Condensing

I wish I could just speed up this process, or avoid it altogether, but oh well. I wrote about 3,000 words today - or rewrote at least. I always seem to need two versions of the first 100 or so pages, one that's terrible that just kind of helps me get my bearings, and then one that actually will serve as the rough draft. Today I got to the end of my rewrite of those first 100 pages, which means I push on tomorrow.

The novel is now about a third of the way done, and the second act can be hairy too. I do a lot of tinkering with the first as I write the second, because I find that the only way to keep the story rolling through the second act is to make sure every plot thread has a good foundation in the first act. The middle of the book is no time to introduce brand new conflicts.

By far the easiest part, for me, is the third act. When I've done it right, all of that naturally follows from what I've set up before. I wish I could just fast forward there, but the only way out of this process is through.

Distribution issues

Well, so here's what I've been able to piece together. Deseret Book in Albuquerque originally ordered four copies of my book, the last of which sold nearly two weeks ago to a member of my ward. Ward members and friends who have tried subsequently to buy the book have been simply told it is out of stock. One friend who ordered copies through this store over a week ago, has not had his copies come in yet.

Such are the joys of dealing with distribution. I've talked to the manager at this store and a couple of supervisors, and they couldn't care less that I'm around. They first told me they couldn't afford to do a signing (I wasn't suggesting they do a signing - the cost of advertising those for a new author rarely gets recouped in the number of copies sold) and just muttered noncommittally when I offered to give them things like Book Club questions. Well, actually they again told me they couldn't afford to buy them from me (what kind of whacked out author tries to sell more items to a bookstore? They don't need more expenses.) Even when I made it clear that I wasn't trying to get anything from them, just offering to help if they could think of anything I could help with, they did little more than shrug. I did try to tell them, without sounding too arrogant, that more than four copies of the book would likely sell. The ward member who ordered copies through them was more blunt, saying, "Well you'll want to get *more* of these." They may have more in stock now, but I've been suggesting that people call ahead to reserve an in-store copy before making the drive to Albuquerque (not that I think they'd go solely to get my book, mind you.)

This leaves the internet the best way for people in my area to get the book, and yes, this is a problem. Even in the information age, there are a lot of people who don't use the internet. For those that do, I recommend this link to Seagull Book because they always sell at more of a discount. The real concern here is that people who think they might like to read my book are getting turned away the first time they try to buy it, and most will not try again. This impacts sales in a big way, since most product moves by word of mouth - every publicity campaign and event is trying to get this elusive force going. If that first round of readers isn't getting books, they won't have any opinion, good, bad, or indifferent, to pass on to others.

There are a few bright spots, though. Despite these hiccups, there seems to be good market penetration. Char encountered the bookstore employee who was raving about the book - and did not know that Char is my friend and top of the acknowledgments. Another member of my ward had a relative call up raving about the book, again, not knowing that I was in this person's ward and her visiting teacher. These are really, really good.

Another piece of good news is that the local grocery store will be stocking the book just as soon as their shipment gets in this week. In my town, as in many, the grocery store is the highest traffic business. I've also been asked to give a talk and signing there, perhaps multiple if it goes well, and this is a golden opportunity for me. I very much look forward to doing that, because unlike in a bookstore, where you usually sit alone with bookstore traffic going by, here I can expect to sit alone with grocery store traffic going by. Far more people eat than read.

And then there's the Words of Wisdom Bookstore in Billings, Montana, where I will be signing books this Saturday. First of all, it is very kind of them to arrange a signing for an unknown. I simply called them up because I was going to be in the area visiting my in-laws and asked if I could do anything for them. Second of all, they've done incredible advertising in their store. They've given my poster by-the-register real estate and put another on the front door. They've made a display of my book with a huge stack of copies. It's really quite incredible, and I hope it doesn't hurt them too badly economically. (I don't mean to be an utter pessimist - I only want things to proceed in a sustainable way.) And now I've just checked that link and see I'm up on their website. Wow. Thanks guys!

My calendar of signings as E.M. Tippetts is here.

Stupid internet

So my internet connection comes and goes, which is good for the writing, but bad for blogging. I tried playing Guild Wars with Jayne earlier and kept getting dc'd. I don't know if the problem is my modem or the internet connection itself, and the problem is, I can't find out until I get a new modem. Qwest doesn't service the model we have because it is so old. So, Trevor ordered a new one off EBay and we're waiting for it to come in.

Meanwhile, I keep power cycling our modem, changing cords, unplugging phones, and all that fun stuff. Our phone cuts out occasionally too, which makes me think something's wrong with the connection to our house.

Playing orbital billiards

The more I research for my science fiction, the more irritated I get at how much bad sf there is in the world. I have no science background to speak of. I've never taken a physics class, and I didn't do a single science elective in college (I was in the UK for that). So if I can spot mistakes in a cold read of a SF piece, it makes me wonder how much more ill-educated the writer was.

I really enjoy good science fiction, though, so that's what I try to write. This evening my husband's been sketching diagrams of orbits and orbital transfers while I've asked him questions and double checked on a few things. This novel I'm working on is YA SF, and is actually a rewrite of a project I attempted a few years ago. I did it all wrong the first time, though. I tried to hard to make it too many different things, when in the end of the day I wanted to write a coming of age story in outer space. So that's what I'm doing.

And will all of my science be perfect? No. Probably not. But hey, I'm gonna work hard to get it as accurate as possible. Being married to an aerospace engineer helps (and the daughter of a metallurgical engineer, and the niece of half a dozen other types of engineers, cousin to a few more...)

Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund

The Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund has some items up for auction on EBay. This is a good cause as the Clarion workshops are wonderful institutions, which also happen to be pricey. Granted, for a few thousand dollars you get room and board for six weeks and one on one time with professional authors, so it's good value for money, but many of the people who could benefit most from Clarion and Clarion West find the price of entry prohibitive. That's where the scholarships come in

Linda Demeulemeester wins Silver Birch Award

My Clarion West classmate, Linda Demeulemeester, won the Silver Birch Award this year for her book, The Secret of Grim Hill. Below is the video of them making the announcement.

Wonderful news! She has another book in the series coming out in September, Grim Hill: The Secret Deepens and a website for her books. So very cool to watch her career develop.

First event

Last night I did my first talk as a professional writer to a small group of people from a couple of wards in Albuquerque. I'm glad it was small, as it kept me from getting too nervous. I wasn't sure whether people would want a reading or a Q and A session, so I asked and we ended up with the latter. They asked questions for a full hour about the process of writing and building a career.

The most surprising thing for me was not knowing most of the audience. I rather expected that, starting out, most of these events I'd be giving to my friends and family, but of this group of about 9, I only knew two of them. So that was very cool.

Got my copies

I got my copies today. I've been having my usual sleep problems, so they of course arrived soon after I woke up, at noon, while I was still in my bathrobe. Glad I didn't have to sign for them. I spent the rest of the afternoon up at my mother's house, signing copies for various relatives and such.

Turns out Covenant tried to mail them to me, but USPS claims they don't deliver to my house. Riiiight. Funny, they delivered two packages today. *mutters inappropriate language towards USPS*

Futurismic

Okay, getting behind again, but got a rejection from Futurismic last week. They are a great market that I highly recommend reading. Must find the next place to sub this story of mine.

Updates on Melinda Snodgrass and Walter Jon Williams

I've been so scattered this last week, doing odds and ends for the romance novel and writing two short stories and a novel at once. Okay, let me catch up here.



Melinda Snodgrass's book, The Edge of Reason, is out. This book is a response to the Left Behind franchise and other similar works, much as Phillip Pullman's was a response to the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. Is it strange to find me posting about this given my own religious slant? Yes it is. Melinda and I believe very different things about religion, for the most part. On one matter we agree, though, and that is that religion ought not take the place of science (I'll go further and say that science ought not take the place of religion either.) Her book explores a world where bogus superstition in its various guises plunges the world into a very dangerous kind of chaos.

Some not so great news for new writers. The Borders Bookstores have been having problems. This means Melinda's books are being distributed through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. The book distribution market seems to be getting more concentrated, which is going to cause us a lot of headaches. The fewer stores there are buying books, the more control they have to dictate prices. They'll want to buy them cheap. Publishers don't make huge profit margins. What will give will be author advances and maybe even royalties. Ouch.

On a similar note:



Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams has yet to appear on Amazon, despite it's April 1 release date. So... all of that publicity and all of those good reviews it was getting around release time? They still apply. Let's hope the publisher gets the book out before people have forgotten the buzz altogether.

It's out

My LDS fiction novel, Time and Eternity, is out. I don't have my copies yet, but DeseretBook.com has theirs and my friend, Char, confirmed that the SLC Deseret Bookstores and Seagull Bookstores have theirs. It's an odd feeling to have a book out. While many ask if I'm excited, I'm more just sitting and watching. Like and actor who just completed an audition, I've done what I can do, now I wait and see what kind of part I've landed.

Char was kind enough to call me yesterday and ask if the book was out, and I explained it won't be in all stores yet. While the Utah area stores seem to have them, I've been corresponding with a Montana bookstore that does not yet. The books were shipped, but haven't arrived everywhere. Char, hearing this, decided to call around her local bookstores to check on it and called me back to tell me that her local Deseret Book had 12 copies, and the local Seagull Book had 48. 48?! That's a lot of copies of a book. When's the last time you went to a bookstore and saw 48 copies of one book? Only on the displays where they build a giganto pyramid. I don't know much about Seagull Book, as we don't have any in my region. Maybe that's how they market books from Covenant? (Covenant, my publisher, owns Seagull Books.) Anyway, that number made me think, "How many copies did Covenant print, and is my return reserve going to eat up all royalties here?" I know, not optimistic. I'm just not the type to be thinking, "Oh hey, bestseller list, here we come!" Because I'd feel like an idiot if I thought that and it didn't come to pass, and realistically, it rarely comes to pass. A first time LDS author sells about 2,500 copies on average.

So then Char decided to go out and buy a copy, even though she's read multiple drafts of the thing, including the typeset galleys, and has her free copy coming when I get my author copies in. She went to Seagull Book, picked one up, and took it up to the counter, where the clerk said, "That is such a good book. You will love that book. I just finished it." Bear in mind, the book had been out for roughly four hours at that point. I guess the clerk must have picked up a copy when the shipment came in and just sat down to read it in one sitting.

Char called me up to tell me this, and while I heard her, I felt this distanced sense of disbelief. I'm trying to remember the last time a bookstore clerk said that kind of thing to me about a book that wasn't some huge, national market bestseller that had been out for several months. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, but I'm also just waiting to see if that's an early sign of good sales, or a really random fluke.

And I'm waiting to see my book. So unfair that Char has a copy and I don't! (But this isn't uncommon in publishing.)

I'm new at this, obviously

For the past several days I've been working on odds and ends as the release date for the novel nears. My other site's had pages hauled around as I try to streamline its design. I'm still very awkward with Wordpress, so it's always slow going.

I spoke to in independent bookstore manager in Montana who recommended that I write up some book club questions for the book, as she gets a lot of literacy groups in that want that kind of thing, so I asked a bunch of people about what usually goes into such questions. My sister gave me a million links to chick-lit author sites. My friend who is in charge of her ward literacy program in Albuquerque gave me some helpful advice on the phone. Then my mom and I watched the movie, In Her Shoes, and did the book club questions on Jennifer Weiner's site. I've got a draft of book club questions up for Time and Eternity on my other site now. They'll no doubt change as I learn more about this kind of thing.

My mother and I also did some bookplates while I wait for the real ones to be designed. We had a lot of fun doing this, my mother tracing artwork in pencil of my site along with my name, which she then scanned into the computer so that we could arrange them on avery labels. This took several hours, but I really liked the outcome. Then someone pointed out that because we'd used the traced name, the book plates said E.M.Tippetts.com, rather than the actual site, emtippetts.com. *sigh* Oh well. The ones that Richard Mueller are designing won't have that problem.

Some dear friends of mine have even posted reviews for the book on DeseretBook.com, some very nice reviews. You know, nice enough to make me paranoid that everyone will think I bribed them or something.