Belated Introductions…
I’m not published yet, so I technically don’t have any readers yet…but as part of this blog, I do. I also realized when we Title Magic ladies began this blog, we really didn’t introduce ourselves…we had been on a loop together for several busy months before beginning this blog.
We know each other, so we assumed anyone logging in would know us, too. Or perhaps we thought only our friends would be blogging with us. I don’t know, but we might have overlooked something in those assumptions. We had even decided on our chat loop the purpose of the blog and what we hope to offer. I’m not sure we made those goals clear—or perhaps it doesn’t hurt to review—on the blog itself.
Also, I haven’t heard from a guest blogger I’d hoped to have here today so I’m being creative:)
When I attended the Pro Retreat at Nationals two years ago (wow, time flies and Dallas and San Francisco were a bit much for my pocketbook), one of the talks focused on this very topic—who are your readers—of your book and/or your blog. The finalists of the American Title IV contest last year decided we wanted to blog about the craft, the business, and the joy of writing. Our targeted audience has been writers like us—some relatively new to the process, some experienced and wise, all of us busy. Please let us know who you are—and what topics you might like to see covered.
Our purpose is both to inform and entertain—and we hope you can’t get the exact same information elsewhere. We hope to provoke a response from the reader—and we hope to personalize the blogs—make them relevant to all of you out there in cyberspace—and we hope to have repeat customers. All of the same goals exist when we write our books.
Finally, just in case you didn’t see the American title stuff in Romantic Times magazine, here’s me—Lexie. I’m the mother of two (who are not letting me write very much lately), wife, and psychology professor in the Southeastern United States. I’ve been a member of RWA since 2002, but only get to write in the summers so I consider myself still very new. I’ve been writing fantasy romance—aliens and rednecks, shapeshifters and so on. This summer, I’ve been sort of at a resting point—writing, and receiving “good” rejection letters as if such things exist. They do to me, I appreciate it when an agent states—you’re a good writer, but I can’t advocate the story line. Maybe I’m making progress, but at the very least, I’m enjoying writing!!
5 comments:
Hi Lexie, nice pic. Good idea about intros. Although, I'm not sure, at this point, the best way to accomplish them.
It sounds like from what you said about your rejection letters, that you're novels would fit a niche market more than mainstream. Have you explored small print publishers who are successful with your type of stories?
Sav,
Funny you say that, one of my writer friends argued I should go more big fantasy pubs like Tor, etc. She actually is multi-pubbed with a small press such as you mention.
Right now, I'm just taking a break from rejections and focusing on writing/the fun part.
Lexie
Oh, and about the Intros...maybe we could just throw those into our blogs over the next few weeks...
Or not. Sometimes I just throw out ideas and see if they stick,
Lexie
Lexie, good idea. It's easy to lose the fun of writing sometimes.
Lexie--sorry I'm late to the party but I was on vacation for a week. :)
I think introductions would be a great idea since we all know each other but our readers might not know about us.
I can't wait to blog about my most recent river trip--I did something incredible that few in my family have done on the river so I'm right proud of myself!
And rejection letters are really just selection letters--if they are taking the time to write to you, clearly, there is something there that is working just not for their market. You might try TOR/Forge or ROC for more fantasy stories.
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