Victoria Janssen

Jessica Freely – Wildly Successful E-Book Promotion – Guest Post

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Please welcome my guest, Jessica Freely!

Hi, I’m m/m erotic romance author Jessica Freely and I’m guest blogging here today. Thank you, Victoria, for having me over!

I just had a new ebook, Rust Belt, come out last month, so the topic of promotion has been on my mind lately. You know promotion. We’re all supposed to do it, and most of us would rather not. We’re writers. We want to be writing the next book, not pestering innocent bystanders to buy the last one. And yet, you’ll hear it shouted from every rooftop, posted on every wall, and tweeted from every twa– uh, branch: Promotion is an absolute must if you want to be a successful writer these days.

“It’s easier than ever,” the promo mavens crow. And they’re right. Web 2.0 has expanded author promotional opportunities like a sun going nova (can you tell I have an sf background?) With Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Goodreads, and LinkedIn, not to mention good old blogs, forums and Yahoo! Groups, you can spend your every waking hour networking and promoting your book. And that’s the problem. It’s all too easy to spread yourself across the interwebs in a thin, ineffectual layer, like inadequate frosting on a cake (don’t you hate that?) Promo gurus like Seth Goodin and Jeff Vandermeer are now counseling authors to pick one or two social networks and use them deeply to get the most bang for their buck.

Are there any other strategies for managing promotional activities to maximize effectiveness? Sure! My recent experience with the release of Rust Belt brought home to me how important timing can be, and how combining promotional activities can amplify the results from each. I’d like to share with you what I did, and when, and how it all worked out.

Rust Belt was scheduled to come out on Sept. 22. It’s my fourth book featuring the characters David and Seth, but my first time writing about them for my new publisher, Loose Id. So I wrote the book to stand alone. But as I put the word around that Rust Belt was coming out soon, I started hearing from readers who wanted to read the first two David and Seth short stories, but couldn’t find them. That’s because they went out of print about three months ago.

It seemed to me there was an opportunity here to reward the people who really wanted to read everything I’d written about David and Seth, and simultaneously, beat the drum for Rust Belt. I decided to make those first two short stories available for a limited time only as free downloads on my Yahoo! newsletter group.

A quick word about my newsletter group. I’m an adherent of Seth Goodin’s permission-based approach to marketing, and I subscribe to the 1,000 readers business model, which posits that in order to make a living, an author needs to cultivate a base of devoted readers who will want to buy everything she writes. 1,000 is an arbitrary number, but the point is, the number is finite, and attainable. Those are the two principles upon which I based my Yahoo! newsletter group. People have to sign up for it, so it is voluntary, and I respect my readers’ time by using it strictly for the purpose of announcing new fiction and author events. I look at newsletter group membership as a metric for my progress in cultivating that reader base I’m after.

So, about a week before Rust Belt came out, I uploaded the first story, “Hero,” onto my group’s file’s section. I then sent an announcement to the group that the file was available free for a limited time only, and that the second story, “Stay,” would go up the Friday before Rust Belt‘s release. I also contacted the readers who had written to me directly, and posted about the offer on my blog, my Twitter feed, and several m/m oriented LiveJournal communities and Yahoo! groups that I frequent. Response was solid. Newsletter memberships increased by about 40%.

I repeated the same process on the following Friday when “Stay” went up, and this time response was even stronger and I began to get some messages from people applying, that indicated word of mouth was starting to take place. At this point, I was very happy with my decision to make these stories available to my readers for free, and with my timing in doing so just prior to a related book coming out.

And then, I did a podcast interview with All Romance eBooks on the night before Rust Belt‘s release. This was a stroke of pure luck facilitated by quick action and a willingness to be adaptable. Prior to all of this free download jazz, All Romance eBooks had sent around a list of promo activities available gratis to authors with books for sale with them. One of them was a podcast interview and reading. It was not the most sought after of the opportunities available, so they had openings fairly soon, and I happen to love reading aloud and have a good voice for it. So I jumped at the opportunity and was fortunate that the timing worked out the way it did.

The interview went great (and of course one of the things we talked about was the free download offer), the reading was well received, and when I woke up the next morning, my email inbox was a solid wall of applications to join my newsletter. I was over the moon. Hits to my blog were off the charts on the day of my new release, and people who never would have heard of me otherwise were suddenly very interested in what I was doing, and, they had an opportunity to sample some of it for free.

Rust Belt was one of Loose Id’s best-sellers for the first two weeks of its life, and as for my newsletter memberships, those increased a hefty 550% from where I originally started. Without a doubt, a goodly portion of my success with this venture comes down to pure luck. The interview with All Romance eBooks coming when it did put everything into overdrive. But, even before that, I was experiencing good solid returns on my efforts. And I think there are a few key factors to that. One is timing. Putting the stories out just prior to a related new release created a nice feedback loop where the two events fed each other’s buzz. Staggering the two downloads increased my opportunities for promotion. And most importantly, the stories promoted the new book, and gave people a chance to essentially sample it for free.

Also, and I have no hard evidence for this, just a gut feeling, but I don’t think it would have worked nearly as well if I had simply given “Hero” and “Stay” away on my blog. Making the stories available only to my newsletter group added value to membership in that group, and it also required something of the person who wanted to download the free stories. I didn’t charge them, but they had to request membership, which by Yahoo’s rules requires they write me a note about why they want to join the group (and those notes are a wealth of useful feedback). They also had to provide me with their email address and, essentially, commit to accept announcements from me about new releases in the future. All of these elements combine to make the relationship between myself and the recipients of those free stories a reciprocal one. That’s a more enduring bond than just snagging something for free on some one’s website. And, I was braced for a bunch of people to join, download the stories, and then un-join, but interestingly enough, that hasn’t happened. With one exception, everyone who signed on to the newsletter during the time of my offer has stayed.

This experience has given me a lot of new insights into effective promotion. Maybe one of the most helpful and reassuring is the understanding that promo is not something you have to do, or should do, every day. Constantly flogging a book runs you the risk of becoming white noise. But shorter bursts of concentrated effort, combining different platforms (All Romance eBooks, Twitter, blog, newsletter group) and different events (interview, giveaway) can amplify the results and get you much stronger returns than any one of those things alone.

Incidentally, as of this writing, “Hero” and “Stay” are still up on my newsletter group, but only for a few more weeks. Pretty soon, I’ll have another opportunity to promote all of my David and Seth stories, and my newsletter group, when I announce that the free offer is coming to an end.

Thank you all for joining me today. I hope you’ve found something useful in my account, and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks again, Vickie, for lending me your blog today!

Thanks, Jessica! It was great to have you! (And she does have a wonderful speaking voice. I’d totally ask her to read me bedtime stories.)

Posted in business of writing, erotica, guest, promo | 7 Comments

The Intricacies of Marriages of Convenience

Posted on October 22, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

I may have mentioned once or twice (ahem) how much I love the “marriage of convenience” plot. I recently finished reading one of Mary Balogh’s recent novels, First Comes Marriage, which I really enjoyed, and which also got me thinking again about why I find that plot so rewarding, particularly in historical romance.

Obviously, you can generate a lot of plot tension simply from two strangers having to work together to accomplish a goal. In the Marriage of Convenience, those goals can vary. For instance, the goal might be simply to create a child who will be heir to a title; or for the hero to provide financially for a woman for whom he feels responsible; or for the heroine and hero to extricate themselves from a social disaster.

You can separate those three situations into two general types that are subtly different. In one version, the simple act of marriage solves a problem (averting social scandal); the resulting marriage then becomes the problem to be solved, in any one of a variety of ways. In another version, the marriage itself begins as a problem that must be solved – the couple is married, but how to do they go about life in order to achieve their goals? What must they give and give up to their partner? What process do they follow, what series of problems and their solutions? Also, occasionally an outside conflict is introduced, that must be solved along with the marriage conflict.

I’m not sure yet if these distinctions are useful ones to make when reading a Marriage of Convenience novel, but they might be useful when thinking about how to plot one. At base, any Marriage of Convenience plot is more about the period after the wedding than the wedding itself. But the period before the wedding might also be useful to create thematic or character issues that can then be strengthened, deepened, once the tension is increased (once the two characters are bound by law).

Another issue I’m considering is the previous relationship. Did the hero and heroine know each other before the wedding? Even if they’ve known each other for years as, say, friends or neighbors, there must be essential elements that are not known, and I think those elements would need to be dramatically significant (hence the popularity of Secret Angst). Without some mystery, there can be no discovery. If the couple are new to one another, for instance the aristocrat who marries the country mouse vicar’s daughter, revelations of character might need to proceed at a different pace.

I’ve rambled on long enough for now, but I’m going to continue to think about the subtleties of this type of plot.

Posted in genre, historical fiction, romance novels, writing craft, writing process | 14 Comments

Happy Birthday, Ursula!

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

“We turn not older with years but newer every day.” –Emily Dickinson

Today is Ursula Kroeber LeGuin’s 80th Birthday.

[Photo copyright Eileen Gunn]

“Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.

A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

–“A Few Words to a Young Writer”

“…when women speak truly they speak subversively–they can’t help it: if you’re underneath, if you’re kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That’s what I want–to hear you erupting. You young Mount St. Helenses who don’t know the power in you–I want to hear you. I want to listen to you talking to each other and to us all: whether you’re writing an article or a poem or a letter or teaching a class or talking with friends or reading a novel or making a speech or proposing a law or giving a judgment or singing the baby to sleep or discussing the fate of nations, I want to hear you. Speak with a woman’s tongue. Come out and tell us what time of night it is! Don’t let us sink back into silence. If we don’t tell our truth, who will? Who’ll speak for my children, and yours?”

–“The Mother Tongue,” Bryn Mawr Commencement Address, 1986

Now go read and admire A Pillow-Book For Cats.

Many Happy Returns, Ursula!!!

Posted in holiday, quotes, sf/f, writing | 2 Comments

The Thin Dead Line

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Writers talk about their deadlines all the time.

“I have so many deadlines!” “I don’t think I’m going to make that deadline.” “At least your deadline is later than mine.”

I think we often forget how very important those deadlines actually are, even aside from the fact that we signed a contract saying we would meet certain deadlines and by the time the book is turned in, have usually already received money for it.

Things to remember: it isn’t just our editor who’s waiting for that manuscript. There may be a copy editor, and a proofreader, and perhaps a whole string of production people who all need those pages at a certain time, so they can do their work and then send the book-in-progress along to its next stage. All of those people have managing editors watching over them to make sure they make those deadlines.

Besides all that, there’s the physical printing of the book, and shipping it to warehouses, and shipping it out to stores from the warehouses, all so it can go on sale on time and the writer can have a lovely release day with cupcakes and balloons.

While the writer is writing and complaining about deadlines, production is already in progress. Harlequin, my publisher, requests “Art Fact Sheets” from the author months before the manuscript is even turned in – for example, a book due in February might require Art Fact Sheets, which include a synopsis and character descriptions, to be completed in August. This is so the art department can get to work on the cover, any special fonts or interior art, etc.; this same information can be used for numerous marketing purposes, including overseas sales. If the AFS aren’t completed, a large number of people can’t do their work.

Additionally, it’s in the writer’s self-interest to meet deadlines. The writer who turns in late is not just hurting her own reputation; she’s shifting the routine of whole departments, sometimes forcing them to reschedule things in their own lives to compensate, because the books have to come out on time. Production staff can cope with all sorts of delays, of course; things happen, books have problems; but they don’t have to like it. And next time, they might not want to go out of their way for you.

Finally, meeting deadlines is just polite. If one thinks of missing a deadline as being rude to exponential numbers of people, suddenly it’s a lot more personal. The writer and the editors and the production staff are a team. If one element isn’t there at the right time, it all collapses. Writing is a solitary activity. Print publishing is not.

Edited to add: Useful post on deadlines by agent Jessica Faust.

Posted in business of writing | 5 Comments

The Basics – Historical Research Links

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

I usually prefer researching through physical books – I just like to carry them around. But the Internet is a wonderful resource, especially if you don’t feel like trekking out to a library.

The Internet Public Library is always a great starting point. “The IPL is many things: 1) the first public library of and for the Internet community; 2) an experiment, trying to discover and promote the most effective roles and contributions of librarians to the Internet and vice versa; and 3) a group of highly talented, creative, strong-willed people, working hard.”

If you do want a physical book, for instance if you can’t find what you need online, WorldCat can find library books for you, both locally and internationally. “You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos – all of the physical items you’re used to getting from libraries. You can also discover many new kinds of digital content, such as downloadable audiobooks. You may also find article citations with links to their full text; authoritative research materials, such as documents and photos of local or historic significance; and digital versions of rare items that aren’t available to the public. Because WorldCat libraries serve diverse communities in dozens of countries, resources are available in many languages.”

This site is amazing: The David Rumsey Map Collection. “The David Rumsey Collection…focuses primarily on cartography of the Americas from the 18th and 19th centuries, but also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, books, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps, including pocket, wall, children’s and manuscript.”

Eyewitness to History offers a vast selection of first-person accounts of historical events, some written, some audio. There’s also a selection of historical film clips. I often find this sort of information more useful than anything else when I’m looking for ideas for fiction.

Finally, the Historical Text Archive “publishes high quality articles, books, essays, documents, historical photos, and links, screened for content, for a broad range of historical subjects.” Their Links Page, organized by geographical area or topic, is incredibly helpful in locating further internet resources.

Have any suggestions for me?

Eliza Tucker’s post at Unusual Historicals on some of her favorite 19th and 20th century research websites was an inpiration for this post.

Synergy in Writing and Research.

Historical Detail in Fiction.

The Research Book Dilemma.

Posted in historical fiction, links, research | 3 Comments

Inspiration All Around

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Here are some reasons I love living in Philadelphia. All of these photographs were taken while walking along 12th Street and its near vicinity in South Philadelphia.

Posted in images | 2 Comments

Ivor Gurney, "Pain"

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Pain

Pain, pain continual; pain unending;
Hard even to the roughest, but to those
Hungry for beauty…Not the wisest knows,
Nor most pitiful-hearted, what the wending
Of one hour’s way meant. Grey monotony lending
Weight to the grey skies, grey mud where goes
An army of grey bedrenched scarecrows in rows
Careless at last of cruellest Fate-sending.
Seeing the pitiful eyes of men foredone,
Or horses shot, too tired merely to stir,
Dying in shell-holes both, slain by the mud.
Men broken, shrieking even to hear a gun.—
Till pain grinds down, or lethargy numbs her,
The amazed heart cries angrily out on God.

–Ivor Gurney

Posted in gurney, wwi poetry | Comments Off

Denise Rossetti, What Lies Beneath – Guest Post

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Please welcome my guest, Denise Rossetti!

What Lies Beneath

I remember reading somewhere that authors only write one story – their own. Over and over again, in every single book. I don’t recall who said it – it may have been Jennifer Crusie. Certainly the ‘core story’ is not a new idea, but it stayed with me. I was half fascinated, half horrified. What’s my ‘core story’? What have I been unconsciously revealing to the world? The fact that I write erotic romance gave the question a whole extra dimension of embarrassment.

But under all this is lurks an even more fundamental question – why write at all?

Like so many people, I always thought, ‘one day I’ll write a book’. Right.

You know how that goes. Real Life intervened and somehow, I never got around to it. But I continued to devour genre fiction – romance, science fiction and fantasy, mystery. Especially when I was bored or sad, I’d read rather than watch TV. What I craved was respite, the luxury of escape to another, brighter world for a few hours.

Then my life really did cave in, dark valley stuff. I was miserable. So I found I was staying up late, reading, reading, reading. After weeks of this, the idea of writing firmed within me. Heck, why not? Without a single, solitary clue, I wrote a category romance. (They were the shortest books I knew.) Word one, paragraph one, page one. I started around nine every evening and when I looked at the clock, it would be two in the morning. I did that for about seven months, night after night.

What I discovered was the sheer power of creating a world and disappearing into it. It’s heady. Reading rarely compares. I’ll never forget typing those six little letters, THE END for the very first time. I still do it when I finish a book, in fact. Then I delete them before sending the manuscript to my editor. Wouldn’t want her to think I’m like a little kid closing the last page on a fairytale.

So, in one sense, I write my own escape. (Life improved, by the way. I’m fine now, thanks.) It’s why my settings are creations of the senses. I’m a very sensate person. When I’m out shopping, I like to raise fruit to my nose for a sniff or stroke dress fabrics on the rack as I pass. I love bringing the scenes in my head to vivid, springing life – the Ten Nations Fair, the burnished wings of an Aetherii in flight, the slums of Sybaris, the gossamer-thin slingshot sails of a starship unfurling against the cold dark of space.

But it’s only the beginning. I relish how fantasy allows me to explore ideas as far as I can follow them down the wormhole of logic. And beyond! In worlds where magic works, I can use its transforming power to make abstract concepts concrete.

For example, in The Flame and the Shadow (Book #1, Four-Sided Pentacle series), I created a man who embodies the internal conflicts we all experience in an external, physical way. Imagine seeing the worst part of your personality rise up, manifested as a dark copy of yourself. Grayson, Duke of Ombra, is a sorcerer of shadows. He is literally at war with himself, because his shadow, a dark entity he calls Shad, has an independent life of its own. Much more than Gray’s mortal life is at stake. He and Shad are fighting for control of his sanity and his soul.

Read the first chapter here.

Erik Thorensen, hero of Thief of Light (Book #2, Four-Sided Pentacle series) has been granted a gods-given gift, a Voice so beguiling no one can resist it. But the Voice is a curse as much as a blessing, for once Erik used it to steal a soul, and now he must pay. What effect would it have on a person’s character, I wondered, to have the power to command anyone to do anything?

Read the first chapter here.

After consideration, I think my ‘core story’ is about what psychologists call self-actualization, the realization of one’s full potential. My characters are always deeply conflicted in some essential way and they grow by learning to accept and reconcile all aspects of themselves, not in any self-indulgent manner, but with clear-eyed love. Healthy, well-balanced individuals both like and love themselves.

Why the sex?

It interests me, all right? Yes, that way, but also because the act defines our dual natures, human and animal. Sexual acts are incredibly revealing about the most private parts of the psyche – what is done and not done, said and not said. Sex strips us bare, in every possible sense. It’s enormously powerful and it absolutely fascinates me.

But every scene in a novel must earn its keep, and the erotic ones are absolutely no exception. I make an effort to embed character development or emotional conflict in the sex, because otherwise it’s a waste of space. Which brings us back to character arcs and the core story.

Can you put your finger on what your ‘core story’ might be? Would your critique partners agree with you? Ask them! *grin* Can you identify the ‘core stories’ of your favourite authors?

My website.

My books.

My blog. I’d love you to drop in and say hello!

Updates, contests, free stories and general mayhem.

Thanks, Denise!

I’m at CapClave this weekend, but have pre-scheduled weekend posts.

Posted in erotica, guest, sf/f | 20 Comments

Linkgasm #1

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Victoria Janssen

Fear of Kindle: Don’t Bet Against the Paper Barons and How Newspapers Will Survive, both by science fiction author and music critic Tom Purdom.

I can totally get into the Harvard Bookstore’s new bookmaking robot, known to friends as “Paige M. Gutenborg.” I mean, it’s a robot. How cool is that? Now if the robot could write books, too, that would be something, and we’d really be living in the future. Here’s what you can get so far.

Luddite that I am, I doubt I will ever buy a vook, but the idea is kind of cool and science-fictiony. Even though the name is so silly I’m having trouble taking it seriously. The concept sounds similar to online games – maybe if they did a vook of Leather Goddesses of Phobos I’d be more interested! Or perhaps vooks of slipstream fiction might be appropriate. Here’s an enthusiastic article at The Creative Penn about possible uses for the vook.

Conversations with Isabel Allende, a book which I discovered only recently, looks really interesting. “Every writer of fiction,” Allende asserts, “should confront these three challenges: write short stories, an erotic novel, and children’s literature.” Allende has already written a story collection and a children’s book; although she has certainly written several erotic scenes in her fiction, and devoted an entire work of nonfiction (Aphrodite) to sex and food, the challenge of the erotic novel remains. “I really would like to write erotic novels. Unfortunately, I was raised as a Catholic, and my mother is still alive, so it’s difficult. However, I feel that there is a part of me as a person that is extremely sensuous and sexual.”

And now for something completely different. A friend pointed me towards these awesome puzzles. I’m particularly fascinated by the Rombix – the one I played with was irresistible because of the bright colors and smooth pieces that felt lovely in my hand, but the enormous, expensive ones are also horribly tempting, and make me wish I had a house with a library, where I would display them on lovely polished tables where guests could play with them.

Linkgasm 2.

Posted in business of writing, links | Comments Off

The Intricacies of Marriages of Convenience

Happy Birthday, Ursula!

The Thin Dead Line

The Basics – Historical Research Links

Inspiration All Around

Ivor Gurney, "Pain"

Denise Rossetti, What Lies Beneath – Guest Post

Linkgasm #1

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