WICKED WEDNESDAYS

Launching an e-book

So much has changed in the publishing world recently that it's hard for an old scribbler like me to keep up. But the biggest change, surely, is the recent move to e-publishing. Paper books are still being produced but if you believe the pundits, the prognosis isn't good.

Last year, for the first time, e-books outsold the printed variety. Right now most books by established authors are available in both formats. But how long can that last? The panel topics at Bouchercon and other recent mystery conferences reflect enormous uncertainty around the future of books.

I'm one of four Ottawa short story writers who have contributed stories to an anthology produced by Sisters in Crime Toronto Branch. The Whole She-bang will be an e-book. You may have read Janet Costello's blog in this spot on Monday about how the anthology came about and the decision to make it electronic. There will be a few print-on-demand copies available for those who haven't made the jump to Kindle and co. but primarily it's an e-book, downloadable onto all readers for the princely sum of ninety-nine cents .

The question the four Ottawa contributors are now struggling with is how in the world do we launch an e-book? It feels like we're breaking new ground here. Normally, book launches involve book stores to sell the books. But what do you do when there are no "books" to sell?

We've decided that instead of a traditional launch we'll have a Download Party at the Greenboro Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, 363 Lorry Greenberg Drive on Wednesday, October 24 at 7 pm.

Bring your e-readers and join Elizabeth Hosang, Sue Pike, Madona Skaff and Linda Wiken (the Mystery Maven herself.) We can promise plenty of refreshments, readings and the usual kibitzing. If you don't have an electronic reader, Elizabeth will show us how to download books onto our laptops. Do come. We'd love to see you there!


Sue Pike has published a couple of dozen stories and won several awards including an Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Crime Story. Her latest, Where the Snow Lay Dinted appeared in the January issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Sue and her husband and an opinionated Australian Shepherd named Cooper spend the winter months in Ottawa and the rest of the time at a mysterious cottage on the Rideau Lakes.

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Ponderings....

Yet another mystery conference is just around the corner -- on Thanksgiving weekend to be exact. It's in the US, of course, so doesn't fall on their holiday weekend. Bouchercon is the name of this one and it's one of the biggest, attracting a lot of international authors who rarely make it across the ocean. Also, it's heavily into the heavy weights as in big names and dark crimes. Every writer should attend at least one Bouchercon in their career.

I'll be in the midst of a lot of Canucks, in fact, we're hosting a social on Friday night just to wave the flag and let the attendees meet some Canadian authors. It should be a lot of fun and we'll be spreading the word about some cool Canadian crime.

My panel at this conference is about murder in a US smalltown and local Ottawan, Brenda Chapman, author of In Winter's Grip, will also be on it. I like this topic as it gives authors an opportunity to debunk the "Jessica Fletcher" syndrome. Also, the choices of victims and suspects is pretty much the same in any smalltown, either side of the border.

What I also like about being on panels, this one in particular, is that it offers an opportunity to step back from the writing and view it from another angle. I don't stop and think about the derth of either victims or suspects when planning a book. Maybe I should. I do try to make the choices believable, so on some level must be addressing this problem. But that's where visitors come in handy. Someone in town on business, visiting relatives, or just touring the region. There's also the new person in town, surely with a backstory to be uncovered. Or the sleuth could be on vacation, giving her hometown a break for at last one book.

The possibilities are endless to the writer who likes a challenge. And one of the challenges is taking the time to re-assess where the series is going. How the characters are developing over a number of books. What's happening to relationships. And, oh yes, who's the next victim to be? How many times can I make the sleuth a suspect?

What fun! And, yes, the conference will be fun, too. I always come away from these with a slightly different way of looking at writing. And that's got to be good for everyone.

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012;
available now for pre-order
www.erikachase.com

TUESDAY BRINGS TROUBLE

Let's hear it for the awards!




There's been a lot of talk about awards lately. Believe me, there has. Part of this flurry has been the Arthur Ellis Awards at the end of May in Toronto. Upcoming are the Anthony Awards to be given out at Bouchercon 2012, in October in Cleveland.

Every author would love to have an award for a book or a short story. That's human nature...the ultimate acknowledgement in a world where competition for publishing spots is keen and writer esteem can be low. Especially at rewrite time. How wonderful to sit at a computer, puzzling out new dialogue, staring at that award on a shelf, at eye level of course. Great inspiration...and therapy.

I wonder, though...as a reader (and we all are), how important are the awards to you?
I ask this purely out of curiosity. When I had my bookstore, there were certain customers who would come in with lists of the major award winners and want those books. However, more common were the customers who showed a mild interest in the award sticker on a cover. These readers were more interested in what the bookseller had to say about the book or even, what other customers, overhearing the conversation, would add to it.

Word of mouth is always effective, however awards can be looked at as words from the mouths of the judges. And just who might these people be? Some awards are juried by a variety of industry people and authors, a jury of peers; others are reader or fan selected. One relies on the votes of booksellers. All are valid. Because, as I have mentioned, we're all readers at some point or other.

Which brings me back to me question -- does an award make a difference in what you choose to read?

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012
www.erikachase.com

WICKED WEDNESDAYS

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Scottish mystery author Quintin Jardine celebrated a birthday last week (I won’t tell you which one) and one of the neat things on Facebook is that it automatically reminds you so you can send your friends a birthday greeting. I mentioned to Quintin that financial circumstances have caused me to no longer be able to travel anymore, especially to Bouchercon and as most of you know I ran two of these World Mystery Conventions in Toronto in 1992 and 2004.

He said that he no longer goes to Bouchercon himself anymore because most of the organizers don’t treat the authors with any respect. His actual words were:

“Your great gift as an organiser was to realise that without authors it wouldn’t exist, and that since most of us actually pay our own $199, we deserve a little respect. In my experience, that’s a minority view.”

Running a convention for 1-2,000 people isn’t rocket science. It isn’t even re-inventing the wheel. It’s also not a walk in the park either. OK, no more clichés. What a chairman needs is to surround himself with is about six really smart people willing to work WAY harder than he is prepared to. Each member of this “executive committee” will handle individual departments: programming the panels, autographing room, social events and banquet, booksellers’ room, liaison with the media and registration (now done on-line).

Each of these people in turn recruit people to populate their own sub-committees, people they have to get along with not you. You have contact only with the sub-committee chairs, (the executive committee) and the chain of communication goes both up and down. The main thing that a chairman has to realize is that these conventions run on several different levels all at the same time.

The authors are the stars of the show and they are there not only to participate on panels, sign books and generally ‘be’, they also like to socialize with other authors, meet publishers and their reps, talk to their agents or look for another one and get interviewed by the media. In short, it’s a working convention for the authors and while most of them pay their own expenses through their “company” like James Lee Burke Enterprises” or whatever, some authors get part or all of their expenses reimbursed by their publisher as part of that author’s promotional budget for the year. Agents are looking for new authors. Publishers too. Booksellers are getting books signed and then hopefully sold. The media are scurrying around cornering authors for interviews. All of these people use Bouchercon and other large conventions as working events.

Only the ‘general attendees’, the readers and fans treat Bouchercon as social events only. They are there to listen to panels, get autographs, buy books and generally enjoy the city they’re in, meet with other friends and fans and yet, organizers seem to think that they are the most important part of the convention. While without attendees Bouchercon and other conventions wouldn’t exist, the key to everybody is the author.

Without the authors there are no books, no publishers, no agents and the media are interviewing each other. So while current economic situations prevent the conventions from picking up the author’s costs, the very least they can do is to give the authors, especially those authors who have considerable backlist, the respect they are due.


Al Navis is the owner of Handy Book in Toronto for the past 28 years, a used and out-of-print independent bookstore. He was chairman and host of Bouchercon: The World Mystery Convention in 1992 and 2004. He has also been on and off Toronto radio for over 30 years. Books are his business and first passion. Other passions are most sports (except basketball), most music (except C&W and rap) and radio. More recently he has gotten back into editing and writing as well as appraising book collections for insurance or for loss.