Business on Tuesday: AUTHOR SHAMING EXPERIMENT RESULTS

On November 4th, I proposed a week-long experiment here on my blog. I also emailed a group of my author friends about what I was proposing and asked that they tweet about it to help spread the word.

Here are the results:

• My AMAZON ranking moved up from the dark, depressing 4 millions to the 137,000s. At last check it had wended its way back down to the 900,000ks.
• On the GOODREADS YA BOOKS of 2014 list, I traveled up from 137 up to a peak of 109 and is now at 110. There was a small uptick in additions to peoples' "to read" lists and a few other nods. On the GR February 2014 list, TSoLG remained solidly at #69. No additional votes.
• Not enough blog comments to do a giveaway.
• The needle did move but the absolute numbers (additional GR votes, additional pre-orders or whatever changes your Amazon score?!) were small.

IN SUM:
The aforementioned needle is very sensitive to even the slightest motion. Therefore, aside from the top and bottom outliers, these rankings are pretty insignificant.

QUESTION:
Were the results worth the time, effort and imposition on friends' goodwill the required? Not really (but thanks everybody!). In fact, the more the needle moved, the more I realized its insignificance for a midlist writer such as myself.

TAKEAWAY:
If your stats really bother you, you can probably just as easily move your Goodreads/Amazon stats by getting people like your mother-in-law to pre-order your book and your neighbors to click on your Goodreads links.  Or, see if somebody like Dr. Who can morph you into Cassandra Clare.  Either way ;)

Still running this, though...

GOODREADS ARC GIVEAWAY FUN!  Ready...set...click!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sound of Letting Go

by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Giveaway ends December 01, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY: A signed, annotated arc of THE SOUND OF LETTING GO

Goodreads arc giveaway fun. Ready...set...click!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sound of Letting Go

by Stasia Ward Kehoe

Giveaway ends December 01, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The Act of Poetry

Hope you've joined the Amazon/Goodreads Author Shaming Experiment of Fun already but, if not, you can CHECK IT OUT HERE.

I am thrilled to be writing today's post in support of VERSENOVELS.COM hosted by the inimitable Gabrielle.

I wrote standard, prose-form manuscripts (never published) for years before meeting Ellen Hopkins at a conference and never turning back. Just hours after taking attending her break-out session, I began a self-directed crash course in "Great Works in Verse." I read Karen Hesse and Sonya Sones, Sharon Creech and Jaqueline Woodson, and on and on.

One of the things I struggled with then (and still do) is the WHY of choosing the verse format. Is verse akin to, say, Impressionism in painting--a choice of form? Or does verse require some greater argument? Haven't we all heard editors or agents say things like "to acquire a novel in verse, it has to be very clear to me that the novel HAS to be written in this style"?

Another struggle has been the tension between VERSE and linear PLOT. I feel like there are times when something akin to split-line prose--less imagistic, more pragmatic--is required to guide the reader and protagonist toward some critical plot moment. As a poet, can I give myself permission to let this type of writing in to serve the STORY?

I have found some answers in prose novels that deal with the act of creating poetry, or break the mold of form in a way that I find instructive to poets.  Here are four for your consideration:

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson - a grieving teen finds understanding and solace through releasing poetry into the world.

ADIOS, NIRVANA by Conrad Wesselhoeft - a gifted young poet and musician struggles to find his voice after the death of his twin brother.

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak - a musing on death and reading featuring chapter titles that are word lists and imagistic, poetic structuring of all kinds.

JUMPED IN by Patrick Flores-Scott - a novel about two slacker-loners who become unlikely friends as they try to write kick-ass verse for the class poetry slam.

As a verse novelist, I find these books instructive and inspiring. They lead me to conclude that verse novels and prose novels do not exist separately but as the ends of a beautiful spectrum of forms through which writers deliver story.

Trying to Photograph Seagulls

Last month, while visiting my son at college in Massachusetts, we went to a footballgame. We sat on the bleachers, watching his school team get crushed by the visitors, eating kettle corn and smelling the crisp fall air. I looked up and a saw a flock of seagulls swooping hungrily above the field.  I pointed my camera upward.

All I could capture were the clouds. But, I promise you, the seagulls were there. They were beautiful. And now, what's left for me, is to try to use words to paint the picture my camera could not grasp. Like emotions, like the passage of time, like the sensation of a kiss. Writing is like trying to photograph seagulls. Even if all you wind up with is a bright, blue sky, the effort is entirely worth it.

What's your "seagull photograph" experience?

 

If you want to play along and give my upcoming novel a lift, click HERE.