mysteries and motorcycles
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Dan Poynter
On May the 16th I had the pleasure of attending a conference sponsored by the "Upper Peninsula Publishers & Authors Association," in Marquette, Michigan. The keynote speaker was none other than self-publishing and promotion guru, Dan Poynter. And Michigan's northern peninsula didn't disappoint; it treated us to a taste of Mid-May snow.
Mr. Poynter is a man of amazing energy and enthusiasm. His lecture was full of facts and statistics that showed the many advantages and rewards of self-publishing. While he didn't understate the challenges, he helped take much of the fear out of the prospect of going it alone. Information is the best weapon you can have when moving forward. I'll add more to this in the next posting. Check it out at http://ParaPublishing.com
It was a particularly interesting encounter for me because I discovered that Mr. Poynter and me have shared a common hobby; Sport Parachuting, commonly known as "Skydiving." Although it has been a number of years since I made my last parachute jump, there is a certain brotherhood relationship that all skydivers share and Mr. Poynter made it a point to recognize me with a special ribbon that he attached to my name tag.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Canada, eh?On Saturday April 25th, I'll be attending "GenreCon 2009" in Sarnia, Ontario.
It's a multi-genre conference sponsored by the Lambton County Library in Sarnia. I'm not sure how many of these conferences have taken place but I do know that I've been part of every single one of them. Jeff Beeler and Ellen Dark do a great job of organizing this event every year. You can see more about it here: http://community.livejournal.com/penguicon/117225.html
Sarnia is directly across the St Clair River from Port Huron, Michigan and a short drive from Toronto or Detroit.
This year I get to kick off the early part of the conference as moderator of a "Mystery and Plotting" panel along with Jean Rae Baxter and Vicki Delaney, two very accomplished mystery writers. A couple of returning veterans are the always enthusiastic Jeff DeLuzio and Mowtown Writer star, Sylvia Hubbard.
Another fun part of the event is the dinner at "Ups n' Downs" Riverfront restaurant at the end of the day.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Rotary Club
On Monday March 23rd I had the pleasure of addressing a Rotary Club luncheon. It was a pleasant afternoon spent with caring community leaders. I was impressed with their charitable efforts.
If there is a downside to a luncheon, it's the time constraints that are characteristic of workday events. I only had about thirty minutes to deliver my pitch and it's difficult to engage an audience in a short amount of time.
It was a well attended affair and the people were attentive and asked interesting and thoughtful questions. I enjoyed myself and the opportunity to get acquainted with members of my local community.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Back on the trailI'm heading back out for a little more promotion. On March 23, 2009 I'll be making a luncheon presentation at the Rotary Club in Pigeon, Michigan. It's a rather small event but it's my local community and I feel it's highly important to establish a local fan base. Besides, these small town events are almost always more friendly than their big city cousins and they're a darn site more relaxed.
After that I'm once again going international with my annual trek to Sarnia, Ontario for the 2009 edition of Genrecon on April 25th. I have attended every Genrecon since its inception about five or six years ago. It's a free one day conference held at the Lambton County Library in Sarnia. The focus is on fiction and it includes several genres like mysteries, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. From a writer's point of view, I like the variety. It's a great opportunity to harvest ideas from authors who have an entirely different perspective. I think it helps all of us.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Small town signing
On November 20th I did a signing at the Reading & Rhythm bookstore in Bad Axe, Michigan. Bad Axe is the seat of Huron County which includes the entire upper thumb of the mitten shaped silhouette known as Michigan. As signings go, it was on the quiet side. Only a few dozen people wandered in and not all of them wanted to buy books. But I'm not complaining, at least I made some new friends and even sold some books. The sad thing is that it will likely be the last signing that I do featuring Turn Left at September. It's no longer a fresh title and it may have run its course.
My old standby, The Unreal McCoy, has finally gone out of print and I'm considering doing a bit of re-writing and see if I can get it published by a new small press just to keep it available.
In the meantime I'm working furiously with an editor to clean up my latest manuscript, The First Domino, so that it's in presentable shape to hand over to a literary agent.
It's a tough business.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Ga-ga-googling
Hmmmm.... I guess this has been floating around in cyberspace for five years now but I just found it the other day while "googling" my name. I've been told that it pays to check yourself out on the internet from time to time and I have done so at somewhat irregular and infrequent intervals. Not often enough, that's for sure. Maybe that's why I've missed this posting for half of a decade.
My first publisher, a thinly disguised POD house had apparently listened to my constant whining about their no return policy and obscene pricing schedule, and when my sales began to approach that of a legitimate author with a legitimate publisher, they decided to act. They introduced a brand new imprint called Independence Books and told me that I would be part of the inaugural run. What I didn't know was that I would be the first.
Well... nice try. Close but no cigar. There was no significant upswing in sales and no call from Oprah.
Here is their press release from 2003.
PublishAmerica Launches Independence Books with The Unreal McCoy
PublishAmerica has added Dennis Collins' The Unreal McCoy to its Independence Books Imprint.
Frederick, MD -- September 18, 2003 -- PublishAmerica is proud to announce that it will re-release The Unreal McCoy, by Dennis Collins, under the Independence Books imprint.
The Unreal McCoy is a well written and crafted contemporary fiction. Detroit police Detectives Albert McCoy and Otis Springfield take on the unlikely roles of guardian angels for rookie private investigator Michael OConner. OConners lack of street-smarts and inexperience land him in the hospital, a victim of a brutal beating. That is were Detective McCoy finds the private detective. While investigating the crime, the police detectives work to fill in the gaps in the ex-insurance investigator's real-world education. Battling a vicious murderer who is head of a ring of jewelry thieves involved in insurance fraud and OConners inexperience, the three are led to the woods of Northern Michigan and an unlikely suspect.
According to Editorial Director Miranda Prather, We were first drawn to The Unreal McCoy because of the sizable handicaps the characters must overcome to solve the case. PublishAmerica primarily publishes works by, for or about people who face a challenge in life, and who overcome it by turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones. In addition, we found that Mr. Collins fast-paced mystery had strong, believable characters and plenty of action to hold readers interest."
The Unreal McCoy was originally released by PublishAmerica in March of 2001. After showing strong sales and marketing potential, PublishAmerica chose Mr. Collins work for the new Independence Books imprint.
The Independence Books imprint was founded to recognize those PublishAmerica books that have achieved marketing success and sales milestones. Independence Books will initially feature softcover books with re-designed covers.
Most of PublishAmerica's books are written by new and previously undiscovered talent. A traditional publishing company, PublishAmerica pays advances and royalties while offering a distinct alternative to authors who would most likely be overlooked by larger, more commercial publishers simply due to their lack of experience in the industry. For more details about this book and author visit www.publishamerica.com.
For more information, please contact Miranda Prather at pratherm@publishamerica.com. You may also contact Dennis Collins at theunrealmccoy@aol.com
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Hardest Part of WritingActually, once you get the hang of it, writing isn't really so hard. Well, good writing might take a little work but it's still the easy part.
Selling your work, now that's hard!
I was new and innocent when I sold "The Unreal McCoy," my first book. I had tried unsuccessfully to find an agent and so when I stumbled on a publisher who would deal directly with the author I began frothing at the mouth. An email query, request for manuscript, and acceptance took about a week. A couple months later I had a one dollar advance and a promise that my book would be available "From sea to shining sea." Of course they didn't tell me that the book would be obscenely overpriced, carry equally obscene shipping charges, be non-returnable, and edited with "Word spellcheck."
The burden of trying to sell a POD book from a publisher who is terminally slow in the shipping department and has a shoddy reputation among booksellers can be a very frustrating uphill battle. And you can forget about reviews in any major venue.
I was lucky though, because I was too naive to know just how impossible the task was. I somehow managed to sell over a thousand copies (didn't know I had that many friends) and, for a time I became the best seller out of that publisher's fifteen thousand title catalogue. By twisting a few arms, I was also able to get a few reviews, some of them even in newspapers. The critics were kind and very complimentary, however several of them mentioned the "second rate" publisher.
When my second book, "Turn Left at September," was finally ready I still couldn't get an agent to read even one word of my manuscript. I shopped it around for close to two years, learning as I went. I eventually quit mentioning my first book in my query letters because a POD credit can often be more of a detriment than a help.
I began networking and belonged to a few Internet writer's forums and it was at one of these sites that I found my next publisher. Still no agent! My new publisher was like a breath of fresh air. They did print runs like the big guys and followed standard industry pricing and marketing procedures. They even managed to get some advance reviews and a real live blurb from a successful author. Again, my work garnered praise from the critics. But it still isn't enough. My publisher's only problem is that they are a small house with just a handful of titles. Even though they do everything right, they can't begin to compete with the big New York boys for shelf space at Barnes & Noble or Borders. My book is available everywhere, but you have to order it.
With "The First Domino," in the can and at the advice a few writers whose opinions I respect, I'm going to make sure that this book is represented by an industry professional. I want a publisher like Simon & Schuster or Harper-Collins. The big publishing houses don't deal with authors. I must find an agent. And once again I am counting on the power of networking. I attend writer's conferences and sign up for pitch sessions with agents and I try to stay visible on the Internet. Oh yeah, and I lean on my friends.
I guess if you're gonna be a successful author, you gotta be willing to do the "Hard Part" of the writing business.
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