Writing Life

Writing the novel was the easy part. Photo credit: Kay Sanger

The Writing Game

by Thomas Sanger • Writing Life • Leave a Comment

Getting started as an author is a time-consuming and daunting task. When I wrote my historical novel, Without Warning, I learned that researching and writing the first draft, which sometimes felt like pulling teeth, was the easy part.

After editing, revising, and polishing my manuscript to a fine sheen, I conducted a lengthy search for a publisher to deliver my novel to readers in print and electronic form. When River Grove Books (a division of Greenleaf Book Group) published Without Warning, I discovered the most demanding part of my journey still lay ahead: selling my book to the public. That/s right, most authors become the main sales representative for their books. Here is why.

On average, more than 10,000 new book titles are published every week in America. Last year the total number of books published topped 1 million for the first time. Publishers simply do not have the resources to launch advertising campaigns on behalf of every one of their new titles. “A”-list authors get that treatment because they’ve earned it. It’s up to the rest of us to somehow make a lasting impression of our own in this crowded market.

Fortunately, the folks at Greenleaf offered plenty of ideas for me to pursue on the Internet, making sure I established a presence with author’s pages on Amazon, Facebook, and Goodreads. A year before my novel’s publication I established a website and began a regular blog. My wife and I set up a book launch event at our local library and speaking engagements up and down the West Coast and Florida to tell the story of my novel’s central event, the torpedoing of the British passenger ship Athenia at the beginning of World War II.

We are not marketing experts. Some of these efforts have been hits and some have been misses. As I indicated in my last blog, the latest sales figures show our efforts sold nearly 400 books in nearly two years. Not bad, when you realize the average sales for each book published in the U.S. is 250 copies.

You can imagine how thrilled we were with two recent developments that were quite unexpected. First, in early June, Without Warning won the San Diego Book Award for historical fiction.

That same month, I received word from my publisher that Barnes & Noble had selected Without Warning to launch its new program, called “Digital Deals.” For one day only, June 29, B&N made electronic copies of my novel available on its Nook e-reader for a purchase price of $0.99. When the dust settled, we learned 1,220 e-books were sold through the promotion. What a thrill to be chosen by B&N for this promotion and to see my novel triple its reach in one day.

It is most gratifying to gain all this exposure now, as we approach the 80th anniversary of the start of WWII and Athenia’s sinking. I’ll have more about a big anniversary event planned for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in my next blog.

The SS Athenia: A Different Way to Write About this Tragedy.

by Thomas Sanger • Writing Life • 1 Comment

 

Thomas C. Sanger - Author of Without Warning - photo

The S S Athenia: I chose a different way to write about this tragedy.

When I decided in 2010 to write about the Athenia tragedy (see blog post “Origins of a Book, Part 1, Sept. 1, 2016), my first step was to find out what had been published on the subject.

There were two non-fiction books written about the sinking: Tomorrow Never Came, by Max Caulfield, published in the U.S. in 1959, and Three Days in September: The Last Voyage of the Athenia, by Cay Rademacher, published in Germany in 2009. The older book was no longer in print (though copies were for sale on the Internet) and there were no plans to publish the German book in English.

And so the journey for a new book on the Athenia began.

To differentiate my effort from the previous books, I determined to write a historical novel about the sinking. I thought fiction would be the best way to make the emotional connection with readers that I sought.

I began by reading the Caulfield book. Then I scoured the Internet, where I found a great deal of material, including many first-hand accounts of Athenia’s sinking.

Rather than invent my characters, I decided to fictionalize the experiences of real people, imagining their thoughts and conversations as they experienced events before, during and after the torpedoing by a German submarine. Following 18 months of research I settled on ten people – eight passengers, the Athenia’s second-in-command and the submarine commander – whose experiences would allow me to tell the most complete story of Athenia’s last voyage.

With two years invested in my project, my heart sank late in 2012 when I opened a catalogue and found a new Athenia book had just been published: Athenia Torpedoed: The U-Boat Attack That Ignited the Battle of the Atlantic, by Francis M. Carroll! I ordered a copy and discovered an up-to-date, concise, thoroughly researched and well-written non-fiction account of the attack on Athenia and its aftermath.

Had I chosen to write a non-fiction book on the subject, like the Athena, I would have been sunk!

Thankfully, my idea for a historical novel remained afloat. All I had to do was write it….

Without Warning by author Thomas C. Sanger - book cover image

without warning book

Historical Fiction vs Narrative Nonfiction: What’s in a Genre?

by Thomas Sanger • Thomas C. Sanger, Without Warning Book, Writing Life • 2 Comments

When I began to consider finding a book agent to represent my forthcoming book, Without Warning, I needed to determine the genre for my book, which tells the true story of the Athenia, a British passenger ship torpedoed by a German U-boat on the first day of World War 2 in 1939.

One possible genre for the book is “narrative nonfiction.” It’s a popular format for book-length journalism and recent history, and includes titles like Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Narrative nonfiction tells a factual story with a beginning, middle and end, written in a literary style that includes a narrative arc, characterizations, scenes and dialogue.

The information in these books is as accurate and verifiable, but the language and narrative techniques provide readers with a more literary experience and presumably a greater emotional connection with the book’s content. Read More