GOOD NEWS | I’m Officially a Debuting Novelist

KILMOON takes place in western Ireland. Old burial grounds like this provided tons of inspiration.
KILMOON takes place in western Ireland. Old burial grounds like this provided tons of inspiration.

(Read more about the novel here: KILMOON)

Yep, that’s me: debuting novelist! I’ve been debuting myself in my imagination for years, so it’s strange to be here with a baby book on its way through a gestation cycle — editing, and interior design, and cover design. Exciting!

My authorial cycle is just as hectic. Here’s the immediate to-do list:

1. New website. My current website is pretty stale now. Needs a revamp. So I need to find a website designer, decide on content, write that content…

2. Author photo! If you’re anything like me, the thought of having your photo taken — especially an official photo — doesn’t send you over the moon with enthusiasm. First there’s the pose. Shall I sit with chin on fist, looking contemplative? Or how about with arms crossed in an I’m-a-serious-writer pose? To be honest, I picture myself at a pub with a Guinness standing proud before me. Perhaps with a Guinness and with chin on fist?

And what about wardrobe? I might have to buy a few new tops, and I don’t like clothes shopping. Makeup?! Yee gads. I’m also not a fan of makeup, but I might need to buy — foundation? Hmm…I’d better ask for advice from my girly-girl girlfriends.

3. Last bits of the manuscript: acknowledgments, dedication, author bio. The acknowledgments are challenging because I’ve been revising the novel for years (off and on). I can’t remember everyone who provided feedback or research information. Lesson learned for the second novel: keep an acknowledgments list!

4. Figure out social networking, for real. It might help if I blogged consistently, eh? I hereby and with sincere hope vow to write a blog post once a week. (What’s today? Wednesday? So, every Wednesday? Do any of you dear readers have an opinion about which days are the best blogging days?)

Facebook – check. (Come find me if you’d like!) Do I REALLY need a Facebook author page? I’d better ask around.

Over the weekend, I Twitter-ized myself. Getting familiar with that. Just learned that “RT” means “retweet.” That’s a good start.

I think I might join Goodreads because I’ve been meaning to anyhow. And that’s it. No Tumblr or Pinterest or whatever the latest social-media outlet is. (I do need to finish revising the second novel in the series, after all.)

5. Most important: keep writing! It’s way too easy to get sidetracked by social media and the business side of writing. I’m feeling pressure to be out there in the see-and-be-seen way. I’m the friendly sort, so this isn’t too hard–and I like meeting new people. (Just yesterday I virtually met Kristopher of bolobooks.com, a book reviewer–nice and smart reviewer!) However, since I’m the easily distracted type, this could be problematic.

There are more tasks, but I’m feeling a wee bit exhausted having written up my top five. OK, off to write the acknowledgments!

11 comments on “GOOD NEWS | I’m Officially a Debuting Novelist

  • I think writing the promotional blurbs is harder than writing the darned book. I miss the days when you could just stick the pages in the mail and wait for the royalties to come rolling in. Oh, wait, it was actually more like Snoopy, mail off the pages and wait for the restraining orders to come rolling in.

    Reply
  • Oh, and I read that Thursday and Friday are the big Twitter days, so maybe it’s the same for blogs. I recommend GoodReads. It’s a fun forum and provides lots of opportunities for writers to interact with readers (not that I’ve ever taken advantage of that).

    Reply
    • Wait, I missed that — Snoopy and restraining orders? Promotional anything is hard. I’ve gotta metaphorically square my shoulders before entering that battle field. 🙂

      Reply
  • The beauty of doing social networking for real is that the pressure to write a longer post wanes! Twitter is a micro-blog. Once you’re there, you’re blogging! In a micro sort of way. (I expect the writers among you are going to scoff at that, but hey, that’s what it is!) Welcome @lisa_alber!

    Reply
    • Nance! I’ve been hearing rumbles that blogging is not the thing, that, in fact, it’s just as you say: shorter “blogs” are more efficient. I’m seeing this a lot on Facebook these days. Authors like Louise Penny write long Facebook status posts, which would translate to mini-blog posts. And tweeting…yes…still getting the hang of that!

      I’m such a Luddite at heart — the “for real” part also pertains to integration between blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etcetera. Like, for example, you just commented through Twitter, right? How does that work? I don’t even know…It’s like voodoo magic or something! 🙂

      Reply
  • Osman Eralp says:

    Congrats on your novel! I knew your career move was a good one. Where will I be able to buy your book?

    Reply
    • Wow, Osman, long time! Cool! Thanks for visiting. How did you land on me, anyhow?

      You’ll be able to buy it at bookstores — if it’s not stocked, you can order it. And, of course, through Amazon.

      Reply

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