Digital
This has been on my brain for some time, and what better time to write about it than the holiday season. Here goes…
I believe we’re forgetting to say our thank you’s. I also believe that because of our on-demand society, we’re forgetting that human beings don’t function like an app. While you can get a good Barolo in the hour to enjoy with your dinner ordered from Seamless, your marketing team may not deliver as quickly when you text them at 11 pm for an update.
So spend some time this holiday season saying thank you to those that have given you a referral, plugged your work, given you a compliment, provided sage counsel, or just lent a good trusting ear. And as you begin 2022, don’t allow your attachment to desire overcome business etiquette. Be patient with responses. Be gracious with requests. Remember that there are boundaries when it comes to the workday. Be mindful of how you’re communicating. Be mindful of why you’re communicating.
Now, let’s unpack some PR and marketing questions asked in the Writer Unboxed Facebook group:
How can you persuade yourself that marketing is necessary, that contrary to how it feels, marketing does not drain the soul from your body?
You don’t have to persuade yourself that marketing is necessary. You already know it is. And you may never feel comfortable doing it, but it’s important you make peace with it. I was reading an article today written by a client Elazar Aslan, co-author with Joe Loizzo of Boundless Leadership: The Breakthrough Method to Realize Your Vision, Empower Others, and Ignite Positive Change, he writes that clear decisions start with clarity of the mind. What could distort our lens is ignoring your reality.
You can’t ignore what’s part of your work even though it’s not the preferred part of your work. This might be TMI, but when I came home from the hospital after my second C-section, I made sure I had stool softener in my medicine chest. Find your stool softener.
What is the most efficient way to do marketing vs. what do people think is necessary but isn’t?
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As a debut author not long ago, I was desperately uninformed about who’s who in the publishing world. I knew I’d be working closely with my agent from day one, and ultimately the editor who acquired my debut. What surprised me was that in the months leading up to my book’s release, this circle of key players grew wide (and fast!) No longer were only my agent and editor on phone calls. Soon, these were joined by publicity, marketing, sales…quite overwhelming, to say the least. At the time, I didn’t understand what each team was responsible for, or how they differed from one another (even now, I struggle to understand the difference between publicity and marketing!)
It takes a village, as they say, and my objective today is to summarize each of the (very) important players in the traditional publishing village. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are roles behind the scenes that aren’t listed here, such as finance, distribution, etc. However, I tried to include the players with whom an author is most likely to interact.
Core team: Agent & Editorial
Your agent and editor will be the individuals with whom you work most closely before, during, and after your book’s publication. Below is an overview of these roles.
Agency team
For many authors, generating social media content ideas is a necessary evil: we all know the importance of keeping up a platform so we can engage with readers and the book community, but maintaining social platforms is yet another to-do item on an already long list.
I’m here for you, friends.
Below are 100 social media content ideas for every stage of your writing career. There are 25 items listed for each of the four stages. Whether you’re an aspiring author, have an impending book launch, just launched a book, or your career is in-swing, I hope you’ll find the below ideas useful.
The content suggestions listed are best-suited to three platforms in particular: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. That said, these ideas could also be used in your author newsletter, on YouTube or TikTok channels, etc. We all have a favorite platform (mine is Instagram) but no need to recreate the wheel: once you’ve created a piece of content, use it widely across platforms (and reuse down the road, if applicable!)
Let’s get right to it.
Career stage: Aspiring Author
Content goals: Form connections with other writers, develop an organic following
Content ideas for the aspiring author include:
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Earlier this month, Greer Macallister wrote a post for WU entitled, All the Things I Don’t Know, which struck a chord. In this day and age of double-masking, remote learning, and where should I get my COVID test today, I often wake up less with the Carrie Bradshaw “I couldn’t help but wonder” mindset, and more of a “how in the [insert expletive] am I going to answer that?”
You see, I spend a good portion of each day answering questions. There are the mom questions…”what did you pack me for snack?” There are the wife questions … “do I have 10 minutes to finish up this deck before dinner?” While the dog can’t speak, his eyes, tail wags, and door scratches are just loaded with questions. And since almost everything is about food, my answers don’t require much thought or even complete sentences. But then I’ll get a client question, which might go something like this: “My publisher got me something called a BookBub deal that’s running early next week in the historical fiction category, and my first question is, what’s BookBub? My second question is what else is it that I should be doing to support that deal? My third question is what will you be doing to support that deal?
These questions require greater thought, a review of the calendar, a discussion with my team, and a strategic plan. Sometimes still a client is having trouble understanding it all and then we make arrangements for a call where I lead him or her to various websites and social media platforms to get a clearer picture.
And I genuinely enjoy all of this.
With this pandemic year, where we question everything and everyone, the unknown about the book world feels a little deeper and darker. I think more about all the things I don’t know. I question more of what I do know. And I wouldn’t be surprised if everything changed completely tomorrow.
But for now, here are some of the more common questions I’ve been asked this pandemic year. I had a little help from friends in answering them.
1. [Insert Author Name] is on [Insert National Morning Show like Good Morning America] talking about the same thing my book is about. Why didn’t they choose me and can you go back to them?
We don’t usually get feedback about why a producer went with one author over another, but the reasons can be many including: that particular author may have an already established relationship with the network/show and is called on to be their expert on that topic whenever it is in the news; the author may be more well-known and have a larger following on social media, which is definitely a factor when producers are considering guests; that author may have an affiliation with an organization that can help amplify the segment that others do not; and that author may have clips to past TV interviews that show they would be engaging and have experience on TV. Those are just some possible reasons and publicists rarely, if ever, get feedback as to why a specific author was not booked. The producers do not have the time or bandwidth to report back with that level of feedback. I […]
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Publishing a book is the scariest, most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done. It’s hard to believe that my debut novel, The Kindest Lie, will enter the world in less than a month. One of the best parts of this journey has been sharing it with Julie Carrick Dalton and Sarah Penner, writers who are also debuting this year. Three different publishing imprints. Three very different books. Yet one shared obsession when we meet every Sunday afternoon on Zoom: Will my book be successful? Have I done enough to give my novel the best shot at success? What is success?
I turned to a few authors I admire (many who debuted in 2020) to hear what they’ve learned along the way. These writers, like most, were incredibly generous with their wisdom. Whether you have a book coming out this year or someday (and you will), save these nuggets of insight and pull them out when you need them.
What I wish I had known…
“I wish I’d known how overwhelming marketing and promotion can be, immediately after your book is released. Readings, panel discussions, interviews, book clubs, social media posts—all of these take up an amazing amount of time, and it’s important to keep your writing going. So, the best piece of advice I can give is to set aside at least an hour a day to devote to your next project. You won’t be sorry!”
-David Heska Wanbli Weiden, author of Winter Counts
“I had such a great debut year and learned so much as a result. What I wish I’d known going into my debut year is to not be ashamed to ask for help. As Black women, we’re so used to carrying everything on our shoulders. This mind frame bleeds into everything we do. With publishing, you have a whole team behind you with years of experience in navigating the difficult terrain of editing, marketing, publicity, etc. That doesn’t mean you won’t have an opportunity to educate them on how to improve upon this in our evolving landscape between publishing and social justice; it does mean you can use their assistance to grow your platform and give voice to you and your art.”
-Catherine Adel West, author of Saving Ruby King
“As a decades-long career coach to lawyers, I pretty much “coached” the heck out of myself as my debut month approached. But the one thing that most surprised me was how quickly the satisfaction, for me, of a good review dissipated compared to the malingering of a bad one. For every author affected by bad reviews, there is one for whom negative criticism remains instructive and constructive. Sadly, I am not that author! So, having a handle on how criticism would resonate with me, and how to handle or even avoid it, was one thing I wish I’d known.”
-Natalie Jenner, international bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society
“I wish I had known how kind, generous and compassionate readers are. I have received many letters since the publication of The Mountains Sing and I count them among my precious gifts. I also wish I had known how busy the year could be. I have done more than 100 virtual events during the last nine months since my novel’s […]
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In this strange stay-at-home year, publicity and marketing for authors has been more difficult than ever. It’s not just that physical in-person launches, events, school visits and festivals have had to be cancelled, postponed or streamlined to be shifted online. It’s also harder to get publicity materials into the usual outlets, and social media has also seemed less receptive to the usual kind of book news. Book people generally have had to invent new ways of connecting with readers and spreading the word about new books whilst providing an entertaining and engaging distraction from the general news.
In my case, as I described in a previous post, I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of online presentations, but what I want to discuss is a form of online presentation which I’ve really enjoyed creating. I call it an illustrated video talk for want of a better, more elegant phrase (any suggestions as to that gratefully accepted!). It’s a mix of PowerPoint slides and audio commentary, turned into a simple video which is easy to make and upload to You Tube or other video channels. The primary focus of these videos is not straight-out book promotion per se–though hopefully they will arouse interest in the book or books discussed in the video. Instead, I intend them to be intriguing, informative and maybe even useful–glimpses into my creative process, inspirations and the writing life generally. Thus they would fit within an overall author strategy, rather than just single-book promotion or even multi-book promotion.
The beauty of these illustrated video talks is that you do not need to be a professional video-maker to create them, or to have access to expensive high-quality equipment. Of course you won’t have the ‘live’ feel of the ‘talking head’ video, but you also avoid issues like mediocre web-cam quality, umpteen takes, large file sizes, etc. And in my opinion you get the ‘storytelling voice’ across more strongly, as there’s less to distract you. Don’t expect them to get you lots of ‘hits’ unless you are very lucky, but do expect that you will be creating some very useful and practical resources, not only to put on your sites and social media, but to give out as links to people who might consider booking you for other kinds of presentations, as well as for school visits, for publishers’ marketing, etc. And they are fun to make!
The basics of it are easy: You write a simple script, use Power Point to create the original series of slides based on important pointers in your script, with illustrations, then record your commentary with the Audio function in PowerPoint (you can also add music if you want). After saving the file in PP, export it to an MP4 format, then upload to YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
Of course there’s more to it it you mean to make something that goes beyond a simple ‘hey, look at this book’ notion. So far I’ve made three of these illustrated video talks: one which looks at the inspiration and process behind the creation of several of my picture books; one about the inspirations and sources behind my new retellings of French fairy tales; and one in a great […]
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John Cunningham, my longtime client, called during the height of COVID, when many of us were either crying daily or making sourdough, to say he had dusted off an old manuscript, re-wrote much of it and was sending it to his editor. It was my cue to be prepared for a PR and marketing campaign. There was a catch. It wasn’t his usual Caribbean action adventure featuring hard on his luck protagonist Buck Reilly that I had worked on for the last eight years. This novel was historical…political…biographical…had an alternate ending…female protagonists.
Whoa.
John had genre jumped.
OK, I thought, I’m up for the challenge.
When I sat back and absorbed it all, this jump came as no real surprise because, a writer’s gonna write and the pandemic seemed to lead to either total paralysis or a complete overflow in creativity. Also, John having grown up in the Capital Beltway with an FBI father, a degree in International Relations with the goal of working for the Foreign Service, and a passion for travel seemed destined to write something political.
But as I always do, in my head, I thought about what it meant for his brand; what marketing communications tactics would I pursue; and could it help the sales of his Buck Reilly series?
Months passed as John went through edit, cover design and proofreading. The final edited PDF of The Last Raft sat in my Kindle waiting for me to read it on my annual end of summer trip to Maine. Through the years I read a total of eight Buck Reilly books on York Beach in a sitting. The books are fast, funny, transporting and just ever so entertaining.
It took me a full week to read The Last Raft. (Yes, I was still at the beach.)
It’s smart, detailed, contemplative, and entirely different than what I thought it to be.
And it totally stumped me.
And so I walked away from it… read Jamie Brenner’s manuscript in a sitting…watched Cobra Kai on Netflix with the kids…shopped a little too much with my daughter… and when I had finally distracted myself enough and that last kernel of doubt in my belly was gone, I picked up my laptop and fleshed out my strategy thinking about the following:
I work my campaigns in three parts for my clients—PR, advertising and social media. With indie books my goal is to maximize sales as press coverage is a harder get.
Where would I find the readers I wanted for this smart, political novel with hot button issues?
Could I bring new readers to John’s brand?
Could I market a completely different book to John’s existing fanbase?
It’s time to chat with John and learn more.
How long was The Last Raft collecting dust in your writing barn, and what made you go back to it?
I wrote The Last Raft before I ever dreamed-up Buck Reilly. I had gone to Cuba in the Summer of 2001 just a few months before 9/11 to research the story. I was able to get a license to visit there through the Department of Treasury and spent a couple weeks touring and soaking up the culture. I had lived in Key […]
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Like most professional writers, I’ve always supplemented my writing income with speaking gigs—workshops, talks, presentations of all sorts, both for adults and for children. Although over the years I’ve presented the odd Skype or other remotely-delivered live presentation, the vast majority of my speaking gigs have been face-to-face and in person. They’ve often involved travel of some sort or the other—usually long distance, sometimes close to home.
Since late March, when the shutdown began here in Australia, that’s not been possible. Things are easing now where I live–we can travel now, at least within our State, that’s not the issue—but it still isn’t possible to return to the old speaking-gig model. Schools aren’t keen on having outside visitors, libraries’ hours are still restricted, and adults who usually attend workshops don’t really feel confident yet about the face-to-face experience. Like so many, I’ve had to learn to pivot pretty much exclusively to online presentations, and in the process I’ve learned quite a few things about the differences between online and in person, and how to best adapt a model I’ve evolved over the years I’ve been doing these gigs.
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve done the odd Skype or other online live presentation before, so I wasn’t unfamiliar with the remotely-accessed method of delivery: but all those previous presentations were talks, not workshops. Talks, like conference presentations, don’t need a lot of adaptation to present online—you give your talk, people sit there and listen, and then they ask questions at the end, which are hopefully moderated by whoever is the organizer. You do miss some of the buzz of the in-person audience, the expressions on people’s faces, etc. But it works pretty well, still. Some of the talks I’d given online had been to multiple schools at once, through a Department of Education closed system, and they worked like Zoom does, with muting of microphones etc. I’d be based in one of their studios which enabled the use of an electronic whiteboard, or ‘smartboard’ as it’s known here. The main challenge with those was making sure every school could contribute to question time. The Skype talks I’d given meanwhile had been to individual schools, one at a time, and that was easy because apart from not being in the classroom, it was, well, pretty much the same as being in the classroom 😊
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The first half of this year has been a monumental test in flexibility and resilience for authors and everyone in publishing. My debut novel, The Kindest Lie, will release on February 9, and that publishing date has changed several times as the William Morrow team attempted to position my book and others in their catalog for optimal success during these uncertain times.
Recently, I joined the team of A Mighty Blaze, a new organization that formed to help authors and books find their readers during this global pandemic. That’s how I met Laura Rossi who leads publicity for A Mighty Blaze. She worked in-house at top publishers, including Random House, Viking Penguin, and W.W. Norton before founding Laura Rossi Public Relations.
Laura was incredibly generous sharing with me nuggets of wisdom about promoting books during a pandemic, buying the right equipment for all the Zooming and Skyping, making publishing more diverse and inclusive, as well as pulling back the curtain on how some books get on those elusive, coveted “most anticipated” lists. I’ve edited our interview for brevity, but it was seriously so good that I wish all of you could’ve been on the phone with us.
Nancy Johnson: How has the pandemic impacted our ability to get our books out there into the world?
Laura Rossi: The first thing that happened to many books is their publication dates changed. That was a huge pivot for lots of authors, seeing their early summer pub dates move to fall or in some cases 2021. Summers work well for commercial fiction and beach reads, but it’s often not the best time for bigger books. That was a big trend I noticed. Authors had to give up control and let their publishers do what they thought was best in a very different world. Some books published and didn’t live up to expectations the authors had. Lots of books with March, April and May pub dates—copies were already printed and warehouses were still able to mail books—pubbed during a pandemic. But before May there wasn’t a lot of space for book coverage and some of those books that weren’t able to move didn’t get a lot of media or sales. However, if your book came out in hardcover during the pandemic, you still have a shot at pushing that paperback a year or more later. That second chance is encouraging.
NJ: How has publishing had to adjust now that we don’t have hand-sales in bookstores and in-person author events?
LR: All real-life events were paused or canceled, and many went online. Conferences, workshops, big in-person events like BookExpo and the intimate author lunch with someone from a magazine went away. Those schmoozing opportunities to hand-sell your book were gone. Some authors in the past would get pre-sales visits to New York to meet with booksellers. That personal touch has had to go virtual. People are not going on tours visiting 25 bookstores anymore.
NJ: This all sounds terrible. What do you tell your authors about how to pivot in this new environment?
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Photo by Retha Ferguson
I think constantly about value. What will bring value to my client’s book—the write-up in People, the outreach to book clubs, the branded swag for influencers, a radio satellite tour to bring a specific message to a large audience. What is the marketing communications mix for my client? How will I generate conversation, drive influence and sales, gain the implied endorsement from a reputable source, build an online buzz.
I recently spoke with bestselling historical fiction author (a Get Red PR client) Camille Di Maio on Instagram for her book industry interview series about the ins and outs of PR and what’s changed through the years. While each day something will happen that will make me squeal with delight, and I say that because I’m a big believer in small victories. The rejections are also daily and sometimes another ‘no’ leaves me weakened and tending to wounds that I know will heal but for the briefest period are unbearable.
The next day, I sit at my desk and do it all over again, because no matter what, I love what I do. The conversation I have with myself about value starts again.
I decided to ask a few authors and a veteran literary publicist—with many books to their credit—their their thoughts about value. Specifically, how have their marketing communications efforts evolved through the years, and what are some of the big differences between their various book releases.
ROBYN HARDING, Internationally Bestselling Author of THE SWAP, out now
I published my first novel in 2004, before social media was widely used (or even created in most cases), so I was at the mercy of my publisher’s in-house publicist to promote my book. She arranged local television, newspaper, and radio interviews for me, and put me in touch with several online book bloggers. (I still remember being asked: What do you consider to be your best feature? I didn’t bat an eye then, but I would now.) My next few novels were promoted the same way. After taking a break to explore screenwriting, I returned to publishing with my first domestic suspense novel, THE PARTY, in 2017. The world of promotions had moved almost completely online, and I had much more opportunity to participate in my own publicity. Now, my in-house publicist gets my book into the hands of print and online publications for inclusion on lists and round-ups, which I share on social media to amplify their reach. (I’ve had my books in big traditional publications like People and Entertainment Weekly, but it didn’t seem to impact sales.) I usually write a few articles that tie into the theme of my book, and my publicist will place them. In 2017, I didn’t have Instagram or Twitter, so I was trying to promote a book and develop a following at the same time. Since then, I have found an amazing book community online, and have developed friendships with many bookstagrammers. When my latest novel, THE SWAP, was published on June 23, I felt such incredible support. I spent the entirety of pub day thanking people on social media. It was pretty great.
Photo: Voltamax-60363
I was on the phone with author Barbara Taylor Bradford on Tuesday morning. We were just having a check-in to see how things were going in quarantine. I complained about my mornings of remote learning with my five and eight-year-old children. We both agreed that as women who have worked from home for years—she 40 and me 15—not much had changed for us in that respect. But having lived through WWII, she wanted me to know that it would be OK, that things would get better, that I had to have hope. She then commented that she was excited for the end of the day because after she completed a writing chapter of her next book, she would be shopping online for some Maybelline makeup. This was her reward for a chapter complete. This was the bright little ray on her day.
It made me smile.
In my last WRITER UNBOXED article, I discussed the positive movements in the book world since the pandemic. I’ve seen many a book launch since then, and as a publicist, I’ve been part of a few. Despite all the good, I’ll admit, there are days I feel less than hopeful.
With limited distribution, cancelled tours, fewer marketing dollars, media shifts and downsizes, and possibly decreased publisher support, many authors with books launching this spring are facing a challenge.
So I queried nine authors who have recently launched or are about to launch a new book. I wanted to know, as an artist, what or who gives them hope each day? And what gives them hope for your book despite this uncertain time.
I have to say, the power of US, is so very strong.
Richard Fifield, The Small Crimes of Tiffany Templeton, March 10
My second book was launched on March 7th. Three days later, the world shut down, and I had no live audience, no venues. I need an audience. On the computer, the camera creates a distance that cannot be closed. Last year, my mother died of leukemia, and I was holding her hand at the end, just the two of us, my laptop open, because I promised her that I would finish this book. She was my best friend, and in the last six weeks, I needed her. Our relationship was stormy, until I got sober in April of 2005. I did the work to make it better, and that work began with learning how to love selflessly, to find perspective. Fifteen years ago, I began walking the dogs at Animal Control, the worst dogs, the ones considered unadoptable, damaged beyond repair. I could identify with that. They were so grateful to see me, the real me, and it broke my heart that they had no idea they were set to be euthanized. I was spared, by the grace of something bigger than me, stopped from euthanizing myself slowly. I have adopted five of those dogs, learned to grieve without numbing myself, learned to love without the fear of loss. My rescue dogs rescued me, showed me how to love, and how to be loved. In the last six weeks, they remind me I’m fortunate to have published a book, no […]
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Photo by Stokpic
I intended to write about new marketing communications strategies I’ve seen in the book world these days, but given the current pandemic and it’s impact on our industry, I’m going to pivot slightly and go back to a topic I’ve written about before: community.
I write now having just come from picking up books from my children’s public school, a school of 1,300 in the borough of Queens, NY. The parents lingered a little longer to see a friend, to stand in the sunlight, to just be around a place that gives our children encouragement, knowledge, friendship.
In the PR world, (hopefully) most of us are doing what we’ve been trained to do—(I’ll use the word again) pivot, monitor, heed with caution, give back, educate and jump when the moment is right. Author tours have been cancelled as have appearances, signings, speaking engagements, and festivals. Bookstores have closed their doors to browsing. Media has shifted focus. Social media messaging plans are being retooled and new messaging crafted with considerable care.
With all this in mind, I’ve been monitoring people’s actions—not so much their use of hand sanitizer, toilet paper hoarding and social distancing, but 1) how are they changing gears, giving back, and jumping in to mobilize, educate and protect.
Here’s a round up of all the light and love I’ve seen:
Author interviews
Journal writing prompts
Cool writerly kid stuff
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image by Georgali/Kappa/Regoukou
It’s no secret that regardless of how you publish, a huge part of publicizing and marketing a book now falls on the author’s shoulders. The downside is, of course, that there are already so many demands on our time, it feels like we just don’t have a minute to spare. But there’s an upside too. Being able to connect directly with readers through social channels and other means gives you an exciting, sometimes inspiring, degree of control. When someone else is making and executing on decisions about how your book gets promoted, you’re distanced. In the best scenarios, you and your publisher are both investing in getting your book into the hands of readers. That is truly the best! But regardless of your publisher’s level of engagement and/or investment, you still have the power — and the opportunity — to connect with potential readers yourself.
But it’s exhausting, right? Telling people about your book in short form and long form or with links or without, promoting and describing that book, writing essays about yourself and your book and trying to get them published, organizing giveaways, holding Facebook launch parties, Tweeting and Instagramming about yourself and your book over and over? It can feel like screaming into the void.
So if you don’t want to do that, don’t do that. Problem solved!
For the paperback launch of my novel WOMAN 99, I’m doing some local events, but most of the time I’d usually spend on promotion is going to another project. It’s only tangentially related to my own book, and it may or may not have any impact on sales, but it makes me happy, and that’s a pretty good goal too.
For Women’s History Month the last two years running, I interviewed women writers on my blog with the hashtag #womenshistoryreads. I’m not even sure how many interviews I ended up with, but it was well north of 75, and it took a whooooole lot of my time those Marches. Three questions and an answer for each post. Invitations and followups and editing, oh sigh. (There was, thank goodness, a spreadsheet.) This year I decided to do something simpler and just ask authors I knew for one book recommendation each — one book by and/or about a woman — for a series tagged #read99women.
Spoiler alert: it still takes a huge amount of my time. (Headshots! Bios! Intros! Links! Another spreadsheet!) But since I’m just about officially done with my next novel THE ARCTIC FURY and have no other writing projects on the immediate horizon, it’s time that I actually have, for a change.
And it’s been great. Not only am I reaching out to authors I know across genres (not just historical fiction and nonfiction), I’m making connections with new authors I didn’t know before. I’m seeing reminders of books I loved and recommendations for books I’ve never heard of, old and new. It reminds me what a supportive and wonderful community fellow writers can be.
Participation. Not promotion.
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‘Reinventing You’
On December 4, Don Maass’ first of a planned three columns on this year’s Writer Unboxed Un-Con helped me sort out one of the more interesting tensions I’ve seen growing this year in the writing community at its broadest. It involves risk, going wide, and who does it.
I’m using tension here in its safer connotation(s), as in a helpful tautness that keeps a tightrope walker from falling, or, as one dictionary treatment has it, “inner unrest, striving, or imbalance.” Years’ ends are good moments to assess tensions of many kinds, because the psychological transfer of one year to another itself vibrates with tension, energy–captured at best and lashing around at worst.
That old phrase “to catch the tenor of the times” today makes more sense as “to catch the tension of the times.”
Don writes, “Every manuscript holds back in some way,” and he goes on to list ways that a work’s own dynamics can defeat itself, including “Characters who only go so deep”–which I originally read as “characters who only go to sleep,” ironically–as well as “outcomes never really in doubt” and “voices that could be anyone’s.”
He goes on to describe a capacity for “reinventing you,” which can create a “sense of wonder we feel in reading [something that] springs from what is personal to you in writing.” And he captures the value of being terrified. “Terrified is exactly how you want to be. When you’re terrified, you’re not playing it safe.”
I realized where I’d seen this first: tennis. In 2012, the Czech tennis player Lukáš Rosol defeated Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon. The tennis world was aghast. Rosol was a virtual unknown, a kid. He’d blasted into view on a grass court and he’d taken down the No. 2 player in the world at one of the highest peaks of the sport, the All England Club.
In ensuing years, the incident would be repeated with more recognition. Every now and then, a player–usually young, usually far down in the world rankings–will take out a star of the pantheon in an early match at a big tournament. It happens with enough frequency that wary eyes look at early draws now to see where these moments might occur.
And at one point, Serena Williams articulated exactly what’s happening. The more mature, vaunted players–herself included–can be blindsided by such an opponent, she said, because the comparative newcomer has nothing to lose. Just to get onto one of the great courts of the tournament year with one of the legends of the game is such a break that a player in this position will risk everything. While the more seasoned champion is pacing her- or himself for the incredible strain of a two-week tournament, the “out of nowhere” player will spend every ounce of strength he or she has to win this potentially career-igniting match.
And this year’s writerly observers are seeing something that carries a rough parallel to this. It’s my provocation for you today.
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