Doin’ it All Anyway

by Michele Lee

So at this point a lot of you are wondering just who I am and why I’ve taken over Stacia’s blog. My name is Michele Lee. I’m an author (HWA qualified, but not SFWA, and an anthology featuring one of my shorts is Stoker nominated this year), a reviewer (for Dark Scribe Magazine, Monster Librarian and The Letter), editor (zombie review editor for Monster Librarian, though I have fanzine editing experience as well) and I’m a bookseller for Borders (at least until April when our store closes). About the only thing I haven’t done in publishing, other than the whole bestselling author with a three book deal gig, is agenting, and that’s because no one’s offered me the opportunity.

I’m here today because I am exactly the kind of person certain internet folk are claiming that Stacia and the YA Mafia say shouldn’t exist, and reasonably, I take issue with that. First of all, YA Mafia? Pu-lease, in the horror ghetto where I was spawned we have the Cabal, which has been ruining careers and sacrificing puppies to elder gods when they should have been writing for over ten years. I call your mafia and raise you ancient cannibal fauns, nasal parasites and zombie-fucking-apocalypses.

But I digress…much like the original discussion started about Stacia’s blog.

Here’s the down and dirty point I think she was trying to make: People treat you differently after you’ve been published. People treat you differently when you have book cred. They take your words wrong. They put intent there that wasn’t. And for some reason just because an author has a book or two to their name their opinion weighs heavier even when it’s still only their opinion and they’re still only people who don’t know everything.

That aside, let’s look at the real reason I’m here: Can authors also be reviewers?

Well, sure they can. Many of them do. Charlaine Harris recommends books on her blog all the time. Zadie Smith just took over the book column in Harper magazine and have you heard of a place called Publishers Weekly? Many authors have reviewed, anonymously and not, for PW.

Can if affect your career? Absolutely. It would be silly to assume it wouldn’t. Once you set out to have a career everything can affect it. Sitting around watching TV can affect your career, particularly if you’re not writing when you should be and Tweeting snide comments when you shouldn’t be.

Can they co-exist? Carefully they can.

I started reviewing after my second short story was published. I was looking for a way to get and stay involved in the publishing community, even when I didn’t have a story coming out. I was looking, like all budding authors, for a little legitimacy. Let me make this clear though, reviewing was always part of my plan of attack when it came to building a career.

Here’s why:

Reviewing makes me read. A lot. Things I never would have picked up on my own. Things I loved and had to dial down the fangirl in order to assess. Things I hated and had to neutrally assess the pros and cons of.
Reviewing made me have to think, really think, about the elements of a story and why it worked or failed for me. Which in turn made me think about the elements of my own stories, whether they were as effective as they needed to be.

Reviewing for other people means I have to meet deadlines, both in actually doing the reading and in sending in my analysis.

Review editing pushes me to be more firm in my publishing presence. I have to made myself more comfortable with (or just able to fake it better) approaching authors, publishers and editors for review copies, interviews and other interactions. In short I can’t flake out when I’m feeling insecure because people are depending on me to do my job. And since those same people are the ones I work with in my personal writing I figure if I can ask them to send me free copies of books and do interviews with me I can ask them to add my query to the pile they’re already reading anyway.

Also, complete cheat here, as a writer knowing the market, supporting it, reading it helps me target my submissions better. What I’m reviewing is the same people I’m submitting to, so I can better target my submissions by sending to the places putting out work I like or am impressed by. Reviewing is market research (albeit harder than just buying magazines and reading them).

So what are some of the cons?

Reviewing sucks up as much time as writing. More if you let it because lots more people want you to read and review their work than want to read yours. And if you get stuck in a slump where you just need to feel like you’re moving forward adding more reviews to your credits and crossing things off your to do list feels a lot better than sending out another round of subs on a story that’s been out there for a year.

You have to read some bad stuff. Really bad stuff. That makes you want to cry, especially when you think about your poor rejected manuscript making the circuit, yet this is published. Also you have to read some really good stuff that isn’t going to get the attention it deserves because it’s not the current trend, or is a small press release that most people will never learn about.

Yeah, people get upset if you don’t like their work. Usually they don’t ever say anything to your face, they just quietly stop talking to you, or give you a polite cold shoulder if you meet them face to face, if anything at all. Why does being a published writer make someone not a human capable of disappointment? (Not that being disappointed means you should plaster it all over the intarnets.) You do have to consider what happens if you don’t like a book. Sometimes it’s not worth it to publicly state that you didn’t like the book. (Even though yes, negative reviews do sell books.) Other times the editor you’re reviewing for expects you to be honest. Honest doesn’t equal cruel. Usually if you treat it like a job you must be professional at, meaning mention positives as well as negative, consider who the audience would be, if it isn’t you, and avoid personal statements (“This books is…” not “this author is…”) and true nastiness you’ll be okay.

However bad reviews aren’t the only ones that can hurt you. What if publishers get hooked on the idea of you as a reviewer who is predisposed to like their work and decides to keep sending you things to review, and likewise rejects your work because they’d rather have you supporting them as a reviewer rather than having to support you as a writer? It happens, and it sucks. Just like writers can get pigeon-holed by fans into writing the same kinds of stories, reviewer-writers can get trapped in the role of reviewer and be completely unrecognized as a writer.

You can burn out faster if you’re playing writer and reviewer. You can get tired of seeing the same thing over and over. You can find yourself too tired of a genre to keep writing in it. When something becomes business, much less double business, it’s easier to get bored with it and groan when you see another zombie decorated cover with “Dead [Insert random word here]” in dripping gore letters on the cover.

Books are a solid, holdable thing, but publishing is an industry built on ideas. It is too vast., too varied, to wild a thing to be determined and controlled by a handful of people. Publishing is a sieve, and there are too many agents, editors, publishers, self publishers, magazines, anthologies and webzines for someone to be completely locked out of it by one or a handful of people.

Top that off with the insane crazy busy of the industry and expecting there to be some sort of collection of people who can be successful AND have time to blackball people is like expecting the ocean to stay still for a picture because you asked it to.

Yeah it’s easy to screw up if you’re trying to be a reviewer and a writer. The big mistake is not expecting the two to affect each other. But if they are both aspects of your job, a job you go about as professionally as you would a day job in every aspect that you can, they can coexist. The key is professionalism, and remembering to keep an eye on the overall goal, not letting the individual parts run themselves with abandon.

Someday I will probably have to make the decision between one or the other. Maybe it will be a happy occasion, because I’ll be forced to chose because I have a multi-book deal at auction and have to focus on writing. But I don’t ever expect that I’ll stop recommending the books I love to people. How and why I do it, though, is something that takes more care and consideration the more “well known” I am.

First, though, some news! I got word yesterday morning that UNHOLY GHOSTS has already gone for a second printing!! Hopefully this means people are preordering it and hearing about it and getting excited about it–well, yeah, obviously it does but you know what I mean–which is extremely exciting. So have you preordered your copy yet? Because, you know, you wouldn’t want to get to the store and not be able to take one home, would you? Especially not when next week I’m going to talk about some special giftie thingies we’re doing for those who buy the book, either preorder or at the store. You don’t want to miss out! (Um, at least I hope you don’t.)

I’m going to be posting a lot of excerpts here, and I’ll be all over the internet with interviews and all that good stuff. Can you believe we only have three weeks until release day?

Anyway. As you all know I’ve been all over the Northeast in the last week and a half, starting here in GA and heading up to MA to see Caitlin. I rented a car for the drive, and I have to give huge credit to Hertz, because that car was awesome. It was one of those Chevy XXRs, the ones that look kinda like PT Cruisers? Really fun to drive and I got the satellite radio with it, which was awesome. They have stand-up comedy stations; I listened to those a LOT and had a blast. (See, I’d reserved the cheapest economy car, but my location didn’t have one, so I got the XXR and the satellite for free. Plus, they were great when I turned the car back in just a tad later than I was supposed to. Anyway. Go Hertz!)

Beautiful drive, spent a night in VA. Then got to see Caitlin’s new place and the very cool city where she now lives. We cooked salmon and watched The Office and stuff, and it was all just fantastic. We also saw The Losers, which was great, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t a huge hit because not only was it a hoot but Jeffrey Dean Morgan appears shirtless in it. Win-win, seriously.

Aaanyway. Monday we headed down to NYC and…drumroll…got tattoos. The shop is called Eight of Swords and Dave, the owner/artist, is amazing. Not only does he do beautiful work, but he was just totally cool to hang out with and was very, very accommodating of our crazy schedules for the day. Seriously, if you are ever anywhere near the area and are thinking of getting inked, Dave’s the go-to guy. (And very reasonably priced, too.) He just totally rocks, and I love my new tat, which I will post a pic of asap.

Next I had lunch with Mr. Agent; well, he had lunch, I had a couple of vodka tonics. Oh, and it was raining in NYC, which meant that by the time I got to the Del Rey offices I was a teeny bit drunk and my hair was a huge ball of corkscrew frizz. Profeshunul writur is me! But of course it was great to see my editor and everyone there again, and Caitlin assures me I didn’t act like a loon. Then it was off to visit my great friend George for dinner, and the train back to Caitlin’s place, and we drove to RT the next day with the aid of classic rock. Because it just isn’t a road trip without it.

I don’t even know what to say about RT, really. It was awesome to see all my pals again, though I did feel there was less mingling this year than last. There were several people I’d hoped to hang with who I barely had a chance to see. But of course the League wreaked havoc and had an absolute blast. I did a few panels, lots of fun, and met some people, and drank a lot of vodka, and was on the Faery Court, which was definitely an interesting experience. I also had some dildo snatch my wig off my head at a nearby bar, and when I told him I was not amused he replied, “Oh come on. You’re a little amused.” I put on my Mean Face and said, “No. I am NOT.” Then grabbed my wig back and walked away. He’s lucky I didn’t hit him. What kind of asshole thinks a woman would be amused by standing in public with all of her hair pinned tightly to her head in a haphazard fashion? Ugh.

Anyway. The hotel was lovely except for the no-free-internet, which is a travesty in this day and age. The staff was also lovely–particularly the bar manager–except for the one bitchy bartender who got very rude with me when I finished placing my order even after she turned and started walking away from me. Apparently I didn’t have to yell because she could hear me, which surprised me since I couldn’t hear myself (hence the yelling). My voice has still not recovered, btw.

The highlight, of course, was the signing. Oh, and the undertakers. The first three days, I think, we shared the hotel with a convention of undertakers, and let me tell you, those are some awesome, fun dudes. I predict a rash of undertaker romances in six months, you mark my words. But anyway. I was much, much busier at the signing than I’d expected to be, which was great fun. The League had done these little passports where we each had a picture inside and the idea was to write nasty things beside each others’ pictures. Us being who we are, we outdid ourselves. (I had a very, very sweet young teenage girl come up to me to sign her notebook, and I gave her a passport, and told her and her mother to make sure my fellow Leaguers knew it was for her so they could tone it down a bit as they signed it. I hope they did. She was a sweetheart. Anyway.)

That was pretty much it. Most of what I did was hanging out, drinking and talking to my pals. I forgot to take my camera so have no pictures (the camera in my phone refuses to save any pictures I take), but if you check the sites of the other Leaguers there are plenty there. I’ve also had a few people post photos of me in my blue wig on Facebook. I managed to catch a ride back home on Sunday and we drove through awful weather through most of Kentucky, and of course you know the trouble they’re having in Nashville and how you should be donating to the Red Cross to help out.

So I’ll be back tomorrow or the next day with an excerpt and some announcements and such, and meanwhile I’m working and all of that and trying to recover. It’s good to be back with my family.