Writing A Novel: Getting A Literary Agent

I've made a big decision about my latest manuscript: Before self-publishing this book, I'd like to see if I can get an agent -- and get my book published in a traditional venue.

I think I've written about this before, but just to recap, I've been through this process twice. In 2003, I received offers from two agents who were interested in representing BAND GEEK (at the time, I was calling the book WHO'S ON FIRST? because of the narrator's fight for first chair flute). I signed on with the bigger agent, who was based in New York City and had many connections. She was a wonderful agent; she helped me fix some major problems in my book and stuck with me for a couple of years. Two publishing houses came close to buying my book, but no dice, so my agents and I parted ways. Yes, I was basically dumped -- but I have absolutely no hard feelings. Business is business and she really took a chance on me. How can I be angry about that?

A few years later, my husband and I came up with an idea for a quirky travel guide. Again, we managed to get an agent and she sent our outline to about 20 publishing houses. The editors loved our work and were ready to buy it. I really got my hopes up and thought that there might even be a bidding war... but this time, it was the marketing people who canned our idea. They couldn't figure out where our guide would be placed in the bookstore because it combined several genres.

It was at this point that I became very jaded about the publishing industry. Then I broke my leg and got into making jewelry ... but that's a whole other story! Anyway, by 2012 -- 10 years after I'd written BAND GEEK -- I just wanted to put my writing out there and chose to self publish. I'm so happy I did so, too. I have all the respect in the world for independent authors. There are many talented writers whose work "doesn't fit" in the traditional publishing world, for whatever reason; sites like Amazon and Smashwords are giving them the opportunity to share their writing. Completing a book is difficult enough, but I've found that it's even harder to have to market your own work. I'm still learning how to do that.

I've always dreamed of seeing my book in a book store, though. I realize that the publishing industry is changing, but I'd still like to take a shot at having someone like my work enough that they actually want to pay me an advance (even if said advance is only three figures) and help me sell my book. This is why I'm going to see if I can get an agent for my latest ms. Third time's the charm, right? I have nothing to lose; if I don't find an agent or my book isn't sold to a publishing house, all I have to do is publish it on my own. Either way, I win.

Right now, I'm editing my work and hope to send it out to agents some time next month. Meantime, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: Don't Believe Your Own Press?

Sorry for the slow blogging, but I've been putting the time into actually writing my latest novel. I received some great feedback from my cousin Rachael and have added yet another person to my editing team: my friend Brian. I'm trying to not make the same mistakes that I have with BAND GEEK and having so many people read over my work is definitely helping. I'm happy with my novel's progress and so far, everyone seems to be enjoying it.

I've gone for several weeks now without reading reviews. Yesterday, I had lunch with my cousin Tom and he told me that when it comes to his movies or TV appearances, he doesn't read any reviews at all. He just takes on roles that he likes and enjoys the work ... and doesn't care what others have to say. His argument is that if he's going to believe the good reviews then he also has to believe the bad reviews... and he doesn't want to be brought down by them. He also noted that if people like a certain thing that you do, you might end up doing it in excess to please them and then it's no longer authentic.

I can understand what he means, especially since I've gotten some very good and very bad reviews -- and I've been both elated and angered by them. They really can mess with your mind. But I still think that reviews can be valuable and it's a bit different when it comes to writing. When he's acting, he's taking on one aspect of a production that someone else wrote and directed. With my books, I'm in charge of the whole thing so I have a little more creative control -- and any praise or criticism is directed at me.

Perhaps I need to find a happy medium and only read certain types of reviews, i.e. reviews written by "professional" book critics? I don't know. I do like getting feedback and I believe that it's important for readers to share their thoughts. Then again, when do you draw the line between pleasing readers and writing for yourself -- and really, how do you cater to everyone's tastes, anyway?

For now, I'm going to continue writing and will stay away from reviews until the book is finished. Still, I hope you'll check out REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD and will at least let others know what you think.

Publishing A Novel: Measure Of Success

There is a woman in my enameling class who is an amazing artist. I'm a decent intermediate enamelist, but she is incredible, a true artist. When I come up with a design idea, I make a rough sketch in my notebook and then get to work on my creation. However, her notebook is filled with detailed, colorful sketches of her pieces that are so beautiful, they're works of art in of themselves.

This week, we were discussing our jewelry pieces and I asked if she ever sells her stuff. "Actually, I don't," she said. "My pieces are too time-consuming to make and besides, I don't really like to part with them."

She went on to say that she sometimes makes jewelry for her friends, but other than that, she mainly keeps her work for herself.

This surprised me because she could probably get a few hundred bucks for each of her necklaces. She could even submit them to a gallery, if she so desired. If she put her name out there, she could easily become a well-known artist/jewelry designer. But she just has no desire to do this. She's happy making jewelry for herself and doesn't care if she isn't known around the world.

I'm writing about this woman because I truly admire her and wish that I could be more like her when it comes to making my own things. While I do write because I enjoy it and make jewelry because it's fun, I also want the "success" that comes with sharing my work. But what exactly is success? Does it mean that my novel is a best-seller or that I sell a certain number of jewelry pieces in a certain amount of time?

The truth is, I haven't quite figured this out yet because I always want more. I'm not raking it in when it comes to selling my work online, but my book and jewelry are selling fairly steadily. Most people seem to enjoy my work? Shouldn't I be satisfied, especially since I'm getting to do things that I like to do? I'm not always as I always hunger for something bigger, but I'm trying to take a step back. I'm trying to live more in the moment and concentrate on how much I love making jewelry or how much I like writing my latest novel. I can't worry too much about reviews or how many units are being sold because it's taking some of the joy out of my work. I wish I could be more like my classmate who wears her pieces with pride -- and doesn't give a damn what the rest of us think.

I don't know if I'll ever fully share her mindset, but I can try to find a happy medium. So I'm going to continue creating and sharing, and will appreciate any feedback that I receive. I'm just not going to let my moods be governed by other people's thoughts -- and will try to keep in mind that I'm ultimately doing these activities for my own enjoyment.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: Avoiding Reviews

I'm about halfway done with my latest novel. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out so far and have decided to avoiding reading reviews, both good and bad, for the time being. We'll see how well I can stick with this!

Obviously, I'm still promoting BAND GEEK, but my mind is attached to my new book. I don't want the reviews to influence my writing too much. I find that my confidence drops whenever I read a bad review of my work, while I tend to get a little cocky when I read a good one. I think that reviews are important and can be helpful, but I need to stay focused on my latest project.

I've definitely learned from reading my book's reviews, as well as from taking a look at critiques of other novels. For this second book, I plan to A) Make sure it's completely typo-free. I've hired a professional editor to do this. After I finish, I might even have her go back through BAND GEEK. B) Not use dialect. This is a small thing, but apparently some readers didn't like reading the way that I wrote out slurred drunk talk. Readers have also complained about dialect annoying them in other novels. I dunno, it doesn't bother me too much, but if I use it, I'll make sure it's easy to understand. C) Get a cover that better illustrates the genre. Though this one is also a toss-up because many have complimented the cover for BAND GEEK.

A few readers complained that my story is too cliche and predictable, and I imagine that they will with this story, too. I'm not really writing suspenseful tales, though; I'm writing realistic fiction and like to think of them as "slice of life" stories. I want them to be more about the characters and their interactions; even if you can tell early on that characters will become enemies or friends, my novels are more about all of that in between stuff. I hope that readers will come away liking and relating to my characters, even if they weren't taken on a wild, adventurous ride.

On the other hand, most of my readers have said that they really liked my characters and felt that BAND GEEK moved quickly, so I seem to be doing something right! I hope that my new novel is as easy and fun to go through. I'm working on it, anyway.

I'm not trying to write the Great American Novel. I'm just trying to create some cute, YA fiction that goes a bit deeper than the average romantic comedy. Just as there's a market for different types of movies, there's one for different type of books. My main goal is to entertain and give my readers some enjoyment, while putting out books that I loved to write. So far, I'm doing just that.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: Hiring A Professional Editor

This morning, I got a three-star review for BAND GEEK. That isn't too bad, but the reader did have some hurtful things to say about my work. She felt that my basic story -- bad boy grows close to misfit girl -- was "stereotypical" (as Josh would say, it's not a cliche, it's a classic).

She went on to say that she didn't think that my story is memorable and that a week from now, she'd mainly remember the cover (hey, at least she liked something, right?). But what I find interesting is that this woman, who says that she wasn't moved by my work, wrote the longest review I've ever seen! Seriously, it goes on and on for about eight paragraphs and is easily 1000 words. She wrote a freakin' thesis explaining why my book is mediocre ... so obviously, it did mean something to her, right?

Anyway, I don't agree with most of her criticisms, but one thing she does nail me for is typos. I've had a few readers complain about this (though most have not), so I've decided to hire a professional editor to help me put together my next book. I'm willing to own up to my mistakes and clearly I need an extra professional eye to catch typos and help me with formatting. I really worked hard to make BAND GEEK as clean as possible and had several people read it over for me, but I obviously need more help. I'm not embarassed to admit this; writers who are published by big houses have editors go through their books, so why shouldn't I? If all goes well and she does a good job, I may hire her to fix up BAND GEEK, too. Then I can promote both books at once.

I'm still proud of BAND GEEK, especially since it's my first novel. I love my story, even if it doesn't appeal to everyone's tastes and am using this experience to make my second novel even better. I don't see mistakes as a bad thing; I'm just keeping track so I can learn from them. Meantime, I'm glad that so many people are enjoying BAND GEEK.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD. Every critique helps!

Publishing A Novel: Cover Model?

It's been a little over three months since BAND GEEK came out on Amazon and I'm thinking of doing something very drastic: I'm debating whether I should change my book's cover.

I'm very, very torn about this because I spent a lot of money to have my cover professionally designed. Moreover, I absolutely LOVE the cover. The designer, Damonza, did an amazing job and came up with something that's fun, mysterious, cool and interesting. It's received many compliments from readers and is definitely different than many of the young adult book covers that are out there:

The problem is, I don't think that this cover is attracting the audience I really want to get: teen/20-something girls.

While browsing online and on Kindle, I realized that most of the best-selling YA books have something important in common: they have people on the cover. There will either be a close-up of a girl, a shot of a cute guy or a shot of a couple. I doubt that this is what makes these books best sellers; a great story and writing is, of course, necessary, but I do think that the packaging helps. For instance, a really cute book that I recently read is Lacey Weatherford's Crush. As you can see, there is a smokin' hot guy on that cover; he really does get your attention! And based on many reviewers' comments, this is what made them purchase the book. Don't get me wrong; it's a great story and many readers agree with me, but many also admit that it was the cute guy who drew them in. Weatherford must be aware of this, too, because her soon-to-be-released sequel, Smitten, has yet another close-up of the same hottie.

I shouldn't be too surprised by this because now that I think about it, most of the teen books that I've read do have people on the cover. Judy Blume always had a pensive or happy girl (or boy in some cases) on the front of her books. The Sweet Valley High series featured shots of the twins, Jessica and Elizabeth, or their friends. The Alice series always has Alice the character front and center. Even the Harry Potter books have kids on the covers. In fact, the only seriously popular YA books that I can think of off the top of my head that DON'T have cover people are The Hunger Games and Twilight. But they cross over into other genres. BAND GEEK falls right into the contemporary fiction/romance slot where cover people dominate.

People seem to be enjoying BAND GEEK; it's getting great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and most of the bloggers who reviewed it during my last book tour gave it positive write-ups. Right now, it's at 4.5 stars on Amazon and 4.09 stars on Goodreads, for which I'm very proud. But despite the good press, it's not selling as well as I'd like and I suspect that I chose the wrong type of cover for my coveted audience.

As of now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. If I switch up my cover, I'll have to once again plunk down a hefty chunk of change and I can't guarantee that a new cover will indeed boost sales. On the other hand, if a change DOES work, it could be worth it. I don't know. But I do know that with my next book, there will definitely be a face on the front.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A AND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: My First Overseas Review!

I find it amusing that one of my most-read posts on this blog is the one I wrote about my first bad review. I don't know if the people reading this are other writers who've received rejections and are happy to know that they're not alone, or if these readers are simply people who enjoy hearing about others' bad days, but for whatever reason, that post is getting a lot of attention.

I'm happy to report that BAND GEEK received its first review from the United Kingdom on UK Amazon. And it got five stars from this person!

I haven't sold that many books overseas, at least not yet, so I still get a kick out of seeing sales from the UK or Germany, or France. I wonder how BAND GEEK's tale will translate in these places. Obviously there isn't a language issue for readers in England and the rest of the UK, but the British sense of humor is a bit different from America's. So I'm pleased that a teen from the UK enjoyed my book so much.

I do want to make it clear that I'm not trying to brag about my work by sharing these little triumphs. As you know, I'm more than willing to share my disappointments and I'm my own worst critic. I'm hoping that by blogging about both the good and bad points in my writing career that I can give readers -- and prospective authors -- a chance to see what being an indie author is really like. That said, thanks again to everyone who's weighed in on my book so far.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: Finding Your Audience

First up: My blog tour continues today with an excellent review of BAND GEEK up at Musings From An Addicted Reader. Head over to the site to comment -- and get a chance to win a free copy of my CD FLUTE PATH and a pair of my handmade music earrings!

I'm grateful to be getting so many positive reviews, of course, but one thing that I've noticed is that my audience isn't turning out to be the audience that I'd planned to get.

When I wrote BAND GEEK, it was with teens in mind. It's a story about high schoolers and definitely has a teenage sensibility. My heroine, Melinda, is naive, somewhat bratty at points and is still learning about the world. In some ways, she's very mature, but in others, she's way behind her peers. I figured that a 14, 15-year-old girl could relate to her and attempted to write Mel as realistically as I could.

To my surprise, a lot of adults have picked up and enjoyed the book! I suppose this shouldn't be that shocking to me; after all, I love young adult literature and read it often. I just didn't expect so many people who are in my age-range to be interested in a high school story. But I think that it's appealed to them because going to high school and being a teen is something that EVERYONE can relate to, whether you're still a teen or not. It's kind of a universal experience and readers are either dealing with that time in their life right now ... or are reading my novel with a sense of nostalgia.

I think it's also easier to get different types of books today, thanks to the Internet. Not that it was difficult before; bookstores stock every genre and it's not like I grew up in the Dark Ages (though sometimes it does seem like it as I can't even imagine being without my cell phone these days). But when I went to the bookstore with my parents, I'd generally hang out in the YA section while they looked around at what they wanted. If I wanted to get books from different genres, I had to find them in the bookstore or library. Nowadays, you just click on a couple of links and there you are. It's not a huge change, but it does making shopping for books quicker and easier -- and you never know what surprise book you may stumble upon in an online search.

What I've learned from this is to not market your work to just one audience. For my next novel, I'll pick a prime group of people whom I think may be interested and market to them, but I'm going to broaden my horizons, as well. You just never know who will want to read your story!

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now just 99 cents!

New Book Tour Kicks Off Today -- New Review Of BAND GEEK!

Since my last blog tour was reasonably successful, I signed on for another one with the promotional company Goddess Fish. This particular tour is an all-review tour, meaning that the bloggers simply read and review my book. I'm not writing any guest blog posts or doing any interviews; I'm just commenting on posts that readers write in response to the reviews.

This morning, my tour kicked off with a critique from Long And Short Reviews. Overall, she really liked BAND GEEK. She related to Melinda and appreciated the growth that Josh goes through during the story. I'm glad that she "got" him as a character because I really worked hard to not make him a straight-up hero; I wanted him to be flawed with a chance to make some changes about himself. She said that she really got into the story and was anxious to find out what would happen.

She does take off some points for typos. She's not the only person who's commented on this so I'm wondering if perhaps I should hire a professional editor. I've read my work so many times at this point that I think my edits would be useless and I'd probably miss typos. I thought that I got them all, but you reach a point where your eye automatically corrects them in your head because you know your work so well. I had several writer/editor friends do reads ... but all have their own jobs, kids, etc. If this book were produced by a large publishing house, I'd have an editor on hand who'd spend months going over every sentence. So perhaps it's time for me to invest. In general, I've gotten very positive comments about the story and if this will take it to the next level, it could be worth it.

For now, I'm going to wait to see what the other bloggers on the tour have to say. I'm just glad that people are enjoying BAND GEEK and getting so into the story. I really do appreciate every reader and reviewer that I have!

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, just 99 cents!

Writing A Novel: New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year, everyone! It's been a crazy and fun December, which is why I've been so lax about blogging. But the holiday season gets a little nuts for me, as I'm sure it does for many of you. There were several parties, an illness, plus my jewelry businesses exploded just in time for the holiday rush so I was busy with orders. I'm back, though, and eager to return to my writing!

I don't really make New Years resolutions; instead, I'm constantly trying to come up with resolutions throughout the year. Still, it's impossible to NOT think about new beginnings at this time, so I've been thinking a lot about what I plan to do with my writing in 2013. So far my goals are:

To finish my second novel, at least a draft of it, by the end of April.

To blog more often.

To put together a book on making jewelry. (Yeah, this really has to do with my other businesses, but it still involves writing...).

To write SOMETHING every day, whether it's a blog post, novel chapter, article for HubPages, etc.

As you can see, my goals are pretty simple. I'm not looking to write The Great American Novel or some epic play; I just want to keep up with and finish projects that I've already started. I think that it's important to follow through -- and one of the best ways to improve as a writer is to well, keep on writing.

2012 was a very challenging year for me and my family for many reasons, but one of the bright spots is that I finally published BAND GEEK. I'm so glad that I finally put my work out there and am sharing it with the world.

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: Waiting For My Big Break

One of the most frustrating things about being an artist is that you often have to depend on others to help you make it "big." Since I'm a writer, musician and jewelry designer, ALL of my creations rely on others' subjective opinions. I work really hard in everything that I do and I know that I shouldn't care what anyone else thinks. But if I really want to succeed in any of these ventures, I HAVE to care about people's thoughts.

Most of the time, I love doing what I do, but there are days like today when things are going slow and I begin to question myself. Those doubts are hitting me rather strongly today, especially since I recently learned of a writer friend's big break. Her work got noticed by someone in a high place and that person was able to get her book a lot of attention and sales. The book deserves the acclaim and I'm happy for her ... but I'm also envious. I want someone with that much influence to notice my work, too.

Most successful writers or artists will advise you to never give up if you want to succeed. I'm among those who's spouted this cliched line, but there's truth behind it. You have to keep working at whatever it is that you want to do. Thanks to my hard work, I've put together a CD, a novel and two jewelry businesses. In some ways, I am very successful. But in others, I'm not. My sales on Etsy and Amazon are ... okay. I'd like them to be great. I see plenty of other Etsy artists who sell thousands of pieces each year and hear of other indie writers whose books are best sellers. Honestly, I want that to be me.

I've read hundreds of articles about selling products online and have studied the sites/books of the successful ones ... and I feel as if I'm heading in the right direction. I'm willing to put in the time and the work. But it seems as if many of these people were also lucky because the right person noticed them. They happened to have their jewelry featured in a popular fashion blog or had their book reviewed by a well-known blogger whose site gets hundreds of thousands of hits. I wish that someone with that much influence would give me some notice. I've been working for years on my various crafts and spent over a decade paying my dues at the magazine. I'll be 39 soon. I'd love to make it big by the time I'm 40. I feel like it's my time to shine.

I guess I'm ahead of some people because I've run into many who've never even come close to achieving any of their dreams. I'm happy to say that I have. But I see nothing wrong with wanting even more for myself -- and am determined to get there.

Please help my dream come true: read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: My First Bad Review

Well, it happened as I knew it would. After getting a bunch of four and five star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, I got a two star review on Goodreads. As I said, I knew that it would happen eventually.

On the one hand, it sucks. No author wants to get a negative review. We work hard on our books and when someone dislikes something into which you put a lot of time, it hurts.

But on the other hand, many more people have been reading BAND GEEK, which is a good thing. And the more opinions that are out there, the more likely that at least a few are going to be negative.

For instance, I just finished reading Ally Condie's MATCHED/CROSSED/REACHED trilogy and really enjoyed it. I thought that it was brilliantly written and would easily give it at least four stars. However, when I looked on Amazon and Goodreads, there were many readers who really disliked the series. Some loved the first book and found the second and third boring; some were unhappy with the ending; some didn't think that there was enough action. Meanwhile, I plowed through all three within two days. Obviously, I'm not alone in enjoying her work because her books are best sellers -- and she has plenty of five-star reviews that gush over her trilogy.

The point is that reading is very subjective and everyone's tastes are going to vary. This is a beautiful thing. I like that people have places where they can share their opinions on literature, even if their opinions differ. It's interesting to see what excites one person and upsets another -- and really, as they say, there's no way to please everyone.

I don't want to see a lot of two star reviews -- believe me, one is fine! I'd rather have mostly positive write-ups of BAND GEEK. But I appreciate and respect that not everyone is going to like my story and am glad that they have a place to share their dislike.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Marketing An Indie Book: What ISN'T Working For Me

When an author self publishes a book, one of the most challenging things that he or she will have to deal with is actually marketing that book. And you know what? This is something that many traditionally published authors now have to deal with, too. Publishing houses will put a lot of money into publicizing a well-known author, but many newbies still have to do the bulk of their advertising and marketing on their own.

Since I'm still very new to the indie author game -- BAND GEEK hasn't even been out for two months at this point -- I'm still experimenting with marketing techniques and am finding my way. The great thing about publishing an indie book is that I can always change course and try something new .. and don't have to worry about angering a publishing house. The only one who has something to lose or gain is me.

So far, I'd have to say that my most successful marketing technique has been signing up for KDP Select and then using the five free days. My last run was very successful and I saw a significant bump in sales (about 500 percent!!!) over the next couple of days. The bump was short-lived, though, so I'm looking at other avenues that have worked -- and haven't worked for me.

Social networking has been somewhat successful, as was my Virtual Book Tour. With the book tour, the days that I saw the most sales were the days where either a review of my book was posted or I wrote a guest blog post. I didn't see quite an increase on the days where a blog simply posted my book's summary or an excerpt.

Which leads me to report what HASN'T worked for me -- and that's static advertising. I've invested some money in a couple of sites where they simply post a photo of my cover, a blurb and a link to my Amazon purchase page. But that just doesn't seem to attract readers.

Now that I think about it, I almost never click on ads that appear on blogs or other pages that I use, like Facebook. I mostly ignore them -- and I imagine that this is true of many other readers, too. But when you post something ACTIVE -- like a blog entry or interview or review -- it gives viewers something more than just your book's cover. It lets them know about you, the author, and gives them a reason to invest in your book.

From now on, I'm going to stick with active marketing; I have another blog tour coming up in the new year, and this time, it's going to be all reviews of BAND GEEK. Hopefully, these reviews will be positive ones and will get the attention of even more readers. That would be a nice way to kick of 2013!

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Writing A Novel: First Chapter Challenges

Writing a novel is hard work around, but for me the toughest part of the process is getting those first few chapters out of the way. These are those all-important chapters where you set up your characters and scene -- and of course, write an introduction that's interesting enough to hook your readers.

What I find challenging is that I have to use a lot of exposition in these introductory chapters. It's where I set up the main characters' backstory and their relationships to one another. But the trick is to keep that exposition natural sounding. One of the basic things we're tought in any creative writing class is to "show, not tell," but it's difficult to "show" what a person looks like, for example, without TELLING a bit about them! On the other hand, rattling off lists of adjectives can get boring rather quickly. So, what to do?

I try to weave in the details. For instance, rather than stopping at every new character to describe his or her appearance, I'll add in a subtle detail, "She twirled a piece of her blonde hair around her finger." Or if I'm sharing some backstory, it'll be organic to the story and will set up later events. For the male lead in my latest book, I just went with a flat-out description coming from my narrator -- but he's supposed to be very good-looking, so it was a description from the point of vie of, "Oh my God, there's no adequate way to describe his beauty." As I said before, the trick is finding that balance. I don't think that there's really a right or wrong answer to when to show versus tell; it depends on what works for your story.

Still, I most enjoy writing the middle of my books -- the meat of my stories. It's funny because my husband is always saying that in real life, I don't really like getting to know people; I like to know them. I guess I feel the same way about my characters. I enjoy getting to the heart of who they are and sharing that with my readers.

At this point, I'm almost done with the introductory chapters in my latest novel. I'm just at the point where I'm about to lauch into the deeper part of my tale -- and I can't wait to get there.

Please read and review my first novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing A Novel: The Thrill Of Doing Promotional Interviews

The latest stop on my Virtual Book Tour is my interview with Lisa Haselton on her blog Reviews And Interviews.

I've done a few interviews for this book tour and did a couple back when I was promoting my CD, but the process still feels a little surreal to me. I don't mind being asked questions; in fact, it's kind of fun and flattering to have such an interest taken in me, but for most of my life as a writer, I've een the one who's asked the questions! It's weird to be on the other side of things and to be the subject for a change.

I don't mind talking about myself, but I am grateful that so far, the questions haven't been too personal. I loved interviewing actors, but had to ask some very personal things at times, and for me, that was always awkward. I always felt uncomfortable when I questioned a star about his or her love life, his or her recent arrest or drug problem, or whether said actor ever planned to have children. These are questions that I'd never ask a mere acquaintance in my non-work life and I often had to push against a lot of personal fears to get the job done.

The good news is that most of the actors with whom I spoke were quite open about their lives -- sometimes to the point where they'd overshare and tell me stuff about their love life or bodily functions that I just didn't want to hear about. I always tried to be respectful and steer them back to the topic at hand; I also always made sure that everything said was on the record. I was never the type of journalist who was out to "get" a subject. I just wanted to share their story. Perhaps I would've moved through the ranks more quickly had I had that hunger, but I had no interest in humiliating a person just to get a scoop.

As for how I conducted my interviews, I tried to make them feel like regular conversations. I never fired off a list of questions for the actor to answer; we'd make small talk, chat about their kids, politics... and while we were talking, we'd eventually get to the topic at hand. I found that this method worked well and got good results because I made the actor feel comfortable. One actress once told me that talking to me felt as if she were chatting with an old friend, which I took as a huge compliment.

Sometimes actors would note that certain questions were hard, especially when I'd ask them something random, i.e. "If you could be any animal, what would you be?" for one of our fun columns. I'd laugh about this, but you know what? A lot of those questions were difficult to answer -- and answering interview questions so that you come out sounding good in print or on radio is a skill! It took me a long time to answer those questions for Lisa's blog; a lot of thought was put into them.

I've always respected the actors whom I dealt with, but now I have a much better understanding of what it was like to be questioned about your work. And if anyone asks me what kind of tree I'd want to be, I'll have my response ready!

Please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

More Excerpts From REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD

Here are a couple more excerpts from BAND GEEK:

Josh offers to drive home Melinda for the first time and she's surprised by his car. FYI, my mother-in-law, Sharon, is an avid Star Trek fan, so his car decor is in her honor:

Josh led me across the parking lot to his car, which turned out to be an old, beat-up station wagon. Several bumper stickers were plastered onto the pea-green vehicle, including ones that said, "Honk if you love Tribbles!" and "I break for Spock."

"What?" Josh said, when he caught me chuckling. "This belonged to my Aunt Sharon. She really loves Star Trek."

"I'm sorry," I said. "This just isn't the type of car I expected you, of all people, to be driving. I thought you'd have something cooler, like a motorcycle." I tried to open the door to the passenger side but it wouldn't budge. He crawled across the driver's seat and pushed it open for me.

"It only opens from the inside," he explained. "But really," he went on, as he cleared a bunch of soda cans off my seat (none were Coke, I noticed). "What did you expect me to drive? I mean, I'm 16 and have hardly any money. I'm just glad my aunt was getting rid of this old thing."

"Well, you're lucky you have your license at all. My parents don't seem too anxious to teach me how to drive when I get my permit." Actually, they haven't wanted to discuss it at all. Whenever I bring up the idea of getting my permit, my mom will be like, "You don't need to drive. There are a lot of crazy people out there." I think she's so reluctant for me to get my license because she hardly drives herself, only on Long Island, but never in the city. But I love the idea of being able to get in a car and go wherever I want. I love the thought of being able to escape when I need to.

Josh turned on the engine and the car made a few choking sounds. "Get someone else to teach you to drive," he said. "It's not like your parents can make you do what they say forever."

"You don't know my parents," I sighed.

In this excerpt, Mel talks about her paintings. Fun fact: In college, I had several Dali posters in my room. I then invited over this guy I liked ... and he was horrified by the paintings. He thought that I was "sweet and nice" and was appalled that I liked Dali's out-there work. Needless to say, he and I didn't end up dating...:

For my last birthday, Lana gave me a professional painting kit, mainly because she thought I needed a hobby other than playing the flute. "It's perfect for you," she said as I opened her gift. "It's artsy and it's the type of thing you can do for hours without having to talk to anyone."

At the time, I'd jokingly told her to shut up, that I'm not that much of a shut-in, but she is right about me loving the arts. Before my dad started working such long hours and my mom began to take care of my grandfather, they'd take me to the city to see concerts and visit the museums. My favorite was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is huge; it took us all day to go through about a quarter of it, but I loved how every time we entered a different wing, it felt as if we were going into a new world.

As for my own paintings, I've been on a Salvador Dali kick lately. After Lana gave me her present, I purchased a bunch of art books so I could see what various painters' styles are like. I really like Dali's. His stuff is really strange; for instance, he has this one painting called "The Persistence Of Memory" that has all of these melted clocks in it. I love how his stuff looks like one thing at first and if you keep looking at it, you see something else.

So I've been trying to do some Dali-like paintings myself. Right now, I'm working on one where I'm making everything in my room appear melt-y. I was in the middle of painting a melted version of my bed (which is harder than it looks because the cover is floral and I had to make all the flowers look distorted) when I heard someone come home. I looked at my clock (which isn't melted, by the way); it was 9 p.m.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

Writing The NEXT Novel

Now that BAND GEEK has found its home on Amazon, I'm thinking about my next book. It's been difficult to get into that frame of mind, because I've been so caught up in BAND GEEK's release and promotion. But the best way to succeed as a writer is to keep on writing. I have many more ideas for stories and am excited about actually putting them into print.

Right now, I'm still in the outline stage of Book No. 2. I can't say too much about it at this point except that it's going to focus on the friendship between a straight girl and a gay guy -- kind of like a younger Will & Grace. Josh and Melinda have a traditional romantic love story in BAND GEEK, but this is going to be a different sort of love story -- a platonic one.

I have my main characters' names and basic personalities down and I have some ideas for a working title and plot. The trick is now putting it all together ... and then editing, editing, editing. I woke up a couple of nights ago all excited because I finally came up with a solid ending to my story. Still, nothing will be definite untill I actually see my tale and characters come alive on the page.

I shared some of my ideas with a good friend and he was very excited and enthusiastic. This is a good start and means that my story is at least potentially interesting. Tying it all together is the real challenge, though!

My plan is as follows: after I return from California, I have two weeks of my book tour for BAND GEEK. I'm going to concentrate on that and then get down to business on my second book. I'd love to have four or five chapters wrapped up by the end of the year, and then have the story ready to go sometime in 2013. Given how long it took me to get BAND GEEK out there, this is a tall order, but I have confidence that I can do it. So stay tuned for more news about my next novel!

Please read and review my first novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents on Kindle!

Writing A Novel: Rejection Blues

If you're writing a book or are thinking about writing one, I can give you one guarantee: There will be at least someone out there who doesn't like your work.

If you plan to send a manuscript to agents or editors, be prepared for this fact, because they're going to reject you harder than any unrequited love ever did. Don't take it personally. They're just doing their jobs and are looking at your idea as a possible business investment and not just as a form of entertainment.

When my first round of rejections from agents rolled in, I took it really hard. There was one agency who'd liked my manuscript enough to ask for it in its entirety. I got my hopes up ... and it was sent back with a note saying that my book started off strongly, but then went downhill and that my narrator, Melinda, was "wound too tight." Ouch! I cried for hours, thinking that my dream was over. Which was ridiculous. I'd just gotten started at this point!

I quickly grew a thicker skin and got used to the rejections. Some were form letters: "Sorry, but your book is not the right fit for our agency." Some agents were very nice about it: "You're story is great and I love your writing, but I don't have the right connections to properly sell it." Others offered some sound editing notes: "I didn't find X scene with Mel and Josh to be very realistic. You might want to work on that and then consider resubmitting."

I actually came to value the last kind of rejection. It meant that a busy agent had enough faith and interest in me to read my work and make notes on it. Plus, I was getting some valuable critiques in the process. I really tried to listen to their notes and work with them if I felt that they'd genuinely help improve my story.

Now that BAND GEEK is on Kindle, I'm gearing up for a different type of rejection: rejections from readers. Right now, my ratings on Amazon and Goodreads have been four and five stars, but I'm not delusional enough to think that all of my reviews will be that positive. SOMEONE out there is going to hate BAND GEEK. He or she will find Josh's schemes unrealistic or Mel and Josh's relationship to be lame, or will just hate band geeks in general. I don't know what it will be, but if I sell a lot of copies -- and that IS my goal -- I have to take the bad with the good. In my past job, I dealt with a lot of celebs who called anyone who was against them a "hater," but I don't want to automatically assume that about my future detractors. Our tastes vary and someone might just not like my writing.

This doesn't mean that I'm looking forward to getting bad reviews. Quite the opposite! I hope that I continue to get 4 and 5-star ratings and that everyone loves, loves, loves my work. That's what we all want as writers, right? But after already surviving some major rejections, I know that it sucks -- but it isn't the end of the world. You might even learn from them.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

Publishing A Book On Kindle: Finding A Good Editor

When it comes to editing my work, I'm pretty obsessive. At Soap Opera Digest, I'd read over articles multiple times and I did the same with BAND GEEK. And yet, I'm only human. There have been many times where I've read my work in print and have seen typos or have -- gasp! -- spelled an actor's name wrong. Trust me, I beat myself up over those errors; I didn't take them lightly. I'm sure that there are even typos in BAND GEEK. I did my best to catch them all, but no one is perfect.

This is why it's so important to have a capable person edit your work before it goes to print. At the magazine, we had a system of checks and balances where pages would be edited by multiple people. It wasn't 100 percent effective (again, we're all human), but it worked pretty well. For my book, I had several people do reads on it -- but I made sure that these were people who know how to write well and who'd give me an honest critique. Having friends and family read your manuscript is a great way to get some feedback, but it helps to have your work looked over by someone with actual editing skills.

I'm very fortunate in that I know other writers and journalists. My first draft was read by my journalism pal, Marybeth, who went through and commented on every single line. Meanwhile, I had my parents and several friends also look over and comment on it. But Marybeth was the one on whom I counted to offer serious writing critique.

For the next go-round, I had my novelist friend, Amy, go through the book. Marybeth then did another read. Again, they were both very honest and gave me some ideas of things to change.

For this most recent version, I got a nice surprise. Back in January, I received an e-mail from a young woman named Rachael who claimed to be my cousin from my mom's side of the family. I checked it out and she is indeed my second cousin. Turns out that she is also a writer/journalist, who writes personal histories for people. Basically, they tell her their life stories and she puts their history into a book. Her work is amazing.

She and I quickly bonded and she spent a week with us in June. She then graciously agreed to edit this final version of BAND GEEK. I asked her because I knew she'd be thorough and honest. And she was! She gave me such great feedback and had notes on everything from how I could improve certain lines to how I could make Josh and Melinda's relationship work better on paper. I've had many agents critique my work, but her notes rivaled any of theirs.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have journalist friends or a long-lost cousin who happens to be a writer, but you can still find someone capable to edit your book. Perhaps you have a friend who was an English major and teaches a writing course or perhaps you could turn to a former teacher for help. If not, consider joining a writing group or even take a writing class. You could hire a professional editor, but that can be very expensive. Plus, I think it's more helpful to figure out the editing on your own. Marybeth, Rachael and Amy didn't rewrite my work for me. They simply made suggestions and then it was up to me to implement them. A writing class or critique group will be helpful in the same way.

Even with all of this editing, I KNOW that BAND GEEK isn't perfect. I tried. I worked on this novel until my brain felt as if it would explode. Really, all I could do was make it as clean as possible -- and hope that my efforts paid off.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

Publishing On Amazon: The Importance Of Reviews

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I end each post asking readers to review my book on Amazon. I'm not doing this just so I can fish for compliments. Reviews can help make or break a sale.

Think about it: are you more likely to see a movie that's been reviewed or one that's gotten no notice? Sure, you can find out what it's about by going to the movie's website or by watching the trailer, but this is information that's put out by the studio. It's different when you read a review that's been put out by the masses.

Studies have actually been done to determine the effectiveness of reviews ... and well, they're very effective. I'll fully admit that I'm swayed by reviews. Two of my favorite sites to look at are menupages and tripadvisor, both which encourage people to share their experiences. I tend to look at the restaurants or hotels which have received the highest number of positive reviews. I feel like I'm getting the "real picture" when I hear what people like me had to say.

Reviews can also be helpful to an author. When I was shopping my book to agents and then publishers, I received many positive reviews ... and many critical ones. I found both to be useful. However, these were all opinions from people in the publishing industry who were looking at my book artistically and monetarily. Getting the opinion from someone who just wants to read a good book is a different story.

On Amazon, reviews can also help with rank. I don't quite understand how Amazon or Kindle ranks its books, but "active" pages are ranked higher. As I said before, reviews help prompt sales, which makes your book active ... and well, that moves it up to a spot where it can be seen more and get even more sales.

So whenever you download a book on Kindle -- mine or any other author's -- please take the time to review it. While I'd love to get all 5-star reviews, I'm realistic and know that not everyone is going to like my work. So if you dislike a book -- mine or another author's -- don't just say that you hated it and wanted to throw it out the window. At least take the time to say WHY you disliked it and what we can do to improve our next work.

Once again, please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.