Promote My Novel: How to identify who your target market is (Lesson 2)

http://www.GumboWriters.com is an online service that helps writers http://www.PromoteMyNovel.com

Peace and Creativity and Goodwill Toward Men

This week has been one of those rare moments in 2009 when I’ve felt truly at peace. The reason: my kids are happy (daughter’s final exams were successful, and my son’s high school is officially on break), the Christmas tree’s up, the cards mailed, and shopping almost done. But also, I’m on an eleven day break from the day job – the first time I’ve had any time off in December since 2001. Although I’m busily finishing Christmas preparations, catching up on housework, and compiling a short list of other projects to accomplish before returning to work, life still feels relaxed.

It always happens when I stop living by the clock and put more writing time into my day. It doesn’t have to be a lot. For me, two hours of creativity, plus some social networking each day is all I need for happiness. This is also one of those very rare times where every short story, article, and essay I’ve submitted over the past few years has either been published or accepted for publication. Which means I really need to complete more short pieces in the new year.

I wish the same peace for all of you out there. Have a lovely holiday, however you choose to celebrate your precious time away from the clock.

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/.

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Overheard At A Booksigning

Very true exchanges between me and bookstore customers over the last two years.

Of my books on the signing table.

“Are these complimentary?”

(Really?)

Of the title, Janeology.


"Geez, is this ANOTHER book about Jane Austen?"

(After I stopped laughing, I said, no, it wasn't remotely concerned with Ms. Austen.)

Of my pitch - After his wife Jane commits an unthinkable murder, her grieving husband struggles to find a possible explanation for her actions – were they due her lack of nurturing as a child? Did she inherit a tendency toward violence from her ancestors, some with dark, criminal lives?

“Oh, we all have black sheep in our family. My brother’s wife just left him and he’s now realizing it had something to do with her mother. Now THAT'S a story you should write."

(His story made me feel akin to bartenders. If I have enough signings, I WILL have enough material for another book.)

Of me just standing there all alone, stacking and re-stacking my books for about 30 minutes.

"Hey, do you know where the bathroom is?"

(If I had a nickel for everytime I was asked this question....)

Of my description of the book to a kind old man.

“Sounds good. Let me go ask my wife.”

(Sweet! Here she comes and she has a bunch of mystery books in her basket!)

Of my offer to sign a book for a woman.

“Oh, are you the author?”

(Doh, I failed to introduce myself!)

Of my introduction to the next person who approached my table, “Hi, I’m the author Karen Harrington.”

“Hello the AUTHOR Karen Harrington.”

(Okay, now I really feel silly. Steve Martin in The Lonely Guy silly.)

Of the mints on my signing table.

“What are these for?”

(Well, you see. The books are complimentary. But that mint will set you back about $17 bucks.)

Of the woman who ran over to my table with her hubby and told me her name was Jane.

Hubby: “If I read this, will I understand my wife better?”

Me: Ha Ha! Maybe. Here’s a bookmark.” (She leaves. Returns 10 mintues later.)

“OMG! My husband’s name is Tom!” (See, the couple in my book are Jane and Tom.)

(So, you'd probably guess that they bought a copy, but no. Sigh.)

Of my accidental penning “Very best pictures” (Doh! Should have written WISHES)
Me: “Oh, I’m so sorry. We were talking about pictures, and, well, ha ha…well, if I become famous, one day this will be very valuable.”

(You know how you felt in high-school when you tried to come up with something cool to say and all that came out was "Hey, your shoe is untied." Yeah. That's about right.)


Of the guy who walked into the store and made a bee-line to my signing table.

"I'm in sales, too. Make your pitch in 30 seconds. Go!"

(Are you serious? Gulp! Happy to say he bought the book.)

-

I'm usually hanging out here if you want to stop by and say hello!

http://www.karenharringtonbooks.com/

Everything in Service to the Story

I’ve been retyping some of the outtakes from A Spark of Heavenly Fire. These are the scenes I deleted from the book (and apparently also deleted from my computer, hence the retyping). Since the story takes place in December, and this is December (as if you didn’t know) I thought I would celebrate by posting those scenes on my blog.

I expected to be embarrassed by my puerile writing, but some of the deleted work was surprisingly good. The scenes were nicely set up, fairly well written, and advanced the plot, but unfortunately they did not serve the overall story.

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn while writing is that everything in a novel is in service to the story. Nothing stands alone -- not the writing, not the characters, not the plot, not the individual scenes. Perhaps what I’m talking about is balance and flow. If a good scene stops the flow, it’s not a good scene. If a minor character is so weighty that he overbalances the hero, his scenes need to be restricted. A couple of the scenes worked quite well to show the onset of martial law in quarantined Denver, but they were from the standpoint of Jeremy King, the hero of the secondary story. Kate was supposed to be the driving force of the book, and she barely showed up in the first fifty pages. So poor Jeremy had to go.

If you’d like to see my outtakes, you can find them here:
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #1
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #2
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #3
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #4
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #5
A Spark of Heavenly Fire Outtake #6

Pat Bertram is also the author of More Deaths Than One and Daughter Am I.

Do You Keep A Journal?

When I was 23, I started keeping a journal in an attempt to purge the bad feelings in a tumultuous relationship. That exercise helped me put things in perspective. I ended the relationship and kept on writing.

More than 30 years later, I still keep a journal, although rather than hand-write in a coiled notebook, I now type each entry onto the computer. My handwriting’s gotten messier over the years and I type faster than I write anyway. For me, journaling is an essential part of the creative process. As a mom and wife, it’s also a treasured record of things that happened as the kids grew. If my memory starts to fail some day, at least I'll be able to read about special events, emotions, disappointments, achievements, routines, and such. But here’s what I also know: journals are a valuable source for fiction.

I’ve been working on a short story that takes place in a youth detention centre. I began the piece by drawing on my volunteer experiences back in 1977. But it quickly became apparent that I couldn’t remember the type of details that would make the scenes more authentic. So, I dug out my old journals and began reading about life inside those walls. Fortunately, I wrote a lot of entries back then, partly because I needed the information for term papers, but also because I was interested in what was happening inside. At that time, I had no idea how useful the information would be to me all these years later, but I can’t think of a better reason for a writer to start keeping a journal. If you haven’t yet, it’s never too late.

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/.

Fatal Encryption is available through amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl and Taxed to Death can be found at http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Two Writers Who Make a Difference

One of the nicest things about being an independently published author is that I’ve had a chance to meet other authors who share the same struggles I do. Many of them are supportive, generous people who give their time helping other authors in a variety of ways.

One of these writers is Edward Patterson, author of thirteen books, and one of the most energetic promoters I’ve ever met. But Ed is doing much more than that. One day, while on one of amazon’s discussion groups, he started corresponding with a soldier stationed in Iraq and discovered that some of the soldiers have Kindle readers. One thing led to another and before Ed knew it he’d launched Operation Ebook Drop, a program created to donate ebooks to soldiers overseas. The program is only 12 weeks old and 290 authors have already joined. Needless to say, the Operation Ebook Drop is growing dramatically, and those on the front lines are quickly gaining access to a wide variety of ebooks, thanks to Ed.

To learn more about Operation Ebook Drop you can visit www.kindleboards.com/blog and you can also listen to Ed talk about this on blogtalkadio.com on Monday, December the 7th, 2009 @ 7PM CST: http://bit.ly/7LfIgQ

Which brings me to my second writer who’s making a difference. Author and radio host Bobby Ozuna has been a big promoter of writers for some time and his new half-hour program, The Indie Author Shows on blogtalkradio.com offers all kinds of interesting discussions, usually featuring a guest author each week. To learn more about Bobby, visit www.ozunapub.com

And don’t forget to catch the show Monday night!

To read excerpts of Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com/.

Fatal Encryption is available on Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/lchxrd and Taxed to Death’s Kindle version can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ld4pcf.