When do you find time to write? Joanne Levy’s Small Medium at Large Launch

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jul 15, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

Saturday, instead of writing, I enjoyed lunch with Wendy Whittingham, illustrator of Miss Wondergem’s Dreadfully Dreadful Pie by Valerie Sherrard and then together we headed off to Joanne Levy’s launch of Small Medium at Large at Bryan Prince’s Book Store in Hamilton.

Try to spot all the famous writers in this audience. I see Gillian Chan and Patricia Storms. Somewhere else milling about is Jocelyn Shipley and Lynda Simmons.

Wendy Whittingham’s the one in the white shirt and long brown hair. After the reading she wanted to ask Joanne some questions. One of the most interesting was “When do you find time to write?”

Now the answer should be easy. If you’re a full time writer, no outside job to take you away, you just get up and write all day.

But the real truth is the person who stays at home inherits most of the household tasks, waiting for the repairman who doesn’t show when he/she’s supposed to and interrupts every two minutes when he/she does. Looking after the sick child or spouse or parent. Feeding the family. Cleaning up after the feed. Walking the dog. Putting the laundry away. Keeping the house in order. Getting the car serviced.

Add to that your own personal maintenance program: exercise, hygiene, doctor and dentist appointments.

But let’s face it, most people even if they don’t write or work from home have to find away to do all this too. So writers claim to struggle with all these time demands when they’re off galavanting to their friends’ book launches.

What writers really need to do if to find a solitude in which to write. If you need total quiet, then you need to pack yourself off to the library where there’s usually even free wireless. If you need white noise, a hubbub that doesn’t involve you, you can go to the coffee shop. A friend of mine likes to hide herself at her cottage for a few weeks to work full throttle near about the middle of a project.

My secret is that I’m an opportunist. (Oh yeah and I can ignore any of the afore mentioned time suckers,
house cleaning especially.) I have the good fortune and focus to be able to write on planes, in cars and in short snatches of time, for example while waiting for supper to go up in flames.

So my advice to Wendy and all creators: steal the time. Make a list of all the things you have to do and pick out which ones you will ignore until you have a couple of hours to write. Switch this list around a bit so that if Monday you ignore your spouse, Tuesday you should ignore your kids or your mother, Wednesday you should forget about showering, dressing and your trip to the gym. Thursday don’t clean the kitchen or make your bed (easily an hour there), Friday don’t cook, that can be your diet day since you neglected exercise on Wednesday. Saturday head for your friend’s book launch. Sunday–that’s your day of rest–you can fulfill all the other demands of your life and forget writing.

Good luck.

Ten+ Tips for a Successful Signing (YA Children’s books)

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jul 1, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

I know what you’re thinking, I’m not signing a board game. It’s Crush. Candy. Corpse plus my other backlist.

Let’s first establish what a successful signing is. Some bookstore managers tell me sales of 20 is what they hope for, some say 30. Assuming a 10% royalty of retail price and a $15 book for ease of math, that means you would earn about $45 for a four hour appearance. So we know success can’t be measured in those numbers, it must be defined by the people you meet during the signing, hopefully kids who will love you forever. Yes they will grow out of your books but they’ll buy them for their kids. Or perhaps for nostalgia sake. Or because their house burnt down. Teachers replace books because they’ve gone mouldy. I’ve lived long enough to enjoy all of these kinds of repeat sales. Educators, librarians and engaged parent and grandparents are also wonderful contacts to make. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. What kind of things do I do, and therefor you can too, to make sure you get at least those numbers the bookstore aims for? Here’s my ten top tips:

1)Engage in the new S & M for writers. No not reading Shades of Grey, I mean posting on Facebook, Twitter and emailing all your friends who live in the area of the store you’re signing at.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Andrea Wayne Von Koningslow, picture book illustrator and writer extraordinaire of How Do You Read to a Rabbit? and many more. She showed up and bought books for herself and her daughters at my pre Canada Day signing in Yorkdale Mall. Also she called out to passing eye-averting strangers. “I’m buying three books of hers. This is a fabulous writer.”

2)Get your hair and nails done, buy a new outfit. (Yes Arthur, Shane, Eric, Ken, John even you) Gives you the confidence to approach those complete eye-averting strangers ducking around you. This may also help counter the pre anxiety levels you experience thinking no one will even be in the store never mind anyone ducking around your table. I wish I’d tried nail decals. They’re a vaguely new and give you something to discuss with kids, besides your stories, so they can fall in like with you enough to buy the book.

Amazingly I can sign with no pen or hands!

3) Make or buy some treats. No peanuts obviously. My current favourite is the Mars Bars Square, The recipe is on my Pinterest site. While they are chocolatey and messy and, call for eight chocolate bars thereby denting that $45 profit, they help me get into shout out mode. So instead of calling “Books for sale, signed by the author,” I can say, “Would you like to try a Mars Bars Square?” Once I’m warmed up I can add, “They’re to promote my latest book. Would you like me to tell you about it?”

4) Bring stuff to hand out, autographable stuff. Preferably with the image of one of your books but it could be a book mark from backlist, could be your business card with a white space to sign. Those are good, actually, ’cause the reader can contact you after. I bring literacy and writing talk tip sheets. When your Mars Bars Squares run out you can call out to parents, “Would you like some tips to get your kids to read?”

5) Confirm with the bookstore contact several times that you are indeed coming along with the date and time. Nothing funny about them totally forgetting. Must have been hard on that one Chapters Store manager when I didn’t show on the date they thought they had asked me. Calling me on the day didn’t help when I was in Vancouver.

6) Arrive early so you can check out the location of the latest reading must haves, either the stacks of Hunger Games or the various Shades of Grey. The bathroom, you want to

know where it is but so do all the eye-averting strangers.

7) Make sure you know the instore specials so you can promote your book with the “On Sale” feature of the day. “If you buy a Canada Day mug, chocolate, card, etc, you get 20% off my book.”

8) Parents love to defer purchases. “Lets just look around and then come back later.”
“You bought the Hunger Games trilogy today, we can should come back another time for this book” Develop a strategy to incur a sense of urgency in them, real estate agents are fabulous at this, and let me know when you’ve perfected it. “If you buy one today, you’ll get my autograph. Teachers love when your kids do a book report on a Canadian author, and if they have a signed copy…well, guaranteed A+.” As I said, let me know if you find a better one.

9) Get someone to take lots of photographs. You can offer to email photos to the potential buyer, if

Jan Slerpe created this sketch from one of his wonderful photos. His picture taking seemed to attract crowds too.

they sign a sheet with their email.

10) Believe that your book offers the best story for your target audience. That tween carrying the

Hunger Games or sadly the Shades of Grey trilogy can also read your novel and love it. You just need to coax them into buying it. And that’s why you’re there.

And the +plus tip? Find a way to enjoy yourself. Bring your laptop and write–you know everyone loves to interrupt you while you’re creating.

Good luck, we all need it.

Finding the desk in your messy office. A how-to guide.

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 25, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

 I know I should probably appear on a reality tv show where they do an intervention.  And I’ve edited enough articles on organizing your home or hiring an organizer that I feel I should be an expert on this topic.

And the winner is…

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 17, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

A while back ago, in desperation I drew my own courtroom sketch for my power point presentation on my new book.  My local librarian, Laura Williams, suggested taking an art class.  Does this answer the commonly asked author  question do you own illustrate your own books?  So for the last three author presentations of crush. candy. corpse I created a contest.  Draw a better courtroom scene than the author’s rendition.  The winner gets…fame, fortune, all my appreciation and…drum roll…an autographed copy of crush.candy.corpse.   Why did I choose this drawing over all the others?  I love the eyes, there’s a Japanese anime look about them.  The characters’ expressions add a touch of humour.  Yes, yes, this drawing just made me smile.  Thank you Sarah!  The book will go out in the mail tomorrow.

Imagine in the Park- A different kind of success

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 11, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

Great props, all nicely displayed and labelled. We did have fun.

Not a Robert Munsch routine-I’m mugging my eldest daughter’s favourite pose for my son in law.

At this point I should mention I was starting to get a sore throat. The sound system I strapped on was a crutch. I really never needed the volume. It rained and the workshops and blue pencils we had envisioned turned into one on one writing chats with kids. We were totally en-tented and the sound of the drops rattling on the canvas was very soothing. Within minutes I’d sold my sample crush.candy.corpse. I wasn’t even trying or I would have bought more.

Such a wonderful opportunity to talk about the excitement of writing with one child at a time.

I was sorry for the hard working arrangers and volunteers of this festival that more kids didn’t turn out. But at the end of the day I felt such deep satisfaction. And I couldn’t have articulated why until I interviewed a writer, Jacqueline Guest, author of Outcasts of River Falls from Bragg Creek, Alberta this morning. She talked about how writing isn’t all about the crappy royalty cheques. (I chuckled at that one.) It’s about passing on the magic of reading. That moment when you connect with a young reader and turn them on. This festival gave me the opportunity to pass on my passion for writing. I’d say I saw the magic wash over at least twenty young writers. A pretty good number, I’d say. Thank you to Patti Cannon

and all the Imagine in the Park volunteers. Pretty sure Ryan will save the world. Thanks also to the parents who took the time to give their kids this experience.

SEEK School Campus

by Sylvia McNicoll | Jun 2, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

I like the chore list

Not sure I could sleep this high up.

I hope to return sometime for a sleepover writing camp. No wireless devices are allowed. Guess I could live without wifi for three days.