publishing Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Elizabeth Maria Naranjo

The Key to Getting Through Rejections

Posted on September 18, 2015 ·

Image from Flickr by Brenda Clarke

This morning after dropping the kids off at school, I headed to Xtreme Bean Coffee Co., determined to catch up on the one class I’ve fallen behind in (one out of five—not bad, right?). I ducked into the dimly-lit vault (the building was formerly a bank) and planted myself in a corner, vowing that after I checked my email—just this once!—I’d focus only on reading my assigned short stories and scribbling annotations on a legal pad.

Good thing I checked my email. The instructor had sent out a notice postponing the due date for the assignment by one week. And I needed that, because what I really wanted to do today was write a blog post.

Most of you who follow me here are writers, and writers never get tired of talking about one thing—rejection. I’ve written about it before, and how rejections usually don’t bother me. But yesterday I received one that bothered me a lot, and I want to tell you why so you don’t make the same mistakes I made.

The first mistake was letting my number of pending submissions dwindle down to one. Don’t do this. It’s important to keep multiple submissions going so that you don’t pin all your hopes on one single response. There have been times when I’ve received acceptances for stories that I’d nearly forgotten were out there because I had so many circulating, and that’s a nice feeling.

My other mistake was believing that a long response time meant something. Twice I’ve had stories take longer than usual to come back, and when they did it was with personalized notes from editors encouraging me to send more, and admitting that it had taken so long because the work had been carefully considered (although ultimately turned down).

In the case of yesterday’s rejection, it took nine months to arrive, and having previously submitted to this magazine I knew they were pretty good about sticking to their ideal turn-around time of three months. So at about the half-year mark I started envisioning my little story being passed up the chain of editors, all the way to the top, and my hopes climbed too.

But sometimes the reason for a longer than usual response time is simply this: the editors are buried beneath their slush piles. When that happens it’s very likely that all you’re going to get after nine months or even a year of waiting is a form rejection. Which is what I got yesterday.

Which is okay. The key is not to wait.

In case you missed it, my short YA piece “We Never Get to Talk Anymore” was published last month in YARN, a fantastic magazine publishing literature about young adults, and also by young adults. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: publishing, rejections, writing

How Sweet the Silence

Posted on May 8, 2015 ·

Image from Flickr by Mick C

I read something the other day about how we have a better chance at accomplishing goals when we keep them to ourselves.

That struck home, because the first time I wrote a book I didn’t tell anyone. Not my kids, not my husband—not until I had a completed first draft. Back then my youngest was three years old, so it’s not like anyone was asking, “What do you do all day?”

Since that novel was published, however, I’ve struggled to write the next one. I’ve started several, and if you follow me on social media, you’ve probably heard about them, because like most of us on social media I’ve fallen into the habit of publicly announcing my hopes and dreams almost from the moment they’re envisioned.

This doesn’t work for me.

Sometimes there was good reason my plans fell through. I joined National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November 2013 ready to pen my next novel. I told everyone. And then I got content edits back for The Fourth Wall, and spent the rest of the year knee-deep in edits.

The early months of 2014 were devoted to “preparing for launch”; I’d never been through the publishing process before and had a lot to learn. But by March I thought, Okay. I’ve done all I can do and now I’m just sitting here waiting for a publication date.

So I joined Camp NaNoWriMo on April 1, ready to pen my next novel. I told everyone. And on April 2—yes, really—I received the email with my publication date. Two months away.

Now—one year later—I’m going to tell you what all authors know and most don’t talk about for fear of sounding like ungrateful jerks: once you’re published, everything becomes harder. Your reasons for writing get lost and what you swore you wouldn’t care about—the numbers—becomes all you care about. And then it’s hard to keep going, because the numbers will break you.

I didn’t bother joining NaNoWriMo this last November. Instead, I read throughout the fall and then all winter long, and when people asked me what I was working on I usually told them the truth: nothing much.

But something happened recently, on April 1, to be exact. On that day I made a last-minute decision to join Camp NaNoWriMo, ready to pen my next novel. I told no one. And I ended the month with 30,000 words toward this new book.

So, what’s my book about? I’m not telling. 😉

Not yet.

What I’ve discovered is that keeping quiet about my works-in-progress has enormous benefits for me. For example, if I’d announced on April 1 that I was starting a novel, I may have been completely deflated three days later when I realized I wasn’t writing a novel at all, but a rather long short story. Still, no one knew my original plan; I could change it and write a book of short stories if I wanted. All that mattered was that I was writing again.

So that’s what I did. Last month, I quietly wrote a book of short stories.

I know. It’s impossible to get a short story collection published unless half have already appeared in The New Yorker, or you’re famous, or whatever.

But what if I didn’t know that? Like a scrappy pilot once said while navigating an asteroid field, “Never tell me the odds.”

Or what if all that really mattered was the sense of accomplishment that comes with creating something you can be proud of? That’s where I started, and finally that’s where I’ve returned.

I’m proud of these stories, I can’t wait to tell you about them, and sometime very soon—I promise—I will.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: inspiration, publishing, writing

This Is Why We Write

Posted on March 19, 2015 ·

Image from Flickr by creativecupcakes

On Tuesday I was treated to a presentation of The Fourth Wall by a group of 7^th graders who chose the book for their quarterly language arts project.

That goes straight to the top of the list of amazing and utterly surreal moments in this author’s writing life, right up there with seeing my debut novel on bookshelves.

The kids were assigned individual and group projects; for the group project they decided to put on a talk show. One child was the talk show host, and in a series of interviews with “Marin,” “Frankie,” and “Tom,” he probed the characters with questions about each other that revealed individual strengths and weaknesses and gave insight into the plot.

Because the interviews were conducted before and after the novel’s resolution—separated by an amusing intermission—the audience could see how the characters changed and grew.

It was brilliant. The kids gave nothing away, focusing solely on the real-world aspects of the novel and leaving out the magical realism—which makes sense, as only one of these characters experiences it, and we all know Marin likes her secrets.

But Marin’s dream world is of course a vital part of the story, and the students represented this perfectly. They created a backdrop—a painting of the forest in Marin’s dreams—and displayed it on the wall behind our talk show host and his guests. So it is there all along—framing everything—yet none of the characters can see it.

Before staging the talk show, these 7^th graders gave a brief overview of The Fourth Wall for the audience, including the title, tone, and theme. Their take on the theme? Letting go of the past so you can move forward.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

A huge, heart-felt “Thank you” to Lisa Jones, 6th/7th grade Aspire Language Arts teacher at Connolly Middle School in Tempe, Arizona, and to her wonderful students, for reading my book and inviting me to watch Tuesday’s performance.

Also…thanks to everyone who came out to the Tucson Festival of Books! And a big welcome to my new subscribers. This was my first time participating in a book festival, and it was a blast. We sold a few books, handed out tons of bookmarks, and discovered organic cotton candy.

Really, that’s a thing.

Here are some pictures, and congrats to R.C. who won the giveaway for my husband’s hand-crafted feather earrings!

Click here to purchase The Fourth Wall on Kindle

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: amazing teachers, Aspire Academy, Connolly Middle School, publishing, The Fourth Wall, Tucson Festival of Books, writing

Meet Me at the Festival

Posted on March 9, 2015 ·

This Saturday is the perfect day for hanging out at a book festival.

Okay, ANY day is perfect for hanging out at a book festival, but I’ll be signing books at this one and I’d really love to see you. Here are the details; click the link for more information on the TFoB website:

What: Tucson Festival of Books
Where: University of Arizona Campus
When: March 14-15, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Cost: FREE

*I’ll be at the Children/Teen Author Pavilion on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. with copies of The Fourth Wall. Also, with plenty of swag and other free stuff. Like candy.

Some of the amazing authors that will be presenting at the festival this year are Jacqueline Woodson, Joyce Carol Oates, Dave Barry, Katherine Paterson, and E. Lockhart. If that’s not exciting enough for you, there will also be churros, root beer floats, gelato popsicles, lemonade, kettle corn, and chili dogs. Something for everyone. 🙂

In other news, a short story of mine called “Four Mile Road” will be published soon in Black Heart Magazine. I’m super excited about that; this one is very special to me and I’m happy that it found a home. I can’t wait to share it with you.

See you on Saturday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: book signing, promotion, publishing, Tucson Festival of Books, writing

It Only Takes One “Yes”

Posted on December 7, 2014 ·

Image from Flickr by jepoirrier

Friday was the anniversary of a pretty special occasion for me. On that day, three years ago, I received my first acceptance letter, for a short story called “Eleven Seconds.”

I will never forget the moment I received that email. It was a cold December evening, and we were gathered around the fireplace. I remember when I saw the subject line I cried out, and Abbey, who was nine years old, thought something was wrong. Then I hugged her and I hugged my son and I hugged my husband. I would have hugged you too, had you been there.

I’d been writing stories since grade school, but it wasn’t until my thirties that I began seriously submitting my work. Sometime after my son was born I just decided to go for it. I decided my dream of turning the title “aspiring writer” into “published author” was a good dream, and it deserved to happen, and the only way it would happen was if I stopped hiding behind the idea of it and actually put my work out there.

So I did, and I spent years collecting rejection slips. They didn’t bother me as much as you’d think. Simply corresponding with editors made me feel as if I were moving forward. It put me in a different category of writers. There are those who think about submitting their work, and then there are those who submit their work. Only writers from the second category get their work published, and the rejections they collect along the way become a kind of badge of honor.

I’d heard that once a writer breaks through, the acceptance letters start coming in pretty regularly. And that was true for me–within a month I had another one, and more would soon follow.

But there will always be rejections. Nearly everything I’ve had published was rejected first.

For example, “Eleven Seconds” was rejected three times. The Fourth Wall was rejected twenty-two times. Don’t worry too much about how many times you hear “No,” because it only takes one “Yes.”

Don’t give up.

Here’s the text of my little story that could, which originally appeared in SLAB literary magazine in the spring of 2012. Read it, if you like, and then go submit one of yours.

ELEVEN SECONDS

It started in the kitchen. A clinking of porcelain, a delicate, dreadful trembling, cups and saucers and unused dinner plates jumping in the cupboards like those little beans from Mexico. What were those called?

Thunder ripped the ground and the old man jerked up from his chair, instinctively, but the fear passed through him like a bullet. His heart fluttered once. He sat back down.

From his seat in the living room, the old man watched his kitchen heave forward and burst apart. The world could shatter around you; he knew that. Bending forward, he plucked a fragment of china from the ground, like a flower. His wife, Winnifred, had painted this piece, before the cancer took her last year. He could see her clearly, her pale knotted hand curled around the thin brush, looping and twirling like a dancer. The old man pressed his hands together and folded them over the broken china, like a prayer.

Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: publishing, rejections, writing, writing inspiration

Book Sales and Royalty Statements

Posted on October 31, 2014 ·

Image from Flickr by Leo Reynolds

“So, how are sales going?”

I get this question a lot, along with the more direct “How many books have you sold?” I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately, published authors can’t track their sales in real time.

The only indication I have of how day-to-day sales are going is watching my Amazon rankings, and I have no idea what they mean. I don’t think anyone does, really. The ranking is depicted with a line graph which sometimes spikes, which maybe reflects sales, but you can’t tell how many or where the sales came from.

Other than that, I rely on semiannual royalty statements, and even those don’t tell me much. I can see how many ebooks sold in the prior six-month period and how many books were sold via direct sales (purchased through the publisher’s website) because those sales are final. Distributor sales are different, however; those books are returnable.

For example, for my book launch party at Changing Hands Bookstore, the store purchased 70 copies of The Fourth Wall. Fifty people showed up, half of the copies sold, and the host had me sign an additional 12 copies for the shelves. So that’s 47 books; what happens to the other 13? The bookstore can return them within a certain period of time.

So for my July royalty statement, those 70 copies show as distributor sales, but I don’t get paid yet because the sales are subject to return. My January statement will reflect how many books the bookstore returned, and then I’ll get paid for the remaining sales. Make cents? See what I did there? 😉

Yes, Nielsen BookScan tracks retail print sales which Amazon reports, via Amazon Author Central, on a weekly basis. But that’s not an accurate number; not all retailers use Nielsen BookScan. Amazon estimates the number at 75%.

Anyway, I’m still trying to find an appropriate and satisfying answer to “How many books have you sold?” without burdening my well-meaning friends with the above info. I guess a good answer is this: “More than one and less than a million, but who’s counting?”

Authors, how do you respond?

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Amazon rankings, book sales, publishing, royalty statements, The Fourth Wall, writing

Do You See What I See?

Posted on September 26, 2014 ·

Image from Flickr by gradesi

When a writer publishes fiction, she understands that her work will be interpreted differently by different people. In his book On Writing Stephen King says, “Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.”

You shouldn’t try to force your reader to see something exactly the way you imagined it.

Which becomes interesting when publishing creative nonfiction. It can be surreal having readers interpret in a different way something that actually happened.

Last week I had a piece published in Brevity Magazine called “Code Talkers.” True to their name, Brevity only publishes essays of 750 words or less. I love writing this way, taking a moment in time—one scene, one turning point—and trying to tell a story based on that moment.

I love allowing readers to imagine the rest of the story.

What struck me about the comments I received on “Code Talkers” was that, although the essay is written from a child’s point of view, several readers perceived it from an adult’s point of view; some even saw the cop as a sympathetic figure.

This is intriguing since part of the story has to do with misunderstandings and assumptions. To the young girl those misunderstandings and assumptions belong to adults, but to adults the misunderstandings would naturally belong to the young girl.

Anyway, I’m blown away by the response to this piece. Thank you to everyone who commented publicly and privately. And to those of you who kindly asked after my brother, he is doing fine. 🙂 We are as close as ever, and we still sometimes talk in code.

To read the essay, click here.

Have you ever written something and had a reader see it differently than you imagined or remembered it?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: publishing, writing

Are Blog Tours Worth It?

Posted on September 12, 2014 ·

Image from Flickr by manoftaste.de

This summer I embarked on a national month-long book tour, meeting readers from Missouri, Wisconsin, California, Pennsylvania, and several other places. Of course, it was a virtual book tour–or blog tour–so I saved a lot on gas.

Still, blog tours aren’t cheap, and they’re more work than I ever would have guessed. Now that the tour’s over, several authors have asked me: was it worth it?

As with anything related to book promotion, the answer isn’t simple. It depends on how you measure worth. Many authors understandably measure in numbers, something I try to avoid (and wrote about here). But if you’re curious about the numbers, I tallied a few:

Sixteen hosts signed up to participate in the blog tour for The Fourth Wall.
Over 900 people entered giveaways for a copy of the book.
Dozens of potential readers reached out by leaving comments on blog sites, Facebook and Twitter.
Four of my blog hosts reviewed The Fourth Wall and posted their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
One giveaway winner has already read the book and posted her review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Not bad, right? But there were also surprise outcomes, like an on-going friendship with my tour host (I couldn’t imagine a more perfect pairing; Crystal and I had a blast).

And the fact that having to prepare blog posts about the subjects of my novel and answering pages of interview questions helped renew and focus my passion about the novel’s subjects and themes; it also helped me when it came time for an in-person interview with a local reporter.

Finally, an aspiring writer who visited the first tour stop on WOW! Women on Writing clicked over to my website, found the “classes and critiques” page, and sent an inquiry. She ended up purchasing a critique for her extraordinarily personal memoir, and I was touched and honored.

It’s never easy for a writer to share her work—it takes a great deal of bravery to commit those words to paper let alone place them in the hands of a stranger to be judged. This writer and I worked together on smoothing her essay (it didn’t take much; she’s a fantastic storyteller); I helped her craft a cover letter and she submitted her story, promising to keep me informed. That’s an outcome that can’t be measured.

Ah, but what about the biggie, you wonder. What about book sales?

It’s impossible to tally book sales in relation to the blog tour, even if I could track sales in real time, which I cannot. How would I account for the readers who added The Fourth Wall to their TBR list and purchase it months from now? Those who borrowed it on their Kindle and may later tell a friend? Or the guy researching theater terms, next year, who stumbles across one of the blog posts from the tour? There’s no way to know.

What I do know is I met some wonderful people on my blog tour and had meaningful discussions about writing, publishing, inspiration, music, and dreams (especially lucid ones). I feel like I did something to get the word out about my novel. Which feels pretty great.

And I saved a lot on gas.

Click here to visit the tour.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blog tour, book promotion, book tour, marketing, publishing, The Fourth Wall, WOW! Women on Writing

Oh, What a Night

Posted on July 11, 2014 ·

Changing Hands Bookstore did a lovely job hosting the launch party for The Fourth Wall, and my friends and family made the event a HUGE success. Over fifty people showed up; there were goodies, giveaways, and some surprise guests whose appearance threatened to ruin my mascara…but I managed to keep my game face on. 😉

Read on for details, and enjoy the pictures!

My host, Brandi, was setting up when my daughter and I arrived with the cupcakes and lemonade. Brandi had a nice display table (shown above) with copies of the book and a beautiful arrangement of flowers. The flowers, I would learn later, were a gift from my childhood bestie, Megan Russo, who lives in Kansas. For those of you who have read The Fourth Wall, you may recognize her name…

The cupcakes, made by Confection Insanity, turned out perfect. There were four dozen, each topped with a book made of marshmallow fondant. My friend, Shawna, brought donuts and coffee, and her daughter made those pretty little cherry-topped cheesecakes.

Before all the guests arrived, I stole away to the front-of-store display with Abbey. On our way back, we weaved through the aisles and checked out some groovy handbags. And that’s when I spotted some familiar faces passing by in the main aisle. I grabbed Abbey’s arm and said, “Oh my God. Your papa’s here.”

My father, who lives in central California, had texted me about half an hour earlier, wishing me luck at the launch. He and my step-mother, Oma, gave no indication they were coming, and it never crossed my mind that they would–it’s a twelve-hour drive. I stood there stunned, and then noticed they had with them a very tall, very blonde young girl.

That’s my niece, Makayla; I haven’t seen her since she was thirteen. Makayla is now seventeen, but she hasn’t changed much. She’s still sweet and wonderfully silly, and she still LOVES to read. She’s followed my progress on The Fourth Wall since I started writing it, and always cheered me on.

When it was time to step up to the podium, I was a little nervous. But once I started talking, the feeling disappeared. I talked for a bit about what inspired The Fourth Wall, and then I read a few passages from the novel.

After the reading, I just wanted to mingle and thank everyone individually. But my host was urging me toward the signing table where people were lining up, and I didn’t want to keep them waiting. So I asked my dear friend Amy to bring me some goodies and I dashed off to the table where I would stay for the rest of the event. See the nice plate of sweets Amy brought me?

Why, yes, I am going to eat these cupcakes. Yep, the cheesecake too, sorry.

Let’s get a closer look at the sweets.

While I was signing books, Brandi drew names from a jar–three people would be walking away with the handmade prizes my husband crafted for the giveaway. I’d asked Alex to replicate a pair of feather earrings from the book. He did, along with a pendant. The first name Brandi drew belonged to my friend Shawna’s younger daughter. She chose the pendant. I was glad the first prize went to this generous family who’d provided treats for everyone.

This is one of my best friends, Tyler. She didn’t think she could make it to the launch because of her work schedule, but when she showed up just in time I was not surprised. That’s because Tyler’s always there for me; she even became an ordained minister to officiate my wedding in 2009.

And this is Tyler’s dad, Fred. He was the lucky winner of the first pair of earrings.

But wait, will these earrings really look good on Fred? He’s quite a smashing fellow, but can he pull off this look? What do you think?

Um, maybe not. But no worries; before the night was through, Fred’s wife, Kim, had the silver feathers dangling from her ears, and they looked lovely on her.

My daughter, Abigail, had the task of taking pictures throughout the evening. I’d given her my iPhone and told her to get lots of shots. I realized later that she took nearly all of them from this vantage point, as my daughter never leaves my side for long. 😉 But she DID take plenty of shots; so many my phone died. She even took pictures of people taking pictures. That’s my girl.

Okay, back to the giveaway. The third winner was my friend Cristin, and this made me really happy, because she had driven up from Tucson to come to the party. Cristin was all smiles when she collected her prize, and it was the perfect end to the giveaway.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the night. Those seven amazing ladies you see are all part of a workshop I take called Mothers Who Write. Each one of them has supported my writing efforts over the years, and they’ve shared their writing with me. That’s a very personal thing, and it can be a scary thing. But when we get together and share our stories, it always feels safe.

All in all the launch party was a blast. The only leftovers we had were a handful of cupcakes. We gave those to the staff at Changing Hands Bookstore, who were gracious throughout. They even hinted that I come back in January for a very special event…but I’ll keep you posted on that.

Thanks for helping me celebrate!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: book launch party, Changing Hands Bookstore, publishing, The Fourth Wall, writing

Thanks, and an Invitation

Posted on June 20, 2014 ·

Image from Flickr by jenosaur

It’s been a wild few weeks, and it’s about to get even crazier. So I just want to stop for a minute and say THANK YOU to all of you.

I mean it. You guys are amazing. You’ve showed support by visiting this blog, chatting with me on Facebook and even sharing my posts. Some of you have already RSVP’d to the launch party in July, and many of you have bought copies of The Fourth Wall.

My friend Jason in Cheyenne, Wyoming posted a Facebook selfie with the book after it arrived, which was so cool. The girl I shared a locker with in seventh grade was one of the first people to buy the book, read it, and share her thoughts. And last weekend a friend at work brought in her copy, which was the first copy purchased off the shelf from Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe. Yes, I peeked several times throughout the day to see which scene Melissa was on.

Your enthusiasm means a lot to me. So thank you.

In late July, I’ll be going on a blog tour, which means I’ll be visiting about a dozen blogs over the course of a month to talk about The Fourth Wall and participate in interviews and giveaways. I’ll also be showing up on a few other websites to discuss topics in the book, like lucid dreaming. The idea for the blog stops is to introduce the book to new readers and generate excitement.

I’m sensitive to the fact that author promotion can be overwhelming and redundant for friends and family, so I’m going to try and be very careful about how much and how often I share, especially on Facebook.

IF you absolutely don’t want to miss a thing, pop your email address into the subscription box below or to your right, or leave me a comment/let me know privately that you’d like to subscribe to email updates. I generally post to the blog only two or three times per month, and never more than once a week, so your inbox won’t get cluttered on my account. 🙂 And of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.

In the posts, you’ll get all the updates: links to interviews, photos, reviews, upcoming signings and author events, everything and anything related to the launch for The Fourth Wall. And I’ll keep you updated on my other projects too (short stories, essays, new novel) and occasionally host other authors, post my own book reviews, and just talk bookish/writerly stuff.

What do you say? Join me?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blog tour, blogging, book launch, book promotion, lucid dreaming, publishing, The Fourth Wall