I'm sure all of you have thought about volunteering for Sisters in Crime. I have a great opportunity for you to join in and improve Books in Print.
As most of you know, Sisters in Crime had a difficult time this year making the transition from collecting data by hand for Books in Print to collecting data on the web site. For 15 years one person, currently Vicki Cameron, collected the data, edited the data, answered 3,000 e-mail per edition and worked endless hours. In this day and age the organization can't afford these old school ways. Vicki did get a paycheck which probably amounted to under a dollar an hour. For one year we notified author members to visit the web site and list their books as we were going to take the paper version from the web site in 2008. Many did not and many were frustrated with the process. And then to top it all off we had glitches which deleted some listings and altered others.
Some of our members need your help!
Please e-mail me at sistersincrime@juno.com and volunteer to help the authors who can't navigate the process of listing their books on the web site. If I'm lucky, I will hear from 3-4 of you who have patience and computer knowledge to "walk" these members through the process. Once I have a group of you in place we will all discuss the procedure. I would like to ask one of you to step up and be the chair of this group and set up procedures for the group.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Beth Wasson
Exec. Secretary,
Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124,
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-1325, fax 785-856-6314
sistersincrime@juno.com
web site www.sistersincrime.org
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
The Pursuit of Excellence
Sixteen years ago I set out to become a published novelist. During that year I took it upon myself to outline and write my very first book. After finishing the first draft I went through and re-wrote it before holding my breath and handing it to a few trusted readers. One reader, especially, who happened to be a professional proofreader, gave me lots (and lots) to think about. I re-wrote the book again. And again. And again.
After re-writing it a dozen times I began the agent search. I got such glowing rejections as:
*Thank you very much for submitting YET SHE MUST DIE. There is no doubt that you’re a real writer, and YET SHE MUST DIE is merely the first of many books. However, despite its strengths, given today’s tough fiction market, I didn’t feel quite enthusiastic enough to represent your manuscript.*
OR
*It’s a good story, nicely written, but alas, I’m afraid it just doesn’t seem right for us.* (which meant, of course, that they didn’t like it!)
And then there were those simple but heartbreaking one-liners, such as: Sorry, I’ll pass.
I persevered, rewriting and sending out queries, until I decided it was time to cut my losses and move on. While I felt good about the book, it obviously was not of a high enough quality for the market.
I wrote another novel. And another. None of these caught the lasting attention of any agent, although I continued to receive that oxymoron: the positive rejection. Somehow, that was enough to keep me going.
I spent my time writing, reading other books in the genre, and going to writers’ conferences where I made contacts, attended workshops, and learned about the business. I took what I learned and funneled every bit of it into my writing.
Finally I was able to write a book that caught the eye of both an agent and a publisher. In 2004, thirteen years after I began the attempt, I was published. And you know what? It felt great.
I look back at that first novel I wrote, and while I have sentimental feelings for it, I wonder how I ever thought it was ready to be published. While it had, as the agents noted, some things of value, it simply wouldn’t be able to compete with other books. Those agents knew what they were doing. But I refuse to be embarrassed that I sent it out. That book was a stepping-stone. A learning tool. Some might say that first not-quite-good-enough manuscript is a necessity. Because it taught me a world of lessons.
It has been a hard road, and a long one. Every writer knows the pain of rejection and the sinking feeling when those letters come back saying No.
But hopefully every writer will also feel the joy that comes with seeing her work come to fulfillment. She will know that she persevered, taking what she learned and using it to pursue excellence in her writing. And she will continue to perfect her craft – because I know I certainly never stop learning! – making her work the best it can be.
We at SinC love to hear stories of success and how the pursuit of excellence pays off. If you have a story to share, we’d love to know about it.
Judy Clemens
Vice-president, SinC
Author of the Stella Crown mysteries and LOST SONS, coming out in April
After re-writing it a dozen times I began the agent search. I got such glowing rejections as:
*Thank you very much for submitting YET SHE MUST DIE. There is no doubt that you’re a real writer, and YET SHE MUST DIE is merely the first of many books. However, despite its strengths, given today’s tough fiction market, I didn’t feel quite enthusiastic enough to represent your manuscript.*
OR
*It’s a good story, nicely written, but alas, I’m afraid it just doesn’t seem right for us.* (which meant, of course, that they didn’t like it!)
And then there were those simple but heartbreaking one-liners, such as: Sorry, I’ll pass.
I persevered, rewriting and sending out queries, until I decided it was time to cut my losses and move on. While I felt good about the book, it obviously was not of a high enough quality for the market.
I wrote another novel. And another. None of these caught the lasting attention of any agent, although I continued to receive that oxymoron: the positive rejection. Somehow, that was enough to keep me going.
I spent my time writing, reading other books in the genre, and going to writers’ conferences where I made contacts, attended workshops, and learned about the business. I took what I learned and funneled every bit of it into my writing.
Finally I was able to write a book that caught the eye of both an agent and a publisher. In 2004, thirteen years after I began the attempt, I was published. And you know what? It felt great.
I look back at that first novel I wrote, and while I have sentimental feelings for it, I wonder how I ever thought it was ready to be published. While it had, as the agents noted, some things of value, it simply wouldn’t be able to compete with other books. Those agents knew what they were doing. But I refuse to be embarrassed that I sent it out. That book was a stepping-stone. A learning tool. Some might say that first not-quite-good-enough manuscript is a necessity. Because it taught me a world of lessons.
It has been a hard road, and a long one. Every writer knows the pain of rejection and the sinking feeling when those letters come back saying No.
But hopefully every writer will also feel the joy that comes with seeing her work come to fulfillment. She will know that she persevered, taking what she learned and using it to pursue excellence in her writing. And she will continue to perfect her craft – because I know I certainly never stop learning! – making her work the best it can be.
We at SinC love to hear stories of success and how the pursuit of excellence pays off. If you have a story to share, we’d love to know about it.
Judy Clemens
Vice-president, SinC
Author of the Stella Crown mysteries and LOST SONS, coming out in April
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Changing small pieces of the world
By Donna Andrews
As I'm writing this, it's late Sunday night at the Left Coast Crime convention hotel, and I just found an email reminding me that I'm at bat tomorrow for the Sisters in Crime blog. I suspect my fellow board members are probably hoping I'll post something profound about some of the contentious topics facing the organization, but I'm juggling post-convention exhaustion, the dregs of a cold, and a touch of altitude sickness, and I'm not sure I can do justice to any weighty issues. And I'm kind of talked out about books and writing for the time being. I thought I'd talk about something else instead-- not unrelated to SinC, I hope.
A few months ago, I was listening to an interview with someone from The Hunger Project. He said that they had determined that there was no technical reason why hunger couldn't be eliminated from the world, and they set out to figure out what was keeping this from happening. And they found that the main reason was the low socioeconomic position of women--if they could find ways to change that, they could make a real impact on hunger. And that one of the most effective ways to change women's lives was through microfinance--small loans made directly to women to help them change their economic situation. The old "teach a man to fish" premise.
Made sense to me. That's why I was so excited when I discovered Kiva.org. My writer friend Toni Kelner said it best: Kiva is like eBay for charity.
You go on the Kiva site and you can see pictures of entrepreneurs--people who are asking for small loans to help them start or expand a business or make some other improvement in their lives, like repairing their houses or paying children's school fees. The working poor. When you see one that touches you--the smiling Peruvian women who wants to buy more yarn so she can pay her son's secondary school fees with her expert knitting, or perhaps the wistful nineteen-year-old single mother from Mexico who is hoping to support her toddler by starting a food stall in the market--you can click a button and put a loan of as little as $25 in your Kiva basket. When you check out, you can pay with Paypal. And when enough Kiva lenders like you have offered their $25 loans to your entrepreneur, the loan is funded.
Assuming your entrepreneur is able to make a go of it and pay the loan back—loan terms range from three months to two years--you will eventually get your money back, and can take it out of the system or reinvest it in another entrepreneur. And repayment rates are currently in the high ninety percent range, probably because Kiva has partnered in each country with a local organization that vets each entrepreneur’s business plan and keeps in close touch with them to ensure payback.
No, you don't earn interest. So the benefits aren’t direct and personal to me. But there is an intangible but very powerful payback. Today, I look at a map of the world and I see it very differently. When I look at the map of Africa, I think of my tie-dye maker in Sierra Leone, my fishseller in Benin, or the school in Togo whose classrooms I'm helping to outfit. When I hear dire news from Kenya, I think of the two determined and resourceful women there whose medical clinics I've helped to fund, and hope they are still alive and well. Other continents have also come alive for me--I've helped fund a clothing stall in the Ukraine, a flower grower in Cambodia, a kindergarten in Viet Nam, and an Internet café in Peru. I seem to have a weakness for women doing needlework of all kinds--knitters in Bosnia and Peru, embroiderers in Iraq and Mexico, tailors on three continents.
It's exciting and humbling to think that a small amount of cash--what I might spend on a nice dinner when I'm traveling--can help make a profound difference in the life of a woman at the other side of the world. And I can also hope that my efforts combined with many others can eventually help make a dent in the centuries-old socio-economic disadvantages affecting women throughout the world.
Just as I hope my participation in SinC can help end the centuries-old attitudes that devalue women’s ideas and women’s work—attitudes that force women to settle for smaller advances, smaller print runs, smaller publishers, fewer reviews, and less respect at every point in their attempts to build a career in the traditional market. And yes, I’m pretty focused on reforming the traditional market for the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks—because that’s still where the money is. And because the benefits of changes there won’t just be trickle-down but culture-changing. World-changing.
But don’t get me started on that. You’ve heard me already on the topic of "ask not what SinC can do for you, but what you can do for SinC." (Or if you haven’t, my blog on that is still available on SinC’s MySpace page: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=161917660&blogID=286242493
I'm off to see if there are any more Kiva loans that can seduce me into funding them. Did I mention that every once in a while, you get a chance to support a bookstore or a school? Not just teaching someone to fish, but how to read . . . wow!
As I'm writing this, it's late Sunday night at the Left Coast Crime convention hotel, and I just found an email reminding me that I'm at bat tomorrow for the Sisters in Crime blog. I suspect my fellow board members are probably hoping I'll post something profound about some of the contentious topics facing the organization, but I'm juggling post-convention exhaustion, the dregs of a cold, and a touch of altitude sickness, and I'm not sure I can do justice to any weighty issues. And I'm kind of talked out about books and writing for the time being. I thought I'd talk about something else instead-- not unrelated to SinC, I hope.
A few months ago, I was listening to an interview with someone from The Hunger Project. He said that they had determined that there was no technical reason why hunger couldn't be eliminated from the world, and they set out to figure out what was keeping this from happening. And they found that the main reason was the low socioeconomic position of women--if they could find ways to change that, they could make a real impact on hunger. And that one of the most effective ways to change women's lives was through microfinance--small loans made directly to women to help them change their economic situation. The old "teach a man to fish" premise.
Made sense to me. That's why I was so excited when I discovered Kiva.org. My writer friend Toni Kelner said it best: Kiva is like eBay for charity.
You go on the Kiva site and you can see pictures of entrepreneurs--people who are asking for small loans to help them start or expand a business or make some other improvement in their lives, like repairing their houses or paying children's school fees. The working poor. When you see one that touches you--the smiling Peruvian women who wants to buy more yarn so she can pay her son's secondary school fees with her expert knitting, or perhaps the wistful nineteen-year-old single mother from Mexico who is hoping to support her toddler by starting a food stall in the market--you can click a button and put a loan of as little as $25 in your Kiva basket. When you check out, you can pay with Paypal. And when enough Kiva lenders like you have offered their $25 loans to your entrepreneur, the loan is funded.
Assuming your entrepreneur is able to make a go of it and pay the loan back—loan terms range from three months to two years--you will eventually get your money back, and can take it out of the system or reinvest it in another entrepreneur. And repayment rates are currently in the high ninety percent range, probably because Kiva has partnered in each country with a local organization that vets each entrepreneur’s business plan and keeps in close touch with them to ensure payback.
No, you don't earn interest. So the benefits aren’t direct and personal to me. But there is an intangible but very powerful payback. Today, I look at a map of the world and I see it very differently. When I look at the map of Africa, I think of my tie-dye maker in Sierra Leone, my fishseller in Benin, or the school in Togo whose classrooms I'm helping to outfit. When I hear dire news from Kenya, I think of the two determined and resourceful women there whose medical clinics I've helped to fund, and hope they are still alive and well. Other continents have also come alive for me--I've helped fund a clothing stall in the Ukraine, a flower grower in Cambodia, a kindergarten in Viet Nam, and an Internet café in Peru. I seem to have a weakness for women doing needlework of all kinds--knitters in Bosnia and Peru, embroiderers in Iraq and Mexico, tailors on three continents.
It's exciting and humbling to think that a small amount of cash--what I might spend on a nice dinner when I'm traveling--can help make a profound difference in the life of a woman at the other side of the world. And I can also hope that my efforts combined with many others can eventually help make a dent in the centuries-old socio-economic disadvantages affecting women throughout the world.
Just as I hope my participation in SinC can help end the centuries-old attitudes that devalue women’s ideas and women’s work—attitudes that force women to settle for smaller advances, smaller print runs, smaller publishers, fewer reviews, and less respect at every point in their attempts to build a career in the traditional market. And yes, I’m pretty focused on reforming the traditional market for the same reason Willy Sutton robbed banks—because that’s still where the money is. And because the benefits of changes there won’t just be trickle-down but culture-changing. World-changing.
But don’t get me started on that. You’ve heard me already on the topic of "ask not what SinC can do for you, but what you can do for SinC." (Or if you haven’t, my blog on that is still available on SinC’s MySpace page: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=161917660&blogID=286242493
I'm off to see if there are any more Kiva loans that can seduce me into funding them. Did I mention that every once in a while, you get a chance to support a bookstore or a school? Not just teaching someone to fish, but how to read . . . wow!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Staying Connected
By Marcia Talley
When I still worked “outside the home” at a job in Washington, DC, we were always being asked by our supervisors to accommodate “shifting paradigms.” This usually meant that a hot-shot management guru had treated our CEO to lunch, and presumably held him hostage over double martinis, prime rib and crème brulé until he’d signed the corporation up for the latest management craze — MBO, TQM. Remember?
If you don’t, never mind. After spending millions on training and implementation, we employees usually forgot the mumbo-jumbo, too, and it was back to business as usual until the next management fad came along.
I was thinking about paradigms recently as I sat on our sailboat in a quiet anchorage in the Exuma Islands chain in the Bahamas. My husband and I have been living on Troubadour for several months. While he’s retired, I’m still trying to function as a working writer. This is something of a challenge in the islands, and a real-life test of shifting paradigms, one that has come to depend heavily, but not entirely, on the availability of an internet connection.
Before leaving the U.S., I set up everything electronically — bank accounts, bills, NY Times online, newsletters (like InSinc: save a stamp and download now from http://sistersincrime.org/newsletters/March2008InSinCNewsletterLowRes.pdf) and Skype, a free voice over internet “telephone” service that is so neato-keen that I’m amazed AT&T hasn’t bought it out simply so they could shut it down.
But all this preparation is for naught in the absence of an internet signal, so we dropped big bucks on a satellite telephone to serve as backup when we sail out of range of the wireless internet on the island settlements.
Satellites are not the panacea one might think, however, as they have the irritating habit of passing over my patch of sky, then vanishing over the horizon, taking my internet signal with them. So, I have a regular cell phone with which I make calls and send short text messages — whenever we’re in range of a Batelco tower, that is. Alas, even local residents don’t rely on the on-again, off-again telephone service. Every house and boat has a name and a VHF radio (I’ve got a hand-held strapped to my belt) and contact one another on Channel 16 — “Troubadour calling Lion’s Den, switch and answer channel six seven.”
Several weeks ago I delivered to my editor the final manuscript of the next Hannah Ives mystery, Dead Man Dancing, while anchored behind Leaf Cay, a tiny island occupied only by iguanas, some as big as dogs. I think it was the writer Annie Lamott who said there are only two prayers — “Please, please, please” and “thank you, thank you, thank you” — so as the file began to upload to whatever satellite was currently passing over, I began reciting the first prayer until (after three attempts) the large file went through and I could recite, with feeling, the second.
Can you tell I’m enchanted by the islands?
In fact, I hope to set my next mystery down here, and have been hanging out gathering atmosphere and background at Norman’s Cay, former headquarters of the infamous Carlos Lehder who bought most of the island, terrorized the residents, and used the island as a way station for transferring cocaine between Columbia and the US for the Meddelin cartel, and where a DC-3 that missed the runway is now a haven for fish and a delight for snorkelers. And speaking of spectacular snorkeling, yesterday I donned snorkel and fins to explore Thunderball Grotto, a sparkling cave at Staniel Cay which was named for the James Bond movie, Thunderball, and where scenes from Splash and another 007 movie, Never Say Never Again were also filmed.
Right now, though, you’ll have to excuse me while I do something I will never willingly do electronically. Yesterday at a marina take-one-leave-one “library” I snagged a paperback copy of Margaret Maron’s Winter’s Child (how had I missed it?). I’m going to put on my hat and my sunglasses and take it up on the bow for a good, long read.
Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of THROUGH THE DARKNESS and five previous Hannah Ives mysteries, all set in Maryland. DEAD MAN DANCING, next in the series, will be published later this year. She iserves as Secretary for Sisters in Crime National.
When I still worked “outside the home” at a job in Washington, DC, we were always being asked by our supervisors to accommodate “shifting paradigms.” This usually meant that a hot-shot management guru had treated our CEO to lunch, and presumably held him hostage over double martinis, prime rib and crème brulé until he’d signed the corporation up for the latest management craze — MBO, TQM. Remember?
If you don’t, never mind. After spending millions on training and implementation, we employees usually forgot the mumbo-jumbo, too, and it was back to business as usual until the next management fad came along.
I was thinking about paradigms recently as I sat on our sailboat in a quiet anchorage in the Exuma Islands chain in the Bahamas. My husband and I have been living on Troubadour for several months. While he’s retired, I’m still trying to function as a working writer. This is something of a challenge in the islands, and a real-life test of shifting paradigms, one that has come to depend heavily, but not entirely, on the availability of an internet connection.
Before leaving the U.S., I set up everything electronically — bank accounts, bills, NY Times online, newsletters (like InSinc: save a stamp and download now from http://sistersincrime.org/newsletters/March2008InSinCNewsletterLowRes.pdf) and Skype, a free voice over internet “telephone” service that is so neato-keen that I’m amazed AT&T hasn’t bought it out simply so they could shut it down.
But all this preparation is for naught in the absence of an internet signal, so we dropped big bucks on a satellite telephone to serve as backup when we sail out of range of the wireless internet on the island settlements.
Satellites are not the panacea one might think, however, as they have the irritating habit of passing over my patch of sky, then vanishing over the horizon, taking my internet signal with them. So, I have a regular cell phone with which I make calls and send short text messages — whenever we’re in range of a Batelco tower, that is. Alas, even local residents don’t rely on the on-again, off-again telephone service. Every house and boat has a name and a VHF radio (I’ve got a hand-held strapped to my belt) and contact one another on Channel 16 — “Troubadour calling Lion’s Den, switch and answer channel six seven.”
Several weeks ago I delivered to my editor the final manuscript of the next Hannah Ives mystery, Dead Man Dancing, while anchored behind Leaf Cay, a tiny island occupied only by iguanas, some as big as dogs. I think it was the writer Annie Lamott who said there are only two prayers — “Please, please, please” and “thank you, thank you, thank you” — so as the file began to upload to whatever satellite was currently passing over, I began reciting the first prayer until (after three attempts) the large file went through and I could recite, with feeling, the second.
Can you tell I’m enchanted by the islands?
In fact, I hope to set my next mystery down here, and have been hanging out gathering atmosphere and background at Norman’s Cay, former headquarters of the infamous Carlos Lehder who bought most of the island, terrorized the residents, and used the island as a way station for transferring cocaine between Columbia and the US for the Meddelin cartel, and where a DC-3 that missed the runway is now a haven for fish and a delight for snorkelers. And speaking of spectacular snorkeling, yesterday I donned snorkel and fins to explore Thunderball Grotto, a sparkling cave at Staniel Cay which was named for the James Bond movie, Thunderball, and where scenes from Splash and another 007 movie, Never Say Never Again were also filmed.
Right now, though, you’ll have to excuse me while I do something I will never willingly do electronically. Yesterday at a marina take-one-leave-one “library” I snagged a paperback copy of Margaret Maron’s Winter’s Child (how had I missed it?). I’m going to put on my hat and my sunglasses and take it up on the bow for a good, long read.
Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award-winning author of THROUGH THE DARKNESS and five previous Hannah Ives mysteries, all set in Maryland. DEAD MAN DANCING, next in the series, will be published later this year. She iserves as Secretary for Sisters in Crime National.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Books in Print changes
Dear Sisters in Crime members:
We’ve had a few problems with our transition to entering titles online
into Books in Print (BIP) this past year. Our apologies to those of
you who were inadvertently left out of the BIP, or whose listings were
incorrect. We are working on ironing out the bugs. If your listing was
missing or incorrect and you haven’t told us already, please email
Beth Wasson: sistersincrime at juno.com. (The deadline for checking your
entry and adding your books for the 2009 edition will be August 1.
I’ll remind you again!)
As I mentioned in the newsletter, the board has voted unanimously to
change the present system for the printed version of BIP to include
only those printed books that meet established marketplace standards.
In other words, the printed BIP will include books that are accepted
by booksellers and librarians. We are making this change because these
same booksellers and librarians have told us they no longer find the
BIP useful in its present form.
Our online BIP will include all member books: the print version
listings, print titles that did not meet the print BIP criteria, and
additional categories for non-print books, e.g. e-books and audio
books.
The online version of BIP will provide a site for readers and
professionals to find information about members' books that may not
fit into the established marketplace. As these books are marketed
mainly to online buyers who are likely to prefer checking online
resources, the online version is a good match and a good way to
provide a service for this segment of our membership.
Following are the criteria for a book that meets marketplace
standards:
Is returnable
Is offered at standard industry discounts
Is available through national wholesaler, such as Ingram or Baker &
Taylor
Is competitively priced
Has a minimum print run of 1,000 copies
(We believe that the minimum print run of 1,000 copies shows a
publisher's intent to place the book in the marketplace. It is the
same number used by Authors Coalition to determine a 'published
book.’)
Any titles that do not meet one of the standards may be petitioned on
a case-by-case basis, so long as all other requirements are met.
Petitions must be submitted in writing, preferably by email.
However, as POD technology becomes a more common practice for books
accepted in the marketplace, we want to create an avenue of
flexibility in print runs for those exceptional titles that now meet
all other criteria, as well as for future circumstances we might not
be envisioning. POD reprints of titles that met industry standards
when originally published will be included in the print BIP.
As you can imagine, it will take time for the board to work with our
BIP editor to make this transition smoothly. As always, we welcome
your questions and comments.
Sincerely,
Roberta Isleib
President, Sisters in Crime
We’ve had a few problems with our transition to entering titles online
into Books in Print (BIP) this past year. Our apologies to those of
you who were inadvertently left out of the BIP, or whose listings were
incorrect. We are working on ironing out the bugs. If your listing was
missing or incorrect and you haven’t told us already, please email
Beth Wasson: sistersincrime at juno.com. (The deadline for checking your
entry and adding your books for the 2009 edition will be August 1.
I’ll remind you again!)
As I mentioned in the newsletter, the board has voted unanimously to
change the present system for the printed version of BIP to include
only those printed books that meet established marketplace standards.
In other words, the printed BIP will include books that are accepted
by booksellers and librarians. We are making this change because these
same booksellers and librarians have told us they no longer find the
BIP useful in its present form.
Our online BIP will include all member books: the print version
listings, print titles that did not meet the print BIP criteria, and
additional categories for non-print books, e.g. e-books and audio
books.
The online version of BIP will provide a site for readers and
professionals to find information about members' books that may not
fit into the established marketplace. As these books are marketed
mainly to online buyers who are likely to prefer checking online
resources, the online version is a good match and a good way to
provide a service for this segment of our membership.
Following are the criteria for a book that meets marketplace
standards:
Is returnable
Is offered at standard industry discounts
Is available through national wholesaler, such as Ingram or Baker &
Taylor
Is competitively priced
Has a minimum print run of 1,000 copies
(We believe that the minimum print run of 1,000 copies shows a
publisher's intent to place the book in the marketplace. It is the
same number used by Authors Coalition to determine a 'published
book.’)
Any titles that do not meet one of the standards may be petitioned on
a case-by-case basis, so long as all other requirements are met.
Petitions must be submitted in writing, preferably by email.
However, as POD technology becomes a more common practice for books
accepted in the marketplace, we want to create an avenue of
flexibility in print runs for those exceptional titles that now meet
all other criteria, as well as for future circumstances we might not
be envisioning. POD reprints of titles that met industry standards
when originally published will be included in the print BIP.
As you can imagine, it will take time for the board to work with our
BIP editor to make this transition smoothly. As always, we welcome
your questions and comments.
Sincerely,
Roberta Isleib
President, Sisters in Crime
Monday, February 25, 2008
Write Fast!
About fifteen years ago, I was deep into writing my first mystery novel. Or should it be “deeply”? “Desperately” is probably better. No matter, it was a very serious endeavor, requiring deep/desperate scrutiny of every word as it appeared on my computer monitor. It was a very slow endeavor. But it was coming along, I convinced myself, every perfect word a bridge to every other perfect word.
Then a Hollywood—yes, that’s right, HOLLYWOOD!—screenwriter brought his traveling workshop show to my area and I signed up for a weekend of learning how to write screenplays. Not that I had any intention of writing a screen play, but does any writer know what she/he might write tomorrow, if the money were right? In my career, I’ve written a lot of stuff I never thought I would write, including a comic book. But I digress.
I signed up for the Hollywood screenwriter’s workshop because it occurred to me that the one thing a screenwriter ought to be an expert on was writing dialogue. Yes, getting those perfect dialogue words in place had been giving me, shall we say, a little trouble.
So I sat through two-and-one-half days of the screenwriting workshop. Along with a few good hints about writing dialogue, this was what I learned—this was the gold: Write Fast. Because, the screenwriter said, when you write fast this is what happens: you submerge yourself in the writing zone. You are carried away by the story. You are living the story. And the story becomes infused with your energy and excitement.
As opposed to stepping out of the zone, stopping the story and allowing the energy to leak out every time you edit what you’ve just written, ponder over some technical aspect, check the dictionary and the thesaurus. Oh, yes, check your e-mail, and as long as you’re now taking a break from the actual writing, go get another cup of coffee.
I went home, turned on my computer and went back to writing my novel. I was on chapter ten, and I wrote the rest of the novel. In many sittings, of course, but as I wrote the story, I never stopped to edit or make changes. I just wrote as fast as I could, and I lost myself in the story. It was an exhilarating experience, like turning the pages of a really good book that you can’t bear to put down. I was so caught up in my story, I felt sad when I finally wrote “The End.”
But I had a whole novel. Then—and only then—did I start the rewriting and the editing, all that left brain stuff that forces writers to step away and turn a jaundiced and very critical eye on what we’ve written. But here’s the thing: I found that as I rewrote and rearranged paragraphs and sometimes chapters, sharpened dialogue, polished prose and cut out all the stuff, as Elmore Leonard says, that the reader skips over, the energy and excitement that had come in the writing itself stayed with the story, like a fresh wind blowing through.
Recently I read an obit on Phyllis Whitney that said she had slowed down in the last years of her life. From age 85 on, she wrote only one book a year. Obviously Phyllis Whitney believed in writing fast.
When asked how he had written the screenplay for Rocky in only 18 days, Sylvester Stallone said that was all the time that was necessary. It took Gustave Flaubert eighteen years to write Madame Bovary, he said, and “it was a lousy book.”
When my novel, The Eagle Catcher, came out, several critics said that the novel got off to a rather slow start, but turned into a page-turner once it took off. I got a good laugh out of that because I knew exactly when the novel took off. Chapter ten, when I had started writing fast.
I’ve been writing fast ever since. In every workshop that I teach, I give my students those two golden words of advice: Write Fast. It does not mean that you never have to rewrite, or that when you finish the first draft, it will be ready for publication. It will still be what it is—a first draft. But it does mean you will have a complete novel, a story bursting with creative energy, a diamond in the rough waiting to be chiseled, shaped and polished. And that is the time to put on your editor’s cap, not before.
---------------------------------
Margaret Coel
SinC Member-At-Large
Then a Hollywood—yes, that’s right, HOLLYWOOD!—screenwriter brought his traveling workshop show to my area and I signed up for a weekend of learning how to write screenplays. Not that I had any intention of writing a screen play, but does any writer know what she/he might write tomorrow, if the money were right? In my career, I’ve written a lot of stuff I never thought I would write, including a comic book. But I digress.
I signed up for the Hollywood screenwriter’s workshop because it occurred to me that the one thing a screenwriter ought to be an expert on was writing dialogue. Yes, getting those perfect dialogue words in place had been giving me, shall we say, a little trouble.
So I sat through two-and-one-half days of the screenwriting workshop. Along with a few good hints about writing dialogue, this was what I learned—this was the gold: Write Fast. Because, the screenwriter said, when you write fast this is what happens: you submerge yourself in the writing zone. You are carried away by the story. You are living the story. And the story becomes infused with your energy and excitement.
As opposed to stepping out of the zone, stopping the story and allowing the energy to leak out every time you edit what you’ve just written, ponder over some technical aspect, check the dictionary and the thesaurus. Oh, yes, check your e-mail, and as long as you’re now taking a break from the actual writing, go get another cup of coffee.
I went home, turned on my computer and went back to writing my novel. I was on chapter ten, and I wrote the rest of the novel. In many sittings, of course, but as I wrote the story, I never stopped to edit or make changes. I just wrote as fast as I could, and I lost myself in the story. It was an exhilarating experience, like turning the pages of a really good book that you can’t bear to put down. I was so caught up in my story, I felt sad when I finally wrote “The End.”
But I had a whole novel. Then—and only then—did I start the rewriting and the editing, all that left brain stuff that forces writers to step away and turn a jaundiced and very critical eye on what we’ve written. But here’s the thing: I found that as I rewrote and rearranged paragraphs and sometimes chapters, sharpened dialogue, polished prose and cut out all the stuff, as Elmore Leonard says, that the reader skips over, the energy and excitement that had come in the writing itself stayed with the story, like a fresh wind blowing through.
Recently I read an obit on Phyllis Whitney that said she had slowed down in the last years of her life. From age 85 on, she wrote only one book a year. Obviously Phyllis Whitney believed in writing fast.
When asked how he had written the screenplay for Rocky in only 18 days, Sylvester Stallone said that was all the time that was necessary. It took Gustave Flaubert eighteen years to write Madame Bovary, he said, and “it was a lousy book.”
When my novel, The Eagle Catcher, came out, several critics said that the novel got off to a rather slow start, but turned into a page-turner once it took off. I got a good laugh out of that because I knew exactly when the novel took off. Chapter ten, when I had started writing fast.
I’ve been writing fast ever since. In every workshop that I teach, I give my students those two golden words of advice: Write Fast. It does not mean that you never have to rewrite, or that when you finish the first draft, it will be ready for publication. It will still be what it is—a first draft. But it does mean you will have a complete novel, a story bursting with creative energy, a diamond in the rough waiting to be chiseled, shaped and polished. And that is the time to put on your editor’s cap, not before.
---------------------------------
Margaret Coel
SinC Member-At-Large
Friday, February 22, 2008
Room Change and Breakfast Sign-Up
Sisters in Crime Chapter Meeting at Malice
Friday, April 25, 2008 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
Fairfax Room, 2nd Floor, Crystal Gateway Marriott
Make your Sisters in Crime Breakfast Reservations
The Sisters in Crime breakfast will be Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 7:30 AMat the conference hotel. The room will be posted at the conference. Reservation are needed. Please send your e-mail address with your check for confirmation of receipt.
Send your $20.00 check to:
Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
to arrive in Lawrence by April 18, 2008.
Beth Wasson
Exec. Secretary, Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-1325, fax 785-856-6314
sistersincrime@juno.com, web site www.sistersincrime.org
Friday, April 25, 2008 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
Fairfax Room, 2nd Floor, Crystal Gateway Marriott
Make your Sisters in Crime Breakfast Reservations
The Sisters in Crime breakfast will be Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 7:30 AMat the conference hotel. The room will be posted at the conference. Reservation are needed. Please send your e-mail address with your check for confirmation of receipt.
Send your $20.00 check to:
Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
to arrive in Lawrence by April 18, 2008.
Beth Wasson
Exec. Secretary, Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-1325, fax 785-856-6314
sistersincrime@juno.com, web site www.sistersincrime.org
Monday, February 18, 2008
Speechless. Tongue-tied. Thunderstruck. Bowled over. Wordless. Dumbfounded.
You get the idea. That’s me when it comes to writing. It’s also me in the presence of those of you who write--especially those who write crime fiction--for your livelihood. So it’s a great honor and privilege for me to have been elected to follow the incomparable Doris Ann Norris as Sisters in Crime’s Library Liaison.
With two major library conferences on the calendar, 2008 is an especially promising year for bringing together Sisters in Crime authors and libraries. Not only does the Public Library Association hold its biennial conference in Minneapolis in March, the American Library Association’s capital-“B”-Big annual conference will be held in Anaheim in late June. Sisters in Crime will continue to take an important part in both these conferences by hosting booths in their respective Exhibitors spaces. The booth provides terrific opportunities for SinC authors who attend the conference to meet librarians and talk with them first hand about your work.
Even if you can’t come to the conferences, you can still send promotional materials for your books. I can promise you, speaking as a library conference attendee, we collect those bookmarks, business cards, and postcards with a passion. Once home from the conference we use what we’ve gathered to help make purchasing decisions for our libraries.
It’s not too late to send promotional materials for PLA, and I’ll soon be posting more details about ALA to the listserv and newsletter.
In the meantime if you’d like more information about either conference (or if you just want to say hey) please email me at boonema@earthlink.net. The two big library conferences are just a start. I am looking forwarding to working with the members of SinC to find even more ways to connect mystery writers and their books to libraries and readers.
Is this the world’s best job, or what?
--------------
Mary Boone
Library Liaison, Sisters In Crime
With two major library conferences on the calendar, 2008 is an especially promising year for bringing together Sisters in Crime authors and libraries. Not only does the Public Library Association hold its biennial conference in Minneapolis in March, the American Library Association’s capital-“B”-Big annual conference will be held in Anaheim in late June. Sisters in Crime will continue to take an important part in both these conferences by hosting booths in their respective Exhibitors spaces. The booth provides terrific opportunities for SinC authors who attend the conference to meet librarians and talk with them first hand about your work.
Even if you can’t come to the conferences, you can still send promotional materials for your books. I can promise you, speaking as a library conference attendee, we collect those bookmarks, business cards, and postcards with a passion. Once home from the conference we use what we’ve gathered to help make purchasing decisions for our libraries.
It’s not too late to send promotional materials for PLA, and I’ll soon be posting more details about ALA to the listserv and newsletter.
In the meantime if you’d like more information about either conference (or if you just want to say hey) please email me at boonema@earthlink.net. The two big library conferences are just a start. I am looking forwarding to working with the members of SinC to find even more ways to connect mystery writers and their books to libraries and readers.
Is this the world’s best job, or what?
--------------
Mary Boone
Library Liaison, Sisters In Crime
Monday, February 11, 2008
One of Sisters In Crime's ongoing programs is the Review Monitoring Project. We have a team of dedicated SinC members who check book reviews in local and national publications all year long. They tally results in two categories, those reviews of mysteries written by men and those by women.
Since its beginning, Sisters In Crime has worked hard to accomplish its mission of raising awareness of women mystery authors. The monitoring project is one way to measure how women's books are recognized by the media in the area of print reviews.
In 2006, the averages of all publications we monitored showed about 56% of mysteries reviewed were written by men, about 44% by women. I've been expecting less of a gap this year, due to the many well-received and breakout books we've seen from female authors. But, at the moment, it looks like the gap actually widened a bit. Our numbers are almost all in for this year. As they stand now, about 58% of mystery reviews were of books by men, about 42% by women. The complete report will be in the next InSinc newsletter.
Our work isn't done. We need to keep supporting the women in our industry who write books we love! If you would like to be a volunteer for the monitoring project, please contact me at marysaums @ hotmail.com for more information.
Mary Saums
Monitoring Project Liaison
Since its beginning, Sisters In Crime has worked hard to accomplish its mission of raising awareness of women mystery authors. The monitoring project is one way to measure how women's books are recognized by the media in the area of print reviews.
In 2006, the averages of all publications we monitored showed about 56% of mysteries reviewed were written by men, about 44% by women. I've been expecting less of a gap this year, due to the many well-received and breakout books we've seen from female authors. But, at the moment, it looks like the gap actually widened a bit. Our numbers are almost all in for this year. As they stand now, about 58% of mystery reviews were of books by men, about 42% by women. The complete report will be in the next InSinc newsletter.
Our work isn't done. We need to keep supporting the women in our industry who write books we love! If you would like to be a volunteer for the monitoring project, please contact me at marysaums @ hotmail.com for more information.
Mary Saums
Monitoring Project Liaison
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Left Coast Crime, Denver 2008
All Sisters in Crime members who are attending Left Coast Crime in Denver are invited to meet with SinC board members in the hospitality suite at the conference. Informal gatherings will be held at the following times.
Friday, March 7, 2008 @ 10:30 am and Saturday, March 8, 2008 @ 10:30 am.
Bring your questions and ideas with you.
See you soon,
Beth Wasson
Exec. Secretary, Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-1325, fax 785-856-6314
sistersincrime@juno.com
web site www.sistersincrime.org
Friday, March 7, 2008 @ 10:30 am and Saturday, March 8, 2008 @ 10:30 am.
Bring your questions and ideas with you.
See you soon,
Beth Wasson
Exec. Secretary, Sisters in Crime
PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-1325, fax 785-856-6314
sistersincrime@juno.com
web site www.sistersincrime.org
Monday, February 4, 2008
Ten Things a Tart Learned About Blogging
By Nancy Martin (SinC member at large)
Three years ago, some author friends and I decided to call ourselves the Book Tarts and start a blog (insert www.thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com ) in order to reduce our PR travel and help sell our books. Our success has come as a result of a lot of vigilant, ongoing work. (Our only motto? Never blog about diets.) If you're reading this, chances are you also blog yourself. Or if you don't blog, there's a part of you that's wondering if you've missed the boat. Am I right?
If so, maybe you're interested in what some blogging veterans have learned after three years of posting blogs while writing and selling books. And I'm very interested in your conclusions, too. Here goes:
1. It didn't take long to learn that building an audience depended upon posting new content every day. Without fresh material, our readers quickly found other blogs to procrast---er, spend their leisure time.
2. Because blogging every day soon becomes a terrible chore and prevents writers from writing books that actually pay the mortgage, a successful blog needs more than one writer at work. (Unless you're a regular on the NYT list, which probably exempts you from a lot of grunt work except the really, really hard stuff-writing books worthy of the NYT list.) In our case, we tried to find like-minded authors who wrote books for the same target audience. But we keep to a regular schedule so our readers know who to expect on each day of the week. To avoid diluting our "brand," we limit guest bloggers to weekends when---with apologies to our many delightful and insightful guests-hits are about half what they are on weekdays.
3. By writing posts aimed to entertain the readers who buy our books (instead of blogging for an audience other writers) we quadrupled our daily hits. Mind you, that quadrupling took a year, but it's still growing.
4. Content is Queen. The Tarts think a lot about who our audience is and what material will best keep them coming back. First, the people who read our books want to be entertained. Second, to laugh. But subject matter is especially vital in the mystery community because the best mystery novels are not just a story, but a story about something. The good ones feature new ideas, fresh takes on current issues or trends in popular culture. Yes, the Tarts sometimes blog about the mundane details of our lives, but only as a metaphor for something thought-provoking.
5. By extension: Advertising is not blogging. Posting nothing but tour schedules and release dates is a surefire way to lose our audience. That kind of info goes on our websites. Blog readers get bored with obvious self-promotion faster than anything else.
6. We track our hits. And this is worth repeating. Track the hits! We count our hits every day, notice what our best referrals are, and sometimes watch ISP addresses. We count the number of daily comments and note when and how many first-time commenters come out of lurkdom. Then we compare that data to our content. We notice which posts are winners with readers and which are duds. If our hits aren't growing, we know it's time to re-think and/or re-invent and go find more eyeballs. (You can do this by posting on some big listserves, by emailing alerts to your friends, by inviting guest bloggers who bring an audience with them. If you write about cats or knitting, join some related listserves and alert your listmates about your blog. And I'm sure many of you have even better ideas you could share here. Please do!) Only if we continue to grow our audience can we hope that our blog is helping our sales numbers.
7. Comments are an indication of how large and interactive our online ommunity is. And that's what you're trying to do with a blog, right?--To build a community of readers who will become so loyal that they'll be moved to buy your books when they're released. To attract comments, I must pose a subtle question in the text of my blog. Not an obvious question, because readers are turned off by such pathetically clumsy efforts.
8. The employees of NYC publishing houses read blogs. Therefore, if you want to keep your reputation as a team-playing author, don't post anything stupid or insulting about your publisher, your agent, your publicist, the buyers for major chains or your friends. On the other hand, if you want to get 1000 hits in a single afternoon, say something insulting or stupid, because other writers enjoy watching their colleagues crash and burn. Human nature.
9. Here's our big conclusion: Blogs do sell books. In the last year, we've seen quantifiable evidence of that during the health crises of two authors whose friends volunteered to blog on their behalf. Resulting book sales have been documented. The rest of us have to study our royalty statements to puzzle out whether or not blogging triggers specific sales. But all of us at TLC have enjoyed increased sales since starting the blog.
10. My last word of wisdom? Don't blog about diets. It's boring. And boring is the worst thing a blog can be.
For more on this subject, you can check last year's State of the Union TLC blog here: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2007/01/2006_a_year_in_.htmlcomments
And you can bet I'll be tracking how many readers come from this blog to The Lipstick Chronicles.
Three years ago, some author friends and I decided to call ourselves the Book Tarts and start a blog (insert www.thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com ) in order to reduce our PR travel and help sell our books. Our success has come as a result of a lot of vigilant, ongoing work. (Our only motto? Never blog about diets.) If you're reading this, chances are you also blog yourself. Or if you don't blog, there's a part of you that's wondering if you've missed the boat. Am I right?
If so, maybe you're interested in what some blogging veterans have learned after three years of posting blogs while writing and selling books. And I'm very interested in your conclusions, too. Here goes:
1. It didn't take long to learn that building an audience depended upon posting new content every day. Without fresh material, our readers quickly found other blogs to procrast---er, spend their leisure time.
2. Because blogging every day soon becomes a terrible chore and prevents writers from writing books that actually pay the mortgage, a successful blog needs more than one writer at work. (Unless you're a regular on the NYT list, which probably exempts you from a lot of grunt work except the really, really hard stuff-writing books worthy of the NYT list.) In our case, we tried to find like-minded authors who wrote books for the same target audience. But we keep to a regular schedule so our readers know who to expect on each day of the week. To avoid diluting our "brand," we limit guest bloggers to weekends when---with apologies to our many delightful and insightful guests-hits are about half what they are on weekdays.
3. By writing posts aimed to entertain the readers who buy our books (instead of blogging for an audience other writers) we quadrupled our daily hits. Mind you, that quadrupling took a year, but it's still growing.
4. Content is Queen. The Tarts think a lot about who our audience is and what material will best keep them coming back. First, the people who read our books want to be entertained. Second, to laugh. But subject matter is especially vital in the mystery community because the best mystery novels are not just a story, but a story about something. The good ones feature new ideas, fresh takes on current issues or trends in popular culture. Yes, the Tarts sometimes blog about the mundane details of our lives, but only as a metaphor for something thought-provoking.
5. By extension: Advertising is not blogging. Posting nothing but tour schedules and release dates is a surefire way to lose our audience. That kind of info goes on our websites. Blog readers get bored with obvious self-promotion faster than anything else.
6. We track our hits. And this is worth repeating. Track the hits! We count our hits every day, notice what our best referrals are, and sometimes watch ISP addresses. We count the number of daily comments and note when and how many first-time commenters come out of lurkdom. Then we compare that data to our content. We notice which posts are winners with readers and which are duds. If our hits aren't growing, we know it's time to re-think and/or re-invent and go find more eyeballs. (You can do this by posting on some big listserves, by emailing alerts to your friends, by inviting guest bloggers who bring an audience with them. If you write about cats or knitting, join some related listserves and alert your listmates about your blog. And I'm sure many of you have even better ideas you could share here. Please do!) Only if we continue to grow our audience can we hope that our blog is helping our sales numbers.
7. Comments are an indication of how large and interactive our online ommunity is. And that's what you're trying to do with a blog, right?--To build a community of readers who will become so loyal that they'll be moved to buy your books when they're released. To attract comments, I must pose a subtle question in the text of my blog. Not an obvious question, because readers are turned off by such pathetically clumsy efforts.
8. The employees of NYC publishing houses read blogs. Therefore, if you want to keep your reputation as a team-playing author, don't post anything stupid or insulting about your publisher, your agent, your publicist, the buyers for major chains or your friends. On the other hand, if you want to get 1000 hits in a single afternoon, say something insulting or stupid, because other writers enjoy watching their colleagues crash and burn. Human nature.
9. Here's our big conclusion: Blogs do sell books. In the last year, we've seen quantifiable evidence of that during the health crises of two authors whose friends volunteered to blog on their behalf. Resulting book sales have been documented. The rest of us have to study our royalty statements to puzzle out whether or not blogging triggers specific sales. But all of us at TLC have enjoyed increased sales since starting the blog.
10. My last word of wisdom? Don't blog about diets. It's boring. And boring is the worst thing a blog can be.
For more on this subject, you can check last year's State of the Union TLC blog here: http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/the_lipstick_chronicles/2007/01/2006_a_year_in_.htmlcomments
And you can bet I'll be tracking how many readers come from this blog to The Lipstick Chronicles.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sisters in Crime Makes Plans for 2008
The Sisters in Crime Board of Directors has planned many gatherings and book events for 2008. Take a minute to read the list and let me know if you have additional questions. More information is on www.sistersincrime.org.
- Left Coast Crime 2008 - Denver, CO - March 7&8 - Roberta Isleib, Donna Andrews and Beth Wasson will be at Left Coast Crime and will be available at the Sisters in Crime Rocky Mountain Hospitality Suite. The times will be posted soon. Let me know if you would like to meet with us. Chapter members and individuals who would like to discuss Sisters in Crime are welcome.
- Public Librarians Association Annual Meeting 2008 - Minneapolis, MN - March 27-29 - if you are a SinC author who would like to set up a time to be at the SinC booth please e-mail, board member, Mary Boone @ boonema@oplin.org.
-Malice Domestic 2008 - Washington D.C - Sisters in Crime Breakfast - Sunday April 27 @ 7:30 am - come and join your friends for breakfast and conversation. Reservations are needed. Send $20 to: Sisters in Crime, PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044 by April 16, 2008 in Lawrence, KS. Tickets will not be sent but your name will be on the reservation list at the door. Please send your e-mail address with the check so I can send you a confirmation. I hope to see many of you there.
- American Library Association 2008 - Annual Conference will be held in Anaheim, CA, from June 26–July 2, - Mary Boone will be handling author scheduling at the event - she can be reached at boonema@oplin.org.
The Los Angeles Chapter will be pitching in to make this ALA a success. Last but not least - don't forget to renew your Sisters in Crime membership for 2008. The first newsletter of 2008 comes out in March and you want to be on the list. You may renew at the web site www.sistersincrime.org or send a check for $40 to: Sisters in Crime, PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044.
Have a great week and e-mail me if you have any questions.
Beth Wasson
- Left Coast Crime 2008 - Denver, CO - March 7&8 - Roberta Isleib, Donna Andrews and Beth Wasson will be at Left Coast Crime and will be available at the Sisters in Crime Rocky Mountain Hospitality Suite. The times will be posted soon. Let me know if you would like to meet with us. Chapter members and individuals who would like to discuss Sisters in Crime are welcome.
- Public Librarians Association Annual Meeting 2008 - Minneapolis, MN - March 27-29 - if you are a SinC author who would like to set up a time to be at the SinC booth please e-mail, board member, Mary Boone @ boonema@oplin.org.
-Malice Domestic 2008 - Washington D.C - Sisters in Crime Breakfast - Sunday April 27 @ 7:30 am - come and join your friends for breakfast and conversation. Reservations are needed. Send $20 to: Sisters in Crime, PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044 by April 16, 2008 in Lawrence, KS. Tickets will not be sent but your name will be on the reservation list at the door. Please send your e-mail address with the check so I can send you a confirmation. I hope to see many of you there.
- American Library Association 2008 - Annual Conference will be held in Anaheim, CA, from June 26–July 2, - Mary Boone will be handling author scheduling at the event - she can be reached at boonema@oplin.org.
The Los Angeles Chapter will be pitching in to make this ALA a success. Last but not least - don't forget to renew your Sisters in Crime membership for 2008. The first newsletter of 2008 comes out in March and you want to be on the list. You may renew at the web site www.sistersincrime.org or send a check for $40 to: Sisters in Crime, PO Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044.
Have a great week and e-mail me if you have any questions.
Beth Wasson
Monday, January 14, 2008
A New Year for SinC
Happy New Year to all of our friends – whether you are readers, librarians, writers, agents, booksellers, editors…or a combination of any of those. We welcome you to the SinC blog, and to SinC. If you are not a member of Sisters in Crime but would like to be, please visit us at sistersincrime.org. We’d love to have you join us.
This year we are trying some exciting new things for our members, with the goal of expanding our members’ knowledge of writing, the mystery business (and sometimes it truly is a mystery!), and the web of support we – and others in the community – can offer.
One of these ways, which was discussed last week, is the new Mentor Mondays program on the listserv, which brings experts of our business to the forum for questions. Margaret Maron, multiple award-winning SinC author, started us off last week with a wonderful day, in which she shared about her process, the business, and writing in general. On January 14 our visitor is Paige Wheeler, a literary agent from Folio Literary Management. If you’d like to join the listserv to participate in the active discussions there, the information is on the homepage of our web site. We’d love to have you!
Another program that began last year and will continue in 2008 is the Publishers Summit. Several members of the board visited with publishers and agents in the fall to talk with them about the writing business and find out how we can best help our members break in, promote themselves, and, yes, even make some money. The information they received is helping to expand the information section of the web site, and will be coming out in the newsletter and other forums. We plan to hold another summit this year, and gather more information for our members.
At Malice Domestic, in April, we are expanding our annual chapter presidents’ meeting to include anyone from SinC chapters who would like to attend. We will be inviting members of various chapters to share a way in which they have excelled at helping their regional members or the larger organization. These ways might include newsletters, workshops, conferences, or other creative areas. If your chapter does something you would like to share, please contact our administrative office at sistersincrime@juno.com and let us know what special things you do!
We will continue to fill InSinC, our newsletter, with informative (and entertaining!) articles, monitor publications for reviews of books by women, and gather information for a Book Club Database. We strive to help our members in whatever way we can, and look forward to a very exciting 2008!
Happy Reading and Writing!
Judy Clemens
Vice President, SinC
This year we are trying some exciting new things for our members, with the goal of expanding our members’ knowledge of writing, the mystery business (and sometimes it truly is a mystery!), and the web of support we – and others in the community – can offer.
One of these ways, which was discussed last week, is the new Mentor Mondays program on the listserv, which brings experts of our business to the forum for questions. Margaret Maron, multiple award-winning SinC author, started us off last week with a wonderful day, in which she shared about her process, the business, and writing in general. On January 14 our visitor is Paige Wheeler, a literary agent from Folio Literary Management. If you’d like to join the listserv to participate in the active discussions there, the information is on the homepage of our web site. We’d love to have you!
Another program that began last year and will continue in 2008 is the Publishers Summit. Several members of the board visited with publishers and agents in the fall to talk with them about the writing business and find out how we can best help our members break in, promote themselves, and, yes, even make some money. The information they received is helping to expand the information section of the web site, and will be coming out in the newsletter and other forums. We plan to hold another summit this year, and gather more information for our members.
At Malice Domestic, in April, we are expanding our annual chapter presidents’ meeting to include anyone from SinC chapters who would like to attend. We will be inviting members of various chapters to share a way in which they have excelled at helping their regional members or the larger organization. These ways might include newsletters, workshops, conferences, or other creative areas. If your chapter does something you would like to share, please contact our administrative office at sistersincrime@juno.com and let us know what special things you do!
We will continue to fill InSinC, our newsletter, with informative (and entertaining!) articles, monitor publications for reviews of books by women, and gather information for a Book Club Database. We strive to help our members in whatever way we can, and look forward to a very exciting 2008!
Happy Reading and Writing!
Judy Clemens
Vice President, SinC
Monday, December 31, 2007
Don’t miss out on Mentor Monday!
Have you ever wished you could talk directly with your favorite mystery authors, or get an agent’s up-to-the-minute report on what editors are looking for, or ask the advice of an expert web site designer? SinC gives you the chance to do all that and more every week through Mentor Monday, a new feature on our national listserv.
Beginning Monday, January 7 with a visit from Margaret Maron, we’ll have an unprecedented lineup of guests who excel in every aspect of the book business. Each guest will be available throughout the day to answer your questions and offer their insight and advice. In addition to Margaret, we’ve already scheduled agent Paige Wheeler, Nancy Pickard, Gary Niebuhr (author of Read ‘Em Their Writes, a guide to running a book discussion group), Margaret Coel, agent Janet Reid, top web designer Maddie James, Eve Sandstrom (aka JoAnna Carl), Susan Wittig Albert, SinC Library Liaisons Doris Ann Norris and Mary Boone, and editor Chris Roerden. Later guests will include Stephen Booth, Julie Smith and many more you will not want to miss.
If you’re a member of SinC but haven’t joined the national listserv, sign up today by sending an e-mail to sistersincrime-subscribe@yahoogroups.com – and please include your full name in the body of the e-mail to speed up verification of your membership so you can be added to the list as quickly as possible. You can opt for a daily digest, but for Mentor Mondays you may want to switch to individual messages for the day so you can join in the conversation. (Changing back and forth via e-mail is easy – just click on the link at the bottom of every digest or message. Contact sparshall@verizon.net if you hit a snag.)
Don’t miss out on Mentor Monday – or the lively, informative discussions among SinC members the rest of the week. Whether you’re a writer or a fan, we hope we’ll be hearing from you on the listserv!
Sandra Parshall
Leslie Budewitz
SinC Listserv Moderators
Beginning Monday, January 7 with a visit from Margaret Maron, we’ll have an unprecedented lineup of guests who excel in every aspect of the book business. Each guest will be available throughout the day to answer your questions and offer their insight and advice. In addition to Margaret, we’ve already scheduled agent Paige Wheeler, Nancy Pickard, Gary Niebuhr (author of Read ‘Em Their Writes, a guide to running a book discussion group), Margaret Coel, agent Janet Reid, top web designer Maddie James, Eve Sandstrom (aka JoAnna Carl), Susan Wittig Albert, SinC Library Liaisons Doris Ann Norris and Mary Boone, and editor Chris Roerden. Later guests will include Stephen Booth, Julie Smith and many more you will not want to miss.
If you’re a member of SinC but haven’t joined the national listserv, sign up today by sending an e-mail to sistersincrime-subscribe@yahoogroups.com – and please include your full name in the body of the e-mail to speed up verification of your membership so you can be added to the list as quickly as possible. You can opt for a daily digest, but for Mentor Mondays you may want to switch to individual messages for the day so you can join in the conversation. (Changing back and forth via e-mail is easy – just click on the link at the bottom of every digest or message. Contact sparshall@verizon.net if you hit a snag.)
Don’t miss out on Mentor Monday – or the lively, informative discussions among SinC members the rest of the week. Whether you’re a writer or a fan, we hope we’ll be hearing from you on the listserv!
Sandra Parshall
Leslie Budewitz
SinC Listserv Moderators
Monday, December 17, 2007
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
As the end of the year approaches, it seems fitting to both look back over avery busy, productive year for Sisters in Crime, and then to look ahead.Here are just a few of the 2007 highlights:
In March, libraries across the nation celebrated the SinC 20th anniversaryby setting up displays highlighting our authors and our organization. SinCsent out almost 2000 packets which included crime scene tape, posters,bumper stickers and more to help organize the displays.
On April 5, the Detective and Mystery Caucus of the Popular CultureAssociation and American Culture Association presented a special Dove Awardto Sisters in Crime to honor our organization's extensive activities insupport of women crime writers. A crowd including founding mothers SaraParetsky and Kate Mattes packed Kate's Mystery Books to watch the ceremony.
September brought the first Sisters in Crime publishers summit, in whichRochelle Krich, SJ Rozan, Jim Huang, and I visited a number of publishingprofessionals in New York to talk about the publishing business and SinC'srole in it. We plan to meet with another set of professionals late inspring, 2008.
In October, Sisters in Crime wrapped up its twentieth anniversarycelebration with the launch of SISTERS ON THE CASE, an anthology of storiesedited by Sara Paretsky. Signings were held across the country.
Forensics University, the first ever conference devoted to the details offorensics, was held in St. Louis in November. Students raved about thefaculty and the curriculum. The St. Louis chapter did a wonderful job oforganizing the event and threaten to repeat it 2 or 3 years down the road.
And what's ahead? We're very excited about our "Mentor Mondays" project, tobe launched in January, 2008. Each Monday, a special guest will stop intoour list discussion to offer advice about their special areas of expertise.Members can join the list by sending an email including your full name to:sistersincrime-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
January 7: Margaret Maron
January 14: Paige Wheeler
January 21: Nancy Pickard
January 28: Gary Niebuhr
Feb. 4 -- Margaret Coel
Feb. 12 -- Janet Reid (Note this is a Tuesday)
Feb. 18 -- Madeira (Maddee) James (web designer)
Feb. 25 -- Eve Sandstrom/JoAnna Carl
We will also be hosting a breakfast at Left Coast Crime, and a chapter"flash training" session and a breakfast at Malice. Of course, we continuewith the good work of our monitoring project, our book club project(connecting readers with books), our many trade show booths, offering thebest articles we can find for the newsletter, and many activities at thechapter level. Please visit our website for more details:http://www.sistersincrime.org.
I'd like to thank the board and all the other members who work hard to makethese projects possible. We're open to your suggestions and welcome you tovolunteer your services and energy! I'm proud to be a member of Sisters inCrime and delighted to be leading our march into 2008.
Warmly,
Roberta Isleib
Sinc president
Www.robertaisleib.com
In March, libraries across the nation celebrated the SinC 20th anniversaryby setting up displays highlighting our authors and our organization. SinCsent out almost 2000 packets which included crime scene tape, posters,bumper stickers and more to help organize the displays.
On April 5, the Detective and Mystery Caucus of the Popular CultureAssociation and American Culture Association presented a special Dove Awardto Sisters in Crime to honor our organization's extensive activities insupport of women crime writers. A crowd including founding mothers SaraParetsky and Kate Mattes packed Kate's Mystery Books to watch the ceremony.
September brought the first Sisters in Crime publishers summit, in whichRochelle Krich, SJ Rozan, Jim Huang, and I visited a number of publishingprofessionals in New York to talk about the publishing business and SinC'srole in it. We plan to meet with another set of professionals late inspring, 2008.
In October, Sisters in Crime wrapped up its twentieth anniversarycelebration with the launch of SISTERS ON THE CASE, an anthology of storiesedited by Sara Paretsky. Signings were held across the country.
Forensics University, the first ever conference devoted to the details offorensics, was held in St. Louis in November. Students raved about thefaculty and the curriculum. The St. Louis chapter did a wonderful job oforganizing the event and threaten to repeat it 2 or 3 years down the road.
And what's ahead? We're very excited about our "Mentor Mondays" project, tobe launched in January, 2008. Each Monday, a special guest will stop intoour list discussion to offer advice about their special areas of expertise.Members can join the list by sending an email including your full name to:sistersincrime-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
January 7: Margaret Maron
January 14: Paige Wheeler
January 21: Nancy Pickard
January 28: Gary Niebuhr
Feb. 4 -- Margaret Coel
Feb. 12 -- Janet Reid (Note this is a Tuesday)
Feb. 18 -- Madeira (Maddee) James (web designer)
Feb. 25 -- Eve Sandstrom/JoAnna Carl
We will also be hosting a breakfast at Left Coast Crime, and a chapter"flash training" session and a breakfast at Malice. Of course, we continuewith the good work of our monitoring project, our book club project(connecting readers with books), our many trade show booths, offering thebest articles we can find for the newsletter, and many activities at thechapter level. Please visit our website for more details:http://www.sistersincrime.org.
I'd like to thank the board and all the other members who work hard to makethese projects possible. We're open to your suggestions and welcome you tovolunteer your services and energy! I'm proud to be a member of Sisters inCrime and delighted to be leading our march into 2008.
Warmly,
Roberta Isleib
Sinc president
Www.robertaisleib.com
Monday, December 10, 2007
Read First
One of the questions I dread in the Q&A section of any talk I’m giving is that loaded one, Where do you get your ideas? I generally shrug my shoulders and tell the absolute truth: if I knew for certain, I’d be happy to share it with you. After all, where does imagination have its roots? I’m sure there’s some psychological or physiological answer of which I’m ignorant, but I don’t think that’s what people want to know. They’re looking for something concrete, something they can replicate, when in fact the whole creative process is basically a mystery. Is it a talent? Of course. Partly. I can’t draw believable stick people, and I’m certain no amount of practice or training would change that. I’m not meant to be an artist. So what’s the answer then?
In the beginning of my career, I fumbled around a lot with this question, trying to come up with something profound, something I thought the aspiring authors in the crowd might find helpful in their own writing lives. And, after 8-plus books, the best answer I’ve found is this: Read first. Read voraciously, especially in the genre in which you want to write.
I’m shocked at the number of would-be authors who’ve told me they really don’t read that much. Are you kidding me??? In my mind, the two exercises are inextricably entwined, virtually inseparable. Many of us began writing stories when we were children, partly, I’m willing to bet, because early on we were also introduced to books and the joy of storytelling. My mother the English teacher had us all reading before we started school. I’m told I read aloud “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” in my Dr. Dentons from a rocking chair on stage at the church pageant when I was four. I don’t remember it, but surely my mother wouldn’t exaggerate. Mothers never do that.
The point is, I firmly believe that writers must first be readers. And one of the best things about belonging to Sisters in Crime is that you have a wealth of opportunity right here in your own backyard. Check out Books in Print or the Membership Directory. They’re a veritable Who’s Who of outstanding mystery writers, both male and female. Some of the best writing instruction you’ll ever get is reading the well-published, award-winning works of your Sisters and Brothers. From cozy to traditional to the darkest noir, our members are writing it.
And while you’re being entertained, study. If you’re an aspiring mystery author, read with intent. Look at character development and plot arc. When you heave a satisfied sigh as the last page is turned, try to figure out what it was that kept you racing to the finish. I’m not suggesting anything formal—no note-taking, unless that’s your inclination. Reading a well-crafted, crackling good mystery can’t help but spark your own imagination, that love of hearing and telling stories so many of us grew up with. Whenever I finish a really excellent book, I almost always find myself inspired and invigorated, eager to get back to my own writing. Whatever its organic or psychological roots, imagination can be fed and nurtured, encouraged by large doses of interaction with fascinating stories told well.
Sisters in Crime also offers the aspiring writer the opportunity to meet and network with well-published authors who have succeeded in this often frustrating profession and who are happy to share out of their own experience. Technology is making the publishing business a constantly changing animal, almost an entirely different species from the one in which Dame Agatha or Raymond Chandler or even some of today’s award-winning authors began their careers. When the chance presents itself, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Study, learn . . . and READ!
Since this post is appearing so close to the holidays, I’d also like to suggest that you buy a child a book. With all we’re hearing these days about the decline in reading for pleasure, we need to get that new crop of readers started early. And one of the best parts is that you won’t need to include batteries.
My husband and I wish Happy Holidays to all the Sisters in Crime family.
Kathryn Wall is the author of the Bay Tanner mysteries set in and around Hilton Head, South Carolina. The 8th installment, THE MERCY OAK, will be released by St. Martin’s Press on April 29. Kathy is also the national treasurer of Sisters in Crime.
In the beginning of my career, I fumbled around a lot with this question, trying to come up with something profound, something I thought the aspiring authors in the crowd might find helpful in their own writing lives. And, after 8-plus books, the best answer I’ve found is this: Read first. Read voraciously, especially in the genre in which you want to write.
I’m shocked at the number of would-be authors who’ve told me they really don’t read that much. Are you kidding me??? In my mind, the two exercises are inextricably entwined, virtually inseparable. Many of us began writing stories when we were children, partly, I’m willing to bet, because early on we were also introduced to books and the joy of storytelling. My mother the English teacher had us all reading before we started school. I’m told I read aloud “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” in my Dr. Dentons from a rocking chair on stage at the church pageant when I was four. I don’t remember it, but surely my mother wouldn’t exaggerate. Mothers never do that.
The point is, I firmly believe that writers must first be readers. And one of the best things about belonging to Sisters in Crime is that you have a wealth of opportunity right here in your own backyard. Check out Books in Print or the Membership Directory. They’re a veritable Who’s Who of outstanding mystery writers, both male and female. Some of the best writing instruction you’ll ever get is reading the well-published, award-winning works of your Sisters and Brothers. From cozy to traditional to the darkest noir, our members are writing it.
And while you’re being entertained, study. If you’re an aspiring mystery author, read with intent. Look at character development and plot arc. When you heave a satisfied sigh as the last page is turned, try to figure out what it was that kept you racing to the finish. I’m not suggesting anything formal—no note-taking, unless that’s your inclination. Reading a well-crafted, crackling good mystery can’t help but spark your own imagination, that love of hearing and telling stories so many of us grew up with. Whenever I finish a really excellent book, I almost always find myself inspired and invigorated, eager to get back to my own writing. Whatever its organic or psychological roots, imagination can be fed and nurtured, encouraged by large doses of interaction with fascinating stories told well.
Sisters in Crime also offers the aspiring writer the opportunity to meet and network with well-published authors who have succeeded in this often frustrating profession and who are happy to share out of their own experience. Technology is making the publishing business a constantly changing animal, almost an entirely different species from the one in which Dame Agatha or Raymond Chandler or even some of today’s award-winning authors began their careers. When the chance presents itself, don’t be afraid to ask questions. Study, learn . . . and READ!
Since this post is appearing so close to the holidays, I’d also like to suggest that you buy a child a book. With all we’re hearing these days about the decline in reading for pleasure, we need to get that new crop of readers started early. And one of the best parts is that you won’t need to include batteries.
My husband and I wish Happy Holidays to all the Sisters in Crime family.
Kathryn Wall is the author of the Bay Tanner mysteries set in and around Hilton Head, South Carolina. The 8th installment, THE MERCY OAK, will be released by St. Martin’s Press on April 29. Kathy is also the national treasurer of Sisters in Crime.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Spam--is it or isn't it?
I've seen heated arguments erupt on lists and in other places lately over the topic of spam. Not about whether anyone actually likes spam--the few people out there who actually enjoy getting emails about penny stocks and mail-order Viagra tend to keep their strange taste to themselves. No, the debate is about whether or not certain author emails actually are spam.
The scenario: Eager Author has a new book coming out. He or she--let's say he, just to keep things simple--belongs to a number of lists and organizations. Say he's a SinC member, and belongs to the SinC list and DorothyL, reads this blog regularly, and has a recent SinC membership directory. He industriously harvests emails from the SinC list, DorothyL, and the SinC blog comments; he types in every single email address he finds in the directory; and then he sends out a press release about his new book to the resulting emailing list.
And to his surprise and dismay, some of these people cry foul and accuse him of spamming them. He counters that no, it's not spam, it's self-promotion. Who's right?
Those on one side of the argument argue that any unsolicited commercial email is spam. Unsolicited--they didn't ask him to send them email. Commercial--he's trying to sell his book. Unsolicited+commercial+email=spam.
Those on the other side argue variously that it's not spam if an INDIVIDUAL sends it rather than a faceless organization; or that only BULK unsolicited commercial email qualifies as spam--not the modest quantity of emails a single author might send; or that their mutual membership in a list or organization creates enough of a relationship to take the email out of the unsolicited category. In short, that Eager Author has every right to send his promotional email.
I'm probably not making the "it's not spam!" case as well as I should, probably because--full disclosure here--I fall in the "it's spam!" camp. And even if Eager Author does have the right to send his email, having the right doesn't necessarily make something a smart thing to do.
Because in the end, it doesn't matter whether or not Eager Author's email is legally or technically spam. We're not in a court of law here. We're in the court of public opinion. And even if Eager Author sincerely believes he is technically correct and legally blameless, he has just seriously ticked off a bunch of people he was hoping to sell his book to. Is that something an author really wants to do?
So let's imagine I could use my handy dandy No Regrets Time Travel Machine ( patent pending) to go back to the moment in time when Eager Author was getting ready to launch his email campaign. And let's imagine I try to convince him that maybe this won't be the most effective way to promote.
"But how am I supposed to market my book?" he asks in dismay. "How can I build my mailing list if I can't add the people I meet?"
Don't just add people. Try inviting them.
If you have a collection of email addresses that belong to people you think might be interested in receiving your promotional emails--but you haven't explicitly asked their permission--("Hey, would you like to be on my mailing list? Great, just give me your email and I'll add you.")--you can always ask their permission. Very few people would object to a short, straightforward email informing them that you have a mailing list and would be happy to add them to it if they like--as long as you also promise not to bother them again if they aren't interested. Please note that this is for people you're already in contact with in some way: readers who have written or emailed you. People with whom you've exchanged emails about subjects of mutual interest. Even friends should be ASKED if they want to be on your mailing list. And make it an individual email, not an impersonal blast to twenty or thirty people at once. (Yes, it's more work. You're asking them to buy and read your book--you can’t take a minute or two to invite them politely?)
Even once people have agreed to be on your list, it's always a good policy to make sure anything you send them includes an opt-out provision and a blanket apology in case they don't want it once they get it. The Femmes Fatales use the following wording on our email newsletter:
If we've made a mistake and you did not want to be added to our mailing list, or if you'd prefer not to receive future issues, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link.
Because even if you only add people who request your newsletter, sometimes they forget they requested it . . . or sometimes people suddenly realize that they're getting way more email than they can deal with and go on a downsizing program. Don't take it personally. If they don't have time to read your email, are they really going to make time to read your book? Unsubscribe them and hope they come back eventually.
And if people are on a list with you, why add to their email load with a personal email? You've already got a means to reach them--plus any other new members who join the list in future--without all the work of harvesting emails. As long as you follow the list rules, of course. Figure out what kind of BSP the rules allow and follow them, to the letter. In fact, even if the list allows unlimited BSP, you'll fare better if you keep it not only infrequent but short and snappy. "FDR's pet Scotty, Fala, is the canine sleuth in my new historical mystery, DEADLY PAWS. To read reviews and the first chapter and to see when my forty-city tour will bring me to a bookstore near you, see http://www.falapaws.com/." Anyone who's interested will click through, and anyone who's not will give you credit for respecting their time.
Brevity also works well with signature lines. Some authors, realizing that a list does not allow BSP, try to cram every bit of promotion they'd like to do on the list into their sig line. If your sig line contains the titles, ISBN numbers, and release dates of all four of your books; quotes from five different reviewers; your website URL; your Myspace address; your blog URL; and your favorite quote for the day--odds are you are ticking off more people than you are charming. Cut it down to three lines, max.
If a list allows, you could post an invitation to people who might be interested in joining your mailing list. And it's considered fair game to bribe people with content and contests. "In addition to news about the Fala series, I'll be sharing dog care tips with subscribers to my monthly newsletter." Or "I'll be giving away a dozen ARCs of DEADLY PAWS in January to readers selected at random from my mailing list--sign up now to make sure your name's in the drawing."
In other words, it's great to recruit people for your mailing list, but unilaterally adding people without permission is more like the draft. Make sure your mailing list contains only eager volunteers. Because every time someone gets your newsletter or press release and says, "Who the hell is Eager Author, and where does he get off sending me this?"--you've not only failed to make a sale this time, you may have sabotaged any hope of future sales.
In short--these are the people you're trying to sell to. Don't piss them off.
Posted by Donna Andrews
The scenario: Eager Author has a new book coming out. He or she--let's say he, just to keep things simple--belongs to a number of lists and organizations. Say he's a SinC member, and belongs to the SinC list and DorothyL, reads this blog regularly, and has a recent SinC membership directory. He industriously harvests emails from the SinC list, DorothyL, and the SinC blog comments; he types in every single email address he finds in the directory; and then he sends out a press release about his new book to the resulting emailing list.
And to his surprise and dismay, some of these people cry foul and accuse him of spamming them. He counters that no, it's not spam, it's self-promotion. Who's right?
Those on one side of the argument argue that any unsolicited commercial email is spam. Unsolicited--they didn't ask him to send them email. Commercial--he's trying to sell his book. Unsolicited+commercial+email=spam.
Those on the other side argue variously that it's not spam if an INDIVIDUAL sends it rather than a faceless organization; or that only BULK unsolicited commercial email qualifies as spam--not the modest quantity of emails a single author might send; or that their mutual membership in a list or organization creates enough of a relationship to take the email out of the unsolicited category. In short, that Eager Author has every right to send his promotional email.
I'm probably not making the "it's not spam!" case as well as I should, probably because--full disclosure here--I fall in the "it's spam!" camp. And even if Eager Author does have the right to send his email, having the right doesn't necessarily make something a smart thing to do.
Because in the end, it doesn't matter whether or not Eager Author's email is legally or technically spam. We're not in a court of law here. We're in the court of public opinion. And even if Eager Author sincerely believes he is technically correct and legally blameless, he has just seriously ticked off a bunch of people he was hoping to sell his book to. Is that something an author really wants to do?
So let's imagine I could use my handy dandy No Regrets Time Travel Machine ( patent pending) to go back to the moment in time when Eager Author was getting ready to launch his email campaign. And let's imagine I try to convince him that maybe this won't be the most effective way to promote.
"But how am I supposed to market my book?" he asks in dismay. "How can I build my mailing list if I can't add the people I meet?"
Don't just add people. Try inviting them.
If you have a collection of email addresses that belong to people you think might be interested in receiving your promotional emails--but you haven't explicitly asked their permission--("Hey, would you like to be on my mailing list? Great, just give me your email and I'll add you.")--you can always ask their permission. Very few people would object to a short, straightforward email informing them that you have a mailing list and would be happy to add them to it if they like--as long as you also promise not to bother them again if they aren't interested. Please note that this is for people you're already in contact with in some way: readers who have written or emailed you. People with whom you've exchanged emails about subjects of mutual interest. Even friends should be ASKED if they want to be on your mailing list. And make it an individual email, not an impersonal blast to twenty or thirty people at once. (Yes, it's more work. You're asking them to buy and read your book--you can’t take a minute or two to invite them politely?)
Even once people have agreed to be on your list, it's always a good policy to make sure anything you send them includes an opt-out provision and a blanket apology in case they don't want it once they get it. The Femmes Fatales use the following wording on our email newsletter:
If we've made a mistake and you did not want to be added to our mailing list, or if you'd prefer not to receive future issues, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link.
Because even if you only add people who request your newsletter, sometimes they forget they requested it . . . or sometimes people suddenly realize that they're getting way more email than they can deal with and go on a downsizing program. Don't take it personally. If they don't have time to read your email, are they really going to make time to read your book? Unsubscribe them and hope they come back eventually.
And if people are on a list with you, why add to their email load with a personal email? You've already got a means to reach them--plus any other new members who join the list in future--without all the work of harvesting emails. As long as you follow the list rules, of course. Figure out what kind of BSP the rules allow and follow them, to the letter. In fact, even if the list allows unlimited BSP, you'll fare better if you keep it not only infrequent but short and snappy. "FDR's pet Scotty, Fala, is the canine sleuth in my new historical mystery, DEADLY PAWS. To read reviews and the first chapter and to see when my forty-city tour will bring me to a bookstore near you, see http://www.falapaws.com/." Anyone who's interested will click through, and anyone who's not will give you credit for respecting their time.
Brevity also works well with signature lines. Some authors, realizing that a list does not allow BSP, try to cram every bit of promotion they'd like to do on the list into their sig line. If your sig line contains the titles, ISBN numbers, and release dates of all four of your books; quotes from five different reviewers; your website URL; your Myspace address; your blog URL; and your favorite quote for the day--odds are you are ticking off more people than you are charming. Cut it down to three lines, max.
If a list allows, you could post an invitation to people who might be interested in joining your mailing list. And it's considered fair game to bribe people with content and contests. "In addition to news about the Fala series, I'll be sharing dog care tips with subscribers to my monthly newsletter." Or "I'll be giving away a dozen ARCs of DEADLY PAWS in January to readers selected at random from my mailing list--sign up now to make sure your name's in the drawing."
In other words, it's great to recruit people for your mailing list, but unilaterally adding people without permission is more like the draft. Make sure your mailing list contains only eager volunteers. Because every time someone gets your newsletter or press release and says, "Who the hell is Eager Author, and where does he get off sending me this?"--you've not only failed to make a sale this time, you may have sabotaged any hope of future sales.
In short--these are the people you're trying to sell to. Don't piss them off.
Posted by Donna Andrews
Monday, November 26, 2007
Casting the Net Wide
Where does a mystery author begin? Was it the Agatha Christie novels my mother read while pregnant with me? The Nancy Drew books I devoured as a young girl? The fact that Mom was a charter subscriber to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and kept stacks of them around the house? Or maybe it was the night Daddy made an inspired exception: even though I had school the next day, I could stay up to watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Sundays at 9:30, provided my homework was done.
The seed had been planted.
I wrote my first “novel” in eighth grade, a shameless Hardy Boy ripoff set in a ghost town out west. At the top of my “manuscript” Mr. Ramerez wrote, “Write what you know, Marcia. Have you ever been to a ghost town?”
If I was discouraged by his negative review, I don’t remember it. I continued to write stories with twisty Hitchcockian endings all the way through high school, until the rigors of college and the realities of being the full-time working mother of two young daughters gave me new priorities.
A dozen or so years ago, I had never heard of Sisters in Crime. Slogging away at my job in a windowless office in Washington, DC – where I had begun to fantasize about writing a novel in which I bumped off the woman who married my father after my mother died -- I often lunched with colleagues who, I soon learned, were also mystery fans. In the early 1990s Steve the Techie introduced me to the DorothyL listserv, which I promptly joined. Another colleague, Salle, told me about the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland which I first attended the year Nevada Barr won the Agatha for “Track of the Cat.”
At Malice I met Deborah Crombie, Kate Charles, Donna Andrews, Margaret Maron, and dozens of authors who are still my friends. It was one of these new friends, in fact, who made a suggestion over dinner that changed my life – “Why don’t you join Sisters in Crime?”
I walked into my first Chesapeake Chapter meeting at Bish Thompson’s Seafood House one Saturday knowing no one. I selected a table pretty much at random, and found myself chatting about mystery novels in progress with two other aspiring authors -- Laura Lippman and Sujata Massey. Sisters in Crime brought Sujata and me together in a writers critique group (ten years later, still offering tough love) where we browbeat one another into finishing a novel. After Sujata won the Malice Domestic grant that would launch her career, she encouraged me to enter my novel in progress, and amazingly, Sing It To Her Bones won the Malice grant, too, which led to an agent and a three-book deal with Bantam/Dell. Sujata, Laura and Margaret Maron graciously provided me with my first blurbs, and Sisters in Crime members have fed me, housed me and driven me to book signings from Maine to California, with stops in Ohio and Kansas along the way.
But support from SinC didn’t stop there. Publishers merge, editors get fired, imprints are dropped, proposals get rejected, contracts aren’t renewed, agents retire prematurely .. and through it all, SinC has been there offering resources, advice, ideas, support, and even shoulders to cry on. In the volatile and increasingly perplex world of publishing, SinC is more than a network, it’s a safety net. With help from my Sisters (and Brothers) in Crime, I have a new agent, a new two-book deal, and life is good.
Back in the 50s, sitting cross-legged in front of a flickering black and white tube on which a familiar profile took shape while Gunod’s Funeral March of a Marionette played in the background, I confided to my father that I wanted to write mysteries when I grew up. He simply smiled. The seed might have been planted that day, but it lay dormant for many years, until my Sisters in Crime helped the dream grow, blossom, and flower.
And I couldn’t be more grateful.
# # # # # # # # # #
Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award winning author of six Hannah Ives mysteries including Through the Darkness. Hannah’s seventh adventure, Dead Man Dancing, will be published in 2008. Marcia is Secretary of the national board of Sisters in Crime.
The seed had been planted.
I wrote my first “novel” in eighth grade, a shameless Hardy Boy ripoff set in a ghost town out west. At the top of my “manuscript” Mr. Ramerez wrote, “Write what you know, Marcia. Have you ever been to a ghost town?”
If I was discouraged by his negative review, I don’t remember it. I continued to write stories with twisty Hitchcockian endings all the way through high school, until the rigors of college and the realities of being the full-time working mother of two young daughters gave me new priorities.
A dozen or so years ago, I had never heard of Sisters in Crime. Slogging away at my job in a windowless office in Washington, DC – where I had begun to fantasize about writing a novel in which I bumped off the woman who married my father after my mother died -- I often lunched with colleagues who, I soon learned, were also mystery fans. In the early 1990s Steve the Techie introduced me to the DorothyL listserv, which I promptly joined. Another colleague, Salle, told me about the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland which I first attended the year Nevada Barr won the Agatha for “Track of the Cat.”
At Malice I met Deborah Crombie, Kate Charles, Donna Andrews, Margaret Maron, and dozens of authors who are still my friends. It was one of these new friends, in fact, who made a suggestion over dinner that changed my life – “Why don’t you join Sisters in Crime?”
I walked into my first Chesapeake Chapter meeting at Bish Thompson’s Seafood House one Saturday knowing no one. I selected a table pretty much at random, and found myself chatting about mystery novels in progress with two other aspiring authors -- Laura Lippman and Sujata Massey. Sisters in Crime brought Sujata and me together in a writers critique group (ten years later, still offering tough love) where we browbeat one another into finishing a novel. After Sujata won the Malice Domestic grant that would launch her career, she encouraged me to enter my novel in progress, and amazingly, Sing It To Her Bones won the Malice grant, too, which led to an agent and a three-book deal with Bantam/Dell. Sujata, Laura and Margaret Maron graciously provided me with my first blurbs, and Sisters in Crime members have fed me, housed me and driven me to book signings from Maine to California, with stops in Ohio and Kansas along the way.
But support from SinC didn’t stop there. Publishers merge, editors get fired, imprints are dropped, proposals get rejected, contracts aren’t renewed, agents retire prematurely .. and through it all, SinC has been there offering resources, advice, ideas, support, and even shoulders to cry on. In the volatile and increasingly perplex world of publishing, SinC is more than a network, it’s a safety net. With help from my Sisters (and Brothers) in Crime, I have a new agent, a new two-book deal, and life is good.
Back in the 50s, sitting cross-legged in front of a flickering black and white tube on which a familiar profile took shape while Gunod’s Funeral March of a Marionette played in the background, I confided to my father that I wanted to write mysteries when I grew up. He simply smiled. The seed might have been planted that day, but it lay dormant for many years, until my Sisters in Crime helped the dream grow, blossom, and flower.
And I couldn’t be more grateful.
# # # # # # # # # #
Marcia Talley is the Agatha and Anthony award winning author of six Hannah Ives mysteries including Through the Darkness. Hannah’s seventh adventure, Dead Man Dancing, will be published in 2008. Marcia is Secretary of the national board of Sisters in Crime.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
SinC and the Nitty Gritty
By Margaret Coel
Twenty years ago, I happened on a newspaper article about a new organization formed to help women mystery writers promote and sell their novels and generally succeed in a mystery world long dominated by men. What a great idea, I thought. I wasn't writing mystery novels at the time, but I had been bouncing around publishing long enough—with five non-fiction books and countless magazine articles—that I knew men pretty much dominated the entire publishing world. Let me stop here: This is not a feminist rant. I love men, and I'm grateful to the many male publishing types who have helped me—and continue to help me—in my career. Still an organization dedicated to helping women mystery writers break through stereotypical barriers and change the perception that the only women capable of writing damn good mystery novels were Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie seemed inspired. I also liked the fact that membership was also open to men. I vowed to join this organization, even though I was still in the thinking-about-someday-writing-a-mystery-novel stage.It took a while, but eventually I did join Sisters in Crime and wrote the first msytery novel in my Wind River series, The Eagle Catcher. I also started on a new publishing adventure for which none of my previous experiences were much help. But Sisters in Crime—bless you!—was there each step of the way with the kind of nitty-gritty advice that, after thirteen novels, is still helpful. How do real cops investigate crime scenes? How about all that forensics stuff? Autopsies anyone? Ride-with-a-cop? In what amounts to a graduate-level continuing education program for mystery writers, the local Colorado chapter has come up with these programs and a lot more.
But SinC's nitty-gritty information doesn't stop at the writing stage. It also covers the all important stage of: Okay, my book is published. Now what the heck do I do? Well, it turns out that you can do a lot to help your book jump off the shelves into buyers' hands, and SinC is there with practical advice. Is there a more practical book on marketing and promotion than Brazen Hussies? I don't think so. I still reread the book before I embark on each book tour. It was SinC that taught me to "partner "with the bookstores that give me signings and do everything possible to help the stores sell my books. Everything from sending postcards and e-blasts to readers on my lists notifying them of the stores where I'll be signing to supplying bookmarks, flyers or other promotional materials to the stores to help them notify customers of my upcoming appearances.
Isn't that obvious? (Head slap!) Sure, if you're a member of Sisters in Crime. But trust me, I know many novelists and non-fiction writers who have never heard of authors doing such promotions. Some even consider it beneath their authorial dignity. Usually they are the ones who complain the loudest about publishers not doing enough to promote their books. True, we all want publishers to do more. But here's the nitty-gritty: we have to be willing help. And SinC has been there with advice on even the smallest and simplest ways in which we can help ourselves.
I remember driving thirty-five miles to Denver one night for a book signing with a Very Important Author. This Very Important Author looked as if she had just rolled out of bed—wrinkled clothes, mussed hair, dirty nails. (Yes, she was on tour, but please!) She seemed bored, slightly irritated that she had to show up, and in a hurry to move on to a more important event. I remember thinking that she could learn a lot from Sisters in Crime. What a small, simple thing to show up for your book signing looking as if you want to be there, and yet how important. It shows respect for readers who could have been a thousand other places, but who chose to take the time to come to your signing. To paraphrase Brazen Hussies, people go out of their way to come to see you. You're a star. Shine a little.
Nitty-gritty advice that pays off. I know that I left the booksigning without buying the Very Important Author's book, and I wasn't the only one.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Making Mystery History…with Forensics University
On November 1, 2007, Sisters in Crime made mystery history with Forensics University of St. Louis. For the first time ever, writers were able to attend a conference solely focused on one purpose: education about crime. Not book promotion. Not schmoozing with fans. Not the art of writing.
No, Forensic U was different. Here in St. Louis, we put the CRIME back into crime fiction.
At this conference, multi-published writers, newbies, fans, and readers sat side-by-side to learn from law enforcement and forensic professionals. For two-and-a-half days, these experts shared a constant stream of knowledge. They spoke honestly and without censor knowing they weren't being recorded. As a result, we saw unspeakable and graphic images, heard horrifying tales of human cruelty, and reveled in uplifting stories of bravery.
But, the honesty of our experts was, in part, a testament to the professionalism of our attendees. Time after time, our experts stopped me to say they loved speaking to our group. They enjoyed our interest, our passion and our intelligent questions. To them we were a delight, a refreshing change—a group too fascinated by subject matter to get grossed out. Think about it: We scheduled lectures on Interpretation of Blood Spatter and Medicolegal Death Investigation right before lunch and no one complained!
Of course, part of the draw was our fabulous headliners, Jan Burke, Eileen Dreyer, Lee Lofland and Dr. D. P. Lyle. Dr. Lyle has since been named "Dean of Forensic U."
How successful was ForU? Let's consider a variety of indicators:
1. Publicity—The conference was widely touted in advance on List-Serves and industry publications, picked up by a blog run by forensic scientists in England, covered by a local magazine and by local television. Fliers were distributed at most major conferences the nine months before. And our post-event publicity buzz is astonishing. Meg Chittenden wrote a lovely piece about the conference that appeared on DorothyL. And the bloggers have been generous with their praise. Check out these links and comments:
http://www.theoutfitcollective.com/
http://femmesfatales.typepad.com/
http://murdermayhemandmore.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-praise-of-forensic-university.html
http://www.joleigh.com/wp/2007/11/08/im-backnov-8/
http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com
http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com
2. Budgetary concerns—Michelle Becker, my co-chair, and I worked with the fabulous Tony Hooper, a local member and former CEO. We were very conscious of being stewards of SinC's money. I'm pleased to say it looks like we came in under our budget for the event.
3. Membership—We have 35 new members as a direct result of the conference.
4. Number of attendees—114
5. Number of presenters--13
6. Outreach—A nice group of our local Romance Writers of America attended. Folks came from all across the nation. This was clearly a NATIONAL conference.
7. Evaluations—Still going through them, but overwhelmingly positive. Folks are asking, "When's the next Forensic U?"
8. Charity—We raised nearly $4000 for the Crime Lab Project Foundation9. Number of women who can now claim they shot a gun… Uh, priceless!
On behalf of my co-chair Michelle Becker, I want to thank the National Board of Sisters in Crime for having faith in us.
Posted by Joanna Slan
No, Forensic U was different. Here in St. Louis, we put the CRIME back into crime fiction.
At this conference, multi-published writers, newbies, fans, and readers sat side-by-side to learn from law enforcement and forensic professionals. For two-and-a-half days, these experts shared a constant stream of knowledge. They spoke honestly and without censor knowing they weren't being recorded. As a result, we saw unspeakable and graphic images, heard horrifying tales of human cruelty, and reveled in uplifting stories of bravery.
But, the honesty of our experts was, in part, a testament to the professionalism of our attendees. Time after time, our experts stopped me to say they loved speaking to our group. They enjoyed our interest, our passion and our intelligent questions. To them we were a delight, a refreshing change—a group too fascinated by subject matter to get grossed out. Think about it: We scheduled lectures on Interpretation of Blood Spatter and Medicolegal Death Investigation right before lunch and no one complained!
Of course, part of the draw was our fabulous headliners, Jan Burke, Eileen Dreyer, Lee Lofland and Dr. D. P. Lyle. Dr. Lyle has since been named "Dean of Forensic U."
How successful was ForU? Let's consider a variety of indicators:
1. Publicity—The conference was widely touted in advance on List-Serves and industry publications, picked up by a blog run by forensic scientists in England, covered by a local magazine and by local television. Fliers were distributed at most major conferences the nine months before. And our post-event publicity buzz is astonishing. Meg Chittenden wrote a lovely piece about the conference that appeared on DorothyL. And the bloggers have been generous with their praise. Check out these links and comments:
http://www.theoutfitcollective.com/
http://femmesfatales.typepad.com/
http://murdermayhemandmore.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-praise-of-forensic-university.html
http://www.joleigh.com/wp/2007/11/08/im-backnov-8/
http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com
http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com
2. Budgetary concerns—Michelle Becker, my co-chair, and I worked with the fabulous Tony Hooper, a local member and former CEO. We were very conscious of being stewards of SinC's money. I'm pleased to say it looks like we came in under our budget for the event.
3. Membership—We have 35 new members as a direct result of the conference.
4. Number of attendees—114
5. Number of presenters--13
6. Outreach—A nice group of our local Romance Writers of America attended. Folks came from all across the nation. This was clearly a NATIONAL conference.
7. Evaluations—Still going through them, but overwhelmingly positive. Folks are asking, "When's the next Forensic U?"
8. Charity—We raised nearly $4000 for the Crime Lab Project Foundation9. Number of women who can now claim they shot a gun… Uh, priceless!
On behalf of my co-chair Michelle Becker, I want to thank the National Board of Sisters in Crime for having faith in us.
Posted by Joanna Slan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)