After the Sale . . . by Susan Oleksiw

Last week I sent back the final edits for the fourth book in the Anita Ray series. When Krishna Calls will be out in April 2016, less than ten months from today. I'm excited about this book and looking forward to the cover. My editor generously sends me previews, and sometimes I get to make suggestions. I had a chance to do that on the first book, Under the Eye of Kali, but it wasn't necessary for the second and third in the series. Thanks to Deirdre Wait, graphic designer, I've had three beautiful covers perfectly matched to the stories. Does that mean all I have to do now is wait for the royalty checks to roll in? Alas, no.

Over the next ten months I have numerous tasks that are all part of launching a new book. This is where the joy of finishing a book bumps into the reality of selling it to the reading public. A number of websites and blogs give advice on how to promote a new book (see the links below), but I do only a few of the many suggestions.

If I weren't already on social media--FB, Pinterest, Twitter, among others--now would be the time to join. I don't do a lot with these sites, but I have learned to do something at least occasionally, and now is the time to step things up.

I will announce my upcoming book on FB and other websites, but not so often that I will be a pest. No one wants to keep reading the same news flash every day.

I'll update my list of reviewers for the ARCs that I expect by the end of the year. These sites include giveaways on Goodreads and LibraryThing, as well as teasers on Wattpad. In addition, I look for specialty magazines/newspapers, such as newspapers directed to the Indian community.

My website always needs updating, and I'll add the new novel plus any short stories that haven't yet been listed. I won't have a list of blogs or events to post until the spring, but I'll add those also.

Bookmarks have always been popular, and now with Internet services they are easier than ever to produce cheaply. I've used bookmarks for both the Anita Ray series and the Mellingham/Joe Silva series. These are easy to hand out, but not nearly as popular as the recipe cards I produce for the Anita Ray series.

Readers of cozies and traditional mysteries love recipes, and I love writing them. When I have one I think works well and is accessible for those not comfortable with cooking Indian food, I send the recipe to a friend who has a food/cooking blog and he tests it for me. With his final approval, I make up a recipe card with the covers of the Anita Ray books on the other side. I hand the cards out at events and often get asked for additional copies. I'll do the next recipe card when I have a copy of the fourth cover. My current recipe cards have only three covers on the reverse.

During the late fall I begin setting up events. Because I've had the benefit of working with Sisters in Crime New England Speakers' Bureau, I know that a panel of several writers is more attractive to libraries and bookstores than a lone writer who may or may not have a following in the area. We have several terrific writers in my area, and we enjoy working with each other on panels. If I'm doing any traveling I make a point of writing ahead to area bookstores and offer to come in and sign stock or give a talk. I make myself accessible, but I don't push the opportunity.

One of the key things I try to keep in mind when setting up panels or talks is that I'm one of hundreds of writers doing the same thing. Libraries and bookstores can feel overwhelmed with offers, and many like to stick with their own programming. Make the offer, outline how much you can do for them, and be honest about the audience you can bring in. Then step back.

Blog tours are very popular and I try to do as many posts as possible. This also means, of course, keeping up with my weekly post on my own blog. I tend to be erratic on this one, so a new book is a challenge for me here as well as in other areas. Some writers hire a company to set up a blog tour, and other writers do it on our own.

In addition to the usual venues, I have done a number of radio and TV interviews over the years. These are fun, and I try to tailor my conversation to the interests of the area or interviewer.

I have never purchased ad space because my publisher, Five Star/Gale, Cengage, does a gorgeous catalog and markets well to libraries and bookstores. But some writers purchase ad space in conference catalogs or trade magazines relevant to the book.

There are lots of ways to promote a book, but no one wants to be deluged with sales pitches. I am, after all, only one of a few hundred writers doing the same thing. So, I will add to my list of things to do the simple reminder to have confidence in my book as a good story that readers will enjoy. And in between marketing efforts I will start thinking about the next Anita Ray and set aside time to write.

The sites below have straightforward advice on marketing your book. My advice on these is to pick and choose. Try out the tips that seem reasonable to you, and ignore the rest.

https://nancyjcohen.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/book-promotion-countdown/

http://www.bookmarket.com/bookpromotion.htm

http://www.authormedia.com/89-book-marketing-ideas-that-will-change-your-life/

Which kind of writer are you? by Susan Oleksiw

In honor of Independence Day I offer a question that most of us discover the answer to after writing for several years. Some writers begin with a series and stick with it. In each installment the protagonist, professional or amateur, investigates a crime and finds the culprit. Variety is found in the recurring minor characters who populate the established setting and those who appear as part of the particular mystery. In contrast is the writer who writes a few books in one series, writes a stand-alone, switches genres, and generally wanders from form to form, series to series, exploring and discovering.

Each approach to writing has its pluses and minuses. The writer who begins and sticks with one series character brings the reader into an established and known world, with old friends reappearing in new situations and more quirks in the main support figures. These books have enormous appeal for the way they take us into lives of people who come to seem like friends. Deborah Crombie has written fourteen Duncan Kincaid mysteries (with a fifteenth in the works),  and readers eagerly await her next story and the chance to revisit "old friends" Duncan and Gemma.

In contrast Laurie King has written three series and four stand-alone novels. Most mystery readers are familiar with the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series that catapulted King to fame. The Kate Martinelli series brings readers back to California and the police procedural. The Stuyvesant and Grey books take the reader to Paris in the latest installment.

Aside from the sheer number of books these writers manage to produce, both are exploring crime and its aftermath in similar ways, going deeper into the lives of those affected as well as those investigating.

Which type of writer are you? Do you have one series and intend to stick with it over as many as twenty or thirty titles? Or do you like to explore different places and topics through different series characters as well as different genres?

Since I raised the question, I should answer it also. I began the Mellingham series with Murder in Mellingham (1993), and the sixth, Last Call for Justice, appeared in 2012. I introduced Anita Ray, an Indian American photographer living in South India at her aunt's tourist hotel, in a short story in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine in 2003. The first full-length Anita Ray mystery, Under the Eye of Kali, appeared in 2010. The third in the Anita Ray series, For the Love of Parvati, appeared in May 2014. 

I admit that I like switching back and forth and seeing similar problems from different perspectives, cultural as well as personal. I enjoy exploring the New England world, life along the coast and its special problems. But I also lived in India and have a great passion for exploring as much as I can of that world. In addition, I've written a number of short stories about a village in a rural area of New England. One story is available, Love Takes a Detour, with others to follow.

Now it's your turn. Which kind of mystery writer are you? Do you focus on one series, or do you try different things, different series characters and different genres?

To find Susan's novels, go to http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Oleksiw/e/B001JS3P7C

To learn more about Susan and her work, go to www.susanoleksiw.com

One More Step in Making a Series Live

I don’t remember the first time I heard the admonition, Don’t judge a book by its cover. I have always felt I was open minded and tried not to be judgmental when evaluating an idea or meeting someone new. But when it comes to books, I think I do judge a book by its cover. And I’m not the only one.

I didn’t come to this conclusion until it was forced on me. There’s nothing like having someone point out the obvious for waking me up. And that’s what a friend did recently, when she pointed out that the covers for the Mellingham books don’t look like they’re part of a series. Really? Maybe that’s because someone who knows nothing about graphic arts designed some of them. Me.

I have had four publishers for the Mellingham series, four publishers with four different design groups designing covers in hard cover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, and large print. Coherence was not anyone’s goal, and it showed. Since I put the books up on Kindle and Nook, I had to produce covers for them, and these are the ones that have been hanging around for a couple of years. But no longer.

Thanks to a good friend and wonderful designer, the Mellingham series, two of which were published by Five Star, now have a set of covers that tell the reader/buyer that these books belong together, and in this order.

I have had to give up the belief that all readers are like me. If I want to read a book on a particular topic, or by a specific author, I don’t care what the cover looks like. But not everyone goes to the bookstore, or library, or on line, with a list of books to corral. But even I don’t do that all the time. I browse just like anyone else; I pull books off the shelves if I like the look of the cover.

A good cover tells the reader the kind of book to expect. No reader will find a buxom 1950s female form sprawled on the cover of a Mellingham book in the style of Mickey Spillane. Nor will a reader find what one editor called “the cookbook cover,” an array of little hints about clues, on one of my books. That isn’t me and that isn’t Mellingham. There is humor but it isn't the defining feature of the book. The stories move from light to dark and sometimes swing back and forth.

The new covers do exactly what a cover should do. The covers tell the reader that this is a traditional mystery story, set in a small New England town, with little blood or gore. It is not a thriller or a violent series. These are stories about place and the kind of people who live in small New England towns.

A good cover is the result of a designer who “gets” the story. My publishers have all had good designers who “got” the story, but after so many books and so many different designers, it was time to make the covers uniform as well as informative. And now they are, with grateful thanks to Kathleen Valentine and her many talents.

Presenting the covers here also brings me near to the end of a process that I've been documenting here on Author Expressions. The Mellingham series has offered me as a writer challenges--how to continue this series while developing a new one and writing other stories that are independent of both? How to keep the series alive without a publisher? How to promote a series in this new publishing world?

There are a few steps left, and I'll be reporting on those also on Author Expressions. But right now I'm enjoying the new look of the series and enjoying the feeling of a fresh start.

Time: How to Find It and How to Use It

We live in an age of "not enough time." How often have you said it? How often have you heard someone else say it, when you nod and murmur agreement? For anyone who writes, the phrase comes often, sometimes every day. But is it accurate?

Every writer needs time to write, think, rewrite, edit, revise, review, critique, and polish. There seems never enough time when I start writing, and I slog along wishing I had more time. But I'm starting to think this is one of those automatic thoughts, and I would do well to ignore it. When I stop to think about it, I find time in lots of corners of my day.

One morning last month, because of the snowstorm, I left for work three hours later than usual. These three hours were a luxury, and instead of doing something mundane like vacuuming or sorting laundry, I proofed a copy of the paper back of my newest work, Last Call for Justice: A Mellingham Mystery. I knew the text was correct, since I'd already read it through, but I wanted to go through each page to make sure no lines had fallen off, the pagination hadn't suddenly gone awry, and similar concerns. That took less than an hour.

After proofing, I took the time to review a short story I'd written several months earlier, sent out for review to a reader, and revised. It was ready to send out, but where? I spent half an hour considering where to send it, made a choice, and submitted it online to a literary journal. (I write all sorts of things, with and without dead bodies. This one was without, but it did feature a homeless teenager.)

Next came a friend's mss, which I had eagerly offered to read and comment on. She's been kind enough to read almost all of my work and I wanted to return the favor. I gave the story a first reading, made notes, and mentally scheduled a second reading for the next day, when I'd have had time to digest the first one. After that I had a little time left so I read. My current reading is Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn, a Jackson Brodie mystery.

I can't always count on a snowstorm to start my day, but I can find half an hour before I go to work to do one or two things--send out a short story, read a few chapters, make notes for a scene.

On my drive into work on that snowy day, I thought about the first draft of my current work-in-progress, which has been sitting on my desk for over two weeks. It's taken me over three years to finish the draft, and I have already made a mental list of the main changes I want to make. The ending is a little too perfect, unlike life, and in this mss I want the reader to come to the end and think, yes, this is how it would end; this is what would happen. I know I also want to strengthen the first chapter. Occasionally I hear perfect lines in my head and I hope I can hold onto them till I get to work, or can pull over and write them down. I am a firm believer in both hands on the wheel. I do not answer my cell or make a call while driving. (Warning: Do not call me on a cell when you're driving. I'll ask you to call back when you've parked the car.)

When I got home after work, I turned on my computer, checked email, viewed FB, and made a few notes for editing. I started dinner and left it simmering on the stove while I returned to my mss. Later, my husband and I ate dinner, he did the dishes, and I tidied up. After dinner I drafted this short essay. And now, as I come to the end of this piece, I'm glancing around for my book. I have fewer than one hundred pages left in Atkinson's mystery and want to finish it tonight.

Even without those extra three hours this morning, I would have completed almost all of the writing tasks I got through. My day is like anyone else's, with little pockets of time I can use for writing or for something else or for nothing. But since I'm a writer above all else, I'm going to use them to write, edit, revise, read, and more.

Would I like more time? Certainly. Do I need more time? I'm not sure. Having more time would be a luxury, but anyone who thinks he or she needs days and weeks of uninterrupted time in order to write will probably never write. Each one of us has many things to do, but if we want to write, we will. Writers write. That's what we do. We find the time, however much or little it is, and we use it. So when someone tells me he or she doesn't have enough time to write, I smile and nod, and then I think about making them a character in my next story.