Author Genre: Book Club Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Website: Aliza Fogelson
Twitter: @alizafogelson
Goodreads: Check Out Goodreads
Amazon Author Profile
Author Description:
Aliza Fogelson is a writer and editor living in New York. She specializes in lifestyle books, including those about decorating, cooking, and style. She graduated from Princeton University, where she studied literature and creative writing. Her first published work was her third-grade short story "Baby Cow's Adventure." This is her first novel.
SPOTLIGHT Questions and Answers with the Author
Congratulations on your book: The Lending Library, an Amazon best-selling Contemporary Romance novel. What do you have on the drawing board next? Can you tell us the timeline for its release and give us a little tease?
Thank you! It’s exciting to be thinking about what comes after my debut. I am just beginning to write my next novel, so I’m a little shy about it. I tend to worry that I might chase some of the joy of discovery away if I try to describe the broad strokes before they take shape on the page! It’s a little like a crush, when you’re in the delightful first blush but not yet ready to admit your feelings for fear of what might happen. I will be eager to share more about it once I’m further along!
You have a good following on twitter. How important has your social media relationships been to your immediate success? How did you build your following?
Thank you for saying so. It may be a small following but the followers are mighty! And I am grateful for every follower, every post about my book, for the new relationships and perspectives that have come from these social media outlets, and for the chance they give me to connect about books and ideas. I have a lot to learn and a lot of building to do. I tend to be a pretty private person, so I’m fairly new to social media as an author.
Whether or not my book is a success (it’s such early days that it’s hard to say what will happen!), I am eager to support other current and aspiring authors and bolster their voices. I’ve had the incredible opportunity to be featured in Amazon First Reads, which brought readers my way and spread the word about my book more widely than I ever could have dreamed, and I would love to share that good fortune and help others build their following as I build mine.
You have a great cover. It carries a theme like the pictures on your website. How does your book cover creation process work? Do you hand over the basic theme or do you have more of a hands-on approach?
I love the cover of the book! And I am honored that my editor, Danielle Marshall at Lake Union, chose the incredibly talented Kimberly Glyder to create it, and that she was willing. Kimberly did the design, the illustration, and the hand lettering. Lake Union was kind enough to ask for my thoughts before the cover creation process, including a list of covers that inspire me and that capture a similar feeling to what I envisioned for The Lending Library. My publisher worked with Kimberly and then graciously asked for my feedback on several options before it evolved into the final cover.
As a longtime editor of illustrated lifestyle books, I am typically involved in the cover development process, but I know that isn’t always the case on the other side of the desk—the author side—so I am grateful that Lake Union was collaborative and receptive to my thoughts. From the moment I saw this cover, I felt how special it was and how much of the friendly, buoyant, book-loving spirit of The Lending Library it captured. (And if you feel the website relates to the cover, I am thrilled! I designed my website myself based on some of the things I love, which surely made their way into the book and—thanks to Kimberly’s expert translation of the delight of books and flowers and Dodie’s world—into the cover.)
Recently you were included in the Summer Reading Heats Up 2020 post from HBS Author's Spotlight Bookshelf along with 6 other best-selling first time authors. Did you see a boost in pre-orders? Summer Reading Heats Up 2020 post
Thank you for featuring The Lending Library among these intriguing summer reads! Because there were a number of different kinds of coverage happening at once, it’s difficult to identify which piece of promotion had which effect, but I appreciate all of them.
Between your book writing and editing, marketing, family and all the other things that can get in your way, how do you manage your time? Do you have a set schedule, or do you sort of play it by ear?
This is a great question and I struggle with time management, especially right now! I have an energetic two-year-old son and due to the pandemic I’m currently caring for him full-time, so as soon as he naps, I race to my computer to work for an hour or two, and then there are a lot of late nights and weekend sessions when my husband and son play while I focus for a few hours. Before now, Wednesdays and Fridays were my workdays, and I would usually spend a few hours in the morning on editorial projects, then write in the afternoon and evening and on weekends. It will probably be a while yet before I’ll get back to that schedule. My foremost feeling is huge gratitude for the time I have with my family, but I do admit to a longing to spend more time with the new characters since there’s so little of it now!
How did you start your book launch process for a new book? Give a brief outline of the steps you went through to get your book to market?
My publisher, Lake Union, set up the amazing marketing campaign for The Lending Library. Needless to say, as an imprint of Amazon Publishing, they have incredible insight into promoting new books, especially for debut authors like me.
These were some of the ways the book was set up before publication:
Sharing The Lending Library in advance with media, libraries, and bookstores: My publisher created gorgeous Advance Reader’s Copies for the book (I thought it was the actual paperback when it first arrived!) and distributed them to publications like Library Journal, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly, who, thrillingly, all chose to review it. They also shared it on NetGalley with bloggers and other readers.
Lake Union also shared the book with libraries and bookstores. It’s important to both me and my publisher that readers can find the book wherever they would like! And as a devotee of these booklover destinations, it’s been such a joy to see some of them featuring The Lending Library in their own social media.
Securing blurbs for the back cover: My agent, editor, and I came up with a wish list and some kind authors granted our wishes!
Featuring it on Amazon First Reads: My editor also shared the book internally at Amazon Publishing and to our delight, The Lending Library was selected as an Amazon First Reads feature title, a wonderful honor that elevates the book’s visibility enormously. As one of eight titles that are made available a month early to Prime members and at a discounted rate to others, Amazon First Reads comes with a host of promotion over the course of that month before the book officially publishes—and beyond. There were all kinds of ads, emails to Prime members, and a Goodreads giveaway of 100 copies that brought lots of interest to the book, to name a few.
Spreading the news: Before publication, I also did some outreach through friends and family. Personal recommendations and word-of-mouth publicity are so important for a book like The Lending Library!
What is your primary genre? What going to be your best marketing approach to this group?
I think The Lending Library crosses genres. (I know I’m not alone among authors in saying that!) My publisher and I would describe it primarily as Book Club Fiction. It’s also sometimes classified as Women’s Fiction or Contemporary Romance.
As far as marketing to the potential audience, one of the primary goals and hopes was that readers would fall in love with the book and tell others about it. That’s why we took the steps above to market it as we did, in hopes of that word-of-mouth snowball effect. I am also greatly looking forward to speaking to several book clubs in the coming months (virtually, most likely!) and I’m available to do more book club appearances through my website.
How do you manage your plots, characters and timelines to keep your stories going? Do you use any software to keep track of your books?
For better or worse, I keep track of most of those elements in my head! And in many drafts in Word. The world of the book and the characters become very real to me and live vividly in my imagination while I am trying to capture the story on the page.
One of the tricky parts is that I don’t outline before I write. I follow what gives me joy and try to allow myself to discover more about the characters and their stories as I create the first draft. That also means I don’t write chronologically. I would probably be much more efficient and have a lot less revision to do if I planned in advance and kept better track along the way. But I don’t think I could do it, or at least as happily, that way, and I’m not sure the book would have the same spirit if I did.
During one of the later revisions of The Lending Library (there were quite a few before publication!), I had to tighten the book, and I did a simple outline in Excel to keep timelines and storylines straight and to make sure the book maintained its coherence even with the cuts.
I noticed you have a French background. Do you plan on publishing your books in other languages?
That is definitely a dream of mine! I lived in Paris for almost a year after college, and it was a magical time. I had studied French literature in high school and at Princeton, but doing so in France brought completely new meaning to what I read. At the same time, it confirmed what I have always believed: that books can transcend language and countries and ethnicities and generations and that they connect us. There are many universal themes in The Lending Library: motherhood, community, the power of books, love, self-realization, friendship. It would be such a thrill if non-English readers were interested in the book and had the ability to enjoy it in their own language.
You have great reviews. What was your method of getting reviews for your novels? Do you seek professional reviews, use former contacts or do you rely on a reading audience to supply them?
I have readers to thank for so many lovely reviews! Of course, there are some reviews from friends and family in the mix, and there are reviews from the industry publications and from many folks with whom my publisher shared the book as part of the marketing campaign described above. The rest are all sorts of readers who have found the book, whether through Amazon First Reads or through personal recommendations, and who have been generous enough to take the time to share their thoughts with other potential readers.
Thank you for the opportunity to chat about the book’s journey. Happy reading!
Author's Book List
The Lending Library: A Novel
For fans of Jane Green and Loretta Nyhan, a heartwarming debut novel about a daydreamer who gives her town, and herself, an amazing gift: a lending library in her sunroom.
When the Chatsworth library closes indefinitely, Dodie Fairisle loses her sanctuary. How is a small-town art teacher supposed to cope without the never-ending life advice and enjoyment that books give her? Well, when she’s as resourceful and generous as Dodie, she turns her sunroom into her very own little lending library.
At first just a hobby, this lit lovers’ haven opens up her world in incredible ways. She knows books are powerful, and soon enough they help her forge friendships between her zany neighbors—and attract an exciting new romance.
But when the chance to adopt an orphaned child brings Dodie’s secret dream of motherhood within reach, everything else suddenly seems less important. Finding herself at a crossroads, Dodie must figure out what it means to live a full, happy life. If only there were a book that could tell her what to do…
Order the Book From:
Amazon
Indiebound
Post Created by: James Moushon
Mystery writer, book industry blogger, and the sponsor of the following blogs:
HBS Author’s Spotlight
Indie Author's Corner
Mystery Reader’s Circle
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