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COUNTDOWN TO PUBLICATION—34 DAYS
Dear She Writers,
I’m writing to you from India, where –yes! –I did pick up some gorgeous saris and a black kurti top to wear for book tour events. Will post photos when I have better access to the internet. I also picked up some story ideas, which I try to do whenever I travel.
34 days to publication now. I’m getting excited and nervous, both! We’re putting the final touches on the book tour this week. And advance interviews are being set up, especially for monthly publications.
If you’re interested, let me know, and I’ll post about what writers can do to set these up. '(We can't do much about setting up reviews, I feel that's not kosher, but it's quite OK to ask people if they're willing to interview you).
I received a great starred advance review from Booklist, for which I’m very thankful, appreciative and relieved. (One never knows how these things will turn out!) I’m sharing an excerpt below.
“An entrancing storyteller with an unerring moral compass, Divakaruni has created a superbly well-plotted, charming, yet hard-hitting novel of family, marriage, and class, a veritable Indian Jane Austen novel spiked with racial prejudice and religious violence. Raised in Kolkata by her sweet if burdened grandmother and her grandfather, a famous and irascible lawyer, Korobi is a modest, smart, and unworldly college student when she meets wealthy, stylish, and jaded Rajat. Much to the surprise of his high-society friends and the horror of his megarich ex-lover, Rajat proposes to quiet, unhip Korobi, who feels as though she has stepped into a fairy tale, cuing us to expect tragedy. But there is no anticipating the complexities and implications of the crises and obstacles Korobi and Rajat face in light of Korobi’s resolute quest for the truth about her father as she journeys across harshly xenophobic post-9/11 America. From baneful secrets, poisonous misunderstandings and conflicts, and transcendent love, Divakaruni has forged another tender, wise, and resonant page-turner.”
By now, the jacket comments for Oleander are in place, too, and I wanted to write a little bit about that arduous process.
Book reviews, as I said earlier, are something the author can’t do much about. Except maybe pray! And of course it helps if you’ve kept track of publications that have reviewed you positively in the past, and pass on that information to the publisher. Then the publisher sends out the book to all possible review venues, and you wait!
But the jacket comment is where the author can make a difference by writing to other writers whose work you admire and whose endorsement is important to you and helpful to your book. Be prepared for silence, for people saying no. Writers are often beleaguered by hundreds of requests. (I am, too). I must have written to 50 writers about Oleander before I received my jacket comments. A good idea is to start as soon as you have a complete final manuscript, giving people several months of lead time before they have to turn in their comment.
The jacket comments for Oleander are now on my website, at http://www.chitradivakaruni.com/books/oleander_girl, if you want to take a look. You might also be interested in the way the page has been set up, with advance “Buy” links to various online book sale sites.
My website is a fairly old one, and thus not at all fancy. I fully realize the importance of having a more professional looking site, and I’ll be revamping it later this year, probably after the book tour, but for now at least all the information is there for readers.
That’s all for now! I’d love to hear from you about jacket comments and advance reviews you’ve received and how you or your publisher went about getting them, and whether you think they've been helpful. Anything you want to post about your websites would be great, too.
Comment
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Comment by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on February 19, 2013 at 7:37pm -
Kelly, That's an excellent thought, about choosing a blurber that would appeal to the book's target audience. I'll keep that in mind for next time--and maybe even for when Oleander Girl gets published in India (it will come out later in the year). Meanwhile, hopefully, there'll be some overlap between authors I love and the ones my readers love.
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Comment by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on February 19, 2013 at 7:32pm
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Hi Linda,
Thanks for sharing your experience, and congratulations on Off Kilter. Those are good ideas--and how lucky to have so many quotes that they ran out of space on the book jacket!
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Comment by Kelly Hayes-Raitt on February 19, 2013 at 4:58pm -
Pamela, thanks for your comment! I just checked out your web site (http://pamolson.org) -- very nice! And what great blurbs! This is a good example and inspiration to us all.
If you'd like to blurb my book and link back to your site and book, I'd love to add you to my web site! Let me know. Email me through www.LivingLargeInLimbo.com. I'm sure we have (or should have!) readers in common.
Kelly Hayes-Raitt
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Comment by Elizabeth Yon on February 19, 2013 at 4:48pm -
Hello Chitra,
Your post comes to me on the same day I read your wonderful article, The Novelist's Guide to Writing What [Only]You Know, in Writer's Digest. How I love that article. It relieved some tension in me that nearly brought me to tears, a tension of which I was barely aware until it let go. Your personal anecdote about writing the story "Mrs. Dutta Writes A Letter" touched on the difficulty I have faced in writing from my own experiences, and it gave me new insight. The way you share your writing and publishing experience is lovely, and I find it not just informative, but calming, somehow. I just wanted to thank you for that.
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Comment by Paulette Livers on February 19, 2013 at 4:11pm -
Thank you, Chitra. I wonder if the blurbs you did receive after those 50 requests have anything in common: personal ties, friend of a friend, subject matter those blurb-writers are typically drawn to, or what--do you have thoughts about why some wrote comments for you and others declined? I'm just signing a contract now with Counterpoint Press for my debut novel, CEMENTVILLE, so I'm trying to soak up like a sponge any good advice I can.
Oh, and speaking as a designer, your website would have an updated look simply by changing the typeface and shifting the colors. It's actually quite nice and simple!
Best of luck with the coming busy months, Chitra.
--Paulette
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Comment by Pamela Olson on February 19, 2013 at 3:40pm -
Thanks for this great post, Chitra! I hope to run into you along the "book tour" trail this spring...
Kelly, you're book also sounds awesome -- I'm so glad to have learned about it here! I lived in the Middle East for a couple of years, mostly in Palestine, and I have a book about it -- also a journalistic memoir -- coming out in March. Awesome that you were able to get Ms. Golden Gelman as a blurber. And yeah, a blurb from Ms. Gilbert would be gold! But I'm sure 5,000 people a day try to ask her for that... Most of my blurbers are academics, journalists, and activists, as you can see on my website (though I did make a try for Jimmy Carter -- why not?)
Anyway, Kelly, please be in touch and let me know if I can help in any way, including spreading the word. I'm always thrilled to find other people writing about this part of the world.
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Comment by Mardith Louisell on February 19, 2013 at 3:15pm -
Great post, Chitra and great responses from Kelly and Linda. Will try to use all advice as I begin seeking publication for my flash fiction, Beside Myself.
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Comment by Lisa Thomson on February 19, 2013 at 2:29pm -
I've published one book so this has been a learning process. I sent copies of my book to reviewers all over. I got lucky with one or two excellent reviews but mostly silence or no's. people are so busy. My web site is pretty good but needs some updating and my web guy isn't available so i'm having to teach myself. I thought i would have more sales directly from the site but more sell in stores. I think people visit to read the blog. Still learning. Thanks Chitra for sharing.
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Comment by Kelly Hayes-Raitt on February 19, 2013 at 2:28pm
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Sorry, Chitra, but I feel your priorities are off-kilter...Book blurbs (whether for your web site or your book jacket) are not about the author and who is important to her or who she admires. They are about attracting potential readers. When considering who I wanted to ask to blurb, here were my priorities:
1. For early blurbs: Who can I get to easily?
2. For each of my target audiences, who would they listen to? Who influences them? Impresses them?
I've just started the blurb process (and my book is only 80% done). While the coolest blurb for my journalistic memoir about my recovery from a nasty losing campaign for political office by working in the Middle East with Iraqi and Palestinian refugees would be AL GORE, I don't want to spend the time to try and reach him right now. Instead, I looked to my target audiences, one of which is Sierra Club members. I asked their former executive director, an acquaintance of mine, to blurb. Another target audience is women travelers. I could knock myself out trying to reach Elizabeth Gilbert, or I could ask Rita Golden Gelman, author of the popular Tales of a Female Nomad, who included 3 of my essays in her follow-up anthology Female Nomand and Friends (Random House).
That's my start. Blurbs are posted on my home page at www.LivingLargeinLimbo.com. As I prepare for my return trip to Baghdad this summer, I'll be posting more blurbs, so stay tuned!
Kelly Hayes-Raitt
P.S. If Al Gore and/or Elizabeth Gilbert are interested in blurbing my book, please call!
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Comment by Linda Wisniewski on February 19, 2013 at 2:00pm -
Hi, Chitra,
Congratulations on your new book! When my memoir, Off Kilter, was ready, I got blurbs by sending review copies to some of my favorite writing teachers - Maureen Murdock, Susan Albert, Susan Tiberghien, to a famous yoga teacher because I mention yoga in my book - Elise Browning Miller, and to a few women authors of memoirs with similar themes. I got blurbs from most of them, but only a couple got on the book cover. The rest are on the publisher's website, and there was some disappointment expressed by an author 'blurber' because her name didn't make it to the book cover. I didn't realize how much she wanted the publicity. I'd say, make it clear to the people you are asking that their blurb might not be chosen for the book jacket. And thank them for considering it, even if they have to decline.
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