Category: bittersweet

Anatomy of a Book Blurb: Jenna Blum

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

“In the tradition of THE GREAT GATSBY, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore’s heroine is an outsider invited into the secret, labyrinthine world of the super-rich–but the twist is, you never met such debauched people as the Winslows. BITTERSWEET is a satisfyingly dramatic, super-juicy read.” ~ Jenna Blum, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THOSE WHO SAVE US and THE STORMCHASERS

 

Jenna Blum and I have met exactly once in person– at the first book event I ever participated in, Misty Valley Books‘ fantastic 2005 New Voices weekend in Chester, Vermont. A handful of authors were invited to come stay in the local inn, go cross-country skiing, and read to the townsfolk, many of whom enthusiastically attended the events. It was a lovely, community building weekend, as evidenced by the fact that Emily Raboteau, one of my other fellow readers, is now one of my closest friends.

Anyway, Jenna had driven in from Boston for the day of the reading– for some reason it wasn’t going to work for her to spend the night– only to discover when she arrived that she had developed a horrible migraine. Since she was only in for the day, she didn’t have a room booked, and so my husband and I gave her the keys to ours, if memory serves, she spent the better part of the day crashed in there on our queen bed.

Since then, I’ve followed Jenna’s amazing career with enthusiasm. She is such a fantastic example of someone who worked her booty off on behalf of her books, primarily through her book club outreach. At one point, she was meeting with three book clubs a day, and that kind of generosity has landed her books on bestseller lists all over the world.

And she’s so nice on top of it all! When I reached out to her to ask if she could write a blurb, despite the fact that we’d only met one time in person, or that she had a ton of travel booked for this fall, she said she’d try. And she did more than that– she wrote me a dynamite blurb (and I think she won’t mind my telling you that she apparently read a lot of it in the bathtub, which, I’ll agree, is one of my favorite spots to read something juicy).

Bummed as I am that she had that migraine all those years ago, I can’t help but thank my lucky stars that it meant she and I got to know each other. I hope I’ll get to see her again in person someday  soon.

Anatomy of a Book Blurb: Maggie Shipstead

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

“Bittersweet is the kind of book you hope to stumble across on a rainy vacation weekend: a wild New England gothic full of family secrets, mysteriously locked doors, sailboats, suntans, forbidden lust, and a few priceless works of art. An engrossing summer blast.” –Maggie Shipstead, nationally bestselling author of SEATING ARRANGEMENTS and ASTONISH ME

Maggie is a friend of one of my husband’s lifelong friends (so lifelong that he considers her a sister)– one of those lucky connections life brings. Still, asking for an introduction via a good friend can be scary, since you want to be sure that no one feels like you’re using them, or that they have to introduce you, or they have to say yes just because a mutual friend has asked. I used to feel very very shy and very very wary of using my personal connections in this way, but with BITTERSWEET I’m trying to be braver and– while being polite and respecting boundaries– not shying from asking if an introduction can be made.

Maggie’s response to our mutual friend’s introduction was enthusiastic and warm– she would read Bittersweet, and hoped she’d have time to blurb it, and wasn’t asking for blurbs the worst? She was just so NICE. I was giddy since I admire SEATING ARRANGEMENTS so much!

In October, she wrote to let me know that she was most of the way through, and had enjoyed the book while under the weather. I loved this news (well, not the part about her having been banished to her couch for a while), because that’s the kind of book I want Bittersweet to be for readers– a pleasure, a salve, a book you want to escape into. When I got her blurb soon thereafter, I just loved how she put it: “an engrossing summer blast.” I couldn’t ask for a better compliment for BITTERSWEET.

Maggie’s second novel, ASTONISH ME, is due out in April. I’m super excited to read it, and so thankful to her to taking time out of her busy schedule to write something so nice about my book.

Tidying Up One’s Online Home

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

So we just updated Miranda’s website, and even changed her domain name in the process. It’s funny how one’s online home can become so out-of-date, and for so long. The copyright on her old site still said 2007, and had zero mention of her upcoming book. The photos were all from years ago, and to even begin updating it would have to start with emails and phone calls to the person who designed it years ago.

So we started fresh. One big change we made was go give people a more easy way to find the site. The original URL was MirandaBeverly-Whittemore.com

Go ahead: from memory try to type that into your web browser. That domain will now redirect to a new one that is a bit easier to remember: MirandaBW.com. What’s nice, is that this also now aligns with her Twitter handle: @MirandaBW.

Her new site was something I created rather quickly on WordPress, but there are some key changes:

  1. The focus on her new work, Bittersweet.
  2. A general update of lots of small things, such as her author photo.
  3. Aligning her overall messaging, such as her short and long author bios.
  4. Connecting everything: including links to FriendStories.com, and her social media profiles.

Here is the old website:

And here is the new one:

Is the new one perfect? Nope. But it’s a good start, and a platform that Miranda knows how to access and update on her own, which means that in 2020, the site is more likely to be up to date!
Thanks.
-Dan

Cleaning Up

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

I had a big meeting two Tuesdays ago with the publicity and marketing team at Crown. Needless to say I was both exhilarated and scared. So what did I project my anxiety onto? Well, naturally, my outfit. And makeup. And hair.

Here’s before I spent an hour tidying this bag of bones:

 

And here’s after:

 

And here’s after the meeting itself, with the big poster of the Bittersweet cover they gave me, having eaten a chocolate macaron, and full of all their incredible ideas and hopes for this little book of mine. See how happy I look?

 

More on the actual meeting soon! Meanwhile, tomorrow I’ve got another big meeting. I’ve got some serious butterflies tonight, but I’m going to try to get some sleep. Wish me luck…