The Story That Got Away

by Shannon Baker

I had this really great idea for a book. I mean, scorching hot. My daughter and I had occasion to hang out at Denver International Airport and we were struck by some bizarre and disturbing murals. My daughter happened on a website that went into detail explaining a conspiracy theory involving a One World Order group and bunkers below the airport to house the world’s elite in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

I was off and running. Following Internet rabbit holes revealed how extra-terrestrials or aliens from the center of the earth had various plans for DIA. The runways created a Swastika, the murals and other public art warned of biologic warfare. I gathered it all up, plotting, planning, creating a story that wound Hopi legend and belief in Sky People with DIA and stuff worthy of Trilateral Commission mythology.

I stuck Nora (the protagonist of the Nora Abbott Series) in the middle and plopped it all in Moab, UT amid polygamists and environmentalists. I’m telling you people, this was an amazing plot.

According to my editor, it was too amazing.

But, but, but…

She didn’t think it was a great idea to use theories that could easily be debunked with a minimum of real research and wondered if I might be opening myself up for lawsuits by claiming certain far-fetched stories as truth.

I’d written the whole book with the premise of Evil lurking at DIA as the central event. The entire plot was formulated from the seed planted the day we wandered around the airport. I began to examine the book with fresh eyes. If you didn’t know the starting point was the bizarre and unsettling DIA weirdness, how would you see the plot? What would be the most important elements?

There’s Nora, our protagonist and what she’s gone through in the previous two books to bring her to this point. She’s the executive director of an environmental non-profit. There’s her best friend, the woman who is producing a documentary film to advocate for expanding the borders of Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah. Nora’s mother, Abigail always wants to butt in and the books all deal with Hopi tribal history and legends.

When I boiled it all down, I discovered the DIA element was the least important in telling the story I had in mind. I pulled it out without disrupting an already crowded story line.

Other writers understand the way stories develop and morph from first idea to published book. I find it’s good to stay flexible, able to bend the original idea. If you’re like me and get stuck with a questionable premise, it’s great to unfold it and smooth out the crinkles to fold again.

The non-writers in my life are driven to drink (yes, they’d probably drink anyway) by this nutso process. I discuss plots with my favorite guy over cocktails in the hot tub. He’s often more vested in the original idea than I am and gets frustrated when I say casually, “Not anymore. I changed that.”

Eventually the books get made, messy process notwithstanding. What about you, what’s the best idea that you never wrote?

BTW- Tattered Legacy (without the DIA plotline) is available March 8th.

Celebrate Good Times

by Shannon Baker

It’s January. The whew of the holidays. I love the whole holiday season with the planning and partying, over-eating and drinking. I spend almost a month of putting off real work while I make time for fun. Then comes January with a sense of relief and bursting energy to get back to the productive life.

My January began with a gasp at 3 A.M. I have a book launching in two months! How did it swing around so quickly when it seemed like it would never get here? I scurried to my computer and pulled up the very organized marketing plan I wrote out in October. I only have a plan because I’d just returned from a conference and a friend shamed me into getting that done.

I’m on track, more or less. I didn’t attend to the December tasks as I should have but I’m not too far behind. Here’s my confession (not that you’ve asked but it’s good for my soul): I did practically nothing for last year’s book launch. Chances are I was at a low ebb in my real life (lower than I’d admitted to myself) but I allowed the negativity to rule.

What that means is that I listened too intently to those who said, “Blog tours are a waste of time.” “You don’t sell enough books at a signing to make it worth your while.” “Don’t send postcards or bookmarks to bookstores; they only throw them away.” Basically, the message I internalized was that nothing works, so don’t bother.

While all of that might be true, there is more to consider. I felt defeated before the book even slid off the presses. The Why Bother germ infested my attitude. I probably sent a vibe out to the Universe that said, “You really shouldn’t read this book. There are so many others out there that are better. You won’t like this.”

I didn’t celebrate that book and whether it made any difference in sales, it made gigantic impact on me. I felt like the Eeyore of authors.

I’m not going to let that happen this time. It doesn’t matter if my efforts don’t show up in sales. I’m going to blog bounce and set up book signings. Hit up a few book clubs, send out scores of press releases. I’m going to stick to my plan. Because I believe.

I believe that putting positive energy into this venture will yield results. I’m already feeling good about the launch, proud about the new book and ready to show it to the world. It’s a good story and I liked it when I told it to myself so why shouldn’t other people like it, too?  

The real reason I’m putting an effort into the launch is for myself. I want to celebrate the accomplishment. Somewhere along the last year, my perspective changed. I’m not marketing as a Sisyphusian chore that I’m supposed to do, toiling in the gray gloom of uselessness. I’m having a party and I get to tell people about something I find interesting.

So guys, guess what? I’ve got a book coming out in two months! It’s going to be great!

What are you celebrating?

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow...

by Shannon Baker

I had a colonoscopy this week.

The only remarkable thing about it was how totally unremarkable it was. Sure, I got a little hungry. And I had a kind of queasy hour or so before I got into the flow, but in the grand scheme of things, it was much less painful than sitting through August in Osage County.

And yet, if you swept all the annoyance at being harassed by my health care providers, the dread of having to do it, the effort of putting it off, the bone-deep belief that the test would reveal nothing but the cutest colon, and the nagging of caring friends, you’d see a pile of negativeness far larger and lumpier than the mild inconvenience of the actual procedure.

Which brings me to marketing. As it would.

Much like my conviction that the colonoscopy would be torture, I’ve convinced myself that marketing is the Devil. It takes time. That’s time I could be writing. It’s mysterious and often times ineffective. Yet, everyone agrees you have to do something.

No one knows what magic cocktail of direct mail, personal appearances, blog tours, paid advertising, and giveaways will net that intoxicating high of sales. Unless, of course, you crack the BookBub code and then you can retire on royalties.

I’ve handled marketing in about the same dysfunctional manner as going in for the colonoscopy. I’ve denied the need to do it. I’ve avoided it at all costs. I’ve skirted around it and touched on it half-heartedly, sort of like going in for yearly checkups but not making the total commitment.

I made lists of books stores to contact or reviewers to query. And put off calling because *whine* cold calling is scary. So instead of doing, I procrastinated and worried, then I climbed on the I Suck Train for not doing what I should have done.

Well, kids, this is where I get off. A few months ago a friend, Master Marketer Julie Kazimer, convinced me I need to do it. Much like the impending retirement of my patron (husband) nudged me into getting the colonoscopy while it was still covered by insurance, I realized the time has come for me to jump into the marketing fray.

So I did. I started making lists and then forcing myself to make the calls and write the emails and follow up.  Here’s what I discovered:

Just as the unremarkableness of the colonoscopy, setting up book signings and arranging a blog tour is not that big of a deal. Sure, it takes some time. But it’s not like someone is bludgeoning me with a fence post.  There is surprisingly little physical pain involved in phone calls and emails.

 

Book signing that didn’t hurt. With William Kent Krueger and Sean Dolittle

I’ve even forced myself to teach a few workshops and do some public speaking. And there was absolutely no prescription pain medication involved. Although I might or might not have self-medicated after the fact, in a purely congratulatory fashion.

As Granddad used to say, (sure, someone else made it famous but Granddad did say it a lot so I’m going with possession being 9/10ths and all that)  “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”  

It might sell a book or two and it keeps you off that Crazy Train.