5 Reasons my Short Story Collection is Better than Pie

This weekend I released a short story collection, Cross-Eyed. Why spend your time with this book instead of, say, a piece of pie? Well I'll tell you.

1. It's free. Until the end of the month, the short story collection is absolutely free. Get it now, and get it instantly, while you don't have to pay for it.

2. It is multi-flavored. Choosing flavors is hard. You want apple-pie. No, pumpkin. No, pecan. In this short story collection you can have them all! Because it's a collection, there are several stories, all with their own unique flavor, and you get to enjoy them all.

3. It won't make you fat. Calorie free! Can't say that for a piece of triple-berry. And you might even read it on the treadmill...

4. It will last long-term. A piece of pie, though enjoyable, is gone once you've eaten it. It's a one time thing. My short story collection is yours forever. You can come back to it, share it, and it will never be gone.

5. It won't go bad during a nine hour car drive or three hour layover. Hopefully most of us are able to take advantage of these weeks while summer begins to wind down. While you take your trips, a piece of lemon meringue won't last in the trunk. But Cross-Eyed will. It will last your whole trip and never sour. At least, I sure hope not.

So there you have it. Reasons why you should invest in my collection instead of a piece of pie. Or maybe you might as well have both. A couple other things, before I go. First, huge, huge thank you to Alex Cavanaugh for the blog shout-out today, and to everyone else whose taken the time to mention the collection on Facebook and Twitter. I really can't tell you how grateful I am for that support. And lastly, just a reminder, because I've been asked (ok, by my Grandma, but still...) that even if you don't have a Kindle you can still read Crosss-Eyed on a Kindle app on your iPad or iPhone, or get it on your computer desktop, and since for the next few days it's free, you might as well, right?

Anyway, thanks again for all your support. I am super excited to have something out there for you guys. I really do hope you enjoy it as much as you would a moist piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Try it out, I would love to know what you think :)

And dang it...now I'm hungry.

Sarah Allen

Whats the Hardest Type of Character for You To Write?

I find this a really interesting question. I think it says a lot about the writer.

We all need to relate to our characters, and I think there are just people we relate to much more easily than others.

For me personally, the characters that I find hardest to write means that I will probably never be a very good classic romance writer. Classic in the sense of normal, traditional. Because those stories usually require confident, hunky people, and that is hard for me. The young, hot, popular guy who is the heart-throb of so many movies and books. In other words:

I can't decide if it would be harder for me to write the lead quarterback or his head cheerleader girlfriend. I am much more comfortable with quirk. Characters who aren't quite comfortable in their own skin, who feel weird, who maybe don't have too many friends. I'm not saying any type of character is inherently better than any other, I'm just saying certain characters come easier for certain writers. I just don't see Taylor Lautner fitting in one of my stories anytime soon. Mark Ruffalo maybe :)

So now what. I don't know about you guys, but when someone says I "don't do" something, even if that someone is myself, the contradictory wave rises in me and I think, "Oh yeah? Watch me." Who needs limitations, right? But if we're not going to let ourselves be restricted by these uncomfortable characters, how do we deal with them? I've thought of two ways:

First, work with them anyway. So Traditional Football Hero is my weak spot. I'll think up a short story for that character and try it out. You don't have to stay with the character for more than a day, but it could be a good way to stretch some creative muscles.

Or else, quirk them up. As in, morph them into something your more comfortable with. Maybe I start with Traditional Football Hero but actually he's super shy and secretly hates sports. Or maybe he's a total jerk and ends up being the true antagonist, a la Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. I'd be comfortable working with that :)

Your turn. What would be the hardest character type for you to write? Do you think trying them out in a short story or novella would be a valuable exercise?

Sarah Allen

The Number One Key to Effectiveness in Social Media

I want to boil things down today.

There are so many posts about social media, obviously. But lately I feel like I've read some really excellent posts (not the least of which is this one by the ever-genius Anne R. Allen) about getting through all the passe, irrelevant-to-the-online-age advice to what really works in modern social media.

The great metaphor in Anne's post is in thinking of Twitter (and other social media sites) like a telephone. You pick up when you want to, to people you want to talk to. You call specific people with specific news, you don't randomly cold-call the entire phone book. (If you do...well, that's another blog post.) I think that's a perfect analogy. It highlights what I think all the best posts about social media marketing are telling us: it's all about relationships.

And I think it's clicked for me lately because it's been broken down even more. It's all well and good to say it's about relationships, but relationships can mean a wide variety of things, both positive and negative. What does it mean practically, for every day social media use in my writing career? The light-bulb moment happened for me when I put in a different word.

Effectiveness in social media is all about responses.

That's right. You responding to other people. Not you putting your book cover on Pinterest, not you carefully coordinating tweets about your latest release, not you getting more likes on your Facebook page. I'm not saying those aren't important, and I'm as obsessed about it all as anyone. But the number one strategy, the most effective thing, is your responses.

Your responses to tweets from writer friends. Your mentioning someone else's blog post on your Facebook page. Your repinning and commenting on your friends Pinterest boards. Your highlighting blog posts by other writers on your own blog. Someone sees you retweeted them, they remember a funny thing they saw on your blog last week, and they check out your book. Whatever platforms you use, you reaching out and responding to what other people are saying is what's really going to get you connections. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, everyone likes to be listened to. So if you make an effort to respond to people and give them that listening friend, they are much more likely, when the time comes, to return the favor.

Social media has never been the best for mass marketing, and anybody who tells you otherwise is an exception or wrong. Algorithms and luck will take you much farther than any social media platform can do. But what social media can do is get you those connections, those relationships, that will not only lend you wisdom and support, but might just be the crew that can get the ball rolling. This social media response thing is definitely a slow, brick-by-brick process, but I personally think it's worth the effort. This is one topic where I'm definitely thinking this through for myself, and hope/want to do much better, become much more involved, in the future.

Do you think social media is worth it in this sense? What is your favorite type of response to get on social media? Blog comments? Repins? Mentions on Twitter?

Sarah Allen

Top 10 Writerly Places to Beat the Heat

Has the heat been wearing on everyone else as much as it has me? Heat is not my favorite. And humidity is not fun for straight-haired people, let me tell you. Obviously the best thing for us to do is stay in an air-conditioned house and write. But as far as getting out of your air conditioned house, here is a quick list of places for us writers to go to get ideas, have fun, and keep cool.

1. Movie Theaters. Anybody seen The Way Way Back? Oh my word go.
2. Community Theatres. Fun to check out, great way to support your community. And stay inside.
3. Museums. Most places have some really cool places. And often they're free.
4. Library. Duh. Any better place? I don't think so :)
5. Bookstores. Used or otherwise. Not only will keep you cool, but you never know what treasures you will find.
6. Meetups. Use Meetup.com to find book groups or other writerly gatherings and join. Sometimes they even provide free food :)
7. Literary Places. Go to the Poets and Writers Literary Places database and see if there are any near you.
8. Cave hunting. I know not everywhere has caves, but if you have any around, they're sort of inside, right? And who knows what ideas you might inspire.
9. Community classes. Check local libraries or universities and see if any community events are going on. What better time to take an underwater basket weaving class?
10. Eventbrite. Use Eventbrite.com to find all sorts of lectures, exhibits, conferences, all sorts of things. This is one I want to start using more often, because there are seriously some great things going on out there. Many of them in the air conditioned indoors.

There you have it. Just a quick list of ideas for when you want to get out but keep cool. Hope your summer is going well despite the heat. And I hope you're writing.

Any other ideas to add to this list?

Sarah Allen

Why the J.K. Rowling Pseudonym Story is NOT Depressing News for Aspiring Writers

[Image Source]

So we've all heard the news about J.K. Rowling publishing a book under a pseudonym, right? The Cuckoos Calling by "Robert Galbraith". Slash J.K. Rowling.

Anyway, ever since the news broke I've been seeing all these articles about what a terrible sign this is for newbie and aspiring authors. People saying stuff like OH MY WORD EVEN ROWLING CAN'T SELL BOOKS. People saying that if even Rowling can't have a hit, what's there for the rest of us?

I think this is totally bologna. Totally the wrong way of looking at it.

What I think this actually does is show how level is the playing field. Let's not use Harry Potter as the example for success for a second. Let's define writerly success as having a book accepted, published, be critically well-received and sell moderately well. We'd all be fine with a career made of that, right? So J.K. Rowling did that plus some with Harry Potter, obviously. And then she did it again.

As far as I know The Cuckoos Calling sold okay, and the critics liked it much more than Casual Vacancy. Honestly I think this is a brilliant move by Rowling, and a chance for her to get some unbiased response, some feedback without her name getting in the way. 

I think what this whole thing proves is that you don't have to be J.K. Rowling to be successful. Robert Galbraith is us, is a newbie author who worked hard and produced a good book, got it published, and had some people like it. But comparing it to Harry Potter of course makes it look like a failure.

All in all, I applaud Rowling for a smart move. So maybe the level of success for this book is not the same level as Harry Potter. Maybe it's not even enough to found a career. But its a great place to start one, and you don't have to be J.K. Rowling to do it.

Thoughts? What do you think about this new development?

Sarah Allen