In my lifetime there’s been many home décor trends. I’m dating myself but strawberries were the in thing for kitchen décor when I was young. Then I think it was watermelons and cows (not necessarily together). In the 90’s sunflowers were the “in” thing. Then it was apples. I’m not sure if apples are still in or if we’ve moved on. I had a Coca Cola nostalgia thing going on for awhile and now it’s Southwest.

For home décor, oriental décor was the fad in the 70s and early 80s. Then it moved to Southwest décor. Personally I was into country decorating. Then we bought this house which looked Southwest so I switched to Southwest but it’s really more eclectic as I can’t bear to part with family heirlooms and a few other country-looking things.

Home decorating isn’t the only thing that goes in trends. So does writing.

When I was a teenager, historicals were all the rage. Big thick volumes. I particularly loved the ones set in the American Old West, circa about 1880, with cowboys and Indians.

After awhile, readers got tired of them. Then vampires and werewolves and paranormal romances were all the rage. They’re still pretty popular but yet another sub genre has taken the spotlight.

Now the rage is male/male and male/male/female written by women for women. Within this subgenre, paranormal seems to be the most popular (from my observations – some publishers don’t want contemporary stories of any kind at the moment).

At the moment, I hear the majority of writers on the loops saying that the best sellers are the M/M (male-male) romances by far. M/M/F (ménage with the male-male relationship first and then the female joins in).

I followed the market and so I write some M/M and some M/M/F. Yep, they are my better sellers of late. I’m not sure of the fascination with M/M. Men are people just like women. They face a few challenges M/F don’t, so if those are brought out in the book, then I can see. I have nothing against them. I’ve quite enjoyed several.

It seems that westerns are making a come back. So far I’ve not written a cowboy hero or heroine even though I absolutely adore horses. I have written a few vampire romances. In fact, one is in edits (the sequel to Blessed Be) and another is on submission elsewhere.

So yes, I write to market. I hope that’s not a dirty admission. I will do so for about every other book I write. I guess it’s my business background that makes me do so. I’m a security craving animal. But I still love M/F contemporary traditional romances, too, so I also write them. I just contracted one with The Wild Rose Press and I have more in the works.

Some people I’m sure will say, don’t follow the market and write to current trend while others will say you have to be market savvy and pay some attention to the market.

I still admonish writing what’s in your heart. I write pretty fast, and lately, pretty short, so I can afford (IMHO) to mix things up. Should I see one subgenre really eclipses another in popularity and sells, maybe I’ll spend the majority of my time on it. Or maybe I’ll become a maverick and follow my heart.

In the end, I don’t always follow trends. I’m sure Southwest décor is passé and I don’t even know what the current kitchen rage is. In the end, I’ll follow my heart – at last a good deal of the time. Hopefully, my heart and trends will mesh well.

What about you if you’re a writer? Do you ever write to trend? Always? Never?

If you’re a writer, what is your favorite genre?

Inquiring minds want to know.

by Yvonne Eve Walus (sometimes writing as Eve Summers)  

Introduction

Imagine yourself in an Amish village, selecting a quilt for your bedroom:

• This one here is pretty, but its simple colour scheme may become tedious in the long run. 
• The one on the right is plenty psychedelic, but there is no apparent pattern.
• This one is a work of art, but the pieces of beach glass sawn into the pockets will not make it a comfortable read… um, I mean, a cosy comforter.  

Your Story Quilt

When planning your story, imagine it as a quilt. Look at it with a single glance, bring it closer to your eyes and inspect the individual pieces, feel its softness and strength. Have a pattern in mind, and several different-coloured fabrics.

Play with texture. Experiment with stitching. Combine the unexpected and the original, some variety within a recognisable structure, repeat the theme.Ah, the theme.

It’s not quite enough to have believable characters and an original fast-moving plot - you should also have a theme. One should be sufficient for a short story, several related and interweaving themes work well in a novel. 

Theme and Plot

But what exactly is a theme? 

Sometimes called the premise or the argument of a work of fiction, it is not the plot and it’s not ‘the moral of the story’. Alex Keegan, a successful novelist, says that once you know what you actually want to write about (i.e., your theme), that’s when the characters leap out of the pages and do it for you (i.e., the plot).

In other words, the theme is why you are writing and what you’re trying to say. The plot is how it happens. 

Example

Love can be a theme.  Love conquers all will be the message of the story.  Boy-meets-girl-whose-parents-don’t-approve-of-him-and-persuades-her-to-elope will serve as a plot.But the plot is a tad thin because the theme is not developed to its full potential. We need more conflict: the girl loves her parents, not only the boy; while the boy actually loves his freedom almost as much as he loves the girl - or perhaps even more?  The girl loves the comforts of her parents’ mansion, her Persian cat and her ailing grandmother…. Now you’re writing a Story with a capital S. 

Title and Theme

Steinbeck said that any novelist should be able to state his theme in one sentence. A good title should be able to achieve it in a phrase or a clause without giving away the plot.

Remember, the theme is not about what happens, but what you want your reader to know when she’s finished with your fiction piece. It’s like a thread in a tapestry: an invisible railroad that runs through the story from the beginning to the end, full of sidetracks you need to avoid in order not to slow down the journey.  

Searching for Theme

Themes can be as abstract as love, hate, jealousy, cruelty towards animals or space travel. They can also be specific: the everyday life of a Carmelite nun, the struggle between castes in India, the choice a mother has to make between her career and raising a family.In your search for a theme, never loose track of the WHY question. Why are you writing this piece? What are you trying to convey to the reader? What point are you trying to make him see? What effect do you want to achieve?  What issues make you see red and what brings you quiet joy?

Themes add focus and persuasive direction. They help the author communicate and connect with the reader. If you want to make people remember your story, look at the quilt. 

How Yvonne makes her quilts

The initial idea around one of my stories was the word blue.  Using a lateral-thinking search, I focused on the following ideas: sea, blue paint, blue baby, loneliness, the blues.  Blue signifies the vastness and the emptiness of the sea.  Yet the sea is not empty, it’s full of life.  Just like a young mother may feel unfulfilled being stuck with her child 24 hours a day, her life is never empty.  So I wrote a story about a woman who used to paint blue masterpieces but had lost her passion for art ever since the birth of her daughter.  I used the blue thread to describe her lonely walks on the beach, the food she cooked (blueberry pie), the favourite blue silk dress that was now too tight for her, the desolation she experienced.  In the end, the thread blue expanded to the theme baby blues.   

There is one absolute fact in the world of writing a book: No one cares about your book as much as you do.  That isn't to say that others don't - your publisher obviously loved it, they are invested.  Your friends and family likely hope to see your book do well (if only so they can say in that lofty tone of voice, "Yes, I know an author personally.")  But ultimately, you told a story you fell in love with, about characters you cared enough about to open a vein and let it pour out of you.
So now that you've done THAT work, why stop there?  Keep believing.  Remember that your story IS that good — you got it published.  When this portion of the work seems daunting, remember all you went through to get this far and reinvest your energy, your devotion and your time into loving your book a little longer.

Research First

While "Promo Plan in a Month" is the focus of this series, that actually involves taking everything I've gathered and learned so far and applying it to my book and my budget.  But the work starts long before.  I've spent the last two months researching, reading articles, finding all the relevant information I could and compiling it into notes files.  Before you begin plotting out your marketing timeline, you should have most of your facts at hand - you need to make informed decisions, knowing what the costs are, what the outreach is, etc.

It also means setting aside thoughts of what you can and can't afford.  You'll figure that out soon enough, and you don't want to limit your research because truthfully, assuming you can't afford something could close the door to an element you CAN.  Look into EVERYTHING that interests you, make notes. You'll make decisions later.

What you should know already:

o 1st and foremost: What will my publisher do for me?  
We should always take advantage of publisher offerings, so contact your marketing department and see what's possible.  Get the list of who they send ARCs to, what ads you can co-op with, what contests, anything you can do to piggyback off their interests.  Separate the elements and add them to your notes files in the appropriate category.

o What are My Options for promotion?
What advertising sites are available? What about magazines?  What about free social networking?  From online websites to local establishments and bookstores, list everything you find, no matter how unlikely it may seem. You just need to know what’s out there.

o What local events are around the time of my book release?  
Book fairs, arts and crafts fairs, author events at libraries, check them all out.  

o What Promotional Ideas/Items Have Caught MY eye?
If you haven't been visiting author sites, publisher sites, reading the magazines like RT Book Reviews and RWR, you should be.  You need to see what others are doing, what you respond to, what you find interesting.  Did you see a specific ad you liked in a magazine? Cut it out and put it in a file.  See a website you like? Copy/paste the link into a Notes file.  Make an ongoing list and keep adding to it, no matter how small or large.  Over time, you'll begin to formulate the ideas that you want to try.

o Endorsements/Quotes – research possible options.  
Who do you know? Who would you be comfortable asking for a quote for the cover?  This isn't the time to ask Aunt Frances, this is the time to respectfully consider the better-known names you know.  And remember the Quid-Pro-Quo — if you ask them to help you, be sure that's you've given something first, such as reviews on Amazon.  Networking should never be a one-way street.

Organizing My Notes Into Categories

Okay, I've got my notes, my research and I'm ready to begin making choices.  First, I have to put my notes into some form of understandable order.  So I've separated everything into these categories:

Advertising: Print
Advertising: Online - review sites, writer sites, and other aspects related to my genre
Advertising: Direct Mail/Marketing
Bookstore Placement
Brand & Name Recognition and Outreach
Local Events/Places
Ideas
Blog Tours
Book Reviews
Marketing Materials

Choose the method that makes sense to you to keep these notes, just make sure it's easily accessible. If you've chosen to build this in Word, create a shortcut to the document on your desktop so it's quick to open.  I’ve created my “notes” in my Microsoft Outlook program.  Since I’m on my email all day long, generally, it’s the most convenient place for me to do this. 

This list includes the websites, links and other avenues I've considered for promotion and publicity. I've made lists of blogs and websites that I'd like to approach for a blog tour.  I've listed ideas of places to send materials to, such as indepedent bookstores.

And because I promised full disclosure and my goal is to help others in similar situations, you can see what I have in all my notes here: | Click to link |

Setting a Budget: Money AND Time

What sort of budget should you decide on? Jeffrey Marks, author of "Intent To Sell" says that setting your marketing budget is much like gambling: Never spend more than you can afford to lose.

I think that's a good philosophy to have as well as a way to consider the money you put into your marketing.  Sure, the idea is to sell books, but if you're building a career, you need to invest time and money into that aspect, as well.  Going into my budget and my plan, I imagine I will probably spend more than I make on this book.  If that turns out to NOT be the case, wonderful.  But I'm willing to make the investment into my career…even if I don't see the return on book number one.

I'm 'dressing for the job I want, not the job I have."  (If you ignore the sweats I normally wear while working at home.)  What job do I want? I want to be on par with other authors. I want to be taken seriously.

That said, money isn't the only option.  You can make an impact by spending time. Remember the goal from the last article - 15 impressions to make a sale.  If your advertising budget is small (or perhaps nonexistent) by necessity, you will need to make up for that with your time by hitting social networks, spending more time on myspace, facebook, etc.  You'll need to focus more on yahoo groups and other places where you can connect with your readers one-on-one.  That is a time investment.

This can include: 

• Updating your website
• Social networks - spending time, updating, commenting, conversing with others
• Yahoo Loops - participation in conversations
• Any design work you'll do yourself
• Packaging and preparing ARCs and materials to send out 
• Guest blogging
• Blog participation/commenting
• Articles
• Workshops

If I don't have the time to make those 15 impressions by visiting loops and social networks daily, then I have to make impressions elsewhere - advertising, promotions, and reviews. This is a monetary investment.  

This can include: 

• Paid advertising
• Promotional materials such as bookmarks, etc
• Printing/Shipping of ARCs for reviews or to bookstores for consideration
• Author copies of your book for giveaway and handouts
• Having "freebies" created - items of interest that people can get for free to draw them to your site
• Press Kits Created/Printed

I know that my time is limited and I won't have the ability to hit the social networks and loops to keep my name present every single day, so I adjust that in my financial budget.  I also know that because of my background in marketing and design, I can create my own design, which will save me money but use more of my time. 

There is always going to be a balance between money and time — when one side is smaller, the other one MUST increase.  You have to be able to invest one or the other significantly to make a difference.  The book can't sell if no one knows it's out there.  Be realistic about what you can afford, and lay it out on paper.

Getting All My Puzzle Pieces

I look at building the promotional plan sort of like a puzzle.  There are elements that have to come together in order to fit and make a finished product.   The puzzle pieces I have so far: 

• My budget is decided - I know my financial limit and my time limits
• My notes are organized
• I have my templates and blank calendars on hand

I'm ready to start plotting. What about you?  Do you have all of these elements ready to go?  If not, you'll have the next week to work on that, because next Monday, I'll have my plan worked out and will share with you the things I chose, the investment involved and why I choose what I do.

And to help you prepare, I've made these items available for you to download and get the puzzle pieces ready for your plan: 

• A Budget template, broken down by categories, with subtotals and a running total so I can see where I am at any point. || Budget Template - Excel Spreadsheet Download

• My Promo Timeline.  This is a document I created as my Checks and Balances.  It includes all the steps and considerations by month.  As I go down the list, I'll doublecheck this document to see if I've missed anything.  || Book Promotion & Marketing Timeline PDF Download

• Blank calendars for each month from here until July 2009.  I am a visual person - This will be my bible for deadlines, time constraints and more.   It's an easy, at-a-glance way to be sure you aren't missing deadlines or forgetting an important step of your plan.  Print Your Blank Calendars here.

• Jeannie's Notes | PDF Download 

Until next Monday!!!

Are you entered to win? 

Don't forget, this series offers a bonus prize at the end!  For anyone who comments on EACH post of the Promo series, you'll be entered to win an ad from Romance Junkies, paid for and designed (if you so choose) by yours truly! 

Current candidate(s): Debra St. John

If you want to be entered to win this prize, be sure to comment on each post in this series. Plenty of posts to go, and you can comment at ANY time during the month of November.

Like Elaine I’m new to Happy Endings.  I’ve been writing for what seems like forever and published my first story (This Old House) last year.  This year my second one was released in September in e-book and is scheduled to be released in print this month.  I have another one coming out in January and just finished my fourth.   I am writing faster and it’s getting easier.  No doubt one reason is that I knew absolutely nothing about writing fiction when I started.  I’d never heard of the Romance Writers of America (RWA).  E-books weren’t a glimmer in anyone’s eye and the Internet was still new.  

Being more than a little inquisitive, I was probably the kid that tore the toaster apart to see how it was made; it’s not surprising that almost as soon as I wrote the first word of that first story I was asking, “How’d you do that?”  How did authors start with a blank page and end up with a 50,000, 80,000 . . . word book.  How did they get from one word to “The End”?  Depending on how you read this there could be numerous answers.  I’m talking about only the mechanics right now.   

I went to conferences, workshops, attended book signings, and of course our local RWA chapter.  Every time the opportunity presented itself I’d ask authors the same set of questions or as many as were appropriate.
    •  When do you write? Do you have a specific time set aside each day?   
    •  Where do you write?  Do you write at home or at a library or maybe a coffee shop?   
    •  How much do you write each day (How many pages or words)?  
    •  Do you make an outline first?  

What I found is that I received as many different answers as the author’s I asked.  If  I asked ten authors, I got ten different answers.  There simply isn’t one formula for getting from that first word to the end.  For each of it’s a different journey.  What I’ve found works for me is;
    •  I’m not a morning person.  I have the luxury of not having a job to go to so my writing time is flexible.  But never early mornings.
    •  I write in the den. However I don’t need quiet (at least most of the time) and sometimes have a TV on. I just got a laptop so the location may change some.
    •  How much I write a day varies.  I track where I’m at in a story with an Excel Program.  I give it a starting date, the number of pages and an ending date.  It tells me how many pages I need to write each day to accomplish my goal.  If I get behind it adds the number of pages to adjust to the missed days of writing.   
    •  Do I make an outline?  With the first book I just sat down and started writing.  Like I said I didn’t have a clue about how to do it but I had a story.  The second book I outlined.  It was the quickest story to write through the first draft.  However when I got it done I hated it.  The plot was there but the characters were flat.  I didn’t even let anyone critique it and put it back to begin another one.  I finished the 3rd story and went back to the second one.  The bottom line is that the 2nd book I wrote was the 3rd book I finished.  Ironically “Open House On Murder” was the second book to be published. And, I think it’s my favorite.  Funny how things work out when you don’t give up.   For my last two books I’ve refined the plotting down to a minimum and keep a worksheet of details.

What about you?  I’m still very much interested in How’d You Do That?   

Lavada

Lavada Dee
http://www.lavadadee.com
This Old House (Asylett Press- Sept 2007)
Open House On Murder (Asylett Press- Sept 2008)
For Love or Money (BookStrand – January 2009)

I wanted to take a day and welcome all of the new blog residents and guests.  We have a full community here, and I couldn't be happier about it! If you'd like to know what to expect, here is the calendar for our blog:

Mondays
Jeannie Ruesch

Tuesdays
Jeff Rivera (1st Tuesday)
Honoria Ravena (2nd Tuesday)
Yvonne Eve Walus (3rd Tuesday)
J.K. Coi (4th Tuesday)

Wednesdays
Elaine Hopper

Thursdays
Renee Knowles (1st Thursday)
Jeanne Barrack (2nd Thursday)
Cheryl Pierson (3rd Thursday)
Mary Winter/Pink Petal Books (4th Thursday)

Fridays
Maggie Van Well (1st and 3rd Friday)
Lavada Dee (2nd and 4th Friday) 

As well, I've added a new Forum for our authors and for those of you reading along and visiting.  There is a place for discussion as well as a Promo Station, where you can post excerpts of your books, upcoming, past or present. (PG rated please).   

I'll add more interactive elements over time, and I hope to include a video viewer for book trailers soon.  So be sure to check back for the new blog posts and the new features along the way!  

And is there something in particular you'd like one of us to talk about?  Add a comment here and let us know!