Category: bittersweet

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

1) My copyedit is finally into Crown! I’ll still have a couple chances to glance at the typeset pages, but that was my last pass on making any substantive changes. I also got to write the acknowledgements which is one of my favorite parts of writing a book. It’s so moving to look back at all the people who’ve helped me along the journey, not to mention all those people who I know will be helping me in the year(s) to come. There are moments when it feels so lonely writing a book, and it’s a good reminder that you’re not alone!

2) I’m loving the new look of FriendStories. My goals this week are to reach out to a handful of writer friends to solicit some FriendStories for them. Would you like to be included in this exclusive first pass? If so, please let me know. I’m so excited to expand this project and I can’t wait for some other voices.

3) Now that the copyedit’s in, I’m starting to feel my mind drift to that sweet place of the next book. It’s all puppies and rainbows right now, a dream book in which I won’t write myself into any corners or face any thankless workdays. I’m going to enjoy this rosy-colored view while I can.

4) In the meantime, I’ve got Columbia theses to read, a personal website to redesign, FriendStories to scheme about, and all the other stuff life is throwing at me! I think I’m going to go take a shower.

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.

---

I am a big believer in launching things quickly, and then slowly honing them. Miranda and I chatted last week and came up with a number of ways to improve the burgeoning FriendStories blog. The goals:

• How do we make it immediately clear what this site is about?
• How do we immediately engage you in a story?

Here is the before and after of my work with it this week:

 

Changes made include:

• Use an entirely new template. The was chosen very quickly,just to get the site live.
• Create a banner that on a visual level, embodies the goal of the blog.
• Develop something akin to a logo, though really it is just stylized words at the top of the page.
• Add a descriptive tagline. We came up with: “Real stories of true friends.”
• Created a brief blog description and added it to the top of the sidebar.
• Changed the headlines for each post to quotes from the stories.

Do these changed make the site perfect? Nope! But they are steps in the right direction.

Thanks.
-Dan

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

One week into September and I can already see that organizing my schedule is going to be one of my greatest challenges in the nine months leading up to the publication of Bittersweet. As I writer, I’ve got to, well, write. Not just because that’s my job title, but because without writing in my life, none of the other stuff I have to do in order to support my writing seems remotely fun. But I’ve got so much other stuff to do that I’m finding a hard time making any spare moments in which to do the work I love.

Here’s what’s on my plate this week:

– go through the copy edit of Bittersweet and make any changes necessary (due 9/19)
– if possible, print out the copyedited version after I’ve gone through it and read Bittersweet from the beginning (due 9/19)
– go over editorial changes on my short story Frito Lay, due back to DailyLit ASAP
– read 3 MFA theses for Columbia University and write responses to students (due 9/23)
– Email the first round of contributors to Friendstories (by Friday)
– Write About page for Friendstories (by Friday)
– Scan in personal images for Friendstories and get them to Dan (by Friday)
– Edit and finalize first essay to go up on Friendstories (by Friday)
– Read five more books and send out blurb requests to their authors (ASAP)
– Continue to post on this blog on a regular basis

Then there are the longer-term goals, say, in the next six weeks:

– Revise my author questionnaire in anticipation of meeting my publicist
– Start posting on Friendstories
– Create more content for Friendstories
– Reach out to more Friendstories contributors
– Begin compiling wishlists of blogs and publications to reach out to on Bittersweet’s behalf
– Write planned essays and stories which will help promote Bittersweet

Not to mention the creative goal:

– Write another book!

Or the life goals:

– Feed my family
– go through all my moth-eaten sweaters
– clean my writing room so I have an office again
– be an attentive mama and wife (aka not distracted and stressed 24/7).

Phew.

How on earth am I going to do all that?

I think the trick is to start my day with the creative. I’ve got four days a week with full-time childcare, and I’m starting to think that what I need to do on those days is begin with my book. No excuses, no exceptions. Two hours of writing time and I’ll be in a much better mood.

Of course, I won’t be able to do that until this immediate round of deadlines is off my plate (although copyediting doesn’t feel like creative work, I’m telling myself that it’s in the service of creativity, so it has to count). And I fear that once this week’s work is off my plate, another tide will move in to replace it, and I’ll never find my creative mind again! But I guess I just have to have faith.

And try not to feel so grumpy in the process.

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

“Part coming-of-age story, part riveting mystery, Bittersweet is a tantalizing tale of an outsider thrust into a glittering world of immense privilege and suspect morals. With a narrator torn between uncovering one family’s dark secrets and protecting her own, Bittersweet brilliantly explores the complicated question of what price any of us would pay to seize the life of our dreams.” -Kimberly McCreight, author of Reconstructing Amelia

I’m thrilled about the quote that just came in today from my friend Kim, who I know originally not from writing, but from fellow Brooklynite mommydom (my sister also made her book trailer). Kim’s someone whose perseverance I greatly admire (Reconstructing Amelia is the fifth book she’s written and the first she’s sold); her road to publication was a long one, but she kept at it, nose to grindstone, and that determination has translated into unbelievable success (Nicole Kidman, anyone?).

Of all the people I’m asking to blurb my book, Kim is the closest friend, but that didn’t in any way diminish my nervousness (in fact, I find asking friends for professional favors makes me  jumpy; I’m always sure they’re going to reveal some hidden loathing for my work, which, you know, makes friendship a bit awkward from then on out). Also, what if she said yes and then I just never heard from her? How would I be brave enough to prompt her? What if she just replied, “I hated it?”

Luckily, it sounds like she didn’t! Beyond that, she was prompt and quick and just as friendly as ever. I’m counting my lucky stars that I have two such great quotes from writers I so admire this early in the game. Thank you, Kim and Kate!

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.

---

As summer wound down for Miranda, she said “In only nine days, I’ll be back in my “normal” life.” And that “normal” life for an author is, well, work.

We romanticize the lives of creative professionals. We envision them with loads of freedom, of being able to react on whims, and that their successes are fueled by passion, not grueling hard boring work. And yet, the life of a writer can, and perhaps should, include copious amounts of grueling hard boring work.

Now, these are clearly not the right words to use, but I am simply trying to make a point. One of my favorite movies is Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which embodies the value of dedicating oneself to the habit of work, and what can be achieved via sustained effort over the course of decades.

Miranda and I talked about the space that was needed in late summer, even though she was working hard on editing, pursuing blurbs, laying the foundation for revising her author platform, and setting up the FriendStories.com blog (which is not yet really launched.)

It would be so easy, it would feel so natural, to just keep ambling along, waiting for 2014 to really start efforts to get the word out about Bittersweet. And yet, here we are in early September, getting back to work. For Miranda and I, our summer check-in phone calls are quickly changing to more structured calls, and assigning “homework” each week.

I am seeing lots of momentum building in Miranda’s life around the book already, with a HUGE thanks to the many folks involved in bringing Bittersweet to life. Yes, Miranda is at the very center of that as the author, but so many others are invested in this process.

And now it is our job to serve them, and help them serve the story.

It’s time to go to work.
-Dan