Advice from literary agent Lucas Hunt

I was lucky to be able to interview the bright and creatively minded Lucas Hunt - literary agent at Orchard Literary in NYC. Most of the BookHive BuzzBlog from here on out will be interview based in order to serve writers and readers best! Here is what he had to say. 

1. Tell us who you are and where you're from.

My name is Lucas Hunt, and I am from Iowa, by way of The Hamptons.

Lucas Hunt of Orchard Literary

2. What is your professional background and how did you end up with Orchard Literary?

My professional background is in arts and literature. In college and graduate school, I worked at independent bookstores, and assisted various artists and writers. For the last eight years, I’ve worked as a literary agent and rights manager to represent the interests of authors.

3. What clients are Orchard Literary looking for?

Orchard Literary is looking for exceptional fiction and non-fiction. In fiction, we like strong literary voices with purpose, and a fine awareness of things great and small. Some writers I love are DH Lawrence, Simon Van Boy, Georges Simenon, and Michel Houellebecq. In non-fiction, we seek memoirs, essays, and book proposals by experts in their field; people who can prove their authority of a subject on the page, and have done some work in establishing their reputations as authors. I am especially fond of travel writing, cultural criticism and biography. We currently represent authors in the fields of health and wellness, business, cooking and interior design.

4. I'm sure it varies, but how many clients would you typically take in a year, and how does this compare to the number of submissions you receive?

I will take approximately ten clients per year, out of a sea of one thousand submissions.

5. How do you meet new clients, or how do they find you?

We look for outstanding writers online and in papers, magazines, journals, and literary reviews. Also we love referrals, and an immaculate submission via a query letter.

6. Walk us through a great query letter, and a not-so-great query letter.

Great query letter: Hello my name is and this is why I’m writing you. My project is basically about this. A paragraph about my project. A paragraph about me, and what I have done an author. There’s a sample attached. Thank you, goodbye!

Not so great: Dear Ms. Hunt I have seven books and plan twelve more under the name Maximilian Jonathan Franco because my first marriage turned disastrous and since my time as a spy in the CIA, which led alien counter mafia terrorist forces in the future, I cannot tell you anymore about it, but I will be famous I’m sure, and I must address other agents now, so attached are seven documents for you to review asap!

7. For the self-published author, what sales are you hoping to see from their previous book(s) in order to spark your interest? Or do you not take this into account?

Significant sales would be a plus, but what we are looking for is measurable growth beyond the numbers. And that means an author with a strong vision of how they want to be published, who their audience is, and what they are willing to do to contribute to the fulfillment of that vision. Sales are a qualitative indicator of engagement with people, and we like to work with authors who are committed.

8. What other ways can an author stand apart and get noticed?

Writing well is the best revenge. Other than that, they can take the time to invest in their work just as an agent would, by making submissions in online and print, magazines and literary journals. Your work is your gift to the world, begin the responsibility of sharing it with the world now.

9. In what state do you expect to see a manuscript? It might seem obvious, but spell it out.

New York, unless I’m traveling, then in California, Texas, or possibly Florida. In a polished, well-edited state.

10. How many editors will you typically submit to on the first round?

Ten editors.

11. If you get back a unanimous 'no' - what do yourself and the author do then?

We have a conversation about the possibility of making certain edits, and whether or not to make further submissions, based on the criticism we have received. We assess the comments, and make a decision of how to move forward.

12. What is the range of advances these days?

I have worked on deals from zero figure up to 8 figures. How many reader’s does an author bring to the table?

13. Once a manuscript is sold, how involved are you in the process through publication?

At Orchard Literary, we are very involved. We put out a press release, and up our social media presence on the authors behalf. We communicate with the editor, publicist and author to ensure the project moves ahead with real momentum. And we discuss what will come next with our author.

14. Any last advice to authors on how to break into traditional publishing?

Be true to your work. Be your own agent until you really need one. Be untraditional and unconventional.

That's it for this month! And for all the authors out there - take advantage of BookHive's $100 coupon off our services for the rest of the summer. Coupon code BUZZ. Find out more about how we test Fiction, YA/Middle Grade & Memoir with our awesome beta reader data base at our site: www.bookhivecorp.com

Jennifer Bowen, QueenBee, CEO & Founder, of BookHive Corp., thanks you for reading this blog and sharing it if you found it helpful on those good old social media platforms that you visit. Any questions about testing your book or bigger life ponderings, she can be reached at jbowen@bookhivecorp.com

Book Advertising - the 411

I met some fine folks from AdBiblio at the San Francisco Writers Conference this year. I'm as much in a place to learn as my fellow Authors and Readers, so sat down with Mary Beth Grossman from AdBiblio which does Book advertising online. Find out what I learned about the choices an Author has when promoting their book in this interview!

Jennifer Bowen: What's your background Mary? How did you find yourself at Blog Ads/AdBiblio?

Mary Beth Grossman: I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA (Go Steelers!) but moved down to North Carolina to study communications at Elon University. I’ve always been an avid reader with a strong interest in the book industry, so I was beyond thrilled when I landed a position at Blogads in Durham, NC. It’s wonderful to be working directly with publishers and authors to connect books with readers.

JB: How did the division AdBiblio get started?

MBG: AdBiblio grows out of Blogads.com, which started in 2002. We helped advertisers get onto specific blogs, and publishers loved the specificity of some of those blogs -- vampires or knitting or cute animals. But there came a point where clients would come to us with unique books, and we just did not have blogs that fit those books particular niche. We needed to find a way to target the readers themselves whether the blog existed or not, wherever they were on the web. And so, we began to use third party data and our own data to target users by demographics, traits, genre preferences and location across the web. The technology allows us to target specific readers on thousands of sites, including sites like People, CNN and The New York Times.  Rather than buying an ad on just one of those sites and only really connecting with 1 in 10,000 readers who are interested in the niche, we ignore the 9,999 and follow that one reader wherever they are on the web.

We also believe that different products need different ad types, so we’ve spent a lot of time creating book-specific ads.  For example, we’ve got a unit that lets someone sample a chapter from a book. We’ve got another unit that’s specifically designed for book events. We’ve created ads that let readers see different panels of a picture book. And we’ve got units that let an author easily push out a video trailer. We can even let an author display three or four versions of a first chapter and see which gets the best reactions from potential readers in a specific target audience, say women in their 40s who have a history of buying romance novels.

JB: At what point would an Author use your services?

MBG: AdBiblio works best when an author understands that success only comes with planning and persistence.

We all know that the media landscape is crazily competitive, and getting more so every day. We’ve essentially bred a monster that exists to eat people’s time. Media companies -- ranging from Disney to HBO to Buzzfeed to Electronic Arts to the NFL to Netflix -- are pumping out really entertaining content to compete for people's’ time and attention. And people themselves are competing too, pumping out stories and photos on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, and begging for each to be liked or clicked or forwarded. The whole ecosystem is shaped by organisms evolving constantly to compete for every available second of every day. On top of this, self-publishing technology and e-books mean there are now 1 million books a year competing for people’s time. Again, take it all together and you’ve got a monster that just consumes every spare second of peoples’ lives.

So, an author can either treat her book as a lottery ticket -- praying that it will be the one in 10 million that gets discovered and celebrated without any work. Or an author can be proactive and go to war with the monster. Do a book tour, even if its just 3 local book shops. Cultivate relationships with key bloggers. Get review copies into the hands of key people. Tweet. Go to conferences. Tell friends and neighbors. And then do it all again. To tie all this together, advertising is a great way to hammer home your book’s presence, to remind readers of your book. All this, taken together, says to readers -- I take you seriously, you need to take me seriously.

Think of it this way. If someone just knocked on your front door once and said “I’ve got a really interesting story -- pay me $10 and I’ll take 6 hours of your time to tell you the story,” would you accept the offer? Heck no.  But maybe if you heard about this story from friends, and the person came back once a week for two months… maybe then you’d be a lot more likely to say “heck, here’s $10. Go ahead, tell me that story!”

Mary Beth Grossman

Sales Account Manager

AdBiblio

JB: How do you track how well an ad is doing? How does this information make its way to the Author?

MBG: We’re behind the scenes every day checking on each ad that is running. At the end of the campaign, an author receives a custom report detailing total interactions (includes clicks and hovers), the types of people who interacted with the ads and where the ad ran. She’ll also receive screenshots of their ads on top sites, which can help show book shop owners or potential partners that you’re serious.

JB: What kind of budget range do you work with?

MBG: It completely varies on the client, but our campaigns begin at $500. This starting price point allows us to give the client the best experience, from a uniquely designed ad, niche targeting on top sites and day-to-day optimization for the best performance.

JB: Do you create the ad completely? I'm curious what the process is like when creating the ad for each specific Author.

MBG: We do! We have a blast creating ads for authors to use in our campaigns and anywhere else they choose. Depending on the type of ad, an author or publisher will send us chapter text, book cover or images and any blurbs or reviews. Ads can link to any landing page they would like, such as their Amazon page or author page. Of course, we send mock-ups for approval before it goes live.

JB: Any great success stories of Author(s) using your services?

We ran an event ad for a Lev Grossman event at Fly Leaf Bookstore in Chapel Hill. Audience attendance increased by 25%!

To find out more, visit their website: http://www.adbiblio.com

www.book-hive.com

Marketing 'yer book!

I met Beth Kallman Werner when we both spoke on the Marketing 101 panel at the Self-Publishing Book Expo this past November in New York City. The Founder and President of Author Connections, Beth has been a professional editor and marketer for 20 years. She has worked on book marketing and special media projects with Random House, Penguin, Hachette, MacMillan, Chronicle, Scholastic, FSG, Wiley, and many others. She has also counseled countless indie authors on how to successfully bring new titles to market.

In a nut shell, she seemed like a smart cookie to me, as well as the kind of editor a writer would feel comfortable with. In this interview, Beth covers what it takes to get your book out there, and how to do it successfully.

Jennifer Bowen: Hi Beth! Can you tell me about Author Connections and how it got started?

Beth Kallman Werner: After 20 years editing and multimedia marketing in various industries, in 2008 I became Director of Marketing and Sales for Kirkus, and learned first-hand about the needs and marketing challenges of authors and publishers. Author Connections is a company I started in 2010 to serve those needs with training, guidance, platform development, custom promotion roadmaps, and soup to nuts professional editing.

JB: At the panel at the Self-Publishing Expo, you discussed the four 'P's' as the key points of Marketing oneself. Can you elaborate?

BKW: Product: What is the hook, key benefit or distinguishing advantage to your book?

Position: Who is the target audience and how will you best place this book in front of them?

Price: What is the sweet spot for each edition and selling point to provide best value and maintain healthiest possible margins?

Promotion: What are your goals? (short term and long term, professional and personal, financial vs. creative, etc.) Based on goals, preferences, resources, experience, capabilities, and many realistic factors, build a platform with layers to achieve objectives and support the title or author brand successfully. Layers may include a wide variety of communication and media options.

JB: What are the common pitfalls you see new authors make?

BKW: Not planning in advance. Not scheduling a budget and flexible, realistic timeline. Not paying attention to editing and proofreading and overall product quality, professional cover design, formatting and production. It takes many skills and standards to produce an excellent book and bring it to market. If authors do not take their books seriously, do not expect readers to.

JB: When should someone get started when they think they want to self-publish in terms of tackling a marketing strategy? And what steps should they take?

BKW: Start planning a rough marketing strategy as you write. Be true to your vision, but consider who you are writing for. How will your book stand out in its genre? What makes it different? Worthy of people's precious time and money? These can be hard questions, but important to consider and answer. Set up social media pages and broad timeline 10-12 months ahead of launch. Get busy on social media at least 6 months prior to launch. Publish with an audience already anticipating the book.

JB: On your website you mention the ways to increase book sales, can you elaborate on that?

BKW: A platform is the structure of layers on which you stand to promote your book and author brand. This may include a variety of communication/engagement methods particular to each title, author, readership - possibly including but not limited to: print advertising, online advertising, blogging, SEO, social media, events and appearances, readings and signings, direct mail, reviews, trailers, podcasts, widgets, PR, giveaways, book clubs, etc.

JB: Thanks Beth! I sure learned a lot myself.

To find out more information on Author Connections and how they can help, visit their website: www.authorconnections.com

www.book-hive.com

Book Fair Vendor Virgin: True Story

BookHive is still in a soft launch phase as a company. We just 'opened the gates' (or half way - sort of - you get it) last June.  In the last year we've tested ten books and each process has taught me a little something about what we do (and how to do it better), what writers want to accomplish, and how helpful the Test Reader feedback truly is. As a writer myself, I have a tendency to look at all life experiences in terms of metaphor. So as I lay down to sleep one night this week, I thought of my experience at the Boston Book Fair in terms of the writing process, as well as the Test Reader experience.

                                                             Our cool signage! #word

What is she talking about?? Good question. These are vague flashes of experience, but here it is, what I feel today. Life is both exhilarating (i.e.: wonderful, beautiful, surprising) and also terrifying (i.e.: disappointing, bewildering, knocks-you-in-the-teeth sometimes.) Thus is writing, thus is reading.

Now you're like, WHAT IS SHE TALKING ABOUT?

 

Right before I heard Susan Minot speak as the Fiction Key Note Speaker. #ThirtyGirls

I've never been a vendor at something like a fancy shmancy Book Fair before. As a perfectionist (recovering...) I like things to go smoothly. But it's impossible to know what's to come when you've never done something before. I looked at the other tables and thought maybe we lacked a little table flair (nothing vertical! everything is flat on the table! oh no!) Also when launching something new like what BookHive is doing, it takes convincing, explaining, and there's that gnawing worry - will I do a good enough job? do I have what it takes? do I seem smart, warm, friendly, not too pushy, compelling?

This unknown reminds me of when a reader picks up a book - what will they find? will it be any good? what journey are they going to go on? At BookHive we look for open minded readers who will take a brand new book and ride it through to the other side. They may sign up and find the book is not what they thought it would be. Or, they may be blown away about how drawn into the story they were from the first ten pages. Over time, our Test Readers will hopefully understand that they are reading books that are in different developmental stages, that they may be reading a first draft or the tenth draft, but that they too are jumping into the unknown. 

The same is true for the writer too when they sit down to start a new project. At one of the panel discussions at the Boston Book Fair that I attended featuring Middle Grade fantasy writers, there was a variety of points of view on outlining before writing. About half of the writers loved it, insisted on it, while the other half found their story while writing it. Even with an outline, the unknown and mystery is great when starting a new project. Some writers can never get beyond an outline since the fear is too great - will what they write be any good? will it make sense? should they stop now before the ship crashes into the rocks and splits into a million pieces?

As the day progressed, the beauty and the hope started to trickle in. I saw it in the eyes of some of the Test Readers I met at the booth who seemed super psyched to work with us. I saw it in the acknowledgement of some of the writers that I met that they could use an unbiased, outside eye on their work. And even little old me starting to get my bearings! By the end of the day I had my three line pitch down of what BookHive offers. I felt grateful, too, at some of the questions I fielded from potential Test Readers and Authors. When not pushed to grow, we become stagnant. Jumping into the unknown can be terrifying, but when you come out from the other side, having read the best book of your life, or getting that draft finally where it needs to be, it can be oh-so-wonderful too.

Plus, we had candy at the booth. That helps bolster courage and joy all around.

 

#CandyAlways Helps

 

 

BookHive offers focus group research for Authors with actual Test Readers.

For more information, check out our website: www.book-hive.com

 

And a special thanks to the Boston Book Fair for making me a Vendor Virgin no more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book PR: The Real Deal

I had the pleasure of interviewing my friend, former writers group pal, recently moved to Portland from NYC, Meg Cassidy, who's currently a Publicity Manager at Simon & Schuster. Maybe most of you are smart smarts when it comes to how PR works with one's novel and know the deal-ee-o, but not me. So I spoke to Meg to enlighten myself, and now all of you, on what happens with your novel from a PR angle.

Meg and Jen (QueenBee)

Here's the interview!

Jennifer Bowen: Hello Meg Cassidy! Might be interesting to start with what you studied in college, your first jobs, and how you got to PR.

Meg Cassidy: I studied creative writing in college. My mom was a teacher. And, writing always came very easily to me. But I didn't know much beyond I liked writing and I liked books, so I thought, maybe I'll work in a bookstore one day. I also did what a lot of people do and started thinking about teaching. And I did Teach for America, but then after two years, wanted to try something new. So I started applying for internships and got a good one in New York at a literary agency.

JB: And what was the literary agency you were at?

MC: I was at LJK which is no longer in operation. It was Larry Kirshbaum who then became a publisher at Amazon, and he's now an agent again. I was just there for one summer.

JB: And then?

MC: I went on some interviews and one of the first was for a publicist position, and really had no idea what publicity entailed. I got hired full time at Random House Publicity. I was there for two and a half years.

JB: After your time at Random House, what did you do?

MC: I had a job briefly in a small firm that did educational PR, but missed the book industry, so then was hired as a Senior Publicist at Simon & Schuster for the past three years. And then I moved up to Publicity Manager.

Where Meg works! #Fancy

JB: Going back, what was your job title and what did you do at Random House?

MC: I started as a publicity assistant which most people do. I supported two Senior Publicists and was really psyched because I was working for these two women in their late 20's and they were really cool, great to work for. They were working on a good mix of Fiction and Non-Fiction. And they were both starting to get Authors who had bigger tours. I did all their mailings, stuffed a lot of envelopes.

JB: And by mailings, what do you mean?

MC: It's called review copy mailings. And you start by sending galleys, which is a paper back version of a book that is going to come out in hard cover. It's either called a galley or an ARC, which is 'advanced reader copy.' About four to six months before the publication date, you do a big reviewer mailing. You send to producers, book review editors, magazine writers. It's not the same list for every book. Like, say it's a debut novel, you're going to send to a very different list.

JB: What do you hope to get from sending the galley and letter from the editor?

MC: You hope to get coverage in publications and bookings for TV and Radio interviews. Once the letters/galleys go out, you follow up, and do different rounds of follow ups. Some are considered Long Lead media, like magazines work on a really long media time line. Right now it's September, but they're planning their January issue, or even into next Spring. And similar to like how the fashion world previews a season ahead, the book industry is constantly looking a season ahead to what is coming out, what they should be reading now, so they can put in their pages accordingly.

JB: Do you ever hear back from reviewers that they are going to put out a bad review?

MC: Sometimes I would have to beg people more for a no then a yes. They don't really tell you no when they're not interested. But even when they assign a review, it's great for the publicist because you can say to the author and the editor - hey, you're going to have a review in the Boston Globe. But that's all they'll ever tell you. They won't tell you who's reviewing it. They won't tell you what the content of the review's going to be. They might tell you a date. And most people know, all these dates should coincide with the book's publication date. You want a really big pop at the launch week, or launch month. But then you can go after features and profiles, and there the author is a little more involved as it's an interview for them. There you have a little more control over the content.

JB: So the features/profiles are obviously when they interview the author and talk about the book, but don't critique the book.

MC: Yeah. And for the most part, those are favorable.

JB: I don't know if this happens, but if all of a sudden the galley that you're sending out to your usual list, if you're not getting any response, like no one is going to review it, does that give you a sense that they don't believe in the book? Or are their other factors why that might happen?

MC: That's a good question. So, I worked on a lot of debut fiction books, and it is really quiet for awhile. You basically have to go back and plead your case for people to take a look. You have to knock on a lot of doors, and if magazines won't review it, you have to go the online route, like to some junior level people at People.com, and see if people will give it a shot. I think that all the novels I've worked on should have been published and have merit, but there's so many books out there and so few people on the media end who have the time and the job title to review.

JB: What do you do when you're up against a lot of silence from the media with a new title?

MC: You have to go through alternate channels. Like have the authors write original pieces of their own that you can place, and PR books have a lot of columns that are constantly looking for content. So if the book itself isn't seeming to break through on its own merits, then you can kind of put the author to work, almost.

JB: When you say writing original pieces, can you give me an example, and on what platform?

MC: Websites like Slate or The Millions or Time.com, even, has a lot of think pieces. Then you can circle back to mainstream book people with those pieces that are running and ask them to reconsider a review or a feature about the book itself.

JB: I've often heard from new authors the fear that even if their book gets picked up, there isn't a big enough 'PR machine' to break them through, that they'll have to do a lot themselves. Have you heard this too?

MC: I've heard it. But most PR places have long lists of contacts and if the book is strong, it will break through.

JB: Are there different PR budgets for certain books?

MC: That's more on the marketing side, for advertising. That gets allocated in the publisher's office, and it's often a second push after publicity. I never think, oh, I won't go after the New York Times since we'll advertise there.

JB: So are marketing dollars allocated once a book is doing well (solid reviews, etc.) - so then they'll do a push to place print, TV, radio, etc. ads?

MC: Yeah, it's considered a second wave.  But I'm just focused on the book, constantly talking about it, and why you'd want to read it. I think the author needs to see the publisher and publicist as on the same team, wanting the same thing.

JB: I spoke to an agent recently who said it was essential for her clients to have platforms in place, the blog, a website, social media, etc. - before she'd send out to a publisher. To have a fan base, a dialogue already going. Do you find that to be important?

MC: It is very helpful. Even their own community of writers talking up their book can be a vocal, powerful network. That being said, I've worked with writers that don't have a publication they regularly write for, or don't use Facebook for their writing career, and that can be fine too. We usually tell our authors to focus on one outlet of communication that's authentic to them. But if you're used to just writing on paper, plug into your community, don't back peddle and fake an online presence.

JB: Like don't do an inorganic Twitter Feed if it's not your thing? Gross.

MC: (laughs) Right.

JB: (laughs) Nothing worse than that.

MC: Haven't seen that work yet. We've tried. (laughs)

JB: Can you talk about a book tour and what that entails?

MC: That was one of my favorite parts of the job. With the author involved, you identify which markets they already have a good presence in and what might be good areas for them to develop new audiences. You can plan in-conversation events, with either the publicist's connections or the authors, where they get interviewed. One of the cool things is that these events are usually free or a really low charge. Also, if a book takes off, it's less of you having to schedule the events, and them reaching out to you. And then even paying to bring them out to events.

JB: I had a question about that too, for debut authors, do the expenses to get themselves to various cities, do those costs fall on them?

MC: Not necessarily. A budget will get set by the publisher. If there's a reason to send the author to a market they don't already live in, like the book is set somewhere, or grew up somewhere, and there's a great media presence there that connects to the book, then the publicist will make the case to increase the budget and add a stop on the tour.

JB: How is it decided whether a book will be published in hard cover or go straight to paperback? Or some books just get a digital print, right?

MC: That's pretty much decided on the editor agent level. And yes, there are entire imprints now that are e-book only, so the author will know when their books gets acquired. But I think a lot of people still will buy the right kind of debut books on the hard cover level, like Simon & Schuster just published a debut, the one I sent you, the Matthew Thomas 'We Are Not Ourselves', and it's doing really well.

What the QueenBee is reading next (when she finishes The Goldfinch #Only200PagesToGo!!)

JB: To sum up, what's the last piece of advice you would give to an author with a debut book.

MC: I think they should just be really excited to have a partner in their publicist that they can work with. And I would think of it as a relationship that they are working together on getting this book out there. And also trusting their publicist's guidance and bringing ideas to the table and bringing their own network and connections, and seeing how their publicist can help amplify that.

JB: A good attitude goes a long way too, right?

MC: Right. It's an exciting time.

...

 

BookHive offers online focus group research for manuscripts in target markets.

For more info, please visit our website: www.book-hive.com

 

Amazing, Weird & Hard. Writing - and letting it go.

Writing is amazing. And weird. And hard. Maybe in that order and then scrambled again. Well, take it back. It's amazing at first when you get an idea. Or for me it is. I always think whatever I've written is my last piece, truly. But then it happens again. I'm usually sparked by some external experience -- watching someone else's play or film or listening to a piece of music. My personal inspirations rush in, a place, a theme, a character flaw, and I start writing.

It's such a cozy time during the early writing days. You're spending a lot of quality time together like a brand new relationship. Often as I'm falling asleep, the latest scene will replay in my head, the back and forth, what was felt, what wasn't, what was said, what wasn't. Some writers get major editor brain from the get-go. Not me. I just write and don't care and accept it's imperfect.

But the amazing time always ends, because you need to get feedback. That's the weird part which messily slides into the hard part quickly. It's like bringing your kid to the first day of school. You think she looks great (new dress! hair in two braids! what a smile!) But it's possible that her fellow classmates may see her differently (buck teeth! cross eyed stare! bad breath!)

Translation? You get feedback that the first 10 pages of your novel doesn't hook readers and that character of yours (INSERT NAME HERE) lacks a clear journey.

Hard.

But necessary.

Case in point. See the picture below of me when I'm twelve? I'm sure my mother, the Author of me, would say I was cute, but, well, you get it. It can all be subjective.

It's this hard part that scares a lot of the first time Authors I've spoken to via BookHive. Who wants to go in front of the firing squad? The flat computer screen and yourself on the couch, that intimate tête-à-tête, is such an easier place to live. I get it.

We do our best at BookHive to protect our Authors. We do this by carefully vetting our Test Readers. We've all been on blogs or Facebook when a psycho outlier goes for the jugular. If I ever see that kind of feedback from a Test Reader, which is unnecessarily snarky and cruel, we never use them again. Everything is tailored for the Author. From the way we order the questions, to who we pick to test their novel, BookHive does its best to give the Author the most potentially positive and useful outcome.

That all said, it's still scary for the writer. I recently had a play workshopped in New York and I found myself really distancing myself, emotionally and physically, from the rehearsals. Not all playwrights work this way. But the play had been mine for so long. I had to take a step back. It's the only way I had a chance in hell to 'see it' at all in the performances.

Getting feedback is a total act of letting go.  I meditate on not having huge expectations and not looking for every Test Reader to validate my work. This is all easier said then done. But when I tested my own YA novel through BookHive, some of the critiques stung, but a lot of it gave me the direction to make the work better. There were also a lot of thumbs up, so I knew what to keep. I'd rather face my fear of someone thinking I'm not oh-so-brilliant than keeping my work safe and for an audience of only one (me).

I'd admire all writers who take the leap to get better. Writing is weird. And amazing. And hard. In that order, scrambled, and all at once, too.

If you'd like to test your novel during our soft launch through BookHive for $100 (normally $499), please visit our website: www.book-hive.com

Too 'Yold' for Young Adult? A new business is born.

What does a 34 year-old-woman do after she's written a Young Adult novel? She has doubts.

That was the state I found myself in. I'm what we'd call 'yold.' That's young and old, people. Young enough that I can still remember being seventeen as not some foreign state. But old enough that I worried my novel wouldn't resonate with an audience half my age.

When I was thirteen I fell in love with David Lynch's TV show Twin Peaks. My novel is inspired by Lynch's dissection of small town weirdos, dead prom queens, and his realistic take on the supernatural. With the support of a writers group in New York City, I wrote in my typical mad-woman style, and churned out a wobbly, thriving, first draft at the end of the year.

But...what then?

My writers group consisted of people like myself in their 30's and 40's. But I kept wondering - what would a seventeen-year-old girl think?

The only solution for me was to ask some teenagers directly. The first time I tried this it didn't go so well. I was trying to chase down teenage nieces/daughters/friends of friends, and a lot of them weren't all that interested in reading. But even with the little feedback I got, I knew I needed to make some serious edits. The main one being all the adults who read my manuscript chose the 'right' guy out of the love triangle, but all the teenagers chose the 'other' one.  That was a reality check. #yold

So I wrote and rewrote. A lot. And then I tested it a second time with teenagers a year later.

By this point, I figured out how to attract serious test readers, and by the end of it, I had a 25+ page report full of feedback from teenagers all across the US on what did and didn't work in my manuscript. It tested much better the second go around. They answered big picture questions, from relating and loving my main character June, to reassuring me that my ending--since it's a mystery novel--struck that balance between satisfying and piquing curiosity. They also offered such unique specifics, such as my 'texting' seemed realistic and my teenage sarcastic dialogue was believable. 

The whole process was so wildly helpful, the first time with editing my manuscript, the second time as a marketing tool to prove the viability of the manuscript. As I turned to the oh-so-daunting task of trying to get published, I realized I had a powerful secret weapon with my positive test results. I'd done the field work. I knew my manuscript was grabbing teens. Wouldn't this get an agent's attention?

 

And with that, I turned an idea--doing online testing for novelists--into a company: BookHive Focus Group Services. And here we are!  One day, when my manuscript gets bought (as I hope it will) I'll be thrilled to work with an editor. That editor, I'm sure, will not be seventeen. So it's nice that I've had twelve real-life age appropriate consumers provide me with a backbone of knowledge that I can trust. This is what I want to provide to other novelists: a method of gauging whether their manuscript is solid and ready for public consumption.

 

 

These were some of the initial design inspirations for the company. Bees! Books! #BookHive

 

I think we write in order to feel something and to make others feel something, to transcend the everyday into moments of beauty, humor, and revelations, to tell stories, to learn, to have some ever-evolving creative footprint. And you know what? To put yourself out there--writing or otherwise--can be scary. But my hope is that BookHive can help other writers to clarify their voice and find their audience, leaving 'yold' fears and otherwise in the dust.   





To become a Test Reader or to sign up your manuscript to be tested for our

$100 Launch Price, visit us at www.book-hive.com

 

Jennifer would like to thank Brock Hotaling at Opstreams for creating the BookHive website, Jeri Stunkard via Crowdspring for all the design elements, her brilliant mentor Elisabeth Morten, her NYC Writers Group, her incredibly supportive parents Pamela and Hugh Bowen, and her husband Garrett Neergaard who always believes in her.