What’s the right way to respond to a critique?

“Thank you.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Are they attacking me personally?

Eh, sometimes. Face it, there are some real wheezbags who, for any number of reasons, enjoy ripping the heart out of writers  – anyone seen Authonomy lately?. Maybe they were dropped on their heads at birth. Who knows? Regardless of their motives, they took the time to read your work. Don’t own those critiques, even when they’re good. It’s one opinion of many. Look beyond the sting or the joy, and see if they may have a valid point. If they do, great. If they don’t, great.

The long and short of crits is that they are designed to point out flaws that the reader felt existed. Remember, our writing doesn’t come directly from the hands of the Great Cosmic Muffin, and we all need to be critiqued and edited.

Am I ready for crits?

My philosophy is that anyone who reads crits and goes into the fetal position and cries while sucking on a pound of chocolate may not be ready to put their work out there. The only time you’re allowed to drink heavily, eat pounds of chocolate, and cry is when you’re writing your book and when you get your edits back from your editor. Everyone else is navel lint and not worth expending such emotion. [Edited to add: Ok, fetal position, drinking, eating chocolate is also allowed with crits PROVIDED you understand you're being unreasonable] …thanks, Pelo.

I remember one a friend of mine blew his stack over a tepid review from Publishers Weekly. He was ready to contact the reviewer and read him the riot act. I told him that under no circumstances would he do anything of the sort. First off, the reviewer took his time to read the book. Secondly, out of the thousands of books that come into the magazine each week, he chose his book. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Do they have a point?

In between blowing your nose and ranting, you need to consider whether the person critiquing you has a point. It could be their delivery is rather severe, but that shouldn’t discount what they’ve said – unless they simply say, “Your writing sucks stale Twinkie cream.” Those crits should be handed to the beagle, where she will rip them to shreds and send out her buddies, The German Shepherd Hit Squad. They wear lots of leather and growl in German.

Hearing that your writing is less than NY Times bestselling stuff stings, but you need to keep your eye on your goal; writing a damn good book. How can you do that if you ignore crits because they hurt your little feelings? Buck up, mate.

Toughen that hide, baby

This is a tough, tough business, and writers need to have the skin of an alligator. Growing a tougher hide means looking at your work objectively. It means understanding that this isn’t about you, but how effectively you communicate what’s in your heart to paper. You’d think the transition would be easy, and if it were, we’d all be bestselling authors, right? Thoughts that rummage through our cerebral hard drive don’t always translate well when they hit the pages – and maybe we can’t see that.

If you’re looking for people to coddle you and tell you how mahvelous you are, then go no further than your mother. Mom always loves my work, bless her soul. I’ve considered the possibility that yes, Gertrude, I’m really that good. And then I wake up from my deep sleep and know that Mom will never tell me I suck.

Having a tough hide means looking at your writing as a business. It takes experience and gritting your teeth. It takes appreciation that you desire to be a better writer and the only way to do that is to stick your big toe into the shark-infested waters and let ‘er rip. If you don’t, how will you ever know if you’re any good?

So no matter if someone told you your main character has the personality of a lima bean and your plot is as thin as shredded wheat, you smile and say “thank you.” Because maybe somewhere, deep inside the sting are some words that will turn your story into the stuff that auctions are made of.

When vanity and mainstream publishing collide

So I was thinking about the Harley/DellArte (formerly Harlequin Horizons) vanity press debacle over the holiday – even though I swore I wouldn’t – and hit upon a big snag that pushed my laissez-faire attitude right over the cliff: The Great Sucker the Author Incident.

It’s folly to think that mainstream and vanity imprints can live happy, yet separate lives under one roof. Anyone with a working brain realizes vanity publishing brings in huge bucks for the publisher, so the logical thing for the mainstream publisher to do is give a gentle nudge toward the vanity publishing option. True, nothing illegal about it, but it is sneaky. How to do this?

The Enticement:

First, you need to offer something delicious. Ahhh…a chance at mainstream publishing! So they put out this lovely blurb on their vanity site: “We will be monitoring your books for excellence and marketability, and MAYBE we’ll choose YOUR book for mainstream publishing!”

Wow! Gee! Where do I sign up? Here, take my money! And to prove their point, I’m willing to bet the beagle’s chocolate martini and stash of Twinkies that they’ll choose a few lucky winners to legitimize their claims. What better way to get the unpublished masses clamoring with their wallets in hand? Crikey, it sounds like a paid version of Authonomy. This is literary version of Russian Roulette. Some get an empty chamber, others get a live round.

In reality, there will probably be very, very few books that make the transition from vanity to mainstream – just enough to keep up appearances. Hungry authors who don’t know enough about the publishing business to discern a snow job of epic proportions will buy it hook, line, and sinker. And they’ll hand their money over to these guys rather than AuthorHouse or iUniverse. Very clever.

And this is my big Ah Ha moment. Anytime a mainstream publisher adds a vanity imprint, you can be certain of two things:

• They need the money
• They are going to woo you with hints at greater success in order to sucker you in.

This is a conflict of interest.

Aaaand I’m outta here…

Off to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving, fun ‘n sun. Y’all be good now and don’t mess up the place.

I tried to get the beagle to put on the headdress, but she’s allergic to cats, so I had to borrow the *neighbor’s dog.

*not really. I nabbed it off of Google images like everyone else…

The beagle would kill for less…

Far less…

If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me

Ok, I suppose I sounded impatient and a wee bit frustrated with the phone call but, geez, when someone calls me to find out what we accept and I point them to our submissions guidelines, I don’t expect a, “Well, ok, here’s the deal…it’s written for older teens and college age,” I want to scream, “WHAT PART OF ‘PLEASE READ THE DAMN SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES’ DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?”

Even the beagle looses her patience and growls, which interrupts her sunbath on my desk.

Instead of saying what I was thinking, I grit my teeth and replied in as unfriendly a tone as I could muster, “our submission guidelines are very concise so that we can avoid these types of phone calls.” She finally got the message and ended with a terse “goodbye,” and probably a few colorful metaphors dancing on her tongue.

I know agents and editors say it over and over again – please do not call. And yet, it happens all the time.

Ringy Ring. Hello? Overworked and Underpaid Editor speaking.

Author I’d Like to Kill: “Hey, I wrote this fabo book, and I want to pitch it to you. Now. Like, on the phone now.”

Head to desk. “Beagle, find me my box of Twinkies and fire up the blender.”

Gah. It’s always the ones just starting out and don’t know anything about the query process. And this takes me to a deeper level of the problem: research. I’m always yammering on about its importance. It’s the difference between “send me pages, please,” and “go play on the freeway onramp during rush hour.”

It’s hard to believe there are still people who believe that slamming down a few thousand words in a Word file constitutes readiness for a book deal followed by fame and fortune and adoring fans. Meanwhile, they ignore the most important facet of finding that fame and fortune; protocol. I guess my impatience derives from the fact that I wouldn’t have the walnuts to cold call an editor. Or an agent. My first instinct would be to research how this whole query thing is done so I don’t piss anyone off. Lord knows I can do that easily enough, and with very little effort.

I’ve thought about removing our phone number from our site, like a lot of my colleagues, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

But I have to say this stuff leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Should those authors actually query me, I’m already cranky and have no desire to read their stuff. Yes, I know with the holidays just around the corner I should be more charitable. But when I’m five-feet deep editing a manuscript, as I am right now, a phone call about word count or genre is an unwelcome intrusion.

When is it ok to call an editor?

Tough question. I usually say never because we all work very hard to circumvent unnecessary questions by making extensive guidelines on our websites. I’ll admit that I’ve had some lovely conversations with authors who cold-called me in search of information – yes…I answer my own phone because the beagle can’t be bothered. However, would my life be worse for not having talked to them? No. So the safe answer is don’t call – unless that editor is YOUR editor.

Very few submission guidelines lack pertinent information, and most submission guidelines are fairly standard.

Query letter should include [all on one page]:

• Word count
• Genre
• Title
• One – two paragraph pitch
• Very short bio [two, three lines] about what makes you the perfect person to have written the book
• Why is your book marketable? [two lines]

I can’t think of a question that an author could ask me that isn’t already on our guidelines. Anything outside that realm isn’t pertinent. If I want pages, I’ll ask for them.

Gee, Lynn, kinda cranky pants for a Monday, aren’t you?

Who says the marketplace doesn’t work?

In a lovely bit of The Empire Strikes Back, Harlequin is now dropping their name from their vanity endeavor due to public outcry. Well that and Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction Writer’s Association all dumped Harley from their approved publisher’s list – as is their right.

See, this is what I love about the free market. We’re all free to make decisions and also free to decide whether those decisions will enhance or harm our endeavors. Obviously Harley had their deer-in-the-headlight moment, and the Powers That Be underestimated the power of the marketplace: MWA, RWA, SFWA, and their own authors. As a result they decided to take the Harley brand name off the vanity endeavor. Pretty ironic considering this is an Author Solutions party all the way and Harley was lending their name to attract victims authors.

But fear not, they’ll be adding a line to their rejection letters directing writers to their mahvelous and brave new publishing option. I have no doubt that plenty will jump on board. People are always looking for the short cuts in life, and this is no different. But the backlash has had a delicious affect on Harley’s lack of foresight. Interesting.

Sigh…it was Harley’s to lose…

While my stance hasn’t changed regarding Harley adding a vanity imprint, no matter how oily it is, I always believed this decision was theirs to screw up in a rather deliciously grand manner. And they seem to be trying – which surprises me because they’re a big conglomerate and they, ostensibly, know better, right? After all, they thought this all out with the precision of a NASA team readying the shuttle for outer space. They know the ins and the outs.

Or is this just an ill-conceived seat-of-the-pants plan that birthed itself on the corporate tables one dark and stormy night while corporate weenies’ faces streamed sweat while the Powers That Be screeched, “We need some freaking capital!”

Alas, the information coming from their spokesholes is fingernails-to-chalkboard stuff, and this makes me think they are either completely clueless to the vanity world, publishing in general, or just loosy with the truthy. They appear to have also underestimated the authorial reaction.

In order to attract the biggest amount of “booty” – meaning authors willing to fork over big money to help get Harley’s parent company, Torstar, out of their financial crisis – they’re saying some silly things.

A bound copy makes you more attractive to agents and editors

Ach, I’ve seen this reoccurring theme with many other authors who published via vanity, and it makes me want to scream. I can’t tell you how many iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Publish America books I’ve gotten as a form of submission.

[big flashy lights and sirens] NOTE: Do not EVER send a bound book to an agent or editor.

Do you know where they go? Right into the recycle bin. I don’t even crack the cover. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have a couple of times, and instantly regretted it. Some of these guys don’t even bother learning how to format the layout. If you were unwise enough to write your manuscript like an email [meaning you used an extra carriage return to denote a new paragraph instead of using indentations], then that is exactly how they will print it. And the worst part is the author paid a lot of money for it. If you want a bound galley, go to Kinko’s or Lulu.com.

I repeat; we will not read a bound book unless we ask for it. So Harley is lying to you – which is shameless.

HARLEQUIN HORIZONS ASSISTED SELF-PUBLISHING

Ach, et tu, Brute? This is not self publishing. It’s vanity. Oh, these pesky terms that people use to muddy the waters.

Self publishing is when you, the author, are the publisher and you pay and control every aspect of production. You buy and own the ISBN; it is your name on the copyright page.

Vanity is pay to play, and they control every aspect of production and its eventual disposition. For example, you can’t tell them to do a 1,000 unit print run unless you pay for it. Never ever forget who’s in charge with a vanity operation. Clue: it ain’t you.

This is an outright lie, and this makes me cranky. Yes, I realize that and a fiver will get you an overpriced Starbuck’s.

Payback

RWA has decided that Harlequin is no longer eligible for RWA-provided conference resources and SFWA has removed Harley from their list of approved venues as of 11/2009.

Now this is what I mean by allowing the free market to work. If Harley wants to take this route, they have the honor of experiencing the up and downside. Only when payback hurts enough does change happen, and it’ll be interesting to see how, or if, this hurts. They will be forced to weigh the consequences of being removed from two very influential groups against huge profits. They will most certainly suffer the wrath of their own mainstream authors. On the “upside” Harley is to romance what California is to tax hikes.

More than likely Torstar – Harley’s parent company – won’t care one bit. Harley has their chestnuts hovering over very hot fire. What to do? What are they allowed to do? It’s times like this that I adore being an indie trade press. We may have far fewer decimal points in our bottom line, but the only ones who tell me what to do are the beagle, the accountant, the sales teams, and the readers.

Mistaken Identity

If Harley wants – needs – to do this in order to keep Torstar’s lights on, that’s their business. I have no doubt they’ll make a pile of money. I think it’s sad that a lot of authors will take this route because the first thing they’ll think is, “Wow, Harley? They’re BIG, so how bad can it be? They wouldn’t screw us.”

Weelllll…if it keeps the heat on, yes they will. But this falls under “Author Beware.” We can’t outlaw stupid, as I said before, so the best thing anyone can do for themselves is to keep their ears close to the ground. Read the blogs, learn, consider all the ramifications.

It’ll be interesting to watch the reverberations throughout the industry and how this will affect other publishers who want to add a vanity imprint to help their own bottom lines. Long live the free marketplace. They are the ultimate boss.

Having said all that, I still believe this is still a non-event and Harley will remain untouched within the reading community [where it really counts!] because the vanity books won’t see the light of day. Readers will continue to buy their books in bookstores – as it should be. The world will continue to turn, the beagle will continue to imbibe. For the most part, all will stay right with the world.

Unless we have a law banning tequila…

Confucius say…

If you can’t find the book you want

You’re probably shopping at the ………..

apologies…The Daughter is home from college. The beagle has mixed up a batch of margaritas to celebrate. One cannot possibly think me capable of working right now.

Harlequin Goes Vanity

I took some time to read the various posts on writers boards, and from the sounds of things I think the sky is falling. “Omigod! Harlequin is opening up a vanity press!” The cries! The outrage! The sadness.

I’m more than willing to eat crow here, but I don’t see why this is such a big deal. It’s another vanity press. Yes, it’s Harlequin – a big name – who’s “selling out” to the vanity machine for a huge financial boon. Sure, they’re in it to make money. So what? Who’s getting hurt? Their mainstream authors! is the response. I don’t see it that way.

I broke down the various comments that I collected around the internet:

Obscene profit

“Yessiree, we’re here to take your money just like iUniverse, Publish America, AuthorHouse, and a gajillion others.” It may be a lesser way to find one’s work in print, but so what? No one is putting a gun to authors’ heads and raiding their wallets. It may be a somewhat oily way to make money but there isn’t a law against doing so. If people are willing to fork over their hard-earned money, that’s their business. Live and let live.

Taking  advantage of authors

Now before the beagle takes a chunk out of my leg thinking I’ve gone mad, let me say that my position on vanity publishing hasn’t changed one bit. BUT as long as authors are fully aware of what they’re getting into, then who am I to cast aspersions? And sure, there are those who fork over money thinking they’ll be on store shelves, but you know what? You can’t outlaw stupid.

There are always going to be people who make bad mistakes because they didn’t know any better. The information is out thereabout vanity publishing – to ad nauseum – so anyone who goes in wearing blinders is going to get a big surprise. Does that mean we outlaw vanity publishing? Geez, it reminds me of when my kids’ grammar school outlawed running at recess because someone might get hurt. Of course someone might get hurt…that’s life! On the other hand, many people could be very happy.

The mistake is assuming the role of publishing police. Crikey, it’s still a free world (for now), and that means people should be allowed to make dumb mistakes and take stupid risks. You can’t save ‘em all. Buck up.

Competition with the regular authors – the “it’s not fair!” factor

What’s not fair? Authors who are legitimately pubbed by Harlequin haven’t given up anything. They worked hard and got a contract because their stories were good enough to catch Harlequin’s attention. Those authors still enjoy full distribution and shelf space in the bookstores – which is far better than what their vanity brethren will have. So what that they have the Harlequin logo on their books? Those books are going nowhere. They don’t have the full weight of the Harelquin marketing and promotion machine that the mainstream authors do.

Distribution
There is nothing sweeter than seeing your book sitting on a bookstore shelf. It’s the final page to all the blood sweat and tears of writing your book. Ok, group happy sigh everyone…well, except the vanity gang. In their case it’s a matter of “What distribution?” There isn’t any. And this is one of the main reasons I believe this is a nothing event. The vanitywill be sold on the backs of their authors. Those books will gather dust or be sold out of car trunks, while the real Harlequin books will flourish on the shelves as they’ve done for many years.

“I’m published by Harlequin!”

Ah yes, the name-dropping appeal. The snob factor. I see many vanity authors strut about how “they’re published.” We all know that vanity publishing isn’t a publishing credit. The vanity author has been printed. There was no vetting for talent other than double checking one’s bank balance. That isn’t to say that everyone who goes this route is a lousy writer; it’s just that the overwhelming odds tend to bear that out. But that doesn’t stop the author from using the “published” verbiage. With Harlequin, this will make them downright insufferable. Ok, I’m being facetious to some extent. Look, so what if they say they’re published by Harlequin? Does anyone believe it won’t lose its appeal if those vanity books start collecting dust in authors’ garages due to lack of sales, promotion, marketing, and distribution?

Diluting the Harlequin name/losing respectability

This is an interesting thought, and I saw this repeated in virtually every blog I read. Lauren Roberts, brilliant owner of BiblioBuffet asked me if I would ever consider doing the same thing – adding a vanity imprint. I quickly down one of the beagle’s margaritas to gather my composure. “Are you kidding? I’d be gutted and filleted. We’re too small to take that kind of publicity/reputation hit.”

But Harlequin? They can handle it. They’re HARLEQUIN, after all. They are big enough to weather this. It’s no different if Random House decided to join the vanity gang for some extra cash as well.

Does anyone believe that because Harlequin has a vanity imprint that authors will snub their mainstream line and query elsewhere? Not on your life. They are the Yoda of Romance, and they will be just fine, thankyouverymuch. And if their authors decide otherwise and leave Harelquin for green pastures, then Harlie will have to analyze whether it’s a big enough problem to change their ways.

I’m certain that the industry will make allowances to adjust for the vanity line so those books don’t leech over into territory that’s reserved for mainstream authors – like RWA, for instance. If Harlequin has a brain, they certainly don’t want to lose their RWA status. Chances are strong that the vanity authors won’t be eligible. At least I hope not. This would certainly dilute RWA’s exclusivity.

The long and short of this is how this affects readers. Readers have no clue, nor do they care, about this vanity imprint. They’ll go about buying romance novels in the bookstores, just like they always have. The vanity books won’t even be a blip on their radar screens.

The only people really affected are those who choose to pay money to be published. Vanity writers cannot compete with mainstream authors, so this gives them their own sandbox to play in.

Look. vanity is vanity, no matter whose logo goes on the book. As pay-to-play publishing stands today, it isn’t a viable option for those who desire to see their books on the marketplace. I say let the free market take care of itself. The dregs of the vanity books won’t see the light of day anyway. Yes, Harlequin will make some lovely profits from this venture. It’s a business like any other business. It may not smell real good, but it’s not a crime. Publishing is evolving in ways that many of us don’t like. But I don’t see this as preying on authors as much as I see authors not doing their homework, or sacrificing their craft for the easy shortcut.

Unless there is something I’m missing, my suggestion is to lighten up. This is no big deal. These authors are not your competitors in any way, shape, or form.

I will patiently await the darts to find the soft underbelly of my blackened heart. But please be careful of the beagle. She may be worthless, but I’ve grown fond of her.

———————————-

Edited to add:

Malle Vallik, Harlequin’s Digital Director appears to be one page shy of a full chapter. First off, they are trying the usual glorp that other vanity presses do by calling it “self publishing” rather than what it is; vanity. The poor dear is trying to field questions and appears to be unlearned in all things vanity:

4. If an author chooses to go to Horizons, do they lose “first publication” rights? How will that affect any effort to gain an agent or traditional publisher with their “bound copy”?

Malle: I’m not sure I completely understand this question. The author owns her content. How would she lost first publication rights? She has published it herself. Whether she is giving it away as gifts or marketing it, is up to her. Yup, clearly I don’t get your question.

Good holy mother of all things pure and innocent. If this poor woman doesn’t know what first rights are – or even understands the question – then I think the marketplace will take care of Harlequin’s debacle in no time at all.

Those pesky three questions that can stop your heart

My thanks to Gutsywriter for sharing her experience at a writer’s conference. Now it’s my turn to share with you. The whole weekend Gutsy heard the three questions that stop the hearts of most writers because they haven’t given it any thought:

1. “Why is your book unique?
2. “Why would anyone want to read it?”
3. “Who is your target audience?”

I ask these questions all the time when I’m doing advanced submissions because I can see authors are stumbling with their pitch.

“Why is your book unique?

When we ask this question, we’re not looking for a completely new story that no one has ever written before because, face it, it’s been done before in some fashion. We’re asking for the unique elements to your fantasy/memoir/biography/romance/mystery that hasn’t been done before.

For instance, there are a million Alzheimer’s books already on the market, so why did I want Barry Petersen’s Jan’s Story? I wanted it because this is about Early Onset Alzheimer’s, which is a whole different set of books – it’s more virulent, attacks far more quickly, and affects people at a much younger rate. Those books you can count on one hand. Talk about unique.

Same goes for Janice Eidus’ The War of the Rosens and Doug Light’s East Fifth Bliss. Each had unique elements that aren’t in the mainframe of fiction. They spoke to me, above the din of all the other novels that cross my desk. And this leads me to the second question:

“Why would anyone want to read it?”
These books kept me riveted in my chair. As I read, I could make a case for why readers would love these books. With Rosens, Emma grabbed my heart with her innocence. She was the white flower in amongst a family of weeds, and it was her brave little soul, her resilience that kept them together, even at the worst of times. I never saw this as a Jewish book, but a book about questioning beliefs in general. That’s a powerful message – to question, even if you’re attacked for it. I could say that I was a better person for having known Emma. She represents that large population who ask questions and wonder if anyone is listening. That has universal appeal.

Same thing for East Fifth Bliss. Poor, haphazard Morris…that man takes procrastination to the limit. And don’t we all? Aren’t each of us “fixin’” to do something? Lose weight, paint that fence, weed the garden, pay the bills? Bliss taps into that unspoken angst that, yah, we realize we need to take action but we keep sweeping it under the rug. Only Morris does it with hilarity and disastrous results because he’s strayed for far too long. I cannot WAIT to see how Michael C. Fox plays Morris in the movie. Again, this has universal appeal, and I have to say that I’m a better person for having met Morris.

Pulling out the elements that have universal appeal is a marvelous way to capture an agent’s or editor’s attention because it shows that you understand what makes the marketplace’s mind tick. Sure, many of us read for escapism, but deep down, are we always looking for some element that we can tap into? Don’t we hear that all the time? “Man, that book really spoke to me.”

“Who is your target audience?”

In 0rder for us to get readers to say “that book really spoke to me,” we need to define exactly who is most likely to say that. That’s why mainstream fiction is so tough to sell – it doesn’t speak to a definable audience. And that’s why it’s so important to go deeper. By pulling out those reasons why someone would want to read your book, you’re defining your audience. Some books are easy to define – Barry’s Jan’s Story, for instance, has a built-in audience.

But what about mainstream fiction? Sometimes it’s near impossible to define. That’s why pulling out the universally appealing elements is so important – it gives you something to build on.

Let’s say that East Fifth Bliss decides to play up the procrastination elements. Author extraordinaire Doug Light could develop a talk about procrastination and give it some silly title; “I’m Fixin’ To Jump Start My Life.” Maybe he would write about what he shares with Morris, what all of us share. Perhaps he could talk about what lit the fire under his own lack of inertia (provided he suffered from this!). He could write articles to magazines or give this talk at book events. It all leads back to his book.

His readings would start with, “hey, who among us isn’t sweeping a bunch of crap under our personal carpets?” And watch the hands go up in the air. What he’s doing is whetting people’s appetite by appealing to a common problem we all share. He would zing that with saying, “Well, Morris Bliss is a shining example of what can go wrong if you sweep under the carpet for too long.” Then he’d launch into one of the many cover-your-eyes scenes where poor, adorable Morris encounters yet another disaster.

What he’s doing is hitting on something we all share and before you know it, people want to read the book because we want to laugh at something that plagues our lives as well.

Smart stuff.

Authors who figure out these three questions are miles ahead of the game. Is it necessary? Well, how badly do you want to be represented or published? Publishing isn’t easy. No one ever said it was. There are no shortcuts. Sure, there are those Cinderella stories out there, but for every one of those, there are thousands who have to do it the old-fashioned way. My feeling is that authors who are willing to analyze their work this deeply are serious about their craft and are better able to promote their books because they understand the marketable factors.

I asked an author these same questions at a conference, and she really stumbled through. At the end of our time together, she looked at me and said, “You know? I don’t have a story here. I have no unique elements, no audience, and no reason why someone would want to read my book. I need to go home and write something better.” She wasn’t at all bitter; just enlightened.

Wow, what a rush!