Marketing in the Time of Covid

This year has thrown us plenty of curveballs. Have you (and your publisher) adapted new ways to market your books?

by Paul D. Marks

I have to admit that I just did a blog post recently over at SleuthSayers on this very subject before I looked to see what this week’s question is. So this will be a rerun of that for people who didn’t see it there. The one thing I’ll add is that in addition to everything below, I’ve also been trying some Facebook and Instagram ads, with some okay results. The Amazon ads we tried had virtually no results. And we use KDP Rocket and do whatever we’re supposed to do but for whatever reason not much came from it.

And so now to what I said a couple of weeks ago on SleuthSayers. Still valuable and definitely responds to this question:

We’re all hunkered down these days under house arrest. Some people are binging on Netflix, others catching up on all the cute cat videos they’ve missed. Others still are too anxious to do much of anything productive. I’m lucky in that my life hasn’t changed all that much on a day to day basis since I’ve worked at home for ages. I still walk the dog/s. Do my writing. Listen to music. Watch the old black and white movies that I love. Read. The one big change is that my wife’s been working at home since March. Luckily we seem to get along. Blame that on her more than me 😉.

But, as writers there have been some changes, most notably that in-person events have been cancelled. Most of the conventions and conferences that we enjoy have been zapped, Bouchercon, West Coast Crime (right in the middle of the actual convention), and others. In-store book events and launches have largely disappeared for now. But we live in an age of new-fangled thingies, an amazing age, an age of the internet, Zoom, Skype and other modern marvels.

My virtual acceptance speech for Ellery Queen Readers Award

So, the other day, as I was doing a Zoom panel for a writer’s conference, it dawned on me how cool it is to be able to do this. Not all that long ago it couldn’t have happened because the technology wasn’t there. With something like the Covid pandemic the event would just have disappeared. But with Zoom, Skype and others they just sort of morph into something virtual.

Since the lockdown began I’ve done several Zoom events. I haven’t yet hosted one though I’m thinking about doing that for the Coast to Coast: Noir anthology that I co-edited that’s coming out in September. That will be a new learning curve. But before that I had to learn how to Zoom as a guest. It’s not hard—and it’s really cool and fun. I also did a short (non-Zoom) video for Ellery Queen on coming in second in their readers poll since they, too, cancelled their in-person event in NYC. And I’ve done several panels and interviews and even virtual doctor appointments. As I write this a bit ahead of its posting date just a few days ago I did a Skype interview for a radio station in England. Could we have done that even twenty years ago? Maybe by phone, but with much more difficulty and expense.

E-flyer from Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles first House Arrest virtual reading

Remember long distance phone calls (and long distance could virtually be just across the street in some cases). They were ridiculously expensive. You’d call the operator before your call and request “time and charges,” then when the call was over the operator would call you back and tell you how long the call lasted and how much it cost. And you’d get sticker shock.

The "good old days".

In the near last minute my wife suggested doing a virtual launch for The Blues Don’t Care in June since there were no in person events happening. So we had to scramble to figure out how to do that. We weren’t sure if we should try Zoom or another service or stick to the old standby (yeah ‘old’ standby) of Facebook, which is what we ended up doing. And it turned out better than I had expected. We had a big group of people and questions flying back and forth. Plus I’d toss out tidbits of info on various things related to events that took place in the novel, like the gambling ships that lay off the SoCal coast back in the day. It was fun, if a little hectic, and I think people enjoyed it.

So we make do as best we can. And we don’t have to shower or drive to get to our meetings 😉. It’s also kind of cool to just see someone when you’re talking one to one with Zoom or Skype or other services. My wife’s family reunion was cancelled this year because of Covid but her and some of her cousins get together semi-regularly with each other via Zoom. Like they used to say, it’s the next best thing to being there.

So what’s next? Virtual reality meetings? Holograms? Mind-melding? Beam me up Scotty! There seem to be no limits to technology, but there is still something to be said for meeting people face to face. Standing close enough to whisper something, closer than 6 feet apart. Laughing, talking, sharing good food (and drink!) and good stories. So until we can do those things again, at least we have the virtual world, which is the next best thing.

~.~.~

And now for the usual BSP:

Thanks to Steve Steinbock and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for the review of The Blues Don’t Care in the current September/October 2020 issue just out. Four stars out of four. My first time getting reviewed in EQMM. A great honor!

And our own Cathy Ace’s The Corpse with the Crystal Skull is also reviewed in this issue.

You can find them here: https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/current-issue/the-jury-box/

Please join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/paul.d.marks and check out my website  www.PaulDMarks.com

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

Getting Crafty by Brenda Chapman

When you have craft questions, where do you go for answers? A particular website? A book? Podcasts? Writer friends?

 Like all writers, I’m constantly on the look out for any new information that will advance my craft, be it improvements on writing style, story arcs, character development, building suspense, or pretty much anything. I can’t say that I have one website or one writer friend to turn to when I have questions. My method for acquiring knowledge is more of a shotgun approach — I’m constantly absorbing information from wherever or whomever I can get it.

One of my primary resources is the wealth of books written by my fellow authors. Not only do I read for enjoyment but I also read to analyse why a story works and even why it doesn't (in my subjective opinion). I look at word choice, sentence structure, plot, character development ... you name it. This isn't to copy their style or to steal from their stories but rather to improve on my own writing. (A lot of this goes on subconsciously at a mystical level that authors sense but can't explain.)

I've also read a lot of writing wisdom online as well as watched writing workshop videos. There's an amazing amount of solid writing advice at our electronic fingertips. Stephen King's famous rules of writing are a good place to start. Last year I gave a writing workshop on point of view and found an amazing amount of information online. I also turned to a book that I bought at a book conference a few years back Write Away by Elizabeth George.

A little anecdote about the book. I bought a hard copy and stood in line to have Elizabeth George sign it. I've long been a fan of her Inspector Lynley series and was excited to meet her The lineup was long as you can imagine and the wait time was more than I had to spare so I bowed out after about twenty minutes. Anyhow, when I finally opened the book back in my hotel room, lo and behold, I'd unknowingly bought a signed copy! This reminds me that book conferences and attending panels have also been great ways to glean tidbits to improve the writing craft. I can't tell you how many times a bit of advice from an author on one of the panels comes back to me as I write or market my work.

Back to this week's question. I've been fortunate to belong to two crime-writing organizations that are into writing development and information-gathering in the crime field. Any writers getting started in the business can't go wrong joining an organization or two for support, friendship and information.

Capital Crime Writers is Ottawa-based. Over the years, they've had numerous experts in to speak about everything from art theft to gambling in sport to gang activity. Psychologists have spoken about narcissism and detectives have given workshops on murder scenes. In addition, authors have spoken about various aspects of the craft and generously given tips and advice. Every speaker has donated their time, making this an invaluable resource that I've never taken for granted.

Crime Writers of Canada is our national organization for crime writers and they offer online workshops on the writing business and the craft of writing. I recently watched a presentation on poisonous plants, for example. Canadian crime writers - I urge you to join if you haven't already!

I also belong to The Writers' Union of Canada and note that they have a number of online presentations not tailored to crime writing specifically but still very informative about all aspects of the writing business. I've yet to watch any although several are of interest. I read their newsletter, which is also a good resource. 

As for specific craft questions, I've worked with various editors assigned by my publishers and have learned a great deal from each one. The key is to be open to their knowledge and to absorb whatever makes sense for my writing going forward. I've also learned a lot speaking with other authors and reading their blogs and like nothing better than getting together with another author to 'talk shop'.

Ultimately, what to use from all the advice on craft that one takes in is up to each individual writer, but we're lucky to be in the community of people who like to share and mentor. I can't imagine the day will ever come that there won't be something new to learn or to tweak.

website:  www.brendachapman.ca

Twitter: brendaAchapman

Facebook: BrendaChapmanAuthor

The Name Game

How do you come up with titles and character names? Do they change during the writing process?

by Paul D. Marks

For names I simply call up Ye Olde Name Generator (see pic). A complicated machine of many parts. I feed in the alphabet and it spits out glorious and diverse names, usually something like “Joe”.
Or I might play the name game, you know, “Shirley! Shirley, Shirley, Bo-ber-ley, bo-na-na fanna, Fo-fer-ley. fee fi mo-mer-ley, Shirley!” – Is anyone even named Shirley anymore? If I was setting something in the 1950s it might be the perfect name.

But seriously, he said in the deepest old-fashioned DJ voice he could muster, in the olden days I would look through baby naming books, at least for first names of both boys and girls. Today I look on the internet. There’s all kinds of resources there for names of various ethnicities, what names were popular in a certain year, etc., so if you have a story with a character of a certain age you can see what names were popular for boys and girls the year that character was born. Sometimes I’ll look at movie credits of different eras to get an idea as to names for various time frames.

And yes, names can sometimes change multiple times before a story is done, which is what makes the computer global change function so wonderful. Often a name will change at least once. Frequently, I don’t even have a name for a character when I start so use placeholder names. Often movie stars’ names. In a story I’m working on I used the name Joan Crawford for a character until I could come up with an appropriate name for that character. I don’t want to be slowed down by trying to think of names too early in the process.

Also, sometimes I might like a name so much I decide to hold it back for another work where I can give the character with that name more “screen time.” That also happened in the story I’m working on. I have a character and gave him a name I like a lot. It’s also a name that says a lot. Then I decided I liked the name so much I didn’t want this character to have it because he’s such a minor character who gets killed off before we really even get to know him. But because I like the name so much I’m going to change it in this story and save it for something else, where he’ll have more scenery to chew on.

I also have a character named after a real person in a real case in this same story. That name will also change before the story sees the light of day.

Some naming rules:

They shouldn’t be too hard to pronounce – you don’t want readers stumbling over them.

Don’t try too hard to be unique  – like soap opera characters that always have names like Raven Snow or Chastity Chamberfield, unless going for humor or irony.

Names can be symbolic, foreshadow things or can be ironic. In my story 51-50, the cop character, Cleaver, is purposely named after Ward Cleaver, the all-American father on Leave it to Beaver. I wanted to play against that all-American image of Ward Cleaver with a tough cop about to lose his sanity.

Names can be revenge for someone you don’t like – but be careful when doing this and disguise it well.

Names can be an homage.  In my short story Free Fall, the femme fatale is named Gloria, after film noir icon and femme fatale Gloria Grahame. In Broken Windows, the sequel to White Heat (not yet published), there is a character named Chandler – a woman cop – but we all know who that name pays homage to.  And in my story L.A. Late @ Night and my noir story Born Under a Bad Sign, there is a cop named Larry Darrell – which pays homage to Somerset Maugham’s character in The Razor’s Edge (my favorite book of all).  Not that he’s much like Maugham’s Larry Darrell, but still.

Names can give insight into the character – who they are and where they’re from – sometimes the story behind the name can give you a little extra info about the character – for example Michael Connelly’s Harry “Hieronymus” Bosch – a unique name with an interesting story behind it.

Sometimes names should break stereo types: In White Heat there is an African-American character named Warren. Someone who read the book said Warren isn’t a black name. But I named the character after a black Marine friend I’d had. Just because a character is black or Hispanic, or any other ethnicity, doesn’t mean they have to have an ethnic-sounding name.

Titles are pretty much the same. Sometimes an appropriate title just pops into my head out of the air. Sometimes it’s an overheard snatch of conversation, a well-known phrase or song title. Sometimes I just have to think about it. But again I don’t halt progress to worry about it. If I come up with titles that I think will be good for a specific project I’ll list them at the head of the story’s file. And keep adding to that list till the right one sticks. I have a file of story titles that’s something like 30 pages long. Sometimes I look at it, often I don’t have to.

I don’t have a file of character names, though I do have a handful of those jotted down in a file or two somewhere, but not as methodically organized as my title file. I tend to wing it more with character names.

Whether titles or names, as Shakespeare said, Joe Shakespeare from Queens, “Rosie Tamborello by any other name would smell just as sweet as baked ziti.”

***

And now for the usual BSP:

There’s a fun and interesting article on Alfred Hitchcock in the Washington Post (and other places) from Associated Press writer Hillel Italie: Alfred Hitchcock Remains an Influence on Crime Writers. It includes quotes from Linda Landrigan of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Mike Mallory, SJ Rozan, A.J. Finn, Otto Penzler.......and even me! Enjoy!

Also, my Shamus-winning novel, White Heat, is being reissued in May by Down and Out Books. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon. Here is the new cover reveal:

Check out my website: www.PaulDMarks.com

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

###

Yesterday and Today

If you could talk to the person you were when you were writing your first-published novel, what insights and guidance would you give yourself about the writing life?

by Paul D. Marks

Younger Paul

Younger Paul: Hey, Paul, how ya doin’? You look different than I remember you.

Older Paul: Really, how so?

Well, less hair for one thing.

Yeah, tell me about it. Anything else? Anything good, like do I look smarter?

Hmm, not really, dude. Maybe a little more wrinkled. Do you think you’re any smarter?

I hope so. I hope I learned something in all these years.


Oh yeah, what’d you learn?

Older and Wiser Paul

I learned to get in less fights.

Oh yeah, less fights with who?

With everyone – from the producer who threatened to send his pals in the Mossad after me to burly construction workers.

You learn anything about writing? Or the writing life.

I learned that you have to be patient. I wanted to be an overnight success. And that happens, but it happens to very few people. Most overnight successes have been slogging around for years.

So what should I write about?

Don’t follow fads. The writing world changes quickly. Don’t write a vampire book when vampire books are all the rage. You might get in on it but more likely you’ll be late. Be ahead of the curve, not behind it. Make your own curve. Write what you want. Though I think I pretty much always did that, at least in terms of prose writing.

Think long-term: The first novel I completed was accepted for publication at a major publisher. It was a satire on a screenwriter trying to make it in Hollywood. Eventually, the whole editorial staff at that publisher was swept out and as a new broom sweeps clean my book was swept out with them. And since the humor was topical it was pretty dated even after only a couple of years so it couldn’t really go to another publisher. The lesson: don’t write things that are so topical that their shelf life is shorter than yogurt left on the counter on a steaming, hot day. Remember what George S. Kaufman said, satire is what closes Saturday night.

Any other pearls of wisdom?

And when I wrote that book the NY publishing scene was still more like the Old Club publishing business, where people actually read and relished books and good writing. Today it’s more like Hollywood. More commercial. More big name and blockbuster oriented. And, like Hollywood, they’re looking for High Concept stories. On the other hand, there’s a lot of smaller, indie publishers out there these days who aren’t quite so constrained in what they’re looking for—though they do have their constraints too. So my advice to my younger self on this would be to remember that, whatever you’re writing, the number one goal is to entertain. As Sam Goldwyn is reputed to have said, If you want to send a message call Western Union. That’s not to say you can’t have something to say in your stories, just say it an entertaining way.

I would tell myself not to go kicking and screaming onto social media, but to take it in stride. It’s actually worked out pretty well for me. And along those lines, be nice to people. Pay it forward. A lot of people have been nice to me and I’ve tried to do the same. No more screaming matches—or worse—as with the producer who threatened to send his pals in the Mossad after me.

Contemplating the Future

Don’t listen to everyone’s silly advice. New fads come along and some producers/editors/agents—what have you—fall for them. For example, they’ll insist you have eight beats to a scene or follow the Hero’s Journey or whatever the fad of the day is. Write a good, tight story, but write your story your way. That’s not to say it should be all over the place, but you don’t have to follow every new fad.

Don’t rewrite for everyone. Just because an editor or agent says you need to do X or Y doesn’t necessarily mean to do it. Of course, not doing might mean they’ll tell you to take a hike. But doing it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll buy the property either. So do what works for you. And don’t let anyone change your voice! Some will try to do that. Resist.

Be true to yourself. You can’t please everyone and there’s no guarantee that if you rewrite something they’ll be interested anyway. So don’t rewrite unless you’re getting paid or if you think it needs work.

So what’s your bottom line?

As RM said earlier in the week, “I guess it would be folly to try to change who I was, because who I was is who I am, and the road I travelled had to be travelled.”

The thing is, if we had done things differently we might not be the writers we are or even the people we are today, so we wouldn’t be writing the things we write. I've had a lot of adversity of one kind and another and haven't particularly enjoyed it, but without it I don't know if I'd be able to write what I write. So, I guess the bottom line is we are who we are because of the sum of our experiences.
So, be open to advice, but be true to yourself.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Yeah, it’s probably not a good idea to kill off the dog in a story.

Thank you for joining me, Older Paul.

Thank you, Younger Paul.

You’re welcome, Older and Wiser Paul.

***

And now for the usual BSP:

Please check out the interview Laura Brennan, writer, producer and consultant, did with me for her podcast, where we talk about everything from Raymond Chandler and John Fante to the time I pulled a gun on the LAPD and lived to tell about it. Find it here: http://destinationmystery.com/episode-52-paul-d-marks/

www.PaulDMarks.com

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Changing Projects in Midstream

Craft: Have you ever stopped abruptly and taken up a different project and never gone back to the old one?

by Paul D. Marks

Before I get to this week’s question, a little BSP. I’m thrilled to announce that my short story, “Ghosts of Bunker Hill,” was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Readers Poll. In fact, I’m blown away. I want to thank everyone who voted for it! And I’m tempted to give Sally Field a run for her money and say, “You like me, you really like me,” or at least my story 😉. If you’d like to read it (and maybe consider it for other awards) you can read it free on my website: http://pauldmarks.com/stories/ 

***

And now to the question at hand:

Yes. The battlefield of writerdom or is that writer-dumb is littered with the debris of the war of words. Ideas are so much easier to come by than a finished property. So sometimes you think an idea is worth pursuing and begin working on it only to find that it doesn’t build up a full head of steam, at least not enough of one to get it to the finish point. Or sometimes you’re in the middle of a spec project and another idea comes along that you spark to even more. And sometimes a paid gig comes along and that takes precedence over anything. There are a million reasons why one might abandon a project before it’s done. But mostly I never consider it abandoned forever. Pretty much everything is there to be gone back to at some time…if you live long enough.

Maybe it’s easier for “outliners” than “pantsters” to know if they’ll make the slog through to the end of a project. After all, if they do a fairly complete outline they’ll know how the story is going to go and pretty much whether or not it will work and has the legs to make it to the finish line. But us pansters don’t know the whole story ahead of time. We work it as we go so we might sometimes find that it doesn’t work as well as we thought when we came up with the idea.

So, the answer to the question is yes, I’ve dropped projects in the middle for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I’ve just lost the inspiration. Sometimes something wasn’t working. Or another idea came along that I was more hot to trot about. Or a paying gig.

One early novel that’s been abandoned for ages had actually been picked up by a major publisher. Then that publishing house did a clean sweep of its editorial department and my novel was swept out with them. I might have taken it to another publisher after that, except it was a satire and a lot of the humor in it was dated and I just never got around to tweaking it because so many other things came up in the meantime. But I still think about it and it’s in my head to go back to it someday, so it isn’t really dead…I hope. Sometimes things were abandoned because of the “great minds think alike” theory or at least steal alike. I had a couple of screenplays that were making the rounds and eventually similar stories were produced. Now it may be that great minds think alike, but in the two cases I’m particularly thinking of it seems to me that my scripts had been to the producers who eventually did the similar projects. Coincidence? Maybe. But someday I might pull them out of mothballs and see what I can do with them.

Another thing is I have some screenplays that were optioned over and over but ultimately didn’t make it to the silver screen. They’re sort of abandoned, but one of these days I might just turn them into novels. So maybe they’re not abandoned after all.

It’s hard to give up on a project. It’s like giving up on a child who’s an underachiever. Hopefully that child will ultimately achieve the things you hoped they’d achieve and ditto for the story that you abandoned. Maybe you’ll go back to it in time and make it work. On the other hand if your child turns out to be a serial killer you might just want to abandon him forever, same with a story that’s not behaving.

Going back to a story that you’ve left happens often. Even after a story is done and sent out. If it’s rejected it might sit for some time but eventually I might go back to it and try to give it some CPR.

Few stories are truly worth abandoning altogether. But that doesn’t mean my computer isn’t littered with stories started and not completed for the reasons stated above. It’s just that sometimes other things take precedence for those reasons and I just don’t have time to go back to an earlier story. And sometimes they just run out of steam, both on the page and in my head [no comments, please 😏 ].

So, while I might have moved on from a particular project here and there, ultimately there are really no abandoned projects, at least for me.

***

And now for the usual BSP:

Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea is available at Amazon.com and Down & Out Books.

www.PaulDMarks.com

Click here to: Subscribe to my Newsletter

Face to Facebook

How do you get yourself and your books noticed by the public? We hear that many publishers aren’t doing much PR anymore. How do you stand out from the crowd?

by Paul D. Marks

Set your hair on fire, borrow Lady Gaga’s meat dress, wardrobe malfunction. All of the above. They say there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Everyone earlier this week had so many great things to say, I hope I have some new ones as well as maybe re-hitting some of the previous things in my own inimitable way, especially as this was written before I saw this week’s posts. But great minds and all of that...

In a sense you’re not just a writer anymore but a small publishing/PR company of your own, even if you’re with a major publisher. The big publishers push the big authors—you know, the ones who don’t really need it, like Stephen King, Anne Rice, Sue Grafton and John Grisham. But you and your little book, whether you’re pub’d by a major, a small publisher or an indie, and who could really use a push, well you’re on your own for the most part. But you can do it. It just takes time, effort and a little money. But not nearly as much money as ad campaigns used to take when your only outlets were print, radio and TV.

So, as much as many writers like to disengage from the world, you have to engage, at least to some extent. Sometimes in person. Sometimes online.

Face to Face:

Be part of the community. That can happen in a variety of ways.

There are bookstore (and other) signings and panels and interviews to do. The problem with signings is that it’s sometimes hard to get people to come out if you’re not one of the aforementioned big stars. On the other hand you might make friends and connections with booksellers who can help you down the line.

There’s also conventions like Bouchercon, Malice and Left Coast, etc. All good places to meet people and network. And just have a good time. I haven’t been to Malice, but I’ve really enjoyed Bouchercon and Left Coast. And if you get on a panel so much the better. On top of that, my wife and I always book a few extra days so we can explore the convention city. We went to Bouchercon in Albany, not a place I had ever really expected to go or to like. But we enjoyed its New England Flavor and history, as we enjoyed all the cities of the various conventions we went to.
There’s also groups like Sisters in Crime, ITW, and MWA, and others. These groups hold social functions, informative meetings, have an online presence. They’re a great way to meet people.

Face to Facebook:

I went kicking and screaming onto Facebook a few years ago. Publicist and friend Diana James “gently” suggested that I should go on it.

“I don’t want to see pictures of what people had for breakfast…or worse,” I said.

So, after much cajoling from Diana I took the dreaded step and signed onto FB. At first I didn’t know what to do, how to use it. I was an evil lurker. Of course, since I had few FB friends I didn’t have much to lurk at. So I’d check in every few days or so, still not knowing what to do, but gaining a few friends here, a few friends there.

And eventually I started posting. Don’t remember what those early posts were. But not too long after I started I began to find my way. I began to post things that meant something to me or that I related to. Things like pix of my breakfast: cereal can be fun and entertaining pop art. And pix of my scars—want to see them? Just kidding.

Actually, I started posting things about noir and film noir and putting up “Film Noir Alerts” when I knew a noir movie was coming on television. Also stuff about mystery and noir writing, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, et al. And I started posting about Los Angeles and LA history, something I’m very much into on many levels. I began to be known as the LA Guy or the Noir Guy. People I’d never met in person would come up to me at conferences and other events and say, “You’re the Noir Guy”. I had to plead guilty.

And then when White Heat came out I put up some posts about that. And other people shared them. And I think it did help get the book known, get reviews and make sales. But the key is, as everyone says, not to only push your books. People get turned off by that big time. Be a friend. Be part of the community. Comment and share other people’s posts. Participate.

Besides Facebook, there’s also Twitter and Instagram and Reddit and so many more online entities that you can’t count high enough. The key here, I think, is to pick one or two, maybe three, to focus on. Otherwise it just gets out of hand. I do mostly Facebook and Twitter, with the help of Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, which is the only way to make Twitter decipherable.

Have FB and Twitter made me a NY Times Bestseller? No. But they’ve definitely helped get me more readers and connect with people with similar interests, which is more than I could have done by going on a cross country book signing tour …and it costs a lot less. And I figure now there’s not a state in the country that I couldn’t have lunch with someone if I happened to be passing through—and if I do I’ll be sure to post the photo of the meal. Hell, there’s several countries on different continents that I could have lunch with someone I know from social media. Anyone for tennis?

Pay or Play:

If you’ve got money you can hire a publicist. But, just like with anything or anyone else, some might be good, others not so good. And just because they work for a big company or have a fancy office doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better. When I was working in Hollywood my then-writing partner and I got one of the Big Three agencies as agents (have I told this one before?). We thought it was the best day of our lives. Celebrated. Flying high. But it turned out to be the worst experience as we were the little fish in the big pond. (But I’ll leave the details for another time.) And the best agent I had was working out of his converted garage when I met him. He hustled for me. And got me work. And he was eventually picked up as a VP by another large agency and took me with him. The point I’m making here is don’t let the trappings of a big publicist (or publisher for that matter) fool you into thinking you can sit back and do nothing or let things slide.

Besides publicists, you can try to get your book on Book Gorilla, etc., or place ads in things like E Reader News or Kindle Nation Daily or Kindle Review or the very expensive and very choosy Book Bub. Even Facebook ads.

Yammer Yammer Yammer:

Get out there and talk, to anyone and everyone who will listen.

Blog. You can start your own. Guest on other people’s. Join a blog like Criminal Minds. I blog both here and on SleuthSayers.

Try to get radio interviews. People, especially internet radio, are always looking for interesting guests.

Try to get your book reviewed. Not always easy, but there’s a ton of bloggers in the great cyberspace out there who review books. Contact them.

Do blog tours.

Word of mouth is one of the best things. If you can get people talking about you or your book/s, you’re on your way. Easier said than done, but not impossible.

Use Goodreads and other sites like that.


Pay It Forward:

Pay it forward. A lot of people have been nice to me over the years. And while I want to repay their kindness directly I also try to pay it forward in general. The mystery community seems pretty nice and pretty supportive overall and I want to contribute to that atmosphere.

And the bottom line is write a good book.

***

And now for the usual BSP:

Available now from Down & Out Books:

Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea 

A collection of 15 Private Eye stories from some of the best mystery and noir writers from across the country. Also available on Amazon:

www.PaulDMarks.com

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Everyone is Fair Game

Did you base any characters in your books off of friends or family?

by Paul D. Marks

Most of my characters are based on people I know or have known, or see or have seen in my various life adventures, at least in part. Those adventures can be anything from mundane daily life events like walking the dogs, going to the market or bookstore, to more exciting things, such as SCUBA diving and a hopefully once-in-a-lifetime experience like pulling a gun on the LAPD! They are also, of course, based on me and most of them have a part of me in them. It could be a big part or a little part, but since I know me better than I know anyone else there’s always some seepage by osmosis. Sometimes consciously and sometimes subconsciously.

Both my lead and secondary characters are based on people I’ve known through the years. And then there’s part of a name here or there, from people I’ve known. Bad guys are often based on people I, uh, don’t like... But to say that this character or that is based on me or so-and-so wouldn’t be accurate because for the most part they’re composites of people I know or have come across.

And some of them are simply based on observations of people I see here or there. For example, I was in the original Barney’s Beanery (click the link for Barney’s to read a history of it, it’s pretty interesting: https://barneysbeanery.com/about/), a famous LA dive and two guys were playing pool, got into a fight. Beer flying. Pool cues cracking. It ended up as a scene in something I was working on.

My latest story, Nature of the Beast, up at David Cranmer’s Beat to a Pulp (http://www.beattoapulp.com/wz20160303-pdm-natureofthebeast.html), is a noir story about a

hitman with a heart of lead. Now, I’m not saying I do or don’t know any hitmen. But either way, the character of hitman Jack Lake is based on the experiences and world outlooks of people I’ve known over the years, as well as on parts of my own experiences (and no, I’m not a hitman). We extrapolate traits, characteristics and motivations for characters from our own lives or the lives of people we’ve known or have come across, even if the characters are different in some ways from the real people. So you can take character traits from anyone and insert them into any character that they’ll work for. I may not know any hitmen, but I know some hard people and so their traits make it into Jack.

Everything and everyone is fair game. Writers observe and borrow from everything – people watching in the airport, making up stories in our heads about who they are and what they’re doing. Or sometimes a friend does something or tells us about an experience in their life that we find compelling, which we “borrow” for a story. Often they’ll be very loosely based on something we’ve heard or read about. For example a friend might have gone through an unpleasant divorce and told you about it, but in your story you embellish so one of the divorcing couple plots to murder the other, whereas in real life the unpleasantness might have only been in arguing over who gets to keep the dog. So watch what you say or do in front of a writer, you might just end up in their next book….

***

And now for the usual BSP: Check out David Cranmer's interview with me at: http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/2016/03/drinking-with-nilsson-freaking-out-mork.html

And check out my article on Vortex and the Green Absinthe Fairy at Mystery Playground's Drinks with Reads:
http://www.mysteryplayground.net/2016/02/vortex-and-green-absinthe-fairy.html

Anthony voters please consider my short story, "My Enemies Have Sweet Voices", from Down & Out Books’ anthology Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea, for Best Short Story.

And please consider Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea for Best Anthology.

Subscribe to my Newsletter

www.PaulDMarks.com

THE NAME GAME REDUX

What’s in a name? Do you give careful thought to the names of your characters or do you draw them out of a hat?


By Paul D. Marks

As Art can attest, it’s hard to come on Fridays since people have sometimes stolen your thunder earlier in the week. My post was called The Name Game, but now it’s redux – great minds and all of that.

I do give careful thought to my characters' names. Neither the first nor last name is chosen at random. Sometimes characters are named after friends or enemies or in homage to someone or something. Sometimes I want a “plain Jane” type of name and sometimes I want something more symbolic or allegorical. Sometimes the name just comes to me. Other times I’ll look in baby naming books or other research sources to help me figure out an appropriate name.

Even when the characters have simple names like “Johnny Jones” from one of my current works-in-progress, the name was still given a fair amount of thought. On the one hand, it’s a common, clichéd name. But that’s how it’s meant, as we don’t know the character’s real name and this is simply how the narrator refers to him. It could just as easily have been John Doe, Joe Smith, Bill Johnson or any of a hundred other common names.

Naming characters is sort of like naming children or pets. You visualize the kid’s first day of school and how the teacher will call role and mispronounce the name or what cruel nicknames the other kids will twist it into. And then pick a name you hope the kid will live up to and won’t get teased about too much. Actually this is how I ended up naming my character Duke in White Heat. Duke’s relationship with his dad is not the greatest father-son relationship. His father cruelly named him “Marion,” after John Wayne’s real first name. Not a nice thing to do to a boy and maybe that’s one of the reasons they don’t get along and certainly why Duke chose that as a nickname.

Also, when naming pets, I like to pick names that are unique and mean something to me and my wife. Something that captures their personality, but that also won’t be too hard or too embarrassing to yell out when calling them to come. You don’t want to be yelling “Here Mr. Snuggles” when your neighbor walks by. So our Rottweiler was called Bogie. And our black cats Curley and Moe. Our mostly Rottweiler, but who looked nothing like one, was Audie, after Audie Murphy. and our German Shepherd is Pepper, full name Sgt. Pepper, after the Beatles album.



There are several “rules” I try to follow when naming characters:

They shouldn’t be too hard to pronounce – you don’t want readers stumbling over them.
Don’t try too hard to be unique – like soap opera characters that always have names like Raven Snow or Chastity Chamberfield, unless going for humor or irony.

Names can be symbolic, foreshadow or can be ironic. In my story 51-50, the cop character, Cleaver, is purposely named after Ward Cleaver, the all-American father on Leave it to Beaver. I wanted to play against the all-American image of Ward Cleaver with a tough cop about to lose his sanity.

Names can be revenge for someone you don’t like – but be careful when doing this and disguise it well.


Names can be an homage. In my short story Free Fall, the femme fatale is named Gloria, after film noir icon and femme fatale Gloria Grahame. In Broken Windows, the sequel to White Heat and not yet published, there is a character named Chandler – a woman cop – but we all know who that name pays homage to. And in my story L.A. Late @ Night and my noir story Born Under a Bad Sign, there is a cop named Larry Darrell – which pays homage to Somerset Maugham’s character in The Razor’s Edge. Not that he’s much like Maugham’s Larry Darrell, but still.

Names can give insight into the character – who they are and where they’re from – sometimes the story behind the name can give you a little extra info about the character – for example Michael Connelly’s Harry “Hieronymus” Bosch – a unique name and an interesting story behind it.

Sometimes names should break stereo types: In White Heat there is an African-American character named Warren. Someone who read the book said Warren wasn’t a black name. But I named the character after a black Marine friend I’d had. Just because a character is black or Hispanic, or any other ethnicity, doesn’t mean they have to have an ethnic-sounding name.

And character names often change in later drafts. Sometimes I just use “placeholder” names until after I get to know the characters better. Then, if I think of the perfect name later on, I can use search and replace to change it later.

Names are important and can be fun. Like the old song, The Name Game (written by Shirley Ellis – and ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jfVpizj1Uk

The name game!
Shirley!
Shirley, Shirley bo Birley Bonana fanna fo Firley
Fee fy mo Mirley, Shirley!

Lincoln!
Lincoln, Lincoln bo Bincoln Bonana fanna fo Fincoln
Fee fy mo Mincoln, Lincoln!

Come on everybody!
I say now let's play a game
I betcha I can make a rhyme out of anybody's name
The first letter of the name, I treat it like it wasn't there
But a B or an F or an M will appear
And then I say bo add a B then I say the name and Bonana fanna and a fo
And then I say the name again with an F very plain and a fee fy and a mo
And then I say the name again with an M this time
And there isn't any name that I can't rhyme.