M. J. Rose

M. J. Rose agreed to be interviewed via e-mail by C. T. Atherton.

CA: Your real name, Melisse Shapiro, is lovely. Why did you adopt the pseudonym M. J. Rose? Does the latter name have special significance for you?

MJR: Lip Service, the novel I first put up on the web as an e-book, has something to do with phone sex. I was concerned about getting phone calls in the middle of the night from strange men who wanted me to talk dirty to them. So I decided to use a pen name. My mom had just died--and she was the one person in the whole world who never gave up on my dream and just knew I'd have a book published one day . . . so I took my first initial and her name and came up with M.J. Rose. It's bittersweet for me; she didn't get to see it all happen, but her name has been in every big bookstore in America, five foreign countries, on the TV, and in countless magazines. Somehow I think she knew and had something to do with all this success.

CA: I read that you worked at a Manhattan advertising firm. Can you tell us a few things you learned from that job and how this knowledge has applied to marketing your books?

MJR: Everything in advertising that I learned helped me to market my own books online. Most importantly, you have to believe in a product in order to sell it. And you have to say something no one has ever said before. And your name or the name of your product has to be seen seven times before anyone remembers it.

CA: I've discovered from having this Web site, many of us writers are an insecure bunch, and it doesn't seem to matter how successful some of us become. Lip Service, which started out as a self-published novel, soon won the attention of Pocket Books, The Literary Guild, and the Doubleday Book Club. Writing Lip Service took a great deal of courage; not only in the controversial subject matter, but also in the way you went about publishing it. How scary was it, working on your own? Did you have editorial help or advice on copy editing? Did you ever hesitate? What was your greatest fear? Who supported you emotionally and gave you strength?

MJR: I was past fear when I put Lip Service up on the web. I'd almost gotten two publishing deals with it and I was well into depression and sheer determination by the time my site went up. I had the book copy edited by a fabulous NY freelance editor, Joan Sanger, but that was before I even gave it to my agent. I think that's real important for any writer to do. Get professional help before you shop your book to agents. It can't hurt.

And as to hesitating, I didn't. This was my last shot. I'd been at it for 12 years and was out of money and if this didn't work it was back to advertising 24/7. I actually think that "last chance" stuff made this happen. As to emotional support, Doug Scofield, my partner, a very talented musician, kept bolstering me up. When I first put up the web site and no one came the first twenty-four hours and I was hysterical he made me laugh and told me to be patient. I could not have done any of this without his sense of humor and his always sound advice.

CA: What made you decide to publish yourself, instead of submitting the manuscript to an online e-publisher?

MJR: This is proof of how fast the Internet moves: there were no online e-publishers when I started this project in June of '98. At least none that had any web presence. I've since learned a few were starting up at the same time I was, but they didn't come up in any search engine I tried.

CA: Tell us what you believe is the difference between erotica and pornography, and how would you define Lip Service?

MJR: The difference is in the mind of the reader and the writer. No one who has read Lip Service thought it was pornographic, and certainly I never did. I suppose the classic definition is that porn is not plot driven or character driven but exists only to sexually stimulate the reader. Erotica is well written literature that happens to also be sexy.

CA: Since March is Women's History month, can you explain why you felt it was important for you to write Lip Service?

MJR: I knew and still know too many women who pay Lip Service to the idea of being married regardless of the price they pay for wearing that gold band. We tend to think that after forty we shouldn't leave bad marriages because we won't find anything better. I think it's better to leave and live alone than to stay. But I wanted to talk to those women who are making the biggest sacrifice of all by staying in a bad relationship--losing their self-esteem.

I also wanted to write about how empowering your own sense of sexual identity can be. No one wants to talk about that and I think it's an important issue.

CA: What was the hardest lesson you learned about the established publishing industry, in your efforts to see your novel in print?

MJR: That print publishers are business men and women who love books but have to pay attention to the bottom line and rarely can take as many chances as they'd like to with unknown authors.

CA: Do you encourage authors to seek an agent? Why or why not?

MJR: Yes, absolutely. To me getting an agent is the first step to getting a really valid read of whether your book is good or not. Who else is gonna tell you the truth? Your kids? Your friends? Your spouse? Never. If you get an agent's read, even if you don't get a sale you have a benchmark.

CA: Describe your new book, The Secrets of Our Success that you co-authored with Angela Adair-Hoy. How do you feel this book will help writers?

MJR: This book is coming out next winter in e-book format and print from St. Martins Press and will be called How to Publish and Promote on the Net.

Rather than me tell you about it--here are some reviews that say it all:

Publisher’s Weekly calls it an "informative--and ground-breaking--guide . . ."

The LA Times said it is: "The most comprehensive guide to avoiding (web-based publishing) problems . . ."

The Charleston Daily News: "An outstanding guide to successfully publishing and promoting your writing on the Web."

CA: How did you meet Angela? Did you enjoy collaborating?

MJR: I met her online through her newsletter, writersweekly.com. When I decided to write this book, I wanted her to be my co-author. She was the ying to my yang. Her enormous success is in non-fiction. My more modest success is in fiction. It seemed a great match and has been. She was easy as pie to collaborate with. We have different areas of expertise and everything dovetailed great. No fights. At least not yet. By the way, as of March 20, 2000, we still haven't met in person. We'll meet for the first time at a lunch with our editor from St. Martins in mid-April. How Internet perfect is that?

CA: Are you working on another novel?

MJR: I just sold an e-novella to Mightywords: Private Places, appearing April 5, 2000. I also sold a new novel, In Fidelity, to Pocket Books--Spring, 2001. And I'm just about to start on a third novel. Oh, goodness, just writing that makes me tired.

CA: Do you have any advice for writers who want to experiment with cross-genre novels?

MJR: My only advice to any writer is to be determined, write what you love to write, but understand, as much as writing is an art, once you've written it becomes a business.

E-Publishing

About the Author:

• Author's Web site
   

Add a Link
Disclaimer
Credits
Site founded 1996.
Copyright © 2001 C.T. Atherton.
All rights reserved.
Some images copyright © ArtToday.