Ask me...

By: Joelle Charbonneau

As I said last week, one of the greatest things about my foray into the young adult world of publishing has been getting to connect with the readers of that genre.  WOW!  They are passionate and enthusiastic and send lots of e-mails with thoughtful, fun and often unexpected questions.  I do my best to answer every question that I get via e-mail because I love talking to readers. More important…that reader took the time to look up my e-mail address and send me that question.  It only stands to reason that I should take the time to answer them.

I also get questions via twitter and facebook and I do my best to answers those as well.  Because I’ve gotten so many in the last few months, I thought it might be fun to list the top five most frequently asked questions and the answers to those questions here.   And for any of you who has questions you like for me to answer, ask them in the comments section and I will do my best to satisfy your curiosity.  (And if I don’t have a real answer I’ll make one up.  After all – I make stuff up for a living…right?)

 1)  Where did the idea for The Testing trilogy come from?

Well, if you’ve been to any of my events you’ve already heard this, but the idea for The Testing sprung from my teaching high school voice students.  The stress of college admittance as well as all the auditions they have to go through to get into theater and music programs has gotten more and more intense over the years.  During one voice lesson, that tension boiled over a bit and the distraught student began to worry for her younger sibling because if the process was this stressful now think about how stressful it would be when he had to apply for college.  I, of course, said not to worry.  The system couldn’t get any more stressful. 

Ha!  Well, I couldn’t help wondering what would be a more stressful college admittance process.  It was at that moment that The Testing trilogy was born.

2)  Can I get a free book?

Authors get this question all the time and I get questions about free copies of books as well as requests for advanced reader copies all the time.  Sadly, as an author, I don’t get an unlimited supply of books.  I only get a small number of author copies, which means I can’t give free books to everyone.  I use most of those copies as contest giveaways on blogs like this one (and I try to keep at least one or two copies for me and for my son’s collection that he has no interest in now—which considering the subject matter is good).  The same is true of advanced reader copies only most of those go to bookstore owners who haven’t gotten a copy from the publisher or reviewers who put in their request forever ago.  (Oh – and I tend to have one advanced copy that gets a bit tattered and torn from being passed from family member to family member…so that one is spoken for!) 

3)  Can you get me an audition for The Testing movie?

This question shows up a lot.  And I haven’t a clue if the movie will really happen let alone how they will go about casting.  BUT – if the movie does move forward, I will post whatever open casting information I get to my Facebook page and to my website.  And I plan on being at that casting call right alongside everyone else.  Because – well – being in the movie would be fun!

4)  Do you still teach voice lessons?

Yes…although not as much as I used to.  I have a small group of students that I am very invested in and am thrilled that I get to continue to watch them grow as singers and performers.  But I am not actively looking for new students because I  don’t want them to feel as if I’m abandoning them when I am on tour or have to take a week off of teaching to meet a production deadline.

5)  Do you still perform?

Does singing Frozen music with my 6 year old count?  Currently, the only performances I do are at schools when I talk writing and books with students.  More often than not, the first question in the Q&A section is if I’ll sing for them…so I doJ  Now that my writing schedule isn’t as crazy as it was for the past two years, I’m hopeful that I might get a chance to squeeze in some stage performing again.  But first, I have to finish this manuscript and get the kid into first grade.  Once that happens…well, we’ll see!

Do you have any other questions that you’d like answered?  Now is your chance.  Ask away!

Writers on Twitter: Reader Email Bag

By Johannes Climacus

This is the week here at Do Some Damage HQ that I finally get around to answering some of your emails. We haven't done this is a while, so let's get right to it.

Paul in Decatur:

I have a 5-year-old son and would like to get him some age-appropriate fiction. Most of what my wife and I have found is just tie-ins with movies and some "learning" books. Any ideas? I'd love to have something of a crime fiction nature. It's fine if there's a good moral, too.

Well, Paul, I can't help you there. See, most children hate books. Especially kids your son's age My guess is that if you're writing us to find out about books for your kid, then the boy is already pretty messed up.

Here's what happens with parents. You spend too much time with your kids. Feeding and dressing and wiping and all that can take hours out of your year.

So, buy your kid a toy gun and knife set. Kids love that. Also, Gears of War. Kids love playing games.

And buy yourself a book or three. Then read those books out-loud to your kid while he's playing cat surgery or whatever. 

It's a win-win.

Here are three books I'd suggest, all out this week:

DONNYBROOK by Frank Bill

EVIL IN ALL ITS DISGUISES by Hilary Davidson

THE GOOD COP by Brad Parks

Meredith in Cheyenne:

Who do you think will win Super Bowl XLIV?

I don't speak Roman, so I have no idea which Super Bowl that is. Your email has been sitting around for a bit, so it may have already happened. I'd suggest not-the-Bills for any Super Bowl.

Jake in Biloxi:

What am I supposed to do with Twitter? Is it better than Facebook?

Great questions, Jake. 

If you are a writer, you are supposed to use Twitter kinda like a time-card. See, writers don't "clock in" when they stop by Starbucks to surf the web. So they have to show some accountability. They do this by Tweeting writing updates. For example, you could Tweet, "Just finished 3,250 words in three hours. Phew. Off for a nap now."

You could also use it to tell your fans about the books that your fans have already bought. The idea, I think, is that readers are so inundated with tweets and status updates and emails about books for sale, that a reader may have missed the past few dozen links to interviews and blogs (like DSD) touting new releases. So it's difficult for a writer to know when a reader has been completely saturated.

Before you spend the next day or two tweeting about your own book, be sure to start with something along the lines of "Fair Warning. Blatant self-promotion coming." This will make everything fine. Like saying "I don't mean to sound sexist, but" absolves you of anything sexist that follows.

If you are a reader, Tweet questions to authors throughout your day. This is a great way to interact with authors while they are trying to write. For example, you might ask Dave where his ideas come from.

We looked at other ways to help writers the other week -- here.

I can not answer your second question as I have not yet seen the Facebook movie.

Mindy in Clovis:

I dropped my iPhone in the toilet. Help.

This isn't really a question, dumbass. Still, put the phone in a bag of rice. Seal the bag. You're welcome.

Jake in Biloxi:

You didn't answer my earlier question, but I'm going to ask another anyway. What is the best book about a dead hooker mystery solved by an alcoholic ex-cop with a dark stain in his past?

First, I did answer your earlier question. Read the fucking post, asshole.

Second, EIGHT MILLION WAYS TO DIE by Lawrence Block takes all those ridiculous cliched ideas and turns them into a masterpiece. If you pull out the plot of the book, it does look rather familiar. However, read the book and you'll forget every other book even remotely like it. I give it eight stars.

Interesting write-up on the film (along with Don Winslow's SAVAGES) is here.

Alice in Fresno:

Isn't this bit done by now?

I don't mean to sound rude, but fuck you.

And yeah.

Not Expecting the Unexpected

By Russel D McLean

I recently heard of those blunt but interesting questions asked of a writer by a reader. To put it in context, it was at an event organise by the convener who wanted to “promote writers whose books deserved more attention”. An honourable goal, and done in the form of a book club to ensure that those present did indeed read the books.

And it worked, I think. The people present responded well to the books and the writers.

But one question at the end intrigued me:

“Why aren’t your books getting more attention?”

A question that’s easy to ask and not so easy to answer.

From a reader’s point of view, it seems cut and dried. The books are out there. Surely the strong will survive and the weak perish. The good books will endure. The bad ones will die.

That is not always the case, however, as was shown by these two writers whose sales were not in line with their level of skill (although still, in both cases, fairly respectable).

But how do you answer that question?

There are so many factors at work in whether a book succeeds or fails. A great deal is due to timing and luck. The right book at the right time can take off. The right book at the wrong time can tank.

And then there’s visibility. Hard as it is to believe, most publishers don’t have limitless marketing. Just because you see certain books everywhere doesn’t mean they are the best. It means they are the safest bet at the time. Everything else is a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” style of campaign. Some books barely get into shops because buyers aren’t made aware of them. Some books are sent out to reviewers far too late or not at all. Many are jacketed poorly or presented in the wrong light.

And nearly all of these factors are outside the author’s control. The only author I know who has near enough direct control of marketing his books is James Patterson. That’s why he’s everywhere; he has huge influence over publisher’s marketing of his titles.

But not everyone has that influence.

Some authors have a marketing budget of zero. And if no one sees your product or if its in the wrong place, how is anyone going to discover it? Word of mouth is powerful but scattershot.

It’s a tough old business out there, but readers can do their bit to help. By experimenting. By taking a chance on the authors without the advertising. Laying aside pre-conceptions and taking a chance on a book that looks interesting even it its not plastered all over the bookshop or the train station or the local supermarket. Don’t wait for marketing permission to try something. Dip a toe into the waters of the unexpected. You might get a very pleasant surprise.