PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES & SWAG

Authors and readers alike are there for a common purpose – to celebrate books. In particular, romance books. So it’s the perfect environment for promoting yourself as an author, or, as a reader, meeting your favorite author and picking up some goodies. As Addison Fox points out, “RT is wonderful because it’s a group of people who love books. Everyone there celebrates the written word and it’s just such a fun environment to be in for days on end.”

Some of Kim Law’s swag.

Got swag? Boy, I hope so. If you’re an author at RT, bring a LOT and ALWAYS have some on you. This felt different from RWA, where I was hesitant to “push” things on fellow writers and usually opted for leaving items in the goody room. But at RT, even the postcards went quickly as I met readers and authors who wanted something that would help them remember my name.

Kinds of swag? There were a lot of pens, bookmarks, lip balms and candies. Kim Law’s beach balls were a unique and popular addition. Jeannie Lin noticed that dressing up her bookmarks (for a minimal cost) created a big hit. Says Lin: “I didn’t have very expensive stuff (other than the Ruby playing cards) but my bookmarks stood out because I wanted to make them pretty and different. Who would have thought those 1-cent red tassels would make them such a hit? I had booksellers and just random people come up to comment on how beautiful my bookmarks were.” She also recommends choosing swag that makes readers feel special and is strongly branded so they’ll remember you.

Elizabeth Essex describes having tiers of swag ready for any occasion. “Carry your swag with you at all times. You never know when the top reviewer from RT is going to come up to you while you are dressed as a saloon girl and ask to see your latest. Have that ARC, or PDF, or whatever hidden in your purse and ready to give out. And carry your minor swag—every time a reader asked me what I wrote, I passed out my character cards. Every time a reader said she had liked something I’ve already written, I gave her an autographed bookplate to stick in her book. And even if she had read it on an e-reader, she was happy to get that little bit of something personal.”

Bring a pimp. Several authors brought grown sons, spouses, or a friend to help hand out items, both at book signings and in the general assemblies. Perhaps when my daughter’s of age, I’ll put her in a cute T-shirt so people will ask about her mom’s books. *wink*

Heather McCollum and Addison Fox mingle.

Pimp yourself. Talk to people! There is no better promotional opportunity at RT than talking to the people around you—in line, on the elevator, sitting in a workshop, or wherever. Tamara Hogan says: “The most valuable part of the conference for me was networking: connecting with other writers, of course, but also chatting with book bloggers, reviewers, and librarians. A lot of these opportunities are kinda random – you never know who you’re standing in line with!” Rita Henuber also suggests reaching out to people you don’t know, asking them questions and they’ll start asking about you.

AUTHOR VISIBILITY 

Tamara Hogan and Jeannie Lin at the Jazz Breakfast

Attend workshops and events. In addition to swag, the workshops and reader events were ways to connect with readers. Kim Law advises authors in attendance “to expect any workshop you attend to possibly turn into a reader workshop. And that that isn’t a bad thing! Always bring freebies to the workshops, and assume you’re going to be answering reader questions.” The after-hours parties with food and drink were also big draws. One thing I did was tweet during the “Readers Know Best” workshop, which resulted in several new followers and retweets.

Kim Law poses with cover model Harvey Gaudun-Stables

Make friends with hot guys. The cover models were everywhere, appearing like co-hosts of events in addition to generating excitement among the attendees, who enjoyed a bit of eye candy. Don’t be afraid to talk to them and get your picture taken. I met some fabulous new people this way, and many authors generated a buzz by posting their pictures with cover models on Facebook.

Liz Bemis with Scott (one of the handsome cover models).

Make friends, period. As Elizabeth Essex recommends: “My philosophy/best advice for large conferences like RT is to tell yourself it’s just an opportunity to ‘make new friends,’ both with readers and with authors. I had a fabulous, if exhausting time, by telling myself that RT was just one big sleep-over party, and that everywhere I went, elevators, parties, workshops and bars were just opportunities to say ‘Hi’ to other people and ask them if they were having fun. I met so many readers that way, and I also met fellow authors and established common ground and mutual fan-girldom. At least one of those authors I met and hit it off with, gave me a shout-out on a big, national blog as a result.”

Advertising options. Personally, I didn’t find the smaller posters that lined one specific portion of the event space as eyecatching as the window clings that were something like 7 feet tall x 4 feet wide and lined the walking areas we passed through every day. The clings on the elevator doors were captivating as well.  There was also “Promo Alley.” For the low price of $25, authors could reserve a square of space in which to place promo items for attendees to pick up. Jeannie Lin highly recommends this option. “Put up a poster with your book cover on it as well as other giveaways  like bookmarks. It’s SO worth it and the cheapest promo you’ll find at RT.”

Laura Navarre in costume at the book signing.

Elizabeth Essex dresses the part for the Rosie’s Gulch party.

Identify yourself (and your subgenre). Rita Henuber suggests wearing something that indicates what you write. “If your books are about weddings wear a veil. If you write historicals wear at least the top part of a costume. Wear a pirate hat and eye patch. Have a parrot on your shoulder. I was immediately drawn to authors who did this.”

Go big or go home. Either prepare to promote yourself as a big name readers should want to know, or spend your time at home writing the next book that will make you bigger. RT is about making a splash. Elizabeth Essex found dressing up to be fun and rewarding. “Be professional, but surrender your dignity: RT is all about dressing up and going to the parties. So I became a saloon girl, even if I was mutton dressed as lamb. I had fun, and made new friends, and those friends tracked me down at the signing and bought books. All because I had a fabulous velvet corset.” Jeannie Lin found this to be true as well. “It’s like any other ‘Con.’ It’s about stepping out in costume and interacting with other fans and readers. I think I was easily recognized because 1) I actually really like dressing up 2) and I’m Asian and I write Asian books  3) My covers and SWAG were really easily identifiable.”

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

I had a blast at RT, but there were some things I would have done differently…and definitely some lessons learned.

Club RT. This was a scheduled time to sit and let your readers come find you. For me (a relatively new author who doesn’t have a huge following), it wasn’t that helpful, though I had fun spending that time chatting with cover models and the other authors who were there.

FANtastic Day party. Mass hysteria. Dogs and cats, living together. Okay, this event might not have been that crazy, but it was the one time I truly felt overwhelmed. Thank goodness I had Kim and Addison to glom onto. I don’t know how readers/attendees were expected to locate authors, or how authors were supposed to match up with readers who might like their books. Unless you had very visible freebies (especially free print books) to give away, readers were likely to pass you by in the crowd.

Heather McCollum at Saturday’s Book Fair

E-Book EXPO and Giant Book Fair. First, I was thrilled to be part of the E-book EXPO on Thursday afternoon. But, well, it was scheduled from 4-6 p.m. on a work day in the middle of a week…and it snowed. Sideways. I certainly don’t blame RT for the snow, and participating in the event was a lot of fun, but when compared to the BIG print book fair on Saturday? There were, maybe, a fourth of the attendees (and that’s probably being generous). Saturday was the granddaddy of events for readers. People could buy a day pass just for that. Readers turned out in droves.

But Jeannie Lin, who participated in both signings, had a different experience. “Surprisingly, I think I had more people approach me at the ebook expo than at the Giant Bookfair. Maybe it was because the expectation at the ebook Expo was you were browsing and would buy later? Or maybe just because it was first on Thursday and the Giant Bookfair was Saturday.”

Kim Law at Saturday’s Book Fair.

The signings. The biggest thing I learned from my E-book EXPO signing is how to better promote myself in the crowd. People don’t know my name, but when I wrote my subgenre under my name on my sign, more people stopped to talk about that with me, as we bonded discussing the books we loved. Conversation usually led to them taking a postcard and swag items, so maybe they’ll look me up again. Using a stand-up poster with an eye-catching cover also had a lot of people stopping to say hello. Basically, having a conversation starter was key to luring people to the table. Also, as I learned from the author next to me, bringing a pashmina or some other cloth to add color or background (other than the bright white that lined the tables) made my station more appealing. Next time, I’ll remember to bring a Sharpie for those hard-to-sign items. I also wrote “Take One” on my sign to encourage people to pick up swag, and it worked. Readers are shy and can be elusive unless you use bait.

I thought Jeannie Lin had a great take on what measures “success” at a signing, and how the RT bookfair is useful, even if you don’t sell a pile of books. “RT is not a bookselling event – There are so many book giveaways that readers aren’t usually there to buy from authors they don’t know. Expect to give away a lot of books. But that’s a good thing. Imagine when you blog how hard it is to get readers to come by and even comment to get a book? And then you have to pay postage to ship it to them. Here, readers and bloggers are clamoring for books.”

Sponsor something. At my next RT, I’d try to sponsor the bags, a party, a panel, or invest in advertising via the window clings. Or host a reader event. As Jeannie Lin, a second-time RT attendee this year, learned, “I did panels that were totally brainy and heavy. Forget that. For next year, I’m only going to do fun reader panels with prizes and games and feather boas.” RT 2014 is already accepting proposals.

Laura Navarre and Heather McCollum at the Disco Party.

Participate more. As a newbie, I confess I was a bit intimidated by some of the evening events, especially where costumes were encouraged. I wish I’d gone to more of them, especially the publisher-sponsored ones. But as a Carina author, I did participate in their cocktail party on the last night, which allowed readers to enter a drawing for an iPad2 (which turned out to be two iPad2’s!). To enter, they mingled with authors, searching for the one who wrote the book that matched a blurb in their hands. It was a great way to mix authors and readers as well as get them intrigued about books from the blurbs. I’d definitely do something like that again. And I admired Entangled’s author-hunt scavenger hunt, and how it took place over days and days, probably putting those authors’ names and covers in front of readers at least a dozen times over the course of the convention.

WRITER VS. READER CONS

I’m coming from only having attended national RWA and regional RWA conferences – i.e., writer-focused conferences. Having said that, the workshops at RT were okay, but some lacked a professional polish that RWA presenters and award ceremonies are known for.

Tamara Hogan suggests if you’re a writer looking for workshops with a writing/craft focus, that RWA might better suit your needs. Workshops at RT, even the craft ones, still had a “fan” slant. However, though she was able to connect with her readers, she wondered what the ratio of writers to readers was this year. “It seemed to me there were a LOT more writers there than there were the last time I attended, with every single one of us there to promote our work. Whether this is a positive thing or a negative thing for reader attendees, I have no idea.”

Still, there was an entire workshop track dedicated to self-publishing, including a couple of workshops presented by Mark Coker from Smashwords. And in a thriller panel I attended, Bob Mayer and other authors explained what an “espresso machine” was. I’d never heard of this tool for printing books from digital files. Sounds like the future of publishing to me!

Jeannie Lin, a second-time RT attendee this year, has observed an “RT culture,” saying that there are readers who’ve approached her saying they remember her from the past RT, or have read her books because they picked one up at the event. “There are also super-readers who scan the authors attending list and bring all the books on their bookshelves that match up. I got a couple of those wanting autographs of my backlist books that they had bought from Walmart or B&N. I’m not a big name famous author, I really believe these readers do it for ALL the authors they read. Don’t you love that there are readers like that?”

Ruby Dinner! From front right to front left: Heather McCollum, Laura Navarre, Rita Henuber, Anne Marie Becker, Addison Fox, Liz Bemis, Jeannie Lin, Tamara Hogan, Sara Ramsey (taking the picture is Kim Law).

Like with any conference, stamina is the name of the game. Rita Henuber recommends eating a good breakfast every morning. Jeannie Lin reminds authors to bring a cup of coffee or bottle of water to the book signings. Addison Fox recommends finding time for a quick nap. Elizabeth Essex balances it all: “Lather (go to the bar), rinse (short time alone in room), repeat!”

Hope to see you in May 2014 in New Orleans at the next Romantic Times Booklovers Convention!

Have you been to RT, as a reader or a writer, or both? Have you attended other reader cons? What were your experiences, and do you have any tips or tidbits to share?

Funny that it doesn’t quite work that way.

Even if your career path is a straight shot to fame and fortune, you’re still going to have hard choices. And you’re still going to have doubt. (Unless you are one of the lucky ones who are in no way touched by doubt – in which case, my jealousy of you knows no bounds.)

Let’s say you get that golden ticket – a publishing contract. (Or you self-publish.) Your editor likes you and you like her. Readers are actually buying your books and seeming to like them. You sell another book, and another. Sure, you aren’t a Big Deal Author or setting the world on fire with your prose, but you’re making a modest living. You’ve come far. Life is good.

But. (There’s always a but, isn’t there?)

Suppose you have a book you want to write that you think COULD set the world on fire. But it isn’t in your usual genre. Your usual publisher won’t be interest. Your usual audience may not follow you into that new genre. You would be reinventing yourself. Stepping away from the familiar (and decently successful) books you’ve been writing to take a flying leap into might-never-make-a-dime. What do you do? Play it safe and stick to what you know? What people expect from you? Or take a risk and try to do something that might be big? (Or might fall flatter than a pancake.)

That’s what I’ve been wrestling with lately. I’ve taken a brief hiatus from writing my para-roms and stepped into the wild and unknown world of YA. And I’ve learned this business never stops being about risk and reward. Doubt and daring. No matter where you are in your career, you have to keep putting yourself out there.

Do you have a book you’d like to write that is outside your comfort zone? Have you written a risky book? Did it pay off for you?

However, one of the best things about the current publishing landscape is how long your stories can stay on the ‘shelf’. True, if you’re in print in a bookstore, you have a limited window to attract buyers before those copies are returned to the publisher. But ebooks now stay available indefinitely. And this is a huge boon for authors (and readers).

Previously, the clearest path to success was to generate a lot of buzz before the release, sell as many copies as possible in the first couple of weeks, and hope to hit a bestseller list (and another print run) before the first print run was exhausted. This influenced the extraordinarily long turnaround times we see for traditionally published books – if this is your only path to success, you want to build in a six-month window before the release to focus on marketing, getting ARCs to reviewers, placing ads in trade publications, etc.

But from the data I’ve seen in presentations by both Goodreads (at a San Francisco RWA meeting last spring) and Google (at DBW Discoverability and Marketing last fall), the aforementioned path (I’ll call it “early bestseller”) is no longer the only path to success. They’ve both identified trends that point to “slow burn” books: books that start flat, build buzz over the first two, three, or six months of their release, and then pick up steam through word of mouth, advertising, increased reviews, etc. Some of the biggest hits we’ve seen in the last year (Fifty Shades, anyone?) were slow burn books – to popular culture they seemed to come out of nowhere, but they had been slowly building speed for months before hitting the tipping point that got them into mass audiences.

What does this mean for authors? I still believe that early promo is key. If I had it to do again, I might have sacrificed the Nook First placement (which necessitated moving my planned release date up by five weeks) for more time to get ARCs out to reviewers, do some Goodreads giveways, and set up blog giveaways. But if you aren’t happy with how your book is doing 2-3 months after launch, you still have options:

1) Assess your reviews. I don’t mean read them – I mean take a look at how many you have, and whether you’ve gotten reviews on popular romance blogs. Reviews of all types are critical for both word of mouth (it’s easier for people to find you if they stumble across a review of your book multiple times) and for discoverability (rumor has it that Amazon is more likely to show your book to browsing consumers if you have a decently large number of reviews).

If your review numbers are low, here are some things you can try:

• Invest in reviewer copies. The cheapest option is to contact reviewers directly and send them an epub/mobi file directly (if your publisher allows this). Alternatively, you can give reviewers an ebook from Amazon/B&N, or mail them paperbacks (hopefully provided by your publisher; if you’re selfpublished, this gets a bit pricier).
• Give away paper copies on Goodreads. These contests are easy to run, but require a paper version of the book to be mailed to the winners. Your mileage may vary; it yields a fairly high percentage of reviews for the copies given out, but there’s no way to vet the winners. And I just discovered a winner from my latest giveaway selling his copy (marked as “never been read”) on his Amazon storefront. But if you can ignored those occasional frustrations, Goodreads is a good place to give away books to new readers.
• You can also give aways copies on blogs and social media outlets, but I’m not convinced this is a great strategy; some of those readers may become loyal fans, but others may just be looking for a freebie. It really depends on how you position it and whether you think you’ve found a good set of potential readers for the giveaway setup.
• Finally, if you’re self-published, you could invest in Netgalley to distribute review copies. It’s expensive ($399 for a single title for six months), but has the advantage of a huge community of reviewers who will see your title and can request it. This saves you the legwork of identifying every reviewer you might want to approach yourself, but also gives you an easy link/widget that you can use to invite specific reviewers as desired.

2) Invest in advertising. This one is more controversial, in my opinion, because there are a ton of sites and blogs out there that are willing to charge you for advertising that may have absolutely no value to you. I can’t recommend specific sites for this one, but I would say to carefully investigate the site’s reach – how many visitors do they have every week? Are they selling twenty ads on the homepage, or will you be featured more prominently? What is their social media presence? Will you be included in a newsletter to subscribers, and how many subscribers do they have? Large, heavily trafficked sites like Dear Author or Fresh Fiction charge more for ads…but you’re likely to get more exposure for your money if you advertise on larger sites.

3) Interact with your current readers. Use the fans you already have to spread the word about your latest book (in a fun, no-pressure, non-annoying way, of course . I don’t talk a lot about my books on social media, but because I do it rarely, I tend to see a noticeable spike in sales if I make a clear, usually-funny announcement about my latest release.

4) Find promotions that you enjoy and focus on those. None of us can do everything related to promo. I personally loathe writing blog posts (which is why you don’t see me here more than one every six weeks!), so I will probably never make a blog tour the focal point of my promo efforts. But I like making videos, doing giveaways, and talking to readers – and now that I’ve realized that, I can concentrate my efforts there instead. This means that there’s a good chance that my alter ego (of “Sh*t Romance Writers Say” fame) will be doing more videos in the near future.

Have you tried to promote a book several months after its release? What was your experience? Do you have any tips to share (or lessons learned that we should all avoid)? I would love to hear your thoughts! I may not respond right away since the aforementioned day job is cramping my style, but I’m eager to see the discussion.

I decided to break from my mold and actually do an official reveal this time for my upcoming 1816 Candles. And I have to say, it’s been REALLY difficult to sit on this cover, because I’m just that excited by it. But sit on it I did, while ATOMR Blog Tours organized the reveal for me. And today’s reveal day! Whoooo!

The 1816 Candles cover will be featured on 48 blogs today. Plus my Facebook page, of course. I’ll be sure to do my traditional, “Hey! Look!”

So in honor of my big reveal, I invited my super awesome cover artist Keith to come talk to us about the process he goes through when working with a client. Keith is the uber-talented creative behind KeithDrawsCoverArt. Welcome!

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Designing a Book Cover

Before sitting down to design a cover, it’s worth thinking about a few things.

A book cover is basically an ad for the book. The function is similar to that of a movie trailer. It has to capture the interest of the onlooker and then create the desire to know more about the story. It has to create questions that can only be answered by reading the book. But unlike a movie trailer there is no movement. We only have, in effect, one frame. So clearly it has to be more than just a nice picture.
Whether the book appears on the shelf in a store or in a list of thumbnails on Amazon it needs to stand out, so the first thing I’m going to talk about is color.

When people are scanning over book covers you want them to stop and look at yours. Using color helps with that a great deal. Here is an interesting fact:

“Tests indicate that a black and white image may sustain interest for less than two-thirds a second, whereas a colored image may hold the attention for two seconds or more. (A product has one-twentieth of a second to halt the customer’s attention on a shelf or display.)
Source:”
Jill Morton, Colorcom

So basically Jill is saying that her research has proven that by using color you will get 6 times as much attention from your potential reader than if you used a monotone (black and white or grey scale) image. Here is another interesting interesting fact:

“Ads in color are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white (as shown in study on phone directory ads).”
Source: White, Jan V., Color for Impact, Strathmoor Press, April, 1997

Remembering that a book cover is basically an advertisement for the book this information is very relevant. If you want to know more about the specifics of color I wrote a piece on it here: http://keithdraws.wordpress.com/category/composition/color/

I think its safe to conclude that book covers produced in color are more likely to capture the attention of the potential audience.

And now I’m going to get into the design.

I usually consider the main image and the title/author typography to be all a part of the same thing. They must work together to create one coherent image that captures interest and creates a desire to know more.

I find the best way to create that image is to read the book, (or synopsis if the book isn’t available) and begin by asking myself some questions. Sometimes authors have very specific things they want on the cover, and in that situation the following questions are still very relevant. The questions themselves are inspired by Alan Moore’s advice to authors who recommends that, before they begin to write, they ask themselves similar questions.

They are:
1. What kind of kind of world/society is the story taking place in? (usually clear in the text)
2. What is the story about? (the core idea and message)
3. What is the plot (the events that unfold to tell the story)
4. Who are the characters and what is their motivation.
5. Is there an underlying message?

Reading the book usually answers these questions for me but it’s worth going back to the author with my conclusions for confirmation or to check if I missed anything. Once I am armed with this information I can begin.

These questions work for non-fiction too. For example, I recently produced a cover for a cookbook, named “A Gluten-Free Taste of Turkey.” by Sibel Hodge. It also has the tag line “Experiment, Eat, Enjoy.”

The answers to the questions are all in the title and tag line.

1. The world is the world of culinary creativity.
2. The story is about how people who cannot eat gluten can still have interesting food choices
3. The plot is the recipes. They show how to make the interesting food.
4. The characters are the dishes. Now if this were a book about chicken it’s motivation would be obvious but asking why the turkey crossed the road doesn’t really work!
5. Appearances can be deceptive. (Having a restricted diet does not mean your food must be bland.)

So how did I address these things?

I decided to begin with typography, and began to sketch out the logo. I soon realized I could eliminate two letters without affecting the readability of the logo. I used on the same T for “Turkey” and “Taste” as well as using the same F for “free” and “of”. This sends the subliminal message “appearances can be deceptive.”

At this point I started to look at the whole layout.

Sibel had also supplied me with photographs of the relevant dishes and I wanted to show them in a way that was unusual, yet appealing, perhaps indicating a simple puzzle that has a pleasing resolution.
In order to produce an appealing and balanced layout that included the the photos and logo/text, I turned to a technique used by the old masters. They made extensive use of Golden Ratios (also know as sacred geometry) and I do the same with most of my work. I place a grid on the page that divides the page up into “Golden” sections and use that as a guide for positioning the elements in a balanced and pleasing way.

If you want to know more about “Golden Ratios” you can read about them here: http://keithdraws.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/composition-using-the-golden-ratio-on-your-cover/

The final design looked like this and I’ve also included a version showing the use of golden ratios.

Now I’ll show you the same process with a fiction book in a little more detail, and since Amanda Brice invited me to write this post, I’ll go through what I did when creating the cover for her book Party Like It’s 1899. (Part of her time travel series.)

Amanda’s brief was quite open asking only that the main characters appear on the cover and had an idea that they could be depicted in period dress, but with a cell phone. The rest was really up to me. I read the book and answered the questions as follows

1. What kind of kind of world/society is the story taking place in?
The story begins in France in the modern era, but the majority of the action takes place for the most part in 1899
2. What is the story about? (the core idea and message)
Time travel and adventure. The story is about two people who accidentally travel back in time on a train, and must find their way back. During their adventure they fall in love.
3. What is the plot (the events that unfold to tell the story)
I’m not going to list the events, but needless to say some of these events and hints of them could potentially appear on the cover.
4. Who are the characters and what is their motivation.
There are two main characters and many historical figures that I could use.
5. Is there an underlying message?
I think there are multiple messages. Primarily that people have many layers and it’s worth taking the time to get to know them, and also it is possible for people to achieve things they never thought possible. Life can be an adventure if we are only prepared to embrace it.

So with these thoughts in mind I began to work on the initial visual, laying out the various elements within golden sections.

I’d decided I wanted the text to reflect the poster styles of the Victorian era, so I began with that, putting something very rough in place, more as an indicator of the idea rather than anything else.
I then thought about the primary elements: Time travel, Adventure,and of course the main characters.

I decided initially to show the couple dressed in period clothes with a cell phone as the main focus, a train traveling through time and a couple dancing, all this held together by a mysterious time vortex. Hopefully all this painted an exciting preview of the adventure to come. I laid it all out using golden sections and this is the result.

Here you can see my rough layout to give some indication of what I had in mind. And also how I used the golden sections.

At this point, Amanda liked the general feel but suggested it would be better to replace the train and dancers with something that said more about Paris in 1899. She suggested the Eiffel Tower and perhaps can-can dancers. I looked around for reference of the Eiffel Tower of the time and dancers and I put together a fresh layout, again using golden sections as a guide.

At this point we felt that while some elements of both were working, others were not. After some discussion, we decided to try the girl (as opposed to a couple) in the foreground holding a cell phone,  the Eiffel Tower would be central, and the original dancing couple would be re-introduced. We also decided to make Amanda’s name bigger for when the image was viewed as a thumbnail. Again I laid out the revision with golden sections and this was the result.

As you can see this was now working much better and Amanda was very happy with this layout. I decided to take the art forward. I made two further changes, the first was I swapped the sides the figures were on. I felt that after reading the title the eyes would stop at the figure and follow it down, then read the name and be led back into the image again.

The other change was to the title. I wasn’t happy with the colors or the styling and knew I could create something much more effective. I tried a few variations and again did a lot of research. I finally decided to update Victorian look by simplifying it somewhat and making with a gold effect. I also enured that it looked effective and readable at thumbnail size. On many Victorian posters a frame was drawn around the outside of the content. I decided to take this principle but instead of using typographic ornaments, I drew the time vortex in such a way that it framed everything and served to draw the eye in.

The end result can be seen here and both Amanda and I were very happy with it.
I’ve shown it here with the golden sections and with out.

I hope this little insight in to my design process helps you and if you want to know more you can take a look at my blog http://keithdraws.wordpress.com/ which has a lot of useful information for cover design. If you can’t find the answers you need there then please feel free to contact me at: keithdraws@gmail.com.

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Thanks so much for walking us through that fascinating process, Keith! It’s truly eye-opening to see the steps involved.

I started off today’s post by talking about the cover reveal for 1816 Candles.

Here’s the blurb:

High school senior Lauren is attending a costume ball at Old Town Alexandria’s famous Gadsby’s Tavern. But when she gets bored by the repetitious historical dances, she goes off to explore in the building and something odd catches her eye.  Is it a woman?

When Lauren follows the mysterious person and picks up a snow globe in the room she’s led to, she somehow ends up in 1816, experiencing the actual events of the “Legend of the Female Stranger” she’s heard her whole life growing up. Now Lauren has to solve the mystery of this ghost, find her way back home…and deal with her own emotions when she falls in love with a guy who lived 200 years before her.

And here’s the cover!

Please join me in welcoming my sister, Ella Sheridan!

Dani: I can’t believe you’re here! Seems like we’ve done everything together. We went to school together, took the same classes, got the same major and minor degrees. Married within 6 months of each other and had all our kids pretty close together.

Then you had to copy me and start writing…

Ella: Now, I did start when we were teenagers. I just had to develop stamina. You didn’t start until you were older.

D: Still, we’ve always read voraciously.

E: I think you learn a lot from reading. A lot of the things I do now I do instinctively because I absorbed it. From a very young age we were learning about story details, arcs, and characterization. We were reading adult books at 12 or 13.

What I think is interesting is your process hasn’t really changed all that much through the years. Whereas mine has evolved…and in some cases, is all over the map.

D: I basically do brainstorming, then plot, and get it all down in extensive notes. Then I do a really fast, really rough draft before revising.

E: And your story doesn’t really change. Once you plot it, you don’t make any huge changes (to the story) after that. But I typically have a major change—

D: In just about every chapter! I really don’t know why you want to write the book twice…what’s the point of that?

E: If I could get it right the first time, it would be a lot easier. I’m just a glutton for punishment, I guess. I’ve done that with all except for 1 Nano book, which I only had to rewrite the ending of because my critique partner read it and said, um, I don’t think so.

D: You are a plotter, though, like me.

E: Yes, I plot—

D: –Then you re-plot.

E: Then I plot some more. And then I change those plots.

D: But you know when it’s right.

E: Yes, that’s the thing that has changed a lot with my GH book. I still struggle with the worry over whether its good enough, but I don’t worry if the story is moving in the right direction, because if it’s not right, I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t settle and have that calm in my head because I know something is off. Even if I don’t know what it is. And when I get a scene right, I have peace. I’ll worry about whether someone else will like it, but I know I’ve gone in the right direction.

That’s the biggest change with this book. I don’t know if it’s a confidence level or an evolution of my process or just this book.

D: I can’t help you there. I’m actually published and I haven’t figured it out. I get it ready to send in and think, “What if I screwed that up?” But it’s too late by then.

E: Well, I’m still working on plotting the next books a little at a time, and the thought of plotting book 2 of a 9 book series terrifies me. Because I do not want to repeat what I did with this one: force myself to write a rough draft that I knew wasn’t right but I thought, well I’ll just get it on the page and revise it. Oh, man, what a load of crap…

I have never struggled with revisions this bad, even though I’ve done major revisions on all of my previous 4 books, but this one was a major overhaul and a half – agonizingly painful to revise.  Part of it was that I didn’t know the rules of my world well enough. I hadn’t figured them out to my satisfaction. I tried to just push through it and hope that those details came. And that didn’t work.

The other part was that I wasn’t as familiar with my characters as I should have been. I mean, I’d been thinking about UNBROKEN’S characters for 3 years. I thought I knew them, and could write them. Then I started the book and…nope. Probably my first clue should have been that I had no music for this book. When I started writing I searched and searched. For me music is vitally important to plotting, getting through certain scenes, setting a mood in my mind—

D: Another thing we do the same.

E: Exactly. And with this book I could not find music that worked that way for me. Until I started the rewrite and then it finally fell into place. That was a huge warning sign that I ignored. You learn, though, and hopefully the next one will be easier.
Of course I always think that the next one will be easier. No. No its not.

D: Come on, girl. You’ve got to get it together. I say, as if I have it all together, and don’t call her every couple of weeks asking her to talk me off a ledge because I’ve freaked out over something.

E: We’re both needy. Something else we share. But it does kind of amaze me that our processes developed separately, but are still so similar. We both use the music, plot to an excessive extent, fill out forms and notes, and both need pictures of our characters. I need to be able to picture them, no matter how minor.

With Unbroken, I have pictures of places too. For the lair I googled underground bunkers, and came up with a home built into the ground in Sweden, but it’s all brushed concrete inside. I started looking at pictures of the inside, because they rent it to people –

D: You could actually go stay in your house!

E: Exactly! And this is where they got on the leather couch and… Research!

D: We get asked a lot, are you twins? Which is funny because I think the older we get, the less we look alike.

E: Me too. I think it’s the husband influence.

D: What would you say has been the neatest and the least favorite part of being a twin?

E: The least favorite part? I think now, there’s not anything about it I don’t like. But when I was just reaching adulthood, that was a hard time to kind of find out who I was –

D: Hey, you stole my answer!

E: Well, we are twins. I think that was a hard time to find myself, and I think it took me longer than the average person.

D: Yes, because you have to find who your identity is on your own. We had an identity as a set. But then we had to find our single identity outside of this other person, which is difficult when you’re with that person all the time. And used to being addressed as, well, one.

E: And thought of as a set. Sort of interchangeable, in a way. Even by people who should have known better.

D: It wasn’t until people got to know us, realized we had different personalities and different ways of approaching things, that we got the more individual approach.

E: The thing I like the most is I don’t have to go anywhere by myself if I don’t want to.

D: When I first started writing, it was the first major thing I ever did by myself. Even though getting married and starting a family were done separately, I was just adding another partner. And it was a normal pursuit.

But writing was outside the norm, and I had to do it alone, I had to walk into my first writers meeting by myself, make my first submission by myself. That is what helped me establish my identity more than anything. So when people talk about writing and how being a writer is something that is wrapped up in who you are, I think this is truer for me than it is for most people. Because it helped me establish myself as an individual person.

E: For me, it was more like following in your footsteps, so I felt like I had to work really hard to prove that I was good enough, that I wasn’t just going along. I had to really work hard.

That’s why the GH means so much to me too. It’s something we share, and that makes it more special to me. Probably less special for you, because you’re like I have to share this too? But for me, I feel like I’m following behind you and giving honor to a legacy, so to speak.

D: Aw, I have a legacy!

E: Don’t let it go to your head or anything… especially the next time you send line edits to me.

D: You do make my books better.

E: That’s an area I feel like I’ve come into my own. Not just with this book, but with my work as a line editor that helped set me apart and give us some differences. It’s something I specialize in. Also it helps that we aren’t targeting the same publishers either. So we’re doing the same thing but coming at it from different angles.

D: And even the things that are similar both have their own voice. We may look the same, but we don’t write the same.

E: Just like we have different personalities, we also have different voices and ways of carrying out our stories.

D: How about some fun facts?

1. We’re mirror image twins. Dani is left-handed and Ella is right-handed. We’re opposites in certain physical areas. We have the same moles on opposite sides of our faces.

2. Ella is allergic to a lot of things that Dani is not.

3. We have similar tastes in clothes, and are both struggling through that “I don’t want to look old” stage.

4. Ella is an inch taller than Dani but Dani is 2 minutes older than her.

5. We do have siblings, but the oldest is 18 years younger than we are. Our youngest sister is creative too, writing songs and poetry.

6. We handle conflict very differently. Ella is the fighter. Dani is more likely avoid conflict if at all possible.

7. Ella’s interest in martial arts adds a whole new element to her evil twin status. Dani is more of an elliptical kind of person, but Ella tells her how to hurt people in her books.

8. Dani’s 2009 GH book features a heroine who is trying to save her twin sister from a kidnapper.

D: The one thing that’s been the best about being a twin is I’ve never had to be alone, really. Through good times and bad. There’s always this person who is not only there, but actually gets it without you having to say anything.

E: We don’t have to explain things to each other.

D: All I have to do is look at you and you know what I’m thinking.

E: Just the lift of an eyebrow or the turn of the head and I get it completely. I could talk for hours at my husband and he wouldn’t get it. I want to say, “Can’t you read my mind?” But no. No, he can’t.

The older we get, the stronger the twin telepathy gets. “I’m not feeling good today. Think I’ll give Dani a call.” Yep, she’s sick.

D: That really has gotten stronger. It didn’t really develop fully until we were adults. I only remember 1 incident of telepathy as a teenager, but other than that it was mostly once we were older. Now it’s strengthening to the point that instead of being triggered by extreme emotions, it’s more everyday things.

One day, Ella texted me and said, “Did you hear from your editor today? Because I’m feeling unusually antsy.” I replied, “I got my celebratory sale shoes.” Oh, so that’s what the excitement is all about…

Dani and Ella will be hanging around today, answering questions about plotting, characterization, being Golden Heart sisters, and anything twins.

Ella Sheridan is a 2013 GH finalist in the Paranormal category with her manuscript, UNBROKEN. She’s a member of RWA and writes contemporary romantic suspense and paranormal with an erotic flare. Her spare time is filled not just with freelance editing, but also teaching karate/jujitsu classes. You can learn more about her here. 

UNBROKEN:

The human world is populated with myths that allow them to pretend their plain, mundane world is more than it seems—except those myths are true. They stem from one shape-shifting species, the Archai. The Archai’s special abilities gave birth to the legends humans revered, but man can never truly understand what it means to be Archai. Their gifts. Their purpose. The depths of their betrayals.

Arik counts on no one but himself, and he likes it that way. Isolated, alone, he watches and waits for the opportunity to gain the only thing he’ll allow himself to desire: revenge. Then, in the dark of night, the perfect weapon falls unexpectedly into his grasp.

Kat is always on the outside looking in. She’s resigned to being invisible, until an innocent walk home from work is interrupted by a savage attack, forever changing the person she’s always been. Now she’s the focus of a man bent on destroying her world to settle his own score.

Two wills clashing. Two empty hearts in need of each other. Surrendering to the hunger between them is a given, but a deadly enemy lies in wait, and surrendering their souls may be the only thing that saves them.

I have not always been a tightwad. While my parents lived well within their means, for instance, we lived in a small house in an older neighborhood, drove paid-for used, cars, I was an only child and only grandchild. This meant that at Christmas and birthdays, I was given pretty much all I wanted-which various years included a motorcycle, a Shetland pony and an Appaloosa gelding.  I got a couple of calves over the years, too, which my granddaddy then raised for me and sold at auction and gave me the money for my savings account. (Hey, I’m a Texan, thus the cows and horses).

But then I got married right out of high school, and after a couple of years, children started arriving-3 boys in 3 years (yes, eventually we figured out what caused that). Things were going quite well…until the oil bust.  A note to those younger than me-there is ALWAYS some sort of bust every decade or so, oil bust, Black Friday, Internet bubble bust, housing bubble bust, and now there’s a prediction of a money bubble bust. Save in the good times for the bad times will always come. However, my problem is we’ve always been recovering from bad times during the good times.  But do as I say not as I do, okay?

Back to the oil bust, the husband , who worked for a company that made oil well parts, was laid off a couple of weeks after we bought our first house. Panic city! What’d I do? I started businesses. House cleaning, babysitting, and teaching piano. My days started before six am and ended after midnight when the last kids, their single, divorced mother, a 2^nd shift OB nurse, picked them up. Husband eventually found a job, but it was for less pay so I had to keep up the businesses until his salary caught up. It still wasn’t great, we still could’ve used the extra money, but by then I was ready to homeschool and I had to stop the money-paying jobs to begin homeschooling.

It was soon after this that I saw Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Tightwad Gazette, interviewed on Phil Donahue. The audience did not like her, thought she was abusing her kids making them wear garage-sale clothes, but for me there was someone validating the way we lived.  By choice, yes, as I said, I could’ve kept up the businesses, stuck the kids in school and had a little bit of discretionary income, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do. She, by the way, did not homeschool, but they’d gone to one income because she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. They’d also saved like $42,000 in 6 years during a bad economy, so this was someone I wanted to listen to, and wow, did I learn a lot from her and her readers.

Why am I going into all this backstory?

Since I’ve entered the world of self-publishing, I’ve been reading many a debate on pricing.  Many are saying indie-writers are teaching readers to be cheap. Just for one example, here’s a post on Dean Wesley Smith’s website.

Now, I appreciate Mr. Smith and his wife Kris Rusch, I’ve learned a lot from their insights on the business.  But I want to present the argument that maybe we’re not teaching readers to be cheap, not if we use free and loss leader pricing as a strategy.

That those “cheap” readers who flock to free and 99 cent books are us tightwad readers who have always existed, those avid readers willing to invest in a Kindle because then they can load it daily with free and cheaply-priced ebooks. (Lovers of other ereaders, do not throw rotten tomatoes at me please!)

During my tightwad years, I was still an avid reader. My books came from the library, garage sales, and occasionally I would splurge at half-price book stores. Rarely would I buy a new book, certainly not with an untried author. But, when I found an author I loved, had read her entire backlist, the favorite author would become an auto-buy. Whether I had to scrimp and save for the next book, or more often, I saved birthday and Christmas money the grandparents gave me to indulge in my books. I also would tell all my friends about a new author, lend them the books, and often, the author would become an auto-buy for them as well.

Author Neil Gaiman seems to support my idea. I recently watched a video of his speech on the future of publishing at the London Book Fair. He told the story about a book-signing where a well-known author refused to sign a used copy of his book, but Neil had no problem signing used copies of his own books. At the time he wasn’t a bestselling author, but he’d decided to depend on word of mouth and was happy that readers were just reading his work. He then asked the audience how many people had found their favorite authors walking into a bookstore vs. getting a copy at a library or having a friend recommend it. Point being, we usually don’t find our favorite authors from buying a brand new book having never read that author before. You can watch his video here. 

So writers do not discount us tightwads. We can help your career, too. And who knows, pricing your book as a loss leader or putting your book up for free for a limited time might actually boost your sales in ways you couldn’t imagine.

If you’re a tightwad like me and are always on the hunt for free or cheap books, and you read and like the book, please consider leaving a review-while some people claim they never pay attention to reviews, I guarantee you tightwads do, and the reviews help us make up our minds whether to splurge on a new author or not.

WARNING: BLATANT TIGHTWAD SELF-PROMO AHEAD (feel free to skip to the last paragraph): If there are tightwads reading this, or heck, even un-tightwad readers-I’d like to point out that my suspense book The Good Daughter, which was a 2012 RT Book Review nominee as well as Love Rocks favorite Indie reads of 2012, is FREE today while my Golden Heart final romantic suspense book Trust No One is an Ereader News Today Book of the Day on sale for $2.99. Hopefully, if you haven’t read them, you’ll snatch them and go tell all your friends. <big smile>

As a writer, what do you think? Did I change your mind about tightwads? As a reader, how do you shop? Are you willing to try a new author if the price is right? Or is price no consideration? I’d really love to know.

Abigail is blogging today about a subject I struggle with — writing that all-important sex scene.

Sex and the Reserved Romance Author

I wrote a romance novel.  It’s called Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy? and it’s out this week.  And yes, it contains that three letter word, SEX!

I see a lot of sex questions on author message boards for romance novels.  How much is too much?  Do you even need it at all?  Can you just throw one of those scenes in there to up the word count?  And I know the answer:  You do what’s right to advance the story.  Sex for the sake of sex?  The reader will know.  And not be happy.

There is one question I don’t hear at all:  How do you write it when you can’t even look at your monitor?

Yeah, that was me.  I could *read* the physical scenes without a problem. I’m not shy and I’m not a prude, but WRITING lovemaking?  Or just some down and dirty sex?  Geesh.  I blush when I just think about penning an erotica.

I mean, I crack dirty jokes with the best of ‘em.  (Two horses fell into the mud.  See?) But I didn’t create those jokes.  I heard them from someone else.  The sex scenes in Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy? come straight from my own imagination.  Listen – I’ve been married for 15 years and have two kids, but… what if my MOTHER reads my story?  She’ll wonder how I know some of these things AND will realize I’m no longer a virgin!  And if she shows her friends?  Oy.

I remember when it was Time.  I was at the point in Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy? where the hero and heroine were ready to DO IT.  They had been interrupted several times over the course of the story already (looking back, that was probably my own reluctance to actually WRITE the scene) and I had deprived them for long enough.  So, in my technical-writer-as-my-day-job way, I wrote their sex scene.  Very step-by-step.  And with my eyes closed and facing away from the monitor.

Editing was even worse.  Because then I had to actually READ what I had written.  You can’t do that with your eyes closed. Oh, and READING it at critique group?  Fugetaboutit. I talk fast normally, but MAN!  I was like a horse at Preakness.

Once I got more comfortable with the idea that I had to write sex if I wanted the characters in my novels to have sex, it got a little easier.  A little.  I’m fortunate my critique group will tell me if there are flying body parts or if it reads like a technical manual.  Even if I am still trying to read the draft with my eyes closed.

So how do you DO IT?  I mean write sex scenes, of course.  I need all the help I can get.  And one commenter will win a digital copy of Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy?

* * * * *

There’s nothing florist Ainsley Fairfax won’t do to help her sister get the love of her life-even if it means taking her place on a bachelorette weekend at a Wyoming ranch so Cecelia can sail off with the man of her dreams. Ainsley is determined to spend the time keeping her head down and her heart safely tucked away-until an encounter with the ranch’s hunky owner gets her heart-and steamy desires-to bloom . . .

Riley Pommer doesn’t want to be lassoed into any relationship. But with the family ranch in dire straits, Riley knows his sisters’ crazy plan to turn the ranch into the setting for a dating competition-and using Riley as the bait-is the only thing standing between them and foreclosure. But the rules of the game change the instant Riley lays eyes on the spirited Ainsley. Now, as others try to stampede over their love, can Riley prove to Ainsley that true love is a prize worth fighting for?

***
Abigail is a Boston-bred Yankee now eating grits and saying “y’all” in North Central Florida. She dreamed more of being a stage actress or joining the CIA than being an author. While she still enjoys participating in community theater productions and singing karaoke, the secret-agent career was replaced by hours at her computer, writing stories of love and laughter and happily ever after.  Her first novel, Who Wants to Marry a Cowboy? is being released May 7, 2013, by Grand Central Forever Yours.

Abigail lives with her husband, two kids, and one crazy princess puppy who masquerades as a sock thief when she thinks no one is looking.

Follow the yellow brick road!
Follow the yellow brick road!
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road!

Perhaps among the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood most of all, the lore of the yellow brick road resonates very deeply. This is the ideal path, the road Dorothy must follow to find the Wizard of Oz, who will make all of her dreams come true.

For winners of the prestigious RWA Golden Heart award, stepping foot onto that yellow brick road is supposed to lead you not to the Wizard, but to the First Sale.  Given how stiff the competition is for the Golden Heart—and the fact that you won the darn thing—surely an agent, a publisher, and sales success are bound to follow, right?

Only that’s not what happened to me. My yellow brick road ended all too quickly—the book that won simply did not interest agents. It did not interest editors. Eventually, it did not interest me. So after turning around in circles for a bit longer than I care to admit, I took the red brick road, which starts at the same point as its yellow brick counterpart. I didn’t know it then, but the red brick road can also lead to your dreams coming true—which in my case, meant my debut YA historical romance Maid of Secrets, which was published yesterday by Simon & Schuster.

This is what I learned along the red brick road.

1. It still takes brains, courage, and heart to travel this path, just like the yellow brick road.

If anything, it takes more. The red brick road by definition takes a little while to get going. It may meander or turn around on itself, with seeming obstacles and roadblocks. You have to have a certain amount of pluck to get through those challenges, and however you can locate your own personal Scarecrow, Tin Man or Lion… do it. Dig deep and find resourceful ways to keep your publishing dream alive, no matter how obscure it appears on the horizon.

2. You may not know exactly where or how the red brick road will end—and that’s okay.

I set out to publish adult paranormal romance. That’s the manuscript that won the Golden Heart, and by gum, that’s what I wanted to write. So when BLACK JACK didn’t sell, I rewrote it, then wrote a few other paranormal books, then wrote an entirely new spin on BLACK JACK again, and then… just for fun, just for something different, and with the advice of a dear friend of mine to take this spy tale I was kicking around and write it for teens, I wrote an Elizabethan-era story called MAIDS OF HONOR. I knew it was a reach… I mean, really? An story about Elizabethan teenaged spy girls? I couldn’t have come up with something more commercial?? But I wrote the heck out of it anyway, and pitched it before the ink had dried.

And that’s the book that sold. Go figure.

3. Keep your eyes on the road—YOUR road.

Those authors over there on the yellow brick road may seem like they have it easy, with their quick sales or positive news, but every publishing journey is unique. You have to take ownership of your own journey, and not get too hung up in comparing yourself to anyone who seems to be moving faster or slower or in a weird zig-zagging line. You can’t know what that other author is feeling, or doing, or what challenges he or she has overcome. You have to just keep going forward… on your own road.

4. Don’t shoot for the Emerald City—look beyond it

The red brick road is a sneaky little path. It knows that any happy success or stressful circumstance you encounter isn’t the end, it’s just a new beginning. So your prize-winning manuscript got passed over? Pffft. Write something else. So you sold your book in a fabulous deal and you can’t believe your good fortune? Congratulations!! Write your next book. So you’ve created this whole identity as an author and yet you still have no idea if your follow-up idea is any good? Sorry, welcome to the club. Write that book anyway. Only good things will follow if you do. The red brick road will continue on as far as your imagination will allow it, to wonders that far outshine the Emerald City.

5. Never Give Up

You may start out at a fast clip, then lose steam. Some days, you’ll race ahead. Other days, even LEANING forward may seem like too much effort. But as long as you have SOME positive motion, every single (or nearly every single) day, that’s really the trick. You just have to take one tiny little step, then another. Then maybe one more. Then, faster than you may believe possible once you’ve finished the next leg of your journey, you’ll look back and realize that this quiet little red brick road has taken you all the way to your wildest dreams… and far beyond them as well.

What about you? What have you learned along the road to publication, be it red or yellow or aquamarine green?

In this breathtaking start to a series, a secret society of young women make up Elizabeth I’s most trusted royal guard. God Save the Queen—or the Maids will.

Orphan Meg Fellowes makes her living picking pockets—until she steals from the wrong nobleman. Instead of rotting in prison like she expected, she’s whisked away to the court of Queen Elizabeth and pressed into royal service, where she joins four other remarkable girls in the Maids of Honor, the Queen’s secret society of protectors.

Meg’s natural abilities as a spy prove useful in this time of unrest. The Spanish Court is visiting, and with them come devious plots and hidden political motives. As threats to the kingdom begin to mount, Meg can’t deny her growing attraction to one of the dashing Spanish courtiers. But it’s hard to trust her heart in a place where royal formalities and masked balls hide the truth: Not everyone is who they appear to be. With danger lurking around every corner, can she stay alive—and protect the crown?

Jennifer McGowan was born in Ohio, grew up in Montana, and studied in Paris. She has held numerous writing jobs over the years, but author is by far her favorite. A past Romance Writers of America Golden Heart winner, Jenn is the author of the Maids of Honor series, which currently includes Maid of Secrets (2013) and the forthcoming Maid of Deception (2014). She lives and writes in Ohio, and you can connect with her online at JenniferMcGowan.com, find her on twitter via @Jenn_McGowan, or visit her Facebook page.

Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, and others involved in the show talked about making a movie, but they couldn’t get the funding from the studio.  So they did something a little different.  They started a Kickstarter campaign.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a website that allows people with ideas for creative projects (movies, games, etc.) to raise the necessary funds via donations from people all over the world.  When you create a project, you set a funding goal and a deadline.  Once the deadline is reached, if the donations pledged toward your project meet the funding goal, your project is funded.  If not, the donors aren’t charged.

In less than 11 hours, the Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter project reached its funding goal of $2 million.  By the time the month-long campaign was over, 91,000 backers had pledged $5.7 million.  The Veronica Mars movie is now set to start filming this summer.

What does this have to do with writing, you ask?  Well, a book is certainly a creative endeavor, and a quick search of Kickstarter reveals no shortage of publishing projects, including romance novels.  With the publishing climate changing so rapidly, and the major publishing houses increasingly unwilling to take a chance on projects that are a little different, could something like Kickstarter provide an alternate route for authors to get their stories out there?

With new ebook pirate sites popping up all the time, and Amazon and Apple filing for patents that could allow them to sell “used” ebooks, could having fans prepay for a book via a Kickstarter-like mechanism be a way to ensure that an author would make at least a certain baseline wage for a novel?

Having fans vote with their money might also be a helpful way for established authors to gauge whether or not they want to give that cool new idea a try or stick with a book that fits into a popular series.

Something like Kickstarter might also be a good way to drum up excitement for an upcoming book.  Kickstarter projects often offer rewards for donors who pledge a certain amount, and I can imagine all kinds of cool rewards an author might offer, from exclusive looks at deleted scenes to special-edition e-books to naming rights to a character.

I don’t know what the future will bring for publishing, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to look the way it does today.

What do you think about a Kickstarter-like mechanism for authors?  Any great ideas about other ways authors might navigate this new world of publishing?  And, are you as excited about the Veronica Mars movie as I am?  (Sorry–had to throw that in there.)