Guest-blogging: A Flourishing New Literary Genre and a Powerful Tool for Promotion (Plus 10 Tips for Coming Up with Your Own Guest-Blog Posts)

On this Cinco de Mayo who better to have as a guest on First Person Plural than workshop leader C.M. Mayo, author of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire? Here she talks about a subject all writers need to know.

Today—the very apt "Cinco de Mayo"—is the pub date for the paperback edition of The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, my novel based on the true and international scandal of 1860s Mexico and (yes) Washington, DC. I invite you to read all about it--- watch the trailer, enjoy an excerpt, hear my Library of Congress lecture about the research, and much more at http://www.cmmayo.com/.

What an education the last year has been. My novel came out in hardcover last May 5th; shortly thereafter, I embarked on a cram-packed, coast-to-coast book tour, beginning with a launch at the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, DC, then on to bookstores as diverse as Vroman's in Pasadena, CA; Bookworks in Albuquerque NM; and Book People in Austin TX. I also participated in several writers conferences and bookfairs, among them, the Texas Book Festival and the Virginia Festival of the Book. As a first-time novelist, I have have been fortunate indeed. That said, this is not my first book. My short story collection, Sky Over El Nido, was published in 1995; Miraculous Air, a travel memoir of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, was published in 2002, with a paperback edition in 2007; and an anthology, Mexico A Traveler's Literary Companion, came out in 2006. All of these were markedly different publishing experiences from this one, in part because my publisher, Unbridled Books, has a crackerjack marketing team, but also because publishing and communications themselves have changed.

One of the most surprising changes is the increasing importance of guest-blogs for book promotion--- and indeed, for any kind of literary promotion (perhaps you have a new literary journal, a new poem, a reading series?).

What's a guest-blog? What you're reading right here. It's a new literary genre--- closely related to, variously, the essay, the newspaper article, and whatnots on a bulletin board.

I felt very avant garde back in 2006, when I wrote my first guest-blogs for Wendi Kaufman's now, alas, apparently abandoned "Happy Booker" blog ("If I Had an iPod: Top 5 Mexican Music Selections ") and for the travel blog, World Hum ("The Speed of Rancho Santa Ines").

But over the past year, in promoting this new novel, Holy Smokes! I've written for:

Work-in-Progress ("How to Hang in There and Finish Your Novel");

beatrice.com ("What Connects You to the 1860s?");

A Writing Life ("Break the Block in 5 Minutes");

bookreporter.com ("A Book Club Meeting Menu");

Largehearted Boy (Playlist for The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire);

Red Room ("C.M. Mayo Celebrates a Batch of Bookstores");

Potomac Review Blog ("Who Knew That Mexico Had a Half-American Prince?");

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Blog ("VCCA Memories");

and more.

I'm not unusual in this regard; many long-established writers are newly busy with guest-blogging--- and hosting guest-bloggers. On my own blog, Madam Mayo, I've hosted several other writers on their so-called "blogtours," among them, Sandra Beasley, Sandra Gulland, Joanna Smith Rakoff, Porter Shreve, Tim Wendel, and many more (view the full line-up of Madam Mayo's guest-bloggers here). Two more examples: Leslie Pietryk and Christina Baker Kline, both outstanding novelists, frequently host other writers on their blogs, Work-in-Progress and A Writing Life.

In sum, guest-blogging is at once a flourishing new literary genre and a powerful tool for literary promotion. While you probably won't get paid in cash to write a guest-blog, you will get paid, and sometimes very handsomely, in clicks. And if you don't think that counts, check out what facebook charges per click for advertising. (Speaking of which, please click here.)

Herewith 10 tips for coming up with your own guest blog posts:

1. Think about music: what songs might make a great soundtrack? Which songs might your characters would sing in the shower?

2. Think about food: any recipes from the book? Any recipes your characters might concoct?

3. Think about places: perhaps a certain city or mountain or lakeside resport in your book (or etc) is special. Photos, please!

4. Fantasize: which actors could play the parts in the movie? If your character were born in Virginia in 1960 instead of say, France in 1765, where would she work?

5. Tell a story about the book (e.g., how I found my agent; why I finally, with much gnashing of teeth, threw out chapter 1; the day I got the idea to write the book)

6. Thank those who helped you (Chekhov? Tolstoy? Teacher? Mom? Husband? Dog? Cat?)

7. Select an excerpt that might work.

8. Interview yourself (don't be shy!) Ask yourself three questions about the book.

9. Offer helpful hints (How to bake bread; how to write a novel in 12 easy steps (ha ha); how to keep your cat off the laptop; how to find time to write; how to find an agent.)

10. Generate lists, e.g., three poets who influenced my understanding of rain; 10 reasons to take a writing workshop; 7 cities I wish were in the novel but they didn't make the cut ; my favorite places to write in Washington DC; 5 books everyone in Bethesda should read right now; 4 yoga poses to make your creativity bloom...

P.S. More resources for writers here.

***

C.M. Mayo is the author of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books); Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel writing, three Washington Writing Prizes, and numerous fellowships, among them, to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her work has appeared in many outstanding literary journals, among them, Chelsea, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, North American Review, Massachusetts Review, Paris Review, and Tin House. An avid translator of contemporary Mexican literature, she is also founding editor of Tameme and editor of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit http://www.cmmayo.com/.

Leesburg First Friday--in March--with C.M. Mayo

More craziness during snow week. Here's some news for next month. (By then the snow should be gone, right?)

March 5, 2010 Leesburg VA

"Staying Focused: Researching and Writing the Longer Book Project"

C.M. Mayo to talk about what she learned in writing her novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire and her travel memoir, Miraculous Air, with plenty of Q & A.

To finish the marathon of writing a long book, more than talent, more than free time, more than anything, in fact, a writer needs mental toughness to avoid the myriad distractions, damaging self-talk, frustrations, and sometimes just plain old boredom along the way. C.M. Mayo, a long-time Writers Center workshop leader and author of several books, including a deeply researched travel memoir and, most recently, an epic historical novel based on the true story (and many years of original archival research), offers tips, tricks and more to inspire you to start, stay with, and finish your book. Register for this event here.

Her next workshop at The Writer's Center is Dialogue Intensive Techniques beginning March 7.

Guest Instructor: C.M Mayo on the 3 Most Often Asked Questions About The Writing Business

Here's a helpful repost from November '08.

Today's guest is C.M. Mayo. She blogs over at Madam Mayo. C.M. is a popular instructor at The Center, and she's known to offer excellent tips on the craft, in addition to some practical tips that she posts on her blog. She's a fount of knowledge, in other words.

The Three Questions I Am Most Often Asked
About the Writing Business

# 1. I would like to publish a book. How do I find a publisher?The key thing to keep in mind as you begin your search is, what is your intention for your book? Do you want it to to place you among the immortal literary stars? Or achieve a modest success that might help you get a teaching job? Or, do you just watch to check "publish book" off your "to-do" list? And how much time and effort are you willing to put into the enterprise of finding a publisher? It might be lickety-split easy to find one, or it might take a few years, a bundle of postage, and a mountain of paperwork. Not to mention heartbreak. There are many good books on this subject, but the one I most highly recommend is Susan Page's The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book. Be sure to also read Thomas Christensen's excellent and very wise on-line article, "How to Get a Book Published".

#2. Do I need an agent?
Maybe. There is a book-length answer to this question, too. Again, I recommend Susan Page's The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book, which has an outstanding and very practical chapter on agents. Keep in mind that agents need to be able to earn a living, cover their secretary's salary, rent, supplies, postage, telephone, and all the other overhead involved running an agency. You might have written a very important book, but "important" might not translate into anything meaningful from an agent's point of view. The critics might love it, but if your advance is only $500-$1,000 (not uncommon, by the way), an agent's commission, net of expenses, is too small to have made it worth her time. Most scholarly works, almost all poetry and a lot of very good fiction and creative nonfiction are not represented by agents. So don't fall for the canard that you must have an agent. Watch out, too, for your ego. Too many writers use their relationship with an agent as a badge of status they find themselves unable to loosen once the relationship becomes problematic and/ or impractical. So, do your research.

Herewith a few on-line resources for finding out out about literary agents. Todd James Pierce's "Nine Tips for Finding a Literary Agent," reproduced on best-selling author Alan Jacobson's webpage, is especially good. Lynn Price, editorial director of Behler Publications, a well-regarded literary press, has a very thoughtful blog post on "Why Do I Need An Agent?" Writer's Center instructor Lindsay Reed Maines's guest-blog post on my blog, Madam Mayo, about her top 5 literary agent blogs will give you a sense of the business from an agent's point of view.

A note: whether you have an agent or not, in my experience, it is very helpful to join the Author's Guild. Members get a Trade Book Contract Guide, which goes through all that nasty "boilerplate" point by point, and incudes many negotiation tips. An abbreviated version is available free on the Authors Guild website. Also, for members, the Authors Guild's legal staff will review both book contracts and contracts with agents.


#3. I have just published a book. Can you offer any tips about promotion?
Without delay, buy these two books: Joseph Marich's Literary Publicity and Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life. The first is by a PR pro, the second by a long-time successful novelist. With these words from the wise, you may well save yourself a lot of time, hassle, and if not heartbreak, then needless heartbreak. On-line, there are some excellent marketing tips on the webpage of Word Tech Communications, a poetry publisher. (I vehemently disagree about the advice on review copies, however.) As for an Internet presence, yes, it behooves you to have a webpage and, if you're up to it, a blog, and if you can stand it, a facebook page as well--- and to have all of these started up in a thoughtful manner at least six months to a year before your book comes out. That said, "better late than never." Finally, why be shy? My mantra is, book promotion is not self-promotion, it's book promotion. Once you have a book, it's not all about you; it's about your agent, your publisher, their hard-working team, booksellers, and ultimately, obviously, and most importantly, readers.

UPDATE: See also my 2008 Maryland Writers Conference handout on Writers Blogs: Best (& Worst) Practices.


Bio:

C.M. is the author of the forthcoming novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books); Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel writing, three Washington Writing Prizes, and numerous fellowships, among them, to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her work has appeared in many outstanding literary journals, among them, Chelsea, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, North American Review, Massachusetts Review, Paris Review, and Tin House. An avid translator of contemporary Mexican literature, she is also founding editor of Tameme and editor of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit www.cmmayo.com.

C.M. Mayo Recommends: Five New Literary Blogs to Follow

At a mere three and half-years old, my blog Madam Mayo is an old-timer, which tells you the main thing about this swirling bubble-froth of the way-too-big-to-follow-everything-Blogosphere: it's new, new, and a Niagara of new. My favorite question: what's new? Herewith, five blogs, all new to me in the past two weeks (if not necessarily new to the Blogosphere), that I warmly recommend to both writers and readers:

#1. Nieman Storyboard.

Like the tagline says, "Breaking down story in every medium. A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard."


Recent noteworthy posts:

* Interview with Tom Shroder, former Washington Post Magazine editor

*Clark Boyd: Confessions of a Podcaster


*Interview with Mary Gaitskill: Lessons from Lost Cat

#2. A Writing Life.

Novelist Christina Baker Kline, who has just pubished her fourth novel, Bird in Hand (William Morrow, 2009), shares her insights into the creative process.
Recent noteworthy posts:


*Louise DeSalvo on Why Having Kids is No Excuse
*Chad Taylor on Why Writers Should Care About Twitter

*Graphic Designer and writer Julie Metz: Judging a Book by its Cover


#3. Coffee with a Canine

Hosted by screenwriter Marshal Zeringue, formula Q & A with authors and their dogs--a chance to meet some charming critters and sample some very fine writing.

Recent noteworthy posts:

*Mary Guterson (author of Gone to the Dogs) and Sparky.
*Sydney Salter (author of My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters) and Jack and Rosie.
*Julie Fenster (author of FDR's Shadow).

#4. Las Comadres & Friends and the National Latino Book Club

Las Comadres is a non-profit foundation and informal Internet-based group that meets monthly in many U.S. cities to build connections and community with other Latinas and "Latinas de corazon." Founded by Austin resident Nora de Hoyos Comstock, Las Comadres now has more than 15,000 members and, in partnership with the Association of American Publishers (AAP), they are promoting the reading of Latino authors by creating the first national level book club: Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club, which is open to anyone. Check out the book club here.

#5. She Writes Blog

This is a new and very rapidly evolving networking site, a mini-Facebook as it were, for women writers, both published and aspiring (and men also), which offers a blogging platform, events listings, member news, forums, video, and so much more that all I can say is, dive in and see for yourself!


C.M. Mayo is a workshop leader at The Writer's Center. She is the author of the novel The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books); Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her many other awards include three Lowell Thomas Awards for travel writing, three Washington Writing Prizes, and numerous fellowships, among them, to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Her work has appeared in many outstanding literary journals, among them, Chelsea, Creative Nonfiction, Kenyon Review, North American Review, Massachusetts Review, Paris Review, and Tin House. An avid translator of contemporary Mexican literature, she is also founding editor of Tameme and editor of Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion. For more about C.M. Mayo and her work, visit http://www.cmmayo.com/.

Her most recent novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire, was recently named to Library Journal's Best Books of 2009 list. Her next workshop at The Writer's Center is Dialogue Intensive Techniques.

C.M.Mayo, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, and Yvette Neisser Moreno Reading

Great event at The Writer's Center yesterday. Here are some pictures for those of you who were unable to attend. We have two more events this week. On Thursday we'll host a reading from Grace Cavalieri's play Anna Nicole, and on Friday we'll host a screening of the NEA's Operation Homecoming documentary Muse of Fire. Each event begins at 7p.m., and each is free. Hope to see you there! Oh, and look for an interview with local poet Brandon Johnson on this blog tomorrow.

Luis Ambroggio contemplates.












Yvette Neisser Moreno reading from her translation of Ambroggio's Difficult Beauty.











C.M. Mayo shows us her newest novel, The Last Prince of The Mexican Empire.



For more on this event, check out SavvyVerseandWit. She's even giving away a free copy of C.M. Mayo's book.

Or you can go to Art & Literature to read more.

Thanksgiving Week (Where Does the Time Go?)

So as we glide toward the Thanksgiving holiday and a mild reprieve from work, I'd like to share some small bits of information. First, tomorrow's guest blogger will be C.M. Mayo. She will share three of her most frequently asked questions about writing and the business of writing. It's always a treat when C.M shares what she knows. On Thursday, Carollyne Hutter returns with a post about the new movie Twilight. Her last post generated some good feedback. Those of you out there who're interested in YA lit should know this: I hear you. I'll look for some cool ways to bring more YA lit discussions to this blog.

ONE way is to share Gottawritegirl's excellent post today about the Susan Shreve and Tim Seldes event at the Center this fall. As you know, Susan is a wonderful YA writer (having written many YA titles). So head on over to that blog (when you're done here!) and read all about it.

The Center hosted Eric Pankey and Brian Brodeur over the weekend. Kiley Cogis was kind enough to share these two photos from the event. We had a good turnout and an equally good time hearing these two poets read from their work. If you didn't get the chance to read his excellent post on what it was like to win the Akron Prize, you can do so here.



As an FYI item, from December 1st to December 31st The Writer's Center will have an ad in Metro buses in northern VA, NW DC, and Montgomery County. Those of you who ride the bus should have a look for them--and take a picture. You could win something! The ads will be placed right behind the bus driver, so you can't miss them. Anyone who sends us a picture of the ad--either electronically or in person--will be entered into a drawing to win a FREE multi-session workshop of his or her choice.

And finally, The Center is closing on Wednesday at 2:30 and it'll reopen on Tuesday of next week.