Choices Meant for Gods

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, has written the following guest post for us today to celebrate the culmination of her Choices Meant for Gods Online Book Tour. It’s been a fabulous two-month tour with events nearly every weekday – some days hosting more than one event. So Sandy talks about the joy and insanity of being a writer below.

By Sandy Lender, fantasy author

Northeast Missouri State University, now Truman University, prides itself on offering a liberal arts education to graduates. I got out in four years with a degree in English and a liberal arts education that has garnered me a 15-year career in magazine publishing and public relations/marketing, but my true passion, the “career” I’ve nurtured since I was about six years old, is writing. And I don’t mean journalism. Yes, journalism and editing are what have paid the bills the past 15 years (and will continue to do so), but fiction writing…oh…fiction writing is what has kept me alive.

It’s probably going to be the death of me.

Let me explain. If you’re visiting this site, you’ve probably been drawn here by an interest in books or authors or a writer’s lifestyle or something along those lines. Let me give it to you straight. All writers have a touch of insanity about us (this is normal). We usually carry a muse around with us, but this is not always by choice. We complain about characters fighting for their rights, refusing to conform to our wishes in a scene. We go on writing binges that keep us up until 3 a.m. before collapsing next to our computers just to get up and start typing again when the sun blazes in to wake us around 7, skipping meals, showers, potty breaks and phone calls until some aspect of reality forces us out of the writing cocoon. We will tear a room to shreds looking for a pen if an idea has just struck us. And woe to the fool who gets between us and a piece of paper when we get hold of that pen…

Because I’ve experienced the insanity described above, I’ve been lifted up by hearing stories of people who have enjoyed my first published novel, Choices Meant for Gods. Now I get to read comments on my Amazon.com page of people claiming Nigel Taiman is “by far” their favorite character, or “I want to be just like Chariss when I grow up,” and I feel this lump of pride in my darlings rise in my throat.

That’s the joy and insanity of being a writer. You pour your heart and soul into the work; and pray that someone out there likes it, too. Now here’s the hard part. People have to read it to like it. They have to know it exists to read it. So you have to get it to them. Enter the marketing and promoting aspect of the new author’s job.

I attended the ArcheBooks Publishing’s Professional Novelist Workshop about two weeks before receiving my contract for Choices Meant for Gods, and had attended the Naples Press Club Writers Workshop the week before that, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of the marketing nightmare new authors faced. I was ready. Lay it on me, I thought.

Now I’m on the last day of a two-month online book tour I organized myself, contemplating repeating a moderately successful instore book signing at the local Barnes & Noble that I organized myself, and managing six blogs (including www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com) for the promotion of my fantasy novel that I’ve organized myself, preparing a spate of press releases I’ve written myself that I’ll spew forth like water from an erupting sprinkler next week, etc. Do you see a trend there? New authors are on their own. Unless you have the few thousand dollars it takes to hire a publicity firm/PR agency to send out press releases for you, you’re on your own. I don’t have a few thousand stray dollars and I don’t trust people who charge less than professional rates to do a professional job.

I take hope in the fact that even J.K. Rowling was once in the same boat I’m in now. She was down to her last food stamp as the story goes when that fateful call came: Her little story about a boy named Harry Potter had been picked up. I’ve already had my call. Choices Meant for Gods is published and out there. Now I need my lottery winning event to propel me into J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter status, but, for right now, I’m going to just keep writing deep into the night and reading those fabulous e-mails that praise Nigel and Chariss. Because making a living at this would be nice, but, truly, the writing binges that result in someone singing Chariss’s praises are the real joy and insanity of being a writer.

I’d like to thank Kora Taiman for posting this guest blog article. And I’d like to thank everyone who made the CMFG Online Book Tour the raging success it’s been. You know that paragraph above where I said new authors are on their own? I’d like to correct that. We actually have each other. Without each of you, the name Sandy Lender wouldn’t be all over the internet right now, and readers wouldn’t be one click away from http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy-Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=dp_return_1/104-9089752-5140754?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1175821346&sr=8-1 to pick up my epic fantasy novel. And new author Sandy Lender is grateful to every one of you. “Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: sandy lender, fantasy author, northeast missouri state university, truman university, liberal arts, journalism, fiction writing, writer’s life, muse, choices meant for gods, nigel taiman, marketing and promotion, archebooks publishing, professional novelist workshop, naples press club, online book tour, today the dragon wins, fantasy novel, j.k. rowling, harry potter

Summarizing the Weekend and Week

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, would like to thank Jan Verhoeff and Karina Fabian for the three stops they hosted on the Choices Meant for Gods Online Book Tour last week. These wonderful hosts made touring look wonderful!

This week marks the final six days in the CMFG virtual tour, and my author is both excited and sad. But, now that Monday is here, she has no time to ponder emotions. The week starts off with a bang with a live author chat tonight. Here’s the schedule:

Monday—Join Sandy Lender for a live author chat from 9 to 10 p.m. EST at http://willifordblog.com. The theme of the discussion is “What makes the perfect villain?” There’ll be a contest during the chat to win an autographed copy of the exciting epic fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods.

Tuesday—Meet fantasy character Kora Taiman as she deftly handles her first interview at http://friendsofdragons.wordpress.com.

Wednesday—Join Sandy Lender for a live author chat from 8 to 9 p.m. EST at www.authorisland.com. The theme of Wednesday evening’s discussion is “What makes the perfect heroine?” There’ll be another contest during this chat to win an autographed copy of Choices Meant for Gods.

Thursday—Meet fantasy author Sandy Lender in an insightful interview at www.storyation.blogspot.com all day long. Leave a comment or question and Sandy will respond throughout the day.

Friday—Fellow ArcheBooks author Jane Sutton hosts Sandy Lender for a grueling interview at http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com. Visit and leave gentler questions!

Saturday—We will announce the winner of the 10-questions contest still going on at this site and Sandy Lender will be a featured guest interviewee and guest blogger at sites all over the blogosphere throughout the day. Both Nigel and I will post the comprehensive list at http://sandylender.blogspot.com and here as Sandy confirms the final details. It’s going to be a great last day of the tour! A “party online” she calls it…

Please join us for any or all of these online events. We’re excited to share in this amazing time with you. It’s not every day that a new author gets to celebrate the end of such a whirlwind success of a tour!

 Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, virtual tour, online book tour, author chat