Chip MacGregor .com

Erin's Favorite Book...

While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.  

 

Erin Buterbaugh is our newest agent; her areas of interest include children’s, middle-grade, and YA fiction, as well as women’s fiction, suspense, and non-fiction.

Okay, first of all, I want everyone to appreciate the fact that I’m writing this blog entry at 12:49 a.m. the day it’s supposed to be posted, not because I put it off all week, but because that’s how crippling I found the task of picking my “favorite” book to blog on. Seriously. I’m one of those people who stand, helpless, for hours in the deodorant aisle, eyes glazed over, unable to cope with the four dozen choices before her, so you can imagine my complete apoplexy when attempting to pick out one favorite book from my overstuffed bookshelves. Suffice it to say, there was a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Since I have more to do in the next three months than to create a system by which I compare every book I’ve ever read and definitively pick the favorite, I decided instead to narrow it down to my favorite book within a category, which I realize is a total cop-out, but one that I’ll hopefully get away with because I’m the new kid and everyone’s still being really nice to me. In honor of last Friday being Friday the 13^th, I decided to go with my favorite ghost story. One of Poe’s, you ask? Nope. Well, then, perhaps Washington Irving’s THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW? Wrong again! My favorite ghost story comes from that well-known master of the supernatural thriller, Charles Dickens, and is entitled A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

(If you think I’m cheating further by trying to pass off a Christmas book as a ghost story, I appeal to the original preface to the work, from the pen of Mr. Dickens himself: “I have endeavored in this ghostly little book, to raise the ghost of an idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly…” Ha! It’s a ghost story.

I’ve kept a yearly Christmas Eve date with A CHRISTMAS CAROL since I was in high school, and though Barbie, VeggieTales, the Muppets (my favorite), Looney Tunes, and countless made-for-tv movies have done and re-done the Scrooge storyline nearly to death, the book somehow never seems the least bit threadbare or faded when I revisit it. Dickens’ prose is sparkling, comical, overflowing with characterization that never makes it into the movie versions. (My personal favorite is the account of the water-plug in the freezing London streets on Christmas Eve, which, the men laboring on it having left it to gather around a fire: “…being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice.” Yes, this is a fire-hydrant the man is writing about with such color and animation.)

In the shops on Christmas Eve, description that might seem excessive in the average book (when’s the last time you savored a three-page description of a grocery store?) flaunts its extravagance, tantalizing the reader with the bounty and luxury of words as unnecessary but as delightful as the seasonal treats in the grocers’ windows. “…there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle-deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk biffins, squat and swarthy,  setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner.” I can’t read that without craving a Norfolk biffin, and I don’t have the slightest idea what a Norfolk biffin is.

Now, I admit that A CHRISTMAS CAROL doesn’t fall into the normal family of “ghost stories” in that that its four main ghosts—Marley, Past, Present, and Future—aren’t supposed to be particularly frightening, but there are several darker phantasms in the book that are absent from most (though not all) stage and film treatments. Consider the children found clinging to the second ghost’s robes at the end of his time with Scrooge, children whom a “stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled…into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing.” Yeesh. The children, Want and Ignorance, show in stark relief to the revelry and plenty which otherwise characterize the second spirit’s visit, and their appearance and contrast to the preceding part of the chapter chills me quite as much as it does Scrooge.

The moral of most Christmas-themed stories and movies, at least, those purporting to have a “moral,” seems to be that the trappings of Christmas aren’t important, that the real focus of the holiday should be on Jesus (or family, or the warm fuzzy feeling we get from Santa Claus—the “morals” of these Christmas stories have gotten more wishy-washy over the years). And while I agree that the real focus of the holiday should be Jesus, the argument A CHRISTMAS CAROL makes is that the trappings of Christmas—food, parties, gifts, games—are important, that compassion and hospitality are graces granted to us exclusively during our time on earth, and which we should revel in being able to employ during our short pilgrimage here.

One of my favorite passages, describing Scrooge, post-visitations: “Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

And now it’s about time for the second ghost to appear (on the stroke of two, if you remember), and I’m typing with one eye shut, but quite as well to have bags under my eyes tomorrow because I stayed up late rhapsodizing about one of my favorite books as to have the malady in less attractive forms. Merry Christmas! 

Introducing Erin Buterbaugh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Erin Buterbaugh was the kind of child parents wanted their kids to be friends with, in hopes that her extensive vocabulary and love of books would be a good influence. Consequently, she was also the kind of child whose friends called her a nerd and ridiculed her for reading at slumber parties.

Despite her less-than-literary-minded peer group, Erin grew up to embrace the “word nerd” persona, graduating from the renowned Professional Writing program at Taylor University. Upon graduation, Erin completed an internship under the great agents at Alive Communications, where she first entertained the idea of a career in literary representation.

Erin spent several years working as a freelance writer and editor (as well as dance teacher, choreographer, actress, director, and bluegrass band member) before becoming the in-house writer and editor for an up-and-coming curriculum publisher in her home state of Colorado.

In 2012, Erin was invited to join the MacGregor Literary team as an agent, which pretty much amounts to her dream job, minus an office in Disneyland. Her areas of interest include children’s, middle-grade, and YA fiction, as well as women’s fiction, suspense, and non-fiction.

 

Thursdays with Amanda: How to Host a Successful Book Giveaway

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. She posts about growing your author platform every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

Book giveaways happen all the time. Whether it be through Goodreads, at a conference, over the radio during an author interview or at a good, old-fashioned book signing, every day, thousands of books are given away free of charge. The goal behind these giveaways is to generate interest—a hope that the person receiving the book will A) read it, B) love it, and C) talk about it, resulting in D) money in the author and publisher’s pockets.

But with thousands of books being handed out daily, how many authors are actually seeing results C and D?

This week, we’ll focus on giveaways in general...the basics of hosting a successful giveaway, and next week, we’ll go over the KDP Select program (the Amazon program that allows you to offer your ebook for free).

HOW TO HOST A SUCCESSFUL BOOK GIVEAWAY

1. Plan in advance. This isn’t a seat-of-your-pants affair. I don’t care how busy you are or whether you gravitate to chaos over organization, the best way to ensure success with your giveaway is to start planning well ahead of go-time. For example, a July 10^th-15^th, giveaway could start being planned June 1. The goal here is to give yourself plenty of time to get the chips in place.

2. Give your giveaway plenty of time. One-day-only giveaways bomb (unless you’re someone with a million followers, of course). Successful giveaways don’t just happen out of nowhere. They build over time. Give your readers 5-10 days to finalize their entries before you choose a winner. This will give your book more time in the spotlight.

3. Research, research, research. Spend time identifying what blogs, forums, message boards and online groups would be interested in your book. Keep detailed records of these groups and try to jump in (creating a profile if necessary) as soon as you can. You want to have a presence in these places before you do the drive-by advertisment.

4. Choreograph an epic web presence for each day of your giveaway. This means:

• Having guest blog posts pop up all over on friends’ and fans’ blogs
• Writing an aggressive Twitter campaign in which you have set Tweets for each day of the giveaway
• Requesting that friends, fans and family members with large platforms Retweet, repost, or share any information you ask them to (you can agree to do the same for them if you need leverage)
• Frequenting each of those URLs that you researched and letting those groups know that you’ve got a book giveaway going on, and that you’d love for them to participate
• Putting links on Facebook, Pinterest, and wherever else you may have a following of friends or fans

5. Request something from entrants. Don’t just ask them to post a comment or send you an email to enter. Make them like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter. And give them something to Tweet (hate to be captain obvious here, but the “something to Tweet” should be directly related to the giveaway, encouraging others to enter), and something to post. Have them mention your Twitter handle in their Tweets so that you can keep track of who is following through and have them message you links to other places on the Internet where they posted a link to your giveaway. In a nutshell, make them work for that free book by spreading the word about the giveaway.

6. Giveaway more than one book. Sure, one book works, but people are more likely to enter when their odds of winning are higher. And, if you want to throw in some extras to make the deal even sweeter, then more power to you. It’s all about creating too good of an offer to refuse.

7. Announce winners when you say you’ll announce winners. Seems pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised.

8. Follow through with entrants by visiting their blogs, following them on Twitter, ANYTHING to get them to remember who you are after the drawing is over. This will keep you top of mind, making them more likely to talk about and/or buy your book.

9. Push for reviews. Ideally, your winners will love the book. Capitalize on that by requesting they write a review for the book on Amazon or Goodreads.  This way, you get something out of having multiple winners.

10.  Don’t stop there. The worst thing you can do is disappear after the giveaway. Try to offer something new every few weeks to keep potential readers coming back. Whether it be a free chapter 1 download or an announcement for a new book. The goal here is to be in their line of vision over a period of a few months.

 

Well, those are my tips. Would anyone else like to weigh in on what has worked for them?

And don’t forget, next week, we’ll be discussing how to see giveaway success through the KDP Select program.

Shannon's Favorite Book...

While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks. 

 

 

 

Shannon Potelicki is the agency's International Rights Specialist. In this role, she handles MacGregor Literary's international deals and enables authors to maximize their income potential. She also serves as Chip's assistant and handles the ever-present slush pile.

I’ve long been convinced that Margaret Mitchell read my diary before she authored one of my favorite books, GONE WITH THE WIND. And yes, I realize this also means she discovered time travel and utilized it specifically to read MY diary. (Kudos to her, by the way, because even my brothers couldn’t find it under the... Nope, better keep that secret in case they’re still looking.) To understand my theory—as well as the reasons GWTW  falls at the top of my list—you need only know the topics of my diary entries in junior high, when I first read the epic novel. 

First, that sneaky Margaret Mitchell lured me in with my love for gigantic tomes. True confession: I was the weirdo who would go to the library specifically looking for the longest books. Mom’s rule was three books per trip (which didn’t happen nearly as often as I would have liked), and I wanted some bang for my library card. Margaret must have discovered this from the entry I wrote about an interaction with a librarian—I asked where they kept the “good stuff,” and she looked at me as if I was talking about drugs.

On one fateful trip, in the “good stuff” section, I spotted GWTW. The cover displayed Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh on the brink of making out, just like the poster for the movie (which is fabulous in its own right). I thought Clark Gable’s mustache looked creepy, but at 1000+ pages it was sure to keep me busy for at least a week... so I read the first paragraph to break the tie. (Creepy mustaches are strong deterrents for 13-year-old girls.)

Once again, Margaret Mitchell (the sleuth!) won me over. “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.” How did she know to write this? The numerous entries I wrote about my awkward adolescent phase, of course. Scarlett’s features were “too sharply blended” for her face and my head was too big for my body—a match made in heaven. Of course I wanted to live vicariously through Scarlett! I wanted to have the Tarleton twins begging for all the waltzes with me and scratching their heads when I didn’t invite them to dinner. I wanted that mealy-mouthed Charlie Hamilton to ditch Honey Wilkes just because I batted my lashes. I wanted all of the other girls—Suellen and Carreen included—to be jealous of the attention I received. I was too shy for anything like that to happen in real life, but Margaret helped me to feel powerful through Scarlett.

Not only did Margaret get me to check the book out, but she also got me to start reading GWTW on the way home. Despite its long length and thick paragraphs of description, I found it to be incredibly readable. This was, no doubt, because of the quick bonds I made with the characters—particularly Scarlett. I quickly found myself enveloped in the story. It’s not that difficult for a 13-year-old girl to understand being bored by boys who only talk about fighting, competing with siblings for attention, and crushing on a boy who likes someone else.

While I’m sure those topics (among many others) were passionately discussed in my diary and utilized by Ms. Mitchell accordingly, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the character she created to solidify my love of her novel: Rhett Butler. You see, my obsession with bad boys runs deep and started early. As a result, the vast majority of my diary entries were filled with dreamy thoughts of brooding, mysterious, and dangerous boys I had crushes on. From the moment Scarlett and I first saw this swarthy non-gentleman on the staircase at Twelve Oaks, I was hooked. He adds humor, tension, and power to nearly every scene, which makes it difficult for me to pick just one, but I’ll try. There’s a scene following the death of Scarlett’s second husband, Frank Kennedy. Rhett comes by, under the guise of paying his respects, to mock Scarlett... and to propose:

        “Don’t frown. Name the day, Scarlett. I’m not urging instant matrimony because of your reputation. We’ll wait the decent interval. By the way, just how long is a ‘decent interval’?"

         “I haven’t said I’d marry you. It isn’t decent to even talk of such things at such a time.”

         “I’ve told you why I’m talking of them. I’m going away tomorrow and I’m too ardent a lover to restrain my passion any longer. But perhaps I’ve been too precipitate in my wooing.”

         With suddenness that startled her, he slid off the sofa onto his knees and with one hand placed delicately over his heart, he recited rapidly:

         “Forgive me for startling you with the impetuosity of my sentiments, my dear Scarlett—I mean, my dear Mrs. Kennedy. It cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have had in my heart for you has ripened into a deeper feeling, a feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred. Dare I name it for you? Ah! It is love which makes me so bold!” (p. 827-828).

Now that is a leading man I’d like to see more of! Why Scarlett even remembered Ashley Wilkes’ name after a proposal like that, I’ll never quite understand.

Time and experience have made me a different person than I was in junior high—I’ve come to appreciate smaller books, I’ve grown into my head, and... nope, I still have a thing for bad boys. But, like Scarlett, I always go back to Tara. It really is a place of comfort, a place to regroup and reconsider, and a place to call home. And each time I read, I find I appreciate something new and different than I did the last—perhaps because Scarlett and I have been growing up together. Since that first reading, we’ve spent too much time on the wrong guy, loved and lost a friend we didn’t deserve, dealt with financial struggles, overcame obstacles by sheer will power, and came to the right decision a day late and a dollar short.

As long as I leave diary entries for Margaret Mitchell to exploit, I’m sure Scarlett and I will continue to find parallels in our lives—though I hope to avoid shooting a Yankee raider in the face. But if I do, it won’t be hard to find me. Scarlett and I will be thinking about it together at Tara.

NOTE: In Sandra’s post yesterday, in reference to GWTW, she wrote “But that’s another blog post for another day...”  Who would have thought that tomorrow really would be another day? Not any of us. We figured that (given the multitude of titles to pick from, differences in age and taste, etc.) there would be limited possibility for crossover and didn’t share our picks for favorite book with one another. Margaret Mitchell thought it, though. And apparently she’s added thought planting to her arsenal. We got the message— “Tomorrow is another day.”

Sandra's Favorite Book...

While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.

 

 

 

Sandra Bishop is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary, Inc. and represents fiction and nonfiction authors in multiple genres and with varying levels of publication background. She was recently named Vice President of the agency.

 

When I was growing up, my grandmother always kept a copy of GONE WITH THE WIND by her chair. Always.

When she needed to put her feet up and rest from her work, she would grab it and read a passage—it rarely mattered where she’d left off. She didn’t use bookmarks. She’d just pick it up and “visit with Scarlett,” sometimes out loud.

I have a fondness and appreciation for the commercial success of Ms. Mitchell’s book, of course, but mostly my fondness is driven by how much the book reminds me of someone I loved dearly. I consider it one of my most fav-o-rite treasures, though I hesitate to leave it out in its condition. It lives on my bookshelf, its pages tattered and torn, and its cover made over with a scrap of wallpaper from Grandma’s last kitchen.

I’ve heard it said that if it were being sold today, it would never make it. Too much description. Pacing problems, etc. But that’s another blog post for another day, perhaps by someone who has read it more recently than have I.

I may not have inherited grandma’s everyday huger for tales of Tara, but I did retain her habit of reading a passage of a favorite book on occasion—just picking it up and thumbing to a random spot to read for a bit. It’s been awhile, though, since I’ve allowed myself the joy of stopping in for brief visits with Reuben, Swede, and Jeremiah Land of PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger.

Having just pulled it from my shelf, I’ll do so now, though. In fact, I’ll just flip it open and see where it lands. I promise not to cherry pick, but to share a passage from wherever it falls open… 

Here goes:

Remember August Shultz, in whose barley I made the most panicked job a boy ever did of shooting a wild goose?

 At the bottom of a January cold snap we received a three-cent postcard from August:

 Hello All

     Old friend Speedy came by last night. I wondered if he would and By Goodness he did. Weaselly skinny but strong, sends regards, we were glad to have him, Birdie had kielbasa, it went fast!

 Aug & Birdi

 PS: Best to your friend Andreeson

 Agghhhhh!!!  I landed on a tough patch from which to make my point about this book, and my love for reading it over and over and over. And over again.

It’s still possible, though, just by looking at the first three words of this passage. “Remember August Shultz…” Don’t you love that? It’s Reuben, the protagonist, asking if we remember, with him, a story he remembers about his father’s life long friend, a character to whom he’d actually not introduced us in person, though we’ve long by now gotten the feeling by now we know him just by sheer proximity to him having always been a part of their lives—if not in it on a regular basis.

To reinforce this, rather than just referencing August and explaining his importance to the family, he threads his own memory into the present, and brings us along with him, so we feel the weight of the moment when this important note arrives. In doing this, he warms us to his ongoing affection for this family friend, and it’s as if we’re family too. Which is perfect given the cryptic nature of the three-cent postcard which lets Reuben, Swede, and Dad know that their son and brother, Davy, is safe, and that they took a risk to love and feed him, even with someone menacing afoot. Of course they did. That’s what a lifelong friend of the family would do, right?

It seems simple, his way of asking “Remember August?” but it isn’t simple at all. It’s brilliant. Think of this: when you think of people who have always been in your life, how do you think of them? Do you see just their face? (Well, actually, perhaps in this day of Facebook you do!) Or do you usually, instead, feel their presence in relation to experiences you’ve shared? I am convinced that’s what the author was up to here. Maybe it just happened, and he used it. But, based on other “clever-but-not-feeling-clever” spots in the book, I don’t think so.

Like this one:

There’s this passage, later in the book, after Davy is long on the lam, in which Reuben and his kid sister Swede are invited to read an obit which had been tucked into a scrapbook by Roxanna, the woman who pumped gas for them after they’d miraculously driven for hours on no gas, through “wind-sacked, immobile towns with Presbyterians and Lutherans, and secure Methodists standing around their church doors.”  (Not having come from the plains, I wondered, did Methodists need to be extra secure to stand outside?)

Anyway, the reading of the obit at this point in the story is, particularly to Swede, a nine year old girl who had “lost her heart to the West early on” (how much earlier could it have been, one briefly wonders, but then marvels at the charm of it) is significant because it invites her (and us) to ponder Roxanna’s theory that Butch Cassidy didn’t actually die in Bolivia, a fugitive. That he died in Kansas, Jonas Robert Work, a decade and half before, in the wind swept town of Reece. This notion is introduced to them by Roxanna, just when they need to know that that she knows the adventure, the quest, they are on to find Davy will, quite possibly not end as anyone expects, and that things are not always only as they appear, and that sometimes, even, regular stories disguise the most ambitious legends. Or is it that legends disguise the most regular of stories?

The build up to this notion is perfect, and casual, and yet I can feel Swede hanging on the edge of her seat, wide-eyed, her imagination pining at every word as it develops. The drawing out is purposeful and well placed and masterful, and feeds our own hope, as well as Swede’s and Reuben’s, just when we all need it.

This is an amazingly clever book, and yet it doesn’t feel clever, somehow. On one level, it’s just a story about a widowed Dad trying to raise his kids in the 1950’s. It’s Americana, and a fresh story about miracles. It’s a quest for justice, and a time worn tale about the power of familial love and sacrifice. It’s a story that inspires us to believe that the memories of our lives will live on, and one which reminds us that we can be just as much in the making of them, as in their telling later.

I’ll admit, I read the beginning and the end most often, just to feed my need for the story. And when I do, I am at once transported and reminiscent. I remember the before and the ahead of it. All that led there, and everywhere else we’re headed. And each time, I practically swoon—though never as hard as the first time, the time when I’d first closed the cover, tears streaming down my cheeks, and had literally clutched it to my chest, then turned immediately back to page one to start again.

But it’s been too long, actually, since I’ve allowed myself to wander in and out of this family’s quest for their Davy. I’m feeling inspired to do so again. Tonight though, my eyes are heavy. I’ll start tomorrow. For, after all, tomorrow is another day.

Marie's Favorite Book...

While Chip is vacationing in Hawaii, look for posts from the rest of the MacGregor Literary staff. Not surprisingly, “Favorite Books” is the topic of choice for our crowd of book lovers. Don’t be afraid to chime in with your thoughts on these top picks.

I was about halfway through Randy Alcorn’s novel Safely Home (Tyndale, 2001) when I concluded this book deserved to be on the privileged “best books I’ve ever read and always recommend” shelf.  Happily, I’m in good company. Safely Home received the Gold Medallion Book Award and an anniversary edition was released last year.

A persecuted Chinese Christian, Li Quan wakes up with a daily question: Is this the day I die? This concept poked my conscience, even stung. As a Christian living in the freedom-filled USA, I related far more easily to Ben Fielding, the 40-something college-educated corporate ladder-climber whose faith shows only when it is comfortable and convenient; this too was an uncomfortable discovery.

Though I was aware of persecution, Safely Home sheds great light on the struggle Chinese Christians face each day. Li Quan’s father and grandfather were martyred, and he expects the same end for himself.  What I take for granted, many have lost their lives for.  Can any of us imagine having to ride a bicycle under cover of darkness at 2 am to attend worship service, knowing that at any moment, armed police might threaten jail or beatings? The stories we hear on TV of China “opening up” and of government-run churches don’t describe such situations. And what about the freedom to quietly read the Bible in our own homes?

The man held up the Bible. He put it up to his nose and smelled it. “This is the book of God. Nothing is more precious. Last week I delivered twelve of these to a church of one thousand. Until I arrived, they had only five in the whole church. People offer to pay me a month’s salary for a single Bible. But I get them free and I give them free. I accept only a bed and meals.”

“Is what you do legal?”

“I have gone to jail many times,” the visitor said. “But because I am a foreign citizen, I have a passport. I have always been released. I am forbidden to return. So I must come next time under another name. Li Quan of Hangzhou knows one of my old names. But even he does not know my real name."

...

“I suppose I can respect what this man has chosen to do,” Ben said. “But like he said, he’ll just be deported. It would be worse for you.”

“Our people are starving for God’s Word,” Quan said. “What kind of a man would I be if I did not feed the hungry?”

“But you could lose your freedom. Or worse." 

“An obedient man is free when in prison,” Quan said. “A disobedient man is imprisoned when free.” Ben didn’t like the way Quan looked at him.

"A disciple’s desire is to glorify his Master,” said the [first man]. “There are things more important than staying alive. Yesu’s followers must love him more than their own lives” (p. 118-119).

There are no less than seven Bibles in my home at this very moment. I am rich beyond measure, blessed with liberty to celebrate yesterday that our Savior is risen, and even to write this post today.  And were I not a Christian, it would still be a great read—Alcorn’s research on Chinese life and customs is lauded as accurate and insightful. The author skillfully weaves a gripping story with threads of history and persecution which take the reader to critical questions that must be examined.

Pick up a copy of Safely Home and get ready to stay up late as you read to the very last page. And stay tuned for the rest of the week to find out what books we love!

Marie Prys provides administrative support to MacGregor Literary’s agents as well as overseeing contracts and informational databases. She lives in Richmond, VA, with her husband, Jeremy, and four children. 

 

Can you ever lie to tell the truth?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa McKay is a psychologist and the author of the award-nominated novel My Hands Came Away Red. A memoir, Love At the Speed of Email, will be released in June 2012. She lives in Laos with her husband and infant son. To learn more, visit www.lisamckaywriting.com.

In January I listened to a This American Life episode called Mr. Daisy and the Apple Factory, which was excerpted from a monologue called The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisey. The monologue described Daisey’s encounters with workers from the Foxconn factories in China that make Apple products.

Like many others, I was deeply moved by this story. It hit particularly close to home because, as I’m living in Laos, the factories he describes lay only one border away.

The episode became the most downloaded podcast in the 16-year history of This American Life. It launched a thousand editorials. It inspired a petition—signed by more than 250,000 people—demanding Apple guarantee ethical treatment of its workers. And last week it became the first show This American Life has ever retracted.  

It turns out that Daisey didn’t actually witness some of the most egregious conditions he describes, such as workers as young as twelve and those poisoned by neurotoxic chemicals.

TAL explains:

“As best as we can tell, Mike's monologue in reality is a mix of things that actually happened when he visited China and things that he just heard about or researched, which he then pretends that he witnessed first hand. And the most powerful and memorable moments in the story all seem to be fabricated.

Some of the falsehoods found in Daisey’s monologue are small ones: the number of factories Daisey visited in China, for instance, and the number of workers he spoke with. Others are large…He claims to have met a group of workers who were poisoned on an iPhone assembly line by a chemical called n-hexane. Apple’s audits of its suppliers show that an incident like this occurred in a factory in China, but the factory wasn’t located in Shenzhen, where Daisey visited. It happened nearly a thousand miles away.”

Last week, in a new episode called Retraction, TAL’s producer, Ira Glass, and Daisey sat down to discuss the ensuing scandal. 

Frankly, I expected a more nuanced discussion on the topic of truth from two such talented communicators. 

An understandably outraged Glass—who Daisey had personally lied to about the name and contact details of his translator and the literal accuracy of his account—kept equating “factually correct” with “truth”. He insisted that Daisey’s monologue wasn’t “strictly speaking a work of truth but a work of fiction that has some true elements in it.

Daisey, on the other hand, did himself no favors during this interview. He sounded stressed, even panicked. He paused for uncomfortably long periods of time. He prevaricated constantly.

“I use the tools of theater and memoir,” Daisey said at one point. “I don’t know that I would say in a theatrical context that it isn’t true…we have different languages for what the truth means.”

“I understand that you believe that,” Glass said, “but I think you’re kidding yourself in the way that normal people [interpret theatre and memoirs]… I thought it was true because you were on stage saying ‘this happened to me.’ I took you at your word.”

Missing from Glass’ questioning was an acknowledgement of the existence of any truth beyond the literal recounting of events. And, astonishingly, missing from Daisey’s defense was a coherent statement along the lines of: “I judged that inventing some characters, encounters, and dialogue would serve to illuminate a larger truth for the greater good.”

The closest Daisey got to this was saying, “Everything I have done…has been…to make people care. I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard. But I stand behind the work. My mistake, the mistake that I truly regret is that I had it on your show as journalism and it’s not journalism. It’s theater.”

This incident highlights many important (although hardly novel) questions. Should memoir and theater be equated? Is there such a thing as a “larger” truth? Should factual truth ever be subordinated to emotional or other larger truths for the sake of advocacy or “art”? Which sorts of factual distortions are generally acceptable in memoir and which aren’t?

As far as Daisey’s monologue, I understand why he was tempted to misappropriate events that had actually happened and present them as personal experience. I applaud the result as a powerful piece of storytelling. I think, however, that he went so far in his fictionalizing that he should never have used the label “memoir” without a disclaimer attached, much less the label “journalism” that This American Life required.

When we write a memoir or a personal essay (or perform a first-person-narrative theater piece that purports to memoir) we are leveraging the power of actuality­­—the inherent emotional force generated by claiming “this happened to me just like this”. In exchange for this power we relinquish the right to significantly embellish, manipulate, or invent.

So then, what counts as “significantly”?

That’s the tough question that usually has to be answered with the frustratingly equivocal. “It depends.”

I think it depends on how well we remember what actually happened. It depends on which timelines, characters, events, or conversations we feel the need to change, and why. It depends on how many and what sort of other factual tweaks you have already made, because I agree with Glass on this point. Your readers (or listeners) will assume that what you’re recounting happened to you, pretty much as you’re telling it. Every timeline shift, re-creation, composition, or invention takes you further away from the narrative your readers would judge as “factual” and, contrary to what some of my fellow authors might argue, I think reader’s expectations on this front must be taken into account.

If we want to write something and call it memoir we can’t just play as fast and loose as we want to with a literal recounting under the guise of serving art. We need to be able to look a reader in the eye and confidently explain how our story serves the truth, yes, but a clear conscience isn’t quite enough. How we’ll label our account, and what others will take that label to mean, must also guide our choices.  If most people would feel betrayed if they knew the “factual truth” behind our memoir, then I think we’re doing something wrong.

The well-known memoirist, Vivian Gornick, once said that “what the memoirist owes the reader is the ability to persuade that the narrator is trying, as honestly as possible, to get to the bottom of the experience at hand.” I’ve used that statement as a touchstone more than once in writing my own memoir pieces. Now Daisey’s very public debacle has furnished me with a less ambiguous reference point to use when answering tricky questions related to truth—­the prospect of a public grilling. And I know just how I’ll begin my reply in the unlikely event that I’m ever the one asked on national radio whether you can lie to tell the truth.

Well, Ira, it depends.

Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Build Book Hype on Goodreads

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. She posts about growing your author platform every Thursday. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

Last week, guest blogger and author Jennifer Murgia did a fab job of introducing us to Goodreads.com and many of you asked for more!

While we're not going to do a step-by-step with screenshots (most of your how-to questions can be answered by spending time on the site...see #1 below), we've come up with 5 steps to building hype for your book on Goodreads:

1. Participate. Just like any social media site, Goodreads requires participation in order for the magic to happen. So the first step is to to be a regular, old Goodreads participant. This means reviewing books, tracking your bookreading progress, adding books to your shelves, commenting on friends' shelves and statuses, and getting comfortable with how the site works and how people use it. For any Goodreads virgin looking to use it for personal promotion, I think it would be helpful to spend a month or two learning the ropes. Don't just dive into it with the intention of selling books. Figure out what works and doesn't work from a user's perspective. Follow a few of your favorite authors and see what THEY do. Learning and participating are the first steps.

2. Maintain your author page. Treat your page as you would your author website (check out Jennifer Murgia's Goodreads page for reference). Dump book trailers, blog posts, and information on yourself as often as you can. You can even use both of those mediums (video and blog) to interact with fans, make announcements, and more. Before you start promoting yourself, you want this page to be full of information so that you don't appear to be a ghost author.

And while we're talking about ghost authors, let me take a moment to dicuss the importance of a great author photo. Unless you're Danielle Steele or Stephen King, 99% of readers won't know who you are. It's important to establish that you're a real person and not some wack-o by including a nice-looking author photo on your page. We're not talking about poorly-done self-portraits or photos from 20 years ago when you were thinner and younger or even overly artistic photos in which your face is covered by a paper bag. We're talking about a nice head shot.

A nice author photo will do more for you than any other tip or trick to getting potential readers past any hesitancy they may have regarding your book. So do what you need to do...get a makeover, hire a photographer and put on your best smile (or for those of you writing horror or guy fiction, your best contemplative face). You don't have to look like Heidi Klum or Ryan Gosling. You just have to look like a nice person.

Remember, first impressions count.

3. Host a giveaway. The steps to hosting a giveaway are pretty self-explanatory on the site. You simply go to "Giveaways," click "list a book" and fill out the fields. This is an important component of the Goodreads experience, because it gets your book in front of lots and lots of potential buyers. Sure, most of them are there to try and snag a free read, but BELIEVE ME: free books mean more sales.

Next week, we'll talk about what it takes to have a successful giveaway, but in the meantime, spend some time famiarizing yourself with the information needed to host a giveaway.

4. Join groups. There are a number of author and reader groups on Goodreads. These are like the forums and messageboards of old in which people with similar interests congregate and chat. Use this to your advantage. Remember the post on article-writing when we talked about identifying your readership? The same rules apply here. Figure out who your reader is and befriend them. Eventually, they'll figure out you're an author and buy your book.

Whatever you do, don't spam them with "I'M AN AUTHOR; BUY MY BOOK." Just be nice and engaging and when the time is right, you can mention you have a book. But relationships come first.

5. Make friends and interact with readers. That is really the secret. Yes, it's a time sink and yes, it will require long-term committment. But so does your author career. So suck it up, cupcake, and get out there!

Any other ideas?

More on how to make money with your writing...

Continuing the thoughts about making a living at writing...

4. The most overlooked area of writing is still the ‘zine market. Especially special market magazines -- and there is basically a magazine or e-zine about anything you'd ever want to study. I still do some writing for The Linking Ring (the magazine for the International Brotherhood of Magicians), and have done work for numerous other magazines, e-zines, and newsletters. But don't start sending things indiscriminately. Check out a copy of the magazine at Barnes and Noble, then go to the mag's website and you'll find directions on how to submit, how many words, required focus, etc. 

There are two keys to success in writing for 'zines: (a) Know the magazine so that you understand the readership, focus, and editorial tone; and (b) Know the editor to approach, and how to approach him or her. If you're not familiar with the 'zine, spend some time getting to know the tone and approach they use, so you can shape your writing to best fit their expectations. Remember that magazine editors are like everybody else -- if they like your work and find you easy to deal with, they'll soon be using you on a regular basis. 

5. You might be able to go to your local newspaper and try to get a column. Or go in and suggest a focus for a column, like "gardening" or "farm life" or "parenting" or "travel." Make it unique, think it through, and give the editor a reason to say yes to the idea. Many book writers I've worked with over the years have found a regular column in a newspaper is helpful because it helps get them writing regularly, and helps them build a readership. 

6. Keep in mind that every piece of ephemeral or periodical literature is a monster that must be fed. All of us who started in magazines or newspapers know the pressure that comes from someone saying, "We're going to press this afternoon." It isn't like writing books, where you have months to work on it, then can still turn something in a few days late without major consequences. On magazines and newspapers, you write your piece, you get it done, and you turn it in. If you can't work on a deadline, don't try this.

7. And that leads me to one last comment: THIS IS HARD WORK. I find most writers are in love with the idea of writing a book and seeing their name in print on the cover, but some are not all that interested in working hard. (Sorry -- not trying to offend the hard-working writers out there. I'm sure you're both very nice people.) Writing for a magazine doesn't allow you the luxury of staring out the window for an hour while you think of the perfect lead. There's no extension while you polish grammar, and no waiting on production so you can get the conclusion just right. It's words by the clock, and you train yourself to bang out words in order to meet the deadline. It's also great training -- I suppose I still most appreciate the writers I know who have a jounalism background, since they know what it's like to sit at a desk, one eye on their computer screen, the other on a clock, banging out the best words they can in order to fill the page.

So there are a handful of ideas to help you generate some income at writing. What is it that has worked for you?

 

How can I make money with my writing?

Pam wrote to ask, “Can you say more about the whole freelance writing concept? I’m looking for practical ideas to help me make a living.”

A couple thoughts from a guy who would basically write for anybody, so long as they paid me...

1. If you live near a major city, check and see what organizations are located near you. Most nonprofit organizations have a magazine, newsletter, or web site, and they all need content. Check them out, find out what sort of articles, interviews, and sidebars they use, then offer them some material. I sold hundreds of things to companies and nonprofit organizations when I was free-lancing. Nonprofits have to stay in touch with donors, and that means somebody has to write their copy for them. (They also need report writers, researchers, and grant writers, if you want to check into those opportunities.) 

2. Drive down any of your streets, and you'll see businesses on both sides. Nearly every one of those businesses have a website, and they all need content. That's how the internet has changed business -- every mom-and-pop shop now has the opportunity to hawk its wares worldwide via the web. And think about the changes in websites over the past few years. You used to see something that resembled a highway billboard -- a business name, phone, address, and slogan ["Don's Plumbing of Portland -- Great Service, Low Rates. Call Today -- 555-1234"].

Now if you go to that site, you'll find an introduction to the business, a history of the company, a bio of each employee (complete with photos), a self-help section to fix your own plumbing problems, a link to order specialized plumbing parts, a section on the history of indoor plumbing, and an ask-the-expert compendium. And, of course, somebody has to write all that stuff. Most businesses do it themselves (until they figure out what's they've written is awful, since they are plumbers and not writers), then they go to a PR firm to create copy for them. This is why I've been saying to people at conferences there have never been more writing jobs than there are right now -- ask anyone in the industry, and they'll tell you there is a huge need for creators of content. And, if you really check in to it, you'll find they don't teach writing in schools as much as they used to, so this need has arisen at the very time when there are fewer people who can put together a string of coherent, interesting paragraphs. If you can learn to create good marketing copy, you can make some extra money. OR you can specialize in editing other people's web copy, since it all needs another set of eyes on it. (I have a friend who has made a steady part-time living doing "editing checks" of company websites.) This may not be exactly the type of writing you want to be doing, but it's a great way to generate income while you're working on that thriller novel you've got going.

3. If you are friends with academics, think through which professors have popular classes that you could turn into books for them. Frequently a popular seminar speaker will have great content, but will struggle with moving his or her ideas into print.  This is how I got started in the freelance writing business -- I introduced myself to a couple profs who had great seminars, but wrote like academics. I simply turned each section into a chapter, and in the end, they had a book.

By the way, if you know any motivational speakers, or if you live near a mega-church with a well-known, charismatic pastor (um..."charismatic" in the classic sense of the word) who creates and sells downloadable or CD sermon series, go in and offer to turn those speeches into book chapters, You can also create study guides to go along with the series. I made great money doing this, thanks to a writing friend who introduced me to some people who were creating these types of projects. 

There are opportunities with both digital and print writing. For all the talk about publishing being dead, the fact is more people read now than ever before. That means there are plenty of avenues for making freelance writing money.