Season 3 Episode 5: Mastering the Book Tour: Heather Christie on Writing, Public Speaking, and Author Events

But that's not all! This episode also brings together a diverse group of writers who shed light on their unique journeys and current projects, spanning commercial fiction, short stories, and historical fiction. We discuss the significance of versatility in writing and the benefits of submitting to literary journals and participating in storytelling productions. Expect a dynamic conversation filled with personal anecdotes and actionable advice on marketing oneself, building an author's platform, and leveraging public speaking for added exposure.

This episode is packed with insights on using book clubs, blog tours, and reader engagement to boost visibility and sales. Whether you're an aspiring author or a seasoned writer, there's plenty to glean from this robust discussion on the craft and business of writing.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to Craft Chat Chronicles, the go-to podcast for tips on crafting best-selling fiction. Here at Craft Chat Chronicles, we bring you expert interviews, insights and tips on writing, publishing and marketing. Join the conversation and embark on a new chapter in your writing journey. For workshops, show notes and more information, visit jdmayalcom. That's jdmayalcom.

Speaker 2 0:38

In season three, episode five of Craft Chat Chronicles, award-winning author Heather Christie stops by to give us insight on her writing and publishing journey and to give us incredible tips on when you're doing book tours or when you're doing presentations at libraries and schools or book club events. She walks you through how she does her presentation and gives valuable tips on your author presentations. So that's season three, episode five of Craft Chat Chronicles with author Heather Christie. Let's get chatty and tonight's my pleasure to host Heather Christie. Heather is an author with a BA in Literary Studies from the University of Texas, dallas. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Pine Manor College and her best-selling and award-winning debut novel, what the Valley Knows, was published in 2018. Heather's second book, the Lying Season, was published in 2021. Her fiction essays are everywhere and she'll tell you a little bit more about her current projects now. Heather, what are you working on right now?

Speaker 5 1:52

Um, well, I'm working actually on two. Well, I'm working on a bunch of stuff. You can see my board here. I have this like um bulletin board and it has like all these different color coded I'm one of these type A people different color coded projects. But a couple of things I'm working on currently are two storytelling shows, which I can tell you more about those and they might be something that you guys want to try to get involved in.

Speaker 5 2:21

And I'm working on preparing a TED Talk. I'm in like a TED Talk coaching cohort right now, so I've been working on that. And then I actually have two novels started, two more novels, so those I'm working on. And then I'm in New York City I don't know how many of you know that so I've started working. I'm writing some plays, so I'm working on a. Then I'm in New York City I don't know how many of you know that so I've started working on writing some plays. So I'm working on a one act play that I'm trying to get finished this summer. So that's like a little, very short summary of what I'm working on. That's exciting.

Speaker 2 3:02

Before we jump into the presentation, can you tell us a little bit about your writing journey, sure?

Writing Journey of Published Authors

Speaker 5 3:07

Well, I'm going to talk a lot about actually my writing journey and I want to invite everyone, especially because we're a small group, that please ask questions as we go throughout, and then I'll certainly give time at the end for any additional questions. But the thing I found most helpful, I was in your shoes, in your seat, I guess. Now I graduated almost 10 years ago. I did my MFA in Boston at Pine Manor College, and I was always just like so curious about how you just actually get published, and so that's what my talk is going to be about tonight is my path to publication, and certainly feel free to interrupt at any time. And then and it's a, it's a talk I have a PowerPoint. I think Ken is going to be able to share the screen and I'll be able to show it to you. But feel free at any point to interject with a question, and then at the end, certainly we'll have a open forum where you can ask any questions that you might have, and maybe, as we're just sort of waiting for people to log on, we could do like just go around and everybody could say where they're from and what genre they work in, and so if I were to answer that first, I live in New York City and I write.

Speaker 5 4:32

My two books that have been published were young adult books, so I'm considered like a young adult author. But I think I'm done with young adult because I'm working on two adult novels now and, like I said, I'm doing plays and I'm really into these storytelling shows, which I'll talk more about later because it's a great opportunity for new writers to start to get some of the writing out there. And I am in New York City. So my last show I did had a bunch of people come from all different parts of the country because we're going to be, we're going to this year, we're going to be off Broadway. It's just for a day, but still it's something on your resume off Broadway, but anyway, let's kind of go around and everybody, if you can just introduce yourselves and tell us where you're from and your genre, what you're working on. Riley, do you want to start? And your genre, what you're working on?

Speaker 4 5:25

Riley, do you want to start? Sure, hi, I'm Riley. I'm originally from upstate New York, but I've been living in Philly since college and I am currently working on a adult novel that's probably just commercial fiction and also maybe considered women's fiction.

Speaker 5 5:44

Okay, great, good Dionne, can you hear us now?

Speaker 6 5:54

Hello, I can hear you. Can you guys hear me?

Speaker 5 5:56

Yeah, we can hear you. We can't see you, but we can hear you.

Speaker 6 6:00

Yeah, I'm not feeling well. I'm in my pajamas, I didn't want you guys to see me in pajamas. I'm in Philadelphia and right now I'm working on short stories and stuff like that, but I'm also interested in exploring different things like novels and things like that. I'm still kind of like getting my feet wet and really trying to figure out what I want to do. And I don't really want to put myself in a box either.

Speaker 5 6:29

And I'm glad you bring that up, because that's one thing I hate is when people say, oh, like she's a young adult author. But really as writers we're writers, right, and you should feel just empowered to write whatever you want, you know, whether it's a personal essay or you're writing on short stories or it's a novel, like we write, right. And so I'm glad you brought that up. Dionne, like this idea that we have to be like. One thing is that doesn't hold much weight with me. But anyway, mo, can you hear us and I should say too, I'm originally from Pennsylvania also and tell, and I should say too, I'm originally from Pennsylvania also. Um, I grew up about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Um, Mo, where are you from and what are you working on?

Speaker 7 7:11

I'm actually. I'm actually in Philadelphia. Okay, I am finishing up my um short recollection that I started in an MFA program. Right, I'm struggling along with that and hopefully the last few stories will be finished shortly.

Speaker 5 7:27

My light went out. Yeah, that's always a big great feeling when you get to the end of like a project. I'm not sure my Zoom light died on me, sorry guys, so I'll be in the dark. And then, regina, where are you from and what are you working on?

Speaker 8 7:43

Hi, I'm Regina. I live in Wilmington, delaware. Right now I'm visiting a family in Florida. That's why there's so much Anyway. But anyway, I am finishing and revising my historical fiction with a strong female protagonist okay, great, so you guys have all graduated from the Drexel program, is that right?

Speaker 2 8:13

mostly yeah, I don't think there's any okay, great, um.

Speaker 5 8:18

Well, I'll share my screen and I have a little PowerPoint presentation that I do when I do workshops and I do and this is when I go on a book tour or I'm doing a lot of times I'll speak to community groups, at libraries, bookstores, schools, places like that. So this is the presentation I do for them. So I thought that would might be helpful for you also to see what that's like when you actually have something you're trying to sell then and part of that is you're selling yourself and it's you have to get up and speak in front of people. So this is the presentation I do for them and I'll I'll go through it quickly because I know our time is limited and I want to make sure you guys have enough time to ask any questions that you might have. So I'm going to share my screen and do you see a picture of me there now? It says Heather Christie. Okay, that's me, heather Christie, and I've done a lot of when I was saying like I'm a novelist, but also I've done a lot of writing like articles for different magazines and different websites and places outside of a novel. So I want to encourage you guys to do that too, especially if you're writing short stories and short pieces, is to try to get them out to literary journals If you're doing personal essays. I'm going to talk to you a little about my storytelling shows, which I think are a great venue too for writers, and I always like to tell people a little bit about myself, because I know I'm always curious to know a little bit about an author's life.

Speaker 5 10:00

So I'm the mom of two kids. I have two young adult kids a son, who's 23, and he's in the Philly area. He just graduated from Cabrini College Some of you might know that college and he's going to be a school teacher in the Reading School District, which is in Philadelphia, also an English teacher. He starts next month. And then I have a daughter, callie. She's in New York City, she's a rising junior at Baruch College, and so I'm a writer, I'm a producer. I produce and direct two storytelling shows. One's called Listen to your Mother, which is a national storytelling production, and I can tell you more about how I got involved with that. And now I'm launching my own storytelling production called Love Notes, and when we get to that point in the publication I can go a little deeper into that.

Speaker 5 10:48

I'm also a teacher. So I'm on the adjunct faculty at Drexel. I don't currently have any students I'm exchanging packets with, but I have taught some classes there too. One was in the horror genre and I actually want to pitch to Nomi a storytelling class, so I do that. And then I also teach at the Manhattan Education Opportunity Center. I teach writing to GED students in Harlem and I really love that as well. I also am a big exerciseriser and I run and lift weights.

Speaker 5 11:29

I've had a real estate career in the past, I love to cook Sunday dinner, I drink a lot of tea and I'm a New Yorker now, but I'm originally from Brooks County, pennsylvania. I went to school at Fordham University, then the University of Texas, and my MFA is from Pine Manor College in Boston. So that's sort of like my elevator pitch of me. But I like to start all my presentations whether I'm talking to other writers or I'm talking in a book event where I'm explaining, I'm explaining and that's the thing you guys might want to think about as you start to go out on book tour is to sort of come up with a talk that you can do, and people are always really curious in the path to publication. So this has just been one that I just keep recycling over and over and over again. It's always good if you can kind of have a message that can be taken away, not only for people who are writers but just like your average layman too or someone who's just coming in to pick up your book and they're not really interested in the business of writing.

Speaker 5 12:34

So I always do this quote from Calvin Coolidge, one of our American presidents, and he said press on. And there's a famous quote that goes with that and he says nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race, and the reason I like to do this talk with writers is because you don't know how true that is until you've been in this 10, 15 years that you must just keep pressing on.

Speaker 5 13:43

It's very unusual that someone gets immediate and quick success in this business, and mine was a long and winding road. I started when I was 16. I have like this kind of map up here of my long and winding road. And it started on my 16th birthday when my dad gave me a big bag full of books and there were all these really incredible authors in there, many what would be considered like modern American classics, like John Steinbeck, william Faulkner, writers like that and so I developed a love of reading at a very early age. A lot of times people ask me like, oh, were you a writer from a really young age? And the truth was I wasn't. I didn't really start writing until I was 40. I'd always like, liked writing and liked reading and I did some like secret poetry writing, but I wasn't very good at it and I can't say that I could be called a writer.

Speaker 5 14:49

But when I was 40, I had this idea come to me and part of that was and you'll see here on my graphic, I have New York City there and as a young person I was an actress and I spent much of my youth in New York City trying to be an actress. And then I met a soccer player you see the soccer ball and I gave up my whole dream of show business and I ended up moving to Texas. So you see that Texas there and then from Texas, I ended up in Maryland see the Maryland state flag and I became a real estate agent. And then I ended up back in Pennsylvania many years later and I had completely forgotten the girl who wanted to be the actress, the creative person in New York City. But when I was 40, I went with a friend who was doing a presentation. She had published a book and I was really curious about this book I think I lost my spot here, sorry, guys. Somehow there we go. And she had written a children's's story and she was going to be speaking at a school and so we were brainstorming about how she should do her presentation and it really got my creative juices flowing and I was like, wow, like I really miss that part of myself.

The Journey to Book Publication

Speaker 5 16:18

So at 40, I started writing and you see that little bumblebee, I had this idea, since she had written a children's book. I'm like, well, I'll write a children's book and I wrote this Beatrice bumblebee is busy story and it was terrible. I sent it out to a couple of publishers. That got rejected by everybody and I had no idea how to write, but I had. As I sort of went through that process, I had this one scene in my head and it had nothing to do with a children's book and I couldn't get it out of my head. And it was this girl who was on the side of the road you can see, there is like a Pennsylvania farm road and it had been raining and she was on the side of the road. You can see, there is like a Pennsylvania farm road and it had been raining and she was on the side of the road and she was losing consciousness. She had been in a really bad car accident and I had this scene in my head and it kept coming to me and that scene and I usually, at this point, read it.

Speaker 5 17:21

So think about this guys too. When you're doing a presentation and I'm sort of interrupting here to give you little tips as we go along You'll want a small section of your own writing that you can read. And in my experience and you guys have probably sat through a bunch of readings, being in an MFA program, I know in mine we had to do that and I don't care how good the writer is, keep it short, the shorter the better. So I always read and I'm going to read it for you guys. Now, the first page, which is the prologue, and this is literally the one scene that was in my head from the very beginning, of sort, of my writing journey. So I'm going to read it to you quickly now. This is from my book what the Valley Knows. It's one of the only things that made it from the beginning to the end of the book through you know nine, ten revisions.

Speaker 5 18:23

Molly Hanover lifted her chin. The pain was so sharp. Her head slammed down onto the muddy gravel, her teeth gashed her tongue and the copper taste of blood filled her mouth. She closed her eyes and the thump of her heartbeat pounded in her ears. This wasn't happening. She had to get up. She had to find him. She needed to tell him something, something important. And her mother? She decided she would tell her mother too. They would help her.

Speaker 5 18:57

At the edge of the field where she had fallen, a few unharvested corn stalks jutted skyward. Late autumn grass sprouted in the weedy undergrowth. She lay, splayed face down, her arm twisted behind her back, raw pain searing through her right shoulder. Where was he? Again? She tried to raise her head and tiny spurts of light exploded against the darkness. Chilly rain stung her cheek and blurred her vision, her hair matted with bits of glass, dirt and blood stuck to her neck. Help, she whispered. It was hard to concentrate, but she listened carefully and she heard the soft ping of rain hitting her nylon jacket. Stay awake, she warned herself, don't sleep. She rolled and she saw the wet road sparkle in the vehicle's headlights. Maybe it was a bad dream, but the pain, the pain was real. Hot blood spurted through the cut in her cheek. Her mind raced. The sharp edge of panic pierced her memory. There was a secret, a thing unspeakable but whatever. But it was gone. Whatever she had wanted to tell them had vanished, and then her world went black too. So that's the scene I had in my head and that became the prologue. Um, and when I had my age and it got taken out, it got put back in and at the end we finally agreed that it would be in the book.

Speaker 5 20:48

So I want to talk about the book, a book's journey and how it comes from, you know, out of your MFA program and finally turns into a book. So the writing process for me took eight revisions, an MFA and then the whole process of trying to find an agent, which I always wanted to be published by one of the top five publishing houses, and I still do. It's still one of my goals, and the only way to do that is you really need an agent. So, with this book, I did a round of queries and you guys, I'm sure you've learned and talked about queries at this point, right, I think that's even part of one of your packets. I'm sorry, my Zoom light keeps burning out on me there.

Speaker 5 21:40

So my first round, I did 20 letters and I had a really great response. I had 10 requests. So, and how far are you guys? Is anybody in the process of trying to get an agent? Yet? Just so you can tell me by a show of hands, one, okay. So when you're doing that, you're either going to get silence or you're going to have them, uh, rejected like no, I'm not interested, or they're going to ask you for a partial, which is part of the manuscript, or they'll ask you for a full, which is the full manuscript, um, and then, generally, what happens is you get a rejection, um, but in my case, on the first round, um, of those 10 that requested it, I had nine rejections and I had one that said I want you to revise this. This is what I think you should do with it, and if you rewrite it, I'll read it again. Not I'll sign you, I'll read it again, not I'll sign you, I'll read it again.

Speaker 5 22:49

So I was really lost at that point because I didn't know what else to do with the book. So I ended up hiring a developmental editor, sandra Schofield, who had been part of my MFA program, although I didn't have her as a professor, and we worked on the book together for a year, totally redid it. And then I went to the New York Pitch Conference, which is sort of like American Idol for authors where you go, it's in New York City, it's over a weekend, and you develop and you pitch your book to editors. And so when I was at the New York Pitch Conference, I had two editors Simon and Schuster and Penguin Random House request the book, and I still didn't have an agent, though, and I had already sent the book back to that first agent to reread it after I had revised it for a whole year. So when I came back from the New York Pitch Conference, they're like yeah, we want to see your manuscript. Your agent needs to send it to us.

Speaker 5 23:51

So I ended up reaching out to her and said, hey look, I don't even know if you've reread the book that you asked me to write again. But I went to the Pitch Conference I have two people interested and well, wouldn't you know? She got back to me like that, like literally it was on a Sunday night, she got back to me within five minutes. So that just shows you like, if you, if you have like something to hook them with, they respond and and and. Then it turns out we had a phone call the next day and she had been reading it, she had copious notes and she's like yes, I'm going to sign you. So she signs me for what the Valley knows. And in my head I'm thinking okay, this is going to take two weeks. Now, right, I finally have my New York agent. I'm going to have a book deal in two weeks. So anybody want to venture a guess on how long it took to actually get a book deal?

Speaker 7 24:40

Just throwing it.

Speaker 5 24:43

Well, you're pretty close. It took 520 days and and and even then, and we did go out to all the big guys and we we had good feedback, we had some that you know like made it to acquisitions and then got rejected. At the very end, 520 days later, it was a small indie publisher that said I'd like to publish your book, and so the book was published by Black Rose Writing, but a lot of great things ended up happening. I always show this. This is the trailer for the film for the book. I'll catch glimpses, or I'll see something familiar.

Speaker 6 25:38

I can't remember how I got here, but I remember the truck and the deer the tree and Wade. I remember him.

Speaker 3 25:59

But there's something else, nothing else, a shadow, a tremble in my hand.

Speaker 7 26:16

A secret. Someone in the valley doesn't want me to remember.

Speaker 5 27:24

That was good, yeah, so that was the book trailer, um, and that was a lot of fun to do. So it was really exciting having my first book come out. We it released as a number one, um, hot new release on. And. And here's a trick you guys should know, especially if you have a small publisher all the new york times ones who are gunning for the New York times list or any of the big lists they all release on a Tuesday. So if you want to hit number one in your category and you're not, you don't have a big, huge publisher behind you and you're not. A big, huge name release on a different day, like a Thursday. So people don't tell you that. But but then I was able to hit number one and you know it comes out then as a Amazon hot new release, um, and then some cool stuff happens. We, we had a book, um, signing a book, talk and um, and there we go, get some local press, and it did win the National Indie Excellence Award for a young adult and that was really exciting to have that happen. And then what's next? So once you finally write a book like, especially in today's climate you're then expected to also market your book and to build reviews. Even I've had friends who've done really big deals with, like Penguin Random House and they're in exactly the same boat that I was coming from, a small publisher. So that becomes the next part of the journey is like doing your grassroots marketing, where you're getting out to bookstores and you're going out to libraries and you're building your platform that way and then you're expected to write another book. So that's where my second book came in, the L and um. Guess what? I had to keep pressing on with this one Um I w. I thought it was going to go much, much, much faster, um. But it was 730 days after I went out on submission that I ended up back at Black Rose writing Um. And again I went through a whole nother agent got a big New York agent. We went out on six rounds with the book and again we get really, really close and then each time it would be a note. But Black Rose wanted it because what the Valley Knows had been a great little book for them and they ended up publishing it and it was um. It was really fun and it was a great success. But I think I will still try again, like on my third book. I'm gonna try again for one of the big five. So we'll see. But in the meantime there's, like, a lot of other things I've done as a writer and, um, one of the things that has been so fun has been this storytelling show I'm involved in and I always like to invite other writers to try to get involved in this.

Speaker 5 30:32

It's called Listen to your Mother and these are true stories about motherhood. So I was in the cast in Baltimore originally. So people audition, it's all over the country. Listen to your Mother, I own the rights for Manhattan. I don't know, it's all over the country. Listen to your mother, I own the rights for Manhattan. I don't know. I used to have Pennsylvania, so I don't know if anybody has Pennsylvania anymore. I don't think anybody does, to tell you the truth, but I know there's one in Baltimore, there's one in Northern Jersey, it's all over the country. But anyway, if you have a story about motherhood the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, anything in between you can audition. A thousand words or less.

Author's Publishing and Marketing Strategies

Speaker 5 31:08

You write a piece and you can either come to New York to audition or send a self-tape to me and then I curate and choose the stories. We pick 12 stories and I help you then edit the piece and we get it show worthy. And I help because a lot of writers aren't actors and you're not expected to memorize it, but I help you with the performance of it. So I did it in Pennsylvania originally, when I was still living in Pennsylvania, and it was a great success. And then, like I said, I came to New York, I did it last spring and I'll be doing it again this spring, april 13th. We're going to be at the Triad Theater, which is actually an off-Broadway theater, and we're going to run do two shows. So if that's something anybody is interested in and I have a mailing list, so if you want me to put you on that, I could. And then the other storytelling show I'm working on now I'm just at the you're one of the first people to know about this. It's called Love Notes and these are true stories of first love, last love and all the love in between. So if you've got a great love story, it can be a happy one, a sad one, anything. We're going to have the world premiere here in New York City on February 10th. So I'll be putting a call out for auditions on that pretty soon because we're going to need to audition and pick the stories, probably by October-ish.

Speaker 5 32:39

So for those of you who might be doing some personal essay writing and you're submitting to magazines or blogs, both Listen to your Mother and Love Notes are two great venues to try to get your words out that way and it's really fun. And if you're in Philly, it's not far Like I had. My cast last spring was from all over, some from New York, but then I had California, new Mexico, wisconsin when else were they from Canada, mexico, wisconsin when else are they from Canada, new York, new Jersey, pennsylvania, massachusetts. But Philly, you're close enough. You could actually even just commute in. You know, if you were chosen, you could come in. We have like a night of rehearsal and then we have like show day. So those are two and you can certainly ask me more questions about that.

Speaker 5 33:25

Um, I do do a blog, so some of you um, and if you're thinking about building platform, you I've been kind of delinquent on my blog lately, but especially because I'm gonna be launching love notes, I'm like I have to get this going again by August. So, um, that will be coming up soon and if you want to get that, you just I need your email and I can. I can, um, put yeah on my list. So, and I'm working on an adult romantic comedy. This is my next book I'm working on, called home, sweet home, and um, I I always think this is a great.

Speaker 5 34:02

When I'm doing presentations, especially at a bookstore or a book signing, I always try to educate the general public about how you can help the author in your life. Like once someone's met you, then they're generally willing to try to help you a little bit. So I try to encourage people like hey, buy for the author in your life, buy her book for yourself and then give it to other people for gifts. Put reviews on Amazon. Guys, you should do this for all the writers in your life, because someday you're going to be asking people for reviews too and then you can copy and paste that review to Goodreads. Tell your friends to read your author friends' books. Ask your library and have your friends ask the library do you have Heather Christie's, what the Valley Knows, or whoever it is you're trying to support? And I always say, like, read your friends books in public places and say I know this author.

Speaker 5 34:58

It's like sometimes just word of mouth that helps the most. Yeah, so generally I'll close my presentations with a call, call to action, asking people to sign up for my newsletter. It's called Live from New York, it's Heather's update and that'll tell talk about shows I have coming up. I always try to do like a little personal blog essay piece like 500 words or fewer, and I always make that request for reviews to do it on Amazon, goodreads, facebook and then a call to stay in touch with my email and my website and then my social media platforms. So that's like I really jammed it in really fast and rushed through what I do but I know that was part of what we were talking about was what to do when you go out on book tour. So I'm going to stop the presentation there and I'm going to open it up for questions. So does anybody have a question, a comment?

Speaker 8 36:04

Okay, my question is that you were. You said you were awarded the indy award. I was wondering how that works like does someone nominate you, does your agent or the publisher nominate you, or there's a number.

Speaker 5 36:19

there's all different kinds of awards and some of them you can just submit your book yourself. You can send it in and submit it. Your agent can submit it, your publisher can submit it. Generally, usually it's anybody can submit. So that's I would. If you have a novel and you're interested in trying to win an award, I would just start doing some research on the different categories that are out there and then first ask your publisher, because usually there's like a small entry fee and the publisher will generally pay that, and then there's others.

Speaker 8 36:58

if they don't that, you could just pay it yourself and submit no, it's up to the author then to kind of research and identify the appropriate awards, not an agent or a publisher, so much it's kind of like where you are in your career I see what the publisher wants to get out of, like where you are on their list too.

Speaker 5 37:24

do you know what I mean? Because, like people that are getting the pulitzer prize, yes, it's their publishers who are. You know it's very curated and it's you know their publishers are submitting. But for the, for the apprentice writer, your first novel, unless it's coming out like with a big, big publisher, and yeah, generally as the author, you're going to do a lot of the legwork yourself. Thank you, okay, I think Mo had a question.

Speaker 7 37:55

So I have a couple questions. The first one is how much creative input that you have regarding, like you know, like did you get? Did you get to keep the title your book cover, like how, how much leeway and how much? How much were you involved in the process of packaging your book?

Speaker 5 38:13

Well, with my publisher I had. Well, we went back a lot and it really depends because, like I said, I've had friends kind of published at all different levels, um, and generally the author, you do retain some influence, um like, and in my case on what the valley knows. I've tried to explain to them what, how I envisioned it, and because it takes place in small town, pennsylvania like you guys who are living in Pennsylvania, some of it might feel very familiar. And the first cover they sent me was a truck in front of the beach on the ocean, like pulled up to the ocean, and I remember writing back I'm like this doesn't even make sense. So we went like kind of back and forth on that one and then on the line season, because it's the main characters of Ballerina and it takes place against a soccer season. So we kind of agreed quicker on this one. So with my publisher I did have some input. I mean, they came up with the font and all that other stuff, but I was able to influence the actual artwork a little.

Navigating Literary Agents and Book Promotion

Speaker 5 39:33

And then as far as the titles, I had a really hard time with titles On what the Valley Knows. This had several titles before I got to the New York Pitch Conference and at the Pitch Conference I can't even remember what it was called at that point the guy running it, he's like that's a horrible title. He's like you have to come up with a new title by tomorrow, like when I was pitching. And so what I actually did is I Googled best titles of American novels or whatever, and I started reading them and I found that I liked the cadence of four words, right, and I knew I wanted the word valley in it, because this book takes place in a fictional town called Millington Valley. So I just sort of started playing like with um, you can't go home again, like.

Speaker 5 40:23

I looked at titles that I liked, that. I liked the, like some people like just one word, and I found that I wanted like four words. So that, and I came up with what the Valley knows like right before I walked into the um, the pitch and then the lining season, my agent. Into the pitch and then the lining season, my agent. Actually we didn't name the book to almost the very end and we went through probably 50 titles till we figured out that's what we wanted to run with. But I've actually heard of people having a title and then they get to the publisher and the publisher doesn't like the title and then they end up having to change it so my next two questions sort of kind of go together.

Speaker 7 41:09

Um, I thank you, sir, for, uh, you had two different um agents for each book. Um, is there any particular reason why you didn't stick with the first agent?

Speaker 5 41:20

Well, we kind of had a disagreement because she wanted me just to take this back to what the two black. She wanted me to take this to Black Rose writing right from the beginning, and I really believed in the book and I'm like, no, I think I can sell this to a big publisher. So we parted ways very amicably and then I went back in the query trenches and to get my second agent. I actually I queried a hundred agents and he was number 65. His name's Steven Chudney, but he's actually one of the top 10 agents in the young adult space, or he was at the time that's, it's like a couple of years ago now. And he was at the time that's, it's like a couple years ago now um, and he was a really good hands-on agent, like my first agent.

Speaker 5 42:06

Elizabeth wasn't as much hands-on. We did like maybe a quick. Um, I was going to say renovation, a quick edit at the beginning, and then that was it. But, steven, we went out on several rounds and we did a major revision based on the feedback we were getting, and then we went out on two more rounds. We did another revision. I mean, he really tried to sell this book and he, you know, at the end, when we said, OK, we're just going to take it back to Black Rose, he said you know, I don't know why we got so close, and that's the thing with writing, and you'll find, the deeper you get into, this is like you really, you, cause you're asking an editor to put all their money into you, and especially with the big guys, like they are very risk adverse, especially someone who's new, you know, without a name, and so that's why I had two different agents.

Speaker 5 43:04

Elizabeth wanted me to go back to black rose right from the beginning. I said, no, I want to try bigger. So I found a new agent, and with stephen we did, we tried to go bigger and then, but at the end of the day, I should have just stayed. Well, I shouldn't have, though, because I learned a lot from stephen, so I'm glad I did that. And then you know, I haven't written anything now in four years, and I'm not going to do young adult on my next book.

Speaker 5 43:23

So I will most likely get a third agent, for cause I still want to try to do the the big five. So I'll be going for a third agent at this point, but it got like my second agent, even though I queried a lot more, it happened a lot faster that getting the agent because my bio was a lot stronger. At that point, you know, I had what the Valley knows, which had won the national indie excellence award, and I'm expecting that the third agent will go fast too, because I know more people now and I also, like I do both the storytelling shows in Manhattan and you know what I mean, I kind of angle myself a little better. So I'm not real worried about getting an agent. Another agent, I know in the beginning that's like really it's really hard to get your first agent. It's really really hard. But then once you kind of get one, then it happens easier after that.

Speaker 5 44:15

So just you got to just keep trying in the beginning.

Speaker 7 44:19

So this is more about like when you you know, you told us several of the things you did. You know the shows, the blog, the you know just the reviews, all of that type thing. So did you actually do you guys? Did you guys ever did you do any book tours actually, did you guys ever did you do any?

Speaker 5 44:41

book tours actually. So when you talk about book tour and especially as an indie author and even I keep talking about my one friend who had a really huge deal through Penguin Random House they didn't organize her tour, she anything she did, she organized herself. So it is a matter of like finding your local bookstores or several. And so when you talk about book tour and when I did my tours, I did I went to all the local libraries, talked to the librarians and then they would set up events in their library where I could do a presentation and then also sell books at the end of the presentation. The other thing, depending on your genre, is book clubs and then they'll buy the book directly from like Amazon or Barnes and Noble. But you know you can help. That starts to help jack your sales up. If you're doing a book club and you're going to speak or appear by Zoom, you know they're buying 10 or 15 books.

Speaker 5 45:45

Yeah, so a lot of the book tour, I mean, unless you're like Stephen King or an Anne Lamont, like when you talk to people in the industry most of that stuff went away.

Speaker 5 45:57

It just went away there, you know, because everything has become so um, online based that and that requires very little overhead. So it's very hard for publishers to compete and say, okay, we're going to take this much money to send the author on tour. Um, unless you have like a breakout huge book and I'm trying to think like an example of one, that where the publishers pipeline paying for the tour might be like like right now I'm trying to think of what's really big. I don't know. I'm going to a book signing next week at Shakespeare bookstore, which is right around the corner from where I am, and I'm going to ask because I know I'm going with an author friend of mine who knows the author and I want to find out if she set that up herself or if the publisher did it. But I'm almost positive she set it up herself. I don't know if this answers your question.

Speaker 2 47:03

I hear publishers are investing more in blog tours.

Speaker 5 47:04

These days, yeah, and so you can do and I did do a blog tour where because they're not as expensive either, depending on your genre you figure out the bloggers, and there's also some companies that specialize in connecting bloggers with authors. If you're launching a book the one I did was called Storygrams and they do like these, like beautiful pictures of your book, and then the blogger writes a review on the book, and now there's all kinds of things too. I't really do TikTok, but, like I know, a lot of authors have gotten traction on TikTok, um, as a way to get their book out when they're like on tour, kind of thing and book bub and things like that book bub.

Speaker 5 47:54

Now your publisher, like my publisher's done book bub. What the valleys knows is how to book bub. Um, so they'll, because you have to pay for those. So the publisher's got to pay for it and then, like you, hopefully you sell enough books that it pays for the book bub.

Speaker 2 48:10

Yeah since authors have to do more of the heavy lifting these days. If you wanted to promote a new book or project, what do you think the best practices are today to do that? Thinking outside of the box.

Speaker 5 48:23

Yeah Well, I think um first stay inside the box a little bit and just start building um your online presence. Like for me, I do mostly Facebook and Instagram. So if you guys want to look at mine like as an example it's Heather Christie books you have to make sure you put in books B-O-O-K-S. I could try to pull it up.

Speaker 2 48:48

Can you show us some of who you follow or who you think we should follow as well, as far as like networking and stuff like that?

Speaker 5 48:56

Yeah, you know, you know what. Okay, here's one thing. If one bit of advice I could give you which will be, because each of who you guys should follow might be different from who I would follow but there is. It's called Publishers Marketplace. Has anybody heard of Publishers Marketplace? So it's like $25 a month to join it.

Navigating Author Presentations and Book Tours

Speaker 5 49:20

But when you are trying to build your platform and just starting out, or if you're going out on query to find an agent, it's really good to join it, even if you just join it for a couple months, because then you can start to search in your category, so like if it's young adult or if it's women's fiction or historical fiction, and you can search, and then you can see all the deals that are done, so you can be. That's how can see all the deals that are done, so you can be. That's how I got my second agent, steven. I was searching what deals were done and he had, because my second book has a school shooting in it and it has a shooting in it, and he had just sold a book with a school shooting in it, and so I sort of made that connection and that's how I started my query letter.

Speaker 5 49:58

But that would probably be the best way to figure out who to follow, and then I would follow those publishers, those editors, those agents on Facebook, instagram and a lot of the writing community is still on Twitter, although I don't really do Twitter anymore. I do mostly just Facebook and Instagram. Any other questions?

Speaker 2 50:24

Who normally decides the format when you do presentations, like, for example, if you're going to a school, do they?

Speaker 5 50:32

Well, generally you'll talk to the librarian or to the teacher first and get a sense of what they want. Okay, first and get a sense of what they want. And it's good if you have like maybe three ideas, like three different types of talks that you do. Like one is your path to publication. One another one I do that's pretty popular is a journaling workshop and that can be kind of across the board for any demographic. So so you or they might want to talk, they might want you to talk about how to write a short story. So it's good if you have a couple ideas and when you you know you pitch them or you're sending an email and you can say like hey, you know, these are different presentations I do. What do you think would fit best with your students or your your community growth?

Speaker 6 51:27

I see Dion has a hand raised. I just have a question to ask as far as finding an agent. I'm also trying to like little short stories. I have to like different, like literary magazines or you know different publications that I might come across and I wanted to know would it be better for me to just kind of submit these short stories and kind of get like a name for myself and get like a little you know cred under my belt, or should I just go ahead now and just start querying those agents, or should I do all this stuff simultaneously?

Speaker 5 52:06

I would do it all.

Speaker 6 52:07

Okay.

Speaker 5 52:08

I would do it all Because I believe like once one good thing happens, then you just sort of start building on that, yeah. So I wouldn't like do this and say, okay, I need to have this done before I do this, I would start submitting your stories and I would start querying. Okay, thank you you're welcome.

Speaker 2 52:30

Is it customary to send thank you cards after different events?

Speaker 5 52:34

yeah, I would. If you are dealing with um a librarian, a teacher, a community, a teacher, a community group, a bookstore, it is a good idea to send a little thank you note afterwards.

Speaker 2 52:47

And what do you bring when you go to those events generally, like, do you bring swag, do you bring snacks?

Speaker 5 52:53

And again, that all depends too, like if you get a relationship with a bookstore and you do all your book signings there, sometimes they'll provide the food, but generally it's good. I think the best swag to have the one thing because I ended up getting a lot on my first book and I'm going to see here if I don't have one of them in here but bookmarkers are, or you should have, no matter what, and always because they're kind of like your business card and they have a real, you know, very useful purpose because people actually use them in the book and so generally the page I sign I I'll put the bookmark there that's going to be and then on there have your website and have your social media.

Speaker 5 53:35

You know so they have, they can always get to you so they can always get to you.

Speaker 2 53:44

What is the biggest misconception that authors have about virtual and in-person book?

Speaker 5 53:49

tours that a lot of people are going to show up. I mean, you will sometimes do a presentation and have two people there and you kind of hear this like across the board. Um, or if people hear you're going on book tour, they're like oh my gosh, you're gonna be speaking to like these big, huge crowds, but you know, sometimes it's just two people.

Speaker 5 54:11

Sometimes, I did a book I did a one on my last one. I had a kind of unique, unique venues and one of the things I did was at a gym and I was thinking to myself I'm like this is probably not going to work. But they advertised it and, sure enough, one person showed up. But I'm telling you it was like so meaningful, because she had read my first book and she's like, oh, I saw you're going to be here and I came and she was like kind of like crying almost, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like it turned out to be like so meaningful.

Speaker 7 54:50

Um, but yeah, that's probably the biggest misconception is that there are gonna be like tons of people there what's your worst experience, whether it be, like you know, at a presentation or a book club, like what's the worst thing that happened.

Speaker 5 55:11

You know I can't say I've really had a bad experience at a book club or at a workshop. Really had a bad experience at a book club or at a workshop. As long as you come prepared at least with a little something, most people are pretty generous and they're happy you're there. I'll tell you, the worst part of all of this is the part that can be completely like soul crushing is the query process, and not so much for me was the agent process. But actually once I had an agent going out on submission and like just how high your hopes get and especially when you get some positive feedback that like you've, like the first, like there's generally different levels, like people need to. You go through, like you first guy reads you and then it gets passed on and it gets passed to you. You work your way up the ladder and that is the hardest part is when you get close and then you get a no, that's true.

Speaker 2 56:13

Like when they compliment you in their rejection. I've had that happen and it was like a knife to the heart.

Speaker 5 56:17

Yeah. Or when you know they're like discussing you at acquisitions, like that. You've made it almost there. I mean, that is really, really hard Once you get the book and you're out on tour, you're meeting with community groups and bookstores and that's the fun part, that's not. You don't have to worry then.

Speaker 2 56:43

I think she was probably thinking along the lines of like if people ever ask you an uncomfortable question or a question that's too personal during a Q&A or something like that, I don't know, I'm just guessing that what might have been an unpleasant event at you know.

Speaker 5 56:57

I had one unpleasant event at a library once the the librarian. She said, well, generally we do these book talks, or but it was a book club I think, and they were like all read my book and we go around and we rate the book, and they did, and two of the women just like like didn't like it. And I was was thinking to myself I'm like I'm not sure that's the best etiquette to do that while the author's sitting there. You know, like I mean for the most part everybody was pretty like effusive and liked it and I'm like, yeah, didn't you ever hear me? You don't have anything nice to say. Don't say anything at all, especially when the person's there that was probably my most uncomfortable, actual, in a you know presentation type setting.

Speaker 2 57:45

How did you handle it?

Speaker 5 57:50

just um, there was sort of like going around. It was like a round robin, so it wasn't even as if I had to respond. Do you know? What I mean was more, just like I was like listening and absorbing it, and by the time they got all the way around it kind of like diffused but I was just it stuck with me. I was like, oh, what a jerk.

Speaker 7 58:12

I asked that question because it gives you, like you know, just the idea of the worst thing that could possibly happen, and then it gives you a chance to kind of prepare yourself for it, to think about it, to think about it. And my last question is do you read reviews? Do you read your reviews?

Speaker 5 58:27

Yeah, like I did, especially with my first book. But this if you guys haven't read Colin McCann's book Letter to a Young Writer writer, it's really a brilliant book. Has anybody read it? What is it again, letters to a young writer by colin mccann. Um, it's really good, really good. I've read it several times, I've given it to several people. But in that he says if you're going to read the good, if you're going to read the reviews and you're going to believe the good reviews, then you need to read the bad reviews. Believe them too. Do you know what I mean? So at the end of the day, it's probably best not to read them, because you are going to have people that really really like you and then you know you'll have people that that don't and we'll we'll dwell on that one negative review where we could have had like right, yeah, like, yeah, yeah I think on amazon, I'm up to like 224 reviews and they it's like at 4.4 overall, which?

Speaker 5 59:30

is very good, but then you'll see like there's like a couple people that gave one star. I'm like what is that about, you know? And then you can read them and, yeah, it's probably best to stay away from them I.

Speaker 7 59:41

I actually stopped reading the reviews for books because, way before we had reviews, you bought a book by you that you heard about it. You read the synopsis, you like the cover was something that drew you to it and you decided whether you like it or not. What I found myself doing is initially like, of course you're going to go to the bad reviews, uh, or I would read the five and I would read the one. But this human nature, I would tend to be like no, it's down, like that, so many ones. Then I started doing going to the three because I wanted some middle ground, you know, just thought it was more balanced. And if there was one book that I almost didn't buy because of reviews and I loved it and I stopped since then, I like I'm going back to the time that you, you took your chances.

Speaker 5 1:00:28

Good, that's good Cause it's like we can't think for ourselves anymore.

Speaker 2 1:00:32

Somebody else says and writing is so subjective, just because they didn't like it.

Speaker 7 1:00:38

You're very right. It made me wonder, like how many good books had I passed up that I probably, or I could have liked, because I don't think I paid attention to review very true, we appreciate you tonight.

Speaker 2 1:00:54

Yes, it was very thorough and informative, as always Well.

Speaker 5 1:00:59

Thank you guys for tuning in, and if you want to get on my mailing list, I'll do one more plug. My website is wwwheatherchristybookscom.

Speaker 2 1:01:18

Awesome, awesome. Thank you again for coming.

Speaker 5 1:01:21

You're welcome. Everybody write on, keep writing.

Speaker 3 1:01:27

That wraps up today's craft chat chronicles with JD Mayer. Thanks for joining us. If you liked the episode, please comment, subscribe and share. For show notes, writing workshops and tips head to jdmayocom. No-transcript. Like the episode, please comment, subscribe, and For show notes, writing workshops and tips, head to JDMeyercom. That's JDMeyercom. While you're there, join JD's mailing list for updates, giveaways and more.