Well, we done did it, gang. The Bucket List is officially out of my hands and into yours! It's been such a thrill to receive all the positive reader feedback to Lacey's story, from all around the States and beyond. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy, posted a pic, wrote a tweet, attended an event, gave me a hug or told a friend about this book. Your support is invaluable, and I am humbled by every moment of it. Please continue to share and shout it from the rooftops: word of mouth is powerful, and your personal recommendations really matter. On that note, if you have a minute, please do review on Amazon using the link below. Five stars is great, but I'll take what I can get! And if you're book clubbing The Bucket List, know that I can Skype in, or attend in person in NYC.
The Bucket List is out today!
Friends, I’m so excited to tell you that The Bucket List is out TODAY! As in RIGHT NOW!
I am so proud of this book, and so grateful for positive reviews and early reader enthusiasm. It felt like a risk to write about someone considering a preventative mastectomy, but it’s struck a chord and I couldn’t be happier with the response. You’re already such a source of support. Thank you.
Here’s a few easy ways you can help me make this book a massive success
1. Social Media
Just a few clicks make a big difference!
>> Post on Twitter
Just click the highlighted text below to autopopulate a tweet with the copy underneath.
Click to tweet # 1
(My friend @georgialouclark wrote a novel called #TheBucketList & it’s out TODAY. The @latimesbooks called it "witty and sexy", but I'm calling it "what I'm reading RN". Buy it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2n1yzry)
Click to tweet #2
(Hey book nerds! #TheBucketList by @georgialouclark is out today. It's funny, sexy, contemporary fiction about a young woman who embarks on an unforgettable bucket list adventure. Critics are raving, and so am I. Check it out: https://bit.ly/2KKoooE)
>> Copy and paste this into Facebook (or write your own!)
My friend Georgia Clark wrote a book called The Bucket List and it’s today. Check it out.
http://www.georgiaclark.com/the-bucket-list-1/
Happy pub day Georgia Clark! Her new book The Bucket List is about a young woman diagnosed with the BRCA1 gene mutation, and the unforgettable bucket list adventure she goes on... with her boobs. "Witty and sexy" -- LA Times. Check it out!
http://www.georgiaclark.com/the-bucket-list-1/
If you like funny feminist fiction check out The Bucket List by my friend Georgia Clark.
http://www.georgiaclark.com/the-bucket-list-1/
>> Share a pic on Instagram. Here’s some Instagram-ready shots of the cover
If you see The Bucket List in the wild, snap a pic and post it on my socials!
2. Buy the Book
Support your local indie by buying through IndieBound.
Support your local overload by buying from Amazon.
If you’re in a bookstore, ask the staff if they have The Bucket List. You don’t have to buy it, but lots of customer enquiries signal that the book is hot hot hot.
3. Review it
Review on Amazon or Goodreads. This helps these sites recommend the book to other readers. It doesn’t need to be long. Five stars are great, but I’ll take what I can get. These kind of reviews don't need to be long or involved, a simple "Great read, I loved it!" works fine. Don't mention you're a friend of mine -- Amazon are very strict about neutral reviews.
Whatever you decide to you, how big or small, it helps and it means so much. Let me know if there’s any way I can help you get where you’re going.
Much love,
Georgia x
The Bucket List is *nearly here*
Putting a book out into the world is like opening a door to your heart and your brain and asking everyone to take a peek. It's exciting and scary and energizing and exhausting... and I love it. After what seems like forever and a day, The Bucket List is all but here (Aug 7!). And the early response has been overwhelmingly positive. We were the star of Cosmo's August edition (above) and just got a glowing Publisher's Weekly review: “Heartfelt and sexy…Clark navigates the reality that comes along with this type of diagnosis with sensitivity and wit.” But I can't make a splash without you. The ways you can help are:
1. Buy a book (here's the Amazon page, but you can buy anywhere)
2. Post on social (tag me, @georgialouclark on both Insta and Twitter) and sharing a pic (here is a gallery of images you can share)
3. Come to an event (more details below)
August 8 - The Wing @ The Wing Flatiron 7pm (Flatiron)
August 9 - Official Book Launch @ Books Are Magic 7pm (Cobble Hill)
August 13 - Bad Women panel @ The Strand 7pm (Union Square)
August 15 - Generation Women @ Caveat 7pm (Lower East Side)
August 29 - Book Club @ Colonia Verde 6pm (Fort Green)
Thank you for your continued support; I couldn't do any of this without you.
This month has been a lot of work... Except when it's a party.
This month, I hosted a pre-launch party for The Bucket List for bookish types at a lush penthouse in Soho. The purpose of a pre-launch party is to get media and influencer-types excited about the book's release (August 7th), and give them a little taste of the story, and its inspiration. It was a joy to share the book with about 50 members of the NY literati, topped off with a performance of one of the book's pivotal scenes (the moment captured in the first picture by photographer Kait Ebinger is of all three female characters, Lacey, Steph and Vivian, feeling their boobs). I do love putting on show...
How to adapt a novel for TV: Part One
Last month I was able to share the super exciting news that we sold The Regulars to E! This month, we had to put the rosé down, roll up our sleeves, and get to work.
The first thing we needed to hand in is an outline. The execs didn’t have a hard-and-fast rule for the format, or even how many acts the show should have, leaving this up to Gail (the showrunner/my co-creator) and I. The first thing I put together was a “beat sheet”, which is a breakdown of the episode by scene (or “beat”). My first beat sheet was waaaayyy too long (I’m a novelist! I like long!), so after a lot of back and forth, Gail and I got it down to 17 scenes for Evie, the main character, and half a dozen each for Krista and Willow. We also orientated the scenes more clearly around these two questions for each character: What does she want? What’s stopping her from getting it? This helped keep us on story, as the lingo goes.
We fleshed out each beat into a scene description, with sample dialogue. After notes from our producer Jenn, we submitted a detailed, fun-to-read 17-page outline to our awesome studio exec, Kate, for more notes, then it goes to the network for approval. Fingers crossed everyone loves it as much as we do.
I’ve learned a lot this month about adapting a novel for TV. My advice?
1. Be open to better ideas. It's tempting to protect your writing as it appears in one format, but be humble enough to accept other people will have better ideas than you. One such change Gail suggested for the pilot was that Evie, who is our “eyes in” to the story, receive and take the Pretty first. In the book, Krista receives the Pretty and Willow takes it first, but this makes a lot more sense.
2. Stay on story. I’m a plot-driven writer who admires succinct storytelling, but compared to our pilot, my novel is a free-flowing boho mess who doesn’t wear shoes. There is so much more room to dream in a novel; maybe because readers will stick with you longer than viewers, perhaps because our attention span for visual storytelling is shorter and shorter. Our storytelling is so much tighter and less expansive than the book, and revolves heavily around answering the two questions above: what does she want? What’s stopping her from getting it? All our scenes invoke, complicate, or answer those questions.
3. Be a writer, not a producer. A pilot costs a lot of money to shoot, and the more speaking parts, locations, night shoots, exteriors, stunts, extras (etc) you have, the more it costs. It can be tempting to act as producer in the writing phase to make the project more feasible. But it’s the producer's job to balance the budget. My job right now is to write a kickass pilot. So, while I have resisted the urge to add in a helicopter fight sequence, I haven’t been editing the scope of it too much, at this early stage.
PRO-TIP: Gail is in LA, and I’m obviously in NY, so we’ve been using the messaging program Slack to work on this together. I also use Slack for Generation Women. If you haven’t tried is, it’s a helpful way for a team to communicate if you’re drowning in a million email threads.
How to Create Community
This month, I'm working on marketing and publicity for The Bucket List. My second novel isn't out till August 7th, but in order for it be a big, exciting launch with fun events, great press, and excellent buzz, that groundwork starts now. Right now I'm rounding up author blurbs: the words of praise from other writers often featured on the book's jacket or elsewhere online. For a debut novel, the publisher will push hard for blurbs but from book two and onwards, this mostly falls on the author's shoulders. So far, I have three great blurbs from authors Amy Poeppel, Andrea Dunlop, and Corinne Sullivan. How did I get these? By actively and enthusiastically fostering a bookish community. No one goes it alone: everyone needs a community. Here's how you can create yours.
1. Rethink "competition". We're often mistakenly led to believe our community is our competition. I'm not saying there's zero truth in this, but you have more to gain by befriending your "competitors" than ignoring them. There is power in numbers, and your "competition" will be the source of great advice, powerful connections, and invaluable friendships.
2. Be kind online. Support members of your community online! It's free, easy and effective. Likes are fine, but go one step further and leave a comment, or retweet/repost something. I definitely feel closer to people I've met once or twice through a kind and supportive online relationship.
3. Meet IRL. It's essential you connect with your community offline. I host a monthly author salon for novelists, where I've made so many great friends. I also go to events and am always up for a drink with a fellow novelist. Why not start a weekly or monthly happy hour for members of your tribe, be it figurative painters or project managers? Don't worry if you're the one always doing the organizing: if you can get your community together, it's worth it.
4. Put your money where your mouth is. For me, that means I buy books. As regular readers of this newsletter are aware, I am always broke, and for a long time I resisted buying books at launches, because I'm such a fan of the ol' local library. But I couldn't ask my friends to buy my book if I didn't buy their's. Ultimately, it's a business expense, and one I'm happy to pay for. Support your community with not just your time and energy, but your wallet.
5. Show up. It's really that simple. To events, to conferences, be present, be interested. I believe it is impossible to thrive in your field or industry without being part of the social culture. Be pro-active and create those relationships.