We have taken a break from blogging for a few weeks because we were trying to keep up with the avalanche of contest entries. Okay. It is not an avalanche. It is a small hill that my dog could ski down. I haven't counted, but there are few hundred entries from all over the world and we are hoping to find three excellent ones that make us shout YES! in a sort of orgasmic way. We'll see. I am not actually a judge, but I have been a first reader before and I always I end up being very involved in the process. We haven't chosen the final judge yet. I think because we have been busy, but it will probably be someone fabulous. If you know or are someone fabulous and didn't enter and want to apply, please hit me up on email.
For now, I am trying to deal with the small number this time (in previous years it was quite large) of people who did not send all the right things in with their entries. Some didn't send an entry form. Some didn't send a check or proof of payment. One person sent us a check for $100 payable to his neighbor. The neighbor later sent us a check for $15 and asked us to return the check to him. Funny stuff. We don't take it personally. It's stressful to submit to a contest. We know. But some things go beyond the pale. One year I had a woman send us cash for the entry fee--I think it was $20--and then ask for $5 change to be sent back to her. Really? Okay I can humor that, but she didn't even include a SASE. And she lived in Canada. I don't remember what I ended up doing.
But regardless of these blunders, it doesn't prejudice anyone in the contest. I have know idea who it was. His or her story just went into the pile with the others, with no name on it.
I do have to say that I enjoy reading the titles though as I sort through them. Some make me very curious. Like "Rammed in the Rear" and "The Chihuahua from Hell" just to name a couple.
I also enjoy reading how people heard about the contest. It lets me know how information travels from one person to the next, from one site to the next. I feel very connected to everyone in the whole world through a sort of clay and toothpick model. I suppose that two degrees of separation is really possible.
I can't wait to give an update in a few weeks. From all of us, we'd like to say thanks for all your patience and trust with your personal stories.
One assumption that many new authors make is that their publisher or agent will take care of most of the marketing of their book. The truth is that although authors may get the occasional lead from their publisher or agent, most of the onus of getting the word out about a book is on the author.
Now unless you are Stephen King, whose books are pretty much sold as soon as they come out, book marketing can be a tremendous amount of work. And it can also be expensive. But in this day and age we have many phenomenal ways to reach out to readers and buyers through the Internet. One of them is a Book Blog Tour.
I wound up my second blog tour with WOW-womenonwriting just a few weeks ago and I can honestly say that not only did it help to increase my sales but I also got leads to other marketing resources!
A blog tour is basically the same idea as a traditional book tour when you go into bookstores to sign or read but the tour is done on blogs. The blog host either asks that the author does a guest post, participates in a Q&A or simply does a book review and, often, the author also gives away a copy of the book to a lucky follower with the best comment or question.
Benefits to a blog tour include:
• Convenience (GREAT for Writer Moms who don’t have a lot of freedom to travel); • Reaches audiences authors may miss on traditional book tours; • Fairly inexpensive, especially if the author arranges it herself; • Posts are kept indefinitely on the Internet. That means the author and his book can be ‘Googled’ or pulled up in an Internet search for quite some time!
Interested in arranging one? You could do it in one of two ways: (1) you could hire someone to set it all up for you, like I did with WOW; or (2) you do it on your own. Because I had so much going on, I hired WOW to set everything up for me. They took care of the advertising, found blogs for me to guest on and set up dates. Hiring someone can run anywhere from $150 - $350, depending on what they’ll cover, including how many blogs they can get you on and the amount of traffic they get.
If you choose to do it on your own, you’ll need to bear the following things in mind:
• Advertising. You need to get your tour out there so you’ll (hopefully!) have a loyal following along your tour, in addition to the blog hosts’ followers. And remember: you need to advertise as you go too. If you have Twitter, Facebook or MySpace accounts, announce your stop each day. • Good blogs. Okay here you need to find blogs that not only represent your book’s theme but that also have a good following. But don’t restrict yourself just to your book’s theme. My book, for example, is about raising a child with Sensory Processing Disorder so many of the blogs I’ve visited focused on SPD, Autism and Asperger’s. But I also did spots on blogs about writing, being a Writing Mama, writing memoirs and other areas. It can be a lot of work finding places on your own but be sure to cover all the bases. And blogs with a lot of followers will generate more sales but, again, don’t dismiss ones with low numbers. They can lead to great things too. Have a good mix! • Have a set time frame and don’t overdo it! Most blog tours run for about a month. That’s perfect. Don’t book yourself for too many because you need to check into each place to answer questions or respond to comments. One blog per day over the set time frame is great. • Respond to comments/questions. As mentioned above, one of the biggest parts of the tour is interacting with commentors. Your book may rock but you need to create a good relationship with your readers. It’s actually tons of fun! I loved that part of the whole thing. • Keep books on hand. Not only will you need to have books to give to blog hosts to review, but they may want to have a giveaway for your book too. In my case, my publisher offered to handle any giveaway books and review copies to those in the U.S., since I live in Canada (It was much cheaper and faster all around!) and I handled the other ones. Be sure to have copies on hand but also see if your publisher would be willing to handle some of the author copies or prize-winners for you.
We all know that it takes work to get ourselves and our work out there. But the Book Blog Tour offers an author an amazing way to get worldwide recognition just by making a few blog stops. And blog hosts get their blog more traffic and recognition too so everyone is a winner!
CHYNNA TAMARA LAIRD – is a psychology student, freelance writer and author living in Edmonton, Alberta with her partner, Steve, and their three daughters [Jaimie (seven), Jordhan (five), and baby Sophie (nineteen months)] and baby boy, Xander (three). Her passion is helping children and families living with Sensory Processing Disorder and other special needs.
You’ll find her work in many online and in-print parenting, inspirational, Christian and writing publications in Canada, United States, Australia, and Britain. In addition, she’s authored a children’s book, a memoir (now available!) and a reference book about the Sensory Diet coming January 2011.
At Memoirs Ink we often discuss fascinating issues such as the importance of commas, properly used exclamation points, and most recently, air quotes. These air quotes, or finger quotes, as they are sometimes called, are used most often when quoting someone or something while speaking, or to show that someone is being sarcastic.
Some of us at Memoirs Ink think that using air quotes is just as annoying as throwing in exclamation points after every sentence in an essay. Others think that they're okay in small amounts.
Take a look at this clip from Friends, where Ross is upset that Joey has, "accidentally" proposed to Ross's ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Rachel. Let us know what you think about air quotes.
*This is not my video. No copyright infringement intended.*
I am an avid fan of the English language, and as such, I often wonder, when did we lose faith in her, anyway? Last time I checked, there was a myriad of words to replace the often overused and misplaced exclamation point. The only time an exclamation point is warranted is when the statement is an actual exclamation, like Look! Or, Wow! Or, Congratulations! And, as Strunk and White state, “Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation.” Instead, simply state what you want to say, without adding unnecessary, obnoxious punctuation marks.
It seems to me that we could easily express our excitement for something by saying that we’re, well, excited. Or, if we doubt that saying we’re excited will convey the fact that we are excited, then why not add a more pizzazz-y word, like, pizzazz?
One of my best friends, and fellow English language fan, is also a fan of exclamation points, smiley faces, and other such “cheery” expressions and emoticons. (We can refer to her as “Jane”). Jane and I met several years ago when we were both in college, in an honors English class. We quickly bonded over our love for Shakespeare, Italy, Aphra Behn and English. Unfortunately for me, I soon discovered that Jane is a huge fan of exclamation points. In fact, her text messages often look like this, “I miss you! I can’t wait to see you! I’m so excited you’re coming up this weekend :)” When it comes to the men she’s attracted to, Jane does not spare any exclamation points. In fact, when sending texts to hot men, she often spends about ten minutes contemplating where to strategically place these unnecessary offenders.
Once, nearly a year ago, we were on our way home to her apartment from Albertson’s when she almost took out an entire row of cars in the parking lot; she was trying to figure out if she had typed enough exclamation points in a message she wanted to send to her latest crush. As she handed me her phone and asked, “Do you think that’s enough?” she almost smacked the first car. And then she asked, “Will he think I’m happy to see him?” There went car number two (almost). The text read: “Hi! Are you back in town?! We should hang out tonight! I’m excited to see you!”
By now she had made a sharp right turn and tried to park her car so she could focus. In so doing, she nearly swiped a third car. For the next twenty five minutes, we occupied three parking spots while she deliberated the effectiveness of this text. As we sat in the parking lot of Albertson’s, and as she read several variations of her text message aloud, I was trying to process how the same person who Aced all of her classes was the same person who almost knocked out a row of cars because she could not decide if her text message was cheery enough. I wondered why she couldn’t just send him a text telling him that she missed him and wanted to spend time with him, without all the exclamation points and emoticons. I sat there silently, nodding my head each time she asked, “Are you sure this is good enough? I mean, I want him to know I’m excited to see him, but I don’t want him to know I spent all this time trying to decide on what to text him.” I never said anything about how stupid exclamation points are, because I did not want to hurt her feelings.
Jane finally sent the text. We sat in her car for a few minutes and waited for him to respond. When several more minutes went by and he still had not responded, she looked at me and said, “That’s so weird. I put exclamation points and smiley faces, and everything.”
As I looked into her big blue eyes, framed by her wavy blonde hair, I still could not tell her. I wondered how someone who loves English so much, needed to sound like a sixteen year old girl when sending messages to friends and men who were more than friends. I also thought about how different our text messages look—even when we are texting each other. For example, when sending texts of the same sentiment, whether to my friends or lovers, they often look like this: “Can’t wait to see you. Miss you, too. Will call you later.” No exclamation points. No happy faces. Just good ol’ letters and periods.
So, why can’t we trust the English language to correctly convey what we want to say without adding misplaced punctuation marks and unnecessary emoticons? It may just be that I was an English major—although I doubt I stand alone here—but, I firmly believe that we can all express our feelings simply with words; no need for anything else.
Since many of you have been asking, here are some helpful hints about how to interview your family member this holiday season. It is best to do several interviews if possible, but remember that anything that you can get is better than nothing at all.
The best advice I have is to wait ten (count 'em) seconds after your subject finishes talking before opening your mouth again. The natural inclination for people is to fill a silence, and if you don't, they will. This is often when I get the best stories.
Ask open ended questions (not yes or no) and ask difficult or taboo questions in a manner that doesn't show your judgment around it. For example, if you are interviewing a Vietnam vet and want to know whether he was drafted or enlisted, try eliciting this information with a question like: "What was going on your life around the time that you went into the army." You'll get much more interesting information this way and won’t make anyone defensive. If they want to talk about politics, just listen intently. Don’t talk about yours or argue or that will be the end of your interview.
Ask about the five senses. Was it cold? What colors do you remember? What about the smell? The senses trigger a whole world of stories and feelings.
It's always best to ask men what they think/thought about something and ask women what they feel/felt about something. If you ask a man about his feelings, he may shut down, but if you put it in terms of his intellect, and remember rule #1, you will are likely to hear some of the feelings.
Do research beforehand. If he was in WWII, learn what you can about the battles or countries he was in so that he doesn't have to give you a history lesson. You don’t want a history lesson, you want a personal history.
There are plenty of good lists of questions out there (and I will publish my own, shortly) and I recommend having a list, but don’t get hung up on the list. I rarely ask more than 10% of the questions I had planned. It always goes better if you just go with the flow and let them direct the interview.
Begin the interview with the date, name, place and then start by asking easy questions, like: What is your birthday? Where were you born? If you don’t know the person well, you begin by asking about other people first-- their ancestors, family, favorite uncle. This will put them at ease and help them get used to you and trust you. Save the deepest darkest secret questions for later. And I guarantee, if you build trust with them, they will tell you just about anything.
Recording. Don’t ever sneak around. Always tell your subject that you will be recording. Trust is key. Put a tape recorder on a table and it will become invisible. (Video cameras are harder to ignore.) I use old-fashioned, regular-sized 60-minute tapes because they are still the most stable form of voice recording. If you use something fancier like a CD recorder or a digital recorder, always have a tape recorder as backup. I can’t tell you how many digital recordings have been lost or messed up but the tapes never fail. I order them online—no one carries them in stores anymore. And the tape recorder I use cost $50. It is great.
I should note that some people may have an extremely difficult time interviewing their own parents or grandparents. I have discovered that there are several reasons for this:
Our own baggage/judgment. We can’t hear their story objectively and they know it. It becomes not an interview but an attempt to convince/persuade.
They think we know all the stories already so they leave out vitally important details.
They edit too much for their children. Many people are more willing to tell strangers intimate dirt on their life, but they censor it for their own children.
This is why I always suggest using a professional, or if you can’t afford it, trading relatives with a friend.
What do you want to get for Christmas/Chanukah/Quanza/Festivus? What should you give that special book worm in your life? Well, you can be sure that I have thoughts, opinions, and a wish list.
My top 5 Giftable Memoirs - as you can imagine, some memoirs don't make the best gifts because of subject matter and other reasons. So this list is my list of favorites that would make a great gift to most people, whether they profess to love memoir or not. I have included some of the book summary notes from Amazon and linked them too. Enjoy!
"Annie Dillard remembers. She remembers the exhilaration of whipping a snowball at a car and having it hit straight on. She remembers playing with the skin on her mother's knuckles, which "didn't snap back; it lay dead across her knuckle in a yellowish ridge." She remembers the compulsion to spend a whole afternoon (or many whole afternoons) endlessly pitching a ball at a target. In this intoxicating account of her childhood, Dillard climbs back inside her 5-, 10-, and 15-year-old selves with apparent effortlessness. The voracious young Dillard embraces headlong one fascination after another--from drawing to rocks and bugs to the French symbolists. "Everywhere, things snagged me," she writes. "The visible world turned me curious to books; the books propelled me reeling back to the world." From her parents she inherited a love of language--her mother's speech was "an endlessly interesting, swerving path"--and the understanding that "you do what you do out of your private passion for the thing itself," not for anyone else's approval or desire. And one would be mistaken to call the energy Dillard exhibits in An American Childhood merely youthful; "still I break up through the skin of awareness a thousand times a day," she writes, "as dolphins burst through seas, and dive again, and rise, and dive."
"At age 10, Steve Martin got a job selling guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland. In the decade that followed, he worked in Disney's magic shop, print shop, and theater, and developed his own magic/comedy act. By age 20, studying poetry and philosophy on the side, he was performing a dozen times a week, most often at the Disney rival, Knott's Berry Farm. Obsession is a substitute for talent, he has said, and Steve Martin's focus and daring--his sheer tenacity--are truly stunning. He writes about making the very tough decision to sacrifice everything not original in his act, and about lucking into a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Show. He writes about mentors, girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his great peers in comedy--Dan Ackroyd, Lorne Michaels, Carl Reiner, Johnny Carson. He writes about fear, anxiety and loneliness. And he writes about how he figured out what worked on stage. This book is a memoir, but it is also an illuminating guidebook to stand-up from one of our two or three greatest comedians. Though Martin is reticent about his personal life, he is also stunningly deft, and manages to give readers a feeling of intimacy and candor. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs collected by Martin, this book is instantly compelling visually and a spectacularly good read. "
"Every glimpse we get of Sedaris's family and acquaintances delivers laughs and insights. He thwarts his North Carolina speech therapist ("for whom the word pen had two syllables") by cleverly avoiding all words with s sounds, which reveal the lisp she sought to correct. His midget guitar teacher, Mister Mancini, is unaware that Sedaris doesn't share his obsession with breasts, and sings "Light My Fire" all wrong--"as if he were a Webelo scout demanding a match." As a remarkably unqualified teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, Sedaris had his class watch soap operas and assign "guessays" on what would happen in the next day's episode."
Modern American Memoirs - edited by Annie Dillard and Cort Conley. (This one is on my wish list!)
"Annie Dillard and publisher Cort Conley have collected excerpts from the memoirs of 35 20th-century American authors. The selections represent the best in autobiographical writing published between 1917 and 1992. Included are nine women and 26 men, both black and white, some better known than others, all distinguished writers and wonderful storytellers. Chris Offutt's "The Same River Twice" tells about the author's stint working in the circus; Anne Moody's "Coming of Age in Mississippi" describes her participation in the 1963 Woolworth sit-in. The editors precede each entry with a biographical and contextual note. There's an opening essay on the art of the memoirist and an afterword listing additional classics in the genre. This rich collection serves as an introduction to the nation's best modern writers and a primer on the American experience."
The Gift Card - Okay so i know I said 5. In reality, the best gift if you are not sure what to give them is a bookstore gift card. (Thanks Dad!)
On my wish list:
An Unquiet Mind - by Kay RedfeildJaimison (several of our fans listed this as their fave and I am intrigued.)
Modern American Memoirs - Annie Dillard and Cort Conley (I want this!)
Driving with Dead People - Monica Holloway (Looks like a downer but I heard her read and she is lovely.)
The Gastronomy of Marriage: A Memoir of Food and Love - by Michelle Maisto (I miss NY and I heart food.)
On my Shelf - Just for your own voyeuristic interest, these are the books that are half finished or that I hope to get around to soon.
The Possibility of Everything - Hope Edelman
Einstein- by Walter Isaacson (ok this is biography)
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
Feel free to share or comment on your favorites or your opinions on gifting memoir. Happy Holidays.
This year, for the month of December only, Memoirs Ink is offering a dramatic discount (70% off) on our life-history interview package as a gift to the community. Communities and families suffer with the loss of our elder’s stories. This season, consider a family gift that will be cherished by generations to come.
Life History Interview Package includes:
Preliminary background interview with hiring party
Background research
Life history interviews (six sessions -90-120 minutes each)
Digitizing and/or formatting digital interview into chapters
Transcription (takes roughly 4 times the length of interview)
Formatting and editing documents
Packaging/Delivery to parties.
Regular price: $5000. December only: $1500* (Payment plans available.)
Our interviewers are trained professionals that know how to listen, ask the right questions and make your relative feel comfortable. Even the most reluctant interviewees become enthusiastic and invigorated through the story telling process.
Don’t wait till it’s too late. Call today: 1-888-486-3664 or email us with questions info at Memoirsink dot com.
*Must purchase in December, but interviews do not have to start or conclude in December. Memoirs Ink will travel at client’s expense. References available.
To learn more about this and our other services, please visit our website.
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