There’s nothing I enjoy more (besides writing and acting) than helping other artists- we’re all in this together and everyone has aspects of the career, no matter how successful they become, that they’d like to get better at or feel more comfortable doing. I absolutely love the marketing of art and creativity- finding the answers to the question of ‘How can we entice people to give this piece of art a chance, how can we grab their curiosity and make it relevant and interesting to them while both keeping some mystery and showing them what its sort of about?” The writing of my books and works is fantastically fun and makes me REALLY happy but the selling of it is important too because I don’t think of it in a corporate sense- I just think ‘how can i share this with the world?’ I find marketing to be one of the most CREATIVE aspects of the entire process. It seems like my energy and enthusiasm for this part of the work has gotten around to other writers and I find that I get a lot of questions sent to my website www.alyciaripley.com or my MySpace page that deal with this issue and wonder if I have any advice specifically since ‘Traveling With An Eggplant’ has been out for two years and I have been touring for it and marketing it as well as getting ready for the new story collection and book of essays, etc. I always like to help because I know what it’s like to feel stuck or need a hand or just not know how to approach something. So I took some questions from one author who recently emailed me and what my answers were to her and copy and pasted them on my sites so that other authors who might have the same questions or areas of concern can see them and perhaps find answers that might work for them as well. I love to help people market their work and get more readers or audiences for it and am good at finding what I call ‘the slant’ for their particular piece of art which in turn can gain audiences, sales, press, promotion, and word of mouth. I should write a book on that! Ok, here we go.
Question: “I started writing eight years ago. I’ve gotten one book out there, it’s in CT and MA Barnes and Noble stores, but I”m having trouble getting my next two books out there.”
Me: First of all- congrats!! Writing and getting published is hard work and takes so much tenacity and talent and courage- I can’t wait to read your book. What was more difficult about the later books than the 1st one? Usually the first one is the pain in the rear and the whole process is so new and has such a learning curve to it. Your book is in bookstores in two states- a very big deal! Don’t forget that! Do you have local papers you can contact about giving it to someone to review? What about local TV personalities who do lifestyle or special stories? Corporate and indie bookstores? The biggest hurdle is just CALLING AND ASKING THEM. After the first three calls it’s no longer scary! I didn’t have one person say no- people WANT lifestyle type stories or about people doing things in their community that is artistic. The more of these you build up (and DEFINITELY get a website to put them on: reviews, schedules of signings, etc) the easier it is to KEEP getting them. No one wants to be the LAST to jump on a new, promising author! It’s always great to find something about your book that relates to your hometown or a theme that relates to real life- mine was musical hallucinations, child abuse, music journalism, etc. These werent ALL portions of the book but it allowed me to tailor my ‘asking for publicity’ to several different venues. This is key and is something I’m naturally good at- I have a marketing mind, I LOVE marketing and wanted to get my book out there, so if you need help with this I’d be glad to help- I’ll read your books and figure out a good slant for several different venues and modes of selling- some ppl just love to do this and are marketers, some ppl aren’t, and thats why you have friends to help you. And thats why I have friends to help me with math…:>
Question: “I read your profile and you stated that you love to talk with your readers about what parts of your books affected their lives… I never know what to say about my books. I suppose I could remove myself from the books completely (they’re very personal to parts of my life) but I also have trouble admitting that it’s a good piece of work! I think it has to do more with the fact that I loved my first book, but I don’t particularly relate to it any longer- I’m more into my third book- which I can’t seem to sell!”
ME: I don’t think you should ever remove yourself from it, time passing does that enough on its own. I feel the same way about my first novel- although I still relate to it and remember the feelings from all the times that inspired it and the writing of it, it feels like a while ago and literally like a memory which is how I designed the cover with my illustator as well- so that the eggplant would be the only thing vibrant and really THERE. The rest would be the violet of a fading xerox from the 80s…..a fading memory. I find that the personal details and history intertwined with it makes you MORE entertaining and engaging when discussing the material. It all depends first on what your BASELINE personality is, thats what you have to look at first before assessing how you want to be in your readings and signings and speeches. Are you outgoing in general but shy about your work? More quiet in general? Does something specific make you feel intimidated ABOUT the talking about the book? Is it that you feel humble about its success or does the subject matter feel too personal to discuss? Everyone has a baseline and you just have to figure it out and then we can come up with a strategy for how to ameliorate it to more of your liking. It all depends on what sort of forum you are speaking at- readings are different than signings which are different from presentations. Readings are good b/c you can pick a really engaging section that would grab the interests of the ppl (specific group) you are speaking to and then ask for questions from the audience and that can get things started. Just remember how you would feel in an audience and what would make you like a speaker/author- ppl like to feel the person is engaging and funny and I dont mean in a comedian way, but just in a making ppl feel comfortable way. I always try and tailor it to who the group is- if I have a young group I relate to the relationship aspect and make fun of things or talk about the musicians in the book. I did a reading speech for senior citizens and they were a BLAST. They had great questions and they were so intrigued to hear a young author speak about herself. I love to take parts of the book and tailor it to the group in question. Speeches are cool too b/c you can pick whatever you like- pick parts of your life and book that are engaging for that particular audience- the fact that you are such a young author is already impressing and intriguing! Talk about what made you NEED to write that particular book at that time and why it is personal to you. EVERY age loves that.
Question:”So, I’d like to know what you do to make yourself able to speak freely and not be “shy” about how you feel about your writing.
I love that you’re so open with all of your accomplishments- that takes guts!”
Me: I mean, I do get nervous before speeches so ill be honest- I type out some notes and have them up there with me. I always go through it a few times which sounds funny b/c its all things about my life and book that I know intrinsically but when you’re in front of a huge group sometimes you can go blank or lose your place so the notes help you move from point to point in a good flow. I’m not a shy person and love to talk about the book b/c im EXCITED about it. I love the story and the real life inspiration and whenever you are excited about ANYTHING it makes your audience get engaged and excited too! My other point- people who go to readings, signings and speeches WANT to be there. They want to hear about the inner workings and creative processes of other ppl and what makes yours unique to you. You don’t have to get nervous that you’re not Jay Leno- that you can’t KEEP them lassoed there because you don’t have to! They want to be there! When im up there I find ppl are so attentive- they love hearing about the music that inspired certain scenes and how I play it over and over and over and what the themes are and esp they love hearing about the process of GETTING a book published b/c so many ppl love to write and dont understand what goes into the process of selling it so they love to hear about how I contacted agents, got fed up with them and went straight to the publishing houses. (No, i dont have an agent, i have a publicist but i do alot of the work too) and how I decided on the house im with. People love to hear stories of perserverance and dedication b/c lets face it- the process of writing and selling a novel takes TIME and to you and me, that comes easily but other people do not understand how we could dedicate all that time to FINISHING and selling a book! Remember- it doesn’t take guts to be open about your accomplishments- you HAVE to do this, you have to be your own publicist b/c no one else will do it for you. I only use one to keep getting into press because I’m really busy with writing and acting and modeling and editing and all the other creative endeavors I fight to get involved in because I’m crazy! I dont have time right now to constantly get myself out there so I have some help but mostly, I do it all on my own, every day, it always comes up in conversation and like I said earlier, people love hearing about authors and what they do so it’s an easy conversation because they have questions and find it interesting- most ppl dont know anyone who has written a book- its different and alien to what they know and they see it as a big deal b/c its out of the realm of what they do for a job. They love to ask questions and go to the website and the store to grab the book because if they meet you in person, they are intrigued to read the story!
Question: I also would love to know more about how you present yourself to your audiences. I get fidgety and don’t know what to say and I have to admit that I BLUSH over everything! It’s awful. I’ve never been one to be able to talk about myself openly- I’m more of a listener- but that obviously isn’t going to work in the artsy publishing world! So, I’m stuck!
ME: It’s normal to feel warm or nervous up there, there’s usually lights on you, etc. But just stay calm and remind yourself that these ppl WANT to be there and see YOU. I don’t know what it is but authordom carries these amazing sense of awesomeness to non-authors. I think it’s b/c they see us as being able to sustain dedication and creativity to something that can take YEARS- most ppl could never write a book and alot of them WANT to (I say these ppl often dont want to write, but they want to HAVE WRITTEN) or want to hear about ppl that DO and CAN. I think for you the BEST idea is to sit down way before you have a reading or a signing and write out things you’d like to say- there’s no penalty for bringing notes! It keeps everyone on track! When you feel at home and comfy, just think about what you wanted to SAY when you wrote your book and why you wrote it and what themes are important to you and how it relates to your life and what makes your book unique and special and write this all down on a sheet of paper and rehearse it in your head and really THINK about your book. It will become like 2nd nature but having the paper up there helps immensely- you can’t get nervous b/c you already have the ‘flow’ and can look down if you need to to see where you are going to go next. I present myself in the way that best fits the group: I spoke to a young, punky audience at Borders so I wore a hip t-shirt and talked about the music angle and the relationship in the book. When I spoke to the group of older women I dressed up and spoke about destiny and how life moves in a circle and about growing up and what we learn about what is important in life and about true friendship. It’s always good to tailor your slant to who you are talking about and this keeps you from getting nervous about having to ’sell it’ b/c you already have their attention!
Did you need an agent? (Nope, just me and a publicist. :>)
Question: How long did it take you to get book signings?
Me: I started contacting ppl immediately when I knew when the book would be out and got a lot of attention in Buffalo- they were psyched to have an author with an unusual book and pedigree and I just kept calling, setting things up, meeting more ppl in the writing scene who offered ideas and kept seeing what was up at Borders and B and N. DONT LISTEN TO NEGATIVITY- someone once told me I’d never get a reading and signing in Barnes and Noble b/c my book wasn’t on their stock list yet and they are so corporate. I didnt listen, went there, talked to someone and got it stocked and had the signing all within a month and they had even HEARD of the book before I went in!
I hope some of this helped- please feel free to ask me any questions you have- I’m glad to help. And like I said, let me know what the book is about and I can help you come up with various slants. that’s the key to the entire thing- I’m serious! And the more you talk about it, it stays personal but somehow gets less so and more rehearsed and the more rehearsed it is, the more freeing it is b/c you will start feeling comfortable to improvise funny anecdotes about the real life situations, etc. Let me know if I can help or consult with you in any way- good luck!