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

The other day, my son was telling me about the butterflies in his tummy. “Sometimes I get them when something bad is going to happen. But I also get them when I’m going to a party or a friend is coming over. It’s like a good/bad feeling.”

Tell me about it. “Butterflies in my tummy” is a great way to describe all aspects of the publishing process. The beginning, when you first start thinking and working on a book, the “can I do this?” butterflies. Then, when you’re writing the book, the “is this any good?” butterflies. Followed by the “will anyone buy this?” butterflies. And then the “oh no, someone bought this” butterflies. And the “I have to revise it again? and again? and again?” butterflies. Followed by the “I’m not allowed revise it any more?” butterflies. And then the “I have to do everything I can to promote this book but I have no idea how” butterflies. Not to mention “what if nobody reads this?” which is just another subspecies of “what if everyone reads this?” butterflies. And so it goes.

You know what makes those butterflies calm down? Having a buddy. Simple as that. Someone who knows you’ve got the butterflies and is able to squeeze your hand and say, “yeah, but isn’t this cool?! You’re thinking about/ writing/ revising/ publishing/ promoting your book! YOU WROTE A BOOK!”

So far, I’ve had some really good buddies. People who believed in this book when I first started scheming it, who believed it in even when it looked like it might not make it out into the world, who advocated for it and bought it and sold foreign rights, who have read it and offered thoughts, who are helping me revise (which is almost done!), who are already helping me get the word out, so that other people can read it.

Who are some of these people?

Well, Dan, for starters. I feel so lucky to have him along on this journey. During our last meeting, I balked, “I can’t believe how fun all this promotion feels,” and he laughed. “Because you have a buddy,” he said.

My beta readers. I have a number of close friends (who, in their own lives, are writers and readers) who have taken time out of their busy lives to read this book at critical stages, and then offered their generous thoughts, all in the interest of making my book better. True friends.

My editor. Just yesterday, I was feeling discouraged about this latest revision—but then I got an e-mail from her, simply saying she was thinking of me and couldn’t wait to read the next draft. That she’d been getting excited thinking about that book she was going to get to read again, and then she realized it was my book.

And you! Already, in this space, you’ve made me feel encouraged and empowered. You’ve made me realize that what I’m saying about this process is valuable and valued. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts as we continue on together.

In whatever butterfly stage you’re in, find your buddy. Spouse, friend, listserv, agent, editor—whomever they are, they will help you accomplish the impossible. They will urge you on, and share their knowledge, and shout your name from the rooftops. I feel so lucky.

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

When Dan and I last spoke, he said something that really intrigued me. We were talking about my brand, the essential part of me I want my readership to know, the part that can be consistent on Twitter and Facebook and my website, etc, eg. my new Twitter bio, “Novels about searching to belong” (shout-out to Shirley Showalter for helping me find the right words).

Strange as it may seem, I have a hard time (as I think many novelists do) finding the obvious, one-line link between myself and my work, but I think I’m getting closer. I also have a real diversity of interests, many of which have wound up in my work. It’s funny, even though I’ve lived my life, it’s hard sometimes to know how to weave that narrative into a satisfying, cohesive whole. How do I mention in the same breath that I spent three of the first six years of my life in rural Senegal with my anthropologist parents, and that I’ve been a fine arts model for two well-know photographers, Jock Sturges and Mona Kuhn? That my first novel, The Effects of Light, was based, in part, on this photographic experience, while my second novel, Set Me Free, was based, in part, on my experience on a highschool exchange program with the Crow Reservation in Montana? That the seed of Bittersweet came from the summer house my grandparents built long before I was born, and where I’ve spent every summer of my life? How do I talk about my filmmaker sister, and my writer mother, and my anthropologist father? What about my son? Or my desire to make: film, books, delicious meals, a beautiful home?

I think part of the problem is that I’ve been living under the belief that my biography should read something like this (screenshot below, though it’s hard to read):

That’s from my current website. My website hasn’t changed since 2007, even though in the interim I’ve sold a book and won a few things and my view of my own career has changed. Beyond all those substantive changes, my bio, the pictures, the colors, are all pretty bland. Not to mention that I’ve never felt much of a connection to this author photo, or to either of these book covers. So this version of me, which is what I’m presenting to the world, says a lot about what I’ve done but it doesn’t say anything significant about the true me- what I like, the experiences that have made me who I really am, what I believe. Not to mention that the bio is written in the third person; strange to think my online billboard has been keeping my readership at arm’s length, with no hints as to what really makes me tick.

So what did Dan say that really made me think twice?

“I think your website bio wants to be 3000 words long. It wants pictures and anecdotes. It wants to be funny and completely about you—all that stuff that makes you you.”

It sounds so obvious when put that way. Why wouldn’t I believe that giving potential readers a little more insight into my core self would make them invest in me? Why did I think I wasn’t allowed to share pictures or reveal what is closest to my heart? And why would I think that if I kept that “personal” stuff in hidden place, I’d still be able to present my essential self honestly?

The obvious answer is fear—the notion that if I share something truthful about myself, it could be used against me. This fear isn’t rational; I don’t have any concrete ideas of how my revelation that I love to cook could be used as a weapon of destruction. But I do think that so much of this Author Platfor process is about overcoming fear, and fear is a habit I’m doing my best to break myself of. Dan often talks about being as generous online as you are in real life; of extending yourself on the internet as much as you do in person. This can be hard to do, and hard to name.

But I think being honest about who I am is a really good start.

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

My final final FINAL draft of Bittersweet is due to Crown on August 1st. After reading my most recent revision aloud, I had a few major changes I wanted to make and lots of little nit-picky ones. I just spent the last day and a half going through the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb (why are all these lice metaphors coming up?), and just spent the better part of the day organizing an excel spreadsheet so I can make these changes methodically. This task seemed totally humorless, that is until I finally assembled all the factual assertions, big and small, that I’d like to re-authenticate before they go into a book with my name on it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the many ridiculous things I now need to research on the internet:

make sure I have yawls and catches right

when was Fallujah? Did Jackson fight there?

did the Marines fight in Fallujah?

do walnuts = anaphalactic shock?

11/61 LIFE, 1987 LLBEAN, 1972 Town & Country

Historical accuracy of Agnes’s surgeon stuff

How far is 20 meters? Right for a swimming dock?

Boston Whalers really loud?

back of the yacht = stern?

Bankruptcy papers- historical accuracy

cliff a hundred feet above the water? Would that kill him?

how far is 10 yards? Are we measuring in meters or yards?

When did the Humane Society start isuing calendars?

Could they even get a marriage certificate?

when is the sunrise in late July 2010?

tongue lolling- consistent with strangulation?

how far John fell- 100 feet?

“thwart”

Moon calendar- a sliver of moon in the first week of august 2010?

what road are they on?/ New Hampshire town- still in NH?

size of the van Gogh (3 feet long/ two feet high)

What would the document that names the heirs be called- a constitution?

solitary herons not a problem, are they?

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

Yesterday I had a great catch-up conversation with Megana, my best friend from college. She lives across the country with her husband and four kids. We have the kind of long-distance intimacy in which we speak for a few hours every six months or so, and it’s as though no time has passed. Except that when it comes to books and children, six months really matter. Today I asked about her new baby, and she asked about my son, and we regaled each other with the best family tales we’ve collected since our last conversation.

Then she asked about the latest on Bittersweet. She’s not in the book biz, but she’s known me long enough to know how it works, and I was able to fill her in about the book’s foreign sales and my May pub date and the new work I’ve been doing with Dan. I threw around some lingo—namely “Author Platform”—and she stopped me right there.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

Sometimes it can be so, so helpful to go back to square one. “Okay,” I began, trying to figure out how to streamline my jumble of thoughts, “So take my Twitter account, and my Facebook page and my website. All those disparate pieces should be telling the same story about me. They should be aligned to my brand.”

“So your brand—what’s that?”

“It’s the central truth about me. The story I want to tell about who I am.”

“And what’s that story?”

I sighed as I tried to gather my wits. “My background. My thoughts about the world. What I like to read and think about. The idea is to create a consistent online self who can be trusted by those who engage with me. So that someone who reads my blog knows that when they dip in every few days, they can expect consistency—that I’ll be writing about or posting articles or entries that they will find interesting. That if they buy my book, the brand I’ve put out there will only deepen their experience of reading it.”

“And how honest is that story of your brand? What if there’s stuff about yourself you don’t want to have be part of it? I’ve noticed, for example, that your Facebook page seems less intimate than it used to be. It’s still personal, but it’s more of a public persona.”

She was getting to the heart of the beast I’ve been wrestling with—how to balance being personal, accessible and generous, while protecting my intimacy. How to weave the fabric of my life/ experience/ career into a single, strong thread that is truthful, and enticing, and relatable. How to craft my personal narrative into a marketing tool without losing myself. How to leave out the bits that don’t quite fit.

“You know who balances her real self and her persona really well? Nicole.” Megana was talking about my friend Nicole Caccavo Kear, whose forthcoming memoir, Now I See You, is due out from St. Martin’s in 2014. “Her blog is just so so so relatable. The other day I was reading a parenting book, and I remembered something she’d written about her kids on her blog, and I thought about emailing her right then and there with the advice I was reading—I would have done that even if I hadn’t met her, because her blog makes me feel like I know her much better than I do. I laugh to myself when I think about her family and her insights on parenting. And even if I hadn’t met her, I would buy her book when it comes out.”

There—right there—is an example of Author Platform doing its work. I admire Nicole’s ability to put how she really talks (with, okay, a few less swear words) onto the page. Having a conversation with her, or reading her blog, or reading her book, you come to the same conclusion: she’s funny and cynical and warm in the best ways. She is consistently herself, a self that is delightful to know. A self both Megana and I want to return to.

What bloggers/writers/websites do find to be similarly successful in striking that balance? If you have an online presence as an author, how do you balance being accessible with protecting your intimacies?

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

Dan and I had a meeting yesterday in which, among other things, we discussed that our big job right now is to get to the heart of the story we want to tell about me. That means aligning all my social media selves– from Twitter, to Facebook, to my website. Making sure that all those versions of myself, including Bittersweet, lead back to the essential me. This is so so SO hard to do, but it’s necessary, and will be reiterated again and again over the course of this next year and beyond– I’ll be revising my “about” pages ’til the cows come home.

One of the instructions that stuck with me the most when I started the Building Your Author Platform course was Dan’s insistence that one should only start a blog about something she is passionate about. “If you don’t love to cook, don’t start a blog about cooking, because you’ll get bored and you’ll stop doing it, and not only will you lose readership but you’ll disappoint yourself” is about how he put it. I love this idea, and feel it can be applied to nearly all professional aspects of my life (and some personal too); the notion that it’s not worth putting time and effort into a website, or a social media outlet, or a book, if you don’t have the hunger to fight for it.

So I sat down and made a list of all the various parts of me that exist out there in the world, and what I came up was disparate and strange but also, yes, me. Dan reminded me that this newly aligned author platform should not exist in *spite* of my unusual childhood and a very artistic family and the mom/ writer/ cook/ maker I’ve become, but that those are the parts of me I should be putting out there, under the umbrella of my name. “You are a maker,” he said, “and I think that’s what you want to put out there in the world, because that’s your most honest self.”

Hearing it put that way felt like a celebration (and also a bit terrifying– more on the balance of terror and thrill in another post). And it made my job a little more concrete, if enormous. Should I have a blog on my website? What should that blog do? What should the tone of my newsletter be? How do I make sure the voice that appears on this blog is consistent with my editorial (and authorial) voice in the Friendstories Project?

But it’s always good to start small, right? So last night I sat down and did some thinking, and revising, of my Twitter profile. Here’s a glimpse at my revision (which will be revised, and revised and revised)…

Twitter on 7/14/13:

 

Current Name: M Beverly-Whittemore doesn’t come up when you google my name, but it’s the longest I can make my name on Twitter- ack. How to fix this?

Current Author Pic: This is my current headshot but it could be crisper (higher res?)

Background Pic: not up to brand- what would I imagine it to be? Eventually a cover shot of Bittersweet? Probably depends on what the cover ends up looking like. In the meantime it should be something that evokes both the feeling (and place) of Bittersweet, and also the larger “me”

Current Bio: “Novels about the American family: BITTERSWEET (Crown, June 2014); SET ME FREE (2007); THE EFFECTS OF LIGHT (2005). Brooklyn, New York * mirandabeverly-whittemore.com.” But that’s not really what I write, is it? Dan made the good point that all my books are about outsiders, people seeking a place to belong– people like me. That needs to be in there somewhere. Should I change it to: “Novels about hoping to belong(?)” or “Novels about outsiders(?)”. Also, the book pub date has been moved to May.

New Twitter (7/15/13):

 

Still need to get a crisper author photo in there… and maybe edit my bio: “Novels about searching to belong(?)”