If you haven't heard of new author Jennifer Solow yet--and the Tarts would be surprised if you're in the book biz and haven't---here's our interview with the sexy provacateur. Before she wrote her debut novel THE BOOSTER, Jennifer's resume included a hot, hot, hot career in the advertising game, a stint as editor-in-chief of a porn magazine and collaborations with such talents as Spike Jonze, Donnie Deutsch and Richard Avedon. She's got really good stuff to say to writers about publicity.  And then there's the pole dancing...

TLC:  What's the gist of your new book - The Booster?

Jennifer: Here’s the cocktail party answer: THE BOOSTER is about Jillian Siegel, a chic

Manhattan

kleptomaniac who loses her job and becomes the star American booster in a dangerous South American shoplifting ring.

I spent three years researching these clandestine groups with underground informants, the FBI and Loss Prevention departments (the unseen security guys behind those black balls in the ceiling).

TLC:  What IS a Booster?

Jennifer: Booster is an old fashioned term that is still used today by the security guys. It essentially means “shoplifter” but is also the name they give to the people in the ring who actually do the stealing itself.

In these highly organized rings there are people with a number of jobs:

• Counter-surveillance - they watch the people watching them.

• Reconnaissance - they go in ahead of time and plan what and how they’re going to steal.

• Mules - these are people who distract the security people. They’re often ‘sacrificed’ for the job and get arrested. Shelly, Jillian’s best friend in the book becomes a mule. To her, it’s the worst thing in the world. The lowest on the totem pole in the rings are mules.

• Boosters – these are the highly trained people who steal the stuff itself. They generally work in 2-member teams. They wear specially made girdles under their clothes to conceal the goods. Jillian, with her sophistication and skill, quickly gains their respect and rises through the ranks.

But that’s just the easiest stuff to explain. The book is really about a girl whose once-enchanted life is pulled out from under her. She steals to fill an insatiable void – one caused by lost love and horrible family secrets. The book is about who she is and how she finally emerges.

TLC:  Okay, porn background. We're listening. Spill...

Jennifer: Since the Tarts seem intent on the details of the lurid life of a chick porn publisher, here’s the dish: I was just about to get married and facing all those big questions about monogamy and sex and who I was. I was living in

New York

and it seemed to be what everyone was talking about after a glass or two of wine. I was also an art director and appreciated beautiful, well-designed magazines on nice paper. On top of all that, I was a closet writer and needed an outlet for my words.

Core: The Dirty Magazine for Smart People emerged from my life and what I wanted to explore – shameless sex, unabashed writing, free vibrators and really fun parties. Our loft became like the

Tribeca

 

Playboy

 

Mansion

(with groovier outfits and smaller boobies). Let’s just say at the time we were a very fun couple to know.

TLC:  Okay, what's the secret to publicity? I mean, you've been in the advertising business. What are authors doing wrong in publicizing themselves? What could they be doing better? Any inside tricks we ought to know about.

Jennifer: I learned very early in my creative advertising career that a great idea is one that you can explain to someone in a single sentence. People rely on word-of-mouth to buy things, so the most powerful idea is one that can be told easily by someone to someone else.

In other words, the secret to great publicity (and even more basic than that…the secret to selling a book in the first place…) is writing something that can easily be pitched: to an agent, to a publisher, to a magazine, in an email, from friend to friend. That doesn’t mean it has to be a piece of schlock, it just means that books that do well are almost always conceptually simple.

I was at Bread Loaf a few years ago and a roomful of writers had the opportunity of a lifetime – a big-shot agent going around the room asking everybody what their book was about. Out of 30 people, only 2 could summarize it succinctly. Both of those people (and only those 2) were approached by the agent for potential representation.

So inside trick #1 is one that happens from page one. Write a book that is a good idea in the first place: easy to understand yourself and easy for someone else to get too. 

Another inside trick is the secret of the surefire query letter. Nearly twenty years of advertising prepared me for this in a way no untrained marketer could do. I sent my letter (which took 3 months to write and 32 revisions) out to 12 agents. I heard back from 22 (ten came out of nowhere) within a week. All requesting manuscripts. This was not because I wrote the best book on earth (they hadn’t even seen it) but because I really knew how to write that letter. I’m happy to share it and a little coaching to anyone who needs the support. Write to me jennifer@jennifersolow.com. If I get a jillion requests, I’ll just post it here or on my blog.

*Solow caveat. I give this advice with the assumption that the goal is to write a marketable book that has the potential to be popular. There are plenty of respect-worthy writers for whom this is not important.

TLC:  What was it like--a girl with your background working with Alison Lurie?

Jennifer: Working with Alison Lurie was immensely inspiring. I wish I could have a mini Alison in my pocket at all times for any questions that come up as I write my new book.

I think Alison’s overarching sense of Story is the greatest thing she gave me. When we met, I was stuck in the middle of a bad book with the beginnings of a good character. Jillian wasn’t involved with the shoplifting ring at that point; she was however, not above pocketing a little chapstick from the drugstore and she was struggling (and failing) to make connections with people instead of the things she prized so much. The shoplifting ring was Alison’s stroke of genius, not mine. Over coffee and a bagel, she got me over a 2-year slump. She remembered from a television exposé that rings work in groups. “Jillian will be forced to depend on other human beings,” she said, identifying the main source of dramatic conflict in the book.

TLC: What else would you like to tell us?
Jennifer: I’d like to tell you to read an excerpt of THE BOOSTER, but it’s so completely inappropriate to use this space as a vehicle for self-promotion and personal gain. I’d like to also tell you that a portion of my proceeds will go to support NRDC, but even that gesture and the sincere desire to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, would be uncouth.

Thanks, Jennifer.  We'll look for you in the bookstore starting March 21!

To learn more about Jennifer.....and her pole dancing, check out her website.

Comments

[jennifer solow]

hey guys---ask any other questions you'd like. i'm out for much of the day but will DEFINITELY check back in and answer anything!

XX thanks for the chance, Tarts!

[Aly Mazz]

I SOMEHOW got an advanced copy of the book from your rep at S&S and I read in NY Mag that the character of "Billy Baum" is mirrored after Donny Deutsch. After reading the book, I can TOTALLY see the resemblances! Is this true? Did you REALLY work with him? If so, what was it like?

[Mary Alice Gorman]

Jennifer also has another secret weapon in promoting her new book-------Mom.
My Morning Coffee Book Group decided in a flash to read her book after one member repeated Jennifer's mother's pitch. It was concise and powerful. I guess it also helped that several in the group had kids in her mom's 5th grade class.

Jennifer, I'm looking forward to seeing you at the group's next meeting on April 5 at noon. The buzz on Booster is the hottest!

Anyone out there who wants to drop by the store, you are sure welcome. To drop by or to order your signed copy, please check www.mysterylovers.com

Mary Alice wearin' green

[nancy]

Read an excertp from Jennifer's THE BOOSTER:
http://www.jennifersolow.com/booster.html

Nancy, digging out her grandmother's Irish stew recipe....

[nancy]

Is Mr. Deutsch the ligitious type???

[Kathy Sweeney aka Smart Tart]

I'm buying at Murphy's starting at about 8 -first, we're having a celebratory dinner with my daugher's best friend who just wrapped up the starring role in her school musical. All girls' school - she played Tevye and was superb!

Last I saw Margie, she was doing the Jig out of Finnegan's Wake and heading for the Carousel. Thank heaven she knows most of the Verona police force.

Jennifer - have heard nothing but great things about you and your book from Mary Alice - looking forward to reading it!

Nancy - he's a public figure - different standards apply. Chill.

[hannah]

loooved this book! but i sort of wonder if it was fun doing research for the book, or actually a little bit scary? did you ever find yourself in compromising situations (or is that an obvious question?)

[jennifer solow]

YES...I did work for Donny Deutsch and (can I say this?) all the details are true. He's kind of like that college teacher who failed you in class---after years of cussing him out you finally realize...hey...maybe I WAS THE JERK AFTERALL!

I hope if he reads it he'll see the respect mixed in with the gross stuff. But he loves this kinda stuff anyway. It adds to the legend!

He's definitely a boss you don't forget. And yes, he fired me.

[jennifer solow]

HEY MARY ALICE!!!

See you in April. What should I wear?

OY.

[nancy]

The most difficult work any author faces: What to wear.

Hear us, Harley?

[daisy]

I don't have a specific example to send you right now, but I do have a question about query letters that perhaps someone here can answer: How do you start one? Obviously, if you've met the person, or been referred by a client or have compromising pictures of him or her with a lawn tractor, then it's easy (I enjoyed meeting you at..., I am friends with A.W. Riter who..., I have recently come into possesion of..., respectively). But what if you got their name out of a book? I've been going with the direct route: 'I have written a book/short story/manifesto that I think you would be interested in...' but I feel like it lacks panache. Any suggestions?

[jennifer solow]

Great question about the query, Daisy.

The answer is: fudge it as best you can and network to get it for real.

I think it's VERY important to make the connection between you and the agent SOMEHOW...and sometimes you need to generate that yourself.

For instance...I went to my local bookstore, made friends with the buyer (which helps me now too), told her about my book and asked her to go thru the recent releases and see what books felt similar in some way. I made my top agent list based on that AND major Google searching and those huge books about agents (I had them all).

THEN I tried to figure out who I might have 6 degrees of separation with (friend of a friend of my cousin's friend, etc...). I did a ton of networking with ANYONE I knew who was a writer (I know Augusten Burrows from advertising days). I said things like "My friend Augusten Burrow's friend, Haven Kimmel, says you're the greatest, so I HAD to send you a letter. I fudged it and took a few risks in the process.

When you have NO connection, make one. Write to an author on her website. Title the email, "Hi, Jennifer. Bill Clegg, your opinion?" Write a little (confident) note and you might hear something back. THEN you say..."Bill, author Jennifer Solow says so many wonderful things about you, I knew I had to write."

DON'T say that author recommended you write the letter. That always gets back to the author and if they didn't recommend you then you've screwed up that relationship (which you can use later when you need a blurb.)

If NONE of that works...read a book they've agented and refer to it. "Yada yada is a beautiful lyrical book and I found it so inspiring when I wrote my book, Shmata shmata." Everyone likes to be flattered!

KEEP IN MIND...these agents get hundreds of shlocky letters a week. Do ANYTHING to set yourself apart in an impressive way. What if YOU got a hundred letters a week. Which one would YOU NOT throw away?

Good luck!

[Jac]

I had to post something- The Booster was amazing. I read the starred publishers marketplace review and decided I had to read Jennifer's novel immediately if not sooner. It was delivered within 12 hours. After finishing, posted my first amazon review. the book is woth the hype.

[jennifer solow]

Jac---that is soooo nice. I really appreciate the props! It's wild/weird/strange and wonderful to hear what people think of my book. When I wrote it I wasn't sure if I could even construct a sentance much less move someone emotionally or tell a vivid story. It's very exciting!

I also have had soooo many requests for my secret-spice query letter. Thanks to everyone and good luck. Feel free to ask any questions and I apologize if I'm a little flaky in the next couple weeks. If I haven't responded just write again. I'm very distracted with all this stuff but really love sharing what I can.

xx

[Mary Alice Gorman]

Jennifer,
Not to worry what to wear. The book group is carpool casual and we know you are coming right of a plane trip. I'd save the killer heels on your cover for photo ops and giant crowds appearances.

Looking forward to meeting you. Travel well.

Mary Alice

[unitanoli]

One possible reason that things aren't going according to plan
is that there never was a plan in the first place.

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http://ebloggy.com/shaunballardre

[stoondorm]

I'm new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

[shooshoo]

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