Book Madam & Associates

Sean Cranbury, creator of Books on the Radio (and my vote for the Henry Rollins of social media), and I have collaborated to create The Advent Book Blog. December 1, we'll roll out the blog, an exercise in simple word of mouth. In time for your holiday shopping, it's great books recommended by great people: authors, publishing professionals, bloggers, and booksellers.

The idea is pretty simple. We're looking at it as a Digital Handsell 3.0. Our hope is that readers will take these suggestions and waltz them straight into a store to buy books!

Instead of chocolate, our advent calendar will reveal twenty-five word book suggestions for twenty-five days: the best books of the holiday season brought to you by some of the most dedicated people in the Canadian book trade. There will also be weekend stocking stuffers full of mini-reviews and other bookish goodies to keep us inspired and full of good cheer!

The Advent Book Blog will then become the home of ongoing collaborations between me and Sean. Consider it our drawing board: no fuss, no muss sketches of what can happen when a couple of crazy kids get together and decide to get their hands dirty.

More to come next week!

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On Valentine's Day, 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a violent storm. All eighty-four men aboard died, raising a number of questions around the safety protocols of a rig nicknamed Ocean Danger.

February (House of Anansi Press), Lisa Moore's follow up to her Giller-nominated novel Alligator, is not about the oil rig, or life aboard it. Moore's protagonist, widow Helen O'Mara, tries briefly to imagine the moments before her husband's death, but the story doesn't reside here. The disaster serves as the impetus for a remarkable story of loss and one woman's attempt to find evidence of herself in a present that has yet to reconcile the past.

Moore sets the reader up on the shore, squaring our shoulders against the horizon, while her narrative ebbs and flows, cycling back over territory and time. I collected the expected pieces — the routine act of matching socks, or a long distance phone call from Helen's son to announce his pending fatherhood — as if pocketing skipping pebbles, tossing some back upon finding others that might promise greater distance — Helen's first foray into dating, or her readiness to picture her husband's last moments.

With each chapter, I checked my footing, looking down, surprised to discover my ankles rooted deeper in the sand, a fascination carried over from childhood. For Moore to tell Helen's story, I would give in to this rhythm, allowing the story to be told in its own time. That the reader can trust Moore to keep our heads above water is a subtle gift. That her most attentive reader is, no doubt, her most immediate community, those who lost husbands, brothers, sons, and lovers — impressed me most. It's been twenty-seven years since the Ocean Ranger sank, and February feels like a quiet call to action, that like Helen who lost the most certain thing in her life, those left behind don't have the option to give up, to stop breathing.

Moore agreed to answer a few questions via email, and I began by asking if this sense of rhythm was a conscious construction.

“I think the rhythm in February is intimately linked to the way memory works . . . bits of talk, small scenes, how they flood through, wash over us, wash away.” She continues, “[Helen] is haunted by a need to know what happened out there [on the rig], what happened when her husband died. Was he afraid? Was he alone? She wants to be with him . . . so she can know.”

We cannot live others' stories, but often we're left to tell them. With no survivors aboard the Ocean Ranger, an eye witness account is not the reality that's left behind but rather the individual stories of the people on shore. “[I'm] interested,” Moore expands, “in the ramifications of that kind of tragedy on a community . . . [and] in time as a social construct that stretches and shrinks, that bunches, and draws itself out, and how time behaves over the course of a whole life.”

Moore also captures, achingly, the loss one woman feels for the partner she truly loved, alongside the frustration of a woman who recognizes her capacity to love, and the loss that comes with not expressing that again for another, something she begins to negotiate slowly with varying results.

“I wanted to imagine what love is and how impossible it is to let go of love, even when a lover dies. And what that means exactly — moving on, but not letting go. It means for [Helen] a flood of memory that moves in and out like the ocean — memory that's as present as the present.”

Closing in on the final pages of February, I experienced a desire to hear more stories from that time, and a hope that perhaps Helen's account would encourage more to follow.

“I think we find the rhythms of the stories we tell in our own bodies,” Moore concludes, “the way a heart beats, the way we draw breath, and in the landscape, the way the ocean pounds, how long it takes a kettle to boil, a fog horn, rain hitting a tin roof, a traffic light changing. The durations marked by these things act in concert to make us understand the rhythm of a story.”

Many thanks to Lisa Moore for the chat!

Listen to Lisa in conversation with Shelagh Rogers on CBC's “The Next Chapter.”

Publishers, if you'd like to set up an Author Talk, fire me an email at bookmadam[at]gmail[dot]com.

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MORE THAN EVER, authors are being asked to make themselves available online. But being "available" means something different to everyone. A publisher may have a Facebook page, blog, and/or Twitter feed, but it's likely piloted by one person (or small team),  leaving the publisher-at-large largely removed from the average reader. The publisher can listen and respond to the reader, but is still, more or less, in control of the conversation. The author, however, may tweet that she has, for instance, a cold. Two hours later, at a festival reading, well, isn't there a complete stranger offering a tissue as she fans out the front pages of said author's latest book to be signed. "And, my cat hasn't coughed up any furballs either." Perhaps, I'm referring to myself in some future tense. But, considering that I'm writing a book about vampires, this sort of thing comes to mind each time I tweet under the worst-pseudonym-ever-because-I'm-so-freakin'-happy-to-be-writing-this-book, Rebecca Wilcott, for my upcoming title Truly, Madly, Deadly: The Unofficial True Blood Companion (ECW Press, June 2010). You can also follow Becca on Twitter @BeccaWilcott.

Late last week, I attended BookCamp Vancouver. In Deanna McFadden's astonishingly fresh session “Content Would be King,” one of the things we discussed was author blogging. I piped up about how I'm using the "Becca" blog to attract new readership while I'm writing the book. In my case, I've created an interview series in which the subjects know that some of their answers will be selected to appear in the final book, effectively placing them forever “between the sheets” with their most beloved characters and actors. For a fan book, that's surely to generate WOM. You can follow “Interview with a Sympathizer” for a good case study in how to engage your audience pre-pub, to show them that you value their input, and to create content with relatively little effort, probably the biggest obstacle for authors who fear that blogging will either a) lessen the value of their word, or b) take time away from their "real" writing. (P.S. The "real online reader" likes it when you blog about having a cold and a cat that has, suspiciously, never coughed up a furball. Really. What's up with that?)

So, to answer the question in this blog's title, there is a "Just Right" place for any author who decides to venture into virtual conversations. The key is consistency. You can stay on the shoreline for as long as you want. Just don't go making boogie board buddies then take to the cabana never to be seen again. Know your limits. If setting a schedule works best for you, that's just fine. Your audience will cater their expectations to your needs. If you want to include your personal email (TIP: create an email account just for reader interaction), create an automatic response that tells readers you only respond on this day or that. I know one author who does this, and the first time I received the reply, I immediately understood that it's a privilege to be able to reach out to your favourite authors. It's a simple one-time gesture that asks readers to respect your time and privacy. So easy, so effective, so Just Right.

But, I'm really here to talk about Jennifer Cowan.

Before I left my role as Online Content Manager at House of Anansi/Groundwood Books, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn, author of the YA title earthgirl, recognized by The New York Times as an "Editors' Choice 2009." Friday, October 23, Jennifer will join authors Dani Couture and Lauren Kirshner in conversation with Hal Niedzviecki as part of IFOA's event “The Peep Show." Lots will be discussed, including how authors negotiate this virtual world of Hide and Go Peep.

When Jenn came to Groundwood Books, she was enthusiastic about building an online footprint not only for the book, but for the book's protagonist, an eco-conscious teen named Sabine Solomon. I excused myself from the meeting, signed into WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook, and came back fifteen minutes later to pronounce, “Done!” Of course, that's only the beginning, but so rarely had I encountered an author who appreciated the possibilities for the kinds of conversation building that the online world provides, I got a little excited. Jenn stepped up, and has been blogging for months now in the voice of Sabine, an act that has endeared her to the likes of School Library Journal, among others. She's also maintaining, with incredible consistency, a Twitter feed. And, oh yeah, it's landed her on and off book pages, both reading from, and talking about earthgirl, which just happens to have a sequel in the works. Not bad for a debut author.

Deets:
Read Sabine's blog.
Follow Sabine on Twitter @earth_girl
Buy earthgirl

Enjoy the interview!

Julie Wilson: In your YA novel earthgirl, the protagonist is sixteen-year-old Sabine Solomon. Sabine experiences an epiphany after an encounter with a careless litterer, and takes to blogging as a platform for her eco-evolutional awakening. Those blog posts appear within the book, but you’ve also created a live blog that continues Sabine’s journey off the page. In effect, you've created an online footprint for your character. Had you had any experience with blogging before undertaking this? And what’s it like to blog in the voice of your character?

Jennifer Cowan: The only experience I'd had with blogging was while I was writing the novel. I set up a blog for Sabine on LiveJournal. What I found was the blog itself got in the way of writing the book, so I concentrated on the story instead. I did however discover a few very intelligent, hilarious, and creative teenaged bloggers who made me realize I could really expand my horizons and language with Sabine. I think before that I was writing a little younger than I needed to.

I really love Sabine and her voice.In many ways, she's a far more savvy, empowered version of who I was as a teenager — who I wished I was, I suppose. And the blog is a fun way for me to express my curious, silly, and, at times, outraged and outrageous ideas about the world.

JW: In the name of full transparency, you’re not a sixteen-year-old girl named Sabine, but you do share much of her passion. How do you handle young people who respond to you, especially as a peer?

JC: So far, the young people who have posted to the blog seem to have written directly to Sabine, so I answer them and email them as Sabine. One post was from an eleven-year-old who had an idea of promoting earthgirl on Wal-Mart shopping bags, which I found incredibly endearing. Another young person wrote me, I'm not sure if it was a boy or girl, to say they were bored with their friends away and wanted ideas of things to do. I suggested a garbage scavenger hunt and that he or she photograph the finds and I'd post them on the blog and generate a contest. If people appear to be writing to me as the author, I would likely write back as the author. But, so far, it's Sabine they want to talk to, and I'm absolutely elated and charmed by it. I think it will also be helpful in shaping the sequel, earthgirl 2.0.

JW: You’ve also created a Twitter profile for Sabine. How do your interactions there differ from those on the blog?

JC: The tweets are definitely more representative of me as Sabine. For example, I publicize appearances like the upcoming International Festival of Authors or reviews. That said, when I do post thoughts, or ideas, or laments, they are again the voice of Sabine. Occasionally, they will be precis of what's on the blog, but it's a forum for more disposable ideas, like comments on the Toronto worker's strike, or an alert to PS Kensington. I like the blog to have more timeless postings unless they are related to something big and international like Earth or World Water Day.

JW: I love that alongside her environmental enthusiasm, Sabine also likes to point out who she thinks is crushworthy. Cute guys show up in search terms. Was this a conscious decision to drive traffic to your blog, or something organic to Sabine’s personality? (Or a happy coincidence?)

JC: Since Sabine is a facet of me, it's definitely an expression of my own sensibilities. In some cases, it's just an effort to showcase actors or celebrities I believe have more talent than the ones hyped in mainstream media. In other cases, it's just a matter of discovering something incredible, like urban rider Danny MacAskill who rocks my world and I want to share it. And admittedly it's also an opportunity to promote artists I may have some connection to, like Alan Boyle who is a dear friend, former boyfriend, and astonishingly talented singer/songwriter. So, to answer more succinctly: Yes, yes, yes!

JW: You post some great Sabine mantras on the blog’s sidebar. My fave is "The revolution will not include a gift shop." So much so, that I want it on a T-shirt! Do we want our activists to participate in branding? It’s a Catch-22. What do you think Sabine would want? Revolutionary T-shirts worn by celebrities? More young people blogging? Getting offline altogether? Large corporations creating product bearing revolutionary slogans and donating the funds to a non-profit?

JC: When I sign books, I use that expression, as well as "My body is not a billboard," and "Be more, buy less, live honestly, sleep better." There would be a certain shameful or perhaps shameless irony to getting merch with her slogans. That said, if the shirts were ethically sourced and produced and donated to a cause, it would be valid. And also fun for her readers and fans. At the same time, it would bring the message to a wider audience. The main cross-promotional idea that I had for the book while writing it pertained to music compilations. But in the interim paid downloads became more relevant to my demographic so I think links to artists' sites fills that void.

JW: We create to respond to our surroundings, maybe in an attempt to understand them better, but also to encourage reaction or feedback. You’ve received feedback from young people who share Sabine’s views, and adults who have wanted to show their support. In a sense, your character is in the position to show you, as her creator, a thing or two. How has Sabine impacted the way you look at the world?

JC: Sabine is a portal to my curiosity, optimism, and hopefully generous spirit, while also showing me my weaknesses and suggesting ways I might strive to be a better person. As an adult with a strong obligation toward community and kindness, she has let me widen the scope and show me what I'm currently capable of doing to be better, and make the world better, while also introducing me to ideas that can help me take things further. I hope that she has some of that effect on readers too.

Thanks, Jenn!

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This morning, the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize was announced. Did I let out a Boo-yah! upon seeing how many women were on the list? Hell, yah. Did I shortly thereafter let out a Mother Fudge! upon seeing the Globe and Mail's byline “Giller Prize long list short on the Y chromosone.” Little bit. To be fair, Martin Levin's article is forthcoming. I realize the announcement was intended simply to let the good reader know who was in the running for the richest prize in Canadian publishing. That said, as one of the first of many official words on the matter, I'd rather not wait for the other shoe to drop, even if it's one I'd wear.

Here are a few biased and personal observations to date.

Should we celebrate the presence of women on this year's Giller longlist, while ignoring the lack/absence of men? Yes. Because it's a big whoop dee doo by comparison to years past when lists have been dominated by The Big Y. (Nothing to read into there.) To suggest otherwise would be to say that women only got it right this year. Clearly, we're not saying that. Are we? (Are we?) Of course, we're not. So, at the risk of sounding like a bouncer at a bar after you've had a few too many, I'm not trying to condescend when I suggest that we “Let this one go. Shake it off.”

If the jury has done its job — a tough one, at that — there's nothing lacking or absent. (Taste will always be up for argument, but that's another hamster.)

While I'm thrilled for the presence of so many women on the list, there are just as many women who could/should have been on the list and aren't. And, when I think about each of them, I'm thinking of them by name only. Yet, here's your hypocrisy alert! If I didn't know Lisa Moore's name, I'd likely toss out signifiers, starting with gender, then location, then hair colour, and so on. So, to be clear, I'm not suggesting that to note the gender of an author is a sign of bafoonish behaviour. But, is it relevant?

Of the men on the list, I doubt they're reflecting on the choices, thinking, “Wow, bad day to be a guy.” They're too busy flipping out that they're on the longlist for the frickin' Giller. If not, for the love of dog, somebody call them and tell them they are. But, when you do, please don't ask them what it feels like to be one of only two guys. Because, it's far more likely that while they were waiting for the page to load, they thought, “Good thing Munr—Crap! Atwood! Good night, and good luck!” (No disrespect to the other women on the list; I'm actually pointing to Atwood's clairvoyance, as displayed in Payback, and the fact that she already knows who won. Ba-dum-bum.)

Outside of lists, how a person identifies is really their own business. I, for lack of a better word, identify as female, in part, because I don't identify as male. I identify as queer, because I don't identify as straight. But, if you asked me to what percentage I identify as female or queer, it wouldn't be a bang on 100%. 75-80%, more like. What help is that to the reader? My gender isn't a hook. It's my own beeswax.

And, of ALL the people to classify into one of two generic categories, please, no, not our artists. Shani Mootoo sits down and pens a story written by Shani Mootoo. She doesn't write The Shani Mootoo story. And, while I could see a day in which Margaret Atwood gets to scribbling The World According to Peggy, chances are we won't be turning to one another, yelling over the thunderous applause, “But, I'd like to see a guy take a crack at it.”

You know, it's these bloody awards lists. They make us forget that for the rest of the year, as a community, we're generally invested in finding, publishing, and reporting upon authors who craft subtleties into stories that take us out of our divides, and our little boxes. Fall is the publishing world's holiday season. We're sitting outside the in laws house, car idling, looking at the silhouettes pass in front of the sheer curtains, pretty gifts on our lap, all shiny and foil-wrapped, and in one moment, we remember. “Oh, you know that Aunt So and So is coming. Last year, she double-dipped in the cocktail. And, she had a cold. Turn this thing around.” Inclusion/exclusion instantly makes us forget everything we ever knew, or liked, or admired about each other to focus on irrelevant details, not the things that make us unique, storytellers, the people who kind of, um, use their words carefully.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting at here. Perhaps, that I'm meh that some of our country's greatest authors would be reduced to whether they pee standing or sitting. And, let's face it, after a certain age, we're all pretty much sitting. So, what say, we just enter whichever line is shortest, because while I'm not suggesting that there aren't differences between men and women — far from it — the Giller Prize should be about awarding anything but the obvious.

This is Julie Wilson's first editorial. She'll promptly print it out, and tape it to the fridge.

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To trailer, or not to trailer? I get book trailers; I really do. I want to love them. More often than not, I don't. The effort is admirable. Polite applause aside, is it worth your time and money if the resulting video is counter-intuitive to the real product, your book?

Here's an example of what I consider a successful trailer. How to Sample Wine Without Looking like a Clown from Kathryn Borel on Vimeo.

The author is pitching her book by offering useful tips for wine tasting. This is thematic to her book. So is she. She's in the book, too. That she brings her own brand of quirk to the video gives you insight into what the tone of the book might be. Then there's a sheep on a plate, which gives you an even better idea of what this author could be like off the page. Makes me not only want to read her book, but also look out for her in the media.

Thinking about making a book trailer? Consider some, or all, of these points:

• 1:30 is a perfect length. If you can't make your point in that time, it's not a failure, it's just not the right format.
• If your book is fiction, watch your use of stock images. Do they match the tone of the book's narrative?
• Spend as much time on sound design as you would editing your image.
• Have someone proof your text. Your book went through the same process. Why not your trailer?
• Avoid the "And Then This Happened, and Then This Happened" trailer. Leave the plot synopsis to the jacket.
• Find your own "sheep on a plate." The tasting tips in Kathryn Borel's trailer are the freebie. But you can't take the sheep with you. It can, however, leave you wanting more.

Happy Trails!

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• It isn't what I do, but how I do it.
It isn't what I say, but how I say it,
and how I look when I do it and say it.
— Mae West

COMING 2010

Book Madam & Associates is an author and book promotions service designed to provide a affordable, short-term support to existing publicity and marketing campaigns. Clients include publishers, authors, and booksellers.

Julie Wilson, aka Book Madam, is the past Online Content Manager for House of Anansi Press. She is at work on her first book, to be published by ECW Press in 2010. She is also crafting a collection of microfiction based on her popular literary voyeurism project, SeenReading.com, which came to end in August 2009 after three years, and over six hundred entries.

Switching to the first person.

Here's the deal. I've started to meet with industry professionals to gauge which areas publishers, authors, and booksellers could use the most help in. I'd love to talk with as many of you as possible. Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions, feedback, or an invitation to visit with you.

As idea-centric people, we know that there's no shortage of light bulb moments. And if the hand sell has taught us anything, it's that there are as many ways to communicate one-on-one with our readers as there are words in the books we're selling. The goal of Book Madam is to offer you an extra set of hands so you can run with your ideas, take new chances, and throw caution to the wind without flushing money down the toilet.

There's a limited amount of time to make an impact during a book's publishing season. Publicists are charged with the task of making contact with print, radio, and television gatekeepers to secure as much media as possible for a book and its author. They're also keenly aware that the author can be just as influential in attracting coverage if shown the proper tools. But there are only so many hours in each day. Book Madam & Associates can bring authors up to online speed, offering tutorials on how to create and maintain blogs, Twitter profiles, Facebook pages, and a presence in a host of other online communities, all in an effort to create an online footprint that will exist well beyond pub date.

The Book Madam service package is under development. More to come as I continue to meet with all of you.

How about a little FAQ?

Q: What's an "Associate," and how can I become one?
A: Associates are individuals with a passion for ideas, a particular skill set, and a few hours to spare each month.

Q: Do "Associates" get paid?
A: Yep. The Madam acts as the project manager, collecting a small fee, and you get the rest. (The Madam also is available for events.)

Q: Cool. So, what do you mean by "skill set?"
A: Exceptional knowledge in the following areas: social media, event planning, copy writing, proofing, graphic design, eCommerce, rights & contracts, gadgets, ePub, dachshunds . . . and so on.

Q: Did you say "dachshunds?"
A: Dachshunds, wine, space travel, horticulture, etymology, chocolate, vampires. You name it. A hobby, or serious interest, is a valuable skill set if a publisher or author has a book about a particular topic and could use someone who knows how to reach the corresponding community. You should be paid for that knowledge.

Q: I already work in publishing, but, as you well know, we do it for love, not money. I could use a few extra bucks. Is there a conflict of interest if I work with you?
A: Be up front with your employer. This is not a full time job. And if your area of specialty falls outside your existing job description, there shouldn't be a problem. But, if you'd rather others not know of your participation, you're welcome to create a pseudonym.

Q: I've heard you refer to this service as a book brothel/bordello. What's that about?
A: Let's just say that our clients come to the table with a very clear sense of what their needs are, and our role is to execute and fulfill those needs. Beyond that, clients will be billed by the hour, the night, or the weekend. Anything longer constitutes a commitment. Show us the ring, and we'll talk!

Q: You're based in Toronto. Do I have to be there, too? (As a publisher, author, bookseller, or Associate?)
A: Nope. If business can't be conducted in person, Associates will be available via email, IM, SMS, or Skype.

Q: Do you provide escort services?
A: You'd think that would be a strange question, but, heck, if you have an author coming through town, and no one available to take them to dinner, or accompany them to their reading, we take no issue with a nice night out. (All evenings end with a handshake.)

Q: One more question. This site is pretty plain. Where's the razzle dazzle? The Twitter feed? The advertising? The flashing banner?
A: Every page begins as a blank. We're here to tell your story, not ours. A widget is a beautiful thing — "A what now?" — but our goal is to keep things as simple as possible, to show you how, with very little money, you can create several savvy, successful campaigns that won't sink your bottomline. Posterous also allows you update text, images, and video all from your email, simultaneously disseminating your posts to a variety of other chosen destinations. As this space grows, the Associates will start to contribute weekly posts. But if one of us happens to be somewhere when something pretty great happens, it would be cool to fire off a message with the touch of a few buttons, right then and there.

Q: Just how reasonable do you imagine your fees will be?
A: Picture the cost of one 1/2 page print ad in a national newspaper. Got it? Dial that back to a 1/4 page, and what you have left over should cover a smörgåsbord of social media.

Q: Do you have a newsletter?
A: Shortly.

More to come!

Again, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, or to book an appointment.

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