Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 39

Are Rules Made to Be Broken?

 Q:  Crime fiction has tried and true conventions, such as a murder/crime in the first chapter (or soon thereafter), an investigation, believable motive, hidden clues etc. Add to this, the conventions for each subgenre, such as cozy or police procedural. Have you ever ignored or deviated from these established conventions? Do you find them restrictive or do you like working within them?

-from Susan

 

My first thought when I looked at this week’s question was that rules make me itchy. But that’s fro...

Marketing Books - A Novice's Tale, by Harini Nagendra

Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not?

This is the million dollar/rupee question, isn't it? My fellow Criminal Mind'ers, Brenda, Terry, Dietrich and Jim, have terrific and very varied responses to this, which I hope you get to read.

Compared to my other friends here, I'm still very much the novice. While I do have six published books, and a seventh on the way - four of these are non-fiction, so...

I’m Always Chasing Rainbows from James W. Ziskin

Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not?

My distinguished Criminal Minds colleagues have covered much of the ground I will cover here. The truth is if authors knew how to get noticed, we’d all be best sellers. There’s no magic pill. No roadmaps, either. If only this were like a foot race and all you needed to do was run faster and harder. We all do that, metaphorically speaking. All of us try ou...

One reader at a time …

Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not?

by Dietrich

My publisher Jack David once gave me this bit of advice: “Don’t guess what the book-reading public wants, because you never will. Just write the best book you can.” He also told me Elmore Leonard wasn’t recognized right out of the gate, but he just kept on writing. A New York Times piece back in October ’83 said this about Elmore: “Novelist ...

Hello! Is Anyone Out There?

 

Terry here, lamenting the answer to this week's question: Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not? 
 As far as I can tell, nothing I’ve done has ever worked to raise my books “above.” I am a solidly midlist writer (or lower than midlist), who has never “broken out.” That’s not to say I haven’t had some local and minor success with sales. But I mean I sold “tens of books.” Rising above means ...

Book Marketing Tips

Having one’s book rise above the crowded marketplace is difficult. What have you tried to get yours noticed — what has worked and what has not?

Brenda at the keyboard.

Such a pertinent question for all authors. It's been 20 years since my first release, and my marketing ventures have run the gamut from the good to the bad to the ugly.

First, the ugly.

I remember my first event was with about five fellow authors at a used book sale at a public school in the east end of Ottawa. It was the school's ann...

Everybody’s Talking at Me, The Art of Dialogue, by Josh Stallings

Q:  Share your tips for writing believable dialogue. What separates good dialogue from poor, and how do you strike a balance between too much and too little in a scene/book?

A: David Mamet said he always carries a pad and pen with him so when he overheard good dialogue he wrote it down. When I steal words from a chainsaw sculptor, it isn’t theft, it’s an homage. I try and always have a Moleskine notebook and a Fisher Bullet Space Pen with me to capture story ideas and snippets of dialogue that ...

A Case For the Ladies, by Edith Maxwell

Catriona writes: As someone who, herself, writes all over this beloved genre of ours, I always feel an affinity for fellow authors who do the same. Edith Maxwell is a great example. I first knew her as the author of a Quaker midwife series, but she had some full-on cozies to her name too. And then came a California-set wine-country caper (which is splendid, by the way) and now this! Amelia Earhart investigates. I imagine there wil lbe a bit of premise envy amongst authors who wish we'd they'd th...

SPEAKING OF DIALOGUE by Eric Beetner

     Writing good dialogue can be helped by a single word: listen.Listen to how people speak. Eavesdrop, lurk, spy and loiter around conversations from different walks of life. Pay attention to how people speak, not just what they say. “believable” dialogue in a book mostly means that the reader can hear it in their head and it sounds like overhearing a conversation.       Some keys to making that happen:       People don’t often come right out and say exactly what they’re trying to say. Bluntn...

What We're Talking About When We Talk About Dialogue

 

Share your tips for writingbelievable dialogue. What separates good dialogue from poor, and how do youstrike a balance between too much and too little in a scene/book?

I am struggling with this topic. I’ve been told that towrite dialogue well, you need skills in observation and good ears. My eyes are fine, butmy hearing is terrible. Seriously. I’m considered profoundly hard of hearing,with 70% damage in one ear and 50% in the good ear. I can’t hear anythingbehind me, a...