Hypology

The world of the author has many tightropes to walk, and a rope I've been seeing twinging and quivering above my safety net recently has been the idea of hyping yourself and your story. I am an intense, but low key kind of overachiever, and I've never been one for too much self-pimpage. Rather, I kind of tell you what's going on, and then you know. I don't decorate with too many exclamation marks or adjectives of incredulosity. I consider myself a student of the Kastensmidt, Hines, or Andrews school of promotion. Tell the people what's going on. Once. Talk about your work if it's relevant. Don't look for opportunities to promote or schmooze needlessly. If you're doing your job steadily, these opportunities will come to you.

And that seems to be the folks on my list. If you seem too over the top with hype, I sort of let you fade away.

***

That said, I'm also a writer who likes to meet new people, so occasionally I'll take a gamble. I'll friend someone I don't know, or buy a book that is lesser known. Recently, I received a link from one of my new connections about how critics were raving about her website, and how I should check it out. Hmmmm....my information on this writer is that she is an unpublished and fairly unknown writer. Hypology has hit my email box.

Interesting also are books that are published by folks that have interesting recommendations from strange places. Often friends review the books. That's cricket, using your connections, but you wonder about authenticity of feeling, quality, and such. And then, my favorite, the quote from a big author that is on a new author's book. There is probably some genuineness of recommendation in that scenario, but you often wonder if that isn't part of the job the big author does for the publisher, helping get the word out about the newbs.

***

With no reference to anyone, I began to think about what honest hype might look like. If you were to boil down the hype for new writers, both their own, and that blessed upon them by their contacts, of course, it wouldn't create desire, but the world would be a very different place.

Instead of
"See what the critics are saying about my website!"
try
"I've had two people and some syncophants stop by. You should too."

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally published at Writer Tamago. You can comment here or there.

Alternate Dimension

Meanwhile, on Earth 2...

Catherine Shaffer.

Kinda cool really...

Cath

ps I'm doing Grape Mo. I needed something goal driven to get me back on task, and to stop thinking about the Duster, which, by the way, was green.

Originally published at Writer Tamago. You can comment here or there.

Norway and Trolls

Whacky writer research trip to do very soon: Decorah, Ia because it has the Vesterheim Museum, and I need loads more information on Norwegian culture and Decorah, since it's the first scene of the new version of Gossamer and Veridian

Also lots of reading about trolls. I took some Germanic myth back in my undergraduate days, and all that time with the Aesir and the Jaetta just came in handy.

Gotta give those old Norwegians some cultural habits, and something to see.

Catherine

Originally published at Writer Tamago. You can comment here or there.