SWAT Boot Camp : Object Obstacle Course

 By C.L. Phillips


Attention!

Well novelist, I see you are back for another SWAT Boot Camp session with Sgt. Wordslayer.  Remember what SWAT means?  Stop Withering Away Tension.    Know what else SWAT means?  Stop Writing Average Things.

Grab your pencil and a notepad.  Step back from the keyboard.  What?  You don't have a notepad?  Where do you write down the snippets of conversation you overhear in the coffee shop?  Where do you scribble down all the little ideas you have?  You better have a notepad.  Something small.  Shove it in your pocket or purse, or inside your bra.  I don't care.  But do not ever leave home without it.  If I catch you without your notepad, I'll smoke you.  Ten verbs.  I promise.

Now drop and give me five ordinary objects that serve as clues in your current WIP.  Quick.  Five objects.  Murder and mayhem require physical clues.  Get cracking.  What?  You're not writing that kind of novel?   Tough.  Pretend.  You're a mystery novelist, remember?  Now give me one unusual object.  Hey, you there in the back, stop feigning writer's block.  You're not allowed to think during this exercise, so it's impossible to have writer's block.  Look around the room.  What do you see?  Write down those five objects.

Quick, now drop and give me five outstanding verbs.  New ones.  No cheating by using the verbs you've used before.  Chop, chop.  You're not writing the great American novel.  Verbs, people.  Now.  Got 'em?  Did you write them down?  Or are you simply reading and pretending to follow along?  Don't be a wanna-be.  Writers write.  So write.  NOW.  (This is where you scream at the top of your lungs, YES, Sergeant Wordslayer.)  Good.

Now, pair up the five objects with the five verbs.  And pull one more verb out of your...head ...for the unusual object.  Got it?

Now for the obstacle course....take your object and verb pair, and give it a symbolic meaning.

What?  You don't understand me?  Let me explain.  Make your object mean something more than what it is.  Every great mystery is filled with symbols and deeper meanings.  How in the world do you expect to write the next DaVinci Code or relegate J.K. Rowling to the dust bin with a one-dimensional story?

Oh, so now you're crying, "why didn't you tell me this first?  My object isn't special enough."  That is exactly the point.  Nothing is special until you make it so.  Until you give the reader a reason to care, every word is flat, meaningless.  Anything can be a symbol.  The more common the object, the easier it is to hide in plain sight.  The more common the object, the higher the probability your reader has this same object in their home.

Examples, you want stinking examples?  Okay, I'll give you my examples, but in return I expect you to post your list of objects and verbs in the comments for this post.

Objects:  oak tree, phone, tennis ball, newspaper, door, first edition of Tom Sawyer ( the unusual object)
Verbs :  whistle, row, share, bark, intimidate, sooth
Pairs :  oak tree whistles, phone barks, tennis ball rows, newspaper shares, door intimidates, first edition soothes
Meanings :  oak tree - silent strength, phone - love, tennis ball - adventure, newspaper - insight, door - opportunity, first edition - legacy

Are you ready for the final step?

Pull out your current work in progress.  Today, we're going to Whip that WIP in shape with a little Sniper Object Training.  Grab a chapter or ten pages.  Get out your pencil.  Quickly now, go through the pages and circle all the objects.  OBJECTS ONLY LADIES and GENTLEMEN.  And no, this doesn't mean every single noun on the page.  But it could.  You decide.  Yes, gosh-darn it.  Make a decision.  Circle the objects.

Finished?

Ok, that was the easy part.  Now, go back and write a new verb with each object.  You know what's coming next, right?  Yep, you've got to give the object a meaning. 

Now, I want you to reach inside your brain.  Slap that huge ego of yours.  Repeat after me.  "The only person that cares about my WIP is ME."  Now stand up and scream at the top of your lungs.  "I WILL NOT SETTLE FOR MEDIOCRITY."  Wave your arms in the air.  Get that blood flowing.  Scream, "I AM THE SYMBOL QUEEN."  Or King, as your gender dictates.

And yes, a recipe card can be a symbol.  But it better be a darn good recipe.  Scratch that.  It better be molecular gastronomy.  Remember, you are the only one that cares.

Why are we TARGETING OBJECTS?  Because when objects become symbols, the object transports the reader to the emotions you want the reader to experience.  Symbols are the Humvees of the novelists desert.  Put some gas in your tank and put three symbols in your WIP.

And if you dare to reply to this post, give us your objects, verbs, meanings, and symbols.  Remember, writers write.  Post your answers to this drill.  Get on the SWAT Team.  And at the risk of giving you a fat head, pat yourself on the back.  You've completed the Object Obstacle Course.

Dismissed!
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C.L Phillips writes mystery novels while nestled under a hundred-year live oak tree in downtown Austin. Except in August. C.L writes about the the gap between what people want and what they actually do. Broccoli or chocolate chip cookies, anyone? Check out her web site: http://www.clphillips.com/ or find her onTwitter: @clphillips787

More essential sites for writers

By Joyce Tremel

We promised you another installment of writing sites and here it is. This one contains more of the "nuts and bolts" for writers.

If you don't see your favorites listed here, feel free to share them in the comments!

The Graveyard Shift:   “There are no perfect crimes, only imperfect investigations.” Former detective Lee Lofland instructs crime fiction authors on the realities of police work.

Grammar Girl:  Most of us can use a grammar refresher once in awhile.

Publisher’s Weekly:  The latest info on the publishing biz.

Publisher’s Marketplace:  Even the free part of this site has lots of info about publishing, agents, editors, etc.

Query Shark:  Writers can submit their query letter here for critique. Literary agent Janet Reid educates writers on what works and what doesn’t in a query.

Agent Query:  One of the sites where you can search for agents.

Query Tracker: You can track your queries and submissions here in addition to searching for agents.

Preditors and Editors:  Check this site before you submit.

Absolute Write:  Another site to check before you submit.

Novelists, Inc—http://ninc.com—Site for multi-published authors.

Writer Beware blog:  This blog posts warnings about unscrupulous practices and scammers. An affiliated website is http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware.

Mystery Writers of America:  Organization for mystery writers. Presenter of the yearly prestigious Edgar Awards.

And last, but certainly not least—

Sisters in Crime:  Our very own website.

For a Good Read, Let the Characters Shape The Plot

By Nancy Means Wright

Conflict, suspense, humor, plot, setting, point of view, juicy suspects, pain-in-the-butt adversaries and great writing—all these elements enter the mix for a first class mystery. But the most important of these, I insist, is character. Create a charismatic, dynamic character as protagonist, let the story unfold through his or her flaw, quirk or passion, and you’re off to a flying start!  

In Sophocles’ fifth century B.C.’s Oedipus the King, one of our earliest “mysteries,” it’s the latter’s hubris, and his blind passion to find a killer and rid Thebes of a plague, that leads him to question folk, one by one: Come here…You must answer everything I ask! until he discovers that he himself killed his father and slept with his mother.  Centuries later in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, it’s Montresor’s obsessive desire for revenge—since naïve Fortunato “ventured on insult”—that leads the hapless victim down into the damp bowels of the family vaults and doesn’t let go until the last trembly jingle of bells. And no detectives in the story—just the two unforgettable characters.

In 1868, Wilkie Collins set out in his novels “to trace the influence of character on circumstance,” and let his characters “direct the course” of events. In The Moonstone, for instance, the unrequited love of plain, crippled Rosanna for Franklin, and then Rachel’s stubborn silence about something traumatic she’d seen on the night of the diamond’s disappearance, help in large measure to shape the plot.     

More recently, in Case Histories, Kate Atkinson’s laid-back detective Jackson Brodie reluctantly tries to solve three old murders. The nonlinear plot is spun through several points of view, and the story leaps in and out of time and the characters’ minds. To me the dead bodies are less significant than the three-dimensional characters whom she portrays with humor, humanity, and surprise. The novel is a brilliantly written subversion of the detective-thriller.

As for this humble writer, I can’t help but have my sleuth “direct the course” of the novel. My protagonist is real life, 18th-century Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (her daughter wrote Frankenstein). A conflicted woman who wanted “to live independent or not at all” but who longed for a grand romantic passion, she was both impulsive and rebellious. She once kidnapped her sister from an abusive husband, and ordered a reluctant English sea captain to pick up a boatload of drowning French sailors. I thought she’d make a credible sleuth, and much of what happens in Midnight Fires, the first in my series, stems from her intrepid nature.

So I say: choose a flawed, but passionate character, and let the rumpus begin!

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Nancy Means Wright has published 15 books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A longtime teacher, actress-director, Bread Loaf Scholar for a first novel, Wright lives with her spouse and two Maine Coon cats on a dirt road in the environs of Middlebury, Vermont. Please visit her web site:  ww.nancymeanswright.com

As The World Turned

By C.L. Phillips

We sat in the living room, I at my grandmother's knee.  We each held a mess of green beans plucked straight from the garden.  Grandma said, "Let's clean up these beans while my story's on."

I couldn't have been more than nine years old, but I was an expert at television.  We watched shows, not a story.  The music came on and the twirling globe introduced my grandmother's favorite soap opera.  Have you guessed which one?  Yep, As the World Turns.  She never missed a day.  From six a.m. to six p.m, the only time my Grandmother sat down was during her story.  The story.

Over the course of ten summer visits to Grandma's house, I learned to care deeply about fictional characters.  I shared their hopes, dreams, and despair.  Every day, Grandma and I would do some type of chore that could be completed in front of the television while we peered into a world of rich business people, doctors, lawyers, heroes and villains.  First for thirty minutes, and then later for a full hour, we rooted for our favorites.

Afterward, Grandma would editorialize about the day's show.  "Lisa should know she can't trust that sneaky John Dixon.  When will she learn?"  And then she'd go off on a story from her life, drawing parallels between the real and fictional worlds.  She told me, "Honey, you don't have to make every mistake in the world to learn from it, you just have to watch other people."  Every day, she could take the main conflict and relate it directly to her life.  You see, in our world, there were no rich business people, no lawyers or doctors.  In our world, you didn't get dressed up to dig coal or potash.  But we watched and  I learned.

The first time I had to write a book report in elementary school, I didn't know what to do.  Then I remembered how Grandma could always explain her story.  She'd dig into the conflict immediately.  She could always distill  a show down into one simple sentence.  It always started the same way.  "Honey, the problem is somebody wants something they can't have."  Is life really that simple?  Sure worked for book reports.

One day, I squeezed into the middle seat on a crowded flight from St. Louis to Newark.  The guy seated next to me asked, "What do you do?"  I gave him a polite, yet evasive answer.  "And what do you do?" I asked.  "I'm a writer for a television show."  Now I'm interested.  "Which one?" I asked.  Yep, you guessed it.  As the World Turns.  Can you see the look on the guy's face when he realized I was a certifiable fifteen year fan?  Over the next several hours he shared how the show came together every day, every week, every month, and every season.  Teams of people working together.  A common goal.  Shared accomplishment.  "Boy, you must really love your job".  His eyes traveled to some far away place.  "It pays the bills," he said.

I didn't have the courage to tell him that his writing not only paid the bills, but it changed my world.  Altered my vision of what I could become.  A quiet voice said, "You could write a story.  You could do that too."  It was the first time I thought seriously about becoming a writer.  The seed took hold.

One of the great mysteries of being a writer, an author, is the knowledge you will touch lives you will never know personally.  You will change the way people think, what they imagine, who they become.  May you have the courage to create a world where you start a conversation with the quiet voice inside your reader.

Last December, CBS canceled As the World Turns after fifty four seasons.  The last episode aired September 17th.  My DVR was ready.  I watched the last episode with a mess of green beans that needed cleaning. As I broke off the end, pulled the string along the side of the green bean, and snapped the bean into smaller pieces, I'll was thinking about the hundreds of writers who touched millions of lives over fifty-four years.  And I thanked them for Grandma.
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C.L Phillips writes mystery novels while nestled under a hundred-year live oak tree in downtown Austin. Except in August. C.L writes about the the gap between what people want and what they actually do. Broccoli or chocolate chip cookies, anyone? Check out her web site: http://www.clphillips.com/ or find her onTwitter: @clphillips787

A Brief Talk With Becke Davis

by Janet Bolin

Today, we are pleased to present Becke Davis, moderator of Barnes & Noble's online Mystery Book Club . Becke, when did you first become interested in mysteries?

Becke: I've been an avid mystery fan since I read The Secret of the Old Postbox at age 8. I became hooked for life when I read my first Nancy Drew book at age 9. I was reading Alfred Hitchcock and Twilight Zone short story collections by age 12, discovered Agatha Christie at age 15 and Mary Stewart shortly thereafter. Even though I am an obsessive reader who averages a book a day, my to-be-read pile never seems to go down. At last count, it filled two small bookcases and four bins with over 300 books.

SinC Blog: What keeps you turning pages in a mystery?

Becke: I want to solve the mysteries and find out all the answers. I’m a big fan of romantic suspense, so I’m always eager to see the hero and heroine get their happy ending, too.

SinC Blog: How do you choose which books to feature in the club?

Becke: When the book clubs first started, B&N picked the features, and author visits were rare. At the end of last year, I asked if I could feature more than the standard two books/authors per month and I was told to "go wild" with it.

I read by author, and I feature authors rather than individual books. I think this is more beneficial to both B&N and the author, and our goal, after all, is to sell books. At B&N's Mystery, I've found that readers develop a strong loyalty for authors they feel they know.

I have developed relationships with the publicists at most of the big publishing companies, as well as publicists who work directly with some authors. They send me advance reader copies of books, and emails when they have an exciting release coming up.

If the release sounds interesting, I'll set up an author visit. If I randomly pick up a book and like it, I'll try to find the author online and set up a visit that way, too. Initially, I was looking for big name authors, but I've found that our participants are just as excited to meet debut authors. The most successful visits are the ones where the author has fun - that communicates itself, and it's contagious. I love it when that happens.

SinC Blog: You also write.

Becke:  I'm a freelance garden writer and I blog at B&N's Garden Variety. I started with B&N about nine years ago, writing and teaching courses for the B&N Online University. I'm also a contributing editor at Romance: B(u)y the Book and have written well over 1,000 articles as well as six non-fiction books. I started writing fiction in 2007, and wish I'd started sooner. Those voices in my head just won’t shut up until I tell their stories.
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Becke Davis is vice president of the Ohio Valley RWA chapter and a member of Sisters in Crime. Several of Becke’s stories have finaled in RWA contests and she’s had two stories featured online: a Christmas short story and a short-short that NPR called "the literary equivalent of a basket of late night fried mozzarella cheese sticks." Her website is www.beckemartin.com, and her blogs are The Mysterious Garden Muse and The Family Treethyme. She has completed a contemporary romance RUBY STILETTO BLUES and is currently working on a romantic suspense story called NIGHT VISIONS.

The Rule of Threes

 By C.L. Phillips

"Knock. Knock."

"Who's there?"

"Fiction novelist."

Fixin' novelist who?

"Not fixin'.  Fiction."

Raise your hand if you spend more time "fixin'" your work than anything else. We start out with high hopes for our concept only to realize creating the story requires more rewriting than we ever imagined. And does anything suck the life out of you faster than rewriting?

So what do successful novelists do? They work on more than one project at a time.  But you already knew that. Many people say the only difference between a writer and a published author is the published author never quits. But I don't believe that.  I believe published authors master the Writer's Lifecycle and the Rule of Three.

What is the Writer's Lifecycle?  Let's make it simple - four stages, each with entry and exit criteria.  Stage 1 is Storyshaping. Stage 2 is Content Development. Stage 3 is Polishing. Stage 4 is Querying.

You might have a dozen ideas floating around in your head. These are Stage 1 ideas, the concepts you play with and eventually shape into a project you want to move forward. Anything with an outline or more than 5,000 words is a Stage 2 project, one where you develop the content. After you have a completed draft, or better yet, a full second draft, you have a project in Stage 3, the part of the pipeline where you rewrite and rewrite.  Maybe you get reader feedback.  You take a Stage 3 project to workshops and polish the daylights out of the first fifty pages. In Stage 4, you steel your nerves, take a stiff drink of your favorite liquid courage and query until you are successful.

 Here's another way to view the Writer's Lifecycle:

Stage 1 :  An idea; a story concept
Stage 2 :  A story concept with an outline or 5,000 words
Stage 3 :  A completed first or second draft, something you would take to a critque group
Stage 4 :  A query-ready novel, synopsis, and query letter

Stage 1 is your idea sandbox.  You might have a hundred ideas in Stage 1.  But how many of those ideas are you willing to develop? One thing is certain, you won't develop all of these ideas at once, so the other three stages are dedicated to real production.

The Rule of Three says, "Have at least three projects in production."  That means have at least one project in Stage 2, one in Stage 3, and one in Stage 4.  Why?

Because every business has a product pipeline.  Nobody puts all their eggs in one basket, and even if they do, they have new products coming to the market.  Did Facebook claim success when they shipped the first version of their product?  No.  Did James Patterson stop with his first series of books?  No.  And for an author with one series, do they stop with one book?  No.  They keep developing projects.  They keep pushing products into the marketplace.

Businesses either grow or die.  If you don't have a product pipeline, you are doomed to certain death, or you have a wonderful little hobby.  Me, I want a writing career.  This means I must think about my writing projects like a business.  Always have something in development, test, and production.

What would happen if you divided your efforts across different projects, each in a different Stage of the Writer's Lifecycle?  You could easily and intelligently discuss the status of each of your projects to a publishing professional or agent.  You could recharge your creative juices by working on different projects simultaneously without guilt.  You could measure progress and success incrementally rather than reporting the number of rejected queries.

Writers write.  Successful writers keep writing even after an agent or editor says yes.  Outrageously successful writers have a way to spread their precious creative capital across multiple projects.  Do you?  Post your system in the comments for this article. Let's collaborate and find a way to help each other move forward.

The Rule of Three. Try it. Does it work for you?

Write on!
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C.L Phillips writes mystery novels while nestled under a hundred-year live oak tree in downtown Austin. Except in August. C.L writes about the the gap between what people want and what they actually do. Broccoli or chocolate chip cookies, anyone? Check out her web site: http://www.clphillips.com/ or find her onTwitter: @clphillips787

Video Forensics -- Just what IS it?

By Edith Maxwell

One of the key tools used to solve the crimes in SPEAKING OF MURDER, my completed (and as-yet unpublished) mystery is video forensics. My protagonist's boyfriend works as a civilian video forensics expert at the local police station. The software he uses is dTective from Ocean Systems, which was developed by Grant Fredericks and is used by police departments around the country to clarify surveillance video and present video evidence in court.

The dTective software just happens to sit on top of Avid Media Composer, for which I wrote technical documentation for 14 years. That's an application for editing film and video used to create many award-winning movies and television shows. Hmm, coincidence? You decide.

I knew I wanted to feature this software in my books. After I was laid off my job at Avid, I finally had time to research it, and to start writing the first in the Speaking of Mystery series featuring Quaker Linguistics professor, Lauren Rousseau. I was fortunate to be able to consult with the Raynham, Massachusetts police department about the dTective program.

Grant Fredericks  generously pointed me to Chief Lou Pacheco of Raynham.  Chief Pacheco developed the Regional Electronic and Computer Crime Task Force (REACCT) and was one of the earliest users of the dTective technology in the country. Now thousands of agencies have followed his lead and use it to help solve the most serious crimes committed in our nation.


Chief Pacheco and his video analyst, Tim, kindly spent a morning explaining the software and how they use it. They gave me a tour of the station and answered my many questions. The chief wanted to know who was going to play him in the movie. I laughed and said I had to write the book first. Kelli Hutchings, the video forensic analyst of the Bristol County District Attorney's office, also spent a half day with me, demonstrating the software and talking about how she uses it.

It was a fascinating look into some of the inner workings of the criminal justice system. I hope I've done justice to their expertise. (Kelli recently reviewed the relevant sections of my manuscript and said I did a good job. Whew!)

Several of the things you can do with this software:

·    Apply a standard to see how tall someone is
·    Lighten a dark image of a license plate
·    Zoom in on a tattoo or other unique physical characteristic
·    Compare a fingerprint left on a counter to one taken after arrest

It's very cool stuff.  Thanks for letting me stop by and share what I know about this technology. Click here to watch a video of just what this software offers.
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Edith Maxwell, a software technical writer in the video-editing arena, lives on the Massachusetts north shore. Her short story, "Reduction in Force,” will appear in Thin Ice (Level Best Books) later this fall; she has three other published short stories, as well. A mother, world traveler, PhD in Linguistics, and Guppy, Edith is on the board of Sisters in Crime, New England, and also tends a vegetable garden and four cats. She blogs weekly at "Speaking of Mystery": http://edithmaxwell.blogspot.com/

There's No Such Thing As A Bad Read ... Right?

By Katherine Hall Page

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t know how to read, or a time when I wasn’t enthralled by reading. Nose in a book, curled up in a chair, my mother would tell me to go outside and play, which I did—taking my book with me. If I’m caught in a long grocery line without a paperback tucked in my purse, I get a bit panicky and start reaching for whatever is closest to hand—Soap Opera Digest, Say Goodbye to Cellulite or one of the tabloids screaming “Brangelina Adopts Space Alien Triplets”.

In my book, there’s no such thing as a Bad Read.

There is, however, a Good Read. Neither genre, nor length, matter. What matters are the written words and their ability to take you inside yourself and, at the same time, far away. Summer means more leisure to read for me as I’ve usually submitted my next book in the late spring. This summer I’ve been reading a great number of wonderful British crime writers, having attended Crimefest in Bristol, England in May Colin Dexter was the guest of honor and I’ve been rereading him, as well as discovering a few of his I had somehow missed. Other British writers: Cath Staincliffe’s The Kindest Thing (it may be the best book I’ve read this year), also Matt Hilton’s books and A.D. Scott’s debut, A Small Death in the Great Glen. I stopped in London and went to Persephone Press’s bookstore and walked away with some of their treasures: vintage novels by authors like Nancy Mitford and Dorothy Whipple (available online from their web site). Vintage mysteries are always Good Reads, and I have a stack from the Rue Morgue Press in Colorado (also a great web site).

2010 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill A Mockingbird. I reread it and a fascinating biography, Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields that came out several years ago. It answers the question always asked about why Harper Lee never wrote another book.

Summer is also a good time for a certain type of book—family sagas—I’m reading William Martin’s Annapolis—and books filled with humor and colorful characters. I lean toward Dorothy Cannell, Dorothea Benton Frank, and Mary Kay Andrews.

Because I am interested in all things culinary, I read Anthony Bourdain’s new book, Medium Raw and am halfway through Heat An Amateur’s Adventures As Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, And Apprentice To A Dante-Quoting Butcher In Tuscany by Bill Buford.

I live in Maine part of the year and wait for the summer church and library book sales that generate operating funds or money for special projects like a new roof. This is where I pick up vintage children’s books and cookbooks.  I particularly like cookbooks from the 1940’s and 50’s, as well as the ones community groups put together. I came across one published by the Oceanville, Maine Baptist Church for their 200th anniversary a number of years ago. Mixed in with recipes for Salmon Wiggle and Mother’s Molasses Cookies, I came across this prayer:

Dear God:
I thank you for a great day.
I have not gossiped.
I have not lost my temper.
I have not said anything I regret.
I have not had any impure thoughts.
I have not argued with anyone.
I have not disappointed my family
I have not taken Your name in vain.
But in a moment I’m going to get out of bed,
And then I’m really going to need Your help.
In Jesus’ Name.
Amen

No matter what one’s belief, or lack thereof, I think we can all agree, this is a Good Read!
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Katherine Hall Page is the Agatha Award winning author of the Faith Fairchild mystery series. An amateur sleuth, Faith is also a caterer, minister’s wife, and mother. The 19th in the series, The Body in the Gazebo (Wm. Morrow) will be published in early April. Page’s first cookbook, Have Faith in Your Kitchen (Orchises Press) is out now. Katherine welcomes visitors to her web site and enjoys comments from readers: www.katherine-hall-page.org

Two Steps Up, One Step Back -- My Road to Publication

By Lisa Black

My writing career began one night when my mother, who had apparently exhausted her repertoire that particular evening, told me to make up my own bedtime story. It involved a prince, a princess, and a bat (as in the animal). It was my first thriller, the suspense of danger and, of course, the all-important romantic subplot.

Later on I became a prolific letter-writer, and in letters to my favorite cousin I would always include a story—storyboarded with little stick figures (I couldn’t draw). I don’t know how old I was, but I remember that a first-class stamp was 8 cents. It wasn’t until I saw Star Wars in high school that I began to write serious stories—serious meaning they didn’t include pictures. Today they call that fan fiction. To me it was simply another artifact of my serious crush on Harrison Ford.

However, also in high school I visited Washington DC and fell in love with the city, meaning I loved the monuments and the buildings and the marble, not what people did there. What people actually did there bored me silly. I should have been an architect but instead I majored in political science, so that I graduated with no marketable skills whatsoever except typing. I became a secretary, which meant I sat in front of a word processor all day. So what the heck, I’ll write a novel.

I wrote six.

By the third book I actually deigned to offer it to an agent, though I felt sure I didn’t really need one. (I opened my query letter with “I don’t think I need an agent….” I’m sure that scored two points in the circular file in record time.)

After the sixth book I decided I not only needed an agent, I needed a new day job, so I went back to school and got a degree in biology, specifically to go into forensics. I wound up with a pretty cool job but no time to write until my husband shanghaied me to southwest Florida. Now I had no job, no friends and no family. I started writing again just to stay sane, and sensibly applied my new forensic expertise to my mystery stories.

I kept querying. I was quite organized about it—former secretary and all—and had a 6 page single spaced Excel spreadsheet of agents, addresses and pertinent facts along with columns for date mailed and any response returned. With my 9th book—Trace Evidence—I decided to mix it up and start with the Z’s instead of the A’s. Just for fun. Meanwhile, back at the ranch: CSI premiered. Everyone began to look for the next Patricia Cornwell.

Then one momentous day my agent—a K—called and asked to represent me and I said okay, without discussion or negotiation. (I had already vetted via Google.) I did not know her, I had no sort of ‘in’ with her at all. I was just another query letter she received. We hashed out Trace Evidence for eight months before she auctioned it to Hyperion in a two-book deal.
And I lived happily ever after?

Yes, to some extent. But there was still the occasional pothole. 

I wrote most of the second book while we were still working on the first one, and, naive soul that I am, assumed the public had had enough of serial killers killing beautiful young women. What was to be my second published novel involved a dead child and a suburban household. It did have problems, I’m not denying that. So finally the publisher said we really need you to write something else. I had been gathering ideas for what became Unknown Means as the third novel, so I simply moved it up to the number two slot. I wrote the first draft in 3½ months, 4000 words at a time. It was grueling. Unknown Means got great reviews but it was too late. I was not to be the next Patricia Cornwell.

I trod on. I’d already written the next book and my wonderful agent and I loved it, but we knew that even if publishers loved it as well, they would make decisions based solely on the sales figures from Trace Evidence.  Upon her advice I changed my name (from Elizabeth Becka to Lisa Black) and the names of my characters. She sold it to William Morrow (Harper Collins) and I couldn’t be happier with them.

Takeover got a big push, Evidence of Murder has held its own, and Trail of Blood is looking good. But what would have been the sixth book? My agent didn’t like it. The plot didn’t come together as well as it needed to, and she didn’t think meth addicts made sympathetic victims. (After all, everyone in a book has to be young and rich and sexy or no one will care that they’re dead!)

So I threw it out, and started over. Again.

Because even with two steps up and one step back, I’m still moving forward. 
==============================
Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue, working as a forensic scientist in the trace evidence lab until her husband dragged her to southwest Florida. Now she toils as a certified latent print analyst and CSI at the local police department by day and writes forensic suspense by night. Her books have also been published in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain and Japan. Her fifth book, Trail of Blood, involves the real-life Torso Killer, who terrorized Cleveland during the dark days of the Great Depression. For more information visit her website: www.lisa-black.com.

Just who was Anna Katherine Green?

By Leslie Shortlidge

Pennsylvania politics took a back seat to mystery one day in 1878.  Who, asked the state’s legislators, was the real author of the taut, gritty mystery novel The Leavenworth Case? Surely “Anna Katharine Green” was a pen name for someone of the male persuasion. since the story of murder and subsequent detection was considered “manifestly beyond a woman’s powers.”*

The elected officials of PA were wrong. Anna Katharine Green was indeed Anna Katharine Green. Born in Brooklyn in 1846, her father, first reader, and first editor, James Wilson Green, was a lawyer. One has to assume that young Anna was paying quite a bit of attention to the stories her father brought home from work, or been sufficiently interested in criminal law to conduct her own investigation into police procedure and criminal trials. The Leavenworth Case, which was a huge success, immediately assumes a form that 21st century readers know and love: a body, a post-mortem, a locked room, a potential murder weapon, the testimony of witnesses, family secrets. Green puts all of these now-familiar tropes into play very quickly, commanding the reader’s attention and exciting curiosity.

She also introduces the reader to perhaps the most important trope, and that is the canny but eccentric sleuth in the personage of Mr. Gryce, who confounds our expectations from the get-go, as the novel’s narrator explains: 

“And here let me say that Mr. Gryce, the detective, was not the thin, wiry individual with the piercing eye you are doubtless expecting to see. On the contrary, Mr. Gryce was a portly, comfortable personage with an eye that never pierced, that did not even rest on you. If it rested anywhere, it was always on some insignificant object in the vicinity, some vase, inkstand, book, or button.”

The dialogue is sharp – no excessive tag lines clutter up the rapid back-and-forth of these post-bellum Brooklynites. Human nature is on display in the personages of the household staff and the jurors at the inquest. Love shows up right away, unbidden and unhelpful. Secrets are choked back by those unwilling to reveal them. Glances are exchanged.

Green wrote at least 40 other books, and also created detectives Violet Strange (isn’t that the best name ever?) and Amelia Butterworth, characters who perhaps influenced Nancy Drew and Miss Marple.

Judge for yourself the importance of Green’s work:  The first ten people to comment on this blog will be entered to win the just-issued Penguin edition of The Leavenworth Case.
===================
Leslie Shortlidge is a Guppie and lives in Columbus, Ohio. You can follow her on Twitter, where her handle is Bookorama. Most of her posts are exciting updates on her word count, using the #amwriting hash tag.

Organize the blogs you read with Google Reader

by Lisa J. Jackson

Do you follow several blogs? Do you find that keeping up with a lot of blogs to be time consuming? Google Reader can help.

Google Reader is one of many helpful Google tools that help people with their productivity. It is an automated interface that organizes your subscriptions to news sites and blogs in one place.

You can easily have the news and updates on subjects of interest delivered to your e-mail. You can read through them at your convenience. I find it just as easy to log into Google Reader and view unread blogs and news directly from there.

1. Subscribe to the news feeds and blogs you want, then read the new postings and updates whenever it’s convenient for you. If some content doesn’t interest you after a while, simply unsubscribe.

2. It’s easy to keep track of the feeds you have already read and those you haven’t. Google Reader shows unread items in bold.

3. Whether the site or blog you follow updates daily, weekly, or monthly, you’ll get the notices of new posts right after they happen.

 4. You can also search for new and interesting content through Google Reader without taking hours of surfing the Internet. Let Google Reader do the work for you; even sort blogs and news into categories/folders for easier reference.

If you’re on the go a lot, well, you can access Google Reader from your phone, from any computer, or add a gadget to iGoogle.

If you already have a Google account, you’re ready to go. Sign in to Google Reader with your Google username and password.

Otherwise, getting a (free) Google account is painless. Go to Google Reader and sign up on the spot. Help for Google Reader can be found here.

Google strives to make its interfaces as user-friendly as possible. There are help files and step-by-step instructions available to get you set up and proactive.

If you’d like a hands-on introduction to Google Reader, check out the Google Reader Tour. You can also visit the Newbies Guide to get a handy walk-through of the basics of Google Reader (including shortcuts and scripts) and RSS feeders.

I find it incredibly handy to see all the unread blog posts in one spot. I’m still floored by how much time it saves me on a daily basis.

If you haven’t discovered Google Reader, why not give it a try. If you are already using Google Reader, have you discovered anything you’d like to share with our blog readers?

========================

Lisa J. Jackson is an editor, author, book coach, consultant, Big Sister, cat owner, and chocolate lover. She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has a blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom where she gets to chat with writing professionals on a weekly basis — and you can too!   Visit her web site!

Mystery and Writing Group Blogs

By Joyce Tremel

This is our first installment of essential blogs for mystery writers covers group blogs. Note that this list only touches on a few of the many wonderful group blogs out there. We will list more in the future. I promise!

Working Stiffs—“Where Crime Writers Talk About Life, Work, and Murder.” Created by Pittsburgh SinC members, it has expanded to include writers from all over. I’m one of the founding members and the current blog administrator.

Poe’s Deadly Daughters—“A Blog For Mystery Lovers.” Posts on PDD are an interesting mix if craft and the writing life and often features visiting authors on the weekends.

Murderati—“Mysteries, Murder and Marketing.” One of the first group mystery blogs. It features a nice mix of craft, books, and personal essays.

The Lipstick Chronicles—“Just keep reading and no one gets hurt.” TLC has undergone many changes over the years but has never lost their focus of entertaining readers. Ask a long time TLCer what IOCHFTS means.

The Kill Zone—“Insider perspectives from today’s hottest thriller and mystery writers.” This is another blog that mixes posts on craft with entertaining stories of the writing life.

Criminal Minds—“A virtual panel.” This blog is a little different. Each blogger answers the same question posed to them that week.

The Cozy Chicks—“Cozy up to some killer books.” The Cozy Chicks post about the writing life. They say, “Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and join the conversation.”

Jungle Red Writers—“Writing well is the best revenge.” You’ll recognize all these Sisters in Crime. They blog about writing—and everything else.

Hey, There’s a Dead Guy in the Living Room—“Mystery writing from idea to bookshelf.” Nice mix of posts from writers, booksellers, and even a slithery agent.

Killer Hobbies—These writers write about… what else? Hobbies of course!

The LadyKillers—“An unsuitable blog for a woman…” A blog for readers and writers of crime fiction.

Can you think of any other group blogs? Feel free to share them with us in the comments section.

(Fear not, we'll feature single blogs in the coming weeks.)

Don't miss tomorrow's post, when Lisa J. Jackson tells you how to organize the blogs you read!

Liar, Liar--Pants On Fire!

By Wendy Lyn Watson

Like most writers, I was a reader first, so the prospect of sharing “good reads” with the mystery-writing community thrilled me.  But the minute I said “yes,” the enormity of my task hit me.  How on earth could I whittle down my mental list of killer fiction into a handful of recommendations?

I decided right off the bat that I couldn’t make recommendations in my own genre (cozy mysteries), because I’d have to start with “Hey, if you like cozies, you should check out my new Mystery a la Mode, SCOOP TO KILL, which is out TODAY!”  That would be plain ol’ tacky.  And then I’d have to recommend all my talented friends, and I’d be sure to leave someone off the list, feelings would be hurt, words exchanged ... you get the drift.

Looking farther a field into the darker realms of mystery and crime fiction, my first impulse was to share a book I’ve only recently discovered: DECEPTION, by Denise Mina  (published in the UK under the title Sanctum). The book isn’t new (2005), but I found it as I was plowing eagerly through Mina’s backlist. It was new to me, and perhaps to you, too.

The premise is delicious. Forensic psychiatrist Susie Harriot stands convicted of murdering serial killer Andrew Gow, whom she was treating in a Scottish prison, and Gow’s wife. Lachlan Harriot, Susie’s stay-at-home-daddy and would-be-novelist husband, narrates his own investigation into Susie’s shadowy relationship with Gow, an investigation that allows Lachlan into his wife’s most private space (her office) against her wishes.

Yummy, right?

The cherry on top, though, is Mina’s use of my all-time-favorite literary device: the unreliable narrator. As readers, we depend on Lachlan to perceive and pass along the information we need to suss out the real story of what happened between Susie and the Gows. Yet Lachlan is not neutral in this tale. His relationship with the crime is complicated by his complex relationship with his wife. We are left to untangle whether the story he tells is fact, delusion, or outright deception.

If you haven’t read Denise Mina yet, I highly recommend her entire catalogue, but Deception holds a special place in my heart.

=========================

Wendy Lyn Watson writes deliciously funny cozy mysteries with a dollop of romance.  Her Mysteries a la Mode (I Scream, You Scream, Scoop to Kill, and A Parfait Murder (June, 2010)) feature amateur sleuth Tallulah Jones, who solves murders in between scooping sundaes.  While she does not commit--or solve--murders in real life, Wendy can kill a pint of ice cream in nothing flat.  She's also passionately devoted to 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV.  Be sure to check out her web site.  Wendy also blogs with the Killer Characters on every 3rd of the month.

Create Your Own Yellow Brick Road

By C.L. Phillips

Is there only one yellow-brick road to publication? Methinks not. Just as there is a title for every reader, a car for every driver, there is a path to publication for every writer...who doesn't quit. Sylvia Dickey Smith, winner of the Barbara Burnett Smith Mentoring Authors Foundation Sage Award Winner for 2010, proves where there's a will, there's a way.

Starting in 2006, Sylvia queried a hundred agents. Not one nibble. In 2007, she found an agent who subsequently went out of business. Weary, discouraged, and determined never to be self-published, Sylvia reset her sights on small publishers. She landed a deal, sans agent, with LL Dreamspace. Fast forward three years, and she's published three mysteries - Dance on His Grave, Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets, Dead Wreckoning, and one cookbook Sassy Southern Classy Cajun.

What's unique about Sylvia's journey is how her writing evolved. She's moved into women's historical fiction with her latest book, A War of Her Own, a project she started during NaNoWriMo 2008, soon to be released in September 2010 by CrickHollow Books (www.crickhollowbooks.com). Again, she didn't slow down to find an agent. Instead, she targeted small publishers, negotiated her own contract, and pushed forward with the zeal of a tiger on steroids. Sylvia said, "I came into this world feet-first and left-handed. I'm not waiting for anybody to tell me what to do." Sylvia attacks the writing business like a business, and she is her own entrepreneur.

What I admire about Sylvia's journey is her ability to make decisions that are right for her, and her ability to execute. She created a plan. When the plan didn't work, she changed. When the changes spurred personal growth, she trusted her inner guidance and a new voice emerged. She's following this new voice into a new area, women's fiction. Like any artist, she's experimenting, letting each project or novel play a role in the growth of her craft, her self, and her dreams. When asked why she created A War of Her Own, Sylvia said, "In the 1940's, women were left on their own when they had problems. And women do what they have to do come hell or high water. I wanted to write about that kind of woman." In War of Her Own, the main character, Bea Meade gives a new meaning to personal strength as her life evolves from that of a young, sheltered wife and mother to a divorced working woman, meeting the world on her own terms with a pragmatic view of men, family, and religion.

There are many ways to measure success. Sylvia creates her own measures. Do you? On your path to publication, do you have a plan for evolving your command of craft? Are you building the internal self image to sustain you during difficult times? Do you nurture experiments that could be the key to your future success? Sylvia taught me that the answers will be different for every writer. What's important is that you honestly ask the questions of yourself, and Write Down the ANSWERS. Make a plan. Get out there. Engage the market. Make adjustments. And as always...

Write on!

=======

C.L Phillips writes mystery novels while nestled under a hundred-year live oak tree in downtown Austin. Except in August. C.L writes about the the gap between what people want and what they actually do. Broccoli or chocolate chip cookies, anyone? Check out her web site: www.clphillips.com or find her onTwitter: @clphillips787

The Saturday Your-Turn Forum

or

What Do You Want To See On This Blog?

We're still in the process of revamping the Sister In Crime blog, and the Sinc Blog Army* wants to know what you'd like to see on the SinC into the depths of Mystery blog and if you like the changes that have been made in the past couple of months?


Would you like to see more of the following?

A Sister (or Brother) in Crime author? Name one (or more).

Your favorite (or maybe less favorite) writing hint?

Publicity or promotions that have worked for you? (Or didn’t work!)

Interesting websites, or any social media?

Anything else?

Send us a message in the Comments section. We’ll do our best to find the answers you might want, the authors you want to read about, and a few new tricks you’d like to try.

Our blog will continue to promote the Sisters in Crime strategic plan. This includes

1. Advocacy, monitoring, and reporting,

2. Professional education and career development, and

3. Membership growth, networking, and forums for members.

==========================================

* Just who is the SinC Blog Army? The people in the background who keep this blog rolling by trolling for content, contacting authors about writing for the blog, and putting articles together for your information and enjoyment.

We are:

Janet Bolin
Jessie Crockett
Julie Hennrikus
Norma Huss
Linda Lovely
C.L. Phillips
Terri Ponce
Joyce Tremel
and our SinC Blog Promoter, Polly Iyer

We're still looking for volunteers, too. If you'd like to help, please contact Lorraine Bartlett at LLB@LLBartlett.com -- thanks!

IS "KINDLING" FOR YOU -- Part II

The Nuts and Bolts

by CJ Lyons

Being a cyber-klutz, I thought this would be the most difficult part of self e-publishing, but it actually was quite easy (if a bit tedious and time-consuming).

All the major e-pub sites have guidelines available.  All you need to do is to follow them.

The major e-pub sites I used initially were: Amazon, Scribd, and Smashwords.  I also loaded my books onto Lulu after several readers requested an avenue where they could purchase print copies. (Note: since books printed by POD technology are more expensive, I kept the price on the print books as low as I could, so I essentially make no profit from these sales, they’re more to generate good-will.)

The charge to authors to use these sites' basic services is nothing.  All provide more customized services (such as purchasing ISBN numbers, marketing packages, etc) for a fee.

Step one: create an account at the sites you’ll be using.  Through this account you’ll upload your books, track sales, make any revisions to your final product, and, at some sties, interact with customers.

Step two: read each site’s guide to formatting and follow it closely.  For all the sites I worked with, this basically came down to stripping all formatting from a Word doc of your manuscript and then exporting it in the format the e-publishing site requires. 

I found the Smashwords guide to be very thorough and in-depth with a lot of trouble-shooting tips, so I start there, transforming my Word doc to a document suitable for Smashwords and then simply export it as a html file for uploading to Amazon.

This step is the most time-consuming because you need to go through every line of the manuscript ensuring that no errant formatting remains behind and that the resulting manuscript is readable. 

Step three is almost as equally tiresome as step two.  You need to upload the re-formatted manuscript to each site and proofread it (yes, again!) to ensure that nothing is lost in translation.

Step four: add cover art, a description, tags, and set a price.  This is where using more than one platform comes in handy. 

I start by publishing my books on Smashwords because if they are qualified for their Premium Catalogue, then they'll be distributed to a variety of channels including the Sony, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and if you want, Amazon Kindle stores.  You can also inexpensively purchase an ISBN for each book. 

Smashwords also has an easy to use coupon generator, which is perfect if you're trying to target certain groups and want to measure your success. 

I preferred to distribute to all of the channels through Smashwords except Kindle—that I did myself.  I wanted the ability to control the Kindle channel myself since I knew it would be the one with the most sales.

Step five: Hit publish and you’re done!

Additional considerations for authors with previously published works.  There are many companies who will "package" your books for you, converting them from electronic files or even scanning the actual book pages to create an editable electronic file.  Some also provide services such as editing, formatting, cover art creation, and publishing to a variety of e-stores.

Do your research and compare prices.  Many will give you references to check.  Also, make sure that you do not sign any of your author's rights away when you contract with these services.

What about the money?

Some authors may choose to give their work away for free in order to gain new readers or as a promotion tied to other books.  But most of us will be hoping to earn some income from our e-published books.

Joe Konrath believes that the price point you set is the key.  “Make your books impulse purchases by keeping the cost low.”

When I first self e-published, I experimented with a variety of prices ranging from $1.99 to $3.99 a book.  I found no real difference in the average sales on Smashwords, but the $2.99 books were the best selling on Amazon.

Since Amazon has recently increased their royalty rate for authors to 70% of books priced $2.99-$9.99 (with some caveats, be sure to read their agreement for more information), I revised all the prices on my Kindle books to $2.99.

One thing I have noticed during my eight months of e-pubbing is that Amazon out sells all other formats by at least 10:1.  Yes, those Kindle readers, love, love, love to buy books!!!

Even though the Smashword sales lag behind Amazon’s, I’ll continue to use them because of the ability to distribute to the other major e-stores such as Apple. Plus, Smashwords offers inexpensive ISBNs as well as the ability to generate coupons.

The bottom line

It’s not a huge amount of money, but I’m on track to make more in a year than I would if I took any of the offers from NYC publishers that I’d received for these particular manuscripts.  All with no expenses incurred other than my time and a few dollars for the copyright, ISBNs, and the stock art I used in the cover design.

As Konrath says, “E-books aren't a substitute for print books. Your results may vary. But this is a very exciting time to be an author. It's free to post books on Kindle. For the first time in history, we can potentially reach a wide readership, all by ourselves.

Just make sure you're giving those readers something they'll enjoy.”

I firmly agree.  In fact, I plan to upload my first "free" Amazon book in the near future as a promotion to help boost sales of my new release.  I also plan to experiment with using a penname for manuscripts that don't fit my brand.

Self e-publishing has its place in an author’s career path, whether to keep a backlist alive, to try new genres and markets, to use as a promotional tool in conjunction with traditionally published books, or to generate a little income on the side.

Thanks for reading!

CJ

======================================
Resources:

JA Konrath’s blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

US Government Copyright Office

Amazon’s Digital Text Platform

Scribd

Smashwords

Lulu

=======================================

As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about.  In addition to being an award-winning medical suspense author, CJ is a nationally known presenter and keynote speaker. 

Her first novel, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), received praise as a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller" from Publishers Weekly, was reviewed favorably by the Baltimore Sun and Newsday, named a Top Pick by Romantic Times Book Review Magazine, and became a National Bestseller.  Her award-winning, critically acclaimed Angels of Mercy series (LIFELINES, WARNING SIGNS, and URGENT CARE) is available now and the series finale, CRITICAL CONDITION, hits stores November, 2010.  Her newest project is as co-author of a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich.  To learn more about CJ and her work, go to http://www.cjlyons.net/.

IS "KINDLING" FOR YOU? (Part I)

by CJ Lyons

The publishing industry is in an era of upheaval, forcing many authors to flex their entrepreneur muscles, searching for new avenues of income and ways to keep their books in the public's eye.

One way of doing this is to self e-publish your backlist or other books that you hold the rights to.  With more and more readers embracing e-books and e-books becoming the fastest growing segment of publishing, the idea of cutting out the middle-men and keeping profits for ourselves is tempting.

Here are a few things to think about before walking the path of electronic self-publication:

Why self e-publish?

Like many authors, once I was firmly established with NYC publishers, I never thought about e-publishing or self-publishing, much less doing both!

But I found myself with four manuscripts that were all previously in the hands of NYC publishers but that for a variety of reasons never made it to publication. Then I saw a blog by multi-published thriller author J.A. Konrath discussing his own experiment with electronic self-publishing.  His argument was logical, the numbers impressive, but I was still skeptical.

I wanted these books to find an audience but I didn't want to tie them to contracts I might later regret, especially as these four novels were all romantic suspense/thrillers and my career has moved to more mainstream suspense/thriller.  So, I decided to perform my own self-publishing experiment.

I realized that I could use these books as promotional products as well as money-makers.  Since I was in control of when they were released, how long they were available, and what their price was, I had a greater freedom than I do with my traditionally published works.

This turned out to be an unexpected bonus as by the time I had them formatted and ready for publication it was December, 2009.  Then a few weeks later the earthquake in Haiti hit.  Since I'm a pediatric ER doctor as well as a thriller novelist, I wanted to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.

What better way than using my experimental self e-pubbed books?

I sent out a newsletter and posted on my website and a few blogs that I was donating the proceeds of my Kindle sales for the month of February to DWB.  I chose the Kindle format simply because it is exceptionally easy to track Kindle sales on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis through my Amazon's DTP (digital text platform) account.

What I discovered was: Kindle readers read....a lot!  I ended up raising over $1600 for DWB, which translated to almost 1700 books sold in one month on Kindle.

Possible Pitfalls

Anyone deciding to self-publish should have a good grasp of their target audience.  You want to build an audience who will stay with you and help spread the word of your books--and that means making a promise to always deliver a high quality read.

Konrath agrees.  “E-books are a perfect place to experiment and try new things, and since you own your rights, you aren't tied down to any particular genre, and you can always delete something that isn't working.

But whatever you put on Kindle should be perfect. No errors, well-edited, great covers, perfectly formatted. This should be your best work, presented in the best way possible.”

In other words, just as in mainstream publishing, self e-publishing is still all about the reader. 

It's not about clearing your closet of dusty manuscripts just because you can.  Unless you plan on giving your work away for free, your goal is to attract paying customers.  Which means the books you self e-publish need to be just as good as any book a NYC publisher is selling.

If you have a backlist that you own the rights to, they've already been professionally edited,  you're good to go.  Do be aware that publishers own the cover art, so you'll need to create a new cover for your e-book.

If you're planning to publish a book that hasn't been previously published, make certain it is professionally edited.  The four books I chose for my experiment were all edited prior to my self-publication--three by NYC editors (before their road to publication went astray) and one by a professional freelance editor.  Do not rely solely on your critique partners or your Great Aunt Martha who gushes to her bridge club about your writing! 

Remember, not only are you competing against NYT bestsellers, you're also selling a product to a consumer.  If you expect to win their hard earned money--and more importantly, their time, attention, and future sales loyalty--then you need to create a worthy product.

When using a previously unpublished book, you'll want to register a copyright (I did all four in one electronic batch using the US Copyright office's online registration) and include a copyright notice in the front of your book.  You may also want to purchase an ISBN number (this will allow you to better track your sales).  More on this in Part Two.

One pitfall I hadn't totally realized prior to publishing these books was their impact on my branding. 

These books were all romantic thrillers while my traditionally published novels are medical suspense (although with some romantic elements).  Since the romance community had praised and embraced my medical suspense novels, I thought readers would assume these books were a logical extension of my writing, although in the romance genre.

Most readers have enjoyed these books—after publishing them, I received dozens of letters from fans asking if there would be more, telling me how much they enjoyed these books.

BUT, the first few customer reviews on Amazon were not good.  Since Amazon allows you to track sales on a daily basis, it was easy to see sales plummet after these reviews.  They were still good, about 40 books a day, but lower than before the reviews when they'd averaged 50+ a day.

Since then I've had some good reviews from readers leading to increased sales that have remained steady.  But I still struggle with the knowledge that it's clear some readers were disappointed by my foray into another genre.

Questions I asked myself were: should I keep the books up with poor reviews? Should I change the author on them to a penname so I didn't "contaminate" my CJ Lyons brand?

I decided to leave them up under my own name.  It might not be the right marketing decision, but I stand by these books and it didn't feel right to make money off them and then "disown" them.

However, I did revise their descriptions to more strongly advertise them as romance, so my mainstream readers won't be surprised.  I also offer a large excerpt for free, so readers can easily try them before they buy them.

If you'd like to visit my Amazon page and check the books out for yourself, it's here.

 

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part Two: The Nuts and Bolts of Self E-pubbing

Thanks for reading!

CJ

========================================

As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about.  In addition to being an award-winning medical suspense author, CJ is a nationally known presenter and keynote speaker. 

Her first novel, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), received praise as a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller" from Publishers Weekly, was reviewed favorably by the Baltimore Sun and Newsday, named a Top Pick by Romantic Times Book Review Magazine, and became a National Bestseller.  Her award-winning, critically acclaimed Angels of Mercy series (LIFELINES, WARNING SIGNS, and URGENT CARE) is available now and the series finale, CRITICAL CONDITION, hits stores November, 2010.  Her newest project is as co-author of a new suspense series with Erin Brockovich.  To learn more about CJ and her work, go to http://www.cjlyons.net/.

Member Benefits? Check out SinC Links!

By Nancy Martin

Every month, Sisters in Crime sends an e-blast to members called SinC Links. When the board created this project, the purpose was to provide the professional writers among us—members who make their living from writing—with solid information about the industry and our place in it. To prepare the e-blast, a crack team of volunteers spends every month scouring the Internet for new stories that have value to women crime writers. We specifically target the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, UK and Canadian newspapers and various industry-related blogs and websites. But we manage to find good stuff off the beaten track, too.

If you followed the Links this year, you undoubtedly noticed that publishing industry trends—especially those in the mystery genre--have been mixed. Sure, bestsellers Janet Evanovich and Patricia Cornwell managed to land great book deals. A few more authors in the mid-six figure range were also successful. But the majority of women selling mysteries right now are being paid very low advances—and a sorry few of those women were members of Sisters in Crime. (So few, in fact, that we changed our policy and now include deals by non-members just so we have something to report in the SinC Links.)

We’ve also noted the “small presses” are paying about a thousand dollars for a book, often for just one-book deals. This kind of deal is more for the hobby writers than the pros, but we list such deals anyway because knowledge is power, right?

The disheartening low-advance trend brings up the consideration that maybe now’s a good time to write something besides mystery if you can. But if you watch the “deals” in other genres, you’ve noticed that YA has exploded (that is, publishers have been eagerly accepting manuscripts that appeal to young adult readers) as have the paranormal and inspirational genres. (Now’s the time, apparently, to try selling that Amish teenage vampire manuscript you’ve kept in a drawer.) If you want to write a thriller and you have a name that could pass for a man’s--well, now’s good for you, too. Romantic suspense seems to be heating up as well. And historical fiction is enjoying a surge among publishers, too.

Of course, those trends may have run their course. If it takes you two years to write such a book--well, “you snooze, you lose,” comes to mind.

The other big story for SinC Links this year, of course, is the rise of e-books. Amazon says they’re selling more e-books than hardcovers. Barnes & Noble’s Nook device has come down in price, and many of their e-books are priced at $10 or less. Which means you can buy a Nook along with a dozen e-books instead of $25 hardcovers, and you’ll break even. Professional authors would be fools not to be sure their books are available in Kindle and Nook format? The Sisters in Crime Summit Report http://www.sistersincrime.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=5 contains valuable info if you’re behind in the e-book trends.

But let’s face it: It’s the “deals” that everybody’s really interested in. How much money was So-and-So paid for what kind of book? Who’s her agent? What editor made the purchase? If you read SinC Links every month only for the deals, you’ll eventually start seeing the trends and act accordingly.

What SinC Links doesn’t do? We don’t provide supportive inspiration. (Although we occasionally find a tidbit that’s entertaining.) Nor are we an outlet for self-promotion. (We don’t announce pub dates, only business deals.) Unfortunately, we don’t provide a venue for discussing current trends either—but that’s what this blog is for! And so is the Sisters in Crime listserve. But SinC Links is intended to help professional writers make solid business decisions as we strategize our careers.

Any questions about SinC Links? Thoughts? Suggestions? Today’s the day!

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Nancy Martin's writing carer has stayed alive for 30 years, during which she has written nearly 50 popular fiction novels including The Blackbird Sisters mystery series and the Roxy Abruzzo series. She serves on the board of Sisters in Crime and blogs at The Lipstick Chronicles.  Be sure to visit Nancy's web site.