KN Magazine: Articles
Facts and Fiction by Shelley Blanton-Stroud
She’s striking, with high cheekbones and a full lower lip, but also haggard, sun-damaged. The fingertips of her right hand graze her cheek as she squints into the distance, inscrutable. Two young children lean into her, heads turned from the camera. A baby in dirty clothing sleeps in her arms. The woman is both the high point and center of their circle. The filthy lean-to tent behind them has the mottled quality of a photographer’s curtain backdrop. The composition is nearly perfect. Nearly. You can’t take your eyes off her face. Her name is Florence Thompson.
The photographer, Dorothea Lange, took five shots in this 1936 series, none of the others like this one, “Migrant Mother, Nipomo.” All the others include more people, more details of the Hooverville campsite. Lange later even had the photo retouched to remove Thompson’s thumb from the bottom of the image, as a compositional flaw drawing the eye away from Thompson’s face. (Such modification was against the rules of the Farm Security Administration, for whom Lange worked.) When the photograph appeared in the San Francisco News, the government sent 20,000 pounds of food to Thompson’s migrant camp. The picture made a difference. It fed hungry people. Though it omitted key details, including Thompson’s name, it appeared to tell a truth about the experience of hungry people living along the roads and fields of Depression-era California.
In her darkroom, Lange hung a quote by Sir Francis Bacon: “The contemplation of things as they are, without error or confusion, without substitution or imposture, is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention.” This was her photographic creed—to photograph things as they are, though Florence Thompson later said the story this picture told about her was a lie. And though Lange clearly approached her documentary work with an artistic editorial eye.
This photo is in part what inspired my historical mystery, Copy Boy, and its central question—what is the difference between fact and truth? It was also a central problem for me as I was writing. How to treat historical fact in historical fiction. Here are five ways of seeing that helped me figure it out.
Look for cracks in the facts. When you’ve found a period and people you want to immerse yourself in, look for a gap in the history, an unexpected tunnel leading to a grotto where you can invent. When I researched iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen, I found all kinds of information from his adolescence through his sports-writing gig as a 19-year old at the Sacramento Union, and then much more—of course—when he’d become a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1936. But there was a one-year period when almost nothing was written of him. How did he go from being a teenaged sportswriter for a small-town paper to columnist at a big city paper in one year’s time? What could happen in such a year to evoke such a change? That was my grotto.
Look through a scrim of history, to the present. For me, this idea came from my working playlist. Writing about dust bowl Okies, I listened constantly to alt.country music, mostly Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams, because their music suggested something authentic about the 1930s Depression-era but at the same time something very current. As a reader, I think it’s good to aim for that. Historical fiction that manages to be authentically of the past but at the same time current, can avoid the cute preciousness of tidy recreation.
Look with a worker’s eyes. When you show somebody at work in a particular time and place, it establishes historic authenticity precisely, without your having to cover everything happening in that time. In Sheri Holman’s TheDress Lodger, when you follow a grave-robbing doctor who needs bodies for dissection, you also see core aspects of the Industrial Revolution. In Caleb Carr’s The Alienist, when you follow a psychological profiler investigating an immigrant boy’s murder, you also learn about Gilded Age New York City. Showing the workplace and the job narrows your scope but provides a view outside.
Look for the wrong person to put in the right place. If you’re aiming for realism in your historical fiction, you can still make it fresh by putting an unlikely person in an authentically accurate historical role. This is where you choose from an alphabet soup of protagonist pathologies—an obsessive-compulsive crime-scene clean-up guy; a delusional investigative reporter; a pathological liar as court reporter.
Look for story over history. Don’t be so beholden to what actually happened in history that you miss the chance to tell a good story. One way to do this with impunity is through alternate history, as in Stephen L. Carter’s The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln. This can allow you to explore things that did happen with fresh eyes. The person many people see as our greatest president also took actions to win the Civil War that bear consideration. With his alternate history, Carter crafts a courtroom drama to do so.
Maybe looking this way through your story options will help you find the right balance between accuracy and authenticity, fact and truth.
SHELLEY BLANTON-STROUD grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She teaches college writing in Northern California and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Copy Boy is her first novel, and she’s currently working on her second. She also writes and publishes flash fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at such journals as Brevity and Cleaver. She and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons. To get to know Shelley Blanton-Stroud and her writing better, visit her at https://shelleyblantonstroud.com.
The Noir Zone by Janet Roger
The Noir zone? I’ve borrowed the title from UK-based writer and script consultant, Phil Clarke who recently wrapped a charming compliment around an interesting question. And all in a few lines on Twitter! Here’s the question, and some of the thoughts it stirred:
I did want to ask you how you manage to so exquisitely nail that Chandler tone. Was it just a case of having read the books when you were young or did you do anything specific before writing Shamus Dust to get into the noir gumshoe zone? Did you work on your metaphors and similes? (always of note in a noir) I’d love to know.
Now the fact is, the whole apparatus of a Chandleresque mystery felt so natural to write that I wasn’t aware of doing any preparing at all. Yet still the question nagged. It left me wondering not only why Chandleresque should feel so natural, but also how to label that Chandler tone. After all, Hardboiled just doesn’t get close, does it? Here’s some help on that from Robert Towne, talking about his screenplay for Chinatown in a Jack Nicholson biography, Jack’s Life:
Raymond Chandler’s descriptions of LA really knocked me out, left me with a sense of loss. His prose is so incredible. He made that time so real. There is that lyrical, lazy feel of a city with horrible things going on.
So for now let’s call Chandler’s tone his lazy lyricism, and consider where does anybody - where did I - absorb it from? Well, like Robert Towne, I read all the Marlowe novels. First as teenage reading while I ground through Eng. Lit., and then lots more times since. Only recently, Hill, Jackson and Rizzuto’s The Annotated Big Sleep, set me off on the entire series again. By now there’s lazy lyricism in the bloodstream, I suppose. Not forgetting that it’s a European bloodstream. You see, Robert Towne read his Chandler as an Angeleno himself. And he wrote Chinatown as a detective story based in the history of his own city. Whereas, I’m not even a native speaker of American English. Luckily, there were always the movies.
Since we started on labels, Chinatown finds itself tagged as neo-noir. It deals in those themes found in classic films noirs of the 1940s and 50s; which is to say, unhinged wealth and civic corruption in the big city; murder and complicit policing; a femme fatale and a private-eye narrator who’s left to work through the maze, and to speak some truth to power along the way. If I’m a longtime enthusiast for those noir originals, it’s hardly a surprise. For that European teenager, reading Chandler’s lyricism off the page was one thing. Hearing it echo through those movies, in the contexts and settings and American cadences of the day, was quite another. Film noir decided that the shamus in Shamus Dust would have to be an American, even though the setting is London, 1947. The truth is, I simply couldn’t hear my private eye in any other voice.
So what am I saying? Start young on the Marlowe novels? Get to all the film noir festivals you can? Never miss Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley on TCM, and you’ll end up thinking and dreaming Chandleresque prose? Well, you might. As long as you remember, when you’re watching Robert Towne nail that lazy lyricism in Chinatown, there’s another facet of tone in the mix.
I mean the conventions Chandler writes in. The sensibilities of his time. Because on one hand, there are places that hardboiled mysteries of the 1940s and 50s just don’t go. And on the other, in the places they do go, they’re a reliable cheerleader for the routine prejudices of the day. Chandler is no exception; when the Marlowe novels turn to women, or to race or sexualities, they can make for some queasy twenty-first century reading. Which may well be regrettable, but the fact remains: if you plan to write a 1940s Chandleresque mystery, those sensibilities are as much a part of Chandler’s world as the hats and the highballs. Fail to observe the casual prejudices, or those places that are off-limits, and you won’t be writing the 1940s. Fail to confront them, and you’ll be left writing dead pastiche.
To see what I mean, think how Robert Towne deals with the off-limits in Chinatown - where his LA is contemporary with the LA of The Big Sleep. Yes, he’s steeped in Chandler’s prose style. But also in the sensibilities of the age. So when he explodes the timebomb of incest that weaves through his story, he not only makes the revelation oblique, it very graphically has to get beaten out of the victim. Put it this way; no amount of facility with Chandler’s lyricism would be convincing, if Towne didn’t also know there were things he could and couldn’t use it to say. Set your detective story circa 1940 and - if you want to stay in period - you won’t be flat-out naming and confronting incest. Get that wrong in the writing and not only will the tone not work, the costumes and art direction will be empty decoration.
Similes? Yes, they’re a Chandler and a noir thing. No, I don’t work on them. On the contrary, I think they inevitably fail when they don’t grow out of their immediate surroundings. Some of Chandler’s similes are splendid. Some others are labored, flat and forgettable. He was known to make lists of them for future use, and I suspect those are likely to be the dogs, while the splendid ones are an inspiration of the moment. Metaphor likewise. One extended metaphor in Shamus Dust is its setting in a spell of icy-hard London winter. Now admittedly, bone cold and blizzards don’t obviously chime with Chandleresque prose. Marlowe always seems so perfectly fitted to a California climate. But the best metaphors, like the best similes, spring from exigence. When you know your story well enough to trust it, you write what it demands.
Janet Rogeris an historical fiction author, writing literary crime. She trained in archaeology, history and Eng. Lit. and has a special interest in the early Cold War.
She is a contributor to The Rap Sheet, CrimeReads, Suspense Magazine, Punk Noir and to Mystery Readers Journal.
Check out her recent interviews with Deborah Kalb, In Reference to Murder, NB Magazine, Women Writers, Women’s Books - among others.
Janet Roger’s Shamus Dust: Hard Winter, Cold War, Cool Murder is a Chandleresque private-eye fiction, set in 1947 post-war London. Published by Troubador in 2019 it won the Beverly Hills Book Award for Crime Fiction, was Fully Booked's Book of the Year and Finalist for the 2020 Montaigne Medal.
Shamus Dust has garnered very many five-star reviews, from some of the best-read magazines and award-winning writers in crime fiction.
You can find her on
https://twitter.com/shamusdust
https://www.facebook.com/author.JanetRoger
Phil Clarke is a professional who knows the art and the industry from the inside. His screenplays are optioned in the UK and Hollywood and his books are published worldwide. He’s a script consultant based in the UK, working with writers who’ve won or placed highly at major script competitions, on projects optioned, produced, and débuting at Cannes. Check his website where you'll find lots more about him, including some interesting interviews. He’s also on Twitter @philmscribe.
Read Phil Clarke’s review of Shamus Dust.
Read The Rap Sheet and Mystery Readers for Janet Roger on The Annotated Big Sleep.
Using Asian-Pacific Pride to Promote Representation in Literature by Tori Eldridge
I can’t imagine a better place to grow up as an Asian-American, Pacific Islander than Hawaii. Our island community is predominantly Asian and mixed-race, so most of the kids I went to school with had dark hair and lovely shades of brown skin. I fit in perfectly.
My mother is Chinese-Hawaiian, my father is Norwegian from North Dakota, and they met and married in Tokyo, where my sisters were born. I came along over a decade later and was born and raised in Honolulu. There weren’t many full-blooded Hawaiians, even then, so being part Hawaiian was and is a source of pride. And with over 50 percent of the population identifying as Asian, being almost half-Chinese was common.
Things were quite different when I moved to Illinois to attend Northwestern University. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me. In fact, less than 4 percent of the student population was mixed race and less than half a percent were Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
Fortunately, my self-image had been set in Hawaii, and I carried my Chinese, Hawaiian, Norwegian heritage proudly with me when I moved to Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, where I’ve lived for 36 years. Rather than feeling isolated by my extreme minority, I’ve felt kinship to everyone because of my mixed race.
I was able to share my heritage and mixed-race experience while writing my debut novel, The Ninja Daughter.
The protagonist, Lily Wong, is a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja in Los Angeles with Joy Luck Club family issues. I drew heavily from my own Chinese-Norwegian culture and experience as a fifth-degree black belt in the Japanese art of the ninja to write her story. But I also drew from the experience of my Chinese-American friends and fellow ninja.
Although my character and I are undeniably close, Lily is definitely not me. She is her own powerful person, plagued by doubts and demons, defined by family, and fueled by purpose.
That said, family and heritage are also deeply important to me.
I can trace my Hawaiian roots to 1783, during the reign of King Kamehameha. The kānaka maoli—native Hawaiians—are generous, beautiful people with a culture rich in song, dance, and storytelling. Hawaiians are our own race of people with native language, customs and ancestry. But modern Hawaii culture is an amalgamation of many, especially those from Asian countries.
My Chinese ancestors were early pioneers on the island of Maui and, along with all the other first-wave Chinese settlers, contributed to its modern culture, language, and commerce. The people of modern Hawaii are a mixed plate. This is evident in our fusion of food, clothing and our Hawaiian Pigeon English. Unlike other forms of pigeon English, Hawaiian Pigeon is a legitimate creole language—fully developed and taught to many children as a primary language. Although it incorporates many words from the native Hawaiian language, they are not at all the same. Although both have their place, I am happy to see a resurgence of our beautiful aboriginal language.
In the midst of this deeply ethnic environment, my father infused me with stories and wisdom from his own North Dakota upbringing and Norwegian heritage. Naturally, I wanted to celebrate this with my protagonist, Lily Wong.
It meant the world to me that my parents lived long enough to know I was writing a novel—and now a series—that would celebrate their heritage.
Asian and Pacific Islander representation in literature and media matters. Not only is it vital to see ourselves and identify with positive role models, but it’s important for everyone of all ethnicities to expand our awareness of each other. This is how people learn to appreciate and connect with one another.
I love that Lily Wong’s mother is an immigrant from Hong Kong, that her father is Norwegian from North Dakota, and that her ninjutsu teacher was born and raised in Japan. I love that my son fell in love with a woman from Hong Kong—after I was well into writing the first draft of The Ninja Daughter—and has married this wonderful woman into our family. I love how my art has not only become an expression of my life but a means to delve even more deeply into my ancestry and identity.
This piece was originally published by Books Forward under the title “Books Forward author Tori Eldridge uses Asian-Pacific pride to promote representation in literature." Tori Eldridge is the Lefty-nominated author of “The Ninja Daughter,” which was named one of the “Best Mystery Books of the Year” by The South Florida Sun Sentinel and awarded 2019 Thriller Book of the Year by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. Her short stories appear in several anthologies, and her screenplay “The Gift” earned a semifinalist spot in the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Before writing, Tori performed as an actress, singer and dancer on Broadway, television and film. She is of Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian descent and was born and raised in Honolulu, where she graduated from Punahou School with classmate Barack Obama. Tori holds a fifth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninjutsu and has traveled the U.S. teaching seminars on the ninja arts, weapons, and women's self-protection.
Surviving Being Orphaned or Simply Unwanted by Debra H. Goldstein
There’s a special feeling of satisfaction when one finishes a book or a story and sends it out for submission. The exhilaration of acceptance can’t be described. Rejection sucks. It takes the air from your lungs and creates an ongoing black mood. But what if you’ve had the high of being accepted, published, and then you’re told that’s it? Your work is being orphaned.
Being orphaned doesn’t mean what you’re writing is bad. I’ve been orphaned twice. Both times my books, which were each planned as the first of a series, were selling. In the first instance, the publisher went out of business and returned the rights to all of its authors; in the second, the company decided not to continue its mystery line, but kept the rights through the contracted period because the book was selling. My reaction both times was the same—sadness, anger, fear, desperately seeking advice, and then writing something new and trying to get it in front of a possible buyer.
The acceptance and publication of my first book, Maze in Blue, was a fluke (a story for another day). Listening to the advice of many after it was orphaned and therefore became a standalone, I wrote something new. When it was finished, I brought it to Killer Nashville, where I’d signed up for two roundtables. During a KN roundtable, the first two pages are read to an agent and editor who critiques them. If they are interested in the manuscript, they can ask for more pages. I thought it was an excellent mechanism for me to introduce Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Playersmystery to the world – and get some feedback in the process.
After the two pages were read at the roundtable, I received praise for my writing, tone, and dialogue from the editor. The agent echoed her sentiments. I asked the agent who had praised my work, “would you like to see more?” She said “no.” I was shocked, especially because the agent asked for fifty pages. Somewhat excited by the agent’s interest, but still dismayed by the editor’s reaction, I asked, at the end of the session, if I could talk to her for a few minutes. She agreed and we sat down (one thing about Killer Nashville is how accessible the agents and editors are). I asked her why she’d praised my book, but didn’t want to see it?
Her answer was simple: “That’s not what I’m here buying. It’s going to sell, but it doesn’t fit what I’m looking for today.” During the next fifteen minutes, she explained why it wasn’t a match for her. I walked away understanding that a good book might not find a home on a given day.
Two hours later, I went into another agent and editor roundtable. The editor’s remarks of praise were identical to what I’d heard from the editor during the first roundtable. A little nervously I asked if this editor would be interested in seeing more of the manuscript. She said “Yes,” so I followed her requested submission guidelines. A week later she bought Should Have Played Poker.
I rode Cloud 9 from purchase to publication. The publisher treated me well and the book was lovely. It was only when I was informed that the company was no longer going to have a mystery line that I crashed, but this time I was ahead of the game. I accepted that Should Have Played Poker was now a standalone and began writing something new.
That something new, taking into consideration some of the points the first editor had made during our discussion, became One Taste Too Many, the first in Kensington’s Sarah Blair cozy mystery series about a woman who finds cooking more frightening than murder. Two Bites TooMany was published in October 2019. Three Treats Too Many, which is available for pre-order, will be released later in 2020. Kensington has contracted for at least two more books in the series for 2021 and 2022.
Being orphaned isn’t fun, but taking control of the situation and moving forward can lift the blue funk and, hopefully, bring you that feeling of exhilaration again.
Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (One Taste Too Many, Two Bites Too Many and the upcoming Three Treats Too Many). She also wrote Should HavePlayed Poker and IPPY winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place, have appeared in numerous publications. Debra serves on the national boards of SinC and MWA and is president of SEMWA. Find out more about Debra at www.DebraHGoldstein.com
Promoting a Book and Achieving Humiliation by Barry S. Brown
My book, having been written and published, was ready to be promoted. I eagerly anticipated the opportunity to spread the word, bringing joy to some number of heretofore empty lives, and making some serious coin in the process. I felt myself ready for the initiative. My website was up, a Facebook page had been created, and an armful of books had been ordered. My immediate target became the independent bookstores in the community. Here, I reasoned were people after my own heart, courageous individuals who had forged paths for themselves in a world dominated by huge corporate entities (my own book had been printed by a small, but obviously discriminating publisher). Indeed, the bookstore owners I contacted were not only self-reliant, but were uniformly pleasant and supportive.
Pineapple Books (names have been changed to protect the well-meaning) went so far as to offer me the opportunity to do a reading with the understanding that the many fans created in the course of the evening could then line up to purchase my work. Having been present at a reading at Pineapple, and seen a substantial number of the 35-40 bibliophiles in attendance storm the counter after the final question had been posed and answered, my only concern on my night in the limelight was whether I had brought a sufficient number of books.
I was well prepared otherwise, having given my talk several times to the enthusiastic, but restrained audience I found in my mirror. I arrived early—very early—and found the Pineapple parking lot not yet full; in fact, I found it deserted. Not wanting to appear overanxious, I drove around the neighborhood for a while until it seemed safe to return to the Pineapple. I was surprised to find the condition of the parking lot unchanged. Adopting my customary devil may care attitude, I strode to the front door and throwing it open got the second surprise of the evening—and one that explained a great deal about the first surprise. Neatly arrayed, in a line before the speaker's table, were four chairs. As I was later to discover, this would be an optimistic estimate of my audience.
I joined the store clerk, who had been dragooned into spending her next hour and some with me, rather than at home and hearth which she would surely have preferred. In spite of that cheerless assignment, she was relentlessly good-humored while we waited for my audience to show up. Promptly, at the scheduled starting time of seven, she did. I had been instructed that I was to deliver my talk to whatever number of people appeared. And so, to the visitor and the store clerk, I delivered a talk that brought laughter at times, a welling of tears at times, and occasionally elicited a response from my audience as well. I told the story of the book's creation, gave the core of the plot, discussed its historical context, and answered questions about the author's work habits. At the end of the hour, I shook hands with everyone in attendance, wished them well, and gathered up the exact same number of books I had come with.
Undaunted—well, maybe a little daunted—I accepted the invitation of the owners of another bookstore—I'll call it Two Cousins Bookery—this time to engage in a book signing. Once more armed with a stack of books, and now with pen at the ready (actually two pens in case one failed), I sat behind a small card table strategically placed to face the front door. With a smile frozen in place, I greeted whatever patron made eye contact, and waited to demonstrate my cursive writing skills. And waited. And waited some more. Indeed, I became nostalgic about the audience I had earlier attracted at Pineapple Books.
At the end of the two hours I had been allotted, I courteously thanked the proprietor for the card table and chair, packed the books it now appeared I would take with me to the grave, retracted the point on my pen, and prepared to leave, never again to darken the Two Cousins' door. However, the one of the Two Cousins on duty that day would have none of it. She decided the heavy rains experienced throughout the afternoon were responsible for my dismal showing. Wanting desperately to believe it to be true, I agreed, and, as a result, we scheduled a return engagement.
The following Saturday, the day scheduled for my redemption, shown bright and sunny. The card table was set in position, the point on my pen was no longer retracted, and the ever-present stack of books was again at the ready. As it turned out, friends must have told friends, and those few who did not avert their eyes upon entering the Bookery, nonetheless avoided my table with an agility that belied the age of many. All seemed intent on creating a pretense that I did not exist, then establishing the pretense as fact.
The young son of one of the Two Cousins decided finally it was his responsibility to steer customers to my table. Displaying an eight-year-old's ingenuity he began to run his toy car along the edge of my card table with appropriate sound effects, drawing attention to the two of us until his mother intervened. He then began interceding with people in the store to advise them of the opportunity to meet an author, although I suspect his actual words were more along the lines that the guy over there is dying and wouldn't they do something about it. I had become finally the object of an eight-year-old's pity.
And then a customer approached me. My frozen smile threatened to become genuine—until she spoke. "Can you tell me where I can find mysteries by ___?" Suffice it to say my name is not ___.
It needs to be understood Mrs. Brown raised two boys to be gracious in all situations. I am the younger of the two. And so, I showed the woman where she could find books by ___. In the course of our short journey, I informed her about another author, actually in attendance, who also wrote mysteries. She reported already knowing that and thanked me for showing her ___'s books.
At the end of that sunlit, spring-like day, I had signed as many books as I had in the pouring rain. Again, I thanked the cousin. This time there was no offer of a makeup day, nor was one wanted. Since then, however, I have learned of a seniors community that invites authors to talk about their books, and to autograph the ones they sell. I'm thinking about giving them a call. What the hell. If they've got a card table, I've got a pen, and Lord knows I still have the books. Come to that, I can bring a card table.
Barry S, Brown is the author of the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street series. His latest book, sixth in the series, is Mrs. Hudson Takes the Stage released in April, 2020. Unwilling or unable to recognize either defeat or reality, he remains available for readings and book signings. Learn more about his work here: barrysbrown.com/index.html
Writing in First Person or Third Person or Somewhere In Between by R.G. Belsky
I’ve had fourteen mystery novels published during my career as an author, all of them written in the first person. I’ve written other novels in the third person, but none of them ever got published. Which is probably why I prefer writing in the first person.
Deciding on a character point of view (or POV, as it’s usually called) is one of the most important decisions an author needs to make before writing a book. Especially if you believe (as I do), that the relationship between your character and the reader is even more important than the story line.
My new book THE LAST SCOOP (Oceanview) is a good example of that. It’s the third in a series featuring Clare Carlson, a hard-driving, hard-living TV journalist in New York City. The Clare Carlson books have won a number of awards, including the Claymore and Silver Falchion Finalist at Killer Nashville.
But none of this might have happened if I hadn’t got the POV right.
You see, I originally wrote the first Clare Carlson book in third person.
It just didn’t quite work that way. Same story, but the character didn’t come alive like I wanted. I tried a few more versions until I finally hit on the idea to write the Clare Carlson character in the first person. After that, everything seemed to click. I won the Claymore at Killer Nashville with the beginning of the book, later got a publishing contract at Oceanview Press and then all the other good things that have happened with the series.
The advantage of writing in the first person like this is that you’re able to establish a much more personal connection with the reader: you’re not just writing about your character, you’re writing as your character. No question about it: The first-person narrator can provide more intense emotion and a better portrayal of inner thoughts than a book in the third person normally does.
Simple, right? Well, not really. Otherwise, of course, everyone would write first person books.
It clearly depends on the type of story the author is trying to tell. Some books work better with a third person narrator. Many - especially complex thrillers - require multiple POVs involving a series of characters to keep the plot moving by telling the reader things the main character doesn’t know. Other books combine a first-person narrator with several third person POVs from other viewpoints. And there are even novels (not many, but a few) that are written in the second person.
How each individual author makes this decision can be a fascinating process.
Now most of the classic PI novels are written in the first person of the main character. Think Raymond Chandler with Philip Marlowe; Robert B. Parker with Spenser; Sue Grafton with Kinsey Millhone; Janet Evanovich with Stephanie Plum; Lawrence Block with Matt Scudder; and so on.
But there is one notable exception: Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch. Bosch normally would be a classic first-person character like those others, you would assume. Except Connelly (with one minor exception) has always written his Bosch novels in the third person. I had the opportunity to ask him about this once at a mystery conference. Connelly is such a wonderful, accomplished author - maybe the best mystery author of our time - that I expected some kind of extremely reasoned, well-thought out response. But instead his answer was: “I don’t know. I never really thought about it that much.” In other words, he just went with his instinct on the best way to tell the Bosch stories. Which is probably why Michael Connelly is so incredibly successful with his books.
Lee Child on the other hand has used both approaches - writing some of his super-successful Jack Reacher thrillers in Reacher’s first person POV - but using third person for Reacher in other books. Child has said he finds it more natural to write in the first person, and he enjoys the intimacy of that - but the third person helps him build the story’s suspense around Reacher. Therefore, it depends on the type of Jack Reacher book he wants to write.
And then there are many mystery authors - like the late, great Mary Higgins Clark - who use multiple POVs to tell the story. Higgins did that so masterfully for many years in her novels - giving the reader the viewpoint of various characters as well as her own main character until the climactic moment when it all came together for the conclusion of the mystery.
Sometimes authors will even use a hybrid combination of those formats. Writing much of their book in first person for the main character - and then switching to third person in a few instances for different viewpoints to help propel the plot.
So which POV approach is best?
There’s only one right answer to that question.
It’s whatever one helps the author tell his story the best way.
And there’s simply no hard and fast rule for that.
As a matter of fact, the current manuscript I’m working on features a third person lead character as well as multiple POVs.
Who knows what will happen? Maybe I’ll wind up selling it this way.
If not, well...there’s always first person again.
R.G. Belsky is an author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, The Last Scoop, was published in May by Oceanview. It is the third in a series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. Belsky has published 14 novels - and also has had a long career in the media as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star magazine and NBC News. Belsky won the Claymore Award at Killer Nashville in 2016 and also has been a Silver Falchion Finalist.
I Have Become the Timebound by Robert Mangeot
I’ve been reading essays by authors struggling to write our COVID-19 world. I can relate. We’ve had a social discontinuity and a still-unfolding tragedy. Life is different now than it was mere weeks ago, and things will change a lot more before the outbreak’s waves subside. Some parts like vaccination regimens we can predict and, in our writing, take license on those details. Most of the near future seems beyond my realistic guess, in life and on the page.
Lately, I’m finding it hard to focus. I can’t read my in-progress stuff without it feeling bound to a past age. Historical, no matter how current the intended setting.
An example: A few years ago, I finally sold a sci-fi/caper blend about an easily distracted scientist pursuing high-tech uses of spider silk. The caper didn’t work initially because I tried setting it in our then-current times. But the plot depended on modern science and some cloak-and-dagger, none of which--in those first drafts--were believable when drones and cellular signals and security cameras can track our GPS-precise movements. The story only clicked once I dialed it back into the Cold War, pre-smartphones and satellites but with ever so much cloak-and-dagger. I’d misplaced the idea in time.
Those tricks may not help anymore. Even if I’d solved that story’s tech problems, a post-COVID-19 setting introduces fresh plot holes. International travel will happen very differently once we get traveling again. Personal--and collective--tracking via everyday tech will grow more sophisticated, more prevalent. And is there a regional flare-up causing a lockdown or extra infection precautions? Sure, I could show or signal as subtext that any virus situation is fine for the story moment. But can I skip past that? I don’t know yet. There’s this inescapable thing about super viruses. You can’t ignore them or their lasting impacts.
I’m cutting my own hair while we shelter in place. I won’t ask my wife to try, for the same reason I dread her asking me: Neither of us have the least talent at hair cutting. I’ll grab the CVS clippers and do the hack job myself, and I alone will be to blame.
Our house is a 24/7 quarantined mishmash of workplace, retreat, and writer’s studio. We call out the latest developments off CNN. We had to buy toilet paper direct from an international distributor. We cut up a Christmas tree skirt for makeshift masks. And we’ve been hugely lucky. School, graduations, weddings, and life events of all sorts have been disrupted. These are minor things when people are suffering physically, economically, emotionally. Still, I’ll take my 2020 experiences forward into the new normal. Every character set in COVID-19’s wake will have their own baggage and backstory.
Perspective will help. We don’t all have to sketch the Spanish Flu’s scars unless our characters live in its decades-long wake (done well in Downton Abbey). We don’t have to account for the much more recent 2009 H1N1 pandemic’s impacts unless central to the piece. With some breathing room, the self-haircuts and toilet paper intrigues should take their place in lore and even bring a laugh (think Monty Python and the Plague). I hope so. We’re a fair bit away from the space and security that allows for other than graveyard humor.
I don’t mean to be doom and gloom. If we honor who we’ve lost, our new normal could bring us deeper human bonds, a chance to assess income inequality, and a better grasp of what it means to be “essential.” Hell, we might finally get smarter at outmaneuvering the ever-adapting flu.
I’ve also read posts by an author or two worried that COVID-19 plots are too raw for fiction. I disagree. Fiction has tackled many tragic and difficult subjects, and soon enough we’ll read terrific works that help us understand exactly this 2020 outbreak and its consequences. Fiction isn’t going to shrink or crumble, and neither am I. I’m just bound in time a while.
Robert Mangeot is a writer, teacher, and sandwicher. A counter of things. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife, a cat-beast named Zelda, and this other ginger cat with plans all her own.
His work appears in various anthologies and journals, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, The Forge Literary Magazine, Lowestoft Chronicle, Mystery Weekly Magazine, The Oddville Press, and in the print anthologies Mystery Writers of America Presents Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War, Not So Fast, the Anthony-winningMurder Under the Oaks. His work was named a finalist for the Derringer Awards and also won contests sponsored by the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild, On The Premises, and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. He proudly serves as the outgoing president for the Middle Tennessee Chapter of Sisters in Crime and as the current Vice President for the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). He teaches short fiction and will happily debate its whethers over beverages of choice. When not writing, he can be found counting things or wandering the snack food aisles of America or France.
Dream, Dream, Dream by Debra H. Goldstein
Throughout literature and poetry, there are references to dreams. Some are the kind we experience when we sleep, but many are a wish, a goal, a hope we have. Whether one reaches out and grabs the gold ring or lets the dream be deferred is an individual decision.
For years, I dreamed of being a writer—but I didn’t do anything about it. Sure, I wrote skits for parties and meetings and very boring legal briefs and decisions, but I only gave lip service to my dream. The lip service often took the form of talking about an idea I had for a book to a dear friend or my immediate family. It wasn’t something I shared with the general public.
I was too embarrassed to talk about wanting to write because not doing it, to me, was an admission of failure. At the same time, I had a million reasons why I wasn’t putting pen to paper. I could tick them off on my fingers if you’d asked: a demanding job, raising four children, an easygoing husband who still needed some attention, aging parents, being the Girl Scout troop leader, my responsibilities on several community boards, and obligations to my friends. If these weren’t enough, I could always find something to add to the list.
At times, my friends and my family begged me to write or stop mentioning it. I began to internalize my dream, but still I did nothing. Finally, one friend challenged me to “leave the kids with Joel, come to the beach with me, use my condo for the weekend to write and if you don’t, never talk about wanting to write to me again.”
We went to the beach. I got up early and watched the sun rise and illuminate the water. The moment was beautiful, but my pen and paper remained unused on the table. And then, it dawned on me that what I was observing happened every day. There wasn’t an excuse made for the sun not rising or setting. Some sunrises or sunsets were spectacular; others not so much, but they happened.
I picked up my pen and wrote some words. My sun was rising. In that moment, I understood that if I wanted to be a writer, I had to do it with regularity and accept the fact that not every day would produce perfect words. That day, the words flowed out of me. During that weekend, I wrote eighty-five pages. Truth be told, as I often say laughingly, only five of those pages ended up in my first book, Maze in Blue, but I realized that weekend I could see a beginning, middle, and end to a book. The key was whether when I got back to the real world, I could force myself to sit down and fill in the words and pages still missing.
The answer turned out to be “yes,” but my writing was not like the sunrises and sunsets. It didn’t have regular times, it wasn’t uninterrupted, but it happened. There were times I went long periods without writing, but I knew that the only way to fulfill my dream was to pick up the pen and continue where I’d left off.
Some people say one doesn’t write unless one puts one’s bottom in the chair daily. That may be true, but it wasn’t for me. Instead, it was coming to terms with the fact that every day isn’t perfect for writing, but if the motivation is there, the excuses can be put aside to fulfill a dream.
Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (One Taste Too Many, Two Bites Too Many and the upcoming Three Treats Too Many). She also wrote Should HavePlayed Poker and IPPY winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories, including Anthony and Agatha nominated The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place, have appeared in numerous publications. Debra serves on the national boards of SinC and MWA and is president of SEMWA. Find out more about Debra at www.DebraHGoldstein.com
Tentative Tips on the Craft of Writing by Suzette A. Hill
When I was kindly invited by Killer Nashville to make a brief contribution to its next edition, I was rather diffident, because although a crime writer (and a British one at that) I had come late to the genre, and despite having lectured in English Literature had never had any desire to write a novel – of any kind. It was only in retirement, and on a whim, that I embarked on the fiction game. And since first taking up my pen at the kitchen table and writing “It was Bouncer who found the leg . . .” to my continuing surprise, I have managed to produce twelve crime novels. Actually, I think the term crime novel is a slight misnomer but that is the category my books have been assigned. I, however, see them a little differently, i.e. as social comedies into which a few corpses are strewn to give ballast and to provide a skeleton – if you will excuse the pun – on which to hang the absurd and occasionally risible narrative.
Absurd? Comedies? Risible? You may feel that these are unsuitable terms to be applied to the serious matter of murder – and you could well be right. But I think that the sinister does exert a curious pull on our imagination and we are both fascinated and frightened by it. There are those who derive an exquisite frisson in contemplating its more morbid and gruesome aspects; whereas there are many – such as myself – who, feeble spirits as we are, merely like to dip our sensitive toes in the water, paddle about a bit and then jump out pronto! For us, humour or partial humour acts as a sort of comforting safety belt. Consequently, with belt firmly fastened, my novels are light-heartedly escapist and are best read in a capacious arm chair with a mug of cocoa – though preferably a G&T or similar brew. Yes, yes, I hear you mutter impatiently, that’s all very well but what about the craft of writing? Surely there are some tips you can give an aspiring crime writer – messages of comfort and advice which he or she can apply to their own nervous efforts.
Hmm, I reply warily, there are a number of suggestions I could make but it is always dangerous to generalize; and since people’s temperaments are so diverse, what works for one may not for another. For example, an obvious tip would be to devise a good plot and plan it meticulously: construct the skeleton first and pile on the flesh afterwards. Sound advice and a method adopted by many, for not only does it produce a clear structure but will also help the author’s confidence . . . Yet alas, for this author, such sage words do not work. I cannot invent in the abstract, and thus, were I to spend time wrestling with an initial plot, none of my novels would ever get written! It is people who stir the wayward Muse, and it is through them and the worlds they inhabit that some coherent narrative will gradually emerge. I gather this is known as the "evolutionary process" – beloved by some, anathema to others!
Nevertheless, there are certain elements of the novelist’s craft which to me do seem necessary: absorption in the theme, definition of place and personality – and, vitally, care for words and their arrangement. Regarding the first, it is no use thinking vaguely "it would be nice to write a novel." You must have a focus or interest, a specific inspiration that makes you want to grab your pen or rush to the laptop. It doesn’t matter how large or small, profound or funny, familiar or obscure, the idea must tickle your imagination and make you want to explore and convey it to others. Without that impetus your writing will lack drive and quickly pall. After all, if you are not engaged no-one else will be.
Then with theme or subject set, you need clear and distinctive characters: individuals who ring true, are palpable and not just ciphers to push the concept. Personally, I find that novels whose characters are sketchily drawn – even those intellectually challenging like a conundrum – lack conviction and fall flat. And to strengthen that conviction it is helpful to place the individuals in a firm, tangible context – whether a town, landscape, bar, bedsitter or grand palace. It doesn’t matter what, provided they do not operate in a vacuum. Our surroundings are integral to our experiences: and their evocation, however subtle, will give a sense of immediacy and sharpen the realism.
Thirdly, and what no writer of any genre can do without, is a love of language and its manipulation for maximum effect. This may sound obvious, but without that concern for the tools of your trade little will be achieved – either of a criminal nature or anything else! One’s ideas may be brilliant, but to live they need concrete form. And for this it is not only mind and eye that must be alert, but also the ear: while choice of words is paramount, sound too plays a part. Niceties of rhythm and cadence, variations in syntax, pace and stress – all of these will raise the drama and vivify the world you are aiming to create.
Oh, and one more thing! Writer’s block. When you are stuck (as you will be) there is nothing more dispiriting than staring morosely at a blank page or screen. A dry martini may sometimes palliate but its effect is transitory. Thought generates words; but words can also generate thought. So get something down – anything will do, it doesn’t matter what. Phrases, inconsequential sentences, snippets of dialogue, a colourful image, a description of a person’s walk or dress . . . it is amazing how often such random scratchings will galvanise the tortured brain and set it prancing again. This of course is not infallible but it works more often than gin. Good luck!
If of interest, I have written two genial crime series set in the 1950s. The original concerns a bumbling vicar (plus his cat and dog) who thoughtlessly murders a parishioner; the other features Rosy Gilchrist who, with a pair of mildly eccentric male companions, becomes reluctantly embroiled in murky skulduggery. The most recent novel, Deadly Primrose, is the second sequel to the first series and is available in the U.S. from June. The latest tale in the Gilchrist collection is The Cambridge Plot – absurdities in English academia. Further information can be gleaned from my website www.suzetteahill.co.uk
Diving Into the Past for Historical Novels by Tom Young
Twenty-six miles off Morehead City, NC, the dive boat pitched and rolled. I fought seasickness as I pulled on my scuba gear. Everything gets harder when you’re trying not to lose your lunch; even strapping on fins becomes a struggle. I screwed the regulator onto my air tank. Cracked open the valve and watched the pressure gauge spring to 3000 PSI. Finally, with mask, fins, weight belt, and everything else in place, I rolled over the side and splashed into the swells.
The seasickness went away as soon as I hit the water. I followed my buddy and the other divers down the anchor line. The water grew darker and the light dimmer as we descended. My eyes adjusted to the depth. Every few feet, I swallowed so that my ears would pop and adjust to the depth, as well.
She materialized as if a film director had ordered a dissolve to a new scene. On the bottom, at a depth of 110 feet, lay the U-352, a German submarine sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Icarus on May 9, 1942. Of her 48 crew members, 15 perished. The survivors spent the rest of the war as prisoners.
I explored the U-boat for every minute the time-depth tables allowed. Amid amberjack hovering around her conning tower, I tried to imagine the battle that sent her to the ocean floor. The hiss of air flowing through my regulator and into my lungs reminded me of my own frailty. If the regulator failed, my chest would start to burn for air in a place where none existed. It became very easy to imagine the terror a sailor might feel if trapped in that steel hull as it filled with water.
Suddenly the past was no longer a faraway country. It was something real, right there in front of me, and I wanted to know more. Decades after that dive, my interest in the WWII Battle of the Atlantic found expression in my novel Silver Wings, Iron Cross.
To write a historical thriller, you don’t have to go to such lengths—or depths, as the case may be. But along the way, I learned a few things about writing a novel set in a previous time.
There are plenty of ways to immerse yourself, if you’ll pardon the pun, in the past. You can do library research. You can read memoirs. You can watch old movies or listen to recordings of old radio broadcasts. If your time period is recent enough, you can interview people who were there. One practical tip: You can try to find a Sears catalog from your chosen time to get an idea of what people wore and how much things cost.
Admittedly, the farther back in time you go, the harder this job becomes. You won’t find a Sears catalog or a radio broadcast from the eighteenth century.
But what’s even more important is to find an emotional connection with your characters. When we novelists do our best work, we tap into something universal and timeless. Our protagonists long for home, fear death, need to prove themselves, or hope to save a life. Perhaps they seek to solve a crime, or prevent one. Maybe they aim to defend their countries or avenge a wrong. Perhaps they experience some combination of the above.
In this regard, a novelist lives in all times at once. Until you do the research, you might not know how to climb the rigging of a British man-of-war. But you can well imagine the fear if you made that climb with cannon fire scorching past you. You might not know, yet, how a farmer in 1863 grew tobacco. But you can relate to his worries when a draft notice from the Confederate Army pulls him from his fields and family.
For me, finding a relevant historic site or artifact helps prime the creative pump and make that emotional connection. History classes might teach you the futility of Pickett’s Charge. But go to Gettysburg and gaze out over that open field. Think of crossing it with no cover, under a storm of bullets. Your palms will sweat.
Visit an air museum and crawl through the cramped spaces of a B-17 Flying Fortress. Now imagine trying to bail out in heavy flying gear as the aircraft spirals toward the ground. Your heart will pound.
Find an arrowhead in a plowed field. Now put yourself in the place of a young Native American facing the approach of winter 10,000 years ago. You’ll pray to whatever God you believe in to let your arrow fly true and provide meat.
In a meditative moment at your writing desk, try to inhabit your character: If I were in this situation, what would I want? What would I fear? What would I say or do? The answers are not so far in the past as you might think.
William Faulkner famously wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” To take the thought a little further, the past is all around us. And in our most basic fears, hopes, dreams, and aspirations, the past is also within us.
Tom Young flew nearly 5,000 hours as a flight engineer with the Air National Guard, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other locations. His novels include The Mullah’s Storm, Silent Enemy, and Sand and Fire. Silver Wings, Iron Cross is his first historical novel.
Website: www.tomyoungbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TomYoungAuthor/
Scooped! How to Stay Ahead of the Storytelling Game by Roy Freirich
For writers, there's always the danger of getting "scooped"—spending months developing something only to read about someone way ahead of you. So (my co-writer wife and) I check everywhere to research the status of life-rights stories and other authors' novels that interest us for adapting, and generally for projects with similar themes.
For projects based on a person’s life, the more famous the subject, the more competition you’ll face acquiring rights. On the other hand, if the person is really famous and a public figure, you may not need to acquire anything—but will be up against some giants. Think Spielberg’s Lincoln, before you decide to write Abe! Either way, the more you know about ongoing competing projects or those who have dared before you, the bigger the bullet you may dodge.
For novels to adapt for the screen or stage, rights are essential, and pricey for “buzzy” titles. The other hand here: no one needs rights to adapt Jane Austen’s novels—but the bar is very high for success, because greats have gone before: Think Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) or Paul Gordon (Emma).
Thankfully, there are ways to track what may be out there waiting to steal your thunder:
Internet Movie Database is hugely helpful. Here production companies announce their projects early, if only to discourage competing projects.
Deadline Hollywood, the film industry trade website of choice, often announces even earlier, driven by their own mandate to get the news out first, and “scoop” everyone else.
Google news alerts can help and require only a few clicks to set up. Google it!
Agents or managers, of course, often have their own "spy network" to check around for others pursuing something similar.
Publishers can always be contacted directly with an old-school email or even a phone call to see if subsidiary rights to a biography or novel have been optioned or bought.
Author websites often list contact information. Think carefully, though. If you engage with them but do not reach a deal for the right to adapt their work, they may feel aggrieved if you go ahead with anything remotely similar. As “gray areas” go, this one is especially murky.
The U.S. copyright office will often, but not always, show the disposition of rights. It's a free search, and no reason why not. For clarity, here’s this, from Copyright.gov, the official website:
“Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.”
And there’s the rub—that last bit: “Ideas?” Does that mean go ahead with your idea because ideas don’t infringe? I refuse to answer—on the grounds that I’m not a copyright attorney.
Sometimes, you do your research. The coast looks clear. You’ve found the novel that hasn’t been bought or the person whose story hasn’t been told in a movie or TV series or on the stage. You outline, you bake a treatment, you start writing. You wake in the mornings enthused and with a keen sense of purpose, because, yes, you’ve “scooped” everyone else!
Or… not. So we mourn the months spent working on a Jean Seberg biopic (now starring Kristen Stewart!), a Phyllis Schafly story (Cate Blanchett!), or another about a crusader against revenge pornography. Sometimes, a major theater venue will hire you to adapt an Anne Rice novel into a musical, but along the way, the rights revert from theater back to author, and director Tom Ford snaps them up for a movie. There are few authors more encouraging and generous than Anne Rice, but a Tom Ford movie is understandably hard to resist. Yes, there have been rending of garments and gnashing of teeth.
In terms of my own original fiction, I've had to put a novel in a drawer for more than a year and wait to see if competing projects gained traction or faded. And "competing" is a very broad rubric indeed. A book editor or film exec might say "another book about stolen nuclear weapons?" and so you put yours aside, only to later read about yet another massive deal to acquire a project on the subject.
In the worst way of all, reality "scooped" me on my first 2008 novel Winged Creatures, about survivors of a mass shooting, when these events began to occur seemingly weekly. Hollywood is never far behind, and mass shootings became suspenseful plot points in TV shows and books, in ways that felt increasingly exploitative, and less and less edifying about the real, lasting costs to victims and their families. At this point, I just don't feel right earning anything for a novel about fictional survivors' stories when there are so many real ones now, so I'm donating all royalties to The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Do writers of pandemic novels feel like COVID-19 will give their books new life, or are they too close to home now? When it is too soon to tackle a subject? When it is too late?
In general, it's a needle to thread: being vigilant so as not to waste months and then get beaten to the story—vs. living in fear and hesitating to dive into something great.
Roy Freirich leads multiple lives as a writer — of lyrics, movies, and novels. His lyrics have been sung by legends Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, and Patti Labelle, among many others. He’s written screenplays for Fox Searchlight, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, and Sony, and adapted his novel, “Winged Creatures,” for the film, “Fragments,” featuring Forest Whitaker, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Josh Hutcherson, and Kate Beckinsale. He has also served as editor for the national desk of The New York Times and for the renowned Beloit Poetry Journal. He lives with his wife, ever-patient editor, and frequent co-writer, Debrah, in Malibu, California. Together, they’ve written the libretto for a musical adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Cry to Heaven,” for Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre. Visit him online at www.royfreirich.com.
How Authors Can Survive COVID-19 by Judith A. Yates
While Killer Nashville is dedicated to protecting the health and safety of our attendees, we are proceeding as scheduled with the 2020 conference. The general consensus is that the current threat will have passed well before the conference takes place in late August. We are in close communication with our local government, our host hotel, and health officials to ensure that we will provide all our attendees and volunteers with a safe conference experience. We will keep an eye on the situation as it develops but we are optimistic that the current outbreak will not affect our event, which is still nearly half a year away.
Above all, we place the safety of our attendees first and are taking all necessary precautions. We fully expect to have a fun, educational, and unforgettable conference this year. In the meantime, Judith Yates has some helpful tips below for authors marketing their books and interacting with their audiences during these isolating times.
COVID-19 is upon us all, significantly reducing social activity, including attendance at book signings, author appearances, lectures, conferences, and writer’s events. These events are the author’s “bread and butter” because it is the best place to sell books and network. However, authors can overcome these restrictions with a bit of creativity and using social media.
A new virus called SARS-CoV-2 has caused a disease known as “Coronavirus disease 2019.” (COVID-19). COVID-19 has now been detected in over 100 locations internationally at this writing. 49 of the 50 United States have confirmed cases, resulting in mass shutdowns of public places and strict guidelines for personal behavior to restrict disease spreading. A state of national emergency is declared. It has changed the way we do business, conduct ourselves personally and professionally, and revamped the education system. All of this has had a significant impact on authors. Working with people and traveling is how we all work to make a living. So how are we to survive in a COVID-19 world?
Most importantly, we must understand what the coronavirus is—and what it is not. We need to look past the political views and personal ideals and refer to professionals. As one doctor friend put it, “Don’t confuse your Google search with my medical degree.” Furthermore, all of us need to take safety precautions. This virus is not a joke, not a conspiracy, and it should be taken seriously. People are dying.
There are restrictions on public places, travel, and businesses, with schools, places of worship, and nonprofit organizations either closing or restricting attendance; this means less people, cancellation of events, and no advertisement. Authors have to cancel or reschedule book signings and presentations. Because of the recommended practice of “social distancing,” it is best to cancel face-to-face interviews, particularly in nursing homes, jails and prisons, and even people’s homes as anyone with a weak immune system is highly susceptible. With people’s jobs on hold, it can mean loss of wages; this means personal budget cuts. Who can afford to buy books when rent is due? So here we are on indefinite hold, fingers poised over the keyboards and pens in still hands. However, this does not mean we cannot sell books or continue with work.
It is time for authors to get creative. Sure, we have to cancel book signings, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sign books or meet fans. The World Wide Web has made it possible to hold live “meet-and-greets” and yes, even book signings. Using PayPal, Zelle, or any other “instant cash” system, set up a way readers can pay for a book while chatting with you online; use Skype, for example. Authors can be signing their books as they interact. I have done “Live Facebook Q&A” that includes book giveaways. Add a “book signing” to your “Live Facebook” event.
The same concept can be used for presentations. A filmmaker friend of mine has canceled several appearances, and a big convention where he was to appear has canceled. Now he is putting together podcasts where, for a small fee, his fans can “attend” his presentations. Attendees will receive a percentage off one of his DVDs or books.
While conducting “live” interviews is the best way, in my opinion, of gaining information, now we have to change our methods. Using social media for “face to face” interviews is the next best thing. We can at least see facial expressions, read some body language, and connect with people. Still, some folks do prefer written interviews. Some crime survivors I have interviewed preferred emails, at least initially. Others I have never met in person—their choice. The telephone can be one of the best interviewing tools: people both stay in their element, and sometimes it is the only way of communicating; if the subject lives far away or incarcerated, hospitalized or incapacitated, a telephone call is the best tool regardless if the world is practicing “social distance.” And it may help re-learn some “listening skills.”
Notice on so many Facebook pages for writers and authors the posts are mostly ads for an author’s book? Start a trend. Begin posts that ask questions for other authors. “When do you seem your creative best?” Ask readers about their reading habits. “What do you look for when you are perusing a book cover?” “What makes you select one book on a shelf over the others?” Questions start a dialog, lets the other writers and new readers get to know one another. Maybe they are not fans of the author’s genre, but they know others who are, and will recommend that work. The majority of readers select their next read because someone recommended it, either another reader or the book appeared on a list as a “top read.” And specific questions can give authors insight into what people look for when selecting a book—ideas they may have never considered.
I always say, “If you price your books at ten cents, you just told your readers how much your work is worth.” Right now, we can’t afford to focus on making millions (oh, do authors make millions?) but surviving the next few months. Cutting costs on our books will not reflect on our work, but will reflect on the fact we respect our readers may be on budgets. Dropping our prices—but not too steep—helps everyone. Sponsoring the occasional book giveaway is fine, as long as it helps make you money. There are clever ways to market this. Look around at how retail outlets use “cost cutting” ideas to make more sales and use your own spin:
“Buy one for you – get one half off for a friend” with a photo of two people reading your book.
“Buy one get one half off” if you have more than one book on the market.
“20% off because my dog signed it, too,” accompanied by a photo of my dog with my book in his mouth (My dog is famous among my readers. He has gone on book signings!)
Authors can survive the restrictions caused by COVID-19. They must understand the new virus and respect it. Then, they have to be creative. They can use this fantastic tool called social media to overcome barriers. It may even lead to new pastures we have yet to graze.
An excellent resource on COVID-19, see https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
Judith A. Yates is a criminologist and award-winning true crime author who has lectured and presented across the country, to include the 2019 Arnold Markle Symposium hosted by Dr. Henry C. Lee and the H.C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science. She has appeared in several television shows to include the Oxygen Network and Investigation Discovery. She writes true crime and some fiction. Visit Judith at her website.
Making Mistakes Matter by William Boyle
The other night I watched a small indie film from 2001 called Kwik Stop; it was recommended by a friend of mine whose opinion I highly value. Kwik Stop starts one place—a young actor headed to Hollywood and a young woman seeking to escape to anywhere share a meet-cute in a rural gas station parking lot—and you think you know exactly where it’s going, Badlands or True Romance territory most likely, but that doesn’t happen. The couple stops at a dreamy little dive motel, and the narrative shifts out from under us. I won’t give too much away about this underseen gem of a film, but I loved the way it subverted expectations and made no move that seemed predictable (failed schemes abound). It got me thinking about process and what I value most highly in art, that feeling of not knowing exactly where something is headed from minute to minute, or at least the tension that arises from not being certain if a work will go off course. You might give a certain writer or director the same tools as others, even the same characters or setting, but the ones that are most interesting to me will take you somewhere you never thought of going. It’s my feeling that this has a lot to do with making mistakes matter.
When I think about decisions I’ve made as a writer that have led me to those unexpected places, I think about sticking with mistakes. When you’re driving and you hit black ice, most folks grip the wheel and pump the brakes, when what you need to do is to remain calm and avoid overreacting. Yep, sometimes it’s true that a mistake means you have to go back and scrap the last fifty pages or that you need to reimagine something that’s taken a wrong turn, but often—if you don’t panic—a mistake can lead to a golden moment you might never have imagined otherwise. Watching Kwik Stop, I got the sense that writer/director Michael Gilio stayed with a couple of decisions that might have, at first, been perceived as mistakes and that they brought him somewhere new and unusual.
When I was working on my first novel, Gravesend, I don’t think I would have been able to express this idea as clearly, but no doubt I instinctually believed in it because I committed to a bunch of things I might’ve otherwise rationally bailed on. Back then, working without a net, I liked the chaos of such moments. In my most recent novel, City of Margins, I’ve learned to trust my mistakes and to try to make them matter, to evaluate them before throwing them on the scrapheap. Worst case scenario, as anyone knows: you learn from your mistakes. Best case scenario, as only those willing to take their mistakes seriously know: you find some undiscovered country, some rich vein of story you couldn’t have anticipated or imagined.
I had this experience a lot while working on City of Margins, the first book I’ve written that I plotted and planned so thoroughly but also a book where I allowed my mistakes to guide me, where I allowed them to steer me away from that outline into unchartered territory. I think of one of my characters, Ava, standing on a street corner at a certain point in the novel. To the left, that’s the way that’s mapped out, the way she should go, needs to go for everything I’ve built not to fall apart. To the right, who knows? In the moment, she goes against my wishes and turns right instead of left. At first glance, it’s a mistake and a dumb one at that, a diversion, an unnecessary complication in the name of narrative freedom and not feeling trapped. That is, until it’s suddenly not a mistake anymore, until Ava meets someone or does something that I didn’t see coming and lights up the story in a new way.
William Boyle’s books include: Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France and shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger in the UK; The Lonely Witness, which was nominated for the Hammett Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière; and, most recently, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself and City of Margins, all of which are available from Pegasus Crime. He recently guest edited the noir volume of Nicolas Winding Refn’s byNWR.com.
Website: www.williammichaelboyle.com
Twitter: @wmboyle4
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wmboyle4
Instagram: @wmboyle4
The Growth Stages of Editing a Manuscript by Jennifer J. Chow
The Growth Stages of Editing a Manuscript
Let’s discuss the proper editing and care of a baby manuscript until it reaches maturity. Like any parent, my insight comes from my own subjective experiences with the editorial process and its timetable. Full disclosure: I teamed up with Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House, to raise my baby. Now on to the different editing growth stages of a book:
Title/infancy (variable deadline):
I’d already come up with a working title for my rough draft. Just like when expecting a real baby, though, I needed to make sure my partner and I agreed on it. We ended up switching my original choice to its current rendition: Mimi Lee Gets a Clue.
Tip: Trust your publisher.
I love the new title’s play on words and how it highlights the mystery aspect and all the intricacies of Mimi’s life that she needs to figure out.
Retailer copy/toddlerhood (few days’ turnaround):
At this cute stage, you can dress your story in fancy retailer copy. Known also as a cover blurb (not to be confused with a “blurb” or testimonial from a fellow author), this text provides an enticing summary to catch the eye of a browsing reader.
Tip: Don’t work too hard on an early copy.
I’d decided to write my own blurb for fun, but none of it was used. A team of writers had already created their own—oops! Honestly, their version was much snazzier and fit in better with the vibe of the imprint.
Editorial letter/early childhood (three weeks+ turnaround):
This is the crucial development period. An editorial letter suggests key changes to a story’s arc and can go upwards to eight pages of notes! Mine, fortunately, only had two single-spaced pages. My editor divided the letter into multiple parts, including dialogue (improvements for my protagonist’s speech and her verbal interactions with others), scene setting (more specificity about certain Los Angeles neighborhoods), and side characters (how the main character perceives those around her and the continuity of characters for the series). The letter also delved into the two main relationships in the book. It discussed Mimi and Josh (her love interest) and how their relationship flowed—or when it didn’t. Also, it explored the dynamics between Mimi and her pet cat Marshmallow, along with the zaniness of solving a case with a telepathic cat.
Tip: Expect to invest a lot of time.
I ended up tweaking a number of things—and even added a new scene. (Be forewarned: It may take multiple passes. I went through two rounds of developmental edits.)
Copy edits/middle childhood (two-week turnaround):
The literary foundation is set, but there’s still room for growth. The copyedited manuscript came with a new editor, who examined things with a line-by-line perspective. In addition to sentence structure rearrangement, she also vetted my manuscript for continuity and offered plotting advice.
Tip: Save the provided resources.
The copyedited manuscript had an attached style sheet with references and offered pointers on grammar (proper usage of capitalization, commas, etc.). It also listed characters, vocabulary, and places described in the book, an essential database of information, especially when writing a series.
First pass pages/adolescence (two-to-three-week turnaround):
This is the time when the document gets typeset and looks like a real book in PDF format. Revel in its mature appearance and quirks—my pages had cute details, like whiskers on the chapter headings.
Tip: Changes are costly at this stage.
Try to correct only typos and small errors. (Note: Some people also receive second pass pages.)
Proofreading/adulthood (quick turnaround):
Congratulations on having a full-fledged book! The proofreader will mark down any inconsistencies or confusing points and ask for clarification. (I only received a few questions.)
Tip: Rely on the proofreader.
In my novel, I referenced Scrabble, and the proofreader (who deserves my utmost gratitude) researched letter tiles in depth to make sure my game scene was correctly played out.
That’s the general timeline of a growing book. May your manuscript mature through its multiple revisions and release into the world as an adult novel in the near future.
MIMI LEE GETS A CLUE is the first book in the new Sassy Cat mysteries. It’ll be joined by two other siblings over the next few years and raised by Jennifer J. Chow. Follow her online at www.jenniferjchow.com or on social media (Twitter, FB, and IG) @jenjchow.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605896/mimi-lee-gets-a-clue-by-jennifer-j-chow/
Please, Turn Off the Idea Faucet! by Alan Orloff
I get the question all the time: where do you get your ideas?
You may not know, but there’s a service that works like Netflix did before streaming. You subscribe, and they send you three ideas a month. When you’re done with them, you exchange the old ideas for some new ones.
No, not really.
Actually, there’s no one place I get my ideas. I get them from observing people and situations when I’m out and about. Standing in line at the post office. At the bank. In the grocery story. I get them in the shower. I get them while I’m exercising. I get them when I’m reading someone else’s book. I get them from watching the news or listening to the radio in the car or reading a newspaper. (For those of you who don’t know, that’s something that comes every day and it’s made of paper and there are stories printed on it! Mostly true stories!)
I’m bombarded by ideas from every angle. I’m always thinking, What If This, or What If That, or Wouldn’t it be cool if this crazy, insane, unbelievable thing happened? So be alert, writers—you never know where that brainstorm will be coming from!
Once, this happened: several years ago, I was at the wonderful Sleuthfest conference in Florida. I woke up at 4:00 am on Sunday morning with an idea, almost FULLY FORMED, in my head. With a few tweaks to the basic (cool, high-concept) premise, I turned it into PRAY FOR THE INNOCENT, which won the ITW Thriller Award for Best E-Book Original. Of course, now I’m just a little bit disappointed when I wake up every morning without a great idea!
Most writers I know have too many ideas. We have so many ideas, we just know we’ll never have enough time to write them. With so many ideas, the challenge becomes one of whittling down the pile of possibilities. How do I go about that? First off, I let the nature of creativity do its job. Many of the ideas I get are just momentary flashes of inspiration. Lightning strikes. With time, they peter away. Dissipate. Melt into the ether. Some vanish completely without a trace, as if they were never there at all. Those ideas, for whatever reason, aren’t keepers.
But I find that certain ideas stay with me. I return to them, over a course of days, weeks, months, years. These persistent ideas—the ones that have sunk their teeth into my brain and won’t let go—those are the ones I take a closer look at.
To evaluate my idea to see if it’s viable, I run through a checklist:
Will my idea make a compelling story?
Do I “like” the protagonist and his or her quest?
Will I mind doing the necessary research?
I don’t know about you, but it takes me at least three weeks to write a book. Will I get bored spending so much time with this concept and characters?
Do I think I have the skill to write this type of book, to my standards of quality?
And, because I’ve chosen to look at writing as a business, there’s always that tug of war between complete artistic freedom, and my goal of being published. So my ideas have to clear a couple of additional hurdles:
Will people want to read it (topic, hook, etc)? Does it have a big enough market appeal?
Has it been done before? (That’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it does factor into the mix.)
If I get enough positive answers, then I move forward, full steam ahead, and try not to get derailed by any more GREAT IDEAS!
At least until I’m ready for another one.
Alan Orloff’s work has won the ITW Thriller Award and Derringer Award and been a finalist for the Agatha Award. His ninth novel, I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP will be released in February from Down & Out Books. www.alanorloff.com
Overcoming Social Media: A Writer's Solution
Many a writer has cringed when their agent or publicist suggested they increase their social media presence. I know I sure did. Let’s be honest, social media can be a pretty terrible place. Depending on the specific site you’re visiting, it can be dominated by your former high school classmates’ political rants, overly filtered images pretending to portray an influencer’s perfect life, or snarky barbs about current events, carefully crafted for maximum retweets. Wading through all of that in search of the literary corners can be a demoralizing chore—not to mention that, when you finally find said literary corner, you’ll be faced with a near-constant stream of upbeat publishing news from other writers. It’s enough to make even the most well-adjusted writers among us jealous.
Between the overwhelming negativity, the unavoidable professional jealousy, and the fact that whole thing can be a total time-suck, it’s easy to consider swearing off social media entirely. And even though I’m someone who usually writes about the negative aspects of social media, I’m here to convince you that you should stick with it.
First—and the thing that kept me from throwing in the towel on the whole endeavor—is the opportunity to connect with other writers. Writing is inherently a solitary endeavor, but that doesn’t mean that you should do it in a vacuum. I can’t overstate how valuable it is to have a group of writers with whom you can discuss things like plot structure, pacing, and character development, and who can help you bounce around ideas when you’re stuck. Sure, these groups exist offline—and if you’ve found an IRL writing group, congratulations to you! I searched unsuccessfully for years to find a group of writers with whom I “clicked,” and it wasn’t until I started browsing online groups that I found one. That first group showed me what I was missing, and I’ve since joined more writing organizations and Facebook writing groups, each of which has proved indispensable for one reason or another.
More informally, though, social media is a great place to meet other writers in your genre. Through nothing more than initially tweeting my admiration at other suspense writers and using my platform to shout about their new releases, I’ve managed to develop relationships with a number of authors whom I hold in high regard, even when those authors live across the country or abroad.
Second—and here’s the reason your agent and publicist are pushing it—social media can be an excellent marketing tool. For that to work, though, you have to be smart about how you’re using it. The conventional wisdom is to determine where your target audience congregates online and to devote the bulk of your attention to that social media network, and I don’t disagree. I’ve found that my readers are mostly concentrated on Instagram and Twitter, so that’s where I spent most of my time.
It’s also imperative to not appear as though you’re only online to promote your book. Social media experts often refer to the “Rule of Thirds,” which counsels you should spend one-third of your time online sharing items of interest for your followers, one-third of your time interacting with others, and the final one-third promoting your product. Rather than just shouting about your book all the time, which can turn off a reader, you’re building connections with them—and helping them see you as a real person rather than just a name. From my observations, readers seem more invested in supporting authors whom they feel as though they “know.” Moreover, if you’re interacting in the community and forging those connections with other writers I mentioned above, they may choose to share your news and promotions with their platforms. Everyone wins!
Some doubt the marketing power of social media. I often see people say that no one buys a book because they saw it in a tweet, but I don’t believe that to be entirely true. Sure, a single tweet—particularly a single tweet by you about your own book—is unlikely to generate any sales, but a series of tweets about your book from readers or other authors does wonders to help build buzz. I’ve heard that a reader needs to see your book three times before they consider buying it, so imagine that prospective reader sees three separate tweets about your book. They might not immediately click a buy link, but the next time they see your cover, they’ll think to themselves, “Oh, yeah, I keep seeing this book. Maybe I should give it a try.”
But is it worth the investment of time to maybe sell one copy of one book? Strictly speaking, no. Your time is worth more than $24.99. However, the calculus changes when you remember that social media is a long game and you can’t precisely quantify its benefits. How much is it worth for a popular author to share your publishing news? How much is it worth for a reader with a large following to tweet about your book? It’s hard to say, but it’s definitely positive. Social media still have its pitfalls, and I still have to set time limits for myself and occasionally engage my app that blocks social media, lest I waste my whole day on it. That said, I am more than convinced that building a social media presence is an important step for any author. The contacts I’ve made in the writing community, and the connections I’ve made with readers, simply wouldn’t have been possible any other way. So, yeah, social media is awful, but it doesn’t have to be.
Kathleen Barber writes stories that will make you think twice about social media. Her first novel, Truth Be Told (formerly titled Are You Sleeping), has been adapted as a series for Apple TV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company. Kathleen was raised in Galesburg, Illinois, and is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and son. Follow Me is her second novel. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @katelizabee, or visit her online at kathleenbarber.com.
Learn More:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Follow-Me/Kathleen-Barber/9781982101985
https://twitter.com/katelizabee
Realistic Fiction Books for Kids & Teens: A Beginner's Guide by Eliza Brooks
While there are many genres of fiction books (fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, et al.) for young children that are popular, realistic fiction books for kids and teens are just as fun to read and may help young readers experience the world in new ways.
For purposes of discussion, I will refer to the many genres & subgenres of fiction—particularly those that do not fall under the helm of “realistic fiction”—simply as “fiction” throughout this article. Fiction books, as the term suggests, are solely built around fictional characters and imagined stories. On the other hand, realistic fiction pertains to imagined characters in real-life settings. That means these characters could be anyone in the world. You, a mother, an employee, a child, a servant, or just about anyone you could meet on a day to day basis.
As mentioned, the settings in realistic fiction could be relatable to anyone. It could be in a school, mall, village, mountains, and whatnot. That means no setting is built around unrealistic ones like the sun or outer space. Of course, there are those among us who do stand the chance of going to outer space (though none would likely visit the surface of the sun). Realistic fiction deals with scenarios and settings a reader might face in everyday life, and trips to space aren’t in the cards for most of us.
Additionally, the stories for realistic fiction will revolve around life events that anyone can relate to. It could be about marriage, work, friendship, family troubles, love, high school, mental health, bullying, and just about any real-life event that any person can possibly experience.
As for the time realistic fiction stories happen, they typically unfold in the most recent time or recent past.
To understand what differentiates realistic fiction from “traditional” fiction books, start reading these five realistic fiction books for kids and teens.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This romance realistic fiction book could make you cry, laugh, hurt, and everything in between. It’s a story about a young girl who is diagnosed with cancer. After joining a support group, she meets this boy who is also in the same conundrum as her. They both fall in love and they embark on an adventure of their lives, dealing with challenges along the way.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak was a finalist for Young People’s Literature in 1999. The story is about a girl who was castigated in her high school years because she called the cops on a very important party. Because of her isolation, she didn’t have friends and didn’t talk as well. After being lonely for a long time, she decided to join an art class. And that’s when she faced the fears, hurt and anger suppressed about what happened during that party. And this time, she decided, she’s not keeping quiet anymore.
Isaac and His Amazing Asperger Superpowers by Melanie Walsh
This book will teach kids to be kind to anybody even if they’re a little special. This is a book which is about a kid who is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a type of autism that inhibits social engagement. Isaac, the primary character of the book, has super brain powers and some kids in school don’t really understand him save for his brother. This is an excellent book that will introduce young ones into the life of a kid who is different than others.
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
This is another realistic fiction picture book about Ada Twist, an overly curious little girl who wants to soak in whatever pops into her mind. She scrutinizes the littlest of things – even why there are thorns on a pretty rose! Because of this perennial pursuit of knowledge, Ada embarks on a mission and soon gets into a tight situation that may spell bad news for her.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Illustrated by Ellen Forney, this book follows the author’s life experience as being the only flower sprouting in a vast land of grass. Junior, an Indian native, comes to America and enrolls in an all-white high school. The school mascot and he were the only Indians in the school. Follow Junior’s funny and heartbreaking journey through high school in a foreign land.
These are just a few of the realistic fiction books to start with. There is no shortage of bestselling fiction books online, so it’s best to read one after another. Depending on your or your kids’ preference, getting children engaged in realistic fiction can help mold them into better people as they learn to relate to others and experience various real-life situations.
Eliza Brooks is a passionate blogger who loves to write about travel, books, personal development, lifestyle, productivity, and more. She is currently working with https://www.creedgriffon.com/, which offers incredible teen fiction books series for boys and girls.
5 Essential Self-Publishing Book Marketing Tips for Your Mystery Novel’s Launch Day
There are few things more exciting than the day your book is finally out in the world. All that time and work you’ve put into making it the best it can possibly be—from research and the writing itself, to implementing feedback from beta readers and professional editors—and now all that’s left is to sit back and let readers have it. It’s a heady mix of thrills and nerves, much like a good mystery novel. But before you sit back and consider this case closed, there’s still one very important part of the publishing process left: creating a solid marketing plan for launch day.
So what goes into an effective marketing plan? Let’s break it down.
Cover reveal
Laying the groundwork for a successful launch starts long before the actual release date. In fact, the more effort you put in now, the bigger splash you’ll make come showtime. And it all starts with building hype.
One of the best ways to generate buzz is with your cover. We’re visual creatures, after all, and compelling covers are an easy way to grab a reader’s attention. Of course, the best way to ensure you’ve got a killer cover is to work with a talented cover artist who knows the genre you’re writing in. Some of them may even provide you with “teaser” images that you can use, so make sure to ask if they offer any promotional graphics. If working with a professional isn’t in your budget and you’re going the DIY route, make sure your cover conveys a sense of danger or disturbance. No matter which path you choose, always take a moment to hunt for clues on what cover styles are popular by browsing through the bestsellers in your categories on Amazon.
Once you’ve got the cover nailed down, it’s time to decide how you’re going to unveil it. A guest post is a popular option, using a larger blog’s audience to drive traffic to your own work. But even if you can’t swing that, make sure to hype up the cover reveal beforehand. Small images that show only a taste of the design, sprinkled onto your social media accounts in the days leading up to the reveal are a fun way to get the word out.
And while you have the attention of readers, make sure you give them something to do with their excitement! Call them to action with…
Preorders
It works for the big publishers and it works for us self-publishers, too. Preorders are a great way to give your launch a boost in rankings.
Most of the platforms you’ll be looking to release your book on offer preorders these days, so it’s a waste not to take advantage of them. Preorders not only capture sales through early hype of your book, but start building your sales rank before it’s even released. Coupled with a cover reveal, this can lead to some encouraging early numbers, positioning you even better for the boost you’ll capture on launch day.
But there’s another advantage to preorders, and that’s being able to play around with your book description, categories, and keywords before your book goes fully live. For a few weeks before launch day, you can gather data on what draws readers to your book on Amazon—and what doesn’t—giving you an inside edge for when your sales really kick off in earnest.
You can set up preorders on Amazon up to 90 days before a book release, but most people recommend a few weeks or a month at most. That’s enough time to experiment and build some early ranking, without starting to lose momentum for launch day itself.
Now that you’re driving traffic to your book, it’s time to make sure those visitors become readers.
Early reviews
Here’s the hard-boiled truth: nothing drives sales better than reviews. But if your book is brand new, how is anyone supposed to have read it in order to leave a review?
The answer, of course, is to provide reviewers with advanced copies. And advanced copy—sometimes called an Advanced Reader Copy or ARC in the traditional publishing world—is simply that: an early version of your book, that you give away for free in the hopes that the people you’ve given it to will leave you a review.
Now, it’s important to note that if you do set up your book for preorder, your reviewers won’t be able to leave their early reviews on Amazon until release day—but at least they’ll have read the book and have their review ready to go. Additionally, early reviews can be posted on Goodreads in advance, and you can quote the best ones under the editorial review section of your book’s page.
You can reach out to reviewers individually, or you can use a service like Reedsy Discovery to put your book in front of a whole team of reviewers specifically interested in self-published books.
Alright, so now you’ve got people reading your book in anticipation of launch day. What do you do when launch day finally arrives?
Email blasts
One of my favorite advertising methods is to use “email blast” services. There are literally hundreds of these available, though obviously not all of them are as effective and reputable as others. They also work best if your book is on sale, so you’ll want to use this mainly if you plan to launch your book at a discount.
Email blasts also tend to work best if your book is a standalone, the first of a series, or your debut novel — basically, any situation where there’s not a built-in fanbase already eagerly anticipating launch day. Email blasts are an excellent way to boost your initial ranking and get your book in front of a lot of people all at once. BookBub is, of course, the king, though you’re not guaranteed placement, and you do pay accordingly.
But even if you can’t land a coveted spot among their subscribers, you can still build an email blast launch strategy. Scheduling several smaller lists will give you a couple of boosts throughout the first week, which tells the sales rank algorithm that you’re doing well, putting your book in front of still more readers on Amazon search results.
Of course, not everything can be automated, and there’s still no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and doing the work. Which is why you’ll want to cap off your launch day with…
Guest posts
For the best visibility on launch day, consider going on a good old-fashioned blog tour. Several weeks before your release, make a list of blogs that might be a good promotional opportunity for your book.
Not sure what kind of sites to approach? Book review sites that post about your genre are always a good bet, but if you really want to dig deeper and think creatively, try putting together a reader avatar. A reader avatar is a stand-in model of what your typical reader is going to be like — their age, gender, interests, and income, among other things. Then, you can consider what topics would appeal to them, and can craft a series of guest posts toward sites targeted there, in order to entice them toward your own work.
Even if you’re not going to go that extra step, though, make sure you book has at least a few guest appearances on blogs or even podcasts that align directly with your book. These can be as simple as release day announcements if you’ve already developed a relationship with the host, or range from interviews, to sneak-peaks, to posts on news going on in your particular genre.
Whenever you approach a site owner, though, remember: the more prepared you are to do the work, the more likely they’ll be willing to listen. Just saying “I want to appear on your blog but don’t have any ideas” isn’t anywhere near as likely to succeed as, “I have a guest post on [relevant topic] that I think would be a great fit for your readership.”
With these tricks at your disposal, it’ll be no mystery why your launch day kicks off with a bang.
Desiree Villena is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors and publishers with the world’s best editors, designers, and marketers. In her spare time, Desiree enjoys reading contemporary fiction and writing short stories. She tries her best to avoid using terrible tropes.
Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem at Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference
Murder, Mystery & Mayhem at Killer Nashville
by Joseph W. Borden
You’ve just arrived in Nashville after a long and arduous flight. The night is dark, maybe it’s storming. Your feet are sore, eyes tired. You’re just about at your wits end. You hail a cab. “To Killer Nashville,” you yell, “and step on it!” After dragging, pushing, pulling all your luggage inside and checking in, you finally get to your hotel room. But when you open the door, you see furniture overturned, drawers opened, their contents strewn across the floor. But, worst of all, there’s a dead body occupying your bed!
This is scene you might’ve witnessed at Killer Nashville 2019—albeit something would have to go very wrong at check-in for you to wind up in the room that hosts the mock crime scene each year.
Nashville has long been known for its ties to country music, but what about its connection to murder, mystery, and mayhem? Since 2006, each August, Nashville has been home to The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. The conference, a bastion of the dastardly, hosts about 350 mystery, thriller, and suspense writers each year. These miscreants and ne'er-do-wells are blackguards of the darkest kind—each of them well versed in the languages of espionage, foul play, and general malfeasance. The 2019 conference featured Guests of Honor Alexandra Ivy, David Morrell, and Joyce Carol Oates, all of whom are renowned storytellers and purveyors of the perilous.
Killer Nashville boasts over 60 educational sessions throughout the weekend, ranging from subjects as innocent as “Reviews & How to Get Them” to more nefarious ones such as “Evolution of the Cyber Threat Actor.” Aside from writers, the event brings agents, editors, and other industry professionals from all corners of the globe—and everyone is there for a shared purpose: to learn, connect, master the art of murder…of fictional characters, of course.
The mock crime scene that is featured at Killer Nashville each year is one of the most popular aspects of the conference, as one might expect at an event filled with current/former law enforcement officials and admirers of the macabre. Staged by forensic professionals, the crime scene is an adaptation of real crime scenes they have encountered. Throughout the weekend, attendees work to solve the murder of Ralph David Reed. They attempt to piece together the mystery by using the clues left on scene and by watching pre-recorded witness & suspect interviews. Whomever gets the closest to solving the murder is awarded the Dupin Detective award. This year, Amanda Feyerbend took home this honor, the only one of 100+ participants to deduce every single fact about the “murder” correctly.
“The Killer Nashville Mock Crime Scene was such a great experience!” said Feyerbend. “As I walked around the room, I tried to put on my investigator’s hat and soak up everything I could about the intricate scene. I’d hoped to win the Dupin Detective Award, and when Former Assistant Director [of the TBI] Dan Royse said all those kind words and called my name, I was ecstatic. It’s such an honor. The whole conference was amazing, and I can't wait to come back next year.”
But it’s not all fun and murder games at the conference; there’s also glory to be earned at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner. Villains and vagabonds alike come together to listen to speeches from Guests of Honor & scholarship winners, and to see who will go home with coveted Killer Nashville awards. Killer Nashville coordinates two large award competitions: the Silver Falchion Award & the Claymore Award.
The Silver Falchion Award honors the best books readily available to a North American audience in both fiction and nonfiction from the previous year. The competitions recognizes books in 10 different categories relating to mystery, thriller, suspense and all the fiendish iterations those genres can form. From those categories, only one can be honored as Book of the Year. The 2019 Book of the Year recipient was author Baron R. Birtcher for his title Fistful of Rain. Birtcher also won Best Action Adventure and Best Attending Author for the same title—one could say he’s a dangerous man, indeed.
Of his award, Birtcher said, “I'm still trying to wrap my head around the honor of having won the Silver Falchion for Book of the Year! I've been attending Killer Nashville for 10 years now, and it still stands as my favorite. Drawing incredibly talented writers from all over the world, the programs, panels, networking, and above all, the camaraderie among the attendees is unparalleled. There is a reason that Killer Nashville is considered to be one of the preeminent writer’s conferences on the planet. "
The Killer Nashville Claymore Award is one that is particularly special to the conference, as it recognizes the best 50 first pages of an unpublished manuscript. Most of the writers who enter the Claymore Award competition have never been published before (mischief-makers in training, if you will). In 2019, for the first time in its decade-long history, the Claymore Award had a tie for first place. Originally, it was suggested that a tiebreaker would be had by way of knife fight but, eventually, the contest judges concluded that less bloodshed would be preferable, from a PR perspective.
"Winning the 2019 Claymore Award was an enormous gift of confidence for me,” said John Carenen, who won for his title Breathtaking in the Blue Ridge. “I was delighted to be one of the 20 finalists and stunned when my name was announced at the Awards Dinner. And to have David Morrell present the award added to what was a surreal moment. I don't think anything that follows in my writing career can top that event."
Joseph Simurdiak took home the Claymore for his historical fantasy A Red Autumn Wind. Of his experience, Simurdiak said, “Killer Nashville enthusiastically cultivate[s] new and rising voices. [M]any Claymore finalists go on to land book deals, and I felt like I'd crossed some kind of threshold. It [the night he won the Claymore] was truly one of the most amazing nights of my life, the realization of a childhood dream. But it was also a huge step in an even larger journey, one in which the following chapter is already underway.”
Although it may be a conference full of those who have one foot in the dirty underworld of society (strictly—well, mostly—in a fictional sense), the overall goal for Killer Nashville is to create a nurturing environment in which writers at all stages of their careers can come together to better their writing and make lasting connections with like minds. So come, all ye scoundrels, and see what all the buzz is about. It’s truly an experience to die for.
Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem at Killer Nashville International Writers' Conference
Murder, Mystery & Mayhem at Killer Nashville
by Joseph W. Borden
You’ve just arrived in Nashville after a long and arduous flight. The night is dark, maybe it’s storming. Your feet are sore, eyes tired. You’re just about at your wits end. You hail a cab. “To Killer Nashville,” you yell, “and step on it!” After dragging, pushing, pulling all your luggage inside and checking in, you finally get to your hotel room. But when you open the door, you see furniture overturned, drawers opened, their contents strewn across the floor. But, worst of all, there’s a dead body occupying your bed!
This is scene you might’ve witnessed at Killer Nashville 2019—albeit something would have to go very wrong at check-in for you to wind up in the room that hosts the mock crime scene each year.
Nashville has long been known for its ties to country music, but what about its connection to murder, mystery, and mayhem? Since 2006, each August, Nashville has been home to The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference. The conference, a bastion of the dastardly, hosts about 350 mystery, thriller, and suspense writers each year. These miscreants and ne'er-do-wells are blackguards of the darkest kind—each of them well versed in the languages of espionage, foul play, and general malfeasance. The 2019 conference featured Guests of Honor Alexandra Ivy, David Morrell, and Joyce Carol Oates, all of whom are renowned storytellers and purveyors of the perilous.
Killer Nashville boasts over 60 educational sessions throughout the weekend, ranging from subjects as innocent as “Reviews & How to Get Them” to more nefarious ones such as “Evolution of the Cyber Threat Actor.” Aside from writers, the event brings agents, editors, and other industry professionals from all corners of the globe—and everyone is there for a shared purpose: to learn, connect, master the art of murder…of fictional characters, of course.
The mock crime scene that is featured at Killer Nashville each year is one
of the most popular aspects of the conference, as one might expect at an event filled with current/former law enforcement officials and admirers of the macabre. Staged by forensic professionals, the crime scene is an adaptation of real crime scenes they have encountered. Throughout the weekend, attendees work to solve the murder of Ralph David Reed. They attempt to piece together the mystery by using the clues left on scene and by watching pre-recorded witness & suspect interviews. Whomever gets the closest to solving the murder is awarded the Dupin Detective award. This year, Amanda Feyerbend took home this honor, the only one of 100+ participants to deduce every single fact about the “murder” correctly.
“The Killer Nashville Mock Crime Scene was such a great experience!” said Feyerbend. “As I walked around the room, I tried to put on my investigator’s hat and soak up everything I could about the intricate scene. I’d hoped to win the Dupin Detective Award, and when Former Assistant Director [of the TBI] Dan Royse said all those kind words and called my name, I was ecstatic. It’s such an honor. The whole conference was amazing, and I can't wait to come back next year.”
But it’s not all fun and murder games at the conference; there’s also glory to be earned at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner. Villains and vagabonds alike come together to listen to speeches from Guests of Honor & scholarship winners, and to see who will go home with coveted Killer Nashville awards. Killer Nashville coordinates two large award competitions: the Silver Falchion Award & the Claymore Award.
The Silver Falchion Award honors the best books readily available to a North American audience in both fiction and nonfiction from the previous year. The competitions recognizes books in 10 different categories relating to mystery, thriller, suspense and all the fiendish iterations those genres can form. From those categories, only one can be honored as Book of the Year. The 2019 Book of the Year recipient was author Baron R. Birtcher for his title Fistful of Rain. Birtcher also won Best Action Adventure and Best Attending Author for the same title—one could say he’s a dangerous man, indeed.
Of his award, Birtcher said, “I'm still trying to wrap my head around the honor of having won the Silver Falchion for Book of the Year! I've been attending Killer Nashville for 10 years now, and it still stands as my favorite. Drawing incredibly talented writers from all over the world, the programs, panels, networking, and above all, the camaraderie among the attendees is unparalleled. There is a reason that Killer Nashville is considered to be one of the preeminent writer’s conferences on the planet. "
The Killer Nashville Claymore Award is one that is particularly special to the conference, as it recognizes the best 50 first pages of an unpublished manuscript. Most of the writers who enter the Claymore Award competition have never been published before (mischief-makers in training, if you will). In 2019, for the first time in its decade-long history, the Claymore Award had a tie for first place. Originally, it was suggested that a tiebreaker would be had by way of knife fight but, eventually, the contest judges concluded that less bloodshed would be preferable, from a PR perspective.
"Winning the 2019 Claymore Award was an enormous gift of confidence for me,” said John Carenen, who won for his title Breathtaking in the Blue Ridge. “I was delighted to be one of the 20 finalists and stunned when my name was announced at the Awards Dinner. And to have David Morrell present the award added to what was a surreal moment. I don't think anything that follows in my writing career can top that event."
Joseph Simurdiak took home the Claymore for his historical fantasy A Red Autumn Wind. Of his experience, Simurdiak said, “Killer Nashville enthusiastically cultivate[s] new and rising voices. [M]any Claymore finalists go on to land book deals, and I felt like I'd crossed some kind of threshold. It [the night he won the Claymore] was truly one of the most amazing nights of my life, the realization of a childhood dream. But it was also a huge step in an even larger journey, one in which the following chapter is already underway.”
Although it may be a conference full of those who have one foot in the dirty underworld of society (strictly—well, mostly—in a fictional sense), the overall goal for Killer Nashville is to create a nurturing environment in which writers at all stages of their careers can come together to better their writing and make lasting connections with like minds. So come, all ye scoundrels, and see what all the buzz is about. It’s truly an experience to die for.
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