Hard to believe that summer is in its waning days (though Indian Summer's burst of sop-sweat humidity still lies ahead). After a road trip to Ocean Springs for the Mississippi Writers Guild and a day trip to Charlottesville for the Virginia Quarterly Review Writers' Conference, I'm staying in place this fall. Doing a little more teaching than usual--continuing on with my University of the Tampa students as well as a class at American University, "Writers in Print and Person." We met with new friends for spectacular spicy food at Doi Moi, and I met with an old friend to celebrate her birthday at 2Amys. I'm overdue for a visit to the Hirshhorn. I'm hoping my dad and I are on hand to root the Nats toward a championship season.
Last night, I gathered with a group of poets at the edge of the reflecting pool for a reading. Pictured above is Barrelhouse editor Dan Brady, our closing reader for the night. As Mark said, the motivation was simple--it's been a tough week. As I've written about elsewhere, there are few things more restorative for one's faith in poetry, or in poets, than these late readings without pomp or premise. I could use a few more.
More readings on the horizon….
(Hosted by Brandon Wetherbee at the Gibson Guitar Center's DC showroom; I'll be performing alongside David Carter, Franqi BC French, Meghan McCarthy Vadala, D'Arcy Neal, Ben O'Brien, and John F. O'Donnell)
Twice in the last few days, someone has asked me "how do you do it?" That suggests a level of competence that I don't deserve--the short answer is that I'm not sure I am doing it, if "it" signifies a flourishing career. Like anyone else, I stutter and fumble in my strategies. I agree to do too many things for free. I get scared the new work isn't as good as the old work. I procrastinate. I spend too much on scotch.
I have certain moments when I'm doing something I know I can do well, for an audience I care about, and I'm immensely grateful. The conference in Mississippi felt that way, three talks in one day, with good conversations in between. Sitting on a panel to discuss memoir with VQR editor W. Ralph Eubanks and Scott Stossel (editor of The Atlantic) felt that way. I believe that when the universe knows you're trying to support yourself through writing, the universe offers more opportunities for you to do so. But I don't spend a lot of time thinking "I'm doing it!" What goes well, I chalk up to luck. And I'm always pretty hard on myself in terms of what could have gone better.
Just wanted to be honest about that.
When you're a full-time writer, you have to balance your attention to the muses and the more practical matters. This week, I was working on my Author's Questionnaire for W. W. Norton, in preparation for next summer's publication of Count the Waves, my third poetry collection. These are onerous documents; what starts out as a 2-3 page list of questions can swell to a dozen pages, single-spaced. But they are incredibly helpful as a way of organizing one's thoughts in preparing for publication. I know so many folks who--after jumping the hoops to editorial acceptance--are ambushed by the additional hoops it takes to sell the book. The Author's Questionnaire is meant to help itemize your contacts, expand your market awareness, and rehearse answers to likely questions.
If you've got a book coming out, you should fill one out. It's okay if some questions draw a blank. It's okay if you're self-publishing, or working with an understaffed indie, and there's no one else to carry this forward on your behalf. The upside about the lag between acceptance and pub is that you have time to become your own best publicist.
Creative writing students are often so savvy in terms of their craft, but completely blindsided in terms of navigating the industry. (This remains a largely verboten topic in MFA programs, much to my frustration.) If you're just taking your first steps toward sending out, with the goal of publishing books down the road, an AQ offers a valuable survey of the elements that add up to defining one's "platform."
If this feels a little crass and reductionist, apologies. I don't argue that this gets at the heart of what we write or why we write it. But no author need apologize for wanting to reach readers--and if the questions below give you a fresh idea of how to do so, so be it.
Without further ado, a glimpse from behind the scenes….
AUTHOR QUESTIONNAIRE
YOUR NAME:
TITLE & SUBTITLE OF YOUR BOOK:
YOUR EDITOR:
About Your Book
1. Describe your book in no more than 250 words.
2. Describe your book in 15-20 words or fewer.
3. What were the circumstances that led to the writing of this book?
4. What books do you view as comparable to yours?
5. Are there any recent or forthcoming books that might be perceived as competitors? Please list them, and note briefly how your book is different.
6. Do you have reasons for recommending a particular publication date (e.g., the anniversary of an event, a time of year that book buyers and/or media would be especially interested in the topic of your book, etc.)?
Personal Information
1. Your primary contact information—phone, email, and mailing address:
2. Your home address:
3. Date and place of birth:
4. Citizenship:
5. Are you married? To whom? Do you have children?
6. What is your chief occupation? Please give your title and a brief description of your job. Mention any other aspects of your career which might be relevant to promoting your book.
7. Do you have any other areas of interest or hobbies that pertain to the subject of your book?
8. List all schools, colleges, universities, etc., attended. Include dates of graduation, degrees, honors, grants, or awards received.
9. List cities and states where you have lived, and give dates of residence.
10. List the names and locations of bookstores where you are known; the bookstores where you buy books.
11. If you have a Web site, please give URL and tell us a little bit about the site. Is there anything else we should know about your online presence that might be helpful to your book?
12. List your other books, mentioning publishers, dates of publication, and sales figures. Were any of these books selected by book clubs? Made into movies? Excerpted in magazines? Awarded prizes?
Special Sales Contacts
Please supply us with names and addresses and, wherever possible, a contact at any or all of the following:
1. Special interest groups, associations, societies, or organizations that might make bulk purchases of your book.
2. Specific industries, firms, or corporations that might find your book useful as a corporate gift, sales aid, or educational tool.
3. Mail-order catalogs and/or online commerce sites that specialize in the subject.
Marketing and Publicity Contacts
1. Please list names and addresses of people whose comments on your book would be influential in promoting sales. Include other authors, commentators, booksellers, and any prominent individuals you think would be interested.
2. Do you intend to give lectures? If you have a lecture agent, please supply contact information.
3. List any specialized magazines, journals, Web sites, or newsletters that focus on the subject of your book or have expressed interest in your work. Include any contact information you have.
4. Are there newspaper or magazine journalists, critics, columnists, or bloggers who write about subjects similar to that of your book or who are familiar with your work? Please list names, publications, and addresses if you have them.
5. List any television shows, radio programs, or podcasts that have expressed interest in having you as a guest, or that focus on the subject area addressed in your book. If you have been interviewed before, give show names and years of appearance. Are recordings of your appearance available?
7. Please list any friends or contacts you have in the print, broadcast, or online media, along with detailed contact information and an explanation of your relationship.
8. What are your hometown newspapers and alumni publications? What are your hometown TV and radio interview shows? Are there any other local publications that will be interested in you and your work?
9. Do you have access to any mailing lists or email lists that could be used to promote your book?
#
I suspect many writers see the heavy emphasis on contacts in the media and freeze up. But you know more people than you realize. Consider all 360 degrees of your life: your identities as a teacher, a community member, a volunteer, a parent, an alumna. Don't fixate on promoting your writing exclusively to other writers. If anything, those other audiences will be more excited at the novelty of you writing a book.
While you're at it, assemble the rest of your publicist's toolkit. Specifically:
-Business cards with phone number, email, website. Consider including the name(s) of your book(s), as well as the cover art (or a key element of it). That's more effective than postcards, which tend to get kindly accepted but ultimately thrown away.
-An author photograph in hi-res (300 dpi), with files saved in both color and grayscale versions, all permissions secured for reproduction online and in print.
-Three narrative versions of your author bio: 50 words, 100 words, and 250 words.
#
I was commiserating with a friend a few weeks back, who also has a book coming out in the coming year. That seems weird to write--but yes, even folks with books coming out have cause to commiserate. There's a difficult lull that comes in the period after you've stopped having control of the text, but before the book has a "face" in the form of a cover and firm pub date. All you can do is show your commitment, question by question, email by email. Assemble your toolkit. Put one foot in front of the other.
In a strange way, these next couple of hometown readings are particularly precious. Because I won't have a book in hand to sell--not yet, not for a while--and there will be no underlying machinery. These readings will just be about the art of what is possible when a writer faces a crowd, and opens her mouth to speak.
-You remember when those two people who now barely acknowledge each other were a literary super-couple. 
-You have a go-to order at the local teahouse, the perfect amount to justify 90 minutes of camping out with a draft of a manuscript. 
