How "social" is social networking for you?

Social Networking. The term has become a part of our everyday world, and I doubt it is going anywhere. Seriously, when my mom is on Facebook, something tells me it is here to stay. But for writers, social networking takes on an entirely new dimension. Go to any writing conference and slip into a workshop on marketing or P.R. I'd bet you my next book advance that the term "social networking" will be talked about as a way to broaden your reader base. As writers, we're told that we need to be "accessible" to readers, and platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Good Reads, and the like are the perfect place to connect with fans.

But how social should a writer be? Should you assume fans only want to hear about your writing, or do you think they care about what's going on in your everyday life? At my personal blog, I find myself talking more about what's going on in life in general instead of sticking to writing-related topics. For example, the last three weeks (and several weeks to come) have been about my recent trip to China. Although I haven't had many responses, the site statistic show that I've had more visitors tuning in than usual. Would I get the same interests if I was griping about the struggle I just had with the last chapter I wrote?

I've touched upon this before, and continue to struggle with what face I should show on social networking sites. On sites such as Facebook and Twitter, readers get the real me. If they don't want to read about how much I love the TV show GLEE (new season starts on April 13th!), or how I think the new Dark Cherry Mocha at Starbucks is delicious sin in a paper cup, then they really don't want to be my friend.

But something in my gut tells me that readers are okay with seeing the quirky, real side of me. That's the point of social networking, right? To be social. And, to my chagrin, I'm starting to enjoy it more and more.

What are your thoughts on social networking? For the authors out there, do you consider it a burden or have you embraced it? For readers, how much interaction are you looking for when you "friend" or "follow" an author on a social networking site?

Judging A Book By Its Cover

This October my latest book, You're All I Need will be released. It shares some of the characters from my two previous novels. The Way You Aren't and I Can Make You Love Me. If you want to catch up on the lives of Krista and Brennan, Julie and Steve and Wynn and Adam, check out You're All I Need.

About a month ago, my editor snail mailed me a color photo copy of the cover for You're All I Need. At first, I kept thinking, boy is that a lot of yellow. When I received the actually cover flats, I realized that I really liked what the editor had done and that it wasn't as much yellow as I previously thought. Studying the cover, it brought back an unpleasant incident following one of my book releases.

In 2005, I sent a proposal to Dafina Books and received an offer for my manuscript, Now Until Forever. It was my first attempt to branch beyond my then publisher, BET. I was very pleased to be working with a new editor and hoping to learn much more about the publishing business. The editor of publishing a book began, the editor sent me a copy of the cover. The art department had designed the cover instead of selecting from the usual stock photos.

The art work was very good. Now Until Forever had a December 2006 release date and it got reviewed by Harriet Klausner. Apparently, that was a good thing. She gave the book five-stars and spoke very highly of the story. At that time, I thought, I'm on my way.

Whenever I have a new release, I visit Amazon and Barnes and Noble to read the reviews. Yes, I know it sometimes makes my brain hurt, but I do it anyway. Some controversy had developed over the cover for Now Until Forever. Several readers were questioning whether the novel was an interracial romance. One reader gave the book one star, stating she planned to return her copy as soon as it arrived from Amazon because I had tricked her by having a questionable cover. She went on to say that she'd never buy another book written by me, because I was more concerned with my bottom line and less involved with writing a good story. She knew all of this about me without glancing beyond the front cover of the book.

I was floored. I'd done none of those things. As a new author at a new publishing house, I had no input into the cover art. I told several of my writing friends about the incident and jokingly stated, that's what happens when you judge a book by its cover instead of reading the back blurb or taking a peek inside. The book gave no reference to an interracial romance. Harriet Klausner's review never mentioned an interracial relationship. The reader made her decision to purchase the book solely on the light complexion of the hero's skin on the cover.

It saddened me to think that readers strike out at authors through media's like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. They write unflattering reviews without knowing the facts. They can cause a lot of damage to an author's reputation and career. Unfortunately, when reviews like this are put on the Internet, they're available forever.

If this reader was as much of an interracial romance fan as she proclaimed in her review, she would have known that those stories always mention the race of the characters in the blurb as part of the hook. I know Dafina did with my latest novel. They made a point of making it clear that the hero was a handsome Frenchman.

What's your opinion? Do reviews influence your decision to buy a book? Do you write reviews? Do you buy your books based on the cover?

I'd love to hear from you. E-mail me at karenwowens@gmail.com. Or add your comments to the Novel Spaces site.

Remember, don't be a stranger.

Life Changing Experiences

Recently, my brother landed in the ICU at Henry Ford Hospital. He's been in the unit for over a week and I'm really worried about him. One of the nurses caring for him is Cyndi. I've watched her for several days and have found her to be very good and professional. Whenever I'm in my brother's room and she's on duty, Cyndi takes the time to explain what's going on and makes suggestions for ways that my sister and I can help him.

One afternoon Cyndi and I started talking. She confided to me that she'd worked in the corporate world for years before switching careers. Right out of college, she'd went to work with the purchasing department at General Motor. Her life took a dramatic and painful turn when her husband died suddenly at the age of 31.

Cyndi told me that she realized that she wanted more from her life and that selling auto parts to GM just wasn't it. She enrolled in nursing school and now works with critically ill patients in the medical ICU.

I told her about my life changing experience and how I started my writing career after my mother was diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer. I went on about how writing got me through one of the darkest periods in my life. Writing gave me something to hold on to.

When I left the hospital that afternoon, I replayed our conversation in my head. I thought about how important it is to do the things you love. How short life can be and how we can let self-doubt and naysayers destroy our desire to do unique or make us question our talent.

So here's my rant for this week. Don't give up. Whether your passion is writing, photograph or knitting, give it your best. If writing is your goal, don't let anyone or anything stop you. Work hard and learn your craft and I believe you'll get the contract or see your book in print.

You know I'm always interested in what you have to say. So , don't be a stranger. Email me at karenwowens@gmail.com

Karen

The persistence of...persistence

I once had a couple of friends. Let's call them Fiona and Irene. At the time when I was friendly with Fiona and Irene, I was training in martial arts. Because both women were somewhat interested in the topic, I invited them to a class. For whatever reason (maybe I was a bit too "intense"), they didn't take me up on my offer. However, when I touched base with them a few months later, Fiona was beaming.

"Guess what Irene and I did?" she asked. "We took up martial arts!"
"That's great," I said. "Which one?"
"Well, it wasn't exactly a martial art. We did a six-week self-defence course for women."
"And how long ago was this?"
"We finished it last month."
I nodded. "And did you find it useful?"
"Oh it was fabulous. Irene and I know so much more than we did before we went. Now we understand what you were talking about. It's very empowering."
So Fiona went on about how wonderful the instructor was and what kind of moves he showed them.
"And how often do you practise those moves?" I asked.
Fiona shrugged. "We don't. But we don't think we need to. After all, it was a pretty full-on six weeks."
"But you haven't rehearsed anything you learnt since then?"
"Why would we need to?" she insisted with a frown. "We already know what to do."
Despite what other people may think, I occasionally know when to stop gnawing on a particular bone, so I smiled and wished Fiona the best and just told her not to get too cocky when she's out late at night.
With a laugh and a wave, she tripped off.

And I was left in utter despair. Fiona and Irene were getting a very misguided picture of their skill level based on weekly attendance at a short course in self-defence. And, judging by the way Fiona held herself and what she said, I knew that the level of confidence she had acquired was dangerous enough to put herself into trouble if she didn't keep her eyes open. Added to that were her rapidly eroding skills due to lack of practice. So, if she let herself get into a bad situation, even if she had some inkling of what to do, chances were she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

It seems a far stretch to compare Fiona and Irene to writing but bear with me. Before I was published, when I mentioned that I wrote, the inevitable question would be, "So, what have you got out?"

At that point, I didn't have anything out. "Nothing yet," I'd say, "but I'm working on a science-fiction romance."

"Oh yeah," they'd inevitably reply, "I thought I'd write one of them too. Or one of those Mills & Boon romance things. I mean, how hard can it be?"

Because my commentators didn't know what it was like to actually sit down and write one of those "things" from start to finish, they thought it was easy. Like writing a letter (or email), except longer! And who hasn't written someone a letter or email at some point?

Now, with a few releases under my belt, I get a different reaction. It's now more along the lines of what exactly it's like to be a writer rather than a casual remark about "whipping off" one of "those books" and "making a ton of money" as a result.

But I hope you can see where I'm coming from. The people who make those remarks are a lot like Fiona and Irene. They may be wonderful people in their own right, but they're making vast generalisations based on a small slice of experience. The next time someone takes the same tack with you, just remember that it isn't a deliberate slight. They're actually trying to identify with you, I think, but just not going about it in the best, most productive way. Best thing to do is just smile and move on. Or, if you can't resist baiting the bear, agree with them and have some fun. It works for me.

* Kaz Augustin is a writer who is definitely not out to win any popularity contests. You can find her website here and she blogs three times a week, more or less, here.

World Literature: The Caribbean (2)

In my February 22 post, World Literature? Try the Caribbean, I featured three of my favorite Caribbean writers and their work, writers who all happened to belong to my own little rock, Trinidad. Today I'm venturing out a bit into the wider Caribbean with three more of my favorite authors from the region.


Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson in Antigua in 1949 and migrated to New York at the age of 16. Her family disapproved of her writing so she changed her name in 1973 and went on to write a series of articles for Ingenue magazine. She also worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker until 1995.

In her novels she deals with issues such as coming of age in a foreign country, her anger at colonialism, and mother-daughter relationships. Until 2009 she was a visiting professor and teacher of creative writing at Harvard University, and is currently a Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College. Her novels include (my favorite) Annie John, A Small Place and The Autobiography of My Mother.


Jean Rhys was born in 1890 in Dominica of Welsh and Dominican creole ancestry and moved to England when she was sixteen. The harshness of a patriarchal society, feelings of displacement and rootlessness, and racial inequality became important themes in her writing.

Her masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea, was published in 1966 and won the prestigious WH Smith Literary Award in 1967. A prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, it's the story of the first Mrs. Rochester from the time of her youth in the Caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England.


George Lamming was born in 1927 in Barbados, and later taught school in Trinidad. In 1950 he emigrated to England where he became a broadcaster for the BBC Colonial Service.

My favorite of his novels is his first, In the Castle of My Skin (1953), a coming-of-age account of his childhood in a small Barbadian village. Common themes in his novels are colonialism and its effects on the Caribbean people, particularly the absence of a sense of identity.

—Liane Spicer

Guest author Carol Mitchell: Writing for Children

Carol Mitchell, an IT specialist based in St. Kitts, has been writing for years, but this is her first novel. Her passion for reading, children and her Caribbean home led her to create the Caribbean Adventure Series.




Writers of children’s books have the best job. Perhaps I am biased; my foray into writing has been through the Caribbean Adventure Series, a series of books aimed at 8 to 12 year olds. However, I think that we definitely have more fun!

In the first place, we are writing for an audience that finds it easy to suspend disbelief. Fiction authors must often write in a way that makes their readers let go of their preconceptions and believe the unbelievable. This comes naturally for children who are not yet bogged down by knowledge of the constraints of physics, biology, mathematics, geography and politics. They are willing to accept it all. Talking animals? Flying elephants? Why not?

I’ll give you an example. In the Caribbean Adventure Series, the main protagonist is a monkey. In the second book, he stows away on an airplane. Most adult readers asked me “How could he get through security?” The children accepted this without question – the monkey travels through time, airport security is a piece of cake!

Another advantage that children’s writers have is the ability to write with imaginative abandon. When I was in school, I was taught that you needed to have a story planned completely before you started writing. However, when I began the Caribbean Adventure Series, I never knew how the books would end until they ended. I thought that this method of writing was unorthodox, until I read that Enid Blyton, an English writer of great acclaim, had the same technique. Now, I am in the process of writing my first novel and I find that to write about adult’s life, I need to be more structured in my thinking and develop the book fully before really beginning to write the meat of the story.

Children’s writers do face challenges that their counterparts with a more mature audience do not. Since our books are usually about children in the same age group as our readers, they do not have a long history that can be woven into the story to develop their character. We are forced to use the way that they interact with other characters to reveal information about them. In the Caribbean Adventure Series, for example, I ended up using two children to enable the reader to fully understand my main human character.

Finally, to quote Spiderman (I am a writer of children’s books, who else would I quote?) “With great power comes great responsibility.” We address a very impressionable audience and I believe that writers of children’s books need to use this medium to send very positive messages to our future generation about responsibility, morality and the triumph of good over evil.

—Carol Mitchell

Staying on track

BICHOK: Butt in chair, hands on keyboard. Easier said than done, unless one is a hermit on a mountaintop. The writer mired in daily life needs constant reinforcement of her goals.

The Orange County Chapter of the Romance Writers of America has a great system for helping writers set and stick to their goals. At each monthly meeting, we can write down one or more writing goals that we plan to accomplish by the following month's meeting. We also put a dollar in a jar for each goal. At the next meeting, those who met a goal tear that goal off the sheet and put it in a box. A name is drawn from that box, and that person wins all the money contributed the previous month. A dollar may not seem like much, but I know I feel terrible if I don't meet my goal and my dollar is wasted.

One of the 2008 Clarion Workshop graduates belongs to a goal group. When I asked what a goal group was, he explained that it was a group of people who meet every month to review their goals and their progress toward them and to support each other in their efforts. That sounds like a great idea; who wants to admit in front of a group that they fell short? If I knew any writers living near me, I would set up a goal group myself.

One motivator I came across recently is Habit Forge (http://www.habitforge.com). At this free Internet site, one can set goals. Every morning, Habit Forge queries you whether you met your goal for the previous day and charts the number of days in a row you've succeeded. The kicker: No matter how many days you've been successful, if you fail one day, the meter resets at 0 successes. Ouch! So far I've been using Habit Forge for personal goals such as "I will not snack between breakfast and lunch" and "I will not windowshop on the Internet." But I've found the service so motivating that I plan to start using it for writing goals as well.

One motivator I used when I had an office with a lot of wall space was a huge yearly calendar hung on the wall. Each day that I wrote at least half a day I rewarded myself with a sticker on the calendar. One could tell from across the room how well I was doing.

What systems have you used to create a writing habit and maintain it?


I'm glad you visited my post today. Please come back on April 7, when I'll tell about my talks about writing at my former high school.

—Shauna Roberts