Websites

A question for all the writers: Do you have a website?

A question for all the writers who have a website: How long has it been since you updated it?

Call me goofy (actually, call me Helen or Hel), but I think all writers need their own website. How are your readers going to find you if you don’t have your domain name website up on the Internet? They google your name and, voila, your website pops up. But if you don’t have a website, then maybe your blog shows up. A blog is good for daily postings and up to the minute updates on your life and writing and whatever your niche is. But it’s not the place readers can turn to in order to find out all about you and your books. That’s why you need a website.

I began building mine long before I was published. I do occasional updates. That’s one of the things that made me think of this post - I’m in the midst of a major update. I’m totally changing the look of my site, adding pages and new information, new pictures and more.

Even I was tired of looking at my site. The new one will have all the information from the old pages, plus a page for my books. And I know some of you will cheer at this: I’m getting rid of the white lettering on a black background. I’ve spent weeks surfing sites and figuring out what I liked and what colors appealed to me.

Right now, my old one is still up. I’m hoping to have the new one up by Monday. (So, come back next week to take a look at it and tell me if you like it more than the old one and what I need to do to it, in your opinion.)

Now, here are some questions for you to consider and possibly answer in the Comments section:
Do you have your own website?
Does it need to be updated?
What information do you present on your site?
Did you do the site yourself or have someone else do it?
How much research did you put into designing your site?
What is the primary purpose of your site?

2008 Book Buying

Bowker has released its annual report on book buying, or as they call it, an indepth look at “book data, demographics, psychographics, genre category breakdowns and distribution channel analysis" for 2008.

For authors, the report would prove interesting, with lots of information on the book buying habits of readers. It may also be out of the price range for most authors. It sells for $999. Yikes!

Bowker did release a few tantalizing tidbits.

57% of book buyers are women yet women purchase 65% of the books sold in the U.S.

So, this tells you that last year men bought books almost as often as women, but women bought more books than men. But what does it tell you about marketing or the way publishers present books? Or the way bookstores display books?

Mystery books are the most popular genre for book club sales, with 17% of all purchases of mystery books coming directly from book clubs

Bowker says mysteries are the most popular, but they represent only 17% - that leaves room for other genres. How can you work toward getting your book listed with book clubs?

Generation X consumers buy more books online than any other demographic group, with 30% of them buying their books through the Internet

First of all, who are the people making up Generation X? It can vary, but most say it is that generation born between 1961 and 1981. That’s a pretty wide spread, but it tells you that Generation X and most likely those born after 1981 are adept at buying things online. What does this tell you about e-books?

21% of book buyers said they became aware of a book through some sort of online promotion or ad

We used to find out about books from our friends or reading reviews in the paper. Increasingly, those avenues are becoming less relevant. So, what does this say about where you should be promoting your book?

Women made the majority of the purchases in the paperback, hardcover and audio-book segments, but men accounted for 55% of e-book purchases

The majority of women buy books they can touch and hold. The majority of men buy e-books. Consider this when deciding what format(s) to choose for your book and how to promote that book.

That covers the free information Bowker provided. If anyone buys the full thing, let me know. Also, tell us your ideas on these stats. Does it change your way of thinking? Do you think you’ll do things differently or change your focus?

A Killer in My House

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, no, I’m not talking about the (suspected) killer who was in my house a couple of weeks ago. This killer is Killer Career by Morgan Mandel. It arrived in the mail yesterday. Yay! I love opening the mailbox and finding fabulous surprises like this.

Morgan Mandel is a friend/client/ wonderful writer to work with/ great author. Killer Career is not her fist book. She’s also published Girl of My Dreams and Two Wrongs. In addition to publishing Killer Career with Choice One Publishing and starting on a publicity campaign, she’s also writing a thriller called Forever Young, which she says should be of special interest to the Boomer generation.

Morgan doesn’t seem to do just one thing. Ever. She writes on the train to work. She blogs, twitters and is on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Blog Talk Radio.

Readers can order her books online, via the publisher, through Barnes & Noble - lots of places.

Now, I’ve read Killer Career, several times, in fact, but I’m gonna have to read it again now that it’s in print. Question is, can I do it without breaking the spine? That’s not easy, but I’ve done it before. Just open the book about two inches to read. Then I can add it to my shelves of autographed books by my favorite authors.

How about you? Are there books that you look forward to getting?

There’s Reasons For This

Did the title of this post stop you or did you slide on past it? Actually, it should have given you pause. That’s because it’s grammatically incorrect. It should have been: There Are Reasons For This. “Reasons” is plural so it needs a plural verb.

Tomorrow, over on The Blood-Red Pencil, I’m blogging about contractions. After I’d already turned in the post, I realized there were a few things (okay, probably a ton of things) I forgot to mention. This slip of using “there’s” when it needed to be “there are” is one of those things that I have to catch myself on. It has become so common in everyday language that it slips into our writing. It’s good to ping on it when you’re editing, break it down into the two words “there is” and see if it still sounds right.

Another problem I catch in a lot of manuscripts is “its” when the author needed to use “it’s”. (Or vice-versa.) “Its” is possessive, as in: Its claws were sharp and long. “It’s” is a contraction of “it is,” as in: It is very likely that animal is a bear.

If you’re unsure, break down the contractions you use to see if they should or should not be contractions.

Please stop by The Blood-Red Pencil tomorrow (and give me some of your own slips when it comes to contractions).

Tell me, though, do you find these kinds of “simple” errors when you start editing your manuscript?

One Juggernaut Goes Up Against Another

Remember a few months ago when the news came out that Barnes & Noble had acquired Fictionwise? To refresh your memory, Fictionwise used to be the biggest e-book seller -- before Amazon brought out the Kindle. This past March, B&N bought Fictionwise for $15.7 million.

You don’t pay that much moola unless you have plans. B&N’s plans are a reality. They’ve launched an e-store. You can buy titles that can be read on the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the BlackBerry smartphones, and on most notebook and desktop computers. B&N’s titles won’t be compatible with the Kindle, though.

They’ll be offering more than 700,000 titles, including new releases. That number is expected to increase to 1 million next year.

At the moment, clearly Kindle has the hammer lock on ebooks, but that could change. More and more people are buying iPhones. Even I have one now. Depending on how easy it is to read a book on the iPhone screen, B&N may be on to something here. If I can comfortably read a book on my iPhone, I’d be less likely to pay the huge bucks for a Kindle to lug around. I already carry my iPhone with me. Why dig out room in my purse for a Kindle, too?

We’ll have to see how this works and how easy it is to download and read. But on the surface, it seems to me that B&N has made a smart move here. What do you think?

Visual Writing Prompt: 7-26-09

When writing and/or editing a novel, writers tend to stress over the opening word/line/paragraph/page/chapter. All of those. They want the opening words to be ones that will pull in the readers or agent -- will make them keep reading, turning the pages into the next chapter and the next.

And so those opening lines become a test for the author. Can s/he make them so compelling that the agent will sign on, the editor will buy the manuscript, the reader will buy the book? An author probably spends more time on the first chapter than any other, writing, re-writing, perfecting.

The opening lines and pages are important. So is the rest of the book.

If you imagined your book as a home, what would the walk-up to the book look like? Is it wide sweeping steps? A narrow pathway? Are there flower pots and bursts of color? Is it dark and spooky? Are your words open and inviting or are they a trick, luring the reader into the danger ahead? Is the mood light and happy? Do your words evoke emotions that send the readers’ hearts racing?

What does the door to your story look like? Does it have stained glass? A peephole? Is it wood or made of metal? Is it a screendoor? Do your readers get an idea of what will happen in the coming chapters? Are they unsure where you’re leading them? Have you revealed too much? Too little?

What will happen when your readers open the door and move into the story, into the lives of your characters? How will they react when they enter the house of your book? Will they continue reading? Will they rush to the end? Savor your words slowly? Or leave this book you’ve written?

What kind of entry into your plot have you created?

Book Review: Dark Blue Death

Dark Blue Death is the second in Jan Grape’s Zoe Barrow mystery series. The first, Austin City Blue, came out in 2002. Dark Blue Death came out in 2005, but I didn’t get a copy until this summer when Jan and I were both mentors at the Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event.

In Dark Blue Death, Austin Police Office Zoe Barrow is assisting in new cadet training when one cadet is killed. Someone is out to kill APD officers with a high-powered rifle and Zoe is in the middle of the investigation. And if that’s not enough to keep her busy, her husband, a former member of the Austin SWAT team, disappears from the nursing home where he lives in a semi-vegetative state after being shot by gang members in a drive-by. On top of those two stressors, Zoe has to deal with her husband’s parents.

If you’re looking for a mystery that’s true to life, you can pick up Dark Blue Death. Grape has done her research on the Austin PD. She even starts each chapter with something related to the APD, from facts about the officers and budget of the agency to Frequently Asked Questions concerning the Citizen Police Academy to information about officers killed in the line of duty.

A Toast to the Geeks

Think about the Internet for a moment. I blog; you blog; millions of people blog. I tweet; you tweet; the world has gone Twitter crazy. Probably just about all of you who stop by Straight From Hel have a website and email. We socialize on the Internet via Facebook, YouTube, Shelfari, and GoodReads. We make business connections through LinkedIn. I, one among millions, am on the Internet about 16 hours a day. I research via the Internet. I keep in contact with my publisher, my friends, my family, my editing clients via the Internet.

And, yet, I never give the Internet a second thought. It’s there. It takes me where I need to go. I haven’t a clue how it works. I’m just glad it does.

After reading an article on the BBC site, I won’t take it for granted anymore. In the back of my mind, I knew it was maintained by volunteers. I’d heard that somewhere at some time. But I didn’t quite understand that they work almost independently in a chain that can only see a few links down the chain on either side. When something happens, they’re not obligated to act. But they do.

In 2008, when the Pakistan government took YouTube offline, YouTube could do nothing about it. Google could do nothing about it. It was up to this chain of volunteers to come together and get it back up. And they did - restoring service within hours.

So, the next time you’re zipping around, doing book research, tweeting, answering email, or downloading a book, whisper a thank you to those volunteers, or as the BBC called them, the unsung heroes.

A Business Card Book

David Dirks wrote an interesting article for the Times Herald-Record: The Big Dogz on Business: Share Your Expertise By Publishing a Book.

He makes some good points - whatever business you’re in, you probably have expertise you could share with others. If you have the discipline and organization to write a book in your area of expertise, you establish yourself as an expert.

The interesting point he made was that he advocates you think beyond selling your book on Amazon or at local venues. He says, give it away. Give it to potential clients, like a business card. By doing that, he says you become not just an expert, but an expert plus. You showcase your expertise and gain a business advantage.

That got me to thinking about his idea. By giving away your book, more people become aware of you and begin to view you as the expert in that area. When they need help or work in that area, they are more likely to turn to you. Organizations looking for speakers in that area are more likely to hear about you and ask you to speak or conduct a workshop. You not only become this expert-plus, you get more business.

But how to apply this to writers whose business is writing? Sure, you could do a book about writing, but you’ll need more than just a mystery/romance/sci-fi/whatever book published to back up your nonfiction book as an expert. How about writing a short book on an area that you had to do a lot of research on when you wrote that mystery/romance/so-on book?

Let’s say your book involves a quilter. You could write a book that has quilting stitches, a discussion of machine quilting vs. hand stitching, patterns, etc. Now, when you go to speak to quilters, you can give away your small book to the attendees and offer to sign each copy at the author table at the back of the room while you’re signing copies of your fiction book.

A lot of people will buy your fiction. Some won’t. But if they don’t, they still have your expert book, which, of course, lists your fiction title(s) with ISBN and your website URL in the back. They, in effect, have your business card that has enough valuable info in it not to end up in the trash and it might entice them to buy your book or future books.

Learn Without Leaving Home

This seems to be the month of blogging about writing conferences. I’ve done a whole series and author Joe O’Connell ended it with his great post about getting all the benefits of a conference without paying the bucks to register.

Or at least I thought that was the end of the talk about conferences.

Then, along comes a new-to-me thing of virtual conferences. You can attend without ever leaving your computer desk. The one I heard about first (last year actually) is The Muse Online Writers Conference. This multi-day event takes place in October, but the deadline to sign up is August 1. It seems to have an extensive line-up of online workshops and chats. And this year they’re adding publishers who will be available for pitches. This conference is free. I know someone who has been to this conference and is “going” again. She gives it very high ratings.

A new one this year is the Poisoned Pen Webcon. It’s geared toward mystery/suspense writers. It’s a one-day event with audio and text presentations by mystery and crime authors around the world, live chats, and goodie bags. The Guest of Honor is Dana Stabenow and the International Guest of Honor is Lee Child. It takes place on October 24 and costs $25 USD to sign up. Since this is its first year, I have no recommendations for it.

I’ve signed up for the Poisoned Pen Webcon. I really considered The Muse conference, but decided I could probably only handle a one-day conference so close to the Texas Book Festival. This year, the Texas Book Festival is October 31-Nov 1 and, by the latter half of October, I and all the other Chairs are in high gear getting ready.

Both of these events are up on the Events page on my website. I update that page every week with new conferences, workshops and events for writers.

Is anyone else signed up for either of these? If you’re attending The Muse conference or the Poisoned Pen Webcon, I’d love it if you’d do a report on it here on Straight From Hel to let us know what you thought of it and how beneficial it was to you. What do you think about online conferences? Even if you’ve never been to one, do you think it’s a good idea?

Writing by Twilight

While zipping around the Internet, an article in the Examiner by Katrina-Kasey Wheeler caught my eye. The article was titled, “Melissa Rosenberg on Writing Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse: ‘I Think Fans Will Be Very Satisfied’” I was about to click on past, when I said to myself, wait a minute here - Rosenberg didn’t write those books. Myself said nothing in response, but did click the link to check out what was going on.

Turns out what was going on was an interesting article about the SCREENwriter of those books.

Here are a few quotes:

The third one [Eclipse] was hard. Actually, the hardest one of the three for me to write.

From the very beginning with Twilight, that’s what Stephenie’s one thing was: "Do the book. Adapt the book. Don’t use the book as a jumping-off place ...."

The biggest challenge is the Bella/Edward, because you’re always writing a line between real intimacy and what’s true versus overly maudlin or melodrama. True romance and true drama — that’s always the line.

It’s not a long article, but has some stuff you might want to read whether you’re a screenwriter or an author who hopes to have a movie made of your book.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

It’s here. Well, almost here. Book Blogger Appreciation Week will run the week of September 14 -18 this year. Started by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy, BBAW recognizes the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading. The week spotlights and celebrates the work of active book bloggers through guest posts, awards, giveaways, and community activities.

Last year over 400 blogs came together to celebrate the art of book blogging during the first ever Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I was late in finding out about it and didn’t get registered until the last day (I think). This year, I’ve already registered Straight From Hel. It’s a fun way to pay homage to blogs talking about books and the hard work that goes into those blogs - as well as a spectacular way to meet lots of bloggers, visit their blogs and connect readers to writers.

There will also be tons of giveaways, plus awards for the best participating blogs. During that week, there will be daily blogging themes. It’s a lot of work for Amy, of course, but also for all the participating blogs. But it’s a labor of love.

You can nominate your favorite book blogs until August 15. There’s a long list of categories. After nominations close, the nominated blogs are shortlisted and voting begins in September. You nominate by URL, not blog name. For example, should you decide to nominate Straight From Hel (no pressure), you would copy and paste the link into the box - http://straightfromhel.blogspot.com - that’s just an example, of course. ;-)

To find out more about BBAW, you can go to: http://bookbloggerappreciationweek.com/

To nominate your favorite book blog, go to: http://bookbloggerappreciationweek.com/index.php/awards
You can nominate more than one blog since there are a lot of categories.

Visual Writing Prompt: 7-19-09

Characters, in a book, come and go. They’re on-scene, then off. Your book will most likely only have 3 or 4 main characters, surrounded by an array of minor or secondary characters. You may have one main plot line, but there can be a second plot line involving the main characters or perhaps with its own characters. Your main character or protagonist probably has a sidekick or confidante. There may be one or two bad guys or one or two romantic interests. There might be a comic relief character or a victim who has to be rescued or avenged.

Although most books focus on a small circle of characters (one main reason for this is so your readers can keep them in their heads and not lose track), there can be a number of peripheral characters.

My question today is: What do those minor characters do when they’re not on-scene? Are they just gone or just doing their own thing sucked up in a plot vacuum? When you’re laying out the plot or timeline of your manuscript, add these characters. For them to be three dimensional, they need to have a life even when not involved in the action. Otherwise, they become stick figures you, the author, push on-stage when you need someone to tell the protagonist a clue or to burst in just in time to distract the bad guy or the police or to appear just in time to take the bullet meant for the lead character.

That doesn’t mean you have to tell or show the readers these characters' lives, but you need to know that they have lives. If you, the author, know the lives and actions of the peripheral characters then it will come through when the character is on-scene. Joe Beetlejuice won’t be in the hardware store for the sole purpose of telling Mr. Do-Gooder about the beautiful young woman being harassed by the bartender at Biker’s Brew Bar. Joe will be there for his own reason. Mr. Do-Gooder will be there for his own reason. And the harassment will come up but it won’t be Joe’s purpose for being there. He has his own life, you know; he does things besides run to places he thinks Mr. Do-Gooder will go so he can supply the inciting information to him to move the plot forward.

So, what do your secondary characters do? Do they have lives they live even when not on-stage? Or do they just lie around while the two or three main characters are performing?

Shotgun Wedding

In case you’re wondering, this post has nothing to do with either of my kids. It has to do with Susan Rogers Cooper’s mystery, Shotgun Wedding. It came out last year, but I snagged a copy of it back in May when she and I were both Mentors at the Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime Barbara Burnett Smith Aspiring Writers Event. (Try to say that without taking a breath.) Susan Rogers Cooper has written three series and was nominated for an Edgar. This is the latest in Cooper’s Milt Kovak Mystery series.

It’d been a while since I’d read a Sheriff Milt Kovak book, but it was easy to fall back into his world. The series doesn’t have gore or psychos preying on women, but centers instead on a small town sheriff in Oklahoma and the slightly off-kilter townsfolk.

Shotgun Wedding starts off at the wedding of two of Kovak’s deputies. Everybody in town is there to celebrate the nuptials. Everybody, except those busy robbing the local bank. The two deputies head off to their honeymoon at a beautiful Oceanside resort in the Caribbean while Milt sorts through the robbery, a kidnapping and an ex-wife who could be listed in the dictionary under “justifiable homicide.” The two deputies, though, don’t get off easy. They find themselves in the middle of a hurricane in a hotel being overtaken by pirates.

Shotgun Wedding is a fast, fun read. You can go back and read the others in this series, or just pick up this one. If you want a light mystery with multi-dimensional characters and lots going on to keep you reading, then I recommend Shotgun Wedding.

Book Here, Book Gone

Last Tuesday I tweeted that I had turned in the manuscript on the latest book I was writing. (Didn’t get that tweet? Follow me at http://twitter.com/MermaidHel)

Alexis Grant (you can follow her at http://twitter.com/alexisgrant) tweeted me back and asked if I’d blogged about it.

Since I hadn’t, I thought I would post about it today.

I’ve been working on the TechCareers series of books for TSTC Publishing. I started last year by doing interviews for the book Biomedical Equipment Technicians. After that, the publisher decided he wanted to have one author per book. Since then, I’ve written Automotive Technology, Avionics and, as of Tuesday, Game Programmers and Artists.

The series is aimed at anyone interested in going into one of these fields. The plans are to give copies to high school guidance counselors around the state and also to sell the book on TSTC Publishing’s website. Each covers things you would want to know if you were interested in one of these careers: an overview of the career, job outlook, salary ranges, career paths, job titles and duties, work schedules, skill sets required, educational requirements, degrees, schools in the U.S. that teach the career and other back-of-the-book resources. I also interview lots of people for the book: experts, instructors, students, people working in the field. From those interviews, I create a profile for each person, along with one or two quotes that I weave into the text. Some interviews I can do by email. Some are done in person. For the Automotive book, I spent two days interviewing at San Jacinto College in Pasadena and another day down in Harlingen. For the Avionics book, I flew to Dallas.

To do this kind of book, you have to be organized. You have to do a ton of research online. You need to be finding experts and people to interview as you’re doing that research. You have to keep track of who you’ve asked to do interviews, who has agreed, who has been sent their profiles and quotes for approval, who has approved and who has sent edits. As you’re researching, you have to gather back-of-the-book resources. You begin a list of schools across the U.S., making sure you have addresses and website information on each and visiting each website to make sure it’s correct. You have to decide which schools you’re going to highlight in the book - usually two for the section on Associate degrees, and one each for Bachelor’s and Master’s. For each highlighted school, you include the required curriculum courses.

For each full book, I’m given a three month turn-around from assignment to submission.

The first one I wrote, Automotive Technology is now available. I don’t have a copy yet, but it’s up on TSTC Publishing’s website. It’s here! And Game Programmers and Artists (or whatever the final title will be) has flown from my computer to theirs. It’s gone!

So it’s been two full days. And I still haven’t cleaned the house. Bleh.

Pay the Least & Get the Most

Joe O’Connell is a journalist, an award-winning author and a teacher. He writes about the Texas film industry for The Austin Chronicle and Dallas Morning News. His novel Evacuation Plan about life in a residential hospice was released in 2007. It was a finalist for the Violet Crown Book Award and received the North Texas Book Festival Award. Joe and Evacuation Plan were featured at the Pulpwood Queens Book Club annual convention. With those kinds of credentials, it’s no surprise that he teaches writing to undergrads at Austin Community College and to graduate students at St. Edward’s University.

You may remember about two weeks ago, here on Straight From Hel, we did a series on preparing for, attending, and following up on conferences. Joe is here today to teach us how to benefit from a writing conference without paying the registration fee. He’s even showing us how he did it!

Welcome Joe O’Connell.

Not long ago on Straight from Hel, Helen Ginger’s blog readers were bemoaning the cost of attending writing conferences with the goal of hooking up with an agent. My advice was simple: volunteer. And that’s exactly what I did recently at the Writers League of Texas’ annual Agents Conference.

First off, here’s what I didn’t do at the conference: I didn’t attend sessions where agents and published authors talked over the ins and outs of the depressed publishing industry. I didn’t eat a hearty lunch while listening to keynote speaker and agent Mike Murphy talk about the dismal future of said industry. I didn’t pay $300 to $400 to be there. Oh, and I didn’t sit down a lot either. I was too busy a floor above the main conference.

What I was doing up there? Guiding those who did pay to hear Murphy talk into their allotted 10-minute meeting with an agent of their choice, with hopes of getting the golden ticket—a request to see either a partial or full manuscript.

Like the attendees I got my choice of agents; in my case, three different agents for whom I would act as gatekeeper, water-bringer and timer during Saturday and part of Sunday. In the process I got to hear a lot of pitches as they were practiced before the agents heard them. If I was polite about it, I could also duck in and do a pitch of my own or perhaps chat up a waiting agent in the hallway.

I learned a few things this weekend. For one, the agents want to talk to you at these sorts of events. For them, conferences are about finding a product they can sell and perhaps be proud of in the process. After my first morning slate of time-keeping for agent/attorney Paul Levine, I asked him which pitch was the most successful. The winner was a mystery by a veterinarian that deals with agri-terrorism. Why? It’s something different and it’s timely. Those are the cold, hard facts, folks.

Oh, and I chose to work with Levine for a particular reason. He specializes in selling film rights, and I’ve got a published novel titled Evacuation Plan that has won one award and was a finalist for the Writers League of Texas’ own Violet Crown Book Award. I’ll be sending him a copy of my book. I also pitched him my complete mystery. Too Texas for his taste, and—in his opinion—not a good sell to New York editors. (I disagree, but that’s another story and I doubt I could change his mind.)

I didn’t pitch my other two chosen agents. They were either too busy or were whisked away by other more assertive writers. No matter. I can drop them a nice pitch through the mail noting that I was their timer during the conference.

But here’s why volunteering works, both as a nice way of giving back to the community of writers, and as a means of gaining access, because—face it—that’s why writers go to events like this. Remember Murphy, the keynote speaker offering pearls of wisdom to a crowd dining on lukewarm chicken? When he was done with his sessions on Sunday we sat down and chatted in-depth for a lot longer than 10 minutes. I can tell you he doesn’t normally handle mysteries (he didn’t used to consider fiction at all), but that’s recently changed. And he’s expecting to read some pages from me soon.

So I’ve got feelers out for movie rights for my published book and some interest in my mystery. What does that leave? The answer is my biggest lesson of the day, and this goes for the folks who paid for the conference as well as volunteers. At least two agents were left twiddling their thumbs during scheduled pitch sessions. Either the pitches didn’t show or there weren’t enough to fill the agents’ schedules. The timer for one of those agents ushered me into the room, where I discovered the agent didn’t handle fiction. “Let me tell you about my mother…” I proceeded to pitch her a book I’m just beginning to work on about my mother, who died in November at age 81. It’s a story that includes murder, poverty, abuse, a marriage to a Catholic priest and a spiritual journey that took her to India. I laid it all out and left with a request for a book proposal. I also paid back the favor by getting at least one other attendee in to see my last agent of the conference. It’s all about sharing the wealth.

Will anything more come out of my weekend of volunteering? I’ll let you know.

Thank you, Joe.

Really great information. You stepped up and made the most out of a volunteer situation. I hope other authors will follow your example. And I can't wait to hear follow-up news.

After you’ve left a message for Joe, visit his website to find out about Evacuation Plan, and hop over to his blog, too.

Signed, Humanely Yours

L. Diane Wolfe, otherwise knows as Spunk on a Stick, honored me with the Humane Award. (Quit laughing, all of you pipe down.) Here is the information on the Humane Award:

The Humane Award is to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a regular basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world.

See? I fit the qualifications - I’m kindhearted, leave sweet comments at Diane’s blog, and my blog is amazing and tastefully done. (I can still hear you snickering. I’m sweet and kindhearted, not deaf.)

Thank you Diane. I really appreciate this award.

And, now, I’m passing it on to the some other very deserving bloggers with whom I am looking forward to growing friendships:

Karen Walker of Karen…following the whispers

Nancy Sharpe of Realms of Thought

Patricia Stoltey of Patricia Stoltey

Elizabeth Spann Craig with Mystery Writing is Murder

Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough Blogs for The Aspiring Author

Again, thank you Diane. I truly appreciate it.

Author Joe O'Connell

Award-winning author, Joe O’Connell is our featured author this week. Joe’s book, Evacuation Plan, about life in a residential hospice, received the North Texas Book Festival Award. Joe’s also a columnist for both The Austin Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News. His area of expertise is the Texas film industry. In his not-so-spare time, he teaches writing at Austin Community College and St. Edward’s University.

Not long ago I did a series on Conferences and a lot of you contributed by giving some wonderful tips and advice in the comments section. If you missed any of the posts, you can find them in the archives: Why Conferences Cost So Much, Learn Without Going, How to Choose a Conference, There’s More to Schmoozing than Schmooze, and The Party’s Over.

Joe will be here Thursday to put the capper on the series with some truly great advice, especially for those who haven’t gone to a conference because of the cost or who want to give back to others while benefitting from a conference. He’s going to tell you how he did not attend or pay for a conference, yet got more out of that conference than most of those who did.

Check out Joe’s website and blog, then come back here Thursday to read what he has to say.

Tough Love from a Librarian

Here’s an article I came across that I think all writers of children’s books and even Young Adult will find interesting. It’s from the School Library Journal and called “Tough Love: An Open Letter to Kids’ Publishers.”

Diantha McBride, the author and a librarian for 30 years, addresses the article to “Dear Publishers.” She then lists things she wishes publishers would do differently - things to make their books better.

1. Bulk up those bindings.
2. Better editing.
3. Give that cover a makeover.
4. Where’s the art information?
5. More boy books.
6. Thanks, but no tanks.
7. Indexes are essential.
8. Cite, cite, cite.
9. Stop changing the title in different countries.
10. Out of order.

Now that you’ve read her list, link over and read what she says about each item.

Visual Writing Prompt: 7-12-09

My son used to work at the Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary, a rescue zoo. He loved working there with the animals. He eventually had to quit because they didn’t pay enough and he had to eat and pay rent. But he still goes back to volunteer when he can.

He has interesting tales to tell, like the monkeys who like to throw feces. And the picture that’s kept in the keepers’ kitchen, where food is prepped for the animals, to remind the keepers to be vigilant and careful - the picture is of a table with a finger on top - the finger of the tiger’s owner who ultimately decided maybe keeping a tiger wasn’t such a good idea. The picture doesn’t even need a caption.

One of his co-workers took a picture of one of the big giant tortoises. I love turtles. And I liked this picture so much, for quite a while I used it as my avatar.


This tortoise is incognito, hiding behind googly-eyed glasses. When we write, our characters often hide behind facades. If the bad guy showed his true colors, he wouldn’t last long in real life nor in a book. If the two would-be lovers showed what they really felt, the book would be over within ten pages instead of hundreds. If the cop told the subject that he really had no evidence against him, but he’s hoping he’ll confess, that interrogation would go far.

You, as the writer, have to know the truth behind the googly-eyed glasses. But you have to keep the glasses on the character, revealing the truth bit by bit or perhaps in a climax unveiling, but even if you wait to whip off the mask, there have to be clues, carefully planted, so that the reader can sit back and think, yeah, I should have seen it; the clues were there, hidden.

What “googly-eyed glasses” do you use in your writing? What techniques do you use to reveal the character’s true colors or real feelings?

Baby Shark’s Jugglers at the Border

Robert Fate sent me an ARC for the latest in his Baby Shark series. It’s called Jugglers at the Border. Before I could read it, I had to get it back from my dear husband, also a Baby Shark fan.

All the Baby Shark books are set mostly in Texas in the 50s and star Kristin Van Dijk, also known as Baby Shark. You could read this fourth book without having read the others, but I’d encourage you to start at the beginning. The first book will let you know why Kristin Van Dijk is known as Baby Shark and why she can be as lethal as her moniker would lead you to believe she could be.

In Jugglers at the Border, the focus is on Kristin’s partner, Otis Millett. Kristin and Otis team up with the Fort Worth police to find out who killed Millett’s estranged wife and ex-stripper Dixie Logan - and why. They’re on the trail of a gang of ruthless cop-killing bank robbers led by nut-job who hears voices and has no respect for life. To find the killer and the bank heist money, they’ll go from Fort Worth all the way to Taos, New Mexico, most of it at about a hundred miles an hour. And that’s about how fast you’ll be turning the pages.

The story is fast-paced and packed with action. Baby Shark lives up to her moniker. She knows how to handle herself and how to handle those who threaten her, her friends or the innocent. You might want to read Jugglers at the Border in one sitting - or you’ll be wondering what Kristin and Otis are up to when you’re not looking.

National Book Awards Fiction

The National Book Awards Foundation sent me an email about their celebration of the 60th year of the National Book Awards. To mark the date, they’re doing a book-a-day blog on the Fiction winners from 1950 to 2008. You can visit every day for 77 days (it kicked off on July 7th with The Man with the Golden Arm, followed by Collected Stories of William Faulkner, then From Here to Eternity. Today’s book is Invisible Man.

To follow the blog, just go to the homepage and click on the bookcovers. If the covers are veiled, it means they haven’t been blogged yet and aren’t clickable. It’ll be fun to read about each of the winners, both the big named authors, like Ralph Ellison and Eudora Welty, as well as the lesser known authors.

Plus, as an added bonus, you can come to the grand finale on September 21st for a chance to select The Best of the National Book Awards Fiction and win two tickets to the 2009 National Book Awards. This is the first time in its history the Awards will be open to a public vote.

It’s fun just to scroll down the book covers and remember all the books that have won this prestigious award.

Susan Wittig Albert and Rhys Bowen

Today on Straight From Hel we have two, count ‘em, two wonderful authors (I feel rather like the old Doublemint commercials). Susan Wittig Albert and Rhys Bowen are here for a Q&A, but I am not asking the questions. They are asking each other questions!

I do get to introduce the two of them, though.

Susan Wittig Albert is a well-known author who writes both fiction and non-fiction. She writes the China Bayles mystery series (a contemporary series featuring a Texas herbalist), the latest of which is called Wormwood. With her husband, she co-authored an historical mystery series under the pseudonym Robin Paige. She also writes an Edwardian series called The Cottage Tales, set in English Lake District with Beatrix Potter. The latest, The Tale of Applebeck Orchard, will be out in September. And I have great news for the millions of Albert fans -- next year, she starts a new series, The Darling Dahlias! Her nonfiction titles are Work of Her Own and Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul’s Story. Take a look at her page of books she’s written. It’ll amaze you. When she’s not writing, she’s gardening, blogging, and working with the national organization she started for women wanting to write their life stories - Story Circle Network.

Rhys Bowen writes three mystery series: the Constable Evans mysteries, the Molly Murphy Mysteries (featuring a feisty Irish sleuth in turn-of-the-century New York), and her latest series starring Lady Georgie, a minor royal in 1930s England, who has to learn to survive on her own. The latest in the Lady Georgie series, Royal Flush, is out this month. Rhys’ mysteries have been nominated for every major mystery award, including the Edgar for best novel -- and she’s won seven of them! She also has written short stories, picture books for children, young adult novels, and adult historical sagas. Since, clearly, she’s not very busy, she also blogs. I’m very happy that she stopped by here, even though she’s most likely exhausted since she’s in the midst of a tour to seven cities for the release of Royal Flush.

I now give the blog over to Susan Wittig Albert and Rhys Bowen. Welcome!

Susan: Rhys, we’ve all noticed that British mysteries do well here in America. Why do you think Americans are so fascinated with Britain? And why are they so fascinated with the royal family?

Rhys: I've always felt that the Britain that Americans love so much is that mythical village populated by Miss Marple--with the old pub, the hunt meeting to set out and a couple of nosy spinsters. It represents, I suppose, a universe of safety and order. If a crime occurs there, then the sleuth will solve it and order will be restored again. Also it represents a place where time has stood still. Most of us spend our lives rushing these days and would love to have the time to stand and gossip in the village shop. Of course this type of village still exists in England but the people who live there now are likely to be yuppies escaping from the rat race at weekends. However, in remote pockets you do get a feel for the real thing. My brother and sister in law live in Cornwall and I've been to local functions in her village hall--the fruit and vegetable auction for the women's institute for example, that really are stepping back in time.

I suppose this is why I choose to write about the past, because it is the time I long for, not the place. I too want to live in a world where it was safe to send me across Europe on my own at the age of 12. I want to have time to discuss the weather and gather fresh eggs. I want to know all my neighbors. I want the Vicar of Dibley!

And royals--it amazes me how fascinated Americans are with the lives of the royals. I suppose it's because our own president is always way too ordinary and human and we really like the pageantry that accompanies the royal lives. Not that we'd want a queen or king here, but it's nice to know there is one, somewhere else. We have a fascination with celebrities over here and they are celebrities par excellence, more interesting than Brad and Angelina! My 1930s royals are such fun to write about because they are creatures apart and there is so much to satirize in the upper class life and the class system.

Rhys: Now, let me ask you something, Susan. What made you think of using Beatrix Potter as a sleuth? How did that series come about?

Susan: Bill and I were writing a Victorian series together, back in the mid 1990s, under the pseudonym of Robin Paige. The hallmark of the series was our use of real people as important characters: Rudyard Kipling, Winston Churchill, Lily Langtry, and so on. In one of the books, we used Beatrix Potter, and I started doing some serious research on her life. She fascinated me--at least in part because I felt (and still feel) a kinship with her. She was born to wealthy London parents but craved a life in the country, in a country village--like the village you’ve just described. That’s where she wanted to live, in what she thought of as the world of real work and things that really mattered. She wanted to have time to discuss the weather and gather fresh eggs and know the neighbors (although there was a catch there, because she didn’t always like the neighbors). And it was that real life, with its emphasis on animals and nature, that led her to write and draw the little books for which she is so famous. In 1901, when she was 35, she self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and the rest is literary history.

But she did get her farm. In 1905, when she was 39, she bought a Lake District farm, in the little village of Near Sawrey, and became a Lake District farmer. At 45, I became a full-time writer and Texas homesteader. When I learned Beatrix’s story, I felt I had discovered another version of my own life. Of course, I’m not a sleuth--and I have to say that my Beatrix isn’t, either. The Cottage Tales are very soft and cozy, and Beatrix’s sleuthing is of the “accidental” variety, more than any deliberate effort. She’s intrigued by puzzles and extraordinarily curious. She just wants to find things out.

Susan: Which leads me to ask you this, Rhys, about your own mystery series. Isn’t it stretching reality a bit, perhaps, to believe that a female sleuth could be successful in the early twentieth century?

Rhys: I get asked this question a lot, but in reality women were doing all kinds of amazing things, exploring the North Pole, riding across the Sahara disguised as a man and in World War 1 they had to take over many of roles normally assigned to men. Look at all those sheltered upper class girls who went out to the front as nurses and the horrors they had to deal with. ! I'm sure my Lady Georgie would have done brilliantly. She's been brought up to be plucky and resolute!

It's probably a stretch to think of a sleuth who is 34th in line to the throne--but it did happen that aristocrats found themselves penniless in the Great Depression and she needs to survive somehow. And having proved her worth, the royal family finds her useful as an inside observer where others of lesser rank couldn't go.

I have come across plenty of role models in my research for both Molly and Georgie. Nelly Bly was a role model for Molly—getting herself arrested to report on women’s prisons, and other daring exploits. The NYPD just had its first women detectives and one appears in my books. And for Georgie—well, I knew her, at least I knew people like her who had been in their twenties in the Great Depression. I married into a frightfully posh British family that goes back to King Edward III so the older relatives provided me with plenty of material (except they didn’t solve murders very often!)

Rhys: And that brings up a question for you, Susan. What kinds of research problems did you encounter as you began to work on the Cottage Tales? And why did you decide to write just eight books in the series? Isn’t that cutting it a little short?

Susan: You know, the research question is so crucial, Rhys, because there are so many different research challenges in the series. First of all, there’s Beatrix’s own life. Her most important contributions, her conservationist efforts, were entirely unknown until the last few years, when an American biographer, Linda Lear, began to study her. Until then, the focus was all on Beatrix’s creative, artistic work, and less on her life as a farmer and villager, which was really what interested me. So I’ve had to do some serious digging to pull it all together.

Another research challenge is recreating the village of Near Sawrey in 1905-1913, as closely as I can to the way it really existed. That involves the landscape, the animals, the weather, the people, their clothing and their dialect, the food they ate, their games and pastimes--oh, so much to learn! But that’s always what interests me about writing historic fiction: the opportunity to recreate a world that doesn’t exist any longer, and to make it real enough so that the readers want to go there!

As to the number of books, when I began to imagine the series, I decided that I only wanted to write about one part of Beatrix’s life, from 1905--when her fiancé, Norman Warne, dies and she buys the farm--to 1913, when she marries Willie Heelis and moves to the village. I’m sure that perfectly wonderful books could be written about other times in her life, but it was that eight-year period that interested me: how and why Beatrix grew into a mature and self-defining woman and could at last emerge from her parents’ iron embrace and move to the country for good, where she could live a creative, energetic life, away from the artificialities of London.

Susan: I wonder, Rhys--do you suppose that we all have this urgency inside us to somehow “get away” to a different place? For instance, what would you imagine to be a perfect place to write, if you were creating a writing fantasy place?

Rhys: It's strange that you asked that question because mine would be Beatrice Potter's cottage! I have this fantasy cottage nestled in a glen with a stream running past and roses growing over the porch and I'll sit at my window staring out at green hills with sheep on them. Of course I'd probably not get as much work done as sitting at home, looking at a blank wall!

Rhys: And you, Susan? What’s your fantasy writing place?

Susan: I live here already, Rhys. Bill and I have lived in the Texas Hill Country for nearly thirty years now. I have my gardens and woods and meadows and the animals that share the place with me--as well as a private place to write. I can’t imagine anywhere else that would suit me better. I just wish I could bring Beatrix here for a visit. I know she’d love it (although I’m sure she wouldn’t love our Texas summer!).

Rhys: Susan, thank you so much for inviting me in for a chat. I’ve enjoyed our virtual scones and clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam and the tea made in the big earthenware virtual pot.

Helen: I’m suddenly hungry. For scones and clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam. And for books!

Thank you, Susan and Rhys. What fun to have you both here. (Incidentally, if you Twitter,you can follow Susan and also follow Rhys.)

Okay, everybody, leave questions for Rhys and Susan - and tell us where your favorite writing place is (or would be if you’re still looking for that perfect spot).

The Children’s E-book Industry

I know the market for adult e-books is growing, but I wasn’t sure about the e-book market for children’s books. I came across an interesting article though that addressed this market.

The article starts out by explaining what an e-book is and how to find e-book publishers to download an e-book. One thing Jennifer Bond Reed, the author of the article, points out is:

Children who don't like to read print books, might be more interested in reading off the computer. Because kids today are being raised on computers, it makes sense that literature for them would be accessible in this format. E-books for kids simply offers another solution to get them to read.

She points out that the number of children’s e-books has been slow to grow because of the difficulty of making the graphics and illustrations user friendly and quick to download. But she does provide a list of reputable e-book publishers who publish children’s books, along with the link to E-Book Connection, which she says is a great site with lots of information on e-books and e-publishers.

So if you write children’s books and are interested in making them e-books, link over and check out her article.

Coming Attraction: Albert and Bowen

This Thursday, two fabulous mystery authors are stopping by Straight From Hel. I wanted to give you a heads-up so you could check out their websites and books, then come back armed with questions. They’re both authors of multiple series, both award-winning authors with best-selling books.

It’s going to be a Q&A, but I am not the one doing the questioning. The two of them are grilling each other. The two authors are Susan Wittig Albert and Rhys Bowen.

Susan writes the China Bayles mystery series, set in central Texas. Her latest, Wormwood, came out earlier this year to wonderful reviews. She also writes The Cottage Tales series, a truly unique series set in English Lake District during the Edwardian period. The protagonist of that series is Beatrix Potter. The next in the series, The Tale of Applebeck Orchard will be available in September.

Rhys writes the Constable Evans mysteries and the Molly Murphy Mysteries. Her newest series stars Lady Georgie and is set during the 1930s in England. The latest Lady Georgie is hot off the presses. It’s called Royal Flush and it just came out.

Rhys and Susan will be talking about researching for their books, why Americans are fascinated with the British and the Royals, female sleuths and even their own favorite writing places.

So come back on Thursday, armed with questions for them or even just a “hi.”

Twitter Attack

What would you do if you were Twitter Attacked? Twitter is all the rage now. I’m on it. Just about everyone I know tweets. News stations tweet. The President tweets. People tweet while flying, driving, eating, whenever, wherever.

But have you ever thought about what you would do if someone on Twitter decided to attack you? Would you fight back? Could you fight back?

The answer to “Would you fight back?” is it would be pointless. You’d only antagonize the bully and up the fire. The answer to “Could you fight back?” is apparently no.

I say “apparently” because an attack is going on right now. By a writer against two authors. The attacker is vicious. Probably 90% of the attacker’s tweets are hateful barbs against the credibility, the looks, the honesty, the works, the believability, the very soul of the two authors. Tweet after tweet after tweet after tweet. It doesn’t stop. It doesn’t let up.

The two authors can do nothing. Twitter will do nothing. Twitter’s written rule is that, before it steps in, the attacker has to make a physical threat and name the place and time of the physical attack. The attacker has no reason to do that. The attacker can do more damage through a cyber attack.

And so the attack continues. One lie after another. One hateful attack after another. One virtual stab after another. On and on. Ad infinitum.

I am not adding my usual "Tweet This" bird because I'd rather you not tweet this. I don't want to add to the attacker's growing popularity. I consider this a sad and scary situation for the two authors being attacked. But I do think it's something each of us should be aware of.

Visual Writing Prompt: 7-5-09

Back in March, my husband and I went to Florida, part business, part vacation. The business part took place up in Orlando. Then we drove to Miami. A friend of mine, an author who shall remain nameless - Mark Troy - asked me to take on a quest for him. This unnamed author - Mark Troy - asked me to stop in Fort Lauderdale and visit Bahia Mar, go to Slip F-18 and take a picture.

And so I did.

Driving the road that follows close to the coastline of Florida is a pain in the patootie. First of all, there are so many houses, hotels and condos you only get occasional glances of water. Second of all, the traffic is bumper to bumper for miles and miles. But we drove south. Got into Ft. Lauderdale and couldn’t find Bahia Mar. So we called information and then Bahia Mar and got directions. Got back on the oh-so-fun road of endless traffic and drove past Bahia Mar. Managed to turn around. Got back to the entrance and waited forever until someone took pity on us and let us cut across. Paid to get in and park. Here is the sign at the entrance. I got my husband to stop, let me out, then circle around and come back for me so I could take this.


Let me take a break, while my husband is parking and finding his sunglasses, to tell you why that anonymous friend of mine - Mark Troy - wanted me to find this place. Bahia Mar, Slip F-18, is where Travis McGee docks his boat, the Busted Flush. And you-don’t-know-who - Mark Troy - wanted a picture.

So, we found the F Dock:


Next, we began walking the dock looking for Slip 18. Some boats were empty. On some, people lounged in the aft area (notice how I can speak boat), talking, drinking, and eyeing the strange Texans.

As we walk up and down the dock, avoiding staring at the strange Floridians sitting in boats going nowhere, let me tell you a bit more about Travis McGee. He’s fictional. He’s the protagonist created by John D. MacDonald. In the very first McGee book, MacDonald introduced McGee and the Busted Flush in the opening lines of the book:

"It was to have been a quiet evening at home.
"Home is the Busted Flush, 52-foot barge-type houseboat, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Florida.
"Home is where the privacy is. Draw all the opaque curtains, button the hatches, and with the whispering drone of the air conditioning masking all the sounds of the outside world, you are no longer cheek to jowl with the random activities of the neighbor craft. You could be in a rocket beyond Venus, or under the icecap."

I knew that, but he-whose-name-shall-not-be-spoken - Mark Troy - asked for a picture. So here it is:

Which one is it, you ask. None of them. There is no Slip F-18. Not that we found. But that is a picture of the area where it should have been.

So there it is. The pictures I said I would take for you’ll-not-hear-his-name-from-me, author-of-the-Val-Lyon-series (Mark Troy). This is the first time these shots have come to light. Not even he knows I took them. I’ve been waiting to surprise him. So now, your writing assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to link over to his blog and leave him a message letting him know his pictures of Bahia Mar, Slip F-18, that he requested are here for him to see.

Office Pet Peeve

I’ve written before about my office. Most of the time I just mention it in various posts. I actually did one post about its movability.

Today, I thought I’d bring up something my office needs. It needs sound proofing.

Now you may be thinking that I want it sound proofed so no one in the house or outside can hear me screaming. You’d be wrong. The neighbors are used to my angst at characters who won’t do what I tell them or bits of research that cannot be tracked down.

No, I want it sound proofed so I cannot hear my husband on the phone upstairs in his office (the loft). And yesterday, since it was a holiday for him, so I could block out the movie he was watching. He wants the full experience with surround sound that vibrates the paintings and can’t be blocked with mere walls, closed doors, and headphones. And it would be pointless to yell for him to turn the TV down. He wouldn’t hear me - or the neighbors yelling in agreement with me.

I can’t concentrate even when there are fairly quiet sounds just at the edge of my hearing, not even my own music. I end up singing along. Certainly not when there’s a war movie raging in the living room.

That’s my office pet peeve. Now that it’s off my chest…What’s yours? And, also, have a wonderfully loud Independence Day!

The Party’s Over

You’re home. The conference was exhilarating and you were running from seven in the morning when you hit the breakfast buffet to midnight when you closed up the bar.

But now, the party’s over and you’re home. Done. Kaput. Back to writing.

Hold on. Not yet.

You got a few things to clean up from the party.

First thing: Get out the program that listed the agents and any cards you picked up from agents and all notes you made. Start a list of who you pitched, met, listened to, sat at the table with, smiled at in the elevator, or bought a drink for at the bar. Write down all information that comes to mind. Remember to put the date and conference. You can make a master list and also individual docs for each agent. Save it all to the folder on your computer called Agents.

Second thing: Dig out those collected business cards and notes you made on writers, speakers, conference staff, vendors, and others at the conference. Now, organize those. Pull out the most important contacts and give them their own document. The rest can go on a master document for the conference. As you did for the agents, put down all the information you can remember. These are people who might help you in the future. These are people who could blurb your book or have the say about whether you get to speak at a future conference. They might be the bookseller who later on will decide whether to carry your book and the editor you email to help you with your manuscript. All those email, twitter, blog, FaceBook, YouTube addresses you got? Within the first two weeks home, follow them, visit their blog and comment and leave a link to your blog. For those you really connected with, email them.

Third thing: Gather all your receipts. On the back write what the expense was for. If it was coffee or food, note who you were talking with and about what. If you bought writing related things, keep the receipt. If you bought a kewpie key ring, you can probably toss it - unless you somehow fit it into your book, then check with your CPA. Definitely keep the receipt for your conference registration. Unless you’re really, really, organized and have a spread sheet set up, get an envelope, label it and stuff your receipts in there.

Fourth thing: Create a list of emails you gathered. Put the date and conference after each listing. Some day, when your book comes out (or your next book) send each one an individual email, reminding them of your connection, and let them know your book is out. Do NOT add them to a master list of subscribers to your newsletter or to any mass mailing or e-mailing. They did not sign up for that.

Last thing: Put your feet up. Relax. Have a cup of tea or a glass of wine. The party’s over.

Now the work begins. Are you ready to query those agents you liked and who are taking submissions? Have you written a blog post about the conference and what you learned? At the conference, did you find out your query is all discombobulated? Your first chapter boring and too complicated? Your climax slow?

Put down that wine bottle and get to work. Like I said, the party’s over. Oh. Don’t forget to start planning the next conference strategy.

There’s More to Schmoozing than Schmooze

We’re continuing today with our discussion of conferences. We began with Why Conferences Cost So Much, then moved to Learn Without Going, then, yesterday, talked about How To Choose A Conference. Today, we’re talking schmoozing - or Networking.

No matter what your reason for going to a conference, be it to find an agent, learn about writing, meet authors, or sell books, you’re going to be meeting people. I certainly hope no one reading this would go to a conference and be a total wallflower.

Step away from the wall, people!

Even if you’re the most shy person in the world, pretend you’re gregarious. Never hide at a conference. Walk right up to someone, stick out your hand (unless your hand holds a margarita, in which case, use the other hand or someone will snatch your drink), and say “Hi, my name is…” Especially do this to the person you see looking uncomfortable and sitting or standing by him or her self. If they look at you like you’re crazy, lean in close and whisper, “Helen Ginger told me you were very interesting and I should introduce myself.” They’ll either smile and offer their name or they’ll run screaming. In which case, move quickly onto the next person.

Each time you meet a new person, give them your card. You have cards, don’t you? If not, order them before you go. They don’t have to be expensive or custom made. Keep them on you in a place easy to reach and hand out. Ask if that person has a card. If they don’t, ask, at some point in the conversation, if they Twitter or blog or have email. Get some kind of contact for them. Write it down in your little notepad you’re keeping handy. Make sure you put their name down, as well. If they have nothing to give you and they don’t tweet, post or have a site, after you leave them, take out your notepad and at least note their name.

If they did give you a card, when you have a quiet moment, on the back make a note of when and where you met and the things you want to remember about that person. You may not have time to do this for every person you meet right after you talk to them, but do it in the evening before you fall into bed.

Networking is more than just meeting people and listening to them. It's keeping track of all those encounters. All right, I admit, it can be a pain and time-consuming, but it could also pay off big in the future. You meet not only experts, but authors who might provide cover blurbs, other writers looking for critique partners, business people who might give you personal attention when it comes to printing your business cards because they know you, people who can give you the inside scoop on upcoming workshops or up-and-coming agents, and more. All these people are out there. You just have to meet them.

How To Choose a Conference

So far, we've talked about Why Conferences Cost So Much and Learn Without Going. Let's talk about How to Choose a Conference.

If you’re looking to attend one or two conferences this year, then this is the time to start your research. You have to decide how many you hope to attend, how much money is in your budget, how far you’re willing to travel, and, especially, exactly what your goals are.

If you know you want to stay within driving distance, then google for conferences in your area or search in Shaw Guides. But maybe the subject matter of the conference is most important to you. Then search using keywords that fit your requirements, like romance or mystery or agents.

Let’s say you want a conference that specializes in the genre sci-fi. So you google that and come up with seven conferences that sound interesting and are within your budget. Now, go deeper. What kind of track record does this conference have? Who is listed as being on the panels or teaching classes? What authors will be there? Do you know anyone who has attended the conference and what do they have to say about their experience? Is the conference all one-way communication or are there opportunities for you to get involved in readings or Q&A or meet-and-greets or hospitality suites? What is the primary focus of the conference – fans getting to meet authors, authors discussing their books, experts teaching about writing?

Or maybe you’re looking for conferences specializing in agents and/or editors. Once again, you find some that you can afford and seem promising. It’s imperative that you know which agents and editors will be coming to the conference. How many of them represent your kind of writing? Will there be opportunities for one-on-one meetings? Do you only get one face-to-face or can you sign up for more? Are their social opportunities to meet the agents? Will the agents and editors be leading workshops or on panels?

Decide now what you want from a conference. That way you have time to do research and find the perfect match. Then you have time to sign up in order to get what you want from the experience. Then you can look around in your circle of friends to see if anyone else is going to the conference, especially someone who has been before and can show you the ropes.

Don’t wait until the last moment to sign up. Be prepared. Do your research. Spend your time and money wisely and you’ll make the most out of attending.