Author Charlotte Laws reveals secrets about writing, book promotion, and sneaking her book to Oprah at the Golden Globes
“It takes stamina and passion to write a book. It takes persistence, innovation, insider knowledge, and a sprinkle of fairy dust to turn it into a bestseller.”
I sat down with bestselling author Charlotte Laws to ask her about the writing process and book promotion. Laws has authored seven books and 135 articles. She stars in the Netflix show The Most Hated Man on the Internet.
By P. Mahurin
Hello, Dr. Laws. Thanks for joining me today. How did you get into writing? Did your interest begin in childhood, and if so, did your parents foster your talent?
I toyed with writing as a preteen, but it was nothing serious—mostly just embarrassing love poems that I gave to a cute boy in my class. He probably thought I was crazy. I was raised in Atlanta by adoptive parents, but the experience did not foster much of anything except a desire to escape. My adoptive mom committed suicide, my adoptive brother was killed in a car accident, and my adoptive father was verbally abusive. In addition to the family tragedies, I felt like a black sheep in the community. I didn’t seem to have anything in common with the people of upper class Atlanta. I eventually left Georgia and tracked down my birth family. I learned that my natural father had authored books. He and I have much in common. After meeting other birth relatives, I came to believe that nature is much stronger than nurture.
Really? That’s interesting. What other commonalities did you find?
Although my birth mom and I knew absolutely nothing about each other, we’d both ventured down the same religious path. We were raised Christian, then attended a Unitarian church for a while, and eventually converted to Reform Judaism. My natural grandmother and I enjoyed the same unusual hobby: buying brand new department store dresses and decorating them with sequins and beads. We also had some of the same furniture, including a rare carved desk that I have never seen elsewhere. Other similarities are mentioned in my memoir, Undercover Debutante: The Search for My Birth Parents and a Bald Husband.
Let’s get back to writing and book promotion. What advice do you have for wannabe authors?
I find that it takes stamina and passion to write a book. It takes persistence, innovation, insider knowledge, and a sprinkle of fairy dust to turn it into a bestseller. I believe that everyone has at least one book-length story to tell, and anyone can be a talented writer. Sometimes it takes practice. A writing instructor once told me that after you’ve written 100,000 words you become a good writer. I think that is right.
You need to figure out when you are most productive. I have a surge of energy early in the day, so I tend to work on my books and articles at that time, usually from about 5 a.m. until 2 p.m.
You also need to establish a process. I begin each project with research. I might conduct interviews, travel to particular locations, or read relevant articles and books. It can take me months, or even a year to complete the research phase.
Do you have suggestions on getting a publisher and promoting a book?
The process can be a full-time job. Completing a book is phase one. Phase two is finding a publisher, and phase three is promoting the heck out of the book. With my first manuscript, I crashed high rises in New York in search of a publisher. I waited for publishing house underlings to go to lunch, chatted them up in the lobby of the building, and convinced them to introduce me to the big shots in the executive offices.
Crashing also helped me with promotion. I was able to land TV interviews. For example, I once crashed a major studio and made my way to the production offices for the show, A.M. Los Angeles. I talked a producer into letting me be a guest on the program. I was introduced as “the woman who crashed the studio.” I appeared on the show twice.
Easy for you, (laughter) as you are listed as one of 15 most notorious party crashers in the world.
True, but anyone can do it. In 1988, I wrote a book about how to crash celebrity events… or really how to crash anything. Crashing is a strategy that can help you get to the right people. One time, I sneaked into a political fundraiser to hand a movie treatment to actor Matt Damon. He asked his agent to meet with me. I also crashed the Golden Globes for only one purpose: to hand my book to Oprah Winfrey. She has a book club.
Oprah? You’re kidding? Tell me about this.
Oprah’s website states that books sent by authors and publishers are not welcome. In fact, it says that all submissions are tossed in the trash. I knew I needed to hand my book to Oprah in person. But how? She was slotted to attend the Golden Globes, so I decided to gatecrash. Although I’d sneaked into award shows in the past, this one turned out to be difficult. There was a tremendous amount of security, and the streets were partitioned off around the Beverly Hilton hotel, where the event was held. I trudged through a construction site behind the hotel in my high heels and evening gown. I stepped over mounds of dry mud and weaved around tractors. When I got to a back door of the Beverly Hilton, I told a guard that I had already been inside the award show, but had left to get coffee at Starbucks. For some reason, he bought this ridiculous story. Then I finagled past another three guards in order to finally get into the event. I eventually ended up sitting in the front at a table with Christopher Plummer, Ridley Scott, and Natalie Portman. Oprah was at the next table. During a commercial break, I was able to strike up a conversation with Oprah and hand her a copy of my book. I have no clue whether she read it or whether it will make it into her book club, but at least I did everything I could.
That’s hilarious. You say that it takes innovation, persistence, insider knowledge, and a sprinkle of fairy dust to turn a book into a bestseller. What do you mean by this?
The persistence part is obvious. You must keep plunging forward even if you get 1000 rejections for every yes. Innovation is simply thinking outside of the box. It means doing something unusual like party crashing.
By “insider knowledge,” I mean that it helps to learn everything you can about the book industry by talking to authors, agents, publishers, book designers, and others… and by reading articles, books, and blogs on the subject. You can learn insider secrets. For example, it is smart to drum up pre-sales by doing press well before your book is released. Presales are important if you want your book to be a bestseller. If you get 5000 advance orders, these presales are tallied on the first day of the book’s release. In other words, it looks like, wow, this book sold 5000 copies in one day! This can catapult your book to number one on Amazon and get it onto various bestseller lists.
I talk about a “sprinkle of fairy dust” because luck plays a part in success. There are as many as a million books published each year in the U.S., so it is not easy to get recognition for even the most amazing one. You need to persevere and not beat yourself over failure. The greatest authors have encountered rejection. They succeed only because they do not give up. Notice how we have circled back to step one, persistence?
Yes (laughter). Lastly, I want to ask you about book title? If an author has the ability to choose the title or offer input to a publisher, what do you suggest she do from a marketing standpoint?
Obviously, you want to pick a title that will make readers pick up the book, but few authors realize that the title should also be unique. Do a Google search in advance and check out the competition. Try not to select a title or phrase that is plastered all over the Internet. When a potential buyer looks for your book, you want her to find it.
Thank you for this valuable advice, Dr. Laws, and good luck with your books.
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P. Mahurin is an international bestselling literary fiction and historical fiction novelist. She is the author of the Seven Year Dress, To Live Out Loud, and Irma’s Endgame. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.
This author interview appears in the online magazine Thrive Global.