And in between those launches, I took a much-needed breather at the FOURTH ANNUAL S3Q2 & Friends Retreat! We returned to good old Beverly Shores, Indiana for a third year.
We being S3Q2 (that is, original members of the VCFA class known as the Super Secret Society of Quirk and Quill) …
… and Friends (that is people we love who’ve been kind enough to join us for one or more years of retreating):
That’s right. The friends now outnumber the Quills! This year’s Quills included Ginger, Larissa, Varian, myself and Jen, and the Friends included Amy Rose Capetta, Mary Winn Heider, Rachel Hylton, Katie Bayerl, Marianna Baer, Steve Bramucci, and Carol Brendler.
We also made friends with a peacock who wanted to come inside.
I think he blessed us with good luck, but we did worry about him running into the spooky coyote pack that we heard while lounging in the hot tub.
Per usual, we enjoyed dining at Bartlett’s …
And cooking for ourselves!
Steve was our newbie, which worked out well since he stressed to impress with some amazing cuisine …
Carol can be seen here giving the evil eye to snap-happy Varian during a Pomodoro.
Some of us took breaks to stretch …
I can be spotted yoga-ing in the background.
… or to visit the beach …
… and when we tired of all of that, we got really goofy …
This is me wearing Varian’s shoes, or, as I prefer to call them, clown shoes
Mary Winn and Carol sizing each other up
Larissa testing the capabilities of Varian’s smartphone camera.
This is either another camera test or the cover for Larissa and Varian’s new chamber pop album
Again, Steve was new
At one point we were even haunted by the ghost of a last-year Friend, Trent Reedy aka The Phantom, who sent each of us a mysterious message. Hylton (aka the plucky Final Girl) and the Phantom traded a series of ominous messages.
And, of course, we took lots of pictures of each other in our many and varied groupings…
The pics in this post were all taken by Varian and Amy Rose!
FIVE of us are Sara Crowe clients
Two of us belonged to the Cliffhangers class
Three of us used to have a Chicago writing group called TOOCF (aka The Other Other Chicago Fire)
Three of us were more recently at VCFA together, write together virtually …
… and MIGHT secretly be triplets separated at birth.
All of us, but especially this one, are prone to mischief.
As you probably can tell, we love each other lots and miss each other terribly.
I didn’t make it up and have no idea who did, but it’s basically a game of metaphors. One person leaves the room to act as the guesser, and everyone else chooses someone in the room to describe. When the guesser returns, she asks questions about the mystery person’s essence—such as, “if this person were an animal, what animal would she be?” “If he were a piece of furniture?” “A condiment?”
My acting teacher in college gave our class assignments to write metaphors like these in our character journals. The characters in my debut novel, Don’t Touch, try it out on Hamlet and Ophelia. Peter asks Caddie:
“What’s Ophelia’s favorite ice cream flavor?”
“Did they have ice cream in Denmark back then?”
“Doesn’t matter. Hamlet’s taking Ophelia to the ice cream social. What does she order?”
“Um. How about lemon sorbet?”
“Ooh, I like it. Simple, clean.”
“What about Hamlet?”
“I think Hamlet’s got to be a rocky road kind of guy.”
“So wait, is this supposed to be the kind of ice cream he would eat, or the kind of ice cream that he is?”
“It’s an essence thing,” he says. “Instinct.”
I suggest that you play a mini-version of this game with your characters. Come up with five highly modified metaphors. And these aren’t about association; they’re about essence.
What kind of weather is Harry Potter? You might be tempted to say lightning–I mean, there’s a lightning bolt on his face—but does Harry move through the world, interact with his friends, or approach his problems with the character of lightning? Not so much.
To me, Harry’s more like a sun ray cutting through clouds on a brisk and gloomy day. You might think of something wildly different, or you might think of multiple metaphors for different moments in a character’s story. That’s cool. This is just for you.
In acting class, our metaphors became the source material for physicality and vocal choices. When I chose a corkscrew as a metaphor for Marlene in Top Girls, that object’s shape, tension, and spiraling action fed into the way my Marlene sat at her desk, the way she held a pen, the way she pivoted on a single sharp high heel.
For writing, your metaphors might become objects in your characters’ rooms, a part of the setting that surrounds them in an important scene, or a part of the language you use to describe them. They might even inform whether you focus on soft or hard sounds or the rhythm with which your characters speak.
Try coming up with metaphors to fit these categories, and then see if you can incorporate one of them into a scene. What if your character were . . .
A type of weather
A piece of furniture
A type of cuisine
A color
An animal
A utensil
A TV show
A game
A profession
A piece of art
A landscape
A tree
Something you can purchase at a 7-11
A literary genre
A person you knew in college . . .
You never know which metaphor might unlock a door in your brain, so feel free to make up your own. And remember, it’s a game, so have fun playing!
As I type this, that’s how much time I have until Don’t Touch comes out. That’s a little more than six months, but it feels like September 2, 2014, is looming over me like one of those precarious Midwestern ice caves they keep showing on the news.
In the past few weeks, I’ve asked for blurbs, sent in my first pass pages changes, built a website, organized a cover reveal, and held a giveaway. I also received a big ol’ box of ARCs that I’m not sure what to do with . . .
..
I think mailing’s involved.
Over the next months, I need to figure that out, order SWAG, submit to festivals, plan launch parties in two states, plan a blog tour, schedule signings, make a trailer? I need to decide how much I can afford to travel and where and in what order makes the most sense.
These are author problems–i.e. not bad problems to have. I’m not complaining. And there’s a little-expressed business side of me–let’s call her my inner author–who enjoys all this stuff.
But the writer in me is getting grouchy. The writer in me wants to tackle the author and shut her in a dark room free of distractions till she passes out from lack of Twitter.
This morning, I spent about two hours reading over my notes for my many-times-abandoned novel-in-waiting. It’s languished for months at a time while I’ve revised Don’t Touch, and more recently, while I’ve worked on completely non-writing-related tasks of authordom. I want to work on it, but I want to do it my way. I want to do it first thing in the morning, when I don’t have the weight of a zillion other responsibilities hanging over me. And I’m not going to get that luxury.
So I’d better just write. And remind the author in me that without the writer, she’s just building a gorgeous ice cave in the hot, hot sun.
I’ve been working on a novel that begins with a deep freeze.
(This pic happens to be from Chicago’s awful storm of 2011 and not from the Polar Vortex, but you get the idea. Burial in ice and snow.)
I write outlines, synopses, pages of notes; I write drafts full of characters that have since been discarded. My latest Scrivener file contains 13,000 words. An earlier one: 271,000. Still another: 233,000. Much of that is repeated. Some of it isn’t. Sometimes, I think it’s YA. Other times, it feels more middle grade. Sometimes I think it’s a series, and then my brain starts to shiver.
As I wander through this story, I feel lost as my girl in the snow, fighting her way through wind tunnels of ice chips that bite at her cheeks. And the weather outside matches my fictional wasteland.
Chicago’s experiencing record lows–for the second time this year, a polar vortex is giving me a Monday off with wind chills of 40 below.
My ceiling is gone because my neighbor’s pipes burst during the last low. I’m going to have to move out while cute Russian men replace my floor.
I was making so much progress over the holidays. I felt so close to having a synopsis to share before sickness made my brain fuzz, before the polar vortex squeezed its fist, before my ceiling sogged. The past few weeks have felt like a gauntlet of challenges. I haven’t written much or often, and that’s okay. None of this is normal.
Though it does remind me of Doris Lessing’s wisdom:
If there’s something you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.
And here’s the thing … When I do write, I thaw. I feel limber and agile and sharp. I have hope for my story, that I and it will find our way out of this mess that we’re in.
And in Saturday’s mail I received a package with my first designed pages for Don’t Touch, and that felt like a blast of summer.
I don’t usually write to music. It distracts me, but I do write with it. I have favorite music for getting into moods, connecting with characters, or inspiring story.
I credit my songwriter friend, John Elliott, and his music for inspiring this post. I’ve written with his music many times, and his new indie album Good Goodbyes released Tuesday. When John invited me to write a review of his album, I told him I don’t know anything about reviewing music. I do know I love this album, that it’s evocative and inspiring, and I’m excited to try writing with it soon.
Here are some ideas for writing with music, even if you’re not fond of playing it while you write.
Make playlists for a range of emotions and tones that you can listen to before diving into scenes.
If you don’t want to invest time in creating your own playlist, choose one song and see what playlist iTunes Genius or Pandora or a similar service creates for you.
Make a Pandora radio station for a character. Input a few of the character’s favorite songs and discover other songs they might like. Sometimes, the lyrics of songs discovered this way have led me to theme and story in surprising ways.
Choose a song lyric as a thematic touchstone. Paste the quotation at the top of your manuscript, whether or not you intend to quote it in the finished book.
Once you have a rough outline, find a song to represent each point on it. Listen to the songs together as a soundtrack and see if you learn anything new about your story.
Listen to a song with evocative lyrics and jot down the lines that stand out to you. See what happens if you try to write a story around those lines.
Find a song or music video that inspires you. Songs and music videos are so often like poetry, containing signposts of story but open to interpretation. Your own interpretation might become an original plot. Two music vids that always inspire me are Beirut’s “Postcards from Italy” and the Raveonettes “Dead Sound.” The latter has majorly helped me get into the mood for my current WIP.
If you’re up for a kick-in-the-pants, do-it-right-now challenge, try the one of the last two exercises with this video of John Elliott’s “Back Where I Was” set to a single thunderstorm. I recommend making the video full screen. Share a bit of your exercise or let us know how it worked for you in comments!
You can hear samples of tracks from more of John’s work and see more videos of his songs here.
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending–and reading at–Sarah Aronson’s book launch for Believe. I haven’t read my copy yet, but Believe promises to be an intriguing exploration of the unwanted celebrity our culture thrusts on the survivors of public tragedy. It’s been named an ALAN Pick, and if the book is anything like the book LAUNCH, it’s going to be amazing.
Planning a book launch is a daunting task, but Sarah designed this event in a unique way that made it successful on multiple levels.
First, the event took place at Curt’s Cafe, a mission-based non-profit that trains at-risk youth in food-service and life skills. All the food for the book launch was donated, so attendees were encouraged to donate and to buy raffle tickets to support Curt’s Cafe.
Allowing the event to double as a fundraiser may have encouraged more people to come. And Sarah says, “The spirit of the event IS the spirit of Curt’s! I hoped we could pack the house (we did!) and help them continue to make a difference in our community.” Everybody wins.
Sarah wanted “to honor the process of writing,” to share that with her friends, and to “honor the VC and MFA experience.” Many of the readers attended VCFA; Laura Ruby teaches in a similar program at Hamline.
The event definitely took me back to the readings at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where students and faculty often read from works in progress. It was so exciting to hear snippets of books that are in various stages of the submission and publication process. And for Sarah, the callback to VCFA had extra meaning since the first version of Believe was her graduate reading.
This group reading also cultivated a great sense of community. I’ve long admired some of these authors but never before met them in person. Now, I’ve not only met them, I’ve heard what they’re working on. And it was great to see VCFA alums like Carolyn Crimi and Linda Washington in the audience.
As Sarah says, “For me, writing is all community. Over the years, the readings I’ve participated in have made me feel like a writer, have helped me make amazing friends. What better way to celebrate?”
Fire behind a story gives it flesh. We find our spark. The story burns. The pages fill. And once the story’s full, it’s time for cold. Sharp. Reflection.
Contraction.
In my first revision of DON’T TOUCH for my editors, I had a lot of questions to answer, lots of backstory to clarify, characters to unfold. The novel grew. When I sat down with my line-edits, I needed to focus on pace. I needed to chill out, get analytical, and SLASH with an ICY BLADE.
I wanted to see how all the characters, settings, and threads fit together, so I looked to the blog of fellow VCFA grad Ingrid Sundberg. She has many excellent posts on structure, but since my book deals with OCD, it’s only fitting that a post called “Obsessed wtih Story Structure” spoke to me.
I love that this post encourages flexibility in design. This is not a formula. Identifying what needs tracking for a particular story can be as instructive as creating the visual itself.
I made a graph tracking four settings, five plot threads, two types of scenes (flashbacks and theater scenes), and nine characters. Along the top, I also used opposing colors for alternating sections and chapters (shown in the second picture).
On a separate track, I outlined all the plot points and played with lines representing tension and desire.
Then as I cut, I folded over the cut pages, accordion-style.
As the graph contracted, the proportions began to look nicer, and the patterns pleased me. For other sections, I was able to visualize changes without manipulating the paper. It helped me identify sections that needed trimming or a change of pace.
If you’re considering trying this, here are some things I learned.
I got super-specific — one block on my graph equals two pages. I would suggest starting on a larger scale. The trends and proportions should still be clear, but it won’t be as painstaking. I might also start with less characters or group those who almost always appear together.
For me, mapping out the plot threads was most helpful. If I had a page or more with no plot threads represented, often, it could be cut.
I also found it helpful to use a single color for both a character and a plot thread that featured him or her. In my graph, the hot pink color represents Caddie’s friend Mandy, the thread of their friendship, and the setting of Mandy’s house, and that consistency made it easier to connect the sections of the graph.
Best of all, this graph gave me the courage to SLASH without worrying about what might be lost.
My Twitter feed had a lot to say about sexism and feminism this weekend.
During Book Expo America, Jennifer McCartney posted a picture of some troubling titles for kids, the pink Nice and Pretty and the blue Brave and Smart from AZ Books.
Meanwhile, at the Centre for Youth Literature’s Reading Matters conference in Australia, some great conversations were taking place on the gender panel featuring Gayle Forman and Libba Bray.
"Is your book a girl book or a boy book?" Opening question on gender panel at #YAmatters. @libbabray starts off.
— Gayle Forman (she/her) (@gayleforman) June 1, 2013
Sexism in YA: "you don't need to be concerned with what's going on in 51% of the population." Our message to boys that books are girl books.
— Gayle Forman (she/her) (@gayleforman) June 1, 2013
"If Harry Potter had been about Hermione, it probably wouldn't have been such a success." @gayleforman#YAMatters
If you’ve had your head under a rock and haven’t heard about Coverflip, read this HuffPost article, then search #coverflip on Twitter for all the good stuff that came of it.
All weekend, tweets flew over sexism in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America bulletin. Some, like E. Catherine Toblar, decided to leave the organization over it. Others, like Anne Lyle, are joining up:
That might not have happened at all, and certainly not so quickly, without social media. But as Kameron Hurley says:
Well, welcome to 2013. And the world wide web, where everybody, even those underprivileged nobodies you never had to listen to before, has a chance to be heard.
Unfortunately, speaking out often comes along with consequences. Ann Aguirre posted yesterday about the sexism she’s encountered in the SFF world, and she’s already receiving hate mail in response, which can be found at the end of her post. As she warns, it’s harsh and could be triggering.
Anita Sarkeesian is one of my heroes, and she’s endured an online campaign of misogyny, bullying, and hacking. Between reminders of that and reading snippets from the SWFA bulletin, I fell into a (thankfully brief and mild) depression.
One tweet that has stuck with me from these past few days is Justine Larbelestier’s in response to the SWFA hubbub:
(She was in the midst of calling out an ill-informed article (book promo) titled “How to Write a Feminist Young Adult Novel” in Jezebel, and she wasn’t alone, but you’ll have to visit to Twitter for more on that …)
And here’s another heartening one, from Justine Larbelestier:
Change is slow, but it is change. Social media opens the door to rants and trolls and bullying and harassment, but it also provides a forum for conversation, for calling out poor choices, and for empowering young people.
And any “nobody” can join the conversation. So participate. Pay attention. Be critical. Listen. Stay positive. Share.
Today, I’m pleased to interview Cori McCarthy about her trailer for her YA debut, The Color of Rain, which comes out May 14th!
I was already excited to read Cori’s book, but this trailer made me rabid. I’m excited to look at another effective trailer that’s so different from Meredith’s trailer in both process and content.
Here’s what I asked Cori:
Did you have any collaboration with your publisher in making the trailer? Did they have conceptual input at all or feedback for you while it was in progress?
I decided to make the trailer because I was having a fun conversation with Amy Rose Capetta. I believe I said something like, “I have iMovie. Maybe I’ll just make one.” I fiddled around with it and made something that afternoon and sent it off to my publicist to hear her thoughts. She gave me some great feedback about shortening it (it went from one minute and ten seconds to fifty seconds, which actually made a big difference). She also suggested that my Kirkus quote should reveal during the voice over to engage the audience while they’re listening to the (rather long) text.
I should also note that Amy Rose is the one who thought it would be cool for the screen to go black when the voice over says, “For now.” She’s quite brilliant.
How was your trailer made? What software was used? Did you make it yourself? Hire someone?
I made the trailer all by myself! I used iMovie, which is extremely basic software that comes on all Macs. I find it to be effective while infuriating.
Trailers can be an investment. Did this cost you a lot or a little?
My trailer didn’t cost me anything but time. Here’s the breakdown: the original trailer took me an afternoon, about three hours, to make. However, finessing it and making the changes that my publicist suggested took a whole weekend.
Did you consider other approaches, and if so, how did you rule them out and land on this one?
Nope. Too poor to consider paying for a trailer.
The main image is from the cover, right? It’s very simple, yet the movement makes it feel like it was designed for this purpose. Did you have to modify that image to make it work for this?
I really wanted a space image for the background. I looked at some things online, but the problem is, you can get in a lot of trouble using something you find on the internet—you never know whose artwork you might be accidentally stealing. I knew that Running Press had purchased the background image for the book, so I used that fairly exclusively. I didn’t have to change it, per se, although I stretched it in places and colored it for the “gone scarlet” effect.
Is there any particular choice that really pleases you after seeing how it turned out?
I really like the way I blended two images to make it seem like the sunburst is actually happening around the side of the planet. I have to admit…that one was an accident that I just ran with.
You chose a really arresting piece of text for the voice over. What were you looking for in choosing it?
I wanted something visual, very specific, and not too science fictiony since I’m trying to entice non Sci-Fi fans with this book. (My agent calls it light Sci, heavy Fi.). Amy Rose helped me choose the passage concerning the bracelets, and I edited it down to keep it simple. I’m glad it’s, as you say, “arresting,” because the book contains graphic violence and sexual, emotional and physical abuse. While I want to engage readers, I also want to warn them that the subject matter is not for everyone, and definitely not for readers under the age of fourteen.
I think that is your voice? Correct me if I’m wrong. What was the recording process for that like?
I scribbled out what I wanted to say and sat on my bed with my iPhone. I recorded it using the Voice Memos app, and then emailed it to myself. I tried it many different ways…some more dramatically ridiculous than others, and ended up choosing the one where I was basically whispering. In fact, if you listen careful, you can hear my husband call my son’s name right before the planet turns red. Ha, I tried to edit that out, but Garage Band software angers me.
Where did you find the music for the trailer?
I played my guitar for the music. I tried a few lovely melodies and then realized that simple was best, strumming out a few harmonics.
Now that you have the trailer, what will you do with it?
I shall put it everywhere and hope that people share the link! I’m hoping that the trailer reaches unexpected readers and also helps people decide if they want to read it or not. Like I said before, my book is not for everyone.
Do you have any advice for an author who’s considering making a trailer for their book? Anything you wish you’d known going in?
I would say that you can make a trailer if you have a Mac, although I would never attempt such a thing on a PC—the freezes and subsequent information loss could be devastating.
As I reread my responses to your questions, it occurs to me that simple is best when it comes to trailers. There were lots of text-swoopy options that I tried that just looked too flashy, and in the end, I let the most dramatic aspect be the book text, which I hope makes it own statement.
If any writers out there are considering making a trailer and would like my input, please feel free to contact me. I might even be in the business of building them for friends for the low low price of a manuscript swap!
Thanks, Cori! And congrats on your upcoming book! I can’t wait to read it.
Today, I’m joined by Meredith Zeitlin, author of the delightful Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters. Her debut YA follows the comic trials and tribulations of Kelsey Finkelstein as she navigates her first year of high school. Comic mayhem ensues, along with engrossing friendship drama.
Before I read this charming, funny, perfectly paced book, I was drawn in by its charming, funny, perfectly paced trailer.
This is one of the most successful book trailers I’ve seen, so I asked Meredith to share her process in creating it and offer up any insight she might have for authors who are considering producing a trailer of their own.
Here’s what she said:
Did you have any collaboration with your publisher in making the trailer? Did they advise you to do it? Did they have conceptual input at all or feedback for you while it was in progress?
Nope, nope, and nope. I’d never even heard of book trailers before a marvelous friend of mine, Anne Walls – who is a writer and also a producer/director – suggested I make one. We came up with the concept together, I paid to have it made, and when it was finished I showed it to the publisher.
How was your trailer made?
The amazing Anne, who lived in LA at the time, was a total rockstar about this project. She called in favors from a professional camera guy, DP, editor… who all worked for the cost of breakfast. She helped me rent a studio, props… everything was top of the line. I never could have done this – well, not without spending thousands and thousands of dollars – without her help and connections. So I was really lucky.
Trailers can be an investment. Did this cost you a lot or a little? If a lot, how did you weigh the decision to invest in it? If a little, how did you keep cost down?
As I said, I was really lucky – I was able to do the whole thing (including thank you gifts, flights for Anne to come to NY to work on the finished product, and food for the crew) for a fraction of what it might’ve cost me if I’d had to hire all those people for real. That fraction was still a decent chunk of cash – over a thousand bucks – but still, for what I got, that was pocket change. This is probably why most trailers are pretty low-budget projects; the publishers don’t pay for them, so it’s up to the author. I probably would’ve invested in the project anyway, though, because I thought it would be worth it to make something that would really stand out, especially as a first-time author with no buzz behind me. And ultimately I was right to do it, because the trailer got a lot of bloggers interested in the book!
Did you consider other approaches, and if so, how did you rule them out and land on this one?
We definitely didn’t want to do something linear, like a movie trailer, or anything where you’d see a “Kelsey” – one of the reasons I don’t really describe her, or any of the characters in the book, physically is because I want readers to picture her any way they want. So that’s why only her hands are visible in the trailer. We tossed around a lot of ideas and things we’d seen that we were interested in emulating. We watched LOTS of trailers. The thing that actually influenced us most was Napoleon Dynamite – or rather, the opening credits. We thought it was a cool way of presenting elements of the film without giving too much away. And we liked the way it looked. So we went from there to try and make it our own.
That’s an awesome inspiration! I love the hints of what’s to come in the book, and it’s satisfying to view it again after reading the book. What went in to choosing these teasers?
We basically went through the entire MS and chose all the plot points that we thought we could physically represent with items that would tantalize potential readers and get them interested in the story. We spent a loooong time choosing those items, trying to make sure they were hints and not too on the nose. We found out after we were finished that the publishers were concerned with the inclusion of the vodka bottle, so we cut a second, “G-rated” version for them to post on Amazon. Unfortunately, it’s been over a year and the trailer STILL isn’t up. But that’s a whole other interview…
I think it’s cool that you put it out there, upfront, yes, there is drinking in this book … What was the storyboarding and shooting process like?
Anne and I wrote a script, which she turned into a shooting script. That took a few weeks, just sending ideas back and forth over email. Then we figured out how to get all the props we couldn’t rent (the Annie doll was on ebay, Anne made the newspaper and the Foreign Scarves poster herself, I got my dentist to contribute the broken teeth and other dental tools, I “borrowed” the yellow construction helmet from the scaffolding that happened to be outside my building at the time…)
(Um, amazing)
…and then we had to figure out how we wanted it to look. The actress was a friend who had young-looking hands and was willing to work for free. The shoot itself took almost a full day, and I watched most of it happening on Skype from Brooklyn. Once we had the footage, the really tricky part started – editing. We went through several rounds of that, because I had a very specific idea of how I wanted the transitions to look, and how I wanted certain moments to line up with the music. I think Anne and the editor both wanted to kill me by the end, but we got it done. And I’m still alive!
Is there any particular choice that really pleases you after seeing how it turned out?
I absolutely love the trailer – after we edited it to within an inch of its life, it really was exactly what I imagined in my mind and more. The editor threw in some super cute touches that I hadn’t even thought of – the unicorn at the end, the effects with the transitional elements, like the text message… Anne came up with the rigging of the falling beard, which I think is hilarious. One thing that I REALLY wanted was the fast-motion unfolding of the note, which was tricky but turned out perfectly.
You happen to be a voice over artist, so it makes sense that you provided Kelsey’s voice. What choices did you have to consider in performing Kelsey’s voice?
I didn’t make any choices – that’s just my voice! Which makes sense, since Kelsey is very much me.
Where did you find the music for the trailer? It’s so perfect!
There was actually a song by Paloma Faith, a British singer, that I’d heard when I was recording a commercial months earlier. I loved the song – it was like it had been written about my book. When I found out the client hadn’t used the music for the commercial, I did everything I could think of to get in touch with Ms. Faith, but neither she nor her people got back to me. I didn’t want to use the song without her permission; I also really didn’t want to get sued! So I started searching on free/close-to-free music sites for something with a similar vibe. I listened to about a zillion songs til I finally found the piece we used, paid the fee, and went from there. There’s always a part of me that wishes I could’ve used the original song I’d wanted to use, but I think this one worked out really well.
Once you had the trailer, what did you do with it? What kind of impact did you find it had in bringing attention to your book?
We posted it everywhere we could think of! We tweeted it, we facebooked it, we emailed it to everyone we knew. I asked the publisher to do the same. Then I emailed it to every YA blogger I could find an email address for. We had hoped it would go viral, which didn’t happen, but we did get many, many responses from people who were really impressed with it – in particular, bloggers who wanted to post it on their pages, which is what really started to spread the word about the book. Exactly what I’d hoped for!
Do you have any advice for authors who are considering making trailers? Anything you wish you’d known going in?
Without Anne, who really knew the ins and outs of shooting, I’d’ve been toast. I guess my best advice would be to have a friend with connections to the film world who can hook you up. Not very helpful advice, I know, but honestly, I don’t know how else I would’ve made such a professional trailer. It just wouldn’t have happened – I’d have ended up with nothing, a powerpoint project, or spending a fortune. I know I keep saying over and over that I was lucky, but that’s the truth. Thanks, Anne!
Thanks, Meredith, for sharing your process! I’m looking forward to the follow-up to this book, Sophomore Year is Greek to Me, also from Putnam.