Recently in The Biz Category

So, I'm not on the road this year -- not on the "real" road. I still consider myself to be on tour, though. Virtually. I am quite high tech these days.

At first it felt very strange to be staying home as BLACK OUT approached publication; I've been heading out, visiting stores and meeting readers and booksellers for the better part of six years. I've toured twice with my daughter at age 4 months for BEAUTIFUL LIES and just over a year for SLIVER OF TRUTH. I knew taking her on the road at two and a half would be really too hard for me, and unfair to her. And I'm not hardwired to leave her. So, I made this radical decision. Lucky for me, my publisher agreed.

But because I'm not on the road, I have finished my next book and am at work already on the one that will publish in 2010. I'm not in an airport waiting for a delayed flight to take off. I'm not eating some awful fast food meal while sitting in a parking lot before a bookstore event. I didn't wake up this morning, unable for a moment to remember what city I'm in. These are all good things.

The best side-effect of not being on the road this year is that it has encouraged me to get creative about my connection with readers and booksellers. My Virtual Book Tour, as I like to call it.

For example, a fabulous bookseller I met on MySpace, Linda at Burgundy Books in Connecticut, has invited me to visit her store via speaker phone. Linda has invited readers and I have sent bookplates with my signature. And we're having a good old-fashioned booksigning ... except I won't be there. I asked her if she was set up for a video-conference, just to show how cool I am. But no, the phone will have to do and I'm looking forward to this. With gas prices soaring, and airline tickets getting more expensive, and with everyone -- publishers, booksellers, readers and authors alike --watching their budgets, maybe this kind of event is a new twist for the author appearance.

Meanwhile, I'm "traveling" other ways, too. I'm connecting with readers and booksellers on the social networks -- which I love. How else would I be able to get to know so many people and stores in places where even the book tour might not have taken me?

I love chatting with my new Facebook and MySpace friends, sending bookplates, hanging out with booksellers in this totally new way.

I'm also very excited that to be working on an essay for largeheartedboy.com about the musical component to my process. Music plays a huge role in my writing -- offering inspiration, motivation, creating mood. And this was especially true for BLACK OUT. So keep checking back for that.

It should also be said that the folks at Crown/ Shaye Areheart Books are on the razor's edge of everything real and virtual. They created this amazing widget for BLACK OUT that you absolutely must see. (If you don't know what a widget is, you're not the only one. But I can tell you this -- it's really cool.)

So, if you're hip and high tech like me ... I'll be "seeing" you around as I cruise the information superhighway on my virtual book tour. (I know; I'm a true geek.)

By the way, the winners of my newsletter drawing for a set of signed first-edition hardcovers last week are Carmen (Newark, NJ) and Jen (Lorian, OH). Congrats!

What I'm reading: Unaccustomed Earth/ Jhumpa Lahiri

Favorite Book for Ocean: Once I Ate A Pie/ Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest (This may be one of my favorite books ever for O. It is so beautiful, funny, sad, gorgeous. If you've ever loved a dog, you'll love this.)

I’ve been getting emails about Patry Francis, author of The Liar’s Diary, regarding the release of her extraordinary novel and how illness will keep her from promoting it. I don’t know Patry and I haven’t yet had the opportunity to read her book, but I felt compelled, after reading her blog, to say a few words. (Okay, more than a few. You know me, I do go on.)

The publishing business, though steeped in romance, is as competitive and harsh as any other. It’s very difficult to get a novel published, and once you have, it’s even more difficult to succeed. What differentiates the publishing business from say, the toothpaste business, is love. It’s not just about selling more toothpaste. (Not that there aren’t people out there who feel very passionately about toothpaste.) Most of us -- writers and editors, publishers, and agents -- are doing what we love, making our living with a passion, zeal, and drive. Most of us would be doing it for nothing.

That’s why when some of my fellow writers learned about Patry’s situation, they decided to blog about it, to help her support the book, the dream, that she wouldn’t be well enough to promote. Because it’s not just about writing and loving our own novels, it’s about loving the great work of our contemporaries and supporting each other in what otherwise is a very solitary profession. It’s about being readers and fans of each other.

I haven’t met Patry but I know what it takes to write a novel, to get it out there in the world. I know what a thrill it was to be signed on by an agent, accepted by a top publisher and to know that a dream was about to come true. I don’t, however, know what it is like then to be diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, or to be subjected to a treatment that, for a time, is debilitating. But I can imagine that she must have felt like she visited both ends of the spectrum of what this crazy life has to offer – the big thrills, the terrible blows – was a bit dizzy from the ride. She has been generous enough to blog about it. It’s a gift to travel with her, to hear her thoughts and insights, to share and understand her journey even in a small way. I hope you’ll visit her at www.patryfrancis.com and (here’s me NOT being subtle) buy a copy of her book for yourself, for someone you know who loves thrillers, or just because you want to remind a talented writer that it’s not just authors who want to support each other and make the business feel a little bit more like a family and a community; as the biggest, and arguably the most important element of the business, readers want that, too.

Cheers, Patsy! Wishing you health, bliss and every success ahead!