How to Publish a Book Readers,

I had the opportunity to interview #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly today. This is one of the coolest interviews I've ever done and I am putting it up here online at How to Publish a Book.

Enjoy this one, folks. And thanks for checking out How to Publish a Book.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This past weekend I was in Baltimore for the Bouchercon World Mystery Writers Convention. Bouchercon is one of my favorite writers convention. It convenes annually and includes a healthy balance of fans, writers, and book publishing professionals (including literary agents, book editors, book publishers, and independent book store proprietors).

I'm often asked how to get a literary agent here at How to Publish a Book, and story after story seems to confirm that most writers meet their agents at writers conventions. At Bouchercon this year, I met four literary agents, two of whom I've met and spoken with previously (one of whom I've submitted work to before). Additionally, I met three book editors and two book publishers, both publishers of small (but successful) indepedent presses. Two of the editors I met work for major book publishers, and one had the good grace to follow up by sending me a cordial email on Monday after the convention.

Additionally, I hung out with many published writer friends and other publishing professionals. I was also asked to record the Guest of Honor Interviews, which I'll be posting here at How to Publish a Book.

The value of attending a writers conference like this is difficult to assess. It accomplishes a number of things: 1) it brings people in book publishing together, 2) it fosters a sense of community, 3) it presents the opportunity to pitch ideas or to talk about what works in publishing, 4) it gives writers opportunities to meet with editors, publishers, and literary agents.

Most days of the scheduled writers conference consist of panel discussions from 8 AM - 5 PM. The evenings are filled with parties, and the parties are where you get the best opportunity to have face time. The panels are interesting, but they're not so much a dialogue as a lecture. I definitely learned a few things through the panel discussions and had other ideas confirmed, but it's the parties that offer the best opportunity for writers to speak with book editors, book publishers, and literary agents.

I've been to a lot of these over the last decade, and I've begun to view this "face time" as a kind of campaign. For example, the two agents I had previously met remembered me, and one of them I hung out with (along with a group) for about two hours at the hotel bar Saturday night. I've got to think this helps the cause the next time I have work to submit to the agent, but this is difficult to quantify.

Similarly, the two small press publishers that I met remembered me from previous meetings. One of them makes for today's video and was the Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Guest of Honor at this year's convention.

Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald own the Poisoned Pen Press, one of the leading independent mystery publishers in the U.S. Barbara also runs the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. This store was where I did the second bookstore event of my life (back in 2006), and I revisited the store this summer (2008) to do a well-attended event. I like Barbara. She probably knows more about the crime and mystery writing community than any other single person I know.

Additionally, she has successfully run an independent bookstore for almost twenty years, and the Poisoned Pen Press has been in operation for over a decade.

One of the biggest points that she made to stand out in my mind was something I'd heard before by indepedent bookstore owners: Do not lease the property of your store. If you're going to try and run an independent bookstore (God help you) buy the property, don't rent. Also, I found her and Robert's discussion of book marketing, book sales, and how to publish a book particularly fascinating.

I present it to you now, How to Publish a Book Readers. Barbara Peters, Robert Rosenwald, and Twist Phelan on how to publish a book...

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This past Sunday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina to interview publishing guru John Fuhrman on the topic of How to Publish a Book: Literary Agents, Book Marketing & Publishing. The result of the trip is a 75-minute video of our discussion.

In addition to talking about how to publish a book, John offers some incredible tips on book marketing and publishing. If I've learned one thing about how to publish a book over the past couple of years, it's that no two people have the exact same philosophies. I was most surprised to hear about John's experiences comparing his publishing with small presses in contrast to major publishers.

He's done both, and his insights on the subject were unexpected.

Also, he discusses how he landed over 300 radio interviews for his first book and how he found a literary agent with a major New York literary agency. I had to press him a little bit for the specifics, and those are all included in the video.

I found it particularly interesting to hear him discuss how he and his literary agent actually went from publisher to publisher in person when they were ready to sell his book to a major publisher. I have never heard of someone else doing this before, but it makes a lot of sense to me... particularly if the author has a lot of personal charm and makes good impressions on people when meeting in person.

All of this is to say that this interview makes for one of the more interesting and insightful discussions of late on the topic of how to publish a book.

Enjoy!

Stacey