Writers are a funny breed.
Virtually every other art form has a million approaches, and no one seems to question this.
Perhaps it's because writing requires some degree of education, and holding a reader's attention for possibly many hours to read an entire book involves creating more fascination than a 45-second TikTok video of a hot young chick swallowing whipped cream.
Whatever it is, writers seem to always want to be right about what writing well requires (note my audacious use of an adverb there).
I suppose I am no exception. Carry on.
As I finalize the very last bits of the publishing process for my long-awaited geopolitical thriller, I can say it's been an arduous, if gratifying, journey.
The three preview readers I gave galleys to for back cover reviews have all come back with blurbs that exceeded my wildest expectations.
While some may attribute that to talent, I would assert that it's mostly to do with unending fortitude.
While the final chapters took less work, because the rest of the story was formed, the first sections got probably a hundred+ passes, while I moved chapters around numerous times and deleted quite a few others that I determined didn't serve the story.
I think my background as a news editor served me well: I am unattached to anything but producing the best novel I am capable of writing.
Now, I have a confession to make--or several, actually.
1) Although I have certainly seen a few Bond films and knew a decent amount about WWII before I began writing, I have never read an actual spy thriller in my life.
I wrote this story because it's my family's story and it's my story, and I felt it needed to be told and I had to unravel its secrets for myself, as much as for anyone else.
So to hear from highly qualified readers--including a bestselling historical fiction author, a book store owner and a retired Army colonel who's also a historical fiction author--that I'd hit the mark was a huge relief.
Now for more confessions: I've never read a single tome on novel writing, or taken any classes in it. To be completely transparent, I haven't read that many novels as an adult, although I did read a lot of classics (Dickens, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, et al) growing up.
Finally--I never aspired to be a writer, although I admit I was always pretty good at writing non-fiction like news or an essay. I wanted to be a movie star growing up. It turned out I wasn't driven enough or, to be brutally honest, probably thin enough to make it in that business, though I had a few successes as a commercial actress and singer, regardless. And I was a CBS-affiliate TV news anchor long ago, in a small town market.
So I claim the title of "novelist" now with both pride and humility, because I have had both fantastic mentors in the publishing process and a good deal of luck in just meeting people who helped me out with background information and encouraged me overall.
I don't know what my next move will be. I have part of a sequel written, but 2025 will most likely see me focused on marketing the shit out of the new novel. That will also give me time to come up for air after five long, arduous years of research, writing and editing.
If I sound tired, I am. Because while finishing the novel, I was dealing with all the global and personal fallout from Oct. 7th, 2023--a situation still unresolved that hurts my heart so deeply, it's impossible to explain to those who don't understand it themselves.
Life is about endless transitions, and mine now are somewhat sobering. A lot of unknowns lie ahead, as I push further into the back nine of existence.
We don't really control very much. I try to treat people I meet with dignity and respect, and hope when my life is done that at least a handful of people will remember me as a good human being. I have family, but no kids, so in another fifty years, I imagine I will be nothing but a curiosity for some future great-great niece or nephew to find photos of in a box.
We are all truly dust in the wind. It keeps me humble.
Wishing you all blessings for 2025. Stay safe and healthy out there.
There is a general truism that a serious literary novel should have a serious matte cover (or dust jacket).
As I debate this final step before releasing my new geopolitical thriller (which I believe could fall under "literary fiction" without squinting too much), I have just now perused a few paperbacks and hardcovers in my own collection.
Naturally, I am looking at books of a somewhat similar ilk, although some are more biographical than historical fiction.
The point, to me, is will readers of historical fiction accept a glossy cover? And I believe the answer--based on my own collection--is "yes, they will."
There seems to be varying opinions about whether glossy or matte covers show more or fewer fingerprints or smudges. There is less debate that gloss makes a cover "pop" a bit more.
Since I think you cannot really have too much "pop" in this world, I am leaning toward gloss for a paperback and case laminate hardcover of the novel, with both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
I've also seen some say that B and N does a much better job on their case laminate hardcovers, but it's nigh unto impossible to find feedback on Amazon's printing quality for 2024 (versus, say, three to five yrs ago).
Of course, I will order my own proofs of all and can suggest to buyers from there. With Amazon expanded distribution (which basically makes it available globally, albeit in English) and Barnes and Noble online, I think I have as good a distribution channel as anyone.
I'm not losing sleep about brick-and-mortar bookstores or libraries not being able to order from Ingram--truthfully, the ROI and PITA factor don't outweigh the benefit there, imo.
And if I choose to publish with IngramSpark down the road, I still can, as I own the copyright.
I think authors get far too wrapped around the axle about the prospect of seeing their book in a physical bookstore. Far more people will purchase online--and ebooks and Kindle will always be the most cost-effective and simplest way to go for a majority of today's readers.
I've put a lot of effort into making sure the formatting for all of these options will look top-notch and be as good as--if not better than--any traditionally published book these days.
I'm excited for you to see it all for yourself--only two more months to go.
This is a topic that certainly applies beyond writing, but let's start as authors.
I had a book publicist who told me I shouldn't swear and shouldn't post any opinions, because it might lose me an interview or a reader. Perhaps she is right, but on the other hand, it might also gain me a reader.
At the end of the day: I don't really care. I trust my books will sell based on the quality of the writing and its contents, not my views. I mean, I'm not running for office lol.
I think being authentic is way, way undervalued, ESPECIALLY FOR WOMEN. How dare we say what we really think? We are raised to keep our opinions to ourselves-- it would be unladylike and offensive to do otherwise.
I was raised with the same direction in this regard as all y'all. I mean, my mother died when I was five, but the one thing my father was somewhat obsessed with was "how to behave in polite society." He'd worked in the State Dept., after all.
The only thing he cared about in my wedding planning was that I had a receiving line. That really summed him up in a nutshell. Protocol and order.
Right.
I am a funny person, because in some ways, I am actually very traditional. The ways in which I am untraditional are mostly untraditional haha--I love to shoot, I speak my mind, I am very, very bad at following orders.
Many years of being told how to behave made me go the other way as an adult. I don't think it was an instant process, but here I am on the back nine, not really giving a shit what anyone thinks about the fact that I like to speak my mind.
If we don't speak our truth as writers, who will? I would like to see more women be more outspoken, and not just the insane libs like AOC and the screaming loon who is the Palestinian Congressional bitch from Michigan.
And I am very happy to see that more conservative women ARE speaking up, like Riley Gaines and Mace from South Carolina.
So I will take my chances on losing readers, because honestly, who cares? I don't think trans men who think they're women or pro-Ham Ass idiots are probably my reader demographic anyway.
Speak up, ladies. Be bold.
As Goethe said, " Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."
Can you even imagine a woman writing about the quest to find a man of means as part of her personal journey now?
Back in the early 19th century--when Jane Austen wrote most of her now-iconic novels about impecunious young women of good breeding but dire prospects--this was a reality for the gentry class. If you were a woman, who you married framed most of your life, and it was a decision not to be made lightly for that reason.
If you could happen to find a really rich landowner who was also hot, slightly edgy, and a tad vulnerable beneath his dour exterior (Mr. Darcy), well--why not? And if he fell in love with you despite himself having far better financial prospects (because even rich men had to think about the astronomical expenses of maintaining an enormous, drafty estate and manor), so much the better.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Now we are swimming in stories about equity and diversity that have about as much romantic jjzzzjj as a Walmart greeter.
As with almost anything else, literature has had its soul sucked out by the DEI movement. I attended an online authors' conference today where a publisher spoke with glee about an upcoming book about a transgender kid. Is there really a big audience for this? Are plain ol' straight kids who know what sex they are even allowed to celebrate that reality anymore? I wonder.
I grew up reading great literary fiction like Dickens, Tolstoy, and Harper Lee. Life was certainly not easy in the times these authors wrote about, but they managed to portray it with some kind of dramatic elan that made it delicious to read.
Now authors would be told to refer to poverty as "experiencing financial insecurity," which just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.
Looking for love? You are "emotionally underserved." Beautiful? "Visually privileged." A bastard? "Born into nuclear insecurity."
DEI is killing the fucking English language, and if authors don't push back, who will save it? I implore writers everywhere to reclaim language like a buried treasure, polish it up and put it back on display, before the linguistic Titanic on which we are all sailing hits its last iceberg.
One that even climate change won't save.
Miranda Armstadt
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