No matter where you are in your writing career there’s pressure. First you have pressure to complete the book. Pressure to sell it. Pressure to market it. Pressure to do well. Pressure to follow up with another winner. Pressure to make that sell and market, etc. If you get rejected there’s pressure to follow up with something else – what to write, where to send it – it goes on and on. Agents, editors, covers, marketing, should you do conferences, should you rush out to write something when you see a call, do you want to branch out, what happens if you take some time off, will readers forget about you – blah blah blah

Carina Press announced its opening this week. This directly from their website:

Carina Press is a new digital-only publisher that combines editorial and marketing expertise with the freedom of digital publishing. With a long history of digital marketing and editorial experience, the Carina Press team is committed to bringing readers fresh voices and new, unique editorial.

So of course people, writers, have been discussing the pros and cons all over the place. Sharing thoughts and concerns. Loops and boards can be pretty helpful this way, though they can also be peppered with things I personally get annoyed about – the willfully blind, the chip on the shoulder, the spurned ex whatever.

One thing I saw a few people bring up, the thing that bugged me most was the suggestion that authors should just you know, “look for whatever crap they got rejected on with other epublishers and send that in”

Authors should always strive to submit their best work. You’re really going to knock on the door of a new line at the largest romance publisher with crap that got rejected from poodlebutt press? Don’t you think you’re selling yourself short? Don’t you think you’re selling the publisher you’re submitting to short?

We all have books that have been rejected for reasons other than quality. Marketing looked at it and was like, “what the heck are we supposed to do with this?” for instance. Now, see, THAT might be a manuscript to take a chance on subbing because it’s not that hamster, cow, pig menage shifter no one wanted – in fact the example I gave is precisely why digital publishing is attractive to me. They can take chances because the structure of a digital press is such that they can take chances on things traditional publishing may not be able to.

Not every book an author writes will be the very best book they ever wrote. It’s not possible and all of us have our favorites (mine are never the books that sell the best, either, LOL). But I can’t express how sad it makes me to see people just phoning it in, or worse, encouraging others to just find stuff no one wants to toss it at an editor.

Remember – editors are gatekeepers to publishing for goodness sake! Do you want editor A to think you’re only capable of that half assed piece of crap you sent because someone on a loop urged you to? Do you want industry professionals, even those you don’t write for, to see you as a competent and professional person or one who digs out that questionable manuscript and lobs it at them just because?

If you’re going to do this – for god’s sake do it right. Put your best foot forward each and every time. That’s the point.

If it’s not the point, what the hell are you doing?

Today is the release day for Ava Gray’s Skin Game! I must tell you all, this is a must read book, probably my favorite of Ann’s so far (Ann Aguirre writing as Ava Gray). I absolutely adore this hero, she knows this because I’ve gushed about it, but Reyes and Kyra are great together, the story is tightly plotted, quick moving and totally engrossing. You’ll need to set aside some uninterrupted time because once you start reading, you won’t be able to put the book down.

Blurb: A beautiful fugitive—wanted dead or alive.
Kyra is a con woman and a particular kind of thief. She steals with a touch, but she only takes one thing: her target’s strongest skill. Which means she can be a fighter, an athlete, a musician, an artist—anything she wants… for a limited time. Heartbroken, she turns her gift toward avenging her father’s murder; with deadly patience, Kyra works her way into casino owner Gerard Serrano’s inner circle. After pulling off the ultimate con, she flees with his money and his pride.

A hit man who never misses the mark.
Reyes has nothing but his work. Pity for Kyra, he’s the best and mercy never sways him once he takes a job. He’s been hired to find out where Kyra hid the cash—and bring her back to face Serrano’s “justice.” Dead will do, if he can’t locate the loot. He’s never failed to complete a contract, but Kyra tempts him with her fierce heat and her outlaw heart. So Reyes has a hell of a choice: forsake his word or kill the woman he might love.

(If you're reading this at Facebook - you can see the entire post at: http://www.laurendane.com/blog)

Sometimes as a writer, it’s easy to be negative. It’s easy to let the tide of bad news, of rejection, of endless wait times to hear back on projects you or your agent has pitched – all that stuff, get to you. There are days when I read a review that can make me totally miserable, even when I get two really good ones the same day. There are times I wonder why the heck I’ve chosen a path that involves so much exposure to criticism, LOL. It can get you down, no matter how positive a person you are – everyone has a limit to what they can take.

I’ve noticed, over the years, that some can shake it after allowing for a brief wallow, while others wear negativity and bitterness like a scarf or piece of jewelry.

I’m not pollyanna, I promise. This business gets me down too. Earlier this year I was incredibly unhappy and frustrated with the pace of progress with my writing. It’s easy to let that affect your writing, your pace, your schedule.

At the same time, it’s like the flu – when you wear your bitterness like skin, you infect everyone you touch. Bitterness and negativity do not solve anything. They don’t make things better, in fact, they make them worse not only for you, but for everyone around you.

For instance, on a loop I used to enjoy quite a bit, there’s now a group of authors who simply hate everything. One hates agents, one hates ebooks, one hates the biz in general. So when any negative spin on any subject come up, they’re on it, responding to it one by one until the entire loop drips with negativity. It’s turned a pretty interesting discussion loop into a loop I avoid because I can’t take hearing Author A complain bitterly about agents one more second. I don’t want to infect my day when Author B starts to complain that digital publishing is the reason for piracy. I don’t want a snootfull of toxic, nasty complaints every damned time I turn the computer on.

In the end, if you hate agents, don’t have one. But please don’t assume your perspective is the only one. Also, please don’t assume that spilling the poisonous hate you feel for agents all over everyone else actually *solves* anything. It does not. In the end, if you hate digital publishing, good luck on that – it’s unavoidable, even for NY these days, but you know, if you feel that strongly, I do wish you and your agent luck on keeping it out of your contract. If you hate Facebook, stay off it. If you hate Twitter, stay off it. If you hate blogs, don’t have one, etc.

Bitterness and Negativity are absolutely useless – in an active sense. It travels from your mouth or keyboard to everyone in your vicinity until it totally turns a group toxic and that’s fucked up and selfish. Deal with your shit, but don’t fling it all over the rest of us.

Negativity will not make you a better writer. It won’t make you more friends. It won’t help your career. There is nothing positive about it (pun intended). Shake it off. Make that choice to reject it. Have your wallow and move on. Because if you were so happy with your choices, as you tell everyone every three posts, with your choice not to do XYZ, you don’t have to repeat it in such a negative way. Over and over.

Holy crapdoodle – this is my new cover! It’s for Insatiable, which will be out in July of 2010. I may have swallowed my tongue (you may have to try a diff browser if you get the red x)

One witch, one cat shifter. Add one wolf. Blend. Safety glasses recommended.

Renee Parcell loves her life. Her smoothie/coffee cart business is successful, and she’s deeply in love with her boyfriend, Galen. He makes her laugh, he’s gainfully employed, and he satisfies her as only a sexy cat shifter can. He even puts the toilet seat down.

Yet they both sense something in the air. An anticipation that leaves them both unsettled.

Tall, blond and gorgeous Jack Meyers, Enforcer of National Pack and one of the most beautiful men Renee and Galen have ever seen, stumbles into Renee’s life and the riddle of their expectation is solved—Renee is Jack’s mate. What surprises them all is when the three of them touch, magick creates an unexpected triple bond of witch, cat and wolf.

Even as they learn to navigate the steamy intricacies of their bond, a threat looms over Renee. First in the form of resurrected memories, then in the shape of darker magicks someone is aiming at her. Set on stealing her inherent powers—even her life.

Renee can stand to lose almost anything, except her mates. But there seems to be no talking them out of laying everything on the line for her…

Catch it at My Bookstore And More and Books On Board as well as other digital publishing outlets like the Sony store and soon, Amazon’s Kindle store.

Yesterday, Nick from Bookswim was kind enough to interview me. He’s posted it if you care to read…
 

The announcement part: A few years back, totally frustrated by yahoo and the constant outages, I moved the group from yahoo to a messageboard system. I love the messageboard, but the truth is, people forget about it, forget to visit, or where it is, etc. A yahoogroup is easier to manage because the messages come directly to everyone, etc.

SO…I’ve decided to bring this back to a regular discussion loop the way it was before. Starting today.

Clicky to visit!

Please everyone, come on back over and thank you in advance for your patience in getting this all situated again! It's already hopping, so please do come by.

I’m not doing Snippet Saturday today, but many others are – check em out!

Michelle Pillow
Mandy Roth
Anya Bast
Lacey Savage
Jaci Burton
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
TJ Michaels
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Jody Wallace
Ashley Ladd
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro

First, I’ve put the first chapter of No Reservations up at my website!

I’ve also put up a page for INSATIABLE with the blurb. Cover coming soon…

Some of you have been following the saga of a has been F list former child star and his bizarre persecution complex/attack on a romance author who dared to ignore his tweets. Jane at Dear Author has coined the term chachbag. You should too. In fact, you should read these posts and participate

(this is one I wrote about a year ago and I think it’s good to repeat)

Yesterday while writing, IMing and surfing the intarwebs I saw an interesting post over at the FFF community about author blogs and advice on what we should and shouldn’t blog about. The original post was that an agent advised a client not to blog about getting rejected because of course, industry folks do blog surf and you don’t want to come off like, well someone who gets rejected. And in that comment stream, Jackie Kessler asked what the question, “what is the purpose of a blog?” which I think is an important question.

This is long and totally my opinion…

I tend to agree that authors should think about what they say on their blogs. In fact, I wish it happened more often than it does. An irrefutable truth – there are different standards applied to “public figures” of any kind. Yes, I would be held to a different response if I said the same things a reader blogger said. And to that I respond, “so what?” Because that is the reality and you can accept it and deal with it appropriately or you can be a twat and think you’re doing something important by shaking your fist at reality and saying whatever pops into your head without a thought for the consequences.

There are things you just don’t do. And I know that agitates people. I know people wish we could just be totally open about whatever agitates us, whatever strife we’re dealing with behind the scenes, etc. There are times when I wish that were so as well. But the fact is, this is a business for authors. Your name, how you act in public – these things are part of the whole package.

So, IMO, I do blog about rejection. Because guess what? EVERYONE gets rejected. This business is about perseverance and the ability to bounce back. It is. So when newbie authors read this blog I want them to know I get knocked around too. You don’t sell once and then bingo you sell everything you pitch forevermore. I mean, I’m sure some authors are just that fabulous and lucky, but most of us get rejected from time to time for a whole host of reasons.

The issue is – HOW you blog about the negatives in this business, not necessarily if you blog about them at all. So I’d never get up on this blog and bitch about a certain house or a certain editor or whine and piss and moan about how New York isn’t ready for me or I’m too edgy for New York or whatever. In my opinion, that’s simply unprofessional. Period. Even if an editor at a certain house said I ate kittens in puff pastry and wrote the worst drek ever – although dude, I think I’d have to laugh and at least joke about it with my friends because that would be a horribly awesome rejection. Anyway, I’m digressing (SHOCK!).

Writing about the writer’s life is part and parcel of why I blog. I started blogging before I sold my first book but over time, I’ve had to really think about how I speak, what I say and who I say it to. I’m a writer, this blog will be about my life, which includes writing. I don’t want to jam my books down your throats every three minutes, I don’t want to only be happy, I don’t want to whore myself. I’m a person so for me, when I think about what a blog is about, I think this blog is about my life. Sometimes I’m going to talk about my kids or my husband or the broken headlight I got at the grocery store. Other times I talk about editing or revising, sales and yep, rejections.

A blog should give readers/visitors a feel for who the blogger is so I think authors should think about that carefully. By that, I mean, think about how your content reflects upon you and what people take away about you from that. Is that how you want to be perceived?

Several months ago I read a blog entry where the author had been rejected by a certain house (one I write for actually, just to disclose that bias) and she spent quite a bit of time really dogging the house and the editor who rejected her. Another author replied in the comments several things I personally knew were untrue but the real issue is that to me, it ended up looking like sour grapes. Because when I read that I think, “EVERYONE gets rejected! Do you think you’re too special to be rejected? Are your words so sacred that any editor who reads then will be ensorceled by them and if not, they’re out to get you for some reason?” It gave me a very negative perspective on both the authors because it was vulgar. Now, I’m sure that author who’d been rejected was hurting. Rejection sucks. But there are appropriate ways to vent and it’s not on your blog naming names.

Also, filters and boundaries are important. There are things you’d say to your child’s teacher and things you’d say to your best friend – right? All kinds of things occur to me and yes, at times here I’m random and stream of consciousness but believe it or not, I am acutely aware of what’s appropriate. Occasionally, I’ll see author and sometimes industry blogs where completely inappropriate things are discussed and the owners of those blogs always seem so surprised when they get heat. If a professional uses her industry blog to bash another competitor I’m going to walk away with a negative feeling – AND SO WILL READERS. If an author uses her blog to whine about a review in great detail, I’m going to shake my head. Bad reviews are another thing that happens to EVERYONE. Suck it up and move on. Vent to your buddy on IM, eat some Ben and Jerry’s and don’t blog about it.

You can be goofy but still stay professional wrt this business. You can post pics of your dog’s new sweater or your new horse or the Halloween costume you made for your kid but I really find discussions of the size of your partner’s wedding tackle to be outside the scope of a professional writing blog. Again, just me. I write sex, but I think we can talk about it unashamedly and openly without crossing the line into TMI. I don’t want to hear about fungal infections either. Nor do I want to see bigoted stuff.

Whew! Okay so that’s totally long winded and 100% opinion. My point is – it’s all in the execution. There’s a time and a place for things. Sharing ups and downs of a writer’s life is interesting – I don’t only want to see sunshine and rainbows, some days you really just feel like laying on the couch and eating fried foods while watching Rock of Love. Shrug. We can be human, we are human, but like anyone else in any other professional situation, it’s how we choose to address things that makes all the difference.

This morning via twitter, Dear Author’s Jane posted a link to a SLOG piece in The Seattle Weekly about this mindbogglingly horrible blog entry accusing girls and gays of ruining pretty much everything, but specifically science fiction with their evil, awful girl cooties (and gay cooties – lesbians are probably just beyond fucked in this situation as they have extra of both)

Mr Never touched a girl in real life starts out thusly:

Science fiction is a very male form of fiction. Considerably more men than women are interested in reading and watching science fiction. This is no surprise. Science fiction traditionally is about men doing things, inventing new technologies, exploring new worlds, making new scientific discoveries, terraforming planets, etc. Many men working in the fields of science, engineering, and technology have cited science fiction (such as the original Star Trek) for inspiring them when they were boys to establish careers in these fields.

What this paragraph lacks, says my girly brain, is complexity. Now, as a girl who is interested in science fiction, reading it, watching it and writing it – I’d say yes, more men than women seek out sci fi as a genre. Not because “it’s about men inventing” things. But because until recently, the vision of women via sci fi is often the ridiculously woman hating objectification like the Gor novels or, more simple and not as threatening, an overwhelmingly male way of writing and viewing things.

I hate to break it to mr. spearhead and all – but women have been inventing things since the dawn of time too. Men don’t have the exclusive right to invention, technology or exploration. Nor do men have the exclusive right to enjoy books or movies that involve exploration, invention or technology because only people with penises can possibly understand them.

In this pathetic, hand wringing, whiny rant about girls and cooties – mr spearhead brings up the new Battlestar Galactica as an example of the vulvanization of science fiction. Because Starbuck is a girl! OHNOES!

Certainly, flying around with no purpose with a robot dog, a cardboard villian with no actual motivation and discos in the sky is way better at dealing with human relations and exploration than dark, character driven story lines dealing with the epic fail of humanity to get along with the machines they’ve created! BSG the present has better writing, more three dimensional characters and it’s far darker and more interesting than a cigar chomping dude who a bunch of dudes living in mom’s basement (or the carriage house at grandma’s) can live through.

Not because Starbuck is a woman. But because this Gaius Balthar is one of the most deliciously twisted, f’ed up characters ever on television. Sure, he doesn’t lord around dressed in Egyptian 70’s gear and metaphorically twist his mustache, but he’s three dimensional. Because this Adama and his son have a far more realistic, twisted, messed up but loving relationship than Lorne Greene did as Adama. The first BSG was shallow and silly, entertaining yes, but Dukes of Hazard in space. That didn’t much inspire space exploration.

This story is not less authentic science fiction at all. This story is pretty darned close to how Asimov wrote about human/machine relations in his robot books. And you can’t get much more authentic, old school science fiction than Asimov. If you want to talk old school canon – why not Herbert? Frank Herbert’s Dune universe is one of the best written. And it’s about all the complications of human interpersonal relations, power, love, hate, religion – and yes, human/machine relations. Much like the Matrix, by the way (filled with violence, tech, anti-tech, sex and angst – building blocks of science fiction)

Mr spearhead goes on:

As we know science fiction has inspired boys to pursue careers in science, engineering, and technology as men. With women killing science fiction on television, the current generation of boys won’t have this opportunity to be inspired to work in these fields. There is still a great deal of written science fiction that is real science fiction so all is not lost. However, many boys who would have gone on to make scientific discoveries and invent new technologies will not do so since they will never be inspired by science fiction as boys.

Sigh. So write it, loser! Invent it, you whiny moron. If you think women are so pathetic, why give us the power to stop your precious inventions? Seriously, what a whiny, self loathing mess this man and his compatriots are. No wonder they feel dis-empowered, they’re the whiniest, limpest, most hand-wringing group of people I’ve seen in a long time.

I never quite understand this perspective. If women, who by mr spearhead’s account um, didn’t really exist until they rose up with feminism to end science fiction forever with our vulvas of death, are so weak why be threatened by us?

Now, maybe it’s because I am a woman, but I’ve never let other things stop me from being the most successful person I can be. Why can’t you, mr spearhead? Do you need my permission? Stop being a cliche. Stop being that guy who complains about how he never gets the girl because women only want men with money, or power. Invent it. Write it. Read it. Stop obsessing about vagina and be a man, for god’s sake.

Oh! Scalzi speaks about this one. Read it.

For the first time in six months I did not wake up feeling like I had eleventy million things to do and nowhere near enough time to do them. I still have eight million things to do, but that’s manageable, mostly.

I finished INSATIABLE and got it to my editor and I am able to work on some other projects before I need to begin writing INSIDE OUT. Yesterday I looked through some stuff I’d had to put aside to finish up the pressing contracts on my calendar. I’d forgotten about a few of them – but realized they’d be fun to polish up and get out there. My agent will love me in a few weeks, LOL!

Megan Hart’s No Greater Pleasure released last week. This book is part of her Order of Solace series – which I highly recommend! Anya Bast’s anthology Hot For the Holidays also released and by the way, made it to the NYT list! Congrats to Anya, Lora Leigh, Jennifer Ashley and Angela Knight! For those of you who love Gennita Low’s awesome military style thrillers – her newest – Virtually Hers, is now available at Samhain publishing (and Amazon at the Kindle store). I’ve been waiting for this one since forever and a day before that.

I need to go deal with laundry (jealous aren’t you?) but I thought I’d leave you with a snippet of INSATIABLE

Phantom Corps: INSATIABLE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, the Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing July 2010

She must have hit her head in the passageway. There was no other explanation for why she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about the strength in his hand as he’d helped her up, the way his voice had softened as he’d told her she was doing a good job.

Ridiculous to be excited by such a rude man. Though, she thought as they ran, he was so very masculine and imposing, but not at all like Hartley or her father. She killed the time and tried to ignore the fear by thinking of other things. But those other things were about Daniel.

Whatever he was, whoever he was, he’d unleashed something inside her, sent it rushing through her veins. At least she could blame any breathlessness or flushed skin on the running. If she lived long enough to stop, that was. Good gods, she’d not done this much physically intense activity in many years.

The Portal city was always awake, always working. People milled around but not in as great a number as they did once the suns had risen. Luckily, they ignored the three people heading toward the departure decks. They were just like everyone else, leaving, arriving, doing business.

They passed an open air fried dough booth and wondered if they had anything like it on the other side. She’d miss the smell of home, miss the people, miss how they spoke, their accents, the way they looked on festival days. She would have to leave it all behind.

An ache rolled through her as she tried to shove it aside. She couldn’t afford to lose it right then.

The Portal was just ahead and Daniel stopped, pulling her into a space between two outbuildings. They entered a back door and stopped in an abandoned room.

“You’ll need to change into traveling clothes. You’re my sister and we’re on our way to Monteh to attend the harvest festival and to meet your intended. We’ll call you Rina, since it’s close enough to Carina.”

With that, he turned his back and began to strip. Though she knew it was rude, there was simply no way she could stop herself from staring at the wide expanse of his shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist. Oh! He stepped from his pants and his rear was the finest she’d ever seen. Not that she’d seen a lot of bare asses in her lifetime, not on adult men anyway! Still, she was quite sure it was a very fine specimen.