Thursday, April 22, 2010

Arthur Ellis Awards Shortlist Announced

Best Crime Novel
Anthony Bidulka – Aloha, Candy Hearts (Insomniac Press)
R.J. Harlick – Arctic Blue Death (RendezVous Crime)
Lee Lamothe – The Finger’s Twist (Ravenstone)
James W. Nichol – Death Spiral (McArthur & Co.)
Howard Shrier – High Chicago (Vintage Canada/Random House)

Best First Crime Novel
Alan Bradley – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Doubleday Canada)
Elizabeth Duncan – The Cold Light of Mourning (Minotaur Books)
C.B. Forrest – Weight of Stones (RendezVous Crime)
Eugene Meese – A Magpie’s Smile (NeWest Press)
Dennis Richard Murphy – Darkness at the Break of Dawn (Harper Collins)

Best French Crime Book
Genevieve Lefebvre – Je compte les morts (Groupe Librex)
Jean Lemieux – Le mort du chemin des Arsene (la courtee échelle)
Jean-Jacques Pelletier – La Faim de la Terre 1 & 2 (Éditions Alire Inc.)
Diane Vincent – Peaux de chagrins (Les Editions Triptyques)

Best Juvenile Crime Book
Barbara Hayworth Attard – Haunted (HarperCollins)
Vicki Grant – Not Suitable for Family Viewing (HarperCollins)
Norah McClintock – Homicide Related: a Ryan Dooley Mystery (Red Deer Press)
Arthur Slade – The Hunchback Assignments (HarperCollins)
Tim Wynne-Jones – The Uninvited (Candlewick)

Best Crime Nonfiction
Patrick Brode – The Slasher Killings (Painted Turtle Press)
Alex Caine – The Fat Mexican (Random House of Canada)
Terry Gould – Murder Without Borders (Random House of Canada)
Robert Remington and Sherri Zickefoose – Runaway Devil (McClelland)
Jon Wells – Postmortem (John Wiley & Sons)

Best Crime Short Story
Rick Mofina – Backup (Ottawa Magazine)
Dennis Richard Murphy – Prisoner in Paradise (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
James Petrin – Nothing is Easy (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine)
Twist Phelan – Time Will Tell (“The Prosecution Rests” by Little Brown)
James Powell – Clowntown Pajamas ((Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine)


Best Unpublished First Crime Novel – Unhanged Arthur

Pam Barnsley – This Cage of Bones
Deryn Collier – Confined Space
Gloria Ferris – Corpse Flower
Blair Hemstock – Bait of Pleasure
Peter Kirby – Putting Them Down

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

April Announcements

May 13th Meeting Advance Info:
Judith Duthie, Manager of Owl's Nest Books, will discuss promoting your book: things to do before, during and after publication of your first novel (with emphasis on good author-bookseller relations). Short writing exercises included.

Mystery Writers Ink Special Meeting (same night as above): If you did not receive your email with notice of bylaw changes last week, please check your spam folder and then, if you still don't have it, email info@mysterywritersink.com with 'bylaws' in the subject line for a re-send. We will be voting on May 13th.

Alberta Literary Awards Nomination Night

Friday, April 30, 2010 - 7 p.m.
100 Wines store
1109 Olympic Way SE, Calgary

Free admission & open to the public

As a prelude to this year's Alberta Literary Awards Gala—come out and raise your glasses to the 2010 nominated authors at Calgary's exquisite 100 Wines. The celebration will feature a complimentary wine tasting and tapas (tasty!), wine and literary pairings (fun!), a series of slam readings (entertainment!), book sales courtesy of Owl’s Nest Books, and an opportunity to relax and socialize with friends. Many of the nominated authors will be available for signings. Readers include Will Ferguson, Lori Hahnel and Lee Kvern among others—check out the full shortlist here

For catering purposes, please RSVP to swarwick@writersguild.ab.ca
(or call the store at 403 452 8820)


Ask an Editor Anything:


First Tuesday of the month at The Blood Red Pencil


Need a second set of eyes on your query letter? Try the Query Shark

Monday, April 19, 2010

Guest Author Jill Edmondson on "Captive Audiences and Book Promotion"

Captive Audiences and Book Promotion

I’m sure many of the followers of this blog are published or aspiring writers.  Like me, you probably read blogs (and countless other sources) about writing and the publishing industry.  A common thread in many articles is book promotion.  More and more authors are devoting time to marketing and publicizing their mysteries.  But I think many of us planned to be writers when we grew up... not marketing wizards.

In many cases, authors are sort of flying blind when it comes to promotion and PR.  I’m no different; I’m making it up as I go along.  When something seems to work, I keep doing it, and the ideas that go bust get shelved. 

One thing I am starting to place a bit more focus on is events with other authors.  The idea of “sharing the spotlight” may seem counter-intuitive, but it can actually be very beneficial.  You can potentially invite twice (or thrice!) the number of guests to an event, you can draw on each other’s crowds, and it’s nice to have a fellow author support you along the way. 

Besides “sharing the spotlight”, the other angle I am focusing on as I promote my novel Blood and Groom is “captive audiences.” Think of how easy it can be for shoppers at a bookstore to whiz right past you.  Think also of how limited your chat time with anybody at a retail event can be.  Finally, think of all the missed opportunities when you do establish a rapport with a reader but you have no way to maintain contact or to follow up.  Bring a “guest book” to all of your events!  Pass it around and ask people for their email addresses.  You will then have a way to reach your target market instead of passively promoting your novels.  Create a mailing list and send out occasional updates or a monthly e-newsletter about your, your book, your character, upcoming events, new titles, reviews and so on. 

Here’s a look at some group ideas I have come across or come up with that might work for you:

Themed Readings - Special Occasions:    The obvious one here should be Halloween, but there are creative ways to plan events for any time of year.  For example, find two or three authors whose mysteries have a “spurned lover” in them.  Plan an event called “The Lonely Hearts Club Mystery Night” and schedule the event for Valentine’s Day.  Promote the event to singles’ clubs, matchmaking services, or event networks such as Meet Up, Meet In, or Meet Market Adventures. 

Readings Based on the Book’s Background:  Another idea is if food/cooking/baking is a significant part of your novel, pair up with 1 or 2 other authors who have a similar theme.  Offer to visit a cooking school.  Many cooking classes end the session with a semi-social dinner they’ve prepared in class.  Offer to be the “dinner entertainment.”  Or, if your sleuth enjoys a pint of beer, why not arrange an event at your local micro-brewery?

An Evening of Books and Wine:  This is not a carbon copy of the beer idea above, and I heard of this event from another source (can’t remember who or where...).  The idea is to have a wine and books night with discussion led by a sommelier.  A wine bar or a wine club might very well be interested in doing this event with you and some other authors. 

The idea is to give the books to the wine steward ahead of time.  The sommelier would then plan a wine tasting evening with wines paired with each of the books, not with the character.  For example, a light and fun mystery à la Janet Evanovich might suit a Gewürztraminer, while a Spenser novel might match a full-bodied Amarone, and Sherry would be well paired with anything by Agatha Christie.  For Blood and Groom, I bet the wine steward would recommend a white Zinfandel. 

This kind of event could involve several genres, which could lead to new readers for you.

Schools:  First of all, don’t limit yourself to classes in writing mysteries.  Look into creative writing classes in general at your local college or university.   Aspiring writers are like sponges and will gladly listen to and ask questions of published authors.  Again, you could do this with another author or two, which makes it that much more appealing to the teacher and the students.  A series of guest speakers attending part of the class adds value to the learner and gives authors a captive audience. 

Don’t just look in to post-secondary classes, though.  High schools may also welcome guest authors for their composition or English classes.   I have an event in the works at the City Adult Learning Centre (where adults can go to get the high school diploma they never completed...).  We’re planning to meet with an adult literacy class and our focus is on ‘reading can be fun’ and our angle is on books with a local setting. Again, this is a captive audience and has great word of mouth potential.

Public Institutions and Charities:  Events of these sorts are worthwhile for altruistic reasons, sure, but there are many selfish reasons to seek out events with charities or public institutions.  You can get a lot of press out of them!  Two of my library gigs led to TV interviews (on a local cable show, okay, so it’s not Oprah’s book club...).   Most of my library gigs have led to interviews with local papers.  A charity event I participated in recently did a lot of local promotion about the fundraiser, including several radio spots.  A museum at which I have an upcoming event has sent out tons of media releases.  I also swung another cable TV interview out of this. 

Many of these kinds of events involved more than one author, so we have the opportunity to connect with new readers.  As well, most of these events were of the captive audience nature, so there’s opportunity to build your fan base.

The challenges in marketing a book seem greater and greater just about every day.  There are so many types of social media – such as Twitter and Facebook, there’s so much competition, and there are the changing dynamics of the book industry.  It seems to me that doing whatever everyone else ISN’T doing may be the way to get noticed.

Jill Edmondson

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Ink April Speaker: Author Linda Kupecek

April 8th, 7 - 9 p.m. at Owl's Nest Books, Brittania Plaza, SW Calgary

Linda will dish on shoes, her debut mystery, the many jobs she held that fed into her writing, shoes, her debut novel, shoes....
 

Alexandra Writers Announcements

Friday, April 9, 2010    7:30 p.m.
Rose Room (Main Level Alexandra Centre)
922, 9th Ave SE
Calgary, AB
 
16 April at 19:00   Alexandra Dance Hall
Admission    AWCS Members: Free    Non-Members: $10

Inksters Shirlee Smith Matheson and Faye Holt are among the authors who will be reading and/or selling their books at this event.

AWCS is now accepting applications for our 2012 Writer in Residence. Please visit our website for more details.

Mystery Writers Ink Master Class with Garry Ryan

Saturday afternoons April 24, May 1, 8, and 15
[NB: Note the change from an April 17 start date to an April 24 start date; schedule changed due to circumstances beyond our control - we apologize for the inconvenience]
2 - 4:30 p.m. at Louise Riley Library Annex
1904 - 14 Avenue NW
No fee BUT... All participants must come prepared to share 5-10 double-spaced pages of their own mystery fiction and read/comment on the same amount of other people's work.
Bring SIX copies of your work to the first session. The schedule for discussion of works will be decided after Garry has had a chance to look over your submissions.
Paricipants are encouraged to arrange individual swaps of larger works outside of class time.
Your Master Class Committee,
Anne Jayne
Jayne Barnard
Susan Calder Arnold