Novelists are learning to be marketers. We Twitter, and blog, and send out e-newsletters. But branding is a little illusive. It goes hand in hand with platform, a concept that’s also a little squishy for novelists. Still, the branding basics can be tweaked and put to use for book promotion. Here are the fundamentals, which I made note of long ago.
My second standalone thriller is now on Kindle and I’m celebrating by giving away some e-books. THE BABY THIEF is a unique and complex story in which fertility science collides with an isolated cult when two different women decide to have a child.
Enter to win one of five free copies by e-mailing me with
I have a big book launch weekend coming up, and I feel a little panicked. So I’m mapping it all out here just to feel like I have everything under control. I’m really looking forward to these events, and I hope you’ll join me.
Friday morning: Get up 5 a.m. so I can workout and be at KUGN radio station by 7:30 a.m. I have a live interview
I’m finally retiring the weekly giveaway of a print version of THE SEX CLUB—after two years and lots of money spent at the post office. I sent copies as far as Portugal! Instead, I’m starting a weekly e-book giveaway of my new standalone thriller, THE SUICIDE EFFECT. You can enter today by simply e-mailing me with the words Win: The Suicide Effect in the subject line.
I taught my first workshop on Sunday at the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland. And actually got paid. My first paid gig as a speaker! It’s a small thing, yet I feel like I’ve hit a new level as a writer. How it will translate into future success remains to be seen. I got terrific feedback on the workshop, titled Your First Draft Doesn’t Have to Suck and based on blogs I’ve posted
I finally took the plunge! Many traditionally published authors have self-published their backlist titles and/or unsold manuscripts as e-books, and now I’ve joined them in this exciting venture. Why not?
Before I started writing the Detective Jackson series, I wrote several standalone thrillers,
The book Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation has caught my attention. It may have been written as an analysis of marketing techniques that build brands, but as a crime fiction author, I’m taking note. I want my novels to fascinate readers, so I’m keeping this list on hand as I craft my next story. Here are the seven triggers that draw people in:
Have you set aside a novel in progress because it was just too hard to write at that point in time? I just did. The futuristic thriller is on hold and I’m back to working on the fifth book in my Detective Jackson series. I feel so relieved. I still plan to write THE ARRANGER (set in 2023), but I’m not in the right space to do it now.
It’s hard for me to admit something is too challenging, but that’s the truth of this situation. Because I’m still a full-time freelance editor,
Today’s my birthday and what better way to celebrate than to give something away? I have two advanced review copies of THRILLED TO DEATH, my third Detective Jackson novel, to offer. Here’s the back cover copy:
Monday morning, a young mother disappears after a doctor’s appointment. Monday evening, a young socialite leaves a risqué lounge and never makes it home.
Laura Miller, founder of Salon, asks: “How do you find something good to read in a brave new self-published world?” She writes about the horrors of the slush pile and wonders how readers will fare if traditional publishers stop functioning as gatekeepers. She points out that gatekeepers are necessary to steer readers away from the “all the dreck.” Bloggers—who read and review a much wider variety of books than Library Journal or Publishers Weekly—are already doing this to a certain degree.
The highs and lows of book selling can give you whiplash. One minute a reader says, “Your series looks terrific, I’ll take all three” and your heart swells with happiness. An hour later, it’s pouring rain, you haven’t sold a book in an hour, and you start to wonder if it’s worth. And by it, I mean the whole novel writing experience. Because novel writing and selling books are intrinsically linked.
CJ West and I both explore social issues in our novels, but often from different ends of the political spectrum. CJ is launching The End of Marking Time, a novel that follows Michael O’Connor as he pleads to a futuristic jury to spare his life. The book is a fascinating look at how the penal system might operate in the future. So we thought it would be fun (crazy) to hold a forum on capital punishment and our penal system. A homicide detective joins us anonymously and gives his perspective.
For readers looking for reviews or new-book news, or writers seeking bloggers who might want a review copy, here’s some serious book bloggers who attended the first Book Blogger Convention in New York last month:
There’s been a lot of industry news lately, but some game changing developments that caught my eye were buried in a report under Joe Konrath’s deal with AmazonEncore. In a nutshell: Agents and bookstore are becoming publishers.
Scott Waxman, of Waxman Literary, has created Diversion Books,
Tip of the Week: Be ready for an encounter with the media. I read this tip recently and decided to act on it. So I made up some disks that include:
One-star protest. The Kindle reader practice of giving a book a one-star Amazon review to protest the price is bullshit. It’s like stiffing a waiter or complaining about the service because you’re pissed about the cost of your meal or the restaurant’s policies. It punishes the wrong people. If you don’t like the price, don’t buy the book. Stop hurling tomatoes at the author.
I’ve had a terrific couple of weeks as upcoming writer, and I have to make note of the positive things because there can be many setbacks in between. Here’s my feel-good news.
My editor is tired of my use of the words moved and stepped, so she sent a list of alternatives and I keep adding to it. I keep this list handy when I’m working on a novel, and my writing tip today is to share this lovely list with you.
strode, walked, lurched, ran, scurried, bustled, rushed,
Two recent reads and a surprising blog on POV have made me think about perspective in novels. I’m a POV purist. I write from one character at a time, with no peeks into the future. I prefer that style as a reader too. I bond with characters when I see the world only through their eyes.
Head hopping drives me crazy. So do phrases like Mike didn’t notice the man with gun. (Are you sure? Because I thought Mike was telling this story and he seems to know about him.)
I just joined a group on Goodreads called 50 Books a Year, and I’m excited about the challenge. I got going late for 2010, so my comparable goal is to read a book a week for the rest of the year. For most people, I’m sure that sounds easy. I used to read that much fiction all the time. My son’s first sentence was “Book down, Mom.”
Then I started writing novels and something had to give.
In my last post for Detectives Around the World, I present Sergeant Detective Emmanuel Cooper of South Africa. I met him in the novel A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn, set in the 1950s right after the apartheid laws were enacted. I read this book for a discussion group called 4 Mystery Addicts, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Robert Fate, author of the Baby Shark series, added writer to his long list of careers and accomplishments rather late in the day, but it hasn’t slowed him down. He has four Baby Shark books published: BABY SHARK, BEAUMONT BLUES, HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION, and JUGGLERS AT THE BORDER.
Kristin van Dijk, aka Baby Shark, is unlike any private investigator you’ve ever met. A young woman in a male-dominated, 1950s rural Texas setting, she’s a pool hustler and highly trained fighter/gunslinger. What she lacks in experience, she makes up for in nerve. Raped, beaten, and left for dead at the age of 17, Kristin remakes herself in a quest for vengeance. Tracking the men who attacked her, she
Marketers say consumers need to see/hear your name or product seven times before they decide to buy. Thus we have branding. Getting the name out there, over and over again. Authors should pay attention to this. If you use variations of your name on different social networking sites just for fun, you’re not making the most of branding. True story about a friend of mine:
Is the focus of the novel revealed early? This question is at the top of contract evaluations I do for a publisher. Most of the time, I check No. Writers often move slowly in the beginning. They set up backstory and craft detailed irrelevant scenes. Two chapters later, I still don’t know what the premise is. The best stories jump right in and reveal what the character wants and/or what the character is up against to get what he wants.
Revealing the focus can be indirect.
Not sure if you should put quote marks around something? Is it dialogue or a direct quote? If not, forget the quote marks. They are most overused form of punctuation. Quote is short for quotation, so quote marks should be used only to set off a quotation in nonfiction. If you’re writing a novel and using quote marks for anything but dialogue—take them out.
Writers like to use quote marks around words they consider special. Old school editors call them scare quotes, a way of alerting readers
I had a great time at LCC and reconnected with many people I’ve grown fond of. I also met new writers as well as some Facebook and Twitter friends (Holly West, Marlyn Beebe) for the first time too. I know I gained a few readers because they told me so in person. Love that! I got to know Teresa Burrell and Rachel Brady better, both terrific women. And I had dinner with a group that included Meg Gardiner, who is friendly and fun.
Writing book club discussion questions is something writers put off and sometimes never get around to. But readers like them, so you might as well get it done. I’ve recently written some, and it’s not as tough as it seems. Here are some guidelines to help you get started.
Ambiguity. If your novel leaves anything up in the air as to what really happened, this makes for a great question. Readers love to determine the how and why of ambiguous events.
An editing job I completed recently for a satisfied client (and a layoff ☺) made me rethink my approach. Essentially, I’ve cut my rate in half with the idea that most writers can’t afford an extensive service—they simply want to catch all the typos, misused words, and inconsistencies before they submit anywhere.
Tips for Busy Writers: What better way to start every Monday than by learning a great tip for managing a busy life?
I use the monthly calendar function in my Entourage e-mail program to track my personal schedule, and I print out a few months at a time and carry the pages with me. This neat trick serves two functions:
I’m a free agent again. In other words, I’ve been laid off my part-time newspaper job. The weirdest thing? I received an unemployment debit card from the state last week. I laughed and twittered: “Do they know something I don’t?” I guess they did. The hardest thing? Walking away from a terrific group of people I’ve come to really enjoy and count on for emotional and intellectual interaction.
In April, about 30 bloggers will each host a detective, and readers will learn about cops, agents, and PIs from all corners of the earth. My blog will feature Kristin Van Dijk, aka Baby Shark, a fascinating and kickass young woman. The series is written by the talented and charming Robert Fate who has lived a most interesting life.
I’m still working through the rewrite on my forth novel and finding self-editing tips to share.
1. Get rid of the word that. In my last post, I wrote a sentence like this: If a guy in a driveway points at tires, readers will assume that you mean on the car. I went back and took out that. The sentence reads better without it. Sometimes the word will be needed for clarity but not often.
I’m fine-tuning the novel I just finished, and these are some of the edits I’m making. They can help you as you write or edit your own novel.
1. Get rid of unnecessary prepositional phrases. When you read back through your manuscript, watch for phrases like on the table, toward the door, near the wall. These phrases bog down your writing and often add little to a description. Readers can make a lot of assumptions. If two guys are standing in the driveway talking and one points at the tires, readers
Thanks everyone for suggesting such intriguing characters names for my futuristic thriller. My husband now has a crush on one of the winners because her suggestions are so creatively awesome! After much consideration, the winning selections are:
Male, bureaucrat: Sherman Dogg, submitted by Rose
Female paramedic: DeTerra Celeste Stibbins submitted by C. Lyncia Wright-Harris. Ms. Harris also submitted Adulan Dominic Masters, but
I’ve had so much great feedback on SECRETS TO DIE FOR I’ve decided to give away a few more copies. This time you have to earn it by coming up with a great name for one of the characters in my next novel, which I’ve just started outlining. Here’s what I know about the characters so far:
I love the Top & Bottoms lists created at the end of every year by the 4 Mystery Addicts book discussion group. The sheer diversity of favorite books is heartening. (I always make somebody’s list 
But I’m more intrigued by the books that make both lists: favorites and least favorites. It reminds me again that every reading experience is subjective and that readers bring their own perceptions and experiences to what they read. A whooping 31 books were listed this year both as someone’s
Just have to say that lately I’m having a blast. Much of it has to do with my newspaper job. In the last few months, I’ve interviewed cartoonist Jan Eliot, a professor of film studies who discussed great women movie characters (blog coming soon!), a 77-year-old woman doing standup with a very naughty routine, and a female weightlifting champion, to name a few. As a novelist, I’ve been privileged to interview a SWAT team
No matter how efficient I work, I still have this growing list of things I want to read/learn/get better at that I never seem find time for. Maybe in 2010…
A few things I have not yet learned to do:
Writers have always exchanged high-praise blurbs with each other (with the most famous example being the writer who blurbed himself using one of his pseudonyms). But lately I’ve been exploring other types of promotional swaps that are less direct, but also effective. For example, a group of us who have been networking through a Yahoo group recently paired off to post articles about each other on Wikipedia.
Simon & Schuster is the newest publisher to offer digital ARCs (advanced review copies) directly to reviewers, media, bloggers, journalists, librarians, and booksellers. So far, the galleys are available by e-mail invitation only, but early-readers can register with Galley Grab for consideration. I expect more publishers will follow. Others, such as Clarkson Potter, a Random House imprint, have already been experimenting with e-galleys.
And the winner is…Carol M who “loves mysteries.” Congratulations! E-mail me with your address. Thank you, everyone, for participating and for the supportive comments. If you’re curious how authors randomly pick a name from a bunch of blog comments and e-mails, here’s how I do it: I copy and past all the comments into a Word document, then print it, then cut the comments into equal-size strips and fold them into squares. I put all the entrants into a bowl and let my husband draw one.
A brutal murder, a suspect with a strange story, a missing woman with secrets to hide, and a detective who won’t give up— SECRETS TO DIE FOR. Win the second book in the Detective Jackson series just by posting a comment or sending an e-mail.
I try to practice being grateful every day, but it’s important to put it into words sometimes. Today, these are some of the things I’m grateful for.
It is serendipitous that I became aware of the National Federation of the Blind’s complaints against Kindle just days after deciding to make my novels more accessible to visually impaired readers. NFB is filing a lawsuit claiming that Kindle’s lack of a voice menu makes the device impossible for blind people to use. Several universities are supporting NFB by boycotting the product as a replacement for text books until Kindle makes the e-reader more accessible to the visually impaired.
I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month for the first time. To hit the goal, I need 1667 words a day for 30 days. Right! But I’m in it for the motivation to write as much as I can every day for a month and finish the draft of my novel in progress. Today I rewrote a scene because it was wrong, losing some words in the process. Tomorrow I’ll interview a SWAT leader, then rewrite the scene again. Both rewrites will be a setback to my NaNo word count, but they’ll bring me closer to my goal of a finished
Characters everywhere! You can run into the most interesting people just cruising around, but as newspaper writer, I get sent to interview them. It’s wonderful! One day last week, for example, I interviewed Omer and Dave Orian, red-afro-sporting Israeli brothers who operate Off the Waffle out of their home (and a cart near the UO). “Obsessed with waffles” is how Dave describes them and their business, which has a very loyal following. (You have to click through for the photos!)
Readers care more about gender than I realized. Recent mystery forum discussions revealed some startling proclivities: Some women read only male writers. Other women often avoid female writers and protagonists because they fear they’ll fit into certain stereotypes. As a novelist, all of this concerns me. Especially considering four of the top five current fiction authors on the New York Times bestseller list are men, and that Oprah
Last night a tall man with a British accent joined our group at the bar while I was in the rest room. When I got back, I said, “I didn’t catch your name.” He shook my hand and said, “Lee Child.” I was surprised, delighted, and embarrassed that I didn’t recognize him. He gave us this great advice: “The most important thing you can do as a writer is to focus on the quality of the second book.”
Loving every moment of this conference. Click “Read More” to see some photos.
