Self-publishing

Yesterday, March 27, was my birthday and I had a post all ready to write, but then life got in the way. Instead of writing a post in the afternoon as I planned -- and it was going to be a really good one -- I had to handle a couple of family issues, and then headed out of town to take my daughter and her college roommate to dinner. Only now, a few minutes after midnight, am I able to sit down and briefly write.

Fantasy author Lynne Cantwell spoke to our local chapter of Sisters in Crime at our monthly meeting last Saturday. Her topic was self-publishing.

Now over the years I have played with the idea of self-publishing but, quite frankly, it was always just an intellectual exercise in my head. I never gave it serious consideration -- that is until I heard Cantwell, all 55-years old, say she decided to take the plunge when she considered that "I'm not getting any younger."

Of course, she wasn't getting younger, No one is. But I got the point, particularly as I was staring down the barrel of the gun that was my impending birthday. And for the first time I started to seriously consider self-publishing, in this case putting An Untidy Affair out into the world.

 I wrote Affair in 2009 and it is now in what I consider is its 13th draft. And I have tried for some time to get an agent interested in me and, by extension, the work. So now it seems like it's time to do something different.

I haven't made a final decision yet. I want a professional editor to work on it first. But I have started putting a marketing plan together to publish it as an e-book and as POD some time in the fall. (Got to allow time to drum up some interest.)

That's where I'm at. There will be more about it later. But as part of my strategy, I will probably redesign my blog page and increase what it offers in the months to come.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and keep writing. Always.

Taking on Amazon

(NOTE: This is a link to a New York Times piece on a small publisher that is taking on Mighty Amazon:http://finance.yahoo.com/news/daring-cut-off-amazon-140209029.html )

When I was in high school so many years ago, I remember one day in Philosophy class we discussed the difference between being brave and being foolhardy. While I can't remember what, if any, conclusions we reached, I would imagine we probably decided that success or failure ultimately defined the difference.

That certainly came to mind when I read a New York Times article (link above) about a daring small publisher, Educational Development Corporation, which decided to take Amazon over the pricing of books.

Much like with mom and pop grocery stores that were on every street corner when I was growing up, the big stores -- and ultimately, the Wal-Marts of the world -- drove the into extinction. That could certainly happen with small publishers and brick-and-mortar bookstores in the future, thanks to huge companies like Amazon.

That would be sad. Price isn't the only thing customers are looking for in a reading experience. It's also having a knowledgeable person discuss books with you, booksinging and meeting authors, and getting together with other readers. All those sorts of things get lost when companies like Amazon drive others out of the market.

That impacts me as both a reader and a writer, and the prospect saddens me.

Read the article and make up your own mind.

But in the meantime, thanks for reading and keep writing.

SinC survey

The Sisters in Crime Mystery Book Consumer Study is done and is online. I will look for the link and give it to you later. Analyzing the results should help in planning marketing strategies. So I will be looking at the study closely in the days and weeks ahead. I haven't read the study yet -- and I look forward to seeing some of the racial demographics -- but here are some of the results. (I am quoting below directly from the e-mail I got today.)

The majority of mystery/crime fiction buyers tend to be women over the age of 45. Overall, 68 percent of mysteries are purchased by women; more than half of mystery buyers are more than 45 years of age. Buyers 18 to 44 years of age purchase 31 percent of the mysteries sold.

Most of the mystery buyers – 48 percent – live in suburban areas, 27 percent reside in rural areas and 25 percent live in urban areas.

The majority of mysteries – 35 percent – are purchased by individuals who live in the South, 26 percent are purchased by people in the West, 20 percent by those in the Midwest and 19 percent by individuals in the Northeast.

Mysteries are obtained mostly through purchases from brick-and-mortar stores, followed by library borrowing and online purchasing. A total of 39 percent are obtained through in-store purchases, 19 percent are borrowed from libraries and 17 percent are purchased online. Online purchases in the mystery genre top those for other types of fiction.


More later.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Justin Bieber and other rants

I know this is going to sound like so many sour grapes -- and perhaps it is -- but it seems there is a certain injustice in the universe when there are so many talented, struggling unpublished authors in the world and someone like Justin Bieber can get a book contract for an autobiography.

I was in the bookstore last weekend and saw FIRST STEP 2 FOREVER: MY STORY by Justin Bieber. What in the world can this 16-year-old boy, whom no one had heard of two years ago, say would be interesting enough to pay good money to buy, let alone to read? He has no life experience. He's had no great struggles since he was a child. He was a healthy middle-class kid growing up in suburbia in Canada.

It looks a lot like a picture book for the pre-teen set but I know several young adult authors with far more to offer that age group than what they will get from Bieber. Fortunately, two of them are getting published next year but neither will get nearly the sort of publicity granted to Justin Bieber.

What I think is worse for Bieber, who apparently has a nail polish line coming as well as a unisex fragrance, is that it seems as if some marketing guru is trying to turn a boy, who already has lots of effeminate characteristics, into a girl. He could be messed up for the rest of his life as in private moments, which could be few, he struggles to understand who he is. He could end up like poor Michael Jackson.

That saddens me but it isn't the point I am trying to make at the moment.

I love it when a debut author breaks through because it provides hope for the rest of us. But it seems that when some celebrity, such as Bieber or with novels by Nicole Richie, comes out of nowhere and gets a contract, there is a little less space for the rest of us. I have an online friend who was published this year (and it was a wonderful book) and he footed the bill for his own book tour. It was worth it to him and I support that. But I'm sure Justin Bieber doesn't have to foot the bill for his publicity, tours or book signings.

It just doesn't seem right.

So there is my rant.

I truly don't wish young Justin Bieber ill-will in any way. I just wish there was a little more equity in the universe.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing. Don't let the injustice silence your voice.

A published author. Now what . . .

I was in the publisher's warehouse last week on the day when the first copies of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD arrived from the printer and I took a couple of copies for promotional purposes. When I opened the first copy I had, it was on a page of my story, "The Missing CD."

I have been a journalist for many, many years and have seen my name in print countless times. I even have copies of my by lined stories from The New York Times. But this was different. The Missing CD is my first piece of published fiction. And I was thrilled.

I could complain about some of the copy editing but I won't because it doesn't matter. And because, overall, the book and my story look great. It is exciting to see this project reach its next stage. It's produced and is being distributed to bookstores and now we are in a big publicity push.

In addition to the launch party on June 12, we have another signing at a bookstore in Fishers in July. The editors have been on one local television program, and I anticipate newspaper articles in Muncie, Mooresville, and in two small papers in Indianapolis. An editor at The Star has a hand-delivered copy for review and I am hoping that a friend from my days at the paper will cover the launch party. (She is a social columnist now.)

I have my free copy and autographed it and sent it to my mother, who is in California on vacation and won't be back before the launch party. Three days ago I helped write out the invitations for the party, which are now in the mail. So, things are moving along.

What remains and what I plan to work on this week is getting more signings, expanding some coverage to other Sisters in Crime chapters and helping, if necessary, with the book trailer video. A local band is writing a song to specifically perform for the video.

So, what's next on the author front? I am still seeking an agent for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. I plan to keep up the pressure with that. Plus I will read through it once more this week and decide if there is anymore I can do with it and it not, move on to my next project, which currently is untitled.

I plan to keep moving forward with efforts at getting a novel published. But I am also savoring the feeling of being a published author. It feels good.

Have a good Memorial Day. Enjoy your summer and thanks for reading.

Excerpt of "The Missing CD"

When I started blogging in December 2007, I intended to chronicle the struggles, trials and successes of an aspiring novelist. For the most part, I think I have done that -- though a few more successes would be welcome. However, I'm still in the process.

This is my 200th posting since I started blogging and so I decided to present to my readers an excerpt from my short story, "The Missing CD." This is from the last e-mail I got before the story went to the copy editor. I don't remember there being any major changes.

This story is in the upcoming racing anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD. All the stories in the anthology relate in some manner to the Brickyard 400 stock car race in Indianapolis each summer, or to NASCAR. The book should be in local bookstores in two weeks, and is available now on Amazon, as well as on the Borders, and Barnes and Noble websites.

The launch party for the anthology is Saturday, June 12, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Carmel on US 31 North. I hope to see some of you there. And I hope you enjoy the story.

Michael

___

The Missing CD
by
M. B. Dabney

Award-winning journalist M. B. Dabney is an avid race fan whose writing has appeared in the Indianapolis Star, NUVO, The Indianapolis Business Journal, EBONY magazine, and BlackEnterprise.com. He is an officer in the Speed City Indiana chapter of Sisters in Crime and recently completed, A Murderous Dispatch, a mystery novel set in a black newspaper. He lives in Indiana with his wife, two daughters, and their dog, Pluto.


Barbara Jean was the best waitress at Rosie’s Roadside Diner on Highway 77 north of Talladega, Alabama, near the interstate. She knew all the regulars and was cheerful and welcoming to a fault. And she was particularly happy about having her one-time high school sweetheart, Bobby Lee Stevenson, having breakfast at the diner.

Barbara Jean offered Bobby Lee a big smile as she approached a booth near the back. She carried a plate full of flapjacks in her right hand, and on her forearm, balanced a plate of fried eggs sunny-side up, four strips of bacon, and an order of grits. She set the glass of orange juice in her left hand on the table before placing the plates of food in front of Bobby Lee.

“Here you go, darlin.’” Barbara Jean called everyone ‘darlin’ these days. “You need anything else?”

“No, Barbara Jean. Thanks.”

One of the old men up front in the restaurant yelled to Bobby Lee.

“Why you down here, boy?”

Bobby Lee, who looked a lot like Cary Grant early in his film career, hadn’t lived in Alabama since his father moved their struggling NASCAR team, Johnny Eldon Stevenson Racing, to North Carolina, 10 years earlier.

“Just visiting some family. One of my cousins is sick,” he said, charging headlong into the food. “You know him. My cousin, Eldon, named after grandpa. And we got a weekend off this week before heading up to Indianapolis for the Brickyard.”

Another old guy said, “You guys looked pretty good last weekend. If it weren’t for that damned fool Tony Stewart crashin’ Kevin out you might have won that Chicago race.”

“We’ll get ‘em next weekend,” Bobby Lee said. “Our guy’s a pretty good driver. We’ll get there.”

The good folks of Talladega considered the Stevenson's a hometown team and no one wanted to mention the team’s fall from grace. For lack of sponsorship, the team was forced to hire a third-rate driver named Kevin Holmes who came with his own sponsorship money from a Southern grocery store chain. That deal, which Bobby Lee arranged, financially saved the team.

Rosie’s was surprisingly busy for mid-day on a Tuesday. A regular crowd of senior citizens was up front having donuts and coffee and talking NASCAR with two truckers, who were having full meals. But there was a lone man, a stranger, sitting at the counter toward the back eating the steak and eggs special, enjoying black coffee and reading the local sports page. He was tall and thin, and wore blue jeans. His cowboy hat was on the counter next to him.

“You finished, darlin’?” Barbara Jean asked Bobby Lee when she saw that he was done. Then she added with a slight flirt, “You need anythin’ else?”

“No, I’m fine, Barbara Jean,” he said, ignoring the come-on. “Just leave the check on the table for me while I go hit the john real quick.”

She nodded, wrote the check, and left it on the table as he headed to the restroom.

Bobby Lee spent a few moments in the restroom. No one was looking his way as he came out. And no one noticed he was carrying a white business-sized envelope in his right hand. As he passed the stranger at the counter, he dropped the envelope on the red vinyl stool next to him. The man didn’t look down and Bobby Lee kept walking. Once at his table, Bobby Lee grabbed his check and headed to the front to pay.

The cash register was on the end of a counter near the entrance and Bobby Lee had the crowd's attention as he walked up. He gave Barbara Jean a knowing smile as he paid the bill and tipped her more than 25 percent.

As everyone else in the joint was fawning over Bobby Lee, the stranger reached for the envelope, opened the flap and looked inside. He saw the left half of 10, nonsequential 500 dollar bills, and a picture of a newspaper sports columnist from Indianapolis named Henry Rennert.

The man with the cowboy hat tucked the envelope in his inside jacket pocket and motioned to Barbara Jean to refill his coffee. It was bitter tasting because it had been sitting on the warmer too long, but he drank it anyway. He was facing a 10-hour drive and needed to stay awake and alert. And once he arrived at his destination, there was work to do before he completed his job.

Three days later, on Friday morning, Henry Rennert was found dead in his Speedway home. Police said Rennert apparently was shot after walking in on someone burglarizing his home.

Foto befuddled

I am foto befuddled today.

I had planned to include in this post photos of the front and back covers of BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the racing anthology the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime is publishing next month. It's a nice cover -- much better than the drawing you'd see if you pre-ordered the book on Amazon. (I don't know if anyone has.)

I finally saw the covers last night in an e-mail. I downloaded them to my laptop and tried repeatedly to upload them either into my blog or onto my Facebook page. But the covers are not jpeg files and can't be uploaded. Or, at least I haven't figured out how to do it yet. But I plan to. (I can e-mail them as an attachment, however. But there are too many people out there for me to e-mail. FB and my blog are easier.)

I am quite excited, however. As the book cover states, there are 15 stories of "bedlam, bafflement and bewilderment" in the anthology, all related either to the Brickyard 400 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway each summer or to NASCAR. All the stories are by members of Speed City SinC and edited by award-winning author Brenda Robertson Stewart and Wanda Lou Willis.

In between the stories are factoids -- historical narratives and statistical charts that I compiled and edited. Plus my story, "The Missing CD," is short story No. 12 in the book. I like the story and soon will post an excerpt of the story in my blog. And, of course, once the book is out I will be a published author.

HOORAY for me!

The launch party for the anthology is now scheduled for Saturday, June 12, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on US 31 in Carmel. Many of the contributing authors will be there to autograph copies and, most importantly, there will be eats. So, if you are out that way on June 12, please stop by. And if not, buy a copy online. All the proceeds will go to support the education program of the chapter.

Brenda and Wanda will be on a local television this week and I am working on getting more coverage, and in arranging some book-signings. Part of my publicity effort will focus on promoting the book via the Internet, which means I need to GET A FREAKIN' COPY OF THE COVER ON MY BLOG! I am also working on doing some author interviews online, perhaps some audio excerpts and maybe a simple book trailer.

More on that later. For now, thanks for reading.

Anthology

I wrote a whole new scene yesterday for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR. It was a bit of backstory between the main character, David Blaise, and a former love interest. And while I was doing it, I was surprised by some of the developments that came out of it.

It always amazes me when I am writing something and something surprising comes out. In this case, there is a definite connection between Blaize's ex and the missing person's case he is working on. And I didn't know any of that until I was writing it.

Amazing.

Also I am making progress in promoting BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, the anthology being put together by the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime. It is being published in two weeks, though pre-orders are being taken on Amazon. There are a couple of libraries interested in having signings, one of the anthology's editors get them dates for a local TV show, I'm close to getting some coverage in a local community paper and a local book club is interested in having a couple of authors come to talk. The launch party date is May 22.

It is still slow-going but things are moving ahead.

Next will be really getting stuff online. I will do something in my blog, of course, but I want a greater presence via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and on the chapter's website.

Not sure if we can have video on our website but I am working on that. I definitely know we can do something on the chapter's Facebook page.

Like I said before, this is an exciting time. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD

As you are aware, I am a member of the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and our next anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD, is being published soon. In addition to being the secretary of the chapter, I am head of the committee planning and executing the marketing of the book.

Well, today I finally learned the exact publication date. May 1.

Apparently, it will still be a couple of weeks before the book hits stores but it will be in time for race activities in May. And now we can plan a launch party, which I am hoping to have in mid-May.

It is too bad I will miss our regularly scheduled SinC meeting tomorrow due to my continuing health issues but I am excited about the next several weeks. I want to start lining up interviews with authors in the anthology for different publications if i can interest them in doing a story, and hope to get something in the Star, NUVO, the Recorder, possibly one or two television and radio stations locally, the Hendricks County Flyer and possibly the papers that serve Mooresville, New Castle and Muncie.

I am really looking forward to this. It should be fun.

I also helped edit part of the book. There are 15 stories, each involving some aspect of NASCAR or the annual Brickyard 400 race in Indianapolis. But between each story there are these factual inserts. I read and edited the inserts.

Then, of course, there is my story in the anthology. If I'm not mistaken, it is the 12th story in the book. It's called, THE MISSING CD, and is about a local TV anchorwoman named Hannah "Hank" Watkins who is drawn into the probe of a murdered newspaper sports columnist who was investigating some problems in a NASCAR race team.

I like the story. At 6,000 words, it's a little longer than some but I think it is interesting.

When the book comes out, I will let everyone know. Then you can see for yourself.

Until then, thanks for reading and keep writing.

More marketing

I am learning more and more about the ins and outs of book marketing and it is a difficult lesson.

While I am still working on my own novel, I am also chair of my local Sisters in Crime marketing committee and am charged with developing a marketing plan for the chapter and for our two anthologies, including the one being published next year.

I have several committee members and am getting help from my wife, a marketing guru herself. But developing plan and implementing it is proving to be a major task.

But we have a list of potential contacts and are preparing to send out our first press release before next weekend's Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.

I will go into more details another time. But for now, it's time foe dinner.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Marketing

I am going to get my first taste of marketing first hand and very quickly. At our last Sisters in Crime meeting, we got several volunteers for a new marekting committee to handle the marketing and publicity of our upcoming anthology, BEDLAM AT THE BRICKYARD. And I was suckered into being the committee chair.

Now I have read tons and tons of stuff on book marketing, of course. Now I will have to try some of it out. I am taking this quite seriously. While in the last 21 months we have sold nearly two-thirds of the print run of our first anthology, RACING CAN BE MURDER, there wasn't a coordinated, aggressive effort to market the book.

I want to change that this time around.

First I want to develop a strategic plan to market the last anthology and in doing so raise some awareness of the next book, which will be published in May. I particularly want to have some initial plans in place and active by Oct. 1, which will be two weeks before thousands of mystery writers, readers and book industry people will be in town for Bouchercon 2009.

I plan to really promote our books and the chapter during the convention.

But that is just the start. We need to think outside the box and reach into areas we didn't think of before, or for some reason just didn't go into before. We might try some craft shows this fall and we are definitely using the Internet and the local women's media better this time around.

The point is to raise money for the chapter and raise some awareness of the authors in the book, me included. But the book won't sell itself. We have to do it. And once I have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't, I will know better how to promote my own book when I get published.

I'm nervous and, quite frankly, a little scared. But I am determined to do what I can to sell out all of our books -- both anthologies. I will try to remember to update you as things progress.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Making money on a book

So, I'm reading this book and it is one of the best books I have ever read. (Not really, but I like to say that.) I just discovered it. Actually, it was a gift from my sister-in-law. And it shows people can make money off of nearly any good idea.

It is by Christian Lander and it's called "Stuff White People Like." It's brilliant on several levels.

First and foremost, it is brilliant because it is funny and amusing and informative. There are some things black folks just can never understand about white folks. This examines that.

But secondly, the book fits a previously unknown market niche and thus Lander can make money on something as silly as "Stuff White People Like." I wish I had thought of it, although as a black person, I've been called a racist for writing it.

(Frankly, I don't think blacks can be racist but that is a discussion for some other blog. This blog is about writing.)

The book is just funny and enjoyable to read. And that, along with being informative, is what books should be about.

Another wonderful book I am reading is "As They See 'Em" by Bruce Weber.

Weber is a writer for the New York Times -- I think he is doing obits now -- and his book is a wonder tale about a virtually unthoughtabout aspect of the American pasttime -- baseball umpires. You hardly ever see or think of an ump until you disagree with them. They have no support among fans and little from baseball players, coaches and management. And yet, the game would be nearly impossible without them.

Over the weekend, I was watching two games and there were close calls in both. And in each call, the ump was right. They do their jobs and generally do them well. I plan to pay more attention to umps in the future.

Just like with Lander, Weber found a niche and wrote about it. The book is truly informative, full of terrific descriptive detail and handsome writing. It is an enjoyable breeze to read.

On NPR this afternoon, I heard part of an interview by the wonderful Philadelphia Daily News writer Dave Davies with the author of a new book on Sachel Paige. Dave, whom I knew in passing when I was back in Philly, was well-informed and asked all the right questions. The writer, who I think was named Larry Time (I will have to look that up) seemed to know the subject well, although there was a level of passion about Paige and the times in which he lived and played that I think the author didn't have. At least it seemed so. Perhaps if he were black he might have achieved that deeper passion. I don't know. But hopefully a thoughtful child -- not talking about either of mine, of course -- will give me the book for Father's Day.

That's it for now. Glad to be back. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading.

I will update you on my novel in a later post.

In the meantime, don't give up on writing.

Not feeling the love. What are the options?

It's early in the year and I have already met some of my writing goals for the year. But this past month has had a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs.


On the up side:


My short story, THE MISSING CD, which was written for Sisters in Crime's racing anthology to be published next year, was edited and didn't need a lot of extra work by me.


THE DEATH OF ART is coming along nicely, although a little slower than I would like. If I keepmy head down and work hard, I could still finish in May.


I attended two mini-conferences and got a lot out of both.


I had my first pitch session with an editor and it went quite well, although she didn't request a mss. She liked the idea and my execution for as much as she could see from the synopsis. (And I learned how to spell synopsis. I don't have to look up the word anymore.) She just wasn't in the market for murder mysteries but she did take the synopsis (See! What'd I tell you?) back to New York with her and sent it to another editor who might be interested. Plus she passed along the name of another editor at Little, Brown and suggested I contact her. (There is a down side to this. See below.)


On the down side:


ABNA didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped and planned. I knew it was a crap shoot but I put a lot of emotional energy into it and I wasn't prepared for how badly I would feel for failing to make the quarterfinals.


I got three rejection letters and in another week or so I will conclude that another dozen unanswered queries -- those sent two months ago -- are also rejections.


I didn't get a writing fellowship for a two-day spring workshop. I was really hoping for that one.


Though she liked what she saw, the New York editor didn't take the mss and I haven't heard anything from anyone else at her company.




I got an e-mail this morning from a good friend in Virginia and it included a link to an article today on CNN. The article was on on-demanding publishing. And for the first time, I have seriously given thought to self-publishing. Or more specifically, going the print-on-demand route.


That presents several dilemmas.


Everyone in the publishing industry says a lot of good books by very good authors never make it to market through the traditional publishing route for a variety of reasons, and many of those reasons are outside the authors control. Many of those authors end up self-publishing. Thus, a self-published book isn't necessarily a poorly written book.


That having been said, there is still a stigma to self-publishing. You hear it, sense it, feel it inside the publishing industry and, to a lesser degree, in the reading public. Since anyone can write a book and get it published that way, industry insiders seem to contradict themselves and say that if a book were good enough to be published the traditional way, it would have been.


Another dilemma is the cost. The author bears most of the upfront costs. And while on-demand publishing is probably cheaper that self-publishing the old fashion way, it still isn't cheap and the costs come out of your own pockets.


But cost and stigma are not my major problem with going it alone. If I had the money, cost wouldn't be a problem and stigma can be overcome by writing a great book.


My problem, therefore, is one I would face whether I self-publish or go the traditional publishing route. The problem is marketing, promotions and publicity.

Books don't sell themselves. People, authors generally, sell them. And while I'm not very comfortable with self-promotion, I'd be willing to do it for the sake of the book. That has always been the case. Making calls to get publicity, working on a website, going on tour -- I would do all of that and more since that is what it would take.

If I go the traditional route, I would have some marketing help and probably some marketing money, if only a little. But with on-demand publishing, developing a marketing plan and implementing it would fall on me and I don't have the slightest idea where to start.

So that's what I am thinking about. I plan to discuss it with my wife, as well as with friends and a couple of fellow authors. But for now, it is an option and will remain only an option.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Establishing a brand

I generally try not to mention another person by name in my blog, mostly because I generally haven't run it past them in advance. But there are other reasons.

For example (and for obvious reasons), I tried hard in my post two days ago about my pitch session not to identify the editor. I didn't mention her name, give any description of her physical appearance or mention where she worked.

But this posting today is different. I am going to mention a name -- Jenn Stark.

I briefly met Jenn at a writers conference on Saturday. A writer herself, Jenn conducted one of the morning sessions, having us all fill out a questionnaire as the session went along.

Jenn is a wonderfully energetic woman, funny and engaging. She enters a room and gets your attention, even at a distance, although she is particularly captivating up close.

But what impressed me most about Jenn Stark is that she is passionate about one thing -- branding. For writers to become authors whose work separates them from others is through establishing their own brand.

A writer's brand must be short and resonate with the reader. When a reader sees it, they must immediately know who it is. On her website, which, by the way is, www.jennstark.com or www.knowyourbrand.com , you see her slogan is Dark, romantic, urban fantasy. It immediately describes the type of writing she does and identifies her.

She challenged us with, "If someone asked you 'So, what do you write?' RIGHT NOW. What would you say?"

The exercise helped me think about how to separate what I write from what others write and then to think about how to market that brand.

I haven't come up with a brand or a slogan yet -- something I can stick on pencils or pens -- but at least I am working on it.

Thanks, Jenn.

And thank you for reading and keep writing.

Marketing II

I was working today on a freelance article I do regularly for a client and was speaking a marketing expert who focuses on law firm marketing. And she said something that I think applies to marketing in general and can certainly be applied to marketing and promotions for a book.

She said you must 'analyze, plan, execute, measure results, modify (actions, if necessary) and repeat -- on a never-ending basis.'

I am writing this down because I don't want to forget it. (Well, I am going to use it in the article but I wanted to have it here first.) It will come in handy for marketing the racing anthology and when i sign with a publisher.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Marketing

I have been thinking about marketing for the last couple of days. Not just for my novel but also for the mystery anthology the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime is working on.

The chapter published a book of short stories themed around the Indianapolis 500 back in the fall of 2007. The next anthology, which is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2010, will be themed around the Brickyard 400. The first book has done reasonably well for our chapter but sales could have been better.

And that's where better marketing comes in.

The chapter must be more aggressive this time, targeting all the major NASCAR markets for both print, broadcast and online possibilities, national outlets (both in publishing and in motorsports), and really do more online marketing. That includes using the chapter's website for text and online interviews and excrepts, protrays of the authors and links to the chapter's Facebook page.

Since we are already online, there is a lot we can do to market and promote ourselves inexpensively using the media we already have. We don't have to generate a slew of press releases on paper but once, if then. Once we have all the e-mail addresses of the contacts we want, we can send them updates through cyberspace.

I think this marketing effort needs to be in full swing by the summer, with some aspects operational in time for the Indy 500 in May. In that way, we can stir up some advance interest in 2009 and and build on it leading up to the publication in 2010.

I have already sent my story, although I will send a more updated version by the end of the year. I read it from time to time -- I read it just today -- and there isn't much more for me to do except wait for any recommendations from the editor, which I don't expect until some time in the spring.

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Marketing

One of the hardest things for me is marketing myself, although good marketing and promotions will determine whether I am a successful novelist. I am not comfortable at it and not good at it. And when it comes to promoting a book, I'm sure it will be expensive, exhausting, difficult and time-consuming.

But it will still need to be done.

To help in my comfort level, I am going to a session with fellow mystery writers tomorrow on using the Internet for promotion. Websites, Podcast, blogs and all manner of technical things I don't comprehend will come up.

Hopefully, I will make a final decision on a website and more forwars with that. At the very least, I will have more information for making an informed judgment.

I will have to tell you later how that goes. But for now, thanks for reading and keep writing.