Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

I’ve been torn about what to do about this. On the one hand, I feel one of the purposes of this blog is to inform other writers about the parts of the publishing and writing business that I learn about as I go along. I’ve learned so much from reading other authors’ blogs, and so I wonder if someone might find my stories useful.

On the other hand, it feels weird to talk about things that are happening for me but that might not happen for others. It feels sort of braggy, even if I don’t mean it that way at all. I’ve never felt competitive with fellow writers. I assume that whatever great things they get, I can get, too, if I just work hard enough. But I know some writers really burn when good things happen for their peers, and I don’t even want to be part of that.

But.

It seems deceptive and weird to be up here in New York doing what I’m doing right now, and not talk about it. If I’m going to have a blog, it seems like I should tell you true things as they happen, rather than save it all up for some later time when I can say, “Oh, and did I mention this happened back in September?”

So before I tell, I need you all to raise your right hand and repeat after me: “I, [faithful blog reader], promise to read the following in the spirit in which it is offered, as an instructional tale from the trenches of publishing. And even though it is a positive story rather than a dark one, I promise not to hold that against the author, but instead just feel happy for her, as I know she would for me.”

Okay? We square?

So back in July I got a call from the publicity director at Random House, saying they’ve decided to make my novel EVOLUTION, ME, AND OTHER FREAKS OF NATURE their highlight book for next summer’s children and YA list. Which is HUGE. Random House publishes so many great books, I can’t believe they picked mine to give any special treatment to. I know they already do a fantastic job marketing ALL of their authors, so I can’t even imagine what special treatment will look like.

So as part of that, they invited me to come to New York this week to talk at their pre-sales conference, which I did today. I gave a little, “Here’s my story,” kind of speech–maybe ten minutes long–to a roomful of a hundred or so of their sales, marketing, and publicity people. And I don’t know about them, but I had a great time. It’s pretty daunting to be up there in uncomfortable shoes trying to explain yourself in ten minutes, but I think it went all right.

Then after that, I was invited to a luncheon for about forty-five of the sales people to the big accounts–Barnes & Noble, Borders, Target, etc.–where I got to do this kind of speed-dating thing, moving from table to table in 10-minute intervals, meeting the sellers and hearing a little bit about what they do and what they like about their work, and they got to ask me some follow-up questions to the weird but true story I told them in my speech.

It was great to put some faces with the job. We writers know that real people are out there selling our books to bookstores, but when do we ever get to meet them? One of the things I’m enjoying so much about the publishing process so far is getting to collaborate with so many talented, brilliant people at Random House. The sales, marketing, and publicity forces are three more spokes in that wheel. Those people have big ideas I couldn’t even begin to come up with. I admire anyone who is great at his or her job, and the people I met today definitely fit that description.

It’s a heady experience to be the object of attention like this. I know it’s my book, not me, so that makes it a little easier. But it’s still awfully strange when you’re used to working alone all day long, not knowing if anyone in the outside world will think that last line you just wrote is funny.

So there you have it. I hope that was useful–or at least interesting–information. If you think it was, I’ll keep being honest and provide updates. If instead you read the above and rolled your eyes and thought, “Gee, vain much?” then I’ll shut up and go back to talking about camping.

What say you?

Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Books, Authors, Random House, Young Adult Fiction

Posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 1:17 pm under Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. . Both comments and pings are currently closed.