Writers in the Storm

Cathy Genna

First, how do you become an Author Concierge? 

This is how I came to it:

Thrilled, honored, and all but speechless at the podium beside Sylvia Day, I accepted the once-in-a-lifetime 2013 Romance Writers of America Bookseller of the Year Award as Sylvia placed it into my trembling hands.  To achieve this prestigious honor, to even be nominated, was more than the culmination of a progressive and rewarding career with the nation’s largest brick-and-mortar book retailer – a career that included contributing directly to several authors in both Romance and Mystery categories attaining status on the coveted New York Times and USA Today Best Seller Lists Adriana Trigiani, Sabrina Jeffries, David Rosenfelt, Carolyn Brown, and Barbara Longley.

The cherished RWA award represented more than the height of my career, and more than the recognition that I had desired and worked so hard to achieve.  Perhaps more importantly than my prior accomplishments, this honor signified the road upon which I was soon to embark: the road that led me out of retail and onto the path that highlights my strengths; a full-service author concierge.

What does an author concierge do?

As much, or as little as you need.

The role and responsibility of a concierge is to represent and proactively support authors with the aim of bringing their work to broader and ultimately more profitable audiences, including publishers, consumers, and booksellers.  The authors’ conundrum, on the other hand, is how to select a concierge best qualified as well as genuinely motivated to improve branding, and who has demonstrated quantifiable success in this area. This can be a daunting task!

In a word, your concierge is your champion; your advocate. A Tech and Social Media savvy partner who can steer through the daunting and time intensive jobs that you don't have time/expertise/motivation to handle.

• A great concierge not only truly loves books and loves what she does, she has a well-established history of positive and productive relationships with those integral to an author’s career, including agents, editors, and Big 5 publishers.
• A great concierge excels at “thinking outside the box” to conceive, organize, advertise, to run innovative and highly interactive promotional events, often on a shoestring budget.
• A great concierge structures her services with extremely competitive pricing.
• Finally, a great concierge cherishes and does her very best for each and every client, whether they aspire to first-time publication, are newly published, or are best-selling authors.

In your search for a quality concierge, beware of someone who promises you the world.  The promises that I make are the ones that I stand by, and the ones to which my long list of well-respected references will attest.  These include and are not limited to Terri Brisbin, Carolyn Brown, EJ Copperman, Laura Drake, Ann H. Gabhart, Nancy Herkness, Madeline Hunter, and Sabrina Jeffries.

If you are interested in further exploring my services and references in greater detail, kindly contact me directly via email cathy(at)cathygenna(dot)com or via my website www.cathygenna.com.  I would love to have a meaningful conversation with you!

So what do you think, WITS readers? If you were to hire a concierge, what would you hand off? Do you have any questions for Cathy?

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About Cathy

Cathy Genna helps authors make the most of their time, by providing core services that will allow them valuable free time to do what they do best - WRITE!  In turn, the author gets an enthusiastic, creative and passionate team player with twelve years’ of knowledge and experience working as a Community Business Development Manager for a leading retailer of books.

Cathy lives in New Jersey, is an avid reader, a hockey fan, a chocolate lover and a long time rabbit advocate and animal rescuer.

Easter is drawing near. Please “Make Your Bunny Chocolate.”

 

photo credit: Langham Hotel: Concierge desk via photopin (license)
photo credit: 1987 Disneyland cast member - woman behind counter via photopin (license)

I haven't baked bread for over fifteen years. But I thought about making a loaf of sourdough this week-end. I never had a bread machine, so the idea of spending the better part of a day making a couple of loaves of bread caused my rational brain to engage. What was I thinking?

Bread is not my favorite food group. However, if that bread is homemade and right-out-of-the-oven hot and steaming with aroma, give me butter and a knife and I will make serious inroads into that loaf.

How did my bread fantasy lead to today's topic?

There are many steps to making even a simple loaf of bread, just as there are many steps to writing a novel. 

1. Choose a recipe.  Choose a genre. 

2. Collect the best ingredients.

Build three-dimensional characters. Construct a believable plot with twists and surprises that will keep your reader turning pages. If you plot, then plot. If you're a pantser, think about your story, build a movie in your head.

3. Measure carefully.  

Be a wordsmith. Make every word pull its weight. Don't overuse one type of construction or rhetorical device. Don't tell then show. That's called an echo, and it's a sure way to make a reader throw your book across the room.

4. Mix thoroughly.

Space out backstory. Add only what is necessary to understand character motivation or a goal at that point in your story. "Dribble" in character and setting descriptions as appropriate. Don't wax eloquent for a page about the cerulean tones of a fabric. If you must mention several glories about the color, give a couple from each character's point of view, showing how they see the color.

5. Pour the bread onto a floured board and knead.

Write. Revise. Write. Revise. This is the muscle work. But this is what makes amazing bread—and a selling novel.

6. Put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise.

After a little time away from your finished book, go back and begin your editing passes for continuity and plot holes. Check for your personal "favorite" over-used words. Run computer checks for problematic words like "there", "just", "up", "down." Don't overdo this, because there are lots of specific words you can check for. Look for the ones you overuse and fix them.

7. Punch down. Knead. Replace in greased bowl, cover and let rise again.

Give the manuscript to your trusted beta reader(s) or critique group. Allow them the time they need to give you a thorough, accurate assessment of your work.

8. Punch down, place in a greased pan. Bake.

Review the feedback from your critiques for your final edits. Consider making several passes, checking first to streamline for snappy, realistic dialogue. Check for emotion on every page. This is what makes your readers connect with your characters. And makes them tell friends about your book. Find the tension in every scene. If there is no tension, why turn the page?

If the idea of multiple passes to edit your completed book makes your eyes cross, take your time going through once, with a checklist of what you're looking for. You probably have a good idea of what your strength as a writer is and what your weaknesses are. Look for those weakness and exploit the opportunity to fix them.

Remember, writing is like learning to play a musical instrument. It takes time in the chair to master the large then the subtle skills. Your second book will not have all the mistakes of your first. You will improve—and find more ways to improve your writing as you develop your craft.

9. Remove from pan. Enjoy.

Congratulations! You've finished a book and are ready to get on with the business of selling it. You've joined a very small percentage of people who have persevered to complete a book. You deserve to get that cube of butter and knife and dig in.

Which step causes you problems? What would you like to share or add to the "baking" process?

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About Fae

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes  that she can live anywhere but the present.  As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now shares her brain with characters who demand their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen.

As writers we know the tricks to time management. We know we have to treat our writing as a job, not a hobby. We know we have to set boundaries between our work life and personal life. We know we’re supposed to sit our fluffy behinds every day in front of the computer and put down words.

So, pop quiz …

• Who uses tracking software to see where they are with word count? *raises hand*
• Who has a lovely writing office without the clutter of life? *raises hand*
• Who’s blocked off time on the calendar just for writing? *raises hand*
• Who sets monthly goals to meet their deadline? *raises hand*

And yet, we’re at the end of February and I’ve written a total of 1,000 new words on my work in progress. My target for the month was 25k. Way to rock those writing goals, eh?

It’s not because I don’t have the tools or the knowledge or the time. It’s because, to be perfectly honest, I’ve allowed guilt to paralyze me.

See, life hasn’t been, how shall I put it -- creatively inspiring lately. There have been a few too many personal hits and each one has taken a toll on my physical and emotional energy. But I’ve always believed that personal shouldn’t interfere with professional. That works up to a point. It worked with running WFWA because I could lose myself in the details and by helping others, so I felt like I was doing something productive. I didn’t have to think about me. It worked on organizing a writing retreat because the logistics dictated the timing.

But it doesn’t work with writing. Why? Because writing requires the emotional energy. We write from a place deep inside and when that place is littered with confusion and hurt and disappointment, the words have a hard time finding their way to the surface.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I got a triple dose of guilt in the character traits serving line. With guilt comes shame. I feel guilty that I have this time to write and I’m not making the most of it. I’m ashamed to admit that instead of sitting on my life problems until they succumb, I’m allowing them to push me around.

I spent most of the last few weeks decluttering my basement. We’re having new flooring put in so that meant taking everything out. Amazing how much crap you manage to accumulate. As I was sorting through things and putting them in the stay or to-donate pile, I started having twinges of guilt over some of the items in the to-donate pile. (Of course I did!) It took a bit of effort and a particularly hokey article that surprisingly helped, but was finally able to say thank you for serving a purpose to each item that was giving me a guilty hiccup before putting it in a bag.

What does this have to do with writing? Remember the extra dose of guilt and accompanying shame? Time spent cleaning is not time spent writing. And that, of course, sent me into another downward spiral.

When the charity folks picked up all those bags, I felt the guilt go with it. Granted, letting go of toys and books isn’t the same as emotional baggage, but it’s a step. And it got me thinking … if I was able to put the guilt aside by confronting the item (sounds so ridiculously stupid now but hey, it worked, don’t judge!), could it work in other areas?

As much as I’d like to stuff some of the personal problems into a large garbage bag and have it schlepped away, I can’t (I think there are laws against that ;-) ). But there are a couple of things I can do …

1) Admit defeat. What? You were expecting me to give you a rah-rah-overcome speech? Nope. Life happens. No way around it. And by admitting that it happens and that you can’t always control how it affects you, you give yourself permission to stop feeling guilty.

2) Manipulate. I see those eyebrows poking up and that’s not what I’m talking about so chill. I can’t change some of what’s happening around me but if I stop beating myself up, I can actually use those feelings to fuel story ideas.

I may not be close to my 25k goal for the month and I may still be teetering on the balance scale but once I let go of the guilt over not writing, I was able to start writing again.

So there it is folks, the secret to balancing your writing and personal life is …

Letting go of the guilt.

Let it go.
Let it go ..
*apologies for anyone who now has that blasted Frozen song stuck in their head*

What strategies have worked for you when life gets in the way of your writing?

About Orly

After years of pushing the creativity boundary in corporate communications, Orly decided it was time for a new challenge. Three women’s fiction manuscripts later (plus a handful of picture books), it’s safe to say she’s found her creative outlet. When she’s not talking to her imaginary friends, she’s reading or at least trying to ignore everyone around her long enough to finish “just one more paragraph.” Orly is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. She is rep’d by Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency LLC.

Orly’s debut novel, The Memory of Hoofbeats, will be released by Forge in 2017.

You can find her on Twitter at @OrlyKonig, on Facebook at OrlyKonigAuthor, or on her website, www.orlykonig.com.