Art, Resonance, and Subjectivity

by MarcyKate Connolly

"Since the one thing we can say about fundamental matter is that it is vibrating and, since all vibrations are theoretically sound, then it is not unreasonable to suggest that the universe is music and should be perceived as such." -Joachim-Ernst Berendt

The above is one of my all time favorite quotes (emphasis mine). It appeals to me on a lot of levels (not the least of which is that I majored in music in college), but I think it explains one fundamentally tricky beast that plagues all artists.

Subjectivity.

Yes, that word. The one that strikes fear in many hearts, but especially writers. If you’ve been through the query trenches, you’ve most likely heard something along the lines of “this business is subjective” in agent responses. It’s true, and it can suck.

But take heart—what doesn’t work for one person, may very well resonate with another. 

And that’s the keyword here—resonate. Have you heard the phrase, “That struck a chord with me?” If we think of each novel  (or other creative work) as a note swimming in a sea of other notes, it begins to make a little more sense. If your book is a C, then it isn’t going to jive with the agent or editor who’s resonating at a D flat. But if you find an agent at E or G, you’re on your way to a full chord. 

For those who aren’t familiar with music notation, basically, the first example sounds dissonant, but the second is more harmonious. Point being, just because your C book doesn’t work with the D flat agent doesn’t mean C is bad. It means your C needs a E. 

The same is true with readers. As someone whose book will be out in about a year, reader subjectivity makes me particularly nervous (read: TERRIFIED).  Every person, every reader, resonates on their own note. There’s so many potential ways my book could resonate or jar with readers, that it’s downright scary. If you’ve ever visited Goodreads and taken a gander at any book’s review section, you’ll see what I mean. Subjectivity abounds.  A book may only partially resonate with someone, while it will knock the socks off another. Just remember that it doesn't mean the book itself is necessarily bad—it means it wasn't right for that reader.

So what exactly do I mean by resonance? You know that feeling when you read a book (or hear music, see a work of art) and it tugs at your insides? Ever read a book that you could not put down because you had to know what happened next? Ever had to keep listening to a song over and over because somehow something in it just clicked with you? That is resonance. Art can tear you up and sew the pieces back together in the best of ways. Resonance is when you can feel, sometimes in a physical way, that a book, or song, or painting vibrates on the same wavelength as you. 

And that can change. We grow and our tastes evolve. Our tunes change. What resonated years ago, may not today. Or that same passage in a book or piece of music may floor you every time.  For me, there’s too many books like that to pick just one, but I can tell you the one piece of music that still guts me whenever I hear it—the “Lacrimosa” section of Mozart’s Requiem.  Never fails to give me chills. 

So tell me, what books, or other art, have resonated with you? Share in the comments!

MarcyKate Connolly writes middle grade and young adult fiction and becomes a superhero when sufficiently caffeinated. When earthbound, she blogs at her website and spends far too much time babbling on Twitter. Her debut upper MG fantasy novel, MONSTROUS, will be out from HarperCollins Children's Books in Winter 2015.

Genre Bending

by Mindy McGinnis

There are certain questions that make writers of all stripes both frustrated and frightened at the same time. What is it about your book that's so special? What distinguishes you from the rest of the crowd, either in the slush pile or on the store bookshelf? Is the market for your WIP over?

To my mind all of these questions are related, and boil down to the same word—genre. More specifically—your genre and how you've taken a small corner of it to claim as your own.

I recently had three separate but related online interactions that spawned this post. I'll tackle them each one at a time and draw them back together for the firework-inducing full-circle conclusion. Or at least a steepled-fingers-move from my reader and a thoughtful monosyllabic grunt.

Interaction #1—A Goodreads reviewer commented that Not a Drop to Drink sounds more like a post-apocalyptic Western than a dystopian, which is both astute of her and also very gratifying to me, as that's how I felt about it from the beginning.

Interaction #2—One of my Saturday Slash participants (a query critique on my personal blog, Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire) asked if they should change the genre for their query project from "dystopian" to "post-apocalyptic," as they were afraid that dystopian was "over." My response was that I didn't think it made a difference. Agents and readers know that the terms can (for the most part) be swapped for each other fairly easily. To my thinking it's no more different than calling chick-lit "women's literature." I told the Slash participant to go whichever way they liked, but it didn't matter. A rose by another name, and all that.

Interaction #3—Instead of re-hashing it I'm posting a screen-cap below of a Twitter exchange between myself, my fellow Friday the Thirteeners member Elsie Chapman, my critique partner R.C. Lewis and her fellow Hyperion author Tess Sharpe.

Tess's reaction to the simple re-phrasing of my genre spoke volumes to me. Even though she already felt like DRINK had a new angle for the dystopian genre, the idea of it being more akin to a neo-western than its dystopian brothers and sisters were the equivalent of "magic words" to her.

And this reaction had me re-thinking my answer to the Saturday Slash participant.

She's not the first person to mention to me they think the dystopian ship has quite sailed, left the harbor, and perhaps already sunk. And if this is the case I'm going to cry a lot when next fall comes around, and that would be a very bad thing. I am not fond of crying.

So what if I do start referring to DRINK as a neo-western? Will that appeal to more people? Will it lift the ever-present curse of it's-been-done?

Quite a few people in my Book Pregnant group of debut authors write what's referred to as Women's Literature. And they write it well. If their mss were marketed as Chick-Lit would they have died in their agent's inbox?

And what if my Slash volunteer chose the phrase "post-apocalyptic" to describe her ms instead of "dystopian?" Would the D-word close doors whereas "post-apoc" might leave room for a foot in the door?

I don't have the best answer to these questions, and I'm willing to bet that the answer changes depending on who you ask.

So what's your opinion?

Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut neo-western, NOT A DROP TO DRINK, will be available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins in Fall 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire and contributes to the group blogs Book Pregnant, Friday the Thirteeners and The Lucky 13s. You can also find her on Twitter & Facebook.

Bloggers, Authors, Reviewers & Other Things that Thumper Didn't Anticipate

by Mindy McGinnis

Oh my.

I won't link to anything because by the time I do that there'll be a newer, bloodier author/reviewer battle to take the place of the one I linked to. Let's just say that there continues to be an epic clash of name-calling—peppered with the occasional well-informed and succinctly delivered opinion—in regards to the interaction between authors and reviewers who give them bad reviews.

But here's the thing, guys—it's not even about books anymore. It's not about authors, it's not about reviewers. It's not even close to being related to the publishing industry in some cases. It's about people who don't like each other saying mean things to one another in a public forum where their family, friends, and perfect strangers can chime in. And then when someone new gets insulted they get their feelings hurt and tell their friends, who valiantly swoop in to insult the person who insulted their friend, and pretty soon we've got a book-based Bloods and Crips situation going on that is debasing to everyone involved.

Good Lord. It kills me. It really kills me, because all of this is under the guise of literary endeavor, which automatically includes you, me, and anyone who puts pen to paper or fingertips to keys.

And there's nothing to be done about it. Engaging is the equivalent of borrowing the Olympic torch and dousing yourself in rocket fuel. There are plenty of even heads and well-placed comments that have attempted to stem the tide on any random debacle, but the voice of reason tends to go unheeded.

And why is that?

Because it's fun to have a tantrum. No really, it totally is. I'm a big proponent of adult tantrums when executed in private where you can't have a negative impact on others. Get mad. Throw things. Say mean shit to blank walls. Hell, lie down and scream and pound your fists on the ground if that's what helps you get your nasty out. But don't do it on the internet, because remember—the internet is forever.

Mindy McGinnis is a YA author and librarian. Her debut dystopian, Not a Drop to Drink, will be available from Katherine Tegen / Harper Collins Fall 2013. She blogs at Writer, Writer Pants on Fire. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

From Goodreads to Goodbuys?

by J. Lea Lopez

So, you've taken the plunge and self-published your book. Or maybe you've done it the traditional way. You have eBooks available through the usual outlets. You've done your homework and you have a blog or website, a decent Twitter following, maybe a Facebook page, and your marketing efforts seem to be paying off. Still, every author is eager to take advantage of different ways to get their book in front of new readers.

Have you looked at Goodreads lately?

You may be familiar with Goodreads as a place where readers can place books on their virtual shelves (want to read, read, hated it, loved it, and any other colorful description you can think of) post reviews, recommend books to friends, and more. Authors can create a presence on Goodreads as well. Now authors can take one more step: They can sell their eBooks directly through Goodreads.

At first glance, it may seem like this is just another venue to add to all the others for selling your book, but let's look a little deeper. Amazon is the big name that comes to mind for eBooks, but I think we can all agree the searchability kinda sucks. Especially if you're looking to discover something new, as opposed to searching for the latest from your favorite bestseller. I can't remember the last time I stumbled upon a brilliant new author by searching through the thousands of books on Amazon. And with the uproar over fake reviews earlier this year, I am a bit more skeptical when browsing there.

For indie and self-published authors, Smashwords is a major outlet, since they convert and distribute to a wide variety of online retailers. Like Amazon, searching Smashwords to discover something new and brilliant is no easy task. I've also heard from many indie authors recently that they consider Smashwords to be more of a writer's site than a reader's site - that is, it is more well-known among writers, and sales there may be made up largely of other writers.

On top of all this, Smashwords founder Mark Coker recently discussed the results of a survey he conducted on Mobileread. He asked readers to select their most common method for selecting eBooks. The most popular answer was "Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards." This is where we come back to Goodreads.

Goodreads is huge. HUGE. They have "more than 5,700,000 members who have added more than 180,000,000 books to their shelves." I have often looked at my friends' shelves to see what we have in common as well as to peruse the books they've read and liked that I haven't read. And I find that much more enjoyable than clicking through the mess of search results on Amazon. Imagine this scenario:

A reader checks out her friend's Goodreads shelves and sees that someone recently read and reviewed two books, one of which is yours. Her friend had given four stars and positive reviews to both books. Perhaps there are some good reviews from other readers on each book's page as well. The reader thinks, "Hey, next time I'm on Amazon, I'll look up these authors and maybe buy one. But wait... I can buy this book [your book!] right here on Goodreads, right now. Well, my friend really liked it. What the heck, I'll go for it."

BOOM. Discovery. Purchase. Royalties for you. Instead of waiting for whenever the reader decides to click over to Amazon and hoping she'll remember your name or your book's title, offering your eBook for sale right on Goodreads lets you maximize the influence of many consumers' preferred method of finding eBooks. It's a convenience for readers, but it's also a potential advantage for you. Authors themselves must opt-in and upload their eBook for sale on Goodreads. Considering that there are only slightly more than 28,000 authors currently on Goodreads, if it comes down to your book vs. another author's book, there's a good chance that the other book may not be available to buy on Goodreads. Who knows, you may even win out over a NYT bestseller, or your favorite author.

All in all, it seems like offering your book on Goodreads is a good idea. You probably won't see a huge amount of sales, but they may be sales that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Here are a few other facts about this program:

• The eBooks for sale on Goodreads are offered in epub format, which works with most eReaders
• The author uploads the file and sets the price
• Sales are split 70/30 (which is the same split you'll get on Amazon for books priced $2.99 or more)
• Your profits are banked until you reach a specified amount, then you are paid (I've heard both $25 and $50 for this figure, but I'm not sure which is accurate. If you know, let us know in the comments!)

Inquiring minds want to know: As a reader, do recommendations from sites like Goodreads factor into your purchasing decisions, and would you then purchase a book if it was available on Goodreads? As a writer, have you or would you offer your book for sale on Goodreads?