Ask the Author: Sarah Shell Teague
Answered Questions (12)
Sarah Shell Teague
Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place and Tramp for the Lord, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, Infinite Jest
Sarah Shell Teague
I did reach out to several bookstores, as my publisher also suggested, but I have experienced better results in places where people know me and know my work. I sold books at readings/signings locally and in towns where I had family or friends. The stores who didn’t know me or my work blew me off. Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, two hours from my home: I dropped by with a hardback copy (a holiday book) in July, followed up with a call in August, then an email, hoping to set up a reading or signing in December. In October I called again and emailed, wanting to give time for promotion. In early November I drove up again. I visited with the owner for ten minutes or so, told her how many books I’d sold already, mentioned my work as a writer. I had listed fifty local people I could invite to a signing. They could not locate my book, offered no encouragement, were polite enough in a professional way but had no interest.
Self-publishing seemed to be a deterrent at Wordsworth; I noticed reviews in the statewide paper two weeks later that they sponsored a book signing for another Arkansas-born writer. Same experience with Lemuria, a well-known independent bookstore in Jackson, MS. I visited with them while in town, wrote a letter, and then followed up with an email. Never received any response. Publishers tend to be cheerleaders for author self-marketing. You have to do it, have to believe in your book, have to be able to articulate why it’s a good idea for a bookstore to host a signing. But even if you pursue bookstores with valid claims, they may not respond.
In soliciting signings or readings, I always strive to be positive, kind and polite, insistent to a point, but I don’t push or hound (we’ve all been on the other side of a sales pitch). To enthusiastically market your book doesn’t entail foolishly ignoring someone’s disregard.
You can also seek other venues. I participated in a reading at an arts co-op during their holiday open house. Signed books in a Hallmark store. I was scheduled to have a signing at a history museum, but my son’s graduation conflicted with the date so I had to cancel. I signed books at the newspaper office in my hometown; I had published articles in the newspaper and had friends there. I was the instigator for all of those signings.
I tried a few holiday bazaar-type one-day events. The same rule applied: the closer to home I was, where people knew my work in the magazine where I’m associate editor, the more books I sold.
Get in touch with reading groups. A sorority sister in a town five hours away invited me to her book club; that extended to one member buying ten books to sell as gifts at her pharmacy.
Self-publishing seemed to be a deterrent at Wordsworth; I noticed reviews in the statewide paper two weeks later that they sponsored a book signing for another Arkansas-born writer. Same experience with Lemuria, a well-known independent bookstore in Jackson, MS. I visited with them while in town, wrote a letter, and then followed up with an email. Never received any response. Publishers tend to be cheerleaders for author self-marketing. You have to do it, have to believe in your book, have to be able to articulate why it’s a good idea for a bookstore to host a signing. But even if you pursue bookstores with valid claims, they may not respond.
In soliciting signings or readings, I always strive to be positive, kind and polite, insistent to a point, but I don’t push or hound (we’ve all been on the other side of a sales pitch). To enthusiastically market your book doesn’t entail foolishly ignoring someone’s disregard.
You can also seek other venues. I participated in a reading at an arts co-op during their holiday open house. Signed books in a Hallmark store. I was scheduled to have a signing at a history museum, but my son’s graduation conflicted with the date so I had to cancel. I signed books at the newspaper office in my hometown; I had published articles in the newspaper and had friends there. I was the instigator for all of those signings.
I tried a few holiday bazaar-type one-day events. The same rule applied: the closer to home I was, where people knew my work in the magazine where I’m associate editor, the more books I sold.
Get in touch with reading groups. A sorority sister in a town five hours away invited me to her book club; that extended to one member buying ten books to sell as gifts at her pharmacy.
Sarah Shell Teague
My kids are grown and my job as associate editor of a local quality of life/tourism quarterly is part-time, so I have more time than twenty years ago. I have found that I've said about everything I want to say in fiction. I continue to write nonfiction, a little more streaky than I'd prefer. As for that monster, marketing, I did less this year. I've had much greater success where people know my work than with cold calls. Too many people competing for bookstore shelf space! But that doesn't stop me from writing.
Sarah Shell Teague
Just as I answered the previous question about ideal fictional marriages, it’s one thing to enjoy peeking into a fictional world, but it’s another to want to posit oneself in it and interact. Conflict and resolution in fiction is interesting because it’s distanced from us. We all have enough conflict in our own lives; in fact, reading is frequently an escape from our own conflict. Many of the fictional places I have adored are not ones I’d choose. Hardy? I’d fear for my fate. Buck? I’d crumble under Wang Lung’s tough life (though Olan’s was even tougher!). Steinbeck? I wouldn’t stand between George and Lenny. Runner up would be Scrooge’s London and environs in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. I would hide behind Tom Cratchit, nephew Fred, or the Spirits until Scrooge woke up after the third Spirit’s visit. But then what a happy moment: Christmas morning as it should be, with the joy of helping the less fortunate and feasting with family and friends.
The fictional world I would dare to inhabit is not so far removed from me geographically, but very far in every other way: that of Mattie Ross in fellow Arkansan Charles Portis’s True Grit. Having read other books about early Arkansas history, I would love to follow Mattie and Rooster through the brushy woods into the Oklahoma territory. I would savor the physical exertion and satisfaction of horseback riding and campfire coffee in the great, unspoiled outdoors. I would hope that nighttime animal calls and meeting up with Lucky Ned Pepper’s band would enable what little “grit” were in me to grow and develop as it surges in Mattie. I would profit from the perspective of life over a century ago--how it’s different and the same—as we find when we travel to other countries. All this as a shadow, of course; I'd try not to complain.
I guess I’ll have to forage about for my own true grit, careful to appreciate the Ranger LaBeoufs and Sharps Cavalry Carbines that come my way.
The fictional world I would dare to inhabit is not so far removed from me geographically, but very far in every other way: that of Mattie Ross in fellow Arkansan Charles Portis’s True Grit. Having read other books about early Arkansas history, I would love to follow Mattie and Rooster through the brushy woods into the Oklahoma territory. I would savor the physical exertion and satisfaction of horseback riding and campfire coffee in the great, unspoiled outdoors. I would hope that nighttime animal calls and meeting up with Lucky Ned Pepper’s band would enable what little “grit” were in me to grow and develop as it surges in Mattie. I would profit from the perspective of life over a century ago--how it’s different and the same—as we find when we travel to other countries. All this as a shadow, of course; I'd try not to complain.
I guess I’ll have to forage about for my own true grit, careful to appreciate the Ranger LaBeoufs and Sharps Cavalry Carbines that come my way.
Sarah Shell Teague
Discussion of this question led to some intriguing scenarios: a co-worker's knowledge of a person who lived in a duplex whose former owner used the home at random while current owner was at work, for one. The inhabitant of the other side of the duplex, who was blind, ultimately tipped off the current owner by asking, "Why did you come home and take a bath midday?" Perhaps questions from nosy neighbors are a good thing! The biggest mystery in my life is probably the difficulty of believing. That subject has been explored exhaustively with reference to writing. Can create a tendency toward naval-gazing. But always a great subject for thought and discussion.
Sarah Shell Teague
Thanks for this intriguing and opportunity-providing question. The first point I must make is I choose to narrow the selection down to a happily married couple. But the second point I make is that happily married couples aren’t inherently interesting-readers need tension and conflict to remain engaged. And that’s preferable theoretically; we all have enough tension and conflict in our relationships that we wouldn’t want to live like _Cat on a Hot Tin Roof_’s Brick and Maggie.
I also thought of many unconventional couplings in favorite works: Sancho Panza and Don Quixote in _Don Quixote_, George and Lenny in _Of Mice and Men_, Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn in _True Grit_. Couples in favorite books, like Johnny and Katy Nolan in _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_, aren’t what make the novel one of my favorites. And any of Jane Austen’s protagonists would be cliché. To celebrate a couple who demonstrates love at its finest, love happily sacrificed for the beloved’s benefit, I would go with Mr. and Mrs. James Dillingham Young, also known as Della and Jim in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”
I also thought of many unconventional couplings in favorite works: Sancho Panza and Don Quixote in _Don Quixote_, George and Lenny in _Of Mice and Men_, Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn in _True Grit_. Couples in favorite books, like Johnny and Katy Nolan in _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_, aren’t what make the novel one of my favorites. And any of Jane Austen’s protagonists would be cliché. To celebrate a couple who demonstrates love at its finest, love happily sacrificed for the beloved’s benefit, I would go with Mr. and Mrs. James Dillingham Young, also known as Della and Jim in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”
Sarah Shell Teague
Besides the obvious answer of reading, which any writer must acknowledge, I find inspiration in intellectual stimulation from the arts. I adore a day at an art gallery or museum, by myself, taking my time considering the works and how they trickle down into my consciousness (and subconsciousness). I have often remarked that, upon viewing art of any sort, whatever sort of medium you're viewing, your brain should not be in the same place when you are finished.
Some of my best thoughts have come during a symphony performance, and I hasten to write them down, as it was said of Brahms, who slept with his glasses on so that he could quickly jot down ideas when he awoke with them in the middle of the night.
In addition, I relish the intellectual stimulation provided by discussions of ideas with like-minded friends and acquaintances. But I also find inspiration in talking ideas with individuals who may be my opposite in one way or another-someone with different political or spiritual viewpoints, age, economic or family situation. someone from the city to balance my rural background-someone from another country. Those discussions really help us discover the touchstones of what and why we believe and act as we do.
Some of my best thoughts have come during a symphony performance, and I hasten to write them down, as it was said of Brahms, who slept with his glasses on so that he could quickly jot down ideas when he awoke with them in the middle of the night.
In addition, I relish the intellectual stimulation provided by discussions of ideas with like-minded friends and acquaintances. But I also find inspiration in talking ideas with individuals who may be my opposite in one way or another-someone with different political or spiritual viewpoints, age, economic or family situation. someone from the city to balance my rural background-someone from another country. Those discussions really help us discover the touchstones of what and why we believe and act as we do.
Sarah Shell Teague
In addition to my magazine assignments, I am writing my childhood memories, growing up in the South, a minister's daughter
Sarah Shell Teague
For years I have written about my family's holiday experiences during the January following the season. From those memoirs I wrote several essays about funny things that happened. The holiday season is one in which we have such high expectations, it's good to accept that everything's not going to be perfect. I attended a writing conference several years ago, and heard the phrase, "It didn't happen." It's really okay to say that when your intentions don't measure up to reality. You can try all you want, but sometimes, it just doesn't happen, especially at Christmas, and you'll be in better shape if you accept that.I hope that as readers stride through this collection of stories, they'll laugh a bit and relax enough to see that a lot of what we worry about doesn't really matter.
Sarah Shell Teague
Read voraciously.
Sarah Shell Teague
Hopefully making people think in general. In specific making people think about ideas and issues in different ways.
Sarah Shell Teague
One aspect of writer's block is depletion. One has simply expended the "vault" of ideas or concepts in one's head. I find reading to be quite helpful. Read anything, everything-in or out of your field, varied, long and short, with pictures, without--like a diet, your reading should be diverse.
Also view any art form possible. Nothing feeds me intellectually like an art gallery or museum. Go see a play or listen to a concert and don't think about your work or what you're not doing while you're immersed in the art experience. Some of my best ideas come from concerts and museum visits.
Also view any art form possible. Nothing feeds me intellectually like an art gallery or museum. Go see a play or listen to a concert and don't think about your work or what you're not doing while you're immersed in the art experience. Some of my best ideas come from concerts and museum visits.
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