Helen Ellis on Book Promotion, Ten Years Later

I first met Helen Ellis back in 2001, when I interviewed her for Beatrice after the release of her debut novel, which I loved. We’ve kept in touch over the years, and I’ve always wanted to see something new from her—finally, there’s THE TURNING: What Curiosity Kills, the first in a new series of YA fantasy novels she’s writing for Sourcebooks. Although there’s a lot that’s different about the two books, to someone who’s familiar with Helen’s voice, it’s great to have her Southern Gothic sensibility back and in full bloom. When I invited Helen to write a new guest essay, she immediately hit upon the idea of looking at what had changed in the literary world since our last “official” encounter; she also came up with the idea of writing it as a letter—which, although it’s addressed to me, I think you’ll find friendly and inviting as well!

Ten years ago, I was straight out of graduate school and sold my first novel for six figures. To promote Eating the Cheshire Cat, I was told that bookstores sold books. And by gum, The Alabama Booksmith, Lemuria, and Eddie Suttles of a Georgia Barnes & Noble hand-sold the heck out of it. I was sent on a twenty-stop book tour, put up in legendary hotels like The Peabody in Memphis, spent my days being interviewed by local TV, radio, and newspapers, and met with one blogger: you.

In the end, did I earn out my advance? No, but before the first copy of the book was sold, Scribner’s attitude was that I would. And getting me “out there” was the way to do it. So I went and reveled in every minute.

And then I fell, slowly and despite my best efforts, off the face of the literary earth. I wrote a second book and my agent couldn’t get a publisher. I poured my soul into a third book for a new agent who, after taking it on, decided she didn’t really like it, after all. Without an agent, I started a fourth book, because I am a writer, and that’s what writers do. Hallelujah, I got an offer from Sourcebooks, and then got a trusted friend to agent the deal. Now I’m ready to promote THE TURNING: What Curiosity Kills, but I am hardly going anywhere. Physically, that is. It’s 2010 and 99% of my promotion is happening online.

(more…)

11 May 2010 | guest authors |

Alyssa Sheinmel’s New York

When Alyssa Sheinmel‘s The Beautiful Between showed up in my mailbox a while back, the first thing I noticed was that Alyssa had a day job in the marketing department at a big publishing house—well, we writers who work in publishing marketing departments have to stick together, so I moved it up a little higher on my pile. And her debut novel turns out to be really good: an emotionally honest story about a high school student who’s helping her new best friend cope with a tragedy in his life even as it forces her to confront one that she’s been avoiding nearly all of hers. In this essay, Alyssa talks about some of the places that shaped the world of her story—it’s the first stop on her blog tour, so you might drop by Cleverly Inked some time soon to see what she has to say next…

A lot of people who meet me assume I’m a lifelong New Yorker, but I’m not. I was born in California, and although I moved to the east coast when I was six years old, I didn’t move to Manhattan until I was thirteen. And I didn’t think of myself as a New Yorker for a lot longer than that. I fully believed—and sometimes I still do—that I was just a displaced California girl. I didn’t begin to love New York until well into high school (probably around when I discovered shopping)—and even then, I still believed that I had just as good a chance of ending up in California as I did in New York. But the longer I’ve lived in New York, the more I’ve come to love it. It is my home: it’s where I fell in love with my husband and with my dog (yes, I am in love with my dog), where I work, where my friends are, where my life is. So I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite New York City places.

One of my favorite things about Manhattan is you’re almost always within walking distance of a bookstore. Whenever I’m early for an appointment and need to kill time, or when I’m walking around and get caught in the rain, or if I’m just bored and just need something to do, I know that I can head to a bookstore. Here I am at my neighborhood bookstore, trying (and failing) to interest my dog in some Hemingway.

10 May 2010 | guest authors |