Finding Your Next Story

My part of the world, eastern Massachusetts, is in the midst of a rough winter, with snow banks six feet high and more storms on the way. But life doesn’t come to a halt, not if you have a dog. While I was out walking our lab during the worst of the storm an idea for a story took shape. Those high snow banks along the street or in the yard by the garage are the perfect spot to hide a body. And no one thinks anything of a homeowner out snow-blowing in the middle of the night. The streetlights reflect off the new white snow, but not too much, and windows are shut tight against the cold and any noise.

This is how my stories usually begin, with a sudden awareness of how dangerous the mundane can really be. During my regular visits to South India, I always noted how things were changing and what remained the same. There were always new shops, and that got me thinking. In a story originally published in a Level Best Books anthology, a young woman opens a shop, earning her own money and new independence. This doesn’t sit well with some members of her family, and she soon ends up dead, in “The Secret of the Pulluvan Drum.”

The first book in the Anita Ray series grew out of my first breakfast in a new hotel/guesthouse. I was still exhausted from my trip to India (twenty-plus hours on a plane) and too tired and jet-lagged to make small talk. I listened half-awake to the other guests at the family-style dining table, and was struck by how casual comments could be and yet carry threads of danger. How could it be that so many of the guests were from the same part of the United States but didn’t know each other? And why was one so hostile to one stranger but not another? This is the opening of Under the Eye of Kali, the first Anita Ray mystery novel.

During the summer months I waste a lot of time trying to rid my garden of invasive species, especially Lily of the Valley. I once stood in front of a large side garden taken over by the poisonous flower, and marveled that something so dangerous could be such an ordinary fact of life. That became a key feature in a short story featuring Chief of Police Joe Silva and posted on Wattpad as “Bad News with a Touch of Class.”

It’s a truism that the world is a dangerous place, but for a writer, it’s a reminder of the truth that opportunity is everywhere. Good stories come out of turning the mundane on its head, seeing past the surface, and asking, What if?

For these and other works by Susan Oleksiw, go to

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Oleksiw/e/B001JS3P7C

The Book Launch: Selling the Book Today

On a recent evening I had the pleasure of listening to Tempa Pagel discuss her new book, They Danced by the Light of the Moon, the second in her Andy Gammon series. I’ve known Tempa for twenty years, when she signed up for a writing workshop in New Hampshire and later joined a writers’ group I started. We still meet as a group, and watching her success is especially pleasing.

Launching a new book is work, as is the follow-up of establishing an audience for it and its sequel. As different as we may be as writers, we all face the same challenge—finding readers. Tempa held a book launch and party at a local bookstore, and invited everyone she knew in the area. She gave a brief talk, about forty minutes, and then took questions and later signed books. The bookstore owner provided refreshments for a wine and cheese evening. Tempa began her talk with a joke, talked about the origins of the story and her research, which involved learning about two historic buildings in the area, and historical events that informed her novel. She maintained a balance between information and humor.

Twenty years ago the book launch would be followed by events at other bookstores and libraries and interviews for radio, television, and newspapers. New writers might send hundreds of postcards to libraries throughout the country, and visit area bookstores, offering to “sign stock,” as it was called. Writers offered (and still do) writing workshops and classroom visits. For all but the most successful writers, selling a book was a person to person job. It meant getting in the car and making contact with owners of bookstores and buyers at libraries. The writer was in a sense following the path of the book salesman, who went with catalogues to individual bookstores recommending specific titles because he knew the bookstores' clientele, knew what people in the area bought. These sales people are all but gone now.

With the advent of the Internet, selling books changed dramatically, so much so that some writers never have to leave the house to establish a readership and sell thousands of copies a year or a month. They establish a presence on Facebook and sites where readers gather—Goodreads, Librarything, or the Reading Room, among others. They post stories to interest readers on Wattpad and other sites, and they network wherever readers gather to discuss books and find recommendations. They email libraries with book flyers, send out newsletters, and hold virtual book launches without ever buying a stamp, a bottle of wine, or a piece of paper.

Every writer finds a way to find readers, but we are always learning more. James Moushon queried dozens of writers to identify what writers use now. It’s interesting to read through and see the number of resources writers have come up with. Not everyone follows the same path; most writers use a mix of social media, finding the ones they’re most comfortable with and focusing on those. But all of those interviewed agreed on one point—finding readers is about building relationships. Each reader tells another, and on it goes. We might do much of the work in front of a screen now, but in the end it is still a person to person job.

The writers interviewed mention several sites that might be of interest. The survey and its link are given below.

Your Book Launch: Marketing Methods and Ideas Used by Outstanding Authors – A Study

http://bit.ly/1luAbo3