Stages of a Writer Career by Vivienne Lynge

Good Morning Scriblers!  Happy Saturday – Vivienne Lynge here.  As something between an apprentice and a journeyman, I wanted to explore the stages in a successful writer’s career as I understand them from my current place.   Let’s assume a writer’s career follows the decades of life. 

Your first “decade” is all about aspirations – dreaming of writing, wondering if you have it in you to do it and perhaps even taking those first steps and writing some stuff.  When you look back on this stuff later on, you might cringe at its naivety, but you see some deeply-buried raw talent. 

From “age” 10-20 it’s about honing your skills, learning a bit of writing craft, exploring your genre options and reading – a lot of reading.  What’s out there, what works, why does it work?  Dissecting and studying the work of others and beginning to develop your voice. 

In your “20′s”, you’re starting to gain confidence in your writing skills – taking some risks and putting yourself out there.  You meet like minded people and go to a local writer’s conference or two.  You’re learning about the business of writing and publishing.

As you move into your 30′s, you begin to take things seriously.  You’re developing a career plan, networking, joining a professional writing group, going to bigger and probably better conferences.  And writing, always writing.  Maybe you are on the contest circuit – pitting yourself against others to see where you land.  You are actively seeking publication and perhaps representation by an agent.  You feel like you are on the cusp of something.

Ahhh, the 40′s – the decade when you finally feel like you’ve arrived.  You’ve got a contract and a couple/few books out there.  You’re a midlist author!  Wahooooo!  You are speaking at conferences, offering your experiences to newb’s in their 20′s, just starting out.  Maybe you are starting to feel some love from your publisher.  You might be getting recognition from some of the big contests, the Edgar, the Rita, a Newberry award.

The 50′s dawn – you are doing well!  You see your name on that most sought after list of all – the New York Times Bestseller list!  Could there be a movie deal in your future?  Better yet – HBO is considering your series for their next show, now that True Blood has run it’s course and Charlaine Harris hasn’t started a new series.  You are a frontlist author.  Nice job!

The golden years – from your 60′s onward, you write what you want, when you want.  You’ve gotten the rights back to your backlist, you are Indie Publishing them and laughing all the way to the bank.  You are a veteran author now.  Maybe you headline at conferences and give keynote speeches.  You’ve got a line a mile long at the occasional book signing and are firmly established in the zeitgeist. 

So, where am I in this writer’s life?  I’m in my 30′s.  I’m on the cusp of something – I can feel it.  It’s exciting!  Where are you?  Are you happy with your “age”?  What steps do you need to take to get to the place you want to be?

Immortality and Mortality by Vivienne Ylang

Hello, hello, hello Scribey people!  Vivienne Ylang here.   Like J Monkeys, I’m a big hat wearer.  Not physical head coverings so much as the multiple-responsibilities kinds of hats.  It’s a constant struggle for me, and I have to admit, one that I have been losing.

One of the reasons I write (other than to flush these extra folks out of my head) is a quest for immortality.  I’m not seeking fame or fortune (although they’d be nice) so much as a place in history.  That’s what I’m working toward, even though I’m not there yet.  So when my other responsibilities (and as a wife and mother there are dozens of them!) take up my time and energy, my personal dreams of immortality get shoved to the way side.  I know this is a common problem for moms.  We put everyone else first and ourselves last.

So while I’m aware that I’m short-changing myself creatively, I’m also short-changing my self when it comes to my health.  My mortality is rearing it’s ugly head.  Not in any particular way, but over the last few years, I’ve taken a good look at myself in the mirror and been unhappy with the reflection.  I’m sedentary (I loathe exercise) and overweight (there’s a different “O” word that I should really be using, but I can’t manage to type it.)  Shudder. 

Weight isn’t a new struggle for me and over my lifetime, I’ve tried every diet out there.  I never manage to stick to them for very long.  Four years ago, I was quite successful with a very extreme diet (daily shots of HCG and 500 calories per day – under doctor supervision) and I kept the 40 pounds off for more than 2 years, but a change in stressors at home had me hitting Dairy Queen daily.  Ice cream is my heroin.  Well, sweets in general.  And pastries.  You get the idea

I know a lot of folks struggle in these same ways, and being writers we like to share our experiences, so I thought I’d share mine this past week.  I was watching Dr. Oz last week and I was really struck by a couple of folks he had on talking about various cleanses.  Three day cleanses as it turned out.  I may have trouble sticking to a diet program, but surely I can manage three days!  I convinced my long-suffering husband to do them with me.  God bless that man – he’s awesome!

We (ok, I) chose to do the Clean Gut cleanse designed by Dr. Alejandro Junger and the Juice Cleanse by Joe Cross.  At the same time, my long-time bestie had suggested the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis.  So I’ve been reading these books and I’m now in the midst of these two cleanses.  My goal for this week is to start to get off sugar and junk food.  It’s terrible for me and I’m definitely addicted to it. 

So, the Clean Gut cleanse was pretty easy.  Just a smoothie for breakfast, a fistful of supplements meant to fix the problems in my dirty (?) gut and sensible meals the rest of the day.  It wasn’t too hard, except for the smoothie.  My son called it the salad-smoothie.  It shouldn’t have been too awful – a banana, blueberries, spinach, almond milk, some  protein powder and vinegar.  The vinegar gave it a definite tang.  But it was the protein powder that caused the problem.  You had to drink this thing fast.  Within 90 seconds of completion in the Magic Bullet it turned from something pourable into a pudding.  A green, lumpy, sandy, tangy pudding.  I was not a fan.

But I choked it down and at the end of 3 days, here are my results: I lost 4.5 pounds and 3.5 inches.  In three days!  Hubby was up a pound and didn’t lose any inches, but they are redistributed to muscly areas, like arms and legs.  His hips and waist were down.  All in all, not bad for so short a time.  The best part is that we both noticed an increase in energy – the 2pm sluggishness (or in my case, nap) was gone.  I’m usually plagued with wicked nasty acid reflux at night, hitting the pepto chewables three or more times a week.  Not the last few days.  

Yesterday we made juice.  I mean, for like four hours.  It took forever but now my fridge is full of 5 different juices for each of us over the next three days, vacuumed with my Foodsaver to preserve freshness.  Isn’t that pretty?  I particularly like the rainbow one.  So far, I’ve drank the breakfast juice – apple, carrot and ginger.  It was very gingery, but way better than the salad smoothie.  I’ll post the final results in the reply on Saturday am.

In addition to doing these cleanses to address the mortality issue, I’ve also worked hard this week to find 15 minutes each day to write.  I was successful on Monday, not so much Tuesday or Wednesday, but I’m signing off here and heading back the world of Sometimes right now. (It’s Thursday am.)

When it comes to secrets, what’s yours?  How do you stay in shape?  Is longevity important to you?

Must Buy Authors by Vivienne Ylang

Happy Saturday Scriblings!  Vivienne Ylang here.  Do you have must-buy authors?  You know, those handful of authors whose books you love so much that whenever a new one comes out you are compelled to buy it immediately (if not pre-order!) and devour it right away?  I know I do. 

Here’s what happened to me this week.  Tuesday morning, I was checking my emails from bed before I got up – aren’t smartphone’s great?  Goodreads kindly informed me that a book I had flagged as To Be Read was available to purchase that morning.  This was bad news for me. 

Somehow, I had misread Lynn Kurland’s website and mistakenly had the idea in my head that she didn’t have a new romance coming out until September this year.  I knew that was unusual, but figured the vagaries of publishing had pushed her out from her regular spring offering. 

For me, Lynn Kurland is a “must buy and devour” author. 

This was a problem this week because I had an insanely busy week last week.  The kind of insanely busy week that takes two weeks of normalcy to recover from.  Which meant that I didn’t have a day to avoid all other responsibilities and read a book, cover to cover.  And that’s how I read a Lynn Kurland book – start to finish.  I might put it down to use toilet paper, but that’s about it. 

So being informed that an unexpected treat was waiting for me at the break of dawn on Tuesday was a problem.  I made it all the way to Wednesday without buying the book.  And I didn’t finish reading it until Thursday evening.  Honestly, that’s something.  I mean, it shows actual dedication to kids and job.

Roses in Moonlight was a delight.  Wonderful characters as always: a heroine I’d like to be friends with and a hero worthy of a few hours of mental disloyalty to my beloved husband.  It was well worth the $7.99 I spent on it at B&N.  If you haven’t read a Kurland, do yourself a favor and give her a try. 

Today, I want to know your secret.  Do you have must-buy authors?  Who are are they, why do you like them and do you ever have trouble putting real life aside to fall into a good story?

Sculpting with Words by Vivienne Ylang

Hello there!  Vivienne Ylang, here.  I have had a CRAZY week this week – no time for anything but the most crucial.  Laundry is done – only because my sons were out of underwear and I didn’t have time to shop for new.  I began the process of catching up the dishes yesterday, but I haven’t had time to finish the job.  I’ve got about 25 minutes now, before my next round of chaos begins, so I thought I’d squeeze in my blog post for the week.

So, I did manage to read one book this week (that’s WAY down from my usual count) and it was lovely.  Charming the Prince by Theresa Medeiros.  It’s not particularly new, but it’s a wonderful story and artfully told in vivid language that evokes the emotions of the characters. 

“Yeah, so?” you’re thinking…”Viv ~ that’s what good writing is supposed to do.”  Well, you are right, dear Scribbler.  Here’s my problem.  My current labor of love, Sometimes, is coming along, and while it’s okay, the language is no where near as emotion-evoking, vividly-picturesque or, well…anything other than…serviceable. 

Yup, that’s the best I have to say about it at the moment.  It’s serviceable.  The story is being told/shown.  I started to beat myself up about this the other day.  No, seriously, I banged my car door into my head hard enough to leave a mark just minutes before rushing to a public hearing on the crisis that is my town’s budget.  I was lumpy and misshapen on TV – it was ugly. 

Okay, the thing with the car door was an accident because I was rushing around like a crazy lady. But I did have the thought a couple of times while reading this delightful book that it was WAY better than mine.  Yes, I had language envy. 

Then I took a deep breath, kicked the Doubt Monster in the belly and reminded myself that I’m still writing the first draft.  There will be plenty of time to carve in the detail and polish the whole thing up after I finish the ever-lovin’ first draft.  And this is where my sculpture metaphor comes in.

When a sculptor begins a work, she starts with a humongous lump of marble.  She slowly chisels away at the lump to form the basic shape of her sculpture.  Then she has to carefully refine it, one little bit at a time to get each part of the sculpture looking just the way she wants it to.  Finally, it has to be buffed and polished.   Then, and only then, is it ready for the viewing.  Then it’s finished.

Take a look at Michelangelo’s David.  Do you think he Michelangelo got each of those curls right the first time? With the first whack of the chisel?  No, I don’t think so.  What about those lips, that nose, those piercing eyes?  Even the ear is incredible!  And I can tell you from experience, that pictures don’t do this piece justice.  It’s amazing.  You can sit there for hours just staring at the guy. 

So, I’m not going to worry so much about my language not being what I’d ultimately like it to be.  I’m writing a first draft.  If I can get the basic shape of the piece carved out, the plot, the characters, their development, I can go back and chisel and polish my way to artful language. 

Take that Doubt Monster!

The Secret: don’t be so hard on yourself.  The best thing about being an author is that you literally have a lifetime to finish sculpting your story.  Take as much time as you need.  Just don’t quit because it doesn’t look perfect at the first pass.

I loved Florence, Italy.  It was an amazing city – so much to see, including Mr. David.  What’s the coolest place you’ve traveled to?

Writing When You’re a Visual Person by VIvienne Ylang

Hello Scibblers!  It’s Saturday and Vivienne Ylang is blogging on the Scribes.  J Monkeys is taking a sabbatical for the summer starting now and has asked me to fill in for her until the cold New England weather leaves and comes back again.  So Hi!  I’m thrilled to be here. 

I’ve been working on Sometimes, a time-travel romance, for a while now and I’m DETERMINED to finish it over the next few months.  All of the plotting, planning, character building has been done.  It’s time to put my backside in the seat and write.  This week, I finished reading through the bit that I’ve got done so far. Today I began the next section.  I wrote all of one sentence and realized that one of my characters was heading outside to learn to fight with a sword, but I had no idea what she would be wearing.  My schedule today only gave me an hour to focus on Sometimes.  I spent nearly the whole time Googling. 

I know, I know…write – don’t procrastinate with “research”.  I hear ya.  But honestly, I’m a visual person.  If I can’t see it, I can’t write it.  Not consistently anyway – or well enough that my audience would be able to picture it from what I wrote.  So I decided to take the time to see her. 

RevivalClothing.com a wonderful website that sells reproduction medieval clothing.  I’m sooooo tempted to make some purchases but the stuff is wicked expensive.  Check this place out.

After an hour, here’s what I decided she’d be wearing.  I drew that picture myself – you can understand why I’m not working as an illustrator, but it get’s the job done. 

Let’s start from the foundation.  The underpants were called braies – loose drawstring boxer shorts type of things with an ingenious little slit on the hips to tie the points of the chauses.  The chauses were the…well…something like a cross between tights, old school 1950′s style stockings and really big socks.  The chauses (worn in this style) covered the entire leg, from the foot on up and were tied to the drawstring of the braies to hold them up.  The braies were tucked into the chauses.  The chauses also could be worn with a garter at the knee – basically a ribbon tied around the leg, or cross-gartered with a coupla criss-crossing ribbons.

Over that, she’s wearing a brown, boys undertunic which isn’t depicted very well.  This is a long-sleeved, linnen, calf length…well, shirt, basically.  Over that, she wearing a boys supertunic – blue with a bit of light brown decoration.  This is a looser-fitting over garment, with 3/4 length sleeves.  It’s shorter than the undertunic.  She’s sporting a leather belt to hold the ensemble together. 

Now, since she’s going out to learn how to use a sword, she’s also wearing a leather jerkin for protection.  I found this picture and quite liked it – I did not draw this one.  I decided that it weighs around 7 pounds, not too heavy, but stiff and hard to move in it. Perfect for blunting the whack of a wooden training sword.

All in all, I’m quite happy with my work today – even though I only wrote that one sentence.  When I get back to it tomorrow, I know just how to picture her at her work.

So – what’s your secret?  How do you keep your imaginings consistent?  Are you a visual person who has to be able to actually see things to write about them or can you do it all in your head?

 

Romance Review: Devil’s Bargain

Hello Everyone!  Vivienne Ylang, here.  I just finished a wonderful book and I wanted to tell you about it.  Devi’s Bargain by Jade Lee was delightful.  There is even a puff on the back by our very own Thea Devine saying that it was “A luscious bonbon of a read – the education of an innocent; hot, sensual, romantic and fun!”  I couldn’t agree more, and likely wouldn’t express it as well.

Now, I didn’t actually choose this book.  A friend gave it to me and I’m not sure where she got it.  To tell you the truth, I’m a bit of a romance snob.  I’ve read hundreds of romances, quite probably more than 1,000, over the last 25 years.  I often judge books by their cover.  At least when it comes to selection.  If the author is not one I recognize, then the cover is what gets me to decide whether or not to pick it up and read the back.  It may not be fair, but it’s the truth.  I suspect that’s the case for a lot of people, which is why publishers put so much effort into the covers.  This cover is not one that would have prompted me to pick it up off the table in Barnes & Noble.  In fact, I selected it off my To Be Read shelf in the dark with no thought to what book I would have in hand. 

But I ended up with Devil’s Bargain the other day and I’m thrilled it worked out that way.  The characters, Lynette and Adrian, quickly became quite likeable.  I doubted it in the first chapter or so, but again, I was likely still influenced by my erroneous, snap, pre-judgement of the cover. 

If you like a good romance story pick this one up.  If you like a bit of heat with your romance, without the overt eroticism of a Beatrice Small or EL James (both of which I enjoy from time to time), buy the Devi’s Bargain. 

And the thing that pushed me to write this review – Ms. Lee does a wonderful job of adding complication and higher stakes for her characters.  I read this in paper form (as opposed to an e-book) and there was a thin stack of pages left when I remembered the classic line, “How’re you gonna write your way out of this one, Joan Wilder?”  But Ms. Lee did it quite well with just a handful of pages left.

I’ve started writing my new WIP (currently titled Some Times) and while I’m writing the beginning, I’m plotting the middle.  I had skipped the middle when I was writing my outline because that’s the hardest part of the story for me.  I know how it starts, I know how it ends, but the piece after the second turning point up to the third has me flumoxed.  I know I need to add complications and raise the stakes for my characters but for the life of me I can’t think of any.  

Isn’t that terrible?  What kind of a writer am I?  Hello Doubt Monster, long time, no see! Ugh!  And the worse part is, being stuck plotting the middle has caused me to lose motivation in writing the beginning.  Sigh.  So the next thing I’m going to do is go back to the drawing board.  Literally.  I shall go somewhere with delectable eats (Panera?)  and brainstorm things that could complicate the lives of my main characters.  I shall re-read their GMC statements (Goal, Motivation and Conflict) and find nuggets of problems to throw their way. 

Perhaps I’ll review some work by Suzanne Collins.  She’s meaner to her characters than anybody I’ve read in a while.  All Peeta wants is to live happily ever after with Katniss.  All Katniss wants is to save her little sister.  All Gale wants is for Katniss to pick him.  If you’ve read the Hunger Games trilogy, you know how all that works out.  Stephenie Meyer did a nice job with complications, too.  Just when you think everything is hunky dory, ooops, Bella gets a paper cut. 

Today’s Secret: Read Devil’s Bargain by Jade Lee.  I really liked it.

Today’s Question: How do you come up with complications and higher stakes to challenge your characters?

Thickening the Plot

Good morning everyone!  Sorry I’m a bit late getting this post up, but J Monkeys is heading out for the day (again!) and just asked me to post for her.  Vivienne Ylang here.  Happy Saturday.  Last week I wrote about how I keep my characters real during the writing process.  Today I thought I’d tell you a bit about how I develop the plot of the story. 

Of course, it all starts with a kernel of an idea.  For some reason, the synapses of the brain fire and an idea occurs.  For me, ideas come easy.  I have way more ideas than I have ability to focus and get the job done.  I guess for some people ideas are the hard part.  My mom went back to college to get a Bachelor’s degree while I was in college and she said that writing papers were the toughest thing for her.  The math, the science (she’s a nurse) were a piece of cake, but tell her to write something and she’d stare at a blank piece of paper for hours.  I always found this hard to believe.  I entertain myself with blank pieces of paper all the time – and they don’t stay blank for long.

At any rate, once the idea is firmly fixed in my mind and I’ve got characters to go along with the idea, then comes the plot grid.  Yes, yes, I’m absolutely the planner type of writer.  Why wouldn’t I be?  I plan everything.  I love to plan.  If I tried pantsing my way through a book, it might take 7 years to write.  Trust me on this – I have experience.  I know that being a pantser (pantsers are people who enjoy writing by the seat of their pants) works for a lot of people; I’m not one of them. 

The plot grid is simply a type of outline where the major points in the story are noted down.  I like to use a plot grid I got from another author.  It’s pretty straightforward.  The thing that I like about it the best is that it makes me think about my Turning Points.  This is new for me, I haven’t thought this way before.  Turning Points are those places where the story…well, turns…for lack of a better term.   Most books have three of them: the first “change of plans”, the “point of no return” and the “major setback”.

The other thing that the plot grid has me thinking about is the Black Moment.  This is the final build up to the climax of the story.  The moment when the hero and heroine realize that everything they thought was true earlier in the story is, in fact, either not true or doesn’t matter.  The black moment is what prompts the characters to push their way through the horrors of the climax of the story.

So in addition to continuing to populate my character board (see last week’s post), I’ve spent time this past week working on my plot grid.  I’ve still got a way to go, but that’s ok.  I’m going on a long weekend vacation with the family next week and have decided to push my official start date for this book out to July 9th when the kiddies start Summer Camp and I’ll have some free time.  Even now, writing this post, there have been interruptions galore – demands for breakfast, and movies to entertain them. 

Today’s secret: Think about those turning points and build your way up to them.

Today’s question: What tools do you use to plot your stories?

And as a bonus – since I was dreaming about him just before I woke to write this post – here’s a little something to inspire you.  Joe Manganiello and I were saving the world together.  Hmmm.  Too bad I can’t go back to sleep.  But there’s always tonight.

Chairman of the Board

Hi everyone!  Vivienne Ylang here, again this week.  J Monkeys is off at a book signing today (12:00 – 3:00 at Hidden Treasures, the most wonderful store in Agawam Ma.  Everything is made by local crafters.) so she asked me to fill in. 

I blogged last week about my excitement in starting a new project.  This week, I thought I’d share some of my preparations with you.  Now, before you ask, I am a plotter, not a pantser.  Those wonderful writers who say they can’t wait to see what the characters have in store for them, have a talent (or psychosis, depending on your point of view) that I don’t have.  My characters are completely subject to my whims (God-complex anyone?) and as such, I need to understand them in order to write them.  That takes prep work.

Before I begin writing this story (I don’t even have a working title yet!) I do quite a bit of work.  I have pages and pages of character backstory written – much of which may never find its way into the book other than to flavor the characters.  Things that happened in the characters lives that shaped the way they see the present, scenes of times when they were happy, everyday interactions, things like that.

I write character bios, too.  I have a standard template that I use with the character’s name, birthdate, age at the start of the story (gotta pick a date that the story begins…) a physical description, height, weight, likes, dislikes, fears, quirks, strengths, flaws – you get the idea.  And then I answer a few basic questions about them.  Where did they grow up and go to school?  If he has unexpected free time, how does he spend it?  What would she die to defend

 

The Golden Girl

And the last thing I do to keep my characters alive in my life (for a little while) is create The Board.  My corkboard sits next to my desk and I fill it with 3×5 index cards.  Each has a picture of the character and their vital stats.  I’m a visual person, so it’s much easier to give my characters an actual face than it is to keep them all consistent in my head.  Sometimes my characters look like modern actors or other public figures, sometimes they are people from other times.  For example, I always imagine Bea Arthur as Dorothy from The Golden Girls, but I found this picture of her as a young woman and she was stunning!  You will someday find that young stunning Bea Arthur in a story of mine, believe me!

And since I’m in complete control over the characters on my board, that makes me Chairman of the Board! 

Today’s Secret: Don’t tell anyone, but the hero in my upcoming story has Owain Yeoman’s face and Joe Manganiello’s chest and abs.  Honestly, how could I not include those phenomenal muscles?  This could be the closest I get to touching them…probably will be, no need for that restraining order, Joe.

Today’s Question: How do you make your characters real, without inducing schizophrenia?

A Lifelong Affair with Love

Hello Scribblers!  Long time no write.  Vivienne Ylang here.  I’ve got something exciting coming up and I wanted to tell you a bit about it.  On July 1st, I’m kicking off a new writing project.  I’m putting the finishing touches on an old project now and I’m Thrilled!!! to be starting something new.  My new characters are chomping at the bit (well, they would be if they were horses.  They aren’t.) and I’m looking forward to all kinds of fun stuff.  This new project brings me back to my reading roots ~ romance. 

The romance industry has changed dramatically since Kathleen Woodiwiss published The Flame and the Flower in 1972.  I was MUCH too young to read romance back then (or read at all) but about ten years into the genre, I was a young teen bugging my mother for something to do one summer day.  I must have been bugging her a lot because she chucked her book at me and sort of screeched, “Read this!” before stomping back into the house.  Being the dutiful daughter I have always been, I immediately flopped down into the lawn chair she had vacated and opened Lost Lady by Jude Deveraux. 

WOW!  What an eye-opening book for a 15-year old!    Let me take a look-see at my copy (I still have it!).  By page 18, just into chapter 2, our hero and heroine have met and are having sex.  Quite graphic sex.  Somewhat against the heroine’s will – well at the last minute, anyway.  But the sex aside, I loved this story and became a voracious reader – of historical romance.  I did try a contemporary romance once, Jude Deveraux had written one long before the contemporaries she writes now, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.  By the time I went to college, I had read hundreds and hundreds of romances.  I was hooked. 

Sure, I had learned a lot about romance novels by that point.  I had favorite authors – those author’s whose books I purchased the day they were released, in $25 hard cover versions.  Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood, Judith McNaught.  There was a second tier of writers in my mind too – Kathleen Woodiwiss, Theresa Mederios, Jill Barnett, Constance O’day Flannery, Constance O’Banyon – if only because there weren’t as many of their books available.   (I read Velvet Chains by O’Banyon so many times that the pages fell out of it.  I may actually have to buy a new copy…hmmm)  And eventually, I became a romance snob.  There were authors I wouldn’t read if someone had paid me to do it. 

Many of these authors are still on my list of favorites – some for their current works and some for more nostalgic reasons.  By the mid 1990′s new top romance authors were making names for themselves.  Julia Quinn and Lynn Kurland are certainly my two favorites these days. And it’s because of Lynn Kurland and this very blog that I’m about to begin my new WIP.

Last fall, we at the Scribes interviewed Lynn Kurland (part 1 and part 2) and after a crippling ice storm sent most of Connecticut back in time (at least from the perspective of having no electricity!) I sent Lynn a note with an idea for a story.  She very kindly wrote back saying that I should write it.  Well, friends, I am.

These characters and their problems have been percolating in my mind for nine months, waiting somewhat patiently for their turn on the laptop.  And in two short weeks – their time will arrive.  I’ll let you know more as things develop – and if you see me word sprinting, you’ll know why! 

Today’s Secret: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!  to all the wonderful romance writers who’ve gone before and inspired me.  I promise not to head hop! 

Today’s Question: Who has inspired you to reach for your dreams?

Being a Social Magnet

Thanks so much Scribes for having me guest blog today.  It’s so much fun to get a chance to speak to your audience and talk about the newest in my Market or Die series, “How to use the Power of your Brand.”

However, there’s one thing I DIDN’T write about in my book because I saved this little nugget just for the Scribes and their fans.  What is it?  Social Magnetism.

There’s a lot of talk in the marketing world about brands who are dubbed, “social magnets.” What this means, by definition, is that followers or readers gravitate to your brand, the way metal is attracted to a magnet.

You’re smart. You know what I’m talking about; the way people will go out of their way to be associated with your brand.  So, how do you know if you’re a social magnet?  Let’s see if you answer “yes” to any of these questions:

1.)    Does the general public wear your brand’s logo on their clothing?

2.)    Does the general public put a bumper sticker on their car with your brand on it?

3.)    Does the general public wear hats or carry bags with your brand name on it?

No?  Well, welcome to the club.  Becoming a social magnet in the mind of the general public usually costs millions of advertising dollars, think Nike, Coca-Cola or GE.  However, there’s ways, as authors, you and I can become social magnets in our own little place in writing world and it’s actually easier than you think.

Acquire new readers – work vigilantly and band together with other writers to increases awareness about your brand and your work.  Sometimes having others promote you is more credible that you promoting yourself, and a ton easier, too.

Make existing readers aware that it’s time to buy again – I’m not talking about a Facebook posting that says, “buy my book.” I’m talking about treating your readers like they’re part of your inner circle and letting them know about a new release ahead of time.  Anyone who reads the MOD blog at www.marketordie.net is treated like they’re part of an inside club, whom I’ve dubbed the MOD trubies, and because they visit my blog on a regular basis they receive information from me first.

Be kind. Pay it forward and spread the wealth.  People are attracted to those who help them and they will help you in return!

Jennifer Fusco is the Creative and Brand Manager for the General Electric Company, North America and the author of the Amazon.com bestselling series, MARKET OR DIE, marketing books for writers.