Speech!

Starting off with a reminder that I’ll be at the children’s book festival in Tarrytown, New York, on Sunday. The event is held at historic Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s home, a literary destination in its own right.

On June 20, 2011, Jen wrote, ….I am a very introverted person. But I’ve read in a lot of places that self-promotion is just as much a part of being a successful author as good writing is. Do you agree with that perspective? Is there any hope for someone like me that would rather not be in front of people?

I would never ever ever agree that anything is as important for an author as good writing. Success is a separate matter, hinging on many things, including luck and timing. And yes, self-promotion is useful. You, all of you reading the blog, should do some when you get published. If you already are published, you know.

And if you’re already published, I hope you’ll chime in with what worked and what disappointed you.

Self-promotion doesn’t necessarily mean public speaking. There are more ways today to promote your book than ever before, and new ones keep springing up. I’m not an authority on the subject, but there are lots of books that may help. Your library may have some, or your local bookstore may suggest some titles.

I googled “self-promotion for authors” and lots of links popped up. One of them, a fascinating and funny New York Times article, goes over author self-promotion from a historical perspective. To my amazement the practice goes way, way, way back. Many of the examples do not involve speech at all. The article’s tone is adult and may not be right for elementary schoolers. Here’s the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/books/review/how-writers-build-the-brand.html.

Luck is luck, and you can’t do much about that, and timing is hard to control too. Your first picture book comes out when the market is down for picture books. Your paranormal novel is released just when the trend is fading, or your historical novel about the San Francisco earthquake hits the bookstores just after an earthquake strikes… somewhere, and interest is high.

The internet is the self-promoting author’s good buddy. You can create a website, a blog; you can tweet, use Facebook and, I suppose, LinkedIn for publicity. You can link to other sites that may link to yours as well. Some literary blogs interview authors, and these interviews are written, no speaking necessary. You can shoot something for YouTube about your book. Some authors develop online book trailers, not cheap, but not a fortune either. A friend has created an e-newsletter for teachers and librarians. She promotes her own work but also offers articles of more general interest.

I have a website and a blog (as you know!). The website is mostly for people who are interested in my books. The blog, obviously, is about writing, and it offers value even if you never read a word inside one of my books. But I do often mention a title or two to illustrate a point and to remind you that I’ve written this book or that one. I don’t do it so frequently that the blog is all about me, but the self-promotion is there, subtly. And of course I want to encourage you to come to appearances, where it will be hard to resist buying a book.

However, the results of promotion are hard to measure unless you score a huge coup, like an interview that is sure to result in thousands of sales. I have no idea how many books have been bought as a result of this blog, but I like writing my posts, so I continue to do it. It’s not worthwhile to promote in a way that makes you unhappy.

I don’t tweet, and I keep meaning to set up a fan Facebook page, but I haven’t gotten around to it, so I could do more. Everyone can do more. We have to choose between promotion and writing or hiking or talking to friends or flossing our teeth.

Off the internet, you can have postcards made and send them to everyone you know and leave them at local libraries and stores, especially bookstores. Your editor will almost certainly give you a PDF of the book cover to use. Heck, the publisher may even go halvsies with you on the cost or may pay for the whole thing. I always do a postcard mailing for my books. If nothing else, the postcards keep me in touch with cousins and friends I rarely see.

Friends can host book parties for you, although I’ve heard that doesn’t do much for sales. Still, a book is an achievement worth celebrating. You can write a press release and send it to local newspapers. If an editor wants to interview you, that will be one-on-one, most likely by phone, and your shyness may not be activated.

You can arrange a signing at a local bookstore and pressure your friends and family to come to hear you talk about your book. You may not sell many, but your supportive audience will give you experience in discussing your work.

Kids’ book writers can visit schools, which I’ve talked about before on the blog. School visits are a direct source of income as well as promotion, because we get honoraria for our visits. Some people who are shy with adults are comfortable with people half their size.

If you’re willing to give speeches or run workshops and if you have a particular expertise that relates to your writing, which might be in writing gothic mysteries for teens, for example, you can develop presentations for conferences and apply to showcase them. Often you’ll get an honorarium for this too.

I like to speak publicly, but it wasn’t always so. I got nervous. I feared that my nervousness showed, and my audience was suffering for me, miserable in the face of my misery. This was years before I started writing. Luckily, management at my job at the time brought in a public speaking consultant to work with me and a bunch of other newbies. He videotaped us (or whatever the technology was at the time) so we could see how we did. My big discovery was that I didn’t look afraid. No one but me knew how scared I was, which put me at ease. Now I regard nervousness as a boon for my energy level, and I never begin a speech as some do by confessing my fear.

If you can get training in public speaking, I suggest you go for it. It’s comforting to know you can handle yourself in from of a crowd. After all, if success does come your way, you may need to make acceptance speeches.

I remember a lot of the public speaking advice the consultant gave us, which I’m happy to share. He was opposed to written speeches and even speeches from notes. He said if you don’t know your topic well enough to talk from memory, you shouldn’t give a speech about it. I’ve taken some of that advice. I use notes to make sure I get to everything, but never a written speech. However, I do practice my speeches in the privacy of my office until I have what I want to say down solid, even to the cadence of my clauses, the expressions I’ll use, a particular wording. Then, except for an occasional glance at my notes, I’m looking at my audience the whole time.

The consultant was against podiums too. He wanted to be able to walk in the aisles and lock eyes with anyone on the verge of falling asleep. An assertive fellow, he refused ever to speak after his audience had had a meal, when they’d be drowsy. I don’t love podiums either, but I speak from behind them when I have to, and I certainly speak after a meal. And I have observed people fall asleep, which throws me off my game a little, but I soldier on.

I don’t remember if these are his techniques or if I’ve come upon them myself: I never use a power-point presentation, although I do project images on a screen when I need them. Power point, in my opinion, like a written speech, lacks spontaneity. If the room isn’t full, I urge my audience to move up to the front rows. I ask for the lighting to be as bright as it can be and still have people able to see the images on the screen. The most distressing speech (distressing for me) I’ve ever given was in a darkened auditorium with lights only on me. Afterwards, I was told it went well, but I couldn’t judge audience reaction and I felt boring and foolish. I know I would have been better if I could have seen a few people nodding or smiling.

The point of the consultant’s advice and my own strategies is to shrink the distance between audience and speaker. It’s that distance that causes the horror, but when you close it, the experience becomes more intimate even when hundreds of people are listening. Intimate is familiar. We often do intimate.

Here are three prompts:

∙    If you belong to a writing group, my guess is that sometimes talk wanders to publishing and even self-promotion. Take turns with group members in giving a chat about your story. Listen to the others. What worked? What didn’t? What can you incorporate into your own presentation?

∙    Write a variant of (part of) Cyrano de Bergerac. Your main character, Bethany, has published her first book. The publisher has set up a local signing, but she’s terrified. So she enlists a friend, Wanda, to speak for her. Wanda, however, isn’t much of a reader. She’s told Bethany that she read her book and loved it, but in truth she got only as far as the first chapter. Write the scene.

∙    Every year the empress of the Ocean Islands judges a poetry competition among her islands. The winning island hosts the empress until the next contest, and her presence brings the people of that island both esteem and wealth. On Parrot Island the judges have chosen Alti’s poem as the one to represent them this year. Alti will have to read the poem to the empress, and his delivery will be part of her evaluation. Trouble is, he suffers from awful stage fright. His teacher, Yora, has been charged with helping him prepare, but she preferred a different poem by another student, and she’s decided to sabotage Alti rather than help him. Write what happens.

Have fun, and save what you write!

22 Responses on “Speech!”

  1. Amanda L. Davis says:

    I'm a published author, and I'm in the middle of a promotional tour right now. 🙂 School talks are some of the best ways to promote for me.

    When I first started, the talking was incredibly hard for me, I'm an introverted person, and I start shaking when speaking in front of others, but I do okay now.

    I do think great writing is more important than speaking well and promoting, but they're a close, close second.

  2. Chicory says:

    I had to take a public speech class for my college degree. The part that made me most nervous was knowing I would be timed. I couldn't concentrate on what I was saying because all I could think of was ticking clocks. When you visit schools and give speeches, is the time factor a problem for you?

  4. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Chicory–I'm not being graded, which is very nice. I arrange for someone to let me know when I have a minute or two left on my time. If I happen to have a slick speech ending I skip ahead to it. Otherwise, I just chug along until the time is up and then say "Thank you." Nobody is going to die if I don't get to a particular point.

  6. Jen says:

    Thanks for all the great advice and input! I definitely think speaking at schools would be a lot more comfortable for me, and the idea of getting some training in public speaking is helpful, because I'm sure it would help me gain some confidence. Hopefully my books will be good enough to warrant me needing to worry about self-promotion, if you know what I mean. 😉

  8. Emma says:

    Yay! It worked! I'm a blogger now! No more posting on the guestbook! (happy dance!)

    Interesting post! I've never liked giving any sort of speeches. If I ever get published, this is advice I'll use for sure.

  10. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    I have some problems with settings.
    I don't like to include big hunks of nothing but setting descriptions because they seem unnatural. But when I try to slip in details about the setting in little tidbits, (for example: She ran her fingers down the rough tree bark. She was sure they had been through here before. "Are we lost?") there aren't enough of them, and the reader is left feeling as though he too is lost in a hazy, half-invisible environment with a couple of rough-barked trees. Does anybody have any suggestions on making setting descriptions seem more natural, while still having enough details that the setting is clear and rich?
    Julia

  12. Emma says:

    In my children’s book there are about 30 supporting characters and one MC. Thirty is a fairly big number when it comes to characters, so I spend the two-thirds of the book bringing them in and introducing the plot before I get to the action scene. Thankfully for me, the plot requires that they come in one at a time because it starts from the ground up. However, one third of the book containing the adventure might be too boring for kids. What should I do? I’ve read your post about introducing characters and tried to apply that, but it still seems wrong. Any advice?

    @Julia – I agree that spending an huge chunk of the story on setting is annoying, but I usually like a paragraph or so of description, just enough to get a feel of the environment. I especially like it when all five senses are applied. You might want to read "Princesses of the Midnight Ball" or "Princess of Glass" by Jessica Day George. I adore her descriptions.

  13. Emma says:

    I take that back – it's more like fifteen or twenty that are actually introduced. There are a few others involved but I never call them by names and they aren't important.

  14. Erin Edwards says:

    I've been busy as of late but checked in and got caught up reading the post. A wonderful one of course!

    I was hoping your appearance was in Texas because my two daughters didn't know your books when you were here before and have been reading them lately. My youngest (age 9) just finished reading "Fairest" and I thought I would share highlights of her comments. She loved it "except for the creepy parts." (She skipped to the end at one point so she wouldn't have nightmares.) Her favorite part was the librarian who sang about over-used titles. And she also mentioned that she wished she knew the names of the children in this book and in Ella Enchanted. 😉 Gail, did you happen to come up with those names but not put them in the books?

    @Chicory – I used to do contests with timed extemporaneous speeches and you were disqualified for going over but also marked down if you didn't conclude, so I was very aware of the clock! I'm trying to remember what I did to time it. I think in a 10 minute speech you want to be done with your introduction in about a minute. And when you have two minutes left you should be starting your conclusions. Once you give a few speeches of the same length you do get an internal idea of how much you need to say to fill up the time. Of course, when you then get as good as Gail, you are able to take clues off the audience and lengthen or shorter areas as you watch the audiences response.

  15. Melissa says:

    Gail-
    I'm down in Florida for the week for my Grandma's 80th birthday and all the while wishing I was in Tarrytown Ny visiting with you. Dining at restaurants with relatives every evening can get rather dull. I was starting to wonder whether I should bring one of your books with me to read under the table. =). I decided against it but one more dinner like today and I just might. My cousins are interesting enough but they're all older. Anyway I wasn't just writing to tell you random things I do have a question. What kind of things do you do at a normal book signing? I guess I mean what did you do the whole time at your event in Tarrytown?

  16. Brianna says:

    Ok, Gail and anyone else:
    I seem to have a problem concerning my characters. Before (or while I'm) writing a book, I come up with character questionnaires, character sketches, etc, etc, so when I start writing I have this clear picture in my head of what my character looks like while I'm writing. But recently I've caught myself and found that when I read through older stories that i have no clue what the MC's appearance is. I think that this is because as I read/revise I already have a picture in my head so I know exactly what they look like with out putting it in my story. Of course, everyone might have their own ideas of what an "Allie" or "Russell" or "Liam" or "Leslie" look like… does anyone else have this problem? I think it's pretty difficult to describe yourself in first person (which is usually what I'm writing in), ie, "I have beautiful golden hair and laughing green eyes" so on, so forth. Can anyone remedy this problem?
    One more thing about POV… this isn't really related to anything, but i recently noticed it in myself and wondered if anyone else feels the same way… When I am writing a novel in which I can realistically "put myself" in my characters shoes, I usually use 1st person. But when I'm writing a fantasy or anything else I can't imagine myself into, I tend to use 3rd person. Isn't that weird? And when I'm writing with more more than one MC, I have to use 3rd person. I can't switch back and forth between narrators… but some people are great at it. It's just me. And so is disliking the use of 3rd person omniscient. It's too personal… 😛 That's just me. I'm a strange writer. 🙂

  17. gailcarsonlevine says:

    Erin Edwards–I'm glad your daughter enjoyed FAIREST! I don't think I named the children, but your daughter can. For FAIREST she should be sure to give them Ayorthian names, starting with a vowel and ending with the same vowel.

    Melissa–In Tarrytown I just shared a table with another author and signed books when people came by wanting to buy. If the signing is just for me, I give a talk about the newest book and answer questions.

    Brianna–Check out my post of 7/27/11 about physical descriptions. Then, if you'd like, you can ask follow-up questions.

  18. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    Dear Julia, i'm no Mrs.Levine but I think I can help. I started writing fun stuff last year and I think your over thinking it. When I write stories I brainstorm and start. Settings are supposed to help the reader visulize, not get bored. Try, she moved her fingers through the rough trunk. She couldn't be sure but she thought she had been here before.
    But if she's been there before there needs to be some details about something other than bark.
    She remembered the golden lilies next to the bark and the waterfall behind it, "Are we lost?"
    Sanya

  19. Heather Dixon says:

    I've been a recluse when it comes to self promotion, but I did do some behind-the-scenes promotion, like make the book trailer. Thankfully my publisher has been kind about it. As far as I can tell, it hasn't made a difference in the book's sales.

    I also wanted to add that I really enjoyed the gesture drawing descriptions from "Dave at Night." I wish I could describe something so fluid so perfectly.

  21. Chicory says:

    Thanks for all the advice on timed speeches. Remembering that I'm not getting graded -that should help a lot! Erin, you're right that practice will probably give me a better sense of pacing when it comes to public speaking.

  22. gailcarsonlevine says:

    From the website:

    Emma- It seems to me that your problem with supporting characters is very specific to your story, so it might require a very specific solution. So this possible solution may not fit your story very well, but have you tried to merge some of those characters together? If any of them act similarly or have the same sorts of talents, you may want to consider blending them into one.
    Also, thank you for recommending Jessica Day George- I've never read 'Princess of Glass' or 'Princess of the Midnight Ball', but I reread my copy of 'Dragon Slippers', and that really helped. She does have amazing descriptions.
    Julia

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