Greetings from Bouchercon!

[Originally published at Literary Lunchbox, http://literarylunchbox.wordpress.com]

By Karen Burgess

I’m on a four-day literary extravaganza! Bouchercon is the annual fest for fans and writers of mystery, crime, thriller, suspense and related subgenres (graphic novels, anyone?). This is mostly a fan event. The numbers are not yet in for this year, but attendance in 2010 topped 1,600.

Although I know more writers than I did in the past, I’m still bowled over to be in the room with luminaries such as Val McDermid, Jan Burke, Parnell Hall, Jeremiah Healy, Charlaine Harris… the list goes on. And on.

Yesterday began with a 6 a.m. pickup from my friend Addy, chauffeur and roommate extraordinaire. (For which I am eternally grateful – she had to get up at 4:30 to make this happen!) We drove to St. Louis, checked in to the super-lovely Renaissance Grand Hotel, and then walked over to the ever-so-opposite Holiday Inn Select, where Sisters in Crime was holding its pre-conference workshop for writers. It was the only event specifically for writers, so I was pumped to go.

The event was an incredible value for the $50 registration fee. The speakers included:

• David Wilk, CEO, Booktrix, on the state of publishing

• Libby Fischer Hellmann, author (most recent book, Set the Night on Fire, a standalone thriller), on comparing traditional and e-publishing

• Cathy Pickens and Jim Huang (author and bookseller, respectively) on getting your book into print

• Marcia Talley and Ellen Hart, popular mystery authors with long backlists, on do-it-yourself publishing on Kindle

The most useful session for me? Do-it-yourself publishing on Kindle. Marcia and Ellen talked very knowledgeably about what to do, step by step. For published authors with a backlist of out-of-print books, this means new life – and new money – with this new channel that can introduce your fiction to new audiences. (Get your rights back!)

Personally, I have a super-fun book that I have given up on pitching – it’s not a mystery. I came away convinced that I can freshen this up (wrote it so many years ago that my popular references are sure to be dated), format it myself, get an ISBN number, get my ever-so-talented graphic designer husband to do me a cover, price it at $2.99 or $3.99, upload it to Amazon and let my employer know I’m about to retire. (Just kidding on that last one.)

The Sisters in Crime event included a banquet with a very amusing after-dinner speech by author Meg Gardiner. Meg writes the Evan Delaney series about a Santa Barbara attorney and the Jo Beckett series about a forensic psychiatrist. Her books were published worldwide, but not in the U.S., until Stephen King wrote an article about them in Entertainment Weekly. Fourteen publishers called the next day. I was drinking coffee and paper-and-penless during her speech, but I sent myself a series of emails so I could remember some key points.

Email #1: Meg’s blog is called Lying for a Living. She’s also on WordPress. Sister!

Email #2: Meg's first published book was China Lake. I bought it – and several others she authored – today in the Bouchercon book room because when she talked about China Lake, she commented that “a big, big story will expand your readership.” Now I want to see a big, big story. I fear mine are tiny, itsy-bitsy stories.

Email #3: ”Left Behind in the E-book Rapture.” Or at least that’s what my email was supposed to say. iPhone corrected it to “Left Behind in the Snook Rapture.” I love the phrase and the point she’s making – e-books are not going away. Not there? It’s not too late. And if you can focus on a big career, this is going to all come naturally.

So that’s it. I have a giant list of cool blogs, web sites, resources, and more – a bulging book bag full of new purchases and a Bouchercon tote bag full of books that I got FOR FREE repeat FOR FREE, several new friends and a few days to go. More later.


Karen Burgess writes fiction (novels and short stories), is a published author and is searching for an agent. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. You can keep up with her online at her blog, Literary Lunchbox.

Photos courtesy of Karen Burgess.

25th Birthday Bash at Bouchercon

Sisters in Crime celebrates its 25th birthday during Bouchercon with a breakfast party at the Roberts Mayfair, a Wyndham Hotel, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011, at 7:30 a.m.

A full plated breakfast will be served. Guests are welcome.

The cost is $25 for SinC members and $45 for nonmembers.

The Roberts Mayfair is the located near the front door of the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel.

The deadline for registrations sent by U.S. Postal Service mail is Sept. 9. The mailing address is: Sisters in Crime, P.O. Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044. Be sure to include an email address with your reservation to receive a receipt from SinC.

The online registration deadline is Sept. 12. Members can click here to register; nonmembers can click here to register.

The room location for the breakfast will be sent to attendees by email and will be posted on the Sisters in Crime website by Sept. 9.

SinC Into Great Writing: Mapping the New World of Publishing

Sisters in Crime presents its annual “SinC Into Great Writing” seminar on Wednesday, Sept. 14, from 1 to 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Select in St. Louis, Mo.

This year, SinC Into Great Writing focuses on navigating the changing landscape of publishing. The official title of the workshop is “SinC Into Great Writing: Mapping the New World of Publishing (Or, How to Succeed in a Business That’s Really Trying).”

The day includes speakers and sessions focused on practical professional development topics for crime fiction writers.

Keynote speaker David Wilk, Chief Executive Officer of Booktrix, a publishing and marketing services consultancy, will speak on “Planning for a Long Career in a Changing Industry.”

The afternoon programs include:

• Traditional, Small Press, Self-Publishing, E-books. Or…? Making the Decision That’s Right for You

• Everything You Need to Know About Getting Your Book Into (or Back In) Print, and Were Dying to Ask

• Look, Ma! I’ve Been Kindled: A Step-by-Step Guide to E-book Publication

The dinner speaker, New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award winner Meg Gardiner, will talk about “Lying for a Living.” Meg is the author of the five-book Evan Delaney series and the three-book Jo Beckett series. Her most recent title is The Liar’s Lullaby, a Jo Beckett novel.

The after-dinner panel discussion, “Brazen Hussies Speak Out: Marketing Your Novel in an Electronic World” includes Gina Panittieri, President, Talcott Notch Literary, and Debbi Mack, author of the two-volume Sam McRae mystery series. The first book in Mack’s series, Identity Crisis, cracked the extended New York Times e-book bestseller list in March 2011 at number 35.

SinC Into Great Writing takes place the day before Bouchercon officially begins. For those attending Bouchercon, the Holiday Inn Select is two blocks from the Bouchercon conference hotel. Bouchercon registration is not required to attend this event.

Registration is $50 for Sisters in Crime members, or $150 for nonmembers. (The annual dues fee for national membership in SinC at the professional level is $45.)

To register online, go to http://sistersincrime.org/cde.cfm?event=351458 .

A Bouchercon Survival Guide

By Jon Jordan

Here's some information based on my own experiences and stories I've heard from others.

Pre-Bouchercon

Packing:
As you prepare for your trip, there are a few things to remember. Leave room in your bag, you'll be bringing home more than you take with you. Bring some aspirin, maybe some stomach medicine. You are in a strange town, eating out a lot and your schedule will be out of sorts. Better to have some things with you than to have to run to the gift shop and pay $22 dollars for three Excedrin. Bring extra socks and comfy shoes. Happy feet equal happy convention attendee. I also like to bring a few snack items for the room -- good late-at-night munchies can be hard to find.

At Bouchercon:

On the ground at the convention:
When hitting the hotel, especially somewhere I haven't been before, I like to scope out the surroundings. Is coffee available in the hotel? (In St. Louis, yes.) Are there stores and restaurants within walking distance? (Again, yes.) It's nice to have a good feel of the place before it all starts to get crazy.

Before you leave home, you should be able to see a schedule of the panels. Who is doing what and when. There will be a schedule up before the convention starts, most likely around early August. It's nice to have a game plan, but don't be too rigid. Flexibility is key. Seeing panels is great, but if you get into a good discussion with fans or an author, it may be worth missing a panel.

The one thing that my wife and I have found over the years is that it is a good idea to make a little time for quiet. Maybe a lunch away from the convention, or even an hour up in your room soaking in the tub. It can really help the whole thing from becoming overwhelming.

If you are getting books signed that you bring from home, I've found that it's best to keep the numbers down a bit. If I know authors will be in my home town, I wait until they come around again. Generally we bring books by those authors we don't see often. My first Bouchercon, I missed out on some cool things because I got caught up in the signing room.

Even if you aren't an author, it might be a good idea to make up some business cards. If you meet people you will want to keep in touch. Trading business cards is the easiest way. And it's easy enough to do on your own computer: just your name and email address is enough. Plus they
don't get lost like a bar napkin might.

A number of people have asked how to dress. One word: Comfortable. This is supposed to be fun, a vacation of sorts, though a crazy active one. There are no dress codes. Even to the Anthony Awards, I've seen people in t-shirts sitting next to people in a tux. Wear what feels good for you. I will suggest something with pockets :)

A couple quick points about authors:
Generally speaking, if an author is out and about in the convention area or bar, they are more than happy to talk to you and usually sign things. But be reasonable. Sliding a manuscript under a bathroom stall door is a bad idea. (And yes, it's been done.) Also, if people are eating, wait till they finish. If an author is talking to someone and you'd like to join in, if you wait for them to notice you, they will be more than happy to converse, but try not to interrupt a conversation in midpoint. (I've seen people interrupt a discussion between author and agent/editor.) It's really just basic courtesies.

To wrap up, my two biggest convention rules for myself are:
a) Eat a big breakfast.
b) I can sleep when I get home.

Our goal is for people to leave Bouchercon St. Louis tired and happy.


Jon Jordan is the publisher of Crimespree Magazine and the host of Bouchercon 2011. In the coming months, he will be "Blogging Bouchercon" on the SinC blog. For more information on Bouchercon, see http://bouchercon2011.com/.

Anthony Awards Push: It's Time to Send In Your Ballot!

[This post originally appeared at http://bouchercon2011.blogspot.com]


Well, everybody, the 2011 Anthony Awards nomination process is in its second month, and will soon be ending (April 30). There are only a few weeks left to fill out your ballots and get them in. Ballots that arrive after the end of the month will not be counted. We sent out over 1500 ballots, but have received only about 10% of them back.

The breadth and quality of the books, short stories, websites and blogs we've received so far is greater than we expected. We're getting a lot of nice recommendations for our personal TBR piles. In the Best Novel category alone, there are already over 150 books, but there is no clear runaway novel yet nominated, so don’t feel that the nominations can be complete without your input. Every vote counts -- and there are many possible nominations that may stand or fall on the basis of one vote. Yours. So dig out those ballots, fill them in, and send them to us.

Don’t hesitate because you’ve only read one or two books published in 2010, or because you don’t have five nominations in every category. Everybody is in that same boat. We’ve received lots of single nominations in each or even only a few categories. Many are skipped. If you don’t know the publisher, don’t worry about it. We’ll figure it out once we have the top five in each category.

Perhaps you don’t read graphic novels? That’s OK, nominate the books you DO read. Nominate the website you habituate when trying to find a good suggestion for the next read. In short, let us know what turns you on in some or all of the categories. (But we could really use some more nominations in the Graphic Novels category).

And if you’re in England, or Australia, or Canada, or somewhere else outside the US, and don’t want to put an airmail stamp on the envelope we provided you, that’s OK, too.

Send us your nominations via email to Jratease@comcast.net. It’s free. We received quite a few ballots that way. You don’t have to scan the ballot, just list the nominations in the appropriate category, and be precise.

This is a fan-based award, and the more fans that send in their nominations, the more the Awards reflect the fans' opinion. You’ve already spent a good bit of money attending the last Bouchercon, and/or the next, so take a few minutes and tell us which of those books from authors you met in San Francisco, or your local book store, or online, you really enjoyed in 2010.

We look forward to hearing from the rest of you.

Jon Jordan, Bouchercon 2011 Host
John Purcell, Anthony Awards Chair



Jon Jordan is the publisher of Crimespree Magazine and the host of Bouchercon 2011. In the coming months, he will be "Blogging Bouchercon" on the SinC blog. For more information on Bouchercon, see http://bouchercon2011.com/.

Bouchercon: The Crime Fiction Family Reunion

By Jon Jordan

The world is an ever changing place and, as we’ve seen in the last few years, so is the world of publishing. The rise of e-books, the failure of Borders -- and any number of other changes -- have people speculating on the future and how it will impact us, both as fans and contributors to the genre of mystery that we love.

Well, change is constant. Without change we whither and stagnate. Change is good, it gets people thinking in new ways and opens up new doors.

Is print dead? Of course not. Will there be fewer books published each year? If publishers are smart, yes.

In truth, the high that publishing experienced and, by default, chain bookstores and even Amazon enjoyed was a false high. It wasn’t an indication that sales would keep going up, up, up. It was an anomaly.

In reality, maybe there were just too many books being published. The volume of bookstores in this country was staggering. And while as a book lover I enjoyed the options, maybe losing a retail chain like Borders will benefit us in the long run. Independent stores who know their customers should benefit in the end, if my high school economics class taught me anything.

Amid all the changes there remain constants. People love stories -- in books, on TV and on the big screen. Stories in all forms remain popular. There are still huge numbers of readers out there picking up books, regardless of the format, and enjoying great storytelling.

If you are the type of fan I am, you also love talking about the books you read. You like to hear authors talk about their books and the writing process. You enjoy being able to look an author in the eye and say “I loved the book” or “Thanks for writing these great stories.”

And this is the heart of Bouchercon. We celebrate mystery and crime fiction. We gather together for four days and attend panels about mystery. We eat with people and talk books. We have drinks together and compare recent reads. This common thing binds us together. Whether you are reading legal thrillers, private eyes, amateur sleuths who garden or supernatural detectives, we all love to read parts of this genre.

Good characters and good stories transcend the labels the sub-genres are given. Thrillers are really just the adventurous older sibling to mysteries. The similarities are far greater than the differences in all aspects of the genre. Because of this, when we gather together at Bouchercon, and other conventions, we are all united by the love of the tales we read. We share a frustration when an ending cheats, or the sadness when a character we love gets killed off. We share the excitement when our favorite authors have new books out. We share the thrill of sitting down and reading the first page of a new discovery.

In life you are born into a family. As you grow and develop, you start to form a second family, one of like-minded people who understand you and accept you. In this sense, Bouchercon is really more of an annual family reunion. Yeah, we have some weird cousins and a couple of uncles who get a little loud. But we also have older sisters who always make us feel better just by talking to them and brothers who will stand up for us.

At my first Bouchercon, a lot of magic happened for me -- not the least of which was meeting my wonderful wife, Ruth. There was also the magic of meeting people who share my passion for something, who understand staying up all night to finish a book and forgetting to eat because you are so engrossed in a story.

Every year I go back to Bouchercon, and the magic is still there, year after year. Every year, my extended family grows. With all the change that surrounds me, the community of mystery fans is a constant in my life.

If you are coming to St. Louis and it’s your first Bouchercon, welcome to the family. If you have been before, well, we can’t wait to see you again.

Previously, at Bouchercon:
Top photo: Family gathering -- Jon, Charles and Ruth.
Middle photo: Band of brothers -- Ali, George, Jon and Simon.
Bottom photo: The big smooch -- Jon and Ruth.


Jon Jordan is the publisher of Crimespree Magazine and the host of Bouchercon 2011. In the coming months, he will be "Blogging Bouchercon" on the SinC blog. For more information on Bouchercon, see http://bouchercon2011.com/. Jon can be reached at Jon@bouchercon2011.com.

Blogging Bouchercon, Part 1

Greetings mystery lovers!

I'm Jon Jordan and I'm hosting this year's Bouchercon in St. Louis.

I've been a fan of the convention for a long time. I thought it would be nice to pay it forward and so, along with David Thompson, I decided to put in a bid. As you may know, David passed along last September. And while he can't be replaced, I'm making an effort to fill his shoes by bringing in a lot of people to help out.

A big part of the convention is the panel sessions. This year's panels will be put together by Judy Bobalik and my wife, Ruth Jordan. (Contact info here: http://bouchercon2011.com/programming.php)

To be considered for a panel, you of course need to be registered. We're also asking people to fill out a short questionnaire to make it easier to place folks on panels.

Many people seem to get into a comfortable zone when doing panels, always doing the same type with the same people. Our hope is to mix it up a bit and, hopefully, expose fans to authors they haven't read yet -- and expose authors to fans they may not have reached yet. Just because you may write books involving a lawyer, that doesn't mean there may not be other panels for you to do.

Judy and I have put together panels for a number of Bouchercons and have helped with other conventions as well. What this means is that we've heard a lot of feedback from fans -- and Judy, Ruth and I are getting really good at this.

We make an effort to play to individual strengths, but we also want people to do something a little different if possible. If you are on a panel, but at first glance aren't sure why, trust us, there is a reason. It's our hope to put panelists on a panel that will entertain the fans and bring new readers to authors.

Not everyone will get a panel; there are just too many authors signing up these days for Bouchercon for us to place everyone. Because of this, we will also be doing a number of craft sessions and the 20-on-the-20. To increase your chances, it helps to be available for all four days of Bouchercon. The more available you are, the better the chance of us finding a place for you.

I know that not all authors love the early morning panels -- but you know what? The fans are there and ready to go.

We know that authors love being on panels and we try to put as many authors on panels as we can. But panels aren't the only reason to come to Bouchercon. The sheer volume of attendees means connecting with fans, booksellers, other authors and any number of other people in the biz.

To sum up, I guess what I'm saying is that the panels are a big part of this, but don't hang your success at Bouchercon on a 50-minute panel you share with four or five other people. There's a lot more to it! Bouchercon is about celebrating the mystery genre, and we hope you'll be celebrating with us!


Photo: Jon and Ruth Jordan.


Jon Jordan is the publisher of Crimespree Magazine and the host of Bouchercon 2011. In the coming months, he will be "Blogging Bouchercon" on the SinC blog. For more information on Bouchercon, see http://bouchercon2011.com/. Jon can be reached at Jon@bouchercon2011.com.