Agent Monday: Why You Should Build Community

Happy Agent Monday everyone! Coming off a weekend here that was a mixed bag of gloomy rain followed by glittering sunshine. The bright spot in Saturday’s gloom was spending time at Philadelphia Stories Magazine’s annual fab Push to Publish Conference. Live anywhere near the Philly area and never heard of these folks? They are a great regional resource, plus they run this kick-ass conference, so…  At the conference I sat on a beginning marketing panel for authors with brilliant folks Don Lafferty and Janice Gable Bashman. And one of the best bits of advice that came out of it? Build your community.

Here’s why… First of all, writing can be a lonely business. Don’t you want to talk with people who share your passion? And who get where you’re coming from? Yeah you do! Second of all, you can learn so much from others that you can’t get from a blog post (not even an Agent Monday post). Third of all you can and should support each other. Sharing information to boost your careers is one way. You can crit one another’s works. You can meet more people through each other. You can show up at each other’s readings and signings, and help promote one another, too. You can find your people, connect with your audience, and grow your reach.

That’s marketing stuff, and it’s also career stuff, and human well-being stuff, too. And it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, and it’s something you should begin doing the moment you decide you are a writer (or, like, right now after reading this post). What you should NOT do is wait until your book is going to come out and then be like, Hey, girlfriend, nice to meet you! Help me! Promote me! Look at me! Buy my book! Okay, bye!

NOPE. Build community. Think long term. Give and take. And reap long-term benefits. That’s what I’ve been doing as an author/agent for years. Including belonging to an amazing author group The Liars Club. Together we have promoted indie bookstores and libraries and literacy, and we’ve done panels and joint signings, we hold monthly free writer’s coffeehouses, and we’ve helped each other through thick and thin. Hey, we even put together a short story collection called LIAR LIAR. If you want to know more about us, you can follow The Liars Club on Facebook by clicking here.

Interested in building your community? Here are some suggestions:

1. Start in your region. Local publications? Grab em. Read em. Submit to them if appropriate. Local conferences or writer’s organizations? Attend. Meet folk. Volunteer. At any writer’s conference you attend: don’t overlook the most important people you’ll meet there! No, not the agents and editors. The folks sitting next to you in the audience or at lunch. Meet your fellow writers. Share your interests and struggles. Exchange contact info. Friend online. Stay in touch and support each other!

2. Support the reading and bookselling community! Visit your local bookstores and libraries. Borrow books. Buy books. Attend events. Chat with folks because they love books — you can learn from them. Don’t do it because someday you want to GET something from them.  Do it because they are part of your world and you do have something in common.

3. Support your fellow authors every way you can.  Read a book you loved? TELL PEOPLE. Review online, post those reviews and ratings wherever you can. I try to take the time to cut and paste the reviews I do onto sites like Goodreads and LibraryThing and Shelfari and Barnesandnoble.com. Show up at author events and readings. Share their good news online with others.

4. Get involved. Volunteer at a conference or for a literacy organization or to help out at a book fair. You’ll meet people on many levels. Join and volunteer for organizations related to your interests and writing. Groups like Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, or International Thriller Writers, or Romance Writers of America, etc. have tons of events and benefits and conferences and information, and above all, people in your writing space who you can support and learn from.

5. Think beyond the writing world. Have sustainability issues in your novel? Then you should be familiar with the magazines and organizations and happenings related to that. That is your community too.

Start now. Get involved. Build community. I guarantee you that even two years from now you’ll find you’ve built a support system that reaches far beyond just you at your computer and your few friends and family. You’ll have learned a ton, made meaningful connections, supported and received support in countless ways. Oh, and that all just might help you impress an agent, and market your book someday, too.

 

*Marie is an Associate Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency in New York City. To keep up with all her Agent Monday posts, subscribe to her site by clicking on the Follow link located on her page on the upper left margin.

 

 

Doylestown Bookshop Hosts DRAWN Launch

Here’s a quick shoutout to the wonderful independent bookstore The Doylestown Bookshop who hosted the launch party for my new paranormal novel DRAWN.

We had cake and goodies, and great people filling the store, and we sold a ton of books too! Heartfelt thanks to everyone who came. If you missed the event, the bookstore has on hand signed copies of DRAWN, plus my novels WHAT I MEANT… and OVER MY HEAD, and a few copies of the short story anthology LIAR LIAR in which I have a story.

I hope you’ll stop in and check these out, plus keep an eye on The Doylestown Bookshop’s events page for great upcoming author signings and fun.

And if you aren’t in the Doylestown, PA area, chances are pretty solid that you do have a bookstore near you. Make a point of visiting and supporting your area bookseller, and remember that you can order any of my novels through any bookstore!  Just ask them.

And check out my Appearances page to see where I’ll be next.  It’s always great to meet readers face to face.

Happy reads,

Marie

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LIAR LIAR Book Launch

(Cross-posted at the Liars Club Philly site.)

It’s the truth. The Liars Club is launching their new short story anthology Liar Liar at Between Books, 2703 Philadelphia Pike in Claymont, DE, on Saturday, October 29^th from 2-4 p.m. Visitors to the launch, which is free and open to the public, will be able to grab one of the first copies of Liar Liar and have it signed by the many authors featured in this book. Best of all, part of all proceeds from this book go directly toward causes advancing literacy. No lie.

Liar Liar features a bold collection of stories, each centered on a lie. Included in the collection is my own short story “What I Did…”  With an introduction by blockbuster novelist Sandra Brown, and stories that range in tone from the hilarious to the bizarre and even the frightening, Liar Liar is the perfect book to entertain you during those long fall and winter evenings.

At the Between Books event, I’ll be there along with many other Liars including award-winning fantasy author Gregory Frost (Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet ), thriller novelist Jon McGoran (aka D.H. Dublin, Freezer Burn, Body Trace), urban novelist Solomon Jones (The Gravedigger’s Ball, The Last Confession), fantasy/scifi and media tie-in author Keith DeCandido (his many titles include Dragon Precinct and Unicorn Precinct), crime novelist Dennis Tafoya (Dope Thief, Wolves of Fairmount Park), historical author Keith Strunk (Prallsville Mills and Stockton), novelist Kelly Simmons (Standing Still, The Bird House), mystery author Merry Jones (Summer Session, The Borrowed and Blue Murders) and short story author and social media marketing expert Don Lafferty.

“We’re thrilled to be holding our launch at Between Books,” says author Gregory Frost. “This is a premiere bookstore that not only offers general books, but also specializes in sci fi, fantasy and horror. Plus the store holds incredible events. It’s a book-lover’s paradise.”

For more information, or to reserve a copy of Liar Liar before the event, call Between Books at 302-798-3378.

On the Radio!

Me? Not!

When I was a teen I’d dreamed of this moment. The moment I’d be on the radio with people actually listening…

Well, okay, the dream was a bit different, and it went like this: I was just some ordinary kid hidden away in some ordinary suburban basement belting out songs I was listening to on my record player (yes, vinyl records…).  But wait! Someone walking by hears me. Thinks, yes, this is the unusual voice everyone’s been looking for. That someone, of course, is a famous producer, and I, of course, am discovered.

Dream come true?

Well, maybe not. But I WAS on the radio last night, and, lucky for you, I wasn’t singing. And I was contacted by a producer. That happened on Tuesday. See? My Magic 8 Ball was right all along.

Here’s what happened. Over at the Liars Club blog I had done a post about the Collingswood Book Festival in NJ (which is tomorrow, and is free…come visit!), and NPR radio station WHYY was interested in talking about the fest and the panel my group the Liars Club was doing there on the revolutionary changes in today’s publishing.

So, presto! By Wednesday I was on a train into Philly to do the interview.  Then sitting at the WHYY studios across from the very kind Newsworks Tonight host Dave Heller, who did not make me feel in the least bit nervous.  And, I’m happy to report, I did not knock over that overly full styrofoam cup of water they’d set out in front of me.  (I’m convinced they put it there as a test of some sort. I immediately slid the cup far far away from me, averting certain radio disaster, short-circuited wires, shooting flames, things like that.)

We talked about what it’s like to get published these days, about the growth of independent publishing, about the Liars Club, about how I write and why I do what I do. I also chatted a little about my books, including a bit about my newest upcoming novel DRAWN.

It was such a fun experience, and last night the show aired, and THAT’S when I got nervous. Seriously nervous. What if I’d misspoke? What if I sounded like a tool? Well, you can judge for yourself, and let me know what you think.

*To listen to the interview, just click here.

Thanks for having me, Newsworks Tonight. And thanks (from everyone) for not asking me to sing.

Psst! Secrets…Pass it on!

It's a secret...so tell everyone!

Hey gang, just wanted to let you in on a few secrets…

First of all, I’ll soon be revealing the cover for my new young adult novel OVER MY HEAD.   Look for this, and for the book to be coming out in June!  Very excited.

This novel picks up two years after WHAT I MEANT… finishes, and you’ll get to hang out with Sang, Megan, Dalton, Gary, Doodles and some new characters the summer before senior year as Sang falls big time for the one guy everybody thinks is wrong for her.

And for the many of you who have read WHAT I MEANT… and have asked me, “What happened to Gina? Why did she act like that?”…well, I’m putting the finishing touches right now on a short story that will soon appear in an anthology including stories written by the wonderful authors of The Liars Club.  I can tell you the anthology will be called LIAR, LIAR!  I can tell you that Gina is running from something, and hasn’t been entirely honest with Sang. And I can tell you the story will be called, “What I Did…”  And I can tell you that I can’t tell you much more just yet.  But I will. Soon. Honest.

Look for details, including when and how to purchase LIAR, LIAR! as well as OVER MY HEAD on this site. Soon. Cross my heart.

In the meantime, like all good secrets…Shhh! (And be sure to pass it on.)