LCC Lessons Learned from Readers

by Catherine Dilts

In March, I attended Left Coast Crime in Denver, where I picked up new ideas and information on the business of writing. Coincidentally, Thomas Kies just posted on Type M for Murder about small versus large conferences. I'm here to discuss what I learned at a reader oriented conference.  

The Left Coast Crime conference has an emphasis on readers and fans. Authors and readers sat on panels and discussed specific topics. There were a few one-on-one interviews. Other conferences focus on the craft and business of writing in more of a workshop setting geared toward writers. I found listening to readers at LCC as instructional as many workshops I’ve attended.

Here are four things I learned from readers:

1)  Readers like what they like. A thriller fan might dip into other genres, but the core of their To Be Read pile will consist of thrillers. Likewise with cozy, Western, romantic suspense, and detective mystery fans. The lesson for authors? Occasionally, you may persuade readers to partake in fiction outside their genre of choice, but unless you have a truly genre-bending story, you may be wasting your time in the long term. Stick to your lane. Focus your appeals to your designated audience.

2)     Readers use websites and blogs to find new reads. Popular sites listed – Jungle Red Writers, Lisa Holstine, Dru’s Book Musings, First Chapter Fun on Instagram and Facebook, The Saturday Reader by Sue Provich, The Mystery Readers Journal by Janet Rudolph, Goodreads, Book Series in Order, Mystery Writers Journal, and Fantastic Fiction (UK). The lesson for authors? Follow bloggers and websites appropriate to your genre. Seek out appearances on those sites to let readers know about your new releases.

3)   Readers can’t disguise their reactions. They are honest with their likes and dislikes. Sometimes painfully honest. The lesson for authors? Listen. During the Author Speed Dating event, I quickly learned which part of my pitch caused a smile or laugh, and when the attention of folks at a table wandered. In casual conversations with readers, I learned how strongly they feel about their chosen fictional interests.

4)    Readers find books online because of proper use of keywords. With more readers using e-readers and listening to audio books, they are obviously getting their fiction online. Less and less people browse physical library or bookstore shelves. Keywords are words and phrases that people use to search for content online. Z. S. Diamanti explained that keywords are a net-casting system. Lisa Matthews said “cozy” is a helpful tag among a list of tags. The lesson for authors? Learn about keywords, and how to use them to help readers find your work. If you don’t know how to define your story, you need to figure it out ASAP.

I discovered Goodreads several years ago, adopting it as a way to track my reading. When I became published, I started an author’s page. I enjoy using Goodreads, as a reader and as a writer. I also find Carstairs Considers a lot of fun, as Mark Baker reviews cozy novels, movies and television shows, and Disney decorations.

This brings up a point I’ve heard for many years: only focus your energy on websites, social media, and apps that you enjoy. Don’t shy away from testing out the newest thing, but if it’s not to your taste, don’t waste your time trying to force your enthusiasm.

Next month I’m going to my hometown workshop-based writers conference, Pikes Peak Writers Conference. The atmosphere will be entirely different from LCC. I’m hoping to absorb new knowledge on the business and craft of writing.

Big Conference vs. Small Conference

 

By Thomas Kies

I confess, I’m signed up to go to Bouchercon in New Orleans in September.  After attending the one in San Diego two years ago, and then again in Nashville last year, I was reluctant to commit to going to another.  It’s not that they don’t do a good job.  They work hard at making Bouchercon a good experience for everyone involved.

That’s part of the problem, however.  There are so damned many people there.  I think there were over 1,500 participants in Nashville last year.

Yes, I love seeing old friends again, and yes, I love making new friends.  But honestly, I feel lost in the shuffle. 

In March I attended the Suffolk Authors’ Festival presented by the Suffolk Virginia Tourism Bureau.  They limit the event to about 50 writers across different genres.  The one-day event was attended by about 550 readers, many of whom bought our books. 

I had a chance to interact with almost all the other authors and spend a lot of time with attendees.  Because it was so small, the folks who put it together spent a lot of time and effort to make sure we were all happy. 

That includes coffee and snacks in the morning, lunch, and then a really nice dinner, exclusively for the authors along with an open bar.  Anytime you have an open bar for authors, you’re making friends. 

That final evening, I spent drinking wine and talking with the likes of John DeDakis, John Gilstrap, K.L. Murphy, Jeffrey Higgins, and Bill Rapp.  Earlier in the day, I was on a crime panel with Maya Corrigan, Esme Addison, Jenna Harte, and Carrie Ann Knox, none of whom I’d ever met before, but were delightful.

The cool thing about the panels at the Suffolk Festival was there was only one panel at a time.  The room was filled with attendees.

 Don’t get me wrong, if I didn’t enjoy going to Bouchercon or Thrillerfest, I wouldn’t spend the money.  And those events, after the airfare, hotel, food, and bar tab, are pricey.  My publisher, Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, has always put together a wonderful book signing at Bouchercon.  The event organizers do their best to put as many authors on panels as humanly possible. 

The dilemma with so many panels is that there are multiple panels going on all the time. Some are very well attended…and some aren’t.

There are so many attendees that if you’re not an extravert, you’re going to get lost in the crowd.  And let’s face it, an awful lot of authors are introverts.  At the bigger events, you’ll have a better chance to meet editors and agents than at the smaller venues, but sometimes, it’s at an additional cost.  

The point of this piece?  Don’t overlook the smaller events.  The big ones are good, for sure, but it’s easy to feel lost in the crowd.

Tariffied: Impacts on Publishing, Writing, & Creativity

Hello, Type M Readers & Writers:

Shelley here reporting from an island in the Philippine Sea and feeling very weirded-out by everything going on over there on the mainland. Guam is a far-away outpost of the USA. My husband works for the Department of the Navy. We've been on island since January, trying to get our bearings. It would have been difficult in normal circumstances. 

Now I don't know whether to be grateful to be off the mainland or terrified. 

I'm a worrier. When my husband decided to apply for this position, November's election hadn't yet happened. I voiced some concerns about what if things go sideways while we're there, but we decided to take a chance. Yup. We chose this, so I can't complain or say it was totally unexpected. That it's toward the worse end of the spectrum of outcomes I'd considered saddens and alarms me. It's not the absolute worst. Yet. But we are darn close to China here. 

One thing I can say is that all this chaos and uncertainty is impacting my writing. I'm trying oh so hard to build a creative sanctuary in my head and my home, but short of turning off the news altogether and living in a fantasy world of there's nothing happening lalalalala puppies and unicorns, I don't see how I can ignore the sitch out there and concentrate on fictional narratives. 

Perhaps I should consider it a challenge. If I can manage to flex these concentration muscles now, I might be able to continue to create no matter what happens in two weeks, three months, or four years. 

I mean, haven't some authors written works while actually jailed? 

A quick Google search pulls up a list of ten best books written in jail. These include Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, Don Quixote by Cervantes, and Justine by the Marquis de Sade. (Note 1)

Okay, so if Mallory could write while moldering in the not-so-cozy confines of a 15th-century prison, certainly I can write while holed up in an ocean-facing condo in the beautiful, tropical island paradise that is Guam. And honestly, diving into fictional worlds might be the best antidote to the news cycle if I can only get myself to ignore it. 

My new table, cushions, and pillows on the balcony

I'd love to hear how other writers are handling this. Feel free to comment. 

Publishing and Writing Community Impacts

I try to immerse myself in the literary life, but even the book world news is somber. I've somehow signed up for a ridiculous number of Substack newsletters, and one came in today from a new indie publisher of mid-life women's books, Empress Publications. They are just launching a new nonfiction book on mid-life women's sexuality written by a medical doctor. They contracted with an artisanal, women-owned press in China to create a pretty book on bamboo paper. (Note 2)

Now, because of the new tariffs and closing of the de minimis loophole, the book is going to cost a lot more to get into the hands of readers. Who wins here? Anyone? 

Maybe the environment? All this mail-ordering and purchasing cheap throw-away goods isn't so good for the planet. As someone concerned with sustainability and over-consumption, I take this as perhaps the only positive glimmer on a dark sea of awful. But books? We keep those. We pass them down. They aren't throw-away items. Not the good ones anyway. I digress...

The de minimis exemption was a bipartisan law passed by Congress that allowed shipments valued under $800 per person per day to enter the U.S.A. without duty charges or taxes. According to the National Foreign Trade Council, American small business plus consumers benefited from the exemption and provided low-income communities access to affordable goods...including books. (Note 3)

That's not the worst of it. Almost everything that is sourced outside the U.S., including paper and books and ink and parts for printing presses, etc. is going to have increased tariffs. That means production will slow or goods will cost more or both. I think the publishing industry at all levels is going to suffer. 

Between cutting funding to libraries and museums and now these new tariffs, one has to wonder if our country cares at all about readers, authors, booksellers, literacy, books, or the arts in general. Is America ditching reading and culture altogether? 

Some may protest: "It's not me that's doing this!" Well, I'm sorry, but we can't pretend we aren't part of the country that is making these decisions. When our country does something...WE ARE doing it. If we let these actions continue, we are doing it. If we don't gather together and tell our representatives to go in a different direction, we are doing it. 

😀 Maybe this will all turn out just fine, and I'm worrying about nothing. 

Some of you may sincerely believe this is just a small bump in the road and everything is gonna be okay. I sincerely hope you are right. If I'm worrying about nothing, that will be the best outcome. I'll have only grown some new gray hairs and maybe shaved a few days off the end of my life. I'll even give credit where credit is due. 

I may not be feeling the fiction writing right now, but I do seem to be capable of writing opinion essays. Maybe this is just where I have to dwell for now. Meanwhile, I'm researching for a potential series set in the 1960s, so I'm not completely wasting my time. I have books to read, notes to take, ideas to spin. 

Let's hope this chaos calms down before summer. 

Note 1: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/sep/19/books-written-in-prison

Note 2: https://open.substack.com/pub/alisajones/p/zippers-tariffs-and-the-price-of

Note 3: https://www.nftc.org/de-minimis-a-vital-tax-exemption/

 

Shorter

 I (Donis) am doing rewrites on a new book. The first draft came in at 108,000 words, mainly because this is a whole new setting and cast of characters for me, and I spent a lot of time wandering around and getting to know them. So that's done. Now I have to get the MS down to a manageable size, and believe me, it is not proving to be an easy task. I do love my own voice.

If you want to keep your readers' attention, however, cut to the chase. Especially these days, as many readers have no patience with description or exposition. In fact, I once heard a Famous Author say one of the best things he ever did to improve his novel-writing style and technique was to learn to write poetry. I've pondered this statement and I must agree that there is nothing like poetry to teach you to use the fewest possible words to make the biggest possible impact on the reader.

The amazing thing is that once you've written a few poems, once you've learned to fit your idea into the shortest possible form, your long-form style automatically changes without your having to even think about it. Your prose gains a vigor it didn't have before, because its power isn't dissipated in a miasma of unnecessary words.

That's the idea behind haiku, the style of Japanese poetry that strives to make a point, capture a moment, punch you between the eyes. To give you a powerful image in seventeen syllables, three lines of five, seven, and five.

I was looking for a few gorgeous haiku to use as an illustration of the beauty of brevity, a couple of gems about nature and mankind by great ancient practitioners like Basho. Instead I came across translations of several modern haiku written by software geeks in Japan for use as computer error messages. I think they show that an ancient form can serve modern sensibilities dandily.

Windows has crashed/I am the Blue Screen of Death/No one hears your screams.

Three things are certain/Death, taxes, and loss data/Guess which has occurred?

Yesterday it worked/Today it is not working/Windows is like that.

You step in the stream/But the water has moved on/This page is not here.

Serious error/All shortcuts have disappeared/ Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Another Anthology Event

 by Sybil Johnson

I spent last Saturday afternoon at The Last Bookstore in Studio City for a Sisters in Crime/L.A. anthology event. As you may remember, I talked about the previous event for Angel City Beat that was held in Vroman’s in Pasadena.

I’m very happy to be part of this anthology and have really enjoyed these events. They were both a little different. At Vroman’s we each read from our stories and talked about why we chose the professions for our protagonists. This time around we talked about the inspiration for our stories and how it tied into the anthology theme. We also talked about how our protagonists are like us. For me that was being a bit analytical and loving libraries.

It was interesting to see where people get their inspiration from. There’s a good variety of stories in the anthology. 

The bookstore was also interesting. It’s a fairly new one, an offshoot of The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles. The space used to be a prop house where TV and movies would get props for their projects so it’s quite large. There are various rooms and interesting sculptures, which seemed to be for sale. Here are some photos for you: 

 

Vanishing Book Reviews

by Charlotte Hinger

The mother of all book reviews is the New York Times. The lucky author whose book is reviewed by this prestigious publication will see sales leap. We should all be this fortunate. The other "best" places to be reviewed are Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Booklist.

Kirkus Reviews gives a prize of $50,000 to the best fiction book, the best non-fiction, and young reader's literature. Wow!

But here's the rub when it comes to reviews. Library Journal gets more than 60,000 requests a year. So does Booklist. That's 5000 a month, 1200 a week, 250 books a day. Kirkus Reviews receives 200 submissions per day.

My Recent historical novel, Mary's Place, did not get reviewed by any of these publications. Previously, two of my mysteries received starred reviews from Kirkus, and all of my other historical novels had been received by at least one of the magazines.

I was disappointed. Dumb me, I had not realized how much the publishing world had changed. Review sections are much smaller. Magazines are thinner because of the price of paper and because of the decrease in advertising revenue.

All of the places which grant reviews have guidelines. Following guidelines is crucial. One of the most constant "rules" is to submit a book about four months ahead of publication.

Here are the guidelines from Kirkus Reviews:

The following guidelines are intended to help publishers get the right titles into the right hands at the right time so they can receive consideration.

WHEN TO SUBMIT Kirkus will consider titles that are submitted as digital galleys or e-books at least 4-5 months before publication date. As soon as a book is reviewed—usually 2-3 months before its publication date—the publisher is notified of the review rundate.

WHAT TO SUBMIT We consider all new adult hardcover or original trade-paperback fiction, general-audience nonfiction, and children’s and teen books. Editors make individual judgments about coverage based on merit or potential interest.

Kirkus does not review books in the categories listed below in its traditional program. (Kirkus Indie does not put genre or publication date limits on submissions; see more information about that program here.)

—already published books
—reprints of books that Kirkus has previously reviewed
—self-published titles
—print-on-demand titles
—poetry (except children’s and teen)
—cookbooks
—crafting books
—guidebooks, including travel guides
—personal finance
—textbooks
—specialized technical or professional works
—any work intended primarily for an academic audience
—reference books
—instruction or how-to manuals
—screenplays or other dramatic scripts
—computer and technology handbooks
—books of regional interest

Fortunately, there are oodles of websites created by book bloggers who might give your book the attention it deserves.