Linda Sands Forgets to Plead the 5th!
I’d really like for the world to put my friends on
shelves…or in Nooks…or Kindles...
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First up…Ms. Linda Sands author of “Not Waving,
Drowning”…which is an awesome read. I loved it and I think you should love it
too. Linda has a way with characters and a way with prose that makes me green
with envy. My only complaint is her stories always end too soon.
A few years ago, I googled cheap Halloween costumes and
found Linda!
Okay, so I really found Linda’s blog,
"Another Good Thing".
Well, there are many, many good things to read on her blog, so I spent my
morning reading and giggling…and then I just HAD to look her up. I found her on
Facebook and long story short…I just love this lady! In a very non-romantic,
non-stalkerish, just a professional respect sort of way!
Linda is talented; she is spunky; and she truly is a
talented writer.
I asked Linda not to plead the 5th and share her
secrets here- well the ones that pertain to writing!
Unless…
No, no…stay on track Elizabeth…Here's Linda!
All right, all right. I will
now give you the secrets to the Universe. Well, my Universe, anyway. (see how I was all sneaky-like and changed my
font & color so the world wouldn’t think you have a split personality?) (uh, the jury is still out on that one)
THE QUESTIONS:
1.
Networking- thoughts? Favorite “home”? Facebook,
blog, website? Where’s the best place to find readers? I always thought that MORE
was better for marketing, you know, the whole numbers game and spreading
oneself wide, like a fishing net thrown across multiple channels—which might
sound biblical—or whorish, depending on which angle you're coming at it from...
and maybe that worked in the beginning, for me. Because you can find me just
about everywhere, and now, I think I need to focus more. From Facebook (3 pages,
plus one original one that FB shut down- don't ask) to LinkedIn (what is this,
really?) (dunno) to GoodReads (where I am so
behind on listing my library, I feel like a loser every time I log in) (same here), to 4 blogs, 2 websites and a now
defunct and lost forever literary magazine. (thank you web server doofus). I
joked the other day that I am the most majorly marketed, minorly published
author out there. sigh But if I had to choose one? Put it this
way, you can't go wrong marketing yourself on your own website, and you can't
be censored. Add a twitter link there and go at it. Twitter is the most fun you
can have with your pants on.(you got a Twitter
guidebook? I’m so lost there, google earth can’t find me!)
Future of publishing,
especially for the upstarts…how are we going to knock the dinosaurs off the top
ten list (yes, I DID just steal that from your post!)? Hah hah!
Ah, young grasshopper, those dinosaurs? They will be with us always... just
like the poor and really crappy domestic beer. What we have to do, is be another kind of gigantic, scaly
creature in the woods of publishing, one preferably with regular-sized arms,
not those tiny T-Rex things, I mean really?? This new creature will appeal to
the masses, not because everyone has heard
of the author before, or seen them on TV, or read their name on a list, but
because that is a freaking fantastic book, that breaks boundaries, or stays
with you well after the last page is turned, (like
Not Waving, Drowning…still can’t believe she ate a chunk of hair!!...read the
book people, I won’t explain) or maybe even, it changed your life. A
little side note... When I got started writing, for real, not just playing
around, I was told to brand myself,
to build a platform. That was what
would sell books, that was how to get an agent and a book deal and all that
came with it. And because I come to things from a wonky direction, I built myself into a brand, and failed to do so
with books.... until now. Instead of writing the story that came to me, I finally
feel like I am writing the books I was meant to write, with this new mystery
series. (Yay you! Add me to the mailing list!)
3.
Write by the Water…I know it looks like a
writer’s retreat where you work, but honestly, is it really just the party I
think it is? Hey, writing is hard work. We all need some
downtime, cabana boys and vodka, right? (now it’s
in print, my husband will veto for sure) So, in my desire to give back, I decided to create Write By
The Water and offer up both an educational getaway and a place of solitude—with
a few writers hanging around banging on their keyboards and making you think
you need to write more, or faster, or better—and later, we pour wine and bitch
about the sucky life we've chosen, while watching the sunset over a dark ocean—at
least until the masseuse asks us to flip over.
4.
Scratch…you have an online magazine too, right?
How do you do it all? Ah..scratch, sigh. I'm going to try not to cry
as I type this. Scratch was born out of desperation. You know how you read the magazine
call-outs to contributors, and it says: send in your stories here... if you've
been published (I’ve never heard that…maybe it’s
just you? HAH!). Such a Catch-22 situation. How does one get ahead, if
no one gives you the first chance? If no one believes in you? I saw
establishing scratch as an online contest, a way for me to open the door
for writers, and a way for me to get to know editors and other publishers. I
made killer connections and am proud to say I started a few folks down the path
to publication. (In fact, a few of them now have book deals, and I don't. I
love that.) Now, comes the sad part. We were online from 2008-2011, and put out
three printed anthologies. I put scratch
on hiatus in late November 2011 when my daughter was hospitalized and two
months later, the whole site crashed. We were unable to restore any of the
data. Sad day for me and all the fantastic contributors and judges. I miss it
and yet, I'm finally okay with it, as now I have much more time for
"research." (which in Linda-speak is shop for vintage cars I will
never own and befriend crazy characters on Facebook that I will turn into
characters in the next book.(ooh-ooh, I’ll be that
insane woman whose kids drive her insane and she starts driving them to school
in her pj’s?)
5.
Best advice to a fellow writer… Three things. Number One: Learn everything you can about every
aspect of writing, including marketing. Two: Don't ever give up, and Three:
Don't hate the lucky ones—you know
them, the ones who had no idea what they were doing when they queried a book
they hadn't even finished, the ones with big author relatives or lit agent
lunch pals, the ones who got in under the wire before the publishing world took
a nose dive, before vampires were passé—nope, those are the writers you need to
watch and learn from. Those are the authors you should befriend, because when
you finally publish and your tough love story of perseverance, dedication and
hard work comes out, they will admire
you. (Face it, everyone loves the underdog, right? It's even one of the most
popular plot lines in history. I'm banking on it, anyway.)
Bonus Question! How do you stay so freaking skinny when you obviously work 20
hours a day?
Oh, honey, you know no woman
ever thinks she’s pretty enough, tan enough or skinny enough. ;) That said, I'll admit, I'm a gym rat with a
healthy amount of vanity and a tiny budget for clothing. Though as I approach
the mid-century mark, the old tricks don't seem to work the same. (Damn you,
Belgium beer and pretzels!), So, I started a very low carb diet last month and
installed an elliptical machine under my desk. It's crazy but it works.
*An elliptical
machine under the desk! Now that tip is worth its weight in gold.
But then with
gold being at what it is…maybe we’ll say aluminum.
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