The Power of Perseverance

Seventeen years ago I was sitting in my college dorm, fuming at the world because I thought I could write a better book than the one I had just finished reading for class (FYI - I couldn't. Trust me. That first novel of mine is pure stink). A seed had been planted a few months earlier by a true crime show I'd caught on cable - college was my first experience outside of network TV - so I said, "Screw it, Mindy. Write the damn book already."

Fifteen years ago I was working part time in retail (at a Hallmark, if you can picture it), reading Euripides on my lunch break and jotting down notes on the Furies as sidebars to a project I'd been reworking, revising, and revamping since my sophomore year in college, titled THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES.

Thirteen years ago I took a job at a high school library, having amassed literally hundreds of rejections for that novel, a handful for the second novel I'd finished, and a deep familiarity with the guy at the Post Office who had patience with me while he weighed my sample pages and put the right postage on my SASE (you old dogs will know what that means).

At the time I didn't know if I would be able to work forty a week and still write, but I wanted to. When I moved into my new office I printed out a copy of the Rudyard Kipling poem "The Female Of The Species," from which I'd taken the title of my first novel, and hung it on the wall facing my desk. It was a reminder to persevere, that even though work was done at three I might not be, and that there was something more I wanted to do with my life.

Over time little notes started decorating that wall as well, things I'd jotted down to remind me how to run certain reports, where the I Spy books were on the Dewey, little notes from students, senior pictures, and random things smaller kids would gift me that they found on the floor. My Kipling poem wasn't the only thing on the wall anymore - in fact, it was becoming an overshadowed lower layer. But it was still there, and I still saw it.

Last week the dust jackets for my next release showed up at my house. THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES releases on September 20th, 2016, seventeen years after the idea first occurred to me. The manuscript that you'll see on the shelves bears little to no resemblance to that first draft - and that's a good thing - but the concept and characters have been true to themselves.

So whatever the book of your heart is find a way to put it in your line of sight every day, as a reminder that there's something more you aspire to.

Then make time for it.

Jennifer Salvato Doktorski On Making Swag You Can Legally Mail

Most authors will agree that the creative part of the job is where we excel, the business and marketing side, slightly less. It’s lovely when the two can meet in the form of SWAG – Shit We All Generate. I’ve invited some published authors to share with us their secret to swag… little freebies that can sell a book longer after the author is no longer standing in front of a prospective reader. In order to create great swag, you have to be crafty – in more ways than one.

Today's guest for the SWAG is Jen Dokstorski, who has held various jobs such as speech writer, bank teller, ghostwriter, bookkeeper in a lampshade factory, pet shop clerk, and music zine editor. At one point in her life she wrote obituaries for eight months. Her YA books HOW MY SUMMER WENT UP IN FLAMES and FAMOUS LAST WORDS were released in 2013. Her recent release, THE SUMMER AFTER YOU AND ME was published in May 2015 by Sourcebooks Fire.

Finding something that represents your book and hasn’t been played out by a million authors before is difficult. What’s your swag? 

So true! It’s not easy to be original. For my first YA novel, HOW MY SUMMER WENT UP IN FLAMES, I wanted to get custom-made matchbooks with the book’s cover on one side and my website on the other. However, my publicist warned me that mailing those might be an issue, so I wound up ordering pens that look like matchsticks. My second YA novel, FAMOUS LAST WORDS, was about a girl who gets a summer job writing obits at local newspaper. For that book, I purchased official reporters notebooks to include with giveaways.

How much money per piece did your swag cost out of pocket?

The pens were $.79 each at Office Playground. I ordered 100 and I still have three left. The reporters notebooks came in a 12-pack for $18.75.

Do you find that swag helps you stand out at an event? 

The pens gave me something to talk about because people didn’t know what they were at first. I always got a laugh when I clicked the top and showed people it was a pen. Ultimately, I think cool posters attract more attention than swag does. I had posters made for each of my books.

What do you think of big item swag pieces versus cheaper, yet more easily discarded swag like bookmarks? 

I think big item swag pieces can be fun to include with giveaways, but may not be very practical or effective for widespread distribution. I’ve made up tote bags with my book covers on either side and this past summer, I teamed up with two author friends, J. Albert Mann and Bethany Crandell, who also had summer releases. Bethany is the author of SUMMER ON THE SHORT BUS and Jen Mann is the author of the Sunny Sweet middle grade series and the forthcoming YA historical novel SCAR. We held a giveaway for all three of our books and had a charm bracelet created to include with the prize package. I wound up liking it so much I had one made for myself! 

What’s the most clever / best swag by another author? 

This isn’t swag so much as a promotional item, but the aforementioned Jen Mann, had giant decals made depicting the cover of SUNNY SWEET IS SO NO SORRY and turned her car into the Sunnymobile! Adorable and attention-grabbing.

And the biggest question – do you think swag helps sell books? 

Sigh. I honestly don’t believe swag helps sell books, but it can be so much fun to hand out! Bookmarks seem boring, I know, but I believe they’re a great way to get your name out there. I’ve dropped them off at libraries in my area, mailed them to libraries in other states, and handed them out to random strangers when they’ve asked me about my books. My latest YA novel, THE SUMMER AFTER YOU & ME is set at the Jersey shore and a lot of local businesses were willing to keep my bookmarks on the counter by the cash register.

The Wide, Wide, World of Reality

People often ask me what it's like inside my head.

The honest answer is that it's the Beetlejuice soundtrack in there, and it's easy to get lost.

I'm an outdoors person, and an athlete. I try to run, or get my daily dose of sunshine in (even when it's cloudy, those rays get through!) regardless of the workload. It helps keep me connected with the real world, to humanity in general, keeps depression at bay, and also keeps my ass at a manageable size.

The boyfriend is an outdoors-y guy as well as a creative, (I've said before- think a Thoreau/Daryl Dixon mashup with a photography degree), and his view of the world always amazes me. I can make up shit in my head all day long and sell it to you, convince you to care about things that never happened to people that don't exist. But he can look at something mundane and see the amazing, capture the magical qualities of a corn stubble field in the snow that I never knew existed.

I've lived around cornfields my whole life, and yes, I've always known there was something a little eerie about the stalks - green or dry - rubbing against each other in the wind. They have their own special sounds, they can slice your skin like paper, and if you wander more than four rows in you WILL get lost. Sometimes for a good long while.

But I've never thought about the stubble, the mowed off, unproductive sentinels that simply wait six months to get plowed under. They're distinctly unmusical. A remnant. Until my boyfriend went out yesterday and took some shots that make them look like a tiny invading alien army wading through the snow to come kill us.

I think as writers we sometimes spend too much time in our heads, neglecting the world around us, and the amazing qualities even the most mundane objects can hold if we change our perspective. So think about it today as you go about your routine - oh, yes, the routine, that will make you blind to everything except the task in front of you.

Make your desk chair a little higher, or a little lower. Take a pen and put yourself on eye level with it and really look at it for second. Find something you see every single day, and look at it a different way.

You'll see something new.