Wow! I'm a Special Guest

Visit me at Romancing the Blog. You'll find my post on the announced demise of Harlequin Romances.

Since I'm into sharing my various theories lately, I'll share one more. Whatever publishers do to attract twenty something readers to romances--something they've seemed obsessed with for the last decade--they will never completely succeed.

Why? Because we all read to meet certain basic emotional needs. And the needs that are met by reading romances will never be as fulfilling and exciting as what late teens and twenty somethings are going through in their own lives. They are busy pair-bonding and falling in love themselves. They don't need to read about it during that estatic time in their lives.

We start to get fascinated by the thought of falling in love around puberty.

You'll notice the line in my Romancing the Blog contribution:

Unless ‘traditional’ romance survives, moms and grandmas aren’t going share with—and catch--young readers who will come back and enjoy a wider range of romances when they are more mature.

That's the best time in the world to capture young readers, when they are dreaming about Mr. Right and romantic weddings and stealing a first kiss. For me anyway, everything at that age was romantic.

By fifteen or sixteen, we quit having time to read. We're too busy 'going out' and talking on the phone and falling in love with every guy we see who presents possibilities. (We especially love the 'bad boys' we've fallen in love with reading romances.)

Then, the majority of us establish longer term relationships. And we're in our twenties. We're starting to set up housekeeping, getting married, having kids, getting a life.

Then bamm! mid-twenties to early thirties, depending on who we are and our own personal chronology, the 'romance' has worn off. (No, I'm not saying that the love has died, just that euphoric-falling-in-love-wonderful-magical excitement that settles into comfort and companionship and security.) And we're ready for a break from reality again. We're ready to escape for a couple of hours after the kids have gone to bed and we crave the fantasy and bliss of having a wonderful romance in our lives again. And we're willing to get it where we can, in a wide array of stories.

And that's why publishers are wasting their time trying to attract twenty somethings. That's why they should be concentrating on capturing the hearts of pre-teen and early teens...with books their moms and grandmas will let them read. With stories that let them dream and imagine their future. With stories that show how a healthy relationship works and doesn't work.

Don't get me wrong. The twenty somthings all don't get away. You can go to any college dorm in the nation and find a stack of romances being passed around. But they aren't being read by the ones who are living it. They're being read by the ones still anxiously awaiting it.

Kisses only???

I read Maili Ryan's Romancing the blog contribution yesterday with fascination. And the comments were downright insulting to those of us who don't especially love hawt (guess we can't spell it 'hot' any more) sex scenes in our romances.

I've had a theory about romance readers for a long time now. I think the people who are fortunate enough to have very good sex lives themselves aren't interested in reading 'hawt.' I'm one of the lucky ones. I have plenty and what I have is great. I rarely run across a sex scene that I don't skip because my reality is better! Occasionally, the love scenes (notice the change of adverb) are so much a part of the development of the characters and the story, that I do read them.

When I first started studying the romance market, I noticed that the people reading (and writing) the hotter stuff were, for the most part, people who weren't in a steady relationships. I drew an obvious conclusion. One of my critique partners--a fairly young widow--confirmed it for me. She LOVED the sexier reads. That, of course, was also what she wrote. She totally disagreed with my theory...until she remarried. About a year later, she took me aside and told me, I was right. She'd also started skipping the sex scenes and in fact, had quit choosing the books she bought with that in mind. That was all I needed to decide my theory wasn't just a theory. It was fact.

I do know that market trends have an impact both on what readers buy and writers write. (You can't sell a book with any sex behind closed doors if the editor who's interested tells you to revise that scene and add two more. You can't buy books without the scenes that some of us skip if that is all that's on the shelf.) But the trend toward more and more and more also explains the huge upswing in inspirational romances and the even more intriguing trend toward more realistic, 'edgy' inspirationals. Please, bring it on! (http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/index.php?p=296)

For those of you who may want to hollar at me because you read the sexy stuff AND have a great sex life, I'll point out that maybe your sex life is good because what you read spices things up.

In my ideal world, I'd find lots of wonderful books where the mental and emotional relationship was front and center and as intense as it could get. And the sex would stay behind closed doors because my imagination can fill in the blanks if I want to go there. My reality is much, much better than most writers can write it. And I DO know what happens after that long and luscious kiss!

Ten days later

The RWA conference is over for another year. And after--I'd have to go through lots of stuff to figure out how many RWA conferences I've actually been to--at least 12 of the annual events, I'm amazed to find that, for once, I didn't come home inspired and rarin' to write.

Ever since I got home, I've been trying to figure out why it didn't do it's usual magic. I went to some workshops. I saw most of the people I wanted to see. (I didn't get a chance to really 'talk' to many of the ones I would have liked to actually spend a bit of time with.) I met some new ones. Debbie Macomber and Susan Elizabeth Phillips were spectacular. Randall Wallace was ten times better than I expected him to be.

My presentation for the Scriptscene chapter was extremely well received. I met some wonderful writers involved with that chapter. (In fact, I joined because they are such a great group and I loved their optimistic, upbeat approach.)

Amazingly, Reno turned out to be a good location for the conference. I didn't hear any of the usual gripes about the hotel. Most of the conference food was actually good rather than just edible.

So why didn't RWA do its usual magic for me? Hmmmm? (I know there are those who would suggest that my mood should be attributed to the 'downer' at the end--the controversy surrounding the RITA awards. But I know it wasn't that. Frankly, imho, if the Prez, the board and Nora weren't slashing it out so publicly, the majority of people who attended would probably say the ceremony was okay, it had it's entertaining moments. It had some wierd ones, too, and most of us would have preferred that it focussed more on RWA history and honoring people who deserved at least a mention and less on a negative history lesson. But, mostly it should have been shorter...)

The annual RWA conference has suddenly, mysteriously become, for me anyway, a 'maybe' rather than an automatic. Atlanta in 2006? I guess we'll see.

Publishers: Wanted, new readers

When I was 'attending' the BEA via C-Span, I saw an interview with Laurence Kirshbaum, resigning Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Book Group. One of the major things he seemed concerned about was the future of publishing because..."We have to get new readers."
I hate to tell him, but there are plenty of new readers out there. Hasn't he been watching the news? Harry Potter just made history by selling over 5 million copies in 24 hours...and it isn't out yet! Those are all pre-orders. The books won't be in stores until mid-July. Although a lot of grown-ups read and enjoy the Harry Potter books, the vast majority of the sales are by grown-up but for kids!
So what is the problem? Why do book sales continually go down every quarter as they have for several years?
I know. I know. I jump up and down, waving my hand. I really want someone in a position of power to figure this out.
I wonder when the publishing industry is going to figure out what the music industry did when they started losing sales because of Napster.
Before computers and the internet, used books didn't hurt new book sales. When you went into a used bookstore or found a box of books at a garage sale, new sales weren't impacted. The buyer couldn't pick and choose; they took what was available. Buying a used book was pot luck and I'll bet a lot of authors garnered new readers because of used book sales. Now that you can type in the title of any book you want on your computer and come up with 69 choices to buy used, right along side the new one that is ten times the price, what person with any common sense is going to spend 24.95 (or more) for a book they want when they can buy it used without having to wait or hunt; heck, without even leaving home.
The book industry is in trouble, but 5 million people buying the new Harry Potter book before it's even out should tell someone that the biggest problem may not be a lack of new readers. Duh!

Fakin' It With the Best

I love CSpan Book TV. I've never had the pleasure of attending the BEA--yet, but I always feel like I have, via CSpan. Last Saturday, I was right on the front row for the most highly touted events. (Not the parties, darn it. But the 'official' events.)

I was amazed--but not really since I've had the conversation with so many other authors in the kinds of private, late night sessions we tend to have toward the end of writer's conferences in some 24 hour coffee shop or over the phone with only the closest of friends--to find that Nick Hornby, and I have a lot in common. We are both not 'really' authors. He also doesn't think 'like an author,' at least not the ones you hear in public.

When he hears an author say, "Write for yourself. Write what YOU want to read," he thinks, "Why would you do that if you want to get published?" What if what you want to write is 400,000 words and what the publishers are buying is 100,000? No one is going to read it. And if you were really writing for yourself, why wouldn't you write 40,000 words. (It would take a lot less time and effort.) Why spend all that time writing background that you already know? Or adding in detail so that someone else can share your vision of the scene. You have the vision. You don't need the detail.

My major catch phrase for feeling like I'm not really an author is "I've always known I would be a writer." (I didn't know until I was almost 30.) And listening to other authors talk about their backgrounds, I'm always sure I'm a really lucky fake. Every other author seems to have at least one traumatic incident that defines them. Some of their childhoods sound like they could be plopped straight into a tragic, tear-jerking novel. (Comparatively, my life has been a heartwarming, occasionally amusing anecdote.)

The surprising part was that Hornby is a man and a bestselling author whose books always hit the Times list, who even started his own genre. (Lad-lit.) It's kinda nice to know the I'm-only-pretending-to-be-an-author phenomenon isn't strictly a female thing, felt only by those of us who aren't household names. Hey, I'm a fake in good company.

In his speech, Hornby expressed a lot of my feelings. This weekend, I'm attending the Virginia Festival of the Book. The Bookish Obsessions panel looks interesting. http://www.booktv.org/schedule/

I'm almost a Grandma...sort of

My daughter, who is NOT going to be a writer--"Hey, I just had an idea. I thought I might as well write it down."--recently finished revising her first complete manuscript. I helped her research a few agents. She sent out 5 queries. She's had three "Sure, I'd like to see it" responses so far. So tonight she called. She decided to surf and do a little deeper 'investigation' of the agents. She discovered all the comment and bulletin boards where writers actually talk to each other. So her call tonight? "Did you know I could get rejected by these agents?"

I had to laugh. Somehow, growing up in a household with a writer, where did she miss THAT particular fact? Was she only paying attention to the good stuff? (I guess we did 'celebrate' and make a lot bigger deal of the sales and the good news. I tried hard to ignore the rejections and the disappointments.) She said she knew she'd probably get rejections from publishers. But it never occurred to her that she might get the same responses from agents. She thought she got to pick and choose. Personally, I hope she's right.

Though I may never get to know what it feels like to be a grandmother since neither of my children seem inclined to find 'the one' and settle down, I have a feeling it must feel something like this.

Keep your fingers crossed for the 'birthing' of this particular dear-to-my-heart, but not-quite-the-same-as-my-own book. It is soooo hard to send your babies out into the world, isn't it?

Success

It's funny how your definition of success (as a writer) changes with the passing of time. When I first began, success was actually finishing my first book. It was a real and very scary challenge. And since I hadn't really told anyone but my husband (and my kids, but they were too young to understand what I was doing), I was the only one I had to answer to. But I would have been devastated if I'd failed to a least finish. After that, the next major marker was getting a publisher to read something I'd written. And of course, then it was selling. After about four books, the goal--and my definition of what would make me successful was to establish a readership. I know I did to a certain extent. After all, I did get fan letters. And every once in a while, I'd get a stroke like meeting someone who actually knew who Val Daniels was. That was a thrill, but it is probably still one of my measures of success.

Now, I find myself in a strange place. I'm searching for a new definition for me. I know at least two and a half million people around the world have read my books--or at least, that's how many people have bought them. I know some of those people have probably read at least one of them more than once. How do I know, you wonder? I had markers when I was still 'just a reader,' so those markers I applied to me as a writer, too. For example, I didn't get rid of books if I liked them enough that I thought I might want to read them again. When my first book was slow in showing up in used bookstores, I knew at least someone, somewhere, planned to read it again. I managed to make it onto Ingram's Most Requested Authors list. (Don't ask me how that happened, cause I really don't know and I'm still amazed when I think of it.) I wouldn't have known it if a friend hadn't called and told me. I looked it up and sure enough, there I was.

Anyway, I guess I've come full circle. After a couple of years focusing on my non-fiction book, I'm back to writing fiction again and finding it scary. I am trying something totally new. So that might have something to do with it, but I'm back to thinking success will be if I can just finish this new and very challenging type of story. I guess the next measure will probably be the same all over again. I'll just want someone to read it. And then I'll just want someone to buy it. And then...

Well you get the picture. How do you measure your success? Do yourself a favor and make your markers realistic so that you can find 'success' along the way and celebrate it. It will keep you going. I promise.

Yippee!!!

My website is OPEN and ready for visitors. It's kind of like my house: if you drop in unexpectedly, you'll find it isn't in perfect shape but...

I'm proud. Hope you'll visit. It's almost (but not quite) as exciting as birthing a book. The book's a whole lot more work. But the website is also creative though it uses a different kind of smarts, smarts I wasn't sure I had. It was fun proving I did.

Alfie

RWA's Cover Art Controversy

http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2005/06/06/1384/

Since several people have asked if they could quote me about something I posted on a private link, I guess I'll post those comments here. Check the links above if you have no idea what this is about and really want to.

Okay, I have to admit, I was rather irritated when someone from RWA 'banned' a member's participation at BEA.  I was further incensed when I looked at her cover
and saw that the cover didn't (to me anyway) fall under the guidelines the board passed.  But I still don't have a problem with RWA creating 'graphical standards.'  I DO have a problem with the fact that they  #1.  Didn't handle dissemination of the policy in a manner that would have avoided all this controversy.  And #2. That obviously, someone one was a little overly enthusiastic in trying to 'uphold' the
standards.  It makes me believe that the board probably didn't go far enough in their efforts.  Instead of just creating the policy, they should also have  put together some type of "this is how it works in the practical world" procedure.  Either they didn't, or someone forgot to follow it.

That aside, I called the Post Office this afternoon after I'd searched the Internet* (and couldn't find info but got directed to a _bunch_ of porn sites) to see what triggered brown paper mailing packages.  Funny thing, it was pretty much what the board said couldn't be graphically displayed.  (The postal standards also included sadism and masochism and a few other more explicit things than RWA's new 'graphical standards' address.)  And I also found that even if you put something in the brown wrapping, you then have to go through your mailing list and compare it to the PO's "Do Not Send" list to make sure no one who has asked not to have that sort of thing mailed to them isn't on your list.  (I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pain.  That's why I think it is important that this be addressed before we're face with the problem.)

But ultimately, this is what is really bugging me about this whole thing.  This is so logical to manage.   The members of RWA, for the most part, are smart and savvy.  And we authors know our covers better than anyone else ever will, except maybe the artist.  (Don't tell me you haven't spent more time than is logical or appropriate, examining every detail because I won't believe you since I and every other author I know has.  We call each other and obsess about the tiniest freckle.) And again, for the most part, we try playing by the rules.  So if you set the standards, you simply make them self policing.  In other words, you include the graphical standards at the bottom on the form you fill out to participate in the literacy autographing and add a box to check if your cover doesn't comply with the standards.  Then, if the box is
checked, you ask that author to say how she will make her cover 'acceptable.'  In the vast majority of cases, it will amount to where she chooses to place her 'autographed copy' stickers.  Then you say the author must arrive at least fifteen minutes early to the signing to take care of the problem.   (If it was an ad in the RWR, the author could add a "great read" banner across the questionable parts.)  My point is this, it should be self-policing. None of us have any control over our
covers.  But we sure know when they don't meet our (or RWA's) standards.

Then, if there is ever any disagreement between the author and the powers-that-be, we should have a procedure in place to address it.  My way of handling it would be to have a random four RWA member panel who goes down some form that has every item of the 'standards' on it and puts a check mark by anything on that list that is on the cover.  If three out of four people see something, it is probably there.  (Just like getting critiques.)  Then either the author has the choice of covering the 'problem' with a sticker (or something,) or NOT participating.  How tough is that???  In the meantime, RWA would be protected from running into problems with the Post Office's 39USC3010D regulations.  (Good luck finding that on the Internet but if someone does, I'd appreciate the link.)   It also gives us something official to address anyone who personally has a problem and gripes.   "Our standards match the Post Offices description for sexually explicit material." 

As far as non-profit rules, I don't know what RWA would be violating.  It sounds to me like various members of the board are interpreting their reasons for addressing the controversy based on their own particular ideas of why it was necessary instead of addressing the issue as a board.  THAT's a problem.  And they haven't exactly done a spectacular job handling it so far.  These people work hard and in the best of times, it's a pretty thankless job.  When there is a controversy such as this one, it is hell and I'll bet none of them would be upset right now if we just kicked them all off so they didn't have to think about this any longer.  I'll almost bet that no one made the decision to vote for this based on their personal agenda or any desire to censor any particular person or book.  (The qualifier is there because I don't know everyone on the board personally and there are always one or two who do EVERYTHING based on their own private agenda.)  I will say the majority truly believed it was something that would protect the organization or the subject wouldn't have come up and received an almost unanimous vote.

*http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/usc18/

Thank heavens, this kind of stuff isn't our life.

Alfie

Two Contest Entries

PASIC, the RWA chapter for published authors, has a contest every year entitled Book of Your Heart. Technically, every book you write should be that or you shouldn't be writing it, but sometimes, it is easy to get caught up in writing what you think will sell rather than the story you really, really want to write. Especially after you've signed a few contracts. Then you have added pressure from your editor(s) and sometimes, even your agent, to "write what your readers expect from you" to build your name. (The current buzz word is "branding.") Or "write__________" because that is what is selling right now. Your editor and agent both depend on you to make money so they can get paid. After you've sold a few books, you do become your own little industry with people counting on you. It is pressure of a different kind, but pressure, nevertheless.

And of course, then there's you. YOU want to write what is selling. You have visions of big royalty checks or "bestselling author" status or fame and recognition. Face it. It's part of the whole fascination and attraction to writing in the first place. But only a part.

I truly believe most writers--at least the ones who stick it out--become writers because they have a deep need to communicate something to someone. That's what the Book of Your Heart contest is all about. It gives authors a chance to write what they want to say and have it read by booksellers. As well as scoring the entries, the booksellers fill out a simple questionaire with things on it like "I like this enough that I would hand sell it to my customers." Of course, they are encouraged to be totally honest and they may say "This stinks," but either way, it's a great way to find out if the Book of Your Heart is anything that readers might want to read. It's feedback with no pressure attached. No sell-through numbers to worry about. No agent hoping to negotiate a bigger contract. No nothing but pure is the book of YOUR heart a story that touches anyone else's? I sent in two entries, both different than anything I've tried to write before. It will be interesting to see what kind of feedback I get.

(Note: The good news? I personally think you can make a Book of Your Heart one that is also very targeted to a current market. I've written an article on the subject for the October Romance Writers Report. If you belong to RWA, watch for it there.)

Nightmares

I've just finished taking two online classes. One about blurbing (writing selling blurbs similar to back cover copy for your manuscripts) by Suzanne McMinn, a wonderful instructor and author. (She has a lot of the info at her website so check it out.) The other class, I'm just finishing. It's on how to design my own website using Dreamweaver. (Guess which was the most fun. If your answer isn't the first one, you probably aren't going to find much of interest here or at my website.) The result is HERE.

Don't worry, that isn't my final answer. And the instructors were better than this site shows. I had a design concept I really liked but it was complicated. It's going to take me a bit longer to fix the problems than I have time for this instant so I decided to go with something simple for now to reach my goal of having it 'out there' by my deadline. (Even on this one, everything isn't working right so bear with me, huh? I'm just a beginner geek.)

But I woke up last night in the wee hours in a sweat. Nightmares! The details are vague now but they weren't then. And they were about school. (Bad people chasing me down halls, stealing things, trying to hurt me, teachers making fun of me, etc.) I think that means I'm done with classes--online or otherwise--for a time. It was scaaaaary.

I am proud of all the things I've learned to do. Just wait, with a bit of fine-tuning, my website is going to be awesome! In the meantime, I'd best get back to work on the two (yes, two) synopses I'm working on now. That ought to fuel my nightmares for tonight.

Should be writing. Instead...

I'm playing with trying to build my own website. Don't know if I hate this or love it. Somehow it fascinates me--maybe because it's such a challenge. It reminds me in a lot of ways of the process of learning to write a novel. You think you have everything right, then look at it as a whole again and find that all your 'cells'--or in the case of writing, your chapters--no longer 'fit' like you wanted them, too.

On the web page you're working on, your cells changed shape or size for some mysterious reason known only to the programming God. In some previous chapter, a current 'twist' you weren't expecting either created a hole in earlier logic or made something the character did or said seem out of whack with what has happened now. (And you're the only writing God who can fix it.)

Why is it that once you start actively writing, everything somehow begins to apply and compare to writing?

And why am I trying to learn to create my own webpage? Probably--besides being cheap--I'm a control freak. I want to control everything about it. I think it's the exact same thing that appeals to me about writing in general. It's creative and yet relies totally on logic. Except for the occasional frustrations, I'm having fun.

Right now, I'm using the trial version of Dreamweaver, trying to decide if I want to buy it. If you have experience with that and/or with Frontpage, I'd love any feedback you have before I make the decision about which program to buy.

And you are...Who??? (Or should it be whom?)

If you're here, I'm guessing you'd like to know a little something about me. I should warn you, I have multiple personalities. I'm several people. But I'll bet you are, too.
I was born in Colorado as Vivian. (Why would anyone do that to a poor, helpless, tiny little baby? Don't you wonder sometimes what people were thinking??? when they named their kids?) I had a fairly normal childhood. Well, normal if you consider growing up as one of six kids in tiny (population 700) town, on a chicken farm in Kansas normal.
I was Vivian until I went to college and met the man I married. He immediately nicknamed me Alfie--as in "What's it all about...) Then I took on his last name and became Alfie Thompson to him, but growing up Vivian, that's how I thought of myself the first five years we were married. While I was pregnant with our first child, we moved to a new town. I was eight and a half months pregnant when we went to a social event with the people from his office and meeting people in this new town for the first time. I introduced myself to a couple of his workmates as Dan's wife, Vivian, and began to get very strange stares. About half way through the evening, he called me Alfie and the woman we were talking to said, "Oh!" *lights dawning all over her face* "You're Alfie?" and the bulbs went off in my own head. I realized, the earlier looks I'd been getting were pity. PITY! He talked about Alfie at work and then brought a pitiful pregnant-out-to-here wife named Vivian with him to his first public event. They thought he had a girlfriend AND a pregnant wife. And I became Alfie full-time. (Except when I go to my parent's or write Christmas cards. Then I have to figure out whether the addressee is pre-Alfie or post-Alfie so I know how to sign 'em.)
Then I sold my first book. Harlequin, at the time, required all of their new authors to take pen names. But they wouldn't let me use Alfie--too many foreign readers. Most would think I was a man. So I put Vivian and Alfie together and became Val. The last name was simple. I'd taken my husband's last name when we married. I'd just steal his first name for my pseudonym. So I became Val Daniels.
Being three people comes in quite handy most of the time. Vivian is the traditional, responsible, serious one. She was raised that way. She's the one who pays the bills, makes the lists each day, buys groceries, cleans the house. (If you saw my house, you'd know she hasn't been around much lately.) She tries to keep life going on an even keel.
Alfie is the creative one. She writes. She has wonderful and numerous business ideas. She enjoys life--one that wouldn't be at all enjoyable if Vivian wasn't around to keep things on a sane and sensible level. Alfie sometimes lets Vivian help her write, especially when she is doing revisions or trying to write a synopsis.
Val is the 'Author.' She has her very own special, 'official' voice. She doesn't mind speaking in public--once she gets Alfie and Vivian to go sit down and leave her alone. She's the one who makes appearances at booksignings or workshops.
Vivian worries about who she's going to be once the new non-fiction book comes out and she's Alfie at public events, too. It could get very interesting...though Alfie plans to bring Val along and just not tell anyone.
I'll bet you have more one personality, too. Is the person who goes to your job each day the same one who talks to your mother on the phone? And is that person the same one who discusses your day with your kid(s)? Or the same one who has lunch with a friend?
How many people are YOU?