I am seriously rocked by the response to the Blood Bound giveaway; not only for everyone taking the time to join in, but also for your author and title recommendations. I'm already making a list for my next trip to the bookstore.
The winners of the giveaway are:
Kristopher Reisz
Maria, Lover of All Things Romance
Terri (whose comment started with: Here are a few authors that I'm really enjoy reading at the moment: L.A. Banks for her Vampire Huntress series.)
Whatafreak
Martie (whose comment started with: J.R. Ward. Despite silly names and an off-putting glossary, she's unmatched at putting tension on every page.)
Winners, please e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com with your full name, ship-to address, and if you'd also like a copy of Moon Called so I can get these books out to you. My thanks to everyone for your contributions to all our reading lists, and congratulations to Patricia Briggs, our newest New York Times bestselling author.
Showing posts with label Moon Called. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moon Called. Show all posts
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Blood Bound
I've been nagging people for years to read Patricia Briggs, but I've been a particular pain about it ever since she published Moon Called. That's why I shrieked like a fangirl when I saw that her latest novel, Blood Bound, debuted this week at #35 on the USA Today BSL and #12 on the New York Times BSL. At last people are discovering, as I have, what a terrific writer Patricia is.
The second novel in Patricia Briggs's dark fantasy series continues the story of Mercy Thompson, a shape-shifting garage mechanic who tries to live a normal life while dealing with werewolves, vampires and other supernatural forces surrounding her. The novel does not suffer from the dreaded second book syndrome; in fact I think it's better than the first.
The satisfaction this book delivers really surprised me. After reading Moon Called, I wanted to know more about what it's like for Mercy in her other-than-human form. I was also curious about the hierarchy and culture of the vamps in her world, and just how dangerous they could be. I flat-out fell in love with Adam and Samuel, and couldn't wait to see how their involvement with Mercy was going to progress. Patricia Briggs delivers all that plus some in Blood Bound while somehow making it an excellent standalone novel as well.
As always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, name an author who regularly surprises you (or, if you have not yet discovered such a story magician, just throw your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, February 9, 2007. I'll draw five names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. Giveaway bonus: if any winner has not yet read Moon Called, I'll throw in an unsigned copy of that one, too. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Six by Six
The winner of the Five for Jeanne giveaway is Caroline, whose comment read: Thanks so much for this and for the story of Jeanne. May the holidays land and equally lovely surprise or three on your doorstep, and who should e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com with your full name, ship-to info and title of the book you'd like for your bookwish so I can get these all out to you.
Six is a very creative number. A perfect number, when you consider that it is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 ´ 2 ´ 3) of the first three numbers. The sixth element on the Periodic Table is carbon, without which life as we know it would not exist. There are six spectral colors: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet; and six sides to a cube. Even God was reported to have created Adam on the sixth day (well, nobody's perfect.)
There are always new voices coming out in any genre, but 2006 was a very cool year (because it ends with a six, no doubt):
1. Around this time last December I wrote about one of my favorite authors, Patricia Briggs and her debut urban fantasy Moon Called, which really took off when it was released a few months later. See? I'm not gloating. Much.
2. The beautiful cover art for Marjorie M. Liu's Shadow Touch grabbed my attention in February, but the story delivered so much more, as did the sequels. That and I think Marjorie is just getting warmed up.
3. I was wowed by the great copy for Stephanie Rowe's Date Me, Baby, One More Time in May -- a novel lives up to its copy, too. Delightful.
4. Shiloh Walker, who is always trying to drag me away from the joys of doing laundry, railroaded me with her novel Hunting the Hunter in July. This book is so hot it should burn your fingers when you read it.
5. Nalini Singh got folks all around the blogosphere talking about her September release Slave to Sensation. Beautiful writing, elegant flow, great story.
6. In October I had the pleasure of virtually meeting author Michelle Rowen when she joined in with the e-book challenge, which prompted me track down a copy of her terrific January release Bitten & Smitten. Another reason to love Canada: they have Michelle Rowen.
I enjoyed these books so much that I couldn't choose between them, so the sixth very cool book of December is actually six very cool books.
For a chance to win today's giveaway, in comments to this post tell us the name of an author that you discovered and enjoyed this year (or, if you've not found anyone new to read, just throw your name in the hat) by midnight EST on December 10, 2006. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send the winner unsigned copies of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Shadow Touch by Marjorie M. Liu, Date Me, Baby, One More Time by Stephanie Rowe, Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker, Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowen, and Talyn by Holly Lisle. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Six is a very creative number. A perfect number, when you consider that it is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 ´ 2 ´ 3) of the first three numbers. The sixth element on the Periodic Table is carbon, without which life as we know it would not exist. There are six spectral colors: red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet; and six sides to a cube. Even God was reported to have created Adam on the sixth day (well, nobody's perfect.)
There are always new voices coming out in any genre, but 2006 was a very cool year (because it ends with a six, no doubt):
1. Around this time last December I wrote about one of my favorite authors, Patricia Briggs and her debut urban fantasy Moon Called, which really took off when it was released a few months later. See? I'm not gloating. Much.
2. The beautiful cover art for Marjorie M. Liu's Shadow Touch grabbed my attention in February, but the story delivered so much more, as did the sequels. That and I think Marjorie is just getting warmed up.
3. I was wowed by the great copy for Stephanie Rowe's Date Me, Baby, One More Time in May -- a novel lives up to its copy, too. Delightful.
4. Shiloh Walker, who is always trying to drag me away from the joys of doing laundry, railroaded me with her novel Hunting the Hunter in July. This book is so hot it should burn your fingers when you read it.
5. Nalini Singh got folks all around the blogosphere talking about her September release Slave to Sensation. Beautiful writing, elegant flow, great story.
6. In October I had the pleasure of virtually meeting author Michelle Rowen when she joined in with the e-book challenge, which prompted me track down a copy of her terrific January release Bitten & Smitten. Another reason to love Canada: they have Michelle Rowen.
I enjoyed these books so much that I couldn't choose between them, so the sixth very cool book of December is actually six very cool books.
For a chance to win today's giveaway, in comments to this post tell us the name of an author that you discovered and enjoyed this year (or, if you've not found anyone new to read, just throw your name in the hat) by midnight EST on December 10, 2006. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send the winner unsigned copies of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Shadow Touch by Marjorie M. Liu, Date Me, Baby, One More Time by Stephanie Rowe, Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker, Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowen, and Talyn by Holly Lisle. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
VW#4
Sorry I've been scarce, folks. Real life snarled this time instead of the usual techno tangles, but all is well and back to what passes for normal around here.
The winner for the VB Party Left Behind Goody Bag is Monica, who should e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com with your full name and ship-to address.
Virtual Workshop #4:
Extending Your Writing Range
I. The Call of Writing
Anyone can be a writer, but the journey to becoming a writer is different for everyone. Some writers seem to be born with a pen in hand, while others find writing like an oasis after years of searching for a creative outlet. Many writers are the children of other writers, either born to them or devoted fans inspired by their work. Avid readers make the leap from loving books to wanting to create their own. Still others fall into writing as the result of a happy accident: a school assignment that flips an inner switch, or joining NaNoWriMo on a lark, or throwing some ideas and words together on a boring, rainy afternoon.
How you became a writer doesn't matter, and neither does what you write. All writers who are born or made or accidentally fall into the gig all share the same calling: storytelling through words.
II. Story as Mind Cuisine
Because my parents are from the northern U.S. and moved to the extreme southern U.S. when I was very young, I was raised on a hodge-podge of Northern and Southern cuisine: New England boiled dinner with hushpuppies and Key lime pie; pancakes with maple syrup, grits and grapefruit we picked from the tree in the yard. Hanging out with Latina friends from school I picked up a love for Cuban coffee, black beans and rice and mariquitas. My chef stepdad taught me to set aside my mother's Crisco, Ragu and seasoned salt and experiment with olive oil, plum tomatoes and fresh herbs. My military years added French, German, Japanese, Korean, English, Thai and dormitory food (anything that can be made in one pan on a hot plate) to my repetoire.
Writing novels allows us to explore the cuisine of the mind. Most writers start out with a favorite, comfort genre that feeds their imagination. They come to know that genre so well they don't even have to think about measuring the ingredients. This comfort can make every other genre seem a bit foreign in comparison. Combined with a (to me) very weird attitude around the industry that writers can only write in one genre, it often works to inhibit writers from striking out and trying new things.
I was fortunate in my writing education. When I began to devour books as a kid, I didn't know what genre was. I went to the library, started at the "A" author shelf in fiction and began picking up books. I checked out the ones that grabbed me, read them, and went back for more every week until I hit the end of the "Z" section. Reading other authors' books was my only writing education, but it was a great one. Wide-variety reading broadened my horizons and helped me to see the structure of novels versus the genre label they were slapped with.
Any writer who wants to extend their writing range should not be inhibited by the comfort genre or the opinions of limited imaginations. You don't have to give up writing in your favorite genre, either. Just because you try making stirfry now and then doesn't mean you have to stop making spaghetti and meatballs.
III. Novel Recipe
All fiction novels begin with the same two ingredients: characters and conflict. Every book you read has characters who encounter conflict and an account of how they handle it. The who, what, where, when and how determine genre, but a novel about a private investigator hired to solve a series of murders is no different than a book about a cowboy who must chase after his runaway pregnant bride. You put characters with conflict, and it leads to an end result, or
Character + Conflict = Conclusion
Alone, each ingredient does nothing. Characters need something to do. Conflict needs someone to resolve it. Throwing them together in the novel skillet and turning up the story heat makes them change each other; the character is affected by the conflict, the conflict is affected by the character. Neither come out of that skillet unchanged by the other.
IV. Inhibitors
As a young writer I completely stayed away from writing stories and novels with male protagonists. My reason? I thought boys were dumb.
Once I got through puberty, I still shied away from male protags, until I saw many female authors had written books with male protagonists. I attacked my inhibition by reading novels written by male authors in order to compare the differences in my writing style and theirs.
Call it getting in touch with my masculine side, but once I had done enough of that I began to catch myself "being female" when I was writing in a male POV. Eventually I got up the nerve to write a couple of novels with male protagonists. It was definitely different, but not quite as scary as I'd imagined. I just had to think differently; step outside myself and tell the story from the character's POV instead of my own.
A common trap writers fall into is the need to make their protagonists mirror images of themselves. There is a certain vicarious thrill involved in the author making the protag a fictional identical twin. The author doesn't have to imagine what the protag will do, they already know. They don't have to write outside their personal comfort zones, either. Problem is, the author ends up with cookie-cutter protagonists.
I combat this by seeing myself as the protagonist's biographer versus their RL twin. Whenever possible, I deliberately create characters who are very different from me physically, mentally and situationally; the more so the better. It allows me to observe and record rather than steer and impose my will on a protag who is just me in a fictional mask.
V. Practical exercises
Here are some methods that may help extend your range:
1. Try writing a scene or chapter from your WIP from the POV of a character in the story other than your protagonist (I did this by writing Illumination, which is the story of StarDoc totally from Duncan Reever's POV.)
2. Set your usual story in a different place, time or circumstance. Fond of writing cowboy/runaway bride romances? Set one on an alien world 500 years in the future. Have a penchant for private investigators? Have yours investigate a soldier being court martialed for sedition during the American Revolution. Into family sagas? Make the family slaves, and chronicle what happens to them during the collapse of the Roman Empire.
3. Test drive different types of protagonists. Try writing a story from the POV of a victim, or the antagonist, or a young child, or the family pet. If all your protagonists are of one gender, switch to the opposite gender. Give your protagonist a significant handicap that deprives them of one of the five senses. Write a protagonist whose situation, philosophies or lifestyle are completely opposite your own.
4. Take a classic fiction story or myth and write it in a modern setting. Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice and Taming of the Shrew have all been updated into modern stories; how about your version of Pygmalion, Beowulf, Les Miserables or Snow White?
5. Pick a famous figure from history and write a story about one day in their life. The day can be an ordinary day, their birthday, their wedding day, or the day before they die.
VI. No Limits
Whatever attitude our peers and the industry have, the first person to impose restrictions on a writer is the internal fraidycat. We decide at the keyboard what we feel we can or cannot do, and we're always our own worst censors. So the next time you approach a story idea and something inside you says You can't write that, tell something to shut up and write it anyway. You may be surprised to find out that there really are no limits to what you can do on the page.
Post your thoughts, comments and questions about writing range in comments to this post by midnight EST on Monday, July 31, 2006, and you'll have a chance at winning the final Mega Left Behind Goody Bag: signed copies of my S.L. Viehl hardcover novel Blade Dancer and all three of my Lynn Viehl Darkyn novels in paperback, an unsigned hardcover copy of Talyn by Holly Lisle and paperback copies of Love's Potion by Monica Jackson, Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Tiger Eye, Shadow Touch and Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu, Threads of Malice by Tamara Siler Jones, The Attraction by Douglas Clegg, I See You and Last Girl Dancing by Holly Lisle, Dark Lover and Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward, Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker, as well as a hardcover copy of The Writer's Book of Matches and Flow Chart Maker Software (good for outlining, mind mapping and organizing), all packed in a red and beige canvas tote from Books-A-Million. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send you the goodies; giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Related Links:
Peder Hill's The Basic Three Act Structure
The Elements of Fiction.
The winner for the VB Party Left Behind Goody Bag is Monica, who should e-mail me at LynnViehl@aol.com with your full name and ship-to address.
Virtual Workshop #4:
Extending Your Writing Range
I. The Call of Writing
Anyone can be a writer, but the journey to becoming a writer is different for everyone. Some writers seem to be born with a pen in hand, while others find writing like an oasis after years of searching for a creative outlet. Many writers are the children of other writers, either born to them or devoted fans inspired by their work. Avid readers make the leap from loving books to wanting to create their own. Still others fall into writing as the result of a happy accident: a school assignment that flips an inner switch, or joining NaNoWriMo on a lark, or throwing some ideas and words together on a boring, rainy afternoon.
How you became a writer doesn't matter, and neither does what you write. All writers who are born or made or accidentally fall into the gig all share the same calling: storytelling through words.
II. Story as Mind Cuisine
Because my parents are from the northern U.S. and moved to the extreme southern U.S. when I was very young, I was raised on a hodge-podge of Northern and Southern cuisine: New England boiled dinner with hushpuppies and Key lime pie; pancakes with maple syrup, grits and grapefruit we picked from the tree in the yard. Hanging out with Latina friends from school I picked up a love for Cuban coffee, black beans and rice and mariquitas. My chef stepdad taught me to set aside my mother's Crisco, Ragu and seasoned salt and experiment with olive oil, plum tomatoes and fresh herbs. My military years added French, German, Japanese, Korean, English, Thai and dormitory food (anything that can be made in one pan on a hot plate) to my repetoire.
Writing novels allows us to explore the cuisine of the mind. Most writers start out with a favorite, comfort genre that feeds their imagination. They come to know that genre so well they don't even have to think about measuring the ingredients. This comfort can make every other genre seem a bit foreign in comparison. Combined with a (to me) very weird attitude around the industry that writers can only write in one genre, it often works to inhibit writers from striking out and trying new things.
I was fortunate in my writing education. When I began to devour books as a kid, I didn't know what genre was. I went to the library, started at the "A" author shelf in fiction and began picking up books. I checked out the ones that grabbed me, read them, and went back for more every week until I hit the end of the "Z" section. Reading other authors' books was my only writing education, but it was a great one. Wide-variety reading broadened my horizons and helped me to see the structure of novels versus the genre label they were slapped with.
Any writer who wants to extend their writing range should not be inhibited by the comfort genre or the opinions of limited imaginations. You don't have to give up writing in your favorite genre, either. Just because you try making stirfry now and then doesn't mean you have to stop making spaghetti and meatballs.
III. Novel Recipe
All fiction novels begin with the same two ingredients: characters and conflict. Every book you read has characters who encounter conflict and an account of how they handle it. The who, what, where, when and how determine genre, but a novel about a private investigator hired to solve a series of murders is no different than a book about a cowboy who must chase after his runaway pregnant bride. You put characters with conflict, and it leads to an end result, or
Character + Conflict = Conclusion
Alone, each ingredient does nothing. Characters need something to do. Conflict needs someone to resolve it. Throwing them together in the novel skillet and turning up the story heat makes them change each other; the character is affected by the conflict, the conflict is affected by the character. Neither come out of that skillet unchanged by the other.
IV. Inhibitors
As a young writer I completely stayed away from writing stories and novels with male protagonists. My reason? I thought boys were dumb.
Once I got through puberty, I still shied away from male protags, until I saw many female authors had written books with male protagonists. I attacked my inhibition by reading novels written by male authors in order to compare the differences in my writing style and theirs.
Call it getting in touch with my masculine side, but once I had done enough of that I began to catch myself "being female" when I was writing in a male POV. Eventually I got up the nerve to write a couple of novels with male protagonists. It was definitely different, but not quite as scary as I'd imagined. I just had to think differently; step outside myself and tell the story from the character's POV instead of my own.
A common trap writers fall into is the need to make their protagonists mirror images of themselves. There is a certain vicarious thrill involved in the author making the protag a fictional identical twin. The author doesn't have to imagine what the protag will do, they already know. They don't have to write outside their personal comfort zones, either. Problem is, the author ends up with cookie-cutter protagonists.
I combat this by seeing myself as the protagonist's biographer versus their RL twin. Whenever possible, I deliberately create characters who are very different from me physically, mentally and situationally; the more so the better. It allows me to observe and record rather than steer and impose my will on a protag who is just me in a fictional mask.
V. Practical exercises
Here are some methods that may help extend your range:
1. Try writing a scene or chapter from your WIP from the POV of a character in the story other than your protagonist (I did this by writing Illumination, which is the story of StarDoc totally from Duncan Reever's POV.)
2. Set your usual story in a different place, time or circumstance. Fond of writing cowboy/runaway bride romances? Set one on an alien world 500 years in the future. Have a penchant for private investigators? Have yours investigate a soldier being court martialed for sedition during the American Revolution. Into family sagas? Make the family slaves, and chronicle what happens to them during the collapse of the Roman Empire.
3. Test drive different types of protagonists. Try writing a story from the POV of a victim, or the antagonist, or a young child, or the family pet. If all your protagonists are of one gender, switch to the opposite gender. Give your protagonist a significant handicap that deprives them of one of the five senses. Write a protagonist whose situation, philosophies or lifestyle are completely opposite your own.
4. Take a classic fiction story or myth and write it in a modern setting. Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice and Taming of the Shrew have all been updated into modern stories; how about your version of Pygmalion, Beowulf, Les Miserables or Snow White?
5. Pick a famous figure from history and write a story about one day in their life. The day can be an ordinary day, their birthday, their wedding day, or the day before they die.
VI. No Limits
Whatever attitude our peers and the industry have, the first person to impose restrictions on a writer is the internal fraidycat. We decide at the keyboard what we feel we can or cannot do, and we're always our own worst censors. So the next time you approach a story idea and something inside you says You can't write that, tell something to shut up and write it anyway. You may be surprised to find out that there really are no limits to what you can do on the page.
Post your thoughts, comments and questions about writing range in comments to this post by midnight EST on Monday, July 31, 2006, and you'll have a chance at winning the final Mega Left Behind Goody Bag: signed copies of my S.L. Viehl hardcover novel Blade Dancer and all three of my Lynn Viehl Darkyn novels in paperback, an unsigned hardcover copy of Talyn by Holly Lisle and paperback copies of Love's Potion by Monica Jackson, Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, Tiger Eye, Shadow Touch and Red Heart of Jade by Marjorie M. Liu, Threads of Malice by Tamara Siler Jones, The Attraction by Douglas Clegg, I See You and Last Girl Dancing by Holly Lisle, Dark Lover and Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward, Hunting the Hunter by Shiloh Walker, as well as a hardcover copy of The Writer's Book of Matches and Flow Chart Maker Software (good for outlining, mind mapping and organizing), all packed in a red and beige canvas tote from Books-A-Million. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send you the goodies; giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Related Links:
Peder Hill's The Basic Three Act Structure
The Elements of Fiction.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
VW#2
Virtual Workshop #2:
Trend Tracking Versus Jumping
I. Trends and Options
The publishing industry, like any entertainment entity, runs on consumer demand. What the readers buy, the publishers want. When a certain genre or sub-genre is in high demand for a significant period of time, we call this a trend. However we writers feel about trends, they are a reality, and they have direct influence over what publishers will buy, and what they reject.
The most common ways writers deal with trends:
A. Ignore them. Write exactly what you want, and pay no attention to the market, and hope for the best.
B. Jump on them. Write only what is in market demand in hopes that it will give you an edge in the slushpile.
C. Track them. Continually watch what sells on the market and use that information to follow current trends, evaluate your manuscript potential and, if possible, be one of the first writers to anticipate a new trend.
A is the artist's way. I respect artists, and I think this is a lovely attitude to have. It's also the reason a lot of artists starve, so it doesn't work for me.
B is like jumping on Ye Olde Bandwagon. It's often more counter-productive than helpful, as by the time a trend really gets rolling you have a ton of writers trying to do the exact same thing.
C is what I do, and in this workshop, we're going to talk about how to do that.
II. Genre Awareness
To sell in a genre, you must be aware of what is selling in that genre. Go to the bookstore regularly and look at the shelves. Check the online booksellers' BSL lists. Talk about genre titles with readers and other writers and see what are the latest, most popular sellers. Read books that do very well for market analysis.
What to look for in your target genre, and author examples:
Authors who create trends (Dan Brown)
Books that explode on the market (J.R. Ward)
Novels that provoke strong reader reactions (Thomas Harris)
Successfully sustained bestselling series (Sue Grafton)
Unusual or unique voices (Jacqueline Carey)
Word of mouth or "buzzed" books (Lisa Valdez)
Educate yourself as thoroughly as you can about your genre, and you'll have the basic knowledge you need to track a trend.
III. Info Gathering
Every week helpful entities like The New York Times and USA Today tell us what consumers are snapping up. This is great for readers but not very useful to writers, because we know whatever makes the bestseller lists was actually sold a year or two ago. What sells now is what will (or won't) be hot in 2007-2008. You might as well ignore the lists, right?
No. The lists individually provide little useful info, but collectively are a free trend mapping service. A writer interested in trend tracking should read the lists every week and watch how well books in their target genre(s) are selling (this is why it's so important to know your genre, so you can recognize the applicable author names and titles that show up on the lists.)
Let's look at rankings for five writers over a one year-period on the USA Today list (books are listed in order of publication along with peak position on BSL):
Jennifer Armintrout: The Turning 93
Kelley Armstrong: Haunted 62, Dates from Hell 36, Broken 22
Patricia Briggs: Moon Called 109
Lynn Viehl: If Angels Burn 148, Private Demon 120, Dark Need 87
J.R. Ward: Dark Lover 48, Lover Eternal 39
Let me add some details: Jennifer and Patricia's novels are genre debuts. Kelley, J.R. and I all have established series that are building in popularity. Patricia and I are veteran pros in other genres. With the exception of Kelley, all of us are new to the USA Today list, so we're considered "up and coming." Patricia and Kelley are being shelved in SF/F, and the rest of us are shelved in romance. The one thing we all have in common is that we're writing series that are not the usual Kiss Me Forever Vlad type novels that have been so popular in the past.
IV. Analyzing and Applying Your Info
How well you can track a trend depends on how much effort you're willing to put into it. Reading lists, watching your genre, and making the connections does require some time, but you're educating yourself about the market. Track trends long enough and you'll find that you do automatically.
To apply what you learn, use the information you gather as a submission barometer for your written manuscripts, and as a priority guide for your new novel ideas. Do the five authors above indicate a new direction in the vampire fiction trend; perhaps a trend within the trend? Only time will tell for sure. But if you are a writer with a dark or otherwise unusual vampire fiction manuscript or idea, I'd say this would be a good time to put together a proposal and get it out there, because similar fiction is collectively rising on the lists.
One thing about information: make sure it's information and not rumors. For about a year now I've been hearing a tired old rumor about how chick-lit, a very big trend in the romance genre, is on its way out. It's becoming cluttered in the same way that romantic suspense did five years ago, and paranormal romance is doing now, but I'm not seeing it die on the lists yet, and plenty of new writers are still selling it. Publishers will probably become more conservative with the number of chick-lit titles they publish, and eventually whittle down their authors lists, but I don't think it's going belly-up any time soon.
V. Making Trends
All trends start with some author(s) who present readers with something unexpected. Anyone who decides it's better to take the A/artist option and follow the artist's path has the potential to be a trend-setter. So do writers who take the C/Tracking option, because while watching trends, you may come up with an idea for a novel that goes beyond what's being done. B/Bandwagon writers generally don't set trends, because you're imitating what's already being done, but there is always the possibility that you'll do it better than anyone else has before you. In all things trend-related, choose to do what works best for you as a writer.
Post your comments, thoughts and questions on trends by midnight EST on Thursday, July 27, 2006, and you'll have a chance at winning today's Left Behind Goody Bag: signed copies of my Jessica Hall novels Into the Fire and Heat of the Moment and unsigned copies of: Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl, Emma Holly's All U Can Eat, Jamie Sobrato's The Sex Quotient, June Casagrande's Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, and Gimbles (brackets that hold a book open for you for hands-free reading), all packed in a quilted tote bag made by Yours Truly. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send you the goodies; giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Note: Thanks to the terrific response to VW#1 I'm lagging a bit behind on answering questions being posted in comments, but I promise I will leave no question unanswered. :)
Related links:
Bob Mayer's RTB guest post Writing for the Market.
Previous PBW posts about trends are here, here and here.
*Added: Bookseller Chick shares my general attitude about the chick-lit trend. (Thanks to L. for the link.)
Trend Tracking Versus Jumping
I. Trends and Options
The publishing industry, like any entertainment entity, runs on consumer demand. What the readers buy, the publishers want. When a certain genre or sub-genre is in high demand for a significant period of time, we call this a trend. However we writers feel about trends, they are a reality, and they have direct influence over what publishers will buy, and what they reject.
The most common ways writers deal with trends:
A. Ignore them. Write exactly what you want, and pay no attention to the market, and hope for the best.
B. Jump on them. Write only what is in market demand in hopes that it will give you an edge in the slushpile.
C. Track them. Continually watch what sells on the market and use that information to follow current trends, evaluate your manuscript potential and, if possible, be one of the first writers to anticipate a new trend.
A is the artist's way. I respect artists, and I think this is a lovely attitude to have. It's also the reason a lot of artists starve, so it doesn't work for me.
B is like jumping on Ye Olde Bandwagon. It's often more counter-productive than helpful, as by the time a trend really gets rolling you have a ton of writers trying to do the exact same thing.
C is what I do, and in this workshop, we're going to talk about how to do that.
II. Genre Awareness
To sell in a genre, you must be aware of what is selling in that genre. Go to the bookstore regularly and look at the shelves. Check the online booksellers' BSL lists. Talk about genre titles with readers and other writers and see what are the latest, most popular sellers. Read books that do very well for market analysis.
What to look for in your target genre, and author examples:
Authors who create trends (Dan Brown)
Books that explode on the market (J.R. Ward)
Novels that provoke strong reader reactions (Thomas Harris)
Successfully sustained bestselling series (Sue Grafton)
Unusual or unique voices (Jacqueline Carey)
Word of mouth or "buzzed" books (Lisa Valdez)
Educate yourself as thoroughly as you can about your genre, and you'll have the basic knowledge you need to track a trend.
III. Info Gathering
Every week helpful entities like The New York Times and USA Today tell us what consumers are snapping up. This is great for readers but not very useful to writers, because we know whatever makes the bestseller lists was actually sold a year or two ago. What sells now is what will (or won't) be hot in 2007-2008. You might as well ignore the lists, right?
No. The lists individually provide little useful info, but collectively are a free trend mapping service. A writer interested in trend tracking should read the lists every week and watch how well books in their target genre(s) are selling (this is why it's so important to know your genre, so you can recognize the applicable author names and titles that show up on the lists.)
Let's look at rankings for five writers over a one year-period on the USA Today list (books are listed in order of publication along with peak position on BSL):
Jennifer Armintrout: The Turning 93
Kelley Armstrong: Haunted 62, Dates from Hell 36, Broken 22
Patricia Briggs: Moon Called 109
Lynn Viehl: If Angels Burn 148, Private Demon 120, Dark Need 87
J.R. Ward: Dark Lover 48, Lover Eternal 39
Let me add some details: Jennifer and Patricia's novels are genre debuts. Kelley, J.R. and I all have established series that are building in popularity. Patricia and I are veteran pros in other genres. With the exception of Kelley, all of us are new to the USA Today list, so we're considered "up and coming." Patricia and Kelley are being shelved in SF/F, and the rest of us are shelved in romance. The one thing we all have in common is that we're writing series that are not the usual Kiss Me Forever Vlad type novels that have been so popular in the past.
IV. Analyzing and Applying Your Info
How well you can track a trend depends on how much effort you're willing to put into it. Reading lists, watching your genre, and making the connections does require some time, but you're educating yourself about the market. Track trends long enough and you'll find that you do automatically.
To apply what you learn, use the information you gather as a submission barometer for your written manuscripts, and as a priority guide for your new novel ideas. Do the five authors above indicate a new direction in the vampire fiction trend; perhaps a trend within the trend? Only time will tell for sure. But if you are a writer with a dark or otherwise unusual vampire fiction manuscript or idea, I'd say this would be a good time to put together a proposal and get it out there, because similar fiction is collectively rising on the lists.
One thing about information: make sure it's information and not rumors. For about a year now I've been hearing a tired old rumor about how chick-lit, a very big trend in the romance genre, is on its way out. It's becoming cluttered in the same way that romantic suspense did five years ago, and paranormal romance is doing now, but I'm not seeing it die on the lists yet, and plenty of new writers are still selling it. Publishers will probably become more conservative with the number of chick-lit titles they publish, and eventually whittle down their authors lists, but I don't think it's going belly-up any time soon.
V. Making Trends
All trends start with some author(s) who present readers with something unexpected. Anyone who decides it's better to take the A/artist option and follow the artist's path has the potential to be a trend-setter. So do writers who take the C/Tracking option, because while watching trends, you may come up with an idea for a novel that goes beyond what's being done. B/Bandwagon writers generally don't set trends, because you're imitating what's already being done, but there is always the possibility that you'll do it better than anyone else has before you. In all things trend-related, choose to do what works best for you as a writer.
Post your comments, thoughts and questions on trends by midnight EST on Thursday, July 27, 2006, and you'll have a chance at winning today's Left Behind Goody Bag: signed copies of my Jessica Hall novels Into the Fire and Heat of the Moment and unsigned copies of: Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl, Emma Holly's All U Can Eat, Jamie Sobrato's The Sex Quotient, June Casagrande's Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, and Gimbles (brackets that hold a book open for you for hands-free reading), all packed in a quilted tote bag made by Yours Truly. I'll draw one name from everyone who participates and send you the goodies; giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Note: Thanks to the terrific response to VW#1 I'm lagging a bit behind on answering questions being posted in comments, but I promise I will leave no question unanswered. :)
Related links:
Bob Mayer's RTB guest post Writing for the Market.
Previous PBW posts about trends are here, here and here.
*Added: Bookseller Chick shares my general attitude about the chick-lit trend. (Thanks to L. for the link.)
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
MC Giveaway
It's time to nail you guys with some books again. In fact, I think I'll declare this officially Book Tyranny week and do a giveaway every day. It will keep me from ranting.
What, you're going to complain? I'm menopausal here.
First up for discussion: humans with super powers. Despite the bad rep it's gotten in the movies (i.e. The Invisible Man, The Hollow Man, Predator), invisibility has always fascinated me. I mean, think about it. Fashion, no longer a problem. You could be fat and no one would care. You could see your ex, but they'd never see you or the obscene hand gestures you make in their direction. Or you could walk around town naked, freak out people at seances, cut to the front of the line for everything (who's going to complain?) or skip a bath for two months . . . well, maybe not that last part. But suffering through bad hair days or being forced to wear makeup and panty hose and shoes with heels? Ha. Over with.
The downside would be I'd never be able to shop in the grocery store again. Those People In a Terrible Hurry, of which ten thousand seem to have recently moved to our town, can see me perfectly well now, and still they try to run me down with their carts while they're rushing to pick up their Cocoa Puffs and Preparation H. Imagine if I were really invisible. I'd never make it alive through the cookie aisle.
If you could have any super power you wanted, what would it be? Answer that question in the comments to this post by midnight EST on Wednesday, 2/22/06. I'll draw four* names from all those who participate and send the winners an unsigned copy of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. Winners will be announced here by noon EST on Thursday, 2/23/06. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.
*Fine print: Yes, really only winners four this time; that's all the spare copies I have. Someday when I'm a (cough) multi-millionaire, then I'll hit everyone with freebies every time.
What, you're going to complain? I'm menopausal here.
First up for discussion: humans with super powers. Despite the bad rep it's gotten in the movies (i.e. The Invisible Man, The Hollow Man, Predator), invisibility has always fascinated me. I mean, think about it. Fashion, no longer a problem. You could be fat and no one would care. You could see your ex, but they'd never see you or the obscene hand gestures you make in their direction. Or you could walk around town naked, freak out people at seances, cut to the front of the line for everything (who's going to complain?) or skip a bath for two months . . . well, maybe not that last part. But suffering through bad hair days or being forced to wear makeup and panty hose and shoes with heels? Ha. Over with.
The downside would be I'd never be able to shop in the grocery store again. Those People In a Terrible Hurry, of which ten thousand seem to have recently moved to our town, can see me perfectly well now, and still they try to run me down with their carts while they're rushing to pick up their Cocoa Puffs and Preparation H. Imagine if I were really invisible. I'd never make it alive through the cookie aisle.
If you could have any super power you wanted, what would it be? Answer that question in the comments to this post by midnight EST on Wednesday, 2/22/06. I'll draw four* names from all those who participate and send the winners an unsigned copy of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. Winners will be announced here by noon EST on Thursday, 2/23/06. Giveaway open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.
*Fine print: Yes, really only winners four this time; that's all the spare copies I have. Someday when I'm a (cough) multi-millionaire, then I'll hit everyone with freebies every time.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Moon Called
Remember way back last April when I told you that this book was going to rock the genre? Not that I want to rub it in -- well, yeah, I do -- but there's another novel soon to be released that's going to raise the bar again:
Many of you know Patricia Briggs from her fantasy novels The Hob's Bargain, When Demons Walk, Dragon Bones, and Raven's Shadow. If you've read her, you know how good she is. She's what we call a writer's writer; the kind other authors read for the sheer pleasure of seeing it done right, and who is already so good that you don't think she can really get any better.
Moon Called is not just better. It's brilliant.
With this novel Patricia Briggs kicks off the story of mechanic and skinwalker Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson. Mercy's got her share of troubles, which include changing into a coyote, a dark and disturbing Alpha werewolf neighbor, vampires with car troubles, and all manner of fascinating Otherworld creatures being forced out of hiding by modern technology. When Mercy hires a young drifter to work at her garage, she has no idea the chain of events she sets into motion -- or how quickly all hell can break loose.
I loved how smart this book is, along with the world-building, the characters, the plot, and damn near everything about it. As much as I enjoy her fantasy work, it's so cool to see Patricia write in our world (which she promptly rebuilds to suit herself, but then, don't we all?) My only complaint: I have to wait months before the next Mercy book comes out. I should bribe her editor or something.
Moon Called will be hitting the shelves on January 31st, but if you'd like a preview, you can read the first chapter here right now.
Many of you know Patricia Briggs from her fantasy novels The Hob's Bargain, When Demons Walk, Dragon Bones, and Raven's Shadow. If you've read her, you know how good she is. She's what we call a writer's writer; the kind other authors read for the sheer pleasure of seeing it done right, and who is already so good that you don't think she can really get any better.
Moon Called is not just better. It's brilliant.
With this novel Patricia Briggs kicks off the story of mechanic and skinwalker Mercedes (Mercy) Thompson. Mercy's got her share of troubles, which include changing into a coyote, a dark and disturbing Alpha werewolf neighbor, vampires with car troubles, and all manner of fascinating Otherworld creatures being forced out of hiding by modern technology. When Mercy hires a young drifter to work at her garage, she has no idea the chain of events she sets into motion -- or how quickly all hell can break loose.
I loved how smart this book is, along with the world-building, the characters, the plot, and damn near everything about it. As much as I enjoy her fantasy work, it's so cool to see Patricia write in our world (which she promptly rebuilds to suit herself, but then, don't we all?) My only complaint: I have to wait months before the next Mercy book comes out. I should bribe her editor or something.
Moon Called will be hitting the shelves on January 31st, but if you'd like a preview, you can read the first chapter here right now.
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