Book Marketing Now: Naseem Jamnia
Naseem Jamnia, author of the queer-normative, fantasy novella THE BRUISING OF QILWA, discusses the roller coaster of promoting a novella, blurbs, professional jealousy, & forging writerly connections.
I know you’re here for the interview—you’re going to love it—but I wanted to make sure you also knew about these exciting giveaways I’ve got going for subscribers: bookstore gift cards, free consults with me, and other sweet swag. Subscribe (also for free!) by 11/1 to enter!
Welcome back to Book Marketing Now, a monthly feature of Books, Marketing, & More featuring interviews with writers on their marketing and publishing journey as they release their books into the current market. Other past interviews and insights here!
I loved this gorgeous book about blood magic, chosen family and refugees in a hostile city. Naseem Jamnia has created a rich, complex world in a very short space, and I am so into it. —Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky
I first encountered Naseem Jamnia’s work when we met in an online writing community and did a manuscript exchange back in 2017. Even then, their writing was smart and luscious, sharp and moving, with characters that still simmer in the back of my mind. With The Bruising of Qilwa, a queer-normative, Persian-inspired novella, Naseem is breaking full-force onto fantasy shelves… and this story is just the beginning.
We got a chance to catch up on what their launch season has been like, the complexities of promoting a novella, how it can be good to have low expectations (and a swag budget, if you can swing it), plus the need to give yourself some grace when it comes to professional jealousy and the emotional demands of marketing.
If you too want a chance to catch up with Naseem Jamnia, they have a number of events coming up with other Tachyon authors, including a virtual queer fantasy author talk with RB Lemberg on November 8th. The audiobook releases that same day!
How did your pitch or marketing change between when you pitched to your agent and editor, versus when you're pitching it to your readers?
It has changed a lot. For one thing, we didn’t realize that we didn’t say on any of the initial marketing materials that this novella was part of a larger, secondary world I’m writing in. So the very early reviews said things like “the world building feels thin” or “it’s not long enough to capture everything that’s in the book.” We hadn’t told anyone that this is part of a larger world! No wonder people were confused.
So we very quickly had to stick it on everything. It’s not on the back of the book, but it’s one of the first things I say in my marketing: this is introducing my queer-normative, Persian-inspired world.
Also, Tachyon thought advertising it as a novella would not necessarily be a draw. It moved from this “debut fantasy novella” to “this debut fantasy.” The problem is that people pick it up thinking it’s a novel. It’s 40,000 words. This is a novella. You’re not gonna get a novel's worth of material in here. So when people say “Oh, it needed more room,” it’s because it’s a novella, not a novel.
It’s a whole craft discussion as to what a project needs space for. I have this larger concept of the secondary world that nobody else has. So I have to remind myself to give people grace, that they don't have this larger context. So that's another thing that I’ve been doing: helping my readers understand what they’re getting into.
We also changed the title fairly early. I love this title now, this was not a problem, but we sold it under a title that Tachyon said sounded too non-fiction.
Talk about making sure your readers know what they’re getting! What was the original title?
The original title was The Last Free Clinic in Qilwa… because the story is about the last free clinic that’s in the city state of Qilwa. If there had been a subtitle, I would totally understand why someone would think this title was non-fiction. I get it. I think my husband was the one that eventually suggested The Bruising of Qilwa.
I'm curious why, if you had a say, did you choose to publish your novella first, rather than a novel or short stories in this world?
I originally wrote the novella as a short story exercise actually, and then realized it wasn’t a short story. So I decided to go ahead and expand it; I thought, well, novellas have been selling and we’ve been on submission with my goddamn middle grade for four years and have not been able to sell that. Maybe I could finally sell one of my books.
Now it’s become a way to open up the doors into the larger world. The novella is third person past tense, it’s chronological, very straightforward. It’s more digestible than the more structurally ambitious duology I’m working on.
Because the immediate story that I have next in this world is very difficult to pitch and will be difficult to sell, but I think it’s going to be much easier to sell now. Now we can pitch it because we have a story that’s done well. So, it ended up being a blessing in disguise.
I talk a lot in my classes about borrowing other people's audience. It sounds like that's something you've really found useful for your events. Have you found it useful in other marketing areas as well?
Say what you will about comp titles, but it’s useful to say “if you like this, then you'll like my work.” If you like Shannon Chakraborty’s work, you’ll probably like my work, because it’s also a Persian-based society. If you like the Birdverse or the Tensorate series for its queer-normative views, guess what? This is also queer-normative! And then when an author has also talked about me or has blurbed me, it lends even more credibility.
I'd love to know a little bit more about that blurbing process. People ask: Are blurbs worth it? How do you ask people for blurbs? What do you do if they don't get back to you? Does your publisher handle blurbs or do you handle blurbs? I would love to hear about your journey with that. Especially getting such like big names in the genre.
I think blurbs are worth it. If I see an author I admire blurb a book, I know I will likely pick up that book. And if nothing else, they make you, the author, feel better. There’s so much stress around publishing, it’s really nice to realize hey, this person was willing to put their name on my book.
I asked my publicist to take care of all the reaching out for blurbs because I respect that people are busy. They’re not going to necessarily want to do it and it’s easier for them to say no to a publicist, instead of feeling obligated to say yes because they know me. So, my publicist reached out to a few people they had ties to, like Sam J. Miller, who blurbed it and had a short story collection come out this year with Tachyon.
I also gave them a list of people I’ve connected with on social media who have been very friendly and supportive, hoping the publicist could figure out if any of those authors would be willing to blurb it. I didn’t want to ask myself because I didn’t want them to tell me no to my face.
I was really, really lucky that these big name authors said yes. I think it helps to have people who either write similar stuff to what you do or are into it. Charlie Jane Anders’ stuff is way more sci-fi, but she jived with the queer-normative stuff and she loved that it is focusing on a healer.
“So much of it is out of my control. But what I can do is decide: what do I like doing?”
How did the pandemic affect your marketing in terms of reception or expectations?
The interesting thing is that this is technically a plague book. The plague is very much a backdrop but still, anytime I do anything, I definitely give that disclaimer because I know people are tired.
And I came into launch season with very low expectations. Tachyon is a small press. I’m a debut author, debuting a novella, so I expected nobody to show to any of my events and only my friends and family to maybe pick up the book. And that’s been helpful actually, to have that kind of low expectations because my last New York event was just me, my agent, the booksellers, and the person I was in conversation with.
So much of it is out of my control. But what I can do is decide, ok, what do I like doing?
I love doing events. The pandemic has allowed me to do more virtual events than I would've otherwise. They're just so much easier. People from anywhere can tune in. I’m burnt out on them right now because I just did a gazillion, but I love being in conversation with other authors and talking about their works. With another author, it’s a lot easier to hype an event because then I can say “Don’t you want to see this amazing other author?”
I feel like that segues really nicely into this idea of networking. Just in this conversation, you've talked about how you've connected with other authors, whether it's through blurbs, events, or the subject matter in your books. What’s your perspective on networking, either in terms of events, conferences and residencies, or within the genre?
Networking is such a dreaded thing, right? Especially when so many of us are introverted.
It's got this really smarmy feel to it sometimes! But it's so critical for writers. Just like how you were talking about blurbs, it may not all come down to who you know, but that helps a whole lot.
Yeah, it does. Especially because so many books are constantly being published and 90% of us are mid list authors. Very few of us are lead titles or get big. The best way that I’ve found to approach networking is being excited about other people’s work and making connections, as opposed to networking with this Capital N. That’s made a big difference. I haven’t met a single author, no matter how big they’ve gotten, that hasn’t appreciated someone saying Oh my God, I loved your work.
Conferences are a good space to meet people who are at the same stage in your publishing journey.
How do you find other writers and people in the same stage as you at a conference?
Panels tend to be a good space for that. If you go to a querying panel, chance are, everyone in the room is also at the querying stage. So, if someone asks a good question, you can go up to them later and say Hey, that was a cool question and start a conversation. If you see a panelist who’s doing great stuff, absolutely tell them. Try to make that connection. If you’re excited about them, they’ll be excited about you. I know I certainly try to be excited and grateful when people approach me. I also want to encourage other writers and help them how I can. I definitely believe in the idea of pulling up people behind us.
A lot of conferences also have meet-ups for queer writers or black writers and so forth. I think going to those are great because then you’re around other writers in a shared identity space and you can make connections based on that. Like you know “this is a space for us.”
I'm definitely of the mentality that helping other writers is going to help you in the long run. But it can be hard to see other writers succeed when one’s encountered setbacks. How do you try to balance this?
It can be hard not to feel professional jealousy, I feel it all the time. The way I talk myself through it is to recognize that I am feeling professional jealousy, but I can still be enthusiastic and show up for the author.
It’s okay to be frustrated that your path looks different, but it really is your path. It’s your path and that’s it. You can’t compare it to everyone else’s because everyone’s got their own path. Which is really hard because you hear stories, once a book gets to publishers, where they say “We already have our Black book for the year” or other coded language that’s really frustrating. But that has nothing to do with the other author. That has everything to do with the machine, the industry itself. So I redirect my frustrations and remind myself: this is a publishing problem. This is not the other author’s problem. I’m going to be happy for them and support their success.
Professional jealousy is real. It’s totally fair. And there’s a way to redirect those energies so that you don't then come toxic and embroiled in it.
That’s so on point. I imagine those systemic issues become especially clear for launching authors who may be part of that 90% not getting the big marketing dollars.
Authors are being asked to do so much of their own marketing now. I’ve come to realize that I really lucked out with Tachyon’s publicity being so focused on me for the few months leading up to launch. But that doesn't mean I didn’t pay out of pocket.
I hired Andrea Guevara to help me with my brand management because I didn’t know what I was doing! She was a godsend, showing me the things I needed to spend my energy on, what my presence looked like online. That was money I was able to spend. And I’ve spent probably about a thousand dollars on swag. I just ordered a third set of enamel pins. I’ve ordered three sets of bookmarks, got 300 stickers… I was expecting to pay for all of that. Even for traditional publishing, it’s nice if you have some discretionary funds to be able to do marketing. But not everyone has that.
I have been nose to the grindstone just on marketing for the three, four months leading up to the book launch. That’s something I was lucky and able to do because I get to do this full time.
What is one actionable piece of advice you’d like to give to authors who are just starting to think about marketing themselves as writers?
Don’t do things you’re not willing to do, especially when it comes to social media. If you don’t want to learn TikTok, don’t learn TikTok. Don’t force yourself to do the things because you think that’s what’s going to move the needle. You’re just going to burn out. If you love podcast interviews, do a bunch of podcast interviews. Do the things you enjoy. It’s okay to be honest with yourself about what you are and aren’t willing to do.
Finally, what tea has gotten you through your launch?
Oh that’s such a good question! I have a very basic tea that I drink called English Tea No. 1 from Ahmed Teas. It’s my go-to morning tea. I always love it.
Also Lady Gray’s Kitchen, on Etsy! She does fandom-inspired teas. My best friend got me one of her Dragon Age teas and a Fire Emblem Three House tea. Those are the ones that really got me through a lot. I’m almost out, I need to order more blends!
To order The Bruising of Qilwa:
Bookshop.org | B&N | Indiebound | Sundance Books & Music (signed!) | Audio (on 11/8!)
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Naseem Jamnia (they/them) is a Persian-Chicagoan, former scientist, and author of The Bruising of Qilwa. Theyv’e received fellowships from Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, and Otherwise, and were named the inaugural Samuel R. Delany Fellow. They are also the managing editor at Sword & Kettle Press. Find out at more at www.naseemwrites.com or on Twitter/Instagram @jamsternazzy.
Support Naseem Jamnia and other authors publishing in these here pandemic times by following, reposting, sharing, reviewing, requesting, and/or reading their books (and buying when you can)!
Happy reading & writing!
~Allison
Writer & Marketing Coach
Keep Writing, Keep Connecting! Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter | Website
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Allison Pottern Hoch has happily made books her life’s work. She spent four years marketing and publicizing academic titles at The MIT Press before she went to work for Wellesley Books as a children’s bookseller and event coordinator. She is now living her dream: putting her B.A. in Creative Writing to good use as a novelist and as a writing/marketing coach for authors. She enjoys science fiction, cupcakes, and a hot cup of tea.