This is the second in Valerie Peterson’s series on author marketing. You may want to check out her previous article, “7 Common Mistakes of an Author Website.” Your bio is a marketing tool, pure and simple. Properly executed, it can help you attract an agent, editors, journalists, and readers to your work. But if your current bio has you revisiting […]
Your author website is the cornerstone of your media platform, and it’s the one piece of real estate that you can (mostly) control. Your author website is the thing that: 1. Validates you as a professional writer with a knowledge of the marketplace (even before you publish) 2. Substantiates your ability to draw in an audience – which is what
I planned my Trump novel a year ago, back when Trump was funny. It was to be the third in my Travel Writer mystery series, published by Alibi, Random House’s digital imprint for crime fiction. The premise was that my protagonist, Jacob Smalls, would be reviewing a Bahamas cruise sponsored by an outrageous rightwing dilettante tycoon who liked being on
It’s that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts on November 1. Here are five reasons why you should consider committing to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
If all you know of Rupert Holmes is a little ditty titled “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” then you don’t know Rupert Holmes. Novelist, playwright, lyricist, composer, performer, musician, Holmes does it all — and he does it well: His mantle is groaning with Edgars and Tonys and a diverse array of other prizes and citations for excellence. He also
It is for me, at any rate. In past entries for the MWA-NY blog I’ve written about the mystery play. I’d like to return briefly to the subject — briefly, for the best of reasons: I’ve got a play to finish. Might As Well Be Dead, my second adaptation of one of Rex Stout’s tales featuring the heavyweight detective Nero
…It crooks your back, it dims your sight, it twists your stomach and your sides. In other words, as if we didn’t already know it, the writing life has always been hard. But the MWA-NY Mentor Program does what it can to help, by pairing writers in any stage of their career with a mentor from among our Active members.
Laura K. Curtis discusses why interactions at conferences are not the same as those in everyday life.
Most people who have a book published don’t have a big publicity machine behind them. As a result, most of the promoting for their book they have to do themselves. Everyone, it seems, is searching for that magic promotional formula that will get their book the widest possible exposure. But in a market saturated not only with novels in general
The question of whether you should put a lot of effort into getting an agent to represent you may seem like a silly question. Writers who do not have agents frequently refer in conversation to their attempts to get one. Writers who do have agents mention this fact often in conversation, and any time they have a new book published or have
When I first became serious about writing mysteries, I considered going to a writer’s conference in Chicago. My problem was simple… the cost. When I added up the cost of the conference registration, the hotel and airfare, I struggled to justify the expenditure. Then one of my friends offered a bit of advice. If you want to be a real
One year ago, a few aspiring authors — me included — launched an MWA-NY experiment. We wanted to gather writers who were used to working as a solitary pursuit, and bring them together. Sounds simple now. At the time, it was so simple it got a little hard to explain. “Write-Ins — you buy your own coffee, hunker down in
PERSONAL SAFETY: Artists, authors, musicians, crafters…if you’re in a creative business you need to get the word out about yourself and your work. People need to associate you with your product. As a marketing and “branding” professional, I spend a lot of time giving people advice on how to get “out there.” But today I want to take a step
MWA-NY has a reading series at KGB bar in NYC (please ask if you’d like to read!) and we’re planning more in other areas as well. There’s also Noir at the Bar, which is not run by MWA but at which many MWA members read all over the country. And there are other opportunities for reading your work aloud at
You’ve just spent countless hours crafting a crime fiction short story that you’re proud of, and you’re dying to have other people read it, besides your spouse, your pals, and your creative writing prof. Where do you send it? There are numerous magazines and journals, in print and online, hungry to read your story. After all, they exist to publish stories. But how do
