book « Robin Writes

A few weeks ago, I listed some of my favorite authors; while their books are tucked here and there on my shelves, I thought you might want to know what else is lurking around the office—and living room.

Looking straight out across my desk, I have two bookcases. They’re practically antiques: cheap, put-it-together-yourself from a discount store. Unbelievably, they’ve lasted for 25 years and countless moves; there are two more against the wall behind me.

Facing me are the non-fiction titles: several by Zig Ziglar, whom I met years ago, a Yahoo style guide from my days of article writing, horse books, psychology books, criminal justice, Black’s Law Dictionary, sociology, personality stuff, career guides, and a lot more. They’re mostly categorized by subject. I also have two shelves of antique books.

Behind me, again in the cheapo cases, are more of the same.

To my right, in three bookcases that my husband built, are my hardcover fiction and books written by authors I know—and of course, an entire collection of RHP books. These are all mostly categorized by author. Mostly.

That means that all the King books are together, all the Koontz, etc. Not that the Ks are all together or anything, or even that the Ks follow the Js. I’m not that OCD.

Oh, and in the middle case, I have a collection of antique law books that I picked up at auction in Texas—way cool, even if the covers are crumbling. Shelved with and below those are my collection of vintage Black Stallion books, plus my great-grandfather’s collection of Zane Grey novels.

Now, in the living room, two husband-built bookcases hold all my paperbacks, stacked to fit. Mostly by author, but really—fit is important!

If you know me at all, even a teensy bit, you’ll know that I’m not fan of the romance genre. Yes, I used to read them, back in the day, but even then not constantly.

But I do seem to have quite a collection of Danielle Steel . . . and Rosemary Rogers. Remember her? Of course you do! And Steve and Ginny? Ah, yes—I do still remember those books! But mostly I’ve got mystery and horror. Odd combinations, yes?

Yeah, kind of in a galaxy far, far away. It sure seems like it!

So a long, long time ago—three years this month, actually—I’d just come off a long-time writing gig for non-fiction, Internet only (okay, mostly) and had started writing my first novel, REDUCED. I had author friends, thanks to the bookstore, and writer friends from way back, and I was up to my eyeballs in the book business.

But now it seems like I’ve always been an author. Make me blink whenever I realize that REDUCED has been out for only two and a half years. Seems a lot longer!

Sure, I made mistakes. I still make some, although honestly, I won’t take the blame for some of them. It’s technology that will occasionally throw me for a loop—as in it’s not working the way it’s supposed to . . . but by and large, I’ve got this.

Blows me away sometimes how new authors think and make decisions; even some experienced authors who should know better, but don’t. I try really hard to be kind and to teach, not lecture. Certainly I don’t make fun of them, although I’ll confess to frequent head-shaking.

Here is the short list of how to be an author:

Don’t pay someone to publish your book. Ever.

Check references and quality before handing over money to editors and cover designers.

You need to know or learn punctuation, spelling, and grammar before you start.

You must have a story, a good story, that will be interesting to a lot of people.

Your book must be as long as it takes to tell that story, but it should also be a book and not a novella or a short story or just something you threw together.

You need to learn a lot of things. It will seem overwhelming. It’s not.

I don’t care who publishes your book, you will have to sell it.

There are a lot of ways to do this.

You have to keep doing them, consistently, forever.

The overwhelming bit was what got to me. I was inundated with blogs, articles, posts, etc., all telling me to do this or that. Fortunately, I’m able to mostly cut through all the bull, and so I found some things quite useful. Others, however, are things that need to be tried and tested, like promo sites. Not everything will work for every book.

Likewise, not everything will work for every author. Read, study, bookmark the good stuff, and go back and look at your leisure. Don’t be afraid to try things.

And don’t think you have to do it all, or even do things a certain way. Just do it.