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About Sharon Bially

Sharon Bially (@SharonBially) is the founder and president of BookSavvy PR, a public relations firm devoted to authors and books. Author of the novel Veronica’s Nap, she’s a member of the Director's Circle at Grub Street, Inc., the nation’s largest independent writing center, and writes occasionally for the Grub Street Daily.

Recent Posts by this author:

  • Dreaming Big
  • Dos and Don’ts for a Good Self-Published PR Experience
  • The Bad PR Hangover (and How to Avoid It)
  • For the Love of Paper
  • Write Like a Dancer
  • A Look at Writers’ Day Jobs
  • Invest in Yourself
  • What’s Your Vision?
  • The State of the Stigma
  • Flashback Feud, Part Two: Sharon Responds
  • Flashback Feud, Part One: Guest Jenna Blum
  • Naked

    • Dreaming Big

    By

    starHave you have ever allowed your imagination to wander off to all the glorious, glamorous potential outcomes of your writing?  Like seeing your books hit the bestseller lists, catapulting you to fortune and fame?

    I have.

    So has an author I work with, Tony Vanderwarker.  For three years, Tony was mentored one-on-one by none other than John Grisham.  In the memoir he’s penned about the experience, Writing With The Master: How a Bestselling Author Fixed My Book And Changed My Life (Skyhorse, February 2014), he talks with refreshing candor about his fantasies of wild success. “My imagination goes haywire ,” he writes. “I dream I’m on the set of the Today Show chatting about what it’s like to write a novel with John Grisham. Maybe John will join me? How big an advance will I get? Will there be a Porsche Turbo in the offing? Who’s going to star in the movie version of my book? Harrison Ford, maybe? Will I be asked to write the script?”

    But that’s just the beginning.  Throughout the narrative Tony describes visions of his book selling for six figures at auction and muses about enjoying the perks of wealth including—why not?—a private jet.

    Reading these sections, I literally squealed with joy.  Not only could I relate to Tony’s meanderings 100%, having imagined—no: believed—early on in my own writing adventures that the novels I’d produce would bring in a sustainable income and that I’d live happily ever after as a well-fed, published author; I also found it a relief to finally see them expressed in print.

    We writers go to such great lengths to stay grounded in reality that we’ve trained ourselves to push those big dreams out of our minds altogether.  We repeat ad nauseum [Read more…]

    Dos and Don’ts for a Good Self-Published PR Experience

    By

    "I published three novels at big houses to good reviews.  Now I’m my own publisher, and the media wants no part of me.” So begins an article that ran last month in Salon.com.  Called, The Future is No Fun: Self-Publishing is the Worst, the piece is actually about the PR side of self-publishing rather than the overall experience. While promoting any book is hard, it’s true that for self-published authors, it’s infinitely more challenging.   But does that really translate into the media wanting … [Read more...]

    The Bad PR Hangover (and How to Avoid It)

    By

    Over the past few months I’ve spoken to two authors who’d signed with the same, well-reputed PR firm for a book launch campaign, paid a considerable amount of money and then…nothing.  Barely a review or author interview to show for the firm’s initial promises and excitement. (For the record, this was not one of the wonderful PR firms plugged into the Writer Unboxed community.) Each of them told me – with quite a bit of emotion – about their disturbing experience: a positive, promising … [Read more...]

    For the Love of Paper

    By

    Over the past few years, I’ve grappled with a relationship problem that’s severely impacted my writing:  My computer and I have been growing slowly but surely apart. As a companion for my day job publicizing books and businesses, Mac has been perfect.  I can spend ten hours a day gazing into his face and running my fingers over his keys, completely absorbed in our never-ending conversation without noticing thirst or hunger or even my kids’ pleas for attention.  But -- call me fickle -- when … [Read more...]

    Write Like a Dancer

    By

    Eight years ago I dropped out of writing classes and signed up on a whim for ballet and modern dance lessons instead. The writing classes, it seemed, were going nowhere.  The questions were always the same, the answers were as elusive as ever and the feedback had gotten pretty stale.  Besides, as one of those fidgety types who hates sitting still, I’d simply had enough of spending my rare free time in a chair. Already an avid runner, cycler and swimmer addicted to movement, I was also … [Read more...]

    A Look at Writers’ Day Jobs

    By

    Let’s face it.  With the exception of the tiny handful of writers lucky enough to generate handsome earnings from their books or to have the full financial support of a spouse or a trust fund (two things I tend to longingly confuse), nowadays, most of us need some sort of gainful day job. In fact, in this new economic and publishing context, paid jobs and careers in fields as seemingly unrelated to books as medicine, engineering, finance and law have become as integral to the writing life as … [Read more...]

    Invest in Yourself

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    Not so long ago, “being a writer” might have cost us our sanity, consumed countless hours each day and caused us to opt out of paying jobs, but it didn’t actually require spending money. Those days are over. A veritable writing industry has emerged in the wake of the  digital revolution, complete with webinars, seminars, conferences and manuscript consultations available to all -- for a fee.  Amid today’s fierce competition, writers with professional aspirations know how important it is to … [Read more...]

    What’s Your Vision?

    By

    Like many writers, when I begin a story I have a pretty clear sense of where I’d like it to end.  Though it might take unexpected twists and turns along the way, its general direction is shaped by my vision of where it’s headed.  This process reminds me of a seed, which even while sealed inside an envelope on a shelf in Home Depot contains a complete blueprint of what it will ultimately blossom into. Developing this vision, nurturing it and balancing a commitment to it with the inevitable … [Read more...]

    The State of the Stigma

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    The media -- both traditional and social -- is doing a fabulous job spreading the word that self-publishing has officially lost its stigma.  Outlets as venerable as The New York Times Sunday Book Review and PBS.org and have weighed in on the pros of going solo and how the changing landscape has brought this phenomenon into the mainstream. But two major caveats to the stigma’s end seem to have been left out of the conversation.  As an author about to self-publish who’s learned a lot the hard … [Read more...]

    Flashback Feud, Part Two: Sharon Responds

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    Humble thanks to Jenna for yesterday's priceless wisdom! I couldn’t agree more that superfluous forays into the past weigh a story down and should be slashed.  And that writers should learn to recognize and kill off those darlings, no matter how painful.  Jenna's books are shining examples. But I’m also worried. It seems that an exploding number of novels are cowering in a corner, so frightened of making that one fatal flashback misstep that they choose instead to march forward along a … [Read more...]

    Naked

    By

    At this year’s end, with temperatures near twenty and snow fluttering to the ground, I stand before you naked. Don’t blush.  Don’t turn your head. Just look directly at these words. They wear no cover, no jacket.  No pages.  Just like the words of my novel, Veronica’s Nap. In September, I launched Veronica’s Nap…on a blog.  Having had agency contracts for two previous novels that didn’t lead to publishing deals, I realized early in the submissions process this third time around that I … [Read more...]