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February 21, 2018 Meeting
ATTENDANCE: Vicki Whelan-White, Jenny Delos Santos, Rose Mary Thompson, Kent Reinker Gail Baugniet , Lana Billman, Roesmary Mild, Dawn Casey, Lizbeth Hartz, Katharine Nohr, Carol Catanzanti , Sott Kikkawa
SPEAKER FOR JERI WESTERTON: a Los Angeles native is the author of ten Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels, a series nominated for 13 national awards from the Agatha to the Shamus. Her first in the series, VEIL OF LIES was named Editor’s Choice by the Historical Novel Society Review; her third THE DEMONS'S PARCHMENT received a coveted starred review by Library Journal; and her sixth, SHADOW OF THE ALCHEMIST, was named Best of 2013 by Suspense Magazine. Also in 2013, her fifth novel BLOOD LANCE was named one of the "Ten Hot Crime Novels for Colder Days" by Kirkus Reviews. For her debut urban fantasy series, BOOKE OF THE HIDDEN, Jeri was invited as a paneled author to the fan convention Dragon Con in Atlanta, and the book was a finalist for RT Magazine’s Seal of Excellence Award. Publishers Weekly said of it, “Readers sad about the ending of Charlaine Harris’s MIDNIGHT, TEXAS trilogy will find some consolation in Moody Bog.” Jeri was featured on two local NPR shows, ‘My Awesome Empire” and “KVCR-Arts.” She has served as president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, as vice president for the Los Angeles Chapter of Sisters in Crime, and twice president of the Orange County Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She frequently guest lectures on medieval history at local colleges and museums, and lives in southern California with her home-brewing husband, a complacent desert tortoise, and 40,000 bees. See more about Jeri at JeriWesterson.com or visit BOOKEoftheHIDDEN.com for exclusive content about her new series and a fabulous “booke” trailer.
Discussing 10 important marketing issues:
#1) Attractive & professional book cover - Please don’t save money on a book cover. You want the cover to express what’s in the book. You want to be intrigued by it, because you judge a book by its cover. Cost ranges from $60 plus.
#2) Book reviews - Out of a million books published every year in the United States, half are self-publishing books. 500,000 are traditionally published. 500,000 are self-published. If you are traditionally published, your publisher is sending your manuscript to the big four newspapers and magazines and weekly library journals. Those are the places that libraries get ideas. Book sellers look through that to see what they are going to order. If you are self-published, you can get reviewed by the big four, but you have to give them time. You have to give them four to six months before you’re published.
#3) Publicists - There is a publicist available when published traditionally, who covers 20 or so authors. Prepare a list of reviewers/magazines. Certain magazines a publicist might not be aware of. For instance, is there a quilt magazine for quilt mysteries? More and more publishers are doing net galley, which is the E book so that they don’t have to spend money on printing or shipping. Come up with ideas you want your publicist to do. A publicist, can be very expensive; $3,000, $4,000 Make sure they can do something for you – you cannot.
#4) Blog reviewers - tons of reviewers available; mystery blogs, history blogs and quilt blogs. Go to these and take a look around. Make sure they are getting a lot of activity. See if there are comments. Because you don’t want to send to a reviewer, who actually don’t get any hits. You want people to come to those blogs. So look at the blog. This is a lot of work. When you are published, and even traditionally you have to do all this.
#5) Personal branding management - You have to let your users, blogers, magazines and people who are in social media know what you’re all about. Let people know of your interest, the purpose you’re promoting. Bloggers…once they like the book, they like you too. So you are the complete package. Don’t be a grump to people. Be a nice person. Let people know who you are.
#6) Social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Find one or two that you really enjoy. Connect to readers - they enjoy interaction. I like to be funny. It gives people a way to warm up to me. Talk about all kinds of things. / Facebook is good for lots of other things - my publisher is in UK, they publish in England first then U.S. So I do Facebook book launch online. I usually do it for two hours, and I have a little presentation to do. I do more reading, and I have little tidbits information about the history and little things that I researched. Then we have a conversation and at the top of the hour I have a give-away. Does not recommend advertising on Socai Medaia – not cost effective.
#7) Networking- That’s what SinC does. That’s how I really got published…connecting with Sisters-in-Crime. Sisters in Crime, Writer’s Guild, Horrors Writers, Romance Writers of America. They have a lot of information at these places. I wasn’t getting anywhere ten years ago….then I changed to mystery because it was a better market. It was a bigger sell. Talk to people who’re trying to get published, and they had different agents. What was the do’s and don’t, and what was the pitt falls. I started with the Online Guppie. Volunteer - you meet new people, you get more opportunities.
#8) You still need a web site-landing page - You need that place to direct people to … Who are you? Where do you come from? Then maybe you can have a blog on your website. You could blog whatever you’re writing about, you become an expert. I’m an expert on mid-evil mysteries. I have things on paranormal activity. You are an expert on whatever you are writing about.
# 9) Pics of books - photograph your book in creative ways so that people will notice it. If it helps you to advertise your book, you may even want to print a postcard with that.
# 10) Be ready for presentations, Try to book yourself in libraries and luncheons. You don’t want to sell, sell, sell. You want to educate yourself in the subject that you are an expert in.
Book launching – be creative, but cost effective. Make a list of libraries and bookstores in Hawaii. So that when your book comes out you can call them and ask, “Would you like me to talk about this subject.” “I have a new book.” Would you like a speaker?” Or you could partner up with another person or two. You can travel together. If the people may not like your genre, they may like the other person book. I’ve done that too.
E-mail me if you have any questions. My e-mail is jeriwesterson@gmail.com.
Welcome new member Lana Billman
INC NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP BENIFITS: We encourage joining SinC National. Events sponsored by Natnal requires members only to be able to participate.
Our monthly SinC Links — a digest of "news you can use" about the mystery business
Sisters in Crime National Listserv
Sisters in Crime Self-Publishing Listserv
Regional chapters, including The Guppies, a support & critique group for unpublished writers
Member discounts (see Special Offers)
An author listing on the Authors for Libraries website (a $39 value). Many United for Libraries groups provide author programs for their libraries, and this sponsorship will also help match up authors for programs through Zip Code searching.
An institutional presence at national and regional book events, mystery conferences and festivals with opportunities for individual author participation and/or distribution of promotional materials
An on-going mystery review project that monitors media coverage of female and male authors, the Monitoring Project.
Reports from our annual publishers summit
Networking, mentoring, and fun!
2018 MEMBERSHIP DUES: The Hawaii Chapter $10 fee and National $40 fees now due. Prefer online registration, but regular mail filing acceptable. Membership forms handed out.
2018 PLANS: We have a few events we are going to pursue this year and to participate in any event, membership to National SinC is required.
2018 Music/Book Festival
Oct or Dec Blaisdale Arts and Craft
Speaking engagements – with Literary classes at Manoa or other Univ (currently looking into, no updates yet)
Possible book signing
Plans to arrange a literary event/contest with school children as happened at March 2017 conference ***
Laurie Hanan tells us there will be a Kapolei Fair in April 2018. It will have pony rides, petting zoo and a big outdoor tent
HAWAII BOOK AND MUSIC FESTIVAL – in effort to draw people to book what does the group think about dressing up or offer the public a game of clue. Simple outfits like hat and pipe. Ideas and sign-up sheet passed around. Mayors A&C show good success for short time. Registration has gone up so our portion amount will go up a little. Looking into the opportunity for us to speak at festival, have panel or do a reading. Grant request has been submitted and the registration with HBMF has been filed.
SINC NATIONAL: new membership offer. Natnl will pay 100 members $150 for writing education. Must have been a member for a minimum of 3 years. Submit your grant request. Applications are being accepted as of March 1, 2018. Use link- http://www.sistersincrime.org/?page=EdGrantOppo2018. Writers Police Academy has special conditons: for 1st time attendees only
BOOK SALES: SinC National reports that in 2017 the sales for printed books were up 1.9% from 2016.
WALMART: Walmart has partnered with Japanese firm Rakuten to sell e-books and audiobooks and will start selling them on the amazon website. Ebooks will be available for the Raukten Kobo reading devices which are not as popular as Kindle or Nook
NEW STAUNCH BOOK PRIZE: for thrillers that do not include violence against women. Prize is £2000. The Staunch Prize is open to female and male authors of any nationality over the age of 18 and may include traditionally or self-published print or e-books. Entries for the prize open on 22nd February and close at midnight on 15th July. See link for guidelines http://staunchbookprize.com/
LINKS: 1)for tips on using coma’s https://mybookcave.com/authorpost/the-basics-of-comma-usage/ 2) for most common causes of death per state - https://matadornetwork.com/read/mapped-distinctive-causes-death-each-state/
URSULA K. LE GUIN: American writer known best for speculative fiction died Jan 22
HBMF 2018: May 5-6 from 1- to 5 pm. There will be a a special appearance and performance by Jake Shimabukuro on Sunday from 3 pm - 5 pm. Cost this year has increased. Total for a larger booth will be $700. Our grant allowance has also increased. Will submit for $350.
SINC SPEAKING EVENT OPPORTUNITIES: Working with several educators to get the opportunity to speak in their classes. We have one who has shown some interest for speakers in the fall. Will get more info this summer. I have invited those I have been working with to our meeting tonight.
