Yee-hah! My romance/suspense, My Everything, will be released on February 12th with Cobblestone Press. Just got word this morning.
Never had so many releases in such a short period of time.
Check it out in the coming soon section.
My Everything, by Julia Rachel Barrett
Check out Lesli Richardson, over at her blog: http://www.leslirichardson.com/
Here’s the link for the original post…and I love the title - You Are Not A Special Snowflake!
http://leslirichardson.blogspot.com/2010/01/writing-how-to-you-are-not-special.html
She put together a marvelous, informative, coherent manifesto on how to do what we do best…write. I felt her blog was so important that I contacted her and asked her to elaborate on a few of her answers. She graciously agreed and took the time to get into a little more detail.
Thanks for having me! I appreciate you asking me to be here.
I don’t think any new writers are served by getting a pat on the head and false reassurances they can do it if they put their mind to it. There’s a lot more to it. On the other hand, the fact that it IS doable if a person wants to work hard for it-just like any other career path-should actually comfort them. There is no magic formula, just a lot of hard work.
A. It’s a lot of frakking work! When you talk about work, are you talking about the mere craft of writing or are you talking about writing, editing, putting yourself out there, risking failure and rejection yet persisting? Are you talking about promotion and contacting individuals who might be interested in your book despite knowing that they may never respond? For instance - not only writing books, but blogging, commenting on other blogs, asking for interviews and reviews, really stretching your comfort zone…
C. I love your statement, Writing for a living is not art, it’s business. I write because I love to write, but I ain’t quittin’ my day job as a nurse - it’s too lucrative and the money I make from writing is too inconsistent and definitely not enough! This is followed by your next statement - If you want to make money writing, treat it like any other business. Can you make a list of the most important things you think a writer can do to make this work of love a work that pays?
But I don’t say that, obviously, because it would be cruel. But, seriously, someone who wants to be a writer and who writes like that needs to cash a serious reality check.
You also have to give up the notion that you will change publishing. You won’t. Trust me, you will not. The road to success is littered with the shattered hopes and dreams of writers who thought they would. You have to play the game, build a name and reputation for yourself, and THEN you earn the freedom to take chances. But still, you’ll only be allowed to take those chances because you played the game in the first place. You won’t be changing publishing, you’ll only be cashing in your “paid my dues” chit.
As a reader, I rarely pay attention to reviews in terms of allowing it to sway my opinion of a book. (I do use them to help me find books I might not have heard of before, however.) And frankly, any reader who accepts a review as the final word without looking more deeply into that book, and allows their opinion of a book to be swayed by it, then they need to grow a spine. I mean, it’s okay to avoid a book with trigger ick issues for you if a review tells you that. If you hate paranormal, and the book is paranormal, then no-brainer. But if a reviewer says they hate a book and you don’t even bother to give the book a chance, that’s on you as a reader, not on the writer of the book.
I’ve had reviews come out positive about my books, but the review is so convoluted and wrong about some things in the book, I wonder, “Did they even READ the book?” but I let them go because it’s not worth it, and the review was positive, whatever.
There are popular books and series out there that I’ve tried to read and I think, WTF? People like THIS? And then there are books I love that others have hated and think, WTF? How could they come away from this book with that opinion?
So the bottom line is, you can’t please everyone. Period. Don’t even try. Write what you as an author enjoy writing, and you will find an audience. That is who you are writing for, not the people who don’t like you.
And most writers will tell you, overall, reviews don’t influence sales much. Maybe a momentary bump in sales. In fact, some authors have told me that horribly bad reviews will often net them more sales than a good review. *LOL*
Some books just won’t sell. Period. It could be a great book and not sell. It might be too nichey or not hot enough or whatever. In e-publishing, the hottest books sell the most, that’s just the facts of current demographics. Non-romance/erotica is slowly carving out a niche as more people discover e-books, but ask ten people on the street if they read e-books, and most of them will say, “Huh?”
Learn what sells, don’t be afraid to email your publisher (if you’re signed) and ASK them what’s selling. Look at Amazon.com’s Kindle rankings, Mobi, Fictionwise, AllRomanceEbooks, and others to see what’s at the top of their list and don’t be afraid to exploit that to make money. You can STILL write a great story. Look at it this way-you wouldn’t move to Fargo, North Dakota, and try to grow oranges. It won’t work. They can’t survive the brutal winters. You’d move somewhere and grow oranges where they will thrive. Why some writers don’t do this with their writing I’ll never know.
G. Indie publishing IS real publishing. I have discovered something very important. In their money days, New York publishing houses put out a lot of short story anthologies by new authors - it was sort of a foot in the door, a way to introduce readers to the author. They don’t really have the money to take that risk anymore. Indie publishers do. A lot of what we do, as writers of ebooks, is put out short stories. The Indie houses provide that service. I’d love to hear your take on this.
As slow as traditional publishers have been to embrace e-publishing, some writers have been even slower. I don’t understand why. Maybe it’s they feel cheated that they worked hard all those years just to have someone else come up from the ranks and make money the “easy” way. (HA! It’s NOT easy, believe me!)
If your goal as a writer is to make money, then you HAVE to write smart. If your goal as a writer is to write and be an artist and you don’t care if you publish or not, then go the self-publishing route through Lulu.com or someone like that, you’ll make about the same amount of money that way and can claim you’re “published.”
But just like the Edsel didn’t survive, neither will traditional publishing if they don’t shift their business paradigms. Let’s face it-Harlequin started Carina, they see the money they’re losing by not embracing e-publishing. They’re not the only one seeing the light. Over the next few years, I see the big publishers struggling for money and more readily embracing e-publishing now that the little guys have proven it’s more than doable, it can be profitable if an author wants to work hard.
But traditional publishers, despite bleeding red ink from their coffers, didn’t want to take the risk until someone else proved it could make money. Just like erotica, now lots of traditional publishers put out erotica lines. Now it’s e-publishing. We’ve proven there is a viable and rapidly growing market for it, especially as more people get smart phones like iPhones and BlackBerries that can double as e-readers (I use my BB as an e-reader when out and about and stuck in a line).
I’m not saying traditional publishing is dead. The old-fashioned publishing MODEL is dying, however. It cannot sustain itself in the current environment. It will have to change to embrace new technology and reader desires. Look at the current backlash among Kindle readers over windowing e-book releases after hardcovers. Publishers will be forced to start listening to their readers, because they will start losing those customers-and authors-to those readers. I’m surprised more A-list writers haven’t actively started self-publishing. Once you have name recognition, you don’t need to fight a distribution stream battle, you are automatically in the door. I think (and I’m not the only one who’s said this) that you’ll start seeing more writers becoming publishers and cutting agents and traditonal publishers right out of the mix.
Thanks, Lesli, for these words of wisdom!
Hubby read my new book
and he said something very interesting about Captured. He came to bed and woke me up…and ya’ll know what we do when he wakes me up…anywho - he told me that reading Captured was a weird experience because the heroine is me.
He said, “You know, there are pieces of you in every one of your heroines and I’m accustomed to that, but Mari is you. She’s just plain you. And it’s really weird to read about you having a relationship with this guy from another planet. It makes me feel real weird.”
I asked if he felt like I was cheating on him and he shook his head, no. He said it just felt weird, and then we went on to hm-hm.
The next day, I re-read the book and I realized he’s right. Mari is me. She’s just plain old me, potty mouth and all. Wow. I had no idea. Wonder what Freud would have to say about this?
If you want a picture of an author, I guess, read Captured.
There is a fascinating
discussion going on now over at Dear Author regarding society’s double standard about male vs. female sexuality and how it may be reflected in romance novels. It’s worth it to read the original post and then follow the comments.
On a personal note, my heroines are not virgins. They’ve had sex with one or more men in their lifetimes. Perhaps if I wrote historical romance, they would be inexperienced, because that would be appropriate according to the mores of the time period.
One of the comments, i.e., mine, has to do with experience vs. promiscuity. I understand sexual experience. I also understand promiscuity - this is my take on the matter, feel free to disagree. I equate the term promiscuity with risky sexual behavior - frequent unprotected sex with multiple partners IRL, not just in books. Having sexual encounters with complete strangers, the use of drugs with sex with complete strangers…sexual behavior that can actually endanger your life. Sexual experience does not necessarily equal risky behavior.
I encourage you to head over to Dear Author and check out this animated discussion.
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/ The second post down.
I don’t care that everyone is staring,
because I received my first ever fan letter. A reader thought enough of Captured to send me a letter and tell me how much she liked it. She even asked if I might write a sequel. If I do write a sequel, I will dedicate it to her. It means so much to me to learn that after all my hard work and the pieces of my heart that I put into that book, somebody cares!
On to business…my virtual book tour begins tomorrow, Monday, January 11th. Alternative Read is hosting my guest blog - feel free to drop by, read, comment, have a chance to win a copy of one of my other books: http://tjbook-list.blogspot.com/
Hope to see you there! Julia
BTW - got my new internet provider! Thank you, Comcast!
Server issues - what a pain in the arse!
I have barely had internet service since Tuesday night - yeah, the night right before my new release from Siren, Captured, my first release of 2010 - after a year of unpleasant issues related to writing and publishing stuff. Internet glitches were the last thing I expected!
It was kind of like someone stuck a pin in a voodoo doll or sneaked a demon into the system!
*Note to self, title next book, Demon in the System…
Many thanks to the two Erics, both techs who helped me cope and to my web designer, Tracy of Bootstrap Marketing, who listened to my bitching - believe me - I can make a shitload of noise when I need to. It’s either that or tear my hair out.
It is with humble gratitude I thank all you readers who headed over to Siren and picked up a copy of Captured - you pushed me up to number nine on the bestselling list! Give yourselves a big hug from me!
Until tomorrow, if you need me, I’ll be at Starbucks, using their wifi. Tomorrow I get a new server. Come back and see me then because I’ll post my virtual tour schedule for the next two weeks and you can learn what kind of a geek I truly am. With love, julia
Hmmm…
Today’s post will be short and sweet - lots of cooking and baking to do and my baby is arriving home! Yay! Besides, hubby came down with the stomach flu yesterday and chances are, I’ll be indisposed pretty soon. Yeah, maybe I’ll get me the flu for Christmas! Thanks, hon!
Just finished Corvus, A Life with Birds, by Esther Woolfson, this totally cool Scottish lady who rescues crows, ravens, magpies - the story of Spike is so touching without being maudlin or Old Yeller-ish.
I just started a book I’ve wanted to read for years, The Jew in the Lotus, by Rodger Kamenetz. Three chapters in and I’m completely hooked, of course I’m sort of…kind of a BuJu/JuBu anyway. The book chronicles the meeting of the minds between the Dalai Lama and various representatives of the Jewish community, including Jewish renewal guru Reb Zalman Schacter, at least so far. The sharing of information took place back in 1990 in Dharamsala, India. It’s a pretty dang cool book.
What’s in the queue? What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures, by Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve enjoyed everything else he’s written, so why not? By the time I finish, it will be back to work on the fourth installment of the Daughters of Persephone.
In the meantime, even obsessive-compulsive me needs a break on occasion. I’ve been writing nonstop for eighteen months. Whew! Course, I’m working on edits as we speak!
Merry Chrismukah! Oh, and by the way, congrats to Mia Watts - her book, She’s Got Balls, is a number one best seller on All Romance Ebooks! Go Mia!
Not in my books…and no offense intended to any author - all in fun! I have a very sensitive gag reflex, as anyone who works with me at my day job will tell you. Certain words evoke it…
Loins.
Unless a character is girding his or her loins for an unpleasant encounter or pending argument, I will never write the word loins. Nor will my characters experience a twinge in their loins. The word evokes images of a butcher shop and hamburger. Like…a loin chop or a sirloin steak.
Nether Regions.
See loins. Nether makes me think of someplace very cold, as in, He’s off exploring in the nether regions of the Arctic Circle.
Love Channel.
Oh. Hell. No. Flashing on the Panama Canal.
Dripping.
Only as pertains to a leaky faucet or rain on the roof or water dripping from the eaves. Drop is okay. For discussion as to a drop of what, see my books. If woman drips, methinks she should hie herself to a gynecologist pronto.
Jackhammer (ing) or Piston (ing)
Oh. Ow.
Gushing.
A character might gush over someone they haven’t seen in a long time, as in, express happiness. Otherwise, gushing will only occur if my characters happen to be visiting Yellowstone National Park and standing in front of Old Faithful, or maybe bleeding, a lot, from a stab wound…maybe. Again, a part of a woman? Call your doctor.
Cream or Creaming.
Allowed only if singing Greased Lightning. Creamy, on the other hand, as in her creamy skin - wherever that skin may be, is acceptable. This one is a matter of taste - literally. I suffer from the ick-factor when I read the above words - I can hear them from John Travolta’s mouth, but that’s about it.
Moist.
I have this thing about the word moist, probably because I’m a nurse and I deal with moist, um, things. Ew. No moist and definitely no moist towelettes. Double ew. Moisture reminds me of rain so that word is okie dokie, in which case there might be dripping as in rain drops drip and there’s an awful lot of moisture outside, or inside, as the case may be.
Nuff said.
So Mia Watts
mentioned me in her recent blog post. I love her voice. She is a master at poetic prose. As my…well, as one of my mentors says, her voice resonates with shades of Lord Dunsany, a Twentieth Century British fantasy writer. He influenced many authors, including Mia - though she never realized how well she channels him, in fact, she’d never even heard of him before I mentioned his name.
God, her prose is beautiful. I told her recently that I lust after her voice. Especially in Claimed By Darkness. Look her up. Go to her site - get your butt over there and buy yourself a copy.
In college, my very favorite professor told me…well…told us, his class that is, Write What You Know. In other words, don’t write in a phony voice. The discerning reader will pick it up immediately.
He also said - Say What You Have To Say As Simply As Possible. Use Adjectives And Adverbs Sparingly. Words to live by, except in Mia’s case - she makes it work. She doesn’t overuse the adjectives and adverbs, but she writes magnificent descriptive prose.
And pick up some Lord Dunsany and his protege, H.P. Lovecraft while you’re at it.
Books…Books…Books
I love to read, so it stands to reason I might take up writing Therefore, I attended the University of Iowa to become a writer and I worked with the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. But alas, it was not to be. When I got out of school, planning to write the next great American novel, I realized that I was in danger of starving to death! My roommate had been in nursing school and it occurred to me that I could be a nurse - the last thing I’d ever imagined when I was growing up. I had figured…president…astronaut…world-famous author…but as a nurse I could support myself - which turned out great since within a few years, I found myself a single-parent without any means of support aside from myself.
So writing got put off for quite a few years - lots of pretty amazing stuff intervened. Then, one day, while hiking in a slick, rocky area, two miles from my car, I fell and pretty much destroyed my left knee. Suddenly, I had to take a break…of sorts…from my hectic life and sit my ass down. The first surgery failed. For a year I wore a tight, titanium brace that stretched from my upper thigh down to my mid-calf in order to walk. When I took the brace off, and I could only stand it about two-three hours at a time, I hobbled on crutches…this was while waiting for another surgery with another surgeon who I hoped could restore my ability to walk without artificial aids. In preparation for the second surgery, and what we knew would be months of rehab, my husband bought me a laptop and I began to write - thus began a second career - as a Romance Novelist.
If you take a look at my pages, you’ll see some of my books listed. Everything there, including two more, will be released in 2010, and I’ll tell you about each one of them in later posts. Three more works of Romance/Suspense were released in 2008 and 2009 - they will be re-released with another publishing house in 2011, and I’ll be happy to talk about those too - I am very proud of those three works…They were a labor of love. Everything I write is a labor of love. If I don’t love it, I don’t write it. More tomorrow! Julia
I’m officially here, though still trying to figure out how to work all my gadgets and widgets!
If you don’t know me yet, here are a few facts:
I have an off-beat sense of humor and I love nothing more than to laugh until I cry.
I’m an animal lover and we care for a whole stable full of creatures and they all get along - fish, foul, dogs, cats, mice, snakes, horses…we happily support an entire food chain of creatures and they all know their names…except maybe the snake.
I somehow managed to marry the love of my life, my soul mate - we first met when I was fourteen, and we have three remarkable children because I figured the best thing I could do for this crazy world of ours was to raise conscious children.
We are a bunch of sports fanatics - all sports…all seasons. My husband is a runner, he was all-state in football and wrestling, and we hike up hills, down hills, up mountains and down mountains like maniacs.
I played softball, volleyball, basketball, soccer and aw shucks - was a cheerleader. Love to ride horses - it’s been an obsession of mine since I was a little kid.
My son played soccer, football and now he’s into hockey and ultimate frisbee. One daughter is as into horses as I am, she still rides constantly - she’s a real life wrangler - my youngest played softball and soccer and basketball at a very high level and she hopes to coach.
As you can tell - sports-obsessed!
Oh yeah, I’ve been a vegetarian since I was in the eighth grade!
Enough about me for now. Next post - my books…maybe!
I love to hear from readers, romance fans, writers - subscribe to my newsletter and keep up - I’ll be getting one out soon!
Much love, Julia
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