The Furious Spinner

I haven't been very articulate lately, and I apologize for that. (I'll blame the lack of sleep and my general craziness lately for that.) So I want to clarify what I'm doing with Furious Spinner.

First, it's not transforming into a MySpace page or a LiveJournal blog. Second, I've gotten lots of email from people who love FS just the way it is, and I appreciate that. I love the simple look of it, too. I purposely made the font bigger so that most everyone can read it, and I picked the simple template for readability, too. But blogger doesn't offer that template any more, so it's difficult to make any changes and often archives don't work, etc. So I'm talking with designers about creating a website that includes info about me and my work, but mostly I want it to be a portal to beauty and (my kind of) humor and humanism, and it'll probably revolve around the Church of the Old Mermaids. I want to have a blog on it where I talk about all kinds of things, like I do here, and it will be readable, not-flashy, with no ads, much like Furious Spinner is now, only better.

But I also need to find places where the people are who buy my books. My work is my writing. I've got to sell books. And that's not happening with what I'm doing now. I haven't had an adult novel out for a few years. Although adults would love my teen novels, too, the teens are the ones who are buying them. Book tours don't generally work for YA novels. (I'm not convinced they work for adult novels either, unless you're already a bestselling writer.) And at my level, publishers aren't doing much marketing beyond sending out advanced reading copies (ARC) to reviewers. I need to go out and find my readers. I wish they'd just come to me, like manna from heaven, but that ain't happening. Many teens readers like to interact with the writers, so I'm going where the teens are. I want to see what they're reading, who they like, what they're talking about. Word of mouth is how books like mine get sold. I've got to get the word out.

MySpace is one of the places teens go. For me, there are way too many ads, it's very flashy so my brain hurts when I'm there, but it's also great because people are connecting online. So I'm trying to zone that stuff out while I have a tiny conversation with those who come there. Less than 24 hours after I set up my space on MySpace, I had 30 people writing to me and those thirty people saw my name, saw the cover of Ruby's Imagine, and now they know a little bit about me and I get to know more about who my readers are. I love that. I may have to set up a space on Facebook, too. But I'll wait to catch my breath first! I've got the place on LiveJournal, too, but I haven't heard from anyone yet, so I think the teens tend to go to MySpace more—which is what the research indicates, too. (Although I haven't figured out how to tell people on MySpace or LJ that I'm there.) The instant connection is great on MySpace, and I'm sure it must be kind of addictive. Right now I'm stumbling around there because I don't know what I'm doing!

This is the thing, I write because I love it and it's how I'm trying to make a living. If people don't buy my books, I have to go out and get a fulltime job again, which means I won't be able to write as much. I wouldn't be able to write as many books, and I probably couldn't do the blog. There's a reason some writers only do one book every few years or so: They got other jobs!

I want to keep writing because I love it and because I think I'm good at it. So this year I'm really stepping up and out and I'm going to find me some readers, one way or the other!

So, I will go where I need to go, but I promise I will keep a place that is quiet and beautiful where everyone can come and read my work, like Furious Spinner (maybe even called FS, we'll see).

A friend of mine recently warned me, "Kim, you know the stuff you write on FS, it's never going away. Things stay on the web forever." Of course, she's right. I write about things on FS that most people don't write about. I know—from reading emails from readers—that me writing about my struggles with depression, my grief, my angst, and my joys has helped other people walk through their fire, and being able to write about such things helps me walk through mine. I read other blogs and websites, and there are some nasty people out there. That doesn't happen here. I cherish the readers of FS. You is my kind of peeples.

So, knock wood, I ain't going any place that I won't take you along with me. You don't have to go to LJ and MySpace. No, no, no. I'll be here (or near) too. And I hope to post more regularly. I'm longing to sit down and write about something I cooked, or the way the snow looks coming down outside right now, or how I just went outside to shake off the snow from my sacred Rosemary (poor thing!). And I will do that soon. Today, I'm going to work on The Blue Tail. I hope!

I hope this post helps clear things up.

May You Spin in Beauty, Babies!

Labels: writing

1 comments

1 Comments:

Dearest Kim - I, for one, don't want to add even the tiniest bit to your stress level these days. I just wanted to make sure you knew how much I still value FS. There is no doubt whatsoever that you can write beautifully and I think it's great that you want to focus on YA fiction. I enjoy it very much; it's uncluttered or something. And I love your stories.

My 30-year old daughter and her friends use Facebook. She's also in touch with her cousins there and most of them are a lot younger than she is so I think it would be worth it for you to have a go.

Hugs, S

By  Susan, at 10:33 AM  

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