I'm headed out tomorrow to join my friend Erica at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Through a series of fortunate events, it's going to be an extremely inexpensive trip for me, so I figured why not? I really have no business being there, as I'm not a librarian, but it seemed like a good way to meet librarians. Librarians and book bloggers are about the best word-of-mouth referrers an author could ask for, and librarians often double as book bloggers, so, there you go.

Except I'm feeling shy.

I've been going to blogging conferences for seven years, and I haven't felt shy at them in six. I thought I was past shy.

This whole book thing has been such a roller coaster. I go from being excited it's finally coming out to worried nobody will read it to freaked they will read it and they'll hate it. I worry it won't sell and then nobody will buy my second book. Then I think publishing will probably change so much by the time that book is ready that the rules will all be different, anyway. It feels like the rules of publishing in some ways are changing on a daily basis and in other ways 50 Shades is still on the bestseller list, inexplicably to me, and nothing will ever change at all for the little guys.

This particular adventure is so personal to me -- it doesn't really matter to anyone else. I mean, it's nice and all, but my personal and professional lives have not changed just because my novel got published. That's what's so weird about the whole experience -- the anxiety I feel is mine and mine alone.

I remember walking around BEA last year when I was asked to speak at the BEA Bloggers Conference about book marketing because of my role in the BlogHer Book Club. There were hardbacks just stacked in the booths, free for the taking, and eventually I stopped taking them because they were so heavy to lug around and get home on the plane. I left someone's blood, sweat and tears in a stack on the floor because it was heavy, or because I didn't like the cover, or because I just wasn't in the mood.

When I go to the library now, I don't see shelves of books, I see shelves of dreams.

So I'm worried about tomorrow and this weekend, although I can't figure out why. I guess I have a few days to figure it out. I've been moving so fast for so long, maybe I'm just afraid of having time to think about what to do next.

Today I wrote about the national face of Ann Imig's amazing live performance series, Listen to Your Mother, on BlogHer. Here I thought I'd share details about the Kansas City show, which is directed by my friends Erin Margolin and Laura Seymour. Here are the details:

Be part of this national event that will be in Kansas City for the first time on May 11, 2013. We want you to join us in giving Mother’s Day a microphone!

You’re invited to join other Kansas Citians in a national series of live readings celebrated locally and shared globally via social media, blogging, and the small world of the internet. Listen To Your Mother-Kansas City is directed, produced, and performed by our local community, for our local community.

We are officially accepting submissions! Please email yours to us, ErinMargolin@gmail.com and Laura.Seymour@gmail.com. These will be accepted from now through February 15, 2013.

Commitment for cast members includes two group read-throughs in April, a pre-performance run-through at Unity Temple on the Plaza, and one 7:00 p.m. performance on May 11, 2013.

Ticket sales for this event will begin March 1, 2013. If you are interested in sponsoring or coming to our event, learn more at our website: listentoyourmothershow.com/kansascity, and please don’t hesitate to email us with any and all questions!

Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Rose Brooks Center. Rose Brooks Center provides emergency shelter to women and children escaping life-threatening abuse. Once they are safe, these families receive the tools and resources they need to begin rebuilding their life – a life built on respect, love and compassion. -Rose Brooks

PS: In other news, if you've ever wanted to speak at BlogHer's annual conference, you should submit a Room of Your Own idea.

Viva la voices!

So I just ordered a book campaign from Goodreads' self-serve beta program. I decided to tell you about this because I'll let you know how well it works. I've heard great things about Goodreads' ads. It's going to run from whenever it gets approved until thirty days later. We shall see!

I also ordered some bookplates. This is a way to get a book signed when you're not in physical proximity to the author. Since I am going nowhere on my book tour that doesn't exist outside of Kansas City, Missouri (I'll be at The Writers Place on April 5, please come!) So if you buy my book and you want a signed bookplate, please drop me an email at ritajarens@gmail.com. I have no expectations for volume so this is either a brilliant or stupid thing to say. We shall see!

And next week I am going to the ALA Midwinter Meeting to meet LIBRARIANS. I love librarians! I can't believe that is next week, actually. I should really get my act together.

So ... that's what I've done so far other than social media. My publisher has arranged a lovely cover reveal tour and some festivities for the release day, which is February 7. I arranged one event locally and bought bookplates, author business cards and a small online advertising campaign. I've written a ton of guests posts and done a bunch of interviews and spent $200 of my own money to buy physical copies for book bloggers who agreed to review it. Oh, and I've committed to buying books to give away on Goodreads and a few other places that haven't launched yet. All in all, this is not a lot of money and is mostly sweat equity.

I write this out because I know there are going to be a lot of authors now and in the future who are either self-publishing or publishing with small presses or are with Big Six presses but don't have a very big marketing budget. I want to figure out what works in book marketing -- besides, you know, writing a book people want to read.

What do you want to know? I'll do my best to be transparent in this process. I so appreciate all the support I've received here and elsewhere on the Internets. Word of mouth, baby -- I really, really appreciate it.

Today my interview with my publisher is up on their website, InkSpell Publishing.

My favorite part of the interview is the reveal of THE OBVIOUS GAME playlist. The chapter titles are actually all album titles from the late eighties and early nineties for no reason other than it's my book and I wanted to and the novel is set in 1990 and nobody ever either a) figured out they were album titles or b) told me that was hokey and ridiculous and I had to take it out. I haven't actually pulled this playlist together on iTunes yet, but dammit, I should do that.

The Obvious Game Playlist

Chapter 1: Pride by White Lion (1987) – When the Children Cry

Chapter 2: Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses (1987) – Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 3: Scarecrow by John Mellencamp (1985) – Small Town

Chapter 4: True Colors by Cyndi Lauper (1986) – True Colors

Chapter 5: Can’t Hold Back by Eddie Money (1986) – Take Me Home Tonight

Chapter 6: Hysteria by Def Leppard (1987) – Hysteria

Chapter 7: Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s Addiction (1988) – Jane Says

Chapter 8: Just Like the First Time by Freddie Jackson (1986) – Have You Ever Loved Somebody

Chapter 9: Use Your Illusion by Guns N’Roses (1991) – November Rain

Chapter 10: Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf (1977) – Bat Out of Hell

Chapter 11: Head Games by Foreigner (1979) – Dirty White Boy

Chapter 12: Faith by George Michael (1987) – Monkey

Chapter 13: Cuts Like a Knife by Bryan Adams (1983) – Straight From the Heart

Chapter 14: Double Vision by Foreigner (1978) – Hot Blooded

Chapter 15: Disintegration by The Cure (1989) – Fascination Street

Chapter 16: Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe (1990) – Poison

Chapter 17: Achtung Baby by U2 (1991) -- Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?

Chapter 18: Nevermind by Nirvana (1991) – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Chapter 19: Listen Without Prejudice by George Michael (1990) – Something to Save

Chapter 20: Out of Time by R.E.M. (1991) – Losing My Religion

Chapter 21: The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby (1986) –  Mandolin Rain

Chapter 22: Infected by The The (1986) – Out of the Blue (Into the Fire)

Chapter 23: Strange Fire by Indigo Girls (1989) – Strange Fire

Chapter 24: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos (1992) -- China

---

I put a three-book giveaway on Goodreads. If you use Goodreads, go enter! And if you don't use Goodreads, consider using Goodreads, because it's such a great way to discover new authors. And friend me there so I can see what you like. I think my username is Rita Arens.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Obvious Game

by Rita Arens

Giveaway ends February 05, 2013.

See the giveaway detailsat Goodreads.

Enter to win

---

And, I've been writing a ton on BlogHer and forgetting to tell you about it. I bet you won't spot the theme!

• Marriage and Relationships During Unemployment
• Is Your House Above Average?
• I'm Doing the 52-Week Money Challenge
• Tips for Living on One Income During Unemployment

I'm so excited to show you the cover for my young adult novel, THE OBVIOUS GAME, which will be published on February 7, 2013, two days after my thirty-ninth birthday.

Those of you who have been reading me for a while know what a labor of love this book was. While there was an awful lot of pain and sweat I didn't write about, I think you saw enough to know there were many days I didn't know if this would ever happen and many days when I really, really wanted to just throw down.

I'm glad I didn't. Not only is this book finally finding its way into the world, my publisher has generously offered to donate a portion of the proceeds of the book (I don't know how much yet) to the Eating DisorderFoundation, which was recommended by my friends at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver. It's my greatest hope that this novel will not only be worthwhile as a novel but will also help parents and families understand and feel compassion for someone suffering from an eating disorder and offer hope for a full recovery to those who are in the grip of it. UPDATED 1/14/2013: My publisher has informed me they have been unable to get in contact with the charity and are putting this plan on hold until they can hammer out details.

This novel was so much harder than SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK was, and I thought that was really hard. But the novel was so much more personal and so much a combination of craft that I had to learn on the job and inspiration and revisions and rejection and more revisions and hours I could've spent doing something else. I know a lot of writers talk about the pain of the writing process. For me, there is actually never a blank page because I don't sit down to write without a lot of couch time first in which I figure out what I want to say and visualize the scenes in my head. So I guess maybe I'm "writing" when I'm not writing, but that works for me, because I have so little writing time (as does everyone -- how many novelists don't have day jobs?) I have to be getting thousands of words out every time I schedule a 9-midnight with myself after my daughter goes to bed. Usually on Mondays. I seem to be more tolerant of flogging myself on Mondays, not sure why.

But I wouldn't do it if I didn't like it. I love it. I feel energized by it. I love thinking about what I'm going to write next. This is fun for me. Otherwise, I would never put myself through the rejection.

If you're working on a novel, take heart -- everyone feels the way you do on your darkest day sometimes.

“Everyone trusted me backthen. Good old, dependable Diana. Which is why most people didn’t notice atfirst.”

Praise for The Obvious Game:

"Lovely, evocative, painful and joyful all  in one ... much like high school." -- Jenny Lawson, author of LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED

“I couldn’t put down THEOBVIOUS GAME. Arens perfectly captures the hunger, pain and uncertainty ofadolescence.” -- Ann Napolitano, author of A GOOD HARD LOOK and WITHIN ARM'S REACH

"THE OBVIOUS GAME is afearless, honest, and intense look into the psychology of anorexia. Thecharacters—especially Diana--are so natural and emotionally authentic thatyou’ll find yourself yelling at the page even as you’re compelled to turnit." -- Coert Voorhees, author of LUCKY FOOLS and THE BROTHERS TORRES

"Let’s be clear aboutone thing: there’s nothing obvious about THE OBVIOUS GAME. Arens has written amoving, sometimes heart-breaking story about one girl’s attempt to control theuncontrollable. You can’t help but relate to Diana and her struggles as youdelve into this gem of a novel." -- Risa Green, author of THE SECRET SOCIETY OFTHE PINK CRYSTAL BALL

"THE OBVIOUS GAME explores the chasms between conformityand independence, faith and fear, discoveries and secrets, first times and lastchances, hunger and satisfaction. The tortured teenage experience is capturedtriumphantly within the pages of this unflinching, yet utterly relatable,novel. - Erica Rivera, author of INSATIABLE: A YOUNG MOTHER’S STRUGGLE WITHANOREXIA 

Book Information:

Publisher: InkspellPublishing

Release Date: Feb 7th, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-9856562-7-0(ebook), 978-0-9856562-8-7 (Paperback)

Paperback Price: $13.99

Kindle: $4.99

To be available at all majoronline outlets: Amazon, B&N, The Book Depository

Pre-order now at InkspellPublishing Website at a special discount of 30% on both paperback andebook!

Website/blog: http://www.surrenderdorothyblog.com or http://www.ritaarens.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ritaarens

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rita.arens

BlogHer: http://www.blogher.com/member/rita-arens

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4048495&trk=tab_pro

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/ritajarens/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002KRLEHE

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1371209.Rita_Arens

And here's a short excerpt!

---

Prologue

1987

When we were in seventh grade,Amanda and I snuck out of her house one foggy Saturday night to meet herboyfriend, Matt. We spent more time planning our escape than we did actually conductingit.

We’d made a list while pretendingto do our homework:

Wrap flashlights with blackelectrical tape. (check)

Make fake bodies out of pillowsto hide in our sleeping bags. (check)

Booby-trap her bedroom door withstring across the threshold so we could see if her mom had tried to check onus. (check)

Assemble all-black outfits,complete with stocking caps, so we would blend in with the shadows as wewalked. (check)

Arrange the rendezvous pointahead of time with Matt: the third-grade playground at the elementary school.(check)

It wasn’t until we’d successfullyshimmied down the fence, jogged the four blocks up the street, and seen Mattsitting there alone on the seesaw that I realized I had nothing at all to dowhile they giggled and kissed. I’d been so caught up in the planning portion ofour escape that I didn’t notice how pathetic my part in it seemed.

I twirled on the swings acrossthe playground and out of view, once again pretending to be totally cool withit. The thing was, though, I wasn’t cool with it. I felt about as important asthe guy who wrote the cooking instructions for Pop-Tarts.

We probably would’ve stayed therefor hours if I hadn’t finally strode over to the jungle gym, coughing andkicking rocks as I went. Amanda poked her head out.

“What’s up, Diana?”

“Can we go soon? I forgot tobring a book.”

Her expectant smile turned sour. “Okay,”she finally said, disappearing in the darkness. “Just five more minutes.”

I wandered to the edge of theplayground, thought about turning back on my own, letting her get caught outthere by herself. But I wouldn’t. That’s what friends are for. She knew it. Iknew it.

Everyone trusted me. Good olddependable Diana. Which was why most people didn’t notice at first that I wasin trouble.

---

It's really happening! Huzzah! Let's bring out DJ Nibbles.

It's just over a week until my cover reveal (those of you who signed up on the form to participate will get info soon! And if you still want to sign up, I'll put the form at the bottom of this post) on December 20th, and I've been thinking about my novel and trying to decide whether or not it's worth it to write a reader's guide for it. I myself always read them but from a writer's point of view -- what did that writer (or his or her editor or publicist or hired hack or whoever wrote the thing) think was important about the novel? But for some reason, I'm really struggling with trying to write one for myself. And I'm not sure normal people actually use them.

And I feel silly every time I try to write it. That's the truth, and that's why I'm struggling. It's like writing a bio about yourself in the third person, which I've also had to do a lot and I feel silly every single time I do that, too. It would be easier to use the royal "we."

We would like you to tell us whether or not we should persist in the writing of a reader's guide for THE OBVIOUS GAME.

It would likely not be in the novel, but I could put it here in the new THE OBVIOUS GAME section that I haven't created yet because the cover hasn't been revealed yet and also because I can't afford to hire help and haven't yet figured out how to hack Typepad advanced templates to redesign the navigation of this blog which is going to morph into an author website somehow, how, I haven't figured out yet.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

My publisher emailed me today to let me know the cover for my debut YA novel, THE OBVIOUS GAME, will be ready on December 20. That's a little over a month away! PLEASE TO FREAK OUT WITH ME!

If you'd like to be part of the cover reveal action (basically put it on your blog or other social media), please fill out the form here. You can also fill out the form if you'd be willing to review the book when it's out in February 2013, tweet about it, tell your barista, you know, whatever. I use the form so I don't spam people. At least, I hope I don't spam people. I really have no interest in spamming people because it makes them not like me.

Here's the form. 

I know what I want it to look like in my head, but I don't know how it will look. This publisher was very cool in that they sent me a sheet asking for all sorts of information about my vision for the cover. I'm fairly certain this is highly unusual. I got to see six or seven cover designs for SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK and weigh in, but I don't recall anyone asking me what I wanted it to look like. I've heard from other authors they didn't see their covers at all until they got ARCs in the mail. (An ARC is industry-speak for advanced review copy). Is asking authors for cover input part of the new world order or is it just something smaller presses do? I have no idea, but I like it VERY VERY MUCH.

I'm not going to share the entire form, because a) I didn't ask and b) it reveals too much about the book, but I found it fascinating they asked so much about my protagonist, Diana.

Protagonist

Gender:Female

Clothes(Urban, Tshirt, skirt, old 1600 clothing): book set in 1990. Jeans,sweatshirts, t-shirts. Diana is not very stylish.

EyeColor: Blue

Haircolor: Brown

HairLength: shoulder-length

I probably should also have noted she was white. It's not something one should assume, though you'll notice I totally did. Still working on not making that a given in the way I move through the world.

Thank you all so much for allowing me to share my excitement about the publishing process with you! 

DJ Nibbles celebrates cover art.

I feel like I have been working on THE OBVIOUS GAME for a thousand years, even though intellectually I know it is three.I feel like I have read this manuscript so many times I should have it memorized, and yet I still found an errant sentence referencing a scene I cut twelvity million revisions ago not ten minutes ago.

I have read this manuscript over and over and over, as this week I turn it in and probably won't see it again before it goes to print.

Part of me, a very LARGE part of me, wanted to just hit accept changes and turn it in without another glance.

The part of me that is a control freak knew there was no way in hell that was going to happen, because if wasn't the way I wanted it and it went out like that, I would never forgive myself for setting aside two scrolling-related migraine headaches and ten hours of my butt in an uncomfortable chair scrolling, scrolling, through Word and through my Kindle and then back to Word again.

At some point, you just have to call it done. That is pretty hard to do. And yet effortless.

While I was waiting for a publisher to emerge from the ether, I started working on my new novel, THE BIRTHRIGHT OF PARKER CLEAVES. I immersed myself in that novel, which is completely different from this novel. I outlined the entire thing. I bought software to help me avoid the structural mistakes I made in THE OBVIOUS GAME in its earlier drafts. I thought deeply about plot and character. I almost forgot Diana, the protagonist of THE OBVIOUS GAME. I kind of needed to forget about Diana, because it hurt too much to think about her never seeing the light of day except in my head for these three years.

Spending so much time with my manuscript after almost a year of trying not to think about it as as jarring as a 10-year high school reunion. Not enough time has passed to keep you from still being a little in love with those people. And now, diving back in and staring at every sentence, I'm so grateful for InkSpell and the opportunity for this book to see the light of day. I'm still in love with these people.

Some of you expressed interest in what I'm doing with my publishing interactions with readers and other authors. My motto is pay it forward and hope and also pray hard and row for shore. In other words, while I think there is something to books sell because they are really beautiful or profound or poignant, there's also even more to books sell because people realize they are there in the first place. That's the toughest part of publishing right now. With 235,000 self-published books coming out yearly -- that's self-published, not even counting the number of books that come out with a traditional publisher -- distribution and discoverability are huge to a book's success. Knowing how hard it is out there for a gangsta, every author I've befriended and whose book I liked has received his or her share of tweets, Facebook likes, Goodreads shelves and now Riffle lists that I can provide. I've even starting to write Amazon reviews -- I didn't realize in the past how powerful those are. I know, naive. But it's so true. The nicest thing you can do for an author is throw out an Amazon or Goodreads review.

I've been digging through the various places in which one can get a review or a mention. In addition to the usual social media channels, there are also very book-specific sites. Today I'm going to cover one in particular: Riffle. It is brand new, and I got the insider scoop because of a job-related connection. As a beta user, I've been busy curating lists:

• Shaped My Life
• Writing I Admire
• Learned Something About Writing or Technique
• Great Reads for a Rainy Day
• Good Books for Teens
• Books I Threw Across the Room (the anti-list)

I also use Goodreads almost daily, but I use Goodreads differently than I use Riffle. Both tools are good for discoverability. On Goodreads, I seek reviews and I give reviews (I need to catch up on that, note to self) and I also use the shelves to track which books I'm going to read in which order. With two to three books a month that I need to read for my job as managing editor of the BlogHer Book Club (another fabulous place to get ideas for what to read next, *cough*), two or three YA novels a month I'm reading to get a feel for what works and what doesn't and a few other picks mixed in, I'm plowing through more pages a week than I have since graduate school. And you know what? It feels great. I feel energized after I read a good book. I don't feel that way after watching TV. Sometimes, I'm too drained for anything but TV, but I've found since I started reading more I feel like the world is more interesting.

And isn't that interesting?

Back to bookish tools. I digress.

As a reader and an author, I want to help other readers and authors find great books. I don't see Goodreads and Riffle as being any more competitive with each other than I see Pinterest and Facebook being competitive with each other -- they tap into different facets of the same communication. Riffle is very visual and very curated -- it's pretty much pure discoverability, and I love the way it works visually. Here's my profile page on Riffle:

Here's my profile page on Goodreads.

Riffle is just pretty, and the lists I curate there are not everything I've read, but things I've read and mentally sorted into a list. Sometimes physically sorted on my bookshelves at home.

I follow other people on Riffle -- people I know and people who have clever list names. Here's the main Riffle page.

I have friends on Goodreads, too, and if someone sends me a recommendation and I know that person, I usually put their recommendation on my shelf. Both Riffle and Goodreads are useful tools for those of us who just inhale literature and don't want to waste our time on books that just aren't good.

Life is short. Read the best.

If you'd like to get an invite to Riffle (it's currently invite-only as the rollout begins), click this link between October 29-31st. They'll know you came from Surrender, Dorothy, and this is the only place you can get access to this particular invite. I know, we're totally snooty around here, right?

And also, please do friend me on Goodreads if you use it so we can see each others' books. I am reading gazillions of things right now and I'm happy to give you my honest take on whether or not I liked it on a variety of levels.