When writing a mystery, keep a list of clues and mark them off as you add them to the manuscript, noting at the head of each chapter which clues are included. That way you can be certain not only that all the clues are in place, but also when you rewrite (and you will!) none are dropped by accident.
Co-authors of the John the Eunuch Byzantine Mystery Series,
Beginning with One for Sorrow and currently up to Four For A Boy
http://home.epix.net/~maywrite/
A Marketing Tip:
Start regional, go national. There are so many books being published these days (over 150,000 a year) that trying to get national press and reviews for your book is not only a way to get frustrated but also a way to waste time. The national review and PR outlets (USA TODAY, PEOPLE, NYT Book Review, women's magazine's, TV shows, etc.) tend to stick to bestsellers, celebrity authors, and the "hot" literary fiction. So instead of going the little fish/big pond route, go the little pong/big fish route. Chances are in your town or city you are one of a very few published authors. Spend your time looking into the following venues:
1. Your local newspapers. If they don't review books, they might be interested in an article from you.
2. Your local radio stations
3. Church/Temple associations. They have newsletters and reading groups.
4. Your local bookstores
5. PTA and other school-related organizations. Offer to do a parents’ tea or cocktails and signing combined.
6. Talk to your local coffee house. See if they'd like to host an event.
7. Put together a big mouth list of the "celebs" in your town and get them books. Any big business owners, the owners of hair salons, nail salons, boutiques that are very popular, the mayor, councilman or councilwoman, Judge, DA, the Chief of Police, the detectives who work in your town.
8. What's the subject of your book? If it’s a jewel heist, give a book to the local jeweler. If it’s a bank robbery, give copies to all the bank tellers.
Remember - everyone who you get to talk about your book reaches untold others. In Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, he says you need 150 people who know people to talk about your product for it to start to generate buzz.
Author of Flesh Tones (Ballantine 2002) and Sheet Music (Coming May 2003)
Co-author of Buzz Your Book (Pigeonhole Press 2002)
http://www.mjrose.com
After years of being frustrated with unfinished projects, I have finally discovered a method that has worked for me. Perhaps it will work for others who have trouble seeing a project through to the last page.
When I am ready to begin a new book, I first construct a chapter-by-chapter outline to get an idea of length. For each chapter I summarize the action in one paragraph. When that is completed I go back to each proposed chapter and write a first sentence. I find that doing this helps ignite the creative process for me, particularly if I am forced to set aside the book for a few days. All I have to do is pick up from the sentence I have already written. The sentence may not always be in the final draft, but having it there helps build the rest of the book.
Author of Little Flowers (Highbridge Press, 2001 and Saints Preserve Us: An Ash Lake Mystery (Wings, coming in May, 2003)
http://www.kathrynlively.com
When you're plotting it out, start at the end. Decide whom you want to kill. (It's best not to discuss this with anyone in a crowded restaurant!) Once you've decided on the victim, think of all the possible reasons people might have to kill this victim. List those and use them as red herrings and clues your sleuth must investigate throughout the story.
Author of The Hannah Swensen Mysteries Series:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
Strawberry Shortcake Murder
Blueberry Muffin Murder
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder
www.MurderSheBaked.com
Today, a lot of publishers expect the writer to have a platform--some type of built-in audience, viable promotion outlet, or reader following. To that end, I would heartily suggest the author set up an author's newsletter. At first your subscriber list will consist of just family and friends, but over time you can add readers who have emailed you with questions, folks who sign up from your web site, and those who sign your guest book at book-signings. One easy and inexpensive venue for sending out your newsletter is through a site called Authors Den. Also, give your newsletter an interesting name--mine is called "Soup's On" (what else would someone named Campbell call it?)--and keep it interesting. In mine I offer news about the publishing industry, tips about promotion for other writers, my travel schedule, articles about the writing process, information about forensic science (I am a forensic artist), and personal news that might otherwise not be appropriate on a web site.
Author of eight books on forensic science, rights of the accused and criminal justice, including:
Making Crime Pay: The Writer's Guide to Criminal Law, Evidence, and Procedure (Allworth Press; 2002),
Forensic Science: Evidence, Clues and Investigation and Rights of the Accused (Chelsea House Pub.)
Coming soon: Gotcha!: How Science and the Law Catch Criminals a puzzle/activity book for children ages 10+
www.andreacampbell.com
Never throw away anything! My first published short story came about because I held on to a story I couldn't sell. Several years ago my writing group got to joking about the popularity of Texas-based mysteries. What did it take to create a Texas mystery, we asked ourselves. Well, you had to put an armadillo in it. And maybe some guacamole, food-related mysteries being another popular sub-genre. Out of that conversation came a title, "Who Put the Armadillo in the Avocado Dip?" Since I already had a light-hearted Houston-based sleuth, Stacy McReady, star of my mystery novel, I decided to run with the concept. I wrote the story, my group had a good laugh, but I couldn't find a market, so I filed the story away. Much later, when I heard about Hardboiled, Michael Bracken's anthology of food-related private eye stories, I revised my story completely, crossed my fingers, sent it off -- and wound up with my first fiction sale. Hang on to all those half-baked ideas, incomplete drafts and early books-you-learned-on, because you never can tell when, with the right rewrite, the market for them will appear.
Author, "Who Put the Armadillo in the Avocado Dip?"
Hardboiled anthology, Betancourt and Company
The Communication Connection -- marketing communications
LSPosey@pdq.net
Every mystery has two plots: the back-story, which is the plot that isn't seen by the reader, and the front-story, which is the plot that the reader sees. Think of the back-story as being the "cause" of the crime, and the story that the reader actually sees as being the "effect," or "result" of the cause. Knowing all of the details of the back-story will make plotting the story that the reader sees much easier.
Author of the Charlotte LaRue Mysteries:
Maid for Murder (RT Reviewers Choice Nominee)
Death Tidies Up Available February 2003
www.eclectics.com/barbaracolley-annelogan
Learn from your rejections and/or from your reviews. If several reviewers point out the same weakness in your writing, work on that area of your writing in your next book. If a review seems extremely rude and I'm extremely angry, I write the reviewer's name on an egg and make an egg salad sandwich.
Author of Conch Shell Murder (Five Star)
rdfran@attglobal.net
Here's one for true or fact-based crime. Be sure to get interviewees to sign broad-ranging release forms at the time you do the interview, whether or not you've already found a publisher for your book. It's far more work to go back later and sometimes subjects change their minds or suddenly decide to demand money before they will sign.
These days, mainstream publishers want signed releases so it pays to be prepared. The same applies to photographs you might be handed to use in your book--get signed, broad-ranging releases.
When you begin to run your tape recorder, state the date, time, location, parties present and say, on tape, that this is an interview for your forthcoming book called such-and-such, or on the subject of such-and-such. Better than nothing in the absence of a signed release.
Author of Lethal Intent,
the true-crime book about serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Pinnacle Books, November 2002)
www.suerussellwrites.com and www.factchasers.com
