Karen Sandler

Category: The Writing Life

  • Gol! How I met my goals when I thought I hadn’t set any

    Goal KittenThis week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, where are you on your reading and writing goals? I have blogged before about how I don’t like setting goals and making resolutions. They kind of stress me out and bring up all kinds of fears that I won’t be able to achieve them so why should I set them in the first place? (Imagine me saying that last part really fast and in a high voice).

    Yeah, pretty negative. And what’s kind of silly about this is that I actually do make goals all the time (I never would have finished writing a single book if I hadn’t). I just don’t tend to write my goals down on a piece of paper or keep track of them in a file. I probably should. I bet I’d be far more organized and it would be clearer when I’ve met a goal.

    So, let me look back and come up with my first quarter goals in a retroactive way. First, I wanted to complete the edits on my first mystery novel, Clean Burn, which is coming out in September 2013 from Exhibit A. I had to wait for my editor’s notes, but he’d assured me they would be fairly simple. After I got his notes, I was able to incorporate those changes over the course of two weekends, so I’ve kicked that imaginary soccer ball into the net and the fans are screaming, Gol!

    Second, I wanted to complete by a certain date a rough draft of my current WIP, Revolution, the third and last book of the Tankborn trilogy from Tu Books. I’m being cagey about the specific date, because I like to keep that sort of thing to myself. I’m on target with that. Assuming I meet that goal as I expect to, I’ll have a few days to set the book aside, have some fun without having to think about the story, then get back to Revolution so I can get the rewrite done by the deadline. Haven’t quite reached the goal of finishing the rough draft since the date hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s within reach.

    ARe Sweet Dream LoverThird, I wanted to get going on my marketing and discoverability for my indie published romance novels. I’m meeting that goal with my new author “support group.” After a writer’s conference last October, a team of us had agreed in principle that we would work together to learn more about social networking. Our ultimate goal is to improve reader awareness of our books and therefore improve our sales. We had a fantabulous get-together last weekend (which I blogged about here). We’re still working out the details, of course, but there will be some exciting ventures coming out of our collaboration (new goals!).

    I’ve also wanted to get my website updated, which my hubby has helped me with (okay, he does all the work, but he does ask the occasional question that I have to answer). It’s still got some work to be done (I have to set up sites devoted to my romance and mystery sides), but you can check it out here.

    So I’m doing pretty well on the goal front. I have completed or am close to completing most of what I set out to do this quarter. I’ve got a bunch of new things on my list, but that means I’m moving forward and challenging myself. Isn’t that great?

    So how about you? Are you meeting your goals? Are you happy with how things are turning out?

  • Discover-a-whatilbee?

    Hotel PoolSix authors walk into a hotel room (two of them virtually)…and find themselves in a Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Triberr/Goodreads/Shelfari/Hootsuite madhouse. All in the pursuit of discoverability.

    Back in October, I attended the annual Novelists, Inc conference in White Plains, NY. We all learned about something dubbed an author “lifeboat,” in which a group of authors support and promote one another through social media. Several authors, including myself, decided to form our own support group. Some of these authors I’ve known for years, some I’ve only met recently.

    After much back and forth via e-mail, we coalesced into a group of eight. E-mails and posts via YahooGroups flew through the ether as we got to know each other and each other’s work. In the workshop we’d attended, it was suggested that we schedule a weekend for all of us to get together to share our expertise with each other. We decided on this weekend, and six of us met–four of us physically and two of us virtually (via Skype). The remaining two (who had planned to join us virtually this weekend) couldn’t make it due to (1) illness and (2) family commitments.

    What was it like? Imagine deciding to take three days to earn a doctorate. Or maybe allowing three days to learn all of Bach’s sonatas when you don’t know how to play a piano. Or perhaps the most apt analogy would be to take the entire contents of the Internet and forcibly shove it into your ears in hopes you will actually understand what all that social media is for (cue the glazed, deer-in-the-headlights look).

    And imagine you’re doing all of this in glamorous, luxurious Manteca, CA. Garden spot of the Central Valley. Kind of the official middle of nowhere, and you really don’t want to what Manteca translates into in English.

    Well, not many distractions other than that glorious pool we did not dip so much as a toe into. We didn’t even sniff the chlorine wafting from the hot tub. But to quote what I posted on Facebook, here is what I learned this weekend:

    Lifeboat Dinner 4sWhat Triberr is and how to post there, how to use a list in Twitter to categorize tweets, how to grow my Twitter followers, how to tweet to Twitter and post to Facebook from Pinterest, that I need to include links in my indie-pubbed books to my other books, each platform will need a different file for different links, that reader street teams are pretty cool, that I can blog directly on Goodreads (and post a first chapter for readers to sample), that I can run contests through RaffleCopter.com and best of all, authors may be pretty crazy, but they are the best fun to hang around with.

    Thanks Deb Salonen, Barbara McMahon, Ginger Chambers, Lisa Mondello, and Rogenna Brewer.

  • Stick to One Genre, Or, Ignoring Perfectly Good Writing Advice

    Original Cover-sBack when I was starting out as a novelist and I was flitting around from genre to genre, I was told to pick one and stick to it. I was told I shouldn’t write one book that’s romance, another that’s science fiction, or God forbid, a romance science fiction novel (which, sigh, I did write). I found that advice irritating because I wanted to write all over the place. In fact, I wanted to write not only novels, but also screenplays and the occasional article and short story.

    Eventually I did settle on romance novels, and then narrowed that down even more to category romances. I still wrote the occasional screenplay in between book contracts, but those scripts didn’t go anywhere (the movie business is really, really hard to break into), so I felt I could really only call myself a romance novelist.

    Awakening Final cover-sAfter 17 romance novels, I got kind of burnt out. I decided to try my hand at young adult fiction. Since I’m not one to waste good material, I decided to take one of my screenplays (a sci-fi thriller) and adapt the story into a YA novel. This eventually became the Tankborn trilogy (I got a lot of mileage out of that one script).

    This is all fine and dandy, you’re probably thinking. I wrote in one genre for a while (romance), then switched to another (YA science fiction).

    Well, yes, except…I got the rights back to 7 of my romance novels. And with the brave new world of indie publishing, I started re-releasing my romances as e-books, under the pen name, Kayla Russo.

    This all worked fairly well. My sexy romances were published as Kayla Russo books, and the YA as Karen Sandler books. There was a squidge of confusion there, what with my Harlequin books still published under Karen Sandler. But since I’m letting Harlequin do the work of promoting those, I didn’t worry my pretty little writer head about it.

    Then I sold Clean Burn to Exhibit A Books. Clean Burn is not a romance and not a YA SF. It’s an adult mystery. It’s–ack!–a third genre. So how was I supposed to market three genres worth of books?

    ARe Sweet Dream LoverFirst, I dropped the pen name. That’s the miracle of indie publishing for you. I had my cover artist revamp the covers with Karen Sandler as author, touched up the files and re-published them. I created another Twitter identity, @karensandler, for the adult stuff and continued using @karensandlerYA for my YA stuff. I am now in the process of splitting out my website (which currently only promotes my YA books) into three choices–YA, Romance, Mystery.

    So, do I regret ignoring the “Stick to One Genre” advice? No. I really wanted to write all the books I’ve written, genre be damned. I do wish it wasn’t so hard to keep all those balls (books?) in the air at one time. I wish every reader loved reading all three genres I’m published in (side note: I recently found out it’s okay to end a sentence with a preposition).

    So, what about you? If you’re a writer, are you doing the genre-flit like me? If you’re a reader, to you love reading a multitude of genres? If you do, thank you from the bottom of my genre-confused heart. You are my kind of reader.

  • A Valentine to Fans

    Chocolate heartThis week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday celebrates Valentine’s Day by asking, What do you love most about writing?

    At first, I was going to blather on about how I love being a writer because I can work in my PJ’s (not that I ever do…ahem), I can live out my fantasies by creating stories, and it’s so cool to see my name on a book.

    But I’ll tell you what the number one best thing is about being an author–hearing from fans. Getting an e-mail or an an actual written-on-paper letter from someone who has read one of my books and just loved it. Having someone take the time to write me and tell me my stories really meant something to them is guaranteed to put a big smile on my face. I’m often floating for hours after reading a fan letter.

    I do like those other things I mentioned. But hearing from a fan really beats all of them, hands down.

    How about you? What do you love about writing or reading books?

  • Mrs. Sandler Goes to Washington

    After a short weekend visit to NYC to attend the winter conference of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, I took the train down to DC to visit family. Since I’m under deadline on REVOLUTION, the third book of the Tankborn trilogy, I’ve had to spend time every day working. But I decided to set aside a day to go to the Capitol and check out the Senate and House.

    I dropped by the Hart Building office of one of my two senators and picked up passes for the two chambers. Then I hiked over to the Capitol building a couple of blocks away. Police had the usual entrances blocked off. Apparently Vice President Biden was on his way, and the Capitol was in temporary lockdown. Luckily, a lady I’d struck up a conversation with knew another way in, and she escorted me and a visiting friend inside.

    Another even better stroke of luck happened shortly after I reached the Senate chamber. The members present were pretty sparse–many empty chairs. One of the senators was speaking passionately about the Violence Against Women Act–it’s up for renewal. It doesn’t seem like one of those things that requires a lot of discussion (uh, pass it already), but I guess that’s how Congress works.

    Then the magic happened. It turned out I had timed my arrival perfectly (although in total ignorance). In walked several senators who I immediately recognized–Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Al Franken, Patrick Leahy, Elizabeth Warren, and John Kerry. The young woman sitting beside me (who works for a senator) pointed out Mo Cowan. Then Joe Biden arrived in the Senate chamber.

    Vice President Biden called Mo Cowan forward and swore him in as the new senator from Massachusetts. Historic enough–the new Senator Cowan is one of only two black senators currently serving, and yes, two is a record number. But then we all started applauding (we in the gallery took our cue from the floor). Then even more incredibly, everyone on the floor and then in the gallery rose. A standing ovation for Senator Mo Cowan.

    I found out later that applause, let alone a standing ovation, is Just Not Done on the Senate floor/gallery. I was so thrilled to be part of that historic occasion, and it was just by lucky timing. I’d intended to leave for downtown an hour earlier. Instead I spent an hour working and left later. If I’d kept to my original plan, I would have missed Senator Cowan’s swearing in.

    There were more adventures–after my Senate visit, I was escorted via the underground walkways and shuttle to the Senate dining room (again, sheer chance–I happened to talk to the right person). I had a very yummy lunch there (I had no idea you could make mashed cauliflower taste just like mashed potatoes) followed by the incredible Senate Bread Pudding topped with vanilla sauce. My senator walked right past me (didn’t quite have the nerve to say hello). And I had quite an interesting time getting back to the Capitol via the  above ground route to get the jackets I’d checked in the coat room.

    History, democracy, and bread pudding. What a heady mix.