Feature: WritersNewsWeekly talks with the Ask a New Author Team

By Sarah Schiavoni and Christopher Stokum

Book Divas is an online book club started in 2002 as a community for girls to freely express themselves and share in their love of books. Eager to help budding authors, Book Divas recently started a special column, Ask a New Author, where three authors share their stories about breaking into the book business and answer the questions of those hoping to write and publish their own books. We recently spoke with the three authors who contribute to Ask a New Author.

WNW: How did you get involved with the column?
New Author Miriam: A few months ago, Leah Messina approached me about writing a Tips From the Industry column for Book Divas. I’ve always been a little squeamish when it comes to offering advice to other writers because everyone has such a unique, individual process. But I had great fun writing that column, and I realized I actually had something to say, which seemed to be of value.
That’s when I came up with the Ask a New Author column idea. I thought it would be helpful – at a time when there are more and more horror stories about books and publishing and the impossibility of breaking into the industry – for Book Diva readers to hear about the experiences of recently published authors. I also liked that Book Divas’ members are the young and young-at-heart. I think a lot of hopeful writers come from that demographic.
I pitched the idea to Leah and she was enthusiastically game. When it came to recruiting the other New Authors, the choices were easy. Susanna Daniel is a brilliant writer and really articulate and honest about the writing process, which you can see on her blog. Randy Susan Meyers is not only a fabulous writer, but she’s really great at reaching out to readers and other writers, which is an art in and of itself. They’re also both just lovely people, so I knew we’d have a good time working together.

WNW: The “About” section on Book Divas mentions that it’s specifically a website for “girls.” Why focus on female authors? What role does gender play in the publishing world?
Ask a New Author team: Book Divas was started as a place online where girls could feel comfortable expressing their opinions—especially when it came to topics they were reading and/or writing about. Though we absolutely welcome boys to our site too (and we do have a few male members!), we wanted to be able to have our members feel like they could be themselves, which really has created a strong bond amongst several members within our community. There have been some great young adult books that deal with issues such as growing up, love, friendships—and females tend to gravitate towards these topics.

WNW: Where did you go for guidance when you were a new writer?
New Author Randy: There is an incredible resource in Boston: Grub Street Writers Center. Grub Street was my go-to for finding the right writing workshop and for a yearly conference (The Muse and The Marketplace) that offers a wide array of very professional advice. Backspace Writer’s Forum offers a number of well-known and in-progress writers helping each other. And I turned to writer’s books for every step of the process. I recommend that writers try a local writer’s conference to find the best local help.

WNW: How is what you’re doing here different from the help you received?
New Author Susanna: It's very different from help I've received in writing workshops, though for me that assistance has been essential. When you're in a workshop led by an author who's won the Pulitzer Prize, it's not kosher to ask whether she likes music when she writes or how she found her agent. A graduate writing program, in my experience, is almost completely concentrated on the efforts a writer makes well before sending out a manuscript, and hardly at all on what happens after. I think that's the right focus in that situation—but now that I'm being published, I rely heavily on the guidance of people who've been through the process. I'm in a novelist group and have a couple of very close friends who have published successfully, and I ask these women questions all the time about the process itself—about everything from how to throw a launch party to how long to read at a bookstore to how to promote the book online.

WNW: Will all the advice be coming from the New Author team, or will you allow readers to contribute?
New Author Miriam: Our initial vision is to start with advice from the three of us. However, the column is brand new and certainly adaptable. There are countless other new authors out there. So, if readers who also have publishing experience have something to contribute, I can’t see how that would hurt.

WNW: What do you hope to accomplish with Ask a New Author?
New Author Susanna: There are a lot of unknowns in the writing life—a lot of mystery. Most people don't talk in their blogs or at their reading groups about what they do when they hit a wall in their writing, or whether or not they pay the bills by writing, or how they picked themselves up after getting a particularly difficult rejection. It's good for me, as a writer, to talk about some of these things, and I think it's good for new writers and someday-writers to have someone to ask. For me, personally, talking about writing is a great relief, since writing is something I do in solitude (often in vain, sometimes in despair)—it's like I'm opening up my private room, and only when others see it do I know I haven't imagined it.
Also, writing is very difficult, and I think many people don't realize that. I think some people think it's an easy way of life, logistically and psychologically. It's not, so I know from experience that it's a relief to have some support.

WNW: Why do you think it’s important to have something like this now, with the publishing industry in its current state?
New Author Randy: With so many options currently available to writers (e-publishing, self-publishing, Amazon’s options for writers, etc.) we thought it would be helpful to provide a place where writers can ask their specific questions on how to cope with this plethora of opportunities. Writers struggle with certain questions (Should I put my book online? Should I start a blog? Do I really need an agent?) and while we will not necessarily have the definitive answers, we will have strong opinions and good suggestions on where to find answers.

WNW: How do you give constructive advice and encouragement to would-be writers without making the blanket statement that anyone can be a successful writer?
New Author Randy: Easy: we would never make that blanket statement. Telling writers that anyone can be a successful writer would be a lie. First of all, the definition of ‘successful’ is subjective. My success could feel like someoneelse’s failure and vice-versa. Most writers—successful and otherwise—have books in the drawer, failures, and piles of rejection in their past. We can only offer the tools that others have found successful. How our craft, submission, sales and promotion ideas manifest when used by others will depend on the writer’s own talent, decisions, and perseverance.

WNW: Are you at all concerned about backlash from readers who take your advice but do not find the success you have?
New Author Miriam: I trust that readers understand the nature of advice and advice columns. I don’t think anyone would take our input as a guarantee. Or I certainly hope they wouldn’t. We’re just one – or three – more voices offering our opinions. There are lots of agents and editors out there who give their opinions on the world of publishing. We want to be an encouraging and informative voice from the author’s point of view. But I think every emerging writer out there knows that their success depends on their own perseverance, talent and luck.

For more information about the Ask a New Author team and their column, please visit the Ask a New Author column. Have a question for the Ask a New Author team?—Send it to askanewauthor@bookdivas.com.