PhotobucketIf you missed part 1 of my interview with debut novelist and Backspace co-founder Karen Dionne, click HERE, then come back. Today, Karen and I chat a little more about her process and challenges while writing her novel, Freezing Point–an environmental thriller. We’ll also discuss her unboxed publicity efforts and her other baby, Backspace.

Enjoy!

Part 2: Interview with Karen Dionne

Q: As a debut novelist, have you learned anything about the publishing industry that has surprised you?

KD: I think the thing that most surprised me about the publishing industry was its glacial pace. My novel sold in January of 2007, with a publication date of October 2008. Twenty-one months – that’s the gestation period of an elephant!

Q: What efforts are you taking to promote your work? Can you share any promotional tips and/or advice with us?

KD: I discovered an interesting thing about myself on the road to publication: I like marketing and promotion. I enjoy thinking up promotional ideas that are a good fit for me and my novel. And because I’d much rather lead the pack than follow it, some of the things I’ve tried are a little outside the norm. I sent my novel on a “Freezing Point Pre-Publication World Book Tour” without me (a reasonable success), and set up a Freezing Point “Star in My Book Video” contest (not quite as successful).

But the centerpiece of my personal marketing plans was the online book launch party I threw the week my novel published, which turned out to be every bit as wonderful as I had hoped. The website saw more than 2,700 visitors, and over 400 people left comments in the guest book – many of them friends and coworkers I hadn’t been in touch with for years. It was terrific to be able to share my special day with so many wonderful people, and I felt very loved.

I got the idea for an online launch party over a year ago, when I realized that no matter where I held a real-world book launch, only a fraction of my friends would be able to attend. So with help from a dozen thriller authors including Lee Child, Doug Preston, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, and James Rollins, I threw an online book launch where family, friends, and fans could mingle and win prizes. Entertainment included video welcomes from the best-selling thriller authors who had given me blurbs, a reading by a professional voice actress who’s also a New York Times author, stand-up, a compilation clip with four authors who write series characters answering the question “Would Your Character Read Freezing Point” – even testimony from a thriller author who’s also a medical doctor regarding the science behind my story’s premise. There were door prizes: a boxed set of the BBC’s “Planet Earth” series on DVD, bottles of genuine iceberg water, and Penguin Gear from my publisher. And because a book launch party wouldn’t be complete without, well, books, two independent booksellers made signed copies available.

The video endorsements from best-selling thriller authors turned out to be an unexpected bonus. When I asked the folks who’d given me blurbs to record a video or audio contribution for my party website, I was thinking strictly in terms of entertainment. What I didn’t realize until I saw the first video clip was how powerful these would be. Seeing and hearing Douglas Preston tell readers how much he enjoyed my novel and that he looks forward to seeing it on the New York Times list is the Internet equivalent of a 45-second television commercial. As one guest book commentor wrote: “Swanky party! What a great concept. And with all these top names shilling for you who can resist? I’m picking up my copy today.”

Naturally authors tend to think first in terms of words. But on the Internet, we’re not limited to text. I can easily imagine authors putting similar audio and video endorsements on their regular websites. They’re certainly easier and cheaper to produce than a book trailer, and quite possibly, more effective.

So my promotional advice to other writers would be: Don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t just step outside the box, destroy it.

Q: How have you evolved as a writer? Had you written manuscripts prior to Freezing Point, and how were they distinct?

KD: Freezing Point is my second time at bat. The first novel I wrote was a science thriller set in the South American jungle. That novel got me a wonderful agent, but after several years of rewrites under his direction, ultimately, that novel didn’t sell. A novel is a difficult and unwieldy beast, and I learned it takes more than a great idea and a modicum of talent to write one. I was lucky to have an agent who had the patience to work with me until I got it right.

Q: Do you like to work with an outline when you write? How do you progress from concept to finished manuscript?

KD: I do like to outline. A tightly plotted thriller doesn’t just happen — at least it doesn’t for me. I recently learned about a device the television industry uses called a ‘beat sheet,’ where each minute of film is accounted for on paper before the story is written, and I’ll admit, that method appeals to me. I have a constant and ruthless internal editor that makes my writing progress excruciatingly slow. I could save a lot of time if working up a beat sheet meant I wouldn’t have to toss anything out!

Q: Whose work (fiction and/or nonfiction) has inspired you? What are you reading now?

KD: I enjoy literary fiction, and make it a point to read at least a half-dozen quality books a year. But the authors who’ve influenced me most directly are those who write in my genre: Crichton, Preston and Child, and more recently Barry Eisler, Katherine Neville, Joseph Finder, and Marcus Sakey. I read one or two thrillers a week, and while I know some authors don’t like to read in their genre while they’re writing, I find it inspiring. It’s good to get out of your own head for a while and spend time in someone else’s.

Q: Some genre writers stay away from literary fiction. Does reading literary fiction affect you, personally, as a writer? How? And what are some of your favorite literary works?

KD: I loved Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, Jon Clinch’s Finn, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi for starters. And yes, reading these works does affect my writing. When Publishers Weekly reviewed Freezing Point, they mentioned “the surprisingly complex and overlapping motivations of the characters,” and I like to think that came from exposing myself to quality literary fiction.

Q: Let’s talk a little about Backspace. When did you decide to set up this community of writers? Why did you think it was needed? And did you ever imagine it would grow the way it has?

KD: My business partner, Christopher Graham, and I started Backspace in April of 2004. We met on a large, public, writers discussion board that had a terrific group of people participating, but also had some serious problems because of nuisance posters and troublemakers. After a particularly Y interesting Y weekend during which a bitter, failed writer spewed threats and venom against everyone and anyone, I asked Chris, who I knew had website experience, how hard it would be to create our own space where those who were serious about getting published could talk and help one another without all the noise. Turned out, he had been thinking along the same lines, and so we set up Backspace.

One hundred writers joined the first week, and that’s when the reality of what we’d done hit us: we owned the site. It was ours. We could do with it whatever we wanted. Chris had been nurturing a vision of creating the best writers site on the Web, and once he shared his dream with me, I was hooked.

We’re not claiming Backspace is the best writers site, because there are plenty of excellent writers resources on the Internet. But Backspace has made Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers list all four years of our existence, so that’s a start. Chris and I both believe that if you’re going to put all that work into something, why shouldn’t you aim to be the best?

Q: What makes Backspace’s online forum unique? What other benefits might a writer expect out of membership to Backspace?

KD: Picture a discussion forum with 850 members — a busy, active place where 200 people log in every day, who are all there because they want to help one another get published. A third of the membership is agented and/or published, so when someone asks a question about getting an agent or about the craft or about publishing, they get answers from the people who know. Backspace also has a dozen literary agents as members, who chime in as they have the time for it on the really tricky stuff. Add in regular guest speaker question and answer visits from editors, best-selling authors, publicists, and other industry players, and that’s Backspace. The discussion forums are accessible by subscription — $30 a year — so the people who join tend to be the ones who are serious about getting published, no matter what stage they’re at in their career, and that keeps the quality of the discussions high. Clearly, it’s working, because in 2007, members came out with 73 non-fiction books and novels, and four hit the New York Times list. With a membership like that, it’s no wonder Backspace is so fabulous.

Q: If you could pass one piece of advice on to aspiring writers, what would it be?

KD: Enjoy the ride. The publishing business can be brutal and it’s so often disappointing, that it’s important to celebrate the highs. I’m not talking just the floating-on-the-ceiling highs, like signing with an agent or selling a novel; I think writers should celebrate every milestone, large or small. Writing is a process, and not an end in itself, so if you’re not enjoying the journey, what’s the point?

Q: What’s next for you?

KD: The novel I’m working on is another standalone that my agent and I both love: a literate, clue-oriented thriller that takes place across three continents and 4,000 years and blends some really cool science with some fascinating history. All I’ll say about the subject is I hope my readers like spiders . . .

Thank you, Karen, for a great interview, and best of luck with Freezing Point!

Readers, you can find an excerpt of Karen’s work at her website, HERE.

Therese Walsh co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006. Her debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, sold to Random House in a two-book deal in 2008, was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009, and was a Target Breakout Book in 2010. She's never been published with a lit magazine, but LOST's Carlton Cuse liked her haiku best on Twitter, and that made her pretty happy.
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