative review on your page (which, in this world, appears to be anything below 4- or 5-stars!). If you know I’ve read your book and want my response privately, I will be happy to share it with you.

And one more thing: PLEASE, please, indie authors, do not rant on social media about your negative reviews and do not ask fellow writers to go to your Amazon page to make any response to them. Both the rant and the request are not only distasteful, but utterly unprofessional. As is presuming a negative review is automatically undeserved, unauthentic, or written by a troll. Let’s please, for God’s sake, have some grace and dignity and take our hits where they come. Every reader has the right to their honest response no matter how many reviews they’ve written. And if you truly believe a troll is having his/her way with you, handle it privately. Don’t play creative-victim in an effort to engage fellow writers to circle the wagons; we all have to stand by our work, good, bad or in-between.

The impact of all these shenanigans is that readers — the very people we’re hoping to engage — can no longer count on reviews to guide them to what they might enjoy or find excellent.  Personally, I’ve now downloaded far too many books by self-published authors — abundant in stellar reviews — that were, ultimately, poorly written. I’ve spent my money and my time only to either not finish a book, or to put it aside with a shake of my head and a growing uneasiness about what all of this is doing to the self-publishing world at large.

For now, though I’m being much more selective about the books I buy, I still believe in the movement and will continue to support my indie colleagues, particularly those who’ve earned my reader loyalty, as I hope they will support me. But I will continue to candidly address the issues we face, holding out hope that we as a group learn from our mistakes and honestly strive to be better. More professional. More demanding. Of ourselves… and our fellow authors.

Related articles: 

• Who Do We Have To _____ To Get a Little Respect Around Here? 
• The Persistence of Self-Publishing Stigmas and How To Transcend Them

Cartoon by Kudelka

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

Hey, After The Sucker Punch, You Look REAL Good Up On That Book Shelf…

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized

ATSP @ Skylight Bookstore

Oh, isn’t it just the dream of every writer to see their book up on the shelf of a real, live, brick & mortar bookstore, sitting there next to the famous writers with their famous books, looking not only like they belong in that spot but fit right in with the “big kids”?

Yep.

So given that I’m a leave-no-stone-unturned kinda dreamweaver, I decided to see just how successful I could be at getting my independently published debut novel, After The Sucker Punch, beyond Amazon and the online marketplace and actually into bookstores where perusing patrons could stumble upon it and, hallelujah, pick it up.

First I contacted Skylight Books in Los Angeles, “what a neighborhood bookstore should be,” to make a pitch. The contact person sent me straight to their book buyer to see if he was interested. Gulp…

He was interested! “I’d like to buy 2 copies for the store and see how it does,” said the book buyer, and off those two copies went. I visited them yesterday (see above) and they look mighty comfortable on the shelf right above Meg Wolitzer’s NYTimes Bestseller, The Interestings, don’t you think? I urge Los Angeles area book lovers to find their way into this very cool bookstore and pick up a copy (or two… there’s two, remember? :)… cuz I want to be sure “how it does” is some version of “it does really well”!

Here’s the information:

SKYLIGHT BOOKS
1818 N Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 660-1175

They don’t have a local authors section, so just find your way to the “W’s”… (hence, that Wolizter proximity!).

But I wasn’t about to stop there. Two books in one cool bookstore is a start, but I had to see what else I could stir up….how about Vroman’s in Pasadena?

Vromans bookstore

Known as “Southern California’s Oldest & Largest Independent Bookstore,” Vroman’s is another eclectic, beloved neighborhood bookstore that has a stellar reputation amongst writers for its support of the community in all its configurations… including independent authors (which isn’t necessarily the case with everyone in the book industry; see Who Do We Have To ____ To Get a Little Respect Around Here?).

I had spent time at Vroman’s earlier this year when Karrie Ross, the author of an art/essay book in which I participated as a writer and photographer — Our Ever Changing World: Through the Eyes of Artists: What Are You Saving from Extinction? — organized a reading at the store (something I’ll do after the holidays). It’s a very nice set-up, interesting and bursting with every kind of book and book-related item you can imagine, and it’s clear they are vibrantly engaged with the world of reading.

So I got in touch and was delighted to discover they have a  “Local Authors” program, which invited me to bring a total of 8 books to the store, 5 for the iconic Pasadena location, and 3 for the Hastings Ranch location, all of which should be on shelves this week. Just ask for the “local authors” section and you’ll find After The Sucker Punch there.

Here’s the information for both locations:

VROMAN’S PASADENA
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-449-5320
(Fax) 626-792-7308
email@vromansbookstore.com 

VROMAN’S HASTINGS RANCH
3729 E Foothill Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91107
626-351-0828
(Fax) 626-351-0798
email@vromansbookstore.com

As all book lovers know, there’s a great debate out there regarding the burgeoning industry of online book sales and the impact of that inexorable trend on the shrinking population of bookstores, particularly of the independent variety. Since I am a champion of books, writing, and reading, whatever form, format, or delivery system is involved, I want to be sure to play my part in keeping all options as alive and well as can be managed! So if you live in or are visiting Southern California, I encourage you to visit one or all of these bookstores. And when you’re at the counter to pick up your paperback copy of After The Sucker Punch, be sure to tell them I sent you! 🙂

Next up: Book Soup on the Sunset Strip…

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

With Fiona Mcvie: Just Two Girls Chattin’ About Books…

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized

women over books

As I march forward in this exotic adventure called independent publishing, I find myself thrilled to discover just how passionate people remain about READING. When I was a young girl, reading was my escape, my entertainment, my world away, but as the noise and movement of ever advancing digital life has evolved, it wasn’t clear to me whether the lure of a good book (however it is delivered!) was still as powerful a draw. Seems it is. Good timing on my part, then, what with just now entering the fray with After The Sucker Punch, “She Tumbled Down,” and more to come!

So it was with great delight that I received a missive from Scottish book blogger, Fiona Mcvie (yes, with a lower case “v”!), whose site, Author Interviews, features wonderfully in-depth conversations with specific writers she reaches out to for one reason or another. She posted our “conversation” this week and I was happy to share perspective with her about books, the writing process, readers, even my favorite color! 🙂

I’ll send you over to her blog and hope you enjoy a little sit-down with two girls just chattin’ about books!

Fiona Mcvie @ Author Interviews: Here is my interview with Lorraine Devon Wilke

Image from Vintage Women on Pinterest

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.

Who’s Reading What and IS Self-Publishing Dropping? What Ron Knight at UPAuthors Has To Say

On By Lorraine Devon WilkeIn Uncategorized

books and more books

Who’s reading what and is self-publishing dropping?

The answers to those questions might surprise you, given the current and conventional wisdom that ebooks and self-publishing are a tsunami of change flooding every corner of the literary landscape. It turns out there’s some statistical nuances to that perception that might inspire, perhaps, a rethink, not only in how one views the publishing industry as a whole, but in how each individual writer approaches their own “industry.”

The information I’m about to share comes from an interesting post written by Ron Knight, whose site, UpAuthors.com, defines itself as follows:

UPAuthors.com is a collaborative effort, founded by marketing expert Melissa Powely and author Ron Knight. This advisor program was developed to give authors a way to share resources and provide economically priced opportunities. These opportunities arise in the ability to have an inexpensive web presence with search engine optimization, the use of social media networks, sharing of like minded contacts, and a variety of resources that can help you along the way in developing your book and your career as an author.

As as independent author open to any new and innovative ways to market and promote my work, I was interested to explore their site and see what they might have to offer someone like me. In doing so, I came upon an article Ron put up last week titled, Why did self-publishing drop 46%?

That title alone caught my attention, as I’ve been led to believe that self-published titles, particularly in ebook, are a growing market trend, with ever-increasing numbers and a burgeoning audience eager to purchase those titles. Ron’s research, it turns out, has led him to a different conclusion, one that appears to be supported by statistics:

In 2010, there were 3,844,278 self-published books. It was a time when people started going on their own to find other sources of income. They put up their own website, uploaded a book to Amazon, signed up for Facebook, and realized that publishing and marketing was cheap.

That turned out to be the problem with self-publishing…cheap.

Books were rushed and poorly written.

Publishing was rushed, which flooded the markets with first-time authors.

Marketing was rushed, producing low results.

In 2012, self-publishing dropped to 2,042,840 titles and in 2013, self-publishing dropped to 1,108,183.

I’m not great at math, but that’s about a 50% drop each year, which means by 2016, there may only be 130,000 self-published books.

Now, having only embarked upon my own self-publishing endeavor in the last few months, I cannot in any way intelligently counter these statistics, but given what I’ve already learned in that short period of time, frankly, they don’t surprise me. What I’ve found most discouraging about the self-publishing industry are the same things Ron cites as reasons for its current downtrend, particularly the quality issue. As one who holds myself and my work to the highest bar possible, it’s dispiriting when, by simple BEING a self-published author, one is automatically categorized, sight unseen, as someone whose book is “rushed and poorly written.” This translates to literary media and journals that will not take submissions from self-published writers, literary contests that exclude self-published books; review sites that will not respond to queries from self-published writers, and so on. Their rationale? Most likely the familiar meme of “books were rushed and poorly written.”

But the downtrend is about more than that, according to Ron. It’s about MARKETING. About how we self-published authors tend to market – or not market – our work:

What’s the main reason self-publishing is fading away?

[Han] Huang, [Director of Product Management for Data Licensing at Bowker] an expert in product management said that self-published books are, “Marketed almost exclusively online.”

Traditional publishing uses multiple ways to market, along with focusing on specific areas to market which is based on the author’s genre, storyline, and characters.

Self-published authors attempt to market books to the entire world via Amazon, social media, and their website.

Ain’t that the truth?!

But for a self-published author who hasn’t rushed a poorly written book into the marketplace but, instead, has a professionally produced, well-edited, and very worthy title to sell — but not a lot of money to spend on big-time marketing and promotion — what is the path to success? We might want to break out of exclusively online promotional options, but what are the affordable choices? Ron has some good suggestions:

Here’s the good news!

Every self-published author that continues on this trend [exclusively online marketing]  will fade away. It’s not my opinion…it’s a fact.

For those of you that want to succeed at self-publishing, then you can succeed by following traditional marketing methods.

Here’s a list of traditional ways to market. Remember that you don’t have to do all of this at once. Mix and match, invest what you can, but this is your only way to survive and eventually sell millions of books.

~ Target Market Research (Knowing which cities would purchase your book. Also, which cities have the highest income and education rates.)

~ Book Conferences

~ Events

~ Book Signings

~ Book Clubs

~ Media Coverage

~ Advertisements (Billboards, Newspapers, Commercials, Movie Theatres)

~ Press Kits

~ Book Reviews

~ Reading Samples/Serialization

~ Speaking Engagements

The next stage should be…

~ Placement of books in big box stores

~ Placement in bookstores, both chain and local (Especially bookstores that report numbers to the Bestsellers List)

~ Placement of books on the end-caps of bookstores and big box stores

~ Film Adaptation (There are resources for film adaptation. See below.)

Some authors feel it’s great news that self-publishing is fading away. This opens the door for authors that are going to stick it out and adjust their marketing. Meanwhile, the authors that rush a book on Amazon will soon fade away.

Start a budget for marketing, even if it’s only $50 a month. This simple adjustment will propel your career, while other authors find a different career…

“There’s a big gap between you and the all-time bestselling authors in the world. Inside that gap are billions of potential readers.” ~ Ron Knight

OK, Ron. Since I intend to be one of those authors who will stick it out and, therefore, will adjust my marketing towards a goal of longterm success, I’m paying attention. And given the wide range of options listed, with assurances that one is not obligated to do it “all at once,” I’ll start making my own list of what to tackle first. I appreciate the information.

If you’d like to read the full piece, which I suggest you do, click over to Why did self-publishing drop 46%?. The UPAuthors site looks to be a very useful resource for any author looking for marketing assistance and information, so be sure to take a look at that too. I plan to avail myself of it in whatever ways I can… dammit, I ain’t gonna be one of those crashing statistics! 🙂

And to those of you new to me and my work, I hope you’ll take a moment before you leave to read through other articles at this blog, as well as acquaint yourself with my published work (After The Sucker Punch, a novel; “She Tumbled Down,” a short story), details of which can be found via my Amazon Author Page HERE.

Thanks… and let’s all keep raising the bar!

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Visit www.lorrainedevonwilke.com for details and links to LDW’s books, music, photography, and articles.