Today's Author Guest: Jeffrey Marks

As promised yesterday, Jeffrey Marks is my guest today, talking about where to find the latest in mystery titles and releases. To read his bio and see his photo, please page down to yesterday's post. Above is the cover art for his extremely useful publication, Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel. It is the first and only how-to book on marketing and maximizing sales of genre novels, and I use my copy all the time.

From the early chapters of setting up a website and writing copy about your book to niche marketing, this book contains information necessary to navigate the quickly changing environment of bookselling. The fourth edition has a brand new chapter on social networking and how it can be used to sell more copies of your title. While specifically written for the mystery genre, the steps given can be applied to any genre. If you're an author and don't have a copy, get yours now! Here's Jeffrey's guest post:

Finding Information on Mysteries

I'm back again, celebrating the release of the 4^th edition of Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel. Beth and I are having a bit of fun today, and instead of talking about marketing your own book, I’m going to talk to you about where to find the latest in mystery titles and releases.

My goal when I’m looking is not to find a group of authors who are promoting their own books, but to find sites that are mainly interested in listing new titles for me to read. In this manner, I can find the latest releases of my favorite authors, and occasionally I can find a new author to read. I’m always looking to read a book and these sites help make it easier for me to find them.

There are places that just list new titles for you. One of those places is The Blood-Stained Bookshelf, which lists by month new titles. It’s a great place to see the newest books and what’s soon to be released. The bookshelf is a wonder, if you know what you’re looking for. I can easily find titles by authors I’m familiar with, but it doesn’t help me to find a “new to me” author. Plus there aren’t many reviews to guide me in deciding if I want to read the latest or not.

Many of the people I know who attend conferences use the Edgars’ site to locate books by category. Again, this doesn’t tell you anything about the books themselves. It just lists books by the major publishers in the current calendar year. It’s not a review site. It was developed for authors to see if their book has been received, but I’ve found it to be a very handy site for looking up new titles.

I Love a Mystery Newsletter is another place to find new books. They do a great job of printing in depth reviews of recently released books and series. I tend to go to them if I’m unsure about a new title or series by an author. The reviewers are professional and share what I need to know without giving away spoilers.

Goodreads is another fun place to check out new mysteries. You can record books you’ve read or are reading and rate them both via a star-system and in reviews. I’ve found that most of the real book discussions take place in the groups, so look around for groups related to mysteries and many of them will discuss recent releases. There’s some self-promotion by authors, but it doesn’t drown out the collegial feel of the groups.

Another site that deals in books is Shelfari. This site lists the bestsellers lists in fiction and non-fiction, popular series, and recommended books. The site was acquired by Amazon in 2008, and it has some of the feel of that book-selling site. One of the features is a virtual bookshelf that allows others to see your books and vice versa, similar to Goodreads.

Library Thing is another similar site. I especially like the LT Newsletter that appears monthly. It has a number of suggestions on new authors and interviews with those authors.

Finally, there’s always the good old Amazon recommends. I usually look at the “coming soon” selections under that and check out the interesting titles.

Of course, in one blog, I can’t mention every site that I search looking for new books. I’d love to hear from others about where they find titles to read.

Thanks, Jeffrey! Now, who has a comment or question for him?

Tomorrow's Guest: Jeffrey Marks

Tomorrow, author Jeffrey Marks will be a guest on my blog. He is a long-time mystery fan and freelancer. After numerous mystery author profiles, he chose to chronicle the short but full life of mystery writer Craig Rice.

That biography (Who Was That Lady?) encouraged him to write mystery fiction. His works include Atomic Renaissance: Women Mystery Writers of the 1940s/1950s, and a biography of mystery author and critic Anthony Boucher entitled Anthony Boucher. It was nominated for an Agatha and fittingly, won an Anthony.

He is the long-time moderator of MurderMustAdvertise, an on-line discussion group dedicated to book marketing and public relations, to which I belong and contribute to. Also, he is the author of Intent to Sell: Marketing the Genre Novel, the only how-to book for promoting genre fiction, and one which I use all the time.

His work has won a number of awards including the Barnes and Noble Prize and he was nominated for a Maxwell award (DWAA), an Edgar (MWA), three Agathas (Malice Domestic), two Macavity awards, and three Anthony awards (Bouchercon). Today, he writes from his home in Cincinnati, which he shares with his partner and two dogs.

In his post tomorrow, Jeffrey will share his expertise in where to find the latest in mystery titles and releases. I'm sure both mystery readers and authors will want to tune in and read that article! Also, he will be available to answer questions about his own books, the mystery genre in general, and marketing mystery novels, so feel free to ask him a question in a comment.

Reviewing Films

Recently my husband and I volunteered to review films for the Breckenridge Film Festival, to help the committee decide what films to show at the June festival. As a fiction author myself, I'm familiar with the structure of story-telling, and as a former Universal Studios guide and techie friend of Pixar programmers, my husband is interested in the technology of special effects. So, we felt like we had something to offer as reviewers.

Last week, we watched and evaluated about a half dozen films, from shorts to feature length, dramas to documentaries. We both rated each one on a 5 point scale, with 1 being "a horrible film" and 5 being "yes, definitely include it in the festival." We also both provided a paragraph of text explaining our rating. I've used all but one of the 5 categories so far. We'll be reviewing films for two more weeks.

It's been an interesting experience to be on the evaluation side of the review equation, rather than having my own books evaluated by reviewers and readers. I often find that looking at other people's stories with a critical eye helps me hone my skills in ferreting out negative aspects of my own writing that need fixing. My experience in judging writing contests and participating in critique groups has proven this to be true. And, I expect the same from my film reviewing experience.

It's also exposed me to some very interesting projects. My horizons have been expanded, and I expect that attending the festival itself will expand them even more. I admire the risks that these filmmakers are taking, even when those risks don't pan out. If you have the opportunity to attend and/or volunteer for a film festival near you, I suggest you do it! You'll get a lot out of it.

(Photo by: http://www.anna-OM-line.com)

A Day Off

I took yesterday off from editing to ski at Copper Mountain. Here's a photo of me with three friends there (I'm in the red suit). Back to editing today ...

Author At Work ...

I'm taking off from blogging this week to focus on final edits for my CATARACT CANYON manuscript. Please wish me luck, and please tune back in next week, when a very special guest will visit. In the meantime, for your enjoyment, here are some funny cartoons that illustrate 101 Excuses Not to Write.

Watching a River Come Back to Life

American Rivers is my favorite river conservation nonprofit, and I contribute to it regularly. I was moved by this article at their website about how dam removal has helped a river come back to life as steelhead, other fish and wildlife, and the health of the entire stream has dramatically improved. Take a look!

Horse Creek Dam: Six Years After It Was Blown to Bits

And just for fun, here's a link to an article giving 5 Reasons Whitewater Rafting Is Better Than A Theme Park!

Multitasking as a Series Author

Today I am over at Inkspot, the blog for Midnight Ink authors, talking about multitasking as a series author, which I equate to juggling. Please visit the blog and let me know how you keep those balls in the air in your life!