Hearing Ghosts - Choosing Music to Mirror Your Words
Jamieson Villeneuve
November 04, 2007
Someone asked me the other day why I created a soundtrack for my dark children's novel The Ghost Mirror. Novels don't have soundtracks, do they? How would you even think of creating a soundtrack to a novel?
Well, those are all very good questions. But, in order to answer the question correctly, you should know how everything came about.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to have my dark children’s novel The Ghost Mirror accepted for publication by e Treasures Publishing. You can imagine how excited I was to have my novel accepted. I danced around my apartment for days before something dawned on me: how would I promote the novel?
E Treasures Publishing is a small publishing house. While they’re fantastic, promotion of the novel is left up to the author. How would I, a greenhorn in the publishing world, go about promoting my book to the masses?
The Ghost Mirror is available in paperback and is on Amazon which is all fine and good; but one problem persists: How would I go about promoting my novel when readers
wouldn't be able to find it in a regular book store?
A good friend told me that in order to get my name and book noticed I would have to have a web site and a blog. Excellent idea. Did that, what next? I tried to think of ways to promote my novel beyond my web site and my blog. What else was there to do?
As it turned out: plenty. I have a MySpace page, a wet paint wiki, a blog for The Ghost Mirror. I've sent Mave on character interviews on other blogs, went on virtual book tours, and entered The Ghost Mirror in The EPPIE's. I've done three different book trailers for The Ghost Mirrors and each of them is available on YouTube.
But that's not all. I've done many interviews, written articles about the writing of The Ghost Mirror for The American Chronicle. I've even put together a promotional E Book that has collected these articles that's available for free download on The Ghost Mirror blog. I've done press releases, giveaways, contests. I've done author signings, readings and appeared at business expos.
All to promote my dark little novel.
But, recently, I found myself at a standstill. What else was there to do? How else could I promote The Ghost Mirror? It's been selling well and having the book on Amazon is helping; but what else was there for me to do to promote? Surely I haven't done everything?
I wracked my brain to think of something that I hadn't done, something that was new, different. Something that nobody else had done before. I was growing frustrated with myself. I was creative, wasn't I? I was a writer? I should be able to think of a fresh, new idea. Instead, I was inspired by someone else.
I was searching my bookshelf for something to read when my eyes fell upon the spine of a book called The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel. For those of you who don't know, Laura Esquivel wrote the amazing novel Like Water for Chocolate. She has remained a favorite author of mine for years and I have everything she's written.
The Law of Love is different, though. It was the first multi-media novel ever released. There were portions of written text and portions that were drawn by a graphic novel artist. A CD came with the novel and, when prompted, you were to play the music to coincide with the graphic novel portions of the book.
It's an ingenious novel with incredible music and a wonderful story. All that being said, what does it have to do with a soundtrack to The Ghost Mirror?
It has everything to do with it. I stood there holding The Law of Love in my hands. I wasn't thinking of the graphic novel portions or the story. I was thinking about the CD. Esquivel had chosen tracks to be played for certain portions of the novel. In this way she hoped that readers would be drawn into the story, become more involved. More enchanted.
While I can't claim to have Esquivel's genius, a thought did occur to me: What if I were to create a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror? Something a reader could listen to while reading my dark tale to get them in the right mood. Something to make the reading experience go beyond the book.
And so I started searching for music. I knew I couldn't make my own music but I also knew that I couldn't take someone else's and that the music had to be copyright free. I used a site called Free Play Music (www.freeplaymusic.com) that has only royalty free songs and tracks.
I knew what the music sounded like in my head but could I find enough music to fill a CD? As it turned out, I did. I found fourteen tracks that I liked and named each for each of the chapters in the novel. I tried to find music that would match the urgency of some chapters and the calmness of others.
In short, I wanted to find a balance between the songs but still retain that creepy feeling. I think I have succeeded. But you can decide for yourself. Hop on over to The Ghost Mirror Blog at www.theghostmirror.blogspot.com where the soundtrack if available for free download. Then you can play it on your computer as you read the e book or burn a CD for your stereo to play as you read the paperback.
But wait, I hear you saying. You didn't answer the questions. Why did you create a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror? Well, I guess the answer to that is this: Because I could. Because I wanted to do something different to promote the book and give something back to people who have read it or are about to read it.
Now, don't worry, I didn't forget the second question. Novels don't have soundtracks, do they? Well, sure they do. I know many authors who list songs on their web sites for soundtracks to their novels. I just took it a step further and actually made one along with the cover art.
I think that's it. Oh, right, the last question: How would you even think of creating a soundtrack to a novel? Well, if you need me to answer that, I don't think you read closely enough.
Essentially, the soundtrack is all about promotion. But it's about more than that. It's about creating an atmosphere, creating a setting that the reader can lose themselves in. In creating a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror, I've created a new reading experience that I hope will haunt readers.
I hope that the soundtrack, the music I've selected, will help keep the words I've written, and the story that unfolds, fresh in their minds. I hope that I've created something that brings my words alive. In short, I can only hope I've created something magical.
But only you can be the judge of that.
Well, those are all very good questions. But, in order to answer the question correctly, you should know how everything came about.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to have my dark children’s novel The Ghost Mirror accepted for publication by e Treasures Publishing. You can imagine how excited I was to have my novel accepted. I danced around my apartment for days before something dawned on me: how would I promote the novel?
E Treasures Publishing is a small publishing house. While they’re fantastic, promotion of the novel is left up to the author. How would I, a greenhorn in the publishing world, go about promoting my book to the masses?
The Ghost Mirror is available in paperback and is on Amazon which is all fine and good; but one problem persists: How would I go about promoting my novel when readers
wouldn't be able to find it in a regular book store?
A good friend told me that in order to get my name and book noticed I would have to have a web site and a blog. Excellent idea. Did that, what next? I tried to think of ways to promote my novel beyond my web site and my blog. What else was there to do?
As it turned out: plenty. I have a MySpace page, a wet paint wiki, a blog for The Ghost Mirror. I've sent Mave on character interviews on other blogs, went on virtual book tours, and entered The Ghost Mirror in The EPPIE's. I've done three different book trailers for The Ghost Mirrors and each of them is available on YouTube.
But that's not all. I've done many interviews, written articles about the writing of The Ghost Mirror for The American Chronicle. I've even put together a promotional E Book that has collected these articles that's available for free download on The Ghost Mirror blog. I've done press releases, giveaways, contests. I've done author signings, readings and appeared at business expos.
All to promote my dark little novel.
But, recently, I found myself at a standstill. What else was there to do? How else could I promote The Ghost Mirror? It's been selling well and having the book on Amazon is helping; but what else was there for me to do to promote? Surely I haven't done everything?
I wracked my brain to think of something that I hadn't done, something that was new, different. Something that nobody else had done before. I was growing frustrated with myself. I was creative, wasn't I? I was a writer? I should be able to think of a fresh, new idea. Instead, I was inspired by someone else.
I was searching my bookshelf for something to read when my eyes fell upon the spine of a book called The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel. For those of you who don't know, Laura Esquivel wrote the amazing novel Like Water for Chocolate. She has remained a favorite author of mine for years and I have everything she's written.
The Law of Love is different, though. It was the first multi-media novel ever released. There were portions of written text and portions that were drawn by a graphic novel artist. A CD came with the novel and, when prompted, you were to play the music to coincide with the graphic novel portions of the book.
It's an ingenious novel with incredible music and a wonderful story. All that being said, what does it have to do with a soundtrack to The Ghost Mirror?
It has everything to do with it. I stood there holding The Law of Love in my hands. I wasn't thinking of the graphic novel portions or the story. I was thinking about the CD. Esquivel had chosen tracks to be played for certain portions of the novel. In this way she hoped that readers would be drawn into the story, become more involved. More enchanted.
While I can't claim to have Esquivel's genius, a thought did occur to me: What if I were to create a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror? Something a reader could listen to while reading my dark tale to get them in the right mood. Something to make the reading experience go beyond the book.
And so I started searching for music. I knew I couldn't make my own music but I also knew that I couldn't take someone else's and that the music had to be copyright free. I used a site called Free Play Music (www.freeplaymusic.com) that has only royalty free songs and tracks.
I knew what the music sounded like in my head but could I find enough music to fill a CD? As it turned out, I did. I found fourteen tracks that I liked and named each for each of the chapters in the novel. I tried to find music that would match the urgency of some chapters and the calmness of others.
In short, I wanted to find a balance between the songs but still retain that creepy feeling. I think I have succeeded. But you can decide for yourself. Hop on over to The Ghost Mirror Blog at www.theghostmirror.blogspot.com where the soundtrack if available for free download. Then you can play it on your computer as you read the e book or burn a CD for your stereo to play as you read the paperback.
But wait, I hear you saying. You didn't answer the questions. Why did you create a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror? Well, I guess the answer to that is this: Because I could. Because I wanted to do something different to promote the book and give something back to people who have read it or are about to read it.
Now, don't worry, I didn't forget the second question. Novels don't have soundtracks, do they? Well, sure they do. I know many authors who list songs on their web sites for soundtracks to their novels. I just took it a step further and actually made one along with the cover art.
I think that's it. Oh, right, the last question: How would you even think of creating a soundtrack to a novel? Well, if you need me to answer that, I don't think you read closely enough.
Essentially, the soundtrack is all about promotion. But it's about more than that. It's about creating an atmosphere, creating a setting that the reader can lose themselves in. In creating a soundtrack for The Ghost Mirror, I've created a new reading experience that I hope will haunt readers.
I hope that the soundtrack, the music I've selected, will help keep the words I've written, and the story that unfolds, fresh in their minds. I hope that I've created something that brings my words alive. In short, I can only hope I've created something magical.
But only you can be the judge of that.
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