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Oy! I think, perhaps, I have finally muddled my way through how to create a link. If you can click on THIS and find yourself at Publishers Weekly then Huzzah!, I’ve fallen ass-backwards into the 20th century. Special thanks to Steve, Charlie and Deb for on and offline help with this, and in so doing, preventing me from hurling my laptop out the nearest window.

Kirsten is going to be interviewed on two national radio programs – The Story on NPR and The World on BBC Radio (or BBC World Radio…something like that.)  I know that equates to hundreds of radio stations, but the key, as always, will be in determining what kind of bump we get after the shows.  The really neat thing is that these came about through that mystical, magical stuff known as word-of-mouth.  It’s worth remembering that every interview granted, every signing attended, every reading at your local library and even every blog entry isn’t just for those in the room.  You are potentially auditioning for something else.  The bookers for one show watch the others.  Someone sees you at a local bookshop and mentions it to a friend of a friend who works at a network.  I’m not saying to rent an RV and travel the country, but when you do have the chance to talk, in whatever forum, it’s worth doing right.  You never know who’s listening…

Front of store – We’re charting trends and noticed that one chain was outperforming another.  Turns out the slower of the two had not fully implemented the front of store promotion.  The discrepancy was quite noticeable.  This is never really the call of the author, but wherever and whenever possible getting your book front of store is absolutely going to sell more copies.  Why, the consumer asks, would a book be piled six high at the front of the store unless it’s good?  Well, they ask that because they don’t know about co-op, but you do, and so will your agent. 

As for me, I continue to research the second book in the Iron Elves and revise the YA novel. 

I still haven’t figured out how to link articles, sorry, but here is the url (is that right?) to a nice overview on why great books get missed and why editors’ rejection letters are so nonspecific:

You wake up the next morning, roll over, and there, on the pillow beside you rests what seemed like such a wonderful idea the night before.  Your hand reaches out, tentatively, then withdraws, unsure what to do next.  There’s no going back.  The thrill of initial discovery is gone forever, but that doesn’t mean the love affair has to end.

Ok, so like millions of others, I woke up with my Harry Potter hangover after having stayed up late to read the book from start to finish on Saturday.  I always do this (I’m blessed/cursed to be a fast reader) and always wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if I had found a way to slow down and inhabit the world a little longer.  Still, it was a beautiful way to spend the day and I’ll cherish it always…until the next one.  There is going to be another one, right? 

It’s dawning on me that this is my first novel, and all my years as an editor in the business mean more or less nada, and more on the less.  No one is going to pick up the book because they know I’m an editor, unless they are indulging a morbid curiosity to see if an editor can actually write.  Considering all the manuscripts I’ve rejected over the years I suppose there’s the faint hope all those spurned writers will buy copies to burn in protest, but that’s maybe a few thousand at most.  Sure, add in all the failed relationships and the number spikes, but alas, I don’t think I can build a career solely on the antipathy of others.  It’s going to come down to the story, as it should.   I’ll live and die by the story I write, and nothing else.  All the contacts and insider knowledge is a whole lot of sound and fury that in the end signifies nothing.  Sounds about right.