Constellation Report 2014

This past weekend, John and I attended Constellation in Lincoln NE. I had a blast, more fun than I’ve had at a con in years, probably because I was feeling better than I have in years. Still, when we got home Sunday evening, I was too tired to write a blog. And today, I tried to catch up with some things, which took way longer than I thought it would. So I decided this week’s blog would be an edited version of my daily journal entries from the weekend:

4/25/14, Friday - got up around 8. John had said he wanted to leave around 1 pm, then at some point in the morning, he said that in order to get on the road by 1, we should probably leave the house around 11:30, to give us time to go the Credit Union and have lunch. That gave me time to print some things for panels. My first panel was 6 that evening, Exoplanets, and although the group was small, and my notes only produced a half hour panel, I think it went pretty well. I took my blue wig off before the end of the hour, it was sliding around on my head so much. If I’m going to do any costuming, I’ve got to figure out how to put on a wig properly.

4/26/14, Saturday - got up around 7 feeling good. After breakfast in the hotel restaurant, went back to the room and watched tv for a time while John was on the computer. Made John into a Klingon for the day, then went downstairs for my reading. An audience of about 6 (numbers are growing!) and at least one of them took notes on where to find my work! Again, about half an hour of reading, but I stretched it out a bit by talking to the audience about the types of books they like to read, favorite authors and so forth. Then down to the basement for my panel on alien archeologists digging up Lincoln NE and needing help figuring out what some of the items they had found were. Not a big audience, but once they understood the concept of ‘audience participation’, I think they had some fun. Again, need to find more items, as I ran out of pre-thought items, and was drawing random items on the white board, in order to get past the 1/2 hour mark.

4/27/14, Sunday - had a harder time getting up this morning. John got me up at 8, and I told him I needed another hour. That extra hour did help. When I got up, I finished packing up, then went to the con suite in search of breakfast so I could take my pills. By then, the elevators were overflowing with people trying to check out, so I walked up to our room, thinking I heard John below me in the stairwell. John had given up on elevators, and started taking suitcases to the car without a cart. Smaller items were all that was left, so I started taking them out into the hall. Couldn’t carry them all at one time, but thought I could move them down the hall towards the stairs little by little. Then John showed up and took most of it to the car, while I took my stuff down to the basement to wait for my next panel time. Bought 3 books from Tyree, and it sounds hopeful that he’s going to publish Cali. ‘First Americans’ was, again, a smallish audience, but I managed to get some comments out of them. Again, need more material, only lasted half an hour. The next panel in that room never showed up, so people wandered in and out, and everybody farbled their way through the hour. Then my last panel - Dissecting Dragons. HUGE audience! Filled up all the chairs in the room, and then some. Lots of audience participation, lasted 52 minutes (thanks to the audience participation), and many people told me they had enjoyed it.

A great weekend, for me.

When Balls Drop

With four of my stories available electronically through Smashwords, I decided it was definitely time to spend more of my time marketing. The problem was, I wasn’t sure how to market, plus anything that put me out in front of people, blowing my own horn, was going to be outside my comfort zone. That was why I had joined Toastmasters for 2 years, to get more comfortable speaking in front of others.

If I had to do it, I had to do it. There was no getting around that. I began looking at the conventions I planned to attend this year, and inquired if I might do a reading and possibly be included on a panel or two. I did get to do a reading at a small convention about an hour down the road in the spring, and that turned out well.

This year, we were attending several conventions that were either quite a distance from our home, or new to us, or both. They already seemed to have a full array of panelists and readers, so I attended purely as a fan, handing out flyers to anyone who seemed interested.

Then an organization I belong to that provides mutual support among its author members, wrangled a spot at the World Science Fiction Convention for its members to do a ‘multi-reading’. Instead of one author doing one reading, this organization takes one time slot – in this case, 75 minutes – and schedules several of its members to do short readings.

What an opportunity! I was on staff for the world convention, so I was definitely going to be there! I was one of the first to contact the organizer to state my interest in participating. After a couple days, she emailed back to say I needed to fill out the questionnaire. I was new at this, I didn’t know if the questionnaire was needed for the author’s organization or the convention, so I asked her where I would find the questionnaire I needed to complete.

Here’s where this particular ball got dropped. I forgot I was waiting for an answer. She forgot also. By the time one of us remembered, she had the entire time slot filled. I missed out on this wonderful opportunity.

Oh, well. These things happen. I suspect the trick is, when you drop a ball of opportunity, that you look for more of them, and start picking them up. So, here I am, looking for places to speak, to read, to … market.

Trudy's Latest Adventure

On Saturday, April 24, 2012, I gave my first public reading from one of my e-stories. Since I’ve been a shy introverted wallflower all my life, this aspect of being a writer was not something I thought about in the early days. If you wrote a great book, somebody published it, and you got to spend your days writing more books. Selling your books was up to somebody else.

If it ever was like that, it isn’t any more. For years I’ve heard that the marketing of a book was landing more and more on the shoulders of the writer. As I looked around at science fiction conventions, listened to well-established authors in the genre, and studied the panel subjects that authors spoke on, I realized that even well-established authors were involved in marketing their books to the public.

I tried to imagine what it would be like, when it was time for me to do a public reading, and I could feel the panic start to choke my voice chords.

That wouldn’t get many books sold.

Obviously, I had to find a way to overcome my panic. Strangely, I’m a bit of a ham, if I have a part in a play. Remembering that told me that I could ‘act’ in front of a group. Maybe all I needed was … confidence?

So I joined Toastmasters, and I attended weekly meetings for about 3 years. Each time it was my turn to compose and give a speech, I wondered if other authors joined Toastmasters and learned to give speeches in order to prepare for their future marketing endeavors. But as I progressed through my assignments, I could tell that I had made a good choice; I went from a trembling blob of panic to a confident speaker. And I enjoyed those meetings so well, that I would probably still be there if my temp job had not made it impossible to attend.

But that wasn’t all I did to prepare. At last year’s World Science Fiction Convention, I attended a panel on “How to Give a Reading.” The person giving that panel had good advice, including such things as, Look at your audience from time to time; project so that the back row can hear you; and read slowly so that your words don’t slur together. Although similar to advice given in Toastmasters, it was good to get it from another source also.

Now, if I could just figure out the bookkeeping aspect of being an author!

The Toss of a Coin

MoonPhaze Publishing has e-published 3 of my Atlan stories, and we’re looking to start Project 4. We were going to give one of the other authors a shot, but it turned out they didn’t feel they had anything ready. So Tommee turned back to me and asked, “Well? Have you got any more Atlans ready?”

And I do. Of course I do. I have 2 Atlan stories polished and ready. I also have other, not-Atlan stories polished and ready. So … did we really want to go with another Atlan story, or try something new?

We discussed that a lot. We wiffled, we waffled, we hemmed and hahhed. And finally, because of our longer-term publishing plans, we decided to make Project 4 another Atlan story.

As I said, I had 2 ready. Which one should go next? How should we choose? I liked both of them (otherwise they wouldn’t be ‘ready’). Tommee liked both of them. There wasn’t a lot of difference in their word count, not that that matters in e-publishing.

We’ve wrestled with this question for what seems like only slightly less than forever. We are about to toss a coin. The problem is that both stories naturally identify with ‘tails’. So, how do we decide which one gets stuck with ‘heads’?

PS - If you are planning to be at Constellation in Lincoln NE next weekend, I'm scheduled to do a reading on Saturday afternoon.

Up, Down and Moving On

The last couple weeks have been like a roller coaster.

First, Tor asked for the full manuscript of my first fantasy novel. Wow, happy dance on the rooftop! /\

Second, a spot check revealed that sections of that manuscript had some weird formatting. Bummer. So I spent a couple days correcting it and wondering what had made portions to go all wonky. It wouldn’t have happened if I’d used a typewriter! Of course, a typewriter wouldn’t have spell-check or text wrap…. I suppose the occasional wonkiness that’s fairly easy to fix is better than all the draw-backs of a typewriter. Sent the manuscript off. -~_~

Third, we received word that my mother-in-law was in the hospital. Always a downer. \/

Fourth – or somewhere in there – the cover for my next e-story was finished and delivered! /\ Thank you, Mason!

Fifth, Tor decided my novel wasn’t quite right for them. \/ (Sniff.) But they did have nice things to say about my writing. ~

Sixth, MoonPhaze Publishing informed me they had uploaded my next e-story, The Cave, to smashwords.com. Hot Diggity! /\

Of course, this leaves me with plenty of ‘stuff to do’. Marketing, marketing, marketing leads the list, but I still have to deal with #5. Where do I submit this fantasy now? For the record, that makes Baen, Daw, and Tor who have passed on it, and I don’t know of any other ‘big’ publishers who still have an open slush pile. Before that, I spent 3-4 years looking for an agent, but nobody I was interested in working with fell in love with my concept. Do I go back to looking for an agent? No, probably not, because now I’ve made their job harder by submitting it myself.

Do I ask MoonPhaze Publishing to take it on? I could, and if they had more experience, I would definitely consider it. But they aren’t quite ready for a novel, and I’d like to work with a larger press. If not one of the big guys, then a company somewhat smaller. Anybody got any suggestions? In case you’re wondering, my fantasy novel is set on the Atlan world, the same world I’ve used for the stories that MoonPhaze Publishing has put out, but it doesn’t have the same characters.

Oh, yes. Seventh, I have been scheduled for a reading at 4 PM on Saturday, April 14, at Constellation in Lincoln NE. /\ Woohoo! Come and hear about the Atlans!

Where to Submit Your Efforts

I just got back from Constellation, an sf convention in Lincoln NE. This was its first year, and it was a small and intimate convention. There was one editor there, Tyree Campbell of Sam’s Dot Publishing. I’ve talked to Tyree many times, at many conventions over the years. This time, he turned to me and asked, “How come you’ve never submitted anything to me?”

Caught off guard, I decided truth was the best policy, so I smiled and said, “I haven’t worked my way down to you.” Then I explained that I start by sending my stories to ‘the Big Boys’, and work my way down to the smaller markets. He agreed that in general, that was a good idea.

As we continued our conversation, I lamented that I had written a novella two years ago and submitted it to an anthology. I had come ‘that close’ to being accepted, but in the end, they had declined my piece. In two years, I had not found another market where I could submit that novella. “Send it to me!” Tyree declared.

Yes, he was full of surprises this weekend. I wasn’t surprised by the idea that Sam’s Dot might use a novella. But it’s a rather unusual genre, one I didn’t think much of anybody published.

Anyway, I’m excited. And hopeful. And a little stunned. I certainly had never thought I’d find an opportunity like that at a small local convention. But I’m not going to ignore it. And if you find yourself face-to-face with a similar opportunity, I hope you won’t ignore it.

See ya next week. Trudy